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Archive for the ‘website development’ Category
Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
One mistake that many website owners make is to assume that every customer speaks English. In the U.S., the predominant language is English so a website in English is natural. There are, however, over 28 million people who speak Spanish as a first language. That’s almost 13% of the U.S. population. The question then is whether or not to create an online presence published in two or more languages.
I wouldn’t recommend a multilingual website for everyone, however, there are certainly situations where a multilingual website could be more profitable. It’s fairly easy for brick and mortar businesses. If the neighborhood where your shop front is located has a high population who speak a certain language, then it makes sense to market to that language. Almost every major city can point to ethnic enclaves within their community, and most businesses put together marketing programs aimed at everyone in that community.
The online world is different. If you are targeting a world wide market, then it doesn’t make sense spending a lot of time putting together a web site in several languages. However, if your online presence is only targeting a local market, you need to determine the language make up of that market. Would a Spanish translation of your website increase sales – with 13% of the population being Spanish speakers, that could be a sizeable chunk of the market you are missing.
Multilingual websites do come with a few SEO issues. Fortunately, Google has several guidelines that are well worth reading in order to gain a better understanding of these issues. When creating a multilingual website, never take anything for granted. Having a flag doesn’t always clearly indicate another language. Landing pages with language options are popular, however, English users seem to be less tolerant of these pages and this could lead to drop-off in visitor numbers.
Having a multilingual website can provide some businesses with a real boost in traffic. However, they can be high maintenance with every major article published requiring a second copy that has been translated. You then need to ensure it isn’t marked as duplicate content by the search engines. This is where a good SEO program is a must – if you have a customer base that is from a different ethnic background, consider creating a multilingual website.
Tags: multilingual websites, SEO
Posted in website development | 4 Comments »
Sunday, January 15th, 2012
What’s the biggest threat to many small businesses in 2012? Most small business owners would probably point at their competitors. Others may point to the changes made to search algorithms and the effect it may have on their search rankings. Whilst these are threats that need to be dealt with, the biggest threat could come from hackers.
There has been a gradual shift in fraudulent activity in recent years with hackers slowly switching their focus away from big businesses and on to small businesses. Big business has the time, money and resources to guard against any hack attempts on their data. Small business has neither the time nor money, and in many cases, the know-how, to protect their data. This makes them easy targets for hackers looking for the personal details of customers, particularly credit card data.
Data protection is an area that small businesses will need to deal with in 2012. Any breaches could leave a business wide open to legal proceedings from customers, and we are talking about group claims here, not just one off claims. Protection of data needn’t be a costly exercise. You do need a very secure website, particularly when it comes to securing your data. This will be one area where the cost of protection for your site could outweigh the risks associated with an unprotected website.
A professional website development team can help to ensure your website is safe from hacking. The cost would be minute compared to the cost of a successful group law suit against either yourself or your business. Is your data safe? Could someone hack your website and then proceed to download all the personal details of your customers. If you’re not full protected, talk to a professional webstite development team.
Tags: online fraud, small business, website development, website security
Posted in website development | 2 Comments »
Saturday, December 10th, 2011
How many times have we all gone to a website only to have a dozen things flying off the page at you or taking over your screen and you inadvertently click on something wrong? It happens a lot. A lot of people do not like these fly-in pages.
Not everyone is computer savvy and many people don’t even know what those pages are. Users want a clean, simple and user-friendly site. That will clearly state what the website is about and list some of the items that may be for sale if it is an e-commerce website.
Navigation is also key. Have clear, easy-to-read links to other pages within your website. This way, viewers can easily navigate from one page to the next. It is also important to make sure you have a clear place for reader comments. Be sure to read them and answer them. They may very well be a question about something they want to buy or maybe a suggestion about something. Interaction with online customers is just as important as face-to-face customers.
Making sure your links are working properly in addition to working shopping carts. This is the single most aggravating thing for a viewer. They have gone through the process, get to check out and the shopping cart is empty. Instead of going back and doing it again, they will just leave the site. You have then lost a sale. Another thing no one will wait on is page loading times. If your pages load too slowly because of the graphics, people will leave.
Take some time to visit your website and see what your visitors see. You will be able to determine where you need improvement.
Tags: internet marketing, link building, links, website, website development
Posted in website development | 4 Comments »
Friday, November 4th, 2011
Copyblogger podcast radio host Robert Bruce interviews Copyblogger CEO Sonia Simone about privacy and other content matters. So the question is, is privacy important for marketers and small business owners?
