Web Tips | Jelly Websites

How to Improve Your Website | Corona, CA

Unlike wine, websites don’t age gracefully over time. In fact, if you haven’t updated your website in a few years, it may be time for you to consider updating your website for the sake of your business. The world of website design is constantly evolving and if you want your business to stay relevant, you best keep up with the latest web design trends.

Like any business owner with a website, you know how aggravating it can be to keep your website up to date. You want your website to be used to generate new customers, as well as to help your existing ones. If your website isn’t generating traffic at all, it may be because it’s time for you to improve your website. The following includes a few tips that will be useful to improve your overall website:

Be mobile-friendly. Several people use smart phones or tablets to browse the internet, so your site must be “mobile friendly”. For a website to be “mobile friendly”, it should be able to optimize to smartphones and tablets. Whether you have a responsive website or a separate mobile site, you never want your visitors to have to zoom in and out to read the content or navigate your website. Keep in mind that your font style and size should be easy to read. In addition, all of the buttons must be big enough to click without having to zoom in. When websites are up to date and “mobile friendly” visitors tend to spend more time on the site.
First impressions count. Keep in mind that your homepage is essentially the face of your company to online world, the first thing a visitor usually lands on and you want to make a positive impression. According to research, it only takes eight seconds for a visitor to make a judgement, so your homepage must be attractive, provide useful information, and of course, include eye-pleasing graphics. (Don’t use any cheesy stock photos.) Another key to improving your website is to make sure that you use compelling headlines with keyword-related content. Remember visitors aren’t the only ones on your website; search engines crawl your website as well.
Great Call-To-Action. It’s smart to place a Call-to-Action on every page. You want potential customers to come across these. You can place a “Schedule Appointment”, “Sign Up For Emails” or “Follow Us” icons in prominent places on your homepage and throughout your website to gain customers. Say an interested visitor is reading about your company’s services or products and right below there’s a “Schedule Appointment” or “Sign Up For Emails” button for them to click. This gives you more opportunities to gain customers.
Include personality. It's far more important for your visitors to read what other customers have to say about your products or services, rather than speaking for yourself. Several people go looking for reviews before calling to schedule any kind of appointment or purchasing a product. This makes it very important to incorporate testimonials into your website. A testimonial should be visible on your homepage and should link to another page with all your testimonials listed there. When it comes you the “About Us” section on your website, explain who you are as a person, not just as professional. Add personal touches, like your hobbies outside work, how many children or pets you have or where you graduated from.

If you’re interested in improving your website, contact Jelly Websites in Corona, CA at 951-371-9327 to schedule a free consultation today. Or visit www.jellywebsites.com for additional information.

Proudly serving Corona, Riverside, Chino, Ontario, Anaheim, Irvine, Tustin, Yorba Linda, Fullerton and all surrounding areas.

5 Web Design Mistakes You Must Avoid

Despite everything that web designers know, several of them are still making the same terrible design mistakes. And I’m not talking about a misspelled word in your content, I’m talking about being able to see this design mistake right when entering the website. While there’s no way for you to go back in time, you can make corrections so your design flawlessly moves forward. The following is a list I’ve complied of the five most common web design mistakes:

No Color or Typography Palette. Designers often think that they can get away with colors that “seem to match” or fonts that are “close”. Web design projects are just like any other when it comes to styles and branding, making consistent color and typography palettes extremely critical. Be sure that you have a great set of colors and type choices that contribute to a simple and professional-looking design.

Complicated Navigation. Don’t get to creative or go over the top when creating your navigation. It’s always best to think of your visitors beforehand. Having a simple and modernized navigation is a crucial design element to any website.

No Contact Information. This a very big problem, though it is rare, there are several websites that don’t have an email or contact form. Don’t make you visitor have to look somewhere other than you website for contact information. If you do have contact information on your website, make sure that it’s easy to find and access. You can try putting your contact information in the websites footer, header or even both the footer and header.

Not Mobile-Friendly at All. When you’re designing a website you must think of content in terms of mobile. Think about considering a “mobile-first” approach during the planning, copywriting, design, review, and testing. Do this all the way to the release and revisions to ensure your site is mobile-friendly. If you site isn’t mobile friendly, I assure you that you are going to lose business. Be sure your website adapts to any size screen. It results to a bad first impression when visitors have to pinch and pull to enlarge text and imagery.

