There is a realm within the world of web design that holds typography as the “holy grail” of design and aesthetics. Thousands of books, articles, and videos have been produced to focus specifically on fonts, their design, and their effectiveness. While many people are unaware this massive and ever-expanding subject, it is important to realize that the font on your web site sends a definite message to your audience. Fonts, their size, and style, convey meaning about your site or products and can transform an ordinary web site from ho-hum to a hot commodity. The most important aspect of choosing a font is thoroughly exploring your options. Google has an entire portion of its site dedicated to a growing number of new, attractive fonts that can put some meat on the Times-New-Roman-bones of your site.

First and foremost, every typographer agrees that you should never use Comic Sans. This font is widely detested because it is viewed as a cop out; it adds no creative or aesthetic value to a web page and looks generally unprofessional in almost any circumstance.

When you are trying to choose an appropriate font for a home page, blog post, or flyer, keep in mind the purpose of your writing. If you own a wedding planning business and are currently working on invitations for an upcoming ceremony, you want a font that expresses the sophistication and significance of the event. Most wedding invitations employ an elegant, serif (sweeping tail or stroke at the end of a character), so you would use a font with sweeping, dramatic tails at the end of each character. Basic serif fonts like Times New Roman, Rockwell, and Georgia, are commonly found in newspapers, magazines, and other print media. Sans serif (sans means “without”) fonts, the kind without any tails or strokes at the end of characters, are often used for websites and online material. The typeface for this blog, Verdana, is sans serif. Helvetica, Franklin Gothic, and Futura are all examples of Sans-serif fonts we see almost every day.

This is just a brief glance into the world of typography. If you find yourself mesmerized by the amount and variety of available fonts, there is an endless supply of resources on and offline that expound upon the subject of typography and how important it is in art and media. If you feel so inclined, much of the literature on the subject can also help you create and design your own unique font to give your web page or blog the ultimate personal touch.

Today almost everyone has a website of some sort. Whether it’s for business or pleasure, we are all connected to the Internet. Social media websites give you a generic, yet customizable theme that allows you to express yourself by posting text, pictures, videos, and listing your likes and dislikes. The World Wide Web encompasses so much information that it can be daunting to consider it on a holistic, international scale.

One element that all websites have in common is the language behind the images and information seen on a webpage. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the language that web pages use and translate to create the words and format of a webpage. Most likely, you will go your entire life without having an actual conversation in HTML but it is important to understand the language behind what our websites display.

In the early days of the World Wide Web, HTML code had to be painstakingly typed to the point of perfection for a webpage to appear the way you wanted it. While HTML and CSS (design/appearance code) are still major components for all websites on the Internet, sites like WordPress or Dreamweaver can now make the HTML-illiterate feel like the most tech-savvy person in the room by furthering your interaction with web design.

If you are interested in learning more about HTML and CSS, there are a plethora of resources available on and offline. Most colleges offer classes on HTML and hundreds of books and articles examine, explain and expand on HTML, its importance, and effect. Merely glimpsing at any webpage’s HTML code will make you marvel and appreciate the complex, attractive websites we visit daily.

So you have your website up and running. It’s receiving a decent amount of traffic and your business is beginning to expand. You’ve left the contact info and are beginning to have your private email filled with business related matters. Now, you want to create an email through and connected to your business’ domain name. Gmail and YahooMail are great for private matters but it can be overwhelming when business and pleasure, as far as email is concerned, collide.

To create an email through your business’ website, log into your control panel and search for the “Email Setup” button. You can than choose the kind of email you want to have (i.e. “Add new POP3”). Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3) is the most common and frequently used kind of email, allowing the messages sent to you to be transferred onto your computer and be seen when you log into your account. Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) lets you work with messages without downloading them to your computer. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is used to send and receive messages in both the POP3 and IMAP email options. Use POP3, create a user name and password, and save your info. Be sure to send a test email to your new address to make sure you’ve done it correctly.

Any questions or concerns, feel free to contact our 24/7 email tech support: support@webii.net.

