 EMeeting 9 comes fully integrated with Userplane chat and instant messenger. Our most advanced online community software makes starting your own online dating website, community website or social networking business as easy as 1 ,2 3! The software comes complete with advanced software features such as chat rooms, forums, instant messenger, customizable profile fields, multiple language support, built in payment options, easy to understand admin controls, multiple design templates and so much more, there has never been a better time to start making money online! Instant Software Download In a hurry to setup your new website? You can download the software instantly after you purchase and return at any time to download it again and again! All customers get their own customer area login details to access our members lounge for downloads and updates. Step by Step Installation eMeeting dating software comes with a step by step installation screen helping you download, install and setup your new website with ease. We also offer free installation with every purchase so you could just take the easy option! Select a ready-made design! We have many ready made designs developed by our design experts to help you get started. You can choose from any of the designs available. Need something different? Contact our development team today with your requirements and we'll see what we can do! Design your Website Customize your website design using the advanced design tools available via the admin area. You can change colours, images and more! Enable / Disable Features Not everyone wants the same features that's why you can quickly and easily enable/disable the website features that you want using the software admin area. Demo: http://datingscripts.co.uk/dating-software-demo Download: DOWNLOAD HERE or http://www.megaupload.com/?d=3A9CSDM6 |
Friday, March 26, 2010
emeeting v 9.6 dating script | NULLED-SCRiPTS.BIZ
emeeting v 9.6 dating script | NULLED-SCRiPTS.BIZ
Datecomm v.2.4 PHP nulled Script
Datecomm version 2.4 Updated 29.03.07 is a developed social networking / community script.
Target audience is Everyone! Remember the dating craze? well the market for social networking is everyone!
not just singles etc.. its still early days.
You can Buy a social network / community site now! now only $220 per single license.
Google adsense integration makes it easy to monetize your site!
Commercial Social Networking Software Turnkey Solution
Members can personalize profile with CSS customization, Upload/Play Music, Link video and graphics,
edit Profile, upload pictures and invite any friends to join your network,
play music from profile, Create groups with different access levels
members can chat in public rooms or in private rooms.
Write Testimonials (must be a friend)
Find a date
Find an apartment
Find a job
Connect with lost friends
Expose music
Connect with artists
Promote events
Make a new friend
Buy or sell something
Create business relationships
Find auditions
Blog
Search engine friendly URLs
New Flash Chat with File Sharing and IM
Easy to use admin section gives you total control over completely every single area of the site.
much more
Free tufat.com Flashchat Integration share files and video.
site:http://www.datecomm.com
Demo: http://www.thecorecode.com/socialnetwork
Download: DOWNLOAD HERE
Speedate Software
Blog Scripts, Chat Scripts, CMS Scripts, Dating Scripts, Directory Scripts, Forum Boards Scripts, Image Hosting Scripts, Search Engine Scripts, PHP Wiki Scripts, Shopping Carts, Web Hosting Scripts, Turnkey Sites, Clone Scripts, File Hosting Scripts, Social Networking Scripts, Gaming Scripts, SEO Tools Scripts, AD Managmment, Multimedia Scripts, Social Engine, VBulletin, Invision Power Board, SQL Dumps, mccodes, Decoding Tools, Tutorials, Billing Softwares, Forum Hosting Scripts, Miscellaneous Scripts, Free PHP Scripts, Arabic PHP Scripts, French PHP Scripts, Email & Marketing, Webmaster Tools, Templates, Flashden, Scriptz.Ucoz.NET
Free, Null, Scripts, Null Scriptz, Null, Script, Free,Nulled Script, Nulled, Script, Free, Web, Scripts, Templates, Php, null, script, Scriptz.ucoz.net, Free Null Scripts, Free Null Script, Null Scripts, Null Script, Free Nulled Script, Nulled Script, Free Web Scripts, Template Monster Templates, Php null Scripts, asp nulled, asp nulled Script, Jsp script, graphics, free template, download free template, free web scripts, clone scripts, Gaming scripts,Webmaster, Template, Nulled, Scripts, Null Script, Free Stuff, Script, SEO,Ebooks, Free Null Scripts, Nulled Script, Php Scripts, Asp Scripts, jsp script, plugin, Scriptz.ucoz.net.
Demo: http://www.speeddate.com
Download: DOWNLOAD HERE
Wazzum Premium Dating Software
Premium Dating Software with Live Video.
2 years Free Hosting.
100% Open Source with video and tons of new features including 15 Dating and Community Templates.
Our Premium Dating Software is full of the features you need to start your very own dating website and together with 2 years free hosting, 15 dating and community templates, it’s more diverse than ever. Wazzum Premium Dating Software allows you to start your very on unique dating site. No other dating software provider has what Wazzum offers and that is what makes us different. No one will take your feature request and add them into the dating software free of charge like Wazzum will.
Wazzum offers a wide range of tools that will make your new dating venture that much more enjoyable and profitable. With tools to combat spammers and scammers, Wazzum software will allow you to focus on building your member base and earning you more money. Wazzum Premium Dating Software version 2.7.1 comes with 50,000 free impressions in the Dating Banner Exchange Network as well as a Featured Listing in our Dating Directory.
site info: http://www.wazzum.com
Demo: http://demo.wazzum.com
Download: DOWNLOAD HERE
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Boat Wordpress Template
Here’s a nice calm theme targeted for those looking for an ocean or beach WordPress theme.
It features a small boat on the beach with the ocean and sun setting in the background.
It’s got two columns and could be used for a vacation blog, beach house blog, or
any other variation you can think of.
2 columns, Left sidebar, Blue, Yellow, Black, White colors
Working on: IE7, IE6, FireFox 2, Opera, Safari
Compatible with the latest WordPress version (Ver.2.5+)
Download :
http://www.filerack.in/647boat-on-beach-wp - Rj.zip
487SEO-GettotheToponGoogleTips.rar
SEO Tips E-book (google top rank tips)
Download:
http://www.filerack.in/487SEO-GettotheToponGoogleTips.rar
Email Marketing - An Hour a day
Email Marketing - An Hour a day
If the idea of starting an email marketing campaign overwhelms you, the authors of Email Marketing: An Hour a Day will introduce you to email marketing basics, demonstrate how to manage details and describe how you can track and measure results. Case studies, step-by-step guides, checklists, quizzes and hands-on tutorials will help you execute an email marketing campaign in just one hour a day. When you feel comfortable with the basics, learn how to use video and audio enabled email, implement tools like mobile devices and leverage social networks.
Download:
http://www.filerack.in/265Email_Marketing.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/324411941/Email_Marketing.rar.html
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SPHRN77N
http://depositfiles.com/files/313kew0g8
http://hotfile.com/dl/21496493/49a0eaf/Email_Marketing.rar.html
Using Joomla Building Powerful and Efficient Web Sites
Using Joomla Building Powerful and Efficient Web Sites
Oreilly | 12-2009 | ISBN-10: 0596804946 | PDF | Retail | 7 MB | 416 Pages | english
Why use Joomla? Because with Joomla you don’t need to have any technical expertise or web design experience to create effective websites and web apps. Whether you’re creating your first website or building a multi-function site for a client, this book provides straightforward, hands-on instruction that makes it easy to learn this open source web content management system.
Written by members of the Joomla Leadership Team, Using Joomla helps newcomers quickly learn the basics, while developers with Joomla experience will pick up best practices for building more sophisticated websites. You’ll also find more than a dozen ways to extend the functionality of existing Joomla-built websites. Start building with Joomla in minutes!
* Get guidelines for planning, creating, and organizing your content
* Understand how to create and use Joomla templates to build websites quickly
* Explore how components, modules, and plug-ins can extend your site’s functionality
* Increase your site ranking by using Joomla best practices
* Use built-in components such as banners, news feeds, polls, search, and web links
* Set up an online store, calendar, photo gallery, discussion forum, and more
* Learn important security precautions to safeguard your site
Download:
http://www.filerack.in/483Oreilly.-.Using.Joomla.December.2009.Retail.Ebook-ATTiCA.rar
http://hotfile.com/dl/21716617/4067265/Oreilly.-.Using.Joomla.December.2009.Retail.Ebook-ATTiCA.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/325389298/Oreilly.-.Using.Joomla.December.2009.Retail.Ebook-ATTiCA.rar
Photoshop Amazing Hair Tutorial
Photoshop Amazing Hair Tutorial
Special Tutorial for Adobe PhotoShop
Amazing Hair Tutorial (in pdf) is an easy to follow, step by step tutorial for those interested in painting amazing hair for their 3D characters after they have been rendered. You need Photoshop and a basic knowledge of Photoshop postwork in order to use this tutorial.
Content of the package:
-Techniques
-Advice
-Tips and notes
Colour swatches in ACT and jpg format.
Download:
http://www.filerack.in/885Amazing_Hair_Tutorial.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/209141966/Amazing_Hair_Tutorial.rar
http://depositfiles.com/files/cvea7c873
Studio Photography: Essential Skills, 3rd Edition - John Child
John Child "Studio Photography: Essential Skills, 3rd Edition"
Focal Press August 2005 ISBN : 0240519795 PDF 214 pages English 18.6 Mb
John Child has refreshed and updated his inspirational studio photography guide to cover all the latest techniques. Now beautifully illustrated in full colour, featuring brand new student and author work, Studio Photography guides you through the techniques you need to create successful studio images.
