Lets keep this short and sweet. We all know the internet explorer over all is a real pain in the butt to use and to develop website for. In face I do not know too many people who like the browser or have not had a major complaint about it. Well we just ran into a great website that keep track of this information on which browser holds the most market share. Please feel free to check it out. http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp
I have noticed this trend over the last few months where almost every new client that we design a website for wants to be able to edit their own content. The bottom line is, most companies have realized that if they pay for a content management system to manage their website that they do not have to pay agencies, designers, or developers for changes. In one year worth of changes the content management system pays for it’s self. Plus most of the content management systems out there, once the site is finished, are as easy as using Microsoft Word. Therefore, anyone that has a computer can make updates to their website. This allows website designs to last longer, save the client money and becomes a sustainable system.
Some small-business owners are successful without help from the Internet. But as Web presence increasingly becomes a measure of credibility, the advantages and growing ease of creating a business website are prompting more holdouts to make the leap.
Small business owners hesitated to use the Internet to market their businesses with fear that it will cost more than they can afford. The cost of setting up a website can be minimal, and will offset the amount of potential customers who want to get a lot of information before they even speak with you. The internet has become the new global mall and your website is your store front.
Internet tools help business owners increase their visibility and provide useful information that pulls in customers. The internet has widened their circles of people they know well beyond their normal areas. Typically, we were limited to who we could meet, but now we can be meeting people all over the world and doing it all from the comfort of our offices.
Even a rudimentary site with basic information, such as location and hours of operation, can draw potential customers, especially if it appears in a Google Maps search.
We recommend using an array of Internet tools to market a business, including setting up a website and creating a profile on a professional networking site.
Small business websites help save time and trim costs by letting the business communicate with hundreds of clients instantaneously through e-mail. When customers join the business’s e-mail list, they send them information about new products, which they sell on their website. The response is amazing, one can literally sent out an e-mail at 10:02, and get an order back at 10:04. This is such a faster way to communicate with client or consumers.
Some business owners “might be a little afraid” of using the Internet, but they don’t realize its benefits. The Internet is also a way to see what competitors are marketing, and adjust their business to out due their competition.
In addition to setting up personal websites and blogs, millions of professionals are setting up Web profiles on social networking websites such as LinkedIn.com and MySpace.com. LinkedIn.com, the most popular networking site for professionals, sometimes called “MySpace for grown-ups,” saw its number of users climb to 10 million this month. Most business owners say networking on websites such as LinkedIn is secondary to having their own sites. A Web profile gives potential customers background information so they can decide where they want to do business. It’s also a way to learn about and connect with other businesses.
Bottom line, a professional looking site done by a designer or development company can do wonders for your site and your credibility. Professional designers can build your site for a reasonable cost, register you on search engines, design email promotions, and help you optimize your time and resources so that you do not spend a lot of time learning how to be a webmaster.
Here are some tips about planning a Company Website:
Remember the basics. Your company’s name, address and telephone number should be easy to find. Then you need to explain exactly what your business does.
Don’t clutter. Use visuals to draw visitors, but don’t confuse them with too many words or to many pictures. A nice balance is best.
E-mail is one of the simplest Web tools to use, and it’s also one of the most effective. Don’t underestimate the ability to market your products and collect orders, quickly and efficiently. An e-mail newsletter can help create buzz about your company.
Highlight the personal nature, not the size, of your business. Show how your products or services have helped your customers.
As we progress forward with website development, it is important to understand the ever changing trends that users have over a course of a few years. These would include data bandwidth, screen resolution, and type of browser. Browser Trends are particularly important, b/c it tells developers what browsers they should support and what browsers should be left behind. Every browser out there has automatic updates set to “on” by default, however, whether a user decided to actually install the update is another question. This can be due to lack of understanding, perception of past experiences from an upgrade/update or having the automatic update set to “off”.
