Daily web design tips

Setting up a web design office

2006-06-09T11:36:00.000+01:00

You have dabbled in web design and designed and developed a few sites for some local businesses. Now you fancy doing web design for a living. Maybe you are a web design who has recently found them self out of work and are considering setting up on your own.

Setting up your own web design business can be exciting and daunting at the same time, the potential is great, but so are the pit falls. You could set the hours and projects you work on, but you could also not be able to pay your bills. There are also lots of things to consider, like tax, do you lease an office? where will the work come from?

A couple of tips for success

Build up your business contacts while still in full time employment - this way you will get a steady stream of work.

Don't work on your own! If you work with somebody else or in a shared office space, that way you won't suffer from the dreaded cabin fever and lose motivation when clients are thin on the ground.

Beg steal and borrow. You will have to use you initiative to get a business up and running successfully so think creatively. If you can reduce bills by designing a web site for your land lord then do it, you'd be surprised how many people actually agree.

Share your experiences with us by leaving a comment on this post.

What are website cookies?

2006-06-02T12:08:00.000+01:00

A web site cookie is a small text file that is placed onto your computer when you visit some websites. The text file stores information about you as a visitor, for example if you login into Hotmail to pick up your email and select to remember you a cookie (text file) is stored on your computer. Next time you go to hotmail your email address is already there, which saves you time.

As soon as you mention information is stored about you some people freak out, but in the above example it is useful to you and saves you time. Cookies can store all types of information and are generally useful.

If you are worried about your security on the web you can block them, but you won't be able to use some website if you have them blocked.

To disable in Internet Explorer go to Tools then Internet Options and select the Privacy tab. Move the slider upto High which will block all cookies, which is not recommended.

More information on Cookies and how to add them to your web site

Where to buy a complete website or online business

2006-06-01T15:39:00.000+01:00

You don't have to setup a website or online business from scratch. Like in the really world of bricks and mortar you can buy websites that have already been build and are currently running and making money.

Buy existing website or online businesses

This is a great way to get a website if you have no web design experience as all the hard work has been done for you. Just make sure you check out all the facts they are claiming before parting with your cash.

What is a black hat SEO?

2006-06-01T09:46:00.000+01:00

If you are new to web design you have probably already worked out that if you make a web site its doesn't guarantee people will visit it, you have therefore looked into Internet marketing, and discovered one of the best ways is Search engine optimisation [Define].

However you maybe not aware that search engine optimisation is open to cheating/abuse, this is using dodgy techniques that the search engines don't like. An example is keyword stuffing, which is making a web page with the same word repeated 100's of times in an attempt to trick the search engines to show that page when somebody searches for the word used for stuffing. People who do this are are known as Black Hat Search engine optimisers, or Black Hat SEO's.

Black hat SEO techniques

Black hat SEO techniques are anything search engine don't like, which is basically anything against Googles guidelines, if you do practice Black hat techniques you run the risk of getting your site banned from the search engines, which is likely to mean a massive drop in visitors to your website.

BMW recently got banned from Google for using Keyword stuffing, which shows search engines are really cracking down on it. In short don't do it, you may get some short success - if your lucky! More likely it will reduce your rankings, which nobody wants.

What's the alternative?

The opposite of Black hat is White hat SEO, using search engine approved techniques to promote your site. Using White hat techniques will ensure long term promotional success for your site and is highly recommended.

Learning Search engine optimisation is very useful and anybody who runs a website should be aware of the basics. If you are interested start by reading How to get to the top of Google, all white hat stuff of course!

If you want somebody else to do your search engine optimisation we recommend using White hat media seo services, as the name suggests, they only use white hat techniques, which will ensure you get long term success.

Special Google Logos

2006-05-25T16:32:00.000+01:00

I'm sure you have seen from time to time Google changes its logo to reflect a current event, like St Patricks day or the winter Olympics. Its a nice touch isn't it? Here is a link to every design they have ever put on the home page...

Special Google logos

How to improve your website

Take inspiration from Google and theme your logo or whole web site to reflect a current event, that way visitors can tell your site is regularly updated. The classic example is putting snow on your site at Christmas, but try and be a little more creative and see what you can come up with.

How much does web design pay?

2006-05-25T11:46:00.000+01:00

No matter what stage or interest in web design, if you have enjoyed doing it you will have thought "I wonder if I could do this for a living" , which then begs the question, "How much does web design pay?"

Well it all depends on different factors, are you a web designer or developer? Where do you live and how much experience you have, but it is defiantly a career worth considering. Some web developers can easily earn £50K a year.

For a full answer to the question read How much does web design pay?

NEO pets cheats

2006-05-22T12:33:00.000+01:00

I know its slightly of subject, but we all need a break from web design now and again. Ever heard of Neo Pets? If not your missing out, a Neopet is "A popular online virtual pet simulation game". You earn Neopoints by feeding your Neopet and generally looking after them. It's a great past time that will bring out the kid in you, especially useful when you get web design block!

As always there are ways to earn more Neopoints and bump up your score, check out The Ultimate Neopet Cheats Site, to get all the top tips to bum up your Neopoints.

Predesigned websites

2006-05-20T18:47:00.000+01:00

Predesigned websites are one way to save time when designing a website. If you haven't any design flair or HTML [Define] knowledge they are by far the best solution to get your website up and running in no time.

There are literally thousands of predesigned websites to choose from, so how do you know where to start? Well we recommend you start at this link Predesigned websites. This is honest impartial advice to helping you choose the right one for you.

How to choose and buy a Predesigned website

Online spending on the up

2006-05-19T16:28:00.000+01:00

Online UK spending increased to 1.4 billion and now accounts for 7.8% of all advertising market share, according to IAB.

What does this mean to website owners?

You are in a growing industry that is set to continue growing especially if you sell advertisements on your site, which is reassuring to know.

If you don't currently run adverts on your site and would like to you should check out Google's Adsense program. It basically allows advertisers to display adverts related to your sites content on your site. Every time a visitor clicks an advert, you get paid.

Added related website links to yours

2006-05-19T16:24:00.000+01:00

Google now offer a service where you can place links to websites that are related to yours. A small link unit can be added to your site by copying and pasting some simple code to your site.

The advantage of doing this is your visitors will be able to find related websites, and hopefully they will come back to your site again because you gave them a good recommendation.

Find out more at...

http://www.google.com/relatedlinks

How popular is Dreamweaver?

2006-05-19T16:19:00.000+01:00

Around 65% of web designers use Dreamweaver to make their websites, according to research by Actinic Web Design and Ecommerce Report 2006.

Dreamweavers popularity has been on a steady decrease for the last couple of years though...

2003 = 76% Use Dreamweaver
2004 = 70% " "
2006 = 65% " "

What do you use?
What do you use to make your websites? If you use Dreamweaver what do you think of it? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Is my website in Google?

2006-05-18T17:16:00.000+01:00

To check if your website is in Google do the following...

1. Go to www.google.com
2. Enter the following in the search box...

site:www.giantmouse.co.uk

3.Replace www.giantmouse.co.uk with the address of your website
4.Hit search

This will show you the pages Google know about from your website. If it returns no results then Google doesn't know about your website - bummer!

Learn how to get into Google

Increase and decrease website fonts

2006-05-17T17:13:00.000+01:00

Here is a little gem of a tip. You can increase or decrease the font size of website you are viewing. This will make text easier to red. Hold the "Ctrl" button down (bottom left of keyboard) and use the scroll wheel on your mouse. This will increase and decrease the font size of the website you are viewing!

Hey it doesn't work

If only some or none of the text resizes the web designer had used absolute font sizes, i.e. font size is 12pt rather then %. This is generally bad practice as visually impaired visitors won't be able to resize text.

Web design font tip

In light of the above fact use % size when setting your fonts on your website.

Website width - 800, 1000?

2006-05-16T14:03:00.000+01:00

When designing a website how wide should it be? The easiest answer to the website width question is make a fixed width website that will fit into the smallest standard screen resolution. The smallest screen resolution is 800 pixels by 600 pixles. Therefore design your site to be about 780 pixels wide, this will allow for a scroll bar and "web design creep".

