As more and more people make the jump and acquire cell phones, smart phones and iPhones for accessing the Web, it is important that your Web site meets the requirements of a mobile device. Visiting a Web site on a mobile phone is a “whole different ball game” than how you access a site on your desktop computer. Some points to consider are different browsing habits, optimized graphics, keeping your mobile site as simple as possible and much more.

Fuel Your Creativity has put together a fantastic list of 13 items to keep in mind when designing your Web site for a mobile device.

Read the full article:

13 Tips To Improve Your Site’s Accessibility From Mobile Devices

A page that can be found on nearly every individual or company Web site is the “About Us” page. It tells your visitor who you are, what your intentions are and gives them a feel for who is behind the Web site they happen to be visiting.

It is no surprise that the “About Us” page is one of the most frequently accessed pages of any Web site (aside from the home page obviously). Therefore this highly-viewed page should be given the same amount of design attention as your home page!

Smashing Magazine has posted an in-depth compilation of some of the best and most visually attractive “About Us” pages from across the Web .

Read the full article:

Best Practices For Effective Design Of “About us”-Pages

Giving some thought to re-designing your “About Us” page? Contact us today to see how we can help!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be considered a science and there are many people out there that make a “killing” on helping people tweak their Web sites to battle for prime search engine positioning. To me it comes down to common sense…having relevant text and content on your Web page.

However there are a few things that you should know about search engines and how they are working nowadays. Gone are the days of submitting your site to “search engine directories” and loading your sites meta tags with keywords. SitePoint offers up some of the newest trends in a recent article.

Read the full article:

SEO: What’s Hot and What’s Not

From the “this is obvious but it is nice to see backing research” file, A List Apart has posted a fantastic article highlighting how a viewer’s perception of a Web site is established within 50 milliseconds. This initial perception heavily influences the confidence, trust and usability that visitor will have regarding the product or services offered.

An excerpt from the article states:

Research confirms that users make aesthetic decisions about the overall visual impression of web pages in as little as 50 milliseconds (1/20th of a second). These instant visceral reactions to web pages happen in virtually all users, are consistent over visit length, and strongly influence the user’s sense of trust in the information. In short, users have made fundamental, consistent, and lasting aesthetic decisions about the credibility and authority of sites before major eyetracking events begin.

Read the full article:

Visual Decision Making

Putting the appropriate value on your Web site and being willing to invest in top-notch marketing materials to establish your brand is a must  to achieve success. I like to quote the adage “you get what you pay for”. It is understandable that businesses want to achieve the best bang for their buck, but with professional services (carpenters, doctors, mechanics and Web design / development companies), those whose prices are too good to be true usually just that.

Eric Karjaluoto of Ideas on Ideas presents a short story on the failure of one law firm to see the value in having a marketable Web site, and why it makes no sense to spend lavishly on other business features but let your brand suffer.

Read the full article:

Sweatpants Forever?

Here is a quick and easy-to-read article on how to make a Web site improve your business. The first steps are obvious (getting a Web site up and running), however I like how the author stresses on sticking to your message and not trying to do too much at one time.

Read the full article:

How to Make the Web Work for Your Business in 5 Steps

Thinking about a Web site for your business or organization?

Contact us for a free estimate and project proposal.