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Psychology for websites

Websites can really help a business grow and can vastly improve sales and conversions. When designing your website you do need to speed a good deal of time not only figuring out what you would like on your site but also how you are going to display it. Psychology plays a massive part in web design as you may be surprised to learn how some subtle differences can have a big impact on how the site is interpreted.

Colours that you decide to use on your site can mean a lot. Colour is a tricky thing. You have to use it in the right way, at the right time, with the right audience, and for the right purpose. If for example you have a website that sells children’s toys then you will want it to be fun and bright and may use a number of different colours to portray this. If you want a website that is all about natural, organic products then you may opt for subtle colours of greens and browns to reiterate what your company is about.

If you want to make something stand out on your website you may be tempted to use a different colour on the font for that section or to surround it with a colourful border.

 

 

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News

The End of Net Neutrality

It’s happening with such little fanfare that it may have escaped your notice, but a battle is going on for Net Neutrality. With the encouragement of the Trump administration, the FCC in the US looks to repeal it, though it has for now been restored by the US Senate.

Even if it didn’t escape your notice, you may not have any idea what that means, and why you should be concerned about its future.

Put simply, net neutrality is the principle that ISPs (Internet Service Providers) do not discriminate or charge based on who a user is, where content is coming from, and so on.

So why is it coming to an end a problem? Well, you may recall a few years back, BT throttling it’s dial-up internet speeds to drive people onto broadband; the risks here are much the same, but on an expanded scale.

It’s not beyond the realms of possibility therefore that businesses, with corporate interests to protect, could throttle or pay to throttle both access to competitors. Press influences, or bad political actors could readily throttle or pay to throttle access to information. That works in reverse too – the wheels could be greased in right direction, for the right fee.

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Web Marketing

Are micro sites a good idea?

If you are a business owner then you may have heard of the term micros sites. Micros sites have, over the years, been used for a number of different things. Some of the big companies still use micro sites today. But what are they and should you have some?

A micro site is usually a 3-4 page mini website that has information on it that is very relevant to a specific topic or product. Often the micro site will link back to the main website in order to gain traffic that way too.

Micro sites are often used when a company wants to give a big push on a particular service or product but does not want to make too many changes on their main site. If you own a toy shop for example, and there is a new toy due to hit the market, you may want to create a micro site that has videos, reviews and images all relating to that product. If someone then wants to buy that product, you may link back through to your main site for the checkout procedure to be completed.

Micros sites can sometimes be used for marketing campaigns such as Google Adwords or for offline advertising in a newspaper for example.

 

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Social Media Marketing

Facebook marketing for businesses

If your company is looking to use Facebook marketing to promote your business, then there are many companies out there that will help you explore the different ways you can use this social media site to build up your brand. It may be that you want to create a group of potential customers to target your products and services too or maybe you want to extend your customer service facilities by allowing customers to leave reviews, comments and feedback through Facebook, whatever your requirements they can help. Mot social media marketing companies will create a package that is tailor made to your business meaning that your budget is used effectively.

Facebook can also be used as a great customer service tool, allowing your followers to post reviews, ask questions and to offer another point of contact. It is important to always respond to questions and queries through Facebook and other social media channels as if you miss an enquiry you may find that the customer goes elsewhere.

The cost for marketing through social

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Web Design

The creating a site map for your web site

Your website may be a very important selling tool for your business and it is important that you get it correct. When planning a new website it is important to think about how the site will be laid out and the steps they will need to take to get to the information they want to find.  A great way of doing this is to create a site map and a wire frame.  This will allow you to think carefully about the pages that are going to be on your website and how they are all going to link together.  The wire frame will be able to show the flow of pages from one to another.  If you have an ecommerce website where people can find products or services online then you need to make sure that the check out process is as simple and easy as possible.

A good way to start is to have a look round at other people’s website possibly competitors and see what information they have and how it is laid out.  From this you can then work out what you like and what you wouldn’t like to use on your website.  Try not to make your website too complicated as people will get frustrated and often leave without completing an enquiry form or completing a purchase.

 

Categories
Web Design

Should you design your site with mobile users in mind?

Some companies make the mistake of not considering their mobile version of the website until the main site is built. They may then find that many of the elements do not work as well on the mobile sites as they do on the desktop version.

You need to find out who your main audience is and what devices they are likely to be using. If you have a stats package on your website such as Google Analytics then you can see the devices that are being used to view your site. This will give you an idea of how much of your business is being impacted on by the mobile version of your site. You may be surprised as to how many people browse online through their phone or tablet even if its only as an initial look prior to using a desktop to make a purchase.

If your website is not very user friendly then you should consider creating a new one or updating your current one to allow more users to interactive with your site. If you want to offer a lot of functionality then you could create an App that will allow people to download it on to their phone or tablet.