Sunset Fire Designs: August 2019

Promotional Videos are Hot!

Promotional videos are an effective way to rapidly grow your client base. People are craving information and they want it fast. Rather than spending 20 minutes reading text, they prefer spending a few minutes watching a video with sound and images that evoke emotions - a powerful tool that will make people remember you. According to HubSpot, including video on your website can influence buying behavior and convert visitors into buyers by 80%.

Placing your video on Vimeo or YouTube reaches millions of people within a short time. In this age of viral videos, your video can gain millions of views within days. 92% of consumers share videos with others.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Search engines love videos! Videos are given much higher priority over photos, text and audio, so adding videos to your website will help it rank higher. YouTube is the second largest search engine behind Google. If you put your video on YouTube as well as your website, your chances of appearing in a search is greatly increased. What's more, if you promote your video via social media, your chances of getting found skyrockets!

Here are some promotional videos created by Sunset Fire Designs:

video transcript for the blind or deaf persons

video transcript for the blind or visually challenged

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SEO is better in custom websites

SEO is better in custom websites. Web developers who build websites from scratch have the technical knowledge to make sure it's optimized for search engines. SEO is the process of increasing a web page’s search rankings to increase online visibility. The code needs to be structured properly for the search engines to read the content in order to find you. That’s why so many companies invest in a website with Search Engine Optimization.

What are Meta Tags, and their purpose?

Meta tags are located in the HEAD section of the HTML code. They inform web crawlers about the web page and are primarily used by search engines to help web crawlers more easily index your pages. Creating meta tags on your page will increase the chances of coming up in a search result.

KEYWORD meta tags are no longer used by search engines. At one time they were an important tag on your website. They were used so that search engine crawlers could match to the same words, which rank your website higher in the search index. However, today Google and any major search engine no longer pay attention to the Keyword tag because it led to a lot of people spamming the meta tag area.

The search engines now focus on the TITLE and DESCRIPTION meta tags in determining a web page’s authority, along with the content of the web page. The name and description entered into these tags is what appears in the search engines, and they are the first thing a user will see on the search result, so these meta tags should be well written, and within the character length limits (50–60 characters for the Meta Title, and 155–160 characters for the Meta Description). Anything longer than that will be cut off with three dots '...'

As an example, here is the search result for Sunset Fire Designs):

The Title meta tag is indexed by the big three engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing), and though it is average importance in terms of SEO, it is of high importance with respect to attracting users. For this reason, your website Title should grab attention and create enough curiosity to evoke the user to click on your link, and the Description meta tag should contain well-written information on what your website is about.

I take great care in designing and coding websites that are search engine friendly and optimized for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with indexable content that performs better in search engine listings.

This is a great article to read for a better understanding of SEO: "The Beginner's Guide to SEO".

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Is SEO enough to compete with big brands?

Is SEO enough to compete with big brands?

Established businesses rank higher in internet search results because it signifies that a business is stable and reliable. Big brand names also rank higher because they have huge budgets to invest in marketing and advertising tools such as Google Adwords, Bing Ads, Facebook advertising, etc., which keeps them at the top of search engine result listings.

This means that companies that bid the most money on premium Adword keywords will appear on page-1 of search results. Sadly, the amount of money you can afford to bid on keywords determines whether you appear on the first page of search results or the hundredth page. It's horribly unfair to small businesses.

I’m not going to mislead you by promising that just because you have a website means people are going to discover it overnight. If your website doesn’t come up within the first ten pages of search results, then people normally don’t browse past the tenth page and therefore won’t find you unless you have very few competitors in the same niche, or you already have a large customer base.

But according to Forbes article... Small Businesses Can Compete With Big Brands On SEO.

If you don’t have a big budget for search engine marketing, then should you still invest in a website? ABSOLUTELY! Your website is your number one marketing asset. It gives you credibility. In fact, nearly 50% of people indicate a website’s design as the number one factor in deciding the credibility of a business, and 30% won’t consider a business without a website. In other words, not having a website makes potential customers trust you less.

The bottom line is, in order to compete with big companies, you’ll just need to work harder to market your website yourself via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, news articles, and publications to entice people to visit your website. The more people that visit your website (aka website traffic), the higher it will rank in the search engines because its algorithms will deem your website as popular and relevant.

This is a great article to read for a better understanding of SEO: "The Beginner's Guide to SEO".