Through a clearly structured learning approach, you will stimulate and express your creative ideas using a wide variety of activities and assignments. With a strong commercial orientation, the emphasis is highly practical and focuses on technique, communication and design within the genres of still life, advertising illustration, portraiture and fashion.
This successful guide is an essential tool for those working in a controlled environment where the image output is to film or digital file. You are encouraged to experiment whether you have expensive equipment, or are using natural light sources; either way you will see how it is possible to achieve acceptable results and develop your skills.
• Learn all the essential principles of studio photography through this successful, highly structured learning approach
• Reinforce your skills with a wide variety of practical activities and revision exercises
• Learn what can be achieved through inspirational student and author full colour images
Download:
http://www.filerack.in/324Studio_Photography_Essential_Skill_3.rar
http://uploading.com/files/c1a1ce7a/Studio_Photography_Essential_Skill_3.rar/
http://depositfiles.com/files/ekkffc5rt
http://extabit.com/file/2dboxa5l1sdmf
Money Making Guides - 6 Adsense BooK
There are six books:
1. Adsense Arbitrage - Make Thousands with Google Adsense
2. Adwords-black-book
3. GoogleCash - Using Google AdWords 3.1
4. AdSense BlackHat Edition
5. Google Money Pro 2 Review-Site-Guide
6. Make Easy Money with Google - Using the AdSense Advertising Program
Hope these help you with Adsense!
Download:
http://www.filerack.in/844Money.Making_Guides - Rj.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/327133829/Money.Making_Guides.rar
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Complete SEO for blogs and sites
SEO which you need to do after you download the template and upload it to your blog:
after uploading your template sucessfully, remain on the same Dashboard>Layout>Edit HTML page and analyze the template code. Find the META tags which are providing in the beginning lines of the code. META tags start with 'meta'. Do the following steps:
For the latest templates, I`m not adding Meta Description and Meta Keyword tags, so you would need to them manually. Ask me if you need help adding those tags. Click Here to get the Meta Description and Meta Keyword tags for your blog/site.
The second step is to submit your blog/site to 3 major search engines [Google | Yahoo | Bing] to get indexed and get traffic. You can do this by submitting only index/main page of your site using their submission links below:
That`s it!
If you need to customize and search engine optimize your blog/site deeply, you can follow my my complete Customization and SEO guide provided below. You need some HTML, XML and CSS skills to work it out.
COMPLETE CUSTOMIZATION AND SEO GUIDE FOR BLOG/SITE
HTML size
Page size matters because search engines limit size of a cached page. For example, Google will only cache a full page if the size of its HTML is less than 101 Kb (images and external scripts are not included). Yahoo! caches text of up to 500 Kb per page. This means if your HTML page is too large, search engines will not cache the full page, and only the top part of the text will be searchable.
Same color text and background
If the color of the text on a page is close to the background color, the text becomes almost invisible. As a rule, this technique is employed to populate a page with keywords without damaging its design. Since it is considered as spam by most search engines, I suggest that you do not try it.
Tiny text
If a page uses Cascading Style Sheets and there are fonts smaller than 4 pixels, they are reported as tiny texts. Most search engines consider tiny texts as an abusive practice - this is why you should avoid using them.
Immediate keyword repeats
The same keyword repeated one after the other a few times, for example air tickets on-line, air tickets, air tickets, air tickets, air tickets in Hong Kong is a questionable trick. For this example, there will be three repetitions reported, because the keyword was placed three times in a row after it was used first. Such repetitions are considered as spam by most search engines.
Controls
Try to avoid too many controls on your page, especially in the top area, since it may decrease your keyword prominence and result in low rankings.
Frames
Not all search engines support frames, i.e. can follow from a frameset page to content frames and index texts. If your website consists of frames, and you cannot redesign it, you can solve this problem by putting the content of an optimized page with links to other pages into a "NOFRAMES" HTML tag.
External and Internal JavaScript
Do not use too many embedded scripts on the page, because your keyword prominence will be reduced, and thus your page will be ranked lower on search engines. We advise putting the script in an external file or move it as close to the closing Body tag as possible.
External and Internal VBScript
Please note that excessive use of scripts in the top area of the page dilute keyword prominence and therefore affect your rankings. Put the script in an external file or move it as close to the closing Body tag as possible.
File robots.txt allows spidering
Robots.txt is a text file placed in the root directory of a website/blog to tell robots on how to spider the website. Only robots that comply with the Robots Exclusion Standard will read and obey the commands in this file. Robots.txt is often used to prevent robots from visiting some pages and subdirectories not intended for public use. However, if you want search engine robots to spider your site, there should not be disallowing commands included within this file for all or particular search engine robots.
Head area
Each HTML document should have a HEAD tag at the beginning of each document. The information contained inside the head tag (...) describes the document, but it doesn't show up on the page returned to the browser. The Title tag and meta tags are found inside the Head tag.
An HTML tag within the Head tag is used to define the title of a Web page. The content of the Title tag is displayed by browsers on the Title bar located at the top of the browser window. Search engines use the Title tag to provide a link to the site matching the user's query. The text in the Title tag is one of the most important factors influencing search engine ranking algorithms. By populating your most important keywords in the Title tag, you dramatically increase the search engine ranking of the page for those keywords. Your title tag should be the first tag in the HEAD tag.
Stop Words
To save space and speed up searching, some search engines exclude common words from their index, therefore these words are ignored when searches are carried out.
'The', 'or', 'in', 'it' are examples of such words. These words are known as "stop words." To make your pages search engine-friendly, you should avoid using stop words in the most important areas of your page like title, meta tags, headings, alternative image attributes, anchor names, etc.
Besides, stop words have no contextual meaning - using them in short areas such as a title, headings, and anchor texts will reduce weight, prominence and the frequency of keywords.
Keyword frequency
Frequency is the number of times your keyword is used in the analyzed area of the page.
Example: If the page's first heading is 'Get the best XYZ services provided by XYZ Company', frequency of keyword 'XYZ' in the heading will be two. Frequency relates only to the exact matches of a keyword. Therefore, frequency of key phrase 'XYZ services' will be one, because as exact match, this keyword is used only once.
Search engines use frequency as a measure of keyword importance.
Search engines rate pages with more keywords as more relevant results, and score them higher. However, you should not use too many keywords, since most search engines will penalize you for this practice for being seen as an attempt to artificially inflate rankings.
Keyword weight (density)
Keyword weight is a measure of how often a keyword is found in a specific area of the Web page like a title, heading, anchor name, visible text, etc. Unlike keyword frequency, which is just a count, keyword weight is a ratio.
Keyword weight will depend on the type of keyword, that is if the keyword is a single word or phrase. If the keyword includes two or more words, for example, 'XYZ services', every word in the key phrase (i.e. both 'XYZ' and 'services') contributes to the weight ratio in the weight formula, and not as one keyword ('XYZ services').
Keyword weight is calculated as the number of words in the key phrase multiplied by frequency and divided by the total number of words (including the keyword).
Example: The title of a Web page is 'Get Best XYZ Services'. Keyword weight for 'XYZ services' is 2*1/4*100%=50%. If you reduce the number of words in the title by removing the word 'get', so the title becomes 'Best XYZ Services', than the keyword weight will be larger: 2*1/3*100%=67%. Finally, if you only keep 'XYZ Services' in the title, the keyword weight will become 100% -- 2*1/2*100%.
So, to increase the keyword weight, you should either add some more keywords or reduce the number of words in the page area. The proportion of the keywords to all words will become larger, so will the keyword weight.
Many search engines calculate keyword weight when they rank pages for a particular keyword. Normally, high keyword weight tell search engines that the keyword is extremely important in the text; however, a weight that is too high can make search engines suspect you of spamming and they will penalize your website's rankings.
Keyword Prominence
Keyword Prominence is another measure of keyword importance that relates to the proximity of a keyword to the beginning of the analyzed page area. Being the keyword that is used at the beginning of the Title, Heading, or on top of the visible text of the page is considered more important than other words. Prominence is a ratio that is calculated separately for each important page area such as a title, headings, visible text, anchor tags, etc.
HTML pages are written in a document-like fashion. The most important items of a document's visible text are placed at the top, and their importance is gradually reduced towards the bottom. This idea can be also applied to keyword prominence. Normally, the closer a keyword to the top of a page and to the beginning of a sentence, the higher its prominence is. However, search engines also check if the keyword is present in the middle and at the bottom of the page, so you should place some keywords there too.
The prominence formula takes the following factors into account:
1) Keyword positions in the area,
2) Number of words in the keyword, and
3) Total number of words in the area.
100% prominence is given to a keyword or keyphrase that appears at the beginning of the analyzed page area.
Example 1: Let's take the page title 'Daily horoscopes on your desktop' and analyze prominence of keyphrase 'daily horoscopes'. The title word order will be: 'Keyword1, keyword2, word3, word4, word5'. Prominence will be 100% here as the keyphrase is present at the beginning of the sentence.
The keyword/keyphrase in the middle of the analyzed area will have 50% prominence.
Example 2: The anchor name is 'Find here the daily horoscope for your sign'. The keyword prominence of the phrase 'daily horoscope' in this case will be 50% as the keyphrase is located in the middle of the sentence -- 'Word1, word2, word3, keyword4, keyword5, word6, word7, word8'.
