Hello! My name is Mike McLeland and I’m the owner and principle web designer at Plano Web Design – part of North Texas Web Design. Plano Web Design is a locally based professional web design firm that caters to small and medium businesses in Plano, Texas.
In this article, Plano Web Design discusses four items every website owner needs to be aware of:
- Responsibility of website owners for keeping your website current – including fresh content on a regular basis.
- Understanding Web Analytics.
- The value of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
- Retaining a web designer who stays current with the ever changing search engine algorithms.
Responsibility of Website Owners
Never before has it been more important for website owners to keep their website current. The largest search engines, such as Google, change their search criteria on a regular basis. Websites that don’t stay current with these changes will simply “get left in the dust” – then get upset that their website no longer performs as it did in the past.
Web Analytics
- Web Analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of Internet data for the purpose of understanding and optimizing web usage.
- Web Analytics is not just a tool for measuring web traffic, but it can be used as a tool for business and market research as well as to assess and improve the effectiveness of a web site.
- Web Analytics applications, such as Google Analytics, help web owners and their web designer measure the results of different marketing, advertising and SEO campaigns.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the website visibility organically (not using any sort of Pay For Click marketing campaign).
In general, the higher the website is ranked on the search results page, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine’s users.
SEO target different kinds of search terms, depending on the industry and the geographic region the website is attempting to target.
Plano Web Design understands that building a website can be a daunting task. Listed below are few of the more important aspects we take into consideration when building a website.
- Create an eye-catching and attractive layout, one that has an appropriate blend between text and graphics
- Create easy to follow and intuitive web page navigation
- Use h1 tags to highlight the main keyword phrase or phrases on each page
- Allow space for a minimum of 250 words of relevant text – text that is tied directly to the main keyword phrase
- Use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to minimize excessive on-page coding
- Use browser friendly fonts
- Appropriate use of bold text – too much can be as bad as too little
- More use of bullets for text as opposed long pages of paragraphs full of text that typically never get read.
- Include sitemap.xml and robots.txt – very important for search engine web crawlers
- Appropriate use of inter-page hyperlinks as well as off-page hyperlinks
- All web pages are tested against all the more popular web browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Fire Fox, Chrome, Safari – plus smart tablets such as an iPhone
- Depending on the market, a mobile friendly web site may also be appropriate.
If your website is not producing the results you want, please contact Plano Web Design. We promise to be fair, present you with straightforward answers to your questions, and promise to work closely with you to elevate your website on the Internet.