Archive for the ‘news’ Category

Improve and enhance SEO search engine optimization of website content with this 2012 SEO web design strategy tutorial. Unlike printed marketing materials to promote your business product or service, your website content is easily changed.

This new 13 page SEO search engine optimization tutorial download provides readers an up to date strategy to implement on their website to enhance their online success in 2012.

Please note that you do NOT have to register or reveal your email address to get this free SEO and web design tutorial. Simply click the link in the last paragraph below.

Website owners can perform this annual website content review even if they outsource the actual web design to a web developer or delegate the task to an employee. Take one day to invest the time in learning these basics to apply to your website and help promote your business online, and then review the results with the person responsible for managing your website.

View the 2012 SEO Design Strategy Tutorial (pdf, 13 pgs., 96kb) online now, or open it to download to your computer and read later.

A new web design and matching blog launched earlier this month with a custom CMS for Lifeline Dog Rescue. A CMS or content management system style of web design allows the owner to take control and manage site content without advanced technical skills.

In addition to the main website and blog design, social site pages were created for the client and the site features links to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube.

Lifeline Dog Rescue is a non-profit caring for Weimaraner and other breeds of dogs providing shelter, fostering, and adoption. They are a division of Central Florida Weimaranaer & Dog Rescue, Inc., a Florida non-profit corporation since 2011.

Headquarters are in Davenport, Florida, and the 3 acre rescue property with private lake and enclosed on all sides with fence, is in Okeechobee, Florida. Plans for the future as early as 2012 include doubling the size of the dog rescue property, and the number of at risk dogs being rescued and placed for adoption.

Visit the Lifeline Dog Rescue Florida non-profit website to learn more about their work and how you may help.

The key to search ranking in a phrase is still “add original quality content often”, and a recent article on the official Google Webmasters Blog provides advice to implement this strategy. Read the post entitled More Guidance on Building High Quality Sites, and then compare your website content to the Google web design quality list plus the analysis here.

Rather than list each question or duplicate that portion of the Google blog post, readers may follow the link above and read for themselves.

Instead, our analysis will pick out the negative web design and seo search engine optimization factors as mentioned to highlight strategies to avoid that violate best practices.

The photo shown is a Google logo bumper sticker that I received by mail. Google represents more than 80% of search engine traffic to my website. It makes sense to follow their quality advice. Here’s my analysis.

Avoid the following seo or web design strategies:

• duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles
• spelling, stylistic, or factual errors
• attempting to guess what might rank well
• content mass-produced or outsourced
• sloppy or hastily produced content
• an excessive amount of ads
• lacking in helpful specifics
• content that might cause users to complain

Knowing the negative factors and realistically evaluating your website content to eliminate violations is key to ranking well in Google. Each item listed above violates the words “original and quality” in the phrase “add original quality content often”.

Apply this analysis to your plan for creating new web design content as well as evaluating existing site articles or pages. Older sites may have outdated content published years earlier that may not accurately present facts about information that has subsequently changed.

If adding content often is important, some website owners may be reluctant to remove previously published information thinking more is better. However, outdated or inaccurate content violates the word “quality”, so reasonable choices are to edit the information and republish, or remove it entirely.

Important: Negative ranked content can impact and lower the ranking of all pages on your website including quality content pages.

Our advice? Edit or delete poor content that violates the rules for a high quality website design, and then follow the advice from the Google blog and our quality analysis presented here.

This Google Plus One (+1) button tutorial gives site owners an easy way to add the social button to each post or page of their blog. Instructions include tutorials for Blogger and WordPress format blogs or you may want to include the Google plus one +1 button on your main site pages.

First, here’s some background information about the new Google +1 application. With the release of Google +1 yesterday going from “by invitation only” to everyone, this allows all users to sign up for the beta version and begin socializing in new ways that are similar yet superior to Facebook.

Where you see the +1 button on any site you visit you may click the +1 button to add and save that post or article to your free Google +1 account. Your +1 feed will look familiar if you’re already using Facebook. Similar to Facebook you may share content you like with a circle of contacts that you can specify by groups as friends, acquaintances, family, and more.

Visit the Google Plus One website to learn more basics.

As with anything new, the technical aspects may be daunting for novice site owners. Adding the Google +1 button to your website and blog should be easy with this +1 button tutorial.

To get the Google +1 application working you need two things. First, you need a script callout to the Google API or Application Programming Interface. Secondly, you need to add a chunk of code that automatically adds the +1 button to your site and blog posts. In layman terms you need 1) a connection to Google to add the function, and then 2) code to display the button on your website.

Important: ALWAYS backup your template before making changes. A single typo can ruin a web design layout, so protect your website to insure a roll back option if something goes wrong.

Blogger with Blogspot Address Instructions

If you have a free Blogger blog with a Blogspot address, the Google +1 button setup is added from the admin backend. Log into your account, select “Design” and then select the “Edit” link to the right under “Posts”. In the popup window of options and settings slide down and select the square radio button for “Show Share Buttons” if not already checked, and then slide to the very bottom and click “Save”.

