Website Design & Development, SEO Optimization - eye on Design Blog & Video Podcast: Trends & Tools from a leading Colorado Denver web design firm » design

IE Losing Market Share

Ryan Ayres — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 02:20:54 +0000

As a leading Denver, Colorado web design company we are always testing different internet browsers and keeping our finger on the pulse of what web surfers use. The leader has been Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and it is still the market leader. Recently however, in an article posted by StatCounter, the IE giant is still losing ground and market share to Firefox and Google’s Chrome.

This is a pretty significant change since just two years ago IE had about 67% of the market. The good news is that it doesn’t affect search engine optimization or any other aspect of the website other than usability.

What does this mean? For eye9 Design it really doesn’t mean a lot since we test all of our sites using IE, Firefox and Opera browsers anyway (were cool like that). But what it means is that more people with be seeing web pages as they were intended. This isn’t a shot at Microsoft it is simply a comment on our 10+ years of web programming experience and the constant tweaking & bugs presented by IE users.

This also means that less and less people are using ActiveX and/or native IIS (Microsoft) based applications. Certainly Microsoft’s SharePoint has its well defined niche in the corporate world but this signifies a trend. PHP rules when it comes to web surfing.

Check out the full article on StatsCounter.com by clicking here.

eye9 Design is a Colorado website design company, specializing in web and graphic design, web development, and seo optimization. Denver, CO.

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HTML sites…Dying On The Vine

Ryan Ayres — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 19:53:21 +0000

HTML is sooooo 1990’s. The days of having your website online, with the same content, images, thoughts and videos are over. Making website changes, being fluid to your business’ changes and creating your brand has everything to do with a dynamic website, not boring HTML. Our Denver Web Design customers know, as do our out of state and international customers, CMS is the only way to roll.

OK…so we are overdramatizing it, we know. The fact is, to be “in the game” on the internet and to compete in your markets you have to have a dynamic website; enter the CMS (content management system). Anyone who can use facebook or type a word document can update a website. A properly built CMS like WordPress, Joomla or FireAnt can empower you to be your own webmaster.

CMS websites are the best choice for businesses that require lot of changes. We also believe if your site has more than 5-7 pages you should consider using a CMS. Don’t all websites have more than 5-7 pages? Yep…and why we rarely build HTML only sites.

Add, remove and edit web pages
Easily upload images and videos
Host Fascinating Web Design Blogs =)
Sell products
Clean the house (wishful thinking)
Easy-t0-use
Make changes at 2am in your PJs
The list goes on and on!

When should I use HTML? Well it is the exception to the rule for sure. 99% of eye9 Design’s websites are CMS or ecommerce websites. HTML sites are valuable for quick micro sites that serve a very specific brand or advertising purpose. HTML websites are really a thing of the past and before long will hold their place in history next to the rotary phone.

eye9 Design is a leading Denver Web Design Firm providing web development and Colorado SEO.

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Which Content Management System is the best?: CMS Series part 3 of 3

Brian Rants — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:32:52 +0000

In part 1 of this series we answered the question “What is a Content Management System? ” In part 2 we covered “Why you need a Content Management System .” Now we are looking at a question we are asked frequently: “Which content management system is the best?”

It’s a bit like asking “what is the best hammer for me?” Well, what are you going to be doing with that hammer? Are you framing out a two story house or putting up a picture frame? Those are two very different tasks, and two hammers that would be a “best fit.”

There are two main kinds of CMS: open source and custom. Both allow you to easily manage content, media, and users. Both are stable, secure, and scalable for future growth. However, each have their benefits and drawbacks:

Open Source CMS

Definition: software created by a community of developers , free to use and adapt to your purposes
Benefits: extensive documentation, countless modules, easy to find developers
Drawbacks: website pages load slower (more queries), one size fits all approach limits customization, complicated administration area includes unused features
Options: Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress (all on PHP)

Custom

Definition: CMS which is constructed around your specific task, workflow, or technology requirements
Benefits: faster page loads (fewer queries), everything you want and nothing you do not
Drawbacks: no extra features
Options: Keep it Simple CMS

What feature or characteristic is most important to you?

