Lang Design, Inc.

Understanding Website Traffic

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:37:54 +0000

Assuming your business falls under what could be considered the “norm”, you probably have a Website. What is its primary function? Is it to sell products? Is it to promote your business? Or is it to offer information to your customers? Whatever its purpose, is your site paying back the money you spent on it? Meaning, are people using your Web site? I’ll bet a lot of you answered, “I don’t know.” If that is indeed the case, then read on.

You may be saying to yourself right now, “I have an online store, I already know how my site is doing.” Well, you do and you don’t. It is true that you know how many orders are coming in, but that is about it. Wouldn’t it be nice to have more information? And, if your site is not a store, wouldn’t you like some clue as to what is going on with your site?

This is where Web site traffic analysis comes in. All the people viewing pages on your site constitute its traffic. Having information on who these people are, where they’re from, and what settings they use can be quite helpful when its time to re-evaluate your site. Traffic analysis comes in the form of Web site logs. These logs contain information about all the visitors to your site. While there is a wealth of info, for this article we’ll concentrate on a couple of the major tidbits of knowledge you can glean from your logs.

The first piece of information is the number of visitors your site has had. And I don’t mean those little hit counters you’ve probably seen on some sites, I’m talking about a detailed breakdown of the number of visitors per page. This is when numbers can be enlightening. Now that you know which pages are most popular, maybe you can make them more prominent in your sites navigation. Are there pages not being viewed? Maybe people can’t get to them. Maybe the information on those pages isn’t as wonderful as the person writing the copy thought. Whatever the reason, you now have valuable information to shape or re-shape your site’s content to its visitors.

The other major part of site analysis is direction. You already know what parts of your site they visited, but how did they get there? Getting a site to be successful includes getting search engines to list your site and getting visitors from the search results to your pages. Your site logs can tell you which search engines are sending people to your site, and by process of elimination, which ones are not. Now you can go back and figure out why a particular engine isn’t getting people to your site. Maybe your site wasn’t submitted correctly, or maybe it was submitted in the wrong area. But now that you know, you can make the proper corrections, and generate more traffic to your site.

These are only a couple of pieces of the information Web site logs can provide. There are also ways to tell which internal pages generate links to other pages; if someone has bookmarked your site; and what browser, operating system, monitor settings – well, you get the idea!

The hard part is not getting information, but sorting it out and using it to your benefit. But with the wealth of information provided, you should have no trouble turning your site into a powerful resource for your business.

Good Copy Websites

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:36:10 +0000

Copy? You mean like Kinkos? What do I need to copy, and what does that have to do with Web sites?

No, not that kind of copy. I’m talking about copy, you know, those words and things. Ah words, often overlooked with all the fancy graphics, Flash animations and other assorted things everyone focuses on nowadays.

But lets face it, when it comes to selling services or just information, content rules. So why, then, is text on the Web so maligned? Well, let me clarify that: bad text is what everybody complains about. The problem with good text, and why you never hear about it, is simple: no one notices good text! When your web copy seamlessly blends into your site and is easy to read, you’re not going to get many complaints about it. But put in ugly, unclear, hard to read copy and watch the neighbors complain — or worse, just stop visiting your site.

So, now that we’ve decided good copy is better than bad, what exactly does good copy entail? Good, compelling copy people are going to read through can be defined by three parts: length, content, and position.

Let’s start with content. Obviously, selling products takes a far more persistent approach than if you are just providing information. But more importantly in good content is making a point. How many sales sites have you seen that just go on and on, usually about nothing? We all hate that, yet we’ve probably all done it too.

That leads us into our second topic, length. Is short copy better? Or is being a little wordy better? Here is where the content and length go together. You need to use enough words to make your point and no more. Sounds simple, right? If you break it down, it really is that simple, only use the words necessary to sell your product or get your message across.

But, what if you need a lot of length to get your point across? This is where the third point comes into play. Positioning can make long text easier for your reader to digest. The main thing to keep in mind is to keep your readers interested. Paragraph and page breaks can be more important than actual content when it comes to holding interest. For example, in this article and this paragraph, notice the “but” at the beginning? It’s there to catch your eye, just in case you were thinking about going somewhere. Starting a new paragraph with words likes “and” or “but” make the reader think they’ll miss something if they turn away. The other, more noticeable break is a page break. The key here is to NOT break an article in a good spot. Break the page in the middle of an intriguing thought process. Make sure the last sentence on the first page makes the reader have to check out the next line on page two. Getting someone to change pages on the web isn’t always easy, but it isn’t as difficult or scary as you might have thought.

Well, if your still reading this article, then at least some of my ideas worked. Writing effective online copy doesn’t take any more than a little thought and planning — but a little psychology helps, too.

