Testimonials:

"Stellar Image was great to work with. They are up to speed with all the latest technologies which is definately necessary if you want a modern and successful web site. They were also very responsive during the design process and greatly exceeded our expectations. "
- Chris Clark, Owner
Circle Double C Ranch

"Great to work with, very professional and cares about the finished product."
-Jim Waller, Photographer, JW Art

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WEB DESIGN TIPS AND SEO STRATEGIES
FOR BUSINESS WEB SITES

As you read this, there are billions of web sites on the web. To stand out in this crowd, it is a must to have an updated and modern look for your web site and one that is easy to navigate through. The main goal of online marketing is to provide a content-rich web site that your customers will find useful, informative and memorable. Your web site is a way to build trust between you and web visitors that you cannot personally speak to.

Our featured article may be helpful as well: Signs You May Need a New Web Design

We also highly recommend preparing your site for the search engines by including the information listed below in your web site text.

Search Engine Optimization Strategies

To achieve higher than average rankings, businesses must provide quality information and continuoulsy update it. Search engines favor web sites that provide new and useful content. At the onset of the worldwide web, search engines were simply designed to index, rank and display web sites as they came into being. Search engines would rank sites by using the keywords they found in their titles and meta tags according to what the web visitor typed in for a search.

Search engines now use a system of robots to scan,"crawl", entire web pages including the meta tags and titles, because of the enormous volume of web sites in existence today. With the data collected from each web page, they index and rank the web sites. The ranking system is performed with the use of algorithms, which are programs with certain rules that analyze the data collected and rank it accordingly for each search topic.

For instance, one rule is used to measure how many inbound and reciprocal links a given web page has-- the more links, the better the ranking. Yet, a critical point to remember is to trade links with other reputable companies that are related to yours. It's also important to find reputable industry directories to list your web site in.

Bottom Line: It is optimal to develop a strong SEO strategy so that web searchers can find you, as well as to have a skillfully designed web site. The ranking rules do change from time to time, but the following suggestions are always important. We urge you to follow these recommendations. They are highly regarded among search engines:

Title Tag: Make a short but detailed title for each web page. It should be between 10-50 characters and should include some of your keywords.
Description Tag: Your description should give a descriptive sentence about your business and should include no more than 150-200 characters. The description should contain some of your top keywords as well. Stay away from using excessive use of keywords, unrelated comments and exclamation marks.
Keyword Inclusion: Research what keywords your target market uses to find products or services such as yours and list them in your meta tags. You should limit your keywords to no more than 50 words. (Refer to the HTML example below)
Keyword Density throughout Copy: Include the majority of your keywords in the actual copy of your web site and preferably in the first half of your page. It is also recommended to use your keywords in the linking text.
Content Writing: Write content specific to your target market and offer easy ordering methods. Appeal to them and their preferences and offer useful material. You may have seen the phrase, "content is king," before and we are emphasizing it once again. Quality content is one of the most important factors that search engines consider in ranking your web site.
What Tactics to Avoid: Avoid selling or buying links, do not include outward links to unrelated sites and try to avoid technical errors and duplicate pages.

Read more about SEO...

The following is an example of the tags used for our web site that are inserted between the "HEAD" tags of each page. Just replace our title, keywords and description with yours:

Web Statistics

You must also analyze the details of your web traffic you are receiving each day, such as: number of unique visitors, what pages are being viewed more often, and referral sites. You will receive all of these tracking tools free, along with a website builder, when you choose our premium hosting package. Web site statistics are important because they help you monitor which advertising and copy is working, which sites are sending traffic to you, etc.

Additional Website Tips

Do not try to trick the search engines with invisible text or other manipulative tactics. They may even get your site banned from certain search engines.
You should make it easy for your visitors to quickly discover what your web site is about.
You should include plenty of quality information, as long as your visitors don't have to scroll excessively.
You should definately obtain quality inbound links to your web site from related web sites or those that target a similar market as yours for higher search engine rankings.
Make sure that your web site reflects your business personality and image.
Make sure to list adequate contact information that is easily found.

Web Template Guidelines

For blogs, choose WordPress templates.
For e-commerce, choose OS Commerce templates.
For a member login area, choose PHP templates.
For movement, choose Flash templates.
For general business categories, choose Business web site templates. You can also search for a more specific category, such as medical, art & photography, etc.