71 Webmaster Tools All For Free

Just about anyone with a computer and an internet connection can make a website. Creativity and purpose though, solely rests on the author’s shoulders.  There are plenty of free web hosting services out there and you only have to look for one that suits your needs. Features like customization, available space, uploading/downloading method and scripting are usually what sets these free hosting sites apart from one another. If you find these sites too limiting for you, paid web hosting sites are available and they do provide more advanced features like larger web spaces and a more intuitive interface for site management. The good support, bandwidth and uptime percentage absolutely makes the paid web hosting sites a favorite for people who are trying to create a website for their business.

Whether you are putting up a website for your business or if you are just a hobbyist, you will have needs that both the paid and free web hosting sites won’t be able to satisfy. That’s where tools that enhance your website comes in. Like a site director supervising in an actual physical site, the webmaster needs certain tools and apparatus’ that are essential in running a website. Basic web tools like guest books, counters and link checkers are some of the staple tools that every good website should have. Aside from increasing the efficiency of your website, these tools also enable site administrators to gather some statistical data that will help in the upkeep and development of the site.

A byproduct of that statistical data, personally, is the gratifying or dejecting experience to see how many hits you had (or lack of it) in your site for one day or since its inception. More advanced web tools like meta-tag generators, link popularity and Google predictors assist in making your site’s net presence more visible to a bigger and more relevant crowd. More utilities and tools that function to augment your website are out there. Fortunately, there are websites that exist for the sole purpose of being a “toolbox” for webmasters. These nifty sites are invaluable in that aside from providing free tools, they also include information about how to use the tools provided.

Nothing is more frustrating than having to figure things out for yourself in a trial and error manner, which consumes too much time. Crafting, constructing and designing will really be easier and faster with the aid of these toolbox websites. The time you save in formatting, organizing and devising your website can be used in making or researching for the content on your site. Content being the primary reason as to why people would visit your site.  

What better way to get you started on the internet than by making your presence known via your own personal website. And, what better way to create the perfect site than to use free and readily available tools in the net. If you know your way around cyberspace then you’ll surely appreciate the advanced tools that make maintaining and gathering information from your website a breeze.

Thanks and regards, Guruji Softwares

10 Ways of Getting Content For Your Site Part 1

Content is really important for webmasters.  Why?  When people surf the web, they are looking for information. They aren't looking for you specifically, unless you're well-known. If they visit your site and don't what they're looking for, they will leave quickly.  And they probably won't return to your site.  Well, they might stumble back onto your site, but not on purpose.

Quality sites provide quality content.  Quality content helps you retain visitors.  Visitors may spread the word about your site and thus attract new visitors.

Adding new high quality content to your site regularly is also beneficial.  With more content, you will have more pages indexed by the search engines.  More pages indexed means you will have more opportunities for people to find you via search engines.

So how exactly do you get content for your site?

1. Your unique knowledge

Everybody knows something others don't.  Use your own unique insight and knowledge to provide content.  Think of what activities you've participated in the past.  Think of what you've learned through past experiences.  Any experiences can help, whether at home, school, work, or anywhere else.  Of course, providing your own content regularly can be very difficult.

2. Personal stories

Personal stories are the basis of some sites and blogs.  Want to connect with your audience and let them know more about you?  Use personal stories.  However, if you don't want to be too personal, make sure you inject your personality into your writing.  Personality differentiates you from the rest and can keep visitors coming back.

3. How-to guides

People have problems and like to figure out how to solve them.  Had some problem you struggled with for a while? Did you eventually solve it?  The way you solved it could be written into a how-to guide.  Or write a how-to guide about your expert area.  For example, if you're a technical computer whiz, you could write a how-to guide for fixing computers.

4. Do research

Do some research on the web.  Use search engines, search directories, and follow links to find relevant sites.  Do some research at your local library.  Grab some books about your site's topic and start digging through them.  Find local experts, teachers, and professors and ask them questions about your site's topic.  When you research, note down interesting ideas and you'll undoubtedly learn more.  You'll have more unique knowledge that you can turn into content.  You might even discover something earth-shattering!

5. Subscribe to newsletters

Good newsletters are a great way to keep informed about a particular topic.  They can keep you informed of offers that you may be able to provide on your own site.  As well, they can keep you on top of what's happening in your area by providing time-sensitive content.

Thanks and regards, Guruji Softwares

10 Step Web Design and Development Contract Agreement

This is not written by a professional lawyer or anyone close to one. It is written by a typically business owner of a successful web development company who has no law degree or the budget to hire a lawyer to write a web development contract. However, they are in need of a contract agreement that will assure a project will be well outlined for both the client and the developer as to what the expectations are of the entire project.

I must write a disclaimer that this proven web development agreement is purely based on experience and knowledge of the  web design and development industry. Others may write these contracts and agreements differently. This article is written to help others who wish to know how to begin to write a 10 step web design and development agreement. So enough said, let’s get down to the 10 steps:

1. Scope of Services: Start off with the most important aspect of the entire project. What exactly are you as the developer going to do for the client? Present a general 3-5 sentence summary of the scope of service. Will you be responsible for the design and programming? How will the website be updated? Who will be responsible for the marketing at the end of the project? Who will host the website when the project is done?

