Posts Tagged Seattle Web Design
Why Joomla? A Look at the World’s Second Most Popular CMS
Posted by Rory Martin in Web Design and Development on June 27, 2013
Joomla is a CMS or Content Management System that is most often used by small businesses who want to easily control and update their website. CMS is the best alternative for anyone who does not want to call their developer each time they want an upgrade but they can be open source or custom built depending on the owner’s needs. While many people choose to have a custom built CMS, most choose to go with the much more affordable option of using an open source option like WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla.
Currently Joomla is estimated to have been downloaded and installed more than 30 million times, making it the second most popular CMS on the planet, just behind WordPress. While WordPress is the best choice for blogging websites, the majority of people who choose Joomla are business owners. But why would you want to choose Joomla? And why do Seattle web design companies choose Joomla so often?
Easy to Learn
Joomla, like other CMS, has a learning curve. However, with literally hundreds of free tutorials on the web, you won’t have to constantly ask for help for simple itmes. Unlike a custom CMS you are working with an open source option meaning that there are plenty of options for free training, tutorials, as well as full classes at some colleges that will help you get into the swing of things. While you don’t have to learn to develop Joomla, which takes longer, you can easily learn to user your CMS to its best advantage without spending a great deal of money.
Plenty of Apps
Joomla currently has a database of more than 6,000 extensions. These ad-ons are similar to apps or applications and can be used to quickly and easily add features to your site. That means that if you want to quickly add a temporary feature then you can just use an extension. Of course, if you want something permanent that is unique to your site, you might still want to think about having your web designer develop one for you instead.
Fast Setup
While Joomla does take time to develop, it has been proven that the CMS goes faster from design to launch than most other CMS. This means that you spend less money, waste less time, and get your results faster. Of course, developing any website takes time, especially if you are looking for a feature rich platform. Joomla however can be a little quicker than many other solutions.
Stable
Joomla is one of the most stable CMS options on the planet which is alone a huge credit. Working with stable, pre-designed solutions means that your web design company can get right to the item at hand, which is designing your website. Instead of building and testing a CSM solution for you, they can concentrate on building your site, not your CMS.
Joomla has its pros and cons but considering that it is the most popular business choice for CMS, it definitely has more pros than cons. If you’re considering using Joomla for your website you can contact us to talk about your web design needs. We cover Joomla as well as custom CMS designed for your business.
Want to learn more? Check out our Seattle web design page to see what we offer and what we can do.
Web Design for Restaurant Owners: What to Consider & Look For
Posted by Rory Martin in Web Design and Development on June 15, 2013
Seattle is well known for its food and night life with well-known restaurants serving up everything from gourmet delights to cheap eats. From Canlis to Dick’s Drive In, Seattle is very much proud of our food culture, and for good reason. Despite this, more and more people are beginning to look online in search of new eats to try, and while the search usually starts with social media, most people will visit a website before going to a restaurant. So what does your restaurant need to convert more traffic?
Visual Design – Visual design is one of the most important aspects of your restaurants website and your web
design should reflect that. The only purpose of the site is to showcase your food and tell people how to get there, your Seattle web designer should be aware of this enough to work with you, use photos from your food, and then design the site around the food. While every website should be different you do want the focus to be on the visual aspects of your business, which should mostly be food. If that requires hiring a food designer and photographer before hiring a web designer then go for it. Food based websites tend to covert much more because you show that you are confident in your cooking skills (or your cooks cooking skills) and that you have beautiful food.
Ease of Use – Your website should be easy to use and navigate, otherwise people might not get past the home page. Make navigating pages, returning to the home page, finding the menu, and calling the restaurant to make a reservation as easy as possible. If people have trouble finding something, or trouble getting from page to page then they will almost definitely leave the page.
Interactive Menu – Every restaurant website should have a menu, yours can be as simple or as complex as you like but consider going interactive. Being able to click on each dish to see a photo, or a tantalizing description is sure to leave your customers wanting to try it. All you have to do to get an interactive menu is discuss it with your Seattle website designer and see what they can do within your budget.
Personality – Your restaurant has personality, your website should have that same personality. Unless you happen to have a lot of photos handy to communicate your style and personality across to the web designer, then you want to look for someone local who can easily visit to get a feel for the vibe and atmosphere of your restaurant. Communicating your personality and atmosphere into a website is the best way to make your restaurant site stand out from the rest so that you have something truly fabulous.
