Affordable WebSite Design - Suffolk, UK

Website Quality is key to Successful Business

2012-02-25T14:53:00.002Z

"A well designed website is key to a website that is successful for business" according to Ben Hatton, a successful internet entrepreneur with a web-based business.

More and more people are using the internet to find businesses, research and then interact with them. So website first impressions are now crucial to attract and hold a customer by providing the information required as well as business brand perception.

And this is highlighted by a recent poll showing that a poor website would discourage 70 per cent of consumers from buying from that business (ref pingpr.com). Two thirds of business owners stated considered website quality to be very important, some saying this was a more import part of business that store or business location. These statistics appear to highlight the for skilled local web designer company to produce a website tailor made for each individual business.

Hatton also stated that "A well-designed website that is engaging, relevant and easy to navigate is important to building relationships and key to converting web traffic to sales.'' "With such a competitive and volatile marketplace, one of the biggest challenges businesses have online is building lasting relationships with consumers." He noted the growing need for mobile website options as more and more users access websites from mobile devices.

Business Websites can convey Business Confidence

2012-02-20T17:21:00.002Z

Taken from Business Websites can convey customer confidence.

Customers and potential customers can get an immediate impression of a business from their website, from credibility to trustworthiness to friendly manner or efficient service.
So says Belinda White speaking at nebusiness.co.uk in Newcastle, she also added that even for businesses that trade offline, their website is often the first thing that any customer will see of any business, whether small or large.
She claims that this means the right website for your business is very importance to mirror your business, with content that delivers the desired image for your business.
Belinda went on to explain what she thought made for a slick website design.
She said: "How the user interface works and the overall user experience. Make sure navigation is easy and clear, and make it obvious what is important and where you want people to go on the site.''
"Text should have a clear hierachy. Then there's photographs. Make sure any images are of a high standard and, ideally, unique to your website."
A business that is serious about growing by attracting customers online should use a web design agency to optimise user experience and image, they should create a strong optimised website. Specifically targeting their website to a specific audience and customer profile.

How to Choose Keywords for Your Website? What is Keyword Research?

2012-01-25T18:16:00.000Z

A common website mistake is using the wrong keywords or poor keywords or too competitive keywords. To find the best keywords for a website needs keyword researchand this research should be one of the first things in web design, before any design is made. Read more on this overlooked part of web design, keyword research by Suffolk Web Design.
In theory you could have 2 websites that looked identical, one getting very little traffic or sales whereas the other was very successful with traffic and sales. And the difference could be that the two websites were targeting different keywords.

Choosing the right keywords and keyword phrases to target can help your website generate more targeted traffic, out perform your business competitors and increase your income.

Finding the best keywords for your business needs methodical research, but once done, it provides the base for the whole web design. There are some factors that need to be included in good keyword research, as outlined below.

Long tail keyword phrases. For example the word 'hardwood floors' is a very broad term where as a long tail keyword phrase for this could be 'recycled hardwood flooring' which would have less competition. And the people that search online for such long tailed keywords are more likely to become buyers than those searching for more general terms.

Keyword competition. The amount of competition for keywords is very important in the likely success of the word or phrase. Specialist software can give competive values for words and phrases so that you can target accurate but less competitive words for faster success.

Any time invested in keyword research should show a good return in investment in how your website performs. For more on keyword research contact Afford Web Design on 01449 737352.

Search Engines - The facts you need to know.

2011-12-01T19:35:00.000Z

Search Engines - What are they?
Search engines are the means to searching the internet by typing in a search term. There are lots of different search engines, although most people are familiar with the major ones, Google, Yahoo and Bing. Google started in 1996 so is just 15 years old.
The search words or phrases you type into search boxes are known as keywords and key phrases. When you type in a search word or phrase, the search engine returns a results page, known as SERP, and ranks the pages according to relevance.

Search Engines - How do they work?
Search engines use programs (called spiders, robots or crawlers) to search the internet and index pages and websites. The exact way that the search engines ranking is calculated is secret.

Search Engine - How do they rank pages and websites?
The 3 major search engines, Google, Yahoo and Bing, all use links, relevancy of page content and good site design as well as other factors.

A good SEO search engine optimization service should address these factors and more to gain higher ranking in search engine results. See SEO optimisation service from Afford Web Design to help.

SEO Services for Search Engine Success

2011-11-29T15:37:00.001Z

Most people now research services and purchases online before acting. And this online research is via search engines rather than going direct to web addresses. So it is cruicial that your website is appearing prominently in the natural search engine listings. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the way to tune up your website content to improve visibility to search engine robots and spiders.

Performing well in the search engines is key to online success. Search queries provide users with a list of relevant websites. However, most search queries may provide hundreds or thousands of results and most people using search engines will not go beyond the first page of results. So it is crucial that your website ranks high in a search engine's index, so to be visible and create traffic and business. This results in more visitors and more customers.

SEO search engine optimisation services can help your website perform. Call Afford Web Design for more information.

What type of website is best for your business?

2011-11-28T17:46:00.001Z

Maybe you already have a website or maybe you are just about to get one. Getting the right sort of website for your business is important to achieve your goals as well as to be cost effective for your needs.

