| Top Web Hosting Provider of The Month: |
 |
| Visit Bluehost.com | Read Bluehost Review |
|
|
| >> Web Hosting Geeks // Web Hosting Articles // Web Design |
|
|
 |
Awards Program Debate
Daily article: One of the most debated subject among webmasters is the whole concept of web site awards. I'm sure you've seen the little graphics on many different sites, announcing it is the "best", "coolest" or "most wonderful" or whatever. Sometimes you'll see terms like "bronze", "gold" and "silver" to describe the award. What's the debate about? To put it briefly, are web site awards worth the "paper they are printed on?" "What's the point?", some webmasters will say with a smirk (the smirk always seems to be there, oddly enough). "Where's the money in awards? These are just graphics that anyone can make up, they are given out by the boatload and they do not prove anything." Au contraire. I beg to differ. Winning an award can be one of the most fulfilling achievements that a webmaster can experience. Yeah, some of the awards are given away by autoresponder (and these, I agree, are worthless), but others are very, very difficult to earn. You see, the point is that in a true awards program you are getting a peer (another webmaster) to review your site against a set of criteria. You have to work to win some of the better ones, and the very best require an incredible effort. But who wants a peer review anyway? I mean, isn't the real payoff in dollars or number of visitors or hits or whatever? Why would anyone care about the opinion of another webmaster? That's easy. You see, web sites can always be made better. It does not matter how good of a job you've done, if you stand back and look at your accomplishment objectively, you will find something to improve. What awards programs do is speed up this process. You begin by reading the criteria of the award. One common requirement is fast load time. You check your site and find the main page loads in 5 minutes ... and thus you will not win the award. Okay, so you fix that and check the next item. Hmm. Clean navigation ... fixed that, what's next? Readable text perhaps, or good content, or simply a way to turn off the background music. You see what's happening. You want that award so you MUST improve your site to achieve it. You have to spend a little more time checking it out, so that when your site is examined you will earn the prize. What does that buy you? A better web site will translate into more visitors who come back more often, and if you are selling something, they may buy it. So before you turn up your nose at that pretty awards graphic, read the criteria. See what the webmaster had to do before he earned that picture. If the criteria says "just take it and display it" ... the award is useless. On the other hand, if it states some stringent rules, then perhaps you should be impressed ... and maybe see if you own site measures up. About The Author Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets. This website includes over 1,000 free articles to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge. Web Site Address: http://www.internet-tips.net Weekly newsletter: http://www.internet-tips.net/joinlist.htm Claudia Arevalo-Lowe is the webmistress of Internet Tips And Secrets and Surviving Asthma. Visit her site at http://survivingasthma.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Web-Design - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Digitalize It! : (Modification of images with tools such as Adobe CS and Corel) Then it was a choice among crayons, paints and palettes for an artist and designer to create art. It was a box of crayons that make one happy designer during his early years of formation. Tableless Web Designs: Why I Switched Since I made the switch 6 months ago to a tableless design on my main site, I've noticed some interesting things: My search engine rankings have dramatically improved My bandwidth usage has dropped about 50-75% I can now make changes to the look and feel of my site easily by just changing the one file, the stylesheet. Let's look at why my search engine rankings improved. Speed Up Or Lose Out! How To Improve Your Websites Download Speed So your web site's online and you've got high rankings in the search engines attracting lots of visitors. But the statistics tell you most of them are leaving after viewing just one page, what's gone wrong?One possible cause could be a slow download speed of your web site's homepage or the web site as a whole. Do You Make These Common (But Deadly) Website Design Mistakes? Building a website can be overwhelming, here are some design tips to help keep you on the right path (or is that web?)