Keep Them Coming Back

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:33:44 +0000

Getting customers on the Web can be tough. With millions of users and a great deal of other sites offering the same or similar services or products, it’s difficult to make a sale without offering an incentive to buy from you instead of the competition. Word of mouth and browse-in visits will generate sales on their own, just as they always have. The trick is satisfying those customers enough that they’ll come back again and again – a task that isn’t half as daunting as it sounds.

The absolute most important thing to consider is your customers’ comfort. Your site has to feel “natural;” the last thing you want a potential customer to do while deciding whether or not to buy is think about how to get where they want to go. Clear navigation is vital to making the first sale and will help to ensure that the first-time customer becomes a repeat customer. Keeping your customers updated on new deals or new additions to your site will make them more inclined to return, too. Having an optional e-mail list to contact customers about the latest changes can be a big help.

Finally, provide detailed information about the products you are selling. No one wants to search for hours to find information about a product, but a frighteningly small number of sites give their customer more than a picture, a price and a product name. Offering things like manufacturer contact information and benefits of the product all on one page will speed the process of purchasing the item, adding to the customer’s level of comfort.

New customers provide a great deal of sales for a business, but making those customers repeat customers is the key to getting the leg up on your competition, and provide the added benefit of telling their friends about your site, generating more new customers to convert. Go to the next level and find ways you can make your site more comfortable and user friendly, and you won’t need to pace your bedroom at 3 a.m. trying to figure out the next sales gimmick.

Secure Bill Payment

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:32:06 +0000

Paying bills online. I know you have probably seen it offered by your bank and credit card companies, but did you know it is just as easy to apply this to your company’s current Web site? Most businesses are trying to improve ways to collect bills to increase their cash flow, but did you think about giving your customers a way to pay their bills 24/7?

This is how it works:
·Your customers login with a user name and password through a secure server.
·All account information including past bills and payments can be seen online.
·The client can use their credit card/debit card/check to pay the current balance.
·Upon successful payment, a confirmation will be displayed and emailed.

The advantages to your business could be less paperwork and a far more efficient way for collection of current bills. Your business can increase cash flow by just making it easier for customers to promptly pay their bills.

Other features of an online payment system:

·Auto Reminders
2 days before payment is due, an automatic reminder emails a notice of payment that prompts the customer to go online and pay their bill.
oAfter the due date, a Notice (based on or your payment policy) for collecting is sent to the customer to let them know they are overdue, along with any penalties. The customer is prompted to go online and pay the outstanding invoice.

·Invoice recovery
A place for the customer to go if the bill is lost, without you as the business owner having to spend time sending out a duplicate invoice.

·Reports
Generate reports to check the payment status and history of your clients.

These features and many more having to do with being able to accept credit cards, and other forms of payment online, can help in adding to your bottom line. Is your business lagging behind in how this type of technology can benefit your situation? Consider the benefits of adding an online payment system to your Web site.

Rebecca Lang is founder of Lang Design, Inc. an Internet web design and development with an emphasis on marketing website business. Serving businesses nationwide, we are located in New Orleans, LA, New York, and Delaware.

Permission granted to reprint this article only if source is cited.

Write Better Web Content

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:25:43 +0000

Web content should be both short and sweet to get the attention of the audience you are trying to reach. Writing website content is about brevity and getting straight to the point. Most businesses want to have a very effective Internet site, but are often not willing or able to furnish copy for an effective presence on the web. Below we will help you find solutions to writing and providing good content.
It does not matter if you are appealing to your customers that live in a large city such as Houston or a small town; good web writing skills benefit all.

1.Put together an outline of pages that are needed to build or update your current website. Look to accomplish at least 60 to 90 pages of good content. This may take a year, but is well worth the time invested. Your search engine ranking should go way up.

2.Use a spreadsheet to outline the development process of your website project.
Your web content can be press releases, testimonials; awards mentions, how-to and articles of interest that are pertinent to your customer base.

3.Do research on developing web content. Use the search engines for a start. Type in writing website copy. Google Yahoo BING

4.Audiences often scan material on the Internet. Quality not quantity is best kept for articles written for the web.

5.Use short paragraphs with no more than 3 to 4 lines per. This is not a book!

6.Bring attention to items you wish to highlight. Emphasis on these items can be achieved with sidebars or bold text.

7.The reader can easily scan numbered or bulleted lists such as this article.

8.Do your research. Notice what is being said here. Unless you are a gifted writer chances are that the topics may not come easy. Look to see what type of articles are being written by your competitors.

9.If all else fails consider this. Take a good writing course to improve your skills. Enroll in a writing course at one of the many continuing education centers in your community. Most community colleges have classes on web design, but website writing for the Internet is often only offered in cities or larger populated areas. Online classes may be a better choice.

Company Credibility

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:21:05 +0000

Your company’s credibility is on the line every time you present yourself to the public and companies are damaging themselves without even knowing it.

