The 5 Biggest Mistakes Almost All Web Designers Make

Huge Mistake #1:
Creating a Website with Flash -- Did you know in a recent study, top internet marketers discovered that having a website created with Flash, actually decreased the response from prospects and customers by as much as 370 percent?

Here's why:
Your prospects and customers are most likely visiting your website using all types of different computers, connection speeds and internet configuration settings... What may look great to one visitor may not even appear for another! You could very easily have shelled out hundreds or even thousands of dollars to have a website created using the Flash technology, only to find out that some of your visitors will never see it! (Not to mention the loading times can cause your visitor to close your site, never to return again.)

Huge Mistake #2:
The "Internet Catalog" Approach -- You see this everywhere. Good, honest and hardworking businessmen and women get online to sell their products or services, and have a site created for them that contains a link to just about everything they offer on one page. Their thinking goes along the lines of, "...well, I don't want to leave anyone out. If they come to my site, I want to make sure I have what they're looking for..." -- This way of thinking could not be further from the truth.

Here's why:
There's an ancient rule that goes back to the very beginning of direct-marketing on the internet, taught by the richest, most legendary and well-respected internet marketers of all time..."When you give your prospects too many choices, they become confused and aren't sure what to do next. Confused people never buy anything."

Huge Mistake #3:
Optimizing Your Sales Site for the Search Engines -- You'll see this taught in nearly every "internet marketing" course, manual or eBook out there... "You must optimize every page of your website for the search engines!" -- In fact, this false teaching is accepted as 'gospel truth' so often that most web designers will offer to do this for you at no, or little extra cost... What they don't understand is that certain words and phrases must be either re-worded (to make it "keyword rich") or taken out completely, just to be looked upon highly by the mighty search engines -- and this could kill your sales, literally overnight.

Here's why:
When you or a hired web designer optimize your sales page (i.e. any web page designed to sell your products and services) to get a higher listing in the search engines, you're going to have to sacrifice the pulling-power of your sales copy (i.e. written sales material) just to get those higher listings. Sure, this can bring you more traffic -- but what good is all the traffic in the world, if your visitors arrive at your website and aren't compelled enough to read why they should order your product?For years, it has been taught that you should always try to find a "balance" of SEO (Search-Engine-Optimization) mixed with promotional copy designed to sell your products and services...

Wrong Again!
The truth is that you should never optimize your sales page for the Search Engines. Instead, you should create tiny "entry pages" for each keyword related to your product or service, (highly optimized for the Search Engines) and have them link to your main sales site! (We can show you exactly how to do this quickly and easily and get *massive* targeted traffic from the Search Engines - without ever *touching* your sales site!)

Huge Mistake #4:
Having a "Graphics-Based" Website -- Sure, graphics can certainly help us to visualize a particular situation or circumstance, product or service... But did you know that having a graphically-driven website can actually distract your visitor away from your sales message?After all, your sales message (or "web copy") is The #-1 most important factor in a website that makes money. If your visitors are paying more attention to your "professional graphics" than your sales message... you've just lost another sale.

Here's why:
You've got approximately seven seconds from the time your visitor arrives at your site, to the time they decide whether to buy your product, get more information or leave. If you've got a graphically-intensive website, your website will most likely still be loading past your seven-second time limit.
That's a "customer-killer" in and of itself - however, the real reason lies within the fact that the bigger, brighter and more beautiful your graphics are, the more they will distract your visitor from your sales message. And if your visitor is distracted even for one second, it could mean the difference between getting a sale, and losing a customer.

Huge Mistake #5:
Designing a Website with Zero Marketing Experience -- Most web designers have no idea how to make money on the internet, with anything other than their design services. It's not their fault - they simply have no or very little marketing and sales experience. After all, they're just website designers...

However, having your website designed by someone with Zero internet marketing experience is like buying a street-car without an engine... it won't go anywhere, and it'll just waste your time and money!

Leo

Selecting a Quality Domain Name

1. Select a Domain Name that Reflects Your Web Site-
Above all else, your domain name should reflect what your web site is all about. You would want to select a domain name that tells the world what your web site is all about.

2. Select a Domain Name that Contains Your Web Site's Keywords-
Another consideration of great importance are your keywords. Try to select a domain name that contains your most relevant keyword phrase because some Search Engines place relevancy on them. A keyword phrase is two or more words that best describe your web page.

3. Select a Domain Name that will be Easily Remembered-
With millions of web sites accessible on the Internet, it is also very important to select a domain name that will be easily remembered.

4. Select the Best Domain Extension-
Another consideration of importance is the domain name extension. Although there are many new domain extensions available, dotcom is still the best choice. When typing in a web address, Internet users automatically want to type in a .com extension, since this is the extension that has been embedded into our brains from the start.

5. Avoid Using Numbers in Your Domain Name-
Although you may be tempted to do so, avoid using numbers within your domain name. Including a number within your domain name can cause problems. When you tell someone your web address, you will continually have to tell them it's a number and not the word. This type of domain name can cause confusion.

6. Avoid using Dashes and Underscores in Your Domain Name-
Avoid using dashes, underscores or any other characters within your domain name that may cause confusion.

7. Avoid Using Abbreviations Within Your Domain Name-
As a rule, try to avoid using abbreviations or anything that will be difficult for your visitors to remember. Not only will this cause confusion, but it can also cause your potential visitors to make spelling mistakes when trying to type in your web address.

