Small Business Web Design Tips

Marketing and promoting online can be a daunting task for many small & medium sized businesses. Internet marketing in Austin can be successfully managed by an experienced agency.

Part I of this series presented an overview of concepts in web design principles used in web development. This article expands on and adds to these and is intended more for those whose specific responsibilities are web development. Good web design is critical in business branding strategies, such as food photography, print writing, and having a logo designer, are universally accepted design practices that should be closely followed to capitalize on branding methodologies.

In the previous article, I used the example of a company in Austin, Texas who sells western wear. This article will continue with this example to draw specific parallels to the web design principles being outlined. As you can imagine, the state of Texas would be the premiere area for western retail stores, thus making it highly competitive. Stores located in smaller areas, such as in Round Rock, Georgetown, Cedar Park, or even Austin Tx must find strategic ways to gain market shares. The key to this is through their websites. A poorly designed site most assuredly results in lost customers and sales. Good web design ensures even smaller companies in Round Rock, Georgetown, Cedar Park, or Austin Tx can effectively compete with similar businesses in Texas or elsewhere using Austin seo foundations. In the south, is a growing industry, as part of the marketing boom of Austin Texas web design and remains a great place for seo to thrive.

Now let’s get down to some basics of web development:

• Navigation – As mentioned in Part I, every page on your site should be linked. Here are a few more tips:

o Employ commonly used menu options and clearly identifiable labels at the top of every page , such as About Us, Our Products, Our Services, Company Profile, Store Locator.

o Use the right or left side of the page to link to any other interesting information on your site. For example, visitors living in or around Round Rock, Georgetown, Cedar Park, or Austin Tx might be interested in local events in these areas. This helps with branding by providing a little added value and encouraging visitors to return.

o Check for broken links. When links do not work correctly, it creates a credibility issue.

• Organizing information on a page – Tables are an excellent and efficient way to display and organize information on a web page. For example, a company in Round Rock, Georgetown, Cedar Park, or Austin Tx could use a table for their western wear product information, such as description, qty on hand, & pricing, to present a nicely organized and easy to read format.

• Easy to read & professional formats – Image is everything to a company’s branding. Therefore, consider the following web development standards:
Fonts: Only a few font combinations are considered “web acceptable” for most
browser types. Sans-serif fonts are highly recommended for easier reading.

Use these: Arial, Helvetica
Verdana, Arial
Geneva, Arial, Helvetica
Times New Roman is the common default
Color: Nothing will cause a visitor from Texas to click out of your site quicker than a
blinding bright pink or a clashing lime green color scheme. Make sure you
research web safe colors. Above all, use aesthetically pleasing colors
that, for branding purposes, identify your company’s logo.

The greatest piece of advice for professional web development is to consider your target audience. If you are trying to attract customers for western wear who live in Texas, or more specifically in Round Rock, Georgetown, Cedar Park, or Austin Tx, do your research and be sure to check out the competition. Also note the need for ephemera in your future endevours.

Every year it seems that more and more technology, more portability and more potential is packed into smart phones. From the iPhone to the Blackberry, these devices are changing the way the business world does business. We’ve been promised for years now that the modern office environment would soon be a thing of the past, and now with this latest generation of smart phone, that might actually be true. You can be on a beach in Hawaii and carry on almost all of the business you would if you were back in Montana. Here are a few tips for those folks trying to figure out how to master their new smart phone.

First off, read the instructions. It is difficult to think of anything more boring than reading the instructions, but these phones are so packed with features, there is no way you’ll really be able to master everything unless you know where everything is. You’ll hate it at first, but you’ll thank yourself later for putting up with the dull instructions and tedious writing.

Learn to master a few features first instead of trying to use every bell and whistle on your phone from day one. You probably have a good idea what you’ll be using your phone for before you buy it, so master how to send email or how to use the Bluetooth features before you delve into every other option. Once you have the essentials down, it’ll be easier figuring out everything else.

Once you know the layout of your phone, don’t be shy about going online and looking at all of the available applications. This is especially true of the iPhone. There are literally dozens of new applications coming out each and every day, many of which are incredibly useful. You’ll probably end up with a few stinkers before you find ones that you love, but don’t let that scare you off. The wide range of aps is half the fun of having a modern smart phone.

Finally, don’t be afraid to turn your smart phone off once in a while. They can become all-consuming if you let them. Let your time at home be just that.

If you own a PC, the single most important program on your machine is your anti-virus. Despite the best efforts of web developers, viruses are still a big problem, and they are beginning to affect Macs, as well. There are several important things you need to do to help keep your machine bug-free.

First, you need to pick an anti-virus program that works properly. Most folks have heard of Norton and McAfee, but there are other products on the market, as well, including several free ones. The key here is downloading them from a site that you can trust. Download.com, for instance, is run by computer wizards cNet, and all of their downloads are checked for viruses. Try to avoid downloading a product from a site you’ve never heard of. There are thousands of fake anti-virus products out there that are really viruses and Trojans in disguise.

Once you’ve settled on a product, you have to keep it up to date. A reputable virus product will require that an updated list of viruses multiple times per week. Some products have settings to automatically update their virus definitions, while others don’t. If you have a product that doesn’t, you should check two or three times per week. Otherwise, you will fall behind the threats that are out there.

In addition to updating your definitions, you also need to scan your entire hard drive at least once a week. Most products like Norton do this in the wee hours of the morning when you won’t be using your machine, but if you turn your computer off at night, it may never have a chance. Your anti virus program is completely useless unless you scan your hard drive on a regular basis.

Finally, read up on reviews of the latest programs out there. Often times, products that were ranked at or neat the top one year may not be the next. If you really care about the contents of your computer, you’ll go with the top ranked software each year. There are a lot of hackers out there and the only thing keeping them away from your data is a good anti virus.

With higher and higher download speeds and additional bandwidth comes new and faster ways to download files from the Internet. The hottest method right now is known as BitTorrent. Speeds on BitTorrent can top 500mb/s or more depending on the number of people sharing a file that you want to download. BitTorrent does have its drawbacks, however. Viruses can be tacked on to files and there is quite a lot of trading of copyrighted material, as well. Here are a few tips for downloading with BitTorrent.

Before you begin downloading, you are going to need a BitTorrent client. These programs are small, free and easy to find on the Internet. One of the most popular is UTorrent. It is free and downloads in seconds.

Now that you have a BitTorrent client, you’ll need to find a safe place to download from. One site is Mininova.com. Mininova used to offer downloads of all kinds, but recent complaints from law enforcement have ended the sharing of copyrighted material. With the disappearance of illegal sharing you also see a dramatic decrease in the number of viruses, as well. There is still quite a lot of music you can download here, all with the approval of the artist.

BitTorrent can also be used to download freeware computer programs, video and just about anything else. Simply look for files that have a lot of seeders, those folks who already downloaded the file and are now sharing it, and lechers, those folks that are in the same position as you. Almost as soon as you begin downloading a file, you will notice that others will begin downloading data from you. This is how BitTorrent works. Everyone shares file information from everyone else.

Finally, it is important that you use your anti virus program to scan files once you have downloaded them but before you’ve opened them. Your anti virus should be able to detect any issues and eradicate them before they can infect your computer. When used safely, BitTorrent can be a gold mine of music, video and programs. Simply avoid the shady side and you’ll be hooked on BitTorrent before you know it.