Monday, March 7, 2011

10 Must-haves for All Small Business Websites

The world wide web has, over recent years, experienced a vast influx in the number of websites. The remarkable increase in the number of websites can be attributed to the advance in technology and advantages offered by websites to businesses. Not all websites can be termed as standard sites. Some of them quite poorly designed. When it comes to small-business websites, they generally lack a professional touch and quality content. Discussed below are the 10 must-haves for all small business websites.

business website

1.About us page: When a visitor lands on your website, the very first thing he looks out for is what products and services you offer. An about us page is a must which should explain clearly about your services.

2.Simple web address: There is no point in making things complicated unnecessarily. A domain name is nothing less than a brand. It should be simple enough so that a user can easily type it in the web browser.

3.Easy navigation process: This is very important. A website should have an easily navigable design. The important pages and sitemaps should be placed at appropriate places. It is always better to use dropdowns in the navigation menu. This way users can easily see the content under every heading from virtually any page.

4.Contact information: This is also equally important. Some times lack in communication may result in you losing a potential customer. By providing the contact information you make it easier for visitors to contact you. It is important to place the contact information at the right place. Do not make your visitors work hard in finding your contact information. Most of them are in a hurry and may leave your site in frustration. The best place to put your contact information is at the top left or top right corner of the home page. Try to provide contact information in every page.

5.Client testimonials: Always provide your customers' testimonials. This increases the confidence of visitors in your website. It also helps them to know about the kind of products and services you offer.

6.Call to action: It is important to tell the visitors what you want them to do. If you want them to call you for a free sample, provide special buttons with highlighted text which enables them to do so.

7.SEO knowledge: It is extremely important to have the basic knowledge about search engine optimization. It can help you to make your site accessible by search engines. The site should be coded correctly and correct keywords should be used throughout the text.

8.Quality and relevant content: Content counts a lot. Relevant and fresh content helps to boost the traffic volume and increases the SEO as well.

9.Secure hosting platform: You must have a secure web hosting to protect your online information form being hijacked.

10.User friendly design: Most importantly, you site should have a simple and user friendly web design to keep the visitors hooked to it.

PixelCrayons is the professional web design company proving all types of web design solution to its client all over the globe .PixelCrayons expertise’s and offers best ecommerce website development & designing services, PSD to HTML services and opensource CMS solutions at affordable prices.

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Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Online Branding Promotion Ideas

Online branding is all about to increase business popularity. To make your business successful it is important to promote it in a right manner. Having a good business web design is of no use if you do not promote it well. This is because without any promotion the visitors will not come to know about your website. If you promote your website in a right way, it will ensure that your website get the targeted traffic. Discussed below are some of the branding and promotion ideas.

Define Logo and Brand
Logo is the top most factor for any organization. Designing a logo doesn't mean that it should be attractive. It needs to be professional and well functioning. Starting from color to font everything effects the promotion of your business. You can research online to get an idea about the sample logo for your company. Test the logo with different elements and ensure that it works with your business. Unmatched logo can break your business popularity.

Place your Brand on Website
Having website is important for foundation of your brand. Its not like to design a logo and place on the header of the web pages. It is a hard deal to make it effective. It includes things like choice of color, layouts and information publishing. Choice of color must be similar throughout the website. If visitor move from one page to another, he must experience the consistency on the colors. Website must be connected to its internal links and pages. You can also take help from professional web designers for designing your website. Keep update your information on regular basis. Use easy language that visitors can understand without having any problem. Your brand will develop more as its look, feel, language and layouts designed from heart.

Spread your Brand on Web
Out of your website try to interact with other internet services. Internet world will help you to grow your brand. Visibility makes brand work properly. Not spreading your brand online, can hide your brand from the outer world. Use social networking and SMO sites like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Orkut etc. for promoting your brand. There is also search engine power to promote your brand. Most of the people use search engines to find what they are looking for.

Articles
Write articles on your brand and publish them on articles sites. There are numbers of article publishing site where you can post your articles. Always give your link in the last of the article you are posting. You can post your articles on the following sites.
  • Squidoo
  • Hub pages
  • Scribd
  • Buzzle
  • EzineArticles

Publish Email Newsletter
Create informative newsletter to send your clients. In newsletter include consistent content in order to convey proper message to the customers. It is just like sharing latest news and technologies relevant to your business.

Following all these promoting technique you can promote your brand in a reliable manner.

PixelCrayons is a Web Design Company. PixelCrayons provides affordable web design and custom website development solutions, ecommerce website development services and more.
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