Tag Archives: website

Four Design Tips For Updating Content on Your Website

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If you’ve been assigned the ongoing task of maintaining a website for your company, particularly if you are using a Content Management System (CMS) like WordPress, here are a few tips that will help you keep the site looking professional.

1. Don’t Treat Your Website Like A Display Ad
Unlike a print ad, a website does not need to grab people’s attention. Users visit a website on purpose. They aren’t trying to read the comics, watch tv, or listen to music, so you don’t need flashing images or noise to draw their attention away from something else. Your website should make the visitor feel comfortable enough to stay a while.

When a user accesses your website, they want to find the information they are looking for quickly. If they begin to feel frustrated, if the site is too complicated or navigation is unclear, they’ll move on. Readability and usability are vitally important.

2. Follow the Design
A designer considers each site element for readability and success at conveying a defined message. Size, font, style, weight, color, and alignment are defined for heading, subhead, body copy, captions, links and more.

When it ‘s time for you to add new content, look at the styles that have been assigned to the different elements. Stick to those rules. Your goal is not to make the new copy jump out at the reader. In fact adding new content that doesn’t follow the overall structure looks less professional and can reflect poorly on your company.

3. Avoid All Caps
Type, above all else, must be readable. Ascenders and descenders of upper and lower case letters help our eyes to identify words. Using all capital letters makes that distinction difficult and visitors to your site are less likely to read all the information you so purposefully prepared.

4. Respond To Comments
Comments are a great way to help gauge the effectiveness of your online efforts. Demonstrate your appreciation to those visitors who left comments by responding to each one individually, answering their questions and thanking them for their business. Prompt attention to all comments is a real-life illustration of your commitment to customer service.

Five Reasons Why Website Updates Are Important

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A website is a great tool. However, even once you have your site up and running, the job is not complete.  Unlike every other form of advertising, websites are never finished. Done right, a website is a work in progress, continually being updated and improved. The websites that work best, the ones that deliver the best results, are constantly being tweaked.

1. New Beats Old
Search engines rank websites with new content higher than websites with old content. Updates should be done on a regular basis, monthly or even weekly.

2. More Frequent Indexing
Search engines send out bots to index web pages. If the bot finds your site hasn’t been updated in a month, another bot may not be sent again for two months. If it still hasn’t been updated, it may wait three months. Regular updates mean your site gets indexed more often and the your site’s contents will be searchable.

3. They Will Come
Posting new content on your website gives customers a reason to return. This can enhance your relationship with them and they may be more likely to use your services more often.

4. Know What They Want
By reviewing your web stats, you’ll learn what information your users find most appealing and where they are coming from. This will help you determine a direction for new content that can draw even more visitors.

5. Ch-ch-ch-changes
Search engines are constantly changing the way they index sites. The factors one directory considers important today may change dramatically tomorrow and every directory is different. Getting the most from your website requires on-going supervision and maintenance.

Maintaining a small website doesn’t require a huge chunk of time, it can take as little as a few hours a month. Outsourcing this task can be a good choice for those who don’t have time to do it themselves. If you’re interested in having us maintain your website, please call 518.392.0846 or email suzanne@trevellyan.biz.

Client Feature: MOD Restaurant

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Trevellyan.biz was hired by the Columbia Economic Development Corporation to provide technical assistance services to MOD Restaurant as part of Columbia Hudson Partnership’s Microbusiness Program.

The owners of MOD Hudson, Dana Wegener and Mary DiStefano, had a successful restaurant in Catskill for five years. When they decided to venture across the river to Hudson, they knew they’d need a website.

Because MOD never had a website before, there was no existing copy or photos to work with. When I first met Mary and Dana, the restaurant was not yet open and the interior was in no shape to be photographed. The girls were renovating the space themselves, and were working night and day to meet their goal of opening mid-March. Finding time to also compile the required information we’d need for the site was going to be tough.

We started by determining the basics: what topics should be covered, how changes to the site would be made, when the site needed to be online. By reviewing other restaurant websites together, we determined the aesthetic they were looking for. Simple and easy to use would be key to an appropriate design for their business. Like their own style, the website needed good lines, lots of white space, and plain, simple language.

Just like the renovation of the restaurant, creation of the website took shape quickly. A short email to a few customers from their Catskill location came back with a pile of enthusiastic testimonials. I spent one morning at the restaurant, amid paint cans and drop cloths, taking placeholder photos. Piece by piece Mary sent copy – owner bios, catering and party details, and finally, the menu. I compiled a list of Frequently Asked Questions and together we worked to get the right answers. The moment the restaurant was ready, photographer Nora Adelman went back and took lovely interior and exterior finished photos.

MOD Hudson opened their doors at 20 South Front Street Wednesday, March 23 and has seen steady business ever since. If you’re looking for a great meal, with generous portions, at a good price, I recommend you visit MOD. And if you’re looking for an effective website using current web standards, I recommend you give us a call at 518.392.0846 or email suzanne@trevellyan.biz.

The Importance of Web Page Titles

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The way your website looks and functions, and what information it contains, are important elements. However, like the tree that falls without being heard, if your website is hard to find, then no matter how good it looks, how well it works and what information it contains, it will go unnoticed.

