Category — singapore web design

Have you heard yourself saying, “I don’t understand? I have a gorgeous site, a really cutting-edge splash page with a flash introduction, up-to-date technology, I paid a small fortune for this site, and I’m getting plenty of hits but no one is buying or staying in the site.”Well, you may be one of a growing number of businesses, both large and small, who believed all the hype about the latest in new technology. Many business owners want their website to have that cutting-edge look, and so will ask for things such as animation, music, flash, and other “bells and whistles” that would be detrimental to their site. These extras are probably driving potential customers away because they increase download time and are not search engine optimized.

In the rush to join everyone else on the Internet, businesses have ignored vital steps in the process of getting their business on-line. They assumed that because everyone else had gimmicks such as a splash/intro page, this was the right way to go. The result: businesses chose design companies who readily took their money and who designed exactly what the client wanted without clearly focusing on marketing goals. To be fair, oftentimes the graphic design company has no idea that a site designed with all the latest technology doesn’t necessary translate into a site that has the functionality that an on-line business needs. This is because the graphic design firms specialize in graphic design, not in marketing. Many graphic design sites are full of splash pages, scrolling text, animation, etc. They use these tools because it allows the graphic designers to display their creativity and their knowledge of these “bells and whistles.” Creativity is good but all the latest cutting-edge technology translates into a lack of functionality to effectively market any on-line business including their on-line presence.

When having your site designed, remember that first and foremost, you are building your site to increase prospects and sales. Don’t look for a graphic design firm that believes all you need to do is get in the search engines and place banners to be successful. Don’t hire a designer that is new to the Internet–meaning they have years of print design experience but have just decided to expand their horizons to the Internet. Don’t hire a graphic designer that doesn’t have a professional copywriter or marketing person on staff and don’t hire a graphic designer just because they are the cheapest. Remember, cheap can cost you money–you get what you pay for. Hire a marketing/design firm that understands the difference between form and function and can apply it in a marketing perspective. Remember, many of these latest bells and whistles are very expensive and your site may not need them to be effective.

Every single design element affects your web sites functionality and marketability–from the decision about how the navigation will work to choosing the right colors, fonts, graphics, content, HTML code, and more. These will not only influence potential customers but search engine indexing as well.

If and when you’re ready to begin your on-line presence, start with a business plan and strategy. It is essential if you really want your business to succeed. Don’t be afraid to research marketing trends and investigate a marketing/design firm that will fit your needs.

If you are currently on-line but your business is not progressing as you think it should, don’t be afraid to request a web site analysis.

There are firms that will analyze and help pinpoint areas of your on-line presence that need improvement for a successful Internet presence.

Last, but not least, keep an open mind to what the firm offers as suggestions for making your Internet experience a profitable one. Remember, this is their livelihood, this is what they do and they have the experience to back it up.

Are you ready to be successful?

8 Tips for Designing a Great Website

Square buttons, round buttons, flashy buttons … will they match my shoes, my handbag or my tie? Are you stuck in a maze of buttons, headings, bullets, sub-headings and colour schemes?

STOP!!!!

Take a deep breath and read some practical tips for professional looking websites.

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.

The most common colour schemes include:

- Red, yellow and white
- Blue and white
- Red, grey and white
- Blue, orange and white
- Yellow, grey and white.

If you’re not sure what colour scheme to choose, surf the internet and find a website that you like. You can then model your colour scheme on what already exists.

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.

Visit:

www.templatemonster.com

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.

It also helps to include your navigation bar at the bottom of each page to save your visitors from having to scroll back to the top.

4. Don’t go overboard on special effects

Whilst 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.

6. External Links

It is a good idea to open links to other websites in a new window. That way your visitors can easily return to your site when they are finished browsing the external link

7. Site Map & Search Feature

If you website is more than 15 pages, it is useful to have a site map or a “Search” feature to ensure your visitors can easily find what they’re looking for.