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SEO is better in custom-coded websites

Hacking Hazards of DIY Templates

Resource: Stratomatic, an acclaimed web design firm honored with multiple awards for outstanding web design and development services. Article referenced: "Why Custom-Coded Websites Outperform Every Time ".

The most common Do-It-Yourself (DIY) template-based platforms are WordPress, Joomla! and Drupal, among many others. Due to the rise in popularity of DIY template “shortcuts”, millions of people around the globe use them, and most every website built on one of these platforms has serious security risks. Additionally, a variety of coding errors and design glitches cannot be resolved because of fundamental flaws of the template builder systems themselves, which is very enticing to hackers who have a heyday on the number of back doors and loopholes that are vulnerable targets to malicious hacks and security breaches.

One of the biggest selling points of DIY templates are plugins, which add additional functionality to your website such as sidebars or e-commerce functionality. However, plugs-ins are one of the biggest risks. Currently there are 38,655 plugins available. Even with an added security plugin, there are so many plugins and software updates happening simultaneously that your website quickly becomes outdated as plugins and software become incompatible, which puts your site at risk. Outdated software is one of the top reasons websites get hacked.

As stated in the Sucuri™ Website Hacked Trend Report, "Out of the 11,000+ infected websites analyzed, 75% of them were on the WordPress platform and over 50% of those websites were out of date. Compare that to other similar platforms that placed less emphasis on backwards compatibility, the percentage of outdated software was above 80%."

Other sources say that 41% get hacked through vulnerabilities in their hosting platform, 29% by means of an insecure template theme, 22% via vulnerable plugins, and 8% because of weak passwords.

The other risk lies in the open source nature of DIY platforms. Since the system publicizes changes and security measures made with each release, it’s easily available to hackers.

If this doesn’t scare you enough to steer away from DIY websites, make sure you read Stratomatic's article, "Why Custom-Coded Websites Outperform Every Time".

Are custom websites vulnerable to hackers?

NO website, including custom websites are immune from hacking, though custom websites have much fewer back doors and opportunities for hackers to wriggle through. Custom websites don’t need third-party plugins - the functionality is coded directly into the website. Additionally, there are no software updates to contend with.

Here are the top reasons why websites I design are more secure, and I'm probably speaking on behalf of many other talented web developers who hand-code websites using HTML5:

Code only includes links to online resources that have a Security Sockets Layer (SSL) like "fonts.googleapis" (for specialty web-safe fonts), and "Cloudflare" for common JavaScript and CSS (style) libraries.
HTML5 doesn’t require Flash Player for videos or animations. The Flash Player extension has suffered from numerous, serious security flaws and I don't ever use it.
Writing clean code passes security inspections performed by hosting companies, qualifying your website for a SSL certificate which in turn changes your website from a http (unsecured) to an https (secured) site protected from cybercriminals, which in turn protects visitors to your website from being infected with dangerous malware like Trojans and Cryptoware.
No hackable keywords are used since Google and any major search engine no longer pay attention to the Keyword tag because it led to a lot of people spamming the meta tag area. Instead the TITLE and DESCRIPTION meta tags are used which the search engines now focus on in determining a web page’s authority, along with the content of the web page.

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MYTH: Custom Websites Cost More

You probably already know about the free Do-It-Yourself (DIY) website builders, such as WIX and many others. And there are just as many DIY companies that offer cheap templates to build your own website, such as Squarespace.

It's true that you can build a website yourself for free, or for very little cost using a free or cheap template. How can templates be offered for free? If you look at the source code of any DIY template, you’ll see hundreds of URL links that are added for mandatory advertising which cover the costs of providing you free services. This means visitors to your website will have unwanted advertisements imposed on them. Have you ever visited a website looking for (example) a camera, and then shortly afterwards ads for cameras start following you all over the internet?

As stated in my Blog, "Custom websites vs. Templates", the popularity of DIY templates attributes to the surge of non-tech types with no design skills seeking easy money and claiming to be experts on web design – individuals who don’t know HTML and have never written a line of code. They can get a free or cheap DIY template, upload photos, and copy/paste text into the template - so simple that a 10-year old could do it (no joke). But the worse thing is, many of these scammers are charging the same price as a custom website designed by trained professionals. DON'T GET RIPPED OFF!

