Web Development, Design, Hosting and SEO Glasgow UK

If you are new to web design your head is probably spinning with questions as well as excitement to get started. Many people find that hiring a web designer is a good way to go because they simply do not have the know how to get the job done. If you don’t need your website to be up and running in the next couple weeks you can take a crash course in web design and attempt to do it on your own. Not only can you realize your creative vision, you can also save a lot of money if you do it on your own, and you just might find your new hobby. Web design can be a lot of fun!

The first thing you should have if you are undertaking a web design project for the first time is a web editing software program such as FrontPage. Many of the software programs such as this are really easy to use, and offer guidance through the web development phases. There are more complicated web design software programs out there, but you should stick with something along the lines of FrontPage because it is very easy to use, even for a beginner.

Even with an easy to use program such as FrontPage you may want to study up on the benefits of html formatting, Meta tags, and search engine optimization. All of these elements of web design work together to get visitors to your web page. No one designs a web page to sit on the Internet without being seen. Combining the use of html, Meta tags, and search engine optimization you will be working with the search engines to get listed in the results pages of search engine results. This is the first step of creating a user base, no matter what your web page is selling or what type of content you provide.

Next, it is important that you incorporate quality content in your web design. It can be a lot of fun to incorporate graphics, gimmicks, and fun elements that are associated with today’s web pages but quality content is much more important than all of these things. This is not to say that you can’t add color, style, and personality to your web design but that should not be the basis. The content of your web design should be the priority and any graphics and gimmicks should be very secondary. Search engine bots and crawlers do not recognize graphics, so if you want to be seen in the search engine results you need to have content that speaks to the bots and crawlers. Quality content is the key to your web design bringing in the traffic.

Website optimization is a big deal right now and it is difficult to get into web design without delving into this area of the business somewhat. Remember that optimization standards are changing all of the time, so don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Your first priority should be to provide quality information, content, or services to your current and potential customers. When you feel as though you can do this you can then worry about whether or not your website meets all or some of the optimization standards that are out there. If you have a lot of content on your site you should try to hone in on popular keywords and use them throughout your articles and text. Web site design should also include links within and outside of the website. Links are basically a roadway for the search engines to follow as they browse the Internet. If you have links to your pages you will be sure that all of your pages get crawled and you have a better chance of being seen on search engine result pages.

Perhaps you don’t care all that much about search engine optimization because you are designing a family website or something to that effect. If that is the case you can use all of the graphics that you want and really not worry too much about links or html. If you don’t necessarily need a lot of traffic to your website to be happy, then you can really get creative and do some fun things. Your intentions for your web design will really influence how you should do things to be successful. Of course, one of the best things you can do in web design is to have fun because it’ll shine through in the end result!

If you have decided you or your company is in need of a website, you will have to purchase web hostingweb-hosting companies services from a hosting company. There are many different to choose from, and they can easily be found on the internet. If you do a quick search for them in any search engine, you will find that there are almost too many to count. Choosing the company that is right for you can be a harrowing experience, but there are really only a few basic things to consider. The first factor to consider when choosing a web hosting company is how much space they will give you for your account. If you merely want a single page on the Internet with little or no graphics, you can get by with purchasing an account with the smallest amount of space available. However, if you are planning to create a full e-commerce site with multiple pages and order forms, you will need to make sure you have enough server space to support your entire operation. Before you sign your web-hosting contract, you will first have to choose and purchase a domain name. Though many of the names you might want are already taken, you can often find one that suits your needs, especially if you get creative with it. For instance, if your business is called Cards For You and that domain name is already taken, you might consider choosing More Cards For You or Cards For You Today. The possibilities are endless, and with a little thought you will be able to think of a snappy domain name. You can often purchase a domain name through your web hosting company, or you can purchase it through a private domain name retailer. These companies are very easy to find. Often times, if you type the domain name you want into a search engine, a domain name seller will pop up if the name is not already taken. You can purchase a domain name for a year at a time, or for several years, depending on how much you want to invest at the get-go. Once you have a domain name, you will of course have to create a website to put on the Internet. There are many do-it-yourself web design programs that are fairly user friendly. Software like FrontPage makes web design a cut and paste, fill in the blank soft of affair. However, if you would like a more professional look, you can use programs like Dream weaver or Image Ready to make your sites. There are always freelance web designers looking for work who are ready to take on your cause if you are not savvy enough to do it yourself. Web hosting companies give passwords to allow you access your space on their servers. You can upload files and pages using their own interface programs, or you can utilize the upload tools built in to your web design program. Once you upload a page, it is important to make sure it looks correct on a variety of different web browsers. Because each browser interprets information differently, you may run into trouble if you build a site while only previewing it in Internet Explorer. There are often compatibility issues between Safari and Mozilla browsers that distort site tables and images. However, once you work out the kinks and create an excellent site, all you have to do is pay your web hosting bills, and your site will be available for the whole world to see. Web hosting companies usually offer options regarding payment plans. You can pay for a year at a time, or you can monthly or quarterly to maintain your place on the World Wide Web.

