David R Johnson

How to get more clicks and hits on your web site by creating the right content. An example using Flash Banners

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:36:00 +0000

One of the fundamental criteria of web design that is often overlooked is designing content to be relevant to a target audience. It's sounds simple but having targeted content can help your web site get more hits and will mean that your visitors from search engines will be more likely to be interested in your content. In other words it will substantially increase traffic that is relevant to your web site thus increasing your conversion rate

I have quickly made a simple example below by creating two flash banners for an imaginary online joke shop. Please note this is not an example of my design skills! I am just illustrating how to target your audience during the design process of your content and web site

Have a look at the flash banners below and guess which one would get the most clicks from a target audience that would be interested in an online joke shop.

Flash Banner 1

Flash Banner 2

You will probably come to the conclusion that Flash banner 1 would be the best banner for attracting customers to the web site. When I am working on clients sites, before I even start to think about colour schemes or layouts I try to understand their customers. When web design companies offer "off the shelf" web sites for a few hundred quid, they don't take any consideration of who you are and what your web site is for! I would recommend you to spend a little more and to have a web site designed from the ground up with your customers in mind at every step of the design process. It will surely pay off in the long run!

For more information on my web design and other services please visit my web site.

How to choose the right kind of web site for your business

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:40:00 +0000

When deciding to build a web site for your business, the first thing you need to consider before building your site is:

Who are your customers
How will they use your web site

These questions will be influencing factors in the design of your web site and what programming techniques will be used to make the web site.

If we were designing a web site for Nike we would probably assume that our customers are keen to keep up to date with the latest technology and fashions. They would probably have a broadband connection and expect to see slick graphics and have an interactive experience on the site. Therefore in this case we would use something like Adobe Flash to create some slick graphics and animations and carefully use these elements within an HTML site that will still be search engine friendly.

If we were designing a web site for and adult education centre we would probably assume our customers are slightly less technically savvy than the Nike customers. Also there may be a chance they are using slower Internet connections. Also, and this is the the most important thing - your customers will be using the site to access clear and concise information about adult courses or evening classes. They would want to easily find your contact information or maps and directions to the centre. In this case the site should be built using clean accessible CSS and HTML that is easily accessed by search engines. We also need to build the web site so it will comply with the centres equal opportunity policy and meets the WC3 web accessibility standards that enable the site to be read by screen reader by people who have visual impairments.

The key thing is, to make your web site work for your business you need to first really understand your customers and how they communicate with you.

For more information about my web design services click here to visit my website.

My web site launched!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:27:00 +0000

I have finally created my own web page for my web design and ICT consultancy services. You can find the site www.davidrjohnson.co.uk

As well as web design I specialise in a number of diferent areas:

Sage ACT! database design.
Search engine optimisation
Content management systems
E - commerce
Customer relationship management
Managed web hosting and email services
Domain name services
Web site analysis reports

Feel free to call me on 07740 150 000 or you can email me.