Keeping Up With Current Web Design Trends

It is important to have a modern, visually up-to-date website. New trends are constantly developing in the world of web design, and these trends not only make a web site more visually appealing they also help their over all effectiveness.

Designers are constantly trying out and testing new things to improve a websites appeal, navigation, interactive, and effectiveness. This includes where important text and pictures are placed on a site, improved design with dynamic navigation buttons, proper use of whitespace, and much much more.

Many of the trends we have seen in the last few years have changed the way we look at websites now. It is easy to spot a website that was created even just a few years ago, and these sites can easily be dismissed by the web savvy web user.

Our next several blogs will look at some of these new trends as well as give examples. If you feel your site is in need of a redesign to update its look HIT Web Design has several designers that can help give your site a modern look that will attract visitors and customers to your site.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Make the Most of Each Website Page

When creating each page for you website, you have the ability to greatly enhance your rankings in search engines with the page title and description. High-quality, keyword-rich writing is as crucial in these areas as much as the copy on your page.

Think about the last time you have looked for something on Google, Yahoo, MSN, or another search engine. When you enter your query, blue headings for each site display. This is the page title. Below that, the page description gives a short blurb about what the site is all about. Not only is it important to ensure that both the title and description are worded so that they match the wording in a search, but they need to appeal to the visitor who will spend seconds scanning them to determine which site to choose.

Optimize Titles and Descriptions
An ideal page title should include the most search-relevant keywords possible while still acting as a title—not just a jumble of words. Though recommendations vary, generally the title should be between 70 to 150 characters long.

An ideal page description should share what the site has to offer in a concise way. Remember, keywords are important to get the search engine's attention, but the primary purpose is to persuade people that clicking on your site is worth their time.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Blogs a Powerful Tool for Improving SEO

Blogs can be a great way to update your site with relevant information, provide more text for search engines to use when ranking your site, and increase the likelihood that others will link to your site and increase your rankings.

When undertaking a blog, the important thing to remember is consistency. Starting a blog can be a fruitless endeavor if you are not committed to maintaining it and posting regular new quality content.

SEO blogger Lee Odden lists several reasons why a blog can become ineffective. He says that sooner or later, the dynamo for staying focused on a blog can fizzle, resulting in less time spent on improving a blog's visibility and effectiveness as an SEO generator. The antidote: time and effort. This may be difficult, but the results of providing a frequently updated, well-written blog can be worth the effort.

“That's all well and nice,” you might say, “but what am I supposed to write?”

Seopher.com's Steven York offers some tips about the purpose behind blogs. He says they should engage readers, providing content they can use—not just a mundane record of internal business developments. Use it to offer information and advice about different aspects of your industry, he advises, and people will begin to think of you—and your business—as an expert in the field.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Right Keywords Will Set Your Website Apart

When someone begins searching for products and services in your industry, it only makes sense that they should find your website. That's why creating text that revolves around the “key” search words people type into search engines is essential in bring traffic to your site.

But that's easier said than done. In fact, a whole industry has arisen around this technique of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Here are some things to remember when optimizing your text for better search-engine ranking:

• Before you create text for your site, research what words people are using in search engines to find similar products and services as yours. There are many tools for this, including using free reports from Google and other sources, as well as utilizing website tracking tools and paid SEO keyword databases.
• Keywords can range from very broad to very specific, and each has its advantages.
• A broad keyword is one that describes a general aspect of your business or service, like the word “bathroom” would be to someone who remodels bathrooms. The advantage is that because it is such a generalized word, a large base of people will use it in searches, potentially bringing more to your site.
• A specific or targeted keyword appeals to people searching for something specific. So, if someone specifically refinishes bathtubs and showers, then refining your keyword to “bathroom and bathtub refinishing” would correlate with people who are looking for that service specifically. Though fewer people will be as specific in their searches, the advantage is that they are more likely to purchase the service or product when they find it.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Use Free Tools to Optimize Website Copy

Finding the right keywords to enhance your site's rankings in search engines is an essential factor in drawing traffic. But, you don't want to simply shoot in the dark when determining which keywords are best for your site. Fortunately, there are many tools out there to help you find out the words people are really using to search your industry. Here are two tools that can help you determine what keywords to consider when creating effective content for your pages:

Google AdWords: This is a powerful—and free—tool that utilizes Google's vast history of queries made in the last month. You can type in a keyword or phrase, and the tool will generate a list of the relating keywords that others have used. The tool includes data showing how commonly the word is used among competitors and how many queries using the keyword have been made in the past month. Check it out at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal.