I think it is.
Here’s the best way to think about this. Your clients don’t want you to sell their private information. They’d rather you protect it at all costs. So it’s in your best interests to protect and safeguard that private information. But online privacy goes beyond your ability or willingness to share your clients’ information.
Real privacy is also about protecting that information from all sources.
In other words, NOT selling your clients’ private information doesn’t make you a good guy if your website ends up getting hacked or you don’t use encryption data to protect private information during transit. So, as a small business owner doing business online, it’s just as important for you to put time and energy into thinking about your website’s security. That’s the deepest level of privacy protection.
So how do you protect your clients’ privacy information? Have you thought about it?
There are two aspects to thinking about your website’s security: Data encryption and firewalls. Put effort into making those two things happen on your website for your clients’ sake. Otherwise, you might find yourself without clients.
Tags: data encryption, privacy, small business, website security
Posted in website development | 3 Comments »
Friday, October 14th, 2011
When it comes to website design, one factor that bears a little forethought is how many share buttons, and which share buttons, you should use on your site.
The fact that share buttons are a necessary component to effective web design these days doesn’t go questioned. Pretty much all web designers agree that share buttons add value to any web design. But what designers might disagree on is how many buttons are necessary and which ones should be prominently displayed.
This largely depends on the type of website you have. If your website is a tech website, for instance, then you might want to display tech-centric social icons such as Delicious, Digg, and Technorati. A small business flower shop, on the other hand, would want to display other icons. Nevertheless, there are certain social media icons that would benefit every type of website.
Facebook Like – No matter what type of business you have, a Facebook Like button on your web pages is a near necessity. With Facebook being the most trafficked website online, you are bound to have quite a few site visitors who use it and will Like your stuff.
Twitter – Twitter isn’t as ubiquitous as Facebook, but every city has its share of Twitterers. If you live in an area and you service a niche where tweeting content is done on a regular basis, then you’ll want to include a Twitter icon.
LinkedIn – If you are a B2B business – and even some B2C niches – you’ll want to include a LinkedIn button.
Google+ – Google+ is gaining in popularity, however, it’s still too early to tell just what niches it will become popular in. It currently looks to be hot in tech circles. You should at least investigate Google+ to see if it is right for your business and niche.
Only you can decide which social media icons are right for your web design, but you should give it careful thought.
Tags: social icons, Social Media, social sharing, web design
Posted in website development | 3 Comments »
Thursday, September 29th, 2011
When you wrote your About page, did you have a specific strategy or did you just “wing” it? If you aren’t satisfied with the content on your About page, ask yourself why you wrote it. Ask yourself what you expect your customers to get out of it.
The truth is, your About page isn’t really about you at all. It’s about what your customers expect to get from a business like yours.
With that in mind, here are 5 essential questions to answer on your About page so you can keep it customer-focused.
- What year did your business start? Customers want to know if you are a start up or if you have years of experience. If you have years of experience in your field but you started your business last month, highlight the fact that you’ve been working in your field for a long time. Your customers want to know.
- What inspired you to start your business? What customer need did you set out to solve? Does your business solve that problem?
- What makes your business unique or different from the competition? These are your selling points. Don’t be shy. Point them out and keep them focused on the needs of your customers.
- What service areas do you cover? This is very important for local businesses. If you travel to your customer’s location to perform a service, is there a limit to how far you’ll travel? Make it positive. If it’s practical, include a Google Map on your About page to put your business into perspective for your customer.
- What community services do you sponsor? Customers like to know you are involved in the community. Point out which organizations you support and why.
Every business has a story. The About page is where you tell your story. Keep it focused on your customers’ needs.
Tags: about page, local business, small business, website content
Posted in website development | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011
Take a look around at some of your favorite websites. Are they pretty? Now look at some of the most successful websites online. What do they have going for them?
Here is a list of successful websites that aren’t all that pretty or do not have a great deal of graphic design work going in their favor:
- Google – It’s pretty simple with a white background and a search box
- Craigslist – Just a page with a bunch of links
- Drudge Report – Still one of the most unattractive websites online
- Yahoo! - Have you seen Yahoo! lately? It’s got a lot going on, but it isn’t particularly attractive.
- Alltop – Guy Kawasaki’s newsstand. Ugly.
- Wikipedia – There are few websites that can boast of the popularity and success of Wikipedia, but boy is it ugly.