As a keyword appears farther back in the area, its prominence will be counted from zero and it will depend on how close to the end it is. If the keyword appears at the end of the area, its prominence will be close to 0%. If the keyword appears at the beginning of the area and then is repeated in the middle or at the end, its prominence will be 100% because prominence of the fist used keyword prevails over the repeated keywords.
META Description
Syntax: < META name="Description" content="Web page description">
This is a Meta tag that provides a brief description of a Web page. It is important the description clearly describes the purpose of the page. The importance of the Description tag as an element of the ranking algorithm has decreased significantly over years, but there are still search engines that support this tag. They log descriptions of the indexed pages and often display them with the Title in their results.
The length of a displayed description varies per search engine. Therefore you should place the most important keywords at the beginning of the first sentence -- this will guarantee that both users and search engines will see the most important information about your site.
META Keywords
Syntax: < META name="Keywords" content="keyword1, keyword2, keyword3">
This is Meta tag that lists the words or phrases about the contents of the Web page. This tag provides some additional text for crawler-based search engines. However because of frequent attempts to abuse their system, most search engines ignore this tag. Please note that none of the major crawler-based search engines except Inktomi provide support for the Keywords Meta tag.
Similar to the description tag, there is a limit in the number of captured characters in Keywords meta tag. Ensure you've chosen keywords that are relevant to the content of your site. Avoid repetitions as search engines can penalize your rankings. Move the most important keywords to the beginning to increase their prominence.
META Refresh
Syntax: < META http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=http://newURL.com/">
This HTML META tag also belongs in the Head tag of your HTML page.
The META Refresh tag is often used as a way to redirect the viewer to another Web page or refresh the content of the viewed page after a specified number of seconds. The META Refresh tag is also sometimes used as a doorway page optimized for a certain search engine, which is accessed first by users, who then are redirected to the main website. Some search engines discourage the use of this META tag, because it is an opportunity for webmasters to spam search engines with similar pages that all lead to the same page. In addition, this also clutters the search engines databases with irrelevant and multiple versions of the same data. Try to avoid doorways and redirects altogether in your Web/blog building.
META Robots
Syntax: < META name="Robots" content="INDEX,FOLLOW">
The robots instructions are normally placed in a robots.txt file that is uploaded to the root directory of a domain. However, if a webmaster does not have access to /robots.txt, then instructions can be placed in the Robots META tag. This tag tells the search engine robots whether a page should be indexed and included in the search engine database and its links followed.
The content of the robots meta tag is a comma separated list that may contain the following commands:
ALL also INDEX,FOLLOW -- there are no restrictions on indexing the page or following links; NONE also NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW -- robots must ignore the page; a combination of INDEX, FOLLOW, NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW -- if you want a search engine robot just to index a page but not to follow links, you should specify 'INDEX,NOFOLLOW', if you want it to follow links without indexing the page, you should instruct robots as 'NOINDEX,FOLLOW'.
BODY area
The body tag indentifies the beginning of the main section of your Web page, the main content area. The whole of the Web page is designed between the opening and closing body tag. (...) including all images, links, text, headings, paragraphs, and forms.
The recommendations on how to use keywords in the BODY tag are the same as in other important areas. Your primary keywords should be placed at the top of your body tag (first paragraph) and as close to the beginning of a sentence as possible. Do not forget to use them again in each paragraph. Keywords should not be repeated one after another. For search engines that check keyword presence at the bottom of the body tag, you should use your most important keywords within the last paragraph from the closing body tag.
Visible text
The content of the Body tag includes both visible and invisible text. The term 'Visible text' refers to the portion that is displayed by the browser.
Extra emphasis by search engines is put on keywords when you underline them or make them bold, thus helping higher rankings for these keywords.
Keyword in the Heading
It is important the keyword is present in the very first heading tag on the page regardless of its type. If the keyword is also used as a first word, you will raise its prominence.
All headings
There are standard rules for the structure of HTML pages. They are written in a document-like fashion. In a document, you start with the title, then a major heading that usually describes the main purpose of the section. Subheadings highlight the key points of each subsection. Many search engines rank the words found in headings higher than the words found in the text of the document. Some search engines incorporate keywords by looking at all the heading tags on a page.
Links
Anchor tags on the page can also have keyword-rich text as anchor names. This text can be important to some search engines and therefore also for the rankings of the destination pages. Create anchored links with keywords in them to link pages of your website.
Text in links including ALTs
Images like buttons, banners, etc. may include Alt attributes as a text comment describing the graphic image. If this image has been used as a hyperlink, the Alt attribute is interpreted as a link text by some search engines, and the destination page will have a significant boost in rankings for the keyword in the Alt attribute. Use graphic links with keyword-rich Alts to link pages of your website.
ALT image attributes
Optimization of Alt image attributes gives you another opportunity to use keywords. It is advantageous if the page is designed with large graphics and very little text. Include the target keyword in at least the first three Alt attributes.
Comments
This tag lets webmasters write notes about the page code, which is only for their guidance and is invisible to the browser. Most search engines do not read the content of this tag, so Comments optimization will not be as helpful as Title optimization. The Comment tags should be populated with keywords only if the design of the Web page does not allow more efficient and search engine-friendly methods.
Keyword in URL
Having keyword in your domain name and / or folder names and file names increases your chances to gain top positions for these keywords. If you aren't a brand-oriented business, it is recommended that you purchase the domain name that contains your keyword. If your keyphrase consists of more than one keyword, the best way to separate them in the URL is with a hyphen "-":
www.my-keyphrase-here.com
If it seems impossible to get such a domain name, or your site is already well established over a keyword-poor domain, attempt to compensate it by using keywords in folder and file names of your site's file system on the server.
Link popularity
This is the number of links from other website pages to your page that search engines are aware of.
Each search engine only lists links embedded on the sites that are preindexed by that particular search engine. So, the presence of certain links in Google's index will not guarantee that Inktomi has also indexed the same sites. Therefore the number of links shown will be different from engine to engine.
In general, the more links that point to your page, the better your page will rank.
However, a large number of links is not the deciding factor that helps your site get to the top of the results pages -- the quality of those links is of greater importance. If a link to your site is placed on a page having very little importance that is this page itself is linked to only a few other pages or none, this kind of link will not improve a page's popularity. The links to your pages should be subject-relevant because theme-based search engines will check the parity of content between referring and referred pages. The closer they are, the more relevant your site page is to the searcher's query for your keyword. Avoid reciprocal linking with sites that have a low weight, or a questionable reputation or are different from yours in subject matter. As a part of their anti-spam measures, search engines can penalize your site's rankings for ignoring these pitfalls.
Theme
For spam-free and relevant results, search engines start evaluating sites as one page to find the main theme covering all pages of the site. Most major search engines have become theme-based.
Search engines extract and analyze words on all pages of a website to discover its theme. The more keywords found on your website that relate to the user's query, the more points you get for the theme. Therefore, if your Web business includes many products or services, try to find the theme that covers them all.
Open Directory Project listing (dmoz.org)
The ODP (also known as DMOZ) is the largest human-edited directory on the Web. Many major search engines use the ODP data to provide their directory results. This works because sites put forward for inclusion in the ODP are reviewed by real people who care about the quality of their directory.
It is still a good for a website to be present in the ODP. For new sites, it is an excellent starting point, because Google regularly spiders the ODP to update its own directory based on the ODP listings, and if your site is included, you'll get a link that Google believes important enough to start off crawling your site.
As well as the weight of a link from the ODP, it would be even better if the site were listed in the most topic-specific category to make the link not only important, but also content-relevant.
Yahoo! Directory listing
This is similar to the ODP -- Google relationship. The Yahoo! directory is regularly crawled by the Yahoo! robots.
A new site has a greater chance of being included faster in the Yahoo! search engine if there is a link to this site from the Yahoo! directory. If you get your site is listed within the Yahoo! category closest to your site theme, this particular link will help your site move up.
Search Engine Bot
Search engine bot is a type of web crawlers which collects web documents to generate and maintain index for the search engines.
Google PageRank
Google PageRank is the measure of a page’s importance in Google’s opinion. PR calculations are based on how many quality and relevant sites across the Web link to this page. The higher the PageRank of the referring page, the more weight this link has.
Alexa Traffic Rank
Alexa Traffic Rank is a combined measure of page views and users (reach). This information is gathered with the help of Alexa Toolbar used by millions of Web surfers. First, Alexa calculates the reach and number of page views for all sites on the Web on the daily basis. Then these two quantities are averaged over time.
Backlinks Theme
To determine your site rankings, search engines take into consideration theme relevance of those sites linking to you. If the linking sites have something in common with yours (keywords in the BODY, titles, descriptions of the linked pages, etc.), your website gets better chances to gain high positions for these keywords.
PR Statistics for linking sites
PR Statistics for linking sites is statistic information about the Page Rank of the pages linking to you. Statistics are presented both in numerical and percentage terms. The higher the PR of the referring site, the better chances your own Web page has to get high PR.
after uploading your template sucessfully, remain on the same Dashboard>Layout>Edit HTML page and analyze the template code. Find the META tags which are providing in the beginning lines of the code. META tags start with 'meta'. Do the following steps:
- Provide your Blog Description in Meta Description tag by removing "Your Blog description..."
- Provide words relevant to your blog in the Meta Keywords tag by removing "Your keywords..."