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the process of improving the visibility of a website to search engines. While there are many factors that influence your standings in search results, one of the most important elements for individual pages is the Page Title.

Title PageThe Page Title appears at the top of the browser window when a webpage loads.

Chances are your site content has been written with your human audience in mind. But the truth is, your site is read by more than just humans. It’s read by search engine robots, too (also called bots or spiders). These bots locate web pages and index them based on the information contained on the page.

Page Title is the first thing the bots look at. From it they grab key information that they use on the results pages, therefore the title must clearly convey the contents of that page. Use descriptive keywords that offer a solution, rather than a sales pitch, and use a different title for each page.

Although you should always include your company name on the homepage title, including it in the title of every page isn’t necessary. Instead, choose words that reflect the contents of each page. Use common keywords and phrases instead of industry lingo and limit your page title to 64 characters.

Finally, the page title should be typed in title case, which means the first letter of each word is capitalized.

If you would like to improve your search engine rankings, give us a call at 518.392.0846 or email suzanne@trevellyan.biz.

Client Feature: Carolina House

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One of the things I like best about the work that I do is the variety. For one customer I may be do a market study, for another a publicity campaign, for another I may develop a website. Occasionally I get to perform all these services for the same business.

The Carolina House, located on Route 9 in Kinderhook, was purchased by Michael J. Liptak in 1988 and his three daughters grew up working in the restaurant. From busing tables, to bar-tending, to waiting on guests, they experienced the business from all angles. Shortly after Michael Liptak passed away in 2004, the restaurant was closed, but the friends the sisters made and their desire to keep their father’s passion alive brought them back. In 2006 the three daughters reopened the restaurant and they have been running it successfully ever since.
I met Michele and Nikki in July of 2008. The sisters explained that the customers they had were frequent guests because loved the restaurant, the food and the staff. But the restaurant needed new customers, and this is how I could help.

  1. Our first goal was to understand the public’s perception of the restaurant. We developed a questionnaire that would be distributed to patrons with their checks and I  conducted random face-to-face and phone interviews.
  2. Our second goal was to understand the competition. This involved creating a chart of over 150 restaurants within 30 minutes, their style, ambience, hours, price range and a sampling of their menus.
  3. Next I developed the brand. By defining the restaurant’s story, creating a positioning statement with key supporting messages, and itemizing design specs we were able to achieve consistent message that was unique and compelling.
  4. The last step of this project involved developing a 12-month public relations campaign.

In addition, I compiled valuable restaurant statistics and information such as which factors influence a customer’s decision on where to to dine, what is the average amount of time that people are willing to travel for a meal, what influences a person’s decision to eat out, and how effective are rewards programs at fine restaurants.

It was a thorough and extensive report and the results were powerful. Their strengths were confirmed, their weaknesses recognized, and opportunities identified.

After completing such an extensive study, I understood what made the restaurant special. When it came time to design the website, I was in the perfect position to create a site that accurately reflected their business. I knew who they were trying to reach and I understood what they were selling: good food, excellent service and a comfortable environment. Visit the website.

If your business or organization needs an objective analysis of your current situation, please give us a call at 518.392.0846 or email suzanne@trevellyan.biz.

Is It Time To Redesign Your Website?

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Getting your current website up and running probably took a fair amount of time and energy. Is it meeting your expectations? Is it generating interest and converting users into customers? How does it compare with your competitors’ sites? Even if the information on your site hasn’t changed much, it could be time for a redesign.

There are many reasons to consider having your site redesigned:
First impressions
Your website is the public face of your organization and may be your visitor’s first impression of your business. You want visitors to see you as thoughtful and attentive, interesting and current. A good website with a fresh design and current content will do that, while a dated and neglected website can cost you customers.

Things Do Get Better
The way websites are built and how they work has changed significantly. New technologies have tighter security, enhanced performance, more interesting graphics and better user experiences.

Slow Isn’t Fast Enough
Internet users are impatient. Yesterday we might sit and wait for a page to download. Today, if your pages don’t load quickly your visitors will go elsewhere, slamming the door behind them.

The Rules Have Changed
Crawler-based search engines determine relevancy by following a set of rules, known as an algorithm. The rules have changed dramatically in the last five years. An upgrade that accounts for these new rules can improve your search engine rankings and your conversion rate.

Users Expectations Change
The way users navigate, read and interact with your site changes. Today they expect navigation to be found in a place they may not have expected before. They scan instead of reading and disregard anything that looks like advertising. It’s important to be aware of web trends and keep up with them.

Small Changes Don’t Register
Visitors may not even notice small content updates. You need to do more than change “five years in business” to “six years in business” on the homepage to make an impression.

ADA and Web Standards
An estimated 48.9 million people in the United States have a disability, that’s nearly one out of five. The 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, programs and services, goods and services, and in commercial facilities. The ADA also applies to the cyberspace world. Web sites which are accessible to many of us may be impossible to access for people with disabilities. But ADA compliance shouldn’t be the only reason to make your site fully accessible. Universal design is good for everyone.

If you think it may be time for a site redesign, give us a call. 518.392.0846