The forums are geared towards two groups of individuals. The first is the site owner(s). If you are working on your own website and have questions that you need answered when it comes to designing your website – you can get the answers in the forums. All facets of the design process will be discussed ranging from simple HTML design to advanced programming. In between you can find help on graphic design, search engine optimization, and more. We are happy to help those who have decided to tackle their own website, and we hope to be of help to any and all.
The second group is the web designer. There are numerous designers who work on equine related websites that doing wonderful work and we want to learn from you. We also want to lend our knowledge to you on any topics that you need help with. If you are a web designer you know that there is plenty to have in building state of the art websites. Some of us have better skills in one area as opposed to others. We can all lend a hand to help each other so that all horse websites in the future look the best they can.
We hope you share in our passion and mission of marketing the horse on the world wide web. If we can be of help to you please let us know by posting in one of the forums. We will try our best to answer all questions so that your horse website is top knotch.
Enjoy!
Rob
]]>To start, here is the older template of the Janson Editions website:
And here is the template design we came up with for Janson Editions:
The first, and most important change that we implemented to the website was the ability for the template to grow with the amount of content, or images, that needed to be displayed on the page. The older template was only one large image that had restraints on how much content could go on a page and the use of images inside the template.
We also added a flash slideshow to the main page that would allow a portfolio like slideshow to run on the main page. Using flash allowed us to save some space as far as load time of the pictures that would be used.
Away from what can be seen to the visitor, there was a major need for search engine optimization. None of the pages had titles, keywords, descriptions, or any files on the server that would help the search engines to index the site better in the search engines. We also changed the file names and places them in different folders with names that would help in the search engine optimization process. For example, the old site would go to http://www.jansoneditions.com/gallery.html when someone wanted to see the Gallery. We put the gallery into a folder called “horse-fine-art-gallery”, which will help search engines pick up valuable keywords in the URL. This was done for all parts of the website that needed better placing in the search engines.
We also added the coding on all pages to monitor visitor tracking with Google Analytics. This will allow us to monitor all visitor activity and to find out what is working and what is not.
Next, we needed to give the Fine Art Gallery a better appearance from the old site. Here is how the gallery looked on the old site:
With this being the main page of the gallery on the old site, visitors had to actually go to each gallery print name to see the image. We wanted to make it easier for visitors to know what they wanted to see so they could decide if they wanted to learn more about the picture or not. So this is how we changed it:
Having a thumbnail of each print would allow visitors to see the image before having to investigate any further. We then went one step further and added a jquery lightbox. The lightbox allows visitors to hover over the thumbnail and see the full size print without having to change the page. This was implemented for ease of use for visitors to see what they wanted to see the easiest way possible.
We decided to use the same principle with the Licensing Images portion of the site. Here is how the old site displayed the categories of the Licensing Images:
With each collection of images there was a selection of multiple images to view. There also was a different set number of images in each collection. So to help visitors decide what collection to look at, we changed the appearance to this:
Using the thumbnail view with a link below that also showed how many images could be found in each collection, we felt this would allow visitors to have an idea of what they would find in each collection.
For each of use on the part of Janson Editions we added the ability for them handle all images in both the Licensing Images and Fine Art Gallery sections. Logging in to a browser based admin panel would allow Janson Editions to add/edit/delete albums, add/edit/delete images, and monitor the activity for each of the images. This helps them to decide what images will appear where and what images they want on the website and when.
With the use of jquery and some other newer technology, we were able to help improve their customer support as well. With the new contact form, someone can get any errors in their contact request without the page having to reload. We have found that if someone has an error in their form input and has to redo the form again to send it, they will not redo it. So with the contact form found on the Janson Editions website, all errors, and anything that is not ready for the form to be submitted, will appear on the same page so the error can be fixed without having to do the form all over again.
Most of the new technology being used on websites these days are helping in how the page is delivered to visitors and how more interactive the experience can be. At the same time, the site helps owners to interact with their visitors easier and the same for visitors with the site owner.
If you would like to see the new version of Janson Editions you can visit the site at http://www.jansoneditions.com
]]>Here is how it works.
1) Select your desired site category
There really is no difference in the selection of any of the categories besides the pre-defined pages in each one. We have created it this way so you can have a head start on doing what you want to do – publish your website. Now that you know what category you are going to use, you will select the template.
2) Selecting the Template
This is where you get the chance to select from hundreds of templates to give your site the look you want it to have. When you are in this phase you will be doing 6-8 steps. Here they are:
- Choose the category you want to browse for your theme template.
