1) Symbol Logo- As the word suggests, symbol logo is devoid of letters and words, it contains only images, shapes and symbols. You must be thinking for what type of companies or situations would profit more from symbol logos. If your organization is already well-established venture and is known to the masses, then having stylish and clear symbolic logo helps. When you had used combination logo for quite sometime and want to exceed your brand recognition in the market, the option of symbol logo is a better choice. Having a unique symbol for your company will not make you lost in the rat race of capturing the targeted market. If you have time and energy to make the symbol logo trademark for your company, make it legalize by completing legal formalities.

Selection of symbol has to be made very carefully as it might have diverse meanings in different cultures, especially when your business is spread globally. Many unspoken messages can be communicated through symbols. But if your company is new on the block and it’s just the starting point with a fixed budget then avoid going in for symbol logo.

2) Text Logo – Text logo contains mainly your company’s name, here graphical elements can also be inserted. Borders, lines, boxes, letters, etc can be used in logo designing for better interaction. The use of graphic element should not dominate this type of logos. For situations like the business name being too big and contains many words altogether that cannot be abbreviated, should go for text logo. In case your business has a unique name, using it in text logo gives unforgettable one.

Many times a company offers wide range of products/services that cannot be alone symbolized through a solo image or picture. Here text logo accomplishes the goal of such companies. Text logos should have trademark protection which would make it unique and outstanding.

3) Combination Logo- This type of logo contains both graphic image and business name. It works best for business that are small or medium sized, or a company that has started their business recently. Combination logo helps in creating strong brand recognition and is visually very strong.

The symbol can speak to the services that the company offers, while the company name increases the company recognition.

Those where three main types of logos, their selection is largely based on your business and exact professional requirements. However take suggestions and do research before doting on the final logo design. Logos are essential part of any company and its identity. It also makes easy to beat the competition and build up customer trust and faith in your brand.

E-commerce Web sites are a sort of reciprocal information exchange. E-commerce websites are designed with the sole purpose of simplifying the online shopping experience of a web visitor or to guide the visitor to make a purchase online. The web site design involves many complexities, but a designer working in electronic commerce web design needs to understand the principles of selling online.

For a viewer the e-commerce web design and web design may look similar normal because both follow the same principles of website design is attractive, the systematic organization of the elements, correct color palette to boost spirit website. The differences begin to troops in once you have a close look at some of the e-commerce web design and web design eCommerce Web designs. Every must follow some simple principles, such as the sale of:

1. Simplifying online shopping experience: Users prefer online shopping to avoid the hassles of offline purchases. Therefore, it becomes the priority of web designer to ensure that the design of the website offers the best online shopping experience for the user.

2. Providing authenticated information: The user must have the reason to believe your site and how easily it can get to you.

Customers are more attracted to the array of things for virtual shopping. It becomes very difficult for the designer of websites to which the virtual purchase agreement through the web design. It is far easier for the web designer to display the objects without the hassle of space limitations. It is relatively difficult for the web designer to attract customers to shop through the web design.

Customers prefer to design e-commerce website, which will take you to the right with the minimum number of clicks. Web designers often use some unconventional techniques to promote e-commerce web designs. Sometimes, a web designer can utilize the full potential of the Web page is only through the integration of the order form at the end. Many people perceive sales letter as a good example of e-commerce web design. In fact, sales of the letter are not a good example of web design and e-commerce that are specific niches and may sell a single product. However, the sales letters are capable of high conversions because they present the product information in an intelligent way.

Supermarkets and shopping centers are similar to both online stores showcase products. As in the commercial centers of the arrangement of things, it seems much simpler to shop online. It is difficult for the user to navigate through the complex web page to look for things. The e-commerce web sites make it easier for the visitor of the website to browse the product section easily with the help of personalization technology. This technology also casts spell on customizing the design of e-commerce websites.

