published: August 21st, 2008
What Should You Pay For Web Design
The whole web design industry has undergone major changes over the past 5 years and there is now a variety of options and ideas available to you. You can pay anything from
published: July 10th, 2008
The Birth of a Professional Web Site Part Five Essential Web Development Tools
Developing a successful web site takes a great deal of planning and preparation. An important part of your preparation is obtaining the essential tools of the trade.
HTML Editors
An HTML editor is a software program used to create and edit HTML documents.
Although some Internet marketers prefer to write their own HTML code, most prefer to use an HTML editor, as it can greatly simplify a somewhat difficult process. However, using an HTML editor has its disadvantages, as some editors have a tendency to add a lot of unnecessary coding and may not support the latest technologies.
Whether you will be writing your own HTML or using an editor, taking the time to learn HTML is very important. Not only will you gain your independence, but you’ll also have the ability to add special effects that many HTML editors don’t support.
Here are some popular HTML editors:
Macromedia Dreamweaver
http://www.macromedia.com/software/dreamweaver/
A popular WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) HTML editor. Great for beginners and advanced users alike.
Coffee Cup
http://www.coffeecup.com/html-editor/
A popular HTML editor that’s great for beginners as well as advanced users. Includes a built in browser that will enable you to instantly preview your HTML as you go.
Hot Dog Professional
http://sausage.com/products/index.html
Three HTML editors, including HotDog Junior for children, PageWiz for the novice user and Professional for advanced and budding webmasters.
Text Editors
A text editor is a software program used for editing plain text that doesn’t add any special formatting.
If you’re considering writing your own HTML code, you’ll need a good text editor. Although it will certainly be more time consuming, your code will be much cleaner and can reduce your file size considerably.
In addition to using a text editor to write HTML, it can also be used to edit scripts and write articles.
If you have a Windows operating system, Note Pad is the preferred text editor. It should already be installed on your computer.
Although Note Pad is a great little text editor, it can’t handle large files and is much better suited for smaller jobs. You may find that you’d like an editor that is more powerful, such as:
NoteTab Pro http://www.notetab.com/
TextPad http://www.textpad.com/
FTP
File Transfer Protocol, better known as FTP, is a procedure used to upload and download files to and from your web server.
Although many HTML editors will enable you to edit and transfer pages to your server, an FTP program is still an essential tool, as you must have complete control over the files on your server.
An FTP program will enable you to upload scripts, set file permissions, create folders and transfer files to and from your server.
In order to use FTP, you’ll need to download and install a software program on your computer. The most widely used FTP program is WS FTP Pro http://www.wsftp.com
Graphics Editor
A graphics editor is a software program that will enable you to design and edit graphics.
Graphic design is an intimidating subject for many Internet entrepreneurs. However, most of us must learn some basic design techniques in order to avoid the high costs of hiring a professional designer.
The most popular program used by Internet marketers is Paint Shop Pro. This powerful program is the only program you’ll need to design professional looking graphics.
Zip/Unzip Software
A Zip file is an “archive” of one or more files compressed into one file for easy distribution.
Zip files are used to compress and transport file archives over the Internet. It is the preferred method used for electronic file distribution, as rather than downloading several different files, you can simply download one Zip file. In addition, the download time will be minimized, as the files within the Zip archive are compressed.
Once a Zip file is downloaded, it can be easily opened and extracted (unzipped) with a Zip/Unzip software program.
Although there are many Zip software programs available on the Internet, WinZip is the most popular. WinZip makes working with file archives simple. It features an easy point-and-click, drag-and-drop interface for viewing, extracting, adding, deleting and testing archived files.
You can download a fully functional evaluation version here:
http://www.winzip.com/download.htm
Although most Internet Service Providers include email accounts for their customers, these accounts aren’t adequate for an Internet business — especially if you get a large amount of email. Not only do the email addresses contain your ISP’s name, but they are also very limited on features and options.
The two most popular email clients used online are Outlook and Eudora. These programs will enable you to download email from your server and offer features, such as sorting and
filtering, and will enable you to easily organize your email messages. What’s more, your email address will be your own domain — not someone else’s.
