Top 6 components of any great web design

The websites we build have a Content Management System (CMS). There is much written about content management systems on the web already, so if you are interested in delving into the topic, we recommend looking up either WordPress or Drupal. They are the most prevalent content publishing systems out there and the ones we build on top of.

• Analysis Tools (Analytics)
• Health and Performance Monitoring
• Social Media Integration
• SEM Integration (Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Facebook Ads)
• Fast Web Hosting
• Easy Content Management System (CMS)

We build each website to be the best it can be for each business. Through discussion with you, we can determine which features can make a big difference for you. We've built sites with custom dashboards that allow business owners to publish recipes, post drawings, send leads to SalesForce, and even sites that integrate with VoIP telephone systems. By default, we include the most important universally applicable applications at no additional cost.

Even websites that remain relatively static benefit from a content management system such as WordPress or Drupal. For example, managing a large amount of SEO information a site requires (such as metadata or sitemaps) can be cumbersome on static HTML pages. With a good CMS, you can quickly install an extension to automate this type of routine tasks.

Analytics provides visibility. When you see how people navigate your website, you can identify ways to improve your site's navigation and organization.

The pages people enter your website through the landing pages can indicate what's popular on your site and what pages are ranking higher in the search engines. A well-structured site will have many different pages and navigation paths that match your visitors' interests each step of the way.

When you see people leaving your site on a specific page, that page needs to be reviewed. These drop-off points can indicate technical problems with your site (i.e. mobile unfriendliness), or maybe the indication is that visitors got everything they needed. Overall, without using analytics, you are blind.

Cross-device and channel measurement: 90% of people who purchase products online use multiple devices for everyday activities. 87% of people who made an in-store purchase saw the website of the store before entering. Tens of billions of phone calls were made by people using Google search last year. All of this information shows us the importance of cross-device measurement.

Analytics management and reporting tools

Analytics provide understanding and context for smarter website decision making. Measuring traffic is a great start to any website, but using analytics can be a strong competitive advantage informing better decisions.

We strive to make websites into valuable marketing platforms. Many default measurements are included in analytics, and we create some additional measurements as well. We add goals and conversions which measure important events on your site, giving you tailored stats to monitor performance effectively.

Managing your analytics means configuring custom reports, granting access to third parties, and accessing the data. When you hire a third party to run an advertising campaign for you, you'll want them to see the analytics so they can improve their campaigns while they run. You will also want them to configure their conversion metrics and goals so that you can get a quick birds-eye-view of the campaign's effectiveness.

We always set up Google Analytics (GA) to start tracking the day your site is ready to launch so that every single click is measured. You are added as the owner and administrator to control who can access and use your analytics.

Analytics about your visitors will tell you what pages are popular, how long people spend on those pages, and who referred visitors to your site. All kinds of data are anonymously collected from your visitors. You can identify the ratio of desktop to mobile users, what geographical area your visitors are from, and you can even identify behavioural patterns like the tendency to always return to the homepage using the back-button rather than clicking the next page. Using analytics is vital to the success of a website.

Domain names, hosting, and granular control over your website

Note, if you manage your own hosting, this information does not apply. Consult your hosting company for information about your control panel.

Access your web hosting control Plesk panel at any time. From time to time, you might need access to your website's source code, your databases, or you might want to install something that you can't do from within the CMS. It's your website, so you have full access to it to do as you please. The control panel includes backup and transfer settings, as well as options to fine-tune your web server.

Create scheduled backups, send a copy of your entire website to Dropbox, or grant access to a third-party developer. Our hosting is fast and optimized for Drupal and WordPress, so developers are happy to see how fast the interface is.

One portal, all your access

We know managing passwords can be troublesome. All your accounts are tied to a single email login (single-sign-on). All your website features can be turned on and off inside your Plesk control panel.

Don't worry, were only a call away if you ever need us.

Speed and web hosting

Investing money into a website's design should be secondary to investing money into your site's speed. Visitors don't like slow sites. Site speed is measured in milliseconds, and depending on how many pages you expect a visitor to browse, every 100 ms you can shave off of load times will be valuable.

We have server locations across Canada (in Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Montreal.) We are also ready to deploy on Amazon CloudFront, which expands your content delivery network (CDN) to Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, and the United States.

There are also plug-and-play paid services we may recommend, such as Cloudflare.

Integration Tools

Choice builds websites that integrate very well with all the tools you need to conduct business online. These API integrations extend from e-commerce to social media.

Web services are available in a gazillion different varieties, and when implemented into your website, they can add value to your visitor experience improving your bottom line.

Our sites can include features such as shipping calculators, credit card processing, commenting systems, and single sign-on (SSO).

What are analytics?

Web Analytics are reports that show you how much traffic you are getting. We configure an account for you on Google Analytics that you can access at any time to check up on your site's success.

If you prefer to receive reports by email then we can do that too.

If you don't like Google Analytics we do have other options. Talk to us.

All of the improvements that need to exist on your site for SEO are there when launching it. This doesn't mean you will shoot to the top of the search results, but it does mean that nothing technical will exist preventing you from being discovered.

If you want to get to the top or rank higher than your competitors, be sure to check out our other services.