Content Marketing

Web site design is not rocket science but you have to avoid certain fatal flaws or your site will never get off the ground. You must also sidestep these common design mistakes if you want your web site to reach its fullest potential.

In other words, there are certain vital elements of website design you must get right or it's game over before you even get started. These are the design elements which every successful site possesses, essential components every webmaster must consider when designing a profitable site.

The Right Keywords

Perhaps one of the most deadly design flaws has to do with keywords. Many novice webmasters fail to target the right keywords when designing their sites.

Keywords are the vital lifelines of any well designed web site. Basically, keywords are the exact words or phrases web users type into search engines to find what they're looking for on the internet.

You must get this right or it may spell disaster for your site. You must target the right keywords and optimize your site for them in all the search engines.

Most SEO experts suggest you have your main keyword phrase in the domain name of your site. This domain name should be directly related to the topic of your site. If you design a site on gaming laptops, then these keywords should be in your domain. All pages on your site should be related to these main keywords.

But first you must make sure your keywords are good searchable keywords, i.e. a large number of people must be searching for these keywords each day in the search engines in order to supply a steady stream of interested visitors or potential customers to your site.

How Do You Find Good Keywords?

There are many free keyword suggestion tools that you can use. All the major Pay-Per-Click programs such as Google Adwords, Yahoo! Marketing (Overture) and MSN Adcenter have keyword suggestion tools.

Many professional online marketers use keyword research software like Keyword Elite but you can also use any free online keyword suggestion tools to see how many searches are made. This is a good site:

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

Check and find good keywords related to your site and optimize your site for them. Don't pick the most competitive keywords because first page placement in the search engines will just be too hard to obtain especially for a new site.

Instead pick long tail keyword phrases which have fever searches but you will have a better chance of ranking high for these phrases. These long tail keyword phrases also have much better conversion rates than general (too broad) keywords.

Make sure your targeted keywords are in the title of your page and many experts suggest it should also be in the URL. Simple yet effective design elements which will increase your site's chances of success.

Exterior Links On Your Homepage

Another common design flaw is placing exterior, external links on your main homepage.

Most SEO experts suggest ALL your links on your homepage should be internal links pointing to your own content filled pages on your site. External links should be on a separate 'links page'.

If you want to use affiliate links, create a separate page for each affiliate product or program and link to this page on your site. Place your affiliate ID link and moneymaker on this content filled (reviews, how-to-use, testimonials...) internal page, rather than on your homepage.

To rank high, especially in Google, all your PageRank and visitors should be funneled into your site and not out to some external links. This is extremely important on your homepage - so make sure all or most of your links are internal links.

Simple Effective Navigation

You must design your site with simple effective navigation in mind. Visitors to your site must be able to access and move around your site with ease. Your site should also be fast loading even in this age of high-speed internet for surfers are the most impatient creatures on the planet!

As a common courtesy, if nothing else, make sure you place a link back to your homepage on each and every page of your site. Instead of just calling it 'home' or 'homepage'; include your domain name or major keywords in this link: 'gaming laptop home'.

Have links to all major areas or topics of your site on each page. Make it easy for your visitors to find what they're looking for on your site.

Include a sitemap which lists all the major pages/content on your site. Make sure a link to your sitemap page is listed on all your webpages, never leave your guests stranded with nowhere to go.

These are just some of the most important design flaws which can spell failure for your site. Avoid them at all costs. So make sure you keep these design elements in mind when you're designing your next site or correcting your present one.

Creating a successful site will be much easier if you overcome these simple, yet all too common, web site design flaws. Give your site a fighting chance at success by sidestepping these mistakes, after all, sites like rockets are meant to soar.

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The author is a full-time online marketer who has numerous websites, including two sites on internet marketing. For the latest web marketing tools try: internet Marketing Tools As for other mistakes in designing your site, especially where the overall look and feel of your site is concerned. Here's a good free PDF Report by Marlon Sanders entitled: 10 Graphic Design Mistakes Copyright 2007 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

When you launch a new website you must register a unique domain name with an authorized registrar. When the internet was first starting, all domain names were registered through one company, Network Solutions. Today, there are hundreds if not thousands of websites where you can register your domain name. Some websites charge as little as $4.95 per year for your domain name while others charge as much as $35 per year for the exact same service. Why pay $35 when you can register your domain name for much less at another website?

The interesting thing is that Network Solutions is still the keeper of the domain name database and the other websites are domain name resellers. Why does Network Solutions charge $35 per year if they are the keeper of the database? Who knows and who cares! Register your domain with one of the cheaper providers and you'll be fine.

Now when it comes to webhosting, cheaper is not always better. You can get webhosting for free from some companies and the level of service you receive will reflect what you're paying. You're website will be hosted on a server with hundreds or even thousands of other websites. Your website will probably respond slowly and you may have frequent outages. Worse, your email may or may not get delivered because of the slow server and network bandwidth problems. Don't cut costs on your webhosting company. A penny saved will be many dollars of lost business.

Webhosting Explained

Web hosts are service companies that provide space on their servers for internet users. Web hosts provide online systems for internet connectivity and for storing information, image mediums and other internet content. For the company interested in conducting business on the web, the proper choice of web host is a crucial step in any internet marketing plan.

There are several types of web hosting available. Free hosting is the least costly, but the most limited with regard to services and space; though a free web host may be a consideration for an individual professional or small business to start out. The restrictions on Advertising, bandwidth and permissible edit sites, may be limiting for a company looking for rapid growth.

Shared hosting places your website on the same server as several (potentially hundreds) of other sites. Although these are less restricted than free hosts, they do impose some limitations on site capabilities. Reseller hosting allows an e-business to obtain a large amount of bandwidth and space on its account and divide the space as it sees fit. This is similar to a shared hosting because your server is placed on the same server as others. But you can decide on the amount of the divisions and with whom to share.

Less Restricted Web Hosting Choices

Dedicated hosting and Virtual Private Server hosting provide very similar results. A dedicated hosting is relatively expensive, but is less restricted than those previously discussed. With dedicated hosting, you, as the user, have a server to yourself. Thus, there are very little restrictions and you are on your own with regard to services.

Virtual private server technology enables one server to host multiple virtual environments. These environments have the characteristics of individual stand-alone servers. Essentially, the results are the same, though a virtual private server hosting is less expensive. With Colocated hosting, the user installs a self-purchased server at the data center of the host. The services often provided for other types of hosting, must be paid for by the colocated hosting user, thus the costs associated with this choice tend to be high.

In order to use a web-hosting service, your e-business must already have an existing website ready to go. So as you develop your website, one of the crucial planning components is deciding what web hosting service your e-business and site will require. Valiss is the internet marketing expert. They will help you design and implement your entire internet marketing plan, and will then help you navigate the many issues involving your web hosting choice. For more information visit www.valiss.com

Ted Prodromou spent over 25 years in the computer industry working for IBM, Digital, and Cellular One. Today he's the owner of Valiss IT, a consulting firm that provides small business marketing solutions. Learn how to automate your marketing with Teds latest program at http://www.valiss.com/specials You can also sign up for his marketng newsletter at http://www.valiss.com