Tag Archives: Design

SEO Web Design Secrets: Search Engine Optimization Tips For Beginners

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SEO Web Design Secrets: Search Engine Optimization Tips For Beginners

SEO web design is a skill that can be learned, though most search engine optimization for beginners courses dwell too much on linking strategy as opposed to web site design per se. There are many ways for most normal people to get an improved search engine ranking, and secure a high search engine listing, and while linking is important, good on-site SEO is also necessary.

Although it might not seem like it, getting a good listing on Google or any of the other search engines is not as difficult as many like to claim. There are rules to follow, and if you play the game properly then the outcome should be in your favour. The tips provided in this article are not really secrets as such; although many people offer to divulge marvelous secrets to you, all they are giving you is stuff that people have been using for years.

So you won’t get any secrets here. I have nothing hidden away that I don’t want anybody to know, and if I had I wouldn’t tell you about it! Would you? If you had some secrets that were so valuable that they were making you money, would you give them away free in an article like this one? Of course you wouldn’t!

So here are my not-so-secret tips on getting a good listing in Google and improving your search engine ranking. You likely know a fair bit about meta tags, and have been informed that most are not used by search engines. Well let me tell you something. If you ‘Google’ Article Services you will finds my website right at the top in the #1 position for that keyword. Check the description that Google provides right under the title: that is exactly as it is in the ‘Description’ tag that I have on the site. So don’t let anybody tell you that Google don’t use the Description tag, because they do. So do Ask and MSN (now Live Search), and Yahoo also uses it, but not the whole thing exactly as written.

The Keyword tag is another matter. Google aren’t interested in what you tell them the keywords are: they decide the relevance of the page themselves from the text and Alt tags on the page. Google no longer need keyword repetition to understand what you are writing about: they have the LSI algorithm now, that will determine the meaning of your page from the character strings it contains. The algorithm is programmed to calculate a relevance factor from the vocabulary you use in relation to the rest of the vocabulary on the page. However, back to SEO web design, and some search engine optimization tips for beginners.

In addition to the Description meta tag, the HTML tags you should use are:

1. The Keywords meta tag. Although little used it only takes a second to put in, and does no harm. There is evidence that some search engines might use it. The rest of the meta tags are pointless.

2. The TITLE tag. This is the title of your web page, and should contain the primary keyword for the page. Each page should be written round one primary keyword that relates to the subject of your website or niche.

For example, if your niche is costume jewelry, the primary keyword for your home page would be ‘costume jewelry’. You could then have a number of ‘silos’ with a main page title each. The title of one main silo page could be ‘simulated diamonds’ and the first page title of that silo could be ‘garnets’. All of these are the primary keywords for their respective pages. Another silo could be ‘colored gem stones’, with that as the primary keyword for the main silo page, and that for your first sub-page in that silo could be ‘citrine’. And so on.

Each page must have one primary keyword, and it should be included in the Title tag for that page. The Title tag does not appear in the body of the article, but in the HTML between the two HEAD tags in your html.

3. The H tag. These are heading tags, with H1 being the most important. The heading for each main section in your page should be contained within H1 tags, and many pages have only the one set of such tags. Subheadings, containing secondary keywords, should be contained within H2 tags, and so on. Thus, in the example above, the heading or your garnets silo could be could be ‘Garnets in Costume Jewelry’ in H1 tags.

After an introduction to garnets, you could then have an H2 heading containing ‘The Source of Garnets: Where Garnets Come From’, then another passage of text headed ‘How Garnets are Cut for Costume Jewelry’, again held in H2 tags.
4. The ALT attribute. Use ‘Alt = ‘ within the Img tags of your images and graphics. This lets the search engines know what the graphic is about: search engines do not read graphics, and the Alt attribute offers you the chance to use your graphics meaningfully with respect to SEO web design.

TEXT FORMATTING

That’s all you have to worry about regarding the HTML tags. You text formatting can be used to emphasize to search engines what the important text on your page is. Thus, if you use bold text, underscoring or italics, they indicate the important words and phrases. Thus, use the STRONG and U html tags in your heading.

