It?s taken a decade of baby steps, but the Web is finally starting to grow up. We’ve banished the bleak days of brochureware back when companies thought that scanning their annual reports page by page into half megabyte GIFs was the way to build an online presence.

We’ve woken up from the nightmare of building sites from nested tables that wouldn’t make the IKEA refuse bin, thanks to browsers that (mostly) handle style sheets without leaving coders compromised. And, thankfully, most people have got over their infatuation with Flash for its own sake, realising that two minutes of whirling geometrics is the closest thing to turning your entire front page into a Back button.

Call it a Renaissance if you like but the only way is up, no matter what you want to bring to the Web. Design mavens can now stretch CSS, JavaScript and even Flash to their limits, while maintaining clean, lightweight, elegant sites that embrace different platforms and even shrink to suit the mobile Web. At the same time, those more interested in content don’t have to sacrifice good looks for textual brilliance, and can draw upon publishing tools that make it easy for others to comment, contribute and collaborate online. Today’s bleeding edge sites are driven by the wishes and wills of both their creators and their visitors: they’re flexible, accessible and open to customisation. Most of all, they’re user driven: while it’s always been true that as much ego goes into building sites as HTML, we’re starting to see grassroots projects that offer distinctive personal visions, while embracing what their audiences anticipate from the Web and what they bring to the Web. The portal builders’ vision of the ‘Daily Me’ is evolving into the Webloggers’ ‘Daily Us’ and there’s plenty to like about it.

From interactive to inclusive

One of the earliest goals of site builders, back in what you might call the Web’s Stone Age, was to put a bit of life into static, read only sites. The arcane world of CGI was (and still is) beyond the reach of most HTML jockeys, meaning that any browser based techniques to add interactivity tended to be pretty lame. Reading back a visitor’s IP address or building a scripted form to pop up ‘Hello Dave!’ when you enter your name isn’t really the height of technology.

Even until recently, there’s been a digital divide between the bargain basement interactivity available to most site builders, and the customisation of higher end sites backed by self-motivated servers and databases. Now, though, with the advent of smart site publishing tools, that sort of dead end ?interactivity’ can be tossed in the bit-bucket. Ironically, though, much of the personalisation offered by big portal sites has also proved to be a false dawn. While being able to pick and choose news stories or multimedia streams seemed a big thing in the Nineties, in hindsight it seems shackled by ‘old media’ expectations too much like buying a newspaper for the sports section or wielding the TV remote control.

What’s emerged in the last few years, then, is a redefinition of what interactivity should mean for the Web, which draws upon the various forms of online interaction that already thrive, i.e. email, newsgroups, chat rooms and instant messaging. So it’s time to put aside notions of dumb push button Interactivity’ that cast the Web as some giant videogame, and instead embrace a new era of ?inclusivity’, in which sites are built to allow complex interactions but on a very human scale.

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Professional web design has become vital during recent years. A few years ago, it was estimated that a visitor to a web site took about 8 seconds to decide to stay on that web site or click the “Back” button. That was then, this is now: Your web site has only about 4 seconds to make an impression on the visitor.

That is not much time at all! Today, people want instant results. Few people even wait to see the entire web design before making their decision. If your web design does not grab their attention immediately, they won’t stick around. And if your web site does not offer something of benefit, they won’t bookmark it and they won’t come back (more on that later).

So, with that in mind, let’s discuss some practical ways to grab the attention of web site visitors. Then, in a future article, we will talk a little about keeping their attention with good web site content. Remember, people spend most of their time on the Internet reading. They read search results, news items, how-to articles and forums. A professional web design company will take this into account. But that is for later. First, we have to keep visitors attention (remember the 4 second rule).

Get to the Point.

We live in a fast-paced society and we are used to instant results: Microwave meals in 5 minutes, lose 5 pounds in 5 days, 30 minute oil changes, see results from fitness equipment in 20 minutes a day, and on and on.

The Internet is no different and it actually may be less forgiving of web sites that don’t deliver results quickly.

The 4 second rule that we spoke of earlier does not mean that your entire web page must load in 4 seconds. Rather, it means that a visitor to your web site has to at least see something interesting within that 4 second window. So, to test your site, while it is loading, ask yourself:
? How much time passes before I see anything?
? What is the first thing I see on the web page?
? How much time passes before I can read some text?
? How long would it take a visitor to determine what the web site is about?

Try this suggestion yourself and then try to enlist the help of some of your friends. The more people you have to test your web site, the more thorough your results will be.

Ideally, the site should load top to bottom and left to right. However, your design should adhere to the reading habits of your target audience. Some countries read from right to left so, make sure you know your audience. Also, the most eye-catching elements should load first. Once these load, they will grab the visitor’s attention. Then, the rest of the page can finish loading.
St Louis Web Development Company not only offers great designs but great rates as well. You will be assured of quality result with
St Louis Web Development Company.St Louis Web Development Company not only values quality but it values its customers as well.

