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Posts Tagged ‘strategic planning’

Web 3.0 Are You Ready?
[ By John ]

john

Leave a Comment | This entry was posted on June 8th 2009

Can you believe it? There is already a forecast for what Web 3.0 is going to “look” like! Just as Web 2.0 is really taking shape; new ways of web marketing, mobile device integration, data connections and much more.

It only makes sense. Continually pioneering and pushing technology to the limit makes advancement possible. In a recent CNN article they talk about 4 areas that will be the foundation of Web 3.0 as it evolves.

  1. Real Time Information (this is a no brainier as we are already seeing with Twitter and sites like espn.com and mlb.tv that not only provide information, but you can actually watch and track events as they happen).
  2. Web Semantics – I am going to circle back to this one below!
  3. Open Communication (again another no brainier as we are seeing widgets and cross integration of data now — it will just be more intense!)
  4. Mobile and Geography

Of the 4 points above, #2 Web Semantics is something you should be thinking about NOW! Part of Web Semantics revolves around how websites are coded. I am not going to bore you with all the geeky details — we can grab a cup of coffee and discuss or I recommend some Googling on the topic.

Ultimately at this stage of the web, what it boils down to is creating meaningful web documents that are coded in a way that both humans and machines can clearly understand. Understanding the importance of pieces of information in relation to one another, their hierarchy and allowing a web document to ‘say what you mean’ are important facets of web semantics. To this end, another key element to web semantics currently, is the separation of structure from aesthetics and function.

Four ways a semantically coded website can help you today are improving your website’s search engine optimization, enabling your site to be more mobile device friendly, increasing the likelihood that your site will be ‘future friendly’ and work correctly in the greatest number of browsers possible as they grow and develop and aiding a sites ease of maintenance and scalability.

Contact one of our Indianapolis web design specialists today to get ready for Web 3.0!

Lead Generation Website
[ By John ]

john

Leave a Comment | This entry was posted on May 3rd 2009

Do you know the purpose of your web presence? There are really two reasons for having your business online. The reasons aren’t necessarily exclusive in that they are an either or situation and oftentimes it is a happy medium.

1. Educate and/or inform visitors about your company’s services or products.

2. Convert interested visitors into customers.

My personal belief is that the converted visitors are then classified into paying customers as the ultimate goals. Isn’t that what marketing and advertising attempts to do? Obviously with paying customers you increase revenue and hopefully increase profits.

Lead Generation Websites are a growing trend in web development, especially as online advertising dollars are shrinking. Sites used to be completely focused on Point 1 above in informing and educating visitors. It was about pushing information out like buckshot from a shotgun blast. Now we look at ways that we can drive visitors that know what they’re looking for and are closer to the point of making a decision about your specific product or service.

A contact form in your site is only one strategy to help generate leads. There are many, many other strategies that the Visual Blaze creative team can bring to the table. But the bottom line is, if your web presence does not have any dedicated components like contact forms, Twitter feeds, blogs, interactive info-graphics, surveys, etc. then those people are actively looking for that information somewhere. Can you afford to have that be your competition?

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Visual Blaze is an Indianapolis based Web Development firm with innovation and creative thinking at its core.