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blog http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/ How To Share Your Site http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/how-to-share-your-site/ For many of our clients, incorporating the ability to share content through social media channels is an important feature for their website. Ideally you want to make it as easy as possible for your website visitors to share your content with their peer group, whether that be on facebook, twitter or a popular news aggregator like Reddit. In this blog post we’ll explore some of the solutions available.
To start, I’d like to show some of the different visual layout approaches used to share your site.
 
 1.Static – Above content or in a sidebar
One of the primarily used methods for displaying share buttons. Placing them horizontally right above the content or in a sidebar provides the web visitor with a familiar place to locate the buttons, and allows them to share the content instantly, before they even start reading. One disadvantage to this approach is that if the user wants to share after they finish reading the page, they may be forced to scroll back the top to share the content. This can be easily overcome by placing a second set of sharing buttons at the bottom of the page or article.
<img class="center" src="http://webbuildersgroup.com/assets/Blog/How-To-Share-Your-Site/1a-Top-of-content.jpg" width="488" height="231" alt="" title=""/> Share Buttons Are Displayed Just Above Content
 
2. Fixed, vertically on side of page.
This popular method provides the advantage of the share buttons “following” the user as they scroll up and down the page allowing them to share at anytime. One disadvantage to this approach is that if the user zooms the page or their resolution is low, the vertical bar can cover content or even disappear from view.
<img class="center" src="http://webbuildersgroup.com/assets/Blog/How-To-Share-Your-Site/2a-side-of-page.jpg" width="488" height="217" alt="" title=""/> Not Covering Content
<img class="left" src="http://webbuildersgroup.com/assets/Blog/How-To-Share-Your-Site/2c-covering-content.jpg" width="488" height="190" alt="" title=""/>
Zoomed In - Covering Content
 
 
 
3. Responsive – Vertical and Horizontal
 
 A responsive design provides a combination of the first two options. If the user’s viewing space allows for it, a vertical bar is shown that follows the user up and down the page, but as they zoom in, or their resolution decreases, it will move automatically into place horizontally above the content. You may have seen this technique used on popular sites such as <a href="http://mashable.com/" target="_blank">mashable.com</a>.
 
<img class="center" src="http://webbuildersgroup.com/assets/Blog/How-To-Share-Your-Site/3a-Responsive.jpg" width="488" height="188" alt="" title=""/> Buttons Respond To Screen Size and Adjust To Fit
 
