A very common approach for our clients is to request multiple concepts (mock-ups) at the beginning of their web development project. They believe that this will give them a sense of control over the site’s look and feel. Inevitably though, there will be elements from each design that they like, leading to the “picking and choosing” of various elements from each mock-up. Here’s the problem: elements from different designs are not necessarily compatible or even easily combined, and they don’t always present a cohesive or attractive design. This can lead to an inconsistent and possibly amateurish-look. This is jokingly called a “Frankenstein” approach.

So we use a collaborative approach with our clients instead, to shape the design as it’s created.

It’s very important that all parties have a clear understanding of the project goals and the expectations of the website, and it’s target audience. Knowing these will guide the decisions that will be made during the development of the site.

In the same manner, if you’re creating the website yourself, you need to be clear on why you need a website, what its goals are, how you will measure its productivity, who your target audience is, and why.

Producing a quality product takes time. Take that time to explore these questions and answer them honestly.

There are a few other topics to think about before developing your site. Here are a few of them:

Your Domain Name

When thinking about your domain name choice, remember that a good domain name is memorable, reflects your brand, and is nearly impossible to misspell. These qualities are important. Combining Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with brand-identity in your domain name can increase the likelihood of your site appearing higher in a list of search engine results.

Your Site’s Design

Design is subjective. “Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder”, am I right? So…. having said that, we all need to remember that there is no such thing as the “perfect” design. The desire to achieve perfection leads to “tweak” after “tweak” in order to get it “right”. This isn’t a wise use of your budget or time. You may personally like it, but the site may not achieve your goals or be as user-friendly or effective as it could be. It’s important that the site looks great, yes, but it’s equally as important for it to function properly, be user-friendly, be mobile-responsive and achieve its’ goals.

Your Site’s Security

Websites that conduct online monetary transactions, such as e-commerce sites, need certain security measures to protect customer information. To reduce browser-based threats, SSL certificates should be used on the site. All businesses should conduct on-going security checks on their site, or have them performed by a security service.

Your Content

It’s necessary to have high quality, original content on your site, not only for user engagement but for SEO. Content affects your site’s ranking in search engine results. Each web page should have at least 150 words and should include links to credible online resources and other pages within your website. Your content should be written to echo your brand. Use a free plagiarism detection tool to ensure that there isn’t accidental plagiarism in your content. (Google penalizes plagiarism, and they may remove your site from search engine results.)

Your Images

Everything on a website is considered to be intellectual property and is protected under copyright law. If you plan to use stock photos, they may still be copyright-protected. Using copyrighted images can result in stiff penalties. When using stock images, make sure you have written permission to use them and that you pay any relevant fees.

You can also use copyright-free images, but be sure you’ve read their terms of use beforehand.

Your Site’s Style

Think about whether you prefer an uncluttered, muted, minimalistic look with lots of white space, or whether you’d rather have a bright and bold design. Look at several sites within your niche to get ideas.

Your Site’s Goals

Determine what you want your website to do. Once you know exactly what you want to achieve with your site, it will be much easier to design a site that delivers those results.

A goal of “Being #1 on Google” or “getting more traffic” should not be the main goal. That kind of SEO takes time, effort and dedication. SEO is an ongoing process, best done by professionals who do it for a living.

Knowing your site’s goals will help provide value for your business.

Your Timeline

Do you need this project done in a rush? Is there a specific date you have in mind for its’ launch? Make sure your timeline is realistic considering your skill level, knowledge, and experience in creating websites and promoting them.

Maintenance: who will maintain your site?

A website is kind of like a car; it requires ongoing care and support. Your site may function beautifully today and not so well next year. There are ongoing costs for keeping your site fresh and functional, and there are also costs to you for NOT doing it: like diminished readership, fewer sales, low search-engine rankings, lost clients and customers, high bounce rates, malware, legal issues, broken links, 404 errors, and website repairs that will cost you time and/or money.

If you plan to update the site yourself and do not want to get into the code to do it, then you need a CMS (Content Management System). A CMS handles lots of the technical aspects of a website, like allowing non-developers to easily upload and manage their content.

A CMS can also be used for creating an online community, allowing visitors to create accounts and have their own pages.

Do you need a CMS? Ask yourself these questions:

• What kind of website will it be?  Will it be a personal blog? Or a portfolio site with contact information? A store?
• What’s your budget? WordPress is free, though you’ll still need to purchase your own domain name, hosting, and any commercial “plugins” or templates that you need.
• How many users, contributors, or admins are you going to have? How many people are going to contribute to your site? Do they need individualized permissions?  WordPress allows you to define different kinds of contributors.  
• What are your site-updating needs? Will your site be mostly text and images, or will you need to support multimedia or interactive components like a shopping cart? How much control do you need over the look of your site?

