Identify your target market

Before spending time and money on developing a company website, you need to know who your target market is and focus your efforts in creating quality content for them. Unfortunately not every person is a good fit for your products and services, so the job of your website is to help you identify who is a good fit and more importantly who is more likely to convert. Regardless of what stage you are in the web development cycle, being able to answer the following 3 questions will help you better understand the specific needs of the people that will benefit most from your product or service while improving your chance of converting lookers into action takers.

3 Questions

Being able to answer the following questions about your website will help you better identify who your target market is.

Question 1: Who will visit my website?

First think about who will benefit most from the information on your website, is it your current customer, potential customer, employees, suppliers, competitors, students, information seekers, etc,. Does your current content meet their needs?

Second, is the information on your site targeted to meet the needs of those users. You may even have multiple target audiences. Once you understand who the target is and what their needs are, it will become easier for you to address those specific areas of interest. If you are able to meet a visitor’s needs you have a better chance for a conversion to happen.

Question 2: Why would someone want to visit to my site?

People search the internet with a purpose and goal in mind. According to a study, regarding what people searched for on the web, 75 percent of the people surveyed said that they went online to search for information. If you consider that Google process about 10 million searches per hour, 75% is a huge number of potential visitors to your site.

So to answer the above question, chances are it is for information about your company, products, or services; but keep in mind that if a visitor cannot find the information or solution he is looking for, he will bounce and look somewhere else. This is why it is imperative to make sure that the content on your site be relevant, targeted and easy to find.

Question 3: Does my site provide the solution(s) that the searcher is looking for?

Regardless of what business you are in, above all you are a problem solver. Some people visit your site by accident and some come with a specific problem or need. If the landing page someone lands on is not relevant to their search (i.e. providing a specific solution they are looking for) a visitor will bounce and look somewhere else for the answer. This is why it is imperative to make sure that your site addresses the specific need and provide a relevant solution.

Finding your niche

Unfortunately your business is not unique, you have many competitors in the market pimping various versions of your product and service. In essence you and your competitors are all competing for revenue share. What differentiates you from your competitors? You need to define your focus.

Once you have defined your focus, you can then define your niche. What do you do well that your competitors do not.

For example, we differentiate our web services by placing a focus on helping small business owners create an optimized interactive web presence that extends beyond a basic company website. Web designers are dime a dozen. Most designers place their focus on design and aesthetics, where as we focus on optimization, functionality and clean design. When people make a search query, they don’t search for fancy web graphics, they search for meaningful web content. We help a small business owner become an option at the moment someone searches for them.

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WordPress PlugIns

Below is a list of few popular WordPress PlugIns.

WordPress Comments

With Get Recent Comments you can track the latest comments in your sidebar. You can customize its appearance by choosing the number of comments shown in the sidebar, the length of excerpts, the order of appearance, the html layout and many other options.

WordPress Anti SPAM

Nowadays most of the SPAM that a blog receives is being generated by spambots. However, the Captcha plugin will add a distorted text image the user has to identify to allow his/her comment to be accepted. This way you will be better preserved from SPAM. Captcha is easy to use and secure.

Akismet stops the spam messages in your blog comments. Any message recognized as blog spam gets recorded in the Akismet web service and blogs all over the world become immune against it.

WordPress SEO

All in One SEO Pack helps you optimize your Wordpress blog for Search Engines. With this plugin your post titles get optimized, META tags are generated automatically, and the fine-tuning of your articles is possible through many additional features.

WordPress Statistics

With Wordpress.com Stats you can track the metrics of your WordPress blog. This plugin provides information about the popularity of your posts and the traffic on your pages. It shows all the important statistics in a clear summarized manner.

Other WordPress Plugins

Installing Spell Checker will utilize the excellent Speller Pages open source project to provide spell checking functionality to your Dashboard. Once installed, a new button will be displayed there and on the page creation menu. Also, via simple calls added to the templates you can provide same spell checking capability to the comments box.

Banner manager is an excellent plugin for blogs that run both advertising websites and personal pages. It provides very neat admin capabilities and ability to manage up to 5 banners per page.

With WP-ContactForm you can easily create instant drop in forms for the visitors of your WordPress blog. This way you will be able to stay in touch with them without providing your email address. Your readers can contact you any time and your email remains spam-free.

