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Web Site Design, E Commerce Design and SEO

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User Interface Design Published May 7, 2012

A user interface is one of the most difficult portions of a program to design. It starts by creating a list of requirements for the interface by interviewing potential users to find out what their needs are. After this is done, the next step is to take the list of requirements for the interface and draw mock-up designs either on paper or sketching them on a computer. These designs are then tested on possible users of the product, who help narrow down designs that work or flow well.

From this point, the design is refined by the developer with the occasional help of the potential users and tested several more times before it is coded into a program. After the coding is done, the final product is extensively tested on users to ensure that all required functionality is available, as well as to flush out any bugs or problems in the implementation of the user interface. This complicated process of user interface design is essential to creating an interface that is easy and intuitive for users to operate.

Good User Interface Design Techniques

Design and implementation of a good user interface means more than simply sketching a design. It requires good user interface design techniques such as proper testing methods, knowledge of how to create interfaces that are intuitive, and knowledge of statistics.

The testing methods that are used to gather user data must be conducted according to government regulations. The creation of intuitive interfaces requires a working knowledge of graphic arts. Also, knowledge of statistics is needed so that proper conclusions can be drawn from the testing results. Good user interface design also requires that the developer know graphic design techniques and, in some cases, know how to program the interface into a computer. Usually, a single designer will not have all of this knowledge, so a team of designers will work together to create an interface.

Web Design Companies Published May 11, 2012

Good web site design companies will have strong websites that are well-designed and implemented, which are not distracting or distasteful to the eye.

If you are searching for a particular style of web design, then a company that has implemented that style for itself is almost undoubtedly going to be able to complete the work in a satisfactory manner for you.

A good (i.e. popular, award winning, or successful) web design company should also have a well-rounded portfolio that is comprised of work from all of the employees. If the company advertises a service, then it should have an example of a previous implementation of that service available for preview to a potential customer.

Choosing an Ecommerce Design Company Published May 3, 2012

Online, you can find everything you need to successfully create an internet store. While some people prefer to work with design firms, you should always look for a portfolio of work online with work specifically regarding ecommerce web site design Some services provide a one-stop approach for ecommerce web hosting and design services, and that works for people looking to have all their needs handled within a single organization.

The design elements of an ecommerce website play a vital role in its success. One of the first things an ecommerce website design company will do is create an image that demonstrates what the online business represents. They will accomplish this through graphic design, page layout, color, and typeface. The ecommerce website designer may use e-commerce design templates, or they may use a custom look to communicate the image, which should have a consistent, clean, and well-balanced appearance. Another element of an e-commerce website is its content, which must relate to the image and clearly communicate how the site is used, what is for sale, and how to buy the items on the e-commerce website. The third step of creating the online store website design is to support infrastructure that provides easy navigation for people to use the links, use a search function, understand the buttons and menu logic, get to the products, reach a shopping cart, and complete the transaction and ordering information.

Online Design: The Challenges of a Web Designer Published May 6, 2012

Ecommerce web design is a niche service, with several nuances that separate it from print design. One major difference that is often overlooked is the fact that the images have to be small enough to download to a computer quickly, yet be compelling enough to get the design across. Also, the ecommerce web designer needs to be able to create multiple images to work dynamically with your online store product line. It is best to look for people with experience in online design and find an ecommerce web designer with experience building out online stores.

Build It Yourself? Think Twice

It takes a lot of skill to build an e-commerce shop, and there are a lot of moving parts. You'll need a product, a concept of your design and the general way you'd like the site to flow. Then, usually, you'll need to know a programming language and several software design programs. Your forte is probably business, so why not focus on getting vendors and product lines for your online store, and hand off your idea to an ecommerce web site development firm. The best use of your time is to find a one-stop agency providing ecommerce web site design, ecommerce web hosting and site development.

Design Matters! Published May 3, 2012

About ecommerce web design: No matter your budget, you'll want to choose a unique, compelling and easy-to-use ecommerce web site design. If your budget allows, hiring an ecommerce web designer will ensure the uniqueness of your site design. If you are a little low on cash, you can always visit a site like hiero.com to check out low-cost, template alternatives for your online store.

More about ecommerce web design: Templates can provide an easy way to create an effective ecommerce web site design provided they are optimized correctly. The templates you choose will not have content in them, nor will they have keyword meta tags created for you. Therefore, as you implement your ecommerce web site development, you should pay special attention to make sure all of your content is optimized. Also, don't pick templates that are overly graphic heavy for your ecommerce web design. Slowing down the speed at which your pages load can cause search engine rankings for your internet business website to be lower. With all this in mind, templates provide a quick and easy way for you to get a fresh ecommerce web site design without heavy costs.

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Ecommerce Web Page Design Should Include Search Engine Optimization Published May 10, 2012

Search engine optimization (SEO) shouldn't be forgotten when your ecommerce web page is designed. It’s sometimes not considered a part of the web page design package but helping your customers find your website is critical to the success of your ecommerce business. One SEO tactic consists of incorporating keywords into the content of your web page including the meta tags, the alt tags for graphics, and usage in the titles of the page.

