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At What Rate Does Your Website Bounce?

Posted on November 13, 2012 by in Development, Optimization, Websites

Contrary to reason, the term “bounce rate” has nothing to do with balls or trampolines. Nor does it have anything to do with bars — but feel free to ask a bouncer what his “bounce rate” is for the evening and see how long it takes him to add you to his numbers.

No, in the world of websites a bounce rate is the number of people who visited the first page of your website and then left without looking at anything else. It’s important to measure and track these types of visits because a high bounce rate generally indicates that people aren’t finding what they’re looking for on your site.

And if people aren’t finding what they’re looking for? That’s a problem.

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How Page Load Time Impacts Your Bottom Line

Posted on October 14, 2012 by in Development, Usability, Websites

We’ve all experienced it: you typed in a URL or clicked a link, and you’re waiting… waiting… still waiting for a page to load. Seconds feel like minutes. And odds are, within a couple seconds, you’re trying to decide – do you want the content enough to wait for it? Or do you hit the [...]

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You’ve Changed. Has Your Website?

Posted on August 28, 2012 by in Branding, Development, Marketing, Optimization, Websites

You can refresh your wardrobe. You can refresh your browser window. You can refresh yourself on a hot day with a cold drink.

Is your website in need of a refresh?

Websites are funny things. We hustle and sweat to put them together, we worry over every word of copy, we put a spit polish on every detail, and then we push them out into the world where they just… sit there. Day in, day out. Maybe you occasionally make an edit here and there, or update your events page with new conference details. But that’s it. You kind of forget about them, because they’re always running in the background, silently doing their jobs.

Until they stop performing quite so well.

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Time Capsule: The Internet A Decade Later

Posted on August 23, 2012 by in Development, Social Media, Social Networks

Quick, do you remember what life was like 10 years ago? I can easily recall sitting at a particle board desk with a gray Hewlett-Packard PC — my feet propped up on the giant, heavy computer tower on the floor. If I wanted to share something with a friend, I had to save the file to a zip disc or burn it to a CD. My mouse was attached to the computer with a cable that continuously got in the way. But what was I clicking on with that mouse? How did I spend my time on the Internet back then?

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Favicons: A Comprehensive Guide to Making and Installing Them

Posted on May 23, 2012 by in Branding, Development, Guide, Optimization

If I didn’t know any better, I’d have to wager a guess that a favicon was a character in a popular children’s video game. But I do know better, since I create favicons for every website we build. And there’s a chance that you, gentle reader, might be here looking to find out how to do just that.

Now, it’s true that there are already a lot of favicon tutorials out there. I saw them all firsthand when a friend recently asked me how to make a favicon for her personal blog, and instead of taking the time to write out a list of instructions, I went in search of a good tutorial to link to. What I found was less than thrilling. Many are outdated, many didn’t answer all of her questions, and — if I may be allowed to show my bias — I just didn’t like ‘em.

Let’s just say I thought it might be time to revisit the topic. So I present to you: a comprehensive guide to making and installing favicons.

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Got Forms? Here’s How to Get the Most Out of Them.

Posted on May 10, 2012 by in Design, Development, Forms, Optimization

Here’s a brain-teaser for you: What do we do on the internet nearly every day — sometimes several times in one day?

(Hint: the answer should not be “stalk an ex’s Facebook profile.” If it is, you may want to move on, already.)

Okay, give up? …

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