Here are 6 key features of  Web Design for mobile:

1. Big buttons/ Icons and Navigation: 

When you are looking on a mobile device you usually use your thumb to slide or click on icons. They need to be easy to see and nice and big so they work well with a thumb one handed.

2. Clear Details and Simplified content:

Most people don’t browse the web on their mobile device –  Usually they are looking for something very specific that they want right then and there. A contact number, an address, a menu etc. Make these things VERY easy to find.

A mobile website should be very streamlined, it’s not the place to go into great detail. Quick and easy is what we are looking for.

3. Click to call/ click to email/ call back:

A nice big “click to call” button is vital to all mobile sites. As I just said one main reason customers go to a mobile website is
Of course you can also run advertising based on click to call, to find a phone number to call.  Making it super easy by having a click to call or email function increases engagement and makes it more likely they will make contact.

4. Interactive maps / directions

As well as having an address, your mobile website can utilise the GPS features of smart phones and give step by step directions to your location.

5. Keep the special effects down.

Minimalist Website Design

A minimalist design is lots of white space or minimal colours and “flashy things” . Often a lot of white and space is used – think of a trendy art gallery feel. White walls, pale floor just allowing the art to speak for itself. This design style is often used for designers, so their portfolio of work can stand out and not get lost in the design of the site iself. 6 Revisions posted a great sample of 30 different sites in this style – see the link below

30 Minimalist Portfolio Website Designs for Inspiration   < {click for the original post }

“There seems to be a recent trend whereby creatives are aesthetically stripping down their online portfolios to their bare essentials. (UK-based web designer/web developer Kean Richmond recently discussed this trend in an article about”undesign”, and the possible reasons why this trend is becoming widespread.) In this showcase, you’ll get to see 30 great examples of minimalist portfolio sites for your inspiration.” 

Business Page / Corporate  Web design

Another common trend in design that has been sticking for the last few year, is narrow headers and strong images on the home page, with more space internally for content. Less room taken up with navigation and banner graphics means more space for content. Another common concept are large horizontal colour bars, video or image sliders and prominant calls to action. (Phone numbers, optin forms etc)   . There are often boxes with excerpts of internal pages for people to navigate straight to the part of your site they need.  The site you are on is an adapted version of this style of design. These styles of sites are effective because they are clean and your clients should have no trouble navigating them.

{click for the original post} >Instantshift.com  pulled together 55 examples of this sort of site back in 2009.  The fact that this concept is still popular shows how well it can work for corporate sites.

Trends for 2012 in webdesign.

The shiny 2.0 look is fading away, and there are more circles and “vintage looks” popping up, as well as oversized icons (thanks largely to the emergence of apps) . Lots of textures and a sort of organic feel.

Smashing Magazing recently posted a great post about the emerging epidemic in webdesign trends 

^ {click for original post}

“…we’ve witnessed a de-shinification of the Web, with fewer glass buttons, beveled edges, reflections, special-offer badges, vulgar gradients with vibrant colors and diagonal background patterns. The transformation has been welcomed with relief by all but the most hardened gloss-enthusiasts. However, design and aesthetics work in mysterious ways, and no sooner does one Web design trend leave us before another appears.”

My advice to you is to choose the style YOU like and that fits with your brand and personality. Like the clothing fashion industry – unless you follow the fashion each season and change your website completely, sometimes it’s better to go with the classics and add a few accessories each season to bring your site up to date.

If you go full on into the latest trend, your site will date quickly. This is fine if you keep updating it, but if you don’t you’ll be out of fashion quick sticks.

The way we build sites here at Essential Wellbeing for Business, means that you CAN easily change elements of your website for the season. Or have a complete overhaul, its very versatile and adaptive.

Over to you!

Have you noticed any trends in websites? What sort of style do you think is a fad and what do you think is classic? We love to hear from you so please comment below.

The Background:

Tim & Lilly from Actif bookkeeping came to us stalled on their website.

