If you are an experienced user of the Internet then you have probably heard the phrase “Content Is King”.  For those who haven’t, we’re here to tell you why quality content is crucial to your websites success. The content on your website is a great way to communicate with your target audience and get their attention. One of the best ways of drawing users into your website is to write content that is relevant to what they are looking for. Users will come back again and again to your website for resources if they know that the information is valid and written well.

In today’s technology age, users want their questions answered immediately. Making the content captivating, brief and easy to read will give the users their answers the quickest way.

Before you begin to write your content it is ideal to research what keyword terms or phrases that you would like to rank for when a user is looking for your website. Your website may not rank on the search engine’s first page for every single keyword term or phrase, so it is good to pick a set of words and phrases that will provide maximum search volume. Your content should contain targeted keywords or phrases, but you don’t want to overdo it by adding the same keywords over and over again. Your keywords should show up 2 to 6 times for every 100 words. Adding keywords to the first 25 words of text is important as well.

Meta tags and descriptions should have your keywords, and be relevant to the content on your webpage. Page titles let users know what is on the page. This is displayed at the top of the browser window.  The Meta description should give a brief summary of the page’s content. The title tag and page description are both key elements to search engines when they spider what is on the page. Make sure that the text you use is an accurate description of your website. Not only do search engines spider your title tag and keywords, but they spider your content. Because of developers injecting websites with faulty keywords, search engines have caught on and programmed their algorithms to make the content on a website more relevant than it’s Meta keywords.

Use header (H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6) tags as headings to paragraphs. This document structure lets users know what the section of content is about without reading the entire section. Search engines spider your header tags before you content, so it is important to label these correctly. It is good rule of thumb to use one main header tag (H1 tag) on a page. Using multiple will make the header not as relevant.

The content on your website can also help with backlinks if users think that your website has quality content. Backlinks assist to show the search engines that your website is relevant, popular and deserves a higher ranking.

Quality content can separate you from your competitors. There is always competing websites in your niche. By writing quality content you stand out from the rest and look professional. If you have a website that is flashy and has cool colors, it doesn’t mean that you have the best user experience. A great design doesn’t compensate for awful content. User experience is crucial and should go hand-in-hand with design.

You might have heard of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) before but those who haven’t might ask, What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? SEO is the on going optimizing of a web site by updating and improving the external and internal aspects in order to increase the sites traffic from search engines. SEO deals with many aspects from building links and marketing the uniqueness of your site, to making it search engine friendly, to recognition of key terms and phrases that help generate traffic. Search queries, the words that users type into the search box which contain key terms and phrases most suitable to your site, carry exceptional value. The ultimate goal is to gain as much search engine traffic as possible to gain exposure because exposure can make or break an organization.

The next question you might have is how do search engines find your web site or sites you are searching? Search Engines need a way to “crawl” the web and index all the different sites and documents, the way they do that is by using links. The link structure of the web assists to bind together all of the pages on the web. Search engines automated robots called “spiders” or “crawlers” can reach billions of interconnected documents through the links. Once the pages are found they are stored into gigantic hard drives to be recalled when needed in a query.

When designing your web site you might want to make a checklist to make sure that your site will be found by the search engines.

You want to make content indexable to the search engines, the way to do this is make the content HTML text format, or else the search engines will not be able to read it. The engines can’t read images, flash files, java applets and other non-text content, actually they are virtually invisible to search engine spiders. There is a way to make images in gif, jpg or png format visible to spiders by assigning them “alt attributes” in HTML, this provides the search engines a text description of the visual content. Also, with flash or java plug-in contained content can be repeated in text on the page.

The link structure of a site needs to be crawlable so that the spiders can browse through the pathway of a website in order to find all the pages on the site. Even before that though, search engines need to see content so they can list the pages in their enormous keyword based indices. Your website might have great content, keyword targeting and marketing but that won’t matter if the spiders can’t reach those pages.

The keyword usage and targeting are very important to website. Keywords are the building blocks of search and language. When the engines crawl and index content of pages, they store all the keyword based indices. The search engines have millions of small databases based on keyword terms or phrase. They measure keywords that are used on a page to determine relevance of a document to a query. The keywords are prominently used in titles, text, and meta data.

Title tag is the title on top of the website and should be a clear, concise description of a page’s content. 70 characters is the maximum amount that will display in the search results. Keywords should be included in the title tag because it helps with your site ranking. Start your title tag with a brand name mention to increase brand awareness and higher click through rate. Make sure that title tag is captivating so that you will pull in visitors to your site.

