Thursday, 26 January 2012

How a Well Designed and Well Maintained Website is a Money Spinner







One of the most critical steps in creating a new web site is the design phase. If this crucial phase is skipped then the results are: site difficult to navigate, purpose of site difficult to recognize, too many graphics and not enough text, bad colors, and other obvious errors.

Before designing the website think for a while. What is the purpose of your site? What do you want a visitor to do? Buy something? Send you emails? Join an association? Whatever your purpose, that's what your site should be designed for. If you want your visitor to purchase something, then you must make it easy and convenient. Everything must flow to the purchase, and nothing must stand in the way. If you want them to join your association, then flow your site to that.

Take a look at some of the rules to be followed while designing a website
  • ALWAYS link back to your home page. You have to give your visitor a way back to the rest of the site no matter where he lands. This is critical.
  • Put a button on every single page which allows your visitors to send you an email. A form is better than going to the email program because you have more control of the format and what questions you can ask.
  • Make sure your color scheme works. You should not hurt your visitor's eyes.
  • Pay attention to load times. Don't include big graphics, or if you must then thumbnail them to be kind to your less patient visitors.
  • Stay legal - don't steal images, text or bandwidth.
  • Stick to the point. You want your visitor to do something - don't wander around or you may lose him.
  • Design for search engines. Include meta-tags, ALT tags on images and you MUST be sure to include a descriptive title.
After the successful website and graphic design there are many things that have to be done on a regular basis to ensure that the web site remains useful and functional. Some of the tasks are listed below:

Check your links
This task has to be performed on a regular basis. This is the tendency for broken links to appear all over a site. It is most common with external links but can occur occasionally with internal links.

Change Your Site
People expect sites on the web to be constantly changing. If your site is static and unchanging there is no reason for someone to come back again. One major way to return them is to change the content often and to be sure that your visitors know it is changing.

Stay Up-to-Date
Stay up-to-date on new technologies which you can use to improve your web site. In addition, getting certified, joining organizations and attending conferences is essential to stay current and active.

Check Your Site's Security
Learn as much as you can about web site security, and ensure that, to the best of your abilities and knowledge, that your site is secure. This ensures that your customers and visitors information remains confidential and safe. It also protects you and your web host from harm.

Choose the right Web Development Company who creates a Website Design and maintenance plan that will ensure your web site is performing at its optimum level. This is essential if you wish to maintain or increase sales and stay ahead of your competitors.

About 8trackweb-8 Track Web is a leading professional Web Design, Graphic &Logo Design and Web Development Company in San Diego, California with specialist Graphic Designers and Content Developers delivering creative and effective results. For more information visit our website www.8trackweb.com

Thursday, 12 January 2012

Ecommerce Web Design for Small Business








When starting a brand-new online store for a small business, it is better to choose a pre-existing design template rather than a design done from scratch.

• Templates. If you are not quite sure what kind of design you'd like, you can browse through the design templates included with most hosted online store programs.

• Themes. Some online store builders take the design template concept one step further, with "themes." Themes are essentially templates that include not only basic design elements but also text styles such as font faces and sizes. Themes also allow for slightly different pages across a website with a single unified design, without having to configure each page individually. For instance, a web store theme might include a product description page, a product category page, an "add to cart" page, and a checkout page. Just by choosing a single theme, you have all the pages in the shopping cart designed with a single, unified professional design.

• Theme builder. If you want to make changes to a theme–say a different font or a different color–some web store software packages make it easy with a "theme builder." With the theme builder, you can select values for features such as color and font. You can even choose to build a theme from scratch. You don't need to know anything about HTML; the interface will be much like a word processing program.
Building Your Online Store: Inventory
The foundation of any online store is the products or services being sold. With most web store and shopping cart software packages, the functions for adding, removing, and pricing items are collectively called "inventory."

One of the great things about using a hosted web store software package is that if you do have trouble setting something up, you can get help quickly from customer service.
Adding New Web Pages to an Online Store
If you want to add new pages to your online store, the store creator software can help. If all you want is to add a new product, you only have to use the "add a product" feature, which is often listed under "inventory."
However, if you want to add pages for sales copy, manuals, privacy policies, terms and conditions, the store creator interface is the way to do it. Most online store creators have a way of adding pages to a web store without having to use HTML; you simply type in your text in the form and upload any images.


