These website templates are exactly what the term suggests: templates for a basic website design that can be slightly altered. If you are familiar with WordPress, you’d know that there are several templates available powered by their CMS—and using them is quite easy, thanks to their very user-friendly management system.

But should you really use a template to design your website? Here are some factors to consider to help you design:

• Templates are either free or available at a low cost, so you get to save money. They’re also quite abundant online, so looking for template that would suit your taste and the needs of the website will not be a problem.
• Although they are free, most of these templates are actually professionally made. They have that polished, professional look every website should sport.
• Because these templates are basically finished (with only a few finishing touches required from you), you spend less time waiting—which means your website can go live as soon as possible.
• And while they’re finished, they can be customized. You cannot change the layout but you can change some elements such as sizing, colors, and text appearance.

However, templates also some disadvantages as well:

• Because they are free, templates are not unique. Everyone else can use them. And even if they’re paid for, it can still be used by anyone since you don’t have exclusive rights to it.
• Templates do not look good on a website with several pages. A template is basically a design for just one page. If you’re going to use that same design for every page on your website, it will look static and boring—and even badly made.
• Customization options might be limited, so you’ll be stuck with what you have—even if you site requires more.

For business websites or sites that aim to give an air of authority, a template will not do. It seems unprofessional and even juvenile, since anyone can use a template and stick it to the site.

In this case, you should consider having a website professionally designed. Having a site designed and developed by a company will allow you to dictate specific styles for your pages, giving it a distinct and unique look.

So if you’re planning to develop a website on the Gold Coast, contact a Ignition Media professional. Visit the Ignition Media portfolio to see sample designs.

There are two features of Hootsuite, namely,

1. The ability to let you access more than one of any social media account. Besides giving you access to several social media networks, you can also manage more than one of the same network; for instance, two Twitter accounts.
2. The option to have more than one user per account. For instance, there can be more than one editors and/or users per Hootsuite account, so they get to access all the accounts integrated on the Hootsuite.

Now, obviously, these features are applicable for any online business or website enterprise. After all, social media presence is a good way to establish a brand. By using Hootsuite, you can do the following:

1. Create a social media team for your operations. You can have more than one people manage your social media accounts across all networks, making it easier to maintain your social media presence.
2. Track your social media performance. Hootsuite has tools that allow you to track your social media campaign. For instance: is your tweet being shared rapidly, or did your followers not pick up your tweet?
3. Pre-schedule a tweet. If you do not have time to actually be online to post the tweet, you can pre-schedule tweets or Facebook statuses via Hootsuite, so you can ensure that your accounts have content when needed.
4. Use Social Analytics. This Hootsuite feature will allow you to find out how many people actually visited your site from the link you posted on your social media accounts.
5. Keep track of keywords. Hootsuite has a convenient interface that will let you easily view tweets that contain a certain keyword (for instance, the name of your website).

A good question to ask here is if you actually need Hootsuite. A consideration here is whether you use social media heavily. The old rule was websites that lean towards the older audience/market are not heavy on social media, although social media presence, across the board, has now become the norm. Use Hootsuite if you need moderate to heavy social media management and monitoring.

Contact a Ignition Media professional to know what you can do about your website’s social media presence. Ignition Media also offers website development and design services.

Compose a Good Title

In essence, your title can either invite visitors to click and read more or drive them away from viewing your entire post. Hence, it should be written carefully, thoughtfully and accurately. If you want your readers to find your blog post easily, then you should include your targeted keyword that matches the content of your post. Don’t use deceptive titles to drive traffic to your website. Instead, offer relevant content and deliver what your title indicates. You will eventually gain the trust and confidence of your readers.

Make Your Content Crisp but Concise

Internet users do have a very short attention span. So when you speak to your audience, make sure that you communicate within their attention span. If you need to write a longer article to communicate the whole story, ensure that you make every part of it more and more appealing to your readers up to the very last paragraph. Interesting sub-headings and bullet points can do the trick. In addition, proper keyword stuffing can also make it clear to your visitors that they have come to the right place.

