SEO & Online Marketing

Archive for the ‘web design’ Category

Splish – Splash

Posted: February 17th, 2009 Author: Michael Regan Posted in commentary, marketing, SEO, web design | No Comments »

There was a post in one of the Google groups I belong to about splash pages. The group was for web developers, and the person was asking about integrating a spash page into WordPress.

This was the second time I had come across someone interested in a Splash page in the last two weeks. The first was from a potential customer who wanted us to do some SEO on her Splash page. The rest of the site was Flash and she wanted the Splash page to carry the SEO for the rest of the site. When we couldn’t convince her to redo the site without the Splash page – and the Flash pages as supplements to a regular site, we gently refused the job.

Splash pages were concieved, rather poorly, as an introduction to the main site. Think of your website as a store. Have you ever seen a store with someone guarding the door saying:

“You can’t come inside until I waste your time telling you nothing about our product or what we do. Thank you for listening — you may now enter the store.”

Sounds like something out of a Seinfeld sketch.

Who Does Your Web Page Feature

Posted: February 10th, 2009 Author: Michael Regan Posted in business, marketing, web design | 2 Comments »

Take a critical look at your website. Does the first page show off your product or your web designers skills?

Too many web designers see your web page as a place to show off their skills. While you want your website to be attractive, the focus MUST be on the product and not the designer’s skills.

Colour selection, image placement and page copy must all focus on the product. Getting this right separates the business website from those that just pretend to be business sites.

Here are three things you can check to see how well your website supports your product:

Is the header less than ¼ of the visible page in height?
Is the product identified above the fold?
Is the call to action above the fold?

Unless the header is featuring your product it shouldn’t take up more than ¼ of the page. The product and the call to action should be seen without having to scroll down the page.

They Are Not Looking

Posted: September 23rd, 2008 Author: Michael Regan Posted in marketing, web design | No Comments »

Launching a new website is always an exciting event. Finally, all the effort any planning of the last few months is going to start paying off.

Launching a site for our first major client was even more exciting. Our budding reputation was riding on this site. We wanted everything to be perfect. And, we thought it was. The client, a local resort, was happy, the site looked great, even the transfer to the new site went smooth.

The client had spread the word about th new site to her friends and suppliers and we were anxiously waiting for feedback. To our surprise the first comment we got back was “How do I book a room?”.

We checked the site – there was “BOOK NOW” graphic in the top left corner. We checked the link and it was working. What was wrong.

We now know, thanks to studies by Enquiro that some graphics can act as a barrier. “Blending your conversion trigger into that graphic makes it invisible.” In our case, the “BOOK NOW” graphic was overlaid on the main header graphic.

The solution was quick and simple. We added a “BOOK NOW” link into the menu. Later we did our own study we confirmed – no one was clicking on the graphic.

Fortunately, the client is still with us — only the graphic is gone.

Branding With The Favicon

Posted: July 1st, 2008 Author: Michael Regan Posted in branding, business, marketing, sales, SEM, web design | No Comments »

I get a wide variety of news letters. Many contain links to articles posted on other sites. It was one of these links that sent me to an article on CiO Zone.

The site defines itself as a social networking site for IT professionals. As the page finished loading – even before I read the article this -> <- caught my eye. It is the Joomla favicon. Instantly the site lost all credibility. A site that claims to be for IT professionals does not tell potential hackers what content management system it is using.

The favicon is displayed in the address bar on all browsers and in the tabs on browsers that support tabbed browsing. It identifies who you are and is associated with your brand.

Your favicon should be unique and, if possible, reflect your business name, product or service. It acts as a visual link between the page being displayed and your brand.

While small in size, only 16×16 pixels, the favicon is one of the many small things you can do to brand your site.

See my article on online branding for more information.

You Get What You Need

Posted: June 4th, 2008 Author: Michael Regan Posted in branding, marketing, USP, web design | No Comments »

Mick Jagger studied at the London School of Economics. Which probably explains why he still owns the right to his songs. And is one of the biggest players in the music industry.

Of course that doesn’t explain why I turn to the ‘Stones’ when ever I need some to do solve a particularly irksome problem. There is something about the music and the lyrics that lets my mind play ‘connect-the-dots’.

One of the reoccurring problems every web developer faces is the customer who wants to tell you how their site should be built.

We all want client input. They pay the bills after all. But, when the client moves from giving input to taking on the design role the poor web developer is in a bind. They can give the client what they want and be blamed when the site looks like cr.. Or, they can risk losing the contract and give the client what they need.

I have a proposal to get ready for a potential client. The client wants the site to be similar to their competitor’s. The competitor’s sites a very elegant with lots of eye candy. Their marketing is focused on the lifestyle and experience that come with the product.

The client has a more practical version of the product. Useful and utilitarian. Their potential customers want product information.

Do I give the client what they want – or do I try and convince them we have a better idea.

Which is of course where Jagger comes in:

You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you just might find
You just might find
You get what you need, ah yes…

Ah Yes . . .

Are You Being Served?

Posted: May 1st, 2008 Author: Michael Regan Posted in marketing, SEM, SEO, web design | No Comments »

You may remember the phrase ‘Are You Being Served?’ as the title of an old British comedy series that pops up on the public TV channels. It was a parody of everything that was wrong with British stores in the 50′s and 60′s. However, the phrase itself is still relevant.

The concept of service still gets a lot of lip service. Food stores advertise ‘customer service’ while making us bag our own groceries. Banks tout ‘customer service’ but limit the number of tellers forcing us to do our own banking online, or at an ATM. It may be convenient, but it is not ‘customer service’.

‘Customer service’ means just that — serving the customer. It does not mean forcing the customer to do things the way you want. Every customer is an individual. Customers need to be able to decide how and when they will interact with your company. The customer, not the manager, decides what ‘customer service’ means to them.

How does that apply online?

It means designing a site where information can be easily found; where every page has at least one method on contacting you; and where the customer, not the designer, decides if they want to view a video or flash.

It means testing your site with real people to see how they use the site; having a site that is accessible to customers with screen readers; and being W3C compliant.

Customer service, means what your customers say it means. Open a dialog with your customers. Ask the question – “Are you being served?”

Too Good Not to Share

Posted: April 9th, 2008 Author: Michael Regan Posted in SEM, SEO, web design | No Comments »

I don’t usually pass along links. But, every now and then one comes along that is so good you just have to share it.

Finding a new way to get your message out is never easy. It becomes more of a challenge when that message is considered “geeky”. And there aren’t too many things more “geeky” than web standards – but check it out!

5 Text Based Mistakes

Posted: April 3rd, 2008 Author: Michael Regan Posted in web design | No Comments »

It seems to be coming ‘de rigueur’ to have some sort of a list on your blog. So here is my list of the top five website text errors.

Lack of white space. White space breaks up the page and makes it easier to read.
Centered text. I know it is hard to believe but there are millions of lines of centered text. Centered text is OK for titles and headings. And, even there it should b used sparingly. English text is either left justified or fully justified text.
Columns that are too wide. Did you ever see a newspaper where the text was the full width of the page? Most magazines use two or more columns. Only books use the full page width. The width of the column is determined by the font size. A ‘rule of thumb’ is making the column between 40 and 50 characters wide. Also, don’t write to the edge of the page – allow a 5 character wide gutter.
Font that is too small. OK – the users can alway override your font settings. But why should they have to bother. Having the user reset the font size is going to screw up that nice layout.
Dark on dark or light on light font colours. Unless the purpose of the page is to cloak the text from the user, use standard colours for your text and background.

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