Believe it or not, there are web designs that actually scare people away from the site and keep them from coming back. Doing this is something your web design company and you will have to avoid practically all the time. If you do not want your web design company and you to become tarnished or labelled as one of the “Worst web Designers of the net,” you need to watch out for this.

Web Design’s Scariest Backgrounds:

Setting the background on your site is one of the things that you have the liberty of setting or changing. However, some backgrounds are simply ugly, difficult to read or just plain scary. Here are some sample backgrounds that I am talking about:

• Pure black background with pale, light or white text. Unless you are a professional web designer who belongs to the best web design company in the world, try to avoid this type of background. It looks generally pretentious, not to mention how difficult it is to do well. Some browsers print background colour, and you definitely will not like angry customers complaining about how much ink it caused them to print the page.
• Black with dark text. This is simply illegible and unacceptable. Your customers will have to highlight the text first to make it readable, and this can get really annoying.
• Tiled and busy background images. New web designers find this convenient and amazing, but note that this takes more download time and do not add value to your site on the part of your customers.

Web Design’s Scariest Text:

People visit your site for the content that you offer. If they can not view your text, they will leave immediately and not come back. Your web design company does not want this to happen, so be wary of some of the things that you need to avoid:

• Text wherein everything is centered. This makes your page awfully hard to read and look really boring.
• Too much emphasis, headlines, bold, strong or italics. Do not set every line on your page to be highlighted or set as headline. This defeats the web design purpose of setting some text to stand out.
• Blinking text. Even if they can be attractive to some, they are almost always impossible to read!

Web Design’s Scariest Content:

You should also pay attention to your content as it is what drives visitors into (or out) of your site. The general rule is to make sure that you put in interesting and eye-catching content and to avoid things like these:

• Content made of pure lists of link. This refers to straight links where every word of every line is a link. (Those that have paragraph explanations to it does not belong to this category.)
• “Cutesy and fun” content. Try not to add in some tricks to get people to laugh. Chances are they will either not understand your humour and you will need to explain it further, or they will simply not go back to your site anymore.

Web Design’s Scariest Multimedia:

Multimedia oftentimes becomes the scariest tool ever to hit the web. Your web design company will surely appreciate your multimedia talents and you can show it off when you want to. They usually will take you a very long time to build, so that the more you work hard for it, the more it makes you proud. However, note that the page is never just about you or your web design company. It is about the client who you are web designing the pages for. Do them a favour and do not let them have to sacrifice for you to show off your graphical or Flash skills. Try to avoid the following web design no nos as well:

• Images much too many. These images include those small icons that designed put into their site. The rule of thumb is: if you already have more than two, you now have too many.
• Unreasonable large images. You do not have to publish the print quality versions of photos right into the page. They take too long to load, and are usually not appreciated anyway. Resizing your photos through HTML simply does NOT count.
• Sound. Just try your very best not to put sounds and songs. Mp3, wav or whatever format of audio and songs playing on top of the page that is impossible to turn off, those MIDI files - they are all annoying. If you think your web design will be better off with sounds, make sure you give your visitors the controls to turn it on or off.

Your web design company will definitely not be happy about a scary web design. You surely will not. Your web design should encourage readers to view your page and to stay a little longer looking through it, and not the other way around!

Semul Johnson is a Marketing expert with a leading SEO services company specializing in organic SEO.

Services Flash

For the most part, you write articles in order to gain someone’s attention. When you are writing articles for the internet, that means you will have to gain the attention of a search engine first. Over the years, a number of techniques have emerged to help authors develop their writing so that it is as suitable for human readers as well as search engine crawlers.

One of the most powerful tools at your disposal is keyword density. Basically, you will want to repeat a keyword a certain number of times based on total word length. As an example, a 2% keyword density in a 500 word article would translate to 10 repetitions of the keyword. Depending on the topic this, and higher densities may be easy to achieve.

