Made For Speed!

July 9, 2010 By Jill Leave a Comment

So here is the latest in the continuing reach to be on page 1 in Google! Speed Matters!

Straight from Google’s world in the ever important Webmaster Tools we get the following:

Google’s goal is to provide users with the most relevant results and a great user experience. Fast sites increase user satisfaction and improve the overall quality of the web (especially for those users with slow internet connections), and we hope that as webmasters improve their sites, the overall speed of the web will improve…
It shows you the average page load time for pages in your site, the trend over the last few months, and some suggestions on how to make the pages load faster. Page load time is the total time from the moment the user clicks on a link to your page until the time the entire page is loaded and displayed in a browser.

The last paragraph of that quote refers to the Site Performance tool in the Google Webmaster Tools. If you do not have a Google Webmaster Tools account – I HIGHLY suggest you get one! It has some great information to help you achieve better results for your site in the search engines.

In regards to speed some things that can have an adverse affect are (there are of course more, but these are the basics without getting too techy):

  • Slideshows or flash animations – these drain web resources
  • Too many CSS files – these are the files that control the look and feel of your site, too many of these files mean more work for the search engines to load them all – consolidation is best!
  • Using the write image files! GIF images are for images with a few colors only – logos, text and line art. JPG is good for images with lots of detail and colors like photographs. PNG is a format that is specifically for website use and is for use with transparent and non transparent images. When saving ANY image you must save the image in a web sized version. Images are one of the biggest reason for slow loading pages!
  • Your host! If you are hosting with a company like GoDaddy on a basic plan this CAN be affecting your site speed. GoDaddy’s shared hosting means you are sharing a server with thousands of other websites, this can wreak havoc on your site.

Here are a few other tools that can help you evaluate your site speed beside the Google Webmaster Site Performance Tool:

  • Page Speed – this is a Firefox Add On
  • YSlow – a free tool from Yahoo also a Firefox Add On
  • WebPagetest – offers data on site load performance

So how can site speed directly affect you?

  1. If your site loads too slow – visitors WILL leave and find a site that loads faster
  2. There is a direct relation to the speed of your site and what visitors feel about the overall satisfaction of the site – remember you have about only a couple of seconds to catch their interest, if a site takes more than this to load you have already lost them – forever.
  3. Slower sites will start to see themselves slipping in the search engines
  4. Faster sites are more easily indexed by Google – improving your search engine placement
  5. Many customers really want slideshows and flash on their home pages – we usually discourage this. The home page is your critical point and slideshows and animations drain site speed.

Site speed is not easy for beginners to understand, but it is an important thing you should learn!  It just a small portion of the website owner experience! :-)

Filed Under: Search Engines

Creating Consumer Confidence – Verisign

July 1, 2010 By Jill Leave a Comment

The biggest obstacle for an e-commerce website is the ability to “convert a sale” – meaning how to get to get that customer to finish a sale! Verisign has created a helpful white paper that covers the basics of how to create consumer confidence that will help you turn a browser into a buyer.

Here are some interesting statistics from the paper:

  • In 2007 66% of the online population made a purchase online.
  • In 2009 that number jumped to 75%
  • In March of 2000 this number was only 48%

See the increase? This data comes from Pew Internet Research.

When asked about their feelings while going online, most Internet users indicate they have felt eagerness (53%), relief (63%), or confidence (79%). Of concern, however, is the 21% of Internet users already shopping on the Web who indicate a lack of confidence that they “will make the right purchase decision.” In addition, feelings of being overwhelmed (30%), confused (32%), or frustrated (43%) affect Internet users, as measured in the Pew surveys. Even one of these feelings can undermine the confidence that shoppers want and need to make buying on the Web a habit.

One of the most amazing statistics we saw was the reference that 75% of internet users say the do not like giving their credit card number or personal information online. This is a BIG number and should really clarify the importance of making sure you have a completely encrypted website that is PCI Compliant and that has seals of trust located in a prominent location.

The report addresses some great topics including design. layout and website features that promote confidence in shoppers! Definitely a must read!

Click here to view The Verisign Creating Consumer Confidence PDF report.

Filed Under: Ecommerce News

New Launch – Cupcake Kid Cafe

June 21, 2010 By Jill Leave a Comment

Congratulations Rachel!

cupcake-kid-cafe

Rachel is a 7 year old who absolutely loves to cook! She has wanted her own website for quite a long time and now she has one! Cupcake Kid Cafe is an adorable site featuring soft colors and a simple design that allows both kids and parents to focus on the fun! Created on Wordpress, the site is easy to manage and has lots of great features to allow Rachel to grow!

We wish you the best of luck Rachel!

Filed Under: Website Launches

Why Web Design Is Not Cheap!

June 9, 2010 By Jill 5 Comments

OK, this has been covered before by other much more expensive web designers, but I wanted to really focus on why web design costs what it does.

