NetSource Technologies, central Florida’s premier web design and hosting company, is pleased to announce the launch of www.CenterMH.org, a web site for The Center for Mental Health, a non-profit organization that provides behavioral health services to residents of western Colorado’s Delta, Gunnison, Hinsdale, Montrose, Ouray and San Miguel counties.

www.centermh.org

The new website features information about The Center for Mental Health’s specialized programs for children and families, adults, veterans, substance abuse, and suicide prevention. The website also provides schedules and agendas for The Center’s non-clinical programs, as well as up-to-date details on their emergency services.

NetSource Technologies is an award-winning web design, hosting, e-commerce and consulting company that has been serving Ocala and clients nationwide  since 1995. Visit their web site at www.netsourceinc.com for more information on their services and to view additional client web sites.

NetSource Technologies, central Florida’s premier web design and hosting company, is pleased to announce the launch of www.thewindowman.com, a website for The Window Man, a northern Virginia company that specializes in commercial, residential and architectural windows.

www.thewindowman.com

The Window Man serves northern Virginia and the Metro DC area from three showroom locations in Fairfax, Alexandria and Chantilly. The company features commercial products from top-quality manufacturers including Mon-Ray, H Windows, Optimum Windows, Gerkin, Universal and Keystone. Their residential product line includes Soft-Lite, Mon-Ray, H-Windows, Pollard, Fiber Frame, DeVac, Optimum, Pro-Via, Lincoln and Parrett.

The redesigned website is loaded with information intended to help consumers understand the features of different window types. The site also includes an image gallery that displays some of The Window Man’s past projects, and a blog that offers helpful insights and information about windows and doors.

NetSource Technologies is an award-winning web design, hosting, e-commerce and consulting company that has been serving Ocala and clients nationwide  since 1995. Visit their web site at www.netsourceinc.com for more information on their services and to view additional client web sites.

NetSource Technologies, central Florida’s premier web design and hosting company, is pleased to announce the launch of www.proglassware.com, a web site for Pro Glassware, a Florida-based company that specializes in providing advertising-based products to the sports bar and dining industry.

The new website promotes independent career opportunities for people interested in selling Pro Glassware’s unique advertising products. The company produces advertising-imprinted glassware and cups suitable for use in sports bars, diners and other casual dining establishments.

NetSource Technologies is an award-winning web design, hosting, e-commerce and consulting company that has been serving Ocala and clients nationwide  since 1995. Visit their web site at www.netsourceinc.com for more information on their services and to view additional client web sites.

To help you navigate your way through your new SiteSource Content Management System from NetSource, here is a basic guide of the terms and elements you’ll need to know.

Content Management System (CMS) – A Content Management System (CMS) is a web-based development platform that allows a website’s owner to manage their website without any programming or web design knowledge.  Typically, a CMS will allow you to add, edit, and delete pages on your site, upload photos, and add downloadable documents.  Some systems might have additional functionality, like allowing you to create and manage Flash slideshows, Blogs, Calendars, and more.

Menu or Navigation – A website’s main method of presenting and organizing the pages available for browsing is through a menu or navigation.  The menu is typically a block of buttons that spans horizontally across the top of a website or is stacked vertically down the left- or right-hand side.  A menu can also include fly-out or drop-down navigation that presents secondary pages under a main tab or button.  For the most flexibility, and so you can add as many pages as you like to your new SiteSource website, we recommend a vertical (up and down) menu.

Main Level – In reference to a website’s menu, the main level menu buttons are those visible immediately when the  website loads.  The main level can host sub-menu items in the form of fly-out or drop-down menus that appear when the main level button is hovered over.

Sub-Menu – a sub-menu is a secondary menu or pages organized under a main level page. For instance, the About Us page might be the main level menu item, while Our History, Our Locations, and Our Staff might be sub-menu pages displayed in a fly-out or drop-down menu under About Us.

Types of Pages in SiteSource

Home Page – The Home page of your site is the main or “first” page of your site found at www.yourdomain.com.  In SiteSource, the Home page can contain several specialized and/or custom features including a Flash Slideshow of photos, featured news, calendar, or blog posts, and specialized Content Boxes.  See below for more info on each of these special features.

Content Page – Content pages will likely make up the bulk of your website’s pages.  They contain text and photos presented and edited by you in a system very similar to a word processor like Microsoft Word.  You can add text, images, links, downloadable documents, formatted tables, and more to your content pages.