Getting Your Store Found in Search Engines
In order for your online store to generate the most business possible, you’ll want to make sure that your store is easily searchable for Internet shoppers. Unfortunately, some web stores create pages using a dynamic script that search engines cannot index.
The best way to check whether a web store or shopping cart software produces "search-engine-friendly" pages is to check the documentation; software that's search-engine-friendly will usually say so.

While choosing a company for your ecommerce website design project, make sure that your new ecommerce store is user friendly, professional and search engine friendly. Once you have the ecommerce web site you've been waiting for, show it to the online world by advertising through pay per click and SEO services and let everyone know about the products or services you offer.


About 8trackweb-8 Track Web is a leading professional Web Design, Graphic &Logo Design and Web Development Company in San Diego, California with specialist Graphic Designers and Content Developers delivering creative and effective results. For more information visit our website www.8trackweb.com

Friday, 23 December 2011

Basic Web Design Standards








The appearance of a web site is one of the most essential elements of your online success. Your product or service will be analyzed by the appearance of your web site. Poor web design is one of the greatest causes of a business failure. There are thousands of Internet businesses struggling to make online success. With improper web design most make very little or no money and end up closing their site in failure.

Take a look at how to design a professional looking web site specifically designed to sell products and services.

Creating a Template

when you begin website design, your goal should be to create a template that you can use to create each page of your web site. This will give your entire site the same look
and feel.

A template is simply a web page pattern that contains your entire page design, logo, images, navigational links and a specific area for your content. However, your template won't contain any content, as each time you create a page with your template; you'll save it with a different page name.

Formatting Your Pages

It is recommend placing your entire page content within HTML tables. Tables will enable you to have complete control over your content and the way it is displayed.

Placing your entire page content within a single table will significantly increase your site's load time. Stacking your tables will enable you to benefit from the powerful formatting capabilities of tables, while keeping your site's load time down.

Creating Attracting Home Page

Your main page is important for your business and should specifically let your visitors know exactly what you are offering. If your potential customer can't find your product or service, they definitely won't waste a lot of time looking for it. They will go on to the next site and probably never return. They are visiting your site for a specific purpose. They want something your site offers. Provide them with what they are looking for and you wll attain the benefits.


Branding will play a major role in your success. Make sure you place your company Logo Design and slogan in the top left corner of each page. This will not only assist your visitors in remembering your site, but it will also give your pages the same look and feel. Keep your main page as small as possible and include your most important elements.


Navigation

when you begin designing your pages, keep in mind, your visitors may enter your site from pages other than your main. Make sure you include good navigational links on every page. Place your navigational links together at the top, bottom, left or right side of the page. Use tables to neatly align your links and maintain an organized and uniform appearance throughout.


Try to keep the number of clicks required to get from your main page to any other page on your site down to three or four.

Fonts

One of the most important parts of a web page is text. The way in which you display the text on your web page will have a great impact on your success. It can either make your page look very professional or very unprofessional.


When placing text within your web page, always be consistent with your fonts. Don't use different fonts throughout your pages. The standard fonts used on the Internet are Arial and Verdana. Arial and Verdana are the standard as they are the easiest to read on a computer screen.


Background and Text Colors

Be alert when selecting your background and text colors. Bulky backgrounds make text difficult to read and draw the attention away from the text. In addition, always be consistent with your background theme on each page of your site. Select your colors very carefully, as colors affect visitor’s mood. Try to use the colors based on the type of effect you are trying to achieve. However, it's always best for your text areas to have a white background with black text.


Working with a good Website Design Company will have many advantages. They will provide you business proposals including the timeframe, features, terms and conditions of a project. Choose Web Designers, providing creative, innovative, quick and quality Website Designing Solutions.

About 8trackweb-8 Track Web is a leading professional Web Design, Graphic &Logo Design and Web Development Company in San Diego, California with specialist Graphic Designers and Content Developers delivering creative and effective results. For more information visit our website www.8trackweb.com

Monday, 12 December 2011

Importance of Website Maintenance and Re-Design



Maintenance of a website is an absolute necessity if you don’t want to lose your visitors. Maintaining your web site means continuously updating it with fresh content, keeping it free from errors like broken links and sloppy codes to maintain a high position in the search engines. A website should be updated regularly, have new features added and must have working links. Sometimes website requires redesign when it has unorganized content and poor usability. Website redesign is a perfect opportunity to put things back on track. It will also result in better user experience.

With any redesign it is great time to do little rethinking. By understanding what people are looking for from your site you will be able to better position that information within the architecture of the entire site. Users of your website make quick judgment within seconds viewing your homepage. By making an outstanding first impression with a clean and professional look the user gets a sense of trust for the company behind the site.