- Once you are in a category you can then select a theme from inside that category. Each time you select a theme you will see a preview of the selected theme.
- Select the color combination available for the theme.
- Upload a banner to implement into the theme to give it the unique look you desire.
- Upload your logo
- Type in your Site Title and Subtitle along with a footer message.
This will give your site the basic look before moving on to step 3: Customizing the pages.
3) Customizing the Pages
Now that the theme is selected you will add the pages you want to have included in your website.
This is what is great about the SEMS Design SiteBuilder. Adding and deleting pages is easier then ever. Here is what needs to be done and it only takes 5 minutes max.
- We have set up some Page Sets. These sets already have selected page names that we think would go with a category you selected in step 1.
- Standard Pages are those that are defined in the Page Set. Once you select a Page Set you will select which pages you want and then simply click the arrow to move them to your Page Structure, #4.
- If you want to add a common page that you can then rename, you will do this from #3.
- This shows you the current pages you have in your site.
- Once you have your pages you can then easily move them up and down, left and right.
You are just about done building your site. The hard part is done and now all you have to do is add your pictures and content.
4) Editing Your Web Pages
Now that the template has been selected and you have changed the banner, you can edit the content and the images you add to your website. Looking at the above image you will see that in this step there are 4 areas to work with:
- #1 shows the pages you selected from the previous step. Selecting any of these will show the page so you can edit the content and insert images.
- #2 is your editor. This allows you to markup all of your page with text, links, images, etc.
- #3 is for your search engine optimization. Here you will type in the page title, the keywords for the page and the page description. This is for the search engine spiders to index your page in the proper place in the search engines.
- #4 is the actual page. This is where you can do all of your editing and see how it will look.
You are now done. That was not that hard at all. Once you have finished editing your pages you will click the next button on the bottom, or the Publish button on top.
5) Publish Your Website
If you are trying our SiteBuilder for free, you will see a link to your published site. The site will be available to preview for 14 days. After that you will need to sign up with us for web hosting for the site to stay active.
Done!! If you are in the mood to try your hand at building your website, this is the tool for you. As time goes on we will be making the process even easier by adding templates that are strictly for the horse world. Stay tuned on that. For now, sit back, roll up your sleeves and have some fun.
Please contact us with any questions you might have or use our Client Help Desk for support issues.
]]>
Note: We also have implemented the SEMS Design SiteBuilder for those looking to build their own website easily and effectively – right from a browser. More details on this will be coming soon.
]]>Be prepared for a little writing; this is quite a hefty planner. Remember, successful websites are built on strategy and planning. Even if you have no interest in our services, you will find this planner very informative and helpful in your website strategy planning.
SEMS Design Website Planner Digital Edition – Microsoft Word Format (480 KB)
SEMS Design Website Planner – Adobe PDF (240 KB)
1) Valid Code
Before any other practices can be considered, this has to be considered, looked at, and made the top priority. If the code that runs your website is not valid you run the risk of some of your visitors not have access to your site. If that is the case, there is no reason to have a website. Keep in mind that if you have a website for your farm or horses as a personal hobby, you are free to do as you please. If you have any interest in doing any type of business using your website, all visitors must have access to your website. I could write another complete article on what is valid code, but right now I want to make sure you know how to check for valid code. The best way to make sure your website is valid, go to http://validator.w3.org/ . This tool is great because it will show you where the errors are and how you can fix the errors. I have seen some site that have 10+ errors which is not good for making sure that all of your site is accessible.
2) Layout
Having a good layout is much more then just how your site looks graphically. Layout has to do with how your content is positioned, where your images are best used, and how a search engine will follow your content. There is huge debate these days on what is better, tables or divides, in setting up a website. That again is another article, and not a global concern in practice.
The common flow of a website is to have a header, content section, and a footer. The content area can be anywhere from 1 column to 4 columns. Be advised that it can be difficult for reading purposes when there is 3 or more columns. Reading on the internet should be re-worded as scanning. That is what people to do when they visit a website. They scan the content. There is to many websites to visit these days for someone to sit at one website and read every word on the site. So keep this in mind when you layout your columns. Also know that when a search engine visits your site, the spider will read from left to right. So if you have multiple columns, your content might look a little different to a search engine then what you think
3) Navigation
Having a good navigation system is very helpful in getting visitors around your site. Make sure when your navigation system is set up that it is clear that it is understood that they are links.