Now that you’ve seen examples of common layout approaches used for sharing butons, what options are available for getting those icons there in the first place?
<h3>Button Generators:</h3>
Many social media websites offer friendly, easy to use code generators for displaying commonly used features. For example, you can use this page : <a href="https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like/" target="_blank">https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like/</a> to generate a facebook like button for your website. Twitter offers a similar service for its tweet button.
<h4> </h4>
<h4>Sharing Platforms:</h4>
1. ShareThis : <a href="http://sharethis.com/" target="_blank">sharethis.com</a>
ShareThis is a popular sharing platform with many integrated social channels. Through their website you can build a ShareThis widget which you can use on your website. ShareThis also bundles analytical tools into their widget allowing you to see statistics such as number of page views, number of shares, most shared content and many other variables.
2. AddThis: <a href="http://www.addthis.com/" target="_blank">addthis.com</a>
Addthis is another popular sharing platform similar to ShareThis. They allow you to create a widget, use analytical tools and feature a large list of social channels to choose from.
<h4> </h4>
<h4>Custom Solution:</h4>
Finally, you could have a custom solution built to fit your needs. Several of our client asked us to include a share bar on their sites similar to mashable.com. We developed a module for SilverStripe CMS that allows us to easily deploy a “share bar” with the responsive functionality described above. Developing a reusable module saves our clients time and money by making it easy to setup the share bar across any number of sites.
On our own site, we went with a clean approach. We added a facebook like button and digg share button just above the blog articles. Throughout our site (<a href="http://www.webbuildersgroup.com" target="_blank">www.webbuildersgroup.com</a>) you can find a like button, tweet button and a send to a friend button just below the content.
Each of the options listed above require some level of xhtml and/or javascript knowledge to implement. Need help getting a like button on your page? <a href="http://webbuildersgroup.com/contact-us/">Contact us</a> today.
What methods have you used or seen on websites? Which do you feel is best? We'd love your feeedback. Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:47:23 -0400 http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/how-to-share-your-site/ 7 Things To Consider When Rebuilding Your Website http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/7-things-to-consider-when-rebuilding-your-website/ Many of our recent projects involved rebuilding a client’s website and upgrading their online presence. Redeveloping a website can be motivated by a number of factors: the need to incorporate new social media tools, implementing an updated internet marketing strategy, launching a new brand or visual identity, upgrading the website technology (such as a new Content Management System (CMS)), and so on. Here are 6 of the most common issues you need to keep in mind when you undertake a website rebuild: 
<h4>1.) Web addresses / URL's</h4>
Whenever a website goes through a redesign or rebuild, particularly when a new technology (such as a new Content Management System) is involved, it may mean all of your old web addresses (URL's) will change, and this can cause confusion to search engines trying to understand where all those old pages went. For example, the address for a page on your old site might look like "<a href="http://www.example.com/dog_shampoo.html">www.example.com/dog_shampoo.html</a>" and your page new address is, "<a href="http://www.example.com/pet-supplies/dog-shampoo">www.example.com/pet-supplies/dog-shampoo</a>". Without telling the search engines about this change, your page and your site might show up less (or not all) for search terms it once performed well in. One simple but very important solution is to use what's called a "301 Redirect map". This automatically redirects search engines (as well as human visitors trying to access those old pages from a “favorites” bookmark) to the new page location. For web pages you do not want to re-create or redirect, (for example, pages for discontinued products) we recommend establishing a user friendly '404 - Page not found' page to forward webvisitors to, where you can offer a sitemap, a search box, and other tools to help them find what they are looking for.
If you operate a Pay-per-click (PPC) campaign, a 301 Redirect Map will also preserve your advertisement links. However, we recommend updating these links to the new web address over time, so you end up managing as few redirects as possible.
<h4>2.) Analytics</h4>
Website analytical tools like Google Analytics help monitor traffic and performance of your website. If not handled carefully, you risk jeopardizing the accuracy of the data your site tracks, or worse yet - lose tracking altogether when you upgrade your site. That said, it's also very common for businesses to start a new analytics profile for the new website. This allows for easy separation of key performance indicators between the old and the new. If you haven't used traffic monitoring or analytical tools in the past, a website rebuild is a good time to think more seriously about how they can add value to your ongoing website management. 3) Request A Re-crawl Most popular search engines offer ways to request your site be re-crawled (and re-indexed). Crawling occurs when a robot scans all of your pages, links, and content (images, PDF's, text, etc), and stores it (indexes) in order to be served as a result when someone types in a keyword or phrase. This is particularly important to how your pages show up in search results - without being re-crawled, users may see page results from your old website. Although search engines like Google and Yahoo will eventually crawl through your new pages over time, it's best to proactively request a re-crawl to expedite this process, knowing it could be days, weeks or even months. TIP: "Webmaster Tools" - a free service offered by Google - is great way to monitor crawling errors and discover why search engines' might not be indexing some (or all) of your pages. 
<h4>4) XML Sitemap</h4>
It is possible to serve a search-engine friendly index of your website’s pages in a standardized file called a 'sitemap.xml' (for example, see: webbuildersgroup.com/sitemap.xml). This file helps search engines quickly see all of the pages on your site, and which pages are being added/removed over time. Many modern CMS's can generate this file automatically. There are two important things to consider here. If you don't have this file now, make one. If you do have a file, update it to reflect your new website page addresses. And secondly, you should submit this sitemap to the following popular services: <a href="http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/">http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/</a> <a href="http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/">http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/</a> <a href="http://www.bing.com/webmaster">http://www.bing.com/webmaster</a> TIP: To learn more about XML Sitemaps, checkout sitemaps.org 
<h4>5.) Valid Code</h4>
Having your website programmed in valid markup (per W3C.org guidelines) is becoming increasingly important. It ensures your webpage will display consistently across all platforms (Mac's, PC's, smart phones, etc) and the various web browsers that are available to each. Having valid code also decreases the likelihood of an error that could prevent a search engine from crawling and indexing your pages. If you haven't validated your website before, do it now when you upgrade! 
<h4>6.) Content that works</h4>
Be mindful of what pages on your site are already working successfully for you. One way to determine this might be to look at the traffic activity (analytics) of that page. Other ways might be to look at the community activity (such as comments on a specific blog), or the leads generated from the page. Simply put, if you have a page you know you are getting activity from, abandoning it might not only mean search engines and future visitors will no longer be able to access the page, but it could also negatively impact your entire website’s ranking. Be selective in which content you change (or remove) as part of your rebuild process. 
<h4>7.) User-experience (UX)</h4>
You should also consider non-page specific factors (like navigation and menu's) in your redesign, and what impact they might have on the visitor’s UX. Even though you've fallen in love with your new design and can't wait to share it with the world, it would be a mistake to simply assume your visitors will share in your excitement. A good example of this is Facebook, where the smallest of changes (i.e. a button moved) can cause frustration with millions of users. A couple of proactive ways to minimize this problem are to poll your visitors, or run an A/B test.
