A few days ago Firefox 3.5 became officially available for download. The web browser world is constantly changing to it is important that you constantly check your business website to make sure that it is up-to-date and compatible with the latest web browsers.

That can be very difficult to do since there are so many different operating systems and each operating system has its own browser version. You may have a PC, but that means you are not able to test your browser on a Mac OSX Safari browser.

Well there is a great way to test your website’s compatibility using a free webtool called Browsershots.

Browsershots.org – Check browser compatibility accross multiple browsers from different OS’s.

Here’s two other websites that can help you test your website to make sure it is up-to-date.

Web Page Analyzer – Free website performance tool and web page speed analysis.

CSS Validation Service – Check your CSS and HTML documents with style sheets

If you haven’t downloaded Firefox 3.5 yet, we highly encourage you to do so. It’s a great browser and it will make your web surfing experience much better. Download Firefox here.

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Managing and optimizing your own website is a full time job. There are a lot of different monitoring points that you must keep a close eye on in order to fully understand how your visitors are reacting to your web design.

The most commonly known website analytics are visits and pageviews. These two stats are very different and each play a critical role in the visitor trending on your site.

For example, in the screenshot above, we can see that this website has a moderate number of visitors, but what’s even more important is the ratio of visits to pageviews.

So on average, each visitor typically views multiple pages before they leave the site. This is a great indicator that the information on this website is engaging since each visitor typically clicks several times during each visit.

But that’s just one way of verifying the visitor interaction. Another important metric is bounce rate.

While typically you want to see your charts trending upwards, this is one of the few graphics you want to see as low as possible because it describes the frequency of people leaving your site with no interaction. In other words, if you find that your site has a high bounce rate percentage, then it tells you that your visitors are not finding your site to be relevent, engaging, or it’s just plain confusing.

In the example shown above, you can see that the bounce rate is below 30%, so less than 1/3 of the visitors “bounce.” While each website is different, if you can drop your bounce rate percentage below 50% your business is more likely to see an increase in online conversions.

Do you have any questions about website analytics? Leave a comment below. We’ll answer all your analytical concerns! Or you can ask us on Twitter.

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1. Privacy Policy
Your visitors need to know that they can trust you. Let them know that their personal information can be trusted with your company. The Direct Marketing Association has a privacy policy generator. http://www.dmaresponsibility.org/PPG

2. Contact Us
This shouldn’t even be on this list, but it’s surprisingly easy for the contact information to be lost in the shuffle. With all of the spambots roaming the web, we recommend that you use a form rather than placing your email directly on your website. Here’s an easy form generator. http://www.bravenet.com/webtools/emailfwd

3. Search Box
If you have a lot of pages on your website you’ll need an easy way for your visitors to find exactly what they are looking for. Make sure that the search box is easy to find and on the home and landing page.

4. Website Analytics
You’ve got to know what your visitors are doing on your site and where they are coming from. There’s no reason not to have some kind of analytics tracking software on your site. http://www.google.com/analytics

5. Newsletter Sign Up
If you’ve got a blog or a newsletter then offer a call-to-action for your visitors to subscribe to your weekly or daily content. Feedburner has an great RSS to email feature. http://www.feedburner.com

6. Search Engine Optimized Copy
If you don’t understand how to optimize your website for search engines it might be best to consult with a professional marketing company.

7. Social Media Share Button
It’s so easy to add these to your website there’s really no reason not to. While some of your visitors may not have any idea what these buttons are for, it’s worth adding these buttons for those visitors that do use them. Try http://www.addthis.com

8. Trust Seals/Testimonials
This is a great way to establish a different kind of trust between your company and your visitors. Take a look at our blog post How to Make Your Website More Trustworthy.

LEVELTWO & LEVELTWO Medical

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According to research from Pew Internet & American Life Project 74% of adults in the U.S. go online and, of those, 80% look for health information online. 29% of all internet users have looked online for information about a particular doctor or hospital.