The Google XML Sitemap plugin optimizes your WordPress blog for Search Engines like Google, Bing etc. With its help you can create Google sitemaps compliant XML-Sitemap for your blog. With every new post the generated sitemap is updated and search engines with sitemap protocol support gets notified. 

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Managing and Tracking Projects

Managing a project is not easy, with people, finances, time, equipment and materials to be managed on an ongoing basis to ensure project success. However, if you keep an eye on the following five important project areas, you will very much be on top of everything on your project.

1. Finances and time 

You must on a weekly basis review your project to see if it is still on track. You must identify all tasks that are slipping or running late and see if they would be delaying the overall project completion date. In order to re-assign time to more critical tasks, see if there are any non-critical tasks that can be delayed to later or even after project completion. Another method of time saving is to see if you cannot complete any tasks quicker and earlier.

2. Resource allocation 

You must keep a close eye on the percentage of time each of your team members are allocated to a task. If certain team members are over allocated and others are under allocated, you may need to look at reworking your schedule and working more efficiently. You may need to balance everyone's workload better so that everyone is allocated 80 to 100 percent.

3. Progress and efficiency of the team 

Not only must you continuously track the progress of every team member, but also the efficiency of every team member. This means that apart from the percentage progress everyone makes on his or her tasks, you must also check how many tasks are completed on time. Time sheets are very good tools in monitoring progress and efficiency of team members.

4. Risks, issues and changes 

All risks, issues and changes must be managed on an ongoing basis using appropriate management processes and forms and logs to record all these items. A great tip is to try and resolve any issues or risks as soon as they are identified, in order to minimize the impact they may have on your project. Changes must be discussed and prioritized with the relevant stakeholders on an ongoing basis and their impact on the project must be track and monitored.

5. Project health checks 

Tracking projects at a low level is part of ongoing project management, but you must also be able to every now and then during the project's existence, sit back and review the project from a higher level to gain a view of the project's overall health and status. By taking a weekly summarized view of the project, you will be able to more effectively manage the project and lead the team.

Keeping these five areas constantly in mind during the entire project life cycle will ensure that you would be able to identify problems well in advance and then be able to act on these appropriately to ensure project success.

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Hire a Webdesign agency or a Freelance Webdesigner?

It is absolutely important that any business which is serious about making money should have a vibrant internet presence. The degree to which people now rely on the internet when sourcing, ordering and purchasing goods and services means that is unaffordable to avoid, and so a web page which does its job properly is a key financial component. This means, utilizing top of the range Website Design company is massively important and for this reason the temptation to utilize a freelance web designer should be resisted.

The idea of using a freelance web designer may be tempting, on the grounds that a smaller, individual unit might be cheaper than a larger organization, but in truth it isn’t always going to be the case and, even if it is, it may turn out to be a false economy. A good website designer will become an essential part of any business, and below are just a few of the reasons why an agency is the best place to go to:

Scale: If you’re looking for website design that ticks every critical box then the sheer size and scale of an agency will ensure that you’re much more likely to get it. For every feature and aspect of the site they’ll have a specialist able to focus sharply and produce the best results. Whilst an individual may have gaps in their knowledge or certain blind spots, a large organization is bound to have somebody capable of covering every single base.

Economy: although the idea of working with a freelancer may appeal on the grounds of economy, this is not always going to be the case. Individuals won’t always be cheaper than organizations because they lack the economies of scale brought about by being larger and having the ability to take on more individual jobs at any one time. A single person will be pressured to maximize the income drawn from each individual job, whereas an agency can spread the price, drawing revenue from multiple jobs at any given time.

Experience: If you’re hiring a web designer than you’re trusting a vital part of your business to another person. This is a somewhat scary thought, but it becomes less stressful when you appreciate the fact that an agency will have vast reservoirs of experience to draw upon. If there are any problems with your site, or any questions which you need to ask, then somebody within the organization will have come across this situation before and will have the answers.

Different viewpoints: One of the most important aspects of any web design is distinctiveness. There are a million of web pages out there, and you want yours to stand out from the crowd. A freelancer may well have an individual approach, but that will be their only approach. A larger organization, on the other hand, will be able to call on a number of viewpoints, asking for input until something which is truly distinctive has been created.

