Free Web 2.0 Template #165

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Free Web 2.0 Template

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Test your web site before go live

Posted by rimel - 30/06/07 at 08:06:41 am

You just finish your website, and you are excited to see it “live”. But first you should test if everything on your website works correct. Remember that the website is your corporate identity on Internet. Testing your website gives you a chance to fix errors before they destroy your business reputation.

Now, what you should check first? I would start from the basic.

Spell Check & Grammar Errors

Proof read your site … no meter how careful content creator was, you will always find few misspelled words or grammar errors. If you don’t, be sure that your customers will.

Check Links

Next thing is to check if all your links on all your pages works. You can do it manually if you want, but on larger sites, it can be teddy task. For large projects, you can use Xenu’s Link checker. The good news is that it’s free and better than most other link checking software.

Forms - E-Mail

We all want feedback from our website visitors, right? To ensure that you will get some, check if forms on your website work as expected. Make a habit to test forms on your website from time to time.

Web site visitors many times enter wrong input in form fields. If you use Java Script to validate form input, check your scripts in IE and Firefox at least. Not all scripts works in all browsers.

Page Titles - Meta Tags

Web developers use different software to create web pages. If your webmaster forget to add Meta tags on your website, in the title will write: Untitled Document.

How can anyone forget to add Meta tags, I am hearing you asking.

Well, search on Google for: Untitled Document and 35.000.000 results will be returned. For the search term Untitled Document 1, there is much less competition. Google return “only” 1.650.000. I guess that you will agree that your company name is better title than “Untitled Document”.

Meta tags are useful (especially title and description) for both, your website visitors and for search engines. So do the check.

Screen Resolution

You are looking your website on your monitor, and it looks great, right? How it will looks on other monitors and other screen resolutions? You website should look acceptable and on 800 x 600 and great on 1024 x 768 and higher.

How your website look in different browsers?

It is easier than you think, so continue reading. One of the things that you should definitely test is how your website looks in different browsers. The reason is: Each browser can display Web pages slightly differently, and you want to make sure your pages look good in the most popular browsers.

I have only one browser installed, how I can do this, I hear you asking. Search on Google for “view your website in different browsers”, and you will find different websites which allow you to preview your website in almost all known browsers. And yes. It’s free.

Usability - Can your website visitors find what they are looking for?

Ask few people to visit your website. Your friends or relatives, doesn’t mater. Ask them what they think about your website. Let me clarify. It is not important did they like the colors or the layout of the site. Important thing here is: Can visitors find what they are looking for on your website within few clicks?

And the most important: When they look at your home page can they understand what your company is about? How comfortable they feel your navigation, did they understand the terms that you use on your website? Can they reach your contact page?

SEO and Accessibility

Posted by rimel - 30/06/07 at 08:06:14 am

There is much talk today about SEO tips and how to land higher in a SE’s (Search Engine) SERPS (Search Engine Results Position). But little is talked about how properly used “White Hat” SEO techniques will inadvertently assist in website accessibility.

Most times it’s very true, that marketing a websites and accessifying a website will butt heads. Accessibility states that content is king, and end-user usability/accessibility must prevail before any marketing hype - and especially any “black hat” usage. SEO has stated in the past that alls fair in love and SERPS! Accessibility was not considered, sometimes not even a option.

Well, fast forward into the ever evolving world of SEO. Content has always been prime SEO consideration, but never more than now. In fact, content - and more importantly for this article - accessible content stands as the basis for all SEO work. Next to the high priority of obtaining Incoming Back links (IBL) from that high PR (PageRank) site that drive so many SEO professionals crazy, there is, “The Copy” (The Content).

Keyword rich copy is important, yes, but now it seems more than ever, that the actual layout, or page markup - of a website - needs to be rich. Rich in accessibility. If you think about it, when a user has problems accessing a site, whether it be inaccessible navigation, or content way “below the fold” - while advertisements about Viagra are at the top of the page, what do you think a SE’s searchbot will think (can they think?)

SE’s are becoming much more capable in their discernment of a page or site that is targeting real people, or just trying to make an AdSense buck. So the shift has been for the good of accessibility!

