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Website Design
When designing
your website, you must satisfy both the human visitors and the search
engine spiders. There are ways of doing both in website design.
Below
are
12
resources
to help you
make the
most
of your
website design. Use them together to make sure you
"
Get the
Click."
Keywords
Any discussion of
website design starts with keywords. A "keyword" is actually not a single
word (although it can be). More often, it is a phrase or set of words,
that describes a narrow theme or concept for you site.
For example, if your
website sold French cookbooks, a keyword for your site might be "French
cookbooks." It would not do that much good to just use "French." You could
use "cookbooks," but the chances of being ranked in the top positions for
this keyword are slim. Narrowing your keyword is therefore
essential.
How do you decide which
keywords to use? There are many resources available. These are my
favorites.
This tool is very easy
to use, has lots of awards and admirers, and delivers on its promise.
You can take a free trial online, and upgrade later. And, you can use sign
up by the week, month or year. (one year is $199.00)
- Webmaster
Toolkit
www.webmaster-toolkit.com
This site has a free
keyword research tool, a position checker, a link popularity checker, a
keyword analysis tool, a search engine simulator, a Meta tag generator, a
web page generator, a web page analyser, a PPC bid checker, and more! And
it is all free.
- Yahoo! Search
(formerly Overture)
This PPC (Pay-Per-Click)
provider has a Search Term Selection
Tool that you can use to see how popular your keywords are, and to discover others related to your
primary term. They also have a ROI calculator, a CPM calculator and a
"View Bids" tool to help you with your website design.
- SiteSell
Finally, there is
SiteBuildIt from Sitesell. This program has a keyword selection tool
built in. It will brainstorm keywords, show visitor interest and return
competition and profitability scores to help you make choices. Pretty
amazing!
Design
Website design has two
main dimensions - graphics and functionality. The graphics, look and feel
of the site are beyond the scope of this page.
Below are some resources
that will help you address the functional aspects of website
design. Included are ways to be sure your website works well, and is
"optimized" for maximum visitor traffic and page ranking at the search
engines.
- Search Engines
www.searchengines.com
is a good place to start
when it comes to website design. They have lots of content devoted to
search engines, optimization, link popularity, and website
design.
- WebProWorld
www.webproworld.com
has a very complete
array of resources, forums, and articles relating to website design. I
especially like the no-nonsense information available on search engine
ranking, web development and marketing.
Optimization
Website optimization
refers to the checking and refining process that gets into the specifics
of the website - such as its description, keywords, word density and the
like - and ensures that everything is done correctly for maximum search
rank and visitor traffic.
-
Keyword Optimization
www.keywordmarketingsuperstar.com
This site offers a whole
bunch of information, links, resources and guides to help webmasters
optimize site design. You can research PPC advertising, keyword
optimization, ROI tracking and much more. Great place to learn about
website design.
-
Keyword Optimization - www.keyword-optimization tools.com. This site offers articles,
information, links, tips and other resources on keyword selection, META
tags, Pay-Per-Clicks, link popularity, and more. The owner, Henrik
Flensborg, has even provided a free AdSense lookup tool to allow website
developers to see what kind of Google AdWords might work on their
sites.
- Search Engine Fast
Start
www.cannedbooks.com
by Dan Thies. This
e-book is a 75 page "Step By Step Guide For Busy People." I downloaded it,
and found it very well organized, logical and useful. Like Michael Wong's
e-book above, it is loaded with tips, links, ideas and hard facts about
website optimization and design.
Software
There are many programs
that make the process of website design and optimization a snap (well,
almost). The top three, in my opinion, are:
- IBP
from Axandra
www.axandra.com
.
This program allows you
to optimize your website by comparing it to others in your theme area. It
then produces a 37 page report of all the changes you would need to make
to win out against your competitors in the page-ranking arena
- Web Position Gold
2
from First Place
Software
www.webposition.com
. What makes this
product so cool is its integration of the website design process, from
keyword selection and page analysis to submission and
tracking.
- Web CEO
from Radiocom,
Ltd.
www.webceo.com
. This program is
similar to Web Position Pro, but adds website monitoring and traffic
counting modules for tweaking your designs and improving conversion
rates.
Service
Companies
For those with a larger
budget, and perhaps less time or inclination to "do-it-yourself," there
are many website design service companies to choose from. Here are four
that I would recommend.
- MoreVisibility
www.morevisibility.com
These guys are first class and
represent a "Best Practices" approach to website design. They have many top
brand customers, and can deliver the goods. They will also provide a free site
analysis to show you how you are currently ranking with the major search
engines.
Ask for Craig Almand,
Account Executive.
- OneUpWeb
www.oneupweb.com
These guys have the cleanest website you will ever see. They are
top-of-the-class and offer cutting-edge search engine visibility solutions.
Check them out if you want professional help with your local Internet marketing
campaign.
Ask for Lisa Wehr,
President.
- WSI
www.wsicorporate.com
This firm operates as
an Internet consultant company, with plenty of educational links,
resources and field reps. If you contact them, someone will return your
call or email within 48 hours.
- SEOInc
www.seoinc.com
Here is another
established website design and promotion company. Look into what they
offer, and see if it might be right for you.
P.S. You may also want
to visit
www.seotoday.com
for further reading on
the subject of website design and optimization.
Additional Subjects of Interest
[CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW TO LEARN MORE
ABOUT WEBSITE DESIGN]
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