They were working with someone, and liked the design but were having trouble communicating with them, getting anything finalised, and the changes they wanted made. They was pretty disappointed in them to put it mildly.

This had been going on for months.   They had a custom wordpress template mostly designed, but didnt have access to everything on the site that they wanted to access. (Some of it was what we call “hard coded” into the design).

They wanted someone who would answer their questions and train them properly to maintain their site. And get the job done!

The Plan:

We decided the best plan was to take some of the graphic design elements the previous designer had worked on (and Actif Bookkeeping had already paid for) to recreate a new template that they could make the updates they needed.

EWFB would make an empty template, Tim and Lilly would add in their content, and then we would come back and tidy anything up and style anything they couldn’t do.  This would keep the costs as low as possible and double up as excellent practice in maintaining the website ongoing. We would do the training as we went so they had an excellent grasp by the end of the project.

EWFB would also do a matching mobile phone version of the website, with simple click to call and contact functions.

The Result:

We worked to and fro closely to build and then  fine-tune the new site . We ended up with a clean, professional easy to navigate site with prominent contact information and calls to action. AND in both mobile and desktop format.

The whole project was completed  within a month from first contact and for less than you’d expect . Click the image for the site itself and scan the QR code for the mobile version.

Tim and Lilly now have the control over their business presence again and know that I am only a phone call or e-mail away if they ever need any more help.  This is the review they left me :

Are you scared to start on your website because  of disappearing web guys?  Fear not.  We are here and not going anywhere. Contact us to have a chat .

Talk to me!  Leave your comments below.

*Unfinished work  image by Jeff Attaway via Flickr

If you are on Facebook for your Business (and you should be) , you need to know how to manage the new timeline to make the most of the changes.

Here is your FREE 18 page  comprehensive guide.

Everything the busy business owner needs to know about timeline for business:

Timelines for Facebook Pages Guide   << Download PDF

It covers:

• New composer bar with milestones
• Cover Image (dimensions and best practice)
• App display (and how to change the images there)
• Profile Picture
• About section
• Starred stories
• Pinned stories
• Private messaging
• Adapting to the loss of default landing pages
• etc etc

Enjoy it and share this page with your friends so they can benefit as well.

1. SMS and MMS Marketing.

SMS or text marketing has evolved and is taking the place of email marketing for many people. SMS marketing mainly involves the collection of consumer mobile phone numbers usually by registration of the customer using a ‘keyword’ sent to a ‘short code’ eg: Text “pizza” to 1234 .

This text adds the customers mobile phone number to a messaging platform database which sends mass messages of special promotions or updates. Because SMS marketing provides some sort of a personalised update system from you, it can help in convincing potential repeat customers  and build the foundation for a customer ‘brand loyalty.’

MMS (Multimedia Message Service) marketing is pretty much the same as SMS marketing in terms of its function. The main difference is  MMS messages are aren’t just text.  With higher functionalities, this type of advertising is generally more interactive. MMS messages may even contain links that can drive traffic to websites and often use QR codes and coupons.

Most people check a their text message within minutes of receiving it. Text messages have something like a 94-97% open rate depending on the data you believe. So this is an incredibly powerful form of marketing. BUT… “With great power comes great resposibility ”  (thank-you Spiderman)

You need to be VERY sure you are providing messages your customers want to receive. It really is interruption marketing and if you’re going to interrupt someone in the middle of their favourite tv show for instance then you’d better have something  worthwhile for them.

Be aware what time you send the message as well as relevance, a restaurant offering a great deal on lunch sent at noon is a great example.

My local video store often sends $2 new release Movie offers on Sundays. They tend to come between 12 and 3 pm when you are most likely up and about and could swing by and grab a movie for the evening. I never mind getting those.

On the other hand a day spa added me to their list by taking my business card at an event and then started spamming my phone with not very good offers and way too many of them. I pretty quickly sent a big “stop” and would choose any of their competitors over them. They SMS’d their way out of any business from me.

