Web Design Firm: Links of the Week
We’re back again and fully loaded with some great web design and online marketing ammunition for you. Our web design firm would like to share our findings from this week, so lets jump in….
We’re back again and fully loaded with some great web design and online marketing ammunition for you. Our web design firm would like to share our findings from this week, so lets jump in….
Once again, we bring you the best articles from around the globe for you to read. So here are our web design company’s favorite blog posts and articles for this week:
It may have looked like our web design firm disappeared for little while with no recent blog posts; however, we are still here and running strong. During the last few weeks a lot on new business came in our doors, which made our free time a little bit scarce. But not to worry, we haven’t forgotten about our beloved readers who learn from our fun and informative blog posts.
Chicago web design companies, along with others from around the country, come each week to check out our famous “links of the week”. The web is full of great information and tips geared towards creating solid, functional web design content. We designate time in our busy schedules to bring you, the reader, relevant content aimed at improving web design and online marketing.
The river is green, the weather is warming up and everybody around town seems to look Irish; It must be St. Patrick’s Day in the windy city.
Our web design agency pays special attention to the page that can bring you the most business on your website– the contact page. Your contact form, whether you decide to put it on one page or every page, should be the most straightforward and simple part of your design. If people are averse to filling out your contact form, it has failed in its one and only purpose. It’s time to stop neglecting this small but necessary design component.
Smashing Magazine demonstrates the problem of long contact or sign up forms. Users are not going to waste their time filling out long forms or forms with fields that they are nervous about submitting info to. Limit your form to the necessary information and to fields that your customers won’t have an issue filling out. Oftentimes, users would rather give an email address than a phone number or would rather check a box than type an answer to a question.
Additionally, ask for information that is relevant and will help your customer service efforts. If a field that is usually included in the basic contact form is of no use to you, scrap it! At the same time, don’t be afraid to stray from the basics if you can get a small piece of information that will have a large impact on how you serve your customers.
Remember, as Smashing Magazine puts it so aptly, that “registration forms are barriers.” Contact forms are the same. Whether you are asking a use to sign up for something or simply to give you more information about themselves, keep it short. The less time a user has to invest, and the simpler the questions are, the more likely they will be to break that barrier. And one broken barrier may mean one new visitor converted to a customer for your company.
Once again, we have sifted through hundreds of web design related articles and have chosen only the best for you to read. So here are our web design company’s favorite blog posts and articles for this week:
The Tutrorial Blog highlights the tools for monitoring a website’s popularity.
Directly from one of our recent posts from this week; Copyblogger explains how to dominate your niche.
Like usual, Smashing Magazine comes through again with a great article on the 10 Steps To The Perfect Portfolio Website.
Writing can seem like a common area when it comes to web development, so Particletree.com stresses the importance of writing well to developers.
To close out this post, we wanted to add a humorous feature with Allgraphicdesign.com showcasing the worst Photoshop mistakes and disasters. (some are just too funny).
Have a great weekend.
In the world of social media, you’ll find many people who think more is better. More listings on more sites. More friends. More followers. But just like site content or backward links, more isn’t always the answer– a quality use of social media is better than a catch-all strategy.
Of course, social media is about visibility. It increases your web presence and your authority in your field. Which is exactly why, instead of friending or following every person you run across, focusing your efforts on the people that matter in your industry is the best way to build equity through social media marketing. Copyblogger points the same thing out– it’s not about being ranked the best or being the biggest social media entity. It’s about using Web 2.0 sites to associate and build your relationship with the consumers and companies that matter to you; it’s about dominating your niche.
We’ve mentioned before that the content you create isn’t just a reflection on your company or site– it is, in fact, your brand. Social media functions the same way. If your social media presence is poorly managed (or worse, if you create it and then let it go stagnant), it gives a bad impression of your company. If you use the social site inappropriately or miss the local etiquette, you can look out of touch. And if you go after every follower you can find, you appear abusive of the medium.
It follows that someone who understands social media should be managing your accounts. This can be an employee with an intuitive edge or an online marketing company you’ve hired to help you out. Either way, you should guard your branding in social media marketing the way you would in any other public sphere.
The Ocean Agency is more than just a web design company, we are an online business development firm - and now we have a brand new website that reflects all the solutions our agency offers. The new site features our full web design and branding portfolios as well as our SEO and online marketing case studies.
Check out our new website, browse around, and of course don’t forget to come back and visit our blog for more posts on web design, branding, marketing, and search engine optimization.
A recent piece on A List Apart reminded us that making the user experience simple and intuitive is quite possibly the most important aspect of business web design.
After all, the users are why the site exists in the first place, and if your website is too difficult to navigate or understand, they will likely just click away - and perhaps go to your competitor with the more usable website. Furthermore, one of the most important things your users will do is read your content, so it is essential that you showcase it to the best of your abilities.
“As a designer, the only way to ensure that the page makes for good reading is to read it yourself; to relinquish the design sensibility that is inclined to look at text and take the time to actually read it. It’s not an easy task, but then, neither is reading on the web, and making the effort may help you empathize with the reader’s plight. The web is still a noisy, crowded place—but it’s also limitless, and surely we can find space enough for reading—a space where the text speaks to the reader and the reader does not strain to hear.”
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.