Having an eye catching website is great, but are you optimizing your website to allow the best performance possible? I receive several emails a day from clients asking how they can get more hits to their websites, what can be done to increase sales, and how to prepare their sites for search engines. There are very simple things that can be done to help your website perform its best.
First of all, a websites load time is important for many reasons. No one wants to site and wait a minute for a page to show up. Slow loading websites can attribute to lost sales for your business! Many customers will actually avoid a website that takes a long time to load. You can keep your websites load time down drastically but keeping the size 26kb or smaller. If you are unsure of the size if your site you can calculate the size of your web page by highlighting the HTML document, then click on 'File' and 'Properties' and see your file size. Then repeat same step for each graphic you have on that page. Add each file size together to get the exact size of that page. One of the easiest ways to get a faster loading page is to shrink the images on your website. A GIF graphic can normally be reduced by around 30-40% without loosing any sharpness.
A site that contains broken links gives a bad impression to your visitors and can be a cause of lost visitors. Aside from the fact that broken links look unprofessional, some of the major search engines and portals may not index your page if it has broken links or missing images. You should check your website once it is complete to make sure every link is working properly, to avoid a possible business loss.
Search engines do not index images, so it is a good idea to always add ALT tags to your images to make sure the search engines recognize all of the content on your site. ALT tags that contain keywords can also be used to increase your keyword frequency and help you achieve better rankings.
When creating meta tags do NOT repeat the same key word several times. This is called 'keyword spamming' and it is disliked by the search engines. Let's say your website offers gift baskets, use the keyword 1 or two times and that is it. If your keywords are baby gift basket, hostess gift, wedding basket, corporate gift basket, holiday gift basket, you have repeated the keyword gift and basket to many times. You can minimize your keyword characters by using gift basket, wedding, gifts, baby, wedding, corporate, and holiday. This way your website is not considered keyword spamming.
Many designers often separate keywords with commas. Instead of separating each keyword with a comma, just separate them using a space. By doing this, it will allow the search engines to combine your keywords into phrases, for people who use phrases to search.
These are very simple things that will help you see a big difference!
About The Author
Tara Grant, owner of http://www.designbytara.com, http://www.designbytara.com, and http://www.designbytara.com.
Tara is a mom of two small children and a warm-hearted entrepreneur. An avid networker in the WAHM community, Tara's website designs and promotion packages are reasonably priced and geared toward female entrepreneurs and small business
recurring cleaning service Mundelein ..The internet has taken over our lives with a vengeance,... Read More
1) A marketing necessityI still hear it said from time... Read More
Selecting the Perfect Domain NameThe first issue I have with... Read More
A website is like an information flow, with you as... Read More
I recently received an unsolicited e-mail from some company offering... Read More
2 Golden Rules for an Engaging Website35% of visitors fail... Read More
Most people know they need a website in order to... Read More
Why do some sites succeed while the vast majority of... Read More
"I don't sell anything online, I don't advertise online, in... Read More
Think up a name and check if yourname.com is available.... Read More
Designing an E-commerce Web site is not as simple as... Read More
More and more non-profit organizations are developing websites to help... Read More
Recently, a friend asked "What's the deal with those DIY... Read More
Keywords in Search Engine Optimizing and Search Engine Marketing are... Read More
An automated accessibility tool is a piece of software which... Read More
There are many different traffic analysis tools, ranging from simple... Read More
Does your website have a links/resources page?Do you exchange reciprocal... Read More
1. Upload robots.txt file in to your root directory and... Read More
You've decided to create a website to market your products... Read More
I still remember it very clear ... It was almost... Read More
Every business needs to know how it is doing. That's... Read More
80% of your Web site is Maintenance!Once your Web site... Read More
--------------------------------Why Should You Create a website?--------------------------------A. What do you want... Read More
The art of turning website visitors into paying customers depends... Read More
For years now I've been looking to start my own... Read More
tidy up service Buffalo Grove ..That's right. Your method, behavior and strategy you are now... Read More
2 Golden Rules for an Engaging Website35% of visitors fail... Read More
The internet has taken over our lives with a vengeance,... Read More
No matter the size of your business, having a web... Read More
D.zigns dzignerwebs The Basics Before starting on... Read More
I talk with so many people who have small businesses... Read More
In this day and age most businesses consider having their... Read More
QUESTION: Should I build and maintain my business Web... Read More
Does your website have a links/resources page?Do you exchange reciprocal... Read More
Q. Hey, Cathy: I'm just setting up a website. What... Read More
Creatively marketing your corporate site takes time in the set... Read More
"Build it and they will come."--Filed of Dreams (1989) If... Read More
Building a new website can be a lengthy task. From... Read More
1. Splash pagesMost of the time splash pages are uncalled... Read More
One of the things that many people overlook when building... Read More
If you're an up and coming graphic/web designer just out... Read More
Simply ensuring your website is accessible to screen reader users... Read More
Optimal website design is the art of logical navigation.It will... Read More
Why do some web sites reap huge benefits while others... Read More
Are bloated images slowing down your web site and causing... Read More
What to do if you are an artist after you... Read More
This is a growing concern amongst many business owners. Does... Read More
My life's greatest passion is a safari hobby. And what... Read More
The needs of screen magnifier users are overlooked when implementing... Read More
The first thing my business consultant (read brother-in-law) asked me,... Read More
Web Development |