Web Design Navigation and Architecture

Posted on September 18th, 2009 in General by avd-website-design-web-design-services

Web Design Navigation and Architecture

To use a website effectively, web designers much ensure that end users can:

    * Know where they are

    * Have confidence

    * Be assured they can easily get back to where they have been

Websites consist of a number of pages connected by multiple hyperlinks. These hyperlinks should be defined and placed where they are easily visible. Mouseover effects not only add flavor to the links but also make sure that the user doesn’t miss them.
Such architecture is referred to as a network, which contains pathways that allow a page to be visited repeatedly from many different locations. For most design situations, structuring begins with sorting out the distinct categories of information to be included in the site.
When users first arrive on a site they will have no clue as to its size, content or organization. Users must know what regions of the site exist and a site map can help provide this. Successful navigation should be possible on the basis of information provided on each page. If a page contains a number of clicks – able regions and several sets of buttons, the user is likely to get confused. One way to overcome this is to design is such a way, to that the structure is visible to the user and she can easily navigate through the site in a few steps.

The Website Homepage
The homepage can set the tone of the whole publication and introduce users to the site structure and methods of navigation. It’s like the cover of a book, which then draws the user into the site.
The right choice of a site-opening page can depend upon:

    * The nature of the site’s information

    * The frequency with which the visitors revisit the site

    * The frequency with which the site’s information changes

Websites like BBC, Adobe and Macromedia are large websites visited by tens of thousands of people daily and servicing many repeat end users. They contain a lot of pages, covers a wide range of topics and are update frequently.
Homepage Tips
Direct first time users to the site structure by introducing the navigation bar. Alert frequent users to recent additions. Some websites focus on introducing a firm’s range of professional services. Here the focus is on establishing new clients and not providing a random access service. Such sites have a narrative structure as visitors to the site are looking for an overview of the firm, its history and track record.
The homepages of such sites must load quickly and allow repeat visitors to skip some of the overview information. Other sites offer the latest information, and therefore need to be updated frequently.
If you are not sure if your web design is effective, why not contact a professional web design agency who will be able to help guide you through the process?

Web Design Navigation and Architecture / Keith McGregor

Keith McGregor is a partner of Strawberrysoup, a web design agency with offices in Chichester and Bournemouth. Strawberrysoup specialise in creative web design, content managed websites, search engine optimisation, search engine marketing and graphic design

Constructing a Sitemap

Posted on September 18th, 2009 in General by avd-website-design-web-design-services

Constructing a Sitemap

Reason for building a sitemap
Sitemaps provide an easy way for visitors to see and navigate the layout of your website. A sitemap is not just for human visitors, but search engine spiders as well. Your sitemap should be constructed like the outline of a book. Although this is not the only way to create a sitemap, it will be the easiest way for visitors to get where they want the quickest.

Implementation of your sitemap
The method of linking to your sitemap must be visible not only on your homepage, but on every page in your site. It should be consistently located in the same spot on every page so visitors do not have to spend too much time in locating it. Your sitemap should contain all of the main categories of your internet site with all sub-categories relevant to them listed like the table of contents in a book. The links in your sitemap need to be simple but descriptive with your keywords so visitors know where they are navigating to. This also aids the search engines when they crawl your site.

Using your sitemap as a default error page
A 404 error page is a page that displays the page cannot be found and as a result, most visitors will hit the back button or go back to the search engine looking for another site. Using your sitemap for this default error page, you will get the opportunity to keep the visitors that you might have lost. Your custom 404 error page should look like the rest of your Website pages. Creating a custom 404 error page is an important part of the search engine optimization process as well. During the life of your website, pages are going to be moved, edited and removed. When your website is re-indexed, instead of seeing the pages that no longer exist, the spider will be sent to the site map on the custom 404 page. Either way, whether it is a human or a computer that visits your site, going to a page with content is far better than seeing nothing at all.

Constructing a Sitemap / Pat L.

Pat L. started out as a novice creating a few niche sites and during that process gained huge amounts of knowledge in the website development process. You can visit http://www.abundantarticles.com for more information about developing and creating a website.

Website Design Tips to Boomerang SEO Success

Posted on September 18th, 2009 in General by avd-website-design-web-design-services

Website Design Tips to Boomerang SEO Success

The online marketplace works on salaebility of ideas. If you have a great idea and have the capability to sell it to web users, you will be successful here. This world is virtual – intangible and invisible. Here, buyers do not know sellers and vice versa. As a businessman, your website is your identity, the only instrument that can lead to your success.

Given its significance, website design and development is one of the core online marketing services available in the marketplace today. Scores of agencies and companies are offering this service to businesses looking for brighter prospects in this domain. Most of the designing elements are now being tailored in accordance with search engine guidelines, so as to better revenue generation from search engine marketing.

Experts believe SEO web design is the order of the day and thus offer the following essential design tips:
i) Optimise every page of your website. Most developers focus only on the homepage or subscription pages. The fact is, search engines crawl and index any page that has relevant information with regard to the keyword in the searched query. Therefore, it is advisable to optimise as many pages of your website as possible.

ii) In the world of search engine optimisation, keywords are supreme. To create an effective campaign, it is imperative that you choose the best keywords and phrases and use them in meta tags and content sagaciously. These words will eventually help search engine spiders track and index you in their result listings. You can make use of keyword research tools freely available online, and pick the most competitive ones for your business.

iii) Content still happens to be the king of online marketing. Get into content optimisation on a frequent basis and also alter the content of your static pages once in a while. This will ensure that your pages are indexed every time they are crawled.

iv) Develop an extensive link exchange programme for your website. Use creative website design techniques to generate inbound links to your pages. By doing so, you can get targeted traffic and also make navigation easy for search engine spiders.

v) In terms of design, you ought to be innovative and appealing for web users. Lure them to your site by offering something different, and then retain their attention using attractive pages.

The onus of generating revenues for your business lies only on your website. It is therefore, highly important that you work towards building a special image amongst your potential customers and thereby coax them into buying your products or services.

Website Design Tips to Boomerang SEO Success / aisha.danna

Aisha Danna has been associated with the domain of website marketing services for quite some time now. Working with ePurple Media, she assists clients in all sorts of web services like website design, e commerce website development, Website Redesign, etc, and guides them to online success.

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