Showing posts with label phoenix marketing firm. Show all posts

Phoenix Web Design: 7 Tips for Effective Small Business Websites

Tuesday, September 27, 2011 · Posted in , ,

http://www.integraphix.com/blog/article/7-small-business-web-design-tips-chicago

Most legitimate companies, small or large, have some sort of web presence these days. Typically, most consumers won't even know a business exists without it! Since much of our time is spent online, in search engines, and, apparently, on Facebook, it is becoming more and more a necessity to have a website for your Phoenix, AZ small business. Venturing into this realm of internet and web design mysteries can be a little scary at first, but with the following 10 Tips, and an awesome Arizona web design firm, you'll have a shiny new website in a matter of weeks!

Tip #1 - Use Analytics Tools
Always ask your Phoenix web development company to install and give you access to Google (or other) Analytics for your website. This may not have much to do with the actual design, but in terms of quality, this is how you can tell what's working, what's not, and where your traffic is coming from. It will also tell you what people are doing with your website once they're actually on it, so you can see where changes need to be made.

Tip #2 - Clear, Logical Navigation
It doesn't matter if you're selling a product, a service, or yourself - your website and how users navigate it, needs to make sense. Make it especially easy for users to get back to your home page. You can do this by having a 'home' button, or simply making your logo a link. Both is better! The bottom line: Don't make users search click more than twice to get where they want to go on your website. Example: To get to this blog, all you had to do was click 'Blog' and then click on the blog title. Two clicks and you're here!

Tip #3 - Legibility and Fonts
You may have a favorite font, and that font may be Papyrus, but keep in mind that not everybody can actually read that font. It's best to keep it simple, legible and perhaps even fall into the trend of using large typography.

Tip #4 - Make an Impression with your Header!
It's potentially the first, (and last) thing your user will see when they visit or leave your website, so make it count!

Tip #5 - Use High Quality Photos Only
This is extremely important and the most forgotten aspect of most small business web design efforts. The pictures are not professionally taken, are fuzzy and pixelated (even by web standards) and lack the dynamic edge that can sometimes make or break a website. It may be an extra expense, but always get your web photos professionally taken. If you can't afford professional photography, take a look at istockphoto or some of the other stock photo libraries and buy some great photos for your website. It will be worth the effort and money spent to have clear, professional photos on your website.

Tip #6 - Follow SEO Standards
This is usually the last thing business owners think about. It's usually the last thing web designers think about unless they're well versed in the industry and common practices. It is essential to design your website, and choose your CMS based on your SEO goals and needs. If possible, stick to a CMS that makes SEO easy for you instead of having to hack the system to get it to work for you. This means having a CMS that allows you to dynamically change Title Tags, Meta Data, Alt Tags and SEO Friendly URLS all within the CMS itself. And Remember: Title Tag, Meta Description, H1 and body copy are the most important factors in SEO. Content is King!

Tip #7 - Use an Experienced Web Design and Graphic Design Team
Above all, do not hire your kid nephew to design a website that is meant to portray the best of your business. If your website looks like an amateur did it, it may give of the impression that you don't care enough to invest in your business. That can rub a customer the wrong way and cost you a sale. To avoid losing customers based solely on your website's design, hire an experienced, knowledgeable Phoenix, AZ web design and development company to design an effective, beautiful website that works for you and your customers.

There are hundreds of tips, tricks and web design techniques that could be added to this list. If you're not sure where to start, give us a call at 480-442-6106 to schedule and appointment. We'll help you not only put your best foot forward, but give you insight you may not have even thought of before.

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Phoenix Web Designer shares tips!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011 · Posted in , ,

Phoenix Web Design


Site structure is the backbone of website designs. Good layout and organization are crucial to the functionality of your site. Without careful planning and design sense, it is impossible to grow your content without having to undergo a complete overhaul of the site. Structure also plays an important role in optimizing your site for search engines and bounce rate of visitors. So here's what you need to know:

Basic structure of the site
Each site should contain three main components: home page, main sections and subsections. For navigation purposes, your site must be no more than two levels deep and stick to the standard "in two clicks any user should be able to get the home page" or to any other page for that matter. Beyond simple user satisfaction, the site structure should be designed with search engines in mind making it easy for robots to index your site and search keywords.

Home
The homepage is the most important page because it gives users their first impressions of your site. The home page should contain text and links limited and contain no more than 400 words in total. Search engines and users to see the first page, so make it a priority.

The main sections
You may think that the main sections of the website sections. These sections should pay attention to keywords and use them whenever possible. Search spiders to index these pages after interviewing the main page, so make sure the main sections as SEO friendly as possible.

Paragraphs
Subdivision down each of your main sections into smaller, more bits of information. In this section, content is king. All important data on your website will live on these pages.

Understanding these basic principles will give you the foundation for the structure of the site. With effective planning and logical design of Web sites, you can create a site that is both SEO and user-friendly.

