Online maps, we use them everyday for purposes as varied as finding out how to meet our friends at a new restaurant to sending out invitations to our child’s birthday party.

Most companies that depend on local customers are beginning to recognize that including their full physical address as well as a map on their web site is a must. But often, if a map gets included at all, it is slapped on a web page without much thought. With just a bit of effort, you can include maps that are truly useful to your site visitors and that will help draw them to your business.

Here are five simple things you can do to fully leverage the power of maps on your web site.

1.Make your map useful. Recently while planning a trip I tried to find a hotel near the city’s convention center. I went to several hotel web sites and immediately looked for a map on their site so I could see how far a walk I would have to the convention center. Only one hotel site I visited offered a map that actually gauged the distance for me. The same hotel site offered estimated walking times and distances to a variety of landmarks in the area. Excellent! The other hotels’ maps showed the location of their hotel, but the image of the map was static (non-zoomable) and showed zoomed-in view that only showed two or three streets around the hotel itself. All the hotels I researched had been equal in my mind up until that point. Providing a helpful map on their site pulled that one hotel ahead of the pack and favorably influenced my buying decision.

2. Include GPS Coordinates. As good as Google Maps and the other mapping programs are, there are errors in the databases. An address might appear on the wrong block or some other glitch may make it impossible to find the location you’re seeking.  Most smart phones now come equipped with GPS location software making it a cinch for those customers to find you with those coordinates, when other information may be incorrect.

A related idea: If you have a parent or friend who is touring the country in an RV, direct them to Google Earth. Many RVers try to avoid mountain passes with tight switchbacks because it makes driving more difficult and dangerous. Google Earth can show the traveler where twists in the roads are so they can chose a better route.

3. Provide directions from a variety of starting locations. Not everyone drives to your business from the main interstate or the airport. One bed and breakfast owner in a remote area included very detailed directions on his web site from a number of locations. The addition of photos depicting landmarks along the way helped travelers find their B&B regardless of where they were coming from. The site owner also placed his phone number on the directions page so travelers could call from the road using the printed directions if they got lost

4.Orient your location. Frequently, you’ll find that business web sites neglect to reference the landmarks they are near. If your business is in a small town which few people have heard of, mention a larger, nearby town as well. This will not only improve your chances for increased search engine traffic, but will also help customers find you in person. Searchers are more likely to use the larger town with a generic description of your services (New York dentist) than they are to use the name of a small town (Hastings dentist).

5. Include business hours and contact information on the map page. It only makes sense to have all the information a site visitor needs to contact you on one page. That includes your business hours, physical address, phone number and a variety of maps on a single page. You have to make it easy for visitors to find you if you want to ensure their business.

Remember that new customers are just that: new. They may not know your neighborhood or your city very well, if at all. Take a fresh look at your site through the eyes of someone who hasn’t been there before. See if a person who is unfamiliar with your area or your town can find you using the map and directions currently on your site. If they can’t, it’s definitely time for a change!

How To Setup Maps on Your WordPress Blog

We use a WordPress plugin called MapPress to display maps on our sites. Map Press is available free of charge at WordPress.org. Download MapPress

As always SellitAnywhere is happy to answer questions and assist you in any way we can to get your e-business up and running over the competition. Contact us at service@sellitanywhere.com.

Hackers exploit Flash's need for constant updates as an opportunity to install malware on your computer.

All Flash-No Substance

As web developers we are constantly asked by our clients for flash-based websites. They are understandably attracted to the “bling” factor of flash-based sites. Those hypnotic blurs, fades, and slides dance their pretty little images past our eyes and we think “ooh, aah, I want it now! Naturally any business owner would want potential customers to have that exact reaction when opening up their site. But the practical, nuts and bolts technical reasons not to use flash far out weigh the wow factor. Here are the top 5 reasons why a Flash-based website is a bad idea.