You can also your SMS list for appointment reminders, overdue notices and the like, although this isn’t marketing as such.

2. Mobile Web Marketing

Most people with mobile devices buy them largely  for the convenience of accessing the web anytime and anywhere. If your website isn’t mobile friendly then you are missing out. Smart phones will adapt to your normal website as best they can, but usually customers will need to zoom in and out and scroll around reading a non optimised site.

A mobile version of your website is inexpensive and can be a very effective tool. For some businesses it’s really essential.

Other means of mobile web marketing include mobile search advertising programs, social media marketing, and even e-mail newsletters optimised for mobile devices.

3. Mobile Apps

Creating your own app for your business is on the real cutting edge. It puts you up there with the “big guys” . Not all businesses need a mobile app, but if your customers interact frequently and search or login to your website then creating an app for that is valuable.

Mobile games and other applications are already a growing market, and a potential growing market is always an opportunity for a marketer. Sponsoring a few apps is another idea, but as a rule of thumb, these apps should be specific to your target niche. App-advertising is still relatively new, and developers are still seeking more ways to integrate ads without disrupting overall customer experience. Sponsoring apps may be expensive, but when properly done, rewards sure are promising.

4. QR Codes

QR, or Quick Response codes is a type of a matrix bar code originally created for tracking purposes. They however, became popular for other uses such as storing information. Mobile devices nowadays have the ability to read quick response codes , the customer downloads the app required and then the camera reads
the image and takes them directly to the destination.

They are basically links and  QRs codes can link to anything. Some examples:   Coupons, addresses, contact details,  website URLs, menu’s, price lists, photograph galleries etc.

They may be placed in any form of advertising media such as banners, newsletters, and even magazines. In addition to advertising platforms, QR codes can also be strategically placed on places or objects where users might need information.

examples

• Real estate agents could use them in their print material with linking to a brochure on the property with video, photographs , floor plans etc.
• You could send a birthday card to your clients with a QR code that links to a video message for them.
• You could have a QR code that links to your facebook page on the reception desk.

The convenience of using QR codes to store information on the consumer’s part makes it a very appealing form of mobile marketing technique.

5. User Controlled Means

Bluetooth, infrared, WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), and other means of data transfer can provide the pipeline of an effective viral marketing. In this type of mobile marketing, it is the users themselves that introduce new potential customers for you.

Mobile content can be virally promoted most effectively by referrals. Here, users encourage their friends to try a service in exchange for some points or other benefits or just because its such a great deal or service. They may share your coupons, QR codes  etc . Users themselves are your marketing tools.

You can have a “tell a friend” promotion, or use functions on services like foursquare where a deal kicks in once a certain number of people have taken it up.

Talk to me! What is your experience with mobile marketing? Have you used any of these techniques or been on the receiving end of any bad marketing efforts? Share your stories in the comments and share this post with your friends .

Image via Wikipedia

Have you ever wondered “What can i do to speed up the web building process?”

1. Fill out any briefing forms and give as much information as you can.

You probably have a pretty clear idea about how your website should look. Your web designer needs to know exactly what you’re thinking. Even if you’ve given some information along the way, providing it again, all in one place on the briefing form, makes the job much easier for the designer. They can lay their virtual fingertips on what they need when they need it.

2. Supply images and words separately.

Sometimes, clients supply their web content in one Word document, all laid out the way they want it to look. This is a really good way to show the designer what you want your site to look like, but not a great way to save the designer time on your job.

Adding images to a website isn’t a cut and paste kind of thing. Also, the images need to be supplied in either jpg or gif format, so they are recognised as image files.

So, to speed up the process, supply your words in a Word file, and send your images separately.

3. Make images smaller (but not toooo small)

If you know how,  resize your images before sending them, this can save the designer quite a bit of time. Most images straight from a camera are about 4000 pixels wide and most websites are between 900 and 1500 pixels wide. So, resizing your own images means they will be ready for the designer to use, and you’ll be able to send them by email, more than one at a time.