So, you got an email from someone asking you to “exchange links” with their website.  They want to link to your website and they want you to put a link to their website on yours.  They give you a little more info and end with a thank you.

What should you do? Is this a good idea?  Is it a scam?  What in the world do you get out of a link exchange?

First, the why: this is an old tactic used since the 90′s to try to promote a website – an early Internet marketing technique.  With today’s SEO, building links to your website (links from other websites that bring traffic to yours) is an important element.   But be wary of invitations to exchange links.

Here are my basic recommendations:

• If the email sounds canned, it probably is.  A lot of “Internet spammers” use automated programs to send thousands of these invites to any site they can find.  And sometimes the sites offering a link to you are not incredibly legitimate or note worthy.
• If you do not know or love the website offering the link, it probably isn’t worth considering.  In fact, that website might even be a competitor.
• If you do know and love the website, or if they are respected in your industry or well known to have high traffic (let’s say the official Pizza Hut website offered you a link), consider it.
• Instead of exchanging links with a website you don’t know (a cold invite) why not link to sites that belong to companies you do actually partner with and refer with?
• If you do accept a link exchange with any site, make sure the link is present on their website before you add one to your site.  And check back somewhat regularly to ensure they keep your link on their website. (If they roll it off in a few weeks – take the link you posted down. It’s only fair.)

Is this kind of email always a bad idea? Well, no.

There are still some legitimate, committed webmasters who manually select particular websites (maybe related to similar subjects or industries) to personally invite to link build with.  There might be some good efforts here and maybe their own website really is well-ranked or has some decent traffic.  (A link on a higher ranked website could have more weight and bring you some “SEO juice”.)

In most cases, you can ignore and delete an email you receive to post a link to someone’s website.  There are other ways to build quality legitimate links to your own website and gain traffic – including writing and guest writing blogs, articles, and press releases.

You can also leave helpful comments on other blogs that you read.  Feel free to leave comments here, but no spammy stuff of course!

The ability to stay connected is more important than ever in this digital age, and having the ability to access your emails on mobile devices such as your Iphone or Ipad, has become essential for conducting business while out of the office.

Though it is a useful resource, if you don’t know how to configure your email settings on your Ipad or Iphone, then that leaves you without a very valuable weapon in your business arsenal.

Fortunately for you,  WEBii offer both video and screen shot tutorials for how to configure your Idevices to receive emails from your WEBii email accounts.

You can check out our Ipad tutorial video, as well as our other webtutorials by clicking here.

Our support page also offers screen shots to go along with the video tutorial and you can view them here.

We hope that this helps, and if you need further assistance, we are always happy to help.

The Internet and technology are constantly changing. Products are getting smaller and sleeker but are able to store more information than the previous ‘clunky’ model.

The same goes for SEO activity. Focusing content on key words or referencing current events along with your business, can direct traffic to your website. Having knowledge of what keywords will help your business’s web presence grow is a great start.

If you were to go to a search engine and type in a word relevant to your company’s industry and the area you are located, is your site in one of the top three spots, or even on the first page? If not, you may want to consider asking yourself what are they doing that I am not?

More likely than not, they are better utilizing SEO. One tool that may help garner better results is by starting and maintaining a blog. Blogs are effective on two fronts, not only do they generate traffic if they are keyword rich, but they also grant your customers a glimpse into your business, personality, and ideas. 

Even though search engines ultimately determine where your site is ranked, remember that they are not the ones who support your business. Always keep in touch with customers, old and new, so that you will grow on and offline.

A great way to get in touch with Webii is through our Facebook page @ http://www.facebook.com/webiinet. ‘Like’ us today!

If you have any questions regarding SEO, we will be happy to answer them and provide a free evaluation and proposal for your website!