Patterns play an important role in the success of e-commerce web design. Most website designs e-commerce is distinguished by their designs. These e-commerce websites are always looking for a simplified design to attract customers to buy things. The average time for each customer spends on a website is about 2 minutes before leaving the site. So these two minutes should be utilized to maximum in order to attract customers. Much research has been conducted to find the most accessible website design. Found that most of the first customers to see the central left and central part of the website. By balancing these regions with the content in an elegant design of these web pages web designers know how to create an easy way for visitors to browse the online store and make the purchase easy.

Below are few points which will help you to set up your own website.

1) A Blog: Set up a blog website with no cost

There are many websites available online which will allow you to setup a blog for free using their own embedded software. In a matter of minutes, you can set up a website using one of these platforms. Do some homework and find out which website offers this type of service for free or with minimal charges.

2) A website with minimal content: A website with couple of paragraphs and content only

If your interest is to set up just a happy looking small website to begin with, there are many websites where you can type in content according to you and add graphics and so forth that are included within the website. You do not require any expertise in respect to HTML and the best thing is you can set up a website in very short period of time very easily. In your small website, there would be a problem wherein you’ll have more restrictions as to the format that you will be allowed to use and the content which you can include.

3) Domain: Buy a domain name for your website

Once you select a format or platform that you want to use and are ready with basic requirements for your blog website, you need to register a domain name at a place that offers domains for a very low price. Now you have total control over the content of your website and you can start building back-links to it. Knowing that any effort that you put into it will be benefiting you instead of someone else website.

So what is POSH? No, it’s not just some new clothing fashion hype amongst web designers – POSH is the acronym for Plain Old Semantic HTML. The term Semantic HTML is used for a variety of things, but it has it’s origin in one objective: creating (X)HTML documents using semantic elements and attributes, as opposed to using presentational HTML. The term POSH was coined because a group of highly respected web designers wanted to have a short mnemonic to easily capture the essence of the concept of Semantic HTML.

In this article, I talk about why you should use POSH, exactly what you need to do to implement it (many of you are probably doing this already, and a few of you might not even realize it!) and how you can optimize it to improve SEO for your site. I also take a brief look at Microformats at the end of the article.

Why Should I Use Semantic HTML?

You could just say: “because it’s the right thing for the web,” but it’s benefits go far beyond that. For instance, it makes it easier for screenreaders to interpret in an order that will make sense to users with visual impairments.

Secondly, SEO and Semantic HTML are close friends. They might sometimes have conflicts of interest, which we’ll get to later on in this document, but over all, they’re friends. The purpose of SEO is to help search engine spiders better understand what a page is about and therefore categorize them better. Since a search engine spider basically has even less capabilities than a screenreader, it needs even more guidance in determining a page’s structure and topic. Good semantic HTML provides just that structure.

Semantic HTML tries to convey meaning through the words and the tags on a page. Try thinking of it this way: the content on the page is the words you speak. The tags provide the structure, the intonation, the pauses and even the looks on your face. Basically, your tags are half your message.

Site structure

In my previous article on dev.opera.com I talked about site structures, with the aim of providing a clear way for search engines to discover which page on your site discusses which topic – this can be further improved by using Semantic HTML.

Page Structure

A page consists of a title, one or more headings, and content. This content can contain paragraphs of text, lists, quotes, images and tables. All these types of information have their own designated tag(s). We will treat all those tags, starting with the headings. Use this page about sortable tables as an example to follow along with for the coming points.

Headings, from h1 to h6

A good document has headings and subheadings, because headings make it easier to determine the topic of a page. These headings can range in importance from h1 to h6. To be honest, I never use h5 and h6 myself. I usually have only one h1 tag on a content page; on portal pages, blog homepages for instance; you can have multiple h1’s, for all your articles for example. From a semantic perspective that might be weird, from an SEO perspective, it’s great.

Strict semanticists sometimes suggest that you should only have one h1, two h2’s, 3 h3’s etc. I don’t agree with that, as I think it’s very normal for a document to have more than two h2’s, in fact, this document has a lot more of them, and I think it’s very well structured.

