Do Web Designers Do SEO?

As the internet has become increasingly sophisticated, the various professional fields in the internet marketplace have become more and more specialized. In each area there have been massive leaps in complexity, usability, design and technology.

Even just a few years back, there were relatively few separate specialties for people who work within the arena of the internet. These days there is a vast multitude of ways in which people can specialize online. These professionals include:

Web designers, information architects, Google Adwords campaign managers, various types of program and software developers and last but not least, search engine optimization.

In my experience, most web designers these days don’t even know how to include search engine optimization in the sites that they design and build. There is ample proof of this; it is visible easily every day by just taking a look at what is out there. Websites that have either no or empty Meta tags no headline tags and in some cases no title tags! What is frustrating about this is that all of these are extremely easy to include.

So where does that leave the buyer? It leaves them with a website that will no doubt look fantastic; however the chances are that few will ever see it. Let alone become customers of whatever service or product the site is offering. This seems to be particularly true in the case of websites that contain a lot of flash, it looks great, but it is heavy in the browser and as it is purely images, the search engines cannot read it, even if there are words as the words themselves are rendered as images not text.

Therefore, when shopping for a website designer, be aware that though most will have the words ‘SEO’ or ‘Search Engine Optimization’ somewhere within their marketing or sales material. Take the precaution of checking that they actually know what that means, many don’t. The way to check it out is to look at sites they have already completed – particularly their own. Check to see if it has Meta tags such as the keyword and description meta tag, check to see if their title tags actually have something useful in them not just ‘welcome to company XYZ website’.

These things are very easy to check. The title tag is easily visible to you as you open the site in your browser, you will see it on the very top of your screen. To check the other parts you will need to look at the source code, you can do this in Firefox by clicking on ‘View’ then on ‘Page Source’. This will show you all the code of the site, the meta tags should be near the top just after the the title tags.

Lastly, check to see if the site has headline tags. Between them should be the main title of the page, including the keywords that you want people to find your site with.


DO you want help from an SEO services expert? If you want a website that will be found by your customers, or you need to transform your existing site into a search engine friendly site, visit the search engine optimisation experts at http://www.LinxHurricane.com today.

How To Start Building Your Own Website

Building websites has become a common way for people to try to make money online. It is also popular for people who simply enjoy sharing content about their lives or hobbies. With the growth of blogs in particular creating your own website has become easier than ever. With a few simple pointers you could be creating a website of your own in no time.

There can be some costs involved in starting a site depending on the platform that you choose. In particular you will have to factor in your internet access, some hosting, a domain name and perhaps some other costs depending on your purpose. These initial costs, however won’t amount to more than $20 per month. So it’s highly affordable.

Getting free sites is also easy, particularly on free blogging plaforms like Blogger or WordPress. But no matter what way you choose to go you will have to spend time and perhaps money on creating content and customizing the format of your site. This is the most difficult part of the process.

For websites that have a commercial purpose in particular a good domain name is an essential part of creating your site. You might have a brand that you want to promote, or have a niche market that you are targeting. So, choosing your domain carefully will help you achieve your purpose. Short, catchy domains are generally best and using a .com extension will often give you more credibility and appeal than some of the other option.

These are of course basic guidelines and you may decide to do something different. Choosing a domain name may also be a considerable decision if you are selling a product or service. You want to make sure that your domain reflects the type of product you are promoting and the niche market that it relates to. This will help consumers trust your site and recognise quickly that it is related to their needs. For a personal site it can also be appropriate to use your name as the domain.

The next important step is getting appropriate hosting for your domain name. Hosting simply refers to the process of leasing space on a server that is connected to the internet.

There are a lot of dedicated hosting companies and their services and offerings are often tailored to different user needs. You can generally choose the platform that your hosting account will be running (ie either Linux or Windows) and you can choose between different options as to bandwidth and the number of domains that you can host on the one account. There are even reseller accounts available.

It’s not always the best idea to simply go for the cheapest hosting you can find and paying a small premium can mean the difference between having your site available online and making sure that it loads quickly and consistently. When you buy hosting you may also find that you get some great deals on domain name registration from a combined host/registration company, so it pays to shop around and look beyond the basic price.

Once you have hosting and a domain name you are ready to start building your site. This can be something that you pay someone else to do, or if you like a challenge or are proficient at programming you might easily do it yourself. This is particularly simple with free website builders like blogs or by using a website template and a HTML editor. You can buy some of these software programs (Dreamweaver and Frontpage are popular editors) or you can download free basic HTML editors online.

Of course there are lots of different blogging templates to choose from, some free and some at relatively low prices. Again, it all depends on what your site is for. Another important piece of software you must have to build a website is an FTP program. This is simply a program that enables you to quickly transfer files from your computer to the server where you are hosting your domain.

There are a lot of excellent free FTP programs available online that you can download, install and learn to use quickly from home. You can then create your content and edit your templates on your own computer and simply transfer then to your host server where the site will begin to be displayed online immediately. Now, just create your content.

With blogs, this is extremely easy because you simply have to log into your administration interface and begin typing. The post is then immediately created on your hosting account and displayed online. I highly recommend this process if you are going to be regularly adding new text to your site. Just make sure to keep your content fresh and relevant to your site’s intended users. This will also help to get your site noticed and listed by the search engines so that people can find you when they are searching for topics related to your site.

