Research Summaries

Principles When Designing Ecommerce Websites

matt@webconnection.com — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:00:00 -0400

Even though many ecommerce sites don’t appear to be much different than any other website, their web strategy is vastly different. An ecommerce sites main goal is to lead the visitor down a path to a sale of product(s). When a web designer creates an ecommerce website they must always keep this goal in mind.

Many people don’t understand why ecommerce sites must be designed differently because every website is supposed to be attractive, well organized and have intuitive navigation. Although this is also true for an ecommerce site, there are several other features that are imperative. For instance, ecommerce sites must give the user a pleasant shopping experience, provide information to prove that the selling company should be trusted, and the website should be easy to get from point A to point B as efficiently as possible.

To learn more principles and how to create a successful ecommerce website check this out.

Always remember, if you need professional assistance with your web strategy, you can always contact WebConnection.

Just Say No

matt@webconnection.com — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 12:00:00 -0400

The word no may have been one of the first 10 words we learned as babies. As adults, we often have trouble using the word when talking to partners, customers, and sometimes even friends. Most people don’t use “no” out of fear, guilt, pressure, or doubt. Many people believe it is easier to give into someone’s ideas and demands then stand up for themselves and tell that person they are wrong.

Although it may not seem like a big deal, saying “no” can be very beneficial to both your own and your customers business. When a business hires you to create something they are hiring you for your expertise and therefore you own the right to say “no” and give an expert opinion. As the company hired to create a product, you are even expected to say “no” and create a better plan.

Saying “no” to people isn’t always easy but it must be done. Check out this website to learn when and the best ways to say “no” to other people or businesses.

Always remember, if you need professional assistance with your web strategy, you can always contact WebConnection.

Social Media as Tool to Success

matt@webconnection.com — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:00:00 -0400

Many managers view social media as “a distraction and ultimately a productivity killer in the workplace.” In order to prove these managers wrong, members of the social media community have argued that social media really does help get things done faster and also is very productive in the workplace.

When social media was first used, its main purpose was networking. Over time, social media has changed more to a place essential to your professional responsibilities and somewhere where a business can get a lot of work done.

In order to use social media successfully, one must analyze the tools main value in helping accomplish tasks. Here’s a list of several areas where social media can make you and your business much more successful.

Always remember, if you need professional assistance with your web strategy, you can always contact WebConnection

Color Contrast and a Website Design's Effectiveness

matt@webconnection.com — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:00:00 -0400

Even though it sounds easy, contrast is a very important and difficult part to designing a web page. The web designer must make the page look good and colorful without making it illegible or painful for a user to look at and more importantly read.

Web designers often take a lot of time in order to determine what colors contrast well with one another. If the contrast on a web page is poor then it often causes users to leave the website unsatisfied, potentially effecting their decision to work with that organization. The web is a very crowded playing field as it is, clashing colors erode the performance of any web site.

Here’s a chart that displays colors that contrast well in addition to colors that contrast poorly.

Always remember, if you need professional assistance with your web strategy, you can always contact WebConnection.

Useful Tips to Increase Twitter Followers

matt@webconnection.com — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:00:00 -0400

Twitter is quickly taking over the blogging industry. Recent research has shown that there are about 6 million registered twitter users which equates to about 3.8 percent of the people that use the Internet.

Some people use twitter as a personal tool but many businesses use twitter to help generate leads. In order for a business to increase their twitter followers, they must find a way to increase twitter traffic to their page. Here’s a list of several tips that can be used in order to rapidly increase your twitter followers.

Always remember, if you need professional assistance with your web strategy, you can always contact WebConnection.

Search Engines Still Key to Web Site Visibility

matt@webconnection.com — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:00:00 -0400

Even though the medias attention is on social media resources such as twitter and facebook, search is still the most important technique in driving potential customers to your website. Due to the importance of search traffic to these businesses, the search engine marketing industry is used to improve a websites visibility in search engine results.

