Tag Archives: Website

Website SEO Strategies That Can Bring a Stream of Website Visitors Everyday

Posted by MGP Website Designs on November 1, 2010 None comments

Webmasters the world over are continuously adopting various Website SEO strategies to attract more website visitors to their websites. This is an ongoing process because the survival of their businesses depends on their ability to achieve a high page rank and appear high in the search results for their chosen keywords or keyword phrases.

The principle behind search engine optimization is to get your website listed in all the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing and ensure that they will appear at the top when your keywords are searched in the search engines thus producing a stream of website visitors.

It is often said that content is king and it certainly is. Having easy to read unique quality content is of prime importance for successful website SEO. Furthermore the keywords chosen have to be relevant to the content of your website because when someone searches using your keyword the result should be relevant to the search and be the best, the search engine can offer for the searcher. Since most people do their search in Google, it is important that your SEO strategy is concentrated towards Google.

Selecting the right keywords is the key for successful website SEO. There are several keyword tools such as “Keyword suggestion Tool of Wordtracker” or “Google AdWords Keyword Tool” to research and select your Keywords. In addition to the home page choose different keywords for different pages and optimize them. Avoid keywords that are highly competitive. The chances of getting a high page rank and appearing high in the search results are much better with less competitive keywords or long tail keywords.

Having selected the keywords places them in the Meta Tags of your website and also in the Title Tag and the Description of your website. This has to done with different chosen keywords for each page. Ensure that your specific keywords appear in a headline H1 tag in your page since search engines are on the look out for such tags.

The site navigation within the website should be optimal. The various pages should be linked. This is expected by the search engines and your visitors who don’t want to loose their way within your website. Thus your website SEO strategy will be appreciated by them.

Another aspect often ignored is that all images should have the “Alt” attributes. Search engines cannot read images; hence it is important to ensure that you use alt text for every image on your web page. Include your keyword in the text.

Though reciprocal links are not very much in favor these days nevertheless search engines do appreciate good quality reciprocal links from relevant websites of quality. Hence it is important to search and build such relevant reciprocal partnerships. Reciprocal links from Authority Websites are highly valued by search engines. These link building strategies can also bring in a lot of targeted website visitors to your site.

Social Bookmarking and networking sites like Twitter, Face book an MySpace are booming in popularity day by day. Join these sites and start networking. You will obtain good back links and a regular stream of website visitors.

Writing quality authoritative articles and posting them in article directories is a very popular way of obtaining one way links or back links and also a stream of targeted website visitors to your site. This is done by placing the URL of your website in the resource box

of the article. Using anchor texts in your keywords will be even more helpful to the search engines since it tells them what the page is all about and also boosts your rankings in search engines especially Google.

Website SEO is not a daunting task as it is often made out to be but it can be done by following the tips explained in simple language. Experts can no doubt do it much faster whereas you will do it slower and learning a lot as you go along.

Copyright ? Kanaga Siva.

To learn more about Website Traffic Traffic, Search Engine Optimization and for tips and advice on Internet Marketing you are welcome to visit his Website and Blog.

Website SEO Services

Posted by MGP Website Designs on October 30, 2010 None comments

Website SEO services help to promote your business website among online users through leading search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and AltaVista. Website SEO assists online customers to locate products and services quickly without making much effort.

Optimizing Web Pages Can Produce Outstanding Results

In order to be triumphant in online business, you need to have websites which can be easily located by search engines. Since net surfers usually conduct searches through search engines, achieving top rankings in search result pages is important.

Through website SEO you can reduce the expenses involved in advertising your products and services through other mediums. With the website attaining higher rankings, considerable increase can be observed in the customer visits and sales leads. Besides, with the popularity of the website, further improvement can be achieved in search engine rankings. Website optimization procedure ensures long term positive results, through maintaining the same ranking positions. You don’t have to make any additional investment either.

Innovative Techniques to Achieve Better Website Rankings

Significant website optimization services include:

o Research of keywords

o Competitive analysis

o Creation of website content

o Optimization of HTML codes

o Creation of Meta tags

o SEO copywriting

o Building of links

o Directory submission

o Search engine submission

o Blog creation

o Article submission

o Pay per click advertising

o Regular monitoring of website

o Maintenance of ranking reports

Cost-effective Services to Accomplish Your Business Goals

Without using proper search engine placement services, it would be difficult for you to achieve your unique business goals and targets. Therefore it is ideal to obtain the assistance of an SEO firm for the best natural SEO services. For providing reliable and cost-effective website optimization services, there are several professional firms active in the field. Select the firm which can ensure solutions that will help you achieve enhanced visibility in search engines, by sincerely considering your business goals and budget limitations.

Website SEO Services – Viral SEO Services is a full service SEO company providing a core range of solutions to meet your SEO goals. Our website search engine optimization services are available to both companies and individuals.

Evaluate Your Website SEO Services With an SEO Optimization Report

Posted by MGP Website Designs on October 25, 2010 None comments

Search engine optimisation or (SEO) is one of the most effective ways by which you can improve the visibility and popularity of your website. If you are part of a business that provides certain products or services to a target set of customers, you will need to make sure of two things in order to grow your business.

Firstly, you will need to ensure that you are available or have a presence in a place where all your target customers are. The most obvious solution to this is by having a website that offers information to various customers, and enable them to place order. Secondly, you need to ensure that your target group of customers are able to find you easily. Most people use search engines whenever they need to find any information. Only if your website is among the mostly highly ranked websites, and appear within the first few results, you will be able to ensure that you gain the best online presence and business opportunities possible.

