Recent news on Penquin 2.0 shows that most of the sites that were affected were porn and gaming sites.  A few big brand sites were hit as well, which further proves that no one is immune; sites like salvationarmy.org, dish.com, and REEDs jewelers.

The official release date was yesterday afternoon, according to Matt Cutts.  This is the fourth Penguin related launch they have done.  Some important factors about this release that were addressed by Matt in the recent video discussing Penguin 2.0 are:

• Create sites that are built for users
• Stay away from SPAM
• Stay away from advertorials that violate quality guidelines.  Paid for ads should not pass page rank.
• High quality content
• Build your authority to gain better ranking
• Watch your backlink profiles closely for clusters or unnatural linking signals
• Know who you are linking to and know who is linking back to you.
• STAY AWAY from PORN – it will blind you…WELL maybe not, but definitely don’t link to them or let them link to you.  You don’t want a strip club next door to your house, so don’t let your website live in that neighborhood either.

As Google is getting smarter and more sophisticated with their link analysis, we are going to see more sites that have been using questionable link tactics get hit.  The best rule of thumb is to provide high quality content on your site that is relevant and useful to your readers.

Providing high quality content is not enough to rank in the top positions, but it does help. As SEO professionals we watch many factors when working with the sites of our clients:

• Site Speed
• Crawlability
• Title Tags and Meta descriptions
• Keyword density
• Link profiles – inbound and outbound
• User generated spam
• Image tags
• Over optimization
• Hacking
• Errors that can affect the sites

These are just a few of the many things involved in maintaining a site and keeping it clean.  For more information on what these terms mean, read The Myth of Content Marketing by Search Engine Journal.

If you have a site that has been affected by Penguin 2.0 or you are worried about your site, contact us for a free evaluation today!

The post Penquin 2.0 Has Landed – Did You Get Affected? appeared first on Grafique.

With the latest news about Penguin 2.0 coming out soon, many are hypothesizing and trying to plan ahead for their websites.

What will this update include?  Is my business safe?  

Every website owner should be asking themselves these very important questions.  The best way to protect your business from any changes of Google’s algorithim is best described by this quote:

The three essential elements of an effective SEO are effective communication, useful information and high quality backlinks. – SEO Refugee 2006

Interestingly enough, this was a quote from 2006 on the SEO Refugee forum blog, then was requoted in Technorati in 2010, and now shows up in here 2013 as still being accurate.  These three things are the most important part of any SEO strategy implemented for your website.  Many gaming strategies have come and gone during these last seven years, but these three things remain the same.

I can remember when the first major algorithm hit during my SEO career.  It was scary, even though the company I was working with wasn’t affected.  The web was alive with everyone scrambling to find out why their sites had disappeared from the search results.  Then fast forward to Penguin, it hit during my first week at an SEO agency.  Each one has offered up more and more opportunities to learn, which is why I am glad to have been in the field during these two major updates.

Effective Communication And Useful Information

Since the very beginning, I have believed in providing content that is useful and informative.  I never understood or really grasped the concept of creating content just for the sake of having a link on someone’s site.  My firm belief was, and still is, that whatever I provide for a blog should be both beneficial to the blog owner, their readers and my company.  If all of those things came together we are able to hit that sweet spot – the place where readers find our content, love what we wrote and want more.  These readers become followers of the blog and even the author, me!  It is a win-win for everyone.

If I am providing content for a company that sells baby clothes, I would provide articles to baby sites that provide useful information to moms.  For example:  “Types of Baby Clothes To Avoid For Newborn Safety”.  The article would be informative and useful for new moms purchasing clothes for a newborn and provide a source for finding safe clothes for their newborns.

During my tenure, I have learned about all kinds of ways to try and game the system (none of which I tried) – spun content, link farms, directory listings and even link wheels (something I still don’t fully grasp).  I am happy to say that all of these tactics are becoming a thing of the past.

GOOD content is GOOD content and there is no other way around it.

High Quality Backlinks

Spammy links and building quantities of backlinks were really upsetting the balance of good results for a search.  This got me thinking about future generations.  Take this example:

What happens when 20 years from now, long after “The Big Bang Theory” is gone, a child is doing their research on the big bang theory for a science project?  Are they going to be writing about Leonard, Sheldon, Howard and Raj?  If you run a search in Google for The Big Bang Theory, the sitcom outranks the scientific explanation. 