source: http://www.goarticles.com

If your website is properly designed, it will automatically be optimized for search engines. While your website is still in the concept stage, take care to separate textual elements from design elements. Although the information that is on your website will bring the visitor, it is the actual design that makes an impression. A website that is poorly laid out and hard to use will not attract and keep visitors no matter how wonderful the information is.

Choose your layout, colors, style and information based on the characteristics of your target customer base. If your customer base is state-of the art engineers, you can utilize the latest bells and whistles to give your customers an eye-popping experience. If your customer base is a little more average, or if you aren’t sure, design for the most common browser and resolution. Then check your page in the site viewer at Anybrowser.com and make any changes necessary. Don’t neglect your customers with special needs. Designing for people with disabilities makes the user experience easier for everyone. See Designing sites for universal access for tips.

Your home page should have at least 275 words of text that describes your product and entices your customer to look through your site. Your first paragraphs (80 lines or so) are the most important and should include your primary keywords and your tagline with a call to action. Your primary and secondary keywords should be about 5% of the text on your home page, used in complete and logical sentences. Please note: It does not appear that search engines are reading or following the information contained in iframes.

Source: http://www.phoebemoon.com

While designing a web site, importance of color is always overlooked by many web designers. But, keep it in mind that you depend on your company and your company depends on your website and your website truly depends on its color. So, color must be one of your very first concerns at the time of web site design. It’s harder to read text on monitor as compare to paper and you will have to choose colors that are going to work best. Through color you can make your visitor feel comfortable, relaxed, trusting and also tempestuous.

Alas! Web browsers can only view 256 colors and even some browsers can see only 216 colors. If you want the color you chose for your website, should appear to everyone, exactly as designed by you then go ahead with 216 colors pallet. Always use web browser safe color.

Color combination is also very important aspect. Some color combinations are very unimpressive such as Yellow text on Blue Background. That’s why black text on white background is the easiest color combination to read. What can be the intention of any web designer? Obviously, to make an interactive web page and interactivity comes with the colors you choose for web page. Color affects our feelings, our perceptions and our interactions.

What do colors say?

white : White is the best background color on a web page. White color shows truthfulness, Purity, devotion etc. It’s the most refreshing and superlative color.

red : Red is the most emotionally vivid color and may cause a faster breathing. It symbolizes energy, action, confidence and passion.

orange: Orange is very hot color to the human eye. Orange demonstrates warmth, cheer, strength and ambition.

black: Black is the favorite color of web designers to display text but it effects very bad when used as background. It suggests excitement, speed and demands attraction.

blue: Blue is the second most popular color between web designers. It is associated with stability and depth. It represents wisdom, confidence and loyalty.

green: Green is the most compatible color with eyes and has a great healing power. It shows growth, harmony and fertility.

yellow: Yellow is the color which enhances concentration. It shows wisdom, joy and happiness.

pink: Pink is a quiet color and symbolizes sweetness, softness and innocence.

brown: Brown color provides you the feeling to mix up with the background. It represents politeness and richness.

Think about your primary audience like if you are designing a website for selling toys, then using pink and blue will be productive. Don’t use more than two or three colors on a single page. Use the same background color on each page. It should not be like that ‘Home Page’ has a White Background and ‘Contact Us’ has a Yellow Background. Avoid making larger parts of web site with very bright colors. If the company for which you are designing website has already an established Logo, then make it sure that the color of Logo on website must match with the real color. Maintain the consistency because it really works. Your visitor may be irritated with your stupid color choice.

Try to be color wise and color safe, you will be able to feel the color of success.

In this article we’ll cover some basics of website usability, in other words, making your website user-friendly. This article in no way covers everything you should keep in mind prior to designing your website - there is much more. I have listed five questions you should initially consider. I will be brief with each question just to give you a few tips to get you started. Keep in mind that testing is the most important task and should be conducted frequently.

a. Do visitors know which page they are viewing?

