Need More Help To Plan Your Website?

The task of planning a new website is one of my favourites, call me on (07) 575 8799 and we can brainstorm together.

- Sheldon.

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And sometimes elements are completely missing or broken and don’t work how they do on your computer at work or home?

Using BrowserShots.org, you can simulate what your website will look like to all sorts of people with dozens of configurations, for free.

For example, I often wonder:

• What does my website look like in old versions of Internet Explorer?
• What about if Javascript is disabled?
• Does my website look different in the latest version of Firefox?
• What about Linux, Mac or Windows PC, do those operating systems display my website differently?
• What does my website look like on different screen sizes?

Now I can find out using BrowserShots.org for free, and so can you.

How to use BrowserShots.org

1. Paste in your URL (either your homepage or any other webpage)
2. De-select all the checkboxes using the link “None” at the bottom
3. Select up to 5 or 6 browsers you recognise (eg I choose 2 or 3 versions of Firefox, 2 or 3 versions of Internet Explorer “MSIE”)
4. Leave the other options as as “Don’t Care”, for “Screen Width”, “Color Depth”, “Javascript”, “Java”, & “Flash”, unless you are specifically testing those options (because it will slow down the processing time)
5. Click the submit button
6. On the next webpage your results will be shown when they are ready. They can take an hour or two to appear, so save the page to your favourites/bookmarks, and return in an hour or so to check the results.

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• Unique Visitors – The number of individuals who have visited your website. But, if a person on a dial-up connection disconnects and reconnects, they will be assigned a different IP address and therefore be counted as another unique visitor if they return to your website.
• Visits or Visitors – The number of visits to your website. A single unique visitor could be responsible for many if about an hour passes between them taking action (eg they leave your website open on a tab in their browser and forget about it until they click on it an hour later).
• Page Views – The number of web pages your website serves. So a single visitor may go back to your home page several times, or refresh a page, each instance counts as another page view.
• Hits – The number of files your website serves. Every time your CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) loads, every time each image on your website loads, each time your php or html files load, all these count as 1 hit. So if a website has a lot of these items on its home page, a single page view of that home page may generate 40 hits. And if a website has very few items, a single view may only generate 20 hits.

Why should you care?

You should care because the method that you choose to measure your websites success is important.

You should care because there is a lot of confusion out there about which one to use, and especially when selling advertising space people will brag about how many “hits” they get, so now you know to ask them “what about unique visitors, or page views?”

Which one should you use? Unique Visitors? Visits? Visitors? Page Views? Hits?

Unique Visitors.

• Hits is no good because you could double it overnight just by adding a few images.
• Page Views is no good because you could have pages that need lots of refreshing (F5 on your keyboard).
• Vists/Visitors is ok, but if one particular person comes back several times in one day because they keep getting interrupted, you really only want to count them once.
• Unique Visitors is the best choice (and most webstats software reports that statistic accurately)

So the next time someone says to you “my website is so cool, I get 1000 hits a day”, you can say, “Whatever! I could put 100 tiny images on my pages and generate 1000 hits an hour! How many Unique Visitors do you get a day? That’s the only number that really matters!”.

And then they say “Wow, I’ve been such a dumb arse, how did you get so smart?”, and then you say “I learnt about it at Sheldon Nesdale at Firstbyte Websites in Tauranga, New Zealand, you should get his help with your website, he’s so skilled and very handsome!”.

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By default, your WordPress installation will have one url to ping, but that’s not enough, you need more.

Here’s What You Do In 3 Easy Steps

1. Login to WordPress
2. Go to “Settings” tab >> Click on “Writing”
3. In the “Update Services” box copy and paste the following list (and then click “Save Changes”)

List of urls

http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b

http://api.feedster.com/ping

http://api.moreover.com/ping

http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2

http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2

http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php

http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi

http://coreblog.org/ping/

http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt

http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php

http://ping.blo.gs/

http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc

http://ping.feedburner.com

http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php

http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php

http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2

http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/

http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

http://rpc.twingly.com

http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2

http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2

That’s it!  Using this technique I’ve had new blog articles appear in Google Search Results pages within 30 minutes.

Not Using WordPress?

That’s a real shame, because you probably don’t have access to this feature. Would you like me to build a website for you using wordpress? Call me (07) 575 8799 or email me.

- Sheldon.

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If you see “99.5% fat free” on the side of your yoghurt, you’d think “great!”, but “99.5% uptime” is not very good at all.

How many minutes/hours of downtime a year can you expect? Here’s the calculation:

(1-0.995) x 365 x 24 =  43.8 hours of downtime per year!

Would you be happy if your web developer told you upfront that you can expect your website to be down/broken/unavailable-to-your-customers, for almost 2 days in the coming year?  I don’t think so.

