We’ve just recieved an email from SitePoint all about using WordPress as a content management system to back up great website design. Adira uses WordPress for many clients – and, it seems, with good reason!

For those of you that don’t know, WordPress is a back end system that allows you to manage your website pages, add functionality (online shop, website gallery, booking system etc…) through a vast bank of plugins that are usually free or inexpensive to acquire.

WordPress is incredibly easy to use which is why we use it as a back end system for much of our website design work. The WordPress statistics that were sent through by SitePoint are as follows:-

- There are 65,810,415 WordPress powered sites (at time of writing)

- Over 100,000 new WordPress sites are created every day!

- WordPress powers 14.7% of Alexa Internet’s “top 1 million” sites

- WordPress is used in 22% of all new websites

Now that’s impressive! If you’re interested in a low cost website based on the fantastic WordPress, then please feel free to get in touch right now!

Choosing a web design firm for your company’s website may seem simple. You can choose the lowest cost website design company, or you can make a list of what you need for your website and choose the website hosting company that is best able to give you what you need. Though the list may be more time consuming, a bit of research can help you rest assured that you’ve made the best choice for your company.

One of the first things that you need to consider is the type of information that will be on your website. Some companies might only need a simple brochure type website. Other companies may need something more involved, like a shopping cart system.

You should make a list of the information that you want on your website, so you are prepared when the developer asks for content. A good developer can help you make sure your web content is optimized for the search engines. Search engine optimization works in conjunction with your website’s keywords to help bring your website to the top of the search engine results pages.

Another consideration for a new website is how the interface will look. If your website’s interface isn’t intuitive, then your customers may not find what they need. If a potential customer can’t find what they need, they may go to a competitor’s website instead. Though you may be able to find your way around your website, verifying that others can find their way around your site can help you be sure that your customers are finding what they need.

With the abundance of build-it-yourself website kits out there, it may seem like aesthetics aren’t as important to a website as they once were. However, research has shown that people still form a first opinion of a company or person by what they see. If your website isn’t visually appealing, the poor first opinion may carry through to your customers’ opinions on your company in general.

In web design, careful evaluation of the user interface, the information on the website, and the aesthetics of the design can help you get the best value for the money you spend. You should be sure that your website hosting company understands these design aspects as well. Choosing the least expensive company isn’t always going to give you best results for your money.

For some time it has been common practice to include lists of ‘tags’ or keywords within a website design – this has traditionally been used to add relevant keywords to the website page in an attempt to boost Google rankings.

However, it has recently come to light that this is now considered by Google to be bad practice – here’s a video that explains the issues…

Please be aware that this clip deals with an adult theme and contains some explicit language.

1. Keywords/ Keyphrases

Before writing an article or blog post for your website you should consider your keywords carefully. Generally you will be writing about something to do with your business  so consider keywords or keyphrases that people might use to search for an article of this type.

e.g. Our business is primarily Website Design, therefore they keywords Website Design or Website Designer may be appropriate to our posts.

Once you’ve identified the primary keywords or phrases, ensure that they appear regularly throughout the article. If you find it easier, do this retrospectively.

2. The Title

The title of your blog post plays a significant role in determining how Google will treat the article in the search engine results. Try to get a key word or phase into your title at least once, twice if you can. Feel free to use dashes or full stops to help achieve this:-

e.g. Website Design – Common Mistakes Made in Website Design

Google will see these keywords in this important area and take note.

3. The Text

The most important thing for Google to understand what your article is about (and therefore what keywords to rank you under) is the text.

Make sure your keywords feature regularly in the headings and the text. As an indication, keywords found in a ‘Heading 1′ or main heading will be worth more that keywords in a ‘Heading 2′.

Generally the first 2 paragraphs are the most important  so consider this when including keywords in your text.

Having said this, don’t just stuff keywords all over the place, it’s far more important that your text reads well.

4. Permalinks

This is a geeky term for how the web address shows. For example, if you have an article call ‘Website Design For Beginners’ the web site address would be:-

http://www.adira.co.uk/web-design-for-beginners/

If your blog was put together by Adira then you can ignore this step as this would be set up correctly, however if your web address looks something like this:-

http://www.adira.co.uk/?p=299

Then you need to update the permalink setting on your wordpress settings. To do this:-

1. Log in to your WordPress admin panel adn select Settings
2. Click ‘Permalink
3. Copy and paste this:-  /%category%/%postname%/ into the Custom field.

Follow this and your Category name and Post name will appear in the web address.

NOTE: If you do this you may have to change your .htaccess file.

5. Blog Tags

Tags are are 1 or 2 word description of the post. They help people find the article when using your blog search but also help search engines and bookmarking sites determine what your post is about. The correct form for a tag is:-

website-design, website-designer

Do not exceed 3 words in a tag.

If you follow these 5 steps, you’re sure sure to see a marked improvement in your search engine results without too much additional work.

• If MySpace were a country it would be ranked the 5th largest in the world
• We send more text messages each day than there are people in the whole planet
• The NY Times publishes more information in 1 week than a person in the 18th century came across in their whole life

Sound interesting? Take a look at the video – you won’t be disappointed.

Web users visit a website to get the information regarding a product or service that is being offered by that very website or to know about that online business, its experience, scope of work, and so on and so forth. A website must therefore provide its visitors reliable and up-to-date information about its online business and about the products and services that it provides. If a website is unable to do so, it can lose its visitors to its competitors for ever and nothing can save it then.

In order to attract visitors and to generate sales leads, web design professionals Winchester add interesting and relevant content to their clients’ websites. They make sure that the content is interesting to read and capable of holding back the web site visitors to it. By including the price and mentioning the special offers and discounts in the content, website design Winchester further add to the effectiveness of the web design Winchester.

Good web design professionals in Winchester allow their clients to add, remove, and change the website content from time to time.

For the best web design services in Winchester, log on to www.adira.co.uk

Too many graphics and designs leave the website visitors baffled. Most of the times, they are unable to get the information that bought them to that particular site. Web users not only leave such websites instantly, but also decide never to visit such sites in future.

Adequate white space on the other hand acts as magnet, attracting web users to the website. It makes a web design Winchester look neat and clean. The web site visitors feel comfortable and are able to access the website thoroughly. Proper space between paragraphs, clear headlines, bullet points, and numberings add to the over-all user experience, influencing them to visit the site quite frequently in search of valuable information, as well as for buying the goods and services from that very website.

Website owners can improve their online presence and their business prospects significantly by including this vital website design Winchester feature in their respective websites.

To get successful web design Winchester, please visit www.adira.co.uk

Since your website is the online face of your company, the website development company in Hampshire must develop a professional website for you that can highlight your company values and its principles to your target audiences effectively. Also, your website design must complement the nature of your business and should cater well to the needs and tastes of your target customers.

You must ask the website development company Hampshire to give you highly attractive and impressive website since web users do not visit a dull and boring website. Websites that look seductive enjoy increased website traffic and thereby better business prospects.

Do not forget that the ultimate goal of your website is to sell your goods/services. So, the website development Hampshire company that you hire must give you lead generating websites. The web developers and designers should use the right web design tools and features and website content to let you make huge profits from your online business.

Want to know where you can find such a web development company? Log on to www.adira.co.uk

• Google 74%
• Yahoo 14%
• MSN 9%
• Ask 2%
• All other SE’s 1%

(comScore Media Metrix)