The more complex your needs, the more you might benefit from a maintenance plan with us, or if you prefer the doing the maintenance and updating yourself, using the WordPress CMS would be a good solution.

Your Hosting Provider

A Hosting Provider is a company that provides storage space for your site on their server, for a fee. It’s basically where your websites “lives”.

The kind of hosting you’ll need is determined by these factors: will the site be static (unchanging) or dynamic (interacting with users or changing frequently)? Does the site require room to grow? (By the way, using a personal computer for hosting is very risky, not recommended, and it requires a costly static IP address.)

1. Traditional Hosting: With this kind of hosting, the server is housed in a data center, managed by the hosting company, and requires a subscription to different standardized packages that suit current or future site needs. There’s a risk of paying for more resources than are actually needed, or paying for fewer resources than what will be needed in the future.

• Shared Hosting: Still traditional, but your website shares server resources with other websites, depending on the servers’ capacity. How much your site gets depends on the hosting package you purchase. Because resources are shared, bandwidth can vary, causing slower page loading, or 404 “page not found” errors. You might be charged “over-usage” fees when the site uses more resources than the package provides, and you’ll be required to upgrade your hosting package, moving the site to a different server and setting it up from scratch; re-uploading all files, photos etc., and the site being down 24-48 hours during transition.

• Dedicated Hosting: Still traditional, but all server resources are used for only your website. Much more power, but much more expensive. There’s still the risk of paying for more resources than your site requires, or of not buying enough resources for what site will require later. Administration costs can go up too, and “over-usage” fees still apply.

• Virtual Private/Dedicated Hosting: Still traditional, but resources are shared among sites, but significantly fewer sites. “Over-usage” fees still apply when the site uses more resources than the package provides, and you’ll be required to upgrade the hosting package. Again, this means moving the site to a different (dedicated) server, and setting it up from scratch; re-uploading all files, photos, etc., and the site being down 24-48 hours during the transition.

• Cloud Hosting: Very flexible and highly scalable. Cloud hosting uses multiple servers that are housed in data-centers around the world. The servers combine as a total “pool” of resources which scale up and down according to website needs, creating a virtual server. Resource allocation is not fixed: you only pay for what is used.

Choosing the best hosting solution comes down to what’s “right” for the business right now while projecting into the next three years of growth.

Your Color Scheme

Color schemes are important because color has the ability to evoke various emotional responses. It’s vital to consider your company’s niche, target audience, brand, and to incorporate some very basic color theory. Which colors will your target audience respond to? What colors will best convey your brand?

The Website’s Integration with Your Social Media

Social media provides a way for customers to promote your brand, provide reviews, and stay current about you or your company. Written and visual content, including product images and video, can easily be shared on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, etc. by simply including the relevant buttons on your site.

Do You Want to Rent or Own Your Website?

By contracting with us to design and code your site, you will OWN your site. Many people don’t even realize that there is an issue of “ownership” to be considered.

When you own your site, you possess the “source code” that was used to develop the site. Without these documents, it would not be possible for you or another developer to edit the pages, or troubleshoot issues in the future. To maintain control over your site, you need to have these source files.

When you contract with Image and Aspect, you always get your source files at the end of the project.

Renting 

You’re renting your site when you use a “hosted platform” package-solution, (D-I-Y) which is considered to be “Software as a Service” (SaaS), and it has lower up-front investment cost. Examples: Wix and Shopify.

Owning

Owning requires a custom solution, and there’s a higher up-front investment for this dedicated development. Owning allows for customization and integration with 3rd party services, provides greater flexibility and room for expansion.

Summary

Before diving in and creating your website, take the time to explore the answers to some basic questions. Figure out what you want your website to do and how you want it to look and function.

Take the time to read, research, and learn. Draw or sketch your ideas for the site, or create mockups. Take my advice: doing these things will save you a lot of frustration, stress and lost time.

Or you could just call me. 🙂

Other articles you might like:

–Things to consider before building your website

–6 Ways to Use Storytelling in Your Blog Posts

–Balancing Consumer Personalization with GDPR Regulation

Questions?

[email protected]

My Contact Page

About the author

I developed Image and Aspect because I believe that professionals need to have an impactful web presence. One that showcases their unique talents, skills, and abilities as well as their values and style. A presence that focuses on social engagement and connection.

I’m passionate about what I do; I like helping fellow humans, I like having all kinds of social connection with others, and I want to give back, to make the world a better place.

