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Web site design is not rocket science but you have to avoid certain fatal flaws or your site will never get off the ground. You must also sidestep these common design mistakes if you want your web site to reach its fullest potential.

In other words, there are certain vital elements of website design you must get right or it's game over before you even get started. These are the design elements which every successful site possesses, essential components every webmaster must consider when designing a profitable site.

The Right Keywords

Perhaps one of the most deadly design flaws has to do with keywords. Many novice webmasters fail to target the right keywords when designing their sites.

Keywords are the vital lifelines of any well designed web site. Basically, keywords are the exact words or phrases web users type into search engines to find what they're looking for on the internet.

You must get this right or it may spell disaster for your site. You must target the right keywords and optimize your site for them in all the search engines.

Most SEO experts suggest you have your main keyword phrase in the domain name of your site. This domain name should be directly related to the topic of your site. If you design a site on gaming laptops, then these keywords should be in your domain. All pages on your site should be related to these main keywords.

But first you must make sure your keywords are good searchable keywords, i.e. a large number of people must be searching for these keywords each day in the search engines in order to supply a steady stream of interested visitors or potential customers to your site.

How Do You Find Good Keywords?

There are many free keyword suggestion tools that you can use. All the major Pay-Per-Click programs such as Google Adwords, Yahoo! Marketing (Overture) and MSN Adcenter have keyword suggestion tools.

Many professional online marketers use keyword research software like Keyword Elite but you can also use any free online keyword suggestion tools to see how many searches are made. This is a good site:

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

Check and find good keywords related to your site and optimize your site for them. Don't pick the most competitive keywords because first page placement in the search engines will just be too hard to obtain especially for a new site.

Instead pick long tail keyword phrases which have fever searches but you will have a better chance of ranking high for these phrases. These long tail keyword phrases also have much better conversion rates than general (too broad) keywords.

Make sure your targeted keywords are in the title of your page and many experts suggest it should also be in the URL. Simple yet effective design elements which will increase your site's chances of success.

Exterior Links On Your Homepage

Another common design flaw is placing exterior, external links on your main homepage.

Most SEO experts suggest ALL your links on your homepage should be internal links pointing to your own content filled pages on your site. External links should be on a separate 'links page'.

If you want to use affiliate links, create a separate page for each affiliate product or program and link to this page on your site. Place your affiliate ID link and moneymaker on this content filled (reviews, how-to-use, testimonials...) internal page, rather than on your homepage.

To rank high, especially in Google, all your PageRank and visitors should be funneled into your site and not out to some external links. This is extremely important on your homepage - so make sure all or most of your links are internal links.

Simple Effective Navigation

You must design your site with simple effective navigation in mind. Visitors to your site must be able to access and move around your site with ease. Your site should also be fast loading even in this age of high-speed internet for surfers are the most impatient creatures on the planet!

As a common courtesy, if nothing else, make sure you place a link back to your homepage on each and every page of your site. Instead of just calling it 'home' or 'homepage'; include your domain name or major keywords in this link: 'gaming laptop home'.

Have links to all major areas or topics of your site on each page. Make it easy for your visitors to find what they're looking for on your site.

Include a sitemap which lists all the major pages/content on your site. Make sure a link to your sitemap page is listed on all your webpages, never leave your guests stranded with nowhere to go.

These are just some of the most important design flaws which can spell failure for your site. Avoid them at all costs. So make sure you keep these design elements in mind when you're designing your next site or correcting your present one.

Creating a successful site will be much easier if you overcome these simple, yet all too common, web site design flaws. Give your site a fighting chance at success by sidestepping these mistakes, after all, sites like rockets are meant to soar.

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The author is a full-time online marketer who has numerous websites, including two sites on internet marketing. For the latest web marketing tools try: internet Marketing Tools As for other mistakes in designing your site, especially where the overall look and feel of your site is concerned. Here's a good free PDF Report by Marlon Sanders entitled: 10 Graphic Design Mistakes Copyright 2007 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.