Firstly what services do you require for your business website? The choices are broadly:

Brochure web design - a static website that is like a brochure for your business, to showcase the benefits of your business, services, products, aims. As well as contact details for enquiries. The whole site would be SEO search engine optimised for best ranking results. You would not plan to update your site regularly, maybe a few times a year. You would probably ask a web professional to complete the updates, taking a few hours work per year.
Content management systems (CMS) - a dynamic website with the content of some pages changing regularly. These websites are designed to be user friendly to edit, with either particular areas within pages editable or the whole website editable. This may seem like a great idea but if the website has been specially built with SEO search engine optimisation included, you would not want to risk loosing this optimisation or search engine ranking by editing important areas. A business needs to decide whether they have time and man power to edit the website regularly, weekly or monthly.
E-commerce website design - this is another dynamic website design for retail sales online with CMS facility. Including secure payment portals. SEO can be included in all pages within the website. Editing of products/ services/ prices/ special offers etc through editable regions on pages. Time required to keep the website up to date would vary depending on numbers of products/ services, frequency of adding/ removing products or prices.Time to keep website up to date can vary from a few hours each day to a few hours a month depending on the business.

QR code for Web Designer Suffolk

Flash design - another dynamic website design. But caution needed as some of the features of flash design are not 'seen' by search engine robots and spiders so important SEO information could be lost.

Website designers should advise on type of website best for your individual business needs. They can then use their skills of how web users think and behave to create the best website for your business to ease usability and maximise business profile online. Ask for a free quote and advice from Web Designer Suffolk at Afford Web Design.

5 Basic Question on Website Design

2011-11-22T15:12:00.000Z

Can you answer these questions on website design correctly?

The main difference between websites is how they look? Yes/ NO

Better looking websites always rank higher on searches? YES/ NO

New web site are always designed to optimise for search engines and seo? YES/ NO

Web designers always help select the best keywords? YES/ NO

Website designers are all good at optimising websites for the search engines and seo? YES/ NO

Afford Web Design includes all these points in its basic website design.

Answers: 1.NO 2.NO 3.NO 4.NO 5.NO

10 Essentials of a Good Website

2011-08-18T17:29:00.000+01:00

Good website design doesn't need to be complicated or over flash. It needs to be beautiful and visually attractive, but useabile and complete. Here is a hit list of things we consider essential for a good website.

Be Straightforward. Do not confuse or complicate.
Don't assume anything of your readers. Have a clear purpose.
Be Informative.
Easy navigation to information. Provide easy to follow instructions.
Don't make users work to get the information they want. People should not have to try or think hard to find what they want on your website.
Stay uncluttered. Keep information direct and easy to follow.
Follow standards for best practices.
Keep things Simple.

A Website is an Essential for Your Business

2011-06-25T15:16:00.001+01:00

All businesses big and small, should see a website as an essential part of their marketing, especially now that the internet is so readily accessed on mobile phones. Most people search a product, service or business as basic research before they visit or contact directly.

With a website, you can include the web address on all your promotions, from business cards to flyers, from pamphlets to email replies, so keeping your customers up to date with your current special offers, latest products, and even take orders or bookings online. You can use your website to showcase your products or services online, adding and updating details as needed. You can provide customers with directions and a map to your place of business, making it easier for customers to find you. A website immediately expands your market place from your immediate area to a wider area.

Get your business website and then get your business listed correctly local listings. Google Local is a search engine to find local businesses. Afford Web Design can help with a special offer until the end of 2011. Order a website and we will include a free domain name, 12 months free website hosting and a free listing on Google local. Increase your business with our affordable website design service. Contact 01449 737352 or fill in the enquiry form on www.Afford-Web-Design.co.uk .

More Website Traffic with Google UK Local

2011-06-23T16:09:00.001+01:00

Short video on getting more website traffic for your business by using Google UK local to drive more traffic to your business. Google UK local called Google Places. Afford Web Design can help you utilise your free listing with Google local to reap the benefits for your business.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Is your website bringing in the business you hoped?

2011-06-07T20:14:00.001+01:00

Most businesses expect a new website to instantly generate more business. And many business owners are disappointed when this new business fails to appear. And this misconception is a fault of the web designer and developer not explaining how a website and internet marketing works.
A website on the internet is a bit like an advert that has been created but not published. For a website to work for your business it firstly needs to be search engine optimised, this is sometimes included in all new website builds but not always. Check if your website is seo optimised.

Facebook Page for Business

2011-05-07T18:10:00.003+01:00

Social media and Facebook

Facebook has over 500 million users worldwide with 1 in 12 people having a facebook account. And in business, half of the worlds Top 100 websites have links from their websites to facebook. Facebook can be an important part of your business plan.

There are different types of Facebook pages to suit different needs, personal, business or community. And it is important to select the correct type of facebook page for your needs. There are small but important differences between the page styles. For businesses, it is important to customise your facebook business page to reflect your business style, to be part of your business image.

This blog summaries some of the points made in a posting about Facebook pages for business on Afford Web Design, the affordable web designer in Suffolk.

