One of the most important indicators of your site's traffic is its bounce rate. The bounce rate is basically the percentage of your visitors who immediately leave your site after viewing a single page. Since a high bounce rate is an indicator that many of your viewers are not encouraged enough to explore your site further, you definitely want this one as low as possible.
So how can you lower your bounce rate? There are actually many ways that you can do this depending on the nature of your visitors viewing habits. Thus you need to study first the traffic that comes in and out of your site to be able to come up with a strategy that will surely work.
One of the most important things to consider here is where the bounce is coming from. Take note of the several ways that your user can bounce from your pages. Perhaps the most common of these is the users simply clicking on the back button in their browsers to leave your site. On the other hand following the outbound links posted in your site also contributes to a larger bounce rate.
Whichever way the user will immediately leave your site, this can often only mean one thing: that your site does not have the thing that the user is looking for. Thus, in order to keep your viewers engaged to your site and lower your bounce rate, you need to be able to provide your visitors their needs.
Content is the first and foremost consideration when making people engaged to your site. Thus you need to provide relevant content regularly in your site. Also, it would be a good idea to listen carefully to your viewers' comments in order to determine what they need and want. Also be sure to provide them with new content frequently to sustain their interest in your site.
Good site organization is also a useful strategy in keeping your viewers hooked to your site. You should arrange your site's content so that it is easier for users to locate the particular one they are looking for. And here's a sure tip that will make your site more organized: never put everything in one page and instead distribute it to several pages. This also adds another bonus in that it will encourage your viewers to visit your site's other pages and make them stick longer. Also, you can link several relevant articles together in order to entice your visitors to browse through your other content.
Usability is another important aspect that will make your users stay longer in your site. Make sure that your site is easy to use and as simple as possible, even for those new to it. Additionally, you can actually add user instructions to make everything easier. Also make sure that everything works properly in order to be of better use to visitors.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Deciding Between Static And Dynamic Web Pages
Coming out with an an overall layout for your website is a very important aspect of the web design process. And one of the most important decision that you need to work out on is whether to go out for static pages or use dynamic ones. However, many designers are still confused with this two options.
Before moving any further, it would be a good idea to know the distinction between the two. A static page is essentially a page that doesn't change its contents, which are dictated by its source code. In order to change its content, the code itself must be tweaked by the webmaster. On the other hand, a dynamic web page is a page that automatically changes its contents based on a given parameter, such as the current date or the user accessing the page.
Dynamic web pages came about with the emergence of web 2.0. Web 2.0 is a web design philosophy which emphasizes on user oriented development. It is also being used in the creation of user generated content. Web 2.0 has, in fact, been hailed by its proponents as the next big wave in web development.
So does that mean that dynamic web pages are much better to use than static ones? Well not necessarily. You see, each type of page design has its own set of pros and cons. For instance, though the dynamic web page has much more capabilities than a static one, it is inherently harder to make. This is due to the fact that it needs more complex coding in order to run the algorithms needed to create a custom output. On the other hand, static web pages are much easier to create and put up and is also less tedious to maintain, albeit it has limited capabilities.
The final question then is: which one is better to use? This will actually depend upon the main purpose of your site. For those sites that are unlikely to change content frequently, such as tutorial or general information sites, static pages will more than work for these. On the other hand, sites that cater to user generated content will do better by using dynamic pages in managing the input sent by visitors.
It is also possible to combine dynamic and static pages in one site. This will produce a more flexible and efficient site design. For instance, you can use dynamic pages on much of your pages while using static design for your auxiliary pages. This way, you will be able manage both much easily. Just make sure that they will be compatible and integrate together correctly.
Before moving any further, it would be a good idea to know the distinction between the two. A static page is essentially a page that doesn't change its contents, which are dictated by its source code. In order to change its content, the code itself must be tweaked by the webmaster. On the other hand, a dynamic web page is a page that automatically changes its contents based on a given parameter, such as the current date or the user accessing the page.
Dynamic web pages came about with the emergence of web 2.0. Web 2.0 is a web design philosophy which emphasizes on user oriented development. It is also being used in the creation of user generated content. Web 2.0 has, in fact, been hailed by its proponents as the next big wave in web development.
So does that mean that dynamic web pages are much better to use than static ones? Well not necessarily. You see, each type of page design has its own set of pros and cons. For instance, though the dynamic web page has much more capabilities than a static one, it is inherently harder to make. This is due to the fact that it needs more complex coding in order to run the algorithms needed to create a custom output. On the other hand, static web pages are much easier to create and put up and is also less tedious to maintain, albeit it has limited capabilities.
