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How to plan out your website

Posted: January 20th, 2010

Like anything in business a website requires careful planning. This article will provide guidelines and tips for planning your web strategy. Not only will this help your web designer/developer when it comes to building your site, but it may even save you money too, as the site will be able to built quicker. Read on for more information.

The pen is mightier than the mouse

The first stage of planning your new website will involved sketching out a basic outline of the information you want to display on it. You should start with your top-level links (the main categories or pages for your site). You may find that certain categories/pages require sub-pages and categories. This will almost always be true if you’re planning on selling products online. For example, if your site is to sell pet food you will need to have separate categories of food for each animal that you sell the food for. Work your way through each of the sections for your site deciding whether you need additional pages for each. If you do list the sub-pages below the appropriate heading in your sketch.

Why is sketching out the page names important?
This first step is probably the most important step in the whole process of building your site. The number of pages you have can have an effect on the design of your site. If you have several sub-pages in each category for example, your designer may choose to build your site’s navigation system using a drop-down menu, something that wouldn’t work if you only had top-level pages (there wouldn’t be any sub-categories). The number of pages your site has can also affect the price of your project, or may influence the designer’s software solution for your project (it may be cheaper and quicker to use open-source software rather than building the site from scratch). The designer isn’t able to make these decisions without first know the approximate number of pages/sub-pages/categories you need in your website.

Branding your site

Quite often you’ll want to use the same logo and corporate colours on your website that you use on all of your other promotional material. This is a good idea. It maintains a consistent look across your range of offline and online material and also helps clients identify that the new website they’ve come across does indeed belong to the same company they’ve dealt with before in offline business. However, there are times when it may be necessary to creat entirely new branding. One example of this could be for a new product you’ve developed and are wanting to promote on it’s own self-contained website. Even if this is the case you should include your main company logo on the page somewhere, maybe in the bottom right-corner of the footer, so that people know your company has produced the product. Sites like this are often used for the promotion of iPhone Apps.

Whilst you’ll no doubt have your own vision of how your site should look you should always listen to the web designer. They’re the professionals in this aspect of creating your site and if they tell you something won’t work you should take note, especially where colours and page layout are concerned.

The web: it’s a social thing

As well as planning out the site itself you should also be making plans for how you will drive traffic to the site once it’s completed and thus grow your user base. You may have heard the term ’social networking’ a lot recently. Social networkings sites are websites that allow users to communicate and share ideas and information. They’re also excellent tools for marketing your company’s products and services to a large number of people for free. Twitter is currently one of the most popular social networking tools and you should certainly be investigating ways you can use their service to help spread the word about your site/service/products. This blog is set to automatically post new entries directly to Twitter as soon as they’re published. This is a great way for me to tell everyone that there’s something new for them to read.

You should be prepared to spend some time cultivating your social networking sites. It’s often a good idea to appoint someone within your organisation to regularly maintain and update content for you in this area. A lot of people think that once a website is live you can forget about it and it will start working for you. This couldn’t be further from the truth. You need to constantly keep your site up-to-date with products and information, you need to tell people about your site, you need to advertise your site. If you don’t then you’ve wasted the money and time you spent having it developed.

One final tip in this section, and it’s one I’ve seen people ignore time and time again. Make sure your website address is on all of your company’s printed literature. It’s a no brainer, but is absolutely essential.

Final thoughts

In summary then, you need to start your planning way before a single line of code is written for your new site. You need to reflect your company’s corporate branding on your site in most cases and you need to continue to develop and promote your site once it’s live on the Internet. Follow these rules and you should end up with a professional looking site that helps generate extra income for your business.

Written by Ian Hazeldine, Managing Director of Yellow Circle Web Solutions Limited, a web design and hosting company based in Staffordshire, UK

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Posted in Communication, Marketing, Web Design | 3 Comments »

Gaming and the power of the web

Posted: November 11th, 2009

So this week I’m talking about something a little different. It’s my other passion, besides web design/development; videogames.

Gaming and the web

A few years ago gaming was seen as a solitary pastime. More often than not videogames were a single user experience. With only one person being able to play at any given time it wasn’t a very social platform.

More recently, the release of the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 consoles has seen gaming become a much more social activity thanks to the increase in broadband usage and the speed at which data can be transferred over the web.

Play together

The development by Microsoft of their Xbox Live service has pioneered the way for online gaming on consoles. Xbox Live is an online infrastructure that allows anyone with an Xbox 360 console to connect to the service via their home broadband connection and enjoy playing games online with other people all over the world.

Similarly, Sony Computer Entertainment developed their own online platform called Playstation Network (PSN) which, although not as robust or feature rich as Xbox Live, does provide a similar online experience.

