Why Should I Redesign My Website?

Posted on January 12, 2015 by Brenda Simon

There comes a time when your website needs to be redesigned. This usually involves multiple factors. Code has changed substantially in the past 3 years which provides more options for your website, and certainly better performance within browsers. Leaner code means a faster download which is something Google favors in page ranking. Websites benefit from a fresh view. Look it over and discuss with your designer what elements can be improved upon, enhanced, things which are obsolete and how to optimize the space to lead the visitor through the website, while keeping navigation ease a priority. A mobile presence is critical: whether a free-standing, side by side site or a responsive website (requiring a makeover of your old site) you can’t ignore mobile users.

website in need of a redesign

This site served well for its time, when monitors were smaller, dial-up connections were still around, images needed to be as small as possible, beveled buttons and gradients were trendy and 800 pixels was the maximum width the W3 consortium recommended. Enter the fun. Now browsers and monitors span much wider screens, large optimized images are easily handled by browsers and bandwidth. And the most fun of all, design has changed using a much broader palette of colors: beautiful bold, flat colors which let the design breathe and make the web page less cluttered while still offering the same key points, call to actions and copy. Visual matters in marketing. A website redesign will keep your website ahead of your competition whose sites may be tired and sagging. A fresh looking website represents your business well to visitors. It’s your first impression to potential clients – make the best of it.

Auto Shop Website Redesigned

Website Slide Show, Gallery

Posted on February 10, 2014 by Brenda Simon

Deciding how to show your products is part of creating your website. Trying to decide the difference and choosing can make your head spin.

A photographer needs his work to be prominent – with the page layout framing his work. Keeping in mind your website’s performance is critical if you’re looking for organic search engine results. To that end page loading time is a factor. If the slide show or gallery is bloated the website’s performance suffers, and equally important – the user is annoyed. Here we used a quick loading JavaScript show which allowed more images on the Home page.

DouglasSimon.com

The Staging category needed the full breadth of the image. While this meant larger files, we reduced the number of images in the slide show to compensate.
DouglasSimon.com

Portrait portrait (versus landscape), thus the difference. Keep in mind the best display for your product.DouglasSimon.com

Presentation can be a fabulous supporting framework for your product. In this case the whimsical art is beautifully showcased using a book which pages turn.

a-lil-whimsy.com

So many choices. When you find something you like send your web designer the link. Enjoy exploring!

Website Marketing 2014

Posted on December 29, 2013 by Brenda Simon

Since the phone directories are all but dead your website is now the cornerstone of all advertising. Everything needs to point to it. Each email should contain an email signature with a link to your website. Print it on your invoices, print ads, coupons and anything you hand out to clients. You can’t overdo driving people to your website.

What can you do to increase your online presence?

If you began your online presence with a ten page website consider expanding. New pages can include detailed information about your services and products. Each page gives the opportunity to drive that page for one keyword – a solid strategy for organic search engine results. The more real estate you use online – the better your website will work for you.

Web design continues to change to reflect trends and follow the internet consortium standards. One of the most obvious visual changes is creating web pages which are far wider than 5 years ago. Widening your website allows more of your message to be seen quicker. Consider reviewing your website for improvement – both design and functionality.

If your website is static (nothing moves) consider adding a slide show. There are so any choices to display your products and services. More examples: Magnifier (scroll below slide show), Online Magazine/Book with page turning.

Create a video; embed it on your website using YouTube as a search engine to get out your message. Videos of past were often slide shows, but today’s user expects a higher quality video with a solid message. One client
added a video and within 2 months had over 400 views. This adds to your advertising plan.

Mobile websites are a necessity. You can’t afford to miss out internet users who actively use phones and/or tablets. There are several ways to approach a mobile website depending on your budget.

Collect email addresses and keep in touch with your clients via email campaigns.

A new year and a fresh plan may be in order.

Veterinarian Website

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Brenda Simon

Had fun with this website. The blue works nicely for the pet medical field. Payne Ranch is a small clinic, but has a long history in Chino Hills. A simple ten page layout worked well for their content.

Veterinarian Custom Website

Photos by Douglas Simon Photography

Does Website Design Matter?

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Brenda Simon

There is a constant stream of advertisements for “create your own website” for free, after 30 days pay only $7.99/month or simple sounding ads like “Design your website in minutes.”

It’s sounds so easy and the price sounds unbeatable. In the early days of the internet this might have been just the tool for many businesses. As a web designer who codes these templates are cumbersome to use. For the novice they require a lot of time and frustration to learn the software. You will still need your content: photos and page copy. Your photos need to be optimized to download quickly, so you need some photo editing skills and learn how to choose what compression is best. You need to spend time learning at least some basic search engine optimization (SEO) and learn about meta data to compete for organic results. All of the above are the nuts and bolts of using a template website.

Websites need “call-to-actions” which are eye appealing and well placed. Navigation needs to be simple – easy to figure out so customers can quickly find what they are looking for. Frustrated visitors won’t become your client.