Very often, designers who have heard a bit about Semantic HTML will fit the name of a site in the header into an h1 tag. On the homepage of a site, that might be a very wise decision. On every other page within your site, you probably have a specific topic, which might be related to your site’s name but doesn’t have to be. On those sub pages, that topic should be in the h1 tag, and it’s wise to put the name of your site into an h4 tag or maybe even a span.

Search engines give the words used in the various headings more weight in determining the topic of a page. The keyword your page is optimized for should appear at least once in an h1 tag, and related keywords should be used in the other headings, as illustrated in Figure 1.

Images

Images are used in all sorts of ways within documents, and you should apply the proper semantics to them. The only really useful semantic variable on an img tag is the alt attribute, and it should only be used if the image adds meaning to the document. If the image is there only for decorative purposes, leave the altattribute empty. Otherwise, describe what the image is showing in the alt attribute.

If you’re using images to replace text, because you want the text to look nicer (image replacement,) make sure that you’re using normal text in your HTML, and that you replace that text with images by using CSS. You have to do this because both people with visual impairments and search engines cannot read the text in your images. My own preferred method of doing this is through applying the image with CSS background-image, and then hiding the HTML text using a large text-indent (about -1000px or so does the trick.) Be careful though: the text in the image should be exactly the same as the text in your document. If it’s not, you risk losing a lot of ranking value from the search engines.

Abbreviations and acronyms

You’re bound to do it as a web designer – I do it in this article several times – using acronyms or abbreviations. When you do, make sure you provide the written out version of the term using abbr or acronym tags. That’s good for your keyword density too!

Tables

We all know why using tables for layout out web sites is bad, and we also know what they are supposed to be used for – displaying tabular data. Just using basic tables is a big step in the right direction, but there are a number of ways in which you can improve your tables’ semantic value, thereby improving your site’s SEO further:
Use table headings (th) for your table’s headings (it’s really that easy)
If you can, use the thead, tbody and tfoot sections to properly section your table
Provide a caption for your table, describing what’s in it

The caption and the table headings would be a good, and usually natural place to use some of your document’s keywords.

Emphasizing your meaning

Remember I said earlier that tags should be the emotion of your text? This is where the real emotion comes in: you can provide emphasis to certain words using em or strong. In the old days, people used b and i for that, but these tags are no longer encouraged, since they imply a specific styling, whereas HTML should only describe structure/meaning (all style should be created using CSS, of course.)

Search engines give more weight to any words marked up using any of these four tags. Overusing them can do more harm than good, and actually cause a loss of emphasis, but if treated with care, they can apply an extra dimension to your documents.

A few words on (i)frames

It’s quite simple: don’t use them. Search engines don’t get them, and screenreaders have quite a hard time using them as well.

Conflicts of interest

All of the above rules can be bent a little of course, which is a good thing, as sometimes it’s necessary to keep everyone at your organization happy. Say your boss wants a page to have a zappy marketing title you’d rather not have, because it doesn’t exactly describe what’s on the page, and pushes your most important keyword to the second heading. If you’re in a competitive area, it might be wise to make the page look like that for your boss, yet use an h2 for the first heading, and an h1 for the second.

The same goes for iframes and images. If someone really wants you to put a certain block of content on a specific well-ranking page, but you don’t want to risk losing focus, you could of course put that content into an iframe or image, and choose not to provide an alternative.

These decisions are up to you in the end – normal semantics should be the basis of your design, and the conflicts should only arise when you’re really optimizing your pages.

Not so simple semantic HTML – Microformats

Microformats are also semantic HTML, but they are not exactly simple! At the moment, search engines are hardly using microformats in their algorithms, but that might change. The hCard especially (the HTML version of the vCard) has some very easy and obvious uses for search engines, and I suspect that they will start using those within the next couple of years. You can apply intelligent extra semantics within Microformats using the basic set of HTML elements – for example, a good way of marking up your address hCard is by using the address tag as a container!

