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About The Author

Derrick Johnson is a self taught web designer/web developer. He has 7+ years of
on-the-field hands-on experience, designing and building websites from scratch.
During the course of his freelance web development career he has built custom
websites, web applications, designed Logos and even HTML5 video games. Over
this time he's noticed the change of trends in web design and web development,
and has also learned to leverage multiple platforms to get the job done. He is a firm
believer in The right tool for the job, using both WordPress and Drupal for many
sites. He also has extensive experience with Joomla And the Magento e-commerce
platform.

What sets Derrick apart from many other web designers, is his ability to both
design a site from scratch as well as code that site, building in complex
functionality. During the course of his career, hes had to tackle very complex web
development projects. From custom CSV product up-loaders, dynamic web
galleries, to customizing e-commerce systems, and even building custom themes
for WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. Being comfortable in both Photoshop and a
text/code editor has given him an appreciation for both design and development.
Enjoying coding as much as pushing pixels, gives him a Hybrid approach to
tackling web projects. Though based in San Diego, California, he has worked with
multiple clients throughout the nation. Mostly smaller mom-and-pop shops as well
as medium-sized businesses that need that extra push to get their visions realized.

Besides his passion for web design and development, he also has created
custom logos for many clients to fit their branding needs. One of his largest
interests is in indie game development using HTML5 and Unity3D. Being a
freelancer he is always looking to network with new clients and open to new
opportunities. Throughout the course of this book if you find yourself stuck or in the
need of assistance, please feel free to reach out to him via email or phone and he
would be happy to assist you with your project.

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Table of Contents

1. Step #01 ------ Add Social Sharing

2. Step #02 ------ Have a Clear Message
3. Step #03 ------ Visible Contact Info
4. Step #04 ------ Fix Spelling Errors
5. Step #05 ------ Fix Broken Links
6. Step #06 ------ Expose Your Content
7. Step #07 ------ Reduce Load Times
8. Step #08 ------ Get With The Times
9. Step #09 ------ Remove Flash
10. Step #10 ------ Go Mobile!

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CHAPTER ONE
#1 - Add Social Sharing
It should be apparent to every web surfer that Social Media has taken over the
World Wide Web. Its now more important than ever, to have your website
connected to the billions of logged in users worldwide, as well as your content
easily sharable. Millions of users globally share information day-to-day, many of
whom are be looking for products, services or help from individuals like yourself.
New customers are gained everyday due to social media alerting the customer of
the opportunity.

Benefits of social sharing

1. Connect with millions/billions worldwide.
2. Drive more traffic to your site.
3. Acquire new leads.
4. Quickly bring new awareness of your website, product, service or brand.
5. Become more knowledgable of what information customers find important
on your website.
6. There is power in numbers, the more people who Like your product,
service or brand, the more likely people will buy from you or use your
service.

How to add social sharing:

1. Visit sharethis.com
2. Select the option that meets your websites criteria. Is your website built
onWordpress? Is it a Drupal-based site or a standard static HTML site? How
about Joomla? Choose the best option.
3. Follow the directions on sharethis.com to add the code to your website. If
you have a CMS based site using WordPress, Drupal or Joomla there are
plug-ins, modules and extensions that can assist with easily adding the share
code to your website.
4. Decide what type of content you would like shared and where you would
like the share code to be added(Blog Posts? News Articles? Products? Etc).

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5. If adding the share code is beyond the scope of your understanding, then
hiring a freelance web developer or web design agency or even a web savvy
friend may be your best option. Their help should easily asset you with
getting the code set up on your website, so you can start sharing your
content and increase your web traffic.

Resources:
Sharethis.com

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CHAPTER TWO
#2 - Have a Clear Message
Nothing scares away a potential user quicker than being confused about what your
site offers. How often have you visited a website only to realize that you couldnt
figure out the purpose of the site? Having a clear defined message helps sort out the
confusion right away, and increases the opportunity to quickly connect with users.
The attention span of the average user has dramatically shortened, with seemingly
infinite information and options available within a few keystrokes; most people
arent willing to wait around to Figure Out what it is you are offering.

