Websites can be of two types- good and bad. It is up to you to decide in which category your website will fit. A bad website is like that for obvious reasons- unattractive design, unfriendly navigation, mismanagement of essential elements like tags, links etc. Along with the design, even the website’s Search engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing should be done effectively. This article has certain pointers, which you must keep in mind while developing your website. Let us discuss them one by one:

Web Design
Your website should be designed in such a way that it does repel the visitors. There are certain key factors to be kept in mind designing a website.

• Keep the Website Simple yet Attractive– Your website should be simply designed so as to enhance the visual appeal for the visitors. Don’t use loud themes and pictures. The more simple the website, the more effective it would be.

• Quality and Credibility Of Content– Pictures speak a thousand words. Yes that is true, but not always. In a website, pictures talk no words. If your website contains flashy pictures and no or very low-quality content, then you might as well shut down your website as it won’t last long anyway. Along with attractive pictures, you should make sure that the content is adequate and of good quality.

Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization is something very important for your website. If you want your website to be on the first result page of every search engine, then the following SEO techniques will prove highly useful.

• Domain Name– Always choose a domain name for your website that contains keywords and phrase from your website.

• Keywords and Their Placing– Make sure you include relevant keywords in your website and that too at appropriate places.

• Title Tag and Meta Tag– Ensure you construct effective Title and Meta tags in each page of your website. This will help web crawlers to search your website quickly.

Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Marketing consists of all those elements that are required to promote a website. Effective SEM will help in the improving your website’s ranking with Google, MSN and Yahoo. Techniques that improve a website’s ranking are:

• On-page optimization parameters
  • Website should be W3C compliant
  • There should be no broken links
  • Make your website’s content natural and unique
  • Effective placement of important keywords
  • Appropriate HTML tags should be included on a page, like:
    • Title tag
    • Meta keyword tag
    • Meta description tag
    • Header tag

• Off-page optimization parameters
  • Link building
  • Directory listings
  • Press releases
  • Blog contribution
  • Article writing

Now you can fully understand the importance of Web Design, SEO and SEM. The next time you decide to develop a website, make sure to keep all the above mentioned points in mind as they will help in increasing the popularity of your website among various search engines.