Top 6 SEO Tips for Effective Web Design

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Posted by admin | Posted in General | Posted on 11-04-2013

In the world of internet marketing, SEO plays an integral role. Whether it’s for an ecommerce platform or online portfolio, it’s one element that can make or break your business.

When it comes to web design, SEO remains an important factor. While many web designers can’t still seem to see eye-to-eye with it, there are ways to get a bit of enlightenment.

So if you want your web design and SEO efforts to bring you better business, here are some things you should know.

1. Forget about using Flash.
When web designers use Flash, they’re making it hard for crawlers to assess your website. Since these bots are the ones that check your site’s content, you may want to consider using CSS and JavaScript.

The beauty of these two is that it still allows you to utilize those fancy effects but at the same time, gives you a better shot at your search engine rank.

2. External Java and CSS scripts.
Crawlers are quick to scan through websites. This is why it’s important that you keep all the significant elements as close to each other as possible.

When it comes to your scripts, you need to put them outside of the HTML document. Failure to do so makes crawling slower, which can end up with your content not being assessed properly.

3. Get familiar with keywords.
Keywords are the cornerstone of SEO. Even if web design is more inclined in aesthetics, layout and navigation, it’s critical that you also know about keywords and their proper use.

With the title and metatags, incorporate just enough keywords for it to make sense, not to appear as spam.

4. Clean up your site’s URL’s.
URL’s also play an important role in the realm of SEO. For instance, search engines will give higher regard to “www.example.com/birthday-cake-samples” than “www.example.com/#1240F58N”.

So make use of a CMS platform that can let you customize and personalize your URL’s in such a way that they are specific, clean and well, makes sense to search engines.

5. Move the important content above the fold.
Crawlers don’t take their time in studying each website. That’s why as web designers, it’s necessary for you to know the placement of your content in order for these crawlers to quickly see what your page is all about.

One effective strategy is to move up the important content above the fold. This means placing your company’s logo, headers, titles and menu tabs on that area for crawlers to see.

6. Always use alt tags for images.
The thing about images is that crawlers cannot assess them without the use of alt tags. This is why it’s imperative for all your images to have such code. Moreover, when users do an Image Search, it’s more likely that they will stumble upon images that have alt tags in it since search engines give them higher priority.

Think about it. It would be such a waste to have beautiful images added to your website if the search engines can’t make sense of it.

If you think SEO only matters to content, then it’s high time you think again. SEO is just as much as an impetus to web design as well. So make sure you incorporate these tips to give your website a better online standing.

Webcada is a web design singapore company whom understand SEO & Web Design very well.

5 Basic Web Design Principles

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Posted by admin | Posted in General | Posted on 06-04-2013

Imagine walking into a store and finding yourself pleased. All the items are displayed beautifully, each labeled clearly and the staff is very accommodating.

Now, wouldn’t that make you want to splurge?

The same principle applies to any website. As someone who runs one, it’s important that you provide an optimum user experience possible. This is where the basic web design principles are needed.

So if you think your site can do better, then revisit the following web design principles.

1. Never make your users think.
It’s not to say that you should consider your site visitors dumb. Based on Krug’s law of usability, your website should be “obvious and self-explanatory.” Once users land on your page, you’d want it to be a breeze browsing.

Say they land on your homepage. What you present them should be a layout that begs little to no questions at all. Whether it’s your copy, the placement of tabs or even your Search bar, you need to make it as easy as it can be.

2. Focus your users’ attention.
Be it large, bold text or visuals, you need to highlight the essentials to lead your users. If you’re promoting your latest products, then make sure its images are displayed big and catchy enough on the screen.

You can also rely on text to emphasize the important elements you want your users to focus on. A big “50% off” can entice any viewer to click on that certain product. It’s all a matter of leading your users to where you want them to be.

3. Be aesthetically pleasing.
There are times when site owners want their website to be over the top. They have too much design ideas they want to incorporate that they end up with a chopsuey of a page.

Being aesthetically pleasing means there is harmony among your entire site’s elements. Start by choosing your colors carefully. Based on your brand, which hues do you feel will represent your site best? From here, gather complementing colors to go along with your chosen ones.

You can then go to choosing your typography and images strategically. You should have every element marrying perfectly with each other.

 4. Keep it simple.
Another basic principle of web design is to keep things simple— from your navigation to your layout all the way to your chosen images and text. This is especially true when visitors land on your homepage.

You want it to be as direct as possible. Instead of jamming too much content, why not make use of the good ol hovering technique? This way, you give them the option to view more, not force the information on them.

5. Don’t fear white space.
A common attitude among site owners is that they want to use as much space as they can. The truth is your advantage is doing the very opposite.

Space gives your users a break. An enough amount of it between columns, images and text allows them to absorb whatever information there is in front of them. Moreover, it gives your site an even more elegant feel to it.

Web design is a critical element to any website’s success. As early as you can, reconsider yours and give your viewers the best user experience you can.