According to Marc Nathan of Forthea (a market research firm), 65% of information searches start on a smartphone. Of those searches, 60% are continued later on a laptop. How do you maintain branding consistency and web page delivery across these multiple platforms?

65% of information searches start on a smartphone.

Initially, the IT industry responded to the proliferation of smartphones by building separate mobile sites. But, these mobile sites produced only partial functionality of the full web site – sometimes requiring a user to scroll far to the right as well as up and down to read the information. Worse yet, developers often had to choose between coding for the variety of mobile platforms – iPhone, Blackberry, Android, or Windows devices.

With the emergence of responsive web design, developers can deliver your local business information to multiple platforms with a single set of coding. This saves you money and gives your customers a better experience. Better still, web design formats to fit the screen of your potential customers’ device, whatever it is – laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

Responsive web design means your web site is fluid and flexible regardless of the platform. Your customers will see consistent branding and content across platforms yielding a positive and enriching customer experience. And, increased sales for your business!

Web sites used to mimic print catalogs and mobile sites mimicked desktop web pages. Today’s consumer doesn’t want to see a stripped down version of your web page on her phone. She wants to search for business and product information now, make an appointment or purchase, and move on. Flexible web designs pull you past the hurdle of different functionality for each platform.

If your website is new or in need of a revamp, consider the advantages of responsive web design to develop a consistent message across platforms. Contact us now to build your web page and increase sales now!

Outstanding reputation in customer service is key

While the process of finding a company to host a web site is not terribly complicated, there are some key considerations that you should keep in mind. Here are a few of them.

1. What kind of hosting are you looking for? Generally speaking, there are two different kinds of hosting: shared hosting and dedicated hosting. Shared hosting is when your web application shares the server with the web applications of others. In other words, you’ll have less available bandwidth because sometimes people will be hitting those other applications. Dedicated hosting, on the other hand, offers you a dedicated server just for your web application. The trade-off is obvious: with dedicated hosting you get more bandwidth, but at a greater cost.

2. What technology will be required? Is your web site going to require content management? If so, what content management system are you using? If you are using WordPress, then your web hosting company had better support WordPress. Do you require PHP? Then your web hosting company will need to support that.

3. What kind of customer service is provided? Your web hosting company may be a very good one, but technical problems will still occur. When that happens, you need to be sure that you can reach a reliable support staff to deal with those problems. Make sure that any web hosting company that you are considering has an outstanding reputation in customer service. The last thing that your business needs is an extended web site down time simply because you were unable to get a minor technical problem resolved quickly.

If you’re in the market for a great web site design, feel free to contact us. We’ll be happy to discuss your company goals with you and propose a design that matches your mission statement.

If you’re serious about your business though you should outsource the task to an experienced Web Design Agency.

While it may be tempting to try to handle the task yourself in an effort to save a little money, the benefits of using a professional web design company far outweigh the cost. In a nutshell, professional web design yields a greater return on investment.

the benefits of using a professional web design company far outweigh the cost

Here are four benefits of professional website design.

• Your business looks “serious”. There’s nothing that says “We’re not competitive” like a run of the mill WordPress template, regurgitated in one form or another by thousands of bloggers and small companies alike. On the other hand, a unique, professional design gives potential customers the idea that you mean business.
• A good first impression. It’s been said that first impressions are lasting impressions. That’s certainly true of website design. Hire a great, reputable company to give your website a “wow” factor, and people will remember the name of your business.
• Less maintenance. If you have a professionally-designed, spiffy-looking website, you’ll find that it doesn’t need to be changed often at all. This reduces future outlays as less development work will be needed.
• Better site navigation. A professional website design not only looks great, it’s also user-friendly. This is an important concept, especially if your customer base consists of people who are not terribly web-savvy. If your site has a menu that’s easy to navigate, customers will explore more options, which raises the likelihood of increased sales.

If you’re in the market for professional website design from an experienced Digital Agency, feel free to contact us. We’ll be happy to discuss your goals with you, and provide you with recommendations for a great layout suited to your business objectives.

Website owners who depend on the search engines to drive traffic to their businesses are more than familiar with updates such as Google Panda and Penguin that looked at increasing the quality of the results pages. The head of the Google web spam team; Matt Cutts pointed out in his latest video, further updates by Google will continue to reward and penalise sites based on various techniques and strategies.

