Posts Tagged ‘Blog’
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
I need a new website, but I don’t know which kind to choose? The designer is telling me I can have either a completely custom one-of-a-kind website or a Content Management System, but I don’t really know what they mean?
So let’s discuss this . . .
A Custom one-of-a-kind website is just that. No one else will have the same design, layout, etc. The designer uses the HTML and CSS languages to bring your vision to life. There are no templates, no set structure or skeleton to work with, just a blank canvas and you & your designer’s imagination. If you want your website to resemble your desk, a blueprint, a spinning globe, or even a pizza box. . . you can do that. Of course it always depends on the level of expertise and knowledge your designer possesses, but truly the sky is the limit in the case of a custom website.
Yang to the Ying i.e. the negative to the positive. . . if you need to make changes, you better brush up on your foreign languages ’cause you’ll be doin’ a lot of corresponding. . . with your computer that is. You gotta know code, at the very least HTML and CSS in order to make changes and on top of that you’ll need to have a program such as dreamweaver installed on your local computer and know how to work the program or there will be no changes here. I hope you have LOTS of extra time on your hands.
Now if you don’t need to make changes very often, this is great, especially if you host your domain with the designer. At Y Desygn if you use our hosting, we make up to 2 hours of changes each month for free.
Or you can use a Content Management System (CMS) such as Joomla or Wordpress. These are theme driven or in other, less pc terms TEMPLATED. Now just because it is a template, doesn’t mean it can’t be custom. When you are looking at CMS themes, you want to look past the logos, colors, images, and text. These will all change or not depending on your preferences. What you want to focus your attention on is the structure. Kind of like when you are looking at a house. If someone else is living in the house, you look past their couch, paint on the walls (at least try), and sometimes even what’s on the floor. You envision how your stuff would look arranged in the room with the RIGHT paint color and flooring, the flow of the house. Do I like where the kitchen is situated? Do I like the open concept design? Or the bedrooms all on the second floor? This is how we need to look at the CMS, just look at the structure, will your information, pictures, colors, etc. look good in this “space”?
Yang to the Ying, in other words, the positive - If you need to make changes on a regular basis, there is an admin panel that you can login to to add or take away content, add or take away pictures, etc. etc. You can create blog posts, you can manage comments and basically your website. You don’t need the designer’s help, unless of course you royally screw up and delete your site or some other nightmarish scenario.
Another positive of the CMS is that your blog is directly connected to your website, people don’t have to go to a different domain or subdomain to get to it, nor does the brand change from page to page, it all stays very consistent.
This is a brief overview of the two styles of websites. Please let us know if you have any questions and we will be happy to help you figure out the right software for your next adventure!
Tags: Blog, CMS, Content Management System, CSS, Custom Website, HTML, Joomla, Wordpress
Posted in Uncategorized, Web Site Information | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
What is Web 2.0? What is the difference between Social Media and a Social Network? What is SEO? I’ve heard the terms thrown around, but what do they mean? A Webinar, are you kidding me? Why do I even need to know any of this?
If you are like a lot of people using the internet, you are using many of these “things” but don’t really have a good grasp of what they mean. Or, if you haven’t been using them, could you possibly be missing the boat? Our goal is to help you better understand these “things”, what they are, why you aren’t going to stop hearing about them anytime soon and most importantly, how using them could affect your bottom line.
What is Web 2.0? Sounds like an upgrade to the internet, doesn’t it? Web 2.0 refers to the technologies used on the internet to connect with other users, tools and applications. The following is the Wikipedia definition, “Web 2.0 refers to web development and web design that facilitates interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web. A Web 2.0 site allows its users to interact with other users or to change website content, in contrast to non-interactive websites where users are limited to the passive viewing of information that is provided to them.”
Our next term, “Social Media”, is defined in the Social Media Bible as “activities, practices and behaviors among communities of people who gather online to share information, knowledge and opinions using conversational media.” Wikipedia states, “It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers.” Basically, it is the marriage of traditional media with social interaction formatted for the internet.
Now, how is Social Media different from a Social Network? A Social Network, just as you would use it ‘offline’ refers to the network of people in a community. For online purposes, it really just means that people are interacting with each other through newsletters, blogs, comments, e-mail, etc. for social, professional and educational purposes.
Clear as mud, right? Let’s put together what we have so far. Web 2.0 consists of the technologies and interactive tools consumers use that allow users to actively participate in media within their network of friends, colleagues and clients.
Let’s move on to SEO and we’ll come back to more of the social aspect in just a minute. SEO spelled out is Search Engine Optimization. Most people understand what a search engine is. In fact, recent statistics on Google claim that over 2 million searches a day are performed on Google alone. That is a lot of users looking for something!
Back to Wikipedia, Search Engine Optimization “is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website from search engines via “natural” (”organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. Typically, the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of searches, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a website web presence.”
Simply put, when you go to Google and put in the keyword of the item you are looking for, Google pulls up a list of websites that match your keyword. Google’s ‘crawlers’ go through and index these sites according to relevant keywords and phrases that are used in the creation, as well as the content, of the pages. Search engine optimizers (people who do this for a living) determine what keywords to target to help websites move up in the search engine rankings.
Most people will only look through the first couple of pages to find what they are looking for; they typically don’t have the patience for any more than that. If they don’t find what they are looking for in those first couple of pages, they will either give up or type in a different keyword. There are over 1 trillion URL’s, or web addresses, indexed on Google right now. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want, nor do I have the time, to weed through all of those sites to find the information I need.
Our final definition of the day is “Webinar”. You may have already figured this one out, but webinar is web + seminar, like a “go to” seminar where you travel to a central location and listen to a speaker on a topic in which you’re interested. A webinar uses the same principles, only you don’t have to leave wherever you are to participate. You can just log into the webinar and participate while in your PJ’s, interacting over telephone lines or over web audio technology. If you happen to miss the “live version”, you can often experience the information through pre-recorded files, as well.
Now, that’s a lot of information we have covered and you must be wondering how it all fits together for you and your business? What it boils down to is this—the ‘old’ ways of communicating and advertising are phasing out as the internet grows and morphs. People are using the internet as a means of gathering information and purchasing products and services. Couple this with the fact that, with the introduction of devices such as TiVo, people are watching less and less TV commercials. Subscriptions to newspapers and magazines are declining, as more and more, the internet is providing all the information people want or need.
It is cheaper, easier and more time-efficient than a TV commercial or magazine ad to go to your social network or search engine and punch in a keyword to find a plethora of information and reviews from peers on what works and what doesn’t. After all, what do most people do after seeing an ad or watching a commercial? They go to the internet to look it up!
Social Media is rapidly becoming a viable, cheap and very profitable means of advertising and smart businesses are taking full advantage of these opportunities. Now that you have a better understanding, are you ready to join them?
Tags: Blog, Newsletters, Organic Searches, SEO, Social Media, Social Networking, Web 2.0
Posted in Social Media | 5 Comments »
