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Web Design

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HTTP vs. HTTPS: Which is Better?
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Unless you are tech savvy and are constantly keeping up to date with the latest digital trends, the average user would probably not understand what HTTP or HTTPS even means. In simple terms, HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol and is the most common way to connect and access websites. On the other hand, HTTPS is another iteration of HTTP but adds a layer of security to handle confidential material. Another protocol that can be used with HTTPS is the secure socket layer (SSL) which checks to make sure that the information from one party sent to another is consistent without any tampering.

HTTPS is used for e-commerce businesses or banks who require online payments via credit card since the added layer of security and encryption make it a safer choice than HTTP. Now that you know which one is better to use, how does HTTPS contribute towards Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? When it comes to Google search, Google tends to put preference towards safer websites which HTTPS fulfills. Ultimately, this leads to slightly increased rankings for websites that use HTTPS but what mostly changes the ranking is still website content.

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How Much Does an E-Commerce Online Store Website Cost? Depends on What You Really Need
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As an E-Commerce Development company, many bricks-and-mortar retailers always call and ask me this question before anything else is discussed- “how much will an e-commerce website cost me?” And I always reply with the same response, “What do you need?”

An online store can go from simple to complex, because its functionality can vary. Are your customers local or national? Do you sell to consumers or wholesalers, maybe even dealers? Do you drop-ship? Will your site be public or private? Those are just a few questions that I pose to retailers looking to get online, and the answers are different each and every time. For a few hundred dollars, you can get an online store up. Yahoo, Godaddy, and template based websites give you E-Commerce sites for cheap. BUT do you really want to give your customers the impression that you are a run-in-the-mill company? Will you be comfortable knowing your online store will look like thousands of others?

Imagine this: You are walking down the hallways of your local shopping mall. On one side you have Coach, which is a store that stands out, exudes class and brand. On the other side, you have a ROSS store (no offense to those who love that store), a location that looks like a low-end clearance store. Which store you think will appeal more to your customers? Visualizing that scenario should give you an idea of what it takes to create an Online Store.

There is so much functionality that can be done. An Online store can be customized in two ways- look and feel, and functionality. The way your online store looks is vital. The homepage must be an attention grabber, similar to what you experience when walking into a retail store. Also consider that 46% of local searches are done on mobile phones now, so if your business has a local reach, a “responsive” design, which has both a web and mobile version, should be considered. Functionality will really determine your overall investment. A simple store will allow categories, product detail pages, and checkout. But what if you want to add more?? Coupon codes, social media sharing, posting reviews, price comparison, filters, and other options are add ons, but for many retailers, must haves. Those development tools are functions that you should consider in order to realize an adequate budget.

As you see, an online store takes considerable planning. You must determine who your target customer is, what you want your visitors to experience, and how unique you want your online shopping pathways to be to your visitors. Once you figure out what exactly you need, you will be able to fetch adequate quotes with options that are ideal for your business.

 

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Table vs. DIVs: Better for Website Layout Design?
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We are on websites almost everyday, every hour and every second. On our smart phones, tablets, and computers. Have you ever stopped to realize how some of these popular websites you visit can be viewed on almost everything that has the capability to go on the Internet?

Sometimes you will run into websites, that no matter where you are look at the webpage from, they still look the same. Most of the time these websites fall victim to one crucial mistake- using tables as a means to laying out the structure of the website. As a Senior Front End Developer, I cringe whenever I stumble upon these websites for this reason. They aren’t using the beauty of DIVs and the power and flexibility of the DIV tag.

I know that many people might not understand what is the difference or what is a table tag or div tag, but to shed some light and explain each thing, picture:

Two four-sided boxes; one made from legos and the other from cardboard. The lego box represents divs tags and the cardboard box represents tables. Say you want to add a two more sides to the box what do

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you do? With the legos you can simple just add two more sides because you can connect the blocks of legos together, while with the cardboard box, you’re pretty much stuck with four sides unless you cut out the sides, cut out more pieces of boxes and glue/tape them together. You see how much of hassle that is?

DIVs have the flexibility of legos, where you can change colors, add more sides, remove more sides, expand it to be bigger or smaller or infinite, while with tables, it doesn’t have that flexibility. You can essentially make it bigger or smaller, but you can’t add on or remove anything without it affecting the structure.

