Author Archives: Eric Wolf

Mobile-designed Sites

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Do you use a smartphone? A recent survey shows that 46% of Americans own smartphones (Pew Research, March 1, 2012). In the USA, 101 million people (13+ years old) use smartphones, and almost 50 million report that they use their mobile browser (TechCrunch, March 6, 2012). Are we making it easy for these web surfers to view our sites?

We all use smartphones to view websites differently than we do on our desktop or even laptop computers. Mobile browsers are used for shorter, more targeted browsing. When we’re away and have a few moments of wait time, we pull out our smartphone and check a website (or app, or game!).

When mobile browsing, we are looking for what’s new, to find directions or a phone number, or to catch a quick (meaning short!) read that we’ve been meaning to get to, or to link with something that catches our eye, i.e., specific to one’s location. Been meaning to buy a product? Want to register for that event? Need to pay that invoice? All can easily be done by a visitor accessing your website via their smartphone.

smartphone

easy to read and navigate

Mobile devices have constraints different from desktop/laptop browsing. Smartphones, due to their much smaller size and cellular network, have a lesser rate of data throughput (bandwidth); they just don’t download pages as quickly. Obviously they have a smaller screen size.

Well-designed sites show well on mobile browsers. Mobile-designed sites go a step further to present the information in a way that displays even better on the mobile screen, and may not present all of the pages, large images, or the entire information presented on the ‘normal’ site. Typically mobile pages are presented in a one-column format rather than a typical two- or three-column design. Navigation is also treated differently for easier clicking.

ActiveCanvas builds mobile sites using the same content as the conventional site (so there’s no duplication) and without adding a lot of code that needs to be downloaded (so there’s not extra download time). The mobile sites are responsive to the needs of mobile users, and any extra code stays on the server- not on the mobile device.

Got your smartphone handy? Check out our site (www.activecanvas.com) on your mobile browser. Let us know what you think, and let us know what smartphone you are using.

Hosted Exchanges

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If you are reading this, it’s a given that you have at least one email account; many of us have more than one. Those in the corporate world have an IT department behind them to manage their email and their business contacts and calendar programs.

Professionals and small businesses typically do not have the luxury of an IT department to support their information infrastructure. Yet their business information (email, contacts, and calendar) is critical to the success – not to mention viability – of their business. To add to the complexity and vulnerability of a small business, we have not just office desktop computers but also laptops, notebooks, iPads, and smartphones all of which we use to keep us in contact with our lifeblood- our customers and business relationships.

A hosted exchange is a cloud-based service, which means that it can be accessed 24×7 from any of our connected devices; all that is required is an Internet connection and an account. It allows one to access all their business information on any of their connected devices. Multiple email accounts, contacts, and calendar. Sounds easy- sign me up!

Set-up is the hard part – getting them all connected seamlessly takes a knowledgeable professional. However once a system is set-up and properly working, it provides good reliable service including back-ups to protect your mission-critical data.

Recently we helped a client configure multiple email addresses, several hundred contacts and calendar to a desktop, smartphone, and laptop. Another client reports that his system is ‘a thousand times better than before’; we helped him configure a single email address, 1700 contacts and his business calendar simultaneously to his office computer, his iPad and his iPhone. With hosted exchange service professionals and small businesses no longer are at an information deficit to large corporate enterprises.

It’s a technology that no mobile professional or small business owner should overlook.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

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Let’s face it, “googling” is now part of the English language.
Google is the top ranking search engine, so now the name of the game is to have your site top-ranked on Google.
It doesn’t hurt to have top ranking at Yahoo!, AOL, and MSN either.

But today, ensuring your site appears in top positions in search engine results isn’t a do-it/forget-it proposition.
It takes time and diligence to manually insert the right algorithms into your index and relevant pages
that will get your site noticed and picked up by the Open Project Directory and other major search engines.

It’s time consuming, tedious work that can pay off in big ways. It requires the skill to push the limits without pushing too far and having your site banned for life.

Why it’s important to website design

The objective is to ensure that your customers find you

Potential customers find your site before they find your competition

How we do it

SEO is a blend of technical savvy with effective copywriting. While nothing short of 24/7 vigilance can ensure a site will always come out on top, a few practical strategies can and do make a difference:

  • Create a ranking strategy that meets your goals
  • Write skillfully crafted and relevant site copy
  • Build effective site architecture
  • Create and encode relevant page titles and descriptions
  • Register your site with top search engines
  • Submit your site manually to the top search engines
  • Find relevant directories and submit your site

What can we do for you?

We can create keywords or phrases in page titles and headings with the proper keyword density and link usage, then create links from all respected search sources so you have a large number of links pointing to your site. We manually submit everything, and report significant changes in your listing on a regular basis. If your listings fall, we optimize your site to bring it back to top rankings.