Featured Posts:
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3 Things Your Website Must Do
All websites are not created equal..here are 3 things to make sure yours is working Continue reading
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How to Prepare for Your Company’s New Facebook Timeline
On March 30th, all Facebook business pages will switch to the timeline Continue reading
Category Archives: Web Site
3 Reasons You Want WordPress
Posted on April 27th, 2012 by Jason Bumblis:
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If you have a website or have been thinking about a new website you have surely heard the term “WordPress”. You may or not know what it is or means, but surely you have heard of it.
WordPress has quickly become one of the most popular CMS systems on the planet and has a community of millions that actively use it and support it.
Although it has countless advantages, many of them are boring to the average consumer. We are going to list the 3 here that we think make WordPress such a great tool.
- WordPress is Scaleable – You can start your site small and easily grow it without great additional expense. This will allow your business to take advantage of low development costs initially, and not have to re-invent the wheel as your company grows. Need to add a few pages? No problem with WordPress, you can do it yourself in the back end.
- WordPress is Stable – Because WordPress is open source and supported by such a large community it is very stable and very secure. This helps small and medium sized businesses save costs and time. You don’t need to worry about hacks, and site failures. your site will work on all browsers and all operating systems.
- WordPress is SEO Friendly – Almost every website needs to score well in Google. WordPress was developed with SEO in mind. With dynamic URL’s and SEO friendly code your site will have a distinct advantage right from the start when you choose WordPress as your CMS
All in all, WordPress is a great choose for your small to medium sized business. At Pacer Design Studios we custom design WordPress sites for customers everyday and can help you decide if WordPress is right for you.
Call us today at 724.709.7261 or fill out our quick and easy information form to find out more.
3 Things Your Website Must Do
Posted on March 23rd, 2012 by Jason Bumblis:
All websites are not created equal. Somehow, in 2012, many people still do not understand the value of a website for a business. A website is the only advertising that you do that works 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for 2-3 years.
If you don’t think that your business website is accomplishing anything, then you should ask yourself these 3 questions:
- Does my site clearly and concisely describe what my business does or sells?
- Can my website be found easily in Google and other search engines?
- Does my website integrate my online marketing strategy to generate leads?
If you did not answer an emphatic “YES” to all 3 of the above questions then you are not using your website to its potential. A properly designed and optimized website should be a powerful lead generation tool for your business.
Once people visit your website you have between 5 and 8 seconds to convince them that you can help them. If your message is not clear and concise, you will lose that visitor. If you keep that visitor on your site, your lead gen strategy must go to work and capture their information.
These things are all easily remedied by professionals like us here at Pacer Design Studios. We can sit down with you and review your current site at no charge. We can then help formulate a plan that will help you get the most out of your most important marketing tool…your web presence.
How to make a link that directs outside of Facebook on your page tabs
Posted on March 14th, 2012 by Ryan Lucas:
For this tutorial, I’ll explain how to make a page tab on Facebook that redirects to an external link. You’ll need a place to store a file online (your own domain and hosting), a Facebook profile, and a familiarity with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (really just one line of JavaScript code, but this will help).
First, I’ll give a basic description of what’s going on for an individual who knows nothing about web design/development, then move into the how to section.
Recently, Facebook has made a lot of changes to their API – which means that some old functionality has changed – like using a page tab to take you out of Facebook. Of course, Facebook wants to keep you on Facebook, but sometimes, you want people to leave Facebook to view YOUR site.
With the new timeline layout, there are now 4 spots for applications and what used to be called page tabs, but you can really only highlight 3 main items (as the 4th spot is reserved for your photos). This makes whatever you choose to place in these 3 positions a bit more important (others appear but are hidden by a drop-down button). One possible choice for one of these links could be a link to your website, or a specific promotional page on your website.
As you can see, on the Pacer Facebook Page – we added our own images and custom pages to these spots.
These are also available on fan pages too. Other items that could go into these 3 spots could be apps that link users youtube, twitter, or games, or a number of different things.
So how can we trick Facebook into doing this? One very simple and overlooked solution to this problem is a redirect – but not just any redirect – a javascript iframe parent window redirect! So what does that mean?
Basically, Facebook will let you develop your own html and css pages, and slap them in an iframe within Facebook – the limitations here is that the viewing area is restricted to about 520px or 820px (820px is a new addition with the current changes to Facebook), which is a bit limiting. You need to create a facebook application to do this, and basically all the application does is tell Facebook to display your page inside of the viewing area in Facebook.
We can take this and use it to trick Facebook into directing us to our websites. Any code written within the Iframe will be executed, so with the right code, you can tell your browser to change the parent window (needed because you are in an iframe – a child window if you will).
