6 Unique Valentine’s Day Gifts

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We Have Seen the Light

Sir Isaac Newton developed a theory of color based on studying how white light breaks into colors when viewed through a prism. The Ancient Egyptians used color for cures to ailments. Some of the earliest studies of light were by Aristotle who discovered that two colors, when mixed together, can form another color. Okay, so what does all of this have to do with web design? A lot.

Color and Website Design

Smart marketing takes color perceptions seriously.

White is seen as purity, the absence of color, sterile.

Black, though it can symbolize evil, also communications power and sophistication.

Blue is the favorite color for a large majority. It is also the considered the favorite of men.

Red is loud — it grabs attention, it conveys excitement, intensity, even anger, but it is also the color of love; just think of Valentine’s Day.

Pink varies — depending on the hue and shade (hot pink, pastel pink, fuchsia, etc.). Light pink is usually associated with love (hearts), innocence and sweetness (baby girls) so, depending on who you’re trying to attract to your website and services, it can be a good choice. A great example is the pink ribbon associated with fighting breast cancer. Pink can also be a very poor choice when you want to attract business clients and project an image of power and strength. Pink can look weak, childish and frilly which does the opposite of inspiring consumer confidence.

Green has a calming effect and relieves stress (nature). Of course depending on how it is used it can also convey power and money or jealousy.

Brown is another symbol of nature and tranquility (wood, soil) and can imply safety, security.

Purple may strike people as exotic, spiritual, or it can imply great wealth. I would be remiss if I didn’t caution designers that purple is a very slippery slope. It can come across as arty-fartsy and unprofessional, especially to corporate clients.

Yellow is cheery and positive like the sun but it also can be overwhelming and should only be used sparingly in web design.

Orange can work wonderfully as a highlight color. Keep in mind though that color combinations that include orange can evoke very different emotions. Orange and brown can convey sophistication, orange with red and yellow is great for websites to attract children, parents of young children and/or industries that provide services for elementary-school aged children. Orange with blue is another tricky combo. They are complementary colors and can look electric, as if they’re vibrating, which can be dizzying and make the text difficult to read. Orange and blue, if chosen correctly, can look strong and stylish.

The bottom line is this: when you choose a web designer it makes a huge difference if they have a strong background in the psychology of colors, eye tracking (see article “Eye Tracking: How the Eye Scans Your Web Pages“) and experience with search engine optimization (SEO), keywords, trending topics, and a strong understanding and success rate with social media accounts. At the very least they should understand that YouTube has become the second most popular search engine — Google, of course, is number one. For a website to look current and professional it must include icon links to, at the very least, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. Pinterest is growing at a rapid rate in popularity. Depending on the crowd you want to attract, your website designer should consider all of the additional socialmedia options too, i.e., Reddit, Stumbleupon, Google+.

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In this first graph, the circle represents where the eye first goes and then it tracks the way the eye scans the rest of the page and the arrow is where the eye ends up last on their first view.

This graph from Google shows how the eye travels. The colors are “heat spots” — i.e. the most intense and darkest color in this image is where the eye is drawn to the fastest and has the strongest pull. The lightest shade of color represents the worst “real estate” of the page.

The next graph shows the visitor’s eye beginning at the top left of the page, then scanning across the top, where the navigation links are usually placed on websites then the eyes move down. This is basically the way an eye moves as you read a book: left to right, down, left to right, down, etc. The pattern looks like an “F.”

The bottom graph is the same pattern you would use when writing the letter “Z.”

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Finishing up my August cover story for the New York Resident magazine about Oscar-nominated actress, Vera Farmiga and her directorial debut, Higher Ground.

Turn my attention to a new assignment from Petside.com (Buddy will of course make a cameo).

Write up a proposal for another star interview (I won’t say who yet… just to build suspend and to save face in case it falls thru).

Continue work on websites. One for beautiful miniature animal art by Melody Lea Lamb.

Finalize copy on my review of Magic Trip, a new movie about the famed Ken Kesey bus trip immortalized in Tom Wolfe’s Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

Continue to interview all people involved in my author profile/book review for Face to Face about a mother whose son shot off his face with a rifle in a failed suicide attempt and about the extensive expensive plastic reconstructive surgery he had to endure.

A brochure for Ann Woodfield and St. Bart’s church.

Social media for Dr. Thomas Romo.

Social media for Little Baby Face Foundation.

Feed my neighbor’s cat (she’s away).

Begin to compile all of my notes for my travel piece about Cancun, Mexico.

Make a phone call to receive instruction for my new brochure(s) project for a real estate company.

Follow up on PPGGNY (Philanthropic Planning Group of Greater New York) conference photos project (I am awaiting their captions).

Begin 2 more book reviews

Follow up on pitches to magazines, especially one on a personal essay that is probably the best thing I ever wrote (to date).

Watch Law & Order reruns while I do my 3 loads of laundry.

Count my blessings and exude gratitude that i have work.

Take a nap.

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On this new business page there are direct links to:

• Website
• Blog
• Twitter
• Personal Facebook page

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So, what to do first?

• Wrack your brain and think of every possible search term that might lead users to find you over your competitors.

• Use Google Search-based keyword tool

• Read up on SEO (search engine optimization)

• View the source code of your competitors’ pages.

• Search Google with the keyword phrases you are considering and see what comes up in the search. Decide if that search yielded similar companies with similar services that you provide. This will tell you if you’re on the right track. If you end up with off-topic sites from your keyword search then you know it’s not a good keyword phrase for you.

• Try to be as specific as you can. If a word or phrase is too general it will be very difficult to rise to the top of searches unless you’re willing to pay to appear in the top 3 on Google’s search results pages.

Google especially likes 2-3 keyword phrases that relate to your site. You must add a comma at the end of each phrase to separate it from the next phrase.

For my business, I chose phrases I felt best described our services:

Here’s what I came up with for social media consulting: social media strategy, social media consulting, social media agency, social media monitoring, social media advertising, social media network, social media training, social media services, social media solutions, social networking pr, social media company, twitter facebook and linkedin lessons.

For our web design services I arrived at: website design nyc, web design new york city, website designer nyc, web designer new york city, website maintenance nyc, website redesign nyc, web design seo, search engine optimization, keyword web content, write blog content, internet blogger nyc. A lot of my keywords are inter-related so there is a bit of overlapping.

For example I am also a freelance non-fiction writer, in addition to writing blog and website content. So here are even more keywords to consider: non-fiction writer nyc, creative nonfiction writer, journalist and reporter, nyc reporter and reviewer, NYC Resident magazine, Author profiles, book reviews, artist profiles, nyc events and movie reviews. Ok, well at least I hope you get the general idea about how you can use keywords in your website page titles, website content and keyword metatags. Was this post helpful?

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1. Number one in the area of basic design is o know what you want to say.

2. Know your target audience. What is your demographic?

3. Tailor your text to appeal to that audience.

4. Keep blurbs of text short. Web users have no attention span.

5. PROOFREAD! Nothing screams incompetent like typos and lousy grammar.

6. Put your name and contact info on every page. Don’t make potential clients hunt. You want them to find you easily.

7. Keep your design simple. If too much is going on it confuses the user. Crowded pages are dizzying and don’t lead the viewer to click on anything. When that happens, they will most likely click off your site.

8. Make sure that navigation of your site is obvious immediately. Who are you? What do you do? It’s important to think about how they might have landed on your page. What are the google search terms they used? If they arrive on your page and see something they didn’t expect to see, they’ll click off.

9. Use browser safe colors. Get familiar with Pantone web safe color suggestions.

10. Test your links to be sure they all work.

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