We talk a lot about web design and everything related to web design but there is something that hasn’t been hit yet. All websites on the internet are hosted somewhere by some hosting company. This is how a website is “stored” you could say. Without hosting, your website wouldn’t be on the internet. Hosting companies use a web server to provide this “space” for your website(s). Everyone needs hosting, whether or not you choose a good or bad hosting company is up to you. I’m going to give you some information about hosting that hopefully will help you decide for yourself which company best suits your needs.

          There are many different types of hosting companies out there. Some of them require a monthly or annual payment; some of them are free. The thing you should know about the hosting companies that are free in comparison to the ones that are not is that usually with a paid hosting company you’ll get more features. What features this may be can be discussed with the hosting company you plan on choosing. The second thing that sometimes happens with free hosting is that in exchange for this “freeness” they will connect pop-up ads to your website.

          You should know before shopping around for hosting, about how much disk space you are going to need. This is because it directly affects your price. Also one tip is to up the number just a little to allow room for growth of your website. The second thing that affects price for hosting is bandwidth. Bandwidth is basically the amount of traffic transmitted from a site. You can roughly estimate this by multiplying your page size by your number of views per month. If you are transferring more than fifty gigabytes a month then you might want to consider getting a dedicated server. A dedicated server is one that is used solely for one company/organization.

          If customer service and support is important to you then you’ll want to check on how well the service is for the hosting company you are thinking about choosing. Some hosting companies have very poor customer service based on which one you choose. On last little tip I have before you choose a hosting company is to get recommendations from others. Like I said before, every website is hosted somewhere so there is going to be a lot of feedback about many different hosting companies. Lastly, if you decide on a hosting company and it turns out that you really do not enjoy working with them, you can always switch. Many people switch hosting companies every day. Don’t be afraid to do what it best for you and your website. For more information on web hosting check us out at DreamCo Design - Web Hosting. For more information on other types of web design take a look at DreamCo Design - Web Design.

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          My first two posts on this subject covered mistake numbers one through seven. This will be the last of the trio, closing it off at number ten. They are not in any specific order and therefor can be read in whatever way you would like. Trying to narrow it down to ten was and wasn’t difficult. There are many mistakes that someone can make while designing a website. In fact, there are probably hundreds of things to do wrong. This is why it is important to make sure you are knowledgeable in web design before you attempt to build a website. The reason it was easy to pick out ten main mistakes is because these are the mistakes that people make most commonly and the ones that are seen to the viewers most often.

          Eighth on the list is mismatched pages. I’ve also heard them called “alien” pages. These are pages that are on your website that don’t match the rest of the site. They have a totally different feel and makes the user think that they have traveled to a different website, or an alien planet. Try to decide on one design for your pages, one pattern, one layout, and keep it the same. Keeping your pages uniform looking is important because it makes the visitors feel comfortable and secure. Another subject that can go along with this is orphaned pages. These are pages that don’t have a way to get to them. No navigation, no link, nothing. They will never be found by anyone and they unintentionally become useless. Make sure all your pages are linked to and are able to be accessed.

           Nine is something that people overlook a lot when doing web design. When adding content into your website you should never have a font that is too small. This really strains readers’ eyes and they won’t attempt to read it at all. Make sure that your font is at least either a 12 or 14 point font. This will make your text easy to read and not harmful to readers’ eyes.

          The last mistake that someone can make when doing web design is music. So many website load up with music playing and usually it is the most annoying sounds ever. Although you may like it, the visitor usually does not. Either make sure you have a button to turn off the music or, better yet, don’t have music at all. There is also one other option and that is to have music but to allow the visitor to turn it on when they want.

          This concludes the top ten mistakes made by most amateur web designers. When you read all these mistakes you’ll start to judge websites a little harsher based on their quality and you’ll definitely be able to see all the mistakes I just pointed out. For more information on other types of web design take a look at DreamCo Design - Web Design.

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          In part one of this post, I talked about the first four mistakes of web design. Although there are way more mistakes than ten, I feel it important to just nail down the most common and most annoying ones. Trying to make this list took a lot of pondering on what I’ve seen, in my short time here that even jumps out to me as being incorrect. I also did some online research to find out what kind of things other people feel are large mistakes in web design. This is part two and it is numbers five through seven. 

          As we become more and more comfortable with the internet we also become more comfortable with the advertising on the internet. This is all those banners and all that flashing text that we now ignore. I actually read an article about it, and it’s called banner blindness. People actually ignore or don’t read or look at anything that appears like it could possibly be an advertisement. Internet users also close most pop-ups before they even load up, just out of habit! Keeping this in mind, tip number five is to make sure your text on the website never looks like an advertisement. This means no flashing text and nothing that is shaped like a banner. Visitors will not be looking at these areas. For more information on banner blindness look to my next post and I’ll go more into depth about it.