- Provide yourname/company in the Meta authors tag by removing "Yourname/company"
For the latest templates, I`m not adding Meta Description and Meta Keyword tags, so you would need to them manually. Ask me if you need help adding those tags. Click Here to get the Meta Description and Meta Keyword tags for your blog/site.
The second step is to submit your blog/site to 3 major search engines [Google | Yahoo | Bing] to get indexed and get traffic. You can do this by submitting only index/main page of your site using their submission links below:
That`s it!
If you need to customize and search engine optimize your blog/site deeply, you can follow my my complete Customization and SEO guide provided below. You need some HTML, XML and CSS skills to work it out.
COMPLETE CUSTOMIZATION AND SEO GUIDE FOR BLOG/SITE
HTML size
Page size matters because search engines limit size of a cached page. For example, Google will only cache a full page if the size of its HTML is less than 101 Kb (images and external scripts are not included). Yahoo! caches text of up to 500 Kb per page. This means if your HTML page is too large, search engines will not cache the full page, and only the top part of the text will be searchable.
Same color text and background
If the color of the text on a page is close to the background color, the text becomes almost invisible. As a rule, this technique is employed to populate a page with keywords without damaging its design. Since it is considered as spam by most search engines, I suggest that you do not try it.
Tiny text
If a page uses Cascading Style Sheets and there are fonts smaller than 4 pixels, they are reported as tiny texts. Most search engines consider tiny texts as an abusive practice - this is why you should avoid using them.
Immediate keyword repeats
The same keyword repeated one after the other a few times, for example air tickets on-line, air tickets, air tickets, air tickets, air tickets in Hong Kong is a questionable trick. For this example, there will be three repetitions reported, because the keyword was placed three times in a row after it was used first. Such repetitions are considered as spam by most search engines.
Controls
Try to avoid too many controls on your page, especially in the top area, since it may decrease your keyword prominence and result in low rankings.
Frames
Not all search engines support frames, i.e. can follow from a frameset page to content frames and index texts. If your website consists of frames, and you cannot redesign it, you can solve this problem by putting the content of an optimized page with links to other pages into a "NOFRAMES" HTML tag.
External and Internal JavaScript
Do not use too many embedded scripts on the page, because your keyword prominence will be reduced, and thus your page will be ranked lower on search engines. We advise putting the script in an external file or move it as close to the closing Body tag as possible.
External and Internal VBScript
Please note that excessive use of scripts in the top area of the page dilute keyword prominence and therefore affect your rankings. Put the script in an external file or move it as close to the closing Body tag as possible.
File robots.txt allows spidering
Robots.txt is a text file placed in the root directory of a website/blog to tell robots on how to spider the website. Only robots that comply with the Robots Exclusion Standard will read and obey the commands in this file. Robots.txt is often used to prevent robots from visiting some pages and subdirectories not intended for public use. However, if you want search engine robots to spider your site, there should not be disallowing commands included within this file for all or particular search engine robots.
Head area
Each HTML document should have a HEAD tag at the beginning of each document. The information contained inside the head tag (...) describes the document, but it doesn't show up on the page returned to the browser. The Title tag and meta tags are found inside the Head tag.
An HTML tag within the Head tag is used to define the title of a Web page. The content of the Title tag is displayed by browsers on the Title bar located at the top of the browser window. Search engines use the Title tag to provide a link to the site matching the user's query. The text in the Title tag is one of the most important factors influencing search engine ranking algorithms. By populating your most important keywords in the Title tag, you dramatically increase the search engine ranking of the page for those keywords. Your title tag should be the first tag in the HEAD tag.
Stop Words
To save space and speed up searching, some search engines exclude common words from their index, therefore these words are ignored when searches are carried out.
'The', 'or', 'in', 'it' are examples of such words. These words are known as "stop words." To make your pages search engine-friendly, you should avoid using stop words in the most important areas of your page like title, meta tags, headings, alternative image attributes, anchor names, etc.
Besides, stop words have no contextual meaning - using them in short areas such as a title, headings, and anchor texts will reduce weight, prominence and the frequency of keywords.
Keyword frequency
Frequency is the number of times your keyword is used in the analyzed area of the page.
Example: If the page's first heading is 'Get the best XYZ services provided by XYZ Company', frequency of keyword 'XYZ' in the heading will be two. Frequency relates only to the exact matches of a keyword. Therefore, frequency of key phrase 'XYZ services' will be one, because as exact match, this keyword is used only once.
Search engines use frequency as a measure of keyword importance.
Search engines rate pages with more keywords as more relevant results, and score them higher. However, you should not use too many keywords, since most search engines will penalize you for this practice for being seen as an attempt to artificially inflate rankings.
Keyword weight (density)
Keyword weight is a measure of how often a keyword is found in a specific area of the Web page like a title, heading, anchor name, visible text, etc. Unlike keyword frequency, which is just a count, keyword weight is a ratio.
Keyword weight will depend on the type of keyword, that is if the keyword is a single word or phrase. If the keyword includes two or more words, for example, 'XYZ services', every word in the key phrase (i.e. both 'XYZ' and 'services') contributes to the weight ratio in the weight formula, and not as one keyword ('XYZ services').
Keyword weight is calculated as the number of words in the key phrase multiplied by frequency and divided by the total number of words (including the keyword).
Example: The title of a Web page is 'Get Best XYZ Services'. Keyword weight for 'XYZ services' is 2*1/4*100%=50%. If you reduce the number of words in the title by removing the word 'get', so the title becomes 'Best XYZ Services', than the keyword weight will be larger: 2*1/3*100%=67%. Finally, if you only keep 'XYZ Services' in the title, the keyword weight will become 100% -- 2*1/2*100%.
So, to increase the keyword weight, you should either add some more keywords or reduce the number of words in the page area. The proportion of the keywords to all words will become larger, so will the keyword weight.
Many search engines calculate keyword weight when they rank pages for a particular keyword. Normally, high keyword weight tell search engines that the keyword is extremely important in the text; however, a weight that is too high can make search engines suspect you of spamming and they will penalize your website's rankings.
Keyword Prominence
Keyword Prominence is another measure of keyword importance that relates to the proximity of a keyword to the beginning of the analyzed page area. Being the keyword that is used at the beginning of the Title, Heading, or on top of the visible text of the page is considered more important than other words. Prominence is a ratio that is calculated separately for each important page area such as a title, headings, visible text, anchor tags, etc.
HTML pages are written in a document-like fashion. The most important items of a document's visible text are placed at the top, and their importance is gradually reduced towards the bottom. This idea can be also applied to keyword prominence. Normally, the closer a keyword to the top of a page and to the beginning of a sentence, the higher its prominence is. However, search engines also check if the keyword is present in the middle and at the bottom of the page, so you should place some keywords there too.
The prominence formula takes the following factors into account:
1) Keyword positions in the area,
2) Number of words in the keyword, and
3) Total number of words in the area.
100% prominence is given to a keyword or keyphrase that appears at the beginning of the analyzed page area.
Example 1: Let's take the page title 'Daily horoscopes on your desktop' and analyze prominence of keyphrase 'daily horoscopes'. The title word order will be: 'Keyword1, keyword2, word3, word4, word5'. Prominence will be 100% here as the keyphrase is present at the beginning of the sentence.
The keyword/keyphrase in the middle of the analyzed area will have 50% prominence.
Example 2: The anchor name is 'Find here the daily horoscope for your sign'. The keyword prominence of the phrase 'daily horoscope' in this case will be 50% as the keyphrase is located in the middle of the sentence -- 'Word1, word2, word3, keyword4, keyword5, word6, word7, word8'.
As a keyword appears farther back in the area, its prominence will be counted from zero and it will depend on how close to the end it is. If the keyword appears at the end of the area, its prominence will be close to 0%. If the keyword appears at the beginning of the area and then is repeated in the middle or at the end, its prominence will be 100% because prominence of the fist used keyword prevails over the repeated keywords.
META Description
Syntax: < META name="Description" content="Web page description">
This is a Meta tag that provides a brief description of a Web page. It is important the description clearly describes the purpose of the page. The importance of the Description tag as an element of the ranking algorithm has decreased significantly over years, but there are still search engines that support this tag. They log descriptions of the indexed pages and often display them with the Title in their results.
The length of a displayed description varies per search engine. Therefore you should place the most important keywords at the beginning of the first sentence -- this will guarantee that both users and search engines will see the most important information about your site.
META Keywords
Syntax: < META name="Keywords" content="keyword1, keyword2, keyword3">
This is Meta tag that lists the words or phrases about the contents of the Web page. This tag provides some additional text for crawler-based search engines. However because of frequent attempts to abuse their system, most search engines ignore this tag. Please note that none of the major crawler-based search engines except Inktomi provide support for the Keywords Meta tag.
Similar to the description tag, there is a limit in the number of captured characters in Keywords meta tag. Ensure you've chosen keywords that are relevant to the content of your site. Avoid repetitions as search engines can penalize your rankings. Move the most important keywords to the beginning to increase their prominence.
META Refresh
Syntax: < META http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=http://newURL.com/">
This HTML META tag also belongs in the Head tag of your HTML page.
The META Refresh tag is often used as a way to redirect the viewer to another Web page or refresh the content of the viewed page after a specified number of seconds. The META Refresh tag is also sometimes used as a doorway page optimized for a certain search engine, which is accessed first by users, who then are redirected to the main website. Some search engines discourage the use of this META tag, because it is an opportunity for webmasters to spam search engines with similar pages that all lead to the same page. In addition, this also clutters the search engines databases with irrelevant and multiple versions of the same data. Try to avoid doorways and redirects altogether in your Web/blog building.
