Thursday, July 13, 2006

Web Site Theme- Is your sites theme search engine friendly?

by: Dawn Rowlett
Your websites theme is very important to its success. When your site is indexed by search engines, they actually review your sites theme as well as other content. The theme must be carefully planned. Here are some tips for developing a proper web site theme that will make search engines happy as well.
Choose a design that revolves around keywords and keyword phrases. For example, if your sites keywords are sporting goods, choose design elements that are associated with sporting goods. Use bright colors such as red and yellow. Use elements that are high impact and exciting, similar to thoughts associated with sporting goods.
Focus on the types of products, services, and information you seek to promote. You are selling sporting goods, not bedding. Focus on sporting goods and stay on that approach. Don’t get side tracked with a certain color theme you favor. Make your keywords the main focus of your theme. Make them bigger, and make them stand out against all the other content.
Search engine spiders review website theme as to how it relates to keywords. It is a complicated algorithm, but it takes into consideration the use of keywords and links. Search engines look for lots of content related to the main theme throughout the site, so it’s a good idea to have lots of information written for your site.
Lots of work should go into choosing the perfect theme for your site. Make sure you are truly representing what you wish to provide. If you get bogged down with too many keywords or keyword phrases, you may need to consider additional websites that focus around this theme, instead of flooding your own site with too many products.
Remember, the theme of the website should be appealing to users as well as the search engines. Once a theme is finalized, there are many more steps to make your site optimized for search engines. A theme is only the beginning. But it should be a strong foundation from which your site will grow and develop.
About The Author
This article was written by Dawn Rowlett of Web Submission Services as an informational piece for website owners. Please visit Web Submission Services for more information about web site theme, http://www.internetmarketingwebsites.com/web-site-theme.htm and search engine optimization techniques, http://www.internetmarketingwebsites.com/web-design-search-engine-optimization.htm.

Monday, July 10, 2006

Benefits of Web Site Templates

Okay, you are ready to join the masses and put up a web site. You’ve put a lot of thought into the design and are ready to go. Perhaps you should give more thought to using a web site template.
Web Site Templates
For many people, it makes more sense to use a pre-designed web template instead of creating a site from scratch. Using a pre-designed site template allows you to get a professional design at a fraction of the price a custom design would cost. A good template is automated or has HTML tags to show you exactly where to put your text. This saves you precious time. Also, a web page designed by someone just learning HTML is more likely to have mistakes than one designed and tested by professionals. Mistakes in web site code can prevent some users from being able to see a web page or can even cause lower search engine rankings.
There are millions of web sites on the Internet and there are more being born every second. Even though there may be more than one web site using the pre-designed site template you choose, the likelihood of a visitor seeing both sites is not great. Every site is unique in the data it presents. Web templates present data quickly and professionally without the hassle of designing anything.
Being that many web templates are under $50 and many custom site designs are well over $5000, it is easy to see how web templates can save money and time. Web templates are a good way for someone to learn HTML. By becoming familiar with code that has been written professionally, a webmaster can pick up on things along the way. Instead of having an amateur web site at the start, an HTML novice can have a professional site from the beginning with a pre-designed site template.
Search Engines also play a factor in choosing web templates. Sites with HTML mistakes do not fair well in search engines. Particularly in older versions of Netscape, forgetting one tag can mean the whole page won't show. A good web template has been designed and tested in many environments, to W3C standards, for maximum compatibility. Instead of thrashing your way through mistakes, take advantage of competent template designs.
If you are just starting out, a web site template is almost always the way to go. There are thousands of sites offering them for sale for very low prices. Why waste your time when you can use a template to get off to a quick, professional start?
About The Author
Halstatt Pires is an Internet marketing consultant with http://www.marketingtitan.com - an Internet marketing firm in San Diego offering automated web site systems through http://www.businesscreatorpro.com.

