Charlotte Website Development

April 16th, 2008

One year ago today 32 people were murdered at the hands of a madman. Thirty two students and faculty; both seekers and providers of knowledge. All full of potential, achievement, and promise. They did nothing wrong that day except chase their dreams. Their only crime was to follow those dreams with action and they died for it.

As a VT alumni who spends upwards of 30 days on campus each year despite having graduated 7 years ago, the news hurt me. I cannot imagine the devastation it caused families.

This site is a side-business for me. The same lessons and values I learned at VT, that the 32 were experiencing that day, are the ones that prompted me to create a company to help local business leaders chase and implement their dreams. Since that day I have not been very active on this site or running my web design company - I simply didn’t have the stomach for creativity after receiving the email pasted below.

Hello Select Content Producers:

I’m reaching out to you as the CEO of Associated Content - with the hope of populating Associated Content with quality news stories about the tragedy at Virginia Tech. Our records show that you might have some past or present connection to the school.

So, if you have commentary on this topic, or even better, a first hand report about the tragedy at Virginia Tech, please login to your AC account and submit the news you may have. I want to see if our Content Producers can provide quality coverage of this event.

Please go to https://publish.associatedcontent.com/cms_edit.shtml, login and select the “News Item” template. We’ll make minimum payments of $20 dollars for this special call for content. Please email me directly with your name and the title of your submission, should you submit -so I can be sure it is processed immediately.

Thanks for helping us get this important news content,
-Luke

Luke Beatty
CEO
88 Steele Street, Suite 250

You see, Associated Content would pay me $20 to write about this senseless act of violence, this heart-wrenching rampage and they in turn would place advertisements on that content and profit.

It made me absolutely sick.

So sick I didn’t want to write or produce or chase dreams at all. In short, I wrote one reflection post, stopped pursuing my dreams because of a madman and an asshole profiteer. I realize now that my reaction should have been completely the opposite.

32 lives - mostly students, were cut down before they had a chance to implement their dreams. We will never be able to bring them back. We may not be able to prevent the next tragedy or even the one after that. What we can do is live our dreams instead of just talking about them. If not for our own sake, then for the sake of those who can no longer aspire to great things.

If any of this resonates with you, I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. If you would like to share your VT memories on the tragedy, please share them on the We Remember Virginia Tech page. I won’t be paying you $20 like Mr. Beatty tried. But I promise not to try and profiteer off of your experience either.

P.S. The official Virginia Tech Memorial page is here.

• Personal
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August 13th, 2007

As a website designer for businesses looking for maximum on-line exposure, the most common question I am asked is how to get a site listed, and listed high in Google rankings. Business owners know that the best way to get a return on their web investment is to make their site easily found. Since Google, Yahoo, Ask, MSN, AOL, and other search engines are the Yellow Pages of the Internet age, this is a pertinent question. In fact, being highly listed in such search engines can be a life or death question for a business.

How search engines determine what pages to feature on their free or organic search results is a tricky question. Each search engine has a terrifically complex proprietary algorithm that is a closely-guarded corporate secret. Additionally, the major search engines are constantly changing and tweaking their algorithms. After careful years of study I have boiled my answer down to a brief equation of three disciplines that help websites do well in search engine no matter the type of algorithm they run.

1. Website Content

Content is King. Google, Ask, etc core service is to provide you with the best organic links they can. The term best may seem arbitrary on the face of things but in reality it is tied with customer satisfaction. Google’s customers are best satisfied when they type in a search term and the site that best fufills their information needs satisfies them best. Be sure your site has the best content a user might want for a topic and you will do wonderfully in this segment. As a bonus, your visitors will return to your site regularly to see new information and come to see your company as a resource!

2. Web Design and Construction

Remember the phrase “It’s not always what you say, but how you say it?” Well all of the greatest content in the world will do you no good if the web spiders that search engines use cannot read it. There are some web designs and constructs that a search engine can read and some that it cannot. Tools like javascript, Flash, and excessive images with content are all but invisible to a search engine spider. The best way to get content indexed is to have simple plain text. A simple litmus test is if you cannot copy and paste the text you see in your web browser, then search engines cannot effectively ’see’ it.

