Archive for the ‘websites’ Category

Do-it-yourself custom cms web design site owners need to understand the importance of optimizing their text content for search engines. This SEO or Search Engine Optimization tutorial explains free online tools for tweaking content such as testing in DupeFree Pro and SEO keyword density. Watch this video for details. (0:10:34 min./sec.)

Follow these links to download the free resources mentioned in the video:
DupeFree Pro for tweaking and testing keyword density
GridinSoft Notepad Lite customizable text editor review

Learning how to attract search engine traffic using content optimization is important for site owners who choose a cms content management system web design so they can control and manage their website. Optimized content using this tutorial can help.

I’m a big believer in custom cms web design to meet W3C standards with zero or near zero code errors. A site created in xhtml is more likely to display well today and in devices yet to be invented compared to older html web designs. Those same design practices may not provide an equal experience on mobile devices.

If your web design was not originally designed to meet mobile device web design validation then it likely has errors or violates mobile design best practices. If you don’t know, it probably wasn’t. Regardless, this tutorial will show you how to test your web design.

The W3C or Worldwide Web Consortium creates the standards for recommended web design related specs, and they have an online mobile device web design validation tool for testing if your website meets their recommendations.

Note that most websites are designed for personal computer browsers, so this may not mean your website will have display problems on a mobile device. It simply grades your site on a scale of 0-100% for mobile web design best practices.

Specific checks are graded as low, medium, severe, or critical. I tested the home page of this site and it’s rated 86% with no severe or critical issues. That’s better than a competitor website that I checked. Their web design was rated 0%. Drop down arrows allow you to view failure data in great detail, so you can analyze and fix problems to improve your web design.

Here’s the tutorial. Follow the link above to the W3C mobile device web design validation tool and type your domain in the input box, and then select the check button to view results for your site’s web design. Be patient as it may take 30-60 seconds to run the test.

Keep in mind that the W3C recommendations are ideal standards for very small screens, so a low score may not indicate a poor web design. Not all of us in web design would compromise larger physical or file size content that we feel meets the purpose of a web page message just to satisfy mobile user experience.

In fact, file size and rendering recommendations have not been an issue viewing 480 x 360 videos that I’ve created and viewed on tiny iPhone or Android mobile phone screens. The quality of the video and xhtml in the custom cms web design is excellent when reduced by the user to fit the smaller screen.

Regardless of results, check out all failures for opportunity for improvement. The trend to more smaller computing device screens for viewing content online is unlikely to get much smaller. Therefore, it makes sense for those of us in custom cms web design to add mobile device best practices and validation to our long term strategy.

Consider the fear factor of buying online in your web design. People get ripped off by unscrupulous crooks who take your money without ever intending to fill an order. As a result, your website visitors will leave in an instant no matter how great the offer if they sense less than 100% confidence in your business.

Besides having an obvious offer and call to action in your web design you need to establish credibility as a business that people can trust. If your content interests a visitor they will look for evidence your business is real. That includes full disclosure of contact information to include name, email, phone, and an address.

A common web design mistake that hurts trust and credibility is using a postal box number.

Most internet thieves hide behind a P.O. box or have no address at all, yet a legitimate business may make the same choice without considering the consequences. You will increase your odds for success converting visitors to customers with a web design that includes a physical street address in your page footer or contact us page.

Don’t make this serious web design mistake. Establish credibility with full disclosure so people know you are for real, and then make it a habit to review site content regularly to improve offers and call to action.

There’s more than one secret to sales success besides a quality design at a fair price when it comes to custom cms web design sales. The best salespersons are not those who can smooth talk and dominate a conversation with a potential new client.

The most successful salespeople are those who listen.

You cannot understand what your customer wants in their custom cms web design until they have the chance to explain it. They can’t do that if you’re putting on an aggressive presentation of features and benefits without letting them define their expecations. Your sales pitch sounds like blah blah blah if it doesn’t touch on a subject that’s important to the listener.