Offer Value

Since the inception of the internet, we’ve already read a variety of blog posts. But let’s face it, not all articles that we’ve read in the past were worth-reading. If your reader decides to scan through your post, he’ll want to go through it and end up with a bunch of information. So when you’re writing your own posts, make sure that you keep them informative, valuable and relevant. Remember, the only reason why people read blogs is because they would like to be nurtured with information. Again, the entirety of your article should generally speak about your title.

If you are serious about generating more followers to your website then you should deliver high-quality blog posts to keep your readers happy. Consult a good SEO service provider in order to maintain the quality content of your site and make it visible on the search engines. Ignition Media can make your blog posts as a lucrative source of income!

There are a number of ways to do this without the help of a third party application. For instance, you can use the Notes features on Facebook. While this can be quite simple, it also has limitations. For instance, it offers little to no options for optimum visual optimization. It also has no back-linking functions).

This is why many websites use RSS to import content from a website to Facebook.

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a web feed that can be accessed using a specialized application (or an RSS reader). When a Facebook user, for instance, has a number of favoured websites and blogs, he would subscribe to their RSS feeds. The content from these sites, in turn, become web feeds that are syndicated to the reader. The process is automatic (the content is syndicated as soon as they are published) and effective (because of back-linking functions).

You can put your blog’s content on syndication via the Social RSS application on Facebook. Basically, this is what the Social RSS does: when you put a post on your blog, the Social RSS app will automatically post it on your Facebook Wall and, in turn, on the Wall of your fans/followers. This serves as a back-link as well, so it helps your search engine optimization endeavors.

To do this, add the app on your Facebook account and put in the sites you want Social RSS to import. It even provides the option for automatic post likes as well.

One of the good things about this app is that it supports multiple importing of feeds. This means it won’t be a problem if you maintain several blogs. Besides being published on your Facebook wall, it will also appear in the Social RSS tab as well. But the best feature of this app is it allows customization; from the number of sites you want to display on the tab or the amount of content you want import, you have the options right here.

Also, make sure that the content you import through the app are not objectionable, obscene, or derogatory.

There is a paid version of the Social RSS application that allows more posts per hours (the free version has a limit, obviously), among others.

Check out Ignition Media if you’re looking for a Gold Coast web development and designing company.

Use No Follow for Comments

Comment spam attacks many websites for one main reason, and that is to acquire as many links as they can. Most search engines these days give points to increase a site’s ranking based on how many websites it has linked into. So when you enable no follow links for comments, the spammer won’t benefit from adding links to your comments.

Manual Comment Moderation

Filtering comments is the most basic approach for blog owners to prevent publication of comment spam. By reviewing comments, you will be able to disapprove spam from getting into your website. Besides preventing spam, manual approval of comments also ensures cleanliness that conforms to your website’s policy.

Require User Registration

Requiring users to register first before they can post comments on your blog will significantly reduce comment spam on your site. The problem, however, is that a lot of people find the process too complex and too time consuming. If you’re fishing for comments, this may not be your ideal spam prevention technique. Nevertheless, user registration will help prevent comment spam on your site.

Block IP Ranges

This may be the most logical way to get rid of spamming, whether it’s comment spamming or enquiry spamming. Let’s say for instance you’re a veterinarian in Texas. You won’t probably need for anyone in other countries to access your website. If you’re not aiming to practice or travel to another country then it would be in your best interest to block visitors from such country from accessing your website. There are plugins available that will examine the source of spam comments. Once detected, the plugin will automatically bar the comment spammers if they originate from the known spam addresses.

As you see, spam messages are no longer limited to email and they will always be a problem your site. To preserve the reputation and credibility of your site, you need a well-designed site to prevent comment and enquiry spam. Contact Ignition Media to effectively battle spam out from your site.

Define the Words that are Best Associated to Your Business

Determine all the words and phrases your customers could be typing into the search engine research box to find your business. Ask your friends about the words they associate with your business. You can also identify these words yourself by putting yourself in the shoes of your customers. What would you be typing into Google, Yahoo or MSN search engine to find your product?