Social media site Facebook and its useage in the World

2011-04-21T14:27:00.003+01:00

Social media

Statistics on the social media site Facebook and how wide spread its useage is across the world in a video by Alex Timpe. World useage of facebook is currently 600 million, the most used social media site in the world. Watch the short video for more information. And then understand how important facebook and other social media sites could be to your business and marketing.

The World Is Obsessed With Facebook from Alex Trimpe on Vimeo.

Contact Afford Web Design for more on social media, social media optimisation and business marketing.

18 Web Designer Problems

2011-03-23T15:03:00.002Z

Recent article highlights 18 web designer problems that all website owners should be aware of. These problems are sometimes apparent to web surfers but not always and may simply appear as an inconvenience. The 18 problems are:

Slow Websites. Website surfers expecting to see websites instantly as the speed of servers increases.
Navigation back to Home Page is difficult. Every web pageshould display an easily seen link back to the home or index page.
Difficult to Read Script.Font and layout of text makes a big differece to ease of reading a web page.
Lack of Contact Us Page. A website without a contact us page looks suspiciously like a scam website with no real base. Put your website in its correct location and let people contact you.
Fonts that are difficult to read. Why create a web page that is difficult to read with either very small writting font size or very ornate fonts.
External links that do not open in a new Window.How often have you found a useful site, then clicked a link and found yourself taken to a less relevant site on the same window, and unable to find the original page?
Website not compatible across different Browsers. A web site may look fine in Firefox, but not Internet Explorer. Check that most common browsers serve the page correctly.
Address of Webpages All the Same. Do not 'cloak' pagaes so that the URL remains the same although clicking through numerous pages.
Web pages designed for large screens. Screen size varies from tiny mobile screens to huge monitors. A website needs to look good on all size screens.
Unreadable CAPTCHA. Captcha are always annoying but impossible if they can not be read.
Difficult Navigation. Some of the coolest looking websites sometimes forget the basic need to navigate around a site. Navigation is essential for success.
Links to '.pdf' files. Pdf files are useful because they can be seen easily by many different computer systems, whether apple, mac or IE. But they can be very frustrating and time consuming.
Too Many Ads. Ads are basically very distracting on a web page, so you have to decide do you want people to read your ads or read your page?
Poor Design Colour. Colours are crucial to convey a look and feel of website. Badly choosen colours can badly affect web design.
No 'Alt' and 'Title' tags for images. Tafs are very easy to set and key to good seo.
Posts are not dated. All new posts and artlcles should be dated for ease of viewing by the surfer.
Page says 'Coming soon'. If a website is not ready, it should stay invisible and not be promoted until launched on the www.
Poor content. Content is key to good web design. It is all important to search engines, robots and spiders.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6025500 More on any of these issues from Afford Web Design by online form, email or phone.

New Hotel Website Design Launched

2011-03-06T16:27:00.003Z

The Bay Hotel Port Isaac website is now launched and already receiving enquiries via the bookings form. Designed as a brochure website with several tools added for ease of use for a hotel including the scrolling header on the home page highlighting the look and fabulous location of the hotel in this village of Port Isaac in Cornwall.

The brochure design gives the flexibility needed so that special offers can be highlighted during the year without interfering with the main text. The booking form enables instant viewer interaction. The navigation is easy and non confusing. The photos are high quality and inviting. Special pagaes of the area are included to center the website in its location, including a location map, Port Isaac village page and Portwenn page for Doc Martin fans that are visiting the home of Doc Martin filming.

Plus all pages are optimised, standards compliant and include basic seo and submissions. This is standard for Afford Web Design web sites by the affordable web designer in Suffolk.

The Bay Hotel Port Isaac | Bed and Breakfast in Port Isaac B and B

2011-03-06T16:18:00.002Z

Just launched a new web design for The Bay Hotel Port Isaac who offer b and b in this lovely village of Port Isaac in Cornwall, Port Isaac bed and breakfast hotel.

Photos are a major part of this web design on the main page to convey the feel of the hotel and its seaside location with seaviews. Using a scrolling slideshow that automatically starts on reaching the web site but with the facility to see any particular slide again at the touch of a button on teh web page. And likewise the rooms page uses photos to convey the fresh, inviting room design and spotless ensuites. Additional pages focus on the local area with a location page, Port Isaac village page and Portwenn Doc Martin page.

Afford Web Design, the web designer in Suffolk used a brochure style website, that could easily be updates via the side boxes with special offers.

Quality of Websites in Search Results should Improve

2011-02-24T13:58:00.002Z

At the start of 2011, Google said they were going to 'get tough' with web spam causing low quality websites. And last week they penalised JC Penney for using paid links to advertise their website, followed by this week Forbes.com was penalised for selling links.

These activities have focused on clamping down on paid link spam. But many activities are considered spam by Google. So check your websites to make sure you comply.