When a person wants a website built for their Mom-and-Pop store, what I like to ask them is a very simple question (among many other questions of course), “Do you have an older Aunt/Uncle/relative that has a sight impairment, or do you know of anyone who suffers from any disability?” Most times, statistics tell us that they do know of a loved one who fits that category. I then launch into my “Accessibility Statement”. As I evangelize the accessibility movement (Web Design Standards Movement), I most likely will get the reply of, “that sounds great…but will that help my website be on Google’s top ten in one month?”

I’m sorry to say, but unless you’re linked from Google itself, along with 5 other PR10 sites, you’re gonna be sandboxed for awhile! But - and this is a big but - accessifying your website will most definitely help your SERPS in the long run!

Choosing a Content Management System

Posted by rimel - 30/06/07 at 08:06:39 am

Choosing a Content management system remains to be an issue for site maintainers and web site owners. The first issue seems to be “Do we need a CMS?”. The second issue is, of course, cost.

A common misconception is that there requirement of size before an organization can benefit from a Content Management System. Even small websites can gain valuable benefit from CMS solutions. The key is to pick the CMS that best fits your organizations needs and growth expectations.

And don’t be fooled into thinking you have to sell your first born child or a year’s wages to get a CMS. There are many different levels of CMS applications and different levels of implementation, both of which effect price.

Let’s discuss some of the details of Content Management Systems…

What is CMS?

CMS stands for Content Management System. A CMS is a software system that helps in maintaining and expanding website, often with no knowledge of web languages. The goal to make content and structure expansion easier. A CMS can also help by making maintenance by multiple parties in your organization possible.

CMS applications store their information in a database and generate pages as needed. Many Content Management Systems also cache pages to optimize a website’s performance. This means that once a page is requested, it is created and stored on the system until it changes so the page does not have to be created upon every request. This eases the load on your server and makes lessens the expense of hardware requirements.

What does CMS do?

Well, what exactly do you need? A CMS generally manages text articles and templates for a website. Template is just another term for a layout of a page. Generally, a layout is reused multiple times on one website and you can assign a layout to a page in a CMS. You might have a home page layout and another layout for the interior of the website. It is easy to assign the interior template to newly created pages.

Certain CMS systems may also have Permission-based Publishing or Workflow tasks. These features allow customization of the publishing process. Permission-based publishing allows certain roles or people to publish while others can only submit articles for review.

Work-flow tasks allow the creation of certain actions in portions of the publishing process, like alerting an editor that an article is ready for review, or a custom process to approve or disapprove submissions to the publishing system.

The list of features and abilities will differ from CMS to CMS but here are some sample features:

Article management
Layout/template management
Website Search
Content Versioning
Member management/registration
Visitor polling
Online Calendar
Event Management
Role-based Content Access / Permission-based viewing
Permission-based publishing
Collaboration/Groupware support
Workflow Tasks
Categorization of content
Multi-media support
Shopping carts
Ecommerce store-fronts
Payment Gateway Integration
Weblogs/blogs
Wikis

Do you need a CMS?

How many mundane hours are you spending editing HTML? How much are you paying to have a developer edit simple text on your site? How many people are working on the website?

Once you arrive at deciding that you do need a Content Management System and begin your research, you’ll see there are countless solutions that exist for managing content and each have their own pro’s and con’s. However, there are many resources to help you decide which solution best fits your organization’s needs.

CMS Matrix is a website that offers side-by-side comparison of various CMS solutions. Wikipedia offers an abundance of information on the terms used in CMS product solutions and the CMS industry on a whole. Don’t forget the CMS vendor website as well. Often you’ll find the most up-to-date information on the vendors website. Of course, your web development firm is one of your best resources in researching which solution fits your oganization best because they know your business and your organization’s needs intimately.

How can a CMS be used?

A CMS can be used both for internal and external websites and/or applications. You could publish your corporate website with a CMS. Additionally, you could also use a CMS for an internal intranet.

Some CMS applications are also designed as an API (Application Program Interface), which means adding custom applications can be built using the CMS as a framework saving your organization in development costs.

