When should you redesign your website? That’s a great question. Just like clothing or hair, Website elements can go out of style very quickly. Technology is constantly changing and improving and you need to keep up with it or at least not fall too far behind. What’s popular today may not be popular tomorrow. Your Website needs to make an impact! When a visitor arrives at your Website you have anywhere from 5-10 seconds to grab their attention and make them want to stay.

Your site is a reflection of your business and needs to be professionally designed (most cookie cutter website builders just don’t cut it). It should be clean, easy to navigate and have well-written content. To determine if you should redesign your site, look at the following questions.

1. Does your site portray the image of your business that you want it to?
2. Was it designed/redesigned within the last 2 years?
3. Is your Website user friendly?
4. Does your Website currently get a lot of visitors?
5. Is your website converting a good percentage of visitors into customers?

If you answered NO to any of the above questions, than it’s definitely time to consider a redesign. A full redesign is not always necessary, many times a simple makeover to freshen things up can make a world of difference! Feel free to call us at 352-684-4976 to discuss your website redesign with one of our Project Managers.

Wow, so we’ve made it to the endo of our series “New Website Development Planning Checklist”. Today’s topic is covering an aspect of web development that most businesses forget about or ignore all together with the mentallity of “Set it and Forget it”. Businesses have to understand that the Maintenance of your website is just as important as the initial development. If you don’t maintain your new website and constantly refresh/update the content your customers will slowly stop coming back to your site. Below is a list of what should be considered when it comes to maintenance.

3. Website Maintenance

• How often will your website need to be updated? (We recommend bi-monthly updates minimum)
• Will your site maintenance be done in-house (by whom?) or will you need us to put together a Maintenance Plan?
• Does your in-house IT Department the time and expertise to maintain your website?
• Will you need training in order to maintain your website?

Here is a list of possible Maintenance Tasks:

1. Checking internal & external links on a regular basis
2. Search engine positioning & resubmissions
3. Visitor statistics & reporting
4. Articles / RSS feed syndicated content updates
5. Updating images to keep website looking fresh

That’s all for now! Tune in next time for more great design and marketing tips from MultiCOLOR Media! Same Bat time, same Bat channel…

Happy Friday folks! Yes, can you believe it, another week has come and gone. Personally I feel the older I get, the quicker the time passes…? Does this happen to you? Anyway, today we are continuing our 5 part series “New Website Development Planning Checklist” (man that’s a mouth full) with “Part 4: Marketing”. Oddly enough, marketing seems to be one of the aspects of developing a new website that clients seldom remember. For some reason people think that if you build it…they will come! Sometimes that may be true with little or no effort, but for the vast majority of website it actually takes work! Here are some common things to think about regarding the marketing of your new site.

4. Marketing

How will people find out about your website? Come on people. If you want to make itin the online realm you have to self promote at any chance you get.

Will you be using “Paid” or free search engine listings? Both are required to make a good impact. Local Directories, Industry Directories, Forums, Blogs, Banners, Pay-Per-Click and Search Engine Listings are all examples of these.

Who will do your Search Engine Optimization? There are many aspects to SEO. At MultiCOLOR Media we make sure your Website is built with the search engines in mind and make sure it is optimized as much as possible. Another optimization service we offer is copywrighting. Good, well-written content is one of the main factors in your SEO campaign. Aside from these, a professional SEO Firm also will help by implementing and managing your search engine listings, Pay-Per-Click campaigns and social media profiles.

Do you currently have or will you be putting in place an off-line marketing program? No matter what anyone says, offline marketing is still essential to any online business. Think about it, look at big online entities such as yahoo, ebay, amazon, facebook, and many more. All this companies spend millions of dollars in offline marketing campaigns including: TV Commercials, Movie Spots, Postcards, Radio and more. You think maybe they’re on to something?

Do you have a budget set aside for an internet marketing campaign? When many businesses hire a web developer they get consumed over the costs involved in the development that they forget to budget for online marketing. It makes no sense. Most businesses have no problem spending $300 or more monthly in local coupon guide advertisements, but when it comes to spending a couple hundred monthly on an internet marketing campaign they think “it’s to expensive” or “I can’t afford it”. How can you not afford to? Thousands if not millions of online businesses would go bankrupt if not for the results gained from online marketing. Ask your SEO Specialist to go over options with you.

What keywords or phrases do you think people would use to find your business, products or services? This is simple. Keywords can be anthing from product names, services offered, brand names to city, state, zip code & counties served.

What information will bring visitors back to your site on a regular basis? Think about offering industry related articles, frequently asked questions, blogs, support forums, quizzez, polls, freebies, coupons, contests and more.

Will you need to re-design/re-print your business cards, stationary and/or  marketing & sales materials? Believe it or not, a lot of business forget about this very important aspect. If you have your website redesigned or developed for the first time, you should take a good look at all of your marketing materials and make sure that your company’s “Brand” resonates accross from your website to all of your printed pieces.

Consider all of these things when you call MultiCOLOR Media for your next web development project and you’ll be on your way to online success!

Buenos Dias people! The last couple of days we’ve been talking about the “New Website Development Planning Checklist”. We are now at the halfway point.  Today we are covering part 3 of this series entitled  “Design and Development”. Let us know your thoughts and feel free to share.

3. Design and Development

There are many things to think about when planning a new website project! The following are some things you may want to consider regarding the design and development before you begin your project:

• Do you have an exisiting Domain Name?
• Is your business name available as a Domain Name?
• How many people at your company need emails?
• Do you currently have a set of Company Colors?
• Are there any existing images (such as logo or photos) that you want to include on your site?
• Do you need/want new graphics, images, flash or banners designed for your site?
• How much content do you plan to have and who will write it?
• Do you need MultiCOLOR Media to do the Copywriting for you?
• Do you need a Members Only Area with a secure log-in?
• Will you need online forms to collect customer information?
• Do you have, want or need a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) to handle that information?
• Do you want Video or Audio on your site?
• Do you want to offer Quizzes, Surveys or Polls?

While not all of these questions are imperative to answer prior to starting your project, some are, and actually determine how your website is designed and built. Think about it!

Hello again! Yesterday I told you that over the next several days we would go over the key essential elements to consider when planning your next website development project with MultiCOLOR Media. The topic we covered yesterday was “General Purpose and Audience”. Today’s topic is “What Information To Include” on your new site!

Please feel free to leave any comments if you think i’ve left anything out .

2. Information That You May Wish to Include

Consider what information and features you want to make available on your new website. Every business and every website is different, and there are no standards (at least not anymore) when it comes to what you NEED to have on your website, it’s all up to you. With that said here are some examples of what you may choose to include on your new website:

• Your Company Information
• Contact Info (Phone, Fax, Mobile, Email, IM)
• Terms & Conditions
• Privacy Policy
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Products Descriptions
• Services You Offer
• Links to your Social Profiles
• RSS Feeds (For Easy Syndication)
• Industry Related Articles
• Web Blog
• Live Chat / Chat Room
• Forum / Message Board
• shopping cart (ecommerce only)

Well that sums it up! Tune in tomorrow for Part 3: Design & Development