Websites made purely to promote AdSense with content made up of scraped content from other sites.
Websites with cloaking and false redirects. Google 'sees' the non clocked pages and non redirected pages that are not seen by normal web surfers.
Websites with content keyword stuffed so it makes little sense to the reader. Similarly pages loaded with irrelevant words so they rank for a keyword phrase different from the main topic.
Websites using hidden text or hidden links, the font colours of these text and links are often the same colour as the background so they are not seen by normal web surfers by they are seen by robots and spiders.
Websites that 'ride on the back' of well-known websites by using url domain names similar to the well known site but mispelt. So mispelt searches end up at the scam site rather than the well known site.
Websites using fully automated, unrelated and centralized link farms to create links to verify location and content. These link farms have been targeted as a 'bad seo' method for several years now, but are still used by many websites and seen as a quick and easy way of generating links although often not cheap.
Websites that use various methods that try to trick search engines.All of these methods have worked well in the past for many websites and they enabled anyone to quickly get high rankings on Google. However Google can discover them and is 'cracking down' on all these spammy methods. Websites that use these methods will be penalized sooner or later.

Optimise webpages, web design code such as html and web page content. So that all are error free,compliant to current standards and relevant to your topic.
Create good, unique content for your website. Stand out from others in your field with fresh, unique web content.
Create high quality organic links with relevant websites and get high quality links back. This takes time but is worthwhile.

Non spammy seo takes longer to get results on the search engines but it is long lasting. And your website will be safe and ethical. Our seo search engine optimisation uses ethical SEO methods to help you get high rankings. Afford Web Design for UK SEO Services, we offer a complete seo service with itemised monthly work to promote your website, monthly ranking results at realistic prices.

Questions to Answer before getting a New Website

2011-02-05T18:12:00.001Z

Be prepared before your new website is designed. You need to decide on various points so you are clear about the sort of website you want, how much you can spend and when you need it.

Check through these first pointers to get off to the best start with your website. We will provide more pointers in Questions to Answer before getting a New Website part2.

1. How much do you want to spend? What is your budget?
You must know what you can spend so you can get the best option website for your money. Ideally this should be mentioned at the beginning of discussions with a web designer, or they may start talking about all sorts of web sites that are out of your budget or conversley, they may not appreciate that you are prepared to pay alot to get exactly the web design you envisage.
There are websites that advertise new web sites for as little as a few hundred pounds. And this may suit your needs. But if a web design is going to be tailored to your business, to highllight your style, approach and image, you will need a more bespoke service. At Afford Web Design, we specialise in tailormade web designs with designers aiming to capture each company needs in each site.
Like many things in life, web design prices can vary from a few hundred pounds to tens of thousands of pounds. And the amount you pay is directly related to the amount you receive. So you need to decide what functions on a web site are necessary for you and what are expensive luxury extras? If you tell a good web designer such as Afford Web Design your budget, they should adapt their service to tailor a design to suit your budget, with the best web design for your budget.

2.When do you want your Website? How long is there to build a design?

Have you got a deadline for your new website, maybe a product launch or a business launch? If so, you need to state this when you first discuss your web site at the very beginning. A good web designer should give you a realistic time scale for web design completion. Remember, for a website to be designed to suit you and your business, you will have to see, comment and approve stages in its design. So a tailored web design can not happen over night. Many of our web designs at Afford Web Design take 10-14 days.

3. Have you got a Logo?
If you have a logo already, this will be key to your business image and therefore key to your business website image. If you do not have a logo, you may want to get one designed so you can use the logo on letter heads, invoices, business cards and other business needs.

A logo should convey the flavour of your business as well as inform about your business. And a logo can be key to a new website design, so your business image fits together perfectly, in colour, layout and font. A website is part of your business identity and needs to enhance your whole image. Afford Web Design can create tailored logo designs to enhance your business image.

Ask the web designer in Suffolk at Afford Web Design.

20 of the Most Common Web Design Mistakes You should Avoid

2011-01-24T15:54:00.006Z

I've just read a good article by Ha Cong Tien called 20 Most Common Web Design Mistakes you Should Avoid. I could almost have written this list myself, I agree with so many of the mistakes highlighted in this article. Also check out 18 website designer problems in article. So I have summarised the list of some most common web design mistakes below. Avoid these website mistakes at all costs. Ha Cong Tien's list is in brown along with my comments in black.