Benefits of SEO

While some companies choose to associate with the search engine directly, so that their websites are ranked higher among others, it is an extremely expensive solution. This especially holds true for small businesses which are already strapped for cash, and need to cut their budgets as much as they can. This is where the wonders of SEO come in. If you are able to ensure that your website is found to be the most relevant in its category by having properly arranged content, having the keywords that are most commonly used by people, you can ensure that your website will be catapulted to the topmost rankings.

Outsourcing SEO services

You needn’t develop this in-house. You can simply outsource these services. There are plenty of companies which offer excellent SEO for small business services. Their website SEO services help you cut down on your costs to the maximum extent possible. They can also help you manage the content on your website so that it is updated and is ranked highly by all search engines consistently. In this way, you will be able to spread your reach to the maximum number of customers within no time.

These services also include developing quality content for your website. These companies do some extensive research to figure out the most common keywords used. They then develop some excellent content based on these e keywords, and arrange it with relevant pictures on your website, to make it more search engine friendly. They identify the mostly likely websites which your target customers may access, and establish links and connections to these sites with the help of blogs and social media websites. They thus, help you create a wide internet footprint within no time.

You can use some of the good SEO Optimization Report services to evaluate the results that have been achieved from your website SEO services. It will be much cheaper to do this than to do a market research to find out what you need.

For more information on seo optimization report, check out the info available online; these will help you learn to find the website SEO services!

Submit website to 100 directories

Posted by MGP Website Designs on October 22, 2010 2 comments

Submit Website To 100 Directories Only $29.00 One-Time Payment. Display Within 24 Hours Guarantee! Submit Your Site Here!

Check it out!

Explosive Instant Website Headers

Posted by MGP Website Designs on October 21, 2010 None comments

High quality website headers templates in various niches. 100 headers in 2 types of files : JPEG and Psd which can be customised easily & complete with lifetime support.

Check it out!

Website SEO Services – Increase Business Online

Posted by MGP Website Designs on October 20, 2010 None comments

Website SEO Services helps your business to grow online. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the key online tool that helps your website to be visible to the targeted audience in the internet. Today every conceivable business houses or websites want a presence in the online world. These business organizations and websites want their share of the visibility pie so as to be high on the internet world so that the targeted visitors find them easily online. This will boost their business and make their company grow.

But, if you are a novice and have little knowledge about online presence and business, you might require the help of experts like Website SEO Services. You have a business organization- big or small don’t matter- and also have a website to promote the company online. Your website have been created by experts whom you hired and all the required information have been included. However, do not be under the impression that once you have constructed your website your job done and you can see your business grow.

Making a webpage for your company is just the first step of getting of getting your company on the online business world. But, now, comes the important part as to how your business will grow by having a website. Let us explain to you that just constructing your company’s website will not help your company grow unless your targeted customers find you. If people browsing the internet find your company related to their search then you can hope for your company’s growth. But how will people find your company? Well, that is the job of the Website SEO Services-experts who knows how to get the maximum search engine results.

Getting the maximum traffic (visitors) to your website is a dream for every website owner. Website SEO Services are experts in putting your website at the top of every search engines-Google, Yahoo and others. These service providers’ work on the internet marketing device call key words. Key Word(s) are the word(s) a potential client might write on the search engine to find what he/she is searching for in the internet.

Suppose a client wants to know where he/she should look for to hire a rental car when in London, he/she will type “car hire London” and the result will popped out in the search engine. If you deal in hiring a car in London, your company’s name will also figure and the client will click on it and read the details and contract address or phone number. Now it is the job of the Website SEO Services to work on the keyword for you company so that client can find you. If he works properly on the keywords you company’s name will figure on the first page of the search engine. But remember to investigate the antecedent of the website seo services before hiring so that you do not end up hiring a fly-by-night-operator.

For more information on website seo services, check out the info available online; these will help you learn to find the seo optimization report!

Website Development – Know What You Want, First!

Posted by MGP Website Designs on October 19, 2010 None comments

Want to waste thousands of dollars on your website development? No?! Then make sure you figure out exactly what you want BEFORE you approach a website development company.

It may seem like obvious advice, but in reality, many people approach website development companies without first formulating a clear web strategy, clarifying objectives and expectations. This hasty sort of approach to website development invariably costs the customer a lot of money – and they end up with a website that doesn’t meet their needs.

So how do you get the website that meets your requirements within the budget you have? Plan, plan, PLAN!

Some of the questions you need to answer before embarking on your website development:

Why do you need a website?
What kind of website do you need?
Who is your target audience?
How do you plan to attract visitors to the site?
What are some of the graphical design considerations?
Will the site target both domestic and international visitors?
What is the visitor trying to achieve?
How will your website support or integrate with the rest of your business?
What structural implications should you consider?
How will you update the content?
Who should you talk to about website development?
Who do you talk to about hosting your website?
What is your website development budget?

1) WHY DO YOU NEED A WEBSITE?

Websites are generally designed to support one or more of the following objectives:

provide information
facilitate online transactions
drive visitors to a physical location
facilitate communication

Websites also support brand image and awareness. In today’s information-rich environment, customers are becoming far more savvy and conduct thorough research prior to making decisions. Having a good, informative and accurate website could mean the difference between winning the client and not.

Websites are also extremely important for contact details as a lot of readers refer to website as a quick reference.

What’s more, a website provides 24×7 access, so your customers and potential customers have access to the site outside of normal business hours (ideal for supporting promotions, general e-commerce and improving customer service).

