Monday, 13 February 2017

Essential Website Add-Ons And How To Make The Most Of Them

There was a time when every website needed a guestbook, animated Gif’s and tacky music on every page. The internet has come a long way since the hamster dance!
Hopefully, no one is tempted to fill their site with dancing babies these days. But you do need to know what to add to your site, or what to tell your web designer you want. And while it’s easy to know just what extras aren’t needed on your website, it can be difficult to know what is essential.
We’ve put together a simple list to give you a bit of insight on some essential add-ons that will add value to your website in ways a guestbook never could.
Whether you’re building your own site or are using a web designer, it’s important to figure out what your site needs and what it doesn’t.
Light Box
A light box is an add-on that enables your images to fill the screen when clicked, dimming the rest of the page and making your image look the best.
Instead of trying to squish your images into each page and hoping they look ok on different screen, a light box allows every image to be enabled to look its best on any device.
How To Get The Most Out Of It:
The two most important things to focus on when using a light box is installation and versatility. A light box can be installed as an application, a plugin, or in the actual code of your site. Make sure it’s installed correctly, or hire a web designer.
When it comes to versatility, you need to find a light box add-on that works on as many different systems and devices as possible. Depending on your hosting, this can vary. If you’re not sure what to use, contact us and we can help you out.
Live Chat
Many people want to get customers to contact them, but not every website visitor can be motivated enough to send an e-mail. That’s why a live chat add-on for your website is so powerful.
A prospective customer is able to message you the second they have a question, and you’re able to answer back in real time.
Contact is a great example of a live chat add-on, and is available for free. It’s also very easy to install, saving you or your web designer a lot of time.
How To Get The Most Out Of It:
This comes down to availability. If you have the time to be available for a live chat, then it’s a great option. Add-ons with smart phone capability makes this much easier!
But if you don’t have the time to answer your visitors, this is an add-on best not implemented.
Contact Form
A contact form is a very simple, but powerful tool. With so many people using web-based e-mail addresses, linked e-mail addresses can be a bit of a hassle. Your website needs to make everything as easy as can be.
Installing a contact form on at least one page of your site is a must.
How To Get The Most Out Of It:
Keep your contact form as simple as possible – only ask for the info that you need. Some websites have contact forms with more than ten fields to fill out. How daunting! If your contact form starts looking like a tax form, you’ve gone too far.
On this note, creating custom contact forms for each page is also a great idea. While your contact page can have a generic form, your sales page, for example, could have questions relating to what you’d need from a customer to compose a quote.
Imagine any questions that your customers could have on any given page, and if you can’t answer it on that page create a contact form that can help them.
Security
Depending on how your site is hosted, a security add-on is definitely essential. Particularly if you have a WordPress site, you should install something like WordFence.
No matter where your site is hosted, you need to know who is trying to maliciously access your website and how to keep them out.
How To Get The Most Out Of It:
Security add-ons are some of the most tricky to use because they have the most complex settings. Set them too strict, and people may not be able to access your site. Set them too loose, and they may be pointless.
If you’re making changes from the defaults, make sure you know what you’re doing – or that you’re working with a web designer who does.
Conclusion
Your website will greatly benefit from having a live chat option and contact forms to put you in touch with your visitors. A Light Box will make sure your images look incredible, and a Security add-on will keep your site alive.
If you’re working with a web designer, you now have a list of functions to ask for. If you’re working on your own, you have an idea of what you need to implement.

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posted by australia123business @ 03:31   0 Comments

DIY Isn’t Always Cost Effective – 4 Website Disasters



So, you’ve decided that its time for your business or organization to get a website. Maybe your business is new, or just doesn’t have a site. But you’ve decided that now is the time.
As any quick Google search can tell you, there are countless “build your own” website options. With slogans like “Build your own website for free!” these options are very tempting – especially when compared to hiring a web designer.
But just because something is free, doesn’t mean it won’t cost you anything. Going the Do-It-Yourself route can be cost-effective – if you know how to do it yourself.
Even the simplest DIY website builders are still software that needs to be learned how to use. Unless you want the most generic, barebones site, you can easily find yourself spending hours on tech support.
The following are four DIY Website Disasters that you’ll need to watch out for when building your own site.
#1 – Templates That Aren’t So Easy – “It’s Not Supposed To Look Like This!”
Many DIY website builders are based on templates. When you sign up for your website, you select a template to use for your site and start building.
Except it’s not that easy.
Many sites require certain plugins, which you will need to install and set up in the same way as the template or it won’t look the same.
If the template has no plugins, you’ll still need to figure out the correct dimensions for the images. Hours can be sent resizing images to fit into a template, only to find out that they don’t look correct on another device.
When you hire a web designer, you’ll be able to specify exactly what you want, and get it. You won’t be forced to fight with a template and a website builder. You won’t have to settle with “It’s not supposed to look like this, but I guess it’s okay.”
#2 – Locked In With A Bad Host – “I’m Stuck Here!”
Many people who select their web hosts do so based on advertising and cheap rates. A quick Google search for “web hosting company” reveals more than 45 million results.
How does someone building their own site choose the right one?
Unfortunately, many don’t. Many people purchase hosting for their site from companies that are just reselling hosting, or even reselling already resold hosting.

Imagine purchasing hosting for your site, only to find out that it’s terribly slow and you’re locked into a 5-year contract. If you want out – it’s going to cost you.

With a pro web designer, you’re not relying on best guesses and Google searches. You’re relying on someone who has years of experience and relationships with the best host for your needs.
#3 – Bad SEO  – “How Are People Going to Find My Site?”

There are two parts that you build when creating a website – the front end and the back end. The front end is what people see when they visit your site. The back end is the coding and the other essentials to make your site its best.
Think of the back end as the engine of the website.
By their very nature, DIY website builders remove the back end from you, or greatly fence most of it off. This makes it very difficult to build in your SEO and other Google best practices to ensure people find your site.
Speaking of SEO, your website is judged by search engines on much more than your keywords. Every word on your site is analyzed to see if your site is relevant to search terms. A skilled web designer can help you ensure your content matches what Google and the other search engines need.
#4 – Tech Support Can’t Be Your Web Designer – “This Used To Work…”
Five words that no one wants to think are “I better call tech support.”
But if your DIY site isn’t working, you’ll be forced to call tech support. Some companies charge extra for “priority” help, and others don’t even have tech support.
If your contact form is re-routing your e-mails to the wrong address, a page is down, or you accidentally delete everything – you’re relying on tech support to save you.
With an actual web designer, you’ll have a direct, guaranteed person to contact if anything goes wrong. On top of that, before your site goes live, you’ll be able to make sure that everything works to your satisfaction, without needing tech support.
Conclusion
This list of potential disasters isn’t meant to scare you. It’s meant to show you potential pitfalls hiding behind the promise of “Free and easy.”
Countless clients have come to their web designer half way through a DIY process that went belly-up. Save yourself the headache, and make building your site a fun experience.

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posted by australia123business @ 03:21   0 Comments