This weeks video explains one of the main considerations to take in mind when deciding whether to create your site custom vs using a theme.

Video Transcription

Hi.  How are you doing?  This is Pete Juratovic from Clikzy Creative.  Today we want to talk about some stuff that always happens when we talk to clients.  They’re always coming to us and asking if they should use a WordPress Theme or template versus a custom website design.  For smaller sites you can do that.  You can use a theme or a template. But, when you get to a larger site or something that needs to be more scalable, you’re better off going with a custom option.

Today, I just kind of want to explain a little bit of what happens between using a theme versus a custom site.  If you don’t know what a theme is about, a theme does this: WordPress itself is a pretty simple to use platform.  What you do is you do the design in HTML, which is the actual part of the site.  Then underneath that, you have WordPress.  You implement the HTML and the CSS on top of WordPress.  WordPress just manages the frontend esthetics of your site.

What people do is theme companies or template companies; they create a theme options panel which fits in between.  You have your HTML CSS, which is a front ending site.  You have WordPress, which is the backend management site.  What they’ll do is they’ll put in a theme option panel in between.  What that will do is make it even easier to manage WordPress.

When you login and you click on your theme option panel, it’ll allow you to easily update a logo, easily change fonts, easily change colors, things like that.  Now, on small personal sites that makes sense.  It’s very easy to use.

What happens on a larger site when it starts to grow and it needs to be very scalable, what happens is the files start getting corrupt.  So, what I did here is kind of explained here a little bit what happens.

Imagine today for this purpose you’re using a WordPress theme or template, they’re interchangeable for this purpose.  You have your WordPress and then in between you have a theme option panel and then here is your HTML CSS.  So you launch a site today and everything is up.  That means your WordPress security patches are up to date.  Your theme option panel’s the latest version.  And then WordPress comes out with another security update.

Security updates comes out every … it’s kind of undetermined, but it’s about three months or so.  Every time they feel like there’s a potential risk or vulnerability, they come up with an update and they just send you an email and you update WordPress.

So WordPress updates to say version one.  So we update WordPress here.  What happens is the theme option panel, that company, will update their theme option panel, so this gets updating.  Then we’ll say three months, six months later WordPress comes up with another security patch update again.

What happens here is WordPress gets updated and then the theme option panel gets updated.  So right now everything is working pretty smoothly because of that fact that WordPress gets updated, theme option panel gets updated so we’re all in sync.

The next thing that happens here is, say three more months later, so you’re about nine months down the road and the third version of WordPress comes out.  But maybe at this point, the theme option panel decides they’re not going to update their version.  Why would they do that?  They wouldn’t do it because what happens is every theme has a name.  So maybe they’ve moved on because that theme is not selling anymore or they’ve moved on to a new type of theme.  What happened is they stopped supporting this theme.

So what happens is this one doesn’t get updated and then what happens is three months later, six month later, another WordPress version comes out and this one gets updated here, but this one doesn’t.  So what you have to happen is this WordPress core is a newer version in the theme option panel and what happens is you start running into errors.

The kind of errors you’ll get will be java script errors, some of the stuff when you log into the back of the site and you start trying to update fonts or colors or put some custom code in here, it won’t work because this is too new.  So you start having conflicts.  So what happens is as it would keep on down, say two years down the road, you’re maybe eight updates and if they only updated half the time, you’ll run into problems.

What you do to alleviate that, or what we do, I’m just going to grab my eraser here, is what we do to fix that is you will create the site custom.  Imagine we’re taking out this theme option now here.  The way you do this is you would create your custom HTML CSS and then you implement it right on top of the WordPress core, on the core service of the WordPress, which is really what it’s intended to do.  That’s the way it was built.  That’s the way it was designed.  That’s really want it was intended to do.

The managing of it is a little more of a learning curve than the theme option panel, but what you’ll have, as long as this is always being updated across the board, you’ll never run into this problem here.  The lifecycle of your website will be extended by years potentially.

What will happen is basically, as this dies off, your site starts to die.  If you just remove this completely, the theme option panel, you never have that problem.  So one way we, at Clikzy try to alleviate this problem is we create videos, training videos so you know how to manage your site.  We’ll create … one of our lead developers will create how to videos.  They’ll be doing like a straight capture, so it’ll literally be of them, a stream recording on your site, you’ll see them log in to WordPress, how to update the top five or six or seven things on your site.  That way you have these videos.

That way the learning curve for using the WordPress core is pretty much gone at that point, because you’re going to have this how to video and how to do that.  And it will also extend the lifecycle of your site.

So if you have any questions, please let me know.  Thank you.

The post Do you need a custom website design, or will a template work? appeared first on Clikzy Creative.

I’ve also taken up a hobby of watching pretty much every Gordon Ramsey show (he has like 80 of them if you have access to the BBC, Food Network, and Top Chef.)  Recently, I’ve been interested in finding a good burger.  You can’t go wrong with a burger; it’s meat, it’s a sandwich, and you can dress it with pretty much anything want.

