The DreamPix Studio

How Successful is Your Website?

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I’ll bet that when you first launched your website you had a goal in mind of how it might work for you.

What was your intent?

  • To make sales online?
  • To build a mailing list?
  • To reach potential clients via search engines?
  • To share information and become an authority in your field?
  • To drive business to a physical location?

Each of these goals requires that a website contain certain components and, if you haven’t been paying attention, some of those components may be obsolete and content outdated. Spring is the perfect time to do a bit of housecleaning and review your objectives.

Is your website ready for its closeup?

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Does your website look good in Google’s Instant Preview?

Instant previews allow visitors to see what a webpage looks like before they actually look at the web page. Just do a Google search and you’ll notice a double arrow icon next to each search result (it used to be a magnifying glass). If you hover your pointer over the arrow a snapshot of the website will appear.

How does your website look? It is clear and graphically appealing? If it isn’t you could be scaring potential clients away before they have a chance to visit your site. Remember that first impressions make a difference.

Does your business need a mobile website?

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Not a week goes by that I don’t have a client ask my opinion about building a separate mobile website for their business.

And, more often than not my answer is always the same. A business is better off to have one website that looks and functions well on all platforms. That can easily be obtained with a clean, responsive website that automatically adjusts its size to the browser window offering a seamless user experience. One size can fit all! And, it can be just as effective and less costly in both time and money.

Check out the website that I just did for my young son’s landscape business using a new responsive theme DiNannoLandscape.com. Studio Press offers a neat function on their site where you can enter the URL for your website and see how it looks on various devices on the Studio Press website. Very cool!

DreamPix Launches New Websites

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The DreamPix Studio is proud to announce the launch of several new websites.

  • Quest Engineering Solutions is an engineering testing services company located in Billerica, MA
  • Araya Design Araya Design is a graphic design studio specializing in logos, visual identities, and print pieces in New York City.
  • Beyond HR Beyond HR is a company committed to helping New England businesses, governments, and nonprofit organizations be great places to work.
  • The Swazy Alexander Group of Ipswich, a team of professional craftsmen specializing in all aspects of home design.

Release of new Top Level Domains Coming Soon!

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What’s new on the Internet?

Coming this April an onslaught of generic top-level domains (TLD) including extensions such as .money, .sport, .accountants, .music will be available for registration.

This move represents the biggest change to the internet since the first set of TLDs (.com, .org, .net, and .gov) were introduced back in 1984 and the industry expects mass chaos as a result of a return of the wild, wild, west days on the WWW!

The move can potentially change the way businesses and consumers use the internet and of course, the way brands are marketed – the learning curve never ends in this business! There is a lot of concern from large businesses such as Coca Cola, Microsoft, and P&G who bargaining with Icann for limited preventative registration in order to protect their trademarks.

What Color is Your Businesss?

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When branding your company be sure to give careful thought to your color scheme as the choice can elicit different behaviors from users.  The following provides a glimpse into what stimuli are generated from certain colors.

BLUE
Is said to be the color of conversation. It promotes an air of ease and inspires visitors to browse a site endlessly. It is considered to be one of the most effective colors in sales as it signifies trust and reputation.

RED
Draws attention and causes visitors to concentrate. It also creates excitement but overuse of the color is useless!

YELLOW
Promotes happiness and optimism. It can be difficult to read so it should be used to highlight information or as a background color.

GREEN
Always calms people. It should not be used to highlight important information as it can easily be passed over. It is a conservative color.

PURPLE
Symbolizes elegance, royalty, and wealth. It is well served on topics that focus on benefits and solutions. Young people are drawn to purple which is why it is often used to provoke conversation and on community websites.

Went considering colors to be aware of the contrast and the mixed signals. Certain colors work well together and deliver a punch. Color should reflect the identity of your company.

What is the Secret to a great Website?

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Typography

Most web designers and developers would laugh at the idea that typography can make or break a website. That is because most of them have approached their craft from the technological end of the business as opposed to the creative end. None-the-less, I am not just referring to the font selection itself but to the styling of the type to the spacing, the weight, the variation in size. What would the website look like if all of the color and images were gone and all that was left was text and spacing? Take a peek at websites that you frequent and note the differences. If you can’t quite put your finger on what is making a site so flat and unappealing the culprit might be the typography.

Here’s what Brian Gardner, the founder of StudioPress, a WordPress website design framework that I fully embrace, has to say about typography.

BrianGardner.com

Do you need an SEO Guru?

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People often question me about SEO, tossing around phrases that they have picked up over the years like incorporating META tags and optimizing keywords. The truth is that, while these techniques are effective to a point, there is really only one way to create a website that effectively targets your market niche and gets the nod from Google.

Create a useful, information-rich website, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content.

There is no secret way to receive a high ranking with Google in fact, when web pages appear to be over-optimized they will actually be punished by Google and bounced from the rankings because webpages should be created for users, not robots.

Think in terms of becoming an authority in your field. Here are a few useful tools to incorporate that will boost your site’s ranking:

  • An interactive Blog
  • Sharing research findings
  • Q & A pages
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • Videos
  • White Papers & Case Studies

Does your website need a facelift?

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Upgrade to WordPress today!

Your website should serve as a viable marketing tool that offers a dynamic interactive experience and, at the same time, is easy to update. WordPress has become an industry standard for business owners and developers alike. WordPress was initially created as an open-source blogging platform but it has evolved into so much more. It is a powerful content management system that is free but essentially priceless!

New functionality can be incorporated into a WordPress site using plug-ins with the click of a button. If you can name it – WordPress has it! Choose from:

  • Interactive Blogs
  • Image Sliders
  • Photo Gallery
  • Shopping Cart
  • Event Calendar
  • Social Media Links & Feeds
  • Contact Forms
  • Member-Only sections
  • and more

    If your website is built in HTML it’s time for change

    Ten years ago many websites were little more than online business cards and most websites were built in HTML. But, that was then and this is now! If your website was built in static HTML it is time to upgrade to an interactive website.

    To learn more about WordPress and the upgrade process:

    Email Leslie DiNanno or call 508.265.6222

Marketing Resolutions for 2013

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Here are a few marketing resolutions for 2013 that will help to grow your business.

  • Commit to a regular blogging and social media schedule even if it is once a week. Think in terms of sharing your knowledge and taking advantage of the viral opportunities online. It sure beats knocking on doors!
  • Make your website more engaging and interactive if you have a static HTML site upgrade to WordPress it will breathe new life into your business.
  • Identify your local market niche and target it through content on your website and social media platforms. It may be called the world wide web but the onus lies on you to make sure your potential customers can find you.
  • Organize your data and make the most of the free and affordable resources that are now available to us. Familiarize yourself with Google Apps & Analytics, Email Marketing programs like Vertical Response, DropBox for storing and sharing, Evernote to eliminate lists, and more. All of these applications will help to simplify administrative work and make room for more important things like blogging and engaging in social media to grow your business!