Naper Design

Brett On Animation

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Using Google Adsense

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Caribou Coffee

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

While WiFi is wonderful for any working environment, WiFi plus Coffee is by far the best. Lately, we've been treating ourselves to designing and building in public places. It occurred to us that some of you may be interested in our opinions of which ones we like and use. We decided it would be good to post occasionally about which ones we've used and our experience with them. Today, like many days, we area at Caribou Coffee in Naperville. While I will be the first to protest the ever-sprawling, corporate coffee shop, our focus for these reviews is how efficiently we can work and design while at their establishment. The first item of importance for Caribou would be connectivity. Their firewall allows for fairly fluid access and movement to multiple sites. While not the fastest signal around, they offer more than enough bandwidth for performing any form of page updates. It should be noted that they don't hassle people about internet traffic to innocent sites that may be connected. Obviously sites of adult content should be blocked in a public setting, but many corporate filters are set so strong to prevent movement on sites you may be building. Another aspect of their connectivity is how few times the system firewall will reset. Many public forums will reset frequently and make life a pai

SEO Business Directory

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

For a brief period of time, we are going to offering a free directory listing to businesses within the Naperville Community to improve your SEO of websites and help you customers find you more easily. This obviously will not last for a long period of time. All interested, please email us on our contact page with a good description of your business and what information you would like your customers to have. Free submission into this database will last until noon on Tues, Oct 20, 2009. After this time frame, a $3.00 submission fee will be required to enroll in this list. This is the opportunity to become part of a distinguished group of Businesses in the Naperville community and will by it's nature assist in the SEO of your own site. Due to the nature of this directory list, all who are willing to

SEO Business Directory

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Business Directories

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Due to the continued support of our work, we have built a second business directory. We have begun the Chicago Business Directory and are working in tandom with our partners at Naperville SEO to ensure that we get the word out and make it more accesable to the local area. When searching through a lot of the business directories in the Chicago area, it's not only hard to find the business you're looking for, but very difficult to find a service that offers free local listings.

Free Vector Round Up

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

In this next phase of sharing o

About

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 20:52:27 +0000

Naper Design is a collaboration of two local artist. Brett Gehrs and Christian Lamar. We originated in Naperville and have located to Oswego. We serve the areas Yorkville, Aurora, Oswego, Naperville and West Chicago. We are currently seeking listing in the Illinois Web Design and the Web Design National Directory. Level10s Sites Directory Project - Level10s is a directory of websites ranked by quality. Go Gold Prospecting near you. This site is listed under Web Designers Directory Naper Design - Naperville Web Design In The News About Naper Design-Naperville Web Design Services

Contact

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:27:10 +0000

Christian can be reached easily at (630) 803-8998 Brett can be reached at (630) 430-8170 Or, feel free to email us using the form below. Please include the type of information you would like assistance with. If this is a writer looking to have an article posted by Naper Design, please contact us before including the article; this is to protect our rights and yours equally. Thank you, Christian [easy-contact]

Why We Love Wordpress

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:41:10 +0000

For years, Joomla has been the web, industry standard for the Western Suburbs of Chicago. With its deep archetecture and powerful functionality, Joomla has held off many of the most formidable Content Management Systems(CMS) to be promoted within this region. While we respect the programing and developing power that Joomla offers, we also believe in placing the power in the customers hand. It is our belief that once you have purchased a website, you should be able to then easily update your content. Recently a series of reviews were made comparing Worpress and Joomla. While both are powerful programs, we wanted to post an excerpt to show our customers why we choose to build in Wordpress. The original article can be found here here " To WordPress or not to WordPress WordPress is basically a very user friendly blog system but it can be used as a regular site which you can update without any knowledge of html (the same goes for Joomla). You can create pages and posts, and with plugins, you can add a lot of functionality included standard in Joomla, except that all code is web standard. And because WordPress is web standard, Google really loves it. So, from a marketing standpoint, WordPress is hard to resist. The interface is easy to understand, you won’t need a book for it, although buying a “WordPress for Dummies” - book will save you some time if you have no experience with blog management at all. Adapting the look requires some knowledge of CSS, the style sheet language. Like with Joomla, if you select a template close to what you want, adapting the colors, logo etc.. is not that complicated but if you do not want to get involved with CSS, and you would like to re-arrange navigation elements as well, you might consider hiring a web developer. Since WordPress has a logical structure, it is easy for a developer to change things around, place ad banners etc…Again, give preference to a specialized developer used to work with WordPress. It is setup very quickly and you can be listed in Google within 2 days. I haven’t seen any other system doing that so far. A normal site takes up to 2 months to get listed in Google, so this is something to take into account. Anybody can learn enough in 2 hours to create content with WordPress right away, including using categories and sub pages. WordPress can handle tons of visitors. It will not break down easily."

