Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
If you've recently chosen IntelliSites to put together your website, we're confident that you'll be thrilled with your website when we're done. But websites do take some time to put together, so a lot of our clients ask us if there is anything they can do to help speed up the process.
Here's what we tell them.
1. Appoint an internal point person. It's up to you whether you refer to him or her as the point person, the IntelliSites Guru, the Website Ninja, or “Dr. Website,” but at the end of the day you just need a person who is in charge of interfacing with us regularly. This is the person who gathers up questions, comments, and feedback from your end and delivers it to us.
2. Familiarize yourself with our milestones sheet. Our clients receive a handy little sheet that breaks down the time-line for their website projects. If you're wondering when something needs to be returned to us or when you can expect something on our end, our milestones sheet puts it all there in black and white for you. (Not to mention yellow, blue, and green. We tend to make them quite colorful.)
3. Understand what each deliverable is for. During the web design process, we're going to show you our progress a few times along the way. Two important things we'll show you are the wire-frame and templates. We'll show you the wire-frame when we've got a plan for how the website will be laid out. When you view it, remember that you're JUST looking for layout - don't worry about colors or fonts yet. When we show you the templates later on, that's the time to tell us if you're not feeling the colors or the graphics.
4. Make a list of what you hope to get out of this website, and share it with us. Have your Website Ninja shoot us an e-mail about your major expectations and hopes for this website. These thoughts have certainly come up a number of times along the way in our discussions with you, but it doesn't hurt anyone to develop a succinct list of the most important big picture stuff. We'll change the font to Monotype Corsiva, print it, frame it, and use it as our inspiration as we work.
5. Remember that a website can be updated, changed, and optimized. In fact, it should be! So there's never a now-or-never decision when it comes to building your site. Don't sweat the small stuff too much as you try to make decisions about your site. We can put together an amazing site for you now, and then keep building on the awesomeness in the years to come.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
What's a Website Conversion?
Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
For a change of pace, let's talk about real estate open houses today.
When a home is for sale, realtors hold open houses to get it sold. There are tours and balloons and snacks and it makes for a super little Saturday.
While a seller's agent would certainly enjoy seeing a house full of open house visitors, the ultimate goal of the open house is to sell the house, not to throw a great party. So while a full house is great, the real estate agent is likely to gauge the effectiveness of the open house by figuring out how many attendees actually took a step toward buying the house as a result of their visit. How many took home brochures? How many scheduled another viewing? How many made offers?
As You Probably Guessed, I'm Really Talking About Websites
Think of your website as that real estate open house. If your SEO is going well, chances are, you've got an open house full of people visiting your site. But what you really want is for those people to take steps toward giving you business.
These steps are called “conversions.”
Let's say your website sells water guns. When someone clicks from your homepage to the page about your new model, that's a conversion. When that person adds the new gun to his shopping cart, that's another conversion. And when he completes the process and actually buys the water gun, that's also a conversion.
Real estate agents want lots of visitors to their open houses, and business owners want lots of visitors to their sites. But just as realtors need visitors to do more than just chat and chow down on the open house food, business owners need visitors to do more than take in the beauty of their sites. Real estate agents want to give out pamphlets and collect bids, and business owners want website conversions.
For a change of pace, let's talk about real estate open houses today.
When a home is for sale, realtors hold open houses to get it sold. There are tours and balloons and snacks and it makes for a super little Saturday.
While a seller's agent would certainly enjoy seeing a house full of open house visitors, the ultimate goal of the open house is to sell the house, not to throw a great party. So while a full house is great, the real estate agent is likely to gauge the effectiveness of the open house by figuring out how many attendees actually took a step toward buying the house as a result of their visit. How many took home brochures? How many scheduled another viewing? How many made offers?
As You Probably Guessed, I'm Really Talking About Websites
Think of your website as that real estate open house. If your SEO is going well, chances are, you've got an open house full of people visiting your site. But what you really want is for those people to take steps toward giving you business.
These steps are called “conversions.”
Let's say your website sells water guns. When someone clicks from your homepage to the page about your new model, that's a conversion. When that person adds the new gun to his shopping cart, that's another conversion. And when he completes the process and actually buys the water gun, that's also a conversion.
Real estate agents want lots of visitors to their open houses, and business owners want lots of visitors to their sites. But just as realtors need visitors to do more than just chat and chow down on the open house food, business owners need visitors to do more than take in the beauty of their sites. Real estate agents want to give out pamphlets and collect bids, and business owners want website conversions.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Businesses That Blog Get 55% More Traffic
Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
I see you've made it back to the IntelliSites blog today. Welcome! At IntelliSites, we love visitors to our blog...a lot. After all, visitors to our blog are visitors to our site. And everyone loves company at their website.
