Category Archives: web design
Secrets to Web Design Sucess
This is one in a series of posts that will offer little bits of advise for making sure your website is user friendly for both your visitors and you back-end user.
Keeping your site in order
It’s important to keep the data on your website organized. One thing that can help is a content management system. Content Management Systems (CMS) will not only provide you with a means of editing your website with little or no knowledge of things like HTML, CSS, or other coding languages. CMS’s keep your website organized by being database driven and they often offer many different ways to organize your data. They can help you keep things organized inside of categories or through tagging (often used for blogs) or even by the simple act of keeping information listed on your website in data order.
Customizing your website order
Even with all of the built in ways that your CMS allows you to keep your data organized you might still need want to be able to customize the order in which items on your website are seen. If your CMS doesn’t give you the option to manually re-order your information you might want to look for add-ons or widgets that will allow you to do so.
We recently launched a real estate website for a client where they not only needed to organize property listings by categories (how many bedrooms, location, or property type) but also to organize those listings within the categories in order to move different listings up or down to try to move certain properties faster. We built the site in WordPress and we happily found a widget that allowed the realty company employees to drag-and-drop the listings in order to reorder them.
While they are able to rearrange their listings it’s important to remember that WordPress – their CMS is still keeping their data organized in a database so it can easily be searched for, located, and worked on.
If you’re website is less than organized contact us and we can discuss how to get your site clean and organized.
Highland Trace Realty Website
Selling homes in the Potomac Highlands
W. D. Orkoskey and Assoc. just finished up the redesign of highlandtrace.com which went from this:
to this:
The new website is fresh, functional, and usable. The old site was outdated, poorly focused, and not very user friendly. Plus the old site was not being maintained in-house meaning that they needed to rely on a designer at their web-host to make changes, add new listings and photos, take listings down, and to correct errors in listings. All of these things were taking time, sometimes days, as the obligations of the designer at their host were on a whole list of websites and not just Highland Trace’s site. If you’ve ever sold, bought, or even just looked for a home you know how important it is for the information to be correct and up-to-date.
What they really needed was a website they could maintain themselves or at least that they could add listings to and edit those listings.
WordPress to the rescue
We decided to go with a WordPress install because it’s robust, database backed, (and therefore organized), and is easy to learn. Plus we knew that we could make the site look fantastic and include a lot of the features that both the end user and the owner really demand from a real estate site such as:
- Searchability - the ability to enter one or a series of choices to narrow a search such as location, property type, etc.
- Structure - the redesign has a very structured look and feel allowing the user to quickly come to understand where to find specific information on each listing.
- Categorization - while this isn’t the most important thing for an end user it’s vital to keeping such a large website organized for the back-end editors.
- Pictures - all parties involved from the visitor to the site, to the agent, to the seller want to see lots of great photos – photos help visitors narrow down what properties they want to see and they help the seller and their agent get their property sold faster.
- Secondary Information - real estate listings often need to contain land management documents, community chartered rules, and/or other information that these days are typically stored in PDF form. These may be long documents and don’t fit easily as text on a listing. We chose to include these documents where they were needed in their PDF format so individual website visitors could access the data at any time but were not slowed down by information overload.
Demographics
The basic needs of a real estate website are easily defined. However to design a successful site you’ve got to look at demographics. Highland Trace sells to local buyers looking to buy within a set geographic area which is large and not heavily populated as well as selling vacation or second homes to mainly affluent GLBT couples from the DC metro area. Both of these groups needed a website that was more functional that what Highland Trace had before and now they are able to offer an easy to use no-nonsense website that both their target demographics can use without frustration.
SEO and Analytics
As with all of our websites we provide training on how to best use the site to increase visits from the target demographics. The folks from Highland Trace can now work on building their visitorship through SEO and can track those increases via Google Analytics which they now will use during marketing and strategy meetings to make sure they are seeing the results they want.
Visit the Potomac Highlands!