Learn more about website widths

Warning! Internet Marketing scam - Search Engine submissions

2006-05-16T09:19:00.000+01:00

This used to be the biggest scam going, companies offering to submit your site to 100's of search engines for a monthly fee. However it had appeared to die down, until recently. We we're emailed the below link (they probably found us by using a search engine!), it's another company trying to flog a dead horse...

http://www.ineedhits.com/submission/premium-submit.aspx?source=blog06-05-02ps1

(It isn't a link because this would help improve their search engine ranking, to learn more read Get to the top of Google.)

This service is about as useful as a chocolate fire guard, so please don't use anything like it. For a start you only need to concentrate on 3 or 4 search engines, Google, Yahoo & MSN and maybe ASK. You can get your web site into Google or any of these search engine, quickly easily and for free, just read this article - Getting into Google and any other search engine.

What do you think?

Let us know your thoughts or share your experiences of these scam artists with use and other readers by leaving a comment below.

What is more popular asp or php?

2006-05-12T15:34:00.000+01:00

When you decide to make the move to developing dynamic web sites you are faced with a decision, should I learn asp or php? There are arguments for both that can are argued out across the Internet.

Wouldn't it be cool if knew what was searched for more asp or php, to suggest what's more popular, well you can.

What is searched for most asp or php

So what are you going to learn? Or if you already write dynamic sites what do you use or prefer? Let us know by leaving comments on this post.

Searching trends

2006-05-11T12:23:00.000+01:00

Have you ever wondered if certain searches are used depending on the time of year? For example does the number of search for "Flowers" massively increase in the run up to Mothersday? Do people search for Christmas all year round?

Well now you can find out with Google trends. Enter a search term and see how popular it is throughout the year.

How can you improve you site with this tool?

Find out if your targeted search terms flucuates through out the year, if they do plan ahead activily promote the your site in the run up to the most active time of the year. If search terms and search engine optimisation is all news to you read this - Search engine optimisation explained.

Can your website make money?

2006-05-11T12:13:00.000+01:00

We have all heard it a million times before, make money from your site with no effort at all, retire at 16, etc etc. Well here at Daily Web Design Tips we decided to investigate the possibility.

After doing some research we found some great sites and blogs that will teach you everything you need to know. Find out if you can make money from your site.

Let us know what you think by posting comments back on this blog.

Stop repeating backgrounds

2006-05-09T17:08:00.000+01:00

So you have discovered the good old background image and are expiermenting with your website design, but the background image repeats across the whole screen, some people want to achieve this background effect, but what if you don't?

Simple, just set the background image to not repeat using CSS [Define]. If you've never used CSS don't worry you'll find this easy. View the html of the web page you want to change and replace the <body> tag with the below...

<body style="background:url(image.jpg) no-repeat;">

Change image.jpg to the file name of your image and make sure the image is in the smae folder as your web page.

If your a little unsure of editing and adding raw html read this...

Adding HTML to your web page

If the word tag and <body> confused you read this...

HTML tags what are they?

If you did that easily learn other web design tricks.

How many people use the Firefox Browser?

2006-04-19T16:52:00.000+01:00

The Firefox browser has taken the internet by storm because it is the only real competitor to Microsoft's Internet Explorer in recent memory.

But just how popular is Firefox? Figures just released indicate that 10.5% of Internet users are using Firefox, which shows a continual increase since it was first released.

However Microsoft's Internet Explorer still has the market share with 84.7%

source: Net Applications

Do you have the latest version of Firefox?

If not download your first copy or the latest version - Find out more here

What does this mean to website owners/designers?

This means that 1 in ten people are looking at your website with Firefox, and if you haven't tested your site in this new browser [Define] it might be displaying incorrectly. This is because Firefox and Internet Explorer display website differently. A pain in the arse but if this is news to you welcome to web design! If that was news to you should also check out different website widths.

Download a copy of Firefox (link below) and see what your site looks like, and from now on when designing a website test it in both Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Not tried Firefox yet?

Shame on you, its a great browser with lots of neat features, for example view multiple pages in one window with tabbed browsing, meaning you don't need lots of Internet Explorer windows open which can slow your computer down.

Download Firefox

Latest search engine popularity figures

2006-04-12T13:08:00.000+01:00

1st Google = 48.5%
2nd Yahoo = 22.5%
3rd MSN = 10.7%
4th AOL = 6.6%
5th ASK = 2.7%

Source: Nielsen//Netratings

What does this mean to you?
If you own a website and use search engines to promote it, you need to be targeting at least the top 3 search engines with your search engine optimisation [Define], as this is how 81.7% of people find what they are looking for on the web. If you are only targeting googol, then you are missing a large chunk of potential visitors.

If you aren't promoting your site in search engines you should be. Its a free way to promote it and get people there who are interested in your site. This article Getting to the top of Google explains how.

More web design advice

Domain name availability

2006-04-11T09:09:00.000+01:00

Domain names, also know as website addresses, aren't as easy to get hold of as they once used to be. The reason for this is that 50 million .com's have been registered so far, which is going to limit your selection a little.

All 3 letter combinations have been registered, so you have no chance of getting your company acronyms unfortunately! You have a much better chance of getting a 4 letter domain, but increase your chances of getting your desired domain name you are going to have to be creative!

Help with domain name idea's

More domain name facts

Examples of bad web design

2006-04-10T08:59:00.000+01:00

Technically designing a website is quite easy, compared to programming complex computer programs that is. However designing a good web site is much more difficult. A good web site takes planning and constant refining, however some people don't take this into consideration and produce some really bad websites.

How not to design a web site

To help you learn what not to do the team over at www.yourwebsiteisrubbish.com have collected some of the worst website on the Internet, they will show you how not to design a website.

Remember at some point the people who have made these sites have sat back and thought "Yeah I'm really happy with that, I'll show the whole world". Scary, worth checking out.

Examples of bad web design

Good domain name ideas

2006-04-06T09:18:00.000+01:00

One of the most important and difficult parts of setting up a website is coming up with a decent domain name, also know as a web address or URL. A domain name could make or brake your site, so take your time choosing one.

Top 3 tips for choosing a domain name

1. Make it memorable
Choose a domain name that is easy to remember, it will increase return visitors typing in the address.

2. Easy to spell
You should be able to tell somebody over the phone the address without spelling it

3. Keep it simple
Avoid abbreviations like www.blu.com and replacing letters with numbers like www.bl3e.com. It make it harder to remember.

More domain name ideas and tips

Search engine cheat sheet

2006-04-04T09:08:00.000+01:00

Search engine optimisation [Define] is a bit of a dark art, with the rules and standards always changing. Wouldn't it be great if somebody put together a definitive guide of what techniques actually work?

Well your in luck, one of the industries most renowned Search engine optimiser has produced a Search engine optimisation cheat sheet. Don't worry if it appears a little small on your screen, just right click your mouse button on the cheat sheet and select zoom in.

Click here for Search engine optimisation cheat sheet.

More search engine optimisation advice

Website competition reports

2006-03-23T09:38:00.000Z

Running an online business is very competitive no matter what industry you are in; therefore it always pays to know what your competition is up to. Now this could become a very time consuming activity checking all your competitor's websites for press releases and news everyday.

Free competition reports

Wouldn't it be better if you received an email every time one of your competition released a new product or updated their news? Well you can, using Google Alerts, simple enter a subject you would like to be informed about, like a competitors business name, and set how often you would like to receive them, as it happens, daily, weekly or monthly. Every time Google finds some new information on that subject they will email you, and best of all this service is free!

Try Google alerts

More detailed information on competitor websites

Find out more details about your competitors websites.

How to get a website address?

2006-03-22T09:34:00.000Z

To get a website address, also known as a domain name or url, is really easy and cheap. You need to do something called registering a domain, you can register it for as long as you like, but it is normally done for two years. Expect to pay £5 for two years for a .co.uk and £20 for a .com for the same period.

Check availabilty of website address

Bare in mind that 93% of words in the English language have already been registered, so you will need to be creative to come up with something, try this for inspiration..

Website address ideas

Important

Once you have your website address you also need to get some where to store it, this is called web hosting.

Find low cost web hosting

Adding html in Dreamweaver

2006-03-20T09:02:00.000Z

Dreamweaver is a great tool for designing web sites, it allows beginners and professionals alike to design and edit any site, its easy to use because it's a WYSIYWY [Define], however sometimes you still need to add the html directly in Dreamweaver.

For a lot of people adding html in Dreamweaver can be daunting, but don't worry it's a very easy thing to-do with Dreamweaver, we'll explain how.

