Thoughts From LBJ Web Design & Consulting

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Wireless web design page is now a reality, thanks to the popularity of mobile devices such as Blackberry, Treo and iPhone. Unlike the wired version, users have to use link methods to attach style sheets to their devices, which includes the print and screen ones. Besides, many cell phone built-in browsers don’t support the import and media methods of style sheet loadings.

Site owners need to understand the type of media it could display and use style sheets accordingly. For instance, wireless hand held devices use hand held, print uses print and computer screens use screen.

Few wireless devices don’t use hand held media type, using screen media type instead. Many others ignore media types of both styles. In such situations, better include basic style sheets at the top portion of all forms of media. Then there are some cell phones which completely strip out all style information, leaving simple web pages on screen.

Browser Methodology

Browser wars have continued unabated in online web design, the principle casualties being the web designers. The best recommendation is to use hand-held media type as a style quotient for wireless devices.

Remove all page elements which aren’t supported by wireless devices. You can do that by setting the style and display on those elements. Hide larger ads, leaving print ads behind.

Points to Watch Out For

Always avoid few things from the page’s hand held version if you seek good design features. This includes flash based and graphical advertisements, images which come under 160x 320 resolution, large navigation, logos and Java script.

Test the designs to ensure they look perfect. Check them in your regular online browser. Always remain flexible with your choices. Create CSS files and use them extensively. This would surely attract online traffic and give a excellent appearance to your device.

Like any other creative people, web designers frequently suffer from writers block. Extensive site build up means owners have to learn several ways to get with blocks and stay unstuck.

These suggestions work well in getting new design ideas for the website. Brainstorming on important projects other than writing also helps tremendously. Begin with the middle. Many web designers get an intense need to start at the top part of the web page going down from strength to strength.

This helps for those who think extensively on CSS or HTML. However, while working on designs, writing has to be the main area of focus. When beginning with writing, check that the articles aren’t different from their title.

Additional Methods

Stay away from the system. It is very simple to hang up on technical issues such as JavaScript or HTML, while you conduct initial system design. Rough writing drafts need to be put on paper. They are simpler to scratch out and erase.

Plan in advance. Don’t just jump and start with task buildup. Many web development and design projects end up over budget, without clearing requirements. This occurs when the planning phase of the project is glossed over for action.

Lack of proper planning would hurt your web designs. Seek help and look for people who offer constructive criticism.

Mode of Function

Don’t get stuck thinking what to do. Get the mind off the problem you wish to work on. This would allow your subconscious mind to think unobstructed about it. Sometimes, you go to sleep tense and then wake up next morning with an ideal solution in mind.

Writers block can be handled by placing excessive weight-age on design and uploading articles as soon as the strike ends. Seek users opinion after you are done with the web design.

As SEO frustration reaches an all time high, many companies who came to the table late are merely left with scraps compared to the market share of early adopters who embraced search engine optimization from the onset.

The trend in search engine optimization as a viable traffic source has eclipsed more traditional formats for marketing and promotion such as Television, Radio and Print due to the accessibility of keyword research, a vast array of traffic sources and the benefits of long-term ROI if the investment matures.

Like anything of value, you have to plant the seeds and be patient to see the full effect of an optimization campaign. However, as profits are devoured by companies with larger budgets that can wield more authoritative positions in a marketplace, position their brands, products and services through advertising and methods such as pay per click marketing, it becomes even more difficult for smaller companies to “keep up” with the 800 pound gorillas that are dominating the space.

Combine this with the trend for any web design or development company to tack the word SEO to their service offering and other firms competing purely on price and you have an all out free-for-all with very little consideration for valuation (aside from search engine results).

SEO can be measured by (a) how effective the keyword selection is (b) if the selected keywords make it to the top 10, top 5 or top 3 results in search engines, and once that traffic arrives (c) if those visitors take action and convert.

While the concept of sliding scale SEO pricing is a conundrum to most, consider the adage “you get what you pay for” as a general rule of thumb. Typical organic optimization campaigns for effective SEO companies usually start in the $3-$5000 per month range.

While the variables required to produce a top ranking differ in most markets, the fact is, there are layers of action items to execute, track and synthesize.

Anyone touting to do this for a few hundred dollars per month is either providing a cookie-cutter approach or providing a minimalist time to execution ratio, as you can rest assured your competitors in the top 3 positions paid dearly to capture and maintain those positions.

Just as the saying, to the victor goes the spoils, the top 3 results garner the lions’ share of traffic and funnel those click-throughs to eager landing pages designed to facilitate an emotional response and encourage the visitor to take action and convert into a customer.

In most instances with cheap SEO services and promises of top 10 placements rarely work out as anticipated. The metrics that search engines utilize in order to assess relevance are constantly in a state of flux and change.

What works today, may not work next week or next month (aside from the fundamental SEO best practices) such as a semantically structured site architecture, title tag, meta data and on page content and internal link coherence.