Is that right?  Is this what we want to give to the future generations?

There are a lot of theories out there about what is going to be included in Penguin 2.0.  One of the main things to keep in mind is that if you are keeping your nose clean and doing everything in the best interest of your users, you shouldn’t be affected.  If you are affected by the update, you have a good chance of pleading your case for reconsideration to lift the penalties.

Here is a list of things to watch for in SEO strategy:

1.  Links to your site from unrelated forums
2. Links on spammy sites
3. Links on articles that are poorly written or unrelated to the sites they are posted on.
4. Paying for links, especially on sites like FIVERR offering links for sale publicly
5. Keyword stuffing
6. Any links to “payday loans” or any other questionable sites
7. Be careful who you hire to do your SEO.  TRUST ME ON THIS ONE!  I have personally tried to help sites that were handled by black hat SEOs in the past, it is very BAD and can cost your business.
8. Links on porn sites
9. Using the same copy on all of your pages or on other sites for your business on other domains
10. Overuse of anchor text in your linking strategy

If you are doing any of the above: STOP NOW!

Are you confident that your website won’t be affected by Penguin 2.0?  Do you want to know for sure?

Sign up for a free Penguin 2.0 evaluation
[contact-form-7]

The post Penguin 2.0 Is Coming – What Does This Mean For Your Business? appeared first on Grafique.

Meta descriptions have evolved over the years and there has been many debates as to whether or not they are important. I can tell you unequivocally that they are VERY IMPORTANT!  

In the past the rules for meta descriptions were to include your keywords (and in some cases lots of them).  Thankfully this is a thing of the past.  I love to look through search results and see this practice still being used, it screams (I have no clue what these descriptions are for.  Someone told me to put all of my keywords in it, so I DID!)  Always ask why?  That is my motto!

As Google and search engines are getting smarter about search behavior, they are able to predict the searcher’s intent more accurately. Over time it will be very important to make sure that you are focused on your target market when planning your keywords.  Traditional marketing rules will start to become more important – you MUST know your target market, their needs and how you fulfill them better than anyone else in the market. Which is what brings me to the debate over meta descriptions. They will start to act as the billboard in the search results, they must be eye-catching, attention grabbing, answer a need and draw the searcher to your site!

What is a meta description? (If you are familiar with meta descriptions, you can skip to Write Your Meta Descriptions for Your Target Market.)

Below is an example of meta description:

The text beginning with “Thousands of brand-name shoes…”  is the meta description for this page on the Overstock site.

If you are asking yourself where the text comes from under the title, then read this quick explanation. The meta description is a 160 character summary of what the page the address is linking to. It can be controlled and SHOULD be controlled by the author of the page.

If a meta description is missing on a page/post, Google will pull something at random from the page. It can range from the first paragraph up to 160 characters to even just a phrase that the bot deems is important to the keyword.
First rule of thumb – NEVER LEAVE A PAGE OR POST WITHOUT A META DESCRIPTION WRITTEN BY YOU!

Why should you control what is presented to the User?

Simple answer:  This is your chance to stand out in the crowd. The best meta descriptions can bring higher click through rates, which means your site will be picked more times in the list than any others. Research has shown that the most highly clicked on results for a search are not always the ones ranked at the top. If a meta description is compelling enough and provides a good fit to the users need, it will get chosen more often.

When a user starts a search, it is to answer a question or fulfill a need. It is your job as the site owner to demonstrate that you are the best choice to fulfill their request. It serves as your “elevator pitch” to your potential customer (unfortunately this pitch is only 160 characters).

Do they help my SEO?

Not directly. User experience and messaging trump the SEO value of your meta description. Which is actually good news, because it takes the power away from those who like to stuff their descriptions with keywords creating a confusing list to the searcher.
I am not saying to exclude your keywords by any means, just make sure the text makes sense and has all of the elements important for the user.

Below you will see some examples of bad and good meta descriptions. You be the judge. Which ones draw your attention?

If you selected the last one, you are in the majority.  The first one is keyword stuffed for one thing and secondly it doesn’t provide a good compelling reason to choose it over the bottom two.  The second listing for Macy’s is boring and just like every other meta in the search results, it doesn’t sell itself.  The bottom listing provides a compelling reason to be chosen over the other two – FREE Shipping on returns and purchases, generous return policy and 24 hour customer service.

