Mo

Content for mobile

July 23, 2015 By Mo

LOVE the article by Dan Scott for econsultancy about golden rules for responsive web design as he mentions content first for mobile (also because it talks about hierarchy of content, but that’s another post). So many times the website gets to content ready stage and the content doesn’t fit the design or no-one has thought about it, so the old site’s content gets ported across to the new site and “we’ll review it later” (which never happens).

What is the point in paying a lot of money for a web site redesign if you don’t put new content in it? How is the old content going to make the new website work for you any better than the last one?

I don’t believe this is the job of your web designer/ digital agency, unless you have paid them to draw up your digital strategy/ content strategy or to copywrite for you. If you’ve paid them to provide SEO services, this makes them semi-responsible to at least prompt you into a content plan so that they can review it for optimisation purposes. If you’ve not agreed any of the above, the onus is on you, the business owner, to organise the plan or pay someone with the knowledge to do it for you.

Logo design and re-design

July 17, 2015 By Mo

Which comes first, the chicken or the logo?

I can’t tell you how often I have come close to the end of a web project, or even published it only to be told “we’ve decided to change our logo”. At which point any halfway decent graphic designer will sigh heavily. Why?

Logos are a focal point for website design

There should be a cascade effect from the logo which should not only clearly show the company name, but also set the tone (through font, colour and shape) to attract your target audience. These elements will have been echoed throughout the design and you change them late in the day at risk of having a logo that looks like it doesn’t belong to a design or having to redesign from scratch (usually at a cost).

What do you need to brief your branding designer on?

See above (ideally before your website re-launch even begins). Who is your target audience, what do you want to say to them, how do you want your company to come across? What information will they look to find on your website and which pieces of information are most important (usps)?

What have these got to do with your logo?

Everything! A good graphic designer worth his salt will pitch the logo perfectly in terms of fonts, colours (the psychology of colour is fascinating), and idents to get that message across to your customer in the right voice and in the right format for a variety of purposes.

Multiple domain name registrations

July 12, 2015 By Mo

I’ve seen an insane tendency in myself and other business owners to register domain names “in case I might use them at a later date”. New TLDs are being invented all the time and they can cause a mad rush to register mybusinessname.whatever and ridiculous amounts of money change hands for that domain name you must have. But must you?

Top level domains

If you have definite plans to use a domain name for a project or product in the future, then there is a good reason to register one. If you want to protect your intellectual property across a number of regions, you may even want to think about registering a number of domains with different internet or country-code TLD (top level domain) endings.

Right to register domains

A couple of years ago, my customers commonly had emails or calls from purported registrars (not all of them genuine) in China asking them if they were happy to release their right to e.g. domainname.cn as the authorities required them to approach firms who might have a right to claim them in the future. There have also been some high profile UK dispute cases, as registration in the UK at least, is on a first-come, first-serve basis (unless malicious registration can be proven). Both cause for thought about whether you should register a domain name, or not.

In all cases, think about the business case for the domain.

Don’t spend a fortune registering and renewing domain names unnecessarily.