WRITE NATURALLY

Don’t worry too much about your keyword density (KD), other than having to much. Too high a KD could harm you if Google thinks you are making unnecessary use of them. Write naturally for human readers, and not robots. If your text reads well and makes it clear what the subject of the passage is about, then you will be fine. In my writing I ignore the concept of KD altogether. I use my keywords as indicated above, and also in the first and last 100 characters on the page (or at least in the last paragraph somewhere).

Good SEO web design is not keyword fixated, but contains good contextually related vocabulary that the LSI algorithm can use to target the relevance of the page to the search term being used by somebody using the search engine to find information. That’s all a keyword is: a term used by somebody looking for information. If you cannot work without a target KD, then I would go for a max of 1% with plenty associated vocabulary, synonyms. Related terms, etc.

Thus, if you are writing a 400 word article on the keyword ‘losing weight’, use these words four times, not twelve (1% not 3%)

None of these are web design secrets, and I doubt if there are any such secrets left any more. I suppose the only thing even approaching a secret here is that my description meta tag is copied exactly by Google in the listing for my #1 placed website. That allows you to determine how Google users see the description of your site in the listing.

I have several more SEO web design tips to offer, but these will be the subject of another article. In the meantime if you implement these search engine optimization tips for beginners, then you should soon see an improvement in your website’s search engine ranking.

If you want more SEO web design tips, you will find Part 2 of this article with more search engine optimization tips for beginners on Seocious Tips 2 along with a free gift for everybody from me, Pete Nisbet of SEOcious.

Article from articlesbase.com

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A Powerseller’s Guide to Ebay Ad Design

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A Powerseller’s Guide to Ebay Ad Design

Have you ever wondered how people reach Powerseller status and manage to keep it by sustaining their business over the long term? In simpler terms; how people consistently turn self-sustaining profits on eBay?

There are of course, the obvious factors; find a reliable supplier that can offer competitive prices (lower than those of your competitors), find a market that isn’t overly saturated with sellers and ideally flooded with interested buyers willing to pay good money for your intended product, gain as much exposure as possible for your auction item, as well as making your advertisement as attractive as possible so as to tempt the highest possible bidder. These factors are but a few in the infinite factors affecting how potentially successful you can be selling on eBay, and whilst we could talk for days discussing the ins and outs of the online trading business, this piece will focus on just two; i) How to develop an attractive advertisement geared to tempt the highest possible bidder, and ii) How to gain maximum exposure for your online auction through keywords, search strings and Boolean terms in listing titles.

Whilst the following tips could prove useful to almost every level of eBay seller out there, for the purposes of this piece we will assume that the reader has a limited advertising budget, seeks to employ a value for money approach to online auction trading, and above all has a willingness to learn and adapt new business practices to their current or intended operations.

1. Advertisement Design

Regardless of whether you are using a turbo-lister application for your advertisement design, confident in html coding or web page design using a what-you-see-is-what-you get application like Dreamweaver or similar, or whether you are just now using (or thinking of using) an online trading site like eBay for the first time, the proceeding points and theories can be useful to you. As we go through the points please note that there are an infinite number of variations for the final advertisement but the one described and pictured has been proven by ourselves to be effective in achieving notably better results over competitors averaged over numerous product types, categories and auction times.

When building your template the goal should be consistency. This template will become the standard used for all of your products, and whilst they will undoubtedly vary over various product types and evolve over time it will be the standard all the same. The template will be your calling card so to speak; a way for shoppers to identify you and your (hopefully) successful business in an instant – giving them the confidence that your business is (or will soon be) famous for. There is no point wasting time convincing every shopper for the first time that they should trust your business, especially if they have already happily purchased from you in the past. This is called branding.

Next, create even just a simple logo for your trading name to give a named identity for your brand. It’s easy if you use your seller username as buyers will instantly make the connection between your advertisement and your seller profile. That, and you are guaranteed to have a unique name specific to that auction site. Even if you are not running a fully-fledged business and simply selling some of your old effects here and there for pocket money the branding and logo creation you implement will pay dividends down the road. Please note that trading name laws vary from country to country so please check with the appropriate authorities for precise information.