The final question then is: which one is better to use? This will actually depend upon the main purpose of your site. For those sites that are unlikely to change content frequently, such as tutorial or general information sites, static pages will more than work for these. On the other hand, sites that cater to user generated content will do better by using dynamic pages in managing the input sent by visitors.
It is also possible to combine dynamic and static pages in one site. This will produce a more flexible and efficient site design. For instance, you can use dynamic pages on much of your pages while using static design for your auxiliary pages. This way, you will be able manage both much easily. Just make sure that they will be compatible and integrate together correctly.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Increasing Your Site's Visibility Through Image Optimization
So, you've finally made your web site. You have that everything works. You have even chosen and carefully optimized your search keywords. And yet, traffic is still isn't what you expected. So what else can you do to improve your viewership numbers?
One thing that you can try is optimizing your images. As the name says, it is using your images to improve your searchability rankings. Considering the several images that you have put in your site pages, you now have an good idea of how useful image optimization really is. It is also a free way to get keyword traffic from users. Ironically, however,, many site administrators tend to overlook in favor of the more conventional optimization methods.
In order to make good use of image optimization, one thing that you need to remember is that, even if your site primarily contains text, even a single picture will definitely add up to the appeal of your site. With that in mind, you can now add pictures for optimization to your site.
Choosing the right images for your site is the first step that you need to do. Arguably, the picture that you need should somehow be related to the other contents of your site. Avoid putting in images just for the shock value. This is definitely a bad practice and web users would likely get out of your site immediately after finding that they where fooled by your image. If you are selling products, then you need to simply put pictures of them. Otherwise, you need to either find or make an appropriate image.
After you have selected your images, then it's time to put them in. And as part of the optimization process, you need to enhance the image for web use. This involves such actions as trimming down the size of images for faster load times and editing images to improve quality. One easy tip when saving image files for site use is to use the “save for web” option that can be commonly found in many application. This automatically saves the image file into a format that is more appropriate for the web. Also remember that the file name for the image itself acts like a keyword. So you need to make similar considerations when naming your files to further boost their chances of being tracked more.
Once you have your images on the site, you need to promote them to the public. Most search engines allow submission of images for tracking. Use this as often as possible with all your images. Another way you can promote your images, and hence your site, is by posting them on popular image sharing sites like Flickr or Photobucket. What's good about them is that you can put in more detailed information right there by using captions. Remember to link the images back to your site for users to have direct access.
As you will find out later on, image optimization will give you a great reach than conventional keyword optimization along. And by skillfully using these two techniques, you will definitely get much higher in the rankings.
One thing that you can try is optimizing your images. As the name says, it is using your images to improve your searchability rankings. Considering the several images that you have put in your site pages, you now have an good idea of how useful image optimization really is. It is also a free way to get keyword traffic from users. Ironically, however,, many site administrators tend to overlook in favor of the more conventional optimization methods.
In order to make good use of image optimization, one thing that you need to remember is that, even if your site primarily contains text, even a single picture will definitely add up to the appeal of your site. With that in mind, you can now add pictures for optimization to your site.
Choosing the right images for your site is the first step that you need to do. Arguably, the picture that you need should somehow be related to the other contents of your site. Avoid putting in images just for the shock value. This is definitely a bad practice and web users would likely get out of your site immediately after finding that they where fooled by your image. If you are selling products, then you need to simply put pictures of them. Otherwise, you need to either find or make an appropriate image.
After you have selected your images, then it's time to put them in. And as part of the optimization process, you need to enhance the image for web use. This involves such actions as trimming down the size of images for faster load times and editing images to improve quality. One easy tip when saving image files for site use is to use the “save for web” option that can be commonly found in many application. This automatically saves the image file into a format that is more appropriate for the web. Also remember that the file name for the image itself acts like a keyword. So you need to make similar considerations when naming your files to further boost their chances of being tracked more.
Once you have your images on the site, you need to promote them to the public. Most search engines allow submission of images for tracking. Use this as often as possible with all your images. Another way you can promote your images, and hence your site, is by posting them on popular image sharing sites like Flickr or Photobucket. What's good about them is that you can put in more detailed information right there by using captions. Remember to link the images back to your site for users to have direct access.