Write Meta Descriptions for Your Target Market

There are several steps to creating that masterpiece.

1. Know the question your target market wants answered.  Describe how your page answers this question.
2. Know the behavior of your target market and what key phrases draw their attention and eventual action.
3. Research what others are doing in the search listings for your topic.  When I write a meta description, I like to run a search for my keywords to see what types of meta descriptions are displayed for my search. By researching the top ten sites, I have an idea of what others in the industry are using.
4. Now … DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT!

Do Your Own Thing!!!

Doing something different is the most important key to standing out. Don’t use words like, “This post is about…” or “Click here for information on …” BLECH!! Be creative, put the most important information first. If you have a free offer, special discount or sell a difficult to find product, put this in your meta description. Don’t wait for the user to click to your site and read a ton of information before finding your best offer. You wouldn’t shake hands with someone you just met with your palms all sweaty, would you? Wipe that thing off and put your best image forward.

If you are providing a story or exciting news, cliffhangers work really well. Just make sure you get to the point in the first paragraph of the actual post. Unless you are Stephen King and can write really long lengthy posts that readers stay glued to waiting for the big reveal, get to the point immediately! You have captured your audience, now deliver.

Would You Click on This?

Ask yourself these simple questions.

1. Does the summary reflect the content of the page/post?
2. Does my summary answer the question in a compelling manner?
3. Does my summary stand out among others for this search term?
4. Did I ask for the click?
5. Would I click on this result?

Now post your page and see what happens. If at first you don’t see immediate results, that is all right. You can play around with them and try different offers to see which ones capture the most clicks. They are not set in stone and can be flexible with the changes in the environment.

The new era of searching has begun, searchers are at the helm. We need to understand their intent, what information they seek and how we can better provide this information. Meta descriptions are key in my opinion to getting all of this done in 160 characters.

Share some of your meta descriptions with us.  We would love to hear them and even offer our advice on how to enhance them. 

The post Are Meta Descriptions Important? YES! appeared first on Grafique.

Salute America 2013, Paulding County’s second annual air show gets a new look. Grafique, an Atlanta based local website design and internet marketing strategy agency, redesigned the official website for the Paulding County second annual air show, Pauldingairshow.net.

The first air show in October of 2012 was a great success for Paulding County. Residents flocked to the air field to watch displays of aerobatics and historical re-enactments by the many aircraft participating in the show. Many remarked about how the air show brought back wonderful memories of past air shows and family events witnesses at other locations around the world. Since Salute America 2012 was the first air show at the Paulding Northwest Atlanta Airport, a heavy reliance was made on web presence and traditional marketing.

Following the success of the 2012 show, Salute America 2013 promises to be even better. Using the many lessons learned, many enhancements will be made to the show, especially in the areas of communications and marketing.

It is vital to the success of Salute America 2013 that they receive support from local businesses, because it is a non-profit event that donates all the proceeds to charity. Which is why Grafique has stepped in to give back to the Paulding community by enhancing the website for this year’s event. The Atlanta area is their home, and being a trusted member of the community, they wanted to make sure Paulding received the support needed to make this year’s show even better. The new design features a brighter, more organized, and easy to navigate menu. The patriotic colors were maintained in honor of the military and their commitment to our communities.

“One of the biggest challenges was deciding what acts to display on the home page, because they are all so amazing in their own right. So, we added a slider to show them all” adds Shannon Henrici of Grafique. “Having attended last year’s event, I knew I had to include all of the videos for new-comers to see the breathtaking stunts of these pilots. You really have to see it to believe it!”

Last year’s efforts drew over 8,000 visitors to the previous site; expectations are even higher this year. Increasing the reach of the exposure to the show, and better visibility in the search rankings, are going to make a large impact on this year’s numbers.

For those who were unable to make the show last year, and for those first time visitors, go visit the show website and see the exciting Larry King Airshows promotional video recorded during his performance in last year’s air show.

The post Atlanta’s Leading Local SEO and Website Design Company Gives Back to Paulding County appeared first on Grafique.

Some websites look like they’re a historical archive or what you would have come across when you first started to surf the ‘net back in the 1990s. Those sites made much use of table-based graphics, employing onsite builders to create a look that was usually prepackaged and simple. Unfortunately, too many people have not moved beyond that simplicity and are stuck in an era that has long since passed on by.