META Robots
Syntax: < META name="Robots" content="INDEX,FOLLOW">
The robots instructions are normally placed in a robots.txt file that is uploaded to the root directory of a domain. However, if a webmaster does not have access to /robots.txt, then instructions can be placed in the Robots META tag. This tag tells the search engine robots whether a page should be indexed and included in the search engine database and its links followed.
The content of the robots meta tag is a comma separated list that may contain the following commands:
ALL also INDEX,FOLLOW -- there are no restrictions on indexing the page or following links; NONE also NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW -- robots must ignore the page; a combination of INDEX, FOLLOW, NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW -- if you want a search engine robot just to index a page but not to follow links, you should specify 'INDEX,NOFOLLOW', if you want it to follow links without indexing the page, you should instruct robots as 'NOINDEX,FOLLOW'.
BODY area
The body tag indentifies the beginning of the main section of your Web page, the main content area. The whole of the Web page is designed between the opening and closing body tag. (...) including all images, links, text, headings, paragraphs, and forms.
The recommendations on how to use keywords in the BODY tag are the same as in other important areas. Your primary keywords should be placed at the top of your body tag (first paragraph) and as close to the beginning of a sentence as possible. Do not forget to use them again in each paragraph. Keywords should not be repeated one after another. For search engines that check keyword presence at the bottom of the body tag, you should use your most important keywords within the last paragraph from the closing body tag.
Visible text
The content of the Body tag includes both visible and invisible text. The term 'Visible text' refers to the portion that is displayed by the browser.
Extra emphasis by search engines is put on keywords when you underline them or make them bold, thus helping higher rankings for these keywords.
Keyword in the Heading
It is important the keyword is present in the very first heading tag on the page regardless of its type. If the keyword is also used as a first word, you will raise its prominence.
All headings
There are standard rules for the structure of HTML pages. They are written in a document-like fashion. In a document, you start with the title, then a major heading that usually describes the main purpose of the section. Subheadings highlight the key points of each subsection. Many search engines rank the words found in headings higher than the words found in the text of the document. Some search engines incorporate keywords by looking at all the heading tags on a page.
Links
Anchor tags on the page can also have keyword-rich text as anchor names. This text can be important to some search engines and therefore also for the rankings of the destination pages. Create anchored links with keywords in them to link pages of your website.
Text in links including ALTs
Images like buttons, banners, etc. may include Alt attributes as a text comment describing the graphic image. If this image has been used as a hyperlink, the Alt attribute is interpreted as a link text by some search engines, and the destination page will have a significant boost in rankings for the keyword in the Alt attribute. Use graphic links with keyword-rich Alts to link pages of your website.
ALT image attributes
Optimization of Alt image attributes gives you another opportunity to use keywords. It is advantageous if the page is designed with large graphics and very little text. Include the target keyword in at least the first three Alt attributes.
Comments
This tag lets webmasters write notes about the page code, which is only for their guidance and is invisible to the browser. Most search engines do not read the content of this tag, so Comments optimization will not be as helpful as Title optimization. The Comment tags should be populated with keywords only if the design of the Web page does not allow more efficient and search engine-friendly methods.
Keyword in URL
Having keyword in your domain name and / or folder names and file names increases your chances to gain top positions for these keywords. If you aren't a brand-oriented business, it is recommended that you purchase the domain name that contains your keyword. If your keyphrase consists of more than one keyword, the best way to separate them in the URL is with a hyphen "-":
www.my-keyphrase-here.com
If it seems impossible to get such a domain name, or your site is already well established over a keyword-poor domain, attempt to compensate it by using keywords in folder and file names of your site's file system on the server.
Link popularity
This is the number of links from other website pages to your page that search engines are aware of.
Each search engine only lists links embedded on the sites that are preindexed by that particular search engine. So, the presence of certain links in Google's index will not guarantee that Inktomi has also indexed the same sites. Therefore the number of links shown will be different from engine to engine.
In general, the more links that point to your page, the better your page will rank.
However, a large number of links is not the deciding factor that helps your site get to the top of the results pages -- the quality of those links is of greater importance. If a link to your site is placed on a page having very little importance that is this page itself is linked to only a few other pages or none, this kind of link will not improve a page's popularity. The links to your pages should be subject-relevant because theme-based search engines will check the parity of content between referring and referred pages. The closer they are, the more relevant your site page is to the searcher's query for your keyword. Avoid reciprocal linking with sites that have a low weight, or a questionable reputation or are different from yours in subject matter. As a part of their anti-spam measures, search engines can penalize your site's rankings for ignoring these pitfalls.
Theme
For spam-free and relevant results, search engines start evaluating sites as one page to find the main theme covering all pages of the site. Most major search engines have become theme-based.
Search engines extract and analyze words on all pages of a website to discover its theme. The more keywords found on your website that relate to the user's query, the more points you get for the theme. Therefore, if your Web business includes many products or services, try to find the theme that covers them all.
Open Directory Project listing (dmoz.org)
The ODP (also known as DMOZ) is the largest human-edited directory on the Web. Many major search engines use the ODP data to provide their directory results. This works because sites put forward for inclusion in the ODP are reviewed by real people who care about the quality of their directory.
It is still a good for a website to be present in the ODP. For new sites, it is an excellent starting point, because Google regularly spiders the ODP to update its own directory based on the ODP listings, and if your site is included, you'll get a link that Google believes important enough to start off crawling your site.
As well as the weight of a link from the ODP, it would be even better if the site were listed in the most topic-specific category to make the link not only important, but also content-relevant.
Yahoo! Directory listing
This is similar to the ODP -- Google relationship. The Yahoo! directory is regularly crawled by the Yahoo! robots.
A new site has a greater chance of being included faster in the Yahoo! search engine if there is a link to this site from the Yahoo! directory. If you get your site is listed within the Yahoo! category closest to your site theme, this particular link will help your site move up.
Search Engine Bot
Search engine bot is a type of web crawlers which collects web documents to generate and maintain index for the search engines.
Google PageRank
Google PageRank is the measure of a page’s importance in Google’s opinion. PR calculations are based on how many quality and relevant sites across the Web link to this page. The higher the PageRank of the referring page, the more weight this link has.
Alexa Traffic Rank
Alexa Traffic Rank is a combined measure of page views and users (reach). This information is gathered with the help of Alexa Toolbar used by millions of Web surfers. First, Alexa calculates the reach and number of page views for all sites on the Web on the daily basis. Then these two quantities are averaged over time.
Backlinks Theme
To determine your site rankings, search engines take into consideration theme relevance of those sites linking to you. If the linking sites have something in common with yours (keywords in the BODY, titles, descriptions of the linked pages, etc.), your website gets better chances to gain high positions for these keywords.
PR Statistics for linking sites
PR Statistics for linking sites is statistic information about the Page Rank of the pages linking to you. Statistics are presented both in numerical and percentage terms. The higher the PR of the referring site, the better chances your own Web page has to get high PR.
Monday, March 22, 2010
10 techniques for an effective ‘call to action’
Occasionally I hear you talk about the importance of having a call to action on the show but you never go into much depth. I recognise the importance of having a call to action but how do I encourage users to complete them?
Having an effective call to action is an essential part of any website. A call to action is not just limited to ecommerce sites. Every website should have an objective it wants users to complete whether it is filling in a contact form, signup for a newsletter or volunteering their time.
A call to action provides…
You also need to communicate the benefits of responding. What will the user get out of completing the call to action?
Take for example the VoIP service Skype. Immediately above their call to action (a download button) they have the following text:
Incentives could include discounts, entry into a competition or a free gift. This is the approach Barack Obama used on his fund raising website. If you made a donation of $30 or more you got a free t-shirt.
Of course the beauty of this offer was that not only did he pursued you to donate, he also turned you into an advertising billboard!
By limiting the number of choices a user has to make we reduce the amount of mental effort. Effectively you guide the user around the site step by step.
The number of appropriate actions will vary from site to site. However, it is not so much the number of actions as the distinctiveness of each.
Take for example pbwiki.com. They have three calls to action:
To create a sense of urgency and a need to act now, these words can be used alongside phrases such as:
picsengine.com does this well placing their ’see in action’ centrally on the page above the fold.
PlanHQ does an excellent job of focusing users of their calls to action by surrounding them with a lot of empty space.
Things (the GTD application for the mac) does this expertly on their website. While the rest of their site is predominately muted blues and grey, their calls to action are highlighted orange. This extreme contrast leaves you in no doubt as to the next thing you should do.
Of course never rely solely on colour because many users are colour blind and will not see the contrast.
However it cannot be denied that size does play a large part. The bigger your call to action, the more chance it will be noticed.
Mozilla have certainly taken this approach to heart on the firefox homepage where their download link dominates the page.
Your call to action does not need to be the same for each page. Instead you can use smaller actions that lead the user towards your ultimate goal.
37 Signals understand the importance of having a call to action on each page. At the foot of every page of their Basecamp website they clearly display links to their tour and signup pages.
One particular word of warning – if you require users to provide personal data about themselves, resist the temptation to collect unnecessary information.
Marketing people in particular like to build up demographic information. Although I can appreciate the value of this, it brings a danger users will drop out of the process.
