What's "In" for Website Design?

Website design is always changing; with new technologies emerging constantly, web design gets more creative, unique, and advanced all the time. But there are a few trends that have been recurring often enough that we know they will probably stick around for a while. Here are just a few:

Font Styles: Lots of website designers are employing the use of rich typography for their websites. Use a variety of readable, but eye-catching fonts to draw viewers in. Not only does this have a cool look, but it also makes your text more of a piece of artwork than just a page of information. Use a larger, bold font for your heading and a loopier, cursive font for subheadings. Mix and match flowy fonts with stark letters. Taking advantage of font styles for your web designs can add the finishing touch to an awesome web design. Some font styles are online for free, but others cost money. Make sure you figure out if you need to pay for your funky fonts.

Blocks: Lately a lot of website designers are using block style templates to make their websites. With block style web design, you can use a lot of different pictures and images to enhance your site. It also offers a segmented, organized view of what the website has to offer; web designers like to use blocks so that everything is clear and easy to find. It also creates an appealing visual with the variety of images and colors. You can contrast different colors and fonts to make a website look exciting, but also informative. Also, use different size blocks to create a collage-like web design. If you are designing for a company that has a lot of different things to offer, consider blocking off the different sections and including a contrasting image in each block.

Photography: Some companies want to bring their websites to life. This can be done using photography backgrounds, which enhance the reality component of the website. Users like seeing good photography on websites because it emits a life-like feel and connects them to the web design. Sometimes animated images can come off as fake or hokey. Real images remind us that web design is an extension of real life.

Large Background images: Opposite of the blocking approach, this web design tactic has the viewer focused on one big picture. Web designers will place one image in the background to summarize the overall feel for the website and the company.

Infographics: These have been in the business a long time, but they are still part of the trend. Infographics are little pictures or symbols that stand for a different web pages or features of the website. If you want to contact the company, for instance, you might see a pencil or phone infograph. If you want to learn about their policies you may see a question mark. These are good ways to save space on your website and also avoid running the reader down with too much wordage.

Handwriting: Using font that appears to be handwritten can give a website an easy going feeling. Also, using images that look hand drawn (albeit professionally) can add a touch of home feeling to the website design. If you are designing for a company that wants to attract families or feminine items, this may be a good approach.

Trends in web design may change, but these are some that are sure to be popular for a while. Website design is geared to making the online experience as real for the user as possible. Use photography, vibrant colors, and unique fonts to get the readers’ attention, but also remember to make your websites user friendly and easily comprehensible. CODANK Web Design is dedicated to designing websites for the customer, ensuring that the company’s business model is portrayed professionally and creatively. Contact us if you have questions about how your company can maintain a web presence today.

An Easy Way to Gain Visibility: Online Photo Sharing

With the advancement of technology, the opportunities of marketing yourself or your business have become endless. Gaining that much needed exposure is a simple click away! Today, online image hosting companies are lending a helping hand to marketers in the form of photo sharing.


Photo sharing grants you the opportunity to provide viewers with a representation of how you want to be perceived. An image, logo, or live photographs are all examples of content used for online photo sharing. Providing an illustration creates an everlasting effect that may be beneficial for you in the long run. Placing appropriate content is very important because one harmful image could be your downfall. For example, figure skater Nicole Bobek’s mugshot photos were viciously placed online. As a result, a negative perception of the star has been generated.
Sharing your photos online increases the amount of visibility you receive. Your business is able to reach an unlimited amount of individuals who surf the internet every single day.

Online networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, allow you the opportunity to post, edit, and share pictures. Users take advantage of this free tool every single minute and day of the week. The world's leader in online news and information delivery, CNN, uses Facebook to exhibit their photographic efforts. By using Facebook they are reaching a younger generation, but at the same time gaining more exposure. Some of their Facebook photo albums include: Election Night, Debates, Inauguration, and Behind the Scenes: On the Set.

Businesses and individuals should take advantage of the free online photo sharing sites. These sites include: Photobucket, Flickr, Picasa Web Albums (Google), and Facebook.



About CODANK Web Design

CODANK is a top rated Web Design and Internet Marketing firm located in Charlotte, NC. We are dedicated to provide the highest quality, cost effective custom software development services, delivering a broad range of business consulting and outsourcing services.

For more information, visit us at www.codank.com.

Optimizing your Landing Page

Employing smart web design when it comes to your landing pages can be difficult sometimes. After all, landing pages are there for many reasons. What’s most important about your landing page is that you establish who you are as a company and that you give them a call to action to enter your site. Lets talk about some ways I’ve found that your landing pages can be designed to get the most done.