Adding html in Dreamweaver step by step

Step1. Open your web page

Open the web page you wish to add the html to, now we are assuming Dreamweaver is in design view, which means you are looking at the page how it will be shown in the browser [Define]. To make sure go to the top menu, which has File, Edit, View etc in and select View. From the drop down menu select Design. Dreamweaver is now in design mode.

Step2. Select where to add the html

With Dreamweaver in design view select on the page where you wish to add your html, your mouse cursor should now be flashing on the location you selected. Now go to View in the top menu again and select Code. This will display the html of the page and more importantly the mouse cursor will be flashing in the location you wish to add your html to. This means you don't have to try and work out the entire html to find the location you wish to add your html to.

Step3. Paste your html into the page

We are assuming you already have some html you wish to add, if not copy the below html and paste it into your page

<p><a href="http://giantmouseblog.blogspot.com">Adding html in Dreamweaver</a></p>

This html will put a link on your web page to this one.

Now with some html to add copy and paste it into the location where your mouse is flashing in Dreamweaver. Save your web page and view it in your browser by press f12 on your keyboard. Hey presto you have added html using Dreamweaver.

Need more help?

If you are new to html it will be worth reading learn about html.

When to use Flash

2006-03-17T09:00:00.001Z

You will read in a lot of places not to use Flash [Define] on your website because it isn't accessible for all visitors, doesn't help you pages rank well in search engines etc, which all has some truth behind it.

However Flash is one of the most powerful web design tools you can use, it is designed to make visually interesting interactive animations, like games and adverts. So if you need some like this is on your website you should use Flash.

Great Example of Flash

Here is a great example of using Flash, it is for the British National Lottery and it helps you pick 6 random numbers. By clicking on the chicken it produces a random number, which isn't technically difficult to do in Flash if you know what you're doing, but works brilliantly, go on give it a try!

Great use of Flash

Learn more about web design

Is your website bleeding?

2006-03-16T09:08:00.000Z

Web design is driven by new technologies and techniques, which allow websites to achieve new things never thought possible. A bleeding web site uses the latest cutting edge technologies so much so that it is bleeding, meaning using the latest technologies for the sake of it.

The point of these new web design technologies is to achieve something new, not just using it because it is there. Using them when you don't need to detracts from the main aim of the site and lowers the value of your site to visitors.

How to stop your website bleeding

If you think your website is bleeding you need to re-evaluate it. Does that Flash movie [Define] need to be on every page? Did you really need to spend a week working out how to use Google's dynamic maps API to show the location of your company, when you could have just linked to Googles dynamic maps in minutes?

To avoid your website bleeding to death set the aim of your website, then work out how to achieve it, then work out what technologies you need to use to reach that goal. Don't just use them for the sake of it, because it will more then likely make your site harder to use.

We are not saying don't use the latest technologies; just use them for what they were designed for.

Get more out of your website

Website conversion rate calculator

2006-03-15T09:21:00.000Z

One of the most important figures you need to know for your website is the conversion rate. Your conversion rate is the percentage of website visitors who perform a desired action, such as buying something, or signing up to a newsletter.

To calculate your website conversion rate you need 3 things...

1.Number of visitors to your site (Learn more)
2.The amount of conversions on your site (i.e. purchases)
3.Website conversion rate calculator

Click the website conversion calculator and input the above figures, it will calculate your conversion rate.

Dreamweaver button to close window

2006-03-14T09:17:00.000Z

A close window button on your website is a great feature to have especially if you are using popup windows for any reason, and using Dreamweaver makes it very easy to add it to your site.

Switch to code view in Dreamweaver and copy the below code into the location you want the button to appear..

<a href="javascript:window.close()" title="click here to close the window">Close window</a>

This will display "Close Window" once clicked will close the window.

Step by step tutorial to add close window button in Dreamweaver

Stylish web design

2006-03-13T09:11:00.000Z

Style is doing something well, a stylish web site is not one with all the latest bells and whistles on like podcasts [Define] and Flash [Define]. A stylish web site is one that fulfils it purpose well.

Getting a stylish web design

First set the goal of your web site, take for example the goal of this site, it is to teach web design beginners tips the professionals use. Once you have set your goal you need to work out how best to achieve it. Ask yourself what information do I need on my web site to fulfil that goal? We needed tips from professional web designers that were explained in a none technical way.

Stylish design

To get a stylish design, keep the look simple. Stand back from your final design and look at every element of the page and ask yourself two questions...

What does that add to the page?

Do I need that?

If the answers are nothing and no, remove it. This will help you get a lean website that does it job well, making it stylish, because style is doing something well.

More web design advice

How much does a web site cost?

2006-03-10T08:46:00.000Z

If your looking for a quick ballpark figure answer, then they can cost anything from £200 to 100's of thousands, even millions of pounds. For those of you who want a more accurate realistic answer read on.

It all depends on what you want your website to do. If it is a simple 6 page brouchure style, it will be on the lower end of the scale, if it's more complicated you are paying for the amount of time it takes to develop it.

Learn more about web design cost

This weeks top 10 searches

2006-03-09T08:51:00.000Z

The most searched for things this week...

1.MP3
2.Jennifer Aniston
3.Jo Guest
4.Ebay
5.Chat
6.Games
7.Insurance
8.Paris Hilton
9.Jobs
10.Abi Titmuss

Source 50.lycos.co.uk

What does this mean to you?

By optimising your website to rank highly in search engines you can attract lots of people looking for your site.

Learn how to get to the top of Google.

Better search results

2006-03-08T09:06:00.000Z

Google, Yahoo and MSN search are the big players in the search engine market, however they all return different results, wouldn't it be great if all three search results were combined so a website that ranks well in not just one search engine, but all 3 came up at the top? This would give you more relevant and useful results.

Well good news you can get these better search results, they are called Meta Search Engines. The two big players in this market are www.mamma.com and www.dogpile.com. Go on give them a try.

www.mamma.com
www.dogpile.com

Did you get more useful search results from these search engines? If you did, leave a comment and tell us about your experience.

Add search to your site the easy way

Find a website owner?

2006-03-07T09:05:00.000Z

Ever wanted to know who owns a website but couldn't find out from the contact us page? Well there is a very simple way to lookup who owes a website, it's called a Whois lookup.

Find UK website owners - i.e. website.co.uk go to...

www.nominet.org.uk

In the bottom right, under WHOIS, enter the web address without the www. For example website.co.uk

Find American and international domains - i.e. .com .net

www.whois.sc

Type in the web address and click the search button. Scroll to the bottom of the results page, where the address of the owner is shown.

Useful?

If you found this useful try these great web design tips

Quicker Internet

2006-03-06T12:47:00.000Z

Here is a really useful tool, it will help you use the Internet quicker. They are called mouse gestures. They allow you to control your browser [Define] with out having to click the buttons at the top, for example by right clicking your mouse and dragging it left sends you back a page, right click drag up takes you to your home page. This means you don’t have to keep moving your mouse to the top left of the screen every time you want to do something.

If your use the Internet a lot you will realise how much time you spending going up to the top left corner of your browser browser [Define] to click back or home buttons, mouse gestures will save you some time and rather then being a gimmick are actually really useful.

Get Mouse Gestures

To get mouse gestures you need to install a free extension for your browser [Define], which is really easy to do, just follow the instructions on the below links.

Internet Explorer mouse gestures

Firefox mouse gestures

More useful web design tools

Search Engine Marketing Facts

2006-03-03T09:05:00.000Z

Search engine marketing is promoting your website through search engines, so people searching for a subject related to your website can find you. Here are some facts about search engine marketing...

93.4% indicate that they would use the Internet to research a business purchase

of which 63.9% would use a Search Engine first

Source: MarketingSherpa

Search Engine marketing cost only 16.5p as opposed to 28.5p for e-mail marketing and £1.14 for buttons and banner campaigns

Source: US Bancorp Pipar Jaffr

How to get to the top of search engines

Best web design font

2006-03-02T09:22:00.000Z

When designing a website you should choose one main font for the text, this will keep it looking consistent. The best font for websites is Verdana, because it designed to be displayed on screens, making it easier for your visitors to read no matter the font size.

What are web safe fonts?

Has MSN search found your site?

2006-03-01T09:25:00.000Z

MSN search is Microsoft's answer to Google and is third largest search engine behind Google and Yahoo. MSN search receives a lot of traffic and if it doesn't know about your website it can't send people to it who are looking for you.