But it’s the reality.

Infact, many providers actually perform worse than that, but they expect you not to notice because you aren’t looking at your own website all day, every day.

Even 99.9% uptime is almost 9 hours a year.

And if one of your customers notices your website is down, are they going to email you to tell you? Unlikely. In fact, they’ll probably think their own internet connection is to blame!

So what can you do? Is there such a thing as “100% uptime”?

I’ve seen a few US based web hosting companies offering “100% uptime”.

How can they offer 100% uptime?

They say they have backup web servers that kick in automatically if the primary servers go offline.

I used one such web host for 2 years, but my websites went dead many many times. 100% uptime is bullocks.

I was even talking to one of their technicians on the phone when they were down and he told me “they are working fine for me, there’s no problem at our end!”.

They can get away with this because there are so many links in the chain between the web server and the person loading that webpage in their browser.  If something goes wrong anywhere along that chain, your website will be dead, but it might not necessarily be the web hosts fault.

How can you improve your uptime?

By simply choosing a webhosting company in the same country as your primary web visitors.

For example, if your primary web audience is New Zealanders, host your website in New Zealand.

Seems kind of obvious, but many people choose US based web hosts because they are so cheap.

This works because it reduces the number of links (routers/”hops”) in the chain. With fewer links in the chain, the chance of a router failing is reduced.

(If you’re interested, you can run a “traceroute” for your website to see how many links there are between your web server and your customers using this cool visual US based traceroute – however because this tool is US based, your results will be a little distorted because the traceroute programme will use US servers! – I couldn’t find a NZ based equivalent to show you, sorry).

I used a US hosting provider for all my clients websites up to the beginning of 2008 because it was so fantastically cheap but my clients paid the price with slow loading times and occasional downtime.

Then I changed to the NZ based webhost Ramsu, which is well priced and provides my clients with faster load times.  Sadly, we still have to put up with occasional downtime.  It’s just the way it is, computers are unreliable, it’s a fact.

Speaking of faster loading time, it has just become much more important. Google recently announced that load time is now a factor in it’s search engine ranking decisions.

How can you choose between NZ hosting providers?

Most of the time your web host is dictated by your web developer.

They will choose one that offers them:

• a good profit margin (the difference between what their wholesaler  cost is and what they charge you, the client, per month)
• the features that they need to run the websites they build (every web developer has their own quirks and style and sometimes they need special web server settings)

And that’s about it really. Were you expecting “fast customer service” on that list? Sorry to disappoint you.

It’s easy for a web developer to get stuck in a rut with their choice of web host. It is super painful and time consuming to change web developers (things inevitably break during the move), so web developers will put up with a lot of shit before they pack up everything and move all their clients websites somewhere else.

If your choice of web host is up to you, then you will have to ask around. You’ve heard my opinion about Ramsu.  Just make a decision. And it if doesn’t work out, I hope your website is simple enough to allow you to move it somewhere else.

I’ve heard mixed reviews about Maxnet, Iserve, Xtra, OpenHost, WebDrive, Net24, WebFarm. What do you use?

I guess the best webhost is one that you never hear from, and never have to talk to, or submit a support ticket to, because it just works like it’s suppose to.

Are you changing your website hosting provider right now?

I may be able to save you some headaches down the road, give me a call today on (07) 575 8799 for more free advice.

- Sheldon.

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Do you choose an international web development company?

Do you choose a major New Zealand webdesign company that is based in Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch?

Or do you choose a web designer in Tauranga? Someone who is local, that you can meet with face to face if you want to, that knows the Tauranga area?  They might not be a big company, they might actually be a one-man band, but they are less expensive and when you’ve talked to them a few times you can just tell they know their stuff and have your best interests at heart.

The choice is yours.

All the best,

Sheldon.

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It could be just a single page with your contact details.  That might be all a small business needs.

Every business needs some sort of web presence online to send people to.

Still not convinced? That’s what this page is for.

8 Ways Your Business Can Benefit From A Website Of It’s Own

Consider if any of the following statements are true:

1.  You have some information that would be helpful or interesting to someone somewhere.

• If your goals are educational, you can reach more people through the internet than any other medium.
• The Internet is full of technical information to help and educate people.
• And it can be fun! With pictures, sounds, animation, and the ability to interact with your visitors, your message becomes more vibrant than through traditional printed media.

2.  You have a product you would like to sell.

• Provide product information and/or pricing.
• Tell potential customers how to contact you.
• Allow your customers to order online.

3.  You want to let people know about your business or organization.

• Reach more people than by handing out your business card.
• Keep your product information up-to-date.
• Add your website visitors to your mailing list.
• Include a map of the local area to help them to come straight to your door.

4.  You have customers who need your support.

• Your website is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
• Answer frequently asked questions.
• Provide phone and fax numbers and addresses so your customers can contact you.

