Posts Tagged ‘website’

I am looking for adoptable pets that are in shelters or foster homes to spotlight on my website every month.  I will also put a link to the spotlight page in my newsletter for even more exposure. I would like those interested to please send me a photo, place where they are being kept, background story, and contact information for any pets that need a forever home. I will go through them one by one and let you know when you can be expected to have that pet spotlighted. Before I place them on the website, I will also contact you to make sure that they are still available. If they are not, I will take another pet from your organization in place of the one that is no longer available.

This is a great way to get the word out about some wonderful pets that haven’t had the best of luck in their lives so far that are just looking for a home. You can check out my website at www.petloverwebsites.com Contact Us to get your pet spotlighted.

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Recently I had the unfortunate task of telling a business person some really bad news about her site.

She was asking for some ideas on how to get more visitors to her site as well as making it more visible on Google. I checked out her site which was very nice but I noticed one HUGE problem, it was completely built in flash. Because the site was built in Flash it probably cost her roughly $1000 dollars. The bad news about it being in Flash is that the search engines will only index it as a single page site without any content.

Considering content is one of the most important aspects of SEO if the search engines can’t read it, I don’t care how nice it is, the site will bring minimal traffic, if any.  You can add description tags and title tags that are excellent but because that is not a primary concern with search engines, you will receive minimal benefit from it.

It is true that Google purchased the rights to the technology to interpret Flash. However, they have not implemented it and no other search engine can read it.  When they do implement it, they will only read the text inside the Flash, not pictures of text, since Flash sites are basically moving pictures, Flash sites will still not be as indexable as other sites.

There is NO aesthetic advantage to designing an entire site in Flash. In fact, you can achieve almost the same effects with JavaScript, and CSS, which won’t interfere with search engine indexing.

Flash is great for accents, but not for entire site coding.

I wasn’t really thrilled about telling the person about her site.  Especially since I knew approximately how much she paid for it, but as a web designer I felt I had a moral and ethical duty to tell her.  Was she upset?  Probably, but I haven’t heard a response from her.  My only concern is that she went back and talked to the person who created the site for her, asking them about it.  Not because I am fearful of the backlash but because of the fact that her web designer probably told her I was full of it and that Google and other sites can index her Flash site just as well as any other site.  The reason I am sure that her web designer told her not to worry about it is because they created the site for her to begin with, knowing that her site would have a hard time getting indexed and getting traffic.

Just because a site can have a ton of bells and whistles doesn’t mean it should.  This also goes for advertisements, or anything that does not serve a purpose to your site visitors such as music playing in the background, a video of the site owner/CEO talking about how great their business is or even saying welcome.

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A lot of people believe that when they decide they want a website it can be up and running within a couple of weeks.  Unfortunately, that is not so.  The truth is building a website is a process.

Domain Name And Hosting- Obviously this is first and foremost.  The domain name needs to be purchased quickly so that it is not purchased by another person.  There are several businesses and people who are on the internet and it may be difficult to get exactly the domain name that is wanted.  Hosting needs to be purchased as well because without hosting, there is no website.

Site Design-The site design is one of the most important aspects of the whole website.  You have to get the colors, pictures, navigation and all around organization of it correct.  Then it needs to be sent to the client for approval.  It is commonplace for some additional tweaking and design work to take place before it is out for the world to see.  This could take several days, or even weeks, depending on how quickly approvals are returned, and how intensive the changes need to be.

Site Structure Install-If you are using the CMS Joomla,  this is actually the easiest thing to do as long as the designer has Joomla already configured.  Then it is just as simple as installing it into the hosting account and making sure all the components are there.  This also includes installing the template that was created. This can take between 1 and 4 hours to do, depending on how much is pre-configured.

Content-The content is the hardest part of creating a website.  The content has to be written and it has to be written well.  A client can do this themselves, or hire it.  However, a good web designer will take a look at client provided content and tweak it to better suit the site visitors and for SEO purposes.   This will go on for every page that is on the site.  This can take several days or even weeks, depending on how many pages the site consists of and how much needs to be done to speak to the site visitors.

SEO- When a site is built correctly, the SEO is largely accomplished in the design and content areas. Too often, a site owner hires a designer to do the site, a content writer to create the content, and then hires an SEO expert to optimize it – the problem with this approach is that it results in a lot of unnecessary cleanup, and may produce handicaps in the site that are prohibitively expensive to correct. It is best to include the Optimization in the site build process from the beginning. Because when the site is built correctly to begin with, SEO becomes a simple process of adding the titles, descriptions, alt-tags, and creating a backlink and online Search Marketing plan. Search Engine Optimization helps to attract higher placement in the search engines and results in more traffic to the site.  It begins and ends with good content, and happens best within a smart site design.

Training-Joomla can have a learning curve to it, as does any software that is worth using, that is why designers who create websites in Joomla SHOULD include training.  Training can be from one hour up to several hours.  Depending on how much the site designer and site owner agreed to and how much the site owner needs help with.

