8 Things to Check Before Launching a Website

About to launch your new website? Here are some last second ideas to check on right before you pull the trigger.

1. Check your website in all browsers

This is totally the job of your web developer, but your website is also YOUR responsibility. Also for you do-it-yourself people out there, this is something you'll definitely have to check on. The thing is, a website might look one way in one browser, and another way in a different browser. You want it to look the same, and work for all users.

Here is a list of browsers to check your website in. You should at a minimum check it in:

• FireFox
• Internet Explorer 6.0 (very buggy)
  
• Internet Explorer 7.0 (very buggy)
  
• Internet Explorer 8.0
• Safari (yes, even if you don't have a Mac you can download it)
• Google Chrome

There are certainly more browsers you can check it in, but if you hit these 6 then you're probably OK.

2. Check your website on different monitors

If you have a huge monitor at home and your website looks great on it, that's good. But make sure it looks good on smaller monitors and laptops.

One thing to especially look out for is how wide your website is. If the user is forced to scroll from left to right in order to see the whole website than it's too wide. Shrink everything down some or check with your developer for other options and ideas.

3. Check your website on mobile devices

First thing to realize is that Apple products (iPhone, iPad) do not allow any Flash on their devices. So have a background image behind your Flash as a backup.

Again, keep in mind the width of your website. Same concept as checking your site on different monitors, you're going to want to see how it will show up on mobile devices.

Here's a link to test your site on the iPad - http://ipadpeek.com/.

4. Make sure that your online forms are working

It's easy to overlook contact forms. Make sure that when submitted, you're getting an email back with the results. Also make sure that if a user tries to click submit without filling in any of the required fields that they get a friendly error message of some kind.



5. Logo linked to home page

It's always nice to have a user friendly way to get to the home or welcome page. Most sites have a "Home" button somewhere, but go the extra mile and make your logo at the top a link to the home page. It's pretty standard in websites but it's easy to forget about it when creating a website.

6. Check your title tags

The title tag is what appears in the blue bar at the very top of your browser. Make sure the words you see at the top has at least the:

• Name of organization
• Geographic location, if applicable
• Name of current page being viewed

7. Check your keyword and description tags

The meta tags is the information that users to your website don't see, but the search engines do see. It's easy to forget them when focusing on other parts of the website. Make sure that your keyword tags have a few keywords relating to your industry (examples: web design, hampton roads web development) and your description tag is a easy to read introduction sentence to the current page.

8. Get some help...check for grammar and spelling errors

The last thing to do before launching your website is to recruit some co-workers, friends, family member, etc and have them look over your website for spelling and grammar errors. These always show up even months after a site is launched, so it's best to catch as many as you can prior to launching.

Launching a website is an extremely exciting thing to do, but don't get too carried away and launch it before it's really ready. Take some time, do it right, and you'll appreciate it in the long run.

8 Ways to Make Your Website do the Work

So you know you need a website, but maybe you're looking for ideas on how to USE your website effectively. Why get a website unless it helps you accomplish business goals, right? Here are some ideas on what your website can do for you.

1. Use your website for 24/7 sales opportunities

Whether it’s with PayPal or an online shopping cart, a website gives you the opportunity to sell your products and services at any time of day or night. It’s important to give your customers the option of purchasing something when they want. Make it as convenient as you can and provide options.

Note for non-profits:

Maybe you're not selling products, but you probably have donors, or events where people can purchase tickets, or some kind of service that you can sell online. It's very easy to accept online donations using PayPal. Read our blog about the benefits of using PayPal.

2. Use your website as a marketing tool

It is often said that a picture paints a thousand words. You can talk to your potential customers for hours, trying to convince them that you are a professional, top of the line company that can satisfy their needs…or you can let them see for themselves by looking at your website. If it’s properly crafted, a professional website will add loads of credibility to your business.

Be careful though. A homemade looking website can do just as much damage to your credibility as a fantastic website can add to it. You do not want to give your business an amateur feel. As tempting as it might be to have your 14 year old computer-tech nephew create a website for you on the cheap, it's usually not a good idea. Get a profesionally designed one, even if it's a very basic starter site for $400-$500. Related - 5 Easy Ways to Enhance Your Website

3. Post PDF files of your printable brochures or announcements

Save some money on printing by posting your brochures and other handouts on your website. You can still hand out some physical copies but many people would rather have the digital copy anyway.

4. Use your website is an informational tool

A website can save a lot of time and money by being the centerpiece of your marketing material. Make sure that any information that you would want to be made public is easily found on your website. Here are some ideas for general information you can post:

• Contact information (email, phone, fax, etc)
  
• Physical directions to your offices using Google Maps
  
• Information on products and services
• Prices
  
• Calendar of events
• Press room page with articles, press releases, or news features

5. Get referrals easier

Say one of your loyal customers recommends your services to a friend. If their friend is a little unsure, all he has to do is visit your website. If your website looks great, you have a new client.

6. Get feedback easier with an online form

It's a great idea to have a little online form on your contact page. This will let people contact you directly through the website. It looks professional, is easy to setup and manage, and will make life easier on your customers.

7. The search engines will bring potential customers to you 24/7

Through the search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo, your potential for reaching new customers is huge. You don't necessarily have to be an expert in search engine optimization to get traffic through the search engines. If your website is simply coded correctly, with the correct keywords scattered throughout your content, you should get some traffic.

If you REALLY want to get the most you can out of the search engines, invest in an SEO (search engine optimization) expert. SEO experts know all the tricks on how to drive relevant traffic to your website. It can be a costly investment, but the payoff can be huge. Just make sure that you hire someone who you trust.

8. Your website can reach people who you never would reach otherwise

Think about the potential...you can actually sell to people who have never even heard of your company. Geographic location is no longer much of an issue. People who find you through Google or Yahoo would probably never find you any other way. Your potential just goes through the roof when you have a properly created website that draws traffic from multiple sources.

