5 Crucial things your website might be missing

1) Clear Navigation

First things first, put yourself in the shoes of who will be coming to your site. What are they trying to get done? What will their intended goals be when browsing through your content?

2) Being Mobile Friendly

We’ve written a few in depth posts previously about the importance of a mobile responsive website in today’s online culture. The last you want your readers to do is have to “slide over to the right” to read your content.

3) Contact Information

This element may seem like common sense, and it should be, but you’d be surprised at how uncommon it actually is. How many times have you visited a website and left frustrated because you were unable to easily find the business’ contact info? Your phone number (at least), should be in the header (top) section of your site.

4) Social Media

It goes without saying that you need to be where your potential customers are – and social media is exactly where they are.

5) A Clean, Modern Design

Good design is good business.

Keep things simple and easy to read so the visitor comes away with a great understanding of what you’re all about. Don’t try to say everything about yourself on one page by bombarding the user with too much right from the get go.

Is Color Important?

IS COLOR IMPORTANT?

COLOR SCHEMES

Many people are terrified when it comes to choosing colors for their website. The vast selection of colors can be overwhelming – but it doesn’t need to be. You make color selections every day – from what you wear to the color of rooms in your home.
People have an emotional response to color so you want to pick ones that will complement your website’s content. For example you should use bright, saturated colors for a children’s page.

RED – Energy / Passion / Danger
Blue – Calmness / Tranquility / Stability
GREEN – Growth / Nature / Freshness
YELLOW – Happiness / Playfulness / Sunshine
BROWN – Stability / Earthy
BLACK – Solomness / Mystery / Power

BASIC COLOR SCHEMES

MONOCHROMATIC COLOR SCHEME
The monochromatic color scheme uses a primary color to create an overall mood. Tints and shades of the primary color are used to enhance the scheme. This scheme is easy to balance and is soothing to look at. It can be used with neutral colors like black, white or grey.

ANALOGOUS COLOR SCHEME
The analogous color scheme uses adjacent colors on the color wheel. The primary color is dominant while the others are used as highlights. The analogous color scheme is similar to the monochromatic scheme but offers a more vibrant look.

COMPLEMENTARY COLOR SCHEME
The complementary color scheme uses colors that are directly opposite each other on the color wheel. This color scheme creates a high-contrast effect. It is best to use one color as the dominant color and the second color as an accent in your design. This technique will allow you to highlight important information and make it jump out at your readers.

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Web Design Basics

WHAT’S A WEBSITE

Before you start building your website it is a good idea to make sure you have a grasp of the basic website terms and main components. I will try to explain, in as simple a way as possible, some of the most common terms that you will encounter.

WHAT IS A WEBSITE ?

This is probably the most fundamental and basic question, and it is surprising how many existing website owners don’t really understand exactly what a web site actually is. A Web site is a collection of linked web pages placed in a folder and located on a web server. The website has a unique identity otherwise known as its domain name.

WHERE ARE MY WEB PAGES STORED?

In order to be accessible to visitors, the web pages must be stored on the Internet. To do this you will need to
have a:

  • Web Hosting account
  • Upload your pages using ftp or similar process
  • Build your pages directly on the web host.e.g when using a content management system (CMS)

HOW DO I EDIT WEB PAGES?

There are two ways of editing web pages depending on how the pages are built.

If you are building a site using HTML/PHP templates then you will need a web page editor like Dreamweaver or FrontPage. If you are using a CMS (content Management System) like WordPress or Joomla then you edit the pages directly on the web host using the built in editor and so there is no need to upload them.

WHAT IS A WEB SERVER?

A web server is a physical machine, and looks very much like the machine you are currently using, however the machine is permanently connected to the Internet and runs special programs that are designed for delivering web pages to the Internet.

An analogy may be useful in order to distinguish between a website from a web server. If we compare them to normal shops.

