CMS Drives AIRHAWK’s Website to Boost Bottom Line

AIRHAWK, a comfort seating system for motorcycles manufactured by ROHO Group Inc., announces the March 18, 2010 launch of their website, www.airhawk.net. The Net Impact and XG-ad, a full service advertising agency specializing in print advertising, combined services to create the website design for the comfort seating system’s website, which is powered by the Auctori, web content management system (WCMS) built for search engine optimization.

AIRHAWK’s parent company, The ROHO Group Inc., approached TNI to work with AIRHAWK’s print advertising agency, XG-ad, to create the web design for the premium product’s website. TNI took XG-AD’s Phohotshop design work, and made it web ready before placing it into the Auctori web content management system. The Auctori solution provides AIRHAWK with the opportunity to strengthen their Internet presence and their overall brand reputation by giving users a cutting edge yet professional site as well as the power to maintain their content in real time.

“This was one of the smoothest web launches I’ve managed.  We had the best of both worlds for design and Internet marketing utilizing The Net Impact and XG-Ad.  The design is edgy and fresh while the back-end that I oversee is so user-friendly, easy to understand and of course, completely search engine optimized.  These two companies made a great team and in the end, produced a fantastic site that we are very proud of and excited to promote,” said Rebecca Heckert, eMarketing Coordinator, The ROHO GROUP.

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 Online videos are an effective platform to share valuable information, while providing companies with the opportunity to create hype around their brand. For example, the King and Prince Beach and Golf Resort created a 3D flyover video of their popular Georgia golf course. This innovative video drives traffic to their website, markets their golf course and engages their online community. Check out the video here.   

Online videos are not only an effective marketing strategy; they are also an effective tool for search engine optimization. Search engines are showing videos in their search results, but what you may not be aware of is how many people actually go to YouTube, and other video sharing sites, and search for specific information as opposed to using a search engine. For this reason, it is just as important to stand out from the crowd on video channels as well as in the search engines. Video sharing web sites use tags for search engines to find them. You must include your main keywords in these tags if you want your video to be indexed by the search engines. 

 In order for your videos to be found by the right audience, be sure to research your top keyword phrases and use these in your upload descriptions and titles. Find out what your targeted audience is searching for and then use a keyword tool to identify keywords and phrases that you can really dominate. Keyword research is critical because it will help people find your content and over time will mean increase your rankings. Doing this crucial research and tracking click-thrus and website conversions will only help you to secure your most cost-effective keywords and phrases and boost the visibility of your videos. 

Blendtec, a company that produces blenders. The company received millions of YouTube views and great press for blending objects like iPhones and wood blocks, proving its product was durable. Not a bad way to establish your product’s credibility and get some attention, right? 

But don’t worry, you don’t have to blend objects or perform insane stunts to create an effective video. You just have to build compelling content and use your videos to spread the word to the community you want to target. If your content is compelling, and you promote your videos through social media channels and other marketing and public relations efforts, you can increase your product’s visibility and influence. 

Just remember, the goal of video marketing is to create short, attractive, effective videos based on solid keywords that convert viewers into customers and stand the test of time.

Coming from a print background has helped my web design greatly. Some of these helpful hints come directly from print design, while others were simply learned through experience. They are not in order of importance.

 1. Use typography to grab attention instead of a graphic. - You’ve heard to saying, “less is more.” It is most effective in web design because you have a very small window of time to get the reader’s attention. A big heading using only text will be more effective than a large graphic. Think about newspapers. In the same way a reader scans the newspaper they will scan a website looking for a heading to tell them what to read or what to do.

2. The grid is by far the best framework. - After you’ve gathered information about the site, start sketching a grid. Figure out how many columns are appropriate. Try to stay under 16 columns. Any higher and might find it hard to stay consistent. At the same time, a one or two column grid will probably be too restrictive. Do not simply guess the width of an element. Readers will positively respond to a mathematical layout.

 3. Don’t be afraid of white space. - This might be the most difficult concept to sell to a client. Break away from the old conventions of web design where you need a left and right border. While borders are purely preference, white space should not be. White space does not just mean the color white. It simply means to leave a little extra “air” in between your elements. Too tight and your elements will visually appear as one confusing mess.

