At first I was a bit skeptical, but responsive websites have grown on me and it is now a part of daily life for me and my coding team.  I will admit that I considered it hype at first, but once I understood what responsive was all about, I now consider it a requirement for new website designs and builds.

Most People Don’t Understand What a Responsive Website Really Means

Since the start of 2012 I’ve received a ton of inquiries asking for responsive theme design.  The majority of the prospects I speak with want their website to be responsive, which in itself is great, because it produces a better user experience for those who visit the website on mobile devices.  The problem is that about 40% of the people I speak with don’t really understand what a responsive WordPress theme is or does.   On a number of occasions I’ve been asked to quote a website that is responsive and that has a separate mobile plugin or website (yes full website) to accommodate mobile devices.  By definition that is not responsive web design.

Below is an example of a responsive website as viewed by a desktop user.

Now look at the same website viewed on a three different mobile devices.  The same content, just resized or repositioned to increase usability and enhance the visitor experience.  These are not separate websites or mobile plugins.  The website is simply adapting to the device.

Lately I find myself having to explain responsive website design to people and then reiterating the definition of responsive design a second time when I respond to a formal RFP.  Why is this the case?  I think for the non-technical person, the word responsive is kind of confusing.  And to make matters worse, if you Google “responsive WordPress theme” you run across a ton of great articles but they’re all geared towards the programmer or coder.  They’re not written for the average WordPress user.

Responsive WordPress Themes Defined for the Average Person

When it comes to designing and coding WordPress websites for mobile devices, you pretty much have four options.

1. Old School Design – Design the website at a standard size so it easily fits the most commonly used desktop resolution.  In this scenario you really don’t give a hoot what device your website visitor is using.  Not the ideal direction to take when considering usability.
2. Design Old School and Create a Separate Mobile Website – In this scenario you would design the desktop version as in number one, but you would also code a completely different version on your website for mobile users.  This secondary website would look and function differently.  It would require a lot more coding, a higher price point to launch, and more ongoing maintenance.
3. Design Old School and Add a Mobile Plugin – Go the route of number one, but add a mobile plugin to produce a scaled down version of your website for mobile visitors.  In this case, the user may or may not see and/or access the same content as a desktop user.  I say “may” because it is dependent on the mobile plugin used.   If you have an existing WordPress website that is fixed in size and you don’t want to redesign or recode it, this may be your only option.
4. Design and Code a New Responsive WordPress Theme – In this scenario the theme is coded as responsive when built.  The website will automatically adapt itself to the user’s device size.  There is not a separate website or a plugin added on, because it is designed as responsive from the start.   The website will be coded to modify the placement of content or resize the content based on the maximum width of the device used to access it.  If you are building a new website or blog, this is definitely the best route to take as it will produce the maximum benefits to your users.  It is also cheaper in the long run because you don’t have to worry about two websites or plugin updates.

As the website owner, you need to decide which route is the best case for your situation and budget.  While responsive may be an excellent choice for new websites, it may not be the best option for users with existing websites and a low budget for modifications.

Is Buying a Responsive Theme Really Worth It?

The answer to that question depends on the type of visitor you have coming to your website.  My website, for example, was designed before responsive was hot.  It is fixed width and updating our theme to responsive is on my list of things to do but not a high priority because the vast majority of my traffic comes from desktop users.  I’ve watched my Google Analytics report to track usage and devices.  If I had a higher mobile rate, the move to responsive would go from “on the list” to the “top of the list”.

If you’re thinking about redesigning your website or you’re considering the launch of a brand new blog, then you should seriously consider the going the responsive route.  Mobile usage has skyrocketed over the last few years and it isn’t going to stop.  Responsive WordPress themes are becoming more and more available and prevalent in usage.   And you don’t have to have a custom design done to obtain a responsive theme.  They’re available as premium WordPress themes in our store (Carla Ann currently and the others are going responsive soon) or on many other websites as well.  Not every theme developer is going this route, but the innovative ones are because they know more and more people will be requiring responsive design.  The increase in coding time will be worth the longevity of our themes (stock themes or custom themes) and happiness of our ultimate clients and their visitors.

Conclusion

You might still wondering if responsive is worth the effort.  Consider the view of your website visitor by viewing your website on the various mobile devices.  This may will help you make your mind up pretty quickly.  StudioPress offers a cool little tool to view your website across multiple devices.  You can find it at www.studiopress.com/responsive/.  If you have a fixed width website and view it on their tool, there will be no question that responsive design offers a better user experience for mobile users.

Other Recent Articles of Interest

• Straight from Google: Responsive Design – Harnessing the Power of Media Queries
• Search Engine Watch: Mobile Sites: Choosing an Implementation Process & Strategies
• Marketing Land: Mobile Website Optimization – You’ve Got Options

An Example of a Real Estate Firm Website Launch

A few days before we officially released the theme I received a call from the president of a real estate firm in California. He needed a custom Genesis theme that was capable of integrating with the IDX functionality from Diverse Solutions. Before I could stop myself, I showed off our Hans theme and color options. It wasn’t even available yet, but I couldn’t help myself. The broker loved it and bought it as soon as I added it to our online store. He had us create a custom color scheme for it and integrate the IDX plugin and HTML code for him. We also set up the AgentPress Listings, Simple Real Estate Pack and Gravity Forms plugins for him. It was a perfect, low cost, and low hassle solution. And more importantly, the website looks great! You may think I’m partial to it – I do consider our themes my babies and I am the overly proud mom – but it does look really good.

Why is Hans Perfect for Real Estate Firms and Home Builders?

It uses the awesome AgentPress Listings plugin and can also integrate to plugins like Simple Real Estate Pack and Gravity Forms. Hans comes with five different color options and as we discussed above, custom color schemes can be created.

Han also includes multiple sidebars, a widgetized home page, a flexible rotator, call to action boxes, FeedBurner integration, and author boxes for single or multiple bloggers and agents. It takes advantage of cool Genesis’ features such as multiple page payouts, columns, featured images, latest tweets, user profiles, eNews and updates, and featured pages. And because this premium WordPress theme is built for Genesis, it is a lightweight theme and secure.

The important part of all of this is that Hans was designed for realtors and homebuilders who sell new construction homes. The look, feel, and functionality was specifically designed to accommodate the needs of this industry and their website visitors. And it is a great low cost option for creating a swanky website that makes the agent or company look as professional as possible.

Is IDX Integration Really as Easy as it Seems?

Another buyer of Hans had inquired about IDX integration, so I suspect this is a common question for users of real estate themes.  Hans can integrate to IDX, but the CSS code may need to be tweaked in some cases. There are just too many IDX companies and integration options to have the theme completely preset with all IDX code options. We’ve worked with two different IDX companies in the last 30 days and while they are similar, they are different. Some IDX companies and/or packages create listings right on the website and others embed an iFrame into a page that manages the functionality. Both are strong options and the choice is made on a variety of factors pertaining to the ultimate client’s unique needs.

I will say that I found Diverse Solutions’ dsIDXpress IDX Plugin to be one of the best plugins I’ve ever installed and used. It was not only filled with great functionality, itdid the majority of the integration us at installation. When I activated it the first time, I was amazed at how well the functionality worked and was ready for use right out of the box. The only thing we really needed to do was modify the CSS (look) of their default search box.

The folks at Diverse Solutions are also awesome at support. Keep in mind I do not have an account with them and I’m not directly paying them money. But I’ve called them twice for two different clients and both times they were very helpful and were more than happy to give support on behalf of our shared client.

If I Have IDX, Why Do I Need to Bother With AgentPress Listings?

IDX isn’t a solution for all theme users. While IDX is great for agents and real estate firms that buy and sell homes across a wide range of areas, it wouldn’t be suitable for a homebuilder that limits sales to their own new construction homes. In this case, Hans and the AgentPress Listings plugin is a perfect fit.

My girlfriend Jen is a marketing manager for a local new homebuilder. She knows WordPress, but struggles getting her homes listed on her company’s website because she is never really sure how to style the content. The AgentPress Listings plugin can actually do this for her. Once you configure the base settings, the plugin does it for you. Jen will only need to pop in her square footage, lot size, photos, and virtually any other criteria she deem appropriate. The WordPress plugin will do the styling for her and make sure all listings are uniform in both functionality and their visual elements. She’ll even be able to segment homes by neighborhoods. And adding new neighborhoods is as easy as dropping the subdivision name in a table within the WordPress admin panel.

Take Hans for a Ride and See For Yourself

The thing I love about real estate agents is that many are DIY type of people. They love a good DIY website and Hans helps them get it done.  If you’re in the real estate industry and you’re considering building a new website or redesigning your current website, consider Hans.  You can give Hans a test drive by visiting our Hans theme demo or by stopping by VerandaHomes.com to see it on a live website.

If you love Hans as much as we do, you can buy theme in our WordPress theme store.

My marketing background started in enterprise software sales where a given prospect could be in the sales funnel for six to twelve months.   We would have a new visitor reach our website while they were still researching available software solutions.  Because of the extremely long sales cycle, we had to find a way to stay in front of people while they continued to investigate solutions and weight their purchase options.  Even though I was selling into a B2B tech environment, the same process would hold true for a real estate agent, mortgage broker, or financial advisor and these are all B2C businesses that sell to consumers.  The element they all share in common is that the sales cycle is long and the purchase happens infrequently.