Having an effective website is like having another employee who works for you 24/7. It is a time and expense commitment up front, but once you have it created it becomes a long term investment.

The Importance of Article Writing

A very helpful tip for improving your online presence that we are highlighting this week is article writing. Article writing can be a chore and it's difficult to make the time for it, but it's extremely helpful and we strongly recommend everyone use it as part of their online strategy.

Help Before You Sell

The first reason we recommend that you engage in article writing (some people prefer the term "blogging") is that it gives you credibility. With article writing, you can achieve "expert status" in the eyes of your potential consumers. That may be enough to distinguish you from the competition. Help your potential customers first, and they will be more willing to trust you with their hard earned cash.

Content is King

The second reason articles are so helpful is that search engines LOVE good content, which they will find in your articles. There isn't a better way to help your website rise in the search engine rankings than supplying great content to your website. In many markets, it's very possible to be ranked #1 in Google simply from having a Search Engine friendly website and a steady supply of unique articles.

Goals in Article Writing

As we alluded to in our web content writing guide, there are different goals in writing web content for your website. Primarily your goals in article writing are educational. Like we mentioned, you also want to write for search engines, but it's very likely that your articles will just naturally have good keywords in them without you having to intentionally put them in.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you want to keep promotional writing to a minimum. In other words, don't just talk about how great your business is and why your readers should hire you. That's not the purpose of the article. It's recommended that no more than once per article you inform your users of your services. The way you do it is also important...we suggest saying something like "oh by the way, if you want help in this area we can help you, so click here". Don't make your services the focus - keep the focus on helping your readers by educating them. Your readers are looking for helpful information, not a sales pitch.

What to Write About

Here are some ideas on topics for your articles:

• Do-it-yourself tips
  
• Product reviews
• Industry news
• Helpful tips and ideas for your customers
• Client of the Month feature
• Interview style article of industry expert
• How-to training article
  

How Often to Post

We recommend that at a minimum you're posting new, helpful information at least once every 2 months. Ideally it will be much more often than that, but this is a good starting point for most people. We post two articles every month. Figure out what your goal is, what works for you, and stick to it.

Once you publish your article on your website, it's a good idea to announce it to the world. We recommend at a minimum that you post a link to your new articles on Facebook, Twitter, etc. We also suggest that you post them on article directories such as ezinearticles.com. This will help give you more exposure as well as bring incoming links to your website (good for SEO). It is a little time consuming to ensure that your articles get posted correctly in online directories but it's not difficult if you can put forth the extra effort.

The last thing to remember is have fun with it! No one is critiquing your grammar on the internet and as long as you're providing helpful information without ramming your own services in their face you should be successful. We plan on writing an article in the near future about the dynamics of a good article and what it takes to make each article successful. Stay tuned and happy writing!

How To Track Website Traffic Without Spending Money

How many people visit your website?
What city do they come from?
How long do they spend on each page?
Which page is your most popular?
Are people coming to your website through search engines like Google or Yahoo?

These are all important questions that you need to know about your website. And they're all available to you...with the right software.

By "right software" you'll be glad to know we mean "free software". Google Analytics (GA) is a free tracking software that you install into your website so that you can keep track of website statistics. In this article we'll explain how to setup Google Analytics, and how to use it effectively.

How to Install Google Analytics

The first thing you'll need to do is get a Google account if you don't already have one. Go to http://www.google.com/analytics/sign_up.html to set up your account. Make sure you use a valid email address when you sign up because you will have to verify your account. Google will send you an email, and you simply click the link to verify.

Once you've verified your account, go to http://www.google.com/analytics/. Click on "Access Analytics" then click the "Sign Up" button. That should lead you to a screen that looks like the one below:



Simply type in your web address, give your account a name (whatever you want, so you can recognize it) and click "continue".

On the next 2 screens, type your first and last name, and agree to Google's terms, and your account is created.

The next screen gives you a block of code that you have to copy and paste into the HTML of your website. In the most recent version of Google's code, this goes immediately before the closing head tag. Once you have the code on every page of your website, click "Save and Finish". After a couple days you should be able to start tracking visitors.

How to Use Google Analytics

One practical use is that you can track your marketing at a glance. Below is a graph from Google Analytics that shows web traffic to our website:



You'll notice right away that we got a little bit more traffic about midway on the timeline, and then shortly after that we had a large spike in traffic. It turns out that the large spike is when we had our last workshop, and the days before it is when we had email blasts advertising it.

You can track how many visitors came to your site because of different actions that you take. Whether it's Facebook ads, an email newsletter, an event, etc...you'll be able to instantly know how successful your marketing efforts are.

What Pages Are Being Visited?

One of the most basic things you can see with a statistics program for your website is what pages are being visited. The graph below is an example:



This is an extremely valuable tool, not just because you can see what pages your visitors are looking at, but how much time they spend looking at them. Reports like the ones above can help give you clues about how your website is working, or not working for you.

Let's give a real life example. One of the pages on your website is titled "Information", and you notice that it isn't being visited very much. This usually means that the link leading to it isn't generating interest ("Information" is a little vague and boring), or that people are having a hard time finding it. You can try renaming it from "Information" to something more specific like "Get Directions", or try making it stand out more so people notice it and will click it.

Custom Reports

We definitely recommend creating custom reports with Analytics. With the drag-and-drop functionality it only takes a couple minutes to set it up, and it really provides you with some very nice data about your website.

One custom report that we use shows how many unique visitors come to our website, then how many pages those unique visitors visit, then how many of those visitors are new as opposed to returning visitors. Then we show how many pages are visited followed by the average time they spend on the website as a whole.

You can get more in-depth than that if you want. As part of that same report we know what city our visitors came from, how they found our website, and what search phrase they used to find us (if they used a search engine like Google or Yahoo).

