Internet Insights
Understand the Process, Measure the Results
Insite Creations Logo
  • Home

Archive for Web Design Tips

Who ate my Breadcrumbs?

By Jemma Fong · Comments (0)
Thursday, May 1st, 2014

This month’s theme topic is Website Features, so this blog post will be covering a feature that many sites still implement in their websites to give a more robust user experience for finding your important information.

Breadcrumbs …

Do you utilize breadcrumb navigation in your website? What is it? Perhaps you are picturing a little mouse crawling around your website pages following the breadcrumbs because he knows it will lead to the cheese. (Who moved the Cheese? – my favourite book on “Change Management”) In web terminology it simply is that. Breadcrumbs is a navigation format that leads the site visitor down a path/trail, easily spelt out where they came from and where they are currently at, in the relation to the website’s hierarchy. Typically this format of navigation is found in larger sites that have lots of deep content laid out in subpages. I came across a pretty good article on the benefits and best practices of using breadcrumbs. He also covered a lot of good examples. Some highlights include:

  • Breadcrumbs eliminates additional clicks
  • Visually pleasing
  • Reduce your overall bounce rates
  • It is best to position your breadcrumbs consistently at the top of your content throughout each page of your site
  • Do not use breadcrumbs as a primary navigation

Check it out here, http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/breadcrumb-navigation-examined-best-practices-examples/ WordPress Users: If your website is built on the WordPress Platform here are some suggested Breadcrumb plugins:

  • http://wordpress.org/plugins/breadcrumb-navxt/  Click here for reviews
  • https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/breadcrumbs/ (hasn’t been updated in 2 years, may not be supported anymore)
  • http://wordpress.org/plugins/rdfa-breadcrumb/  Click for reviews
Sample of breadcrumb hierarchy       Another breadcrumb example

So what formats of navigation do you currently use and have you considered using breadcrumbs in your website? Consider having a discussion of the pros and cons of using breadcrumbs in your site with your in-house web team or web developer.

If you need help installing or reviewing whether they could be helpful for your site,
book a consultation with Jemma.

Listen to this Post
Comments (0)
Categories : Development Ideas, Web Design Tips, Website Features
Tags : breadcrumb navigation

Generating Leads – using Squeeze Pages

By Jemma Fong · Comments (0)
Wednesday, November 6th, 2013

What is a Squeeze Page?

According to Wikipedia, it is a squeeze page created to solicit opt-in email addresses from prospective subscribers and typically for something in return. (an ethical offer)

Benefits:

  • Gives you a chance to offer customers something different, something that’s not available to everyone
  • Helps build a targeted list of email leads
  • Can be implemented in any web format – on web page, in social platforms, within a video embed

Types of Squeeze Pages:

  • Event or Pre-Launch pre-registration (for webinars, seminars, product launches etc.)
  • Social Like campaigns
  • Video campaigns
  • Downloads

What it should include:

  • Description
  • Offer
  • Testimonials
  • Packages
  • Simple, clean design

Sample of Webinar Squeeze Page

Sample of Webinar Register Page

simple-squeeze-page

Sample of a Simple Squeeze Page

Sample of a video squeeze page

Sample of a Video Lead Generation Page

Sample of a Facebook Fan Squeeze Page

Sample of a Facebook Fan Page

Software that offer lead generation campaigns

  • instapages
  • leadpages
  • infusionsoft 
  • marketo

Grow your leads — Get started with creating your campaign today!

Call Jemma 416-451-2063 if you need help with a marketing strategy and campaign execution.

Listen to this Post
Comments (0)
Categories : Training, Web Design Tips
Tags : landing pages, marketing campaigns, opt-in, squeeze pages

My top 7 awesome content strategies

By Jemma Fong · Comments (0)
Thursday, August 15th, 2013

frustrated writer, writers block
By Jemma Fong

  1. Pick out your top “frequently asked” questions your clients ask of you. Elaborate with explaining the challenge your clients face, your assessment of the situation, your possible solution and then follow it up with either a testimonial or measurement result.
  2. Take an evergreen existing blog post article and re-purpose in a different format. You can either illustrate it, video or audio prepare. Make sure to include the transcript for 100% accessibility. People have different ways to absorb things, especially if deep understanding is required to fulfill a purchase. Example facts and figures can be turned into infographics or an article teaching about a “how-to” can be re-formulated into a video or podcast.
  3. Think of your product/service offering and see how you can tie it in with something either seasonal, weather or news related that helps your client find relational cause or interest to their specific needs of engagement. In other words make sure your message is targeted at specific timelines of the buying process. (Including post purchase follow up). Example, discuss a current event of say a corporate security leak and tie in the importance for even small business and entrepreneurs and their need to protect themselves from hi-tech security breaches.
  4. Myth busting is a quick easy to comprehend lesson that aids your customers to better understanding of your product/service offering. Help them to buy wiser. Example, setting things straight, outlining where some wives tales (or beliefs) may not be as we thought and following up with hard facts and figures.
  5. Benefits, benefits, benefits. Go beyond just bullet point listing of the benefits of a particular product or service offering. Reach deep into the emotional reasoning of why a customer/client is in need… Make it easy by relating the benefit directly with the emotional aspects of the challenge the client is facing. Example: numbers and paperwork give me headache, the thought of going through my receipts is enough to drive me nuts. But if a bookkeeper wrote a blog article on the ease of which she would unload those overwhelming boxes of receipts into her capable hands, this article would peak my interest.
  6. Book/white paper/webinar industry-related reviews. People’s opinions are always a good way to position yourself as a leading expert in your field. It also is a good way to engage feedback, because others like to either agree or refute your opinion. Make sure at the end of your article that you pose a question out to the audience for instant feedback.
  7. Industry-related Trending Topics. With the help of Google Trends and Google keyword Adwords, look up some keyword phrases related to your industry, offerings or clients challenges. Make sure to review or forecast what keywords people are mostly using in your topic area. Elaborate on any of these relevant top 10 keyword phrases. Don’t forget forecasting out to see when the best time it is to be writing about that particular keyword phrase.

