Archive for the ‘Web Design’ Category

“Here you go, I’ll send the logo over in a Microsoft Word Document!” As a designer, I hear these words far too often and my fellow creative artists will we agree with me when I say it makes us all cringe just a little bit. Let me tell you why.

A well-designed logo is the corner stone of your business. It’s a staple of who you are, what your business stands for, and it’s brand recognition you want associated with your company.

A good logo is

• Simple
• Recognizable
• Scalable

Simple

Think logos such as Nike, Target, or Apple. When you break down the fundamentals of their logo concept and execution, it’s quite effortless. A simple logo communicates a clear message; brand recognition and readability. Nike’s logo was originally created for just $35 and is recognizable worldwide.

Recognizable

Possibly one of the strongest, most identifiable logo internationally, may be the Golden Arches of McDonalds. Our children are more likely to recognize the McDonalds Golden Arches before they can distinguish their own name. The logo is essentially 2 rounded arches fused together.

Color

Often times, a logo will be seen in more then one color. For example, it should work in black and white, as well as color. It should be readable in any format. Your letterhead may be faxed, copies will be made, so you want to make sure your logo is readable in various color formats.

Scalable

A logo should work at any size. Whether you want to place it on a business card, or a billboard, the logo should be scalable in a vector format.

File Formats

You’ll want your logo to be in a vector format. Without getting into too much detail in our beginning article, vector graphics use geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and polygons, which are all based upon mathematical equations to represent images in computer graphics. Since they are mathematical equations, this allows us to have the scalability of a logo that is .5 inches or 15 feet. A raster graphic is a representation of an image as a collection of pixels, mostly used to represent photographic images.

Possible Vector Format

• .AI (Adobe Illustrator)
• .EPS (Encapsulated PostScript)
• .PDF

Your graphic designer should provide you with these original files and potentially a .JPEG for your personal use. Most computers will not be able to open these file format unless you have specialized graphic software.

We prefer receiving logos in vector format. We “can” work with your rastered logo images, but if at all possible, we’d prefer them in vector format.

In terms of content, there are two different aspects when pondering the design and development of a new website for your business. When I think of dynamic, I think of something that is changing, moving, or interacting. The first thing that comes to mind when I think of the word static is; stays constant, fixed, something that really isn’t interacting.

My same theories can be used to determine your site requirements. The context in which we will be discuss dynamic and static is merely for website content.

Static

Static content is often referred to as an “Online Brochure”; the content is there for the taking! A static website is a great, inexpensive tool to convey the basics of your business to an end user, create/recreate an online presence to keep up with or surpass your competitors, or simply post your contact details. When I think of a static website, I think of a 5 page website. For Example:

• Home
• About us
• Contact us
• Products/services
• Miscellaneous page (testimonials, terms of service, missions statement, etc)

A lot of web sites can be broken down into this static category, as a matter of fact Basque Norte’s brand new site couldn’t convey a static web site example any better.

Dynamic

Dynamic content can be defined as content, products, photo’s, etc that are constantly changing depending on user interaction. For example, when you think of an e-commerce website, you first select a category, perhaps a sub-category, then you see a list of products. Once you see a product you are interested in, you select the details to determine whether or not you would like to purchase that item. Well, you may not know it, but you’ve just browsed through what would be considered a dynamic web site.

Uses for dynamic content:

• E-Commerce
• Easily Managed Photo Gallery
• Content Management
• Online Forms
• Career Postings
• Etc

The uses are virtually endless. You can introduce infinite dynamic possibilities to the modern day website. The portfolio section (http://www.chicowebdesign.com/portfolio) of the website you are now browsing is dynamic and it allows us to easily add and maintain new and existing portfolio items with ease.

Dynamic content, for the context of this discussion, is pulled from a database. Without making you fall asleep (although probably too late!), a dynamic web language such as PHP interacts with a database to withdraw pertinent information based on what the end user selected or clicked on.

Bringing it back to our e-commerce example, the database has relationships between products and categories so when the user clicks on a particular category it knows what products to display to the user. This is a typical dynamic interaction between the user and database.

