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Are You Looking To Add Social Media To Your Web Design Pages? Try This!

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Many people are very interested in learning the fundamentals of web design, but the prospect of doing so can be intimidating. If you’re interested in web design but suffering from a bit of information overload, this article can help. Read on for some basic, easily-digestible tips on how to employ outstanding web design techniques.

A simple to navigate website will retain visitors. It should be painless to locate important links and other information. Having a menu bar on your site can also make navigation easier. Always post the links to your primary pages on every sub-page to keep visitors on your site.

A good website should be compatible with multiple browsers, so you should test your website in various browsers to ensure that any visitor can view it correctly. Even though your website may display perfectly on Internet Explorer, this doesn’t mean that it will look the same on Chrome, Safari, or Firefox. Before you set your site to go live, look at how every page shows up in all the major browsers.

Always delete any outdated content that is on your website. If you have something on your site that lists an event that happened months ago, chances are you have lost some readers. Readers want to read sites that are current. Keeping old information on your site demonstrates that your site lacks attention.` Establish a schedule to update your website, and get rid of the content that is no longer relevant.

Let users cancel actions if they desire. For example, put a “clear” button on a form, an unsubscribe link on all newsletters and a “cancel” button on orders. If you do not give visitors the option to get out of an action they do not want to continue with, you are pressuring them into something. This makes them less likely to come back or buy from you in the future.

Free design software is a valuable tool for quickly setting up a website. Though expensive software is certainly available, free products can work just as well when it comes to setting up and running your site. A simple search is easy to do, and it produces a way for you to determine which free software and tools are best suited to your needs.

Step up your creativity when you write your site’s “About Us” page. Add some autobiographical information to share with visitors. Make it a little more exciting! Give visitors insight into you, the designer. Help them understand how you began designing websites, which other designers you consider to be mentors, and where you are going from here.

Buy books that can help you become a great web designer. Begin with books that teach to your skill level, and progress from there. It is important to learn quickly, but you should ensure that you are not skipping any vital information!

Most people know about Photoshop, and they realize that it takes some effort and knowledge to use it effectively in web design. However, many overlook another program called Dreamweaver that is extremely useful for web design also. Do yourself a favor, and familiarize with Dreamweaver and the benefits it can provide.

Use a basic layout to get the hang of designing a website. You want to start out basic and then get advanced later on when you become better and more familiar with the whole web design process.

You have had some exposure to web design now. Enough exposure, that moving forward should be a bit more comfortable for you now. Just keep in mind that information on web design is always changing, so you should constantly be seeking out new ideas to keep you up-to-date with the times. Skill and enthusiasm, coupled with resources like those found here, will jump start your web design projects and bring you much success.

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10 Ways To Improve Your SEO Ranking

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seo-rankingsBy now, everyone is aware that getting found on the major search engines is how the average business goes from unknown to online star. Site owners are also aware that in order to get found, search engine optimization (SEO) needs to be on their to-do list. All of that said, there is only a small fraction of site owners who know where to begin to do that. Let’s look at 10 things you can do right now to immediately boost your SEO ranking:

  1. Create Content Regularly – Search engines love websites that deliver fresh, original content that is actually of real interest to the site visitor. Even if you have to outsource, make sure that new content goes on your site regularly.
  2. Keywords In The URL – Make sure to name you pages so that the keyword is included in the title. For example www.mywidgets.com/page1.html tell the visitor and search engines nothing, whereas www.mywidgets.com/homemadewidgets.html tells everyone what they will find on that page.
  3. Remove Duplicate Content – Is there anything worse than someone that keeps repeating themselves? It’s annoying and counterproductive, so don’t do it to the visitors to your website.
  4. Get Social – The search engines are taking social networks in account more and more, so make sure that your social bases are covered on your site.
  5. Get Even More Social – While having a presence on social network sites like Facebook and Twitter is now essential, so is making use of social bookmarking sites. Digg, Stumbleupon, and others can drive a large amount of traffic to your site and create links that the search engines eat up.
  6. Get Creative With Title Tags – Keywords play a major role in improving SEO ranking, so use them wherever you can. The title tags for your site are a great place to start and can be incredibly effective at helping you reach your target audience.
  7. Keep Your Link Quality High – A single link to your website from a respected source is much more valuable than a hundred from low quality websites that may not even be relevant to your niche. Always go with quality over quantity if you want to improve your ranking.
  8. Build A Great Body – No, we are not suggesting that you hit the gym, but rather that you structure the content on your pages for maximum effect. That means adding bold headlines, bullet points, anchor text, and more. It helps your audience quickly find what they need when they show up at your site.
  9. Content Is King – We mentioned earlier about the need for fresh content, but just putting up keyword heavy stuff with an eye on the search engines won’t help. You need to deliver content that will inform, entertain, and make people come back for more.
  10. Audit Your Website – Audit is usually a word that sends shivers up the spine, but in the case of your website, it should be considered a must. A full audit will reveal issues that need to be addressed ASAP.

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Mark Ford is the Owner of Red Website Design – One of the UK’s leading website design and internet marketing companies.