Exciting new technologies like interactive computer use, live video enhancement of speakers, and teleconferencing can be utilized but the associated cost of these new technologies can be steep. The type of AV support you will need for your meeting or event may be simple or more complex. Be sure to review all your options and plan ahead: • Get a list of all speakers’ needs well in advance of your meeting date and schedule a rehearsal.

• Allow for rehearsal and set-up time in your meeting rooms.

• Give speakers a chance to rehearse with equipment they will be using.

• Test equipment immediately prior to the beginning of the event. Check acoustics Clap your hands sharply… talk loudly… listen carefully Check to see if there are any echo’s or dead spots. Do drapes or acoustic panels need to be added? Plug-in and test the audio. Is the public address system working? Is there any feedback at working level? Are the speakers correctly placed? Are there enough microphones, cords, stands?

Have spare bulks and extension cords on hand. If you are taping, is the tape recorder microphone working? Check to see if you have to erect a stand or move a table

Is the audiovisual the right distance from the screen, rigid and level? Know the location of circuit breakers and fuses Have spare fuses and standby circuits ready Test the intercom system. Is the emergency work light ready?

• Having a technician available to attend to your needs throughout the meeting may be your best insurance policy.

• If the facility where you are holding your meeting has AV equipment available check to make sure it is in good working order.

• Remember that poor-quality AV equipment can ruin a meeting.

To maximize your audio visual budget, try the following:

• If using an outside vendor, choose a reputable company and reserve equipment early. If you have never worked with the supplier before, ask for references and check them.

• Negotiate all costs. Package deals are good for you and the rental companies. If they know your needs and have your timelines, it will be more cost effective.

• Make sure all agreements are in writing. If one company is not able to meet your needs, look at other companies until your needs are met.

• Provide clear instructions in writing. Include agendas and room layouts so your vendors know exactly what you expect.

• If you need help, find experienced production managers and technicians to oversee the AV portions of your event. Introduce yourself to the technicians who will be working your event, and find out how to contact them should the need arise.

• Barter goods and services with your rental companies. They may want to advertise in your publications, exhibit at your trade show, or acquire leads from your attendees.

• Guaranteed performance is often a policy of AV companies. They will compensate clients for rental costs in the event of equipment failure. Even better, many will provide on-site back-up.

Check the audio-visual equipment that is available at the meeting facility you are using. Many facilities have their own in-house audio department. Ask if any audio-visual equipment is included in your room charge? Be sure to check out the quality and age of the equipment provided.

Most facilities only provide a podium and microphone, so you will need to rent additional equipment from a qualified local audio-visual rental company. The facility where you are holding your meeting can provide recommendations.

Written by Yvon Douran, http://www.keynoteresource.com/

Money makes the world go ‘round. And when it comes to meeting planning, money can probably get you whatever you want. However, few event planners have the luxury of an unlimited budget. Your boss may like to drink champagne on a beer budget. In other words, caution you to spend less, but expect miracles at the same time.

Written by Susan A. Friedmann,CSP, The Tradeshow Coach, Lake Placid, NY, author: “Meeting & Event Planning for Dummies,” working with companies to improve their meeting and event success through coaching, consulting and training. Go to http://www.thetradeshowcoach.com to sign up for a free copy of ExhibitSmart Tips of the Week.

You’ve got a great business plan, a phenomenal product or service, and the energy and drive to promote your business. There’s only one problem. You’re running your entire company out of a corner of your living room, or your garage; or you’ve rented a hole in the wall office furnished with ancient office furniture scrounged from anyplace you could find it, and you’re not really comfortable inviting high power prospective clients to your location.

Your regional meeting and conference center may have the perfect answer. These centers are springing up all over the country, and offer a range of options for meetings, conferences, and conventions. Designed to project a modern, professional corporate image, they allow even small start ups to make a dynamic impact on potential clients and management personnel. Whether you need to schedule a ten o’clock meeting with a few representatives from a major corporation you’re targeting for business, or you need to rent a room for an entire day to interview a series of potential management hires, an attractive, functional meeting room will reflect your company’s professionalism.

When you’re choosing a meeting and conference center, be sure to research the availability of communications technology; the best centers will offer the latest high tech media equipment, so that if you have to project a Powerpoint display, a CD-Rom, or a DVD presentation, you have access to the equipment you need. A competently operated business center will also provide high speed Internet access and dial-up, as well as a number of business services including secretarial and clerical support, photocopying services, and faxing capability. If you’re going to be holding a lengthy meeting, you also need to make arrangements for your clients to have lunch or morning or afternoon food breaks, depending on the timing of the meeting. If you hold annual meetings for your employees, your partners or stockholders, or your board of directors, you may want to splurge on an informational meeting which includes a sumptuous catered meal.