Want to know more about having local Seattle web designers work on your restaurants website? Contact us today to learn more about our work with some of the best restaurants in Seattle, and what we can do for you.
Seattle Web Design Trends in 2013 and Why You Should be Paying Attention
Posted by Rory Martin in Web Design and Development on May 30, 2013
The internet has become an exciting and highly competitive world of business and industry, with many companies competing together for customers. While product and customer reviews are typically the definite decision maker for most, quality of web design typically plays a huge part in user opinion and in final sale. Ecommerce web design is more important than ever, even for businesses that offer services as well as products. For example, many real estate brokers have websites, but very few of them have unique and beautiful websites and as a result, the ones who have invested in quality web design tend to look more appealing to people searching online for their broker. This is a list of the top five trends in Seattle web design for 2013, including information about why you should pay attention, and consider integrating it into your business website.
Simplicity – One of the most visible web design trends of 2013 is actually simplicity. Web designers everywhere have been pairing down colors and imagery to create a simple web design that is easy on the eyes. Why? Because simple web design focuses on content and quality rather than gimmicks, bells, or whistles. Most web surfers have seen plenty of websites and typically simple ones win hands down in polls. What else? A simple website puts the focus on your product or service rather than distracting visitors. While there are plenty of complex websites that can do the same, simplicity does it very well. Last but not least, simple websites load faster, meaning that your customers see your content sooner.
Mobile Friendly – The world is going mobile with the sales of tablets expected to increase by 40% or more within the next year. As it is, statistics indicate that mobile search drives about 17-25% of the web, which means they really are a big deal. Mobile friendly websites are an increasing trend, especially since mobile searches and sales are rapidly growing. Unfortunately if your site is not mobile friendly, you should definitely consider hiring a web designer to help as soon as possible.
Big & Bold – From big photos to big, bold, and blocky text, bold is all the rage in Seattle web design right now. From e-commerce to restaurant websites, large photos add depth, intrigue, and attract customers with visual imagery. Larger text and bolder designs attract the eye as well, but only if designed carefully and with minimalistic and simple web content.
Strong Minimalistic Content – Strong content with eye catching designs, minimalistic but well written text, and well-designed pages are the biggest and most influential trends in Seattle web design this year. Essentially it’s all about saying more with less, which means attracting more attention while putting less effort into doing so. This requires the use of simplistic but strong ideas and themes such as incorporating color and style to communicate a company’s ideals.
Blogs – Blogs are suddenly more prevalent than ever before, especially on business and ecommerce websites. Google, the major search engine, has indicated time and time again that a good blog can be an invaluable resource to a website for SEO and sales reasons. Currently blog reviews are driving some 40% of final sales decisions, and properly optimized blog posts can bring a flood of traffic to a site. However, the best blogs are those that are fully integrated into a site so that not only do they bring traffic, but also lead it directly to point of sale.
One of the most promising trends in Seattle web design is that designing websites is actually becoming art. Graphic designers and experts are now making beautiful, user friendly, and content specific sites rather than plain, run of the mill, and cheap sites. If you have a website with each of these trends present in your design then you have a work of art that is sure to convert and bring in traffic.
How Custom E-Commerce Web Design Helps Build Sales and Grow Customers
Posted by Rory Martin in Web Design and Development on May 21, 2013
The goal for any successful ecommerce store is usually to stand out from the competition in a way that makes consumers remember them. Unfortunately this is difficult or impossible to achieve with cookie cutter web themes from standard e-commerce platforms. If you want to truly stand out from the crowd you need custom web design that suits your platform, your customers, and your business. If you’re considering hiring a Seattle web designer like Rory Martin to work on your website, here are five of the reasons for you to do so.
- You Stand out from the Crowd – First and foremost, custom web design offers exactly that. Each e-commerce website designed by a Seattle web designer like Rory Martin is unique so that you do not blend in. If you go on a competitors page you will not see similar designs, and you will not see the same theme or platform. If you want, you can also incorporate unique ideas or functions into your website to make it stand out even more.
