Smallshock

You’ve probably been on enough web sites to see that there’s no real ageeement on how to format phone numbers.

For instance, you might see this: (785) 555-1212

Or this: 555-1212

This: 785-555-1212

Or this: 785.555.1212

Maddening, isn’t it?

Personally I think phone numbers should be formatted as such: (785) 555-1212, in keeping with the standards set by the International Telecommunicatioms Union. Although kind of an artistic formatting, I don’t like using 785.555.1212, as the use of periods in between numbers means something different in the computer world and could, I suppose, cause a problem with regard to machines reading data.

One more thing to consider: I often see where the area code is left off of phone numbers. This is a huge mistake. The web is global. If someone from out of the area, the state, heck, even the country, is interested in your products or service, not having an area code could be a barrier to them.

Don’t make your web visitor go through hoops to find basic data and contact information about you on your web site. Make that experience as easy as possible.

Is your business on Facebook?

MySpace?

YouTube?

Flickr?

Twitter?

Etc. …

If so (or not), then why (or why not)?

A friend of mine contacted me the other day looking for a web host. His current designer/web host was moving to another field and he needed to house his web site somewhere. Shortly after, his site was victim of an attack which cleaned out his database.

His content was removed from each page, yet leaving his design untouched. Fortunately, his designer had a backup of the database, and was able to quickly restore it during the transition to a new web host. But I know there are others who haven’t been so lucky.

Do you know who backs up your web site? If you have a contract with your web designer (and you absolutely should!) then the delegation of that duty might be in the wording. Ultimately, the responsiblity falls with you.

Here are some helpful tlps for ensuring you’ll have a backup of your web site, or at least major portions of it, when you’ll need it most:

• Make final payment for the web site contigent on you getting all the graphic and web files from the designer.
• If your web site is database driven, such as with a content management system, have the webmaster of the site e-mail you a backup of the site’s database each month. Worst-case scenario, you’d at least have the database and the web site files to take to a new webmaster to get you up and running again. Having the database e-mailed to you monthly might cost you a small fee, but it’s well worth it, especially if your relationship with the webmaster sours.
• Save copies of the web site yourself either through your web browser or other site copying tools. Every browser allows you to save individual (and in some cases, entire sites) to your computer. Other tools available will help you make a copy of your entire web site.

Don’t be unprepared for a web site outage. Having regular backups of your data and site design will save you plenty of headaches when disaster strikes.

My wife and I will celebrate our fifth anniversary at the end of the month and we’re looking around for options for a quick getaway.

Once place we’re considering is Grand Lake, Oklahoma, located not far from where I grew up. For us, the trip sounds ideal - we can drop the kid off at the grandparents’ house and drive down to the lake for a few days to ourselves.

We live about five hours away from Grand Lake, so I’d prefer to do this research online. What I found was astounding. A Google search lead me to GrandLake.com, which led me to a listing of hotels and motels near Grand Lake. While there were eight listings for us to choose from, there was only one that had a website.

I have no interest in calling each one of them and asking for their rates, and I have no way to view pictures of each hotel without an online presence.

The only lodging we’re seriously considering is the one with the website.

I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again: your business needs a website. Granted, I’m more experienced than most with regard to shopping or researching online, but in this case I’m as typical a website visitor as any. Put simply, I’m looking for information because I’m a working still and the internet provides the quickest, easiest way for me to evaluate my choices.

When your competitor has a website and you don’t, you’ve allowed your competitor to help the customer make up his mind - and you’re not likely to come out the winner on that deal.

What excuse can you come up with for not having a website? Is it too costly? Do you not have the time to put in to get it going? Are you too busy to research a designer?

How much sales have you lost in the meantime?

On Tuesday, the team at Mozilla released Firefox 3, its latest web browser.

As a web designer, I’ll admit it’s difficult trying to design so that web sites look the same in different browsers. In a perfect world, there would be one awesome browser that everyone loved and had incredible features. Of course, that isn’t the case.

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has the largest market share, not surprisingly, because Windows has the largest share of operating systems on computers across the globe. The problem a lot of designers have with Internet Explorer is it often doesn’t adhere to web standards that, ironically, Microsoft helped create. This leads to hacks and workarounds to make designs work in Internet Explorer. It’s a big headache.

Personally, I recommend Firefox to everyone that I can. It has great features, such as the ability to extend the application with add-ons (one of my favorites is Adblock Plus), and renders web pages much faster than Internet Explorer.

I highly encourage you to check out Firefox 3 today: 13,000,000+ downloads is saying something about this amazing application.

Download it now: Get Firefox 3

A splash page is a decorative page that appears when you visit the home page of a web site, and you have to click through them to get to the rest of the site’s content.

While their purpose seems to be to add artistry to a site, splash pages are most successful in annoying a visitor and keeping them from your content.