Technical Capability: Whilst an individual web designer may be undoubtedly talented, having the creative style and know how required to produce effective websites, where the larger agency is bound to trump them every time is in the area of technical capability. The larger scale of production means a confidence on the very best and most cutting edge equipment, and these are the tools which will be put at service of your site.

Speed: in the world of business, speed is of the core. Often, the answer to the question ‘When do you need it’ is ‘Yesterday’. A larger organization will have the capacity to cope with this kind of fast turnaround far more easily than an individual, and thus meet the tightest of deadlines.

If your business, needs website design then the choice of where you go, to get it could be one of the most important business decisions you’ll ever make. For all of the reasons listed above, the temptation to cut corners by hiring a freelance web designer should be resisted. Your web site is frequently the first point of contact between your business and prospective customers – get this right and you’ll be on your way to getting everything else right.

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How to hire a web designer

As you search the internet for a web designer, you realize it can be quite intimidating.

You know that a professional web designer is the best way to perfect your branding, increase your conversion rates and garner attention, but how do you know if your designer is qualified and charges a fair rate for the work?

Here are some key items to consider when choosing and hiring a web designer.

Make Sure You Ask The Right Questions

How do you evaluate a web designer?

Chances are, you’ll stumble on a designer’s site, check out the portfolio and decide whether you like the work visually. While this is often a good start, there are other things you should consider, so ask yourself:

§   Does the designer creates clean and intuitive navigation?

§  Are the websites in the designer’s portfolio still using the design?

§  Does the designer need to do branding work? If so, are they experienced with branding?

§  Does the designer need to work on your conversion rates? If so, are they qualified?

§  Does the designer offer referrals that are easy to get in touch with?

Remember, when asking these questions, think about what you want your website to accomplish—because an effective website is more than just a pretty picture.

For example, if you want to generate qualified leads, does the designer have experience with that? Or, if you’re using WordPress or Drupal, does the designer have demonstrated experience with those platforms? Don’t just take their word for it—if you don’t see matching projects in the portfolio, ask for links and referrals.

Once you’ve settled on a designer, how else can you ensure a successful project?

Communicate With Your Prospective Designer Effectively

When you approach a prospective designer, it’s your job to describe what you want and trust me, there’s no such thing as too much information!

What kind of information should you give your designer?

Well, if there are a few websites you absolutely love, you should provide them as examples. On the other hand, if there are some colors that give you a rash, you should tell them that too – but keep in mind that just because you don’t like orange does not mean it’s not the best color to use to get users to do what you want them to do. You’re not decorating your living room—you’re creating (hopefully) a revenue-generating portal.

In general, here’s a list of some key information you should give each prospective designer so they can give you an accurate price quote and determine whether they can complete your job:

§  What’s your budget? Whatever it is, state it up front. You need to make sure you’re both on the same page.

§  What feeling do you wish your design to convey? This helps the designer choose art, typography and site architecture with that aim in mind.

§  What’s the main objective of your website? Do you want more sales? Subscribers? Traffic?

§  What special functionality do you need? Are you trying to sell products in an online store? Do you need special contact/prospect screening forms?

§  What happens after your site is launched? Do you need your designer to stick around for potential updates? Do they offer a maintenance program?

§  What are examples of websites you like? Tell your designer what you like about each one.

While this list isn’t exhaustive, this is the type of thinking and communication that flushes out the true marketing partners—which your designer should be, if they’re charging a decent rate—from the order-takers. Sometimes what you think you want isn’t necessarily what you need, and a good designer will be willing to push back when necessary and offer the benefit of his/her experience.

Warning: Don’t Say These 3 Phrases to Your Potential Designer

When you find a designer you like, you should treat them and their work with respect. After all, you want them to take your project and do a great job, right?

It’s easy to come across as disrespectful if you don’t give some thought to your inquiry, and designers have to look out for clients who may be “problem children” before taking them on. The interview is a two-way process.

While most designers can roll with the punches, here are some phrases you should try to avoid:

“This ought to be simple” or “I’d code it myself if I only had the time.”

First and foremost, you’re hiring a designer for their expertise, and assuming your project is simple conveys, “I’m not really willing to pay your rates for this project”. Instead, tell the designer what you’re looking for and let them decide on the complexity.