- Your Website Reflects Your Brand – Custom website design allows you to build the style, theme, and colors of your website based on your brand. This means incorporating the colors from your logo into the site or creating a brandable website that people will remember. Marketing is all about branding and your website is usually one of your biggest online branding assets. By making it memorable and making it about you rather than using random color and design, you can help people to remember you.
- Your Website is SEO Friendly – Did you know that having unique html on the back end of your site can actually benefit your SEO? While it won’t cause you to skyrocket to the top of search if you haven’t been working on optimizing your content and merchandise, it does help you to come up above competitors who still use cookie cutter themes. Offering unique and quality content always benefits your site, and unique web design is part of this.
- You Get What You Need – If you use a theme then you never quite get exactly what you need. You might make a sacrifice here or there on a feature, style, or idea that you had and then never get to see exactly what you wanted. When you choose custom e-commerce web design, you get exactly what you want within the realm of site possibilities. Want a custom contact form that allows people to place wholesale orders based on number, color and style? You can have it. You can also choose to add in instant chat or whatever else you like. Just remember to talk with your web designer before automatically assuming it comes included.
- Your Website is Flexible – Last but not least, custom web design allows you to change, update, and add new things whenever you need them. You don’t have to rely on what you already have because you can always have your web designer work with your site to improve it at any time.
There are plenty more reasons to hire a web designer to build your site from scratch, but by now you probably get the gist of why it can help. Check our Seattle web design services to learn more about how we can help you.
10 Things You Might Not Think of When Designing Your Website
Posted by Rory Martin in Web Design and Development on April 18, 2013
Whether you’re designing your website on your own or paying someone else to do it, it’s always possible to forget about some of the smaller things that can help your website. Unfortunately, a lot of people miss these and then somehow never get around to having their web designer put them in. So what do you need to know while designing your website? Read these tips and then make sure your Seattle web design company or team knows exactly what you want.
Clean Design
While it is okay to include bells and whistles in your website design, studies show that a clean and even minimalistic design will have better results. You obviously do not want your website looking like its old, but you don’t want it looking cluttered either. Consider aiming to have at least 30% of each page occupied by blank space. This space can be utilized to make the area look bigger, easier to read, and less cluttered.
Integrated SEO
SEO is one of the most popular marketing mediums of the last 20 years, but most people don’t start to integrate it until they start to work on text. Did you know that you can utilize HTML tweaks to make sure your SEO is good to go from the start? By utilizing canonical links, externalizing JS and CSS file sheets, and including microdata and meta descriptions as necessary, you can increase the HTML SEO for your site. Don’t know what any of this means? Ask your Seattle web designer.
Clear Branding
Your website is an extension of your brand so make sure its present. Your brand colors, logo, personal style, and tone all make up part of your branding so ensure that each of these elements are utilized on page. Websites with clear branding come off as more authoritative, more business centric, and create a better impression than those with no branding.
Search Bar Integrated Above the Fold
The fold is where your site cuts off on a computer screen and it does make some difference to your ads, your search, and your impressions. Below the fold ads get much lower impressions than those above it, and the same things goes for your search bar. If users do not see search when they immediately go onto the page, they might not think you have one. Good places for your search bare include above the header, in your menu bar, and just below your header.
Sitemap
A sitemap tells search engine bots where to go on your site so you should make sure you have one up as soon as your site goes up. You can always edit the file later, and they usually only take a minute or two to make.
Multiple Browser & OS Compatibility
Whether you live on Google Chrome or on your Blackberry, you have to make sure your website is compatible across all browsers and all popular operating systems. Considering a mobile optimized site, ensuring that your colors remain the same across browsers, and using a font that is supported by a wide variety of browsers and devices is your best bet for ensuring compatibility.
Web Optimized Images
Did you know that a large image can slow down the load speed of your site? Setting all of your images to 72dpi will ensure that your images are web optimized, and will load more quickly. The size of the image can be large or small, but make sure it isn’t too big, or your site will suffer because of it.
Integrated Statistics and Analytics
Want to know who’s on your site, how they are getting there, and what they looked up to find you? Analytics are your best bet for finding any of this information so make sure you have something installed. Google analytics is the most popular option although there are many more free and paid options. What are the benefits of installing your analytics code from the start? You can use it to do comprehensive A/B testing to find what works and what doesn’t on your site.
