A good website created by a skilled web designer will give your website that certain something that will distinguish it from the rest and bring in business for your company.

You should always test your site on multiple browsers. Your site may look quite different on each of them, so don’t get caught out! Your designer should have checked this but different browsers in different operating systems can make things look other than was intended, so get your friends and colleagues to check the site over for you. Make sure your website works in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari. If your website is ‘mobile ready’ check it out on as many devices as you can.

Follow through all the menues and navigation, making sure nothing unexpected happens and all the links lead to where they should.

Can you click on the heading? It’s normal practice if you have a header and or a logo that clicking it should take you to the homepage. Most sites will do that and users expect it.

Are the urls readable? Do they make sense to you for example www.yoursite.com/about-us.html is better than www.yoursite.com/?category_id=61 or similar.

Is you address, phone number and company details shown clearly? Each of these add more trust to a website. Try to have at least a geographic phone number and address that can be easily found on the site.

There are plenty of other things to check but the above can be easily missed.

We’ve designed so many websites with an equal number of clients and they are all different. Each client has their own personality, whether it’s a single person or a committee. So what makes some easier to deal with than others?

Very few clients I’ve had were awkward or difficult to deal with. I’m lucky in that I get to choose the clients as much as they choose me and very often I’ve anticipated problems when discussing a new project and consequently have decided not to go ahead.  In the early days I would take on anyone who asked but soon realised that the old saying of ‘you can’t please all the people all the time’ is very true.

Fortunately, it’s easy to tell from initial discussions that you are going to get on really well with someone right from the outset, and that initial assessment I’ve found is almost always the right assumption and pays off through the project and the completed works.

I really prefer the client who has a clear vision of what they want their site to look like, what it’s purpose is and what it should say to its viewers.  The easiest of all clients are those who know exactly what text and pictures they want to use on the site, ideally they should already have a logo and have letter heads and business cards showing the corporate image.  Armed with that information it’s usually a quick way to get the initial design off the ground.

Most new sites have a difficult start. It does seem to be the hardest part. Once the client can see what you are trying to do and have some agreement then the development can move on rapidly. The hardest site is the one where the client has no idea of what they want.

Now I don’t particularly like the phone so email is always better for me. Not only because I prefer this as the primary method of communication but also because it gives me hard copy and can be much clearer than a conversation.  Email also means that if I’m working on something difficult or challenging I can turn off the phone for a while and give free reign to concentration knowing that I won’t miss anything.

Another of my favourites from a client is a list. When you are working on a big site, say an e commerce website there inevitably are lots of small changes that may be wanted. If such instructions can come in the form of a list, then so much the better for me to be able to make the changes. The quick and easy ones can be done in minutes while the more difficult, or hard to understand changes, can be considered in greater depth.

What I hate the most are ambiguous request along the lines of:

• Can you just change it back to how it was before the change before last?
• Can you just make the text slightly/a little bit/ somewhat larger/bigger/smaller?
• Can you just make it lighter/darker/more intense?

What on earth do these comments mean? I usually have to make a guess and then change it again because its “not quite right, can you just … “.

Just me I expect, unless you would care to comment on what makes the best (or worst) client.

Imaker was asked to create a small directory type website listing details of PC, desktop and laptop, notebook repair companies around the UK. The site allpcrepairs.co.uk has now been beta released and we are looking forward to seeing how the site progresses.

For a successful ecommerce website you need:

1. SSL Certificate: An SSL certificate is a must-have feature of an e-commerce website, as it assures your customers of “security”. It means that the customer valuable card data will remain highly secure during the transaction. A website with a SSL certificate definitely appears more secure than those without.
2. Good Navigation: Navigation is extremely important as users should be able to easily find the products and services of the site, along with quick links back to the shopping cart. All the essential pages should be easy to find using the navigation.
3. Categories: Have clear and obvious categories on your site to contain your products, Make your categories display somewhere easy to access, e.g. across the top or on the side columns.
4. Product Images: Having great product images is always a plus point online. The images must show all angles of a product and preferably have a zoom feature as it allows visitors to see the minute details of your products.
5. Product descriptions: Like images the description should be great and help sell the product as well as inform the customer.
6. Product Reviews: Product reviews are really useful for conversion, and it seems like many eCommerce platforms today offer some sort of built-in review system.
7. Featured Products: By displaying featured products on your home page or on the side columns of your site will inform your visitors of top selling products, sales offers or it can be a general products that you want to push further and make sure they get noticed.
8. Related product: This is a great up selling feature which will show your visitors what other products they can purchase along side what they are currently viewing.
9. Customers who bought this also bought: This will encourage your visitors to purchase more then one item at once.
10. Search Box: Having a search box positioned well, will allow your visitors to quickly search for the product that they are looking for.
11. Good Payment Gateway: Choosing your payment gateway solution for you site will give assurance and peace of mind to your visitors.Choose a merchant account that your visitors are comfortable with. Offerering at least 2 ways to pay seems to increase sales.
12. Phone numbers and contact methods:  If there is a problem customers would most likely prefer to have someone they can talk to. Give them as many ways to contact you as you can and consider using 24/7 hotlines and live chats.
13. Delivery Information: Tell your visitors how you will deliver the products, when they will be received and how much it is going to cost.This information should be contained in it’s own delivery details page and also for each product.
14. Good Return Policy: Buyers will be reassured by a good return policy so that if something should go wrong and they can see how to return a product.
15. Graphics: Make good use of graphics banners to display your sales promotions and offers. Make them clickable so your visitors and find details easily.
16. Privacy Policy: Display clear Privacy Policy link in your footer.
17. Customer login & registration: Give the option for customers to register on your site, so when they do return they don’t need to enter all their billing and payment details in again, giving them the flexibility to quickly check out.
18. News & Events: This section on the site where you can keep your visitors informed of new products, events, and other news related to your online business. Consider using a blog for this.
19. Social Media Presence: Let your customers know that you are available on networking sites, by having Social Media Logos on your site. Use networking sites for customer support, and interacting with customers. Having a good social media presence will boost your online presence and brand.
20. Gift Certificate: These can encourage repeat orders and increase your site visibility and increase customers.
21. Wishlist Features: Like gift certificates can provide a powerful tool to increase your business.
22. Newsletter Subscription: Allow users to enter their email address to stay up to date with your offers and promotions, having this feature will let you build marketing campaigns.

There are other features you may want to include but these should get you on the right course.  Hope that you find them useful.

Stuart Allington, a long time gardener, has been designing plant layouts for some while and wanted to give people the chance to use his services, hence the web site launch.

They stock a huge range of  fabrics by leading designers, accessories and notions, as well as patterns and books.

Imaker’s involvment was to design and build a new ecommerce website for them which has increased their turnover and profitability and they are now able to run a loyalty card scheme that accumulates credits with every sale. These credits can then be spent in theitr online shop.

The site is regularly updated and is entirely under the control of Fabrics Plus.

Included in the price you get:

• A bespoke designed single page website about you and your business
• A domain name of your choice registered in your name.
• 12 months free hosting.
• Up to 3 email addresses.
• Free statistics

Take a look and let me know what you think.

The website is from Kelly Menzies who is  a transition and wellbeing coach working with Mums to help them through periods of transition or to help them to make changes in their lives!

Kelly will be adding course details and coaching information as soon as it becomes available, so keep an eye on Healing mum.

More content will be added as available because the site is so new. The site contains a slider that runs a slide show of yoga positions. There are details about pregnancy yoga, general yoga, yoga and walking, mums and babies.

Courses are run regularly and a timetable of these is included in the site.