Sunday, August 28, 2011

How Custom Web Design Helps In Driving Traffic On Site

There are no two thoughts on the importance of a website for your business. But have you ever wondered why some websites draw more traffic than others? Or why some websites are easier to remember than others? The answer lies in their unique look. When a website stands apart from the crowd it can do wonders for your business. Custom web design opens new window of opportunity for your business and helps in targeting potential customers from around the globe.

Business web design should also focus on a brand’s identity. Your logo, color scheme and graphics should in one look narrate what your business is all about. If you have been in business for long the users should easily be able to identify with the brand that will add value to it. Thus custom web designing service is a booming industry as users look for solutions to stay ahead of the competition.

Make sure you hire the services of a good web design company which has expertise in the field. There are thousands of firms which make tall claims but don’t have the potential to deliver results. Be choosy in hiring a web design company and seal the deal only when you are impressed with their portfolio and other terms and conditions of service. A wrong choice and you will end up losing both your time and money.

How Custom Web Design Helps in Traffic Increase

    * Custom web design helps in adding value to your website. The idea is not just to create a website but to create one which makes an impact in the market. Your website is your brand extension and a unique look adds value to your brand image attracting more visitors.
    * What attracts also sells! Your custom website will prove to be visually attractive. It won’t reflect the looks of some of the commonly used templates doing rounds in the market. If your website is attractive you will see a lot of returning visitors which will add to the traffic.
    * You get exactly what you want and what your visitors like in a custom website. On many occasions you will have to compromise with your wish if you are using a template. A custom website allows you to design and develop the website the way you want.
    * Templates are never good for search engine optimization and have bulky codes. Custom web design will allow you to customize the website and attract search engine crawlers adding traffic to your website.
    * You can use the viral marketing networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to add to the traffic of your custom website. A template based website with limited functionality may not allow you to do the same.

Source:

http://blogs.siliconindia.com/indiaonline/How_Custom_Web_Design_Helps_In_Driving_Traffic_On_Site-bid-F04y7fzK26562126.html

Friday, August 26, 2011

Long Beach considers Website Redesign

LONG BEACH - Backers of a bid to revamp Long Beach's website and accompanying content management system say the move could increase convenience and save money delivering services.

The City Council approved a motion Tuesday by a 7-2 vote directing city staff to work with the Port of Long Beach and other interested parties on a "24-Hour Online City Hall" website concept and report findings back to the council within 30 days.

Cost of the project is estimated at between $500,000 and $600,000.

Councilman Robert Garcia, the legislation's sponsor, said the city's current website and software was made in 2004 and is outdated.

"I think that there's opportunities to create a really more efficient, more accessible and more innovative system," Garcia said.

The proposal was co-sponsored by council members Gary DeLong and Patrick O'Donnell.

If the plan moves ahead, money would be drawn from an estimated surplus of about $15.4 million available in the city's oil fund.

The surplus has been marked for one-time improvements to infrastructure at a time when the city has little room in its budget for projects that would be routine during better economic times.

City leaders are working to close a $20.3 million budget deficit before the Sept. 15 deadline to pass a budget the fiscal year starting Oct. 1.

Garcia was cognizant of the appearance created by looking at upgrading the city website - at a potential price of more than a half

million dollars - during a difficult budget.

He said most of the cost is an investment in a system that would ultimately save money by allowing many city services to be accessed online.

"The website is a fraction, a fifth of the cost," said Garcia. "Most of the cost is the back-end software."

Councilman James Johnson supported the motion and taking up the issue when the budgeting process ends.

"I think it's important to come back after the budget and look at all the different needs ... and prioritize accordingly," Johnson said.

Councilwoman Rae Gabelich, who voted against Garcia's proposal along with Councilwoman Gerry Schipske, questioned the motion's timing when the city is preparing to cut public safety, library services and parks.

"I would put that on the wish list," Gabelich said of a new website, "but it would come way after all of the cuts we are talking about that would actually reduce the quality of service in the city."

Source:

http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_18752251

Monday, August 22, 2011

Custom Website Design for Improving Business

Grabbing eyeballs through the attractive website design is one of the necessities today. Custom website design not only helps in directing traffic to your website but also increases web presence and business remarkably. The term custom website design refers to improving or enhancing the graphic and technical aspects of a site to make it more attractive and user friendly. It mostly concentrates on look, feel, colour, logos, texts, pictures, presentations on the web page so that it can be made more eye catching, informative and smart.

