Congratulations, New York!

As an agency headquartered in the state of New York, we have clients, colleagues and friends within our blossoming Liqui-Site family who may now legally marry their significant other. We, at Liqui-Site Designs, Inc., congratulate the people of New York and share in this victory for equality!

Now, I know that businesses need not take a political stance on civil issues, but the core of our business is cultivating real relationships with the clients we serve. That means being human, being transparent, supporting what we believe to be fair and better for this world.

We officially support the It Gets Better Project. We officially support this new legislation in the state in which our business is located. This issue is personal to me, as the president of Liqui-Site.

As I was walking out of my house this morning, I noticed that I felt differently after last night's vote. Today, I walk a little taller, smile a little bigger. No longer do my partner and I feel like second class citizens.

I opened the New York Times that lay on my driveway, pulled the translucent blue bag off, and was moved by the capitalized front-page headline: New York Allows Same-Sex Marriage, Becoming Largest State to Pass Law.

It's a great day to be a New Yorker and to be a business owner in this great state. Congratulations, New York!

by Kelly Campbell
Liqui-Site Designs 
Experience our commitment to you, from our very first conversation.™

All Successful Web-Based Businesses Have 1 Thing In Common – Great UX

It really isn't about you. It's about your prospects, customers and clients. The UXD, or “User Experience Design”, in web terminology, is less a matter of aesthetic preference, and more so the intuitiveness of an overall interface. In sales terms, it is the process of developing online relationships.

The user experience (UX) begins with how a person feels about using a product, a service, a system, your website, Aha! User experience is, well, experiential. It includes a person’s perceptions of practicality, ease of use, efficiency, intuitiveness. Yet, user experience is dynamic because its common practices change as does technology (web browsers, devices, etc.).

Most of all, your user experience began even before the user knew who you were – well before he or she reached your organization’s website.

Why? Because the user experience began with a search – user-initiated search behavior.

Therefore, it's only natural that development of your site begin with:

1. A thorough understanding of user-initiated search behavior and keyword research to reach "Page 1" of the search result (above your online competitors)
2. Driving relevant, qualified click-through traffic to your site
3. Keeping your treasured, qualified visitors engaged long enough to begin the conversion process
4. And finally, converting a remaining percentage to take an action: place an order, request info, sign up for a newsletter, download a white paper

OK. That’s huge. Let’s bring it back down for a moment and focus on just one small area – navigation.

Studies on user behavior have shown that the right side of a website is the least effective placement for navigation, so we suggest keeping all “navigation titles” in the left column or all across the top. For ecommerce sites, horizontal navigation at the top of a site is typically used for broad product categories, company info and contact, while vertical navigation on the left is commonly used to categorize products in a line or product lines themselves – with drop-across menus, or “fly-outs”, that list sub-categories. On the homepage, all of this is in an effort to get your prospect to the exact product they’re looking for in as few clicks as humanly possible.

Navigation Titles
As it applies to search engine optimization (SEO), our primary concern is that actual navigation titles be "search relevant." That is to say are based on user behavior and experience. Users don’t search for singular words. Three is the average number of words used in Google searches. Therefore, using singular words like “print”, “web”, “horse”, “car” as your navigation titles, doesn’t give the search engines much to work with to help you make a connection. Think about it for a moment. That’s a big disconnect.

Singular terms are vague, severely impact your ability to increase PR (page rank) and, above all, fail to connect you with relevant site traffic. Using longer tail keywords in your navigation is a best practice for both SEO and UX. That’s about it for today’s lesson. Here’s your take away – If you want terrific traffic, you’ve got to provide a great experience.

by Richard Feldman
Liqui-Site Designs 
Experience our commitment to you, from our very first conversation.™

Social Media Engagement is Everywhere: Twitter Introduces the Follow Button

No longer do you need to direct visitors to your profile page on Twitter in order for them to follow you. In one click, a visitor can instantly subscribe to your Tweets without leaving your website. Twitter announced the “Follow” button yesterday, May 31, 2011 as “a way to increase engagement with your audience”.

While this sort of functionality from Twitter has been available to developers through their @Anywhere API, the new Follow button offers an easy way to get set up. For individuals, small businesses and companies utilizing Twitter as a social media channel, this button be implemented into a web site and makes it simple for visitors to subscribe to a Twitter user's stream.

It seems to be a growing trend with social media that a conversation can start on a web page and continue on to something like a person's FaceBook profile. This is a powerful concept that has driven ideas such as FaceBook’s Like Button, where a visitor can “like” something on a web page which notifies all of their FaceBook friends. This leads to more conversation and carries the message even further. Similarly, Twitter’s Tweet button allows a person to instantly create a Tweet directly from a web page as one seamless experience. Ultimately, all these tools including Twitters new Follow button make it easier to expand and involve your online audience.

So, how are you using Social Media to carry your message and better engage visitors on your web site?

by Matthew Ell
Liqui-Site Designs 
Experience our commitment to you, from our very first conversation.™