With DIVs, you are able to place things in any order, on top of other divs, to make one big; and make three of them red. Divs have the power to expand and fill in any area, just like water, except you can actually control how and where the water goes and even how it looks. The only time you would want to use tables is when you displaying data like a size chart, and even then, table is in a wrapped around a div tag that you can place where ever you want.

So get your website out of the box and expand your website to fit where ever it can!

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What is the Best E-Commerce System?
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I always get the same question from many entrepreneurs and business owners alike – what is the best e-commerce system or platform out there? I always tell them that it depends on what they want their online store to accomplish.

There are many open source e-commerce platforms such as XCart, OS Commerce, Magento, and others.  Some are easy to set up, and others offer more sophisticated tools to better equip an e-commerce store to operate like a fully functional bricks and mortar store, including POS integration.

ecommerce platformsTo choose the best, I would assume they want a platform that is both up to the latest trends and robust. If the budget persists, the best e-commerce system available is Magento. The Magento Community Edition E-Commerce platform gives business owners all the tools that are required for a high end and robust online store.  It comes equipt with CRM based reporting, built in newsletter, blog, and more. It also allows users to cross and upsell products and manage inventory with both basic and supply chain like attributes.

The system is alot bigger and powerful than your basic OS Commerce or Cart e-commerce solutions. Installing it on basic hosting accounts like Godaddy and others will make your system run slow. It is strongly advised to invest in a more powerful Linux based hosting server like Mediatemple, 1and1, and others.

Selecting the best e-commerce system really comes down to the amount of products you are trying to sell, and the method of management that you want. If you are a small business and will basically manage the store yourself, or with a helper or two, a fast and efficient system like WordPress or X-Cart will suffice. If you want to build a fluid store and see yourself adding in alot of inventory, and really want to implement at CRM system to your customers, Magento is the way to go right now!

If you do invest in Magento, you must know that customization and upkeep is more expensive. Yes, it is a Linux and PHP system, but the programming and databases are more complex and knowledge of JS, the Magento code, and cross platform development is needed.  It offers all that you need, but make sure you have the team that is ready to handle it on an ongoing basis!

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WordPress vs. Joomla for Websites
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When I get new clients that request an open source CMS to manage their websites, two popular brands always pop up- WordPress and Joomla. Both are free, open source technologies that offer similar features. Both allow for web development and built in plugins and extras like online stores, login systems, portfolios, sharing tools, and more.

The biggest question is which is more beneficial and efficient.  I get a lot of clients that, wanting an online store, ask what is the difference between the two.  Joomla has been around longer and WordPress became popular as the ideal blogging module in the market, then quickly became used to build fully functional websites. Both are coded in PHP and both allow for customization from top to bottom.

Personally, I feel WordPress is better suited for all facets of the newest trends in web development like HTML5, Jquery, and AJAX tools.  Joomla is easier to use and implement, and requires hardly any coding experience. That is why Joomla is more widely used, as it gives front end web designers the ability to add in back-end capabilities. But, in the long run, WordPress is more robust and allows for future customization and changes a lot easier.
Joomla is built in “modules”, as one section of the website is dependent on the framework of another. So the layout and tools added in cannot be easily adjusted and modified in different positions and sections. WordPress is completly built in HTML and PHP, so it allows for fuller access to core code and can easily be adjusted and customized with an experienced PHP developer who is familiar with WordPress CMS framework.

I see WordPress as the future of open source CMS development. Others exist for specific and more advanced purposes, like Magento and Drupal. I will go into those another time!

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Top 10 Reasons to Create Micro Websites for your Business
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Business exposure is so crucial nowadays, especially in todays economy. I see so many businesses cram soo much information on their websites with the intention of exposing all of their products and services to their customers. With their online marketing and advertising budgets lower than before, it has become crucial for businesses to sell as much as possible to each web visitor all the time.

They also have the intention of becoming optimized and listed for all their web services on Google and other search engines. But, since their website is so full of different information and services, it is hard for them to become specialized in a specific service or product… hence, they have a low page rank and do not appear on the 1st page of their product keyword searches! This is huge dilemma and alot of businesses do not know what to do. They cannot afford to remove information, they have no time to redesign their site… and their budget is small. What can they do?