Drip marketing typically refers to email related interactions.  I think that is old school and I believe drip marketing should be a multifaceted approach.  With the advent of social media, drip marketing can refer to virtually any digital marketing and includes blogging, emails, newsletters, tweets, and posts.

Eight Steps to Mastering Drip Marketing

1. Pick an Email Campaign Provider – There are a ton of email software providers available today.  Popular ones include AWeber, Boomerang, Bronto, Constant Contact, GetResponse, iContact, MailChimp, Silverpop, and VerticalResponse.  Some are free to start and some cost money immediately upon sign up.  The important thing is to consider your requirements, document them, and then compare solution providers.  Match the providers’ features and functionality to your needs and don’t settle for just the easies solution or the cheapest.  Do you need the software to automatically send multiple emails to the same contact over time?  Do you need the software to easily integrate with WordPress or another CMS solution?  Do you need prebuilt templates or the ability to whip up your own in HTML?  Decide what you need and you’ll easily find a solution to fit.
2. Consider Your Personas – Who are your personas (aka target market) and what do they need?  Different target markets need different types of content, presentation, and frequency.  Know your personas and document their needs well before establishing your drip campaign plan.
3. Decide What You’re Going to Publish – Once you’ve defined your target market and individual personas, you need to create a plan.  Not all products and services will align well with drip campaign, so don’t’ force it.  If it doesn’t feel like a natural fit, then most likely it isn’t right and it is best to avoid it.  Think about what is of value to your target market, what you already have to offer, or what you can offer in the future.  It could be an event, eBook, blog post, white paper, or product give away.  You have to have something of value for drip marketing to work.
4. Decide On How Often Should You Publish – This is highly dependent on your target market and the method used to connect with your audience.  If you think an email each day for a week is going to resonate with a busy c-level executive, think again.  If you think ten Facebook updates a day are going to woo your consumer-based audience, you’re also wrong.  While I can’t give you a magical number, I can tell you that you can increase the acceptable amount of touch points if you vary the delivery.  And most importantly, you have to have something to say that is of value.  The more value you offer, the more times you can share, email, or post.  When at all possible, reuse content to maximize the reach.  Create a great blog post that can be included in your email newsletter, tweeted, and/or shared on Facebook and Google+.
5. Create Your Newsletter Template – We’re going to assume that email marketing is part of your drip campaign plan and setting up an actual newsletter template is needed.  Before you even think about doing this task, you need to have an idea of what is going to go into your newsletter.  Remember that plan I mentioned?  Well I’m back to it.  And yes, I know I sound like a broken record.   I’ll be honest here – I hate anything related to email newsletters.  I read them, but I hate preparing them.  I’ve hated it ever since my first one some ten or so years ago.  But it isn’t so much the newsletter I hate, but the need for content.  If you have content available, newsletter creation is a snap.  When your boss declares you must produce a quarterly (or monthly or even weekly) newsletter but offers no content suggestions, the marketer in you wants to wither away and die.  You have to have something of value to use in the newsletter and you need to know what that is before you try to design or map out your template.  Newsletters can consist of recent blog posts, industry articles, videos, podcasts, upcoming events, or virtually anything.  What you need to include in all newsletters are: social links, links to your website, contact information, your logo, and your website’s color scheme for extended branding.  I highly recommend taking the time to create the first template right, so you have it to reuse again and again.  There are lots of professionals that can help create a beautiful template for a reasonable fee and they are truly worth every penny.
6. Upload Your Contacts and Grow Your List – Most campaign providers require you to have a given user’s permission to upload their contact information and email the recipient in mass.  This is a reasonable request, as you do not want to be marked as spam and have future issues with blacklisted URLs.  In reality your email list can get jumpstarted from existing clients and/or contacts, as well as your website itself.  Adding a subscribe box to your website is not overly difficult if you have a CMS based website or a website that allows the addition of HTML code.  Most providers have simple tutorials or apps that allow you to create your sign up box and produce HTML code for your website.  The larger providers will also provide Facebook apps and WordPress plugins to help build your list.  Take advantage of these offerings so you can maximize the reach of your content.
7. Jump in and Send Your First Newsletter – Early I used the word hate when describing the process of creating a newsletter.  My six-year old considers this a four letter word, which it is, but not nearly as bad as the four letter word spam.  Creating a newsletter isn’t hard or painful if you create your plan and follow through on it.  You just need to DO IT!  Yep, it is that simple.  Sign up for campaign provider, create your opt in box, plan out your content, and create the actual newsletter.  You’re going to make some mistakes the first time around and that is okay.  We all do it.  They key is to do something actionable and to move forward with reaching out to your prospects or customer base.  Remind them that you still exist and that there is a very good reason(s) to do business with you.  If you give them a compelling reason to visit your website or call you on the phone, many times they will do it.
8. Review Your Stats and Adjust – Typically nobody hits a home run the first time up to bat.  Marketing, and newsletters in particular, is not perfect on day one.  Knowing what works is actually fairly easy in the land of newsletters.  The top newsletter providers offers great stats on open rates, click through rates, and funnels.  I’ve tended to play with formatting to see what scores better with open and click through rates.  Consider subject lines, content placement, image usage, link verbiage, fonts, and colors as your tools, then play with different scenarios until you get the highest number of opens, click throughs, and ultimate phone calls or purchases.  Once you’ve reviewed your newsletter providers’ statistics, head over to Google Analytics to see what happens when the readers click through to your website.  If you’ve set up goals and dashboards properly, you’ll have a world of data at your fingertips.

Okay It’s Time to Get Started!

About a year ago I decided I was going to write a blog series on the steps for designing and launching an SEO friendly website.  I started at keyword research and went through site mapping, wireframes, design, build, and post launch review.  This blog post is within that series.  The blog posts, are themselves, like a drip campaign.  Having an outline of the blog posts and their sequence helped make blogging effortless and logical all at the same time.  It gave me content to share, post, or email that was of value to my specific target market.

All I had to do was craft a plan that was geared towards serving my target market and then just do it. Easy peasy.

Feeling confident yet?  It isn’t nearly as hard as it sounds.  It just needs to be planned, a bit strategic, and adaptable.  My first newsletter campaigns left a lot to be desired.  But with a little effort, you learn and continue to improve just like I did.

My Travels Within the World of Social Media

My social media experience started with Facebook.  It was just at the start of the social networking craze.  I was interviewing au pairs (aka overseas nannies) and I would friend potential hires on Facebook so I could check out their profiles.  This was very beneficial to my interviewing, as not one au pair ignored my request.  What I didn’t realize was that in a few years, social media was going to be integral in everything I do to promote my business or my client’s websites.

As the years past, I moved from Facebook to LinkedIn and then onto Twitter and Quora.  I set my profile up on popular websites like Focus.com or Google+ and like many, became addicted to my favorites.  I browse social media websites while I wake up with coffee each morning.  It isn’t just for business, social media helps keeps me sane.

I’ve recently discovered the joys of Pinterest and I love the ease of pinning images and websites.  I wasn’t sure if Pinterest was more than a passing mommy fad, but I thought I’d give it a try.  What surprised me was that I actually liked it and found use for it within my work life.

Social Media as an Important Weapon in Your Marketing Arsenal

Social media has changed the way we view the world and the way we interact with each other.  It is more than a fad or a distraction.  It is a marketing tool and a powerful weapon for your SEO arsenal.  It is a necessity for doing business or even promoting your business on the internet.

While our firm focuses a lot of website design and premium WordPress themes, we also teach clients about social media marketing.  Throughout our website development projects I preach the benefits of social media and I encourage clients to highlight their social media activity on their new websites.  Not every website will be suitable for a Pinterest icon or a Twitter feed, but the website should use something social media related.  It doesn’t matter if you are B2B or B2C based, marketers should be driving traffic from social media referrals, likes, pins, and retweets.

Why should you care about social media?  It connects you with people! These same people are your current customers or possibly your potential prospects.  Social media interactions are part of the search engines algorithms and thus play a role in determining if your website will score well for a particular keyword or phrase.  Social media is also an easy way to get quick feedback about your product, service, or company.  And most importantly, social media drives website traffic.

Five Social Media Websites Every Marketer Should Consider

If you’re new to it, social media can be overwhelming.  Each social network has its own set of best practices, rules of engagement, and social norms.  They all operate differently and they all have their own quirks and bugs to work through.  My advice is to start with one social network, get your feet wet, and then begin to explore more.  Walk before you run, stumble, and fall flat on your face.

