Category: Web Design

The User Experience Reigns Supreme

Posted on by Forward_Web

Whether its generating sales, generating leads, providing useful information or all of the above. When building the foundation of your web presence (your web site). The center of your build should always revolve around the user experience. How?

 

First identify your intended audience to ensure your content and media relate to your audience. Then, once you’re confident your media and content are relatable to your audience. Second, create a layout that will allow your visitors to make purchases, contact your business, find useful information on your website as quickly and painless as possible.

 

There are obviously levels of optimization to this, however it all starts with the right mind-set of being more intuitive and engaging with your website vs treating your website like a billboard.

 

Do this, and you’ll be one step closer to having a successful web presence.

What makes a good website?

Posted on by Forward_Web

 

The answer to this question can quickly be determined by first establishing a purpose and settings some objectives for your website.

As an example, lets say you have a restaurant with the following goals

1. Increase Returning Customers
2. Increase New customers.

 

Now that we have established the purpose of your website, we can focus on objectives.

Increasing Returning Customers: What are some ways we can bring back customers through your website? First, we want to make sure the basics are covered by ensuring information returning visitors are interested in (Menu’s, Location, Hours..ect) are easily accessible. The second is we might want to offer (in a non-intrusive way) some form of incentive for the visitor to come back to your restaurant (i.e sign-up for our newsletter and get X amount off..ect).

 

Increasing New Customers: What are some ways you can bring in new customers through your website? Making sure your on-line presentation is solid by placing inviting pictures, descriptive and easily accessible menu’s (with pictures of food items) + call to action (exclusive first time customer coupons via none intrusive click here button’s).

 

In closing, what ultimately makes a good website is how well your website is meeting objectives. Since every business is different, what ultimately makes a good website will differ from website to website.

How much should you pay for a website?

Posted on by Forward_Web

 

$10, $100, $1000, $10,000??

If you’ve tried to find an answer to this question and have found your-self confused by the wide variety of price points. You are not alone. So how do you muddle through the noise? Unfortunately there is no short answer to this, however we can provide some basic guidelines to help you navigate through the Internet of answers.

 

1. As a client, understand there is no such thing as a free website. Domain names, web hosting, templates, programming, general labor, time (on both sides) are some of the services and components needed to deploy a website, none of which are free. However this does not necessarily mean you have to pay X amount of dollars, there are many scenarios where paying $250 per year is a very viable solution. however there are other scenarios where paying $1250 or $12,500, even $25,000 are all very well justified. Much like a building a house, costs will vary depending on the scope of your project.

 

2. Avoid asking your tech savvy friend, colleague, family member or anyone else who builds websites on their spare time for pricing information. They are either going to give you a low-ball offer or grossly over-charge, because although they might be experienced enough to put together a few websites, they likely do not build enough websites to understand the market, or the scope of your project.

 

3. Talk to companies (at least 3) that specialize in building and deploying websites and ask for quotes. Once you get your quotes ask questions so you fully understand the basis behind the price you have been given. Don’t just settle for a price, make sure you get a thorough explanation on the costs and time frames associated with the build and maintenance of your website.

 

Still have questions? We have answers. Contact us for Free Web Consultation at: https://forwardweb.net/web-consultation/

7 Basic Fundamentals for Creating a Great Website

Posted on by Forward_Web

 

Are you looking to build your first website? Today, there are many options which allows people to build/manage their own website but frankly, so much information can get overwhelming. To simplify this process, Forward Web has put together this guide, which provides 7 basic fundamentals for creating a great website!

 

Effective web design is judged by the users of the websites (not the website owners) therefore, it is important to consider the many factors that affect the usability of a website because it’s not just about how good your site looks, but functionality plays a major role.

