Further Reading

Enjoy, eh!

Should You Use Facebook to Promote Your Business?

If you find yourself wondering what kind of Facebook presence, if any, your company should have, here are some questions you can ask yourself to help you figure out your strategy.

How Mini Case Studies Can Help Boost Your SEO

Looking for some ideas on how to add good, useful content to your website while improving SEO?
Mini case studies might be an ideal solution, especially if you're short on time.

The Value of a Fully-Managed Web Site Service

Make your web site really work for you.
With a fully-managed web site service, you can make your web site work hard for you while saving time and cost.

Writing Good Case Studies

If you're looking to communicate information about your business in a compelling and relatable way, consider posting some real-life customer success stories on your website.
Case studies can help you explain how your product or service can be used to achieve a particular goal or solve a problem.

Why Flash and Touch Screens Don't Mix

Think a 'Flashy' redesign of your website will help attract more visitors? You may want to reconsider your strategy.
A Flash-driven site could actually be an obstacle to getting more website traffic – especially if you're trying to reach people who access your site using their iPads and other touch screen mobile devices.

Emailing on the Go

Keep up with your business emails while you're on the go, while making it look like you're still sitting at your office computer.

Getting the Menu Bar Right

What is the best option for your menu bar?
Placing your navigation system (menu bar) down the left side of the page is the best option for several reasons.

Using Social Media for Business

You can stop feeling guilty.
If you are not already using social networking on a social level, it is probably not the best way for you to promote your business.

How Much Should I Expect to Pay for a Web Site?

It is useful to think of buying a web site as similar to buying a car.
Many new web site owners really have no idea how much to budget for a web site. Larger companies often pay way too much, while smaller ones often try to get away with paying too little.

Why Redesign Your Web Site?

It is a common misconception that a redesign (changing the look of a web site) will improve a site's performance.
The questions we hear most about redesign (besides cost) at Back2Front are:

• Will a redesign help me get more clients?
• Will a redesign help my site's SEO?
• My marketing guy says I need a redesign to improve conversion rates. Will this work?

The answer to all of these questions is usually no, but let me explain why...

What Exactly Are Keywords?

How should keywords be used in a web site?
Keywords, and how they are used, are often misunderstood, and we get lots of questions about them at Back2Front. First, what exactly are keywords? Think of the words you type into the Google search field to find something on the Internet: those are keywords.

The Case for Web Site Outsourcing

Until recently, larger companies (75-plus employees) assumed that a full marketing and IT department would be a necessary overhead expense and that these departments would manage the company web site on a joint basis. Due to recent economic conditions, businesses across the country have found it necessary to cut back on overhead. Marketing and IT departments have been slashed. Outsourcing the company web site is now a necessity. But really, outsourcing was always the better choice...

The Home Page

Making your most important page count
Your home page is important because it is the page on which the following crucial decision is made: Is this web site relevant?
If your home page does not supply the information you think a potential client will need in order to decide to stay on the site, in a way that can be easily and quickly assimilated, then your home page has failed its most important task.

How Do You Know If Your Web Site Is Good For Your Company?

By first answering the question: "Why do you have a web site?"
Knowing why you have a web site in the first place will go a long way in helping you decide what kind of web site you need, or whether or not the web site you already have is good for your business.

Web Site Navigational Systems

Seven rules to help you avoid the most common web site mistakes!
The most common mistakes made in web sites today are the improper use of hyperlinks and poorly-designed navigational systems.

More Web Site Navigation

Five reasons to avoid using "Click Here" for links
"Click Here" are two words that you want to banish entirely from your web site, and we've got five good reasons why you should do it now.

More Web Site Navigation

The peril of in-page links
Linking to other pages on your site is essential, but if you're using in-page links, you may want to re-think your strategy for user-friendliness reasons.

Size Matters

Web site width, scrolling and why web sites are not TV shows (September 2007)
This superficial, design-centric "TV" idea, that web sites are for flashy passive entertainment and that no one actually reads any more, is dangerous for business web sites.

Fonts for Web Sites

Unlike documents fit for print, web sites cannot be formatted with complete rigidity.
Nowhere is this principle more clearly observed than in the selection of fonts a web designer may choose for a site.

Focus for Success!

Why turning away less-than-ideal clients improves your chances
The Back2Front business model is used as an example to illustrate how keeping your focus can increase your chances for success. From a speech given at the BWNA Durham's networking meeting in 2005.

Writing for the Web: Chapter One

Catering to web surfer types
There are two basic types of "web surfers," or human visitors to your web site: scanners and researchers. Although the needs of these two types of surfers may appear to be diametrically opposed, there is no need to sacrifice one for the other. Both types of surfers can result in new business if you know how to write your web site to appeal to them.

Domain Names: Part One

The art and science of choosing a domain name
Choosing a domain name is one of the first tasks one must undertake when getting a new web site. The name you choose could have a significant impact on the future success of the web site, and as a result, on your business. But as with other marketing decisions, this choice is made with more art than science.

Domain Names: Part Two

Domain scooping: don't get fooled!
For most people, domain name registration and renewal is something done only rarely (once per year, max), so the details of the registration could easily be forgotten in the interval. Unscrupulous companies can take advantage of this if you are not aware.

Domain Names: Part Three

Using multiple domain names
Did you know that it is possible to have any number of domain names pointing to the same web site? You can have them all point to the home page (which is most common), or in some cases, it may make sense to point them to sub-pages of your site.

Human / Computer Interface Concepts

A web developer's primer
We have come a long way from the punch card interface - thank heavens! Along the way, we have learned a few things about how humans interact with computers: how we learn, associate one thing with another, and notice and use clues to find our way.

Branding is for Pickles

Do I need to re-brand my company and my web site?
No one comes to your web site because it looks good – they can't tell what it looks like until they get there!

Email Spam

Coping with email spam
Email spam is a complex topic, but knowing a little about it will help you cope.

Search Engine Optimization Demystified: Part One

The players
You know you have to optimize your web site for the search engines – but the whole thing is very mysterious. What is the real deal? Who are the players and what are their motivations? What really matters?

Search Engine Optimization Demystified: Part Two

The rules
How the search engines actually work.

Search Engine Optimization Demystified: Part Three

Roadblocks to search engines
Search engines can be prevented from ever getting to your site, and they can be restricted from finding parts of your web site if bad web development practices are in place. This results in poor search engine ranking and low natural search traffic levels. Learn how to avoid adding roadblocks to search engines on your site.