website design for web presence
TRANSCRIPT
Website Design
By Kim BurneyAttraction Center Publishing, LLC
Is it time?
• Can people find you? Do they know you are there? True story…
Sunset Inn in Erie was considering selling their beautiful property on the lake that had held so many memorable events over the years because no one was booking with them in 2008. Why? Their only source of advertising was in the phone book and not many people look for places for events in the phonebook these days…
Is it time?
We built them a website and within a month they were getting bookings for the season. The website was simple and even what I call today an “ugly” website (it was just outdated), but it worked. There were enough photos of the place for people to get what was possible there.
Today they get calls from famous people wanting a private place to get married and not be disturbed. They get to choose who they deal with, no more bride-zillas!
All because of a website?!?! YES, without a doubt.
Is it time?
• Is it time for an update to your website – this is the before and after of the recent Sunset Inn update:
BEFORE
Is it time?
This is after the update:
AFTER
Attraction Center Publishing• Who is ACP? – Publishing company started in March 2008– To help authors get published without being self-published– Website design– Internet Marketing– 100’s of websites designed
• CEO, Kim Burney– IT Specialist – helping small to medium sized businesses as
a virtual IT department– Web developer– Publisher– Internet Marketer
Domain Name
• Domain Name: (as an example for this program we will use Attraction Center Publishing)
• What is a domain name: the web address www.attractioncenterpublishing.com
• Who owns it? You should register and purchase your own domain name. It becomes an asset to your company. It is of value..
Domain Name
• What can happen if I let someone else register it in their name? They own it, they can sell it, they can hold you hostage (i.e. it will cost you $XXX to buy the name from XXXX)
• You can go here to purchase and register your domain name: ACP is a reseller for GoDaddy, the largest reseller for domain names
• Does it cost more to go there? No, same price – more personalized service.
What is Hosting?• Hosting is the server where the files for your website
reside.• In order for people to find your website, they need to
know the URL or www.attractioncenterpublishing.com• The URL is the link to where your files are for your
website. • Hosting can be:
– Local (you have a server with a dedicated IP address that people go to see your website – housed on your property)
– On a public server– On a dedicated server
What is Hosting? (cont.)• What is the difference and why does it
matter?– Your Hosting: you have a server in your business…• May have great bandwidth, maybe not.. Could be slow• If your internet goes downs, your website is down• You get a virus, the website is effected• Who do you call for tech support? • How many people are helping you resolve this issue?• Someone erases the files – all is lost
What is Hosting? (cont.)– Public Hosting: GoDaddy or another hosting
• Cheap hosting (maybe $3.95 per month)• You are on a sever with many others• If someone on that server is “blacklisted” (they send out
spam, too many emails at one time…) you are on the blacklisted server and it is not your fault…• If you are blacklisted your server may not show up on search
engines or be blocked and may be shut down• Search engine bots see it as “small time…” if you are hosted
on a public server you do not get the same ranking as the larger websites• If you need help (i.e. your website is down…) who do you
call? The general help number… “you are 5th in line… and will be helped when we get to you…”
What is Hosting? (cont.)• Dedicated server:– A dedicated server is managed by one entity, in
this case, ACP– If you have issues, you call the dedicated host
provider (in this case, Attraction Center Publishing) and a REAL person helps you resolve your issue
What is Hosting? (cont.)– ACP provides a dedicated server through a tier
one data center (that means if the servers in Ft Worth Texas go down, then it automatically starts up in Atlanta, GA or Idaho, etc.) it is called redundant
– We monitor the servers for issues and are less likely to get “blacklisted” due to spam
– We are here for you with rapid response
Hosting True Story…• This week we had a client call at 8:00 am Monday that was not
receiving email. We got the call and looked at the situation.• Called the hosting company that has 1000’s on staff and got a
direct answer.• They determined that the server needed to be rebooted (has
happened 2 times in 6 years)• They went to the server room and rebooted the server and we
were up and running in 15 min.• 99.9% uptime means that sometimes things happen and we
have to reboot… oh well• Nice to have a staff available to go hit the reset button
What are Add-Ons?• Add-Ons are plug ins or services that are not
included in the basic set up of your website• Add-Ons may include:– Plug ins – Forms– Stock photos– Shopping cart
What are Add-Ons? (cont.)– Auto Responders– Google Map set up– Other SEO (search engine optimization) tools– Videos embedded on your site
• These may included fee based services or options and/or free items
• Generally outside provider fees are not included in the cost of your website unless stated in the agreement
Content
• Content includes:– Photos– Videos– Copy (the words that you find on a website, sales
information, etc.)– Digital works the best, scanned photos just do not
give your work justice (see an example on the next page)
Digital vs Scanned
Content (cont.)
