HIT's Facebook Page a Helpful Resource

HIT Web Design is now on Facebook! Become a fan of HIT Web Design on Facebook and learn things you might not know, including: Design Tips, Small Business Helps, and updates on Haiti's Little Angels.

HIT and Haiti's Little Angels – Stay Updated on Recent Developments

• HIT has been keeping fans regularly posted about the latest developments in Haiti. The company  formally adopted the Haitian orphanage, Hope For Little Angels of Haiti, in December of 2008 and has been instrumental in funding the orphanage's food, medical, clothing, and clean-water needs.

• CEO David Aitken recently adopted three Haitian children from the orphanage, a process that began in November 2008. The weeks following the 7.0 earthquake that rocked Haiti have been highly emotional for Aitken, who initially did not know if his soon-to-be adopted children were safe after the quake to experience the elation bringing them to his home in Utah. Utah's statewide newspapers and television stations have been covering Aitken's saga, and links can be found on HIT's Facebook fan page.

• Since the quake, all 68 of the Little Angels orphanage have been found alive and safe. HIT Web Design, which has been providing employee-donated funds for over a year to the orphanage, will be helping it rebuild after the quake.

Stay Informed with Helpful Blogs and Videos

• We posts helpful blogs and videos describing ways you can improve your website, with topics ranging from optimizing your site for search engines to design tips to effective small business practices. Links are regularly posted on Facebook, and provides an easy-to-access resource to become more educated on building your business online.

• HIT is also developing a following on Twitter . We post links to blogs posted everyday on our website. You can also find us on YouTube .

Competitive Advantage and Call to Action Part I

Competitive Advantage
As defined by BusinessDictionary.com, competitive advantage is:
“Superiority gained by a firm when it can provide the same value as its competitors but at a lower price, or can charge higher prices by providing greater value through differentiation. Competitive advantage results from matching core competencies to the opportunities.”

This definition might sound a little academic, but competitive advantage is what sets you apart from your competition.

Your competitive advantage could be:
Price
Quality
Shipping and handling fees (or lack thereof)
Experience
Customer service
Credibility
Something unique to your industry.


It is important to understand that having a competitive advantage is not an event, but a process. In other words, making and keeping a competitive advantage is ongoing. It becomes a game of trying to stay one step ahead of your competition. You should never feel comfortable with the status quo, but continue to find ways to improve your advantage.

Determining Your Competitive Advantage
The first step to determining your competitive advantage is to know your competition. Take time to research the main players in your industry. A good way to learn about your competition is to do several product keyword searches on Google. Look at each website listed on the first page of the results, both the sponsored and natural listings, to review their products and services.

Now rate your competition based on the list of possible competitive advantages listed above. One of the best ways to do this is to organize a spreadsheet, listing the possible competitive advantages across the top of your page, and then list the companies down the left side of the page, with your company as the top listing. To make things simpler, you might just focus on one top-selling product per spreadsheet.

Compare price, quality, shipping options, and so on. You should start to see some areas where your product or company outshines you competitors, and some areas where you can make simple adjustments that would give you an advantage.


For example, many years ago, when Heritage Internet Technologies started out in the web design industry, this process was used to determine what we had that was unique and different. One glaring item stood out: pricing. No one in our industry could design a custom website for the price point we were offering. For HIT, price became a strong competitive advantage. It is still used today in all of our advertising.

Link Baiting

Links are a very important part to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). There are many ways you can get people to link to your site, but perhaps the best way is to provide compelling content that people will want to link to on their own. It takes a little work to get the initial interest in your site or blog, but once you have regular traffic on your website or blog the more compelling content you have the more likely you will be able to get others to link to you.

One thing you can do is create blog posts or have a page on your website that contains content like a how to article, or a “Top Ten” list such as “Ten Reasons to Not Buy a....” Content written from the point of view of an expert giving tips and advice is a great way to get people to want to link to your content.

