As I was sorting through my closet, storing winter clothes and breaking out the summer outfits… I had to laugh. Small Business owners should feel the same way about their site design as I do about the clothes in my closet. Out with the over-sized, heavy stuff… in with the minimalistic, lighter things in preparation for a HOT summer.

While the clothes I wear have everything to do with the seasonal weather, in a lot of ways, so does the design of a successful small business web site. There are a lot of hand held devices being used more this time of year, as people come out of hibernation and bring their internet connections with them! The popularity of the iPad, iPod Touch, and cell phones with web access should be considered when designing your site. (Remember that I’m in Upstate NY, so good weather is something we wait a long time for!)

A quick loading site is always important for visitor satisfaction, obviously… but when your site is being accessed through WiFi on a beach, it’s absolutely necessary! Consider dumping the bloated graphics, updating your scripts, and actually using a wireless device to view your site. Will summer surfers be able to find what they need on your site quickly, or will they leave your site in frustration? What provisions have you made for WAP surfers?

If you’ve never heard of “WAP“, or haven’t even considered what today’s tech savvy surfers are seeing when surfing your site on their wireless devices, contact me for a consultation… or check out some of the links below for more information. I’ll be concentrating on updating current client sites when I’m not out on our Harley-Davidson enjoying some of the long awaited warm weather… in all my re-discovered summer clothes, of course!

WAP and WordPress related links:

• WordPress Mobile Edition – a plugin that shows an interface designed for a mobile device when visitors come to your site on a mobile device. Mobile browsers are automatically detected, the list of mobile browsers can be customized on the settings page.
• WordPress Mobile Pack – The WordPress Mobile Pack is a complete toolkit to help mobilize your WordPress site and blog. It includes a mobile switcher to select themes based on the type of user that is visiting the site, a selection of mobile themes, extra widgets, device adaptation and a mobile administration panel to allow users to edit the site or write new posts when out and about.

Let me know if you’re interested in redesigning your site for summer… lighter graphics, minimalistic design and updated scripts and plug-ins including WAP integration. If there’s interest, perhaps I’ll run a customized design sale

With the announcement that Geocities will no longer be available for domain hosting, I’ve been seeing a lot of inquiries about moving sites to new hosting. The phrase “While we’re at it, I also need…” is all too common these days.

I’m thrilled that I’m receiving so many inquiries, but I wasn’t ready for it. I’ve fixed that though, by adding a “Site Evaluation” form here to help me understand your needs better, starting with our very first contact! If you feel overwhelmed with the amount of information required to fill out that form, just remember that the more complete your answers are, the easier it will be for me to accurately identify your needs.

In the spirit of saving some time, I’ll answer a few “Frequently Asked Questions” here for you that I’ve heard a lot over the past few weeks.

Q: Do you offer hosting?

A: Yes, I include hosting of your sites when you contract me for monthly site maintenance. When you contract with me to maintain your site on (at least) a monthly basis, I will host your site for you at no additional charge. If you don’t require my web site maintenance services, but I design your site for you, I will host your site for $10/month. Please note that I do not offer hosting for non clients.

Q: Can you move my existing web site for me?

A: After you contract me to do so, yes, I can move your site to my hosting or any hosting service of your choice. You will need to provide me the information required to do so, but please only do that once we’ve agreed to contractual terms. I prefer to work with sites that will be hosted on my server due to my familiarity with it’s functionality, and my confidence in it’s security and programming. My agreement to work with another host depends solely on my familiarity with them.

I know that’s only a few items, so if I haven’t covered the question on your mind, feel free to contact me, or comment here on the blog. I’d be happy to help you create, maintain, or move your site!

When using content management scripts, it’s common to experience “altered code” in the content you post. What I mean by this is that sometimes, the “rich text editors” we use (as in WordPress), or the HTML editors (such as Front Page) add textual characters into the coding of the pages that it creates. These extra characters are not only unnecessary, but they can cause serious issues with the way your site functions!

For example, RSS feeds are a great way to offer your visitors an easy way to keep up with your site updates by allowing them to subscribe to your feed with an RSS Reader, such as the Google Reader. (That’s what I use.) However, if your feed isn’t “healthy”, your visitors may become frustrated when they can’t subscribe… resulting in the possibility that they will forget all about your site. *Gasp!*

I recommend checking your RSS feeds on a regular basis to ensure that anyone interested in subscribing to your feed for site updates, is able to. The easiest way to do this is to use the free service over at FeedValidator.com, it’s easy to do, and should be added to your site maintenance tasks.

If your RSS feed is not valid, check the coding of your content. In a WordPress managed site, check the post’s code by going through your dashboard, clicking the post title as if you were going to edit it, and then click the HTML tab to view the code. If you see any strange ACII characters, or HTML code that doesn’t need to be there, remove it and click SAVE. Run your RSS feed through the validator again to make sure you’ve fixed the problem.

This is the type of problem I commonly help design clients solve. If your RSS feeds aren’t validating, and you need help figuring out why, feel free to call me, or contact me. If you’re unfamiliar with HTML code, these things can be tricky to find.

Customer retention is vital to all businesses, and every day that your feed is unavailable to your visitors, you’re missing more and more potential buisness. Keep your site, and your services within your client’s reach… keep your RSS feeds healthy!