Entire Flash Website. I may have mentioned that going back in time is impossible, however it turns out that it is: An all-flash website takes us back to 2006! But on a serious note, there a huge impact on the number of visitors who can access your all-flash website. Flash isn’t compatible with iOS, meaning anyone with an iPhone or iPad will not be able to view your website, which kills your mobile reach.

The website mistakes above and more happen when you don’t think of your users enough during the design process. Your website is the first impression for your business, so be sure to take the time to invest time into its quality.

If you’d like to improve your websites online appearance, contact Jelly Websites in Corona, CA at 951-371-9327 or visit www.jellywebsites.com for additional information regarding web design.

Jelly Websites proudly serves Corona, Riverside, Chino, Ontario, Tustin, Yorba Linda, Fullerton and all surrounding areas.

5 Tips to Get Your Website Noticed

Do have an online business? Have you had a tough time getting your website noticed? As nice as the quote “If you build it, they will come” sounds, it doesn’t work well in the case of building a website. Unfortunately, it takes a lot more effort than just building a beautiful website for it to drive traffic.

It takes time to build an audience, and it also takes certain knowledge to accomplish the goal of driving traffic to your website in the first place. The following includes a list of five tips and tactics to help your website getting noticed:

Content Marketing- Content is key. One of the very best ways to get your website noticed is by getting your content seen by as many people as possible. Meaning that you should try to get on as many websites as possible. You want this content to drive visitors to your website, so be sure that the articles or blogs you produce are high-quality.

Social Media- You can use social media to help promote your website and get your business noticed. Social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are an ideal way to publicize your website or blogs. You can start by making business profiles on the largest social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, to help get your business noticed. It’s important that you stay consistent with post or tweets and encourage sharing to help generate traffic to your website.

Professional Look- Incorporating flashy photos, background music and walls of text isn’t going to drive visitors to your website. As a matter of fact, it will do the exact opposite. It’s been said that it only takes 8 seconds for a visitors to judge a website, so don’t waste your time with trying to go all out. Simplicity is key, so be sure to take the time to make sure your website visually pleasing and organized.

Partner Up- Find someone to partner up with that has similar content and exchange links. It’s essentially a cross promotion. You can also design an eye-catching banner to place on your partner’s site, and in return you can do the same for them. You can also produce a free WordPress page and include a link back to your website in the footer.

Start Blogging- It’s no mystery that search engines love fresh content. If you’re not updating your website regularly, the search engine crawlers won’t visit it very often. Unless you can update your website every day or every few days, the easiest way to produce fresh content is to start blogging or have “news” page. You can use this to talk about your latest projects or to provide tips, among much more. Write about things that will attract your target audience.

Getting your website noticed won’t happen overnight, but some time and effort you can make it happen. If you’d like to get your website noticed, contact Jelly Websites in Corona, CA at 951-371-9327 today or visit our website at www.jellywebsites.com to view our portfolio.

Proudly serving Corona, Riverside, Chino, Ontario, Irvine, Tustin, Yorba Linda, Fullerton and all surrounding areas.

A Few Things People Hate About Websites

I’m sure you’ve had the experience of landing on a website that either drives you bonkers with excessive pop-ups or slow loading times. Those are both experiences that most likely lead you tell eventually leave the website altogether.

There are many things that people hate about certain websites. Many of those things that can frustrate people and lead to them to navigating away from your website. To be sure you’re not one of the many websites people dislike I’ve complied a few things that people hate about websites:

Websites that are cluttered with cheesy or generic stock photos. Most know that using imagery is great for inbound marketing. However, when you land on page with a stock phone of what supposedly looks like your entire staff jumping in the air with joy at work, they can be thrown off. Because who’s really all that happy at work every day, and poses for a work picture that way. Come on.

Images are supposed to be used to help clarify something for your visitors, and generic stock photos won’t help visitors or your business at that. It’s much better to use real photos of your customers, team, location, and products. If you don’t have those, browse the internet for the best, non-cheesy stock photo websites.

Websites that contain a contact form, but no contact information. I’ve personally dealt with a site like recently. The website contained a “Contact Us” page, yet it only included an area where you leave your contact information till they get back to you. While there is nothing wrong with having a contact form, it should not be the only way of getting in contact with your business. If visitors, myself included, need help, they typically want it immediately.

Make it easy for people to get in contact with you via email, the phone and social media, and be sure to include that information on your website.

Your website contains keyword-stuffed copy. There was a time where you could go to website see paragraphs and paragraphs of copy. Not only was it overwhelming, but if you read the copy you’d find nothing but a lot of keywords meant for bots, not humans. While keywords are crucial in SEO success, Google will penalize you if your website if stuffed with keywords.