Wordtracker: This subscription service utilizes a database of hundreds of millions of keyword terms. Though you must pay for full access, it does provide a free keyword suggestion tool that lists the top 100 related keywords based on keywords you enter. To get more specific and advanced keyword data, you must subscribe. Check out the free tool at http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Quality Content Improves SEO, Search Engine Ranking

A key factor for any website seeking business traffic is visibility. Substantial, well-written copy is one of the most important factors to ensure your website is placed into top search engine results.

To get out in front of a large online audience, words matter. Poor wording can cause your website to be swallowed up in the vast sea of the World Wide Web. Those that stand out have learned to play by search engine rules, optimizing themselves to include what search engines like best.

Rule No. 1—Use quality content.

Search engines review and classify websites by reading their text. They look for keywords that have relevance to the words people type in to find something on the Internet. If you're a plumber in Phoenix, for example, you will definitely want to include the words “plumber” and “phoenix” on your site.

But, it's not that easy. Search engines have gotten wise to sites that simply use repeated, or spammed, keywords. Search engines now look at the text as a whole, factoring in the relevance and quality of the entire content as it relates to these keywords. So, including “plumber” and “phoenix” is important, but so is ensuring that these keywords, and other relating keywords, are placed strategically within well-written copy.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

The Call to Action

Have you ever shopped at a retail store that didn’t have someone working behind a cash register? Of course not! In most stores, cash registers are easy to find. They have a light with a number on it, a sign that says check out or pay here, or some other way of letting you know where you can trade your money for a service or product.

Most websites are selling a product or service—not all of them have a store page. Each page on the website should have a purpose (usually selling something).

The “purpose” for each page can also be called the call to action. Placing a call to action on each page gives the website’s customer a place to trade their money for a service or a product. The call to action may be “give us a call to find out more information!” It might be “To sign up for an appointment, please fill out the form below.” You may be trying to get the potential customer from the home page to the services page. No matter what the call is, you should work it in to every page of text. If there is no call to action on the page, then why even have the page on the website?

In many cases, a call to action is associated with contact information. Because of this, you probably want to include contact information in a visible spot on the page, not buried beneath (or mixed with) a lot of text.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

How To Know Which Keywords to Use

Make sure that you are learning correct SEO principles. There are some things that you can do to momentarily boost your search engine rankings, but when you are caught, you will be blacklisted by the search engines—your site won’t show up.

Researching keywords, writing text that markets your business, and writing effective page titles can take up a lot of time. If you want to increase your natural search engine rankings but you don’t have the time, let us help. HIT Web Design offers a wide range of products and services to help you maximize your web site’s potential.

Instead of “he has worked in the area for several years” try using something like “he has worked in the Atlanta area for several years” OR “Luis Argyle has sold Ford trucks in the Atlanta area for over 15 years”, etc. In this example, you could even mention what trucks (F-150, Ranger, etc.) Luis sells.

If you are offering a service or a product to a specific area, then use the city, state, region as one of your keyword. Be specific in the products or services you offer. If you sell jewelry, mention what kind. If you build homes, where do you build them? If you were searching for the service/product you are writing about, what keywords would you enter into the search engine?

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Tips for Creating SEO Friendly (and Visitor Friendly) Content

Remember that site visitors want text that is easy to read. Adding too many keywords and/or hiding keywords on your site (keyword spamming) are not acceptable practices.

Once you have written your content, you will want to create a page title for each page. A well-written page title will help your Search Engine Optimization. Your page title should have 5-6 keywords and include a keyword phrase.

You want to create a page title that is visitor friendly. In addition to great content and a page title, you can add a site map and a blog (with well-written, informative blog articles). Site maps and blogs can help bring people to your site and increase your natural search rankings.

Before you begin optimizing your site, make sure you’ve spent time educating yourself.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Keywords and How They Effect Your Website Traffic

In SEO, content is king. Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide says, “Creating compelling and useful content will likely influence your website more than any of the other factors discussed here. Users know good content when they see it and will likely want to direct other users to it. This could be through blog posts, social media services, email, forums, or other means. Organic or word-of-mouth buzz is what helps build your site's reputation with both users and Google, and it rarely comes without quality content.”

Your quality content should have enough keywords to benefit your search engine ranking without annoying your customers.

What is a keyword, exactly? A keyword or key phrase is the word or group of words that your potential customer enters into a search engine.

Do your research and see what keywords and phrases your potential customers are using. You can then add these keywords to your text. The more specific your keywords are, the better. For example, if you are an auto dealership, you would want to use a phrase like “black 2008 Mazda CX7” rather than “Mazda” or “new vehicle.”

