“It’s kind of old to be listed in my portfolio,” I said.

“What are you ashamed of it?” she said.

“No, actually it still looks pretty good,” I said.  “I’ll have to put it back on the site.”

The conversation got me thinking about why this website is still working.  After all it was designed in 2001, which, in human years is only nine years ago, but in website years is probably equivalent to about 90 years.  Coding standards have changed, design preferences have changed, browser and equipment choices have changed and user’s expectations have changed in nine years. Heck, even I’ve changed. I’d like to think I’m more skilled now than I was in 2001.  But this website is still doing the job.  Why?

Over the years we’ve added a shopping cart and we’ve updated the menus, but other than those two upgrades, the design hasn’t changed much.

I think the main reason why this site continues to work well is Janet.  She’s a proactive website owner.  She has, over the years, continued to build upon that initial website by consistently adding content and tweaking the site.  She works hard to give her clientele a useful website filled with content that’s informative, current and relevant.

She understands that content is what makes a website successful.  The design, while important,  is really only there to support and present the content.

So congratulations Janet for building a great website and for having the vision in 2001 to know what you wanted and for staying true to your vision.  And thank you for being a fun client and working with me for the past nine years.

More about JanetsPlan-its.com.

Interesting question.  The first response I saw said “usability, usability, usability”. I agree with this response…but I think there are at least 10 things that make a site usable, usable, usable.  So I’ll try to focus my list on what makes your site visitors want to use, use, and use your site again.

1. Beauty.

First your site has to be beautiful, or at least look professional, because if it’s not, people will leave it before you have a chance to show them all the other elements that make your site worthy of their time.

2. Navigation.

It must have logical navigation that is easy for users to follow.  You must lead them through your site; help them find the nugget of information they seek, by providing clear, simple navigation.

3. Well-written content.

Never underestimate the power of a well-written phrase to draw people in, to coax them to delve deeper.  Follow that phrase with clearly written content that’s organized and written to be understood by your site visitors.  Write first for your visitors, not for your cronies or for search bots.

4. Match content to design.

Use the content to help define the design. A serious subject should look serious.  A fun product should have a fun website.

5. Composition.

Use a writing style that is conducive to online viewing, scanning and reading.  Use short paragraphs with headings, bullets and graphics to draw the eye easily to specific ideas.  And give the user’s eyes a break with a healthy dose of white space.

6. Demographics.

Know your market.  Choose your colors, your styles, and your language depending on who will visit your site. Are they old, young, adventurous or sedate?  Are they likely to be using a ten-year old home computer or the latest smartphone  or IPad to browse your site?   Use  typography, color and design that will appeal to your users.

7. Style commitment.

Define  your styles and stick with ‘em. Maintain a cohesive design.  Whether you use a jazzy heading font with a high contrast color scheme or a traditional type with monochromatic scheme.  Commit to it.

8.  Accessibility.

Don’t discriminate.  Make your site usable to all folks, bots and beings.   Although it’s not always necessary to comply with  Section 508 standards, it’s a good idea to understand what your web pages will sound like using a screen reader.   And it’s wise to use text that the user can size to their preference — even if it does make your site design look a little funky.   Validate your code so you won’t trip up miscellaneous bots, browsers and other beings who might be perusing the web.

9. Optimize for search engines.

Use best practices for SEO.  Write code that doesn’t obstruct or deter the searchbots.  Write unique and relevant keyword rich titles and headings for each and every page.

10. Create a call to action.

Understand the goal of the website.  Is it to sell? To inform? To communicate?  Define the goal and then make it easy and safe for people to complete that task.

Google and most search engines have software that constantly crawls the web (often referred to as spiders) following links from web page to web page and indexing material as it crawls. Given the vast size of the web, you can imagine it might take a while for even the fastest, most efficient spiders to find  and index your website.  However, there are techniques you can use to expedite and improve the chances that your site will be indexed soon.

1. Create a Google local listing and while you’re at it, create a Bing and Yahoo listing too.
   
   

   Screenshot of Google Local Listing

   A Local listing allows you to create a free business listing on each of the search engines.  When you create your listing you’ll have the opportunity to select business categories, a business description, types of payment you accept, your hours, and your contact information.   A local listing is especially advantageous if you have a local market, but it doesn’t hurt to be “on the map” even if your market extends beyond local.
   

2. Have business and trade associations link to your site.
   Inbound links are one of most overlooked aspects of SEO (search engine optimization).  Think about how search engines work.  Their spiders crawl the web from link to link and index websites.  If there are no links to your website it will be harder for the spiders to find your website.  If there are many links to your website they will find you more often.

   Contact associations where you are a member, like your Chamber of Commerce, or other trade associations and if they offer a link on their website make sure you give them your new website address.  Contact any strategic alliances you may have and see if they’ll put a link on their website to your new site.  Do a search online for directories that specialize in your industry and create listings where appropriate.