Conclusion: There are many project-specific considerations when undertaking a website rebuild, but the 7 items mentioned here should always be top of mind. If you have questions/comments about anything discussed in this blog, feel free to <a href="mailto:admin@webbuildersgroup.com">contact us </a>or leave your comments in the box below! Wed, 30 Nov 2011 09:05:09 -0400 http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/7-things-to-consider-when-rebuilding-your-website/ Best Practices for Design-to-Web http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/best-practices-for-design-to-web/ <h3>Understanding how to properly prepare your design files for web can save everybody (designer, web developer, and end client) time and money, (and keep your programmers happy too).</h3>
 When programming for the web, industry standards are easily identified - programmers can follow W3.org international compliancy and then use a validator tool (see: <a href="http://validator.w3.org" target="_blank">http://validator.w3.org</a>) as a quality assurance check on the finished product. However, in the design world a validator tool doesn't exist (or at least not that we know of, and we'd love to know!). For this reason, we've created a design specific document that we make available to designers. This document represents years of understanding, experimenting, and fine-tuning. In fact, this document is constantly evolving, and we generally make at least one amendment to it every couple months. It includes things like: selecting the right fonts, using layer effects correctly, and choosing proper dimensions (just to name a few).
 Up until now, we've only ever shared this document with designers we've worked with, but we realized there is no reason we can't share it with the world! So please visit the <a href="http://webbuildersgroup.com/solutions/website-design-and-development/design-for-web/">design specifications page </a>of our website , <a href="http://webbuildersgroup.com/contact-us/">contact us </a>with your questions, offer feedback/suggestions in the comments below, and make use of it on your next web project!
 As mentioned, we regularly update this information so be sure to bookmark the page and tell your designer friends! Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:13:12 -0400 http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/best-practices-for-design-to-web/ 4 Timeless Tips to Get More Traffic to Your Website http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/4-timeless-tips-to-get-more-traffic-to-your-website/ Web visitors. We all want them, but how do you get them to your website? Better yet, how do you get qualified customers who are interested in your specific product(s) to your website? Here are 4 cost-free tips that can help your business be found on the internet.
<h2 style="text-align: left;">1. The key to getting the right traffic is using the right Keywords</h2>
One of the most important facets of generating traffic is having the right keywords throughout your website. Your Keywords should appear in 4 key places:
<ul><li>The Title Tag</li>
<li>Meta Tags</li>
<li>Header Tags</li>
<li>General page content</li>
</ul>Meta Tags are hidden bits of words on your web page that Google, Bing, and other search engines use to determine what your website is about. While they don’t have much weight in helping your overall search engine rank, it’s still important to have proper Meta tags.
Header tags are used for styling content on your website, as part of the HTML (the code that forms your website). Having the proper keyword in your Header tags can make a difference in your search engine rank.
Most leading Content Management Systems (CMS) help make it easier for you to ensure your keywords appear in these 4 critical areas.
It’s important to choose keywords/phrases that relate to your business or product. Let's consider a small music store that exclusively sells custom, one of a kind, handmade guitars. Examples of keywords that could be used to build a keyword phrase would be,
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Guitar</li>
<li>Electric </li>
<li>Acoustic</li>
<li>Custom</li>
<li>Handmade</li>
<li>One of a kind</li>
</ul>Build phrases that you believe your customers would use in search engines to find you and get these phrases into your website! In the music store example, you could assume that potential visitors might search for: “handmade guitars”,or “Custom handmade acoustic guitar”, or “one of a kind handmade guitar”. Having these kinds of key phrases on your website could help you show up in Google’s and other search engines results for these searches. Not only would you be generating new traffic but qualified traffic interested in your product.
Check out one of my earlier posts on <a href="http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/landing-pages-what-are-they/">landing pages</a> to learn more about choosing appropriate keywords/phrases.
<h2 style="text-align: left;">2. Start a blog</h2>
Having a blog on your website offers some great advantages:
<ul><li>It helps display your expertise and passion for your product or service;</li>
<li>It is an excellent way to get key phrases onto your website, and;</li>
<li>Search engines love new content! Websites that are updated with fresh new content are more likely to show up higher in relevant search engines results, which could mean more traffic for you.</li>
</ul>Creating blogs is not as onerous as most people think. Scan other media articles for ideas that connect your target audience with your products. For example, we build websites and help businesses get found on the internet. You are reading our blog about getting found on the internet. Coincidence? I don’t think so!
<h2 style="text-align: left;">3. Get links to your site</h2>
The most challenging aspect of increasing traffic to your website is getting links from other websites back to your website, and ideally, websites that rank high in search engine results. Why does this matter? Having links to your website on other high ranking websites tells search engines “hey, this website must be important if it’s on all these other high ranking websites”. How might you do this?
<ul><li>Submit your sites to online directories, such as <a href="http://www.dmoz.org/">http://www.dmoz.org/</a>.</li>
<li>Participate in blogs, forums, and other online communities that relate to your business. By being an active member you can often include links back to your website.</li>
<li>Write articles for other websites. Ensure that you can point back to your website in the article.</li>
</ul><h2 style="text-align: left;">4. Take advantage of social media:</h2>
Take advantage of Facebook and Twitter. Get users "liking" your Facebook page and "following" you on Twitter! Having a social media plan is vital to making this step a success.
The more content you post on the internet and the more tools you use to publish that content, the more likley you are going to be found when people go looking .
For a great example of how these tips can help your business get found, do a quick Google search for our company, Webbuilders Group. You will see not only our main website, but our listings in online directories and many of our social media publications, including Blog postings, our Facebook page, our Twitter page and our LinkedIn page.
<img class="left" src="http://webbuildersgroup.com/assets/_resampled/resizedimage489486-screen-capture-of-google-search-b-small.jpg" width="489" height="486" alt="" title=""/>
Want a blog for your website? Need help choosing the right keywords for your website? Contact us today to start getting better results from the internet. Wed, 07 Sep 2011 17:03:01 -0400 http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/4-timeless-tips-to-get-more-traffic-to-your-website/ facebook Page Vs Group http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/facebook-page-vs-group/ facebook and other social media tools are an excellent way to promote your business online. When promoting your business on facebook, what is the better option: pages or groups?
<h2>facebook Pages:</h2>
facebook Pages were designed to give businesses, public figures and organizations the ability to create a “corporate” presence on facebook (as opposed to a personal facebook page). This presence gives the organization another vehicle to connect to it's clients and fans. Users can “like” your page (becoming a fan) giving them the ability to follow you - they automatically receive your posts (messages) when you publish them on your facebook page.
<h2>facebook Groups:</h2>
facebook Groups were designed with the intention that anybody can create a group page on almost any subject, be it a TV show, a hobby, or your product. Groups allow members to join rather than “like”. The subject of the group (TV show, hobby, your product) has no control over the existence of, or content on the group page. One of the primary features of a facebook group is that Group administrators can send out messages to all group members making it easier to keep the members informed and up to date on important info.
 
