PSPINC Official Company Blog

Website Design Tips for Non-Designers

1月

26日

Creating a visually appealing website is crucial for any business. But it can be a daunting task for a non-designer. Perhaps that’s why many businesses outsource this task to companies like Pacific Software Publishing Inc. (PSPINC) who have the expertise to not only design websites but build them as well. But there are a few things every business owner should know when it comes to website design.

Visual Hierarchy

website design outline drawn in a notebook with a phone sitting next to it

For a website, a visual hierarchy controls how the end-user receives information. In other words, it tells users what to focus on first. When looking at the sizing of content, whether it be text, images, or videos, our eyes immediately go to what’s biggest first. So, with that knowledge, it’s easy to see why enlarging content is the most effective way to tell users that it’s the most important part of the site. Additionally, you can use text and different colors to signify what’Fs important. For text, the use of headings, sub-headings, and body text tell users what to focus on first. And this, again, is because of the sizing.

As for colors, this can be a little trickier to get right because it’ll be different for every site. Of course, certain colors work well together, but a lot of this will come down to branding guidelines and streamlining the user’s experience. But a good rule of thumb is to have black text overlaying a white background. It’s usually the default choice in a lot of website builders and it’s the easiest to read. But adding other colors to the site’s overall design will be up to you, your brand, and what values your business wants to represent.

Readability

laptop open to a site called Swagger with Swagger-branded items placed next to it

There’s no point in anyone visiting a website if they can’t read anything that’s on the page because everything’s a different color, size, or font. It sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised at how many sites do this. Whatever color you use, keep your brand in mind. If your website looks completely different from your company’s logo and social media content, it shouldn’t be.

As for text on your site, sizes, fonts, line spacing, weight (bold or not), and colors should be consistent throughout all pages on your website. Regardless of color, here are a few things to keep in mind: use headings, sub-headings, and images to help break up the body text. Not only will this help improve your site’s overall SEO, but it’ll also increase the likelihood that users will stay on your webpage. After all, no one wants to just read a huge block of text online.

UX Design

UX design, for those who don’t know, stands for user experience and refers to how people interact with a product. From a web designer’s point of view, it includes keeping the overall look of the site consistent across all pages. This means that the navigation bar, color scheme, fonts, and writing style look the same on every page a user views. But before making it all look pretty, focus on usability first. By that, I mean, make sure that everything on the site works the way it’s supposed to. The design is moot if the site doesn’t work.

From a web development standpoint, you’ll have to use responsive design. What that usually entails is using percentages as opposed to pixels or inches when writing out your CSS code. However, large website builders have this already built-in for you, which makes it easier for you.

Mobile Optimization

Last but not least, is mobile optimization. Making sure your site’s optimized for mobile is increasingly important because more than half (almost 93%) of website traffic is mobile, according to Statista. But mobile optimization means more than just making sure your site’s accessible via a mobile device. Rather, it involves making sure that your website visitors have a user-friendly experience on your site when using their phones. What this means is making sure that users can still navigate the site well and that there isn’t content that’s being cut off.

A site that’s well optimized for mobile devices usually includes moving the main navigation bar to the side (opposed to the top) and resizing practically everything on your site. But like I mentioned earlier, that’s what responsive design is, which is what big website developers already have built in. However, get in the practice of manually checking anyway, just to be sure.

But if you still need help building and/or designing your website, contact PSPINC for all your web development and design needs!

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #businesstips #color #design #mobile #mobileoptimization #pacificsoftwarepublishing #responsivedesign #smallbusiness #text #tips #userexperience #uxdesign #visualhierarchy #webdesign #webdevelopment #website #websitedesign #websitedevelopment

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 99 "Authenticating companies with domain names"

1月

21日

Why do companies, organizations, and sole proprietors have websites with their own domain names? Have you ever wondered why you need a unique domain name for your website? The answer is simple. It’s to drive awareness towards the existence of your company.