What is the cost of CMS?

The cost varies depending on the supplier and the implementation. Some Content Management Systems have more features and are inherently more complex than others. WebGUI, for instance, is billed as a CMS but is actually an Application Program Interface (API) so developers can build additional custom applications using the framework of the software and further customize WebGUI with custom modules.

Other implementations may only manage text articles and have minimal additional features and will be less expensive than the more scalable, enterprise CMS solutions.

Plan for growth

Whatever CMS solution you choose, plan for growth and research the features that your organization will need. This will prevent you from having to scrap one software for another and save your organization time and money.

CMS systems are so common-place these days that, often, the cost of implementation is not as expensive as you might think and is easily recovered over a short period of time.

Also, ask about training when purchasing a CMS solution from a web development firm. It’s often more cost-effective to include training in the purchase agreement.

Finally a low cost alternative for small businesses and personal websites!

Posted by rimel - 30/06/07 at 08:06:05 am

JK Website Development offers a low cost and professional alternative for unique web development. They offer website development, website hosting, Search Engine Optimization and additional internet consulting services. Location in Princeton, New jersey an excellent location between New York City and Philadelphia, PA. JK Website Development offers professional website architecture at an affordable price. They can take you from initial concept to finished product combined with website hosting and search engine optimization. Design and development professionals are on staff to design a website to represent both you and your brand on the internet. With excellent branding knowledge and website marketing capabilities, this makes JK Website Development an excellent choice for developing your presence on the internet. Think your project may be too small, with JK Website Development, no project is too small and they are always willing to accommodate most any budget. JK Website Development also offers a wide range of general internet consulting services for any business. They can optimize your website for maximum search engine effectiveness. JK Website Development offers it’s client superior customer services and a pleasant experience every time. Imagine being able to have the website for your business and not having to worry about programming, design, development, optimization, etc. Let JK Website development take care of all of this for you so you may concentrate on building your business and your brand.