Meta Tags are intended to provide a substitute for information about a website’s content. Meta robot tags can be used to control search engine spiders activity on a page level. The meta description tag exists as a short description of a page’s content. The meta description advertises what your website has to offer, this draws users to your site. Meta descriptions shouldn’t be longer than 160 characters.

Usability and user experience are second order that influences on search engines ranking success behind keyword placement, links and site structure. Search engines are able to measure the sites popularity, which lets the search engine know that the site is of high quality or is not up to par and no one wants to link to it. Crafting a thoughtful, empathetic user experience can almost guarantee that users will come back to your site. Encouraging sharing, bookmarking, return visits and links signal to search engines and contribute to higher ranking.

URL structure is important because you want users to be able to easily and accurately predict the content you’d except to find on the site, so make sure your URL are appropriately descriptive. Minimizing length and trailing slashes makes your URL easier to copy and paste and fully visible to search engines. If your targeting keyword terms or phrases they should be included in your URL. Create a simple static URLs. Use descriptive real words, instead of meaningless numbers or figures nobody can remember. Use hyphens to separate words in a URL.

There are many ways to get links and link building is a big part of SEO work. Many sites offer directories or listing of relevant resources that you can submit your site to. You can get customers to link to you. Building a company blog and make it a valuable, informative and entertaining resource. Create content that users want to share with others and inspires natural linking. Lastly, build content that can be shared through a citation based licensing agreement.

Updated July 29, 2010

Have you been using wrapper DIVs to achieve rounded corners in your designs? Do you wish you could use CSS3 multiple backgrounds and stop inflating your markup? You can, using this jQuery library. Multiple backgrounds have been supported by Webkit-based browsers like Safari and Chrome for a long time. Firefox only recently implement them in version 3.6. Of course, Internet Explorer has never supported multiple-backgrounds. This library brings support to Internet Explorer and Firefox by reading the CSS code from style and link tags.

background: url(left.gif) no-repeat 0 0, url(right.gif) no-repeat 100% 0, url(middle.gif) repeat-x 0 0;

CSS3 introduced the ability for multiple backgrounds on elements. Using this new feature is very simple; simply place each background like you normally would and separate them with commas. CSS3 browser support extends to background-image, background-position, background-repeat. This library only implements its own property for the shorthand style background property. The W3C provides information about multiple backgrounds.

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Chico Web Design has been crafting websites for over 7 years and has experience developing countless websites and online software solutions for businesses both locally and around the country. Last week, during our weekly CWD meeting, we were discussing some of the attributes us as designers thought made for a quality online user experience based on our knowledge of the industry.

7 Fundamental Aspects of Great Website Design

1.Professional Appearance

When designing a website for a client we often ask some basic questions such as; what is the target demographic? What will your clients or customers be looking for? Knowing your audience or target demographic is key to help building a professional look and feel for your website. If your target demographic is other businesses (B2B), then perhaps you may not want to build a website with florescent text and technicolor blinking backgrounds. Potential clients will leave your website even if you have great content. A theme for your website should be kept consistent so every page looks alike and is easily readable. There are a lot of websites that are difficult to read due to font choice, size or color. Make sure that there is enough contrast between the color of the text and the background because we don’t want users straining their eyes to read the content on the page. You have three seconds to capture their attention. You better act fast!

2.Clear, Concise, and Consistent Navigation

If users cannot figure out how to navigate your website quickly, they will most likely exit your website. Throughout your website it is ideal to keep your navigation structure consistent. When designing navigation for your website make sure that your links stand out and do not look similar the rest of the text on the page. There should be a navigation link to go to the homepage on every page of your website. A common practice is to make the main logo a link to the homepage. The desired content should never be more then “2 clicks” away.

3.Professional Photography

“A picture can speak a thousand words.” This is a very old but true statement. Not all users enjoy reading. In today’s world, everybody wants everything right now. And there’s no better way to illustrate what a piece of content is about than a visually striking image. Making your website visually stimulating is the goal. When adding an image to your website make sure to give it a file name related to the image. Search engines like Google and Yahoo cannot read images but can read titles, file names, and alternate descriptions. Image alternate descriptions lets the Search Engine fully understand your image by adding alternate attributes to your images. These alternate attributes should include keywords describing your image. Reducing the images file size is very important because people who have slow Internet connections or people using PDA’s will lose interest if the page takes too long to load. You want to give users a fast load time by having the highest quality image and the lowest possible file size.

