Ten Common Mistakes in Web Design

A web design is believed to be the most crucial part of a website. In fact, it can even make or break a web page. So if you are one of those people who are aspiring to create a web design that is close to perfection, then you must first get rid of the most common mistakes made by web designers. Here are some of them:

1. Website loads more than 10 seconds.

This is perhaps one of the problems that people usually encounters when entering a site. Actually, having a website that takes too long to load is not advisable because it can only annoy your visitors, and they may even leave your website and look for somewhere else.

2. Using unreadable and fancy fonts.

One reason why people browse the web is to look for information. Therefore, you must make sure that your fonts are easy to read and is appealing to the eyes so that your visitors can find useful and reliable data on your pages.

3. Logo is not located on the top of the page.

The logo plays an important role in your online business. Most of the time, when a person sees a logo, he/she remembers how credible a website is. So bear in mind to place your logo on the most visible part of your page – and that is on the top.

4. Unorganized content.

No one wants to see a website that's too busy from large pile of texts. As a designer, you must help your readers in finding the information they needed. Try to cut your content into a readable form – make use of highlighted words, bullets, and headers.

5. The color of visited links doesn't change.

This is one common mistake that you must avoid because this would definitely annoy your visitors. If you want to create a user-friendly web design, then you must show people the difference between the visited links and unvisited links.

6. External links doesn't open in new windows.

This is really a turn-off! You must let your users feel free to open links in different browser windows. Don't be afraid that they might not come back to your homepage anymore.

7. Unreadable CAPTCHA.

Well, this would definitely be a huge problem for people who tends to post a comment in your blogs. How can your visitors give their feedback if they can't understand your CAPTCHA?

8. Using “Introductions”

Never force your visitors to see something before they can enter to your main page. That is undeniably annoying.

9. Over usage of Flash.

Aside from the fact the Flash are irritating, it can also hurt the loading time of your web pages. Only use of Flash in instances wherein you have to present your services in a non-static form.

10. Taking advantage of pop-ups.

Stay away from these annoying pop-ups because they will just create problems for your users.

A Brief Guide to SEO Link Building

Acquiring backlinks is definitely one of the greatest obstacles on the industry of search engine optimization. For most sites, having millions of quality inbound links is a must in order for them to stay competitive in their chosen field. Take note that the quality and quantity of your website's backlinks is a huge factor which Google and other search engines look at when ranking your pages.

Basically, the process of building links involve the invitation of hyperlinks coming from other related sites. This is perhaps a time-consuming method and an ongoing task, therefore, you should never stop especially if you're currently on the midst of the process. You should also bear in mind that you must only post your links to related and high quality websites if you don't want to be accused as a spam site.

Actually there are various types of hyperlinks, and each of them plays a specific function. Some links are made to generate traffic and conversion, some creates awareness, but most of them are designed to improve your search engine rankings. Links are categorized into two – inbound links and outbound links. Inbound links, also known as backlinks or inward links, are what most web owners search for. These are basically the links that points to your pages coming from other web pages. Inbound links can either be organic or inorganic. Organic hyperlinks are also considered as natural links because it can be build without any efforts, while the inorganic links (artificial links) require a sufficient amount of effort in terms of building.

Building inbound links is not an easy task, especially for a beginner. You need to read and learn all the necessary details that cover up this process. Also remember that when you are on the method of generating links, you must fully optimize your web pages. Through this way, you can engage people and search engines spiders into your site, and provide them with the idea that your pages are valuable and worth linking to. Optimizing your site for better link building follows a process: first, it is necessary to choose a theme for your newly created website; then identify what keywords are you going to use in promoting your pages; lastly is to equip all of your pages with quality content and unique META tags.

There are actually a lot of methods which you can use in order for you to build quality inbound links. First in line is to take advantage of social networking websites. The industry of social media gives you the capability to reach a wider amount of audience in just a blink of an eye. You can also try forum posting, social bookmarking, link baiting, directory submissions, link exchanging, and blog commenting – these methods are proven effective in acquiring backlinks.

Remember that only those websites which have a large amount of inbound links will be entertained by Google and other search engines. So you'd better begin creating quality backlinks as soon as possible.

Changes in Google's Algorithm May Affect Your Search Engine Rankings

If you're really serious on the Search Engine Optimization factors of your website, then you must take into considerations this new algorithm being set by Google. These changes was taken into account when an incident took place in an eye wear company, DecorMyEyes. Vitaly Borker, a staff of this company, seems to be very eager to reach the top rank of the search engine listings that he even harassed and threatened one of their costumers named, Clarabelle Rodriguez. Investigations also show that Borker has been gaining high popularity and visitors through his good and bad online reviews. He admitted to a reporter that having a lot of reviews is a big part of his plan to succeed in his chosen business.

As written by Amit Singhal, a fellow of Google, “We were horrified to read about Ms. Rodriguez’s dreadful experience. Even though our initial analysis pointed to this being an edge case and not a widespread problem in our search results, we immediately convened a team that looked carefully at the issue. That team developed an initial algorithmic solution, implemented it, and the solution is already live. I am here to tell you that being bad is, and hopefully will always be, bad for business in Google’s search results”.

With this changes, SEO specialists out there would probably find website promotion a more daunting task since Google will be more stricter when it comes to ranking a site. Thus, SEO experts must adjust and adapt to this newly implemented algorithm if they are still eager to improve their search engine positioning. You'd better watch out for those methods you're implementing because not all forms of publicity are considered by Google as good ones.

So how does this new Algorithm works and how can it affect you rankings? Supposedly, the expert team of Google made it possible for this algorithm to detect all the websites and online businesses that provide poor services and costumer experience. Those said sites will be given a rank that is extremely lower than the others. Google will be basing this new ranking formula through the site's feedback and costumer reviews. Therefore, it seems that web reviews would now be a huge factor which Google will look at when ranking a site. Take note that all reviews must be good and unbiased. “To expose user reviews and ratings for various merchants alongside their results. Though still on the table, this would not demote poor quality merchants in our results and could still lead users to their Websites”, Mr. Singhal elaborated.

Integrating Social Media Into Your Business

In the last two years, social media has grown significantly, not only in the number of sites, but also in terms of its reach. In fact, it would be quite difficult nowadays to find a place where social media is not well known to a lot of people. And with the growth of social media, many have started to find a lot of use for it.

One of the sectors that have definitely started to embrace the social media phenomenon a lot is the business community. A lot of businesses now have set up their own social media department to make use of the craze. But, sadly, only a few do make big in the social media scene. So how do you make the most out of social media for your businesses?

Well, one of the first things that you might want to keep in mind is that using social media in your business is not simply all about posting status announcements on your profile pages. In fact, you will be surprised to find out that a workable social media campaign for your business will actually involve a lot of things.

Here, integrating social media into your site is one of the first things that you need to work on when conducting a campaign. Take note that this not merely mean that you have to post social media status updates on your site on a daily basis. Instead, you need to make sure that your social media pages are well integrated to your site, such that it is easy to head to your homepage from, say Facebook or Twitter.

And of course, you won't be able to get traffic to your site if your visitors find no need to go there in the first place. Here, you need to entice visitors of your social media pages to head to your main site for more information. Having great content will be one of the surest ways of attracting people looking at your profile pages to head to your main page. For instance, videos posted on video sharing sites can be used to attract the curiosity of viewers and seeing what more you have to offer.

Finally, take note of the word social in the term social media. This means that you need to do a lot of interacting, or socializing, in order to attract visitors. Replying to comments and questions made by your viewers will definitely establish your presence and attract more people to you.