WordPress

WordPress is an open source blogging tool and Content Management System (CMS), a tool that allows people to create and edit their own content on a website. At Fox Web Creations, we want to provide the Kansas City area with the most up-to-date technology. That is why we specialize in WordPress, the world’s most user-friendly CMS. If you want to add pictures, text, or videos, WordPress allows you to add and edit any of this content with ease.

WordPress is currently the most-used Content Management System on the Internet. This is due in large part to its availability—WordPress is free to download, flexibility—it is fully customizable, and support. There is more support out there for WordPress since it is so highly used by companies large and small. With Kansas City quickly becoming the technology capitol of the Mid West, we recommend this powerful CMS to stay ahead of your competition.

There are numerous independent studies that find WordPress to be the simplest to operate for people of different backgrounds whether they are computer savvy or total novices. This will save time and money that could be wasted on training for more complicated Content Management Systems.

Drupal

Drupal is an open source Content Management System (CMS), a tool that allows people to create and edit their own content on a website. Drupal is widely used and has many options and flexibility. At Fox Web Creations, we strive to bring the Kansas City area the best and most up-to-date technology available. That is why we offer Drupal as a highly powerful alternative to mainstream Content Management Systems, If you want to add pictures, text, or videos, Drupal makes this a very simple task but there are many more options available that are not so user-friendly.

Drupal is currently used by at least 1.5% of websites on the Internet, mostly in the business and government sectors. It does not quite have the user-friendliness of WordPress, but businesses find that Drupal can sometimes better suit their needs with its long list of plug-ins and add-ons. We recommend this option when it best suits our clients in the Kansas City area and abroad.

Drupal is a highly advanced CMS. It is very flexible and robust but it has it’s criticisms. Drupal is not the most user-friendly platform and it has a high learning curve. Platforms like WordPress and Joomla are significantly easier to use, although they don’t offer the power and options that Drupal does. The good news is that the new release of Drupal 7 will address some of the usability concerns and should be an easier adaptation for new administrators.

Joomla

Joomla is an open source Content Management System (CMS), a tool that allows people to create and edit their own content on a website. Joomla is one of the three most popular CMS on the Internet. Fox Web Creations is committed to providing the Kansas City area with the most up-to-date technology available. That is why we offer Joomla as a powerful and robust alternative to the more user-friendly mainstream Content Management Systems. Adding and editing content, whether pictures, text, or videos is simple for administrators working with Joomla.

Joomla is an advanced and complex CMS. It has more functionality than WordPress and more options available but Joomla is not very user-friendly for those who are not developers or programmers. Joomla has a higher learning curve than other CMS like WordPress, which can take time and training to get things going. At Fox Web Creations, we recommend this CMS when it is the best option to serve the needs of our clients in the Kansas City area and abroad.

When compared to Drupal, another complex CMS, Joomla is the simpler of the two. This is because Drupal is the most complex and the least user-friendly of the three most popular Content Management Systems on the Internet (WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla). At Fox Web Creations, we know that every client and every web site is different. That is why we offer different options for Content Management Systems to best suit the needs of our clients.

Magneto and X-Cart

If your business needs an E-Commerce solution so that you can sell items online in a shopping cart, Fox Web Creations can help. We offer a customized shopping cart to suit the needs of your online business. If you are selling items or services in the Kansas City area, or if you have a broader target, Fox Web Creations can recommend and implement a custom shopping cart for you.

The two E-Commerce solutions that we recommend are Magneto and X-Cart. Magneto is an open source based platform that can offer many solutions to the needs of your online shopping cart. Magneto is widely used and relatively simple to work with. Magneto does have it’s limitations, however, because it does not have the support structure that other online shopping carts have.

X-Cart is another E-Commerce solution that we recommend. While X-Cart is not free, open source software, it is widely popular and offers more support for troubleshooting. X-Cart is full of different customizable options for your consideration and offers our design and development team more to work with in terms of flexibility. At Fox Web Creations, we help you weigh out all of the options until we find a solution that works best for your business.

CSS3

CSS3 is short for Cascading Style Sheets version 3. What CSS3 does is enhance the separation between document content and document presentation on a website. This includes design elements such as font, layout, and color. CSS3 is also helpful in allowing a website to be displayed differently depending on the screen size of the computer or device used to view the website. CSS3 is the latest version of CSS currently used in most websites. At Fox Web Creations, we pride ourselves on providing Kansas City with the most state-of-the-art technologies available so we can provide our clients with the best solutions for their online business needs.

