Techniques to Help Promote Your Website for Free

After creating a great web design Santee, the next thing you will need to worry about is getting your website known by the target audience. There are so many techniques you can use to achieve this. Some of them require a financial investment whereas others are free of charge. In this post, we shall be looking at the best free techniques you can use to promote your website.

SEO
The first thing you will need to do is to focus on search engine optimization. Even before you start creating your web content, you need to identify the SEO tools that you will be using. The Google keyword tool planner will help find the best keywords for your target market. Use both short keywords and long-tailed keywords. The keywords you should use are those with low competition and high search frequency. Ask your web designer Santee to add the selected keywords to the title, headings, content and Meta description. If you will be adding images, make sure you include the keywords in the title tag of the pictures and in the alt tag. Focusing on SEO will boost your search engine ranking and with this you will get more traffic to your website.

Social media marketing
Most of your target clients are on social media. That is why social media marketing must never be ignored. You should create social media accounts and interact with your customers as often as you can. Don’t forget to add a link to your website so that visitors can easily get to your website from your social media page. Your website must also have social media widgets to make it easy for visitors to share your website on their social media pages. The use of social media marketing helps create a branded imagery. You can encourage more interaction on your social media page by offering giveaways and running contests. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn still dominate the forces of social media. Make sure you have accounts on all three.

Reciprocal linking
This is yet another great option you should consider using once you are done working on your web design Santee. The best way to show search engines that your website is trusted is by having websites link to your website. You can get this links through forum posting, guest blogging, news articles and link exchange. All in all, you must never link to just any website. Linking to a low-ranking or low quality website will affect your website negatively.

Focus on quality content
Last but not least, you need to only add high quality content on your website. High quality content is easily shared and will boost your search engine ranking. With high quality content, you will also notice higher repeat visits to your website.

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How to Select the Best Web Hosting Provider

If you want to create a web design Santee, you will first need to get three very important things; CMS, domain name and hosting service. Focus in this article will be on hosting services. You have several options when it comes to this. You will, however, need to be very careful before picking an option. Here are the most important things you will have to do.

Know how much hand-holding you will need
The first thing you need to do is to consider the level of customer support that you will get from the service provider. While most companies will answer your questions on configuration very effectively, they might not be the ones that will be managing your system. Prior to selecting a service, you need to consider the level of customer service that they offer. Will you be able to access them through email, tickets or phone? The best service provider should allow all three options. The easier it is for you to reach the service provider the fewer the headaches you will get to deal with in case of a technical issue.

Estimate the traffic you will get
How much traffic do you expect? You have to be honest. For a personal blog, the amount of traffic will be limited. However, for a professional website that will be marketed extensively, the traffic you get might be overwhelming. You need to be honest on the traffic you will expect. The reason for this is because hosting service providers might limit your bandwidth. If you go beyond the allocated bandwidth, you might end up being charged more or your website might even go down. Discuss your website needs with a web designer Santee and be honest on the amount of traffic you expect. This will then help you find the best hosting package for your website.

Understand the server types
There are different servers types that you will need to pick from. The cheapest hosting uses the shared servers. With this option you will get shared hosting which is not as reliable. The reason for this is because a single server might be handling hundreds of websites. This means all the websites are sharing the same resources. The overall performance of your website will depend on the resources other websites are using. You access to the server will also be limited. You might only be allowed to upload files using FTP or SFTP. This prevents shell access and restricts the programs that you can run.

The best server types you can go with are the VPS (virtual private server), dedicated servers, and cloud servers. Your choice will depend on the set budget.

Choosing a hosting service is not something you need to rush. You have to spend time learning more about the service more so when it comes to technical support, allocated bandwidth and supported content management systems. Choose a hosting package based on your website needs. You also need a service that is scalable so that you can increase the required resources as your website grows.

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Web Design Santee – Everything You Need to Understand About Domain Names

When getting ready for a new web design Santee, one of the most important things you will need to think about is the domain name. The domain name is the digital address of your website. This is what you type into the web browser address bar to get to a website. The domain name for Google, for example, is https://google.com. Just like a fingerprint, a domain name is unique and cannot be shared by different websites.

Is there a difference between domain name and a website?
The domain name is the same as your phone number whereas the website is your phone. You can change your phone but still retain your phone number. This means although they are connected, the domain name is separate from a website. Simply put, the domain name is not stuck permanently to a specific website. A web designer Santee can disconnect it and reconnect it with another website. The important point to remember is that a domain name can only be connected to just one website.

What is the difference between free and paid domain names?
It is possible to get a free domain name for your website. These are mainly offered by the website builders like WordPress.com, Weebly, SquareSpace and Wix. The free domain is usually a sub-domain. This means if your website name is XY, your free domain name from WordPress will be XY.wordpress.com.