“I’m poor, without any money, so can you design my site for free?”

Remember, designers create websites for a living. If you’re low on funds, you should consider checking out template sellers like Template Monster.

“I want a website. How much will that set me back?”

While this might seem like a great opening, it can sometimes be a red flag. “I want a website” is not nearly enough information, and can be an indicator that you’re not a great communicator yourself. Creating a website isn’t a one size fits all approach, which is why rates vary greatly. Plus a designer also needs to know if your requirements are in their wheelhouse; if not, they should be willing and able to provide a referral to an agency that specializes in the work you need.

Now that you know how to find a qualified designer, and communicate effectively with them,

Is your prospective designer right for you?

Only you know the answer to this question, and listening to your intuition, making sure there is a good personality match and checking references already puts you ahead of the game.

Professional website designs can represent a significant investment, so, before choosing any designer, you should do some research.

The Bottom Line

In summary: Communicate, communicate, communicate—both verbally and visually—and don’t hesitate to ask questions and demand the same level of communication. If you don’t feel right about the match, don’t hesitate to move on until you find a designer that feels right. Getting in a rush now can cost time and money in the long run.

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Smart Tips to Retain Good Employees

You thought the hiring process was difficult? Wait until you get to the part where you have to hold on to your great employees with dear life.

It is true that a crucial step for a company’s success is an effective standardized hiring procedure that includes proficient employment background screening, structured interviews with examinations and tests. However, it does not end there. The next challenging step that comes after hiring is over, is the phase where you would have to retain the exceptional employees that you have found.

These employees are important in your company for a number of reasons. They improve the productivity of your company, they boost sales and business opportunities and they contribute well to the establishment of the company’s reputation.

For these reasons, it is imperative that as an employer, you are able to retain these good employees, who are great assets to your company. Remember, it was not easy finding them and if you let them go just like that, you may never find replacements as good as or better than them.

So how does an employer keep his employees healthy and loyal? Here are some vital pointers to bear in mind.

1.     Give generous workers compensation.

Excellent employees should not only be given a “reasonable” salary. They should be paid more than the normal wage since their talents, skills and contribution to your company are above average. Not to say that employees are only after the money, but you have to accept the fact that it is indeed the number one motivator for any worker to give his 100% for his job.

Keep in mind that if you do not do this, some other company will and it would surely break your heart if your excellent employee decides to leave you for greener pasteur. You certainly cannot blame your employee for wanting a better life for himself.

2.     Provide rewards and incentives

A few occasional treats, like a dinner or a pair of concert tickets of a popular musical artist, will be really nice rewards for a job well done. Of course, you do not have to do this every time because you might spoil your employee but doing this occasionally for an exceptional job performance will surely boost the morale of your worker.

3.     Do not be stingy with compliments and recognition.

Appreciation for a task that an employee worked so hard for will motivate him to work even harder next time. This is because he can see that his efforts are being recognized and are not being taken for granted. Recognition must not always need to be a tangible one. A pat on the back or a compliment, “congratulations for a job well done” will surely be valued by your employee.

4.     Establish rapport with your employees

Do not be that mean boss who is the center of all major gossips and backstabbing in the office. Treat your employees well and you will receive the same treatment from them. Accept a few mistakes, be constructive with criticisms, and never abuse your employees in whatever way. Remember, some employees especially great ones, will not tolerate cruelty because they know they are good enough to find another employer who will treat them better.

Of course, at the end of the day, you still have to maintain authority so establish a clear boundary where you and your employees can meet halfway. A few jokes here and there are acceptable when you and the employees are outside the office but once you are in it, you should make sure you are treated with respect.

5.     Give the right benefits

Your company should give your employees ample benefits such as medical coverage, stock options and other benefits that will make your employees want to stay working with your company.

6.     Provide training for career advancement

Exceptional employees always crave to learn more and they will surely appreciate any training or seminar that will contribute to the advancement of their careers and skills.

7.     Give promotions

Another factor that would retain good employees in your company is when they see that their career is going somewhere. An employee does not want to be on the bottom level forever. He is working hard to reach the top. Make sure you help him achieve that.

Ultimately, be a good boss. It all boils down to that. If you are reasonable, kind, generous and efficient employer, no employee in his right mind would want to leave your company.