Now for the meat of the tutorial…
Step 1: Make a page on your website that contains the redirect code.
-Make a file called something like… fbredirect.php and upload it to your server.
-Write this code inside of this page – be sure to replace YOUR_SITE with your actual website URL.
<script type=”text/javascript”>
window.top.location.href = “https://www.YOUR_SITE.com”;
</script>
<p>If you are not automatically redirected here is a link to <a target=”_blank” href=”https://www.YOUR_SITE.com”>YOUR_SITE</a>. Opens in a new tab or window.</p>
-The HTML link is there just in case someone happens to be browsing Facebook with JavaScript turned off, it’s always a good idea to have a backup plan, however, this code should almost instantly redirect someone to your website.
Step 2: Create the Facebook application for the homepage
-Go to developers.facebook.com – click the apps tab along the top. Then click create a new tab (in the upper right corner).
-You need to add 2 sections the app on facebook area, and the page tab section on the create an app page.
-Canvas URL and Secure Canvas URL – these are for your redirects, the first link below is the canvas URL, and the second is the secure URL:
http://www.YOUR_SITE.com/fbredirect.php/
https://www.YOUR_SITE.com/fbredirect.php/
-These link to the file we created in step 1!
-Page Tab Section
Page Tab Name: What you want to appear as text underneath the photo on your Facebook page.
Page Tab URL: The same URL of above with /?app_tab=true after it.
http://www.YOUR_SITE.com/fbredirect.php/?app_tab=true
Page Tab URL: Same as above with HTTPS.
https://www.YOUR_SITE.com/fbredirect.php/?app_tab=true
Step 3: Allow Your Facebook Page to use the App you just created!
NOTE: Here is a link to facebook’s tutorial on adding page tabs – this process is described in detail there.
http://developers.facebook.com/docs/appsonfacebook/pagetabs/
-Use this link below in your Address Bar, but replace YOUR_APP_ID with your application ID from the Application you just created, and YOUR_URL with http://www.YOUR_SITE.com – of course you’re replacing YOUR_SITE with your actual site URL – but sometimes it can be confusing which URL you want to use – is it the URL of the APP – no, it’s the URL of the site you want to redirect to.
http://www.facebook.com/dialog/pagetab?app_id=YOUR_APP_ID&next=YOUR_URL
-This brings up Facebook in your browser. You will need to select the pages you want the application to show up on (your personal page or any number of fan pages you have access to).
-After you select the sites, hit Allow – and you are done. If you did this correctly, your app will show up on your Facebook page. If you have a few apps already, you may have to use the arrow and switch out the position of it so it appears in one of the main 3 spots.
-Now you’ll notice that the application has no picture! This is an easy fix. Click the arrow to expand the application area. Now when you hover over an item, you’ll see that you can edit (the little pencil marker in the upper right) the item. Click edit settings, then add/change the custom image associated with the tab to a custom graphic.
Congratulations – that’s it! If you have any questions about this process, feel free to leave some questions in the comments below.
Improve Your Facebook Page
Posted on February 16th, 2012 by Ryan Lucas:
So you’re on Facebook, like everybody else. How can you make your page stand out? Well, there are a few simple ways to do this, and here at Pacer we can help you take your Facebook fan page or personal page to the next level.
Step 1:
Landing pages – a nice and easy way to make your Facebook page stand out from the rest. Facebook gives you the option to add html and css code to an iframe within your Facebook page – internet code jargon aside – the general idea here is that we can create a totally customized page for when someone comes to your Facebook page.
Even better is that we can separate it between people who like your page, and people who haven’t liked you yet. So new visitors can be directed towards a big like button, and given information relevant information and attention grabbing graphics to get them to click it. Individuals who already like your page can be directed toward contests, promotions, or just about anything else you could think of to keep them engaged and interested in YOUR page.
Step 2:
Facebook applications – get your users involved. Facebook applications can do any number of things, most notable are Facebook games. Most notable about Facebook apps is that it can give you a way to interact with Facebook News Feeds and Notifications. Integrate your blog with your Facebook page and get your name out there by showing up on the News Feeds of the people who use your app.
Step 3:
New uses for page tabs – page tabs can take you to custom pages (like the landing pages described above), and are located in the sidebar where your wall, info, links, etc. usually are. Facebook tries to keep you ON Facebook though, which gives people an incentive to go back to checking out what their friends are doing (or other infinite ways to waste time on Facebook), instead of being interested in your content. Well there are ways to direct people out of Facebook and to your site, using the page tabs.
