eCommerce information, facts, news and articles.

When doing business on the Internet, there are many ways in which you can make a website successful. Although the look of your website is important, fancy websites don’t make sales. There is much more to creating a quality website. To make a website successful, you must create a website that will be of interest to your target market and make them want to visit your website over and over again. In addition, your website should lead your visitors to take the action you desire, such as joining your mailing list, or making a purchase.

Selecting a Website’s Niche

The first step toward how to make a website successful, will be to target your website for one specific niche. For example, if you are designing a website about wine, everything within your website should relate to wine.

Selecting a Website’s Keyword Phrase

You must also select the most relevant keyword phrase for each webpage. A keyword phrase is two or more words that best describe your webpage. For example, if your webpage is about ‘making wine,’ your best keyword phrase would be ‘wine making.’ You should use your keyword phrase a few times within your webpage, as this will enable the search engines to determine what the website is about. This is a very important step to make a website successful.

Using HTML Heading Tags

When you begin writing your content, it is very important that you use the HTML H1 heading tag with your main title at the top of your webpage. In addition, use the HTML H2 tags for your sub-titles. This is very important, as some search engines place relevance on the text displayed with heading tags.

As the default text for the H1 heading tag is very large, you may want to use CSS style sheets to display the heading tags in the font style and size you prefer.

Using META Tags Within a Webpage

Another step to help make a website successful is to include META tags between the HEAD tags of your webpage. META tags help the search engines to know what keywords are relevant to the webpage. They are also used to tell the search engines what the webpage is about. Many search engines will display this description within the search results.

Backgrounds and Text

It is always best to display a webpage with a white background and black text, as this will make the text easy to read. Distracting backgrounds will make the text hard to read. A good rule of thumb is to just use common sense and keep your website simple. This alone is a great way to help make a website successful.

Animated Graphics

If you’re using animated graphics, it is important that you use them sparingly. Graphics that continually flash are VERY annoying and may prevent your visitors from returning to your website in the future.

Navigational Links

It is very important to include good navigational links on every page. They should be displayed at the top, bottom, left or right side of your webpage. In addition, your visitors should be able to get to any webpage within your website within four clicks.

Webpage Layout

Always be consistent with your webpage design. This is a very important step to help make a website successful. The layout for your website should be the same on each page. If you make it different, your visitors will become confused. In addition, it will make your website appear to be unprofessional. Your website design should include the same layout, logo, and navigation setup on each page.

Spelling and Grammar

Always make sure you proof read and spell check your webpages for errors. It is also very important that your webpage doesn’t have any broken images or links.

Important Webpages

When you launch your website, it is very important that you include the following webpages:

About – The ‘About’ page is used to tell your visitors about you and/or your company.

Privacy – The ‘Privacy’ page is used to let your visitors know what you do with their personal information, such as their email address.

Terms and Conditions – The ‘Terms and Conditions’ page should be displayed on your website for your protection.

Site Map – A ‘Site Map’ is used to help the search engines index your website more easily.

You can learn more about all of these pages by doing a search through your favorite search engine. They are very important and will help make a website successful.

Website Interactivity

Another way to make a website successful is to make the website interactive. This can be done by including a targeted forum that complements your website, a form in which they can subscribe to an ezine, a feedback form to enable them to give their opinion, or an informative blog in which visitors can comment.

Web Browsers and Screen Resolutions

When you begin designing your webpage, it is HIGHLY recommended that you install the most popular web browsers on your computer. This will enable you to see how your website will display in different browsers. You will find that your website may look great in one browser and terrible in another. It would be wise to design your website to display properly in Firefox and then it should display properly in Internet Explorer, Opera, etc.

It is also important that you view your website through different screen resolutions. You can either open your webpage in your browser and then change your computer’s screen resolution, or there are website’s online that you can visit, such as Any Browser, to test your website.

If you follow these simple guidelines, you can begin to make a website successful in no time.

By Shelley Lowery (c) 2009 / SiteProNews

Join our debate on Twitter?

http://twitter.com/dotretailer

for example are star flashes a thing of the past?  What do you think

The battle to integrate Web 2.0 tools into day-to-day business practices will continue to be a significant issue for companies, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) new technology forecasts.

As a term, Web 2.0 has been in existence since 2003. It was coined to describe new ways of social interaction and sharing information in different ways, such as blogs, wikis, widgets, social networks, mashups and bookmarking. The distinguishing characteristic from previous web technologies is interaction.

The PwC report points to one problem with social networking platforms – much of the activity on the consumer web is frivolous and some of the companies experimenting with social software seem preoccupied with the superficial aspects of it.

According to Ciarán Kelly, head of performance improvement consulting at PwC, both sides of Web 2.0 need to be mixed. Instant messaging could take care of the more “small talk” aspects of communication and sharing.

“There is a huge amount of noise in terms of the amount of information people are being hit by with BlackBerrys, voicemail, IM, webmail and so on. With so much communications incoming it can be difficult to see the wood for the trees. I think what Web 2.0 is attempting to do is distil that noise into information that is relevant to you.”

PwC has been using Web 2.0 technologies – specifically internal blogs – to solicit ideas and suggestions for how to make the company a better place to work. Previously, an e-mail would have been circulated. However, the nature of blog entries means that ideas are developed more organically.

Kelly underlines the importance of being able to share information quickly and organically by positing a scenario where government could use Web 2.0 tools for a procurement strategy. For example, if a department had to buy watercoolers, PCs, telephony and so on, it could informally set up a collaboration mechanism across all departments asking who else had bought similar items and how much they had paid for them.

“We do have clients who are using the social networking side of things, similar to . . . intranets, to share this type of information, particularly around procurement. Considering the economic environment we’re in that’s a very powerful tool.

“If you actually introduced an information-sharing method like you can do with Web 2.0 facilities, results will come a lot quicker – and they are real results.”

According to Forrester Research, enterprise spending on social networking alone is forecast to rise by 66 per cent annually from 2007 to 2013.

It also said 51 per cent of global 2000 companies expect to buy Web 2.0 tools in 2008 as they start to see Web 2.0’s media promise as an additional communications channel for types of information exchange less easily facilitated by other media.

But will Ireland see similar increases in the adoption of these new communications techniques? And will the methods of how companies interact with and share information be very different by 2013?

According to Kelly there will be a number of drivers, one being Ireland’s relatively young population and the amount of time wasted on rummaging through e-mail detritus.

“This tech would bring cost reduction and efficiencies. It will require a level of investment that might be difficult in the current financial outlook, but it would be justifiable.

Web 2.0 Design Guide

Web 2.0 Design Guide

1. Simplicity
2. Central layout
3. Fewer columns
4. Separate top section
5. Solid areas of screen real-estate
6. Simple nav
7. Bold logos
8. Bigger text
9. Bold text introductions
10. Strong colours
11. Rich surfaces
12. Gradients
13. Reflections
14. Cute icons
15. Star flashes

www.wdsinternet.com

Many people use the term “Web 2.0″ to describe:

• a resurgence in the web economy
• a new level of technological interactivity between web sites and services
• or social phenomena deriving from new types of online communities and social networks

Many others also use the term in reference to a recent school of web design. I’m comfortable with using it in that context here.

In sociological terms, movements impact people on many levels: economic, cultural, political, etc. Is skate-punk about entertainment and sport, music and the music industry, fashion, or the breakdown of society?
www.wdsinternet.com