Custom websites can cost a big chunk of money for companies requiring a large e-commerce website with a back-end database to store a ton of product and customer information. In this case, they would be better off hiring a big web development company that staffs a team of web developers to code such a robust website in a timely manner. Overhead costs for office space and personnel are calculated into the cost of developing the website, so naturally it would cost more.

But for small businesses or individuals who don’t require a mega website, a custom coded website designed by a professional freelance web designer is much more cost effective than hiring a team of web developers since there are no overhead costs. Your website will be completely tailored to your business needs with an attractive design, optimized for SEO, and with much better quality and security. And there are no overhead costs.

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Custom Websites vs. Templates

You may have already done your research and have read a dozen articles about how pre-fabbed Do-It-Yourself (DIY) website templates are generic, limit creativity, your website will look like everyone else's and yada-yada-yada. I'll spare you from hearing it again. That might be true for free or cheap templates, but there are some beautiful and dynamic templates out there that make me green with envy and they deserve a hats off. They are customizable (to a certain extent), however they are at a premium cost, and just as a rocket needs a rocket scientist these robust templates need the coding skills of an experienced web developer, otherwise the website will break over and over again. But it's not these outstanding expert web developers you need to worry about when it comes to DIY website builders.

DON'T GET RIPPED OFF! The popularity of DIY templates attributes to the surge of non-tech types with no design skills who offer quick and cheap websites – individuals who don’t know HTML and have never written a line of code. They can get a free or cheap website template, copy and paste text into it and upload some photos, therefore they don't even need to know HTML or be trained in web design whatsoever. Your 10-year old could do it. (I'm totally serious.) It's about as simple as a Word document - type some text, choose a font and insert a few photos. Sounds like the best thing since sliced bread, doesn't it? NO!

Tragically, a lot of these non-tech people are seeking easy money and claiming to be experts on web design, and even worse, many are charging the same price as custom websites designed by trained professionals who put a lot of time and labor into building your brand image and hand-coding your website. It not only devalues their training and expertise that they’ve spent years developing, but it rips people off – YOU by providing a quick “shortcut” way to throw together a lackadaisical template-based website without a lot of work, skill, or creativity.

A custom website expresses your own personality and individuality. Your branding will stand out when a website is designed to fit you, rather than trying to fit you inside the constrictive walls of a template. Custom websites have no limitations on graphics and functionality, unlike templates that limit the number of graphics and text that can only be placed on designated spots of the template. Custom websites can be coded to do whatever your imagination can dream of! They are flexible and can change with you. In the future you might want major changes to the design and/or functionality. If your website is built with a template, you may have to start over with a completely new template. It’s much easier to change the layout and functionality of a custom website.

It’s disheartening when a client hires me to redesign their website that had been thrown together with a template, with no design flair and a gob of spelling errors. Even worse – they paid $1,500+ for it (more than what it would have cost for the same-sized, custom designed website), unaware that it was built with a template that required so little time and by someone with so little or no skill.

My final words on this subject - it will be hard to impress potential clients with a cheap template. Be careful who you hire. Don't buy a hot dog for the same price as lobster (or pink radicchio if you're vegan). Whether you decide on a custom website or a template make sure your website is built by an accredited professional web developer.

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Choosing a Web Hosting Company

The criteria for choosing either a free web host or a commercial web hosting company are slightly different. For example, free web hosts impose advertising on your website to cover the costs of providing your site the free web space and services. They limit the amount of web space, i.e., 5MB and can also limit the size on the files you upload and/or restrict the file types you can upload. They can also set a limit on the amount of traffic your website can use per day or month and will disable it if it goes beyond the limit. Additionally, free web hosts don’t always have the best reliability or speed. A site that is frequently down or is slow to load will cause your website to lose visitors.

When choosing a paid reputable web host company, these are things to look for:

It should be reliable and fast and guarantee a minimum of 99.5% uptime. Check their policy about how much you’ll be charged if you exceed the data transfer limit.
There should be 24x7 technical support (including holidays).
The web host should allow all the various software and tools used to build your website, i.e., HTML, JavaScript, FTP, PHP, Perl, SSI, .htaccess, SSH, MySQL, etc.
Control Panel to self-manage your site.
If you are planning on doing any sort of e-commerce through your website, the host should provide Shopping Cart functionality.
The hosting company should provide Security Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificates. Google is flagging websites that don't have a SSL Certificate.
Provide email addresses at your own domain, like name@yourdomain.com, if you choose to do so.