Regards less, we stand by the fact that we do not support browser versions two steps down from the current version. (For example we support Internet Explorer 8 and 7 but not 6.) Here is a few references that we use, among the many other traffic tools that help us gage our standards. Global Stats, http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php, is a wonderful resource b/c it updates on a daily basis. Global Stats also now included trends on how some browsers are becoming more widely used and others are not. http://www.w3counter.com/trends. Though Internet explorer is still the industry standard, fire fox has had a steady incline over the past few years. Dealing directly with Internet Explorer, IE 6 and 7 have had a steady decline since mid 2009 at about the same rate. While IE 8 has taken some time to gain ground, has become the new standard since September 2009. If you can compare this with operating system trends, IE 6 was part of Windows XP and Windows XP SP1. IE 7 was part of Windows XP sp2. IE 8 was introduced by default in Vista (which has very bad reviews) and Windows 7 which fixed Microsoft’s reputation and thus restored consumer confidence over time.
When Google made this statement “Google will be ending support for IE6. That’s a good thing if you’re a front-end developer constantly pulling your hair to support IE6. You know how painful it could get. Fortunately this move by Google should force IE6 users to upgrade, switch or die.” (Source – http://www.azurewebdesign.com/ie6-does-not-support-multiple-class-selectors/) This made it very clear that if the big boys are not supporting it, then we should not either. Finally if you want the “autority on this opinon check out this wikipedia article… enough said. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer_6
I was working with a client (who I will not name) that had complained about his site looking discombobulated when viewing it in his browser. He claimed he was using IE7. After many attempts to fix his problem. We decided to install a legacy browser block up to and including IE6 to see if this was true. The results were right on the money with what we felt. He was using IE 6 and it was making his site perform incorrectly. As I have explained to many a client in the past we do not support legacy browsers. I feel compelled to share the following email as part of this discuss.
Client “The site does not show up at all and says “I see you are still using IE 6 – please upgrade your browser”. Several people have told me the same.”
SSD “That would explain a lot about what you have been seeing. IE6 is an out dated browser that has many bugs, security holes and other technical issues. These issues were solved in the release of IE 7. I would suggest that you do move forward and upgrade your browser to at least IE7 so that your computer is more secure. If you want to read more about this, please visit Microsoft’s website. We try to make sure that we are sticking to the most recent security practices, for your protection and ours, we do not support legacy browser versions.”
Client “I’ve had people tell me they got the same message who work for Fortune 500 companies. Should I forward this email to them and explain that they are idiots for not having a browser that works for your design?”
Ok so he is making his point, however, the reality is this. Over the course of my time consulting companies large and small, I find one thing to be true, The Information Technology departments either lack enough personnel to upgrade desktop computers on a regular basis, or they and too busy with major projects. As a result the only time an upgrade occurs is when there is a major problem, virus, or security issue. Which normally gets the attention of the CEO, CFO, and CTO, thus forcing IT to be reactive to Microsoft’s recommendations. In short, no they are not idiots, but a little pre planning goes along way.
As for our client above. This was the first time I had a client rebuttal the logical sense that security out weighs the actual aesthetic appeal. Form should always follow function. If the function is to have a site that markets your services and collect data securely, then making sure that the browser your using does that well is important. As I stated above in my email to our client “We try to make sure that we are sticking to the most recent security practices, for your protection and ours, we do not support legacy browser versions.”
Please hit me back on this one. I would like to know other people’s opinion on this.
After spending months at a time designing, coding and preparing your new website for launch, many Information Technology and Website Development Firms still forget to check on the fundamentals of why a website exists. Driving traffic to your site is the key reason why anyone would ever spend time and money having a website done. In most instances, we find that Search Engine Optimization was never done or if it was done, it was not done very well. Whether you have spend time and money having Search Engine Optimization done or if by luck Google has found favor in your existing website, it is important to look at this from the top down.
In our example, the site we are about to deploy has been around for about 5 years. The owners have spend many hours promoting their products through marketing campaigns, and working the Search Engine Optimization angle and have a significant amount of traffic. In short, through all of this pain staking work they have managed to secure and lock down their current site’s link structure. The new site was designed from a strategic marketing point of view to help enhance their products, better serve their customers, and act as a grow reference. Of course this means that the new site’s link structure is completely different than the old site. At this point launching a new site would be a huge mistake and the lose of Google Rank would be significant enough for them to lose revenue.
How do we work around this? As you know I mention on a regular basis, being strategic and looking at your site, not as images and code, but as vehicle to generate more revenue is very important. In this case not losing your search engine rank is key.