facebook pages offer some key advantages over groups that make them ideal for promoting your business.
<h2>Advantages</h2>
<ul><li>Publically Viewable – facebook pages can be viewed by anybody on the internet, including user’s without a facebook account meaning you’re page can reach a wide audience. Group pages are only viewable by facebook subscribers.</li>
<li>Better URL – After receiving 25 ‘likes’ on your page, you are allowed to customize the URL. What exactly does this mean? Looking at our very own facebook page:
<ul><li>Our facebook Page url used to look like this: https://www.facebook.com/pages/webbuilders/1811675286149180</li>
<li>After 25 likes, we were able to change it to: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/webbuilders.group">https://www.facebook.com/webbuilders.group</a></li>
</ul></li>
</ul>facebook Groups don’t get this benefit. A typical group URL looks like: https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_5555555555
<ul><li>Better SEO. Having the name Webbuilders Group in the URL helps make our facebook page appear in search engine results.</li>
<li>Tracking – facebook pages provide insights into the number of likes your page has received and impressions (views) your posts have had.</li>
<li>Application – Applications can be used to personalize your page. These can range from prebuilt applications like the youtube app that lets you put your youtube videos on your facebook page, or custom ones created just for your company.</li>
<li>Authentic – facebook Pages can only be created and used by official representatives of the respective company/public figure. This instills confidence in viewers that the page truly represents the company.</li>
</ul><h2>Conclusion</h2>
Social media tools such as facebook aren't for everyone. You have to be committed to managing them. But when used strategically these tools can be very powerful. If you are convinced facebook can be a valuable tool for you, consider using a corporate facebook page instead of a group.
Check back soon for a guide on customizing your facebook page. Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:00:00 -0400 http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/facebook-page-vs-group/ Is Your Online Reputation Building Trust? http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/is-your-online-reputation-building-trust/ The following article recently appeared in a local publication "Business First". Both the publisher and the article's author, Dr. Monica Diochon have generously allowed us to share it with you. It has some very important messages about the power of online consumer generated content. Dr. Diochon is the Chair, Department of Business Administration, Gerald Schwartz School of Business at St. Francis Xavier University.
<h3>Is your online reputation building trust?</h3>
Monica Diochin, Ph. D.
Have you noticed an unexpected decline or rise in your sales and wondered why? As more and more consumers are looking to buy goods and services from a business they trust, they are increasingly relying on the business’s online reputation when making purchase decisions. How important is an online reputation? In a survey conducted by Opinion Research Corp., 84% of respondents said that online reviews influenced their purchase decisions, while Nielsen Co. reported that online reviews are considered second only to personal recommendations as the most trusted form of advertising.
Irrespective of whether a business is online, large or small, it needs to pay attention to “consumer-generated media” - a term coined by Peter Blackshaw. As a recent Northern Colorado Business Report article states: “To succeed in a world where consumers now control the conversation and where satisfied customers tell three friends while angry customers tell 3,000, companies absolutely must achieve credibility on every front.”
<img class="right" src="http://webbuildersgroup.com/assets/_resampled/resizedimage272176-onlinerep2.png" width="272" height="176" alt="" title=""/>Consumers have no shortage of options when it comes to communicating with those three to 3,000 people via the internet. Some make short videos for YouTube that share poor service or faulty product experiences, some keep it short (and sometimes sweet) on Twitter, some write blogs, while others post reviews (some good, some bad) on social media or community sites. For example, community sites like TripAdvisor that post reviews of previous users are increasingly being relied upon when choosing accommodation. Not only do consumers benefit from such online word of mouth, they also consider the information from users to be far more trustworthy than that provided by the business.
As the number of business review sites grow, the sites have been increasing their credibility by reviewing the people doing the rating as well as the business. For instance, with Yelp’s model, a rating is provided for the business and the consumer decides whether (s)he trusts that rating based on the reputation of the people providing the reviews, with the best reviewers belonging to the “Yelp Elite”.
So how can you begin to manage your online reputation? One way is to focus on measuring, analyzing and interpreting consumer-generated media. The information posted on relevant community sites can provide you with valuable information regarding a range of issues, such as how consumers perceive product or service quality. Start by finding out what is being said about your business, using popular search engines such as Google or Bing. By doing so on a regular basis, you will then be in a position to respond to the online chatter whether it is positive or negative (ie. complaints or misinformation). If you have a need to respond to negative reviews, be sure to do so with facts and evidence, if you want to have a chance to regain old customers and attract new ones.
If you’d rather outsource the management of your online reputation, that is now possible through companies such as Dun &amp; Bradstreet’s (D&amp;B) spinoff, Credibility Corp. With D&amp;B's largest competitors being Google, Facebook, and Twitter, they have a vested interest in moving beyond credit ratings. For a fee ranging from $300 to $900 a year Credibility Corp. will collect comments and reviews from sites such as Twitter, the Better Business Bureau, Yelp, and Citysearch in developing a more complete and trustworthy profile of your business.
Whether you outsource the management of your online reputation or take on the challenge yourself, one thing is certain – online reputations cannot be ignored. Tue, 14 Jun 2011 09:19:48 -0400 http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/is-your-online-reputation-building-trust/ 7 things to consider when using photography on your website http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/7-things-to-consider-when-using-photography-on-your-website/ <h3>Using photography on your website can have a good (or bad) impact, depending on how you use it. Here are 7 things to keep in mind: </h3>
1. Be mindful of stock! Stock photography (published images you buy a license to use) has been a huge ally for website owners. Stock is a cost-effective solution for small businesses who can’t afford a professional photo shoot. It gives you professional quality, well produced images that if you choose wisely, can fit perfectly with your web branding. However stock photography can have drawbacks. Stock photos often feature attractive models and expensive looking (at times surreal) scenes: these images may give your customers a sense you are much bigger (and more costly) than you really are. If this is what you are going for, great! If you are a small to medium businesses competing on price or cost efficiency, this may not be so good. Stock photos can also result in a loss in authenticity - overuse of stock photography can become obvious and impair the trust you are trying to build with your web visitor (they may think you're pretending to be something you're not). It's all about finding the right balance. People are more aware than ever of what 'feels real' and genuine.
 
