Abstract

What is more important to the success of a website? Web Design or SEO? My answer is both and neither. This article is a guide to developing a relevant, authoritative website, utilizing both web design and SEO in tandem.

How Do Web Design & Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Complement Each Other?

Web design and SEO are like mashed potatoes and gravy. Ice cream and hot fudge. Peanut butter and jelly! In my opinion, you just can’t have one without the other! They are the two most important deciding factors in the success of a website. Without web design, there is no website to optimize. Without SEO, there is virtually no website to find. The two don’t just go hand-in-hand, they are joined at the hip! Keep reading for a complete reference guide on how to utilize highly effective Web Design and Organic SEO (see Appendix A) techniques to build exceptionally aesthetic, accessible and functional, high performance websites!

Identify Your Purpose

There are two major questions that must be answered before the design process ever begins. The first one is: What is the purpose of this website? Is it for a small business, non-profit organization, informational/educational purposes, etc? Answering this question will go a long way toward answering the second major question:

Who is this website’s “target audience”?

The target audience of a website is pretty simple. It consists of the users who will be searching for and viewing your website. For example, an e-commerce or e-business website should include copy (content) geared toward their customers, using terminology they understand in favor of “industry lingo”, as this can become confusing. Similarly, keywords the website’s visitors would use to search for the site should be used instead of industry jargon to aid in the indexing, and subsequent finding, of the website. For instance, “SEO” or “search engine optimization” is less likely to be searched for than “search engine friendly” by the average user. It is important to remember that not everyone is an expert in your field, which is good because if they were, you’d be out of a job, so keep it simple!

Organization

Try using a system similar to the writing process – prewriting, writing, revising, editing, and publishing – for the website itself, as well as each individual page. This will enable you to organize all of your ideas, evaluate them, edit them, build on them, and develop a central theme. It also enables you to create unique and compelling content, which is both user-friendly and search-engine-friendly.

The effective utilization of white space improves the readability of web pages. Focus on creating small blocks of compelling and informative text. You can break up each block of text with headings, subheadings, and images. This gives the eye a break and allows the user some time to process the information they have just read before moving on to the next section.

Other effective ways to use this process in SEO include, but are not limited to, brainstorming keywords and constructing strong META tags. Utilizing main keywords and text that appears directly in your page content in these tags increases page authority and relevancy.

Additionally, optimize the alt tags (See Appendix B), anchor tags (See also Appendix B), and anchor text or “link title” (See also Appendix B) for each individual page by using the website’s most relevant keywords. Authority and relevancy are the key!

Finally, use each page’s heading tags (not HTML head tags) to increase page relevancy. The first heading tag, “<h1></h1>”, defines the most important heading, and the last heading tag, “ <h6><h/6>”, defines the least important heading. This helps the user find the information they are seeking more quickly, which improves your website’s usability.

To implement this tag into your SEO, use your most relevant keywords in each of the heading tags in ascending order. For example, put the main subject of each page (using your main keywords) in the “<h1></h1>” tags, or match it as closely as possible with the contents of your title META tag. Your “<h2><h/2>” tags should include your secondary keywords and so on.

Domain Names

Simply put, a domain name is the first portion of your website’s web address (URL). The second part is the web extension. Examples of web extensions include .com, .org, .net, .info, etc.

Choosing your domain name wisely is pivotal. The first rule of thumb is to get a domain name with the .com web extension! The reasons for this are varied, but the main reason is that users generally try this web extension first when attempting to locate a company or product. For example, to visit McDonald’s website, you would type “mcdonalds.com” into your web browser, almost without thinking about it, right?

Another integral component to choosing the right domain name is to try for an “exact match”. This simply means your domain name and website name match each other exactly. The reason you want to achieve this is much the same as the reason for using the .com web extension. (See “McDonald’s example” above) Logical, isn’t it?

For SEO purposes, an exact match contributes to your website’s authority and relevancy. (This is also quite logical.) You should abstain from using domain names with hyphens in them, as it can be hard for users to remember where to put them or how to pronounce the name of your website. One more rule of thumb for this is to avoid using domain names with numbers in them because they can appear suspicious to users. For instance, if your company is called “Web-tronics 4” and is not an established brand yet, try “webtronicsfour.com” in favor of “web-tronics4.com”. See the difference?