What is most important? They’re thinking “me”, or specifically “What’s in it for me?”!

Imagine a scenario that has nothing to do with making a sale. Meeting someone for the first time in a social setting my advice is asking open ended questions that allow the other person to open up. For example, inquire about their occupation and rather than respond asking a yes or no question like “Do you enjoy your job?”, you reply with “Tell me more about what you do”.

Listen carefully and continue asking about what interests them, and later when they walk away without learning a single fact about you, they’ll be telling others how wonderful it was talking with you.

Reconsider sales. Selling any product or service including a custom cms web design means learning what the prospect likes or dislikes about what you offer. Use these clues to overcome any potential objections to your custom cms web design services to make your offer stand out above competition.

People buy from those they trust. People buy from those who show a sincere interest in them including what they want and need. Be that person. Listen and care. For those of us in web design, being a good listener could be the most important secret to making custom cms web design sales.

Earlier this year I began offering marketing services on a trial basis with several clients who have multiple custom cms website designs from me. Their intentions were good when they first launched, yet time is the enemy, so they agreed to have me “market” their websites by adding original quality content often.

The marketing services option for a custom cms or content management system may be a cost effective solution for small business owners to do more online promotion by outsourcing the work.

Besides your main website, I recommend adding a blog to allow posting news, reviews, and advice about your niche. Does a blog attract search engines? Definitely. I’ve posted content on my blog and had visitors sent by Google to that new post 90 minutes later. The concept of adding new content often means Google is back on my site several times a day, not several times a year.

Compare what the average business owner spends for Yellow Page ads to poor ROI performance because people are more inclined to search online. Many of my clients now realize that their advertising and marketing budget for print ads is better spent on expanding their website. Several of my customers with large budgets for Yellow Page ads decided to save most of that and spend a portion with me for marketing rather than the phone book.

Interested? Have a blog but never or hardly ever post? Did I design your custom cms web design or blog and yet you just can’t make time to learn the do-it-yourself details? Contact me to discuss your situation and the marketing services options for cms that I offer.

The ubiquitous Internet Explorer v6, or IE6, seems immune to going quietly away. While many of us in web design agonize over workarounds needed in our code in order to make pages display well in all browsers because of IE6, there’s still no silver bullet for IE6.

Let’s explore why after a review of overall visitor browser stats to my website, and then look at the impact on future web designs.

The latest traffic stats to my site show less than 4% of visitors still using Internet Explorer 6.

FireFox has taken over first place with 43% amongst browser brands followed by IE8 at 18%, Google Chrome at 14.6%, and then IE7 at 12%. Add that 4% of IE6 to Microsoft’s marketshare, and they’ve moved from #1 to 2nd overall at 34%.

Chrome at #3 is pretty incredible, and demonstrates the power of Google to dominate when it comes to knowing what users want. Safari by Apple continues to grow capturing 7.4%. Opera has fallen to 1% share.

Why has this IE6 older version of the Internet Explorer browser managed to survive? One reason is IE6 is used in many older corporate installations, and some large companies are reluctant to switch because of the cost to modify, test, or debug their infrastructure. In short, the old adage applies: if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

Another factor is a large number of third world users are on older technology, so they continue to use IE6, as well. The older pc excuse is not completely valid, however. Comparing operating system to browser stats, many IE6 visitors have upgraded equipment, so some of those individual diehards cling to what they know, too.

Until the corporate and individual users abandon IE6 the fact remains there’s no silver bullet for IE6.

The final topic about offering web design, or in my case custom cms web design, is providing a backward compatible website that displays well in all browsers. For years I’ve provided html and css code workarounds, and since 2004 I’ve designed in newer xhtml, so web designs will display well on current technology as well as computer systems designed or yet to be invented in the future.