A web page may be created for personal or professional purposes. Technology has made web development a convenient process. In fact the benefits of technology vis-

Talking to the web designer

? What should your website look like? Obviously, the vaguer you are, the less helpful your suggestions will be. A good starting place is to look at other websites with a similar subject matter. From these, you can either decide what you like, or, through a process of comparison, realise what you don’t want and thus partly recognise what is actually important to you.

Other interesting avenues of approach come through associative thinking: consider movies, books, music and artwork that you think convey the sort of ‘feeling’ you want from the website. Tell your web designer about them: maybe he can capture some of that je ne sais quoi! Expand your expectations of your website from just a ‘look’ - maybe it can be a ‘feeling’, or also a ’sound’; can you get your visitors to imagine the smell of the website? If you are selling flowers online, you may want them to!

? Communication is key. This is an adjunct to the point above, but do not be afraid to go into detail for your web designer. Even if he disagrees with some of your stylistic or organisational choices, everything you suggest will communicate more of what you want your website to be. Details about how it should behave tell us a lot about its real purpose and about what makes it unique, just as the style of a piece of writing can tell us something about its larger meaning. There is, of course, a caveat to this advice: if you go beyond suggesting and into dictating; if you only talk and don’t listen: then you aren’t communicating any more, you’re only yelling. You’re paying for your web designer’s time and yes, he is your employee for the moment. But remember that you are paying him because he is a professional: he may not be an expert in your field, but he is an expert at online presence. It’s precisely the fact that you are an expert in your field, which the website is about, and he is an expert in his field, which is designing the website, which makes it so important to meet in the middle when it comes to discussion of the site itself.

You have homework to do!

? Content rules the internet.
You may have read it before. “Content is king / everything / why they come.” Fortunately, this is true. It’s what makes the internet useful, and it’s why search engines like Google that pay the closest attention to well-ordered and original content are the most-used, and most-useful. Unfortunately, it does mean that you are going to have to do more work for your web site than simply writing an ‘About Us’ page and hoping web-surfers google your exact company name!

The best web designers will write copy (i.e. words) to go on your website, and they will make it grammatical, attractive, punchy, and all that good stuff. But even the best professional designer can’t learn your years of experience and then translate that to the screen.

You have an insurmountable advantage: you really know what you’re talking about. This means that you should be creating lots of content for your website. Why? ^^^^^ - because “Content is king”! If Googlers search for specialist phrases which are relevant to your business / charity / cottage-industry / photo-album, they should get hits for your website! If they’re not, that means that all of your experience in this specific field - all that experience that differentiates you from the rest of the site-owners on the internet - is going to waste.

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St Louis Web Development Company.St Louis Web Development Company not only values quality but it values its customers as well.

Web design can be quite a daunting prospect if you are new to the Internet. You would like to create your own site but have no idea where to begin. Html? Photoshop? Fireworks? FrontPage? Dreamweaver?

This article will give you some tips and hints on how to get started with web design - and which shortcuts to take!

Tip 1: Learn HTML

I can hear you groan. I said I was going to give you some shortcuts, now I suggest you learn HTML! Unfortunately there is no way around it. Even if you make use to the shortcuts to web design that I am going to suggest, learning HTML will still be the best investment that you can make. It is really not that difficult and it will greatly aid in your understanding of web design.

A really good place for online tutorials on HTML can be found here: http://www.w3schools.com/html/

Depending on your enthusiasm and level of technical skill I would also suggest that you learn a bit about CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Cascading style sheets can assist you tremendously with controlling the layout, colors and images on your web page. You can also find good CSS tutorials on the w3schools website.

Tip 2: Use a web template for web design

Now this is actually a shortcut to web design! I recommend that you create your first website by making use of a web template. There are lots of commercial templates available, and frankly, they are beautiful, but I am going to give you some hints on where to find free web templates. Most people would think that searching for ‘free web templates’ in Google would be the most obvious way of doing it - but I suggest that you rather search for ‘open source web templates’.

Here are some sources with open source (basically - free to use) web templates. The advantage of these templates is that they are usually well designed and will also teach you good web design principles (as opposed to most of the commercial templates which, while they are undeniably beautiful to look at, they are normally not built making use of good web design principles).

My preferred Open Source web design site is http://www.oswd.org
This site has over a 1600 free designs to choose from. Download any design and build your site! Most of these designs make use of CSS as well which is why it is a good idea to learn CSS.

Another site with lots of free template designs is http://www.daydreamgraphics.com
I suggest that if you are just starting out you stick with the designs made with tables. These are the easiest to manipulate and use. The templates on Daydreamgraphics are not for everyone - they are mostly geared towards a young funky look, so if you are looking for a design that you can use for your business or company, you might do better to rather select a design from OSWD, but if you are looking at setting up a personal website, a hobby site or a site related to music or entertainment, these designs will work very well.

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St Louis Web Development Company.St Louis Web Development Company not only values quality but it values its customers as well.

