Do-it-yourself image sizing.

A question I received the other day from one of my clients was ‘How do I reduce the size of a photo for online use?’ What follows is more of a do-it-yourself type of thing.

Before going to your intended size, you first want to crop your image to remove any unnecessary portions of the picture. After cropping, you can change the overall pixel dimensions to go even smaller. All photo editing software will have a command for changing the pixel dimensions of an image. Look for a command called "Image Size," "Resize," or "Resample." When you use this command you will be presented with a dialog box for entering the exact pixels you wish to use. Other options you may find in the dialog are:

Resample: You need this on when sizing down. This enables the software to change the pixel dimensions.

Constrain proportions or keep aspect ratio:You want this option enabled. It prevents the image from being stretched and distorted. When this option is enabled, you only need to enter one value--height or width--and the other value will adjust automatically.

Never, ever resize and overwrite your original file!

After sizing the image, be sure to do a Save As so you don't overwrite your original, high resolution file. You'll want to save as a JPEG or GIF file. Both formats are highly compressed and give you a quick download time.

When choosing the compression level, keep quality in the medium to high range. You want to shoot for a file size of 30 to 100 KB per image. Go small if you will be putting several files on the same page or sending them in one email. Try not to exceed 100 KB per Web page for the total of all images.

This may sound like a time consuming process, especially if you have a lot of photos to share, but fortunately most of today's software has made it easy to size and compress a batch of photos very quickly.

Effective Ad banners.

Regardless to what type of banner ads you use or prefer, the concept of a banner ad is a great way to allow you to brand your products. We will have our research done in order to create the best banner ads for your products, which will give your company the highest possible Click Through Rate (CTR).

Here are a few tips to help create banner ads that will work to your site’s advantage.

Do your research: You simply cannot compete without knowing your competition. Logon to popular websites, related to your industry, and scan the hundreds of banner ads on display. Compare the ones you like to ones you don’t, and see if any common factors jump out at you.

Keep it simple: The second rule of creating effective banner ads is to keep it short and simple. Banner ads are displayed amongst a large amount of other information, competing with several other factors on the page for the user’s attention. Unlike print media, where an advertisement can grab the entire page or appear as a two-page spread, banner ads get limited display area. So it is imperative to keep the banner ads simple, easy to understand and to the point. Brief is good. Clutter is not.

Weave magic with words: Less is more in the case of banner ads. Use larger fonts and fewer words. People simply don’t have the time or the patience to read long-winded messages in tiny text to figure out what you are selling. Make an impact by using keywords relevant to information found on the site the potential clicker is on.

SEO done the right way.

A client recently asked for a quick overview of good SEO practises, so I thought I’d share them with all of you at the same time. It’s something on the rough side but you need this in place to get your website up in the top ranks of those major search engines out there. Well the first item being the most important. 

Landing pages or Homepage: It’s impossible to do a good job of optimizing your homepage for every possible term people might use to find your site. Think of it as a market place where every vendor is yelling the end result is of equal volume where nothing stands out. Plan instead to add a page to your site for each search term, heavily optimized for that term using all the tips below. 

Titles: The < title > tag, which sets the text displayed in the title bar of the browser window, is very highly rated by search engines as being indicative of the page’s content. The engines differ in how much of the < title > they index, but the general rule of thumb is that the first 60 or so characters are the most important.

Repetition: The search term should be repeated as many times as possible. It’s very important to use key words pertaining to the page as you see fit increasing the position of the page ranking in search engines.

Image Names: A necessity if you’re particular to a specific image naming as these play a vital role in determining the page search outcome as well. ‘Alt’ texting images (text appearing before the image downloads) can also define greater probabilities of showing up on Google Image search, enhancing search criteria.

YouTube video embedded.

The video content site YouTube has taken the Web by storm. Videos of every conceivable topic can be found here, and you can upload and view them for free. It's also easy to add a link to your favourite YouTube videos on your blog, or even embed the actual video directly into your website.

Adding a video to your Blog.
Visit the YouTube website and log into your account. Once you have logged in select the video you wish to upload to your blog. Highlight the entire video URL from the address bar and copy it. Add the URL to your blog. Some blogging programs automatically make a link clickable, while others require you to insert the code. Publish your blog by following the specific instructions outlined by your blog software.

Adding a video to your Website.
This is just as simple if you have a fair knowledge of HTML or if you’re using an editor like Dreamweaver. Open your webpage where you wish to insert your YouTube video. Visit the YouTube website and copy the code. After this insert the code directly into your hard coded HTML page. Remember to insert it in-between the section of your page.

Why should I embed my video from YouTube?
Firstly embedding YouTube videos into your site keeps your website light. This means your website server is free of the additional MBs those high quality videos will occupy. Secondly it does not affect the performance of your website and finally the compression and streaming video content given out by YouTube only makes it a pleasure for your users.

Google map, got one?

A Google map can come in handy to any user looking for your physical location as opposed to a line drawing. One of the biggest advantages of Google maps is the three different map views it supplies. There is a normal map view, a satellite image view and a terrain view, depending on the need of the user. Another advantage is that if the user needs directions that include numerous stops, Google maps easily adds a new destination to the route with a single click. The simplicity of the maps is that they are very cut and dry without confusing the user. The zoom functionality also plays an important role in helping users pan across the map thus giving an overall view of what’s around.

Step ahead of the game with a Google map on your ‘Contact Us’ page. All you need is a Google account to get started @ http://maps.google.com

7 Tips to a top website!

As a web site designer, I spend a lot of time online. I also spend a lot of time at other sites. These are the top seven tips I have discovered make or break a web site other than its design appeal.

WHERE ARE YOU?

When creating a web site, tell people where you are, or whom you are targeting. Always give a physical location.

CONTACT US
When gaining the trust of an individual, possibly a person who is new to the Internet, letting them know how they can make contact is vital. E-mail is most important. It needs to be easy to find.

TIMELY INFORMATION
404 Page Not Found, Server Errors. 
How many pages at your site are not where you say they are?
404 Page Not Found Errors. Always be up to date with your server it’s very frustrating for a user to get that error. Also how many of your pages have broken links? Some sites excel at broken links and missing images. This translates as lack of interest in your customers.

RESPOND 
Auto-responder. You send an email and promptly you get a reply. But if your telling your customers you will get it done in 24hrs done it really happen?

NAVIGATE 
I get to your site. Now what? Am I expected to know what I'm looking for? How do I know what’s on the site if you don't provide an easy way to get around? Provide simple navigation at the start, so your visitors can get into your site quickly. Too many options are daunting. You need to achieve a balance that will depend on your content.

An effective site map.

Planning
Without planning and organization, you will end up with chaos.To create your plan for a new or existing site, sit down and consider what your site will achieve.

Get out a piece of paper and a pen, draw a circle in the middle and mark it 'Home'. Draw boxes connected by lines radiating out from the centre circle and mark them with each of the main areas your site will cover. Don't forget a site map if your site has more than 8 or 9 pages. Repeat this process for each secondary circle until you've planned your site.

Good navigation is vital and poor navigation leads to visitor frustration. Once you've created your plan, you can create logical navigational links. You don't want to confuse your site visitors with too many options. You can offer more choices later, as visitors drill down into your site.

Content
This applies equally to new and existing web sites. Do make your text easy to read. Do use short sentences; break up your text into paragraphs. Do use bullets and lists to make your point.

Create textual variation with heading size and color but don't make your text too small to read. Be consistent - consistency creates a professional image. Don't use weird text color/ background color combinations. Leave white space to create a 'clean' looking design. Remember less is more.

Ask two or three friends (who's opinions you value) how they find your site navigation and layout.