That’s it. You’re done! Exit and visit your blog to confirm the +1 button has been added to every post.

Blogger Custom Domain, Template Site, or Static Web Pages

If your Blogger blog is on a custom www domain (like yourblog.com, not yourblog.blogspot.com), a template based website, or you have a static website design (no template), begin by inserting the following line of code between the opening <head> and closing </head> tags near the top of your template (or static page).

<script type=”text/javascript” src=”https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js”></script>

This code will “connect” to Google’s secure server to provide the functionality for your +1 buttons.

Step 2 is adding code that displays the Google +1 button. Copy the code shown below to insert in your Blogger blog, site template, or each individual page if your site uses static pages. Insert the code in the specific place where you want the Google +1 button to appear.

<div style=’float:right’>
<g:plusone size=”medium” expr:href=”data:post.url”/></g:plusone>
</div>

For example, I decided to use the above code as-is modified and placed the Google +1 button (with 3 others) near the top of posts on my Blogger platform personal blog “Growin’ Up in Maine” with childhood stories and floated to the far right on the same line as the date posted. Visit that blog to see it in action.

The code may be customized, also. You may change the Google +1 icon size from small to medium (middle) or standard depending on the size you prefer and where you want it placed. In addition, you may want to change the float right to float left, also.

Note: Once placed in your blog or site template the buttons publish automatically with each new post or article. If your website design doesn’t use a template, but only static pages, you must manually insert both of the above codes each time you create a new page.

WordPress Blog Format Instructions

The majority of my blog designs are in the WordPress format because of ease of use and the large number of plugins designed to do functions automatically. Search and you’ll find several 5-star rated plugins for adding the Google +1 button function. I tested 3-4 and then chose the Google ‘Plus one’ Button by kms for my WordPress blogs and as featured in this tutorial.

The fast and easy way to install the WordPress Google +1 button is from the admin backend. Log into your account and then click on the down arrow in the sidebar heading for Plugins. Select “add new” and a new screen offers a search option. Input “Google ‘Plus one’ Button by kms” then select the Search Plugins.

The only option that should appear is in fact the plugin by kms. Under the name are links to details and install. Click on install and then “yes” on the following “Are you sure” nag message. The plugin will be installed automatically. When you return to the plugin options select “Activate”.

Next, under Settings in the left sidebar you should now see a link to Google +1. Click that to complete the setup. Set the first two options from the dropdown menus. My choices were “middle” under “size” (medium button), “below the post” for location, and then 3 of the 4 check boxes under that leaving “on first page” blank. Select “save changes” and you’re done. (Update: With additional testing, I moved the +1 to the top and added Twitter, Facebook, and a bookmarking dropdown.)

Choose alternate options from those I recommend to suit your preferences. Please note that this blog is a WordPress custom design. View the +1 button after the last line of the text and right above the “Share and Enjoy” date as subsequently moved to the top of posts next to 3 other social icons.

Closing Comments on the Value of Google +1

Besides the social value of Google +1, eventually those “votes” by visitors to your site may affect seo search engine optimization and page ranking. Google has dominated the search engine market for years with superior robotic algorithms to evaluate website content to rank pages.

The human factor of real people making real choices and recommendations that may be measured will certainly enhance Google’s position. Their reputation depends on relevant results to search requests. The human factor of +1 will certainly help.

For site owners, the early adopters adding Google +1 buttons to their website gathering +1 fans may likewise have an SEO advantage over their competition.

Comments are welcome. Feel free to call or email me with any questions, and keep in mind I may be available to handle the Google +1 button installation for a modest fee if you run into problems or lack of patience.

I finally got around to a makeover of the first blog template I ever designed which seems overdue after being in custom web design full time since 2004 and doing websites more as a hobby since the mid-1990′s.

The screenshot here (smaller than actual size) is from the newly designed Growin’ Up in Maine personal blog where I tell stories of “Childhood Memories of Small Town Maine Life During the 1950′s and 60′s”.

While at it, I moved the blog from free hosting on Google’s Blogspot.com to a custom domain. Buying the custom domain through Google for $10 includes free hosting, so the old blog has a new template and home on a TLD top level domain.

The future cost to keep it online is $10 a year.

Originally the plan was to use the blog as a test site for offering custom blog design services, and the intent was to learn template design from the experiment then trash the blog.

To my utter surprise people my age in the boomer generation just loved the stories that brought back memories of their childhood. Based on the popularity and positive feedback I decided to keep the blog going.

The top header in the Blogger template design uses original photographs I took this summer in Maine for a widescreen view of the place we referred to as Down Back for 3 generations in the 1900′s.

Additional photos and video footage were used to create a YouTube video that you may want to view showing that special place including the old swimming hole Down Back on the Sebec River in Derby, Maine.

At times I’ve gone months without writing new stories, but that’s about to change after this makeover of the first blog I ever designed. Watch the video. Check out the new look of the Growin’ Up in Maine template and blog.

Bookmark the site or subscribe to the rss feed to read future stories about what it was like living life in a small Maine town.