A splash page example I can point to is that of my veterinarian, the Gentle Care Animal Hospital. I love my vet’s web site. It has great content, a clean design and simple navigation. The only thing that annoys me is the splash page that shows up when I first visit the web site’s home page. It’s cute, but completely unnecessary.

Your web site will serve many purposes: to educate, to sell, to promote, act as a resource, and so on. A visitor to your site might want to come in, get your phone number and leave. The whole visit should take a few seconds for something like that. Splash pages hinder that experience.

Resist the urge to add a splash page to your web site. Your visitors will appreciate it.

Have you ever been on a web site and clicked on a link, only to end up on a page that says “404 Not Found” or something similar? Annoying, isn’t it?

Given the ever-expanding nature of the web, broken links or linkrot is unavoidable. But that doesn’t mean you can’t fight it with a simple tool and a little maintenance.

For Windows users, I recommend Xenu’s Link Sleuth. For Apple Mac OS X users, Integrity is your best bet. Both programs are free to use, although donations are accepted for Integrity. While the creator of Xenu’s Link Sleuth says no donations are needed, you can support causes listed on his site (Note: Anti-Scientology information is prominent on the Xenu’s Link Sleuth creator’s web site and embedded in its software. If that offends you, you might want to find another tool.)

I recommend checking your web site once a month. When you find broken links, see if you find the good links by tracking them down on the web site your linking to or with a search engine. Then, make changes to your web pages so the links aren’t broken anymore. If you can’t find a suitable fix, it’s best to get rid of the link altogether.

Fixing broken links on your web site will lead to happier visitors and repeat visits. When visitors use your site with ease and see that you care enough to keep your content updated, they’ll come back.

When choosing a domain name for your web site, it’s a good idea to look at how it reads as objectively as possible.

Take these examples:

• TheTriplex.com - A cinema in Barrington, Mass.
• WhoRepresents.com -  Find agents that represent celebrities
• TherapistFinder.com - A therapist lookup service for counseling

They seem innocuous enough, but the mind is funny and eyes aren’t always as reliable as we’d like them to be. When you put a domain name in the address bar and press enter, most browsers will automatically change the letters to lower case, at least in the part of the domain name itself (to the end of .com, .net, .org, .etc).

TheTriplex.com can look like TheTripleX.com (a very different kind of theater), WhoRepresents.com to WhorePresents.com, and TherapistFinder.com can look like TheRapistFinder.com.

It might be a good idea to get a second, maybe even a third set of eyes on your prospective domain name before you purchase. Unless, of course, a web address with dual meaning is what you’re trying to do.

Like PenIsland.net, for example.

When I need to look up a domain name to see if it’s available, there’s once place I have bookmarked that I rely on for a super fast search:

http://squurl.com

Called “Super Quick URL,” the web site queries GoDaddy, NetworkSolutions and Dotster, then gives the price of the domain name for each company. You must have JavaScript turned on in your browser for it to work.

SquURL is a timesaver. Bookmark it, then use it when you need. It’s incredible.

More times than I can remember, I’ll be driving down the road and will notice a vehicle in the next lane with a sign proudly displaying the name - and phone number - of a business that would love to have me as its next customer. Yet for some reason, there’s not a web site address to be found.

It makes me want to roll down the window and scream “Hey! Don’t you have a web site?”

There are only two explanations. Either the business doesn’t have a web site, or the sign doesn’t. Either one is unacceptable.

Let’s examine the latter first. It’s quite possible that the sign has been on the vehicle for years and it was a oversight. But should it have been? If your business has a web site, you likely want to get the word out as much as possible, right? You put it on your business cards, e-mail signatures, run ads in the local newspaper. Yet somehow the rolling billboard got neglected. How could this happen?

Fortunately, the fix is simple and not that expensive. Call around to your local print shops (or even search for ones online such as stickerguy.com) and find someone who can make you a sticker roughly the same width of your auto advertising with one word on it: your web address (example: yourwebsite.com). Slap one on all your company cars close to the sign and get your web site noticed.

But what if the business didn’t have a web site? Then I’d have to ask, “Why not?”

I don’t know how a business can afford not to have a web site anymore. It’s the cheapest form of advertising possible. It’s always a search engine search away and customers who aren’t comfortable calling to learn more can find out about your business from their favorite internet-connected device. Traditionally, that might be a home or office computer, but with mobile devices become more connected to the internet, it could, quite literally, be the guy sitting at the stoplight next to you.

Even if all you could afford is a web site with one page listing your hours, contact information, directions and a quick summary of your services, that would be enough to get a potential customer to take the next step. Especially if that same customer is using the web to research products or services like yours while your competitor has a web site and you’re nowhere to be found.

That doesn’t even include the word-of-mouth factor. Maybe I don’t need what your offering, but if it comes up in conversation with a buddy of mine who does, it’s possible that I’ll remember the web address and pass it on.

Your business can’t afford not to have a web site, and it definitely can’t afford not to have it displayed on as much of your promotional material as possible.

Is your business missing out on getting the word out?