Another thing you could write about would be a well-thought-out argument on a controversial topic. The idea is to get people talking about what you write about and make them want to share it with others. You want to create conversation about your blog post or website content so more and more people will link to it. The more people you get to link to your blog or your website, the more it helps your search engine ranking.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Copyright and the Internet

There seems to be a lot of confusions about copyright and the Internet. Copyright law itself is complicated, but with the Internet, where so many different me forms of media come together, the situation becomes even more complicated.

To help avoid problems with copyright, there are several things you should be aware of:

Just because a site does not have a copyright symbol (©) on the bottom of the page does not mean the information on the site is not copyrighted. In fact, just about everything on the Internet is copyrighted. Text, pictures, even the design of a site are considered copyrighted. Do not copy and paste text from other sites, or use pictures from other sites, because doing so can make you subject to a potential lawsuit and fines.

Make sure you have permission before you use anything from other sites or sources. Even Wikipedia has restrictions about using the text from their site.

The safest way to make sure you are protected is to create your own text and use your own pictures. This not only protects you from any copyright issues, it also gives you unique content for your site that can be targeted specifically to your customer base.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Increasing Your Websites Marketability Through Forms

The purpose of any website is to market your business or services, and one of the most effective ways to do this is to ask your website visitors to do something—a call to action. Presenting great information about a product or service does not accomplish much if you do not ask for action.

Forms can be a great call to action. Simply asking your customers and visitors to fill out a contact form for more information can create sales leads for your business. Forms become a great way to gauge the overall effectiveness of your site. If your message and call to action is desirable and clear, then visitors to your site will want to fill out your form. If people are coming to your site and not filling out the forms, maybe you should consider making changes to your site, such as promoting the call to action in your text or making the form more accessible and easier to find.

The information you gather through a form can help you personalize messages, sales, or services to individuals or for a specific demographic. Knowing who your customers are makes it easier to provide the products and services they want.

HIT Web Design can help you put forms on your website to help increase its overall effectiveness and increase its marketability.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Keep Pictures Relevant to Your Website

Pictures are a great way to help improve your website. The main purpose of pictures on your site should be to help market your products and services and because of this, the pictures you use should relate to the text and information on your site.

Stock photographs may be pretty and look professional, but they are often times generic and are difficult to relate to the text and information on your site. Try using pictures of your products being used or your employees performing the services you provide.

One idea when deciding on what pictures to use on your site is to think of a caption you can include for each picture. If you can provide a caption that conveys information to your customers or is something you would want a visitor to your site to read then use the picture on the site. If you cannot, then maybe you should not use the photograph on your site.

By keeping the pictures relevant to your site, they will serve as more than just filler. They will make your site a more effective marketing tool.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

What Your Website Can Do For You

Your website can and should increase your bottom line. After all, the reason you have a website is to increase your marketing opportunities and increase your profit. If you’ve taken advantage of great design and marketing tips your site is going to give you a plethora of opportunities to increase your bottom line and with a properly managed contact database increase your customer contact and repeat customer prospects. Let’s face it, the internet is definitely here to stay and will be around for a long time to come; if you don’t have a site these days it can seriously hamper your marketing and sales. The internet is and will remain an essential part of marketing and sales for the foreseeable future. The internet is a tool you can use to increase sales, reduce your overall marketing budget, it can be used as part of your customer service arsenal and actually reduce costs by providing opportunities to your customers to buy online, answer frequently asked questions and even give them an opportunity to put themselves on your mailing list. Your website is a marketing rep/customer service/sales person that doesn’t sleep and operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. If a customer wants to buy from you sitting in their pajamas in their front room at 3:00 AM in the morning then they can do it, giving your customers unparalleled convenience.