3. Context

While we are on the topic of old phrases, let’s try two more classics. “No man is an island” and “You are judged by the company you keep.” These are especially true in the world of Search Engine Optimization.

No website exists in a vacuum. The internet was originally devised as a way of linking related documents together. If no websites link to yours, there is no way a web crawler or spider will find you. The more sites you have linking to you, the better a chance Google or any other search engine has of finding you.

Not only is linking important, but what kinds of sites link to you certainly is. Your site can be judged in context of what other sites link to you. For example, if you are an Auto Detailer the more car related sites that link to you, the better.

Linking is also a two-way street. Be sure your website has a good sampling of internal links (those pointing to your own pages) and external links (those pointing to other websites).

In summary these three practices will get your website well on the way to better search engine rankings and greater profitability for your website.

• Web Optimization
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July 18th, 2007

Want more satisfied customers for your business? Want great word-of-mouth referrals and sales? Sure you do! Well then apply these lessons I discovered playing trivia at one of my favorite Charlotte neighborhood bar and grills.

Most Wednesdays I go to the Dilworth Neighborhood Grill in Charlotte, North Carolinato play trivia. It’s a good time with good friends - we’re all nerds (Website Designer, Fraud Analyst, 2 Librarians, and an Interior Designer) and this is a good way to blow off some steam with friendly academic competition.

Last week I started wondering about how it all got started and realized it was a great object lesson in website design. Allow me to explain.

Design Your Website to Attract a Neglected Audience.

We got started going to trivia last year. I wanted to play trivia on my birthday and the librarians found a central spot to all of us to meet at. Being workaholics and coming from all parts of town, we were a neglected audience of this bar. Note: Librarians tend to read books on Wednesday nights, not drive out of their way to hoist a few pints. Could your website help you sell to an audience you do not traditionally get?

Develop Content to Keep Your Customers there.

Trivia keeps us at the bar for hours. We order all sorts of things while we’re there for a few hours. Does your website have a reason for people to stay once they are there?

Create a Reason in the Web Site Design to Return.

We keep coming back because trivia is different each week. Also, if we win a round, which we usually do, we get 2 free beers! If we win the entire thing, we get a $20 certificate off our next purchase!

Do Site Visitors Tell Their Friends About Your Site?

Our team has its regulars and a bunch of other friends float in and out. We are always inviting people out. Once people come for trivia they tend to return at other times for various reasons on their own. Does your website encourage repeat visits? Is there a way for your usual clients refer friends?

Try out a couple of these tips and see if you can create new revenue sources. Remember, you can always contact Charlotte Web Development to help you out!

• Website Design
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July 17th, 2007

Flash is pure, unadulterated evil to your business and it has little to no place in your website design plans. It is evil because it loses your company money. Keep reading to see how and how to fix it.

Flash is to Website Design as ex-Girlfriend’s Name is to Tattoo

As a leading website design company in Charlotte, we get a lot of requests for website designs built with Adobe Flash. We get nearly as many requests to remove Flash from small business websites. It could be that Flash is the website designer’s equivilent of tatooing your highschool girlfriend’s name on your arm. It might make sense at the time, you think you’ll have it forever, but very soon you want it gone and to never return.

What is a Flash Design?

A Flash Website is a very pretty, very dynamic website built with specialized web development software. At first glance it looks great. Unfortunately after a bit of usage it begins to grate on you.

A great quote by SEOResearcher illustrates Flash beautifully:

Then why are there so many Flash sites? They look pretty with all those neat vector graphics, gradients, animations and cool sound effects. Flash is the favorite toy of big designer studios and numerous amateur graphic artists alike. Flash is visually attractive, and in general attractive websites are more successful than the ugly ones (notable exceptions: craigslist.org and plentyoffish.com). But this is not the case of Flash websites. All the benefits of the nice outlook are overridden by the disadvantages in terms of SEO and usability.

How a Flash Website Design Loses you Money.

Here’s a list of reasons not to use a Flash Website Design:

Business Issues

• Search Engines ignore Flash! If you want great organic search engine results, Flash is not the way to go. The webcrawlers like Google and Yahoo that evaluate the information on your site literally cannot ’see’ the information in a Flash-designed website.  With search engines referring so much business these days you cannot afford to have them ignore your website!

