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Ten Crucial Principles in Web Site Designing
Designing a website is not as easy as most people think it is , the concept that web site designing is relatively easy and you can do any thing with front page and dream weaver is unrealistic, you mustn’t forget to follow the important basic steps.
Designing a website is a lot more than just knowing hypertext markup language or Ms Front Page. When it comes to your website, additional care and attention should be paid to every minute detail to make sure it performs optimally to serve its purpose. Here are ten crucial guidelines to observe to make sure your website performs well.
1 – Good Design or website theme/ template
Your website is the hub of your internet business enterprise; it is the virtual representation of your company whether your company exists physically or not. When you are doing business online, people cannot see you physically like they could if they were dealing with an offline company.
Hence, people do judge you by your covers. This is where a good design comes in. If your site is designed shabbily and looks like a five minute “quick fix”, you are literally shouting to your visitors that you are not a professional person and you do not care about quality.
2 – Avoid Broken Links
If your website is full of broken links, it damages your web site credibility. broken links annoy visitors and look very unprofessional. But broken links to your site (called back links) can hurt you too. The time you spend building up “link popularity” is wasted.
3 – Avoid Irrelevant Contents
The content of your web site should be consistent. Although the World Wide Web has a lot of important non-textual, more graphical uses, most people who use it spend an overwhelming amount of their online time reading. So well written, well edited quality content are all important for the success of any website.
4 – Don’t use Animated or still splash pages
Splash pages are the 1st page you see when you reach a website’s home page. They commonly have a very beautiful image with words like “welcome” or “click here to enter”.
As a matter of fact, they’re simply that — pretty vases with no real function. Do not let your visitors have a reason to click on the “back” button! Give them the value of your site up front without the splash page.
5 – Always provide simple / uncomplicated and clean website navigation
When you are designing a web page always keep in mind to offer a simple / uncomplicated and very straight forward website navigation menu so that even a newbie or a young child will know how to navigate to your website.
Never use complicated Flash based menus or multi-tiered dropdown menus. If your visitors do not know how to navigate, they’ll leave your website, Don’t confuse your visitors because confusion means “abandon ship”! And always make a site map for the website.
6 – Avoid Page Counters.
Of course you must be concerned about traffic of your Web site, but Page counters, especially offsite counters, do not tell you anything useful. The page counter is of limited use to the reader and you can get the same information from the website stats option in your hosting control panel.
7 – Don’t use unreasonable banner and text links for affiliates
Never make your web site a link farm, especially the home page. One or in some cases two banner ads are more than enough for the home page. So Instead of putting dozens of banners and text links on a single page, provide more valuable content and weave relevant affiliate links into your content, let your visitors feel that they want to buy instead of being pushed to buy.
8 – Avoid Excessive Javascript and pop up ads on your site
Roll over or other javascripts is your choice and your taste, I do not believe they do much for the user experience. With excessive javascript google spider always finds it difficult to crawl the pages. About pop ups – I will only say it’s the most annoying invention since blink tag.
9 – Avoid using music / audio and Flash on your site
If everybody is using T1 Line or at least one mbps data transfer then feel free to make flash sites. It will not scare your visitors away but for 56 kbps try to avoid flash pages.
About Music – If your visitors are going to stay a long time at your website, reading your content, you’ll need to make sure they are not annoyed by some audio looping on and on, on your web site. Unless your site itself is music related, do not make the user jump for the volume controls. They might be at home with someone asleep in the room. Or worse, at work.
If you live and die for music, let the default be without music and let the user choose to activate the music / audio.
10 – A Few small things to consider before publishing the web page.
a – A web page must load in 10 sec or max 20 sec for 56 kbps
b – A web page should have no more than 30 kb in text and 30 kb in graphics.
c – HEAD, TITLE and META exists and must be filled out properly.
d – I must add – keep your pets away from your website. A picture of your Dalmatian is all very good on your 360, my space or any other blogs, but it will not look good on your business website.
Are you searching for PHP web hosting?