Benefits of having a clear message

1. Eliminate the guesswork for your users, your users will know right away what
your site offers and how they can benefit.
2. Get your main message across to your customers right away.
3. With less confusion customers will find your website experience overall
better
4. The Quality of your content will increase overall, which could eventually
lead to more opportunities for your site, product, service or brand.

How to have a clear message.

1. Decide what is the most important message you would like to get across to
your potential clients or users for your website.
2. Find out the most effective way to present that content or message with easy
digestible words, leaving out fluff and filler words. This helps drive your point
across.
3. Remove content including images and text that arent relevant to the premise
or message of your website. Though it may be nice to have that robot
image, Cat or Horse image on your website, it should be removed if it
doesn't apply to your contents meaning. If it is out of context or doesn't add
to the overall message of your site, it should be removed.
4. The message of your site and premise of your site should be clear right away.
A user visiting your site shouldn't have to guess what your site is about, what

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the site offers, or how the site will benefit them. Often times website owners
forget about the user and only think about what they want on their website.
This fails because your website should be designed for your users. The more
your website keeps your users in mind, the greater chance your users will
continue to visit your website, and possibly make that purchase, email or
phone call that your business needs.
5. After you've decided on what your clear message should be and how you
like that message presented, the next step is to have the content implemented
on your site. If you are using a CMS or content management system like
WordPress, Drupal or Joomla this process should be pretty straightforward
using the content editors built in. If you have a static HTML website then
your content will have to be changed on a file-level using an editor like
TextMate or Dreamweaver or in some older cases Microsoft FrontPage (if you
still use that). The files then have to be sent to the web via an FTP (file
transfer protocol)program. If this is beyond your scope of understanding or
knowledge feel free to reach out to a freelancer, web development agency, or
web savvy friend to assist you with the necessary changes.

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CHAPTER THREE
#3 - Visible Contact Info
There are very few things that can frustrate a potential client/customer more than
having to jump through hoops to find a way to send emails or make a call for your
product or service. Typically most users will abandon a website and search of
another one with a similar offer. If the contact info of that site is easily available
then, there goes another potential customer that your lost and your competitor
gained. Having your contact info easily scannable and available makes it easier for
customers to reach out and connect with you. My suggestion is to have it (Your
contact info, phone or email, or even a link to your contact page), in both your
header and footer region, on every page. This insures that when your users want to
take action on your product or service, it is a simple process.

There are still many older sites that have the contact information buried 3-4
pages deep within the website. This of course is bad news, and a good example of
something to always avoid.

Benefits of visible contact information

1. With visible contact information your customers will have a simple, efficient
and quick way to contact you via phone or email
2. Making your contact information immediately available, eliminates the hide
and seek that many other websites have, which may drive away a potential
customer or client
3. Contacting you for your Product, Service, or Help is now only a click away,
will increase leads for your business.
4. If you prefer phone calls you can get your phone number out immediately, if
you prefer email or Skype those are options as well as Facebook or Twitter
etc

How to add visible contact info

1. A commonplace to add instant contact information is within the header or
top region of your website, as well as the footer or bottom of your website. If

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your direct contact information is currently hidden pages deep within your
site; it's a better idea to place your contact information accessible on every
page, preferably in the top header region and footer.
2. If you are using a CMS(content management system) like WordPress and
Drupal or Joomla!, then there are relatively easy ways to add contact
information to your header & footer regions. With Wordpress look for your
widget areas, in Drupal look in your block region editor. For Joomla! this
area is called your header region. Using the built-in tools of your CMS you
can add your contact information to these regions this should be relatively
straightforward especially of the theme you're using for your website
contains the necessary regions to add the changes desired.
3. Once the best technique is identified to add contact information to your
header & footer regions, proceed to make the necessary changes. For your
contact information; having your phone number, link to your email address
or even a button to your contact page is a great idea. Do whatever you feel
suits your business best.
4. If you have a standard static HTML-based site, the process is slightly
different. It requires knowledge of HTML coding and an FTP program like
FileZilla to modify your content and upload it to your hosting account. With
all accounts, if this process is beyond your spectrum of knowledge, or too
time-consuming for you; please reach out to a local freelancer or web
developer to help you get this going.

