PSPINC Official Company Blog

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 94 "Satisfaction with your website"

Dec

16

Does your company have a website? Is it easy to understand what your company does by looking at your homepage? Do you receive inquiries from visitors to your website? On a scale of 1 to 100, how would you rate your website? I'm sure many of you are wondering if there is something more you can do.

I think the best way to evaluate the usefulness of a website is to see if it is generating new business for the company. How many people are visiting your website? How long do they stay? Where did the visitors come from? Did they come from search engines, social networking sites, or by typing your web address into their browser directly?

What are you doing to attract people to your website? Do you use blogs, social networking sites, or post on YouTube? A website is not an advertising medium, so it is not enough to create a website to attract people. The website needs to be advertised to a large number of people in various ways.

The setup of a website also needs to be designed in such a way that it can easily attract people. A completed website is not the end of the story. The content of the website needs to be updated to attract repeat visitors. Only through these actions will people start to come to your website.

If you have any concerns about your website, please contact us at Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. We offer a full range of services from web design, production, hosting, management, updating, and marketing. If the performance of your current website is not receiving an ”A” grade in your mind, please give us a call.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.
info@pspinc.com
https://pspinc.com
1404 140th Place NE, Bellevue, WA 98007 USA
800-232-3989
425-957-0808

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#SEO #SearchEngineOptimization #WebDesign #WebDevelopment #Website

Useful Google Chrome extensions for building a website

Nov

30

Every day we surf the Internet we rely on web browsers to serve us content both reliably and quickly. Like all things involving technology, they are constantly evolving and improving. The question is, are you getting the most out of your web browser? If you are not using browser extensions (sometimes referred to as add-ons) you may not be.

What are browser extensions?

A browser extension is a software module that runs within the web browser that customizes that instance of the web browser specifically for you.

Useful extensions for building a website

Today we are going to talk about extensions for Google Chrome, as it is “king of the mountain” when it comes to global market share. However, all major web browsers offer extensions to make your browsing experience easier, more efficient and customized to your needs.

Below is a list of just a few of the useful browser extensions that will help you as you look to build your website. These are helpful not only to Web Development professionals but to savvy business owners that want to go the DIY route (we have a tool for that).

GoFullPage - Full Page Screen Capture
When it comes to building your website, sometimes you may want to capture screenshots of your progress to send to other internal stakeholders. This plugin adds a simple camera icon to your browser. Click the icon once and it will capture the entire page (what you see and what you can’t). From there you can download it in .png, .jpg, or .pdf formats.

Grammarly for Chrome
When it comes to preparing content for your website, it is important you provide professional and well-written content. The Grammarly plugin will look at the text you have written within the browser and point out misspellings and offer grammar suggestions.

Fun fact: We use Grammarly every week when it comes to proofing and editing this blog.

Resolution Test
When it comes to testing your website it’s important you consider your users. People will view your website on all types of devices with different screen resolutions. With this add-on, you can click a button and choose various screen resolutions. It will open a unique browser window for each resolution, allowing you to see how your site looks to those users.

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These are just a few browser extensions available through Chrome. There are thousands of extensions for all purposes available in the Chrome Web Store. When it comes to choosing between similar extensions we recommend looking at their rating and how frequently they update to ensure you are using the best of the best.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#BrowserExtensions #Chrome #Google #GoogleChrome #WebBrowser #WebDevelopment #Website

3 tips for a better mobile website

Nov

23

We often spout the virtues of mobile web design. With approximately half of all web traffic being viewed on mobile devices, we cannot afford to ignore the mobile experience of our customers and website visitors.

Below are 3 tips for providing a better mobile web experience for people who are on your website.

#1 Have a well organized mobile navigation

There is nothing worse than being on a mobile device and having to pinch and zoom to click on a link to a pay you wish to visit.

A fairly traditional approach is to include what is affectionately referred to as a “hamburger menu” in the top corner. Clicking this will then expand out the full navigation with large, clear click areas.

#2 Make sure your site loads fast

Mobile devices are often using cellular data service rather than a super fast wifi signal. The slower your site loads, the more likely they are to click that back button and select a different link.

Make sure you are using images scaled and optimized for the web and try to avoid too many external resource-heavy effects.

#3 Create a clean, single-column layout

If you attempt to have multiple column, complex layout on a smartphone - you are not thinking about your mobile users. Anything extending outside of the view space of a mobile device will be cut off and hidden. This forces the user to not only scroll up and down to view your content, but left and right as well.

This is not only unintuitive but it is hugely inconvenient. Ultimately, it is encouraging your users to abandon your site and seek information elsewhere.