Photo Gallery – A SiteSource photo gallery allows you to present collections of related photos in thumbnail format that visitors can click on for enlargements.  You can add as many photo galleries as you like to your site, limited only by your hosting disc space.  You can also add introductory text and images to the Photo Gallery page through an interface similar to content pages. Each photo gallery can have either a single photo album or multiple albums. For instance, you might have an Events photo gallery that has individual albums for Holiday Dinner, Summer Picnic, and Day of Service.

Photo Albums – A photo album is the actual collection within a photo gallery of related photos presented with captions. As with the parent photo gallery, you can choose to include an introduction to your album, and you can define an “album cover” photo.

Calendar – SiteSource’s Calendar is presented in a traditional tabular format that resembles the familiar, print-style calendar grid.  Website visitors can scroll forward and backward through the months.  You can choose to have a single calendar or multiple, themed calendars that work together (for instance, each department might have its own calendar). Each calendar event shows up as a text link on the specified day’s calendar block.

Calendar Events – Clicking on each calendar event listing (displayed on the calendar grid as a text link) will bring visitors to a detailed description of that event. You can add links, formatted text, and photos to your calendar event description page.

Blog – SiteSource’s blog component is a simplified blogging system that allows you to get up and running making regular posts without having to learn a complicated system.  You can use your blog to post articles, make announcements, solicit customer feedback, post news and media, and so much more. You can add as many blogs to your site as you like.

Blog Comments – Visitors to your blog can post comments.  You can decide if comments get automatically posted to your site, or if comments require approval before being displayed.  The blog also has a SPAM filtering system to help cut down on illegitimate comment posts.

Page Elements

As you edit the content on your page, you will find the following main buttons and tools in the page editor’s toolbars.

Links – Links are the most basic element of the internet.  Clicking on a link takes you to a webpage by directing your browser to that page’s address, or URL. Links can be added to text or to images, and they can link you to other pages on the same site (interior links) or to pages on a different website (exterior links).  Every page on the internet has a unique address.  To find a page’s link address so you can link to it, simply look at the Address Bar at the top of your browser.

Blockquote – A blockquote is a section of text that is indented both on the left and the right.

Numbered List – A numbered list (also known in the web world as an ordered list) is an indented list of numbered items. SEO Tip: for better search engine ranking for your most important keywords, be sure to have the keyword you are trying to optimize for in a numbered or bulleted list.

Bulleted List – A bulleted list (also known as an unordered list) in an indented bullet point list. SEO Tip: for better search engine ranking for your most important keywords, be sure to have the keyword you are trying to optimize for in a numbered or bulleted list.

Headings – Headings are the bold headlines on your web pages that help you organize and present your content.  Headings are usually available for use from Heading 1 through Heading 6 (H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6), with Heading 1 as the main headline for your page and the smaller headings used for sub-categories on the page.  SEO Tip: You can rank better for your most important keywords if they can be found in your headings, in particular your H1.

Images – Images on a web page can refer to both photos or other graphic elements like logos, promotional graphics, product diagrams, banners and more.  You can add images to Content Pages quickly and easily.  You can also upload photos to your photo albums.

Tables – Tables are a useful element for presenting data sets in a tabular format.  SiteSource has an easy tool that helps you add tables and format them (borders, shading, padding, etc.).

Horizontal Lines – Horizontal lines can be used to separate two areas of a page.  They are lines that stretch from the left to the right side of the page, and you can control the color, size, and shading.

Page Properties

Each of these items can be updated and managed by you under the “Page Properties” tab of each page.

Page URL – The term URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator and refers to the “address” of a web page. For example, the URL for the Our History page on this blog is: http://www.netsourceblog.com/index.php/company/our-history/.  You can find the URL of any page by looking at the address bar located at the top center of your browser window.

Page Target – When someone clicks on a link on your site, you can decide to open a new window or tab instead of opening the new page in the same browser window.  This is a good idea when you are sending someone off of your website or linking to a PDF.  In order to acheive this effect, you would set the page target of your new link to _blank.

Menu Title – This is the text displayed on the menu button for your page.  For instance, in the interest of brevity and space use you might make the menu title “About Us” while your page title is “About XYZ Widgets in California”. Please note that your menu title will also be used as the H1 heading for your page as well.

Page Title -Your page title is usually displayed at the very top of your browser or on your browser tab.  Page titles are used for SEO purposes, and they will be displayed as your bolded link on search engine results pages. SEO Tip: Be sure the main keyword or phrase you are trying to optimize for on your page is present in your page title, at or very near the beginning. Page titles should be between 66 characters (Google limit) and 120 characters (Yahoo! limit). Finally, make sure each of your pages has a unique page title.