When designing logos don’t be worried if you don’t hold a graphic design degree, you only need something distinguishable as yours. For example, if your username is larryjones64, then a simple LJ64 in ‘Franklin Gothic Medium’ in a chosen color might suffice.

You need next to decide on your color scheme. Again, if you are not that way inclined color schemes are readily available via a simple google search. The goal here is to use only a few matching yet distinguishable colors to use for your i) theme colors, ii) font colors, and iii) miscellaneous sections. You should base your color scheme on the types of products you sell as well as your personal preference. For instance if you are promoting cosmetics made from 100% natural products you might opt for an earthy and green color scheme or even a pink color scheme depending on your target market. These colors however might not be as suitable for an electronics company aiming to capture the attention of bargain hunting males between the ages of 16 and 22 years old. Regardless of your choice of scheme you’re the one that should be happy with it as your standard color scheme for all of your advertisements to come.

Now that you have decided on your color scheme you must now decide on your font. Typically, your font should be clear and easy to read. Since Arial is the most common and easily legible font available on the internet currently, we will use it here. You should use this font for all of your advertisement text spread across only a small number of sizes. By limiting the variation of font size and color you will better be able to direct the viewing of the potential buyer, making sure they receive the important information as required.

We will now separate our developing advertisement into 5 sections. One for the header, another for the product picture, the next for the item description and information, followed by the shipping, payment and warranty block, and finally the terms & conditions section.

You can see through the image outline (http://www.moshenarte.com/articles/ebaydesign/outline.jpg) how the advertisement will be sectioned. As per our earlier larryjones64 example a blue, white and grey color scheme has been chosen to sell his range of consumer electronics and miscellaneous personal effects. The colors have been dispersed over the section so that they are clearly defined for the viewer.

Section 1

A simple image editing program has been used to place the logo created earlier on a blue background. This has been saved in a web friendly format and will appear as our calling card at the top of all of our advertisements for larryjones64.

Section 2

The white space here provides room for our product picture. In this case it will be of a watch he plans to sell in his online auction. Use this space to let your potential buyer know exactly what they will be bidding on. It’s the first product image they will see after clicking on the search listing item; make it count.

Section 3

This is the information section. It’s where you will highlight the strong points of your product, hopefully convincing the viewer to make a bid. Be careful here not to bore the viewer with paragraphs of product information. In the case of many niche products, your viewer will already know what they are looking at. It is more important to describe the product condition and package inclusions so that the bidder knows exactly what they’re bidding on. Detailed pictures are a great way to tempt that potential bidder. The old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” has never been more true. These days with free image hosting sites such as www.picturetrail.com it has never been easier to make your advertisement hosted-image friendly.

Section 4

Whilst your auction listing may provide the appropriate space for postage costs, we’ve found it quite useful to display specifics within the bulk of the advertisement itself. The same applies for payment methods. What better way to remind your potential bidder that you accept a bank deposit from their favorite bank as well as their credit card. Any warranty offered with your product should also be listed here. Again, let the bidder know exactly what they’re bidding on.

Section 5

Finally, we list the terms and conditions for your auction. Use this space to further elaborate on your warranty statement in the previous section, as well as your postage time disclaimers and any other liability disclaimers you may with to include should an unfortunate occasion arise, even if only a typographical error. The key here is to include what you know. If you are not sure about something it is better to omit it rather than look foolish contradicting yourself. For certainty, consult the necessary authority on your subject in question.

Ok, so there you have it. Your advertisement is now designed and you have a template calling card that your current and future clients will recognize your good business through. (A copy of this demonstration template can be downloaded at www.moshenarte.com/articles/ebaydesign/template.zip and is free for you to modify and use for your own advertisements).

2. Keyword Success

The most obvious and often most underestimated source of online auction success is the auction title; what good is the most attractive advertisement in the world at the world’s best bargain if no one gets to see it?

There are several options for highlighted listings, bold listings, super bold listings, stroked listings – all of which require varying degrees of payments. As mentioned at the beginning of the piece we are looking for the best value for money, which in our opinion is the regular auction listing with a small standard gallery

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