The first objective of your landing page I mentioned was about establishing who you are as a company. Write a good headline at the top of the page and make sure it is well known whose web page they have landed on. This ensures that the potential customer experiences your name and your brand as soon as they land on that page. This is important as you want them to remember your company name from the first moment they experience your website. Also, depending on the specific use of the landing page, give the reader some peace of mind that when they move on, they’re going to be finding what they’re looking for.

Just as important is the call to action that you present to your visitors. This can be in the form of strategically placed navigation buttons, advertisements for current products or services, or just good copy that calls them to action. In the sales world, many times you only have one chance at pitching to a customer. The same goes for your landing page. You want this page to be designed in a way that your visitors are drawn in, interested, and compelled to move on with the sale or interest in a sale. All of this can be accomplished with words such as “Click Here to Try it Now”, or “Join Thousands of Happy Users” in conjunction with some appropriately large and noticeable buttons for them to click.

In conclusion, we should establish that landing pages are like no other page in your website design. This is not a home page by any means as it has a completely different objective. Remember that your landing page has absolutely no navigational structure and is only a means to point potential customers to your real digital storefront. So try using some smart web design when creating a landing page for your website and hopefully the customers will start pouring in. CODANK of Charlotte, NC can help you develop the pages that bring the right customers to your website. Call today for a free quote.

About CODANK Web Design of Charlotte
CODANK is top rated Web Design firm, and Internet Marketing Experts located in Charlotte, NC. We are dedicated to provide the highest quality, cost effective custom software development services, delivering a broad range of business consulting and outsourcing services. Here at CODANK, we understand that web design can present complex issues for our clients. That's why we work closely with you to develop a custom solution that will fit your every need. We take great pride in our ability to analyze each individual situation and apply the most appropriate, proven technologies in order to achieve the goals and objectives of the initiative.
We offer full application design and development services, world-class e-Commerce web development, and custom content management solutions to name a few. All of these products and services are backed by the most important asset CODANK has . . . employees. Each individual works diligently in an open teamwork atmosphere, to bring our clients superior products that deliver great results while providing friendly and responsive customer service. CODANK is your one-stop shop for a custom solution tailored to your specific issue.
Contact us for a free quote today! For more information, visit us at http://www.codank.com

12 Blogs To Write

There have been many mentions of blogs in my previous entries. The reason I blog about blogging so much is because it is very important to small business websites and the like. It allows you to offer free information to visitors and in turn, they are attracted to your website. So to help you get started or just to help freshen up your blog, I've come up with 12 blog ideas to add to your repertoire.

1. Give some insight as to who your employees are and what kind of people they are.

2. Hold some sort of contest or competition that gets users involved and gets your product out just a little bit more.

3. Write a top 10 or top 100 list having to do with your business.

4. Write some testimonials and post some pictures of customers using your products.

5. Post 10 things customers most likely don't know about your business.

6. Refer others to blogs that you may read or that may be pertinent to your company's industry.

7. Ask an open ended question about your industry and allow readers to respond and join in the discussion.

8. Explain a facet of your industry that the layman may not understand without your help.

9. Describe the reasons why the average person would be interested in your product.

10. Take questions from readers and potential customers and answer them.

11. Write your opinion regarding some recent news in your industry.

12. Explain the average customer experience step by step.

These are but a few good ideas of blogs to get you started. If you apply yourself, and find some inspiration, you'll be on your way to a successful traffic driving blog in no time!

About CODANK Web Design of Charlotte
CODANK is top rated Web Design firm, and Internet Marketing Experts located in Charlotte, NC. We are dedicated to provide the highest quality, cost effective custom software development services, delivering a broad range of business consulting and outsourcing services. Here at CODANK, we understand that web design can present complex issues for our clients. That's why we work closely with you to develop a custom solution that will fit your every need. We take great pride in our ability to analyze each individual situation and apply the most appropriate, proven technologies in order to achieve the goals and objectives of the initiative.
We offer full application design and development services, world-class e-Commerce web development, and custom content management solutions to name a few. All of these products and services are backed by the most important asset CODANK has . . . employees. Each individual works diligently in an open teamwork atmosphere, to bring our clients superior products that deliver great results while providing friendly and responsive customer service. CODANK is your one-stop shop for a custom solution tailored to your specific issue.
Contact us for a free quote today! For more information, visit us at http://www.codank.com

Google's Rules

Google has quickly become the most commonly known search engine on the Internet and is also becoming very well known for its other Internet based services like Google Maps and Google Earth. It only makes sense then to want to be right at the top of Google's search engines for, what you assume, people will be searching for. This is what its all about... getting Google to index your page fairly high so lets look at how Google looks at your site.

