“There is never a lack of subject matter; just absence of creativity.” – Lee Hammond, ArtistsNetwork.com
Inbound Marketing Blog
If you build a website and never put it on the internet, is it really a website?
This is not a deep philosophical question. It has a simple answer.
NO.
A development site is like an unsent email in your draft folder or all those baby pictures of your teenager on your phone that you keep meaning to back up to your computer or maybe even print and hang on the wall.
So then why are there so many websites living in the purgatory of a development environment instead of on the world wide web?
This is not a rhetorical question. It also has a simple, though not as brief, answer.
This may not sound encouraging, but research shows us that the average online user will stay on a website for less than one minute. So you obviously have to make a strong impression with visitors to keep them coming back for more. Since you only have less than a minute to do this, it’s best to learn web usability principles to improve your chances for success.
In 2015, when we started planning our first Web Marketing Checkup Clinic, I wrote the original version of this blog post. Now that we've hosted a few of these checkup clinics, as well as conducted countless one-on-one checkups for clients and non-clients alike, I thought I would revisit how it all began and why this exercise is so important to us.
Hopefully, you've had the opportunity to have a web marketing checkup or have joined us for another workshop or event, here at the Tribute Media office. If you have, you know two things:
1) They are always fun and educational
2) Corey cooks some mean BBQ
But other than food and fun, why do we do it? Why do we lend our time and expertise to businesses... FOR FREE?
In short: Because we love building businesses.
No More inline CSS
Designing for email has always been a bit of a pain for designers and developers. It requires a departure from the way they develop websites or apps. But there is some good news for those who have to consider email in our designs:
I had a neighbor ask to pick my brain about what it takes to move into the web design and development field. She is starting her degree program and still has a couple of years but is wise to start working toward her career now. I was originally just going to respond to her directly but I figured I’d write a blog post because I think it might be helpful to others, too.
One thing to note: the answers I give here are based on how we do things at Tribute Media but we are a little unique… mostly in how we work with our employees. Our office is closed on Fridays and we encourage our employees to work remotely every Friday. Most agencies/companies will expect their employees to work on site but allow contractors to work wherever. There is something positive creatively about working on-site with your team that you can’t get remotely.
Oh, and a little, not-so-humble brag here.
The public relations business is always changing and evolving.
Not that long ago, experienced PR firms focused their efforts on television and print media. Using websites to reach a broader audience was barely a thought when the Internet was in its infancy.
Things have changed dramatically. Print media is on a downward trend – although it’s still a valuable PR tool – and reaching a wider audience through social and digital media has taken off like a rocket.
Unfortunately, just having a website to promote your brand isn’t going to be enough. Across the world, there are millions of companies vying to gain online attention, and possibly thousands of companies directly competing against you in your industry or an adjacent one.
How do you turn your website into an effective PR tool?
The foundation of a good website content strategy is an outline of the website pages, sometimes known as a sitemap. One of the most important aspects of creating this document is determining the items in the main website navigation menu.
Why is the website navigation menu important?
Did you know the human attention span is shorter than a goldfish’s?
Goldfish = 9 seconds
Humans= 6-8 seconds
Your website has a lot of work to do in a short amount of time.
Sometimes, business people think of their website as an ornament or an accessory. Everyone else seems to have one, so they decide to get one too.
They build the website—or they hire someone like us to build it—and once they have gone through it with a fine-tooth comb and analyzed all the minute details to make sure it is absolutely perfect, they take it "live." The average length of one of these website build projects is about 12-16 weeks, though sometimes it can last much, much longer.
After the site languishes on the internet for a year or two or five, these business owners might decide to update it. So they start from scratch (trends and user behaviors change a lot in half a decade). They throw away the old and start the whole 12-16 week process over. The new site goes live again and and sits for another stretch of time. And then the process starts all over again.
As you may have sensed already, there are some major problems with this approach to web design. Here are some things you should know about your website and what it means for your business.