Usability Issues

• Flash takes over your broswer. You can only go where the designers let you. The Back button does not work in flash.
• Visited Links do not work. You know when you visit a website and click around on a bunch of different links the ones you have already clicked on are a different color? That doesn’t work in Flash. Flash uses an entirely different technology than the HTML your web browser displays.
• Useless for users with disabilities. A competent HTML designer can easily create a website that is useful for users with many types of hearing and visual impairments. Flash does not give you that capability.
• Internal Search does not work for Flash pages. What good is content on your site if people can’t find it?
• Flash gets old very quickly. While it might look cool to have all of those graphics on the splash page the user sees when they come to your site, by the second visit it is annoying.
• Users need proprietary plug ins.

“If the user hasn´t installed the plug-in (which many don´t) then at best, their experience is diminished, at worst, the site doesn´t work at all. Web sites should not force the user into using any proprietary systems.” - Inspired eBusiness
 

Maintenace Issues

• A web designer is needed to redo the entire site every time you want to update Flash. If you have a Content Management System, you can update the content yourself. Updating flash to keep current with your business takes time, money and resources that are better spent on your business.
• Flash takes bandwidth. All of those nifty graphics take a lot of space and bandwidth to send to your  potential clients. What if they are using dialup or have a slow connection? Do you think they will wait around for the sit to come up or will they just go to your competitor?

Design Abuse

• Animation for the sake of animation? Just because you can animate something, should you animate it?
• Security Issues. Flash is an application that is vulnerable to hacker attacks.

And it is not only me. Some of the best website designers, search engine optimization specialists, and internet marketers are against Flash. I borrowed heavily from the following excellent articles:

• Flash is Evil: 5 Big Reasons not to use Flash 
• Search Engine Journal basically echos SEOResearcher’s 5 points here.
• Belfast Website Designer, Inspired EBusiness
• Tailored Website Design: Top 10 Mistakes on the Web

If those are not enough, check out the following Flash criticisms in Wikipedia.

In Summary:

Jakob Nielsen, a web usability expert, a said it best in the following quote:

“Although multimedia has its role on the Web, current Flash technology tends to discourage usability for three reasons: it makes bad design more likely, it breaks with the Web’s fundamental interaction style, and it consumes resources that would be better spent enhancing a site’s core value.”

And if your Charlotte-area website designer insist’s on using Flash? Well, take Brendon Sinclair’s advice:

If your designer suggests the use of Flash on your web site, get rid of him. Using Flash is a huge mistake.

After you get rid of them, give Charlotte Web Development a call and we’ll build you a great site that you can be proud of AND makes your business money.

• Website Design
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July 16th, 2007

There are basically 2 effective ways that I know to learn SEO, or Search Engine Optimization.

The first way is how I did:

• Get a computer science degree from a nation-leading engineering college.
• Go to graduate school at night for a Masters in Information Technology while working as a software engineer 80 hours a week.
• Study your ass off and take every assignment, project and course as an opportunity to learn how cutting edge technology is applied to business.
• Find Brin and Page’s thesis. And read it.
• Build a hundred or so websites and field test them over 12 years time. Keep what works, discard the rest.

Or, you can take the easy way:

• Buy The SEO Book Today

Going to night school while working full time and running a business really takes it out of you. Reading the book is easy and can be completed in a much more timely manner. I also promise that the SEO Book is much cheaper than tuition.

• Web Optimization
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July 15th, 2007

Marc Broussardplayed The Neighborhood Theatre last night and it was a great show. Friends and I had been talking about the show for 2 weeks and planned a whole day around it. At the last minute we almost didn’t get to see it because of one crappy website and inept management.

Neighborhood Theater is off the corner of 36th street and North Davidson in Charlotte - a place better known as NoDa. You can see their woefully inept website here. Keep reading for an object lesson in business mismanagement at every level.

Act 1: Broken Website

We tried getting tickets to the show over the Neighborhood Theater website but failed due to system failure. The ordering process is bizarre, cumbersome, and broken. We went to plan B - buy the tickets in person at a nearby store the website said would have them.