Examples

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:49:11 +0000

Here will be a list of linked images to the individual sites. While they will be in categories as well, this will serve as a good bulk gallery.

Brett

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 22:37:54 +0000

Brett Gehrs

Education: Cal Arts 1994-1997 BFA in Character Animation Columbia College 1991 USMC Avionics Technichian 1990-1994 Naperville North High School 1986-1990 Diploma Professional Experience: 1998 Character Layout Artist on "The Simpsons" at Film Roman 1998 Taught Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premier Seminars at Cal Arts 1999 Editor, Rough Inbetweener, Production Assistant and IT on "The Tigger Movie" at Cornerstone Animation

Maximliner

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 03:23:11 +0000

[gallery link="file" columns="2"]

karensmusgrave

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 03:44:07 +0000

fiberartist

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 03:44:23 +0000

Quilts By Karen S Musgrave

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 03:44:46 +0000

[gallery link="file" columns="2"] I create art. I connect. I play. I share. Process and education are important for me. Creativity involves process and process involves change. For me, the energy that drives my creativity is process, rich with the unexpected. I have discovered how thirsty I am for exploration, to play with fabric, texture, color and message. So much of my work these last few years is not planned, but evolves. It is important for me that my work draws people in, creates understanding, and hopefully, change. I have been truly blessed by the path I have followed and the changes that have occurred not only in my work but in my life. I feel strongly at home in a place I cannot define, but I am so glad to be there.

maximliner

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 04:01:45 +0000

maximliner2

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 04:01:50 +0000

doris-clark

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 04:06:09 +0000

Doris Clark

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 04:06:30 +0000

americandecoy

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 04:11:02 +0000

American Decoy Art

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 04:11:09 +0000

description

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:24:38 +0000

Private and business website design for growing your sales and bringing new customers	Solutions for driving your web traffic using approved search engine optimization	We offer graphic-design and marketing materials. See our creative graphic services	Free Stuff Free Vectors Free Tectures Free Stoock Images SEO Tips Design and Development Tips

2

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:32:57 +0000

Our Mission

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:42:49 +0000

At Naper Design, we realize that most people seeking a website want to have a site customized and singular to their own personal needs. Whether you want an E-commerce, Commercial Blog, or a Professional Marketing Site, it still needs to be customized to you and your needs. Our mission is to provide custom built (Content Management Sytem) CMS websites with various (Search Engine Optimization) SEO packages. Our 4-step website process:

DESIGN: The design goal is to determine a general creative direction that drives both the message and the visual personality of your business. We create mock-ups for the look and feel including colors, navigation placement, user options and content areas. Typically, we produce 2 – 4 mock-ups.
BUILD: Your site is then built using an award-winning publishing software system. You can add photo galleries, audio, video clips, online submit forms and more. We are here to help you build a website that meets your business objectives and helps you generate success.
MARKET: Our websites include search engine optimization capabilities, such as the ability to easily add keywords and descriptions to each page, making your site more visible to the search engines. This is free and included with your package. We can also setup your keyword bidding accounts with Google and Yahoo. Search engine marketing really works!
MAINTAIN: Once your new site is ready, we provide a training to teach you how to manage the content and check your site traffic. And if you want us to maintain your site, no problem. Purchase a Time Block,or we can charge by the hour. Either way, we’re “on-call” to assist you and your team on an as-needed basis with maintenance in a variety of areas. This flexible approach helps maximize time and save money. You will have the ability to easily manage your website text and content, or we can provide on-going maintenance as needed.

We understand that every customer is an individual and deserves a site that is their own. Cookie Cutter web design does nothing to separate a website from the millions of competing sites in the same format. We build both custom and open source themes to fit our customers desires and budgets.

Page #2

Crystal Palette

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:27:58 +0000

Throughout my childhood and adolescence, I was always creative and loved to experiment with fabrics, paints or any medium I could use. Decorating the house for holidays were the most exciting times. As I got older my creativity took a back seat for while. Then again, it took off after my marriage. It was almost like I had the whole house as a canvas! I started doing painting, embroidery and many other techniques. I was looking for newer ways to decorate and that’s when I learned about glass painting. I started experimenting and got good at it – at least that’s what my husband said! I loved it so much that I started painting every glass or ceramic surface in my kitchen. Finally, I had to stop before it got out of hands. Around the same time, my friends started asking me to paint glasses as a gift for someone they knew. That’s when I got the idea of doing it for everyone that wanted it. Why not? I have been getting great reviews and I am very excited to see where it takes me. Eventually I plan on adding newer techniques like etching, frosting, etc. The best yet, maybe I will come up with my own special technique!! I believe that sky is the limit when it comes to creativity. It gives me great satisfaction every time I create a piece for my client and they love it. The whole point is for you to have a great experience.

