We’ll be performing live reviews of real audience-submitted websites to help attendees decide between a full-scale redesign or smaller improvements for their business websites. Register and submit your site for review.

If there’s one thing we’re sure about as web designers, it’s that the Web changes quickly. The average life of a website is about 3 years, a shrinking number as users become more and more savvy at mining data from the web.

We even wrote a more in-depth explanation of why change is relentless with websites in a previous post.

Three years may seem like a very short shelf life for a website, especially in the eyes of small businesses with tight budgets. Even if a full-scale site redesign is not within your budget, it’s still important to make improvements to your web presence in any way possible.

Whether it’s refreshing your site’s visual design, switching to a more user-friendly page structure, or updating your site’s codebase for better SEO… Ongoing site improvements are the key to businesses staying ‘afloat’ in a growing sea of competition.

So if you're experiencing "growing pains" with your business website, join us Wed, February 22 and submit your website for review!

The live critiques will focus on the following:

• Gauging ROI of a full-scale redesign vs. smaller improvements
• Determining critical areas for increasing conversion
• Identifying opportunities for increasing search engine visibility
• Judging if the design is out of date

Register Now

In 2011, the Bright Orange Thread team…

• Saw 725,000+ Page Visits across Client Sites
• Launched 18 Websites/Microsites
• Welcomed 17 New Clients
• Branched into Mobile Design
• Launched Chunkify!
• Presented 7 Seminars / Talks / Webinars

And more!

Saw 725,000+ Page Visits across Client Sites

Thanks to Google Analytics, we can easily track visitor activity and demographics!

Launched 18 Websites/Microsites

Here's some of our work:

Catholic Youth Ministry

An information portal with Event Registration and Online Training Programs. CYM can build their own training slides and quizzes for online training.

BroadPoint Federal

A microsite based on the CMS's multi-site feature, which allows staff to manage content for both sites with great ease.

The Center Foundation

User-friendly design and Information Architecture (IA) created an overall better user experience for visitors.

Vertical Solutions

A complete lead generation website.

Meeting Ground

Worked with cost-conscious client to build a strong 8-page website that feels like a lot more.

Serviam Girls Academy

It's a pleasure to grow with a client! Serviam clearly had changed gears and were happy to work with BOT for a complete revamp of their website.

Nazdravi LLC

Demonstrates the power of short and sweet.

Misc. Work for Clients

Website improvements don't stop with design! We do it all for clients. In 2011 we were busy with a lot of various web work including:

• eNewsletters / Email Templates
• Logo Updates and Refreshes
• Landing Pages
• Google Adword Campaigns
• 3rd Party Online Donation Systems
• Shopping Carts and e-Commerce Systems
• Case Studies / Copywriting for Clients

Welcomed 17 New Clients

We look forward to working with a whopping 17 new BOT clients! Here’s a breakdown of the type of clients we'll be working with:

• 4 Non Profit Organizations
• 5 Business to Consumer (B2C)
• 8 Business to Business (B2B)

Branched into Mobile Design

If you follow us on Facebook or Twitter, you may have noticed a bunch of posts about mobile web design throughout the year. That's because the number of people using mobile devices to view websites is skyrocketing! Browsing a website on a much smaller scale can prove to be difficult, especially considering that most mobile users want to perform just a few tasks, like finding contact information or hours of operation.

Mobile Site for Mt. Cuba Center

We developed a 'stripped down' version of Mt. Cuba Center's website that helps mobile visitors accomplish basic tasks with great ease. In addition to quickly finding visitor and contact information, users can search for plant information in the Native Plant Finder and view the center’s Event Calendar.

How many of your visitors are browsing your website from a mobile device?

Your site's analytics will tell you! If you want to learn more about what’s involved in mobile web design, get in touch with us!

Launched Chunkify!

A fun and easy way to learn 'writing for the web' best practices!

Over the summer, we launched Chunkify! – an interactive web page that gives users the power to transform long, hard-to-read copy into scannable, user-friendly web page copy with the click of their mouse.