Quick, Effective Web Design: Templates?

by: Todd Levi
We have all seen the websites online that sell template web designs for various business industries. Are these worth using? The answer may be different for everyone.
When deciding on a web design it is important to know your competition. What do you like about there site? What could be done better? Are there certain aspects of the site that would appeal visually? Are there certain aspects of a competitor’s site that have helped in organic SEO/SEM? Are there certain aspects/offers on a competitor’s site that may draw people in? I think these are all important factors to keep in mind when visiting the competition in the pre-web design phase. However, this article is going to focus on another aspect: Namely, is there repetition in style amongst your competition? If you where starting a business to rival NetFlix & Blockbuster movie rentals online, you would immediately become aware that the two look very much identical except for the color scheme. In a similar respect, you may even find two websites using the exact same design in the same industry. Then you may find the exact same web design on a web design template site! This situation is the low point of template web design buying. If you decide to use a template (and I will argue that sometimes this is the way to go) you MUST KNOW YOUR COMPETITION!
If nothing else, template web design can spark ideas. There are many template sites out there like BoxedArt.com and TemplateMonster.com, and even a variety of free ones, with decent web site designs. When browsing through these sites it can be very helpful for sparking the idea in your head of what you may want your web design project to be like. Adversely, many of the templates found are also very generic to a certain point. There tends to be an overwhelmingly corporate feel to a high percentage of templates on the market. Not all web designs call for a corporate look but just simply need to look professional to gain credibility. Take aspects that work from different designs and merge them with the current identity you are looking for. Don’t get carried away with this process though, if you take away a little from each one you may get a very disorienting look and feel to the site as each design may vary. Likewise, when I say take it is important to emphasize that I am not talking about stealing. These template designers have spent time and expect return, however if you find a font you like and match something as simple as this to a similar font that would fit in with your design then use the idea. Don’t directly take images or color layouts. This browsing of templates for ideas is very much like browsing your competitor’s websites for ideas and scoping the market.
If you are looking at purchasing a template make sure to follow these guidelines:
1. Know that your competitors are not using this template. If you are a national chain, you will probably not be reading this as you may very well have your own unique design team. For everyone else, how far does your competition boundary spread? If you own a local hot dog stand, you may only have a handful of competitors in your area that are branding themselves. Buying a template that can be purchased by the public even after you purchase it may be ok in this instance if the hot dog template is a great design. In this case it would be a perfect fit for a low priced design that may be high quality. If however you may run into multi-state or national competition for your product then you may opt against the generic template as a foundation to your design.
2. Make sure the template is only the foundation to your web design building. This may mean that you use the overall structure of the design, but change all the graphics to make the design more personalized. Often times this also means that you will change the color scheme to fit with your current identity or logo. Also, maybe only a portion of the template should be used. Does it have a great looking header or search box, but the rest of the site is left to be desired?
3. Always make sure to follow the guidelines of the company your purchase your web design template from. This is important as certain amount of “redesign” of the template is most likely expected in the user agreement.
Templates certainly are not for everyone, however when small business owners are just trying to get there feet wet online, a template may be the best choice. They are typically professional looking, well thought out (in many industry themes), require less knowledge to build from than a web design from scratch and most certainly more affordable than starting a web design from scratch.
As a side note: There are many web template sites out there that also sell limited download web design templates for a little more money. These are templates that once purchased a few or one time are taken from the template library and now longer available for purchase. These can keep branding in house and save time and money if the design is what you are looking for.
About The Author
Todd Levi has been designing website for 5 years and is currently owns http://levisolutions.com/ which is a Fort Collins based Web Design Company serving the Colorado area.