I do much of the designing and coding myself, and I also have a wonderful network of professionals that may contribute as well; photographers, copywriters, branding experts.

I love designing and coding beautiful, elegant and responsive web creations. I ALSO teach and help others who want to learn how to do it themselves.

‘Tips and Snips’ is my blog, and it’s full of information and inspiration to help transform any online persona from “meh” to AMAZING! Sign-up HERE to get blog posts right to your in-box every Friday! I write about Design, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Branding, Vlogging, Color Theory, HTML5, CSS3, Bootstrap, WordPress, Social Media…anything you’d want to know to get yourself noticed online.

Visit Image and Aspect to learn more about your web presence options

Diane M. Metcalf, M.S.

Your website is your brand’s personalization headquarters

The transition to GDPR compliance absolutely created more work for businesses. Now that we’ve done the hard part, let’s take a look at how using your visitor-data could help demonstrate your company’s concern for your audience.

You can test your ideas: With tools such as Certona and Optimizely, you can test different personalization strategies to see which is most effective. You’ll have the ability to change tactics quickly, which saves both time and money. You’ll be able to discover the best way to enrich the customer experience with your brand.

You can adjust your ideas for personalization in real time, almost as fast as visitors are interacting with your site.  You can easily and quickly go back to a previous version of your page if you find that the new strategy isn’t working. If you find that your strategy is working, you can go ahead and scale that across the whole site if you want. 

Three ways to use data for personalization:

1. Identify repeat visitors: If you sell products or register your users, you can use the collected data to greet them or direct them to more relevant content on your site. 
2. Improve customer retention: When customer retention is the most important thing, consider how you talk to your customers. Try highlighting their purchases, preferences, or their status. Consumers who register on your site usually assume you’re tracking their data, so try to discover ways to make it beneficial for them.
3. Identify new visitors: Even if you don’t know the specific names of the people using your site, you can still personalize their experience by using their IP addresses. (The IP address is a location’s digital address. It changes depending on what network the visitor used at the time they visited your site). You could use the collected data to make observations about your customer’s language preferences, the time of day they visited,  and other metrics. You’ll make your new visitors feel special because you recognize them when they return.

Using personalization to achieve your business goals

Look at your click-through rates, conversion rates, scroll and exit rates, time spent on the site, bounce rates and other important metrics to see if you’re improving overall site engagement.

Then take a look at your Return On Investment. Was the investment worth it? Did your numbers change at all?  Or did personalization have a negative impact on those important performance indicators? Evaluate these questions according to your goals and adjust your strategy to align with them.

Other articles you might like:

-6 Ways to Use Storytelling in Your Blog Posts

-Use a Thank You Page to Grow your Subscriber List or Customer Base

-Using images: Tips to improve your SEO rankings

Questions?

[email protected]

My Contact Page

About the author

I developed Image and Aspect because I believe that professionals need to have an impactful web presence. One that showcases their unique talents, skills, and abilities as well as their values and style. A presence that focuses on social engagement and connection.

I’m passionate about what I do; I like helping fellow humans, I like having all kinds of social connection with others, and I want to give back, to make the world a better place.

I do much of the designing and coding myself, and I also have a wonderful network of professionals that may contribute as well; photographers, copywriters, branding experts.

I love designing and coding beautiful, elegant and responsive web creations. I ALSO teach and help others who want to learn how to do it themselves.

‘Tips and Snips’ is my blog, and it’s full of information and inspiration to help transform any online persona from “meh” to AMAZING! Sign-up HERE to get blog posts right to your in-box every Friday! I write about Design, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Branding, Vlogging, Color Theory, HTML5, CSS3, Bootstrap, WordPress, Social Media…anything you’d want to know to get yourself noticed online.

Visit Image and Aspect to learn more about your web presence options

Diane M. Metcalf, M.S.

The Revelation

It took me a while for some reason, but I finally realized that the way I was working was not conducive to happiness, health, or a sense of mental or emotional well-being. My priorities HAD to change if I wanted to stay sane. So I changed them.

Work is important, sure, especially when you’re your own boss and you’re doing the work of several people. But I finally remembered that I’m important too, and that I should be on the priority list along with everything and everybody else! Sleep is important. Eating is important. Socializing is important. Enjoying the life that I’m creating is important.

So here’s what I’ve changed so far, to balance my life. I’m happier, healthier, and I feel more rested and peaceful because of it.

I Schedule Social Time

Once every week or two, I make a few coffee or lunch dates with friends. I FaceTime with distant friends or family. I text with friends or family members that I don’t see very often.