2. Price and Payments This is the area where you are upfront and state the exact price payment and terms of the payment is split up into installments. Is the project quoted at a fixed rate? Is it an hourly rate and how is this documented and tracked? Will the payments be made with a certain percentage up front as a down payment and then a monthly billing cycle, or is it a milestone related payment system?

3. Term and Termination How long will this agreement contract be enforceable?  If the client does not want to pursue the project ¾ of the way through the project how can he get out? What are the penalties and time frame they can exit the contract? This is crucial especially to web development agreements with entrepreneurs and startups who many times have a great idea, some type of outline or business plan for what they wish to do, but for some reason never finish through with the project. Then as the developer you must have certain rights. Do you keep all of the code that has been developed? Can you finish it and retain intellectual property to it? Many factors can go in this area, but it protects both the client and the developer in the case a developer never is able to complete a project or continues to be late on deliverable and the client wishes to terminate the relationship.

4. Ownership of Intellectual Property One aspect that needs to be addressed is who will retain the intellectual property to the project? Typically the client retains all intellectual property. This area highlights all of the intellectual property covered such as the source code, all digital files, documentation, etc. Intellectual property is very important to any and all web design and development projects. 5. Confidential Information Many clients wish to keep all information that is exchanged within a project to the developer as highly confidential and cannot be disclosed whatsoever. This must be addressed in any agreement as to the extent that information can be disclosed. Can the developer mention that they are working for the client during the course of the project to other prospects or potential clients? Many developers use their portfolio of clients as sales tools for other clients. This area must represent exactly what is disclosed and for how long. What period of time is the information kept confidential and so on.

6. Warranty and Disclaimer Having a warranty on the work that is developed is standard in most web projects. Typically a 30-90 day warranty is given on all work to be functional and bug free. Now this is the area that small details such as the client having access to the server and by mistake entering the files and making changes on mistake that affect the functionality within the terms. Think of the label on products that you purchase such as furniture and mattresses. It says that the warranty is void if you tear the label off. This is what you can address in this area. You will provide warranty on certain terms and conditions with specific disclaimers as well.

7. Limitation of Liability This is the area in which the developer discloses that they are not liable for any losses of money for the developer or other economic losses directly or indirectly associated with the development of the website. Some less experiences clients will turn around to the developer as the source of their website not succeeding online. Avoid issues in the future if something does not succeed that the client thought would, especially things that the developer cannot control once the website is launched. Also, during the project itself, if for whatever reason there is a financial loss, it protects you as a developer.

8. Relation of Parties Make sure that the client and developer understand what their relationship is. Is the relationship a development partnership? Is it strictly a work-for-hire type relationship? Is it a client and vendor relationship. This is the area where this needs to be highlighted to make sure the business relationship is understood.

9. Employee Solicitation / Hiring Many developers never think twice about this, but there have been cases where clients have lured employees or freelancers of the developer during or after the project was completed. Of course this has huge negative aspects associated to it if this happens. That is why this area is also extremely crucial to lay out the fact that the client can not solicit the developers employees in any way when it comes to potential hiring or additional perks. Specify a certain amount of time for this as well. Typically this time from is between 2-5 years.

10. Entire Agreement This is the ending of the document that basically should say that the entire document and its attributes fall under the entire contract and that nothing will supersede it. Also, this is the area the will have the client and developers key representative who will sign it, date it, and post their roles within the company. Make sure that any and all modifications after signature are signed with initials of both parties next to the change.

These 10 steps to writing a successful web design and development contract and agreement will give a peace of mind to both the client and developer and will pave the way to a trusting business relationship.

Some clients may be surprised when presented with what could be a 2-4 page document to read and sign. Don’t be afraid to walk them through each point and reaffirm the fact that such a document is needed to protect them as a client and you as a developer in any unwanted circumstances, at the same time highlights exactly what everyone’s obligations are. With that said, there should be no issues and the client should be willing to sign the document. Of course if they are not willing to sign the document perhaps it is a financial loss to you as the developer but in the long run it will avoid headaches and even more substantial financial losses.

Thanks and regards, Guruji Softwares

Stuck with a generic business card?

Business cards are the most popular marketing tool for any business, big or small. But their familiarity can oftentimes result to it being overlooked or under-utilized when advertising strategies are implemented.

Here are some ways on making some “make-over”:

Use your mind to “pinch” the existing card. Add a sticker, write your name or a discount offer on the back, emphasize your guarantee, and use fancy scissors to dress up the edges, or put a hole in the card.  Anything you can do to personalize your business card will increase its chances of being kept and remembered.

Wrap up your card imaginatively.  Use removable adhesive to stick it inside a classy note card or deliver your business card with style in an attractively wrapped box for immediate impact.