To find out if MSN search knows about your site go to www.msn.com and search for the following...

Site:www.yourwebsite.co.uk

Replace www.yourwebsite.co.uk with the address of your website, remembering to keep the : with no spaces otherwise it won't work correctly. This will show you all the pages from your website MSN search knows about.

Get in to MSN search

If MSN hasn't found your website it may be that your site is very new, if it is more then a couple of months old you need to get another web page that has been found by MSN search to link to your website. To do this search in MSN for something related to your site. Then email one of the websites that come up in the results kindly asking them to link to your website. MSN will find this link to your site and include. A month after the link has been added go back to MSN and do the site:www.yourwebsite.com search again, it should now be included.

Getting to the top of MSN

Just because MSN search knows about your site doesn't mean it will place it at the top of its results. Web site owners work very hard to be listed at the top of search results.

Learn how to get to the top of search engines

Which results do searchers click?

2006-02-28T09:29:00.000Z

Search engines display two types of results, organic results, the ones on the left, which a search engine displays based on how relevant they are. The other is Pay Per Click (PPC) results, displayed on the right, which companies pay for. Learn more about Pay Per Click

Which results are clicked the most though?

72.3% of Google searchers click the organic results (ones on the left), and 27.7% click the Pay per Click results (ones on the right). For all search engines i.e. MSN & Yahoo, 60.5% click organic results and 39.5% click Pay Per Click.

What does this mean to you?

This means you will get more traffic to you site if you rank highly in organic search results. Learn how to get to the top of Google

A design no no

2006-02-27T09:10:00.000Z

Design is a funny thing, everybody has their own opinion on what is good or bad design, apart from when it comes to one font, Comic sans! Comic sans looks like this...

Everybody knows it's a bad font to use and is defiantly a big design no no because it looks so rubbish. Many people use it because they think it looks good, but they are wrong, very wrong. Comic sans is known as such a bad font it even has it own website calling for it to banned!

Bancomicsans.com

More Design no no's

Using comic sans is one thing, but some websites manage to combine a whole host of bad web design, as highlighted by
yourwebsiteisrubbish.com. These are some of the worst web sites on the Internet, you'll laugh you'll cry, but what ever you do make sure your site doesn't use any of the design techniques they have!

Are you in the Yahoo?

2006-02-24T09:19:00.000Z

Yahoo is the second most popular search engine on the planet (search engine popularity), if Yahoo doesn't know your website exists it can't send visitors to it who are looking you.

To check if Yahoo has indexed (found) your site type the following into the Yahoo search bar...

site:www.yourwebsite.co.uk

Obviously replacing www.yourwebsite.co.uk with the address of your site. Just remember to keep the : and no spaces.

This will show you all the web pages from your site that Yahoo knows about.

Getting to the top of search engines

Getting into Yahoo

If Yahoo hasn't found your website yet all you need to do is get a link from a web page that Yahoo does know about. Yahoo finds new web sites by following links from web pages it knows about.

The best way to get a link is to search in Yahoo for a website related to yours, that way you can be sure Yahoo knows about the page, then email them and ask them very kindly to link to your website.

Once you have a link it will take about a week or so for your website to appear in Yahoo’s search results for site:www.yourwebsite.co.uk.

Getting to the top of search engines

Problem with HTML tables?

2006-02-23T09:21:00.000Z

HTML Tables can be frustrating, they require a lot of HTML[Define] to make and if you don`t close a <tr> or a <td> your whole page layout can fall apart.

An easy way to identify the problem is by displaying the borders of the table, this often highlights the cause of the HTML table problem. To do this add the following code to the opening <table> tag...

border="1"

Other ways to solve HTML table problems

If the above technique doesn`t help, make sure you have closed all <tr> and <tr> and they are ordered correctly. Now this might seem obvious but it is the number one reason for HTML table problems. This also can be quite a task if you have a large HTML page, so this is probably a good time to format it so you can read it easily, like this...

<table>
<tr>
<td>Table cell contents goes here</td>
<td>Table cell contents goes here</td>
<td>Table cell contents goes here</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Table cell contents goes here</td>
<td>Table cell contents goes here</td>
<td>Table cell contents goes here</td>
</tr>
</table>

Formatting your HTML like this will allow you to spot problems in your table code because you can see where new table rows start and finish without actually having to read the code.

The reason HTML tables can be problematic is they are often used to produce a web page layout, when they were actually designed to display rows of data, for example a table of sports results. The most effective way to make a web page layout is using CSS[Define].

Learn more about CSS.

Does Google know about your website?

2006-02-22T09:21:00.000Z

Just because your website is on the Internet doesn't mean Google knows about it. If Google doesn't know your website exists, nobody can find it using their search. If you don't know the address of a website what do you do? Search for it, if a search engine doesn't know about your site it can't direct visitors to it.

Check if your website has been found by Google, go to Google and type the following into the search bar...

site:www.yourwebsite.co.uk

Replace www.yourwebsite.co.uk with the address of your website, remembering to keep the : with no spaces.

If Google has found your website it will return a list of web pages it has found from it. If no results are returned Google hasn't found your site.

How to get into Google

If Google hasn't found your site there are two ways to get it found. The 1st and slowest way is submit your website to Google directly via this form. This way can take up to several months to get you included in Google.

The second and quickest way is to get a link from another website that has already been found by Google. Google checks all the pages it knows about regularly for new links, when it finds one it follows it and finds new sites. Depending on how often the site linking to you gets checked by Google your site will start showing up in a week or two.

Get to the top of Google

Who links to your website?

2006-02-21T09:08:00.000Z

Ever asked the question "Who is linking to my website?" Well you can find out using a search engine. Type...

link:www.yourwebsite.co.uk

into a search engine, replacing www.yourwebsite.co.uk with the address of your website.

This will show you all the sites that link to yours. This works in all the major search engines including Google Yahoo and MSN, we would recommend using Yahoo as this returns the most accurate results. Google tends to only show a selection of links and MSN often repeats the same links.

Does the number of links effect my website?

Yes, the more links to your website the better you will rank in search engines. Learn more about search engine rankings.

User Generated content

2006-02-20T09:25:00.000Z

User generated content is allowing visitors to add information to your website, for example their thoughts on an article, or images they have taken. Another example of user generated content is a forum, where visitors can post questions and others can answer them.

User generated content expands the size of your website without you having to produce content, the disadvantage is somebody has to moderate it, as it is open to abuse, for example offensive language or spammers put links to their website’s to increase their search engine ranking. Learn more about search engine rankings.

Adding user generated content to your website

The easiest and simplest way to add user generated content to your website is by asking people to send it to you, like their views or pictures, and supply an email address, (How to add an email link), for them to send it to. When you receive content add it manually, if you start getting enough responses you can look at other ways of automating this. However there is no point in spending hours adding complex code to your site that may never get used. First find out if people will send you content, and then take it from there.

Learn Good Web Design

2006-02-17T09:19:00.000Z

When designing your first web site don’t try reinventing the wheel, keep it simple and learn by example from other websites. Look at websites you like and have found useful, work out what makes it so good, what type of navigation does the site use? What colour schemes and fonts have they used?

When ever you come across a good website add it to your favourites so you can come back to it, after a while you will have quite a few examples you can learn from.

As you learn web design from other sites you’ll begin to find out what works and what doesn’t, once you are at this stage you can start experimenting with your own ideas.

However don’t let bad web design happen to you like it has happened to these rubbish websites.

The golden rule for designing websites is, keep it simple. Stand back from your final design and look at each element on the page and ask yourself, do I need that? If you don’t, remove it. This is a hard thing to-do but produces a better looking website that is easier to use.

Please your visitors

2006-02-16T09:06:00.000Z

People come to your website looking for something, make it easy for them to find it. The best way to do this is by adding a search feature to your website, and who are the masters of search? Google.

You can add a Google search box that will only search content within your website. It looks like this (Go on try it)

<form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/search">

<div style="border:1px solid black;padding:6px; width: 200px;">

<strong>Site Search</strong><br />
<input type="text" name="q" size="25"
maxlength="255" value="" /><br />
<input type="checkbox" name="sitesearch"
value="giantmouseblog.blogspot.com" checked />This site only
<input type="submit" value="Search" /><br />
<font size="2">Search results by Google</font>
</div>

</form>

Easy modification to work on your website

You will need to change "giantmouseblog.blogspot.com" to "yourwebsiteaddress.com", remember not to include the www. part, otherwise it will search this website instead of yours!