We wish Highland Trace well and hope that the new website will bring them lots of customers. If you’ve never been to the Potomac Highlands where Highland Trace sells properties I urge you to visit. Hardy County, where Highland Trace is headquartered is as wild and wonderful as West Virginia gets. It’s home to the Lost River, loads of Civil War sites, amazing biking, fishing, hiking, horseback riding, and motorcycling. There are a collection of amazingly priced bed and breakfasts, small independently owned Inns, and cabins for rent, amazing crafts, mountaintop views that you can’t find anywhere else in the eastern US, and lots more waiting for you when you go.
Chances are really good that once you’re there you’ll start thinking of how to arrange your finances so you too can buy a vacation home in the Potomac Highlands!
Mobile Search Insights
New York Times Reports on Innovations in Mobile Search
There was a really good article that appeared in the New York Times back on April 25th that I just managed to find. You can read the article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/25/technology/25mobile.html?_r=1 and I encourage you to do so as it gives some really great insight into what Google is doing these days to innovate and make sure they keep their 97% market share.
Why is mobile search so important?
Mobile searches are gaining ground at the same pace that desktop or non-mobile searches grew at when Google first launched according to the article. Also in the article we learn that searches conducted on mobile phones will one day soon out-pace those done in non-mobile environments. As a smart-phone (Android) user with an (as of now) unlimited data plan I am quick to search for things on my phone. Google doesn’t expect that mobile searching will replace searches conducted on traditional devices and their data shows that people are more likely to search during the lunch or evening hours.
So mobile is going to be king one day – what does that mean for your business?
It means you need to be in the game. The NYT article reports that mobile search algorithms are slightly different than their non-mobile brethren in that they give more weight to location. This means that your business, if it has a physical location, needs to be listed in Google Places and needs to be easy found when searched for from a few blocks away.
This change in weight is good for small businesses because it means you can more easily compete with larger companies that have more money to toss into their search engine optimization (SEO). It begins to bring search back to a place where real world location is relevant.
97% Market Share
With Google owning 97% of the mobile search pie and that pie growing at a rate that will overtake non-mobile searching if you’re a business owner who has limited dollars to spend on SEO then you might want to focus on your search ranking in Google over Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines. I’m not suggesting that you ignore them – anything but. However if your business is one that will benefit from a high placement in mobile search results for a particular keyword then your focus should be on getting there.
Keywords are King
As the NYT article reports – Google assumed that users would use their voice search conversationally – they would speak to the phone like they would another person. When they analyzed the data what they found was that their assumption was wrong. Google had trained users to think in keywords when searching. This means that that mobile searchers tend to be more savvy which makes total sense as those that are reluctant to use non-mobile searching in this way are probably not rushing out to buy iPhones and Droids.
Heavy smart phone users are generally more comfortable with technology. That is the folks that are comfortable using their smart phone are more likely to understand computers, to understand how computers think, and to be able to interact with them. This is a good thing for your business because smart phone users still tend to be wealthier than traditional mobile phone users. The demographics are changing every day and there are patterns emerging that show some growth in users that opt for a smart phone over a computer.
Google Analytics
Like any other visitor to your website mobile users will show up in your analytics data. You can see how many people come to your site on an iPhone. Google Analytics offers limited insight into mobile. They tell you how many mobile hits for each device and what carrier they came from. What you can’t see in Google Analytics just yet is mobile vs. non-mobile searches. You can create custom reports but as of yet I’m not sure how to add a custom report for mobile because the results. If you know of any analytics packages that offer mobile vs. non-mobile search sources please add them to the comment section.
Know Your Visitor
When you look at your analytics reports you can see you’ve got visitors using this browser or that browser. You can see their connection speed and so on. All of this can help you build an idea of the people looking on your site. If their demographics done add up to the demographics that you see as customers or wish to see as customers then you’re probably not targeting your search marketing correctly (assuming that most of them came to your site via a search engine).
If you’re seeing a lot of visits from iPhones, from Android phones, or other smart phones then you can build a picture of that website visitor based on existing demographic information that exists for those phone users.