Presented 7 Seminars / Talks / Webinars

Traveling everywhere from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., BOT gave some great talks on the issues we know best:

• Writing for the Web
• Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses
• Everyday Usability or Think Like a Consumer: How "usability" helps you meet your consumers' expectations
• Email Marketing: Is it still working for you?
• Web Designer Litmus Test
• What makes a good website?
• Choosing a Content Management System

Pro-bono Client:
Special Olympics Delaware (SODE)

SODE has been our pro-bono client since 2009. Each year we continue to make improvements to their website, and in 2011 we implemented a number of new features, including powerful Event Registration with payment processing.

Read our 'Best of 2011' Blog Posts

Catch up (or re-read) some of our best blog articles from 2011!

• Keep visitors coming to your site with fresh content
• Business + Facebook: Be social!
• Change is relentless… Is your website out of date?
• 3 Things your SEO Consultant Should Be Doing (or fire them!)
• Chunkify! Watch a web page transform itself with each click
• 5 Landing Page Mistakes that Hurt Conversion
• Making a Facebook Page: 5 Basic Steps

Phew! What a year.

It's only the 3rd of January, but it looks like 2012 is shaping up to be another busy, exciting year for Bright Orange Thread!

We often hear requests from clients to make their website links open in a new browser window because they "don't want visitors leaving the site." We understand. Yet forcing new browser windows may be the reason why visitors leave.

A Top Ten Mistake

You may be surprised to learn that links that force a new browser window are considered one of the Top 10 Web Design Mistakes. 

Clutter is bad

The reason being that it crowds users' screens with windows they didn't intentionally create, like their screen is being hijacked by the website. But perhaps the bigger reason why links that open in a new browser window are considered a web design 'faux pas' is because it takes away something very near and dear to users' hearts: the "Back" button!

The Back button is sacred

The Back button is beloved and used a lot by site visitors. The Back button creates a path between recently visited pages, allowing users to jump back and forth at will. When browsers force new windows on users, the Back button becomes useless. For diehard Back button users, this is bound to cause a ton of frustration, and it may prevent them from returning to your site.

What we advise our clients

Because we love usability and follow best practices for our websites, we make it a point to let our clients know how important it is to not "break" the Back button by forcing links to open in new windows.

New Tab vs. New Window

Interesting to note… Today, web browsers like Chrome and Firefox will open page links in a new tab instead of a new window. But other browsers like Internet Explorer and Safari will still open new windows on users' screens.

Or maybe you're looking to do more with your current Page. Too many businesses dive into Facebook without a real plan and without knowing how to effectively use the social networking site.

To help you get the most out of Facebook, we've outlined 5 Basic Steps in Making a Business Facebook Page.

1. Develop a Content Marketing Strategy

Yes, there is a step before creating the actual Facebook Page!

If you've read our previous post, Business + Facebook: Be Social!, you should know that a business shouldn't dive into Facebook without being prepared for the conversation. Because that's exactly what social media is–a conversation!

You must first develop a strong line of communication with your audience via email marketing or blog writing before jumping into social media.

Once you find success with these outlets and have a firm grasp on which content your audience finds compelling, then you have something to talk about in the 'conversation.'

Don't be a Posting Pest!

Regular Facebook users are not usually in a consumer mindset when they log on, so be careful not to treat them as such. Avoid being a 'pest' by following these guidelines:

• Post a few times a week so fans aren't bombarded with your content.
• Avoid syncing your Twitter account with your Page if you tweet frequently.
• Share other people’s content. By posting information that fans find helpful and interesting, will make your self-promotional posts move impactful.

2. Create the Page & Establish Admins

You can create your Facebook Page through a personal account, but for larger companies or organizations, creating a business account is a good idea. This way—should the Facebook Page responsibility change hands—it's not tied to someone's personal account.

How is a Facebook business account different from a personal one?

From a business account, you can manage Pages and Ad campaigns, but you cannot view profiles or become "friends" with other users.

Note that Facebook does not allow you to have both a personal account and a business account. Having multiple accounts can result in the removal of both, so make sure the information for the business account is not attached to an individual’s personal account.

Securing a Custom (Vanity) URL

Having a custom URL attached to your Facebook Page is important for advertising purposes alone. Our custom URL is Facebook.com/brightorangethread, which is, fortunately for us, pretty unique. But the same doesn't apply to everyone else, so we suggest that you reserve your custom URL as soon as possible, even if you don't plan on actively using the Page for a while.

