The purpose of a website

The first thing we would like to point out is that a website should be built for users not search engines. Many Dubai web design companies often focus on the search engine approach, compromising the user-friendliness and ease of navigation of a website. Avoid diverting your full attention to search engines and rather try to focus on the users because the website is all about them.

Why would you do that? You might think that bringing in massive traffic is the answer, but let’s think about that for a moment. Would you rather have 500 visits per day and convert 10 clients or would you prefer to have 200 visitors per day and convert 20 clients? The process of converting a visitor into a client is called conversion rate. That’s what you’re going for, not loads of pointless traffic that generates few conversions. Having a high rate of traffic is indeed one of the main goals but your main focus should be sales and getting clients to make an enquiry about your company because this is what brings in profit. Bottom line is that you need prospects, not just traffic.

The main goal for your website is to turn visitors into clients. How can you increase your conversion rates?

1. Figure out what will be your website’s main focus. Here are a few options

• To provide information about your company (informative website – news, events, location etc)
• To promote your brand and products or services (most of Green Apple Studio’s Dubai clients share this goal)
• Branding (make your brand known in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, across the UAE or the whole world)
• To present a portfolio, some of your previous work and projects (a music artists website, web designer, photographer and so on)
• To provide certain resources for download – free or paid (file downloads, software, images)
• Entertainment (games, videos, images, jokes)
• Online shopping. E-commerce (huge growth for this type of commerce in the past years)
• Educational Website (informative articles and videos, tutorials, etc)
• Technical support based website (some websites offer support through images, while others focus on videos, PDF downloads, text and simple graphics
• To develop a community around your website (where people log in, promote you over the internet, talk about you and you get to “live” with them)
• To increase the quality of your blog (so that users find your information interesting and will want to blog about it with you)
• To get users to subscribe to your newsletter (this way you keep permanent contact with them)
• To get user to contact you by phone or email (you want users to call or write and enquire about your products or services)
• To get users to visit your store, hotel, spa etc

You can choose one, two or more main focus factors for your website from the list above or you can set up an entirely different list. Now that you’ve figured out what your expectations are, let’s find out a few ways how you can make them happen.

2. Make sure the user can easily take the appropriate action. Maybe they need a little nudge as well .

If your website’s main goal is to generate calls, make sure that your phone number is visible on most of your pages. If you’d like your visitors to buy products make this task easy for them by displaying the designated form link on all of your pages and keep the form neat and simple. You want more users visiting your blog? Then direct them towards it. You want more users to actively participate on your blog? Then ask your readers to join in the conversation. You want to create an active community around your website? Then allow your users to register for an account on your website.

When clients are looking for a web design company in Dubai or a web designer in Dubai they expect to find someone creative, with a good background and a performance-based strategy that helps generate a high conversion rate. Get in touch with us at Green Apple Studio and let us know how we might help.

  An effective online promotion of your website should eventually bring in more   traffic and expand your customer’s base. There is a thin line between failure and success and an unsuccessful campaign will kick a serious blow at your finances. There are numerous ways of marketing and promoting your website over the internet and each one of them comes with advantages and disadvantages depending on your business’s niche.

Promoting your website is, or should be, the first step after the website has been developed so that your company will make its presence felt over the internet. Without a proper internet marketing campaign your website will be just a website that very few potential clients will visit, thus rendering it pointless for your business.

With an internet marketing campaign not only your website will get more relevant traffic but it will also increase its position on search engines listings (SERPs).

Promoting your website on search engines

Also known as “Search Engine Marketing” the process of promoting your website on search engines is a fast way of increasing your website’s traffic through the dedicated advertising locations on search engines such as Google, Yahoo! or Bing. A Google’s AdWords campaign can be customized for a certain amount paid/day and a pay per click bid for the link that points toward your website.

This type of marketing can be very effective when the allocated budget for a few months of exposure remains consistent. You get results in relatively short period of time but the down side is that in some cases the costs can be very discouraging.

Promoting your website on designated portals, web directories and other advertising websites

Listing you website in web portals and directories not only create links back to your website but they speed up the indexation process of your website as well. These directories are special websites that collect information about companies from all niches (or most of them). By listing your website in these directories, potential clients can find out a few basic details about your company (services, means of contact etc) and might decide to pay your website a visit. Advertising websites are another solution for promoting your website but they might not always generate the targeted traffic. Most web directories have advertising sections too and paying for featured listings might be a smart move in some cases.