Conclusion

By using semantic HTML to mark up your pages, you can create pages that are more accessible, both to people with disabilities, as well as to search engines. Good semantic markup helps search engines to determine what the topic of a page is, and if used together with a good site structure, allows you pushy up your web site rankings!

These days’ websites are referred as online service providers for a particular query. Websites are available in numerous numbers and are based on every possible and imaginable dimension of the world. Hence people can easily get answers to their queries in minimum time. Companies are putting in their best efforts to attract customers towards it thereby diverting traffic to gain business.

Websites are made in accordance to this fact and are designed specially to attract the increasing volume of traffic. Various tools and techniques are available in market which is meant to aid in design and development of a website. Web design is one such process which enhances the outlook of a website.

Web design uses hypertext and hypermedia to convert the static web pages into dynamic in nature. It also incorporates various markup languages like HTML and DHTML along with ASP and JSP pages. These are the known elements which help a website to be menu driven and be highly user interactive.

A good design is very important for a website as it represents the outlook of a company. If a website is attractive enough it can attract traffic towards it and increase in traffic always result in increase in business. People who have their expertise in designing web pages and converting static nature of an website into dynamic can make a good amount of money as such skills are in great demand in these times. Web design companies are making a lot of profit due to this fact. Such companies have individuals, which are experts in fields of designing and developing of web pages. It is a lot easier to communicate with them as they can understand what is required from a website and they work in accordingly.

A good website is often characterized by periodic changes in design and content of a site. This helps in displaying dynamic appeal of a website and maintains a fresh look each time a user visits a website.

Teasing your curiosity

“Do Not Click Here”. How many of you have seen this slogan in a banner? What did you do when you first saw it? If you are like most people, when you first saw it, you clicked on it. What makes this simple sentence so powerful that it compels the visitor to click on it? The answer is curiosity !!!

Copywriters and web designers are always looking for ways to arouse the website visitor’s curiosity. As banner designers their goal is to attract the visitor to the banner, usually completely ignoring the other elements on the web page that are more important to the website owner. However, because the “Do Not Click Here” slogan tells us nothing about what is on the next page, it arouses the visitor’s curiosity and makes it almost impossible not to click on this banner to see what’s behind it.

Simple integrated design

When Larry Page and Sergey Brin first introduced their product, “Google”, to potential investors, they mentioned Adwords as a backup option in case they didn’t make any money. We all know how lucky they were that they eventually needed to use that backup plan. What made these “boring” ads such a great success?

Unlike other ads, Adwords neither arouse the visitor’s curiosity nor disturb the main flow of the web page. In fact, the opposite is true. Adwords are meant to look like part of the search results giving the user the feeling that those ads are there because he asked for them. No one has any doubt that this simple design helps Google to promote both their search engine and the Adwords advertising program.

Take part in the action

Banner designers wisely used interactive technologies like Flash to develop type of banners that invite the user to take part in the action. Drawing the user into the action can be accomplished in many creative ways. Some web designers use popular old games elements as part of the scene. You all know the famous game pacman. One of the banners that I like the most is the one where the user is allowed to let pacman “eat” few dollar signs. At the successful completion of this mission, a nice slogan is revealed asking him to open a saving account that will earn money with a fixed interest rate. The idea behind those interactive banners is simple: Let the user take part in the action and then at the right moment when his mind is less resistant, show him the sales message. Those interactive banners proved to be very efficient. Their biggest disadvantage is that most webmasters will not allow that kind of banner because it distracts too much from the web page content.

Back to Black and White

Website designers are always seeking to be different with their design ideas. One banner fashion trend that can be found lately is Black and White banners. Although research shows that blue and yellow are the most efficient color to use in a banner, Black and White banners have been seen a lot lately. It’s probably something that will eventually vanish, but the idea behind it is to be different and to make the user wonder what’s up and hopefully click on the banner to find out.