Looking to increase traffic to your business? Well, Summer is over and school is back in session meaning a gargantuan amount of opportunity to appeal to a massive audience for your business through social networking websites. While Twitter and Google+ present great opportunities for reaching your customers directly, Facebook is still king when it comes to social networking. Establishing and maintaining your own Facebook page will lure and inform more consumers about your business. While Facebook should not be your only outlet to customers, it is a great way to attract the interest of new clients from all walks of life. With the collegiate back in session, students are looking for your business to deviate the stress of being back in the grind of school/work.

Why market to college students through Facebook? istrategylabs.com concocted a report about the growth of users on Facebook from 2010-2011. The most significant statistic is the growth in college students (or those who network through their university’s title), an influx of about 234% (from 3.5 million to 11.7 million). If this trend continues, Facebook can become a frontier for your business. College students are the fastest growing users on social networking sites which yields a plethora of potential customers/clients for the remainder of this year and beyond.

Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ present an infinite amount of opportunity for your business to connect directly to customers old and new. These sites are constantly growing, adding hundreds to thousands of new members per day making it a prime opportunity for businesses willing to keep up appearances. Promote towards the college student by updating your status (or “tweeting”) regularly about news regarding something new at the company. This is also a prime venue for advertisement. With the “like” feature on Facebook and the “reTweet” on Twitter , customers are able to publicly show their interest in your business. Once they do this, your business can be seen by all their friends, a kind of “word-of-mouth” scenario. Since the average Facebook user has around 130 friends and most people check their profile daily, your business can expand significantly through a simple “like.” If social networking seems daunting, just think of it as an email with personality and watch your profile flourish.

For best SEO practices, build your blog content directly on your own website first.  Then use Facebook and other tools to promote the blog articles you write.  You can include a link to the unique post, with a short description and image if you like.  This drives traffic to your website with links and social marketing, while strengthening the content foundation on your actual website – where you want Google and other search engines to find you.

You can still manage other “blogs” on separate websites, which will help with your link building strategy (good organic SEO).

I think if I tried hard enough I could probably build my own house.

A house, but not a very good house.

Probably a building, maybe with 4 walls, but probably in danger of falling down and made of foil and Lincoln Logs.

Knowing the importance of good shelter for my family, I will refrain from building my house.  Instead I will trust quality construction and real estate experts. Because, that is their profession.

Web development is a profession, too.  It is a neat one, and rather trendy, which is why so many folks like to try their hands at it.  But just like building dwellings, it takes experience and on-the-job training to build a quality website.

Is it important to get your website online? Absolutely.  Do you have access to do-it-yourself tools? Probably.  But if building websites and learning “clean” coding techniques is not how you spend most of your time, your website is likely to look like a result of “spare time”.

Here are just a few reasons to hire a good professional web designer like WEBii:

• We won’t put your website project on the back-burner, behind all of your clients
• We will probably code your website using seo-friendly techniques
• Your website won’t be a replica of the 100 other websites that used “that template”
• Your website will be an efficiency tool for your business, instead of an excuse
• You won’t avoid printing your website address on your business card

If you have started your website because you know it is important to have one, kudos.  But before you get in too deep and start making excuses, consider the importance of a website that was made professionally.

In a default Magento setup with a basic theme, Magento includes an option to “Checkout with Multiple Addresses”.  This is styled as a plain-Jane blue link (no offense, Jane).  Especially if you turn off One-page checkout (and only want to use multi-checkout), this link remains bland and unnoticeable.  No more bright orange Checkout button.

Styling this link is quite easy with a little CSS.

Add the following style class to your stylesheet (in your theme):

.cart .totals .checkout-types li {/*my awesome styles go in here*/ }

In one Magento Setup, I created a graphic button background similar to that “big orange checkout button” and included it in this style class.  (Of course you would only want to do this if you are not using one-page checkout, because then you just have 2 duplicate looking buttons on top of each other.) If preferred, you can include the text label on your button graphic and disguise the default text label (which is quite long) with your CSS.

A simple dress-up without modifying any core Magento files.

Magento is one of the many feature-rich shopping cart softwares that WEBii works with to develop customized e-commerce websites for small and medium-sized businesses.  Learn more about our e-commerce services.