5.  You want feedback from your customers.

• Provide a feed back form to make it easy for your customers to give you their input.
• Conduct product surveys. Immediate feedback allows you to constantly refine your sales message.
• Conduct customer service surveys to find out how you can improve.
• Instigate direct two-way communications with your customers that print can never achieve.

6.  You want to make contact with others.

• Network with your peers.
• Ask for volunteer services.

7.  You want to expand your business, domestically or internationally or both.

• Have a professional email address rather than a @xtra.co.nz or @clear.net.nz.
• You don’t have to worry about time differences.
• You can offer your information in multiple languages.

8.  You need to transfer information to other branches, salespeople or international affiliates.

• Store frequently updated documents online (hidden from the public).
• Password protect your files if extra privacy is needed.

If none of the above apply to you, then you really don’t need a website. But, as you can see, most people can gain some advantage.

5 Ways Your Website Can Save You Time

1. More and more people are shopping via the web because of its convenience and to save time.  It’s a high growth market that offers great potential provided you are “in to win”.
2. By using an e-commerce storefront solution, your customers can purchase immediately – they don’t have to wait until you “open”.  Secure credit card servers are available and make credit card use safe.
3. A customer doesn’t have to wait for you to send them a brochure – various sized pictures, photos, documents and graphics can be used to demonstrate your products or services 24 hours a day.
4. Website e-mail and communications avoids phone-tag.
5. You can get on with your work whilst your website answers frequently asked questions that can tie you or your staff up on the phone. Answering all those enquires like; “where can I find you?”, “what are your contact details?”, “what are your specials this month?”, “who are you?”, “why should I choose to do business with you rather than your competitors?”

8 Ways Your Website Can Save You Money

1. Your Web site can reduce the cost of selling. Your cost for a Web site visitor is very low.
2. A Web site can reduce your need for additional sales and service personnel.
3. Automated mailing lists send the same email message to hundreds of customers for nearly the same cost as sending to one. Email is a cheaper service than courier, mail, faxes or phone calls – and faster with zero printing costs.
4. Publish as much as you want online without worries about space or expense.
5. Turn your local based company into an international player at a very minimal cost.
6. Online brochures are a very cost-effective means of distributing company and product information.
7. Web pages are easily changeable where information printed into brochures and catalogue can quickly become outdated and then it is wasted.
8. Internet Customers find information prior to visiting your business; informed customers are ready to BUY.

8 More Benefits Of Having A Website

1. An excellent way to create visibility and credibility for your company and effectively create brand identification.
2. An effective way to define a clear vision of what makes your company special and unique.
3. Have a good technology image.
4. An effective marketing tool of your products and services through e-commerce.
5. Versatile when change occurs – give you the ability to implement changes and modifications quickly and easily, and to adjust quickly to market changes. Your website can grow as your business grows.
6. Many of your competitors already have websites.
7. Part of doing business today.
8. We New Zealanders have one of the highest Internet usage in the world!

Decided You Need A Website?

Choose a website package that suits you or contact me to talk things over.

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8 Essential Steps:

1. Define the most important action that you want the audience to take. Is it filling in an enquiry form? Call your toll free number? Download an information pack?
2. Make it dead easy for them to take that action. 1 click or 2 clicks. Not 5 clicks
3. Make your forms super short. Ask for essential information only. Not their age, not their gender, not even their address (if you aren’t posting them something, don’t ask for it). And it doesn’t matter if some of your form field aren’t compulsory, if it looks too long it will turn people away
4. Ensure your code is search engine friendly:
   • Clean urls like “this-is-a-page-about-how-to-do-stuff.html” rather than “index.php?ss=2&s=abc”
   • Clean html code, eg use H1, H2, H3 tags instead of heavily formatted paragraph tags
5. A stripped down CMS for commonly updated content (like blog entries, articles, products). Lock down other pages so you’re not tempted to wreck them with crazy fonts and colours
6. “Write for the web” by formatting all your content with headings, sub-headings, short paragraphs (none more than 3 sentences), bullet points, numbered lists, and internal hyperlinks
7. Follow usability guidelines, such as:
   • Hyperlinks that look link hyperlinks. Buttons that look like buttons
   • Breadcrumbs so when the users deep-link they can quickly figure out where they are
   • Disable the hyperlink in the navigation if the user is already on that page
   • And just about everything else website usability guru Jacob Nielsen recommends
8. Choose a web site developer who knows about all this stuff

Other Important Things

1. Ensure all your navigation is in one place (preferably displayed vertically on the left so it can scale as your website grows)
2. Don’t have any animation or moving images at all. It distracts the user from completing their task

Do you need help building a website that generates business for you?

Contact us today or book a free 30min consultation now

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