Interlinking between Web Pages : Why & How

Written by Brian Basson


Continued from page 1

You can look at this page as if it was your sites yellow pages & index all in one. Imagine how difficult it would be for a person trying to find a specific stamp in a stamp catalogue with over 1500 pages. Let's add to this a few other volumes. Eg. 4 more volumes of 1500 pages each. Remember, you,repparttar webmaster might know your site plus it's structure, but a first time visitor doesn't ! Help them by having a good linking system between sections, as well as between various pages of a section. Also remember to include a link from all your pages to your main page.

Links to other important sections, like "about us" and "contact us" is always appreciated. Don't let you visitors go surf for it. Remember, you don't know though which page a visitor will enter you site, and first impressions normally last .... ifrepparttar 127813 visitor doesn't likerepparttar 127814 page he lands on your site, he/she will surely not make any attempt to look further. You will loose a potential client.

Should you fail to properly structure and link your web pages, your site will become like a jungle :repparttar 127815 main sections bigger trees, pages little trees, paragraphsrepparttar 127816 branches and informationrepparttar 127817 leaves. Your visitors will feel like a monkey let loose in a new forest ! Now go and properly re-structure your site. Thanks for your time.

Brian is a freelance writer, website marketing expert & webmaster of 3 websites, including Rankadvance at http://www.rankadvance.com


The Top 10 Most Ludicrous Things You Can Do on Your Web Site

Written by Courtney Heard


Continued from page 1

5. Large Media - Java applets, video media and images can be a real pain inrepparttar you-know-what when they haven’t been optimized. There are so many poorly written java apps out there that will actually crash browsers. Large videos and images will cause your site to load slowly and visitors to leave before they even seerepparttar 127812 fully-loaded page.

Make sure you test any java apps across several browsers. If there’s any delay in loading, trash it or fix it. Optimizing large images is also necessary. Adobe ImageReady will significantly cut downrepparttar 127813 loading time of your image while saving it’s quality and dimensions.

Video should be an option. Never have it load with your site. Most people don’t haverepparttar 127814 time to sit around watching videos on web sites, let alone wait for videos to load. Pictures and text will tell your story just as easily.

Internet users still use dial-up accounts and withrepparttar 127815 rise of people accessingrepparttar 127816 internet from their mobile devices, shaving every second possible offrepparttar 127817 loading time of your site will ensure that visitors do not get impatient and leave.

6. Limited ways to contact - Believe it or not, I’ve actually come across commercial web sites that have absolutely no way to contact anyone associated withrepparttar 127818 site. Unless you hope your web site visitor’s reaction torepparttar 127819 online representation of your business to be a string of profanity, I wouldn’t suggest taking this route. In fact, I’ve always urged clients to offer as many ways as possible to contact them on their web sites. Phone, fax, e-mail, contact form, mailing address, etc.

Everyone has their own preferred method of contact. A lot of my clients prefer talking onrepparttar 127820 phone and probably wouldn’t be my clients if all I offered as a contact method was e-mail. Me, I hate talking onrepparttar 127821 phone and filling out forms. If you don’t offer a link to your e-mail address on your site, you probably won’t hear from me. But what about spam, you say? Well, you’ll just have to decide for yourself what’s worse, losing potential paying customers or getting more spam.

7. Long Pages/Entire Site in One Page - When loading a site, finding a page that seems to go on forever can seem daunting. The same amount of information, organized into several pages will seem a lot less scary to your visitors. Labeled pages and sections will lead your visitor to exactlyrepparttar 127822 information they’re looking for as opposed to making them search lines and lines of text to find it. Well organized content on several pages is also something that pleasesrepparttar 127823 search engines.

8. No Link Exchange Policy - A lot of web sites out there don’t exchange links as a rule. This will not only stuntrepparttar 127824 growth of your link popularity, but potential traffic that could come directly from those links would be lost. You don’t have to exchange links with every interested site, but turning them all away is a dangerous practice.

9. Cross-Browser Compatibility Check - Always, always, always check what your web site looks like and how well it functions on other browsers. Do this whenever you update, make new pages, or new versions of browsers come out. I’ve seen some pretty funky stuff aroundrepparttar 127825 web that’s been caused by non-compatibility. Title images onrepparttar 127826 bottom ofrepparttar 127827 page, invisible links, missing images, even some sites that cause browsers to crash.

Here are some ofrepparttar 127828 more popular browsers: Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) Netscape Opera Mozilla Apple Safari

Download a copy of each of these and check your site! I realize most of you use Windows and can’t check your site on Safari, so find a friend who has a Mac. Mac users are growing in numbers and can be some of your web site’s visitors. Make sure what they see is what you want them to.

10. Free Web Space/No Domain Name - This one is all about professionalism. To avoid having your business seem about as serious as little Sally’s lemonade stand downrepparttar 127829 street, don’t host it on free web space like Geocities, Angelfire, etc. Get your own domain name. It costs an average of $30/year and you can find good hosting for $10/month, sometimes less. If you can’t afford that, I suggest you turn off your computer and sell it for food. Free hosting is straight cheese, and your visitors will getrepparttar 127830 feeling you’re not taking your business seriously.

So, there you have it. The top 10 most ludicrous things you can do with your web site. I’ve heard some web site owners argue that their site visitors have complimented their videos, java apps, music, etc. Just keep in mind,repparttar 127831 visitors who don’t like this stuff leave and you probably won’t hear from them.

The goal of your commercial web site should be to soak up every last potential paying customer fromrepparttar 127832 web. Any of these 10 points can turn paying customers away. Respect your visitors’ time, try to make their experience on your site as quick and full of information as possible. Be organized and professional and let your audience see that you know what you’re doing.

Courtney Heard is the founder of Abalone Designs, an Internet Marketing and SEO company in Vancouver, Canada. She has been involved in web development and marketing since 1995 and has helped start several businesses since then in the Vancouver area. More of Courtney's articles are available at www.abalone.ca/resources/


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