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!

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!

I launched my website...now what?

Creating a brand new website for your business is a big accomplishment. There are countless hours that go into designing, coding, reviewing, testing, and publishing a website. However once the website is launched, what do you do next?

Here are the top 7 things you should remember to do AFTER your website is launched.

1. Promote it

It's really easy to forget to promote your website. Make sure to put your web address on business cards, brochures, signs, etc. Also send out an email blast and Facebook post announcing that you have a new website and people should check it out.

It's also a good idea to give people another reason to go to your website, such as offering web-only specials or coupons. People love to get a good deal, and once they've visited your site it will be easier to get them to return.

2. Check your statistics.

Early on, you can expect to see small amounts of traffic to your brand new website.  Make sure that you check your website hits about once a week or so, especially early on, just to see what pages are getting hits, where your visitors are coming from, how long they're staying on each page, etc.

You'll also want to make adjustments based on your findings. For example, if your "About Us" page is getting a fair amount of visitors, but no one is staying on the page for more than a couple seconds, maybe you should consider sprucing up the content to make it more interesting, or adding some pictures.

3. See where you land in the search engine rankings.

Where your website appears in the search engines is extremely important. Everyone wants to be on the top of page #1, but that isn't easy.

There are a large number of keywords that you can type into Google to find your website. For example, an easy one is your company name: "Fresh Look Web Design". Or you can do a more general search: "web design". Or general term + geographic location: "hampton virginia web design".

We recommend checking your position in the search engine rankings every couple months at the least, to see where you appear. This is particularly important if you are actively trying to improve your position in the search engines. Which leads us to our next topic...

4. Improve your search engine ranking.

This could be a whole series of articles by itself, but we'll direct you to our SEO Checklist if you want to get some general ideas for improving your ranking. The idea we want to get across in this article however is that it's an ongoing process that continues long after you launch your site. You have to work at it, because your competition is doing the same.

5. Add new information

Sometimes it's hard to remember to post things to your website. Think about all the information you share on a regular basis: event information, newsletters, special offers, board meeting announcements, etc. As you go through the day to day business, make sure to put this information on the website.

6. Remove outdated information

This is so easy to forget, however it's important to do. You do not want outdated information on your website. Sometimes it helps to have an archive section where you intentionally put old info, and that's fine. But you don't want your users to see you promoting an event that is 2 months old...it just doesn't reflect too well on your business. Try to remove outdated information promptly.

7. Be patient

A website is not like a microwave that will just zap your business into success. It's more like a really great recipe that will in time produce a delicious meal - if you put forth the effort. Be patient while you're making your website work...keep up with it, update it, check the status and try new things. In time it will turn into something delicious!

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!