If you need a long term online business, a free domain name will not be the best option. You will not own the sub-domain and the sub-domain will be an extension of the service provider’s own domain name. As your business grows, you will need to switch to a unique domain name. When you make the switch, you will lose all the traffic that went to the sub-domain.  Spending a little money on a good domain name is worth it. It will help with branding too.

Where to buy domain names
There are many domain name registrars you can go with. The leading ones are GoDaddy and NameCheap. Please note that for a unique domain name, you will have to pay an annual fee to the registrar of the domain name. If you fail to make the payments, your domain name will be auctioned. The cost of a domain name is between $10 and $20 per year. You can also buy a domain name from a website builder or from individuals auctioning their domain names.

Finding a good domain name is very important. It is something you should do long before you get started on web design Santee. It is only after securing a domain name that you will be able to come up with a good name for your website.

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Web Design Santee – 6 Things You Will Need to Build a Website

Web design Santee always calls for a lot of preparation. In addition to having your vision in mind, you will need to compile a checklist that will ensure that your web development process runs smoothly. In this article, we shall be taking a quick look at the 6 crucial things that you must have in order to create a website.

Domain name
Selecting a domain name is the first thing you will have to do as a web designer Santee. This is the digital address of your website. It is what people type into their browsers to find your website. Two of the leading domain name providers are GoDaddy and Hostgator. You can check if your desired domain name is available and how much it will cost. The annual fee for a domain name is between $10 and $20.

Business email address
Not having a business email address is the fastest way to kill your business. People will either assume you are serious or you are a scammer. This is more so if you use emails from Gmail or Yahoo. You need an email address with your domain name as the provider. If your website is XY.com, then your email should be something like info@XY.com.

Website building software
The next step is to find the best website building software. This is the software you will use to build your website. it can be Wix, WordPress, Weebly, Squarespace or any other software that you want. WordPress is the most popular website building software. This is because of the many plugins and themes it offers. There is also a remarkable amount of community support and not to forget about the intuitive nature of the platform.

Get website hosting
Your website will have to be hosted somewhere. You cannot expect to run it smoothly from your personal computer. You need reliable hosting services. Before you start work on a web design Santee, you will need to find a good hosting service. This can be shared hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting or free hosting. Your choice will depend on the type of website that you are building and the resources it will need. Your budget will also play a part.

Select a website template
If you are using WordPress, you don’t have to code everything. You can make use of website templates. Make sure you customize the template to your liking.

Logo design
Your website will need a logo. The logo helps create a brand for your website and business. You can hire a graphic designer to help with the logo design or simply use the logo generators.

These are the six most important things you will have to do when creating a website. As a web designer Santee, you may also want to include Google Analytics, image editors and high quality images and videos in your list.

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Web Design Practices You Can Still Expect to See in 2019

web design SanteeWeb design Santee mandates that you keep up with the trends. Even so, you cannot keep up with all the trends out there. People have their own ways of doing things and embracing every trend you find will only lead to confusion. As 2018 nears the end, it pays to learn of the trends you can expect to see in web development come 2019. Here are the things that are not going away any time soon.

Speed
Internet speeds are only getting better. This means Internet users want pages that load even faster than before. Even with high Internet speeds, a bloated website will take long to load up. This will significantly affect your online success. With that in mind, you need to make sure that your pages load up within 3 seconds or less. If it takes longer, you will experience a high bounce rate. This will bring with it a lot of problems including abandoned shopping carts and poor search engine ranking. You need to regularly ask your web designer Santee to revise your website and make sure it is optimized for speed.

Mobile first
The mobile searches overtook the desktop searches about three years ago; in 2015. More and more people rely on their mobile devices to access the Internet. What this simply means is that you cannot afford to lock out your mobile users. Desktop searches are still prevalent and will also not go away soon. You therefore need to invest in a responsive web design. This is a design that adjusts itself to fit any screen it is being viewed on. Your web content must also be optimized for mobile searches. Remember that voice searches are now available. You need to use more long-tail keywords and focus on how people really talk when optimizing your content. This will benefit your website a lot come 2019.

Micro-animations
These are powerful ways of offering intuitive and satisfying experiences to your users as they navigate through your website. Small animations make it easy for users to understand a website as they validate their actions when a mouse hovers over the target link. Animations can include change in color when the cursor moves over a link or a preview of what the link is about. This technique will add more life to your website.

There are many more trends you can expect to see in 2019. The aforementioned ones are simply the main ones. The rule of thumb, however, is not to go overboard. Not every trend out there will be perfect for your website.

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Best Tips for Working with a Web Designer

web design SanteeWeb design Santee is not something you should do on your own. There are so many things that need to be done. Although there are so many web development tools you can rely on to create a perfect first website, if what you are looking for is a professional website, you will need to work with web designers. But not all designers can deliver what you are looking for. Some are in it for the money. To avoid being exploited, here are some of the things you should consider doing when working with web designers.

Do a thorough homework
The key to finding a great web designer Santee is to do thorough research. You need to know the number of years the designer has been in business, listen to what his recent clients are saying about him and take a look at his work. You also need to ask friends for their recommendation of a web designer. Choose a designer that specializes in the creation of the particular website that you need.