Meta Keywords – Meta keywords are invisible code only seen by search engines.  When you enter keywords, simply enter comma separated words and phrases.  Capitalization is not necessary.  SEO Tip: Meta keywords are ignored by Google, while Bing and Yahoo! still take them into account (sometimes).  However in all cases, your meta keywords will be useless if the words or phrases you list are not present in the actual, readable text of your page.  You should limit your meta keywords to the 6 – 10 words or phrases that are most relevant to the page you are placing them on.

Meta Description – The meta description is another invisible code on your page primarily used for search engine ranking.  However, some search engines might display your meta description as the intro paragraph for your link on search engine results pages.  Your description should be a short summary of your page’s contents.  SEO Tip: The most effective meta descriptions are 150 characters or 25 words, and they contain all or most of the keywords you are trying to optimize your page for. Your meta description should not simply be a comma separated list.

Actions

Add Page -  When you are ready to add a page to your website, click on the “Add Page” button found in the upper left-hand side of the management screen.  This will bring you to the Add Page screen.  First you’ll need to choose your Page Type from the drop-down: Content Page, Photo Gallery, Blog or Calendar. Then choose your Parent Page – if you want your new page to be on the Main Level of your menu, choose “No Parent,” if you want your new page to be part of a sub-menu, click on the radio button beside the parent page you want it to reside beneath. Then choose your Page Target (in most cases you’ll choose “Open in Same Window”). Decide if you want the new page to be shown on your menu – keep the checkbox next to Show on Menu unchecked if you want to keep the new page out of the menu. Finally, type in the Menu Title you want for you new page and click “Save Changes”.

Show on Menu – Sometimes you might not want to have a page displayed on the Main Level or even the Sub-Menus of your Navigation – perhaps you want to send a private link to a client or board members, or maybe you want to create a graphic on an existing page that links directly to the new page in order to control the flow of traffic to the page. Whatever your reason, you can click the checkbox next to “Show on Menu” during the creation of the new page. Or, you can update this setting by clicking on the “Page Properties” tab and checking or unchecking as needed.

Publish Page – New pages are not automatically published to your website, so you can have time to add, edit, and finalize your new page’s content before the rest of the world sees it.  When you are ready to make your new page available to your website visitors, click on the page’s menu title in the page tree on the left, then click on the “Publish Page” button at the bottom of the page editor window.

Unpublish Page – If you wish to remove a page from your website temporarily, you can click on the “Unpublish Page” button at the bottom of the page editor window. This action removes the page from website visitors’ view without deleting it permanently. You can choose to “Publish” the page again at a later date (handy for seasonal pages like Holiday Sales), or you can simply save the content for historical purposes.

Delete Page – If you are sure you will no longer need a page that you wish to remove from your website, you can click the “Delete Page” button found at the bottom of the page editor window.  Please note that in order to retrieve date from a deleted page, a programmer would have to manually restore your database from a previous back-up.  This is time consuming and costly, so be sure to use this button with care!

Save Changes – This is the most important button on your page editor window.  Whenever you make a change to the “Page Content” or “Page Properties” of your website’s pages, be sure to click on the “Save Changes” button near the bottom of the page screen, otherwise you will lose your changes!

Advanced Features

Photo Slideshow – SiteSource sites come with a Flash slideshow on the Home Page that displays an unlimited number of photos or graphics with stylized transitions, optional captions, and optional links.  Your lead designer will help you develop the best strategy for the size, placement, content and presentation of this element.  In order to add slides, edit captions and links, reorder slides, and delete slides entirely, simply click on the “Home” link in the Page Tree on the left-hand side of your management console.  Next, click on the “Photo Slideshow” tab at the top of the page editor window.

Site Map – A site map will be automatically generated and updated for you and will include links in a bulleted list to all of the pages on your website that are Published and are set to “Show on Menu”. Any changes you make to your menu are immediately reflected on the Site Map as soon as you “Save Changes”.

Content Box – Sometimes the display of your Home Page will be highly specialized, and instead of a single text area, you might have several block elements where text and photos can be added and edited.  In this case, you “Page Content” tab for the Home Page will have 2 or more editor boxes (one for each of the defined areas on the page).

Video – Video is an optional addition to SiteSource websites that can be customized to your needs and vision.  One popular option includes a single “Featured Video” on your Home Page.  Another option is the ability to add a video to every Content Page of your site. Yet another option creates a Video Gallery on your website, similar to the Photo Gallery page type. These additional features can be added on during website development or at any time after launch.

Site Search – Every new SiteSource site comes with the ability to add a site-wide search element. The site search will index all of your pages and files (like PDFs) on a daily basis so that site visitors can type in a keyword or phrase and get relevant page and file results.

