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Posts Tagged ‘web design’
Friday, December 16th, 2011
Many tend to think that branding and logos are one in the same. It is and it isn’t. Branding encompasses so much more than just your logo. Logos are a part of branding to the extent your customers recognize who you are by seeing the logo. But branding is actually who and what your company is about in all things.
The correct definition is from The American Marketing Association AMA, which states that the “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.”
What this basically means is that it is the building of an image that is specific to your company, that customers will quickly identify as your business. Besides the logo, it will be the customization of your website along with your mission statement, design and colors of the website. An example would be Apple Corporation. The logo is a large part as everyone knows about the big red apple. But it is also more than that if you really look at their website and core values.
You will want a website that will reflect your business and beliefs and will be easily recognized by your customers. For instance, let’s say you sell western riding accessories, your branding would be a western style website with perhaps a horse or a lasso as the logo.
If you already have a website but are not happy with the way it looks, then it’s time to try something different that will pull in more customers and reflect your business better. Your brand must reflect the type of business you have. Otherwise all of your hard work will have been for nothing.
Tags: advertising, Branding, internet marketing, Reputation Management, web design
Posted in Branding | 6 Comments »
Friday, December 2nd, 2011
It’s wonderful to have small mom and pop stores in local towns. That is what defines the town. Most people will stay loyal to their local shops because that is what helps the community stay alive.
Sadly, a lot of those same mom and pop stores are closing simply because they don’t have enough business in today’s world. This is due to more people using the internet for their purchases. For some, it is much easier to sit at home, in front of a computer, and purchase whatever you want and have it shipped, instead of visiting the local stores.
This is why it is more important than ever for those same stores to get a website and add a few products to the site and let people purchase from the site. It not only boosts the business owner’s revenue, but it puts that same business owner in the driver’s seat as far as keeping their doors open.
No one wants to see the quaint little corner market or antique store close. These businesses have been the mainstay for many small communities to stay alive and there is a bit of history and nostalgia associated with local business.
A challenge to all small business owners. Start a website, build your presence on the internet and get your business rolling again. The internet is here to stay and you should just hop right on and take your piece of the pie too.
You don’t even have to be computer savvy to do it. Hire a web designer. That person will get a domain name for you and design you a website according to your specifications. You will be surprised at how easy it is. You can then still retain the old world charm in the store itself, but your pocketbook will thank you.
Tags: business, internet marketing, local business, Local Internet Marketing, small business, web design, website development
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 4 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 »
Wednesday, October 12th, 2011
When you plan your search engine optimization efforts, do you do it for the long term or the short term? Most search marketers do it for the short term.
Short-term SEO can be characterized by a list of do’s and don’ts on your search company’s list of best practices. They are essentially a list of things to do today so that your website ranks next month. But they don’t account for eventual search engine algorithm changes. They are essentially based on a follow-the-crowd mentality.
Long-term SEO is different. It doesn’t concern itself with what everyone else is doing. It just does what makes sense and what will ultimately make sense five years from now.
For instance, a short-term SEO strategy usually leads to broken links and bad website navigation. Long-term SEO, on the other hand, takes into consideration how a user might navigate several hundred web pages on your website before those pages have even been planned. It takes into consideration the taxonomy of web pages and puts together an intelligent web design plan that will make as much sense next decade as it does next week.
So I’ll ask again: Is your SEO strategy a long-term strategy or a short-term strategy? How many times to do you want to build that website?
Tags: search engine optimization, SEO, web design
Posted in SEO for Small Business | 4 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 »
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 »
Saturday, June 25th, 2011
One of the most important decisions any small business owner will have to make when building a new website, particularly one that offers services to local clientele, is whether or not to add outbound links to the site. Of course, not all outbound links are equal. Some can make you money.
There are two schools of thought concerning affiliate links. One school of thought says they are exit holes. You don’t want your site visitors to leave your website so you shouldn’t give them exit holes. The problem with this school of thought is that some visitors are going to leave no matter what. No need to hold them hostage.
That leads me to the second school of thought, which is this: Since some of your visitors are going to leave anyway, why not make money on them when they do?
And that’s the basis for using affiliate links on your small business website.
I leave it up to you to decide whether you should do that or not. If you do, here are a few things to keep in mind about your affiliate link offerings.
- Use them sparingly – Too much can be a big turnoff. You really want your business and your services to be the focus of your website, so if you do use affiliate links, make sure you do it sparingly.