My recommend social media websites include:

• Facebook – Facebook is great for driving traffic to websites.  If you sell to consumers, Facebook pages can help drive a considerable amount of traffic to your website.  If you sell to business, the traffic generation will be much smaller, but the SEO benefits will remain. Find us on Facebook.
• Twitter – The use of Twitter by consumers is mixed.  Certain industries and demographic segments are using Twitter in high demand, while others are virtually non-existent.  On the business side of things, Twitter is great for interacting with journalists, bloggers, and industry experts.  It may or not be beneficial for actual users, but it is always great for link building and overall branding efforts. Find us on Twitter.
• Google+ – A lot of people feel Google+ usage is high, although I am highly suspect at this point.  My industry has a lot of users active on Google+, but virtually every client I have received little interaction from real users.  In it’s current state, Google+ will drive substantial website traffic, but it is a great tool for developing inbound links.  Building out your Google+ profile offers many ways to create direct inbound links, share images, and highlight videos. Find us on Google+.
• LinkedIn – LinkedIn may not be suitable for the local doctor or dentist, but for those professionals who live in traditional offices and cubicles, it offers great rewards.  Not only can you build out a keyword rich profile and company page that includes great inbound link opportunities, you can also be “found” by other professionals.  And if you connect your LinkedIn profile to Twitter, you can have an active LinkedIn presence without any additional ongoing effort. Find us on LinkedIn.
• Pinterest – I’ll admit my initial impression of Pinterest was not great.  It soon grew on me and I’m now a huge fan.  I personally use Pinterest to file away infographics I love or website designs that I find inspirational.  My mom friends are using it and loving it, so I know this new social media darling is not going away anytime soon.  The men have yet to truly embrace it, but I’m sure they will in time.  It won’t serve a means for every industry or business, but it is a great tool for retailers and anyone who sells anything to women. Find us on Pinterest.

Like I said, not every social media website is going to be a perfect solution for every marketer, blogger, or business.  But there will be at least one or two that are natural fits.  Find your social media sweet spot and use it wisely.   Build out your profile or page, then stay active on your account so you can fully obtain the benefits social media can offer.

When I first started working with WordPress, I taught myself about components of themes and their basic usage.  I next migrated to creating my own themes with a software package called Artisteer.  Next I moved into hacking themes already created by firms like StudioPress.   Finally I learned about creating child themes via the Genesis framework.  As a marketer, my migration and increasing sophistication, followed the same path as many other website developers and WordPress firms.  It’s a walk before you run type of process.  While some of us may learn to run faster or may be able to run a marathon, all of us stumble and fall along the way.

The remarkable thing is how quickly the WordPress community and the toolbox of resources have changed over the last few years.  I love the WordPress community and the software it creates.  I am often touched by the generosity of those within it and their undeniable ability to love and be passionate about what they do each day.  I found myself quickly being sucked in and now my firm is engrossed with WordPress 24/7.

As you migrate through the 1,500+ free themes available via WordPress.org or the unknown number of premium WordPress themes available for sale, you have to take a step back and be in absolute wonder at the rapid growth within the community.  From frameworks and child themes to responsive designs, we’re evolving at an extremely fast pace.  That evolution means options are never-ending.  One framework grew to twenty and one hundred themes grew to a number I doubt any of use can even quantify.

Look for Good Bones When Selecting a WordPress Framework

WordPress Codex defines a WordPress theme frameworks as: “A Theme framework is a Theme designed to be a flexible foundation for quicker WordPress development, usually serving as a robust Parent Theme for Child Themes. Some Theme frameworks can also make theme development more accessible, removing the need for programming or design knowledge with options pages.”

As the owner of a WordPress design firm I view it a little bit differently.  The framework gives users powerful functionality and options.  For me the business owner, it puts my WordPress coders and me in a box – the same box.  It keeps us inline with best practices and it allows me to have multiple WordPress developers working together in harmony, because all of us share the same skeleton structure or bones.  The skin or child theme may look and act differently, but our core is the same.  And the better your core, the better your end project.

I love old houses.  In my mid-twenties I purchased my very first home.   It was a 100 year old home in the middle of a little, but growing town.  I fell in love with it because it had what I considered to be good bones.  My original Anderson windows, French doors, and glass doorknobs were still as beautiful as the day they were installed.  It is that timeless beauty and robust functionality that creates the solid foundation and good bone structure.  I view WordPress frameworks the same as my old house.  We use the Genesis framework from StudioPress because it has good bones.

I’m loyal to Genesis and it is now all we do.  Some of my existing non-Genesis clients have not taken this news very well, but it was a decision I needed to make and a path I needed to put our company on.  I remember using Genesis while it was in beta and I’ll be honest, I didn’t know what the heck I was doing but I could see it had good bones just like my old house.  Now I have a graphic designer and rock star WordPress coders who specialize in Genesis so my bones are not only functional, they’re beautiful.  With Genesis they can take my vision and create cool websites that use everything from BuddyPress and bbPress to WooCommerce and WordPress multisite.  I also know everything is backed by the StudioPress team, who have proven themselves as superior providers of support and WordPress best practices.

What Google Tells Us About the Four Main WordPress Frameworks

Curiosity recently made me wonder about the other WordPress frameworks and how they compared to my beloved Genesis.  So I did some reading and some research.  After all, I’ve not only focused our firm on WordPress, I’ve narrowed it even further to Genesis.  A little part of me just wanted to make sure my strategy was as solid a business decision as my I thought my framework was for functionality.

So my research and Google made me feel better.  I’m not exactly sure how much I believe the website visit data, but I can tell Genesis is a solid contender and a major competitor in the war of WordPress theme frameworks.

Highlights of the Four Major WordPress Frameworks

• Well over 20 theme frameworks are available, although four core frameworks really stand out.  Those are Genesis, Headways, Thesis, and Thematic.
• Of the four core frameworks, WordPress.org only lists Thematic.  But Thematic is also the only free one, so I suspect this is why.
• WordPress.org does, however, list Headways and StudioPress under commercial themes.
• I always feel like PageLines attempts to be a Genesis, although search traffic shows they are not even on the same planet.  Thus they were removed from my comparison.
• Thesis had highest search volumes per Google Adwords on two of the three search groups I tried.  This tells me a lot of people know about Thesis.
• Google Adwords’ competition for the main three frameworks is comparable, although Thematic had the highest estimated cost per click rates.
• Google Insights shows Thesis and Thematic search traffic peaked in April of 2010, while Genesis and Headway peaked in the fall of 2011.  This shows a shift in popularity and overall internet buzz.
• When performing a query for all four theme developers on Google Trends, only Thesis and Genesis produced substantial results.
• Thesis and Genesis proudly show user numbers, although I did not quickly find any usage numbers for Thematic or Headways.
• None of the developers’ websites push their social media accounts, although StudioPress clearly dominates on Twitter and Facebook.  This lack of social media presence totally baffles me, as I know a lot of WordPress users and theme buyers are adopters of social media.

So Why Did We Pick Genesis and Not Another Framework?

I’ll be honest – it was the support forum at StudioPress that captivated me.  I bought their theme package years ago to help out a family member and the support kept me coming back.  They literally taught me how to hack away at WordPress code.  Visually speaking, I don’t think they have anything exceptional that comes from their standard theme pack, but it is a solid base for customizations.  And while their standard themes are not breathtaking, their showcase of Genesis websites shows the wonderful range of capabilities the framework offers and the beautiful websites that can be created as Genesis child themes.  Thanks to Brian Gardner and his team, we have a number of our own website designs listed there too.

I knew if I was going to expand our business and employ multiple WordPress coders, I had to have a box for us to play in together and without conflict.  Genesis seemed like a natural box.  I had built websites on their themes already and they were very successful.  I knew the themes and framework could cover me on the SEO front, so this made me happy.  I also knew they could cover me on the security front.  Of all of websites we’ve designed and built, Genesis has been rock solid when it comes to security.  Performance was another criteria.  I’ve found Genesis and a child theme have significantly superior performance over themes you’d buy at ThemeForest.net or other developers.  I’ve replaced other themes with Genesis and I’ve watched page load time improve dramatically.  Both with my own eyes and through the eyes of Google Webmaster Tools.

The downside has been access to WordPress developers.  I’ve encountered a lot of WordPress coders who just don’t get child themes or the Genesis framework.  They try to use old school WordPress coding that negates the cool functionality offered by Genesis.  Those programmers do not last with me and they are quickly replaced.  They simple “don’t know what they don’t know” and it hurts the clients and my firm.  But the good news is by forcing them to use Genesis, I can see where their core WordPress skills lack and I quickly know they do not fully grasp WordPress best practices.  It shows me who is a rock star and who is a wannabe rock star.  As a business owner, this knowledge is priceless.

Who Wins the WordPress Framework War?

I think that debate is still out for discussion.  I know I’m loyal to Genesis, but I’m sure there are plenty of other views that counter mine.  My loyalty to Genesis is matched by someone else’s loyalty to Thesis or another framework.

Learn more about WordPress frameworks and options by visiting one of these three blog posts I found while researching the other framework options.

• Build WordPress Themes Smarter: 23 Theme Frameworks Compared from WPCandy.com
• A Comparison of Leading WordPress Theme Frameworks from Webdesignerdepot.com.
• 20 WordPress Theme Frameworks And Starting Resources from 1stwebdesigner.com

Whether you’re a marketer or design firm, pick your framework wisely.  Take the time to explore the frameworks, their reviews, users, and support offering before diving in.  Do a little research to make sure your chosen path is a good one.