If you’re expecting potential clients or vendors to travel to meet with you from out of town, you may want to pay special attention to the meeting center’s ease of access, both from Interstate highways and from regional airports. Business people who travel frequently want to get to a meeting quickly, have a productive experience, and then get back on the road, to the airport, or to their hotel room with as little fuss as possible. Choosing your meeting’s location to facilitate this will make a positive impact on those you’re meeting; putting them in a position of getting snarled in city traffic will definitely not.

Of course, the best meeting and conference center in the world is only as impressive as the presentation you make. Make sure you’re prepared, and have all the documentation you need at the meeting, polished and organized. If you have a media presentation to make, be sure it says what you want it to say, and then communicate with the tech experts at the meeting center to be absolutely certain you know how to operate the equipment. If possible, troubleshoot the equipment, and practice the presentation, well before your meeting so that you can make a smooth, polished performance.

Even if you’re operating a start-up company on a shoestring, creative use of your regional meeting and conference center will allow you to project a professional, successful image to your business associates; and nothing sells like success.  http://www.forefrontcenter.com/audiovisuals.htm

  It is now possible to charter, rent or lease an aircraft for less than ever before and it has also become easier.  Why charter an aircraft? Here are some good reasons:

·          The increased security and hassle of commercial airline boarding.

·          There are fewer airlines around.

·          Fewer airlines are flying to fewer cities

·          Because of economy restraints there are fewer seats for more passengers.

·          It is now easier to charter, lease or rent a plane because there are more companies entering the aircraft leasing business.

·          Also, a new generation of small jets is being produced as we speak, the so-called air taxis seating between 4 to 6 passengers for a total airplane cost of as low as 1 million dollars.

·        These small jets are being produced in a so-called cookie-cutter design, 100 at a time and are also being purchased 100 at a time.

Real Air Taxis will soon be on their way into major cities,” says

2) The best way of finding an aircraft charter company is on line. You can also contact an aircraft charter broker who will sort of act as your airplane travel agent.

3) They will handle all of your flight arrangements, including price comparisons, they will determine the correct aircraft for your trip, they will locate the correct charter company, make sure insurance is in place, and obtain copies of FAA flight certificates.

4) There are also aircraft charter auctions available on the Web.

Using a unique online auction, your trip itinerary is instantly sent to a network of pre-approved jet operators who are invited to bid on your trip. This increases competition and ultimately drives the price down. You can view this bidding action live, online.

Fleet Membership allows you to buy occupied flight time in your preferred category of business jet in blocks of whatever flight hours you want with guaranteed availability. You enjoy the freedom and convenience of business jet travel without the costs or commitment of aircraft ownership.

One Ways and Empty Leg Flights When a one way aircraft charter flight is booked, many times the aircraft has to return to it’s original airport. In a case like this, the plane will be flying empty. This is known as an empty leg. Because the aircraft charter operators like to make money if possible, they offer these empty legs for much less than a typical charter would cost.

Flying in a Private Jet has become a Status Symbol.

One of the perks most valued to CEO’s and lawmakers today is to have the use of a Private Jet. This is another reason why the Charter Aircraft business is at present growing at an astonishing rate which will increase even more as the air taxis costing one million dollars or so will enter service.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleJoe.com.  Frank Hague likes private aircraft.

Business meetings may be conducted formally or informally, depending on the company and the circumstances. The following guidelines are based on Robert’s Rules of Order.

Taking Minutes  

Steps:

1.  Obtain the meeting agenda, minutes from the last meeting, and any background documents to be discussed. Consider using a tape recorder to ensure accuracy.  

2.  Sit beside the chairperson for convenient clarification or help as the meeting proceeds.  

3.  Write “Minutes of the meeting of (exact association name).”  

4.  Record the date, time and place of the meeting.  

5.  Circulate a sheet of paper for attendees to sign. (This sheet can also help identify speakers by seating arrangement later in the meeting.) If the meeting is an open one, write down only the names of the attendees who have voting rights.  

 6.  Note who arrives late or leaves early so that these people can be briefed on what they missed.  

7.  Write down items in the order in which they are discussed. If item 8 on the agenda is discussed before item 2, keep the old item number but write item 8 in second place.  