As you will find out later on, image optimization will give you a great reach than conventional keyword optimization along. And by skillfully using these two techniques, you will definitely get much higher in the rankings.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Making Your Site Both Search Engine And User Friendly
Having a good web design is very crucial in order to make a site prominent in the internet. However, there are a lot of considerations that a designer needs to think about when developing a site. One of the biggest issues he need to think about carefully is whether to come up with a user friendly site or one that is made for the search engines.
Indeed, these are two important aspects of web design. The search engine gets your site listed for visitors to see and the visitors are the ones are the ones responsible for making your site a success. However, this two often come in conflict with each other. A “Flashy” site that attracts users will often be undetected by search engines. On the other hand, one that is solely designed for the search engines might actually be as drab as plain text.
Thus, the web designer must know how to balance between the two. One of the first things that he can work on in doing this is the site's content. Often, many sites favor content that is more easily indexed by the search engines in order to place higher in the ranking page. However, this can be easily remedied by making sure that your content also caters to what your target audience wants to see. For instance, your articles must not only be there to provide places to put in keywords for the search engines, but also to provide information to users.
Visitors to your site must also find that your site is easy to use. Make sure that all the important features and those that will be most commonly used can be easily accessed from anywhere in the site. Also, your pages' layout should show user friendliness. For instance, navigation buttons should be positioned such that the user does not have to scroll the page a lot just to get to them. Your navigation buttons also need to be clearly visible. Also you can put in additional navigation links in your content for more ease in use.
On the other hand, you also need to make sure that your site gets indexed and listed in the search engines, which in turn will make your site more visible to your target audience. Here, your goal is to make sure that all the important sections of your site can be easily tracked by search engine spiders. Thus you need to optimize this a lot.
You also need to work on the features that attract visitor attention and optimize them for easier detection by search engines. For instance, you can make Flash applications, which are not easily crawled by spiders, more visible by attaching text that you can optimize to it.
Remember that you need to make sure that both elements are important in creating your site and you need to make good use of both in order to come up with a successful one.
Indeed, these are two important aspects of web design. The search engine gets your site listed for visitors to see and the visitors are the ones are the ones responsible for making your site a success. However, this two often come in conflict with each other. A “Flashy” site that attracts users will often be undetected by search engines. On the other hand, one that is solely designed for the search engines might actually be as drab as plain text.
Thus, the web designer must know how to balance between the two. One of the first things that he can work on in doing this is the site's content. Often, many sites favor content that is more easily indexed by the search engines in order to place higher in the ranking page. However, this can be easily remedied by making sure that your content also caters to what your target audience wants to see. For instance, your articles must not only be there to provide places to put in keywords for the search engines, but also to provide information to users.
Visitors to your site must also find that your site is easy to use. Make sure that all the important features and those that will be most commonly used can be easily accessed from anywhere in the site. Also, your pages' layout should show user friendliness. For instance, navigation buttons should be positioned such that the user does not have to scroll the page a lot just to get to them. Your navigation buttons also need to be clearly visible. Also you can put in additional navigation links in your content for more ease in use.
On the other hand, you also need to make sure that your site gets indexed and listed in the search engines, which in turn will make your site more visible to your target audience. Here, your goal is to make sure that all the important sections of your site can be easily tracked by search engine spiders. Thus you need to optimize this a lot.
You also need to work on the features that attract visitor attention and optimize them for easier detection by search engines. For instance, you can make Flash applications, which are not easily crawled by spiders, more visible by attaching text that you can optimize to it.
Remember that you need to make sure that both elements are important in creating your site and you need to make good use of both in order to come up with a successful one.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Why Use CSS?
Coming up with a good website design is definitely a must if you want to make it big in the net. However, going all through those codes can hinder you from coming out with that good design. Luckily, you can make everything much easier by using CSS.
Short for cascading style sheet, CSS is a language that allows a web designer to define the stylistic elements and layout of a website. It provides the designer with an easy way to construct the site without having to go through all the code. Though it is primarily used for HTML sites, it also works with other markup languages, such as XML.
What CSS basically are small sets of code that defines what parameters the various elements of a site are set in. These codes can either be set inside the main code or separated in its own file. The browsers then read these and apply it to the pages or to specific areas indicated in the code.
Interestingly, many beginning web designers still feel a bit anxious about using CSS. This is mainly due to the fact that it means that they have to learn a new scripting language again. This is indeed true; however, CSS is a relatively simple language and can be easily learned while studying other web design languages. It also offers several other advantages that will be worth learning it.
For one, it makes designing much easier. All you need to do is put all the design elements in the CSS file and you can then concentrate on the contents in the main code. This also makes your main code much easier to read, since there are no more additional pieces that are in it.