If you are late to the game, there are alternatives such as using an in-house SEO vs. outsourcing your search engine optimization to an outside SEO company. Yet, there are pros and cons associated with each.

While the solution of using an in-house SEO may be appealing, the downside applies to the question of man or woman power, since they are limited in scope and are in fact (just one person).

The upside to using an outsourced solution is

(1) they have a team
(2) in most instances SEO companies have a project manager
(3) a system for implementing and executing deliverables and reporting and
(4) can utilize the collective expertise and human resource that simply would not be available to an individual for spot-checking progress, or other pertinent details.

If your company is faced with the decision on which way to go (in house or outsourcing their SEO), keep in mind that SEO can be measured by effectiveness. If you have an eager team who is willing and able to learn about SEO, then consider SEO consulting services to get your action-items from a trained specialist, who can then review the work periodically or remotely.

Curbing the need to put your eggs in one basket or on one in-house SEO alone vs. using a team is not only viable from a budgetary perspective, but makes perfect sense as the more individuals that are aware of the process, the more you can utilize the collective momentum to work cohesively as a unit.

There are always additional traffic sources, but for the long-term ROI and benefit of capturing a competitive keyword or group of key phrases, the upside is well worth the wait despite the bouts of impatience and SEO frustration of watching others race for the top 10 results in a battle of meddle, skill, budget and resolve.

There are a variety of ways to make money from the traffic on your website, which can be divided into direct and indirect methods.

Direct methods include:

• Subcriptions: sites that provide specialized content, expert advice or niche services (such as dating) frequently charge visitors a monthly or annual membership fee to generate revenue.
• Sales: many e-commerce sites, like Amazon, monetize their online presence by generating product sales which are marked up to make a profit.
• Donations and Tip Jars: visitors are encouraged to make voluntary donations if they like a site’s content, an increasingly popular idea on busy blogs.
• Premium content: in this model, a reasonable portion of a website is provided freely to visitors, and premium or exclusive content is available to paid subscribers. In some cases, forums, marketplaces, additional software and job boards may be offered for a premium.
• Selling the site: some webmasters use domains to develop content and traffic, boosting the visitor traffic and PageRank, and then sell the entire site to monetize their work.

Indirect methods are more common and include:

• CPC Advertising: by placing advertising blocks from networks such as Google AdSense, websites receive a share of pay-per-click fee when visitors click through the ads. The advertiser pays for the click with no charge to the visitor.
• CPM Advertising: similar to CPC advertising, but the publisher is paid for the number of times the ad is shown (called impressions), rather than the number of clicks.
• Affiliate links: in review sites and those specializing in niche content, they promote third-party products as affiliates and receive a percentage of the sale as a commission. In this model, the third-party product owner usually pays an affiliate network and the affiliate, with no direct cost to the visitor.
• Direct banner advertising: some sites sell advertising space directly to buyers, cutting out any “middle man” in the transaction. This method is most commonly used by sites with very high levels of traffic, which is needed to attract advertisers.
• Business promotion: the vast majority of businesses use websites to draw customers for their main line of work. Organizations from pizza restaurants to consultants treat their websites as another marketing channel to attract potential buyers.

There are many other ways to generate an income from your site, but the common theme across most methods is that you need to have a good amount of traffic to see profitable results.

Web design software is used to decorate websites with stylish and attractive features such as pod casts and online calenders. Many web design software also contain features such as photo album or blog page.

Websites for business entities or sports team require specialized software to notify visitors of all upcoming events. The best tool for online shop or business website customers is the use of web catalog products for sale.

If you wish to add quality features to your site, don’t hanker after complicated web design software. It helps you to include all the desired features at the click of a mouse. Regardless of whether it is a catalog of products for sale or a slide show of photos, the user friendly interface of this software makes feature inclusion simple.

Features and Description

Blog pages are one of the popular features of many websites and they make the process of updating and adding blogs using this software simpler. In fact, you can even include photo blog web page to the site on any of the major podcast series.

Web software contains all available features on web design site. You can download the free trial version from the internet. They contain all features and tools of updated versions, with minor alterations.

After you have tested all the features and functionality, you can either purchase the full version of the software or opt for other sites that have better bargains.

Additional Features

This type of software plays a major role in creating unique web design and attracting wide customer base. They help surfers create new and unique online designs.

They give an extra edge to small businesses and offer great alternatives for those seeking exciting and fun software at affordable rates. It transforms your page from a dull and stereotype one to an amazing and feature loaded site.

Web design services work well when the project requirements match the right service providers. The field of expertise in web service includes everything related to internet and computers, helping users to define their design requirements conveniently.

Fairly common design services include complimentary consultation with site design entities. Besides offering excellent measure of provider’s vibe, web services are an excellent resource to define the needs of various internet users.

Web design provides essential information and guidance on project requirements so that users get the most from design consultation. Many design services are used to link performances and requirements with appropriate internet technology, easily elaborating the process. If you aren’t provided with understandable and satisfactory explanation, it is always safe to mention that the provider won’t be the best project partner.

