How to Design a Mobile Website

October 15th, 2011

Tags:
Posted in Mobile Website Design, Web Site Design

Mobile websites are becoming more and more popular as the use of Smartphones picks up at a fast pace. People love their mobile phones. Whether you’re walking down the street or inside a shopping mall, sitting in a coffee shop or at the airport, half the people around you are looking down at their cellphones. So, how do you design a mobile website?

I’m going to explain very quickly the elements you need in order to make a mobile website functional and easy to use for your visitors. Your main website colours can be incorporated into your design as can your main logo or graphic header. The point of a mobile website is to make it as quick loading and simplistic as you can. So what you need to do is make sure the header graphic you use is resized to fit a mobile screen.

In regards to information, I recommend you take only the most vital information and have some simple tabs for each one on the front page. What you have listed depends on your business. Remember, you don’t need every tab showing on the home page.

By all means list categories on the home page which lead to other pages on your mobile site. This will make the mobile site easier to use for visitors.

You should, without a doubt, place your contact information on the mobile site as well as all the places you are listed on social media, such as, – Twitter, Facebook, Google + and LinkedIn. Don’t forget to add a link to the desktop version of your website.

When it comes to content, you don’t want to fill each page with a novel’s worth of writing. Keep it simple and straight to the point. Additionally you can add an opt-in newsletter.

Designing a mobile website is not so complex as the desktop version of your site. If you’re not sure how to do it, hire a professional mobile website designer.

post-247

The Importance of Google Analytics

September 7th, 2011

Tags:
Posted in Google Analytics, google tools

If you’ve ever talked to an internet guru, you probably have heard of Google Analytics. It sounds like a very advanced, scientific program, and to a point, it even sounds intimidating. The fact is that Google Analytics is a great tool for anyone who is looking to expand their business through the internet. Not sure what Google Analytics does, or whether it’s even worth looking into? We’ll explain everything in this article.

What Is Google Analytics, Anyway?

Google Analytics is one of the search engine giant’s best gifts to internet marketers and SEO specialists around the world, plain and simple. SEO specialists can use it to track ads and keywords. Analytics uses the information that Google gets from your traffic to find out whether or not your online marketing investments have been paying off. It traces the traffic from links, keywords, and ad campaigns, and gives you a full report about how well your site is faring. If you have been wondering what keywords you should optimize your search engine with, Google Analytics can help. This handy program is one of the very few which can tell you where “weight loss” or “dieting tips” will get you more traffic.

What Are Google Analytics’s Major Benefits?

Google Analytics has a goal-setting and goal-tracking aspect that helps you keep track of how many people are visiting your site. It doesn’t only help you get more traffic through your goals. Analytics also helps you get a higher conversion rate from traffic to purchases. The program reports your e-commerce statistics, and even helps you track offline ads. Online ads and email advertising campaigns are difficult enough to keep track of with regular programs. Google Analytics is one of the very few that can even keep track of offline advertisements.

A very noticeable perk for business owners that want to have an all-in-one package when it comes to internet marketing is that Google Analytics is linked with several major advertising programs. Both Google Adsense and Google Adwords can be accessed by Analytics with ease, and you can view your return on investment of both. Analytics will even tell you the cost per click, as well as which publishers give you the most revenue.

The biggest benefit that Google Analytics has over its competitors is probably the mobile goal tracking that comes with the product. Business owners on the go can finally take work with them on their phone, and track the traffic that their site is getting, no matter where they are. As long as you have an Android phone, or an iPhone, you can access Google Analytics to find out how well your business is faring.

Google Analytics – The Coolest Analysis You’ll Find On The Net

One of the most interesting charts that Google Analytics shows you is the cross-channel and multimedia tracking chart. Most internet marketers try to get leads on all fronts – YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter, and article submissions are all very common ways to get traffic to a site. Have you ever wondered if you should just drop one of the marketing tactics you’ve been using? Google Analytics can actually tell you whether or not that’s a good idea. It can track video, flash, social network apps, mobile apps, and more. Along with tracking the number of hits, it also can tell you what the lead conversion happens to be. So, if you found out that your YouTube campaign only caused 2 sales in the past month, you can thank Google Analytics for the enlightenment. For those of us who love to save time and money, this is a very important analysis to check out.

Who Needs Google Analytics?

Website owners should definitely consider using Google Analytics, since the web stats it provides are both useful and fascinating. Professional business owners who are looking to get their site search engine optimized for maximum profit don’t want Google Analytics – they need it. It only makes sense; Google Analytics tells people what works, and what doesn’t. No one wants to needlessly spend money on advertisements that don’t work, right?

Anyone who wants to get their name out there needs Google Analytics. This includes businesses, aspiring models, film producers, artists, bands, and writers. After all, your website can have the best copy, the most incredible artwork, and the most advanced design the internet has ever seen. If you don’t have the right search engine optimization strategies, you will end up with a website that exists in obscurity.

post-242

Fotolia Stock Images

July 15th, 2011

Posted in Web Site Design

Recently, I had the opportunity to to review Fotolia stock images. Fotolia has a large database of royalty free photos to choose from – perfect for web and graphic designers.. The site allows individuals and businesses to buy royalty free photos and illustrations at an affordable price.The images are tagged well. Fotolia is a user friendly site which offers either subscription based service or individual image purchases. To download images, you will need an account with Fotolia. The sign up process is quick and easy. Once you have chosen your image, you have two options to download the image, either direct download or a ‘rescue download’ by clicking the link and saving the image on your computer.