CP1

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 23:39:53 +0000

Friends and Sponsors

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 02:30:32 +0000

Being independents, our jobs follow us to any location with an internet connection. It is only right that we share our gratitude for some businesses within the areas of Oswego, Naperville and Aurora. We've found the ability to work many hours within Panera, Caribou Coffee, and Buffalo Wild Wings. These corporate entities still offer free wifi, and are greatly appreciated for doing so. Many of our days have been spent working within the confines of their establishments while drinking lots and lot of coffee. The Tap House Grill in Oswego, Il has served as a great location for work and exceptional service. The same should be said for both La Quinta Grill and The Rivers Edge Cafe in Aurora. Not only have we been welcomed here, but our client meetings have been encouraged at every step. Also grateful for the listing by Web Design Directory. Friends from the East Coast.

rss_what_it_is_480

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:56:50 +0000

Why RSS?

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:04:28 +0000

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is an XML-based format for content distribution on the Internet. It’s an excellent pipeline for Internet users to get updated news content and online articles -- the stuff you want -- without having to search for it. When a new article is posted or a change made to a webpage, RSS keeps track of the changes and delivers them to you. RSS feeds are most often attached to text, images, podcasts and video, but they can be used with any document (word processing and spreadsheets) that has content that changes. If there are web pages you visit daily or regularly – let’s say you always read the front page of The New York Times and your best friend’s weblog – RSS eliminate the need to check for updates. Every time something changes on the page, it comes to you. RSS always shows the most-recent changes. One of the original uses for RSS is the ability to create a unique newspaper with new content waiting for you every morning. Beyond that, on the short list of things RSS can do is make it easy to search for and organize information about a particular topic, keep up with your kid’s homework, track packages, find cheap airfares or follow e-Bay auctions and sales. You can get your horoscope, search for jobs, read your favorite comics, get software updates, keep up with other people’s schedules and follow calendar listings for your favorite clubs and venues. You can see what others are saying about your favorite sports teams or keep up with what others are saying about your favorite (or least-favorite) celebrity. All without surfing through pop-up ads, slow downloads and poorly navigated sites. RSS saves time. It’s as simple as that. With Wordpress, RSS functions are automatically built into the page. Having a feed available to your viewers makes the page more responsive to them and search engines. This is on of many tools available to help bring more traffic to your site. -site- whyrss.com

Inserting Pictures

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 23:22:15 +0000

How do I insert Pictures into my Post/Pages? 1. You need to be in your Sites Dashboard. 2.

Inserting Links

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 23:23:12 +0000

How do I fix or create links? 1. First you need to be in the Dashboard of your site. 2. You should find the post or page you want to link to. 3. Find the "Permalink aka URL" and copy it from http://naperdesign.com/links/ 4. Right Click on what you want to link from and open it in a new tab. This will help you to work with multiple tabs open so you can quickly move from tab to tab to check on your work. 5. Select the word or picture you want to link to. It should then be highlighted. 6a. Left click on the little chain link icon. This will open where you need to paste the permalink you copied in step 3 and click Insert. 6b. Left click on the advaced options icon on the picture. This will open where you need to paste the permalink you copied in step 3 and then left click Update. 7. This has just created a link. Left Click the Publish or Update Post or Update Page and your link should work.

Christian

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 23:37:25 +0000

Christian Lamar is an artist of several mediums. After completing 2 enlistments in the US Army, Christian began to style his artistic talents in woodworking, digital media, painting, and web traffic moderation. He has a portfolio for his woodworking at the address below. www.christianlamar.com

Customer Resources

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 23:43:59 +0000

Below will be listed a group of links from our site and others to assist our customers with many problems they may experience after the build and instruction of use have been provided. Inserting Pictures in to Post Inserting Links in to Post

process-seo

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 23:10:02 +0000

Search Engine Optimization

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 23:31:53 +0000

In recent years, the claims have been maid that a company can place you on the first page of search engines with a fair amount of ease. If such a day did exist, it has long since passed. Presently, SEO is a complex and time exhausting process. It does not have to be a pained task, but there is a requirement for time to be invested into it. Fortunately, blogs and CMS have become the favored manner of boosting productivity and traffic to ones site. Becoming connected through other sites on line, along with key words tend to remain the only strong SEO theories that have true power above others. It's not to say that other methods do not work, but I personally try for the notion of free before anything else. A great article on SEO and Site Traffic was written by CNN Money HERE. There are also various outlets of ideas in boosting SEO and Site Traffic. One group known as HubSpot utilize a website grading tool. The results and tips given after running your domain through this program are quite beneficial to the basic output of ones site. It would be highly suggested to begin small with steps like these. Anyone who's conducted your site build should have included Meta Data, Alt Tags and Key Words for at least your main page. It should be noted, if you have a Flash Based (Not Flash Included) website, you may be hurting on real optimization. Because of its layout, flash player sites have very little if any text to be indexed by search engines. They also take forever to load... Something the average visitor to your site may not be willing to wait through. One posting a week will be geared toward site developement, SEO or Wordpress. Thank you