However, Facebook requires that your Page have at least 25 fans before you can choose a custom URL. In a pinch, you can always find 25 fans among your members, co-workers, family or friends. If the URL is already in use, consider using a phrase relevant to your services.

Adding Admins to the Page

Facebook has a relatively new feature that allows the account holder to add other Admins so they can manage the Page. This way, you don’t have to give your personal account information to others who may need to update the Page.

3. Create a Brand Identity

Once you have all of the account information set up, you can then focus on developing your brand identity.

Designing a Facebook Profile Picture

One option is to simply upload the company logo. But your logo means very little to new visitors who know nothing about your company or organization.

Our profile picture explains what we do for new visitors.

Rather than using our signature Bright Orange Thread label, we custom-designed a profile picture that extends down the page and says more about who we are and what we do.

Custom Tabs

A lot of small businesses or organizations don't take advantage of all the apps and tools that Facebook offers for Page customization. Some don't need much more beyond events, photos, and wall posts. But for those businesses looking to get the most out of a Facebook Page, custom tabs are a good place to start.

We created an e-newsletter sign-up tab using a Facebook app.

The sky's the limit with custom tabs, thanks to the Static FBML app provided by Facebook. We've seen some pretty ambitious custom tabs offering videos, promotions, blog and news feeds. All great stuff to engage visitors, but make sure you are sharing content or offers that drive visitors back to your actual website!

Landing Tabs

You can also make your custom tab the default page that new visitors will see when they come to your Business Page for the first time.

Mashable’s default tab encourages new visitors to “Like” their page right away.

4. Drive Traffic to Your Facebook Page

Building a Page and generating content are just the first few steps. To keep traffic up on your Page, you need to constantly form new strategies for getting people there.

Try these simple strategies for driving traffic to your Facebook Page:

• Add Facebook button to your website's home page.
• Include a link/button in your newsletter, blog posts, etc.
• Promote through other social media/networking sites. Include a link in your contact information or description.
• Suggest people visit the Page to perform an action. Tell people they can watch a video, read about a new promotion, or give feedback on news or events by visiting your Facebook Page.

5. Track Activity

Monitoring Facebook takes time and effort, so tracking its success and impact is a must.

There are Analytics solutions outside of Facebook that can provide very detailed and comprehensive reports. But for small businesses and organizations, Facebook offers a few simple (and free) ways to track activity.

Weekly Reports

Each week, the Page Admin will receive an email report on the amount of activity generated compared to the previous week.

Facebook reports are brief, but they quickly tell you how fans responded to content for that week.

Facebook Insights

When logged in, the Page Admin also has access to Page Insights, which shows graphs of users and their interactions over longer periods of time. You can view reports from specific dates and export them as Excel (XLS) or Comma-Separated (CSV) formats.

Are your "Facebook Basics" covered?

Whether you're thinking of creating a Facebook Page or you already have one, these basic steps should help you evaluate your plan for using Facebook and give you an idea of where you stand.

If you need some help in designing or enhancing your Facebook Page, give us a shout and we'll be happy to provide some low-cost solutions.

Their purpose is to convert visitors who have ‘landed’ on the page to do something… download a white paper, register for a webinar or event, purchase a product, as well as hand over some personal information in the process.

It’s a tall order, which is why many businesses seek out Landing Page Optimization (LPO) to maximize their landing page conversion rates.

Through our own LPO work with clients, we’ve noticed a few areas where landing pages usually fall short. So you can avoid them, we’ve compiled a list of 5 common landing page mistakes that will hurt your conversion rates…

1. Poor headline

Great landing page copy is half-headline and half-everything-else!

The headline needs to be the strongest message on a landing page, so plan on spending 50% of your time or more writing it.

Your headline is responsible for helping visitors connect the dots between the place they came from, like an email, a Google search, or an online Ad, and where they landed (your page). They must be constantly encouraged to keep reading.

Make sure the ‘call-to-action’ is present and clear in the headline, as well as the benefit that touches on your visitor’s ‘painpoints.’ And to ensure that visitors don’t skip over this benefit, front-load your headline by placing valuable keywords in the first few words!