Promoting your website through link exchange or banners

Another mean of promoting your website is through the so-called link exchange or banner exchange methods with similar websites of your business’s niche. The anchor text plays a crucial part in the link exchange campaign as this is the visible, clickable text in a hperlink (very important for search engines). In the banner exchange campaign the graphic design is king. A neat design can make a huge difference as it can bring in a lot of relevant traffic and increase your brand’s credibility.

Other methods of promoting your business online are: social bookmarking, social media and social networking. We will cover all these in another article.

  The first question that comes to mind when you decide to build a website is whether you should choose a professional web design company or a freelance web designer for the job. There are advantages and disadvantages to both as you are about to see in following lines. In this article we will present the details of each entity thus giving you a better understanding of the differences between these two options.

What are the advantages of working with a freelance web designer?

The first advantage of working with a freelance web designer are the low costs involved compared to a web agency. Independent web designers can work from the comfort of their own home resulting in low costs of operation. Another advantage could be his involvement in your project in case he is working on one single project at a time.

What are the disadvantages of working with a freelance web designer?

A web designer will have a lot of task to fulfill on the course of a project, tasks that can’t be ignored due to the critical role they play in web design. These tasks can range from the website design itself to the PHP programming, graphics, website optimization and so on. Some of these tasks will be performed less efficient by the freelance web designer depending on his capabilities. This lack of efficiency in certain aspects will decrease the overall quality of the project, because it’s difficult for one man to expertly handle the design of the website, graphics, website development and search engine optimization.

What are the advantages of working with a web design company?

A web design company has several departments or specialized individuals that handle the various stages of a project. These departments or specialists can be PHP programmers, web designers, search engine optimization (SEO) experts and so on. The fact that certain steps of the project are handled by separate individuals each and every one, experts at what they do will result in higher quality for your project. And this quality is extremely important in the eyes of your clients.

What are the disadvantages of working with a web design company?

The first advantage is obviously the cost of the project. Having several departments causes the company to have much bigger operation costs that a freelance web designer and the fact that a company is typically involved in more than one project at the same time could also be a disadvantage as this can cause delays to unexpected problems occurred with other projects or commitments.

Case study on Green Apple Studio – Dubai web design agency

Green Apple Studio web design, will always try to find the optimum balance between the two choices mentioned before. Our agency is composed of 3 different departments: a web design department, a SEO website promotion and online marketing department and a web development department. We always keep our staff number as low as we can in order to work at full capacity and keep the operational costs low. When there is need for more “hands on deck” we can subcontract specialists that have worked with us before on a number of projects. This method of operating has allowed us to be extremely competitive in both quality and costs providing high-end services at affordable prices.

Verdict: web designer or web design agency?

It all depends on your needs. Are you in need of a professionally executed project or one that is “almost” acceptable? Keep in mind that a website, regardless of how professionally it looks and how it has been developed, represents your company, your brand. Is your website flawlessly developed? Then visitors and potential clients will consider your company to be a professional and successful one. Is your website looking bad? Than that’s exactly what your prospects will think of your company. In other words a website can play a major role in your company’s profits.

If you’re looking for web design & development services in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, all across the U.A.E. or anywhere else in the world, use our website planner and we’ll provide a free personalized quote for your exciting project.

The first article in the WordPress tutorials series is a manual step by step installation guide of the CMS (Content Management System) platform. Minimum requirements: shared hosting with access to a control panel (cpanel or plesk) and a zip installation archive of the platform which can be downloaded from WordPress.org.

Preparation for setting up WordPress

Before we get started we have to take a look at the WordPress platform zip file. This archive contains

all the files into one folder. We need to get rid of this folder by extracting all files into a new one. Once the files are extracted, open the folder where they we’re extracted, select all files and create a new archive (right click -> Add to archive). For this tutorial I will use the domain name blogro.info, so wherever you see this text you can assume that your domain name will be visible.

Uploading the WordPress install archive to the server

Access the control panel of your domain and go to the File Manager.

Click on Upload and select the newly created WordPress install archive. Now wait as the files are being transferred to the server.

After the transfer has been completed click on “Back to /home/yourdomain/public html” , select the loaded archive and select “Extract”.

If everything worked out smoothly (it did, right? ) you should be able to see all the installation files in the current window. If these files are found in the “Wordpress” folder, then you haven’t created a new archive of the original zip file downloaded from WordPress.org correctly. Now select all files and move them up one directory and delete the archive so that it doesn’t take up space. You can also close the current window and return to the cpanel.

Configuration of the Database

No reason to panic, it’s sound harder that it is. In the cPanel/plesk, look for the Databases category and click on the MySQL Databeses (first icon).

