Posts Tagged ‘web site design’

Why Your Homepage Needs Breathing Room

Web Design, online marketing trends, web branding | 0 Comments »

Small business owners and newbies to the Web tend to clog up their websites, specifically their homepage. It’s a common mistake that I am seeing over and over again.

The homepage is the landing space for everyone who seeks you out online. It should be well laid out and organized. It should let your brand breathe and not be crowded. Too much text or copy on the homepage can overwhelm your audience. Think of your homepage like a jacket cover to a book. It should have a picture, a title (or branding tagline), your name and a description of what the site is about. Make it short and condensed. Your homepage tabs (also called verticals) are where your audience can go deeper into your site and find more information about your product and services. Anywhere from 5 to 7 is a good amount, the topic verticals can also have a drop down menu, which is helpful.

2 Key Tips to Remember:
The homepage is NOT about YOU, it’s about your CLIENT. It should engage and promote enthusiasm for your product. It should be outcome focused.

Pick a tagline that is geared towards the consumer and answers the question of how they will benefit from your product or service. Steve Job’s tagline for the iPod was “A thousand songs in your pocket.” In this tagline his target market is defined along with the benefit they will get in buying an ipod. It’s simple, short and clear.

More Tips:

Site readers have a shorten attention span and are always one click away to something else.

How can you really capture your audience? Give them something for free, develop a free opt-in on your homepage.

Have a logo.

Putting too much content on the homepage loses your audience. They are overwhelmed.

Make sure to have several people look over your site before you launch it. Errors happen.

Blogs are important and you should have one.

At Taz we love using Wordpress and highly recommend it!

I hope these tips are helpful! The homepage is your one chance to reach your target audience, it’s not often they come around twice. Make sure to spend time getting it done right by giving your brand some much deserved breathing room.

The Importance of Google Analytics for Your Web Site

Online Marketing, Online Strategy, SEO, web analytics | 0 Comments »

Google Analytics is one of the top, most powerful tools out there for monitoring and analyzing traffic on your website. It gives you an enormous amount of information about who is visiting your site, what they are looking for, and how they are getting to your site. Any business that wants to expand and grow their business on the internet should definitely be using Google Analytics.
Here is a list of the Important Data that Google Analytics will give you:

  • Where your visitors are coming from – very important if you’re targeting a specific audience.
  • How your visitors found your website – this is very important for determining which of your efforts are paying off. It shows if visitors found your site directly, through a referral from another website (ex: Twitter, Facebook), or from search engines.
  • Web browsers used by your visitors – knowing which web browsers your visitors use allows you to know which browsers you should be focusing on.
  • Operating systems used by your visitors – the technology used in developing your site/blog may only work in a certain operating system, therefore it’s important to take note of the different operating systems your visitors are using.
  • What keywords were used by visitors in the search engines to get to your website – this is very crucial for SEO. Knowing which keywords people are searching for to get to your site determines if you are on the right track.

Criteria for the Best Web Sites

Web Design, web 3.0 | 0 Comments »

The world has come a long way from website where it was in 1991 with the very first website in the world http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html , this was a brave new world to step in, a new way of connecting right from your computer. Now we we live in a society where we walk hand in hand with Facebook, Twitter, Google, Gmail, and the list goes on and on. And in this era you can find millions of websites. However, there are best practices and its not a matter of putting text on an html page and hope visitors like it as was the case in 1991. There are criteria that sets websites apart. Here is a short list of important criteria that makes a great web site:

Consistency – This is important in a few key areas

1. Fonts. Always default to the most common fonts across all platforms; Ariel, Times New Roman.

2. Color. Make sure the background contrasts well with your text. Keep in mind to keep colors few, more color does not make a better picture.

3. Logo, Copyright, brand. This makes up who you are and stops people from stealing something you worked hard to create.

4. Navigation. Make sure it’s easy to use and understand. Make sure all the links navigate to where they are supposed to.

Rule of Thirds
1. Header should only take up a maximum of 1/3 of the page length, the body another 1/3 and the footer a maximum of 1/3 the page lenght.

Functionality
1. Make sure all links work.
2. Make sure forms send where they are supposed to.
3. If flash for DHTML is not supported by the user then it needs to be able to default to the other forms of media; Replacement text, HTML5, Captions under audio and video.
4. Make sure downloads work properly.
5. Download times are stated.

Websites that meet this criteria have worked hard to make your experience with them exceptional. The future of web continues to grow in age from its humble beginnings, and as time passes as the past has shown the standards become tighter as the amount of platforms continue to grow: cell phones, ipads, tablet PCs. Futher posts will discuss the best practices for each of the languages that go into building a web page to make the user experience rich in all environments.

Four Critical Aspects to a Successful Web Site Design

Web Design, web analytics | 0 Comments »

There are hundreds (and even thousands) of different aspects, software, apps, tools, plug-ins and beyond that go into launching a successful web site.   When I look back at all of these elements,  there were several that stuck out as “must haves” across the boards.

The top four things that you MUST have on your site:

  • Analytics to track your stats (Google Analytics is our recommendation)
  • Email Opt In form (I Contact rocks)
  • A phone number in clear view (If you want a 1-800 # check out Ring Central)
  • A clear call to action — don’t make people guess what you want them to do

There are many others like: clean coding, good graphics, compelling story etc.  However, these are the top four that have no exceptions.

Is your site missing any of the above four?  If so, make the adjustments – you will be glad you did!

How to Kill Your Search Engine Ranking

Web Design | One Comment »

One word – FLASH.  If you want to kill your current search engine ranking (or kill your chances of obtaining top rankings put flash all over your web site.  In fact, even make the entire web site in flash!

The only people that can get away with this are companies that have high-power brand recognition – Disney, Pepsi, Lexus and so on.  These companies are not concerned with the top ranking for “Disney World” because they already occupy those top spots. 

You may be thinking: well how can they have a web site that is ranked #1 or #2 for all their search phrases that is designed with flash?  The answer – links!  Companies like Disney, Lexus and Pepsi have hundreds of thousands of links that point directly to their web site – making them “untouchable!”  

The key lesson here – design a web site that looks nice for your customers/prospects, but one that is search engine friendly.  Check out our web site design services:  SEO Web Design – Dreamweaver Web Design

Enjoy your Weekend!

Search Engines (and Consumers) HATE Flashly Sites

Web Design | One Comment »

Did you know that it is 100 times more difficult to get a flash web site ranked in the searches engines versus a non flash site?

Did you also know that most consumers will leave a flash web site within the first ten seconds?

Plain and simple – design your web site with the search engines and consumers in mind.

When is flash on your web site ok?

  • To provide a product demostration
  • To demostrate a services

Please keep in mind – do not have anything flashy load right off the bat, have the flashy stuff on your secondary pages for the people that want to watch it!