With the business card presentations, apply some memorable actions.  Handing your business card to someone with both hands, for example, is a simple way to add psychological importance to the card.  Learning a magic trick using business cards or using an unusual business card case are also effective tactics.

Also try to consider:

Adding more color to your cards.  The vast majority of cards are printed in black ink on white card stock.  Use colored card stock and your card is immediately more noticeable than 90% of your competitor’s cards.

Printing more than one card.  Many entrepreneurs accomplish more than one role, own more than one business, or use business cards in different situations.  It is not a good idea to try and put all information into a single card.

Use your business card not only as a marketing tool but as a means of conveying contact information.  Design a business card that explains what you do and why someone should hire you to do it.

For many people, an address is not anymore essential information on a business card.  The space for that one could be best utilized by putting on your benefits, store hours and other guarantee.

You do not have to wait for someone to tell you to go and change your cards. No other better time than today to have a look at your business cards and plan the changes you can do with them to better improve your change’s of being recognized.

You just might be missing out on the bigger things business cards can do for your business.

Thanks and regards,  Guruji Softwares 

Submit Your Site with Great Creativity

In Kolkata people will find different web designing companies but among all web design company Guruji Softwares  is one of the most important one. Guruji Softwares taking care of the website design also. Our quality developers can design website as per your requirements. Web Design company Guruji Softwares service with PHP-MySQL, Flash, Javascript, HTML, JSP, ASP, and ASP.NET. Guruji Softwares expert Joomla, phpBB, Word press and many other CMS, Blog and Discussion Board Developers. Guruji Softwares doing outsourcing web design jobs on many famous websites. So feel free to work with us. It's cheap and satisfying. Guruji Softwares also provides cheap personalized web Development Service, Online Installation and Troubleshooting Service, Online Security Service, Wholesale and all kinds of AMC Services. When your site is new to the internet, the payments will start out small, but with more and more visitors, a lot of money can be made from the increased traffic. Once you have everything in place, the final step to develop a web design is to get it active and noticed. You can submit it to search engines so people can find it in popular searches. You can also pay for advertising yourself and have your page show up as links on other pages on the Internet.

By use of Web Design Kolkata Company Guruji Softwares each web site gets a striking response from the visitors. Everyone loves your web site. The links keep flowing in, and your counter grows and grows. Before a month is out, you have a hot search engine ranking, a write-up in a top directory and a handful of willing contributors. No kidding. Plus, your web site looks damn good. It is a dream, right? Web design is just step to proceed in online marketing. It makes web life better and smooth. Every want to make their site more celebrated than other and here web design Kolkata Company Guruji Softwares with the technology of SEO makes one’s life easier than other.

Web Design Kolkata company Guruji Softwares one of the growing companies in India.  This company takes care of the customers who are really unable to buy 100 dollars web designing for their small or medium business website. Web designing Kolkata having some web designing packages offers very creative services in the market. Particularly for those customers who are want the service at a really very cheap rate. Cheap means it does not provide bad in quality.

Thanks and regards, Guruji Softwares 

Successful Website - Secrets

Does your business have a presence on the Internet? Is it doing well? Did you know that the most important factor effecting your business on the internet is your web site? No matter how good your product is, no matter how low your product is priced at, success on the internet depends wholly on your website. If the website is not professional looking, the chances of your success are slim.

This article assumes that you are conversant with HTML and includes a few tips on designing a professional looking website.

* The home page should load in the browser in less than 8 seconds at 56.6 Kbps connection. The customer never waits, costing you precious business.

* Search Engines are the agents that bring traffic to your site; about 80% of web traffic comes through search engines today. To make your website friendly to search engines, make sure that proper META tags are included in each of the pages. Before you edit the site or make one, make sure that you understand how to optimize the website.

* Choose your backgrounds and colors carefully. Dark colors and interesting backgrounds take the focus away from the content. Maintain the color and background theme throughout the site. Colors have an effect on the mood of the visitor. Choose carefully as per your requirements.

* Choose not to use animation on you site. Animation cause slow loading speed and also look unprofessional.

* The home page should contain relevant information on what you are offering. If the visitor cannot find the product or service at the home page, you will lose him forever.

* Avoid using banners. If you need to use them, keep them limited to 1 per page.

* Always display contact information on every page of your website. Also keep the response times minimal, within 48 hours to promote better relationships.

* Make sure all links and images are working properly on the website. Check for grammar in the content. A professional website should not have mistakes in it and should contain a logo on each page. Make sure that a visitor can get from the start to the end of his destination within 4 clicks.

* The navigation should be simple and easy. Keep all navigation links together.

* Java and frames should be used sparingly, to speed up loading times and to ensure search engine friendliness.

* Finally before uploading, check the site loading different browsers. All browsers are not made equal.

* Keep your site up-to-date and change content every fortnight. The regular visitors should have a reason to come back.

For more information and tips, visit https://gurujisoftwares.com

Thanks and regards, Guruji Softwares 

Guruji Softwares web designers | affordable web developers and designers

Guruji Softwares Internet draws on the skills of senior level Sunshine Coast Web Designers experts in web site design and web development. India's leading online marketing company has a large and expert team of professional web designers.

