Posts Tagged ‘websites’

General Contractor and Construction Managers Carter-Bignon of Kiawah Island, South Carolina selected us to create a website for the company that would demonstrate their diverse services. Bob Carter’s goal was the development of a site that reflected the elegance and versatility of the company’s three divisions: fine homebuilding, residential renovation and commercial construction and construction management.

Carter-Bignon had confidence in our work, in part, because of our demonstrated experience with the development of websites for home builders. CBS Web Designs quickly comprehended their needs and offered a cost-conscious solution.

The website’s home page allows  site visitors to see the firms’ diversity easily navigate to the service they seek.

As you plan your website, you will take inventory of the images of your staff, your products, your office or facility. You will be examining each of them and considering which can be used in the development of your site.

You may be tempted to take your own photographs.  Many people assume that because they have a high resolution digital camera, that they can easily take shots suitable for use on their website.

While this is true in fact, it is often not true in execution. Taking photos requires patience, planning and persistence. Understanding just how to light, or frame the shot, or which angle will yield the most pleasing composition are challenging if you don’t shoot professionally. It’s not that you can’t do it, it’s just that someone who shoots for a living brings years of knowledge and understanding to a shoot. And they often bring professional quality equipment to a shoot as well.

If you decide you want to take your own photos for use on your website here are a few guidelines that may help you get better results:

1. Set your camera for the highest resolution you have. More digital information is better.
2. Shoot in RAW or lossless format, choose that setting. Your website designer will be able to enhance the images more easily if you can do this.
3. Scout your shooting location in advance. Know where the sun is. If you are shooting near a window, make sure the sun is not pouring through the window “blowing out” one half of the room.
4. Don’t shoot in the middle of the day, if you are shooting outside. Plan your shots for early morning or late afternoon when the sun is not straight overhead. However, if you shoot in the morning or evening, make sure you are not shooting towards the sun. The sun should be behind you. Even better is shooting on a cloudy day. Your colors will come out brighter and more crisp.
5. Use natural or ambient light if possible. And if not, use indirect, even light from both sides unless you are trying to achieve shadows.
6. Avoid reflective surfaces that bounce back light. An “onboard” flash (which is what most point and shoot digitals have) will put too much light in the center of your shot, washing it out.
7. Frame your shots so there is not anything distracting in the background.  You don’t want extraneous items to take attention away from what you are focusing on.
8. Take test shots and review them to be sure you have lighting, framing, and composition planned well.
9. Don’t get too “tight” on your subject. Leave the web designer enough room to crop the shot as needed for use on your website.
10. Use a background. For products, you can set up a simple background of black velvet or light colored paper to achieve an isolated product shot.

And if this all seems overwhelming, ask your web site design company to recommend a local, professional photographer. The expense will improve your website and it will be worth the money.

One of my colleagues and I were recently discussing creating websites for our clients. She related the first question she usually asks her clients, “Are you text ready?” With her question she shows that she expects the clients to have done much of their planning when they come to her.

photo courtesy of flicker creative commons/alancleaver_2000

As a first step, we often focus on the client’s expectations for the site; customer experience, business and sales goals for the site and who will update the content. My colleague’s focus on “Do you have content?” is also one of our primary questions.

Many of our clients want a website and they want it fast. We hope to have them hit the pause button for a bit so that they follow a careful, thoughtful planning process. Part of the planning process is understanding what you want to communicate and why. Ask yourself, “Who will be reading this copy?”  The next question you should ask yourself is, “Who will be writing our website’s copy?”

Many of our clients feel they are so familiar with their products and services that they can write their own copy. Some do an excellent job of writing their own copy, but many have difficulties.

If you are planning to write your own copy, here are a few things to consider:

1. In the past, how successful have you been writing copy for your company newsletter or advertising?
2. Do you have the time? Time spent writing is time spent away from management, sales or doing the work you are most frequently paid to do.
3. Do you know the core points you wish to make?
4. Will your team members or staff help you write the copy?
5. Have you researched your competitors to understand how to differentiate your company?
6. Do you know what keywords are important to include so that you build in SEO from the start?

Some customers may balk at paying a professional copywriter for their services, but a professional is held accountable for their abilities and time. Instead of thinking you can just write something during your weekends then struggling to write and ending up mad with yourself, use a professional copywriter. The expense is worth every penny.

CBS Web Designs recommends that all our clients have an easy to update website including a blog whose subject is your business expertise. While it's great to have a blog, it's best if it is not a free one from blogger or WordPress.com. Having your blog in your own domain means greater search results as well as the ability to demonstrate your business acumen and expertise.

In our development work, we use WordPress as it allows for very flexible integration between pages and posts (blog) and can be branded with your businesses' unique look and feel.

We also recommend that you update your website very regularly. I tell my clients that they must regularly update contents to achieve better results in  Google rankings.

In case you're wondering what other recommendations are important for you as a small business in 2010, this post in Small Business Trends is spot on.

If you have questions regardnig how to implement any of these items, give us a call. It's time your small business began benefiting from the 24/7 web.