Are you searching for PHP web hosting? If so, you probably have a website that calls for this type of hosting. But for some people, it can be more difficult than they thought to find a good PHP web hosting provider.
This is not always the case, but it is something that you should be prepared for. When it comes down to it, not all PHP web hosting companies are the same. You will find that some offer better response, more features, and much more. As you can imagine, you want to get set up with the host that is going to give you the best deal for your money.
So what should you look for when it comes to PHP web hosting? Although a lot of this has to do with what your website is calling for, there are some basic features that most webmasters do not want to overlook; not even if you are a newbie.
First off, take a look at what your PHP web hosting provider is offering in the way of disk space. You need to make sure that you get enough space to suit the type of website you are building. For most people, anywhere from 15 to 30 GB of disk space should do the job. But of course, this is solely up to you based on your needs.
Of course, bandwidth transfer is also important when shopping for PHP web hosting. You may be overdoing it with anything more than 500 GB, but you will never know until you actually have your site up and running.
When shopping for PHP web hosting you should also consider some of the smaller details as well. For instance, how many domains can you host on the same account? If you have more than one website, you may need to the ability to host them all in the same place.
You should now have a better idea of what to look for from a PHP web hosting provider.
Low Cost Web Hosting
If you are an individual who wants to show off your interests, special qualities, hobbies, e.t.c. to your friends or anybody outside; then it is the best idea to go for a low cost web hosting or even a free web hosting.
Even for small businesses, low cost web hosting would be the best option to get the maximum exposure for their company, their products and their services. As we all know web hosting is the must for any type of business whether it is small or big. But putting in huge amounts in web hosting for smaller or start up companies is not viable in the most cases and hence cheap web hosting is the great solution for this problem.
Also if it’s your first website, a personal page or many other factors you may choose to go the lost cost web hosting route. In order to have a good website though, there are some things you need to be aware of and look for in a low cost web hosting provider. They are:
1. Storage:
Especially if you want images with your low cost web hosting solution, storage is important. Many low cost hosting services are free for the first 10mb and then start billing you in order to get more storage. Find a host that has at least 50mb of storage so that you don’t risk running out. While 50 MB might not sound like a lot, many of the sites you visit each day likely aren’t much larger then that in size. For starting out this is more then adequate space.
2. Advertisements
Being a low cost web hosting solution, the ISPs some how have to make money, so ads are expected. Lots of low cost web hosting solutions though go overboard with Popup and float-ins, as well as banner ads and plenty more. Try and find a low cost web hosting provider that has non obtrusive advertising. Generally the number of ads goes hand in hand with just how low the price is. So a Dollar a month web hosting or free hosting you can expect a lot of ads.
In short, you need to find a safe low cost web hosting solution that provides you with plenty of storage and no over the top advertising. This way you are ensured to have pleasant experience having your site with low cost web hosting. Also don’t forget it’s not just your experience but those of your visitors as well, if you’re limited to what you can have on your site, or there are hundreds of ads flying at your visitors screen, you’ll have a hard time stopping them from clicking the back button.
Data Backup for Beginners
t’s 10pm. Do you know where your data is?
Data. Small bits of information clustered together to make Word files, documents,pictures, MP3s, HTML etc. We work on our computers every single day never sparing a thought for all those millions of chunks of data spread all over our hard disks. The data is there and it does it’s job.
Until of course the data is not there anymore.
72 hours ago I suffered from massive data loss. There were no hackers involved. No power surges or lightning strikes. Just wear and tear on my hard disk. 20 Gigabytes of business and personal information gone forever. Passwords, HTML files, ebooks all gone. I didn’t lose any sleep though. Why? Simply because this was my secondary hard disk that was only used as a backup drive. All my critically important data is safely stored elsewhere.
Picture this scenario. You sit at your computer, turn it on and nothing. Dead. You’ve just lost everything you’ve worked on for the last 12 months. All your Adwords campaigns, website templates, ebooks, Excel files. Everything. How do you feel? How do you go about recovering?
70% of companies who suffer serious data loss go out of business within 12 months.