Search engine marketing is a complicated topic that focuses on search engine optimization but also contains paid advertising and contextual advertisements in order to bring a web page to the top of an Internet search.

Making your website search engine marketing optimized is very important to reaching the top of these searches. Here’s a helpful list that will lift your website for search engine marketing.

Always remember, if you need professional assistance with your web strategy, you can always contact WebConnection.

Using YouTube as a Business Tool

matt@webconnection.com — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 12:00:00 -0400

YouTube is the most popular online video market share web site on the Internet today with the average person watching 62 videos a month.

Although many of the videos on YouTube are simply there for entertainment, there are also several videos that are used as educational resources. These resources can often be helpful as a business tool.

There are many videos or subscriptions that contain valuable information that can help improve your business. This website provides several examples of these beneficial YouTube channels. You can also click here to view WebConnection's YouTube channel.

Always remember, if you need professional assistance with your web strategy, you can always contact WebConnection.

Google Negatively Ranks Slow Loading Web Pages

matt@webconnection.com — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 12:00:00 -0400

The typical internet user has no patience for slow loading web pages. After analyzing recent research, it has been discovered that the longer it takes for a page to load the less interested the visitor becomes. The result is a higher likelihood of them leaving the website altogether.

A worse outcome is that a slow loading web page also effects how Google ranks it. A good Google ranking is important to help get that page close to the top of a search.

Read this article to learn how slow loading web pages can affect the performance of a web site and how this problem should be solved.

Always remember, if you need professional assistance with your web strategy, you can always contact WebConnection.

Social Media for Generating Leads

matt@webconnection.com — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:00:00 -0400

According to the annual Unisfair marketing survey, social media is quickly becoming the top emerging channel for generating leads.

The May survey proved that 66% of technology marketing professionals ranked lead generation as their top priority for 2010. Ranking far behind lead generation was brand awareness and consumer retention.

Many businesses around the world are beginning to turn to social media as their main source of gaining new customers based on the growing importance and use of social media. Check out this link to learn more about using social media as a tool for lead generation.

Always remember, if you need professional assistance with your web strategy, you can always contact WebConnection.

Difference between Facebook Group and Fan Pages

mike@webconnection.com — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 12:00:00 -0400

What is the difference between Facebook Group Pages and Fan Pages and which is best for your business?

First, they look different. Fan Pages look just like profile pages, while Group pages display pictures in the top right with content space below.

Fan Pages are meant to represent a real public figure, artist, brand or organization. This type of page can only be created by a representative of that entity. Group pages can be created by any user, about any topic, as a space for users to share their views and opinions on that subject.

If you need more control over your content using a Group page may be more ideal for you. If you are looking for a running conversation from users interested in your products, services, company or employees, a Fan page may be best. For help with your organization's social media presence, contact us and we will be happy to assist you.

Social Media Leaders

mike@webconnection.com — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 13:00:00 -0400

According to recent data released by comScore, Youtube and Facebook lead all other in the social media space. Their report compared the growth from March 2009-March 2010.

Other interesting observations:

Facebook officially surpassed Myspace (whose users remained unchanged) and now has 33% more users.
Facebook almost doubled the amount of users
The use of Twitter more than doubled
The use of LinkedIn more than tripled

For help with your organization's social media presence, contact us and we will be happy to assist you.

Free Keyword Tools

mike@webconnection.com — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 13:09:00 -0400

Keywords are an important aspect of Search Engine Optimization. Many people struggle to come up with strategic keywords for their web sites. WebConnection has gathered a list of free tools to help you with your keywords.

Google’s Keyword Tool will suggest alternative keywords for your site, based on the keywords you enter. Google’s Search-based Keyword Tool will suggest keywords based on actual Google searches.
The Wordtracker site will provide the number of searches a keyword receives, as well as the top 100 related keywords and their number of searches. This allows you to select keywords that are relevant to your site and not commonly searched, increasing the chances your site is returned.
Keyword Discovery will suggest the top 100 related keywords to your initial keyword, as well as their search rates. They also offer a tool to allow you to which search engines are most commonly used for a specific keyword.
Submit Express provides combined, limited results from both Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery. It is useful to see the difference in the sites information, but their results are just a small portion of what the other sites offer.