Consistency
What does consistency have to do with web design? Actually a lot! You want your website to look the same on every page because this has been proven to have a better effect on first impression for a visitor. Consistency looks professional so make sure you utilize it across your website.
Contact Information
Did you know that many websites actually do not include contact information? If you’re selling a product or service, you need to have at least an email and name associated with your website. You can also consider including a mailing address and phone number, although not everyone should include the address. Contact information shows visitors that you are trustworthy and that the site is operated by a real human being.
If your Seattle web designer is not using all of these items in your design, you should definitely think about having them start.
Mobile Websites – Building Websites with Multiple Screens in Mind
Posted by Rory Martin in Web Design and Development on April 5, 2013
Mobile websites are popular, and a lot of web traffic originates directly from mobile devices including tablets and smartphones. While building a mobile site is definitely a great option, having your Seattle web designer build a responsive website that shows up differently to each type of device might also be a great way to go. This post follows up on the previous post about deciding if mobile web is right for you, and if so, how much it is worth to you.
A Look at the Statistics
According to Google a massive 27% of all searches on Google (that’s about 70-90% of all search depending on the given day) are from a mobile device. That includes tablets, e-readers, tablet PCs, phones of all shapes and sizes, game consoles, and even smart TVs. Essentially, some 15-20% of all web search is mobile driven, and maybe more.
What is Responsive Web Design?
If you ask your Seattle web designer ‘what is responsive web design’ we would say, it’s the process of using one URL, one web page, one HTML page, and two or more CSS pages. This allows the page to appear differently based on the capabilities and dimensions of the device listed so that an iPad user sees the website in perfect size on an iPad, and a Blackberry user sees the website perfectly on their Blackberry. There are pros and cons to responsive web design but most of them have to do with SEO. Responsive web design is most beneficial because it uses a single URL rather than redirection via canonical URLs.
What is Dynamic Web Design?
Dynamic web design is the second option for anyone who would like a mobile compatible site. Dynamic web design is different from responsive web design in that it uses one URL but different HTML. Dynamic design uses a server directs to push multiple devices to different variations of the site without using a different URL. This is preferential to canonical URLs because it allows web users to easily go to a different page without switching site. This is different from a mobile website in that it still uses the same URL rather than a completely different one.
Which Mobile Web Design is Right for You?
While mobile web design is great for anyone who has a large percentage of mobile traffic, it isn’t right for everyone. You can decide this on your own, or ask a Seattle web designer like Rory Martin about it. After deciding you need a mobile website, you have to decide between the many different types of websites suitable for mobile. Dynamic web design, a full mobile site, or what is quickly becoming the most popular option, responsive web design are all great choices, and each suitable for a different type of website.
Responsive web design is usually the most popular option but there are a couple of other considerations to include, no matter what you choose. For example, you need a font that works on both computer browsers and mobile, you need images and video tagged and situated for mobile, and most importantly, a quality SEO strategy for both mobile and standard web.
Are you ready to start integrating mobile into your website design? Contact us today to learn more about mobile web design, and how it benefits you.
Web Design Layout Techniques That Work
Posted by Rory Martin in Web Design and Development on February 27, 2013
Creating your website is about more than using code and pictures to create a final whole. If that were so, you could create your website yourself, or you could if you know code. But the real reason that prompts most people to hire a Seattle web design company is the fact that real web design is about creating a work of art that utilizes every bit of space and color to its best advantage. From layout design to text and images, every bit of your website is thoroughly thought about and designed. The following includes just some of the attention to detail that the web designers at Rory Martin in Seattle put into your website.
Background
Your website design starts with the background. Studies show that a uniform color background allows text and images to be more readable, so that is the best place to start. While it is possible to use an image background, a simple solid color can provide much better results. Style also plays a factor in your web design. Studies show that light colors such as white and grey are associated with professionalism, while darker colors such as black are associated with modern and alternative. Most of the time subtle light colors such as white or grey, or a subtly patterned backgrounds show the best results. While you can use a standard white background, many businesses prefer to show a bit more personality and utilize subtle coloring in their background.
