Web Design

Website tips | Be seen and heard year round

So your town has shoulder seasons, also known as the "off season." These off seasons are defined as times when there are fewer visitors and there is less spending happening in store fronts. In tourist towns of North America, these off seasons tend to happen in late Spring and early Autumn. Tourists stay home and commerce is more dependent upon resident spending. But, just because your town has an off season, doesn't mean YOU have to.

Good websites and great marketing strategies allow for your little shop-front in Small Town USA to be seen on a global scale year round. This means that even if spending has slowed down in your area, it allows you to be seen by online shoppers worldwide.

"Good," you think to yourself. "I have a website so I must be taken care of." Unfortunately, that is not true. Just because you can have a website, doesn't mean it is being seen. It may be there and be able to be seen with direct searches (meaning when you type in your URL, you see your website). But most people on the planet, let alone internet shoppers don't know your URL and depend on Google searches and ads. So unless you have great search engine optimization and a marketing plan to go along with it, your website may just be floating in the ethers of the web.

Again, to be seen on a global scale means your website MUST be created correctly and you MUST have a marketing plan that you stick with (PS- a $400 website package will never offer this, fyi). If you want your business to attract new clients, then you need to 1.) get your site created right and 2.) have a marketing plan that fits your budget of time and money each week/month.

Finding a great website designer may take you time, but it is worth it. Here are some tips to help you find a website designer that can help your business get seen and heard. Working with a designer that has a marketing background and knows how to help you with internet marketing would be easiest, but if you can't find one, then search for a marketing firm to help you create one.

The internet and incredible shipping options has opened up the global economy not only for large businesses, but for small businesses, too. There are people buying and selling products around the world each day, every day. Just because your town has a shoulder season doesn't mean your business has to have one too.

How to choose a web designer

With thousands of website designers out there, choosing a web designer can be a daunting task. So how do you choose a web designer? Here is a list of things to consider when choosing someone to design (and maintain) your website:

Portfolio:

Does their web portfolio provide a list of websites that have the same overall look and feel (style) of the website you want to have? Does their website portfolio show websites that are built on the platform or have the general elements of the website you want? If these portfolios show websites that offer similar layouts, styles, and elements to the site you want built, then that web designer can probably design it for you. If not, this may be a "portfolio builder" for the web designer. This can mean that this designer man not have a clue of what to look for in terms of functionality, testing, and how to make future updates to the site.

Client Testimonials:

How easy is it to work with this web designer? What type of service and website can you expect to get? Look at their client testimonials. Were clients willing to provide testimonials to the developer? Were they willing to provide a testimonial on platforms that links their name, such as Google Reviews and LinkedIn? If not, why not? What is this web designer hiding?

Price Structure:

Freelance designers often question whether to charge a flat rate or hourly rate? Flat rates can be tricky. If a website designer offers that, be sure to look into what you are really signing up for. If you sign up to have a website built for a flat rate, what does it include? If you go over the allocated items of that package, how much are you being charged for?

People think that a flat rate web design will save them money- that they will pay one amount and that's that. However, if you go over the amount of changes, or want another plugin, or are just modifying an old site versus starting new from the ground up, flat rate providers often have high additional fees.

Hourly rates allow customers the freedom to choose what they want for their site, make as many changes as is needed within their budget, and have add-on elements that are not usually offered in package deals. If you are choosing someone with a flat rate versus hourly rate, review the details of what really is and what isn't included. Additionally, if you are choosing someone with an hourly rate, ask them what they charge for and what they don't (i.e. Do they charge for changes and email/communication time? Do they charge for the hour they talked your ear off about politics and coding developments, etc.).

Personality:

Does your personality match or clash with your web designer's personality? You will be working with this designer for awhile. If you cannot meet eye to eye in the beginning in the content strategy planning stages, you will not find a happy medium later on when deadlines and budgets are approaching. Find someone that will make this process fun and hopefully, rewarding. This is YOUR business. Find someone who will help represent you AND be a joy to work with.

Advocacy:

Who is the web designer's priority: themselves or you? Are they so engulfed with making this website so beautiful that they forgot to think about your budget? Are they so excited to work on a new module or plugin that they forgot to see if it matches your overall marketing goals and business well-being? Finding a designer that is an advocate for your business is a must. Therefore, when decisions come up about adding social media elements or mapping software or custom plugins and modules, your designer knows whether or not to spend any time researching it based on if it matches your marketing goals for your business and your budget/timeline.

