Looking for a way to attract more attention to your website? Offer a fresh face and new content on a regular basis and you'll find people will check back to see what's new and you'll have a tool to measure what attracts and what doesn't. Here's how to do it.

Your website homepage is your front door through which online browsers come to visit your business. Static, never-changing content is no more interesting to a returning visitor than a book they have already read. To keep your audience captivated and coming back you need to make your home on the web inviting and interesting.

Present a Dynamic Home Page

One way that you can present changing home page content is to design ten to twelve unique pages with different content and then rotate them every month. Take a couple of weeks to design different ideas and images. Create page promotions that include a message that is timeless or that has a seasonal or timely announcement such as "Holiday Specials." When you consider different features for your home page and when it should be placed you're forced to look closely at at your marketing strategy over a one year period. This will save you a lot of time since you then won't have to think about your content through the year. It also allows you to plan your offers and gather the necessary content.

A web developer can put your home pages on a rotating script or use an automatic timer. You can then rotate your home pages to highlight a new tip every month or to promote a featured product. The home page of your website is much like the front cover of a magazine. People want to see a home page that has different photos and content at least every month, preferably every week. You won't want all of the content of your website to be featured on the page as this will overwhelm your website visitors. So choose one or two features to highlight each month. The rest of your website content should be well organized within the rest of the pages of your site. When you're ready to update your home page you simply grab content from your internal pages. This way you're not having to create new content. You're just reorganizing your existing content so that it feels new to your visitors.

Don't Change Your Home Page Too Often:

Even though you want your website to be new and dynamic you also don't want to change it too often. People take comfort from their favorite websites and want them to be familiar. If you change your home page too often or too much you may create confusion or give people the feel that someone else has taken over your site. You could also compromise your positioning in search engines. So maintain some consistency.

When you make changes to graphics or content it shouldn't make a major change to the way your website looks and feels. Regular visitors should be able to find the same information that they've always found on your home page and in the same place. As a rule, the headers and navigation tools on your page shouldn't ever change without a complete redesign and announcing that to your visitors. Change content and images with other content and images while maintaining the sites original functionality. Home pages that are consistent lend a feeling of comfort to users. If your customers learn to expect consistency they'll also learn to rely on your quality customer service. If you're a small online business, gaining your customer's trust is your most important step to success.

The Benefits of a Flexible Home Page

A flexible home page lets you test your off line marketing efforts. Before you spend money on a magazine or newspaper ad you can test it out on your website. You'll be able to see how people react to the ad. It will let you determine which featured products attract the most interest. You can also determine which graphics generate the most attraction. Web analytics software (Google Analytics is great and free to use) can provide you with this type of information. It will help you obtain marketing data that is detailed and precise. You can see which graphics people have clicked on as well as what web page they were on just before they left your website.

Once you've mastered the technique of updating your home page, while at the same time keeping the core content the same, you'll be well on your way to recognizing the benefits of a flexible home page.

If you have ever been to a "bad" website, you didn't need an expert to tell you it was a bust. Maybe you didn't know exactly why it was bad, but dysfunctional web sites tend to exhibit similarities that make them unlikely success stories.

For instance, have you ever visited a site and wondered "what are they selling anyway?" I know I have. I get frustrated with websites like these and quickly start my search again for a website that focuses on the information I was looking for.

A well designed website can either make or break your website success. The tips below will help you get started and to learn what works for a successful website. These tips are by no means all-inclusive; you will also learn a lot through "trial and error" just as with any brick and mortar business. These tips will however, help you to avoid web blunders that hinder even more seasoned web developers and designers.

Must-Have Tip #1 - Make it clear what you do. Find a niche market and don't try to be a "jack of all trades" selling multiple and unrelated products, services, or information. Instead, figure out who your target market will be, and what products and/or services you provide that will appeal to this market. Then, stay on topic; don't throw in a bunch of irrelevant information just to try and lure visitors. They will resent the deception and you'll lose customers.

Note: It is very important to note that search engine crawlers index and categorize your website based on the text and content you provide on each page. The content on each page is also compared to all other pages on your site, so having a cohesive set of pages that focus on your niche product or service is always better than trying to provide too many products or services.

