| New York Web Design Company Offers Some Insight | | Print | |
| Written by David Radovanovic | ||||||
| Tuesday, 19 August 2008 | ||||||
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What makes a New York Web design company any different from other Web design companies? That's easy Competition. Just look at how many design firms there are out there and you will see what I mean! In the city or outside, someone seeking high quality Web design in New York faces hundreds of choices in an area of just a few city blocks. Now that's competition!
What makes a New York Web design company any different from other Web design companies? That's easy Competition. Just look at how many design firms there are out there and you will see what I mean! In the city or outside, someone seeking high quality Web design in New York faces hundreds of choices in an area of just a few city blocks. Now that's competition! If you are not from the area it can be difficult to envision. This might help Imagine typing "New York web design" into Google's search box and getting hundreds of pages with thousands of links of returns. Instead of clicking on those links however, you're walking into hundreds of offices; each offering their own unique flavor of Web design. But, with the competition comes a competitive edge that is critical in a struggling economy. Of course we all want to look good on the Internet, but when you're competing with your real live neighbors in addition to those online; you have to step it up a notch. That said; here are some inside tips from a successful New York Web design company. We will focus specifically on Website usability, which has the unique distinction of being both the most important and principal consideration yet which is generally least considered. To begin with, most visitors do not actually read a Web page initially; they scan it. They want to see if there is something worth actually reading before committing to it. So you need to grab their attention and keep it at least long enough to get them to the next grabber. Here's how to do it... 1.) Start off with your best content first. Grab the reader's (or should I say scanner's) attention right away. Don't save the best for last since most visitors will leave the same way they entered: the Home Page. Your strongest message should always come first. 2.) Keep your functional areas consistent throughout your site, especially the navigation links (top navigation, sidebars, etc.) search boxes, login areas, and anything else that requires interaction. The more comfortable a visitor feels using the site, the more likely they are to stay for a while and venture deeper. 3.) Always add a link back to your homepage via your company logo. Sure it's seems logical, though it's often regarded as old fashioned. If you have ever gotten turned around on a big site you probably know how comforting it is that there is a quick way back to the homepage. Also, a breadcrumb trail is useful if your website's page structure is very deep. Any way to let your visitor quickly return from where they started is important. 4.) Place a search field in a convenient location. But make sure it searches ONLY within your own site. "Search The Web" features practically beg your visitors to leave your site. Secondly, keep in mind that search engines will also be looking at your site. Making it pretty is not enough. It needs to attract the search engine as much as live visitors if you ever expect those live visitors to find it in the first place. This is known as search engine optimization, or SEO. It's more complicated today than in years past but still quite doable. Here are three "must do" tasks for you to complete if you want your site on top of Google. 1.) Use keywords as anchor text (the visible clickable words) in your links throughout your page's content. This is huge! Allow me to demonstrate how powerful this one element can be. Go to Google and run a search for "Click Here" (no quotes.) Now try to pay special attention to two things... First, there are more than 1.6 billion other (competing) pages. Second, the number 1 match is a link to an Adobe Acrobat Reader download page. I'll save you the suspense. It's not written anywhere on the page or in the META tags. They are number one for ?Click Here?, out of 1.6 Billion pages, simply because for years people offering a link to Acrobat have placed the page link as anchor text in the words ?Click Here.? Now that's powerful! And you can harness that power by linking to other pages within your site. Which leads us to Insider Tip #2... 2.) If SEO becomes a priority for your site, as most will, build a separate page for each of your main keywords. And don't forget to link the keyword rich anchor text, from each individual page, to the topic page that has that specific keyword as its main focus. Industry Insider Tip: If you are a Web designer for hire, adding search engine optimization to your resume is a nice way to get a lot more reward for your efforts. There are a number of good SEO products out there that can help you get professional results with almost no learning curve and a low upfront investment. For example, you can have the exact same tool that eBay relies on for $250, at http://www.iBusinessPR0M0TER.com. 3.) Keep the idea of relevant anchor text in mind when requesting inbound links from other Websites. Google is all about inbound links and even the sites with the best content never get too high without great inbound links. By the way, this might not seem like a ?design? tip but it is more important than you can imagine. This is your best opportunity to build your brand in your own words. You want to define text that will entice people to visit the page and then let the site's quality keep them there. This is just like tip number two above, but you are requesting the anchor text on another Website to link to the appropriate page on your site (not just the homepage.) Warning: Avoid reciprocal link farms like the plague! They are so easy for Google to spot it's a joke. If you don't have the time or expertise to set up link partners manually, consider the concept of here way linking like the service offered at http://www.3WayLinker.com. It is both simple and brilliant Site X links to Site Y. Site Y" links to Site Z. And Site Z links to Site X forming a simple yet effective chain of one way links. That's all for now. Good luck! Article Author: Dave Radovanovic is a New York Web Design specialist who began in 1993. A Web media specialist, he opened WhatsTheBigIdea.com in '03. In addition to Web, Dave is among the top graphic designer professionals in New York.
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