CSS3 is great for web developers because it allows us to use similar style and design types to be presented within different types of devices and web browsers. Before CSS was developed, HTML designers had to design all aspects of font and design by hand in the code. This would be nearly impossible in today’s Internet environment where people are viewing websites on anything from large TV monitors to the smallest of smart-phones.

HTML5

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. It is a computer language for presenting and structuring content on the Internet. Every website in the world uses some form of HTML. At Fox Web Creations, we strive to provide Kansas City with the most state-of-the-art technologies available. That is why we offer development in HTML5, the latest version of the HTML programming language.

HTML5, while still in development, will add many new applications and possibilities to the previous version of the language. For example, many developers see a cross-platform capability for many mobile devices and different operating systems. This will have a huge impact on gaming and other mobile applications but also will feature compatibility between different web browsers on different platforms.

Mobile Web Applications

Mobile Web Applications are applications that we design for specific functionality that can be accessed by mobile devices. These are not specific applications designed for specific mobile markets (i.e. Android market, etc.). Mobile web applications do not require a mobile user to download an application to their device. Rather, Mobile Web Applications are designed so that any mobile device can access the application simply by using their mobile web browser. At Fox Web Creations, we strive to bring the Kansas City area the latest technology to give our clients an advantage over their competition.

Conclusion

The technologies featured above are just a few of the options that we can explore in designing a customized website for your company. At Fox Web Creations, we understand that every business is different. That is why we work with the specific needs of our clients to produce a website that works the way it is supposed to and looks fresh and professional. Serving the Kansas City area since 2004, Fox Web Creations seeks to improve the local online business community as well as those abroad.

You can edit photos from your phone or stored in your Photoshop.com (Photoshop.com) account using intuitive finger gestures. Editing is reversible and non-destructive, with the output saving to your iPhone Photos collection and optionally to your online account.

After opening the app you’ll be prompted to select a photo from your library or snap a new one. A simple toolbar-style drop-down menu interface lets you choose from a collection of editing tools and effects including crop, rotate, and flip, exposure, saturation and tint adjustments, and easy to apply filters including black and white, sketch, soft focus, pop, border, vignette blur, warm vintage, rainbow, soft black and white and white glow.

At the bottom of the edit screen is another toolbar with options to cancel, undo or redo an edit, and save the image. Save and Exit simply saves the new pic to your iPhone Photos collection, while Save and Upload will also send a copy to your online storage. If you don’t already have a Photoshop.com account, the app will prompt you to create one the first time you try to upload an image. The account is free and offers up to 2 GB of storage, expandable of course with an annual paid storage plan.

This is an extremely handy app for photo touchups and edits on the go — it may even be one of our new favorites. The synchronization with cloud storage is icing on the cake.

Have you had a chance to play with PS Mobile yet? What are your thoughts? Are there other worthwhile or better alternatives out there for iPhone image editing?

Joe Devine is the Chief Executive Officer of The Search Engine Guys, LLC (TSEG), a full-service web marketing company based in Austin, Texas.

Facebook and Bing announced last week an agreement that would allow Microsoft’s search engine to return results based on the Facebook “Likes” of the searcher’s friends. Additionally, Googlerecently began including Twitter updates in its search returns. It’s a natural innovation that fits into the business models of both companies and takes the trend of individualized search results to its next logical level: results tailored to the searcher’s existing social footprint.

SEO insiders have wondered whether this new search innovation would affect placement strategies. And the simple answer is: yes. Yes, there will be changes to the way SEO professionals run their clients’ campaigns. Yes, this will affect the industry as a whole. And yes, we believe SEO professionals will have to adapt to meet ever-evolving needs.

Changing the Method, Not the Mission

But to think that this development is rocking the SEO world is to misunderstand the realities of the industry. In its roughly 15 years of existence, SEO has grown from being a small wildcat operation run by webmasters and content services to being one of the most dynamic, fast-growing sectors of the tech market. The reason for this rapid growth is because — not in spite –- of the constantly evolving nature of search engines.

Of course, as with any complex question about a dynamically evolving industry, there is a caveat. While the Bing-Facebook agreement and the recent updates to Google will change elements of how we do our business, the fundamentals will remain the same. As much as innovation shapes the day-to-day processes of optimization, the core foundations of the industry remain unchanged. The goal was — and still is — putting clients at the top of results pages, whether this is through organic search, paid search or social media.