Budget:

Does this designer match your budget? Furthermore, what is your budget? A business website is one of the most essential tools for successful marketing today. But just having a website is not the issue: you need a functioning, tested, branded, and search engine optimized website with good content, great imagery, and web marketing basics implemented. If not, your site will be lost in cyberspace.

Do some research and/or call a handful of designers (in your country) with your scope of work for your site. You can gain an understanding of what is the standard for what you are asking for. Then see if these ballpark figures are within realm of one another. If you get an outlying, low-ball estimate, ask to see a breakdown of what they are really offering. If you get an incredibly low-ball estimate compared to 3 other similarly priced quotes, something is not lining up. Ask them:

1. Are they using programmers and designers in your country to do the work or are they outsourcing to another country with poor working conditions? (If so, are these working conditions something that is reflective of the ethical standards of your business and do you want to be associated with supporting such practices?) If so, what accountability is there for when something goes wrong? And, if these outsourced programmers are involved with an eCommerce website, do you feel comfortable not knowing what web programmer where has all of your bank account information?
2. Are they using stock imagery, video, or music that they have purchased the licensing to (and is that included in the estimate)? Or will you get a call one day for copyright infringement and a copyright lawsuit because they have stole those elements and cut corners to save a buck?
3. Are they quoting you an html site that requires you to contact them every time you need a change made? Or are they quoting you a content management platform where you will be empowered to make your own content changes?
4. Do they even know what they are doing? You can hear it in their voice. If they can't explain how the process works, what to expect, and they give you a million "yes's" without asking you enough questions, they most likely are looking for a fast buck. Just because they can build a website, doesn't mean they should.

As always, you get what you pay for. If you want your website to perform, you need a good designer (and a great marketing plan, but more about that in another post). Be willing to adjust your budget to what is necessary to get the results you are expecting.

Value:

Golden rule: Treat others as you want to be treated. Same goes for business. If you want to be paid what you are worth, then pay others what they are worth. Yes, sales are great and please take advantage of them. But if you are asking a web designer to do something for free or cheap because they are a friend or because you feel you are entitled to free service, what are you getting in return? Are you getting their best work?

The value of a good website is incredible: websites are an amazing tool that if created correctly and are aligned with a marketing plan and team to implement the plan, they can attract hundreds- and possibly millions- of new clients during it's lifetime. If you find a designer that you like and adheres to the standards of above, be willing to pay their price. They will be an incredible advocate for you and your business, and most likely will perform way beyond the value of their fees.

Finding a good website designer can be challenging. But if you take the time to go through list above, you will most likely find someone who can create a perfect site for you and your business (and can be fun working with in the meantime).

Artist who does Web Design

People often visit my website to view my fine art and then say, "Wow! I had no idea you created websites too!" They later ask how I can be both an artist AND do something so left-brained like web design and marketing? For me it is easy because they are two passions of mine: I absolutely love to push myself creatively AND I am passionate about finding ways to help people pursue their own business visions.

So what is it that I do for businesses?

When I am working on a business project, I wear many, many hats, including:

• project manager
• SEO and marketing consultant
• graphic artist
• illustrator
• html/css programmer
• UI/UX designer
• content editor
• business coach
• and confidant

Brand development and marketing require someone who can keep the vision in mind while overseeing and executing the daily tasks of the project. From owning a few different businesses and coaching several more, I have had regular practice on how to address the unique nuances of each industry. I work with business visions in mind as I get the realistic details in order and figure out what needs to happen on a daily basis to make a deadline. However, I understand the creative side too, so I get results that are eye-catching and memorable to your target market.

To understand the completeness of a project, the project manager needs to understand how each part works, what is most important for that component to work, and then blend the parts into a perfect marriage. That means someone who understands the visual, marketing, programming or printing, and clients needs.

Each project may sounds simple: "I need a website." "I need a poster." "I need a sign illustrated." But behind each project is a multitude of tasks that need to be done correctly to make your project worthwhile. Before choosing your web designer or graphic designer, look at their portfolio and see if they have the experience to help you with your project. Make sure their past works are something you may like for your business. And read their testimonials. And next time you'll get a better feel why so many people choose someone like me, an artist who does design.

What is a blog (and why do I need one?)

What is a blog?