My office is located in Alexandria, right off a King Street, which is prime location for all kinds of food, entertainment, and arts.   Finding a solid burger for lunch or dinner in the city would be ideal. Because I’m new and putting in a lot of time in the office, the easiest way for me to find my way around the area is by using my phone.

I simply typed “burger” into Google search, and this is what I got back:

The first website that came up was Kraze Burgers.  I was saddened to find out (even though I used precise location) that the closest one was in Bethesda, MD (I am not driving all that way for lunch). Also, the menu on their website was hard to read on my phone and took awhile to load.  This isn’t a deal breaker, but it’s not going to make me go out of my way to get there.   So I moved down the list.

The next site on the list was The Burger Joint (BGR).  BGR’s website was nice, it had a clean design and I could easily navigate their website because it was mobile friendly.

BGR’s site is convenient because it allows you to quickly pull up the menu, specials, and hours.  Aside from trying to carve out 8 hours and finding out where you can buy an industrial vat of Maalox to eat the 9lb burger; the menu and the site looked great.  It is easy to read and it gave you clear directions to their location.

The next website on the list was Tiffany’s Tavern.  I was excited to see them on the list because I knew where it was, and I love bluegrass music.  However, it was problematic to view the website on my phone and navigate to the menu.

The menu was in a PDF, so I had to zoom in to read it.  Any time that I see a menu in a PDF, I worry that it hasn’t been updated in a long time.  Still, that didn’t ruin their chances of me stopping by for the Blue Max Burger.

Three burger places isn’t quite enough to make an educated decision, about quality of website or of beef, so I carried on my search to make sure we had sufficient comparison.

Rock It Grill was my next find.  Again, I am excited because it is right down the street and have passed it many times.  But, just like Tiffany’s Tavern, it wasn’t a mobile friendly site and the site was clearly outdated.  They still had advertisements for Halloween Pictures.  Anyways, they made me go on a hunt around the website for their burger menu by breaking it up into multiple and confusing segments.

In the end I chose BGR.  They had a website with a clean design, I could get there easily, and I knew exactly what I was getting before I showed up.  In review, some of these small places could have higher traffic if they were able to update their sites to a mobile platform.  Many customers have started to switch to mobile devices to make all of their quick and local decisions, especially when it comes to food.  As small businesses struggle in this economy, it would serve them to try and adapt to the changing technology.  By offering a mobile friendly website, they will provide an intuitive and easy experience to potential consumers – making them more likely to make an informed decision in their business’s favor. Setting up a mobile friendly version of your site is a relatively simple process if your website is built with a targeted campaign that functions intuitively to ensure that the user can get to necessary information within two clicks.

The post I am new here, where’s my burger? appeared first on Clikzy Creative.

Modern Website Design Inspiration – By Industry

Knowing which direction to take with your new or redesigned website can be daunting – which is why I’ve compiled and organized a list of the most modern website design inspirations, categorized by industry, to make your research a bit easier.

The purpose of this article is to help small businesses find inspiration when going through a website design or redesign project.

FASHION WEBSITE DESIGN TRENDS

1. Saturdays NYC

http://www.saturdaysnyc.com/

The Saturdays NYC website is cool and collected – just like you’d imagine one of their customers to be. They’ve managed to take an abundance of content – a store, an online magazine, lookbook, blog, and more, and design it into a sleek, minimal, and modern website that is intuitive and the easiest surf you’ll ever have out of the water.

2. Kent & Curwen

http://kentandcurwen.co.uk/

Who says ladies always reign in the fashion industry? Kent & Curwen’s fashion website design is masculine and minimal, using modern parallax development strategies to make simplicity seem that much more exciting.

3. Chaiken

http://chaikenclothing.com/

Chaiken makes me want to take back my comment about ladies not always dominating the fashion industry. Fashion and functionality meet in harmony on this website — everything a user might want to learn about the product and brand is available on the homepage, and the responsive motion of the site mimics that of a model walking down the catwalk. Touché.

*Honorable Mention: http://gubbandmackie.com/

BEST RESTAURANT WEBSITE DESIGN TRENDS

1. Sweet Basil Vail est. 1977

https://sweetbasilvail.com/

Sweet Basil’s website will have your mouth watering from the first homepage image slider. The photographs on this website speak for themselves, and the fluid and clean navigation and layout enhance the overall message- Sweet Basil is modern, creative, and simply the highest quality.

2. Café Evoke

http://cafeevoke.com/

I have never liked grids so much! Café Evoke’s knows just how to use colors to complement each other, their photographs, and their food. The website definitely evokes a sense of warmth, fondness, and an appetite for something delicious as the modern and sleek design lets the user focus on the consumable delicacies.

3. Cau

http://www.caurestaurants.com/

Cau’s illuminated and edgy design really makes you hungry for an Argentinean steak. Another website that uses excellent imagery, Cau’s website design exudes a sense of high quality food and atmosphere.