2) WHAT KIND OF WEBSITE DO YOU NEED

Websites may be simply informational in nature or more complex with transactional e-commerce shopping functionality. They may even be designed to support Web 2.0 functionality such as BLOGs and message boards, which can develop a community environment.

But always remember, your website needs to serve the needs of the customers you’re trying to attract and retain. Before committing to the feature set of your website development, make sure you can link every feature back to a customer need.

3) WHO IS YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

Who is your typical reader? Think about your readers; are they young or old, wealthy or poor, male or female, computer techies or novices? Are your readers just researching or are they in buy-online mode? Are they local or international, or both? Will language be a barrier? Will font size be a consideration for those with poorer eyesight?

Once you have ascertained who your audience is, you need to design the website to suit that audience.

4) HOW DO YOU PLAN TO ATTRACT VISITORS TO YOUR WEBSITE?

Marketing your site is critical. It can be marketed electronically using search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN and/or offline using traditional advertising and promotions strategies. It’s important that you think about the marketing strategy BEFORE website development, as it will impact the website development process and the technology of the final product. For example, do you plan to run Google AdWords or banner ads? If so, will those ads need to relate to specific landing pages containing enquiry forms, or would a single landing page suffice? Will search engine-driven traffic be important to you? If so, you’ll need to ensure that your website is designed and developed in search engine-friendly way, and that your web copy is optimised for search engines.

5) WHAT ARE SOME OF THE GRAPHICAL DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS?

Many sites feature a large number of animations and GIF images, which are distracting and poorly designed (in terms of colour and fonts), and which add an unnecessary overhead to the page (in terms of file size and speed of loading). A good website has a balance of imagery and text. Try to be aware of things like font size and how it might impact your readers. Colours, fonts and alignments should be consistent from one page to the next. The look and feel of a site needs to be simple and consistent.

Similarly, background music, popups and Flash can be gimmicky and annoying to visitors. Only include them if they are appropriate to the needs of your audience.

As previously mentioned, your website needs to be more than just a promotional tool; it should form part of your overall marketing strategy. What looks great in print may not look good online. Perhaps more importantly, it may not be user-friendly (functional). So make sure you have a web designer involved in the development.

6) WILL THE SITE TARGET BOTH DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL VISITORS?

Consider whether you have the infrastructure to support international readers and clients. For example, if the site is transactional and you are selling a product, do you have international banking or credit card facilities and the ability to deliver overseas?

If you’re going to target international readers, it’s important that you make your website global. Consider the format of the information you display and request (e.g. zip code versus postcode, address formats and even phone number formats) and the style, tone, word-choice and spelling of your copy. (See http://www.divinewrite.com for more information on website copywriting.)

Another important consideration which is often overlooked in website development is scheduled maintenance. Scheduling maintenance for midnight in your home country may cripple your website during peak business hours in another.

Make sure you investigate the needs of your international market(s) and adapt your website to suit those specific needs.

7) WHAT IS THE VISITOR TRYING TO ACHIEVE?

All website visitors want or need something. They may be researching prior to purchasing a product, looking up company details, or trying to pay an invoice. If you want to make your site easy for visitors to use and if you want those visitors to keep coming back, your website development MUST accommodate the tasks that those visitors are attempting to perform.

8) HOW WILL YOUR WEBSITE SUPPORT OR INTEGRATE WITH THE REST OF YOUR BUSINESS?

Websites can often offer services to support and integrate with your business. For example, you might offer online shopping to streamline the purchase, dispatch and accounts process (including payment gateways, stock/inventory detailing, member or client information, etc.). Alternatively your website can increase the effectiveness of your marketing and product support, by spotlighting your products with extensive information and product catalogues, emailing product information to opt-in recipients, allowing links back to the manufactures (if applicable), etc. You might also set up an FAQ section on your website and encourage your visitors to read this area before contacting your office. A feedback form might also reduce administration overhead by allowing your readers to contact you and request more information, etc.

9) WHAT STRUCTURAL IMPLICATIONS SHOULD YOU CONSIDER?

With websites, less is more. The simpler the structure is, the more user-friendly it is. It all comes down to navigation; navigation is a website’s lifeblood. A poor navigation structure can destroy a user’s experience, and damage your online image.

Sections should be obviously grouped, both logically and visually. This makes navigation intuitive. Create a draft site plan before website development is commenced. Discuss it with your designers and developers, work with them to evolve it, then leave it with them to guide them through the website development process. This will ensure that the visual and functional elements of your website flow and make sense.

Structure and navigation are particularly important for larger sites and e-commerce sites. With so much competition around, your visitors will not be prepared to expend a great deal of energy to unravel the mysteries of a poorly planned site. Similarly, visitors are unlikely to become buyers if the purchase process is confusing.

10) HOW WILL YOU UPDATE THE CONTENT?

It is imperative that you update the content on your site on a regular basis. Outdated information is useless and impacts on your credibility and professionalism. Conversely, regularly updated content tells your readers that you’re a proactive organisation (and it also contributes to your ranking in the search engines).

To reduce ongoing costs and retain control of your website, consider the benefits of building it using a Content Management System (CMS). A good CMS lets you easily manage all content yourself, instead of paying your web developers to do it. (This includes adding and editing copy and images, adding and deleting pages, and adding and deleting functionality.)

11) WHO SHOULD YOU TALK TO ABOUT WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT?