8.  Record the motions made and the names of people who originate them.  

9.  Record whether motions are adopted or rejected, how the vote is taken (by show of hands, voice or other method) and whether the vote is unanimous. For small meetings, write the names of the attendees who approve, oppose and abstain from each motion.  

10.  Focus on recording actions taken by the group. Avoid writing down the details of each discussion.    

Tips:You do not need to record topics irrelevant to the business at hand. Taking minutes is not the same as taking dictation. Consult only the chairperson or executive officer, not the attendees, if you have questions.The person taking minutes does not participate in the meeting.     

Transcribing Minutes

Steps:

1.  Transcribe minutes soon after the meeting, when your memory of the event is still fresh.  

2.  Follow the format used in previous minutes.  

3.  Preface resolutions with “RESOLVED, THAT…”  

4.  Consider attaching long resolutions, reports or other supplementary material to the minutes as an appendix.  

5.  Write “Submitted by” and then sign your name and the date.   6.  Place minutes chronologically in a record book.    

Tips:Write in a concise, accurate manner, taking care not to include any sort of subjective opinion.   No matter what type of minutes you take, focus on capturing and communicating all important actions that took place.    

Tips from eHow Users:Handout notes by eHow Friend
I find it very helpful to make notes on the back of my set of handouts. That way, what was discussed about the items on that particular handout is on the back of the actual sheet.    

Follow up by eHow Friend
Make sure action items are clearly marked on the notes. When they are disbursed they can serve as reminders for those in attendance.

Do you announce a meeting and find either no one shows up on time, they come with their own agenda, or the meeting goes on and on? If this is true in your case, then worry no more.

Here are six steps to help you develop successful meetings:

1. Establish a realistic and specific objective. Ask yourself, ‘What do I want to accomplish?’ or ‘Why am I calling people together at this time?’

Do I want:

• to solve problem(s). * to inform. * to gain feedback. * to orient.
• to motivate. * to reward. * to buy. * to sell.

Then decide the best mode to accomplish your objective. Ask yourself which best suits your needs:

• a conference with a panel(s) of speakers?
• a half-day workshop? Or a full-day seminar?
• a staff meeting that includes your immediate staff?
• a staff meeting that includes your department or division?
• a staff meeting that includes everyone from all levels of the entire organization?

2. Create a well-developed agenda. Review your agenda before announcing your meeting. Make sure it avoids:

• spending too much time on details technical subjects. (It puts people to sleep and does not communicate with them.)
• failing to specify the starting and ending times. (Employees need to know when to be there, when it is expected to start, and when it is expected to be finished so that they can reschedule their other duties and responsibilities.)
• adding irrelevant topics. (Doing so only lengthens the meeting time and serves to anger people or put them to sleep.)
• having speakers or presenters who are known to ramble. (One of the surest ways to put your audience to sleep is to have a boring meeting with speakers or presenters who talk on and on. This is especially true in cases where the agenda covers technical or scientific material.)
• crowding the agenda with too many subjects. (It is better to have a question and answer period during the meeting than to try to cover everything.

Now review your agenda and make sure you have included:

• a chairperson or Master of Ceremonies to move topics along without rushing the presenters, or allowing them to ramble.
• general logistics before hand, such as restroom locations, break times, and telephone or walk-in interruptions.
• a priority system so that the most important topics or pressing matters are covered first.

3. Assign particular responsibilities. Be sure to select responsible people to carry out the responsibilities of your meeting. Also be sure:

• to match the topics and tasks with competent presenters.
• to give them clear, complete, and specific instructions including assigned time to complete their presentation.
• to gain the concurrence of your key participants.
• to have a clock in clear view of the presenters.
• to start on time, regardless. (This is perhaps the most important aspect of running a successful meeting.)

4. Establish a positive meeting environment. Take the time to plan your meeting. Perhaps the most important aspect to consider is the environment where you will hold your meeting. To insure its success, be sure you:

• create an environment that is conducive to effective communication.
• set start and ending times that are conducive to all.
• develop the environment around a theme.
• consider the objective of the meeting when selecting the room.
• consider decorating the room, if this is warranted.
• arrange and test the audio-visual support before hand.
• arrange the seating of participants and attendees, depending on the estimated number of attendees.
• arrange the seating plan for optimal effect.

