One of the most common questions we get from new clients, especially startups is why is it necessary to follow a lengthy, drawn out process when all that is needed is a basic Website. This is a reasonable question considering all the options for building a Website that are available. The short answer to this question is that when you hire a Web design company or even a freelancer to build a professional level site, you are hiring them for more than their ability to create a Website. You are hiring them for their time and expertise. Lots of people can build a Website, but it takes professionals that you can build a relationship with and know that they will be like a partner with an interest in helping your business or organization grow and become more successful. (more…)
Browser Compatibility and Web Standards
A common question we get at NetSoft Design is why a Website doesn’t look correct in one Web browser, while it looks fine in another or some variation of that question. This is a difficult question to answer because there are many reasons working together that make a site compatible or not compatible. In this post, we will attempt to explain some of these compatibility issues. (more…)
What Content Management System Should Your Business Use?
Your business or organization has read our pervious post and done a lot of research, reaching the conclusion that a Content Management System is right for your Website needs. There are so many options to choose from though and you don’t know where to start. This post focuses on providing an overview of some of the most popular Content Management Systems available as open source. (more…)
Does your Business Need a Content Management System?
Does your business or organization need to make frequent updates to the content of its Website? This could be anything from updating text and images to updating products or prices in your shopping cart. Perhaps your business is using a blog on its Website. Whatever it is, a significant amount of money is being spent to pay a Web designer to make these updates. In many cases, paying a Web designer to make these updates can be the most cost-effective solution if the updates are basic, not needed too often, and you don’t have anyone on staff with enough Web design skills to make these basic updates for you, or you could make more money by spending your time on other tasks. On the other hand, if your updates require more than the basics and they are needed frequently, there is a solution to this without having to pay a Web designer for every update you need to make. The solution is called a Content Management System or CMS for short. (more…)
Advantages of Blogging
Many businesses these days have a blog that is part of their Website, but for those businesses that haven’t yet taken the plunge into running their own blog, it may not be apparent what benefits they might gain from having a blog. (more…)
What Type of Site Do I Need?
Anyone who has seriously looked into having a Website created for their business or organization has probably figured out that there seems to be almost an endless number of ways to create Websites. This can be very confusing to the typical business owner who just knows they need to get a site up and running. This post will look at these different ways to build sites and the pros and cons of each. Which one is best for your business or organization depends on a lot of factors. (more…)
Making a Good First Impression
When building a Website, like many other aspects of life, making a good first impression is very important. As discussed in previous blog posts, a great Website that keeps visitors engaged and returning for more starts with great content that is targeted at the specific types of visitors you hope to attract to your site.
Once you get visitors to your site, you have to hold their attention and be sure the presentation of the content appeals to your targeted visitors. Consider the example of two different online clothing retailers. Both have a lot of things in common, but their target markets are very different. One focuses on selling women’s professional attire … the types of clothing women would wear in a professional level corporate job. The other focuses on selling women and girls clothing to the teenage and young adult markets. (more…)
Web Content Planning 101
An important first step in the planning of any Website is developing great content as noted in previous articles. Content is what will make or break its success. Just like those days when you were in school and had to write a paper for a class, its all about defining who the reader is and targeting the content to appeal to those readers.
The whole point of a Website is to get your visitors to take some action. The specific action that you will want them to take will depend on what the goals are for your business or organization. You may want to encourage them to learn more about a product or service you offer, you may want to encourage them to visit an actual store location, you may want to get them to make an immediate purchase right on the Website, or you may simply want to encourage them to take a certain viewpoint (such as for a church or political organization). Whatever it is you want your Website to accomplish, its content has to be persuasive enough to get visitors to take that action.
Content is King
At NetSoft Design, one of the common mistakes we see clients make when having a Website created for their business or organization is that they want a site that incorporates all the latest “cool” features and functionality without knowing what real purpose their Website plays in accomplishing the goals of their business. It is almost as if it’s an after thought and the main reason for doing it is because every other business has a Website, so they assume they need one too.
What many clients fail to realize is that in this day and time, having a well thought out plan for how they will use their Website and other online communication in conjunction with their offline marketing efforts can be critical to the success of their business. Online communication is not a replacement for offline communication or vice versa. For maximum effectiveness, its important to use as many tools as possible to communicate what your company or organization does, who they do it for, how they do it, and why they do it. (more…)
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