4. When it comes to editing and alterations, make a list.

When your designer gives you your site to go over for changes, make a list of everything you want them to do page by page. Be as detailed as you like, but the real time-saver is making the time to create your list.

Giving one or two changes at a time can slow the process. Forgetting changes you want, when you meet with the web designer can be really frustrating for you. Having a list means nothing will be forgotten.

5. Don’t be scared to say what you think.

Web designs are a really personal thing, and it’s YOUR business and your website. Make sure you your web designer what you think along the way. Tell them what’s working for you and what isn’t. The earlier you communicate any issues you have, the easier it is to course correct. If you hold back, you can slow the process down. Your web designer wants you to get exactly what you want, as quickly as possible.

Of course, with the exception of the last point, not doing these five things won’t mean your web designer can’t do their job.  But if you are able to do these extra little steps, you’ll be helping to get your brand new shiny wonderful website much more quickly.

As always, please share your thoughts in the comments and if you like this “like it” and share with your friends.

Most companies are VERY secretive about their costings so it can be hard to get an idea of what is “normal”. Late last year the folks over at SEOmoz ran a survey asking agencies and SEO consultants exactly what they charge, what they do and who their clients are. They had over 600 responses and culled any from regions that didn’t have more than 10 to keep the data size kinda reasonable.

Most respondents were from the US, but we did have 29 from Australia and NZ.

7 points that struck me:

1. Probably not a surprise to many of you that India’s hourly rate was lower than the other countries on average. When it comes to monthly retainer work though it is on par with the other countries, so keep that in mind next time you get a random email for “cheap SEO”.

If you know what you are doing and can ask for specific jobs on a hourly rate you could save some money using providers from India. You  possibly wouldn’t save anything on  monthly retainer though (unless you are getting more work done than you would with a local provider).

2. 62% of Australian firms charge between $76 and $200 an hour for hourly jobs.

This is the most common hourly rate around the world (with the exception of India) and is perhaps the most concrete answer to “how much does SEO cost” .  Price variations for other fee models vary quite a bit.

all images via http://aytm.com and http://www.seomoz.org

3. The most popular ways to price in SEO was by the project, by the hour or monthly retainers.

Very few offer a fee structure based on revenue sharing or the like.

4. “By the SEO project” was most commonly charged at between $1000 and $7,500  .

This is a huge range, but then a “project” can be many things…

5. Monthly SEO retainers vary the most.

In Australia the most common was between $251 and $500 per month, but quite a few between $501 and $750 and $2501 and $7501 a factor of 10 increase!!

a note on monthly retainers – make sure you know what they involve. I was talking with someone recently who had been quoted around $1100 a month with a 12 month contract. It was very clearly layed  out  exactly what they got for their money  each month, and it was very little (especially in the first two months) and probably not overly effective.  That kind of stuff makes me cross!

If you are signing into a monthly retainer for your SEO make sure you get reports of where you are ranking regularly and that they will change tactics if things arent going as well as they could. While a big checklist of  “things” that are done each month might look great at the start of the year; they don’t look so good if 4 months in you haven’t moved up the rankings and you’re locked into a 12 month contract!! 

SEO changes all the time and is different for every job. Your provider needs to be flexible.

 Ok, I’m done ranting now.. next point.

6. Services offered by SEO providers are pretty broad.

In Australia its a pretty even distribution between recommendations (for each of  SEO, content changes , social media, link building etc) , hands on  page changes, keyword research, link building, and web design and web development.

The only things we dont seem to do much of is infographic/ logo etc creation , content promotion / viral pushes and on-site training seminars.

We must be a well rounded lot!

7. SEO providers work with a LOT of small to medium business.

In Australia, most of the providers responded that they look after  more “hyperlocal” businesses than any other type. Closely followed by small and small – medium businesses.