The Advantages of Web Page Template Designs: Tips and Guides on Which To Choose

template designs create these web templates. Likewise, web page template designs play an important role in creating people’s impression of the company or of the business.
The advantages of customizing web page template designs
· In addition, there are also various web page template designs which may also be customized for added flare. Customizing the designs of web page templates requires for the addition of some elements like text, logos and images.
· Customized web page template designs are ideal for businesses who want to portray a strong and effective online presence. It is also excellent in providing businesses with the usability, the visual impact, and assists in building consumer trust as well as provides businesses with an effective branding solution that will surely leave a mark in the mind of consumers.
How to acquire custom web page template designs online?
There are phases or stages that are involved in acquiring for custom web page template designs online. The initial phase or stage involves the filling up or the completion of a design questionnaire where customers are asked about designs that they want. The second stage involves outlining of objectives based on customers’ expectations that will guide the designers in creating the design. The third and final stage is the implementation of the chosen design layout. The design layout will be uploaded to the web site of the customer where adjustments are going to be made to match the color as well as the font scheme of the site.
Important considerations in choosing web page template designs
In choosing a web page template design, it is important to consider its usability. The usability of the web design is an essential element that influences the site’s conversion rate. An effective web design is one that quickly loads and presents the content of the web site in a way that would be easily understood by web visitors.
Web page templates may either be bought or be downloaded free online. There are so many downloadable web page template designs that may be used as basis for fast and high quality web sites. These templates are completely customizable and are ready for immediate use. And to ensure that you get only the best quality web page templates, choose only those providers that have a good track record on their sleeves complete of course with their portfolios that will serve as proof of their expertise for creating web templates that really creates an impact.
About The Author
Jay Peterson writer, web designer, marketer. http://www.tictacwebsites.com/ is the easiest do-it-yourself website builder on the web No programming or design skill required. Get your small business online in just 5 minutes with http://www.tictacwebsites.com/ loaded with 30+ business features.

5 Good Reasons To Use Web Site Templates

Professionally designed site

First appearances are everything, this is especially so on the internet. If your site looks amateurish then it is more than likely that someone will press the back button on their browser before they even read your home page, let alone buy anything from you.

Web site templates get round this problem as they are designed by professionals who are creating web sites every day. This means that graphics will be well designed and load quickly when people visit your site. The basic design of the site will have been tested with several browsers to ensure compatibility and the navigation system will be functional.

Cost

A web site template costs between $20 - $70, compare this to a design cost from scratch of about $500 from a web site designer and you can see that you can make substantial savings by opting for the do it yourself approach.

A template is a great starting point for a good looking, well designed site. All you need are some basic editing skills and appropriate software.

Speed

Quite simply editing a partially completed web site is much quicker than creating a site from scratch. You avoid problems such as creating navigation menus and optimising graphics for fast loading of web pages. It typically takes a web designer 5 - 15 days to produce a high quality site.

Set structure

A lot of time can be wasted in deciding on the layout of a site. Using a template helps overcome design issues and enables you to focus purely on content. That way you can achieve a more polished product.

Universal language

Most web site templates are available either as basic HTML files or as more sophisticated flash sites. The more professional retailers will give you both versions.

This means that if you are working to a budget then you could use a low cost HTML editor to get by or, if you wanted your visitors to have a more involved experience, then you could invest in premium products from Macromedia, Adobe or Microsoft that support most of the features you could ever wish to add to your site.

About The Author


Trevor Sadowski has been building web sites for a couple of years now and has tried various methods to speed up the process.

In order to help others Trevor has created a site that offers help and advice on how to build a web site at http://www.WebsiteToolshop.com as well as offering free and premium templates of the best quality, free graphics, buttons and other web site components.

Website Templates

Website Templates

Looking to establish an online presence? Then, your most affordable solution is to buy a web template. It is important to determine what kind of templates are there in the market before you proceed to but one. The following is a brief explanation of the most popular templates that you expect to find on the market analyzing the degree of expertise to develop them, the required tools and their functionality.

Flash Templates

Flash is a registered trademark of macromedia studios. Flash has really modified the way that web pages look. It has allowed for movement and interactivity on previously very static and boring websites. It has its advantages and disadvantages like everything. Flash Templates bring alive every website allowing visitors to sometimes interact with the web page that they are visiting. However, they are not very useful from the search engine optimization standpoint. Search engines can not read flash movies. Therefore, a flash website, built entirely in flash, can not be optimized for key terms, so users can find you. Then, you have websites that have a flash introduction and or a flash heading. This websites provide users with the flashing and whistles that some website owners are looking for, and allow you to somehow optimize the pages making them friendlier for search engines like yahoo and google. Flash can be downloaded from the macromedia site with a test license for thirty days.

