http://www.articletrader.com/ Articles at ArticleTrader en-us http://www.articletrader.com/internet/web-design/what-will-make-search-engines-choose-your-website.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/web-design/what-will-make-search-engines-choose-your-website.html Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0500
The textual element of the website should be well separated from the design elements. Information may be what lures visitors to the website, but the design and layout is what makes them stay. A poor and hard-to-ude website design may just give a reason to the visitor to stray away regardless of the quality of the content in it.

The layout, colors and style of the website should be defined by the characteristics of the target customer base. Professionals like engineers and programmers can do well with intricate tools and graphics but for inexperienced people, it’s best to stick to the simple standard format that works with the most common browser and resolution. Customers with special needs should not be neglected and necessary adjustments should be made to the site to cater to their demands.

The home page of the website should contain not less than 275 words of text that offers a crisp description of the product and lures the customer to further explore the site. The first paragraphs should contain the primary keywords along with the tagline or phrase. The primary and secondary keywords should constitute about 5% of the text on the homepage, used within complete and logical sentences.

Primary keywords should ideally be incorporated in the major headlines of the text content and secondary keywords in subsequent headlines.

All the graphics should be accompanied with an alt tag that describes the graphic using the keywords. The keywords should never be put in the color of the background text. This would be termed as keyword stuffing and can get one penalized.
The first page of the website should clearly explain the ‘who-where-what’ concepts of the company. All the expertise fields need to be listed along with other qualifications.

Splash pages should be avoided not only does it eliminate customers who may not have the necessary software to view the site, the search engine robots don’t get any reactions from this type of design.

On the whole the site should have an attractive professional look and appeal to the target audience. The graphics should be enhancing the overall look of the page and navigation be spontaneous.





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Michael Henderson is a renowned web technologist and search engine optimizer. He has several successful web design projects to boast of, both in India and abroad. He is the acting consultant for several clients and proposes optimal web based solutions to back their business needs and instructs the developers to create web pages that meet the W3C standards.

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The web browsers can only recognize 256 colors, out of which only 216 colors are shared commonly by all the browsers. Thus, while designing the key elements of a website, the designers should strictly restrict themselves within the 216-color pallet.
If one ventures outside this said limit, then the colors that are used would not even exist within that browser. The browser has to mix the non-existing colors. For the colors to get displayed, the browser will need to borrow tiny dots from the colors native to form the approximate color. This is known as ‘dithering.’ Some displays distort the tiny dots to the point where the image is becomes so speckled that it fails to appear as a solid color. And if the text is placed over the dithered color, it becomes extremely hard to read. This is why only browser safe colors should be used when using solid color as a design element. But even some of the browser safe colors require caution.

The eye muscles tire out after prolonged exposure to bright colors. The back of the eye contains a thin layer of tissue, on which are placed millions of tiny light sensing nerve cells called rods and cones. The cone triggers off response mechanisms to different light wavelengths. When the eye is made to concentrate on bright colors continuously, the cones become tired and fatigued. Then the opposite cones start to function and cause illusionary visibility of coloration. And prolonged concentration causes the eye muscles to strain and tire out.
Even caution signs are usually painted in yellow. It is because pure yellow strains human eyes the most in comparison to any other color. And thus, it is the first color that catches the eye even in a chaotic set up.

Thus, bright colors like yellow and red should be used very sparingly and judiciously on the websites. An overdose of these colors would just irritate visitors and makes them leave. They should only be induced in areas that need special attention! If there is a particular area which requires more focus than the rest of the page, then that are could be highlighted using these bright colors.

The use of colors can make or break the consumer traffic towards the website. It’s best to make a wise choice.!




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Michael Henderson is a professional web developer and SEO expert. Over the due course of his career he has completed many web design projects for clients across the globe. WWW has appointed him the acting consultant to provide their clientele with web solutions in India & overseas.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]>