Designing a website involves the arrangement and creation of Web pages that in turn make up a website. Our team of Guruji Softwares Web Designers takes pride in researching and understanding your business needs before we develop innovative solutions in logo design & corporate identity, print media, web portals, eCommerce solutions, website design, database modelling, Internet marketing, search engine optimisation, software development, IT consulting and other data-driven Web applications.

There are many aspects in the process of website designing that the Sunshine Coast Web Designers at http://www.Guruji Softwares.com have to take into consideration while creating the perfect website.

Guruji Softwares Internet draws on the skills of senior level Guruji Softwares Web Designers experts in web development and web site design. These professionals specialize in using cutting-edge Internet technologies to meet your e-business needs. Blending an appropriate mix of business experience, communication and technology skills along with design creativity, the Guruji Softwares Web Designers design, develop and implement your new media project on time and on budget.

For typical commercial Web sites, the basic aspects of design are:

•             The appearance: The graphics and text should include a single style that flows throughout, to show consistency. The style should be professional, appealing and relevant.

•             The content: The substance and information on the site should be relevant to the site and should target relevant public that the website is concerned with.

•             The usability: With the interface and navigation simple and reliable, the site should be user-friendly.

•             The visibility: The site must also be easy to find in almost all major search engines and advertisement media.

There are many web designers in India. India's leading online marketing company http://www.Guruji Softwares.com has a large team of professional web designers. Our track record proves our clients gain measurable results from the sites our Guruji Softwares Web Designers create for them. Therefore  Guruji Softwares Web Designers is the choice of several clients. 

Thanks and regards, Guruji Softwares

Guruji Softwares website design | web site development company in India

Guruji Softwares coast website design is a local website design company that offers a wide range of Website Design solutions specializing in construction of quality websites for today's challenging internet market. Website design is very important as it displays the potential of the business it represents.

High-quality website design is essential for companies and corporate agencies to promote their online business and to market products to the customers. Businesses who want to take advantage of the internet world today are bound to tweak their website with the help of Web Site Design Companies. Web site design is used in some chief mediums like:

•             Building Websites for businesses

•             Real Estate Agents

•             Entertainment industry to promote movies and sitcoms

•             News media to provide latest news to people all over the world.

•             For personal promotions.

Website design is very important as it displays the potential of the business it represents. A badly designed web page would repel most visitors from the site and this would eventually effect the person or business the website design represent.

Guruji Softwares coast website design is a local website design company that offers a wide range of Website Design solutions specializing in construction of quality websites for today's challenging internet market. We specialize in custom web site design, web development, search engine optimization and ecommerce websites.

A good website design firm like https://gurujisoftwares.com can construct the most efficient website for you. Your website is effective only if it quickly moves the user from visiting to inquiring to buying your product or service. Once you provide us with details about your business needs, our expert Guruji Softwares coast website design team starts working on your project. Since time is the essence in business, we believe, a fast turn-around time is a major advantage.

Our Guruji Softwares coast website design team will hand you a fully functioning website that enhances your business and improve customer awareness of your products and services. We provide a full range of website design services including custom web design from a simple web page to the complex internet solutions including content management systems, portals, ecommerce websites setup and SEO.

Thanks and regards, Guruji Softwares 

Take a Goggle for New Creation

India has been buzzing with a number of such IT projects that have been Buzzing with a number of such IT projects that have been outsourced to the country since the past few years. And comparing with other web site organization Web Design Kolkata plays a vital role for develops the web site.

Web Design Kolkata Company (Guruji Softwares) too has seen several such projects being outsourced to it from various countries around the globe. Often wondering web design needs on your own hire someone else to do it, or use a blend of both? Simply put, the need for outsourcing arises when it makes better business sense to do so. This implies getting the same work done by professionals based in Kolkata. Web Design Kolkata Company (Guruji Softwares) is fully equipped to handle your needs. Before we even draw up the first design on the board, l we try to understand your requirements, specifications, the environment your company works in and the communication needs. That’s how we tailor make solutions that suit your needs and that too at a fraction of the cost. This way you can concentrate on your core competencies leaving the web designing solutions from Guruji Softwares. Web Design Kolkata Company (Guruji Softwares) qualifies offshore web design solutions that suit your website business requirements in a cost-effective manner. Partnering with the clients to understand their needs, transparency operations, emphasis on communication, high degree of commitment to the project and timely delivery ensures that the Web Design Kolkata Company (Guruji Softwares) solution needs through your viewpoint. We always combine the best of the technologies available with your needs to deliver a solution that suits your requirement best. Guruji Softwares provides all the facilities with very low cost of amount, regarding the costing projects Web Design Kolkata Company (Guruji Softwares) differs its type of costing as per our clientele needs. The web designing Kolkata Company suits for web development. Guruji Softwares has array of web development work and want to outsource web design and development work can hire a dedicated web designers and programmers at a fraction of cost what you might be paying to your employees.

