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2007-02-27T12:01:00.000-08:00

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Top Ten Tips for Creating an Effective Website

1. Choose a domain name

A domain name is a unique Internet address for your website such as www.homestead.com. Choose an easy-topronounce,easy-to-spell name that refl ects your unique business. Obviously, if your company is already established,you will want to register that name; however, many common words and terms are already in use. Alternately,you can choose a domain name that contains key words that will appear on your site. This will help potential customers find your site when they search on those words in search engines such as Google.com. To find out if a domain name is currently registered, go to http://www.internic.net/whois.html. If the name you want is taken, be creative rather than literal. Try free association of concepts. Bounce your ideas off an associate. Keep trying until you have a name that is effective and available.

2. Plan your site

What is the purpose of your website? What do you want to achieve with your site? Establish your goals and priorities.Do you want to share information about your company, products, and services? Infl uence and motivate potential customers to visit your brick-and-mortar location or call your phone number? Brand your company and refineits image? Sell online? Provide customer service? Or some combination of the above? How you answer these questions will guide the design and development of your site.

3. Create a budget

The cost of creating a website depends in large part on the purpose of the site. The other key factors are high quality and high performance. There is no point spending any amount of money on a website that presents an amateurish image and does not function properly. Although a general rule may be that the larger your investment, the greater your return, there is no need to be a spendthrift. Creating a website can be less expensive if you do it ourself, but only if you have the time, inclination, and tools to do a good job. Otherwise, obtain bids from highly recommended designers and developers. Clearly defi ne your goals, style, and expectations for these experienced professionals. After you have an acceptable bid, add in promotion and advertising expenses. As your company grows, you can expand your site, spreading your investment over time. In today’s marketplace, a business’s website is often the fi rst point of contact for new customers. While poor design invariably drives prospects away, a professionally designed and managed site communicates that your company is well run and successful, giving new customers the confi -dence to do business with you. Your website is a key component of your overall marketing mix;it must advance your business strategy.Your company website must effectively communicate through words and images your vision,purpose, products, and services. It must make it easy for customers to get the information theyneed and buy the products they want. It must provide actionable performance measures. Your website has to work for your customers and for you. To create an effective high-performance site, follow these top 10 best practices:

4. Gather information

Take a look at some of your competitors’ websites. What information do you fi nd most useful or compelling? Which design styles do you prefer? Which writing styles appeal to you? Make sure your site contains plenty of useful information — not just advertising. Give prospective and returning customers the information they need to decide to visit your business or purchase your products and services.

Most websites benefi t from having the following pages:

• About us
• Products and Services
• Order form
• Contact or Feedback
• Frequently asked questions and answers
• News and Events

5. Design your site

You’ve heard the saying, “one picture is worth a thousand words,” but have you really thought about it? In fact, graphic design can communicate just as much, if not more, as the words on your website regarding your business. Your homepage has to capture the attention of visitors, drawing them into your site. The page design and navigation have to be clear and direct to keep them there.

• Get attention!

Use your home page like a piece of direct mail. Quickly grab visitors’ attention. Tell them who you are and what they will find on your site.

• Make it easy to find information
Site navigation plays a big role in determining the “stickiness” of your site (how long visitors stay and explore).
Typically, the first thing visitors do on any page is read the content and then look around for other pages that might interest them. Put the substance of your site at the highest navigation levels; don’t make potential customers drill down through multiple layers of links.

• Keep it clean
A clean layout that uses a lot of white space improves legibility and encourages visitors to read the content on your website. Keep the number of fonts, font styles, and colors to a minimum. Use animation sparingly. The focus should be on the content, not on the whiz-bang technology. An abundance of fonts, styles, colors, and animation will only project an amateurish image. Your business as well as your website will be judged initially on its appearance.

6. Optimize load time

Customers today are in a hurry. They want information fast and won’t wait more than 10 seconds for a web page to download. Optimize your website for any web browser by designing each page to be under 40k in size. Use graphics, Flash animations, and scripts only as needed because they increase file size. Design pages for easy viewing on a typical 15-inch computer monitor.