I get asked this question all of the time: What is a blog? A blog is a type of website where one page streams information (called blog posts) onto it in a chronological order. It means that there is one page (one URL) that you can visit to see either a flow of new updates, with the most recent at the top.

Many people have a blog which is a stand alone website that shows their posts with a little paragraph about the author. However, in recent years, great platforms such as WordPress, Joomla and Drupal have made it very easy to integrate blogs into full websites (my website design is a good example of this). This means that you can have a complete website with a common navigation menu such as home, about, services, portfolio, contact, and testimonials, AND have a blog as one of those pages.

Why do I need a blog?

The answer lies in your intentions for your content or website. Are you trying to build a business website where you want organic traffic from search engines to find your website? Are you looking for improved rankings on Google, Bing and Yahoo? Are you sick and tired of waiting on a friend or family member to make updates on your website for you? Do you have regular updates to make to your site but aren't sure where to add them to your site?

Here are some of the potential benefits of having a blog:

• Blogs provide an easy place for repeat visitors to visit for updates on your site, versus searching through numerous pages for news and additions.
• Blogs allow for you to write regularly on a subject that has relevant keywords for your site and therefore can make your site more "valid" in terms of searches performed by search engines.
• Additionally, blogs allow you to sound more like a human when writing about that same content again and again (as mentioned above) because you can approach the content from different perspectives in different posts versus having to write it all in one very, very long and drawn-out page.
• Blogs can help attract more website visitors who are interested in your content because blogs can be burned as feeds. People can then subscribe to follow your blog through email or an rss reader.
• Once you have a subscriber to your blog, you have a way to remind people you or your business exist on a regular basis.
• Blogs can be edited by you- no need to wait for cousin Frank to get to your edits.
• Blogs integrate easy-to-use text editors so can be understood with little or no training.
• If you need training, blogging platforms such as WordPress, Joomla and Drupal all are widely documented with great tutorials throughout the web.

Should I use Blogspot or WordPress/ Joomla/ Drupal?

Are you creating a website for a business to show to (hopefully) thousands of people? Or a person dedicating your blog as a travel blog or showing it only to family? Though others may contend, WordPress/ Joomla/ Drupal hosted on your own hosting account is extremely more flexible than Blogspot for the marketing of a business. Though things may change regularly, the main features as why I prefer self-hosted WordPress/ Joomla/ Drupal for businesses are:

• ability to migrate blogs later
• ability to have more than 10 pages
• integration of independent gallery options where you don't have to host your images on Picasa
• ability for eCommerce integration
• thousands and thousands of themes and theme options
• thousands of free tutorials
• you host through your own host, not somewhere where you don't know what they are doing with backups, etc.
• endless storage
• endlessly flexible to support forms, calendars, donation management, event registration, secure online payments, slideshow galleries

Here is some more information about the arguments for and against Blogspot and WordPress. If I were a business owner looking for a new website, though the "free" option of Blogspot sounds tantalizing, it is so limiting that once your business grows, you will need to move your site anyways to support the features of your business.

There are thousands of benefits to having a blog, but choosing the right type of platform is essential. These points will help you to make some good initial decisions and provide inspiration on what you can integrate into your own website design.

Website Makeovers: Before and After Video

There are many places where you can have an online presence. However, with the numerous sites that allow for rankings and viewable customer feedback, the main place that you can ensure 100% of what you want to say to your potential clients is your own website.

Knowing your website may be your first online impression to your potential clients, why would you sacrifice the look and feel of your site? Below is a video featuring some website makeovers that I have designed and programmed for numerous small businesses. The result of the redesign has been successful for all of these clients, giving them a website they can be proud to market.

Best Wordpress Web Host

Choosing a host for your new website can be a daunting task since there are hundreds, if not thousands. I have worked with many and though I love to support local, small businesses, this is one area where the national brand is the better way to go. When you have a national company competing with others, you end up getting easy customer service 24/6, a great control panel, easy to understand tutorials, and usually money back guarantees. One of my favorite companies to work with is GoDaddy.com. They are great for general html sites and WordPress sites, as well as other options.

In building new sites and redesigning sites with hosts that clients currently work with, I have come across numerous different host and domain providers. The reason I prefer GoDaddy.com over many of the other large (and small hosts) is the following:

• Their control panels are very easy to navigate and work with, for both developer and client.
• They have a wide variety of tutorials for all of their products that are easy to access and understand
• I have had the least amount of problems with their hosting and transfers with them than any other host I have worked with.
• They have expedited transfers for me, allowing client websites to have minimal down times.
• Though I have seen some slower service for their Economy WordPress hosting, their Deluxe and Ultimate packages have produced faster load times for client websites.
• Customer service. I have had some problems with them with a couple clients (but less than with other hosts) and when that happened, they refunded the full amount.

