Techniques for Better & Faster Website Designing

Posted on April 6, 2012 by admin | Permalink 0

Effective website designing is important for any organization which is seeking to thrive and expand in the modern business environment. The website is the equivalent of an online calling card for an organization and it is what makes a lasting impression on those customers who visit the webpage by being engaging, informative and user-friendly. A well-designed website helps a business to not only attract new customers for its products and services but also to retain existing customers by being an effective tool for after-sales service and repeat purchases.

Website designing is a broad term which brings multi-disciplinary activities such as technical development, graphics, content, coding and business together on one platform in order to create web pages which may be displayed over the internet.

Research has shown that the attention spans and patience levels of users of the virtual world are only one-fifth than in the real world. In such a scenario, designing a website means making a web page inviting, easy to navigate, relevant to the users’ needs in terms of functionalities and information.  Most importantly, the web page must download quickly, else the user would move on to some other webpage.

There are several easy techniques that are available which if applied at the time of Website Designing will make for faster downloading of the web pages:

  1. The number of components on a web page such as images, style-sheets, scripts, flashes etc. should be minimized and the overall design be kept as simple as possible. A simple design uses the minimal number of HTTP calls which enable a web page to open faster on the browser.
  2. Although cookies are essential in web designing, only those cookies which are absolutely essential for sustaining the website should be used and the sizes of these should be as small as possible. Fewer cookies, smaller cookies mean a faster user response time.
  3. The web page response time is highly influenced by the users’ proximity to the host server. Deploying the content across a number of host servers over a broad geographical area does help to boost the speed of web page downloads. The most feasible way of doing this is by dispersing the static content of the web page through the servers of a Content Delivery Network.
  4. During the course of Website Designing, it is advisable to put “style sheets” on top of the webpage. This makes the web page to download in a progressive manner and simultaneously it gives the impression to the user that the page is loading faster.
  5. Similar to the point mentioned above, it is also advisable to try and put “scripts” either at the bottom or as close to the bottom of the web page as possible because pages with scripts at the bottom download faster.

Although there are several other factors involved in Website Designing, keeping the pointers mentioned above in view would go a long way in building an effective website.

 

Website Design & Development

Brand Awareness through Email Marketing

Posted on April 4, 2012 by admin | Permalink 0

Email marketing is now an effective tool for creating brand awareness overshadowing other conventional methods.  It has also been found to give the highest return on investment. Creating brand awareness through email marketing is however not an easy game to play, it calls for some smart moves to be effective.

Brand Awareness is the extent to which the consumer is able to identify the existence of a company’s product or services. Brand Awareness is especially important for commodity-related products which have few distinguishing features; for these products the brands with the highest level of consumer awareness are the ones which sell the most. Building brand awareness is especially crucial when a new product or service is being introduced into the market.

Email marketing refers to the act of sending out a commercial message through an email to a mass of consumers either soliciting sales or providing value-added information about a product or service. Email marketing has several advantages:

  1. It is the cheapest form of communication.
  2. A larger number of customers may be reached than through any other means.
  3. It is almost instantaneous in nature in terms of customer contact and response.
  4. It allows for segregation of customers and communicating with them accordingly.
  5. It allows for tracking of customer responses or lack thereof.
  6. It is flexible thus allowing for personalization of the marketing campaign.

Email marketing has its challenges too, such as:

  1. The email being regarded as spam (unsolicited bulk email) by the recipients.
  2. An overload of business emails in the inbox which are ignored due to the paucity of time.
  3. Where a marketing email is read by the customer, the different reading systems of email service providers may distort the overall layout of the message.
  4. The short attention spans of email users make it challenging to sustain interest levels.

Having analyzed the pros and cons of email marketing, let us now understand how this powerful tool may be used to ramp up the brand awareness of a product.

  1. Consistency and persistence without seeming aggressive is what works. Even where the customer does not actually open a marketing email, she still reads the name of the sender and the subject line which over a period to time develops brand familiarity.
  2. The content of the email should be interesting and brief. The customer should not have to scroll down to read through a wordy message as it would then lead to a loss of interest.
  3. The brand logo should be eye-catching and attractive.
  4. The email should provide options for immediate response by the intended customer.
  5. The email should also send out a message respecting the privacy of the customer by providing an option to unsubscribe from the email campaign.

An intelligent email marketing campaign thus may be a critical lever in creating brand awareness in the most cost-effective manner.

Email Marketing

Points to Remember While Working on Mobile Website Development

Posted on April 1, 2012 by admin | Permalink 0

Mobile Website Development has gained a lot of prominence today given the compounding increase in the number of mobile phone users in the world.  With over 5.9 billion mobile phone users today and still counting; a large number of whom also use their handsets to connect to the internet, the impact and importance for organizations to have a website specifically designed for mobile users cannot be ignored.

Mobile Website Development is very different from that of designing a website for fixed desktop or laptop users. It has a set of challenges which need to be addressed:

  1. The web experience of a mobile user is very different from that of a desktop user. A mobile user experiences a slower and fluctuating connectivity depending upon the location and is more expensive.
  2. The small screen-sizes of mobile phones make the display of text and graphics difficult to view and operate.
  3. Different systems used by manufacturers for the web facility make the same page look different on different devices.
  4. A mobile web user does not have the option of opening multiple windows as she would have on a normal computer thus she is not able to alternate amongst various pages.
  5. Most handsets do not have a mouse-like feature, except for some advanced devices with a trackball system. Users have only a vertical scrolling option thus limiting the data on view.
  6. Mobile website users access the web alongside some other activity, the most primary amongst them being travelling; apart from waiting in a queue or for an appointment, while in the washroom or at some friend or relatives’ residence.  The user does not assign his full attention to the websites that he is accessing.

