The Web Design Success Blog
Helping Your Business Succeed on the Web
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If You Only Understood Your Customer's Personality Style
Personality StylesUnderstanding customer personality styles (Analytical, Driver, Amiable, and Expressive) will quickly tell you just how and what to say to each customer.Although every customer is different, most can be grouped into one of four groups: Analytical, Driver, Amiable, and Expressive. Here are some basic characteristics...
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Are You Really Listening to Your Customers?
Listening to Your CustomersWhen you listen to your customers, are you merely listening to their words, or are you listening for what they really mean? In order to truly understand your customers, you must learn to not listen to what they say, but rather to listen to what they mean. For example, when...
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SEO and Forget It
Google's Sandbox - SEOIn this "fast-food", "fast-paced", "broadband" era, many people don't realize that it takes time to get out of the sandbox before they can move up on the search engines. I don't know if it is just the fast-paced time that we live in, or if people have just forgotten that patience is a virtue,...
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Forget Political Correctness
Forget Political CorrectnessMuch of the meaning in a message can be missed because we try to be too politically correct. When I was in college, I had a business communications teacher that believed that a sentence was only good if it only had those words that were integral to the meaning of the sentence. All other words should...
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The Right Way to View Your Business
The Right Way to View Your BusinessWhy does someone visit your website, or more specifically, why is this customer visiting this page at this time? Every time you look at any of your marketing materials (print, web, etc.) I want you to take a moment to think about "why" this customer is taking time from their busy schedule to look...
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Has Customer Service Disappeared?
Customer ServiceAre you getting your money's worth or have you noticed that some businesses have lost their customer service? I hope that this is a rare occurrence but I find the following story very odd. Recently a friend of mine went to the dentist for a regular checkup and cleaning. Halfway through the cleaning...
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Allinanchor, Allintitle, Allintext and other Google Keywords
Google KeywordsGoogle Keywords like: Allinanchor Allintitle Allintext Site Link can give you a greater understanding of how to get better placement in Google. Each of these keywords can help you understand better where you can focus your efforts to increase your ranking in Google. Here is a breakdown...
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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Basics
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) TipsBasic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques that are so simple that anyone can do them. While there are numerous tricks and tips to get better search engine placement (let alone the tips specific to every individual search engine), here are some very basic search engine optimization tips...
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Dynamic Pages vs. Static Pages
Dynamic Pages vs. Static PagesDynamic pages can pose problems for search engines compared to static pages. Following these tips will help avoid the problems that dynamic pages can create with search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Now, while search engines do not care if your webpage ends in .htm, .html, .asp, .php, etc.,...
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Free Stock Photography
Free Stock PhotographyStock.XCHNG is a great place to get royalty free, free stock photography. There is finally a place where people from around the world can share their amazing stock photography for free, Stock.XCHNG. After searching through many websites that charge $400+ for a single image, I've come across a gem...
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Compelling Pictures Can Make or Break Any Design
Compelling PicturesGreat pictures can add spice to any design and bad pictures can ruin even the best design. There is a great difference between taking pictures and capturing that perfect moment that will forever be cherished thanks to your foresight. All great images play on our emotions. Hopefully this blog will help...
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Is Your Website Search Engine Friendly?
Search Engine Friendly WebsitesIf your website isn't search engine friendly, your website is not earning you enough money. Far too many web designers are actually graphic designers claiming to be website designers. Unfortunately, they know nothing (ok... maybe next to nothing) about how search engines work and what is necessary...
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Integrated Marketing
Integrated MarketingIntegrated marketing is essential to getting a better return on investment (ROI). By integrating all marketing materials you can increase profits at very little expense. What is Integrated Marketing Integrated marketing is more than just having a consistent look and feel to all of your marketing...
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Never Miss a Chance to Sell
Sell, Sell, SellOne of the biggest mistakes that companies make is failing to recognize and act on opportunities to sell. Isn't selling one of the main goals of the organization? So why do people shy away from the opportunities that are placed before them all the time? Here are just a few places that are commonly...
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Why are Website Statistics so Important?
Why Track Website VisitorsTracking is the single most important thing you will do with your website. Do you have a tracking plan that allows you to know... How many people visited your site What keywords they used to get there How often they come back What pages are looked at Which pages aren't looked at Which page...
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Website Browser Safe Fonts
Browser Safe FontsI have been asked many times why people always use Times New Roman or Arial on their websites. Unfortunately, the reason is very simple. There are only a handful of fonts that look similar that are installed by default on both Windows and Macs. Consequently, these "browser safe fonts" find...
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The 5-9 Rule - Building a Good Navigation Structure
The 5-9 RuleWebsite navigation should never be larger than 9 items. People can only remember 5-9 chunks of new information at a time. Do you know that it has been scientifically proven that the average human can remember 7 plus/minus 2 chunks of information? George A. Miller, who has a PhD in Psychology...
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One Click Wonders - Keep it Simple
One Click WondersSimplify, simplify, simplify. Seth Godin, the marketing guru who wrote "The Big Red Fez" and "The Purple Cow" argues that people on the web are like stupid monkeys wearing a big red fez. Make it simple or they will go somewhere else where it will be simpler. For example, have you ever been at...
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Consistent Look and Feel - Branding and Positioning
Branding and PositioningWhen your customers think about your business, what comes to their minds? How have you branded and positioned your business? You've set your sites on a specific group, you know what they need and you've got it. Now all you need to do is let them know that you are the answer to their problems....
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Understanding Customers is Key to Building an Effective Website
Understanding Customers"Who are your customers?" Most businesses make the mistake of being too broad with their definition of their customer. For example, "My customers are all people that need a website." This is too broad and is NOT an accurate definition of their customers. For example, my sister needs a website...
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Building a website is easy as P.I.E.
Website Design TipsThe three things that all compelling web sites do are entertain, inform, and provide contact information. If any one of these items is missing, the web site will not be effective. Ever consider why the World Wide Web is also known as "The Information Superhighway?" Information, information,...
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Is Good Coding Key to Great Placement in MSN
Good Coding for Ranking in MSNThe two "big dogs," Google and Yahoo, now have a new competitor. MSN came out with a new search engine in February 2005 that has added good coding as a part of their ranking algorithm. They no longer get their results from other search engines, but now they have spiders of their own. Just...
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Real ID - New Driver's Licenses Required by Law
Real ID - Driver's LicensesWell are you ready for a new driver's license? A new law that is known as the Real ID Act of 2005 has just passed the U.S. Senate. This new law requires that states standardize their driver's licenses or identification cards and make them machine readable by May 2008. The law states: "Beginning...
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AHFX.net version 2 released
Version 2.0Well after a long awaited release, we have finally released version 2.0 of the website. This new release has a new color scheme and focuses on making our design blog more legible. We have had a great influx of hits immediately after introducing our blog. After realizing how important it was...
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Placement in the DMOZ.org directory - Pure Power
DMOZ / Google DirectoryMany people may wonder why anyone would jump through all of the hoops to get listed in the DMOZ directory (dmoz.org). They would argue that nobody uses the dmoz directory to find businesses. Well, people might not use the dmoz directory like they use yahoo or google, (some people might not even...
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