4) Images
There is a fine line when it comes to using images the best way possible. Is it more important that the image is clearly seen but is bigger in file size, or is it more important that the image does not look good but can be downloaded quickly? Having a good photo editor can help you in finding a middle ground that will help your images to be clear and not that huge in file size. It should also be noted on how to save images for the web. If you are using an image that does not have many colors involved, save as a gif file. A logo usually falls into this category. If you have an image that has many colors involved, save as a jpg. All of your photo files should be saved as jpg’s because of the colors that are involved in the photo.
5) Content
Making sure that your content is easy to read and has a clear hierarchy is important in so many ways.
The use of proper fonts can help to make your content easy to read. First you need to make sure that the font is a web standard font. If you try to use a font that is not web safe, who knows what your content will look on someone else’s computer. The size of the font is also important. Make sure that you use heading tags for your titles and headings. With the use of CSS you can do so many different styles to your headings. Try to use a different font for your headings/titles and another font for your paragraphs. Doing this will allow your visitors to scan your content much easier and to find out what is important. Headings also help the search engines in determining what is important on your website.
6) Colors
Colors can do so many different things for your website. Using colors wrong can be a huge turnoff to your visitors. What colors you use will be a personal choice for you, just know how to use them and how many to use. A good technique is to use a color triad that blends 3 colors nicely. A good tool to use is http://www.colorschemer.com/online. This will help you to try to link 3 colors that blend nicely. A couple global color practices:
- Do not use a light color on a light color. This is very important when it comes to your font and background. If you use a light blue font on a white background, think headache.
- Make sure that your links have their own color
- Try to use different colors for when a link it hovered over. If you do want to do this you can add/take away the underline on the link.
7) Final Website
Having a website can sometimes make you lose your patience. What do I mean? You want your website to go live so quickly that you put it up without it being complete. First impressions are killer. Always try to have your website complete before going live. This does not mean your site has to be finished. You can always add to the site. Just don’t put it live and then put an Under Construction image on it. Not very appealing.
8. Communication
A website is a great tool for easy communication. Try to have your contact information available on all pages.
Summary
These practices can be applied to any website. There are other practices that can be used for a website depending on the needs of the site. My hope is that this will help you in the evaluation of your current website so that you can have a successful website. What images you use, what layout technique you use, what font you use, what color you use are all your personal preferences. Just try to keep these practices in mind when building your site. Always keep in mind the visitor and what is best for them. How they see your site will in the end determine the success your website brings you.
]]>Veterinarian Website Structure Tips
1) Home Page
The home page of a veterinarian website should have the same rules that go with any website that is created. The importance of the website home page is that a visitor to the site should:
- Know exactly where they are. Having your logo and/or name visible on the screen is important. If your logo/name is not seen it would be very easy for a visitor to leave not knowing where they are.
- Have a guide to getting around the rest of the website. Most menu’s on a website are either horizontal or vertical. I have a preference for horizontal menu’s in the header of the website. This allows someone visiting the site to first see where they are, and then have a guide to get around the sub pages in your site.
- Have quick links to your major sub pages. For veterinarians, this would be to your services. Having your major services stand out will help you to lead your visitors to the places you want them to go, and that is to find out what you have to offer.
- Have an introduction. My belief is that having an introduction paragraph of some sorts will allow your visitors the chance to know a little about you that will hopefully lead them to explore more of your website, which hopefully will lead you to new clients.
2) Sub Pages
a) Services
It is important for any company that is services based to show off the services that are offered. As a matter of fact, if you are mainly a service based company, you need to make sure these are major sub pages. This means that they are added somewhere in your template as a way to get people to take a look at the services you offer. When presenting your services you should think about the following:
- List all of the services you offer. If someone comes and does not see what you offer, and they are in need of reproduction services, but you do not offer these services, this is a waste of time. The opposite could also be said of someone who does not contact you because you do not list a specific service and they leave thinking you do not offer the service, when in reality you do.
- Description of services. Have a description of each of your services could be helpful in the persuading of someone to contact you in regard to one of the services.
