Executionists - We Get Web Done

By Jessie Jo Blalock

In an age where organic products, green lifestyles, and holistic practices prevail, websites are leaning towards a more modern, Zen approach by drawing upon minimalist design. As far as the success of website goes, it is no secret that “content is king,” however, in 2010 it is about keeping the superficial layer of the website less…. superficial. Akin to Feng Shui , everything in web design should serve a purpose, placement is key, and the absence of clutter is essential. A website should feel natural while being aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly. The last thing a website’s design should create is a disruption to a user’s online chi.

Minimalist web design goes hand-in-hand with the changing tone of media communications in general. As society becomes more Internet savvy and media literate, they are less likely to surrender to noisy, manipulative marketing schemes. Like the persistent salesman in the room who is trying too hard to sell everyone everything, people are avoiding cluttered websites for ones that are less intrusive. Websites are beginning to remove all the useless bells and whistles and strip down to their bare essentials. Now more than ever, the focus of modern web design is on clear, effective communication and content. Though a trendy minimalist design might be just as calculating as it’s predecessors, it produces a more tranquil and raw experience for users while being more intuitive and efficient.

Trends

The notion that history repeats is universal. In the realm of design, to repeat history is to pay homage to its predecessors. Repetition emerges as reinvention and reinvention transpires to become a trend. “Design trends do not exist to be followed. They exist to be broken, reshaped and abolished by the spirit of creativity rippling through the design community” explains Vitaly Freidman, Editor in Chief, Smashing Magazine. The following are design “trends” have been manipulated to sustain the changing web atmosphere.

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by Diana Ratliff

Congratulations! Your new (or redesigned) Web site is done. All that time and effort you spent choosing the perfect online showcase for your product or service is finally over. Now, you can kick back, relax and wait for that flood of Web site visitors. Right?

Not so fast. I wish it were that easy, but you still have work to do!

As I mentioned in a previous column, “If you build it, they will come” is a myth when it comes to the Internet. You have to spread the word about your new site in as many ways as possible. The search engines are one method, and next time I’ll explain what they look for.

Just as important, especially for businesses that market locally, is publicizing your new Web site in offline, traditional ways.

Before you do that, however, I suggest you have a few friends or colleagues take a thorough look at your Web site. Ask them to test forms and videos and any other interactive features. Have them look for typos, misspellings, broken links and other mistakes that might have gotten past you and your Web designer.

It does happen. I just found references to a competitor in the links on a Realtor friend’s Web site. It turns out these two Realtors used the same local Web design company. Somehow, data from one site was copied to the other during the design process. Oops!

And if you’re not absolutely certain that some sort of tracking software was installed (I recommend Google Analytics), ask your Web designer to add it.

You want to know right from the start how many people visit your site, what pages they find interesting and how they find you to begin with.

Once you’ve made these checks and are certain your site is ready to go, it’s time to start telling people!

Make sure your new Web site address is on all of your promotional material, including business cards, brochures, catalogs, signs, packaging, invoices and letterhead. Add it to your e-mail signature as well. You can even mention it on your voice mail greeting, perhaps ending your message by saying “Sign up for our Preferred Customer Discount Club at our new Web site, www.MyCoolNewSite.com.”

You can create promotional items such as pens, magnets, bookmarks and other goodies to give away for the sole purpose of promoting your new site. Make these freely available at the office, or hand them out at conferences, networking events and exhibitions.

Make sure past and current clients know about your new site. Send out a special e-mail, perhaps with an offer that’s only available to people who click on your Web site’s link within that message.

If direct mail is part of your marketing strategy, send out a custom postcard, perhaps with a screenshot of your Web site’s home page and an incentive to visit the site.

Don’t forget that donors, vendors, business partners and industry associations will be interested in your new Web site, too. Update your contact information at the chamber of commerce, the Yellow Pages, alumni associations and in online directories.

If you can persuade them to do so, have owners of complementary businesses make the announcement to their clients and contacts. Ask them to link from their Web site to yours if they have not done so already.

Use social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to share the news. And again, encourage your friends to tell their friends, especially if you’re offering some sort of discount or deal for a limited time.