If you can’t get an exact match with the .com extension, try for company/product and main keyword combinations with the .com extension. If your company is called “McDonald’s Automotive”, and you can’t get an exact match, try something like “mcdonaldscarrepairs.com”. This can help your site rank for your main keywords while setting you apart from “mcdonalds.com”, which is a totally unrelated, highly authenticated brand.

If you absolutely cannot find an exact match or a suitable alternative, you must make sure you understand the meanings of the other web extensions and choose accordingly. For example, if your company only does business in a single region or country, the .us (United States) or .co.uk (United Kingdom) web extensions for example, is not only appropriate, but may even be beneficial.

Some final advice on choosing your domain name is to keep it short and simple, and make it memorable and easy to type! This will make it easier for users to remember your web address. Regardless of which domain name and web extension combination you choose, it is essential to do your own research before making a final decision.

Website Architecture

In a nutshell, website architecture defines the structure of your website and acts as a “blueprint” for its design. It involves the technical, aesthetic, and functional guidelines of your site and should reflect its overall organization. As with a building, or any other physical structure, your website’s architecture must be structurally sound, and the primary focus should always be placed upon the end-user.

To ensure a user-friendly website, your web design must have a search-engine-friendly website architecture at its foundation. In SEO, site architecture incorporates a host of factors. Two such elements are the effective use of internal links (hyperlinks that link to other pages within your site) and subdomains, which are recognized by search engine robots as unique web addresses. One advantage of subdomains is that they are considered unrelated to their parent domain by search engines, which allows them to be listed with the original website on a search engine results page (SERP). This is an excellent way to establish your site’s authority and relevance.

Sitemaps are another important facet of website architecture. They help illustrate the layout, improve navigation, and provide internal links to your site. Much like a GPS (roadmaps are so 20^th century), a good sitemap will lead your visitor right where they want to go. This will help them understand your website’s individual structure and how to navigate it.

Equivalently, XML sitemaps help search engine robots understand the structure of your website. The use of XML sitemaps provides them with information they need to properly index and position your web pages on search engine results pages. This is what makes it so important to structuralize your website in a way that is logical to both human users and search engine robots.

Know The User

Understanding how users view web pages assists in their organization. The vast majority of users view web pages in an F pattern. “F” stands for fast and also resembles the pattern in which the eye tracks across the page. This means people most often read web pages in two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe, which allows them to scan a page for pertinent information more quickly. For this reason, you should place the most important items and information of each page horizontally, from left to right, across the top of the page.

Next, most users will move down the page a little and read across in a shorter horizontal movement, which forms the lower bar of the “F”. Try to place the “next” most important page information in this position. Finally, users typically scan the left-hand side of the content vertically, forming the stem of the “F”, making it a good place to situate navigational menus for example. Knowing all of this can help you optimize the organization of your page content in a way that holds the users attention and keeps them on your site.

Navigation

It can be a lot of fun to try new things and mix it up when designing a website; however, you must remember to meet the users’ expectations. Most users “expect” (consciously or subconsciously) certain things to be in certain places. People are creatures of habit, so it is always a good idea to put things where they expect them to be.

Navigation is a good example of this. For instance, users are accustomed to seeing horizontal menus somewhere in the header and vertical menus somewhere on the left-hand side of the page. This has become standard practice. Before deciding to get too creative with your navigation, ask yourself a couple of questions:

• Will visitors leave due to my menu location?
• Can I afford to lose visitors?
• Is my product/service/information unique enough to keep users from navigating away?

Once you have answered the above questions, other things to keep in mind when placing navigation include:

• Will this make sense to the user?
• Is my navigation logical?
• Does each menu item flow intuitively from page to page?

Look at it from the perspective of the user. If you, as a user, would not expect to find a menu item in a certain place, chances are neither will your visitors, so you might want to make a change in this situation.

One rule of thumb to follow: Regardless of where you place your main and secondary menus, always place a text-menu at the bottom of each page. This offers users more ease of navigation and contributes to SEO efforts.

