Web Design
Q. What should be
considered before beginning a web design project?
Q. Should I have
an animated flash intro as my home page?
Q. Is a database
required?
Search Engine Optimisation
Q. What are Key
phrases?
Q. How do you apply
search engine optimisation for a key phrase?
Q. What makes a good key phrase?
Q. What is link popularity?
Q. Optimised
pages have lots of text. Do people read all those words?
Q. What is spam and do you use these
techniques?
Q. What is my site ranking dependent
on?
Q. Can you guarantee a number
#1 position in the search engines?
Web Hosting
Q. What is web
hosting?
Q. What is a domain name?
Q. Choosing a domain name
Q. Can I keep my domain name when
I change a host?
Q. How do I upload my site?
Q. What should be considered
before beginning a web design project?
A. There are some basic points to consider
prior to agreeing a web design project with a company or designer. It
is important to think of the following:
- Who is the target audience
- What is the objective of the website?
- Where will the content come from? (Text, images, logos
and photos etc.)
- Who will I ask to build the site, and do they have
a portfolio of satisfied clients?
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Q. Should I have an animated
flash intro as my home page?
A. Children can sit mesmerised in front
of animated cartoons for long periods of time, most adults or business
people searching for business’s or services on the internet will
not. If you have a product or service best showcased by using animation,
it is advisable to add it as a link to a page within your site, thus giving
potential customers the choice to view it or not.
From a search engine perspective a flash intro on a home
page seriously damages a website's chances of being found easily even
though Google is now starting to read information from flash files.
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Q. Is a database required?
A. Databases are ideal for organisations
that need to offer a large choice of products or services to customers
over the Internet. For real estate companies for example, if a large number
of properties need to be listed and changed regularly then a database
is likely to be required. For less than one hundred properties of which
only a few are likely to be changed on say a quarterly basis then a database
is unlikely to be necessary.
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Search Engine Optimisation
Q. What are Key phrases?
A. When someone types a search term into
a search engine, we refer to this term as a key phrase. For example, someone
trying to find a real estate company may type “real estate Marbella”
in the Google search box – “real estate Marbella” would
be the key phrase here.
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Q. How do
you apply search engine optimisation for a key phrase?
A. There are many factors involved in
search engine optimisation. An important factor for most search engines
is that the content of your site matches the typed in key phrase. Your
site should therefore be written with certain key phrases in mind. We
have facilities that enable us to pinpoint the optimal Key phrases that
are associated with your business.
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Q. What makes a good
key phrase?
A. A good key phrase is one that actually
gets typed in by users, but has very few other web sites competing for
it. A key phrase like "web site design" is certainly typed in
thousands of times every day, but there are tens of thousands of web sites
competing for this phrase so it would be hard to get a good ranking for
this - also, a phrase like this is not specific enough for a web design
company's needs - someone searching for "web site design" may
simply be searching for tips on good web site design. A better phrase
to base your search engine optimisation on would be "web site design
companies uk", which has less sites competing for it, but still receives
quite a few business related search requests every day. Of course, this
is just one of many factors that determine your ranking - repeating a
key phrase many times will not improve your ranking on its own.
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Q. What is link popularity?
A. Search engines (especially Google)
measure your site's importance by looking at who links to your site. Each
site that links to you is classed as a 'vote' - you get a higher vote
if the site linking to you is both related and also considered important
by the search engine.
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Q. Optimised pages
have lots of text. Do people read all those words?
A. They sure do - as long as the text
is written in a way online readers can read it. Studies show that customers
will read longer Web copy if the text is well presented and easy to read.
Certain usability techniques can enhance readability, making even long
text easy to read. Furthermore, customers like text - it's the only way
they can make an informed decision about whether they want to work with
your company. Customers will read your SEO writing as long as it's persuasive,
informative and interesting.
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Q. What is spam and do you
use these techniques?
A. Absolutely not! Spam refers to methods
some companies adopt to deceive search engine algorithms, by exploiting
"loopholes" in their systems. These methods only tend to work
short term (if at all) and in most cases lead to a ban. Most search engines
have a Spam reporting procedure and many companies will not think twice
about reporting your site if it utilises spam techniques (especially if
their site had been pushed down the rankings by yours!). Spam includes
doorway pages, cloaking, invisible text, tiny text, page stuffing, duplicate
pages and keywords saturation.
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Q. What is my site ranking
dependent on?
A. Site ranking tends to be "cumulative"
and is dependent amongst others on the following factors:
- The specific keyword phrases (search terms) that have
been targeted
- The overall competitiveness of your industry - how
many players are there?
- Whether you are targeting a regional, national, or
international market
- How well ranking is monitored and the site tweaked
over time for SEO improvement
- The progress of your reciprocal linking campaign
- Number of competitor sites achieving new ranking themselves
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Q. Can you guarantee
a number #1 position in the search engines?
A. Nobody can guarantee a number #1 position
or specific ranking for your site for a given keyword phrase. There are
simply too many factors beyond anyone's control - the search engines changing
their ranking algorithms, efforts made by competitors, and new sites being
added to the Web.
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Web Hosting
Q. What is web hosting?
A. Web hosting refers to the process
of publishing a web site so that it is available to the world on the Web.
Paid web hosting also involves getting a domain name.
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Q. What is a domain name?
A. A domain name is a sequence of letters
and numbers that determine the address of your site. This site's domain
name is "andaluciaws.com” You need to register a domain name
before your web site becomes accessible at this address.
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Q. Choosing a domain name
A. Although it is not a key factor in
search engine optimisation it certainly helps to have a key word relevant
to your business or services present in the domain name of your website.
When choosing a domain name it is also important not to make it too long
or too complicated as this could result in typos and other complications
when people are looking for your site.
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Q. Can I keep my domain
name when I change a host?
A. Yes. We recommend that you register
your domain name with a separate registrar before getting a hosting plan.
Then, when you need to move to another host, you just need to point your
domain's name servers to this new host. If you registered your domain
name with a host and now you want to move, you should find your registration
records or contact this host and ask them how to control your domain name.
If you have a problem, you can usually see the name of the registrar by
performing a "Whois" query on your domain name and contact them.
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Q. How do I upload my site?
A. The main method of uploading files
to your site's account is by using FTP. When you sign up with a host,
you will get an FTP account that lets you access files in your account
(usually yoursitename.com, your main account name and password). Then
you can use a built-in Windows or Internet Explorer FTP client, or some
other software that supports FTP such as Cute FTP to transfer files from
your hard drive to your account.
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