Today’s websites dare not employ tactics used from the 1990s and even more recent practices such as incorporating Flash, which brought forth some of the ugliest websites, should be avoided. These days designing a website means careful planning, choosing a layout that is appealing and easy to use.

Looks Matter

Yes, it is true: your website visitors really do care what your website looks like. There is something about a site that hasn’t been changed in years, one that screams “web archive!” when visited. It has been said that people make an impression about a site or page inside of three seconds, therefore make the first impression a positive one and strive for an appealing look out of the gate.

This means choosing a look that is colorful, well-aligned, properly spaced and uses a font style that is clean and practical. Such fonts that are ideal for today include Palatino Linotype, Impact, Trebuchet MS, Tahoma, Verdana, Times Roman, Arial and the timeless Courier.

Ease of Navigation

Your visitors found your site, they like its looks, but there is matter that you must get right: navigation.  You not only want visitors to “happen” upon your website or “purpose” to visit it, but you also want to make it easy for them to get around. How frustrating it can be to get to a website and not know where to go next!

A navigation bar located above the fold near the top of your page is a must for every website. That “bar” should be centrally placed and contain links to your most popular pages including your home, about, contact and other informational pages. Avoid drop down and pull down menus here, but do highlight six, seven or eight pages that you want your guests to visit.

Besides the main navigation bar, you can place links in your sidebar. Here, you have much more flexibility and can go beyond the limited number of links on top. You can also feature subpages, links to certain articles, you name it. Take care that you do not clutter this section — give people a reason to click through for more information.

Avoid the Clutter

Quite easily, you can stuff your web pages with tons of information including ads, linking groups, pictures, videos and just plain old junk. These days much emphasis is place on page load times, factors that can chase your readers away and affect your site’s ranking.

Consider what is really important to your readers and include only those items that will benefit them. Certainly, you can include advertisements, but know that “ad blindness” can make most ads nearly invisible. Mix up your offers to include different types of ads, matching the ad font and colors with your site’s layout to seamlessly invite click throughs.

Top Notch Content

How many times have you heard, “content is king?” That statement is true, but it only tells part of the story. Content is not only king, but it is the essential ingredient to any website.

Your content must be interesting, relevant and factual. It also needs to be original, with no republishing of content found on other sites such as on article directories. Avoid using press releases. Instead, use such news as a springboard for further conversation.

Consider how your readers view web pages these days when crafting your work. Shorter sentences, smaller paragraphs, bulleted text, subheaders, italics, bold fonts and photos with captions are among the defining characteristics of today’s web content. Link out to relevant sources and cross-link to your important sites.

Site Considerations

Of course, updating your site with consistency is important too. Your site may look great, be easy to get around and load quickly. You won’t, however, enjoy a consistent and growing readership if you do not adhere to a writing discipline, with fresh content delivered on a regular basis. That content should be clear and concise, what your readers want and what you happily deliver.

The post Best Practices in Contemporary Web Design appeared first on Grafique.

Google Panda and Penguin have unleashed much havoc across the blogosphere, hammering bloggers in a variety of wages. Some of the complaints include a drop in web traffic, disappearing SERPs and a monumental fall in PageRank. You may be doing everything right to update and promote your site, but it may be a good idea to return to several foundational essentials that can unleash your blog and turn it into a terrific site.

Load Times

If your site takes a long time to load, you will lose visitors. Some experts contend that you have no more than five seconds to have your site load, with people frustratingly moving on to the next site that loads on demand.

There can be any number of factors that slow down your load times. For starters, how many posts are loading up on your front page? The more is not necessarily the merrier here as each post can load one by one and present a drag on your site.

You should also limit your links and use of third party JavaScript. If you must use JavaScript, you would do better to stick this information at the bottom of your page. Limit the number of pictures you have loaded on your site. Consider using a Flickr album to post your photos in your side bar. Use a page loading tester such as the one found on Numion.com to check load times.

Smart Navigation

Your site should be easy to navigate and enjoyable to use. Display your key links in your navigation bar on the top of the page and repeat these links in the side bar. In the side bar you can also add sub pages to make it easier for people to find your links.

Make use of BreadCrumbs to help your visitors track what page they are on and where they have left. Place tags in the sidebar for another way to attract clicks to particular subjects. If you need additional link space, stick your not so important links in the footer.

Your Audience

There are some websites that are impossibly indiscernible except for the brightest minds in academia. While there is a place for presenting top quality work, generally most blogs should aim for a broader audience.