Advantages of dynamic web sites
First and foremost, one of the largest benefits to developing a dynamic site is the maintainability. Now that the content is being stored in a database, we can easily design an interface between the administrator and the database for any novice to maintain the data, products, images, etc on there website.

It also allows us to structure or retrieve the information any format you’d like to display it to the end user. Let’s say for example you want ten products per page, 35 products per page, or view all, it can all be done since the information is already being stored in the database. It makes loading new products, photos, content to your website a snap.

Remember, content is what is going to drive people to your website. Having up to date, easy to read and understand content is what’s going to keep them coming back or call your business.

1. Know your target audience
   You know who your target demographic is. We know how to cater to them.
2. What is the goal of your website?
   Will you be selling products? Will you be displaying your inventory online, but not selling? Do you want to display only your basic contact information and services?
3. Once potential clients and customers are at your site, what will they be looking for?
   Now that they are at your site, what will you be trying to convey to them? Will they be looking for information about your newest service or will they be buying a product?
4. Content
   Content is what is going to drive people to your website and keep them interested. Having a properly outlined content will help expedite the quote process and the implementation of your website.
5. How often will you need to update the content?
   Chico Web Design offers a variety of solution for content management. Having an up to date website will not only increase your search engine rank standings, but give customers and potential clients a reason to come back.
6. Artwork
   This is important. Chances are your printer may have a high resolution logo, or the graphic artist who created it initially. Please get it ready for us. Acceptable file formats include, .AI, .EPS, .PSD (.PSD is only acceptable for web design).
7. Domain Name
   Your domain name is very important (ie, your www.yourbusinessname.com). Choosing an intuitive, easily typed domain name will help your customers and potential clients find your site. Something short, to the point, and easily remembered is always best.
8. Web Hosting
   In order for you website to visible on the World Wide Web, you must place your files on a computer which will serve web pages. This is called a web server. Chico Web Design offers web hosting services but we do not require you to host with us.
9. Search Engines
   What do you think people would type into a search engine to reach your website? What keywords or key phrases? For more information, see our article about Search Engine Optimization.
10. Cost
    Anything is possible, it just takes time and money! Having a specified budget in mind will help us accommodate to your exact specifications. Although you may think this is a loaded question, having a budget to work within will let us maximize our time and efficiency.

Are you ready?

Give us a call at 1 (877) 893-5257 or 1 (530) 893-5257 or Contact us.

Clients often ask us, “After you are done building our web site, will it be number one on Google”? We get this question with almost every website proposal we complete. More often then not, we don’t have the answer. Only Google knows!

First off, we do not claim to be Search Engine Optimization experts, nor do we bill ourselves out at such. The advice you will receive here comes only from the years of experience I have as a project manager, designer, and developer. What we do as a design and development firm is create websites that are search engine friendly, content driven, which have light HTML pages that will only increase your odds of ranking higher.

Website design should not be categorized in the same field as Search Engine Optimization. I often equate it to my clients as the difference between an a automotive repair shop, and a automotive body shop. Yes, they are both in the automotive industry, but different fields of expertise.

Let’s get started!

What is Search Engine Optimization or SEO?

Search Engine Optimization is the “science” so to speak, of rankings and indexing websites via Internet search engines. There are an infinite number of attributes and algorithms that make up where your site is indexed in search engine results. Starting with your content, to the number of inbound links, page popularity, and so on. The bottom line is there is no answer on how to become number one, just theories.

Meta Data

You may have heard of this term before. Meta data, in its simplest definition, is information about particular content. Every page of your website can have Meta data. In theory, search engines crawl or spider each page of your site and view your Meta data, which if set up properly to describe the content, will give the search engines a better understanding of what resides on the page.

Meta Keywords

Meta keywords are a list of keywords or keyword phrases separated by a comma. The theory behind Meta keywords is that the terms selected may be associated with that particular page on your site. When giving Chico Web Design your keywords, we always prefer 30-40 keywords or keyword phrases that you believe people may type in to reach your site. In general, we tell our clients to think geographically. The more specified these terms are, the better chance you have at receiving the rankings you want.