Based on the usage and values of an organization, websites can be classified broadly under several categories. The website design for each is unique as it would serve different purposes with the varying categories:

4. Personal website: Where the website design should concentrate on promoting the individual who owns the site.

Here designing will be based to create or enhance opinions or ideas about the individual and content is usually presented in a colourful and entertaining manner. 5. Commercial or business website: A business website design will solely concentrate on promoting, vigorous sales and marketing of a product, idea or service. Target audience friendly content, text, informative photos, promotional logos are a must. The page designed should be able to load faster for user convenience. 6. Governmental website: Owned by the government, here designing is directed at guiding users easily through the sea of data available on the site. 7. Non-profit organization website: Usually promoting a cause or idea, here designing should concentrate on hard hitting images and texts that makes the concept, idea or cause a prominent feature to visitors.

A very important aspect of custom designs is blogging for increasing interaction with visitors and customers.
One of the more popular blogging softwares is WrodPress.

There are several WordPress themes that can be chosen from as per requirements of the business. The themes vary according to content, look and graphics used. The best Wordress themes or the ones that are most popular today are listed below, in accordance of number of columns and other criteria:

5 best one column themes: Manifest, Doc, Satorii, Simplr, Vostok 5 best two column themes: Handgloves, Types, Thematic, Sugar Cane, Journic 5 best three column themes: Carrington, Fervens, Grass Roots, Depo Clean, Illacrimo 5 best magazine style themes: The Morning After, Gumball Special, Magazeen, Upstart Blogger Swiss, Yamidoo Magazine 5 best specialized themes: P2, Crafty Cart, Tumblelog for Wordpress, The Seven Five, Sharpfolio

WordPress offers several unique features that allow widgets that can be rearranged without editing PHP or HTML code, as well as themes that can be installed and switched between without much hassles.

Source:

http://business.ezinemark.com/custom-website-design-for-improving-business-3b413b2000f.html

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Website Design Company – A Wise Investment

A website design company is certainly a wise investment. The cynic would ask, "For whom is it profitable?" The practical answer is simple, Win-Win. Yes, it is a situation where both the client and the Website Design Company mutually benefit. Look at it this way. The web designer puts together a group of motivated and intelligent professionals. Their passion is to create effective marketing tools online, so that the client's page is top ranked, attracts more traffic and generates meaningful enquiries on an ongoing basis. The human resources, the technology, continuous innovation and lastly and most crucially, maintaining the tempo and passion in a creative team, does call for investment. Investment; in terms of money, mind power and machines. A devoted website design company delivers more than an attractive website.

It will act as your frontline marketing tool.

In your case, as a client, you get not merely a website you can be "proud" of, but get a business partner, which generates business 24x7. The fee paid to a good Website Design Company can never be an "expense". It is a critical investment, in terms of both money and the choice.

The search engines, continuously upgrade the technology, search methodology to provide better and easy surfing experience. The entire endeavor is geared to make the search a pleasure and fun. A good website design company will ensure that your website remains current and effective even as the search technique changes by the day.

One of the latest search engines, the cruil, pulls up an intro for every website. Advantage the surfer. Disadvantage the client if he has not chosen a professional website design company. Thoughts are universal, but because of the regional variations of a language, a searcher may submit a totally unexpected word in the search box. Scientifically chosen keywords are customized for universal application – your website can be top-ranked if it is well designed.

Source:

http://business.ezinemark.com/website-design-company-a-wise-investment-169a56f91cc.html

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Web Design and Website Usability

 Website Design was once upon a time a luxury expense but not now. The businesses invest in the website design and want the assurance of return on investment. They want to optimize the utility of the website. They want the Website URL to feature in the top list of the search engines. They want the website to convert the maximum number of the visitors into buyers and thus generate revenue.

Before approaching any web design service provider it is better that the business gets rid of the ignorance about the functioning and utility of the websites. This decreases the chances of being fooled.

As mentioned earlier the website design is made to be used by the visitors and generate business. Now the question is how to maximize the usability of the website? Some of the key issues that can increase the usability of the website are as follows.

Let us first consider the use of the search box in any website.

The search box is usually placed in the top right corner of the webpage. Why is it not kept in the middle of the web page just like the placement in the Google website? The purpose differs. The purpose of ecommerce website on online shopping websites is selling the products or services through the website. On the other hand Google is a search engine that facilitates the visitor with information about the words that are typed in the search box. This is the reason why the search box is placed in the middle of the Google so that the box is clearly seen by the visitor.