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Essential elements for effective Online Marketing

Internet marketing is all about converting visitors into buyers. Visitors don’t make you money – buyers do. So how do you turn traffic into profit? How do you convince the web surfers to hand over their credit card info and offer you some of their hard-earned money? The first step is to follow some basic Internet marketing principles that anyone can learn to become more successful at selling online. To help with that, here are a few essential elements for effective Internet marketing that can increase your sales online.

1: Use Real Photos

Customers like to buy from people they know and trust. The problem with selling online is that customers don’t know who you are because they can’t shake your hand or look you in the eye. That’s where photos come in.

The easiest way for people to meet you online is to show them your picture. Once customers see a photo, they have a better idea of who you are. When it comes to Internet marketing, anonymity is out. Nobody likes doing business with someone they can’t see and have never met.

Using real pictures of real people is the easiest way to create more credibility online.

How to apply: On your About Us page, include a picture of the company owner(s) and possibly a group picture of employees. This will add a human element which is otherwise lacking. You can also add a Team page with pictures of key employees.

2: Tell a Story

Telling a story is another way to increase credibility online. The best way to increase sales through storytelling is to tell the story of how your business started and how it grew to the size as it is today. If your company started for a plausible reason and you’re still in business, there’s a good chance that you’re doing something right. This will inspire confidence in your customers.

How to apply: The best place to tell the story of your company is on the About Us page. You can do this by telling a brief story about the idea that started your company and how it got off the ground. By telling a believable story on your About Us page, you instantly become more trustworthy and make it seem less likely that your business is the latest Internet scam started from a basement in Uzebekistan. That’s good news if you’re selling online.

3: Pay for Good Design

If you want to do business on the Internet, good design is an investment worth paying for. A quality design makes customers more comfortable to do business with you. Think about it this way: If you can’t afford a good designer, then your product may not be that great; if it was, you could afford a quality web designer. You need to face the facts–customers will decide whether or not to do business with you based on your design. People do judge books (and websites) by their cover. Whether or not it’s fair, it’s definitely true.

How to apply: The best thing to do is pay for a quality design that will make your site look credible and professional.

Your website doesn’t need to be the most beautiful site on the Internet, but it does need to look professional. Just like you need to dress for success, you need to design for it as well. So make sure to pay for a professional design that will inspire enough confidence in customers that they’ll buy what you’re selling.

4: Provide Testimonials

Testimonials may be the most important piece to the online marketing puzzle.

Here’s why: Nobody cares about what you have to say about your company. You’re biased. Of course you think the product is great and everyone should buy it. You’ll become rich if they do. Customers don’t care what you have to say about yourself. What they do care is what other people have to say. They care if your customers would recommend your product to their friends or do business with you again. There may be nothing that influences a purchasing decision more than what other people have to say about your company, so don’t forget to include testimonials on your site.

How to apply: First, ask customers to provide a brief testimonial about their experience with your company. Second, post the testimonials on a Testimonial page and othersales pages. The good news is that the testimonials don’t have to be long. Two or three sentences from a satisfied customer that are properly placed on a sales page can be the difference between a sale and a non-sale. Always remember, people care about what other people have to say about your company way more than what you have to say about yourself.

5: Offer a Guarantee

There’s something that customers love about guarantees. WalMart figured this out and started offering money back guarantees on every product they sell. It’s worked out pretty well for them. Guarantees are valuable because they get buyers, over sales hurdles. If a customer isn’t sure whether or not they want to buy your product, a guarantee gives them the assurance they need, to move forward. And why not? They’ll get their money back if they’re not satisfied.

The good news is that the majority of customers won’t end up asking for their money back. They’ll be too lazy to do so, or your product will be so good that they won’t need to ask for a refund.

How to apply: Provide a written guarantee that can be viewed as part of the sales process. Tell customers that if they aren’t satisfied for any reason, you’ll give them their money back. The good news is that, if your product is good, you won’t need to refund any money. If for some reason you do, enough people will decide to purchase because of the guarantee that it will likely make up for any refunds you end up needing to give.

6: Call to Action

A call to action (CTA) is a short statement that directs customers to take an action you’d like them to take. They also happen to be critical for selling online. Here are some examples:

1. Buy now

2. Click to learn more

3. Get a free consultation

4. Click like to share with your friends

It may seem like people don’t need this much help with taking the next step, but it’s proven that customers are more likely to take an action when directed to take one. Customers are much more likely to take an action when there’s a call to action that tells them what to do.

