What is Responsive Web Design?

Responsive website design is a rapidly growing trend in modern web development.  It’s built on the principle that your website should work on any screen size, whether your visitors using a huge desktop monitor or a tiny mobile phone.  Even if you simply resize a window, the website should immediately readjust and rearrange, seamlessly adapting to its new working space.

Responsive Website for Hand Up Australia

This effectively replaces the idea of redirecting phone-surfing visitors to a special “mobile version”.  Not only are these scaled-back versions usually very plain; they often omit important features, often including the ability to zoom, copy or paste.  Worse still, they’re often unnecessary, as most smartphones can easily view conventional websites, even if it means a lot of zooming in.

With a responsive theme, however, visitors can rest assured it’s the same website with the same information.

Responsive Website for Character Parties

Are you interested in adapting your website to suit all visitors?  Simply give us a call – we’ll be happy to help!

Client Showcase: Insect Designs

The presentation of an online shop is every bit as important as that of a bricks and mortar store.  Every pixel needs to represent the best of the brand: from the look and personality to the convenience of the shopping experience.

When creating a new ecommerce website for Insect Designs (an international insect and butterfly specimen store), the Online Visions design team took great pride in ensuring it captured the colour and natural beauty of their range.

With the background image taking on the bulk of this responsibility, the shop front remains slick, functional and professional, immediately guiding visitors into their preferred category.

As niche areas always encourage strong online communities, we ensured their social media presence was kept visible at all times, with multiple invitations to follow them on Facebook, Tumblr and Pinterest.  Furthermore, each individual product features an easily visible (but not too intrusive) opportunity to share it across four major social networks.

Give them a visit at InsectDesigns.com, or view more of our web design portfolio.

Five Reasons Your Ecommerce Website Needs a Blog

Search engines love blogs.

The most popular blogging platforms (including our favourite, WordPress) have a fundamentally search-engine-friendly website structure.

The average blog will display many updates, one after the other.  However, it’s misleading to think of it as a single, all-inclusive page.  Click on a post’s title, and you’ll find each entry is effectively a standalone page, each able to draw dedicated Google traffic with unique niche appeal.

By covering a wide variety of topics and questions, you can find traffic from searchers who would never have otherwise found you.

If your store’s products have descriptions straight from the supplier, chances are that same descriptions appears on dozens of other online shops.  As Google ignores duplicate content, you’ll need something extra to stand out from the crowd.  The variety and substance of a blog will go a long way in selling your website to search engines as current and legitimate.

The personal touch.

While the “real you” may be hidden behind a professional online shopfront – and probably benefit from it – the blog offers a refreshing change of pace.  This is your change to be a little more casual and open about your business journey.

Some business owners will bare their hearts and souls; others will simply share the occasional behind-the-scenes photo or anecdote.  Even if your material is strictly utilitarian, a playful personal tone in your writing will go a long way.

This can help build visitor trust and long-term loyalty from those who want to see you succeed.  Think of your blog posts as you would a Facebook or Twitter updates: a carefully-thought-out portion of your online marketing strategy, in the guise of a fun, casual update.

Be sure to ask plenty of questions.  Ask your readers for their stories, feedback and general comments wherever  possible!

Better customer service.

A blog comments section you regularly check and reply to can work wonders for your customer service.

Show the world you’re open, friendly and happy to take questions and requests.  Transparency goes a long way in establishing trust.  A purchase from your store will feel inherently less risky when the customer knows you can easily be approached afterwards if there are any concerns.

If you manage to build an active community in your comments section, it can also work wonders for the self-esteem.  Emails and phone calls are generally reserved for negative experiences and complaints.  In this more casual medium, you might find customers more likely to pay compliments.

A way to drum up excitement for new products.

One of our valued ecommerce clients, LanternShop.com.au, is a great case study on how to build anticipation.  Their blog and Facebook page will often tease visitors with new patterns and products, as well as photos of shipping containers on the way from overseas.

As such, they often get comments asking how far away the next major shipment is, effectively guaranteeing sales the moment is does arrive.  All from sharing an aspect of business most online shops keep completely hidden from the public!

Show off your expertise.

Blog posts don’t need to overtly sell your products (although a link here and can be very useful).  Instead, it can be a wonderful way to build trust and establish yourself as an expert with general interest articles, reviews or “how to” guides.

Don’t worry if this only brings you traffic from overseas or outside your service area.  The more useful it is, the more likely readers will want to share it (especially if you’ve taken the liberty of ending your blog posts with prominent social media sharing buttons).  Better still, other bloggers who enjoy it might even link to you in their own posts.

This, in turn, feeds back into search engine appeal, improving your rankings and ultimately making future sales that little bit more likely.

Need help setting up, updating or generally getting the most out of your business blog?  Get in touch today and we’ll be happy to help!

E-commerce website owners: have you benefited from a blog?  Got any advice to share with your fellow readers?  We’d love to hear from you!

Ecommerce Design: Tips for an Intuitive Online Shop Layout

Make a website usable on any device

“Web only” layouts are often more frustrating than convenient, limiting the user’s options.

We recently redesigned Planet Robe, an Australian store selling women’s fashion online, with a better alternative: a theme that can adapt to any window size, effortlessly rearranging itself from stylish full-screen displays to tiny mobile browser windows.

Provide an immediate call to action

Many stores will miss sales because the major product categories are too well hidden.  It’s a general rule of web design that nothing important should be more than two clicks away.  Wherever possible, we prefer to keep it at one.

Home Theatre Butler is another Brisbane based online business, selling HDMI Cables and speaker cables.  The majority of visitors will arrive knowing exactly which type of cable to look for.  As such, we ensured they’ll have an immediate path to their desired product type no matter where they look, with multiple calls to action spread across any given page.

Want to start your own ecommerce website (or get more out of an existing store)?  We’re here to help!

Launching SSL Shop Australia

An SSL Certificate is all but essential for any website requiring visitors to send sensitive or financial information.  It uses cutting-edge encryption to ensure nobody can intercept and decode that data on its way to you.

Extended Validation (EV SSL) certificates go even further, only being issued after a comprehensive company background check.  Characterised by the “green address bar”, this level of protection will reassure visitors their information is safe with you.  This is the highest, most trusted level of certification currently available, and it’s far from cheap.

At Online Visions, we believe a safe, secure internet should not have to cost a fortune.

Our new online shop aims to set this right.  We’re proud to offer Australia’s Cheapest SSL Certificates and EV SSL Certificates.  Seen another Australian website offering a better price?  We’ll gladly beat it!

SSL Shop Australia limits its stock to proven, trusted security certificate authorities, including GeoTrust, Norton, VeriSign, RapidSSL, Comodo and Thawte.

Not sure which is right for you?  Try the SSL finder to quickly pinpoint the best choice for your website!