For IT projects, an industry study by the Standish Group found that the average cost overrun was 43 percent while 71 percent of projects were over budget. In an agency’s environment, web project costs overruns can have a disastrous effect on the bottom line. Continue reading
People’s use of the mobile web is normally dictated by specific needs at that moment. For example, you may be visiting an unfamiliar city and want to find a pizzeria. This means that marketers are able to reach people at the exact time that they want a particular products or service, anywhere at any time of the day. As such mobile commerce (m-commerce) and location-based advertising are up and coming marketing techniques.
The Smartphone Intelligence Survey 2010 by Karter Media’s Compete found that one-third of smartphone users who searched for local; businesses via mobile ended up visiting or calling the location. A smartphone can be defined as a mobile phone that has advanced functionality such as a camera and is able to access the web, e.g. an iPhone or Blackberry. Continue reading
Writing for the web requires a different approach and style than writing for printed media. People who use the web do not behave like people reading a book. They are usually looking for specific information.
A Neilson Norman Group study found that only 16% of visitors will read a web page word for word, the other 84% simply skip-read the text. Continue reading
Whether due to a client-agency relationship breakdown, insolvency or a random act of God, sooner or later you will be approached to take over the management of a website developed by another web agency.
So, how can you best handle this situation? Well, before you accept the contract and begin work on the site consider these 6 points…
Should your blog be integrated with your website or have a life of its own in the blogosphere? There is no right or wrong answer, it depends on your strategy. Here are the pro’s and con’s to help you decide:
When I plan website projects, I always include a task for creating the meta data for each page. This is part of the planning phase so that when content is created, content editors or/and SEO specialists can easily create the meta data for each page.
This post describes a general approach and defines responsibilities for creating meta tags for inclusion in all of the pages especially the key pages for SEO. Continue reading
Effective project management requires a number of tools and instead of creating your own from scratch, I’ve compiled a range of templates that you can download and adapt to your own needs. If you have any questions on how to use a particular template, please feel free to get in touch. I’ll be more than happy to help where I can.
Please note: I’ve only just created this list and will add templates daily in the coming days, so please check this page regularly.
If the phrase ’301 redirect’ means nothing to you and you’re about to launch your new website, this article will save you a lot of headaches by explaining why you need to know about – and use – 301 redirects when you make major structural changes to your website. Continue reading
A project relies on the joint effort of all those involved, and such a team needs a project manager who communicates on its behalf, ties everything and everyone together to deliver a successful project. But how does the project manager track and measure success whether it’s achieved at the time of closing the project, months after the project is closed or…BOTH?
It may not be the sexiest part of web development, but let’s face it: in many situations, an URL is going to be the first interaction with your website. They might have read it off your business card, on the side of one of your building or a vehicle, or perhaps been given the link to an interesting article by a friend. In this article, we’ll take a look at what makes a good URL, and what the advantages are of having a good URL structure. Continue reading