Social media is nothing new in the world of online marketing. Facebook alone has 500 million users. We have already seen certain Twitter feeds included in Google search results. Before long, results may integrate other social networking sites, like Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite and myriad other sites that haven’t even been developed yet. For SEO professionals, this change highlights the need to integrate social networking if they haven’t already.

The Bing-Facebook agreement is indicative of the many changes that have taken SEO from a small-time game to a major, innovative industry. SEO is not about counter-punching, and it’s not about simply reacting to the changing search-engine landscape. Instead, it is about growing alongside search engines. It is about evolving with them to ensure that searchers get the results they need.

SEO Firms Must Become Digital Media Agencies

For years now, successful SEO firms have not been focusing their efforts strictly on organic search results. They’ve been steadily evolving along with changes in search engines: new Google algorithms, the emergence of Bing, the development of Google Local, instant searches, paid search, and searchable Twitter feeds. At my company, we believe that to be successful, SEO firms need to become something more advanced: Digital Media Agencies.

A modern DMA resembles an SEO firm from 2002 in the way that a Ferrari resembles a Model T. The basic elements remain the same, but sophistication and complexity have resulted in a better product. DMAs are about handling the many online representation needs of their clients. While top search engine placement remains the major goal, it is just one aspect of what they seek to do. A DMA also seeks to manage a client’s online reputation, create and maintain their social presence, and handle the many other aspects of a client’s online brand.

Will SEO professionals have to change their strategy in reaction to a new social media paradigm? The answer is yes. Their evolution into full-fledged Digital Media Agencies is imperative. And as the social and search industries continue to change, so too will DMAs need to innovate.

Resources from Mashable:

The Major version of the next version of WordPress has recently been released, we just installed it on a live website.

So here is a video featuring the new functions coming in WordPress 3.0 :

So your business is on Facebook, and brand engagement is up thanks to some savvy social media strategy. You may even be interested in further distinguishing your brand by building a custom landing page for your account.

But what kind of value does a custom Facebook Fan Page offer? What are your fans looking for on a social network that they can’t get from your business website? For some insight, let’s check out how some big-name brands have stepped up their engagement by investing a little more TLC into their Facebook presence.

Interactivity

Social networks are not passive, so your Facebook landing page shouldn’t be either. It’s nice to have a great looking “Welcome” splash, but users are going to want to dosomething when they arrive.

Facebook is all about sharing, and The Gap has an ingenious promotion on the Baby Gap tab of their Fan Page. The simple splash image has a link to one of their photo albums where fans can upload pictures of their babies wearing their favorite Gap denim gear.

This kind of campaign provides a wealth of free, user-generated content that displays Gap products, and best of all, the functionality of photo uploading is already built into Facebook — no development necessary. This is an interactive idea that any small business could implement.

The Home Depot has built a bit on the shareability of Facebook actions with their DIY Gifts app. From Home Depot’s Fan Page, you can grant the app access to share your gift purchases with the recipient and your friends. While this approach may not work for everyone, it’s a step toward increasing consumer visibility on Facebook — a growing trend.

A Full Website Experience Within Facebook

Some companies go all out when it comes to their Facebook presence, integrating fully fledged mini-websites right into their Fan Pages. Adidas sneakers is a good example. They’ve added a multimedia content hub under the tab “Your Area” that offers photos, videos, and events based on your region. The site is built entirely in Flash and isn’t all that interactive, but it offers a rich media experience without ever leaving the boundaries of Facebook.

Dell’s Design Studio page is another example of a full-tilt Flash site inside Facebook. This one lets you browse and tweak custom artwork for your new laptop before linking you over to the corporate site to complete the purchase. You can also share your design choices with friends, all without connecting a single Facebook app to your account.

Deals!

The key to Facebook, and any social network, is to keep pushing out content that your fans are interested in. Many businesses do a great job keeping their fans apprised of deals and discounts through status updates.

Another great way to keep content fresh and visual within Facebook is to promote special offers on a custom tab. This may be something new visitors see when they land on your Fan Page, or a rich destination you can link back to in a post.

Walgreens does it very simply. Their landing page is a nice branded splash image that simply touts their “Exclusive Offers for Our Facebook Fans.” Their promotions are in their updates, but this simple, static custom page encourages users to become fans without any bells or whistles. They leave the deals to the built-in functionality of Facebook, and your business can too.

By simply changing the image on your custom page, you can call attention to a new product or promotion that your fans will see whenever they land there. It’s an easy way to keep your page looking fresh, in addition to regular updates.

Conclusion

These examples have been built for large companies that probably have more web development resources than the average small business. But if you’re serious about your commitment to Facebook engagement, consider taking some inspiration from these examples and exploring the possibilities that custom pages and apps can offer your business.

