The internet is going to get ridiculously fast soon, ‘Broadband’ will be a thing of the past and be replaced by ‘Next Gen’. Next Gen will be capable of 20-40mb data transfer per second!

Increasing internet speeds will mean the world’s attention span gets shorter, as a result people will expect information quicker. So, it’s vital that your website is read and understood both quickly and effectively.

Does your website tell people what you do in an instant? If not, it might be time to take a step back, look at your website and de-clutter. This doesn’t mean taking a way all design elements, it might just mean reducing the amount of copy on your home page or actions visitors have to take – for example, is there too many buttons/link to click?

To begin a de-cluttering mission, figure out what visitors are currently doing on your website. This might sound like a tricky and expensive task but as usual, Google has a FREE tool to help – Google Analytics.
Most people in the world who have a website are familiar with Google Analytics, but are not so familiar with the wealth of tools and features available. Two tools/features in particular – ‘Site Overlay’ and ‘Bounce Rate’ will help you find out what current visitor behavior is:

Google Analytics – Site Overlay:

Site Overlay – This tool places an overlay on top of your site, so you can view what people do when they visit your site. i.e. which parts of the navigation do they click the most.

Google Analytics – Bounce Rate:

In simple terms Bounce Rate will show you how many visitors come to your site and leave within 5 seconds or less. Having a high bounce rate 60-100% tells you that visitors are put off by your site, maybe there’s too much content or they’re not sure what you do. A bounce rate of 50-30% seems pretty standard but ideally you want to get your bounce rate as low as possible.

What to do when you’ve discovered what current visitor behaviors occur
on your website?

Once you’ve been through Google Analytics it’s time to decide what to remove and/or edit on your website, this is where we come in! A good digital design agency i.e. Jealous Design (free shameless plug), can help your get your site ready in time for ‘the new era of shorter attention spans!’

p.s. Maybe the title for this post should be “A nu era of shrtr attentn spns”…

If you haven’t noticed, there’s a new Social networking sensation called Foursquare!

So what is Foursquare?

Basically, Foursquare is about finding places you love in your town/city and telling people about those places.

Plus, you earn points for discovering new places and doing new things. These points all add up and could make you the Foursquare mayor of a certain town or city.

But I’m spending so much time on Twitter and Facebook already, how can I fit Foursquare in?

Don’t worry, the trick is to use Foursquare in conjunction with Twitter and Facebook. For example, found a shop, cafe or restaurant you really love? Flag it up on Foursquare, grab the link, then publish it on Twitter and Facebook to notify people about the place. Think of Foursquare like a glorified version of Google maps!

Foursquare is going to be a great marketing tool for shops, restaurants, cafes, etc. Some companies are already giving customers discount to say thanks for flagging them up on Foursquare!

We’ve only just started using it, have only found 4 places so far, but can see it’s going to be a very useful social media tool.

Visit Foursquare and view our profile »

Using Twitter and want to display tweets on your website?

Here’s a handy guide to how we integrated it on the Jealous Design site.

The method we use on the Jealous site involves adding a bit of code to your web pages, so before we begin, you might need a web designer to assist you with this guide (unless you are a web designer ofcourse).

1. Firstly, you need to grab some Javascript (available from Twitter), and place it before your final body tag – . The code from the Jealous site looks like this – ‘‘

The bits you can modify are highlighted above, basically you need to add your username and how many tweets you would like displayed.

Design tip: We like to add 1 tip, otherwise your website could start to look cluttered with loads of text, and we like to keep things clean.

2. Once you’ve added the line of Javascript, you need to add a placeholder (using the code below) for your Twitter feeds and pretty it up with a bit of CSS.

Here’s an example of the code we use:

<div id=”tweet”>

<div id=”twitter_update_list”></div>

<br/>

<table width=”100%” border=”0″ cellspacing=”0″ cellpadding=”0″>

<tr>

<td width=”9%”><p><a href=”http://twitter.com/jealousdesign”><img src=”images/twitter.png” alt=”Twitter” /></a></p></td>

<td width=”91%”><p><a href=”http://twitter.com/jealousdesign”>follow us on Twitter</a></p></td>

</tr>

</table>

</div>

Here’s the CSS:

#tweet {

margin: 0 0 10px 645px;

padding: 10px;

color: #FFF;

min-height: 200px;

list-style-type: none;

}

#tweet ul {

margin: 0px;

padding: 0px;

list-style-type: none;

}

#tweet li {

font-size:12px;

line-height:15px;

}

#twitter_update_list {}

#tweet a {

color: #F04E23;

text-decoration: none;

}

Here’s an image of our completed Twitter feed (see below):

Take a look at the real thing by visiting the Jealous website – www.jealousdesign.co.uk

That’s it!

If you would like help with your website please let us know, we’d be more than happy to add a Twitter feed or anything else you might need?

Get in touch email us: hello@jealousdesign.co.uk

Or, leave a comment below.