Socialization doesn’t have to be face to face, but that would be ideal. Unfortunately, much of my family lives in other states, and so to socialize with them I need to talk on the phone or FaceTime or Skype, or text. These all work for me because it’s the interaction and connection that’s important.

I find a pleasant space to hang out, nowhere near my workspace, so I can fully focus and enjoy the interaction.

Whatever type of socialization works for you, do it!

I Have a Schedule

There was a time when I preferred to code for hours without any breaks, but that was not helpful in the long run.

One time, I started at 10 PM and the next time I looked up from my screen it was 6 AM. I had no idea. When I was new to working from home, I didn’t want to have “a schedule”. I really felt that the beauty of working from a home office was that I could work “whenever” I wanted. And often I wanted to work very late at night.

It didn’t take long for this new found “freedom”  to negatively impact my sleep cycle. Having the freedom to work “whenever”, wasn’t working for me at all. I wasn’t tired at night when I should be sleeping, and I was tired all day when I was also working and taking care of other responsibilities.

So I decided to have more structure in my days and nights. In order to keep that feeling of freedom I now use a loosely defined schedule, beginning anywhere between 7 and 8 AM and ending anywhere between 4 and 5 PM. But it works for me. I work only half a day on Friday and I don’t work most weekends.

Making myself stick with this structure has fixed my sleep cycle and given me back a sense of control over my life.  It impacts how I plan my days. I can work more, or less, depending on what I need to get done.

I Take Breaks

Now that I have a schedule, I still have a tendency to get immersed in my work,  sometimes to the exclusion of everything else.

When I first started taking little breaks, I worried about how “behind” I was getting in my work. But I soon realized that for some reason, my mind worked better, my thoughts were clear and I was actually more productive after I took a couple of breaks! I had no idea that would happen simply from taking a little time away from my work throughout the day. So I decided to keep taking breaks and make some of them a little bit longer.

I’m getting all of my work done and I don’t feel like I’m falling behind on other responsibilities while at the same time, I stay sane.

During a 30 minute break, I might do a little banking. On another break, I’ll make myself a nutritious snack or lunch. On a shorter break, I’ll play with the dog.

See what I mean? I don’t have a set break schedule but I’m aware that I need to take them and I honor that. I take them in the morning and in the afternoon, at various times and for various lengths, depending on my needs. I no longer drive myself like a workhorse. I’m kinder and more considerate to myself, and it shows in my work. Go figure, huh?

I Get Out of the House

I think one of the best ways to stay sane is to get out and about. Even if it’s just to make a quick coffee run, pick up the dry cleaning, or go to the grocery store for 2 things, I DO IT.

Some ways you can get yourself out of the house are:

If you have a dog, take her for a walk or go to the park for an hour.

Join an exercise class.

Join a small business club or your Chamber of Commerce. These types of groups often have get-togethers, so not only will you get out of the house, you’ll meet other entrepreneurs, hear new ideas, learn new things and build your network. All good for you AND your business.

Check the mail or take a short walk. Get your muscles working and your blood pumping.  Your body will appreciate movement, you’ll get to look at something besides your computer screen. And that brings me to the next thing:

Make a Change of Scenery

I started working from a different area after each break. So on some days, if I’ve had three breaks, I’ve worked in three different areas, including outside. This one really helps me stay sane.

My advice to you: change up your workspace now and then. Work in different areas of your house or sit in a different chair or in a different room, so your view changes. Work outside for 30 minutes if you can, sometimes in your front yard, sometimes in the back. Work from your favorite coffee spot and change-out the location now and then. Not only will you have a change of scenery, but you’ll meet and interact with different people.

I hope you’ll try a couple of these yourself and see if it makes a positive difference in your life. 🙂

Questions?

[email protected]

My Contact Page Other articles you might like: -How your personal brand makes the difference -Using images: Tips to improve your SEO rankings -10 Things to Do After Creating Your Website

About the author

I developed Image and Aspect because I believe that professionals need to have an impactful web presence. One that showcases their unique talents, skills, and abilities as well as their values and style. A presence that focuses on social engagement and connection. I’m passionate about what I do; I like helping fellow humans, I like having all kinds of social connection with others, and I want to give back, to make the world a better place. I do much of the designing and coding myself, and I also have a wonderful network of professionals that may contribute as well; photographers, copywriters, branding experts. I love designing and coding beautiful, elegant and responsive web creations. I ALSO teach and help others who want to learn how to do it themselves. ‘Tips and Snips’ is my blog, and it’s full of information and inspiration to help transform any online persona from “meh” to AMAZING! Sign-up HERE to get blog posts right to your in-box every Friday! I write about Design, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Branding, Vlogging, Color Theory, HTML5, CSS3, Bootstrap, WordPress, Social Media…anything you’d want to know to get yourself noticed online. Visit Image and Aspect to learn more about your web presence options Diane M. Metcalf, M.S.