If you're looking for more friendly folks to drop in at your site, then blogging could be a great option for you, too.
How Blogging Helps
I've said it before, and I'll say it again – blogging's awesome for your site. Do you want a better relationship with your clients? Blog. Want to showcase your expertise? Blog. Want to improve your search engine rankings? Blog.
It really is an easy way to make your site a lot better. To get a lot more visitors, a lot more links, and ultimately a lot more business.
How Much Is “A Lot”?
If you're interested in exactly how much blogging can help, check out this sweet article by Rick Burnes I came across the other day. This guy did some research and discovered that small business websites with blogs get 55% more visitors than websites that don't. I knew blogging was worthwhile, but even I was impressed to see just how much oomph it can bring to a website.
Aside from giving away free diamonds or bags of benjamins, there's really nothing else you can do on your website that can give it that much of an edge.
So blog. If you don't have one yet, start one. If you have one that you've been neglecting, show it some love. But there's no good reason to let your website get 55% less hits than it should.
I see you've made it back to the IntelliSites blog today. Welcome! At IntelliSites, we love visitors to our blog...a lot. After all, visitors to our blog are visitors to our site. And everyone loves company at their website.
If you're looking for more friendly folks to drop in at your site, then blogging could be a great option for you, too.
How Blogging Helps
I've said it before, and I'll say it again – blogging's awesome for your site. Do you want a better relationship with your clients? Blog. Want to showcase your expertise? Blog. Want to improve your search engine rankings? Blog.
It really is an easy way to make your site a lot better. To get a lot more visitors, a lot more links, and ultimately a lot more business.
How Much Is “A Lot”?
If you're interested in exactly how much blogging can help, check out this sweet article by Rick Burnes I came across the other day. This guy did some research and discovered that small business websites with blogs get 55% more visitors than websites that don't. I knew blogging was worthwhile, but even I was impressed to see just how much oomph it can bring to a website.
Aside from giving away free diamonds or bags of benjamins, there's really nothing else you can do on your website that can give it that much of an edge.
So blog. If you don't have one yet, start one. If you have one that you've been neglecting, show it some love. But there's no good reason to let your website get 55% less hits than it should.
Monday, October 4, 2010
What is Hosting?
Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
If you have a website but no one is there to visit it, does it really exist?
This one's a lot easier than that “tree falling in the woods” question.
The answer is, definitely, “Yes.” Thanks to its host.
A host is a computer that stays on 24/7 and holds all the files that make up your website. It waits patiently for a web surfer to type your website's URL into his browser and then sends him your page. Whether it's morning, noon, or night, the host is in charge of serving up your website to anyone who wants to see it.
Every website needs one of these babies. So if you have a website, it already has a host.
Of course, if you don't have a website yet, then you A) need to get one, ASAP and B) will need a host to make it work. Don't worry, though, you don't have to go out and buy a special computer to leave on day in and day out. If we design your website for you, we can make sure it gets hooked up with a host.
Yes, hosts are pretty neat. When you're relaxing on the beach, enjoying a round of golf, or catching some Zs, the host is making it possible for the world to visit your website. You may never get to see your website's host, but whether day or night...whether rain or shine...whether you think the tree falling in the woods makes a sound or doesn't make a sound...that host is working for you.
If you have a website but no one is there to visit it, does it really exist?
This one's a lot easier than that “tree falling in the woods” question.
The answer is, definitely, “Yes.” Thanks to its host.
Hosts 101
A host is a computer that stays on 24/7 and holds all the files that make up your website. It waits patiently for a web surfer to type your website's URL into his browser and then sends him your page. Whether it's morning, noon, or night, the host is in charge of serving up your website to anyone who wants to see it.
Every website needs one of these babies. So if you have a website, it already has a host.
Of course, if you don't have a website yet, then you A) need to get one, ASAP and B) will need a host to make it work. Don't worry, though, you don't have to go out and buy a special computer to leave on day in and day out. If we design your website for you, we can make sure it gets hooked up with a host.
Always Working For Your Website
Yes, hosts are pretty neat. When you're relaxing on the beach, enjoying a round of golf, or catching some Zs, the host is making it possible for the world to visit your website. You may never get to see your website's host, but whether day or night...whether rain or shine...whether you think the tree falling in the woods makes a sound or doesn't make a sound...that host is working for you.
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