An Internet presence is not just for Fortune 500 companies and with the explosive growth of blogging for personal use as well as pleasure, web site design along with the essential knowledge of search engine optimization is now a powerful addition to a college student's course of study.
Gone are the days where a simple text file with an html extension was all you needed to get your web site started. There was a time when frames were the rage. If your browser could not view frames you would see the ‘your browser does not support frames’ message that made you feel very behind the times and left out as if you were missing something. And in fact you were missing something!
Now, frames are passe. You need to use some CSS code instead!
Not every web site on the Internet is designed or maintained by a web design company. It is still possible to plan and implement your own web site and the software to build it is readily available. But even with up to date software, designing, writing and maintaining a web site requires more than just basic knowledge of the web site files and storage. Planning a web site that will achieve the goal of the owner requires not only some technical skill but an eye for artistic style, good planning and knowledge of search engine optimization. Any web design software program can help to create a simply planned web site. But after you have built your site and uploaded your files to the web hosting server, make sure you give it a really good test drive.
How do you test drive a web site? Here are four things about a web site you will want to examine:
• How does it look in at least three of the major web browsers? It should look the same in all three. (i.e. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome)
• How does it look at different monitor resolutions? Do you need scroll bars or is some of the site cut off at lower resolutions? ( 800 x 600 vs. 1024 x 768)
• How quickly does it load at different connection speeds? Will the reader lose interest before all your pictures load? (Cable Modem vs. Phone Modem)
• Test every link!
Artistically you want a web site to be pleasing to your audience. If you are building a site targeting a young audience you want to use colours and images they can relate to rather than making them think of something Mom or Dad might like. Don’t just think of your target audience - think like your target audience! Before you start to build a web site you need a plan. You should know where you want your reader to start, the path you want them to follow, and where you want them to end up before they leave your site. Do you want to share information? Do you want them to give you information? Do you want to sell them something? Create the plan on paper and then build each step of the way with the software. Once you’ve created your plan and built your web site you want visitors to find it. If no one knows you have a web site the chance of someone stumbling across it among the other millions of sites on the Internet is almost impossible. Learn the important aspects of search engine optimization (SEO).
When you understand and follow the guidelines for effective SEO you are literally making it easier and much more likely that an Internet user will find your web site using the search words they enter on sites like Google and Yahoo.
If you build it with SEO in mind, they will come and because you tested it you know your site will look good in every browser!
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