Website takes too long to load (more than 10 seconds). I think slow web loading is unforgivable now that everything seems to be getting faster and faster. If your web pages takes too long to load people will move on before they see it. So it doesn't matter how great your page looks, if its slow its bad news.
Logo is not on top of every page, and is not linked to the home page. I think this is so easy yet forgot by many. A logo in the same place on every page gives your website uniformity and reliability from a users view point. This is so easy to get right but is missed by so many websites.
Posts have too many words in a line making it hard to read. Posts have too few words on a line (and many such lines), making it frustrating to read – I mean make it scannable.
No “Contact Us” page. I really agree. Why wouldn't a website have a 'Contact Us' page? There is nothing worse than having search for contact details on a web site.
Uses fancy fonts unreadable on most PCs (– use clean, common fonts) or font sizes too tiny. Fancy fonts may look great but if the style is not available it will default to a standard font which may not fit in as planned on your web page. There is no excuse for tiny fonts unless you don't want anyone to read what they say on your web pages.
External links do not open in new tab / window (– it is a turnoff, trust me). I really agree with this one, being taken away from a site that you found that is really good and not easily being able to return to it, may mean you never return so the site has lost a potential customer. Bad business planning for any website.
Plays music upon loading, and I can’t find where to stop it. I dont often come across this problem but like any problems on a website, you should be able to find everything really easily. A website should not pose a challenge to visitors or they will leave.
Website shows up fine in Firefox, but is broken in Internet Explorer (cross-browser compatibility). This happens alot and must result is alot of lost traffic to websites. It doesn't take long to check appearance of website across different browsers.
The URL remains the same even as I browse through the pages (– avoid cloaking). I really can not see why anyone would want to do this or any other 'trick' that may annoy search engines or Google. Is it worth having your website blacklisted?
Webpage is so large for my screen resolution that I have to scroll horizontally as well (– 1024 pixel width plays well). Again I think this is an unforgivable mistake especially as screen are getting smaller and smaller with mobile internet usage. Why make it difficult for a viewer to see and read your website?
CAPTCHA is not readable. How the heck do I post comments?! I'm everyone has had this problem with captcha - is it a 0 or a O, is it a 1 or a I? Some are so difficult to read that I move on a leave the website. Thats not what the web designer intended, so why not make things more easy for the viewer?
Visited links don’t change color, and I end up on the same page again and again. I'm not so worried about this mistake, its useful to see which links you have visited but not essential.
Bad search functionality – no way to find what I need. This is very frustrating. Why create a website that can not be easily navigated?
Linking to “.pdf” files without disclosing it (pdf files take a lifetime to load). This is one of my pet hates. I do not understand why anyone uses pdf files on websites, with pdf files to download. Are they trying to make life difficult for their viewers?
The webpage is cluttered with too many ads (– suggestion: not more than 3 ads on a page above fold). I think this is right, no more than 3 ads per page. After all is your website an advertising board or is it an informative web site? Affilliate sites full of ads need careful designing to work and avoid being too chaotic.
Bad color contrast / matching (white text on light blue background, for example!). With all the colours to choice from why make a web site difficult to read? Colour choices can make or break a web site design and flavour.
Skips “Alt” and “Title” tags for images, whilst there’s no description. Lack of knowledge leads to this mistake. I think anyone that knows any seo would agree these tags are important. Just because you can't see what you write in tags, doesn't mean you should leave them empty.
Posts are not dated, and no good way to find it out (– users want to know if you post regularly, and how active your site is). Not sure why anyone would leave out dates on posts unless they post so rarely that they want a post in 2006 to seem current in 2011? Be upfront on your website, show people you are current.
Page says “Coming soon!” (If it so does, it is better, if that page doesn’t exist.) Another of my pet hates. Why oh why would anyone put 'Coming soon' on a url?
Last but not least, useless content. I agree, why have any content if its useless. Content needs to be informative and interesting to read and presented in an easily readable form.

Contact Afford Web Design for help in avoiding these website designer problems and mistakes.

Rawbusiness features selling online versus the high street

2010-11-12T09:54:00.002Z

Rawbusiness Member Features article on Selling Online versus selling on the high street. Key differences are high lighted in these 2 different ways of marketing, with advantages and disadvantages for both. The importance of good designer lead websites is obvious for the online store with good ecommerce web designer and CMS secure sites being key to success. Afford Web Design with website designer Suffolk UK has experience in these needs.

Are looks everything in Webdesign?

2010-10-16T15:42:00.002+01:00

Surfing through different websites on the internet, a great looking website will always attract you as a viewer. And the looks of a website are very important. But websites can not thrive on looks alone.
A website has to not only look good and function properly. And you should always remember that the purpose of most websites is to be found on internet searches, to appear on page 1 of Google and to enable an increase in traffic to your business. Anything that might restrict any of these points should be used carefully.

When it comes to websites ranking on the search engines, robots are the key. And to achieve high ranking, you need the search engine robots on your side. Robots crawl through the text of your website but do not see images, images are more or less useless from the robots view. So any web design that is mainly images may well lose out when crawled by the robots compared to a website that has fewer images and more text. This is why flash websites can perform badly in search engine rankings. They look great but are difficult to crawl.

Websites needs to be designed as robot friendly as possible. It needs to be fully compliant with current web standards, none compliance can mean that a robot only crawls part of a web page rather than the whole page and so misses key points on your web page. A robots ideal web site would be pure text and code. Very boring for humans.

So for a website design to function well it needs to satisfy robots need for text and code and humans need for looks and images. So it is the balance of these two factors that is important. And a good web design should give equal effort to both aspects to give you a website that will perform.

So the answer to the question is NO looks are not everything in web design.
Feature article by Afford Web Design Suffolk UK in Raw Business http://www.rawbusiness.com/features/are-looks-everything-in-webdesign-afford-web-design-suffolk-discusses-157.php

What does a website bring to your business?

2010-10-03T13:51:00.004+01:00

Business web design Suffolk

When a business decides to get their first website, they see it as a tool to attract more customers and increase their business. And this is exactly what a website should give to a business, whether its a new website or an established website. Unfortunately alot of businesses don't really know what they want when they coomission a website design. They think that 'all websites are equal'. And this is far from true.

