Have you recently had a new website go live? If so, now is not the time to sit back and relax. Just putting your site live and not promoting is a sure way for it to get lost in the crowded world on the internet. But there are many ways of advertising your site and having a quality site for them to visit.  Here are several ways to help promote your site as well as some tips on upkeep and monitoring. (These are just quick tips, if you’re looking for more in depth information on any of these, visit our website or contact us.) (more…)

Time for a Website Redesign?

Take a look at your current website. Does it accomplish your business goals? Does it bring you customers? Engage the site visitors? Are the calls-to-action effective? Have your business goals changed or shifted since the site was last updated?

Your website design should not only be inline with your business goals, but it also should help you accomplish your goals, whether it’s increasing sales or getting more people to sign up for a newsletter. If this is not the case with your website then it’s time for a redesign. (more…)

In October, the design team from Mannix took a trip to Chicago and learned that Chicago style pizza is not nearly as good as anything the east coast has to offer!

While there, though, we attended a web design conference called “An Event Apart.” Collin, Jennifer and I (who are web designers and developers here at Mannix) were lucky enough to attend this event — which covered everything from web design to web standards and featured some of the biggest names in our field as speakers.

As designers and developers, we are always looking to grow and learn, because just sitting back and going along for the ride is not an option if you want to be successful in this ever-changing field. Things change fast, and you have to be willing to keep up. And that’s what this event offered: many speakers a day who spoke about all things web related. It has us really motivated to keep learning, which in the end will produce better sites and projects.

This conference got me thinking a lot…  (more…)

Last week we talked about the importance of photographs and how images can really enhance your site. This week we’ll talk about the most important aspect of your site: the content. Creating keyword rich, enticing content is oftentimes overlooked. Fresh content is not only important for search engine optimization, but it is crucial to the overall user experience.

In the initial stages of website design and development, it’s best to hire a copywriter to produce all your content, however, that might not be in your budget. If hiring a copywriter is within your budget, you could create an outline or flowchart of the major talking points/criteria you would like as a focal point. Or, the other option is to write the content yourself. Do not override this option if you have the time and writing ability, because you know your business better than anyone.

If a copywriter is providing content for your site, they still need to know about the business and what sets it apart from the competition. Providing this can be one of the biggest struggles for some clients, so getting things rolling with just a little direction (even if it’s just an overview or talking points) provides a great starting point for focused, factual content.

For the “Do-It-Yourselfers” out there, here are a few website design tips:

• Don’t skimp on content: Explain who you are and what you do – don’t assume that people already know this. It may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised to know that many people do not make it as clear as pie.
• Stand Out: Why are you better than the next guy? Explain the advantages of your product or service and entice potential clients your way.
• Maintain a Focus: It’s recommended to focus on one topic per page – don’t try to explain everything all at once. Each web page should have a focus (and, in general, each page should focus on different keywords).
• Enhance Calls to Action: Make it obvious – when you are lucky enough to have site visitors who actually read your content, make sure they know exactly what to do when they are on your page – Book a Room, Call Us, Buy This – make that conversion  happen!
• Proofread It! Make sure to proofread your content before making anything live. Grammatical and spelling errors are turn-offs and make a site look unprofessional and “fly-by-nightish”.

One thing I like to tell clients who are hesitant to spend money on copyrighting is, if you’re spending thousands of dollars on a site design and development; why not put some of that towards some sort of copywriting.

It’s like buying a car with no engine. All you have is a car that doesn’t go anywhere. Sure it looks like a car, but it’s not doing what it’s designed for. Same goes for your website. It will look great, but might not contain any quality information and that’s what users ultimately come to your site for.

And for folks with existing sites, it can’t hurt to take a fresh look at the content and see if there is anything that can be enhanced. Or, look at any opportunities to update the photos which can help freshen up older designs.

When having a new website designed, one aspect I often see clients overlooking are content and photos. Many clients see these as not as important as the actual design. As a designer I would like to believe that, but without these two key components you may be stuck with a good looking site that doesn’t have any real substance. A great design is just half of the puzzle – without quality content and photographs that visually describe what sets your business apart from the competition your visitors may struggle to find out why they should use your services or visit your business.

Let’s talk about photos. They are often a critical part to a design and give the website designer something to start with. They also offer site visitors quick visual cues of what a website is about before they start reading. As the old saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words”.

It’s also a great idea for any business to take photographs regularly throughout the year. Why not? It doesn’t take long and you never know when you will need one, whether it’s for a website or other marketing materials. It’s a lot easier to just pull from a collection and pick out photos when you need them, rather than running around and taking photos all at once.

It’s especially important for some industries, like construction businesses, where they only have access to the work site when working on the project. Having a collection of photos of past projects help greatly in showing website visitors the type of work that a company does. Taking before and after shots are especially effective and this is impossible to do once the project is done. If a business has special events (sales, group events, trips, etc) taking photos can be used on new sites or even added to a current site to show visitors recent happenings.

While professional photographs can look the best, don’t discount the work a closet photographer can do. Digital cameras take great photos these days and often are very suitable for use on a website. The other option is stock photos. But oftentimes, these look like, well, stock photos and you can end up searching for hours looking for that one perfect photo when it could have just taken minutes if there were a photo collection to choose from. Stock photos do work for certain industries, but they do not work well for some, like construction, restaurants, hotels and other similar industries.

When you bring these aspects into the beginning stages of a design you’ll end up with a site that not only looks great, but works well for getting your message across – all the things needed to get people into your store or using your business.

Next week check back to read about the other most overlooked part of web projects – unique content.