8. Content is King

While it is important that your website looks clean and professional, it is far more important that you concentrate your efforts on the content and promotion.

If you want a professional website, things to stay away from include:

1. Flash intros, revolving globes, bevelled line separators, animated mail boxes
2. Loads of pop up or pop under boxes
3. Autoplay music. Allow your customer to play music only if they choose.
4. Hit counters of the free variety, which say “you are 27th visitor”
5. Date and time stamps, unless your website is updated daily or weekly
6. Busy backgrounds.

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Many people have committed the same mistake of developing and designing a website just for the sake of establishing an online presence. You cannot afford to repeat this especially if you are developing a corporate website. The significance of developing the right website designs is felt even more with the Internet revolutionizing itself as a platform for conducting business. Your clients and customers will first come to know about your organization through your site. As such, it is the first access point for your organization and therefore you need to create a good first impression through your site. Moreover it represents the face of your company online and therefore the design should complement your business and project its goals and objectives.

Before approaching a professional website design company, you need to get your basics right. First, you need to have a clear idea about what you expect from your website. What are the objectives of developing the site? Whether you want to establish a firm corporate image or whether you wish to promote your products and service? Find answers for these queries, and you will be in a better position to effectively communicate with your website design company. The designer’s job is also made simple if he knows what is expected from a webpage design.

Apart from creating a visually appealing design, your corporate website design should also complement your business values and goals. This is what you call a design meaningful and inspiring. You can supplement the right design with the right textual content to give your website a complete and well-balanced look and feel. The third basic is that the design should be able to promote your products or services in an effective manner to the targeted audience. This needs some marketing research to find out who exactly are your customers and how can you best target them.

If you opt to outsource your website design process, web design Singapore is just the right choice for you. Being in the industry for quite some time, it can provide you with the right design at the most economical rate.

Establishing an effective online presence in practical terms means building and maintaining a great website, i.e. one that encourages people to use it and works well with your existing business practices. We know that a website is an e-brochure that will showcase and communicate your important information available to the whole world 24 hours a day. It acts as a double-edged sword i.e. it could either help you or harm you. A website development services company should build an affordable website without compromising on the quality. An important task is to provide a good look and feel factor along with simple and straight forward concept as the website will display the image of the company.To build a website, we have to purchase a domain name to make our website online. You can find a lot of cheap domain name registration companies offering cheap web hosting packages on their windows/linux based servers. They also offer web design for business promotion and SEO purposes. You can register domain name with your own name or your company name according to the domain name availability which can be checked on various websites. Most of the website development services company and SEO Singapore company will provide you hosting services

Some useful Web development tips:
* Do not use frames on your website.
* Place navigational buttons at the top and bottom of the page for easy navigation.
* Update pages frequently. * Use “alt” tag if you use an image on the website.
* Don’t publish “Under Construction” pages. * Don’t give a broken link on the website.
* Performance should be high in terms of loading the page.
* Use a sitemap for your website.
* SEO friendly website will help improving traffic on your website.

The software development life cycle is used to facilitate the development of a large software product in a systematic, well defined and cost effective way. The following models are popular for software development:
* Waterfall model
* Prototyping model
* Spiral Model
* Evolutionary model

There is a lot of information you can find on the internet on web design, Search engine optimization services and Software development services.

When we look at Web design and Internet marketing, we tend to look at the cost of all things. With the right Web design service, you need to be able to look at the professionalism that they put into each and every measure of business. You may want to look further into this if you want that type of professionalism to rub off onto your business.As a business owner, you know what there is and what there needs to be to increase your bottom line at the end of the day. Having help in any aspect is much appreciated and wanted.

With the right Web design service, you are getting a personal company that will develop any Web tool based on your needs and wants.

With a business, it is hard to stay up with the times and can cause you a lot of stress and anxiety. Why not ask for a little help? With a Web designer, you get that help and a little more. With their high standard customer service, they can get the job done without any problems. You never know when you are going to need that extra help.