Google Penguin 2.0 has been rolled out this morning

Both small and large business owners have come to recognise the value of combining user-friendly, fresh, and eye-catching web design with high-quality content on a site that offers true value to its potential customers. They also appreciate that, if they are wise, they will employ search engine optimisation strategies that not only drive traffic to their site, but comply with all those elements that Google is looking for that signal a top-notch, authoritative site with rich content offering true value to the consumers.

Cutts forewarned site owners in May that the Panda 2.0 update, then set to unroll in the summer, 2013, would bring with it even deeper cuts for those sites that employ any number of blackhat methods of artificially driving traffic to sites that are less than they should be by Google yardsticks. Such sites, Cutts reiterates, continue to use what it calls tricks and “spamming package tips” to artificially manipulate search engine results.

That said, it’s here. The Penguin 2.0 web spam algorithm has arrived. Matt Cutts confirmed on his May 22, 2013 blog that the current rollout is complete.

New blog post:Penguin 2.0 rolled out today goo.gl/fb/U7llH

— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) May 23, 2013

Never fear — the ultimate aim of Google and all of its algorithm changes is to improve their search results to greater the experience for all parties involved. Quality sites will continue to rise to the top and reap the benefits of genuine hard work, good will, and professional methods of doing business on the World Wide Web.

Keeping up with all the happenings behind the scenes can be a daunting task for any business owner. Most owners, admittedly, would rather spend their time working their business plan rather than hanging out on forums trying to win the SERPS wars by any means possible. Savvy ones turn to a reputable, knowledgeable service they can trust for help in branding, web design, and the ever important search engine optimisation.

Interactive Red is a digital web design company with offices in Kent and Sussex. Their professionals are well versed in the latest happenings in e-commerce and SEO dynamics. Contact us to see how we can help with your online marketing needs.

A truly great digital agency will do more than just basic web design

A digital agency, also referred to as a “new media agency”, is more than just a web designer. It’s also more than just an online advertising agency. A digital agency really uses new media to reach potential customers through the use of things like social media, search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing, and yes; web design. Actually, it is a company that uses every creative form of new media at its disposal to help your business reach new customers.

Creativity is the backbone of a digital agency. This is what strikes the key difference from an advertising agency, which uses traditional methods like advertisements to reach customers. Digital agencies profit through the very creative services they are hired to create. Digital agencies thrive in cyberspace and utilize every creative new method available to them to help their clients reach their customers in new and exciting ways.

Web design is great, but a truly great digital agency will do more than just basic web design. Again, focusing on creativity is the key here. The difference between basic web design and a digital agency is that the digital agency will have the creative expertise to enact a multifunctional approach to your business’ needs. Not only, will all avenues of new media be effectively utilized, but the right digital agency will take the time to effectively communicate these services with you and walk you through every step.

“Interactive Red” is a digital agency that takes great pride in taking things a step further by creating digital solutions that engage your customers and help build your business. Whether it’s a website, Facebook or iPhone app, or a branding exercise, we work closely with our clients and approach each task with the same enthusiasm and care. Contact us today!

Both SEO and design are important when creating a website

A recent Search Engine Journal article titled “Web Design vs. SEO: It Doesn’t Make Much Sense” discusses both the arguments surrounding the website debate and why it’s ultimately pointless. The article notes that while some people will always consider one aspect of web design to be more important, everyone should agree that they are both necessary:

“SEOs and Web designers have a responsibility too. Whether you’re a designer or an SEO, you first need to accept and then try to make your clients understand that neither SEO nor Web design is a panacea in itself – both are paramount and must go hand in hand.”

Rather than a universal agreement that SEO and web design are both necessary for a website to be successful, people fruitlessly argue which is more important. Despite the debate, the two are not competitors, but rather compliments; without the other, either SEO or creative web design would not be enough to make a website successful. Just as it would be insufficient to draw attention to an unappealing website, a website with a creative and interactive design would be lacking if it did not generate high traffic. When both SEO and web design are taken into consideration, however, the end result is a creative website that is visited often, and ultimately a satisfied business.

If you would like more information about SEO or web design, contact us.

Having a mobile website is a ‘must’

Having a webpage without a mobile website can limit the access your potential customer has to reach your company. Sales growths of a variety of companies are being driven by increases in nearly all markets and led by mobile devices. Therefore, it is important to attract customers and provide them with the best online experience possible.

Years back, if you didn’t have a website, your business was behind the competition and would suffer as a result. Having an online strategy became crucial for some companies and others fell behind.  Today, the same is true with a mobile website. The race is on to make your mark on mobile and for good reason. Across the globe, more people will soon access the Internet via a mobile device rather than a laptop or PC. In many ways having a mobile website is a ‘must’.