- Photographs. A picture is worth a thousand words. Have a picture that can be put with your service is a great idea.
b) Forms
A great use for a website is how it can handle some of your office work for you. Having the ability to download forms from your website can save a client/new client some time when they come to your clinic. This also can save you on some small paper expenses.
c) Documents
Putting the documents of your services and pricing can give people all the information they need before they have to contact you to ask you these questions.
d) Seminars
If your clinic holds seminars, this could be a very valuable page to have. The seminar could list your seminars with links to sub pages to more information about each seminar. Then the sub page for the seminar could tell all of the details of the seminar, forms to sign up, credit card processing for someone to pay, maps for directions, etc..
e) Contact Page
Having a contact page is important for any website. Having a contact page with mailing address, staff e-mail’s, a quick contact form, a map that gives driving instructions is VERY helpful.
3) Interactive Tools
Adding interactivity to your website can be helpful to your clinic and your clients/visitors. Adding interactive tools that do all the work for you is extremely helpful. Here are some possible tools to add to the site:
- Photo Gallery. Great way to show off your clinic, your staff, and your clients. Most galleries are designed so that you can easily upload the photo, tell it where to be shown, and it will show up there.
- Contact Forms. Have a form that someone can fill in and then send it to you is very helpful.
- Blog. Blogs are search engine attention grabbers. Not only that, but they can be insightful for your clients/visitors for educational purposes.A blog can be set up to be one page or it can be set up to be a whole site inside of a site.
- Print Page. A good example of this is that you offer driving directions to your clinic. When someone enters their address, a map will show the exact directions from where they are starting all the way to your clinic. If someone wanted to print these directions they would print them plus your whole web page. With a print page script it would be possible for them to only print the map and directions.
There are other tools that can be added, it all varies from site to site.
Summary
If you are going to build a website for your business, I hope you can keep one thing in mind: Have it done right. There is no point in having a sloppy website built because it only cost a couple hundred dollars. This will come back to be a waste of time and money over the long run. Plan a well thought out website with someone who can meet your needs and be a valuable resource to your business success online.
Each website will be different in the tastes of the site and the needs. The goal of YOUR site is to make sure that it can meet all of your needs and goals, and be a valuable assest to your growing success. Keep in mind also that is should be helpful to those who visit the site and for each of your clients.
Rob
]]>Horse Farm Home Page
The home page of a horse farm website should have certain qualities that are displayed. In all pages, not matter what type of layout structure is used, there needs to be a header, main body, and footer. The header should be used to display your farm name so that a visitor is knowing what farm they are looking at. In the header you can use images or flash to display your logo. I say flash can be used, if it is used correctly. If fash is used without having an alternate image to display if the visitor does not have flash installed can lead you to not showing a logo at all.
The main body of the home page should be a short opener that lets the visitor get to know who you are and what you do. This gets a visitor comfortable with you and knows that they are at the right place. For example, if you are a Quarter Horse farm and you do not make this known to a visitor who is looking for a Morgan horse, this will cause to confusion on the part of the visitor at your site.
The footer of the home page can have a copyright and some contact information. By having some sort of contact information available on the home page will allow someone to learn how to get in touch with you right away. If someone is in a rush visiting websites, they might not have time to find out how to get in touch with you.
Some good layout tips for a home page would be that you have the whole page displayed on a screen, you have your meta headers set and that you make sure technology is used that is cross browser. In regards to the display, most people do not like having to scroll far down a page, so having the page displayed in the browser will help from annoying your visitor. If you have a good amount of information you need to add to your home page, think about using some cross browser code to hide and show content.
In regards to cross browser technology, I am talking about not having your site set up to only satisfy a certain browser type. You should always keep in mind ALL of your visitors and make sure that every person that comes to your website will see the exact same as everyone else.
When I say meta headers, this refers to your web page title, keywords, and description. Having all of these set is important to search engines and how people find your site. If you do not have a description set, a search engine will pick up the first words it can find to use as your description. This might not be the description you want for people who find you on a search engine search. Keywords will help search engines in indexing you in the correct places so that your site will come up in relevant search phrases. I see some websites built in the Arabian horse world where the sites have no keywords or description. The company says they are the leader in online marketing, yet they do not do the simple things for online marketing for their clients.
One final note on the home page, stay away from splash pages. A splash page is a page that has some sort of flash on it that is fancy and not useful. The worst of those are the ones that do not even have a link for you to skip the flash presentation. Do not let someone bother wasting your time and money building a splash page. In this day and age nobody has time watching an intro splash page.