Of course, PC gamers have been playing online games much longer than their console owning cousins, but the main difference is that the consoles are now located in the living room of many households, not confined to a bedroom or office like most desktop PCs.

The consoles and their online abilities have bought the web into gamers living rooms.

Biggest game of the year

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was released on 10th Nov and we’ve been playing it a lot. The game uses the web (specifically Xbox Live, Playstation Network and IW.net servers) to allow gamers to play competitively against each other in many different types of game.

Staying connected

Modern Warfare 2 uses some pretty fancy technology to ensure that the online experience is the best it can possibly be. For example, if the host disconnects then instead of  everyone being kicked from the game the game pauses and automatically searches for a new host from the group of players in the game. This means that after a few seconds delay the game can carry on and the user experience is all the better for it.

Talking, talking talking happy talk

Other features such as online chat between players enable real-time communcation. Whilst this has existed for some time it’s important to not forget that technology like this is only possible thanks to the web. 10 years ago it wasn’t commonplace to be able to talk to the people you were playing with unless they were sitting in your house with you, nowadays thanks to VOIP technology we can communicate with people all over the world in our games for free, once again enhancing the user experience.

Final thought

The internet brings us all much closer together and makes the world a much smaller place. Videogames show that this can be used for entertainment purposes as well as business use. Who knows what type of games we’ll be playing in 10 years time, but one thing I am confident of is that we won’t be playing them alone.

Written by Ian Hazeldine, Managing Director of Yellow Circle Web Solutions Limited (and an avid gamer)

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Posted in Communication, Gaming | 4 Comments »

Social networking and your business – starter guide for beginners

Posted: November 4th, 2009

With the development of the Internet, Social Networking means its possible to communicate with people worldwide in seconds and often at no cost.  20 years ago this simply wasn’t feasible and so small businesses and start-ups tended to concentrate on their own local markets. Today however, its a different story. This article will focus on ways you can use the web and some of the most popular social networking sites to drive your business forward and grow your company.

Grow your business online

Anyone with a good business idea can set up a website and reach millions of people through a single point of entry worldwide. A website allows you to sell promote your products and services online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Of course, you can’t just build a site and expect people to know about it. You need to get the word out to people. This is where social networking excels.

Social networking – an explanation

You may have heard the term ‘Social Networking’ before, but are unsure what it is and how to go about using it? Basically social networking involves using a website or online service to interact with other individuals. The sites allow you to post messages, ideas, offer your services and promote what you do to other people. The idea behind it all is that people tell other people about you and your business, you gain more followers on the website and eventually the followers can turn into real customers. Some of the most popular social networking sites are listed below:

Twitter (visit twitter.com)

VERY popular service that allows you to send, read and receive messages from anyone using the service. Twitter is fast becoming the most powerful marketing tool on the web with businesses using it attract new customers daily. It’s an effective and simple way to allow you to keep people interested in your product informed of developments, sales, new offers etc. It’s also great for learning from other business owners. Twitter restricts the length of messages that can be posted to just 140 characters. Whilst this sounds very limited it means that you get concise updates from people and don’t have to wade through paragraphs of text to get to the information you’re interested in. Twitter can also be used on a wide range of mobile devices including iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia and other phones. In fact, most people interact with Twitter on their mobile.

Twitter software for PC/Mac/iPhone/Mobiles

There are several twitter desktop clients (software) available free of charge, these allow you to view, post and reply to messages from your desktop computer or laptop. A list and explanation of some of the best ones can be found here: http://lifehacker.com/5368817/five-best-twitter-clients

If you own a Symbian OS mobile phone such as a Nokia n95 then Gravity is a great twitter client

If you want to follow me on Twitter you can do so by clicking here

LinkedIn (visit LinkedIn.com)

This site offers networking for businesses, allows them to share ideas with each other, post advertisements for work opportunities and to post referrals from other LinkedIn users they may have conducted business with in the past. It’s free to sign up to and you can post images showcasing your work to others. Groups are also prevalent on this site. For example, I’m a member of several web development groups on the site, because that’s the industry my business is in.

Digg (visit Digg.com)

Digg is a little different than the other sites. Basically if someone has found something interesting on the web that they think may be useful to others they can ‘Digg’ it. The more a web page is referred to Digg, the higher up the rankings it will appear on the Digg website. Essentially this makes Digg a great place to check out the latest news and happenings on almost anything. You can use this service for your business by integrating the Digg technology into your own website. People visiting your site who like what they see can then refer it to Digg and help promote you.

