Posts Tagged ‘Design Elements’
Web Redesign has its Advantages…Read Why to do it!
Posted by: thatdude in Uncategorized on August 10th, 2010
Do you need to rebuild your website ? A few years ago your web site was cutting edge, the best your Web designer could offer with the techology available . But now, the site is beginning to show its age . The web ages quickly, with the metabolism of a fruit fly, where evolution and revolution happen at the same speed .
What can be done when your site needs a redesign ? Scrap it and start again ? Well, it depends . Redesigning your Website is the perfect opportunity to look over your entire process online . You need to consider how your needs have changed, how Web culture has changed and how your goals for your website have changed too . It is, perhaps, also necessary to look further into your business model and branding to make sure your marketing strategy is as effective as possible . Before you even bring the new Web design to the table, make sure you feel confident with your existing business model and marketing plan . Being secure in these key areas allows you to confidently consider the options for your Web site redesign . Consider everything from the domain to hosting, the script/database platform the site is built on, the functionality of the website (do you want to move into e-commerce, if you haven’t already?) the look of the web design and how relevant is your content to today’s visitors.
Here are the top ten advantages of Web redesign:
- Domain and hosting re-considerations – you can look at more relevant domains for your Web presence and redirect your old domain references using a 301 redirect to ensure all of your search engine results find their corresponding link on your new site.
- Review and Refresh the look and style – Have you changed your print media or corporate identity since the last time your site was updated? Does your current website have design elements that date it to a certain design style of a few years ago? Cleaner designs can avoid these design traps.
- How wide is your Web site design? – Site designs have expanded horizontally as screen resolutions have increased. Consider updating your 800px wide web design to 1024px.
- Update your content – You don’t have to totally rewrite content for your redesigned site. The content can evolve. Archive old news, but keep it on the site to help show new visitors you’ve been at it for a while. Review your search terms in your content and add new articles and pages where needed. Consider using RSS feed readers to help keep content on your site automatically fresh.
- Improve the flow of navigation and menus – You use Google analytics on your website right? No? How about a Web stats package provided by your Web host? Hopefully you can review the past successes and failures of each page to see which pages your visitors gravitate to and how you can improve the navigation to help them find this information.
- Refresh photos and images throughout the site – get rid of that old stock photo and add in some custom photos of your own.
- Review Web management processes – How do you update your website? Do you do the changes through an archaic and tempramental content management tool? Do you pay a Web master to make the changes for you? There are many options for maintaining your website. The key is to find the way that allows for clearest communication – e.g. a Web master who can interpret your needed changes and make them quickly and easily. Or updating your CMS editor so you can make those changes quickly and easily by yourself.
- Updated SEO techniques – if you don’t keep your search engine optimization up to date, you will lose out to competitors who do .
- Add video – get rid of that flash intro and put those development funds into adding a custom video clip to your revitalized site.
- Consider adding ties to Social media – like Facebook, twitter and Linkedin. Just make sure you are prepared to update and maintain these other media sites in the future.
Your old Website has the potential to be more effective than a new website. When properly produced by your Calgary Web design team, or whereever your design team is located, your updated Website can carry the established momentum of your old site, even when that means switching over to a whole new domain, better hosting or new Web look.
A final reason for Web site redesign, whether you are in Calgary, Alberta or anywhere else in the world, is to spread the news to clients, friends and everyone else! A Web redesign will get people talking and re-ignite their interest in your company and services.
Looking for a creative solution for your Calgary graphic design and Calgary Web Design needs?
You can find it all at www.blinddrop.com.
Get Intimate with Your Web site – 5 Ways to “Turn it On”
Posted by: thatdude in Uncategorized on June 2nd, 2010
So you have a Website , perhaps it is a web site you set up for free , by yourself , over a weekend . Maybe it’s a custom made website designed for you by a Web Calgary Website Design company or freelancer who then got absorbed into another Web company or disappeared into the deep depths of the Internet . No matter how you came to own a website , whether it is a template Web software or custom designed and programmed , every website needs love . In fact, the entire structure of the world-wide web relies on the love and attraction of humans interacting and growing their web presence – either for themselves or for the businesses that they run.
Truth is, all websites are built in varying levels of complex code , Web friendly media like graphics, video and flash animation and most people are not accustomed to the languages spoken or understood between websites, servers and browsers.A lot goes on behind the closed doors of a server that the public never sees …and shouldn’t really need to know about anyway. If the Web site is up and running and communicating as it should, what else matters right? This might have been true a few years ago, but with the entrance of social media and a flood of over a billion web pages online , now is the best time to look at ways to build the love for your Web site. By improving this relationship, you’ll find that you will inadvertently improve your relationship with your customers and visitors! So focus on building the “love” in your website by reviewing these 5 suggestions for showing your Website, and the world, you care!
- Keep your Website clean and simple…and strong – OK, so you’ve decided to start small and use a free Web builder online . You can still make choices within the design elements that you can change , take time to generate unique, edited written content with higher quality images, properly optimized for your site . Well written, unique content with the proper use of keywords and search terms will help you make better friends with search engines and your visitors. It is possible for you to make the most of a template site’s limited functionality to get your unique point of view across, maybe not as directly as a custom web design will get you, but you can make it work.
- Make your website part of your team – once built, you will need to keep a close watch on your site’s progress. The first three months are critical after you launch , as it can take that long for the search engines you submit to, to find and list your site properly . If you run multiple web sites, add in links to your new site on your established web sites, whether they are static websites, blogs or even e-commerce sites.
- Walk a mile in its shoes – so your site has been live for a few months and you’ve got some friends to visit the site and have even gotten some feedback from strangers who found your site and liked it. It is time to take a walk in your Website’s shoes. Start with reviewing the last 3 months in your Google Analytics report…you did set that up at the beginning right? and also your server’s own stats page, which might be different from your Google Analytics report, but will still provide some good info . Next, check how many (and which) links are pointing to your site by using Google’s backlink feature in your page rank. You can also look for your site manually by doing your own searches in the various search engines and directories. From here, you can make tweaks to your sites content and (hopefully) meta information and then resubmit your site to the engines and directories that allow you to.
- Introduce your website to others - after getting your site through its “soft launch” phase you can take it out on the town by declaring your love for it through paid ads like facebook ads, google adwords and other paid PPC campaigns . Consider submitting your site listing to link directories and write articles with backlinks to your site to help improve your ranking and visibility .
- Celebrate your Website’s existence! – do you remember your Website’s birthday? It’s a good date to remember. An easy way to remember this is to plan things around your annual web hosting renewal, or domain renewal date. Each year take half an hour to review what others are doing on similar sites and see if it is worth it to upgrade part of your site, if you can, or look at expanding your Website’s platform and functionality . When your website turns 3 years old, plan to give it a new design or consider rebuilding it entirely so it can expand with your new ideas and the general growth and advancements in coding standards and multimedia use.
Remember, don’t feel overwhelmed by the complexities of web design and running and maintaining your site . If your site is not that user friendly, consider researching sites built with Content Management Systems or are template-based, as they are built with the layperson in mind . You don’t need a fully custom developed website to create a unique web presence for yourself. There are many advantages to using a web builder tool, as long as you are still willing to invest the time and energy in its maintenance and making it user friendly.
Looking for a Calgary Web Design company that can deliver your Web development needs and graphic design needs? Then contact BlindDrop Design Inc. today!