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

What is SEO?

Building your web site is only the first step in having a successful online business.

Once your website is up and running, you need to do something to get people to it. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, encompasses several ideas that, when implemented, can increase your natural search engine rankings.

It can be a big challenge. After all, you may be competing against companies that spend tens of thousands of dollars a month on Search Engine Optimization.

Fortunately there are things that you can do, at very little or no cost, to optimize your site.

When you are considering Search Engine Optimization and your website, you need to think of every page of your site. Some website owners spend a lot of time and energy optimizing their home pages but neglect optimizing the other pages of their site. For each page of your website you should include, as a minimum, excellent keyword-enriched content and a page title.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Testing Your E-mail Marketing Campaign

Testing is an important but often overlooked step when creating a marketing campaign. A well written marketing email is useless if it goes right to someone’s junk folder. Another thing to consider is how your e-mail will look with different email programs such as Hotmail or Gmail especially with html emails. There are several things you can do to test your campaign before you send it out to all your customers.

One thing you can is set up several free email accounts with different email services like Yahoo and Gmail to test your campaign. You will not only see what the email looks like with the different services but you can also see on which service the email goes right to the junk folder. You can then tweak the text and subject line as needed to help avoid your email ending up as spam.

After the campaign you can also test by seeing how may of your emails were opened by your customers. The percentage is a good indication of whether or not a large amount of your emails are ending up as spam, this is also a good indication of the effectiveness of your subject line and text if a large percentage of your emails were opened. This can help you plan future marketing campaigns.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Tips For Writing An Effective Marketing Email Or Newsletter

Whether you are sending a marketing Email or Newsletter there are several things you can do to help increase their effectiveness.

The most important aspect of any e-mail is the subject line. Make sure your subject line catches the recipients attention while avoiding common spam phrases that may result in your e-mail going straight to the junk folder.

Make sure it has a hook, something that tells your customers the reason you are sending them the e-mail. Your hook should be clear and concise and often should be a call to action as well.

Choose your words carefully. Emails tend to be less formal but should still be professional. Make sure you choose words that effectively convey your message in a concise manner.

Contact HIT Web Design to have a professional writers write a marketing newsletter to help grow your business.

Keep your text short and use bullet points and dashes to call attention to important information. This is useful since most people will only scan an email and not read the whole message.

With the body of the text make sure the paragraphs are short only a few sentences each. Use a standard font such as Times New Roman or Arial. Short paragraphs and standardly used fonts are easier to read.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Increase The Chance Your Email Is Read

When it comes to emails most people will only scan the email for a few seconds before deciding if they will delete it or want to read more. There are a few things you can do to help make sure your email is more effective and more likely to be read.

The subject line may be the most important part of the email, make sure you think of a good subject line while avoiding words and phrases such as “Free...” that would likely be determined to be spam.

Send your emails during business hours and not over the weekend. More people check their email during the work week.

Make sure it is easy to tell who the email is from, put your company name where it is easily seen or in the subject line.

Use meaningful headings for multiple paragraphs in your email. Make sure they accurately describe the content and generate interest. When scanning the email this may be all the recipient looks at.

Try to keep the email short. If it is too long then it may never be read at all.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Email Marketing: Avoiding Spam Filters

Any email can be determined to be spam by email spam filters and automatically sent to the junk folder. So how can you make sure your email makes it to your customers inbox? The best way is to understand how spam filters work.

The best way to avoid spam filters is to avoid phrases that are often associated with spam. Spam filters look for phrases including words like, Cash, Free, and Click Here. There are several common spam phrases that we always see when we happen to check our email junk folder. Make sure you limit or eliminate these phrases from your email and never use them in the subject line. Spam filters also look for emails in all caps, and multiple !!!, never do this in your emails, it will not only never get read it is also considered poor etiquette.

Here are a few other things to avoid when sending emails, sending e-mails that are only images, sending HTML emails with poor coding, and using bright colored fonts. These are also characteristics of spam emails and will often end up being sent directly to the junk folder.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

What Makes an Effective Email Subject Line?

If your subject line is too good to be true, the email probably won’t be opened. Subject lines like “Sign up today for a free website!” or “Earn $100 per hour!” may have worked 10 years ago, but they don’t work today. If you want your subject line to be exciting, it’s all about word choice—forget the exclamation point! Exclamation point = delete me now because this offer is too good to be true!

Does the email text match the subject line? To help avoid subject lines that have nothing to do with the email, write the body of the email first and the subject line last. You will want to write three or four subject lines to use as you test and fine-tune your email campaigns. Let us know what subject lines work for you.