In case of websites other than that of search engines, the visitor's eyes are hooked on to the top right corner, searching for the search box. This is because the visitors are usually habituated to see it on the top right corner.
One may think that of placing the search box in the middle of the webpage trying to imitate the Google, but this imitation can backfire. Care should be taken that the word typed in the search box links the visitor to the right web page. If the visitor meets with a dead end or the link does not work, it is going to reflect badly on the website.

Usability also depends on the navigational ease of the website. The web design should have a simple layout so that even the first time visitor finds it easy to carry out the search operations. The website design should be able to convince the visitor about the price and quality of the product.

It is only when the buyer feels it comfortable that he/she is going to recommend it to someone else.

It is better to avail the professional web design services to optimize the usability of the website.

Source:

http://business.ezinemark.com/web-design-and-website-usability-172e9a8d605.html

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Useful Techniques In Website Design

All designers and developers should be aware of the importance of their work to anyone who sees them. With smart decisions with regards to design, your customers will get a tremendous amount of satisfaction through a great website experience. Here are some techniques you can consider to incorporate in your website to make your website usable and satisfying.

When it comes to links or any part of your website that needs to be clicked, the size of the clickable area is important. If the space is too tiny, users will have a hard time aiming at it with the arrow. Not all people are very precise with the use of the mouse. Making the links very easy to click will save the time and energy of the user.

When content is split into several pages, this is called Pagination. This is used in websites that have long lists of items, blogs,or photos.It is depicted by numbers at the top or bottom of a page that gives you an idea of what page you are in and gives you the option to choose what page you want to view. Make sure that the list is not too long in each page to avoid delay in downloading the items that are about to be displayed. Besides, the more pages you have, the more page views you get.

In social networking website design, you should create unique titles for each page of your website. This will make it easier for users to browse the site and to know if they are in the right place or not just by looking at the title. Create few points of focus in your website. People tend to view a website from the top to the bottom. Creating complicated formats will confuse and annoy the user.

It is important to have contact information available in your website.
This will give the user the impression that the company cares about their users concerns and suggestions. It says that they are willing to address any issue the user might encounter in using their website. You can include an email address, contact number, or an FAQ (frequently asked questions) page for common issues and solutions.

It would also be helpful to add a search bar so that people who know exactly what they are looking for can go straight to it. Making them go through your whole website when they know what they need will only make them frustrated. The social networking website design will be pointless if you do not incorporate ease and convenience for your users.

Read More............

http://business.ezinemark.com/useful-techniques-in-website-design-3193c00285d.html

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Ideas To Design Ecommerce Websites

Ecommerce website designs are different from other types of website designs. It is one of the most complex web designs that require great skills to develop. An eCommerce web design includes catalogs of the services and products provided and options for online payment through different payment gateways and many more. It requires great efforts to build a smooth running eCommerce website. In this article, you will see some tips on how you can create attractive and functional eCommerce websites:

1.Choose Products: If you want to run an eCommerce website, obviously you are looking to sell something. The designs and layouts of the eCommerce site will entirely depend on the products or services you are selling.

2.Professional template: There are numerous templates available on the web today and that too free of cost. However, choosing these cookie cutter web templates wont be of much help today.You must be careful while choosing them. The template should be based on the products or services you are offering. Heavy graphic and images can be a negative aspect of the site as it takes a lot of time to load. So, it should be avoided. If you want your site to look unique try to customize the template according to your taste.

3.Shopping Cart: Shopping cart is a must for every eCommerce website. This is a part where it contains records of every purchase made by the customers. Whatever purchase has been made, the list of items with the total cost amount is calculated in the shopping cart. The shopping cart must be visible on every page of your eCommerce site. This will help your customers to shop in convenience.

4.Payment System: If you dont have a trustworthy and easy to use payment system, then your site will be unproductive no matter how well it is designed or how attractive it looks.
A reputed payment system will win the trust of the customers. There are many payment systems you can use like PayPal, credit card, money booker, etc.

5.Review: An important factor you cannot miss out is the review of your services or products. If you put the positive remarks and suggestions left by your customers, it will boost the trustworthiness of your website.

The above tips are helpful to build a great eCommerce website but you can also take into consideration other factors like making the design more attractive. You can hire an eCommerce website designer to develop a unique eCommerce website.

Source:

http://business.ezinemark.com/ideas-to-design-ecommerce-websites-31dc3adb00a.html