Previously, I've talked about optimizing your website to improve how fast it loads. This not only improves the perception of your site, but also how likely it is for people to stay and make a purchase, or request more information. Optimizing your site for sales isn't as easy as optimizing your site for speed. When we want to increase speed we know many ways to improve the performance. We can modify files to be smaller, have files load in a different order, move the server to a faster … [Read more...]
posted on May 1, 2009 by
How Fast Is Your Website?
Image by zerok via Flickr Yahoo recently updated one of their tools for grading and optimizing websites. It's called YSlow, and it checks your site for several different decisions and tools which you (or your web designer) may have implemented. YSlow is an add on to the Firebug tool which is a Firefox extension - so at this point, you can't run it in any other browser, however both Firefox and Firebug are free tools so there is no cost to you other than time. YSlow is nice because it … [Read more...]
posted on April 23, 2009 by
Optimize Your Website For Speed
Image by tirebiterz via Flickr How do you increase the speed and response of your web site? Good question. We've talked about it some in the past, but the people at Inside CRM have provided a list of 50 items. While this can help with the loading of your site, it also takes someone who knows how to implement these changes. One other thing to check on is how will this affect the other aspects of your web site? For example: Will modifying your web site affect how users use your … [Read more...]
posted on April 12, 2009 by
How fast do changes take affect online?
Image via Wikipedia People often want to know how fast to changes occur on-line. They may be used to traditional print advertisign, such as newspaper and magazine, in which changes to an ad might take weeks or months to be seen. Even worse, consider wanting to change some text in your phone book ad. If you see an error (imagine a wrong phone number), or want to make a change the week your book comes out, it will take a twelve long months to update your ad. On-line, things can occur … [Read more...]
posted on March 25, 2009 by
Saving Money with SEO
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a way for your company to get new visitors by using search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN Live Search. Some people will say that they don't like to spend money on SEO, because who knows how much money they are spending, and can they get any return on their investment (ROI) for their optimization. Some people even wonder if SEO works at all, saying it is nothing more than 21st century snake oil. Well I've never thought so. When I set up an SEO campaign, … [Read more...]
posted on March 23, 2009 by
Compliments Can Come From Odd Places
The best compliments come from people you'd never expect them. Recently, for one of my clients, I was looking at some of his competitors. I wanted to get a feel for what they were doing, and see how my client compared. One of them has on their site "No, we do not have a fancy drop-down program that lets you choose from our other showcase designs and mix and match. That would cost lots of money". Well when looking at the competition field, he is clearly referencing the Options Showcase page … [Read more...]
posted on March 13, 2009 by
Conference Speaking
This week I had a chance to spend a few days at the eLearning Guild's Annual Gathering - immensely enjoyed it by the way. It combined two of the things I really enjoy - education/training and technology. I gave a session on Free and Low Cost Tools for Developing eLearning Content. In the current economy it helps to find the best resources that you can, at the best prices. And while there are many expensive solutions, there are also many low cost solutions. I have posted a website as a … [Read more...]
posted on March 11, 2009 by
Any Occasion Photography
Their website was designed to show potential customers the different types of photography that Any Occasion Photography shoots, as well as generate leads from the interest it would create. Therefore, potential customers are shown the different types of photography services they provide, as well as photography samples. The Photo Galleries are all dynamically generated, so the site owner only has to upload the files into the correct folder. Thumbnails and larger images are dynamically … [Read more...]
posted on February 24, 2009 by
Are you out of touch with your customers
Image via Wikipedia I live in Central Florida where we've been hit hard with the recession that is going on. Lots of my clients, and the people near me, are hurting. I know that some of my clients are fighting to stay alive, and I'm trying to help them. However, not everyone is so bright. Here are a couple of examples. The Good One of my clients is offering a year of discounts and promotions as he likes to call it. Each month a different promotion has been offered to his clients. This March … [Read more...]
posted on February 4, 2009 by
Updating the Any Occasion Photography website
In the last post, I mentioned that I had updated the Any Occasion Photography website. There were several core updates to the design, as well fundamental changes to make the site better. I thought I would give a small list, so you could get an idea of what types of updates occurred, and if they would be appropriate for your situation. The Site Design The design of the site is completely new, which many people who had visited will notice. However, each of the elements was specifically choosen … [Read more...]