The hyper local thing may well explain the low monthly retainers. Local targeting is relatively easy for SEO so a committed few hundred dollars a month can make a big difference if used effectively.

You can see the blog post SEOmoz wrote on all this here.

And the complete full sized infographic from ATYM here.

So.. what do you think? Does your provider charge the same? Do you have any rants of your own you’d like to make?  Let us know in the comments!

If you liked this don’t forget to “like” it and share it with your friends .

Annnd… If you’re looking for someone to do your SEO,  you get excellent value for money right here.  Take a look at our SEO page for some of our own pricing.

WordPress is super easy to use and to modify. Perhaps the best feature of a WordPress site is its access all areas, no holds barred user-friendly interface. You can make changes yourself, whenever you want, or you can pay someone to make changes for you.

No special, secret coding to stumble over, just full, unlimited access to every aspect of your site. It’s amazing how many people pay good money for a great website, only to discover that they have to pay an IT expert to make simple changes like background colours, header images and logo updates. There’s a saying ‘If you can use Word, you can use WordPress’, and it really is true.

2.    You can be what you want to be!

WordPress is fully functional, and definitely not limited to blogging. You can do anything you want with a WordPress website.

I know, this sounds like a huge claim, but truly, you can pretty much create any kind of website you want.

If your business is a very visual one, you can create fantastic galleries, sliders, and spaces where you can regularly update the visuals yourself. If your business has an industry specific focus, you can design your site to include multiple drill down layers for all of the information you’d like to share.

There are 1000’s of th

emes to choose from, some with more capabilities and flexibility than others, many of them free. Or you can bypass all that and have a custom theme created just for your business.

Video, blog, static, dynamic, modern, traditional. Whatever your style, preference or industry, WordPress will allow you to express yourself in a way that will invite your customers in.

3.    It’ll take you all the way to the top!

You can easily upgrade your WordPress site with added features, like e-commerce, and you can change the colours and style without having to go for a whole new site.

As your business grows and expands, so your WordPress website will grow with you.

There are literally thousands of plugins available, each one developed to provide users with options for upgrading your web offering into the best website in the world. Start small and simple, then build yourself a mega-site, worthy of your entrepreneurial skills.

4.    Save yourself a fortune!

WordPress offers great bang for your buck, with no ongoing fees, thanks to its completely open-source foundation. You can download, install and use it on your own server, which

is what makes it so cost effective.

It offers you full access to the back end of your site, without any hidden fees or ongoing charges. It really is a case of what you see is what you get.

WordPress doesn’t measure your website and start charging when you reach a certain size, and it has a huge online community of developers, users and supporters. Did I mention no ongoing charges?

5.    It has all the SEO capabilities you’ll ever need!

WordPress makes SEO so simple; you can easily update the fields yourself, thanks to the fact that you have

complete access to every area you need to update.

Do your Google AdWords keyword searches, discover which words and phrases you need to be utilising, and place them into the back end of your website.

No more waiting to see if your IT guru has had time to

do it for you!

You have all the power. You control the most important part of every business: can my customers find me?

Do you use wordpress? What do (or don’t) you like about it?  Tell us in the comments below!

*Easy street image by NCBrian via Flickr

Image via Wikipedia

Anyone who has a business website wants to get found on Google. SEO helps customers find your website, so how do we improve your chances of being found? I know what you’re thinking – we find an internet expert to fix the problem. You can do that, and we’ll talk about the best way to utilise that option in another article, but there are some DIY alternatives.

SEO is big business all around the world, with some companies paying thousands of dollars a week to ensure that their website stays at the top of everyone’s search results.

For those of us who take care of our own internet popularity, let’s break the task of SEO down into bite sized pieces. To make your website more visible, using the internet, you need people to know how to find you. If they are searching for a company that offers your services and/or products, will your website contain the words they search?