2. Including other content that competes for visitors’ attention

Can you easily spot the call-to-action on this page?

The most effective landing pages focus on a single offering.

The last thing you want to do is compete with yourself. And that’s exactly what you’re doing when you put multiple offerings on the same landing page.

The user’s train of thought is sacred.

If you give visitors too many choices, they won’t be sure of what they’re supposed to look at or click on.

Every little extra thing you add will chip away at their focus.

An effective landing page focuses on one product or service at a time, or sometimes a very small amount of similar products. Landing pages with a single focus will always outperform. (Even if there is only one ‘call-to-action’ button or link, make sure it’s ‘large and in charge’ for maximum visibility.)

3. Using same design as your main website

Instead, create a ‘watered down’ landing page design to increase conversion.

What’s wrong with this practice? Same reasoning as Mistake #2, your main site has navigation links and other elements that could distract visitors from the task at hand.

Perhaps a visitor notices the ‘About Us’ link at the top and leaves the page to find more information. This could set off a domino effect, jumping from page to page until there’s no easy way to get back to the landing page (or they completely forget and don’t care to return).

Take a page from our book!

Our landing pages include our site’s navigation, but we place it low in the footer so it’s not competing with the ‘call-to-action.’

Only ask for the most critical information!

4. Form process is too long

Nothing turns away a visitor faster than 15 required form fields.

If the ‘call-to-action’ for your landing page is filling out a lead capture form, make it short and easy for users. This is no time to be greedy! Only ask for the most critical personal information, like an email address and name.

Remember: The benefit you are offering must outweigh the perceived cost (effort, risk of providing personal contact information to a strange company).

5. Lack of testing

There’s no excuse for not testing! The whole process should only take 1 minute of your time (any longer and your visitors will leave).

If you don’t go through the lead capture process yourself, how will you know if everything is working properly? In fact, there are a number of things that could go wrong:

• Form submission didn’t go through
• User never received a confirmation email
• The white paper didn’t download

Test your lead capture process so users don't have to tell you something doesn't work!

Leverage Analytics for Better Testing

A/B Testing is a good idea if you’re looking to improve a landing page but you’re not quite sure what needs improvement. That’s where reviewing your site’s analytics can help you.

For example, maybe you’ve noticed that a ton of traffic is landing on your page, but the average time spent on page is 8 seconds. This stat may indicate that something isn’t working for visitors right off the bat–maybe the headline isn’t strong enough or maybe they see the form and don’t want to bother.

You can test these things by creating a second landing page with the same content and offering, but change a single variable like the headline or the length of your lead capture form. Then compare the analytics of the 2 pages, as well as any differences in conversion rates.

You’re now a landing page expert!

Well, not quite. As you can see, effective LPO addresses a ton of different aspects, including design, information architecture, copywriting, your overall marketing strategy, as well as aspects we didn’t cover like SEO and keyword research.

That’s a lot to nail down, so don’t hesitate to get a second opinion on the effectiveness of your landing pages. If you don’t know where to begin, drop us a line at info@brightorangethread.com and we’ll get you started!

All of our efforts to inform clients, friends, and fellow designers on the issues of writing for the web have led to this… the launching of Chunkify!, an interactive experience that gives you the power to transform long, hard-to-read web page copy into scannable, user-friendly web page copy.

Long, hard-to-read web copy

The "chunkified" web copy

What's Chunkify! all about?

Chunkify! is about exposing the truth behind user reading behavior on the web: Users don't read web pages, they scan them.

Chunkify! explains writing for the web best practices with each click.

To make our point, we wrote copy for a fake company web page that closely resembles many real websites. Then we rewrote the page to be more user-friendly and easily scanned by visitors.

And along the way we explain the 'best practice' behind each change.

Why we created Chunkify!

We created Chunkify! to help people visualize the positive impact chunkifying has on a web page's appearance, and ultimately, the likelihood of users reading (well, scanning) web copy.

Our clients are more than familiar with the concept of writing for the web, as web writing best practices are often included in our blog posts and discussions. We even offer training sessions and webinars about writing for the web. It was then, during those sessions, we realized how much we needed to get the word out.