Eudora
http://www.eudora.com
Outlook
http://www.microsoft.com/
Your webmaster toolbox will play an important part in your success. Take the time to ensure your toolbox contains these essential tools and you’ll be well on your way to designing a professional web site.
(Continued in part six)
Copyright © Shelley Lowery
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design course, “Web Design Mastery” (www.webdesignmastery.com) and “eBook Starter - Give Your eBooks the look and feel of a REAL book” (www.ebookstarter.com)
Visit www.Web-Source.net to sign up for a complimentary subscription to eTips and receive a copy of Shelley’s acclaimed ebook, “Killer Internet Marketing Strategies.”
You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your ebook, or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author bylines are included.
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published: June 28th, 2008
Search Engine Friendly Web Design Advice
This article reveals several important web design elements you must consider during website optimization process.
1. CSS Stylesheet
It is good to use CSS stylesheet to format your web design because it can standardize the appearance of your website. For the sake of convenience, some web designers use internal CSS.
It is no good! You should use external CSS stylesheet so that
your HTML coding becomes consise, and mainly compose of your website content. It is an essential SEO practice.
2. Content Management Software (CMS)
If you use CMS to manage your website, make sure your CMS provides these features:
a. Allows you to define different templates for different sections/pages. It gives you flexibility in optimizing website content.
b. Allows you to define Title and Meta tags for different web pages. Again, it gives you flexibility in optimizing every web page.
c. Allows you to generate static HTML pages instead of dynamic pages. Search engines are not good at reading dynamic web page. Accoding to Google webmaster guideline, Google may not index dynamic URL with more than 2 parameters within the URL.
If your web pages cannot get indexed, you definitely get no rankings no matter how many SEO effort you make.
3. HTML Code Compliance
As a good web design practice, make sure your HTML coding is compliant to some well recognized HTML standards such as W3C standard. Some search engine optimizers reported that non-compliant web design could cause difficulties for search engines
to index and analyze your website. It hinders your website to get top search engine ranking.
4. Use of Graphics
You must optimize the file size of your images. As search engines like to read text, you should consider avoiding the use of graphics near top of your website, whenever it is possible.
5. Multiple-level Navigation Menu
Many websites use multiple-level navigation menu in Javascript. However, the coding usually leaves in the HTML body. This is no good in terms of SEO. I recommend seperate Javascrpt from HTML coding by using external Javascript file. For example, Marketshare - an Asia consumer market research firm, found that their website cannot get indexed properly by several search engines. This situation has been changed only after adopting external Javascript.
6. Bad Web Design
To make your web design search engine friendly, you must consider avoiding:
a. Use of frame. Search engines have difficulties to index all your frameset. Even though they can index some frame pages, users would only access to part of your webpages only in case they can find your website from search engines, e.g., only see a left-hand side navigation menu with a blank page on the right-hand side.
b. Re-direct techniques. For some reasons, web designers may make some re-direct pages or adopt Javascript re-direct techniques and re-direct visitors from one page to another content pages. Since search engine spammers usually use this technique, search engines could penalize your website.
7. Flash
Web designers may sell you to build a flash website or make a flash intro page as your home page. Their point is that flash makes your website more appealing and it would improve effectiveness of your website. However, it is not always the case.
Visitors want to find information fast. Flash sometimes could make your website slow and require visitors to install plugins before they can see your website. In terms of SEO, simply speaking, search engines treat flash as a graphic and cannot analyze content inside a flash file. The implication means a flash website is hard to get top search engine ranking.
Conclusion:
For small business to succeed online, you must strike a balance between SEO and fancy web design. A too fancy web design, in many cases, cannot give you any business as no one can find your website from search engines and if it annoys your visitors.
Jimsun Lui, is working in Agog Digital Marketing Strategy Limited, a company offers SEO Services for both English and Chinese search engines. Click here to learn more about how to optimize website. The company also offers Ecommerce Web Design Service with an emphasis of search engine friendliness.