Testing for Errors
Checking for issues with your website code is very important. One tool that can be used is the W3C HTML Validator. By placing a link in the form and hitting ‘check’ the crawler will test for errors based on the version of HTML that is specified in the header of the HTML webpage. Any warnings or errors that are displayed should be addressed as they may be causing browser compatibility problems for your users.

Adobe Browserlab
Adobe currently offers a free service for viewing your website in multiple browsers and on multiple operating systems (example: Firefox 2.0 on a MAC vs. IE on Windows 7) called Adobe Browserlab. This is a great tool for seeing if there are any visible differences between the various browsers.

Many websites that have not been touched in years will have visible errors when testing due to the number of changes in HTML structure and browser intelligence over the years. If you are using an outdated website, it is recommended that you test using these tools. A website redesign may be the best fit for fixing your issues.

Don’t Forget Smart Phones
Smartphones are increasingly popular and each company runs its own operating system and browser version (IOS, Android, Blackberry, etc.). Testing the display of your website on these devices is also critically important.

When scrolling over any image, a preview box pops up with detail about the size, name, and URL link to the image. Having this information only visible when scrolling over the image allows them to be grouped closely together so you can get a much bigger overview of what is available based on your search query.

Doing a test query for the term ‘caribbean‘ will show you an example of how new results are displayed.

Tip for seeing more results: Use the zoom feature on your web browser by hitting Ctrl + – (CMD + – on a MAC) this allows you to zoom out and see more results without scrolling.

For Web designers and content creators, this new release is fantastic for finding images to use on your site, concepts, etc. Copyright laws are still in effect however.

According to Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience, the image search technology of Google has not been updated since 2001. Many competitors such as Bing have capitalized on the ability to search for images faster and more conveniently. Google’s new release however has reset the bar on image search.

To create an FAQ page, you first need to determine what the top 10-20 most frequently asked questions about your business. The key is to make the questions very simple and generic. Polling some of your current customers and recording what they ask on a regular basis is another way to determine the most common questions.

Important questions that you will want to answer for your customers in the FAQ include things like defining the terms that are relative to your business. For example:

Q: What is internet marketing?
A: Internet Marketing is the marketing of products and services over the internet including things like websites, blogs, email marketing, paid advertising, search engine marketing, and video marketing.

As you can see in the example above. the question is very simple… as users scroll through the questions in the FAQ it should be very easy for them to decide whether it is important to them. Short questions allow them to find what they are looking for faster and easier.

After your FAQ page is created, it is important to give it the proper placement in your site structure and navigation. One of the most common places is in the top or side navigation on your website, but it also can be linked in the ‘About’ section of your site. If there are specific FAQ pages for various products or services, than it should be linked from the corresponding produce page.

If your FAQ section will be more than 20 or so questions than it is recommended that they are separated in sub-categories and divided into several pages. It is also a good idea to incorporate a search feature so that specific questions can be easier to find.

For more information on designing FAQ pages for your website, please contact CPD.

At CPD we always stress the importance of professional photography in website design and corporate print collateral. While designing for your target audience, websites and marketing material should contain professional images that are unique and creative. Skyline photography is certainly one of many ways of fulfilling this need.

This post was originally found on Vincent Laforet’s Blog who provides a great video of his experience as a photographer and aerial images.

This video shows how design can tell a story… Spend 10 mins of your lunch break watching it in its entirety.

We will stay tuned for future updates and functionality, but this is a good opportunity to look at the pros and cons of the current free service provided by Google.

An explanation of Google Voice provided by Google.

Pros
-transcribing the voicemail to text gives you a quick glance at what the message is about and how long it is.
-sends you an instant email when you have a new message
-messages can be heard from your phone or personal computer
-allows you to make free calls and text messages to the US and Canada
-one unique phone number can ring your cell phone, home phone, and business phone

Cons
-the voicemails being transcribed to text need a lot of work… there are almost always errors that make reading the message confusing
-reading the transcript does not give you the tone of the voice message
-the email subject line includes the phone number it came from, but nobody memorizes phone numbers so you often don’t know who it is from unless you check your missed calls
-messages are downloaded to your phone before you can play them. They are stored and then sit on there until they are deleted. This gets annoying when they build up over time… (applys to Droid phones)s

Membership fees are $99 for 1-year or $179 for a 2-year membership. Included in your NAPP membership is a subscription to Photoshop user Magazine. This monthly magazine provides great ideas for design as well as industry related news. There are also hundreds of online tutorials that can be accessed after logging in as a member.

Also included in the membership are discounts to many industry related products including computer software, hardware, and events. This alone makes up for the annual membership fee.

Members of NAPP had the opportunity this past spring of demoing Adobe Photoshop CS5 prior to the official release. This is yet another benefit of joining this national association.

If you are serious about photography or design, this is an association that you should be connected with. For more information, visit the NAPP Website.

Play Corporate Logos Trivia Game

A Catchy Title
In most cases, the title is the only thing people will read when it comes to deciding whether to hit delete or open an email. The key to creating a successful title is to keep is short and to the point. Long titles are more likely to be ignored and deleted compared to short, direct, and if possibly catchy email titles.

Offer Plain Text version as well as HTML Version
One of the challenges of email marketing is that people view emails in various browsers, software applications, and operating systems and often times have custom settings which make emails appear differently. Offering a plain text version of your email for those users who do not accept HTML emails is great practice. Constant Contact offers a great email marketing solution that solves this challenge.

Image Alt Tags
Because many users have images turned off it is important to offer them an alternative when they open your email. Using Alt tags, some text will appear where the image should be which at least helps fill the space of the email.

Use Buttons For Call-to-Action
Research has shown that using buttons as a link (rather than a flat hyperlink) will get more clicks. You don’t need to make your buttons overly fancy, just as long as they POP and stand out as a call to action for users.

Keep Text Short n’ Sweet
Many email campaigns love to post long articles. The reality is that very few users will read through a long article within your email. The key is to provide a few short paragraphs for each topic or article that you are providing. A good rule of thumb is 3 articles with two paragraphs each or 2 articles with 3 paragraphs each. Then use a more… link that takes users to your website to continue reading the article. This is yet another call to action and way to get users back to your website for more information.

Email marketing is a widely used component of a successful internet marketing strategy. Creating successful emails is a whole separate challenge. Constant Contact is a leader in email marketing and their blog, Constant Commentary, is a great resource on this subject.