With some other topics, even a 1% keyword density will look like gross keyword density. In general, anything over 4% is likely to be repugnant to the reader. Unfortunately, some article buyers want as high as 8% keyword density. They do not realize that with that volume of repetition, even the web crawler will stop reading and may well elect not to index the page.

Aside from this, the best articles for SEO purposes will be ones that hit the main target, and also bring in some peripheral ideas. When it comes right down to it, you never know what people will search on the internet for, let alone what phrases they will use to find it. Sometimes an obscure reference can be just the thing to help drive traffic to your site.

Fabian Tan is the author of the free 51-Page Report:

“Murder Your Job: How To Build Cash Sucking Autopilot Businesses In 30 Days Or Less!”

Head over to http://www.MurderYourJob.com to get your free copy now before it’s gone!

Cheapnokiamobiles

So you’ve created your website. Now what? So many people think that just creating a website is enough to bring in visitors. Perhaps, when the internet was just getting started and people were starving for something new to read on the web, this used to be true. Currently, however, driving traffic to a website is nothing short of a science!

You’ve probably read plenty of articles on article marketing, social bookmarking, trading content, advertising and other complicated methods of getting the word out about your site. Your brain is probably swimming with all of the information you’ve read, but have you thought about something simple like taking out a classified ad?

Believe it or not, it is possible to drive traffic to a website with classified ads. Here are a few hints to help you figure out how to generate traffic with classified ads:

1. Online classified ads are just as effective as newspaper ads and are usually a lot more cost effective! Sites like Craigslist, Kijiji and Gumtree are offer free classified advertising and millions of visitors each day!

2. Take advantage of an advertising service that will syndicate and submit your ads for you. Sites like ClassifiedFlyerAd will help you create a free flyer and then send that flyer out to dozens of advertising portals all over the internet. Exercise caution when using these kinds of services though, because you won’t be able to control which categories your ad gets posted in!

3. Newsletters also feature advertising space that you can utilize. Visit sites like Newsletteraccess to find out which newsletters are targeted toward the same market as your website.

4. Always have an attention grabbing headline. Most people choose whether or not to read a classified ad solely on the text of the headline. If your headline is boring, people will skip your ad!

5. Keep your ads short and to the point. People don’t want to read a novel. They just want a fast and compelling reason to click through to your site. Your site can convince them to buy your products. The ad’s purpose is to increase your readership.

6. Do your best to tailor the text of your ad to the category in which it appears. People searching for a service want to be sold. People looking for something to read want to be entertained. Keep your reader in mind when creating your classified ad.

Good luck!

For more information visit Netlyte - houston web design. You can also request more information to find out how we can help you generate more targeted visitors at: houston website design

Staffnet

Introduction
The Google Sandbox is a metaphorical term to explain why most new websites have very poor rankings in Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS). Very few people know for sure if the ’sandbox’ actually exists, but it seems to be a filter added to the Google algorithms sometime around March 2004.

What is the function of the Google Sandbox?
The generally accepted principle behind the Google Sandbox is that it enables Google to filter out ‘Flash-in-the-Pan’ websites from those that offer good quality, up-to-date content. It is within Googles interest to ensure that the results it displays to its users within the SERPS lead to highly relevant, up-to-date, useful websites Relevancy is key to the search engines success so it will take all steps it can to ensure the relevancy of its search results. Filtering out new websites and monitoring them may allow them to provide more accurate results within the real SERPS.

Indentifying the Sandbox?
How do you know if your website in in the sandbox? Most new websites under newly registered domains will get relegated to the sandbox once Google knows about the site. Google will find the site by following an Inbound Link (IBL) from another site that the Googlebot crawls. You will then see the website in the normal Google SERPS if you search for the actual domain name, but the website is unlikely to be listed for any of its keywords. Google also won’t show signs of any other websites linking to your website, nor will it display pages related to yours. In addition Google won’t list any pages other than your Home (index) page.

