March 1,
2006
In This Issue:
1. The Dreaded Home Page
2. In the News - MSFT calls out Google, SES, Successful
meetings
3. More News Headlines
4. This Week's Q&A - Font variety
5. Wrapping It Up
_________________
The Dreaded Home Page
It's interesting -- and maybe this is something
the other web developers reading would agree with
-- that very few of the prospects we meet with
know what they want to do with their home page.
Oh, they may have some ideas on how it should
look: company logo, pretty photo, and so forth.
But very few know what they want to say in that
space.
The home page is important - no argument there.
And it should be developed with great care. As
the saying goes, you only get one chance to make
a first impression. But if you're a business owner,
you shouldn't over think the home page at the
expense of the rest of your site. Check your web
stats and I think most of you will find that you
get more site "entries" on the rest
of your site then you do on the home page. (Likely
not true the smaller your web site is, however.)
When you get down to the Products page or the
Order page - those are much easier. The message
on those pages is very specific. But the home
page quite often has this aura of uncertainty
-- what should we say? Should we keep it really
short and simple? Should we go into a lot of detail
about who we are and what we do?
Let me recommend a recent article called "Home
Page Goals" by Derek Powazek. Derek has some
good ideas and thoughts on how to approach the
unique challenge of creating a successful home
page.
A List Apart: Home
Page Goals
_________________
In The News
Microsoft calls out Google
A Microsoft executive proclaimed this morning
that its search engine will be better than Google
in six months. From the Reuters article:
"What we're saying is that in six months'
time we'll be more relevant in the U.S. market
place than Google," said Neil Holloway, Microsoft
president for Europe, Middle East and Africa.
"The quality of our search and the relevance
of our search from a solution perspective to the
consumer will be more relevant," he told
the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms
Summit.
I'll believe it when I see it.
SES Conference
There's another Search Engine Strategies Conference
going on this week in New York. You can keep an
eye on the Search Engine Watch blog for updates
with links to various session recaps written by
attendees. There's typically one post late in
the day with a roundup of what sessions have been
covered that day.
SEW
Blog
Successful Meetings
This is not specific to doing business on the
web, but it is business-related. We all have meetings
to attend, whether it be with fellow staff or
with clients. It's written by a guy named Merlin
Mann, who shares some pretty good ideas about
running more effective meetings.
43 Folders: 9
tips for running more productive meetings
_________________
More News Headlines
Here are a few news headlines worth your time
to read. These are just some of the headlines
we've posted to OWTweb.com in recent days.
Google
CFO says growth slowing: report
February 28, 2006 - Reuters
AskJeeves
fires its butler, speeds up web search
February 27, 2006 - Reuters
Google
unveils web page creator
February 23, 2006 - News.com
Beta of Google Page Creator lets people type in
content, upload images and publish pages without
knowing HTML.
More headlines: http://www.owtweb.com/news/
_________________
This Week's Q&A
Hey Matt,
I was looking at some of the sites in your portfolio
and it seems like you guys are always using the
same font. And it looks kinda boring, if you don't
mind me saying so. Why don't you guys try different
fonts on different sites?
Paul
Hi Paul,
Thanks for the email ... I think. :-)
Yes, I think you'll find it's not just us, but
most professional developers use a standard selection
of fonts for the text of web pages we create.
The reason is pretty simple: You can specify a
web page to show whatever font you want, but if
the end user doesn't have that font installed,
he/she won't see it. So when we build sites, we
tend to stick with font families that we know
most/all users will have on their machines. I'm
a big fan of cool, unique fonts, but there's no
sense using them on a client's web site if none
of their visitors will have that font installed
on their computer.
(Have a question? Email questions@owtweb.com)
_________________
Wrapping it Up
That's it for this week. Thanks for reading, and
I hope business is treating you well.
Thanks for reading,
Matt McGee
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