SEO is a website marketing strategy that considers the algorithms that search engines use, as well as the phrases that web users incorporate into searches. By tweaking the text of a website’s content, the html content, or the tags associated with the website, Search Engine Optimization utilizes the content of a page to increase the page ranking of a site. By increasing the page ranking, this technique moves a website forward from obscurity to a first page ranking. In other words, SEO can organically move your website up to the first page of your chosen search engine for your key words.

There are two different ways to increase/generate leads; these are organic and Pay Per Click (PPC). Organic SEO is optimizing a website to be search engine friendly, indexed by multiple search engines, and through optimizing html code to be indexed for your targeted keywords. Organic searches are the type of searches that appear based on the keywords that a user types into a search engine and are listed in order of relevance and frequency of search terms. In comparison, paid keyword advertising is the box that appears in a special section of the search engine results that indicates that it is an advertisement. Paid advertisement is also referred to as Pay Per Click (PPC) ads. This is because the company is charged each time their ad is clicked/viewed by a search engine user. PPC ads can be utilized on Google, Yahoo, Bing, or other high-traffic search engines. PPC advertising works by setting a budget for your campaign based on keywords and competition; price varies greatly based on key words, competition, and geo-targeting. After determining keywords and venues, you can set a budget per week or month based on how much you are willing to spend. In addition to PPC ads, there are also other paid advertisements such as banner advertisements, which most web users are familiar with. The newest paid ads are video advertisements, which you are currently seeing on Google, YouTube, Hulu, Blinkx, and other video-based sites (web 3.0).

The first step in Search Engine Optimization is keyword research. For example, you might consider how you would search for your own business on the web if you didn’t know the name of what you wanted. Think about who your target demographic is and what they would search to find you; these are your keywords. Web professionals can help you determine your target keywords. It’s very important that you identify the demographic of the customer you want to reach. If your client base is regional, then you do not want to attract potential leads outside of your jurisdiction. Very different results are returned from the same search engine if you search “Annuities” vs. “Annuities Broker Honolulu”. It is the job of your SEO consultant to help you determine who your market audience is and how they are most likely to find your site.

Once your keywords have been determined, SEO professionals will help move your site up in search engine rankings. You can move from an obscure page 10 Google.com ranking (around 100th on a list) to within the top ten sites returned. This is beneficial to your business because web searchers are more likely to look at only the first page of results to find what they are looking for. If users have to click through multiple pages to find your information, they are more likely to give up looking and choose a competitor instead. Oppositely, if you beat out your competitors by ranking higher, they may stop looking for the name they recognize and browse your website or purchase your product instead.

While keywords are very important to get search engines to rank your site within the first few pages, the content of your site is also very important. An algorithm or a search engine may be searching the text of your site in order to give a page ranking, but a potential customer will be reading through the content of your site. Therefore, it is important to balance the text and make sure the content of your site is user-friendly as well as searchable. It is important to keep a consistent ratio of around one keyword per 100 words. Any more than that will be considered by search engines as spam and your site may be banned or penalized.

Selecting the right domain name for your website is also important for the success of your business for a variety of reasons. Not only does the domain name need to logically relate to your business and be fairly easy for people to remember, your choice of domains can have a very real effect on your placement within search engines. The actual domain name of your website may be included as one of the factors considered by the large search engines in determining whether your web site is relevant for a specific keyword. As a result, including the most-searched keyword for your business in the domain name itself can increase the relevance of your site in search engine results pages (SERPs). Search engines use complex algorithms to determine websites’ relevance, so remember that this is just one of many factors.

Web designers and SEO experts have additional techniques to improve the ranking and increase the SEO performance of a website. Some of these techniques include:

Linking within pages of the same website and to other websites. Linking pages within your site and to external websites provides search engines with the richness of data that is incorporated into your site; it establishes that you have information that backs up your claims both internally and externally.
Submitting your site to multiple/specialized directories and search engines in order to increase ranking. Having links to high ranking websites such as government provided directories, Wikipedia, or major news sources will increase your ranking. You will be given priority when being viewed by search engines.
Increasing and prioritizing Meta tags. Meta tags are the first element that a search engine utilizes in order to rank page content organically. Meta tags are words that the webmaster uses to describe the site to search engines; however, most of the time end users do not see these keywords or descriptions. Your SEO consultant can tell you more about Meta tags.
Local SEO is a vital marketing strategy for any business trying to reach a consumer base in a specific area. Local SEO is a must for businesses that sell products or services locally or to a specified geographical area. Consumers are often further along in the buying cycle when they search locally. This locally focused traffic is generally more qualified, and results in higher lead conversions. You also enhance the user’s experience by bringing your prospective customers to highly relevant local content on your site. For example, someone in Fort Lauderdale, Florida is looking for plumbers. Instead of directing them to the main page of your Web site, they’re provided with the page containing your business address, phone number, and other information specific to that location. Land a consumer on relevant local information and your conversion to sale increases while page bounce rate and site abandonment decreases. With more consumers going online to research or purchase products and services, the time has never been better to integrate local SEO. This wave of consumers searching locally will continue growing. The channels consumers are using to search are changing. Is your marketing strategy adapting?

While the majority of this article has discussed ways to build web presence organically, not everyone uses such methods. Within the web community, following the established guidelines (as described above) is termed white hat. However, black hat practices also exist. Black hat practices include spamming the same terms multiple times on sites, redirecting traffic to another site that doesn’t contain your keywords, and receiving links from a mis-advertized source. Using these non-approved techniques can result in a banned IP address or domain. This means that your site will no longer be listed by search engines. Grey hat is another term that includes actions that are neither approved nor banned. This includes buying links to increase your rankings. This is not encouraged by search engines, but there are some individuals who use these techniques.

Along with SEO, site design, generation of leads, and contact tracking are valuable marketing tools to assure that after users get to your site, they will become customers.

First, it is important to have a site that is well-designed and is easy for clients to navigate, as well as having an easy-to-spot link that leads directly to your lead generation page. Your site needs a way to gather information from visitors so that you can contact them in the future to sell your product or remind them of who you are. This form usually asks for contact information (name/ email/ phone number) and a reason for visiting the site, but may be as extensive as an online application. Once the information has been gathered from the lead thought the website; it is important to make contact with the potential client. Your website should be designed to send an automatic response to each lead that provides them with additional information. Simultaneously, you will be provided with the contact information in order to provide a more personalized contact. Additionally, you can use this database of leads to keep potential clients informed about new products, specials, or items of interest through email marketing and campaigns.

Once you have a database of potential clients that have visited your site and learned about your product, it is important to track which potential clients actually become clients. Tracking your conversion rate, top keywords, number of page clicks, visits per month, and reoccurring visitors are important to targeting future clients and improving your sales techniques in the future.

Training and hiring your own workforce that specializes in Search Engine Optimization and Marketing is a vast and expensive in house investment. The technology changes often and you need people working for you that have the necessary experience and expertise. The technology is here and the slower you are to act, the further behind you get from your competition.

Search Engine Optimization and Marketing is a long term investment in your business. By using approved organic Search Engine Optimization, your site will continue to grow credibility and ranking with the search engines, even when the algorithms change and new engines are created. Think about where you are currently spending your marketing dollars. Consumer habits have moved toward the internet and web solutions; your campaign should be poised to take full advantage of this new consumer climate.

As you can see, there are many techniques you can use to improve your web presence. While some techniques can be done independently, it is highly recommended to find a professional that has mastered search engine optimization and e-marketing that understands your business needs.

The key components of a great website include: aesthetically designed pages, consistency across the site, a site that is based on a great theme, market-specific keywords/phrases, efficient navigation between pages, appropriate graphics, advanced SEO techniques, and great content. To design and develop a site requires mastering these tools and related topics.

A well planned and developed business web site absolutely requires professional help in its construction. Search engine optimization will help it rank higher in search engines and attract targeted traffic. This movement is important for business in that more traffic means more potential customers, and will mean an increase in income. However, when thinking about creating your own site, there are several concepts to keep in mind.

CSS and HTML: The HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and web page editor helps the developer to build the website. Help is available for the beginner with free online tutorials and articles with valuable assistance in building the web pages and site.

Design and Multimedia: Essential to the finished concept are good fonts, graphics, audio, video, and appropriate colors. A good page layout can be easily planned using the free and paid online tutorials. Note: Avoid using frames, too many images, animations, or videos on the site as it slows the process of loading the webpage. Using only appropriate graphic elements will help improve the relevance factor.

Content: The most important part of any website is its content. The content must be of superior quality that is relevant to the topic. Professional writers can help produce high-quality content at a nominal price.

Inbound and Outbound Links: Make sure that internal and external links are functional and that other sites link to your site.