Usability, Accessibility, and Website Performance

In the “real” world, you never get a second chance to make a first impression, right? Magnify that by about 100 in the internet world. The average user will leave a website within five seconds if they are having trouble navigating it or understanding its purpose. After all, there are a myriad of other websites out there which provide the same information.

Don’t let the design overpower the message or information that is being conveyed. A great looking website isn’t worth much if it is not user-friendly. Remember keep the user at the forefront of your thoughts throughout the entire design process.

Another way to ensure your website’s accessibility and usability is to make it 100% scalable. This guarantees the website will be viewable in all screen resolution settings with no side-scrolling, including 800X600. Users don’t like having to side-scroll in order to read a web page. It disrupts the aforementioned F Pattern, so don’t make them do it.

Cross-browser compatibility is also extremely important in terms of accessibility, usability, and overall website performance. This means that a website displays properly and its features are accessible regardless of which web browser the user is viewing the page through.

Tips to ensure scalability and cross-browser compatibility:

• Design in percentages, as they are relative to page size rather than absolute as with pixels.
• Use graphics that are no larger than 800 pixels wide, as that is the lowest screen resolution setting.
• Check each page you design in each screen resolution setting on your computer. If there is no side-scrolling in 800X600, there won’t be in higher settings either.
• Test each page in the most popular web browsers (i.e. Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari, and Opera). If it displays properly and performs well in each, you can rest assured that the vast majority of users will be able to access the site successfully.

Another crucial factor to consider is web page loading time (or page speed). This is vital to users and robots alike. As I previously mentioned, you have a very small window of opportunity to capture the attention of your visitor. Likewise, search engines love fast-loading web pages, so be sure each page on your site loads quickly.

The Culmination of Your Efforts

There is a lot to remember when designing a website. You must keep the user, as well as search engine robots, in mind at all times for best results. This is why designing your website in a logical manner is optimal. Every element contributes to both the design and SEO in some way. If you take all of the information provided in this article into account, don’t rush, and utilize web design and SEO in tandem, you will develop a powerful, highly effective, accessible, user and search-engine-friendly website that is sure to please your visitors and rank highly on search engine results pages. The last thing you want to do is haphazardly slap some pages together and publish them to the internet! Remember, you are building a brand. When doing things the “right” way, it can take a bit of time to see marked results; however, the wrong way could cost you much more than time! My final piece of advice is: Don’t get in the way of your own success! Happy designing!

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Appendix A

Organic Search Engine Optimization

Organic search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving a website’s search engine results page (SERP) rank through the utilization of “on page” and “off page” elements. Certain portions of code, such as META tags, anchor tags, alt tags, and anchor text, are important “on page” elements of SEO. Optimizing these tags along with page content for relevancy can assist in increasing the SERP rank of a website. Off page elements of SEO improve SERP rank results without manipulating the website’s code. Link building is an essential off page element. It is the practice of assembling highly relevant inbound and outbound links by exchanging links with authoritative, complimentary websites. Search engine and directory submissions as well as social media linking are among many other off page methods.

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Appendix B

alt tags - alternative text tags which appear in place of images

anchor tags - tags which define an anchor in hyperlinks

anchor text or “link title” - the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink

Link building is an essential aspect of SEO, and it's equally important to find the right link partners. This article explores how and where to find the ideal link partners for your website, as well as what tactics to avoid.

By now we're all well aware of the importance of link building in any successful search engine optimization campaign, but sometimes this can be a difficult and confusing task. How do you go about finding link partners? Where can you go to find them? How do you know if they are the right link partners for your website? How do you know when to accept or deny a link exchange request? The questions are endless. In this article, I would like to share what I have learned, thus far, on my arduous journey to find the best link building techniques.

There are many different ways to go about finding link partners. Some are good (or organic), some are questionable, and some are just plain shameful. In fact, some methods can actually get you penalized by search engines. Link schemes can absolutely sink your search engine rank. Some examples of link schemes are links that are intended to manipulate PageRank, excessive reciprocal links produced by automated link exchange robots, and buying or selling links that pass PageRank. Websites that engage in these types of link schemes can not only lose their PageRank, but can even be banned by Google altogether. These terrible tactics should be avoided at all costs!