3. Submit your URL to the search engines. You can submit your URL to  search engines, and although it doesn’t guarantee they will list it, it doesn’t hurt to tell the search engines your url.  Here are the links to submit your url.
   1. http://www.google.com/addurl/
   2. http://www.bing.com/webmaster/SubmitSitePage.aspx
   3. https://meme2048.appspot.com/search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html

Finally, remember that search engines are in the business of indexing information, so make sure that the information on your website is clearly written and kept current and relevant.  Keep your website on your marketing schedule and make sure that it is updated regularly as your business changes and grows.

Job well done! But as time passes,  you begin to wonder why it doesn’t rank better on the search engines.  Many techniques factor into good search engine optimization (SEO) but novice website designers or do-it-yourself business owners often make three big mistakes that can hurt their SEO.

1. Search engines can’t read an image.  Overuse of images. If you have website pages that are made up entirely of images or if you have blocks of text that are made of images you’re preventing search engines from reading the text on your pages. If search engines can’t read your page, they don’t know how to index your page. I usually see this mistake made by those with some graphic design experience.  They may know how to create a beautiful layout but they haven’t learned the HTML/CSS code to transition that layout to the web correctly so they opt to insert the image into the web page instead of taking the time to code the page correctly.
2. Search engines can’t read an image – the sequel.  Underuse of image alt tags. Each image used in a web page should use a descriptive alt tag. If alt tags are not used, search engines are not able to discern what the image signifies, so they ignore it. For example, say you’re Joe and you sell bicycles.  You’ve  created a fantastic logo that clearly identifies you as Joe’s Bicycle Sales & Service. You put it on you web pages and it looks beautiful but you fail to use the alt tag.  Now when search engines crawl your site they’re not able to discern what the logo says.  However, if you have used the alt tag correctly, the search engines will read the alt tag that says “Joe’s Bicycle Sales & Service” and because you’ve provided that information, the search engine will have more information available to index your website.If you’re building your website using a do-it-yourself tool, you should see a field called alt or image description in the tool.   If you’re coding, you’re image code should look something like this:

   <img src=”logo.jpg” alt=”Joe’s Bicycle Sales and Service” />

3. If you wrote a book you, would you title it “Book”?  Title tags and meta descriptions not used at all or used ineffectively. Just like a book or magazine article, every web page should have a unique title. In addition each web page should also have a unique meta description that accurately describes the content on that page – think of the meta description as the book synopsis often found on back or inside jacket of the book. In an html document both the <title> and <meta description> tags are within the <head> of the document which, as you might expect since it’s called the head, is toward the top of the document.  So when search engines crawl the page the title and meta description tags are among the first indexable information they come across and search engines expect the tags to describe the content on the page because that is what the tags were designed to do.

   But too often, inexperienced or lazy web designers use a title tag like “home” instead of “Joe’s Bicycle Sales | Yourtown, Your state”. Or on the page that shows products the title tag says something like “products” instead of “Bicycles – Raleigh, Schwinn, Trek, bikes for all ages”.  And the meta descriptions are either ignored entirely and left blank, or the same generic information is duplicated on each page.

   The title tag is the information the web browser shows at the very top of the browser screen–above the toolbar and url address field.  You generally want to limit your title descriptions to less than 60 characters. The meta description tag is not viewable on a web page (unless you view source) but search engines sometimes use the meta description you provide on your html page as the description in your search engine listing.  Limit your meta descriptions to about 160 characters.

So if you’re not satisfied with your search engine rank, check to make sure that you haven’t overused images in your design; that you have described all your images with alt tags and that you’ve written unique title and meta descriptions for each page on your website.

Domain Registry of America

This company may be a legitimate domain registry service, but their methods for obtaining customers is so unethical, I certainly wouldn’t want to do business with them.  Their technique for obtaining new customers?  They send an invoice.  Well it’s not really an invoice–it’s a solicitation to transfer the domain.  If you look very closely at the fine print, you will read that by sending payment you are authorizing them to transfer your domain to their registry service.  So the unsuspecting person sends them the $35 (which is likely more than their current registry charges to renew a domain) and unwittingly starts the process of transferring the domain.

Chinese Domains

This one arrives by email and suggests that your trademark is about to be infringed upon unless you swiftly purchase your domain with the .cn extension, as in yourdomain.cn.  This might be of benefit if you have a market in China or you anticipate developing a market in China, but most of the folks I’ve known who have received this solicitation have no intention of marketing to China.  For more information on this scam see http://professionalwebservices.blogspot.com/2007/10/chinese-domain-name-scams-from-china.html.

Know Where Your Domain is Registered

If your domain is important to your branding, and it most likely is, you should always know the following:

1. Where is it located?  GoDaddy, Register, Network Solutions, Enom, OpenSRS, or one of the many other registry services available.
2. Know how to access the information  and keep it updated with current contact information.
3. Know when it is due to expire and the process for payment.  If it’s set for auto- renewal, make sure you keep a current credit card and contact information on file with the registry service.  If they can’t  charge your card because it’s expired, and the e-mail address on file is outdated, you’ll likely lose the domain name.