• Provide as much information as possible for copy (content)
• Brochures, letters, testimonials, etc• Provide information by email so that we can
copy and paste to make sure that everything is correct the first time
• If you need help assembling information, we will guide you
Consultation
• Pre-design - provided by phone to help you:– Decide what information you want to include on
your website– Gather information– Plan a strategy to attract clients to your site
Consultation (cont.)
• Post-design - provided by phone to help you:– Understand how to promote your website (if you
build it they will NOT come unless you help them find you!)
– Information on how to log in to your website and make your own changes
– Clean up any left over things on your site
CSM (Content Management System)
• What this means is that you (or someone you hire) can make changes to your own website. No need to call your webmaster if you want to make a change.
• WordPress is a fully functioning content management system.
• If you can use Microsoft Word, you can use WordPress for your website.
Wordpress
• Definition for wordpress:• WordPress is an open source CMS, often used as a
blog publishing application powered by PHP and MySQL. It has many features including a plugin architecture and a templating system. Used by over 12% of the 1,000,000 biggest websites, WordPress is the most popular CMS in use today.
• Simply put – it is the software platform that your website will run on (kind of like the OS Vista or XP)
WP Themes
• The look and feel of a WordPress based website is called the theme.
• While the content of your website remains the same you can change your theme – to upgrade the look or just for fun! Example:
Themes – Example - BasicWordPress Basic theme 2010
WordPress Basic theme 2011
Theme - Customized
Theme – Upgraded - Thesis
Theme - Premium
Graphics
• Graphics include: – Logos– Photos– Videos– Artwork– Etc.
• Each of these take time to adjust for the web, too large and it takes too long to load, too small and you can’t see it…
Autoresponder
• An autoresponder is a computer program that automatically answers e-mail sent to it. They can be very simple or quite complex.
• The more complex autoresponder is used to built a database of clients/potential clients and send them messages as a way of communicating.
• The well known autoresponders are: Aweber, Mailchimp, Constant Contact, 1Shopping Cart, etc.
Shopping Cart
• Shopping carts are used on a website to sell products
• Shopping carts can be simple, like PayPal• Or more complex, like 1Shopping Cart
Get Noticed
• SEO (search engine optimization) are the tools you use to boost your ranking on search engines
• Google is the most used search engine today and is the standard for SEO
• Ways to improve your visibility can include paid and FREE tools
Get Noticed (cont.)
• Paid:– Pay per Click (PPC)– Banner Ads– Online links in Superpages (or other phonebooks)– Ads on YouTube, FaceBook, etc.
Get Noticed (cont.)
• Earned Media (the ones you get for FREE or for the price of creating it yourself)– FaceBook Fan Page– Google Maps– YouTube– Twitter– Blogs– Etc.
Start Here
• The best place to start is to create accounts in this order (this is important, you will see…)
1. Gmail – using your domain name as the gmail address (example – [email protected] )
2. FaceBook – using your domain name again3. YouTube – using your domain name4. Twitter – using your domain name5. Skype – using your domain name
It’s all about the branding and SEO!!
• If you wonder why the previous page is important, check this out:
• I own the domain name, kimburney.com; as well as: kimburney in these…
• If you Google Kim Burney, I am most of the spots on the first three pages (and beyond) it works!!
[email protected] YouTube
FaceBook Twitter
Skype Many other social media
Fun Stuff - Favicon
• Favicon - A favicon (short for favorites icon), also known as a shortcut icon, website icon, URL icon, or bookmark icon is a 16×16 or 32×32 pixel square icon associated with a particular website or webpage.
• Shows up like this:– Desktop as shortcut – On a web browser in the address bar
Fun Stuff – QR Code
• A QR code (abbreviated from Quick Response code) is a specific matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code) that is readable by dedicated QR barcode readers
• Like this:
Fun Stuff – QR Code – (cont.)
• They can be used to: – Send someone to a website– Send them to a form to fill out– Send them to your contact information– To a note– To a video– To a joke – To anything that is stored online…
YouTube Video
• YouTube is owned by Google, so if you have a YouTube video on your website you will have a higher ranking opportunity
• They are a fun, quick way to engage with potential customers/clients
• They can also drive traffic from YouTube:• Here are a couple of examples:
Pages
• Basic pages include:– Home– About Us– Contact
• A blog page is great for keeping current information like specials, events, information, etc.
• Other pages for more information about products and services
• Testimonial Pages are always powerful
The Legal Stuff
• It is important to provide your legal information in regards to:– Copyright– Privacy Policy– Terms of Use