Posted on: May 17, 2009
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are used to define the styled elements of a web page such as elements of the layout, colour and fonts, and then separate them from the content of the page (paragraphs/images).
There are advantages to be gained from using CSS while optimizing seo for Google.
CSS allows you to use greater or smaller font size.
It allows you more control of your page structure.
It allows you to keep the file sizes smaller, which decreases the load time of the page. Search engines prefer faster load times.
By using CSS, you can also increase the organization effectiveness of your coding. There much less code on the page, which makes things easier to find, edit, ect. This saves tons of time, and of course, the less code on the page means faster load time.
CSS allows greater, more advanced flexibility in creating the styles for your website design than using only HTML. You can get the look and feel you want without comprimising the structure of the website. Using tables for layout purposes is an example of outdated, and improper methods for layout design. Using Div Tags and CSS is the proper way to design a layout.
Google rewards the pages that have proper structure and it is wrong to assume that using the standard makes websites look bland and boring. If used properly, you can definately use CSS and Validated HTML to create stunning and functional websites, while benefiting from the rewards from search engines.
CSS and Cross-Browser Compatibility
Be aware that some browsers interpret CSS differently than others, and therefore will display differently. For instance, Fire Fox and Internet Explorer. Most web designers can agree that internet explorer is not the choice browser for web designing. It has too many bugs, and makes too much use of improper coding. Firefox on the otherhand adheres to the strict CSS standards. Because of this, these 2 browsers can cause many problems when trying to display the CSS, so you need to be careful and write a seperate code for each browser.
This concludes my short article on CSS and its benefits. Please go to web design and seo in orange county for more information on our services.
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Posted on: May 3, 2009
Web Design and SEO Tips:
A few important points to consider when starting an online business:
- Reasearch, research, research. You absolutely must research your target niche market. Find out how competitive the market is. Find out how much of a demand there is.
- Research your direct competitors. Knowing the direction your competitors are taking will help you plan out your own strategies.
- Web design style: Again, look at your competitors, or related websites and try to get ideas.
- how you want your site to look.
- how you want it to function.
- how you want the navigation and layout structure.
- Find out what types of services you require. Whether its ecommerce shopping carts, blog services, or whatever, it is always good to read up on the services before you jump into anything.
- If you have no website design experience, call a professional web design and seo company (like Xpirt Design). They can help you properly build your online business and give you valuable suggestions and consultation.
- Greatly consider search engine optimization services. It’s always a good idea to choose a web design company that also offers affordable, but effective SEO services. The reason is that the web designer himself knows how the website is built and it would be much easier, less time consuming, and more effective for the seo to take effect.
- Consider paid advertising or pay per click/adwords type marketing. A new website will take time to develop natural search engine traffic (SEO). While you are waiting, it is always a good idea to give your website that jumpstart with traffic from paid advertising.
- The first impression of your web design is everything! When a visitor comes to your website and sees that your website is not professionally designed, more than likely the visitor will leave and continue on his search engine journey.
- The way your navigation is structured is also a major factor of a properly designed website. If the visitor has difficulties in finding what hes looking for, gets confused or lost within the website, or cannot go back to his previous page, chances are, the visitor will simply leave.
Though web design will take a little time to think about, its the internet marketing and search engine optimization that will no doubt end up taking more than 75% of your time or your hired professional’s time. You constantly have to keep yourself up to date on the market trends, new marketing opportunities, and new directions you can take your business into. Your website will definately determine your success, at least online. If your online marketing, combined with a professional web design, is all done properly, efficiently, and effectively, you can have an unlimited potential in online business growth.
If you are indeed looking for a professional with tons of web design and seo/pay per click experience, visit Xpirt Design or orange county web design for a free consultation.
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Posted on: May 1, 2009
Tips to make a good web design structure:
Here at Xpirt Design, we decided to give designers a few tips on making a web design structure in order to have a good flow and feel of the website. We follow these guidelines as much as possible and we are confident that if you follow these guidelines as well, you will see faster website load times, a better overall look and feel of the website, and a search engine friendly web design. Feel free to comment on this post with your ideas and suggestions. orange county web design
Web Design Text and Content
- Make sure the backgrounds don’t interrupt any of the text you want people to read.
- Be sure to allow the font size to be large enough for people to read, but not enormously large.
- Make sure to convey which information is most important in a heirarchy.
- Separate large paragraphs into smaller, easier to read paragraphs. Large paragraphs sway people away from reading the content.
Navigation
- The navigation buttons must be easy to find and use. Try to make all navigation buttons consistent in the web design and structure throughout the website.
- If possible, allow the visitor to know where they are at all times either by using titles, or depressed navigation buttons.
- If possible, avoid frames at all costs. Search engines have trouble crawling content within frames and therefore is bad for search engine optimization.
- Always include a sitemap in either .html or .xml format. Search engines use these to easily navigate and crawl through a site.
Links
- Try to make all link colors coordinate with the website colors.
- Either make links in the content underlined, a different color, or bold so they stand out to the visitor.
Web Design Graphics
- Try not to make buttons too large.
- Try to make buttons match with the look and feel of the web design.
- Always include ALT tags for search engine optimization.
- All graphic links should also be matched with a regular text link.
- Graphics and backgrounds should always use browser safe colors as much as possible.
- Try not to use too many animated graphics.
- Try not to use too large of graphics for layout structure or buttons. This slows down the website load time.
General Design
- If everything is done according to this article, page download time will be fast.
- Try to shoot for a 800 x 600 pixel resolution for the website.
- Balance the content of pictures, text, paragraphs, and links.
- Make every page identical to the rest of the web design.
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