Marishi 10

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 17:24:17 +0000

This is currently being built for a longtime friend of Brett. Marishi 10 is driven by martial arts instructor Derek Thompson, also known for his work on Futurama. This site is in the process of being revamped through Wordpress, and the domain brought back to life. In the mean time, we ask that you visit frequently and let us know your thoughts. Until domain security is completed, the begining stages will only be viewable through his free wordpress blog, but this should be fixed within a few days.

guitarshade2

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 17:25:27 +0000

consham

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 17:36:16 +0000

Haminal

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 17:36:56 +0000

Haminal.com is on the cusp of its re-release to the world. Currently the site can be reached at haminal.com, but will be down shortly for maintenance. We encourage all who have a supportive idea to voice it here. While we don't work in any way off of public opinion, we also find it imperative to interact with our fellow artist in the community. The site will be up at for a few days more, and its blog can currently be found here... http://sicksenses.com/haminal/

Twitter_256x256

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:49:36 +0000

twitter-bird-2

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:50:24 +0000

To Tweet or not to Tweet

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:50:46 +0000

In the past year, Twitter has risen to a level of use rivaling most every other site and service on the internet. As a result, many are asking how it can be used to increase traffic to their site. There are many tutorials and basic ideas for how to approach Twitter; I suggest you read them as well. This posting will focus on two fairly obscure questions to consider for your site and Twitter. Do you really care if people think you're a jerk? A Tweet can consist of as little as you pasting your url in a post and sending it on. While this method is viewed more as a SPAM act than any, you'll find that many people simply pawn their site through Tweets up to 50-100 times a day. The choice is up to you on how you wish to be received. Obviously if you're only doing this once a day, there won't be nearly the humor and snide statements made of you like the ones who are hitting up 20 an hour. The last sentence was not to assume that all of the Super-Tweeters are simply over-posting jerks. The fact remains that they create inbound links on a constant basis. While using many other SEO techniques, Twitter directs traffic to your sites and can in turn lift your rankings in many systems that effect search engine visibility. Who are you really wanting to reach? With Twitter, who are you after? If you're trying to push traffic to your NSFW site, it might be a good idea to set up an account with people who would be willing and able to see that content. In turn, you wouldn't want to send invites to a corporate team that would abhor the content of the site. (if this sounds to stupid to be possible, you have not visited fark often enough). There may be a need for several Twitter accounts for each business or site. There is no reason to keep you reach small, and each individual account can aim for a different target market. The best way of getting like minds to follow you is to begin by following people of a like mind. When setting up each account, consider your site definition. If your site is built to target designers, following designers would be your goal, if you paint, following people associated with painting...ect. This method will result in the people you follow usually following you in response. By this method, you should receive a fairly strong and targeted market.

Illinois Renewable Energy Fair

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:20:15 +0000

65zvu8yq3j It was a pleasure of mine to be invited to the Illinois Renewable Energy Fair in Oregon, Illinois this past weekend. As you would expect, the economy did take a toll on turnout for this years even; however, it was a full of creative ideas and many different business introducing their alternative energy ideas. Now, you may ask, "why post this on a professional blog about web design?". Allow me to explain. Most of the sites produced by these startups are doing them no benefit. The average site we found throughout the fair scored around a 12 on the website grader tool offered by Hubspot. Needless to say, the sites were offering almost no marketing value to their owners. We conducted the general B2B scenario of offering our services and lending advice where it could be given, but we consistently ran in to one of three issues that continue to prevail with local companies. With this post, I'd like to take a moment to point out two of the main site issues that we are finding with small business sites: Built in an Auto Builder:

Whether it be Godaddy's Website Tonight, or Cpannels Site Builder, there tend to be some horror stories of automate website builders. These builders, usually relying on a basic Java system, are usually comprised by nothing more than images and almost no text. If you are attempting to view one of these sites without scripts, you're likely to see nothing but an adblock warning. This can be found often with the "Local Hosting Companies" as well. Don't get me wrong... Not all of them are crooks, they just usually charge far more over a period of time for a sub-par site than would be paid for a good, one-time build. When checked, many of them have no Meta Data or Keywords to optimize them for search. The usual result of this is a site that people only reach when they have either received a business card or have someone direct them to the page. While it is imperative for the modern business to have a page for regular clients to view, this does little if any to bring new clients. The concepts of inbound marketing require that a site be accessible to those who would normally never hear of your company other than through net traffic. To Much Flash: With al of the advances in content management, jQuery, Content Galleries, and SlideShoPro(just to name a few), why do companies continue to abuse themselves with large, long-loading, and usually unrelated flash based websites. It's like the "Cornflower Blue" joke from Fight Club... The Flash is played out and doing your site a disservice if it takes longer to load than a persons attention span. Many at even the highest reaches of the professional world have yet to learn this basic theory. It has been estimated that for every second of load-time your site waste, you loose another 10% of prospective viewers. With inbound marketing being the most common reason for a business site, why would a company purposefully turn away prospective customers? I'm not saying that Flash is evil, and I certainly do not have a battle with Adobe. Flash has served the web community in various ways for over a decade, but at some point, businesses should realize what a detriment it can be when potential customers are lost to time needed for the site to load(another post coming on flash this weekend)

FlashLogo_4

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:22:54 +0000

hostgator-sitebuilder

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:24:07 +0000

Naperville Web Design

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:59:56 +0000

Local web design in Naperville, Illinois is the calling for most of our business. While we are located in Oswego, Illinois, the basis for our business model is to serve the area of Naperville with quality web design. We have found a warm market within the Naperville and Aurora areas. While there have been the usual groups of scammers that give all designers a bad name, most of the area is comprised of respectable artist. It truly is a pleasure for Brett and I to be welcomed into the community of web designers with Napervile. Christian

logonaper

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:03:00 +0000

logonaper

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:07:55 +0000

karaokegraphic

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:14:16 +0000

Gem Pro Dj

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:18:01 +0000

Recently, our friend Clint came to us with an idea... Take his Joomla site and turn it to Wordpress. While not to disrespect Joomla as a building tool, it does have its limitations to building site traffic. We will be working with this site and turning it into three autonomous Wordpress site. Please comment for suggestions on what directions you would see as beneficial. All comments will be taken seriously and thought will be given to any serious suggestions. The site can be found here Enjoy

flaunt party

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 20:12:31 +0000

Flaunt Party

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 20:59:03 +0000

Last week I was approached by two good friends trying to develop a social networking group for adult professionals. My first response to their suggested idea was, "aren't there already enough of them?". While this wasn't the most appropriate answer, they understood my response completely. After explaining that it would be a party planning, match making and professional interaction site, I began to see their vision of a "one-stop-shop" adult social networking service. While the idea has merit, they were running in to many problems with the build and development. Since several Developers had written different portions of the code, none of the tags were right, and the site itself was barely visible to anyone on line. When asked to boost the traffic ranking, I was instructed to give a basic idea of benchmarks for which to be paid for(obviously no one's paying for work not accomplished). They were ranked by Alexa at 5.9 Million and in the top 25% of internet traffic I submitted the following: I told them that conservatively, they could be ranked at 10% within 3 weeks. While I believed to be able to do it quicker, I wanted to make a realistic promise. That estimate was made last Thursday. I am very grateful to say that today, Flaunt Party was ranking within the top 10.26% when it was only scheduled to be at 16% this week. By using inbound links and social networking, the site was able to double its traffic and visit time within one week, without even adding the keywords or Meta Description. Both of these items are to be added soon, but during this developmental phase, the site must be prepared for the larger traffic that is coming. Please feel free to visit the site over the next few weeks. It should be noted though, that while more functionality is added to it, Flaunt Party may have to be taken down for a couple of days. Please visit frequently and comment here on what improvements you would suggest. All valid ideas will be considered and approved.

http://flauntparty.com

Naperville web design Hidden

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:52:41 +0000

Naperville Web Design Naperville Web Design Naperville Web Design Naperville Web Design Naperville Web Design Naperville Web Design Naperville Web Design Naperville Web Design Naperville Web Design Naperville Web Design Naperville Web Design Naperville Web Design Naperville Web Design Naperville Web Design Naperville Web Design Naperville Web Design Naperville Web Design Naperville Web Design

More Than Just Google and Yahoo

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:17:36 +0000

bing

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:18:08 +0000

bing

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:53:37 +0000

homernbart

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 20:54:43 +0000

lisadala

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 20:55:43 +0000

Brett2

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 20:58:38 +0000

Brett's Portfolio

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 21:58:37 +0000

Welcome to my Virtual Portfolio

Life Drawing

Character Design

Web Design

Before

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:09:31 +0000

After

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:09:47 +0000

Limos-Alive

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:10:31 +0000

Recently, we were asked to remake a website for one of the up and coming Limousine services in the Chicago area. We were shown the original site at Limosalive.com and asked what we could do with it. After a check through the SEO grading tool at hubspot's Grader Tool, we found its score to be an 8 at best. 8 out of 100 is certainly a sign for needing some help. We've gladly taken on this challenge and have been working on a highly functional finished product at Limosalive.net. While building the site on a new, but similar domain, the original site never needed to be taken down, and the time of development has been far easier without the limitations of only one url. I encourage you to look at the progress as we add to the new site. Please compare it with the existing on. There is a Java script associated with the .net version that i must still disable, so if scripts are not allowed, you may have to reset them to view the site we're building.