*Honorable Mention: http://brownscourt.com/ 

E-COMMERCE WEB DESIGN

1. Bang & Olufsen

http://www.bang-olufsen.com/en

Bang & Olufsen marries design and functionality almost perfectly on their website From the detail in the sliding motion of the homepage image and image title, to the sleek and unique internal page designs, B&O is able to transform an abundance of content into an elegant and easily digestible website that screams their name and persona. The reason I say “almost” perfect is because their store itself is not directly integrated into the home front. Once the store itself is integrated fully into the website, I’ll be bold enough as to Bang & Olufsen score a 10!

2. Yield

http://www.yielddesign.co/#

Yield is another e-commerce website that is following the parallax website design trend. With images and vibrant colors like they have – why wouldn’t you? Having only a select few items for purchase on the website keeps the design minimal and allows for a clean design with the interesting touch of a pop up store. It makes the shopping experience feel fun and easy!

3. Lowdi

https://lowdi.com/

Modern and edgy, Lowdi has really hit it out of the park and into the next field with this website. Lowdi has the luxury of designing a website around one particular product (and a few accessory items). They took advantage of this flexibility and created an online experience that was modern, loud, and memorable.

*Honorable Mentions: http://boundarybreaks.com/ http://www.concrete-matter.com/,

SERVICE WEBSITE DESIGN

1. Philip House

http://www.philiphousenyc.com/

White is pristine – as is the Philip House website. This online experience turns house hunting into dream home hunting. This property website ventures so far out of the realm of your standard real estate website, that you almost feel you’ve stepped into a magazine. Luxury, style, and class, Philip House constructed an exact personality replica of its properties – via website.

2. Diehl Group

http://diehlgroup.com/

Let’s just say, I would let the Diehl Group design my next house based off of their website alone. This service website design is modern, reflective of the company and service itself, and intriguing in its minimalism and attention to detail. As we’ve seen in the best of these sites already, they also make use of the new parallax development style, in a subtler manner than the other examples. The interactivity of the various hover effects as well as the parallax seals the fate of Diehl Group as a top contender in the service website design category.

3. Whiteboard

http://whiteboard.is/

With plenty of content to accommodate, this Tennessee-based design company delivers an impressive and clean parallax website that outshines the competition. Professional in its typography, colors, and photographs, Whiteboard clearly lays out their who, what, when, where, why, and how. If they provide deliverables as mint as their own website, I’ll bet they have clients falling at their feet like leaves in the fall.

*Honorable Mentions: http://www.sullivannyc.com/, http://www.msaarch.com/, http://www.ixistore.be/

HOSPITALITY WEB DESIGN COMPANY TRENDS

1. Kassandra Bay

http://www.kassandrabay.com/en

Kassandra Bay is certainly one of the top contenders in the hospitality website design category. With immaculate images that will you to pick up and run off to Europe or a tropical island, this website has mastered the art of marrying design and functionality. KB makes it easy for users to view room and suite options, learn about different activities and events, and most importantly – book a reservation. The option to close the reservation panel is a nice touch, seeing as it might detract from the allure of the beautiful accommodation exploring.

2. Kentisbury Grange

http://www.kentisburygrange.co.uk/

Is it unreasonable to pick a wedding location based solely off of a website? The Kentisbury Grange website makes you want to book your wedding date immediately – which is the point! The asymmetrical details add a level of interest and edge to a chic and minimal site. With a straightforward dropdown contact form, they make booking a date remarkably easy.

3. Snowbird

http://www.snowbird.com/

Snowbird’s website is an exceptional resources for their customers. Taking service website design to a whole other level, Snowbird planned out everything immaculately. The clean design allows for organized content and an intuitive workflow. Displaying the temperature and weather report is a great touch and very beneficial for their audience, who will most likely be coming to the website in hopes of riding the slopes and buying tickets. Well planned, well designed, with smooth functionality, Snowbird is certainly a top-performing site.

BEST FINANCE & LEGAL WEBSITE DESIGN COMPANY TRENDS

1. Axiom Law

http://www.axiomlaw.com/index.php/homepage/home

Axiom Law has managed to take a common industry, professional and old-fashioned in its habits, and create an online presence for it that sparks excitement and intrigue. They deliver their message and content clearly, simply, and with enough whitespace on the page to allow their viewers to breathe. Little touches of interactivity bring the page to life and rake in more clients (I’m sure).

2. BDBL Avocats

http://www.bdblavocats.com/en/

BDBL Avocats is another legal website that has taken into account the importance of imagery. With their specialties clearly listed on the homepage, the website is small but straightforward. Taking custom photographs of their team and including it on the website adds a personal element to an online presence that establishes trust with their audience.

3. Goldman Sachs

http://www.goldmansachs.com/

Goldman Sachs has outdone their competitors when it comes to online web presence. In financial website design, Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan have yet to establish websites that can compete with the cleanliness and appeal of the GS site.