If your new site is a redesign of an existing site, say so on the home page. Tell people right upfront what changes you’ve made, how it’s more user-friendly and what helpful new tools are available. And put your Web site address in your print ads! It amazes me how many people spend the money to advertise in Doormail, the Tribune or Inside Columbia and fail to include their Web address in the ad.

Your Web site is an extremely valuable complement to your print advertising. You can say much more on your Web site than you ever can in a print ad. Plus, you can use audio and video to make your product more enticing and capture people’s contact information so you can market to them over and over again.

A print ad that encourages people to visit a Web site for more information or a special offer maximizes the profit potential of both advertising media.

This article is republished with permission from The Columbia Daily Tribune of Columbia, Missouri, and can be found in its original form here, and is written by Diana Ratliff, who can be contacted at diana@yourfriendontheweb.com



By Jansen Granflor

A common misconception about social networks is that you have to be on them 24 hours a day to see results for your business. The truth is, all you have to do is create a basic profile on a handful of social media networks, like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, that your clients or customers already log onto. It doesn’t have to tell your entire company history, just some basic information regarding what you do, links to your website, and solid contact information. Your goal is not to gain thousands of fans and followers on these sites, but to spread the word around to a more specific clientele. The average computer user now uses social networks like Yelp to find businesses and reviews on products and services from real people. By linking your website to your social media networks, you can leverage testimonials from actual customers to web surfers. One positive review from a happy customer can open the door for so many more.

Social media profiles and company blogs are often setup by small businesses, but never maintained. The truth is social media information is very simple to update and can be used for marketing, customer service, and feedback via comments. It can also make you, the small business owner, seem hip and trendy in the eyes of your customers. The fanbase you build with these tools will bring you more business, and if you run out of things to say, you can post updates by simply announcing limited-time promotions or discounts, or introducing new products or services. Remember to always improve your SEO (search engine optimization) by linking your business to as many online directories and websites as possible, as this will not only put you on the map in your neighborhood and field of specialty, but it might also get you some media coverage, further boosting you up in Google search results.

Placing social media links on your homepage will help you increase web traffic, but keep in mind you don’t want your potential customers to link to a social media profile that hasn’t been touched in months, so update early and often. You can also use social media to get to know potential customers, by listening to their comments, and responding to their inquiries. Sometimes, they will be upfront and ask for a product or service you don’t offer, or tell you your prices are too high. You can address and reward them directly, and get to know them by name, which leads to referrals, and more business. It’s a sales pitch that doesn’t feel like one. Use social networks to tell your customers who you are, what inspired you, where you started your business, and how you got it all started. Set up a blog as a way to speak to your customers indirectly, and they can read and comment if they choose to.

Socializing is only half of social networking – the other half is networking, so use your social hub not only to get more customers, but perhaps you can meet better vendors, and cheaper suppliers. Social networking sites increase competition, but you can embrace your competitors, and exchange tips and feedback since you both experience similar issues on a regular basis. If you have a problem you can’t solve, maybe a similar business has a solution, which you in turn can pass on to help another business owner. Social media creates buzz, helps networking, and, of course, increases business for everyone. It’s a genuine way of getting to know your customers, and it doesn’t take too much of your free time, and can actually be fun, and engaging.

Jansen can be reached at jansen@executionists.com

By James Copper

There are millions of websites on the internet all competing for the attention of users. This makes the design of your website very important if you want to stand any chance of surviving. You can spend huge sums of money promoting your site, but if the website design isn’t up to scratch then it’s not going to make any difference.

Before you look at SEO or other promotional campaigns, you should first experiment with the design of your site. All good web designers should already be aware about the importance of good website design.

Simple

Sometimes simple is better and this is true on the internet. It is possible to create stunning and very advanced sites. These are time consuming and can also take a long time to load. It is almost always best to stick to simple website designs.

Be careful if you are ever using pop-up windows as most people have pop-up blockers. These can also cause irritation if used too often. Simple websites will load quicker and will be indexed by search engines much quicker.