I charge what I think is fair for my customer service, programing skill level, design capabilities and overall business experience.

Not all web designers have owned and sold an e-commerce website, to me that is worth something to my clients. Not many will offer any help above and beyond what is written in the contract without charging for it – I often do. Very few will answer emails within hours of receipt – I do.

These are just a few reasons I charge a little more!

Here are some other things that make web design costly which many clients are not aware of:

1) Consultation Time – I know my clients will vouch for me in saying I spent MANY hours on the phone consulting on everything from design layout to marketing to SEO. Not all web designers will do this – but the good ones will help a bit.

2) Education – I am useless to you if I do not keep up on the latest trends in web design and online resources. Think Facebook Integration – Social Marketing etc. These things change DAILY. A good web designer will spend many hours a week reading and absorbing the latest trends in design and technology. When I keep up with these new trends I can better create a site with features that are relevant to your industry.

3) Research – With every client I will research their industry – evaluate the top competition and find the best of the best in terms of industry related websites. This will give me a competitive edge in creating a standout design.

4) Design – Have you tried to design a website lately? It is not easy! On average to create 2-3 design mockups I average 10-15 hours of work – this does not include the edits after the client chooses their favorite design!

5) Programming – OK, to me this is the easiest part for a typical site, but can still take about 20-25 hours. This includes the complete design integration, setting up all ecommerce components such as shipping and merchant, setting up the extra pages – basically everything EXCEPT product input!

6) Testing – A GOOD web developer will do full browser testing as well as make sure CSS and HTML are valid. This can take many hours as well. I test on a MAC and on a PC in all browsers as well as place several test orders using a variety of situations such as logged in, as a guest, pay by paypal, pay by check etc. The more features you offer the longer this takes. Testing is the step that many web developers skip in order to save time.

I have closely tracked my last 4 full web design projects from the writing up of the contract to receipt of final payment and sign off on project. You know what I realized? On average I invest 110 hours in EVERY web design project I do.  Yes, that is almost 3 FULL weeks.

And these were pretty basic sites. No fancy javascript or custom coding, which of course brings the cost and hours up.

Think about how much you would want to make for 3 full weeks worth of work.

With that said – please remember web design is NOT easy. And if you require a web designer who really cares and will be glad to help you, it may cost a little more.

Yes, there are designers that can do an e-commerce site for under $1,000. But if quality is an issue I would not go that route and I will give you examples of why in another post!

So what are your thoughts? Is charging $2500 for an e-commerce design just insane? (Yes, I have been told that it is!) – should I be charging more?

Filed Under: Web Design Planning

Top Web Designer Excuses!

May 28, 2010 By Jill 1 Comment

Since most of my clients have come to me after having not so great web design experiences, I have decided to list the top  funny lines I have heard that web designers have used to either make excuses for not getting a job done or for shoddy work!

6. “My kid was sick”

OK, we get that you have a life outside of web design and clearly the kids are your first priority, but apparently some web designers use this excuse a little too often. If you are a web designer who wants to use this excuse – then be sure you note down when you used it and on what client, because if your child is sick every week for a month as in the case of one of my clients – the client will begin to think you are as bad a parent as you are a designer.

5. “You were supposed to get back to me”

So, your client needs to get you some information? You better be sure that is what your last email to them says then! And hey, if they do not get you the information – there is such a thing as follow up! Remember – this is YOUR client and they are looking to you for guidance!

4. “I did not realize you would need those features and I will have to bill you more for them.”

Hmm…wouldn’t you ask your client what their needs are BEFORE you start a project so they can get an accurate quote of services and not be getting hit with surprise add-ons.? And since when is SSL a feature that you need to bill extra for? If you are designing e-commerce websites shouldn’t you know that SSL needs to be installed?

3 “My Internet connection is down”

Very possibly true, but has to be the most overused excuse on the Internet. And if I see that you were posting on Facebook or Twitter they days you told me you were down – we may have an issue!

2 “You do not need images on your home page, text is better for search engines.”

This one amazes me as a web designer! Yes, content is king. But if you are designing an e-commerce site and telling a client they do not need images on the home page – then you have no business doing web design. Just my thoughts of course!

1 “You are not my only client you know!”

WOW!!!  I would fire the designer right there.

Let me know some other excuses you have hard in the past. I would love to hear other great excuses and add them to this list.

But I also hope you can learn from this! Do your due diligence before hiring ANYONE to do your site! There are a lot of great web design freelancers and companies, but sometimes you have to weed through the bad ones to find them!

Filed Under: Useless Information

New Launch – The SoapBoxco.com

May 26, 2010 By Jill Leave a Comment

Ecommerce Web Design for The Soapbox CompanyJennifer from the SoapBoxco.com came to 2 Dogs Design dreaming of a website that had more features and better overall functionality in helping to manage her site.  The existing site was built on a basic cart system that just did not meet her needs.

