Websites

Website Basics

To speak intelligently to others who want your money, you NEED to understand the basics and what effect they have on you and your budget. As a website owner, you have things you want in your website, but if there isn’t any visits, you wasted your time & money. RRC doesNOT create websites. We work with website developers.

I. Website Design – this is the view your prospects and customers will see. How it functions, what the menu’s look like, how visual effects are displayed, and general information that can be gleaned from a site visit. Most people spend the largest part of their investment on this phase. It should be the smallest!

Basic design RULES should be considered when making web pages. Search engines electronically ‘READ’ the content of your page and if the designer is not aware of the RULES, your page won’t do well with searches. Placing keywords correctly and having relevance are important to rank well in search engines.

KEYWORDS, TITLE, DESCRIPTION and META tags should be clear, concise and on every webpage on your website. Many designers don’t bother because you can’t see them, but, the Search Engines can and they must be there.

Graphics, Flash, Videos and other bells & whistles. Many of these are or can be blocked by the web browser. Make sure your important content is viewable and IF you use these perks, make sure the don’t interfere with the message your trying to get across. d. Desktop & Mobile development – current website design should incorporate both desktop browsers and Mobile browsers. Your website should be able to provide readable content based on the device using the site. Standard desktop sites can be difficult to use e. Display Resolution – Webpages should be designed to auto-size. If the monitor settings are changed, the webpage should adjust to those changes. Obvious issues can be seen when webpages are shifted to left or right, not centered or graphics are incorrect. To test for this, change the screen resolution and refresh the webpage.

II. SEO – Search Engine Optimization. It is important to understand the “RULES” for search engines. Search engines use software to electronically visit and scan your website for information to be used in the search. There is not a standard set of rules, but you want to be sure your site is optimized for the search engine that can help you most. For Google, start here. https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7451184?hl=en.

III. Sitemap & Robots.txt– Your website should have both of these files in the correct format that is compatible with your search engine of choice. The sitemap file identifies all of the pages you want the search engine to be aware of. Robots.txt identifies which pages should be ignored.

IV. Data Analytics – is the information about visits to your site. How many visits, what area do they come from, which pages were viewed, what type of device was used, and a lot more. Usually, the web designer needs to add “code” to each web page that you want information about. Then you need to have an account with a service that provides reporting on the data collected. An example would be Google Analytics.

V. Web Stores – Do you sell widgets? A widget is something you can touch and feel, a can of fruit, a pencil, a bra, car parts, clothing, etc. IF so, you need a store with a shopping cart & a catalog of the items for your store. a. Shopping carts – this is software that stores the users choices, provides the math calculations, and totals for the online transaction. b. Merchant accounts – Normally, you will need a merchant account with your local bank or other service provider to process the transactions electronically on a SECURE website. The processing fee normally includes the shopping cart mentioned above. The web designer incorporates the shopping cart with your catalog and website. Sounds complex, right? c. They can buy 24 hours / day, 7 days per week, with little or no human involvement. d. IF all of this is too much, you can pay EBAY or a similar vendor to handle everything except the product and pricing placement. e. Advertising – All stores, Ebay or otherwise need advertising to drive trafiic to the store. More on this later.