Ready to strike out and create your own Website? Go for it!

1. Watch Your Color Combinations

The main problem for most DIY Web Designers is color – and the fantasy that whatever colors or color combinations that appeal to you will appeal to everyone else.

Many people get so excited over the millions of Website colors available, they want to use them all.

Or they want a “unique look” and concoct an eye-distressing color combination.

The truth is, it’s best to just stick with the basics.

You’ve seen Amazon and Google – and they probably know what works:

White backgrounds, dark text.

2. Cut The “Me” Content

Your site visitors don’t care about you.

People really have only come to your website because they hope you can do something for them.

So why not take some time and make sure that your content focuses on your site visitor, and what benefits your services will bring to them.

The “you” words you use on your website will matter a lot.

3. Don’t Crowd Your Site With Junk

White space is good.

Leave appropriate margins and use short paragraphs to keep your site “clean”.

Remember that words matter.

Relevance matters even more.

The eyes need room to roam.

4. Banish Pop-Up Ads

Nothing can scare away a site visitor faster than a pop-up window that must be dealt with.

Don’t you find pop-ups annoying?

Why use something on your site that is very likely to tick people off?

If you are interested in making sure you draw repeat site visitors, you won’t use pop-ups.

5. Bling & Blinkies Be Gone

• Photographs are great to spice up a website, but only if they reflect you, your prospect, or your business – and if they look professional.

• Unusual fonts are for the most part unnecessary. Your visitor needs to be able to read what your site is talking about. A fancy font isn’t going to make that task easier!

• Animated GIFs (if used at all) should be used sparingly – because they can draw attention away from your content, and can make your site look dated. (Not good!)

• Music is not recommended – especially “midi” music that is blatantly “computerized”. Music is just one more thing that can distract your site visitors.

Keep these Tips in mind, and step bravely onto the World Wide Web!

Some days when I tell myself I’m working, I realize I am probably not.

As a web consultant, I practically live on the Internet -- and sometimes I end up at YouTube.

If you don’t know it already, there is some phenomenal talent on YouTube.

(And no, this is not sarcasm!)

I recently found this outstanding video:

So you see, there is quite a bit of creative talent on YouTube.

Check it out. You never know what gem of a video you might stumble upon…

(For those of you reading this as email, be sure to click on the Post Title so you won’t miss the embedded video).

You are looking for something important on the Web and you don’t have a lot of time.

First stop: your favorite search engine.

You type in a specific search word or phrase and in less than a second -- hundreds, thousands, or millions of search results are there for your perusal.

But really, how many times have you gone beyond the first page or two of search results that you get?

Probably not very often.

This is why everyone who has a website or Blog wants to be on Page One of Google – preferably at the very top.

It’s generally accepted that if your Website shows up on the first page of search results, you can expect a healthy stream of visitors to your site.

Of course, being on Page One is not a terribly difficult task if your pockets are deep enough. After all, Pay-Per-Click campaigns are just a click away.

But lets face it – most of us want to be King (or Queen) of the Search Engines for free.

As a web consultant, nearly everyday I talk to clients who are planning a new website or Blog, or who want to update an existing site.

And invariably someone will say – “and please make sure my site will be at the top of Google” (and other search engines like Yahoo, Bing, or Ask).

Hmm, well sure. (As I said, if your pockets are deep enough)…

But let’s suppose you are on an extremely limited marketing budget (as many Small Businesses are).

What options do you have as a Small Business Owner who wants to be on the first page of a search engine’s results?

Well, if you don’t want to pay to play, you will have to delve into the world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – because you will have to rely on “organics” – and that will likely take some time.

What Is Search Engine Optimization?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion. - Wikipedia

First of all, optimizing your website for high search engine visibility for free means getting involved with the computer code that is your website.

This code is called HTML, and along with HTML, backlinks, and keyword research – the goal is to increase relevance for specific words and phrases which in turn should positively affect your position on Search Engine Pages.

Whew! Is your head spinning?

I understand. But SEO isn’t nearly as difficult as you may think.

I found this brief video on YouTube that explains how SEO works.

And for some very cool SEO tools and additional information – check out seobook.com.

(If you are reading this post as email and you would like to see the embedded video, simply click on the Post Title above -- and visit our Blog directly).