The Necessity of Good Design

There are essentially two elements that compose a website: design, and function. Every good website needs to properly function. It needs to be easy to use and properly organized. So being able to make your website function and cooperate with the average browser is an utmost necessity.

However, what is it that takes a mediocre and mundane website and transforms it into an appealing advertisement for your business?

The answer is design: good design utilizes information in a clear, smooth, and attractive style, which can be exponentially more appealing than if done in a plain manner.

So why is good, appealing design so important? As an example, we'll be making a comparison between the old and revised edition of http://www.sportsgraphicsinc.com/.

First let's look at the former Sportsgraphics, viewable via archive.org, an internet archive that catalogues older or outdated website pages: http://web.archive.org/web/20060605095051/http://www.sportsgraphicsinc.com/

The website sports a plain white background with a steady, consistent color scheme. The information is generally parallel to the information displayed by the current site, and it is displayed in a clean and organized manner. However, the graphics of the site are of a generally low quality (meaning that the images are not as "crisp" as they would be if saved with a higher image quality.) Although the overall design is rather clean and organized, it presents itself with low appeal, and there is little depth for the eyes to fall into.

Sports Graphics Inc. is a business that designs and prints padding (among numerous, numerous other printing products) primarily for schools all over the nation to display in gyms or on fields. So, for a business based around appeal and design, it makes no sense for them to advertise their business through a website that is, frankly, plain and uninviting.

The new website, http://www.sportsgraphicsinc.com/, is not only clean and organized, but employs multiple layers of depth. There are high-quality images to be clicked, rather than plain text links. Figures overlap to give an overall cohesive feel -- the feeling that everything is united and uniform. Text jumps out at you and invites you to explore more of the site. Information is both appealing and easy to access. When a customer opens up Sportsgraphicsinc.com, they can be filled with the expectation of professionalism, which is one objective of professional design: to let customers know that you are professional, and that your business can be trusted.

By analyzing these two websites you should be able to see how good design jumps off the screen and leaves a lasting impression. And, if you compare the difficulty of making a stylish website function to a mundane website function, they can actually be quite similar in complexity. The difference is design, plain and simple. Design is how you notice appealing from unappealing, attractive from unattractive, etc. And as the complexity of the internet progresses, it becomes increasingly apparent how necessitated good design is. This is the goal of Websites to Impress: to give businesses the professional look and appeal to customers that they deserve.

All About Custom 404 Pages

A custom 404 page is a page on your site that appears when a user reaches a broken link to your site. You need one because it can help your search engine rankings and it can also prevent your users from leaving your site.

First, create a page on your site that directs people to your home page or other location with a message stating that they have found a page that no longer exists. Add the page to your site files.

Second, check to see if you have an .htaccess file in the root folder of your site. If so, you will want to alter this in Notepad (or similar editor). If you do not have an .htaccess file, create one with Notepad (or similar) making sure there is no .txt. extension on the file. Inside the file, you need to use this text:

ErrorDocument 404 /filename.html

filename.html should be replaced with the name of the file you created for the page you added to your site.

Third, test it out. Try a url that doesn't exist on your site to see if your custom 404 page is working. If it is not working, check with your web host. See our web design 404 page.

Search engines like to see that you have a 404 page covered and users appreciate not receiving a 'This Page Cannot Be Found' error.

Get Traffic Using Google and Yahoo Images

Have you ever wondered why people add their images to Google images or Yahoo images? They add these pictures not because they are just pretty, but because they can direct traffic to their site! This is why it can be a good idea to optimize your site for the Google Image Search or Yahoo Image search. This would let people with ease; find your images by typing in specific search terms, keywords, and phrases.

There are many things people can search for. They might be searching for baseball cards, TV, or celebrities. Images also help your website look and feel great. Your goal would be to get the best possible position in Google or Yahoo Images. This could send many people to your website.Highly applicable image results will show up on Google’s and Yahoo's search results page when someone searches for specific topics.

Here are some tips when you add images to Google or Yahoo

1. For your Alt Text, Insert keywords.
   This is by far the most significant part of image optimization. Include keywords or phrases that apply to the image and your website. You should insert in the code for your image. Example: img src="filename.jpg" alt="Alt description goes here"
2. Descriptive Titles.
   If you are uploading an image of Kim Gehling, you could name your image ‘kim-gehling.jpg’ instead of using the original image with numbers like‘photo8674.jpg’.
3. Anchor text keywords for the links to your images.
   Specific images, use keywords instead of a common phrases. Example, instead of typing, “See here”, use “Kim Gehling Picture” or “Kim Gehling Webdesign“.

These are just some tips and tricks you can try to better optimize your website. Google and Yahoo search are your friends, so go get acquainted!

What Your Website Says About Your Business

Just as important as any first impression, your business website communicates strongly to your potential clients. If the site is poorly designed and lacking refreshed information, the potential client may get the impression that this is indicative of the type of work your business performs. A negative first impression on the web can easily turn a client that is web shopping for your business to a competator with a more professional and up-to-date site.

Even an outdated web design can communicate a lack of initiative in a business. If your web design has not been updated in more than two years, it may be time to consider a redesign.

If your website does not have current information, a potential client is easily lost. To ensure potential client engagement, be sure to ask around and be sure that your web content has covered all bases. Your content should be fresh and current at all times.