Your site could have exact information a specific user is looking for. However if it takes too long for them to locate it chances are they will go somewhere else to find the information. By making your site as user friendly as possible you will be able to guide the user to specific areas of content. Also it leads the user to other areas of website that they might not have known about.

Broken links will annoy visitors making them click elsewhere off your site, thus losing a potential customer. Businesses that once linked to your site may have closed down, thus causing broken links to appear. Check for broken links on your site at least once a month. Search engines will more regularly spider your site if the content on your web pages is continually updated or changed. One excellent method is to add a new article to your site every week or two.

You may be getting a lot of hits or visitors to your site but no one is buying. Your web copy could be at fault. Try rewriting it; focus primarily on the benefits of your product. Sometimes changing one or two lines can increase the percentage of sales from your site. Create a web site maintenance plan that will ensure your web site is performing at its optimum level. This is essential if you wish to improve your Internet Marketing or increase sales and stay ahead of your competition.

New features can dramatically improve the user experience. Online calendar that allow users to register for events is a perfect example of how a simple feature increases the value of the site. As such company does not need a person to answer the calls for every registration. With features like this your users will have more interaction with your site and company.

The main goal of a Website Repair or re-design is to create better experience for your users. There are many approaches to attain this. It may be new look, revised navigation scheme or a complete examination. With a perfect Website Design your site will reflect your company and ensure sense of trust with your present and future customers.

About 8trackweb-8 Track Web is a leading professional Web Design, Graphic &Logo Design and Web Development Company in San Diego, California with specialist Graphic Designers and Content Developers delivering creative and effective results. For more information visit our website www.8trackweb.com

Friday, 25 November 2011

Why Custom Web Designing is Essential?









Invention of technology and internet made the lives of people easier and innovative. The level of personal interaction has improved with the help of websites where people can communicate online. Websites play a vital role in growth and development of a business. People prefer companies that have a well-designed website with great first impression. No matter how good your offerings are but, if the website is poorly designed you would lose the business to your competitors. Among the best ways to design and develop a website of your company the preferred way is to get a customized web design that creates a positive brand image.

Since every organization is different, it follows a unique approach for conducting its business. For this reason it is best for the organizations to rely on custom web software applications to meet unique requirements in the best possible way. With custom web design and style, a company can trace its solutions strategically to attract home businesses and broaden online business. If you would like your small business to shine, picking custom web-site structure will probably be the smartest solution.

Benefits of Custom designing in your site
With custom web development you can customize your current and future needs on the site easily. A very detailed and functional site can be built as per your requirements. You can make your Website Development company understand about your requirements and can go for improvements and changes on the site from time to time. Modifications and developments on the site are very easy with custom web development.

By means of Custom Website Design one can easily communicate products and services to customers. If a company contains a poor looking web site, the confidence of its prospective customer will drop down. Custom web developing helps in building up customers’ self-confidence in their services and brand. If your web site seems to be qualified, the visitors would believe that company has accurate resources to facilitate them with top class services or products.

With just one glimpse of your web page, your customers will be convinced that you are surely one of the best companies to be with. If you have a custom design on your site, it will give your purchasers a personal touch and your website will get a unique identity. This is certainly quickly attained if your web page is perfectly configured and pleasantly designed. With customized applications, your website will be straightforward in convincing your customers that you provide the specified products services they intend to attain. This gains assurance of your customers about your products and solutions.

Over all, website Custom Programming is a charming mix of web design, content and styles to reflect ideal individuality of your firm. While looking to obtain a custom web site development, elements that have to be taken care are suitable navigation, look and feel, right customer help and newest strategies. Before handing over your requirements to a Custom Web Applications development company make sure to conduct a proper research and go through the profile of the service provider. Choose a reputed web design company that provides highest quality custom web design and development services.

About 8trackweb-8 Track Web is a leading professional Web Design, Graphic &Logo Design and Web Development Company in San Diego, California with specialist Graphic Designers and Content Developers delivering creative and effective results. For more information visit our website www.8trackweb.com


Wednesday, 2 November 2011

Basics to Design a Successful Website



The purpose of the website design is to create a unique and attracting atmosphere that facilitates a visitor’s sustained stay on the website. Websites that do not clearly present information about their products and services through the layout of their site will maintain at lower volume of visitors than those who have made efforts in planning and formatting their sites. Here are some basic principles that will surely help you provide some inspirational ideas to begin the process for an excellent website design.

