Web Design News

An email discussion list I belong to was recently discussing whether or not it was right for web designers to add the name of their business – and a link to the business – to the bottom of every page on  web sites that they design for clients.

I was surprised to see that there were quite a few people who felt that web designers had no right to add their name and link to sites that they designed and the points they made didn’t convince me that we shouldn’t.

In fact I’m now more than ever convinced that adding our name and link to the bottom of every page is something that we really should be doing. A local web design business recently posted out a shiny multi-page brochure to every business they thought might be interested in having a website built for them. In the brochure they listed all the local businesses that they had already built sites for.

High on that list of clients that they had built sites for was one of our clients. I certainly hope prospective customers will check out that list because they’ll see our name on the site and not the name of the web design business who had absolutely nothing to do with the site they’re claiming.

In just these three short sentences there are two important lessons for web designers. Can you see them?

“Writers using short words and short sentences tend to sell more.

It is easy to think that if you just do more and add more value that you will make more money, but sometimes doing more just means simplifying and clarifying your words, or publishing in a more friendly format. If you want people to take action, to believe they can afford it, making them feel confident and comfortable works.”

The quote comes from this post on Aaron Wall’s SEO Book blog

Just lately I’ve come across several new websites where the designer has included a blog for their client. While blogs can have a very positive impact for some businesses they can have quite the opposite effect for others.

In at least two of the sites I looked at there had been very few posts added to the blog. In one case it was quite obvious that the business really had nothing to say in their blog and in the other it was obvious that the people behind the business were devoid of any original thought because all they did was post about what they had read on other blogs.

In both cases the blogs were really sending the wrong message to potential clients. Perhaps as web developers we should know when to recommend a blog and when to not even mention the idea to a person we’re building a site for.

Do you still have the excitement burning within you when you’re facing some new challenges?

I certainly do and I’ve got that excitement burning inside me right now because we’re facing one crazy week. Not only are we moving to new premises this week but at the same time we set to launch two new sites for clients, test a couple of low-key marketing methods and have a very interesting meeting with a client.

In November we’ll be starting work on a brand-new website for this client and when it’s finished he wants to launch it nationally and we’re the people he has asked to make that all happen. Now don’t think that this client is only talking about launching the site on the web because he isn’t … he wants to get his URL in front of a lot of eyes in a variety of places.

He’s talking print, billboards, buses, trains, radio, television and anywhere else he can get people to hear or read about his business. On Tuesday we meet with him to begin planning our strategy because he wants it to start happening as soon as his site goes live.

Yep … it’s definitely going to be an interesting week.

Usability in web design is all about designing and producing websites that are easy for people to use and understand.

These are sites where the navigation is simple and you don’t need a map to find your way back to the start – sites where the colors are a help in getting the message of the website across to the people using the site rather than a hinderance – sites where the text is easy to read and easy to understand too.

At least that’s my understanding of usability.

But I could be wrong … and I am beginning to doubt my understanding of usability … especially after coming across a website run for usability experts where the text throughout the site was in a colour that tended to blend in with the background colour.

If you or your client has something to say on a website then make sure that people can read the text. There’s nothing quite like black text on a plain white background to get your message across.

Yes we definitely are moving to new premises. Sometime around the end of October or the beginning of November we’ll be moving up to Luizzi Street in Pialba. It was so good to see this go up on the door of the new premises this week:

That means that this month and next month are going to be crazy as we start preparing for the move and then settle in at the new site. And just to make it even more crazy the work keeps on rolling in. We’ve already been booked up for over $11k worth of work in November and here it is, only the beginning of October.

To help cope with that work we’ve taken on some new staff. From today there are two graphic artists working with us, a new programmer and an e-commerce consultant who has plenty of hands-on experience. We’ll also be taking on several web designers as well just to keep up with the work.

It’s definitely an exciting time ahead and definitely one that Toni and I are looking forward to.

Websites that market a business product to another business are becoming more and more popular but as web designers and developers should we be looking at a B2B site in the same way that we might look at a site that is selling a product to an ordinary consumer?

Just recently I came across a B2B website that had a rather in-your-face background to the text that appeared on the pages. It wasn’t even a particularly relevant background and had little to do with the services the business offered to others.

Should we really be decorating B2B websites in that way or are decorations like that totally irrelevant in a B2B setting?

I’ve certainly got my thoughts on the matter and even the text I write for a B2B site differs from the text I would write for a consumer targeted site but what say you?

There are some web designers and developers who lean towards functionality rather than pretty pictures. Then there are some who think that pretty pictures are far more important than functionality.

Whichever camp you fall into perhaps you should look at this site – http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/ -

and then review the discussion that is going on here.

Personally I’m with the guy who made this comment “Business is not about pretty sites, it’s about making money.”

But of course your mileage may vary

With that said, the site is perfect.

A few days ago I wrote about what was working for our small web design business in a town where there is plenty of competition. You can find that piece here at Beating the Competition.

Since then I came across this interesting thread on on a major Webmaster board that was started by a small designer who was looking for advice on how to pick up more work.

If you run a small web design business it’s definitely worth reading.

Over the years the tourist town where we live and work has had a fairly stable group of web designers and developers. The industry here has been made up of perhaps three ‘big’ design houses and a few low-key home based businesses.

Copy Text has tended to stay out of the local competition because we’ve been fully occupied with overseas clients but in the last year or so we’ve been slowly moving into the local market and so have one or two other web design businesses. Because of our overseas work we’ve been able to make the move into the local market slowly and we’ve been able to depend on the best form of marketing of all … word of mouth.

While the other new and established businesses have been spending money on advertising in various forms of local media we’ve been able to quietly working away at producing a quality product at a reasonable price for our clients and now it’s really beginning to work for us. In the last seven days we’ve taken on three new clients and they have all become interested in dealing with us because of what our satisfied clients have told them.  Two of those jobs landed in our laps in two hours yesterday – and the orders are worth many thousands of dollars.

In some ways that boost has come at a rather interesting time because we’ve noticed that there has been a sudden increase in other small web design businesses starting up around town. While those new guys aren’t doing much media advertising they are driving around town with their marketing message splashed across their vehicles and perhaps that’s what’s working for them.

But what’s working for us is word of mouth marketing done by very satisfied clients and following up on fresh leads that our clients tell us about. We spend time talking to our old clients and we spend time talking to the new prospects too and that’s working for us.

Of course, getting out and selling yourself face to face may not be something that your comfortable with doing. It’s safer to sit in your car or call the local paper and organise an ad in the next edition but if you want to beat the competition you have to move out of your comfort zone and get serious about succeeding in business.