Find Out the Search Traffic for Each Keyword

Now type in the words or phrases you have identified earlier using dependable sites that assist in keyword research like Google’s Adwords, MSN AdCenter or Wordtracker. Determine the monthly searches for each keyword and delete the words or phrases that bring disappointing results. Keywords that have less than 1,000 searches a month are not ideal, unless you are really offering something unique and those are the top keywords that visitors are searching for. If you’re only starting a site the best approach is to stick with keywords that aren’t too competitive but will bring decent traffic to your site.

Find Their Relevance and Competition

Remove all duplicates and keywords that are not relevant. You should also consider omitting competitor brand names for obvious reasons. Furthermore, it is also vital to study your competition and determine who’s ranking highest for the keywords you are targeting. Study their websites and adjust your keywords according to what your site offers. Analysing your competitors is the best way to implement improved SEO techniques to your site so you can get ahead of them in the business.

Using the right keywords can boost the visibility of your website, and top SEO companies understand the importance of these keywords and keyword phrases. Since they know how to analyse the target audience, they can select the right words and phrases which are relevant to your business. Ignition Media is a reputable SEO company who can help you perform keyword analysis for your website.

This can be tricky since there a lot of companies out there—and a number of them are very reputable and reliable, to boot. But fluff aside, there are a number of factors you need to consider when choosing a website company. Here’s what you should look out for to know which to choose:

1. Buzzwords. Does this particular company like using buzzwords such as “clean” website design or “zen-like” aesthetic design but say nothing else? In this case: avoid the company at all cost.
   Having a website made is not just about the actual visual design; it’s also about the infrastructure, the features, the integration of social media and other outside elements. More so, you need to find a company that sees the website as a business opportunity—not just a work of art.
2. Portfolio. But, let’s face it, the actual design is also important; you will drive away visitors if your site was designed using codes from a free template website. The company’s portfolio is the best way to judge if the company has what it takes to do design your site.
   Check out the portfolio for common errors and red flags, apart from the actual quality of the presented designs. If a company does an error over and over again, it means it’s likely those errors will be present on your site as well.
3. Price. The common mistake in this area? Looking the cheapest company. Instead, look for a company that offers the best value for the price it asks. A company may charge more than average, but maybe it includes services for CMS customization, e-commerce set-up, and social media integration? On the flipside, that affordable company you find may not even offer free domain name and web hosting.
   
4. Work flow. Again, another overlooked aspect. Know how the company works to find out what you should expect—and when you should expect the outcome. This is to avoid a company that cannot deliver the website on the agreed date.
5. Lastly, maintenance. The work of the website company should not end after the website goes live. Will the company offer support even after this? Up to what extent—and how much will be involved, if applicable?

Ignition Media offers the best website design and web site development services in the Gold Coast. Call an Ignition Media professional to know what they can do for you.

When choosing a designer, you should consider two things.

Actual design

First, assess the quality of the website designs they can create and the services they offer.

Most Gold Coast website design companies should have readily accessible portfolios. But what you should look at first is the designer’s website itself. Obviously, what respectable online design company would go to business with an ill-made website?

If the company chooses a template design for their site, don’t easily count them out just yet. Consider: is their use of the template design effective? There are several ill-designed templates out there; their choice of design could be a testament to their design taste.

As for the portfolio: besides checking if their design aesthetics fit yours, take note of red flags. Design, after all, can be adjusted based on the client’s needs and wants. Are there any color combinations that clash? Is the quality of the visuals bad? Are there hard to read text anywhere? Is the space on the page properly utilised?

Additional considerations

Of course, website design is more than the visuals. For instance, can they provide an in-house content management or, at the very least, provide CMS port assistance? Do they create designs that support all kinds of browsers—and will they be able to adjust to your needs?