What the company has to offer may range from Web design to Internet marketing. These are companies that changes with the vast economy. With a great Web design service, you can get more than you signed up for in terms of the different interest you have with the company.

There are many venues to venture into, and you will be able to increase your income. With the professional portfolio, you will be able to preview their work and make your choice after the matter.

Internet marketing and Web design are among the most important things that a business could be investing in at this time. Take the time and research the information on the designers and see that it is a reliable company.

The best thing that you could do for your company is to allow a Web designer to help you get started or keep your business. Increasing your bottom line is the most important thing in business.

Having the clients interested in your goods and services is the most important aspect to take your time with.

When you have known everything there is about what you want for your company and what needs to be done, give the designers a try and allow them to do all the heavy lifting of Internet marketing.

A good web page design that is suitable for your business is one that simply realizes its goal. Getting your business represented by a web site is an important thing to do which will spread the wings of your business influence even more. The key element in any web design is that it should be promoting your business or brand. Here are some web page design tips to help you get a clear idea.Do keep the web simple and effective using a design that can be up to a practical four-page web site, and not more than that. You’d want to engage your consumers without confusing them with elaborated page arrangements that can be a turn-off.

A good business web page is most efficient when it is designed to focus on the online branding. This will tell your consumers plainly about the brand of your business and what it is all about. Follow this through by painting a clearer identity by putting in a more specific description of your business’ role.

Avoid using any design templates that utilize Flash or colorful graphics. Your consumers will not appreciate the time wasted by waiting for your whole page to load. These types of designs have slow loading duration and are less practical as they are not search engines’ favorites.

A simple and reasonable cost shared hosting for your web page is the best option to represent your business site, especially if you are just starting out. This will save a lot of money and allow you to experiment first before making a final commitment.

Ensure that the design of your web site has an attached email address that is similar to your web site domain. Since branding is crucial, you must check that all the elements are matching.

A good web site design for your business should be an extension of your business brand. Keep it mind that with any type of design related to business web page, ‘less’ is actually ‘more’. Keep it professional by following these simple tips.

HostSG provides web design services to more than 1,000 businesses worldwide. See our portfolio and let us assist you to build a highly user orientated web site that focus on building serious internet traffic.

With the internet becoming a staple in people’s day to day living, it’s the perfect way to get your business or services noticed; however without an appealing website, chances of people spending time looking at your website are minimal. A superior web design is pivotal when trying to get people interested in what you have to say or sell.There are several ways in which you can make your site stand out from the rest; using HTML coding is a good place to start. However HTML, CSS and JavaScript are all foreign concepts to most of us. Using a website design team means that your site will be in capable hands whose main aim is increasing traffic to your site. In order to make sure that you get the web page that you envisioned, you will need to liaise with your web design team and decide which type of site you want. There are a variety of different forms of website on offer that an experienced design team will know about.

The first kind of website available is E Commerce websites, as online shopping is becoming increasingly popular, especially amongst younger people. If you are going to sell products online then this form of website is a must; it will give you the ’shopping cart’ feature that you often see on most online stores making your website look all the more professional.

If you don’t plan on selling anything online then you’ll require either a flash or a HTML website. HTML based sites are a standard website design which allow you to incorporate links into your site so you can have different pages for different sections of your website. You’ll even be able to use drop down menus that can break things down for your website visitors.

Flash on the other hand can provide you with some great interactive media images, so if it’s easier to explain what your website is about using pictures rather than text, this is a great way to do so. However, a website that is completely flash based site rarely gains high search engine rankings. It’s advisable to use a mixture of both Flash and HTML in order to get a high level of traffic to your site.

Although the three different types of website may seem straightforward, it is still recommended that you use a web design team in order to ensure high search engine rankings, therefore increasing site traffic to your site.

HostSG provides web design to more than 1,000 businesses worldwide. Contact us to see how we can help your business to prosper online.