This depends what you want from your website development and how far your budget can stretch. Is the site intended for the short or long term? Will content need to be updated? Do you need e-commerce, email management / e-newsletters, etc.? There are many people who build websites and numerous approaches to take.

Important considerations when selecting a website development company include:

Do they have proven website development experience?
Are they familiar with the latest developments?
Do they have support networks or personnel should they run into problems?
Are they qualified?
Can they provide ongoing website development support?
Do they have access to graphic designers?

It’s best to find an established website development company with a solid infrastructure and qualified staff, who can speak with you plain English, listen to all your requirements and develop a plan that suits your needs. Also remember to select a website development company that you feel comfortable dealing with.

12) WHO DO YOU TALK TO ABOUT HOSTING YOUR WEBSITE?

Your website development company should be able to suggest a hosting company, but if not, there are a multitude of companies listed on the Internet and in the Yellow Pages.

When considering website hosting companies, obviously you need to ensure that they are appropriate for your budget. You need to know that they have adequate security both via the web (antispam, antivirus, etc.) and in their actual physical environment (locks, alarms, etc.). You need to know that they use hardware and software that is modern and appropriate for the job.

Do they have a proactive backup / business continuity / disaster recovery strategy, and the necessary software and hardware to support it? And do they engage in scheduled maintenance? You need to know that they are operating an environment that is designed to minimise the likelihood of fire, flood, theft, hardware failure, overheating, etc. But, if the server hosting your site does, in fact fail (or is stolen or destroyed), will your website be unavailable? Some hosting providers offer uptime guarantees, which is great, but don’t assume this means that nothing will ever go wrong and your website will never go down.

Also, consider bandwidth (how fast can they display your website files). Few things are more frustrating to visitors than slow-to-load pages, and your host can play a big part in this.

13) WHAT IS YOUR WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT BUDGET?

Many businesses try to cut costs by engaging a student, unqualified staff employee or friend to build their website. Think carefully before pursuing this option, because you get what you pay for. You’d most likely be trading-off visual aesthetics, reliability, stability, speed, ease of use, search engine-friendliness, and ongoing technical support. When it comes to website development, short-term cost-cutting does not always equate to long-term savings or return on investment.

Having said that, you should always be realistic. Consider what sort of return on investment you require (and how quickly), and set your budget accordingly. Then stick to your budget. If you need to cut costs, start with the ‘bells and whistles’ that may not be necessary. Flash, for instance, adds significant cost to your website development, yet is considered annoying by many visitors and may reduce your search engine-friendliness.

Gerald Chait is the General Manager – Sales and Marketing of Software Design Group (SDG) [http://www.sdgtechnology.coma.au]. SDG provides Total IT Solutions, including Website Development [http://www.sdgtechnology.coma.au], Design, Search Engine Optimisation, Network Support, Outsourcing Solutions, Help Desk Support, Application Development, Hardware & Software Sales. Contact gerald.chait@sdgtechnology.com.au or 1800 502 333, or visit http://www.sdgtechnology.com.au

Web Design For Newbies – Common Website Elements

Posted by MGP Website Designs on October 19, 2010 None comments

These days it seems like anybody and everybody has themselves a website of some kind, whether you are interested in doing business online or just making yourself available on the web for any reason, a website is the way to do it. Every where you look today you will see website URLs on billboards, TV screens, book covers, and business cards. No doubt It is true that having your own website is the best way to get a presence on the internet. The problem is for those individuals who don’t have any experience in web design to figure out just where to start and how to design their first website. This article is written especially for those who would like some tips and information on web design for newbies. However for those of you who already do have some web design know-how, you may also be able to pick up a few new things or ideas. So let’s begin.

Because your website is expected to be seen by millions of individuals 24 hours a day 7 days a week, it should be stated now that you will want it to represent you or your business in the best possible light. This is the reason you will definitely want your website to have a professional look and feel through out its’ pages. What do I mean by professional? Well that could be defined by the one observing your site whether or not it looks professional or not, or is there some type of guide line that we can use to help us keep our website design up to a specific level of professionalism? The answer is yes, the standard in today’s internet market for your website design is to “keep It simple”.

Remember this, that the generation of individuals that will be visiting your website not only expect your website to be pleasing and professional looking to the eye, it should be user friendly by being easy to navigate, and easy to read. You should plan on using both creativity, and individuality when designing your new site they are both very important parts of what will not only be interesting to your future visitors, also it will be a part of making your site stand out from the others in your niche while building your very important online presence. By keeping your new website professional looking and simple you will have nothing on your website that will draw or distract the visitor away from the purpose or reason of your website.

Your new website should be designed with certain purposes included:

1. To draw interest to your worldwide niche or market

2. To functional around the clock, “24/7″

3. To immediately provide its merchandise. products or services to its customer.

4. To have an efficient method of customer service and support

5. To Be user friendly and easy to use.

The list above covers a wide range of the technical aspects that your website will need to have designed into it for it to be successful. However a new website design should also include and deliver the wants and need of its target audience. For instance, is the main user of your website in need of assistance using your website because of lack of internet experience? if so, maybe you will need to consider including instructions on how to use your website in certain places on your site easily found by the user. The bottom and very important line is that a website’s market actually demands what must and must not be included as part of your website design if your new site will be successful in reaching your niche market.

If your niche market will be made up of different levels of internet skills sets, in that case it is best to design your website to accommodate the most basic needs of all of your expected users.