Setting "Goals"

A good way to track the success of your website is to set "Goals" through Google Analytics. You can easily set them up, and it's easy to keep track. Some ideas of what to track are:

• Newsletter subscriptions
• Social media interactions (if you have a Facebook button, see how many people are clicking it)
• Sales
• Downloading a brochure or catalog
• Time spent on a particular page
  

Hopefully this will give you a broad enough overview on how helpful Google Analytics can be. Good luck!

Benefits of Using PayPal

Selling products and services online can be a very useful thing to do. Many businesses and non-profits want to be able to let customers use their credit card to pay online rather than taking payments over the phone or in person.

One option is to have a full blown shopping cart system...and that's certainly ideal. But a good (much cheaper) alternative is PayPal. Fresh Look Web Design recommends PayPal for any organization that wants to accept credit card payments while cutting costs and minimizing risk.

No Risk

With PayPal's Website Payments Standard program, which is what we are highlighting here, there are no start-up fees, monthly fees, or cancellation fees. So for businesses or non-profits that want to try out the concept of accepting online credit card payments, PayPal is a good option. There is very little to no risk involved.

It's Easy for You

To use PayPal only requires a familiarity with the computer. You don't need to understand code or anything technical. You simply follow the instructions, and they provide you with the code to put into your website. If you maintain your own website, simply copy and paste what they give you. If someone else maintains it for you, just copy and paste the code into an email or Word Document and send it to your web developer.

It's Easy for Your Customers

PayPal does not require your customers to sign-up to pay online. All they do is enter in their credit card information and they're done. No hassle.

Who should use PayPal?

Anyone can use PayPal, but we think it's especially useful for:

Example

• Non-profits who want their users to easily donate
• Organizations with only a few products to sell
• Organizations with a limited budget
  

What does PayPal cost?

The standard option with accepting credit cards with PayPal is called Website Payments Standard. The pricing details are below:

• No setup fee
• No cancellation fee
• No monthly fee
• Fee of $0.30 per transaction
• Additional fee of 2.9% per transaction (or if you have high monthly sales volume that percentage can drop, see table below)
  

YOUR MONTHLY SALES	YOUR FEE PER TRANSACTION	EXAMPLES
$0 to $3,000	2.9% + $0.30	$3.20 fee on a $100 sale
$3,000+ to $10,000	2.5% + $0.30*	$2.80 fee on a $100 sale
$10,000+	2.2% + $0.30*	$2.50 fee on a $100 sale
$100,000+	Call 1-888-818-3928

For eligible non-profits, the rates go down to 2.2% for monthly donations up to $100,000, and 1.9% for more than $100,000 in monthly donations.

What this means is that if you don't any products or receive any donations than you don't pay anything. The downside of course is that you do lose a percentage on every sale. But if you can encourage more sales/donations than you would otherwise with no online payment option than it's definitely worth it.

So whether you want to use PayPal to test the waters of online payments, or as a permanent solution to your website, PayPal is an excellent alternative for those looking to save perhaps several hundred dollars on a shopping cart. We hope that you can use it to make your business even more successful, and if you have any experiences you would like to share, please let us know!

Create a Facebook Page for Business

This is a simple step-by-step article on how to get your business or non-profit set up on Facebook. Keep in mind that Facebook updates their procedures and processes constantly, but this is accurate as of when we posted it.

1. If you don't already have one, create a personal profile with Facebook. If you have an account already, go to Step 4.

Go to this link - http://www.facebook.com and create a personal page. You need to provide your name, birthday, and valid email address.

2. In the next 2 or 3 screens, you don't need to necessarily provide any personal information that you don't want to. You don't have to search for friends. We do recommend posting a profile picture of yourself. Click Save and Continue when you've added your profile picture.

3. Facebook will send you an email asking you to confirm your new account. Make sure you check your email, open it, and click the link and confirm the account.

4. Now that your personal profile is set up and you have access to Facebook, you can create your business page. Follow this link to start with the setup - http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php





5. The image above is what the next screen looks like. Choose a category for your Page. If it's a non-profit, choose the second option. Give your page a name, preferably just the name of your business. Click on the checkbox. Click "Create Official Page".

6. Add a logo by hovering the mouse over the question mark, and select "Change Picture".

7. Click on the Info box and update your contact information.

8. On the left side of the screen is a box that starts with "Write something about...". Click that box to write a quick little introduction to your Facebook Page. Include a link to your website.

You are set up! You can add pictures, suggest your page to friends, promote with an ad, or link it to your Twitter account. Have fun!

Increase Traffic to Your Website

As we all know, a website without traffic is not worth much. Even a poor website with a lot of traffic will get at least some sales...but a fantastic website with no traffic is useless.

So how do we get web traffic? Does it cost money? How much time do we have to spend on it? These are very good questions which every small business owner and non-profit should think about.

Here are the top 5 ways to get traffic to your website. Some of them are very easy to do and are somewhat helpful, others are difficult things to do and are extremely helpful. We recommend using a combination of several methods, (if not all of them) so pick and choose the ones which you think will work.

1. Use Social Media

Even if you don't have a website yet, we recommend getting setup on all the major Social Media outlets. The four that Fresh Look uses for our marketing is Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and of course, Blogger.com.

At a bare minimum you should be using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, for the simple fact that once you get them setup, you can link them together. In other words, if you post something to Facebook, it automatically posts it to Twitter, and then it automatically posts it to LinkedIn.

What should you post on your social media pages? Well that's another topic all by itself, but basically you post whatever your customers will find value in. Appeal to your audience by lending your expertise without appearing to trying to sell them something all the time. Coupons, helpful articles, upcoming events, client of the month, etc are all good ideas.