TOP NONPROFIT WEB DESIGN COMPANY TRENDS

1. National LGBT Museum

http://nationallgbtmuseum.org/#/home/

The National LGBT Museum’s website is definitely out of the box – in the best way. With each side of the page sliding vertically in opposite directions, this nonprofit’s online presence is truly interesting. Some might say the page is a bit chaotic, but in this instance it’s an organized chaos. Every detail has its place and its function, with a donation form built in, as well as a blog and news set up. This nonprofit site took philanthropy from sweet to out of sight.

2. Public Art Fund

http://www.publicartfund.org/

Public Art Fund is a nonprofit organization in NYC that values art and works to bring free contemporary art exhibitions to a wide audience. Their website is keenly designed to do the same – as the blend of bright pink and white brings a modern touch to the site and enhances the images of each exhibition, rather than detract from them. PAF’s workflow is unique but intuitive, including usable features like a donation button (one time or recurring), event calendar, press page, newsletter signup, a shop, and a projects page with new and old exhibitions gridded out in a similar layout as a portfolio.

3. Too Young to Wed

http://www.tooyoungtowed.org/

This nonprofit website design is heart wrenching and yet, simply beautiful in its design and mission. The United Nations Population Fund built this website to support their efforts to help delay girls getting married by keeping them in school, educating those already married. Their online presence clearly demonstrates what the organization is about, and the imagery reflects the beauty they are trying to keep alive in these international adolescent girls through the UNPF’s efforts. The photographs put a face to a cause, and show both the despair that is brought upon these girls, and the joy that could be their reality. Sealed with parallax functionality, Too Young To Wed is clearly a successful nonprofit website design.

*Honorable Mention: http://seedspot.org/

Lessons We Learned

• Images can make or break a website. If you can invest even just a little time and money into taking high quality and custom photographs – it will be worth it. What most users don’t realize is what they are most drawn to on any website are the photos – the subjects, colors, and quality breathe life into a page that would otherwise fall flat with a stock image or no image at all.
• Aesthetics MUST meet functionality. As a new generation of technology arises, it has never been more clear and important that we have looks AND personality- and by we I mean our websites, too. Brilliant design is when captivating aesthetics become even more entrancing by their ability to come to life – move and function. Both must work together to provide an online experience that goes down as smooth as a glass of water.

• Be clean and add interest with the details. The big picture with modern websites is cleanliness. Minimalism and structure dictate the most successful websites because they are easy to understand and digest. However, clean does not have to be plain. Find ways in the details, maybe an out of the ordinary shape or some interactive functional elements, to make your website unique.

•  In the legal or finance industry? Redesign your website NOW. Of all of the industries I researched, the legal and financial industries were the two categories that sincerely lacked in new, modern, and good looking websites. The content for these sites may certainly need to be more professional than for a website that sells purses, BUT professional does not have to mean stale. If it’s been a few years since your last redesign – go out, put a new suit on your old website (add in some SEO), and watch your return on investment grow significantly.

All-around Website and Graphic Design Inspiration, Always

1. http://www.thebestdesigns.com/ – The main hub for all things good in website design. If your site has made it on The Best Designs – consider yourself the best…for now.

1. http://inspiremyweb.tumblr.com/ – Full of best-in-class website design examples, as well as development tips and tutorials, Marlon Marcello’s blog does exactly what it claims in his title – it inspires my web designs and development. It will inspire yours as well.

1. http://thedsgnblog.tumblr.com/ – The Design Blog does not cater specifically to website design, but design in general. Very often, they feature branding and identity examples that are innovative and well worth a look.

The post Trends and Examples from a Best Website Design Company appeared first on Clikzy Creative.

An up to date version of your content management system can safeguard against your site being hacked. A website owner who had her site built on WordPress contacted our team today to troubleshoot a small problem on her website. She said when she clicked on her portfolio images on her homepage they were not displaying the images clicked.

Below is a screen recording to show the error on the website.

For a typical error of this nature we would do the following trouble shooting.

1. Check the WordPress Version to make sure its up to date
2. Make sure there were not any JS conflicts
3. Scan the site with a maleware scanner to see if there were was a hack attempt

We checked the WordPress version. The site was on WordPress 3.0.1. The latest version is Version 3.5.1, so we can quickly tell that the site is on a much older version of WordPress. Our initial thoughts are that maybe there is a JS conflict where the plugins could be pulling from different java script libraries. This can happen on WordPress sites when someone uses too many plugins or when they use a commercial theme with a custom theme options panel.

To test this, we would check the source code to inspect whether or not any JavaScript text was added.

To do this test you do the following:
Right click on the home page, click on view source, then search from the text conflict. You may or may not see something that looks like the following:

<script type=”text/javascript”> jQuery.noConflict(); </script>

If you do not have the code added then we could potentially determine that there was a JS conflict. In our case, the code was added which told us there was a strong possibility that the site could have been hacked.

The best way to check if your site has been hacked is to use a free Malware scanner like Scurri Security. We used Scurri’s free scanner to check the site. Here is what we found.