All hosts boast that they do not have problems, even though all hosts have a problem here and there. That said, GoDaddy has provided more consistent service than any other host that I have used.

How to Purchase the Top wordpress website hosting

1. Go to GoDaddy.com and go to the menu HOSTING If you are getting a WordPress site, go to WORDPRESS hosting
2. If you will only have a few images and don't care about loading speeds, choose the Economy Plan. If you are going to have more than a handful of images and want faster loading times, choose Deluxe Plan (12 months is recommended for both). If you are going to have an eCommerce site with onsite payment processing, then choose the Ultimate Plan and you will get a SSL certificate for free for one year.
3. Don't add anything else on the next page and proceed to checkout.*
4. *If you do not have a domain name, go to DOMAINS and select a domain name. The .com and .net are preferred.

GoDaddy is my favorite website host because they take great care of you, have exceptional services and integrative options, as well as numerous tutorials that stay up to date. If you are planning on getting a website, I recommend GoDaddy for your hosting. However, be sure to talk to your web designer first to make sure that you are purchasing the correct plan for your site.

Launch of Truckee River Watershed Council Website

The Truckee River Watershed Council is a non-profit organization that manages numerous events and activities. Their site needed to be able to manage all of this activity while maintaining the look of a professional non-profit site. This website was a major undertaking due to the amount of actions that needed to take place on the site itself and started 6 months ago. I first met with them to give suggestions of how the site should work and after many meetings, worked with them to streamline their wireframe. Then the fun started.

WEED REPORTING: Working with local programmer SunMie Won of SW Programming, we created an interactive website on the Joomla platform. Working with iphone and Droid application developers from the invasive species site What's Invasive, we customized a weed reporting tool that would work with the iPhone and Droid AND would upload reports visually on the TRWC site using Google technology. Furthermore we added an identification section where viewers could search the site for invasive weeds.

DONATION MANAGEMENT: The needs of TRWC's donation management exceeded most donation software so we integrated the CiviCRM module and customized it from there. TRWC can now accept online payments as a one time or an ongoing pledge option through their secure website.

EVENT REGISTRATION: TRWC hosts numerous events and meetings and needed a calendar that could not only be updated for events, but could accept registration. The registration aspect notifies registrars and then sets the registrar up on a separate list on the backend so TRWC can choose to do an email to all those who signed up for a particular event.

NEWSLETTER: TRWC sends out regular newsletters so we integrated an online newsletter option for viewers. TRWC can now use their customized template to send newsletters with their look and feel, as well as track them.

CUSTOM DESIGN AND ILLUSTRATION: To make the website pop and to further the education of the watershed, TRWC needed a map of the Truckee River Watershed. I hand painted a map if the watershed that I later integrated into the homepage slider and the projects maps.

SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATION & eCOMMERCE: Since the TRWC website is so large, we need to help them with their system's administration and migrate them to a virtual dedicated server. Additionally, we assisted them with the integration of their eCommerce using authorize.net and their merchant account.

Overall this is a large site with a lot of customization and forms. It allows the Truckee River Watershed council to not only have one place where donors, volunteers, and residents can learn more about the watershed, but a place where they can manage it all in the back end as well. TruckeeRiverWC.org

Websites without a marketing plan are lost in space

Ok- so you spent a lot of money and time developing the PERFECT website that visually epitomizes everything you and your business is about. You had some help with the messaging and implemented search engine optimized techniques. You were trained how to use your WordPress or Joomla site, you added one blog post and ta-da: now the site is done. So now what? This is where many people get lazy and just stop. They think that because the SEO I implemented on their site got them on page one of Google rankings that they no longer have to worry about doing anything to their site, or marketing it, for that matter: "It will just bring new clients to me on its own, right?" MAYBE, BUT NOT GUARANTEED.

One of my favorite quotes I saw from a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) company rings so true:

Launching a website without an ongoing marketing plan is like spending the money and time on a tv commercial and never buying air time to show it.

