Do you LOVE your website? You should! If you are looking for a great looking website that has all the core SEO stuff to get you to the top of search engine results, then you are in the right place! We can help build an awesome website for your business or update/refurbish/renovate your outdated websites.
We are a Columbia Local Business just like you, so if we can help your business grow, give us a call. 803-479-7699 or visit us online DBL07.co
Here is a quick link to some of our services:
Website Design
Social Media Marketing
SEO Search Engine Optimization
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HD Digital Photography
Logo Design & Brand Recognition
Mobile Website Design
Online Reputation Management
Local Business Listing
Domain Name
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First Lesson - Web Design Basics
Welcome to the first lesson in the Business Web Design Basics. Over the next few days you will receive several lessons that will help you learn some basic web design techniques that you can use to improve the look, function and usability of your website.
In this first lesson let's talk a little bit about the importance of good web design.
Fact #1 - Your website is the life force of your online business not to mention vital to your overall success. It is the virtual representation of your company.
Fact #2 - When you are doing business online, people can't meet or see you as they would in a more traditional off-line business setting. Hence, they judge you by your website. This is where a good design comes into play.
Think for a minute about running an offline company. Would you allow your salespeople to behave or dress inappropriately when they are dealing with customers?
By making your staff wear professionally, you are telling your customers that you do care about quality. This works simply because first impressions matter.
The same holds true with your website. If your website is poorly designed and hard to navigate, you are literally driving your visitors to your competitors websites and leaving them with the impression that you are unprofessional, unreliable and not safe to do business with.
On the other hand, if you have a totally professional looking website
you are giving your visitors the perception that you have given meticulous attention to every detail and you care about professionalism. You are organized, focused and you really mean business.
Now let's go over a few quick design tips that you can use for your own website right way:
Make sure you have clear directions on the navigation of your website. The navigation menu should be uncluttered and concise so that visitors can find what they are looking for without confusion.
Reduce the number of images on your website. They make your site load very slowly and more often than not they are very unnecessary. If you think any image is essential on your site, make sure you optimize them using
image editing programs so that they have a minimum file size.
Keep your text paragraphs a reasonable length. If a paragraph is too long, you should split it into separate paragraphs so that the text blocks will not be too big. This is important because a block of text that is too large will deter visitors from reading your content.
Make sure your website complies with basic standards at w3and that they are cross-browser compatible. If your website looks great in Internet Explorer but loads poorly in Firefox and Opera, you will lose a lot of prospective visitors.
Avoid using scripting languages on your site unless it is absolutely necessary. Use scripting languages to handle or manipulate data, not to create visual effects on your website. Heavy scripts will slow down the loading time of your site and even crash some browsers. Also, scripts are not supported across all browsers, so some visitors might miss important information because of that.
Unless you are using a design platform like WordPress to build your site you should consider using CSS to style your page content, because it will save allot of time and effort as you expand and grow by styling all of the elements on your entire website consistently.
Remember, your website is the face of your online business and that makes it crucial to your success, so it only stands to reason that it is extremely important for you to take the time to learn and practice good design principles.
That's it for today's lesson. We have a lot to go over in the next few days if you want to learn how to improve the look, function and usability of your website, so make sure you look for your next lesson soon.
Thank you again for joining. If you have any questions or need any assistance please feel free to contact me at anytime using the contact information below. I will be happy to help,
Until then,
Cheers
DBL07 Consulting
2 Second Lesson - Business Web Design Basics
It's time for your second lesson in the Business Web Design Basics crash course. I hope you found lesson one informative and now have a better understanding of the importance of good web design.
In this lesson we are going to go over a few more ways that you can improve the usability of your website, so that you can attract and retain more visitors.
As we discussed in your last lesson, the look of your site is very important. However, if it's hard to navigate and the main content isn't visible and easily accessible, then the simple fact is; your site isn't very useful to your visitors and they won't waste any time moving on to your competitors.
