Harris Web Works
New Haven, Connecticut
(2)
New Haven, Connecticut
(2)
Harris Web Works is a full service digital agency for B2B and B2C companies. We work directly with our clients as a partner, continually making their websites more efficient and effective. With years of experience in website development technologies and online marketing, we have cultivated a wide range of skills that most companies would fine difficult, if not impossible, to replicate in-house.
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2 customer reviews
Mmr Rat
B2C or B2B commerce business achieve new levels of sales, efficiency, and growth.
Reviewed on Google Maps
Mst Rani
Harris Web Works - Business Solution Partner / Magento , Most popular Software Company provide service digital agency specializing in e-commerce, custom programming, custom design and marketing in Connecticut region USA.
Reviewed on Google Maps
What makes a great website?
E-Commerce Design Considerations
Enticing customers to visit your website is different from making them stay, let alone convincing them to buy! This is why it’s so important that you design your website in a manner fit for E-commerce. Visitors should have a “rich and smooth” experience while exploring your site.
Too often, other online stores get too complex with their designs. In an attempt to be overly creative, they forget that a rich experience doesn’t rely on flash animations that slow down a customer’s browser or wild fonts that mix with loud colors. A rich experience is getting actual quality content that provides helpful information on what you’re selling. All text doesn’t have to be in the same page. You don’t have to smack 200 words at the center of your homepage! You put a sentence or a paragraph where they are needed. This helps de-clutter the view but at the same time, you can take advantage of keywords to catch search engines. Your main goal, however, is to answer the customer’s question: Of all the online stores in the world, why you? A headline on the top left on your homepage, a catchy snippet and photo below and you may hook them better than you could with your original 200 words.
The same goes for ensuring a smooth experience. Customers shouldn’t find it a nightmare to check out your products. It can be something as simple as wrong colors that make it difficult for the shopping cart to be visible. Customers would also want to know that when they clicked it, your site registered it. There should be an easy to find area where the customer can see all they put in their cart. Use contrasting colors to make important areas pop. On the check-out page, be sure to minimize all other distractions. At this point, you want to guarantee your customer’s decision to buy. So remove sidebar navigation and ignore that desire to sell anything else.
In web design for e-commerce, there is really only one rule: design away to make that sale.
E-Commerce Development Considerations
Business owners are sometimes too focused on catching the attention of search engines that they fall into common website pitfalls, deadly ones. For example, you can attract roughly a thousand visitors a day but end up generating a terribly awful conversion rate, just a three to five sales per week! And all because you put too much clutter on your homepage or you’re linking products to way too many pages and not the checkout cart. SEO can draw in customers but effectively developing your website suited perfectly for e-commerce can boost your sales up to 300% in just two weeks!
In facing guests, you make sure you’re putting your best foot forward. It is no different for your online store. E-commerce web development emphasizes the weight of homepages. Here, you get your masthead right, the horizontal graphic placed at the top of the site, which contributes to the overall impression for the online window shoppers. Getting it right means it shouldn’t be too big nor too small, should carry your small logo, your defining slogan, contact information and a search box.
Firstly, a strategically designed and shortly written explanation on what makes your store unique among the rest will help in their decision to stay. Secondly, a user-friendly navigation will sway them to buy.
You have to make your navigation system the star as it carries a hierarchy of information of what you’re selling. Your website should stay clear of unnecessary buttons, rollovers and graphics. Through this, you optimize your search engine and eliminate any obstacles between the customer and the check-out page. Main navigation should only lead to your products. To provide necessary information that won’t clutter the home or product pages, SEO footers will help. Plus, it optimizes keywords through internal linking.
These are just a few common tweaks to make sure you’re not tripping into common pitfalls. Getting the help of the professional e-commerce web developer will make sure you avoid creating your own.
What questions might you ask a client when starting a new project?
Here are examples of questions related to building a website:
What is the customer's business (service, non-profit, industry, etc.)?
Does the site currently exist? If yes, what system is it on?
Do you have the content for the site or do you want us to create that?
Do you have a list of websites that you like?
How many unique page templates are needed?
Does the site need a blog?
Is e-commerce the business’s primary income?
For e-commerce sites, these questions are relevant to launching the project:
How many non-product and non-category pages are there on the site?
How many SKUs?
Do we need more than 1 product template?
Tell me about your pricing structure.
Does the site need attribute search or advanced search?
Does the project require importing customers from another system?
Does the site need to integrate with a 3rd party system for shipping, accounting, CRM or ERP?
Do you need a store locator?
Will you require unique portals for particular / different audiences or buckets of information?
What do you love most about your job?
We enjoy working with a variety of companies, including e-commerce businesses, service businesses, biopharmaceutical companies and more, helping them expand their digital presence.
We’re a close-knit team who have been working together for years. We genuinely like each other and enjoy building relationships with clients and gaining in depth knowledge of their online presence.
Contact us if you have any questions or would like to discuss how we may be of help to you.
What inspired you to start your own business?
Matthew Harris founded our company as Medium Well in 2000 in New York City, then moved the company to Kansas City, KS before settling in New Haven in 2006. For 15 years, the team grew and built expertise in key digital media areas. In 2015, we became Harris Web Works to reflect our commitment and ability to provide a full range of web-based services, while building on the reputation and knowledge of Matt Harris.
Our mission: help companies generate more leads, increase sales, build brand awareness, create a great user experience, and share information. Our approach: partner with clients to understand their goals, budgets and challenges, then build, manage and market their website accordingly.
Based in the thriving business community of New Haven, CT since 2006, Harris Web Works specializes in website development and digital marketing for e-commerce, corporate and service businesses locally and throughout the U.S. We guide clients through the complex and ever-changing world of online technology to help businesses become more efficient and grow.
