By Robert Lockard

In Internet marketing, your website can be your first and best defense against lawsuits or it can be a huge liability. It depends on how strong your disclaimers are and how carefully you check to make sure your statements are all factual and ethical.

I bring this up because I just read an eye-opening article on InfoWeek’s website, entitled “Website disclaimers – yes, they do work.” In that piece, author Guy Burgess describes a recent case in New Zealand where an ecommerce website had given customers the wrong impression about the soundness of some of the companies it advertised.

A customer sued the website owners when he received the short end of the stick on a deal with one of the companies the website advertised. But a judge ruled in favor of the owners because they had included a provision on their website to protect themselves. The judge found the owners to be both negligent in their faulty information and protected by their admission that their site didn’t have all the information customers would want to make a final decision.

We all make mistakes, and it’s unfortunate when others are negatively affected by our errors. If we want strong relationships with our customers, we have to make sure our ecommerce websites are accurate and that our products or services are as good as we say they are.

The InfoWeek article suggests three things every website owner should do:

1. Publish a disclaimer on your website. It can be brief and it should simply suggest customers not just look at your site for credible information on whatever topic is the focus of your business.

2. Be honest. This seems like a no-brainer, but you should try to include the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth on your website. Try to make sure you information is as complete as possible and you’re leaving out important details people need to know.

3. Carefully review your website and update it when necessary. It’s hard to catch every mistake, especially as laws change and you introduce new products or services. Make an honest effort and your customers will appreciate your diligence.

This is a complete version of the post on the eHarbor Blog: “Protect yourself with a strong website disclaimer.” The photo of the zombie warning sign is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of rchurch74.

By Robert Lockard

In honor of Submit Solution’s newly redesigned website, I will talk about four Web-design strategies you can use to make your website look more pleasing and hold viewers’ attention longer. These strategies come from a blog post on the Think Vitamin Blog, entitled, “How to Make Your Web Design Stand out from the Crowd.”

The first strategy is not to be afraid of empty space in your Web design. On news sites, like CNN, you won’t find a bit of open space; all of it is taken up with headlines, graphics and numbers. That is useful for people looking to cram as much useful information as possible into a confined space. But it can feel cluttered and overwhelming on ecommerce websites that are selling products and services.

Giving viewers space to breathe can create a relaxed atmosphere on your website. We’re already bombarded with information, so it is refreshing to find a website with some elbowroom.

This goes along with the second strategy, which is to try something new. If you always follow current trends, you will wind up looking like everyone else. Try something different, flex your HTML muscles and show off your creativity. It’s your Web design – have fun with it!

The third strategy is to carefully choose your site’s colors and images. These have a big effect on the overall look and feel of your website. Make sure they are interesting to look at and that they show your clients what to expect from your company. Creativity comes into play in this one, as well.

The fourth strategy is to pay attention to the little details that can turn a good website into a great one. Give visitors a reason to come back often and reward them with a bit of wit and style they won’t find anywhere else. Make sure your site is free of grammatical errors as best as you can, and be sure to put your best foot forward at all times.

Follow these steps and you’ll be well on your way to making something special out of your website. Remember that having a great website doesn’t mean customers will be able to find it. You’ll have to invest in search engine optimization, paid-search campaigns and more to help that happen. You can find SEO and PPC strategies in Submit Solution’s SEO and PPC blogs.

This is the full version of a blog entry on the eHarbor Blog, entitled, “Simple is better in Web design.” The photo of the spider web is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of dann solo.

By Britnee Nguyen

The layout of your website plays a vital role for those who visit it. If it’s cluttered, hard to navigate, or just isn’t pleasing to look at, then your viewers will not bother to look around the rest of your website to see what it offers.

There are some quick, easy guidelines you can follow when designing your website. Many free wordpress themes follow these guidelines, and if you’re making your own design, you can follow them too.

Don’t Be Scared of White Space: Look through any magazine and you’ll see how things are laid out nicely and the use of white space is apparent. White space makes for a cleaner look. White space is good, there’s no need to cram all of your information, pictures, graphics into one area.

Make it Easy to Navigate: Navigation should be consistent throughout your website. If your navigation bar is at the top on your homepage, make sure it’s the same on all your other pages so your users know where to look to find what they’re looking for. Consider adding in a search box to make it even easier to find stuff for users.