Finally, the “Best Viewed in IE6″ in the illustration (or as a disclaimer for a specific browser on ANY website) is a dead giveaway that the site was created by an inexperienced designer. Mine would read “Best Viewed in Any Browser”, so avoid web design services if they design for just one browser.

If you use IE6, my advice is upgrade to IE8. The download is free and the world will be one user closer to R.I.P. IE6.

I must admit it’s pretty satisfying having a tech-savy Mom in her 80′s who is active online with email, Facebook, instant messaging, and forums.

She wrote a recent update that reminds me of the dangers of social networks and transparency.

Mom has trouble grasping the prevalence of people, and especially the youngest generation of relatives, putting expletives in writing. I don’t blame her.

Private or inappropriate thoughts typed in haste remain online forever.

For those youngsters looking for better paying jobs, more and more companies will check out your posts on social networks, so you may not even get an interview if constantly…

1. Dropping the F* bomb or any expletive in your public posts
2. Writing gripes about a job, the boss, or ways to ditch work
3. Sharing experiences that demonstrate poor judgment or character

The future of social networking includes the risk of too much transparency for those people who aren’t careful. Law enforcement are already using social network data to locate fugitives and deadbeats. Divorce lawyers are finding gems written online by opposing spouses to improve cases for their clients.

Your social network is not a diary. Don’t type what you wouldn’t say in public or want repeated in a legal case, job interview, church service, or family setting. Imagine being quoted years from now in great detail about something you blurted out and immediately shared in writing only to regret that moment.

My Mom, your Mom, and most Moms have enough dirt on their family, friends, and relatives to write a dozen tellall books documenting scathing reports of poor judgment. Most don’t, won’t, and wouldn’t. People need to learn from their example and avoid the dangers of social networks and transparency that could come back to haunt them in the future.

That’s one lesson I learned thanks to the upbringing of “the bestest Mommy in the whole wide world”.

Current web design changes in Google search engine result pages, and more specifically the color used for the background of sponsored ad results, are both interesting and ingenious. The ongoing changes to Google’s home page design are more than a whim for entertainment value, and deserve closer study from a web design and marketing perspective.

The screenshot below taken on 30 Sep 2008 as placed in the background of this collage is being compared to another taken today and almost 2 years later on 3 Sep 2010, and displayed towards the front. You have to be impressed with the web design colors and Google ingenuity as they experiment with the layout of search results year after year. Some web design and layout changes are subtle and hardly noticed yet could have a dramatic impact on effectiveness generating revenue.

Search results appear near the center and down the entire length of the page. Sponsored results are the first 1 to 3 listings and people pay for those slots based on key words or phrases whenever a person clicks and follows those links. The rest of the search results are organic meaning they are selected naturally according to Google algorithms to represent the best and most relevant in importance. Sponsored results have a contrasting color for the background while the natural results match the white on the rest of the page.

The illustration displays 3 graphics in the collage: 2008 search results for “custom cms web designers”, 2010 search results for the same phrase “custom cms web designers”, and a small color chart of the hex codes for the 3 colors used in the page background. Why the phrase: custom cms web designers? That phrase summarizes my job description in 4 words, stats tracking confirms Google sends me traffic for that phrase, and I happened to have that 2 year old screenshot saved to allow this comparison.

In the 2008 results the sponsored ads (A) have a #FFFADD background which is obviously high contrast in a medium shade of yellow (B) compared to the rest of the page #FFFFFF white background (C). The 2010 sponsored ads have a #FBF0FA very light pink background (D) which may appear almost white depending on the viewing angle of your pc monitor. Let’s consider how a near white background of sponsored ads could affect user behavior.

The top natural search results (E) after sponsored ads happen to be my website at #1 and #2 worldwide both years for custom cms web designers. Comparing 2008 to 2010 and from personal experience, I tend to skip past the paid sponsor ads to the first natural results because those get listed based on merit and relevance. On my pc the 2008 background contrast is very obvious yet on the 2010 results the sponsored and natural results all appear to blend in with the overall white background which may make it difficult to tell if there’s 1, 2, or 3 paid sponsor ads.