4.Load Time/ Page Speed

Responsive and fast loading websites make users feel empowered and in-control. You can get faster load times by properly sizing images, audio, and video. If not resized properly they can drastically reduce your page load speed. “Who wants to sit around for 10 seconds and wait for a page to load?”…Not us! The benefit of a fast loading time, from a search engines point of view, is that faster loading pages provide a better browsing experience for the user, which translates into the kind of quality links that they strive to deliver. Recent statements from Yahoo and Google about slow load times is that it may effect your website’s Search Engine rank.

5.Cross Browser Compliancy:

By definition, cross browser compliancy refers to the ability for a website, web application, HTML construct or client-side script to support multiple web browsers. It is important for your website to be usable across all operating systems, web browsers, devices, mobile devices, and any other platform that displays your website. The problem with cross browser compliancy is that there are new browsers and devices debuting what feels like monthly, yet we still have the older web browsers like Internet Explorer 6 lingering around. In order to maintain cross browser compliancy, you must adhere to standards based compliant HTML code. This will ensure the highest likelihood that your website will look identical on all devices and browsers.

6.Quality Coding Structure:

When developing your website it is imperative to make sure that it is coded properly using standards based HTML and CSS. HTML provides a means to create structured documents by denoting structural semantics for text such as headings, paragraphs, lists, links, quotes and other items. The title tag is what is displayed at the top of your browser. This gives users a brief description of the content on the page. Search Engines display the title tag when listing results of a search. CSS deals with the website layout, color, font, backgrounds, and other items. CSS defines how HTML elements are to be displayed. Styles are normally saved in external [.css] files. External style sheets enable you to change the appearance and layout of the pages in a website, just by editing one single file.

7.Content:

Good quality content on website is vital. It is important that your content is relevant to your website. Paragraph lengths should be brief and only be about 1-4 sentences long. It is recommended to not have long blocks of text. The sentence length should be about 10 words or fewer. If you do have medium to long sentences they should be spread out and not clumped together. Lists are a great way to make the page look more organized. Bullets and numbered lists help keep those long sentences out of your content. Your content should contain numerous terms that are related to the keywords you wish to target, as well as variations of those keywords. Spelling and grammar should be double checked to ensure that Search Engines will not drop your rank due to misspellings. It is recommended that you or your company frequently update your content as much as possible. This lets your users and Search Engines know that your website is being maintained and that new content is added on regular basis.

Could your business be more efficient if you could automate repetitive tasks? By creating a web application, you will streamline communication between your business and your customers or your employees. Moving internal business paperwork and processes online gives your employees the freedom to work from anywhere and gives you the information from them instantly. Web applications for client communication provide instant feedback, allow collaboration on transactions, and reduce your time dealing with each interaction.

Without being well-versed in the process of creating a new interactive web site or web-based application, getting started planning your site is difficult. By understanding what goes into the creation of a dynamic web site, it will become easier and faster to explain the structure of your web site in a way that will make sense to everybody involved from the designers to the developers to the end users.

How do I get started planning?

At the core of any good application is a solid structure. The structure defines all of the objects that are represented on your website and how they fit together. Objects on your website will mirror the objects in your business. As web designers, we have knowledge of how to create a useful website but not how to run your business. This model should contain all of the objects necessary for somebody to understand what your application does and the connections between the objects should provide how the application is intended to work.

The model for your application can be compared to the framing of a house. A solid frame is required before continuing construction of the house. Likewise, it can be difficult to go back and move a wall after the next steps in the construction have taken place.

By working out this model before construction begins, you can be assured that your application contains everything that you need to communicate with your users. A solid plan guarantees that neither party needs to waste time re-clarifying the purpose of the site or a specific function further down the road.

Creating a Model

Objects represented in your database can be anything that you need to keep track of. In this article, we are going to be creating a model for an application to keep track of employee hours and their activities for a delivery company. We will be keeping track of office locations, managers, delivery drivers, their time sheets and their meetings. Each type of object can contain properties for storing more information about the object. The time sheet object may contain properties to further describe the hours worked for a day such as whether or not to deduct time for a lunch break or if these hours are to be counted as overtime.

In the diagram above, objects are arranged vertically with parent objects on top of child objects: a user will belong to a user type and a location, a time sheet will belong to a user, locations contain links to both users and finances, etc.

Web applications can allow for multiple types of users to log in and be presented with different information. In our time sheet application we have two types of users: managers and administrators. Managers have the ability to log in and input time sheet hours and meeting information for their own employees. Administrators can log in to add and delete managers, their delivery drivers, and even their time sheets. Planning out these roles on the website are crucial to ensuring proper function and security.