Getting Your Website Constructed

There are different methods of getting your website design turned into the actual website. The first is to build it yourself. If you have the time and understand the basics of how to construct a web site already or you are willing to take the time and effort it takes to learn the technicalities of using the different web site building software and tools out there that are available, then this may be the best choice for you. Although this option can be a little tricky as well as time consuming if you have no experience doing it. It can also be very rewarding to do it your self. You will need to learn to use the basic website building software. They can be from simple to complex to use, from free downloads to expensive purchases. If you are new to the subject I would suggest that you just download a free “WYSIWYG” (What you See Is What You Get) webpage design editor from the internet and get familiar with it before deciding if building your website yourself is what you want to do. A good free software to start with is “NVU. com” There are others that you can use if you want, you can find them online by doing a simple “Google Search” for “free website software”. There are also other skills you will need to learn should you choose to “do it yourself” some of them include but are not limited to:

1. Use of Graphics Editors

2. Use of Multimedia Editors

Be sure to use the above editors wisely as not to slow down or distort your website functions.

As you have seen above building your website yourself can involve quite a learning curve, if you find it a little to much for you right now and you would like to get your website up and running a little faster you should consider another choice of getting your new website constructed,

that is to use a pre-designed website template. Using a website template will take a lot of the work out of building a new website, it is the next best thing to giving the task to a professional webpage designer, also a whole lot cheaper. Website templates are complete website designs minus your custom content. Depending on the type of template, website owners can either (1) download, change,and then re-upload the edited templates to your server, or (2) change the template online and save changes to your remote server. Both methods are low-cost ways of producing a website, yet they don’t allow for unlimited customization.

The other method of getting your website created is to give the job to a website builder professional or service. This is the easiest of the ways mentioned here today. This way you will save a lot of time by giving this job to someone who knows what they are doing. If you don’t mind giving up the major control of your website development to a pro then this may be the route that you will want to take. However be very careful, before signing any contracts be sure you know who the copy rights to your website design belongs to, you or the website developer, who will be responsible for future updates or maintenance to your website, also just what performance or obligations the website developer has to you for the amount money that you have decided to pay.

It is very important to consider just how much you plan to invest in the design of your website. The full cost of the whole design operation could cost anywhere from between $50 – $10,000. I am assuming that being a newbie you will of course want to start closer to the $50. end, I know That I did. That being said, it basically boils down to the more you have to construct and design your website the more it will cost. I would suggest just starting out with the basic necessities and keep your website cost to a minimum, don’t get bogged down with buying every expensive website building tool or software available. Remember the best way to go in the beginning is to “keep it simple”.

Your Business Name, E-mail address, Contact info and URL ?This will make it easy for your website visitors to make a copy of any of your web pages and get this vital information for later use and reference.

Your Business Brand Or Logo.? Help your visitors remember your website and create a positive internet presence for your website, products or service.

A Navigation Bar.??A navigation bar or elements should be displayed on each page to assist your visitors in finding what they a re looking for on your website no mater what page they are located.

?

Today’s Date. ?By having the date and time display on your website pages the website visitor is of particular convenience to your website visitor as well as helps to identify the potency of any time sensitive content that may be on your site.

Your Website Copyright. This element is displayed not only for legal ownership rights reasons but as a deterrent to those who would try to claim you website information as their own.

There are of course many more elements to be considered when you are designing your website like the types of links, sitemaps, colors, font colors and sizes, the use of headlines and others that will decide the final design of your website.

I hope that this article helped to give you some idea what is involved and maybe even where to begin. With the proper research and development processes I am sure you will be able to arrive at a website design that you will not only be proud of but one that will serve you and your internet business successfully now and for years to come.

About The Author

Tony Sanford has been associated with internet marketing and starting home online businesses for the past 8 years. He is also considered by some to be an expert in this field. Tony is the owner and creator of his own successful internet marketing help sites. He has devoted years of his internet marketing life to offering internet marketing help and advice to all those who are interested in starting or enhancing their own successful home online business through his websites. Tony is one internet marketer who really seems to get the greatest reward and success by helping others reach their home online business goals.

If you would like to find out more about Internet Marketing Incomes or starting a nline business. Please visit his main site at: http://www.sasonlinebusinesssuccess.com

What is Bandwidth and What Website Elements Use it Up?

Posted by MGP Website Designs on October 19, 2010 3 comments

Bandwidth is the amount of Data, measured in GigaBytes, that can be transferred (downloaded) from your web space each month.

This means if one visitor downloads a 4MB Music File, for example, from your website (public_html folder) it will cost you 4MB in bandwidth. So if ten visitors download the 4MB Music File, or one visitor downloads the 4MB Music File ten times, either way it will cost you 40MB of bandwidth in total. However. It is not that simple because each web page viewed also costs bandwidth. For example. If you have a Music Product Web Page that consists of 1MB of Introduction Text and 1MB of Music Pictures it will cost you 2MB of bandwidth each time that Music Product Web Page is viewed (downloaded into one visitor’s web browser, from your public_html folder into their computer). And each time a visitor views (downloads) the 2MB Music Product Web Page and then downloads the 4MB Music File it will cost you, another, 6MB of bandwidth. Times that by ten visitors and it will cost you 60MB of bandwidth in total.

