DB Graphic design

Web Design, Blogging, and SEO

Browsing Posts published in August, 2010

Generate Traffic With Blogging – Traffic Like Never Before!

Many bloggers do not know the ways to generate traffic with blogging. One chooses to write blogs over the internet for others to read and discuss; talk about one’s personal as well as professional life and other matters concerning him as an individual. It is indeed great for anyone to learn how to generate traffic with blogging as it gives him a chance to make money out of writing an online journal.

There can be endless ways to generate traffic with blogging, thereby creating a regular flow of income and keeping the cash flowing in. The following tips can help to generate traffic with blogging:

1. Submit the post as an article to the article submission websites: Try to create a readable blog that is good in content. Others should not only find it interesting to read, but also knowledgeable. Submitting such a blog as an article to the article submission sites like EzineArtcles.com is a great way to generate traffic to your blog.
2. Keep a track of your blog page: One way to increase traffic by the way of blogs is to keep their track and leave comments for any post that has been received. Installing software like MyBlogLog will help in keeping track of the people visiting the blog. The conversation can be kept going with fellow bloggers, which in turn will generate traffic.
3. Ping your blog: Pinging is a great traffic churner for a blog. Aggregators like the ping function can help you spread the buzzword of any update made on your blog, thus sending the word around and generating traffic.
4. Keep in constant touch with the communities: It is important for any blogger to keep in constant touch with his communities. For any change or update made on the blog, the blogger must inform the communities, of which he is a member, so that all the members thereof are informed about the update. It is also, at the same time, important to take part in online discussions and post comments on others’ blogs that are related to your own blog. Putting up polls, quizzes as well as comments also lead to greater traffic generation on a web blog.
5. Install a language translator: A great way to generate traffic with blogging is by installing a translator plugin on your webpage. This will help generate traffic of people who are not well versed in English.
6. Be Precise: Often internet readers prefer crisp, short and humorous blogs as compared to lengthy and verbose ones. Therefore, it is essential that in order to generate traffic with blogging, the blog should be interesting and funny to read.

Other ways to generate traffic with blogging include – participating in LinkedIn and yahoo answers, posting your URL there or writing something sensational that catches the eye. So, what are you waiting for? Turn your blog into a money-minting machine with the above, easy-to-follow tips!

Nowadays the latest internet marketing tool is the blogging tool. It is a very effective tool to promote your product whether by word of mouth or viral. The concept goes back to the early 90′s when all you would find on the website would be a sentence or two. Blogging today has emerged into a forum where you can find information on almost any topic of your choice.

Reasons Why You Should Use Blogging

You too should use blogging to benefit your online marketing campaign. Anyone who can operate a computer and can type can start to learn blogging. You just have to express your ideas through language just as if you are talking to any customer. If your readers like your blog then the building of a very strong relationship may begin. You should write as many articles as possible on your blog. And if visitors find the material beneficial then soon more readers will visit your site. You have to position yourself as an expert and prove your credibility to your readers. Use of a blogging tool will help you do this better.

Try and also use RSS feeds to your blog. Through this you can generate continuity on any news or updates. RSS will generate leads from search engine generated traffic for you. Your subscriber base will increase and in turn, you will be able to promote your product better.

Which Tools To Use?

There are many tools, which can be used to show the statistics of your blog or track visitors. Below is a list of blogging tools that you can use.

• Tools for statistics – Site meter is a tracking tool which will give you instant access to information on your blog. It will also show you your weekly performance. Google Analytics is another free tracking device from Google which will give you valuable information about your blog. My Blog Log is a part of Yahoo and is another popular tracking service.
• Some other tools are Performing Metrics, Web Analyze, Extreme, AW Stat, Webalizer and Mint.
• You would also require some Blog editor tools through which you can edit whatever blogging details you might have used. Some editing tools are- Windows Live Writer Blog, Qumana, Zoundary, WB Editor, Blog desk and Blog Jet.

The above-mentioned tools will let you track your visitors as well as send you weekly reports and graphical representation of your traffic.

These are only some of the blogging tools that are commonly used. If you wish to know more about any particular blogging tool and locate more tools you can easily search the net for the same. You would surely get more detailed information about blogging tools. So go on, Happy Blogging.

The Right Web Design Look and Feel ? Does it Matter?

This might seem like an obvious statement. Of course the look and feel of my web site matters but how much does it actually matter and what can I do to improve my web design interface? Many companies are constantly tweaking their web site with a view to capturing the attention of potential customers. Although not all web sites are commercial in nature, the majority of web site owners are targeting potential customers with the ultimate aim of securing online leads and sales. Having a pretty web design is nice but it is no guarantee to converting visits into leads and sales.On what basis then should web designers set the look and feel of a web site and how are they monitoring the results of the web design look and feel on visitor’s behaviour?

