Focusing on Google still the best bet for SEO

Google continues to gain market share and widen its lead against other search engines, as reported in PC World .

Google was used 63 percent of the time in August, compared to 61.9 percent in July, according to figures released Friday by comScore , which tracks online trends.

Yahoo came in second in August at 19.6 percent, down .9 percent from July. Microsoft garnered 8.3 percent of traffic in August, down .6 percent from a month prior.

With our seo optimization process we focus on getting your website ranked in Google’s search results. These techniques will still allow you to gain rankings in the other search engines as well. However, Google’s dominance makes it clear that they are still the best bet.

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

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.

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

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 .

Our SEO optimization philosophy: proven, tested techniques

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.

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

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!

What is good design worth?

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

Your Colorado web design company – Recent work

eye9 Design is a leading Colorado web design company that provides…well, let’s let our clients do the talking.

When I began working with eye9 Design I had a pretty specific idea in mind. In the end, they far exceeded my expectations. People are amazed when they look at the site! Thank you for working so hard to perfect our website. You guys rock!
Jessica Yost, T. Garrett Construction

As one of the leading Colorado web design companies, our process-driven design achieves results every time. We start by listening to your needs, and have you fill out a web design questionnaire that gets at the purpose of the website, and who you are trying to reach. It also helps understand your website design preferences, so that we start off the project in the right direction.

Links, links, links: why links are essential in SEO

Successful search engine optimization strategy has two prongs: on-page and off-page optimization. On-page optimization involves a competitive keyword analysis identifying which keywords your target audience is using, and which keywords you can best compete for. We then implement those keywords throughout your title tag, content, file names, and other meta tags.

Off-page optimization is gathering quality links to your website using those same keywords in the link (anchor) text. This step is often neglected by many clients we speak with. However, off-page optimization is as important as on-page, if not more so. The quality and quantity of links from external websites, called “inbound links,” is paramount. If you look at the SEO industry consensus, the half of the to 10 factors have to do with inbound links.

Here is practical advice on how to gather internal links

Send individually addressed emails to your colleagues, friends, vendors, and clients. Let them know about your newly optimized site, and ask them if they would link to your site.
Tell them what you would like the link to say. This is extremely important. Let’s say one of your top keywords is “Denver ski shop.” When you ask your friends to link to your site, say: “The words used in the link itself are important to search engines because indicates what my site is about. So please use the phrase ‘Denver ski shop’ as the link to my site http://www.example.com.”
As a general rule, avoid link farms and paid links. Natural links from colleagues and clients are more…well, natural. Search engines are always tweaking their results to reward real, natural, quality links.
Utilize our link building services: we provide link building services to our clients through our partnership with one of the top 10 link building companies in the world. Your links are obtained from the right partners based on a thorough research of your competitors and potential business market space. We also keep in mind these quality guidelines
- No Frame Sites
- No Java script pages
- No link farms
- No redirected sites
- No sub-domain sites
- Keywords in anchor text

This comprehensive, two-pronged approach has helped us get a variety of clients and keywords into the top ten of Google search engine results pages. Contact us today about optimizing your site for maximum search engine penetration.

eye9 Design is a leading Denver, Colorado SEO company providing affordable web site search engine optimization to clients across the nation.

Take Control of your Website Tools with Adobe Contribute

Imagine yourself at your local cell phone store, considering an upgrade to the latest mobile sensation. You cradle it in your hand, noticing its seductive styling. Within minutes however, you find yourself overwhelmed by complex menus and confusing buttons. “Isn’t it something,” says the salesman hovering over your shoulder. You mutter assent, determined to confirm that you are “hip” by being able to figure out the complicated device.

Cell phones are a tool designed to increase your productivity. However, this particular device is accomplishing much the opposite!

As a leading Denver website designer, we have clients who come to us every week having had experiences similar to the story above. Except in this case, the cause of frustration is their website. Instead of giving them an online marketing tool that allows them to be more productive, it is far too complicated and has become a hindrance. In the end, they find themselves paying their web designer to make simple changes they would much rather be making themselves.