Note: For assistance on how to use Social Media, come to one of our workshops. Receive our email newsletter (click here to sign up) or check back frequently to our website to find out when we are teaching our workshops on Social Media. Because it's such a popular topic right now, we usually have one every couple months.

2. Send out an email newsletter

We highly urge everyone to send out an email newsletter. Just like Social Media, it's very easy, inexpensive, and does not take a lot of time once you get it set up. A lot of the content you write for your newsletter will be similar to Social Media - announcements, coupons, resources, etc.

If you've been following our articles, you know we use Constant Contact for our newsletter, but there are lots of other options (read our article on email newsletters). Pick the one that fits you best, which will depend primarily on the size of your email list. Also, many of the options out there offer free trials to get you started.

We find that our web traffic spikes significantly every time we send out our newsletter. It reminds semi-interested people who we've contacted already about our services, without being intrusive or pushy. It is an extremely valuable part of how we get people to visit our website, and ultimately become clients.

3. Get found on the search engines

Search engines have the potential to bring exponentially more traffic to your website than any other avenue. You can reach people who you would never be able to any other way. It can be a huge boost to your internet traffic.

So how do the search engines find you? That answer is easy - the search engines automatically find you. You don't have to register with Google or anything, it will eventually happen automatically.

The real question though, is how do people find you on the search engines. Google may have found you, but if you show up on page 9 than that does you no good.

There are many factors that contribute to a websites search engine rankings. In fact, an entire new profession has been born out of the necessity to be found on the search engines, and that is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM). A search engine expert is in high demand these days.

So what's the solution? We recommend talking to a search engine marketing firm about your options. At Fresh Look Web Design we have several packages for different budgets so contact us if you're interested. Also, stay tuned for our article on do-it-yourself ways to improve your search engine rankings.

4. Facebook Ads

As we've already written about in our article - A Fresh Look at Facebook Ads, Facebook ads can be very helpful in bringing targeted traffic to your website. You can read more about it in the article, but with a smart Facebook ad you can directly target the type of person you want to view your website. You can set a specific budget so you don't spend anymore than you want to, which will help ensure you get a good return on your investment.

5. Business cards, email signatures, etc.

Basically everything else you can think of. Put your web address on the side of your company vehicle, billboards, signs in your store, t-shirts, coupons, any literature that you produce. Definitely make sure it's on your business cards as well as the email signature on the bottom of your emails.

We hope that some of these ideas will help you in bringing new traffic to your website. Unfortunately the "if you build it, they will come" concept does not apply to websites, but with a little work you can make your web presence a very successful one.

7 Reasons Why People Love Their Web Developer

A couple months ago we highlighted some reasons why people have had bad experiences with their web developer. To redeem ourselves, we will now explain why people love their web developer and how having a website can help your business.

1. My web developer gives me a super employee

The super employee is of course your website. Your website can:

• Give directions to your store
• Explain what your products/services are
• Sell products with shopping carts
  
• Have a contact form so people can email you directly from the website
  
• Act as a sales person through the search engines and search engine optimization
• Is open 24/7

2. My web developer is a marketing expert, not just a techie

A good web developer MUST be a marketing expert. When you have a new product, service, or business opportunity, you may not know the best way to incorporate that into your website. You also may not have to time to figure it out. Your web designer will give you his expert opinion on how to get results from your website.

3. My web developer acts like a business partner

Your developer must be committed to see you succeed. They act as a business partner, not just a provider of a service. They view their relationship with you as a long term commitment and are dedicated to see you succeed. After all, your success is a prerequisite for them even being in business!

4. I need help getting visitors to my website

Need help finding creative ways to draw traffic to your website? Well a good web developer will show you how you can do that.

There is a lot more to a website than just building it - you have to be able to draw traffic. Search engines, social media, email newsletter, Facebook ads, business cards, email signatures, etc - these are all necessary to maximize your success. You need someone to help you come up with a list of ideas and how to go about making it happen.

Read our article on how to get traffic to your website.

5. I need training

Want to update your site on your own without paying anyone? A good website design firm will offer training on how to do exactly that. There is typically a cost with it, but the long term benefits may outweigh that cost. Just ask Jackie Vaughan from the Town of Farmville:

When I was given the task of managing the Town’s website, I was very nervous because I had no prior experience. But after a brief training session with Eric and the helpful training guide he provided, I have been able to update and set up new pages for our website with ease. And because Joomla is so user friendly, I can make changes to the website myself, instantly.

6. My business is completely online

Many businesses today only exist online. There is no brick and mortar store where foot traffic will provide at least some business. When 100% of the customers use the website to buy products, it is crucial to have a good relationship with your web developer.

7. My developer is very fast

This is one of the biggest compliments we hear from our clients. When they need something posted to their website, or need help with an issue, we respond with a solution very quickly.

Having a web developer that responds to your inquiries within a couple minutes is a life saver for the small business owner. In today's fast paced business world, you're losing money and/or customers if your website is outdated or in error.

We'd love to hear from you in the comments section about other reasons you may love your web developer. Thanks for reading!

How to Write Great Website Content

Writing content is usually the most time consuming process in developing a website. This is a surprise to most people, and what is even more surprising to others is that a lot of times your web developer doesn’t write your content for you.

The fact is that you know your business the best, and while it may be helpful to hire outside help, that can get expensive. Below is a helpful guide to know how to write content for your website.

What are your goals?

The first step of the writing process is determining the goals of your website. This is so easy to overlook but is very important. What is the purpose of the website? What are your goals? More specifically, "What action do you want visitors to your website to take?" This may seem obvious at first but websites can specialize in many different things. Some common goals are listed below:

"I want people visiting to my website to..."

• Get information about me, and call me
• Get information about me, and fill out an online form which will come to me in an email
• Buy my products
• View upcoming events with my online calendar
• Download my brochure so I don’t have to mail it to them
• Find directions to my store
• Make an online donation
• Stay updated on what’s new with my company
• Register for upcoming events
• View my portfolio
  

As you can see, you can have multiple goals for your website. When you write your content, remember to constantly drive people to take these actions.