Web sites are necessary in today’s world because your customers expect you to have one, but your site can be doing more harm than good. Many companies are turning to one-man shops, friends, or even family members to build their Web sites because it saves them money-but in the end, it winds up costing them even more.

There are two main reasons why taking a short cut on building your company’s Web site will wind up costing you more money in the end. The first is losing customers and the second is having to redo your site.

Customers these days are Web savvy, smart, and have an expectation of what they will find when they get to your site. The look of your site, content presented, and features will all lend to whether the viewer will become a customer of yours, or simply leave your site without even giving you a chance. A poorly done Web site can leave customers with a view of your company that may not be true.

The other scenario is one we’ve experienced all too often-redoing your site. Many of our clients came to us because they chose the “cheaper” route as their first option and, after complaints from customers, sites that didn’t work properly, or even a design that undervalued their reputation, realized that cheaper wasn’t better. They came to us to rebuild their site to save their company’s reputation and allow their site to do what it’s supposed to do-attract and retain customers.

Many found that saving money upfront wound up costing them more money in the end.

Would you hire an accountant to change your car’s oil or a dentist to balance your financials or still maybe an auto mechanic to invest your money in stocks? Of course you wouldn’t… because they aren’t professionally trained to perform the jobs you are asking them to. Don’t risk your company’s reputation and credibility by hiring an untrained professional to build your company’s site.

The Website Plan that Matters

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:20:53 +0000

Let’s look at the resolution you made last year for your business, and see if we can determine if you accomplished what you set out to do. Oh, you’re saying to yourself, “I didn’t set a New Year resolution for my business”. Nothing set, nothing lost. Maybe you really did lose by not setting your plan.
If we do not play in the game, often we lose by just not being connected to what we need to do to stay ahead of the curve. Let’s start by looking at what works in setting goals for your business. Outlined below are some suggestions that can work if you stick to them. It is all right to fall off the goal wagon occasionally, but not acceptable to stay off too long.

1. Be Specific. Our marketing terminology would be to quantify your business goal.
quantify: express as a quantity; “Can you quantify your results?” [syn: measure]
What goals have you set that can be measured? Is it to increase your businesses’ net profit by 10% by year-end? This very specific goal can be measured. Do not use such resolutions as, ” build my web business”. Be very specific about a measurable outcome.

2. Setting a timeframe does matter. Set milestones. These are commitments!
milestone: An important event, as in a person’s career, or the advancement of knowledge in a field; a turning point.
Staying with the same theme of increasing your web business by 10% by year-end, you might want to set the milestone by the end of March. Start with doing your homework by setting a comprehensive plan on how you will meet these goals and commitments.
As an example, in January you have made a plan and commitment to send out website postcards announcing your new approach, and asking for referrals from your existing clients. You have also put together packages and sent them out to keep your customers informed about what your business is doing. You do follow up in February with all of your clients that received the material.
In March, you can look to see if any responses came in from the 5000 website postcards and 2500 packages you mailed. Did you get referrals due to the marketing? Are you on track for a 2.5% increase by March? Do you need to be more realistic and look for most of the marketing efforts to take effect in June? These are business details that can be worked out if you set realistic goals and milestones for your business to meet.

3. Make changes gradually. Change is often the main thing that causes most of us to fail. Look at what you do well and apply the same principals to what you are about to add to the theme of increasing your net profit by 10% by year-end. If you have a great ability to schedule work then take that same skill and schedule time to learn what it takes to make a good business plan. You will be using the skill you find that comes easily to you in scheduling and applying it to learning about how to do your business plan. Start slow and include in your business plan to increase your effort over a period of three months, then six months, and before you know what happened, you have a firm sense of accomplishment.

4. The responsibility lies within us to be realistic. It would be nice to wake up and all of those habits we wish we had would come as quickly as writing this article. The real work is within each one of us to take some time this year and make it a better year. Keep motivated by looking at your sense of accomplishment, and rewarding yourself and folks around you for their achievements.

Permission granted to reprint this article only if source is cited.

Lang Design, Inc. – Company Philosophy

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 04:27:14 +0000

Our first priority is taking care of our clients’ need in achieving their goals.
We built our company on this philosophy. This standard helps us continue to grow.

With over 20 years of experience, Lang Design, Inc. has kept stride in the ever-changing face of technology in today’s design industry. From timeless traditional to sleek contemporary design, we begin with concepts and transform these ideas into messages with meanings.
Lang Design, Inc., goes beyond traditional techniques to exceed all expectations.

Having worked with companies and organizations across the nation, our expertise offers many cost effective solutions. Some of the companies we have worked with have come to Lang Design, Inc. through referrals because of our reputation in creating wide-ranging results, on and off the Internet. Lang Design, Inc.’s ability to attract new customers has been through our ability to communicate technical and complex concepts in basic terms.

Discover a web design and Internet marketing development company that produces results and delivers the promise and possibilities of what your company has to offer.” R.Lang