--- Designing a Frames-based web siteFrames may make the job of maintaining a big web site easy, but search engines hate them. Most search engines cannot find their way through them and end up indexing only the home page. Save Thousands of Dollars by Creating Your Own Web Site With the advent of the Internet a whole new vista of business has opened up. Many erstwhile opportunities otherwise not available to us, many markets which were previously inaccessible are accessible to us now. Appropriate Key Words Choice What do the key words represent?Key words - these are the words that the users enter in a given search engine to find services or products you offer. It is extremely important to know what key words they will use. Web Design: Should You Hire Someone or Do It Yourself? So you need a website. You are not sure if you should hire someone or learn HTML and do it yourself. How Not To Get Web Design Work I get the occasional web design lead from my website. I wanted to find a company I could pass these onto. Good Content Pays! Traffic to a site can be a blessing or a curse. Visitors who find what they are looking for, are engaged in what the site offers, and/or come away with a positive impression become the site owner's best allies and customers. Be Friendly to Search Engines The object of search engines is to give their visitors a list of web pages relevant to the search words, in the order of relevance to the search words. So what do they want from websites?Relevance to a search: The frequency of the search word on a web page is an indicator of its relevance. How to Choose a Website Design Company The internet is full of web design companies pleading for your business. They all look great! Not sure which company to select? By following these simple steps, you'll be able to select the perfect designer for your business. The Top 8 Website Sins Part Two Sin #5Poor Spelling And GrammarWe all make mistakes when we write things down or type things out. Nobody is 100% perfect but a huge number of website owners completely ignore the basics of spelling and grammar. The Top 8 Website Sins Part One They say the eyes are the window to the soul. Your website then is the window to your business. Congratulations! You've Gotten Visitors To Your Site! Now, Can They Find What Theyre Looking For? As search engine marketers, we spend an enormous amount of time trying to get targeted traffic to our site. But, once those visitors get to our site, can they find what they're looking for? If not, guess what? We've lost a customer. Revising Your Site - What Happened To My Search Engine Placement? As of September, Smartads went through what so many have done before. I changed the entire site. Double Ad-Trackers Its Not as Crazy as It Sounds Here Are 7 Reasons Why? A Double Ad Tracker is an Ad-Tracker that points to an AD-Tracker. It may sound a bit like overkill to have an Ad-Tracker Pointing at another Ad-Tracker but it's not crazy. Is Your Web Site Turning Visitors Away? One of the biggest problems with Web sites is that the very first page on the site is turning people away.Why? Because most Web site owners talk about themselves instead of talking about their Web site visitor. What You Should Ask a Web Designer Before You Hire Him You've thought about it and you're ready to go. You're ready to give your business an online presence. Use Exclusive Content - When Reprint Articles Dont Do Enough There is no doubt that reprint articles can serve lots of search engine traffic to your site.. Web Coach Tip: The Single Most Important and CRUCIAL Element of Your Web Site Here's the single most important part of your website: YOUR WEB COPY! And remember: Your website isn't about YOU, it's about THEM!Again, it's NOT about you, it's about THEM!*Note: May I add, this is an area where most of my clients get stuck?If you find yourself at a total loss when it comes to writing, please let me know. ______________________________________________Write/gather/compile; prepare copy for your main pages:? Answer questions.
|
|
|
|
|
| © 2004 - 2008 "Web Hosting Geeks" | Web Hosting Reviews | Customer Reviews | RealMetrics Reviews | Hosting Articles | Directory | Partners | Contacts Over 7000 articles: web hosting, web development, domain names, ecommerce, web design, site promotion, ppc advertising, seo, site promotion and many others. Web hosting reviews, ratings and awards are not based on any incentives or commissions. Names and trademarks are the properties of their respective owners. A direct link to Web Hosting Geeks (http://webhostinggeeks.com) must be provided in order to use any of the above information. Contact us for more info. Partners: Hosts by speed, Cheap Website Hosting, Free Website Hosting, Cheap Web Hosting, Top 10 Web Hosts, Top 10 Web Hosting Deals, Best Website Hosting, Free Web Hosting, Free Web Hosting, Dedicated Server Hosting, Adult Web Hosting, Web Hosting Discussions, Dedicated Server Reviews, Best Web Hosting, Web Hosting Discounts, HostProfessor.com, rsuog, halyava, PHP Website Hosting Services, Web Hosting Reviews, Hosting Uptime, Best Web Hosting Reviews, Cheap Webhosting, Web Hosting, Flash Templates, CMS Templates, Web Hosting Reviews, Website Hosting Reviews, Web Hosting Providers, Best Web Hosting, Top Web Hosting, RSUOG Web Hosting |