The “pink” became apparent as my lcd monitor was tilted back and reached approximately 40 degrees, and then very apparent at 45 degrees. Maybe it’s just me, but I keep my monitor angle closer to 15 degrees. If it looks white on your screen use the tilt test to see the actual pink, yet use care you don’t break anything! Notice the contrast of the yellow becomes even more obvious when tilting the monitor, as well.

Google revenue from sponsored ads doesn’t come from simply listing advertisers at the top of search pages. Ad revenue is generated when visitors actually click through to the advertiser’s website. Will the current background color of sponsored ads affect traffic to your website if listed in the top 10 of natural results? It may. If you know seo and your page titles and descriptions are more interesting than paid ads, it may not matter.

Regardless, the ongoing testing of color and layout of their results pages is a fine example of web design colors and Google ingenuity. They could be getting more clicks and revenue from their experiment, yet I wouldn’t be surprised if the background color of Google sponsored ad results changed again, soon, or often.

Footnote: For those skeptics who wonder about my advice for online success with your custom cms web design, note that the #2 result worldwide in 2010 above is the blog post published yesterday revealing the web design secret to online success: add original quality related content often. The concept obviously worked for me. One day after it was published that blog post is #2 worldwide on Google page one for a phrase very important to my core business!

For years I’ve summarized the web design secret to online success with your custom cms web design as “add original quality content often”, yet it’s time for a revision. Creating lots of new content that is original and high quality may not be enough. To truly dominate search results with seo and site optimization you need to “add original quality related content often”.

At a glance you may not notice the word “related” added to that key phrase, but it’s an important update to the web design secret to online success. To rank on page one you need content that remains fairly consistent to the theme of your niche. Occasional off topic content is okay, yet keep the majority in line with the theme of your product or service.

Since I began offering custom cms web designs exclusively, the idea behind having a cms content management system has not changed. Owners want a website they can edit 24/7 without waiting or paying each time a site revision is needed.

Customers need a custom cms website designed so they can make changes without advanced technical skills. Finally, clients need a designer who can teach them how to get on Google page one! Trust the source who says they know how, and can provide proof that they did it.

The lessons I teach including custom cms and seo search engine optimization tutorials provide evidence that my natural methods work. The only investment is time learning and applying the techniques that I teach.

If you want to learn the web design secret to online success, start with a custom cms web design, and then delegate or make the time to add original quality related content often.

Everyone with an email address has experienced some type of email virus alarm or online post warning you to “forward this message to everyone you know” to protect them from dire consequences. It’s time to remind readers to take a trojan virus reality check and get the facts before forwarding any alarm email or message.

In most cases you can determine if the warning being passed on is real or a hoax in a couple of minutes. Otherwise, you could be wasting resources by perpetuating an online chain letter effect, or hurt your reputation for being like Henny Penny (“…the sky is falling”) if it’s a hoax and not real.

Here’s an example of a recent post on Facebook about the koobface virus.

Virus spreading like wildfire on FaceBook! It is a trojan worm called koobface. It will steal your info, invade your system and shut it down! DO NOT open the link Barack Obama Clinton Scandal! If SmartGirl15 requests you, don’t accept it; it is a virus. If somebody on your list adds her then you get the virus too! Please copy and paste to your wall.

There is a virus version of koobface circulating on Facebook (and MySpace), yet slightly different than described in the post. Here’s a link to details on Urban Legends at snopes.com which is always a great place to check out any alarming messages about virus threats.

After documenting details of the real threat, the last paragraph explains the Obama/Clinton and SmartGirl versions were each a variation and hoax of the real virus. The “do not open” advice given in the post is still excellent any time you encounter something suspicious.

Think twice and take that trojan virus reality check by doing a search on Urban Legends before you forward any email warning alert.