The WebSpecialist Blog

You might be searching for some help with Baltimore web design, but chances are you want to reach an international audience. And why not? The world is suddenly a very small place; with the right tips in website localization, any small business can take its website global. But how does a website that speaks English win over the hearts of foreign followers? With great pictures, of course! Relevant, well-placed and — most importantly — culturally-sensitive images are a fantastic way to connect with friends around the world without having to take a crash course in a new language.

In fact, Mashable's Robert Laing recently put together a list of "5 Ways to Win at Website Localization" and using images to communicate was No. 1.

"When building trust and earning customer loyalty is the objective, images can make all the difference in the world," Laing writes.

Laing wisely points out that great attention to cultural needs and things like national flags should be looked at in-depth when it comes to website images... and we agree. Your expert in Baltimore web design can help you pick images that transcend language barriers and not offend global audiences.

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The best and brightest in Maryland website design will tell you that it doesn't matter how small your business is or how unknown you are — a new website can transform your brand's image.

The city of Manhattan, Kansas learned this recently when it hosted the "Little Apple Hackathon." Teams of designers competed for Best Overall Design and Best New Functionality. The Hackathon was a unique response to the city's problem of having an outdated and hard to use website. After months of building mock-ups and reviewing new ideas, a winner was chosen by the city this week.

The slick winning website features a brand new logo, a video hub to watch live feeds of city meetings and new images and photos to show off the beauty of the Little Apple. Manhattan may only boast a population of 53,000, but the new website has a chic, big-city feel to it, proving that power of good website design is something everyone can experience.

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Facebook is talking about it. Google and Bing are allegedly obsessing about it. And all the little guys are even wondering about it. The "it" in question is local web optimization. So why is everybody buzzing about local when once upon a time the desired SEO goal was global domination?

Easy. As searches become more specialized, users are directed to businesses, people and places within steps of wherever they're using their laptop or smart phone. Therefore it's more vital than ever for small businesses to make sure their hours of operation, location and services are correctly listed online. Updating business profiles on search engines should be part of a local SEO strategy. Now more than ever, small companies are invited to be empowered by staying in control of their website, social media and search engine results. And we think that's great news. Viva local!

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Baltimore SEO gurus and Internet marketers have been waiting for the latest algorithm update from Google Panda. After all, the company clearly stated that Panda would be taking a holiday nap but would be back in action at the beginning of the year. And it appears that the wait is over: Panda 3.2 came roaring back last week and the updates are causing some marketers to cheer.

This 10th refresh apparently addresses issues with Panda's last update. Marketers, according to Brafton.com, are reporting that traffic levels have been restored to near pre-Panda levels. And because there have been no changes in terms of ranking signals, it seems this latest Google update, while important, is fairly minor. This round of adjustments is one in a series of 500 changes Google plans to make to its various search algorithms this year.

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Every so often, Delaware web design specialists like us stumble upon a big brand with a really bad website. All the marketing money in the world occasionally can't buy good taste. And that was precisely the problem at French Vogue. The website from the fashion epicenter of the universe was a grainy, cluttered, slow-moving hot mess. Now the bigwigs at French Vogue — especially notoriously tough editor Emmanuelle Alt — are looking to change all of that.

According to a press release from Conde Naste, the redesigned Vogue.fr will go live on February 6 to coincide with the fall 2012 runway shows.

"Contents wise, the new Vogue.fr blends the digital and print editions, feeding off each other under the watchful eye of Emmanuelle Alt, and aims to be the digital extension of the magazine, adapted to the time frame and use of the media," the release says.

The publisher also promises exclusive interviews, backstage photos and new content daily. We say, way to go French Vogue. You're never too big to get your website "ooh la la" back.

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Mobile websites make talking to your smartphone-obsessed clients incredibly easy. But when a social media site updates its mobile capability, you can be sure that users are applauding. And that's just what Google+ has done recently to keep pace with other social media giants like Facebook and Twitter.

According to Mobileburn, the new mobile version of Google+ features a "What's Hot" newsfeed which informs users of friend updates and trending topics. Also, users are now able to see who's given one of their posts a +1 (which is the Google+ version of a Facebook like). These updates are intended to allow for desktop-like sharing from the ease of a smartphone. Sharing is one of the main draws of social media, and Google+ hopes to capitalize on that. Like any good mobile website, Google has gotten rid of features that were redundant and slowed down use, like the much-griped-about Incoming column. The changes will pop up soon on the latest versions of the app for the basic web, OS and Android.