 2. Size matters. Two considerations of the word 'size' here; the first is that of technical file size (megabytes). It's important to note that photographs kept at high-quality can be very large (in disk space) and potentially take longer to download when someone clicks on your web page. This kind of experience can frustrate your website visitor. The other size consideration is the actual dimensions of the picture. If the photograph is part of your design or page-layout, you need to find the right balance between images and text. A Home page is valuable real estate. You need to make the visitor feel welcomed and excited about being on the page (through imagery). But you also want to make it as easy as possible for them to find the information they are looking for.
Both of these size considerations are even more relevant in the world of mobile browsing. More and more users are browsing the web on mobile devices such as smart phones. If you're serving a massive photograph, the user may give up waiting for your website to load and start searching elsewhere. Ideally your website should serve a mobile version (lighter on the images) for those visitors, speeding up their download time and increasing the site’s readability. New and powerful Content Management Systems (like SilverStripe) can automate a lot of this process.
 
3. Don't sacrifice quality. Stock photography or not, you shouldn't compromise on the quality of the image if you're going to place it on your website. Stretching a really small image to fit in a larger box or cutting out part of a photo to make it fit, unless managed really well, is a bad idea. It makes the photo look distorted and unprofessional, and may lose its intended impact entirely (and hurt the design around it). Professional photographers work at great lengths to create meaningful and impactful composition (the arrangement of objects and scene in a picture in a pleasing way). This careful work can be lost without properly preserving the photographs when adding them to your website.
 
4. Ask for permission. A bit of a no-brainer here but simply put, make sure you have a record of approval when using photography on your site (this might be an email consent from the photographer, or a receipt/invoice from the place you purchased the stock image). Don't think just because you downloaded an image you found on the internet, you have the rights or license to use it! Most websites that indicate it is alright to download their images will also declare their licensing terms.
 
5. Cycle your images. If the images used on your site (as part of the design or layout) are not replaced/renewed regularly, they become stagnant and dated. Fresh images are critical for websites that expect return visitors.
 
6. Use captions when appropriate. This is especially true if you are using the image for context (and not just design or layout), for example to support a blog or article. Captions create a connection between what the user is reading and what they are seeing. Moreover, if the photography you're using is original (not stock) using a caption near or on the photograph can greatly improve the sense of authenticity, and help reinforce trust with your visitors.
 
 7. Use 'Alt' and 'Title' tags. Tags improve both accessibility (for example, visitors who are visually impaired will have a much better chance of understanding what the page they are viewing is about) as well as in search-ability (how well search engines understand your page and the picture, and serve it in results). Although 'Alt' and 'Title' tags have been around almost as long as the internet itself, they were historically difficult for non-technical site administrators to manage. With the advent of user-friendly Content Management Systems this is no longer an issue.
 