Another poor link building practice is using link farms. Wikipedia describes a link farm as any group of websites that all hyperlink to every other site in the group. Although link farms can be created manually, the vast majority are created through the use of automated programs. Link farms spam search engine indexes (also sometimes referred to as "spamdexing" or "spamexing"). Link exchange programs which allow individual websites to selectively exchange links are not considered to be link farms, but I'll discuss this more a little further in the article.

Finally, linking to bad neighborhoods is a good way to lose search engine ranking. A bad neighborhood (on the internet) is defined as any website that uses unscrupulous means to increase their site's rankings, or does a disservice or even causes damage to their visitors, or sites considered "adult" websites, including:

• cloaking
• spamming
• link farms
• installing viruses or malware
• pornography
• gambling
• pharmaceuticals
• other illegal activities

Participating in any of the above black hat link building methods, or simply linking to websites that do, will cause Google to penalize or ban your website. However, there are a couple of ways to ensure that you do not inadvertently link to a bad neighborhood. The first thing you can do is go to Google and type in "site:www.WEBSITE.com" (without the quotation marks). If no links to that site are found, there is a very strong possibility it has been banned, and you want to stay away from it. Next, you can go to Bad-neighborhood.com and enter the URL. When you click "Check URL", a scan of the website will begin. This scan will tell you how many "questionable links" were found to and from the site. It will also give you details on why the link is considered questionable, but beware of misinterpreted anchor text and URLS.

If questionable links are found, remember the robots don't have brains, and they are merely programmed to flag certain words in anchor text and URLS. For example, I was recently scanning a potential link partner and one questionable link came up, so I checked the details. The URL had "linksexchange" in it. I could decipher that it was "links exchange", but because the words were not separated, the robot only saw that it had the word "sex" in it and flagged it. Other words that will trigger a flag include, but are not limited to, porn, adult, pharma, pharmaceutical, and drug. As you can see, it is important to actually investigate the questionable links yourself, and find out if they really are questionable, or if the robot has just misinterpreted something in the anchor text or URL itself.

Another excellent way to decide whether to accept a link exchange is to use the Google PR (PageRank) Checker. This will give you a good idea of how "authoritative" or popular Google considers the site. The higher the PageRank, the more "authority" is assigned to that site, making it a more desirable link partner. Sites with a PR "N/A" are usually too new to have a PageRank; however, this may also mean the site has been banned by Google. Other reasons for a PR "N/A" are that the page has not been indexed yet or it is considered a supplemental page. The reasons for a PR 0 are much the same, with the addition of "the site was down when Googlebot last crawled it" and "the page is considered as duplicated content by Google". Conversely, a site with a high PR is considered to be more trustworthy, relevant, popular, and authoritative. These are the sites that will lend your site credibility and PageRank.

Now that I've explained some methods for testing your potential link partners, let's get into how and where to find them. One tried and true method of finding link partners is to search for sites similar to yours and when you find one you like, e-mail the webmaster and request a link exchange. Be sure to include a link to your own website, so they can have a look around and decide whether they would like to partner with you. One tip I have for this is not to demand that they place your link first. You are the one requesting the exchange; therefore, you should place their link on your site first as a show of good faith. If you place their link before you request the exchange, also send them the URL to the page where you have listed their site, so they'll know you are a serious, potential link partner. Should they choose not to exchange with you, you can always remove their link from your site. One final tip on this, be professional when you e-mail them. This is, after all, a business deal of sorts.

Another excellent way to build organic link exchanges is to use a site like LinkMarket.net (briefly mentioned earlier), which allows you to browse through the appropriate categories in their directory for potential link partners. Once you find a compatible site, test it as described above and if it "passes", request the link exchange. These sites are not like the aforementioned link farms in any way. They allow webmasters to be selective about which sites they link to, and they give the webmaster the final decision on whether or not to exchange. There are no automated robots that decide for you. Building your links in this way is a somewhat slow process, which guards you against Google's spam filters, as a site that gains too many links too quickly will send up a red flag to Googlebot.