Create a database and a username. ATTENTION: when choosing the names for the database and username you have a prefix which is the user name with which you access the cpanel. In this case the prefix is “blogro_”. So the database name and username will have this prefix.

After the database and user have been created, you have to add the user to the database. Clicking on Add will open a new window. In the opened window look for the “ALL PRIVILEGES” text and tick the box next to it. Now click on “Make Changes”.

Installing WordPress

Here we are to the actual step of installing WordPress. To do this, you must access the domain (http://yourdomain.com). Now the first install step should be displayed in your browser.

Now click on “Create a Configuration File”

“Let’s go!” – Pretty straight forward.

Enter the database name, user and password (DO NOT FORGET ABOUT THE PREFIX) and change the "Table Prefix" from wp_ to something else. In this tutorial I’ve used pre123_. Now click on Submit and in the next window click Run the install.

Choose a title and an email address (do not use your main email address, you will find out why later on) and click “Install WordPress”.

The installation was successfully completed. Copy the generated password and login.

Post installation WordPress setup

In the WordPress admin panel you have change password notification. Before going any further, create a new username and password and delete the username admin (for security reasons).

In order to add a new user, go to the WordPress menu "Users -> Add new". Choose a username and password and use your primary email address as this is the account you will be using; remember I’ve told you a few steps back not to use you primary email address? This is why. Set the Role to Administrator and then click “Add user”.

Exit the WordPress admin panel by clicking the “Logout” button and login with your new username and password. Go to Users -> Authors & Users and delete the admin account.

With the completion of this step we’ve pretty much covered the basic WordPress installation method. There are more advanced methods of installing WordPress (like editing the configuration files) and simpler ones as well (like using the Fantastico script from the cpanel). Using the method described in this article you’ll have full control of the installation process and you won’t need advanced PHP / Programming knowledge. As a conclusion I’d like to go over a few tips again as they could improve the security of your site/blog:

• Replace the Table Prefix from wp_ to something else
• Create a new username and password and delete the admin account
• Use strong passwords

Personal vs. Business
Facebook’s main goal is to allow people to connect with one each other, make new friends, post your recent holiday photos etc as opposed to Google+, which fixates more on a discovering experience such as: discovering a new link, finding a person that shares the same interest as you or joining circles that share common interests. One of the main advantages of Google+ will be the option to create business accounts, even though Google representatives haven’t yet released this option to the general public. Google+ is yet to release a dedicated platform for business such as Facebook’s fan page and other dedicated business application. Therefore, Google’s future plans are important for both users and businesses.

Facebook Updates
Facebook is trying to fight back with a few recent updates. One new feature allows users to subscribe to each other. This new feature is similar to Google and Twitter but it doesn’t force users that you’ve subscribed to, to do the same for you. Facebook is also planning to introduce the so called “smart lists” that will sort your friends into separated groups based on certain characteristics, much like Google+’s “Circles”

Google+ Integration
One of the biggest challenges for Google was to integrate the Google+ social network with all the other Google related services and applications. By using any of the applications from Google we can notice that Google+ is integrated in the upper menu bar. This helps you monitor all events from the Google+ social network and allows easy access without having to exit the application you’re using at that time.

The most important feature of Google+ is without a doubt the list of friends organized in “circles”. The circles allow users to maintain distinctive online identities. By distributing friends in various “friend circles” users can organize their contact list in an intuitive and easy-to-use way. This gives users the option to organize their content in a way that is unique on social networks: special content for friends, special content for coworkers and so on.

With more than 90 million users Google+ is already an impressive social network that promises to get to the top. From a user’s point of view we can only be happy of the current battle for supremacy between the social network sites because their determination to be the best is our gain in the form of new and exciting features.

In this time evolution (or Revolution) online services like those offered by Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, Twitter and Wikipedia have become the main information sources in the World, much more efficient that the classic ones. What do all these have in common? Each one of them can facilitate access to ways of communication and information in the way they choose to and our online experience is clearly guided by them. With the explosion of online socializing and information access a black part of the internet has emerged: online piracy. Anyone can easily have access to copyright material and because of that, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) was born. Any website, even a giant like Facebook or Youtube can be suspended if it contained illegal content. The S.O.P.A. project is basically an attempt to control all content that is found on the Internet.

Thousand of search engines (including Google) that are displaying links towards pirated material could be shut down and social networks, which are based entirely on user content, become extremely vulnerable. Those who are planning to use S.O.P.A. will have the power to block a site and to force those who are financing it to stop in an attempt to stop online piracy.