So in short, a website can;

• Increase your bottom line by
• Increasing sales and sales opportunities
• Provide you with marketing opportunities
• Increase customer contact
• Reduce your overall marketing budget yet provide better opportunities to market your goods
• Provide your customers with incredible convenience and
• Provide them with great customer service by giving them instant access to information at any time of the day or night

So exactly how much does your site increase your bottom line? That depends on you. How much do you bring attention to it? How often do you give the link out to your customers and direct them there for sales and frequently asked questions? How much your site benefits you will depend on how much you utilize it and take advantage of its customer service opportunities.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

How to Protect Your Content

There are some very easy ways to protect your website from someone illicitly copying it and using it for their own. The first step is to create a back up copy of your site and burn it to a DVD or CD. This can be used as an evidentiary backup copy in case you ever need to use it as support in some kind of dispute. This is a generally wise idea anyway as you want to make sure you preserve your site without relying on electronic copies. I would recommend making a physical copy of the site at least once a month but no less than every 3 months. Having a physical copy of it in your hand can be extremely valuable.

Another way of protecting your content on your site is to make sure it is registered at the U.S. Copyright office. This is relatively inexpensive (about $35.00) and relatively easy as well. Go to the U.S. Copyright website for instructions on how to do this. This is probably one of the must secure ways to protect your content as well as one of the surest.

These are the only ways of protecting text, besides keeping your ear to the ground and paying attention to any and all possible competitors. That can be a lot of work. With protecting images you have a few options. One of the best is adding a digital watermark. There are software programs out there that will help you do this and it is a pretty sure way of keeping track of your images online and making sure no one is stealing them for their own uses. Doing a search in Google or another search engine will be sure to net you some very useful results.

Most importantly, your content should change from time to time just to make sure everything is fresh and that your buyers have a motivation to come back. Return visits and buyers are the important thing. You want to capture your customer’s attention, hold it and turn them into raving fans and buyers of your products.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

U.S. Copyright Law and You

When writing the copy for your site, it will be tempting to look at others who have written essentially the same thing; your competitors and others in similar industries, and perhaps to ‘borrow’ some of their ideas. It is a lot of work to come up with all new content on your own, especially if you are essentially starting from scratch with no copy of your own. It is a good thing that you research what others are doing, what is not good is to copy or take without permission any content from another site and put it on your own as if it is yours. There are copyright laws that protect website owners from just such plagiarism; besides it just being downright sneaky. If you worked your tail off coming up with unique content for your site the last thing you would want to do would be have someone else take that content and use if for their own without so much as a thank you.

But what exactly is Copyright?

According to the United States Copyright Office and their website, copyright.org, Copyright is the following:

“Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. code) to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works. Section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to do the following:

• To reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords;

• To prepare derivative works based upon the work;

• To distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;

• To perform the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisualworks;

• To display the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work; and

• In the case of sound recordings,* to perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.

In addition, certain authors of works of visual art have the rights of attribution and integrity as described in section 106A of the 1976 Copyright Act. For further information, see Circular 40, Copyright Registration for Works of the
Visual Arts.

It is illegal for anyone to violate any of the rights provided by the copyright law to the owner of copyright. These rights, however, are not unlimited in scope. Sections 107 through 121 of the 1976 Copyright Act establish limitations on these rights. In some cases, these limitations are specified exemptions from copyright liability. One major limitation is the doctrine of “fair use,” which is given a statutory basis in section 107 of the 1976 Copyright Act. In other instances, the limitation takes the form of a “compulsory license” under which certain limited uses of copyrighted works are permitted upon payment of specified royalties and compliance with statutory conditions. For further information about the limitations of any of these rights, consult the copyright law or write to the Copyright Office.”

This is pretty definitive as to what you can and cannot do. More tomorrow on this extremely important subject.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Focus on What You Want Visitors To Do

When a visitor pulls up your website, what do you want them to do? If you are a small business owner, the answer is obvious: you want them to purchase a product or service. How do you get them to do that? There’s a lot that goes into it, so let’s start with one helpful concept: Focus on
What You Want Visitors to Do.