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CHAPTER FOUR
#4 - Fix Spelling Errors
Having the most professional presentation on your website helps to establish instant
credibility. Poor grammar and misspelled words often gives off the impression that a
website is being ran by a novice and not someone serious about their business.
Fixing spelling errors is a quick way to give your site a simple, but effective
upgrade. Nothing says amateur like having misspelled words, and incoherent
sentences. A good website works as a good Hype Man for your business. The
more polished the website, the bigger impact your image will have with potential
customers.

Benefits of fixing spelling errors

1. Spelling errors makes your websites content look like it was produced by
amateurs, having proper spelling and punctuation instantly adds additional
credibility to your website.
2. There are many websites across the Internet that have poor spelling and
grammar, correcting your spelling and grammar/punctuation will instantly set
you apart from your competitors and the other amateurs that seeks to
compete with you.
3. By going over the spelling of your content, you may find new and engaging
ways of rewording your sales message.

How to fix spelling errors

1. Many modern browsers like Firefox, Chrome, and Safari have built-in
spellcheck. To use the browser-based spell check features, select the text that
you wish to spell check and right-click. Choose the Check Spelling option
from the right-click menu or whatever the appropriate option for your
browser. If it's not available on your right click menu, it may be under the
Edit top drop-down menu of your browser. This is the simplest way to
check the spelling of your websites content.
2. Second and probably the most effective option is to, select all of the text that
you wish to spell check off of your website. Copy and paste the text into a

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word processing document like Microsoft Word or Apple pages or even

Open Office.org. Use the built-in spellcheck options to go through and fix
the spelling of the document. During this process read over your text and
make sure that the flow of the content works well. Remove any filler words
and unnecessary information to assist with driving your point across quicker.
The sooner your point is recognized by your client or customer the better the
response will be.
3. As discussed above; if using a content management system (or CMS for short)
like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla etc., use the built-in content editing tools
to replace the spelling errors with your newly corrected content. This should
be a pretty straightforward process. If you are not familiar with editing
content in the CMS your site is built in, there are plenty of tutorials
online(YouTube) that will guide you through it.
4. As in all cases, if editing your content and replacing it on your website is
beyond your knowledge or youre too busy; please reach out to a local
developer, or freelance web designer for assistance. Also if you require the
help of someone to spell check your document, there are plenty of
professional freelance writers and copy editors online, that would be happy
to assist with your content.

Resources:
Online Spell Checker: https://www.jspell.com/public-spell-checker.html
Online Grammer Checker: https://www.grammarly.com/
Online Spelling and Grammar Checker: http://www.reverso.net/spell-
checker/english-spelling-grammar/

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CHAPTER FIVE
#5 - Fix Broken Links
Picture this, you visit somesite .com and read all about their new-fangled offer,
get your credit card ready, click on the link to buy the New Shiny Doodad , only
to have your plan stopped dead in its tracks by another broken link! Broken links
are bad news to your site, and bring down its value to your customers. Fixing
broken links lets your users know that you site is up-to-date and functioning
correctly. Having broken links gives the impression that your website is Vacant or
abandoned, or at the very worst not credible. There are way too many scam sites on
the internet, why allow your website to be associated with any of them? After all
you actually have a valid offer!