Keywords are those words and phrases that would be used by a potential customer to input into a search engine to find relevant websites. For example a key word would be "weddings," which is very general and would result in millions of matches from wedding gowns to rings to wedding cakes. A more refined key word phrase would be "cheap wedding gowns." If your site offers inexpensive wedding gowns, it should include the phrase "cheap wedding gowns" as well as similar phrases such as, "discount wedding gowns," "discount wedding dresses," and "budget bridal gowns." If the site targets more than one key word phrase, and it probably does, have pages designed to incorporate one keyword phrase each. Use the key word in the url of the page. For example use www.weddingsonashoestringbudget.com/budget-bridal-gowns.html, as well as www.weddingsonashoestringbudget.com/discount-wedding-dresses.html.

Helping your customers find your ecommerce site with key words will result in higher sales for you.

Ecommerce Web Site Design Impacts the Success of Your Online Store Published May 13, 2012

The shopping experience of your visitor should be enjoyable and a attractive ecommerce web site design is key. If the visitor is confused as to what kind of merchandise your site offers, or to how to find the merchandise they're looking for, they'll probably give up and leave. A lost visitor means lost sales. Make sure the types of products you sell are reflected on your home page above the fold. Above the fold simply means what fits on the monitor's screen without scrolling down. Don't make the visitor scroll down page after page, or have to click on links to find out exactly what you offer.

A customer's decision to buy may be based on pictures. Make sure the photos on your site are clean and crisp. Show a thumbnail size that's linked to a bigger photo that shows more detail. Don't overcrowd the photos on the page. Grammar and spelling are important to make a good first impression. If you haven't had your site professionally written, at least hire an editor to proofread the entire site. Errors may not bother you personally, but your customer may interpret them as carelessness or laziness. If you're that lazy with your site the impression may carry over to your merchandise. A great ecommerce web site design can improve your profitability.

How to Hire a Good Ecommerce Website Designer Published May 14, 2012

A well designed ecommerce site means more sales and higher profits. Here are a few tips to help you choose an ecommerce website designer:

Experience as a website designer is important, but it's just as important that the designer has experience designing ecommerce sites.
The designer will make sure that the content of your site integrates seamlessly with the shopping cart programs. He or she can make recommendations on the software and databases you may need to incorporate to make the customer's experience a positive one.
Examples can show you what the ecommerce website designer has done previously and you can get an idea of the types of sites he or she has created. Pretty pictures and graphics are important but don't let special effects, flash or videos get in the way of the functionality of your ecommerce site.
Ask if the design work and coding will be completed in house or whether the work will be outsourced. Outsourcing is often used to allow the designers to accept more work than their staff can accommodate. That's fine as long as the outsourcing staff is qualified and will adhere to the schedule for the completion of the design.
References should be checked. It's surprising how many times the assumption is made that the references wouldn't be provided if they weren't real. Ask for contact names, company names, telephone number or emails as well as the URL of the site designed for the client. Then follow through and talk with the reference.

Ecommerce Web Design vs. Other Web Site Design Published May 3, 2012

An ecommerce site is primarily a store front. Visitors are window shoppers. Your site must be attractive and easy to navigate but also entice the visitor to come inside the store and shop. Your store front or home page should represent the feel you want your shoppers to have and also your products. It should be obvious that your site is a store and while it can provide content, that's not the primary objective.

Think of a store in a brick and mortar shopping mall. Everything about the storefront is designed to let customers know what products are available, the affordability of the products and the quality. The products are framed and attractively arranged in the windows on a color coordinated seasonal background. The architectural details of the windows and the door add to the ambiance of the store. Even the lettering on the store sign is incorporated into the theme. The home page of your ecommerce site should communicate the same message to visitors.

A disadvantage of an online store front is that the visitor can't see inside the store, which makes your entry page even more important. You do have the navigation bar or the header bar to help customers find what they want. The navigation bar should include links to 'about us,' 'contact us', and 'FAQ' (frequently asked questions) pages. Good ecommerce design makes your store customer friendly.

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Custom Ecommerce Web Site Design for Small Businesses Published May 9, 2012

Getting a custom ecommerce web site design for your small business can really help you stand out from your competitors. Before you select a designer for your e-commerce web site, you should:

Take a close look at what is included in the package. Hieroweb Interactive' designers make sure the new look is completely blended with your site. However, many designers simply create a lovely looking template and give their customers the files. If you can't install the files, you've spent quite a bit of money without changing the look of your site.
Make sure you get a "do over" if you aren't happy with the final result. Hieroweb Interactive offers three revisions with the basic design service package, which gives you several opportunities to make sure everything is just right.
Ensure that the designer is familiar with designing for online stores - ecommerce web design is quite different from non-commercial Web design since there is a focus on sales conversion, the sales process, and competitive brand elements.