Always remember, if you need professional assistance with your web strategy, you can always contact WebConnection.

Tips for Writing Web Content

mike@webconnection.com — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:45:00 -0500

Writing content for a web site is often the most intimidating aspect of the process. Most of us went to school and learned how to read and write. So why such the disdain? We have provided some tips to help alleviate this stressor.

The majority of web users scan content instead of actually reading it. To use this to your advantage:
- Use short statements
- Highlight important words by bolding or italicizing them
- Use meaningful headings so users can focus on the areas that are of interest to them
- Create bulleted lists
- Put the important information at the top of the page, least important at the bottom
- Focus on one idea per paragraph
- State that idea in the first sentence of each paragraph
Reading on the web is slower than reading printed materials. Therefore, web pages should have about 50% less content than a similar printed page.
Clicking on links within content is one of the most commonly used features on a site. Create content that logically links to other pages in your site (especially store, free quote or contact pages). Links are more effective when the link is related to the text instead of just Click here. For example:
To learn more about our company, contact us.
Question and Answer format can be effective. Think of questions customers might have and provide the answers. For example:
What differentiates ABC Company from our competitors?

Our customer service has been rated the best in Maryland by the Insurance Reviewers Institute.
Web users are savvy so back up a statement with fact. Don’t just state your company is the best, back it up with customer testimonials, awards and recognition, or reviews your company have received.
Always proofread! This content is often your company’s first impression on a prospective client.

Qualifications Needed to Participate in Commission Junction

mike@webconnection.com — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 03:00:00 -0500

Many web site owners consider increasing targeted traffic to their web site by participating in an affiliate program. An affiliate program is a web based strategy where organizations reward each other for visitors generated by the affiliate’s efforts.

Affiliate programs take multiple forms; some are informal agreements between two parties while others are more formal engagements with third parties such as Commission Junction and Google.

While researching our clients’ participation with Commission Junction, we determined that their standards are too high for many small web site owners.

The standards below were obtained directly from the Commission Junction web site. After reading you will know immediately if you quality for participation.

Selling online for at least 1 year
Generate a minimum of $50,000 per month in online sales
Already active in other forms of online advertising such as SEO, PPC or CPM
Email program to remarket to your existing customers
Site contains a secure shopping cart, a published return policy and guarantee, email communication confirming purchase and delivery of goods or services, and access to customer support
Site contains no pop-ups on landing pages
No template or blog sites
Not an adult oriented or gaming site
Not a regional site that is only targeting a small market

Always remember, if you need professional assistance with your web strategy, you can always contact WebConnection.

Managing Content with CMS and Adobe Contribute CS4

mike@webconnection.com — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 08:46:00 -0500

Organizations that create and manage their web sites should have content management tools that empower them to modify content on their sites without the help of their developers. Many developers do not properly inform their clients of these tools as they want the maintenance revenues associated with doing this work in house.

Since our inception in 1995, WebConnection has always tried to empower our clients to manage their web sites internally. In 2001, we developed our first proprietary Content Management solution which powers many of our client’s web sites. In order to reduce the cost of development, our content management tools only manage complex sections within these web sites. This includes pages within e-commerce stores, frequently asked questions, news archives, and any other pages that change on a regular basis. All static pages, or pages that stay unchanged for long periods of time, are not managed using our Content Management tools. For those clients that wanted a solution to manage these static pages, we offer two solutions.

Windows provides free every program that is required to make basic text changes to a web site without having to know advanced .html code. The process can be a little intimidating, although it should not be, because the .html code is visible and the changes need to be made within these codes. We have created an educational video to show how this is done. All that is required is the FTP username and password that is provided by the hosting company. Click here to check out our video on the basics of FTP.