Website Redesign- A Perilous Road

Posted by rimel - 30/06/07 at 08:06:39 am

Website Redesign- A Perilous Road examines some of the countless decisions required to redesign a website. If you make the wrong decisions, or hire the wrong web designer, you may find that years of hard work are lost and as far as the search engines are concerned- you are brand new again, with no page rank and no presence on the World Wide Web. About a year and a half ago I started a new business and launched a new website. Since that time my site has gained a reasonable page rank on Google. A search for several of my keywords will produce my site in the listings on pages two, three and four of Google. Page Rank and organic listings are important only if enough people are contacting you for your product or service. This is your “ROIâ€?. This is your rate of return on your investment of time, energy and money. Most businesses have a “big room for improvementâ€?. Like most other businesses, I am very interested in achieving higher page rank and ROI. According to Google.com: “PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important.” Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don’t match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page’s content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it’s a good match for your query.â€? It is logical that if you redesign your site in such a way as it appears to be a brand new site to the Google search engines, you start de novo with no page rank and no other pages “votingâ€? for you. No matter how much you have achieved in terms of Page Rank, or if you have achieved number one, page one status for a keyword in terms of being found on a search of the web, you may have created a “don’t get out of jail, don’t collect $200, don’t pass goâ€? type of situation for yourself, at least in the internet short run. These points were brought home to me loud and clear by a member of an internet affinity group who recently wrote: “Hello, I had my site remodeled last year by a pro. I paid top dollars for SEO. Once my site was published, my ranking and clicks took a nose dive. I have done every thing to get the ranking up but have had no luck. Can someone please tell me what went wrong?â€? Imagine a mirror that is really one way glass. In the movies, there is a common scene where the criminal suspect is being interviewed by the police in a room with a mirror that reflects his image. On the other side of the mirror, invisible to the suspect may be the victim or other policemen looking in at the proceedings. A website is like a one way glass mirror. When you click on a website, you see what the designers want you to see. The public’s mirror: Images, text, marketing, things that move or flash, contact information, site maps, search for content engines, links to other sites, examples of products or services. What you cannot see are many if not most of the things the search engines see. Many of these things are technical and well beyond the scope of this article, and this author’s expertise. But a little knowledge is dangerous. What went wrong? It appears that the search engines, when looking at the “other side of the one way mirrorâ€? may have concluded that this was a brand new site. Perhaps the files that were a part of the web site were renamed. Perhaps the domain name of the site was changed. Perhaps animation, called flash, or pull down menus prevented the search engines from “seeingâ€? the website because of their design. Perhaps in the design of the new site, the former inbound links no longer are counted by the search engines. Perhaps the designer did not use any metatags. According to Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch, “Metatags are not a magic solution.â€? “What are meta tags? They are information inserted into the “head” area of your web pages. Other than the title tag, information in the head area of your web pages is not seen by those viewing your pages in browsers. Instead, meta information in this area is used to communicate information that a human visitor may not be concerned with. Meta tags, for example, can tell a browser what “character set” to use or whether a web page has self-rated itself in terms of adult contentâ€?. There is controversy regarding the importance of metatags. One way to decide for yourself is to go to the sites of your top competitors; open their site, and click view at the top of your browser, scroll down to page source and click on it. See what your competitors are doing and decide for yourself. The bottom line: Website redesign is a very difficult and technical area, subject to controversy and honest differences of opinion. You clearly want a website that attracts the public to your product or services, and attracts the search engines to find you. Google has a new program in beta where you can test several versions of a site to determine what the public likes best. What the search engines value is quite another matter. Choosing the best expert for this project is essential. I recommend that you look for experienced professionals with proven results with a business that is reliable and stable. Give a lot of thought to your content and to your call to action. And give a lot of attention to the requirement that your expert designer redesign your site technically as a reflection of your previous site unless you want to start de novo as if your website is brand new to the World Wide Web. Copyright © 2007 Gregg Financial Services www.greggfinancialservices.com Mr. Elberg is a licensed attorney and licensed real estate broker. Gregg Financial Services is a full service brokerage for commercial finance companies and banks that fund B2B businesses. Mr. Elberg arranges funding from $25,000 to $50 million per month at competitive pricing.

Tips for Improving Website Navigation

Posted by rimel - 30/06/07 at 08:06:11 am

A business often has more than one target audience it wants to reach with its website. Different customers mean different sales appeals and a homepage needs to be able to direct visitor traffic to go to the right places to get information or make a sale.

In order for visitors to find the right information, a website’s navigation path needs to be clear. Without a clear navigation path, visitors will become confused and leave before they can make a purchase.

Here are some ideas to consider when designing the navigation on a homepage:

Make the Navigation Familiar

Most people expect the navigation buttons to be on the left side of the website or at the top of the website. If the buttons are on the right, it makes the visitors hesitate and think. You don’t want them to have to think about the navigation; you want it to be instinctive and easy.

The more familiar the navigation, the less likely they will get lost or confused. They will know how to find the correct path to where they want to go.

Use Text Links to Reinforce the Path

People rely on navigation buttons to find the main paths of the website, but it is also important to reinforce the main paths with text links within the content. Again, this makes it easier for visitors to immediately go to where they can get further information without having to think.

Decide on a Path for Each Buyer

As you put the content together on a homepage, or any other page of a website, you need to think about the complete path that you want to create to take the customer from information to purchase. The path will differ according to the audience appeal, and your purpose.

Sometimes your audience needs to be educated before they can make a purchase. In that case, you need to make sure that visitors receive enough information that they will feel confident in making the decision to buy. This type of audience will need to know the features of your product or service as well as the benefits before they can make a decision. It would also be helpful to have testimonials and examples to reassure them that they are making the right decision.

When you have to take the time to educate your audience, you would probably take them from the homepage to another area of the website where they can get further information about your product or service. However, if they didn’t need to be educated, they could simply go from the homepage to the buy page and make their purchase.

So, on the homepage, you need to make sure that you have both types of paths available: one for the buyer who needs to be educated, and one for the buyer wants to immediately make a purchase.

