Successful Web Design and Internet Marketing Strategies from Desiree Scales, CEO--Bella Web Design, Inc.

Two Great Websites Launched Today Plus a BONUS MUSIC VIDEO!

Today we launched two very different sites:

1. www.southernpatio.com--This is a redesigned site based on a design their in-house designer, Nicki Shroeder created. The company Southern Patio specializes in outdoor furniture and accessories.The site they had was hard to navigate and quite dysfunctional. We helped Nicki bring her designs to life and added a chat capability from www.meebo.com which allows her customer service team to immediately answer browsing visitors questions.

1. www.waitingforbetsy.com--Anyone who knows us knows that Daniel Nahmod is one of our favorite music artists hands down! When he hired us to help him with his new band "Waiting for Betsy" we were honored to take on the job of creating a fun and light web presence for him using one of our Simply Bella pre-designed sites. The song/video "Jessica Alba" is simply genius and fun. My kids couldn't stop giggling watching him perform and can't stop singing it today. Hope you enjoy it too!

Does Your Website Educate or Frustrate?

There are many types of sites out there: ecommerce, web brochure, informational, data. The ones that bring business to their owners are ultimately the sites that educate their audience.

So ask yourself, are you educating your audience? Five signs of a good educational website:

1. Articles that are updated weekly about recent developments in your industry and/or business


2. A list of links or resources which are updated regularly which help your customers understand your/their business


3. Link to your blog or some other pages which discuss new techniques, news, inventions or anything that can help your customers gain knowledge about your/their business


4. Informational whitepapers or essays of how you helped other customers and have good testimony of how you came up with solutions to common problems for your customers

If you're not doing any of these, start on at least one this month, then slowly move into the others. Customers can get frustrated with a lot of fluff. They don't have time for it.

Education is information which is currency in today's business market. Enpowering customers enpowers your business.

How to Write Good Web Content

This week I'd like to introduce another member of our team, our writer in residence--Sallie Boyles! Sallie has been assisting us with writing our client's web copy for 2 years. Clients love when she steps in to help. We hired her because we saw that most people froze up when asked to send us their copy for their site and caused some serious delays in the progress of their projects. Sallie has now cut the project times in half and has become a very important part of the Bella Web Design team. She is this week's guest blogger. Enjoy her article on "STOP-Wise Words for the Web."

STOP—Wise Words for the Web
By Sallie W. Boyles 

What happened to the days of “build a website and they will come”? It seems that era ended when “we don’t have a website” was no longer quaint. Today, your Web business must not only look highly professional, but it must also communicate effectively. If you want to attract prospects as well as convert them to clients, remember: Good looks will take you only so far. 

Rapidly changing technology, savvy Internet users, and stiff competition demand that our online verbal communications evolve as well. Therefore, as we race to keep pace, let’s consider the acronym STOP:

1. Search Engine Optimization: In order for your prospects to find you, your website better be a headliner among countless competitors. Using the right keywords and phrases in your content is a starting point.

  Does your language accurately define your reason for being?

2. Target the Market: You cannot be all things to all people. The longtime reminder is worth repeating when we see the world and want it all.

Can you effectively appeal to people in Toronto, Tennessee and Timbuktu?

3. One -Two Punch: Get to your point quickly in as few as words as possible.

  How hard are prospects willing to search for the punch line?

4. Point of Difference: Hook them by sharing your unique benefits. Your staff photographer speaks six languages. Your auto mechanic services race cars. 

What extra advantages will customers gain when they choose to do business with your company? 

Though not rocket science, effective Web writing is a skill. If you’re going to take your presence online, make every word count... 

When Its Appropriate to Add Your Picture to Your Site

I met with a good friend, Tricia Molloy, this week for lunch and we started talking about her website www.divinewisdomatwork.com. She told me that she had decided to take her picture off her site to put the emphasis less on her own self and more on the work that she does. She had a lot of people telling her that she should put her picture back on the site and I agreed.

If you are selling a service to people, its definitely a good idea to put your picture somewhere on the site. You should always consider putting it on the home page if you, yourself are the service and the brand of your company.

In Tricia's case, she is a motivational speaker. She is the "brand" so her image needed to go right on the home page to help personalize the site and get her "brand" out there immediately and into the viewer's mind.

I also had a gentleman call this week inquiring about a site who is a clinical psychologist. Again, he is the "brand" and he did not have his image on his site, but hidden on the About Us page. I told him one of the first things I would do with his design is add his image to the home page. He was a little taken aback, but when I explained why, he understood.

