Probably you know someone who has created a web site all by himself or herself. So if they can do it why use a professional at all? Can’t you create your own business or organization’s web site in your spare time and without the services of a professional web site designer? The answer is probably, yes. But following are some reasons why it may not be a wise idea for you.

Many non-professionals use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) web page creating software. While this kind of software is nice in that it’s similar to working with a word processing program, many of these programs don’t write “valid” HTML code. The problem with invalid HTML code is that while the page may look fine on some browsers (Internet Explorer, Netscape, etc.), it may not look even acceptably good on some other browsers or even on different versions of the same browser. HostTycoon designs web pages that WILL validate according to W3C validations specifications. (Try using the W3C Validation Service to test a web site that a non-professional has designed and see the results.)

For most of us, time is a precious commodity. Is it better to take the time away from your business and other activities to learn how to create and maintain an effective web site? You need to decide if you have the time to follow through on these necessary parts of web site design:

- Learn HTML coding (it requires more than just wysiwyg web editing software)
- Learn how to use the various software packages needed to:
- create and edit web pages
- scan or otherwise create graphics
- optimize graphics
- upload pages to the host
- run telnet sessions
- decipher raw log files to analyze traffic to your web site.
- Learn good web design principles - design your pages so they load quickly, are easy to navigate and do well in Search Engine queries

- Learn where to go and how to obtain a domain name
- Learn what to do with the web pages once they are created - where they go and how to get them there.
- Obtain several types of browser software to test your web pages for browser compatibility/validity.

Saving money is the main reason most would consider designing their own web site. But by designing their own, are they really saving? It’s takes a substantial monetary investment to purchase the necessary software to create a professional looking web site. It also takes a considerable amount of time to learn how to use the various programs effectively.
Many business owners don’t have that kind of time to spare and are usually better off investing their time in what they know best - running their business.

When a professional web designer is hired the customer receives the benefits of their business experience, artistic talent, technological skills and the expertise to help you establish a effective, highly visible presence on the Internet. They will work with you to analyze your competitions’ web presence - their strengths and weaknesses. Using that research they will construct your web site based on your business strengths and the weaknesses of your competition. Your web pages will be built to load quickly, be user friendly, appeal to your target audience and encourage repeat visits.

HostTycoon (http://www.hosttycoon.com) is a web design, web hosting & IT services company. We are a creative and very cost-effective business solutions provider for medium businesses and organizations.

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From early days of www, the Internet sites that are added day by day are increasing tremendously. When you will consider this pool of web, may be they are about computers, industry, entertainment, search engines, fashion, organizational or even individual, all of these sites are concerned about one major part of web development apart from the logic or programming efforts behind it is ‘User Interface Design’.

Any web site will gain your interest by its appearance in front of you as well as ease of using and understanding the contents in that particular page. Therefore many of the web developers out there are always trying to go for the best user interface design which must also be affordable, can be either done by the developer firm or by web developer individual himself or he have to outsource the site for user interface creation.

The main stages in the creation of the user interface can be roughly listed as follows:

1. Note down all the aspects of your web site,

2. Try to list items as per their priority on the web page as well as consider their categorization.

3. From this list highlight points that are required to be catchy (e.g. in most of the general web site the Chat / Mail / News are considered to be the most catchy points whereas on the online shopping site the special offers and hot selling items may be the most catchy points).

4. Then decide the color combination of your interface (As per my point of view this is the most crucial part which many of them out there do not take into consideration which results in to a web site which is nothing but a site full of color in fact site looking like a circus! (You can understand what I want to say). So if you are rally very careful about the richness of the user interface then you should not fail to consider this point.

5. Once you have decided the color combination you have already won half the battle. Now you have to draw a picture of how your web page will look like finally, where on the web page I will place the catchy points I have listed previously, what will be common between the web pages (A date and time may be there from home page to the last page of your web site).