          The sixth tip I can give you is to tell you that spell check is a wonderful thing and everyone should use it. If you are designing a website and it looks fantastic, it won’t matter if you spell everything wrong and your grammar is atrocious. You don’t look professional and you definitely don’t seem educated. Even though it may be a typo or a common mistake people are unforgiving and judgmental when they surf the internet. Make sure to use that spell check whenever possible, correcting follies that may make your website look like you need to go back to middle school. If spell check is not available proof read your page manually to make sure you catch those little mistakes.

          The last tip for this post, number seven, is that you should always take care of your title, meta, and keyword tags. When you don’t do this your page comes up as “Untitled Page”. This is the default title for all your pages before you decide to change it. Doesn’t seem like a big deal but that it what Google shows in blue when you look something up. It is the title of your page. If you used the term “untitled page” as your search for Google, you will see all these pages that never received these tags. They are very important! They help you get noticed by the search engines and in turn your site will be found better and receive more clicks. For more information on other types of web design take a look at DreamCo Design - Web Design.

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          As often as it occurs you would think that people would learn from others’ mistakes and try not to make them while designing a website. It seems though, that there is reoccurring pattern that just tends to happen with first time website designers. This is the beginning of the top ten mistakes that anyone could make when building/designing their websites.
          The first mistake that is often made is adding graphics or pictures to your website that are GINORMOUS in size. It’s a simple mistake that most first timers don’t realize they are making. Web pages take time to load all that content, how much time is up to you. The bigger the pictures the longer it will take for you full website to appear; it usually ends up looking like a half completed webpage. A common solution to this is to resize your pictures and maybe take some of them away. You’ll see a big difference in the loading time of your webpage. So unless you want yourself and everyone trying to load your website to be sitting for five minutes, make sure you keep them smaller.
          The second mistake that most first timers want to do is to pick an ornate or flashy background for their website design. This is a big mistake

because having such a busy background really takes a toll on the viewers’ eyes. Confusing them and possibly blinding them (if not by the background alone then by them gouging their eyes in an attempt to end the madness of the page). Try to tone down your background by using a solid color. Making sure, of course, that the text is still able to be seen. Another thing to avoid that goes somewhat in this same category is walls of text. The internet is not like a big book, and you should never write on it like you were writing a book. Everything should be broken up with bullets, bold font, or just having a bunch of breaks. If someone sees your wall of text, they end up thinking that there is no way they will ever be able to scan through the mess. Leaving them helpless and forcing them to not read any of it.
          Thirdly, a navigational mistake that is seen often is that there is a lack of it. You have to think about how people are going to be accessing your website. Most of the time it will be through a search engine, this means that visitors may not be going through your home page to see whatever information it is that they need. You should have a home page button on every page, if nothing else, but a whole set a navigational buttons on every page of your website is ideal. Making it easy for everyone to travel that groovy place we call the internet.

          My fourth tip is about your links. They have to work! Call me foolish but isn’t that what they are there for? After you make a hyperlink, whether it is in your text or on a links page, you should always test it. Making sure links work is going to help you immensely when a visitor is on the page; a broken link means bye-bye to most people because they can’t get to the information they want to see. People are usually very direct in what they are looking for when they use the internet. Not being able to find it with you just means they will find it somewhere else. Always test those links. For more information on other types of web design take a look at DreamCo Design - Web Design.

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      Keywords, keywords, keywords. If you want to be found on the Internet keywords should be your best friend, your closest compadre, your aimgo.There are a few different things you can do with these bad boys to make you website easily found by search engines. But first before we get to where to put them and all that, you have to pick your keywords first! What is your website about? What services or information do you offer? An easy way to think about it is, what words do you use on the phone the most when talking about your business or website? These are your keywords. When someone thinks about you, these are the words that they describe you by.

       So now you have your keywords. Which keep in mind, you should probably have a few, maybe around three or four. Now placement is the next step. Placing your keywords around your site is an art. Not only because there are so many rules from the search engine companies about it, but because you don’t want to sound too commercial either. Trying to be personable is the best way to win customers. To optimize your search engine position the best place to have your keywords is at the top of your web-page. This means your title tags, meta-tags, headings, graphic images and anywhere else suitable in the coding of the site. If you don’t know how to go about doing this chance are that you have a web designer doing your sight for you. If this is the case, make sure to express to you designer how important it is that he put your keywords in the areas I mentioned.

       The content of your website also helps in the standing of your website. When writing the content for your website you should think about strategically placing your keywords throughout your text where applicable. You should not, however, put your keywords in too frequently. If this happens it is known as “spamming the index” and you could be penalized by the major search engines for it. This means possible black-listing of your website. So don’t even think about it.

       This is the basics of keywording your site. It’s a great strategy for website marketing that is sure to help you be found by search engines. If you want to know more about website marketing go to DreamCo Design - Marketing. Want to learn about web design? Visit us at DreamCo Design - Web Design.

Categories: Web Design Tips, Web Design-Catagories, Website Marketing
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