Thanks and regards, Guruji Softwares

Take High Delight with Guruji Softwares

Web Design Guruji Softwares Company gives to its customers the quite essential edge over its peers, in terms of cost-effectiveness, authenticity and overall package. Your offline store may be plush and swanky, but your web presence also needs to be top-notch if you have to beat the ongoing competition. Web Design Guruji Softwares company brings your web site with new look. It does not only cover the services that you provide, or the product that you sell, but it reflects the professionalism that you may be popular for. Web Design Guruji Softwares Company team provides very good designing components with all components.

Getting Web Design Guruji Softwares Company is no more a Herculean and expensive task till we are there. We provide you end to end to solution. Even after you’re your website is designed, we promote your website on search engines and get you the most favorable results. So, even if you get your website design Kolkata, it will be visible to the whole of world.

Being in the same city it helps. Yes, it does. Your company Guruji Softwares are looking for a website design and there we are Being website designers in Guruji Softwares, we are always available locally to you, or are just a phone call away. Any discussions and meetings can take place and the conclusions can be instantly implemented. If you are a company that is looking for worldwide presence on the web, but looking for long term partners that is there in Kolkata, then you have hit the right place. We are an internationally-renowned website design firm that caters to many clients all over the world.

Thanks and regards, Guruji Softwares 

Tell me what your website does!

You know exactly what your organisation does and what your website offers its users. This information has probably become second nature to you, but first-time visitors to your site won't know this. As such, make sure you don't forget to tell them what you do.

As soon as new site visitors arrive at your website the first thing they need to know, before anything else, is what you do. You can talk all you like about how great you are, but unless you spell out what you actually do, they won't even know what you're so great at! This oh-so-overlooked yet such basic of information can be communicated to your site visitors in a number of different ways:

Page title

Don't just use the page title to tell me who you are; tell me what you do too. If your company is called Blogs Ltd don't only place the words, 'Blogs Ltd' in the page title as there's plenty of room for more information. If Blogs Ltd sells widgets, a good page title might be: 'Blogs Ltd - Buy widgets online'.

Note in this example, 'Buy widgets online' was used to describe what Blogs Ltd does, and not 'Widget seller'. When describing what it is you do be sure to speak the language of your users, and don't talk from your point of view. From your point of view you sell widgets, but from their point of view they want to buy widgets online, so do bear this in mind when authoring the page title.

The page title is the first thing that appears on screen, and especially on dial-up modems can be the only thing that displays for the first 10 seconds or so. For many web users this is the first piece of content they'll read on your site.

The page title is also very important for search engines, which place more importance on the page title than any other on-page element. Descriptive page titles are also essential for blind web users utilising screen readers, as it's the first thing that gets read aloud to them upon arriving at the page.

Tagline

A good tagline is one of the most important usability features on any website. A good tagline should be explanatory and not vague, clear and informative and about four to eight words in length. A tagline is different to a company slogan, in that the former describes what the organisation/website does whereas the latter is designed to evoke certain feeling or create a brand.

'Priceless' and 'I'm loving it' are slogans by Mastercard and McDonald's respectively - they differ from taglines because they don't describe what the organisation does.

Taglines are so important because no matter on what page site visitors enter your website, they'll always be able to quickly gain an understanding of what your organisation and website offers. This can be especially true for site visitors coming into internal pages from search engines - by telling these site visitors what you do through the tagline, they may be more likely to explore your site beyond the initial page on which they enter.

Taglines are also good for search engine optimisation, as they appear on every page right at the top of the page, an area on to which search engines place importance.

Main heading

The main heading on the homepage is one of the first pieces of text web users notice, especially on clean well laid out websites. Sticking a 'Welcome to our website' may seem to be friendly and welcoming to you, but to task-driven site visitors it doesn't help in any way shape or form. A quick summary of what you do and/or what the website offers, in just four or five words can be highly effective (and very search engine friendly too!).

Opening paragraph

Perhaps the most important place on the homepage to tell your site visitors what you do, the opening paragraph must be short, succinct and straight-to-the-point. Just one sentence is enough to put across this most basic yet fundamental of information.

When writing this opening paragraph, remember to front-load the content (this rule actually applies to every paragraph on the website). Front-loading means putting the conclusion first, followed by the when, what, where and how.

Don't write a story with a start, middle and conclusion - generally speaking on the web, we scan looking for the information that we're after so put the conclusion first. This way, site visitors can read the conclusion first, which in this case is what your organisation actually does. If they want to know any more, they can then continue reading or jump to another section of the page. (To see front-loading in action, read any newspaper article.)

Exceptions

So, does every website need to tell users what the organisation does in these four different places? Well, not necessarily. We all know what MasterCard and McDonald do, so it could definitely be argued that websites for household names need not explicitly say what they do. What these sites should do instead is tell us what the website offers, and this message can (and should) be put across in any of the above four ways - how else will site visitors quickly be able to find this out?