Consistency Provides Better Results
Another thing that you might notice about a website is that a consistent design will help to improve results. Consistency looks good which means that it looks professional. Most customers and readers appreciate professionalism which will earn you recognition for that professionalism. Importantly, you can use differentiation in a consistent website to make certain items stand out.
Large Images
Images help to draw attention, and keep interest, especially around blocks of content. Most experts recommend using large images combined with small blocks of text to tell your readers what you are about in as few words as possible. Short and sweet text combined with a visually rich website can create a great deal more impact than a long bland text with little to no visual impact. Your website should be about imagery as well as the written word so consider incorporating it with large photos, photo sliders, and other rich visual content.
Broken Grids Draw the Most Attention
An organized website on a grid layout can draw a lot of attention, but by slightly breaking up the grid, or highlighting one or two blocks from your grid, you can create a lot more visual impact, and change the way people look at your website. Organization is important and grids and broken grids are the easiest way to get there. Depending on website style and methods, either could be great for you. A couple of tips that can help with your Seattle web design include that smaller blocks of text create the most impact, large visual images are better than small pictures, and design and pattern matter. If you want to know what might work for your website, consider asking one of the Seattle web design pros at Rory Martin for a consultation and free estimate on your website.
Seattle Web Design: Incorporating Your Brand into Your Web Concept
Posted by Rory Martin in Web Design and Development on January 15, 2013
Building a brand for your company is important for customer recognition and marketing, but many Seattle web design companies don’t consider ‘you’, when they go to build your website. Your brand can be a deciding selling point for your customers no matter what it is you’re selling or doing, so we believe that it is an important factor in building any website. According to Forbes, no matter what you are selling, no matter what products you have, and how much your products change, your brand will remain the same and can remain ‘alive’ to your customers. Whenever multi-million or even billion dollar sales go down, the companies making the purchase are most often purchasing the brand rather than the products, as products can easily be duplicated and re-sold under another name.
So how do you incorporate your brand into your website? By using your brand in the colors, words, phrasing, images, and products, you can tell your customers and clients who you are, and why they should do business with you. Incorporating your brand is about incorporating yourself, and using that
What is a Brand?
Your brand is the recognizable image of your company. Whether through a certain logo or color scheme that you tend to use, the way you phrase things, or the way that you do business, you can build your brand into something that people recognize, and something that people want to buy. By using a logo, you enhance recognition, by using the same colors; you can associate colors and the emotions that go with them, with your business. By associating your brand with a well-known charity, you tell people that you care what happens to them. And by being associated with something bad, such as an oil-spill, you devalue your brand. Your brand could be called your public image in a way because it extends across all factors of your products, website, advertising and even social media. To build a good brand, you must remain consistent and helpful across all venues of your business. For example, if you are helpful via social, you have a great website, but poor customer service, your customers will likely first associate your customer service with your brand.
Incorporating Your Brand into Your Seattle Web Design
So how do you incorporate your brand into your website? Whether you’re building your first site, and a new brand, or redesigning an old one, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, a recognizable and likeable icon or logo is important. A logo allows your customers to recognize you from anywhere, no matter where they are, or how your logo is being used.
Second, your web copy is important. Talk about your products, but remember to also talk about you. Why did you found your company, what are your goals, what are some of the causes that you like to help? Do you have a history of high quality service? What about a huge number of customers? Mentioning that you have upwards of 50,000 satisfied customers is sure to go a long way towards increasing the value of your brand.
Did you know that colors will affect your brand as well? Blue is often used to evoke feelings of honor and loyalty, red of passion, interest, love, action, courage, and vitality; brown symbolizes stability, earth, ‘eco-friendly’, and so on. If you aren’t good with colors, make sure that the Seattle Web Design company that you hire will consider, research, and learn about your brand and your business before building your site.
Better Color Schemes in Web Design and Development
Posted by Rory Martin in Web Design and Development on December 11, 2012
When completing the web design or development process, what do you consider important for search engine optimization and conversion rates? According to Shari Thurow, the one thing you’re probably forgetting, overlooking, or taking for granted is color and how the color of your web content affects its visibility to search engine spiders and the way in which it can convince web users to take specific action.
Thurow says that clickability is one of the primary concerns for web design – so in your color scheme, clickable items should look clickable from the searcher’s point of view. Your users shouldn’t have to mouseover all the text to figure out where to click. And making your links hidden in your color scheme, by not differentiating links from regular text, might be considered blackhat SEO and could be penalized.
