The Problem With Most Websites A lot of small business owners launch their website with the simple goal of using the site as an information portal and a mechanism to talk about their company. It is basic human nature to be egocentric. The problem with this methodology is that it generic. Simply talking about yourself isn’t a differentiator for your website, product, or service offering. It doesn’t compel your website visitor to take action. No matter what the search criteria is, a typical internet user can visit hundreds, no millions, of websites that all present the same type of Read more
A Box for Every Website Visitor
Posted in: Website Design | January 25, 2011
I tend to compartmentalize things and people. I mentally place people in boxes and segment them out into groups like my nuclear family (husband and kids), my extended family, my neighbors, my best friend and so on. I’ve often referred to these groups as my “boxes” and I do not like them to intermingle or randomly change. These boxes structure my communication and they dictate how I interact with one individual versus another. For example, I know I can pretty much tell my best friend anything and she’ll continue to love me, which is an example of our boundaries and expectations. Read more
Fifteen Questions to Ask Your Future Website Designer
Posted in: Website Design | December 28, 2010
Recently my sister decided to launch a website and blog. With my encouragement she selected WordPress as her platform of choice and then set out to locate a WordPress consultant. Why didn’t she come to me you ask? Well honestly, I didn’t want to work with family and I could not begin to meet her list of needs. Sisterhood aside, we both knew we were not an ideal fit for each other. She wanted a cute blog with minimal website functionality and that isn’t my strength. I’m a B2B or B2C girl who likes to work with small businesses and not so much individual bloggers. I wasn’t a Read more
Each Page of Your Website is Like a Handshake
Posted in: Website Design | April 7, 2010
Each page of your website is like a handshake. Really. To illustrate this statement, let me set the stage for you. You are manning your company’s booth at a trade show and a prospect wonders by and is within reach. This person looks at your booth, pauses, and then takes a brief moment to ask about your product or service offering. What do you say? Remember - you only have about one minute to make an impression and keep their interest. You have about the time it takes to shake someone’s hand. Read more
When a Website Designer’s Good Intentions Go Bad
Posted in: Website Design | November 23, 2009
Today I am meeting with a client to review the design and build of his new website. Quite frankly I’m not looking forward to this meeting. I am the barrier of bad news. When I originally accepted this project, I could see Google had indexed about 1,000 pages within his domain. While it would take some time to migrate and optimize this many pages, I was up for the challenge. The goal is to give him a more SEO friendly site that he can maintain himself in WordPress. If that meant throwing in some plugins and optimizing 1,000 pages, so be it. Last week I reviewed his Google Read more
WordPress is the Liberator of Growing Businesses
Posted in: Website Design | November 12, 2009
I have always been a fan of WordPress. Okay, let me rephrase that. Since I discovered WordPress, I have always been a great fan. Similar to other people, I was hesitant at first. I thought it was simply a blogging application with limited capabilities. I equated it to Google’s Blogger and thought it was solely used for bloggers and it was much to limited for a real corporate website. Thankfully, I was wrong. WordPress liberated me and it has liberated many website designers and business owners around the world. It is liberating because it is free and it is easy enough for Read more
Gomez Launches Cool Gizmo for Website Developers
Posted in: Website Design | June 29, 2009
Gomez just released a cool gizmo that reviews a website and displays how it looks across various browsers. Why does this matter some may ask? A single website page can look differently across different browsers such as Internet Explorer, Safari, or Firefox. In fact, different versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer can make the same website look different if it is not written to manage IE's quirks. Yes, the fact that web developers have to worry about this amazes me as much as it probably surprises you. This "quirkiness" of Internet Explorer may given companies with older Read more
In Website Design, Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder
Posted in: Website Design | April 22, 2009
When it comes designing websites, small businesses are many times victim to the old saying that states "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Unlike large corporations with large in-house website design and Internet marketing departments, small businesses are left to their own ill-equipped devices or left in the hands of an outsourced website design firm. It generally takes a third party to point out a website's physical and esthetic flaws. Sometimes it takes a few hundred of your dearest friends and colleagues to convince you that your website is ugly. An ugly website can come in many Read more
Do I Really Need a Website?
Posted in: Website Design | March 22, 2009
Unless you live in a cave and sell your products and services to other cave dwellers, you need a website. As my friend once said, "I have to have a website because everyone else has one." He is right. While he may not be the most technology focused person I know, he is a small business owner and he sells products and services to every day people. Since most of his B2C (business to consumer) prospects use the Internet to research their future purchases, the company must have a website for prospective customers to review information about his company and product offering. If you are a small Read more