These days, having a high quality website requires more than making it look nice. You will also need to utilize the latest SEO trends and online marketing strategies in order to get the most value from your website. A successful design will continue to grow and evolve over time, continuing to add fresh content.
Houston Small Business Marketing is a premier web design company in Houston. Our internet marketing web design agency can help you to broaden your reach online and connect with your target audience.
If you are looking for the bestHouston web designers for your project, meet with our Houston web designers. Our team works with you every step of the way to ensure your project comes out to your satisfaction. We highly recommend allowing us to evaluate your current website to show you how you are ranking among your local and national competitors.
The Top 10 Dos & Don’ts for Website Building
Do Choose a Good Domain: A domain name is like a sign in front of a store: it can either invite customers to come and look inside or drive them away. When choosing a domain name for your website, pick one that’s inviting, catchy and memorable. Avoid domains that are confusing, easy to misspell or embarrassing. Long, keyword-stuffed domains with hyphens are poor choices as well. In short, select a domain that you can brag about.
Do Plan Your Website: Don’t plunge into Web design without planning it first. Establish key points; identify your audience, the purpose of your site and how you will monetize it, if at all. Research your target keywords. Sketch out a site map that shows you how many pages you will make and how they link to one another. Decide which information is the most essential and give that priority. Without clearly identifying your site’s purpose and goals, you won’t know if it is a success or not later on. So plan early on.
Do Make Site User Friendly: Visitors move quickly through Web pages. If information is buried several pages deep in your site or located somewhere that is not obvious, it can and will frustrate people and send them away. Keep your guests happy by making your site easy to navigate. Add a menu bar, use readable fonts, avoid busy backgrounds and present vital facts up front. Test your website for usability. If a first-time visitor cannot find information quickly, your site navigation needs improvement.
Do Use Styles: Cascading Style Sheets or CSS is surely one of the finest things that has happened to website development. CSS streamlines HTML programming by separating design and appearance from document structure. When you use external style sheets, you can make changes to your site design without having to edit each page. This not only spares you a lot of trouble, it also keeps your HTML code neat and trim.
Do Optimize: Search engine optimization is necessary to the long-term survival of any website. Target your keywords in the title, section headers and links in your Web pages. Even more important than the search engines are your human visitors. Create useful content for your audience’s sake, not just for Google, Bing or Yahoo! If you provide valuable content to readers, the search engines will come to trust your site anyway.
Don’t Write Bad Code: If you are a Web programmer, you should know how to write clean and valid code. If you are only a beginner or know next to nothing about HTML, use an HTML editor that generates clean markup, such as Adobe Dreamweaver. After you have made your website, use a code validator. Proper coding helps ensure compatibility with all platforms.
Don’t Use Large Images: Avoid using excessively large pictures. You want your website to load as quickly as possible, and large images slow it down. You do not need to use images that are several megabytes in size. Even 500KB can slow down a person with a slow dial-up connection. Optimize your pictures for the Web by compressing them. Chances are, visitors won’t be able to tell the difference.
Don’t Spam Your Content: In an attempt to manipulate search engine results, some authors deliberately “spam” keywords in their Web pages. This is known as “keyword stuffing.” Avoid it at all costs. Develop content with people, not search engines, in mind. Use keywords only as frequently as feels natural to you. Read the final copy to yourself to make sure it sounds right.
Don’t Finish a Site: Good websites are never finished. Instead, these websites are always evolving. Update your site regularly by adding fresh content, improving design and layout or adding new features. A website that is no longer updated may soon be outranked by competitors or abandoned by its following. You do not have to change everything, of course. If your topic is evergreen, many of your articles should stand the test of time.
Don’t Use Illegal Content: Illegal content includes using copyrighted images and text without permission or “scraping” content from other websites. Do not plagiarize other sites. Make sure your content is unique. If you outsource your writing, verify that your writers submit only original content. Use a plagiarism checker to do this. If you need to use pictures, use your own, buy stock photos or use free clip art that is licensed for commercial or noncommercial reuse. If you really want to use a copyrighted photo, ask for the owner’s permission first.
Reach Out Today
If your site is dated, lacking a professional look and feel, or ranks below your competitors, then it is time to begin exploring new options for your website. Our visual designers can help create a beautiful website for you that captures all the necessary elements of search engine optimization to set your up for success. Our designers work closely with you to ensure you digital marketing web development is on track to capture the attention of your intended audience.
Affordable Web Design Company in Houston Texas
Stop missing out on potential customers and become a force within your industry! From excellent web design and social media management to Google Business Listing optimization and a weekly-updated blog, the team at Houston Small Business Marketing is here to help you get to the next level. Grow your business when you expand your reach online. If you are tired of giving away potential customers to your competitors, contact us today!
We dedicate ourselves to working closely with business owners to come up with a marketing plan that helps them succeed. We provide each customer with a free consultation for your website and social media to let you know how you can improve your placement online and grow your engagement with local potential customers looking for your services. Contact us today to learn more about the services we offer.
Houston Small Business Marketing
713-492-0025
1415 North Loop West #950
Houston, TX 77008
Google Business Listing