Who is my audience?

Think about who your typical customer is. How old are they? How computer savvy are they? What is their education level? These are good questions to ask. Remember that web users do not read words on a website, they scan them. Therefore you will want to write your content in a style somewhat similar to a newspaper. Short paragraphs, headlines and lists are the best way to allow your user to easily scan your pages.

A very common mistake made in content writing for websites is to make it too informal. While you don’t want to sound like a college textbook, you also want to sound professional. If you are a small business you want your website to appear "top of the line" to compete with the larger companies. A website is a way to enhance your image. Take advantage of that and make your web content as professional as you can without being stuffy.

What information do I want on my website?

The next step of the writing process is creating a site map. A site map is simply an outline of what the information on your website will look like. Each item on a site map represents a single webpage. It usually consists of 5-7 main categories, with sub-categories falling underneath. The reason for sub-categories is to organize the content in a way that is easy for the web user to quickly glance over and comprehend.

Example Site Map:

• Home page
• About Us
  • Our Staff
  • History
  • Board of Directors
• Services
  • For Your Home
  • For Your Business
• Press Room
  • News Articles
  • Press Releases
  • Photo Gallery
• Events
• Contact Us

Some sections such as "Events" may not have sub-categories under them. Whatever makes the most logical, intuitive sense to your web users is what you will want to do. You should do your best in creating an easy to follow site map, but keep in mind that a good web design firm will also guide you in creating the best possible solution for your sitemap and website.

Writing Styles

There are three different, unique ways to write your content for your website. Usually you will want a balance between the three. If you focus too much on one you will neglect the others, so do your best to keep all three in mind once you start your actual writing.

1. Write Succinctly for Web Users – In web development, we have a motto when creating websites. It goes like this: "Give me what I want, and don’t make me think". When writing web content, make sure that you are not long winded. Make things as easy and simple as possible. Use lists and short paragraphs, and occasionally use bolded text. Too much bold and it doesn’t stand out anymore, it’s just a distraction.

2. Write Professionally to Build up Your Image – One of the great things about the internet is that it can make a very small business appear to be quite large and accomplished. So give the readers some good facts, figures, and data that will keep them impressed with your organization. Remind them of your accolades. Keep this balanced of course with writing succinctly…while you want to be somewhat brief you don’t want to leave out important details.

3. Write Sneaky for Search Engines – I say sneaky because you don't want to make it too obvious to the person reading your website that you're writing specifically for the search engines. This is probably the hardest thing to keep in mind when writing because we are not used to writing with a Search Engine as our audience. But in reality, writing for search engines will go a very long way in your search engine rankings, and ultimately your website popularity.

How do you write for search engines? Search engines scan all the text on a website on a regular basis. You want any word that people may search for in a search engine to appear in your web content. These words are called "Keywords".

For example, Fresh Look Web Design has the following keywords (among others) on our website:

web design, graphic design, hampton roads websites, hampton e-commerce grant, shopping carts, search engine optimization

These words appear on our website very frequently. If we wanted to promote our e-commerce grant on our website we could say:

"Many of our clients take advantage of our grant."

...but this is too general. There are no specific keywords. The user gets the idea, but there's nothing for search engines to pick up on.

Instead, we should say:

"Our Hampton small business owners take advantage of our e-commerce grant."

See the difference? It's not as succinct, but the user still gets the message, and the keywords are much more present in the second example.

Keep in mind that there's a trade-off involved with the other two writing styles. You don't want to focus too much on search engines, because then your text might be too wordy for users. But you also don't want to be too succinct because you won't rank as well with the search engines. The best thing to do is keep a balance.

We hope this helps you in writing your website content. If you're interested in getting assistance with your content writing, don't hesitate to let us know and we'll be happy to help. Content writing can be a daunting task at times but once you get started you'll find that a lot of it comes naturally.

Good luck!

7 Reasons Why People Don't Like Web Developers

Weird topic, coming from a web development firm, right? It's definitely a little off the wall, but I think it's helpful for people to read about. In talking with prospective clients about starting a new project, I hear the same fears expressed over and over. It's somewhat of a hindrance in gaining people's trust because of their past experiences.

Here's our top 7 reasons why people don't like web developers:

1. My web developer doesn't listen to me.

Having trouble getting your web designer to give you what you want? You're not alone. Many times a web designer or any kind of graphic designer will have a pre-conceived idea in his head about what he thinks your project should look like. Or maybe he just didn't really pay much attention when you told him what you needed. The design he created may look great...but it's not what you were looking for.

We try really hard at Fresh Look to make sure you get what you want. We'll certainly give our opinion...but the end result has to be something that you're 100% happy about.

2. My web developer is impossible to get in touch with.

So you are planning a big event in 2 weeks, and you need to have an announcement posted to your website. Problem is, your web developer isn't answering his phone or emails. Having a hard-to-reach developer is a terrible problem. You need updates, and you need them timely.

When trying to decide on someone to handle your website, make sure there is something in your contract about how long it takes to have updates made. 2-3 days is a good range usually, and same day updates are always very nice.

3. My web developer is really far away.

It's pretty common to have a web development firm in another state or even country do your website. The nature of the business doesn't necessarily require a face-to-face meeting. However it's also sometimes nice to be somewhat close to your developer, even if it's just a couple hours away. This isn't a huge issue for most people, but going back to #2, it makes it harder to get in touch with them sometimes when they're far away.

4. My web developer speaks "techie" at me.

This is something that we try REALLY hard not to do, but sometimes even the most customer friendly web developer can get lost in techie-jargon. Don't get too mad at us...we stare at code all day long.

