As we approach the end of 2011, looking over my Fort Myers web design business, it is easy to see the landscape for web design has clearly altered as the year has progressed.
Just a couple of years back it was common to still see static web sites being produced by many other Fort Myers web design firms and people who offer their own web design services. But with the increased improvement in database driven solutions, static websites are turning into a thing of the past, and more highly educated buyers are looking for CMS (Content Management System) software to be used as a platform for building sites and allowing them to be managed by the clients themselves. The Wordpress CMS has advanced to such an extent that some kinds of customization that would formerly have been considered as most unlikely for these varieties of web sites are now everyday requests to internet designers.
When you're considering having a new website built, it is important to keep under consideration that the way that you design your site is going to be the key to your internet site's success. When we chat about design it isn't just how tasty it is that counts, but the layout and understanding you need to have clear goals of what you need your website to do for you and your business.
When somebody first lands on your site the probabilities of them picking up the telephone and calling you are very slim. Unless you are an emergency plumber or an electrician, then the probabilities are that first time visitors are still in the analysis phase of their buying process. So they most likely have an inventory of web sites that they plan on visiting and yours is one of them. So you want to milk that tiny opportunity that you have got and to instantly grab their attention and to make them aware that you have got something to supply them. If you don't then they're going to leave pretty quickly , probably never to return to your site again.
So the first goal you have must be to get the visitor to leave their contact details so you can make contact with them to promote your services. The planning of your website should leave the visitor with no doubts that you're looking for them to offer you their e-mail. The majority won't though. Unless you are supplying something of price to them in exchange. It could be a free present, some type of report, or perhaps automated updates and information regarding a product or service they are looking out for.
After you capture the contact info you then have to be sure that you chase up promptly, while the interest levels are still high. Think about using an autosponder service, like AWeber, to automatically send an e-mail, or series of emails, right after a prospect has submitted your contact form.
As a Fort Myers Web Design Business we have also spotted fewer folks are requesting Adobe’s Flash technology. Maybe this is due to the fact that favored platforms like Apple’s iPad and iPhone don’t permit Flash videos to be seen on them, so business owners understand that putting key information inside Flash is going to be no use when selling to users of these devices.
Because you cannot view flash files on the iPhone or iPad this has increasingly meant that there's a movement towards the uptake of HTML 5, which allows video functionality on these devices, unlike HTML 4 which would depend on Flash or Microsoft’s Silverlight.
On the surface this sounds like a good thing, because HTML 5 is an open standard, and the Flash format is a closed one. But the reality is that Flash is still much more advanced than the video we will get using HTML 5. It is therefore ironic from my point of view in Fort Myers Web Design, that in some respects web design has taken a backward step in 2011, and that 2012 will much be a process of HTML 5 catching up to capacities that already existed, and which in truth were quite polished, in Flash.
This raises new questions for entrepreneurs targeting having their internet sites be perceivable to the maximum possible number of folk, because it implies if any of their articles has been made in Flash, that they immediately have to start working on an HTML 5 version that's easier viewable by the iPhone and the iPad. For the more straightforward requests like image transitions, which used to only be achievable in Flash, the more advanced web designer can use JavaScript technology to meet these types of goals.
Hence the subject of web design. In 2012 is going to be an interesting one as we sit and wait to see what new marvels await us and to discover how far the bounds can be pushed over the next 12 months.
Keshav Basler is a freelance writer and Fort Myers web designer. As a web designer in Fort Myers, Keshav is lucky enough to get be able to interact with a business owners on an everyday basis and has first hand experience of becoming familiar with what their expectancies are, along with having the ability to help them to understand limits and restrictions of what can now be achieved using the Internet.