Consider that some of your visitors are not native English speakers. Moreover, not everyone that finds your site is college-educated. You do not need to dumb down your site, but you must consider the language you use to convey your points. Aim for a middle-school audience and you will capture more people without boring your college-educated native speakers.

You should also break your articles up into manageable pieces, using shorter paragraph, sub-headers, bullets and italics to make your point. Figure that most people scan the Internet and will do the same with your article. Catch their attention and they will hang around longer. Make use of eye candy (photographs with captions) to draw them in.

Link Verification

Links to pages within your site and to relevant pages outside of your site is critical to your site’s development and overall authority. Do not skimp here: automating your internal links can be done with a WordPress plugin, but carefully manually linking to the appropriate pages is a more sensible approach.

Your outbound links must always be related to your subject matter. As you source your information, take not of who said what and link within the body of your article. No need to go crazy here, but do link out to two or three relevant websites as appropriate.

Verifying that a link is a good one is something that can only be done by humans. Keep in mind that you should also check that your existing links still go to active websites. Use an online broken link checker to find distinctly broken links. Make repairs or eliminate that link completely. Enhance the user experience by serving up only the best links possible.

Contact Information

It is amazing how difficult it can be to contact some blog owners. Certainly, a tool such as domaintools.com might reveal that information, but why make it so difficult on everyone? Instead, put your contact information out there and make it easy for people to reach out to you.

If you use WordPress, there are several contact page tool plugins that get the job done. Choose one, stick it on a page that you call “contact” and then include that link in your navigation bars as well as at the bottom of your web pages. Do not just put the contact form out there — when you get contacted, respond! Of course, ignore the spam requests, but you will get enough legitimate contacts to make it worth your while.

Not Done

You are not done yet. Or, at least you will never be done. Maintaining a stellar website is a process, not a completion point. Just when you think that you have it just right, you will find other matters that need to be tended to.

Snap Printing is the leader in print, design and web with more than 150 centers across Australia, New Zealand and overseas. Trust Snap for all your affordable web design needs!

The post Blog Unleashed: Tips for a Terrific Site appeared first on Grafique.

It goes without saying that businesses can’t survive and thrive without a marketing strategy. How will people know about your goods or services if you don’t display your business in some way? Unfortunately, far too many businesses market their company in the wrong way. The only thing worse than no marketing is bad marketing, which means that a lot of the companies you see are actually hurting their business more than helping it. Follow these top tips to devise a marketing campaign that works, not just one that exists.

1. Please the Eye!

What could possibly be wrong with a banner, website homepage or brochure that explains everything, in detail, about your business? People aren’t going to get to the information if they don’t like what they see at first glance. Marketing materials have to simultaneously communicate important information while attracting consumers on an aesthetic level. Just like a truly attractive business card that won’t do any good if it doesn’t list contact information, an informative marketing piece won’t impact consumers if it doesn’t entice them in the first place. Graphics, attention-grabbing colors and readable text are key components to designing marketing materials.

2. Boost Boring Information

Not every single business is exciting. Towing companies, for example, aren’t exactly thrill-producing. That doesn’t mean that your marketing materials have to be dull as well, though. Creative writers and marketers can come up with an interesting way to say anything. Graphic designers can make even the most uninteresting business pop. Instead of settling for a lifeless marketing campaign, hire professionals who know how to spin anything to be engaging.

3. Put Social Media to Use

Your Facebook page isn’t doing any good just sitting there. “But I have all of my contact information listed and the ‘About’ section is full of details!” So what? There’s nothing on your social media accounts that you can’t find from a quick Google search. Social media is meant to be used often and in various ways. The point is to communicate with and engage your target audience, not to have profiles that just wait there until they’re stumbled upon. Plus, with tools like HootSuite, there’s no excuse to not post updates. Also, social media is free.

4. Marketing Overload

What’s the only thing worse than no marketing campaign? Too much generic, spam-like marketing. If you don’t market your business at all, at least you haven’t annoyed consumers yet. Sending out e-mail after e-mail is obnoxious, especially when you’re not communicating any new or useful information. Promoters have a problem with this, especially when they get ahold of cell phone numbers. Who wants to receive ten text messages from people they barely know? Overstepping consumers’ personal boundaries is going to turn them off, which means they’ll ignore every marketing communication from there on out.