 

Websites that are not designed properly will experience poor performance and have less than favorable Google Analytics metrics such as high bounce rates, low pages per visit, low time on your site and low conversations. What makes a website design ideal? Let’s take a look at the 7 basic fundamentals, which consists of making yous site not only aesthetically pleasing but is also easy to use, effective and engaging:

 

1st Basic Fundamental: Purpose

What is the purpose of your website? For example, is your website intended to provide information, some type of interaction or entertainment? Or perhaps your website is designed to transact with your business? A good web design always caters to the needs of the end user and each page of your website must have a clear purpose in order to fulfill your website user’s specific needs (in the most effective way possible).

 

2nd Basic Fundamental: Communication

One of the most important aspects of your website is effective communication. The internet was created to provide information and internet users want information quickly, therefore, it is imperative to communicate clearly (making sure your information is easy to read and comprehend). With this in mind, some effective tactics you can incorporate into your design includes: organization through the use of headlines and sub headlines, use bullet points instead of long run-on sentences, and being concise (keep it short and to the point).

 

3rd Basic Fundamental: Navigation

Navigation is essential to the success of your website because it determines how easily people can take action and move around your website. We recommend incorporating a logical page chain of command, using bread crumbs, designing clickable buttons, and following the “three click” rule (which means that users are able to find the information they are looking for within three clicks).

 

4th Basic Fundamental: Images

We’re sure you’ve heard the expression “a picture can speak a thousand words” and it could not be any truer when it comes to web development. Choosing the right images for your website is going to help with brand positioning and connecting with your target audience. Make sure to use high quality professional photos, and if you don’t have access to any of them, consider purchasing stock photos to improve the look and quality of your website. Another thing you could consider is using graphics, videos and infographics because these can be even more effective at communicating than the most well written piece of text.

 

5th Basic Fundamental: Typefaces

When considering fonts, Arial, Verdana and Sans Serif are generally easiest to read online. As far as sizes go, ideally, 16px is a font size that is easy to read. We also recommend sticking to a maximum of 3 typefaces in a maximum of 3 point sizes to keep your design streamlined.

 

 6th Basic Fundamental: Color Choices

You might not have considered this to be one of the basic fundamentals, but a carefully selected color palette can really go a long way to enhance the user’s experience. To create balance and harmony, using complimentary colors is key! Contrasting colors (for the text and background) makes it easier for the user to read the content. And while vibrant colors add life and can create emotion, they should be used sparingly (just a pop of color) such as for buttons and call to actions. Lastly, if you are aiming for a modern and uncluttered look, consider using white or negative space, it is very effective. Who knew colors could do so much for your site!

 

7th Basic Fundamental: Mobile Friendly 

If you do not already know, 80% of all web traffic now comes from mobile devices, thus, including a full mobile version of your self storage facility website is a necessity. Nowadays, it is very common for users to access websites from multiple devices with multiple screen sizes, and for that reason it is imperative to consider whether or not your website is mobile friendly. If your website is not currently mobile friendly, you can approach this matter in two ways: you can either re-develop your website in a responsive layout so that it can accommodate to different screen widths or you can build a separate website dedicated specifically to be optimized for mobile users. As you can see, this is a very important factor to consider!

Knowing and understanding the basic fundamentals of creating a great website is the first step and now, you can build your first website successfully using this guide, just follow these steps. If you are having a difficult time setting up your website, do not have the time or you would like help improving the website you or someone else developed, contact Forward Web and we will be happy to discuss your project and answer any questions you may have.

 

 

5 Tips for Optimizing Your Website Images

Posted on by Forward_Web

 

Optimizing your website images is essential for the success of your website. If you have ever wondered why your product photos never show up when you do a Google image search, what the difference between a JPEG, GIF and PNG is or if you are supposed to add “Alt Tags” to your images, then you have come to the right place!

What is image optimization? And why is it important? Image optimization consists of using the most compressed (smallest file size) yet visually acceptable image in the proper file format for the specific role of the image.

