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The internet has become the world's biggest library and marketplace. With an infinite amount of websites with all types of information available, online awareness and commerce is high - but so is competition. The main avenue of interaction with the public is through a company's internet presence, which can be critical to the survival of a business. The number of professionals that fail to devote enough attention to having a proper online presence is surprising. Hiring a design firm to create this necessity is something that every internet dependent organization should consider in order to stay competitive. A poorly constructed, unsightly website that is not user-friendly will greatly hinder internet traffic – and that is the complete opposite of what an online presence should achieve! Basic Requirements While every website will have its own purpose and goals, there are certain elements of good, useful internet design that every particular page should have, regardless of its purpose. Website design has moved into amazing territories today, with some incredible examples of creativity displayed. Yet no matter how creative, flashy or unique a web page may be, it still needs to satisfy certain demands. Some of those basic requirements are as follows: Title and Meta Tags - Before even reaching the design stage, a title (which displays in the menu bar) and meta tags (html tags picked up by search engines) should be unique, concise and appropriate for best search results. Each and every page should have its own meta tags coded in. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Search tags in the form of searchable keywords that influence a page's browser rank are significant. Finding good keywords to include in the content is essential with SEO as this function is based on search term statistics. Since it can be confusing to correctly apply, a design firm would be instrumental in setting up the correct SEO. Coding, Layout, Navigation and Contact - This is actually a very broad group of necessities relating on the same level that should be studied. Everything from using a successful layout to using a current web code is involved. Proper font, heading, image and white space usage can drastically affect a web page and needs to be correctly executed. Deviations from what is proven to work should be done with care even though being different can sometimes actually make a page better. Using colors, page layouts and navigation tools with proven success are of great importance. Every website must provide an easily located contact method as well as a site map. Sharing Ease - Forwarding, sharing and “liking” via social media and other applications is the best free advertising available and should be readily available for visitors. Achieve this with: a mailing list or newsletter sign-up; good social media pages; a blog that is kept current; and the ability to link to and forward information directly from one site to another via email, re-posting, embedding, linking or other ways. More and more websites have moved away from the required copying of http addresses or copying/pasting text in order to notify others, making it as easy as one-click sharing. Other Elements - Options such as jump links to navigate through content; customized, informative error messages and 404's; website search boxes; TOS (Terms of Service); Privacy Policy/Disclaimers or other applicable pages; and FAQ pages will add user-friendly functionality and increase positive visitor experience rates. While these are only a few of what goes into the creation of a good, user-friendly website, they are probably the most important. It all takes some time and good coding to implement; however, all of these standard elements would definitely be missed if not included. For help on using these essential features to improve an existing website or initially build a better one, a reliable web design firm should have the experience and expertise to help create that exceptional internet presence! Chris Hunter is an expert in Web Design and Search Engine Marketing. To find out more about Texas Web Design Firm, go to the main website at: http://www.www.webunlimited.com.
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