BLOG.WHITEKNIGHTTECH.COM

The Importance of Being Earnest

2011-05-09T02:02:00Z

My website looks awesome; isn't that all that matters? Well, maybe, but it's important to remember that there are lots of browsers, not just the one on your computer, and they render your site the way their developers intended, not necessarily the way you did. If your website can't be viewed on the majority of the available browsers, you may lose out on a lot of traffic. Oh yeah, and by the way, did you know that some of those web browsers never actually display an image? They are called Text-Only Browsers, and their sole job is to convert your website for viewers with disabilities into text. That's right, Just Text!

So, how can you make sure your website is ready for this kind of action? Through code validation. Using a code validator, you will be able to check your code for compliance with web standards and recommendations that have been set by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). These code validators are actually pieces of software, often available as online tools or by download from the internet for offline use. Not only do they check for errors, but many of them will even make recommendations for improvements to your code. And clean code is a sure sign of a webmaster's professionalism.

So, while we are on the subject of code validation, let's talk about some of the benefits besides Cross-Browser Compatibility and Accessibility. Code validation will also help you in the following areas:

Search Engine Optimization - spiders read coder from top down but stop when they run across an error.
Future Compliance - as browsers are created or maintained, they evolve to look more and more like those defined by the W3C and less like the days of yore.
Easier Maintenance - maintaining clean code with well-defined cascading style sheets is much easier.

If you are looking for a code validator to validate your HTML, Cascading Style Sheets, Hyperlinks, or Accessibility you can begin with a search on the internet. However, Dustin Betonio recently published a list of 30 Tools on TripWire Magazine. You should be able to find just about everything you are looking for in these lists.

"The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible." ~Oscar Wilde

© 2010 White Knight Technologies LLC

Build It And They Will Come

2011-04-03T18:14:00Z

NOT!!! This adage definitely does not apply to your website which must be marketed or people simply won't know that it's there. Fortunately, marketing your website doesn't have to be expensive; however, it does need to become a part of everything you do.

Often businesses incorrectly assume that "search engine optimization" is the most important method of marketing their website and, as a result, wind up ignoring the obvious. In truth, website marketing should fall right in line with the marketing you are already doing, such as your business literature, newsletters,written and verbal communications, news articles, and signage.

Your business literature, including business cards, letterhead, and fax cover sheets, already bears your organization's phone number and, in many cases, postal address. Why not add your web address to it as well?

As we have discussed previously, updating your website on a regular basis is important. To add to this, each month, when you send out your monthly newsletter, whether it be printed or emailed, be sure to highlight the updated section of your website so your customers will continue to peruse the information that you offer on your site.

Of course communication takes place a great deal in every organization, via phone calls, face to face meetings, and email. It is important to make sure that everyone in your organization feels they have ownership in your website by providing an area on the site that gives value to their function or role. Employees who feel the website was designed to meet their specific needs will be happy to talk it up with your customers. And of course, don't forget to include your web address on your voice mail or in the signature line of every email that you and your staff send out. These last simple communication vehicles are often left out, yet they are so important.

Whenever you find your business has an opportunity to be in the news, be sure to include your web address, whether it be an article in a niche publication, a press release, or a full blown news article.

If you are lucky enough to have a storefront, be sure to include your web address on all of your signage and don't forget those traveling banners that you take with you to the local trade shows.

Do you give away t-shirts, pens, or other promotional items? Well, don't forget to include your web address and make sure the type is large enough so it can be seen, especially at a distance on those t-shirts.

Whenever and however you choose to market your business, be sure to include the marketing of your website.

© 2010 White Knight Technologies LLC

All the Leaves are Brown

2011-03-14T01:52:00Z

One thing I spurn more than anything as I surf the web is sites that automatically blast me with audio, be it background music, talking characters, or a video. I may be deep in the middle of a teleconference with bigwigs all over the world, and "OOPS! Sorry guys!" as I click the back button to save myself from the inevitable silence on the other end of the phone. I wish there was a browser that would allow me to leave these sites off of my search results or that would flash a warning signal before I clicked in. Oh, the embarrassment that could have saved me!

Sound a bit harsh!? Well, I am not alone on my feelings about sound on websites. It is definitely a love or hate relationship, and the majority of people fall into the hate crowd. Rather than take the time to find a shut-off button, they simply click the back button or close the browser. Ouch! All that time and effort you just put into that new beautiful site and now, the majority of your visitors are leaving before they even know what you have to offer.