Already, this site is scoring in the low 70's and will be within the top of the local limo services before Google even issues the next round of page-ranking.

Here are some before and in progress pics, but more are on the way.

[gallery link="file" columns="2"]

If you enjoy this remodel, please feel free to contact us. We are looking to improve the Chicago Web Design Community, and add whatever benefits we can to the Web Development of Illinois.

Ten Great Ways to Crush Creativity

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:00:22 +0000

Normally, we don't augment other peoples post to place on our site, but today there is an interesting posting on how our best intentions can cause our websites to suffer. I think this posting could be applied to any form of artistic or business and marketing plan. We'd like to see what our audience thinks of this article posted on lifehack.org . I hope you leave feedback on what thoughts you may have. A link to the source site will be placed at the bottom of the posting.... Now for the featured post written by Paul Sloane Leaders have more power than they realize. They can patiently create a climate of creativity or they can crush it in a series of subtle comments and gestures. Their actions send powerful signals. Their responses to suggestions and ideas are deciphered by staff as encouragement or rejection. If you want to crush creativity in your organization and eliminate all the unnecessary bother of innovation then here are ten steps that are guaranteed to succeed.

1. Criticize

When you hear a new idea criticize it. Show how smart you are by pointing out some of the weaknesses and flaws which will hold it back. The more experienced you are, the easier it is to find fault with other people’s ideas. Decca Records turned down the Beatles, IBM rejected the photocopying idea which launched Xerox, DEC turned down the spreadsheet and various major publishers turned down the first Harry Potter novel. The same thing is happening in most organizations today. New ideas tend to be partly-formed so it is easy to reject them as ‘bad’. They diverge from the narrow focus that we have for the business so we discard them. Furthermore, every time somebody comes to you with an idea which you criticize, it discourages the person from wasting your time with more suggestions. It sends a message that new ideas are not welcome and that anyone who volunteers them is risking criticism or ridicule. This is a sure fire way to crush the creative spirit in your staff.

2. Ban brainstorms

Treat brainstorming as old-fashioned and passé. All that brainstorms do is throw up lots of new ideas that then have to be rejected. If your organization is not holding frequent brainstorm sessions to find creative solutions then you are not wasting time on new ideas. Instead you are sending a message to staff that their input is not required. If people insist on brainstorm meetings then make them long, rambling and unfocused with lots of criticism of radical ideas.

3. Hoard problems

The CEO and senior team should shoulder the responsibility for solving all the company’s major problems. Strategic issues are too complicated and high-level for the ordinary staff. After all, if people at the grass-roots knew the strategic challenges the organization faces then they would feel insecure and threatened. Don’t involve staff in serious issues, don’t tell them the big picture and above all don’t challenge them to come up with solutions.

4. Focus on efficiency not innovation

Focus solely on making the current business model work better. If we concentrate on making the current system work better then we will not waste time on looking for different systems. The current business model is the one that you helped develop and it is obviously the best one for the business. After all, if the makers of horse drawn carriages had improved quality they could have stopped automobiles taking their markets. The same principle applied with makers of slide rules, LP records, typewriters and gas lights.

5. Overwork

Establish a culture of long hours and hard work. Encourage the belief that hard work alone will solve the problem. We do not need to find a different way of solving a problem – rather we must just work harder at the old way of doing things. Make sure that the working day has no time for learning, fun, lateral thinking, wild ideas or testing of new initiatives.

6. Adhere to the plan

Plan in great detail and then do not deviate from the plan regardless of circumstances. ‘We cannot try that idea because it is not in the plan and we have no budget for it.’ Keep to the vision that was in the plan and ignore fads like market changes and customer fashions – they will pass.

7. Punish mistakes

If someone tries an entrepreneurial idea that fails then blame and retribution must follow. Reward success and punish failure. That way we will reinforce the existing way of doing things and discourage dangerous experiments.

8. Don’t look outside

We understand our business better than outsiders. After all we have been working in it for years. Other industries are fundamentally different and just because something works there does not mean it will work here. Consultants are generally over-priced and tell you things you could have figured out anyway. We need to find the solutions inside the business by working harder.

