What do I put on my website?

Coming up with good content for your website can be difficult. If you're a small business, you may not have a marketing person on staff to take care of it for you, and if you're a marketing person it still can be tricky!

Here are some tips and ideas of good things to put on your website:

1. Blog or Article section

Let's cut straight to the chase. A blog or article section on your website is one of the best and least often used tools for web design. What does a blog do? Well you can read more about it in our article, Why you NEED a blog on your website, but the short answer is that it can greatly help your search engine optimization. It takes time and effort to write the articles, but the results will be worth it.

2. Contact Info at top

Many people visiting a website are just looking for a way to contact you. Depending on your business it may be an address, phone number, or email. Whatever you decide on, it's important to display it in a prominent area of your website, often in the banner at the top.

3. Lead form

A lead form is a nifty way to let users contact you straight from the website. Users enter their name, phone, email, etc (or whatever else you want them to type in) and you receive an email with the info. A client of ours, Extra Storage, located in Gloucester VA, has a lead form on their home page (as well as contact info at the top of their site). Click here to see their website.

4. Specials or Coupons

One way to attract people to visit your website periodically is to offer online-only specials, or web specials. In other words, the only way to get the coupon is to go to their website. This is useful for a new website, where customers may not be used to going online to check out the business.

If you have a online storefront, you can incorporate your coupons directly with the shopping cart. If you don't have a shopping cart on your website, no problem! Just advertise your specials online, or have a printable PDF document that customers can bring in to your store when they purchase from you.

Tommy Garner Air Conditioning & Heating, located in Newport News VA, utilizes a coupon right on their home page. Click here to see their website.

5. Photo Gallery

Pictures can REALLY help out your business. "A picture paints a thousand words" is a good phrase to remember. Particularly if you're into any kind of custom designed product, food service, or in the tourism industry, a good photo gallery or slideshow of pictures will really sell your product and services to your visitors.

Another client of ours, SR Design in Virginia Beach VA, utilizes a good photo gallery of their products on their website. Their slideshow is a series of thumbnails which you can click to enlarge. Click here to see their website.

6. Hours of Operation

A simple yet easy to forget item to include on your website is your business hours. They often go on your Contact page, but can also go on your About Us page or in a permanent place on the left or right menu.

7. Testimonials

Customer reviews are very helpful! Get a few of your clients to leave you some feedback and post it to your website. It will encourage others to use your services!

8. Directions

Depending on the technical expertise of your typical customer, a Directions page can be helpful. Many people just need an address to plug into their GPS, however some people aren't comfortable with that and would rather follow directions.

Here are a few other ideas:

• Events page
• Site map (for larger websites)
• In the News section  - for if your organization has been in the news
• Printable material
• Employment applications

Let us know if you are interested in a free consultation. Call us at 757-778-8973 or email at info@freshlookwebdesign.com. Good luck!

What is "Above the Fold"?

Above the Fold is one of those terms you may have heard but not really defined properly. Simple put, above the fold in web design is what can be viewed on a monitor without scrolling down with the mouse. It's also known as above the crease or above the scroll.

Originally, it was a term for newspapers. When a newspaper sat in the stand, it was folded in half, so whatever appeared in the upper half could be viewed by just walking by and not even picking up. So editors put what they thought were the most interesting stories "above the fold". Advertisers also wanted their ads in this space since their ads were much more likely to be viewed.

This concept applies directly to web design. We want our most important information to be viewed without scrolling down on the page. Typically this would include:

• Logo
• Phone number
• Address
• Email address
• Contact form, or "lead" form
• Banner ad
• Important intro text

Not all of these things can necessarily all fit above the fold. There is limited space. Your website may not even have all these things. But fit what you can without it looking cluttered.

You can still use "Under the Fold"

Some people think that everything should be above the fold. This isn't true. It's good to have a lot of additional information, even if it doesn't fit on one screen shot. Just try to get your most vital information above the fold like your phone number and important call to action buttons.