For those that want to make more advanced changes to these static pages, like adding tables, bullets, and other formatting or do not want to see the .html code while they are editing, we have software to recommend. While studying for our Adobe Dreamweaver certification, we came across their content management solution, Adobe Contribute CS4. Adobe already has a significant market share on the tools that web developers use everyday which includes Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Flash. Contribute CS4, with an affordable price tag of about $200, is an easy to use software that we now recommend to our own clients. Click here to learn more about Adobe Contribute CS4.

Always remember, if you need professional assistance with your web strategy, you can always contact WebConnection.

2 Tips to Increase Followers

mike@webconnection.com — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:00:00 -0500

Want to know two quick tips to ramp up the number of targeted people to follow you on Twitter and other Social Media sites?

First, put links to all of your Social Media pages in the footer of your e-mails. How many e-mails do you send out every day? At the bottom of each should be an invitation to follow you.

Second, put these same links in your e-mail marketing pieces. Each push to your network of contacts will allow them to easily follow you on these networking sites.

We have implemented these strategies and they work. Good Luck!

Always remember, if you need professional assistance with your web strategy, you can always contact WebConnection.

How to Know When Your Web Strategy Needs Help

mike@webconnection.com — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 04:23:00 -0500

On companies’ list of goals, we have found that improving web strategies is often towards the top of the list. Analyzing if a web site needs to be updated can be difficult. There are many objective and subjective elements that go into answering this question:

Does your web site have a competitive design?
Has your web site remained unchanged for 2 or more years?
Is the information on your web site still accurate?
Can visitors to your web site easily find the information they are looking for?
Is your web site compliant with current standards?
Does your web site integrate with your Social Marketing efforts such as Facebook and Twitter?

All of the elements listed above are important, but there is one item that is most important: does your web site convert? A web site conversion is the ratio of visitors who follow through with desired actions.

So, if you have an e-commerce web site, are you selling your products as well as you could be? If you are a service firm, are you generating the maximum number of new business leads? Does your web strategy even have established conversions? If not, your web strategy should be updated.

Always remember, if you need professional assistance with your web strategy, you can always contact WebConnection.

Publishing Your Podcasts on iTunes

mike@webconnection.com — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:00:00 -0500

If you are already producing audio or video podcasts for your web site, you can make this content available to the masses via iTunes. iTunes has an editorial process to make sure the content is appropriate to members of their network. Apple outlines the steps required to publish your content to iTunes. Click here to learn more.

Always remember, if you need professional assistance with your web strategy, you can always contact WebConnection.

Legitimate Link Exchange for Google

mike@webconnection.com — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:00:00 -0400

For years, web developers and site owners have been trying to get good organic (free) Google Search results. There are right ways to do this and wrong ways to do this. WebConnection always strives for our clients to do this the right way. You should be linking your site to sites that are relevant to your users and your industry. And even more importantly, you should have other relevant sites link to your site. Google's algorithms check for this relevance and rank you accordingly. Click here to learn more.

Always remember, if you need professional assistance with your web strategy, you can always contact WebConnection.

How to Test Web Applications on the Blackberry

mike@webconnection.com — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:00:00 -0400

WebConnection creates web sites that are mobile phone compatible. There are so many mobile phone brands and platforms, it is difficult to know if what we are creating works on them all. Blackberry provides simulators on their web site that allow you to test your applications on each of their phone types. Click here to learn more.

Always remember, if you need professional assistance with your web strategy, you can always contact WebConnection.

How to Be Perceived as Relevant on Twitter

mike@webconnection.com — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:00:00 -0400

Twitter has quickly become one of the prominent social networking sites. It can be difficult to determine who to follow or to know what what other users are looking for when they decide whether or not to follow you. In general, if a person has more followers than they are following, they are probably a choice to consider following. However, if they have a much higher number of people they follow than followers, you may want to take a closer look at their profile before you decide to follow them. It is all about the ratio of followers to the number of people you follow. To learn the details, click here to go to the Tech Crunch website.

Always remember, if you need professional assistance with your web strategy, you can always contact WebConnection.