Now you will have pleased visitors who can find information they are looking for, and are more likely to return.

More web design tips

Beginners guide to web hosting

2006-02-15T08:43:00.000Z

Web hosting can be a minefield even if you are technically inclined. There are so many different types of web hosting packages and companies out there, that it is almost impossible to know which one to choose.

To shed a little light on the subject read this article Web hosting guide for beginners.

Once you have understood the basics of web hosting you will be in a much better position to choose the right web host for your website. A good place to start is Tophost.com

Adding html code to a website

2006-02-14T11:37:00.000Z

Every page on the Internet is made up of HTML [Define], therefore to make or modify a web page you need to know how to edit HTML, which is very easy to-do. HTML can be edited by "hand", which means using a basic text program like Notepad to edit the HTML code, or you can use a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) like Dreamweaver or FrontPage, which allows you to edit the web page how it is seen on the Internet.

WYSIWYG make it easier for beginners to make and modify web pages but "hand" coding gives you greater control over how the web page looks. If you are serious about web design you need to learn how to hand code.

Learn how to add HTML to a website

Redirect with a time delay

2006-02-13T09:26:00.000Z

Sometimes you will need to take your visitors to a different web page automatically, there can be many reasons for this, you may have moved the original web pages or you wish to take visitors to a special offers page after they complete the checkout process.

To redirect a user automatically place the below code in the head section of your web page (in-between the <head> & </head> tags [Define])

<meta HTTP-EQUIV='REFRESH' content='10; url=http://www.giantmouse.co.uk'>

Change the web address in the code to the web page you wish to redirect your visitors to. You can also change the time delay between the page loading and it redirecting by altering 10 to the number of seconds you wish to wait before redirecting.

We strongly recommend informing your visitors they will be redirected after a period of time, otherwise they may feel they aren’t in control of the web pages they are viewing, and as a result may not visit your website again.

More web design advice

What are html tags?

2006-02-10T13:28:00.000Z

Tags makeup the HTML code [Define] that every web page on the Internet is made of. Tags define how a web page should look and what information it contains.

A tag looks like this <p>, every tag starts with < and ends with a >. The p tag we have just described is the tag to display a paragraph of text, so lets put some text in.

<p>Here is a paragraph of text that is displayed on a web page. You can put as much text in here as you like.

You also need to close every tag, which is easily done by putting this </p>, notice it is exactly the same as the open tag but with a / before the p. So a complete HTML tag looks like this.

<p>Here is a paragraph of text that is displayed on a web page. You can put as much text in here as you like. </p>

Learn more about HTML tags

Web design font families

2006-02-09T09:55:00.000Z

Font families are collections of fonts that define how the text is displayed on your web site, if the first font isn’t available the second would be used, and so on.

Fonts are sometimes unavailable because the computer displaying the web page doesn’t have that particular font installed. If the computer doesn’t have the font it can’t use it to display text, and will use the default, Times New Roman, which in many cases is undesirable. Therefore font families came to be.

So basically you are saying right computer use this font for text on the web page, but if you don’t have it, use this second one, and if you don’t have that use this third one.

Setting Font Families

To set the font family for the whole page you will need to view the HTML [Define] of the web page and insert the following code between the <head> and the </head> tags [Define], which will be at the top of the web page.

<style type="text/css">

</style>

This code makes all the text on a web page be displayed in Arial, if Arial is unavailable then use Helvetica and as a last resort use san-serif.

Change Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif to which fonts you want to be displayed, but make sure you use web safe fonts.

Not working correctly?

If text is being displayed in a different font than you specified check that there isn’t a <font> tag around that text by checking the HTML of the page. You will need to remove all of these font tags if you have them to make the above code work correctly.

If you don’t have font tags in your page, check the text isn’t an image, if the text is within an image you will have to edit that image separately.

Which web design fonts?

2006-02-07T09:35:00.000Z

When learning the fine art of web design it is only natural to experiment with all the options available to you, one of which being fonts. You find a really interesting font on your computer and your content looks great using it on your computer, but wait…

If you set your text to a font that isn’t installed on the computer that is viewing your website it will be displayed in the default font, which is Time New Roman. So if somebody viewing your site half way across the world, or in the next town doesn't have the font you specify all your text will be displayed in Times New Roman, which is the default font.

To avoid this happening use the 6 standard web design fonts, which are..

Arial, Helvetica
Times New Roman
Courier New
Georgia
Verdana
Geneva

Every computer has these fonts and using them will ensure your web site is displayed how you intended it to be.

Keep your website fresh

2006-02-06T09:05:00.000Z

A lot of web sites are online brochures, informing visitors about your company or an area of interest, the content of these sites is updated maybe once or twice a year. This can quickly make them appear dated, and Internet users want the most up-to-date information.

To keep your web site fresh add the current date in a highly visible position on your home page. To add the date you will need to insert the below JavaScript [Define] into your home page.

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="Javascript" class="timetext">

var now = new Date();

var days = new Array('Sunday','Monday','Tuesday','Wednesday',

'Thursday','Friday','Saturday');

var months = new Array('January','February','March','April',

'May','June','July','August','September',

'October','November','December');

var date = ((now.getDate()<10) ? "0" : "")+ now.getDate();

function y2k(number){return (number < 1000) ? number + 1900 : number;}

today = days[now.getDay()] + " " +

date + " " +

months[now.getMonth()] + ", " +

(y2k(now.getYear())) ;

document.write("" +today+ ".");

</SCRIPT>

To insert this JavaScript you will need to view the HTML [Define] of your home page, and insert it in the area you wish it to be displayed.

More web design advice

What is a Podcast?

2006-02-03T09:33:00.000Z

A Podcast is an mp3 file, but instead of a music track it’s a recorded radio show, or a newsletter read out by somebody. You download them from the Internet and then transfer them on to your mp3 player (i.e. IPOD or the like), or just listen to it through your computer.

The reason for all the hype surrounding Podcasts is that websites owners can supply the content of their websites in an mp3 file and visitors can listen to them on their IPOD’s, and we all know the hype around IPOD’s at the moment.

Examples of Podcasts

A good example of a Podcast is one produced for the UK’s BBC radio1 breakfast show, The Chris Moyles show, they put together all the best bits of daily show each week and allow listeners to download it for free via the BBC website. Try it your self.

Download Chris Moyles Podcast by clicking here. (Right click your mouse on the link and select save target as)

Find out about the Chris Moyles show

Once the file has finished downloading, play it on your computer or transfers it to your mp3 player and listen to it there.

More web design terms explained

Button to close window

2006-02-02T12:56:00.000Z

Closing a window can be done by a visitor to your website, they just click the x in top right of the window. However to make your website easier to use add a close window button or link.

To add this button or link you need to add some web site code called JavaScript [Define], this is a very easy thing to do. Lets make a link that closes a window, copy the code between the below lines into the part of the web page you want to display the “close window”.

_______________________________________________________

<a href="javascript:window.close()" title="click here to close the window">Close window</a>

_______________________________________________________

It will look like this on your website

Close window
(This doesn’t work here because it would close this window, which you don’t want to do)

To add this code to your website you need to need to view the HTML [Define] of the web page you are working on. If you use software like Dreamweaver or Frontpage, find the option that allows you to see the “code” or “source”. If you have trouble finding this, search the help menu for “Edit html”.

More web design advice

Display the time

2006-02-01T09:13:00.000Z

A useful feature for any website is displaying the correct time, no matter where the website is being look at in the world. To add this feature to your website you need some simple code called JavaScript [Define]. The ticking time will be displayed like this…

Display time example (Click to open new window)

JavaScript code to add time

Simply copy and paste the below JavaScript code into the HTML [Define] of the web page you want to display the time.