Didn’t we always offer Genesis child themes? We sure did, but our websites were only designed for specific clients and their unique requirements. We’re still married to StudioPress and we still do a lot of custom Genesis theme design, but we’re expanding who can take advantage of our Genesis child themes.

Building a custom Genesis theme for established companies or a big ten university rocks, but we want to do more and we want to help more WordPress users. By offering off-the-shelf WordPress themes, we can spread our Genesis goodness even farther.

Four Premium WordPress Themes Ready for Websites and Blogs

The store is launching with four premium WordPress themes, although I will admit that we already have many more in the works. The initial store themes include two business themes called Rasmus and Soren and two blog themes called Carla Anna and Elsa. While all four themes could easily be used for websites and blogs, they were designed with different purposes in mind.

Two themes are designed for those business users who want to take advantage of WordPress’s CMS capabilities and two themes were designed for the mommy bloggers we all know and love. My background is primarily business websites, so creating two really girly blog themes was a lot of fun.

Our premium WordPress themes include different color options, multiple sidebars, widgetized home pages, flexible image rotators, call to action boxes, Feedburner integration, and author boxes for single or multiple bloggers. Because we’ve designed the WordPress templates for Genesis, they are also designed to utilize Genesis’ built in functionality such as multiple page payouts, columns, featured images, latest tweets, user profiles, eNews and updates, and featured pages.

Why the Funny Theme Names?

All of our themes are named after my Danish ancestral roots. My grandparents in Northern Michigan raised me as a child. My beloved grandmother and grandfather were both full Danes and the small town I lived in had a host of Danish relatives and friends. As a small child my grandmother would walk me through the cemetery and tell me wonderful stories of the people buried within. While that may seem strange to many, she did it with love and I remember it fondly. She taught me to be proud of who I was, my roots and the rural town of Grayling where we lived.

My grandfather immigrated to the United States at the age of five. Our Carla Anna theme is named after his mother, my great grandmother. The rest of the theme names are pulled from my family tree. I can certainly thank Ancestry.com and a few kind helpers for providing me the means of tracing my family back seven generations and giving us a slew of very cool names to use for the themes.

I’m passionate about WordPress and the design work we do, so picking theme names close to my heart seemed fitting.

With Growth Comes Growing Pains

So far our designer and coders have not killed me. For this I am thankful. I am particular about our themes and I want them to be perfect. Trying to be perfect delayed our launch some, but in the end it is worth it. And while I know our themes are far from 100% perfect, I also know our team is proud of our initial theme offering.

One of our beta theme users stated “I have to say that so far, it’s the easiest theme I’ve ever worked with. Your instructions are so clear. Your support forum makes it all worthwhile!” That all sounds great and I was thrilled with the feedback, but I know with growth comes growing pains.

We pledge do deliver beautiful and featured rich themes, but we know, even the best can stumble. We believe in adhering to WordPress best practices and coding inline with the Genesis Framework. Something will come up we did not anticipate and not every forum answer is going to be perfect. But we’ll learn and mature, just as our designs have matured over the last year.

Welcome, Come In and Browse

I welcome you to browse the premium WordPress themes, demo a theme, make a purchase, or leave us feedback. If you do fall in love with one of our themes, please use our launch promo code so you can acquire one of the premium themes at 25% off the regular purchase price.

My sincere thanks to all those who helped design, code, test, and build our themes and store. I am grateful to Carla (yes another Carla), Chris, Paul, Larrie, Bejan, Ben, and Todd.  I am also very thankful to the StudioPress team for creating such an amazing framework for us to use.

Our store launch exemplifies everything good in the WordPress community.  WordPress is about collaboration and loving what you do.

Why does any of this matter and why should you care?  WordPress multisite can rock the web when used properly and in the right situation.

Why Use WordPress Multisite?

• You can easily set up and manage multiple websites within one single hosting account and WordPress installation.
• Based on access levels, users can manage only one website or every website using the same account.
• If needed, access to one website can be completely separate and segregated from others.
• If desired, WordPress themes and plugins can be shared across multiple websites.
• Updates and upgrades can be rolled out across multiple websites in less time, which significantly reduces overhead and maintenance costs.
• Customizations are made once and not per installation.

Why You Should be Cautious About Using Multisite?

• Multisite is not as easy as the standard one-click installation process on a shared hosting accounts.  As much as I love the one-click installation option, you need someone with experience to set up a multisite installation and teach you how to deploy the children websites. Our resident WordPress guru Chris not only helped me see the benefits of multisite, he also taught me about the set up.  I would have struggled figuring it out on my own.
• You need more robust hosting than the general shared hosting can manage.  While you don’t need a dedicated server, you do need more than a regular shared hosting account.
• Loading themes and plugins is easy, but not nearly as easy as in a regular WordPress installation.  You load plugins at the root directory and then activate them at the child website level.
• Not all plugins will work with multisite WordPress installations.  Some of my favorite plugins just don’t work in this environment and I’ve been forced to find alternates.
• You need to be careful who you give super admin status to and allow to make updates across websites.  On more then one occasion I have found myself modifying the wrong website, because they are all housed on the same server and dashboard.

Would I Recommend Multisite to Clients?

Absolutely.  In the right situation, multisite is a dream come true.  It works great, it is efficient, and it saves money.   That being said, it isn’t right for every client or every WordPress installation.  It is a niche usage that is perfect in the right situation.

What Are Some Real World Applications of Multisite?

Very well know companies are already using multisite and have been for quite a while.  Examples include Adobe, The Wall Street Journal, BGSU, and Best Buy.  With the exception of Best Buy, many of those are blogs.  But they don’t have to be simple blogs, as multisite is more than capable of supporting full blown websites.

A recent example of one of our multisite website design clients is a franchise.  We started with one website for the main parent company and as new locations were created, we used multisite to deploy websites for each location.  We were able to quickly update the header, content, images, and SEO for each new website.  Instead of paying thousands per location website, our savvy client was able to do it for a fraction of the cost.  Each location owner has access to their unique website, while the overall maintenance and updates are easily managed by the parent company – aka our client.

Another design client we have had us create two unique WordPress themes and set them up in a multisite environment for her.  She and her company are going to create websites and host them for their clients.  No this company isn’t a website design firm, but once our client realized how easy this would be, they quickly warmed up to the idea.  This client originally came to me to redesign their own website, but when our conversation took the multisite route; she quickly changed gears and decided to jump on multisite for her clientele.

If you’re considering a redesign and you want to consider multisite as an option for your project, give us a call.  We’ll be happy to discuss the project with you and see if multisite is a good solution.

Each week I receive a lot of incoming requests for web design quotes and proposals. I ultimately work with a lot of different small business and personality types. Regardless of the industry, business age, or business owner, many entrepreneurs and small businesses tend to run into the same roadblocks and they typically kill their projects in six quick and (unfortunately) efficient ways.

1. An Unrealistic Budget

Many times an entrepreneur or small business owner will set a budget for website design well before they have researched market conditions to see if their budget is realistic. They decide on an amount they can pay and not necessarily an amount they need to pay to obtain their marketing goals.

I frequently get long lists of functionality requirements from people who claim to have limited or no budgets for the project. While I typically receive five or so of these per week, I am still surprised each time I open my email to find one.

As a possible technology partner, I am hesitant to engage with someone who has a large list of needs and has no means by which to pay for the execution of these requirements. It isn’t that I don’t want to help, it is more the fact that these statements show a lack of research and time spent in planning the website project.

I know website design isn’t something people deal with very often, so by definition, the project can be challenging. Let’s compare it to something most people are familiar with – buying a car. If you’re shopping for a car, you generally know your budget and you tailor your needs to match you available funds. Most people don’t head over to the Lexus dealership and upon walking through the door, announce they have a budget capable of purchasing a 1975 pinto. You can’t purchase a car that way and you can’t court a website designer that way either.

2. Undefined Functional Requirements

For every “I have no budget” email I receive, I also receive emails that tell me they “hate their existing website”, need help, and want a quote or proposal. I am happy to provide a proposal, but on what I’m not sure. Proposals for web design are based on complexity of the build, template variations, quantity of content to build out, and functional requirements. If I know answers to none of those items, I will struggle providing an accurate quotation. In all actuality I won’t quote. I’ll send the requestor an email asking for more project specifics. If they won’t and/or can’t take the time to provide detailed responses, I won’t take the time to provide a proposal.

That may seem harsh, but I’m protecting you as the client and me as the developer. Nothing makes me happier than a prospect that pops up with a detailed RFP or list of needs. I take that back. I’ll be even happier if you’ve already shopped around and spoken with web designers. That means you are educating yourself and you are making a strategic decision. This is good for me and it is really good for you.

3. Vague Visual Requirements

I’m an opinionated woman who knows what she likes. Whether it is my own company’s website, my car, or my home – I have strong opinions on what things should look like. This kills my husband at times, but it does provide value in business.

I have clients and have talked to many prospects who tell me they really don’t have any idea what they’d like their future website to look like. It just needs to be new. Great! How about purple and pink poke dots? No I didn’t think so. But I won’t know what is good unless you can articulate what you do or do not want or like.

