We’re settling into our new office space in Worcester!

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JRA Design has finally made the move to a larger location at 51 Union Street, Suite 324 in Worcester and it’s a much needed new space! It’s taking a little getting used to, but we’re really enjoying it. We’ll be keeping the Shrewsbury office as well because I can already see the need for more space in the near future. We’ll see what happens there, but for now back to Worcester–we’re in a refurbished factory building built in the early 1900’s. The owner has kept the character intact, providing an inspirational, unique workspace. We’re in the process of creating a site for the buildings’ leasing and will keep you posted on that. If you’re in the area stop by and check us out.

Thanks – Joe Albano

JRA Website Design
508 735 3671
www.jradesign.net
51 Union Street, Suite 324
Worcester, MA 01608

21 Lakewood Drive
Shrewsbury MA 01545

JRA Website Design Receives 2011 Best of Shrewsbury Award

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JRA Design Receives 2011 Best of Shrewsbury Award

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JRA Design Receives 2011 Best of Shrewsbury Award

U.S. Commerce Association’s Award Plaque Honors the Achievement

NEW YORK, NY, December 5, 2011 – JRA Design has been selected for the 2011 Best of Shrewsbury Award in the Internet Virtual & Web Hosting Providers category by the U.S. Commerce Association (USCA).

The USCA “Best of Local Business” Award Program recognizes outstanding local businesses throughout the country. Each year, the USCA identifies companies that they believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community.

Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2011 USCA Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the USCA and data provided by third parties.

About U.S. Commerce Association (USCA)

U.S. Commerce Association (USCA) is a New York City based organization funded by local businesses operating in towns, large and small, across America. The purpose of USCA is to promote local business through public relations, marketing and advertising.

The USCA was established to recognize the best of local businesses in their community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations, chambers of commerce and other business advertising and marketing groups. Our mission is to be an advocate for small and medium size businesses and business entrepreneurs across America.

SOURCE: U.S. Commerce Association

Top 10 benefits of website redesigning

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Website redesign is as important as designing a website itself. The world is always changing and therefore with the passage of time, the concept and look of your website is bound to become obsolete when compared to other competitive websites.

Remember you have only seven seconds (as shown by various researches on web habits of visitors) to hook a visitor’s attention to your site. If your website does not appear appealing, they are going to waste no time in switching to your competitive websites. Once you lose a visitor, you are never going to get him back. And loss of visitor is directly proportional to loss of sale, right?
All these problems, however, can easily be taken care of with one important ingenious decision- hiring the service of a professional website redesign service.
Following are listed the top ten benefits of website redesign;

• Easily navigable

If navigation menus and links are not properly arranged on your existing website, it is going to irritate a visitor who will immediately move to your competitor website. Contrary to it, the ease of locating links will provide the visitor with the required information he/she seeks. Website redesign will help you arrange menu and links in a systematic order on your site and thus ensure the visitor remains glued to it.

• Making it look eye catching and aesthetic
Layout and design catch a visitor’s eyes first while visiting a site. If your site is not appealing to a user’s eye, he/she will immediately move to your competitive website. Website redesign can make your website pleasing to the eyes of visitors by using attractive and cutting edge graphics, images, fonts and colors.

• Enhanced search engine visibility
Website redesign not only adds to the aesthetic appeal of your website, it also helps in improving your site’s search engine visibility.
A professional web designer will put SEO tags in all your pages so that it can be indexed properly by search engines for keywords that potential customers use to find a business like yours (on the internet).

• Superior design + more eyes = More sales

With your website getting a killer look and increased visibility, it is bound to attract more and more visitors to your site. Website redesign will thus lead to an increase in the sale conversion and making your business a profitable venture.

• Superb compatibility with modern day browsers
Many new modern browsers have flooded the market. If you your website is not equipped with the latest technology supporting them, it is not going to be accessible to a number of online users. Having your website redesigned will ensure that your website is viewable on all major browsers and thus keeping your professional appearance up in front of everyone viewing your site.

• Highly competitive

The market is continuously changing. Your website, even if it is 1 – 2 years old, can no longer compete with technologically advanced websites in the present time.
Website redesigning will help in bringing latest technology and innovation to your site and thus ensuring that it remains competitive and in sync with the demands of the market.