Imagine your ideal client… They are sitting down at their computer and they need you. How do they find you? They open a search engine like Google, and they type in something like one of the following:

•A question, like ‘How do I find a…’
•A description of what they are looking for, like ‘used motorbikes’
•A description of the kind of business they think might sell what they need, like: ‘bike shop’

They might also include information like this in their search:

•Suburb, state, country
•Postcode, street name

Does this give you ideas about which words people might be using to search for you? You may have already started making a mental list of these words. Now, how do you test your guesses? I’m happy to tell you that there’s a way you can check what words and word combinations people are searching. This means you can know exactly what words and phrases to include in the back end and the front end of your website.

Google AdWords Keyword Tool is free, and it allows you to check your word searches, to see what people are searching when they look for you. For example, if you type ‘second hand motorbikes’ into the search field, here are some of the search stats returned:

Second hand motorbikes    4 400
Used motorbikes        18 100
Second hand bikes    12 100
Buy motorbike        9 900
Motorbike sale        165 000
Motorbike dealers    22 200
Motorbikes for sale    74 000

Which of these words/phrases should you use in your website to attract the most hits? All of them! The more of these strong search words and strings of words you include on your site, the higher your chances are that new customers will find you.

So choose words and phrases that you would use to search for your kind of business, insert them into Google AdWords Keywords Tool one word or phrase at a time, and pay close attention to the combinations in the list which show the biggest number of searches. Record all of these, and use them on your website.

If you want to go the DIY SEO route, a consult with us could be exactly what you need. In just an hour we can cover a lot of information that will help you regularly update your SEO and give you an edge in your field. Most businesses don’t have the first clue about SEO, so you don’t need to be an expert to be ahead of the pack.

The sample report wordstreams adwords grader gives - click for a larger image

What could be better than free? Why, free and fantastic, of course!

You’re committed to advertising your business; you’ve chosen to use Google AdWords as part of your campaign. But how can you know that it’s really working, and how can you find this out without paying a marketing expert for a report?

Wordstream have come up with a handy dandy grader that analyses thousands of AdWords accounts and provides you with a comprehensive report for free. Using worldwide comparisons and a list of criteria to help you measure your success, it might be the best free tool you can have in your promotions toolbox.

The layout is wonderfully simple, with each reporting section given its own space. There are visuals and headings for the reader who appreciates a quick initial scan, and very specific drill down information to give you everything you need to know to lift your game.

Here’s a breakdown of the ten reporting sections:

• Account Diagnostics – how many clicks, how many conversions, average monthly spend
• Wasted Spend – assesses the success of your use of keywords and makes recommendations
• Quality Score (QS) – measures and shows your Quality Score, then makes recommendations
• Impression Share – tells you how often your ads are appearing
• Click Through Rate (CTR) – indicates whether your keywords and ads are getting through to your potential customers
• Account Activity – encourages you to make constant updates to your account, and reports how often you make changes
• Long-Tail Keyword Optimization – encourages you to use 3-5 word keywords, or long-tail keywords which can drive more conversions
• Text Ad Optimization – measures and reports on the success of your text ads
• Landing Page Optimization – shows you the measure of your success in using landing pages for each ad
• PPC Best Practices – gives you a pass or fail grade for a list of suggested Best Practices, such as Conversion Tracking and Multiple Text Ads Running

One of the most useful things about this tool is the specific advice they offer in each section. Rather than merely pointing out what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong, the tool offers actions you can take to help you improve your success with Google AdWords. Such a bonus!

Wordstream’s PPC Grader will give you plenty of awesome data, useful recommendations and lots to think about, but ultimately we all know that it’s up to us business owners to be proactive and keep our tools working for us.

So, what grade do I give the adwords grader? Well it depends:

When it’s used as part of a regular assessment of business, I give it a 10 out of 10; but if it’s left sitting unused in your Favourites folder, like a hammer left in a locked toolbox, it’s not going to be able to drive your business to the next level.

I recommend you have a play with it, and I’d love to know what you think. Please leave your comments below.