So when choosing a Web Hosting Package you should first calculate how many visitors you expect to visit your website per month (i.e. 1,000). Then you assume each visitor will view every web page at least once. Let’s say you have ten web pages making up your website that use 1MB of bandwidth each. So 10MB of bandwidth usage. That means 1,000 visitors viewing 10 web pages each (using 10MB of bandwidth each), which is the equivalent of 10,000 web pages being viewed (downloaded), would require 10,000MB of bandwidth. Or put another way, 10GB of bandwidth. 1,000MB is approximately equivalent to 1GB. In reality, unless you have a “Downloads” website, each web page should not use up 1MB of bandwidth at all. So you should get more like 1,000 visitors using only 1GB of bandwidth, which is the equivalent of 1 visitor using 1MB of bandwidth to view (download) your whole website. In turn, 5GB (5,000MB) of bandwidth should be able to accommodate approximately 5,000 visitors. Remember. This is based on each visitor viewing your whole website (every single web page). If your average visitor only views five web pages then you will accommodate twice more visitors of course.

So far you have calculated 1MB of bandwidth usage per visitor, per view of your whole website. However. You should be aware that it is not only your visitors who are using your bandwidth.

WHAT / WHO ELSE USES UP MY BANDWIDTH?

The Search Engines Search Engines not only scan your website (public_html folder) looking for words/phrases, email addresses and other information, from within your web pages, in order to list it but they also store (CACHE – pronounced: cash) a copy of your web pages on their server. This is so that the general public can view those cached (stored) web pages when your Web Hosting Provider’s server (computer) is not allowing your website to be viewed, perhaps because you ran out of bandwidth and/or because their server has temporary problems for example.

The CPanel Your CPanel (Website Control Panel) might not be available to you, depending on the terms & conditions of your web hosting package/provider, if you run out of bandwidth. This is because certain operations you carry out using your CPanel involve bandwidth. Downloading your email, from your web space into Windows Mail or Outlook Express for example. Downloading files using the File Manager control panel or a FTP Account. And so on.

Website Linkers Websites that make a link to one or more of your web pages will be using your bandwidth indirectly whenever that link is clicked on. For example. If your website is [http://www.productsandservices.com] and you have a web page called products.html, any website linking to your product web page (productsandservices.com/products.html) is inviting its users/visitors to click on that link and therefore directly visit your product web page. This means those users/visitors will be downloading the content (text, images, video, music and so on) of your product web page and more importantly be using your bandwidth. This may seem fine, because you want other websites linking to your web page(s) in order to make your website more well known, but the downside of this is too much traffic (too many websites linking to your web pages, bringing too many visitors who use up your bandwidth).

Too much traffic can become a problem if you have a FREE Video Download link in your product web page for example (i.e. productsandservices.com/video.wmv) that too many websites are recommending and linking to. For example. When you get one visitor clicking on your FREE Video Download link, who originally came from a recommended website link or directly from your own website, that free video (file) download should not use up too much of your bandwidth. Especially if the video (.wmv file) is reasonably small (i.e. 10MB or less – Approximately 5 Mins or less). The problem arises when you get a couple of hundred visitors clicking on your FREE Video Download link. That is when bandwidth becomes your nightmare and enemy.

Curious Visitors With too much traffic comes too many “Curious Visitors”. These are visitors who are just curious to know “What is your website all about?”, “Who are you?” and “What can your website do for me?”. There is nothing wrong with them, because they are the same visitors who might become “Regular, Buying, Visitors” one day and/or spread Word-Of-Mouth about your website, it is just that while they are curious visitors they remain “Bandwidth Users” or “Bandwidth Guzzlers!!” as well. In fact, they do help to get your ratings up with the Search Engines so they are not all bad!! The only way to effectively get rid of them though, if you are struggling with your bandwidth, is to introduce some sort of membership scheme to your website.

Blogs and Forums Before someone can view a blog post (article) or forum post (message) in their web browser (i.e. Internet Explorer) the content (i.e. text) of that post has to be downloaded first, from your website (public_html folder) onto their computer. This means some of your bandwidth is used in the download process. As explained at the beginning of this section, this type of bandwidth cost applies to any web page that needs to be viewed and any file that needs to be downloaded.

HOW TO DISTRIBUTE YOUR BANDWIDTH

With the above knowledge you should be thinking more about bandwidth distribution. For example. Many people, when they first build a website or have one built, make the mistake of creating their whole website in one go with a mentality/view of When the website is finished it will make me, and my product/service, look Professional and Established. This is great if you can afford the bandwidth associated with the features found on a professional, established, website but not so great if your website only looks professional and established with no features on it due to lack of bandwidth. I am talking about professional features such as Product Demonstration Videos or Video Tutorials that are viewed/downloaded by hundreds of curious visitors whereby you can afford them bandwidth in the hope of making some of them buying visitors; A Helpline that allows your visitors to download helpful .pdf files; And web pages that are full of images, presented in a slide show, for example. All of which can be bandwidth heavy when you have hundreds of visitors only, never mind thousands of visitors.

So what is a good way to distribute your bandwidth? Answer? One way is to distribute your bandwidth in stages by paying for it in stages. For example. Do not build your website with professional features on it at first, until you know how many people will be visiting your website, therefore saving yourself a certain percentage of bandwidth (both in terms of bandwidth usage and money costs). Or put another way. Why pay for 100% of your bandwidth needs, which includes professional features, when you are only just starting to get traffic (i.e. only 25% of your bandwidth is currently being used because you only have 110 visitors a month to your website). In other words. Do not pay for 20GB of bandwidth now when you only need 5GB of bandwidth now – In the future you might need 20GB of bandwidth, but that is in the future. Many web hosting providers allow you to upgrade your package.

