It is important to keep your web site current and up to date. Telephone numbers, employee names, addresses and other details change and need to be replaced with the current information. Searching your site first for all the edits to be made can save you considerable back and forth time with your Webmaster.
Find all the changes to be made
evaluate the text on the page for need to rewrite
send changes in one Word document to your Webmaster.
Here is a handy search tip to help you find those items which need to be replaced or updated.
In Google's search box:
type the exact text you are trying find
space
site:www.yourwebsiteaddress.com (using your address and leaving no space between the colon and the www)
For example, if I were searching www.webconsuls.com for "Darin" ...
Returned will be a list of all the instances where that term appears.
If you click the link labeled "Cached" the cached page will come up with your terms highlighted for easy spotting.
Send your list of changes in a Word document to your webmaster.
After the changes are made remember to refresh your page to see the changes. This is especially helpful with larger sites with lots of text and those with blog entries.
Website Optimizer gives us the opportunity to create different versions of our website pages and to test how they are received by actual visitors. There are many well documented design theories out there. If you want to move past theories and test your actual visitors going to your pages Website Optimizer is the tool with which to do it.
Color TheoryColor theories, which colors will appeal to your audience and have a specific affect or mood. As fascinating as color theory is, it can feel about as scientific as a horoscope. Cultural differences, variations of shades, and the ebb and flow of fashion can be influential in shaping a viewers perception of your color scheme.
Eyetracking Human testing has established that content with pictures of people appears more professional to viewers of websites. Eyetracking studies have collected results which indicate that viewers are drawn to the line of site of the person in the picture. If you want to highlight specific text or a call to action on your site it is recommended that you use pictures in which the person is looking towards that text or call to action.
Unlike print work, where you would choose your paper stock and give a final okay to the printer before production, in website design we do not have control over the final viewing. Different computer operating systems, different browsers, and even different levels of technical proficiency on the part of the viewer are variables we have no control over.
As we make changes to our website how can we be sure that the results from the changes are not due to seasonal changes, adword campaigns, social media posts or a variety of other variables? There are so many interacting variables.
Website Optimizer allows for a more truly scientific experiment. Visitors are randomly sent to the different versions of the same page and their activities can be tracked and data collected to make your design decisions based on the visitors' actual response to your website and the actions you wish to encourage. No theory!
If you would like to look into staging a truly scientific experiment with your website design we would be glad to help.
In a perfect world your website is available on the internet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week …
but things can happen.
You may accidentally let your domain expire. How could that happen? You may have signed up for your domain with an email you no longer use.
Hackers could break into the server where your site is hosted. This is not uncommon.
A script can exploit a widely used piece of software such as a content management system.
All of these can bring your site down. You may not find out as immediately as you would like and in the meantime opportunities are lost and leads move on.
Here is an easy way to check in on your website throughout your day.
Set the home page of the your internet browser to your website. Every time you open your browser your website will appear. This montoring can help catch problems that may arise as soon as possible.
Setting your browser to open to your website (Click on screen shots to enlarge.):
Internet Explorer
Tools > Internet Options > General Tab > type in your website into the "To create home page tabs"
If you type in more than one address your browser will open all the websites each in a different tab.
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