6 common image formats: how to use them

JPEG, JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Graphics)

JPG’s are the most common of the six common iamge file formats out there. Digital cameras use the JPG file format, and internet images are displayed using this format as well. This file format is based on “Lossy Compression”, meaning that it keeps only the visible information and discards any information that our eyes can’t actually see. JPG’s popularity comes from its ability to load fast on any platform while maintaining good quality, and because it can be viewed on any type of device. The downside is that any time a JPG image is saved, (basically re-compressing it each time), it loses quality and becomes grainy or pixelated.

PRO’s: lightweight and view-able on almost any device without special programs or viewers.
CONS: loses quality when saved repeatedly.
Best for: web design, social platforms, and portfolios.

PNG (Portable Network Graphics)

A PNG is a high-quality image file format, based on “lossless compression”. PNG has the ability to retain the original sharpness and color of the saved image, and it supports transparent backgrounds, which is great for displaying logos or when using an image on a patterned or colored background. They’re a larger file format and use more storage space then JPG’s, so they take more time to load.

PROS: high-quality, support transparent backgrounds.
CONS: heavyweight, longer loading time, takes up more storage.
Best For: logos, websites photos, profile pics, posts, covers.

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)

GIF, for many of us, means animation. GIF’s are made of pixels, just like JPEG’s and PNG format types, but GIF’s are based on the “LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) compression”, which is also a type of lossless compression. GIF is best for images that contain fewer colors, like diagrams, and shapes. GIF’s also support transparent backgrounds.

PROS: basic animation, transparency.
CONS: poor gradient color display. Not good for multi-color images.
Best For: short animations on social media.

PDF (Portable Document Format)

PDF’s are used for online documents. The PDF format was created by Adobe so that files could be opened and displayed without losing their original formatting or design. Photos, images, videos, audio files, interactive elements like forms or buttons, as well as text, can all be included inside a PDF file. PDF’s can be created in Adobe products like Acrobat, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Indesign, as well as with Google Docs, Microsoft Word and many others. To view PDF’s, you need to have a reader program (special software) installed.

PROS: keeps formatting and design of the original document.
CONS: need PDF Reader to view.
Best For: online forms, documents and printing them.

SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)

SVG is a format for saving and displaying “vectors”, which are digital illustrations made with geometric shapes and created with “vector illustration software”. SVG’s look very clean and professional and can be displayed on all web browsers. They’re a good format for printing because they maintain their high quality when resized. It’s a good idea to save logos and other visual business resources as an SVG file as well as other formats like PNG and JPEG.

PROS: doesn’t lose quality when resized.
CONS: SVG’s aren’t supported by social media.
Best For: web design, illustrated business resources like logos, icons, diagrams.

MP4 (Moving Picture Experts Group)

Of the six common image file formats, MP4 files are video files that may also contain audio data and/or text subtitles. MP4’s are lightweight and can be uploaded quickly to websites or social media networks. They can be played on media players or streamed over the Internet, without the need to use a special application or program.

PROS: lightweight, plays on all common media players, streams online.
CONS: none.
Best For: websites and social media.

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Questions? 

[email protected]

My Contact Page

Other articles you might like:

-How your personal brand makes the difference

-Using images: Tips to improve your SEO rankings

-10 Things to Do After Creating Your Website

 

About the author

I developed Image and Aspect because I believe that professionals need to have an impactful web presence. One that showcases their unique talents, skills, and abilities as well as their values and style. A presence that focuses on social engagement and connection.

I’m passionate about what I do; I like helping fellow humans, I like having all kinds of social connection with others, and I want to give back, to make the world a better place.

I do much of the designing and coding myself, and I also have a wonderful network of professionals that may contribute as well; photographers, copywriters, branding experts.

I love designing and coding beautiful, elegant and responsive web creations. I ALSO teach and help others who want to learn how to do it themselves.

‘Tips and Snips’ is my blog, and it’s full of information and inspiration to help transform any online persona from “meh” to AMAZING! Sign-up HERE to get blog posts right to your in-box every Friday! I write about Design, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Branding, Vlogging, Color Theory, HTML5, CSS3, Bootstrap, WordPress, Social Media…anything you’d want to know to get yourself noticed online.

Visit Image and Aspect to learn more about your web presence options

Diane M. Metcalf, M.S.