Whilst the web offers massive sales opportunities, it takes specialist knowledge and constant research and web design intervention to actually secure orders online. Getting traffic to your web site is important. Search engine optimisation to improve your web site’s organic ranking on search engines and pay per click will get you traffic. But traffic alone will not fetch you sales. You could literally have hundreds of visits to your web site and end up with no leads at the end of the day. If you are paying for your clicks, it could be a big waste of money.

The average web surfer i.e. your potential web design customers spends about 10 seconds on your web site. That is a very short time but it is the only window of opportunity you might have to sell your web design services and products to that potential customer. Putting together the web design solution that will work and deliver this tall order is the key to a successful web design business or any business for that matter.

You cannot beat marketing research in planning any selling tools and you do not have to be a marketing guru to start thinking marketing. Start by deciding which segment of the web design market you want to target. Is it the discount low cost segment or are you more into the corporate web design sector? Selling discount web design through a corporate sophisticated web site might put the potential low budget customers off. Conversely, corporate customers looking for an expensive, high end and sophisticated web design would expect their supplier to have a corporate web site.

Once you have established which segment of the web design market you are serving and decided on the ‘discount’ or corporate look, start looking at the web design elements and where these fit on your homepage. A good starting point to putting together an effective web page that works is research on the behaviour of web surfers. Try typing ‘heat map’ into Google and look for ‘Where should I place Google ads on my page?’ The web site offers some indication of the ‘hot spots’ on a web page i.e. the areas where web visitors are most likely to spend time looking. Use this as a first step in putting together your web design. Try placing your key product offers and contact details in the hottest spots of the heat map – showed as bright orange on the heat map.

Once our web site is online, no amount of reading can beat a good testing procedure for your web design. Get your web site online and start analysing what’s happening. Look at your basic stats like number of visits. Then start looking a bit deeper into your stats using some analytic tools to check the effectiveness of your web design. Google offers some free analytics tools that allow you to easily find out which links visitors are or are not clicking on your web page.

Look at important links that are key to generating leads, like your ‘request a quote button’. If these important links are being ignored, start tweaking the web design look and feel to make them more prominent and visible of on your web site. Use position (remember the heat map), bright colours and catchy words to draw the attention of your potential web design customers.

When it comes to the look and feel of your web design solution, remember that looking pretty is not enough. The web site must respond to key marketing issues like your market segment and web surfer behaviour. The next time you visit a web page, try and see if the look and feel achieves the objectives of the web site.

Ralph Ramah is CEO of Discount Web Design, a web design and search engine optimisation company offering affordable and effective web design solutions to business across the UK.

Related Web Design Articles

At clickconsult.com we hear people talk about great website design quality content, relevant keywords and strong link building strategies. What is not spoken about so much is number of pages that a company actually has within their website. Of course, we talk about page ranking being really important, yet what a lot of people do not realise is that the number of pages you have can actually increase your page ranking, and of course has an impact on your website’s design.

The process which the likes of Google go through to get a final page ranking is obviously based on a lot more than just number of pages, yet indirectly it can improve your ranking within SERP’s. We will take Google as an example as this is of course the most familiar search engine and the one which we probably understand the most.

When you link two pages within a website this is in theory casting a kind of vote for each web page, and Google likes votes. If a web page gets recommended by other web pages then this will go towards increasing the page ranking. So when you look at the SEO basics of it in this way, it is clear to see how important web pages are. Some professional Google fanatics have in the past looked towards achieving a website with a hundred pages, as this is a massive statement figure which shows you have secured a strong place in the online world. The amount of votes cast within a website with one hundred pages is phenomenal, and if handled correctly can only aid your page ranking.

Believe it or not, it is not that difficult to get your website up to a hundred pages. If you are selling products then it is particularly easy as you will have a lot of information to relay to your users. One thing that is worth remembering is that any new pages will not be ranked or even indexed in Google, so quality is still important. When you create a new page whether in the early stages of web development or later, ensure that you always link it to one of your strongest or most important pages, to ensure that it has a good, reputable page associated with it. This is important for your online reputation management as well as your SEO.

Content is still really important and under no circumstances should you create additional pages just for the sake of it. For example, say you were producing a ‘contact us’ page. There is no need to put address on one page, telephone number on another and email contacts on a third page. At the most you would have contact details and then a separate page for directions. Any pages which have little or poor content will not be deemed as important and not ranked as high. This could have an effect on other pages within your site.

Google page ranking takes into account every single link to or within your website. This includes links from internal pages and to and from external pages or sites. For this reason, it is crucial you monitor your web design and development, as well as your SEO campaign, carefully as links from spam or unauthorised sites could actually do your page ranking more harm than good.