Having a style sheet also makes redesigning your site much easier. Instead of having to change everything in the main code, all you have to do is modify a few lines in the CSS file and it automatically applies it to everything in the page. CSS is also very flexible, all you have to do is insert small bits of code to make minor changes.
Another good thing about CSS is that it is, in fact, supported by all browsers. This means that you will not have cross compatibility issues when running your site. Also, unlike other scripts, which are often blocked by browsers, CSS works freely with them without having to modify browser settings.
Using CSS also makes your pages load much faster, since the browser only needs to read through the CSS file once in order to render your pages. Also, it makes your files much smaller, which adds to the ease of loading. And faster loading times are very much important in having a good site.
Short for cascading style sheet, CSS is a language that allows a web designer to define the stylistic elements and layout of a website. It provides the designer with an easy way to construct the site without having to go through all the code. Though it is primarily used for HTML sites, it also works with other markup languages, such as XML.
What CSS basically are small sets of code that defines what parameters the various elements of a site are set in. These codes can either be set inside the main code or separated in its own file. The browsers then read these and apply it to the pages or to specific areas indicated in the code.
Interestingly, many beginning web designers still feel a bit anxious about using CSS. This is mainly due to the fact that it means that they have to learn a new scripting language again. This is indeed true; however, CSS is a relatively simple language and can be easily learned while studying other web design languages. It also offers several other advantages that will be worth learning it.
For one, it makes designing much easier. All you need to do is put all the design elements in the CSS file and you can then concentrate on the contents in the main code. This also makes your main code much easier to read, since there are no more additional pieces that are in it.
Having a style sheet also makes redesigning your site much easier. Instead of having to change everything in the main code, all you have to do is modify a few lines in the CSS file and it automatically applies it to everything in the page. CSS is also very flexible, all you have to do is insert small bits of code to make minor changes.
Another good thing about CSS is that it is, in fact, supported by all browsers. This means that you will not have cross compatibility issues when running your site. Also, unlike other scripts, which are often blocked by browsers, CSS works freely with them without having to modify browser settings.
Using CSS also makes your pages load much faster, since the browser only needs to read through the CSS file once in order to render your pages. Also, it makes your files much smaller, which adds to the ease of loading. And faster loading times are very much important in having a good site.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Importance of Website Architecture
Website Architecture is the approach used to design and plan websites. And how important is it? Very important, especially for internet businesses whose main goal is to rank on the search engines. It is not just the links and the content that will make a website soar higher. The appearance of website also matters to the search robots. There are so many cases that a site is being ignored because they did not consider the web design style. Search Engine Optimization covers a broader field when it comes to internet marketing, and the website appearance is one of its most important aspect.
The site's placement and performance in search results also rely on the website architecture. If it has a poorly designed structure, there's no way that the search engine robots will notice their presence, even if it is performing good link building.
Just like in the actual architecture, it is more probable for a visitor to stay longer in a building that has good designs and pleasant for the eyes. If it is ugly, he/she would rather leave the building and find another spot instead. Furthermore, a well designed establishment will attract more visitors than a poorly-designed structure. If the building is in a business, it is possible for businesses there to sell more because of greater number of spectators. Just like in search engine optimization and internet marketing. If the layout and web design of your website is neat and easy to navigate, a visitor will more likely stay longer. The user will browse the whole site and read more content. Then after that, he/she can be converted into a target customer, depending on how much he/she liked the design or how they badly wanted the product or service. If users will stay longer on your site, it is the perfect time to steal their interest.
Another point about website architecture is that, other sites won't waste their time exchanging links with a website with a messy design. Link exchange is very important for SEO. It is one of the best way to get good page rankings on the search engines. Your offers for link exchange may get turned down or worse, no one will ask for partnership with you because they knew that no user will visit your site.
If you are looking for supremacy on the search results, you should put intense work on the structure of your website. It is one of the most important factors that is needed to be considered. No website found success without considering this one. Right keywording maybe the best way to success, but through proper website structure, you will have a stepping ladder to you ever-longed victory on the internet marketing.
The site's placement and performance in search results also rely on the website architecture. If it has a poorly designed structure, there's no way that the search engine robots will notice their presence, even if it is performing good link building.