Facebook (visit Facebook.com)

Facebook is also a very popular social networking site. Almost everyone I know is on it for personal use, but it can also be an effective way of keeping people informed of your business activities. You can create a page for you business within Facebook at no cost. People can then view details when they log-in to the site. Of all of the social networking sites listed here, Facebook is probably the one you’ve heard of the most.

All of the above sites offer their services for free and when used in the right way they can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Yes, the web provides free ways for you to advertise your business to others. Can you imagine the TV companies or radio stations ever giving you that opportunity? Even the local newspaper charges you for every ad you place!

Some words of warning

Don’t spread yourself too thinly on the sites. Have a look at each of them and what they offer and then decide which one would be the most beneficial for the type of business or service you’re looking to promote. There’s nothing worse than telling someone to follow you on Twitter and then never posting a single update. It doesn’t instill much confidence in your brand. Make sure you inform people of the site(s) you’re on and then keep updating your pages/profile on the site(s) regularly.

Give it a try

Hopefully you’ll now know a little more about social networking and will feel confident enough to try it for yourself. As you may have guessed, my favourite is Twitter and this is the one I’d recommend you start with, mainly because of it’s short, simple message system. It’s by far the easiest to get to grips with and is the most popular social networking tool around at the moment.

Written by Ian Hazeldine, Managing Director of Yellow Circle Web Solutions Limited, a web design and hosting company based in Staffordshire, UK

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Posted in Communication, Marketing | 1 Comment »

Think of your home page as your shop front window

Posted: October 14th, 2009

home-page-is-your-shop-window
This week we’re going to be concentrating on argueably the most important page in any website; the home page. Quite often when carrying out work for clients, especially site re-designs we’ll encounter a home page on their site that looks more like a word document than a web site. You should think of your home page as the virtual window to your store that can be used to entice customers (users) further in.

With this in mind we’ll explore some of the most common mistakes that we’ve found on client sites (before we’ve worked on them) and how you can change these for the better.

Too much text will kill you

Probably the most common mistake we encounter on client sites is that they simply have way too much text on their home page. Think about the content that you’re writing for your website, do you really need to put it all on the first page? Probably not. This is certainly not a good way to entice users to explore your site further. If you present a page that’s full of paragraphs and paragraphs of text your user will quickly navigate away from your site as they can’t immediately see anything to interest them. When a user first visits a website you only have their attention for a few seconds. If your site doesn’t grab their attention they will certainly be able to find one that does and this means you’ve lost them and hence lost any chance of them doing business with you.

Don’t waffle

Remember, a user wants to see what you can offer them. They are not interested in how proud you are about your business or how you feel about a product or service you provide. They’re interested in what’s in it for them. Keep your text relevant, concise and enticing. A simple introductory paragraph of 3 or 4 lines will usually suffice for your home page. If you lose track of this think of what you see in the high street when you’re out shopping. Shops put posters and offers in their shop windows, they don’t put paragraph after paragraph of text telling you how happy they are with their business and your website home page shouldn’t either.

Make your text relevant

Not only is relevant text important for keeping your user interested and wanting to read more, but it’s also good for gaining a high rank within popular search engines such as Google. The text on your home page should provide the user with a clear idea of what services or products you provide. Concentrate on your main area of business on the home page. If you diversify and offer other services or products to a lesser degree then by all means promote them on the site too, but ensure they don’t encroch too much on the home page. The main factor in gaining a high rank in google is good relevant content.

If you’re not too good at writing copy yourself it would be wise to seek assistance from someone to do it for you. If you know someone personally (a friend or family member) that can write content well ask them to help you out. If not then there are professional copy writers who can provide this service for you. Of course this will cost you money, but remember, this is your business we’re talking about. If you had a high street shop you wouldn’t let just anybody put things in your shop window. Your website should be no different.

State your unique selling points

Every business has a unique selling point of some sort. A short time ago we had a meeting with a client that wanted us to re-design their existing website. We took a look at their site and and were met with a home page that contained way too much text and absolutely no points of interest. We asked them what their unique selling points were and they replied “we don’t really have any.” This was not the case and with a little probing we found that they were a family run business that had been successfully trading for over 20 years, they had full approval from the industry bodies for the product they provided, they were the exclusive provider of  a range of products and they operated on a national basis. None of these points were on their website and all of them should have been.

Always ensure you think about what your business has to offer and how that can benefit your customers. If you have to be approved to operate in your line of work make sure you get the logo stating you’re approved onto your site home page. If you’re able to exclusively provide a product or service shout about it on your home page. But remember, don’t achieve that through paragraph after paragraph of text. Use graphics, or highlighted text to catch the user’s attention.