Beyond all the code and functionality, yes, design matters. A welcoming website sets a tone for your business, the same as a showroom displays your products. The layout and design bring all the elements together. The bottom line is people will judge your business based on the looks of your website. Statistics reveal over 90% of people said they trusted or mistrusted a website based on design alone, less than 10% said it was content.

It’s much like packaging of food. Yes the generic brand is cheaper, but the jar/box isn’t nearly as creative as the name brands, who give great thought and expense to their brand.

While it doesn’t have to be award winning you want your design to send a message of trust, professionalism and quality. You know your business, hiring a professional to create your website is a good investment.

Custom Mobile Website

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Brenda Simon

There’s no question it’s time to embrace mobile devices. If your website is 10 pages a simple custom mobile website hosted alongside your full website is a great choice. Brand the design based on your full website. The mobile website will be very lean. This makes surfing your mobile site easy for bandwidth download. Still many people have limited bandwidth. Think of it as a courtesy to potential clients.

It’s time to make something small work for you! Mobile website – more info.

Custom Website

Posted on June 17, 2010 by Brenda Simon

You’re thinking about your first website and you feel overwhelmed?

Why a custom website?

Templates are fine if you know enough to fully fill out all the boxes which means you know how to build a website to some extent. There is much behind the scenes, unless you typically view source code you are unaware of and the importance.

Putting your business into a professional’s hand is so important.

There was a time when launching a website was easy enough and you could make mistakes and still do fine through Google. Times are so different. Thus it is no longer a hobby.

So where to begin preparing to create your website?

For the visual design find 3 websites you like – even one element: the color or the layout. This gives your designer an idea of what you envision.

If you have a logo that can dictate the color scheme.

Your website wants to make a large footprint. One client has 237 pages – which would be a huge task to begin your first website. Five pages is so small it is difficult to maximize your content to feed search engines. Ten pages allows for a well rounded entry level.

Begin to think about your pages: Home, Contact Us, About Us are standard pages, also Testimonials. Your Home page and About Us pages often share content. If you have a mission statement for your business that is valuable.

Think about organizations you belong to (Chamber of Commerce) licensing, BBB.

Photos and more photos. People are visual and truly a picture is worth a thousand words. Digital photos are the best, but old snapshots can be edited, color improved and are quite usable, so don’t shy away if they represent your product or service.

Whether you use a Testimonials page or not – collect these. They can be sprinkled on your other pages if your budget won’t afford a stand alone Testimonials page. Ask your valued customers for a couple lines, or find old cards of thanks for your service. Read an earlier blog of mine:
https://www.brendasimon.com/blog/?p=119

Now, you’re ready to call your designer!

Your Custom Website

Posted on May 3, 2010 by Brenda Simon

You’re ready to take the step to your first website.
You know it is time to take your business online and hire a custom web designer. Your research is beginning to make you dizzy trying to decipher the verbiage. Here’s a place to begin:

Three beginning steps.

SECURE YOUR DOMAIN NAME
Your domain name is a great value at $9.13/year (update: June 18th price increase of 50 cents for .com and .net). If your business name is your branding – stick with it. But if you are looking to gain internet traffic you might consider a 2 step approach. Many of my web clients use their business name as their website domain (aka URL) to be spoken – given over the phone. The second domain name they choose is their “real” website name containing a keyword for their business. Ex. Your business name is “Cute Name, Inc.” and you sell clocks. Buy 2 domains (if available):

When someone types CuteName.com in the browser address bar it is redirected to Clocks.com seamlessly. Unless you are watching the address bar, you won’t be aware of the redirect.

Using a keyword in your domain name is a strong foundation for your website and greatly aids in search engine optimization (SEO), which is how Google, Yahoo and Bing learn what your website is about. As Google ranks your site (something being bantered around currently) a solid keyword in your domain name can help give you an edge. As competitive as the internet has become it’s important to give this thought. Discuss with others and speak your domain name to see how it rolls off your tongue and is understood. Any “s” people may not hear and forget to put in? It needs to be clear.

You can have multiple redirects.

COM vs .NET and so on…
No matter how often we’re told CuteName dot NET – we type in the browser address bar CuteName dot COM. Not a big deal if I arrive at a site I KNOW is not the one I wanted. But if it is your competitor’s site and the visitor is a potential new client – you have much to lose. It’s also better to keep your name significantly different than your competition. It is trickier these days, with so many online, but worth giving this some thought. This is your online business. You can also purchase any available extensions if you are aggressively protecting “your domain”, and leave those parked, or add a redirect to your dot COM.

I use NameSecure for domain purchase. NetworkSolutions is another (and have acquired namesecure recently). It doesn’t matter where you go, just be aware if the price is more than $9.13 you are buying something else. These sites also sell email services you wouldn’t need most likely as most web hosting offers webmail services.

You can purchase privacy of your domain name registrant. This is about $9.00/year (it varies). Every domain is listed in what is called “WhoIs”. Anyone can look up the owner of a domain name – except those who choose privacy. I don’t recommend this for most of my clients, since their name will be on their website – people can figure out who the owner is quite simply. Why pay for something you aren’t trying to hide?

That is step one – domain name = website = URL.

Custom Web Designer

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