I leave you with one final tip on link building. This one isn't really about finding quality link partners, but it is more of a personal tip for you. Put yourself on a reasonable schedule. It will be easier to keep building links if you set some kind of link building schedule. Consider designating a certain (small) amount of link building time each day, such as 30 to 60 minutes, or whatever your schedule will allow. It will help prevent burnout, which is inevitable if you try to accomplish your entire campaign all at once.

Link building can be very overwhelming. It is difficult to know how and where to find link partners, let alone how to find quality link partners, but following these tips can make the process go more smoothly. If you feel overwhelmed, remind yourself that link building is an ongoing campaign, and cannot be finished within a couple of days time. Test potential link partners, pace yourself, and your link building campaign will be a success!

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My last article, "Top 10 Ways to Effectively Use Social Media", explored effective ways to utilize social media for businesses. This article examines some of the most common social media mistakes in order to help you avoid them.

1.) Sporadic Updates - If you are only occasionally updating your social media profile, network, group, fan page, blog, etc., you are likely to lose followers and potential clients/customers, as well as discourage your current clients. It is absolutely imperative to update all social platforms frequently with status updates, new pictures, interactive ideas (such as events and contests), and any information that will keep users coming back to your profile or website. These are your returning visitors, and they are very important to the success of your social media strategy.

Tip: Set aside a specific block of time each day to devote to your social media accounts.

2.) Too Many Profiles - Many businesses mistakenly choose quantity over quality in this area. Signing up for every social media site you can find can actually be detrimental to your social media strategy. One reason for this is that not all social media sites will work for all businesses. You want to find the best sites for your particular business or niche, and be sure to be active. Having an overabundance of profiles to update and networks to engage in can be extremely overwhelming and almost guarantees sporadic updating (refer to number one above) because you simply won't have enough time to be as attentive as necessary.

Tip: Be selective. Join a handful of relevant social media sites that fit your company’s needs.

3.) Not Becoming Engaged - Ideally, you should make it a point to recognize and reply to every comment you receive on your blog, website, status updates, tweets, articles, etc. You want your profiles to engage your friends/contacts/followers through comment replies on status updates, pictures, etc. Ignoring the opportunity to engage and interact with your community is one of the biggest mistakes you can make in the social media arena.

Tip: Set up e-mail notifications to alert you to new comments.

4.) Confusing Marketing with Engaging - There was a recent study done by Citibank which shows that 76% of small business owners feel that social media sites are not giving them the business leads they need. However, this is not because the leads are not there. The reason for this is that these companies are attempting traditional marketing and sales strategies in the world of social media instead of taking the time to listen to their clients and learn more about their needs.

Tip: Utilize consistent, relevant, fresh content to "market" your company. Your content should do all of your marketing for you.

5.) Spamming or Excessive Promoting/Advertising - In recent years, many companies have become involved in spamming as a method of advertising. This tactic no longer works as internet users have become savvier and learned to ignore and filter these messages without even looking at them. Be very careful when hiring an internet marketing agency because some of the self-proclaimed "experts" in this area simply launch spamming campaigns which are highly unethical and largely ineffective.

Tip: Obtain a marketing outline from the agency which illustrates their marketing strategy for your company, brand, services, and/or products before signing any contracts.

6.) "Generic" or "Stock" Avatar - Clients and potential clients alike can become suspicious of companies that use the website's stock avatar or profile picture. It can cast doubt about the credibility of the company. In addition, this is an indication that the company is not experienced with and/or knowledgeable about social media.

Tip: Use your company's logo as your avatar on sites that allow it. On sites which require an actual photo of the profile owner, use the best picture of yourself that you have access to. Try to make the photo that you use as professional as possible.

7.) Not Having a Plan - A lack of planning, preparation, organization, and strategy will result in the failure of a company’s social media campaign. It takes more than simply launching a profile, blog, or social media presence to run a successful campaign. Appropriate planning and follow up are integral to the success of any social media strategy.

Tip: First, identify your purpose and audience. This will make it easier to formulate a plan, prepare, organize, and strategize.

8.) Inconsistent Branding - It is important to ensure that your branding is consistent throughout each of your profiles on each of your social media sites. The sheer amount of social media profiles that a company can set up can lead to multiple brand identities on multiple sites. This tends to confuse the end user, making it more difficult for them to find pertinent information. Your company's audience may also become fragmented by this.