A misconception about Google is that its bots look at your META tags. This is the old school way of telling search engines exactly what was on your page but this doesn't fly anymore. Also, if you have duplicate links to the same place, Google only indexes one as part of your webpage. Another thing that will do you no good is all graphics, audio, video, and animations. Google pays absolutely no attention to these so you do not need to consider what Google will think of your logo or latest video.

What Google does care about is content. Content is the first and foremost priority in any SEO project. Your small business website needs to have great content, loaded with the keywords that people are going to search and it needs to be solid content that readers aren't going to ignore because its clearly over optimized. Use a good keyword tool like Google's Adwords Keyword Tool to find some keywords that people might be searching and choose a few that represent your niche market and make them ever present on your website. Also, another huge influence of Google's ranking is your involvement with other sites. Linking to and from other sites will do your Google ranking wonders! A lot of websites out there offer a free link to their website in return for a link to your website on theirs. This is because Google rates the "popularity" of your website. This means that if users are linking to your site because of article you wrote or because your blog offers lots of good information, then you will have a much greater opportunity of being high on Google.

Remember, these "rules" are specific to Google. Some search engines do put a little emphasis on META tags as well as other things but wasting your time trying to find out how all the small search engines index and trying to optimize your site accordingly will be a waste of time and likely not worth it. So get your content working for you and spread your network out to other companies that you can link to.

About CODANK Web Design of Charlotte
CODANK is top rated Web Design firm, and Internet Marketing Experts located in Charlotte, NC. We are dedicated to provide the highest quality, cost effective custom software development services, delivering a broad range of business consulting and outsourcing services. Here at CODANK, we understand that web design can present complex issues for our clients. That's why we work closely with you to develop a custom solution that will fit your every need. We take great pride in our ability to analyze each individual situation and apply the most appropriate, proven technologies in order to achieve the goals and objectives of the initiative.
We offer full application design and development services, world-class e-Commerce web development, and custom content management solutions to name a few. All of these products and services are backed by the most important asset CODANK has . . . employees. Each individual works diligently in an open teamwork atmosphere, to bring our clients superior products that deliver great results while providing friendly and responsive customer service. CODANK is your one-stop shop for a custom solution tailored to your specific issue.
Contact us for a free quote today! For more information, visit us at http://www.codank.com

Staying Involved and Connected For Marketing Sake

Internet marketing is an ever-changing organism. Certain parts of it are always changing and may not work like they used to. Some techniques that were used when your website was first designed may be outdated and less effective. Everyone who cares about the Internet marketing of their business web site should stay connected to the Internet marketing community and stay up to date with the latest information.

Google, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, and Myspace are all relatively new to the Internet but these are absolutely game changers when it comes to marketing your small business or other website. Imagine if you had designed your website years ago when Google was a baby and you didn’t take into account Google’s indexing process. You may be at the top of “AskJeeves” or “Lycos” but that accounts for a very small percentage of people. Now the idea here is to know people, talk to people, read articles or blogs, and stay up to date with the news of web developers, SEO experts, and Internet marketing firms.

The Internet is so accommodating to one looking for free information these days so finding a way to understand the latest Internet marketing will be a breeze for you. Find a good blog to read by searching for “Web Developer Blog” or “Internet Marketing Firm Blog”. Most of the time, a good web development company dives into the latest strategies of Internet marketing every day to offer their customers a cutting edge approach and the latest tactics to see your website rise in the rankings. Other than scouring the Internet for good resources, try to stay connected with the people you’ve met that work in the industry. Stay in touch with your web developers or SEO people that you’ve used in the past. Most people that work in these fields love their job and don’t mind talking for a few minutes about it if you sound interested! Do some good networking and who knows, you might end up with a lot of good contacts for the next time your website needs a makeover.

Keeping up to date with the latest Internet marketing strategies is extremely important. If your website isn’t designed or modified with today’s standards in mind, you could be wasting a lot of traffic. It is a great idea to stay networked with the people that you have met that work in the field and read blogs, articles, and news put out by companies that deal with Internet marketing all day. CODANK of Charlotte, NC is up to date with the latest web design and Internet marketing strategies. Contact us for a free quote.