If you track your websites visitor stats whilst it is in the Google Sandbox, you will see that the Googlebot comes crawling fairly regularly and that it does crawl, and therefore catalogue, all of your pages. Google does know that your pages exist and knows what they contain, but doesn’t list them in the main SERPS. In other words, because your website is new, it is under probation in the ’sandbox’.

How Long Will My website Stay in the Google Sandbox?
It is difficult to say how long a website will stay in the Google sandbox as this seems to depend on the types of keywords it will be completing for in the real SERPS It can be up to 6-8 months and the only way to get out of the sandbox is to wait.

The Google Sandbox isn’t all bad news. If your site contains good quality relevant material it will find its way out of the sandbox and will get the rankings it deserves in the Google SERPS. I even have some theories that may mean that your time in the sandbox can be used wisely to actually improve your final rankings.

You also shouldn’t forget that Google isn’t the only search engine out there. MSN is widely used and with the might of Microsoft behind it is likely to become a bigger player in the search engine world in the new future. At the time of writing, MSN or other search engines such as Yahoo! and Alta Vista don’t have a ’sandbox’ filter and your new websites will be listed in the quickly and should start driving traffic to your site.

Alan Cole runs http://www.pixelwave.co.uk, a one-person web design studio. His aim is to provide cost effective website design production and maintenance by offering professional web solutions that stand out from the crowd.

SEO, search engine optimization

In order to find success online in the UK, Google search engine optimization is probably the most important element of that. High search engine positioning is important because it will help drive more traffic to your web site. The more traffic you have, the higher the likelihood of success.

However, putting together solid website promotion plans is something that mystifies some. As important as it is, some people just don’t bother because they don’t understand how to go about achieving the first page placements that are needed to drive traffic to the website.

Choose Your Approach

There are two basic ways you can approach this. The first is to learn how to optimise the site yourself. This won’t cost a lot of money. However, in order to become really proficient at it you’ll need to spend a lot of time learning about it - time you may not have. The second option is to hire some search engine optimization help. These are companies that specialize in SEO and will help you choose the best web site promotion plan for your needs. They do all the work, and some of them even guarantee first page placements.

Learning SEO on Your Own

Even if you do decide to hire a search engine optimization firm, one that specialises in UK websites, it is a good idea to learn at least some basic SEO. Having a basic understanding of how search engines like Google work, how keywords play into that, and the basic strategies that are used will help you in a lot of ways. First, you can begin to implement some of these strategies on your own. Second, it will help you get the most out of hiring someone to take care of your internet search engine placement needs.

Black Hat vs. White Hat SEO

Bear in mind that there are two basic kinds of SEO - those that include “white hat tactics” and those that include “black hat tactics”. White hat tactics are generally considered ethical whereas black hat tactics aren’t. Some firms specialise in either one of them. Just beware that while black hat tactics do work over a short period of time, once you’re found out, it will affect your website placement in a negative way from then on. White hat tactics are best for a long term strategy. Make sure you ask if what kinds of tactics your search engine placement firm is using. Or if you are doing the SEO yourself, try to stick with white hat tactics.

Finding Success Online

Since Google is largely considered the most popular search engine online, Google search engine optimization for your UK website is what will give you the edge. If your competitor has a website that isn’t optimized, for example, you will likely be the one who gets the most traffic. Whether you hire a search engine positioning company or do it yourself, effective optimization will give you the edge.

The author is an online marketing professional with Infomedia Direct Technologies Ltd - specialized in Google Search Engine Optimization in the UK The company is an expert in providing innovative internet marketing solutions for small, medium sized and large businesses. They offers cutting-edge pay per click, Search engine optimization and search engine marketing solutions for your business with a full refund guarantee.

To get more information and for a 30 minute no obligation absolutely free consult in how to make your Internet marketing strategies work log on to http://www.infomedia-direct.com/search-engine-optimization

Attract More Buyers

For a marketer, it is important that his site, blog or article entry, or video land on the first few pages of the search results. That is generally how one can gain more traffic in his site, and consequently, more sales. However, getting a high page rank for one’s site is really not so easy. There are literally millions of people posting about the same topics. Thus, every search on a particular subject can generate up to thousands or even millions of result pages. So, the goal must be for your site or entries to land within the first three to five pages of the search results page. People typically have short attention spans so they are likely to check only three result pages before giving up and try out new keywords to get the information they need.