Conclusion

People are going to visit your site who don't know what you do. Before you can even begin selling to them you must tell them what your organisation and website does. In addition to fulfilling site visitors' immediate need (finding out what you do) you'll also be boosting your search engine rankings. If your organisation is a household name, then instead of explaining what you do, it may be wise to tell site visitors what they can do on your website.

Thanks and regards, Guruji Softwares

The Importance of A Good Design

Your website is the hub of your online business; it is the virtual representation of your company whether your company exists physically or not. When you are doing business online, people cannot see you physically like how they could if they were dealing with an offline company. Hence, people do judge you by your covers. This is where a good design comes in.

Imagine if you are running an offline company. Would you allow your salespersons to be dressed in shabby or casual clothes when they are dealing with your customers? By making your staff wear professionally, you are telling your customers that you do care about quality. This works simply because first impressions matter.

Similarly, the same case is with your website. If your website is put together shabbily and looks like a 5 minute "quick fix", you are literally shouting to your visitors that you are not professional and you do not care for quality.

On the opposite, if you have a totally professional looking website layout, you are giving your visitors the perception that you have given meticulous attention to every detail and you care about professionalism. You are organised, focused and you really mean business.

On the other hand, you should also have anything related to your company well designed. From business cards to letterheads to promotional brochures, every little bit matters. This is because as you grow your business, these items become the face of your business. Once again, think of the "salesperson dressed shabbily" analogy, and you will get my point. 

Thanks and regards, Guruji Softwares

The Importance of a Sitemap

A sitemap is often considered redundant in the process of building a website, and that is indeed the fact if you made a sitemap for the sake of having one. By highlighting the importance of having a well constructed sitemap, you will be able to tailor your own sitemap to suit your own needs.

1) Navigation purposes

A sitemap literally acts as a map of your site. If your visitors browses your site and gets lost between the thousands of pages on your site, they can always refer to your sitemap to see where they are, and navigate through your pages with the utmost ease.

2) Conveying your site's theme

When your visitors load up your sitemap, they will get the gist of your site within a very short amount of time. There is no need to get the "big picture" of your site by reading through each page, and by doing that you will be saving your visitors' time.

3) Site optimization purposes

When you create a sitemap, you are actually creating a single page which contains links to every single page on your site. Imagine what happens when search engine robots hit this page -- they will follow the links on the sitemap and naturally every single page of your site gets indexed by search engines! It is also for this purpose that a link to the sitemap has to be placed prominently on the front page of your website.

4) Organization and relevance

A sitemap enables you to have a complete bird's eye view of your site structure, and whenever you need to add new content or new sections, you will be able to take the existing hierarchy into consideration just by glancing at the sitemap. As a result, you will have a perfectly organized site with everything sorted according to their relevance.

From the above reasons, it is most important to implement a sitemap for website projects with a considerable size. Through this way, you will be able to keep your website easily accessible and neatly organized for everyone.

Thanks and regards, Guruji Softwares

The 2 Most Common Web Site Mistakes

When we review the sites of potential clients, there are 2 mistakes we see over and over. If you are having problems with your site, make sure these 2 problems aren’t killing you.

Traffic

Just because you think something is a good idea doesn’t mean the general public agrees. A web site should solve a problem that is common to some part of the population. If people have a problem, they will be compelled to find an answer to it. If they don’t, they are not going to visit your site for anything other than browsing. Browsing doesn’t pay the bills!

Do the research on Overture or your favorite tool. If there isn’t a significant amount of monthly searches for your topic, move on to another one. If you think you can both alert people to a problem and solve it, you are in for a difficult time. It can be done, but your chances of success are pretty small.

Database Parameters

If you have a database driven site, you absolutely must get control of the sub-domains. Examples of database sites include sites selling products or providing some version of a listing service such as real estate or jobs. Programmers and designers have a bad habit of putting session ids in the sub-domains. Session ids are an indication of dynamic pages, pages that are built on the fly when the domain is triggered. A dynamic domain looks something like:

http://www.your-site.com/default.cfm?

The problem with dynamic domains concerns search engine robots. A robot is designed to recognize the meta tags and content of a page. The robot will then include the page in the search database. Robots often refuse to index dynamic pages because the robot cannot predict the content on the page. From the robot’s view, the page could show different things each time it is accessed. As a result, the search engines can’t list it under any particular keyword with any confidence that the content will be relevant to the search. If you have dynamic pages, most of the pages of your site will never appear in Google, Yahoo and MSN. That’s a disaster. 

Planning is the key to setting up a profitable e-commerce site. Make sure you are solving a known problem and set your site up to be friendly to the search engine robots. 

Thanks and regards,  Guruji Softwares

The 5 Biggest Mistakes of Web Design

Anyone who faces the challenge of having a website built faces a very daunting task, indeed. You know your business needs a web site, or perhaps you need to rebuild what you've already got. Getting this right is a delicate balance of business objectives, usability for the web, and search engine promotion. Getting it wrong is what this article is designed to help you avoid. Here are the five biggest mistakes you must avoid.