Client Feedback

Asking for client’s feedback is the most important factor for the web designers in all web design projects. Though you may have a great idea for a design, gather critical information from your client before starting anything. Here are some typical questions to ask the clients.
  • What does the company represent?
  • What goods or services does the company offer?
  • Does the company have an existing logo or branding identity?
  • What is the overall goal for the website?
  • List out some competitor sites and discuss what works for them.
  • Any design style or color preferences?
  • Who are the company's desired targeted audience?

With this basic information in hand, you will be able to design and develop several preliminary layout sketches that are in line with your client's expectations.

Keep It Simple

Most websites have very similar structures. Logos on the top left, menus placed horizontally or in a left column and content as the focus of the web page. Although there are many different ways to organize the various elements, only a few arrangements are natural. So keep the web page structure simple and sensible.


Architecture

You must always aim to create a good balance, so that your users find the pleasing design as well as interesting content. The main navigation menu should always be clearly visible on the web page, and each link or tab should have a descriptive title. Menu buttons that changes appearance and indicate the active page or section helps your visitors to easily proceed deeper into the website.

Whitespace

Whitespace or negative space refers to any section of a design that is not filled in by letters or images. A few web designers and some clients often feel a need to fill every inch of a web page with images or content. Without this whitespace, the overall design will feel crowded and unbalanced. The visitor will not know what to focus on. Negative space helps a web design “breathe”.

Balance

Always keep an eye out for the overall balance of your design. Don't load up one column with content and leave the neighboring column relatively empty. Make sure the elements on either side of a layout are balanced in a logical manner.

 Unity

A unified design layout is one that works as a whole rather than being identified as separate individual components. The different elements of a design should interact with one another in a unified manner so the overall design looks planned and organized. 

The ultimate aim of the website design is to provide the users a pleasing experience. Prefer to go for a professional website design & development company who ensures that the site designed by them has minimal errors, and runs perfectly.

About 8trackweb-8 Track Web is a leading professional Web Design, Graphic &Logo Design and Web Development Company in San Diego, California with specialist Graphic Designers and Content Developers delivering creative and effective results. For more information visit our website www.8trackweb.com

Wednesday, 26 October 2011

Finding the Right San Diego SEO Company for Your Business





In Today’s world people are relying more and more on Internet for researching and buying various products and services. With so many people using the Internet every day for shopping, education, and entertainment there is no reason why not to target these potential buyers. So in this highly competitive world, San Diego Search Engine  Optimization Services have become quite popular and are widely used to promote a website, attract more and more visitors, and convert them into customers. This leads many businesses and companies hiring a San Diego Internet Marketing or SEO expert.

SEO services are aimed at boosting the traffic to a client's website through organic or unpaid means. This means creating and designing a website in such a way that search engines can index and easily find the pages. SEO services include the development of new ways and techniques to boost the visibility of a website.

SEO is a highly specialized job and requires a high degree of expertise to be successfully and effectively accomplished. Due to high demand, the number of specialized companies that offer SEO services in San Diego has increased. Various packages offered by SEO organizations are prepared in a manner that can suit the needs and budgets of both small and large organizations.

While it makes a lot of sense for a website owner to opt for the services of an SEO Company, it is also important to choose an SEO organization carefully. Some of the things that can be kept in mind are that the SEO firms provide around the clock services. It is important for the organization to understand the strategy that is being used by the SEO. Some organizations rely on link farm and black hat strategies and hence should not be chosen. You should always engage an organization that uses White hat Strategies.

In addition to this, the San Diego SEO firm should also be sending continuous reports to the business organization. These reports have the track of visitors and the details of the source from where your link has been taken. This will provide the information as to where your traffic is coming from. If the source happens to be a spam website then it has the potential to harm the website and does not help in increasing the relevant hits.

One of the ways that can go a long way in choosing the San Diego SEO service organization is to research the service providers. You can go through various reviews, read plenty of articles and news on search engine optimization and search on the internet about the concept. This will allow you to choose the most suitable SEO service provider for your business. A good way to go looking out for an SEO service provider is to set the objectives that you want to achieve from the SEO. This will go a long way in selecting the most effective SEO service provider that suits your business model.

With increasing competition, a number of SEO firms provide services on low prices. However, choosing an optimal partner which provides value for money should be the aim rather than only opting for a cheap service provider.

About 8trackweb-8 Track Web is a leading professional Web Design, Graphic &Logo Design and Web Development Company in San Diego, California with specialist Graphic Designers and Content Developers delivering creative and effective results. For more information visit our website www.8trackweb.com