If you want open source software, extensive documentation, a community of developers: Drupal or Joomla
If you want the site completely customized to your workflow, quick loading pages for visitors: KIS

eye9 Design is a Colorado web design company providing website design and web development services to clients in the Denver metro area and across the nation.

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Why you need a Content Management System: CMS Series Part 2 of 3

Brian Rants — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:24:33 +0000

In part 1 of this series we answered the question “What is a Content Management System? ” Now we are looking at why your site should have a content management system, or “CMS.”

A website has become one of the primary modes of communication in today’s business world. It has many advantages, including

Omnipresent: a website is not limited by geography or time zones, and can be accessed 24/7 by visitors around the world
Transient: did you decide you want to change that marketing tagline? Found a typo in that press release? You can change content and, unlike brochures or signage, it is instantaneously available to the world

However, there are a couple challenges that companies often face

Expertise: websites are written in coding languages that most people cannot effectively use
Frequency: website content has a notoriously short shelf life, and needs to be updated regularly to stay fresh
Budget: paying web designer fees to upload a press release can be a drain on your budget

Content Management Systems eliminate these barriers. They allow anyone to update the website without technical knowledge, allowing more people throughout your organization to have a role in keeping your website up to date. It also allows you to focus your technology on investing in new web development features or increasing your search engine rankings.

We have covered “What is a CMS ” and “Why you need a CMS.” In the final part of this series we cover “What is the best Content Management System? ”

eye9 Design is a leading Denver website development company .

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What is a Content Management System: CMS Series Part 1 of 3

Brian Rants — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:20:46 +0000

First off, what is a content management system (CMS)? As the name implies, a CMS is a tool that allows you to manage your own website without any design or development experience. There are a number of great CMS, and we build your website on top of this platform so you can update pages, menus, pictures, users, and more.

Sometimes metaphors are helpful to explain concepts more clearly. Let’s say you need to get from Denver to Phoenix, so you need a car. Toyota has spent millions of dollars in R&D to make sure the car is dependable, efficient, and easy to drive. You may never understand the principles of aerodynamics or torque. However, if you can push the gas pedal (and the brake!) and steer the car, you do not need to understand all that.

Just like your investment in a car allows you the benefit of easy transportation, a content management system allows you to manage a website without any programming knowledge. Like Toyota, developers have spent countless hours developing dependable, efficient CMS that are easy to use. Similar to the car example above, you do not need to understand the technical principles behind the tool. You just need to know how type some text, insert a picture, or upload a file…basic tasks you likely perform every day on your PC!

Now that you know what a CMS is, check out part 2 of this series: Why you need a content management system .

eye9 Design is a leading Denver design firm .

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Logo design work – Denver Design Firm

Brian Rants — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:04:02 +0000

eye9 Design has been hard at work churning out some top shelf logo designs. Here are a couple recent examples.

Need a new brand? eye9 Design is a leading Colorado graphic design company that helps companies create logos based on their unique values, target demographic, and position in their business space.

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Our SEO optimization philosophy: proven, tested techniques

Brian Rants — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:37:53 +0000

There is, unfortunately, alot of snake oil in search engine optimization (SEO). We only use proven, tested techniques. Effective SEO requires both on-page and off-page optimization. Search engines look for keyword dense content and tags (on-page), but even more so to how many sites are linking to yours (off-page).

A consortium of the two dozen leading SEO professionals ranked the 10 most important Google ranking factors . Here they are, with on-page factors in bold , and off-page factors in italics.

