gold coast web design
Effective Gold Coast Web Design is a blend between my web design skills and your business skills. You know what you want – I can make it happen!
Have you ever visited a website and asked yourself how they could have made it so great? From layout to graphic design, there are many elements which turn a website from good to great. This article will show you some of the many tips and tricks which the pros use to make your website so much better than a home-made one.
Don’t try to fit too much onto one page when you’re designing a website. If your page is too busy it will take a lot longer to load and can overwhelm visitors. When you’re going to be putting up a lot of content, create pages for everything you can to reduce the clutter on your page. Then link pages together so that your visitors can move around your website easily.
Then make your links obvious. Customers do not like spending time wading through your site searching for something they are interested in. Having a site map, as well as providing big, prominent links will help your viewer find what they are looking for without wasting time in a hunt. Lead them to your information.
To help your Gold Coast Web Design function the way it is intended to, check to make sure all your links are working.
For your image tags, make sure your Gold Coast Web Designer includes a brief description in the ALT attribute. Not only is this good for search engine optimization, but it is also beneficial to the sight-impaired users who rely on screen readers to describe image tag contents. Make your description short and as descriptive as possible.
The right tools are essential for good sites. Building a site from scratch can be overwhelming for amateur designers, so take advantage of the wide variety of design tools and programs that pro web designers have available. Some of these web design tools cost hundreds of dollars; others are known only to the expert. You can build your own website but the lack of tools and know how mean it will probably look home made, not professional.
In addition, things change very quickly online. Most pro web designers are members of online forums that allow them to stay update. Google, in particular, changes the rules several times a year. Pro Gold Coast Web Designers make time to stay up to date; if you are running a full time business, staying up to date on web design issues is extremely difficult.
When joining these online forums you meet people who usually have an understanding of all the new web design technology, and specialised expertise in almost any area of web design. However, much of language is “geek” that only the pro web designer understands. Without the latest web design technology you could end up with a site that is completely outdated.
Always make sure that your Gold Coast Web Design works well in every browser. Your coding might look great in Firefox, but it could be askew in Internet Explorer. You need to ask you web designer to ensure that things look good in all popular browsers. For more on different web browsers, please click here.
Educate yourself on how a website actually works – that way you know if your Gold Coast Web Designer is being straight with you. We show you how to deal with simple problems on your site (like changing a phone number or address), saving you time and money, while educating you on things you should use us for (like changing the site settings).
Know your subject. If you plan on using your site for a blog or similar endeavor, you should be sure to do thorough research on the subject before you talk to a web designer. Having a “look and feel” for your site, eg , similar to www.examplesite.com, can speed up the process for you.
Some people even sketch out a design on their computer, or drawn it on a piece of paper. But, be open to changes – as you develop the site, you or the web designer may have ideas that improve the original concept.
Don’t use too many different fonts or text colors on your web pages. Word processing or web authoring software may present a dizzying array of specialty fonts or wacky colors, but if you use too many, the text on your website may become unreadable. A good practice is to use just one or two fonts per page and avoid excessive use of bold or italic text.
But the best tip we can give you is to ring Terry on 0468 420 470 now and get pro Gold Coast Web Design working on making your dream a reality!
Buying a Website – Off-Site Promotion and the Cost of Buying a Website
An Ezine Article Post by Terence Fisher
What does Buying a Website Cost and What are the Payment Terms?
There are two sides to this. The first is how much money your web designer wants upfront. A minimum of $100 deposit up front will normally be required to show that you are serious about buying a website. The balance should not become not due until you have a few top 30 Google rankings. Some Web design Companies Guarantee Top 30 Google / Yahoo results within 60 days – or your website is free; they are pretty focused on getting results for you if they do not get paid until they do, ensuring your website creation does not drag on.
The other important aspect is understanding very clearly what you are getting for your money, and what is not included. The website design field is littered with arguments about, “but I thought I was going to get…” Be clear from the very start what is included, and what is not included. This should be published on the website design company’s website.
Pricing should be flexible, allowing you to buy only what you need, from a basic “online-brochure” to a Guaranteed Top 30 Listing website. For most small businesses, in 2010, under $600 for buying a website is a reasonable target. However, for a hobby site under $400 may do the trick. You should also be able to build a custom package, where you pay only for what you need.
While the highest quote is not necessarily the best, nor is the lowest. Value for Money is what it is all about. A $600 site that ranks highly in Google and brings new business is a better investment than a $300 site that is buried so deep in Google you need to hire a jungle guide to find it!
Always, always, always, ask, “Is this going to make me more money than it costs?”
What ongoing fees are there?