Did you realize that the sound on your site even overplays the music that I am listening to on my computer?

So, when is sound justified? Hmmm. Let's see. Before we answer that question, let me point out that it is never justified as an autoplay. Your visitors should always request that your audio begin playing. That being said, musicians, record companies, movie sites, news media, games, and children's interactive websites are the only instances that I can think of that truly justify sound. Oh yeah! And, on occasion, you might consider a few short sound bytes for rollover effects or effects that simulate movement on your site, but beyond that, stay away, far, far away.

As a final note, even if you follow all of these rules, allowing your visitors to start and stop the audio on your site on a whim, you should never, never ever, use copyrighted songs without permission. BMI, ASCAP, SESAC, and RIAA actually do pursue copyright violations. And, unfortunately, obtaining permission is not an easy task as it requires you to get permission from the music publisher (for the song itself) and the record company (for the recording).

And the sky is gray....

© 2010 White Knight Technologies LLC

Seal of Approval

2011-02-07T02:48:00Z

In our last blog post, we discussed the importance of internal links and how they affect your website's Search Engine Optimization. So now, while we are on the subject of linking, it seems appropriate that we discuss the other links on your site, the external ones.

External links, by definition, are links to pages that are outside of your domain. Many SEO gurus believe the combination of your outgoing and incoming external links is the strongest factor in developing your search engine ranking power.

In this blog, we are going to focus on your outgoing external links, but to that point it is important to keep the other in mind. Why? Well, think about it. if your incoming external links give your site credibility in the eyes of the search engines, what do you think your outgoing external links are doing for the other guy? Always keep this in mind; when you link to another website you are essentially designating it as an authority and giving it your "seal of approval."

Does that mean that we should get rid of all of the external links on our site? Definitely not. Your website will rank better if you link out to other sites. However, you do want to be a bit stingy. Relevance is the key. When comparing top ranked sites to lower ranked sites using the same keyword on Google, you will find a significant difference in their external links. Those in the top rank will have relevant external links, while those with a lower rank may have the same number of external links, but they won't be relevant.

Try to use only those external links that are highly related to your site, especially those that offer information you don't normally include yourself. Of course, depending on the type of site that you have, you may not always be able to limit your links to this extent. In that case, it is a good idea to add the rel="nofollow" attribute to your link.

Here is a trick that might help you in finding some good links:

Perform a search using your targeted keyword or phrase. Look at the top 5 or 10 websites to see if one of them provides relevant information in a manner that suits your requirements. Link to that site using the same keyword or phrase in the anchor text.
When doing this, it is a good idea to stay away from your competitors. Look for non-commercial sites, such as about.com or wikipedia.

As a last note, it is important to check the validity of your external links on a regular basis. If you have a small site, this can be easy to do manually, but for larger sites, the task is overwhelming. Take a look at the free W3C Link Checker tool. It will drill down into your website and present you with a report containing all of your missing and invalid links.

Pardon Me While I State the Obvious

2011-01-03T01:43:00Z

Your website structure and internal links are two of the largest factors in Search Engine Optimization that are often overlooked despite the power they provide. It always amazes me to find that so few websites make use of the relevant information they have at their fingertips, that which is contained within their own pages.

So, as you begin designing your website structure, it is important to plan out your internal links, keeping in mind these important factors:

Site Navigation – Your site navigation consists of the navigational menus that are typically listed across the top or down the left side of your pages. These menus generally contain links to your main pages, though sometimes sites will include two navigational menus, one for the main sections of the site and the other for informational pages. This important component should be designed to peak interest, enticing your visitors to stay for a while, and helping them to easily find what they are looking for. It should occupy a prominent position on your site and include important links that remain consistent from page to page.

Anchor Text (Link Text) – Many times websites will use words such as “click here” as anchor text not realizing how important these textual links actually are to the Search Engines. Think about it. How often have you searched for “click here?” Instead, using keywords for the page results in more effective anchor text and provides important information to the search engine spiders. As a matter of fact, if you find that you are able to link to the same page more than once, it is a good idea to throw in variations of the same key phrase across the multiple links.

Contextual Links – These links are placed within the context of the page rather than in the navigational menu and are often rated higher than menus by the search engines. For this reason it is good to use them in combination with your other site navigation. It is also interesting to note, that your visitors will be more likely to click on the links in the text while they are reading than to search for that same text in a menu. This proves to be a more natural response, resulting in better staying power. Always keep in mind the usability of your site, adding these links where they will make sense, from one relevant page to another.