Keyword Use in Title Tag
Anchor Text of Inbound Link
Global Link Popularity of Site
Age of Site (neither on-page or off-page)
Link Popularity within the Site’s Internal Link Structure
Topical Relevance of Inbound Links to site
Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community
Keyword Use in Body Text
Global Link Popularity of Linking Page
Topical Relationship of Linking Page

We address all of these factors thoroughly with our complete seo optimization packages . Contact us today about search engine optimization for your website.

eye9 Design is a leading Colorado SEO company providing effective seo optimization services.

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Size matters: What screen resolution should my website be designed for?

Brian Rants — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 21:30:54 +0000

The wild world of web design quickly changes with the evolution of the hardware and software it runs on. A five year old car still has a long life ahead, while a five year old website is long past its prime.

One of the most significant hardware changes in the last 5 years is the ever-increasing screen resolution (measured in pixels, such as 800 pixels wide by 600 pixels high). Big, bulky CRT monitors have given way to sleek, thin flat-panel LCD’s . With this transition, screen resolutions have also changed, most notably the emergence of 1024×768 and the disappearance of 800×600.

W3C Schools, part of the main international web standards organization (W3C) , reported that in 2003 almost half of its visitors were on the 800×600 screen resolution. That number has now dropped to 8%. The statistics for our website for 2008 put the number even lower at 2%.

Since both of the above statistics are for sites in the web design industry, I looked at the statistics for 2008 for several of our clients in a variety of industries

Printing company for financial industry: 3%
Non-profit serving the disabled: 6%
Business management consulting firm: 3%
Marine exploration company: 6%

Why is this important? Size matters because increased website widths allow for the user to see more content without scrolling down the page. As you can see above, throughout a variety of industries the 800×600 screen resolution is fading into obscurity. We recommend the 1024×768 resolution to all our web design and website development clients in order to “future-proof” the sites as much as possible.

Are there larger screen resolutions coming? Of course! In fact, some 70% of our visitors have screen resolutions greater than (and not equal to) 1024×768. However, on other site reports we looked at 1024×768 is as much as half of the traffic and this resolution does not show signs of disappearing soon.

This Denver design firm calls the browser wars in favor of 1024×768!

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Prioritizing your search engine marketing budget

Brian Rants — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:05:06 +0000

It is becoming widely acknowledged that to succeed in the highly competitive internet world, it is necessary to optimize your site for search engines.

In a previous post we discussed our two-pronged search engine optimization (SEO) strategy: on-page and off-page optimization . There is a third prong, under search engine marketing (SEM) , called “Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC).” These three prongs comprise a complete search engine marketing strategy.

However, if you have a limited budget, how should you prioritize? In this graph we demonstrate our recommendations for a campaign with a minimum timeline of 6 months. Why 6 months or above? Using an analogy…

Search engine optimization is like taking $100 and buying an apple tree seedling. You will need to spend time cultivating the tree so it will bear fruit. Once it does, you will have a constant and ever increasing supply of apples.
Search engine marketing is like taking $100 and buying apples. You can buy alot of apples, and begin eating them immediately. However, when they are gone…they are gone forever.

So how does this apply to search engine marketing? Doing on-page and off-page optimization (SEO) and pay per click advertising (SEM) allows you to experience the best of all worlds. Pay per click gives you an immediate and measurable traffic boost, while at the same time your on-page and off-page optimization is laying the foundation for long term success. In fact, once your rankings have improved through optimization, you may no longer need to use PPC.

Have further questions about SEO optimization? Ask a leading Colorado SEO Company , eye9 Design .

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What is good design worth?

Brian Rants — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:25:30 +0000

In today’s business world, websites are no longer in the periphery. Businesses are using their websites as the cornerstone of their marketing efforts, even replacing brick and mortar stores.

So it begs the question…what is good design worth? What would you pay for a website that attracts new visitors, reflects your company’s unique values, and converts visitors into customers?

Here is what one customer had to say about what our design means to her small business.

The most impressive thing about working with eye9 is their ability to respond to my requests and develop a site based on my personal design tastes. Not only is the site aestheically pleasing, but it also suits the needs of my small business
Keri Welch, MementobyKeri.com

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