Back by popular demand, readers may now download free custom business card artwork with the release of my free 2012 business card artwork download.

New BONUS! I’ve added 3 new colors for 2012, so besides the original grey marble, white granite, and plain white, take your choice of marble in pale green, light blue, or pink salmon for 6 versions of the free business card artwork.

Click on the graphic to the right for an enlarged (low-res) view of all 6 colors!

FREE ARTWORK LINK

Use this link for free 2012 business card artwork to download now. (zip folder, 2.9mb)

Artwork is enlarged 300 dpi high resolution in CMYK 4-color for at home or professional printing.

Unlike some free resources, you do not have to register or reveal your email address to enjoy another set of free business card calendar artwork to add to the back of your 2012 business card.

Questions or blog comments are welcome.

Take a moment to peek into the future with this Google+ social network video preview from the official Google YouTube account.

Google tried a social network type application called Wave that flopped to some extent and some think Google+ (pronounced as in Google-plus) will be a winner. From the video you’ll see that they overcome some of the pitfalls of the top social sites, Twitter and Facebook, by avoiding sharing too much information.

The idea of defining multiple circles of “friends” so that content you post may be selectively shared is excellent. I am personally amazed at the number of young people publicly trashing their boss, using profanity, or admitting facts that could come back to haunt them in a job interview later in life, or worse. Divorce attorneys already use social content to gain advantage for their clients.

I think the overall plan for Google+ is a winner and expect they will soon dominate online social interaction in ways we could only imagine a few short years ago.

After 15 years in custom web design including the last 7 years full time, the relationship between web design and continuous improvement cannot be denied. The quality principle of continuous improvement is a lesson I learned 40 years ago before any websites existed.

In summary, the concept of continuous improvement means always strive to improve quality and processes in everything you do.

The result of continuous improvement is more efficiency which lowers cost while generating higher profits. At the same time you can balance a better product with price reductions to gain sales momentum and still grow profits based on higher volume.

Customers benefit from your goals of continuous improvement as you become better at what you do. Bigger customers may expect you to strive to lower prices every year, too.

Recent developments in the evolution of custom web design allow creating better websites faster. For my business, that means the price for a custom cms content management system web design at $1500 now costs $1000 less than a year ago.

For static informational sites that the client wants to launch and forget without growing or adding pages, a 5 page site at $500 is also $1000 less than a year ago.

Continuous improvement is a business quality principle that applies universally including the world of custom web design.

The cropped graphic as shown below is from a memorabilia newsletter html design launched within the last week and shows the top portion of the March 2011 edition of the Memorabilia News Bulletin for web design client Mainstream Memorabilia.

Each edition consists of 3 sections including an intro plus opt out info, discount price specials info, and an insider’s view of the memorabilia industry. 3 celebrity photos of autographed memorabilia are used and cropped to fit the format to decorate each section.

Links are included to their website pages for home, specials, contact, and their blog. Additional links across the bottom allow for changing preferences or unsubscribing per CAN-SPAM Act requirements.

For those in web design who work to the latest code standards, learning newsletter design may be a shock because you cannot use all the latest techniques of xhtml and css for a wow first impression. Literally, you must use code and basic html tags from 15 years ago including tables for layout.

This I learned the hard way in the testing phase of the news bulletin design for Mainstream Memorabilia.

The layout for an email newsletter template design must be simple and rigid. The reason you almost have to unlearn how you code is tables for layout and basic html code from 15 years ago will display properly in the widest range of email programs.

A 600 pixel wide standard newsletter layout works best, plus it gives a full view in most preview panes of the majority of email software programs.

For me, and after hit and miss climbing the learning curve, the evidence was in actual results during testing. After a few disasters the final design has the wow factor we wanted despite any code limitations, and the client is very pleased with the look and technical functions.

Mainstream Memorabilia is owned by memorabilia industry insiders with years of past experience in film and television production. They have the contacts for providing quality, selection, and value in celebrity autographed items, so visit their custom online store website that I just happened to design.

While there, you may want to sign up and subscribe to the memorabilia news bulletins, too!

The latest custom cms web design project completed and placed online is the residential and commercial sprinkler and irrigation cms site launch for Hessenauer Sprinkler Repair & Irrigation who services the greater Orlando area and surrounding communities.

The project represents a redesign of their static do-it-yourself website.

In addition to the custom cms main website, the design includes a matching integrated WordPress blog to allow enhanced seo search engine optimization because the customer can add original quality content often without assistance.

A key aspect of this custom cms web design with matching WordPress blog is the files that automate much of the publishing are managed in a single database.

This cuts down on custom web development time, allows automated site backups, and includes advanced features that clients may use without professional web design skills.

Content publishes automatically from plain text to xhtml and meets W3C worldwide standards, plus represents a breakthrough in state-of-the-art evolution for custom cms web design.

Hessenauer Sprinkler Repair & Irrigation has been providing sprinkler and irrigation design, sales, installation, and service to customers in the greater Orlando area since 1979. Links in their home page sidebar take visitors to very favorable reports and customer feedback on Angies List and the BBB Better Business Bureau.