7. Interact with your customers

The big idea behind most websites is to build ongoing relationships with customers to assure repeat business. To that end, list your phone number or email address on every page of your website so customers can contact you with questions and comments. You also may want to create a registration page that gives prospects and customers the option of receiving news and special offers from your company. Finally, it is imperative that you explain your privacy policy on your website.

8. Maintain your site

Your website requires ongoing maintenance to perform optimally and profi tably. Update content and improve functionality by incorporating visitors’ feedback. Keep them coming back for more with fresh information and new features. On a regular basis, perform these maintenance tasks:
• Check the links on your site to make sure they are working.
• Respond to and act on visitors’ feedback.
• Update your site frequently (almost daily) if you put a “last updated” date on your web pages. An “update” date displayed at the bottom of each page assures your visitors that they are getting the very latest information. If pages are not updated frequently, these dates make your site look stale.
• Monitor time-sensitive information. For example, do not leave event information on your site after the event date.
• Periodically add new information. Many sites accomplish this by publishing a monthly newsletter or daily or weekly tips.

9. Promote your site

The best website in the world does no good if no one knows about it. Effectively marketing your site is just as important as professionally designing your site when it comes to success. Here are a few basic ideas for marketing your site:
• Include your website address on all of your marketing materials, including your business card, email signature file, letterhead, print advertising, brochures, fl yers, coupons, and signage. You can even put your web address on a company vehicle with a bumper sticker or custom paint job.
• Advertise your site. Update your entries in directories and on search engines. Take advantage of opportunities to cross-link with other sites. If appropriate, participate in relevant newsgroups and forums — not blatantly advertising or promoting, but responding to postings — with your site address in your signature file.

10. Save time and money by working with Homestead to create, promote, and maintain a successful website.

We can help you with all aspects of your site:
• Register your domain
• Provide 24x7 hosting reliability to ensure that your site is always available to your customers
• Provide easy-to-use tools to help you quickly build an effective website
• Offer professional design services at an affordable price
• Build your online store to sell directly to your customers
• Drive visitors to your website with affordable and effective search-engine advertising
• Provide friendly, helpful phone support

Web Master King Technologies.

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Top 10 Tips to Keep Your Website Visitors Longer

1. Loading time of your website is very critical. If it is going to take a long time to load, you are going to be disappointed. Your visitor will never arrive for he would have clicked out by then and moved on to another website. Ensure that all your web pages load quickly especially the home page; otherwise your visitor will leave in frustration.

2. The first impression is the best. It is a known fact that most website visitors just spend 5-7 seconds in a new website. You have to grab the visitor's attention within this time and this is best done by clearly indicating the theme of your site and what it is all about. The Title should not be misleading and the introduction should convince the visitor that he has come to the right place. Have headings and sub-headings to grab your visitor's attention.

3. Have a well organized site navigation system so that your website visitors will know where to go and what to expect when they click. Never confuse them. Most website visitors come looking for something, so help them to locate it. If they are happy with the navigation and the website, they are bound to visit you more often.

4. Content is King. Have excellent content related to the theme of your site and update them regularly. Provide unique information and resources for which your visitor should be ever grateful to you. If you are capable of writing articles, post articles regularly displaying your expertise. It should be easy to read and understand with no grammatical mistakes and spelling errors. If the visitors are happy they will hang around and explore your site further.

5. Offer your visitor a freebie such as an eBook or free software that can be downloaded from your website or direct him to a vendor of whom you are an affiliate.

6. Have free Coupons and Special Promotions that are bound to grab the attention of the visitors, keep them longer and bring them back often.

7. Having Bulletin boards, Polls, Surveys and Quizzes are other ways and means of getting the visitors to participate in these and retaining them longer at your website.

8. Provide opportunities to submit articles and also their websites to a well organized link directory thus getting them more involved with your website.

9. A special area having links to News, Sports News, Videos, Jokes, Thought of the Day, Encyclopedia and other interesting content too are popular with some website visitors and makes them spend more time at your site and come back often.

10. A Professional appearance of your website with respect to Design, Content and display of Advertisements will motivate the visitor to remain longer. Conclusion:

To achieve success you will have to find ways and means of keeping your website visitors as long as possible at your site. The obvious reason for this is to win over their hearts and to convince them to be your customers or persuade them to join your list. These Top Ten Tips show you how this can be done.

First step in a Web_site Building...

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