A website is undoubtedly the most important thing to have for your online business success. There are generally many technologies on which these websites are built but do you really know about the kinds of website designs that are there? Well to begin with there are three main kinds of website layouts. Let’s look at all of them individually and also weight its pros and cons.

1. Graphic Intensive Layout- visual treat always gains more attraction and therefore, many sites are designed with this motto in mind. A graphic intensive layout is rich in the graphics so that it can provide the visitor with interesting imagery. The pros of such website design are:

• Greater appeal and holds the interest of the viewer.
• Makes your website stand out from the rest.
• Sends the message across your customers in a very loud and clear way.

• The website might not display properly on all web browsers.
• The graphics might take long to download
• It becomes difficult to update these kinds of websites on regular basis.

2. The No-images website design- many of the websites are designed without the use of any images. In such cases, the designer is very creative with the usage of the background color and the font’s size and type. There are some of the very attractive websites like this and though they are simple they never fail to attract customers. The advantages of this kind of website are:

• Quick to download and thereby creates a positive impression on the visitor.
• It enables you to focus centrally on the message that you wish to deliver through the website.
• It is easy to optimize it for search engines.

• It might fail to attract the mass as only class people are likely to appreciate its simplicity.
• It might make you put more content and hence make it a bit mundane or confusing for the visitor.
• The website would begin to look stale after certain period of time.

3. The Header-Footer website design- this kind of website design are commonly found as it is a good combination of graphics and content. The header consists of a relevant design or logo of the company and it is followed by content on the pages. The pros of this website design are:

• Simple to design and implement
• Spreads the message of the website loud and clear.
• The design is SEO friendly.
• Navigation and web page size can be extended if required.

• It makes the website look average as the design is very common.
• The design does not have much room for creativity.

4. Entirely Flash Interface- ever since the inception of flash, it has been much popular as it can make the website look not only attractive but also makes it interactive. The advantages are:

• It boosts the interests of the visitor
• It enables a vast field for showing creativity.
• The audio and video can double the impact of your company or product.

• Regular updating of the website becomes complex and difficult.
• It takes time to download
• The message might not be loud and clear as the content would be taken over by the graphics.

The keywords and theme has been given a lot of importance from the beginning in the field of online marketing and it is no doubts right approach as well. But did you know that if the keywords are not well researched with target audience in mind then they are useless. Let’s just understand this stunning but important relationship between the keywords and the target audience.

The keywords can be divided into two kinds according to its uses. Firstly there are keywords that can get you traffic but they don’t fetch you business. Whereas there is another kind that pays you off by attracting visitors who gets converted into customers. For instance, suppose if you are a web designer then web design will get you the traffic from the people who wish to learn ‘web design’ as well. However, if you concentrate on the keyword ‘web designer’ then you are likely to get people who wish to utilize your services. This is what I mean when I say that keywords are of two kinds. The previous one would surely bring in traffic but not too relevant whereas the second keyword can get you the targeted audience directly.

Understand Your Target Audience First For Getting Appropriate Keywords:

There are various aspects that you need to take into consideration for straining the accurate keywords. Areas like the financial status, demographics, geographical location and so on must be analyzed for fixing up the most relevant keywords.

Also you must think about your prospective customers for instance, if you are dealing in manufactured clothes then you will have queries from direct customers as well as wholesalers and retailers and each of them would look for different keywords. For instance a wholesaler or a retailer might search with the keywords such as ‘buy manufactured clothes’ or ‘buy bulk clothes’ whereas your direct customers would prefer to look for clothes sale or similar others. Hence, target both the keywords equally to get relevant traffic. You must also include the location name in the keywords as generally the wholesalers would be looking for the manufacturer in the nearby places.

Keywords and Content go hand in hand:

Merely sprinkling the keywords haywire is not enough. You need to have proper content highlighting those keywords to attract customers and also to evoke trustworthiness in your business. Good content is the sign that you are serious about your business and mean to represent it in the best possible way so that you can gain good genuine business from it. The content can in fact give more value to your keywords so make sure you write it well or get it done by a professional writer.

Keywords, Visitors, & Link Building

The keywords are to be kept in mind even while building links and attracting traffic to your website. You need to post press releases so that you can get the targeted wholesalers and retailers as they might go through it, but a direct customer will be attracted generally through blog so both are important if we carry on with the example of a clothes manufacturer. However, you will have to decide whether to build links through blog or press releases according to your niche business.

These are successfully implemented and tested techniques that will surely provide you with success if followed accordingly. All the best! And do submit your comments, recommendations, or suggestions on the usage of keywords.

The economic downturn is undoubtedly affecting the sales but are you sure that that is the only reason for your lack of sales? Think twice, there are multiple reasons and one of the most rampant one is that of complex landing pages. The landing pages have lots of pop-ups and multiple focus data with half a dozen of flashing pictures that distract the potential buyers. If you are currently using the PPC campaign to boost your business, then here are some essential tips to turn your landing page visitors into customers.