Ecommerce Web Site Design Impacts the Success of Your Online Store

The shopping experience of your visitor should be enjoyable and a attractive ecommerce web site design is key. If the visitor is confused as to what kind of merchandise your site offers, or to how to find the merchandise they're looking for, they'll probably give up and leave. A lost visitor means lost sales. Make sure the types of products you sell are reflected on your home page above the fold. Above the fold simply means what fits on the monitor's screen without scrolling down. Don't make the visitor scroll down page after page, or have to click on links to find out exactly what you offer.

A customer's decision to buy may be based on pictures. Make sure the photos on your site are clean and crisp. Show a thumbnail size that's linked to a bigger photo that shows more detail. Don't overcrowd the photos on the page. Grammar and spelling are important to make a good first impression. If you haven't had your site professionally written, at least hire an editor to proofread the entire site. Errors may not bother you personally, but your customer may interpret them as carelessness or laziness. If you're that lazy with your site the impression may carry over to your merchandise. A great ecommerce web site design can improve your profitability.

Budget Friendly Ecommerce Web Design for Small Businesses Published May 15, 2012

Small businesses usually have a limited budget to spend on things like a custom ecommerce web design. However, if you are serious about running a successful online shop, you may be not be satisfied with the standard templates that come with your ecommerce package. To get a more personalized look on a budget, you should:

Take a look at the Hieroweb Interactives template design service for pro e-commerce packages. You can have a nice template installed on your site with your logo in the header.
Enter the account manager section of your site and make additional changes to the template by uploading your own images and using your favorite fonts in the text areas.

Ecommerce Marketing

The business of conducting transactions and sales online is referred to as ecommerce. Generating traffic, visitors and consumers to an ecommerce site is referred to as ecommerce marketing. Ecommerce marketing may take many different approaches to generate traffic and interest in a site, business, product or services, but the most common (and arguably most effective) is search engine optimization.

A landing site for ecommerce activity should appear organically for a consumer. If a link or advertisement is obtrusive to internet activity, a consumer may be less interested in visiting or following the link. Professional search engine marketing often times can assist a site or business with high visibility for their link as well as an organic approach to present a consumer with an option to continue their search via a search engine.

Finding an SEM provider is as easy as going to a search engine to peruse any number of directories dedicated to analyzing the expectations of a search engine marketing job as well as how various search engine marketing services size up. An SEM provider will definitely use some of the very same tactics as they would use for your business so that you can find them on ads placed on search engines, directories or blogs about PPC search engine Internet marketing or ecommerce marketing.

Just type various keywords into a search box, including “SEM provider” or “professional search engine marketing,” and any number of pages will be returned with various websites to research. Be sure to look at each SEM provider and see what they offer in terms of services, packages, and costs. Many sites are focused on the results other companies had with a certain SEM provider so that they can help other companies avoid some of the problems they had or serve as a referral for a particular SEM provider who has delivered exceptional results.

Placing ALT Text in Images Published May 7, 2012

Remember, you are designing your webstore for two distinct audiences…your customers and the search engines. A well-thought ecommerce web site design accounts for both. Alt tags play a helpful role for the search engine audience. In an HTML image tag, one field is called alt. This field is used for putting in text that shows up when a viewer hovers their mouse over an image. Also, Alt text is picked up on and read by most web accessibility programs. Therefore, it is important to place keywords into the alt tags but, at the same time, make sure the tag itself is a readable sentence that describes the image and what it does. Alt tags are just one facet of effective ecommerce web design, but one that should not be overlooked in your ecommerce web site development.

Clean Website Design Can Help to Optimize Your WebsitePublished May 8, 2012

In designing your website, focus on a design that has a clean appearance and is easy to navigate. Websites that are user friendly and easy to navigate are more appealing to visitors. If your website is not intuitive, visitors may become frustrated and exit your website without seeing much of your content. Appealing to visitors is important to maintain high levels of traffic but clean website design is also beneficial when search engines crawl your website. It is more likely that search engines will visit all of the pages of your website if it follows simple and conventional design standards.

Use Hex Codes in Optimizing Your Website

The aesthetic appeal of your website can have an impact on your search engine optimization (SEO). If your website is not appealing to others, it is likely to not be popular either. The colors used on your website can contribute to the appeal of your website. However, Internet browsers may display colors differently. One way to avoid this problem is to use hex codes to define the colors used on your website. Hex codes are incorporated into your HTML code to define your colors and these colors are viewed universally in all browsers.

Choose Colors Wisely When Optimizing Your Website Published May 13, 2012

Being mindful of the color combinations that you use on your website. Although bright neon colors that contrast may initially attract attention, these colors can be harsh on the eyes. These colors are also not aesthetically appealing to most visitors. The greatest content in the world could be overlooked because of poor web design that uses unattractive colors. If you want to keep people interested in your website, use colors that are coordinated and easy on the eyes.

Host Your Website on a Fast Server

In optimizing your website, you should evaluate the speed of the server hosting your website. Slow server speed will result in an increase in the time it takes for your website to load in a visitors Internet browser. This delay can cause you to lose the interest of the visitors. They may give up on your website before it even loads. One tip for searching for a host with a fast server is visit the website of potential hosts and evaluate how fast their website loads. They most likely host their own website so the loading time would be indicative of approximately how long it would take your website to load.