Web Design Geeks on Twitter

Ok, so we put it off for as long as we could but have finally surrendered to Twitter! We will be building our Twitter page up so if you would like the latest web design updates then feel free to click and join us @ Twitter.com/webdesigngeeks…

Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a type of Internet Marketing that drives more traffic to your website by website promotion using paid search engine methods. The main SEM method is Pay Per Click (PPC). PPC allows you to advertise using your keywords and you only pay the advertising host each time your advert is clicked. The cost of the click varies depending on the keywords that you wish to advertise for and generally range between £0.01 to £20.00.

For more information on search engine marketing click here.

Web Design Icons

Check out these free high quality web icon sets. They look great for use in future design work and we will probably be using a few on our website too.

If you want to see more web icon sets then click here.

Web Designer Freedom

Web Designer Freedom

As a web designer you have the ability to feel complete freedom whilst working. As long as you have access to your laptop, Skype and the internet – you can design professional, creative, bespoke websites for your clients from anywhere in the world. Whether you prefer to be designing a new website template from the office in London or to be building an E-commerce store whilst sitting by the pool in your Florida getaway… the finished product can always be completed to the same high standard.

Does this effect the Web Design quality?

Not at all! If anything it may help to improve your designing due to the diversity in your way of work. Being in the same office week in week out may become a become quite tiresome, so a change of setting could inspire you to work more accurate and effectively. I don’t believe in limiting myself to one way if life… having freedom at work is a very important factor.

Webmasters

A webmaster is someone who controls the ins and outs of your website. They take care of all of the maintenance of the website, including; the structure, the content (text, graphics, design), page names, files, testing, etc. On top of this, the webmaster should also provide web analytics for your website.

Webmasters aren’t designers, they are more likely to have a programming background. They are very technically minded and have a wealth of experience in getting websites to run smooth and effectively.

Why Have A Webmaster?

If you have a webmaster to look after your website then you will be rest assured that you won’t have to spend anytime at all testing or fixing errors. In fact, your only problem will be if you try to get involved in any of your own testing! Webmasters are very territorial and like to be in full control of the websites they are managing.

Website Set Up

Here’s a quick step by step guide to turning your website idea into a live website on the net.

1. Choose a Domain Name
Think of a domain name that’s going to best reflect your company and create a great brand OR just think of a domain that you like the look of for your personal website / blog, etc. Go to who.is where you can check the availability of your chosen domain name but don’t purchase it yet!

2. Web Hosting
Now you have chosen a domain name, you need somewhere to host your website. The easiest way to purchase both the domain and hosting space is by getting them both through the same company. We would recommend using Fasthosts, Pickaweb or EUKhosts who are the top UK hosting suppliers. Depending on the size of the website that your going to create, choose the hosting package accordingly.

3. Design your Website
Whether your looking for a corporate or personal website, jot down your design ideas. Build your website on your local machine from start to completion. You may need a qualified web designer for this bit!

4. Uploading your Website
Now you need to grab the ftp (File Transfer Protocol) details from your web hosting set up email and upload your completed website.

5. Testing
Yes testing! It has to be done to ensure that your website is going to run smoothly and that it doesn’t contain any errors. Testing can be as simple as checking for spelling and grammatical errors, checking for broken or missing links, or checking to make sure that all the web pages have been correctly uploaded.

Finished! You can now tell the world about your website and start using it to promote your business.

Inserting Flash

The standard method for embedding a flash file onto your web page using a HTML editor, such as Dreamweaver, is usually as follow:

<script type=”text/javascript”>

AC_FL_RunContent( ‘codebase’,'http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,28,0′,’width’,'990′,’height’,'276′,’title’,'Flash Example’,’src’,'file:///C|/Users/harty/Documents/Websites/Cheap Web Design/images/banners/index-offers’,'quality’,'high’,'pluginspage’,'http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash’,'movie’,'file:///C|/Users/harty/Documents/Websites/Cheap Web Design/images/banners/index-offers’ ); //end AC code

</script><noscript><object classid=”clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000″ codebase=”http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,28,0″ width=”990″ height=”276″ title=”Flash Example”>