4. The fold is very important. - Keep in mind most screens are still around 1280×760, so the fold will most likely under 760px. Try to keep your most important elements, like call to actions, above the fold.

5.Follow common typography rules.

- Hang your first quotation mark outside the body of text.

- Line height for body text should be at least 4px above the font size. For example: 12px Helvetica should have at least a 16px line height. Lines of text that are too close will be harder to read.

- Your main body of text should be around 10-16 words per line. Too long and the reader will struggle to find the next line down.

- Use no more than 2 font-families. I generally try to use just one. There are times, however, where you might want to use a different font for headings.

- Keep it simple. If you want a heading to stand out from the body, use no more than two differences. A good example: bigger type size and bold. A bad example: bigger type size, bold and italic. Sometimes just making the type size bigger is the perfect solution.

6. Reset your CSS browser defaults. - When it comes time to code your design remember to reset browser defaults in your css document. Different browsers like to add their own padding and margins to elements on the page. This will save time and major frustration.

Things to consider before using flash in web design

Although multimedia has its role on the web, current flash technology tends to discourage usability for three reasons:

1.) Makes bad design more likely

2.) Breaks with the web’s fundamental interaction style

3.) Consumes resources that would be better spent enhancing a site’s core value.

4.) Overuse of Flash can make your site all but invisible to the search engines (Flash and search engines are like oil and water)

About 99% of the time, the presence of Flash on a website constitutes a usability disease. Although there are rare occurrences of good Flash design (it even adds value on occasion), the use of Flash typically lowers usability. In most cases, we would be better off if these multimedia objects were removed. Flash is great when used well. For example, the current state and popularity of online video streaming with sites like YouTube wouldn’t exist in the way it does without it. The problem is that beyond this the disadvantages of using Flash far outweigh the benefits in most cases. (Jakob Nielsen’s study 2000)

While Google and Yahoo have made some advances in trying to index content from combined Flash and text-based sites, a site built entirely using Flash still faces nearly insurmountable obstacles when it comes to search engine optimization. The minor indexing improvements have not turned into benefits for site owners. A site that uses Flash for specific kinds of graphical content will not be penalized like a site that uses Flash for navigational elements, possibly frustrating the search engines’ ability to follow links from page to page.

Apart from increasing the load time of your website, excessive usage of Flash might also annoy the visitors. Use it only if you must offer features that are not supported by static pages. Being a browser plugin, it has a reputation of slowing down computers by using excessive CPU. Flash 10.1 however will support GPU usage to take the strain off the CPU. Which is nice. Flash is also frequently used for navigation, when it isn’t necessary at all. Remember, by doing this you are making it less accessible to use. Avoid this, as there are many great options using js libraries such as jQuery.

Bottom-line, Flash is good for very specific graphical elements. The rule-of-thumb you should apply is, “Does the Flash content compliment and support the content?” If it doesn’t, or worse, if it actually distracts from or inhibits the usability of your site, you may want to reconsider your choices…

Contact The Net Impact to learn how you can effectively add flash development into your online marketing strategy to enhance brand identity, increase customer satisfaction, improve marketing initiatives and showcase ideas in a way never before thought possible!

Make your Web page shine on the iPhone

Everyone has seen the commericals that showcase the iPhone screen’s capabilities to flip around, expand and zoom  in every which way imaginable to creatively display a web page. Now that the iPhone is out there and in full-swing, there is an interesting set of challenges that web designers are going to face more and more as mobile devices become more Internet friendly, and that is how to design sites for these devices.

The iPhone uses Safari, which should not recquire any extra work from web designers to create a page that is compatible with the device. But, if you are looking to create a page that ”wows” its  iPhone viewers, instead of simply ”working”, there are some things you should consider.

When building a Web page you need to consider who is going to view it and how it is going to be viewed. Some of the best sites take into account what type of device the page is being viewed on, including resolution, color options and functions.