A Fonting We Will Go

2010-12-06T06:33:00Z

Selecting the right font for your website is one of the most important decisions you can make for your website. Font styles impact moods and emotions. They can present a friendly spirit or set forth a cold and rigid tone. That being said, unless you are ready to get into some heavy coding, your choices are limited.

Even though you may have hundreds of wonderful fonts available to you on your computer, you have to keep your end user in mind. This time you must consider not only what they want to see, but also what they are capable of seeing. Fonts are not embedded on your web page; your specification is actually nothing more than a reference. Your users can only see the fonts that they have previously installed on their computer.

This can be quite a limitation when you consider the various operating systems (Windows, Mac, and Linux) and the various software packages that install fonts for you. Because of this, it is important that you understand a little about the choices that are available to you and some simple ways to give yourself a leg up while choosing fonts.

When you develop your webpage, your best bet is to make use of a property in CSS known as a font-family, rather than using a single font. A font-family is set up as a prioritized list, beginning with your preferred web font, followed by a list of core or web safe fonts, and finally ending with a generic font. Using the font-family, you are free to specify any font that you like, but it is important to include, as a minimum, a generic font as a backup, just in case.

An example of a font-family definition on your webpage follows:
font-family: Franklin Gothic Medium, Arial Narrow Bold, Arial, sans-serif;

Below I have given you some additional information regarding the generic font and the core and several web safe fonts:

Generic Fonts
The good news: You have a set of fonts that you can always depend on. These are the generic fonts. They are your fail safe, the ones that will always display if the user has nothing else available.

The bad news: There are only five generic fonts (serif, sans-serif, cursive, fantasy, and monospace).

Because it may be hard to find information about how the generic fonts will appear, an example illustration has been provided.

Serif fonts have have short horizontal lines added to the tops and bottoms of the letters (serifs). The image below shows a serif font, highlighting the serifs in red.

Sans-Serif fonts are missing the serifs. The image below shows a sans-serif font.

Cursive fonts have joining strokes or cursive characteristics beyond italics.

Fantasy fonts are mainly decorative characters. Common fantasy fonts are hard to come by and the generic font that replaces it certainly is not in the least bit decorative.

Monospace fonts have characters with the same fixed width, similar to a manual typewriter. This is often used to display samples of computer code.

Core Fonts
You can reasonably expect that most people will have this list of core fonts on a PC (and on most Macs) due to a licensing agreement between Microsoft and Apple. The core fonts include:

Serif
Georgia
Times New Roman

Sans Serif
Arial
Arial Black
Impact
Trebuchet MS
Verdana

Cursive
Comic Sans MS

Monospace
Courier New

Web Safe Fonts
Beyond the core fonts, you may want to take a look at the following list of fonts which are often considered to be web safe.

Serif
Palatino Linotype

Sans Serif
Franklin Gothic Medium
Lucida Sans Unicode
MS Sans Serif
Tahoma

Monospace
Lucida Console

They're Baaaaaaack!

2010-11-07T19:44:00Z

Though online banner ads faded in popularity for quite some time, they are back and with a vengeance, taking on an invigorating life of their own. If properly managed, banner ads can be a good source of new visitors to your website. The success of your banner ad campaign is directly linked to the design and placement of your ad. For this reason, it is important that you be willing to go through a period of testing, running your banners over time, with slight changes here and there, and measuring your results.

Many studies have been performed to determine what makes a banner ad effective, resulting in the following recommendations:

Placement is key. As we have discussed before, visitors usually scan your site in the shape of an F, starting at the top scanning left to right, moving down a bit scanning left to right, followed by a quick scan down the left side of the page. Ads should be placed based on these guidelines, with one caveat. The center of the page tends to be the biggest hot spot for ad placement on your site. This is followed by ads across the top, down the left, and immediately after an article. Take a look at the heat map from Google Adsense to the right, where placement performance is indicated with darker colors meeting the highest expectations.
The IAB (Internet Advertising Board) produces annual ad unit guidelines and studies have found that a couple of their recommended ad size formats tend to perform the best; the large rectangle, 336x280, and the leaderboard, 728x90. That being said, it is important that you not try to squeeze an ad into your site if it simply doesn't fit. Instead, you should use the format that is best suited for your site, placing it where it makes the most sense.
85% of responders in a Yahoo! survey indicated that their ads were more successful if they blended them in with their site. What? Traditionally, we have been told to use bright colors that attract attention. Not so any longer. Users have become comfortably numb to advertising, and this requires a bit of trickery. Ah! That's not really nice, is it? But it works. So, now you are probably wondering about the best way to make your ad blend in. Here's some ideas:
- Use a color scheme that blends or compliments the color scheme of your website.
- Remove borders from around your ads.
- Make use of web standards:
  - Use Times New Roman, Arial, or Verdana font for ad copy.
  - Use blue underlined text for hyperlinks.
  - Duplicate the look of a radio button, drop-down menu, or submit button in your graphic.
As a matter of fact, users have become so numb to advertising, being bombarded daily by hundreds of off-line ads, that they may actually see your ad and think there is nothing more to it. So, if you want action, you've got to ask for it! Simply adding in the words, Click Here, Sign Up Now, or Submit, will let the user know there is more, and often they will take advantage of that fact. You can even add to this some text that emphasizes the benefits of clicking on your ad, not necessarily the features of your product, to let them know how you are going to make their life easier or better. Something like "Want to reach your target audience?" or "Need help with taxes?" should work very nicely. Whatever message you decide to deliver, keep it simple and concise and consider adding the keywords free, secret, or proven for even more effect.
As you know, you have very little time to capture your user's attention, typically under 10 seconds, so you need to take that into consideration when creating your banner ads. File sizes need to be ultra-small so they will load quickly (under 10K if possible), and any animation you include should finish before the user even considers moving on. Just in case, be sure to include your call to action in the first slide if you are incorporating animated ads.
Finally, and most importantly, you need to make sure that when your user clicks on your ad, they get relevant information. Don't simply link to your home page where they now have to hunt to find what they are looking for. Instead, link them directly to the specific page that has the information you promised them. Otherwise, you will end up with a lot of clicks and very little follow-through.

Content is King

2010-10-04T05:26:00Z

An important but often forgotten step in developing your website is planning your content. Your content tells your visitors your story, it answers their questions, motivates them to make decisions, sets their expectations, and ultimately builds their trust in your brand.

One of the most important things you can do for your visitors is to provide them with meaningful information, not just details about your products and services. Content can be hard to formulate since it is often a moving target. It requires dedicated resources to plan, develop, publish, and maintain. To ease the burden, you should focus heavily on your business objectives and the information your visitors will find most valuable.

In considering your content, you may find that auditing competitor sites, surveying customers, and reviewing your assets, such as print materials and branding strategies, is quite helpful. In the process, be sure to answer the following questions:

What content do we need?
Why do we need it?
How will we pull it all together?
What will we have to do to keep it up to date?

Below is a list of information to consider for your site:

Information about your company, including its goals, objectives, history, executives, and key personnel
Testimonials from your clients
Awards and recognitions
Staff photos, bios and resumes, email addresses
Products and services offered, including price lists
Restaurants should consider including an online menu
Inventory for online sale
Client portfolios including the services you provide to them and links to their websites
Case studies to help illustrate your capabilities
A calendar of events
A gallery of photos
Links to other sites that are helpful or that might be of interest to your visitors
Phone numbers, addresses, driving directions, and links to third-party maps
Frequently Asked Questions
Articles you have written and published
Do it Yourself tips for times when a professional may not be required

Finally, it is important to remember that content drives your search engine results. For this reason, you should also pay attention to the following things:

Update your content frequently - at least once every few weeks
Proofread your content, checking your spelling and grammar
Keep your paragraphs short - 1 to 4 sentences each
Use lists - both bulleted and numbered are fine
Keep your sentences short - 10 words or fewer, interspersed with a few longer sentences

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

2010-09-07T00:44:00Z

Choosing the colors for your website is an important decision that can be especially tough when designing a site for a business that has no established color scheme. You may not have realized it, but the colors of your site can actually have a psychological effect on your visitors.

I recommend that you select three colors that you will use consistently throughout your site. For your primary color, you may want to consider the emotions that specific colors can invoke. For example:

Red: food, energy, passion, excitement, power, aggression, danger, adventure.
Yellow: light, optimism, happiness, brightness, joy, curiosity, playfullness.
Blue: coolness, spirituality, freedom, patience, loyalty, peace, trustworthiness, success, healing.
Brown: comfort, strength, stability, credibility, earth, nature.
Green: animals, life, nature, restfulness, health, wealth, prosperity.
Orange: friendliness, warmth, approachability, energy, playfulness, courage, creativity, youth.
Purple: wisdom, sophistication, celebration, royalty, justice, uncertainty.
Black: power, elegance, secrecy, mystery.
Gray: security, maturity, reliability.
White: purity, cleanliness, youth, freshness, peace, simplicity.
Pink: romance, sweetness, innocence, tenderness, youth.

