One of the impediments to online reading is physical: It’s harder to read on a screen than it is to read on paper. Even the best computer monitors are hopelessly fuzzy when compared to the crisp images on a glossy magazine page, and the extra effort this requires from human eyes and brains slows
readers down. The longer the document, the bigger the problem.

Today’s monitors are vastly better than the ones in use years ago—especially the latest
generation with flat screens and liquid crystal displays. Better software is also
helping. Microsoft, for instance, has created a superior family of fonts
specifically designed for online reading (Arial and Tahoma are two of the most widely
used).

But the more significant barrier web writers must overcome is behavioral, not physical. Everyone who has studied online reading will know that people behave differently when online. When viewing a new page, they don’t read—they scan. They look at headings and subheadings first; they scan for hyperlinks, numerals, and keywords. They jump around, scrolling and clicking—their fingers never far from the browser’s “Back” button.

The challenge for the web writer is to overcome readers’ impatience by keeping things as brief as possible.

Do you know of some good articles, tutorials, newsletters, Web sites, books, or other resources related to writing for the Web, Web site content, or related topics? Recommendations are welcome and encouraged!

Now is a good time to reach a wider audience via the internet. We are currently working with alot of traders who are looking to increase sales via the internet. One of the main areas to monitor your site traffic, is to install analytic software which will enable you to monitor site traffic, keywords etc etc. All our sites have analytics installed, whether it be a corporate showcase site or an e-commerce site.

There are many other ways in which to improve your presence so we have listed some pointers for you below.

Below are a few ways to improve your online presence

Search Engine Marketing
Having a website which looks great, does not always lead to conversion success or traffic to your site. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a term used for a group of items that help your site get strong search engine rankings through Yahoo, Google, and many other search engines out there on the web today.

Social Media
Alot of you may be thing Social media what is that? Social media networks are becoming increasingly popular over the internet, including Facebook, Twitter, Digg.com and MySpace, to name but a few. Social media offers companies the opportunity to build in viral marketing into part of their online presence. You can use Social media to network with other people and companies. It enables you to submit news and other articles for users and business users, it can essentially direct your brand through word of mouth on the web.

Adding pages of content to your site
Adding pages of content might seem daunting but it is a matter of fact that these pages will help alot in a user finding what they are looking for. The rule which stands out the most for Search engine optimisation is to add traffic. The more pages you have which are cached pages are indexed by Google Yahoo and many other search engines, it will help give your site more chance of making an impact in search engines.

Having more pages will also help when setting up an adwords campaign in Google (i.e the sponsored links which appear at the top and right hand side. If you have pages which are about a particular product which you want to target, setting up a pages which is specifically about that product will help enable you to target people to that page rather than people having to trawl through your site to find that product.

For example if you are selling watches and you are wanting to target people with a particular new brand of watch, setting up an individual page for that item and having your Google Adwords campaign, send you straight to that link making sure that the users sees what it is they have clicked on. If you put a generic url in the Adwords campaign they will spend time searching for that product, this can then result in them leaving the site as they can’t find the watch which is on offer, which then results in a sale lost.

There are many other techniques in which your site can be improved and having an hour with Ninethirty can help you realise the ptential in having your web presence improved, making you more money in the log run.

Now for the first time, Google has been upgraded to actually look inside your flash documents. Google web crawlers now read text within Flash and designers now can be a lot more confident when considering the use of flash within their clients websites than before.

Another little used technique is the ability to actually track user behaviour as they browse your flash based content by attaching Google tracking code to your flash buttons. Now clients and web developers can finally get the information they need about the way customers view their flash content.

For more information about integrating Flash with Google Analytics in your website, just give Ninethiry a call and we will be very happy to discuss it with you.

You can see how Ninethirty has utilised Flash complete with internal Google Analytics tracking by visiting a site we recently designed for Open Wings productions

Even if you have already decided on a print design route there is no reason why further down the line you can’t take what you have learnt, i.e Typography, Page Layout, Fonts etc and translate that understanding into the web.

Learning both print and web design will make you even more marketable. In today’s job market, listings often ask for a focus on one, but knowledge of both. As a company owner, being able to offer a client a full marketing package, with print materials and a website to match, will only help to grow a business and build an impressive portfolio.