1. Invisible to search engines. Flash is essentially just fancy graphics, and search engines like Google do not see graphics. In order for a search engine to index your site it relies on textual information and “tags” essentially code, to tell it what elements and information your site contains. If your site is primarily graphics and flash elements, then search engines will rank it well below similar sites with more text.

Click to see some examples of major web sites using Flash and how those sites look to Google compared to Magento Commerce and WordPress.

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2. Flash does not provide reference information for site analytics. Most web developers will embed a JavaScript code in the header or footer of your site to track the sites visitors and their behavior on the site, such as which pages were viewed, for how long, and at what point did the visitor exit the site. If you own a website then you should already know that tracking page views and bounce rate data is essential to tweaking your site for maximum exposure.

3. Needs constant updating. How many times have you opened up a site only to see a message informing you that you have to update to the latest Flash version to view the site. Even if the error message is legit ( and more often than not, they are cleverly disguised Trojans waiting to attack your computer) then you have to go to the Adobe site, click to download…agree to terms…(which include agreeing to let Adobe install spyware on your computer)… wait for the software to update… restart…..

Who needs the hassle! Most users will simply back out of the site rather than go to the time and trouble. Also if you need to update information on your site, then you  better have a Flash developer handy as any changes require complex coding, and you will most likely have to pay a premium for that.

4. Does not conform to standard web practices. No cutting and pasting, no back button, no bookmarking a single page within the site, etc. Flash doesn’t work with the way we actually use the Internet. People are viewing your web site for THEIR convenience, why make it hard for them. As a customer myself,  I feel if a company’s site is difficult to navigate they must also be difficult to do business with.

5. Not viewable on iPhones, iPads, or other mobile devices. More and more people are using phones and other portable devices to access the Internet. If you are using flash you are inaccessible to a huge percentage of Internet users.

As you can see, using Flash to create your website makes that old adage hold true:  All Flash, no substance.

As always SellitAnywhere is happy to answer questions and assist you in any way we can to get your e-business up and running over the competition. Contact us at service@sellitanywhere.com.

Simple Helix Magento Hosting

I have been using Simple Helix for Magento Commerce hosting now for several months and am very happy.  The support deptartment responds in a timely fashion and has gone above and beyond in assisting with transferring development accounts to production sites. I do recommend their service. It has not been easy to find the company that meets my hosting requirements but all in all I am pleased with Simple Helix.

Standard Performance Hosting

• $20 / mo
• High Performance web hosting for up to 10 Domains
• 50 gigs of premium (intelligent routing) data bandwidth
• 5 gb of Lightning-quick SAS 15k5 Disk Space!
• For Medium Traffic sites (around 1k to 10k hits/day)
• Order Now – Standard Performance Plan

Professional Performance Hosting 

• $50 / mo
• High Performance web hosting for up to 50 Domains
• 100 gigs of premium (intelligent routing) data bandwidth
• 25 gb of Lightning-quick SAS 15k5 Disk Space!
• For High-Traffic sites (10k to 100k+ hits/day!)
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What Ad Size is Right for Me?

Ad sizes for websites have for the most part been standardized. We’ve saved you the trouble of having to peck around for the specs: Check out our comprehensive list here (in pixels):

Sizes for rectangular/pop-ads

Medium Rectangle: 300 by 250
Square Pop-Up: 250 square
Vertical Rectangle: 240 by 400
Large Rectangle: 336 by 280
Rectangle: 180 by 150

Sizes for banner/button ads

Full Banner: 468 by 60
Half Banner: 234 by 60
Micro Button: 80 by 15
Micro Bar: 88 by 31
Button 1: 120 by 90
Button 2: 120 by 60
Vertical Banner: 120 by 240
Square Button: 125 square
Leaderboard: 728 by 90

Sizes for “skyscraper” ads

Wide Skyscraper: 160 by 600
Skyscraper: 120 by 600
Half Page Ad: 300 by 600

As always SellitAnywhere is happy to answer questions and assist you in any way we can to get your e-business up and running over the competition. Contact us at service@sellitanywhere.com.

What Type Of Hosting Is Right For You?