Tag Archives: Web design

About Website Content Management Systems

January 19, 2012 Web Design, Web Development

A CMS is the Easy Button for Website Updates

Website content management systems make it easy to update your website.

Most people understand the difference between creating a website from scratch and utilizing a content management system (CMS) but we still get questions asking us what a CMS is. Here’s a quick primer.

Not Familiar with HTML?

CMSs allows the non-technical and savvy HTML users the ability to easily make changes to the website anywhere and anytime. Simply log-in, post your update using a rich text editor, and save your changes. Some content management systems even allow you to create new posts via email. Read More

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The Outdated “Home” Button

October 27, 2011 Design, Internet Marketing, Web Design

Time to abandon the idea of making "Home" primary in your navigation.

When we develop a new website, one of the first steps our account managers take is to develop the site map. The purpose of the site map is to outline the hierarchy of the website pages and how they will relate to each other. Invariably, we have clients who want to put the ‘Home’ button as the first item in their main navigation. Read More

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Making the Complex Simple

October 13, 2011 Internet Marketing, Marketing

There were MP3 players before the iPod but Apple made listening to music simple.

Last week, when Steve Jobs passed away, many of us weighed in on his accomplishments. As a lifetime Mac user (I started with a Mac Classic in 1990), the one characteristic that stood out to me was his innate ability to make complex processes simple. Yes, you pay a premium for Apple products but you know they will work right out of the box with an easy learning curve. Read More

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Web Designer vs. Developer: What’s The Difference?

June 30, 2011 Internet Marketing, Web Design, Web Development

So you are a looking for a Charlotte web design agency to create your company’s website. You go to google and start to search. You type in “Charlotte web de” and before you finish typing “design”, Google auto-suggests “Charlotte web design” and “Charlotte web development”. Which one do you need?

What’s the difference between a web designer and a web developer? People often use these terms interchangeably to mean “people who works on websites”. In reality, while both center around creating websites, the two jobs aren’t the same. Read More

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Answer This Before You Design a Website

May 3, 2011 Design, Internet Marketing, Web Design

There are a lot of questions new web design clients usually have when we begin working together, and a lot of them focus on the time and investment needed, or what sort of online marketing tools we can bring to the table. Those are all crucial issues, of course, but none of them should even factor into your thinking until you’ve answered another, more important question:

Who will be visiting your website, and what do you really want them to do while they’re there?

This might sound basic, and it probably is. And yet, you’d be surprised at how many organizations – both big and small – either haven’t contemplated this question, or can’t answer it in the kind of depth that they should be able to. Read More

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Website Design Templates Make a Terrible Choice

April 21, 2011 Design, Web Design

Template websites don't get noticed

Starting or running a small business and need an online presence, but don’t want to pay for a custom website design? Then your best choice should be a template that you can fill in and have online in just a few hours – saving you huge amounts of time and money, right?!?

It’s easy to understand why so many small business owners feel this way. The list of things they want for the new company far outweighs their budget, and there are hundreds of small business web templates online, including many that are built specifically for a certain industry. In other words, they are ready made websites that are supposed to blend the best in design and e-commerce features with value and convenience.

Our advice: stay away from them if you can. Read More

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Choosing the Right Agency

January 3, 2011 Branding, Design, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Web Development

At Alter Imaging, we think that the best type of customer is one that is well-informed. There are literally hundreds of web design and marketing companies in Charlotte and, to a novice eye, we all pretty much look the same on the surface. For starters: it is hard to tell the difference from a web design that was built from scratch versus one that was based on a template. With millions of business sites on the web, it is important to stand out by using unique, original content, images, and graphics.

With that in mind, here is a handy guide to help you vet potential web design agencies and avoid some of the common pitfalls.
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R.I.P. Flash

October 18, 2010 Design, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Web Development

When considering a new website or a website redesign, it is easy to get lured by the glitzy showiness that a Flash-only site can provide. Before you go that route, stop and read why we at Alter Imaging think a Flash-only site is a bad idea.

A Little Background on Flash

Adobe’s Flash is a multimedia platform that allows designers to create interactive and animated web graphics (or even entire pages) for a wide variety of devices and browsers. Many web designers use Flash because of its “design once, run anywhere” functionality and for the past 15 years (Flash debuted in 1996), this had been true.

Welcome to the new landscape….where Wired Magazine [October 2010] boldly proclaims “the Web is dead.” While their headlines was clearly hyperbolic and intended to sell issues, it does illustrate an important change in internet use:

More and more people are accessing internet content outside of the traditional desktop/laptop browser. Hand-held (iPhone, iPad, iPod) and set-top devices (iTV) are the new way we access content.
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Five Reasons to Hire a Boutique Web Design Firm

September 14, 2010 Branding, Design, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization

We're the one on the left...

At Alter Imaging, we like to consider ourselves a “boutique agency” which is a clever way of saying we aren’t very large. It is true. Despite being named as a top 25 web design company by the Charlotte Business Journal for the last 6 years, Alter Imaging has under 15 full-time employees.

Most of the time, our design portfolio speaks for itself but occasionally, a potential client wants to know more about our size and capabilities. Initially, they see our small size as a liability and part of the sales process is countering the mantra “bigger is better”.

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