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Great Websites that Work

Carla Pendergraft Carla Pendergraft Associates Web Design www.carlapendergraft.com. Great Websites that Work. The principles and trends we will go over apply to virtually all industries and types of businesses. Non-profits Destination management organizations Commercial businesses.

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Great Websites that Work

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  1. Carla Pendergraft Carla Pendergraft Associates Web Design www.carlapendergraft.com Great Websites that Work

  2. The principles and trends we will go over apply to virtually all industries and types of businesses. • Non-profits • Destination management organizations • Commercial businesses Universality of principles

  3. What makes a great website? What are the trends in web design today? What about mobile devices and tablets? What do websites cost today? Google AdWords Basics Great websites that work

  4. Home page tells you if you’re in the right place Easy to navigate Updated Interface is “familiar” – you can figure out how to get around and get what you want Looks modern Rich in content What makes a great website?

  5. Graphics are changed every year or at least every other year Yet, the cost of building a site makes that prohibitive, right? More on that later! What makes a great website?

  6. Bad websites Random navigation Confusion reigns supreme

  7. Bad websites • Waggling flag • Blinking text • Ugly colors • Awful graphics

  8. Bad websites • Awful navigation • Minimalism run amok

  9. Smaller, simple header w/logo • Horizontal navigation with drop-down submenus • Use of “sliders” or slideshows • Wide format photographs • Icons for social media • Icons used to give visual cues to user • Integrated blogs Trends

  10. Trends Icons Header or banner Navigation bar Slider

  11. Simple icons are well understood by most visitors. More on icons

  12. Flash is dead Rise of Jquery/JavaScript, CSS3, HTML5 Use of themes as a design framework Rise of mobile/tablet Decline of the desktop Rise of open source content management systems Trends in web design

  13. Blogs are now integrated into websites • Rise of third-party add-on software • PayPal • Helper programs of all sorts trends

  14. Themes are not templates. Themes are a design framework or layout. Themes are very powerful! One theme may have many options for color scheme, placement of elements, types of sliders, etc. Themeforest.net – my favorite themes

  15. “Shortcodes” – bits of code you can use to make buttons, alerts, multiple columns, galleries and other elements Each theme has various shortcodes built in Themes may have special “widgets” themes

  16. Once the CMS is installed, you can switch out themes to get a whole new look to your site. Get a new website without paying for a new website! themes

  17. We cannot ignore the fact that a greater percentage of visitors are using their smartphone to access our website. • Each brand may render your site differently. • And also iPads and other tablets • And what about PCs with wide, wide screens? Mobile websites

  18. Mobile websites

  19. Mobile websites

  20. It’s no longer good enough to be “mobile friendly” (A tiny version of a website built for the desktop) We need a website that is designed for smartphone, iPad, desktop, all of it. Enter the “responsive” website! Mobile websites

  21. Responsive websites have a mobile style sheet that senses when a mobile device or tablet accesses the site. The website coding renders the website in a way that works for that device. It uses special scrolling menus for phones It is not just a “small version” of the website DEMAND A RESPONSIVE WEBSITE! Responsive websites

  22. Look at www.earleharrison.com Note the scrolling navigation designed for the smartphone. The website is built of “boxes” and the boxes stack in the mobile browser. Take out your smartphone!

  23. Responsive websites

  24. When you have a mobile stylesheet, you only update the main website. The stylesheet does the rest. There is only ONE website. This is such a new concept, many web designers are not familiar with it yet. Responsive websites

  25. Here are the major brands of Content Management Systems (CMS) today: • Joomla! – open source PHP • Drupal – open source PHP • WordPress – open source PHP • Custom-coded (ASP or PHP) Content management systems

  26. WordPress is powering 51% of the world’s new websites today. wordpress

  27. Wordpress Drupal and Joomla! • 8,039 / 7,608 • 885/unknown • 1.6%/2.7% • $5,000 - $50K • Plugins: 14,629 • Themes: 1,392 • No. of Top Sites: 14.3% • Avg. Setup: $250 - $15K • Currently the most popular CMS in the world! Open source wars

  28. WordPress is still weak in e-commerce Not all web designers understand security needs Government and specialized industries may have needs not covered by these open source programs. cautions

  29. $2,000 - $10,000 for graphics $2,500 - $15,000 for custom programming Hosting/domain name costs: $120-$600/yr. Search engine optimization up to $25K/yr. Website costs – the olden days

  30. Use an open source (free) content management system Get a web designer to install it and move the content over – generally $800 to $3,000 Update the “slider” (slideshow) to keep it fresh Change out the theme each year using same CMS Website costs –modern day

  31. Must keep CMS and plugins up to date! Just like apps you download for your phone, the CMS and its plugins issue updates frequently. Updates are often to plug security holes Ignore them at your own risk. Website costs – cautions

  32. Cool websites

  33. Cool websites

  34. You get the picture!

  35. Google adwords basics

  36. What are googleadwords?

  37. Use Google AdWords when you have a lot of competitors When your audience is not just local When you want to reach “the world” When you want to sell via your website Google adwords

  38. Introductory Video on Google AdWords: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx2L6EGa9DY Do some research on your competitors – look at their Google ads. Google AdWords

  39. Go to Google.com/adwords to get started. Decide on your daily budget. ($10-$50) Set an email alert for when you’ve spent your daily budget. You can edit, pause or delete a campaign anytime. No minimum spend. Getting started with adwords

  40. Clicks • A user sees your ad and clicks it to get to your website. • Impressions • How often your ad is shown on Google. • Click through rate (CTR) • # of times your ad is shown / # of clicks • Manual vs. Automatic bidding Glossary

  41. You put in a few starter phrases Google will expand this and tell you actual searches per month on your search terms and related terms. Google Keyword Tool

  42. Google Keyword Tool

  43. Keyword research Google set my bid at $1.38 per click.

  44. AdWord Campaign Dashboard

  45. The Final Ad My ad, minutes after campaign was set up. Organic position is also important!

  46. Use when your target market is mainly local Restaurant, retail, etc. Pay-per-click Very simple to use. Similar to Adwords. You don’t even need a website. Google Adwords express

  47. Let’s look at some websites!

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