Questions? If you would like to know more about this or any other topic, please let us know. We love talking about the web! Wed, 18 May 2011 10:50:27 -0400 http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/7-things-to-consider-when-using-photography-on-your-website/ We're now "Award Winning" Webbuilders Group http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/we-re-now-award-winning-webbuilders-group/ Webbuilders Group is very proud to announce we have been recognized internationally with an award for “Best Social CMS Application” developed using the SilverStripe content management system (CMS). The award was announced May 5th at the 2011 CMS Learning and Business Expo in Chicago.
SilverStripe is an open source content management system based in New Zealand and is in use around the world. Webbuilders’ award was in recognition of a suite of community development tools created under our brand <a href="http://webbuildersgroup.com/solutions/productivity-tools/swiftcommunity-engagement-tools/">SwiftCommunity</a>. The suite includes searchable community asset maps, community event calendars and community job boards. Webbuilders was competing against website developers from around the world. Awards in other categories were given to companies from Europe, the UK, USA, Canada and New Zealand.
The <a href="http://www.cmsexpo.net/">2011 CMS Expo </a>is recognized as the place to learn CMS best practices from the top thought leaders in technology and business. The Expo featured over sixty distinguished speakers from around the globe.
Webbuilders Group has been a leader in technology applications since 1994; particularly ones that revolve around the Internet and online marketing. Webbuilders has gained international attention for its close to 1000 online applications. We regularly do work in centers such as Toronto, Vancouver, New York, Boston, and Los Angeles. Fri, 06 May 2011 13:00:57 -0400 http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/we-re-now-award-winning-webbuilders-group/ Landing Pages - Part 2 http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/landing-pages-part-2/ This is part two of my blog post on landing pages. Check out part one <a href="http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/landing-pages-what-are-they/">here</a>.
In part one I explained what a landing page is. I touched on the process of researching “keywords” to help you choose what to say on your landing page, to improve your search engine results and to determine proper Google ad placements. In part two I now talk about the creation of the landing page content.
When I created the landing pages for our <a href="http://webbuildersgroup.com/solutions/productivity-tools/swiftcommunity-engagement-tools/" target="_blank">SwiftCommunity</a> products my goal was to make sure we gave web visitors exactly the information they were searching for - clearly and concisely. I had to avoid making them sift through large bodies of text that was not directly relevant to what they were looking for. They'd just get frustrated and leave the site. I also wanted to highlight the main benefits of our products compared to the competition. I decided the best way to accomplish this was with visuals.
In the case of our SwiftCalendar product, I needed to demonstrate its unique feature of sharing and syndicating events through multiple calendars. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a 1000 words. I decided that with relatively simple graphics we could communicate the syndication feature.
<img class="center" src="http://webbuildersgroup.com/assets/Blog/landingpage-part-2.jpg" width="328" height="226" alt="" title=""/>
(One of the graphics used on our SwiftCalendar Landing page)
I also created a simple list highlighting the main features of SwiftCalendar. This is an easy and informative way to showcase features to users.
<img class="center" src="http://webbuildersgroup.com/assets/Blog/landingpage-part-2-list.jpg" width="488" height="90" alt="" title=""/>
(Simple, clean design for the features list)
With this creative direction in mind, I set out building the landing pages. I created a separate micro website for each of the three products (a landing page, a demo page and a contact page), using slideshow galleries and features lists. I used my keyword research from part 1 and search engine optimized each landing page.
Our micro sites are now live. Using Google Analytics we will track visitors to see if the landing pages are accomplishing what we created them for. Users should find our landing pages based on the keywords we used and our focus on a single topic, They should be motivated to take action because we gave them the exactly the information they searched for and only that information. And we made it easy for them to follow up - our contact page and contact form. Success. We generated a new lead!
Consider whether your business, service or product can benefit from a strategically developed landing page. Tue, 22 Feb 2011 16:55:44 -0400 http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/landing-pages-part-2/ Landing Pages - What are they? http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/landing-pages-what-are-they/ Landing pages; you may or may not be familiar with them. Landing pages or “lead capture pages” are web pages specifically built around keywords and a single theme or message. When created properly, they are the first page a user sees after clicking on a Google search result or a web advertisement for a particular search term. Landing pages are designed with a clear and concise message that will help with:
A) Generating prospects and helping turn those prospects into leads.
B) Encouraging a transaction such as the sale of an item or service.
Landing pages are very beneficial to companies looking to sell products or services on the internet. We use landing pages as a tool to help sell our services and to gain new leads.
Consider this example. Our company offers three community based web software packages under our brand <a href="http://webbuildersgroup.com/solutions/productivity-tools/swiftcommunity-engagement-tools/" target="_blank">SwiftCommunity</a>. We initially had a single web page presenting a small amount of information on each product. This was a poor decision for two reasons:
<ul><li>Poor Search Engine Optimization(SEO) value - too many ideas were presented on this one page. If a prospect was searching for one particular SwiftCommunity tool, they had to find their way through all the other "noise" on the page. So did Google's search engines.</li>