So, marketers came up with various strategies to rank high in the search results pages of search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Most would submit daily blogs and articles and use keywords repeatedly in their writings. Others would post remarkable videos, join forums to get the chance to invite community members to check out their sites. Also, there are those who link their sites with other top-rated sites in order to be recognized by the search engines. All these actually work well. But as more and more people learn about these strategies, the competition becomes tight.

Moreover, search engines also become well aware of the strategies marketers use, thus they begin to design and use new and better platforms to be able to pluck out the best and most helpful and rightfully rank them on the top pages. And for this same reason, Hubpages and Squidoo are currently two of the free hosting sites that are typically ranking high in the Google and other search engines.

Why? Hubpages and Squidoo have standards in choosing which articles are good enough for posting. In short, they have quality control. They have learned that high-quality articles attract significant traffic from search engines. Thus, they focused more on content rather than on quantity. Hubpages and Squidoo have somewhat become experts in their own rights, thus, they have been tagged as authority sites.

By being a member of these sites, your articles, blogs, and videos will automatically be recognized as relevant by search engines, thus putting your entries in an impressive spot in the search results pages. Also, since social networking are exceptionally helpful in optimizing one’s presence in the web, being linked to these sites can greatly help in ranking high in the search results.

Video4Leads Creates Local, National, and International Business Leads for you through internet video, article marketing, follow up marketing, increasing conversion on your website and more. The #1 mistake companies make is no Internet Follow up Program, We can take care of this for you. We can help you get the jump on your competition, so you Increase Traffic and Conversion to Your Website and Increase Sales and Referrals. Isn’t that what every business owner, publisher, marketer, entrepreneur wants? Call us now for a 10-15min free online website consultation.

Ojuly

Are you ready to start making money on eBay? You’ll be joining the ranks of about 700,000 others who have signed up as eBay sellers. Is it possible to make money with all those sellers competing with each other? The answer is a very definite “Yes.”

There may be lots of eBay sellers, but there are many more buyers on eBay, and the number keeps growing every day. There are literally millions of buyers looking for products to buy on eBay. There is no reason why you cannot jump in and start selling products yourself, even if you have no prior experience as an online seller. The best way to learn is to start educating yourself about online auctions, and sign up as an eBay user. There is a link at the end of this article to take you to the signup page on eBay.

Many eBay sellers started out by selling items around the house and garage they no longer needed. This is a great way to start selling on eBay. There is no initial cash outlay, and you have ready-made inventory. You will probably be surprised to find out what will actually sell on eBay - just about everything!

Once you start thinking about getting started as an eBay seller, look around your house for items you can easily photograph, package and ship. Many items such as handbags, books, CD’s and DVD’s are very easy to mail. Other items such as televisions, furniture, and anything too large to pick up easily are difficult to package and ship. As a beginner eBay seller, it is recommended that you stick with easy-to-package items.

Would you like to learn about the hot, profitable niches on eBay? I’ve just completed a brand new guide, “Special Report on eBay Niches.”

You can download it free here: Secret eBay Niches

Automyloan

Are you ready to start making money on eBay? You’ll be joining the ranks of about 700,000 others who have signed up as eBay sellers. Is it possible to make money with all those sellers competing with each other? The answer is a very definite “Yes.”

There may be lots of eBay sellers, but there are many more buyers on eBay, and the number keeps growing every day. There are literally millions of buyers looking for products to buy on eBay. There is no reason why you cannot jump in and start selling products yourself, even if you have no prior experience as an online seller. The best way to learn is to start educating yourself about online auctions, and sign up as an eBay user. There is a link at the end of this article to take you to the signup page on eBay.

