Are you listening? Effective public speaking is a skill, a talent (and one that unfortunately I don’t possess in abundance). They’ve got your attention, you’re focussed on what they’re saying, and you’re listening with rapt attention as they tell their story. At that point, the speaker is in a pretty powerful position.
Read in fullSeems to me that people have a bit of a dislike of white. As in white space. I know it’s not really true – because so many people come to me and tell me that they love the clean, fresh feel of my websites – which often feature quite a lot of white space. I guess in reality, it’s more a case of people not being able to use white…
Read in fullGood website design is not just about the looks, nor is it just about the techie stuff. Making your website clear and usable is arguably as important as anything else. Here are 8 ways you can make your website more usable. 1. Consistent Navigation Menu I’ll start off with my pet hate. It’s surprising the number of websites that seem to have a different menu on pretty much every page…
Read in fullIn the effort to drive more traffic to your website, it’s so easy to get absorbed in the world of online marketing, and completely forget about the opportunities you have in the ‘real world’! As a general rule, wherever you have information about your company, your website address should be there too. That way, if you catch people’s interest, they’ve got something to reference, somewhere to get more detail, before…
Read in fullPicture this. I meet someone who I find has an appallingly bad website. It looks unprofessional, it’s cluttered, there’s no clear sense of purpose, the list goes on. In other words, a perfect opportunity for us as a website design studio. We have one slight problem though. I discover that this appallingly bad website was built by the person I’m talking to. My task becomes everso slightly more difficult –…
Read in fullDownload Blog Planning Template here (MS Excel file) So you’ve decided to start blogging. Or you’ve been told that Google likes regularly updated content on your website. Tis true, and what’s more, users like it too. But before you launch into the blogosphere, do me a favour and stop to think awhile. For this reason – it looks a bit half-hearted if users arrive at your website only to see…
Read in fullI don’t know about you, but I find it frustrating when Google returns a site in the search engine results which looks promising in relation to what I’m searching for – only to find when I get there that it’s not at all what I was looking for. Grrr! Obviously, despite the amazing technological feat it has attained, Google is not perfect – and never will be. But site owners…
Read in fullGoogle Local Business Listings are relied upon by many businesses as a way of generating more traffic to their website and thereby more enquiries and more business from local customers. For any unfamiliar with the term, Local Business Listings are the search results you see next to a local map when you type in a localised search term, let’s say ‘electrician oxford’ (see results left). Click through rates vary from…
Read in fullI’ve said it myself so many times – people browsing the web are lazy; they have short attention spans; don’t you dare give them huge chunks of content without breaking up with headings, bullet points and the like – you’ll scare them off! But something got me thinking. I recently read a recommendation that ‘you shouldn’t make users scroll’ – i.e. that all your content should be visible when the…
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