Think about how other colors will work with the primary color that you have chosen. There are several free online applications that can help you choose your combined color palette, such as:

As you are making your selections, you will want to choose colors with a strong contrast in order to make sure that your text is easily readable on the background. Even though black text on a white background is the standard for readability, there are many other acceptable combinations that will work for people with visual disabilities. Here are some free online applications that will allow you to test your color schemes for visibilty by people with color deficiencies:

Your color scheme needs to be carefully considered since the wrong choice may have an adverse effect on your visitors, leading to lost traffic and lost sales. Take your time and choose wisely.

WHO ARE YOU? WHO, WHO, WHO, WHO?

2010-08-08T23:02:00Z

Whether you are a multinational corporation or a one-person home-based business, your brand says a lot about you and your company. It can help set you apart from the competition and form the groundwork for future growth. Your brand is more than just a logo on your letterhead and business cards. It is your identity, letting the world know who you are, what you do, and how you do it.

When creating your brand, there are several things to think about. Who is your target audience? What is important to them? What are your business's key features and competitive advantages? Why would somebody choose you over your competition?

In today's world, where the search engine is king, developing a business name, logo, and tagline that not only expresses your identity, but also optimizes on key search terms is extremely important. The colors and fonts you use should help to relay the mood or feeling that you are trying to get across.

It is important to remember that all pieces of your brand should be suitable for use on your letterhead, business cards, website, catalogs, menus, decor, and signage. When marketing across different platforms, such as direct mail, newspaper, Facebook, Twitter, email, and your website be sure that all of these mediums have the same look and feel. When directed to your website through other media, a tight integration of the branding experience will tell your customer they have come to the right place, encourage further investigation, and support their decision to return in the future.

The Rule of Seven says a prospective customer needs to see or hear your marketing message at least seven times before they take action. If everything in your brand is used consistently, over a short period of time, you will achieve instant recognition.

"Mr. Owl, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?"

2010-07-12T00:52:00Z

The main purpose of your navigation is to get your customers to the information they want quickly and easily. For this reason, it is important that you keep the 3-click rule in mind.  This rule says that all pages on your site should be accessible within 3 clicks of the homepage. If you think about it, this makes sense; rarely do we make it to the 4th page of a search engine. We just aren't patient enough. Instead, if we don't find what we are looking for on the first 3 pages, we refine our search and simply start over. Imagine what this means for the staying power of your site. If your visitors get impatient, they are off to another site to become their customers instead.

It is especially important for sites with a lot of detailed information to plan, plan, plan.  When you think you have a good navigation plan, try simulating the common steps that visitors might take to get information from your site, then modify your plan to reduce the number of clicks.

No matter where your customers are on your site, they should always be able to find their way back to your home page. This is done by adding a link to your business logo and a "home" link in your navigation menu.

Locate your main navigation near the top of the site either at the left-side of the page or just below the header. This guarantees your customers won't have to scroll to find it. Keep this navigation consistent from page to page, with the only possible exception being to your home page.

Sometimes it is fun to add graphics to your navigation, giving your site a little character. Be sure to add text to the graphics, since images that seem so obvious to you may not be quite so apparent to your visitors. Remember, confusion leads to lost customers.

It is important that your users be able to tell where they are at all times in your site. You can provide this information by highlighting an item on the navigation menu, including the information in the page header, or adding "breadcrumbs" to give your visitor a step-by-step guide showing where they are in a current section of content.

Of course, we always want to be thinking of the future, so be sure to make your navigation menu as flexible as possible, allowing room for growth.

Did you know that your navigation also helps search engine robots index your site?  A simple way to help the robots access all of your content is to include a site map with links to every page. This is particularly helpful if your site has dynamic content, pages that aren't easily discoverable, or includes a large archive of content pages that aren't linked to each other.

© 2010 White Knight Technologies LLC

Keep it Super Simple (KISS)

2010-06-07T05:53:00Z

Ever heard the old adage, why mess with a good thing? Well, that’s certainly true when it comes to the layout of your website. Your customers don’t want to spend a lot of time trying to look for information on your site. There are certain things they expect, and if you want them to stick around, you really need to meet those expectations.