Fortunately, NetCoalition (an organization that the above mentioned are part of) is fighting against the S.O.P.A. project and the power that the American Government and big players in the entertainment industry stand to gain from it. In December, founder of Wikipedia – Jimmy Wales shared an interesting idea with users and the NetCoalition members: shutting down its services as a protest against S.O.P.A.

January 23rd is the day Google, Wikipedia, Facebook, Yahoo!, Twitter and all their sub-services (youtube, gmail etc) might shut down their services.

We can only imagine how much chaos would a NetCoalition giant spawn if it were to shout down (even if just for one day). Google is the owner of the largest video broadcasting provider in the world, the most accessed e-mail service, the most important search engine and many applications that play a major role in productivity such as: Reader, Calendar or Docs. Adding to all these the lack of social networks like: Google+, Facebook and Twitter and the Yahoo services we’re looking at unprecedented moment, a moment when the online world literally stop.

Until a decision regarding S.O.P.A. has been made (on both sides) all that we can do is participate, spread the message and wait.

Green Apple Studio is an active protestor against S.O.P.A. in the WordPress community. Join us!

1. Experience

Does the agency’s personnel sound professional and trustworthy over the phone and act professionally in person? For how many years have they been offering SEO services in Dubai and how many years of SEO experience do the people that will work for you have? Is this agency proving that it can successfully focus on SEO services and a wider range of internet marketing services as well?

2. Ethics of the Agency

Does the agency follow Google webmaster guidelines? Does the agency engage in link-buying, competitor sabotage, keyword stuffing or other dubious methods? In terms of a long term SEO plan these so called “black hat” SEO strategies can have serious consequences.

3. Specifics

Which SEO results are they most proud of, how did they accomplished it and what was the time frame? You can also ask the local Dubai SEO agency specific examples of certain SEO pitfalls on your website, especially ones that you are aware of but keep in mind that most agencies will be reluctant to go into a lot of details until a contract has been signed.

4. Cost

SEO pricing can vary from 100$ to 500,000$ depending on the agency’s experience and the requested scope of work. SEOmoz, one of the leading software and service firm in the SEO industry have released a survey of the pricing models across 600+ SEO professionals.

5. Expectations and Statistical Measurement

How does the agency propose to measure your success? The success should be measured based on the client’s critical needs and requirements whether that’s incremental profits, links generated, or leads generated.

6. Timeframe

When is the agency ready to start working on your SEO campaign? When can it finish? What exactly are they guaranteeing that will be delivered? Getting an initial timeframe is important but there is always the possibility for the timeframe to shift as business needs to, or as roadblocks come up but make sure that these setbacks are justified. An appropriate proposal from the agency will give both sides something concrete to work on.

Summary

Remember these tips while you are scrolling page after page of SEO agencies and SEO consultants that promise phenomenal results. Choosing the right Dubai SEO company should never come down to price or reputation alone. Make sure you investigate the agencies so that you can be as certain as possible that the Dubai SEO agency you choose is best fitted for your SEO campaign.

The Order Form

The first step is to make sure that your order form can be found easily and hassle-free. There are several ways to direct your customers toward the order form so that you can minimize the chances of them getting lost. A good way to try and increase you conversion rate is to have the order form accessible from all the pages of your Ecommerce website, especially the pages where your products are found.

Payment Options

The payment options are also a crucial sale factor. Some people prefer to pay via PayPal, others with a credit card, while others may want to send a cheque. The more options of payment provided, the better your chances of converting your visitors. After all, it wouldn’t make sense to sell hard to a prospect only to find out that they can’t pay due to the lack of choices.

Some are reluctant to pay via the internet because of their security concerns. It your job to convince your customers that doing business with you is as safe as it can be and that you are a credible merchant. Your Ecommerce website’s order form must be secured using the latest encryption technology. You will have to look into SSL for this. Another great idea would be to offer some sort of a money back guarantee so that people will feel confident when doing business with you. You can also consider offering after sales support, this way customers would be even more encouraged to buy from you, knowing that if they have any kind of problem after purchasing they can contact you and sort it out.

Past reviews can also have a huge impact for your prospects. Displaying previous client testimonials (hopefully good ones  J ) tell your prospects that you are a serious merchant and your proof are the previous satisfied clients.

It might be very frustrating and counterproductive if you sold hard and sold well to a prospect only to find out that something went wrong at the last minute, when he or she is about to pay. Pay a great deal of attention to these factors and maximize the revenue of your Ecommerce website.

Facebook vs. Google+.
Google+, the social network with
the fastest growth in history,
has already beaten several records…