Challenges also provide opportunities such as the fact that a mobile website is available to a user at all times and all places. It provides an opportunity for businesses to gather real time, location-specific information. Both of which are significant marketing opportunities.

Therefore, while working on a Mobile Website Development, first understand:

  1. The users who would be accessing the site.
  2. Their requirement from the site.
  3. The location and circumstances of access.

The focus should be on the content because the mobile user is usually seeking information and the limited sizes of the handset screens do not do justice to fancy graphics. The layout of the website should be as simple and as lean as possible with all the important information available right at the top so that the user does not have to scroll back and forth. A fluid layout of the website would ensure that the website appears the same on all types of handsets. Usage of java scripts should be minimized so that the web pages download faster.

Keeping these basics in mind, an effective mobile website may be developed which would be attractive to the users and profitable for the developers.

 

Mobile Website Development

The Power of Internet Marketing

Posted on February 23, 2012 by admin | Permalink 0

internet marketing serviceThe power of the Internet is immense and most organizations trying to make it big online have clearly understood this. But then again, there are various methods and techniques to use the internet power correctly; and only if you can use it right, you can expand your business. This is where internet marketing strategies come real handy, which if used correctly can be very cost effective and can bring in positive results really fast.

Internet marketing Toronto has been experiencing a rapid growth in the recent years with the best use of latest technologies that can help businesses gain maximum online exposure. There are various ways to implement an internet marketing plan; and selecting the best strategy does depend to some extent on the type of product or services you want to market. Nevertheless, the most popular and used online marketing techniques are:

  • E-mail Marketing: This is perhaps the earliest forms of internet marketing and a means of communicating directly with the audience through electronic mail. Its main purpose has always been to acquire new customers, continue a long-lasting and loyal relationship with existing clients, repeat business as well as promote services to current customers and encourage them to purchase something.
  • Search Engine Optimization: Majority of the consumer’s nowadays search on the internet for products and services. Therefore optimizing your business website through SEO with the help of a professional SEO Toronto company is always a profitable and wise decision.
  • Social Media Marketing: Operating an active social account in popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter etc. can help attain a positive fan following that can bring in long term gains for the business.
  • Article Marketing: This type of internet marketing Toronto includes submission of well-written and keyword rich articles to various renowned article directories. The articles are usually related to the specific business or industry and help in increasing visibility and attracting clients.
  • Pay per Click (PPC): This type of online marketing includes purchasing of PPC ads in top search engines or other networks. With search engines, an advertiser needs to bid on keyword phrases significant to their specific business.
  • Digital Marketing: Through this medium, brands are promoted on the internet using all forms of online digital advertising channels. This may include video channels, Internet Radio, mobile phones, display or banner ads, digital outdoors and various other forms of digital media to reach the target audience.
Internet Marketing

An Optimized Website Increases The Value Of Your Business

Posted on February 14, 2012 by admin | Permalink 0

Online Marketing Toronto and 3 Reasons Why Your Website Needs to be Optimized.

internet marketing torontoAre you considering SEO to help aid in your online marketing Toronto initiatives? These 3 reasons should help solidify your reason to get started as soon as possible

Increasing your websites traffic is not the only reason a business should consider SEO. I have always told my clients that there are 3 reasons why every business should optimize its website. Here goes:

1. Increase in Website Traffic = Increase in Leads/Sales

The most obvious reason is that it helps increase traffic to your site resulting in higher generation of leads or sales. It’s no secret; everyone is searching Google (even Yahoo and Bing) when looking for a product or service. Businesses that are not on the first page of keywords related to their business are in fact facing massive opportunity costs. This loss of business is simply going to your competitors. (At least someone is benefiting)

2. Be Professional and Reputable! Stand Out as an Industry Leader.

There is a reason why most search engine users don’t go past the first page. Other than the notion that search engine users are restricted with time or just lazy (including me), we naturally feel that the best companies are on the first page and we will simply find the best in what we are looking for.

3. Increase the Value of your Business.

Before we start, any business who is renting a website should call us immediately. There is no reason at all to rent a website; they have just become too affordable for any business to not own one. A website is a business asset, maybe the only business asset whose value does not depreciate. So why would you rent, it’s not like you will need a mortgage to own your own website (at least if you buy one from G Web Pro). In fact there is ways to increase the value of your website. Regular maintenance and I’m sure you have already guessed, effective SEO will increase the value of your website, hence your business. If you are wondering HOW then I have a very simple answer for you. A website which ranks on the first page for keywords related to the business and has high traffic will have the advantage of capturing greater sales or leads. If I were to purchase a business, I would definitely pay more for one which has an optimized site with high website traffic. This is why we believe a website and SEO is an asset which generates income.

In case any business would like to have their website valued, please feel free to email us at sales@gwebpro.com. We specialize in website valuation and website appraisals, our expertise and experience will provide a third party valuation to your website.

Take advantage of online marketing Toronto and grow your business today!

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Internet Marketing