____________________________________________

<div id=Clock> </div>

<script language =" JavaScript">

function tick() {
var hours, minutes, seconds, ap;
var intHours, intMinutes, intSeconds;
var today;

today = new Date();

intHours = today.getHours();
intMinutes = today.getMinutes();
intSeconds = today.getSeconds();

switch(intHours){
case 0:
intHours = 12;
hours = intHours+":";
ap = "A.M.";
break;
case 12:
hours = intHours+":";
ap = "P.M.";
break;
case 24:
intHours = 12;
hours = intHours + ":";
ap = "A.M.";
break;
default:
if (intHours > 12)
{
intHours = intHours - 12;
hours = intHours + ":";
ap = "P.M.";
break;
}
if(intHours < 12)
{
hours = intHours + ":";
ap = "A.M.";
}
}

if (intMinutes < 10) {
minutes = "0"+intMinutes+":";
} else {
minutes = intMinutes+":";
}

if (intSeconds < 10) {
seconds = "0"+intSeconds+" ";
} else {
seconds = intSeconds+" ";
}

timeString = hours+minutes+seconds+ap;

Clock.innerHTML = timeString;

window.setTimeout("tick();", 100);
}

window.onload = tick;

</script>
____________________________________________

That’s it. Save the web page and then view it to check it works correctly.

More ways to improve your website

Form and input background image

2006-01-31T09:18:00.000Z

Web forms are really useful, but can be very boring. Add a little something extra to your web site by giving form input boxes a background image like the example below.

To do this add the code in bold from below to your input boxes, and change http://www.giantmouse.co.uk/images/input_bg.jpg to the location of the image you wish to display.

<form>
<input type="text" style="background-image: url(http://www.giantmouse.co.uk/images/input_bg.jpg); border: 1px #ccc solid;"/><br /><br />
<input type="submit" value="search" />
</form>

More web design tips

Picture in address bar

2006-01-30T09:54:00.000Z

Wondering how some websites display a picture in the address bar? These are called Favicon's, they are simple to make and easy to add to your website. They are displayed when you Bookmark or save a web address as a Favourite in the Internet Explorer browser [Define]

Step 1. Design your Favicon
You need an image to display in the address bar, this is usually a simplified version of your website logo. Remember it will only need to be roughly 15 x 15 pixels, so the simpler the better.

Step 2. Convert to a Favicon
Go to www.html-kit.com/favicon/ and click the "Browse" button next to the source image box. Select the image you created in step1. Ignore the scrolling text box, and click the "Generate FavIcon.ico" button. Now you need to download it to your computer, click the "Download FavIcon" button, if given the option, select "Save as" and choose to save it to your desktop.

Step 3. Add to your website
You will need to "unzip" the file you have saved to your desktop, you can do this with a program called Winzip, if you don't have it get it, because it is a very useful tool, get Winzip. Unzip the file to your Desktop so the files are easy to find.

You will have a Favicon.ico file and an "extra" folder. Save the Favicon.ico file to the "root" folder of your website. This is the folder where your home page is kept, i.e. index.htm, default.asp.

Now all you need to-do is insert a tiny piece of code into your web page. Open the program you edit your web pages, i.e. Dreamweaver, Frontpage, Notepad etc and select to edit the code or source. In between the <head> and </head>, known as the head section of the page, put the below code in.

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico">

You'll need to do this to each page of your site. Upload the modified pages and the Favicon.ico file to the Internet and then save your website as a favourite, and hey presto, your image will be displayed in the address bar.

More Web design tips

Control your visitors browser

2006-01-27T10:03:00.000Z

Web pages were designed to be controlled by the user, for example allowing them to change font size and browser [Define] size, which is a strange concept to grasp when you first start designing web site, especially if you come from a print design background, where you dictate exactly what the page will look like.

However there are aspects you can control of their browser, one of the best examples is the status bar that is located in the bottom left of the browser. Move your mouse over a link and the status bar will show the web address of where the link goes. Some times you will want to show a message like “Free widgets buyers guide” rather then the web address. To change the status bar display you need to add some simple code to your website called JavaScript [Define]. This is a very easy thing to-do and will make a link as well.

Copy the below code into your web page where you want the link to appear.

<a url='http://www.yourwebsite.com/pagename.htm' onmouseover='window.status='Place any text you like here';return true' onmouseout='window.status='';return true'>Click here</a>

Simple changes to the code

You need to change the web address www.yourwebsite.com/pagename.htm to the page you are linking to, and replace “Place any text you like here” with the message you want display in the status bar, like “Free widgets buyers guide”.

Generate website traffic

2006-01-26T09:31:00.000Z

Generating website traffic is one of the primary goals of any website owner, particularly targeted traffic who are genuinely interested in your site. It is very hard to generate traffic without investing some money promoting a website, but how much do you invest?

The figure you need to know is cost per visitor. To work this out divide the amount you spend by the visitors, for example if you spend £100 in a month you get 1000 visitors your cost per visitor = 10p.

How much can you afford to spend per visitor? If 1 in 10 visitors buy and you make a profit of £10, then that sale has cost you £1, and you made £9, so you afford it. You can work out how much to spend on generating traffic from knowing your cost per visitor.
Generate website traffic– quickly and easily

Calculate website conversion rate

2006-01-25T09:40:00.000Z

Website conversion rate is the most important figure you need to know about your web site, it is the percentage of visitors that have performed a desired action. A desired action could be anything from buying a product to signing up for an email newsletter.

Website conversion calculation

Desired action / Total visitors = Conversion rate

If you don’t know how many people have visited your website you need website analytics.

Conversion rate comparisons

A website that is selling products normally has a conversion rate of around 1%, and email sign up can be anything from 10% - 30% depending on the subject.

Browser display problem

2006-01-24T09:26:00.000Z

Learning to design web sites can be rewarding and very frustrating at the same time, you have the power to show any information you want to the world, yet sometimes it isn’t shown how you intended.

There are many reasons that your web site doesn’t look the same on all computers, however one of the main reasons is down to the way a browser [Define] interprets your web site. Different browsers display web sites differently, it is just one of those facts of life! Welcome to the world of web design!

It is highly likely that you are viewing this web page in Internet Explorer, as 93.3% of people in the UK use this browser ( browser usage figures). This may be the cause of your problem, as you may have not tested your web site in the other browsers.

The other main browser commonly used is Firefox. Internet Explorer and Firefox display web sites differently so you need to test your site in both. You can download Firefox here.

Not a browser problem?

If your display problem isn’t a browser issue it maybe a screen resolution issue, try website width.

Quick web design for complete beginners

2006-01-23T10:17:00.000Z

Starting out in web design can be a very daunting process; there is talk of lots of different web technologies like html, asp, php, wysiwyg`s to name a few. So what if you just want a quick web page and don`t want to learn all of those complicated things?

The simplest solution is making a web page in Microsoft Word, yes that`s right, in Word. Write a page of information, including any images you want to display, and lay them out in Word how you want your web page to look.

Once you have your page in Word, simply go to "File" in the top left-hand corner and select "Save as Web Page". Save it to any location on your computer. Word will produce a HTML [Define] page and a folder with any images in.

You now have a web page ready for the Internet. To put that web page on the Internet you will need some web hosting space, for more information on this try this link Low cost web host.

How much does a web site cost?

2006-01-22T15:39:00.000Z

When you first start researching to have a web site made for you one of the first questions you ask is "How much is it going to cost?" It’s only natural when you are buying something. This article will answer how much a web site will cost.

If your looking for a quick ballpark figure answer, then they can cost anything from £200 to 100’s of thousands, even millions of pounds. For those of you who want a more accurate realistic answer read on.

web design cost

Web design cost?

2006-01-20T09:00:00.000Z

Web sites are very powerful marketing toosl for many businesses, small and large. However when it comes to knowing how huch to pay for a one, many people are left in the dark. To shed some light on the subject here is a begineers guide to the cost of a web site design.

There are two ways to buy a web site...

1. Off the shelf
These are predesigned web sites with your content put into them. This makes them much cheaper and quicker. However they tend to be fairly limited.

2. Bespoke
These web sites are designed specifically for your needs, and are normally charged per hour. The advantage of these sites are you get exactly what you want, but they cost more.

Learn more about web design cost

Add the current date to your web site

2006-01-19T09:05:00.000Z

If you are new to web design you may have noticed that some web sites always display the current date, and wondered how this is done. It is a very simple thing to do, and you don’t need to update your site everyday. All you need to do is add some JavaScript [Define] to your web site.

Easy way to add the date

To add the date open the program you edit your web pages i.e. Dreamweaver, Frontpage, it doesn’t matter which one it is as long as you can edit the HTML code [Define] manually. Now you need to view the html code of the site. Each pprogram is different; you may need to look in the help menu of the program to find out how to look at the HTML code.

