Banner Design Tips

• Use animation.
  
  Animation must be used very carefully since the purpose of the animation is to attract visitors, not to irritate them.
• Feature a call to action.
  
  Placing a "Click here" or "Submit" graphic image on your banner can significantly improve your CTR.
  
• Use bright colors.
  
  Blue, yellow, and green banners have a higher CTR than black-and-white banners. Use the color red sparingly.
  
• Use the word "Free" in your banner.
  
  Depending on what's offered, the word "free" can increase CTRs. For example, offering a free software demo gets a good response.
  
• Give a benefit for clicking on your banner.
  
  For example, "Do you want more traffic?" or, "Need help with taxes?" The answer to the question will be on your web site.
  
• Keep the message short.
  
  Simple banners have higher CTRs than unfocused, wordy banners.
  
• Link the banner to a specific page.
  
  When people click on the banner, they want to go directly to the web page that has the information they want. Your visitors do not want to go to your home page and have to hunt for the information.
  
• Refresh or change your banners frequently.
  
  Studies have shown that CTRs drop significantly after 2 weeks. The CTR usually increases when a new banner appears.
  

SEO Tips and Tricks for Powerful Search Engine Optimization

1. Add new content all the time
2. Create a great keyword phrase
3. Choose a phrase that is popular, but not too popular
4. Write an accessible site
5. Use the keyword phrase in your title tag
6. Get a domain with your keyword phrase
7. Use the keyword phrase in your URL
8. Use your keyword phrase a lot, but not too much
9. Ask other people for links to your page
10. Try to get your keyword phrase inside incoming links
11. Try to get links from similar site
12. Create as much content as you can
13. Keep your site content inside one theme
14. Keep your site live as long as possible
15. Periodically check your outbound links for pagerank
16. Link all major images
17. Keep your pages up-to-date
18. Create a sitemap
19. Get as many inbound links as you can
20. Put your keyword phrase in the first paragraph
21. Put your keyword phrase at the top of the HTML
22. Put your keyword phrase in alternative text 

5 Tips for Designing a Website

1. Select a colour scheme and stick to it.

If your company has a logo or preferred colours on its stationery that’s a good start. For those of you starting from scratch, choose two or three complementary colours and stick with them – don’t change colours on every page.

2. Use templates.

Can’t find a website you really like? Another option is to choose a template. There are many templates or pre-set designs. These come as part of your web design software (such as FrontPage) or you can check out some websites that specialise in designing templates.

3. Provide an easy to use navigation system.

This is one of the most important issues to consider when designing a website. You need to ensure your visitors can find what they are looking for easily. Most websites either display their navigation bar on the left or at the top. And since most people are used to this type of navigation, it’s best to stick with it.

4. Don’t go overboard on special effects

While it is ok to have one or two special effects to jazz up your website, spinning graphics and logos often distract your visitor from the content, not to mention they can take too long to download. Your visitors may click away even before your spinning logo finishes loading.

5. Backgrounds

Ensure your visitors can read the text on the background, ie. no black writing on dark blue background or yellow on white. Also be careful that your links are visible before and after being visited. The default for links in most programs is blue (before being visited) and burgundy (after being visited), so if you have a dark background, ensure your links are light.