Page titles

To help obtain high page rankings with search engines, the contents of your page title are one of the most important things that need to be dealt with. The page title is the first amount of information provided to a search engine describing the contents of the page. You should also be aware that the page title provides information about the contents not only to search engines, but to visitors as well. The page title will show up at the top of the browser window. Your page title should include your keywords and should be no longer than 60 characters long. If it is too long, your visitor will only see the first part. An easy way to figure out the length of a page title is to type it into a word processor that contains a word count feature. Since your page title needs to be a certain length, it is important to make the best use of the space, and although some words that are not key, will use up that valuable space, the title itself still needs to make sense. A keyword in your title can be repeated, but having the same words more than two times is not recommended. Compare your page title to others and see what makes their content look appealing enough to catch a potential visitor's eyes. Your page title needs to stand out between the other nine titles on the search engine results page. As you design your site, remember the fact that visitors may be directed to somewhere other than the homepage because the search engine believes it is the best match for a keyword. With this in mind, all pages of your website should be considered unique and have their own title.

Meta tags

For your site to be effective, you need to develop Meta tags. These tags are a site description and a keyword list. It is important to note that not all search engines use these Meta tags. Starting with your home page, you will need to insert two Meta tags. The first is a Meta description sentence and the second is a Meta keyword list. The information you put here is for search engines to use when they review your site. This review process is known as crawling and is done with a program called a spider or robot. The description tag serves two purposes. The spiders search it for keywords and it is also displayed to a surfer as they view search engine results. The information obtained by the spiders is kept in a database that is used when a person types in a query to a search engine. When you create your Meta keyword list, order them from the most relevant to the least. The first part of your list should contain the keywords that best describe your site and are unique enough that when someone does a search, there is not a large amount of competition to go up against. Make sure that all the keywords used in the description tags are again listed. The words at the end of your list are known as wildcards and include synonyms and words that could have been spelled wrong when someone was doing a search. During your Meta tag creation process, do not be afraid to go to other people's websites and see what they have used. Type in the same words you would like to include in your lists and see what the search engines display. This is a very good way to help determine your competition.

I had to run into the supermarket the other day to pick up a few items. Unfortunately for me it wasn't the store I do the normal weekly shopping at, so I was unfamiliar with where everything was. To make matters worse it was one of those massive stores where you can buy groceries and probably find a contractor to build a house for you.

Nothing bothers me more when I walk into one of those huge stores and have to spend a good hour to find a gallon of milk. Your website should not be this way either.

I have listed a few ideas that should help make your website more user friendly to your customers so they are not overwhelmed when they type in your web address, and at the same time, know they can trust you.

First and foremost you need visitors to your website. With little effort you can have about 200 to 300 unique visitors each day. That can be done just by registering your website on Google, Yahoo, Ask and the other search engines. However the goal here is to attract customers not just visitors. You will need to get those numbers up. You need to find ways to attract new customers. A good way is to advertise. If you are on a limited budget sign up for an advertising website`s free account at first, and then as sales pick up, move over to their premium account. There are a variety of advertising websites out there. Develop a plan to use them all.

Once you have visitors you need to make your website user friendly. In other words easy for someone to navigate around and find what they are looking for. Hire yourself an experienced web designer. A real good one is worth their weight in gold. They will design you a website that is not only user friendly, but also one where visitors will want to continually come back to and tell their friends about. Once that happens, the sky is the limit.

Build trust and confidence with your customers. Your customers want to know that you are not some fly by night web company. They want to know if they order from you, you will deliver and if something goes wrong, they can get a hold of you. Put on your website a contact page. Let your visitors see how they can get a hold of you via email, phone, physical address and so on. Do not forget to respond promptly to your customers when they do contact you. In today`s world of "I need it yesterday", people will move on to your competitors if they don`t hear back from you within the same day, sometimes faster.

To go along with the above tip and to add on to the trust factor, provide detailed information about your company. Post your company history, your mission statement, and what means the most to you about being in business as it relates to your customers.

So there you have it a few tips to help your website out. Implement them to build a better online presence.

