SEO friendly design: Part 2 – Organization and research
November 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Continuing our discussion of search engine friendly design considerations I offer you part 2 of a 6 part series on SEO friendly design:
Take the time to organize
In addition to a solid system of organization for your SEO campaign, a good “best practice” is to spend a lot of time organizing your content and categories before starting your design so your information architecture is sound. How your content is labeled, grouped and worded is very important. Keyword research is an important–and necessary–part of this (as we all know) and probably deserves a line item of it’s own but we’ll include it here. (More on this later)
As a designer myself I tend to dive directly into the creative process and mold things into a workable solution. I’m definitely not a planner and sometimes have to take a step back and put pencil to paper and think through things a bit. Actually, for large sites it might be necessary to spend just as much time in the planning and organization stage as you do with the creative phase.
You must take the time to think through how you’re going to get people (and the search engines) to your content and plan for changes and growth. A properly planned site will be much more user friendly and far more crawlable by the engines. Read more
Ten ways to use LinkedIn.com
November 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment
What it is:
Linkedin.com, the professional’s version of social media networking can be an effective way to grow your business. There are a number of ways that you can use this valuable, free tool in the goal of growing your network, staying in touch with current contacts, marketing, education and ultimately having a business “presence” outside of your website to keep you top-of-mind with past and present colleagues. In the world of business, networking, generating leads and marketing is always important, but only if your efforts pan out. Usually this means consistent contact with your network and clients. LinkedIn is an excellent tool to help you stay in touch with your network and clients and vice-versa. Read more
SEO Friendly Design
October 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Search Engine Optimization is not all about links and keywords as some people might think. This is obviously a very important part of the puzzle though (as are many other elements). What a lot of people overlook when optimizing their site is the need to properly “design” their site for seo and that includes such strange and bizarre concepts as organization before you put mouse to pixel, consistency and attention to the code behind the scenes that visitors never see.
I’ve been doing this for many years and I’ve learned a few things. Some of them are important and some are not so important. But one thing I have learned is that SEO has a lot more to do with design than people usually admit. I even forget this rule myself sometimes–or–maybe it’s so ingrained in the way that I work that things just happen automatically during the process.
In this six part series of posts I’d like to take a look at a few of the design considerations you should make when you’re learning seo friendly design concepts. I hope we can touch on at least a couple nuggets that you haven’t thought of before. Read more
SEO Friendly Design: Part 1 – Crawlability and Cross linking
October 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Continuing our discussion of search engine friendly design considerations I offer you part 1 of a 6 part series on SEO friendly design:
Pay attention to the crawlability of your site.
This process is also referred to as web crawling or spidering and it includes designing your navigation so it’s easy for the search engines to index, cross linking throughout the site and the construction of a comprehensive site map.
Crawlability
Crawlability is essentially how well a search engine can find all the pages on your website. It’s also the engine’s ability to properly document what the pages are all about.
One of the biggest problems that sites face in this regard is the use of graphic images as navigation and (worse yet) informational content as graphic images on the page. Yes, back in the day I too was guilty of this massive SEO blunder. If you have any interest in ranking well in the search engines you have to be polite and guide the search engines and give them easy access to all of your content. Read more
10 Golden Rules of SEO Copywriting
September 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Copywriting is for brainy, spectical wearing, tight lipped, thick heeled librarian geek types you say? Think again. Talented copywriters are in high demand these days because the vast majority of your SEO success now hinges on this person.
If you haven’t learned that your punctuation and grammar guides are your friends and that picking up a good book on how to write better, more personable and interesting copy is a good idea, then it’s time to get intimate and cozy with this advice: quality copywriting is critcal to successful SEO. If you want a successful blog, website or SEO campaign you need to improve your writing–or die trying. Read more
Wicked cool (and tricky) viral marketing ideas
September 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment
“But you have to admire the virus. He has a way of living in secrecy until he is so numerous that he wins by sheer weight of numbers.” – Dr. Ralph Wilson
What can I say about viral marketing online. There is no specific formula and the whole nutty business is ran by people that are ultra-creative, and when I say ultra-creative I mean WAY beyond what most people consider really creative. Wicked, wild and crazy creative! I love it.