To effectively harvest all the healthcare prospects that view your website you must stick to some basic best practices. When a patient is browsing your site they are typically looking for these basic components:

1. Your medical specialty
2. Educational background
3. Board certifications
4. Awards and honors
5. Types of insurance accepted
6. Office locations
7. Hours and contact information

If you want to really make your website functional and useful, try adding

1. Copies of standard forms that the patient needs to fill out during their visit
2. A frequently asked questions section
3. An integrated social component (blog, Facebook, YouTube, ect)

For example, take a look at NicholsonClinic.com (screenshot below).

It’s easy to understand Dr. Nick’s medical specialities, board certification, awards, and contact methods. But not only does this website offer lots of key information at a glance, it also offers fully interactive social media campaign complete with videos, a Twitter account, and a daily updated blog.

Use this medical website best practices checklist PDF to see how well your own website stacks up.

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In marketing (online and offline) there are three basic questions that must be addressed when you are trying to sell a product or service. If you don’t address these basic questions, your website will not be successful.

1. What is it?
2. How can I use it?
3. Why do I need it?

Surprisingly, there are many websites and marketing campaigns that don’t answer these three simple questions. No matter how good your product or service might be, no one will buy it unless you present your message in an easy to understand way.

Here are a few tips to help you more effectively broadcast your marketing message through your website.

1. Micro-message
   Learn a lesson from the success of Twitter, keep your messages short and to the point. Explain “who you are”, “what you’re selling”, and “why they need it” as quickly as possible. Save the longwinded descriptions after they click through to the next page.
2. Multimedia
   Hire a marketing firm to create a 30 second video that explains your products. Even better than short micro-message is a short micro-message that I don’t even have to read!
3. Tunnel vision
   If you offer wide variety of products and services then you should compartmentalize each vertical. Present the visitor with a few options and let them determine what they are interested in and then you can provide more detailed information about the product or service.

A website is never finished. As you draw more visitors you should monitor how they react to your web design. Track where they are leaving your website and make changes to try and curb the visitor drop out. A good website can be your best salesman.

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When it comes to developing a new website there are many different levels of engagement. Let’s take a look at the differences between a custom website, a custom template, and a basic template website.

Custom Website

• Website design based on guidelines and feature requests from the client.
• Unique design created just for your business. No other website will look the same.
• Search engine optimized so that it will show up in search engine results.
• Custom websites look more professional since it is created by experts.
• Timeframe for a custom web design can be between 1 to 2 months.
• The price is based on many different factors, but you can expect to pay between $15,000 to $25,000 (or more if you need to develop a corporate identity).

Custom Template Website

• A website designed by a professional web designer for a specific industry.
• Contains common website features, but custom requests are limited.
• A website that is originally created custom for a specific industry by firms that have insight into that field, but then is sold to multiple people. Most of the time no other website will look exactly the same, in their particular geographic area.
• Some basic search engine optimization.
• Custom templates look professional, but not as unique as a full custom website.
• Timeframe for a customized template is about 2 weeks to 1 month.
• The cost for a customized template website can we between $2,500 to $5,500 dollars.

Template Website

• A themed website created to be resold to multiple businesses for many different industries.
• It is not unique or original. Other companies on the internet will have the same design.
• Website graphics and logos are based on a theme and are very generic.
• A hired web designer will still have to add text, pictures, and logos to a template website.
• Timeframe for a template website is about 1 to 2 weeks.
• The template itself will cost you around $60 dollars, but the time for a web designer to tweak the template could cost anywhere between $500 to $1000 dollars.

Let’s take a look at an example of a custom website, a customized template, and a basic template website.

This is an example of a custom website design we designed for our client, Elta. Elta.net is an ecommerce website with dynamic product navigation, store locator, and searchable database of products.

This is an example of a custom template website designed specifically for the healthcare industry. This specific example features a media player, BMI calculator, and multiple contact forms.

This is an example of a template website. A website template package comes with the html website layout and themed graphic, but you will still need the tools and coding knowledge to put the content and company information on the template.

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