The Medium Well lives on as a blog filled with tips and info about website development and online marketing trends.
Why should our clients choose you?
Hire Harris Web Works for:
Our expertise: We help businesses attract more viewers and maximize the potential of their websites by applying the right mix of technology, creativity, writing and strategic marketing.
Our mission: Help companies generate more leads, increase sales, build brand awareness, create a great user experience, and share information.
Our approach: Partner with clients to understand their goals, budgets and challenges, then build, manage and market their website accordingly.
Custom Websites
It’s time to build or update your website and you want it to stand apart from the pack. As your hub for online marketing and a sales tool, the website should have a look and feel that’s representative of your brand along with the functionality you need. At Harris Web Works, we specialize in building Magento for e-commerce websites, Drupal for large corporate and healthcare websites, and WordPress for business websites. We can design, code and build your custom website and populate it with content provided by you or created with our copy-writing help. We also work with Drupal, Joomla, and Shopify if requested.
Our experienced team can provide as much support as needed to help your website reach its full potential. Whether it’s building a new site or updating an existing one, we’ll be your partner for technical, creative, content development, search engine optimization needs, and marketing. The result will be a fluid website that’s user-friendly for the visitor and those managing content updates and other functionality. We can either manage the updates for you on an ongoing basis, or hand over the reigns to you and train you on best practices for implementing updates.
Following is an overview of considerations for all websites.
Create a Strong Online Presence and User Experience
These factors can make the difference between someone leaving your site or staying to become an advocate or loyal customer:
The look and feel > Your website must provide information visitors seek, in a clear and easy-to-navigate format. The design should represent your brand, vision and goals, with related search terms built in so search engines can recognize (index) the site and lead people to it.
Custom Coding and Design > While free website design templates may work fine for a basic website, they won’t facilitate projecting the distinctive, professional image you want to convey. Custom-coding provides several benefits, and does not have to be cost prohibitive.
Content Strategy and Management > A user-friendly content management system such as WordPress makes it easy for administrators to add new pages, photos, text, etc. at any time, with no IT expertise needed. Continually adding content helps engage new and repeat visitors.
Combine Technical Features, Creativity and Common Sense - In addition to being useful for visitors/customers, your website can be a tool for various business functions. Whether you’re using the website to sell merchandise, offer services, gather leads, or share information, consider the following:
Network security
Client-side and server-side scripting
Database management
Using the website to build a database of customers
Sales funnels with distinct leads triggers
Product customization
Website portal for B2B or B2C presentations of data
Customer forms, surveys and questionnaires
Magento E-Commerce Website Development
If you sell products online, having your own e-commerce website gives you all the benefits of having your own piece of property on the internet (control of content, design and functionality) while being able to integrate with popular shopping channels (Amazon, Google Shopping, etc.). The most successful e-commerce websites are aligned with the needs and goals of the business, provide a pleasant shopping experience for the user, and have an efficient content management system (CMS) that accommodates business requirements.
At Harris Web Works, we’ve been building websites in the industry-leading Magento e-commerce platform for over a decade. We’ll design, code and build your Magento website – with custom design and functionality. This includes populating it with content provided by you or created with our help. For ongoing administration, we can hand this off to you (with training if needed), or our proficient team can handle ongoing updates and maintenance for you.
Making an Effective E-commerce Site
In addition to creating a smooth browsing and purchasing experience, key factors include site security, having a distinctive design that reinforces branding, and search friendly design. We can build your site to include these critical components and more:
Easy to navigate, easy shopping process
Loads quickly and images appear crisp and clear
Scalability to easily add products and product lines
Efficient and secure transactions using credit cards or PayPal
Drop-ship integration for selling products from other suppliers
Database integration to easily update data feeds and upload to shopping channels (Amazon, eBay, Bizrate, Google Shopping, Nextag, Shopzilla, etc.)
Integrates well with back-office software for accounting, supply, shipping, etc.
Special custom features such as showing shoppers related products
Why Magento
Magento websites are user-friendly for the shopper as well as those managing content updates and administrative tasks. It’s an extremely flexible, robust, and effective platform for businesses looking to provide a complete shopping experience. Magento suits diverse business types, product lines, and business models, while offering specialized shopping functions (i.e., customizable orders). Products can easily be updated while also integrating with back-office functions.
Part of successfully selling products online is adapting as technology evolves and continually presents new opportunities. Since Magento is owned by eBay’s Enterprise division, it’ll be adaptable and effective for years to come.
Online Marketing
Marketing a business online includes weaving together various elements, including but not limited to having a website, social media presence, online advertising, and search engine optimization. Harris Web Works can work with you to address your goals and challenges regarding digital marketing, providing all of the strategic, technical, and tactical work needed to implement an successful ongoing plan. Our services include:
>Google Advertising
>Facebook Advertising
>Search Engine Marketing
>Email Marketing
Quick, Clear, Compelling, and Reliable
Potential and existing customers must be able to quickly find the information they need about your business, understand how it can meet their needs, be interested, and trust you enough to make a purchase (or take other action). Much like the era before online marketing, businesses still reach their audiences by getting involved in the community, whether that be geographic and in person or online, with referrals (good or bad) carrying much weight. Engaging in a relatable manner, follow up, patience, consistency, and monitoring the analytics are all key.
Tactical Approach
With proper planning, content and monitoring, an online marketing program will deliver more leads and produce data to help you continually evolve. Understanding your audience and determining which online marketing channels are most effective for you can make the whole process less daunting and more manageable for businesses of any size. You’ll know how people are viewing your information (via desktop/laptop computer or mobile devices) and audience usage patterns, which is helpful for building effective content.
There is no single end target, rather it’s a process of ongoing growth and improvement. Technology is always changing and competition can be tough, but with the right strategy and implementation, your company can make the most of your online marketing investment.