Though most business today have a business marketing website, there are still a few out there that to do not have a presence on the web. Take a look at these reasons why every business should have a business marketing website and then try to find a reason not to build a website for your business.Your Business Marketing Website never closes. Unless your web hosting server crashes, your business website will be open all the time. Web hosting companies guarantee their servers will be up and running 99.9% of the time, so you won’t have to worry about that. Whenever a person wants to find out more about your business, get his or her questions answered, or purchase a product or service, they can do so. You can check your website information when you come to the office the next morning and process everything you received after the close of business the previous day. A website is a great way to make money while you sleep.

Your Business Marketing Website will reach a larger audience of people. Unless your business has multiple locations throughout the country or all over the globe, chances are you’re not reaching a very large audience. People all over the world are connected to the Internet and the World Wide Web, so you can take control of larger portion of your target audience, dealing with potential customers across the country instead of your local area. A business website will increase potential for sales.

You’ll be able to promote and sell your products and services to your customers. You can use your website to advertise your products and services through contest and sales. Providing access to purchasing your products and services whenever the customer wants to is an excellent way to ensure you’re not losing any potential sales. There are many different ways to sell your products online; many of them are free, or very low cost.

You’ll be able to provide instant gratification to your customers. If you sell digital products, offering instant gratification to your customers is a plus. As soon as the customer places his or her order and makes the payment, you can deliver the product right away via email, when you’re not even in the office. If your business sells tangible products which must be shipped or provides a service requiring interaction, you can provide an e-book, a video, or a podcast of some sort to allow for instant gratification while the customer waits for you.

Your Business Marketing Website will help enhance your customer service. By providing an online ticketing system you can have your customers issues logged and give them a way to track their issue until it is solved. You can also provide important information, such as a list of frequently asked questions, a mailing address, shipping information, and more so that the customer can find what he or she needs when he or she needs it instead of having to rely on a customer service agent via telephone and specific hours set forth by your business.

With all these reasons as to why a business marketing website is a key to a successful business, there’s absolutely no reason to avoid setting up a website for your business. When you see what the power of a website can do to strengthen your business, you will be thankful for the effort you put into developing it.

1. Navigation Links

After planning the information structure of your site you should have some key categories in mind for the main navigation and some sub navigations to go under each.

Quiet often I see sites that do not have a landing page for their main categories but instead choosing to jump straight to a sub category. E.g. a confectionary company has “chocolate” as a main category link and “Cadbury” as a sub-category ensure that both “chocolate” and “Cadbury” has its own page and not shared that way each page can attempt to rank for its own content.
2. The 3 click rule

The general gist of the rule is to avoid having a structure that requires users to make more than 3 clicks to find your content, users naturally have a short attention span and if most of their time is spent trying to find what they are looking for on your site with confusing or overly long navigation chances are they will leave your site.
3. Allow room for textual content

Pages that are designed to showcase pictures of products should also allow room for a small textual description where possible.

Ensure that key images have an alt attribute defined, search engines are text crawlers and have no visual interpretation abilities so a picture of a donut is just the same as a picture of a cookie if no alt attribute describing the image is used. This is especially useful to differentiate pages have little textual from hundreds of other pages that share the same design template.

Example: img alt=”chocolate_donut” src=”http://www.abc.com/content/upload/images/donut.jpg”
4. Ensure crawlability

Do not use iframes to serve your content as search engines cannot read what is contained within. Opt for creating the content on separate pages instead of using iframes to dynamically populate pages.

Use flash sparingly, search engines are improving in their ability to crawl content within flash (loaded through xml) but is still second-rate compared to plain HTML link and content.

Flash should always be considered as a visual addition and not the driving force behind the operation of a website. The wow-factor of having a fully flash site complete with funky navigation and animations left right and center is not worth losing potential search engine traffic.

HostSG provides search engine optimized web site design services to more than 200 businesses. Contact us today to see what we can do for your business web site.

