As the use of social media websites continues to grow, so too does the need for businesses to become part of them if they want to remain competitive.

Although websites can attain higher search engine rankings through good SEO practices, marketing those websites and extending their reach is often better and more quickly achieved by creating a company page on social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Social media is all about sharing information which is often anything from exchanging general chit-chat to users telling friends about something they’ve seen and recommending that they take a look, and the power of a recommendation should never be underestimated.

By linking their website to social media, interacting with other users and being inventive with the content, businesses could benefit from a significant increase in exposure and a higher awareness of their products or services rather than relying on potential customers finding them via search engines alone.

Business and social media are now firmly linked; take a look at any number of websites and more often than not there’s a social media button to found on their pages. Even with television adverts there are invitations to ‘follow us on Facebook/Twitter’ etc and it seems if your website has no connection to social media then you’re all but invisible to a potentially large market.

It’s fairly safe to say that marketing a website through social media is no longer a choice but a necessity in order to keep up with the competition, and those businesses not currently doing so are putting themselves at a disadvantage and missing out on what has become one of the most effective marketing channels in recent years.

Until next time.

I recently read an article about how Amazon is soon to test its new website which they’ve designed with the aim of making navigation much easier than is currently the case. The sheer size of the site has often made navigation quite difficult at times with some visitors occasionally getting lost within its pages so any improvement in navigation can only be a good thing.

Aside from navigation issues, it was definitely time for a change of look and from a screenshot I’ve seen, the new look is quite pleasing and has a more spacey feel, but perhaps the most noticeable difference is the absence of the old blue side menu which has been replaced by a collapsible one located across the top of the page.

There are also fewer products on display which again frees up screen space and gives the site a much cleaner and streamlined look and much less daunting than the current site.

Overall, the new look should go down well with visitors and easier navigation should make it even more popular than ever. The site is also designed for shoppers using tablets as opposed to PCs and laptops.

There may be some Amazon fans that would prefer the site to remain as it is and has been for years but time moves on and so too should websites, and as Amazon’s current site now looks a little dated, I suspect the majority of users will welcome the change.

Until next time.

I came across an interesting little article which talked about a new website design for Amazon.com which is aimed specifically at making it easier for users accessing the site via tablets and the like as opposed to PCs and laptops.

This leads me on to the Android-based Amazon tablet which is described in some articles as ‘imaginary’. Not surprising really as it’s supposedly just the product of rumour at the moment but there are many who suspect and predict it will make an appearance before the end of 2011.

The tablet is expected to take on the mighty iPad with many believing that it will do just that if it ever comes to market. Amazon already has the Kindle of course which is now outstripping sales of print books so perhaps the rumoured jump into the tablet market is inevitable.

A look around the web will yield various opinions as to whether or not the Amazon device will make any significant dent in Apple’s control of the tablet market which is currently reckoned to be around 50 percent.

Others are speculating that should Amazon come up with their own version there will be courtroom battles ahead as Apple may attempt to sue for alleged patent violations as they have reportedly done to other makers of Android smart phone and tablets from which they now charge a fee for every item sold.

Whether or not Amazon does have something up its sleeve, one thing is clear. The debate and speculation amongst potential users and the concern that Apple must be experiencing at the moment is priceless PR.

Except for the Kindle, Amazon aren’t really known for pushing their own branded products and yet with just a rumour of something to come they’ve got the computer world wondering what’s going to happen next. Time will tell of course but for the moment I’m sure Amazon’s potential competitors will remain a little bit twitchy.

Until next time.

It’s an achievement whenever a visitor to your site likes what they see enough to make a purchase but frustrating for them on reaching the checkout only to discover that the only payment options on offer is by cheque or via BACs.

Amazingly, there are still some businesses albeit smaller and possibly home-run enterprises that only accept cheques and occasionally others where bank transfers are the only way in which a customer can pay for their purchases; neither way is very practical any more especially if the website in question is a busy one sales-wise.

More often than not, for many smaller online businesses PayPal is perhaps the favoured option because it’s fairly easy to obtain and allows traders to have a basic payment gateway up and running in a very short space of time although PayPal now also have systems that lets online businesses accept payment via credit and debit cards as well.

As most shoppers prefer to pay using a credit or debit card, websites that don’t cater for these potential buyers could and probably already are losing a significant amount of business.

Of course for some businesses, securing other payment options such as Visa and Mastercard isn’t always easy or straightforward because of the need to obtain merchant accounts; something that isn’t always as quick, straightforward or hassle-free as you’d expect.

However, there are growing numbers of payment gateway providers offering payment processing services who are now making it much easier than it once was to take online payments. There are obviously commission charges to consider before you choose and they vary from company to company but a good look around for the best deals should be very worthwhile.