At Fresh Look we are experts in business and marketing, not just pure website building. We understand where you're coming from, and most importantly we know web users and what appeals to them.

5. My web developer disappeared

This is a major problem, and unfortunately fairly common. There are a lot of "here today, gone tomorrow" web developers out there, especially in the freelance world. It's a bad situation to be in, as often times they have usernames and passwords that you need to take care of your website.

Our advice - make sure that you keep track of your own usernames and passwords, even if you don't think there's a threat of your developer disappearing. Another good idea is to ask for a copy of your website on a CD for backup purposes.

6. My web developer is too expensive

This is all relative of course...but a lot of people do not realize what a fair price for web development is. Obviously there are different definitions about what "fair" is depending on who you talk to, but some prices really are outrageous. Maybe because it's a relatively new industry (the internet as we know it is only about 20 years old), or maybe because it's just too much of a hassle to look for a cheaper, reliable web developer...who knows - but lots of people overpay.

7. I didn't get what I wanted

This is not always the fault of the web designer...sometimes it's just a lack of understanding on the part of the client. However, it's important that the developer clearly communicate to the client exactly what it is that they'll be getting as a final product. Obviously they won't know exactly what it will look like before the project starts, but they should clearly understand how it will work, how they will maintain it, etc.

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Our hope is that you won't be able to relate to this topic at all, because you've only had fantastic experiences with your web designer. But either way, hopefully you'll be able to avoid any unfortunate run-ins in the future and who knows...maybe next month we'll have a new article "7 Reasons Why People Love Their Web Developer".

A Fresh Look at Facebook Ads

Recently we got a chance to talk with Jack Lowe, President of EcoEternity Forest. EcoEternity utilizes Facebook ads as a part of their marketing strategy and drawing traffic to their website. Below are some questions and answers that were shared that Fresh Look thinks our clients may benefit from.

1. Mr. Lowe, can you briefly describe your company and the services you provide?

EcoEternity Forest LLC runs a chain of four green cemeteries in North Carolina, Virginia, and Pennsylvania for cremated ashes only. People lease a place at a tree where their ashes or the ashes of a loved one can be interred at the roots of a tree in a biodegradable urn. Over a period of three years the urn degrades and the roots of the mature tree take up the nutrients from the ashes creating a living memorial.

2. What role does Facebook ads play in your marketing/advertising strategy?

For those 50 and older, Facebook is the medium we use to encourage potential customers to visit our web site.

3. Why are they so effective?

If you craft your ad correctly, you get interested parties to self select themselves as interested potential customers. Then you only pay for those who are interested in your product or service.

4. How difficult is it to set up a Facebook ad?

Very Easy! But to make it more and more effective, you will go through a number of iterations as you see how potential customers respond to different ways of crafting your ad. Then you have to think about where geographically you want to advertise. To what demographic you want to advertise. It helps to have someone assist you in the marketing decision process.

5. Is it expensive to run a Facebook ad campaign?

Expensive is a relative term. It does allow you to tightly control your advertising budget. It has been for us exceptional value for money.

6. Do I have to have a marketing director or substantial marketing budget to effectively use Facebook ads?

No, but a marketing director might help. Marketing on Facebook is high psychology. You cannot just throw up an ad and expect it to be effective. You have to keep trying new things to see how effective different aspects of an ad are. It is also high systems analysis. You think about your targeted audience and you try something that you think will appeal. Then you measure the effectiveness or lack of effectiveness of your modification. Then try another improvement and measure again. This is where a marketing director or some marketing consulting might assist.

7. Any last comments or encouragements to our readers?

Facebook is very effective narrow casting (targeted marketing). Facebook ads are great value for money. You pay only for the hits you get. But you still have to make the ads effective. Facebook is a medium for advertising not an end in itself.

8 Reasons to Create an e-Newsletter with Constant Contact

Want to incorporate a very inexpensive tool into the arsenal of your internet marketing budget? Having an e-Newsletter is an excellent way to market your business. There are a lot of programs you can use, but in this post we're going to talk about Constant Contact.

Here are some great reasons why you should consider Constant Contact for your email newsletter.

1. You can try it free for 60 days

This is obviously one great reason, and if you're even remotely considering using an email newsletter, this should be enough to convince you to try it out. 60 days gives you enough time to get the feel for the program and see if you like it.

2. It brings more traffic to your website

Trying to promote a new product or service on your website? An email newsletter is a great way to advertise it. In our newsletter we like to link users to our business workshops and articles pages to keep them informed on what's new. It can also be a good reminder to your customers about your services. It's possible that someone was planning on visiting your website to find information on purchasing something or hiring you for more work, but just haven't gotten around to it yet. A friendly little newsletter with great information and links to your website will just give them a very subtle reminder that you're still there.

2. Easy to use templates

Whether you're an HTML wizard or new to the whole computer thing, it's easy to create a nice looking email in Constant Contact. You can also add pictures and links very easily. It takes an hour or two to get your email campaign set up initially, but once you have everything in place it only takes a few minutes to send out the next batch of emails.

3. Good technical support

We found that the technical support from Constant Contact was very good. This is probably the biggest benefit of using Constant Contact over other service providers. We also received a friendly sales call after we signed up to see if we had any questions.

4. Statistics

This is my favorite reason. It's fun to see when people open your newsletter, and what links they click on. Gives you a really good indication of what works and what doesn't. You can also see what emails bounced back, got spammed, forwarded, and who opted-out.

5. It saves lots of time

How does it save time you ask? By managing your contact list for you. Just add the new emails to the database and Constant Contact will take care of the rest. When you want to send out a newsletter, it will sent it to everyone in your list. It even personalizes it by putting the recipients name at the top of the email, which also helps keep the email from being sent to spam.

6. Users can easily opt in and out

It's important to have good email newsletter etiquette. If someone decides they don't want your emails anymore, they should easily be able to opt out. Constant Contact adds a link at the bottom of every email to easily do just that.