When testing and creating pages for iPhone compatibility, don’t forget …

-The more phones you can test on the better-   see for yourself what works. Test on as many  phones as you can to make sure your page’s look, feel and navigation is just right.

-Make your page degrade gracefully- You can write your pages for Flash-enabled, wide screen browsers, but make sure that the critical information is visible even in a tiny monitor that can’t handle any special feature

-Build a wireless specific page - Make your wireless specific page highly available. Most people come to your home page, and if the link to your wireless page isn’t there, they’ll leave if the page if it is too difficult to use.

-The Iphone has a very small screen- The narrower the content is on your normal page, the less it will have to shrink to fit a cell phone window.

-Divide page content- It can be difficult to read long segments of text on a cell phone, so putting them on multiple pages makes it easier to read.

-The shorter the links, the better- If you’ve ever tried to type in a URL on a cell phone, you’ll know it is a pain – keep the URL short as possible.

-Do not place navigation at the top of the screen- There is nothing more annoying than having to page through screens and screens of links to find the information you want. If you’ve looked at Web pages that were designed for cell phones, you’ll see that the first things that show up are the content and headline. Then, below that is navigation.

-Make your images small- Yes, the iPhone can zoom and unzoom in on images, but the smaller they are, in both dimensions and download time, the happier your wireless customers will be.

Lastly, It is true that the iPhone can display most Web pages exactly as they would appear on a personal computer. But it is also possible to create Web sites and applications that look and work much like the iPhone’s built-in applications, and sites that do are the ones that will win the hearts and fingertips of iPhone users.

Apple has provided a set of resources for developers to use when designing for iPhones at:  http://developer.apple.com/iphone/program/

Are you placing enough emphasis on the importance of images in web design?

In the ongoing debate of content vs. image with regards to web design, one thing has become apparent; a website is most successful when the two elements complement each other. Yes, even on a website, a picture truly is worth a thousand words. An image may be the easiest, and the most appealing, way to send a message. Images are an integral part of web design, they hold the power to enhance the overall look and feel of a website and capture the attention of incoming traffic.

The “content is king” way of thinking, may hurt some websites. Images are an important part of web design, and their significance should be evenly considered with that of the content. While content gives necessary information and is constructed with the needs and desires of visitors in mind,  images are used to aid the information visually to the web users. When appropriate images and content work together your website is both informative and memorable to visitors. Unnecessary usage of images and inadequate content will result in a weak website.

Why incorporate images on your website?
• Influences the buying habit of the customers
• Images demonstrates the products and services effectively
• Images work to create a memorable impression

Images have a mesmerizing influence on the human mind. There has been a lot of experimentation with images on the Internet to give a more interactive, appealing look and thereby enhance effective communication. No matter how well-constructed and informative website content may be, it will never have the ability that images have to bring a visitor into a magical fold at the first glance.

Are web development and design companies using social media networks to improve traffic?

If  the answer is no, they are missing out on one of the most efficient, and not to mention one of the least expensive, ways to drive traffic to your website. Ranking opportunities, increase in brand recognition, both locally and globally, and engaging your target audience are just a few benefits of incorporating social networking links into an overall web development and design plan.

An excellent way to incorporate the presence of social networks into your website design strategy is to include social bookmarking tools on your site. This tool will give your reader the option to comment on your content, give feedback and to share your information with others. This is easily accomplished by placing social bookmarking tools at the end of each post. Many sites offer “share this” options which make it easy for readers to submit the page being viewed to popular social news web sites and communities such as Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter and email. This process of sharing valuable content online can be compared to word of mouth marketing, with the exception being when the information is online, the “buzz” instantly becomes a searchable asset.

To be a successful player in the increasingly popular social media game, a company must be in the business of consistent and relevant content publishing. Search engines and social network users respond positively to sites that are frequently updated. People who use social bookmarking sites want to know that you care enough about your content to submit it manually and to tell them why they might be interested in it. Every time you rate another site or communicate with another user, you are building up your credibility. Get on the good side of these people and you can use social bookmarking sites to greatly increase the traffic to your site!

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