Putting your image on your site is not a bad thing and doesn't make you an egotistical entrepreneur. In the cold world of cyberspace, a human image helps to connect with the audience. I have my picture both on this blog and on the About Us page of my site www.bellawebdesign.com. People always comment about it when they call and I have a feeling it gives me a bit of an edge over competitors who do not portray themselves on their site. It makes them feel like they already know me just a little bit and they want to do business with me. It gains their trust.

So did Tricia follow my sage advice? Go to her site and take a look and you'll see! I look forward to seeing more of your faces out there very soon....

Dashboard Design: The Key to Giving your Viewers What they Want

When our web designer, Stephanie Corn, came on board with us, I didn't realize how much she would literally change the face of our websites. Her experience designing for a site that needed a homepage that helped users manage their experience was something she brought to the table and changed the way we design our sites overnight. You see, she used to work at WebMD and help manage their site.

WebMD's challenge was to help users get to the information they came for directly from the home page with the fewest clicks possible. (up to 3 maxiumum!) With thousands of pages, they needed to target their consumer's needs very quickly right on the home page. They do a very good job of that. Take a look:

The design is compartmentalized. If I have a question about my cough or strength training, I can find it on the left side of the page. These are sections viewers can clearly see which will take them directly to the information they need. Viewers can also see all the services and programs the company offers right on the home page. They don't have to delve into a lot of pages to get the information they seek. This reminds me of a dashboard on an airplane, all the tools are in your face and give you the information you want instantly. (Welcome to "dashboard design!" I knew my 7 years of experience in the airline industry would come in handy someday....heh, heh, heh!)

Keep in mind this not only works for very large sites, it works just fine for smaller sites. Take a look at one of our clients, Beloin, Brown, Blum & Baer:

The viewer can see what types of law they practice right on the home page and can also get to all the attorney's profiles. A contact area is also included and should be on the front page of EVERY site! (Contacting you is what its all about--right?)

So, now go take a look at your own site. Are you giving the viewers a direct link to what they want most? Are you advertising your products/services right on the home page? Is there a way for people to get to your contact form or contact you by email? If its not, then its probably time for a redesign and a dashboard to help your business "take-off!"

   

Dynamic vs. Static Pages

I had a great question today from a potential client. David asked, "What is the difference between static and dynamic pages?" That was a perfect question to follow my last post about why Google doesn't always like to crawl dynamic pages.

Static pages are created in HTML by a web developer/designer. According to Wikipedia: "A static Web page is a Web page that always comprises the same information in response to all download requests from all users." It doesn't change.

Dynamic pages, however, are interactive pages. Wikipedia states: "Content (text, images, form fields, etc.) on a web page can change, in response to different contexts or conditions. There are two ways to create this kind of interactivity" In other words, the viewer gets what they need from these pages. Ask and you shall receive, but its not created until you ask for it. In other words, these pages don't really exist. They are built from a database or with Flash or XML or so many other languages.

A good rule of thumb is to use static pages and dynamic pages together in your site. Static pages should be your core pages like your home page, about us, a page about your services, etc. Dynamic pages are for your shopping cart, an interactive calendar, a location lookup, etc.

Here are a couple links to Wikipedia to help explain this concept a little better:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_Web_page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_web_page

 

Thanks for asking that great question David! Keep those questions coming...

Greed and Growth: How Web Design Clients are Becoming Victims of an Alarming Trend

It happened again today. I heard yet another tale of how someone was dropped by their web design company.

This post was inspired by a gentleman who called me today and told me the tale of how his web design company has completely left him in the dark. They designed a mediocre website for him. Then they promised it would start coming up in the search engines. Its been almost a year and he's spent over $11,000. He's received nothing from his site and he's not anywhere on the front page of Google. The company won't even update his site anymore or call him back. He is having a hard time trusting anyone in the web design business. I don't blame him. Now he has to spend even more money for a new site and a brand new search engine submission program. He wants to do it right this time, but he's afraid of making another mistake.

I get about 3 or 4 of these stories every month. I don't know if there's just too much business out there or what, but this is not good for the web design industry. Web firms are growing so quickly they can't keep up with demand. They are eager to get the client, but then don't give good customer service once the site is done. Unfortunately, the client becomes the victim of the web design company's greed and growth.

At Bella Web Design, we've always believed in controlled growth. We could have been the largest web firm in Atlanta, but we decided from the start we would only take on 3 to 4 clients per month and we've kept that promise to ourselves and our clients. This promise is the reason we know every client's name, their kids names, where they like to go on vacation and all sorts of great stuff about them and their company. That is the very reason a lot of these "sad stories" come to us for help. Once they call us, they know they are going to get personal service from the owners of the company and not get brushed off once the site is completed.

