Free Website, Printing and Graphic Design Tips

Blogging, submitting articles to directories, creating a company page on Facebook and posting on Twitter are today’s top free marketing strategies. Publicize your business and increase your search engine rankings by taking advantage of these marketing venues.

The article directory of choice for me is http://ezinearticles.com/. I write up a 250 to 500 word article related to my business and of interest to my potential clients and then I submit it  to them. Registration is free and the process is very simple. Write about something of interest to your potential clients and be sure to include keywords (words and phrases potential clients will use to search for your products or services) in your article! Submitting an article including keywords in its content will make the article more like to be found via internet searches.

Create your Facebook and Twitter accounts  now! Registration is free for both these services and Facebook offers you the opportunity to create a company page. These are social network sites with huge audiences. Register for twitter at: http://twitter.com/ and to get a FaceBook company page visit: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php. Before you create your facebook company page locate images of your company logo, samples of your work or products, etc. to upload during the page creation process. It’s very user friendly and goes quickly. Use these social networks to advertise your business through images, links to your website, and daily posts. The result can be more traffic to your site, more sales and consequently, increased search engine standings for your company website.

Blogging can increase exposure to your website, search engine ranking and sales. As you may have noticed, I like http://wordpress.org/. By the way, The New York Times, Yahoo and CNN use the service as well. It’s Free. It’s easy. It’s what you need to do. Blogging is simple, and doesn’t take a great deal of time.  You can post entries in your blog according to your schedule. Daily, once a week, even twice a month would be fine. Be sure to include a link to your website in your blog posts and add your blog link to your website.

Whether you’re just sitting down to begin designing your website or if you already have a website, you may want to include the following information in your site.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s): Adding a “Frequently Asked Questions” page to your website enhances both user-friendliness and search-engine friendliness. Visitors go to this page looking for quick answers to common questions regarding your services.

“Make it Sticky”: A “Sticky” website keeps its visitors coming back by providing information they want. You site should be informative and interactive. Downloadable documents are a very effective way to inform, engage and boost search engine results. These documents could include service or product related “How-To” and Resource Information, Coupons, Gift Certificates, product instructions, etc.

Links: Help your visitors by providing links to service or product related informational sites. These links will add to your site’s interactivity and will enhance your search engine placement. You could use links to industry associations, organizations, and anything else you think your visitors may be interested in. Please be sure to include only those sites which are relevant to yours! Too many links or links to unrelated sites may result in lower search engine rankings.

Add A Guarantee: A guarantee is a great way to increase consumer confidence. Visitors will choose to do business with a company that provides a guarantee over a company which does not offer one.

Customer Testimonials: Be sure to collect and save positive feedback from your previous customers! Providing potential clients with positive feedback from existing clients is another great way to help build confidence in your company and its services.

Terms and Conditions: Your company’s terms and conditions of sale should be included on your website.

Contact Form: Forms allow you to request specific information from your visitors. This method helps to ensure that you obtain the type of contact information you want, the visitor’s email address and any other information you may need. This information can be returned to you in an email.

Although there are hundreds of items you can select to include inyour website, the above mentioned ones are among my favorites. They are simple, yet effective tools in creating a successful website.

When designing your website be sure to include a header and a footer on each page. A header can include your logo along with your business name or website name, a slogan or tag line if you have one and any contact information your visitor’s may want immediately such as a phone number, email address or travel directions. You may also want to include a brief description (one or two lines) of what type of services you offer. Your navigation menu, whether horizontally or vertically positioned, should also be considered as part of your header and, as such, should be included on every page in your site. The footer can include your logo, usually on a smaller scale, a horizontal version of your navigational menu (links to each of your main pages as one or two lines across the bottom) and, most importantly, your contact information (in addition to the link to your “Contact Us” page).

Use this header and footer on every page. Doing so will create a sense of continuity and legitimacy for your potential clients. A visitor will never have to click more than once to contact you and they will be able to do it from any page within your site. This is a great way to make it easy for people to get in touch with you! With this in mind, be sure to include an “email us” link” in your footer. Have this link open up your visitor’s email client and have the subject line already filled in for them (i.e. “Website Contact”).

Practices such as these will make your visitor’s experience positive and will improve the overall appeal of your website. An effective web site design is simple yet informative. Great design and functionality go hand in hand. Function and design are codependent and integral to a successful website. If you’re starting from scratch, be sure to include these items in your website design. If you already have a website, it’s a good idea to review it and be sure that there are headers and footers on all your pages and that they contain all the information your visitors will need to have at their fingertips.

I firmly believe an image can “make or break” your web page design. Use photos that are clear, sharp and eye-catching. You want to evoke a feeling in your viewers. Motivate them to buy or browse further into your website. Images with electric lines running through them or other unrelated items aren’t going to get the results you want.
When taking a photo look carefully at what’s in your viewfinder and change your position to get the best image possible. Unrelated items in the background or forefront of your image are distracting and unprofessional. Crop out unwanted areas. Take note of how the available light is “falling” on your subject. Use your flash during daylight to fill in shady areas.
Make sure the object you want people to see is large enough to make an impact. If you’re selling surfboards you don’t want 80 percent of your photo to be the skyline and beach. Bring the surfboard up to the front of the picture! Zoom in on the surfboard either when taking the image or when cropping it for your website. You can keep some beach and sky but the board is the main focal point and should be sized accordingly. Visitors shouldn’t have to “try” to see portions of your photos.
Keep your main subject matter sharp, clear and up front. Reduce clutter and make the photo  large enough to compliment your layout and be easily seen. Take these few extra steps and your images will have more impact and your site will look a thousand percent more attractive and professional

All too often, when  I redesign websites for clients who have previously paid for a website, tried to do it themselves or have had their “nephew” do it, I find very few methods for visitors to contact the business behind the site.
Make it easy for your visitors to find what they’re looking for and then contact you with questions or orders. Put your contact methods on every page. At the very least include an “email us” option or a phone number or fax number on each page. Make it easy for people to access you and your products or services. If you have a storefront include a link people can use to get directions to your location and include your hours of operation.
Your navigation should be thorough and clear and it should be on every page.  If you link out to your blog make sure there is a link to get back to your main website or, as an alternative, have the blog open up in its own window (although you should still have a link to your website on your blog). If visitors can’t quickly find what they want or can’t easily get in touch with you they are very likely to leave your site immediately. I do.
When it comes to website navigation and user-friendliness remember to keep it simple and make it clear. Do all that you can to help your visitors get what they’re looking for.