Don’t Use Large Files or Graphics: When you put large files or graphics on your site, it can take some users forever to upload the images. This increases download time, and frankly, internet users are not patient and will not wait. Be sure you use average-­­­­­sized files that will work for all your visitors.

Use a Normal Font; it’s Hard to Read Fancy Ones: Use a simple font so it is easy to read on a computer screen; also, use a simple color like black. Keep the same font through out your website to maintain consistency.

Don’t Go Crazy With The Colors: Come up with a color scheme to use through out your website. It should convey your brand and is pleasing to the eye on the computer. Don’t use too many colors, or else that will create a chaos look on your website.

Follow the above guidelines for simple website designing. If you want a professional web designer to do more amazing things to it, visit Submit Solution where website design is one of our specialties.

Flickr Photo Credit: yellowbrother

By Robert Lockard

This is a follow-up to my previous blog entry, “How to improve your SEO through links.” I’m talking about what I learned at Webmarketing123’s August 5, 2009 Webinar, “Advanced SEO Webinar: Linking Best Practices.” Without further ado, I’ll return to where I left off.

Unless a website is cached or saved by search engines on a regular basis, the links found on it won’t count toward the search engine optimization of the sites it links to. That explains why Google can’t keep up with Twitter and other social-media sites, as I discussed in an earlier eHarbor Blog entry. It’s trying to take a snapshot of websites that change multiple times every second. Search engines will have to get creative to solve that problem in their methodology.

Returning to caches, I learned a cool trick at the Webinar that I would like to share. If you want to know if a Web page is cached by Google, all you have to do is type “cache:www.thesitename.com” into a Google search and it will tell you. Sites that are cached by Google can be useful in generating SEO because they are actually read by Google. You shouldn’t waste your time trying to get links on sites that offer no real SEO value. This is a good way to test them.

The big question is how do you get inbound links? After you’ve gone through and added great content that is relevant to your keywords, you can start using the following sources to get inbound links:

- Directories

- Paid Listings

- Article Syndications

- Blogs

- News Releases

By using a diversity of methods to obtain inbound links, you make your site look better to search engines. If you focus too much on any one source of links, search engines can dock you. Don’t add links too fast. That also looks bad to search engines. Spread your growth across a period of time instead of trying to do it all in one quick surge.

You should be aware that some sites are better than others, when it comes to getting links from them. Here are some criteria to keep in mind when selecting which sites to try to get inbound links from:

- Domain Authority – How long the website has existed.

- Rank – Where the website stands on Google, Bing and Yahoo searches for targeted keywords.

- Spam – How professional or “spammy” the site looks.

- Other Links – If the site contains links to other respectable sources in your industry.

- Similar Content – How the site’s content compares to your own. The closer the better.

That’s pretty much what I learned at this informative Webinar. I highly recommend you check out Webmarketing123’s free Webinars. And I also recommend you keep coming back to the Submit Solution SEO Blog for frequent updates on Internet marketing and ecommerce strategies.

This is a complete version of the post on the eHarbor Blog: “How to get inbound links.” The photo of the fingers touching light is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of littledan77.

By Britnee Nguyen

“Never judge a book by its cover” is nearly impossible when it comes to making first impressions of a website. In fact, researchers in Canada did a study in 2006 which showed participants making a judgment within 50 milliseconds of viewing a website. This means accurate judgments were being made as quickly as the eye could take in the information.

Participants were shown only glimpses of utah websites for 50 milliseconds and then asked to rate the aesthetic appeal of it. They found that many of the quickly-made opinions were the same as those who analyzed the website at a longer time. Participants judged each website according to several characteristics such as the interest level, design, color, layout, and imaginative content.

Many aspects are important when dealing with utah website design. A site may have a great layout, but lack in good colors and designs, therefore, loses the viewer’s interest quickly. When the qualities of design, color, layout, and content are integrated, then your website will be more pleasing to the eye and come across as imaginative and interesting. The viewer will more likely stay on the website longer and explore the information in depth.

Remember that website design is important for first impressions. The study noticed a “halo effect” created when a viewer came across a good website design. People want to be right about their first impressions and look for things to validate their impression. So if a viewer came across a website and had an initial reaction that it was good, it will lead them to believe the rest of the website is good and they will use more of it.

Keep this in mind as you create and update your website. You may think design is not an important factor and that your service or product is so great that it will sell itself without the help of a good website. But if you don’t have a good website, the viewer will tend to think whatever is offered on there isn’t that good either. Don’t make this mistake, and make the most out of your website.