The Basics Of Website Maintenance

September 23rd, 2009

If you decided to establish a website you should be aware of the fact that it will require your constant support over the time of its existence. Of course website design and construction are a serious and responsible process you need to take most thoroughly but it is not your sole task. What is not less important after your website is constructed and launched is the maintenance of what you have created, and the most important thing you should remember is that your website maintenance should be endless.

No matter how stunning and usable your web pages design is, if you are not going to refresh its content and keep every aspect in order soon it will lose its sense and reputation. To stay up-to-date and be in demand your site requires relevant timely information update for the visitors to keep coming and appreciating it. This is the first rule of your website maintenance - provide fresh and interesting information and stay friendly to you readers.

Website maintenance is about keeping your site working properly no matter what. You can not take your web pages down in any way, you must not forget to update it for weeks while you are occupied with something else, otherwise you will make wrong impression both on the visitors and potential collaborators. Looking unprofessional is forbidden if you are going to achieve success by means of your website.

You should always take into account that your target audience wants to get the most out of your website and take part in its development. That is why you must provide your  visitors the ability to leave comments and feedbacks as well as offer their own suggestions for your website. This can be easily done by implementing a simple feedback form where every user will be able to submit his opinion. Visitors’ feedbacks can be very useful for you as they give you fresh ideas for your site further growth and help you to keep in touch with your visitors which in its turn creates a user-friendly image of your website.

But your readers’ feedbacks should not be the only source for your ideas, you must also check out similar sites, examine what they are about as well as find some popular and successful sources to draw inspiration for fresh content and new design concepts. Carrying out such research will be useful for your website development and the novelties you will implement will help you to keep your visitors interested in your site coming back for more updates. Another aspect of your website maintenance implies adding RSS feeds, newsletters and online articles which were published after your website start up. Such practice will also keep your website content up-to-date.

It is recommended to track your results to see how successfully you cope with your website maintenance and identify the strongest and the weakest points to make a more effective plan for the future activities if necessary. Besides, website analysis will be useful for your site optimization as well. And don’t forget to respond your visitors from your website as it is an integral part of its maintenance which builds trustful and stable relations with your audience.

If you want to learn how to maintain your website properly and make it popular among the readers stay in touch with LayoutsPack and follow our updates as we are going to provide with more pieces of valuable information. And feel free to leave your feedbacks as LayoutsPack appreciates every opinion!

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4 mistakes you should avoid when owning a commercial website

March 18th, 2009

In my previous post I showed you some awesome online shops web templates. Today I’m going to give you some tips on howto make your commercial website more convenient to your visitors.

So, you sell products or offer services online? Are you sure your website doesn’t drive away your customers? Here are 4 things you should avoid if you don’t want to lose your potential consumers.

Hidden price list

Many websites try to make their price lists hard-to-reach. They display price only after you click the “Buy” button or after you create an account, or hide the link to the price list somewhere at the site far way from the products page. The reason of this is incomprehensible for me.
Imagine you are “window-shopping”, you found a website, browsed the products, found the item you’ve been looking for… and can’t see the price. Would you search the website for the price, click the “Buy” button just to check if the price would appear or would you rather go to some other website that sells the item you need ans shows the prices?
Don’t make that mistake and lose potential clients, let your visitors see the prices.

No product descriptions and pictures

Would you buy a pig in a poke? I think you won’t, well, I would definitely not.
Make sure each product or service you provide and want to sell is described carefully and has a nice and shiny picture. Let your customers see your brilliant products in a favorable light and they for sure will buy everything you offer.

Awkward navigation

Don’t make your customer go through a long sequence of pages before he can buy a product, let him browse your site in a way he likes. Be a warmly welcoming owner, not an annoying and convincing seller. Your visitors will appriciate that and come back to you for sure.

No easy access to mandatory pages

A commercial site should have some essencial links accessible from every page of the website. Make sure you give your visitors an aesy access to:
* Products page
* Price List
* Order Form
* About Us page
* Terms of Use / Privacy Policy
* Support

Well, that’s it.
Maintaining a commercial website isn’t easy, but following these simple tips you’ll make it a bit easier.

Please let me know if I’ve missed anything :)

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How to name your website

March 4th, 2009

Now that you are already working on your site design and its overall appearance and feel, have you chosen how to name the website ?

Starting a successful online business requires several important tasks to do, one of the most important among them is choosing a right domain name. The domain name identifies your website just as your name identifies you. To be successful you need people to remember your name so that they can find you easily.
So what is a domain name? Specifically, domain name is an alphanumeric unique name that fingers individual web sites on the Net. It can be up to 67 characters, that can be 26 English letters, numerals 0-9 and hyphens (-).
Note: domain name can contain several hyphens, but can not begin with one.
Domain names have extentions or TLD (Top Level Domain). These are based on the type of organization they are associated with.
Common extentions include:

.org     nonprofit organization
.net     commercial network
.edu     educational institutions
.gov     government agencies
.mil     military
.com     commercial business

There also are additional domain extentions: biz, bz, info, tv etc.

It is a common knowledge that the best domain names are long ago sold, but don’t get upset right away better be creative.

First of all remember that your domain name should be:
- short,
- memorable,
- related to your business,
- hard to misspell

Shorter domain names are easier to type and remember and the possibility of a mistake made is far less, but every rule has an exception. Some long domains can be easier to remember. For example ltspck.com is set of unrelated letters and is difficult to remember, but LayoutsPack.com that stands for ltspck.com is much easier to remember ;) .

You should also consider hyphened names. Along with some disadvantages there are great cons in them. Disadvantages of hyphened domains are:
- Hyphens can be easily forgot when typing a name.
- When a person recommends your website verbally he/she most likely will omit the hyphens in your domain.

Along with these minuses are great pluses:
- Search engines can better distinguish keywords in your domain name
- Your desired non-hyphened name can no longer be available, but the hyphened one most likely will be there. In this way you can get your desired domain name.

Now make a list of the preferred word combinations and start searching for the availability of these domain names. And don’t get upset if the first ones won’t be available. Remember to be creative and success will come to you!

What are the main issues YOU follow when choosing a domain name?

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Video Tutorial On Editing Website Templates In Photoshop For Newbies

August 29th, 2008

A few people buying website templates do not know how to edit them. Customization – making a template fit your needs and visions – is part and parcel of web templates. What you get as a “website template” differs from what you see in a live demo mode. With a web template purchase you get a set of files which must be customized prior to being downloaded to a server. Among them usually comes a .psd-file or, in other words, a Photoshop file which controls the appearance of your future website. Although there are numerous tutorials on the web teaching you how to work with Photoshop and website templates, most non-prepared users find it hard to make any use of them. Of great help there would be a video tutorial “Photoshop Tricks: Editing Web Templates for Websites”.

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