Get Out of the box

Have you heard about the milliondollarhomepage.com? If not, check out this website before continuing to read this article. This website has proven that creative thinking not only can bring you money but also create a whole new trend. Right after the milliondollarhomepage.com got the internet community’s attention, many designers used this idea to deign a banner on which they sell a 10×10 pixel area. Like the original concept, this banner design had its impact. Advertisers are investing money on these ad spaces while at the same time visitors are curious enough time after time looking at those unorganized pixel banners to click on them.

What about the next trends

What the next trends of banner design will be is something that probably no one can accurately predict. It’s up to some web designer to come up with a new concept that proves to be efficient. There is no doubt that in the future we will see new ways of designing banners, especially when more and more advertising budgets are being spent on the internet instead of commercial TV and other types of advertising media. I guess we will just need to be patient.

Most Certificate Authorities (CA) charge a lot of money to verify your company to use an SSL certificate. So it can be very tempting to use a self-signed, free certificate for your https server. But is that okay?

Answer:

The short answer is that it is most definitely possible to set up a secure website without buying an SSL certificate from a CA. But there are some problems with doing this:

Web Browser Warning Messages

When a customer comes to your website that is secured with a self-signed or free SSL certificate, most Web browsers will post a scary error message like the one displayed here. While some people will click past this message, install the certificate and go to your site, most will click the “Get me out of here!” button and never come back.

Security Risks

The other, more serious problem is that if you have an self-signed certificate on your server and somehow your site is hacked, that server is now compromised even though it apears secure. Customers who ignored the error message above would then be even more vulnerable because they would believe they were secure.

When to Pay for an SSL Certificate

There are a few situations when paying for an SSL certificate is just the cost of doing business, including:

ecommerce

All ecommerce sites must have a signed SSL certificate if they expect customers to enter their credit card information. You can get around this if you use a company like Paypal to handle your transactions. Then the purchasing process is handled on their secure server.

collecting private information

If your website needs to collect private or sensitive information like addresses or social security numbers then you should collect that information on a secure server with a signed SSL certificate. Otherwise, you are asking your customers to send private and sensitive information over the Internet in clear text, which can easily be hacked and used for identity theft.

sites that are expected to be secure

If you are running a site for a security conscious community such as an Internet security services company, then if you do not have a signed SSL certificate your site will not look secure, and your customers will not believe what you’re providing.

When a Self-Signed SSL Certificate is Okay

I don’t believe that any site that needs a SSL certificate for customer-facing pages should use a self-signed certificate. I also don’t think it’s a good idea to use a self-signed certificate on any Web server that is live on the Internet. That is just asking for hackers to set up a man-in-the-middle or other hack on your server to try and trick people into providing information they shouldn’t.

The only time a self-signed cerificate should be used is for testing behind a firewall. Such as your desktop computer that is behind a software or hardware firewall on your home network.

1. How many new features are on the page already?

If a page has too many flashing lights, gizmos, and special effects, your readers may be turned off rather than impressed. Also, things like java applets can take up system memory for your readers and can cause their browser to crash if there is too much going on.

A good rule of thumb is to limit your page to 1 special effect of any kind. This includes music, streaming video, java applets, Ajax applications, and Dynamic HTML.

2. What are you trying to achieve with the effect?

Try to design your pages with purpose. If you want a rollover, add it to the areas of the page that might not be clicked on if you didn’t call attention to them. Use dynamic positioning to serve a purpose.

Fancy effects that have a purpose will enhance your Web page rather than detract from them.

3. Can you achieve the same effect with an older technology?

The older your effects are, the more likely it is that they will be supported by multiple browsers. If you can create a motion effect with an animated GIF, more people will see the animation than if you use DHTML, Ajax, or Flash.

The more you can keep your site browser non-specific, the more readers you will have.

4. If you want a browser specific effect, have you thought how other browsers will see the page?

Even if you want your customers to view your site with Internet Explorer, you’re certain to get Firefox, Opera, and Safari viewers. But if you show them nothing, you’ll lose readers you could have saved with just a few more lines of HTML.

When using an effect, keep in mind how other browsers will see (or not see) the effect. Many effects have built in support for non-compliant browsers. For example, if you use the