As your website design I want to create a website that makes you happy. Really that is what it boils down to for us creative types. I need you to help me understand what does make you happy and then we will both be happy with the final project.

Deciding what type of websites you like is hard, but it is possible. Most people do spend time on the internet and it is really a matter of stopping yourself when you see a website that makes you happy. Stop and think what it is about the home page or inner pages that you find appealing. Is it a lot of white space, the color scheme, the content placement, or the clearly defined navigation? Once you start answering those questions, you’ll be able to define what type of website you want for your own business.

4. Reused and Stale Content

I’d say about one third of my website design clients end up telling me to “just use the existing content”. Or in other words, “I’m happy to spend thousands on web design, but I don’t have the time to write fresh content.” To these clients they need their website freshened up. To them, fresh means look and feel, but not words. To the visitors of their website, fresh means both look and feel and current content.

I always find it hard to believe that a business can leave website content that is five years old in place and not have it be, well, wrong. My business has changed substantially over the last three years and as a result my website content has changed too.

If you are taking the time to have a new website designed for your business, take the time to rewrite and/or update your existing content to make sure it matches the brand you want to project. Your online image is about visual and contextual elements, so take this opportunity to position your company in the best way possible.

5. No Call to Actions

A call to action is simply an action, step, or process you’d like your website visitors to do when they arrive to your website. Every website should have some semblance of a call to action. It could be a newsletter subscription, a lead submission, a purchase, or a white paper download. It could be as simple as a phone call. Regardless of the complexity of the action, know that there is, in fact, a desired outcome for every website visit.

Good website design requires that we know these call to actions before we set forth on the design itself. We want the website home page and sidebars to present these call to actions in the best possible manner. We want the website to work for you. Working means encouraging visitors to perform your most important call to actions.

I typically don’t expect prospects or clients to come to me knowing what call to actions they’d like. But I do need them to work with me to figure them out. And I won’t accept “we don’t have call to actions”. If you want people to visit your website, then you must want them to do something while there, so we do in deed have call to actions.

6. Ignoring SEO

When I first started my consulting firm I would force SEO on people. I just felt so passionate about the benefits of search engine optimization, I wanted the world to drink my SEO Kool-Aid so they too could get oodles of free traffic from organic search.

The problem is that some people feel they don’t need SEO. They believe in pay per click campaigns or telemarketing or some other method to drive traffic. They simply don’t see the value in SEO. In many cases it is simply because they’ve never done SEO right so it hasn’t produced any tangible results. They simply don’t know what they don’t know.

Earlier this year I adjusted our website design packages to allow for web design projects without SEO. It was hard for me to do it, but I realized that I couldn’t change the mind of ever WordPress user in the world. Some people really only want a custom WordPress theme and they don’t want my full-blown website development projects. Even though I’ve made a bit of a compromise, I still 100% believe in the power of SEO. And as a business owner who uses a company website for marketing, you should too.

If you are spending the time and money to redesign your website, take an additional week to do keyword research, content creation, and some on-page optimization. Good SEO will make a difference and it will absolutely help in delivering a faster ROI for your web design project.

The Take Away

The take away is simple. Before you spend a lot of time and money on website development, or even just a custom WordPress theme, spend a little bit of time on introspection, education, and research. The small delay will help make sure you and your website designer are on the right path and it will help guide your project towards a successful outcome.

Does SEO Really Matter in Website Design?

Yes, yes it does.  My project plan doesn’t allow for website design to begin until we’ve gone through keyword discovery, created a keyword rich sitemap, and defined our call to actions.  Only after we know the full scope of the project does the graphic artist and coders begin work.  It is that patience and due diligence that makes the project a success.

The below graph shows a large increase in website traffic two months after go live.  The website went live September 30th and by the end of November the website traffic had increased 353%.  That’s a pretty big shift in traffic in just sixty days.

The below graph separates out the traffic increase into traffic that is solely based on keywords (or organic search traffic).  In this example, it is showing just Google search traffic.  This illustrates that huge traffic gains can be obtained by good old fashion content creation and focused web design and blogging.

What Else Was Included in the Project?

My client is someone who originally approached me a year before we actually started the web design project.  He had known of my work through his competitors and others within his industry.  At our first conversation, he told me I was too expensive.  I’m okay when people tell me this and it does happen a lot.  I know I am more expensive then many other web designers – especially WordPress designers.  This is because my team makes sure we design and build websites with personas, organic SEO, and conversions in mind.  We don’t just customize an existing WordPress template, we create one from scratch and we make sure it is 100% designed to the client’s needs.  We also make sure the entire project is based on search engine optimization, a competitive analysis, and hours of keyword discovery.

A year after turning down my pricing this client resurfaced.  I believe he had tried some lower cost SEO options and some website tweaks that didn’t quite work.  His traffic was still low and his visitors were not converting.  This time around he was willing to invest both time and money into the project.  This time around he obtained results that included a 350% increase in traffic.

Our website design project included:

• New logo
• Complete keyword discovery
• Website pages were created based on keywords
• New custom design for the website and blog
• Design built out in WordPress via the Genesis framework from StudioPress
• Each website page and post were given optimized meta titles and descriptions
• Performed an inbound linking campaign
• Integrated social media to help build branding and inbound links
• Professionally designed newsletter

And the Winner Is?

Both the client and I are winners in my mind.  The client may have paid more than he originally anticipated, but the initial outcome if most likely better than he expected as well.  I win because I was able to stay true to my methodology and keep SEO closely tied into the web design process.

If you’d like to learn more about how Web Savvy Marketing can help with your website, visit our website design or WordPress portfolio pages for more information.

Your new website just went live so you’re now enjoying the fruits of your labor and admiring the exceptional job you and your team did on design and development. The project is finally over and it is time to settle back and wait for your website traffic to climb to new heights.

Reality check! I repeat – it is time for a reality check. You’re about half done with your quest for internet dominance. The research, website design, build out, and on-page SEO are all only part of your ongoing battle for visitors and conversions. Link building is not only necessary – it’s critical! It is the only way to maximize your website traffic and get the most ROI out of your web design project.

Why Do We Need to Worry About Link Building?

Consider the internet like the homecoming queen contest. To win the crown (or page one ranking), you need to be pretty, have some depth, and have a lot of votes by your peers. A website is no different. It needs to be functional, have unique content, and it needs to have links pointing to it from other websites so Google and Bing know it is of value. The links represent votes and these votes help provide a method by which the search engines and their algorithms can score authority. Without incoming links, it will be impossible to win over the search engines. We SEOs call this off-page SEO.

Why Do We Wait for Link Building Until After Go-Live?

In an early blog post, titled Ten Steps to Quality Link Building and Strong Organic SEO, I discuss the need for a structured link building plan and map of your keyword to page strategy. This is critical because you need to build links into your home page, but also pages and posts. If you’ve followed my website design plan (my previous blog posts), each page of your website will have a specific keyword focus. You’ll need this list and the final page URLs before you can start link building and this list isn’t finalized until after go-live.

How on Earth Can We Find Linking Building Opportunities?

There are a lot of ways, although not all links are as beneficial as others. We SEOs talk a lot about “do follow” links and page authority and PR rank. Most regular people don’t get our SEO babble and they don’t need to get it. What they need is basic link building and a decent list of link building opportunities.

Link building opportunities include, but are not limited to the following:

You’re probably feeling a little overwhelmed right now, but you don’t need to be. Link building is not so much difficult, as it is time consuming. When I first started link building, I spent hours every Friday working on this task. It was painful. Back then there were not a ton of helpful bloggers or SEO consultants giving out free advice. I had to research opportunities and find potential links by turning myself into Nancy Drew. Nancy Drew surfed the internet for websites related to our keywords, watched our competition, and did a whole lot of random queries.

These days link building is much easier. There are lots and lots of sources of information and lists of link building opportunities for generic and/or industry specific links. Liking you as much as I do, I’m going to give you a jump-start and provide a slew of websites to get you started.

Link Building 101

Don’t forget about the anchor text when link building.  Anchor text is the text used to identify the link.  You don’t want to use “click here” because it isn’t descriptive for the user or the search engines.  Use words that relate to the destination page and make sure you have a good mix of phrases or terms.

Did I miss any great link building opportunities?  Okay I’m sure I did, because this list can really be endless.  If you have a great link I missed, please leave a comment and tell us about it.

My girlfriend is not alone.  I receive dozens of emails each week from people wanting blogs and websites created for their “idea” and I can tell at least 75% have no clue what to do or where to start.  The classic signs of this state of confusion are the words “thinking” and “maybe” and “possibly” and of course the phrase “not sure”.  Let’s be realistic here and understand that thinking and maybe and possibly are all wishy washy and they do not equal a plan.  To make money on the internet you need a plan. Without it, you’re blog will struggle and you’ll lose interest and you will inevitably waste money.   I want to give you a blogging plan.

A quick check of Google search volumes shows that over 14,800 searches are done for “how to blog” each month.  That is a lot of people looking for a blogging plan of attack. That also means you have over 14,000 people thinking about or potentially starting a blog each month.  Lots and lots of competition.