Organization and Accessibility: Content has its own subdivisions, such as titles, creation and setup of meta tags and keywords, as well as general beautification using appropriate fonts, colors, length of paragraphs, and related graphics. Using correct grammar and flow of the story are paramount. Make sure content ratio/density is the ideal length to maintain reader interest and readability. The more consistent these elements are, the more your search engine ranking will improve.

Other Options: Advertisement is an additional source of income and advertisement programs like Google AdSense are equipped with subject-related ads in text and graphic formats. Contextual advertising is also a feature of Google AdSense. It is therefore recommended to use these ads on your site. A word of caution here, Google AdSense has a strict code of conduct and requires users to follow their program policies. There are many other similar programs that can be used for site revenue through contextual ads.

Keep in Mind: Search engine optimization helps your site to rank well in the various search engines, including Google and Yahoo!. A good website with high traffic, especially targeted traffic, is a winning combination. Thus, hiring a professional web design firm (such as Fox Web Creations) with experience in SEO techniques can do wonders for the popularity of your website. Updating the site regularly is an important factor not to be overlooked.

There are various other issues related to web design concepts, some more advanced than others, but the basic web design tips are listed above and can help any type of site. A web design firm should be consulted and hired to complete business sites. On the other hand, social networking pages (such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc.) are also necessary because your visitors would like to feel the personality of your business and perceive a more individualized connection.

If creating your own web site is too large of an undertaking for your staff, or you need assistance designing or programming your site, contact Fox Web Creations today.

At Fox Web Creations, we know doing a redesign can be a daunting task. We help customers through them every day. We know some steps you can take to take the stress out of the process. Ask yourself these questions when going through the first stages so you’ll have a head start when you’re ready to move forward.

Step 1. Determine Website Objectives: What are your future web marketing initiatives? How will you measure the success, what strategies are you using currently, and what strategies will you need to use in order to measure your success? Define your high-level objectives, targets, initiatives, and measures for this program.

Ideal Outcomes: Have users come to the site, have users/clients be able to see the services and quality of work you do, and convert web users into future clients, supporters, or investors.

Step 2. Gather Functional Requirements by Department: Work with each department to determine their requirements that can be handed off to a software engineer for technical implementation. This document will act as your list of deliverables.

Ideal Outcomes: Sales Departments are easily the first thing you think of, but the website functionality can also help the administrative side. A form for applications or an employment page for human resources (job postings, benefits administration, timecards, etc) is another area of your site that can be beneficial, even if staff members are the only individuals to see this part of your site. Almost any department can benefit from integrating with the website.

Step 3. Prioritize Website Requirements: Have a meeting with the website team and work through your list of deliverables. Find out which deliverables are most essential and which are auxiliary.

Ideal Outcomes: After the main priorities are established, it is best to prioritize additional needs. Is a priority a flashy animation that will enhance the site and keep clients on your page or will an additional few pages for internal tracking of shipments be more useful. Web designers and research can help you with determining what priorities are. Determine with your team what is most necessary for success of your objectives and reach a clear consensus.

Step 4. Analyze Infrastructure Requirements: Website infrastructure is composed of People, Processes, and Technology. Determine if you have any gaps in your existing infrastructure.

Ideal Outcomes: Do you already have a time card system? Maybe you want to integrate it to work online. Do you track sales by commission? How will you track those sales from the internet? Is there anything missing here? If so you’ll want to update your requirements in step 2. Talking with web designers can help you streamline your current process and make sure it fits within your company’s internal process.

Step 5. Perform a Web Program Gap Analysis (WPGA): Evaluate your functional & infrastructure requirements. Determine the feasibility of closing each gap and make adjustments to your required documents accordingly.

Ideal Outcomes: This is where our experience really helps. Evaluating cost and benefit is the biggest step to customer satisfaction. We have a good idea of what makes a good web presence; you have a good idea of what makes your business run best. When we put these together the result is a successful website.

Step 6. Promote the Updated Website: After your site is developed, you need users to visit it. Use your collateral, materials, and promotions to tell your current and past clients about the new site. Also think about the best way to get new clients.

Ideal Outcomes: Now that you have established a website that will best service your company, you want people to visit your site and purchase your product. You can use lists of past, current, and potential clients to inform them of your new site and products. Additionally, one of the most effective ways to get users to your site is with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Being on the first page of your local Google search will capture the people who are looking for your services. There are many ways to use SEO. Ask us about this at the beginning of your project if you’re interested. It is much more effective when integrated into the design. Watch for next month’s newsletter for tips on SEO and how Fox Web Creations can optimize your site for more targeted search engine views.