Act 2: The Website Lies to us

The store we we referred to, Sunshine Daydreams, is closed for vacation. No tickets there.

Act 3: Management are Idiots

Wait in line outside of the venue to purchase tickets. This is where management showed their true colors - and those colors are stupid, stupid, and stupid. To spare you the horrific details, I will just summarize the salient points:

• No line management - will-call, ticket holders, and ticket buyers are all mixed together. Also, no clear starting point to line up. The actual line started 50 yards away from the ticketing booth - which wasn’t used.
• Inept management - at regular intervals we were told what to do and where to go by the same Neighborhood theatre managers that contradicted what they said 5 minutes ago. My favorite exchange was the following: “They’ll start selling tickets at 7PM.”  “It’s 7:40 right now.”
• Zero ticket management. They had no idea how many tickets were sold or to whom. Will-calls were promised tickets that might not have ever existed. Management had no idea how many tickets total were in existance, how many were sold on-line (I bet zero), how many seats they had in the place or what the difference was between them.

You can see this was a frustrating experience. Here are some website design lessons we can take out of this ordeal:

There is absolutely no design for the website- odd when you consider NoDa is Charlotte’s artist community. This should have been my first clue that management doesn’t care about customer experience.

Lesson #1: Have great website design. Take a look at Marc Broussard’s website and then compare it to Neighborhood Theatre’s. Which one is more professional? Which one are you more likely to buy from?

The website was not functional. It simply didn’t sell the tickets. Why have a website that doesn’t sell?

Lesson #2: Have a website that does what your customers want.

Lesson #3: Back your website up with phenomenal service.

OK, that’s enough of a rant about poor website design and business management. On to more positive things. I think I’ll start by listening to a recording I bought from last night’s show. Good things!

• Website Design , Website Management
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July 14th, 2007

My father is a civil engineer. He has built all kinds of things over his lifetime. No matter if it was ripping out walls in my boyhood house to adding new terminals to JFK, he does it well and with pride. He also does it once. With a favorite Robert Moses phrase “Get the job done” at his lips there is no small reason why.

Dad reminded me of a good lesson today. He is a prolific writer covering all topics engineering, liberty, and growing up in the 40s, 50s, 60s. I started keeping a copy of his writings at a blog I made for him. You can find it under Henry W Hessing at Blogger.

Design Errors on the Website

The other day Dad asked me to post a few of his recent articles. I happily did so. Unfortunately later on he called to ask what all of the extra lines and code was. “Code and lines?” I thought. I had to check it out.

HTML Errors

When I looked at the site in Firefox, my preferred web browser, everything looked fine. Then I realized I had not checked the site in Internet Explorer - the browser my Dad uses. Sure enough, I saw the errors there. When I copied and pasted from his Microsoft Word documents the underlying MS markup came with it. Those article were packed with all sorts of garbage tags from Microsoft. Funny how the errors only showed up in another Microsoft product, Internet Explorer.

Website Design Lesson

How could I forget to check browser compatability? At Charlotte Web Development we have a checklist we follow at website design time to ensure that we have consistent, repeatable results. Talent only gets you so far. Excellence demands consistency. Our checklist has several items to make sure we usability test all of our websites in all kinds of browsers on all kinds of systems. I didn’t follow that checklist when I was updating my Dad’s site and as a result, I messed up.

No one wants to do the same work twice. Not civil engineers and not website designers. Lesson learned.

• Website Design
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July 13th, 2007

Is your website off the map? Do Google, Yahoo, and MSN even know about it? Well, there’s a really easy way for you to let the big 3 search engines know everything there is to know about your website. It’s called a sitemap and it can make you a lot of money.

In this context, a sitemap is an xml file that lists every single page of your site that you

would like a search engine to follow. This makes it very easy for a search engine to index each and every page of your site once your list is correctly formatted. Currently Google, Yahoo, and MSN all accept sitemap submissions of your site if they follow the SiteMap Protocol.