If your Internet Service Provider allows it, you can run your own web server, but it’s a lot of work and can be very expensive because a server’s hardware capacity needs to be able to handle a large number of requests (website traffic) occurring simultaneously without affecting the quick response time. For this reason, more popular websites require a good server to fulfill its needs. Professional web hosting companies can run a hosting service cheaper than you can, serve pages faster and do it more reliably at an optimum cost.

NOTE: Domain registration and domain hosting are two different things. Your domain name is the name of your website or your URL (www.mywebsite.com) and can be purchased by going to a domain name registrar (as mentioned above). But in order for your website to appear on the internet, the files (code) need to be uploaded to a server and hosted at a hosting company such as GoDaddy, Bluehost, Inmotion Hosting and dozens of others.

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Registering your domain (website) name

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) manages the name and number systems of the internet. Additionally, each top-level domain is maintained and serviced by a registrar responsible for maintaining the database of domain names and associated information. This information is published using a special service called “whois”, a protocol used for querying databases of registered domain names, IP addresses and other internet resources. This is the main reason that no two parties can ever hold the same domain name simultaneously. It's quick and easy to check www.whois.com to see if your domain is available. Just enter your domain name and press "Search". You'll receive an instant answer as to whether the name is available.

Your domain name is your own unique identity - your brand that gives you a professional image on the World Wide Web. The only way to obtain a domain name is through a domain name registrar service such as whois.com. There are hundreds of other registrars on the internet, which means you can purchase domain names for a competitive low yearly fee. Most web hosting companies offer domain registration services and will register your domain name for you (for a small fee), but it's super easy to do yourself.

You can register a domain name for a year or more, depending on the registrar. You need to make sure that you renew it before the expiry date otherwise you will no longer own that domain name. Your registrar can then sell it to someone else. If you lose your domain name you can lose your whole online identity. So it’s a good idea to register your domain for multiple years.

NOTE: Domain registration and domain hosting are two different things. Your domain name is the name of your website or your URL (www.mywebsite.com) and can be purchased by going to a domain name registrar (as mentioned above). But in order for your website to appear on the internet, the files (code) need to be uploaded to a server and hosted at a hosting company such as GoDaddy, Bluehost, Inmotion Hosting and dozens of others.

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Google is flagging websites that don't have a SSL Certificate

It's true. Google is flagging all websites that don't have a SSL Certificate (Security Sockets Layer) which previously was only required for websites that capture personal information, such as with e-commerce sites. But at the end of 2017, Google started placing a little informational icon displaying "Not Secure" next to the URL of all flagged sites. Once a SSL Certificate is applied to a website, the informational icon is replaced with a padlock icon, and your website switches from a "http (unsecured) to an "https" (secured) site protected from cybercriminals, which in turn protects visitors to your website from being infected with dangerous malware like Trojans and Cryptoware.

A SSL Certificate is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser to ensure that all data passed between the web server and browser remains private. If you don’t have a SSL Certificate, a secure connection cannot be established, which means your information will not be digitally connected to a cryptographic key.

How much does a SSL Certificate cost? It depends on the hosting company. Some hosting companies charge $260+ per year, whereas other hosting companies like Inmotion Hosting offer a free basic SSL Certificate for informational-type websites, however websites that deal with sensitive information such as e-commerce sites are required to purchase a more powerful SSL Certificate.

I write clean code that passes security inspections performed by hosting companies, qualifying your website for a SSL Certificate.

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CRUCIAL: Website Quality Assurance

Quality assurance is an important part of website development. It should be “fit for purpose”, meaning the site should be suitable for the intended purpose. It should be “right the first time” meaning mistakes should be eliminated, because even small errors like a broken link or misspelled word can make a visitor question the credibility of your website and they might not return – first impressions are lasting, so your site should be error-free before putting it online.

I code websites that are in compliance with the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) standards to ensure you have a quality website. Following a standards checklist will make certain:

Purpose is clearly defined.
Content is error-free and easy to read/understand.
Navigation is user-friendly, and the website displays on multiple browsers.
Content is accessible to a wide variety of people who visit your site, to include people who have audio or visual challenges, for example, content is accessible to color blind or other visually impaired users (i.e., sufficient color brightness/contrasts, images include “alt” attributes for image descriptions, etc.), and the website content makes sense when read by a screen reader.

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