get connected
Facebook Like Box
Featured Video
featured video
Tag Archives: Website Design
Sep
23
23
Search engine ranking is an intricate process. Search engines rate your small business website on a number of factors in order to assign it a rank among your competition. Every business wants to rank on page 1 of the organic search engine results, but less actually know how it happens.
There are a number of elements to be considered by businesses for search engine ranking. The following section discusses these elements briefly.
Where to Start?
95% of all searches go to three major search engines including Google, Bing and Yahoo and of that 80% use Google directly. So, a small business website can start with submitting its URL to these big players.
How Do Search Engines Read Websites?
Search engines read your website either through the automated spiders or crawlers they run or through search engine directories. Search engine spiders read the links on your site and record your website into their database, based on the keywords in your content, so that the next time a searcher tries to look for a certain keyword, your website appears in search results. The more popular and relevant the links you have on your website and to and from your wbesite, the better the rank your small business website will have and appear higher in the results pages.
Aug
3
3
We are living in an era where everyone relies on search engines to look for things, people, products and services. This makes it crucial for website owners to pay close attention to optimizing their websites. And lawyers and attorneys are no different. That’s what makes terms like law firm seo and attorney seo so important.
The legal business and industry on the whole is amazingly well placed to benefit from SEO. The reason for this is obvious: Net surfers use the internet pretty much exclusively to search for law firms and legal information. And your website will be at a complete disadvantage if it is not optimized well for search engines and missing out on perhaps the biggest source of potential new clients for your services.
Importance of Search Engine Optimization for Attorneys and Law Firms
Numbers prove that nearly three fourth or (68%) of the net searchers opt for one of the top three listings on an organic search engine results page. Think of a term like ‘divorce attorney’ which receives hundreds of thousands of searches every month, 68 of every 100 searchers go to any of the top 3 websites that the search engine results page carry. What does this mean? More visitors and hence more potential clients to the legal websites with better SEO!
Jul
28
28
Category: Website Design, Website Development
Tagged Website Design
When others don’t personally know you or your company, how your website looks can say a lot about your business to prospective clients, existing clients and anyone else who may see the work.
It’s important to make the extra effort to educate yourself about recent Web 2.0 trends when designing or re-designing you website in order to have it look its very best.
While designing a custom website, think of the page design as the framework or skeleton and the textual content and images as the finishing layers within that framework. Design decisions about the layout and typography are critical to the website’s success.
Consider the following guidelines for creating a clean, simple website:
Webpage Layout
- Allow ample space between elements
- Follow the guidelines for good typography
- Use headings, subheadings and bullets to separate information
- Minimize the use of clip art
- Use 72 dpi, well-cropped photographs
- Use color for a specific purpose — to direct attention, create emphasis, or differentiate textual content
Each element on a webpage should function as part of the whole rather than a separate entity. This can be achieved by grouping elements or by creating obvious similarities of line, shape, or color. The end result of a balanced layout is equilibrium among the various elements that make up each webpage.
Jul
26
26
Category: Logo Design, Website Design
Tagged Logo Design, Website Design
Are you able to name the company behind such popular taglines as “Just Do It”, “The Ultimate Driving Machine”, “The Breakfast of Champions”, “Tastes Great, Less Filling” and “Don’t Leave Home Without It”?
If you didn’t have to think twice about whose taglines these are, you watch way too much television OR pay too close attention to the commercials! I’m joking. These taglines have been around for years and years and have never changed. As stated, they’ve been almost forced into the homes across the U.S. and the sometimes the World in their advertising campaigns. This is why we can name the companies who branded these taglines, as well as, many other taglines we here daily.
Oh, the answers to the taglines mentioned above are Nike, BMW, Wheaties, Miller Lite and American Express respectively.
Taglines create brand recognition, a first impression. People will remember a tag phrase, but have no idea about the company name. They are unique, yet simple. They are one of the first steps in building a brand. A good tagline is your best and cheapest form of advertising. If your company name, logo and tagline are all working in harmony, they become an ad themselves.
Jul
24
24
Category: Website Design
Tagged Akron, Canton, Cleveland, Small Business Websites, Website Design
… to modify or build according to individual or personal specifications or preference.
TEM∙PLATE – anything that determines or serves as a pattern; a model; an electronic file with a predesigned format and structure ready to be filled in
When you hear the word ‘customize’ do you immediately envision lots of money leaving your bank account as an expense, whether you’re customizing a kitchen, car or a website? Sure you do! That word scares people.
When you hear the word ‘template’ do you immediately think of easy to do and change while saving a ton of money, but sacrificing your vision and uniqueness? Of course!