Wordpress.com is an excellent example of how to minimise the amount of data collected. They only ask for the minimal information required to setup a blog.
An effective call to action is the linchpin of a successful site and involves drawing together best practice in usability, creative visual design and powerful copy writing.
However, if it is done right it can generate real measurable return on investment and in the current economic climate that is what we all want.
Having an effective call to action is an essential part of any website. A call to action is not just limited to ecommerce sites. Every website should have an objective it wants users to complete whether it is filling in a contact form, signup for a newsletter or volunteering their time.
A call to action provides…
- Focus to your site
- A way to measure your sites success
- Direction to your users
1. Lay the groundwork
Before a user is willing to complete a call to action they have to recognise the need. Infomercials do this very well. Before they ask people to respond, they first identify a problem and present a product that solves that problem.You also need to communicate the benefits of responding. What will the user get out of completing the call to action?
Take for example the VoIP service Skype. Immediately above their call to action (a download button) they have the following text:
Make calls from your computer — free to other people on Skype and cheap to phones and mobiles around the world.They clearly explain what the user will get by downloading Skype.
Skype clearly show the benefits of downloading their application
2. Offer a little extra
Sometimes you may have to sweeten the deal to encourage users to complete a call to action.Incentives could include discounts, entry into a competition or a free gift. This is the approach Barack Obama used on his fund raising website. If you made a donation of $30 or more you got a free t-shirt.
If you donated $30 or more to the Barack Obama election campaign you got a free t-shirt
3. Have a small number of distinct actions
It is also important to be focused in your calls to action. Too many and the user becomes overwhelmed. Studies in supermarkets have shown that if the shopper is presented with too many varieties they are less likely to make a purchase.By limiting the number of choices a user has to make we reduce the amount of mental effort. Effectively you guide the user around the site step by step.
The number of appropriate actions will vary from site to site. However, it is not so much the number of actions as the distinctiveness of each.
Take for example pbwiki.com. They have three calls to action:
- Create a wiki
- View Demo
- Buy now
The three calls to action on the pbwiki homepage are not clearly distinguished
4. Use active urgent language
A call to action should clearly tell users what you want them to do. They should include active words such as:- Call
- Buy
- Register
- Subscribe
- Donate
To create a sense of urgency and a need to act now, these words can be used alongside phrases such as:
- Offer expires March 31st
- For a short time only
- Order now and receive a free gift
Carsonified create a sense of urgency by offering a discount to those people who sign up early to their workshops
5. Get the position right
Another important factor is the position of your call to action on the page. Ideally it should be placed high on the page and in the central column.picsengine.com does this well placing their ’see in action’ centrally on the page above the fold.
Picsengine focuses users on their call to action by placing it centrally on the page.
6. Use white space
It is not just the position of your call to action that matters. It is also the space around it. The more space around a call to action the more attention is drawn to it. Clutter up your call to action with surrounding content and it will be lost in the overall noise of the page.PlanHQ does an excellent job of focusing users of their calls to action by surrounding them with a lot of empty space.
PlanHQ draws attention to their calls to action by surrounding them with empty space.
7. Use an alternative colour
Colour is an effective way of drawing attention to elements, especially if the rest of the site has a fairly limited palette.Things (the GTD application for the mac) does this expertly on their website. While the rest of their site is predominately muted blues and grey, their calls to action are highlighted orange. This extreme contrast leaves you in no doubt as to the next thing you should do.
The Things website draws attention to its calls to action by using a constrasting colour
8. Make it big
As web designers we often get annoyed with clients who ask us to make things bigger. It is certainly true that size isn’t everything. We have already established that position, colour and white space are equally important.However it cannot be denied that size does play a large part. The bigger your call to action, the more chance it will be noticed.
Mozilla have certainly taken this approach to heart on the firefox homepage where their download link dominates the page.
Mozilla uses size to draw attention to their call to action
9. Have a call to action on every page
A call to action should not just be limited to the homepage. Every page of your site should have some form of call to action that leads the user on. If the user reaches a dead-end they will leave without responding to your call.Your call to action does not need to be the same for each page. Instead you can use smaller actions that lead the user towards your ultimate goal.
37 Signals understand the importance of having a call to action on each page. At the foot of every page of their Basecamp website they clearly display links to their tour and signup pages.
Basecamp has a call to action at the foot of every page
10. Carry the call through
Finally, consider what happens when a user does respond to your call to action. The rest of the process needs to be as carefully thought through as the call to action itself.One particular word of warning – if you require users to provide personal data about themselves, resist the temptation to collect unnecessary information.
Marketing people in particular like to build up demographic information. Although I can appreciate the value of this, it brings a danger users will drop out of the process.
Wordpress.com is an excellent example of how to minimise the amount of data collected. They only ask for the minimal information required to setup a blog.
Wordpress miminise the amount of information required to setup a blog.
However, if it is done right it can generate real measurable return on investment and in the current economic climate that is what we all want.
Call to Action” Buttons: Guidelines, Best Practices and Examples
Call to action buttons on websites are often neglected. Designers sometimes don’t understand exactly what makes a good call to action button beyond being attractive and fitting into the overall design. But call to action buttons are too important to be designed without some kind of understanding of what makes them effective. After all, the main point of a call to action button is to get visitors to do something.
t’s important to gain at least a basic understanding of how color, scale, language, and other factors influence the conversion rate of a call to action button. The concepts here aren’t complicated, but they do take a bit of forethought and planning to create the most effective call to action buttons possible within a given design. Read on for more information on each of these points and more.
Because call to action buttons have such varied purposes, a lot of consideration has to go into what the button aims to achieve. The type of site, the target market, and the desired action can all play a role in how to best design a call to action button.
There are other types of call to action buttons, but these are the most common. Guidelines that apply to those above will likely also apply to any other type of call to action button you might be designing.
It’s important to balance the amount of negative space you have around the buttons with the size of the buttons themselves. It’s about proportion. You want your button, the space around it, and the surrounding content to all look like they go together, even with disparities in size. You may have to fiddle around with things a bit in order to get them looking just right.
Some guidelines:
Color can be used to great effect to help balance the size of your buttons. For larger buttons, choose a color that’s less prominent within your design (but still stands out again the background). For a smaller button, you may want to choose a brighter, contrasting color to really make the button pop. In either case, make sure the color you use sets the button apart without clashing with the site’s overall design.
Some guidelines:
The language you use on your call to action buttons should be as straight-forward and simple as possible. You want visitors to know with just a glance exactly what they’ll get when the click on a button. If they question it, that means they’ve paused, which can lead to lower conversion rates.
Don’t forget your font sizes, too. The text on your call to action button should be large and bold, properly suited to the size and color of the button itself. Make sure there’s sufficient contrast and that the text is easy to read.
Some guidelines:
You want your buttons to give them the impression that they need to act right away. You want to encourage them to make their decision immediately, on the spur of the moment. While this won’t work for every call to action button (especially those to purchase high-ticket items), for low-cost or free actions, having visitors click with little forethought is desirable.
Some guidelines:
When including extra information, remember that you need to keep the focus on the actual call to action. Make sure that the text for the language enticing visitors to act is most prominent, with other information much less visible.
Some guidelines:
Use color to highlight the most important button on a page, or to make the less important ones seem less prominent. Or use size to make the most important button stand out (by making it larger) and de-emphasizing the less-important ones.
Some guidelines:
Livestream
Differentiating the "buy now" (for paid options) and "sign up" (for free options) buttons is a good strategy.
Windows 7
The big, green "Get Windows7" button is easy for visitors to spot.
Fileshare HQ
The bright green button here really stands out against the white background.
Logbook
Using different colors for the "Download" and "Buy" buttons sets them apart and gives priority to the "Buy" button.
TasteBook
This button makes great use of an icon and uses larger, bold text to stand out.
GoodBarry
Another bright green call to action button.
Lifetree Creative
Continuing the same typeface from the body copy to the call to action button creates a sense of cohesion.
The Resumator
A bright red call to action button with bold type stands out against the blue background.
Notepod
A good example of including extra information in a call to action button.
Inkd
A great example of prioritizing buttons with size.
Elegant Themes
Another excellent example of using color to stand out without clashing with surrounding design elements.
ZenDesk
Another great example of making a button stand out using color.
Storenvy
A round button is unexpected and stands out, especially when surrounded by a white border.
Bara’Mail
Sometimes a button that blends in works better in your overall site design, especially when the action is less urgent.
t’s important to gain at least a basic understanding of how color, scale, language, and other factors influence the conversion rate of a call to action button. The concepts here aren’t complicated, but they do take a bit of forethought and planning to create the most effective call to action buttons possible within a given design. Read on for more information on each of these points and more.
The Purpose of "Call to Action" Buttons
Call to action buttons can serve a variety of functions. After all, “call to action” is really a bit vague. All it means is that it’s main purpose is to get a visitor to your site to do something. That something could be adding a product to their shopping cart, downloading something, requesting information, or just about anything else.Because call to action buttons have such varied purposes, a lot of consideration has to go into what the button aims to achieve. The type of site, the target market, and the desired action can all play a role in how to best design a call to action button.
