So what makes a New York Web design company different from others? Competition! Take a look at how many there are out there! Whether it's in the city or anywhere near or far, a company looking for top quality Web design in the New York area can be faced with hundreds of choices in an area of just a few city blocks!
If you are not from the area it can be difficult to envision. This might help Imagine typing "New York web design" into Google's search box and getting hundreds of pages with thousands of links of returns. Instead of clicking on those links however, you're walking into hundreds of offices; each offering their own unique flavor of Web design.
Although a bit daunting, with all that competition comes something good; a competitive edge that is crucial in a tightening economy. Sure, we all have to look good on the Web, but when you are competing with your physical neighbors as well as online competition; you have to take it to a whole new level.
That said; here are some inside tips from a successful New York Web design company. We will focus specifically on Website usability, which has the unique distinction of being both the most important and principal consideration yet which is generally least considered.
First of all, people don't typically read a Web page. They gloss over it. Actually, they quickly scan it so you need to get their attention right away and keep it. Here's how...
1.) Start off with your best content first. Grab the reader's (or should I say scanner's) attention right away. Don't save the best for last since most visitors will leave the same way they entered: the Home Page. Your strongest message should always come first.
2.) Keep your functional areas consistent throughout your site, especially the navigation links (top navigation, sidebars, etc.) search boxes, login areas, and anything else that requires interaction. The more comfortable a visitor feels using the site, the more likely they are to stay for a while and venture deeper.
3.) Link your company logo back to your home page. It's both comforting and expected.
4.) Add a search box in an easy to find, consistent location. And be certain it searches ONLY within your Website. Having a search feature that offers to "Search The Web" gives your visitors an invitation to leave your site. Why would you want that?
Secondly, keep in mind that search engines will also be looking at your site. Making it pretty is not enough. It needs to attract the search engine as much as live visitors if you ever expect those live visitors to find it in the first place. This is known as search engine optimization, or SEO. It's more complicated today than in years past but still quite doable. Here are three "must do" tasks for you to complete if you want your site on top of Google.
1.) Use text links with anchor text within your page content. You already know that anchor text is the clickable word(s) that comprise a hyperlink. But what you might not realize is just how incredibly powerful that anchor text is.
Navigate to Google.com and conduct a search for the term "Click Here" (no quotes.) Take note of two things right away... Number one, there are more than 1.6 billion other (competing) Web pages. Number two, the top match returned is a link to Adobe Acrobat Reader.
I'll save you the suspense. It's not written anywhere on the page or in the META tags. They are number one for ?Click Here?, out of 1.6 Billion pages, simply because for years people offering a link to Acrobat have placed the page link as anchor text in the words ?Click Here.? Now that's powerful! And you can harness that power by linking to other pages within your site. Which leads us to Insider Tip #2...
2.) If SEO becomes a priority for your site, as most will, build a separate page for each of your main keywords. And don't forget to link the keyword rich anchor text, from each individual page, to the topic page that has that specific keyword as its main focus.
Industry Insider Tip: If you are a Web designer for hire, adding search engine optimization to your resume is a nice way to get a lot more reward for your efforts. There are a number of good SEO products out there that can help you get professional results with almost no learning curve and a low upfront investment. For example, you can have the exact same tool that eBay relies on for $250, at http://www.iBusinessPR0M0TER.com.
3.) Keep pertinent anchor text at the top of your mind when requesting inbound links from other sites. This is the yardstick by which Google measure's site quality.
This is how you can build your brand using your own words. Getting visitors there is only half the battle, keeping them is a whole different ballgame. Now, similar to tip number 2, you want to request specific keywords be used in the anchor text leading to your pages from other sites. And be sure to request each link to the most appropriate page. Just linking to the homepage doesn't cut it anymore.
Be Warned: Reciprocal link farms can get your site penalized on Google! Simple reciprocal linking, via automated script or link farm, is easily recognized by Google. There's a much better way if you need the "set it and forget it" convenience. We'll look at one now
If you don't have the time or expertise to set up link partners manually, consider the concept of here way linking like the service offered at http://www.3WayLinker.com.
It's so simple that it's brilliant. Imagine that ?Site A" links to ?Site B" then ?Site B" links to ?Site "C". Finally ?Site C" links to ?Site A". Using this method each is a true one way link.
That's it for the time being. Best of luck!
About the Author:
Dave Radovanovic is a New York Web Design specialist who began in 1993. A new media specialist, he launched WhatsTheBigIdea.com in '03. In addition to Web, Dave is among the top graphic designers in New York.
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