<li>Poor presentation of the features and benefits for each product. The original web page, due to space concerns, could not provide a complete and clear message of what each product was or the benfits each could provide our customer. </li>
</ul>To fix this problem, I was tasked with developing and designing landing pages for each of the three SwiftCommunity products, <a href="http://businessdirectory-software.com/">SwiftDirectory</a>, <a href="http://communityevent-calendar.com/">SwiftCalendar </a>and <a href="http://www.jobboard-software.ca/">SwiftCareers</a>. Each landing page was built around keywords appropriate to that particular product, in hopes of generating not just more web traffic but more relevent web traffic - traffic that we hope will lead to sales. Just click on any of these product names to see the results.
How can we successfully generate potential leads if we make it too hard for prospects to find our products? How will prospects know if our tools are right for them if they can't understand the benefits our software offers? Users who landed on our old web page would be quick to leave, to find an alternative software package that talks directly to their needs.
As we found out ourselves, the answer is through properly designed landing pages for each product or service. Remember, we want to generate relevant traffic, not just more traffic. We can help accomplish this by including keywords on each landing page or through proper advertisement placement in Google search results What steps did we take to discover the proper keywords?
Using Google’s AdWords keyword tool I entered a word or phrase that I thought people were using to search for products like ours. The keyword tool then displays relevant keywords and phrases similar to the one I used. Information on the average pay per click competition, global monthly searches and local monthly searches was all available. The keyword tool can be very powerful if used correctly.
<img class="left" src="http://webbuildersgroup.com/assets/Blog/_resampled/resizedimage488315-KeyWorldTool.jpg" width="488" height="315" alt="" title=""/>
The Google AdWords Keyword Tool
As you can see from the screenshot, “web calendar” returns 74,000 Global Monthly Searches (GMS), “web calendar software” returns 1,900 GMS, and “free web calendar” returns 5,400 GMS. Our calendar software is not for free, so using keywords to position it as a free web calendar would not only be be pointless but frustrate any web visitor who went to our site based on that term. Our best results are web calendar and web calendar software. Note that web calendar returns a much higher GMS over web calendar software, and web calendar software has a much higher competition rate (more people are buying Google ads targted to this phrase). This is a good starting point for our strategic analysis; from here more time will go into researching other relevant keywords. Eventually we can make decisions on which words to focus on.
This is Part One of a two part blog post. In Part Two I will talk about the thought process of designing content for the landing pages, so that after our relevent traffic lands on the page, we provide a clear message that describes our software, keeps the user on the page and generates a new lead or sale. Thu, 20 Jan 2011 16:36:57 -0400 http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/landing-pages-what-are-they/ You're only as good as your last bowl of soup http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/you-re-only-as-good-as-your-last-bowl-of-soup/ <h3>3 simple rules to follow when improving The Customer Experience.</h3>
 Call it superficial, but even though a customer may have been a lifetime patron to your business, they will remember their last interaction with you more than any other. In today's diverse market, a customer encountering a bad experience might mean it's the last time you see them.
<img class="left" src="http://webbuildersgroup.com/assets/Drawings/bowl-of-soup.png" width="243" height="204" alt="" title=""/>One restaurant I visited for over 10 years handed me a take-out-order recently with food smeared all over the box. On any other day, this mistake might not have triggered anything in me - but perhaps coupled with some frustrated exchange of words between two employees coming from the kitchen, it completely changed my perspective on who this company was.
In an instant I lost my trust that the food was safe to eat, that the muck on the side of the box was a prelude of some other more disgusting unprofessionalism.....were they even washing their hands? What about following proper food-safety guidelines? All of a sudden I was asking questions I shouldn't even remotely be thinking as a customer - these things are a given and are expected from any food establishment. I should have been pondering which soup sounded the tastiest, not which was least likely to kill me. After 10 years of continued service, my entire vision of that restaurant was turning negative - all from one single bad experience. Their brand just broke.
So what does this mean? As a business, we can't screw up - ever? Maybe ... but probably what's more realistic is that when we do screw up, we do something about it. Quickly. The challenge is, in most cases we don't get the opportunity, or have the resources to ask every single customer if they had as good an experience as we think they did.
This is where a bit of analysis and creative thinking comes in. You really have to step back and look at your current business, at what scale you operate, and see how you can integrate some customer feedback. For example, as a 'Ma and Pa' restaurant, it could be as simple as including a 'feedback box' near the door that lets consumers anonymously leave their comments. But there is more to it than that! You should randomly remind visitors this box exists, make it clearly marked for those who weren't informed, and perhaps most important and obvious - read them! Use this critical information to improve your processes, and ultimately - the customer experience.