How to apply: On your website and sales pages, use call to action to direct customers to take whatever step you want them to take next. Do this by making a simple yet gentle command such as “buy now,” “click to learn more,” or “click to share on Facebook.”

It’s important to know that gentle commands are more effective than asking questions. Instead of saying “would you like to buy now” make a direct call to action such as “buy now.” The latter has been proven to be more effective.

7: Less is More

The last but not the least lesson is this: less is more.

The biggest mistake people make online is trying to include everything possible on every page. They think that if they forget the smallest feature, they’re whole business will fall apart. This is the worst thing to do.

The less you try to do on each page of your website, the more effective your sales funnel will be. Conversely, the more features that get added to a page, the less likely it is that people will take the action you want them to take.

When pages get cluttered, there’s just too much that can potentially get in the way. Either customers won’t be able to find the buy now button that will make you the money you need, or they’ll get distracted by pictures in your Flickr album and forget to finish the order. Ensure customers don’t get distracted or miss your important calls to action by deciding to do less instead of more.

How to apply: Figure out which steps you want customers to take, and make sure it’s easy for them to take those steps. Anything else that could possibly be a distraction needs to be removed. If it’s a sales page, get rid of sidebars, extra pictures, or external links that can distract customers from buying your product.

Do whatever it takes to make your site as streamlined as possible. Instead of trying to dream up more widgets that can go on a page for the sake of taking up space, spend your time figuring out which features can be removed without detracting from the user experience. If a feature isn’t helping customers do what you want them to do, it needs to go.

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User Experience

User Experience, is self-definitive. When a user interacts with something, that action generates an experience. Science informs that if you supply an action, an equal or opposite reaction will occur.

The user, meaning the humans behind these actions, by nature, will search for the easiest, most efficient way to complete a task. The more complex that process is, the less likely they will feel great about repeating that workflow. Along with that frustration, the user may begin to lose confidence in your product, even relating that to your company as a whole. When you lose confidence, you break emotional ties.

To prevent the above, we must utilize our talents, knowledge and life experiences to develop processes that live to solve problems. We rely on our self-discipline to evolve our skills beyond what tradition can teach and it’s that inner drive that can, literally, change the face of our world.

We’re witnessing a point in history where humanity, as a whole, values the colossal importance and talent of a “smart designer.” To design great experiences, you must adapt your skills to meet the unique needs of each business problem. UI/UX designers form strong partnerships with clients on the front lines to cut the problem off at its source, reinforcing the foundation of that product or service to convert guests to lifetime advocates.

Dime a dozen

If you want someone creative, there are millions of them. We’re not mystical creatures, unicorns or shaped like the letter “T,” but find one with a passion for the full-circle of a business strategy, and you’ll have an always-learning, passionate and eternally valuable business partner. If the designer fails to fully understand the foundation of its target users, they will create something lacking passion. Not in the design, but the purpose and function behind it.

Final Thought

Two designers attempt to solve a problem. One creates a senseless design, but easy on the eyes, fulfilling the visual stimulation. The other formulates a “smart” design, solving the structural problem, but lacks “WOW” factor.

Designers who solve the right problems understand the underlying needs of the problem, addressing the foundation and providing an effective, strategic solution so that the person feels emotionally engaged, visually captivated and able to navigate with basic intuition.

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Why having a mobile website is important?

According to a recent survey, mobile Internet usage is growing by 30% every year. By 2013, it is expected that there will be more than 130 million mobile web users in the United States alone. Here are the key reasons why your business should have a mobile website.

1. Google indexes mobile content differently than regular search. Ranking on mobile is much easier because Google has a smaller index of content under mobile, as this segment is still at an infant stage.

People who are first to market have a significant advantage. Therefore, if businesses get a mobile site today, they can be ranked quicker than their competition. If for no other reason than to Rank High on Google, you should build your mobile site before your competition does.

2. One out of every five Americans is on the mobile web every day. As the percentage of mobile web users increases rapidly, you should not miss the opportunity to capture this audience and preempt the competition.