Capturing Mobile Searchers
Even if mobile searches are still only a fraction of non-mobile searches now it’s important to pay attention to the people conducting these searches are they are more likely to turn into customers faster – they are likely out of the house, running errands, and looking for what they are searching for in order to make purchase.
What are you doing that is working to snare mobile searchers and to turn those searches into paying customers?
Knowing your market
Google Search Insights
Every month I run reports from Google Analytics and several other sources to see how my websites are doing. Knowing how many hits your website has gotten is important but how do you know how many hits your website could have potentially had?
Keyword Analysis: Pittsburgh photographer
The first step to finding the answer to that question is knowing what keyword(s) you’re trying to use to bring people to your site. For me the keywords Pittsburgh photographer and event photography are very important. Google sent me 116 visitors last month for the keyword Pittsburgh photographer. I know that from looking at my Google Analytics but how do I know how many I could have gotten? For that I need to check Google’s search-based keyword tool. On average there are 200 local searches per month for the keyword Pittsburgh photographer. So that means that last month I received 116 visits out of (an average) of 200 possible visits. That’s 58% of the possible visits. What does this mean though?
It means that not only is my website web positioned for this keyword (in that it shows up in search results) but also that when it comes to searches for Pittsburgh photographers my website receives visits from over 1/2 of the people searching for photographers in Pittsburgh.
The lesson is as follows – knowing how many hits you’re getting is great but knowing those numbers compared to the potential number of hits gives you a better picture. Why spend money on expensive SEO services if you don’t know how many possible hits they can generate? Budgets are tight, don’t spend hundreds of dollars a month chasing after low numbers. Use Google’s search based keyword tool to find keywords that both relate to your business and that generate a fair amount of searches each month. Use these keywords on your website, in your content and in meta tags. Write blog posts about those keywords – like I’m doing here with the keywords Pittsburgh photographer. If you do these things you can manage your own SEO and keep the money you may otherwise be wasting paying an SEO company.
WordPress 3.0
WordPress 3.0
If I or someone else has built a website for you on WordPress and you’ve logged in within the past few days you should see a notice under the header that looks like the image on the left. It’s letting you know that WordPress 3.0 is out. Does that mean you should update? Maybe.
Who should update
If somebody else built your site you should ask them if it’s alright to update your WordPress. If I’ve designed your site please sit tight as I’ll be updating you very soon. All of my sites should be updated but I’ll need to make sure your site will update without issue first. That means that I have to make sure your plug-ins and add-ons are working.
Why Update to WordPress 3.0
WordPress 3.0 has a ton of great new features, many of which existing customers may not use but there are a few that can help make your site more useful like the new menu module which allows for multiple menus. I don’t have any clients on WordPress with multiple menus (because before it wasn’t possible) but if you’re an existing customer who is interested in adding additional menus or are a new customer looking for a designer who can build you a site on a reliable platform such as WordPress that needs multiple menus shoot me an email and we can talk about your needs.
For more info on the changes made to WordPress in the 3.0 release please check the codex page here or watch this video:
DIY
So I’ve been hounded since this past summer by both SEO companies and companies that want to “sell me leads”.
I received both a phone call and an email today from such a company. When I googled them I found this page which is a complaint board for questionable businesses. In the event that you don’t want to click on it I’ve posted my comments that I left on the page at the bottom of this post.
They were not the worst that I’ve dealt with – by far. This summer I received a call from a dude that told me his company would fill the first results page of Google with my website and only my listings whenever anyone searched for photography and Pittsburgh. He had me search for a tanning salon in California that he said they did so for. So basically I pay them an arm and a leg and they eliminate any competition in the photography field from the first few pages of Google.
I explained to him that the photo community is fraternal. We may compete for customers and there may be a plethora of shooters in Pittsburgh but I could call up about 200 of my fellow photographers here in Pittsburgh and ask them to borrow a lens or a flash and they’d gladly let me borrow it even if I had beat that person out for the job.