Titles

Every single page of your site should be valuable. All of these should have a clear aim in mind and should have a title. The title must contain your keywords as this will help to get your site indexed in search engines.

You can find out about keywords which you might like to use by using keyword tools like the one offered by Google.

Images

Using images on your website is great and will look fantastic. However you need to be careful not to overdo it. If you include too many images on your site then this can slow it down and make it take much longer to load.

The same goes for flash. Flash may make sites look professional to some people but it also makes it slow down. It also means that many people will have to download additional software to view your site. If you must use flash then keep it to an absolute minimum, not that many people appreciate flash websites anyway.

The main problem with flash and images is that search engine robots cannot see what they are. They will only index a site based on the text content. Set the alternate labels to try and reduce the impact this has on your site.

Meta Tags

When you’re designing websites it might be tempting to ignore meta tags and other information. However the meta description is used by search engines and should be able to encourage surfers to visit your site. Make sure you create a unique meta description and put the right one on each page.

Text Links

You must be very careful to create text links to different pages of your site even if you have another form of navigation. These are normally displayed at the bottom of each page. This will make it much easier for web spiders and robots to crawl your website and index it in search engines.

You need to be able to consider SEO at the time you design your website. If you design your website correctly then you should be able to make it look appealing to search engines.

James Copper is a writer for http://www.thebigagency.co.uk, and can be reached at info@thebigagency.co.uk

1) Organic Traffic: With their Universal Search protocol, Google has started showing press releases in organic search results. If your press release is well-optimized, it can rank for two to three days in Google organic results. The press release can also get traffic from Google News and other news aggregator websites.

2) Link Building: You can use your important keywords as anchor text and link them to relevant pages on your website. When the press release is distributed these links will be picked up by distribution partners. Links from many of these sites will not be counted, but some of them will.  No matter how big or small your business, link building within your website is a great way to get aggressive on the web.

3) Reputation Management: If someone has criticized your company, one sure way to get the criticism off the first page of Google Blog Search or Google search results is to issue multiple press releases. Of course, if you want to do a professional job, then you need to get external links to your press releases and bookmark and tag these releases.

4) Bloggers and Web 2.0 Audience: Many bloggers subscribe to online press release distribution services like PRWeb. If your press release interests them, they might blog about it and give a link to your press release or your website. If you consistently reach out to this audience, you can get significant links, traffic and sales from them.

5) Traffic from Traditional Media: If your press release interests journalists, they will follow up with you and write a story about your business.This will most certainly lead to a short term boost in your website traffic and sales.

By: Milind Mody

Article Source

1. They insist on copying Apple’s interface and ignore your alternate (more appropriate) design options.

2. They want their site search to be “simple – like Google’s” and within their budget of $500.

3. They think their “tiny edits” should only “take a few minutes”.

4. They think you can “slap together a social networking site” in a week.

5. They think you can control how fast their new site will be indexed by the search engines.

6. They think they can get to the top of Google by paying an SEO company $69.95 a month

7. They think that calling you every 5 minutes will get their project done quicker.

8. They think you have a development team ready and waiting for their “rush” project.

9. They think you can figure out their server and application setup without giving you the access or an IT person who gives a damn.

10. They dismiss the value of a project planning phase as a “waste of time and money”.

11. They want their website to work in ALL browsers, even Opera and IE 6.

12. They think if they “build it” people will flock to it even without a business plan or marketing strategy.

13. They think the world will implode if their logo is 1 pixel too far to the right.

14. They think they can write their own compelling site content even though they have no background in copy writing.

15. They are comparing your development services to their cousin Melvin who built a MySpace page for his band.

16. They want you to just “you know, come up with some copy” that sells their product even though you’re the designer.

17. They want everything on the page to “pop” more.

18. They want the buttons to have that “gel look,” even if the rest of the site has a different feel.

19. They want you to find that perfect photo for their site from stock photography.

20. Their only direction is, “They’ll know it when they see it.”

*Note: These examples do represent actual clients (although we will deny it if they confront us).  Feel free to comment with examples of your own “The Client is Always Right When…” experiences.