9. Promote people like you from within

Promoting from within is a good sign. It helps retain people and they can see a reward for loyalty and hard work. It means we don’t get polluted with heretical ideas from outside. Also if the CEO promotes people like him then he can achieve consistency and succession. It is best to find managers who agree with the CEO and praise him for his acumen and foresight.

10. Don’t waste money on training

Talent cannot be taught. It is it a rare thing possessed by a handful of gifted individuals. So why waste money trying to turn ducks into swans? Hire our kind of people and let them learn our system. Work them hard, keep them focused on our business model and do not allow them to fool around with crazy experiments. Workshops, budgets and time allocated to creativity and innovation are all wasteful extravagances. We know what we need to succeed so let’s just get on with it. Ten Great Ways to Crush Creativity

egg

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:02:01 +0000

seo-p

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:52:17 +0000

Improve Search Engine Crawl-from DailySEOBlog

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:52:44 +0000

Ok, I said earlier today that I barely ever re-post another persons work, , but it's not often that I find two incredibly written and informative articles in the same day. I also haven't had the most time to look around for good info in a few days because of work. Either way, I think that this posting deserves a read as well. The suggestions involved are ones that are valuable to know and sometimes we need to focus on more ourselves. Links within the posting have been left intact because of their weight and merit. At the end of the post will be a link back to the author. Enjoy

10 Tips to ensure better search engine crawling of your site

Even if you have an amazing site, sometimes you have to wait for ages to get some pages indexed and crawled on Google. Why does this happen ? I’ve found many people complain that after building a great site, and doing the standard chores, waiting so long for the results doesn’t make any sense. Certain things just don’t happen as planned. Like certain pages on a site, doesn’t get indexed and if indexed doesn’t get the right visibility on the search engines. Strange. I can probably attribute all these problems to a couple of SEO factors. Let me try and explain them below.

1. Set a sitemap, with the right priorities

Setting a proper sitemap solves most of the problems often. But don’t take this lightly as we have many automated plugins to do the job. Many a times, the automated plugins need good tweaking to ensure that they have the right settings for your site. I have written several posts about sitemaps, like this one, check it out.

2. Publish articles regularly in a predictable fashion

This is not a way to “control” how often the bots visit you. Google has its own algorithm to find out when it should visit you, but publishing more articles in a regular fashion sure does give Google clues on what your posting frequency is like. Nothing wrong in publishing articles in random, but I’d suggest you keep it pretty much in a predictable fashion so we make the process easy.

3. Link well contextually and often between posts

Cross linking between pages contextually is a great way to make sure that the bots visit all those pages. Contextual links are given more importance probably than any other link on the site, so make use of them.

4. Keep the directory structure simple

If you have a self designed website, make sure you keep the directory structure simple and not too deep. Having more directories to crawl will make the job difficult for the bots. Keep it simple.

5. Block the unnecessary pages with proper SEO techniques

Along with making sure that all the pages are crawled, also make sure that the ones you don’t need to show up in the search results are blocked. (Like the TOS page.) You could use the Meta Noindex and the robots.txt exclusion protocol to get things done.

6. Make the navigation bar simple and accessible

Often I see websites with complex, fancy navigation bar annoying. I mean, it doesn’t have to be fancy to impress your visitors right ? You could use classy CSS styling to get elegant looks and still impress them. The problem with fancy navigation bars are that they often do more harm than good like not allowing proper crawling of the pages linked. There are various techniques you can use to make the navigation bar attractive and still allow smooth crawling, employ them.

7. Practice deep linking

Always practice deep linking (you shouldn’t be having a deep structure in the first place.) if you have a big and deep directory structure. Do not miss out linking to any directory/pages. Use clever linking strategy to link all the directories/categories and pages each other. If possible link to all the main category indexes right from the homepage.

8. Make use of proper anchor texts and internal text links

Linking to pages with images and other elements may also result in poor crawling of those pages. Use proper anchor texts to share the contextual factor among your pages and directories.

9. Keep the URLs simple and easy to remember

Confusing URLs are neither good for Google bots as well as visitors. Google bots love simple, meaningful URLs and visitors love URLs with recall value and those are easy to remember. If you don’t want to screw up things, keep the URLs simple and easy to remember (both for bots and humans). P.S – Google does not have any problems with seemingly confusing or meaningless URLs. They still make out the content from the page, however having meaningful URLs are a definite plus.