Benefits of Fixing Broken Links

1. Reduce Bounce Rates of visitors to your website, who may think your
website is old or abandoned.
2. Increase confidence that users of your site can find the content you have
provided for them.
3. During the process of fixing broken links, you get to have a User
Experience. This may provide the opportunity for you to see how your
content can be better structured to suite your users. You may also find many
hidden opportunities to add links and additional content that was previously
missed!
4. Improve Search Rankings (GO BACK)

How to fix broken links

1. The easiest way to fix broken links is the first identify which links are broken.
A simple way to do this is to, check your primary navigation links. Whether
it's your top navigation bar, or whether you have navigation links in your
sidebar. Go to each page to see whether not they are connected to where
they are supposed to link. The second step would be, to go through each
linked page and check to see if the links within the content/body of your
website are working. Make sure those links are working and not giving error

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pages.
2. A more advanced method of checking your links is using an online link-
checking service. The online link checking website will navigate through
your website instantly for you, checking to see which links are broken and
which ones are okay. If the online link checker returns no errors, good news
that means your websites links are error-free. If it returns errors then you
know which pages will require the links to be fixed.
3. Once your broken links are identified, it's simply the process of going
through and fixing each broken link. If you know standard HTML and how to
replace links using HTML code; use your editor on your CMS to fix the
broken links. if you're using an HTML editor on your desktop computer to
change the code of your links use the editor to insure that your links are
working. If this is beyond your understanding there are tutorials online, that
can show you the basics of understanding how to create a link on your page.
If you are using a CMS like WordPress, Drupal or Joomla each one of these
systems have what's known as a WYSIWYG editor built in. A WYSIWYG
editor allows you to select text and even links fix them. Use the built-in tools
to fix the links on your site to ensure that each one of your links are good
and working.
4. As in all the above cases, if editing the HTML yourself this beyond your
knowledge or the thought scares you, please reach out to a local web
development company or local freelancer to assist with fixing the links on
your site.

Resources:
Online Link Checker: http://validator.w3.org/checklink
Wordpress Broken Checker: https://wordpress.org/plugins/broken-link-
checker/
Dead Link Checker: http://www.deadlinkchecker.com/
W3 Schools Anchor-Tag/Link Html Reference: http://www.w3schools.com/
tags/tag_a.asp

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CHAPTER SIX
#6 - Expose Your Content
Just like your Contact info, having easy access to your content gives a better
experience to your users. Having the most important information front and center
on your homepage will provide your users with a nice overview of what to expect
from your site. Exposing your content isnt just about dumping everything on your
homepage, but more about providing content teasers and links or buttons to
quickly access those areas. Once your content is exposed on your site, youll find
that many users will actually explore more of your website. This naturally is a great
thing, and will help users get more familiar with what your site is all about, and
what you offer.

Dont assume that your navigation links will be reliable enough to guide users to
others sections of your site. There are many reasons why a user many not use your
main navigation, or even be too busy to use your drop down menu. Avoid these
pitfalls buy providing alternate methods for users to get to your content.

Benefits of exposing your content

1. Many websites have content hidden deep within the structure of the site, by
exposing your content especially on your homepage you open the door to
potential clients/customers find more information on your website and
possibly staying longer.
2. With your content immediately available on your homepage, you can
instantly notify your users of the many sections of your site and the content
they offer . This can include information like products, testimonials, reviews,
or even blog posts.
3. With your content exposed on your homepage this opens up the opportunity
to redesign your content in a way that is engaging to your potential
customers/clients. Many of the better sites that convert well, have designs
that are centered around the content of the site.

How to expose your content

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1. Make an inventory of the content on your website make a list and prioritize
the most important content on your website. if you have products or more
specifically featured products, highlight those products on your list. If you
have blog posts that are important or news articles, highlight those posts or
news articles on your list. If there are important pages like services or contact
information, list them that and prioritize them. Put yourself in your user
shoes: youre are a user visiting your website for the first time, what would
be helpful to you to get understanding of what your website offers? More
importantly what would be helpful to help guide you to make that purchase,
email or phone call?
2. Once you have identified your most important content, figure out what
content you would like listed on the home page of your website.
3. Use the best method to list your content on your homepage. If you have a
CMS use the built in editor, if you have a static site use your editor of choice.

