So many choices

In the Frequently Given Advice department:

Suppose you register your domain with one company and host your site with the same business.  What happens if the company disappears? Even the big ones can fail.

It actually happened with one of the larger registrars a few years ago, leaving many people and businesses severely inconvenienced.  Their websites had disappeared, and they could not access the registrar to point their domain to another company.

Some hosting companies offer a free domain with their package. If you’re new to setting up a website, it may seem an attractive option. But for just $10/year (the approximate cost of owning a domain name), it makes more sense to have total control over your domain. After all, it will quickly become an essential asset of your business, carrying with it search engine visibility (“Google juice”), valuable inbound links from other websites, brand awareness and just plain old business goodwill.

If your domain registrar goes down but your website is still standing because it is hosted with a different company, you have time to transfer registration to another registrar. Likewise, If your web host goes down but you can still access your registration, you can find a new web host and point the domain to the new server.

Best practice: register your domain with one company and host your site with another.

Contract Furnishings' new homepage

I’ve finished redesigning a pair of websites for Valley Stationers Ltd, and its furniture division, Contract Furnishings.  Valley Stationers is a well-established, family-owned business operating since 1962.

The previous versions of the websites made extensive use of Flash and JavaScript. Some of their biggest customers, who operate behind a security wall that bans JavaScript, could not use the site or see any the links.  And neither site was getting much traffic.  Search engine robots cannot navigate JavaScript links either.

It is easy to forget that many people working in institutional environments do not have the latest in computer equipment. Some are stuck with older operating systems, obsolete browsers, and high levels of security. Reasons may include:

• organizational dependence on an intranet that was built to work with older software and hardware;
• the cost of upgrading a large network all at once;
• internet security concerns because of sensitive data on the network;
• to keep employees off Facebook;
• “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” attitude – even when it isn’t working well for some employees.

Fortunately, cool graphics and interactivity are not exclusive to Flash and JavaScript.  HTML and CSS can provide interactivity and wow factor with faster download times, and better accessibility to search engines, to the visually impaired and others.

What is your experience?  Have you worked in an environment with old computer equipment and systems?  What factors prevented management from upgrading?

I can see many reasons why Facebook works for them:

Screenshot of Whitman Wharf House B&B's homepage with Facebook feed and fans on the right.

• A Facebook status update is quicker than a blog, and you don’t have a 140-character limit as in Twitter.
• It’s easy to add photos and videos to Facebook.
• Facebook has broken the technology barrier for a huge percentage of the population.  You probably already know how to do Facebook.
• If you don’t know Facebook yet, you’ll find that it’s as intuitive as any online medium can be, and the psychological rewards for learning it are immediate.
• Other people know Facebook too, and they’re more likely to interact with you on your Facebook Page than on a blog.
• You may already have a bunch of friends on Facebook who know what you do and will “Like” your page (the new equivalent of becoming a fan).
• Add a link to a webpage in your Facebook status update, and it instantly gives you the opportunity to choose a picture from that page.  This is cool and fun.
• You can check in on your Facebook friends while you’re pretending to work!
• You can check in on your Facebook business page while you’re interacting with your friends, and feel virtuous (if not virtual)!
• People who are not Facebook members can still see your Facebook page – it is public – although they can’t leave comments.

And now there’s another reason to have a Facebook Page for your business.  You can easily put a “Like Box” with either a news feed of your Facebook page updates, a set of random mini profile pictures of your “fans”, or both, on your own website.

I’ve just set up a Like Box for Whitman Wharf House Bed and Breakfast in Canso, NS.  I’m very pleased with how it looks over a semi-transparent background.

I’ve also added one to the homepage of Fireworks FX Inc.

Screenshot showing Like Box on the Nova Scotia Photo Album site, with "fans".

Inspired, I just set up a Facebook page for my own Nova Scotia Photo Album, and added a Like Box to the site.  Perhaps I’ll add a WordPress plugin that copies my blog posts to my Facebook page. Then everyone who “likes” my page will see my updates in their Facebook News Feed.  These updates are easily shared.  The viral power of Facebook is not to be underestimated.

Click here for the instructions and wizard for adding a Facebook Like Box to your website. You can customize a few parameters: width, whether to show the feed, and how many fans to show, if any.  Background colour is transparent by default, and can easily be set by css on your page or an external stylesheet.  Changing text colour is more complicated, however.

There are other cool tools that Facebook has made available and I’ll write about them as I gain experience with them.

There are disadvantages, however, to essentially having Facebook host your blog, rather than having a full-fledged WordPress blog on your website under your domain.

• You will probably be sending some people away from your site into a yummy, addictive,  warm and fuzzy place where they are likely to get lost for the next hour, and forget to come back to your website.
• You are missing out on the built-in search-engine-magnetic powers of WordPress.
• You are not adding content and value to your own site.
• Non-Facebook members cannot comment on your postings.