Please feel free to contact us to set up your mobile website!

Hire a professional Kent web design agency

Listed below are some of the benefits that you stand to gain by opting to hire a professional Kent web design agency to build and revamp your e-commerce site:

• An experienced and skilled web design agency will assist you in creating an online strategy that will ensure that your online business operates smoothly.

• Skilled web design agencies will aid you in developing an eye-catching blog or e-commerce site which will not only help you in obtaining an edge over your competitors, but securing new business prospects.

• Besides the aesthetic appeal, the other component of a great blog or website that an experienced and skilled web design agency will provide you with is compelling content. Without proper content, you won’t be able to retain viewership on your website. A web design agency in Kent will provide you with the proper combination of content and image that will function in getting your message to your prospective customers.

• In addition to providing you with compelling web contents, reputable web design agencies will ensure that your blog or e-commerce site is interactive. Interactive elements like videos, slideshows, forums and pictures function in enticing visitors to your website since it is not as flat as the websites they have visited in the past.

• A good web design agency should be able to provide you with a platform through which you can unveil consistent social media campaigns which will aid you in realizing word-of-mouth referrals which is essential for brand building.

Prior to signing a contract with any web design agency, it is important to do due diligence in order to ascertain the experience and expertise of the web developer you are about to hire. If you need expert help in web design, feel free to contact us.

Technology makes running an eCommerce more efficient

“How to build a Great E-Commerce Company,” on the Inc website is a perspective offered by Rudina Seseri, a principal in  Fairhaven Capital, a venture capital firm; and while she points to the brick-and-mortar successes of Best Buy and Ann Taylor, she zeroes in on the mega online-stars like Amazon and Orbitz:

“…they have developed extremely efficient operations, powerful analytics engines and incentive-based programs to drive customer purchases.”

A summary of her advice includes these considerations:

1. E-commerce in the traditional sense. Technology makes running an eCommerce more efficient, from sourcing products to the managing of inventory and customer service issues. A better way to handle the workload is to pool together functions like storage, networking and software programs at the server level—virtualization.

2. Content: Think ‘original’ reviews, and content that really engages your customer to help him decide what to purchase on your site; furthermore, develop content that positions you as an ‘advisor’ that can offer ways your customer decide when and how to shop.

3. Community:  It’s all about the power of many, those customers who will promote your brand through the maze of social media channels; set up your promotions with leveraging that “customer and fan base” in mind.

4. Personalization:  Keep it relevant for your customer by using data about his likes; follow up with all requests he might have, knowing the more you engage the customer, the more likely he will keep coming back…and bring his friends.

Contact us to start learning more on how to market your eCommerce business.

A well done startup web site will be both visually interesting and immediately informative.

Most of the time, when faced with this situation, you’ll probably click out to some other page after that first second or two and the startup in question will never be seen by your eyes again. In a few cases, however, whatever is on that first page you see may just be so compelling as to hold your attention for a bit longer.

Why? Innovative, well-executed web design.

A well done startup web site will be both visually interesting and immediately informative. It will be clear and easy to follow while still preserving and presenting the spirit of the startup. It can’t take too long to load; one second is a long time to keep a viewer (or potential client, customer, or investor) waiting idly by.

A fantastic example of the importance of good startup web design can be found in a startup that is now one of the most heavily visited websites on Earth: Facebook. Facebook emerged well after MySpace, which for several years prior had been the dominant force in social media on the internet. MySpace, however, was a mess design-wise. The site’s interface was inconsistent, cluttered, and often difficult to decipher. Users were allowed to customize their own pages, leading to a cacophany of bright backgrounds, flashing graphics, and intrusive sound effects. This chaos inspired a feeling that MySpace was perhaps out of control; that in this giant mess of graphics and poorly written HTML, one’s user information might not be totally secure.

Then came Facebook. The site stood out for a number of reasons, but perhaps chief among them was its clean, well-executed design. Facebook had a layout that was consistent and easy to read. The site’s color palette of soft blues laid over white was soothing, simple, and orderly. It also loaded quickly. Most importantly, the consistency of Facebook’s professional design inspired confidence in its users – this would be no free-for-all.

Facebook’s startup web design helped to build the site’s image as something steadfast and trustworthy, and it worked. In the following years, MySpace floundered while Facebook thrived. Much of this can be attributed to the design choices made by the operators of these sites.

If you want your startup to thrive, it’s very important that you contact an expert. Give Interactive Red a look.