Your website is your company’s calling card on the internet so you need to have one you’re proud of and does the job it’s meant to, and offer pleasant viewing for your browsers which can only be achieved with quality web development. That means getting a professional web development company to develop your site and create web based solutions for your business. But before approaching a web design company, you should clarify your requirements. Here’s how you do it.

Firstly, you must establish your goals. What’s the purpose of your web site? Are you selling products, displaying your portfolio, announcing your services? What do you want your visitors to do? Put yourself in your visitor’s shoes. What do they be expecting to find at your website?

Next you have to set your budget. Having these figures in hand at the beginning can help in your negotiation with the web design companies. But don’t reveal your budget. Always get quotes based on your needs first. The first thing you would probably do if you live in Liverpool is, go to Google and search for web design companies in Liverpool. Take the advantage of the global reach of the internet and search for web design agencies in UK. Also take into considerations if you have any technological staff you employ, would you need to do the maintenance of the sites yourself? If you do not have the staff, then web based solutions could be the right option for your web development, which are offered by many web design agencies in the UK, how would you find these companies? Just do a quick search in Google for web design agencies UK and it should bring up a long list of web design agencies in the UK. But then it is down to you to single out the right company for your web development needs. However, you could do a more specific search for certain areas like web design companies in Manchester, which would be more local so you can go to see your web development company when you may need to. Web design companies in London would tend to be more expensive compared to the rest of the country

Establishing your goals in this way allows you to clearly explain your requirements to the web design agency that you choose. In fact, these are the same types of questions that web development companies ask at the start of any project. Having the answers readily at hand means you have a better possibility of getting the site that you want. Plus, the information you gather from these questions can help in choosing the right web development company.

Finally we come to the all-important step of choosing a web design company. Remember that building a website involves the separate skills of design and development. You need a company with expertise in both web design and web development. And if the firm has business skills, then better still, as you will find if you search for web design companies in Birmingham, they have a lot of al round skills in web development and offering web based solutions.

In fact the ideal web design and web development firm should also offer SEO consulting and marketing advice. Searching for web design companies Leeds would give you less choice of web development and SEO, however, if you searched for web design companies Manchester or web design companies London, you would find more companies with mixtures of diverse skill sets to make your web design and web development project successful, also the firm should be knowledgeable about the fast-changing world of ecommerce and be able to offer solutions such as database integration, content management, and shopping carts, for example.

A firm that has this all round knowledge will be able to come up with ideas and advice that lead to total growth solutions. So how do you find your dream design firm?

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St Louis Web Development Company.St Louis Web Development Company not only values quality but it values its customers as well.

A lot of new online business owners have misconceptions about custom web design. It’s not only about getting your website up and running. It’s about designing every aspect of your website - every “nook and cranny” - to lead your visitors to the ultimate end, a sale. Whether you plan to build a service-oriented website or offer many products, your site’s design must have all the ingredients for success from the very start. Be sure the web designer you choose has an understanding of promotion as well as custom web design. Here are some features your site must have to survive among the Internet masses.

An Easily Recognized USP (Unique Selling Proposition)

When a visitor arrives at any of your web pages (not only the homepage), he/she should understand what your site is all about right away. You only have a split second to grab their attention. Make sure each web page has a powerful keyword-rich headline that will keep the visitor reading.

Graphics that Complement without Dominating the Web Pages

Every website needs a few graphics here and there to make the web design pleasing to the eye, but be sure your graphic design and logo design do not dominate your pages. You want visitors to read your page, not look at your graphics. So, keep graphics to a minimum, and use them only when they help to create an even reading flow on the page. A lot of sites use a pleasant “newsletter” style when there is much to read on a page, sprinkling graphics or photos throughout the text in a wrap-around sense. For logo design, keep it small and simple. There’s nothing more annoying than waiting on a page to load because its logo is too big!

Keyword Rich Content for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Be sure your designer understands about SEO and keywords. Each page of your site should be designed with search engine promotion in mind. This means gearing your meta tags, link text for pages or in menus, headlines, image “alt text” contents, etc. to attract search engine traffic for the long haul.

Easy-to-Use Navigation

Be sure the navigation on your web pages is accessible. Many visitors will not take the time to “search” for hidden links or to browse through a confusing menu. If ordering custom web design from a professional, write out on paper how you would like your link system to flow from page to page. If you have content, place visible, colored links within the text to give visitors a chance to click while reading. Have menu bars or links in the usual places - sidebars and top/bottom of the web page.

Promote your Website

A number of design firms will offer promotion bonuses with a custom web design package. This benefits you because it helps you to get a head start on building traffic. You can take advantage of the design firm’s skills and knowledge about Web promotion and search engine optimization. Don’t forget to promote your website in every way possible. Print your site address on business cards, newspaper ads, letterhead, etc. Also, promote your site online using only targeted advertising.

St Louis Web Development Company not only offers great designs but great rates as well. You will be assured of quality result with
St Louis Web Development Company.St Louis Web Development Company not only values quality but it values its customers as well.