When viewing the HTML code, copy and paste the below code in to the web page. Place it in the area you wish to display the current date.

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="Javascript" class="timetext">

var now = new Date();

var days = new Array('Sunday','Monday','Tuesday','Wednesday',

'Thursday','Friday','Saturday');

var months = new Array('January','February','March','April',

'May','June','July','August','September',

'October','November','December');

var date = ((now.getDate()<10) ? "0" : "")+ now.getDate();

function y2k(number){return (number < 1000) ? number + 1900 : number;}

today = days[now.getDay()] + " " +

date + " " +

months[now.getMonth()] + ", " +

(y2k(now.getYear())) ;

document.write("" +today+ ".");

</SCRIPT>

This bit of code will display the correct date no matter where your web site is being viewed in the world.

More web design tips

How many people have been to your web site?

2006-01-18T08:53:00.000Z

To answer this question you need web analytics. Analytics will give you lots of vital information about your web site visitors, for example how many visitors your site has had, which search engines they found it in and with what searches etc. You can get this information for free on any website.

Learn about web analytics

Add to Favourites or Bookmark

2006-01-17T09:02:00.000Z

To make it easier for your web site visitors to revisit your site include an “Add to favourites” option. This is also known as Book marking a page. By adding this feature to your site you will increase the amount of repeat visitors to your site.

To do this you need to add some JavaScript [Define] to your web site, which is really easy to do. Copy the code below into the section of your web site where you want the “Add to favourites” functionality to where you would like it to appear.

<script language="JavaScript1.2">

</script>

Easy changes the code

Change http://www.websiteaddress.co.uk to your web site address, otherwise people will bookmark www.websiteadress.co.uk. Remember to include http:// at the beginning of the address and put “ “ around the complete address.

Change “Change to short web site description” to a description of your web site, and remember to put “” around the description.

If you use a web design program like Dreamweaver or FrontPage you will need to switch it into code mode, which will be explained in the programs help menu. Once in the code mode insert this code into the section of the web site where you want it to appear, for example the navigation bar.

More web design tips

To Flash or not to Flash

2006-01-16T09:28:00.000Z

Flash [Define] has changed the web for the better, before Flash interactive animations were things web designers used to dream of. However just because Flash is very powerful tool doesn’t mean you should us it for everything. Because of the limitless possibilities with Flash it becomes very easy to over-do-it by having lots of things flying around with fancy animated buttons, which confuses the user and ultimately forces them away from your site.

When to use Flash

Flash is best at making a visual impact, for example promoting an offer on your web site. For example you can make a small section of your web site Flash to draw attention to it, like an offer.

Flash is also more than capable of making decent games that can be very addictive, these will get people coming back to your site time and time again.

When not to use Flash

Don’t use Flash for your web site navigation, unless it is fairly simple. All those great effects that looked amazing on a design agencies web site probably won’t fit into a site that sells paint brushes.

If you aim to get the majority of visitors from search engines, don’t make your site completely out of Flash, because search engines find it difficult to read and include your Flash site in their results. That said you could make parts of your site Flash, like adverts or promotions, just don’t make the whole site Flash.

More web design tips

Free online promotion

2006-01-15T12:18:00.000Z

If your looking to promote your web site online for free we have got a great tip for you. Google will actually promote your products for free, allowing lots of people to find your web site. Because Google is a trusted source the visitors are more likely to buy from you.

The service is called Froogle, and it allows you to add your products to their searchable database. So for example if you sell paint brushes, anybody searching Froogle for "paint brushes" will see your products on the Froogle web site.

Try Froogle

Get your products into Froogle

To have your products included into Froogle all you have to do is supply them with information about your products. You then send them a new copy of that information every month, or for better results, every week. This information is called a "Feed", which are simple to make. Froogle explains how to make your own feed and how to submit it to them, just follow the below link.

Submit your products to Froogle

More ways to promote your web site

What is SEO?

2006-01-14T17:10:00.000Z

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, which is term used for preparing a web page to enhance its position is search engine results. For example if search engine optimisation (SEO) is applied to a web page for the search term "pet supplies", when a search is done on say www.google.com that web page will appear near the top of the results, if not in the number 1 position.

Learn more about SEO

Learn Search Engine Optimisation

2006-01-13T09:10:00.000Z

The art of making your web site appear at the top of search engines is called “Search engine optimisation”, if used effectively it can seriously increase the amount of traffic to your web site. There are several ways to learn search engine optimisation from online courses to work shops.

Search engine optimisation training

You may also be interested in…

Get to no1 in search engines

Choosing a web design company

2006-01-12T09:11:00.000Z

Some web design projects are just too big or complicated to be dealt with by one person. If so you have to call the professionals in. However with so many companies calling them selves professional, how do you know which one to choose?

How to choose a web design company

Flash navigation

2006-01-11T09:04:00.000Z

Flash [Define] has revolutionized the web. Before Flash web sites were static and boring. To display any type of animation or interaction visitors needed to install software, which most were reluctant to do.

Flash is very eye catching and can really improve the overall look of your site. However it is often over used or used for the wrong reasons. One particular mistake is using Flash as the main navigation buttons of a web site, because it is often over complicated and makes it harder for the user to find what they are looking for.

By using Flash for navigation buttons you will also make it harder for search engines to find all of the pages in your web site this will make it harder for them to include your pages in their search results, meaning you will get less visitors to your site.

Use Flash navigation if…

You want to make a visual impact, for example online portfolio’s or sales pitches

Don’t use Flash for navigation if…

You have a very large site with lots of information in
You want to rank well in search engines

More good web design tips

Domain name ideas

2006-01-10T09:24:00.000Z

Choosing a domain name, or website address, on the surface appears to be an easy thing, choose your company name or something random, easy. However until you have to actually register one you don’t realise how hard it is coming up with a decent domain name that is available.

Learn how to find unique domain names

Stop spam to your email

2006-01-09T21:00:00.000Z

Spammers get email address by using special programs to find them on web sites. They then send spam to them that try and sell you things. This can be very irritating as you often open your email only to find hundreds of Spam emails you don’t want.

To stop spammers finding your email address on your web site replace your email address with an image that has your email address written in it. Then make that image a link to your email address, like below.

The actual email address is an image, you can tell because you can't highlight the text. But if you click on it works like a normal email text link.

Spammers programs can’t read images so they won’t be able to find your email address and spam you.

How to create an email link

More web design tips

Improve your website – for free

2006-01-09T08:58:00.000Z

One-way to dramatically improve the way your website looks is to use good fonts. Rather than using all the standard fonts like Time New Roman and Arial use more interesting fonts for headers and sections you want to draw attention to.

Get Free fonts from here. Simply choose the style you want then download them. They include instructions for how to install each font, its easy.

A word of warning only use these fonts in graphics rather then as html, because if somebody trying to view your site doesn’t have the font installed on their computer they will see the default Times New Roman.

More web design tips

Resize lots of images quickly

2006-01-08T19:27:00.000Z

Anybody who runs a web site with lots of images will know how time consuming it is resizing lots of images. For example say you have 100 pictures that are 3000pixels by 2000pixels each and you need them to be 500 by 333, and then you need a them all as 100pixel wide images for thumb nails for visitors to actually click on. That's resizing 200 images, which would take forever!

Any decent image editing software like Macromedia Fireworks, Adobe Photoshop or Corel Photo Paint can automate the process for you. You tell it how big you want the image and which ones you want resizing and it does the hard work.

How?

The process of resizing lots of images is called Batch processing. Each image editing software does it differently. Here is how to get started in the most commonly used image edit software programs. If you need more details try searching for "Batch" in the programs help section.

Fireworks
Go to "File" then select "Batch Process". Select the files you want to resize then follow the rest of the instructions.

Photoshop
Go to "File" then select "Automate" then "Batch..."

Corel Photo Paint
Go to "File" then select "Batch process.."

More web design tips

Insert Subject field in Email link

2006-01-07T16:33:00.000Z

Almost all websites have a link to an email address, that once clicked opens up the visitors email (Outlook, Outlook express etc). However the subject field is left blank. To insert a subject field use the below html code [Define] on your website.

<A HREF="mailto:you@website.com?subject=my website">Email</A>

Replace "you@website.com" with your email address and replace "my website" with what you want the subject to be. Remembering to keep the "?" inbetween the two.

