Tuesday 31 May 2016

When to Redesign your Website


When to Redesign your Website




While redesigning your website isn’t something you have to do often, there comes a time a redesign becomes necessary. This is especially true of business websites in competitive, dynamic industries where trends change all the time. The reason for a redesign may not be a purely aesthetic one, although it often is.

Whether you have a small or a large website, whether it’s new or old, pay attention to the
following signs. If you notice one or more of them, you should seriously consider a redesign.

Your website loads slowly
Many factors can contribute to a slow website, including poor hosting or images and video content not optimized for the web. The problem may also lie with the web design itself, the structure of your website and the HTML and CSS coding behind your theme. 

Your website isn’t optimized for mobile devices
Having a mobile-friendly website isn’t enough. Mobile traffic has overtaken computer traffic on the web, and businesses that fail to provide smartphone and tablet users with a hig
h-quality mobile experience lose valuable leads.

Your website looks dated compared to the competition
Customers are naturally attracted to engaging, visually pleasing, and easy to navigate websites. If your competitors have newer, better-designed sites than yours, it’s time for a redesign.

Your website ranks poorly in the Google search results
An SEO expert in Houston such as Square Melons can redesign your website with an emphasis on search engine optimization (SEO), ensuring that all your web pages and content is optimized not only for Google, but also for Bing and Yahoo.

Your website has low conversion rates
A website that fails to generate leads and has low conversion rates in spite of the traffic it receives is in bad need of a redesign. A complicated website structure, missing calls to action, and a general lack of focus, all of these can have a significant impact on its power to convert visitors into customers. Professional website development in Houston with Square Melons aims not only to provide your  audience with an engaging website experience, but also to boost your conversion rates.

Friday 20 May 2016

Our Web Design Process

                            

             Our Web Design Process


Many people ask us, how we can deliver such great quality service consistently at such affordable rates. The answer is very simple: We do everything in our power to understand your requirements thoroughly before we start writing a single line of code. So, in other words, we spend considerable amount of time with you, understanding your exact requirements. This upfront investment of time on our part ensures that we have very solid plan of action – whose chances of failure become negligible.





1. We learn your requirements 


We spend as much time as necessary with you to understand your requirements. Often, clients have a very good understanding of their particular project and business goals. However, the same client may or may not have the technical expertise to implement the business plan into practice. That is where we come in, through interviews we determine your business goals and help you understand the various ways (technically) those goals can be put in practice.
It has been our finding that the more time we spend on this step, our project becomes more and more streamlined – saving you money and time.

2. We create a draft and get your sign-off

We specialize in taking your requirements and creating a technical road-map that complements your concept.Depending on how complex or extensive your requirements are, this process can last 1 to several interviews. We prefer meeting you face-to-face but often we conduct these interviews by phone or online. Once we get a sign-off on the draft, we are ready to move to the actual physical design.

3. We work with you to get the design “just right”

We work with you to keep polishing the design till you are satisfied. Usually, this is the longest process and depending on how quickly you can settle on the design, your project can gain significant time-advantage from this. It is not uncommon for revising parts of the design several times (within reason) until you can sit back and say, “This is it.” Your investment of time in this phase will impact the entire project positively. We suggest that you take several opinions from your partners and colleagues because a fresh set of eyes always discovers things that you may miss.

4. We work on writing the code that will bring your concept to life

So we have a design that we all like. But that is just the shell. Without the back-end engine propelling your project to success a good design is merely that. This is the phase where we start putting meat and substance to the website. Every part of the design comes to life with dynamic content with the use of various server side and client-side technologies – e.g. Javascript, Ajax, PHP and of-course databases whenever applicable.
Just because this is server side work, does not mean that we develop this in a vacuum. We involve you in every-step and whenever possible as you to QA the site and ensure that we are on the correct path.
Depending on the project scope this can take few days to several months. But don’t worry, before you sign up with us, we will provide you with a detailed project paln of the website design process.

5. Once you test our work, we upload your site and make it live

We have worked with you to understand your business needs. We have explained our design process. Created a draft and got your sign off. Created the physical design and code to power your site. What remains is the webmaster tasks to get your site live.



Tuesday 17 May 2016

How a Website can Improve Your Business ?

 Websites are good for business – everyone knows that! But have you ever stopped to ask  yourself – what are the ways that a website can help my business? If not, you are in luck  – we have listed some of them below.


  1. Interact and communicate with your customers regularly -- People will keep you in mind if you keep in touch. It’s much easier to sell to customers who already know and trust you, so keep in touch and stay top of their mind. Regular email newsletters and updates to your website will help you better communicate with your customers. Additionally you should spend time setting up your online profiles on networks you belong to (eg Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+) – these are a low cost way to get more of YOU online!
  2. Always available -- Your web site is open 24/7 so your customers can interact with your business when it’s convenient for them. Everyone is on a tight schedule these days. They may really appreciate the convenience of finding what they need without having to stop, call, and ask -- filling in a form, signing up for a newsletter, reading your blog, getting a quick quote, booking online, downloading your e-book, or reading your case studies, all in their OWN time!
  3. Share your expertise -- It’s not enough to provide just information about your products and services. Your expert advice may give you the edge over the competition and potentially even make the sale. Think of your website as an employee, presenting your customers with help and knowledge about your company’s area of expertise.
  4. Increase your customer reach -- There is no other way that provides the geographic reach of a website, and internet usage continues increase year after year. If you don’t have a well placed website someone else will get your business. Your website puts your business out there to be found by anyone anywhere who is already looking for what you offer.
  5. Strengthen your credibility -- A well designed website will add credibility to your business and strengthen your brand. On the other side of that, a poorly designed or outdated website may portray your business as amateur or disorganised. By providing customers with information in an organised and well-presented manner, you can show customers you anticipate their needs and set an excellent impression for all transactions to follow.
  6. Save on marketing spend -- With website content, you incur no printing, shipping, or postage expenses, and updates are quick and easy. It can be tailored to suit the size of your business and your budget.