Internet Marketing Review Blog

Archive for the ‘Web Design’ Category

In the success story of a website, both design and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) play an important role as their work is vital for a successful online presence. While SEO helps in driving traffic to your site, the designing part helps in grabbing the attention of the users. Even though both are essential for the success of a website, yet they employ very different techniques and ideas.

Designing Part

Any experienced web designing company, whether based in the UK, the USA or Asia, would keep one objective in common while designing a web site ?” and that is what is the purpose of the web site and who is it being made for.

SEO Part

If the designer is responsible for making the website look appealing and be user-friendly, it is the job of the SEO experts to make its presence felt amongst its target audience. SEO helps in attracting traffic to a website to increase its visibility.

SEO does not only mean placing relevant keywords at the right place. It is an intricate and laborious process that involves indexing of pages, directory submissions, link building, talking about the web site in relevant social forums and networking sites and so on.

Which one is more important?

The credit for overall popularity of a website can’t be given to either designers or SEO experts. It is a joint venture and there must be a balance between the two. One cannot single-handedly establish the brand identity of an online business without the support of the other.

Suppose, the SEO experts have successfully driven traffic to your site, but what happens if the user doesn’t find the site up to the standard? Again, what’s the use of a good web design if its online presence is significantly low?

Last but not the least, it is essential to find an affordable web design company which also provides SEO services . Firstly you don’t have to look for two companies and secondly, there are few chances of clashes between the two different departments.

Technorati Tags: search engine optimization, seo services, Web Design

Below is a simple overview of each of main types of sites to help you understand what best fits the requirements of your business.

Company Portfolio Website
A company portfolio site acts as an advert for your organisation and its products and services. The site should normally have a few pages including your business’s custom logo design, with content explaining to people about your business and providing important information about what you have to offer.  Basically, it serves the same job as your printed brochure but allows you to reach a much wider audience and without the print and postal costs.

A brochure site can also include an inbuilt weblog, so that you can combine the benefits between a traditional information site and the new blog marketing.

Weblog
There is a lot of talk about blogs and blog marketing but you might not be familiar with what it means in practice.  Basically, blog is an abbreviation of weblog, and as the name suggests it is a type of an online diary.  This may sound irrelevant from a business point of view but it does have some real benefits.

It’s a very good tool if you want to write regular dated posts on a subject related to your organisation or your personal interest. For example, you can publish industry news, tell the story of your company, or demonstrate your professional expertise by giving regular tips to your customers.

It also has the added feature that it allows readers to subscribe to your posts and to write comments, which is a good way of engaging your target customers in dialogue.

Just like any site, a blog has a proper domain name and will be found in search engines, but its purpose and layout is different from a full brochure site.

As mentioned above, a blog could be integrated as a section of your organisation’sbrochure website.

E-commerce Website
An e-commerce website is an online shop.  It is very different than a brochure or blog site because it not only displays information and products, but can take orders directly from customers and process credit card payments.

This takes your site to a new level, from a powerful marketing vehicle to a direct source of revenue.

Other Features
There is no end of possibilities to what can be achieved with a website and there are many more possibilities such as online communities, and interactive games.

Anything is possible and you are really only limited by your imagination and your budget.  Even a basic website can be optimised for your needs with additional features such as:
•    Event registration forms
•    Clocks and calendars
•    Photo galleries
•    Fund-raising widgets such as Justgiving.com
•    Web 2.0 marketing tools such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube integration

You should also think carefully about factors such as accessibility and seo web design to ensure that your website is easy to find and easy to navigate, as well as making sure that your brand design looks good on the web.

Whatever the size or type of your organization, a website can form a integral part of your marketing strategy.   What is most important is that you think carefully about what you really want from a website and what your customers are likely to want from it.

Technorati Tags: Brand Design, Custom Logo Design, SEO Web Design, Types of websites, Web Design, website design