After realizing that I was not going to go for his pitch he began to threaten me. If I wasn’t going to pay for it he’d find someone else who will and that means that I’ll never find another job to shoot ever again (never mind the fact that less than 10% of my leads, and maybe 2% of my clients come from people finding me via a search engine). Could I do better SEO? Probably. Should I? Maybe. Am I going to pay someone else to do it? NO. I know enough that I can do so myself. The fact that I’ve written Pittsburgh and photography so many times in this post alone may lead to me jumping up a few pegs in the search results. In the end though – I find most of my work via word-of-mouth and that’s something that few people can do FOR you, if you’re not going to do it yourself as well.
As far as generating leads for me – these companies also don’t seem to do much “active lead generating” they set up a website and use what? That’s right SEO to get to the top of results and list a ton of companies. They then charge you when someone clicks on you.
The last time I checked Google Adwords start at $0.01 per click. These other companies want to charge you $10 for a service that is not anywhere near as good because they only list you on their own site(s) – and not on all the pages that Google can list you on.
This isn’t even my biggest complaint about them. I’m about to tell you what my biggest complaint is about them.
My biggest complaint is that they are offering a service that YOU DON’T NEED! If you can’t find leads yourself you’re not going to stay in business. This is fundamental to your business – if you can’t find people to pay for what you’re selling your not going to last long so don’t trust finding leads to just anyone.
The other thing that really bothers me – besides the fact that these are worthless companies is that they offer very low wage jobs to people who just need a paycheck. These people don’t care about your business – they care about making enough to buy another pack of smokes, put gas in their car, and pay their cell phone bill. If you go out of business they won’t care one bit. Are those the people you want working to generate sales for you?
That’s enough bitching – I’ve got to go out and find people that want what I’m selling which I happen to be fairly good at.
Here was my comment:
I got both an unsolicited call and email from these folks today. They are both now in my spam folder (got to love Google Voice). Why are they marked as spam? It was unsolicited, the person leaving both messages had the attitude that I wanted to, nay, NEEDED to hear from them, and because what they are offering is as worthless. The messages belong in the same folder as those emails telling me how much women want their men to produce gallons of more seminal fluids during sex. They both are laughable, presume to be from “experts” who may very well be (but who cares), and they are driven only by a desire to take money from your pocket. When I googled them this page came up just below their listing. I’ve been hounded lately by these types of companies and by SEO companies. Most of them are legit but even those are hiring people at low wages that are just there for a pay check – they don’t know what they are doing and don’t care about the job. Why would I trust even the smallest part of my businesses future to these folks? What kind of business person would I be if I can’t find any customers on my own? If you own or work for a company like this why not do something productive with your abilities like sell tangible goods or worthwhile services? There are far too many companies like this in the US and they are just phantoms. They’re companies that exist purely to make money off of the work that businesses should be doing themselves or otherwise should not be in business.The Eyes Of The World
Newsflash: Human beings are a visual species.
We, as a species, rely on vision as our primary sense. The fact that you are reading this right now is evidence of just how visual we are. Further evidence is the fact that audio browsers and technologies that make the Internet easier to use for blind persons are often ignored and occasionally despised by designers.
Need more proof?
Try this test – think about the following brands: McDonalds | NBC | Chevrolet
Now what did your mind do?
If you are like most people your brain flashed visual cues about those brands. You thought of the Golden Arches, The Rainbow Peacock, and what is refereed to as the “Bowtie” but looks more like a squished little cross of some sort. Either way you probably didn’t think of a smell (well maybe when it comes to McDonalds) and hopefully you didn’t have a very strong emotional reaction that trumped the visual thoughts that flood most peoples brains.
When these giants of commerce work on their brand they want you to be able to picture things about them and from there for your thoughts to cascade down to good emotional feels – happiness, contentment, etc.
So how do you as a small business owner make sure that your taking advantage of and maximize your visual marketing? Continue reading
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