To illustrate what I mean by 'all websites are not equal' I will elaborate on this. At its simplest a website is an extra form of advertising for your business, like an online brochure or leaflet. And like any brochure or leaflet, there are several points that will determine whether your brochure will 'pull in extra business'. The biggest difference between paper and internet brochures, is that the internet offers so much instant choice to people. So you need to 'grab their attention' very quickly and a slick website may or may not do that. A few points to good website design for success in business.

Design of the website or brochure is important. A design that looks good is important in attracting attention. But equally important is a design that is easy to read, easy to follow and gives a clear call to action. A website looks great but is difficult to navigate or difficult to find contact details is little more than useless. So looks are important in website design but they are not everything in web design.
Website must project exactly what your business is about in an instant. For example a lovely picture of a motorbike on the front page does not on its own indicate whether you sell, repair, review, polish, drive, rent, photograph motorbikes or maybe sell motorbike clothing, holidays, garaging. The first page of your website has to convey exactly what you do within a few seconds because most people assess whether to stay on a web page or not within just a few seconds.
Web site design should be clearly show your contact details. Your contact details should not be an after thought in the footer but near the start of the web page. This is particularly important for 'smaller, unknown businesses'. Big businesses like Marks and Spencers are well known and don't need added credibility on a web page whereas small businesses that want to widen their market to become national or international need to give themsselves added credibility with good contact information. Many people are nervous of online information and added credibility is good.
Web site must be easy to navigate. If I land on your web page having searched for motorbike helmets, I need to be able to see exactly where to find my information on motorbike helmets. The information or page link should be very clear. If I can not see it within a few seconds I will go to another web site to find my information.
Links on web pages should work correctly. This may sound obvious but how many times have you clicked web links and either nothing happened or you were directed to a parked page? Web links must work correctly.

If all these web site design pointers have been addressed, you will have a working and useful website. The next step is to optimise your web site for the search engines to get found by the search engines. Affordable Website Design Suffolk UK can help achieve good business web sites within a sensible budget.

Worst Web site Design Mistakes

2010-07-04T18:18:00.002+01:00

PDF files on a web site are a lazy way for a web site designer to upload information. But users hate pdf files on a web page. They have to click to view in a new adobe window, and standard commands to save or print don't work. The only reason for ever using a pdf file is if there is a large document or manual available for printing.

A mass of text. A mass of text in a web page is difficult to read and boring to look at. Text is essential on all web pages because text is what robots 'see'. So make your text more interesting and easier to read with headings, sub headings, paragraphs and simplifed language if appropriate.

Tiny font size. Tiny font size causing tiny writting. It is important to make your web site acessible to all people not just the under 40 year olds. Use a font size that is easy for everyone to see.

No Page titles or poorly written page titiles. Page titles are an important part of web site design yet many people ignore this key information. Search engines use page titles to define what a web page is about. And when a page is bookmarked, the page title would is the default entry in the FAVOURITES listed. So make your page title work for you. Dont give your home page a page title of 'Home' but rather your company name or website name. View your page title in the html coding within the tags.

Too much Advertising. Web users have got used to adverts on line and tend to ignore banners and boxes that look like adverts. So dont put off your browsers with too many adverts.

Links that dont work. Links that take you to a web page that doesn't exist or has an error in the address are very annoying to users. Check all links are fully working so browsers get the most from your web site.

Check these common and very annoying mistakes are not on your website or web pages. So you keep your browsers longer so they may buy or make contact. Wed site design that is cost effective, reliable and easy to use from Afford Web Design.

Video on Google I/O Seo website review

2010-06-22T15:55:00.003+01:00

Video from Google I/O search engine optimisation review last month. It lasts 60 minutes but worth watching for the nuggets of seo information given if you want to improve your web site design. Matt Cutts and his team take a selection of web sites and look at how they could be improved and what may hinder high ranking by search engines. Includes information about meta tags, titles, descriptions, use of images, spamming and lots more using real sites to highlight main pitfalls in web design.

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Third part in series of Key SEO facts for Success

2010-06-19T20:25:00.003+01:00

SEO success

This third part of the series on key facts for seo success adds more key points to aid website success. This article focuses on 3 areas, namely Alt tags (also called alternate tags), Anchor tags and Checks to website ranking.

Firstly ALT Tags or ALTERNATE Tags are the words that you see if you hover your mouse over an image. Sometimes these words are useful and describe the image, and sometimes they seem to be nonesence. Although these words are not necessarily seen, because you may not mouse over an image, they are none the less important and add to seo of your web page. They are an opportunity to add extra keywords to your page. The article gives the exact script to insert on your web page.
Second point covered is Anchor Tags. These are the words that are used to hyperlink to other pages or websites, the hyperlink tags. Again this may seem like a small point but anchor tags are strong affirmations of what a web site or web page is about. So if an anchor link to a website called http://www.dirtydogs.com/ was on the words 'click here', this would indicate to a search engine robot that 'click here' was what the web site was about. Similarly if the hyperlink was to the words 'dirty dogs' this would obviously give a strong link to the web site that it was about dirty dogs and this would enhance the web sites seo.

Note that the keywords dog and wash are in both the filename and the text on the link. Why would anyone throw away this way of increasing a web page standing by linking to other pages and websites with words such as click here or press here. The article gives the exact script needed for the tags.