 

 

In this article you will learn more about the importance of optimization as Forward Web provides 5 tips for optimizing your website images:

 

Tip #1: Reduce the File Sizes of Your Images:

Why is this relevant? Well, considering that most customers wait about 3 seconds for a website to load on a desktop or laptop (about 5 seconds on their mobile device), if you have images that take over 15 seconds to load, you can basically say goodbye to that prospective customer. Also, Google uses page load time as a factor in their ranking algorithm.

What can you do? Your website load time is affected by the size of your files, especially with images. The larger the file size, the longer it will take for the webpage to load. Therefore, if you can decrease the size of the image files on your webpage and increase page load speed, less people who visit your site will click away. One way you can reduce image file size is by using the “Save for Web” command in Adobe Photoshop. You want to adjust the image to the lowest file size acceptable while maintaining the quality of the image when using this command.

If you don’t have Adobe Photoshop, there are many online tools you can use for image editing as an alternative. Adobe even has an online image editing application at photoshop.com. This online tool does not have all of the capabilities of the desktop version of Adobe Photoshop but it does cover all of the basics of image editing and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

Other alternate (but impressive) online image editing tools are:

  • Pixlr which is very user friendly and even comes with a 100% free app for your smartphone;
  • PicMonkey which has been described by the experts as a “staggeringly great photo editing tool”;
  • FotoFlexer which is another fairly advanced online image editor (it even allows you to work with layers!);
  • GIMP which is an open-source, free image editing software application that cab be run on Windows, Mac or Linux and can do everything that Photoshop can do.

As you can see there are several useful online image editing tools available!

 

 

Tip #2: Name Your Images As Simply and Descriptive as Possible:

It is really easy to develop the (bad) habit of going through hundreds of product shots and keeping the default file name your camera gives them. Although you might think this isn’t a big deal, this is actually very harmful because when it comes to SEO (search engine optimization), it is important to use acceptable keywords to help your website rank on search engines.

It is absolutely critical to create descriptive, keyword-rich file names for image optimization and keep in mind that search engines not only crawl the text on your webpage, they also search for keywords within your image file names. Understanding the importance of naming files for your website images is worth the effort, as it can surely increase your on-page SEO and help your website and images rank highly.

Looking at your websites analytics to see what phrasing patterns your customers use to perform searches is another aspect you can consider. Determine the most common naming patterns used and apply that formula to your image naming process for maximum results.

 

 

Tip #3: Optimize Your Alt Tags Intelligently

Alt tags are a text alternative to images when a browser cannot properly render them. Depending on your browser settings, even when the image is rendered, you can see the alt tag text created for that image if you hover over it with your mouse pointer.

The alt attribute adds SEO value to your website as well. Your website can achieve better rankings in the search engines by associating keywords with images when you add appropriate alt tags to the images on your website. In fact, using alt tags is probably the best way for your ecommerce products to show up in Google image and web search.

To understand this concept better, let’s explore the source code of an alt tag (keep in mind that when it comes to image optimization, filling out each alt tag for each product image on your site is the highest priority). The following are some of the basic rules when it comes to alt tags:

  • Do not keyword stuff your alt tags
  • If you sell products that have model numbers or serial numbers, use them in your alt tag.
  • Do not use alt tags for decorative images because search engines may penalize you for over-optimization.
  • Describe your images in the simplest for possible, just like you do for your image file names.

As a final thought, always do a sanity check of your website and view the source of your webpages to make sure your alt tags are filled out.

 

Tip #4: Strategize Your Product Angles and Image Dimensions

Displaying multiple angles of your products is a common trend these days. It makes sense, if you’re trying to sell a product, you don’t want to show just one side of the product; the more shots you have of your product, the better the odds you have of selling it.

With that in mind, the best way to capitalize on these extra photos is to fill out your alt tags and you can do this by creating unique alt tags for each product shot. The key is to add descriptions to your base alt tag so that potential searchers land on your website. If this seems redundant, it is totally worth the extra effort because Google will reward you with many hungry searchers.