For people with very little experience with websites, it is quite normal to pay someone with the necessary expertise to host and maintain your website and look after your domain name. Anything over $30 per month for hosting is excessive and your domain name should not cost you more than $30 per annum for a dot com (in 2010, when this article was written).
You can host your own website if you have the necessary expertise and look after your own domain name.
Make sure any quote you get includes maintenance, in addition to hosting. One critical area that even experienced web designers forget is to make a backup of your Web site on a regular basis. Any monthly charge should ensure your website is backed up every week. Website backups are like computer backups – you think about it around ten seconds after you realise you need it!
What Off-Site Marketing is Included?
This is one of the most misunderstood aspects of Web Design, both from a web designer perspective and from a client perspective.
A highly ranked website will bring you an increase in business; a highly ranked website that is being actively marketed will bring you even more of an increase in business. Website Designers that have no Marketing skills can be dangerous to your Business’s health!
To understand this, if you have a retail store and have chosen a great location, then you have the equivalent of a website that is ranked highly on Google; both are highly visible. however, you still advertise your retail store and there is an online equivalent of this.
If you talk to a web designer and they consider their work finished when they have created your website, alarm bells should be ringing. On the Internet, there are three quick and easy ways to attract more visitors.
The first is through video, with Youtube obviously being by far the most important site, but not necessarily the only one. When buying a website, make sure creating a video for you and uploading it to YouTube is included. Some website designers are not great at creating Videos; even fewer know how to successfully market a YouTube video, but the importance of YouTube these days makes it critical that you cover this base.
Secondly, EzineArticles should be included; EzineArticles is to articles what Google is to Search Engines. Using the 80/20 Rule, EzineArticles and YouTube are essential; if you have time, then move to the lesser sites.
The third element is what is known as Social Marketing. My preference is for Article Marketing and Video Marketing, but for some people it may be things like Facebook, Twitter and Myspace. Which is best depends on your personal preferences, your product and what, if anything, you already have in place. If you are the president of the local Pony Society and you are marketing items related to that, if you have thousands of people already following you on Twitter, then you have an established market.
In terms of product, it is important to understand that different age groups buy differently, and you must therefore market to what is appropriate for that age group.
Check out the Free “Must-Know” info at the Gold Coast Web Design Company “Business Websites Gold Coast” – before you decide to buy a website.
While based on Australia’s Gold Coast, Business Websites Gold Coast build websites for clients Worldwide.
The unique claim to fame that this particular Gold Coast Web Design Company has is a $495 price tag that absolutely Guarantees a Top 30 Google Listing – Or your website is Free! This includes one YouTube Video plus one ezine article.
Terry not only designs top value-for-money websites, he also has online businesses of his own. This ensures the marketing and business skills required to support creating a profitable website for you are in place.
See an update for 2018 on this article here.
Hope you enjoyed our “Buying a Website – Off-Site Promotion and the Cost of Buying a Website” Article!
Buying A Website.
7 Critical Factors That Make or Break Your Business – Another of our Ezine articles. This article focuses on the Planning Stage of buying a website. Like building a house, building a website goes much better with planning and preparation ahead of buying a website.
Here are the 7 Critical Factors you must consider before buying a website. Enjoy.
By Terry Fisher
Buying a website, whether business, personal or for your hobby, can be a whole new experience to a person who does not yet have a web presence. Searches on Google can give you confusing results, ending in frustration. So you might be wondering, what’s the ultimate way to buy affordable websites.
Here are 7 critical factors to be considered before buying a website, and there is a hard way and an easy way to cover most of these.
1. Getting a Domain Name
When you buy a website, the first task is registering the correct domain name. A domain name should be chosen very carefully, and we recommend leaving it to the experts – your domain name can make or break your business. It should be precise and relevant to the subject matter of your business/profession/hobby.
Secondly, it is always better to choose a short domain name, because it is easy to remember. Despite the assertion that all the good domain names have gone, a good local web design company like ours has special tools and techniques that can result in a pleasant surprise.
2. Web Hosting Provider Selection
You should look for well-established, reliable web hosting providers when considering buying a website. The server should be fast and backed up by mirror servers. When a server hosts your website, there may be occasional times when there is excessive load or traffic that ultimately results in non-availability of your website. A mirror server acts as a standby and immediately transmits your web content when needed. Again, any local web design company will already have expertise in this area, saving you hours of research when buying affordable websites. If you let your local web design company handle web hosting for you, then you save on set up time and costs, and the technical aspects of web hosting are not your problem. Let us sort this for you.
3. Website Design
The next important factor to consider before buying a website is that of web design. The website should be designed in such a manner so that its main message is clear to the visitor. A poorly designed website turns customers away – the exact opposite of what you are trying to achieve. A basic decision is the platform – WordPress, conventional HTML site, Joomla, etc. Most modern local web design companies go for WordPress these days, a great route to affordable websites that do not break the budget but look terrific.