Tip: Stay consistent. Set up your first profile, making sure to be as detailed as possible, and use it as a guide when filling out subsequent profiles. Don't use it word-for-word, but it will help you remember to include all of the most important information which plays a role in your company's branding.

9.) Trying to "Measure" Social Media - Unfortunately, there is no surefire way to measure the return on investment from social media sites. Companies can come up with measurable goals; however, they must realize that it is impossible to attach a monetary value to user engagement or customer relations. Another aspect of business that is difficult to measure is customer retention, which social media can help increase.

Tip: Become engaged in the community. (Refer to number three above.) If you stay active, you will retain your audience /following.

10.) Giving Up Before You Have a Chance to Succeed - Some companies dabble in social media, not giving it the attention it requires, and then claim no return-on-investment. Often times, this is before they have even identified their audience and/or devised a strategy to meet realistic business goals. (Refer to number seven above.)

Tip: Select a few, highly-targeted social media sites to join, and jump right in. Get active and stay active. Be patient. It takes a little time to build an audience or following. (Refer to number two above.)

There is no doubt that social media is a vital component in internet marketing, visibility, and branding. However, when done incorrectly, it can actually become detrimental to your company. Here are my top ten ways to effectively utilize social media for your business.

1. Identify Your Purpose - Your social media strategy should be a stand-alone plan which requires nothing else to sustain it. Your strategy should not aspire to improve your search engine rankings, as there aren't usually many backlinks that come from this. Approach your social media strategy as if there were no such thing as search engines. Some things you may want to consider in identifying your purpose include:

• Branding - Start building a strong brand for your company!
• Exposure - Gaining (positive) exposure for yourself lends your company and website credibility, as well as some visibility!
• Networking - Get involved in the community and make connections!
• Relationship/Trust Building - Potential clients are more likely to become actual clients when you form a relationship built on trust!
• Customer Relations - Use social media to build good, solid customer relations!

2. Fresh, Consistent, Relevant Content - Make sure there is a high level of consistency in the content you share on social media sites. Consistency is important regarding frequent updates (fresh content), as well as in keeping with the purpose of your social media strategy. Consistency in your message and your branding also establishes relevance for SEO purposes.

For instance, if you are a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Consultant, provide quality tips on SEM and internet marketing, as well as useful articles, resources, and links. Try to link to (connect/contact/friend/follow) other members in your industry or similar industries, like search engine optimization (SEO) or network marketing.

This can assist you in achieving your branding ambitions and enable you to engineer your own company's brand recognition. This offers you some control over how you and your company are perceived. Your social media presence can help strengthen your company's webutation (web reputation). Your online friends, business contacts, and "followers" should be able to give a brief description of what your company does. If they cannot, you may want to reevaluate #1 on this list and reexamine the kind of content you're sharing.

3. Concentrate on Content, Not Marketing - All too often, people go about this the other way around. Allow your content to do the marketing for you by focusing on valuable, consistent, relevant content.

Digging, liking, bookmarking, etc. your own content can actually damage your credibility. It is better to write compelling content that your readers will give an unsolicited digg, like, or bookmark. When people like what you're saying, they will share it! When they do, search engines will notice, so write something noteworthy and let the rest happen organically!

4. Be a Valuable Asset - When you think of social media, place the emphasis on "social". It is not called "self-promotional media" for a very good reason. Always keep that in mind when considering what to share on your social media sites.

Posting nothing but self-promotional links, information, and requests will inevitably make you a part of the social media noise, and you will eventually be filtered out. Worse yet, you could be regarded as a "spammer", which is the fastest way for your webutation to take a downward turn. You may not actually lose friends, contacts, or "followers' over it, however, they will begin to skim over your posts without even realizing it, or they may ignore you altogether.

You can avoid this by becoming a valuable asset in your niche. One example of how to do this is by posting links to resources and domains that are not your own. This does not mean you should post links to your other social media profiles, blogs, your own squidoo lenses, etc. either. This means that you should not post any domains with which you are associated. This is not to say that you can never post your own links; however, just be sure that you don't do it so often that it becomes noise or spam.