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As a company, we'd like to think that our clients are willing to show their support for the work we do for them by "liking" our company page on Facebook. We also hope they might share our company Facebook page with their Facebook friends. But the hard truth is that it's been an uphill battle for us - and for many other companies we talk to. Now a November 2011 report from eMarketer.com is making us feel at least a little better.

According to the report, it's common for Facebook users to resist "liking" companies. Citing a Crowd Science survey, the report states that only 9% of Facebook users currently "like" a branded Facebook company page - and that the reasons for liking the page were most frequently to "show support" (typically friends and family of owners and employees) or because they "enjoy what is being said" - not because they liked the company's products or services.

Also important is that of those who "liked" a branded retailer's Facebook page, the most common reasons were to seek out sales and promotional codes, and to share both positive and negative reviews. Less than 50% said they liked a page in order to follow company news and updates, or participate in a conversation with the company or its fans. Yet these are two reasons most often given for why companies create Facebook pages.

Maybe it's time for companies to move away from branded pages on social media sites, and simply stick to advertising on them instead.

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Lately while working with a few clients on their own computers, we've noticed some minor but slightly annoying issues with the way some websites were being displayed in the 2011 release of Internet Explorer 9 (IE9). They typically involved slight overlapping of images and text, or slight misplacement of graphics. However, in one particular case, we noticed and entire website menu that was displaying vertically instead of horizontally - and consequently making the site almost impossible to navigate.

If you use IE9 and have noticed any of your favorite websites looking a little wonky, it may be that you have the browser set to display in "compatibility view." We can understand why some of you may have chosen this view when installing IE9; after all "compatibility" sounds like a good thing, right? But if you choose to use Internet Explorer*, we think you'll have a much better browsing experience if you turn off compatibility view, and instead let websites display as they were intended.

To turn off IE9's compatibility view, do the following:

1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. Press the Alt key on your keyboard to display the "File menu."
3. Click on "Tools" in the menu bar.
4. Select Compatibility View Settings.
5. Remove the check mark for "Display all websites in Compatibility View" and close the Compatibility View Settings window.

We'd love to know if many of you have had this issue, and if the steps above actually improve your browsing experience. Add your comments below!

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Maryland Internet marketing and social media marketing specialists often sing the praises of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but a new study from eMarketer shows that users are spending hours on other social sites that your brand might want to consider.

Got a visual-based business like fashion or interior design? Maybe you should take a look at Pinterest. The make-your-own inspiration board sharing site has grown massively since last year and eMarketer reports that the average user of Pinterest spends 72 minutes a day on the site. Brands are taking notice and bringing shopping ideas and product suggestions to the site at warp speed.

Looking to market to Eastern European customers? Then Odnoklassniki might be for you. Odnoklassniki is the Russian version of Facebook but brings in users from around the globe. And those users, according to the study, spend a whopping six hours a day on the site! International brands have already logged on and are having a global conversation with customers they could never reach on Facebook.

Lastly, if you're marketing a game or products for gamers then you can't miss with Tagged.com. Tagged users spend two hours a day on the site as they play games with one another while chatting. Tagged takes social gaming to the next level, and companies big and small are trying to figure out inventive ways to use the site to communicate with young gaming audiences.

And yet even more social media sites recorded increases in time spent from users. Tumblr racked up an impressive 82 minutes a day from visitors while China's microblogging site Sina Weibo had a major bump with 69.8 minutes a day.

And yet if Facebook is where you want to stay put, you're certainly not wasting your time. The study says the average Facebook user spends a staggering 6.1 hours a day updating their status, playing games and uploading photos.

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If a terrible website has pushed you into searching for the best in Maryland web design, just remember your website could always be worse. Like, a lot worse. We've decided to share this PC World slide-show of the Worst Web Design Mistakes from last month as an example of what not to do — and as proof that small changes can make a big difference.

Some of the commonly-made mistakes called out by PC World, like over-clutter of social media widgets and incessant apologizing for not updating, are easy things to fix. Others (poor color contrast between text and background or annoying side scrolling) are more a matter of lack of direction and support from the web designer. Mainly, all of the items on the mistakes list (even the laughably bad ones like the Comic Sans font overkill) are things that can be caught and fixed way before a site ever goes live — if you're working with somebody who knows what they're doing.

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