Hurricane Irene Service Interruptions at SPARKS!

Earthquakes in Maryland? Hurricanes in Baltimore? What next – locusts and frogs?

While we are pleased to say that all of our clients’ sites and services remained up-and-running through the recent weather-related interruptions, our good ol’ phone and internet was off at SPARKS! headquarters as a result of Irene’s unwelcome visit. Alas, all is back to normal today so keep those calls and emails coming!

Unlike many of our fellow Marylanders, SPARKS! emerged unscathed by Irene (and our physical impression of that OTHER city by the Bay) aside from this issue. We hope the best for all who were affected by more serious things.

Onward and Upward!

Make That "Call To ACTION"

Call To Action – a website essential!

In the world of websites, a call to action refers to a desired action (or actions) by the website viewer: call, buy now, register for a newsletter, subscribe, or donate, as examples. Well-designed calls to action can lend focus to a website, help direct viewers’ attention, and measure the effectiveness of web pages.

To encourage viewer action, consider offering incentives such as free gifts, a discount, or opportunity to enter a contest. Urgent language provides further encouragement, such as “for a limited time”, “while supplies last”, or “before prices go up”. Consider a call to action that identifies a problem and presents a solution, such as “Thinking of remodeling? – click here to get a free quote”, or “click here to see examples of our work”.

Calls to action can be clickable buttons (which can be measured in website statistics) or highlighted areas of static text, such as “Call Now” and a phone number. Visually, a call to action is most effective when placed near the top of the webpage. The color should be in contrast to the surrounding webpage colors. Leave enough space around the call to action graphic to allow the eye to focus, and make the button or graphic big, but not too big, which can overwhelm the surrounding webpage content.

Each page of a site should include a call to action, and a site can include more than one. Too many calls to action, however, may dilute your message or confuse viewers.

Want to add a call to action to your site? ACT NOW! DON’T DELAY! Operators are standing by!

Val
SPARKS! Web Development Maven

"Our next event will be three months ago last Friday"…

Don’t you just love looking at the Events or News section of a webpage and finding the latest news is actually the old news?

Having a website is a lot like having a cold. Anyone can get one. Like a cold, you can ignore a website and it just gets worse and worse. Similarly, you can treat it and you’ll start to feel – and perform – better!

1. Maintain Your Site – Keeping up with the latest web standards is like taking vitamin C or zinc. Things like maintaining proper code and responding to the latest SEO trends keep you traveling speedily along the information highway.

2. Fresh Content – Here’s your daily OJ! Update your news, events, activities on a regular basis whether daily, weekly, or monthly. Now this is important: would you keep stale OJ in the fridge? I doubt it (unless you live off-campus). Take the old stuff and either put it in the garbage or in an Archives folder.

3. Do Stuff. That’s right… DO STUFF! This is your daily exercise! You need current events to have a current events page so find something to promote, explain, or download so that your visitors have something different to look at when they stop by unannounced (and they usually do).

What? You can’t do any of the above? Really? REALLY???

There is still hope. Just don’t put dates on your content.

Onward & Upward!

If websites are your ‘virtual storefront’…

…then always make sure that you sweep your stoop and take out the trash!

It’s easy to forget to keep your website updated, however, this little oversight can often hurt clients and visitors who ‘drive-by’ your site. Which store would you rather visit – one with last month’s “SPECIALS” hanging in the window or one with the time that the last order of fresh fish was delivered? In addition, by posting the latest news/events/services or pictures, your visitors will come back more often and keep your shop busy!

Let SPARKS! help you with your Site Management! Contact us for more info.

Onward & Upward!