My initial thought was to send her a quick how-to guide for blogging.  Then I realized that this should be a teaching lesson for more than one future blogger.   So I’m whipping my how-to guide into a blog post for the masses.

Let’s Walk Through the Process for Getting Started With Blogging

Pick a Topic – You’re blog needs to have focus and it needs to be focused on something you know and love.  If you’re going to right about something a lot, you need to love it with all your heart.  I love internet marketing, but I’m a geek.  My girlfriend is a better example of a real life, nongeek blogger.  Mary is going to have a travel focused blog which is perfect because Mary loves to travel.

Check Keyword Search Volumes – Before you finalize your blog’s focus, you need to make sure people will actually search on the topic.  You may love to talk about your bottle cap collection, but it won’t generate any revenue if no one actually searches for terms related to your bottle cap collection.  A quick visit to Google’s Adword Keyword Tool will provide an excellent source for keyword research and finding keywords and phrases people actually search for on the internet.

Register a Domain Name – You need to have a URL (www.something.com) so people can find your blog.  There are lot of extensions available, but I tend to stick with the .com group.  Few .com URLs are available because so many people are holding them hostage.  Be creative, be unique, and if needed use dashes.  I register my domains at GoDaddy.  Search the internet for GoDaddy deals and coupon codes, but remember not to host at GoDaddy.  They’re good for domain registration, but not so great at actual hosting.

Pick a Blogging Platform – If you’ve ever been to my website before, you already know I’m a WordPress girl through and through.  There are other blogging platforms available, but WordPress is by far the best.  You can go 100% free via WordPress.com, but you will be limited on your capabilities.  You can go down the path of WordPress.org and have a world of opportunities available to you.  You will have to self host your blog, but this is easy once you realize there are great hosting companies that do everything for you.

Pick a Hosting Company – Like my allegiance to WordPress.org, I am also a firm advocate of Blue Host.  They offer one click WordPress installs, have great performance, and their technical support team is top notch.  I have literally had to stop the technical team and explain I don’t need education on WordPress, because I’m a website designer.  But the gesture is appreciated and their response time and performance applauded.

Pick a Blog Theme – As with everything else in my life, I am very opinionated here too.  Do not be fooled into thinking free WordPress themes are all you need.  Not only are they generic, they can come with hidden code that links to nasty websites.  Invest in yourself and your blog by picking a solid WordPress theme.  These would be called premium WordPress themes.  My favorite (I stress favorite) premium theme provider is StudioPress.  Their Genesis framework is functionally robust and has great performance.  It is all we use at my firm when we create custom themes for websites and blogs.  Should you not find what you want at StudioPress, you can visit ThemeForest.net to find hundreds of WordPress themes from a slew of theme developers.  Be careful though, because not all ThemeForest designers will live up to the technical support provided by the StudioPress team.  Some are very good and others not so much.  Expect to pay at least $30 for a premium theme that is off the shelf and about $1,500 to $5,000 for a custom theme.

Remember Images Matter – A blog needs some eye candy and images are that eye candy.  Images help break up the text and they add depth to the posts.  I like to use BigStockPhoto.com and iStockPhoto.com.

Pick the Right WordPress Plugins – WordPress is awesome, but WordPress plugins extend this awesomeness exponentially.  Not all plugins are good and some are just stinky.  Once I find a good plugin, I tend to use it over and over again for client websites.  My favorite ones include:

• Akismet – The rock star of spam fighters.
• All in One SEO – Easy to use tool for search engine optimization.
• Contextual Related Posts – Provides a list of related blog posts based on content.
• Digg Digg – Easy to use share buttons for content distribution.
• Google XML Sitemaps – Produces a list of content for the search engines and updates them when new content is published.
• Gravity Forms – A premium plugin that makes form create simple.
• NextGEN Gallery – Easy to use image grouping and display.  Don’t forget to add a lightbox.
• Robot.txt – Protects your WordPress core files from search engine indexing.
• Subscribe to Comments – Great for user engagement.
• Taxonomy List Shortcode – Good plugin for creating a A-Z index of your blog topics.  You can see an example of this by clicking on the link in my sidebar.
• WP-DBManager – Back up and database optimization all in one.  Yes you do need to optimize your database.  It’s kind of like brushing your teeth WordPress style.
• SEO Smart Links – Creates automatic hyperlinks to your pages, posts, categories, and tags.
• Outbound Link Manager – Easy way to manage outbound (aka affiliate marketing) links in one page.

Connect With the Search Engines – Submit your XML sitemap (see plugin above) to Google and Bing.  They both have some version of Webmaster Tools available for this process.  Take the time to establish an account and then check back for errors or messages.  Google and Bing have lots of information available, so explore and return often.

Find a Revenue Stream – Your blog should make money.  If you’re good at blogging, you can make lots of money.  You need to sell a product, service, or have ads.  With the help of Google and the affiliate marketing network, getting advertisers is easier than you think.  You can use the Google Adsense program to have their network of advertisers matched up to your content or you can go the affiliate marketing route.  Affiliate marketing refers to placing ads on your blog and you are paid for each impression, click, or action resulting from your ad.  Google has an affiliate network and other popular ones are ClickBank and Share a Sale.  Pick one or more, but have a plan to generate revenue.

Use Email Communication – Stay in touch with your readers and give them a reason to come back to your blog by emailing them regularly.  You can use a free service like Google’s FeedBurner to automatically update subscribers when you publish a new blog post or you could create custom newsletters with email campaign software from Constant Contact or Bronto or Mail Chimp.

Become a Social Media Goddess – Social media does work and it is more than a buzzword.  These days everyone thinks they are great at social media although in all fairness, few really are.  Just remember the goal is to connect with people and engage them.  To succeed you just need to be honest, be open, and be present.  Use YouTube, Facebook Pages, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn.  Every time you publish a new blog post, it should be shared via the social media websites.  Just don’t forget to read through some social media best practices and blunders before you start posting.

Analyze Your Traffic – Huh?  This simply means pay attention to how many people come to your blog and watch what they do once they get there.  Google Analytics is a free tool that has a ton of functionality, data points, and graphs.  It will show you how many people visit your blog, where they come from, what keywords they search one, how long they stay, and even what pages or posts make them leave.  Learn from the data and improve your blogging to improve your traffic and activity.

Give Yourself a Break – Blogging success does not happen overnight.  You need to find your blogging mojo, get yourself in a rhythm, and learn what works and what doesn’t work.  Don’t expect to see 1,000 hits a day in the first month.  Be patient and be thorough and you will succeed.

Will Mary Succeed at Blogging?

I’m about 99% confident my friend will do just fine.  Mary is smart, has an MBA, and is quick witted.  She is also determined.  I’ve known her for well over ten years and I know this – if Mary sets her mind to something she will succeed.  And darn it she better.  Mary has a living girlfriend’s guide to blogging in me and I won’t let her fail.

This year’s WordCamp was hosted at the Detroit RenCen building.  Yes from the image below, you can see the building(s) are as cool as the name.  Not only was the RenCen luxurious, the staff was superb.

Jen and I arrived to WordCamp Friday night.  We come from the burbs where husbands and children are plentiful, so sneaking down to Detroit (aka the D) Friday night was an opportunity neither of us wanted to pass up.  While WordCamp’s awesome organizers were setting up the conference, Jen and I had a wonderful dinner at Joe Muer Seafood in the RenCen. Why is this tidbit relevant? Because it shows you we viewed this weekend as a treat and not work.  Being able to hang out with fellow WordPress lovers is something we look forward to and value.  We decided to start it out right with a great dinner.  And it was fabulous.  The restaurant had only opened a month or so ago, but it was true to Muer traditions and the friendly people of Detroit.

The conference started Saturday morning.  Name tags and WordPress “stuff” were everywhere.

The organizers started the event by thanking the sponsors.  You’ll see a familiar red logo, since Web Savvy Marketing was a business sponsor.  Actually the first sponsor to sign up if I recall correctly.  I was eager to become a sponsor and I truly believe my money was well spent.  StudioPress and TechSmith are two of my favorite companies and I was thrilled to see them both involved by offering prizes and free licenses to participants.  Without question, I will sponsor next year’s conference.  It is about giving back to the WordPress community that has given so much to me.

After thanking the sponsors, Anthony kicked off the conference in true geek style.  Some 80s music and smoke filled the room to wake us all up and get us all excited.  It worked.

Once started, the conference was filled with speakers and interactive opportunities.  The WordCamp team did an excllent job getting us engaged and keeping the conference light and rewarding.  I thoroughly enjoyed talking with others about WordPress.

The four women in the front row are me and my girls.

WordCamp attendance was up significantly from last year and you can see we had a pretty full house.  I hope to see the conference expand even further next year as the business community continues to adopt WordPress as the premier platform for websites and blogs.

Day two of the conference wrapped up with a great presentation on custom posts.  To me, this was worth my attendance and my sponsorship.  While I have helped tackle everything from custom themes to BuddyPress to Facebook integration, custom posts are an area I had not yet taken on.  I’m happy to say it is on my agenda this week.