Resources:
Freemind (MindMapping) http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/
Main_Page

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CHAPTER SEVEN
#7 - Reduce Load Times
Reducing loading times for your site, will increase the speed that users are able to
access your content. A user will more than likely leave a slow website to find a
faster site. They will look for a more Responsive website with similar content or
offer. The faster site may not even have better content, or a better offer, just being
faster may give them an advantage. If your website is Too Slow To Use, a user
may not bother with what it is you offer.

Speeding up your website is one of the best upgrades you can add to your
website. With the short attention span of the average user, anything to help keep
them engaged with ultimately work in your favor.

Benefits of Reducing Load Times

1. With a slow loading website the experience of the site is greatly reduced to
your users, this means that they will more than likely leave your website and
go to a similar website that loads faster. You then lose a potential customer or
user for your site. A Faster site will help keep the user on website.
2. Reducing loading times also reduces bandwidth this comes in handy
especially of your web hosting company has bandwidth restrictions. In some
cases this may decrease the cost of your websites monthly fee.
3. A fast loading website will increase the potential for users to remain on your
website, this is really beneficial especially if you have an e-commerce
website when you're selling products. A few second may make the difference
between a sale or no sale.
4. Many search engines measure the quality of a site's content based upon the
loading speed. If the search engine notices that most of the users leave the
site quickly they assume the content is not of good quality thus reducing
your potential search results. A Faster site with good content greatly increases
your potential search results and increases the value of your website.

How to reduce loading times

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1. Remove unnecessary video, audio files, and large images

2. Optimize your images, converting PNG images to JPEG images or GIF
images were possible.
3. Compress your JavaScript and CSS files, and possibly consolidate JavaScript
and CSS files into combined files.
4. The less resources necessary to download at one time the faster your site will
be. By compiling your JavaScript files and CSS files into combined master
files you eliminates additional server requests, which will speed up your site.
5. Convert reusable image elements into CSS sprites. CSS sprites are a
technique that allows the use of one image file to be used for multiple
elements on your website. This means instead of five or six different images
for buttons or navigation elements or social media icons, you will now
require only one file for your UI elements.
6. Enable Caching to your site, caching can significantly increase your sites
speed, especially on database driven websites (Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla
etc..)
7. As in all the above cases, if adjusting the CSS or images is beyond the
spectrum of your knowledge, please seek out professional help via a
freelance web designer or web development agency.

Resources:
Learn more about Css Sprites: http://www.w3schools.com/css/
css_image_sprites.asp
Compress Javascript: (Combine Multiple JS Files) http://jscompress.com/
CSS Compresser http://csscompressor.com/
Wordpress WP Super Cache: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-super-cache/

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CHAPTER EIGHT
#8 - Get With The Times
Spruce up your design to insure it doesnt look dated. The general aesthetic on the
web changes based upon the current technical and social trends. Due to this fact
there are many websites that were designed when a certain trend was Hot, now
that those trends are no longer Trendy these sites now look dated. Also over the
years the web has matured and now there are certain design factors that should be
considered.

Many well designed websites stick to design guidelines that adhere to the brand
of the product, service, or entity. In many older designs people often added
anything they thought was Cool to their website, regardless if it made the site
better or not. This included blinking and scrolling marquees, animated gifs for
backgrounds, bad midi music, Website Splash Screens etc These are all
considered retro/dated design aesthetics and should be avoiding if a modern site is
what you are after.

Benefits of Getting With The Times

1. A new fresher web design has the benefit of appealing to a wider potential
audience, as website trends and technology changes so does the opinion of a
well-designed website.
2. A website with an older design often leaves the impression that the website
was designed a long time ago or maybe even worse abandoned and not up-
to-date with content. A user visiting a site that looks like it was designed 5 to
10 years ago probably will leave that website never to visit it again.
Refreshing your websites design will help combat these issues.
3. With a refreshed design you have the ability to put your client's needs first,
having a client-centered website will increase the value of your website to
your potential users. This will increase the potential for you to get new sales
leads or even new clients.
4. A fresher design will put you back in the game with your competitors. Face
it, many of your competitors may have sleeker designs that may appeal to a

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modern audience. The website that looks dated instantly removes you out of
the race to gain potential clients.