You can see that there are a ton of payday loan links which were injected into the website.

Here is a short video to show we used the site to test for Malware.

So how did this happen? Well the clients site is being hosted on a shared Godaddy hosting account and since the WordPress version was out of date the site was vulnerable. WordPress has updates to protect security patches.

There is nothing wrong with hosting on a Godaddy account, and infact the same problem could have happened on any shared hosting environment. The website was on a old version of WordPress so it was vulnerable.

Here is an analogy to help understand how a websites get attacked in a shared hosting environment. “Keeping your WordPress up to date is a lot like locking your doors if you live in a gated community. Imagine you live in a gated community with 100 other homes. The community would be the shared hosting account. Now imagine each house in the community was a website. If a burglar would happen to break into the community and start running around and checking locks the houses which stayed up to date, and locked their doors would be fine, but the houses who were unaware, or lazy would get broke into”. A breech in a shared hosting account works in the same manner.

How do you protect yourself in the future? You can sign up with your Content Management System to receive emails, or you can just bookmark the site to check periodicly.

Magento: http://www.magentocommerce.com/blog/category/updates/

Drupal: http://drupal.org/upgrade/

Joomla: http://www.joomla.org/announcements/release-news/

WordPress: http://wordpress.org/download/

You can also get an account with Scurri Security to monitor your website. They will email you as soon as any changes are made to your site, and they will remind you when your CMS is out of date.

The post Why You Need to Keep Content Management Security Patches up to date? appeared first on Clikzy Creative.

This months session will be led by Pete Juratovic, President of Clikzy Creative. Also in attendance will be Eric Roberts, former lead outreach marketing manager for United Way South Carolina.

Overview of events:

7:00 – 7:30  Enjoy a glass of wine while, mingle with other Washington professionals, and eat a bite.

7:30 – 8:00  Presentation  

8:00 – 9:00  Q&A, drink more wine

As any small business owner, or local website owner may know. Ranking locally is a challenge, and going at it at a whim is never a good idea. We will discuss how to market your site locally and rank well with making it your full time job!

In a attempt to streamline our social event we will be going over the following topics:

1. How to setup Google Authorship on your website.

2. Quick tips on how to use Google analytics to help drive a creative marketing effort for your website.

3. How to get local links pointing to your website

4. Why you need to blog to be successful.

Bring any questions, social skills, and wine thirst! We will also be serving Pizza.

The post White Wine, Mingle and Website Talk 20 February 2013 appeared first on Clikzy Creative.

Get your online marketing campaign on target and you will be able to compete against the very best in your niche, regardless of company size. If your campaign is off target, you end up back where you started. Don’t let this discourage you – rework your campaign, retweak, and go for it again. The beauty of marketing your business online is, even if you fail, you can get up, dust yourself off, and get started again.

There are plenty of ways that you, as a small business owner, can market your business online – you just need to pick marketing avenues that are best suited to achieve your objectives.

Let’s take a look at some of the best ways of marketing your small business, methods that will put you in the spotlight and guarantee a ROI.

Social Media

More and more small business owners are using social media as a part of their marketing efforts. Marketing your business on social media helps you reach out to a wide target audience and engage them on a one-on-one level.

You don’t need to be a social media expert to become socially saavy with respect to your small business and your clientele.. Take for the example the case of Facebook, a social media platform that dominates the marketing consciousness of plenty of small business owners.

Here’s what you need to do to use Facebook as a marketing tool; create a Facebook page for your business; send people to this page (market the page), keep posting regular updates, and engage with your fans and followers. Simple isn’t it? While it may not be as cut and dry as it seems, it’s also not rocket science.

What you are trying to do is leverage the far reaching social connections of Facebook to market your business.  You need to make your Facebook page a lively, fun experience. If you can do this you’ve won half the battle already.

A twitter profile for your business works along the same lines; you need to keep making regular tweets about your business or your industry, or anything that can help you engage with your target audience.

Blogging/Guest Blogging – Become an Expert

This is again something that plenty of small business owners are getting into. Blogging allows you to talk about your business’s domain and not necessarily about your business and its services. For example, if you are offering website development services – a blog post allows you to talk about this service in general; you can offer your target audience more information about how to go about choosing such services, or even give them a low down on any new development in this particular domain and how it’s going to affect them, etc.

By integrating a blog into your small business website, you are trying to open a new and more personal channel of communication with your audience. Here, you are not a business owner, but somebody who wants to give them useful information about your niche. If you go about it in the right manner, and make a conscious effort to choose the right topics to blog about and offer info that acts as a problem solver, very soon you will be looked upon as an expert in your field.

This ‘expertise’ has enormous marketing potential. Why would anybody search high and low for a web development services provider, when their favorite expert, the one whose blog they follow, offers such a service?

Guest blogging is yet another way your online marketing efforts will get a boost. By getting your post published on authoritative sites, you are improving your online profile and building quality backlinks to your website.