Shops are located in physical buildings and each shop can either have its own physical building or share a single physical building with other shops (shopping mall). In our analogy a server is equivalent to the physical building. A physical server can host multiple Websites or just a single Website. For large companies that have many visitors to their Website then the Website is located on one or more physical servers.

For smaller companies that have fewer visitors, then their Website can be located on a server which also hosts Websites for other companies i.e. the server is shared hence the term shared hosting, which is the most common form of website hosting and undoubtedly the one you will be using.

WHAT IS A DOMAIN NAME

Your domain name is effectively your address. If you compare it to where you live your house is equivalent to your web site and your house address is equivalent to your domain name. However unlike in the physical world this isn’t a permanent relationship between the two, as it’s possible to link your domain name to a new web site.

WHAT IS A WEB PAGE?

Web Pages are the building blocks of a website. They are usually created using special editing tools, but can also be created using simple text editing tools like Notepad. Web pages are formatted and structured using a special Language called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). HTML (XHTML) formatted pages are meant to be read by a special program called a Web Browser e.g. Internet Explorer or Firefox.

An HTML page is a text page containing special tags which tell the Web browser how to format and display the text. You can create HTML pages with any text editor like notepad but doing so requires a detailed knowledge of HTML itself.

What’s a Website

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Before you start building your website it is a good idea to make sure you have a grasp of the basic website terms and main components. I will try to explain, in as simple a way as possible, some of the most common terms that you will encounter.

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What is a Website ?

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This is probably the most fundamental and basic question, and it is surprising how many existing website owners don’t really understand exactly what a web site actually is. A Web site is a collection of linked web pages placed in a folder and located on a web server. The website has a unique identity otherwise known as its domain name.

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Where Are My Web Pages Stored?

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In order to be accessible to visitors, the web pages must be stored on the Internet. To do this you will need to
have a:

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How do I Edit Web Pages?

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There are two ways of editing web pages depending on how the pages are built.

If you are building a site using HTML/PHP templates then you will need a web page editor like Dreamweaver or FrontPage. If you are using a CMS (content Management System) like WordPress or Joomla then you edit the pages directly on the web host using the built in editor and so there is no need to upload them.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” type=”grid” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” padding_top=”30″][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]

What is a Web Server?

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A web server is a physical machine, and looks very much like the machine you are currently using, however the machine is permanently connected to the Internet and runs special programs that are designed for delivering web pages to the Internet.

An analogy may be useful in order to distinguish between a website from a web server. If we compare them to normal shops.

Shops are located in physical buildings and each shop can either have its own physical building or share a single physical building with other shops (shopping mall). In our analogy a server is equivalent to the physical building. A physical server can host multiple Websites or just a single Website. For large companies that have many visitors to their Website then the Website is located on one or more physical servers.

For smaller companies that have fewer visitors, then their Website can be located on a server which also hosts Websites for other companies i.e. the server is shared hence the term shared hosting, which is the most common form of website hosting and undoubtedly the one you will be using.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” type=”grid” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” padding_top=”30″][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]

What is a Domain Name

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Your domain name is effectively your address. If you compare it to where you live your house is equivalent to your web site and your house address is equivalent to your domain name. However unlike in the physical world this isn’t a permanent relationship between the two, as it’s possible to link your domain name to a new web site.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” type=”grid” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” padding_top=”30″][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]

What is a Web page?

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Web Pages are the building blocks of a website. They are usually created using special editing tools, but can also be created using simple text editing tools like Notepad. Web pages are formatted and structured using a special Language called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). HTML (XHTML) formatted pages are meant to be read by a special program called a Web Browser e.g. Internet Explorer or Firefox.

An HTML page is a text page containing special tags which tell the Web browser how to format and display the text. You can create HTML pages with any text editor like notepad but doing so requires a detailed knowledge of HTML itself.

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Keyword Planner

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Where do we get all of this knowledge about keyword demand and keyword referrals?

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Click Here To Learn About The Keyword Planner

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