The Catalyst Of A Website

While we are still on search engine optimisation. We need to discuss
one of the original SEO implementations practised in a website. That
original event is called a forum. I'm sure you are wondering if it's
really necessary to have a forum in your website. The answer to that
question is YES, you do need one.

A forum is more like a catalyst. You website will work exceptionally
well without a forum but it will work much better with a forum. As we
all know, every business has a customer and it's not that simple to
convince more customers to believe in your product unless they heard
it from a satisfied customer. A forum can create that platform for
your customers to interact with each other.

HOW TO MAINTAIN A FORUM...

Unlike any other customer relation management system. A forum is
independent. It doesn't relay on the owner to keep it up to date, just
about any customer can start a topic, or ask a question about your
services and this kind of interaction can go on for decades. The only
down fall about a forum is the unpredictable critic you may get about
your services, and this can be harmful to your business. I suggest
blogging as a customer relation system just because you can delete
critics and keep your website peaceful.

A blog is not that different to a forum. The only thing that sets them
apart is the fact that a blog needs regular updates from the owner.

Optimizing Images For Search Engines

Images are valuable, images are relevant and they can bring traffic to
your website. When I say traffic, I mean more visitors to your site.
As a web content writer/designer, you may know what traffic is and how
important it is to have traffic, but someone out there doesn't know
that. The success of a website depends on the optimizations practised
within a website. In this case, images are optimized for SEO Purposes.

HOW TO OPTIMIZE IMAGES FOR SEO PURPOSES?

The first rule of optimizing an image for SEO purposes is to name the
image. Search engines can find an image only if it's named according
to its description. If you have an image of a blue sky, name that
image blue sky. Don't name it image5, even if it's easy to remember,
search engines won't recognize it. The second rule is to write an alt
tag. Just to be safe, the alt tag and the name of the image should
have the same name.

The purpose of optimizing this images is to enable a user to find your
website or web page even if they perform an image search.

HOW TO USE IMAGES IN A WEBSITE

There's nothing better than a beautiful image to enhance the look of
your website. It's been said that a book without pictures is as boring
as the author who wrote it. It's not different to a website. A picture
can make a boring website look cooler, but there are limits towards
the use of pictures.

PICTURE ALIGNMENT

In a website or a web page, you cannot put a picture any where it
suites you. You have to think of a way to make a picture likable, not
too destructive to the content. Pictures are important but not if they
hold more attention to the visitor than the content.

IRRELEVANT PICTURES

If the main point of your website is to get visitors to buy insurance
online, don't put a picture of a kid playing soccer. What does a kid
playing soccer has to do with buying insurance? Exactly, nothing.
Rather put a picture of a very expensive car rolling down a cliff.
That's relevant to insurance. Images are more attractive to a visitor,
only when they are relevant to the topic. You can also use images for
search engine optimizing purposes. The SEO image lesson is covered on
the next post.

The Use Of Fonts On A Website

As a web designer, you need to have an excellent eye for small
details. Something as little as a text size or a font colour has the
ability to impact the contents of your website, either negatively nor
positively. Most of the time I come across websites where I find the
contents way too difficult to read. It's either the text is too small
or the font colour is too bright. No one has the patience to go
through a paragraph one word at a time. As a web designer or a web
content writer, you need advanced knowledge on the use of a font
family.

HOW TO USE A FONT FAMILY?

For you to be able to use a font family. CSS needs to come into
action. It's important to know the aspects of using cascading style
sheet(CSS) to enhance your website. Using a font family enables a
designer to include a back-up font to maintain the look of your
website. If a client's computer is incapable of reading Arial fonts,
possibly it can read serif or Times Roman. This is the main reason why
the use of a font family is so important.

Using a variety of fonts all over a single web page is extremely
irritating to a reader. Don't use more than 5 different fonts on a
single web page. A reader should never struggle to find the main point
of your web page. Always make relevant words easier to find.