There are many ways to share information about your company. There are numerous social media platforms like Facebook, Yelp, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and many more to do just that. However, it’s hard to authenticate your company’s presence just on these platforms. It’s easy to create a page on any of these social networks. Anyone can do it, and they can do it for free. So, it’s unfortunately not clear proof that the company really exists just from social media profiles alone.

A domain name, on the other hand, belongs to the company or organization that registered it. No one else can have it because of that. Additionally, SSL certification guarantees the company’s existence while also encrypting communications. To authenticate the information you have on Facebook, Yelp, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and any other platforms you use, you’ll need to operate a website with your own domain name. So, naturally, you should also run your email on the same domain.

While Gmail is convenient, it goes without saying that it’s more trustworthy to use your domain name in your email. But it’s also useful to note that you can use your domain name for your email but still use Gmail to send and receive emails. If you have any questions about getting a domain name and creating a website, please contact Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. at any time.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.
info@pspinc.com
https://pspinc.com
1404 140th Place NE, Bellevue, WA 98007 USA
800-232-3989
425-957-0808

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#authenticity #business #businesstips #company #domainnames #domains #email #facebook #gmail #instagram #linkedin #smallbusiness #socialmedia #socialnetworks #sslcertification #tech #technology #twitter #webdevelopment #website #yelp #youtube

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 98 "Using Forms on Your Website with Informakers

1月

14日

Have you ever wanted to collect information from your customers on your website? There are many times when you would like to receive your customers’ input. And many do so by creating a survey or an inquiry form. Without input from your customers, your website is just a medium for transmission and reporting.

Since its beta release in 2011, Pacific Software Publishing Inc. (PSPINC) has been operating Informakers, a system to collect information from your customers by easily creating forms on your website. For anyone with a little HTML knowledge, it’s easy to use. If you simply don’t have the time to create your own, we can create and design one for you in a short amount of time.

For example, we created the Contact Us page on our site using Informakers. This service is available for $8/month but is free for customers that already use our hosting services.

For more information about Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.'s hosting services, please visit our Dreamersi page.

If you have any questions about building your business on the Internet, from domain name acquisition to website creation, please feel free to contact us.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.
info@pspinc.com
https://pspinc.com
1404 140th Place NE, Bellevue, WA 98007 USA
800-232-3989
425-957-0808

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #businesstips #form #forms #informakers #pspinc #smallbusiness #webdevelopment #website

Online Brand Optimization and Consolidation

12月

29日

As we close out 2021, we would like to look back at a major project we undertook this year. We've referred to this as the “PSPINC brand consolidation” project.

Background

As an online technology company, we are constantly evolving. To do this, we're always looking for ways to optimize and level up our products, services, and websites. Mid-year, we discussed how we can continue to drive meaningful traffic to our sites and services.

At PSPINC, we offer a large number of products and services, each with its own unique name and domain. This has allowed us to cleanly separate one product from another. But it did introduce challenges we were looking to solve.

Brand Recognition Confusion:

With all services being uniquely branded with a product name and domain, it made it difficult for people to identify that these services were products of PSPINC.

Fragmented SEO Efforts:

With so many products, our efforts to optimize our marketing and drive traffic were very challenging. We were attempting to advertise and grow so many different domains, which made it difficult to have a singular focus.

Solution

girl wearing orange headphones looking at two large monitors with coding and typing on a smaller laptop

While we have many services that still operate independently (Bloguru, Japanese-Online, Denrei, ClockLink), we decided to consolidate all our public-facing product websites into web pages on pspinc.com.

This would solve both of these challenges by:

Clearly defining PSPINC as the company, and the product beneath that. Since all product pages would have a pspinc.com domain and the PSPINC branding in the top left.

Allowing us to focus the bulk of our marketing efforts on the domain pspinc.com. Since these product landing pages would all be on the same domain, it would make our processes much more streamlined.

How We Did It

group of people gathered closely together to look at a laptop

This was a large and ambitious undertaking. We broke this down into three phases to best ensure we could iterate and release enhancements regularly.