Decide on a Path for Each Audience

When you are trying to appeal to multiple audiences, it is important that your homepage has information to appeal to each audience. When visitors come to your website they are looking for information to solve their specific problem. You need to have information that they can quickly and easily identify as the solution to their problem.

For instance, maybe your company offers a product or service that is useful to Human Resource Directors, managers, and individuals. Each one of these three audiences would have a different benefit appeal that could be used in gaining their attention on the website. An easy way to do this is to set up three bullets that are questions with text links to take each audience to a separate page where you can exclusively cater to this audience:

*Are you a Human Resource Director looking for XYZ? *Are you a manager looking for XYZ? *Are you an employee looking for XYZ?

You want each one of these three audience members to land on your site and immediately find the path that will take them to the solution they seek.

Conclusion

Good navigation on a website is one of the secrets to having a successful website. The information or content of the website needs to be laid out in such a way that it is easy to follow and logical. The easier it is for people to find information on a website, the more likely it is they will buy. And, the more difficult it is for them to find information, the more likely they will never visit your website again.

Web Design Tips for Travel Sites

Posted by rimel - 30/06/07 at 08:06:48 am

Travel has become a fashion these days as many kids would demand to spend their holidays at a place they have never visited before. That’s where a search for a decent and good destination begins. Quite often a user might get bored of looking around the internet for a good destination as there is so much information about each and every place on the internet. Say for example you want to know about Cabo San Lucas. The search engine would tear the results it in and out for you to read around, surf around and get to know more about the place you would want to visit where you can either go for  special package or probably a  for your stay.

What if you find every piece of information right in front of you at a travel website which has been created with simple yet elegant looks and great detailed content? Majority of times, a travel web design is full of promotions which is good as long as you’re not flooding the site with promotions on the main page itself.

A web designer has to consider some of the most important fact before placing the information for the visitor to look, read and enjoy. Starting with the structure, a travel website should have nice and decent looking colors in the background and good contrasting effects. The navigation panel can be placed either in the left or right or both showing relevant information to the visitor and not confusing them at all. Most importantly, if your travel website is offering flight information and purchase of airline tickets online, you’re sure to attract more visitors as every visitor would want to stick tone place and do the shopping.

Once the navigational panel is set, decide upon the middle pattern to show some of the great deals you can offer to your visitors. Make sure a picture of the destination in the offer would add icing on the cake. This is the structure of the home page where you can place relevant content that has been looked over and over again just below the offers. Make sure not more than 10 most viewed articles are listed at once. Gaining the attention would also mean that you need to setup some form of flash content about each destination packaged deal you are promoting on your travel website. This gives more professional looks. Also just below the video, you can place content specific to that destination to make your visitors read and stay on the site for longer. That’s not all, the content in the articles about the destination should be in simple wordings and SEO friendly to catch the attention of major search engines improving on your websites overall page rank.

Finally,  should have a nice shopping cart displaying what your have purchased for the customer to easily go on with the sale and get the confirmation information instantly emailed. Don’t cut the talk right here, give a courtesy call to add value to the deal.

Modifying Your Online Store Page Layout

Posted by rimel - 30/06/07 at 08:06:16 am

If you are not comfortable with your web page it is good to know that you can always go back and change it. Your online store page layout should be done in manner so as to maximize your conversions and improve your webpage layout appearance.

A typical online store page layout consists of a section category where you can include your products’ image, name and additional information. In this section category you may use a lot of information or little information. If you are using a lot of information it is a good idea to include this information both in the section page and also the product page of your page layout. The visitors to your webpage should not be bombarded with too such information about your products. On the flip side, the information provided should not be insufficient.

Some web pages are content base and you may want to include product information in the section page only. You have the ability to overwrite the content layout of your webpage which can easily be done with the appropriate software and use of the right techniques. If you include product information on a product page only they you will have the ability to create and edit this page. It is also very important t include al your product information before publishing to the web. This will save you time and money as well as frustration

I you need to associate products that you deem ’special’ then you could group them together and provide information for both on the same page. Modifying your online store page layout need not be a painful experience if your spend time beforehand to understand the necessary instructions.

Your online store page layout is crucial in the success of your website so do it right.

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