Believe it or not, you should attempt to befriend your competitors and even promote them. I know this seems counter-intuitive, but interlinking and networking are very powerful tools!

5. The Client Always Comes First - Now that you've identified your purpose, contemplate what your client (or ideal visitor) is searching for. (Write for the audience you want.) Imagine your ideal, potential client distinctly in your mind, and consider what they may be perceiving through the information that you share. You want to make a good first impression on them, as they are the ones you want to attract to your site.

6. Get Involved and Build a Rapport - Participating in discussions, replying to forums and blogs, and asking for feedback (and responding to it) are all exceptional ways to get involved in the community and build a rapport with other members. This allows people to view you as a real person, instead of a robot that does nothing but spam links everywhere. (If you're going to post links, ensure their relevance.) Other people will warm up to you and be more likely to become your friend or contact if you humanize yourself. Social media sites provide you the opportunity to show your personality, so use them in order to truly connect with your target market.

7. Warning! Do not Over Optimize - Of course you desire top search engine rankings for your specific keywords, but tread lightly here. It is possible to over optimize. If you use the same anchor text on every site you link to, your site will leave what is referred to as a "digital footprint", which can be a sign that you may be trying to exploit or manipulate search engine results.

In order to refrain from this, use natural alterations in your anchor text for the links which point to your original site. A certain amount of “click here” (or similar links) are necessary to balance your optimization strategy.

8. Start Linking to Your “Deep Links” - Everyone wants to link their public profiles to their (main) homepage, but deep links (or links that point to internal pages on your site or blog) provide depth and authority. Let's assume that there are two identical websites. The one that has accumulated more deep links will always outrank the other. This method will also gain more exposure for your site in search engine results because your internal pages will begin to rank for relevant keywords and keyword phrases.

Deep Links Tip: You may not want to share the link to your homepage with someone you meet on a business network or social media site. Think about linking to your “About Me” page (if applicable) in order to give a more personal introduction to your site, or try linking to your "Company" or "Services" page (if applicable) to give your visitor an overview of what your company does.

9. Link Deliberately with No Apologies - When someone "friends" you, follows you, or subscribes to your blog and/or updates on social sites, it is because they are interested in your most recent information, news, tips, resources, etc. If they should discover that they are not interested, they will simply stop following you, which is not a big deal. This is not a "popularity" contest (regardless of what some people may think), as the "quality" of your "followers" is what matters, not the quantity of them! This is a way to syndicate and socialize with like-minded individuals in a professional and more intimate setting.

As with anything else, there is a right way and a wrong way to go about hyperlinking to content and resources on social media websites. Here is the wrong way: “Read my blog!” or “Check out my site!” The correct way is achieved by sharing a helpful link (it can be your own, or something else of interest to your audience) and encourage a discussion about it. For example, if you are a SEO Specialist, you could share a link to a Google article about their latest SEO standards and ask for your readers’ opinions on it. Since most of them will be in your field or a related field, the article should be of interest to them which should inspire some discussion.

10. Utilize Social Networking - In order to genuinely accomplish a successful social media strategy, you should engage in social networking, as well. Replace the word “competitor” with "colleague" in your social media vocabulary. Other webmasters, companies, consultants, and individuals in your niche are your allies in the brave new world of social media!

Make it a goal to locate as many of your competitors (who are on your level or within an acceptable range) and develop a cadre or key group of professionals, friends, and/or business contacts. These are people you can share with, exchange links with, and even embark on joint ventures with. Don't view them as your competition anymore. Start exploring ways to leverage one another's positions in the marketplace!

This article examines the importance of creating websites that "fit" in every screen resolution and are compatible with the most popular web browsers in use today. Included are some tips on how to achieve correct sizing in all screen resolutions and cross-browser compatibility.

Does size really matter? The answer is yes when referring to websites and web design. One of the most difficult and frustrating aspects of web design is developing a site that is compatible with most, if not all, of the commonly used screen resolutions and most popular web browsers. This can seem overwhelming when you consider that there are over forty screen resolutions and even more different web browsers to choose from. The trick is to identify the most common screen resolutions and the most popular browsers being used today and design your site accordingly.