Different computers have different "folds"

Not all monitors will show the same amount of information on one screen. Different monitors have different resolutions and sizes. Test your website by looking at it from many different computers, including smaller laptops.

Above the fold is a big deal in search engine ranking

Everyone wants to be #1 ranked on Google right? Well if you can't get #1, then at least go for above the fold. Appearing in the top 5 or 6 on Google makes a huge difference when you are above the fold.

Make sure you're applying this principle! Identify the 3 or 4 most important parts of your website. Make sure that they are above the fold. If necessary you can rearrange things. Good luck!

How to easily post video to your website

One of the best ways to capture your users attention on your website is with video. A video will draw your users in, show them what you have to offer, and encourage them to look further into your website. But how do you put a video on your website?

It's super easy! Just follow our 2 steps below:

Step 1: Upload Video to YouTube

• Sign in to Youtube (or create an account if you don't already have a Google account).
• Click "Upload" at the top of the screen
• If it's your first video you've uploaded, you may have to fill out some basic information, such as your name and birthday. Soon you should get to the screen you see below, or something very similar:

• Click on the arrow, and then select the video file on your computer you want to upload. This tutorial is assuming that you already have a video file ready to use.
• It may take some time for the video to fully upload, but once it's done you should be able to view your video on YouTube!

Step 2: Place Your YouTube Video on Your Website

• Go to your video on YouTube
• Click Share
• Click Embed
• Copy and paste the code that shows up into your webpage. You can also change the size of the video if you want. See below:

Your video will appear wherever you place that bit of code! Good luck!

10 Reasons Why You Should Hire Us

Our first unashamed plug of Fresh Look Web Design! If you're looking for a few tips to enhance your website, please read a different article because this one is not for you! :)

Here are the top 10 reasons why you should get a website with Fresh Look Web Design:

1. We do good work.

We do great work! Our websites are beautiful, user friendly, and are found on search engines. You can check out our portfolio right here to check out some of our websites. Want to see more? Contact us and we will give you more to look at.

2. We are reasonably priced.

Other than doing good work this is the most important thing to look for right? We can cater to any budget and the amount of website that you get for your dollar is better than anything else we've ever seen. Do cheaper websites exist? Sure, but they aren't effective. Are there slicker, fancier websites out there? Sure, but say goodbye to a whole lot of dead presidents.

3. We understand how search engines work.

Creating a website is half the battle. Making it appear well in the search engines is the other half. You want someone on your side who knows how to make both parts work together.

4. We do updates in half hour increments.

Most web development companies charge by the hour when it comes to updating your website. We charge by the half hour. It usually takes around half an hour anyway for most updates, so why charge for work we're not doing?

5. We're here to stay.

The NUMBER ONE complaint we hear from people about other web developers is that their web developer disappeared and they can't contact them anymore to update the website. Whether they were a freelancer, or a company that went out of business; they're gone and now no one can access the website.

You don't have to worry about that with us! We're extremely accessible and have no plans of dropping the ball on anyone.

6. We make quick updates when you need us.

Any time you need a change to your website it's usually hours, sometimes minutes before we get it done, not days.

7. We can do weekend updates.

Got an emergency that needs to go on the website Saturday evening? We can do it...although a heads up during the week will make us like you more :)

8. We're local (to Virginia)

Ideally you want to be able to sit down and meet with your web designer. We do a few long distance projects when necessary, but meet with 95% of our clients at some point during the process. It just works better that way.

9. Our goal is to help your business succeed both long term and short term.

We want our clients to stay with us, and the best way to do that is help them any way we can. A client is a much better revenue source over 10 years of good pricing versus 1 year of being over charged. We really want your business to grow and succeed.

10. We have very good English

There's no language barrier here when you need to call us for technical support. If you need help on your website, it's nice to have someone who you can understand!

Please contact us if you want to talk about how we can help you with your website!

Every Client Says This...