Combat this by communicating helpful, interesting and fresh information on platforms where consumers want to be reached. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and public e-mail addresses are all acceptable modes of communication. Also, don’t pretend to know consumers if you really don’t. A text message that reads, “Come hang out with me tonight!” isn’t fooling anyone if you’re sending it to 500 people you haven’t seen in over a year. If you really want to communicate personally with your audience, do so on social media by spending time getting to know your fans.

5. Compose Accurate Content

The point of getting information out to the public isn’t just to say whatever you can to entice customers. You have to be accurate and trustworthy in what you say, too. Otherwise, you’ll lose the trust of consumers and you’ll probably never, ever get it back. Be careful with what you say and what you promise. Make sure you can follow through on everything you put out there. From making sure the link to your website actually works to preparing your staff to handle a brand new discount, your business has to actually reflect your marketing.

Gregg Rusley is a digital content developer for CMI Promotions. He specializes in finding creative ways to meet marketing or recognition goals with personalized merchandise.

The post Marketing Should Help Your Business, Not Hurt It appeared first on Grafique.

Your small business has left the confines of your garage or spare bedroom and has since branched out to its own physical location. You may not have hit the big time yet, but you certainly have proven that you have what it takes to manage a larger and more profitable enterprise.

One of the challenges of any emerging business is handling the changes to its communication needs. That was no problem when everyone that worked for you was in plain sight, but has become a much bigger challenge when your staff is scattered in different rooms as well as on the road, the latter in a bid to drum up new business.

You can manage your growing small business communication needs by keeping in mind the following options:

Employ modern technologies. We live and work in a digital age and it is in that environment where our communication efforts swim or sink. These days, it isn’t enough to keep in contact by traditional phone, rather it is important that other tools are employed to get the job done.

Communication can get expensive and can tether your business to lengthy and rigid contracts that last longer than your needs. Consider that not every person needs a phone at their desk. Instead, a company smart phone may be what they need to stay in touch and to access the Internet. Examine how your staff interacts internally as well as externally with its customers. Look for a flexible solution, one that also ties in your needs including voice mail, email and Internet access.

Schedule those meetings. Technology is no substitute for face to face meetings. Those meetings, however, can be more difficult to hold especially if your workers are scattered across multiple locations and time zones.

Where possible, have your staff convene for a 20-minute weekly meeting at a prescribed location. For staff that is out of town, have them call in for a conference call. Develop an agenda to ensure that each point is covered. Take extraneous matters offline or follow up with a separate phone call with that individual as needed.

Establish clear expectations. As your company grows, your expectations will grow with it. Still, expectations need to be managed, otherwise unrealistic ideas may soon prevail.

Encourage your employees to share, creating an atmosphere of trust and respect to ensure that lines of communication are always kept open. Outline your expectations and modify your plan as needed. Be prepared to listen. Solicit feedback. Ask for advice. Build your employers up and the lines of communication will always remain open.

Looking Ahead

As your business continues to grow, you will need to examine ways to ensure that lines of communication are always kept open. One way to do this is to delegate tasks to your managers, requiring them to keep in communication with their reports. Once a week or on an “as needed” basis, your managers can report to you to identify problems and challenges. Each meeting should be concluded with effective solutions offered and strategies implemented.

Consider as your company grows that your staff will need to engage in team building exercises. The way that this works is that your staff participates in certain activities such a problem-solving through games and group exercise. The idea here is to help your staff improve their listening skills and find ways to keep the lines of communication open and coherent.

Emerging businesses have it difficult enough to work through growing pains without communication issues adding to the problem. You cannot solve every problem yourself. Indeed, you may need to hire a communication professional, an individual that can gauge your staff and customer communication needs, and offer guidance on how to make needed improvements.

Cassie Lummus is an independent writer for Answering Service United. She is an expert in professional customer service.

The post How to Manage Your Growing Small Business Communication Needs appeared first on Grafique.

Choosing the proper web designer is an important process in creating your website. If mistakes are made prior to hiring a firm or individual it is much more difficult to fix those mistakes after the site has gone live. Regardless of whether you have a plumbing, salon or photography business, you need a website that is going to work and not have major errors in functionality and design. Most mistakes can affect the future of a company drastically when sales or clients are acquired from the website. A portfolio, reliability, and ownership are the areas that deserve the most attention when choosing an experienced and competent designer. Communication in all areas of the website and business agreement is essential and is the best way to gauge a good working relationship between a web designer and a client.