For many people using the world wide web is an every day task, whether it be for work or leisure, shopping or getting information. While many of these individuals are confident in how to use the internet, and what it can do for them, there are also many people who have no idea of how it works or what they would need to do to get their own website.Every single website on the world wide web, be it the one page site of an individual or a gigantic, multi-page site of a global business, has the same system behind them. In order for their site to be visible to the millions of internet users it must be viewed through the services of a internet hosting provider. Web hosting is basically the process of providing a service which enables your site to be viewed around the world. This can only be done by these service providers as it is only them who have the big computers, much like your own, which are directly connected to the internet. These machines are used solely to serve up websites onto the world wide web, lending them their official name of ’servers’.

The web host will generally host hundreds of web sites and as such they require a very fast connection to the world wide web. They have a set amount of access to the internet, which they rent out to individuals or businesses who want their own web site. As the world wide web has grown in popularity, the renting of space has turn out to be financially rewarding. As such, more companies are trying to get involved in it. You may find that you are dealing with the provider that owns that main server directly, or you may find you are renting your space from a provider who, in turn, is renting their space from a bigger web hosting provider. In this case, the server of the smaller provider is linked to the server of the bigger provider, so it is the bigger provider who actually enabling your site to be seen around the world. It is really inconsequential to the site owner whether they are dealing with the main provider directly or a smaller subsidiary as the outcome is the same.

This info is just the basics of how the world wide web and web sites work. In order to have your own web site you need to do more than just rent space from a web hosting provider. You will also need to build the website itself, either yourself or by hiring the services of a web designer. However, whatever you do to make your web website a vibrant, attractive or interesting place to visit online will be completely useless without ensuring you have paid a web hosting provider to put it on the internet for you.

For more than 10 years, HostSG provides highly reliable web hosting services to new startup , SMEs as well as large corporation in Singapore. From Budget Hosting , Business Hosting to Email Hosting, we have the right service custom to your requirement.

Make your website easy to read after all a website is about sharing information. If you want to keep your visitors on your website then there are some principles that you should use.

Good website design tip 1 - Websites are read by people so they should be written for people. You maybe optimizing your page for search engines, but in principle it is your human visitors that you are trying to attract. Making your text easy to read, written so that a person can easily understand what message you are trying to get across.

Good website design tip 2 - Using an easy to read font is important. Website designers are finding it easier and easier to create web pages using any font they desire. Using the right font that is easy to read is good practice.

Good website design tip 3 - Size is important too. The text too small and your readers will be straining their eyes, too large and decorative can put your reader off too.

Good website design tip 4 - Notice that newspapers put text in columns rather than across the page. This is because it is easier on the eye, and makes for faster reading as the eye does not need to move too far across the page. This makes it easy for people to quickly scan what your message is.

Good website design tip 5 - The use of colours is vitally important too. Putting a dark colored text on a dark background can make text almost unreadable. Too many bright colours can be off putting. Again make the web page easy to read.

In essence an easy to read, uncluttered website that gets your message is exactly what you are aiming for. Keeping your visitors on your website is essential to improving your sales - an informative, easy to read website will do just that!

One of the most effective growth strategies for any endeavor is expanding into new markets. And what is the highly recommended way to offer your products and services and reach these new customers? Establishing an excellent online presence, of course. Once you decide the kind of web site your business needs, you’ll have to hire a web design service. There are some essential things that you should consider when selecting a professional Singapore web design service.

First-rate Customer Service

There is a popular marketing precept that states that, “The customer always comes first”. This is particularly true for web design. You are paying good money for a web site that is more than just another business card or brochure. You are depending on this web site to expand your business and raise your revenues. You ought to make sure the Singapore web design service you hire provides top-quality customer service. They should be readily accessible to customers, to deal with questions, clear up doubts, or simply just be there for you.

Consider, as well, the types of services provided. Creating a web site involves more than just the graphics design. The service you select should be able to convey your marketing goal, what you wish to achieve with your web site. They should keep in mind your demographics and plan the site accordingly. They must know about keyword research. Why have a web site if there will be very little traffic? A serious Singapore web design service should be able to handle these issues.