In case you're wondering, the soup place had no opportunity for feedback at all - and as a customer, it's not my responsibility to go out of my way to let them know. As I said, in today's diverse market I can easily find another soup place. It's not worth the stress or energy to incur personal embarrassment to publicly point out their mistakes. Had they invited me to do so, in a tactful way, I probably could have given them very productive information. As a business, should you be so lucky to get proactive feedback from your customers, do whatever you can to express empathy. Fix the problem, and follow-up with your customer. For us, as a web development company, we often provide a solution to the feedback issue directly on a company's website. This might mean including a feedback button [<a href="http://knivesdirect.com" target="_blank">example</a>], a survey or a poll. <a href="http://webbuildersgroup.com/solutions/online-marketing/">Social online networking</a> is another great way to generate feedback or monitor customer experience. I'm not suggesting that adding a feedback button on your website will completely solve the challenge of customer satisfaction, or that any standalone tactic will work for you. But as a general guide, consider the following 3 tactics to improve their customer-feedback process:
<ol><li>Provide never-ending, clear and obvious ways for your customers to leave feedback and comments. Encourage them regularly to provide their feedback: be it while on-site, via phone or email, or through your social media tools. In some cases, you may even need to provide an incentive or sweepstakes to increase the likelihood of receiving this valuable information;</li>
<li>Have a routine process for checking and reviewing feedback from these sources. Identify which comments and feedback merit an improvement or change in how you do business. Implement these changes.</li>
<li>Inform your customers that these changes/improvements have been made, and in some cases single out and show appreciation to those who took the time to share their feedback.</li>
</ol>We'd love to chat about how we can implement some of these models on your website. If you have any questions or feedback about this post please don't hesitate to share (wink, wink) using the 'Post your comment' button below.
How do you manage feedback at your business? When is the last time you randomly asked a customer about the quality of your product/service? Did you have a system to follow-up? Wed, 05 Jan 2011 12:00:00 -0400 http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/you-re-only-as-good-as-your-last-bowl-of-soup/ Ask The Experts http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/ask-the-experts/ Just a quick post today, wanted to inform and remind everyone of our new Ask the Experts section - where you can ask anything related to web, design, marketing, business, and so on - and we'll do our best to respond.
We want to encourage everyone to not be timid - we have a few questions trickingling in already, and we're really looking forward to getting stumped :)
So head on over to our <a href="http://webbuildersgroup.com/solutions/ask-the-experts/" target="_blank">Ask the Experts</a> section and post your question now! Thu, 23 Dec 2010 10:52:07 -0400 http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/ask-the-experts/ What is a CMS (content management system)? http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/what-is-a-cms-content-management-system/ Hi everybody; this is my first blog post on the new Webbuilders Group site, and what better way to start then talking about the underlying technology known as a Content Management System (CMS) that powers our website and why using a CMS on your website can have benefits and save you money.
<img class="left" src="http://webbuildersgroup.com/assets/Drawings/snake-charm.jpg" width="179" height="231" alt="" title=""/>So what is a Content Management System?
A CMS is a framework or system designed to simplify the adding, removal, and editing of web content. That’s a pretty general definition, but this blog post is more geared towards the less tech savvy. There are many different CMS’s available, some popular ones being WordPress, Joomla!, Drupal, and our personal favorite <a title="SilverStripe CMS" href="http://silverstripe.org" target="_blank">SilverStripe</a>.
How can a CMS benefit you?
Having your website built in a CMS gives you the ability to carry out edits and updates yourself. It puts the power of your website directly in your hands! Creating a web presence is important to all businesses, but making sure it doesn’t become stale is equally, if not more important. By having your website built in a CMS you can update your website’s content at almost no cost other than your time. Regular updates create a ‘fresh’ image for your customers, but also plays an important role in improving your search engine value. Keeping your content current also shows you care about what you are doing and are active and passionate about your industry, and your business.
Why do we use SilverStripe (our CMS of choice)? 1. It’s a powerful and robust framework for our developers. 2. Once the site is launched it’s easy for non-technical content editors to use. 3. It’s open source, which means it has a large community of supporters.
What are some other benefits of using SilverStripe? 1. Control of MetaTags to help improve your search rankings on Google and other search engines.(Better search ranking = more visitors!) 2. Access your CMS from any computer that has an internet connection. Make changes to your website from work, home, or on the road. 3. Search engine friendly URLs (helps people find you!). 4. Simple and easy to use the image and file upload functions – Easily manage your images and files giving you more time to focus on the rest of your business.
Contact us today to learn what you could be doing to better promote your business on the web. We are Webbuilders, and we help companies achieve better results from the internet.
Best wishes for the Holidays. Ryan. Sat, 18 Dec 2010 11:13:00 -0400 http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/what-is-a-cms-content-management-system/ Webbuilders Blog Opens http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/webbuilders-blog-opens/ Greetings fellow bloggers, and visitors alike! We are pleased to introduce our new company blog. With it, we hope to enlighten you with interesting anecdotes across the industry: from web technology and design, to marketing and business development (and hopefully even make you laugh now and then).
<img class="left" src="http://webbuildersgroup.com/assets/loudmic.jpg" width="221" height="257" alt="" title=""/>We will also share some experiences we've had in this industry: some good, some bad. We hope these experiences might save you some grief (and maybe some money). And empower you with tools you didn't know you had.
We encourage your feedback. Just hit the "Post your comment" button below. And if there is a topic you'd like to hear our thoughts on, let us know that too. We'll do our best to give you something of value. Mon, 29 Nov 2010 15:13:00 -0400 http://webbuildersgroup.com/blog/webbuilders-blog-opens/