When moving to the next steps in the design of your web site it is useful to provide estimated quantities of each object type. By giving this information up front we are able to make the best decisions on how to design the software and what type of hardware to run it on. Some quantities are easy to figure out; in our time sheet application, each employee will have one time sheet for each day. Some quantities are specific to your operation; an application to keep track of fifteen employees will require less resources than fifteen thousand employees.

Connections

Just knowing what objects are going to be represented in an application is not enough. In order to figure out how the application is going to work, the connections between them must also be defined. There are three types of connections between objects that are useful in planning your model.

One to Many

The most common type of link between objects is when an object contains links to many of another type of object. In our time sheet application, each user will have many time sheets and each time sheet will belong to an user.

One to One

The simplest type of connection is when one object of a particular type is linked directly to one object of another type. If we wanted to keep track of which computer an employee is currently using we would need to state each employee has one computer. The computer object would contain properties such as the computer’s serial number and what programs are installed on it.

With connections that define when one object has only one of another object it may seem like it would make sense to combine object types. It may seem possible in the above example to keep track of the employee’s computer serial number as simply a property of the employee. This type of oversimplification can cause problems when you want to keep more information about the computer or transfer the computer to another employee.

Many to Many

The last type of connection is when one type of object is connected to connected to another type of object many times in both directions. If we wanted to expand our time sheet application to include projects we would need to link an employee to many projects and each project to many employees.

What does a completed application look like?

Designing the site is where our expertise in user interface design can transform your model into a streamlined interaction for your users. After agreeing upon a solid model that covers all aspects of the site it is possible to make useful interfaces for your users to access your website. Your model will allow us to allow us to find the easiest way to transmit the necessary information from your website to your users and from your users back to your website.

We can begin calculating the best ways for people to interact with your web site in order to minimize input errors and eliminate confusion about how to use the site. Most websites begin with some wire frame diagrams on paper to decide what information is going to be on each page.

Our work designing the website is similar to figuring out the interior design of a house. The framing to define the rooms is necessary before deciding where to put the furniture in a room. Multiple kitchen arrangements will yield varied productivity just as different user interfaces will effect how successful users are at interacting with your website.

Our recently completed Creation Gardens Web Application provides their business with a tool for automating their time sheet system in a simple, usable interface.

After the interface has been decided upon, the site can be completed. Similar to the plumbing and electrical systems of a house, the back end system is the last step to creating a fully functioning website.

Chico, CA – RoadRoyalty.com is a competitive social networking website that offers premiere design and is every auto enthusiasts dream. This site gives auto enthusiasts a chance to show off their vehicles whether it is a sports car, suv, hot rod, motorcycle, you name it, you can show it off at RoadRoyalty.com. This allows people the opportunity to showcase the time and effort spent on their vehicle with hopes of others thinking that they have one mean street machine. The site also offers a classified page were members can sell their vehicles, a forum were members can ask questions and discuss topics, and a blog to keep up with the latest developments. Everybody can access this website, all you have to do is sign up and create a free profile account which gives you access to add up to three vehicles to your showroom.

What is Road Royalty?

Road Royalty is for custom auto enthusiasts who want to see how their vehicle compares against other vehicles by car combat or just by people rating their vehicle profile. The Rating is calculated based on a real time scale out of hundred, hundred being the best possible rating and zero being the worst. You can increase your rating standings by car combat challenges made, car combat wins and higher vehicle profile rating, you can decrease your rating standing by car combat challenges declined, car combat losses and low vehicle profile rating. The better your Road Royalty rating is, the better your chances of getting your vehicle on the front page of the website, featuring in the “Best of Show” and you can even be in second or third place, which is right beside “Best of Show.”

Car Combat performance is important component of your Road Royalty rating. If you think that your ride is better than someone else’s you have the opportunity to prove it. You can prove it by challenging a member to a car combat by clicking on the “Challenge to Car Combat” in the member’s vehicle profile. The member will get a notification on their account and if they accept then the car combat begins. Once the two-day (48hrs) car combat begins, every member can vote which profile they like best. The more car combat wins, the better your Road Royalty rating will be.

Your vehicle profile is based off a 1-10 scale which other members can view your profile and rate your vehicles, which can make your overall rating either go up or down, so you want to make your profile look as best as possible. You can share all the specific details of your ride-the horsepower, engine, specs, suspension specifics, paint job, stereo details and anything else you wish to share. You can include hundreds of pictures and videos, write your own vehicle blog, view your guestbook comments, become friends with other members and more. Your vehicle profile plays a big role in your Road Royalty rating standings, so make sure to make yours stand out from the rest.