4. Easy Navigation
A website should have easy navigation, including a sitemap to cover every piece of information on the site. The old business adage of “Make it easy for your customers to do business with you” is very relevant when you buy a website.
5. Colours and graphics
Likewise, the website should be easy on the eye. A “hard” coloured website is often abrasive and causes clients to click away. Moreover, the graphics should be optimized to appear faster on the screen; otherwise the visitor may leave the webpage, even before it gets fully loaded. Respect your visitor’s time when you buy a website and look for affordable websites that are graphically optimized. In particular, avoid Flash websites. Websites that use flash technology are always slower to load and have more to do with satisfying your website designers ego than satisfying your client’s needs.
6. SEO Optimization and Integrated Website Marketing
Before deciding on buying a website, look for SEO optimization plus integrated website marketing. Bit of a mouthful; SEO optimization is simply technical stuff necessary to get good Google Rankings, and best left to your local web design company. We can handle this for you.
Integrated Website Marketing includes adding YouTube videos to your website, creating supportive articles like this one, social bookmarking / networking etc. This should be part of any local web design package.
There are few things sadder than a website that is nicely built, looks good – but with no traffic coming to it. The easy solution lies in SEO and integrated website marketing, where the marketing aspect of your web presence is integrated within the web design package you buy; without proper marketing, the best-looking website may prove to be a dead investment.
7. Considering Quality Vs Affordability
Finally, think of balancing quality vs. affordability before deciding to buy a website. If you focus only on the quality aspects of a website, you may have to invest thousands of dollars. On the contrary, a great looking website does not need to be a cheap website.
So look for that rare combination of quality plus affordability when buying a website. Affordable websites that look great are our speciality.
Here you can buy affordable websites that look fabulous for just $495 (current 2011) with a Top 30 Google spot guaranteed, plus a Youtube video. Even better, all the technical stuff is handled for you – a great domain name is found for you, linked to your web hosting on your behalf, even the Youtube video is uploaded for you – leaving you free to concentrate on your business. So, if a cheap website that looks like a million dollars and has everything handled for you is what you are looking for, call us now on 0468 420 470.
Let us make buying a website easy for you!
This quick “Overview” video profiles some of the Gold Coast Business websites we have built. For Full Details, please see “Sample Gold Coast Business Websites”
And make sure you Check Out: Buying A Website: Avoid Buying A Lemon! below before you buy from me or anyone else.
Yes, you can buy it outright for as little as $195 or up to $495 for the “Rolls Royce” version. Price points are $195, $295, $395 or $495 depending on your needs and budget. If you click the “Sample Websites” at the top, most of these are $495 sites, including videos and uploading to YouTube for greater exposure. We also work with you to produce a couple of articles for your site – maybe profiling you, your product, what makes you different etc. In terms of Gold Coast web design, our focus is more on getting new customers for you than having a flashy website no-one ever sees.
The $195 is basically an “online brochure” that allows you to add a website address to your business card and add pictures of your product to the website (effectively “expanding” your business card, eg, see products at www.mywebsite.com).
For the $395 and $495 versions, you can have a “custom” look including your pictures in the header (most websites / blogs are built from “templates” and so there can be hundreds of sites looking like yours). Our Gold Coast website design custom themes include making you “look” different.
The big advantage with the $495 version is that you *might* get it for free; IF we can not get your site in the first 30 Google or Yahoo Results within 60 days of site completion, no charge. This involves a lot of “behind the scenes” work and is the main difference between the $395 and $495 versions.
We do have a $595 Platinum Model, but many people may not need it. For $595, we Guarantee a Page One Google Listing, which involves extra work and extra costs for me. To be honest, the $495 website that Guarantees a Top 30 Google Listing usually results in several Top 30 Google Listings, at least one of which kicks on to a Page One Google Listing. However, it depends largely on how competitive your Keywords are; we discuss this before sign up.
And, your Small Business Website will be ready in days not months!
We specialize in providing a Quality Solution at an Affordable price. You can get a cheap Gold Coast Business Website built, but it is just that – Cheap. And a cheap image is not want you want for business. Check below to find out why cheap business websites on the Gold Coast could destroy not only your business, but you personally!
To Get Your Small Business in front of people looking for exactly what you are selling – Please ring Terry on (07) 55 348 322, or email me at [email protected] Look forward to working with and delivering a great small business Gold Coast website !
Another of my Published Ezine Articles – Enjoy!