Note:
At Pacer, we customize your experience. Other programmers may use existing apps to build custom pages for you. Their apps may be existing apps re-purposed to fit your needs. The issue here is that these pages are often riddled with branding and advertisements for sites that are not yours. The icons, logos, or links attributing to the source of the app have the potential to draw individuals away from your site. At Pacer, we brand products with YOUR brand.
Check Out Our Latest Service Offering
Posted on February 3rd, 2012 by Ryan Lucas:
At Pacer, we’re always learning new tricks. If you’re using a WordPress blog, we’ll link it directly to your Facebook so that when you post, it displays on your Facebook wall automatically, saving you time and effort.
When should I use a CMS?
Posted on January 19th, 2012 by Ryan Lucas:
Imagine a small, informational website for a company called widgets inc. The website for widgets inc. is 5 pages. A standard site like this may have a Home page, an about page, a contact page, a directions page, and a products page.
Each page follows a similar layout. There is a header area with the logo and navigation, a content area in the middle of the page, and the footer with the navigation and some other relevant links. Building the site out without a CMS, you would have to create 5 separate HTML pages. When you wanted to make a change to the navigation, you would have to edit all 5 files.
Before I get much further, if you do not know anything about building a website, but want a way to change the content on your website, you need a CMS – even for a small site like this.
Now, you can create a webpage like this using PHP as well, cutting down some of the work here. For example, you could create a navigation.php file. You would still have 5 separate files for the content of each page, but you’d include the navigation.php file in each, so if you needed to change the title of the About page to About Us, you’d only have to edit the navigation.php file once, and the changes would appear on all pages of the site. Of course, in addition to the 5 page files, you’ve just created a 6th file for the navigation. This can still be cumbersome when there’s exceptions for different pages, or pages are designed to be very different from each other.
The need for a simpler way to manage the content of your site becomes apparent. A simple site that won’t require many changes doesn’t need a CMS, but say widgets inc. wanted to add a blog page to their site. This would require an update to the navigation in the header and footer on each page, then the creation of the blog page, then any time an article was added, they’d have to go in and edit the file to enter in their blog post. Not very good from a time standpoint, and not very easy for individuals who don’t know how to edit HTML files.
So the need for a CMS arises when you need to frequently update, change, add, or remove content from your website. There are many CMS’s out there, but all of them are designed to assist you with content control of your web site. Programmers started developing their own, some became free, like WordPress and Joomla, others you have to pay for, and you can even pay to have someone develop a completely custom CMS for your business.
Once you’ve determined that you will need to manage your website content frequently, which option should you take? Buy a CMS? Pay to have someone develop one for you? Go for a free CMS? Well, if you are a do-it-yourselfer, the free route is the way to go. If you are a do-it-yourselfer with money and have the time to be on the phone with customer support, buying a CMS is the right option. If you have money and a very specific idea of how you want to interact with your content, having someone develop a CMS for you might be the right idea. Another alternative is to pay to have someone help you with a free CMS.
Now of course, some of this depends on how much experience you have with the web. All of these options come with different price tags, different time tables, and a different level of commitment on your part (YES, you have to be willing to learn how to use the CMS and to manage your content – or pay someone to do it for you) based on the individual project.
We assist clients with choosing when they should use a CMS and which CMS will meet their needs. Contact us at Pacer Design Studios and we will set up a free consultation to help you decide whether or not you need a CMS – and if so which to use. Either way, you will end up with a beautifully built custom website, and a staff on hand to offer support when you need it.
New JimKrenn.com is live!
Posted on January 17th, 2012 by Jason Bumblis:
Pittsburgh Comedian/Entertainer Jim Krenn tapped Pittsburgh web design company, Pacer Design Studios to design and launch his new www.JimKrenn.com.
Voted 14 times as the Top Entertainer in the City by Pittsburgh Magazine, Jimmy is recognized throughout Western Pennsylvania as the host of Pittsburgh’s top-rated morning show on 102.5 WDVE-FM. He also makes frequent television appearances and does several Standing Room only concert performances yearly.
Pacer Design Studios provided Jim Krenn with a custom design that incorporates a blog for Jim to connect with his thousands of fans. His throng of fans can also now leave comments on each story allowing them to speak directly to Jimmy.
Pacer coordinated a photo shoot with Jim, allowing them to get many great new shots of the local comic. The behind the scenes video of that will be coming soon.
Jim is also in the process of having Pacer create a custom facebook fan page as well. His official fan page can be viewed at http://www.facebook.com/jimkrennfanpage
Be sure to like Jim’s page, and to check back soon to see his new design.
To see more examples of web design by Pacer Design studios check out our portfolio