Here are some of the things our clients often say to us when meeting about building a website. If you're a Fresh Look client, you know you've said at least one of these!


Client: "I can't explain to you what I want, but I will know it when I see it."

Frequency: Very common

Answer: We create a design, and if it isn't quite right on the first try then we make it different until the client says, "Aha! Yes!"

Client: How do I get my website to be #1 in Google?

Frequency: Common

Answer: There is certainly no guarantee of being #1, but there are a lot of good ways to improve your ranking. First of all, there's our article dedicated to just that topic, our Easy SEO Checklist. There's also our SEO package, which costs $650 and will definitely improve your ranking significantly. You can also do a lot on your own - write lots of good content.

Client: "What is hosting, and do I need it?"

Frequency: Common

Answer: Hosting is required for every website to be connected to the internet, and we can provide it for you.

Client: "I know what I want. I'm going to tell you exactly how I want my website to look."

Frequency: Asked occasionally

Answer: We'd prefer that our clients have a general idea, yet also be open to suggestions. Give us a concept that you like, and leave the details of how to make it work to us.

Client: "Here's the content for my website. The only problem is I don't know where it should go."

Frequency: Almost universal

Typical result: We are able to organize content in a way that is attractive and intuitive. That's primarily our job, to make the website user friendly. Don't worry if you don't know beforehand how to arrange your content, we will help you out.

Client: "Here's 8,239 pictures, can you figure out what to do with them?"

Frequency: EVERY PROJECT! (ok not really)

Answer: While we may go blind from going through your pictures, the website will be MUCH better because of it. The more quality pictures you give us, the better your website will be.

Client: "I think I need a Godaddy whadya call it domain something..."

Frequency: Common

Answer: A domain name is the first step to getting a website. It's what comes after the www at the top of your screen when you're on a website, and can be .com, .net, .org, etc. It costs around $20/year and we'll give you ideas on what domain name to use.

Client: "I need this project done really fast. 1 week max."

Frequency: Occasionally

Answer: A website can EITHER be good, rushed, or reasonably priced. We are able to make websites that are both good and reasonably priced, but we cannot add in rushed. We CAN do it rushed, but it will no longer be reasonably priced, and it will always be better if it is not rushed.

Why isn't my brand new website on Google?

Launching a new website is a very exciting endeavor. Once it's "live" for the world to see we want everyone to find it! However it comes as a surprise to some that their website doesn't appear on Google right away. What's going on?!?!

I'm glad we launched our brand new website yesterday, but I can't find it on Google?

The answer is that Google just hasn't found it...yet. They're looking for it. It can actually take search engines up to 3 months to find a brand new website.

Why does it take so long?

It doesn't always take that long. Google sends out "crawlers" on a schedule. Let's say they send them out on Jan 1, April 1, July 1, etc. If your website gets launched on Jan 8, then you have to wait until April 1. But if you launch your website on March 25, you only have a few days to wait until April 1.

Is there anything I can do to make my website get found sooner?

If your website has inbound links (links from other websites leading to your website) than Google is likely to find it sooner. What happens is the crawlers follow that link and it leads them to your website which they index.

Do I need to submit my website to the search engines?

No. A lot of people say that you need to do this, but it is unnecessary. The search engines find everything on their own.

Why is it that I can find my website if I search for the name of my company, but not if I search for my services?

Even though Google has found you, they rank your website below that of your competitors. Why is that? There are a few reasons:

• Your competitors domain name (www.whatever.com) may be older, and more trustworthy because it's been around longer.
• Your competitors website may have more inbound links than your brand new website. Inbound links have a strong influence on your Google ranking. It may take some time for you to build up inbound links.
• It's possible your competitors have put more time into their ranking. Showing up on the first page of Google takes a lot of work and a lot of time. It doesn't happen overnight.

We invite you to read our Easy SEO Checklist to learn some tips on how to improve the ranking of your website.

We also have a SEO service that is very popular with our clients. Please visit our website or call us at 757-646-7908 to find out how we can help you.