Size Matters

It is important to keep your pages short. The majority of web users will never scroll more than four pages down, and most prefer to have all of the information provided in two.

In order to make sure that web users with smaller monitors won’t have to scroll left and right to see the content on your site, it is best to limit the width of your page to 776 pixels. However, you can consider a page width of 960 pixels if you know your audience is made up of higher end users with the latest technology.

It’s important to keep the file size of your webpage small. This includes not only the text on your page, but also the size of the graphics and other files that have to load in order to support your page. The sum total of these files controls the speed at which your page loads. There are a lot of people still using a 56K modem, and if it takes them longer than 8 seconds to load the key information on the page, they are on their way to check out another site. It’s a good idea to test your pages for speed before turning it out to the real world.

Location, Location, Location

Web users are busy people, often having multiple things going on at one time, and for this reason, they will resize their browser windows to fit as much on their screen as possible. Be sure to place your content at the top of the page and either center it or place it all the way to the left so it’s not affected by these changes to the browser size.

Most websites will place the navigation at the top of the page or to the left. Since this is what your customers are used to, it’s really a good idea to stick with it. The occasional site will place the navigation on the right, but this is only successful if done right. The smart thing to do is stick with what you know works, and keep it up and to the left.

Short and Sweet

Visitors to your site really don’t like to read; they scan, and usually in the shape of an F. They start at the top scanning left to right, move down a bit and scan left to right, followed by a scan down the left side of the page.

This means that you need to keep your information short and sweet, make sure that the first two paragraphs on the page contain the important information that you want to get across quickly and follow these by bulleted or highlighted information with key data in the first two words of whatever is listed.

The Look

When designing your site, it’s a good idea to use web safe colors that will look the same on any computer with any browser. And while you’re at it, don’t forget to test your color combinations for color deficient eyesight. 8% of all men and ½% of all women have some form of colorblindness. That’s a good portion of your audience, so don’t forget about them.

Don’t flood your site with images or graphics that are popping and flashing all over the place. Your audience will lose sight of the important stuff, your message. Make sure it looks neat and clean by adding white space to break up and emphasize the information that you want to get across.

Finally, it’s important to be consistent with the look of your site as you go from page to page. Once your customers have arrived at your site and decided they are interested enough to move on to the next page, don’t take a chance of losing them by trying something new. Be sure to give them what they expect and they may stick around a little bit longer.

To Build or Not To Build

2010-05-03T04:19:00Z

One of the biggest decisions you will have to make when developing your Website is deciding who will build it. You need a talented Web designer in order to effectively symbolize your business for the digital world. Though modern Web design tools have made it easy to throw a site together, a poorly developed Website can have a negative impact on your business.

To build a Website properly, one must understand visual appeal and how it affects your customer’s experience, know how to provide functionality that will make the site usable, and have the ability to craft messages that are interesting enough to hold your customer’s attention. In other words, you must be a designer, developer, and marketer all rolled into one.

Here are a couple of things to consider before deciding to handle your Website development internally:
Do you have the expertise required? Do you understand the technology and the tools?

If you answered No to either of these questions, then you must take into account significant delays to your project as you work to fix these issues.

Of course, there are some pros to developing you Website in-house. You will have complete control over your project, and the in-house knowledge will allow you to make future enhancements or modifications without incurring additional external expenses. But, on the other hand, professional Website designers build sites for a living and can drastically cut your implementation time and improve the quality of your site.

Ready, AIM, Fire

2010-04-05T04:54:00Z

For your website to be effective, it must speak to your target market, the main audience that you want to have visit your website and benefit from your products and services. As a matter of fact, to be truly effective your website needs to speak to your ideal client. So, take a look at your current clients. Is there a particular group you prefer to work with? What qualities do they share? Do your best clients come from the same industry or profession? Do they own the same type of business? Do they share a particular personality trait or outlook on life, fall within a specific age range, live in a particular geographical location, or maintain a certain income level?

Take a look at the trends you find in your current client base for clues. There are details associated with your ideal client, such as:

Gender

Ethnicity

Income level

Marital Status

Education level

Geographic location

Whether or not they have children

Social or professional affiliations

Personal interests

Once you know who you are talking to you can design a website that speaks to him or her. For example:

Every industry or profession has common terms that have specific meanings to the members of that group. Using this language on your website shows that you understand them.

In addition to enhancing you local search engine rankings, referencing geographic information in your copy helps your visitors know they have come to the right place.