More importantly, keyword-stuffed copy on websites make for a bad reader experience. Instead of cramming a bunch of key words into your website, learn how to optimize keywords throughout your website or hire someone to do so for you.

Don’t make any of the mistakes mentioned above or your business may suffer in conversions and sales. These are only some of the few mistakes you can make with your website. If your website does have any of the mentioned web problems, you should get on top of properly optimizing it or hire someone to do so.

If you’re looking to improve your website or looking to acquire a new one, contact Jelly Websites in Corona, CA at 951-371-9327 to get in touch today. Or visit www.jellywebsites.com for information regarding our web services.

Jelly Websites proudly serves Corona, Riverside, Chino, Ontario, Tustin, Yorba Linda, Fullerton and all surrounding areas.

How You Can Increase Online Sales

Are you looking for ways to increase your online sales? As most people know, there are some strategies that are effective but steady, long-term methods. While other strategies can be fast, simple changes that can be made in your digital marketing.

For some, it can be difficult to choose which of the two strategies will work best for their company. It’s best to take a look at several and try them out. Sometimes, it’s takes some trial and error to find the right strategy that suits your company best.

The following are two ways you can increase online sales for your business:

Be Focused and Have a Target

Some of the quicker methods involve strategies such as simplifying your website and your online marketing goals. For instance, narrowing down you online advertising to one main goal -like more conversions or click-throughs- can help you by figuring out where you should be focusing your valuable time and money. When you advertise a large amount of products or services all at once it can confuse and distract your visitors, which won’t leave a good impression.

You should be sure to focus on your most popular or successful products or services to catch their interest, and provide additional content elsewhere on your website. Furthermore, once your visitor catches interest in a specific product or service, be sure to make it easy for them to access it by including easy navigation.

Furthermore, if your visitors are navigating their way through your website on a mobile devices, you should make sure your website is mobile-friendly. Not only will having a mobile-friendly website be much easier for your visitors, it will leave a good impression of your business. It helps to have more imagery and visuals for those that are using a mobile device to view your website. Including photos of your products or services can increase your visitors trust and interest.

Spend Your Money Wisely

While accessing your company’s website is extremely helpful, there are other aspects of online marketing that can improve your online sales. First off, you should begin by figuring out where and when to spend your money. Educate yourself about where you can afford to use free or cheap software, and where to hire an online marketing professional. Aspects such as your website design, company logo and SEO should be handled by a professional. Do not let your selling points appear to be cheap or quickly put together, this will only push away potential customers.

Whether you choose to acquire the help of a professional or expert to optimize your website and companies look, or you choose to focus on selling a specific product or services, your online sales can only go up from there.

For more information regarding online sales, contact Jelly Websites in Corona, CA at 951-371-9327 or visit www.jellywebsites.com for additional information.

Proudly serving Corona, Riverside, Chino, Ontario, Tustin, Yorba Linda, Fullerton and all surrounding areas.

8 Tips for Creating a Great Website Footer

Often time’s people tend to forget about the importance of their websites footer. The footer of your website is one of the most important locations on your webpage. Although this area of your website may not be designed impressively, your visitors look for the footer in search of important information. It’s vital that you don’t neglect your footer when planning for a web design project.

So, what elements should you incorporate in your footer? How can you go about keeping your footer organized and seamless without over designing? The following tips include ways to create a great footer without it being obtrusive:

Keep It Clean- When dealing with lots of information, you must make the design simple. This way it’s easy for your visitors to find the information they’re seeking and extract it efficiently as they need. Make sure your design has purpose, fresh content and clean spacing.
Provide Links- Two of the most important links on your website are “Contact Us” and “About Us”. When visitors land on your webpage they typically want to know more about your company and its members. So, your footer must be linked to these pages to provide the best service.
Basic Contact Info- Besides including “Contact Us” into your footer, you can add your contact information, like your physical address, emails address and phone number. Try including an icon that offers auto dial, emailing or a site map with your location.
Arrange by Importance- The footer should contain some sort of hierarchy of the elements within the area. Your information should be divided in columns or rows and arranged by relevant important information like contact information, social media, links, etc.
Include Copyright Notice- Including a Copyright Notice is extremely important to your security and can save you from facing many problems. You can copyright your work by including a copyright notice. This statement includes the copyright symbol, name of the copyright owner, and the year it was created.
Include Call To Action- All of the best website design include a call to action, and many businesses find that including one last call to action in your footer can be the extra nudge your visitors need to sign up for newsletters, subscribe to blogs, or to send an email requesting a quote. Make sure to keep your footers call to action brief and straight to-the-point.
Contrast and Readability- Your footer is typically small in size and much of your info is kept in that small block. That being said, you must make sure to balance the background and contrast of the text to make it readable. Also, color, brightness and contrast must be taken into consideration.
Use Graphic Elements- Many times footers are just block of text. Add logos or graphic elements for added visual interest, but be careful not to overdo the small space with too many elements. So rather than spelling out “Follow me on Facebook/Twitter” include icons for these outlets.