NetSource Technologies, central Florida’s premier web design and hosting company, is pleased to announce the launch of www.bigdroofinginc.com, a web site for Big D Roofing, an Ocala-based roofing and insulation contractor.

www.bigdroofinginc.com

With more than 30 years in the business, Big D Roofing is one of Ocala, Florida’s most trusted roofing contractors. Big D Roofing, Inc. provides roofing services for both residential roofing, commercial roofing jobs and blown in insulation.  Big D Roofing, formerly known as Dunnrite Roofing, Inc., has been dedicated to premium customer service for three decades — a fact which is detailed in the website’s testimonials section.

The site provides details on Big D Roofing’s range of services, including commercial roofing, residential roofing and metal roofing. It also provides an online portfolio that displays some of the company’s recent work.

NetSource Technologies is an award-winning web design, hosting, e-commerce and consulting company that has been serving Ocala and clients nationwide  since 1995. Visit their web site at www.netsourceinc.com for more information on their services and to view additional client web sites.

So you’ve got yourself a brand-new website for your business. It looks great, delivers your business message quickly, and visitors are raving about how easy it is to find the information they need. The website even has a content management system (CMS) that lets you make changes to information and images on the site without so much as a phone call to your developer.

Depending on the type of content management tools your site uses and how they’ve been programmed to work, you can add, delete, modify and move around almost any piece of information on your website. Content management can be an extremely powerful tool — you might even say that it’s “dynamite”.

Just make sure you don’t use the dynamite to blow yourself up.

Over our 15-year history of building websites for businesses of all stripes, the developers here at NetSource Technologies have seen (and developed) a lot of websites with content management systems. Most such sites are well-maintained and informative, but from time to time we’ll encounter a true clunker where the content management system — for whatever reason — has been used not to enhance the website, but to seriously damage its value as an informational resource and marketing tool.

Of course, you want your new website to work in favor of your business’ bottom line, right? So here are a few of the most common content management mistakes and some tips on how to avoid them.

1. Don’t neglect your content management. Aside from the use of the horrendous little <blink> tag (which ought to be a second-degree felony), the most serious content management error is not to use your website’s CMS at all. There are way too many content-managed websites sitting out there with out-of-date information and dead content.

Once you’ve invested time and money into the development of a website for your business marketing, please don’t forget that it should always be something of a Work In Progress. That’s one of the principal advantages of the Internet as a medium — websites are dynamic and easy to modify. They are not stone tablets.

As your business needs change and as new information for your customers becomes available, take advantage of that CMS and update your website. If you and your staff don’t have the time to make the updates, then contact your developer and pay them for a little time to update the site for you. Otherwise, you’re letting a valuable investment go to waste.

2. Don’t cut and paste anything directly from MS Word. Microsoft Word can be a great tool for writing and creating business documents. One thing it is NOT, however, is an editing tool for website content. Every page of every MS Word document ever produced is a veritable minefield of hidden formats and coding that can destroy a well-crafted web page in seconds.

When you copy text from an MS Word document onto your computer system’s “clipboard”, the hidden formats and codes are sucked up right along with the text. When you paste all of that directly from the clipboard into a text window of a content management system, the hidden codes almost always go along for the ride. Click the “save” button and you’ve probably just swung a big wrecking ball into your website. From odd formatting that you can’t fix or get rid of no matter what, to pages of hidden code that make search engines give up indexing your page long before they hit the real text… the pitfalls are many.

Fortunately, the solution is pretty simple. Once you’ve copied your text from an MS Word document, paste it into a plain-text editing application like NotePad. This removes all of the hidden formats and codes. Then copy the text from your new NotePad document and paste that into the text window of your website’s CMS.

Note that this tip doesn’t just apply to MS Word. Other popular word-processing applications may also send hidden code along with their text, including messages sent in Microsoft Outlook — so if you’re creating ‘copy’ for your website in anything except a plain-text editor, always follow this little tip before you paste the text into your website’s CMS.

3. Be careful about image shapes and sizes. Images — photos and graphics — frequently baffle even the best content management systems. Why is that? Well, mostly because a website CMS is essentially a computer program and, despite some current conspiracy theories, computers are not yet able to read minds. They don’t automatically know what you want to do with an image. The best they can figure out is how to take the image you give them and stick it into the specifications allowed by the programming.

This is the part of content management that takes a little bit of work. You’ll need to know a little bit about your CMS in order to handle images properly. Does your system re-sample and re-size images into proper ‘web’ images, or just take your original image and squeeze it into a certain dimension — possibly “morphing” the image in the process? Or perhaps it just crops the image to fit a pre-determined size.