You will be able to determine your color palette, select your imagery, and organize the information on your site, as well as tailor your Internet marketing plan to your market and maximize your return on investment, giving you the most for your time and money.

It is important to know if your target market makes use of the Internet. Will they even be interested in purchasing your products or services online? Try talking to several people within your market and listening to what they have to say.

Jumping into your website creation without knowing your target market is like shooting a bow and arrow without ever taking aim. If you hit the target it was pure luck.

Your Mission, Should You Decide to Accept It

2010-02-27T15:01:00Z

Now that we have picked out the perfect domain (or hopefully domains), it is time to start thinking about your website. So, first things first. You need to define your purpose, what you want to achieve. You need to know why you are taking the time (and marketing dollars) to build a website. As in anything in life, if you don't have a clear and measurable goal, you can't be successful, so here is where it all begins.

Businesses (and individuals) build websites for many reasons:
    - To communicate an image
    - To sell a product or service
    - To generate leads
    - To advertise an online catalogue or brochure
    - To reduce overhead
    - To provide customer service
    - To publish important news and events
    - To provide information to a niche audience
    - To publsh images or photos for viewing
    - To provide a means of accessing other websites
    - To satisfy a need for social interaction

Whatever your purpose, this is the first step. Treat the definition of purpose as you would any other major business decision. Think about the return on investment and make yourself accountable. You need to know what you want to accomplish and what your visitors will want to gain.

Once you have it figured out, write it down. Make it your mission, a Website Mission Statement. Be clear and concise. Let this guide your actions, spell out your overall goal, provide a sense of direction, and guide your decision-making. This is the context within which your website design will be formulated. Think about your target market, moral / ethical image, key features, special considerations, and expectations of growth. Then break it down into small achievable goals and keep it visible at all times. Know how and when you plan to evaluate your progress.

This may sound a bit overwhelming, but taking the time to do it up front will help you develop a site that can grow and improve over time. Otherwise, you might as well be trying to hit a moving target, and you will never feel the satisfaction of even a small success.

But What Exactly is a Domain Name Anyway?

2010-01-17T23:45:00Z

Now that we have established that everyone needs a website, let's jump right in. Ask any web developer and they will tell you, the first step is to register your domain name.

You can register your domain name at www.grab-my-domain.com.

OK, but what exactly is a domain name?  In technical terms, a domain name is an identifier that maps to an IP address on a web server.  Wow! Maybe we should put that in terms we can all better understand.

To put it simply, a domain name is much like a telephone number. When you enter a domain name into the address bar of an internet browser, it's like making a phone call, but instead of getting a person you get a website. And, like a telephone number, a domain name is unique. That's right, unique! Only one person or business can register a domain name anywhere in the entire world! Also like a phone number, a domain name is exact. Dial the wrong number and you get the wrong person; mistype a domain name and you get the wrong website. Worse yet; it may be a competitor's website!

So what does this mean to you? Well, it means that picking your domain name is one of the most important things you can do when planning your website.

So how do I pick my domain name? Don't automatically assume that the best domain name for your business is the "name" of your business. Oh sure, there's value in that; name recognition and all that stuff. But, instead, consider the following when identifying a domain name that is right for you.

What type of business are you in? Your domain name should tell people a little bit about you; what they can expect from you and your website. Your business fills a niche, use it.

Avoid confusion. Your domain name should be distinguishable from that of your competitors. It should be easy to spell with very few explanations. You don't want to spend your hard-earned marketing dollars advertising for someone else and directing your potential customers to your competitors websites.

Key phrases. Include key phrases in your domain name. This can help improve your rankings with many of the popular search engines. Consider placing dashes "-" between the words in your domain name. Though not as easy for your customers to remember, the search engines really do like it, and you may find that the domain name you are looking for is more readily available.

Does size matter?  Well, that depends. Short is great when advertising your site on the radio, but that's not necessarily true when looking at what makes a domain name interesting to a search engine. The general rule of thumb is to try to keep your domain name to three words or less.

Numbers. Yes, numbers. Why numbers? Well, they count as characters in a domain name. So, consider the number 4 in place of "for" and 2 in place of "to" when picking your domain name. And while we're talking about such things, what about the letter u in place of "you"? You see where we're going with this?