How To Keep A Reader Entertained Part II

The most important factor that can either keep nor loose a reader is
the spelling. It doesn't matter how good your story is; it doesn't
matter how interesting your content is, as long as a reader keeps
correcting your spelling with his/her mind, they can never trust your
words. How will you convince me to buy your product if you can't even
spell? I understand you are human, and I also understand that mistakes
happen but still, I can't trust you. That's the whole point of writing
content in your website; to gain my trust, isn't it? Just make sure to
always double check your spelling.

HOW TO LIMIT YOUR CONTENT

On most occasions, an internet user such as yourself lend in a certain
website with exceptional words which includes few tips you could use
every now an then. As an internet user; if I read an article and the
article seems unending, I loose interest. I don't have time to read
the whole book just to learn one lesson. Too much information on a
single page is clearly a bad idea. If the content was shorter, maybe a
user would click few buttons to check if there was more to read. A
single page should never include more than 500 words. No one has time
to read all that.

How To Keep A Reader Entertained

There's a big difference between writing and talking. When you talk,
you have the ability to hypnotize me with your voice or your eyes. It
doesn't work like that when it comes to writing. The only thing that
can keep me (the reader) interested in your website; is the way you
use your words. There's nothing more interesting than words. A reader
needs to feel what you wrote. He/she needs to live in your shoes while
in the process of writing your content; and your content needs be
alive.

BASICS OF WEB CONTENT WRITING

If you choose to write your own content, you have to know the basics.
First of all; your content has to be unique. No one can laugh at the
same joke twice. You should keep that in mind before you loose your
first reader. Secondly; your content has to flow like you know what
you are talking about. As a reader; I need to be convinced of
everything you have written in your website. If I have doubts about
the information you provide. I won't come back for round 2. Your
content needs to tell a story.

Continues...

A Step Behind A Logo

First of all you need to know what exactly is a logo. You also need to
ask yourself the importance of owning a logo. Do you really need it?
Does it matter whether you have it or not? It's natural to have this
kind of questions in mind.

THE IMPORTANCE OF A LOGO

Let me explain it in a way that only you can understand. Imagine a
friend lends you a very interesting book to read. You begin to read
the book and you are loving the book. While in the middle of reading
this book you are enjoying so much, you develop the need to find out
the title of this book. That's when you realise the book has no cover.
I mean how will you identify a book without a cover? How will you
point it out of a bunch of books if you have no idea how it looks
like? This situation clearly states the importance of owning a logo. A
logo is not that different from a cover page. It doesn't hold the true
meaning of its contents but it can be used to identify the contents
within a product, in this case a website.

LOGO DESIGN

Just about anyone can design a logo but then again it has to be
unique, simple but unique. You wouldn't want your logo to be mistaken
for someone else’s would you? No you won't. The are a variety of
software’s you can use to design a unique logo, but you need advanced
knowledge of graphic design software’s. Most web designers are capable
of designing a logo, you just have to find the right one.

A Colour Scheme For Your Website

The second most difficult part of designing a website is to find the
perfect colour scheme. Your website needs to be unique and the only
thing that makes it unique is the use of your colours. Before you
decide on a colour scheme, you need advanced knowledge of the colour
palette. Not just any colour can be used in a website. The are web
colours you need to take into consideration.

COLOUR SCHEME TOOLS

If you are just like most of us and you think 'any colour looks good
to you', the are colour scheme tools you need to look out for. It
doesn't require technical skills to use colour scheme tools, any one
is capable of using them. Colour scheme tools can be found all over
the internet. If you are serious about hunting them, you'll find them.

COLOUR SCHEME GENERATOR

Most of the time you already have a specific image; lets say a logo,
and you are looking for a colour scheme that can maintain the quality
of your logo. In this case you can upload that image into a certain
website that has the ability to automatically produce a colour scheme
on your behalf. This colour scheme generator will most definitely
fulfil your colour scheme needs.