So it’s a tradeoff, and it’s up to each person to decide what works for them.  However, if it’s a difference between getting it done on Facebook and not getting it done on a blog, go for the path of least resistance.

Just don’t get lost!

Arlington Timber Frame Company

One of my oldest web sites is for Arlington Frame Company of Canning, NS.  It has been a pleasure, and very encouraging through the years, to have provided an essential component of this business’s operations.  We have learned and grown together.

The website drives the business.  It’s not an e-commerce site – it can’t be, because the product is not something you can pop in a shopping cart and sell online.  We’re talking houses.  Dream homes, usually, or retirement homes, which clients research and plan for years before buying.

Since the decline of dial-up modems, Forrest Rand, the owner, frequently finds himself on the phone with prospective clients on the phone, pointing out features and examples on the website.  So he knows what works and what’s awkward, what is hard for clients to find on the page and what appeals to them.  This kind of usability feedback is a web designer’s dream.

The multi-level menu has a picture of each timber frame in the portfolio. Click on image above to go to old gallery page, now reinstated.

Having recently redesigned Arlington’s sister web site, Timberframe Houseplans Ltd., I used the same menu structure for the new Arlington design.  However, Forrest found that the new structure confuses people who were used to the old “gallery” format.  So I’ve had to reinstate the old gallery page for the long-term lurkers, while offering the new menu for the newcomers.  In time, hopefully, there will be fewer complaints, but the prospects who have been hanging around for a while are the ones who will bring in the business for the next couple of years, so we can’t afford to alienate them!

Those of us who spend a lot of time on the internet and are accustomed to constant change easily underestimate how confusing it can be to others.  When you have learned to find your way around a website, it can be very confusing and frustrating if things change on you.  The older you are, the more this is the case.  And people building custom houses are older, on average, than people building websites!

It’s something we see on Facebook all the time; whenever Facebook institutes a design or functional change, some people complain long and loud. Facebook is very personal in nature, and is therefore highly vulnerable to such dissatisfaction. I think Google manages its perennially-increasing functionality well, maintaining the same simple, straightforward design while adding simple links that open up new vistas of possibility for the rest of us.

The snippet provided. (This image is non-functional.)

A client of mine recently listed her Bed & Breakfast on TripAdvisor.com and was given a snippet of code to put on her website which, when clicked, takes you to her listing on the Trip Advisor site.  She was wondering whether she wanted it on her site.

Meanwhile, I was doing research for a trip of my own, and relying heavily on Trip Advisor to select a hotel.  I will choose the hotel based on the Trip Advisor comments as much as on the facilities advertised by the hotel.

Trip Advisor has become a big player in the travel accommodations game, and favorable comments are important.  So should my client link to it from her website?

Pros:

• The snippet gives past B&B patrons an easy link to her listing on Trip Advisor so they can leave a comment.  Presumably these would be people who are going over their memories of the trip and are revisiting websites of places they stayed and things they saw.
• If they don’t already know about or use Trip Advisor, this may be their introduction to it, and she would get some comments she wouldn’t have otherwise received.
• The snippet gives potential customers an easy link to see comments made by others, which is an advantage if the comments are good.
• Testimonials on your own site serve the same purpose. But comments left on a third-party site have added credibility because the B&B owner does not control them.

Cons:

• The snippet encourages potential customers to leave her website.  Once on Trip Advisor, they are encouraged to compare her B&B with others, and may well choose to stay in a different establishment.
• People who are already using Trip Advisor will look there  for comments about your establishment anyway, snippet or not.
• People who don’t know about, or aren’t using, Trip Advisor, will find out about it.  This could be good or bad, depending on your comments.

Suggestions:

• Whether the B&B owner puts the snippet on her site or not, she should encourage guests, as they leave, to leave a comment on Trip Advisor, perhaps even giving them a card with the web address, or letting them use the house computer.
• Your website itself should have real testimonials, with names for credibility.  Keep a guestbook.  If you’re good at what you do, you’ll get lots of lovely comments.  Be sure to ask permission to use them.  Ask whether you can use the guest’s name, or at least something like “Ann K., Maryland”.

What do you think my client should do?  What would you do?

ISF logo

The International Symposium on Fireworks is held once every year or two. Fred Wade, of Nova Scotia’s Fireworks FX Inc., and a leading “light” in pyrotechnics, organizes the event and asked for a redesign of the Symposium’s website.

I don’t often work on a black background because it’s a bit harder to read, but for a fireworks theme it makes total sense. Choosing the colour scheme was fun. For readability, I like the gold text – I find it easy on the eyes. Colour-coding the menu helps people find what they’re looking for.

For the slideshows of past Symposia, I used a PHP script by Greg Lawler that I’ve employed in a number of other sites, including the Nova Scotia Photo Album, except that this time there were so many photos in each slideshow (up to 240) that the thumbnails (1) needed to appear, so that people could find the pictures they wanted to see, but (2) needed to NOT be on the same page as the slideshow, or they would slow it down too much.