HOURLY RE-ENERGIZING – THE KEY TO PRODUCTIVITY
How can a kitchen timer be a productivity tool? Well, can you identify with this scenario – you spend hours sitting at your desk without taking a break.. Yeh, me too. When I first went to a Tony Robbins seminar, I was amazed that I could put in 12 to 15 hour days for four to six days at a time, and still have energy to burn at the end of the day. A feature of any Tony Robbins seminar is that every hour you get up, stretch, normally dance for five minutes to great music, and generally re-energize. Hourly Re-Energizing: The Key To Productivity and Health!
I had every intention of carrying this on when I got home, but settled back into my normal routine of sitting at my desk for hours on end. It was at this stage that I brought to the kitchen timer.
THE “ENERGY BREAK”
My normal routine now is to work for 50 minutes and take a 10 minute break. I set my kitchen timer for 50 minutes and get up within five minutes of it going off, and take an “Energy Break.” This energy break can take several forms and you can choose the one that works best for you.
I have four main energy break routines, but they have several things in common. The first is is that they get my lungs pumping at maximum capacity. Clearing the stale air out of your lungs and effectively having an oxygen break is a major tool in replenishing your energy stores and re-sharpening your mind.
The second factor is exercising your heart and getting the blood pumping around your body again. Not only does your heart start pumping again, but because you are breathing heavily, your blood is being oxygenated.
PERSONAL REBOUNDERS
One of my favourite energy break activities is using my personal rebounder, or mini trampoline. After your heart and lungs, the third most important health mechanism is your lymph system. Unlike the heart and lungs, the lymph system has no pump to drive it. One of the few activities that drives the lymph system is bouncing up and down. The lymph system is fundamental to good health and so I highly recommend using a personal rebounder at least twice a day. I am not sure if it is true, but I remember reading somewhere that five minutes on a rebounder is the equivalent of running a mile – and definitely much easier on your joints. And if you struggle with constipation, the mini trampoline is the greatest natural cure there is!
THE FIVE TIBETAN RITES
Another activity that you can do for just five minutes that gives enormous benefits is the Five Tibetan Rites. Google “Five Tibetan Rites” and you can easily find five exercises that are deceptively simple but incredibly effective. These five exercises are said to exercise every muscle in the body. The advantage of this form of exercise is that you need no equipment and can do it anywhere. Another major benefit is that incorporates stretching into your exercise regime. While I’ve always looked after my aerobic and strength capacities, I have to concede that stretching has been one of the missing elements in a balanced exercise regime, and has become increasingly important as I have gotten older.
TRX TRAINERS
My third form of exercise is using a TRX trainer. The TRX trainer was originally developed for use by the Navy Seals and will fit easily in your briefcase. Because I work from home my TRX trainer is hooked over my office door as a constant reminder that I need five minutes exercise every hour; this way, it gets used. My TRX Trainer also travels with me, as does my two page Tibetan Rites exercise chart.
DANCE LIKE THERE IS NO-ONE WATCHING
My final form of exercise, and one the ladies will love, is to “Dance like there is no one watching.” An aging rocker, my favourite music includes people like Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, Roy Orbison, etc and dancing to your favourite music is a great way to rejuvenate your energy levels.
RE-ENERGIZE – SHARPEN YOUR MIND – BOOST PRODUCTIVITY
So, get yourself a kitchen timer, divide every hour into 50 minutes of work and 5 to 10 minutes of exercise – and watch your energy levels and productivity soar. A word of warning though – there is as side effect: you become trim, taut and terrific by incorporating 5-minute energy breaks into your day; if you can not handle looking and feeling great, do not do it!
40 MINUTES OF EXERCISE – 5 MINUTES AT A TIME
Note that if you work an 8 hour day, your 8 x 5 minute exercise breaks add up to 40 minutes exercise a day, so now the “I do not have time to exercise” excuse does not work. And if you are in poor health, 8 x 5 minute sessions may well suit you better than a vigorous 40 minute exercise routine.
On a more serious note, if you are not in good shape please consult your medical practitioner before commencing any exercise program. If you are obese or in poor health, a 5 minute walk around the block may be more appropriate to start with.
Terry Fisher runs the Gold Coast Web Design Company Business Websites Gold Coast. While based on Australia’s Gold Coast, Business Websites Gold Coast build websites for clients Worldwide.
The unique claim to fame that this particular Gold Coast Web Design Company has is a $495 price tag that absolutely Guarantees a Top 30 Google Listing – Or your website is Free!
Terry Fisher is also a Health Freak; he uses and recommends TRX Trainers for time-effective fitness training. TRX Suspension Trainers were originally designed for the Navy Seals and are a highly portable, use anywhere, take on business trips, body weight fitness trainer.
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