Archive for the ‘Web Design’ Category

The Bliss of Growth VS The Beauty of the moon

Monday, October 8th, 2007

Here are two great Wordpress themes.

The Bliss of Growth

It’s a two column, fluid width Wordpress theme. Its really simplistic and minimalist Wordpress theme and I really like the blue, futuristic header.

The blue and white sidebar is rather attractive and has a very aesthetic bluish hover effect.

Really reccomended if you’d like to have a futuristic look for you blog.

Heres a screenshot:

The Beauty of the moon

This is yet another awesome theme from Zinruss Studio The Beauty of the moon is a widget ready, 2 collumn Wordpress theme.

The header graphics are exceptional, and the green sidebar looks very attractive indeed.

This theme is recommended for graphics/personal/mystery blogs.

Here’s a screenshot:

Wordpress theme

More on this coming up!

Mistakes To Avoid When Using Web Templates

Friday, September 14th, 2007

Website templates are very affordable and they save you a lot of effort and time when you want to create a new layout for your website. However, a lot of people make mistakes in the process of choosing and using a web template and end up with something that was unlike the image they had in mind. Here are some guidelines to help you avoid those mistakes.

The first obvious mistake you should be aware of is using a template that is very popular. If many people use the same template, your website will not appear unique at all and your credibility as a solid, different website will be tarnished. In other words, you will appear generic just like your next-door neighbours.

To whole point of using a web template is to save time and effort. You just change the title and appropriate details and you’re done. The biggest mistake one makes is to customize the template beyond recognisation. While that may be good in the sense that you’re creating a unique graphic, you’re defying the very purpose of using a web template — saving time and effort.

However, on the opposite side, if a template you purchase is suitable but some changes must be made to suit your site’s theme, then you will have to take some time to make the changes. For example, you can find a very nice template that suits your hobby site except the original designer has put an image of stamps in the header. You can find images of garden plants and spades to replace the stamps for your gardening hobby site. However, do only make the necessary changes and don’t redesign the whole template.

In some circumstances, some people simply make the wrong choice of templates. This is a very subjective issue but you have to be careful in selecting templates to suit your audience. Do not choose templates just because they are pretty, choose them because they serve your purpose.

Web Design for Local SEO

Tuesday, June 19th, 2007

The web design for sites that target local market require different consideration even though a site can each anyone who access the sites from anywhere.

If you are providing an informational based service you will probably find that your Arizona web design should be very straightforward.  You needn’t waste your time with a lot of pictures or bells and whistles if someone is coming to your website for information only.  To optimize your website so that the right type of people will come, you simply need to have information that is keyword rich.  What this means is that when you are writing the information for people to find on your website, you should incorporate some of the keywords that people will search for when looking for your informational services within Arizona.  Keywords really go a long way with helping to get your website recognized by the search engine spiders.  When you have quality information that also happens to be keyword rich you can’t go unnoticed by your target audience.

If you are considering Phoenix web design for a more visual product such as real estate you will want to focus on having a design that it is user friendly, but also appealing to the eye.  You can do this by utilizing drop down menus, using keywords in any text, and using some simple graphics.  Many of these sites are more intricate, so you will want to spend some time making the website really easy to use and navigate, as this is what this sort of client is looking for.  Again, it all comes down to knowing who will be visiting your site and how you can optimize it for the search engines as well as the consumer

Whether you are considering Arizona in general or somewhere such as Scottsdale, web design needs to be straight forward and accommodating.  Keyword rich text is important, layout is important, but you don’t want to forget about things as important as page titles and meta tags.  This is what the search engine spiders will read first and this is the best way to optimize your website so that you can get your target audience there!  If you use keywords in your page titles and meta tags, search engines can help direct the right traffic to your website, allowing you to get better search engine rankings and allowing to you to increase local traffic and business on your website.

Design an Effective Mortgage Broker Website

Wednesday, June 13th, 2007

Good mortgage websites are information rich and easy to navigate.   If you want to attract and keep customers, you want a mortgage website design that will provide all of this information in a very comprehensive manner.  No one likes a drab or boring website, but on the other hand no one likes a website that is too busy.

There are many different informational elements that should be included on a mortgage broker website .  The first thing that you will want to include is all of your services.  These can be listed right on your website so that it’s in plain view and consumers don’t feel like they have to dig to find out if you are the right company or individual to help them.  Integrating this vital information into your mortgage website design is a great idea because it will allow your potential clients to know that you are very upfront and able to provide them with the things that they need.  No one likes to visit a website that they have to search for the basic information on.

The best mortgage websites also include information about homes that the broker is representing that are currently on the market.  If the broker has a home for sale listings they should definitely have a list or a link to the homes. Many find that drop down menus are good for this, or a link that takes the consumer to a separate page that will allow them to browse homes that the broker may have for sale.

Another informational element of a mortgage broker website is the credentials of the broker.  This is important to most consumers because they want to work with someone that they can touch.

Causes of Web Design Mistakes

Wednesday, June 13th, 2007

One of the most common causes of web design mistakes is ignorance about how the World Wide Web works. If you believe that you can simply design your website however you want without a thought for search engines, traffic, and page rank than your business simply will not thrive. There is a lot of competition out there, and you have to have some sort of standing with the search engines if you want to be seen. Your website is great for the consumers that already know about you, but if you want to keep attracting new consumers you need to give some thought to these things, and this involves learning how the Internet works and how you can cater to the search engines so that everything else will follow.

Another common cause of mistakes in Utah web design is inability to keep up with common design trends. You don’t have to change your web design from day to day as you here about new trends, but as a web designer you have to keep up with the industry.  There are certain design elements such as headers and meta tags that may change a bit from time to time where the best length and the like are concerned. Knowing these things can help you get better page rankings, more traffic, and therefore more business to your website.

Utah website design is not unique when it comes to basic design elements. Unless you have a website that only Utah residents or a subset of Utah residents will be accessing, you want to follow all of the rules that everyone else follows to be sure that you can draw traffic to your site.