You should always pay extra attention to every little detail of your website, to ensure that it performs optimally, and serves its intended purpose.
Here are five website design rules that you should remember, to make sure your website performs the way it was intended to.
- Avoid using splash pages in your website design.
Splash pages usually have pretty images with introductory words like “welcome” or “to enter, click here”.
Although they are often the very first page you see when you come to a website, they serve no useful purpose other than giving the visitor a reason to click on the back button and get out of the site.
The first website design rule to remember is to give your visitors some valuable content right out of the box and avoid the splash page.
- Avoid using excessive banner advertisements in your web pages.
Everyone who uses the Internet on a regular basis, has become numb to banner advertisements. They are occasionally clicked on, but generally are a waste of valuable web space.
It’s much better giving your website visitors the valuable content that they came to your website for in the first place. You can place your relevant affiliate links into the body of your content pages.
Visitors hate to feel like they are being forced to purchase a commodity, which is exactly what banners tend to do.
- Another good website design rule to remember, is to provide simple, straightforward navigation for your site.
A clear and simple, no “frills” navigation menu, that even a small child can easily use; is what you should be trying to achieve on your site.
Keep it simple and avoid using multi tiered, drop down menus, or flash based menus. Avoid anything that could confuse your visitor and cause them to leave your site.
Make sure your visitor always knows where they are on your website.
Your visitor should always have a clear indication as to where they are on your website at any given moment.
Your areas should be boldly marked as should your navigation boxes.
Don’t confuse your visitors or they may leave your site.
- Unless you have Mp3 files to download, avoid using audio on your website.
You are trying to get your visitor to stay awhile on your website.
A good website design rule to remember, is to avoid playing an irritating audio loop on your site, when your intent is to keep your visitors reading relevant information.
If you hope to keep your visitors reading on your site for any length of time, don’t play any music!
If for some reason you’re hung up on it, or think it’s cool and just have to have it in the background; make sure you provide a volume and mute control so your visitors can shut it off.
There have been several times when I have left a website because I couldn’t mute the music.
These 5 website design rules should keep visitors on your website longer and increase your bottom line.
When should you use a hyphenated domain name, if ever, for your website?
Hyphenated domain names are inconvenient for many visitors to type into a search engine.
People are generally unaccustomed to using hyphenated domain names.
And, when they do type a hyphenated domain name into a search engine, there is the distinct possibility of omitting the hyphen, and getting erroneous search results, or perhaps none at all.
A keyword rich, search engine optimized, hyphenated domain name, has a greater chance of obtaining a decent search engine ranking, than a non hyphenated domain name, that is not search engine optimized.
The disadvantage of a hyphenated domain name, can be overcome by a higher search engine ranking.
The reason for this, is that a hyphenated domain with a high ranking, will not need to be typed into the search bar by the web searcher.
The high ranking of the hyphenated domain, allows people to simply click on the search engine results listing, to access the site.
If the visitor is interested in what the website has to offer, they simply bookmark the site for future access.
In this scenario, the high ranking of the hyphenated domain outweighs the disadvantages of using a hyphen in the domain name.
A good reason to use a hyphenated domain name, is to enhance user readability.
There are many instances where a long domain name, when typed out, is difficult to read and understand . In these cases, a hyphen breaking the words apart, will make the domain name more easily readable.
In many cases, a hyphenated domain name is also better for search engine optimization.
As you can see, there are pro’s and con’s to using hyphenated domain names.
If you believe that the domain name you are after will bring in a lot of web traffic and is already registered, try using hyphens to get the name you want.
Otherwise, try to create non-hyphenated domain names.
When you are trying to decide whether you should use a hyphenated domain name for your website, consider all the pro’s and con’s.
Aggressive Internet marketing can be defined as nothing more than full blown promotional marketing campaign that exceeds the expectations of any reasonable business owner.
Every business needs low cost, affordable, aggressive Internet marketing in order to grow and prosper.
The trick is to find a reliable company that provides the service, yet still remains affordable.
Here are some suggestions to help you find an aggressive Internet marketing company for your business; or, if you’re so inclined, you can start your own aggressive internet marketing campaign.
- The company you choose should provide free website design.
If you are familiar with HTML, search engine optimization (SEO), are artistically inclined, and have a good knowledge of Internet marketing; you can do this yourself.
However, if you are not comfortable with all of the above, you would probably be better served outsourcing this work to a professional team to handle it for you.
Make sure that aggressive Internet marketing is integrated into the web design and that free web design is included in the base price.
If you are asked to pay extra for website optimization, try someone else. Marketing MUST ALWAYS be integrated into the web design.
- Your website should be judicial in keyword use.
This is a basic part of any website design.
Your page ranking will drop, if you load up each page of your website with an excessive number of keywords, or keyword phrases.
Too many keywords dilutes the focus of your website in the eyes of the search engines.
An experienced, aggressive internet marketing concern will know this, and will create smaller web pages with content that emphasizes only a few targeted keywords.
- The company you select should be expert on search engine optimization.
An aggressive Internet marketing company should guarantee that your website is totally search engine compatible.
Your website should be 100 percent compatible with all of the 11 major search engines online.
- The company you choose should provide free analysis and evaluation of your competition.
Aggressive Internet marketing requires that you constantly know the status of your competition, and their standing in comparison to your business.
Analysis and evaluation of your competition, is essential in determining your shortcomings, or advantages.
- The company you choose should provide you with an efficient marketing plan.
Most aggressive Internet marketing companies will include the following in their base price, without any additional charge to you.
- Web page Development
- Web Content
- Link Exchanges
- Updates
- Standard Search Engine Optimization
- Keyword Density
- Competition Evaluation and Analysis
- Technical Support
That’s our definition of low cost aggressive internet marketing for your business.