Understand the basics
Another very important thing you will have to do is to understand the basics of web development. You will not be able to tell if the web designer is doing the right thing if you have no idea on what is involved in web design. Start by understanding the latest trends in web development then learn more about keyword research and usage as well as SEO. You also need to learn about domain name, web host and online marketing. The key here is to get familiar with all the basic terms and rules pertaining to web development.

Be ready to collaborate
Just because you have found the best web designer Santee for the job does not mean you let him do whatever he wants. You need to collaborate with him. Start by discussing your website needs and listen to the recommendations the web designer gives. Make sure you understand fully why he recommends certain actions. You have to keep monitoring his progress too. You don’t want your web designer to build for you a website that you will not like. Collaborating with him also means giving the web designer ample time to work.

Know what you are paying for
Last but not least, you need to understand the true cost of web design Santee when working with the designer you select. Ask the web designer to give you a cost breakdown. That will give you an idea of what you will be paying for. Does the cost include online marketing and website maintenance?

These are the key things you will have to do when getting ready to work with a web designer. Remember that you are the person with the vision and the work of the web designer is only to bring that vision to life. Find a designer that is capable of delivering the results that you want.

 

Top 5 Web Design Trends You Should Know About

Your web design Santee has the power to build or damage your company’s reputation. This is why you need to spend more time in research. In this article, we shall be looking at the cutting edge web design trends that you need to be familiar with today. Embracing these trends will help you create a website that stands out.

Drop shadows and depth
The use of shadows in design is not something new. It is, however, worth mentioning. After the gain in popularity of grids and parallax layouts, web designers are playing more with the drop shadows to create depth. Shadow play has been found to create versatile effects which end up increasing aesthetics and the user experience. They provide emphasis. As a web designer Santee, the use of shadows is not something you should ignore.

Vibrant, saturated color schemes
As computer and mobile device screens get better, the use of vibrant colors has become more common. There has been a rise in the use of courageous schemes such as supersaturation and vibrant shades that are combined with headers that are no longer horizontal but reimagined with hard angles and slashes. The advances in technology have greatly contributed to this trend.

Particle backgrounds
This trend has proven to be a great solution to the problems websites that run background videos face. The animations are pretty lightweight and allow the movements to be created as natural part of the website’s background. Unlike videos that make a website to take long to load, particle backgrounds are lightweight and have no effect on the load speed of a website.

Mobile first
You probably already know this but it will be wrong to overlook it. More than 60% of the traffic you will get on your website will come from mobile users. This means not having a mobile friendly design will limit your success. The use of a responsive design is a popular trend. What is more is that having a mobile friendly website will boost your ranking on search engine results.

Integrated animations
The purpose of this strategy is to make it easy for visitors to understand a concept. Integrated animations are also used to entertain audiences. Again, this trend has been promoted by technology advances. Advances in browser technology have made it easy for websites to move from static images to new ways which include animations.

New trends keep on rising. It is your job to keep up with these trends and learn about them before you start work on a web design Santee. The above trends will get you started on the right track.

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6 Never Dying Web Design Practices

Web design Santee has come a long way. There are new trends to keep up with almost every other month. But there are certain practices that are virtually undying. If you are thinking of building a new website or reworking your old one, there are a few practices you will need to keep up with. Below are the top undying practices in web development.

Focus on target audiences
The first is to focus on your target audience. One of the worst mistakes you can make as a web designer Santee is that of not keeping your audiences first. In every step that you take, the needs and wants of your audiences must always come first. Start by understanding what they want from you then create a website that appeals to them. Don’t create a website that appeals to you but one that appeals to your target audience.

Branding has to be consistent
Another critical thing you will need to do is to keep branding consistent. Your audience should not feel like they landed on a completely different website each time they open a new page. The design of your website needs to be consistent and so should all your online marketing efforts. Your visitors should be able to link the design of your website and all online content to you.

The layout should be simplified
In an effort to be unique, most designers tend to add too many elements on their websites. Others will go to the lengths of using never-seen-before layouts. As much as these can help create an amazing website, it will end up confusing your audiences. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Use standard layouts so that your website remains as intuitive as possible.

CTAs must be strong
Visitors still want to be told what to do next. This is why you should add calls to action. The CTAs need to be clear and strong. They should also be placed at appropriate places on your website. They must also be higher in the design and in a color that makes them hard to miss.

Use quality images and videos
The media you add to your website should also be of high quality. Low quality images and videos send the wrong message to your audiences. Invest in high quality content. The last thing you want is for the low quality of your content to be perceived as the quality of services they will get from you.

Follow the SEO best practices
Last but not least, you need to adhere to the best SEO practices. SEO rules keep on changing. Every time you plan on creating a website or updating an old one, you need to make sure you understand all the SEO rules. A good web designer Santee will help with this.

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