Social networking (facebook, twitter, linkedin, etc) have become an important part of having a web presence.  They provide additional outlets to allow people to see your site as well as broadcast messages in mass to people who are interested.  If you have a website it is probably worth setting up a a few of the social networks to link to it.  However, if you don’t commit some time to the sites, it will be a waste of effort and may backfire because people will lose interest.

Get involved in your online social community!  Happy Networking!

Animated gif’s have a pretty bad wrap in the web design world.  Mostly because when computers started being used by the masses everyone thought that it was very cool to be able to have images move.  Thus everyone who made a webpage wanted at least 15 of these images on their website.  I know most of you remember the days of geocities and angelfire and other poor websites.  Here is a great example, please notice how distracting it is that everything moves.

Although animated gifs have a bad wrap, and now you know why, they can be useful in many circumstances.  For example, they can be used to show more information in a small space; this technique is often seen in advertising.  Ads are a certain size and only so much can fit on it.  However if done tactfully you can use the real estate to show quite a bit of information in an animated gif.  The problem here of course is that if all the ads on the page with yours are also animated then you have yourself a gaudy page.
Another situation where they are useful is if you use them to display several images that fall under the same category.  For example I used one recently on a site to display the craftsmanship of a home building company.  It rotates through images at a slow rate and is hopefully not too distracting as it is the only movement on the page.

The moral here is that not all animated gifs are bad.  But I caution you greatly on wanting them on your website, use them sparingly and in good judgment or don’t use them at all.

Annoyingly Cute

Acceptable if it is the only movement on the page

Can you own multiple domain names for one site? YES! In fact, a lot of people should own multiple domain names. Not only are we talking the .org, .net and .biz versions but multiple spellings as well. For example, one of my clients is One Putnam Centre. Notice that centre is spelled the British/Canadian way. This is fine, however, when you do an radio ad and say visit us at OnePutnamCentre.com most americans will spell center with an “er” instead of an “re” at the end. So a second domain should be purchased with the spelling OnePutnamCenter.com and redirected to the main page of the website.

Owning extra domains is a fairly small yearly charge compared to the amount of traffic it might get you. A cost a think is well worth the price.

Purchase your domains now through godaddy.

I recently had a conversation with client over uniformity of a site.  If you look at two pages (home and about) from your website side by side and they don’t have any elements in common then you are in trouble.  The basic layout and color scheme of your site should be carried out on all of your pages.  It should give the user the feel of navigating though information without leaving the site.

When you give up that uniformity the users mind starts to wonder if they are even on the same site they started at.  More advanced users check the URL to make sure but if your target audience is 35+ then they may not know to do that.  Keeping things uniform, even if it is a simple as having the same header on each page is important in making your user comfortable.  And keeping your user comfortable is key to selling them on your product or service.

So you have decided that you want a website.  First, congratulations, I think everyone/business needs a website.  Now that you have decided that you need a site you also need to decide what goes on your web site.  I have a few suggestions for those of you running a business website:

1. Put an address on your site.  If you work from home and don’t want to publish that address for privacy (or to protect your children) then get a PO box or get a UPS store address.  Addresses on webpages provide security to users, especially if you are selling something.  People want to know that they can get in contact with you somehow if they need to
2. Homepage information is your most important information.  This page is very important to search engine rankings.  Make sure you tell about your business, what you do, area that you service, types of products that you sell, etc.  For those of you who like the “splash page” look (an image with no information) I caution you to rethink this.  Search engines don’t like it.
3. Take the extra time to go through all the information that you think people want to know about your business before you start.  The process of creating a website is made much easier if planning is done ahead of time.  Things can always be added or taken away but it is more cost effective to get the main areas covered the first time.
4. Get quotes and portfolios from several designers before you choose one.  When you have several quotes from companies compare what you are getting for the cost.
5. If you are selling a product online.  Don’t skimp on this section of the website.  The more comfortable and easy to use it is the more likely people are to buy from you.   Make sure it is a seamless transition from your site to the payment location.  If you go with a method where they pay on another site, it should look exactly like your site, there should be no discrepancies.  People get scared away if things change.  They suddenly feel like they don’t know who they are giving their money to and don’t know if they can trust them.  If everything flows and is easy to use, people will buy.
6. It takes time to get a good ranking on a search engine.  Be patient.  Just because you have built a website and put in all the right keywords doesn’t mean that you will have top ranking the day it launches or even the month it launches.  Give it 8 weeks or so before you start on further optimization.

Now that you have a few tips.  Start getting your information together and call a few designers to set up meetings.  Write down any questions you have before the meeting and most designers are happy to answer them and walk you through the process of getting your site done.

It is helpful to go into your consultation with a list of questions that you want to ask your web designer.  I have put together a quick list of things to ask and do before hand.

$$ = Possible extra money involved.

• Do you do free quote/consultation
• Can you set up merchant accounts (used for online sales), $$
• What are your policies on usability, security, privacy
• Do you employ any methods to prevent spamming of database sites or email forms
• Do you do search engine optimization, $$
• Do you provide hosting, $$
• Do you buy the domain or do I need to, $$
• Do you write the content or do I
• Sitemaps and robots file for search engines
• Will you transfer the files to the host and set up my email or do I need to, $$
• Do you have templates that are cheaper than your custom design
• Always ask to see a portfolio
• Always google the designer/company, if they have done web work it should be easy to find on the web.

In 2006 I started my web design business, E.A. Lenger Designs.  I repeatedly get questions about building and maintaining websites.  Clients are always interested in what I use and what is the most up to date languages and uses on the internet.  So I am going to put my most used website tips tricks and information on my blog to help my clients and avid internet readers sort through the information.

If you have a specific topic that you would like to see on here please let me know.  Submit your story topics via the comments or on my website.