<param name=”movie” value=”file:///C|/Users/harty/Documents/Websites/Cheap Web Design/images/banners/index-offers.swf” />

<param name=”quality” value=”high” />

<embed src=”file:///C|/Users/harty/Documents/Websites/Cheap Web Design/images/banners/index-offers.swf” quality=”high” pluginspage=”http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”990″ height=”276″></embed>

</object></noscript>

By using this standard method, your flash will work absoluely perfect BUT it wont meet the standards of W3C! When you come to validate your website I’m afraid it wont be compliant due to disagreements with the plugin method above. Dont panic… we have a solution!

Flash Solution

Replace the code above for the following code:

<object type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” data=”/file.swf” width=”142″ height=”91″>

<param name=”movie” value=”/file.swf” /></object>

This plugin method is fully compliant with W3C standards, as well as a lot simpler and lighter in terms of coding space.

Architecture for SEO

Setting up your website’s architecture whilst keeping SEO in mind can really help your optimisation in the long term. Search engines will be able to crawl your information easier, as well as segregate the data for your SERP’s (Search Engine Ranking Position’s). Let’s find the perfect layout template for the web pages, files and folders for your website.

How Does This SEO Architecture Work?

Ok, so we’re gonna build a small website with a view to having around 100 pages after the first year. A good website structure has multiple levels starting at level 1 and going down as far as required. Level 1 is always where the home page sits (index.html/php/htm, etc), the 2nd level should consist of the other main web pages (pages on the main navigation), the 3rd level holds your inner web pages (sub navigation pages), and so on. These levels can all be placed within the root of your website or they can be split up into different folders. Smaller websites are more suited to having all pages sat in the websites root, but larger websites should go for the folder option to split up the sections of the site. This is why I mentioned that after a year our aim is to have 100 pages because I wanted to show you that planning ahead is important. Having the full 100pages sat in the websites root wouldn’t be good for SEO!

Here’s an example for our small website’s architecture (accommodating for more pages to be gradually added):

SEO Architecture

Above you can see how I’ve segregated my pages so if you were looking for the ‘Corporate’ web design section, the URL would be:

www.domain.co.uk/faqs/how-to…

..instead of just….

www.domain.co.uk/how-to… which is useless for everybody.

Apologies if this may be a little unclear! If you want some advice about creating your SEO friendly website architecture then get in touch and I’ll straighten it out for you.

Banner Design

A good website requires great appeal and both static and flash banners help to achieve this. When visiting various day to day websites, you will probably notice that the majority of them have some form of banner which is either directing you to an inner page, highlighting offers and services, or displaying advertisements for an external source. A well designed banner can really make a difference to the look and feel of your web pages and attract your viewers attention.

Types of Banner Designs

If your going to pay for a descent banner for your web site then we would recommend going for a flash banner. A flash banner can display an arrangement of static, moving and animated graphics, offering appeal and interaction for your viewers. Flash banners don’t require excessive code so your website will stay clean and fast.

Alternative banner design options include static .jpg or .gif images, or JQuery. The easiest and cheapest option is of course the static image, which can be saved in many formats (jpg, gif, png, etc). JQuery offers very similar functionality to flash and has its own bonuses but may be more expensive and also requires more coding.

Take a look at some of our flash, static and jQuery banners in our Banner Design section.

Matt Joins Cheap Web Design!

We have a new addition to the Cheap Web Design team called Matt. Matt is an expert web designer and SEO consultant with over 5 years of experience in the industry.

What’s He Gonna Be Doin!

Matt will be involved in all aspects of the company, from designing you the worlds best website and getting it to the top of Google toooo tweeting and making you feel at home with us!  His expertise will include web design, banner design, search engine optimisation, blogging, and most importantly, creating strong relationships with our clients.

Web Design Skills?

These are the web tools which Matt has expert status with; inDesign, Photoshop, Fireworks, Dreamweaver, Flash, Advanced Web Ranking and Link Manager.

We’re very excited to have Matt on board with us and we look forward to sharing our success with him!