Ever see those stacks of books people have in guest bathrooms at their homes? Home décor magazines, outdated tabloids and self-help books may come to mind. You might even be guilty of having a large (and growing) stack in your own bathroom. We present to you an alternative: Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader. What is it, you may ask? Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader is a series of books filled with short articles chock full of trivia ranging from history to sports to pop culture—and they’re funny, too. But despite its name, Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader isn’t only for the porcelain throne. Leave the book on your living room table for guests to peruse, or bring it with you on a long family car ride for some laughs along the way.

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Many people often say, “I wish I volunteered more,” or “I wish I could somehow give back to the community.” Often, people simply just don’t know where to look for volunteer opportunities, and the idea becomes pushed back into their minds once more.  The nonprofit, government-funded organization Volunteer Texas, one of our newest clients, makes volunteering a more viable reality. Ultimately, the organization makes it easier and more cohesive for people to volunteer all across the state. Volunteer Texas connects both residents and out-of-state volunteers to opportunities throughout Texas.

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Building a website isn’t a simple process, and there are various factors that go into the design/development of one. Think about making the perfect cheeseburger. There’s the obvious ingredient, the burger itself. But it wouldn’t be the same without the cheese, bun, and, depending on your preferences, ketchup, pickles and other add-ons. Now think about removing all that stuff that makes the cheeseburger taste good. Not so tasty anymore, right? Consider a website with just the bare minimum—like that plain burger, it’s dry—bo-ring.

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Awhile back, we wrote a blog post about Pageless Design. Now, as promised, you’re getting more information about the growing trend. In case you missed my last post, Pageless Design is a type of web design that encapsulates an entire site’s data into one seamless webpage. It’s compelling to visitors because it tells a story while simultaneously being visually pleasing. While not appropriate for every website, Pageless Design is perfect for startups, freelancers, small retailers and those selling a single product or service, such as a chef or author.

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Often when designing or redesigning websites, we mostly think about the design and overall aesthetic, and less about the ability for users to find the site, or the overall optimization. What’s the point of a website that looks amazing but can’t be found and isn’t functional? Or even a site that can easily be found but isn’t visually engaging? The whole purpose of a website is for it to be found and for relevant content to be delivered to its visitors. The design and optimization of your website affects your SEO campaign, PPC campaigns, and the overall user experience of your website, reason why you need to makes sure to use a low code development software.  When building or redesigning a website or pages, it’s crucial to incorporate aspects of both SEO and PPC. These tactics should be utilized during the design process and also used for future optimization further down the line. Let’s take a look at some of the most useful SEO and PPC tactics and practices you should apply when creating a new website.

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As ubiquitous as the Internet is, there are still many people who do local SEO company marketing that don’t realize how important having a good web presence really is. Or a website at that. When was the last time you searched in the Yellow Pages for a plumber or that new restaurant your friends are talking about…’99? I thought so. But nowadays, having the courage to just start a website isn’t good enough – anyone can have that since it’s not 2004 either. The key is to have, as the title says, a good web presence.

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If you’ve been on the Internet lately (read: everyone), you’ve probably come across a site with an unnecessary amount of pages, too much going on, and most likely, you have no idea where to click first.  You find yourself thinking, “Should I visit the ‘About Us’ page? What about the ‘Contact Us’ link? Maybe I should read the testimonials first to get a better idea of the product.” All you really wanted to do was check out your neighborhood’s new café, maybe order a sandwich for lunch, but now you’re about ready to throw your computer at a wall. Somehow you’ve found yourself overwhelmed by enough buttons and links to support an international company’s website.

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Picture this. You’re halfway through college, your major is still “undecided” and you’re feeling the pressure to choose a sensible career path. You’ve always been interested in law, but let’s face it; you probably slept through most of your Intro to Law class freshman year. You want a resource that’s resourceful yet engaging enough to help you learn more about the process of becoming a lawyer. That’s where our client, Texas Young Lawyers Association (TYLA), comes in. You do some research and find out TYLA has a program called “What Do Lawyers Do?” After browsing through the site, you notice right off the bat that it’s a) visually engaging, b) easy to navigate, and c) has all the information you could possibly want about becoming a lawyer. You’re sold.

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Avalon Communications, a leading Austin-based PR agency, approached HMG with a problem they had been looking to solve for some time: create an online presence for Avalon that is representative of their brand and of its recent exponential growth. In the last year and a half Avalon has acquired a multitude of high-level clients that have each been propelled to the forefront of their respective fields through Avalon’s savvy and industry-refined PR tactics. Knowing this, we embarked on a journey to pair Avalon’s longstanding professional legacy and its industry-changing solutions with a newly revamped online presence.

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The world of web design can seem pretty intimidating at times. After all, the success of your business rises and falls on whether your website successfully engages your site visitors and conveniences them to take the next step. We know you’re kickin’ it with awesome web page design, but just in case you need some inspiration, take a look at these big business web design disasters and take some notes on what NOT to do:

Zulily

Plenty of “deal-of-the-day” websites require you to register before you can see the actual deals, but Zulily’s home page gives you next to no information about what the site does. Here are the biggest design problems:

• You can find a bit of information about how the site works, but it’s buried at the bottom of the page under a banner that looks like advertising, making the viewer ignore everything below it.
• Links to “How Zulily Works,” “Brands We Love,” and “FAQ” appear in tiny type that doesn’t stand out from surrounding content.
• No secondary call to action if the visitor isn’t ready to register.

Bottom Line:  It’s too hard for non-registered users to learn about the site.

Carol House Furniture

Carol House makes visitors jump through multiple hoops in order to view their website—a surefire way to send customers scrambling for the back button. For starters:

• Gray type on white background = hard to read.
• After reaching the home page, you have to click an additional button to see any actual content.
• The home page has a long list of obsolete requirements you must meet before you can see their content (high speed internet, Flash player, disable pop-up blocker). Really? Who has to remind people they need high speed internet these days?

After clicking the Enter button, a new page opens where all browser controls have been disabled, a cheesy Flash video plays, music automatically starts, and the talking heads at the top of the page point out interesting links we might want to click (wait, I thought we were here to look at furniture…).

We also see lots of wasted space on either side with no clear call to action anywhere on the page.

Bottom Line: After making your visitors enter an alternate universe in order to see your site, don’t handcuff them in a desperate attempt to make them stick around.

Pure Ecommerce

I’ll keep this one short and sweet (which is opposite of Pure Ecommerce’s site).

We have to read through lengthy blocks of copy just to find out what the company offers. Once we click on the call to action, we’re directed to more copy. Not exactly a one-click, ready-to-go experience as promised.

Bottom Line: Too much copy and weak call to actions.

So, what’s the point?

Big business web design disasters keep us all humble.  If they can experience huge marketing fails, so can we.  Keep testing, keep tweaking, and keep converting!  Would you consider your online web presence a “disaster”?   If so, we’d love to chat with you… after all we’re only a phone call away.