Its 2010; who can dare without having a website?

We will end one decade after the beginning of the new millennium; it is an age when mankind conquered the space, the world peace is gone, and businesses are taking advantage of their presence on web.

Right, the first two sayings may be an exaggeration but the third one is surely true.

But, it is still surprising to see many businesses are operating completely offline without having a single page on web to introduce them and tell what they are doing. In 1999, a company not having a website was doing little bad to its business, but still it was a common practice not having a site. But today in 2010, living without a website means your customers are not able to find you.

I agree that the Yellow Pages are still very popular for businesses to meet their customers, but young customers today are using such bulky books as doorstoppers or kindling for the fireplace. Almost everybody under the age of 60 is using the internet and nearly everybody in his 20s and 30s is shopping just from online stores. If you are not present on the World Wide Web, then you are losing big number of customers. And this means decrease in sales. In this scenario, can anybody afford not having a good web presence?

There are few basic, helpful things you need to know while starting and creating any type of website, and progressing in your online business; below are some of them:

Domain Name: A domain is actually your internet address. These are the words people use to reach you. E.g., if you own old furniture store and running it with the name Tomas’ Furniture Store, then the more suitable domain name is www.tomasfurniturestore.com. Domain name secures your business because if you do not secure it your rivals can take this name and use it to redirect the traffic what should be yours towards their own sites.

Website: Securing the domain name is the first task. After doing it you need to build your site. You need a web designing company to do this job for you. They will create a home page, and other web pages including About, Contact, FAQs, Links, Testimonials, News, Articles and other pages. People having web designing skills do this themselves. They use static HTML pages or a PHP based blogging platform like WordPress and the website is ready.

Web Hosting: Web hosting plans are becoming more and more inexpensive; hosting package will cost you less than $10/month for shared hosting. You can run your own site, but the internet protocol (I.P.) address is shared with other sites also. Don't worry, your customers are always yours and can find you, whether you use shared hosting or dedicated hosting.

E-Commerce: And finally, if you are intended to conduct online business or want to reach customers online sales then an E-Commerce site is must for your business expansion. You can shape your ecommerce strategy by including different plans like a channel for information, sales inquiries, sales processing, sales fulfillment, and integrated logistic support. A consultant will help you plan your strategy and achieve your goals through managing the whole process based on your objectives and budget.

Don’t pass wait for one more decade, year or even a month without having online presence or strengthening the site you already have. Your customers are always there and they want to find you; just give them a clear, online way to reach you.

Best Free Tools To Evaluate Your Web Design

An identification of any effective web design is that it makes easier for the users to get information quickly and in an orderly manner. Being a site-owner you should ask yourself some questions like - Are they reading the content you want them to read? Are they getting the message you put on your web pages? Is it easy to get at them? Are you successful in keeping your customer’s attention, or are they leaving quickly? These rules are not only with the content.

If your site loads slowly – or navigation from one area to other takes long time – then it is definitely affecting your user’s experience. These factors can either make or break your business. These things can either make a visitor to click on a link to get more information, or incite him to leave and go to any other site.

Therefore, here are few important things you should consider:

Are users reading important information on your site?

Are the navigation and action items working promptly?

Is the design taking the users to different sections in a logical way?

Does the web pages load quickly and not letting them move away?

If you want to analyze and optimize the layout of your web pages then here are some excellent tools for you.

1- Clickdensity

Clickdensity is a full suite having utilities for usage analysis aimed to assess webpage design. Heat maps show the spots visitors click the most. Hover maps show links where users scroll over but do not click. A/B Tests enables you to customize page by changing different page elements and make the style that is more effective in appearance and performance. On free subscription you are offered 5,000 clicks and just one page and one website to check.

2. ClickHeat

ClickHeat is an open source visual utility so that you can see “hot” or “cold” areas of your web pages. You can check the spots users click most and the spots users ignore. This tool is very simple and you can easily use it on your site; the only thing you require is to add an external JavaScript file.

3. Crazy Egg

You get a plethora of analytical tools with Crazy Egg which are helpful to see what your visitors are doing. There is a feature, Confetti, that allows checking where visitors are clicking and it also tells from where the traffic is generating. Second important feature is Overlay; it provides tons of information about particular links. And finally, there is option of Report sharing that enables you to share your data with others like your team members and customers.

With its free version you can just track 4 of your web pages, so use this limited offer for your top visiting pages.

4. ClickTale

ClickTale provides lot of information about how visitors are using your website. Different kinds of information are available to you like an average time user taking to click on any link and the information about if user hesitates to click on link. It generates detailed reports and charts by categorizing different types of users; you can use this information to optimize your web page design and shape it for typical visitors.

5. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is one of the best services Google offering free to us. With this most popular and easy-to-install analytics tool, you get lot of information about users and site-content and learn true about your web pages’ performance. Site Overlay presents visual display of the hot places your visitors mostly click on. It also provides detailed information on bounce rates and pages that make users leave.

These are some of the best tools available out there. Use them in troubleshooting and optimization of your pages' layout. Ultimately, it matters how you combine site contents, and how you present them - that's all what makes any web design effective one.