A word of advice: Be careful when using larger images because although they are a great user experience enhancement, they can however, increase your page load time because of the larger file size associated with the large image. Whatever you do, do not place the largest image on your page and simply shrink the dimensions via the source code. Instead, you can make the image smaller and provide the option to view a larger image in a pop-up or display it on a separate webpage.

 

 

Tip #5: Be Cautious of Your Decorative Images

It is not uncommon for websites to have an assortment of decorative images (basically anything non-product related can be considered a decorative image) such as buttons, borders and/or background images. Decorative images can add aesthetic appeal to a webpage but this oftentimes results in a large combined file size and slow load times. Consequently, it would be wise to consider taking a closer look at the decorative images used so that they do not impair your website’s ability to perform at it’s full potential and convert visitors into customers.

Make sure to check the file sizes of the decorative images on your web pages. You can use a template that minimizes file sizes for all or most of the pages on your website. Another method you can use to reduce to decrease the file size substantially is to cut out the middle of the background image, and make it a flat color or transparent.

Review the following tips to cut down the file size of your decorative images:

  • Pay attention to large wallpaper-style background images because those can be huge files. We recommend that you shrink them down as much as possible without depleting the quality of the image.
  • You can create great looking images that make up simple patterns or borders by using PNG-8 or GIFs (making them only a few hundred bytes big!).
  • Use CSS to create colored areas instead of using images whenever possible and use CSS styling to replace any decorative images.

 

 

From the information provided in this article, it is easy to conclude that the optimization of your website images is in fact, very relevant to the success of your website. We learn that there are two extensive reasons for image optimization: download time and bandwidth used. Optimization is definitely an art that you want to master! For more information or if you have any questions about the material covered in this article, please contact Forward Web.

 

 

Optimizing Your Website Images

Five Ways to Help Increase Your Website’s Search Rank

Posted on by Forward_Web

 

Do you have a current website but are not sure how to improve your search engine rankings? This article provides you with five ways to help you increase your website search rank. Now, you may ask yourself, what’s the big deal about about website search ranks? Well, there are many reasons to consider but one thing is certain; how your website ranks in the online world can be the difference between your business being a success or a failure.

ForwardWeb.net believes that your website’s search rank can raise your website’s profile, delivering more traffic and more customers which means larger revenues.

 

Watch your website rise the ranks to the top of search-engine results with these five basic fundamentals:

 

 

  • Have a link-worthy site:

Direct your attention on creating relevant links within the text rather than having “click here” links which have no search engine value beyond the attached URL. Instead, try writing out the name of the destination (such as Forward Web Development) because complete and significant keywords will improve your search engine rankings as well as the ranking of the page you are linking to.

 

 

  • Publish relevant content:

There is no substitute for great content therefore quality content is the single most important driver of your search engine rankings. Your site’s authority and relevance improves when quality content is created specifically for your intended user and it also increases site traffic. Identifying a keyword phrase for each page and then repeat that phrase several times throughout the page is also very effective (for instance once or twice in the opening and closing paragraphs and two to four more times throughout the rest of the content).  Remember to use heading tags, bold, italics and other emphasis tags to highlight keyword phrases.

 

 

  • Update Your Content Regularly:

It is imperative to keep your content recent because updated content is viewed as one of the best indicators of a site’s relevancy.

 

 

  • Alt Tags:

Alt tags allow search engines to locate your page, which is essential (especially for text-only browsers) and for that reason you want to make sure to always describe your video and visual media using alt tags or different text descriptions.

 

 

  • Metadata:

Metadata is a set of data that describes and gives information about other data. During the creation of your website, each page is designed to contain a space between the <head> tags to insert metadata (or information about the contents of your page). Metadata breaks down to the following sections: Title Metadata, Description Metadata, and Keyword Metadata.

Title Metadata is the most significant metadata on your page because it is responsible for the page titles displayed at the top of the browser window.

Description Metadata consists of the textual description that a browser will use in you page search return. This is a description of what is contained within (that is appealing, short and to the point) with the intention of encouraging people to enter.