Types of "Call to Action" Buttons
There are a few different types of call to action buttons. While each type aims to get visitors to perform a certain action, that action can vary considerably. Below are the most common types of call to action buttons, based on the action they want you to take.1. Add to Cart Buttons
E-commerce sites generally use a number of call to action buttons, but the most widely-used one is the “add to cart” button. These buttons generally appear on individual product pages. Their purpose is to entice customers to purchase an item. Common design elements in add to cart buttons include simple wording (such as “Add to Cart” or “Add to Bag” or “Buy Now“) and the use of icons (usually a bag or cart).2. Download Buttons
Download buttons are similar to add to cart buttons in that they’re trying to entice a visitor to take possession of an item. In the case of download buttons, many designers opt to include more information than other types of buttons (such as version information or download size).3. Trial Buttons
Some sites try to entice their visitors to try their offerings, generally in the form of a free trial. This could be a free download or a free account, depending on the particular site. Some sites use the “less-is-more” philosophy and keep the language on their buttons to a minimum, while others like to offer more information on what the trial contains.4. Learn More Buttons
Learn more buttons are generally used at the end of a block of teaser information (often on the home page). These buttons are usually simple, but often oversized to attract visitor attention.5. Sign Up Buttons
Sign up buttons appear most commonly in two different versions. The first type is usually directly associated with a sign up form. The second type is usually used in a similar fashion to “add to cart” buttons, as a way for users to purchase or sign up for a service or account, before they actually reach a sign-up form.There are other types of call to action buttons, but these are the most common. Guidelines that apply to those above will likely also apply to any other type of call to action button you might be designing.
Using Negative Space Effectively
You want your call to action buttons to stand out from the surrounding content and really command attention from your site visitors. To that end, you need to make use of negative space around those buttons. Incorporate blank space between your content and your call to action button. While this is less important (and less common) on some buttons, such as add to cart buttons, with others, like those to learn more, work better with more space.It’s important to balance the amount of negative space you have around the buttons with the size of the buttons themselves. It’s about proportion. You want your button, the space around it, and the surrounding content to all look like they go together, even with disparities in size. You may have to fiddle around with things a bit in order to get them looking just right.
Some guidelines:
- Make sure there’s enough space around your button so that it doesn’t feel cluttered
- Consider principles like the rule of thirds or the Golden Ratio when determining how much space to include
- Negative space gives your call to action button room to stand out among your other content and sets it apart
Size and Color
How large your call to action buttons are is very important. A button that’s too large will overpower everything around it. A button that’s too small will get lost in the shuffle of all the other content on a page. You want your button to be large enough to stand out without overwhelming the design.Color can be used to great effect to help balance the size of your buttons. For larger buttons, choose a color that’s less prominent within your design (but still stands out again the background). For a smaller button, you may want to choose a brighter, contrasting color to really make the button pop. In either case, make sure the color you use sets the button apart without clashing with the site’s overall design.
Some guidelines:
- Your call to action buttons should ideally be the largest buttons on a given page
- Use contrasting colors to make smaller buttons stand out more
- Use less distinct colors to make oversized buttons fit in better
- You call to action buttons need to command attention without overwhelming your design
Language
The exact wording you choose to use on your call to action buttons can have a huge effect on conversion. Compare “Buy Now” with “Add to Cart“. One is much more urgent than the other one. Or how about “Try it for Free” with “Free Trial“? One is much punchier than the other and stands out more.The language you use on your call to action buttons should be as straight-forward and simple as possible. You want visitors to know with just a glance exactly what they’ll get when the click on a button. If they question it, that means they’ve paused, which can lead to lower conversion rates.
Don’t forget your font sizes, too. The text on your call to action button should be large and bold, properly suited to the size and color of the button itself. Make sure there’s sufficient contrast and that the text is easy to read.
Some guidelines:
- Use simple, direct language
- Use a large, bold font on the button for the main text
- Make sure the language clearly calls for a specific action
Create Urgency
You want visitors on your site to carry out the desired actions with as little thought as possible. While you don’t want to deceive your visitors, the more opportunities you give them to stop and consider what they’re doing, the more opportunities you’re giving them to say “no”.You want your buttons to give them the impression that they need to act right away. You want to encourage them to make their decision immediately, on the spur of the moment. While this won’t work for every call to action button (especially those to purchase high-ticket items), for low-cost or free actions, having visitors click with little forethought is desirable.
Some guidelines:
- Encourage your visitors to act immediately
- Don’t give your visitors any reason to pause
- While urgency is important, don’t mislead your visitors in any way
Provide Extra Information
Where appropriate, use your call to action buttons to give visitors extra information about what they’re going to get if they click on the button. This is most commonly seen with trial buttons or download buttons. Common examples of extra information include the length of time a free trial will last or the size of a file download. Version information is also commonly seen.When including extra information, remember that you need to keep the focus on the actual call to action. Make sure that the text for the language enticing visitors to act is most prominent, with other information much less visible.
Some guidelines:
- Only include extra information when it adds to the user experience
- Extra information is only appropriate on some types of call to action buttons, most notably download or trial buttons
- Make sure the main call to action is still the most prominent text on your button
Prioritize
It’s important to prioritize the call to action buttons on your page if there’s more than one. This can be done in a number of ways, but the most common are through the use of color and size.Use color to highlight the most important button on a page, or to make the less important ones seem less prominent. Or use size to make the most important button stand out (by making it larger) and de-emphasizing the less-important ones.
Icons and Images
Including visual cues in your call to action buttons can also help to increase conversion rates. An icon of a shopping cart on an “add to cart” button, for instance, or an arrow on a download button are both good examples. Think of unique icons to use, too, but make sure that the icon adds to the user experience by clarifying what the button is for, and doesn’t add any confusion.Some guidelines:
- Make sure the icons you use help clarify your button’s meaning, rather than confuse it
- Easily-recognized icons can immediately indicate meaning to your visitors
- Don’t be afraid to use less-commonly used icons, as long as their meaning is still clear
Examples
Here are a few examples of great call to action buttons. While they don’t all perfectly conform to the guidelines above, they meet enough of the criteria to be considered great.Livestream
Differentiating the "buy now" (for paid options) and "sign up" (for free options) buttons is a good strategy.
Windows 7
The big, green "Get Windows7" button is easy for visitors to spot.
Fileshare HQ
The bright green button here really stands out against the white background.
Logbook
Using different colors for the "Download" and "Buy" buttons sets them apart and gives priority to the "Buy" button.
TasteBook
This button makes great use of an icon and uses larger, bold text to stand out.
GoodBarry
Another bright green call to action button.
Lifetree Creative
Continuing the same typeface from the body copy to the call to action button creates a sense of cohesion.
The Resumator
A bright red call to action button with bold type stands out against the blue background.
Notepod
A good example of including extra information in a call to action button.
Inkd
A great example of prioritizing buttons with size.
Elegant Themes
Another excellent example of using color to stand out without clashing with surrounding design elements.
ZenDesk
Another great example of making a button stand out using color.
Storenvy
A round button is unexpected and stands out, especially when surrounded by a white border.
Bara’Mail
Sometimes a button that blends in works better in your overall site design, especially when the action is less urgent.
50 Web Usability Tips that Help You Attract and Retain Visitors to Your Website
Web usability has a direct correlation to your potential to effectively make money online. This is largely because the usability of your website very strongly affects the number of return visits you will see from search and referral visitors, as well as your ability to sell any product or service.
Visitor loyalty and the overall size of your audience base determines how much money you will make from contextual advertising, affiliate marketing or subscription-based monetization strategies.
Ideally, you want to capture every individual that stumbles upon your website and entice them towards a specific action, such as visiting an affiliate website, buying a product, registering as a user and subscribing to your blog feed or company newsletter.
Web usability guru Jakob Nielsen is an authority on the topic of user-friendly websites and has written extensively about the importance of Usability for online businesses.
Here is a quote from his seminal Introduction to Usability:
On the Web, usability is a necessary condition for survival. If a website is difficult to use, people leave. If the homepage fails to clearly state what a company offers and what users can do on the site, people leave.
If users get lost on a website, they leave. If a website’s information is hard to read or doesn’t answer users’ key questions, they leave. Note a pattern here?
There’s no such thing as a user reading a website manual or otherwise spending much time trying to figure out an interface. There are plenty of other websites available; leaving is the first line of defense when users encounter a difficulty.
I’ve recently been on a Nielsen rampage and have been reading voluminously about web usability. His articles are really interesting to me because they offer some excellent tips on how to improve your website or blog in order to attract and add value for site visitors.
I’ve categorized them according to topics and have listed them in digestible point formats so you can easily scan through and pick out the ones which are suitable for your own websites.
References for these tips are listed at the bottom of this post and should you have the time or interest, do you visit these articles to learn more about usability. I’ve found them to be very helpful indeed.
Web Design and Usability Tips
Content Infrastructure and Usability
Usability, Monetization and Online Businesses
Visitor loyalty and the overall size of your audience base determines how much money you will make from contextual advertising, affiliate marketing or subscription-based monetization strategies.
Ideally, you want to capture every individual that stumbles upon your website and entice them towards a specific action, such as visiting an affiliate website, buying a product, registering as a user and subscribing to your blog feed or company newsletter.
Web usability guru Jakob Nielsen is an authority on the topic of user-friendly websites and has written extensively about the importance of Usability for online businesses.
Here is a quote from his seminal Introduction to Usability:
On the Web, usability is a necessary condition for survival. If a website is difficult to use, people leave. If the homepage fails to clearly state what a company offers and what users can do on the site, people leave.
