Tag Archives: Web Design

Social Media Marketing Linking Strategy

Are you using the social media sites correctly to send traffic to your website?

Are you linking to your Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and Youtube or other social media accounts from your website?

With more than 400 million active users on Facebook, 30  million accounts on Twitter, 100 million U.S. viewers on YouTube, 50 million users on LinkedIn, and 200 million blogs, I’ll assume that you are actively participating on some level with at least a few social media sites.

Beyond using this medium to connect with new groups of people in unique ways, you should be making sure they want to learn more about you and what you have to offer so that they’ll either Google your name or just follow a link-back from the social media sites to your website.

Keep the Graphic Designer and Web Programmers in Check.

Secret # 7. Your web designer shouldn’t be in control of the marketing process

It doesn’t matter what you’re selling or what industry you’re in…if you selling online or offline you can only stay in business if you’re making a profit. That profit comes from either increasing sales or reducing your expenses…

This blog is about both, because when you make your marketing materials more effective — you’ll increase your bottom line.

It’s a fact: People won’t use your website if they can’t find their way around it.

Yesterday’s Web looked far different from today’s Web, and tomorrow’s Web will look more different still. Amidst all of this change, however, one aspect of Web use remains the same: The sites that offer the best, easiest, most intuitive experience are the ones people visit again and again.

To ensure that your sites provide the best user experience, you and your web developer need the essential guide from Steve Krug “Don’t Make Me Think; A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability” (2nd Edition)  that distills his years of on-the-job experience into a practical primer on the do’s and don’ts of good Web design. His book is a quick read and while there are a couple of points I don’t agree with for SEO reasons, I agree with his basic concepts outlined below.

The number-one usability rule, most often expressed by users…  

1. Don’t Make Me Think. Basically your website visitor doesn’t want to venture into a site that requires them to figure it out. It should be self-explanatory. Web pages should be obvious and self-explanatory. Buttons should have short text and look ‘clickable.’ The default search for your site should be simple.

2. Design for scanning not reading. By observing users Krug found that people glance, scan some text, and click on the first reasonable option. People scan Web pages, they don’t read them. We don’t make optimal choices, we click on impulse.
 

** In our copywriting courses (Ford Saeks), I express that there are two main types of people reading your copy (text in print or online) and those are “scanners” and “readers.”  You should write your copy for both types of readers. Give enough headlines, subheads, and bullets along with limited use of bold and color to help the scanner get the gist of the main benefits or message, and then enough information for the reader to get the necessary details. Formatting is just as important as the copy. **

Okay, back to Steve Krug’s Book points…

Prevent Web Design Disasters 

Way too often people focus on the actual “design” steps of web design — the look and feel, colors and so on — and completely miss the mark when it comes to creating an effective design that evokes the proper actions.

Here are a couple of key points to keep in mind the next time you’re planning to create or re-make a website.