The best way to ensure your visitors don’t get lost on your website is if you title your pages. Make sure this title is the title in your navigation area too. On your home page, or the one that is your “index.html” or “index.htm”, you don’t have to title the page “HOME PAGE”. It could be titled “About Us” or a page you want your visitors to see as soon as they open your website. If your “index.html” page is your “About Us” page, then put the header/title “About Us” at the top of the page. In other words, every page should have a heading so that your visitors will know what page they are currently viewing.

b. Can your visitor easily get to other pages using your navigational area?

Make sure that if you have 5 main pages in your website, there are 5 links in your navigation area with the exact titles as the titles on your pages. With this in mind, don’t make your titles too long. If you have articles on your website, make one link titled “Articles” in your navigation area. On the “Articles” page, list your article titles in the body of that particular page because the article titles will be longer.

c. Does my background color and text color make a good combination?

You will need to take this into serious consideration. If your color scheme is unappealing, visitors will leave no matter how good your subject matter may be. If the combination causes eye strain or headache, your visitors will leave your website and may not return. Examples: blue background with red text, lime green background with yellow text, red background with yellow text, etc. One other background I would like to mention: patterned/tiled backgrounds. These can be overwhelming to the eye. No text will be readable on these types of backgrounds - at least not without difficulty. If you must have a patterned/tiled background, make it look like a watermark - full color patterned/tiled backgrounds will send your visitors away quicker than ice cream melts on a hot stove.

d. Are my photos too big or do I have too many on a page?

If it takes longer than a few seconds for your webpage to load, then your images are too big or you have too many on a page. It is not necessary for a photo to take up the space of an entire browser window. Too many photos, without a doubt, will slow your website down to a crawl, even on a high-speed connection. Most people will leave your website before the images finish downloading. You can make the images small enough for a slideshow or create thumbnails so that your visitors can select which images they want to see. Once your visitors click on the image to see a larger view, make even that image small enough to see all the details, but not big enough to slow down your website. There are quite a few image editors out there to use - some are even free. I use Macromedia’s Fireworks to optimize my images. They have a tool where I can make my images smaller without losing clarity.

e. How do I test my pages for errors and user-friendliness?

Have a few other people look at your website. If you don’t think that friends and family will want to hurt your feelings, find a site with your color scheme; tell them that this website is not your website, but you would like their opinion on the color scheme and if it is difficult to read. You can also post your URL to various forums to ask them for a critique of your website. If this is your first time testing, you can ask for feedback so that you can get a variety of comments. Keep a copy of the answers you get so that in the future you can refer back to what people have said about certain features. Later on, you can put together a checklist to go by for every website you design. I wouldn’t use just one checklist to check all websites, but a checklist would be a good start. Whether you are a beginner or expert website designer, you will always need to test multiple times. You have a great deal of choices to check for errors on your site. I like to use W3C’s validators to check for errors and to bring my websites up to standard.

Making your website user-friendly is one of the best things you can accomplish for yourself and your visitors. Taking the time to ensure usability is nothing compared to how many visitors you will lose if you have a not-so-friendly website. Ensuring readability, fast downloading, and performing multiple tests will get you started in the right direction of designing user-friendly websites. Good Luck! Send me a link if you want me to critique your website.

Here are 5 biggest reasons why your website design fail make profits for you.

1. Use splash pages Splash pages are the first pages you see when you arrive at a website. They normally have a very beautiful image with words like “welcome” or “click here to enter”. Do not let your visitors have a reason to click on the “back” button! Give them the value of your site up front without the splash page.

2. Use excessive banner advertisements Even the least net savvy people have trained themselves to ignore banner advertisements so you will be wasting valuable website real estate. Instead, provide more valueable content and weave relevant affiliate links into your content, and let your visitors feel that they want to buy instead of being pushed to buy.

3. Do not have a simple and clear navigation You have to provide a simple and very straightforward navigation menu so that even a young child will know how to use it. Stay away from complicated Flash based menus or multi-tiered dropdown menus. If your visitors don’t know how to navigate, they will leave your site.

4. Do not have a clear indication of where the user is When visitors are deeply engrossed in browsing your site, you will want to make sure they know which part of the site they are in at that moment. That way, they will be able to browse relevant information or navigate to any section of the site easily. Don’t confuse your visitors because confusion means “abandon ship”!