You’ll have the most success uploading images through your CMS if you use some sort of image editing software first to correctly crop and size your photo. Unless your site makes use of some really top-end (and usually expensive) content management, there’s no way around this step. Regardless, photos always work best on a website when they’ve been properly sized and edited before being submitted to the rigors of a CMS.

It doesn’t matter much what imaging editing application you use. From professional programs like Photoshop to free, web-based editors like Pixlr.com, most of them will get the job done for you.  The importance of this step goes beyond making sure your website looks as polished and professional as possible with high-end image rendering. If you inadvertently upload a massive picture that simply gets “squished” into a constrained spot, your actually doing damage to your web page’s loading speed, which has recently begun effecting Google rankings.

In closing

Keep in mind that your content management system is a tool, while a web designer or consultant is a resource.  Even if you’ve decided to maintain your website on your own with CMS tool, remember to refer back to your designer as a useful resource for tips and advice as you learn.  At NetSource we’re just a phone call away when that pesky image looks all wrong or you can’t get that red, bullet point text to disappear.

NetSource Technologies, central Florida’s premier web design and hosting company, is pleased to announce the launch of www.LocateOcala.com, a web site for LocateOcala, a partnership between the City of Ocala, Marion County, and the Ocala/Marion County Economic Development Corporation.

www.locateocala.com

The new web site features information about Ocala/Marion County’s business parks and top commercial properties. It also includes information about access to transportation, workforce readiness and business incentives. Detailed information is provided for the Ocala Business Park at Ocala International Airport, the Heart of Florida Regional Technical Business Park, Magna Business Park, Ocala Airport Commerce Center and Ocala International Commerce Park.

NetSource Technologies is an award-winning web design, hosting, e-commerce and consulting company that has been serving Ocala and clients nationwide  since 1995. Visit their web site at www.netsourceinc.com for more information on their services and to view additional client web sites.

NetSource Technologies, central Florida’s premier web design and hosting company, is pleased to announce the launch of www.fitnesssales.net, a web site for Premier Fitness Marketing, a Florida-based company that specializes in health club marketing, promotion and consulting programs.

Premier Fitness Marketing is a full service fitness marketing, promotion, and consulting firm for health clubs and gyms. The company’s methodology includes, but is not limited to telemarketing, direct mail, radio, television, and corporate memberships.

Premier Fitness Marketing’s range of marketing services includes club consulting, club management, buyouts, direct mail, full-scale marketing, Option 2 marketing, receivable factoring, pre-sales and openings, personal trainer marketing and staff training.

NetSource Technologies is an award-winning web design, hosting, e-commerce and consulting company that has been serving Ocala and clients nationwide  since 1995. Visit their web site at www.netsourceinc.com for more information on their services and to view additional client web sites.

RVUSA.com, one of the RV industry’s leading interactive agencies, announces the launch of www.watersrv.com, a new web site for Waters RV Center, an RV sales, service and storage center located in Waters, Michigan.

www.watersrv.com

The site features information about Waters RV Center’s range of new and used recreational vehicles. Waters RV features Forest River Flagstaff Travel Trailers, Skyline Layton Travel Trailers, Forest River Flagstaff Fifth Wheels, and Forest River Flagstaff Popups. The web site’s user-friendly inventory search is powered by RVUSA.com. The entire site is easily updated by the Waters staff through the EZ-Site content management system designed exclusively for RV dealers.

Waters RV Center has a state-of-the-art RV service facility staffed with certified technicians, and they also offer RV appliance parts, service, and repair. Waters RV Center provides RV storage as well as boat, snowmobile, and mini storage for household items.

RVUSA.com, a subsidiary of Netsource Media, is an award-winning interactive media agency dedicated to serving the RV industry nationwide. Visit their web site at www.rvusa.com for more information on their services and to view additional client web sites.

NetSource Technologies, central Florida’s premier web design and hosting company, is pleased to announce the launch of www.msph2o.com, a web site for MSP H2O, an Ocala based company that produces private labeled bottled water for companies throughout Central Florida.

www.msph2o.com

The site features information about MSP H2O’s production and bottling processes and provides information for customers that allows them to create custom label for their logo water, submit their labels for a free quote, and approve their label proofs online.

MSP H2O provides their customers with a unique opportunity to promote their business or event. They can promote or introduce their company to clients and potential clients by offering them a bottle of  custom-labeled bottled water during meetings, conferences, seminars, company events and gatherings.

NetSource Technologies is an award-winning web design, hosting, e-commerce and consulting company that has been serving Ocala and clients nationwide  since 1995. Visit their web site at www.netsourceinc.com for more information on their services and to view additional client web sites.