All in all, blogging acts like a subtle marketing tool. It markets your business, but without being brazen about it.

YouTube Videos

As a small business owner, you think it’s your advertising budget that keeps getting you down, You look at the way your bigger competitors are capturing the mind space of target audiences with those big banner ads, TV ads and a whole lot of other big budget advertising, and you feel you just can’t beat them at their own game.

But wait… you have something called YouTube videos and video marketing that can help work some magic on your audience. Get your videos up and about on YouTube. The video could be about anything; a short and sweet ‘How-To Talk’, a video explaining the features of your product, or a video talking about a new technological breakthrough, etc.

Videos interest, engage, and give your business more credibility. These are big takeaways in themselves, but they do something else as well. They also allow you to develop quality backlinks. A well optimized video that’s up on YouTube is a great way of improving your SEO. You can get link backs to your own site from your embedded YouTube videos.

This requires a bit of code tweaking, you can get more information on it here.

Videos help you bring a much needed dynamism to your online marketing campaign that fits within a limited budget.

Email Marketing

This isn’t something new, and has often been at the receiving end of criticism for being ineffective. But here’s the thing, if email marketing was so ineffective, then why is it still one of the most commonly used ways of online marketing? There must be something to it.

Make email marketing a part of your larger online marketing campaign. Create an email opt-in list on your website or blog, and start sending regular emails to this list. Remember to send something useful in your emails, say a newsletter, a free code or coupon, a link to your YouTube video, or something else.

There is a difference between your emails ending up in the SPAM folder of your target customers and being thought of as SPAM. If you deliver zero value through your emails, your emails will be regarded as nothing but SPAM. So, spend some time on them, and make them useful. Go through this article that has some amazing tips on what to offer to make your email marketing a success.

Local Business Listings

You might want your small business to have a global footprint, but you need to think local. Customers are increasingly putting their trust in local service providers; a logical thing to do. A person living in New York, who is looking for a web development service provider, will prefer working with somebody who operates out of New York.

So, as a small business you must focus on local business listings. This is where people will go to find more about you and your service offerings. Make sure that you have entered accurate information in these listings and have given links to your website and contact numbers.

Additionally, Yelp offers great business listing, but you need to think beyond it – and I am talking about free listings here. It makes sense to be on each and every free business listing, so be there on Yahoo! Local, don’t forget Google Local Business Center and of course YellowPages.com is also important.  Here is an article that offers you information about numerous listing directories that you can use.

Getting your site up on these local directory listing is also an essential part of local SEO, and will help your website rank locally.

SEO

Can’t escape this even if you wanted to; so get those Title Tags on your site optimized, focus on the load speed of your pages, get your site structure in order, and do everything and anything else that comes under the purview of onsite optimization.

Something else that you shouldn’t forget is content. Yes, those words that you write and those images that you use must be engaging enough to hold the user’s attention. This is the kind of content that is shared and you can get backlinks to; more importantly it’s only such content that can lead to a better conversion ratio for your site.

While developing an SEO campaign, ensure that you don’t make use of any strategy that leaves a bad footprint. Follow SEO guidelines and focus on building a quality and enduring backlinks profile. SEO is a part and parcel of any successful online marketing strategy, so use it well.

End Words

Small business owners can take heart from the fact that marketing their business online won’t have them reaching out deep into their pockets. Also, the whole process of internet marketing is more agile than its traditional counterparts, and you can re-strategize and re-work, and re-size your campaign quickly.

As you get started on your online marketing efforts, you will be able to fine tune your campaign, update it and modify it, the way you see fit. As you market, you will continue to learn. Online marketing has been of immense benefit to small business owners, and I am sure, you will experience its profitable results as well. All the Best!

The post Top 6 Ways Small Business Owners Can Market Their Business Online appeared first on Clikzy Creative.

The process starts with the Project Manager reviewing the web questionnaire that the client has previously filled out. The questionnaire helps identify the site type, whether it is a business profile or ecommerce site. A basic site map is noted down including the homepage, personalized content, about page, and contact page. In the web questionnaire, the client is asked for their top five favorite sites and the top five sites they dislike. This is used as inspiration in the design process to identify elements the client may or may not want on their webpage and pinpoint a general design direction.

The project manager then introduces him or herself to the client. This is just a quick email with an introduction and inquiry for the best time to set up a kick off call with the client. The kick off call is one of the most important elements in the web design process at Clikzy. The questionnaire is gone over once again but this time with the client’s input. The project manager notes down any comments or ideas the client may not have mentioned in the questionnaire. After the call, the project manager identifies the project timeline with the web developer. This is usually the time frame allotted for the design process and to get final client design approvals, plus three to four weeks for the web development phase.

The next step is the wireframe for the website’s homepage. The goal of the wireframe is to serve as a simple blueprint for the webpage design. A header with boxes representing the logo and navigation menu is laid down along with the body and footer of the site. If the client actively uses social media, like Facebook or Twitter, spaces for these social media icons are incorporated. When a homepage wireframe is finished, the design is sent off to the client via email.

