SWS is co-teaching another WordPress seminar in April here in Anchorage! Learn how to design, build & maintain your own website. We walk you through each step of the process, giving you personalized attention and making sure your questions are answered along the way.
Great for non-profits and DIYers! Check out Out of a Jam Solutions for more details. The last one was a big hit!
| April 12 & 13th 8:00 AM – 5:00 PMWestmark Hotel 720 W 5th Ave, Kenai Room Anchorage, AK, 99501
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Why choose Sound Web Solutions?
Time and time again new clients tell us that they were unhappy with their previous web developer because of a lack of responsiveness to requests for website updates. Our goal is to develop long term relationships so that we can continue to help you make the most of your website post-launch. We aim to provide you with the support necessary to navigate the waters of branding and websites as your business grows and we are proud to say that we experience a high percentage of repeat business.
Building a website requires a range of skills, many of which demands great talent or many years of study to master. Like drawing, graphic and user interface design are extremely easy to “do” but whether or not something will fulfill your business goals in the best possible way, however, is another question. For website graphics to be truly unique and, at the same time, usable, calls for expertise in design specifically for websites. SWS understands and excels in combining great graphics with cutting-edge functionality. Take a look at TriJet Precision and see for yourself.
It’s vitally important to us that our finished websites shine. Our favorite projects are those in which we use our creativity and expertise to create sites that are among the best in the state of Alaska. We’re happy to be able to say that, at that level, however, our prices are not among the highest, which turns out to be a great deal for our clients!
Building your own website doesn’t have to be an overwhelming endeavor. Even if you’re technologically challenged, you can learn to put together a decent custom website using WordPress, an extremely popular and easy-to-use CMS (content management system. WordPress will not only give you much greater flexibility than most DIY website services but will allow for future growth without requiring you to completely rebuild your site.
There’s a lot of planning that goes into creating a professional website. It’s important to ask yourself some fundamental questions about your business before you even begin to think about WordPress. For example:
Now it’s time to decide what text and photos will go into the site and how they will relate to one another. The content needs to speak clearly about it’s topic, using words that your target audience will understand and the most likely key words that Google will use in searches. Make it short, too. Except for specific cases, a wall of web text will only serve to drive your users away.
Photos MUST be of professional quality. This means excellent lighting, no distracting backgrounds and, most of all, the photo must clearly relate to the content that it is displayed with otherwise it will detract from your overall message.
Now that you’ve figured out the cotent, the next step is to imagine it on the page. It helps to do some quick sketches (by hand can be fun) showing what goes where. It’s usually best to stick to familiar layouts like the one shown here because they are tried and true. Fancy designs can get in the way of your user accomplishing her tasks. The goal of design is to facilitate, not inhibit user action.
Your website needs a home to call its own. The domain (which is kind of like a house address) should preferably use key words that describe your business, not necessarily your business name, to ensure that Google gives you maximum return in its search results. For example, “www.alaskacardetailing.com” is more likely to show higher in Google than “www.cleancarsbychris.com” because most people will be doing general searches for “car detailing anchorage”. The hosting (which is the land your house is built on) should be a well known name that offers DIY WordPress installations. Many small and local companies are not equipped to upkeep WordPress adequate servers or provide support. You can avoid hours of needless headache by simply choosing a well known provider. (Psst..We offer GoDaddy domain and hosting through our website.)
Next week we’ll take a first look at the guts of WordPress!
Also, stay tuned for our next two day Hands-On WordPress Seminar, in partnership with Out of a Jam Solutions.
So, you’ve got a great idea for a business. You’ve invested many long nights in developing the perfect business plan, which helped you get the big loan you needed to purchase the space and equipment required. You have an accomplished manager on board, you’ve contracted a bookeeper and you’re ready to start hunting for employees. You figure it’s time to go ahead and print up some business cards and start thinking about a website, so you drive over to the local XYZ 24-Hour Fast Printer, pay them 500 Ben Franklins and, one week later, “ta-dah”, you have $500 worth of self-promotional material that makes you look exactly like every other small business in town.
“So what?”, you might say… “Who cares if my business card looks exactly like Joe Shmoe’s on the other side of town?”. Well, good question!
Design, like any other aspect of your business, is an investment. And, like investing in equipment, the more you invest in design, the more return you get (there are always unhappy exceptions, of course). In an ideal world, design should be the visual expression of the vision, personality and customer experience that you define in your business plan. This is also known as branding.