8. Avoid Using Long Domain Names-
Although you may now register long domain names, it's really not a good idea. Try to keep your domain name as short as possible. The longer the domain name the harder it is to remember and the more apt your potential visitors are to make a typo when typing it into their browser.

9. Ensure Your Domain Name is Not a Trademark Infringemen-
It is your responsibility to ensure that your potential domain name doesn't infringe on any registered trademarks, as the trademark laws that apply in the hard copy world also apply on the Internet.

When you're ready to begin, create a list of a dozen or more potential domain names, as chances are, your first choice will already be taken. With any luck, one of the domain names on your list will be available.

ake your time and select a quality domain name that will grow with your business. It will be well-worth your time and effort in the long run.

Leo

What should your website do for you?

Your website should:

Enhance your business or organization's online image
Provide a gateway to your products or services
Be a content rich, informative resource for your online visitors
Deliver targeted traffic to your products or services
Offer a secure eCommerce solution if you sell products or services
Be optimized for enhanced search engine performance
Be affordable and very low maintenance


1.Enhance your company's online image!

Your website is your online presence and needs to enhance your company’s image and products in a way that is both professional and useful to your prospective customers. The best way to attract targeted visitors and keep them interested is by providing informative content. Your website needs to stand out from the masses by offering information or solutions your competitors do not offer.

2.Your website is the Gateway to your products or services!

When a visitor comes to your site, chances are they are looking for information, a solution to a problem or for a specific product or service. Your website needs to have the content and solutions to answer their needs. Informative content attracts visitors and helps to promote repeat visits.

3.Your website needs targeted traffic!

Targeted traffic means visitors that are actively searching for solutions, answers, products, or services that your website has to offer.

Keyword research is one of the most important parts of website development

Visitors are not enough!- Search engine optimization and marketing ensures visitors that are actively searching for what you have.
Do you need an e-Commerce solution/online store?


Leo

How to Increase Your Search Engine Rankings!

How to Increase Your
Search Engine Rankings!


When talking about search engine rankings many people ask themselves questions like; how many keywords should I put in my anchor text? What is the keyword density that I should have on the page? Should I use short copy or should I use long copy? Can I use flash or not? How many keywords should I put in my "alt" text? Etc...

The most important thing you can understand as a search engine optimization expert is that algorithms change. Just when you think you understand what is going to make you number one for a keyphrase in a search engine, something could easily change, and you might have to spend months or even years trying to figure the new algorithm.

It is better not to try to reverse engineer the algorithm, do something much easier instead... observe your top competitors. All you need to do is to understand what elements your competitors are using to make them rank in the top positions.

The main elements to getting top search engines rankings are:

Number, quality, and relevance of inbound links pointing to your site
Fresh, relevant, quality content (needs to be added frequently)
Keyword density of your home page or any page you want to rank highly

Links, Links, Links

The first thing to observe from your competitors' sites is their inbound links. This means the number of sites that have a link pointing to their website. You can easily measure it by going to Google and typing: "link://www.yourcompetitorssite.com". However do not only do this on Google because they don't show all actual links pointing to a site. Yahoo and MSN tend to show a lot more of the back links to any given website.

Part of the observation should be not only what the links say, but where the links come from. Think about what the category is that those links come from. If you start to see a recurring pattern, you should start actively searching for links coming from that category.

You will learn how to look at your competitors, and observe how they are getting linked to. Then, just do what they do.

Fresh Quality Content

The second thing to observe is how much fresh content the top sites have. Search engines love quality relevant content that is added and updated frequently. You will probably notice that the top sites in your niche have many articles and other quality content, and are continuously adding new content to their sites.

People that surf the web are usually searching for information, so content is the "fuel" of internet traffic. If you want to attract many potential customers to your site, then you need to make sure that you provide enough content which is relevant to their interests. Updating it frequently with more quality content will keep visitors coming back to your website over and over again.

Keyword Density

The third thing you need to observe is the keyword density of your competitors. How many times should you repeat your main keywords? In which part of the web page should your main keywords be mentioned? Again, there is no magic number, it's all about observing and measuring against the top websites in your market. But what should you measure?
- Meta tags
- Alt tags
- Titles
- Names of the images on the page
- Heading tags: h1, h2, h3...
- Frequency and position of the keywords in the body text
Each one of these items should be measured independently. There are tools to run keyword density against your competitors. If you run them against the top 3 or 5 sites, you may start to understand the secrets of top rankings.

Again, your keyword density needs to look natural; otherwise you may fail in overall optimization. This is when you use keywords too often or too little. If you look unnatural, your rankings will suffer as a result.

So, what did we learn here? Basically that the key to ranking highly in the search engines is to understand what the top 5 websites in your niche are doing and to apply this to your own website optimization.

What do you do now? Get out there and start getting inbound links for your site. Add quality content to your site daily. And be sure that your on-site optimization, such as keyword density, is similar to that of your top competitors. Continue to do this every day and you will be ranking at the top of the search engines before you know it.

Leo

I Look Good!!
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E-commerce For The Rest Of Us

Hello everybody!!
This blog is for you!

Today we will talk for web sites.
The best way to build and sell your site is to know what exactly you are doing! I mean that before you even start you must realize what you want and how to make it. For this I suggest to take a free day and start to write your plan.
First you must explore a lot of information in Internet for successful saits sites!
The main questions are:
How to built a site?
Which program should I use?
What name to use for my site?
How and where to search in for specification information?
What theme to use, and which theme will be successful?

For all of this questions We will talk from now on!!

I hope this is interesting for most of you. I will wait for your comments!

Regards

Leo
www.richwebmaster.com