- Twitter – Not much to it, right?
The Web is full of ugly but successful websites. It’s also full of beautiful ones that don’t succeed.
The key to a successful website is to offer something people want. Functionality is key. Without it, it doesn’t matter how beautiful your web design is. On the other hand, a beautiful website can keep visitors longer – but it has to be a functional website with something to offer.
Are web graphics necessary? Not ultimately, but they can make a good website a great one.
Tags: graphics, web design
Posted in website development | 5 Comments »
Sunday, August 21st, 2011
Businesses who make their first attempt to participate in online marketing often make the mistake of choosing the wrong hosting company. It’s easy to do. There are so many hosting companies offering services and so many different types of hosting services available that it can be overwhelming to some small business owners who just want a website for their business.
While it can be tempting to find a local web host that will provide a place for your website, that could be a fatal mistake.
Larger hosting companies often have more resources available to them, which means an overall better service for you. The last thing you want for your business website is to experience frequent down times. If customers are trying to access your website and are constantly hit with 404 and 500 errors, then you’ll lose plenty of business.
Make sure your web host has plenty of servers and that those servers are in constant maintenance. Also, make sure that they provide SSL and SSH security. If you are planning a large Web development project, it might be in your best interest to find a hosting provider that offers a dedicated server. That will allow you to host your website on a server with no other businesses, however, it is more expensive.
Be sure to shop around for the best hosting service. It’s a very important part of your web business.
Tags: business, dedicated server, web hosting, website hosting
Posted in website development | 8 Comments »
Wednesday, July 27th, 2011
Is it better to design a website using HTML or a content management system (CMS)?
To be sure, there are pros and cons to either method. Here are a few things to think about when making your decision about whether to design your website using HTML or CMS.
- Security: In terms of security, HTML is superior; however, most CMSs have security plugins or add-ons that you can use to make your site more secure.
- SEO: It’s easier to SEO an HTML website, but most CMSs these days make SEO easier and more effective.
- Control Over Design: You have more control over design elements with HTML.
- Time Management: Designing your website and updating your content can be done much more quickly with a CMS than with an HTML website.
- Upgrades: Constant upgrades to a CMS can be annoying, but they are necessary. HTML updates come much less often.
- Support: Most CMSs have a built in and strong support community.
- Enhancements: Website enhancements are easier with a CMS since most have a library of plugins or add-ons.
- Coding: You don’t have to know any coding languages to use most CMSs, however, they can often be code heavy and slow your page load speed, which affects your SEO.
- Compatibility: HTML has no coding limitations. Virtually any coding language can be made to interact with your website. But if you use a CMS, you might experience difficulties trying to incorporate other languages, depending on your server type and the specs of your CMS.
All things considered, most small businesses can benefit from using a CMS as opposed to coding their website in HTML.
Tags: CMS, coding, html, web design, website design
Posted in website development | 3 Comments »
Sunday, July 10th, 2011
More and more, I’m seeing small business websites using WordPress as a CMS. Even churches and community service organizations are using WordPress as a CMS and designing their websites using this free open source software. Is that a good idea?
In a word, there is nothing wrong with using WordPress as a CMS. In fact, that’s what it is.
However, WordPress started out as a blogging platform and branched out from there. The reasons WordPress is such a good tool for building blogs and websites is because it is flexible, easy to use, and has natural built-in search engine optimization benefits. But it helps to know a little bit about web design before you use it.
There are a number of ways you can go with WordPress.
- Many businesses use the default theme, which is limited in its functionality and creative uses.
- A step up would be to find a free off-the-shelf theme that you can use, and perhaps customize.
- Another step up is to purchase a theme from one of the many WordPress theme websites online. You can often find a good theme that is used less than the free themes so it is a semi-original look. But you still need to make sure your theme has SEO benefits. Many don’t.
- Finally, you can go all out and spend money on one of the premium WordPress themes on the market. There are a number of these so shop around.
Each of the above options has its benefits and pitfalls. Some WordPress themes claim that easy design work is possible, but it helps to understand how HTML, CSS, and PHP work together, and if you can program in those languages then you can often build a much better looking and more functional website.
WordPress does make designing a website easier, but there is no substitute for experience. You can often find a WordPress web designer who can design your website for you, then teach you how to upload your own content.
Tags: CMS, SEO, website design, wordpress
Posted in website development | 3 Comments »
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