A Keyword For Your Website Round 2

Have you ever used a search engine to find a product? Of course you
have. If you do pay attention, you noticed that search engines display
only the top ranked websites which relates to the product you are
searching for on the first page. Did you notice how you lazy you got
after viewing only 3 pages? What about the remaining 1000 pages; who
will view them? Definitely not you. Now you can see how important it
is to be top ranked and, for that to happen you need keywords.

KEYWORDS ON A WEB PAGE

If you know absolutely nothing about html and css, your website will
never be top ranked, unless you are in contact with a web designer.
Html is a language used to develop a web page and css is a style
sheet used to design the layout of a web page. You can not use css
without html but you can use html without css.

Don't let the acronyms confuse you. If you can use Microsoft word;
html is a walk on the beach. A keyword needs to be written in the
title of your page, a heading and inside a meta tag.

HOW SEARCH ENGINES FIND A KEYWORD IN YOUR WEBSITE

Search engines are programmed to look for keywords within the first
100 lines of your code. Placing a keyword in the title and meta tag
seems like a good idea. The further you put your keyword on a web page,
the more likely your website won't be found in a search engine.

A Keyword For Your Website

Lets say you do find yourself a web designer. Does it end there? Will
you have a complete website by the time the sun sets? The answer to
those questions is NO. Why? Because you haven't found a topic, in
other words, a keyword you'll be using in your website. This is the
hardest part of designing your own website. You got to have a topic to
write about or a product to sell. If you already have a business then
at least you have a product to work around, but if you are just looking
for ways to make money with your website, you have a lot of research
to do.

HOW TO FIND THE BEST KEYWORD???

The best place to find the best keyword is the internet. When i say
the internet I mean Google. Everything is there, you just have to know
what you are looking for. In this case you are looking for the best
keyword. The are a bunch of Google webmaster tools you can use to find
the best keyword. You'll even come across the most searched keyword
which is LOVE. We all know what love is and how everyone always have
an opinion about it. This is the main reason why love is an easy
target. You should keep that in mind while you select the best
keyword for your website.

HOW TO ARRANGE A KEYWORD

Having a perfect keyword doesn't mean your website will appear at the
top of a search engine. You need to know how to arrange a keyword and
where exactly should you place a keyword. That's where html and css
comes in. lesson continues in the next post...

Freelance Web Designers VS Web Design Companies

The best part about designing your own website is that you don't have
to design it yourself. You can actually get a dedicated someone to do
all the hard work for you. As easy as it sounds, its most definitely
costly.

It's been said that to make money, you need to loose money. In the web
designing field, there are freelancers and web design companies. It's
up to you to decide your best option depending on the amount of cash
you are willing to spend.

FREELANCE WEB DESIGNERS

In this field, you get to work directly with an individual. You have
to make sure this person holds a very impressive portfolio and a
variety of web development skills. Freelancers are cheap and creative.

WEB DESIGN COMPANIES

The one thing a company has that a freelancer is unable to provide is
a team of talented web gurus. You get to have all this talent in you
website but it costs, big time. Web design companies provide high
quality websites with a minimum time frame.

I recommend a freelance web designers just because I am one.

The Easy Way And The Hard Way

When it comes to designing your own website and to also have the guts
to publish it. This requires a lot of planning. Without a plan you can
not design a website. There's the easy way and the hard way.

THE EASY WAY

If you do not have the time, patience and skills to design and publish
a website, you can actually hire a web designer or buy a website
builder. The problem is that a web designer can only design your
website not forgetting that you need content in your website. This
means you also have to hire a web content writer and for publishing,
you need to hire a copywriter, then you have yourself a fully
functional website.

The Hard Way

Now this option you need to think and rethink this option. This is the
do it yourself option. You need to know the graphic design software’s,
web development programs, the concept of SEO, web hosting, domains, web
content management systems, Google tools and the implementations of
social media.

I'll be clarifying the easy way and the hard way in my next posts...