Website Design & Promotion Tips

High Visibility, Search Engine Optimization, User Friendliness

       At Brooks Studios we have learned through experience that it is not enough to Have a great website design. If your site can not be easily found by your target audience then they are not going to be able to benefit from all of your wonderful content. There are hundreds of promotion schemes out there to take your money after the site is designed and hosted.   Understanding this, We begin our site design with promotion and visibility in mind so that being easy to find is built right in from the beginning. We won't reveal all of our secrets here, but here are some basics to chew on. There are two main goals to keep in mind if you want to get your message out,

"Get them there!" and "Keep them there!"

The Following is a list of critical points to keep in mind when designing a website:

1. High Visibility               2. Search Engine Friendly      3. Viewer Retention     4. Website Content  
5. Website Promotion     6. GoodWebsite Design          7. Site Popularity          8. Mutual Support

High Visibility
         If you found this site because you were searching for website design then my promotion and visibility techniques probably worked as they were designed to. A small percentage of visitors will come through for other reasons but most of you arrived here through a search engine or from being referred by a advertisement or a reference or link from another website. In other words, this site was available for you to find by putting it right in front of you. Or putting it another way, this site was designed so that it could be found easily by my target audience. It has been designed so that it will be found in places that they are likely to look such as:

1. Search Engines          2. Websites that they are likely to visit.        3. Directories of similar services

Search Engine Friendly 
    Search engines are by far the most common technique used for finding target websites on the Internet. Your site is much more likely to been seen If your site comes up on the first page of a search. Search Engine Optimization is one of the main design features to be considered when constructing a new website but is often overlooked by website designers. They are so busy making a flashy site to hook you (the buyer) , that they don't bother to bring in an audience. It's a little like designing fishing lures and bass boats to catch the angler rather than the fish (did you really think that fish like flashy blue metal flake?). Many free website design tools and host provide free promotion tools, but unless you understand what your doing with them you can knock yourself right out of some of the best search engines ( they really don't like automated submission techniques that often submit unintelligible information). This is often reason enough to leave you out of the directory altogether. Of course even though your site is submitted doesn't mean it will be accepted or do well on the listings. Understanding how the search engines look at your information can make all of the difference in the world. We'll cover that more below in the Good Website Design section. First let's consider other important factors.

Viewer Retention
     The World Wide Web has evolved into an intensively visual graphics interface in the last few years       (Duuhhh!).

A. Design with graphics and images as much as possible to catch the visitor's attention as soon as they arrive.

B. A picture says a thousand words but remember the visitors should know that they have found what they are looking for, or at least something interesting as soon as they arrive. So don't use graphics unless they suit your subject and add to the overall design.

C. Also content text and "ALT-text" should start loading first to give them something to start on while images finish loading. "ALT-text" is the text that pops up whenever your cursor hovers over an image and it also loads as a place holder while your site loads. Not to mention that search engine placement can be greatly enhanced by good "ALT-text".

B. try to develop a theme that clearly communicates "THIS IS WHAT WE DO" so that the visitor hangs around long enough to see your content.

C. Take the time to create quality graphics. Poor images will turn your visitors away quickly.

Website Content
      Your site content is a matter of personal taste and is dictated by your products, services, or information that you want to share.

A. Your content needs to be clear and legible and includes text and images. The degree to which you effectively communicate your ideas to the target audience will determine your success with the goals of your website. Specifically, keep it simple but not empty. Offer something of value to the community in terms of information, more than just a product or service offered. Everyone has something to sell. What else do you have to offer?

B. Watch your grammar and spelling errors (I'm preaching to the choir here). If your site is error ridden, not only will the visitors get a good laugh at your expense, The search engines will probably ignore you until it is corrected. If your promoting your business, it would be best if your customers take you seriously.

C. Try to offer a logical flow and good navigational aids to get around your site.

Website Promotion
      You need to let potential visitors know that you are out there. Search engine placement is crucial but it is only one of the available tools to get more visitors to your site.

A. When you use standard advertising media such as television, radio, newspapers etc.. You will want an easy to remember URL (uniform resource locator) also known as a web address such as
www.BrooksStudios.com. The easier it is to remember the better. However, search engine placement will be better if you use one made of keywords such as www.LynchburgWebsiteDesignComputerRepair.com

B. Host the long name for search engine placement and have the short name to redirected to point at the first site name. That way you can use the short name for advertising purposes.