Phase 1 - Redesign pspinc.com

Consolidating our product sites into product pages wasn’t as easy as building out new pages in the existing PSPINC website. We went completely back to the drawing board to come up with an updated sitemap, wireframes, and mockups. This allowed us to data-mine and structure this with our goals in mind.

From there, we developed all of the existing pages for pspinc.com with the new design, linking all of our products to the existing product pages. This allowed us to release the new design while leaving the existing product sites as is. Helping us mitigate very complex deployments over 14 domains.

Phase 2 - Build product pages under the new pspinc.com

The next step was to consolidate our existing product sites down to simple product pages on pspinc.com. We did all of this on our development server, building them out one at a time. This was followed by thorough testing by our Designers and QA Testers.

Phase 3 - Deploy new product pages and redirect traffic from the old websites

The last phase of the consolidation project involved deploying these new pages. Specifically, we needed to remove the old website on the original domain and redirect traffic to the new URL.

For SEO purposes, it is extremely important that you set up permanent redirects for all old pages that no longer exist. It is a way for us to tell search engines that the old page is gone, but there is a new page with the content they are looking for. That way they can update their search results and we don’t run the risk of users not being able to find the pages.

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Thanks to our team of extremely talented Designers, Developers, and QA Testers we were able to complete this major project this year.

If you have any work you need done on your website but don’t know where to begin, please let us know. We have the experience and knowledge to help not only make the changes but define an efficient and organized process to make your online dream a reality!

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#branding #brands #domain #domains #emailhosting #hosting #pspinc #seo #webhosting #website

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 94 "Satisfaction with your website"

12月

17日

Does your company have a website? Is it easy to understand what your company does by looking at your homepage? Do you receive inquiries from visitors to your website? On a scale of 1 to 100, how would you rate your website? I'm sure many of you are wondering if there is something more you can do.

I think the best way to evaluate the usefulness of a website is to see if it is generating new business for the company. How many people are visiting your website? How long do they stay? Where did the visitors come from? Did they come from search engines, social networking sites, or by typing your web address into their browser directly?

What are you doing to attract people to your website? Do you use blogs, social networking sites, or post on YouTube? A website is not an advertising medium, so it is not enough to create a website to attract people. The website needs to be advertised to a large number of people in various ways.

The setup of a website also needs to be designed in such a way that it can easily attract people. A completed website is not the end of the story. The content of the website needs to be updated to attract repeat visitors. Only through these actions will people start to come to your website.

If you have any concerns about your website, please contact us at Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. We offer a full range of services from web design, production, hosting, management, updating, and marketing. If the performance of your current website is not receiving an ”A” grade in your mind, please give us a call.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.
info@pspinc.com
https://pspinc.com
1404 140th Place NE, Bellevue, WA 98007 USA
800-232-3989
425-957-0808

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#SEO #SearchEngineOptimization #WebDesign #WebDevelopment #Website

Useful Google Chrome extensions for building a website

12月

1日

Every day we surf the Internet we rely on web browsers to serve us content both reliably and quickly. Like all things involving technology, they are constantly evolving and improving. The question is, are you getting the most out of your web browser? If you are not using browser extensions (sometimes referred to as add-ons) you may not be.

What are browser extensions?

A browser extension is a software module that runs within the web browser that customizes that instance of the web browser specifically for you.

Useful extensions for building a website

Today we are going to talk about extensions for Google Chrome, as it is “king of the mountain” when it comes to global market share. However, all major web browsers offer extensions to make your browsing experience easier, more efficient and customized to your needs.

Below is a list of just a few of the useful browser extensions that will help you as you look to build your website. These are helpful not only to Web Development professionals but to savvy business owners that want to go the DIY route (we have a tool for that).

GoFullPage - Full Page Screen Capture
When it comes to building your website, sometimes you may want to capture screenshots of your progress to send to other internal stakeholders. This plugin adds a simple camera icon to your browser. Click the icon once and it will capture the entire page (what you see and what you can’t). From there you can download it in .png, .jpg, or .pdf formats.