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When it comes time to refresh or update your website, please consider the mobile web experience. If you have any questions or want us to audit your existing site - please let us know. We have Designers and Developers on staff to help make your mobile experience the best it can be.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#MobileWeb #MobileWebsite #Smartphone #WebDesign #Website

3 reasons your website needs to be mobile-friendly

Nov

9

For years we have been advocating for the importance of mobile-friendly, responsive websites. Today we are discussing 3 reasons this is a MUST.

Mobile browsing accounts for about half of worldwide web traffic

Yes, you read that correctly. Approximately 50% of the websites viewed from around the world are being viewed on mobile devices. A large number of your customers are viewing your website on a smartphone. A website that requires a lot of pinching and zooming, invites them to leave immediately - potentially costing you a sale.

Makes your business look more professional

It is important to set yourself apart from your competition. Your website provides you with another means to do this. If you are competing for a potential customer’s business and they are comparing websites. If one business has an outdated website that looks bad on their phone, and the other has a modern and mobile-friendly website - their decision very likely will be swayed. In many cases, your website is the first impression your business provides to potential customers - make sure you look professional.

Mobile-friendly websites rank higher on search engines

Search engines like Google have made it clear if you have a mobile-friendly website you have opportunities to improve your search rank.

This is done for a couple of reasons:

A mobile-friendly website is providing a better experience to 50% of the web (as previously described). Therefore, to search engines, you are likely providing modern and up-to-date content.
Sites built for mobile are usually optimized to run faster and more efficiently. Faster websites are also given a ranking boost by search engines for providing a better quality experience.

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If you have a website that is unattractive, looks really small on a mobile device, or is really hard to use, you should consider a complete website refresh. Remember, your website is an extension of your business, and in many cases is the first impression your users see.

It can be overwhelming to determine where to start with so many web builders, tools, and options out there. We have experience in all facets of business website development. So reach out to us and let us know if you need some help, or just want to discuss the options.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#BusinessWebsite #MobileFriendly #MobileWebsite #ResponsiveWebsite #SEOFriendly #Website

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 86 "Click It Audio - Express Yourself Using Your Voice"

Oct

21

Vol. 86

It may be hard to understand even if I explain it, so I'd like to try to show you what you can do with Click It Audio. The first step is to create an audio file called an MP3 on your PC, Mac, or smartphone device. Of course, you can also create MP3 files with other recording devices.

When you upload your MP3 file to the website, it will be stored there and you will be given the option to play it. To embed the file in your website, please copy and paste the embed code that will look like the following:

<iframe src='https://www.clickitaudio.com/a/4?o=ece35a6228f1e1d5' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' width='50' height='50' style='display: inline;'><p>Your browser does not support iframes.</p></iframe>

Also, if you want to display the link you can use the audio player URL as follows:

https://www.clickitaudio.com/a/4?o=ece35a6228f1e1d5

Lastly, if you want to use it as a QR code so that you can quickly pull it up from your phone, you can place the QR code directly on your product.

You can use it in any way you like. If text is not enough for you, why not try Click It Audio? You can sign up and use the system for up to 3 files completely free.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.
info@pspinc.com
https://pspinc.com
1404 140th Place NE, Bellevue, WA 98007 USA
800-232-3989
425-957-0808

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

The term "QR Code" is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED.

#Audio #EmbedAudio #Website #WebsiteAudio

Employee Spotlight: Meet Marcus

Oct

19

At PSPINC, we pride ourselves in offering our customers the best in customer support. This is thanks to our amazing support staff. In this series, we will highlight and showcase a number of those friendly faces who are standing by to take your call and/or email, help with your IT problems, and assist with your online solutions.

Meet Marcus

Marcus is one of our Support Technicians. We sat down and asked him a number of questions to get to know him better!

What do you do at PSPINC?
I help customers with questions or problems they are facing with email, their website as well as some general PC questions.

What does a typical day on the job look like for you?
We go through emails and phone calls from customers to solve their problems. If needed, we report issues to our R&D department.

How did you first learn about PSPINC?
I learned about the position at PSPINC through a friend.

What’s your favorite part about working here?
Helping customers troubleshoot and fix their issues.

How has PSPINC helped you in your career development?
I have learned a lot about how things work in the background for websites and email.

What are three words to describe PSPINC?
Diverse, supportive, and welcoming.

Before working at PSPINC, what was the most unusual or interesting job you’ve ever had?
I worked as a game tester. It was a very good experience working within a big company and being able to play games before they came out.

