Two to three years ago, the importance of having a mobile website started catching on. The common practice then was to create a separate mobile version of your main website, which was programmed to automatically display when detecting a mobile device being used. The mobile site was usually a pared down version of the complete site, and usually contained only the most important four or five pages.  Continue reading →

Where is the Home link?

Some of the latest web design practices may be sleek and cool-looking, but that doesn’t automatically mean you should implement them. For example, many newer sites now are missing a link in the menu for the Home page, and instead the company logo leads to the Home page.

Why is this? Most likely someone thought it was cool and that people would be able to figure it out, and it caught on. While you and I know to hover over the logo to see if it links to Home, your site’s visitors may not. For this reason, most websites we’ve designed have a link for Home! I would hate for a client to confuse or lose a visitor because they couldn’t navigate back to Home.  Continue reading →

Is your website failing to attract viewers? Maybe it’s time to take a close look at your website design. Maintaining an impressive website is important if you want to stay ahead of the competition. If you’re website is lacking something, then read on for some quick tips for improving your website design.

Continue reading →

What does it mean to have a mobile-friendly website? Essentially, it’s having a website that is viewable on various mobile devices, regardless of screen size. There are two common methods: responsive web design, and creating a separate, mobile site. A mobile site is a mobile-friendly copy of the website, while responsive web design uses coding which adapts to the screen sizes of various mobile devices. There are benefits to each method, however today most opt for responsive web design for various reasons.

Continue reading →

There is no doubt that mobile web browsing is growing at a very high rate. With the popularity of smart phones and tablets, mobile browsing has become very commonplace, as many consumers and business people prefer the convenience of their mobile device to desktop or laptop pcs. This poses a problem for viewing websites, however, because most traditional websites are too content-intensive, have too many pages, and appear too small when viewed on a mobile device. The need for an alternate mobile website has clearly arrived.

Continue reading →

Yesterday, Starbucks unveiled their brand new logo.  It’s a bit revolutionary in that they removed their name from the logo!  Their move is designed to be minimalistic and use a recognizable image as a logo, allowing them to enter markets other than coffee.  I like it – what do you think?  You can see it here:
http://news.yahoo.com/starbucks-gives-logo-look-20110105-100942-929.html

You know those little icons that appear in your browser next to a url when visiting a website, and the ones you see next to the site name when you bookmark a page? Well, if you want to create one for your site, it’s pretty easy. All you need is the graphic you’d like to use as the icon, best in .jpg format. (It’s best to make it a simple and small icon, since it’s so small when it appears on your site’s url.)

Then, go to this site: http://www.chami.com/html-kit/services/favicon/ to convert the .jpg file to a .fav file, and then upload it via ftp to your site’s root directory, and your done. In some cases your favicon may take a few days to show up, and please note that certain older versions of Internet Explorer may not show them for some strange reason.

Do you have a backup of your website files? If your website goes down and the hosting company cannot bring it back up, will you be in deep trouble? While most hosting companies back up their servers regularly, it’s still a good idea to back up your files. If you own an e-commerce site, you especially should back up often, since your hosting company’s backup may be several days old, and you risk losing all of your more recent transactions. Continue reading →

Getting visitors to your website is one thing – converting visits to sales, what is known as the “Conversion Rate,” is something else entirely.

Most experts say that you should expect a conversion rate of 1-3%. This low figure may surprise you, but if you think of how many searches are done daily on any given term, how many competing websites are out there, and consumers growing distrust of many website scams, then it may shed some light on this percentage.

So what can you do to increase your conversion rates?

Have your contact information displayed so it is easily found. If people need to search endlessly to find a phone number or e-mail address to reach you, they will either give up trying, or lose trust in you as a legitimate business. Have your phone number and e-mail prominently displayed in the top area of each web page.

Make sure your site is secure. Nothing takes the trust away like a site that takes credit cards, but is not encrypted and secure.

Make sure your site looks professional. If your site looks like it was created over the weekend by your teenage nephew, don’t expect people to buy.

Get some good buzz out there. Referrals and word of mouth are very effective, so generate some good buzz on social networking sites, forums, etc. Have testimonials of satisfied customers on your site as well.

Don’t neglect traditional forms of marketing. So many new net entrepreneurs rely solely on internet marketing, and that is a mistake. Print business cards and brochures or postcards, do some personal networking, and you’ll get people to visit your site.

Repeat business is always easier to get than new business. Send monthly e-mail newsletters to customers who have already purchased from you. Promote new products and specials.

These are just a few ideas, and the basic idea is to build trust and confidence in those who browse your site. Good luck!