It's also just as easy to opt in. You are provided with a piece of code that you can put on your blog or website so that people can easily sign up to receive your newsletter. Speaking of which...if you want to receive our email newsletter you can do so on our sign up page.

7. Emails won't get sent to spam as much

If you sent out mass emails through a regular email account like Gmail or Yahoo!, it's more likely to get sent to the spam folder. Long story short - with a program like Constant Contact it's much less likely to happen. Plus if it does happen on the rare occasion, you will know it and you can ask whoever didn't get your email to add your email address to their recipients list.

8. It's not expensive

After the 60 days you have to pay, sadly. But it's $15 a month to start out with, which is a pretty low price considering how helpful it can be in drawing traffic to your website.

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We highly recommend sending email newsletters to clients, and Constant Contact is a good way to do it. Also as a side note, there are plenty of really good other programs out there to choose from. Here is a very helpful blog post that compares some of the more popular ones, including MailChimp which is free if you have a small contact list (less than 500).

Harness the Power of Google Local

What is Google Local Business Center?

Results from italian restaurant chicago

The best way to explain Google Local is by using it. If you Google "italian restaurant chicago" you'll see at the top the 10 local businesses that fit your search phrase. These are results not from the regular Google database, but rather a separate one - the Google Local Business directory. Best of all - they always appear at the very top, and they're FREE.

Note that not all search terms will give you search results in Google Local. For example if you were to Google "italian restaurant hampton" you won't see any Local results. That's simply because the traffic isn't high enough to warrant any listings.

We highly recommend adding your organization to Google Local, even if you don't see any Local results when you search. The reason we still recommend it is because Google Local is tied to Google Maps. If you go to Google Maps and search for "italian restaurant hampton" then you'll see results. So go ahead and add your organization.

How to get listed?

It's easy to get listed - just go to Google.com/LocalBusinessCenter and submit your information. All you need is a Google account. You will get a call or postcard from Google verifying your information but it's fairly straightforward.

I submitted my business. How do I get listed on the first page?

There are several things you can do to help your listing rank higher. Of course there's no guarantee that you will be on the first page. No one is really sure of the exact formula that Google uses, but here are some suggestions that will most likely help.

1. Include a good keyword in your organization name. Example: Say you're targeting the search phrase "chicago children's books". Don't tell Google your organization is "Paul's Bookstore", tell Google that your business is "Paul's Bookstore Children's Books". It doesn't matter if that's not your legal business name. By adding that key phrase, you're helping Google find your listing.

2. Include good keywords in your description. Same as above, but apply it to the description of your organization. Remember that you are writing for humans AND search engines. So don't just list keywords, but also make sure you include them in your writing.

3. Put your address and phone number on every page of your website. This is helpful both for users on your website as well as Google Local. Make sure you use your local number, not just your 800 number. Also a P.O. Box does not help, use your physical street address. Here's an example of a website that does this.

4. Have a Directions/Locations page on your website. This is helpful, unless of course you are a home based business and cannot have foot traffic. Give directions in plain English, with good descriptions. Again, this will help your regular search engine traffic as well as the search engine crawlers.

By the way...don't have a website? See our web design services, including help with submitting your site to Google Local.

5. Upload a few photos. Google seems to place higher ranking on business listings that include photos. At the very least upload your logo and a couple pictures of your building or products. There is no guarantee that this will help, but it can't hurt. At the very least it will look nice to real users.

6. Create a page on your website where you list your areas served. Like several of the suggestions I've mentioned, this will be helpful for real users also. In fact this might even help your organic search results.

Hopefully these steps will get you started with Google Local. Don't forget to check it occasionally once you submit your business to see where you fall in the rankings. And if you need any help with Google, your website optimization, or any other internet marketing services, come visit us at Fresh Look Web Design and we'll be glad to give you some help.

Finding the Perfect Domain Name

How to get started with your website

A common question people have is "what do I need to design a website?" Well the first step is purchasing a domain name. A domain name is simply your website address - www.mywebsite.com where mywebsite.com is your domain name.

Check if the domain you want for your website is available

Before you put too much thought into a name you like, determine if it is even available. A good resource to use is Network Solutions - all you do is type in the domain name you want, and if it's available, it will tell you. If someone already owns it, it will give whatever information is available on that person or organization.

What about .org, .net, .info, etc?

Sometimes the .com extension is taken, but the .org and .net are available. It's ideal to use .com if possible, but if you really love the domain name there's nothing wrong with using .org or .net. It is very common for a non-profit to use .org for their website. We don't recommend using any extensions other than the main 3 - .com, .net, and .org.

Make it easy to spell and remember

This is super important. You want to make it as easy as possible. To test this, try telling a friend what you're planning on using for a domain name one day. (hopefully they won't take that opportunity to buy it before you do). Then a couple days later, ask them if they remember it, and ask them to write it down. If they get it right (including spelling), you've found a really great domain name...at least in terms of simplicity.

Of course this will often depend on your company name, but if your company name is hard to spell then get creative. Try using abbreviations...or use a call to action as your domain name. For example if your company is "Medodie's Bagel Shoppe" and you find that people always use a 'y' instead of 'ie' in 'Melodie' then try www.getbagelsnow.com. It's not your company name, but it's still a good domain name, and it could even turn into a slogan.

Does your domain name include a good keyword?

This is overlooked probably 99% of the time. Most people don't know that Google and other search engines put a lot of importance on what your domain name is. So you want your domain name to have a important keyword, if possible...especially if you're building a small business or non-profit website and could use the free advertising from Google.

Here's an example.

At Fresh Look, our domain name is www.freshlookwebdesign.com. So when people Google "fresh look web design" we are near the top, for the sole reason that our domain name is the same as the search term. It also helps us because the term "web design" is part of our domain name and an important keyword.