Road Royalty is setting a new standard for the online auto community. http://roadroyalty.com

Chico Web Design had the pleasure of working with Woof & Poof to craft their first boutique website for the Chico, California based company.  Woof & Poof has been in business for over thirty-five years designing and sewing beautifully handmade decorations and gifts. The Woof & Poof website features technology such as a HTML 4.0 code base, a store locator using Google’s API to make it easy for customers to locate retail outlets, and a JavaScript slideshow to catalog seasonal products that were handcrafted by their family of seamstresses and finishers.

Woof & Poof offers many products such as Christmas ornaments, holiday decorations, aprons, hot water bottles, clothes, blankets, bibs, collectible bean bags, music dolls, and can be found in over 600 retailers across the country; like Nordstroms. Woof & Poof’s merchandise is handcrafted and made with exceptional quality and care for everyone to enjoy and love. Our boutique style website designed for Woof & Poof was made to catch the attention of their online visitors and to showcase their designs, handcrafted decorations, and gifts that they offer.

Chico Web Design contributed to Woof & Poof’s brand design with our very own label design, which were used on aprons for Nordstroms retail stores. We have the brand design, print experience, and creative expertise to make your product stand out from the rest.

Chico Web Design crafts eye catching product labels that will make customers turn their heads and come back for more. Chico Web Design also worked with their local boutique, Made in Chico, to design new product labels  for a variety of food packaging.  Items such as almonds, jam, and candy all received a new fresh look and packaged feel. Chico Web Design worked closely with Made in Chico to create the label design that best fit their product merchandise.

Client: Boys & Girls Club of The North Valley
Location: Chico
Industry: Community Service
Spotlight: Content Management, Multimedia, Calendar of Events, Blog, Ecommerce Donations

Technologies used: PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, HTML & CSS

Read More about Boys & Girls Club of The North Valley

Client: The Law Offices of Aaron J. Stewart
Location: Chico, CA
Industry: Law, Venture Law
Spotlight: Blog, eCommerce Downloadable Product

Technologies used: PHP, MySQL, XHTML & CSS

Read More

Sacramento Website Design

Chico Web Design offers an assortment of design services including website design, website development, print design, and web hosting for the greater Sacramento area. While companies are marketing their businesses and spending money on traditional advertisements, Sacramento companies can hire Chico Web Design to design a website. theWebsites are the least expensive way to advertise and the easiest way for customers to obtain information about your business.

Chico Web Design can provide custom website designs for Sacramento in the following industries:

• Financial
• Insurance
• Agriculture
• Public safety
• Online retailer
• Music industry
• Boutiques
• Law Firms
• Architecture Firms
• Restaurants
• Construction Firms
• Much, much, more

We work closely with our design clients to get the appearance and functionality that they are looking for, insuring our customer’s satisfaction.

Sacramento Web Development

Chico Web Design has a experienced web development team that can apply your business requirements into a fully automated, easy to use, business solution. We have the advanced tools to help you manage your content, place inventory online, or craft an online retail experience for your customers. We make it easy to promote your business and maintain your website with little to no knowledge of HTML. Our content management tools and custom built framework allows administrators too add content, photo galleries, current news, web blog entries, calendar events, and much more. With the click of a mouse you can log into your secure website tools and change the content from anywhere, on any computer, at anytime.

Sacramento Graphic Design

Chico Web Design has the creativity for your business to give it the edge over your competitors when it comes to print marketing collateral. From logo design to tradeshow booths, we have professional and knowledgeable designers who have experience in designing just about anything. Business cards design, T-shirt design, magazine ads, even custom gift certificates, we will work closely with you and your business to get your ideas and turn them into a reality.

Sacramento Web Hosting

Not only do we offer web design, print design, and web development services, but we also specialize in web hosting in Sacramento. In order for your business website to be seen on the web, the website we create for your business needs to hosted on a web server. Our servers, which are multi-homed, 16 core servers, will make sure that your website loads at lighting speeds. We offer both Linux and Windows based hosting solutions along with shared hosting. Chico Web Design has the capacity to manage dedicated servers as well as co-locate multi-tiered solutions with our data center partners in Sacramento California. We have a full time server manager to proactively maintain all web servers. We also are prepared for anything that happens unexpectedly, so we perform offsite backups on a nightly, weekly, and monthly basis to protect your data.