Designing a Site

Web site design is a tricky component in your online presence. Just how much should you design your website? We have all been to those impressive flashy sites. Likewise, we have all seen those bare bones websites that have nary a design and are all text content. Which works more?

If you believe that less is more and have found those really informative websites, with basic design but lots of useful content, then you are correct. In the web, content is king. Heavy content websites get ranked high in search engines, especially if these have well-formulated on-site search engine optimization. Well-formulated on-site content includes search engine acceptable keyword density. The acceptable density is between 2% to 8% of total site content. Beyond this, your site content will be considered spam. This means that if you have one hundred words in your content, you can only mention your keywords about eight times. Websites with more text content will have keywords that appear more frequently, and are thus ranked higher.

However, you cannot discount good attractive web design. This is a perk for web site visitors. When you opt for good web design, do not forget your need for good content as well. always have good spider-friendly content. There are certain scripts that are not read by spiders, and this includes Flash.

Here are some things to remember about good attractive site design:

1. Always have your logo on the upper left corner of your website: In case your site visitor minimizes your website, it more likely that your logo and site name will remain seen. Visibility equals recall.

2. Make your site easily navigable: This means having all the main links available as header or left panel links, on all pages. The idea is to not frustrate your clients by getting lost in your content or giving them a hard time to find what they need.

3. Always have a way for your clients to contact you: You need an updated contact page, with address, telephone and email. Ideally, you should also have a contact form they can easily fill out.