WordCamp Detroit reminded my that I am thankful for both WordPress the software and the community behind it.  Seeing Deb tweet her heart out, watching TJ’s cheerleading efforts, or giggling as Anthony struggles to be Alex Trebek, I know aligning myself with WordPress and this community was the right decision.  I’m not exactly sure how I fell into WordPress, but I’m always very happy I did.

Many thanks to the WordCamp organizers and the sponsors.  Can’t wait to see you all again next year!

We All Make Mistakes

Very few clients have Scott’s thirst for knowledge.  They don’t understand it, or care, or have the time to listen to me ramble about SEO and website design.  Their confident my team will manage go-live and do so properly.  And we do, because we have a project plan that we walk through and I check off as the project progesses.  But not every web design firm or SEO consultant uses a checklist or project plan.  They miss things and these “things” become opportunities for their client’s competition because it is the little things that win in SEO and website design.

Three weeks ago I was researching competitors of a prospect and I discovered one of their local competitors had every page on their website blocked to search engines.  Only the home page was in Google’s index and the company was paying heavily for pay per click campaigns.  The company didn’t know their web designer or in-house webmaster left the noindex tag on all their pages.  It was everything I could do to stop myself from calling the firm to let them know.

The point I am trying to make here is that many consultants and marketing firms miss things.  We’re human and we make mistakes.  Not like a doctor leaving a medical device in a patient type of mistake, but pretty big mistakes nonetheless.  If you’re the client or the DIY web designer, you need to protect yourself.  You need to have some education and you should do a quick run through of your website before and after go-live.  And of course, well before you pay that final invoice.

Go-Live Checklist for Web Design Projects

1. Test Your Website Against All Browsers – Just when you think everything is perfect, in walks someone using IE (Internet Explorer).  Older versions of IE have produced many of grey hairs for me over the last few years.  Things tend to break in IE, so double checking the new website in it right before go-live is critical.  While not as buggy as IE, other browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, and Safari should also be reviewed.  They are more robust, but older versions can also be problematic. My beloved iPhone and iPad are newer arrivals and they too should be checked.
2. Add a Favicon – A favicon is about branding.  It adds a little image to the tab or window of the user’s browser and it is saved with the bookmark in a favorites list. While this isn’t a critical element, it does provide a nice polished look to your website and I have many clients who get big smiles when they see their logo pop up as a favicon.
3. Create an HTML Sitemap for Visitors – Much to my disappointment; sitemaps are ignored by many developers.  I still create one and while I don’t put it proudly in the main navigation, I do try to make it available in the footer.  Most people don’t use sitemaps, but for those of us who are impatient (that would be me) they’re important.
4. Create an XML Sitemap for Search Engines – A sitemap.xml file should be created and placed in your root directory.  This simple little file allows major search engines to easily index your website.  In WordPress, generating this sitemap is as easy as adding a plugin and clicking the generate button.  WordPress will automatically update this file with every new page or post addition or content change.  It is a simple way of reaching out to search engines and letting them know you have fresh content available for their review.  While this is simple, it is many times forgotten.
5. Prepare a Redirect File – The redirect file is the bane of my existence.  It simply tells search engines and users that an old page or post is no longer available and it redirects them to the current page or post.  It is important for usability and SEO.  So why do I hate it so much?  It is time consuming and it is one of the last things we do before go-live.  Not only do we create the redirect file for the client, we generally have to audit their existing pages and provide a cross reference between old and new.  My clients don’t know what pages they have, so I end up becoming an internet detective in my efforts to locate a complete list.  Once you have the list of old and new matched up, you simply add the directory to the .htaccess file.  Or in my case, you use a WordPress plugin like Redirection.  I love the Redirection plugin because I can upload all the links right from a CSV file.
6. Create and Review a Robot.txt File – The robot.txt file blocks spiders or instructs the search engines to ignore certain file folders on your server.  For most clients this generally means keeping spiders out of the WordPress core and theme files.  For others it may identify a protected directory of white papers or files that are restricted.  Simple, yet important for protecting your website and your high value web assets.
7. Double Check Your Submission Forms Are Working – The simple checking of submission forms may seem like a no brainer, but you’d be surprised at the amount of problems that can result from a simple contact form.  Email and forms can work differently from server to server, so you absolutely need to recheck forms after a website is moved from a development server to a live server.  One woman told me her company had broken forms for an entire year after they launched their website because no one remembered to check them.  When inquiry forms are your lead source, this is disastrous.
8. Double Check Your Meta Titles and Descriptions – Yes I know I just blogged about this in my last post (Web Design Ain’t Over Until the SEO Sings) and we’ve really already done this twice, but it I still double-check high value pages after go-live.  I use the toolbar from SEOmoz to view the meta title and description outside of WordPress just to make sure I didn’t miss anything.  And sometimes, the meta title or description that sounded great a week ago sounds incredibly stupid at launch.  So I go back and edit it just to make sure my pages are well represented in the SERPs.  This is where my OCD personality is highly visible and beneficial.
9. Double Check Your Index Settings – Didn’t I do that with my Robot.txt file above?  Well yes and no.  The robot.txt file looks at folders and is server based.  CMS packages like WordPress allow you to block search engines at a site or page and post level.  While we are in development, we have a site wide block of search engines so our clients do not run into issues with duplicate content.  Our go-live plan includes removing this setting.  That being said, not everyone has such as policy and I’ve noticed new websites blocking search engines more times than I have time to discuss in a blog post.
10. Check Your RSS Feed and Sign Up for FeedBurner – An RSS feed is a techie term for a page that lists your most recent blog posts.  You can use this feed to automatically populate other websites or profiles on the internet.  It is a must have for link building efforts.  Feedburner is a service that allows visitors to subscribe to your RSS feed via email.  It is offered by Google, it is 100% free, and it makes a great tool for building engagement.  Some people even show off the number of RSS subscribers they have as if it is a badge of honor.
11. Add Google Analytics – I virtually force Google Analytics on every client.  I set it up even if they don’t care, because I think some day they will care and I want them to have data available.  Google Analytics is a free application that tracks visits to your website and the corresponding activity.  It can tell you where people came from, what keyword they used, how long they stay, and when they left.  Good website design and SEO requires analytics.  Since GA is free and powerful, it makes a great tool.
12. Submit Your New Sitemap.xml File to Google, Yahoo, and Bing – Use Google Webmaster Tools, Bing Webmaster Tools, and Yahoo Site Explorer.  Doing so will not only allow for very rapid indexing of the new website, it will provide very valuable tools down the road.  I use Google Webmaster Tools every week and find it a critical tool for evaluating website and SEO success.
13. Review Speed and Performance – After your website is live on your server, you need to review performance.  You’ll be able to verify speed immediately from viewing the website live on the internet and you’ll receive performance reports from Google via Webmaster Tools.  Remember that speed alters search results and conversion rates, so make sure your website performance is up to par.  If you’re live and you’re living with poor performance, don’t be fooled into thinking it is temporary.  Some hosting companies are just horrible, so get out as quick as you can.

DIY Designers Take Note

Winning (not the Charlie Sheen kind) isn’t easy.   Most people are not like my pal Scott and their minds do just magically sponge up SEO knowledge.

Each week I receive calls from a lot of DIY website owners.  Virtually every time my heart goes out to them, because they’re really trying.  But trying and succeeding are two different things.  Website design and SEO is hard work.  Competing on the internet is difficult and there are reasons why most websites get virtually no traffic.

If you are considered the average Joe and you’ve undertaken at DIY website project, take a moment and reread the above list.  If you’ve reviewed my thirteen items and you only “get” about five of them, you’re setting yourself up for failure.  Take the time to research them further and postpone your website launch until you’ve made sure you’ve thoroughly covered your to do list.  If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the list, then seek out a professional.  The few hundred dollars you spend for the last minute help will be well worth it in the end.

Whether you’re the DIY website designer, a marketing manager, or a small business owner – double check your website and efforts at go-live and make sure you and/or your website design firm have everything in working order.

At Web Savvy Marketing we work on a good mix of web design projects and straight SEO consulting.  Our website design clients typically select us because our process is integrated with full search engine optimization.  The funny part is that they’re always surprised when we don’t launch the new website the minute they email their last bit of content.  We don’t launch immediately because there is still a lot of SEO work to perform.   And while we start the web design project with SEO, much of it cannot be performed until the last minute.

Why Does Website Launch Wait for SEO?

When we kick off the project and I, the resident SEO geek, perform my research and competitive analysis, I have a plan in mind for SEO.  I know what keywords I want to target and what pages I want us to write.  Then development really starts and you, the naive and unprepared client, realizes writing strong web content isn’t as easy as you think.  It’s painful plain and simple. We, the team, end up making compromises on keywords and content and we shift focus and modify our sitemap.  It happens every time.  As your SEO consultant, I stretch you as far as I can take you and attempt to reach as many keywords as possible.  You, the client, put me back in my box and reset my expectations with what your team can support.

You may think I should scale back, but I’ll disagree.  My job is to stretch your imagination and reach you beyond what you think is possible.  When you fight and cannot support it, then we’ll adjust.  I won’t accept limitations until they are true limitations.  And I’d rather stretch and reach more than what was expected then not reach at all.