5. Using audio on your site If your visitor is going to stay a long time at your site, reading your content, you will want to make sure they’re not annoyed by some audio looping on and on your website. If you insist on adding audio, make sure they have some control over it — volume or muting controls would work fine.

for more details visit : http://web-design.itservicecall.com/webdesign/

Websites that make their customers work to read them are not the best way to get business. Miniscule fonts, text in colors that make it hard to see against the background color, and lines that are piled on top of each other are problems, but they’re easy to correct. Let’s jump right in and look at five easy fixes:

1. Format your text using CSS.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are the way to go - use one style sheet and control how text looks on your entire site. Make a change to the style sheet and your whole site is updated. It makes life a lot simpler.

2. Make the font size big enough to read.

Consider your target audience. Even if they are a group of teenage girls looking for new shoes, it’s never a good idea to use tiny type. It doesn’t have to be enormous, but up to a point, larger type is better. 12-pt Verdana is better than 8-pt Verdana.

3. Make the text contrast with its background.

The more contrast, the better. Black-on-white or white-on-black are examples of the highest contrast you can get. Use colors if you like, but if you squint at the page and your text basically vanishes, there’s not enough contrast.

4. Give the lines room to breathe.

Don’t stack lines on top of each other. Use the line-spacing directive in CSS and give it some space; I’ll often set line-spacing to 140% of the height of a typical line.

5. Break text up into chunks.

No matter how good a writer you are, people don’t want to read endless pages of text. Break it up by using headlines that reflect the subject of the paragraph(s) to follow so people can scan down to the parts that really interest them, or use bulleted lists to change the pace of the writing and slow down the scanning.

And finally (not one of the 5 Easy Ways to Improve Legibility but still quite important) check your spelling. Nothing irritates me more on a web page than spelling errors - it simply makes you look like you don’t care enough to get it right. Use that ubiquitous spellcheck tool.

Making your website’s content more legible is easy. It doesn’t take a lot of time, mainly common sense. The payoff will be text that’s more readable, customers that stick around long enough to get your message, and improved credibility with your visitors.

Source:http://www.pageresource.com/

Help us maintain the quality of Google search results.

We work hard to return the most relevant results for every search we conduct. To that end, we encourage site managers to make their content straightforward and easily understood by users and search engines alike. Unfortunately, not all websites have users’ best interests at heart. Some site owners attempt to “buy PageRank™” in the form of paid links to their sites. Buying links to improve PageRank violates our quality guidelines.

Google uses a number of methods to detect paid links, including algorithmic techniques. We also welcome information from our users. If you know of a site that buys or sells links, please tell us by filling out the fields below. We’ll investigate your submissions, and we’ll use your data to improve our algorithmic detection of paid links.

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Yahoo India has launched a new feature in their search results called “Glue” pages. As Barry Schwartz explains:

Glue Pages are specialized pages that contain an enhanced visual search result page, for select search queries. The search results that trigger the special “Glue Pages” run across searches in health, sports, entertainment, travel, technology, and finance categories.

The new pages are not quite equivalent with Google’s Universal Search blended SERPs, as the various types of information are broken out into separate columns. Instead the results more closely resemble those of Ask3D.

The exact layout of the pages and content of the columns vary with the query. The columns I’ve seen include everything from sponsored results to news to images to video to music to Wikipedia & other online encyclopedias to Yahoo Answers excerpts. Below is a screencap of a search for diabetes:

Compare that with the glue pages for for Queen, Queen Elizabeth. The Queen’s page layout is even significantly different from that of Albert Einstein.

On Glue pages, Yahoo features a popup explanation of what Glue pages are:

If you don’t care for Glue pages, classic search results are a tabbed alternative available below the search box.

While the information comes from other sources, it appears that a fair amount of “hand programming” has gone into this to select the most appropriate page layouts and information sources for each query. Which does raise the question: will it scale? Obviously, longer and more specific searches will probably never have Glue pages.

Obviously, this is a pretty cool advance for Yahoo. It looks as though with this improvement they’re acknowledging that search engines are where people go to find answers—and if Yahoo can provide the answers themselves without sending users to other sites, they’ll keep and hopefully gain more eyeballs.

On the other hand, search engines are not a destination. But could Glue pages change that? Let’s start the blog pool: when will we see these on Yahoo’s main site?