The bottom line is if your website is anything but current and visually appealing, you may be making a negative first impression. to discuss website improvement, contact Websites to Impress today.

Snatch A Great Domain

How to choose a domain name for your website.

The first steps you take in creating your online marketing is to choose a domain name for your website. Your new domain name will portray you, your business or interest and it will also give your website a hopefully, memorable name, so your visitors will remember it easily.

The domain name is an unique name that identifies individual sites on the Internet. The domain can be any length, which includes the 26 letters of the English alphabet, numbers 0-9, and hyphens (-).Your domain name can't begin or end with a hyphen but, it can contain hyphens within itself.

There are many different suffixes or extensions, called also TLD (Top Level Domain), which is based on the type of organization it is associated with. Some suffixes include:

.com commercial business domain
.net commercial network
.org nonprofit organizations
.edu educational institution
.gov government agency
.mil military

Some of the smaller ones include: biz, tv, info , and bz

Tips on how to choose a successful domain name for your website:

1. Start brainstorming for domain words.
   
   List as many words as you can think of that are related to your favored domain name.
   List as many words as you can think of related to the content of your website. (what your website is going to be about, and what you are going to sell on it, and so forth.)
   
2. Make different categories with the listed words that are:
   
   -short
   -memorable
   -not confusing
   -hard to misspell
   -related to the main purpose of your business
   
   Shorter domain names are easier to remember and type, and you aren't as likely to make any mistakes when you type it in.
   
   A longer domain can be easier to remember than a short domain name sometimes if it's abbreviated and the letters are unrelated to one another. For an example: tkb.com which translates into ThKiteBusiness. You wouldn't have known that was the type of business you were referring too until you got to the website which is not good for people who are searching for your website via search engine.
   
   
3. Pick a few of these combinations of your favorite combination of words.
   
   Consider also hyphens.
   Should you get a hyphenated name?
   
   Disadvantages:
   It's easy to forget hyphens when typing in a name. To many hyphens can be overwhelming to a visitor to type in and if they miss one they might be heading toward your competitors! So if you decide to use a hyphen in your domain name, only use one.
   
   Advantages:
   Search engines can differentiate, your keywords better and return your site more notably, in search results for those keywords in your domain name.
   And you'll get the domain name you want.
   
   
4. Start to search for the availability of the domains you've chosen.
   
   
5. If your preferred choice is not available, do not give up, try the next great combination you came up with!

Why It Is Important to Have a Professionally Designed Website

Back when computers came out in the early 80’s, the concept of the Internet on computers everywhere around the world seemed impossible. Making a website for your own personal business seemed impossible. Today we think a lot differently.

Owning a website for your own personal business was just a page explaining in detail about your business. There were no pictures and not even a single drop of design. That wasn’t so bad at first, until other businesses started doing the same thing. They needed some design to draw attention to their website to outdo their competitors. That’s where professional web designers gained their occupation.

If you really are serious about taking your business to the next level in creating a website to brand your company and expand your clients it may not be a good idea to go for the ”my neighbor is going to build me a website” route. Your neighbor might love doing websites, but he or she may not know what is going on in this competitive world of web design and how to effectively be a part of the Internet.

Let’s talk about a web design that is not professional. When a new visitor drops by your website the first thing they see is the overall look, which includes a color scheme and structure with a clean and organized presentation of information. If you are using a non-professional web designer, they are probably not going to have the ability to create this type of presentation. Their website will probably look homemade which can in turn make your website and your business look untrustworthy.

This circumstance is okay if you don’t want your business to reach out to prospective clients or if it a personal site, but if you do want to reach new clients you need to get that “wow” factor when a visitor is browsing through your website pages.

A new web design or redesign from a professional web designer can give you the professional image you are seeking for your business and opens up the potentials of reaching consumers all around the world. Consumers are just waiting for you to make the right move to “wow” them with a fantastic site that they can trust.

Please view our professional web design portfolio at www.websitestoimpress.com

Enhance the Look and Feel of your site

Design elements can greatly enhance the look and feel of your website. Below are some of our preferred elements.

Roll Over Buttons and Images
This is when an image or button changes a color or formation when you roll over it with your mouse. This gives an interactive feel to your website.

How to in Dreamweaver:

First make or design your images and buttons and export them to your websites image folder. Now open Dreamweaver and click Insert, Image Objects, then Rollover image. There will be a window that pops up. In that window type a rollover name and alt tag. Then you need to link and browse to locate the original Image and also the Rollover Image. Click on the OK button. That’s it! It’s that easy.

Graphic and Photo Effects
Graphic and Photo effects can make the wow factor for your website. Using the correct quantity of graphic and photo effects can be very compelling, but using too many can achieve the opposite.

For an example using a curved banner on your website can make your site more professional looking and not so square. You can check out some of our portfolio websites that use this here: http://www.websitestoimpress.com/portfolio.html

Site Interactivity
To help make your website more sticky for your visitors you can use site polls, surveys, a guest book, a calendar, and a newsletter sign-up. This makes your website more eventful and draws your visitors in to your website and they are also more likely to come back and visit.

Those are just a few snippets of what you can use to spice up your website while also making it more productive and entertaining!