A portfolio includes sample sites or live sites that the web designer creates and showcases for potential clients to judge quality of work. The biggest mistake made when viewing a portfolio is ignoring how convenient the websites are for the general public. People who surf the web want to visit a site that is quick and works well with the equipment and necessary needs they have. A site in a web designer’s portfolio should work well in all browsers, have a font that is not fixed, and adjusts well with different resolutions and screen sizes. These aspects determine experience in the field. The sites should also have good content. While this is not the responsibility of a web designer it does show if an interest is taken in the follow through of a site. A good web designer will suggest or give tips on quality content and how to write and display it properly.

Making excuses for a lack of reliability is standard in web designing because projects can pile up and get out of control. This happens to everyone in business for the most part, but should be considered when a budget and/or deadline is important. To avoid future issues with the project a few phone appointments should be set prior to signing a contract. This allows the business owner to determine how reliable the designer is and if they are going to take important elements seriously. If they miss or blow off calls then it is a pretty good sign that they are not a reliable source.

A contract that is easy to understand is important when identifying who owns what parts of the website. Ownership is a good topic for discussion at the first meeting with a web designer. Many designers will own the rights to the design, while the client owns the website. This can cause complications in editing and changing the site at a later date. To avoid this mistake, a designer should be hired that is willing to sell the design. Other topics of discussion that need to be included in the contract are graphics and layout and who owns them or worked on them. Many designers like to contract out this work to other individuals. A good web designer should also provide source files that are easy to edit and information on what program was used to create the design. This information will help when the website needs quick changes at a later date.

Choosing an experienced, high quality, web designer takes preparation and the ability to communicate effectively. The relationship between web designer and client is one that can determine success or failure and should be weighted as such.

Derek Dirks’ passion is in local SEO, photography and building beautiful WordPress sites. He has been doing web design and internet marketing for the past 7 years and semi-professional photography for the past 5 years. Lately he has been helping photographers with their business.

The post 3 Common Mistakes When Picking a Web Designer appeared first on Grafique.

We often hear about PR campaigns and public relations whenever companies launch new businesses and products, individuals launch their music and promote tours, or organizations promote projects and causes. While public relations is a term commonly used, many do not grasp the true meaning of the term.

Public Relations: What is it?

Public Relations is a term used to refer to the effort of individuals, organizations or companies to create and maintain their image. A PR consultant or PR firm is usually hired to focus on this aspect and manage communications, promotions and other dealings with the client’s publics.

In public relations, the public is anyone who is able to form an opinion about the client. Publics can include customers, potential clients, employees, members of the media, stockholders,voters, and any other stakeholders that have an effect on the client’s reputation.

Role of the PR professional

The PR consultant is a professional who is hired by an individual, a business or an organization to manage the public relations aspect. Whether small or large, a business can benefit from hiring a PR professional or a PR firm. They aim to obtain free publicity for their clients, in contrast to advertising, which depends on paying for ad space.

The following are the fundamental roles of a PR professional:

• Public face of the client.
• Generate positive publicity for the client.
• Write press releases to distribute to journalists, bloggers, editors, and other members of the media.
• Cultivate relationships with the media and influencers in the industry relevant to the client.
• Crisis management. A crisis, such as plant accidents, personnel error,and dissatisfied customers can prove detrimental to a business’ reputation. Managing such situations is imperative and a PR professional can achieve that.
• Organize community outreach and programs.

Modern Trends in Public Relations

Today’s modern technology gave rise to a host of new trends that the public relations industry has to keep up. In order to succeed in every PR campaign, whether big or small, each of these trends has to be considered.

The advent of digital media and social media created new avenues for companies to reach their target markets. Moreover,public relations campaigns spread like wildfire, just as web content is consumed in a wide variety of mobile devices. New opportunities are available these days to connect with customers, fans, and influential people and organizations to promote new campaigns. Additionally, PR professionals can now measure progress of PR campaigns by utilizing online tools. With modern trends in public relations, companies, individuals and organizations better communicate and foster relationships with their publics.

Bio – Ruth Rogers is a freelance writer that specializes in just about anything relating to public relations. She recommends Real News PR for any of your media and public relations requirements.

The post What is Public Relations? : An Overview appeared first on Grafique.