STAGES TO FOLLOW:

Build up your website content with well written articles at first, without any downloads, so that eventually you get other websites (Website Linkers) linking back to your website or well written article web pages. Each time one of their visitors click on their recommended link to your website, or well written article web pages, they will cost you bandwidth. This is because they will be viewing (downloading) the content of your website or web pages. This is a small bandwidth cost to pay though because those visitor’s clicks will be raising your ranking/position with the search engines.

Set up a Google Analytics account in order to analyze your traffic (visitors, web linkers and so on). The bandwidth cost can be a little heavy depending on the frequency that Google Analytics scans your website for information/statistics and the amount of web pages on your website that need indexing (linking) for search engine results.

Do you need a Blog and/or Forum…..straight away? Although these are good for building interaction with your visitors they are bandwidth and web space wasters when they have no visitors. Making a blog and/or forum well known takes time. Usually 3 – 6 months but anywhere up to a year. You do not just copy and paste articles/posts into your blog and/or forum and then they become well known over night. You have to nurture them first by getting to know who your visitors are. So ideally you build a good website first, get visitor numbers up and then use a blog or forum as an advice section of your website for example. Many people make the mistake of thinking a blog is a website – It is not. You cannot do with a blog what you can with a website and vice versa. They are two different formats. The bandwidth cost for a blog or forum depends on how frequently your blog or forum is scanned and indexed by Google Analytics and the search engines for example, as well as how often the general public view it/them. A blog and forum tend to use more bandwidth simply because new posts (articles) are being added to them on a daily/weekly basis that need scanning and indexing.

NEVER ATTRACT THE WRONG CROWD

One way to get a huge amount of traffic is to advertise your website in various internet directories, internet classified ads, link your website on someone elses website/blog/forum and so on. However. When these methods work but do not bring your website enough traffic there is a tendency to get frustrated, which can lead to desperate measures. Take the following two scenarios for example.

Scenario 1 – Imagine you run a genuine Massage Services website with products on it (i.e. Massage Oils) that is not getting enough traffic. One option to improve your traffic might be to buy into a link-building/link-sharing list whereby you and up to 750 other websites agree to link to each others website in order to improve each others search engine rankings/positions and therefore bring in more traffic and hopefully more paying visitors. Regardless of the bandwidth costs of more traffic, the downside to this idea is that some of the websites in that list could of been blacklisted by the search engines; Making your website association (link) to those other websites a future possibility for the search engines to blacklist your website. And unless you check all of the websites in your list for virus infections, spamming, adult material and so on you might end up linking to some really bad website(s).

Scenario 2 – Sticking with the above genuine Massage Services website with products on it (i.e. Massage Oils). Another option for getting more traffic would be to link to genuine Adult Material websites, with you thinking their visitors might want to buy your products once they visit your website. The downside to this idea though (even if you were lucky enough to get such a link) is that you would get too many visitors, a very expensive bandwidth cost and some visitors visiting your website simply because they hope it will be selling something more than just Massage Oils.

What the above two scenarios are saying is that you should keep your website linked with websites you know are clean (trouble free) and more importantly with genuine websites that are genuinely within the subject matter of your website. It can be frustrating when first building a website but do not compromise your website’s bandwidth, potential credibility and reputation by attracting the wrong audience.

VIDEO BANDWIDTH

Having Video Tutorials or a Promotional Video for example on a website these days is a great way to promote/sell a product, but it is also the quickest way to run out of bandwidth. One bandwidth cost to consider, which many people tend to forget, is that some people will want/need to download your video(s) more than once. For example. They might be viewing one of your videos when suddenly they lose their internet connection, perhaps because their broadband disconnected naturally or because they ran out of time in their local internet cafe, and therefore want/need to view that video again. However. The next time they decide it would be better/quicker to download the video, onto their Flash Drive for example, so that they can watch it later. This is a typical scenario of why people are forced to download/view your videos again. And it is not because they want to cripple you with bandwidth costs, it is because they want to view your good video(s) – Especially if they have paid for them of course. So be aware of these bandwidth cost scenarios.

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Website Design – Some Basics of a Quality Website Design

Posted by MGP Website Designs on October 18, 2010 None comments

Today I’m going to talk about some Do’s and Don’ts of website design. As a website designer in NH, this is one subject I’m passionate about. So please, bear with me if I start to ramble on a bit. I want to share as much useful website design information as possible (without boring you to death) but when it comes to the topic of designing websites, I could talk for hours.

So let’s begin…

For starters, I believe your website design should represent your personal or business philosophy, your values, and the overall “look and feel” of who you and your company are (or who you want to be)

When people see your website for the first time, they’re going to get an instant impression of you and your business… What do you want them to see?

Take my latest website for example (you can check it out by following the link at the end of this article)… When I designed this website, I wanted it to be simple, crisp, and elegant. The black background represents authority. And it also takes away some of the eye strain you might get, from looking at a bright white monitor, while trying to read what’s in front of you.

What values does it represent..? The values of authority, or someone who knows what they’re doing. It also shows my concern for your comfort (reduced eye strain while you’re reading)

Then, I wanted to give you something a bit more entertaining to look at, so I added a few flash banners to the pages.

What’s the philosophy behind this..? To give you quality information, from the words you’re reading, but not bore you with a static website design that has nothing but words on the page.

Finally, I put all the main navigation links in the same place on every page (Left hand side of page) This is so you’ll know exactly where to find the links, no matter which page you’re on.

I also sprinkled a few links throughout the text, so if you want more information about something, you can click on the link, and move on to whatever you’re interested in.

So, what do you want to impress your website visitors with?