C. Don't forget to put your short URL on business cards, in the phone book, and on flyers or signs. Other good locations are in books, on handouts, program sheets, bulletin boards, user groups, business and special interest directories, or on other websites with links to your site.

D. Finally, you need to submit your site to as many of the top ten search engines as possible especially Google (Yahoo, Netscape, AOL, etc...) etc, Inktomi (MSN, Hotbot, Altavista, etc...). Some automated submission programs may work but they often scramble your information and can do more harm than good. If you don't submit your site for inclusion they may find you eventually but it will take a lot longer before potential visitors can find your site.

E. Once your listed on some of the major sites, other smaller sites will begin to pick you up quickly. Another benefit is that as more sites link to and list yours, the higher you go in the listings.

Good Website Design
       Websites should be designed with several criteria in mind. First so that they can be found, second so that they catch the surfers attention as soon as the site comes up on their browser, third the design needs to be simple, fast, and reliable. Unfortunately there is often a need to compromise some designs in order to emphasize the client's preferences otherwise these guidelines basically determine the design flow:

1. If they can't find you, they won't see you. Key words and phrases should be prominent throughout the site especially in headings and introductory text. Search engines are sensitive to how and where you use the words and phrases that are key to your site.

A. first use a good long URL with as many keywords as I can get to make sense for hosting the site to help in the search engine placement.

B. Then use shorter easy to remember URL's for advertisements,business cards, flyers, etc... that point to the hosted site.

C. The index page must have a good Title and good metatags like description and Keywords.

D. for search engines that do not like metatags, include the keywords at the beginning of the source code as hidden comments using the <!-- xxxxxx --> format.

E. Place keywords and phrases early in the site content and use heading tags when the formatting makes sense with the design.

F. Next I try to include keywords and phrases throughout the content, including links, image names, "Alt-text", etc...

      Unfortunately, using more text and less images makes the site more vulnerable to variations in browser settings like text size and script inhibition (wreaks havoc with java scripts and effects such as drop shadows etc...) but overall better search engine placement is a priority so the site should be designed for this situation.

2. The World Wide Web has evolved into an intensively visual graphic interface in the last few years (duh!). Remember to design with graphics and images as much as possible, a picture says a thousand words. The visitors should know that they have found what they are looking for as soon as they arrive. Also content text and "ALT" text should start loading first to give them something to start on while images finish loading.

A. "ALT-text" is the alternate text that will display when the cursor hovers over an image for a few seconds and is displayed while images are loading. "Alt-text" not only informs the visitor of what is loading but is also a key ingredient for good search engine placement.

C. Image files must be small enough that they don't take a long time to load. Most search engines advise that if your site doesn't load within 30 seconds, most visitors will move on. I agree up to a point, When I am searching, if a site loads a substantial amount within 30 seconds, and I can start considering the information, then I can wait a little longer for the rest of the site to load. However, no single picture should take more than about 8 second to load. The suggested size is 3k. There are many good tools available for image optimization.

D. The .Gif format should be used for logos and cartoon graphics or any graphic other than a photo.

E. The .JPG format should be used for photographic images or photo realistic images.

3. Develop a theme that clearly communicates "THIS IS WHAT WE DO", although the clients must often rearrange to suit their taste, a good design incorporates as many of these ideas as possible.

4. Keep the site as simple to avoid unforeseen browser problems and provide ease of use for visitors.

5. Use good navigational aids to move around the site. Make information easy to find.

It takes a lot of work, maintenance, and good design nevertheless following this advice will definitely enhance your chances of attracting visitors. It's hard to balance between all of the different search engine quirks. What works with one may not work with another and the rules are always changing. So keep a close eye on the changing nature of the Web

Site Popularity
       In a nutshell, the more popular your site is, the better your ratings and visibility. Get your friends and associates to visit your site. Encourage visitors to return frequently.

Mutual Support
       Along the same lines as popularity, you need to enlist the support of as many other sites and directories as possible. The more links you have, the higher your listings go.

A. Trade organizations are a great source of support if you can get the cooperation of a club or association that is related to your site you can often get them to link to you website or list your website in their directories

B. Related organizations. If there are other organizations that have similar websites or complement your website, such as a paper supplier to a book binder, or a mortgage company to a real-estate agent or a bookstore to an author, try to get them to offer links to your site.

C. One of the best ways to pull in traffic is to offer links to other sites so that they will link to yours. This is often a good approach for friends or associates that have websites that are not directly related to yours.