How to Optimize Your Office Live Site: 10 Steps

How to Optimize Your Office Live Site: 10 Steps

Nearly, every small business needs a branded web site that's designed for you and your customers. Branding is crucial because it's about how the public, visitors to your web site, existing and potential customers look and perceive your business. And to get a branded web site in Office Live Small Business, you have to optimize your site to achieve the results you want. Listed below are a few tricks and tips to help you brand your very own Office Live site.

Steps

1. Customize your design using CSS

2. This is almost essential. Activate the advanced design features in Office Live (Go to Home > Web Site > Site Actions > Activate Advance Design features) . Take the CSS Tutorial to learn how to use CSS to optimize the style and layout of your site. #

3. Add a new header image and change the style

4. The standard headers provided by Office Live templates are OK but it's not branded to your business. Find a good graphic artist to create a nicely design header image and logo for your site. Or use a good image editing program such as Fireworks or Adobe PhotoShop to create your own. Then, upload your header image and modify the style sheet to include the new header style. Like so: #BG_Dark #{ #background: url(../images/yourheaderimage.jpg); #no-repeat 780px; #height: 130px; #

5. Change the navigation styles

6. To set your site apart from the rest of the pack, it needs a unique navigation menu that helps support the brand. This could involve changing the background and text colors as well as mouse-over behaviors. To get the effect you require, change the style classes that control the navigation menu within your site. Add the below CSS to your site and modify the background and text colors to match your brand. #MSC_PrimaryNavFrame #{ #background:#DDDA79; #width:100%; #margin:1px 0px 5px 0px; #text-align:left; #} #MSC_PrimaryNavLink #{ #color:#ffffff; #font-size:12px; #text-decoration:none; #font-weight:bold; #} #MSC_PrimaryNavLink:hover #{ #color:#ffffff; #font-size:12px; #text-decoration:none; #} #MSC_PrimaryNavLink:visited #{ #color:#ffffff; #font-size:12px; #text-decoration:none; #} #MSC_PrimaryNavLinkFrame-On #{ #color: #2D2D2D; #white-space:nowrap; #padding:5px 10px 5px 10px; #} #MSC_PrimaryNavLink-On #{ #color:#2D2D2D; #font-size:12px; #text-decoration:none; #font-weight:bold; #} #MSC_PrimaryNavLink-On:hover #{ #color:#ffffff; #font-size:12px; #text-decoration:underline; #font-weight:bold; #} #MSC_PrimaryNavLink-On:visited #{ #color:#ffffff; #font-size:12px; #text-decoration:none; #font-weight:bold; #} #

7. Change the footer styles

8. The footer is often overlooked by many users however to make sure you site is really branded for your business you can't leave out the footer of the site.Include the following footer CSS and modify. #MSC_FooterFrame #{ #padding:5px; #text-align:center; #background:#DDDA79; #} #MSC_FooterLink #{ #color:#C8C8C8; #font-size:10pt; #text-decoration:none; #} #MSC_FooterLink:hover #{ #color:#ffffff; #font-size:10pt; #text-decoration:underline; #} #MSC_FooterLink:visited #{ #color:#ffffff; #font-size:10pt; #text-decoration:none; #} #MSC_FooterLinkSpacer #{ #color:#ffffff; #font-size:10pt; #} #MSC_FooterText #{ #color:#ffffff; #font-size:10pt; #} #

9. Add SEO to your page(s)

10. Include keywords and description on every page of your site. And add more description to the page titles. For example, instead of just naming the Homepage - Home. Make it more descriptive by naming the page title - Rick's Mobile Car wash - Home (if you're business was named was Rick's Mobile Car wash). You get the idea. [Check out our SEO tutorial to learn the basics on search engine optimization].

Tips

• And if all this still sounds Greek to you then attend one of our online training classes where we'll demonstrate step by step how to optimize your Office Live site.