Many eBay sellers started out by selling items around the house and garage they no longer needed. This is a great way to start selling on eBay. There is no initial cash outlay, and you have ready-made inventory. You will probably be surprised to find out what will actually sell on eBay - just about everything!

Once you start thinking about getting started as an eBay seller, look around your house for items you can easily photograph, package and ship. Many items such as handbags, books, CD’s and DVD’s are very easy to mail. Other items such as televisions, furniture, and anything too large to pick up easily are difficult to package and ship. As a beginner eBay seller, it is recommended that you stick with easy-to-package items.

Would you like to learn about the hot, profitable niches on eBay? I’ve just completed a brand new guide, “Special Report on eBay Niches.”

You can download it free here: Secret eBay Niches

F04

The best SEO practices used to increase your search engine rankings may seem daunting, so you have probably avoided using this powerful system on your website. A site ranked high is assured of more visitors and subsequently more sales. If you have been looking for a way to kick-start your internet business it is imperative to begin working on this immediately.

Most people looking for goods and services online find websites through search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and a few others. Optimizing your web pages for high search engine rankings is to attract targeted prospects to your website. This will increase the chances of these prospects of becoming customers. Your goal should be to have your web pages show up as high on the search results as possible, because this will provide an increase in traffic.

How do I optimize my website?

Title Bar - is on your homepage and it is the colored bar at the top of the page.

To increase search engine rankings, the words on your title bar should include the most important keywords or phrases, one of which would include your business name. This should also be done on the other pages as well. The keywords or phrases relating to the information on the page should match up perfectly.

Side note - avoid very long strings of keywords by keeping them to six words or less.

Also, keep away from excessive keyword duplication in the title bar, and make sure that identical words are not next to each other. The copy on the page should have the keywords spaced out as long as it does not affect the information negatively.

Content - search engines mostly list sites that contain quality content rather than snazzy graphics. The text on your site must contain the most significant keywords - the words that potential customers will be entering into search engines that will lead to your website.

250 words on each page should be the minimum unless design of your site works better with less. 100 carefully chosen words would probably be enough, but it must be totally keyword enhanced without overdoing it.

Side note - search engines must be able to read the text, so the text must be in HTML and not graphic format.

Meta Tags - is simple code that does not have the power some people believe, but it is worth adding them because some search engines may use meta tags in their ranking method.

Side note - to find out if your web pages are set up with meta tags, you must access the code by doing the following:

1. click the “view” button on the browser menu bar
2. select “source.” (this will pull up a window revealing the underlying code that created the page)
3. if there are meta tags, they usually appear near the top of the window
   • a meta tag would read: meta name=”keywords” content=

If you do not find code that reads like this, ask your webmaster to put them in. This may not do much for your search engine rankings, but any little boost helps.

Link Popularity - this is an extremely important factor based on search engine rankings. Almost all search engines use link popularity to rank a website. Link popularity is based on the quality of sites linked to from the links page.

Side note - if you want to find out what sites are linked to your site you will find some great tools online by searching the term “free link popularity check” and once you find out the negative or positive impact those sites may have on yours then you can respond accordingly. If you have a lack of or low quality links you should highly consider a link popularity campaign immediately by doing the following:

1. contact quality sites and request they exchange links with your site
2. checking out the rankings of the websites you want to link up with
3. link to popular and quality sites

This will not only elevate your search engine rankings, but it will also bring more quality traffic to your website.

Search engine rankings are extremely important for a successful online marketing campaign. By review the information above and performing these best SEO practices you should be able to make major strides in bringing more quality prospects to your web pages.

Discover 4 Good Reasons Why Attracting Organic Search Engine Traffic Makes Increasing Sales As Easy As Shooting Fish In A Barrel! http://bestseopractices.googlepages.com - Get a popular SEO free report while you are there.