Should visitors to your site:

• make a purchase?

• fill out a form?

• click on a link?

• contact your company?

If you aren’t sure what you want your visitor to do, how will they ever know? Starting with the very first line of copy on your website, your content should lead your visitor to the goal you have in mind.

Make effective use of your homepage. If you want a customer to make a purchase, then your home page should focus on the products or services you are offering. If you have multiple products or services, you will want to make sure your customer can purchase multiple products or services as easily as possible: this means you will want shopping cart functionality on your website.

If the purpose of your website is to generate sales leads, don't put a form on your "Contact Us" page and hope visitors stumble across it. Instead, make it a dominating feature on every page. You’ll also want to make sure that the copy on the page further persuades the visitor to fill out the form.

If you want your visitor to click on a link, then don’t bury the link in a large paragraph of text. A colorful “Click here for more information" button is an easy way to get your customer to click on a link and end up where you want them to be.

No matter what you want your visitors to do, your contact information should be in an easy-to-find place on every page. What if your visitors have questions about a product? What if they can’t get a form to submit correctly? Do everything you can to make it easy for your visitors to do what you want them to do.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Make Your Website Easy to Read

Too much content placed haphazardly throughout a web page will make it not only difficult to understand and read, but may even turn off a visitor before they have a chance to see what your site is about.

Heritage Internet Technologies has a few simple tips for you to keep in mind when creating your website.

Guide the Reader
Your site design should guide the reader to the important content. We read from the upper left of a page to the bottom right. Text should be used in a way we typically read, excessive text boxes should be avoided. Graphic elements should be used to direct the reader to the most important text on your page, your call to action.

Add Movement to Your Page
Another way to promote good page flow is through a simple animation. Using a simple animation like a Flash Element or Flash Banner can help direct a visitor to your site to important information or promotions. HIT Web Design has several options that can add that special touch to your site.

Keep it Simple
Have text that is concise and easy to read. If you have too much text on a page consider additional web pages, or Divided Files (Divided Files make it possible to hide text on a page until you select the appropriate tab). Do not overuse capitalized words or punctuation in ways it is not properly used, this can actually make your text harder to read. Use pictures and graphics that add to the concept you are trying to convey throughout your site.

By keeping the design simple and guiding the reader to the important content through proper placement of text, graphics, and simple animations, visitors to your site will find your site easier to use and pleasing to look at.

Increasing Website Accessibility by Adding Links

Almost every website has a link of one kind or another. It could be a link from one page on the site to another (from a home page to a services page). It could be a link to another website. Links can help drive users to the right place. A “Click Here to Order Now” link can take a customer to your order page.

There are three things to consider when adding website links to your site: choose the right links, make sure the links works, and keep the number of links to a minimum.

1. Choose the Right Link: When deciding what links to put on your website, you should choose links that will be resourceful for your visitors. Choose to link to companies that you do business with or ones that complement your business. Having links that help your visitors is a great way to keep them coming back to your website. For example, if you own a landscaping business, you may want to link to a company that builds swimming pools. Don’t be afraid to email other businesses and ask if they will do a link swap.

2. Make Sure the Links Work: Clicking on a link that takes you to a wrong page or doesn't work at all can be very frustrating. Making sure you're imputing the correct link and that it works properly is important for customer satisfaction.

3. Keep the Number of Links to a Minimum: You do not want to overload your website with links. It can confuse the customer. Choose a few links that compliment your website and put them in a location that is easily seen by your visitors.

By following these three steps you can increase your website's accessibility to the public while providing a useful service to your visitors. HIT Web Design offers other ways to improve site accessibility, through site maps, web traffic directors, shopping cart modifications, and many other products.

RSS Feeds and Blogs

RSS Feed Drives Traffic to your Site

Want to drive people to your site in droves? Of course you do!