How to get with the times

1. Applying a brand-new design to your website can be relatively easy if you
are using a CMS like WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla`. The benefit of using a
CMS is the ability to change the website theme when required. There are
many free and paid themes available that may fit your website. Using the
administration area of your website, you can change the theme that is
applied.
2. If using an off-the-shelf theme doesn't suit your needs, and you require
something more customized, you can always hire a freelance designer or
web development agency to create a custom theme for your website.
3. In the case that you are savvy enough yourself, you can upgrade your design
using HTML and CSS with Dreamweaver, FrontPage(if you still use this) or a
standard text editor like TextMate and Notepad++. Once done FTP over the
changes and your done.
4. In certain cases a brand-new design is a necessity, there are many cases
where your base design is still pretty good. In these cases having someone
make adjustments to your base CSS file may do the trick.

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CHAPTER NINE
#9 - Remove Flash
Once upon a time every website that was considered Cool and Hip had Adobe
Flash animations embedded in them. There were even websites that were built
entirely in Flash. Flash from Adobe is a web animation/application platform that
enables richer web experiences. The downside of this technology is that to use it,
the user must have a browser plugin installed to view the content. This wasnt much
of a deal-breaker in times of old web, because many web browsers shipped with a
version of flash installed automatically. This meant that more people had access to
a richer web experience, with less hassle.

Then came along HTML5 and the newer technologies that promised to do
everything Flash could, plus potentially more. But without the disadvantage of
requiring any additional software to be installed(browser plugin: Flash Player). This
was good news to developers, because they could now use there existing skill-sets
and provided richer web experiences, with little to no learning curve. Lastly Apple
made a very strong decision to not support the flash platform on their mobile
devices/IOS platform. The settled in favor of HTML5 support. This was the final
Nail in the Coffin for Adobes Flash platform. With the Mobile web takeover, and
IOS/iPhones & iPads not supporting Flash. Removing Flash means your content will
be available to a wider audience.

Benefits of removing flash

1. Adobe's flash product is now considered a technology of yesteryear. With the
rise of mobile devices and specifically the iPad and iPhone devices, the
necessity for flash has been significantly reduced. Flash as a product no
longer works in the mobile arena. Apple made the decision to support HTML
5 and abandon flash due to performance issues. Having a flash-based site or
flash elements on your website eliminates the potential for that content to be
viewed on mobile devices.
2. Replacing flash with HTML 5 will increase the shelf life of your existing
website and also ensure your websites content will be viewable on the

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plethora of mobile devices worldwide. The majority of today's web browsing

actually happens on smartphones including iPhones and android devices, as
well as tablets. If a user visits a website that still has flash enabled, via their
mobile device; the content or website will show an error or blank space. This
makes it look like your website or content is broken which gives off a less
than professional image which may lose you a customer/client.
3. HTML 5 also performs better in many cases thus increasing the battery life of
your mobile device so it is preferable method for today's modern web.
4. Due to the reduction of Adobes Flash platform on the mobile web, there are
now fewer flash designers/developers. With HTML being the standard for all
web sites there are drastically more designers and developers that can help
with your website. This means if you need help with your website it is easier
to find someone who knows how to assist you to get your problem fixed
sooner at lower cost. This also means that if you have to switch designers and
developers in the future, it would be relatively easy for someone else to pick
up the pieces.