The truth is that most people never recover from losing all their data.
What can you do to prevent this happening to you? Backup.Backup. Backup. Use a backup system.
How do I backup my data?
You could use a zip drive, a CDR/DVD writer, a USB drive or an secure online storage service. Using any of the above is far better than using nothing at all and hoping for the best.
Data loss cost US businesses in excess of 18 billion dollars in 2003.
How often should I backup my data?
You should backup all important data on your PC at least once a week. An easy way to do this is to use a rotating backup system. Get 4 blank disks . Label these disks Week 1, Week 2, Week 3 and Week 4. At the start of the month make a fresh copy of all your critical data on the Week 1 disk and continue this process on Week 2, 3 and 4. Following this procedure ensures that no matter what happens your stored data will never be more than 1 week old and you’ll also have 3 other copies of your data stored away that are less than a month old. Simple. Effective.
What software do I need?
Microsoft Windows has its own backup software included. Apple Mac users can take advantage of Apples Backup software and iDisk backup service.
How soon should I do this?
Now. Even using floppy disks start the process of backing up your data today. The sooner you start the safer your data is.
Human error and hardware failure account for 76% of all data loss.
The cost of recovering from a major hardware failure such as a hard disk crash can be massively reduced by keeping a backup of your data.
You’re worked hard to build up your business. Don’t throw all that hard work away by not taking the proper steps to safeguard your critical information.
Tips for Choosing a Good Web Host
1. Starts with you. Determine your needs. Space, bandwidth and budget.
a) Space – Cover your needs and allow for expansion if needed.
b) Bandwidth- Same as above.
c) Budget – Set a realistic budget for yourself. How much are you willing to spend? Lowest price too highest. Being a little flexible on your price will give more hosting choices.
2. Follow some basic guidelines for even considering a hosting provider.
a) Does the host have phone number? At the very least a web host should provide you with a contact phone number. This doesn’t have to be a 24-hour a day number but your future host should be available during normal business hours in their respective time zone. A toll free shows a willingness to provide convenience for their customers.
b) Do they provide at least 24/7 Support Desk? Support is important, this is a must. You should have access to support 24 hours a day. Test the support desk. Choose anytime of the day or night and contact the support desk to test response times, ask any questions you might have. A response time under an hour is good; less than thirty minutes is considered excellent.
c) Take a good look at their web site. This sometimes can be over looked but I believe this says something very important about the hosting company. If they care about how they present themselves to the public, they are more apt to care about other things like service and maintaining a high reputation.
d) The hosting company should provide you with an Acceptable Use Policy, Terms of Service and a Privacy Policy as well. It is in your best interest that you read these policies and understand them before you pay for services.
e) Do they have an Uptime Guarantee? We won’t set a number on this but a hosting provider should be willing to disclose what their commitment to service is. A professional company will have this included in their Terms of Service.
f) Do they provide a Money Back Guarantee? Again, this should listed in their Terms of Service.
g) Payment Options – A host should provide their customers with more than one payment option. Credit cards and other payment option such as PayPal or something comparable.
3. Make a list of at least four to five possible hosting providers that fit your needs from the guidelines above and do some research.
a) Search these forums and others to see what type of information you can find on the host.
b) Compare features and price of the hosts on your list.
c) Contact the host either by phone, email or support desk and ask any questions you might have.
d) Check Testimonials – If the host has a list of testimonials if possible send an email to one of those customers and ask for their feedback on the host. Most people are happy to give a recommendation. This can also help determine if the testimonial real or a fabrication.
e) Finally you might want to consider doing a ping test if you can, check some customers web sites if listed, see how fast they load.
f) Make your choice, sign up and good luck.
There are so many hosting companies out there today, and the choices are close to endless. These guidelines are not fool proof in anyway but if you follow them you will have a better chance finding a host that you can trust in delivering quality service and save you from moving from host to host. In twelve years of buying web hosting and dedicated servers I have never once had a provider suddenly disappear on me in the middle of the night. Good luck and good hunting.
