Internet Marketing - Web design and SEO Blog by Optimind

Long holidays are the best times to review and plan your next strategy. While your competitors are relaxing and away on vacation, work on your strategy and execute them before your competitors go back to work.

One of the things you should reflect on is your website (since the web is almost the best marketing channel you’ve got). Below are some review pointers for your website:

• Are you getting the right inquiries from your website?
  Or are you even getting any? If you’re not, you might want to check your web statistics. It usually comes with your hosting package or you can install Google Analytics on your website for free. If you are getting decent visits to your site and not getting inquiries, you might want to look at the content and the layout if its designed for conversion and if you are following usablity principles.
• Is the information on your site updated?
  Its a common problem for corporate websites to display outdated contact information on the site. Check if all your current promotions and service/product rates are updated. Check if your external links still exist.
• Is your website cross-browser compatible?
  You maybe a Mac guy like me and loves using safari to surf. Unfortunately, everyone has different preferences. So your website should be tested on all major browsers: Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome. Most of the time, javascript validations and variable layouts cause browser incompatibility issues. If your website’s contact form turned out not to work on a certain browser, chances are you might loose some valuable leads from your website.
• Are you mobile-ready?
  Its not just getting ready for mobile phones, its getting ready for different types of mobile devices. With the invention of the iPhone and with WiFi everywhere, chances are some people will be surfing using smaller browser screens. Just make sure your website still looks and functions the same even on smaller screens like Safari on iPhone. Most modern web and mobile browsers can display the sites correctly as long as it is forming a valid XHTML. You can use a W3C validator tool to check if your site is valid.
• Can your website be found on search engines?
  This is the most important point you should consider. If your website cannot be found by people looking for your products or services online, then it doesn’t serve its purpose (marketing-wise). Try researching about SEO or hire an SEO company to do the work for you.

Check out Website Grader to find out if your website is optimized for internet marketing (and seo of course).

myOptimind.com’s website grade is 91/100

I found this helpful link through Smiley Cat’s Web Design Blog. The link basically provides you with a checklist so you won’t forget the important details in designing a website.

In our company, we make sure that we don’t just create a fancy website design, we also consider the functionality and experience that it should offer to your customers. Here are some tips on website design based from Nielsen/Norman, Human Factors International.

1. Do not obstruct or compete with user’s critical tasks.
2. Present elements related to specific tasks based on frequency, importance or sequence.
3. Use buttons and links consistently. Always use the same label for the same function.
4. Pages should push no unexpected animation or sound at users.
5. Allow users to purchase without registering.
6. Lay out objects hierarchically to match the user’s expected task flow: left to right or top top bottom. Most users start by scanning the content area.
7. Ensure manageable page lenghts. Don’t use scrolling on home pages and make sure interior pages are fewer than 2.5 screens.
8. Ensure that pages can be easily printed and that printing does not cut off critical information. If this is not practical, provide a printable version.
9. Don’t design critical information os it looks like advertising.
10. Don’t force users to hover over something to see options.
11. Link names should communicate the content of the page they link to. Avoid generic links such as Click Here and More.
12. User your user’s vocabulary.
13. Write content that is short and simple, correct, in the active voice and interesting.
14. User bulleted lists, introductory summaries, clear titles, and stand-alone chunks to facilitate scanning.
15. Display a search box in the upper-right corner of every page.
16. Chunk search results into categories.

Several clients have asked our guidance about the best type and size of font for their site.The answer is, there is no best type and size. Types are limited to certain fonts that are supported by the operating system (Mac, Windows or Linux). As for font sizes, the standard for web browsers would be 11px or 12px but that is just for web browsers. Nowadays, we have to cater to the iphone, pda, and other mobile devices.

Survey of supported font types

. Info sourced by Codestyle.

As you can see, only a few have 90% or more supporters. The recommended is to use the fonts with 90% or more installations. Other fonts maybe used using an image or a flash container.

I attended the 2nd Internet and Mobile Marketing Summit last August 13-15, 2008 to learn about the current trends in online and mobile marketing in the Philippines. Here are some noteworthy facts and figures presented at the summit:

• only 18% of TV Ads generate positive response
• internet and mobile marketing campaigns are the most trackable and cost effective ways to do marketing
• Filipinos send 2 Billion text messages per day making the country the SMS capital of the world
• Ratio of Cellphones to PCs is 2:1, it will be 4:1 in 2 years
• This quote shows that interactive marketing is the best way to market:
  Tell them and they’ll forget
  Show tem and they’ll remember
  Involve them and they’ll understand

You may download presentation materials from the organizer’s website: www.immap.com.ph.

Smiley Cat offers an interesting showcase of design elements. The showcase ranges from registration forms, log-in forms, carousels, etc. This is a great resource if you are planning your next website redesign.

Optimind is an offshore web design company located in Manila, Philippines. 75% of our clients are overseas. Based on our own setup and experience, these are the top 5 online tools that we can’t live without:

1. Website Designed for Conversion and SEO
   To enter the international market, you need a site that has a world-class design. Before designing or redesigning your website, you should consider SEO and Persuasion Architecture. Your great design work is nothing if you can’t be found by your prospects and if your website visitors don’t contact or order from you.
2. VoIP
   Communication is essential for any business. There are free ways to talk to your overseas clients. You may use Skype or Yahoo Messenger. There are also a lot of low-cost VoIP providers that you can subscribe to for you to get a US number (even a toll-free number).
3. Merchant Account
   Making it easier for your clients to pay you is a must. Wire-transfer fees and process might turn-off some prospective clients. You may shoulder some of the cost by getting a Merchant Account. Most Philippine-based companies use xoom.com or paypal but I prefer using other online payment options because their FX conversion rates are way too low.
4. Web Analytics
   Review how your website is doing. Are you getting enough visitors from your target geographic location? What keywords are your prospects using to find your website? Will it be better to target other long-tail keywords as well? These are questions that can be answered by your web analytics software. Most web hosting companies provide this for free or you may get a Google Analytics account. Google analytics is by far the best analytics tool in my opinion.
5. Basecamp
   One of the most important investment we did this year was to sign up for a Basecamp account. Using basecamp, we can easily monitor the progress of our projects anywhere we are. Client requests, comments, revisions are easily monitored using this online tool.