If users get lost on a website, they leave. If a website’s information is hard to read or doesn’t answer users’ key questions, they leave. Note a pattern here?
There’s no such thing as a user reading a website manual or otherwise spending much time trying to figure out an interface. There are plenty of other websites available; leaving is the first line of defense when users encounter a difficulty.
I’ve recently been on a Nielsen rampage and have been reading voluminously about web usability. His articles are really interesting to me because they offer some excellent tips on how to improve your website or blog in order to attract and add value for site visitors.
50 Web Usability Tips to Attract and Retain Web Visitors
This list was developed as a result of personal notes which I’ve recorded while reading Jakob Nielsen’s articles as well as several interviews with him on the topic of usability. They are rephrased in my own words so that they make sense outside of each article’s context.I’ve categorized them according to topics and have listed them in digestible point formats so you can easily scan through and pick out the ones which are suitable for your own websites.
References for these tips are listed at the bottom of this post and should you have the time or interest, do you visit these articles to learn more about usability. I’ve found them to be very helpful indeed.
Web Design and Usability Tips
- Response or load time for a website is fairly important. If your site is slow, visitors are likely to go away and it will also be difficult for them to learn new or foreign concepts.
- Remove the ‘homepage‘ link on the homepage because it can increase navigational confusion. This will make the user doubt that the homepage is indeed the actual homepage.
- Follow conventions for web design (“blue for hypertext links“) This will allow site visitors to mainly focus on your content instead of using their mental power to learn how to use your website.
- Fluffy flash designs that do not support real user needs are not recommended because they weaken usability.
- Splash screens are not useful because it gives the first impression that a website is more concerned with its own image than other user’s problems. Websites need to communicate respect for the user’s time.
- Website usability tests can be easily performed by getting users to interact with your design while they think out loud. Record their comments and filter it into your quality improvements.
- Simplicity is Rule #1 for usability. The less features there are available in a design, the less there will be to compete for the user’s attention.
- Try to mainly rely on typography instead of bloated designs and graphics. The goal is to enhance appearance without delaying the response time. The blandest sites can get the most page views and users.
- Serve senior web users by making making your website more readable and clickable. Use large text for hypertext links and minimize usage of pull-down menus and moving interface elements.
- Change the color of visited links. This will allow users to decide where to go next on your website. Links that don’t change color can cause navigational disorientation in users.
- Large amounts of text on one webpage do not work well because it makes it difficult for users to extract useful information. “The more you say, the more people tune out your message.”
- Good copywriting style should be to the point and should not be dominated by internal niche jargon and ‘marketese‘ or marketing sales speak.
- Write so that lower-literacy users can understand and appreciate your content. Sites which target broad audiences must make lower literacy users a priority.
- State the most important information in the first two paragraphs because most users will read this material and scan the rest of the article.
- Split your content into subheadings and use bullet points. Also highlight keywords or important phrases by making them bold.
- Use brief headlines with strong information-conveying words. People scan headlines and content blurbs in feed readers faster than email newsletters.
- Do not use tiny font sizes or small text because of it will not work for a large part of the web audience (Teenagers and People in their 40s onwards).
- A website’s tagline must explain what the company does and what makes it unique among competitors. Your tagline should communicate your site purpose within the crucial first 10 seconds.
- Use old and familiar words when writing to be found by search engines. Supplement unique words or madeup phrases with known or legacy words because they are used the most by customers and visitors to your website.
- The headline must make sense when it is detached from the rest of the content. This is important because online headlines are often used in a list of articles or email programs, which sets it out of context.
- Make the first word of the headline an information carrying word that will help with scanning. Examples to be used include the name of the concept or company discussed.
- Do not start your page titles with the same word all the time because it will cause difficulty when scanning a list. Move common terms to the end of the list and place it in brackets.
- Show numbers as numerals. Numerals will catch the attention of users better because numerals represent facts. “It’s better to use “23″ than “twenty-three” to catch users’ eyes when they scan Web pages for facts, according to eyetracking data.”
- Blog links should say where they go. This information can be provided in the anchor text or surrounding words. “Life is too short to click on an unknown. Tell people where they’re going and what they’ll find at the other end of the link.”
Content Infrastructure and Usability
- Do not have a list of links on your sidebar without providing explanations on why each of them are recommended.
- Navigation and user-interface elements need to be simple so as to allow users to find their way around the website.
- Online content should be short and includes the use of bulleted lists and highlighted keywords. Write for scannability because users scan, rather than read.
- Include a editorial focus and direct your visitors to specific material, i.e. Top stories on CNN or Top posts on a blog.
- Information architectures should not mirror the organization chart and do not use bloated graphics or jargon.
- Discover the reasons why users visit your website and build your site as a fast and obvious response to these reasons or queries.
- Local navigation (“see these related products”) should be given more importance than global navigation. A minimalist navigation system should be used to match the user’s model of the information space.
- Don’t make webpages stand-alone units. They need to connect to related information.
- Provide interactive content features which allow visitors to do instead or just read. This includes online voting, games, message boards, forums, user submitted content and feedback forms etc. This especially appeals to teenagers.
- Do not use PDF files because they break reader flow and attention. Only use PDF files for distributing manuals and large documents or reserve it for printing purposes.
- Optimize your Page titles by using different Page Titles for each page. Page titles are used in taskbars and when users bookmark a site. “Don’t start with words like “The” or “Welcome to” unless you want to be alphabetized under “T” or “W.”
- Indicate link destination when using within-page links or mailto links. “For example, add a short statement that says something like: “Clicking a link will scroll the page to the relevant section.”
- Use Breadcrumb navigation. Breadcrumbs offer one-click access to higher site levels, take up very little space and show users their current location as well.
- Author Biographies should be included for blogs. Users want to know who they are reading and biographies are a simple way to build trust.
- Highlight Popular Posts. Integrate them in your navigational system or link to your previous articles in newer postings. This is important because you need to provide them with some useful background on the topic or your opinion.
- Keep your content focused. The more focused your content, the more loyal your readers will be. Building a specialized website allows you to be an authority in your niche.
- Provide new or follow-up information at the same location of the original information or transaction. For example, if you have a cornerstone and heavily linked article on social voting platforms, you should return to this article to update it with new links to current and future articles on the same topic.
Usability, Monetization and Online Businesses
- Websites can differentiate themselves from competitors by focusing on visitor needs and figuring out how they access or use data. Differentiation is about being valuable and useful to site visitors.
- Do not run pop-ups, such as in-content ads or pop-up or pop-in squares because they can often feel intrusive and overwhelming.
- Good usability will positively translate into profit and will even lead to a very high ROI or Returns on Investment. Nielsen estimates ROI to be around 1000%.
- Building visitor trust is a big problem that all websites face. Important to affirm the credibility of a website and its respect for user’s rights.
- Corporate policies which promote usability and user-centered design standards should be essential to all businesses.
- Have a decent error message that ensures that you don’t lose your user due to programming or server malfunctions.
- When replying to visitor emails, edit and use subject lines which relate specifically to their query. A good subject line is vital for building stronger relationships with customers or site users.
- Use confirmation emails and automated messages to close the loop in E-Commerce and other transactions. Tell customers what they need to know. This builds trust by customers for online businesses.
- To achieve high survey response rates, keep them short and clear. Ensure that the process is quick and painless for users or customers by asking fewer questions and using different surveys for different users.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
High Speed Photography : Frozen in Time
In a blink of the eye, a lot can happen. A lot of astonishing things happen in a split of a second, but they are moving too quickly for us to see. High speed photography is the art of photographing a rapidly occurring event. Depending on the event to be photographed, methods range from use of ultra-short time flash exposures to producing lots of exposures in a split-second. Seemingly frozen in time, a lot of photographers have their own special method doing high speed photography. The usual photographic flash component offers a flash that lasts around a thousandth of a second (a millisecond). But photographic flash component used in high speed photography is so much quicker than this, and it creates a flash of light around a microsecond (a millionth of a second). This let you to freeze time through pictures that are happening tremendously fast.
Read more: Online Tips for Tech Users, Designers and Bloggers http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/#ixzz0iVxXJKf4
It’s not easy to come up with a perfect shot while capturing rapidly occurring event, photographers that specialize in this type of photography are masters of patience. Below are some incredibly cool images that shows the beautiful combination of artistic expression and technical precision.
Splash | Avi_Abrams
Breaking the Rules | Beforethecoffee
Blue tit in Flight | Burrard Lucas
Cig | David Neff
Crash Test | Fiat
Kiwi Drop | Tpphoto
Near Death Experience | Bda668
Water Animation | Aziz J.Hayat
Frog Leap | Michael Durham
Bullet Shot | David Neff
Waterfigure, Object and Extra Splash | Fotoopa
Happy New Year! | Robert D Bruce
Lights Out | James Neeley
Balloon Explosion | Aziz J.Hayat
Whiplash! | Alastair Batchelor
Smash | Mark Watson
Flower | Fotoopa
Dart | OSUSTUDENT
From Below | Jens Erik Mikkelsen
Broken Bulb | Swashbuckle Pics
Death to Tomatoes | Photoboothguy
Santa Better Watch Out | Alan Sailer
The Infamous Hairflip | Micah Camara
Waterfigure | Fotoopa
Cognac | Byredis
High Speed Balloon Ripping | Infiltrator
Shotgun Shot Sequence | Andrew Davidhazy
Nikon Splash | LSG