What advice do you have for prospective candidates?
Searching and investigating issues on your own will teach you a lot. However, you can always ask your colleagues if you have questions.

What are some of your hobbies?
Watching American football.

What is your favorite food?
Pho

What is your favorite movie?
Die Hard and The Lord of the Rings.

Where would you like to travel to?
Arizona to see the beautiful desert.

Any other random facts you would like to share?
I also like playing video games.

We hope you enjoyed getting to know Marcus today! If you are experiencing any problems with your website or email call Marcus at 1-800-232-3989. He is standing by, ready to help you out.

Do you like what you heard about PSPINC? Check our open positions, we are always looking for talented individuals looking to fast track their career in technology!

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#CustomerSupport #EmployeeSpotlight #Employees #blog #business #businesstips #customerservice #itsupport #pspinc #sales #smallbusiness #tech #technology #website

Important Google Analytics data you can use to optimize your website

Oct

5

We’ve all heard the quote “knowledge is power”. This has never range more true than it does these days. Analytical data is being monitored for all facets of day-to-day life, including the Internet. As a website owner, you can take advantage of this data as well with the power of Google Analytics.

Below you will find a few useful areas of the Google Analytics admin panel that can help you optimize your website’s performance in the eyes of your visitors.

Audience > Overview

From here you can get some useful general metrics on traffic to your website. You can check Users, New Users, Sessions, Number of Sessions per User, Pageviews, and Pages / Session. Along with that, you can see new vs returning visitors to gauge how effective your website is at getting people to come back. This paired with a useful line graph representing Users over the evaluation period makes this both visual and data-rich.

Audience > Technology > Browser & OS

Historically browsers haven’t always played nice with one another. What I mean by that is, just because your website looks beautiful on Google Chrome does NOT mean it will look that same way on say, Internet Explorer. Using this data will allow you to determine what browsers are most used by your audience. You can then work with your development team to ensure the experience is perfect across specific devices. At PSPINC we always test our web development projects on all modern and supported web browsers.

Audience > Mobile > Overview

From this view, you can gauge how many of your users are visiting via desktop, mobile, and tablet. This will help you determine how your website visitors view your website to ensure it is optimized for those experiences. If you need help ensuring you are delivering a seamless experience regardless of the device your visitors use, let us know - we can help.

Acquisition > Overview

So far we have talked about getting data out of Users once they visit your website. This page helps you determine where your traffic is coming from. Which are extremely useful metrics when it comes time for you to determine a marketing plan. If you see a lot of traffic from Social, well it may be time to investigate running a Facebook ad campaign. Getting a lot of organic search traffic? Amp it up by running some Google Ads! With this page, you get higher-level details on whether your traffic is Direct, Referral (linked from another website), Organic Search, or Social sources.

Acquisition > All Traffic > Source/Medium

This report will further break down the sources and by default arrange them in the order of most Users provided. Here you will see a report on direct traffic, organic search, and each referral source. And for each of those, you will know the number of Users, New Users, Sessions, Bounce Rate, etc. Knowing how users find your site and the exact numbers behind that is powerful information that cannot be overlooked.

Acquisition > Social > Overview

This page will break down your social (media) value. If you are posting to multiple social media platforms consistently, this information can provide information on which of those are most helpful in getting you referral traffic. Each website audience is unique, and just because a specific platform is popular globally, doesn’t mean it is helping your website bring in new business. With information like this, you can determine which are worth investing more time in, and which you could be doing more to increase your website audience.

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We have just scratched the surface. Google Analytics is a data-rich platform. Whether or not you use this data daily or just occasionally, you should be tracking it. If you don’t have Google Analytics installed on your website and need some help, please let us know. We can help get you up and running in no time.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#Analytics #GoogleAnalytics #SEO #Statistics #WebStats #Website #WebsiteVisitors

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 80 "Standalone Website"

Sep

9

Vol. 80

Until now, most websites were designed to disseminate information on each page. However, an updated webpage is incomplete on its own. No matter what you do on your website, you will need to communicate with your users. Simply put, to receive a good match with a user, you need to have a form on your website that sends out an email. This functionality involves having a program to convert a web form into an email and then send it out to the appropriate recipient.

Another necessary function is to be able to search within the website to help users find the information they need as quickly as possible. Making a website searchable means that it needs to be created not just as static text, but in conjunction with a database. This is a very different process than creating websites in the past.

Also, more than half of the users nowadays view websites on their smartphones instead of their PCs. This is fine if you just want to look at it, but they are also using their smartphones to fill out forms online. Therefore, it is necessary to design your website for smartphones from the beginning.