So what can you do? The beauty of content management sites (CMS) like WordPress and Joomla are not only are they easy to navigate and update (once trained) but there are thousands of tips on how to make changes and how to get a better client base by installing pre-programmed widgets (like newsletter sign up forms) all over the internet. I personally give my clients techniques on how to write search engine optimized posts and content, as well as how to drive content back to your site through the use of eNewsletters and social media. But despite how easy and how CHEAP it is to do your own marketing, the excuses still take hold: "I don't have time."

My retort: "So you have time to complain about the economy, have time to worry about money, but don't have time to put 1/2 an hour a week into free marketing ideas?" Crazy. I am all about taking the bulls by the horns and that is what it takes. Now it doesn't mean you have to dedicate your life to marketing all the time, but 1/2 an hour to 2 hours a week can really do wonders.

If you don't know where to start, just start with some goals. Make a list of how many new clients you want per month and how much time and money you have to spend to acquire those clients. The work backwards. If you want 5 new clients a month, then you need to get about 20 hot leads, which means you need to get the word out to about 75+ people (these are totally rough numbers just to give you an idea). Anyways, if you get lost or confused, you can always hire a marketing consultant. But if not, you can start with that and then make a plan of action.

If you are worried about money but have time on your hands, the first thing you can do is start researching eNewsletter options, such as Constant Contact, MailChimp, Vertical Response, as well as thousands of others. It is a great way to get people who are already interested in you to take action.

The next thing you can do is start setting up your social networks as well as your free business listings in Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Relevant links back to you always help the validity of your site as well as help people who are interested be able to connect with you.

Tags: Marketing, SEO, Truckee, Web Design, web designer, web marketing, web marketing tips, website seo, websites

Get seen on Google and Yahoo

So now you have a content management site through WordPress and you are able to make your own changes. A friend calls and asks "I couldn't find you on Google." Before sounding the alarms, realize you can make some changes. Before they hang up, ask them a few questions:

• What search engine were you using: Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc?
• What were the exact keywords the you typed in?
• Did you look past the first page of search results for my site and if so, what page was I on?

Once you have that info in hand, reflect on it. "Are these the type of keywords that other clients could be using to search for my site? Are these keywords more relevant than other keywords for optimal search results?" If the answers is yes, then login to your WordPress backend.

Once you have logged in, you can make changes a few places and do a few things:

• Settings>All in One SEO. If you have this pulgin, this overrides your homepage keywords. You will want to add, change those keywords or possibly the title there.
• Pages- go to your homepage into edit mode. Be sure there is some relevant text on the homepage content page itself using those exact keywords. Use them in the content of the page AND then down in the All in One SEO below (if you do not have that plugin, I highly recommend getting it and installing it).
• Blog post- make a new blog post with those keywords in the title, the body content, and the All in One SEO pack. Add a relevant picture and make sure the ALT tag has those keywords (but only if it's relevant).

Other things you can do are set up free business places on Google, Yahoo and Bing, where those keywords are on the description and the category. External links that come from valid areas will help a bunch too. You can also do this by adding a Facebook FanPage, adding yourself to Yelp, or a million other places. When you do, be sure to add those relevant keywords as part of your descriptions.

It can take some time to be seen this way so while you wait for the search robots to revisit your site, you may want to take out some online ads where those particular keywords come into play (but that's another blog post unto itself . Again, this is all part of a larger online marketing plan. Once you have the site, you can't just leave it be- you need to work on it to get it out there. If you don't have a plan or need help, consult a designer or marketing consultant to help you.

Rate and Review on Google

Did you have a good experience with a service provider or business? If so, take 3 minutes and write a review for them on their Google Business Place. This not only helps them get feedback, but also helps improve their Google rankings and helps new clients be reassured about their choice.

1. Go to Google Maps and type in their business name and/or address (if they sent you a link, you can just follow the link and skip to step 3). If they have a Google Business account, their business should appear. If they don't, recommend that they get one and that you will be their first testimonial.
2. Their business name will appear. Do not click on the title; click on the "more info" link below it.
3. Once to their page, scroll down to the middle and you will see a list of reviews and an area to sign in to make a review. You must use your Google account to log in and review. If you do not have one, you can create a free one with the prompts.
4. Add your testimonial and click "submit."

If you have a Google Business Place account and want to send a link to a client who wants to provide a testimonial, go to your business account and get the link from the right hand side:

If you have used my services and would like to provide me a testimonial on Google, you can use this link and then follow step 3 and 4 above. (Thanks in advance!)