Just like in the actual architecture, it is more probable for a visitor to stay longer in a building that has good designs and pleasant for the eyes. If it is ugly, he/she would rather leave the building and find another spot instead. Furthermore, a well designed establishment will attract more visitors than a poorly-designed structure. If the building is in a business, it is possible for businesses there to sell more because of greater number of spectators. Just like in search engine optimization and internet marketing. If the layout and web design of your website is neat and easy to navigate, a visitor will more likely stay longer. The user will browse the whole site and read more content. Then after that, he/she can be converted into a target customer, depending on how much he/she liked the design or how they badly wanted the product or service. If users will stay longer on your site, it is the perfect time to steal their interest.
Another point about website architecture is that, other sites won't waste their time exchanging links with a website with a messy design. Link exchange is very important for SEO. It is one of the best way to get good page rankings on the search engines. Your offers for link exchange may get turned down or worse, no one will ask for partnership with you because they knew that no user will visit your site.
If you are looking for supremacy on the search results, you should put intense work on the structure of your website. It is one of the most important factors that is needed to be considered. No website found success without considering this one. Right keywording maybe the best way to success, but through proper website structure, you will have a stepping ladder to you ever-longed victory on the internet marketing.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
The Major Roles of SEO
Internet Marketing revolutionized the way people do business. It is now the newest way to earn money and at the same time, provide quality products and services. And from time to time, this kind of market gets bigger and bigger, making the competition a little tighter. Even if you've got the most sought after product and well-designed website, it will be nothing if no one gets to visit it. If it doesn't appear visible to users, all your efforts or investments will go into waste.
Once you think of an online-based business, you should also be thinking of the number one spot in the ranking. It is the top spot that will come out once an internet user make a query using certain keywords. That's it, the key is on the keywords. And you can better work on this through SEO specialists. If there are so many business that bombards the internet, there are also many SEO company that rises to the occasion. They are the ones that can create differences between many online businesses. But what are SEO? What they can do in one's enterprise?
SEO it is a tabulated way to improve the ranking of one's business. Tabulated because it involves research and studies. It uses knowledge and observation to know exactly how search engines and web directories decide which web sites to return as results for users' searches. Algorithm is what you call it to increase the hits of a certain site. With an SEO, you will find more visitors, an awareness will be generated among internet users, convert visitors into customers and optimize the marketing efforts to the target buyers.
Being on the top ten of the search results will guarantee you with visitors. That means your business is popular, and if it is driven into your site, it is called traffic. An increase in traffic means more visitors, which can lead to higher sales. Let us put it this way. SEO will make internet users known that what they are looking for is found on the web. This is of course by different methods like link building, classified ads, bookmarking, blogging and articles and many more. This user has a high interest of your product and services. And once they are directed to the site, they can be converted into instant buyers.
SEO will be the one to find the right keywords to use for your business so that the search engine spiders will be able to crawl down your site. These keywords pertain to your business name, service or product you provide and other important contents that helps make your site rank well. If you wrongfully used keywords, your business is more likely to sink on in search results. But through search engine optimization, everything else will run smooth, that all that is left as a problem is how you are going to deliver your product or service.
Once you think of an online-based business, you should also be thinking of the number one spot in the ranking. It is the top spot that will come out once an internet user make a query using certain keywords. That's it, the key is on the keywords. And you can better work on this through SEO specialists. If there are so many business that bombards the internet, there are also many SEO company that rises to the occasion. They are the ones that can create differences between many online businesses. But what are SEO? What they can do in one's enterprise?
SEO it is a tabulated way to improve the ranking of one's business. Tabulated because it involves research and studies. It uses knowledge and observation to know exactly how search engines and web directories decide which web sites to return as results for users' searches. Algorithm is what you call it to increase the hits of a certain site. With an SEO, you will find more visitors, an awareness will be generated among internet users, convert visitors into customers and optimize the marketing efforts to the target buyers.
Being on the top ten of the search results will guarantee you with visitors. That means your business is popular, and if it is driven into your site, it is called traffic. An increase in traffic means more visitors, which can lead to higher sales. Let us put it this way. SEO will make internet users known that what they are looking for is found on the web. This is of course by different methods like link building, classified ads, bookmarking, blogging and articles and many more. This user has a high interest of your product and services. And once they are directed to the site, they can be converted into instant buyers.
SEO will be the one to find the right keywords to use for your business so that the search engine spiders will be able to crawl down your site. These keywords pertain to your business name, service or product you provide and other important contents that helps make your site rank well. If you wrongfully used keywords, your business is more likely to sink on in search results. But through search engine optimization, everything else will run smooth, that all that is left as a problem is how you are going to deliver your product or service.
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