Do you want a corporate presence that’s all business..? Or do you want a website design that shows you’re an honest person, with hometown values (and not just a faceless corporation)..? Or perhaps you want a website design that shows people you’re a fun loving person, with a sense of humor..? Maybe you just want a website to showcase your hobbies, talents, or personal opinions..?

There are nearly as many answers to this question as there are people reading this page right now.

My main philosophy is to keep your website design simple.

There are some large corporate websites on the internet that are very complex (and often very confusing to navigate) and most of the visitors they receive, click away without buying anything.

This is fine, if you have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend, driving huge amounts of traffic to your website. (If 10,000 people a day are visiting your site, you don’t mind when only 1 out of every 200 actually make a purchase. You’ll still make 50 sales a day)

But for us mere mortals, who only see a few hundred visitors a day, we’d much rather have a higher rate of conversion from our websites.

You also don’t want to make your website design too cluttered or too distracting. Tons of animated pictures or flashing banners may look cool, but your visitors will become distracted, and possibly forget why they came to your site in the first place.

Also, too many moving images makes your website load much slower, so some visitors may click away before they ever see your website pages at all (No one wants to grow old waiting for a website to load)

Pop up windows are another thing… One pop up is O.K. (to present a special offer or an email sign up form). But you don’t want more than one on any page, and make sure your visitors can close it immediately if they want to.

Those pop up windows that block out part of the page, and won’t let you close them for a certain amount of time, only irritate most people. And if you irritate your visitors… they’re going to click away from your website, and never come back.

So when your thinking about what kind of website design you’d like, keep in mind who your building your web presence for… your visitors.

Keeping your website easy to navigate is one of the most important aspects of a good website design. If your visitors get confused looking for something on your website, they’re going to click away from your site and look somewhere else.

We live in an attention deficit society, and most people want instant results from their inquiries. If you don’t give it to them, they’re going to look elsewhere.

You also need a website design that will easily allow the search engines to navigate your website, so they can index it in their search listings. (You do want your website to show up in the search engines, don’t you?)

But what about Flash websites?

It’s true… Flash websites represent some of the latest technology in website design… They move and flow, and they can make your visitors say “WOW, NEAT WEBSITE”.

But full flash websites are difficult for search engines to index, because search engines only read HTML code and page text. If the search engines can’t tell what your website is about, they’ll have a difficult time indexing your website for your particular keywords.

I do like the look of Flash websites, and if you’d like me to build you one, then we also need to talk about off page website promotion. (ways to get actual people to your website, while we’re waiting for the search engines to figure out where to index your website)

Now don’t get me wrong… Big flashy websites are a designers dream. It gives us a chance to really get creative with flash animations, dynamic pop up windows, and auto loading video clips. but they can often be very confusing to navigate, and they can also be very distracting to your visitors.

If your visitors get too distracted by all the flash animations, they will often get confused or frustrated, and possibly even irritated. Remember… irritating your website visitors is one of the quickest ways to get them to leave your website in a hurry.

How about pure CSS websites?

CSS website designs are another up and coming website technology. There are many CSS evangelists who would have you believe it’s the only way to go.

CSS websites use an external file (CSS file), instead of tables, for the look of your website layout. Many people believe they give a more consistent look for a website when viewed through different web browsers (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, etc.) They also tend to load a bit faster due to the reduced code on each individual page.

But CSS websites also have their limitations. In particular, when it comes to centering certain fonts and images on the page.

Besides… table layouts, when done properly, will also give you a consistent look through all major web browsers.

CSS websites also allow you to globally change the look of your website by editing a single file instead of changing each page individually. This is great if you want to continually make changes to your website design, but if you already have a website design you’re happy with, then this point isn’t really necessary. Also, if you want to have different headers, or fonts, or images, on different pages, then you’ll need to access each page of your website one-at-a-time anyway.

What about PHP websites?

PHP websites are the only real way to go if you want a dynamic database driven website, (like a full e-commerce store, or a community website, or a blog. Basically any website where you want to keep your visitors information, so they can log into an area of your site with their name and password. Or if you want to allow your visitors to leave comments on your website).

But PHP websites tend to load slower than standard HTML websites. So if you simply want a fast loading website, to bring your business to the internet, HTML is the way to go. You can still sell products and services from an HTML website, but they don’t have to go through a database to retrieve any information.

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So there you have it… My basics for a quality website design.

I could go on for another hour, but this article is already starting to get a bit long. (in fact… This page used to be nearly twice as long) But then my friends and family told me you might not be as enthusiastic as I am about the topic. So I shortened it up a bit. The hard part was editing the content without leaving out some of the things I wanted to say.

I realize this whole process can be a bit of a challenge, trying to establish a web presence that will be up to date with modern technologies… one that will easily be indexed by the search engines… and a website design that will also be simple enough to allow your visitors to make the decision of doing business with you.

So your best bet is to simply browse the internet and look at some other website designs that are appealing to you. When you see a few that you like the look of, it will give you a starting point for your own website design

In summary…

The design of your website says a lot about you and your company.

A clean efficient website design tells your visitors you run a clean, efficient business. By contrast, a cluttered or confusing website design tells your visitors you’re cluttered and confusing.

If your visitors can’t understand your website, or if they can’t easily navigate your website, then they’ll probably click away as soon as they arrive… never to return again.

When people see your website for the first time, they’re going to get an instant impression of you and your business, and the first impression they’re going to get will be based on your website design… What do you want them to see?

Think about it…

Steven Rubin is a co-founder and the ranking partner of SARubin-websites.com – A website design and website marketing company whos sole purpose is to help you bring your vision to the world.