I was hired by Belinda at K&B Direct to help them get better positioned in the SERPS.
I did some research on what the most used phrases are when clients typically do a search for a company like hers. Then after discussions we decided that I would target the keyword/phrase: “direct marketing advertising agency”
Today I sent Belinda this email…
I think that email says it all.
I’m very pleased to announce that we launched a new client website yesterday. Click the image below to view the full size. Or visit their website HR Consulting.
As we normally do, we now stay involved with our client for another 30 days during which time they can request small changes to their website at no additional cost. We track visitor stats and submit XML sitemaps and register their site with Google Loca/Places, Bing Webmaster Tools, Google Webmaster Tools and more.
In a month or so we will be able to track their rankings and share their success story with you on our blog.
When we build a new website, sometimes a client may not have logo, or they may give us poor quality images. For a fee we can improve the images or even have a selection of logos created for you.
Below is an example of a selection of logos. In the bottom left hand corner is the initial sample that the client gave us. We then generated 6 alternatives for them to choose from…
Bottom left is the initial image + 6 alternatives we generated
Thank you for your interest in our website design service.
NOTE: These are not my designs, I modified what was already there…
This is a description of implementing the Facebook Like Box on a client site…
Here is an example of a client website which uses the Facebook Like Box social plugin. I have pointed out the Like Box plugin with a red arrow…
Facebook "Facepile" social plugin
Visually, it fits in very neatly and I think it adds to the page.
Some time ago I helped a customer who had an existing tourism site. We naturally assumed that targetting the geo-location and the word “tourism” would be suffient. So for example “tourism in cape town”.
Later I went to the Google AdWords Keyword External Tool and found out exactly how many people do local and international searches for the two phrases
The first one focusses on tourism and seems to be a close match to their actual business… which falls under the category of tourism.
But in fact the second phrase using the word “accommodation” is by far the more popular search term – as you will see below in the screenshots.
read: Target the right phrases using the Google AdSense Keyword Tool
Just in case you get the impression that I only do B&B designs, here is a more recent client who sells custom made and perosnalized jewellery online.
Forget Me Not Jewellery
http://www.forgetmenots.co.za
Forget Me Not Jewellery
This is a fantastic jewellery idea and the feedback from the client and from the visitors to the site is that the design is superb.
Design and SEO considerations:
In my last post I share two success stories. Today I will share another design which had a very good reception by the customer.
This is Pine Cottage B&B:
http://www.pinecottage.co.za
Pine Cottage B&B
I love the “friendly” nature of this page.
Design and SEO considerations:
Buying the right domain name is absolutely crucial.
Domain names should include the right “broad match” keyword for your business, otherwise your website may never rank well for that search result.
If you are a whiz with CSS and CSS-based grid systems then go ahead and make your own design. But for the rest of us, it’s far easier to take an existing free design and modify it.
When you look at a website you might see this:
In the customer website – below – take note of 6 things:
1) The logo and the contact details are at the top of the page. It is very important that the contact details can be seen immediately. Research shows that a very small percentage of visitors ever view below the “fold” of the page, so the most important information must be placed at the top of the page.
Let’s say you have a great website design. You’ve done all the basics well and now the customer has the impulse to place an order with you. Are your contact details right there and unmissable?
In your website design make sure you have a highly visible location for your contact details. I usually reserve the top right hand corner for this purpose. You can see a good example of this below…
This is a brand new product from Google which is not yet available in all countries. It is tremendously exciting in terms of good website design. It’s called Google Business Photos and it’s also linked to Google Maps.
Just as Google Street View shows the outside of your store, Google Business Photos shows the INSIDE of your store in 360 degree imagery.
I covered using Google Maps to show your location, but now I’m suggesting something related to that. If you are about to go somewhere that you have never seen before, it would be great to be able to have a peek at the environment before you actually spend the money to go there.
Put yourself in the shoes of a tourist. You are planning to visit a country you have never visited before. Let’s randomly pick Spain. Then you choose a city to visit, such as Barcelona. Now you need to figure out where to stay, based on the nearness to the tourist hot spots you want to visit.
Of course every website tells you they are near the tourist hotspots, but past experience tells you that some of them are lying! How do I describe convincingly that the client really is near the beach, or really is close to all the tourist attractions.
Well… a picture says more than a thousand words can. Using Google Maps you can show your location and also show the route from the airport to your location.
I enjoy hearing my client’s oohs and aaah’s when they see their finished site for the first time.
How do I make such lovely designs? I use free templates as a basic starter design. After finding a template that suits the needs of the client, I then edit the graphics and the CSS to match the corporate color scheme. Usually almost every aspect of the template gets changed (rollover images, icons, background colors and shading), but it helps having something well designed to start from.
This client runs a bed and breakfast. They have several rooms and they are near to desirable tourism areas.
All of these things must be communicated rapidly to the visitors, because (on average) research shows you have only 15 seconds to get the visitors attention. A picture is worth a thousand words… therefore good graphic design is the key to communicating to visitors.
This blog is provided as a free service to encourage readers and visitors to create better and more useful websites.