One of the best ways to increase web traffic and web ranking is by distributing news and updates about your business or products that are, in turn, picked up by other websites. If you do this on a regular basis, you can't help but drive people to your site as they see your news items and click to learn more, ultimately ending up on your site. This process is easy, and effective, and is made possible through use of the “RSS Feed” feature. Originally made popular by Netscape, your site popularity can benefit tremendously by integrating RSS Feed into your overall marketing strategy. Writing the code for RSS Feeds is a bit complicated, but at HIT Web Design, we take care of everything, so you don't have to worry.

Blogs Bring Business

Another strategy to bring people back again and again to your website is to incorporate a Blog. Blogs provide an opportunity to constantly update your site with new and fresh material, thus making your site relevant and useful. Blogs also introduce an element of interactivity to your site, and open dialog translates into open doors—more business, more connections, more knowledge, and more website visits. In a list of reasons to blog compiled recently, people gave blogging credit for new jobs, new opportunities to share important information, and the chance to connect with people they considered important. If you are still wondering what value a blog can bring to your website, consider that blog structure matches the “skim and scan” mentality of website visitors, thus providing an easy way for them to get the information they are looking for. If you need a little help with your blog, don't hesitate to consult your HIT Web Design professional for advice. (see HIT Enhancements.)

Is a zFeeder For Me and My Website?

What is a zFeeder? A zfeeder adds RSS functionality to a website. The RSS provides notifications about newly posted or updated information to all subscribers. The FSS feed contains either a summary of content from the associated website, or the full text, depending on how it is set up. For more detailed information, call the technical department of Heritage Internet Technologies.

An RSS feed makes it easy for anyone to receive notices about matters of particular interest. When a user registers with a site’s RSS, the user’s RSS reader will regularly check fort new content, download any updates it finds, and publish the information for the user to see. RSS fees are often used in connection with news sites, blogs, and other frequently updated sites.

Features and Benefits:

• Impress and Inform: A zFeeder is an instant way to liven up a site and keep it up-to-date, not only on the latest newscast, but on the newest Internet innovations.
• Draw Visitors: A zFeeder provides current news alerts for specific interests. The news alerts can be tailored to update just those news items that are related to the focus of purpose of the website. For example, a financial website could display in real time the latest mortgage and loan rates, a sports memorabilia website would display the latest sports scores and updates, a vacation planning site could display the current temperature and weather for various travel destinations, etc.
• Establish Viewer Loyalty: Over time, the website can become the first point of contact for many viewers interested in “the latest”, whatever the latest may be. The benefits that accrue then to that particular website increase in value and importance in the minds of the viewer.

The zFeeder can be customized to match the look and feel of the website, thus complementing the other elements of the website. For questions relating to zFeeders or any other web-related matters, remember the friendly professionals at Heritage Internet Technologies are just a phone call away.

Logo Design—Setting Your Company Apart

Can you imagine the Chevrolet automobile without the metallic-colored cross, or the Pepsi soft drink can without the red, white and blue ball? Heritage Internet Technologies, one of the nation’s premier website and logo design companies, is a strong proponent of having a company logo.

A logo is one of the most basic and important elements of an organization’s identity. A logo, combined with its logotype, forms a trademark or commercial brand. Logos, consisting of various shapes, colors, fonts, and other images help customers identify a company as well as associate merchandise of a type of product with that company.

Well-known examples of logos include Nike’s swoosh, McDonald’s golden arches, and Michelin Tire’s roly-poly Michelin Man. Non-profit organizations and efforts like the Red Cross and cancer awareness also employ logos to further their message.

Benefits: The benefits of having a logo are three-fold:

Brand Recognitions: When a symbol becomes synonymous with a business, it
is much easier to stimulate customers into thinking about that particular product
on a day-to-day basis. This has worked for years with large businesses, and is
available to all businesses for a modest design fee.

Image Creation: Combining a professionally designed logo with a professionally designed website can substantially enhance an organization’s
image. From classy and sleek to kid-friendly and fun, the options and
possibilities are almost endless.