Best SEO Practices

(c) Copyright - Jimmy Adames. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

Cartsupreme

Yes, it can be done. Here are 7 ways that a site can achieve increased link popularity without having to exchange links:

Directory Submissions - Submit to the Open Directory and other sites like JoeAnt and Gimpsy. These are all human reviewed directories, therefore search engines will consider that your site must be of pretty good quality to be listed in them. Submission to these sites is free, but there can be quite a wait to get reviewed, since editors are unpaid volunteers. In addition to a link popularity boost, a listing in Open Directory will get your site listed in the other Open Directory powered sites like Google’s web Directory, AOL’s web directory and many others.

Tips For Directory Submissions:

Editor Check - Is there an editor for your desired category? If not, consider applying. For Open Directory, this can give you the power to add your site much more quickly.

Link Title - Don’t try any tricks to get keywords in your title if they are not in your company name. This will get your listing edited if the listing is approved or rejected outright. The title must be your official website or company name.

Description - Again, don’t try to insert extra keywords here, it could backfire and your description will be edited or your listing rejected. The description should be short and concise. Just tell what your website offers and give some product or service examples if appropriate. Again, keep it short!

Be patient! - It may take weeks or months to be reviewed. If you’ve submitted before and are still not listed, try writing a polite note to the editor of the category to see if there was a problem.

Paid Submissions - Paid submissions to quality directories and portals is also a good idea. It is well known that a listing in the Yahoo directory area will give you a good Google PageRank boost. Listing in the Yahoo directory area is $299, so skip this option if your budget is limited.

Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Submissions - Google lists the results of many smaller pay-per-click search engines. This can help link popularity if your site is listed in these results for your important keywords and phrases. There are hundreds of these smaller PPC engines that offer a free advertising credit just for signing up. Take a jaunt on over to PayPerClickSearchEngines.com for a good list of them. Submit listings under all your important keywords and phrases and include keywords in your title.

Affiliate Program - Having an affiliate program can boost your overall sales by letting other sites do the advertising for you, but did you know that this can also help link popularity? For some affiliate program services like Commission Junction or LinkShare, they use a special link to track clicks and sales, so these may not be effective since they do not contain your actual domain name. The kind of affiliate program I am talking about is the type that uses your domain name in the tracking URL you give affiliates to use. Something like: http://www.yourcompanyname.com/aff?64340 As long as your affiliate program uses this type of link, then your site should see an increase in link popularity. Just make sure you offer a good incentive for affiliates so that they will add your link to their site. Even better, you can approve only related sites or sites with a good Google PageRank or Alexa traffic ranking into your program!

Specialized Submissions - What type of site do you have? What do you sell? Chances are there is a directory that specializes in just sites like yours. Have a casino or gambling site? There are many gambling portals and search engines. Submit to all of them. Have a site that sells antique fishing tackle? Yep, there are directories relating to fishing, but you can also submit to the many antique and collectible directories as well! Sell wedding dresses in New York? Submit to the many wedding and bridal directories and the New York search engines too. Whatever your niche, chances are that there is a specialized directory or search engine for that area. Find them and submit! You’ll benefit from the targeted traffic they send but also increased link popularity.

Create Your Own Directory - Set up your own specialized search engine, directory or portal catering to your target audience. Your site can be a featured or showcase site on the main page and other pages! To attract users, add interactive content such as forums, have chats, offer contests, the possibilities are endless.

Expired Domain Names - Maybe a site in your industry has gone out of business? You may be able to pick up their domain name and with it all their incoming links and traffic. Increase your link popularity by adding your link to the site prominently, then go ahead and re-direct the user to your site after a few seconds. Don’t re-direct quickly or you may not reap any link popularity benefits.

That’s it! 7 ways to increase your website’s link popularity without maintaining a links page and without sending your visitors to competitors!

Kacey Donston - Submit-URL.net has been promoting online businesses since 1998. Offering search engine optimization, positioning services, pay per click campaigns, ranking checks, resubmissions, evaluations and more. We offer comprehensive packages for home business owners, small businesses and corporate customers. http://www.submit-url.net