Common Screen Resolutions for 2010:

• 600x800 (1% of users)
• 1024x768 (20% of users)
• 76% of all users are using higher screen resolutions
  
  • 1280x1024 (18.2% of users)
  • 1280x800 (17.3% of users)
  • 1440x900 (10.5% of users)
  • 1680x1050 (10% of users)
  • 1920x1200 (4.6% of users)
  • 1366x768 (3.6% of users - including me)
  • 1920x1080 (2.3% of users)
  • 1152x864 (2.1% of users)
  • 1600x1200 (1.4% of users)
  • 1280x768 (1.2% of users)

Most Popular Browsers in 2010:

• Internet Explorer
• Firefox
• Chrome
• Safari
• Opera

Imagine that you have just finished designing your entire website, and it looks perfect to you which is very gratifying! You’re proud of the hard work and all of the hours you put in, only to find out that other people are having issues with its functionality and usability! Now you must start all over again from scratch and attempt to make it multi-screen-resolution and cross-browser-friendly, as functionality and usability are two of the key components in building an effective and efficient website. The success of your site relies heavily upon the visitor or user's experience, and if it does not perform well in most screen resolutions and popular web browsers, you are losing traffic and sales. This probably seems to be a rather daunting task, but don't let yourself become overwhelmed because there are relatively simple steps you can take to ensure your website's usability to all its users.

It is vital to ensure that your site fits in every screen resolution, as it can lose its appeal, functionality, and usability if it does not. If you disregard screen resolution, your site can appear to be a jumbled mess in some of them, which is sure to drive visitors away. If the site is not visually appealing and navigation is broken up or placed incorrectly, there is no reason to stay on the site. It is imperative to design a scalable website (or stretch layout), which means it fills the page no matter what screen resolution it is being viewed through.

There are two solid methods you can implement into your web design to achieve this goal. The first and simplest way to build a scalable website (great for beginners) is through the utilization of HTML tables. When you create a page using tables, do not size them in pixels, as this gives them an absolute, fixed size on the page, and they will take up that exact amount of space each time the page loads. Instead, use percentages to size your tables. Percentages are relative to the size of the page. For example, if you create your table to take up 100% of the page, it will always take up 100% of whatever the page size is in the different screen resolutions. This is an excellent way to ensure that there is no side-scrolling on your website regardless of the screen resolution your visitor is using. Your visitors are unlikely to stick around for very long if they have to side-scroll in order to read all of your content.

If you are a web design professional or an advanced user, it is optimal to use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to design your website. CSS, also known as table-less design, replaces HTML tables with div tags. In addition, CSS layouts are very clean, have exceptionally fast load times, and follow W3 standards. Though the method and coding for HTML and CSS differ, the concept regarding the scalable websites is the same, except instead of applying percentages to your tables, you apply them to your div tags.

Ensuring your website's cross-browser compatibility is also critical and is not as difficult as it may sound. The first step is to download the most popular browsers (listed above) onto your computer. It is absolutely free to download these browsers, and they will save you a lot of time and potential pain during the web design process. If you use one of the Dreamweaver programs for your web design projects, you can edit your browser list and add each of the new browsers to the list. This will enable you to preview every page you create in Dreamweaver in each of the browsers you have listed. If you do not a use a program that offers this feature, you can launch each browser individually in order to view your site. Another less reliable resource for testing cross-browser compatibility is to utilize sites like Browsershots.org. The advantage to using a service such as this is that it provides you with more web browser previews of your site than you probably even knew existed; however, the disadvantage is that your project is likely to expire before any screenshots have been uploaded to your account.

It is not a bad idea to not only preview your website in each of the popular browsers, but also check it in each of the screen resolutions available on your computer. For example, once I have a completed webpage, I select a browser to preview it in, and then I go through each of the screen resolutions in each browser to ensure design competency, functionality, and usability. Doing this can be a lengthy and tedious process; however, it will ultimately save you time because you won't have to worry about fixing an entire website once it has already been completed because it is not multi-screen-resolution and cross-browser-friendly. It is better to take the extra time in the beginning to do it right the first time than it is to have to completely redesign a site which you have just finished designing. Taking these simple steps will aid you in avoiding that frustrating process.