In a visually oriented society, a logo makes it possible for people to remember
your company, even if they can’t remember it by name. A custom logo is also
the perfect opportunity to build your corporate identity and represent your goals
and beliefs.

Continuity: The power of the logo is particularly effective in creating
continuity—a seamless bridge between all visual company communication.
Websites, letter-head, business cards, yellow page ads, newspaper and magazine
ads, etc. are all tied together into one consistent, standardized message.

Business owners should never underestimate the effectiveness of a well-designed logo. For questions and help related to the creation of a company logo, remember the friendly professionals at Heritage Internet Technologies are just a phone call away.

Does Your Text Betray You?

The French moralist, Joseph Joubert, wrote, “Words, like eyeglasses, blur everything that they do not make clear.” Especially online, text plays a vital role in site content, how the site is organized, and even how visitors interact with the site. Recognizing this, many website design firms such as Heritage Internet Technologies offer professional writing as part of an overall design package.

Mike the mason, Paul the plumber, and Sue the seamstress do what they do best, i.e. lay brick, fix water leaks, and create beautiful clothing. However, when it comes to telling others in writing about their exceptional skills, they often fall short. Their text betrays their expertise.

Many small business owners have solved this dilemma by engaging the services of a professional writer. The benefits warrant the added expense.

Benefits of Professionally-Written Text:

• Proper Presentation—Well-researched, well-written, and well-edited content makes a website easier to understand and increases the likelihood a visitor will stay on the site longer and continue reading. Especially online, effective text can be the difference between a visitor quickly moving on, and someone purchasing products or services.
• Maintain Continuity— Poorly written text can destroy the otherwise professional image, and the attractive look and feel of the website. Informative, interesting text complements the design and layout of the website. It lends an air of professionalism and excellence, lending value to the products or services promoted by the website.
• Cost-Effective—Writing services can be engaged for modest fees. The income generated by compelling text will more than offset the modest fee paid for professionally prepared text. It will pay for itself many times over.
• Save Time and Anxiety—The time it will take a professional writer to interview Mike, Paul, and Sue will be a fraction of the time it will take them to figure out what they want to say and how to say it, not to mention the stress it will eliminate.

For further information on this or any other matters relating to designing and hosting websites, remember the friendly professionals at Heritage Internet Technologies are just a phone call away

Blogs: Don’t Do Business Without Them

Household phrases of advice like “Make sure you wear clean underwear in case you are in an accident.”, attributed to the mothers of the world, and a popular credit card company, “Don’t leave home without it” are joined by another timely piece of advice; “Blogs—Don’t do business without them”, recommended by the marketing department at Heritage Internet Technologies.

Blogs! What the heck are they? A Blog is comparable to an online journal that allows the owner to post comments, stories, personal viewpoints, etc. It also gives the visitors the ability to comment on what’s been posted.

What are their benefits?

Gain Popularity: Find others who share similar opinions and interests. The site will accrue popularity as others develop a habit of reading the Blog. Any type of website that has the potential of attracting a “following” can benefit from a Blob Database.

Control the Conversation: The administrator has access to features that will enable them to control the conversation. If there is harassment, negativity, or obligatory postings, they can boot and block the offender as well as update comments and entries to encourage visitors to keep checking back to see what’s new.

Search Engine Ranking: By making regular posts at least once per week (minimum) a Blog can boost the placement in the search engines. In order for this to work, users must use an update service to advertise the fact that an update has been made. This is also made more effective when the Blog is integrated as a part of a site. There are many services that can be used. A couple of these are: http://pingomatic.com, and http://blogsearch.google.com/ping.

Create Value: Keeping readers informed for free fosters trust. When visitors to a site begin trusting the opinions and advice posted on a site, they are more likely to purchase services or products from the site.

For questions and further information on how Blogs can benefit your business, remember the friendly professionals at Heritage Internet Technologies are just a phone call away.