The third and final key point for seo covered is checking Website Ranking. And stressees that improved ranking can not and will not be instant. It takes time to improve seo or search engine optimisation for improved web site ranking. Ranking takes time and patience. New web sites will always be ranked low. A websites positioningneeds pages to be optimized, as well as promotion of web site.

If you can not commit to all these actions, call Afford Web Design, the affordable website designer in Suffolk UK and for just £75 per month we can get your website really well displayed (min 6 months contract).

Key Facts for SEO Success part2

2010-05-28T14:42:00.006+01:00

SEO success

Second part of the key seo facts for success series of articles published today with key seo facts for success2 (search engine optimisation success) published today. Written in a very understandable style for newblies as well as long established website designers. Tips for everyone to improve and check their web sites.
This second article focuses on spin on top ranking and some of the ways that less scrupulous seo search engine optimisation companies use to convince inexperienced customers to subscribe to their services. Cloaking of websites which is a dangerous activity and not considered legitimate by any serach engines. Do not get involved in this sort of non optimisation. Flash animation is discussed as a tool on web sites. It looks great to humans but no necessarily to robots and therefore search engines. So be aware of these problems with flash web sites. And finally a very simple tip that is all too often neglected and overlooked because it is so simple. Use your url names, file names, page names, image names to get th most from them. Why call a picture of a dog 1.jpg if you could call it dog.jpg. The serach engine robots would unerstand what your website was about better by this simple labelling system.
The next in series of seo search engine optimisation tips will be out soon to carry on the numerous tools that you should optimise to get the most out of your website and website design. If you implement these simple tools, your web site will benefit in rankings. Or if you prefer get an affordable search engine optimisation company to optimise all these items to increase your ranking. Of course a good small business website design company should automatically include all these tips as part of their normal web site design process.

More from Afford Web Design, the affordable web designer Suffolk.

Key Facts for SEO Success

2010-05-23T18:28:00.003+01:00

SEO success

New article on the key facts for seo success (search engine optimisation) is the first of several part series of articles on seo tips. Seo is key to the success of any website although alot of website owners are unaware of its importance. But the only way any website will rise to the top of any search engine is by adhering to clear guidelines and earning a good reputation.
This first article tackles ALT tags, the line of script that you sometimes see when you hover over an image. This script can not only describe the image it is written next to, but also add extra relevant keywords to a web page.
The second key fact discussed is Anchor text, the text that a hyperlink will be attached to. And it is import that this text is relevant to the hyperlink. For example if the hyperlink is to a page titled The Edge Restaurant Port Isaac then the anchor text should be these exact words or similar.
And the third key fact discussed is Page Rank and keeping a check on your page rank. Page rank is given by Google and is an indication of how much Google rates your website or web pages.
The next article in the series will be available in a week, so watch out for more seo tips or success in your web site.

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Plan for Search Engine Optimisation Success

2010-05-09T15:42:00.002+01:00

Before doing anything, it almost always pays to plan your strategy, and for website promotion and search engine promotion this is also true. And as with many things, there are various ways of planning your strategy, some better than others. For search engine optimisation, failing to plan is planning to fail. And this could be an expensive failing. I am going to outline what I see as key steps to take in planning seo success.

First choose your keywords. Keyword research should be one of the first things you do when designing a website and these keywords can then be used in your search engine optimisation campaign for seo.
Second, design your website with these keywords in mind. Design an eyecatching site with text and images. You need a mix as images catch peoples eye but text is what you need for the robots to understand what your page is about.
Thirdly, optimise your website with tags and headings to suit your keywords. Carefully word your title tag, description tag, keywords, headings and script.
Fourthly, submit your site to the search engines to be crawled and listed. Choose the search engines you use to fit the categories you want to list in and the countries you are wanting listings.
Fifthly, I'm afraid its then a waiting game. Search engines and listings are not instant, tey may take hours, days, weeks or months. In the meantime, analyze your traffic and ranking trends to see if you are being listed for the keywords or phrases you need. If you are inadvertently being listed for floral rather than floral dresses, you are not going to get found. And this may be because floral is sited as a word in your text more often than floral dresses or drresses. So then you can further optimise your site to get the right listings.
The key is to plan for all of these steps in advance and methodically work through them.

It is important to follow all the steps to get things right. Too many people think web promotion is just about submitting your website to search engines and directories and letting the robots crawl through your pages to get a ranking. But this is just a small part of the story, to make it really work you need to do the basic work of optiisation beore you submit to the search engines and directories. If you can't do all this yourself, find a budget UK seo company that understands all these issues and can get your website optimised and ranking for you, with affordable search engine optimisation.

More from Afford Web Design the Suffolk web designer in UK.

How to pick the keywords for your website?

2010-04-29T19:40:00.003+01:00

Web design

Picking the keywords for your website is one of the first things you should consider. But for many websites it is one of the last things considered, it is often an afterthought after the website has been designed and written. So if you want a new website or to revamp an existing website, keywords are the first thing you should address or your web designer should address.