Keyword Metadata is substantial because this is the search phrase that people type when they want to find your page. Ideally, you want to incorporate various phrases and keep them at about six to eight phrases with each phrase consisting of one to four words (you don’t want to exceed this limit because if your list becomes redundant, it’s possible that the browser may completely ignore the data).

 

 

Keep in mind that these are not the only ways to increase your website’s search rank, but they are definitely a solid foundation. By following these five steps, you will without a doubt not only increase your website’s search rank but also your chances for success. If you have any questions regarding the information discussed in this article, don’t hesitate to contact Forward Web, they are willing to assist any time!

 

 

website-search-ranking

Websites are not easy or free to build

Posted on by Forward_Web

 

As the title reads, websites are not easy or free to build. However this article is not intended to discourage you from attempting to build your own website (but rather to give you a more realistic approach to what it takes to develop a website) with or without the help of a professional.

 

With that being said, now that we are in the full blown digital age, there are many misconceptions about website development. Many of which are promoted by domain registrars and “free” website builder services (which can be very misleading to the consumer). Often times these misconceptions lead to wasted time and frustrations, leaving the consumer back where they started (without a proper web presence). Surely you have seen the ads, the slogans often times come in the form of “build your own website for free” or “build your website in minutes”. All great ideas that sound enticing to the consumer, however none of which are actually true or realistic.

 

To further elaborate, regardless of whether or not you decide to build your website on your own (or with the help of a professional). If you want to have a proper and effective web presence, you will need to take many items into consideration, such as:

 

  • What is the purpose of the website? Are you going to sell items online, is the website going to be strictly informative?
  • Who will your primary audience be? Business Professionals, Women, Men, Age Groups..ect
  • Once complete, wow do you plan on promoting your website? Organic Search Results, Paid Advertisments, all of the above?

The above are just a few items (on a very long list of items) that should be taken into consideration (before) you start building your website. As you can see, if done right, you are already going to spend a few hours on your project (not minutes).

 

Yet, if you are willing to put the time and effort into properly building your website (or at least to the best of your abilities). Developing your own website can be a very rewarding experience. Or at worst, you will walk away with a higher level of appreciation towards web development. Truth be told, if you are looking to build your own website, think hours/days vs minutes, along with preparing to spend a little money to get your website off the ground (as nothing is truly for free).

 

With the above mind, here is a short list of services you will need to establish your initial web presence.

  • Domain Name: There is no way around this, if you want to have a successful website, you will need to have a domain name). Average cost for a domain name on a year to year basis can range between $15-$20.00 per year. Forward Web does not recommend spending more than $20.00 per year on your domain name. You can register your domain name with Forward Web anytime for only $15.00 per year by clicking here.
  • Web Hosting: Probably the most overlooked service (yet arguably the most important) is web hosting. Without a proper web host, your website will either load slow or will be inaccessible all together. To learn more about web hosting, click here. Pricing for ideal shared web hosting (Forward Web)recommends cPanel Shared web hosting) can range between $50.00-$150.00 per year (however many service providers usually and should include your domain name in the yearly service fee). You can set-up your cPanel web hosting account with Forward Web (domain name included) for only $100.00 per year by clicking here.
  • Website Builder: At last, now you have your domain name and web hosting account set-up, you will need a website builder to build your website with. This is where you should choose very carefully because not all web site builders are created equal. Also, not all website builders allow you to transfer your website away from your web host (which is very important and unfortunately, where many of the free site builder services will hook you in).

Forward Web recommends using WordPress to build your website, however if not WordPress, please make sure your website builder is open source (where you are able to move your website freely) and not proprietary (where you are restricted to where you can move your website to). With Forward Web (assuming you have already ordered your cPanel web hosting service, you can easily install WordPress within a matter of minutes (using our One Click auto installer). If not, our friendly staff is always available and willing to assist where needed (at no extra cost).

Still have questions? Do not hesitate to contact Forward Web at your convenience, we are always here to assist you with all of your web development needs.

 

© Forward Web, All Rights Reserved