Choosing the right Content management solution is the key to a successful website. A dynamic website should know where its leading its users to. Getting a good CMS in place does not mean that you could really be on the top of the Google game. For that matter, Most Content management systems cannot rank well as compared to a static websites, but there are a few who can excel any Static website. Wordpress , if programmed to be a content management system, is one of the best software to be in place for a website. Perfect SEO ability, Lots of plugins and of course a great user interface which enables the client to easily manage their content.

Choose your content management system wisely. If you have a shopping cart in place you may want to consider one which has a few set things in place. The same goes for any content management system

Key features you should check out when you are implementing a CMS with SEO in mind includes

1. URL Redirection : You dont want a long url with ?, & and a lot of other wierd charecters. You would want a cleaner URL. Compare http://www.yoursite.com/products.php?id=199734&prod_name=tortillas in Moon as to http://www.yoursite.com/tortiallas_in_moon.html. The second URL makes more sense and is more easier for search engines to see the keyword in the URL itself

2. Ability to manage  Title tags, Description and Keywords among other things. : This is Key. The most important thing search engines like to see is the Title and the Description tags. Your CMS will have to keep these SEO features in mind.

3. Ability to Ping : Well not most softwares will let the web know that there has been a change on your site. A small new page or a modification of an address. Pinging is letting the web know that your website has changed. There has been an activity. Of course this is not important, but think of it, a website which can ping gets picked up by google and other search engines in hours, while the ones which are not pinged will take its own sweet time (sometimes months) to be noticed by search engines….

There are more to come in and i will add them as we go … for now… in simple sweet words, Wordpress is a great CMS software which is FREE and is completely customizable for SEO. If you had to go for a CMS, Go for Wordpress.

Most customers who want an SEO service have a website which is poorly optimized for a keyword and some even have Flash or other components which dont really seem friendly for SEO. the first phase of SEO itself is to get your website SEO ready. Second phase is to analyze if is even possible to rank for that keyword. Most often people look for the broader terms, like Real estate, Web design, Hotels in UK,  Swiss chocolate, Fans, Plugs, Keyboard, Television, HDTV and a lot more. Though some sites do stand a chance to get ranked for a few of these keywords, Most keywords listed may stand in a category where it will take Months , if not years to get a decent ranking on google. Is it worth the trouble? Will you pay for MONTHS of work ? is it affordable for the YOU as a customer?  The Keyword research and analyzis involves a lot of these factors in play and if its really worth it, we go on with the next phase which is Link Building. Link building most often involves getting links from various sources all over the web. This may be link exchange to Buying links and sometimes writing a 100 or 1000 articles. It may look like a simple task most of the time but its surely is daunting and time consuming.

So how do we price the whole thing now? Seo service and Pricing varies depending on 2 factors.

1. The keyword you choose.

2. the additional service which may be required

Overall, you will be charged for the time. If its a keyword which is going to take 3 months you can be assured that its going to cost you anywhere between 300$ to 500$ for that keyword. See more on Price break ups on SEO services soon.

The first page SEO ranking , something that everyone wants done but few tend to understand. Getting on the top league may look like fun but with the amount of money poured on to Getting a first page seo ranking, The fun turns out sour and sooner than later, Most customers end up pulling their hairs out for either

1.  The ranking drops in a few weeks because the competition has caught up with you OR

2. There is no traffic for the keyword which was invested on.

Either way, the customer is at loss.

Here at design2host, We will not give you just a ranking, we get one step ahead and give you targeted traffic from google with the set of keywords related to the industry. You may not rank well with the best keywords in the industry, but will surely be on par with those who are on the top league when it comes to traffic, if not exceeding their traffic. Think about it for a moment, if your competitor is getting 3000 hits per day and spends 1000’s of dollars on SEO, would it not be quite edgy if you could get the same traffic for a fraction of that price, from the same source and of course From a wider range of visitors?

The first page Google SEO ranking may be one of the best things to get done, but the key to the whole game is to get the traffic from a LOT of Lesser Competitive words than trying to beat the competition on a very dense keyword. Check out our services on FREE SEO coming soon.

Web design Analysis Rule #1

Keep the website as light as possible. Avoid huge graphics and minimize the page size as much as you can. A large page with heavy graphics is not looked upon by most search engines. This doesnt essentially mean that you put little content. This basically means the graphics should be optmized. When you can put a 3KB graphic you shouldnt put the same one in 30KB. Convert graphics to GIF or JPG rather than PNG.  Also Optimize your code to the best. You can optimize your HTML page accordingly.

Web Design Analysis Rule #2

Keep the website free from errors. Not to say that most websites online have a few 100 flaws. They do not comply to the standards which are in place like the W3C and even worse, dont do any kind of standard compliance. you can see web pages which are full of empty tags online. This is not something which takes hours to correct, but is essential. A Error free code creates a greater visibility with search engines.

Web Design Analysis Rule #3

Avoid Javascript and other Codes / Programming on your page as much as possible. By general rule, Javascript and any other embedded programming is not crawled by search engines. so if you have to embed them, it should be because there are no alternatives. Here we are talking about Client side programming codes and not Server side codes.

Web Design Analysis Rule #4

Avoid Complicated Navigation. If your navigation is programmed in Javascript find an option to get them done in CSS or even in simple HTML. If there are no options, Make sure there is an alternative , static link to each page on the site through a sitemap. Also keep a note that Navigation should be easily accessible From the point of the user. Dont let them search through the page to move on to the next one.

I will be adding more on to a new page soon and will post the link here. This is just to begin with . The list goes on and on… so you will not be let down. Your comments are appreciated.

1. Navigation : This is the most important part which is often not taken into consideration. A good navigation should be prominent and will be in one location through out the site. It should be easy for end users to move through the site at all times.

2. Graphics and Design : Making things a bit too gaudy could leave some of the users annoyed. Not everyone is a fan of art and you may have a bit of dissapointed users. Unless your website is Based on art (may be a web design company, Interior decorator, Artist) you should stick on to optimum design style. Avoid flash where possible. It may look good on your site but you yourself will get tired after a period of time.

3. Avoid Long Flowing text : Reserach proves that over 95% of the users dont read the entire content on any website. So you have to stick to points while writing content. Precise, Short content strikes well and would save the hassle for most users. This can also keep your users interested in your site and keep them coming for more. Think about Twitter… its all short text and is one of the most visited websites worldwide

4. Content for user : Many web designers will tell you to write content for the Search engines. Thats not true. Getting users interested is more important than getting google interested. Users may come from google but will leave faster if you do not deliver the appropriate content. Striking a balance in content is the trick to get good quality visitors to your site.

5. Usability : Make sure your designers will keep to the norms and standards. If your website meets the W3C standards, Chances are that your website is viewable to anyone with the latest browser or the older ones too. You should not be left behind when it comes to technology, Browsers and any thing which doesn’t concern you. Getting a site to work on Mobile phones is also evolving and you should consider the same.

That said, these are not the only things to consider when it comes to web design analysis. There are more. We will be covering a few more in another section.