We use a variety of Content Management Systems (CMS), including Joomla and DotNetNuke. For those of our clients who simply need an informational “brochure website,” we use Adobe Contribute. We have implemented this CMS dozens of times for clients in virtually every industry.

Contribute allows you to add new pages, change text, insert pictures, add audio/video, build PayPal buttons, and more. However, the biggest benefit for our clients is not the features…it is the ease of use. If you know how to use word processing software like Microsoft Word, you can use Contribute.

So take control of your website tools with Adobe Contribute!

Brian Rants
President
eye9 Design

eye9 Design is a Colorado web design company, providing graphic design, web development, and SEO optimization.

Four Design Myths

Tall tales. Urban myths. In this article we tackle four design myths we occasionally encounter.

If you have space…use it
>>> !!! *** Be catchy *** !!! <<<
Web content and printed content are the same
It pays to be different

Myth #1: If you have space…use it

You paid your designer to create an effective marketing piece for you and they returned a comp that is 1/2 a blank page! Why is your designer wasting costly marketing “real estate?”

This “blank” area is termed negative space, whereas an image or graphic would be considered positive space. To a designer, negative space is just another tool at his/her disposal. Often negative space can be used to emphasize composition, create visual paths, direct the focus of the viewer, and increase the dramatic effect of the overall piece.

Great design is often strikingly simple.

Myth #2: >>> !!! *** Be catchy *** !!! <<<

Some people hold the sentiment that crazy shapes, bright colors and seductive ’starbursts’ are always helpful in attracting attention. Florescent pink anyone? The fact is, just because something catches the eye does not necessarily mean the viewer will be interested enough to open, click, or otherwise respond.

A good example of effective advertising is Apple. Their marketing campaigns are quite minimalist in appearance: black and white, vast amounts of empty space, and a subtle use of color. Their collateral is elegant and reflects an attention to detail. Apple users will attest that even opening the product box is an experience in itself. People buy into the (expensive) Mac lifestyle because its aesthetics tell you this is a quality “must have” product, not because their designers resorted to cheap, flashy design tricks.

There are a variety of ways to attract the eye of the visitor, and your industry and target audience always guide these. What is effective for a used car sale advertisement may not work for a software company website.

Myth #3: Web content and printed content are the same

In most cases, your website content should be different than the content from your printed marketing collateral. All your copy should focus on your target audience and be guided by your overall marketing strategy. However, website content is unique in several ways:

Keep it concise: website visitors have, shall we say, very short attention spans! If your visitor gets the impression that finding the content she desires will be like finding a needle in a haystack, you can be sure she will leave and likely not return.
Click here for more info: while brevity is essential, you also want your site to be an effective online resource about your services/products. Towards that end, you can allow visitors who want to know more to dig deeper. If you have 5 reasons your product is superior to your competitor’s product, provide them in synopsis form on your products page. Each reason can conclude with “click here for more info” which guides the interested visitor to a more in-depth discussion of the topic.
Internal Linking: one of the benefits of the web is internal, contextual linking. By using hyperlinks, you can direct users in one section of your website to another relevant section with a simple click. Make the attempt to have at least a half dozen links in the content of every page that allow the visitor to move with ease throughout your site.

Myth #4: It always pays to be different

In business, we are always looking to distinguish ourselves from our competition. Companies can do this by emphasizing a unique philosophy, an improved formula, and better customer service.

Distinctive is also good when it comes to web design. It is important that your website is distinctive, from the look and feel of the site to the marketing message it carries. We accomplish this by having you fill out a web design questionnaire that (among other things) asks how you distinguish yourselves from the competition. Our design can then highlight your unique approach and benefit to your clients.

However, occasionally clients want to take this to an extreme, and end up with marketing collateral that is completely dissimilar from others in their industry. The famous Sesame Street song said, “one of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn’t belong.” So while it is beneficial at times to buck the system, it is always a good idea to make sure your collateral is in line with the marketing best practices of your industry.

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