5. Plan all the activities. Take the time to plan and plan again all the events, people, places, and things related to the objective and theme of the meeting. Be sure to:

• gather input where relevant.
• take notes where necessary.
• prepare adequate quantities of handouts.
• prepare to post adequately the announcement of the meeting along with its agenda, times, participants, and any other relevant information.
• prepare backup materials.
• prepare post-meeting evaluations, where necessary, and summary handouts.

Remember: When you maximize your potential, every one wins. When you don’t, we all lose.

© Etienne A. Gibbs, MSW

Establish yourself as an expert in front of meeting professionals. We are seeking articles on the following meeting topics immediately. If your article is selected, we will provide your name as the author and a link to your website from our populare Heres Network Cities. We are seeking the following topics:

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If you are interested, please direct all articles and inquiries to: Heres Editor: heresnetwk@yahoo.com

Analyzing your web traffic statistics can be an immeasurably important tool for a number of reasons. But before you can manufacturer full use of this tool, you must understand how to interpret the data.

Top web hosting companies will provide you with fundamental web traffic data that you then have to interpret and make appropriate use of. However, the data you receive from your host company can be imposing if you don’t grasp how to supplicate it to your particular undertaking and website. Let’s start by examining the most fundamental data - the general visitors to your site on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

These statistics are the most genuine allowance of your website’s performance. It would appear on the surface that the more visitors you see documented, the better you can figure your website is performing, but this is an inaccurate understanding. You must also look at the behavior of your visitors once they get to your website to accurately assess the effectiveness of your site.

There is usually a great delusion about what is ordinarily known as “hits” and what is really competent, quality traffic to your site. Hits simply mean the number of information requests received by the server. If you think about the actuality that a hit can readily equate to the number of graphics per page, you will get an impression of how exaggerated the concept of hits can be. For example, if your homepage has 15 graphics on it, the server records this as 15 hits, when in truth we are talking about a single visitor checking out a single page on your location. As you can see, hits are not worthwhile in analyzing your website traffic. The more visitors that turn up to your website, the more genuine your interpretation will become. The greater the traffic is to your website, the more precise your evaluation will be of overall trends in visitor behavior. The lesser the number of visitors, the more a few unorthodox visitors can misrepresent the assessment.

The aim is to use the web traffic information to figure out how well or how poorly your site is working for your visitors. One way to ascertain this is to discover how long, on average, your visitors run through your site. If the time spent is comparatively brief, it usually indicates an elementary problem. Then the challenge is to evaluate what that problem is.

It could be that your keywords are guiding the wrong variety of visitors to your website, or that your graphics are disorganized or intimidating, causing the visitor to exit quickly. Use the experience of how much time visitors are spending on your site to identify specific problems, and after you fix those problems, continue to use time spent as an estimate of how effective your fix has been.

Furthermore, web traffic stats can help you establish effective and ineffective areas of your website. If you have a page that you consider as important, but visitors are exiting it swiftly, that page needs work. You could, for example, evaluate improving the link to this page by making the link more substantial and attractive, or you could reform the look of the page or the ease that your visitors can access the necessary information on that page.

If, on the other hand, you notice that visitors are spending a lot of time on pages that you maintain are less essential, you might want to move some of your sales copy and marketing focus to that specific page. As you can see, these statistics will broadcast vital knowledge about the profitability of distinct pages, and visitor habits and stimulus. This is essential information to any effectual Internet marketing campaign.

Your website unequivocally has exit pages, such as a final order or contact form. This is a page you can expect your visitor to leave quickly. Nonetheless, not every visitor to your site is going to locate exactly what he or she is looking for, so observations may show you a number of other exit pages. This is customary unless you notice an exit trend on a specific page that is not designed as an exit page. In the case that a significant percentage of visitors are exiting your website on a page not intended for that purpose, you must closely contemplate that particular page to figure out what the difficulty is. Once you identify potential weaknesses on that page, tiny modifications in content or graphics may have a consequential impact on the visitors moving through your site instead of exiting at the wrong page.

After you have analyzed your visitor statistics, it’s time to turn to your keywords and phrases. Take notice if selective keywords are directing a specific variety of visitor to your site. The more targeted the visitor - implicating that they find what they are looking for on your site, and even better, fill out your contact form or make a purchase - the more profitable that keyword is.

However, if you find a great number of visitors are being directed - or should I say, misdirected - to your site by a specific keyword or phrase, that keyword demands modification. Keywords are essential to bringing quality visitors to your site who are open to do business with you. Close evaluation of the keywords your visitors are using to locate your site will give you a fundamental understanding of your visitor’s needs and motivations.