Grammarly for Chrome
When it comes to preparing content for your website, it is important you provide professional and well-written content. The Grammarly plugin will look at the text you have written within the browser and point out misspellings and offer grammar suggestions.

Fun fact: We use Grammarly every week when it comes to proofing and editing this blog.

Resolution Test
When it comes to testing your website it’s important you consider your users. People will view your website on all types of devices with different screen resolutions. With this add-on, you can click a button and choose various screen resolutions. It will open a unique browser window for each resolution, allowing you to see how your site looks to those users.

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These are just a few browser extensions available through Chrome. There are thousands of extensions for all purposes available in the Chrome Web Store. When it comes to choosing between similar extensions we recommend looking at their rating and how frequently they update to ensure you are using the best of the best.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#BrowserExtensions #Chrome #Google #GoogleChrome #WebBrowser #WebDevelopment #Website

3 tips for a better mobile website

11月

24日

We often spout the virtues of mobile web design. With approximately half of all web traffic being viewed on mobile devices, we cannot afford to ignore the mobile experience of our customers and website visitors.

Below are 3 tips for providing a better mobile web experience for people who are on your website.

#1 Have a well organized mobile navigation

There is nothing worse than being on a mobile device and having to pinch and zoom to click on a link to a pay you wish to visit.

A fairly traditional approach is to include what is affectionately referred to as a “hamburger menu” in the top corner. Clicking this will then expand out the full navigation with large, clear click areas.

#2 Make sure your site loads fast

Mobile devices are often using cellular data service rather than a super fast wifi signal. The slower your site loads, the more likely they are to click that back button and select a different link.

Make sure you are using images scaled and optimized for the web and try to avoid too many external resource-heavy effects.

#3 Create a clean, single-column layout

If you attempt to have multiple column, complex layout on a smartphone - you are not thinking about your mobile users. Anything extending outside of the view space of a mobile device will be cut off and hidden. This forces the user to not only scroll up and down to view your content, but left and right as well.

This is not only unintuitive but it is hugely inconvenient. Ultimately, it is encouraging your users to abandon your site and seek information elsewhere.

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When it comes time to refresh or update your website, please consider the mobile web experience. If you have any questions or want us to audit your existing site - please let us know. We have Designers and Developers on staff to help make your mobile experience the best it can be.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#MobileWeb #MobileWebsite #Smartphone #WebDesign #Website

3 reasons your website needs to be mobile-friendly

11月

10日

For years we have been advocating for the importance of mobile-friendly, responsive websites. Today we are discussing 3 reasons this is a MUST.

Mobile browsing accounts for about half of worldwide web traffic

Yes, you read that correctly. Approximately 50% of the websites viewed from around the world are being viewed on mobile devices. A large number of your customers are viewing your website on a smartphone. A website that requires a lot of pinching and zooming, invites them to leave immediately - potentially costing you a sale.

Makes your business look more professional

It is important to set yourself apart from your competition. Your website provides you with another means to do this. If you are competing for a potential customer’s business and they are comparing websites. If one business has an outdated website that looks bad on their phone, and the other has a modern and mobile-friendly website - their decision very likely will be swayed. In many cases, your website is the first impression your business provides to potential customers - make sure you look professional.

Mobile-friendly websites rank higher on search engines

Search engines like Google have made it clear if you have a mobile-friendly website you have opportunities to improve your search rank.

This is done for a couple of reasons:

A mobile-friendly website is providing a better experience to 50% of the web (as previously described). Therefore, to search engines, you are likely providing modern and up-to-date content.
Sites built for mobile are usually optimized to run faster and more efficiently. Faster websites are also given a ranking boost by search engines for providing a better quality experience.

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If you have a website that is unattractive, looks really small on a mobile device, or is really hard to use, you should consider a complete website refresh. Remember, your website is an extension of your business, and in many cases is the first impression your users see.