• Make it Simple- the web designers are very much skilled today with the advanced technology and therefore, the landing page is made all flashy with blinking and walking images. This is useless because what you need to provide to the customers is not animation but the submit button.
• Keep Less field in the Form- accumulating data is very mush useful and important but over doing it just puts off the customer. The golden key is to keep the form of the minimum length with only the most crucial fields required to know about what the customer is looking for and the contact details of the customers.
• Content- one of the essential eye catching things on the landing page should be content but make sure that the content can be skimmed through quickly. Therefore, use simple and plain English that can be understood by everyone.
• Cut out the options- the option that you must provide to your customer should be that of conversion. The landing page must carry brief and crisp information on the product and if the person has landed on your page then it is but obvious because the person has direct or indirect intention to buy your product. Therefore, minimize the options and straight away allow the person to purchase.
• Stay Away From Marketing Words- using abstract words or using the buzz words and terms like that of the marketer will make your visitor lose interest quickly as it will be just another marketer talk to them. Avoid using such marketing speech.
• Call to Action- this is the most important of the points on the landing page. You can provide your client with an offer that will interest the visitor to get converted into customer.
• Evoke Trust- following the above given points will enable you to evoke trust amongst the visitors and hence you will have better chances of them converting into customers. For getting more of trust use logos and 100% guaranteed satisfaction stickers, and any other credibility earned by you. This will also create trust amongst your customers.

Following these steps will surely enable you to get good conversion from the landing page. Especially if you are managing PPC campaign following the above points will create greater impact.

SEOmoz has earned a reputation in the SEO world that needs no introduction. SEOmoz every two years conducts a survey wherein they interview the best SEO people and come up with wonderful analysis on the same. The Search Engine Ranking Factors for 2009 are already out by them which include the participation of 72 SEO’s who accumulate relevant information such as, answering surveys, data gathering and so on. The report so published is path breaking in its real sense as it gives accurate foresight to the SEO’s of the world to for their future plan of action.

According to the reports, the top 5 ranking factors for the websites are as follows:

• Keyword Focused Anchor Text from External Links was the factor that was on the top of the list with 73% of importance. Hence if you are involved in SEO or SEM services and are professional optimizer then it is essential to take care that the anchor text from the external links must be keyword focusing.
• External Link Popularity (quantity/quality of external links) stood second on the top list of ranking factors with 71%. This shows that is highly important factor for getting better ranking on the search engines.
• Diversity of Link Sources (links from many unique root domains) scored 67% of importance from the experts. Diversity of link sources will also enable in gaining top notch positions on the search engines.
• Use of Keyword Anywhere in the Title Tag is 66% important according to the report. Hence, it is proving increasingly that the density of the keywords is no longer much important.
• Trustworthiness of the Domain Based on Link Distance from Trusted Domains scored 66% of importance. As the saying goes old is gold holds truth even in this technological era. The older the domain, the greater will be its trustworthiness and therefore, it is paid good respect by the search engines.

The report also takes into considerations the negative factors that affect the ranking on the search engines. According to the report the top 5 negative ranking factors are as follows:

• Cloaking with Malicious/Manipulative Intent with 68%. Concealing malware in the links is very detrimental for high rankings.
• Link Acquisition from Known Link Brokers/Sellers has been ranked second with 56 % importance. That is acquiring link from broker will not fetch any good rankings on the search engine.
• Links from the Page to Web Spam Sites/Pages is given 51 % importance for negative ranking by the search engines.
• Cloaking by User Agent also gets moderate amount of importance from the search engines. Therefore, avoid it if you wish to have higher ranks.
• Frequent Server Downtime & Site Inaccessibility scored 51 % as well and this makes it a moderately important factor for negative ranking by the search engine.

Hence, the report provides the essential points to take care of for carrying out SEO activities efficiently.

World Wide Web is such a vast field that no one can say that their website is perfect, in fact, there is nothing like perfect website as there is always room for improvement in all the sites. There are quite many websites that are not well made and yet they would be making money big time. This is not to say that you should not make good websites, it only means that you should not be over obsessed with the idea of making a perfect website for your business. This is because web design is such a dynamic field that it doesn’t make the perfect last for a longer period. There are few things that one has to be careful about when dealing with the web based business.

• 1.First and foremost thing to consider is that the website is not meant for you but for your target audience, hence, there is no point in making a perfect website according to your standards. Your website needs to be the way your clients or prospective buyers would want to see and therefore, the golden rule is to keep it as simple as possible so that the visitor finds it easy to navigate. Construct your website around one objective so that it is more simple in approach and easy to understand.
• 2. Second golden rule for improving your web presence is to take feedback from your customers. This really helps you to establish your reputation in the market and will fetch you more business as well. This will enable you to know the tastes of your target audience and hence you will be able to serve better.
• 3. Third golden rule is to enable your visitors to trust you. Since the website is the only medium to do so, you can always introduce pages like testimonials, put badges such as money back guarantee sign, or better business bureau badge, add the exact details in the contact page along with phone numbers, and live chat option. If possible then you can also include a relevant video clip of your product or services. All this will make the visitor have firm trust on you.
• 4.Fourth rule to remember is to optimize your site for maximum conversions. Test all the pages and the various aspects of the website thoroughly. You can check on things like the typographies such as fonts, color of the website and several features that can make your website more appealing to the visitors and thereby increase the chances of conversion.
• 5. SEO and SEM is the fifth golden rule, proper marketing always play the most important role in the success of your website. For obtaining best results get out of the conventional methods of marketing and try to go for social networking. This is the latest and the most effective way of getting more business.
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Web Design ,   Search Engine Optimization ,   Internet Marketing ,   Web Consulting