After a wireframe is approved, a homepage mock up design is made by one of the Clikzy designers. The questionnaire, kick off call, and client specifications are all used for creating the homepage design. It is the designer’s responsibility to translate all of these elements into a successful homepage, while following any branding guidelines the client has provided. The design process starts off by placing content within the center 1000 pixels width of the homepage. The page is then expanded to 1500 pixels overall to accommodate all screen sizes. The final design is sent to clients for approval with a link from Notable. Notable is a great screen capture application that lets clients become a part of the design process. Clients can leave detailed comments directly on the images of the design mockups. This process of designing web pages, submitting to the client via Notable, and revising can repeat a few times until the client is completely satisfied with the overall site design, and gives their final approval.

Once the homepage design is approved, the project manager creates a detailed site map that outlines the type of content the client has specified needs to appear on each of the internal pages. Using this site map, the project manager outlines which pages on the website will require unique designs, and which pages will follow one of these unique layouts and do not need to be created in the design process – as these pages will be “dynamic” and built out during the development phase. This detailed site map is sent off to one of the designers to create all of the internal page designs in one full sweep. The homepage design serves as a basis for the internal pages. The header and footer must remain consistent, and the overall page designs should work cohesively with the homepage look. Special elements may be incorporated like forms, News pages, integrations with 3^rd party softwares, or a sidebar navigation menu. Once the designs are completed, the same revision and approval process used during the homepage design begins again, until the client is happy with the results.

Upon final design approval, the project manager packages all of the final design files into a Development folder, along with all of the website content (that the client has provided) and notes on how each page should function. Development notes important, as they describe to the development team how the website and very specific elements on the site will function – slider behavior, hover effects, and any other special features. Content like text, videos, and images are clearly labeled so the developers know exactly what needs to go on which pages. Lastly an annotated sitemap of all of the website’s pages and corresponding their corresponding designs is provided. The web developer is informed that the project is ready for development, and then added to their schedule.

The client is given weekly updates of their site’s status. The Photoshop files are sliced and coded into HTML and CSS files. Then, the HTML and CSS files are implemented onto a CMS (Content Management System) platform such as WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla. An internal review and troubleshooting is completed on the demo site before being sent to the project manager.

Next, a site demo is given to the project manager to review. The project manager makes sure the demo corresponds with the development notes and original designs. As designers have a keener eye for detail, it’s always helpful to have them review the demo and catch any minor tweaks that development may have missed. A list of any revisions are given back to the developer.

Finally, the demo is sent to the client and they are encouraged to submit a comprehensive list of revisions for the developer. Once the demo is approved, the site is launched! In the next week or two, the client will receive video training to help them update and the site on their own.

This process may be lengthier for some than others, but it is always necessary when creating and launching a custom website design.

The post How Clikzy Creative Creates a Custom Website Design appeared first on Clikzy Creative.

1. It gets your company’s name out there. Many people won’t even know you exist if they don’t see you online. The days of looking for businesses in the Yellow Pages of the phonebook are long over. If most people are looking for an Italian restaurant, shoe repair shop or housecleaning service, they search online.

2. It allows you company’s basic information to be visible 24 hours a day, seven days a week. People aren’t available to answer calls at your office all the time, but the information that is available online can be accessed at any hour of the day. Potential customers can quickly and easily find your address, phone number and hours of operation. Basic information about the services your provide should also be part of your online profile.

3. Creating a presence on social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, helps you create name recognition, build your brand and gain the public’s trust. You can easily interact with your customers and raise their interest. Post information about upcoming sales and promotions, industry tips or simple conversation starters to keep people checking back to see what you have to say. Satisfied customers can simply post a link to your website or repost your most recent status update as a way of recommending your services. They can share your information with those in their social networks, which is the modern equivalent of “word of mouth” advertising.

4. An Internet presence will allow you the opportunity to reach people all over the world. There is no way a small business could afford anywhere near that level of saturation through print advertising! It opens up the possibilities for expanding your potential customer base by the millions.

5. Competing with other companies in your industry is almost impossible without an Internet presence. Small businesses are almost always competing with a large corporation or chain who is more well known and can afford big advertising campaigns and to run appealing promotions. However, they often lack the attention to detail, quality service and high level of customer appreciation most small business owners pride themselves in maintaining. Fight back online by posting comparisons of your services. Show the public the benefits of going with your services instead of the big guy.

So how do begin building an online presence? The first thing you need is a website. It is well worth the cost of paying a professional to handle this for you. Then set up accounts on social networking sites and start getting the word out.

The post 5 Reasons Your Small Business Needs an Internet Presence appeared first on Clikzy Creative.

Google Basics

The first step is to learn what Google, the largest search engine, is looking for. Forget everything you learned about stuffing keywords in every chance you get. Instead, limit keyword density to 3% or less in content. The new concept you have to learn is to develop your website for humans, not search engines. As such, you must focus on content that is free of grammatical errors and reads smoothly. Keywords should appear naturally. Limit the number of links to one per every 100 words as well to avoid being marked as spam.