Use good quality images

Images can make or break a home page. It’s vitally important that you use good quality images that clearly illustrate what you’re trying to show to your customers. Taking your own pictures is fine as long as they look good. Again, if you’re not able to do it yourself ask friends and family to help you out. If you don’t know anyone personally that can do this then there are several good image library websites that have hundreds of thousands of royalty free stock images for all types of  businesses. A few images from these sites won’t cost you much money and can give a professional, high quality look to your site.

Here are links to a couple of good image library sites that we use when building websites.

Also, don’t be put off from looking at free image resource sites too such as Flickr. If you see an image on a site that a user has submitted that you want to use on your own website, make sure you ask them for permission first. Quite often you’ll find that they’ll be only too pleased that you chose their picture.

You wouldn’t put small, blurred posters up in your high street shop window so don’t do it on your website home page either.

Some examples of good site home pages that we’ve created for clients

We’ve put a few links to client sites that we’ve created to demonstrate all of the above points and how they can be used to achieve good home page design. Feel free to comment on them or any other aspect of this post.

  1. Mellor and Mottram
  2. Curtain Magic
  3. Showerwall UK

We hope this will help you when thinking about the design for your own home page. Thank you for reading.

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Posted in Communication, Home Page Design | No Comments »

Communication is key in web design

Posted: October 7th, 2009

communication-is-key

In today’s modern world there are more ways to communicate with people than ever before. Communication has become a key part in our daily lives, both personal and professional. It’s important to remember that when working with a web designer communication is key to getting your site right both now and in the future.

Client to web designer

Quite often a client who doesn’t have a great deal of technical knowledge may feel intimidated into asking questions or seeking advice from the web designer as they don’t want to ask something that might make them feel stupid. This should NEVER be a factor. Your web designer should encourage you to ask for help and explain things in a way you understand. You’re the customer, the designer is here to meet your needs, not their own. You’re paying for the service so feel confident in asking anything you like about the project. If you’re not happy with the answer or need further clarification ask again until you are satisfied.

I’ve been working in the web industry as a professional designer/developer  since 1997 and I don’t know everything – far from it in fact. Truth is neither does anyone else. We’re constantly learning new things as new technologies are born and development tools evolve in our line of work. If I need the answer to a question from someone I will ask. It’s always better to ask, than to try and guess at something. My point is that if you come to me as a web expert you shouldn’t be afraid to ask me anything. I’m learning all the time just like you.

Bottom line: If you don’t like something, or you dont’ understand something you’re being told – please, speak up about it.

Web designer to client

To ensure you end up with happy clients at the end of a project communication is key from the designer to the client. You should always ask your client for feedback on the project at key stages. If something isn’t quite right for the client you can amend it to suit their requirements during development rather than having to go back once everything is done and alter things then (which can be a headache for more complicated sites).

I’ve already mentioned the fact that as web experts we should explain things clearly to our clients in lay terms. I cannot stress this point enough. Over the past decade I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve talked to clients who had dealt with another ‘web expert’ before me and during my initial meeting with them they’ve told me that ‘we didn’t really know what the other guy was talking about so we just paid him’. This is NOT how you build a relationship with your clients. You need to remember that just because you know what you’re talking about doesn’t mean they will and it’s wrong to expect them to know. Don’t be patronising to them, but after you’ve explained your proposal for their project ask them if they are happy and state that if there’s anything they need clarifying they should feel free to ask – even after the meeting has ended.

Finally you should always try to make yourself available for a client when it’s convenient for them, not you. If you provide a telephone number always try to answer calls. If a client leaves a message make sure you call them back and even if they’re not available leave a message yourself so that they know you’ve responded.

Similarly, it’s important to respond to emails and, if you’re going to be away from the office for a while, set up auto-responders to let clients know that you’ve received their email and will deal with it once you’re back in the office (including the dates you’re away from and to is also a good idea in this case).

Again, countless times I’ve met with clients who have dealt with other web companies who before us and told me they could never get hold of a person to help them. They received no response to either telephone calls or emails. That, in my view, is totally unacceptable. I always explain to clients that if I don’t answer the phone it will only ever be for 2 reasons; I’m driving and don’t have handsfree or I’m in a meeting with another client. If either of these circumstances arises I always ensure I call the client back the same day. It’s reassuring for a client to know that you will be there when they need you and it will help build a great relationship with them.

Final thoughts

Hopefully this article has helped you out and hopefully, if you’re a designer, you’ve been doing all of the things I’ve mentioned already. If not, then now is the time to change that. Clients, you should have the confidence to ask for help from your designer and if they’re not serving your needs it may be time to look elsewhere.

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Posted in Communication, Customer Service, Web Design | 2 Comments »