Reputable companies never request usernames and passwords by email. The example email shown below uses a common phishing tactic–they are posing as a company or system you are familiar with in order to lure you into providing information…DO NOT BITE!  See Rules 2  for additional guidelines to determine that this email is phony.

Example: The Webmail Scam

Subject: A© Copyright 1986-2010 Webmail Maintenance Team

Rule #2:  Positively identify the sender

Be suspicious of any email address from  unknown sources and never respond to them with information.   In this email they used the official sounding “access@cyberservices.com”  but it’s possible for email scammers to use a known address in the from field.  So even if you’re one of my customers and you get an email from my known email address asking for username or passwords out of the blue, be suspicious.  When in doubt, revert to Rule #1.

Rule #3: Beware of Email links to phony websites

Email marketing is huge and if you’re like me you get many offers in your inbox every day.  And if you’re like me you spend more money online than at the local malls (but that’s another story). There’s nothing wrong with shopping online as long as you ensure your clickthroughs land you at the real website.  Positively identify that you’re at a legitimate website by checking the address field in your browser.  It’s pretty easy for a scammer to create a look-alike website.   For example if one clicks through a link on my e-newsletter to my website, the domain name in the address field will begin with http://cgwebhelp.com.   There might be something after my domain like http://cgwebhelp.com/ blog/?cat=7 but the primary domain name will be cgwebhelp.com.  If someone were trying to spoof me,   you might see something like http://cgwebhelp.someotherdomain.com or possibly http://someotherdomain.com/cgwebhelp.

Rule #4: When in doubt look for a phone number

If you have doubts about doing business with a website, look for a phone number and address.  Call it and see if you get a real person.

Rule #5: Google them

The internet is a great place to purchase hard to find items.  My husband has kept our refrigerator alive much longer than I could have with the help of an obscure online parts store.  But if you’re doing business with an unknown source, it doesn’t hurt to Google the business name and their web address to see if  they’ve scammed anyone else.

Rule #6:   SSL Certificates — heed the warnings

Chances are, if your computer is kept current with internet protection and anti-virus software, your browser will pop up a warning window if a site has an unauthorized  secure certificate.  If you get a warning window, you probably don’t want to enter secure information like a credit card account.  It’s also a good practice to ensure before you enter  sensitive information that the address field starts with a https:// instead of http://.   Just remember “https” for security.

Rule #7:  If it seems to good to be true…it probably is

You’ve all seen the emails from foreign dignitaries kindly requesting your bank account so they can deposit millions into your account.  Or the email saying you’ve won some foreign lottery.   I know you won’t fall for these  tactics …will you?

Let’s break it down. Merriam-Webster defines “common sense” as “sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts”.

We also find reference to the pamphlet Common Sense written  by Thomas Paine during revolutionary times.   Paine’s Common Sense made a straightforward argument for colonial independence that common folks understood. The plain-spoken pamphlet was widely read and is likely to have influenced the course of American history.

Given the definition of common sense, what are common sense internet solutions? If you define “solution” as being a problem solved, you could conclude that “common sense internet solutions’ translates to “a straightforward, sound and prudent course to solve your internet problems“.

Whoa! We can’t solve all the problems of the internet! But what we can do is solve your internet problems as it relates to your website.  So if your website is not performing as expected, we can help diagnose the problems and take steps to improve it’s performance.

How do we do that? Let’s break it down.

The problem: Your website is not performing as expected.   Perhaps you’d like to see…

1. increased traffic and exposure
2. increased sales
3. increased leads
4. better branding

Once your expectations are clear, we can take specific steps to solve your problem(s).  First we would look at your website.

1. Is the website customer friendly? Is it well-designed? Will it appeal to your target market?  Does it look professional?  Is the content well-written and organized for on-screen viewing?  Can the average person find the information they need quickly when visiting your website?
2. Is the website current?  Does it have relevant updated information? Does it provide a way for customers to communicate with you? Is it inviting?
3. Is the website technically sound?  Does it comply with current coding standards?  Do all links, forms, carts, pages work the way they’re supposed to?

Once the website is user-friendly and polished, we look at how to spread the word.

1. Is the site coded for search engine optimization?  Does it have well-written keyword title and descriptions tags?  Does the content include keyword rich headings?
2. Are you tracking traffic?  Are you using a good statistics program like Google Analytics to analyze and review your website traffic?
3. Are you or should you use social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube or Twitter to help spread your message?
4. Would an e-newsletter or e-promotion strategy help?
5. How about online advertising such as pay-per-click programs or banner ads?
6. Could you benefit from online public relations strategy using websites like ezinearticles.com?

Once we’ve worked through these steps, we can create common sense internet solutions that will fit your business and your website will be in a better position to meet your expectations.