In addition to this, there is a growing need for websites that allow customers to make online payments. It is not always easy to handle credit card transactions. In this sense, it would not be wrong to say that the era of creating and maintaining a website by yourself is over. Websites have expanded from being standalone sites that only transmit information to ones that include business processing. There is no point in having a website that just looks like a website anymore. The time has come to have a website with a purpose.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is a software development company. If you are looking for a website that goes beyond design, please contact us.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.
info@pspinc.com
https://pspinc.com
1404 140th Place NE, Bellevue, WA 98007 USA
800-232-3989
425-957-0808

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#MobileFirstDesign #MobileWebsite #OnlineForm #OnlinePayments #Website #WebsiteSearch #eCommerceWebsites

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol.79 "Is your website where it should be?"

Sep

2

Vol. 79

When you read a book, newspaper, or magazine, what is your purpose? Whatever you are reading, I believe there is a purpose. It may be to gain some knowledge you don't have, or simply because it's fun or exciting. So when do you read a dictionary? When it comes to dictionaries, it might be better to say that you use them rather than read them. No one reads a dictionary or a phone book from the first page to the last page.

So, is a website a book or a dictionary? Let's assume that a website is used to introduce a company. In this case, it would be safe to say that no one would read the website from the beginning to the end. This means that the website is not a book, or at least not one that will entertain the reader. In this case, I think it is correct to think of it as you would a dictionary.

A dictionary is designed to make it easy to find the information you need. Your website is also designed in a way that visitors can easily find the information they need. Is the information organized? Is the information arranged in a way that matches the level of need? When you think about it, there is a difference in the design concept between a website for distributing information and a marketing page for creating a corporate image.

When creating a website, you need to think about whether the appearance or the information is important. Pacific Software Publishing Inc.'s hosting service allows you to freely use any website design you want. If you want to easily set up, edit, and manage your website, we provide a free website building tool called WebdeXpress.

If you need help designing, developing, editing, upgrading, or even scaling down your website, please contact Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. at any time.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.
info@pspinc.com
https://pspinc.com
1404 140th Place NE, Bellevue, WA 98007 USA
800-232-3989
425-957-0808

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#BusinessWebsite #Dictionary #PSPINC #WebDesign #WebHosting #Website

What is a Virtual Private Server?

Aug

17

A virtual private server (referred to as a VPS) is the location where data and web files are stored that run a website. If we are using a housing comparison, consider your domain your address, your web files your house, and the VPS is the piece of land you are building on.

Shared Hosting vs Virtual Private Server Hosting

At PSPINC we talk a lot about shared hosting, probably because we have been offering some of the most reliable shared web hosting in the industry for 25 years.

Shared hosting is probably the most common form of web hosting. Essentially it is a server where resources are shared with other users hosted on the same server. Things like RAM, CPU, and hard drive space are allocated to those users on that server.

When discussing a VPS, your web files are hosted on the same physical hardware as other users. However, what differs is that you are separated to your own ‘virtual space’ on that server. It means that you can have your own dedicated storage space, CPU, specific operating system, RAM, and custom bandwidth limits.

Going back to the housing analogy - shared hosting is like an apartment or condo, where you have your own unit (website) but you occupy the sam piece of land. A VPS is like having a house on your own property.

We didn’t really touch on dedicated hosting, which is much like a VPS but it means you have your own hardware. This is a more costly approach than using a VPS, but there are definitely specific situations where this could be necessary. We can help with that too, contact us for a quote.

2 Reasons to Consider a Virtual Private Server

For the average website, a shared hosting space is more than enough in terms of specs and fit most customer’s budgets. However, there are times when using a virtual private server is recommended.

Enhanced Security & Monitoring: If you need to generate and create backups on a specific schedule, need enhanced security, or want to monitor the performance of your system more closely.

Performance Concerns: A blessing and a curse, if your website is extremely popular and sees high levels of traffic or experiences spikes in traffic at various times, you could experience speed issues. Speed issues not only hurts the experience of your customers, but also could hurt your SEO (search engine optimization). A VPS allows you have custom specs geared towards your specific business needs.

Do you need VPS Hosting?

If you are convinced that your website needs a VPS custom tailored to your business needs, let us know. We have the a team that will do the heavy lifting to get your VPS online quickly and conveniently. In addition, we have a team monitoring our VPS hosted customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Check out our VPS plans

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#dreamersi #pspinc #securehosting #seo #vps #vpshosting #webhosting #website

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PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 94 "Satisfaction with your website"