Finally, if you notice that users are discovering your website by typing in your company name, break out the champagne! It means you have achieved a significant focus of brand recognition, and this is certainly an indication of burgeoning success.

About the Author: Mike Tansey has been online since early 2004. He can set you up with your own profit-unlimited pulling website within the next 24 hours. Duplication is the crux to Network Marketing, Mike has the Answer. Affiliate Marketing Opportunity.

Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) are two important ways to promote your business to online customers.

I read this great article on search engine optimization and wanted to share with you. One thing to note is that you can be found on search engines by doing a little work on your website. You don’t need a ton of money to be next to your competitor online. I have been trying to tell the world about how important it is to do a little work on your website and then seek out some low cost solutions to be found. One low cost solution is to find “portals” that aggregate and build community like Hereschicago.com.

Hereschicago.com provides a “doorway” into your business from visitors from Google, Yahoo and MSN in addition to a host of other “niche” search engines. Oh yes, there are over 300 “other” search engines out there delivering targeted traffic to Hereschicago.com and ultimately your business. Ok, I am off my high horse for now. Take a good look at the following article. This is exactly what I recommmend doing to make your website be found on the internet.

SEO requires making your site search-engine-friendly, and SEM involves targeting potential customers by purchasing relevant keyword ads on search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Alta Vista.

SEO: There are many ways to optimize your site so that search engines will list your site higher in their rankings. Start with the following:

• Links from other sites: Search engine spiders move from site to site across the Internet by following hyperlinks. The more high-quality and high-trafficked sites you have pointing to your site, the more important the search engine will think you are. Make sure to register your site with directories such as Yahoo, (Hereschicago.com) and the Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.org).
• Internal links: Make sure your site is well-organized and easy to navigate. A site map will help visitors – and spiders – nawigate your site.
• Metatags: Metatags are hidden HTML directions for Web browsers or search engines. They include important information such as the title of each page, relevant keywords describing site content and the description of the site that shows up when a search engine returns a search. Make sure your metatags accurately describe your content.
• Keywords:Spider likely words or phrases that users might type into search engines to find your site. Make sure your content contains those!words or phrases, and include them in the title portions of your site and in relevant content.
• Search engine optimizers: Businesses often enlist the help of optimizers who specialize in improving the visibility of their clients’ sites. Among other things, they’ll register your site with major search engines, list it in the appropriate directory, write optimized content for your site and recommend changes to your site architecture.

SEM: The more targeted your advertising, the higher your ’’conversion rate.’’ Conversion rate refers to the percentage of ads that actually convert to sales or some other desired action (such as registration). One way to ensure that your prospective customers are qualified is to buy ads according to specific search engine keywords that a user might submit. For example, if you’re selling a Minolta 60X digital camera, buying the keyword ad ’’Minolta 60X digital camera’’ will most likely give you better results than buying the keyword ’’camera.’‘

Some terms get bid up quickly – for instance, you’ll pay a lot more for a technology keyword than a knitting keyword. SEM, however, has a higher conversion rate than other online marketing methods, so it can still be a cost-effective route to take.

Make sure you have compelling ad copy luring people to your site. Provide a call to action to prospective customers to encourage them to click on your link. Also, make sure that you send prospective customers to a targeted page on your site. Your home page will convert fewer customers than a page describing the exact service that you promote in your keyword ad.

You generally pay for keyword ads on a cost per click (CPC) basis. Review the keywords you’ve purchased to ensure you’re getting a good return on your investment. If not, try a different word or phrase. You can also try different ad copy or landing pages on your site to see what’s more attractive to prospective customers.

Companies offering CPC programs include Google, Yahoo, AskJeeves, FindWhat, Kanoodle, Entireweb, Industry Brains and LookSmart.

Once you’ve exhausted your SEO and SEM options, there are a couple of other routes that will produce results. You can put together an online ad campaign by either buying advertising on sites that appeal to your demographic. In addition, you can send out e-mail newsletters. Encourage customers to provide their e-mail addresses so you can contact them with useful information and promotions.

By:Bernard Peh

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the buzz word you will see everywhere in the internet nowsadays. Designing a website today is no longer about aesthetics. It must not only look good, it must be visible to the search engines as well. What should a web designer take note when designing a search engine friendly website? This article attempts to discuss some important pointers for web designers in creating SEO friendly web pages.

(Note: We are not talking about boosting search engine rankings as that would require a separate article.)