Design Identification

Design services outline the things sought by users. They offer an excellent vision of features for users to include in the site, but without the technological know-how of driving them.

It works well with both amateur and good web designers alike. The latter know the functionality described, allowing visitors to analyze and understand the things involved. Web design encourages users to think beyond the stereotype, besides helping entrepreneurs to achieve higher business growth.

Web services accomplish design firm’s goals such as branching into online sales, expanding customer base and supporting mortar and brick operations.

Selecting a Site Designer

No two web designer firms offer the same services and hence it is extremely vital to match the needs with the offered services.

Here, users have to check whether they seek specialized logo design and graphics. Analyzing whether custom site design works best or whether any fundamental template meets the needs also works wonders. Besides, identifying expectations greatly narrows the field, simplifying the task for qualified site providers.

Web design layout basics are clear and simple. They are one of the most overlooked aspects involved in web design creation. Many people think about layout and ignore basics in the process.

Utilize web design space to the fullest and don’t be too specific in its use. You can even use relatively sized sections of layout on web pages, so they contract and expand to fit browser windows. Don’t ignore screen resolution.

Use plenty of color combinations to define spaces. If you wish to have pages with specific width, center them onto your browser screen, for a different look. It also enables your web design page to re-size various browsers.

Additional Points Of Consideration

Good web design layout basics help re-size the page for various browsers. Many large browsers contain additional background color display which decreases with size.

Always align the images. One of the common mistakes of newbie layout is to slap images without giving any thought to the process. For those who simply use the img tag and thereafter use text to follow them, it usually comprises of a single text and image.

Don’t forget to balance the text and graphics on a page. Getting carried away with lots of animations and images is very simple. However, they can make page reading a difficult prospect. While considering web layout, don’t forget that images play a major role in site design.

Width Of Web Text

Think about the width of text. Often known as scan length, they usually refer to the number of words displayed in a single line. Seven to eleven words are perfect for each line.

Anything longer than that and the text gets shorter, harder to read, distracting and disjointed. While considering layout design, ensure that major areas of text display them in a readable version.

Web design layout is the main reason why many web pages offer unique features in all aspects. They are usually structured in a simple and sound manner. Though the common structure doesn’t occur based on chance, it proceeds in an easy to understand and simple layout principles.

Web design layout contains a common structure and is laced with two to three columns which include navigation option to the left, the main text in the middle, and the extra reading connected to main text in the right column.

Without proper web design layout, it is cumbersome to view web pages through horizontal scrolls. This is the main reason why many people give prime viewing window to their browser, about 780 pixels wide.

Benefits

Serif font in web page layout gives users a newspaper type of feeling. They are easier on the eyes, while reading texts from larger viewpoint. Some other web pages which don’t contain articles don’t utilize serif fonts at all.

With the browser window set to 700 or more pixels width, the text width splits into two to three columns. However, users can’t allow visitors to read one column down and then continue at the top portion of the next column, as it requires scrolling down and up for the reader to switch between columns.

Thus, many web pages have main text in the wider middle column, using two border columns for advertisements, commands and indexes.

Summary

Web design layout provides wide windows to web browsers to prevent horizontal scrolling. To get a reasonable number of characters with such wide web browser windows, they contain a large default font size.

Web design layout featuring black background, with a space allotted for eye catching graphical header, content and images work best. They define spaces for logo, headers, copyright information and content areas.

Web design guidelines create a functional, easily accessible and attractive website which attracts maximum surfer clicks. All owners need to do is to arrange intuitive and easy site navigation, good graphic design, web copy and logical site layout.

Content forms an important aspect of web design guidelines. Site owners want the visitors to see them as reputable business or knowledgeable source of information. Poor spelling and grammar reduces credibility instantaneously.

Surfers and visitors use internet to seek requisite information. Irrespective of whether you recommend someone else’s products or sell your own product, it is important to offer essential information. Else, chances are high that the visitor would visit another website.

Compatibility Between Browsers

More than a hundred browsers are currently in use. Always design those sites such that they work flexibly on all browsers. Don’t hanker after special effects as many search engines prefer content strength over everything.

Visitors don’t necessarily upgrade their web browsers to latest versions. Hence, ensure your site functions well even on basic versions. Keep in mind that your visitor may have a linux box, Mac, PC, call phone or PDA.

Great web design function in Safari, Opera, Firefox, Netscape, Microsoft Internet Explorer with minimum execution time. Don’t forget to optimize graphic files and photos so that your picture quality doesn’t suffer.

Site Navigation, Multimedia And Background Colors

Specify links colors if you wish to use anything other than white behind text. Else the default user browser settings may render them unreadable.

Multimedia comprises of audio clips, video clips, flash movies and background songs. Prefer streaming media as it decreases the time required for downloads. Ensure the visitor starts and stops multimedia files. This way, people with slow devices or connections not supporting multimedia could easily ignore them.

Also check that your web design site navigation is simple and intuitive.