Fotolia offers 3 ways to search for images:
- enter keywords in the search box at the top of each page
- Use their ‘Advanced Gallery & Category’ search.
- click on ‘Top Tags.’

Lightbox can be used to save or retrieve an image.

As with other image sites, Fotolia uses credits to buy images. The price depends on the size of the image.  I was able to find several business photos and vectors, which I use in my web design projects. The pictures are of very high quality and you can find plenty of nice images

Overall I am happy with Fotolia and will continue to use it. Recommend you check it out at www.fotolia.com.

post-234

The Top 5 Google Tools, and How They Can Help Your Business

June 5th, 2011

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in google tools

Google has a lot of  useful tools. Many of them have gotten rave reviews, and some have basically exploded onto the scene, revolutionizing every business that comes in contact with them. You have likely heard of many of the Google Tools on this list, if not all of them. Google has come out with plenty of other tools that didn’t quite make the list – Google Scholar, Google Books, and Google Finance, to name a few. So, what are the 5 Google Tools that just about every business should have? Read on, and we’ll explain the most useful applications that Google Tools offers.

1. Google Places – This Google Tool might as well be called Google Free Advertising. Google Places allows people to compare notes on businesses, helps (literally) put your name on the map, and also helps direct traffic to your business. Moreover, the more information that you put on Google Places, the more prominent it will be in search results. People can also post information for you in terms of reviews and comments. This is free advertising,  done easy. Need we say any more?

2. Google Keyword Tool – Much like Google trends, the Google Keyword Tool helps you learn all the latest marketing keywords to add to your site description. AdWords does more than just help figure out how popular your keywords are; they also can estimate the amount of traffic your site will receive. For many businesses, this is a priceless tool.

3. Google Trends – As anyone knows, learning the popular keywords that people use to find out about products and services is crucial. Google Trends tells which keywords are popular, and which keywords are lagging in numbers. News, celebrities, and ideas all are captured through Google Trends. This might be one of the more interesting trendy marketing tools that any search engine offers its users.

4. Google Adsense – Google Tools came up with a way to monetize just about any blog, using their own ads program. For individuals and companies looking for a monetary boost, this is the Google Tool for you! The fact that Google Adsense manages to find a method that makes both Google and consumers just a little richer makes Adsense one of the top inventions that the search engine giant has created.

5. Google Docs – This is a tool from Google Tools that makes sharing in between coworkers possible at the blink of an eye. It can work with everything from Microsoft Office, to Open Office, to the basic Rich Text Files, and also can help cross the Microsoft formatting barrier  that happens with many different computer users. If you need to share documents, spreadsheets, and illustrations, Google Docs is the best way to do it.

Honorable Mention: Google Earth. This list was actually intended for a business owner’s needs, but Google Earth is so entertaining that it’s worth mentioning. People have been known to whittle away hours, days, even weeks, on this Google Tool. YouTube videos have been compiled with the strange and wonderful things Google Earth has captured. Entire websites have been created to celebrate Google Earth. It’s not a marketing tool by most people’s standards, but it is an incredible invention. Well…if you have a very large lot, you might be able to paint something in the grass that could show up on Google Earth.

post-231

Redirecting File Names with a 301 Redirect

May 10th, 2011

Tags:
Posted in Search engine optimization

Redirecting File Names

Why would a developer spend so much time on redirecting file names? If your web pages are appearing in the major search engines, this is crucial. In the event of an upgrade and a change in file name, sites which haven’t redirected their file names will lose traffic. Worse, it could take months for a search engine to recognize that the site no longer exists. A great way to avoid this is by redirecting file names. Redirecting file names keeps your traffic, content, and files intact.

There are major problems associated with keeping a site that doesn’t redirect file names. A site that doesn’t redirect old files is often seen as buggy, since error messages will frequently show on the page whenever a file is “missing.” Traffic that comes from search engine results from an old file or web page will never find its way to your new web page. Since your site will appear error-prone and new traffic doesn’t come in, it’s likely that traffic will decrease. So, how do you redirect files names?

How Can You Redirect File Names?

A 301 redirect is the easiest way to do this. “301” is the error code that tells people that the file has been moved permanently. The 301 redirect is meant for web pages and is best coded by a web developer or web designer. Although redirecting file names isn’t too rough a process, it can be tedious. For those who are more DIY in personality, and enjoy coding, a 301 redirect is easy enough to do.

The 301 redirect is done by including a .htaccess file which search engines are designed to look for. In it, all you need to do in order to safely redirect files is use given commands to redirect the old file locations to the new files. Most of the codes as well as all of the steps necessary that you need to do in order to redirect files can be found on the net.

A 301 redirect is necessary to keep any webpage up-to-date, and safe from lost traffic. Only a 301 redirect is the easiest, the most efficient, and the most transparent method to redirect filenames.

post-226
« Older Entries