Most of our clients have been with us over 4 years. In Internet-time, that's a great record. Our customer retention rate is very high because we continue to give good service and take a personal interest in our client's success. We pride ourselves on that! That is why we're the highest rated web design company on Kudzu.com. (Read our reviews!)

The thing that really makes me sad is the fact that these poor people think they are the only ones this is happening to and they blame themselves. Hey, we all make bad business decisions. Just move on and find someone else to help you sort things out. Its only a web site and it can be fixed, changed, redone, etc.

Better yet, make a good informed decision and ask the right questions the first time around when searching for a web designer. Do your homework. Call people on their portfolio and ask questions. For more on what to look for and what to watch out for, take a look at this previous post I wrote in October:

Bad Web Designers and How to Avoid Them

We Finally Took Our Own Web Design Advice: A Web Site Redesign Story Part 2

So you know that we redesigned our site and launched it last week. So what did we do different this time and why? Here are some key points:

• New Dashboard Design for the Homepage: We decided to use a "Dashboard Design" for our homepage because it was easier to navigate for people with different interests. I've had only one person comment that the page was a little too busy, but most people like it. Visitors can find the topic they are interested in and go right to it instead of clicking around to find what they want. We also had more content to feature such as News, the Bella Blog and our Guaranteed Search Engine Optimization Program.


• Brighter Colors: Our original colors were navy and a peach/pink color which I could never get right on a computer. I have no idea why I chose those colors 9 years ago, but they looked good to me at the time and presented a corporate yet feminine feel. Stephanie decided to punch things up a bit and added some orange, but kept the navy since it was part of our corporate brand and still works. She did not go anywhere near the peach/pink and I'm glad. I think the new site stands out a bit better from our competitors and the orange highlights the most important elements on the screen. It grabs the users attention.


• New Content: We have a lot more going on than we did 5 years ago when we did the 2nd Bella Web Design site. (Here's a look back at 2003--don't gag! ) We have a new blog, a news section (because we're actually making news now instead of completely playing around), even a newsletter. We've grown up and have a lot more to say (whether you like it or not..heh..heh)


• A Cool New Flash Portfolio: The challenge for Jeff was to show a lot of sites in a flash module that didn't take a long time to download as our old one did. He accomplished this by using a module that also uses XML to create and upload pictures very quickly. The result is "pretty cool" as one caller stated on Friday last week.

The final result is a clean, sharp site which provides timely information to our visitors and presents a better Bella brand. We've been getting a lot of great reviews from customers as well:

"What a treat to wake up with a new woman this morning when opening your email, the site could not look any better, so bright, I love it." Paul Gorney, Owner--Blue Roof Denim

"Very nice. You are so hip."--Dudley Wells, Computer Guy Extraordinaire

Gotta love it!

Please feel free to post any comments or questions YOU may have about the new site. We'd love to hear from you!

Web 2.0 and What it Means to CEOs and Entreprenuers

Want to know more about Web 2.0? Seems like the hot topic around the web. I found a great video about it which explains a little more from the perspective of CEOs and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. Take a look:

We Finally Took Our Own Web Design Advice: A Web Site Redesign Story

PART I:

I would like to announce that I'm the proud mother of a new web site at www.bellawebdesign.com! In many ways, its like designing a new couture gown and then going to the party hoping everyone will notice. Well, a lot of people have noticed! Some cool reactions:

1. A fellow Atlanta web design firm called to congratulate us on the new site: Jason Swenk at Solar Velocity! (Bet you all didn't know that Jason tried to get a job over here at Bella about a year before he started his company. I'm glad I didn't hire him because he's much more successful than I am now and a wonderful competitor to boot! He keeps me on my toes but is one of the nicest guys around.) Thanks Jason! You're a classy guy!


2. Our leads have doubled since we launched the site less than 48 hours ago. Amazing! I guess everyone likes the new dress...they like us, they really, really like us! I think its the new energy I personally have from the new look/feel. Lots of positive vibes going on. It makes a difference folks--trust me--I know THE SECRET!


3. Lots of compliments from current clients who, amazingly enough, haven't been confused when visiting the new site and knew we had it in us all along. I want to raise a glass to those who hired us in spite of our shabby appearance. (I'M TOTALLY KIDDING HERE! We actually received a lot of compliments on the old site, it was just past its prime.) Thank you and keep the compliments (and referrals) coming!

So why did we decide to finally redo the site and what have we done differently this time? Ahhh, but that's the fodder to ponder for the next post. You'll have to come back and see! (You won't have to wait long, I promise!)