It can be overwhelming to determine where to start with so many web builders, tools, and options out there. We have experience in all facets of business website development. So reach out to us and let us know if you need some help, or just want to discuss the options.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#BusinessWebsite #MobileFriendly #MobileWebsite #ResponsiveWebsite #SEOFriendly #Website

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 86 "Click It Audio - Express Yourself Using Your Voice"

10月

22日

Vol. 86

It may be hard to understand even if I explain it, so I'd like to try to show you what you can do with Click It Audio. The first step is to create an audio file called an MP3 on your PC, Mac, or smartphone device. Of course, you can also create MP3 files with other recording devices.

When you upload your MP3 file to the website, it will be stored there and you will be given the option to play it. To embed the file in your website, please copy and paste the embed code that will look like the following:

<iframe src='https://www.clickitaudio.com/a/4?o=ece35a6228f1e1d5' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' width='50' height='50' style='display: inline;'&gt<p&gtYour browser does not support iframes.</p&gt</iframe&gt

Also, if you want to display the link you can use the audio player URL as follows:

https://www.clickitaudio.com/a/4?o=ece35a6228f1e1d5

Lastly, if you want to use it as a QR code so that you can quickly pull it up from your phone, you can place the QR code directly on your product.

You can use it in any way you like. If text is not enough for you, why not try Click It Audio? You can sign up and use the system for up to 3 files completely free.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.
info@pspinc.com
https://pspinc.com
1404 140th Place NE, Bellevue, WA 98007 USA
800-232-3989
425-957-0808

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

The term "QR Code" is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED.

#Audio #EmbedAudio #Website #WebsiteAudio

Employee Spotlight: Meet Marcus

10月

20日

At PSPINC, we pride ourselves in offering our customers the best in customer support. This is thanks to our amazing support staff. In this series, we will highlight and showcase a number of those friendly faces who are standing by to take your call and/or email, help with your IT problems, and assist with your online solutions.

Meet Marcus

Marcus is one of our Support Technicians. We sat down and asked him a number of questions to get to know him better!

What do you do at PSPINC?
I help customers with questions or problems they are facing with email, their website as well as some general PC questions.

What does a typical day on the job look like for you?
We go through emails and phone calls from customers to solve their problems. If needed, we report issues to our R&D department.

How did you first learn about PSPINC?
I learned about the position at PSPINC through a friend.

What’s your favorite part about working here?
Helping customers troubleshoot and fix their issues.

How has PSPINC helped you in your career development?
I have learned a lot about how things work in the background for websites and email.

What are three words to describe PSPINC?
Diverse, supportive, and welcoming.

Before working at PSPINC, what was the most unusual or interesting job you’ve ever had?
I worked as a game tester. It was a very good experience working within a big company and being able to play games before they came out.

What advice do you have for prospective candidates?
Searching and investigating issues on your own will teach you a lot. However, you can always ask your colleagues if you have questions.

What are some of your hobbies?
Watching American football.

What is your favorite food?
Pho

What is your favorite movie?
Die Hard and The Lord of the Rings.

Where would you like to travel to?
Arizona to see the beautiful desert.

Any other random facts you would like to share?
I also like playing video games.

We hope you enjoyed getting to know Marcus today! If you are experiencing any problems with your website or email call Marcus at 1-800-232-3989. He is standing by, ready to help you out.

Do you like what you heard about PSPINC? Check our open positions, we are always looking for talented individuals looking to fast track their career in technology!

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#CustomerSupport #EmployeeSpotlight #Employees #blog #business #businesstips #customerservice #itsupport #pspinc #sales #smallbusiness #tech #technology #website

PSPINC Official Company Blog

フリースペース

Website Design Tips for Non-Designers

Visual Hierarchy

Readability

UX Design

Mobile Optimization

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 99 "Authenticating companies with domain names"

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 98 "Using Forms on Your Website with Informakers

Online Brand Optimization and Consolidation

Background

Solution