Navigation
The navigational system for your website is VERY important. Just as we have signs on highways to lead us in the right direction, so we have a navigational menu on our website. There are various ways to implement a menu and it all depends on how your design is set up. You see above we have condensed the menu to a drop down menu that puts proper pages under proper headings. This is helpful in leading a visitor to your website in the right direction. The two most common displays of a menu is horizontal and vertical. The horizontal menu is above or right below your header. The vertical menu is on the right or left of your body content. If your page scrolls down off of the screen, it is wise to have menu links in your footer. This is optional but sometimes courtesy to your visitors.
Sub Pages
Here are some idea pages for your horse farm website. Each farm will very on their sub pages depending on their needs and what they have to offer. These are only for you to get ideas with.
Farm Information
It is important that you have a farm information page, often called “About Us”. Visitors often have a sense of needing to know who they are dealing with, especially if you are trying to sell horses online. With the farm information page, you can tell more about yourself, your farm philosphy, farm mission, farm background, and more. This is a great way to warm your visitor up to you and your horse farm.
News & Events
Horse farms love to tell people about their successes and what they have going on. A News & Events page is great for this. You can tell people about your horse show success, new foals born, etc.. You can also tell about what you have coming up in the future. Open houses, horse shows, and more can be added to this section.
Sale Horses
Having a list of your sale horses is a great way for people to see the horses you offer for sale. There are various tools you can use to get your visitors to promote your sale horses for you. Examples of this would be a Tell A Friend feature that allows a visitor to send a page of your certain sale horse to a friend by email. You could have the option of someone downloading a PDF brochure or a PDF pedigree, both having information about the horse and your contact information. Another could be a printable pedigree that when someone goes to print could have additional information on the printable page then what is on the web page. With technology any of these can be added to each sale horse page to save you on the costs of marketing possibly. Having a video available for someone to watch is also helpful. The more information available will be helpful in the pursuit of selling a horse.
Horse Page
Presenting your horses is a great way for visitors to know more about your interests, ideas, and more. This givrs you an outlet to tell visitors about your mares, stallions, show horses, broodmares, etc..
Photo Gallery
Everybody loves pictures, and most people, lots of them. Having a photo gallery that gives you the ability to add albums and as many pictures as you like in each album, right from your own computer, is fun and helpful. Pictures/Photographs can help give a visitor more information about you, lets you show off your horses and your farm, as well as anything else you want to add. Having the ability to do this at your convenience can be fun for you.
Contact Page
The web is an easy way to get your information out to people. Having a contact page will lead someone to the place to find this information. On a contact page you can have your mailing address, phone number, fax number, email address, and anything else that can be used to contact you. To help your visitor with an easy way to contact you, a form that they can fill out on your website that goes to your email is very helpful. This is for ease of use and can help you in time management, in that you can reply at your earliest convenience. Some sites I see that are created by “Horse Marketing Companies” that only take the time to put down your regular information and do not bother to give you the online form. If someone is not able, or willing, to offer you an online form, rethink them doing the work for you. Just my opinion.
Summary
Having a well built horse farm website can work for you in many different ways. Having a badly built horse farm website can do you major harm, maybe your reputation. When working on your own, be sure that you look at your work and your farm without blinders on. Be open to your good and your bad, your positives and your negatives, your strengths and your weaknesses. If you are having someone build your website, make sure you keep these tips and ideas in mind when they offer you a proposal to build your site. There is a fine line these days between graphics and programming on the internet. They are getting closer and closer tied together day in and day out. Do not let someone build you a beautiful website that cannot perform for you. Do not let someone build you a website that can perform for you but is down right ugly.
Try to keep these ideas in mind and my best wishes to you on the success of you and your horse farm on the internet.
Rob
]]>
The most important difference I see in this is that the use of the <div> tag has reduced the amount of coding that is needed. When using the table to set up web pages I was seeing the code getting longer and longer as I tried to create a website with some graphical pizazz. This really got on my nerves when it came time to make changes, whether it was with the page or with the style sheet. Since I have used the <div> tag I have found it much easier for me to find what I need in the code and in the style sheet.
The page load time is much quicker. This is helpful for many reasons. The most significant is that this allows me to use cleaner images. When I had to worry about the code I found myself making the images smaller and smaller in size. Now with the <div> tag being used I can keep my images cleaner. The reason for this is that the page does not have to work through as much code.
The search engines seem to like the cleaner code as well. They like to go through the site and find what they are looking for. They have no use for tables, especially when it is table after table.
In summary, I have become a fan of the <div> tag, even though it has been a headache understanding the way the site should be laid out and what needs to be done with the stylesheet to get it to work correctly.
]]>