Your footer is an extremely important part of your web design. Make sure you include the right mix of information, design elements and usability to get the most out of your footer in every web design project.

If you’re ready to take your company to the next level with a beautiful website, call Jelly Websites in Corona, CA at 951-371-9327 or visit our website at www.jellywebsites.com to learn about the services we offer.

Proudly serving Corona, Riverside, Chino, Ontario, Anaheim, Irvine, Tustin, Yorba Linda, Fullerton and all surrounding areas.

5 Ways to Overcome Creative Blocks | Web Design

149820133

We all hit creative blocks once in a while, its completely normal. Even the most creative people hit a stand still now and then. And as agitating as creative blocks are, they are unfortunately a part of the creative process. When you find yourself hitting a creative block, rather than taking a break assuming a spark a brilliance will appear out of thin air, try rebooting your creative thinking. The following tips are here to help get those creative juices of yours flowing again:

Seek Input- When you feel stuck with your design or a certain idea, try asking for others their opinions. Even if you don’t use your friends or coworkers suggestions, it may spark a new way of thinking, helping you look at your work from a different perspective.
Exercise or Take a Walk- There have been studies that have shown that regular exercise enhances creativity. If you’re not fond of exercising, even the act of taking a walk can help boost creativity. No matter what sort of exercise you choose it allows for you to access fresh ideas from your subconscious.
Write or Sketch by Hand- Hitting a creative block doesn’t mean you’ve stopped being creative. Your mind is constantly running, from the moment you wake up, to the moment you fall asleep. It’s just a matter of capturing that great idea. Try keeping a journal on you at all times and write or sketch whatever is on your mind.
Listen to Music- It’s been proven that music helps boost creativity. No, and not only Mozart. You must listen to music you like, it will put you in what is called “mind-wandering mode”. Mind-wondering is an excellent way of capturing new ideas. Matching music to your mood at the moment is key.
Rearrange Your Workspace- If your office or workspace is not helpful to your creativity, it may be time to rearrange your surroundings so they stimulate and motivate you to be more productive. Changing up your workspace could be as simple as decorating with new photos, artwork, plants or even favorite quotes. Add anything that inspires you.

Remember we all hit creative blocks, but that doesn’t mean our creativity has ceased to exist. It just means that’s we need to take step back and take a look at our work from a different perspective to ignite fresh ideas. Don’t be afraid to try new things to help refresh your creative visions.

For information regarding web design, contact Jelly Websites in Corona, CA at 951-371-9327 or visit our website at www.jellywebsites.com to learn more about our services.

Proudly serving Corona, Riverside, Chino, Ontario, Anaheim, Irvine, Tustin, Yorba Linda, Fullerton and all surrounding areas.

5 Common Mistakes to Avoid in Web Design | Web Design

It takes more than an extravagant web design to make your website a success. You must also take usability into consideration, as your site is built for your visitors and not yourself. Even some of the most experienced designers make some of these common mistakes, but learning from your mistakes is vital to your long-term success. The following includes 7 of the most common mistakes web developers and web designer’s make:

No Consistency- When it comes to designing multiple pages for a website, it’s best to keep it simple. For example, visitors expect to see the same colors, fonts, logos, and navigation tabs on every page of a website. If your page design is inconsistent you visitor may become confused and wonder if their on the same website.

Confusing Navigation- I’m sure we’ve all had the experience of clicking onto a webpage and being immediately confused by the layout and navigation. Your visitors want to explore your website at ease, and when your websites navigation is too discreet or completely hidden visitors are likely to get frustrated. It’s best to remember the three-click rule; all of your important content should be accessible within no more than three clicks from your homepage.

Irrelevant/Outdated Content- Think less is more when it comes to your websites content. Making sure your websites content is up to date should be a part of your regular website maintenance. When you leave outdated content on your website it looks unprofessional. Say your last blog was posted in 2011, this may make visitors think your site has been abandoned and therefore they won’t return.

