When you deal with big projects, it is often easy to overlook small things along the way. It’s not that anyone is cutting corners, but rather some small detail gets overlooked. Sometimes even the smallest details can matter a great deal!
Web developers and SEOs often focus on the bigger picture but forget to do what we learned in Algebra: check your work.
Sometimes we get to doing something for so long and are so involved in telling people how to do something, that we forget that there are still people who need to be convinced they actually need to do it.
In the last few years social media has jumped to the forefront of online marketing for many small businesses. Some business owners aren’t even bothering to market (or in some cases even build) their websites anymore.
They can just create a Facebook page.
Or a blog on Blogger.com
Or tweet on Twitter.
Or build a Google Places page.
Are we entering an age where SEO just doesn’t matter?
Coupons are a great way to entice new visitors to purchase something from your site or to reward frequent customers. The popularity of Groupon is a great testament to the power (and desire) of coupons.
But, sometimes coupons can backfire. Not for those who have them, but for those that don’t.
Have you ever been to a site where, you’ve shopped around, found what you wanted, and when you went to check-out they asked you to enter your coupon code number? WTH! You don’t HAVE a coupon! But, you know that, somewhere out there, a coupon can be found!
Every business owner knows that, in this economy, there are far more money-conscious shoppers out there than there used to be. Many are pinching pennies to such a degree that they’ll drive $1 out of their way to save $0.50 in gas (you know who you are!)
My last three posts covered a variety of questions regarding keyword usage, links and website architecture. In this post I’ll address the final question that has to do with the visual display of your pages, duplicate content and CSS.
What this is about: This checklist covers multiple elements concerning the visual aspects of the website development. Some of the information here can be dismissed, depending on the type of site, but overall these are good points to consider during the design process.
Why this is important: The site design is essentially the first impression that someone gets when they land on your site. You may have all your usability and SEO elements in place, but if the design is lacking then your visitor’s impression of you will be lacking as well. A visually appealing site can not only bolster trust and credibility, but it can make you stand out among other less-appealing sites in your industry.
What this is about: This list contains a few items that pertain to site logo, how it’s placed and it’s functional implementation.
Why this is important: The logo lends directly to brand identity and site identification. It also creates a certain element of appeal and professionalism in the mind of the visitor. It holds an important role in visitor assurance and navigation.
What this is about: This list covers a handful of browser functionality and compatibility issues, as well as user interface with the site via the browser.
Why this is important: The browser is (obviously) what we use to view websites. The goal is to give the visitor the best browsing experience possible, but we have to keep in mind that not all browsers are the same. We must make sure to accommodate different users, ensuring that they get the most value out of the site possible.
What this is about: This checklist covers various aspects of the domain and site URL structure, how they should be used and how to ensure proper site and browser functionality.
Why this is important: The domain name is part of the identity of your business. The URL chosen can have a significant impact on brand identity and in a lesser extent, keyword ranking performance. However, how your site domain name and page URLs function can have significant impact on the crawlability of the site as well as overall visitor and traffic performance.
Just because you have a well-designed site doesn’t mean that it is sufficiently usable. The web is littered with great looking sites that have a whole mess of usability problems. But it’s also true that just because a website employs effective usability strategies that it’s not necessarily pleasing on the eyes.
We’ve all seen those direct mail-like landing pages, the ones that scroll on forever telling you just how great the product is that you need to buy. Usually they have a big red heading, some pictures, testimonials and a lot of words highlighted to draw your eye to them. As ugly goes, these pages pretty much invented the thing, but you know what, they are extremely effective. And a lot of that is in their simplicity.
But these pages are meant to do one thing, and one thing only. Get a conversion. They are designed to sell the visitor on something. On the other hand, as we have been discussing over the past couple of weeks, a Destination Website is meant to engage the visitor. Yes, they can also sell products or services, but they go about it in an entirely different way.
The design of a website is an important aspect of building a destination that people want to return to time and time again. But don’t go out and spend all kinds of money for the most current, up-to-date website design with all the whistles and bells. Stop for a second to truly consider what kind of website design you really need.
When making changes to my website I always take the time to view them live on the web before closing up my editing software and patting myself on the back in self-satisfaction of a job well done. Even with minor changes, I like to view them one last time to make sure my changes didn’t cause any shifts in on-page display, or I didn’t inadvertently create an error somewhere that inadvertently jacked everything up (believe me, it’s happened more times than I can count!) But regardless of how careful I am to double check my work, there is one thing I almost always overlook; verifying that my site looks good in the “other” browser.
At any given time I have three FireFox browser widows open, each with their own number of open tabs. So it’s natural for me to check and verify my changes using my browser of choice. Sometimes, I even think to check my changes in Internet Explorer. Admittedly, I don’t regularly check IE when the changes are relatively minor, but always when the changes effect formatting. But that’s not the other browser I’m referring to.
We get so accustomed to our own way of surfing the web that we forget that there many other browsers and browsing experiences that may be foreign to us. Now most web designers will do their due diligence and check a site in multiple versions of FireFox, Internet Explorer, Netscape and Safari. Heck you might look at a half of dozen other browsers that most people, including myself, have never even heard of. But those are not the browsers I’m referring to either.
There are four primary “other” browsers and browsing experiences that are typically overlooked by site owners, casual webmaster and, yes, even by the average web designer. But with more and more users moving to these alternate browsing experiences, it is even more important to check your websites to make sure that they function properly for these users.