You also want to make sure that the body of your email is related to your landing page. You should have a link in the email that directs customers to your website where they can make a purchase.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

The Importance of a Good Subject Line

Your subject line can be the key to success (or lack of success) in your email campaign. Your subject line should be to the point. Subject lines should be 40 characters or less. Include your company’s name in the subject line so that the email recipient knows who the email is coming from.

People are bombarded with specials and discounts offered in a subject line. Most often, “discounts” and “great deals” are considered as spam—that is how your email will most likely be treated if you choose to be too “salesy.” This is especially true if your customers opt in for a newsletter. If they sign up for specials and promotions only, then you can be more creative with your subject lines. Do split testing to see what results you get.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

How to Choose an Autoresponder Program

There are several autoresponders to choose from. As you’re deciding what one to use, consider the following: You’ll want an autoresponder that allows you to measure results. Why even use an autoresponder if you aren’t able to find out how many of your emails are being opened, deleted, etc? Many autoresponders provide a great deal of reporting that will help you measure your ROI (return on investment).

You may also want to find an autoresponder that doesn’t send out on the weekend. Many autoresponders don’t have this feature, but it is an important one. Readers are more likely to open your email if they receive it during the work week.

Personalize your autoresponders as much as possible. Gather information about customers so that you know what autoresponders should be sent to them. This means that you’ll want to gather information about your customers by using a customized form.

Use autoresponders to show how much you know about your industry, introduce customers to a new product, or to countdown to a product launch or new store opening.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

What is an Email Autoresponder?

Autoresponders are automatic replies to emails. Often times they are used to let anyone who emails you know that you’ll be out of the office for an extended period of time. They are a great way to assure your customers that you have received their email. Autoresponders can also be used to keep in touch with customers, introduce products, or count down to a special event.
If someone is receiving an email from you via an autoresponder, let them know why. It can be as simple as “thanks for signing up for our newsletter” or “here is the product information you requested.” Part of letting the customer know why they are receiving an email is telling them who the email is coming from. Include your company name in the subject line and the “from” field.

Give the email recipient the chance to opt-out of your autoresponder. They are less likely to opt-out if they know who the email is coming from, why it is coming to them, and that they will receive valuable (informative or money-saving) content.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Give Visitors A Reason To Fill Out Your Forms

No one likes to fill out forms that are too long or seem to ask for too much (or sensitive) information. However, when we understand why a form is needed, like the forms we fill out when we go to the doctor, then we are more willing to fill it out. So what can you do to make sure the forms on your website are more likely to be completed?

Keep your form simple. Make sure you are only asking the questions you really need to. Ask good questions that will really provide the necessary information you need to effectively provide your goods and services.

Offer something to your websites visitors when they fill out a form. Offer discounts on your products, or a newsletter with free information or tips to your customers. This way you are getting valuable information from your customers and strengthening your relationship with them as well.

Clearly explaining why you want your website visitors to fill out your form will also increase the chance that it will be filled out.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Creating Effective Forms

Forms are a great way to get information about your website's visitors. Too many sites have forms that are too long with too many questions, or ask seemingly unimportant questions and as a result do not get filled out. When using forms on your website make sure they are as effective as possible.
When deciding what information your form will gather, make a list of everything you would like to know about your potential customer. Then go through that list and determine which form fields are essential and which ones are not, and only use the essential questions on the form.

The form fields should also help in your business' marketing efforts. Use questions that can help you identify the demographics of your customer base, but again, only get the demographic information you really need. Asking for too much personal information may deter someone from filling out your form.

HIT Web Design can create custom forms for your site to help you gather the information you need to better serve your customers and increase revenue.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Increasing Your Websites Marketability Through Forms

The purpose of any website is to market your business or services, and one of the most effective ways to do this is to ask your website visitors to do something—a call to action. Presenting great information about a product or service does not accomplish much if you do not ask for action.

Forms can be a great call to action. Simply asking your customers and visitors to fill out a contact form for more information can create sales leads for your business. Forms become a great way to gauge the overall effectiveness of your site. If your message and call to action is desirable and clear, then visitors to your site will want to fill out your form. If people are coming to your site and not filling out the forms, maybe you should consider making changes to your site, such as promoting the call to action in your text or making the form more accessible and easier to find.

The information you gather through a form can help you personalize messages, sales, or services to individuals or for a specific demographic. Knowing who your customers are makes it easier to provide the products and services they want.

HIT Web Design can help you put forms on your website to help increase its overall effectiveness and increase its marketability.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.