Website Design, Search Engine Optimization

I just discovered this great website ColorsOnTheWeb.com .  They have a tool for picking colors that was developed over eight years ago. It has definitely stood the test of time. You pick the colors, the tool will determine matching colors for your selection.  I tried it and it appears to come up with a wonderful array of colors, not only for hue, but also saturation and tint and shade variations. This is can be a great time saver to determine the colors quickly in your style sheets (CSS) for heading tags,  links;  hover and active.

I can spend a lot of time tweaking colors in PhotoShop, it is almost amazing that photoshop does not do this for you automatically. Below is a screen shot of this FREE tool, note the make a donation box in the right hand corner? It is a good idea to donate something if you like or use the tool. Who knows the more you donate the better the tool.

I finally did it, I bit the bullet and bought Adobe’s Creative Suite 3 Master Collection. I have always been so resistant to purchasing each new software version. I actually have a mantra, “only every other year”. I also in the past have resisted purchasing Suites because I always found there were only a few programs that I use all the time. This is “Sweet” is truly a Cadillac (or a Toyota). With all the new interactive functions with websites my older versions of Flash etc. are proving to cost me more time and money.  I have not installed the new software,  just made the purchase and I feel like a little kid in a candy shop.

What does Adobe include? It is marketed as “Design Across Media” and combines all the best of the best if you ask me and I hope that Adobe has not screwed it up.  Why do I say that? A few years ago Adobe acquired Macromedia, so now they have a corner on not only the best graphics software but also website design tools. At my finger tips I will have bundleds together graphics and web design tools plus video/animation with After Effects, Premiere, Soundbooth and Encore. What a basket full of goodies, I am hoping it all integrates wonderfully and the learning curve is short or maybe a better way of putting it “pain free”.

A little side note, when I started designing websites, Adobe had just introduced Photoshop3, at that time there was approximately a 12 step (no pun intended) process to performing a drop shadow! People would do drop shadows just to prove their Photoshop skills. Then for web authoring this is one of my favorite stories I used a software program called “HotDog Pro” the help assistant was this little wiener dog , that would bark when you did something. I just Googled “HotDog Pro” and I was happy to see they now have HotDog Professional 7. You might want to check it out at Sausage Tools , the cost is quite a bit less than Adobe.

Every Monday our local newspaper features a technology section, this week the subject was Web 2.0 technology and listed websites and their domain names. The concept of Web 2.0 has been around for a few years. In fact the third Web 2.0 Conference will be held this November at the Palace Hotel in the heart of downtown San Francisco.

Read the entire posting on Web 2.0 – What is it?

This week I received a phone call from a very nice gentleman that sells books as a hobby. His desire is to have a web site to sell his small collection of books (a very small collection. He admitted to not having much knowledge on how all of this works and the costs. I think many of us have hobbies that we consider one time or another in developing a web site (at least I do) such as art, photography, jewelry to name a few. He also wanted to show up on the search engines (don’t we all).

My recommendations to this gentleman with his very small (and I mean small) collection of books follows. The book business as you may or may not know especially on the internet is VERY competitive. But, there are many avenues out there for getting your inventory on the internet quickly without maintaining a web site. For books and many other products, Amazon offers what they call Z-shops. For a monthly fee you actually have your own store on Amazon that you can refer people to, http://www.amazon.com/shops/niteowl. How many people know about these shops on Amazon? This I have often wondered.

What is the advantage to selling books on Amazon or with an eBay Store. If you have never sold anything on the internet before it is a good way to get your feet wet and determine if this is what you want to do. Amazon handles all the billing and communications. Rarely do you communicate with the buyers. They do have a listing fee, only charged when you sell a book, and they take a commission. Therefore part of your profits are going to Amazon for their service, but where else are you going to get the traffic they can provide, billing service (no credit card fees), easy listing tools.

As a small bookseller your chances of getting found on the search engines are relatively slim for such a competitive category. Maybe check out some of the portals that are offered, like Yahoo Stores and get started with one them as your hobby grows. Doing business on the internet is not cheap and you will find yourself spending more time and money developing a web site rather than supporting your hobby, when you can have immediate sales gratification.

Still not convinced? Then list your items in two areas, start building your dream web site, but also have a store with an outside vendor. When you make a sale, slip a little note to your buyer with the item giving them information about your web site. Save their email addresses and start building a data base for email newsletters. Who knows before you know it your hobby may be the next AMAZON!