Dreamweaver Templates

Dreamweaver is another gem of macromedia. It is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) html editor which means that you do not need to know HTML to create pages. HTML is the standard protocol or language that most pages are created on the internet today. Dreamweaver templates allow you to speed the production of a website, and it also allows you, one your website is established, to modify all pages but just modifying the templates. You will only have to add the content to it. Of course, you will need dreamweaver software, which can also be downloaded from the macromedia site with a 30 day test license, and some knowledge of how it works. There are plenty of tutorials to learn dreamweaver, and even macromedia distributes it with a good but rough tutorial.

Frontpage Templates

Just like macromedia templates, frontpage templates speed the process of creating a website with multiple templates. Frontpage templates are more like a theme as you can apply it to existing pages and not use the template to create them. Frontpage is created by the Microsoft Corporation and is distributed with office package. You will need frontage to edit the templates.

PSD Templates

PSD files are the ones created by photoshop from adobe. Photoshop is one of the leading picture editing software on the market. Although PSD templates are very easy to modify, you will need extensive knowledge of what photoshop is capable and its commands. Usually, PSD templates include only one master file that you work with to produce many different web pages, and you will need to modify some graphics in order to alter the template to your need. PSD templates provide you with a great finished product that will look good on any browser. Photoshop, from adobe, is defiantly a require tool.

Fireworks Templates

As PSD templates, fireworks templates are made to work with an image editing software. The export capacity of fireworks allows you to have crispy clean layouts for your website. You will need, of course, fireworks from macromedia to modify them although you can get away with photoshop.

Full site template

Full site templates are templates that are sold with the most common pages already created. Your customizing is reduced to the minimum. Usually, you will receive a set of files, images, and some scripts, depending on the template and the provider. You will also need a HTML editor such as dreamweaver or frontpage to work with them. Full site templates are a little be more costly than other types of templates depending on the design, but it allow you to reduce creating pages and modifying images.

Ecommerce Templates

Ecommerce templates are templates that have a shopping cart with payment processors already incorporated, also depending on the provider and the template. It is a great solution to small to medium size companies that are looking to sell their products on the net. These templates are usually customizable with frontpage or dreamweaver, and you will only need to add your company information and the products. There is also a free ecommerce solution called Oscommerce. OsCommerce is an online shop free under the open source license and it works with a template system or theme. It features multilanguage options, and different payment gateaways. It is written in PHP, and works with most hosting services. The only conflict with Oscommerce is that every shop that uses it looks about the same. You will need to purchase an customized Oscommerce theme in order to obtain some uniqueness. There is minimal to non modification of the template once you implement it.

CSS Templates

CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheet. It is a regular template ruled by an external file that has the colors, font sizes, font styles, and other information about the look of your website. It is especially useful when modifying the looks of a multi page website. If you are thinking on building a large website and changing the look if it when you want it, this is one of your best choice. The CSS file is editable with a text editor. You basically define the set of rules by what the website pages are governed.

Flash Intro Templates

Flash intro templates are templates that present a movie to visitors before they go into the detail pages of your website. Flash intro templates tantalize users with motion and information about your company. For some users, the flash intro is a turn off, and they skip the website which is the content that you want them to see since the intros usually takes time to load and finish. For some other users, flash intros amaze them. There is not between. Webmaster are also divided by the use of flash intros. In order to modify flash intros, you will need flash and a HTML editor.

Phpnuke Themes

Phpnuke is also another open source project that is free to the public. It can be a portal of information, or anything that you want. It works through modules, and presents the information in “boxes”. There is a lot of add on features that you can easily include to a phpnuke website. It is better that you visit www.phpnuke.org in order to learn what you can do with it. Also as Oscommerce, it works with a theme or template system where you only select the theme that you would like to set your site, and it changes the whole look of the site at the push of a bottom. Themes for phpnuke need little to non modification. The very little modification that you need is done with image editng software such as photoshop of fireworks.

Forum Templates

Whether you are looking to set up a forum or have an established forum, you need an appealing look to your users and subscribers. We have the forum templates that you are looking for. You can select from flash headers or regular forum templates. Our forum templates work with most popular open source forums such as PhpBB. They will include all required files to put it into the template system of your site. Our forum templates are of great quality and design.

About The Author


Nelson Bort, BA in Business Admisnistration - Internet Marketing, hosts and mantains http://wwww.studiotemplates.com