Tag Archive for: Web Design

Modern Search Engine Optimization Practices

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Among the many evolving technologies and tools for web professionals that is also the most neglected is search engine optimization. Popular search engines such as Google and Yahoo! are constantly changing the algorithms that bring consumers the most relevant search results because the technology is still fairly new and evolving. Consumers have been relying on search engines for only a few years, so it makes sense that the technology behind it will only get better and more advanced, unlike the soon-to-be-extinct phonebook.

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freelance design

Advice for Freelance Web and Graphic Designers

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I never intended to start a Tulsa web design and graphic design company. Graphic and web design was a hobby — nothing more than a “video game” that I did in my spare time for fun to relieve stress. Now it is the fastest growing thing in my life and probably the source of most of my stress!

Over the years, it has been a process of elimination, but I’ve noticed that some of the things we have done over the years are so simple, and to me seem pretty basic common sense, but continue to give us an edge in this industry and provide Tulsa Web Design Firm with some selling points. Here are a few of them:

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formal education

Formal Education for Web and Graphic Design

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I love the web design and graphic design industry — I really do. It started out as my “video game” and it became an addiction. I love fast-paced environments that change constantly, and where the process of learning new ways to do things never ends. I honesty never thought I’d make a good living doing it; it’s what I did (and still do) for fun. Although there are many other qualified people to speak on this subject, I write this post from experience from what I have personally seen in this industry regarding education.

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Tulsa Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization for Your Website

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SEO, search engine optimization and Internet marketing…all of these terms are now common place terms with business owners that know nothing about any of it. They just know that they need it if they’re going to expand their business online and generate more leads and sales from their website(s), which is exactly what their website should be doing—working for you while you focus on the important operational aspects of your organization. Search engine optimization and Internet marketing are tasks best handled by a professional or by a team of professionals.

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online advertising

How to Find a Good Media-Marketing Company

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What things should you, as a business owner, look for in a company that has promised you online success? With our economy the way that it is, business owners have to get smarter and look for this type of help when it’s not feasible to have someone in house do it all (which would be ideal). So what do you look for? There are many talented 1-man shows out there that know what they are doing, and there are large firms that can do the very same.

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Tulsa Internet Marketing

Internet Marketing for Your Business

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Why do you have a website? If your primary reason for having a website is simply because your competitors have a website and you feel like not having one will hurt your business, then I’m willing to bet that you haven’t updated your website in weeks or even months. Mr. Business Owner, this is doing you more harm than good. Your website is a sales tool, and quite frankly, one of the most powerful ones that you’ll ever have. Gone are the days of having a website and not updating it for weeks and months.  Not OKAY! You may not see this because you are still thinking about the good ‘old days of direct mail marketing where you got a 4% return one year on a direct mail piece that you really liked.

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Search Engine Marketing

What a Medium Size Business Should Know aAbout Advertising Online

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Many small businesses do not have an advertising budget for what I believe to be a few reasons. It’s not that they don’t advertise, but they just don’t know how much they should spend on advertising and online marketing. The sad truth is that in order to go from a small business to a medium sized business, you’ve got to have some knowledge of these things. In order for you to be a successful medium size business that outperforms your competitors, you’ve got to know exactly how much you can spend, and how much you should spend.

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Smart Business Owners are Marketing Online

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Online MarketingI’m currently reading a book entitled The New Rules of Marketing and PR that my friend and local business owner Brad Johnson of Lawn America loaned to me.  It’s quite good!  I came across a story about a company that we all know and can identify with, and I found it relevant to many of the business owners that I speak to every week.  So, I thought I’d share…

Century 21 Real Estate LLC is the franchisor of the world’s largest residential real estate sales organization, an industry giant comprising approx. 8,000 offices in 45 countries.  You’ve seen Century 21’s TV ads before, but you haven’t seen them lately.  In 2009, the company pulled its national TV advertising and invested those resources into online marketing.  That’s a huge move considering the amount of TV they were doing. Read more

Your Homepage No Longer Does the Heavy Lifting

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Gone are the days of the homepage. True, every website has one, but the days when website owners expect their homepage to do all the heavy lifting are gone.

Thanks to the evolving science of search, the search engines have made our lives easier by providing the consumer with relevant search results for specific keyword queries. Visitors now stream directly into websites via side doors and back doors. They can magically teleport into a website without ever seeing the homepage; they are practically flying through the windows to land directly where they want to be.

For a consumer looking for a specific product or service, this is fantastic, but for site owners and operators, the importance of optimizing each and every individual page you would potentially want a searcher to visit is magnified considerably. When visitors can enter a site and land anywhere, there are brand implications. If it’s not immediately apparent where they are, and why, they might not stick around. The same thought and energy you put into the homepage of the site to brand the product or company must be put into each page that you intend to be searchable for the consumers that you want to be on your site. Read more

Web Developers Stand Up

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While eating some chocolate donuts this morning with my son, it dawned on me that each miniature donut was identical.  All the same size, shape, taste, etc.  I thought to myself, “what if all web content developers put ample, and equal time on each web project dedicated to search engine optimization for the site?”  Well, it would definitely make the fight to get on Google’s first page much more difficult.  The content online everywhere would be so relevant and the searches would be so close together in similarity that one listing would not stand head and shoulders above the other searched results, as it does now.

Well, the truth is, most web designers do just that – they design websites.  Developing a website entails much more than just throwing some files on the server and invoicing the client.  Proper SEO practices are not followed by all.  One firm that we took over a website at the request of the client put together a really nice site, but even after it was launched for over a month, there were no title tags, no descriptions or key words; just nothing but some text and some graphics.  When I asked him why they didn’t do any of it, his reply was, “We kinda ran out of time.”  2 weeks after we optimized the site, it was all over the first page of Google and the other major indexes.  That company is no longer in business. Read more