1. Not establishing objectives

Without a thorough plan to kick things off, what are you building? It's kind of like showing up at the airport one day and saying, "I'm going on a vacation." Where are you going? Where will you stay when you get there? How long will you go for? Can you afford it? Did you ask your boss for the time off? Did you shut off the oven?

To start, figure out what you want the benefits of your website to be. Forget about the bells and whistles required to make it happen; that's the job of your web designer. Establish what you want your website do for your business. Some examples: generate leads, sell your products/services right on the website, reduce administrative tasks, brand your company, pre-qualify prospects, recruit employees – the things a website can do for your company are virtually limitless. Establish your objectives and ensure that you and your web designer understand them fully.

2. Ignoring your customers

We're talking about your messaging here. It's so easy to write your content from an internal perspective. What you want to say, what you think is compelling, what you think matters. What about your customers? Don't forget that you need to convince them to do business with you. The key to writing good, customer content is to understand the "why". Why should your customers buy from you? You might think you know, but a good dose of objective research will uncover the truth. Capitalize on your unique selling proposition from the perspective of how it benefits your customers.

You will also need to use proper web style in your writing. Your content should be well organized, highly scan-able, easy to digest, and to the point. If you can organize it in a "pyramid" style, even better. This is where the most important, compelling information is presented first, and deeper information follows (such as technical specifications). Depending on your strengths this may be difficult for you to produce, so you may consider hiring a professional writer or copywriter.

3. Forgetting the marketing

There is an old Kevin Costner baseball movie that has an analogy that is so cliched I simply cannot bring myself to repeat it. In the realm of baseball and the afterlife it may be true, but in the world of the web, it sure isn't. When your website is built, it is an island; and a deserted one at that. Your customers don't know about it and neither do the search engines. You need to tell them. You need to market your website. Getting your website noticed by the right people is key. You're not actually marketing to search engines here. Search engines are simply a means to an end. You need to market to your customers. You must understand that your customers use different online methods to find what you sell; and this most likely includes search engines.

You may also consider newsletter advertising, email advertising, PR campaigns, social networking, etc. The exact approach you need to take depends on your objectives, how your target audience looks for what you sell, your budget, your industry, etc.

4. Not measuring the results

So, how did you do? You built a great web site and marketed the heck out of it. How many people came to your site? How many became leads? How many leads did you turn into customers? How much were they worth? What content did your visitors like and not like? {Insert your own redundant questions here}

Just like any marketing venture, you must measure the results in order to find out if it was successful. I'm talking about things like:

A tracking plan. Your leads might call you instead of buying online or using your contact form. You need a plan to track them, and how they found you. If you're running offline marketing campaigns, setup a separate domain name, create a unique web page, or use a separate 800 number. Online forms specific to a marketing campaign can be really useful as well Statistics and reporting. Good statistics can tell you a lot about how people use your website. Google Analytics is a wonderful package, easy to install, and totally free. More than this, you need to understand the numbers, and draw conclusions. This takes quite a lot of practice and understanding. A professional web design or marketing company can help you with this. Adapt. Use your results, don't just read them. This will invariably require consulting with an expert again, but you need to act on your results to improve them. This is an on-going process forever.

5. Getting Paralyzed

A lot of web design projects never see the light of day because they get mired down in perpetual planning. There comes a time when you need to act. You won't get it perfect the first time out (or ever), but you've got to move. If you aim, re-aim and re-aim forever, you'll never actually get off a shot Aim – shoot – repeat.

A quick caveat: I'm not telling you to put up a poorly written and poorly constructed web site just to have something; that can be very dangerous. A bad website can turn customers away and, even worse, have them poison your business through negative word of mouth. What I am telling you to do is to not get paralyzed trying to perfect your plan. Hiring the right team of experts can get you on track, and get things moving.

Hopefully this article helps steer you away from the most common (and dangerous) pitfalls of web design. Whether you hire a professional, create your site internally, or do it on your own from start to finish, keep these tips in mind.

By avoiding these five common mistakes you can ensure that your website has a fighting chance. Let this article serve as a map so you can avoid, at a minimum, some of the bigger and more costly detours.

Thanks and regards, Guruji Softwares 

The 7 Components Of Effective Website Design And Marketing

1. Target Audience: (Who Buys From You?) The foundation of effective web marketing is the 'who.' Determining your target audience, their needs, wants, level of knowledge, goals, etc is critical to creating a website that will be effective at either lead generation or e-commerce.

2. Core Message: (What Exactly do You Offer?) Flowing directly from who you want to target, is the question of what you want to say to them. Your core message delivers your value proposition in a clear and compelling way. Your core message is not a mission statement, or an executive summary of your strategic plan. Your core message is essentially a list of the reasons that people do business with you - written from their perspective.

3. Site Structure: (Is it Easy to Navigate) Many websites are little more than on-line brochures. Visitors are free to click between this page and that, reading a little here and a little there. The result is that a site visitor develops very little emotional attachment, and the 'back button' is increasingly enticing. Sales people intuitively understand that their message must be delivered in the right sequence - A, B, C, then D, which leads to E. A website that is carefully structured can accomplish this same effect, building understanding and buy-in, step-by-step. At the end of that 'presentation' the visitor takes the next step willingly.

