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Written content is an important factor that search engines take into account when giving you a specific rank. While many website owners think that they will be ranked high if they write a significant amount of content, the search engines won’t count the content if it isn’t of good quality.

Quantity: How Much Should You Write?

There really is no right amount of content that should be written. If you own an online business other than a blog, one to two entries of four hundred words each per week should do the trick. If you own Read the rest of this entry »

Designing a website takes a lot of hard work and foresight. One thing you should certainly stay aware of is whether or not your website has good cross browser compatibility. Below are the top five reasons why.

1. Not Everyone Uses the Same Browser

You may assume that most web surfers use Internet Explorer. These days there are many alternatives that are almost as popular.

2. Many People Now Browse the Internet with Portable Devices

Gone are the days when Read the rest of this entry »

Web design is an exciting career choice for anyone looking to get into building websites. I started as a web designer and eventually became a web developer. Over time my preferences changed and I advanced into programming, however, I still spend a lot of time designing.

One misconception about web design is it is only a vehicle for making things look pretty. Yes, designers need a good sense of what looks good or not, but they also need a sense of what works. One thing most designers miss is how they design interactions. If you want to be a half decent designer, you have to always ask the question: can users of the site actually use what I have designed?

Take a moment to think beyond your own skills as a tech-savvy web savant and think hard about how others would use your site. Would an older adult find my design to overwhelming and scattered? Would a teen get bored with the content and not take the time to really discover what the site is about?

Your site could look good, but if it is unusable, because someone cannot find a high speed internet providers in my area, it doesn’t matter; it’s going to suck. In fact, a lot of people I have designed for and have used for user testing have said they would rather have a usable website than a good looking one. Of course, that’s why you are the designer: you see the importance of clean, crisp design. But before you design a killer website that looks amazing, take the time to really explore how the user will interact with it and make sure it makes sense.

Creating a great web design is made easier by breaking the process down into easy steps. The first and most important step is to identify who you are targeting. This will set the entire tone for your site. Graphics and content geared towards tweens are clearly not going to have the same impact on seniors.

After you have established your audience, the next step is to decide on the structure of your site. Certain types of site structures work better for some organizations and audiences, than others.

The third step is Read the rest of this entry »

When computers were made readily available to most households, a lot of people began creating their own personal websites using cute and colorful images. While cuddly kittens and animated hearts might be alright for a personal site, they are not very good for professional websites. A professional website is designed to represent a specific organization, business or store. What is created for the website is actually a reflection of what they store represents as well as what it offers. Placing images into a website is a helpful way to advertise what the company is Read the rest of this entry »

The skills needed to create effective websites today often include the ability to help market the site through the use of HTML code and tags. Professional web designers study a variety of different computer code programs so they can utilize these in building specific websites. While they are not required to learn as much code as a computer programmer, they should be able to write basic HTML and embed links, applications and even flash videos into a site. The web designers who also have marketing skills are Read the rest of this entry »

Since the mid-to-late 1990s, many of us have been building websites for a variety of reasons. I remember connecting to the internet with a 33.6kpbs modem while teaching myself how to create simple colors and tables in HTML. Back then, there were quite a few \”free\” website locations where anyone could make a site. Technology has advanced a long way from the days of old when \”frames\” were a popular method Read the rest of this entry »

For years Flash was perhaps the most commonly spoken word from web designers. Slowly, HTML5 has overtaken beloved Flash. CSS3 and HTML5 are not only words to know, but new tools to learn. Together these tools allow designers to make animation come to life. It is all about user interaction with web pages these days, and that is the role of CSS3 and HTML5.

As the mobile landscape continues its expansion, making websites compatible with smart phone Read the rest of this entry »