Creating micro websites is the answer! A micro website is a mini website that is specific to a product or service. You have 10 products? The key here is creating 10 mini websites (3-4 pages) that are keyword dense and specific to theis product/service, with a powerful keyword based URL. The goal? Get optimized and listed faster for this product/service keyword, thus having another “branch” in your online marketing tree of offerings.

Here are the top 10 reasons this will work:

  1. You can keep it specific to a keyword phrase only! You do not have to worry about Google or another search engine not knowing about what your site is about. The content and keywords will be very specific and direct.
  2. You can buy a keyword based URL for your product or service. As you all may know, your URL is the most powerful SEO tool in search engine optimization. Adding your keyword to your domain name can work wonders.
  3. You can show your company specialization for this particular product or service. As you know, many web visitors do not take the time to really familiarize themselves with your different offerings. A micro website gives you the chance to show off your expertise and uniqueness of your company as it relates to the product or service.
  4. A micro website will get you ranked faster. Creating a micro website that is specific to a keyword phrase gives you up to a 40% faster optimization rate, thus getting you ranked higher much faster than your main website would.
  5. Saves you money in online advertising. As you know, SEO takes alot of time. A micro website can save you tons of money in the long run since it can get listed faster than your main website.
  6. Gives your company more exposure. Imagine having your micro websites appear for all of your products or services, along with your main website? This is called web dominance. Why not give it a try?
  7. Are affordable. Micro websites cost considerably less than adding the amount of pages to your website, both in design and advertising costs. Why not save money and get more exposure on the internet with another website?
  8. Great regional strategy. Does your business have multiple locations? Are your services offered in different areas? Micro websites can also help you target geo specific customers with the same keyword strategy!
  9. Create backlinks to your website to boost it’s page rank. Micro websites can also boost your main website traffic and ranking too. Linking your micro websites to your main website will give your main site considerable web traffic, thus boosting its page rank and backlinks considerably.
  10. It works. Thousands of internet savvy businesses have been implementing micro websites to their online busness model. Try typing in a city based keyword, check Google local listings, and see how many websites are the same company. This gives companies who implement it more exposure, better SEO results, and a competitive advantage… all the while saving them tons of money. Try it!

If you would like my company, www.RGPacific.com, to work with you to implement this strategy, please give me a call at 323-314-2127. We are located in Los Angeles and offer the best and most affordable web design, development, and internet marketing services.

Please do not hesitate to post some questions!

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Bricks and Mortar and an Online Store – Expand your Business on the Go
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I have had several clients in the past that were very hesitant to start an online store, with all virtually telling me the same excuse- business is fine, why complicate things? Surly a business owner, with little time to dedicate to learning about the internet and managing a website, can make more money concentrating on his business with walk in customers right? Wrong! Yes, in today’s ever changing social media landscape, that has become business suicide!

The internet today is everywhere. In every sector of the business community. Retail, Wholesale, Distribution, Manufacturing… You name the industry, I can find you the top dogs in the niche thriving online.  The internet is needed now because it is everywhere. People are online at home, at work, on the go (with mobile phones), and in the air (iPad’s and tablets). Therefore the old cliche of a 24 hour online business model is more true than ever now.  Social media has become a mainstay for many people of affluent culture, and the middle class is the biggest online contributor online.

If you are trying to package and sell your products to your customers locally, you all are aware that location is key. With the internet, you can pinpoint your customers by time, age, income, demograhic, and geographic location. Anytime, for a modest budget. Business owners are using an online storefront to present new products, sell last years overstock, reach new markets and cities, and build a CRM system that can help business in the coming years.

The biggest difference I tell clients about online marketing for their products online is this: Print, TV and Radio allows your to market to a general audience. You “hope” your kind of customer reads your message, which is why there are “slogans” and gotcha statements in ads. WIth online marketing, the opposite holds true. People visit certain websites and therefore you can find your target market in a few minutes, so your message is more personal and direct, you can talk to your customers personally. No newspaper or magazine can give you that kind of access.

An online store can be affordable and robust. Start an online brand and show off your products and attempt to sell your hottest items. Get to know your market and customers, and invite walk in clients to give you feedback about your website. You will find that everyone is on the web, people everywhere look for goods and services on search engines like Google. Not being seen online is like having a store in the middle of nowhere.

Remember guys… Location, location, location!

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