How to remove flash

1. To remove flash the first step is to identify which parts on your website are
Flash. Find out whether your website is built entirely in Flash, or only certain
elements of your site are built in Flash. Are these elements simply animations
or are they more complicated applications that serve specific purposes?
2. Once the nature of the Flash implemented on your site is identified, make an
inventory of what needs to be replaced. If certain user interface elements are
built using Flash, these elements can easily be replaced by standard HTML5.
If the entire website is built in Flash then there will be a need to replace the
entire site.
3. In the case that you are using a CMS like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla!, the
process to remove flash is to relatively simple change to a theme that
doesn't include flash. Or in the case that flash is coming from a specific
plug-in or module, disable that plug-in or module and install an alternative
built with HTML 5.
4. If these techniques are beyond your understanding or simply don't have time
to implement them, reaching out to freelance designer or web agency would
be a good idea.

Resources:
Why IOS doesnt support Flash: http://apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/
Html5 & Flash Comparison: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Comparison_of_HTML5_and_Flash

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CHAPTER TEN
#10 - Go Mobile!
The Majority of web traffic is now done on mobile devices. Many websites are
formatted for a better viewing experience on Smart Phones and tablets. This
technique is called Responsive Web Design, meaning that the website will
respond differently based upon the device it is viewed on. Having the same
website change to fit a users phone, eliminates the need to scroll around the
phones viewport. This provides a native experience for the user that they are
accustomed to. Not having a mobile ready design means that you may lose
potential customers/users, as many website owners have already gotten hip to the
need for a mobile version of there website and are providing alternatives for your
potential customer.

Benefits of going mobile

1. Currently the majority of all worldwide web traffic is done via mobile
devices. This includes iPhone, iPads, Android phones and Tablets. Having a
website that targets these devices greatly increases the chance that your
message will be seen.
2. Because most web browsing is done via mobile devices, when a customer/
client visits a website that's not designed to fit within their mobile experience
the potential for them to leave the website and not return increases. Having
your website designed for a mobile experience greatly increases the potential
that the user will stay on your website, possibly buying your product, or
giving you a call or email.
3. With a mobile specific design, there is the potential to add new elements and
technology to enable your customers to contact you easier. Many mobile
specific websites include call-buttons that allow the user to easily call
directly from their phone. The likelihood that someone will call you when
the process is simplified greatly increases.
4. A mobile specific design also brings the potential for mobile specific content.
Mobile specific content can be catered towards users on a mobile device.
Since the screen of a mobile device is smaller than a desktop browser, the

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necessity to decrease wordy content and rewrite it to be easily digested may

open up the doors for better constructed content. More concise content may
deliver your message more efficiently.
5. All of your competitors more than likely have a mobile designed website, or
they may be in the process of getting one. Since the majority of web traffic
takes place on mobile devices, most users of the web expect a mobile first
experience. Not providing this experience for your users possibly creates a
situation where the user may not return to your website or miss your message
all together.

How to go mobile
1. If using one of the above-mentioned CMS systems like WordPress, Drupal, or
Joomla!, going mobile is relatively simple. It really is a matter of finding a
theme that is mobile ready. The keywords to look for is that the theme lists
as features. If one of the features listed is Responsive Design? Then the
themes should be good to go! Responsive design means a websites design
will adjust its self according to the screen size it is viewed on.
2. If going the CMS and theme route, simply select a theme that is mobile
compatible to replace your current theme. This will instantly make your
website mobile compatible. There may be a need to adjust the themes
branding I.E. colors fonts and images to reflect the brand you have in mind.
3. In the case that you still have a static HTML website and you wish to keep
the existing design, the HTML and CSS will need to be adjusted with
responsive CSS properties and HTML5 elements. There are also mobile ready
HTML5 based static themes that you can use to replace your existing design.
This may or may not work out depending upon the current customization of
your website. Is your current site heavily branded with your colors and brand
themes? Is there a specific layout that currently serves a specific purpose? If
so and you are knowledgeable enough, within a few days work you should
be able convert your current site to work with the mobile web.
4. As in all cases; if the whole idea of adjusting your own code or selecting &
changing your own theme to one that is mobile ready is beyond your grasp.
Please feel free to reach out to a freelance web designer, a web development
agency, or even a very savvy friend to assist you.

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