About CODANK Web Design of Charlotte
CODANK is top rated Web Design firm, and Internet Marketing Experts located in Charlotte, NC. We are dedicated to provide the highest quality, cost effective custom software development services, delivering a broad range of business consulting and outsourcing services. Here at CODANK, we understand that web design can present complex issues for our clients. That's why we work closely with you to develop a custom solution that will fit your every need. We take great pride in our ability to analyze each individual situation and apply the most appropriate, proven technologies in order to achieve the goals and objectives of the initiative.
We offer full application design and development services, world-class e-Commerce web development, and custom content management solutions to name a few. All of these products and services are backed by the most important asset CODANK has . . . employees. Each individual works diligently in an open teamwork atmosphere, to bring our clients superior products that deliver great results while providing friendly and responsive customer service. CODANK is your one-stop shop for a custom solution tailored to your specific issue.
Contact us for a free quote today! For more information, visit us at http://www.codank.com

#1 On Google: The Holy Grail

There is a lot of hype about getting your business’ website to the top of Google. What this means is that your website shows up first when the most common search queries are entered into the search engine. Many times, Wikipedia is the number one or one of Google’s services is number one but is it even that important?

Most sources say yes, getting as high as you possibly can on major search engines like Google, can make or break your online presence. When a normal person enters a search for “web hosting” they are going to have a lot of options before yours if you are on the fourth page. It is very different from the real world of advertising in that, if you have a lot of money, you can get advertised in the best places; buildings, billboards, sidewalks, whatever you can pay for! But in the world of online marketing, even the small business website with enough strategy and good SEO can out advertise the big guys if not just compete with them.

So here are some tips for sending your website to the top. First, when you are choosing keywords to embed all over your site, be specific. I love Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool because it allows you to pick a search term or phrase and it quickly returns hundreds of related search terms in an organized list. When choosing from these, make sure to remember to be as specific as possible. Choosing “construction Charlotte NC” is not as appropriate as “Wood Decks Charlotte NC” for a company that specializes in deck building. Finding a niche and sticking with that is much more advantageous than making sure that you have covered every bit of ground you can think of. Also, try to write some content that employs these keywords as much as possible. Write an article or a top 100 article pertaining to your industry to draw people in and make good use of those keywords.

A good Google ranking can do wonders for your small business website or your e-commerce website. People tend to choose from Google’s results hierarchically and being as high as possible can only help you in the end. Choosing specific keywords or phrases and making sure they show up as frequently as possible on your page is definitely a good start. So good luck and good Googling!

About CODANK Web Design of Charlotte
CODANK is top rated Web Design firm, and Internet Marketing Experts located in Charlotte, NC. We are dedicated to provide the highest quality, cost effective custom software development services, delivering a broad range of business consulting and outsourcing services. Here at CODANK, we understand that web design can present complex issues for our clients. That's why we work closely with you to develop a custom solution that will fit your every need. We take great pride in our ability to analyze each individual situation and apply the most appropriate, proven technologies in order to achieve the goals and objectives of the initiative.
We offer full application design and development services, world-class e-Commerce web development, and custom content management solutions to name a few. All of these products and services are backed by the most important asset CODANK has . . . employees. Each individual works diligently in an open teamwork atmosphere, to bring our clients superior products that deliver great results while providing friendly and responsive customer service. CODANK is your one-stop shop for a custom solution tailored to your specific issue.
Contact us for a free quote today! For more information, visit us at http://www.codank.com

Your Internet Marketing Budget

Maybe you’re running a large business and just now deciding to go online full throttle. Maybe you’re starting a brand new business and are ready to launch a brand new product online as far as you can get it. Maybe you just want to start a small business with the least risk possible and are putting a website together in your spare time. At any rate, you are going to need to decide on an Internet marketing budget so lets have a look at how we can decide appropriate amounts to allocate to this ever-important facet of your online presence.

Clearly, you’re all going to spend different amounts on our marketing depending on the size of your business but what you can establish is that generally you need to spend more or less based on the objective of your websites. If you’re running an e-commerce website and you want to greatly increase traffic and you hope to double your sales, be prepared to have a very healthy budget. Don’t expect to get a #1 or #2 rank on Google for $100. If your business does well aside from the Internet but you are looking to eventually work your way into the .com world, then obviously you can feel free to set a small budget aside over a long period to get a website going and bring the traffic in.