Aside from the limitations for online buyers and the effect it could have on sales, many visitors are likely to view a single payment option or indeed the inability to accept any online payment as being rather amateur; an opinion that in most cases isn’t deserved but unfortunately practically unavoidable when encountered. Nevertheless, website owners currently offering only one method of payment would do well to rectify the situation as early as possible.

Until next time.

The other day my nephew was browsing a website and called me to ask about a box he’d seen on one of the pages. The box turned out to be a Captcha and I explained to him what their basic function is: to distinguish between human users and computer programs. I’d never really taken any notice of them up to then but curiosity and a little research showed what else they were useful for.

Automated spam comments on blogs has to be the bane of every blogger’s life; using a Captchas will ensure that only humans can enter what are hopefully genuine comments onto a blog and all without the need for them to sign up before doing so.

Dictionary attacks on password systems is another area where Captchas are useful. Computerised systems will make numerous attempts to crack a password and Captchas go some way to preventing this by requesting the programme to enter the characters shown in the box after a pre-defined number of failed logins.

Other occasions where the use of a Captcha is advisable is when signing up for something free such as email accounts, newsletters, competitions etc, in fact anything that requires a sign up procedure on a website would probably benefit from a Captcha, at least for the foreseeable future.

I say the foreseeable future because as computer programmes become ever more sophisticated it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that at some point a way will be found that enables a programme to read Captcha characters or bypass the system altogether, and if you think that sounds impossible, take a look at the astonishing advances in computer technology over the last ten or even five years and think again.

Until next time.

I came across a couple of sites recently where before anything constructive happened; a splash page appeared on my screen and got to thinking about whether they are a good or bad thing.

Quite simply, some like splash pages and some don’t; it all boils down to personal preference, but if you’re going to have a splash page on your site there are a few things you need to consider.

The good thing about splash pages though is their fairly fast loading times; any information is almost immediate and hits you in the face without the need to scroll, although one downside is that they prevent instant access to the website in question; something which may drive a significant number of visitors away if they have to click again to get where they want to be.

A splash page often gives visitors the choice of which version of the site to enter as well. For example; I know of a site that used to offer the entry options ‘conventional site’ and ‘unconventional site’, the titles of which are self-explanatory. This particular site’s splash page was very, very quick and didn’t deter me from revisiting, but that’s not always the case with other sites which can vary enormously.

Splash pages are perhaps a good way of showcasing a web designer’s skills especially if they are interesting as well as containing useful information but once seen is usually enough for any visitor, and their return to the site could be out of the question if there is no ‘skip’ button in place.

There could also be an issue with search engines as well because they won’t have a lot to optimise if the splash page contains only Flash animation; something that could also have a knock-on effect with access to other pages of the site.

All in all, splash pages aren’t the worst thing in web design but they do require some thought as to how they are presented and how they could affect visitor numbers and consequently your business.

Until next time.

There are a lot of opinions as to how your website copy should be written with clear, concise and keyword rich generally considered as being amongst the most important, and it’s no secret that it should enable visitors to find information quickly and easily without having to wade through blocks of irrelevant text; so, pretty much straightforward so far.

But, those basics aside, what about the look of the copy, or more precisely, its shape? Shape is all important in website copy because if it’s not right it will simply put visitors off regardless of how good the web design of the site itself.

Ideally, blocks of website copy should be set as ‘justified left and ragged right’ which simply means that the left side of the block should be straight and the right side uneven – just like the copy on this page.

This is usually the most comfortable layout for online readers as there is a defined start to each line of text and ending where they would naturally finish without being broken up by the multiple hyphen breaks and oversized spaces found in justified text.

If you don’t already know, justified text is when both the left and right sides of the copy columns are straight just as they are in newspapers and many books, and whilst this works for those types of publications, it’s not something that’s appreciated or wanted by the majority of website visitors.

There are websites out there containing justified text and apart from the reasons I’ve mentioned, to me they’re also quite uneasy on the eye. Justified text on your website may look neat, tidy and uniform but visitors might have a hard time reading it and even leave your site because of it.

Until next time.

Earlier this year we were asked by Climb Magazine to redevelop their web site and we launched the new version earlier this month. Online for nearly 5 years, this is the second development of the web site; the first being done by in.house.media back in 2006.

In addition to its completely new look are all the features you would expect to find on the web site of an international publication such as videos, professional photo galleries, news articles, blogs and events. Being extremely user-friendly, visitors can order back issues and subscribe to the magazine simply and quickly.

The web site itself is entirely managed by a very comprehensive administration system that allows Climb to update virtually every aspect of the site as and when they want and makes the handling of regularly changing items like order management, subscriptions and image galleries a particularly fast and efficient process.

See the site for yourself by going to www.climbmagazine.com