If writing is really not your forté, then ask us about our partnership with some excellent content writers who will craft your message to maximize search engine opportunities and reach out to your target audience.

Listen to this Post
Comments (0)
Categories : Web Design Tips
Tags : articles, content repurposing, Content writing

Image Optimization

By Jemma Fong · Comments (0)
Thursday, June 20th, 2013

By Jemma Fong

Tech – Tip: Changing Image Resolution

If you are self-editing your website either through a content management system, or blog, or even creating from scratch, HTML; it is best to prepare your images before loading them onto your website. We call this “optimizing your images”. Many images that are coming from your phone camera or SLR/DLR camera shoot at higher resolutions, which is great for printing, but resolution size for web should only be around 72 d.p.i. (dots per inch). If you don’t have photo editor software, consider using FREE online service like www.pixlr.com. By changing the resolution, it help speed up the download of the image on the viewers side.

Cropping or resizing image width and height, does not change resolution. Only by physically reducing the image quality, will you be reducing the size.  When you are cropping or resizing, always remember to keep the same width and height ratio proportions constrained, so that if you change one side, the other will follow in tandem accordingly.  Some Content Management Systems like WordPress offers you inline editorial resizing capabilities within the editor. So if you forget to do it before, or if you feel your image is too big for the post, it can be altered as you edit. (see other tutorial about cropping and adjusting height and width of images within WordPress) But you cannot change the resolution from WordPress, you need to use pixlr or other image editing such as photoshop.

Changing resolution size in Pixlr

Change slider to adjust resolution

 

Listen to this Post
Comments (0)
Categories : Web Design Tips
Tags : d.p.i., images, optimizing, resizing, resolution

E-Business Publications Recently Published

By Jemma Fong · Comments (0)
Thursday, May 9th, 2013

By Jemma Fong

Advanced e‑business topics ebiz-publications

A year ago, after 4-months of extensive research, planning, writing, editing, and rewriting, my colleagues, Susan Baka & Allyson Ward of Bay Communications, Liz Valentine of Valentine Dimensions and myself worked collectively to produce 8 publications and PowerPoint presentations for the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade eBiz section of their website. This week these publications have now been made available online. It is good to see them in their final format. This project was a good experience but deadlines were tight. It was my first time writing and as the technical consultant for this project, it was an opporunity for me to bring my expertise of the web to the table. Click http://bit.ly/146t9dJ to view the publications.

  • Creating a Dynamic Web Presence

Small businesses can easily create more interactive sites to engage their target audiences.

  • E-Commerce: Purchasing and Selling Online

Includes tips and strategies for attracting, serving and keeping your online customers.

  • Social Media Marketing

Focuses on using social media (Web 2.0) techniques to promote your business online.

  • Cloud Computing

Describes cloud computing and explains the benefits, concerns, types of cloud computing and what to consider when moving your business to the cloud.

  • Blogs for Small Business

Focuses on the opportunities, benefits and how to’s of creating a successful blog to market your business.

  • Successful Online Display Advertising

Discusses techniques to advertise your business over the Internet.

  • Increasing Traffic to Your Website Through Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Techniques

Examines techniques to increase the volume of traffic to your website from potential customers using search engines.

  • Integrating Mobile with Your Marketing Strategy

Explains how small businesses can integrate mobile with their marketing strategies to gain an edge in reaching out to and strengthening relationships with customers.

 

Listen to this Post
Comments (0)
Categories : How To..., Latest Works, Training, Web Design Tips
Tags : E-Business, Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade, publications, small business

New Facebook Timeline Cover Rules

By Jemma Fong · Comments (0)
Sunday, April 7th, 2013

FB-cover-Changes

Revised rules regarding FB cover image:

If you recall when Facebook rolled out the new cover image there were tons of rules to adhere to, but this week, these rules have changed. So what are the new rules:

  1. We still have restriction cannot have more than 20% of text in the image. Tool
  2. All other rules pretty much gone, for example, CTAs (Call to Action can be put on), pricing allowed, URL to links, Contact info all OK
  3. Covers cannot be deceptive, misleading or infringe on anybody’s copyright.

More flexibility for marketing, but don’t push your fans off.

Update 2015: 

Sizes have changed, measurements in pixels:

Cover Photo 851 x 315
Profile photo 180 x 180
Tab 111 x 74
Link Image 1200 x 627
Shared Image 1200 x 1200

 

Listen to this Post
Comments (0)
Categories : Web Design Tips
Tags : Facebook, timeline covers
Next Page »
Internet Insights
Copyright © 2025 All Rights Reserved