Redesign for Recycling
One of the things I enjoy about my job is the chance to stretch my skills to achieve ideal results for my clients. Recently, I had another an opportunity to do just that, as I constructed a web site for Karle Enviro Organic Recycling, an industry leader in bio solids management.
The majority of our clients are comprised of companies offering consumer products and business services. As an industrial company, Karle Enviro presented some interesting challenges. We couldn’t fall back on the same sources for stock photography since IStock doesn’t have a wide assortment of images of industrial waste so Taylor stepped up to the challenge by building attractive banners which brought a bit of life to each page.
Karle Enviro has locations in both Indiana and Florida. While they are part of the same parent, the two units operate independently, with slightly different service offerings. They wanted to be able to benefit from a single primary domain to improve their search visibility, while still presenting distinct faces to their clients. Our solution was to create essentially three sites in one. The primary URL drives visitors to a landing page with a brief overview of the company and two large buttons driving visitors to either the Indiana or Florida sub domain. All three sites have a similar look and feel as visitors move seamlessly from one to the other. However the banners have been modified to feature local phone numbers and contact information.
Beyond the look of any site, are the words. Karle Enviro’s work requires such a high-level of expertise and we needed to support that image with intelligent, factual copy. Luckily, the client was patient as we worked together to formulate strong, engaging copy. I was lucky to have Allison around in this regard.
Karle Enviro is proud of their new robust, functional site, and so are we. This project gave me the opportunity the think in new ways and discover new tricks in web design. I couldn’t be happier about that (or my newly-acquired organic recycling knowledge).
To see the new site, simply visit the Karle Enviro Main Page.
Is Your Storefront Customer Friendly?
I started my professional career in a retail environment; first on the sales floor, then as a buyer. I learned all phases of the sales cycle. How to”
- Create advertising which drove people in the door
- Arrange displays and signs to capture the attention of shoppers and lead them deeper into the department
- Approach shoppers, offer suggestions, upsell,and get the sale
- Manage returns and customer satisfaction issues.
Thirty years later (yes it really has been thirty years) I apply all those same skills to web design .
- Instead of print and radio I help clients create internet advertising to drive people to the site. Targeted messages, intriguing offers and attractive graphics still move people to action.
- Instead of paying attention to displays, I focus on navigation, and page features. Where to place graphics, and how large the graphics should be is an integral part of site design. As a sales manager, I carefully placed items which might sell together next to each other. I use related links to other parts of the site, which bring visitors deeper and deeper into the content
- Special offers and conversion forms allow you to connect with customers, identifying specific interests to you can ” find a belt to match their dress” .
- Today it is easier then ever to monitor customer opinion, through surveys and feedback forms.
Same skills, different applications, so when I am stumped for an idea to finish out a web project, I simply walk the aisles in a retail shop. Of course, I usually have to buy something too.
Taking SEO Into Your Own Hands
Every once in a while, we get a client who doesn’t just talk about wanting the best ranked website in their field, they are committed to going the extra mile to stand head and shoulders above their competitors. Dr. Jeff Yoder of Meridian Chiropractic is one of those clients. Dr. Yoder understands the importance of measuring each and every marketing effort he puts forth when trying to reach clients.
When we build sites in WordPress, we do several things to improve the overall search rankings of a site. We use All-In-One SEO to title pages. We work with the clients to develop a list of key words to be used in their posts. And then, after we build the site we train our clients how to manage their sites. Once complete, the responsibility is theirs to continue creating fresh, relevant content to maximize their SEO efforts. It’s important that clients create new blog posts and use the tools we give them to put their websites in the best position to be successful.
Often, our clients adopt a set it and forget it attitude. However, Dr. Yoder has continued to challenge us to find additional ways to help increase his visibility on the keywords he wants to build his SEO strategy around.
He caters to busy professionals who need a chiropractor located in downtown Indianapolis. For him, the words “Indianapolis chiropractor“, “downtown chiropractor“, and “Meridian Chiropractic” are keywords Dr. Yoder wants his site strongly associated with.
Dr. Yoder has been tracking his progress from obscurity to visibility on search engines. He has seen progress and we now as he continues to ad fresh content and optimize each new post for search engines, his rankings will continue to improve.