Thurow focuses mostly on conversions in color schemes. She explains, white text on a black background is not a good color optimization because it’s hard to visually scan, leading to lower conversions. Also, she mentions the problem of text size since responsive layouts or mobile optimized sites often use a smaller text – which can be interpreted as spam by search engines.
Color theory quick reference sheet – www.icanbecreative.com
In her article, Thurow also stresses the importance of cultural color associations, saying: “the color red communicates happiness in China; anger and danger in Japan; and life and creativity in India.” Designing websites for maximum conversions means knowing who your audience is and designing for that audience. For example, a website for a naturopath and massage therapist likely won’t want to use reds, but will opt for blue instead because of it’s calm, relaxation-based connotations.
A color scheme that works for one website may not work for another, and deciding on a color scheme can be one of the toughest decisions for a designer to make. So how does a good web designer determine the color scheme for a website? Complementation, Contrast, and Vibrancy should be some of the deciding factors in your color scheme.
The vibrancy of the color on your website has a direct affect on the “emotion” behind your design. Brighter colors seem more energetic, which will help invoke an emotional response, whereas darker shades are relaxing, letting the user focus on the content.
Contrast between elements in your web design help drive the focus of your site – drawing attention to certain page elements. You can clearly divide elements on the page to direct the viewer’s eye to certain text, links, or content by just using contrast.
Complementation is a way of building relationships between colors. Considering complementation in your web design, you may want to use split complementary colors (colors across from each other on the color wheel), analagous or monochromatic colors (colors next to each other, or shades of a base color), or a triadic color scheme (using 3 colors on separate ends of the color spectrum – like red, yellow, and blue).
With all this information in mind, how do YOU design web color schemes for SEO and maximum conversion rates?
Create an Eye-Catching Site with Innovative Web Design
Posted by Rory Martin in Web Design and Development on August 15, 2012
At RoryMartin.com, we put a lot of time and effort into web design and development, because we recognize the importance of the website as your introduction to the world. With people using the web for everything nowadays – research, communication, shopping, networking – a website must work hard to attract and keep an audience.
The perfect website should be unique, yet recognizable
This means that the site should be different enough from its competitors to be memorable and exciting, but that traditional features which appear on many sites should be in obvious and expected places. Have you noticed that Login buttons on social media sites are almost always in the top right? People will naturally gravitate to that area to log in or sign up to your site, and if it’s not there, they will become frustrated at having to search for it.
The perfect website should be easy to navigate
Web users expect to be able to achieve most things on-line in two or three clicks. If they search ‘Comedy nights’ and your website comes up, but listings aren’t immediately available in two clicks (or less!) they will quickly head somewhere else – and this is bad news for your Bounce Rate. A good website should also be completely navigable from within the site; this means that a user should never have to click their browser’s back button! These are the kinds of issues which usually asrise during the testing process, and are quickly resolved.
The perfect website should be eye-catching, but not overwhelming
When you want your website to stand out, it can be tempting to make the headers even bigger, use lots of different fonts and throw photos at it like confetti. Users who arrive at a site like this quite literally will not know where to look! At RoryMartin.com, we like to keep things slick and simple.
Against this background, a different header font or announcement photo will have a greater impact on audience attention.
The perfect website should be clear about its purpose
Do you design stained glass windows, wash windows, install double-glazing, or sell glass paints? When a web user can reach your site by searching very common terms, it pays to have a tagline which makes the purpose of your site clear. This might increase the bounce rate of visitors to the site, but it will also prevent people associating your site (and services) with being a waste of time!
The perfect website should be up-to-date
Most sites will have a copyright notice in their footer. If people are going to trust your site, then this copyright certainly needs to be up-to-date! Another way of appearing up to date is to have a regularly scheduled blog, or social media accounts displayed on the page, which are updated every day, or near enough. This immediately lets people know that someone is on the other end of this website, and that it’s easy to get in touch with them.
At RoryMartin.com, we put a lot of time and energy into web design and development, in order to build amazing sites that mirror your business strategy. Talk to one of our Seattle web design experts today about what we can do for you.
Recent Comments