We made her dreams a reality!

She already had an AMAZING design, which was created by Magnus Media, so she just needed us to program the design into a new cart. We offered our favorite cart – Zen-Cart as an option, reviewed the strengths of the cart, and she went with it.

The site was completed in April 2010 and the client is thrilled with her new site, the flexibility in cross selling products, offering coupons and sales and a variety of other features she never had is giving her the ability to further grow her business!

And, on a personal note – her products ROCK! I ordered the whipped soap, a course soap by Villainess and a facial moisturizer and LOVE everything!

Visit the SoapBoxCo.com

Filed Under: Website Launches

Add A Facebook Like Button to Zen Cart Product Pages

May 18, 2010 By Jill Leave a Comment

With the latest trend in using social marketing it is almost a must to make your site as socially enabled as possible! The LIKE button by Facebook is a must have if you want your products to get shared and noticed and is pretty easy to integrate into your Zen Cart product page.

Via FTP you will need to download your tpl_product_info_display file which should be in your \includes\templates\YOUR CUSTOM TEMPLATE\templates folder, where YOUR CUSTOM TEMPLATE is the name of your custom template folder. If you do not see it in there, then download the version at \includes\templates\template_default\templates.

Once you download the file open it with a text editor such as Wordpad or Notepad (do not use Word or any other word processing software!)….then insert the following code where you want the LIKE button to appear.

<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=<?php echo urlencode(zen_href_link(zen_get_info_page((int)$_GET['products_id']),'cPath='.(int)$_GET['cPath'].'&products_id=' . (int)$_GET['products_id'])); ?>&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=false&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:40px"></iframe>

Then save the file and re upload it to \includes\templates\YOUR CUSTOM TEMPLATE\templates folder, where YOUR CUSTOM TEMPLATE is the name of your custom template folder.

In the sample image shown below the above code was placed just above this piece of code in the tpl_product_info_display.php file so the LIKE button would appear above the product title:

<!--bof Product Name-->
<h1 id="productName"><?php echo $products_name; ?></h1>
<!--eof Product Name-->

You can change a couple of things if you need to!

1. show_faces=false — Change to true if you want the widget to display the thumbnail photos of those who have ‘liked’ your product.
2. colorscheme=light – Change to dark if your page is dark in color.
3. height:40px — This was arbitrarily chosen. If you choose to display ‘faces’, then you should increase to height of the widget (80px or more).

We have personally tested this on Zen Cart versions 1.3.8 and 1.3.9b and it works with both.

Filed Under: Zen Cart TIps

Zen Cart Upgrade to 1.3.9

April 25, 2010 By Jill Leave a Comment

Zen Cart has released a new version which comes complete with a LOT of must have features. Below is a full list of the new improvements and fixes, the most important are in orange.

If you would like us to do your upgrade your Zencart site, our standard fee is $65. If your site is heavily modded it may be more. Formal quotes are provided before any work is completed. Please contact us at 732.241.5365 if you would like to be scheduled in for your update. If you are a former 2 Dogs Design client the fee is $50 flat!

  • PHP 5.3.x compatibility
  • PCI scan improvements to prevent commonly-reported false-positives
  • SSL-detection improvements
  • Session Handling improvements for shared-SSL configurations to deal with IE-specific quirks
  • Session-Handler improvements: closing when done, removed redundant start, etc
  • Search improvements
  • Hack-attempt detection improvements
  • Add .htaccess for /images/ folder, and security updates to many others as well
  • Canonical URL support added for product pages and product listings. See /includes/init_includes/init_canonical.php
  • Developer Toolkit Improvements (smarter searches, case-sensitive options, etc)
  • USPS module updated to RateV3 API and includes all updates posted to April 2010
  • PayPal UK – 3D-Secure support added
  • PayPal micropayments support added
  • Added CURL processing for PayPal IPN handling in case fsockopen() is disabled or failing
  • Various updates to PayPal, Linkpoint (now renamed to FirstData) and Authnet Payment modules
  • Split tax line support integrated
  • Added per-EZ-page stylesheet support
  • Fix ISO country/currency errors in default SQL file (old countries removed, etc)
  • Fixes/updates/additions of various notifier calls
  • MySQL 6-alpha preliminary compatibility
  • Updates to spiders.txt file for stronger efficiency and more up-to-date data
  • Improvements to configure.php file read-only detection (automatically sets to read-only if found writable, and permissions allow it)
  • Various performance improvements, including freeing up wasted memory to make things run more lean
  • PHP error logging automatically enabled by default, since errors are not displayed to the browser (for security reasons) (Log cleanup can be done from admin side via Store Manager)
  • Turn off autocomplete on cc-number fields so browsers don’t store/retrieve that information
  • Spam slamming via tell-a-friend is now throttled
  • Admin-login-slamming protection – added delays to prevent brute-force password attacks
Filed Under: Zen Cart News
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