Many times the re-design of a web site will be very simple and may only include, a new look, additional content or new sections of information. But for many web site owners new technology is key and since technologies are constantly changing there are many different choices. One example of technology may be adding Flash or animation. This is not recommended for search engine optimization, but small flash animations maybe added to enhance the content. Flash along with a framed web site are not search engine friendly. Another option may include accepting payments or adding a shopping cart, this may be accomplished simply with a PayPal button or a customized shopping cart to fit your product and inventory needs.

Thinking about technologies:

1. Who in your organization will be responsible for the technical issues? Are you depending on the web site designer to help make these decisions?
2. What platform (operating system) and browsers are you targeting? Are your users in a specialized field or are your end users the general public?
3. How do you expect new technologies to enhance the user experience? What return are you hoping to achieve? Are there specific technologies you are considering? Describe these technologies in great detail even if you are not sure what they are called. List web sites where you have seen the technologies �used and refer to your experiences.
4. Will the web site re-design include a password protected area?
5. Will there be a need for e-commerce or secured transactions? Do you already offer transactions online? If so how would this site be different?
6. What other specific programming needs may your site require such as:
1. Online training
2. Personalized Search
3. Audio or audio and video
4. User Forum � networking, creating a community
5. Blog

Marketing Your Web Site:

For some reason clients tend to think about marketing their web site after the web site has been designed and launched. Marketing should be woven through out the web site design process. Many of my clients have call me and proudly announce they just launched a new web site and want to do search engine optimization. Sometimes they are disappointed to realize that some of the work they have done should be altered or reorganized. This will be another area for examination; but for now these are a few points to consider:

1. Do you have an existing or planned marketing strategy to promote the web site redesign? What are your short term marketing plans, 6-12 mos., (if any) for the newly designed web site?
2. How do your current users find out about your website?
3. What key words would prompt a listing on the search engines? Has anyone ever found your current site on the search engines? What pages on your site currently show up on the search engines and how will they redirected to the new site?
4. Do you offer incentives to customers to visit your website? Do you have coupons or are you part of a referral network? Do you have a newsletter?
5. How will your web site stay current? How often will it need to be updated and who will be responsible for these updates?

This is the second of a three part series on how to redesign your web site.
Part one is Web Site Design and Now a Redesign!

The next steps�to achieve the best web site redesign, we first will look at some of the reasons for updating a web site. �Technology is always changing, the architecture is outdated and it is important that your web business is perceived differently than what was accepted before. As more people use the internet your�visitors change throughout time and they become more sophisticated and have higher expectations for�a web experience. Another problem I see more often is the amount of information on a site outgrows the architecture and the site no longer navigates effortlessly or intuitively. Then the competition becomes more sophisticated and you are losing market share along with�your rankings on the search engines. These new web sites are now being perceived as the authority in your industry. It is also�time to�review what you want your visitors to do when they get to your site. Below are some additional points to consider for a web site redesign. These are growing pains that plague all of us.

Who are your visitors:

1. Who is your typical visitor? Describe them; what do they use the web for? Think about the demographics of each type of visitor. Are you attracting these visitors?
2. What type of action would you like your visitors to take? Do you want them to call, make a purchase, fill out a form . . .
3. What do you offer your visitors? (Discounts, customer service, great products)
4. How many people are currently visiting your web site? Are you paying for those visitors with a PPC program? How are your visitors finding you?
5. What key words would a visitor use to find your services? Do you use those targeted key words throughout your web site?

What is the perception of your business, both on and offline:

1. Think about your site and how a visitor will perceive your new site? Is this any different from your current site? Is this any different from how your business is viewed offline?
2. How is your business different from your competitors? Who are your competitors? List at least 5 URL�s of your competitors.
3. List the URL�s of web sites that you like for any reason. List any web sites that you think may be similar in size and have content that matches your future business needs. The URL�s that you list do not have to be the same type of business. The information gathered will communicate to your web site designer visually how you want to be perceived.

Content – how will your business be found:

1. Have you analyzed the targeted key words that a visitor would use to find your services? �
2. Who will approve the new content? Are you going to use an outside provider to develop the content? Does this person have internet writing experience and will it contain your targeted key words to help market your web site?
3. Will the visuals (logos, images, charts, graphs) enhance your written content? Describe these elements and which will be used from the current web site. Will a graphic artist need to be employed to update your visuals?
4. Do you have a site map for the projected new site? How has this changed from the old site?

Now that we have analyzed the visitors, competition and content, next we will analyze what new technologies will fit your web site structure. How will visitors find your new site, what are your marketing tactics.