Today we are going to discuss some simple tips that you can use to improve the usability of your website to ensure that it looks good, functions properly and remains user-friendly.
- Content
The first thing you should do is make sure that your content is free from spelling and grammar errors. Break it up into small easy to read blocks of text that your visitor can consume quickly, without much effort. You should also make sure the font size of your text is large enough to read easily so that your visitors don't have to strain their eyes to read the actual text.
If you are using CSS to style your website it will do most of the work for you by setting the font size and spacing out the lines according to your desired style set.
- Navigation
Make it easy for visitors to find content that brought them to your site by focusing on good navigation. For instance, if you have hundreds of
articles on your site and a certain visitor wants to find one specific article, you have to provide them with an easy way to locate it quickly.
You can do this by providing a search feature on your website, adding easy to see navigation links and including a sitemap. how you include these aspects in your design will depend on what platform you are using to build it. If you are using a platform like WordPress you will be able to use a SQL-driven database to help organize your content easily and effectively.
- Load Time and Compatibility
It's important to make sure that your site loads fast so that you don't lose visitors before they've had a chance to see what you have to offer. Fact: most internet users will leave a website within 15 seconds if it doesn't load completely. There are several things that you can do to reduce the load time of your website including optimizing your images, limiting the amount of scripts you run, Etc.
It's important to keep in mind that your visitors will be using different Web browsers when viewing your website, so you will also want to ensure that your website is cross browser compatible.
There are many tools available that you can use to check the load
time and compatibility of your website. they will also provide you with helpful tips and information that you can use to make sure that your visitor has a smooth and enjoyable experience on your website.
Here are a few to help get you started:
Pingdom
Last of all you should test each and every link on your site to ensure that their functioning properly. There is nothing more irritating to a visitor than clicking on broken link's. Of course you should check the links manually whenever you create a new page. However, if you have hundreds or even thousands of pages on your website then you may want to use a good link checking tool like the one at: http://validator.w3.org/checklink
By taking the time to make sure that your website is easy to navigate and user-friendly you can help ensure that your visitors will stick around!
That's it for today's lesson. In your next lesson we will be talking about the importance of including a sitemap in your web design. Again, I appreciate you joining me for this short course.
If you have any questions or need any assistance please feel free to contact me at anytime. I'll be glad to help.
Until then,
"DBL07 Consulting"
For 150 more Free Website Design Tips Checkout our blog, Here is a sample
150 Website Design Tips - Columbia SC - Tampa FL - Hawaii
1.DBL07 Website Design Tip + Columbia SC + Tampa FL + Hawaii -Do not forget to try out your site on several major browsers. A particular browser will interpret an internet site differently than a different one will, and quite often the differences can be drastic. Learn which browsers are utilized the most. Usually do not neglect mobile browsers, because they are increasingly utilized by people of any age test to discover that your particular new site works across an entire spectrum of browsers.
2.DBL07 Website Design Tip + Columbia SC + Tampa FL + Hawaii -White is a superb option for your page background color. Your site content can turn out to be easier to read -- and make trust in your site if you utilize a white background. Gaudy backgrounds, by contrast, often blend in together with the content, and make it appear to be hastily assembled. It is usually preferable to get a simple background.
3.DBL07 Website Design Tip + Columbia SC + Tampa FL + Hawaii -In case you are making a very big website, you need to always include a search function in to the site. A good place to put your search box is on the top of your homepage. Shoot for the upper right corner. Users often expect to see a search box here and may wish to search your web site to the information they are seeking. You should use Internet search or FreeFind, while they both provide you with access to an engine which happens to be free and simple to operate.
4.DBL07 Website Design Tip + Columbia SC + Tampa FL + Hawaii -Make sure to be sure that your web site works about the different browsers which can be around. Different internet browsers can display the valuables in your internet site differently, that may sometimes dramatically alter a visitor's experience. There are now many websites that you can visit to determine which internet browsers are most frequently employed by internet users. Use all popular browsers to check your website, including the mobile web ones.
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