As a general rule, if you want a lot out of the web, you’re going to have to put a lot in. This doesn’t necessarily mean all money, sometimes you can spend a lot of your time investing in your website to increase traffic but just be prepared to sacrifice more if you want more. In the same way that there is a difference between paying a freelance web designer to do a small business website and paying a top tier firm, there are differences between marketing your small business website yourself and paying a firm that has a team of SEO copywriters and developers who do this for a living.

The most important thing to keep in mind here when dealing with your Internet marketing budget is knowing yourself and your objectives. Don’t expect to get a lot out of a little budget. Do you want to see a huge spike in traffic? Go big. Are you just looking for a little exposure for your small business? Take it easy. Whatever the case may be, your investment will be worth the results… just make sure your business can foot the bill. CODANK’s team of developers and writers can take your small business website or large business website to the next level.

About CODANK Web Design of Charlotte
CODANK is top rated Web Design firm, and Internet Marketing Experts located in Charlotte, NC. We are dedicated to provide the highest quality, cost effective custom software development services, delivering a broad range of business consulting and outsourcing services. Here at CODANK, we understand that web design can present complex issues for our clients. That's why we work closely with you to develop a custom solution that will fit your every need. We take great pride in our ability to analyze each individual situation and apply the most appropriate, proven technologies in order to achieve the goals and objectives of the initiative.
We offer full application design and development services, world-class e-Commerce web development, and custom content management solutions to name a few. All of these products and services are backed by the most important asset CODANK has . . . employees. Each individual works diligently in an open teamwork atmosphere, to bring our clients superior products that deliver great results while providing friendly and responsive customer service. CODANK is your one-stop shop for a custom solution tailored to your specific issue.
Contact us for a free quote today! For more information, visit us at http://www.codank.com

Flash or HTML

When first creating a concept for your web design, it’s always good to have as many ideas as possible. Then when the actual designing of the site occurs, both you and the developer will have an easier experience. One of the major decisions that many are faced with is whether to have a site centered on flash or the more traditional, organic HTML. I’m going to explore some of the differences and hopefully help you decide which is more suitable for you and your business.

The first thing to know about a website designed primarily in flash is that it is very flashy (no pun intended.) I’ve located a good example here at http://www.beckett.de/. This webpage is very impressive. As soon as you reach the homepage, you are greeted with graphics swooping in from the sides and various sounds that correspond with the rollover of your mouse. Once you begin to explore the page, you will notice that with every new page comes a whole new exciting transition with new sounds and graphics. This is a common characteristic of well-designed flash sites. The idea in most cases is to move the conventional website into a bigger experience and thus capturing the consumer. This can be very rewarding but keep in mind that flash sites can be irritating to many viewers. This is often due to loading times, or the time it takes for a flashy transition to be made. Also, flash design is less common than standard HTML so you might have a hard time fitting it into your budget.

HTML is your standard website. To include an example, I decided to link you to http://www.barnesandnoble.com/. As you can see, everything here is exactly what you are used to. It can be decorative and visually appealing at times but for the most part, it is very utilitarian. Everything is well organized just like we’re all used to. This type of design usually never irritates visitors (unless you’ve skimped on the design) and fares well with people who may not be extraordinarily tech-savvy. This is the most common so naturally it will be the easiest to achieve a custom look that you may have in mind.

Deciding between Flash and HTML is usually an easy task for most. HTML is the easiest and most affordable way to go so why break the mold? Then there are the companies that want to do just that… break the mold. For the average user, HTML provides the easiest experience but if you are willing to be a little edgy, Flash can take your website and turn it into a completely different experience.


About CODANK Web Design of Charlotte
CODANK is top rated Web Design firm, and Internet Marketing Experts located in Charlotte, NC. We are dedicated to provide the highest quality, cost effective custom software development services, delivering a broad range of business consulting and outsourcing services.
Here at CODANK, we understand that web design can present complex issues for our clients. That's why we work closely with you to develop a custom solution that will fit your every need. We take great pride in our ability to analyze each individual situation and apply the most appropriate, proven technologies in order to achieve the goals and objectives of the initiative. We offer full application design and development services, world-class e-Commerce web development, and custom content management solutions to name a few.
All of these products and services are backed by the most important asset CODANK has . . . employees. Each individual works diligently in an open teamwork atmosphere, to bring our clients superior products that deliver great results while providing friendly and responsive customer service. CODANK is your one-stop shop for a custom solution tailored to your specific issue.
Contact us for a free quote today!
For more information, visit us at http://www.codank.com