Web Design

Is a Mobile Website Really Necessary?

on 1, May 2013 by Leonie

Clearly there are more and more people using mobile devices to visit websites. We’re seeing smart phones and tablets everywhere. And people are browsing the web on them.

So what are we to do with our website?

Search the web and you will find many articles and blogs that talk about why we need a mobile website, and just as many who talk about why we don’t need a mobile website.

Now we’re talking about a separate website for mobile devices than the one that you would have for regular browsing. That’s two website, right?

What does that actually mean? Well it means that a company will take your website, strip it down and build a new site on a sub-domain of your regular domain.

Whoooah … and how would that work? Well it means that you have your regular website, and if someone is browsing your regular website on a mobile device, it will be detected that this person is on a mobile device and the mobile website will be displayed. Sounds OK?

Sounds OK, but is it really OK. It depends on how you want to treat your customers and potential customers. Generally we take a lot of time to plan our websites and the content that we want to put on them. Painstakingly writing content to fit our market, talking about the things that matter to our customers and readers, selecting the right images to depict what we are saying, helping our customer to make buying decisions that will be the right ones for them … and more.

So do you really want to deliver a cut down version of your website to your customers?

Not me! No. My customer deserve to be able to see and read all the information I have created for them. They can pick and choose what they read, not chosen by someone who has decided to create a mobile website from a regular website. I’ve seen some of these mobile websites. I’ve seen pages been stripped down from over 500 words to less than 100.

We must remember that not everyone using a mobile device wants to see a stripped down website. There will be customers and potential customers who will choose not to have a regular computer at all. Many will choose just to have a tablet as their main internet connection. Does that mean that most of your customers will be missing out on most of the information on your website.

The nature of shopping is constantly changing. Many people browse websites to get information prior to purchasing, and many of them are browsing on mobile devices. Do you want to deliver only a fraction of your website to your potential customers? I think not!

So what is the solution?

Well as we know technology is constantly changing. We don’t know what the best way will be to deliver mobile websites in the future, but right now a Responsive Website is probably the best way to go.

What is a Responsive Website?

According to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsive_web_design

Responsive web design (RWD) is a web design approach aimed at crafting sites to provide an optimal viewing experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices (from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones)

Isn’t this the way you would want to be heading with your website?

What Do You have on The “About Us” Page on Your Website?

on 14, March 2013 by Leonie

It’s been said that the About Us Page is one of the most widely read on a website.

Why? Well people want to do business with people that they feel comfortable with, so they’re going to find out as much as they can about you.

But here is the thing. Don’t … yes that is DON’T … write your page all about you. Well that’s a contradiction. Yes, it sure is!

So what do I do? Well people think that they want to read all about you, but in actual fact they are more interested in themselves. And you fix this by writing about what you can do for them. It covers both.

I follow Derek Halpern. He has written the best blog all about how to write your About Us page. His five tips are:

Headline: Write a Persuasive, Benefit-Driven Headline. People want to know what your site can do for them so put this information into your headline.

Introduction: Write a Short, Reassuring Benefit-Driven Introduction. Tell people what you can do for them – really the reason why they are on your website.

Proof: Reassure people. Give them Social Proof and Testimonials.

About You: Finally you can talk about yourself, keeping in mind that your reader is there for themselves.

The Closer: When you’re running a business website you should always ask people to take action. Download my ebook, subscribe to my list, call for a consultation.

What is your About Us page like? Is it time to change it? Join the conversation on our Facebook Page.

You can check out Derek’s blog post here.

My Web Journey

on 20, October 2012 by Leonie

Well I created my first webpage in around 1994. That’s getting close to twenty years now. Wow! Doesn’t seem that long ago.

I clearly remember creating it. I was at Uni and doing, wait for it, an accounting subject. All students had to select a subject from a list. When it got to me many on the list were taken. It didn’t matter one bit to me. I didn’t recognize any of the terms … at all. My assignment topic was jpeg/mpeg. Well of course I know what they are now, but at the time I had no clue. Our assignment was to research our subject on the internet and hand in our assignments as web pages. Wooohaa!!

I not only didn’t know anything about the subject, I also had never been on the internet, and I had no clue on how to make a web page. So to cut a long story short, I found out how to use the internet in the Uni library, researched the subject and created my first webpage!

I went on have web design businesses. The last two used Proprietary Software, and now I build websites using Open Source software, WordPress. There are many good reasons why I’ve changed, but … well that’s for another blog post some other time.

Join me on my journey while I create a new website. I’ll share all the tips and tool with you as I create, so if you wish to create your own website, you’ll know all the secrets.