Learning to create a website is very easy and a lot of fun. There are many places you can go for more help and a lot of forums where you can ask complex questions about domains, hosting and coding websites for beginners and more advanced users.

There is also a lot of information online about how to attract visitors to your site from the realms of cyberspace. This can be difficult in some niches, but it is worth learning to do or spending money on advice if you are building an online business. Having a lot of people visit your site adds to the enjoyment of creating a website immensely and enables you to make money online. It’s a great journey. I hope you enjoy it.


James Spacey is a blogger and affiliate marketer from Australia. For more free quality information about how to make money online visit James at http://www.makemoneyonline4idiots.com today.

Common Mistakes That Put Off Website Visitors

This article will look at five areas or common mistakes you find on the web, which put visitors off your website. We will also discuss quick wins to combat these mistakes, and how you can improve the effectiveness of your website and in-tern your business.

1. Poor Location

Is your site ranking too low for your key words, will your customers find you on Google, Yahoo or Bing?

Is your domain name too long, hard to remember or contain non-alphanumeric characters?

Is your website hosted within your country?

All these factors can and will affect whether or not people can find your website. It is therefore imperative you invest in a web design company who can deliver on these variables, keeping your business competitive in it’s market.

2. Poor Presentation

A successful website will be neat and tidy, just the same as you would expect to see a successful shop. It is imperative your site is built and complies with industry standards, is cross-browser friendly and on multiple operating systems, and accessible to users with disabilities who may have specific requirements.

Another key factor for keeping visitors on your site is well thought-out navigation that is easy to use and encourages the user to your end goals. For best practice we would recommend you use site maps (both for your users and search engines), a search bar, and breadcrumb page navigation.

3. High Prices

Have you had to increase your prices due to increasing overheads? Or perhaps as a result of greater online competition. Are you finding it difficult to balance your prices and remaining competitive online.

An effective way to combat this is to run various offers through your website. Experiment with online promotions, vouchers, loyalty schemes and other marketing techniques that will make your products/services more appealing and competitive.

4. Too Pushy

We all dislike pushy sales people; they make you feel uncomfortable and may result in you walking away from a sale. The content on your website can have the same effect. If you are inexperienced in writing content, we would strongly recommend you hire a good copywriter. You want your pages to be friendly and informative, and relate to your target audience. Stay away from using industry jargon, if your customer base in not familiar with the terms.

This does not mean however that you cannot tell them how valuable your products/services are. The best approach is to be tactful, insightful, and display a good level of knowledge about the industry.

5. Poor Customer Service

Avoid complicated forms or shopping carts that could alienate your customers.

A great way to give your customers confidence, is to make them feel they are valued. How do you make a customer feel valued? Through great customer service.

In web design, you want to make the customer feel that you are always available to help. You can do this by providing an FAQ page, a help section, or a support line. Provide your customers with an easy to use contact form, they will use it! When an enquiry comes through, strive to follow it up quickly.


Ryan Williams is an employee of Studionet, a Hampshire web design company.

Web Template Generator – How to Make Your Own Web Templates

I have discovered a powerful Out of the box web template generator. With this web template generator can you create great looking and unique web templates in minutes, and they actually work when you export and upload them after words!

After I downloaded the fully working free version (no credit card information needed) and made some web templates was I so exited. With this software, you can instantly create awesome web templates in your own design.

The web template generator uses a unique WYSIWYG approach that does not require any experience to designing web templates. You simply click a few buttons to view design suggestions, change the color schemes, change menu bar and button themes, arrange page layouts and so on.

Your selections are instantly applied to the built-in preview and can be moderated even more by adjusting the properties for distinctive elements.

The interface is very user friendly – they have copied the standard office interface, and I think that’s a good idea because this makes the user more “comfy” as they know how the office interface works.

The web template generator includes a great selection of background pictures, textures, photo clip art, fonts and other design elements to help you make your web templates without the need for supplemental resources.

It is easy to use, yet very powerful. No need to learn HTML, CSS, Photoshop, or other technologies. When you are happy with your web templates, you simply export and upload them. It works with WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, regular html and others cms systems.

This is a novice web templates designers dream comes true, but It isnt freeware. However, you can download a free fully functional version, with only one difference; it adds an obtrusive watermark to your exported web templates. If you want to get rid of this watermark, you have to pay for it.

But to click a button, get a random design a few times until you find one you like, tweak the header, buttons, layout etc. and hit export to WordPress, Joomla, Drupal ect. to me, is well worth the $130, they are asking. I know how to do this from scratch in Photoshop, and then on to Notepad, HTML, CSS and finally my CMS, it takes hours, if not days. This is literally 10 minutes, and you can have a site up and running.

I think it has the ability to dramatically alter the ease of use, when creating web templates based on WordPress and other CMS systems. The web templates generator takes web design to different level, by offering automated tools which even the most lazy, would-be designer can use and understand. And more than that, its the fact that the result actually works correctly that impresses me the most. Not only can you build great looking WordPress and generic HTML web templates, but they actually install properly and work as they should.

Do you want to learn more about this web template generator?

Click on the link below and download your free and fully working web template generator. No credit card information needed.


http://www.easytemplategenerator.com Regards from Peter Munck