But today I ran across something that literally stopped me in my tracks because the level of creativity and, to be honest, utter sleaziness has gone unsurpassed in all my years of web experience. I don’t mean sleaziness in a bad way or in a demented way. I mean “sleazy” in a GREAT way that puts a good name on all that is creatively dirty and downright cool to the bone. Read more
Effective Internet marketing in a nutshell (SEO Ranking factors)
August 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment
The debate can be an endless one. If you’re interested in internet marketing (making your website more visible on the web and getting more visitors to your site) you’ve often asked yourself “what is the best method?”. In my humble opinion it’s SEO (Search engine optimization) because it’s targeted, effective, relatively affordable and it’s a great investment that lasts. But if you’re interested in SEO, you’ve probably also asked yourself “What exactly are the factors that help my site rise to the top in the search engines?”
Well, since I’m not a Google engineer and nobody outside the labyrinth of the Google campus (Googleplex) is privy to that specific information, there is one good way for us to get a good idea of what criteria search engines use to rank websites higher or lower in the SERPs (Search engine results pages) and that is collaborative analysis. The concept is simple. By collecting a wide range of opinions and experiences, the truth will rise to the surface and the answers will become clear – or at least clearer. Actively working to increase your rankings in the search engines (commonly called Search engine optimization or SEO) is one of the most effective, yet least understood methods of internet marketing. It is confusing and time consuming to learn and keep up with the search engines, but there are some solid factors that we know are very important by collectively compiling information and learning from each other over the years. Read more
What makes a great Web Design Company
August 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment
What’s it mean to call yourself a web design company? It seems that these days everyone thinks that they can tack this service onto any business venture. I saw a sign along the road the other day that offered Video editing & archiving, graphic design and website design – and this wasn’t the worst offender I’ve seen. Just the fact that a company lists video editing on their company sign tells me that they’re not a specialist. They’re simply trying to offer another service as an add-on money maker – further diluting their ability to be great with one core service. They probably have a computer, maybe some graphic design experience (if you’re lucky), some fancy software and they’ve learned how to setup a hosting account. Beyond that, they’re not far removed from the client’s they try to serve. I actually applaud people for trying new things and expanding their horizons – and if you’re looking for a down and dirty website presence on a budget then maybe this type of “we do it all” type of provider is for you.
At Sanctuary Media Group, we specialize in website design and online marketing. This is all we do and we’ve been doing it for a long time. As the president of the company I built my first website in 1994 – back in the stone age days of the web. Over this period of time I’ve seen a lot of things come and go, change and evolve, and to say the least – I’ve learned a thing or two. I’ve learned how to provide solutions for my clients that help them succeed online – not just a web address and some fancy buttons.
When hiring a web design company, there are some things that you should consider. You need a company that can not only give you a website but you need to make sure that they know HOW to make it work for you. Read more
How to create a two column page of content in Wordpress
August 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Manage two columns of content, on one page, from within the Wordpress admin.
I realize that this post is going to be a little technical for most – actually most people won’t need to read it – but I thought it might be useful for those who are seeking advice on this subject around the web.
I had a need for a Wordpress client site where we needed to actively manage two columns of content on the same page but we needed to do it from within the Wordpress admin. (No modification of the HTML directly or direct customization of your theme like you normally do in a sidebar, etc.) In addition to this requiring a low tech, no programming/ftp knowledge solution, I needed it to be completely code based. There may or may not be good plug-ins available around the web to accomplish this task but I’m a Wordpress plug-in phobic. I don’t like to use plug-ins if I don’t have to because you have no idea about how well they’re written or exactly how well they’ll work in the future as you update to newer versions of Wordpress. Read more
Donating your business services
August 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment
You know, in today’s economy I’m probably not the only person that’s forgot about the option of donating your company services. I really haven’t forgot about it, but I’m guessing that, like me, it just might not be on the top of your list of things to do. We’re all concerned about keeping our boats afloat. We have stresses from all levels at work and at home and the last thing that we have time for is free work, right?
Well, I’m here to help you change that way of thinking. Up until now we’ve provided discount options to non-profits and companies that we appreciate, but I’ve always been too, well, busy to even consider it. But I think that donating your services every once in a while might turn out to be a good thing on several levels.
Here are some ways that donating your services can help you grow your business AND help you do some good in the process. Read more
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