According to eMarketer.com, in 2012, mobile advertising was up 220% in the US. This figure includes both display advertising and PPC search advertising.
Display ads are brand-building ads, with text, logo and graphics, aimed more at getting your company’s name out there than actual conversions. PPC (Pay Per Click) ads, on the other hand, are those all-text “Sponsored Links” that appear at the top of search engine results pages. The most popular PPC service is Google AdWords.
Last month, we discussed the benefits of a mobile-optimized website versus a mobile-friendly site. As you may recall, a mobile-optimized site is simply a mobile website designed for viewing just on a mobile device. After reading that post, you probably decided that when you take your site mobile, you want it to be mobile optimized.
But now that you’ve mastered that argument, here comes “responsive design.”
What exactly is a responsive website? Should you or shouldn’t you have one?
So you finally decided to add a mobile website to your marketing arsenal?
Considering that by 2014 the installed base of devices based on lightweight mobile operating systems is predicted to exceed the total installed base of all PC-based systems – good decision!
Now you have another decision to make – mobile-friendly or mobile-designed?
Imagine having a second website that communicates directly with people you have the most in common with – customers, peers, employees, even competitors – and having it at no charge to you.
To catch up with Facebook and Twitter, who have both moved into the business space and have recently gone through major redesigns, LinkedIn has launched a whole new look and feel for its company pages, based on a simpler look and feel, more relevant information streams and new ways of learning and communicating what’s happening.
When clients come to us with older HTML websites, they always ask why we want to switch them to CMS for their new site. As the SEO battle gets tougher and tougher, we felt it was time to explain: The problem with HTML is that it was developed more than two decades ago, long before SEO was even on the horizon.
HTML is a programming language – specifically Hypertext Markup Language – that browsers read to display a webpage. CMS, on the other hand, is not a language but a programming system – a Customer Management System – that can be used by both developers and website owners.
One of the biggest hassles of being a new patient at a doctor’s office is filling out stacks of new-patient forms. You sit there with a clipboard, a pen and multiple pieces of paper asking you questions you can’t answer on the spot, such as your medical history or what medications you’re taking, but could answer easily at home where you have all of your records.
Besides for missing information, the act of juggling everything on your lap can make your handwriting look like chicken scrawl.
If your business has a Twitter page, you’ll be happy to know that on Sept. 18, Twitter announced a whole new look. New profile formats allow you to make your Twitter page more dynamic, with a larger profile photo and new backgrounds. The new profile designs let you give your Twitter page some of the lively look and feel now possible on Facebook since its recent redesign.
An example of the new look is at https://twitter.com/todayshow, one of the first new profiles created. As you can see, the main photo, now much larger, is on the upper right, with easier to read informational tabs right below it.
Most of our clients come to us for a custom-designed website. However, they’ve all seen ads for free templates and wonder if a custom-designed site is really worth the money.
If you were buying a pair of shoes to wear to a formal event, how satisfied would you be if your choices were all the same size and style – a casual oxford, for example – with your only options being color and texture? Even if that shoe were half the price of the shoe that was perfect for you in size, style and color, would you still purchase it? Even if it were free, would you still want it?
What would you do if someone stole your homepage?
Changing out your homepage and replacing it with another is just one of the tricks hackers play. Sometimes they insert code that produces lines of errors in your copy and redirect your visitors to other websites. You might not even notice this last one until your traffic drops off. But what if they decide to steal sensitive data and you don’t know it?
With mobile devices taking over the world, can you afford not to have a mobile website?
According to International Data Corporation (IDC), almost a billion smart devices – 916 million to be exact – shipped worldwide in 2011.
According to CTIA, the worldwide trade association serving the wireless industry, the number of mobile devices in the US is greater than the number of people living in the US and all its territories. The CTIA goes on to say that the typical American home of 2.6 people has at least one smartphone.