Poor Readability and Legibility- Visitors come to your website in search of information, so making sure they can read it is extremely vital. Make sure to use easy to read color schemes because using the wrong color combination can make reading more difficult for your visitors. Also, limit yourself to no more than three different fonts and font sizes.

Non-Responsive Design- In this day and age most web browsing is done on mobile devices, yet some web designers still don’t take this into consideration when designing websites. Your website should be mobile friendly to enhance its usability. Visitors don’t want to have to zoom in on their mobile devices just to make out the content on your website.

When it comes to web design and its usability, it’s best to think from your visitor’s point of view. So make sure to steer clear of the common web design mistakes mentioned above. For more information regarding web design, contact Jelly Websites in Corona, CA at 951-371-9327 or visit our website at www.jellywebsites.com.

Proudly serving Corona, Riverside, Chino, Ontario, Anaheim, Irvine, Tustin, Yorba Linda, Fullerton and all surrounding areas.

What Makes a Great Homepage? | Custom Web Design Corona, CA

Most of us judge a book by its cover, and it’s no different when visiting your homepage. Your homepage is essentially the first impression your visitors get of your business, and you want to make a great first impression, right? There are many aspects that make a great homepage, and it usually comes down to the basics. Read on to learn what it takes to take your homepage from drab to fab.

Clear Answers- When someone lands on your page it’s generally because they are seeking something of interest or because they’re looking for some sort of assistance. Your homepage must provide clears answers such as, who you are, what you do, and what you can do for them (the visitor) so your visitor knows they’re in the correct place. Most people often scan a page for bulleted items and short paragraphs.
Clean Design- You may think you have the best design out there with all of those flashy photos and music, but in all reality this is probably just slowing your page down and distracting your visitor from getting the information they are seeking. Make sure to effectively utilize white space, color scheme, and font appropriately.
Periodic Changes- When a website updates its services or products it can draw visitors back. Some of the best homepages are constantly changing by reflecting on the visitor’s needs, wants or questions.
Value- You want to entice your visitors to stick around. Provide them with value and share what makes your business different from your competitors. Make sure to use original content and credible information to set yourself apart.
Call to Action- If you want to encourage your visitor to “dig a little deeper” you must incorporate a CTA (call-to-action). Your CTA should lead your visitors to take the next logical step. For example; “Learn More,” “Free Trial,” or “Buy Now” You may need to have a secondary CTA or try different CTA placements.

For more information regarding custom web design, contact Jelly Websites in Corona, CA at 951-371-9327 or visit our website at www.jellywebsites.com.

Proudly serving Corona, Riverside, Chino, Ontario, Irvine, Tustin, Yorba Linda, Fullerton and all surrounding areas.

4 Ways to Make Your Website Stand Out | Web Design Corona, CA

ThinkstockPhotos-180955659

We all want our websites to stand out among our competition, we don’t want our website to simply blend in with the rest. If you are ultimately following your competition you’ll always be step behind in design. Fortunately, there are a few simple changes you can make to transform your entire website from drab to fab! These flowing tips can help create a stunning, memorable website:

Simple to Understand- People don’t typically read websites- they quickly skim them. Make sure the content is easy to understand so that your visitors will be able to find what they’re looking for in a timely manner.
Large Images- By using large images you are able to capture your visitor’s attention instantly. Use full screen images with little text (ideally 2-3 words). The type of image you choose is just as important as the images resolution. Make sure it’s interesting, relates to your company and is also beautiful.
Typography- Using large fonts is a growing trend that doesn’t seem to be fading anytime soon. The objective of using larger font is so your visitors don’t have to read as much, while still getting your message across to them. The idea is to focus on your message and but down the words to display them in a big beautiful font.
Responsive Design- Now that most searches are done mobile devices it’s extremely important to make sure that your website can convert to any size screen. A responsive site adapts to the screen of any device your visitors may be using, which will make for a much for user friendly experience.

Establishing a stunning, memorable website is no easy task but with a determination and creativity you can achieve it! Don’t go on being in the shadow of your competition, get a little risky with your design.

If you’re ready for the website of your dreams, contact Jelly Websites in Corona, CA at 951-371-9327 or visit our website at www.jellywebsites.com for more information.

Proudly serving Corona, Riverside, Chino, Ontario, Irvine, Tustin, Yorba Linda, Fullerton, and all surrounding areas.