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Phoenix SEO: Top 5 Google SEO Ranking Factors

Wednesday, July 20, 2011 · Posted in , , , ,


It's fairly comment to find clients who've worked with SEO firms in the past that really didn't understand all the factors that go into determining where a website ranks in the SERPs. Some people think it's merely a matter of stuffing your title tags and meta data full of random keywords and sitting back. 

A hint: Most of SEO is in the background and you'll never see it unless you look at the source code of a website.

By reading industry blogs, practicing Phoenix, AZ SEO and Internet Marketing since the mid-2000's, we've gathered a massing of data about SEO techniques and have shortened a 5 inch binder full of information down to the top 5 most important Google SEO in Phoenix AZ ranking factors you should be implementing on all of your websites.

Age of Domain
This sometimes can't be helped, especially if you just started a business, but domain age is incredibly important to the search engines. It means you're established, and by association are more trust-worthy. If you have the cash, you can purchase a domain name that's been around a while (for a few grand). Otherwise...you've got a long road ahead of you.

Content, Content, Content.
Content is king, content is king! Hail to the king of Phoenix SEO. If you've got a beautiful website about Shoes, and all your content is about the great sweater you've got for sale, you can say goodbye to rankings for Shoes forever. The jist of the matter is this: write great, unique content using targeted keywords spread out naturally in your paragraphs. Never ever write solely for a search engine spider. It's a great way to lose customers and get black-listed at the same time.

Hidden Tags, Images and Internal Linking
Ok yes, this is three in one, but they're all important! A lot of SEO is unseen or brushed off by the human eye, but spider-bots read them all the time. Hidden tags include Title Tags, H1-H6, Alts, no-index, no-follow, etc. The most important of these are the Title Tags, H1 tags and Alt tags. They tell the spiders and therefore the search engines, what your website is about. Images? Important? Yes! Make very sure, when you upload an image to your website, that you include your keywords in the image name. Don't ever leave it the 'istock number' or the 'straight from the camera' name or even worse... header.jpg. As for Internal Linking, not only does linking internally show your visitors where to go, it tells the spiders where to go as well. Keep the clickable images to a minimum and make sure you incorporate the LEAST amount of flash as possible.

Keywords!!!
Keywords make the world go round. Without keywords, having an optimized website is worthless. Make sure you're doing your research and giving each specific page it's designated keyword based on the content and topic of each page. Example: If your page is about web design, don't talk about graphic design. Don't name your images graphic design related. 

Inbound & Outbound Links
Inbound links are better known as backlinks. Think of them like votes for your website. The key to building great inbound backlinks is to not BUY them. Develop them naturally and more links will follow! Outbound links are links from your website to others. If they're not relevant, don't bother.


For more information on Phoenix Marketing Agency, Phoenix SEO, Phoenix AZ Web Design and Phoenix AZ Graphic Design, call us for a FREE skype consultation at 623.696.0258.

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Phoenix Marketing & SEO: Google Search Enhanced

Monday, July 11, 2011 · Posted in , , ,


Recently, Google launched a new search feature called 'Search by Image'. While experimenting with the feature, we defines 3 places where Google's search by image has a real advantage over traditional ways to find link building opportunities.

What is Search by Image? You can use images (either the url or uploaded) as your search term! The goal of Search by Image is to point you at websites that are related to that image. You can find more at the Google Blog.

Get Background on Industry Influencers
As we've often discussed, pinpointing the mass internet user's interests using them to creative connections, is an amazing way to get in influential people and businesses radar. If you do this correctly, using Twitter, Facebook or Phoenix SEO Marketing Agency, this can produce exposure and links to your website.

Not surprisingly, the most successful SEO consultants, are also the best at personal online branding. We've written a post or two about making your brand more consistent online and offline. Being very consistent in your use of logos in blogging websites, social media and in your marketing materials is extremely important.

When testing the new Google features using a our logo, I found an enormous amount of image results attached to comments and similar images (Dontcha love how BMW pops in there?).

Phoenix Google Search SEO
This also gave us a view of all the blogs we've commented on in the past few months. If used on a competitor, it could give you a distinct advantage because you can filter results by simply using their logo. 

Identifying Link Building Opportunities
Search for Popular Guest Posters! In the SEO community, Ann Smarty is THE person that is most synonymous with guest posting on blogs. Not simply because her over her website, myblogguest.com, but because she's a prolific guest poster in her own right. Regardless of this, she's very good at maintaining her personal brand. So using Google Search by Image, you can search her profile image to look for guest posting opportunities, and link building opportunities on top of that.

Find Coverage That Didn't Result in a Link
Another great technique to find PR opportunities is to mine for stock CEO photos and participation that didn't result in a link for that company. Search branded logos and photos to find great pages where companies and employees are getting spotlighted.

Try it with any Fortune 500 Company and you'll find significant RP presence that can result in you getting a backlink.
Another way you can use Search By Image is to mine for press coverage and participation in offline activities that didn't result in a link. Searching by brand logos and "stock" CEO photos are a great way to find pages where a company or employee is getting highlighted.

For more information on Google Image Search, contact us at 847.537.0067 or visit us online at the following:

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