Well, it was a very, very, very long time coming but the new SwingColumbus.com is up and viewable to every corner of the interweb. There had been talk about updating the website since before I even started dancing in Columbus, but it’s finally here. During the process of designing and building the site we learned quite a lot about proper site design and marketing. My hope for this series of posts is that it can be a handy guide for the novice designers that might need help avoiding some of the mistakes we made along the way.
Through the series we will be exploring the following:
- Site Design and Layout: Guiding your visitors through a site rather than letting them stumble through it.
- CMS vs. Hand Coding: The advantages and pitfalls of Content Management Systems.
- Search Engine Optimization: Without it you’ll find yourself on page 2.
- Anal-what?: Analytics and why you shouldn’t advertise anything without it.
- Web 2.0: What is it, how do you take advantage of it and why should you care.
Keep your eye on the site for Part 1. It should be hitting the presses very soon.
Additional Resources:
- W3Schools – This is great reference site for anyone that deals with hand coding a site. They reference all the major code languages, including HTML, PHP & JavaScript.
- Smashing Magazine – This is probably one of the greatest resources for any website designer. You will find advice and inspiration for anything and everything you would every want to know about website design and programing.
- Google Analytics – Get to know this site. Without some sort of analytics incorporated into you site you’re marketing blind. Google’s program is, as always, free to anyone and unbelievable powerful.