Google wants to find content that is relevant, well written, original and informative. Meet these requirements and you’re well on your way to embracing the new SEO. The best possible thing site owners can do is always review Google’s latest website ranking standards.

SEO Friendly Calls to Action

Anytime you want your readers or viewers to do something as a result of your content, you need a call to action. This is the perfect place for content optimization. Use a catchy, yet descriptive call to action that tells visitors what you want them to do and what benefit they’ll receive. Include at least one major keyword or phrase along with your business and/or product name. This helps ensure your traffic converts to sales.

Less Fluff, More Info

Don’t stress over a set word count. While longer content is preferred, content that’s full of fluff will rank lower than shorter, highly informative content. Any content you provide to visitors needs to stay on topic. Fluff leads visitors to other sites. The longer a visitor stays on your site, the more likely they are to make a purchase.

It’s All About Humans

Technology is wonderful. However, humans actually require engaging content that makes sense. Search engines do not “read” like we do. While writing for search engines worked in the past, search engines are making major changes to ensure sites are created for human visitors instead. These are the sites providing a real value to visitors instead of trying to scam or spam them. While Google is the frontrunner in these changes, others are quickly catching up. With social networks starting to be factored in, writing for humans is all the more important.

Don’t Spam

Content can be promotional. However, don’t spam your visitors. Content over 100 words needs something other than advertising. Add real information to convert traffic to sales. The new SEO is all about avoiding spam. Make your visitors happy and you’ll see your rank, traffic and sales increase.

The post SEO Techniques That Drive Traffic And Sales appeared first on Clikzy Creative.

At first, viewer patience was not much of any issue for website-based businesses because most e-commerce required at least a regular Internet desktop connection to transact any kind of electronic business. Today, however, users can search, find, buy and transact entire business operations over advanced mobile devices. Because of this fundamental equipment change, how a business’ Internet presence looks over a mobile website design device as well as a PC desktop has now become a significant issue. This is where responsive website design comes into play.

Background or responsive and mobile web design

Responsive web design is a change in the program coding used on an Internet website or social media site. It allows a user’s Internet browsing device to interact with a website and determine the best viewing option to display. A website using this approach will provide a normal Internet display for a desktop computer, a tablet-size display for a tablet, and a small, truncated version for a smartphone screen. Each version is suited for the fastest data loading and use by the Internet device a consumer is viewing.

The amount of information included, the SEO tags allowed, and the visual display involved all change, depending on which device is being used to view the given website. In essence, this requires different pages to be designed for the same Internet address, with greater or smaller limitations. Consider the concept in terms of percentage scale. A desktop view will be a 100 percent representation of a website. A smartphone view will be a 50 percent representation. However, the difference is not as simple as a shrunk-down mirror copy. The mobile smartphone version will have far less detail and graphics in most cases than the desktop view. That said, the mobile version will be far easier to navigate given a slimmed down detail design. Good visual examples tend to be the best way to understand the display differences involved.

The benefits of responsive web design

The benefits of responsive web design are that the user can see and use a website far easier with the given device involved rather than waiting for a regular website design to load and then requiring a zoom in to read it. Those websites that have adapted, in theory, will see more business from smartphones and tablet users as the website owner caters to those device users’ needs. The downside, however, is that a business or website owner has to be more selective about what information is included in truncated website versions. It also means that less SEO tagging can be used on the mobile device page, so content needs to be worded more carefully as well.

Other considerations to keep in mind include:

Time for support and ongoing maintenance.
Cost to start up and keep the responsive web design going.
Performance on different devices and having to update for new gadgets as they come out.
Maintaining viability of content on different formats.
Continued use of a website versus switching over to a web application for mobile devices.
Don’t Try This at Home

Changing over to responsive web design is not a quick re-tooling of a bit of code. Redesigning a website typically requires an analysis of the existing website, designing or updating a web business plan for multiple website formats and then implementing the new format designs and keeping them consistent with content and changes on the existing website. If a website or social media site owner is not well-versed in constructing modern web coding, this is where the help from a hired expert can be well worth the money paid for the service. Hiring a professional reduces delays and down time, and it also avoids a lot of rookie mistakes that a first-time designer will usually make while learning the new approach and what actually works.

Conclusion

Given the amount of reliance people today have on their mobile devices and how much of daily life is now being transacted on them, businesses and website owners that depend on Internet traffic can’t afford to ignore this new approach to Internet use. Those sites with responsive design that make it easier to use the Internet will in turn tend to get more traffic as a result, especially when it takes extra work to view a normal website on a small phone. Internet viewers being who they are, the easier path will tend to get favored by the majority. Those who roll out the red carpet for Internet users will likely benefit from the extra effort at the expense of others.

This article is brought you to you by Clikzy Creative which is a Washington, DC mobile website design company. If you are wanting a mobile website for you Washington, DC website contact us today!

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