Competitive Rates

You might be tempted to choose the lowest bidder, but heed this warning: you get what you pay for. A professional Singapore web design service will offer competitive rates, but never the cheapest rates. Top quality has its price, and if you’re relying on your new web site to expand your business, the investment will be well worth it.

Estimated Delivery Time

Another essential point to consider when selecting a professional Singapore web design service is what their estimated completion date might be. With the amount of individuals conducting business online, you’ll want to make sure your web site is up and running as soon as possible. If you establish a realistic deadline, a serious web design service should be able to not only complete the project in timely fashion, but also deliver a web page that is exactly what you envisioned to accompany you to greater success.

To sum up, there are countless Singapore web design services to choose from, but if you contemplate the factors mentioned above, you’ll no doubt make the right choice.

Is a lack of good website design costing you sales? Many website owners focus on designing websites that look pretty instead of building websites to be profitable. Ultimately,your website should be set up as your 24/7 sales agent always ready to service potential customers.Instead of spending so much time building more traffic, maybe it’s time to focus on building another “T” word critical to successful website design. And that’s the word TRUST! Establishing credibility is one of the easiest and quickest ways to convert a browser into a buyer.

Take the time to add these simple credibility and customer service elements to your website for more customers and more cash.

1. Give a Guarantee
Lead the customer and be the first to demonstrate confidence in your product by offering a guarantee.

2. Readable and Reachable Return Policy
Make your return policy easy to find and follow. A customer shouldn’t have to hunt through your website to find your return policy, then have to jump through hoops to return a product. Try to make your return process as easy as your buying process.

3. Third-Party Trust and Verification Logos
Since the majority of online purchases are made with credit cards, invest in secure processing services. Add trust and verification logos to put your customer at ease. Plus this gives you a third party recommendation-another trust builder!

4. FAQ Page
Use your FAQ page to answer common objections ahead of time that may prevent the customer from purchasing.

5. Contact Information
Display your contact information on each page of your website. At every point your customer may have a question, you want to project the image that a customer service agent is right there ready to help.

6. Testimonials
As soon as you can, get a testimonial on your website. When possible add info for the testimonial that can be verified such as a website address or business name.

7. Terms and Conditions
Be up front about the details of your product to prevent buyer’s remorse. If you find that you get a lot of “feedback” about a certain part of your product, go ahead and give clarification in the Terms and Conditions.

These basic elements of web design may not be the latest and greatest style techniques, but they can really make your website more attractive to potential buyers. Credibility and customer service will always be in style!

HostSG provides highly professional search engine optimized web site design in Singapore from S$1500.00. Contact us today for your next web site revamp and new design.

Many new small-business owners want to save money by doing their website design and construction themselves. Unless a website is not going to be a major part of your business, most likely this is not a good idea unless you have been to school for web design. Generally, the beginner will have a great deal of trouble successful in web design and coding, and flash. The number of things to learn is just too great.Make sure your web pages are arranged neatly, with quality design and strong, relevant content. Inform your viewers about the function and ethics of your company, goods, and services. Focus on the aspects that stand you out amongst your rivals.

Utilize an overall, uncomplicated style for all of your web pages. Be brief, and avoid boring them with tedious detail. Offer visitors a comfortable experience and influence them to make purchases. Provide a variety of methods for reaching you (email, telephone, mailing address, etc.) Furnish some specifics pertaining to your company. Be professional in your content, however stay away from needless jargon or tricky terminology. Make the wording easy to understand, but not patronizing. Try to include testimonials from clients, if possible. This is the best thing for creating a sense of trust.

Have an expert design your company’s logo, in the event that you don’t already possess one. Again, from page to page, position your logo and menus consistently. This will keep audiences from getting distracted away from your main content.

Search Engines tend to prefer sites which are timely. Update your content on a regular basis. Your website is no good to you if people can’t find it.