Why customize anything? Customization takes place because we are all unique and we all have our own ideas. We all want something different. Something we can call our own. Something we are proud of. That’s why we customize our kitchens, cars and websites. So people can respect and admire the time, energy and hard work that went into the project. We all want to standout from the crowd and what better way to do it than to customize something you own!
Jul
22
22
Category: Website Design
Tagged Akron, Canton, Cleveland, SEO Web Design, Small Business Websites, Website Design
When I speak with prospective clients or even curious business professionals, the most common questions I get asked is: “How can I buy a website?” In the past, there were three basic options in building a website – buy a template website from one of the many providers available, hire a professional design company to build a custom site or design one yourself using one of the several software programs available on the market.
For most small-medium business owners, building their own site is not a viable option due to the time and money that needs to be invested. For years, the choice between template and custom sites was difficult. You wanted your site to look special, but you also needed to get it up and running quickly. Template sites could be created in less than a week, but “Bob’s” HVAC company site might look the exact same as “Susan’s” bakery site. Custom sites were expensive and took a long time to build, but looked great and functioned extremely well. Today, the gap between the two is shrinking.
Jul
20
20
What was founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Laboratory for Computer Science (MIT/LCS) with support from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the European Commission?
This is simple, it was founded to validate information most people see everyday. C’mon take a guess.
It’s known as the World Wide Web Consortium, most notably the ‘WWW’ at the beginning of almost all website domain names. It is arranged as a consortium where member organizations maintain full-time staff for the purpose of working together in the development of standards for the W3. The W3c has, as of March 2008, 434 members and is always open for new organizations to join.
Wikipedia explains, “W3c was created to ensure compatibility and agreement among industry members in the adoption of new standards. Prior to its creation, incompatible versions of HTML were offered by different vendors, increasing the potential for inconsistency between web pages. The consortium was created to get all those vendors to agree on a set of core principles and components which would be supported by everyone.”
Jul
14
14
When experts say that SEO starts right from the web design and development, it means something. As a matter of fact, it starts even before that. One of the first things you need to look at is on page seo. Here is a collection of the 10 most useful tips for on page optimization.
- Select a keyword based domain name > This way you can improve your page rankings. Also choose keywords for sub-domains.
- Use keywords in Meta tags and page headers H1 & H2 > This helps search engines locate your website more easily.
- Keep the website navigation easy > An easy to navigate website is favored by search engines. Make use of sub directories/folders for easy navigation.
- Generate Superb quality content > Using excellent content rich in keywords with help your cause of on page seo.
- Use HTML page display > Displaying your content using HTML will ensure that your webpages are easily crawled by search engine crawlers.
- Synchronize your webpages > The website content and the webpages need to be connected together in order to make it easier for search engines to find them and relate them together.
Jul
13
13
Category: Small Business Marketing, Website Design
Tagged Akron, Canton, Cleveland, Small Business, Small Business Websites, Website Design
Just about every employee of any business has a 2 x 3.5in card lying in a drawer, hiding in a wallet, lost in a briefcase, placed in a holder at the front desk, etc… I know too many friends who have full-time jobs, but don’t have a business card. Now why is that? Scores of people believe only the sales teams; marketing teams and the owners should have cards. How ignorant!
Business cards are often one of the most underutilized tools in one’s marketing. Use the front and back of your business card to gain full benefit. Depending on your market you can put some very valuable information on the back such as a sports schedule, emergency numbers, or special dates people want to remember.
Creatively distribute your card. When you eat out you can leave one with the tip or ask if you can place some near the register. If you borrow a library book, use one as a book mark and leave it in a page upon return. Hand them to clerks in stores who may know other people who could use your product or service.
Jul
5
5
Category: Website Design, Website Development
Tagged Akron, Cleveland, SEO Web Design, Small Business Websites, Website Design
I often get asked, “What’s the difference between a custom website and a template website?” The answer is tougher to explain than it sounds.
Before starting in the web industry, I never knew there were custom websites and template websites. I was under the impression a website was a website and that was that… boy was I wrong!
Let’s look at the pro’s and con’s for each type of website.
Template Website Pro’s:
- takes less money to build/develop
- takes less time to build/develop
- maintenance is low
Template Website Con’s:
- lacks a sense of personal style, uniqueness and vision
- mass produced, giving you a look which may be used by hundreds or thousands of other businesses out there
- monthly fees to pay for ownership, you don’t own the website
- when purchased over the internet, the sense of personal service disappears
- customization is limited because they are mass produced to appeal to everyone
- content limitations due to template format reduce the targeted content objectives
- poor search engine positioning because of the template limitations in structure
- produces less online lead generations due to template structure
