3. Take Advantage of Social Media Optimization
Even though SEO should be a big part of your site optimization, it shouldn’t end there. Social Media Optimization is probably just as important, since it’s one of the strongest marketing tools available today. A social media optimization campaign should include a few different things. First, make sure the content on your site or blog is relevant to your topic and not out of date.
Visit similar sites and join the discussion in leaving comments on posts/articles — don’t be afraid to say what's on your mind. Make yourself visible on Facebook and MySpace. Three other sites that can be useful for social media optimization are Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube. The two latter ones are not always applicable. Make sure you only take advantage
of them when the time is right — you might do more harm than good if you don’t.
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Obviously, don’t forget to include outbound links to your Website on any social media site you utilize. Even if your link has a "nofollow" attribute attached to it (e.g. like in Facebook), you will still attract new visitors and potential customers to the site. Lastly, your campaign should be built on friendly platforms, such as CoffeeCup Flash™ Blogger, which make it easy to create and edit content. |
4. Get Your Visitors Involved
A crucial point to make your site grow in the number of visitors is by getting them involved. Try to write in a personal style, and don’t be afraid to leave an open question. If this shouldn’t do it, why not hold a contest? This will most likely get people talking about your site. The prize doesn’t have to cost a fortune, since people like to compete regardless of what the award is — it's human nature.
Other easy ways of getting your visitors involved is by including a forum on your site or the possibility to comment on your posts/articles. Everyone wants to express their own personal ideas and thoughts on topics, and by allowing them doing so, you also increase the chance of visitors returning to see how was their feedback appreciated. As an added bonus, if the topic is extra popular, the discussion could attract interest from other Websites as well!
5. Emphasize Usability in Your Design
Investing in a good design is more important than some people seem to think. With a beautiful design, you will grow in trust among your readers/visitors. An important fact to remember is not over-designing the Website. It doesn’t matter how many hours you’ve put into designing the site if no one understands how to use it. Let some non-Internet-savvy friends navigate through your Website before launching it at a full scale. If they find it easy, so will the rest of your visitors.
It is difficult to say exactly what makes a beautiful and functional design. What looks good to one person might seem terrible for another. However, there are basic trends in Web design, and if you follow these, you can be sure to please most of your visitors. A few popular Web design trends for 2009 are multi-column layouts, large illustrations, and lots of white space.
If you wish to stay on the safe side, then it is a good call to make the layout and design features on the page easily accessible and simple to understand. Try to use standard coding and avoid over-the-top Flash animations. Some people may have browser settings that prevent them from viewing Flash, which means you might lose valuable visitors. Try to think how the visitor thinks, and your Website will grow more popular and respected day after day.
Answer the questions.
1. Why is it necessary to do something to increase the popularity of a web site?
2. What is “strong hosting” according to the article? What are the aims of hosting?
3. What are the steps of optimizing your web site?
4. What are main advantages of social media optimization?
5. What does the feedback give to your site?
6. What part does the design have in attracting attention to a web site?
7. Give comments on the content of the article.
8. Give some other advice on designing and managing a web site?
SPEAKING/WRITING PRACTICE SECTION
1. Choose any topic you like and make a report:
1. Aims of web design. 2. Tools of web design. 3. Some advice for a beginner in designing a web site. 4. Main principles of successful web site. 5. Content and links of a web site. 6. Who is a web designer? 7. Well known web designers. 8. What is the job of a web design company? 9. Well known web design companies. What is a secret of success? |
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FUN AND GAMES SECTION
1. Solve the clues and complete the puzzle.
1. language
2. opposite of linear
3. image files
4. a task to create a page
5. the speed in which data is transferred relative to bits
6. an HTML element also referred to as a “tag”
7. an element of data storage system
8. a connector
9. a technology that enables web pages to include video and animation
Down: A pointer from within the content of one hypertext node (e.g. a web page) to another node
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HUMOR SECTION
What does each of the cartoons imply? Why is it funny, in your opinion? Explain its humour.
The best example of web animation
