If you are using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or other social media tools to promote your business or brand, make sure your website also drives traffic to these outlets.
This can be accomplished simply by creating a link or graphic to your Tweets or Facebook page or can be as complex as integrating your most recent Tweets or Facebook status updates directly on your website. This type of cross-linking builds fans, followers, etc. and it is great for SEO (search engine optimization).
For help with your social media marketing, contact SiteBoxPro today!
Monday, August 31, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
User Centered Design
User Centered Design is the process of placing the user experience or the users perspective first. This philosophy determines a great deal in how your website is designed, the naming of menu items, links and even photos.
Thinking about your audience will then lead you to thinking about how to progressively "walk" them through your site and ultimately brining them to your "call to action" (how they signup or make a purchase). What information is useful prior to purchase and do they know what the next step is in the process.
Here is an example. My son is on a swim team and their end-of-season banquet requires the purchase of a ticket (part of their fund-raising). As parents we were told to go online and pay for them.
After a good 2-3 minutes of searching, the ticket purchase information was located, buried in the online store. There wasn't a single mention or link on the homepage of the website to the store's item. The event calendar had no link to the ticket purchase page either. How many phone calls did this generate, and if this was your business - how many people would just give up?
Remember - think as a site visitor who knows NOTHING about what you do, what you sell, how to buy, own, subscribe or rent it.
Thinking about your audience will then lead you to thinking about how to progressively "walk" them through your site and ultimately brining them to your "call to action" (how they signup or make a purchase). What information is useful prior to purchase and do they know what the next step is in the process.
Here is an example. My son is on a swim team and their end-of-season banquet requires the purchase of a ticket (part of their fund-raising). As parents we were told to go online and pay for them.
After a good 2-3 minutes of searching, the ticket purchase information was located, buried in the online store. There wasn't a single mention or link on the homepage of the website to the store's item. The event calendar had no link to the ticket purchase page either. How many phone calls did this generate, and if this was your business - how many people would just give up?
Remember - think as a site visitor who knows NOTHING about what you do, what you sell, how to buy, own, subscribe or rent it.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Just in case you wanted a stinking badge
Adam Kalsey create a nifty badge generator, in case you don't know what a badge is here is the one we created: 
Ok, so their dorky and simple, but there inlies the beauty of the badge. Simplicity. Sometimes making something fancy or overly-ornate does not always translate to better. Which is our "Smart Things" tip of the week, if you can keep it simple, do so.
Think about the purpose of what it is you are creating, whether is be a simple badge (also refered to as sticker button) or an entire site. In the case of this button, the text is clear to read, and when linked will properly represent to the visitor what they should expect to see (the SiteBoxPro.com homepage).
Check out Adam's button creator at: http://www.kalsey.com/tools/buttonmaker/ , play around some as it might be a little tricky to get the desired widths of each box, but fun at the same time!
Ok, so their dorky and simple, but there inlies the beauty of the badge. Simplicity. Sometimes making something fancy or overly-ornate does not always translate to better. Which is our "Smart Things" tip of the week, if you can keep it simple, do so.
Think about the purpose of what it is you are creating, whether is be a simple badge (also refered to as sticker button) or an entire site. In the case of this button, the text is clear to read, and when linked will properly represent to the visitor what they should expect to see (the SiteBoxPro.com homepage).
Check out Adam's button creator at: http://www.kalsey.com/tools/buttonmaker/ , play around some as it might be a little tricky to get the desired widths of each box, but fun at the same time!
Friday, June 5, 2009
Lesson: Margins vs Padding
Within CSS margins perform are almost the same function as the CSS Padding attribute, except for one important difference: a margin defines the white space AROUND an HTML element's border, while padding refers to the white space INSIDE the element border.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
What are keywords and how to pick'em
Keywords are single words or phrases that, when either used repeatedly in a single web page or set within particular HTML tags, act to indicate to a search engine the intent of the page and it's content.
In days of old (ok, maybe 5 0r 6 years ago), this all could be accomplished using META data (also know as META tags). The overuse, or moreso ABUSE or META data made them obsolete. Search engines are smarter now and rely on page element (title tag, page name) and content to determine which words are key.
This is not to say that you can not control, and in most cases very well, how your page is read for keywords, but one of the overlooked aspects is the selection process. What are your keywords? What should they be?
Think from a SEARCHERS point of view!
If you sell apple seeds on line, think about the different ways people might discribe what you do. Obvious keywords like "apple" and "seeds" come to mind, but what about "growning fruit" or "fruit trees"? Thinking in these terms will help you particularly when approaching a competitive market.
What sets you apart?
Again, using apples as an example, maybe you want to create a page about "Golden delicious", and how you are the areas largest seller of Golden delicious apple seeds.
Remember: Nothing happens overnight.
Be patient, and willing to try different combinations of words and phrases. To do this, you will need a good site statistics tool, you could even use Google Analytics, which can track which keywords got people to your site.
In days of old (ok, maybe 5 0r 6 years ago), this all could be accomplished using META data (also know as META tags). The overuse, or moreso ABUSE or META data made them obsolete. Search engines are smarter now and rely on page element (title tag, page name) and content to determine which words are key.
This is not to say that you can not control, and in most cases very well, how your page is read for keywords, but one of the overlooked aspects is the selection process. What are your keywords? What should they be?
Think from a SEARCHERS point of view!
If you sell apple seeds on line, think about the different ways people might discribe what you do. Obvious keywords like "apple" and "seeds" come to mind, but what about "growning fruit" or "fruit trees"? Thinking in these terms will help you particularly when approaching a competitive market.
What sets you apart?
Again, using apples as an example, maybe you want to create a page about "Golden delicious", and how you are the areas largest seller of Golden delicious apple seeds.
Remember: Nothing happens overnight.
Be patient, and willing to try different combinations of words and phrases. To do this, you will need a good site statistics tool, you could even use Google Analytics, which can track which keywords got people to your site.
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