I’m not a PHP programmer, but I figured it out, and am pleased with the results (and with myself!). The thumbnails appear on a second page, and when you click on one, it links you back to the first page with the slideshow. See these Mexican fireworks for an example. Oh, and if you ever go to Mexico, take in some fireworks if you can.

The LaHave, from Timberframe House Plans

Visitors with screen resolution of 800×600 pixels, the smallest resolution commonly in use, is now just 2% for this site, down by half from this time last year. So it’s time to widen the display to the next level, 995 pixels, to accommodate the next widest common resolution of 1024×768. (The difference between 1024 and 995 is necessary to accommodate the scrollbar.) Yippee! This makes a web designer’s heart glad. It has been many years since we were able to move up from 580 pixels wide (for 640×480) to 770 pixels or so (for 800×600), when the 640×480 resolution dwindled to insignificance. More real estate.

Based on my client’s feedback, I’ve added a new multi-level menu to the site, which allows users to see a picture and some information about a houseplan before going to the plan’s page. The new menu eliminates the need for a page listing all the plans, which made finding your way through the site a bit confusing.

The new multi-level menu puts all the site’s navigation “above the fold”, where it’s easier to find without scrolling, and shortens the number of menu items in a row that the user has to find their way through. It has been found that more than 7 items in a row, in the same format on a menu, make many people’s heads swim – they have trouble finding what they might be looking for. I’m not underestimating people’s intelligence, but I’m learning not to overestimate the prevalence of dyslexia, Irlen’s Syndrome, and other causes of reading difficulty.

My client has another site, Arlington Frame Company, which builds timberframes, and people easily get confused by the relationship between the two sites. So we plan to make that clearer as we redesign them. For now, a new big button in the header leads people to the Arlington site.

I welcome your feedback as I work through this project with the goal of increasing sales of timber frame house plans for my client.

Thus “Current widget price list 2010.pdf” becomes Current%20widget%20%price%20list%202010.pdf. The search engine sees “Current”, “20widget”, “20price”, “20list” and “202010″.  It’s much better  to name your file “Current-widget-price-list-2010.pdf”.

I have a fun little website – a labour of love -  that I’ve been growing for 10 years now, the Nova Scotia Photo Album. It started out as a wedding gift on a floppy disk in 2000, and now it has its own domain and more than 1000 photos of Nova Scotia organized with captions, mostly taken by yours truly.

Look what happened after I installed a WordPress blog on the site in November 2008.  The graph below shows traffic to the site from Google, according to Google Analytics.

Google traffic after adding a blog to the site

The blue line is traffic to the site from July 6, 2008 to June 20, 2009. The orange line is for the same period a year before, 2007-2008.

Note that this isn’t the traffic to my blog, it’s the traffic to the site itself, just from Google.  You can see that traffic started going up around Christmastime and kept rising.

The curious thing is that traffic to the blog itself does not account for the difference! Here’s the traffic to the blog homepage (the only page with significant traffic) for the same period:

Traffic from all sources to the blog homepage

In this period, no more than 90 visitors saw the blog homepage in any week, yet Google alone was sending 200 extra visitors a week to the site – people who wouldn’t have shown up if previous trends had continued.

Other sources of traffic did not change significantly over that time period.

Furthermore, it seems that the traffic was coming for a wide variety of long tail keywords as I was blogging about them.

Conclusion: the mere existence of a WordPress blog on a website, if you’re updating it regularly (I have averaged twice a week) can increase your site’s status with Google. The rest of my site got more traffic just because a blog was there, even if people weren’t visiting the blog.

So I replaced my beautiful old CRT monitor with an LCD one.  I got a Dell 2007WFP, plugged it into my VGA cable and off we went.  I remember a bit of trouble getting it to display at its native resolution of 1680 x 1050 pixels, but eventually it did.  And my eyes were much happier.

My husband just got a new LCD monitor and used the DVI cable that came with it.  He was amazed at the clarity of the image, claiming that it was even better than mine, which he has long admired.  He thought my monitor would give a better picture if I conneced the DVI cable which had come with the monitor.  So I tried it.  But no longer would it display at 1680 x 1050.  The closest it would do (Control Panel > Display > Settings) was 1600 x 900.  “Your drivers are so out of date,” said my husband.  So I searched for new drivers for the monitor using Windows (XP) and also at the Dell website, but there were none to be found.

But it was the display adapter (video card) that needed a new driver.  Finally my husband took over and found one at NVIDIA, the maker of the card. Once installed, it gave me a whole new range of choices for screen resolution, including the one I needed. Readers should know that LCD monitors have a native resolution, and are best used at that resolution.  Now my display is crystal clear and I’m a bit wiser.