• Reducing your maintenance time and cost greatly
By hiring a professional website design service, the time and cost you otherwise have to spend cleaning things up and ensuring everything is up-to-date drops considerably. This helps you to focus more on the things that matter most – traffic, sales and increased visibility.

• Equipped with state of the art technology

Technology is fast changing. Having a website which is unable to keep pace with latest technological demands is not going to serve any purpose.
Website redesigning will ensure your website is equipped with all the latest state of the art technologies.

• Creating a professional image
Out dated graphics and look of the website can turn away your visitors to your competitor’s website. Hiring a professional website redesigning service will help you give a neat and clean look to your site. The clean look of a site gives a professional image to your business which ultimately results in more leads and more sales.

• Fast uploading and conducive to all screen resolutions

Website redesigning will ensure your site can be fast loaded. This will also help in making your website accessible to all kinds of screen resolutions.

Conclusion

Website redesign is thus highly profitable if you want to enhance your chances of improved business and expectant sales. Redesigning the website helps in improving the overall aesthetic appeal of your website. Further, it also helps in increasing the search engine visibility which leads to an improved sale conversion rate.

Website Design Do’s and Dont’s

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Many sites make some huge mistakes in their website design, and most site owners never even realize it. But these types of problems can be serious impediments to your website’s success. Here are a few things to consider when building or analyzing your own website. Hint: Have someone else look at your website with these things in mind as well. You may be too close to your website to be able to analyze it’s design objectively.

1.Navigation should be clear, organized, and simple. Don’t use images for navigation. Don’t use flash or complex dropdowns. Make sure everything is organized into logical groupings from broad to specific, with top-level categories leading to subcategories, which then lead to the most specific pages.

2.Users should be able to instantly tell where they are within a website. If a visitor is confused about where he is, or how to return to where he was, he’ll probably choose to leave instead. The use of breadcrumbs at the top of the content helps orient the user. Breadcrumbs are a visual trail such as Home > Widgets > Red Widgets > Bouncy Red Widget. Each part of the trail should link back to its corresponding page.

3.Don’t subject users to auto-starting audio or video in your website design. Users want to control their audiovisual experience. They want to start and stop when they choose. Don’t make them angry by taking this choice away from them.

4.Don’t overload users with ads or too many graphic elements with your design. Have you ever seen those web sites that bombard your eyes with so many colors and flashing doodads that you just want to run screaming from the room? Don’t be the person who made that web site.

5.Make sure everything with your web site design works! Routinely check all your forms, links, and processes. Go through the web site and fill out everything a user might fill out. Ensure that you receive all messages the forms and processes are designed to send. Don’t wait for a user to inform you that something on your website is broken. For every user that informs you, another hundred probably just left your website, never to return.

6.Keep the layout and design consistent (for the most part) throughout the website. Visitors appreciate being able to find similar features in the same general area across the web site. Changing the layout or site design in different areas can confuse users. Although you can make small changes for site design creativity, don’t stray too far from the general website design elements and layout.

7.Ensure the website loads fast. Users no longer have the patience they once did when dialup was the norm. Their expectations are set very high, and if the main elements of a page don’t load within about 4 seconds, they’re gone. Bonus Tip: In that four seconds, the user wants to be able to understand what the page is actually about. Make sure that’s clear to the user at the top of the page (above the fold).

8.Don’t hide the website from searchers. Make sure search engines can easily find and understand your website. SEO is a broad subject not covered in this article, but at the very least, make sure to use the words and terminology throughout your content that your users would likely use to search for websites like yours. Use these words in your page titles, site links, and content. Don’t go overboard and riddle the site with these phrases in a nonsensical way. Just naturally use them. This will help search engines, like Google, understand what your pages are really about, which will help them rank your site better for those phrases.

9.The ultimate goal is conversion. You want your users to do something. That something may be to buy a product, or download a whitepaper, or sign up for a mailing list, etc. Don’t hide what you want them to do in some far-off dusty corner of your page or website. Help your users know what you want them to do next. Give them clear instructions. A big bold button that says Download Here works wonders. Make it easy and clear so users don’t have to think or wonder. Be their tour guide. If the process takes more than one step, number them! Buttons with numbers on them are very helpful in leading the user through the process.

10.Make the website usable rather than difficult or confusing. Usability covers a broad area, and many of the above tips are a part of user-focused website design.

by: http://www.sitefundamentals.com