There's give and take to this strategy. For example, www.freshlook.com might be a better domain name than www.freshlookwebdesign.com because it's much shorter. However from a search engine's perspective it lacks the keywords "web design". So just keep that in mind - if the domain name you want is taken, you might be able to include a good keyword in there that will help your search engine rankings.

How much does it cost?

A domain name is the smallest part of the cost of a website. At GoDaddy.com you can pay around $15 for a domain name. Just remember it is a yearly fee, and the more years you buy at one time the cheaper it gets.

Keep control of your domain name

A pitfall that many non-profits and small businesses fall into is that they don't realize that their web developer has control of their domain name, not them. In other words, they don't really own their own website. To avoid this problem, make sure that you purchase your own domain name, or if you have someone purchase it for you, ask for the user name and password to manage it.

Conclusion

Sometimes finding a domain name that is available and you like can be challenging. It takes creativity sometimes, but don't get discouraged. Keep brainstorming ideas and one of them is bound to be available.

3 Keys to Web Usability

In a future post, I'm going to talk about the 3 Pillars of an Effective Website. One of those pillars is usability. There are probably a lot more keys to usability than just 3 but here we talk about 3 of the more important ones - consistency, intuitive, and easy.

Consistency - It's vital that a webpage remains consistent from page to page. The navigation menu needs to stay in the same place, the banner should remain the same, etc. That doesn't mean the design has to be boring or EXACTLY the same...but the layout certainly should. One thing to keep it interesting is by having different pictures on different pages...or using a random function to produce different content on different pages.

The reason you want to keep it consistent is because you don't want to lose your web users. If they click a link that brings them to a page on your site that throws them off, they're likely to get confused and leave.

Intuitive - The idea here is to make things easy to predict. You want your web users to feel confident in what will happen when they do certain things. You also want your navigation to make sense. If you have a "Get Involved" link - you want the sub categories under that link to be things like "Donate", "Volunteer", and "Join". It should just make good sense.

Make sure that any links on your sites leading to other websites (such as a resource page) open in a NEW navigation window. Your web users will click it, read it, and close it. If it opens in the same window as your website, they just closed out your website. Not a good practice.

Another thing to remember in making things intuitive is that you want to make the links throughout your site LOOK like links. Don't give regular text color or underlining if it's not a link. Users will try and click it to no avail which will simply frustrate them. See? That was a cruel trick. Make sure links look like links.

Easy - One of the common phrases in web design is "Don't make me think". Things should be easy: easy to find, easy to navigate, easy to interact, easy to leave. Always keep this in mind when positioning elements on a page. This is similar to the intuitive concept, but takes it a step further. If there is information on your site that is important that users see...put it on the front page! No sense in hiding it somewhere they may not find. Make things easy on them.

If you're having a web developer create your website, just make sure that what he's creating is easy on the user. Oftentimes a developer will create something that is easy on HIM, the developer...not your users. Don't let him get lazy - if it seems like your web users have to be internet experts to use your site then you need to change some things.

Hopefully these ideas will be able to get you started on making a really user friendly website. Stay tuned as more posts will be coming out in the upcoming weeks.

5 Easy Ways to Enhance Your Website

Feel like your website is starting to look a little bland? Want to make it a little more interactive? Well one option is of course to redesign it...but unless your website is really old, it may not be in your budget to redesign it. Or maybe it's a new website and you like it but you are just looking for that "Wow" factor...well here are some easy tips to either implement yourself or ask your web developer to do for you:

1. Insert a photo gallery.

There are a lot of really nice looking photo galleries available for free. And you don't have to be a wizard at HTML either, just use the code already provided.

If you're looking for one that is a popup, checkout Lightbox. It's really easy to implement with any web design already in place. If you want something a little more fancy check out this one - it's a little more difficult to implement but is really nice.

2. Add a countdown feature

What am I counting down to exactly? Well the answer is anything you want! Announce that you're having a massive sale, and put a countdown calendar on your home page counting down the hours, minutes and seconds remaining until the spending frenzy begins! Or if you have a major event coming up, or a new product...really anything of interest.

3. Add Facebook and Twitter

Social media is all the rage right now...it's almost an expectation of any legitimate business to be on Facebook and Twitter. Give your users a little link on your website so they can follow you and become fans. Another good idea is to add a Facebook Badge.

4. Add a survey

Everyone loves to have their voice heard - let them express themselves on your website by voting! Of course it totally depends on your product/service but this is especially easy to do if you use a CMS like Joomla or Wordpress which both have survey plugins. But if not you can either have your developer set one up for you - or worse case scenario use SurveyMonkey.

5. Add a video

This is really easy to put on your website, the hard part may be figuring out what to make a video of. YouTube and Vimeo both let you embed your videos on your website and I would recommend using one of them. Make your video fairly short, and focus on making it either fun or informative...and ideally both!

Good luck!

I have a website, why do I need a blog?

A website is a great tool to have, however while I believe it is the most important tool of your online marketing, it should not stand alone. Social media, and specifically a blog should be used in conjunction with your website.

What does a blog do that a website doesn't? Well for one it's much easier to update. Not everyone has the time or money or content management system in place to easily update their website. Anyone can update a blog.

Also, Google and other search engines LOVE blogs. Especially if you include links to your website from your blog. It all becomes part of SEO.

It gets your users involved. The greatest part about a blog is the comment section below. Your users can add their comments, ask questions, interact with both you and other users. The possibilities are tremendous.

Here is a great little powerpoint presentation I ran across that gives some really nice tips on blogging. Really I think the best way to become a good blogger is just to do it, which I have to learn myself, being more of a website guy.

The point is, your business needs a blog. There are lots of options out there, and actually I've read some things recommending not using Google's Blogger.com which is what I currently use. Meh - it's free.