That word is "chunkify" and we’re hoping it will come to symbolize reader-friendly web writing practices:

• Short, concise paragraphs
• Descriptive subheadings
• Bulleted lists

…just to name a few.

So many more writing for the web tips are covered in Chunkify!, so check it out and watch the web page transform before your eyes.

We recently launched a website for The Center Foundation, a non-profit that offers mentoring, education, and support for women and teen parents in the Delaware County and Philadelphia area.

It's a classic tale — the previous website was no longer meeting their needs and expectations for the web.

Now, their website sports:

• a fresh design
• online forms
• and user-friendly information architecture.

The Center Foundation's previous website

On the previous site, users had to scroll down very long pages to find content. With new page structure and new copy, we were able to create shorter pages and more scannable content, which makes browsing the site much easier!

As always, we followed non-profit website best practices, like placing a prominent ‘donate’ button at the top of each page to help increase support from visitors.

Visit The Center Foundation!

Good SEO is about doing a lot of little things right.

And these little things can be divided into 3 facets. Through our own SEO work and research, we've identified the 3 basic areas of SEO that make up an effective traffic-driving plan.

A comprehensive and optimum approach to SEO includes:

1. Search-engine-friendly Coding
2. Keyword Expansion Research & Keyword Placement
3. Backlinking

If your SEO consultant doesn't address all 3, you should seriously consider firing them!

1. Search-engine-friendly Coding

A good SEO consultant will implement search-engine-friendly coding on your website to produce natural or "organic" SEO results.

To determine if a website is a relevant high-ranking result, search engine bots "spider" web pages, reading the code to make sense of the content contained there. If your code is too long, disorganized, or not web standards compliant, then search engines can pass over your site.

For better SEO results:

• Structure your code and content with semantic HTML. If you're unfamiliar with the term, read our explanation of semantic HTML.
• Use clean, short code. Doing so improves the clarity of your page to search engines. This includes placing JavaScript code in external files.
• Validate your code. Always make sure your code is web standards compliant for the best quality and least amount of bugs.

2. Keyword Expansion Research & Keyword Placement

Keyword Research

To be the least bit good at what they do, SEO consultants need to perform keyword research to identify key phrases that:

• are used in a lot of searches to drive the most amount of traffic.
• are low in competition (to keep costs low).
• have strong potential for your target audience.

Part of keyword research is identifying search trends and which keywords to avoid. Words that are too common or popular may yield little results for your SEO.

Keyword Placement

Once an SEO consultant has identified the best keywords, they should have a plan for effectively placing the keywords throughout your site's copy. This is where search-engine-friendly coding comes back into play.

The keywords need to be contained within the proper semantic HTML tags—the tags that denote importance to search engines. And the headline (h1 tag) is one of the first places a search engine will look.

Beware Keyword Stuffing

Search engines are programmed to find if there is an unnatural use of keywords in a web page's copy. If a search engine suspects an overuse of certain keywords, then your site will drop in ranking or be removed from its index.

3. Backlinking

A good SEO consultant will work with you to develop a strategic backlinking plan that stretches over a long period of time (at least 6 months for best results).

Backlinking involves increasing the number of links to your site on quality websites. The more inbound links you have on other websites, the more popular your site looks to search engines.

How to Create Backlinks

To create inbound links, you can reference your site or a specific page of your site via comments on blogs, forums, and networking sites. You can even pay to have your site promoted on other websites, but it must appear on the most credible sites to get noticed.

Beware Black-hat Backlinking

Generating too many backlinks in a short amount of time (like overnight) is not good, ethical SEO; search engines are programmed to avoid sites that do this. Backlinking should be a natural process that happens over time (6 months – 1 year).

SEO takes time and a decent amount of planning on a consultant's side.

For a consultant to implement one of these strategies without the others shows how out of touch they are with the scope and capabilities of SEO. All 3 basics must be covered if you want the best SEO results.

If your SEO consultant is unwilling to spend equal time on search-engine-friendly coding, keyword research and placement, and backlinking, find a new consultant who will.