Branding helps you reach your target market, as it makes sure that your business looks and communicates in a way that your customers enjoy. It helps identify the unique attributes of your business clearly, setting you apart from competitors so that you can more easily carve out a comfortable niche. Investing in entry level branding design will give you a great logo, snappy business cards, a beautiful and functional website and a mobile app that is truly useful to your target market.
Branding cat
Should you wish to craft a more complete customer experience of your business, a complete branding package can help you know what color your staff uniforms should be, how your logo should be used, how you sign your name in an email, what you write about in your company blog and even if it wouldn’t be a good idea for you to bring your cat into work a few days a week.
Here in Alaska, where good design is a relatively new concept for small businesses, it is easier to stand apart from the competition simply by making a small investment in your branding. For anyone familiar with downtown Anchorage, the restaurant/lounge Ginger is a a great example of good branding at work.
What do you think about design for small businesses in Alaska?
Schedule your updates!
Keeping your small business website alive and valuable means that, as a business owner, you will need to continue to regularly feed your investment. Finding the extra time can be tough but with a little bit of planning and these helpful tips, your website will be well fed!
Monthly updates are a great starting point. Schedule a meeting with yourself (and anyone who will be helping you) for a specific day of each month. Go ahead and mark it in your agenda! Give yourself a few hours so that you can do a brief evaluation of your website’s current status and still have plenty of time to write about recent events, which could include:
If you are really enthusiastic, you can also devote an hour or two per week to updates. Just schedule yourself for a meeting and be sure to show up on time.
If your business is already using social media like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or YouTube, you can set your website up to automatically display your social media content by using feeds. That way you can update your content in one place, without wasting time logging in, copying, pasting, rewriting, etc. Depending on your website configuration, this is usually achieved by using plugins, embed code or doing some simple custom programming. The reverse is also true. If your website has a RSS feed, then some social media sites can use this feed to display your website updates.
Get other people to write about your business! Ask for testimonials from your customers. You can create a testimonials section on your website that clients can fill out and publish. Or you can ask for comments via Facebook or even BuyAlaska.com (if you’re an Alaskan business owner).
Sometimes, a little help is all it takes to get things done. A web professional can post new photos, add updates to your website, maintain Facebook and Twitter accounts and even generate fresh, new content. Not to mention make regular backups of your site and make sure that the files are up-to-date with the latest security fixes.
I hope you’ve found this article useful. Check out our other article for more info on the life span of a website.
These days, it’s not enough to just have a website.
Get the most out of your investment.
You have to use it. This means that once you’ve labored over choosing the right domain name, designing the perfect graphics and pulling your teeth out to write intro, about us and services pages, you are far from done. Once you launch a website, it’s like bringing a new life into the world. It must be given plenty of care and attention in order for it to do its job well. Like any worthwhile investment, you gotta keep an eye on it.
An abandoned website is a forgotten investment.
If your website hasn’t been updated or promoted in the last two months then it’s abandoned!
Why does this matter? Well, for starts, search engines like Google and Yahoo look down on abandoned websites. They can tell when a website has been updated and will give you more “points” for it. They can also tell when your website is being promoted through other websites or social media like Facebook and YouTube, for which they will give you even more “points” for. The more points you get, the higher up your website will appear in search engine searches for words related to your business, which greatly increases your visibility. More visibility is a good thing!
Secondly, if you’re not regularly promoting your business and its website on social networks then you are missing out on a great new opportunity to increase your visibility. Depending on the network, you can post videos or photos of your work, promote services through specials, take polls, create networks of people (read: potential customers)… and lead people to visit your website’s portfolio or online store.
Basically, if you’re not giving your website attention, then you’re losing out on potential customers and profits. A lot of Alaskan small businesses could greatly benefit simply by putting a few hours a month into reviving and utilizing their nicely designed websites!
With this in mind, we’ve devised a simple four-step vision of the life of a healthy, profitable website:
The gestation phase. Planning, design, construction and launch.
Real-life and virtual marketing. Social networking. Signing up with online directories, like Alaska’s own BuyAlaska.com.
Add new content (text, photos, videos, testamonials, etc). Promote new content.
Incorporate new ideas and technologies to keep your website fresh!
We hope this article has helped redefine your ideas of what a website is. Stay tuned in the following weeks as we explore the life span of a website in more detail. Thanks for reading!
When planning a web development project, it’s important to start with a thorough needs analysis. The more clearly you understand your needs and goals, the easier it will be to build an effective website that meets those needs. To help you get oriented through this sticky first phase, we’ve compiled the following list of questions:
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