4. Calls to Action: (Ask People to Buy!) Asking a site visitor to take the next step is the 'call to action'. This is the "contact us", "join our mailing list", or "sign up today" option, which informs the site visitor of the correct next step. Most people are grateful to be guided through the process of evaluating a product or service, so if you tell them that the next step is to sign up for a 30-day trial, many of them will.

5. Lead Capture: (Get Their Contact Info) Actually capturing contact (and qualification) information from leads is relatively easy with today's technology. Some simple web scripts and an effective 'off the shelf' business database are all that are needed. Many companies set up automated responses, saving time and energy, and ensuring that their sales people spend personal time with only the most qualified leads.

6. Good Graphic Design: (Makes You Look "Bigger"!) Unfortunately, many companies spend 90% of their web budget on graphic design, and only 10% on 'the other stuff'. Graphic design serves two purposes: 1) to establish credibility, and 2) to entice visitors to read your text. Credibility is established when a company uses effective graphic design and 'looks big'. On-line it's hard to tell, but poor graphic design leads visitors to believe that your company is small. Once credibility is established, visitors will spend some time evaluating your specific message.

7. Site Promotion: (How Will You Get Visitors?) Once your site has been optimized to maximize conversion rates, using the strategies listed above, site promotion activities should be used to drive increased traffic onto your site. Site promotion ranges from listing your website on your business cards, through expensive and time consuming Search Engine Optimization strategies to increase your ranking on sites like Google. The area of site promotion can be a minefield to those new to web marketing.

Perhaps the 3 most cost effective strategies to investigate are:

• Email Marketing • Search engine submission and marketing • Reciprocal linking

Each of these strategies are relatively inexpensive, and place your prospect just one-click away from your website and possibly a sale.

Thanks and regards, Guruji Softwares

The 8 'Must Do' rules for effective website design

To succeed at your online business (whether you are selling your own product/service or are selling for other merchants as an affiliate), you need a Web design must be just for that - a simple, focused site. One that is easy to build, maintenance-free, low cost, credible, and a powerful traffic-builder and customer-converter.

Having the right tool and the right product alone doesn’t insure the success of your website. There are many factors to be considered in effective website design. Unfortunately, most of these are overlooked by offline business owners using the internet to promote their business.

Web Design Rule #1 - Build It for Speed

It's a fact of modern life - people are in a hurry. This means that you have between 10 and 30 seconds to capture your potential customer's attention. To minimize your load time, keep graphics small. Compress them where possible. Use flashy technology (JavaScript, Flash, Streaming Audio/Video, animation) sparingly and only if it is important to your presentation.

Web Design Rule #2 - Target your Market

Know who your market is and make certain that your site caters to their needs. It is critical that your site reflect the values of your potential customers. Is your market mostly business professionals? If so, the site must be clean and professional. Is your product aimed mostly a teenagers and young adults? Then your site could be more informal and relaxed. The key here is to know your market and build the site to their preferences.

Web Design Rule #3 - Focus the Site

Make certain your web site is focused on the goal, selling your product or service. A site offering many unrelated products is not necessarily unfocused, but this is often the case. If your business does offer many products, dedicate a unique page for each instead of trying to sell them all from one page.

Web Design Rule #4 - Credibility Is Crucial

The most professionally designed site won't sell if your customers don't believe in you. A clear privacy statement is one way to build your credibility. Provide a prominent link to your privacy statement from every page on the site as well as from any location that you are asking your visitors for personal information. Provide legitimate contact information on line.

Web Design Rule #5 - Navigation should be simple

Make site navigation easy and intuitive. Simple and smooth navigation adds to the convenience of the visitors. Add powerful search and catalog features. Many times a lot of visitors do not have the patience to navigate through the whole website to find what they are looking for.

Web Design Rule #6 - Consistency is the key

Make sure the site is consistent in look, feel and design. Nothing is more jarring and disturbing to a customer than feeling as if they have just gone to another site. Keep colors and themes constant throughout the site.

Web Design Rule #7 - Make your site interactive

Make your website interactive. Add feedback forms as well as email forms that allow your prospective customers to ask you any questions they might have pertaining to a product.

Personalization of your website is another key element that can lead to customer delight and can increase your sales. Personalization technology provides you the analytic tools to facilitate cross-selling and up-selling when the customer is buying online. It would give you an idea of what products to cross-sell and up-sell. For example, when a person buys a CD player, a disc cleaner can also be offered.

Web Design Rule #8 - Content is King

Good content sells a product. Ask yourself the following questions. Does your copy convey the message you wish to get across to your visitors? Is it compelling? Does it lead your visitor through the sales process? Have others review, critique and edit your copy to insure it is delivering the intended message. Always double check your spelling and grammar.

These eight, simple rules will go a long way toward an effective website design, and most importantly, turning visitors into customers.

Thanks and regards, Guruji Softwares