More web design tips

Is your website above the fold?

2006-01-06T08:53:00.000Z

What does above the fold mean? Web sites don’t fold; you can’t fold them up and put them in your pocket, so why do you keep hearing the term “Above the fold”?

Above the fold means the section of the web site that can see with out scrolling down. This is important because it is a well know fact many web site surfers don’t always scroll down to the bottom of the page, therefore if your most important content isn’t “Above the fold” it may not be getting seen.

Therefore always place your most important content at the top of your page, or “Above the fold”.

More web design tips

What did people search for in 2005?

2006-01-05T08:51:00.000Z

A lot of useful information can be gained from understanding what people search for, what type of products are in demand, what type of news are people actively seeking etc.

Google have produced a list of the most searched for things in 2005, it is well worth a look. For example the most searched for news item was “Janet Jackson”, which beat “Hurican Katrina” surprisingly!

www.google.com/press/zeitgeist2005.html

You can use this information to design websites of popular interest, for example identify a particular subject that is searched for and produce a site based on this theme. That way you know there is an audience for the website. Because what is the point of building a site if nobody sees it?

More web design tips

Website width

2006-01-04T08:54:00.000Z

When learning to design web sites one of the most difficult theories to get to grips with is that your website doesn’t look the same on every computer. It is especially frustrating if you come from a print design background, where you will be used to having complete control over the look of your designs.

The consequences of this happening are that sections of your website can be cut of from the viewers screen. There is a simple way to avoid this.

Learn about website width

.htm or .html

2006-01-03T08:56:00.000Z

Whether you are aware of it or not, you can save your web pages as pagename.htm or pagename.html, they will both work in any browser [Define].

So is there a difference?

None that really matters, however we would recommend using one and sticking with it (we use .htm). Otherwise you run the risk of linking to a web page that doesn’t exist. For example if you name your page “page.htm” and make a link from another web page to “page.html”, the user clicking on the link will get a “Page not found message”, because that page doesn’t exist. The browser is looking for “page.htm”.

More web design tips

Browsers usage UK

2006-01-02T08:48:00.000Z

Internet Explorer 93.37%
Firefox 4.94%
Safari 0.99%
Opera 0.39%
Netscape 0.23%
Others 0.08%

source OneStat.com

So Internet Explorer is still dominatant but the Firefox browser has made a dent on its popularity.

More web design tips

How to make an email link

2005-12-30T10:09:00.000Z

Here is how to put a link on your web site so when visitors click on it their email (Outlook, Outlook express etc) is opened up with your address already inserted.

Insert this html code into the section of your web page where you want the link to appear.

<a href="mailto:youremailaddress@yourwebsite.com">Email</a>

Replace "youremailaddress" with your actual email address, and "yourwebsite.com" with your website address.

The finished product will look like this.

Email

More web design tips

Flash - What is it?

2005-12-29T16:51:00.000Z

Keep coming across the term Flash? Sounds like a way of describing something doesn't it? "That car is Flash", "Flash watch". When it comes to web sites it means something completely different though.

Flash is a type of web technology that is capable of producing interactive animations for web sites. All those cool looking sites with lots of things flying across the screen that follow your mouse around etc is done in flash.

Some websites are completely made out of Flash others have elements of flash in, like navigation buttons.

More web design terms explained

What is a dynamic website?

2005-12-28T13:04:00.000Z

There are two types of website referred to as “dynamic”...

1. Dynamic content websites
Are the most common and work by generating content based on what is typed into a text box. An example of this is search engine, a visitor types in what they are looking for and a web page is dynamically created, which displays the search results.

2.Animated websites
Also referred to as DHTML websites (DHTML means Dynamic HTML), where part of the web page is animated. A normal web page is made with HTML and DHTML uses clever code called JavaScript to make sections of it move.

DHTML is not the same as a FLASH website, as FLASH doesn’t contain any HTML. For animated websites all professionals use FLASH, as DHTML has become redundant in recent years.

More web design tips

Domain names - choose the right one

2005-12-27T13:55:00.000Z

Choosing a domain is a difficult task; as soon as you find a name you like, you just as quickly find it has already been registered, as 93% of the words in the Oxford English dictionary have been registered.

More often then not people then try finding variations of what they originally wanted, different spellings etc, and produce a huge list of possible domain names. To reduce these lists follow these basic rules.

Eliminate domain names with…

Numbers in i.e. everything4you.com
This will make it harder to remember, as there will be confusion between four and 4.

Text spelling i.e. cars4u.com

Mobile phone text language has become popular so more information can fit into a 160-character message. This limitation doesn’t apply to the web, so there is no need to use it, it will only confuse visitors trying to remember your website address.

Choose a domain name that…

Has the .com and. co.uk (for the UK) available

As there is often confusion remember between a .com and other extensions like. co.uk or .ie (Ireland)

That you don’t have to spell out

If you have to spell a domain name to somebody it is a sign it is a bad one, as it is less obvious and memorable.

A good domain name
Is a memorable one. Follow the advice above and you will be well on your way to picking the right one. However don’t get hung up on choosing one, it is very rare that a domain name will make you a successful website, its what you do with the website that counts.

More useful web design tips

Online advertising, How much?

2005-12-26T21:11:00.000Z

Have you ever wondered how much companies pay to advertise in search engines?

There is a simple way to find out. Overture allows companies to display adverts in Yahoo.co.uk and MSN.co.uk, the 2nd and 3rd largest search engines. They offer a tool so advertisers can see how much a company is paying each time an advert is clicked. The tool is called the Overture Bid Tool. Enter a search term related to your website and see what advertisers are paying.

Overture Bid Tool

Use this tool to help plan your budget for online advertising.

More useful web tools for ebusiness

What do people search for?

2005-12-21T09:06:00.000Z

Below is a list of the 10 most popular search terms used on the Internet this week.

1 mp3

2 jennifer aniston

3 christmas presents

4 ebay

5 jo guest

6 cars

7 holidays

8 maplins

9 jobs

10 abi titmuss

source 50.lycos.co.uk

More useful web site information

Beginners guide to web design

2005-12-20T09:21:00.000Z

Are you new to web design? Don't know your Analytics from your Zeitgeist? Then you need to read the Web design A-Z.

You could be setting up your first web site or having one built for your company, whatever your need learn the tools and tricks the professionals use, and improve your web site today.

Beginners Web design A-Z

You have questions, Yahoo have answers!

2005-12-19T09:37:00.000Z

Yahoo have just released a new website called Answers. You can type in a question and get answers from real people on any topic. Although it is just a test version at the moment this promises to be a very valuable service for all web users.

So the next time you get stuck designing a website, or want to impress somebody try http://answers.yahoo.com/

More useful website design tips

How do I advertise in Google?

2005-12-18T12:35:00.000Z

To advertise in Google you need to sign up to their Adword program, it is quick and simple todo. Once you have signed up and written your advert (which they help you with), you set a daily budget of how much you wish to spend, say £5 a day. Your adverts will be displayed along side Googles search results instantly, it really is that simple.

Sign up to advertise on Google

Learn more about advertising on the Internet

Getting into Google

2005-12-17T18:21:00.000Z

Websites that are in Googles results are ones that it has found. Unless you tell Google your website is there, or another website links to yours, Google will never find it.

Tell Google about your website

All you have to do is tell Google where to find your your site. You can do this by going to http://www.google.com/addurl/ and submit your site, easy.

A word of warning it may take several months to appear in their results, so be patient, and remeber it is free.

More useful website design tips

Cheaper website design

2005-12-16T13:12:00.000Z

The cost of website design has dramatically reduced from the booming dotcom days. However the price of having a website designed for you still isn't cheap, especially for small business or individuals setting up.

Reduce the cost of your website

Instead of paying a web design company to design you a professional looking website use a web design template. You can pick one up for as little as £20, rather then paying anything upto £1000 for a bespokes one. They will even customise them for a small fee.

Web design templates

More useful tips on website design

Which search engines do people use?

2005-12-15T11:42:00.000Z

There are so many search engine on the Internet, but which ones are actually used? Does everybody really use Google?

Google 36.5%
Yahoo 30.5%
MSN 15.5%
AOL 9.9%
ASK 6.1%
InfoSpace 0.9%
Others 0.6%

What does this mean to you?

You can use this information to plan which search engines to advertise your web site in.

Find out how professional get to the top of search engines.