By: Bruce A. Tucker

Importance of a navigation scheme

One of the most important tasks when developing your website is creating a navigation system that is effective and easy to use. People have a tendency to try to include everything in the navigation tree all at once. Instead they should follow the same process as setting up the structure for the site and break it down in levels. This would be information relevant to the homepage that directs visitors to the main sections of the site. From the main sections of the site, the user gains access to the sub sections containing content pertinent to that section only. Remember to always include links back to the main sections and your homepage on every page in your site. While you are creating your navigation setup, try to look through your user's eyes. Remember, you are the one creating the structure, so you are biased in your opinions. If you think about what someone else might say or do, then you are one step ahead of the game.

As you create you website navigation, make sure that links can be added in the future with no difficulty. You must always keep in mind that your site must be flexible and open to change because it is never completed. All links should be clear and to the point. It makes no sense to have your visitor try to figure out where they are going. They should be able to quickly look for what they want and then access it in a timely and efficient method. There is a better chance of a visitor going somewhere else if it takes too long for them to find the information they are looking for. Your navigation scheme should stick out and be located in a common spot on every page of your site. Consistency allows your visitors to focus on the content instead of trying to figure another navigation system for the same site.

Linear navigation

Linear navigation provides the same capabilities as your forward and back button on your browser. With this navigation style, you cannot jump around and skip pages. Reading a book or viewing a PowerPoint presentations are also examples of linear navigation. As you read through the pages, it makes no sense to jump around or you might miss an important piece of information. People who create sites with this style often are directing the visitor from a starting point to a predetermined end in a step by step fashion. Your links will not allow the user to anywhere other than where you want.

Hierarchical navigation

Hierarchical navigation allows the visitor to go from a homepage to the main sections of your site and then to the subsections. Visitors can travel through your site without any restrictions. This type of navigation ties all the areas of your site together so any page can be accessed from another in as few clicks as possible. Hierarchical navigation is best used on sites that are filled with information and to be utilized like a library.

Sitemaps for navigating through your website

Sitemaps provide a list of organized links to the content of your website. The same way a table of contents tells you what is inside a book, a sitemap does the same for your website. Your visitors are given a one page view of the information structure that your site is based on. Sitemaps are not meant to be your websites primary navigation but more as a compliment to it.

Navigation bars

A navigation bar gives your visitors the ability to move between the different sections of your website. It should be placed on every page of your site and should be consistent as well. Placement of the navigation bar is entirely up to you. The navigation bar can go on the left side of your page because most people read from left to right. It can also be placed on the top of your page so it is the first thing your visitors see. Some people place it on the right hand side of the page intentionally making a visitor browse through content to then be able to navigate the rest of the site.

Theme and navigation links

The theme for a website is created with the way you use color, fonts and images. During the theme creation process, remember to not clutter your pages with unnecessary content that will draw your visitor's attention from the main content. There are many ways to create a theme. One example might be a newspaper look consisting of black and white colors with a plain font. Themes give a website character and often leave a strong visual impression on the visitor. Your website theme needs to be used on all your pages which helps tie your site together.

Navigation

Navigation of a website should be an easy process and not require the visitor to take much time in figuring out how to move through your site. Visitors have come to your site looking for information and should be able to find it easily. If a visitor has to waste time figuring out how to get what they want, they will go to another site. Navigation is not just for people, but search engines as well. Set up the navigation to allow search engines to follow the links to index your entire website. Your navigation scheme should appear in the same place on all pages. When a visitor navigates through your site, make sure they can flow through it. Do not set it up so a visitor has to use the back button of the browser to access another page. Through navigation, your visitor will have access to pages in your site, to other sites and to different sections of the pages on your site. You will need to place navigation menus in more than one area on your pages. There are many good ways to help the visitor move through your site. The most simple is a text link. The next is a navigation bar placed on the top or sides. Another is the use of graphic buttons created to help compliment the overall look of your site. It is always good idea is to include links at the bottom of your page in case someone does not feel like scrolling back to the top. Through navigation, your visitor should be able to get where they want quickly, know where they currently are on your site and be able to access other pages on your site for additional information.