We always love when clients take an active role in their marketing success. It’s that drive that separates most successful business owners from the pack.
SEO Impossible
Many people like to talk about Search Engine Optimization like it’s a magic bullet: one simple dose of keyword magic, and you’ll be burning up the Google search rankings. This is sadly not the case, especially if you’re trying to break into a competitive search term.
This is the problem we encountered when trying to move our clients at Polaris Property Management up the search list. They wanted to search competitively on the term “Indianapolis property management.” Unfortunately, a search for this term returns 5,160,000 results. To make matters even worse, there are only about 1,600 searches for the term each month. So you have a paradox: a competitive term that isn’t searched very often. What’s a company to do?
It all comes back to the 3 R’s:
Relevancy: Did we use appropriate keywords throughout the site? The client wanted to “own” that particular search term, but is that the best strategy? Would we be better off going after a more specific search term?
Recency: It’s important to add new content to your site at least every week in order to stay fresh in the minds of your readers–and to keep Google’s web crawlers coming back. Adding a blog would surely help in this department.
Related Links: This is where things get tricky. It’s not enough to have a well-optimized, frequently updated site. You have to have other reputable sites that link back to you. One great, though often time-consuming way to do this, is to “seed” blogs. That is, find blogs on similar topics and post insightful comments that link back to your own site. In this way, you’ll establish your online street cred, which will also give you a boost up the search rankings.
Simply put, SEO isn’t easy. Anyone who tells you that it is is lying. It’s an ongoing, constantly evolving process. So ask yourself: are you following the 3 R’s?
Cashing In with E-Commerce
As a company, we have deliberately avoided websites which included an e-commerce requirement . While we do several things really well, website storefronts are tedious, time consuming, and clunky in WordPress. At Roundpeg we pride ourselves n the simplicity we provide our clients with the maintenance of their website, and typical e-commerce functionality never fit in that wheelhouse…
…until now.
Recently, we discovered a new plugin which has answered our e-commerce prayers. Ecwid allows us to build an easy, professional-looking web-shopping experience on your site. By signing up for a (free) Ecwid account, you can load products into a virtual store and simply plug the store into anyweb page, including one designed in WordPress.
While their paid version has enhanced functinality, even the free plateform handles hundreds of products with ease, provides sales history by product or client in an easy to download format. With ECWID, we can offer our clients a robust eCommerce platform which they can manage with just a little training. The reuslt? We can better serve our existing clients, and work with clients we wouldn’t have considered in the past. And the more folks we can help, the better!
I highly recommend Ecwid to any WordPress developer looking to provide clients with the quickest, easiest, and most functional e-commerce storefront possible.
WordPress 3.0 – The Platform for Web Development
About two years ago, Roundpeg made a switch from traditional HTML web design to WordPress for several reasons:
- It was easier to design in WordPress, so we could turn projects faster, and at a lower price for our small business clients
- WordPress was easy for the clients to update on their own. This allowed us to give each small business owner we worked with the skill and tools they needed to control their web presense
- WordPress is SEO smart – The built-in tools present information to Google and other search engines in a format they can easily translate for their purposes . The result – WordPress websites can be found easily!
- The ever-growing number of WordPress plugins have allowed us to keep pace with other web development firms
And now there is WordPress 3.0. The much anticipated launch is scheduled for, today, June 14. It is hard to believe, but they have taken a platform I love and made it even better. The list of new or enhanced features is extensive, but I have taken a stab at reviewing some of them for the Marketing Technology Blog.
If you have questions about upgrading your current WordPress site, or building a new one with the enhanced platform, give us a call! We would love to help you.
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Web Designers Block
I suffer from writers block on a regular basis. While I have a gift for talking ( anyone who has spent time around me can attest to that) organizing my ideas on paper (or a computer screen) can often be challenging. As a result I have developed a number of coping techniques, designed to jump start my creative process. I have tried everything from flipping through magazines to going for walks away from my desk carrying a audio recording device. Enen with all the techniques in my tool kit, I am always looking for more.
I found some terrific suggestions in a post entitled Avoid Perfect Photo Syndrome. While the article is about selecting images for a website, many of the techniques can help unlock your creative process for writing or drawing!
My favorite tip:
Take advantage of bad ideas.