Why Your Site Needs a SiteMap:

1. Sitemaps tell search engines like Google every detail about every page on your site.
2. Once a search engine has your sitemap, every page can be indexed.
3. Much easier to get great organic search engine results when the search engines know each page.
4. Organic Search Engine results = more visits to your site.
5. More visits to your site = more revenue for your business!
6. Organic search engine results are free! Zero cost marketing!
7. More of your site will show up in searches. Not just your front page! Customers will know about all of your services!

Who Cannot have a SiteMap?

1. Flash - based websites cannot have sitemaps. This is one reason we never develop in Flash.
2. Some Database sites cannot have sitemaps. Check with your web site developer.

How to Create a SiteMap:

1. One time, Manually. Follow the protocol at Sitemaps.org
2. Onetime, Automatically. Use a Free SiteMap Tool.
3. Call Charlotte Web Development to do it!

After Your SiteMap is created:

• Upload your sitemap to Google and to Yahoo! 

The Best Way to Use SiteMaps:

The best way is to have a utility that automatically creates a sitemap for you each time you add a new page to your site. Some CMS or Content Management Systems allow you to do this.  We build some of the best. If you would like a site that automatically tells Google and Yahoo when your site has been updated, contact us!

• Web Optimization
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July 13th, 2007

I saw this great magnet on the back of a typical soccer mom minivan the other day. I was at the intersection of South blvd and Tyvola in Charlotte It was a pink ribbon denoting Breast Cancer awareness. The remarkable thing was the phrase:

Save the TaTas!

Save the TaTas is a very clever phrase by a t shirt company that sells items with various phrases emblazoned on and gives 5% to Breast Cancer Research.

Their purpose is:

“…to celebrate the varied beauty of women through playful expressive clothing and accessories. We believe all people are uniquely designed by God and should feel comfortable, valuable and beautiful as they are.”

It is noble that the folks at Save the Tatas are donating some of their proceeds to charity. It’s also great that they have generated a huge buzz and are creating awareness. Let’s not also forget they are creating jobs for people who create T shirts, shippers who make boxes, the Postal Service, and lowly Website Designers. My point isn’t that money is going to a company, not directly to an institute like the American Cancer Society. My point is This is Absolutely Great Marketing!

Let’s review what the marketing accomplished:

• A great product has been made in a clever way.
• The clever idea has spread everywhere on its own merits: Viral Marketing in action.
• People are talking about the product everywhere! A principal even sent a kid home who was supporting her mother’s fight against cancer.
• Those shirts, magnets, etc have sold, sold, sold.
• A great cause has been helped out. 5% of tons of sales is much better than 0% of nothing!

Ok, Now let’s look at how the marketing was accomplished:

• One clever phrase.
• Applied to a cause that tugs at our heart strings.
• Consumers believe they are contributing to a greater good.
• Positive publicity as the media senses an altruistic bend to a story might add readership.
• Word of mouth.
• The product is actually the advertisement.

I do not espouse setting up a company for every clever slogan you can think of. I am most certainly against profiteering against illness - the day we think “Jeez, just another Breast Cancer Awareness shirt money-making scheme” we will have all lost something.

What I do support is making a difference. If you can make a difference in the community, to your business, and to your own pocketbook through creative marketing, that is a great thing.

• Website Marketing
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July 12th, 2007

People frequently ask me why I don’t use photos in my postings. Sadly, there is no easy answer. It is mostly because I am lazy! I will try to do better in the future. In the meantime, here’s some good website design information.

The best place for royalty-free stock photos: Stock Exchange

Photos Help Your Website Design

• Attract the audience’s eyes.
• Provide emphasis to the points you make.
• Humans are pattern matching machines - we love images!
• People will stay on your page longer. (Longer page views = more sales!)
• Image search engines will lead traffic to your site.

How to Use Images in Your Website Layout

• Do not steal! Obey all copyright  laws and usage requirements!
• Use images that match your aesthetics.
• Make sure the images are the right size.
• Test the images on multiple screen sizes and browsers.
• Small images load faster - no websurfers want a slow-loading page!
• Use high-quality images for best results. Grainy or amateur photos give your site an unprofessional look.

That’s it! Now go get some great pictures to help your website’s design and visual appeal!

• Website Design
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