Are your visitors Viewers, Readers, or Users?

Do you know the profile of your website visitors? Regular website statistics can provide a lot of information in regard to who is visiting your site. Unfortunately business owners do not have time to give these statistics a proper analysis. This is an essential part of determining exactly who is on your site and how to profit from it. Not knowing can cost you big dollars. It is absolutely critical to have a professional give a true evaluation and determine which way to shift or change the website based on the stats. With all of this taken into consideration it is apparent that hiring a professional web analytics company to gain true perspective on your visitors is a must for any serious business.

Below I have given some insight as to the three categories of web visitors. The dollar signs represent what type of revenue you can expect from each visitor type:

Type 1: The Viewer $ - The viewer type is primarily on the web to be entertained. They like Flash elements, animations, shiny colors, and overall graphic and audio driven sites as appose to text. The viewer type make the fewest online purchases.

Type 2: The Reader $$ - The reader type is more only online to read blogs, articles, forums, and magazine or book like sites. In other words they are using it for free reading material. Reader type visitors do have a higher online purchase rate than the viewer type however, it is unlikely that their purchases will cover your business costs.

Type 3: The User $$$ - The user type should be any business's target market. These users prefer mostly text based, fast loading, direct to the point sites. They want to move through a linear purchase process and find there desired information, product, or service quickly and easily. Any distracting Flash, graphics, unwanted ads, and such will drive this user from your site in an instant and they will never return.

It is possible with traditional web statistics and a professional evaluation of them to develop a primarily user type of visitor profile or audience on your website. For more information call Magnetiks @ (281)362-9855 or visit us at our main site: Magnetiks Search Engine Optimization.

Why use css for seo?

The most important reason to use css (cascading style sheets) for seo (search engine optimization) is because it is the standard to build web sites.  And the standard helps search engine spiders separate structure from layout which in turn helps you put the information that you want to be crawled relevant without a spider having to wade through a bunch of images used in the layout.  Basically it makes your site more crawlable.

It will also make your page load quicker because the stylesheet will get cached therefore allowing the rest of the pages to load quicker after the initial page.  And we all know that a faster loading page is not only good for the spiders but good for usability.

HTML (the Hypertext Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are two of the core technologies for building Web pages. HTML provides the structure of the page, CSS the (visual and aural) layout, for a variety of devices. Along with graphics and scripting, HTML and CSS are the basis of building Web pages and Web Applications.
~W3C's Definition on Web Development

The only thing you definitely need to be aware of are seo companies using css for black hat tricks which can bring a short term goal but ruin your long term goals.

For more information on website content optimization as well as Organic SEO and Internet Marketing strategies in Houston, Texas contact or call the Magnetiks Search Marketing team at (281) 362-9855 today!

Flash SEO Can Mean Big Business for Your Business

Flash SEO, or Search Engine Optimization is a requirement if you want a website that is attractive or visually pleasing to visitors and yet designed to attract the necessary attention of search engines. It doesn't matter how well designed your website is if you aren't getting the necessary traffic to convert into sales.

Gone are the days of “If you build it; they will come.” Doing business via the Internet places you among some steep competition and the average surfer has little time or patience for sifting through various pages of search engine results. You need the page rank to get their attention and page design to keep it.

Flash SEO is a combination of skills that allows you to have your cake and eat it to. Flash websites are visually appealing on a level that will get the attention of even casual surfers but properly optimized to grab the attention—and subsequent page ranking of the search engines.

There are generally 3 different types of searchers that will find you online.

1. Those who are searching specifically for your business. This means they have heard of you, know who you are, and know what you have to offer. These searchers often turn into sales and profit for your business—provided they can find you on the first one or two pages of the search engine listings.

2. Those who are looking for a product or service that your business offers. If these customers find you they may be enticed to buy from you over other options available online if you present a web page that appeals to them visually, earns their trust, and lets them know what you have to offer them. Again, the success of this hinges upon the ability of potential customers to find you online. The added twist here is that they do not already have your trust or anything to remember you by. You must become either trustworthy or memorable to them in order to earn their business.

3. Those who find you completely by accident. These are the least likely to convert to sales, however, if you have a nicely done Flash website that lets them know what you have to offer, your name or website may be the first they think of when the time comes to to buy the product or service you are offering.

The point of all your SEO efforts, of course, lies in the hopes of creating either immediate or future sales. See what a difference Magnetiks can make for your website design and Flash SEO efforts.

Search Engine Friendly Flash???

For myself, Flash is a great tool. I am more the "viewer" catagory of website visitor. I love the intensive graphically enhanced sites that have the wow factor integrated. Cool intros, visually stunning headers with slick motion graphics and so on.The big problem with these Flash elements is that currently there are only a few solid ways to have Flash movies indexed by the search engines. Eveything that would normally be indexable is "locked away" in the Flash movie.

There are a few tricks that are emerging that can help solve this problem. While doing some research on this topic I came across a neat way to incorporate seemingly search engine friendly Flash navigation into any webpage. I hope this is somewhat helpful for those who are Flash advocates and plan to continue using it for web projects. Here are some quick tips from for overall good SEO Flash Design.

Key Factors For SEO Flash Design:
+ Clean design
+ Search Engine Optimization
+ Accessibility for a wide variety of browsers, including screen readers and mobile phones
+ Code validation and standards compliance
+ Correct functionality with IE

Follow the link below on tips for SEO friendly Flash:

CLICK HERE FOR SEO FRIENDLY FLASH TIPS

Design Tips - Web Page Layout

Creating a web page layout that keeps consistent across all browsers can be quite a challenge. I was presented with a project this past week that provided me an opportunity to do some experimenting. The results were quite nice. I ended up with a smooth, clean, and consistent layout that appeared identical in Internet Explorer 6 & 7 as well as Firefox!

Some basic steps to follow are:

1. Use table design for your primary layout or main element placement.(This provides a permanent container for all

page elements) Tables were in use from the beginnings of the web and can display in any browser.

2. If using a WYSIWYG editor such as Dreamweaver, be sure to test files live on the server to insure they appear the

same as the local version.

3. Keep your CSS simple. More advanced use of CSS is less friendly to older browsers such as Internet Explorer 6.

4. Always validate your CSS using the W3C tool found @ http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator

5. Use a tool to test your page layout on all browsers. I found one @ http://browsershots.org

The main idea is to keep things as simple as possible. With the marriage of old-school table design and the wonders of CSS it is easy to create a professional web site layout that will keep your visitors coming back.

3 Quick Web Design Development steps to creating a really great site

Step #1: Have a Compelling Service or Product to Sell
Even though you can start up a website for less money than you could several years ago it is a good idea to spend some time considering the service or product you plan to sell online. If you’re trying to sell or market junk then you’re going to have a much harder time being successful.

Step #2: Start Blogging
Blogs are currently one of the best and easiest ways to build links, engage in conversation. It also is a great way to build your company’s public reputation as an authority in your industry.

Step #3: Market the Smart Way
Smart marketing involves ethical SEO, it takes time but the ends justify the means. You definitely want to make sure your website is easy to crawl but you don’t want to leave out the other aspect of marketing which is having something interesting to say.

For more information on how we can assist you with your Web Design & Development projects in Houston, Texas contact or call Magnetiks Search Marketing at (281) 362-9855 today and we’ll be more than happy to discuss any aspect of our Internet Marketing Strategy with you.