If you listen to people talking about their business and website they may often say that they already have a website, and that they rank high on Google. Fine. But just because you rank high on Google doesn't necessarily mean you are getting the most out of your website. There are a number of issues:

First point is “What keywords is you website ranking for?” If your keyword is obscure and rarely searched for, even if you are number 1 on Google you will probably get little traffic.
So the second point is “What is the monthly search volume for your high ranking keyword?” Most people say the name of their business is the keyword that they rank for on Google. So unless your business is well known and searched for by many people, an national business or a high profile store business, it is likely that the search volume in tiny. And this will not grow your business. To check out how many search for a particular keyword term, go to the Google keyword tool and look at the search term and the search volume. This can really highlight the fact that the specific keyword chosen is all important.
Third point is to know what keywords your main competitors rank for? Surprisingly most businesses with website have no idea what their competitors use as keywords. It is important to know what keywords the top companies in any business sector are focusing on, so we can tailor our keyword searches.

For new business websites we would search for a keyword to work on. A relevant keyword should have an adequate search volume (say 3,000 per month) plus little competition. Once a good keyword has been identified, then the website can be tailored to this keyword to get ranked on that keyword. By selecting the correct keyword, we can often deliver results in a reasonable amount of time.

But to get your website performing really well and drawing in creased business, you must get ranked for more than one keyword, aim for multiple keywords to increase traffic. For this you need to consistently work on a website to get the benefits of keywords. Once you have a top 3 ranking for a keyword, it is well documented that a certain percentage of clicks will be received. And each new keyword that ranks will adds to the traffic volume.
So for to optimise website traffic and keywords, make these steps:

Identify a seed keyword to get started.
Use several keyword tools to research relevant keywords which have satisfactory search volumes.
Check competitors websites to discover the keywords they are targeting.
Build a keyword list of possible relevant keywords for website.
Select a target keyword to start optimising website.
Begin SEO process on customer’s website for the target keyword or build website using target keyword.
Once website achieves a top three ranking, return to step 5 and select a new keyword to target and add to original keyword.

Affordable Web site Design UK offers budget seo UK and affordable search engine optimisation.

Choosing a URL or Domain Name for your Website

2010-04-28T16:34:00.002+01:00

You have decided to get a new website or revamp your old website. You may have a very clear idea of what you want to call your website or you may have no idea. The name you call your website should be similar or the same as the domain name you choose or the url you choose. The domain name or url has to be purchased and can only be bought if noone else has already bought that name.
Buying a domain name or url is quite simple but an important part of affordable website design, just follow these steps:

First search the name you want to see if it is available. For example if you have a shop called Janes you may search for Janes and find that it is not available as Janes.co.uk or Janes.com or Janes.info but it is available as Janes.biz. Alternatively Janes may not be available at all. If your shop is very well established with a very large following on the high street, then you could either try to buy the domain Janes from someone that already has it, but this could be a costly option. A better option would be to add a slight variation to the name you are searching for, for example Janes-fashions or Janes-fashion-shop or Janes-sweets or Janes-sweet-shop or Janes-cakes or Janes-cake-shop. This slight variation has 2 effects it makes a new set of domain names available to search and it also better desribes your shop to anyone in the UK or further afield that may never have heard of it. People and the search engines would then know that Janes is either related to fashion or a fashion shop etc..

Once you have decided on the best domain name for your website, you then pay an annual fee to register the right to use the domain name. This registration fee is a very affordable part of web site design and may be as little as £10 per year, the url tags .com and .biz are more expensive than .co.uk or .me.uk and many other tags.

Once you are registered as the owner of the domain name, you have the right to use that domain name and no one else can use it. Next you need a website and then hosting for your website, this is the web space where your website will be placed online. Hosting may be payable per year or per month and may vary from £10 per month to £50 per month depending on your exact needs.

Selecting your domain name is an important part of your web site design , so choose carefully, once you have your name you do not want to change. Your domain name should ideally be the same as your web site name. So anyone that knows of your business or cause, they can easily remember your website name to be able to find your domain name url, this is invaluable in advertising for your website and aids affordable website design.

So if your business or cause is called Dirty Dogs then your website domain name should ideally be http://www.dirtydogs/ or http://www.dirty-dogs/ or something similar. This way your domain name 'is what it says' and the domain name could be the exact term that someone types in a search box looking for dirty dogs or how to clean dirty dogs. This helps to validate the website amd aids affordable search engine optimisation.

Of course lots of domain names are already owned and used by other people and businesses. So how easy is it to buy the name you want your web site? Well as already stated, what ever the term you are looking for, there are always a few variations that you can try if your first choice url is not available, such as

www.DirtyDog or www.Dirty-Dog or www.Dirty_Dog or www.DirtyDogs or www.Dirty-Dogs or www.Dirty_Dogs

and each of these variations could be tried with various end url tags such as .co.uk or .com or .net or .info or .org. Namely:

www.DirtyDogs.co.uk or www.DirtyDogs.com or www.DirtyDog.net or www.DirtyDogs.info or www.DirtyDogs.org

If your web site design is being done for you, they should help you select teh most appropriate domain name url choice to reflect your website, your business, your type of business as well as to be search engine friendly. All Afforable web site design UK include the purchase of a suitable url domain name.