For example, if you owned an Italian restaurant in Chico California, you may want to specify that geographically in your Meta keywords.

Ie, Chico Italian Bistro, Chico Italian Restaurant, North Valley Restaurant, etc.

Why? Because what good will it do your business if someone from Texas views your web site looking for a great restaurant to to go to that evening?

Meta Description

Meta description, just like Meta keywords is placed in the source of the HTML document and is hidden to the viewer. The description often gets placed in search engine results under the link to your site. A good description will be 3-4 sentences and entice the viewer looking at search engine results to click on the link. If this is not defined on your page, they will often grab whatever they please so it’s best to define them.

Again, geographically targeting your description in my opinion is helpful.

For example, using the Italian restaurant in Chico California.

Locally owned and operated, the Chico Italian Bistro is quaint place to enjoy great Italian American food. With a variety of dishes to choose from, the Chico Italian Bistro has been serving customers in Chico California for nearly 20 years. Locally owned and operated, on the corner of 5th street and Main.

Search Engine Friendly URL’s

All URL’s are safe to the browser. You will often notice on some sites that the URL in the address bar has miscellaneous strings of characters that mean nothing to you. Well, they also mean nothing to search engines. That’s why we choose to use Search engine friendly URL’s when developing a website for a client. For example, a search engine safe URL would look something like this

http://www.chicowebdesign.com/web-design-portfolio/web-design.php

To the viewer and search engines it’s very explanatory and descriptive of the page. Just by looking at this you may think that you are looking at a web design portfolio.

Content is King

One of the most important things you can do with your website is create resourceful, keyword driven content. There are many theories on how many keywords should be placed into the content and quite frankly I don’t know the answer. What I do know, is that planning your content around your keywords will only help you. What I typically do is create a list of keywords I want to use throughout the page and then begin writing my content.

As with anything related to SEO, you can use too much. Placing too many keywords thoughtout your content is not a good idea, but a nice lean balance between will help you get the results you are looking forl

Inbound Links

Many of the most popular search engines place heavy weight upon, along with many other attributes, inbound links. An inbound link is a link from another website to your website. In general, you want to have as many links as you can from related websites. For example, having links from your manufactures, vendors, and even competitors.

There are many free website directories related to your field online. A quick Google search with your industry + free directory will yield results.

Flash

Flash, when used correctly, is a great tool to keep viewers interested. When used inappropriately it can take all of the search engine capabilities away from your website. Flash is image driven, and therefore the content cannot be spidered by search engines. There are alternatives, such as creating an identical site in HTML, but now you must manage two different websites.

Basic flash elements, (ie, www.4researchsolutions.com) when used correctly, in key areas of interest make it a nice pleasurable experience for the user and do not take a way from your search engine spiderablility*.

How long until my site is searched or spidered by search engines?

More often than not, it takes 2 to 3 weeks. We cannot speak for all of the search engines, but typically we notice results in about the 2 to 3 week range. There are a few things you can do to speed up the process. The best thing to do is to have us create a splash page or a coming soon page. This will let the search engines know that there is something here, even if it’s nothing but a logo and it will begin to be spidered.

Also, since Chico Web Design gets spidered almost daily, having a link in our portfolio section, as all clients do, will help speed up the process as well.

What will Chico Web Design do to help my brand new site?

As we stated above, we do not consider ourselves SEO experts, but feel we have enough web experience to understand the basic concepts that will only help your site get the traffic it needs.

When developing a website, Chico Web Design uses W3C standard HTML helping to keep our pages as “light” as possible. Producing “light” pages allows the search engines to focus on the content and ignore a lot of the useless code that was once used to create layouts. We also use search engine friendly URL’s and will apply any Meta data that you would like into your site, all you have to do is give us the copy.

In conclusion, SEO is a very complex science that no one person knows the answer too. What Chico Web Design does as a web design and development firm is implements the most up to date techniques used to help start your optimization. If you want a professional to help you optimize your site to it’s fullest potential, please contact us and we will be glad to put you in contact with a professional. But remember, someone who is good at SEO can cost up to $300 p/hour.

*yes, I made this word up!