For years, we've read research on improving your site's ROI, and we've learned that the key is making your site's design and structure easy to use for visitors.

What We Read: Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox

That's why we read usability expert Jakob Nielsen's online column, Alertbox — a great resource for the latest web usability research and studies. We've learned a lot from Nielsen over the years so we want to share some of his most valuable findings with you!

We've chosen 3 articles from Nielsen's Alertbox on basic web design principles and how not following them will cost you sales on your site...

About Jakob Nielsen

Deemed "the king of usability" by Internet Magazine and web developers alike, Dr. Jakob Nielsen is an expert on how people use websites. Luckily for us, Nielsen publishes his research findings on Alertbox, an online column he updates bi-weekly.

Here are 3 Alertbox articles that can help you put your website's design and information architecture in perspective:

1. Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design

Don't let your site's success fall victim to unscannable text or a superficial search.

In this article, Nielsen reveals some of the most infamous Internet mishaps that can lead to frustrated users and lower conversion rates. Avoid these web offenses and your users will be much more satisfied with you and your site!

Read Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design

2. Closeness of Actions and Objects in GUI Design

Think copying everything you see on popular sites ensures quality user experience? Think again.

One of the oldest principles of human-computer interaction is that objects presented near each other onscreen are related.

For example, if a "Buy Now!" button is too far away from a shopping cart icon, users will overlook that action. Nielsen's article explains how even top-selling sites such as iTunes violate this principle and thus threaten user experience.

Read Closeness of Actions and Objects in GUI Design

3. Mega Drop-Down Navigation Menus Work Well

The point of IA and navigation is to display the site's content in the clearest manner.

Until now, drop-down menus have been notorious for violating this principle by frequently preventing users from seeing all options at once.

Finally, new research confirms a solution to this usability problem! By implementing mega drop-down menus, users can view their navigation choices on a larger area in a categorized manner, thus contextualizing their options more efficiently.

Read Mega Drop-Down Navigation Menus Work Well

This post is the third installment of our What We Read series, which offers clients the opportunity to gain some insight into our philosophy as web designers.

If you missed our previous What We Read posts, check out What We Read #1: Writing for the Web Tips and What We Read #2: 7 Articles to Close the Gap Between Client & Designer.

As a lover of all things Apple, I know the frustration of investing in a product just to see something better come along a year or two later (sometimes months!). So believe me when I tell you that I feel your pain if you've recently—I use "recently" loosely—redesigned your website and you’re already finding yourself in need of updates. You might be thinking, "We just redesigned our website 3 years ago! How can it be outdated already?"

Web Experiences Are Rapidly Changing

Three years may not seem like a long time, but in terms of technology and the web, a lot has changed in 3 years… smart phones are becoming common, content management systems (CMS) are browser based, lightboxes are used for image galleries, mega-dropdown menus are now user friendly, and search functions are cheaper to implement.

As you, the user, became familiar with these new approaches, your experience with your own website changed. The biggest expectation you have is that technology is making websites easier. And when you encounter a website that isn't easy to use, you become frustrated.

Website Growing Pains

We've recently met with a few clients who are experiencing these growing pains with their websites. They are realizing that they need to implement better technologies to interact with their site and do their jobs.

They now need features like slide shows to showcase their great images, online credit card processing for invoicing and collecting donations, or a more dynamic, flexible CMS.

Managing an 'outdated' site is one of the most frustrating tasks.

It wasn't too long ago that we were using CMSs and editors that, by today’s standards and technology, aren't the most user-friendly or efficient. (We felt compelled to create our own CMS, called OrangeFresh.)

At the time, they made our lives so much easier! But as our web experiences changed, we expected better, faster, easier ways to update our websites. What was great 3 years ago feels slow today.

Now there are a bunch of great open-source content management systems that we use, customize, and implement for our clients. With the amount of flexibility they provide, our clients' jobs of managing and updating the site are now very easy.

Updates are a part of site life!

We know your frustration. But the web is more and more becoming the place where users turn to find information. The Yellow Pages are fading!

Today, if your website is 3 years old, it's likely that you are experiencing "issues" and are in need of updates. Updating your website is just part of ensuring that your business or organization stays afloat in the sea of digital information.