3. 20% of all U.S. households are now “mobile-only” for their phone service. The Future is in Mobile Search. The next frontier of the internet is the mobile web and some say it will even overtake the desktop. In the near future, most of the visitors to a website will be through mobile. Mobile devices such as the iPhone and Android have revolutionized web surfing, enhanced the experience dramatically, and continue to drive more consumers to use mobile devices for browsing the Internet.

So go ahead and get your mobile website ready today!

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Landing Page Optimization For Google Adwords

Having a good quality score is very important for Google Adwords. You might not know it but, your landing page could be lowering your quality score on Google Adwords. Knowing exactly how to increase your quality score is impossible because Google won’t tell you exactly what is wrong with your ad(s), keyword(s) or landing page. However, there are a number of quality guidelines you can follow to ensure you aren’t hindering your own progress by breaking some of the cardinal rules. Remember, once you have implemented this checklist it will take a while for the Google Adwords bot to crawl your page and re-evaluate your score; so be a little patient.

1. Check the speed of your page using http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/
2. Check for site validation issues using http://validator.w3.org
3. Check your site for hidden error pages
4. Make sure your page has a keyword density of at least 2%
5. Make sure you optimise headers (H1/H2/H3) with your keywords
6. Make sure your page meta-description is relevant and keyword targeted
7. Make sure there is absolute relevance between your ads, keywords and landing page.
8. Make sure you aren’t misleading customers with false promises
9. Make sure your site is not infected with malware
10. Make sure your page isn’t littered with advertising
11. Make sure your content is entirely original
12. Make sure users can find what they are looking for in 1-2 clicks
13. Make sure you aren’t using a re-direct
14. Make sure your site doesn’t disable back buttons, resize windows or other black hat tricks
15. Avoid asking for personal information unless it is absolutely necessary
16. Avoid using pop-ups or exit blockers

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Web Design Questionnaire

Why do you need a web design questionnaire?

First of all, to understand what your clients need and provide them with the most competitive proposal. Second, you need to filter out price shoppers who unlikely will fill out the complete form. You can use this web design questionnaire via email, phone or even in the meeting. 

1. What kind of visitors are you expecting on your website (income, interests, gender, age)?

This question helps you to understand better the potential visitors and therefore plan the website design and development in the best way. Obviously site for teenagers will be different from the site for working moms or site for executives.

2. Please list the names of two or more of your competitors and describe how are you different from them?

The competition in the internet is very high. This means that website you’re creating will be compared to a lot of other sites. So the point is to make the website memorable and stand up from the crowd.

3. What actions do you want visitors to take on the site?

Site can sell products, provide information, educate, make visitor to make a phone call or fill out the form. Depending on the client’s needs the website structure, functionality and design can vary substantially.

4. What is your deadline for completing the site and your budget?

There’re a lot of clients with unrealistic expectations. They want you to build a website compared to Monster with almost no budget and in a week. Your purpose is to make clear realistic time and budget. If your fee seems to be high for someone, then it’s not your problem.

5. What features should be used on your website (contact form, pictures, video, etc.)?

We need to know what the client would like to have on the website and manage expectations accordingly. Possibly small company website doesn’t need to have as many features as media portal. However some clients are very tough about features they’d like to have on their website.

6. Please list the names of three sites that you like and what do you like about them?

Very often potential client already knows what their website should look like or be similar to so there’s no need to invent a bicycle. On the contrary, not following client likes or dislikes you can get yourself into trouble.

7. Do you have any color preferences, look and feel for the website?

Believe me, if the client would like to have website in green color or with black background no matter how persuasive you can be in the end you have to follow the client preferences. So it’s better to get it right from the start.

8. Who will be the contact person for this project and what will be the turnaround time?

There’s nothing wrong if in the company you’re dealing with a number of people are responsible for the project. But to avoid multiple and often conflicting inputs you need to know just one name. You also need to specify time within you’ll be getting a reply from this person otherwise your project can last very very long.

9. What do you NOT want on your site in terms of text, content, color, graphic elements?

Well, some people can’t stand blue color and office people images while others will require just it. So you’d better know such things in advance.

10. Who will be responsible for maintaining the website and how much time he or she would have for it?

If your client asks for forum it will require some time to moderate so the right questions is does the company have this time? What is the skills level of the person who will update website? Can she do html or there’s need in a CMS?

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