Once we modify the sitemap, pages, and keywords, my SEO strategy needs to be adjusted.  I’m used to this and have no problem with it at all.  I’ve learned this is the natural progression because I’m firm on pushing you to your limits.  I just need to wait until this occurs before I put a large block of my time or my staff’s time into your on-page SEO.

When the Design Dust Settles, SEO Cleans Up

Once the last website content is loaded and we know our final page count and site structure, me and my team move in to pretty everything up.  When I say “pretty”, I mean we fancy up your content and make it page one worthy.

1.  Optimize Page Text and Headers for Keywords and Phrases

This really starts at the launch of the project, but as I stated above, these keyword focus can change some over the course of development.  Taking a step back and revisiting your targeted keywords at launch makes sure you have pages to support your keywords and more importantly, your copy supports the keyword.

I go through page by page and make sure your content uses the keyword or phrase we selected and that it is used in a natural way that is easy to read.  I also go through and double-check headers (H1 tags) and subheaders (H2, H3, H4 tags) to make sure they support the keyword and phrase for SEO and readability.

Subheaders are very important because they help break up content for the readers and for the search engines.  They provide natural breaks within the page and help point out areas of interest for those of us that scan web pages and blog posts.  I am one of those scanners, so I make sure every client website has a good mix of subheaders.

2.  Review and Update Alt Tags Images, Anchor Text for Links and Files, and Bold Text References

Alt tag refers to an alternative tag for an image. Search engines, and users with some disabilities, cannot read text in images.  The alt tag is simply used to describe the image in the event it cannot be read.  You want the alt tag to be relevant to the image and include keywords if applicable.  But you must do so only if the keyword is relevant to the image itself.

Anchor text is the clickable text that users will see as a result of a link. Good on-page SEO includes the use of keyword rich hyperlinks, however, this should only be used if it represents value to the reader.

On-page SEO best practices also includes formatting file names.  Using short and descriptive filenames with matching alt text is preferred.  These should not be full, keyword stuffed sentences.  They are best when they’re short, but descriptive.

Bold or strong text is also believed to influence search engines.  I will use this if it can both support the focusing of readers on important points and is keyword rich.  Due to usability concerns, I will not bold words just for the sake of on-page SEO.

3.  Create Page Specific Meta Titles and Descriptions

When you’re launching a new website or relaunching an existing website, it is critical that every page has a unique and hand crafted meta title and description.  Your meta title should be less than sixty characters and your description less than 160 characters.  Both should include the page’s keyword and both should provide text that sells.  The search engines will use your description (if they like it) for the search engine results page.  It is the first thing your future visitor sees about your website, so you need to make it good.  It needs to closely relate to the page and it needs to be worthy of someone clicking through to the website.

I typically create our meta titles and descriptions in Excel and do so for the entire sitemap.  Once this process is done I have my assistant, Jen, input them into WordPress.  We use two people, because Jen will always find mistakes.  When you sit and write 200 meta titles and 200 meta descriptions, you will make mistakes.  The second set of eyes helps greatly in making sure your meta is correct and without spelling or grammatical errors.

4.  Optimize Blog Entries

Blog entry optimization is important and yet it is the one item I many times almost forget.  Clients throw blog posts at me right before go-live and due to this, I frequently catch myself backtracking to make sure these are optimized.

Optimizing a blog post works the same as with the other pages, however you need to remember the value of the internal link.  Blog posts typically support the cornerstone content pages and their keywords.  What the heck is a cornerstone content page?  It is a page that is used to target higher volume and more competitive keywords.  The blog posts then support these pages by providing keyword rich inbound links.

Meta descriptions and post excerpts should be reviewed as well.  Many times these are displayed when the post is shared on social networks like Facebook or LinkedIn.  You want to make sure the intro text is descriptive and entices someone to click through to the actual post.

5.  Create Deep Links

Deep links.  For me this is where I call uncle and grab my assistant Jen.  I’ve worked on the web design and SEO of the website for weeks and I’m usually starting to get fatigued.  Jen, being the perky and WordPress savvy person that she is, takes a fresh look at the content and goes page by page to input hyperlinks to other pages.  This process helps both the user and the search engines understand what pages are most important.

It’s a Wrap

Well kind of.  You’re done with on-page SEO for now, but we’ve not yet discussed the really geeky side of SEO.  This comes in another blog post and another day.  We’ll end this post with the reminder that you’re website and content is optimized for on-page SEO, which is the land of search engine optimization, is a huge part of the battle.

The DIY Website Designer

Lately I’ve received a lot of emails and calls from people who ventured down the DIY website path only to find themselves going astray.  They realized – once in the midst of the project – that the whole web design process is a bit more challenging than they originally realized.  Many people believe a website is simply comprised of a logo, basic color scheme, and text.  Heck that’s easy.  So easy anyone can do it.  Well, not so much.  When website design is done correctly – I stress correctly – it involves a whole lot more than just text, colors, and a logo.

Our website development process includes a 90+ point project plan that is broken out into project kick-off, collection of client deliverables, research and planning, custom theme design, website build, and final optimization for search.  This project plan is tracked electronically in a project management software package that manages tasks, owners, and due dates.  I use software for this because it is a process.  When done properly, the process takes a 6-8 weeks to complete all the tasks and make sure they are all performed properly.  Yes folks, that means building a good website requires a lot more than whipping up your logo, throwing in some text, and picking some colors.

I’m not implying the non-web designers can’t create their own website.  I’m stating the average DIY website creator has a full-time job other than website design and they do not have the time nor stamina to execute it properly.

But What About DIY Services Like Website Tonight?

How can that be?  Companies like Intuit or GoDaddy offer packages like Website Tonight and promise to have your website up and running within minutes.   Intuit’s landing page for this shows a case study for a website receiving a whopping 20 visitors a day.  Yes I said 20 visitors.  Isn’t that just fabulous?

So what’s the problem?  Well first of all, real websites typically have more than five pages.  And they don’t all look alike and they typically receive more than 20 visitors today.  Everyone I’ve ever known who has used one of these services has a website that no one visits.  Worse yet, if someone does manage to find it, the visitor bounces (quickly leaves) and the website generates zero leads, sales, or revenue.  Why is this the case?  Because these sites are built by people whose expertise is outside that of website design and because they DIY website builder does not know what SEO (search engine optimization) is or how to utilize it properly.  The other reasons is people who go this route are in a hurry and they whip up the fastest website they can only to regret it months or years later.

The funniest part of the whole Website Tonight process is that GoDaddy has tried to sell me this service on multiple occasions.  I’ve had to call the company before and virtually every time someone tries to pitch me this service.  I have to cut them off in midsentence to explain I do this for a living, I’m a web designer by profession, and I don’t need a cookie cutter website that no one visits.  Okay I don’t say the end part, but I think it in my head.  It isn’t the customer service rep’s fault that they have to pitch this service to everyone they talk to, so I try to be polite.

Why Hire a Professional Web Designer?

There are plenty of reasons.  A professional website designer will guide you through the process.  He will explain why dancing gifs are inappropriate, why thunder sounds on the home page distract from the visitor experience, why Google can’t digest a flash website, and why SEO is critical to driving traffic.  The professional web designer will teach you about design best practices and make sure these elements are used within the project.

And if your design firm is good, at some point within the project you’ll hate them because they will tell you your blog post is too “salesy”, your content doesn’t make sense to the average visitor, or that your images are not high resolution enough to use.  And then at the end of the project you’ll love them, because you will have a website that is unique, easy to use, and easy to find.

But Isn’t WordPress for DIY Websites?

WordPress is hugely popular and it is a great CMS tool.   I love it, because it can create beautiful websites that are loved by Google and Bing.  What I hate about WordPress is it gives people a false sense of security.  It makes you think you don’t need a professional.  And in some cases you don’t.  Some people just naturally think marketing, design, and psychology.  Some people can actually create a great website all on their own.  The problem is that these people are rare.  They are few and far between.

What WordPress is exceptional at is empowering companies to maintain their own website.  My suggestion to businesses who want to use WordPress is to hire a professional design firm to create a custom theme and help you get the website up and running.  Then maintain it yourself in WordPress.  Update your own content, add your own blog posts, and moderate your own comments.  Just leave the plugins and design changes to the professional, because you’ll end up breaking the theme.

There are many design firms that only give clients limited access to WordPress. They do this to prevent clients from breaking their websites and themes and to limit support calls.  I do not do this, but part of me wishes I did because people make changes and break stuff and never see the problems.  They don’t notice that content boxes no longer align or links are broken because they are not professionals.

DIY Websites the Right Way

I applaud people who want to create their own websites.  Heck I did it myself over a decade ago and it is how I got started in internet marketing.  The problem is my website looked like I created it myself and it took years for me to “get it”.  Most people and/or businesses don’t have years to wait for success.  They need help and traffic and leads or sales now.

My suggestion to those who want to create a DIY website is to hire a professional to get your started with the design, SEO, and build out.  Once you have a solid foundation and a strong website architecture in place, manage it yourself and be autonomous.

Let a professional designer give you the wings, then you can teach yourself to soar.