b>Web Design and Development: The Right Tools for the RightJob
As any webmaster knows, designing and developing a website canbe a daunting proposition. There are millions of websites outthere to compete with, and whether your site's purpose is topromote your business, inform, or entertain; web design is animportant consideration if you want traffic. It's tough toattract visitors and even tougher to keep them on your websiteonce they arrive.
Fortunately, there are many tools out there for webmasters tomake the tasks of design and development easier. Wading throughthe sea of web tools can also be a time-consuming process. Indesigning your website, you should be aware of all thecomponents that go into successful development and how to usethem to your best advantage.
The first step, other than developing great informative contentfor your visitors, is to put everything together in anattractive, user-friendly format. If you need a little help inmanipulating HTML coding or CSS (cascade styling sheets), youmight visit www.xhtmlandcss.com foradvice and tutorials regarding these components. CSS inparticular is an invaluable tool for webmasters; these are theprograms that control the set of styles for your fonts, tablesand many other attributes of your website. The ability tomanipulate CSS allows you to customize sites such as web forumsand blogs and create a website that stands out and gets noticed.You can also amplify the attractiveness and user-friendlyattributes of your websites with e-mail and forum signaturegeneration tools from www.needasig.com and brightenyour format with free smilies from www.thesmilies.com.Internet users love extras, and adding customizable interactionssuch as signatures and smilies will help keep visitors comingback.
Once your site is developed, you must then undertake the task ofoptimizing your website for search engines. There are many waysto do this. One is to use relevant keywords throughout yourcontent and page tags--without overusing them--that will helpvisitors find your website when they're looking for information.Using a keyword generator such as the free tool at www.keywordmine.com is aneasy way to find plenty of relevant keywords and phrases. Whenincorporating keywords into your content, you should make surethe text reads well. The practice of keyword stuffing to boostsearch engine ranks not only endangers your listings with searchengines, it also turns visitors off to your website and willkeep them from coming back.
Another component of website optimization is getting yourwebsite listed with search engines. If search engines can't findyour website, neither can visitors! After you have created greatcontent with relevant keywords and lots of user-friendly extras,you should then begin the process of getting your website outthere for people to find. You can submit your website URL anddescriptions manually. Major search engines such as Google, MSNand Yahoo include links to their submission process for manualsubmission. However, these links can be difficult to find. Youmay want to consider using a search engine submission service tosubmit to several search engines at once; there are many good,free submission services that cover multiple search engines. Itis important to remember that submitting your website once isnot enough to get it noticed on the Internet radar. You shouldcarry out the submission process on a regular basis. However,you also must realize that submitting your website too often canget your URL banned from some search engines. It is a goodpractice to submit to search engines every 30 days.
Beyond search engines, you should also list your website in asmany relevant directories as you can find to increase yoursite's exposure. Strive to find directories that don't requirelinkbacks to your website for listings, because reciprocal linkscarry far less weight with search engines than strictly inboundlinks. One excellent directory service that doesn't requirelinkbacks can be found at www.submiturlhere.com.You can find many directories for your website; just make surethey are relevant to your content.
If you have multiple websites or long website URLs, anothergreat tool for you to use is URL redirection. You can get ashort, easy to remember and easy to post URL for your websitethat will sit well with search engines and make it simpler foryou to advertise your websites on forums and in e-mail messagesand signatures. Free URL redirection tools are available at www.smoothredirect.com.Once you have more experience with URL direction, or if you arealready an experienced webmaster looking for more ways tooptimize your website, you should consider making use of toolslike URL cloaking, path forwarding and frame killers. Thewebsite www.kingofurl.comoffers free advanced redirection tools without those annoying,visitor-detracting banner ads you want to avoid.
Tracking visitors to your website is another important aspect ofrunning a successful site. You should install a web counter thatis invisible to visitors, but allows you to find out where yourtraffic is coming from so you can concentrate your promotion ineffective areas. For example, a good web counter will not onlytell you how many hits your website receives, but whether theyare new or returning visitors and how they found your website,whether through a directory, a search engine, or an e-mailpromotion. You can find free web counters with excellenttracking tools at www.webstatservice.comfor your website.
There are many components that figure in to web design anddevelopment. Today's webmaster is fortunate indeed to be able tofind free tools for optimization and integration. Make yourwebsite interesting, interactive, and accessible to searchengines through submissions and directories, and the visitorswill come. While you're designing and developing your site, besure to bookmark comprehensive web tool repositories such as www.webmasters-cavern.com for easy access to great information. The more you knowabout web design and development, the easier you will be able tonavigate the complexities of the Internet and find cyber-successfor your business, informative or entertaining website. Makinguse of free web tools is a great way to get ahead of thecompetition!
About the author:Praveen owns a number of successful websites including Webmasters Cavern,Free Smilies, Submit URL here, Free Web Counters, Dieting Tips andmany others.