Another good consider is if they can create a mobile version of or a mobile-friendly design for your site (there’s a difference). Many viewers consume online content via mobile devices (from mobile phones to tablets). Make sure you maximize every viewer you can get by making sure your site is mobile gadget-friendly.

But perhaps one of the more important considerations is this: does the website designer only promise to provide good design, or does the designer also focuses on the site’s purpose and goals?

Basically, the key here is to find a Gold Coast website designer that sees the website design as an art but as a business asset and a revenue opportunity. You have a site to make money—and a good designer needs to know how to use the elements of design to meet this goal.

If you’re looking for a website designer that can offer all of these, contact a professional at Ignition Media now. We offer amazing Gold Coast website design packages that will cater to all needs and budgets.

Utilise the Right Keywords/Phrases

Choosing your keywords can make or break the profitability of your website.   This is why keyword analysis is a very crucial search engine optimisation tactic. Apart from using the right keywords, placement is also important to boost your site’s ranking. Keywords should be included in your domain name, in the title tags in your source code, in your meta keyword tags and in the meta description of your site.

Create Informative Content

Internet users are going online to find fresh, informative and high quality copywriting. So if you are maintaining your own site, you should publish useful and high-quality content regularly.   Ensure that the information relates to the content of your site and contains the right keywords. If visitors find your site very enriching, they will recommend it to their networks by creating links to your site.

Get Inbound Links

There are many directory sites where you can submit your website or specific articles to. By submitting your site to these directories, you will get a number of links pointing to your website. You can also generate links from other related websites. It’s called link building, in that if you link out to other sites, you’ll find these sites linking back to you. Also, adding pages to your site can help increase the number of your inbound links.

Website Submission

Website submission can help get better results in the search engine result pages. In addition, you can find many directories offering free services, although they may take a long time to process. If you want instant exposure, you may consider submitting your site to paid directories.

Social Media Marketing

Nowadays, it seems that everyone has a social media account. Hence, it has become a platform for business organisations to foster brand awareness by implementing marketing campaigns. If you want to reach a wider audience and get tons of targeted traffic to your site, you should try social media marketing. Build backlinks to boost your website’s visibility using the power of social media sites. Besides, social media marketing requires no monetary investment at all!

Search engine optimisation calls for some amount of technical knowledge to boost your ranking. This is why consulting a reliable SEO company is essential to run a productive website. Ignition Media is composed of professionals who are highly equipped with knowledge and expertise in SEO. Take advantage of the opportunity to improve your financial situation by maintaining a lucrative website!

Create a User-Friendly Interface

How the registration screen is presented can either attract or scare your visitors. Your goal is to provide a positive registration experience to your visitors. Once you have a registered user, make sure that this visitor will enjoy easy, fast, and simple login experience. The goal here is to encourage visitors to always login to the site. If you make both registration and login process complicated, users won’t bother to sign up or login to your site. Upon registration, allow your visitors to personalise their username and password to make them feel more connected to your site.

Focus on Products and Services

Most people are guided with the wrong impression that an alluring website will attract many visitors to browse through the site. While this strategy is essential, the main focus for a successful online business should be geared towards improving the products and services to match the requirements of the visitors. Whether you offer an exclusive freebie, a limited-time trial or a “lite” version, providing visitors a top quality product or service will ultimately lead to the conversion of these visitors to real customers. Furthermore, highlighting some testimonials from satisfied members will also increase the trust and confidence of your visitors to sign up with your site.

Article Marketing

Informative, interesting and high-quality articles can definitely drive traffic to your website. Submit your articles to several high-ranking article directories to allow readers find your website easily. Make sure to provide your contact details on the resource box so readers will be directed to your website if they wish to learn more about the topic. If these visitors will find your website appealing, they will certainly sign up for the membership.

Page titles, introductory sentences, registration links, login links, images, icons and the featured content should all look appealing to the visitors. How should it look? What colour should the buttons be? If you’re not a web designer yourself, consulting a professional designer is a wise choice. Ignition Media will help you increase the registered members on your site, and ultimately make your online business a success.