The average time between contract signing and site completion, is two months. It can happen faster if the site is fairly simple and the site owner returns required items promptly and gives approvals quickly. Sometimes it can take longer, due to unforeseen complications (technology is that way), or unexpected events in the lives of the site owner or designer. Getting a “Website Tonight” though, is a myth. If you get an instant website, it isn’t going to be a complete website.

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If you don’t want an opinion, don’t ask

I remember when I first started my VA business. I was on a limited budget and I didn’t have a lot to spend on my business. I knew I needed a website but I didn’t have the money to pay to get one professionally done so I took it upon myself to create my own and let me say what a challenge that was. Anyway, I set out to create my own website so I searched for free hosting, free templates, and how-to html coding sites and I found some so I started my journey.

I got my site done after spending many, many weeks on it and endless amount of hours working on it. I was so proud of it that I couldn’t wait for the world to see it. I decided to put my website up for review thinking for sure I would get nothing but rave reviews. Boy, was I wrong! In fact, I don’t think any of the critiquers said anything nice about the site. I’ll admit, I got mad and got really defensive. I felt as if they were all attacking me. Honestly though, I think what was the worse is I got my pride hurt. I was so proud of my site and here it wasn’t as good as I thought it was. I did eventually take their critiques to heart and started fixing it and let me tell you, it did wonders for my site and my image.

Anytime you ask for a critique of your website you need to realize that you will get the truth on what people see on your site. They are not trying to be condescending or ignorant when it comes to reviewing them. Believe it or not, they are actually trying to help. There ARE some people who are just ignorant who won’t give you any advice and just tell you give it up and hire a professional designer. To me that is not being helpful that is just plain ignorant and shameless self promotion. Just ignore them. They forgot what it was like when they were just starting out doing web design and now they don’t believe that anybody can do it but themselves and they are not truly out to help, they are out to get business.

When you are looking for a website critique ask yourself a few questions:

Am I ready to have my site critiqued?

Can I handle the constructive criticism that I may get, good or bad?

If I do get a critique, will I take the opinions and run with it or will I just ignore them and walk away?

Do I truly want my site to be a success or do I just want to have a web presence?

If you ask yourself those questions and you can honestly answer them in a positive way then you are ready for a website critique. Personally, I think one of the biggest reasons why people get so defensive is because they feel that people are attacking their hard work and that is not the way it is. They are honestly trying to help. Those who offer the reviews are taking time out of their day to help your website and your business become a success. There is nothing in it for them. True they may get a few clients from it but in all reality, that is a very small percentage.

If something isn’t working, you have to accept hard truths to be able to fix it and make things better. And if you refuse to accept help, or if you decide to hold a grudge against someone who tried to help you, you are shutting off your own ability to succeed. Remember before you ask for a website critique, ask yourself those simple questions and above all else, if you do not want a TRUE opinion, don’t ask.

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In this day and age it is essential to have a website. With the vast majority of people having personal computers and access to the internet, more and more people are taking to the internet to find the information they need-anywhere from shopping all the way up to medical advice.

You can spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on business cards, brochures, memberships, advertisements, etc but if your website gives the wrong impression, it is the same as throwing money out the window for others to capitalize on. You are doing the hard part, making potential clients aware of your industry/product. This leads to them going onto the internet looking to find out more information about what you have. This starts with them visiting your website and if your website leaves them feeling uninformed and empty, they will continue searching until they find a site that helps them with that feeling. Chances are, they will hire that person or buy products from the person that gave them the “warm” feeling.

People are growing ever more conscientious about how they spend their money. They want the most value for their money that they can get. If some images in your website do not show up, that reflects poorly on you. That gives them the feeling that you do not pay attention to detail. If your website doesn’t have enough information or looks unfinished, they will go somewhere else because that portrays to your visitors that you will only half way do the job and not go that extra mile for them. After all, your website has the potential to be seen by hundreds if not thousands of people and if you can’t spend the extra time on that, then you won’t spend the extra time with them.

When doing a website think about trying to buy a house. You see a house that you really like and you ask to look at it. According to the information about it, it’s got all the amenities that you want, the price is right and you can already see yourself moving in. This seems like it is your dream house. Then you go into the house and there is dirt everywhere, clutter on all of the counters, the carpets are stained, the colors clash and just look horrible, the wallpaper is dated, not to mention that there are areas that look unfinished. Chances are you are going to want to leave as quickly as you got there. You leave with a weird feeling that you can’t explain. Because human nature is to look at the surface of things and not dig deep, you couldn’t get past the clutter to see what great potential that house had. It is the same with a website. If your site gives the wrong impression on the surface, they will go elsewhere to find the site that gives the right impression.

When you say your marketing is not working, there are TWO sides to it – the marketing, and the website. If either one is ineffective, you will get nowhere.

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