Can I have more than one? Certainly you can. As a matter of fact, I recommend it. The more the merrier. The nice thing about domain names is you can point one at another, kind of like forwarding phone calls. And, there are a lot of good reasons for having more than one domain name:

Protect yourself. It is important to protect your name. If you don't, your competitors might. And once they register that domain name, you can't, unless they're willing to sell it to you, at their cost! OUCH! What's worse, they may point it at their site and start taking some of your potential business away. So, register your business name, corporate name, dba, anything that you use to identify yourself.

Stick it to 'em. Speaking of your competition and those sneaky tactics they may pull. Why not do it to them? If you have a competitor with one of those oh-so recognizable names, grab the domain name, and use it or just hold on to it. Hey! If they had thought of it first, they would have done it to you, right?

Misspellings. Consider registering common misspellings of your business name. I mean, take a look at the mail you receive from the post office every day. Ever notice how many ways people will try to mispell your company name? There you have it. Nice thing about the post office is, they can usually still find you. Not so on the web. As I said before, domain names are exact. So register those common misspellings as well.

Do it NOW. It is important that you don't wait to register your domain name. There are already over 100 million domain names registered worldwide. This has grown from a measly 10 million over the last 10 years and continues to increase by about 10 million every year. So, whether you are ready to move your company to the web or not, once you find the domain name that is right for you, just do it! Otherwise, when you actually get around to it, it may be too late!

Don't forget to register your domain at www.grab-my-domain.com.

Recordkeeping. It's very important that you keep accurate records of your domain names. Keep up with the date of registration, date of expiration, where you registered your domain, and the credentials required to log on if you did it yourself on the internet, for each and every domain that you register. You also want to make sure that your domain name is set up with the correct contact information.  Your email address associated with your domain name should always be correct. You will receive your renewal notices at this email address, so if you stop receiving emails at that location, you will no longer be reminded when it is time to renew. Next thing you know, your website is down and you are out a couple of hundred dollars trying to recover your domain name. It's just not worth it! Maintain those records. Stay on top of it.

Working with a service provider. One thing that I have noticed with many of my clients who have migrated their domains to White Knight Technologies is that their previous service provider held their domain name hostage. What does that mean? Well, instead of registering the domain in their name, the domain was registered in the service providers name. Never, never ever, let that happen. Your domain registration belongs to you, and registration in your name is the only way you have to prove it. So once you have registered your domain name, it is a good idea to check to make sure it really has been registered to you.

You can check the ownership information of a domain at whois.grab-my-domain.com.

© 2010 White Knight Technologies LLC

Do I Need a Website?

2010-01-06T04:47:00Z

Many businesses ask the question, do I need a website? My answer is uncategorically YES. Having a website online allows customers, potential employees, and business partners to quickly and easily find out more about your business products and services.

In the past, potential customers would use the Yellow Pages to search for a business in their area that provided a product or service they needed. But today, that same customer will use a search engine to find a list of businesses that meets their needs with instant access to a world of information about each of the businesses on the list. That's right, I'm talking about their web pages. Pages that are filled with information about their products, prices, locations, directions, contact information, and often the ability to purchase what they need right their online for delivery to their home or office.

Having a website is referred to as having a "corporate presence." Potential customers will often want to "check you out" before taking that first step to building a business relationship with you. Since your site may be the first chance you have to make an impression, it is important that it be professional-looking. Done right, your website will add visibility and credibility to your business.

In addition, the internet is one of the most cost-effective means of advertising that is currently available to the small business owner. Websites are surprisingly low cost, having infinite potential limited only by your imagination. And unlike printed advertising, a website is dynamic in nature, giving it the ability to change as your business grows and changes.

That being said, you should never consider your website to be the end all beat all of advertising, but instead include it as part of your overall marketing strategy. By advertising your website in addition to your product and services, you give your potential customers the opportunity to learn more about your product or services than they could possibly gain from a printed ad.

White Knight Technologies, "saving you from the web of confusion".

© 2010 White Knight Technologies LLC

Saving you from the web of confusion

2010-01-06T04:10:00Z

Small businesses everywhere are trying to take advantage of the internet as a way of marketing their products and services. With millions upon millions of businesses already on the internet and many more joining their ranks daily, understanding what to do to best use this resource can be a daunting task for even the savviest of business owners. It is the goal of these tips to guide you with the information necessary to place your business on the most extensive marketing media available today, the internet!

So join us as we breakdown this tangled world wide web. We will provide you with the information you need to understand why your business should be on the internet, important considerations for the development of your site, options for achieving your ultimate goals, and several all-important internet marketing strategies.

White Knight Technologies, "saving you from the web of confusion".

© 2010 White Knight Technologies LLC