- Use products that are related to your site’s services – Don’t just choose any affiliate products. Make sure the products you promote are related to the services you offer.
- Make your web design attractive – You don’t want your website looking like an affiliate product bookshelf. Make it look like a small business website and place your affiliate links, widgets, etc. in a strategic location on your web pages where they won’t detract from your main content. You don’t want every visitor leaving through your affiliate links so make sure they don’t receive too much attention.
Affiliate links can serve as an additional source of income for your small business website, but if they make you more money than the services you offer, then either your service sales pages aren’t written well enough to close the sale or your affiliate links are too prominent. Time to make a change.
Tags: affiliate marketing, small business, web design
Posted in website development | 1 Comment »
Monday, June 14th, 2010
Website development is part science, part art. The science part is in the coding and developing your marketing strategy based on solid historical and trending data that you know to be true. For instance, we know that user eye tracking studies have demonstrated the hottest part of a website are in the top left corner of the page and the bottom right, with lesser hotspots in between in a zigzag fashion from left to right and down.
The art part of website development is the web design. You want your site to be attractive. You want it be functional, but attractive.
So how do you achieve both functionality and attractiveness and can the aesthetic aspect of website development (web design) increase your revenue? You bet it can.
There’s an old saying among web developers – “An ugly website that makes money is more attractive than a pretty one that doesn’t.”
That may be a true statement, but even more attractive than an ugly site that makes money is a beautiful website that makes money. And you’d better believe that your visitors will judge your business by the attractiveness of your website just as they judge your business by how you dress.
So when it comes to ensuring that your website is profitable, make sure that you plan its functionality well and don’t leave out its attractiveness. Make sure your web designer is in his best form.
Tags: web design, web development
Posted in website development | 1 Comment »
Sunday, May 16th, 2010
If you’re fairly new online then you might be wondering, What’s the difference between web design and web development? Trust me, there is a difference.
Web design deals with the attractiveness of your website. Web designers concern themselves with elements of the web page such as header graphics, footer layout and look, sidebar width, navigation design, etc. It’s an important task, but if you expect your web designer to ensure that your website reaches its fullest potential in functionality then you’ll likely be disappointed. That’s the web developer’s job.
I don’t mean to denigrate or demean web designers. Their job is important and many of them do good work. But if you are planning to build an e-commerce website that will make you money then you need a web development team that specializes in those types of websites. It’s not easy to build a multi-tiered website that is functional, attractive and that has the type of architecture built into it that will get your customer to buy.
Web developers care about more than just attractiveness. The are experts in getting your shopping cart functional and the navigation between your categories right on. Without a knowledgeable web development team on your side it is next to impossible to succeed at e-commerce. It’s a lot of work and it requires a well thought out plan.
Tags: web design, web devlopment
Posted in website development | No Comments »
Saturday, April 10th, 2010
There are a variety of ways to build a website. You can, of course, build your site using HTML and other languages like PHP, ASP or Ruby. Perhaps even a combination of these.
You can also design your website by taking a template, either off the shelf or custom, and modifying it to your own needs. Or, you can use a content management system (CMS) and design a website for your purposes that way.
But what advantages, if any, does a CMS offer?
Many people like a CMS because you don’t have to worry about designing your website using code. Every time you update your website you’ll have to play around with the coding elements to ensure that your site looks the way you want it to look. You’ll either have to pay someone to do that for you or learn how to code the site yourself. Most small business owners cannot afford to pay someone to update their site every time they want to do that nor can they afford to take the time and learn how to build a website from scratch. That’s where the CMS can come in.
With a CMS, the initial design and set up can be done by someone else then when you want to update the site with new content you simply sign in with your administrator login and password and add the content using a WYSIWYG editor.
Many small business owners prefer this type of set up because it means they can update their own site with new content. You can add items to your shopping catalog, add new sections of your website and even change existing pages when you have the time. No coding necessary. But which CMS is right for you?
That’s a matter of personal preference, but you do have some options. Some of them are free and some cost you money. Some of them are very expensive. For most small businesses, a free CMS is a great option. There are two free CMS solutions that I’d recommend for small businesses – Joomla! and WordPress. Pick the one that you feel is right for you and hire a designer to make it look the way you want it to look and you’re in business.
Tags: CMS, small business, web design
Posted in website development | 2 Comments »
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