Must-Have Tip #2 - Do your visitors know how to contact you? You would be surprised how many websites leave no way for a customer to contact them with questions or to order their products and services. Think about it this way: if you stopped into a store that provided widgets, and no one was around to help you or answer questions, how comfortable would you feel spending money with that company? You wouldn't, of course, because if they can't even make themselves available for questions before the sale, they certainly won't take time for you after the sale.

If you worry about getting too much spam, or receiving unwanted phone calls by leaving your contact information on your site, make sure to add your business phone to the federal "Do Not Call" list, and use a contact form instead of just providing your email address. This won't eliminate the problem of spam (what does?) but it will make it more difficult to abuse your contact information.

Note: Always respond to email in a timely manner. Treat them as you would any business phone call. Customers typically expect a higher-than-average response rate when shopping or doing business on the internet; if it takes you longer than 24 hours to respond to an email you will probably lose a customer. Even an "I received your email and will respond to your question shortly" is better than waiting too long to get back to a customer.

Must-Have Tip #3 - Don't use flash introductory pages. Everyone knows they are fun and entertaining, but if your site is designed for sales, a business, or for a professional purpose, what will they add to your site? In fact, for many, these are just another added aggravation they have to wade through to get to the information they really want.

Note: If you must use a flash intro, be sure there is a "Skip" feature clearly marked so visitors can bypass it if they choose.

Must-Have Tip #4 - Focus your web copy on satisfying the needs of your customer. Content can make or break the sale, or determine whether a visitor stays or finds another site to shop. Be sure to provide your costumers with unique and interesting words to help pique their interest and differentiate your products and services from your competitor's.

A well-thought through home page and a few articles that prompt a desired action, while simultaneously provide information to help your visitors quickly (in one or two clicks max) find and pay for products and services will keep them interested, and coming back again and again for future information and purchases.

Note: Consider hiring a contact writer if you're at a loss with web content. This may be a significant investment, but the results, and the success of your site, will definitely be worth it in the long run!

Must-Have Tip #5 - Update, update, update. This cannot be stressed enough; if you provide no reason for visitors to show up on your site again, why would they? If the information is the same week after week, month after month, who would want to? Even your local Wal-Mart will provides weekly sales flyers to entice shoppers back to their store! Keep your site fresh and updated!

In closing, I am sure you are reading this article because you want a professional website. If you have programming skills and can write your own code, great! If not, there are many affordable, quality online website builders available; many hosting packages also provide web software and templates. With a little elbow grease and effort, you can build and maintain a successful website as well!

Are you interested to find out more about the Simple PHP guide, and whether or not it is worth getting? With so many tutorials available on the internet, it can be very confusing trying to put all the information together to study systematically. This article will discuss how this scripting language works in general, and what is contained in the Simple PHP guide.

1. What Exactly Is PHP?

It is a server side scripting language that can be easily combined with HTML tags. It has been reconstructed into a web language today.

2. How Does It Work?

It works like standard programming language whereby it maintains the if/else condition statements, loops and subroutines. It is easily identified by the curly brackets { } used to define the start and end of statements. Users will need to use a

Finally, when you are done scripting a page in PHP, remember to save the file with the extension .php, and remember that .php files can still contain HTML tags within them.

3. Why Should You Learn PHP?

It is the most popular knowledge to have when you want your web pages to handle form data submitted by users. It also allows customization and building of dynamic pages. Best of all, it can connect to any SQL database, allowing you or your users to store, edit and delete any information from your web pages.

4. Review of Simple PHP Guide

This guide is compiled by Robert Plank and it is essentially like a step by step course for learning this scripting language. With the abundance of information available on the internet, it is very confusing to know where to start and end.

5. What Is Contained In This Package?

It lays out all the essential PHP skills in 17 chapters, complete with quizzes at the end of every chapter to test your understanding. 22 useful code snippets are included so you can stick them into your web page and be used immediately. Simple PHP guide is highly recommended if you want a full grasp of this scripting language quickly.