If you’re stuck for good ideas, then use a bad one as a stepping stone to something better. Keep thinking. Even an inappropriate idea could lead you in the right direction. And sometimes an imperfect match is better than nothing at all.
I have used this technique in brainstorming, but I never thought about is part of a writing or web design process. It is often much easier to edit then to create, so the process of putting anything in front of you, is better then a blank screen. Select an idea, walk away and then come back. The new ideas it generates may surprise you.
Of course, you have to be careful not to show the “bad idea” to a client. They might think you are an idiot, or worse yet, they might like it!
A Tale of Two Websites
We recently had an interesting challenge: to design “sister sites” for two related but separate companies: Polaris Property Management and a blog for Polaris Real Estate. For Polaris Property Management, it was a redesign of their existing site, but the blog is meant to compliment danbaldini.com, the existing site for Polaris Real Estate.
At first glance, the pages don’t look so different. They share a similar simple style, and clean style, along with Taylor’s great banner artwork. However, the content and function of the sites are very different.
The Polaris Manage site is a more traditional site: its intent is to bring in customers. It’s also a way for potential customers to inquire about properties, or for tenants to file maintenance requests.
The blog, however, is a great way to establish credibility in all areas on the Polaris family of companies. By giving value to the web community, the Polaris team is establishing themselves as trustworthy experts when you’re selling your home and business.
This dual-site design was a challenge, sometimes confusing, but in the end, rewarding. We’re pleased with how it turned out, and hope that it brings the Polaris team much success.
Camping Season Kicking into High Gear with New Websites
Spring is in the air, and with it, everyone’s thoughts turn to enjoying the warm weather months outdoors. So it’s really no surprise that we’ve been helping several campgrounds around the country get their sites in shape for the summer season.
We redesigned the sites for Beaver Hollow Campground in New Hampshire, and Whispering Pines Campground in Rhode Island. For both of campsites, we focused on streamlining the design so information was easy for prospective campers to find. We created a wider format, which moved more of the content above the fold, with links to the Twitter, Facebook, and contact forms right on the top of the page.
We used WP-Table Reloaded to create a searchable activity calendar, giving each campground an easy-to-update, easy-to-read, and easy-to-search database for the many events going on around camp. In the future, updating these schedules will be as easy as uploading an Excel spreadsheet. ( We have also used this same tool for doctor’s on call schedules, project lists, and member data bases)
It was a nice change of pace to work on these sites–emphasizing the great outdoors, looking at the photos of campers enjoying the facilities, and working with fun logos like Beaver Hollow’s friendly mascot. So if you’re ever in New England, make sure you stop off at one of these sites to get back to nature.
See the before and after images of Beaver Hollow Below:
Design Your Website for People, Search Engines and iPhones
As I talk to small business owners about their websites, I routinely remind them they must create web pages for two types of visitors; live human beings and search engines spiders. Live human beings like pages which load quickly, pretty pictures, the occasional flash image and simple navigation to find what they want. In contrast, the spiders don’t care about the pictures, the flash, or even the navigation. The spiders focus on the content; key words, phases, page titles and tags.
Serving these two masters is challenging enough, but now we have a third, important audience to consider – the mobile community. Why should you care about what your website looks like on someone’s mobile phone? Because every expert agrees mobile already represents a significant portion of your visitor traffic and that number is expected to continue to grow.
Depending on the expert the time line varies, but Mary Meeker of Morgan Stanly shook the industry to it’s core with her prediction that Mobile will overtake Desktop users within five years. This chart from her presentation shows the tremendous acceleration of mobile users over the next few years.
What does this mean to you as you develop your website? It means real changes in your design. Now you need to consider how the page will size and scale for a 2 – 3 inch screen. This is one of the reasons we really like to work with WordPress. The pages look as good on an iPhone as they do on a desk top.
Flash images and most video is simply invisible on smart phones. While the feud between Apple and Adobe over the next generation of flash rages, my advice to small business owners with limited budgets for web design, is to hold off investing in this type of image, and stick to platforms which work now. You can always update later.
Does this mean you have to have boring static websites to be compatible with mobile? No! There are many products which will create interesting effects on your phone. My advice, be sure to ask for a demo before you buy!