6. Finalize placing of all the remaining points in the list prepared by you.

7. If required repeat the steps for all the succeeding pages in your web site.

8. Then and only then go for designing of the web pages using various tools.

You may take help of various image-editing softwares like Adobe Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, even normal paintbrush for giving effect to the various images, backgrounds used in the page design. You can also embody various animations in your web page to give it a nice touch. You can try Macromedia Flash, GIF Animator or Animationshop for the same.

Some important tips-n-tricks of making your web page look catchier than ever will be discussed in my next articles.

Remember more effective and easier user interface - more the number of visitor (or even customer) who will specially halt at your site to check it out.

Nikhil R. Salvi
B.E.Computer Engg.
India

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Web development for the SEO (search engine optimization) expert includes using copywriters to generate SEO articles. Writers are tasked with generating copy based on lists of keywords. The challenge for the SEO expert is to find a writer that is capable of generating informative, interesting and at times entertaining copy that also meets the requirements of needed for SEO web development.

SEO experts use web copy to generate page ranks from search engine spiders that tabulate searchable terms and assign rank based on algorithms that remain a closely guarded secret. The use of copywriters by SEO experts in web development is the difference between a tastefully decorated and attractive storefront versus one with a single door facing a back parking lot.

Web development requires the designer to take into account the many facets that make up a web site and the best ways to generate traffic. Traffic generation is the SEO expert’s area. While the use of an SEO expert may not jump a site from a 100 visitors a month to a 1,000,000, it can and does improve the opportunities for search engine visitors to find the site. That increases click-through and traffic.

Subcontracting the copy writing to professional or freelance writers is one of the tools of the SEO expert. The generation of copy can be at time-consuming task requiring dozens of pages of copy to be generated in very specific formula that neither plagiarizes nor appears to be anything less than professional. Since this is a tool and a style, it’s important for the web development team or lead to know what to look for in good web copy.

The following is a list of ideas that will help the SEO expert and web development team narrow their requests to the copywriters. When everyone is on the same page, the work will be better for it.

When it comes to form and style, web copy needs to be sharp and focused. Long paragraphs with few breaks are tedious on the eyes. Spacing, short sentences and bulleted lists can bring the points home in a crisp format that the average web reader can scan and absorb in a glance.

Bulleted Items Should Be:

Short, to the point.

Informative.

Descriptive.

Inviting.

Bold Headlines let people know when a new bullet is being talked about or that a new idea is being offered. Bold lettering or italics are strong visual clues to alert the reader about specific issues, points or names. The reader wants this information. They want it boxed up and delivered in a quick, easy to digest format. The copywriter needs to be able to present their articles in this format and still make the SEO expert’s list of terms appear in their copy.

While web copy can be used for marketing, SEO expert articles are not generated for marketing purposes. The articles help the site achieve a page rank. They inform visitors. They build consumer confidence. They might even entertain. They shouldn’t be layered with heavy-duty terminology discussing the articulation of the message to be disseminated by the visitor with a handy thesaurus or a Master’s Degree.

Web copy is not written for stupid people either.

It’s written for the person on the go. It’s written for the mom who needs to find a recipe or a quick diagram on how to change a tire. It’s written for the Dad looking for blue prints to build a tree house or a source for a special drill bit. It’s written for the student who needs to get the research paper done tonight. It’s written for the shopper who needs to compare products and has no idea what one is.

It’s written for everyday people. Those are the audience the SEO expert is targeting with their web copy and supporting materials. They are using the copywriter-generated articles to achieve a page rank that brings these everyday visitors into the site that matches their search terms.

SEO expert web development generates page ranks. SEO expert web development brings the visitors who want to be there a way to find it quickly and efficiently. In the end, everyone involved when the job is well done shares the reward.

Copyright 2006 Mark Nenadic

Mark Nenadic
Mark is the director and face behind FifteenDegrees-North http://www.15dn.com , where you will find articles and resources to help with SEO, marketingand Web design.

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