From a search engine point of view, the perfect webpage has no graphics, no scripting, no tables…etc but just alot of normal, plain readable text. You can just take it that plain text is the food for search engine spiders. Therefore, the more text you have, the more you will keep the spiders happy. However, from the design point of view, such pages are very boring but the fact is that everyone is more interested in keeping the spiders rather than us happy. The argument is that if search engine spiders cannot find your site, no one will. Based on this philosophy, we witnessed the fall of flash and sites with strong graphics over the years. Many sites that utilized heavy graphics where no longer found. Web developers become happy because they have an excuse to create less impressive websites…

The question is can we make both the saerch engine spiders and us happy? The answer is definitely a “Yes” provided that web designers can follow certain rules when designing web pages. They need to step out of their comfort zone and learn abit more about new web technologies.

Domain Name and URL Naming Convention Having a proper domain and url name is quite often neglected. Many search engines actually put some weightage in the way you name your domain or url files. You will definitely want to include some juicy words in your naming convention. For example, if you site is about website critics and your url is http://www.sitecritic.com, this will definitely be better than a domain like http://www.bluecatfish.com. The same principle goes for hyperlinks. If you have 2 words as key words, you can use an underscore “_” or dash “-” to separate them.

Title

Do not fool around when writing the title. From my experience, this is the most important part of your webpage. Many designers like to put special characters such as ” * “,” | “, ” : ” or ” [ ] ” in the title to make it look unique. If you really want to make your webpage special, I advise you to do it else where such as in the body of the HTML document. You should include your keywords in your title. Like the previous example, if your web site focuses on website reviews, make sure you have the words “Website Reviews” somewhere in the title. Noticed that “WebsiteReviews” is not the same as “Website Reviews”. Spacing is important. When writing the title, try not to write more than 8 words. There are no hard and fast rules on that but the fact is that more does not mean good. In fact, the more you write, the more your keyword density will be diminished. If you keep repeating the same keyword in the title, search engines will see your site as spam and you will be dead in no time. For example, a title like “Sitecritic Web Reviews” is much better than “Sitecritic Web Reviews, Internet Marketing, Web Design Ideas, Internet Directories, Budget Web Hosting, Melbourne”. I will have to stress again, do not fool around with your title.

Meta-Description

After the title tag is the meta description tag. Many people argued that meta description is no longer important. Based on my experience, they are still relevant in SEO rankings especially if your website is new. The principle in writing the meta description tag is the same as the title. The only difference is that you want explain abit more about the services that you provide in a friendlier format. You will also want to include your keywords in the meta description. Menu, Content and Links You should not use any javascript menus that hid the urls. Many javascript menus are fancy but actually not SEO friendly. What ever technique you are using to create the menus, make sure that the tag is visible. You might also want to include a variation of the keywords in the menus, links or text. Like the previous example, if your keyword is “Web Site Reviews”, you might not want to use the same word over and over again. You can vary it by using “Professional Web Reviews, Reviews of Websites, Site Reviews…etc”. Varying the keywords makes your content more interesting and is good for SEO as well. When writing the contents, try to put the keywords in different areas of the document. Use tags like or to make the keywords stand out. Avoid urls that say “click here” or “view”. Though often used, they are not advisable for SEO purposes. Text links are stonger than image links. It is therefore not advisable to use images as the main navigation menu throughout the website. If you would like to incorporate images in the user navigation experience, you might want to consider separating the text from the images. This can be achieved easily using CSS or the background image option in the or tag.

Images

Unlike many Search Engine Experts, I strongly encourage the use of graphics because I am passion about Web Design and is sad to see so many websites that are well optimized for search engines but look crap on screen. You need to balance between the amount of graphics used and downloading speed. Like I mentioned before, if your header banner or important images contains text , you could split up the text and use the images as a separate background or floating layer. That way, you can make the image size smaller and also make the text visible to the search engines. Transparent gifs are very useful for laying over other content or images. Appropriate use of jpegs and gifs can also cut down loading time by alot. CSS Technology CSS helps you to cut down your tag and gives more room for the spiders to read your content. The problem with CSS is that it is not as straight forward as tables. At the moment, CSS is also inconsistent in different browsers, so before you publish your web page, you need to check the layout in different browsers. I am actually not against designers using tables especially if they find the time spend in creating a full CSS site not justifiable. The fact is that there are still cases when using CSS is not advisable. An example is when displaying tabular data; Tables still excel in displ