CitrusKiwi's Web Design, Internet & Marketing blog
So, we have our place on the market. You all know the stress that comes with that. We got an offer this week, about a week after they viewed the place. Then they wanted an answer by the next morning. ...
Designing a website with a focus on improving customer ease of use involves creating an intuitive, accessible, and efficient user experience. Every website has millions, if not tens or hundreds of mil...
Yes! And yes! And yes!Video on your website isn't just a great idea, it's absolutely critical for reaching the broadest cross-section of consumers. Recent surveys have shown that more than half of the...
A question I get asked from time to time is, "Why should I pay you to design my site when there are lots of free options?" And it's a fair question. If you're not analyzing every business expense then...
Every website has them (or should - it's one of the most common ways a visitor will interact with your website). But, so often, people don't fill out online forms. There can be a number of reasons why...
First, we should ask, "Why should you care?" Great question! Short answer: Because your business needs you to! Longer answer: Research shows that consumers are impatient. Mosat will only give yo...
A good website design is one that is visually appealing, easy to navigate, and effectively communicates its intended message. Here are some specific characteristics that contribute to a good website d...
1990 Americans with Disabilities Act & your website We've probably all heard the stories of brick-and-mortar businesses running foul of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and what it meant...
For those who are more my age (suffice it to say, I'm still in my 50s...just!), and took to computing back in our 20s, we remember having to configure EVERYTHING! "Plug-n-play" wasn't even thought of ...
New Years' resolutions are a great thing... IF you carry them out. As Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (probably) wrote, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions"! No plan is bad, but a pla...
Happy New Year (almost)! I know it's a cliche sort of thing, New Years resolutions. I also know that most of us end up breaking all our well-meaning promises to ourselves. This year, along with t...
One thing is for sure, video is IT! As the Boomers and the Gen Xers become much less of a driving force in the buying market, those in the know see a new trend in how the up-and-coming purchasers - th...
I've had a client, from time to time, ask why they should keep paying their monthly subscription. Fair question. As business-people, we all need to be looking at our expenses and trimming where necessary. First though, let me ask a question. Why have a website? With nearly 90% of all purchases starting life as an internet search there's really no question why. The fact is, whether it's a new hair product, a vacation, a car or even a house, we all head to one of the search engines to start our hunt. And if a business doesn't have a solid web presence, then they're already well behind the pack. So, back to the original question... Why continue paying every month? What the client is really asking is, WIIFM (What's In It For Me)? And, again, that's a fair question. Some business-people see adverts on somewhere like Craigslist for a website for...
Wow - already January 17, and, to our embarrassment we look at the date of my last post..... The truth is, it's been pretty busy since late last year and then with Christmas and New Year, the blog got a little neglected. And now we're neck deep in revamping our CitrusKiwi site as it needs an overhaul. There have been things we were never totally happy with and we have tons new content going on it; so keep checking back! Expected launch date is the month's end (hopefully this month!! LOL!) Every year... We recommend that you look very critically at your site at least once a year. If you're one of our clients, then you'll be getting regular updates about traffic and rankings. From the traffic reports you can determine which pages visitors most frequent, and then you can spend time honing those pages to new-client-producing dynamos! And the others...
I was asked this week, whether, 1) A "mobile type" website is needed at all, and 2) if so, what type? That's a great question and, at least, showed that the asker was engaged with basic website design ideas, or, at the very least, wanting to know. As the old saying goes, "The stupidest question is the one never asked!" Do I need a mobile version of any type? First part - "Do you need a mobile ready version of your site?" An unequivocal, "YES!" There is no doubt that a website that is not easily viewed on a mobile device is already at a serious disadvantage. And, with 60% or more searches conducted on some type of mobile device, that puts your business in a bad internet state. Which type to have? The 4 types are in the headline - Mobile, Responsive, App, or Nothing. They all work a little...
There are 3 main learning styles, auditory, visual and kinesthetic. It's hard to do kinesthetic on your website - they're the touchy feely group - offer them a free sample by filling in a SIMPLE form. Visual is what you're already doing (I will assume you have a visually appealing website - if you don't talk to us about a redesign). But where is your site on auditory? If you're at zero, join the club - most are. As many as 60%+ of the population learn by visual primarily. For those people, lack of video seriously underpowers your site! With the price of video production falling dramatically, it's now easier than ever to add video to your site. And, if a pictures says 1000 words, then a video says 1000 pictures. You now have the ability to showcase your business and your products and/or services like never before. Here's a video...
In 2006, a Canadian research team conducted a study to try and ascertain how short a time it took for human visitors to sum up a webpage. And the results were startling! 1/20th of a second can be a killer The team began by showing 50 millisecond glimpses (that's 1/20th second) of webpages to the participants, then had them rate the webpages in terms of their aesthetic appeal. Then they let them see the same pages for a much longer periods and had them rate the pages again. Surprisingly, the results were very close. The conclusion is shocking to us as designers (and should also impact anyone with a website as well)... According to the results in the study, you have 1/20th second before a visitor decides your sites flies or dies in their thinking! This makes choosing a designer with good design and layout skills so critical. Forget fancy "gadgets"...
I'm often amazed just how easily the simple, and obvious, things trip us up or cause a disconnect. It's no different with websites. Here are 10 seemingly obvious things that can really stoke the fires of credibility on your website. 1. Easy verification of site information When you've written articles, invariably there are times, often many times, when you've used a source to help build the content. SO provide your content third party support in the way of citations, references, or links to original content. It's shows YOU have confidence in your material. 2. Be a "real" organization Ever been to a site trying to find contact info and all you get is a web form? Seems a little shady, right? If I come across this sort of thing, I invariably hit the close button on the window. I figure they can't be very reputable if they have to hide their...
When I first began designing websites - a long way back in internet terms - in the late 1990's, things were much simpler. Little completition, little sophistication, little anything! Nowadays, the landscape is vastly different, and the industry has fragmented into many niche sectors - design, mail, SEO, and more. It's harder and harder as a small business to be all things to everyone. That's why we decided to move away from offering anything much in the way of off-page SEO and concentrate on what we did well - design and implementation. Mobile websites - good or bad? When mobile website first began appearing, they were totally separate sites to the main desktop/laptop site. You'd see different URLS - m.citruskiwi.com or mobile.citrsukiwi.com (don't bother following those links as they won't work!). These were all well and good - they DID display on mobile devices well, but they often lacked much of...
Although everyone told me I didn't need to lose any weight,I've recently shed a little over 20lbs and feel so much better for it. The only downside, is I now need to go through my closet and get rid of a bunch of clothes that are waaaay too big for me! A good downside I think you'd agree though. Reducing your website's wait When Google is presented with a search query, it looks at the pages in its index and applies a test that includes over 200 parameters to it in a bid to serve the user a relevant result. One of those is page load speed. There's a temptation now to overlook this vital aspect of page "health". After all, most of our users have a fast internet connection right? Who uses a 56k dial up modem anymore? Interestingly, I was speaking to someone just a few weeks ago who...