10. Use the homepage very well

The homepage as you know is likely to gather the most link juice and importance compared to other pages on the site. (This is just a general observation, but if a page gathers more links to it, it could also get more authority and link juice than the homepage.) Use the homepage well, and add more links to the inner pages from it, so they share the authority. Essentially, factors like how fast to index, how often to index and how deep to index are decided by the search engines. But to a certain level you can control their crawling speed and frequency. The points above are good pointers to this, hope they helped you. Daily SEO Blog

home_pic07

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:56:27 +0000

Why Being A Freelance Designer Is Risky

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:58:44 +0000

Here is another re-posting from an author at webdesignmo.com . I felt it would be nice to show more work from fellow designers and their thoughts. Please enjoy this posting and a link to its author will be placed at the base. Why Being A Freelance Designer Is Risky: 7 Business Strategies To Help You Succeed One of the biggest problems with being a freelance designer is that the work can be challenging. No matter how clear you may be on the assignment and direction from the client, there are pitfalls to avoid. Here are seven tips to help your freelance business succeed. 1 – Craft a Contract Before you begin work, it is critical to draft a contract that delineates the product to be delivered as well as the amount of revisions a client will get. And include what will NOT be included in your services; it covers all your bases. You do not want to be caught in a situation where you are doing countless revisions and not being paid for it. 2 – Confirm the Delivery Format It is crucial to find out how a client wants the design delivered. You will want to know the application in which the design is being used and thus make sure that you deliver a format that will work for the CMS (or non CMS). This should also be specified in the contract. 3 – Ensure You Get Paid When you are freelancer you will not have the security of a large design firm backing you up and collecting on your accounts. One smart thing to do is to place a watermark on the work or deliver it in a resolution that is too low to be used by the client. Once the work is paid in full you can deliver the artwork at full resolution with no watermark. 4 – You May Have to Start at the Bottom There is always the lure of being freelance, you work the hours you want and take the projects you want to do right? Well you may find that it’s not quite like that especially in the beginning stages. You may need to take whatever work comes your way until you can market yourself and get a roster of clients that will give you enough work to support you and your new business. 5 – Set up an Arbitration Policy If there is a discrepancy in the amount due or over the initial contract you drew up with the client, you need to make sure you are legally covered. When drafting the contract make sure that the client signs it and returns the original copy to you and understands the requirement of arbitration to end disputes. This will be critical if you should have to take them to small claims court. Always be as specific as possible. 6 – Spend Money where Necessary You may not have all the latest equipment like you would at a design firm. Buying computers, software, pencils, watercolors, are all sunk costs to your new business. Keep your costs down by holding onto your laptop a few months extra and seek out discounts for software. 7 – Name Drop Keep a detailed address file to stay on top of your professional contacts. Your contacts are your most important asset. You want to keep in touch with your clients even after you finished a job. Sending email updates, newsletters or promotions can be a good way to stay in touch. Freelancing is a hard road. Not everyone is suited for a lifestyle. It takes brains, balls, and wit to stay above water. But we hope these seven tips will give you an edge to succeed. Written by- Eva Vesper at WHS, a web host guide that provides reviews, articles, and tutorials. Got questions about hosting or domains? Check them out.

all_in_one_seo_pack1

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:39:35 +0000

avinash-kaushik-analytics-dashboard

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:42:09 +0000

Top-5 Wordpress SEO Plugins

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:49:36 +0000

Earlier today, I was storming through the blogosphere and reading many different top-5 and top-10 list of SEO and SEM Plugins for Wordpress. It occurred to me that none of the articles I was reading had the exact combo that I liked. There are many great examples of good SEO planning out there, but I felt it would only be right to begin postings explaining my own. I'm not sure how long it will take to place my plan into post format, but over the course of the next few entries, I will explain how we've kept a customer on the first page for some time now, with barely any site maintenance. Please join us in this, the first of many in this discussion. To begin with, let's discuss what I would think are the Basic Fundamentals of Wordpress SEO... (no, not content, I do realize it's number one on the list). Beyond content, we have to consider what needs your site will have in being indexed easily by crawlers and bots. For that, I suggest building a foundation with these Five Plugins for Wordpress.

All in One SEO Pack - For those reading this article who are familiar with Wordpress SEO, it will be no surprise that the All In One SEO Plugin is at the top of the list. This Plugin has turned some of the most mundane code into one of the easier experiences involved with developing and maintaining a Wordpress Blog.
Google XML Sitemap– The biggest benefit of using wordpress is the manual labor you save because the software already knows where all of your content is. This Plugin submits a comprehensive index of your site to Google, Yahoo, MSN Live, and Ask.com (BING as well) every time you update your site. It’s a huge boost to your site’s SEO. The Sitemap also allows for some, not very much, but some control over the frequency with which the crawlers come by.
Google Analyticator - Ok, so what's the point of generating lots and lots of content, if you have no idea who's reading it? There are many ideas out there about why to use the Google Analyticator or Analyticor; most of those are dependent on what community you have to reach. The benefit of knowing who you're reaching is that you can diversify your content/SEO Model for the demographics you wish to reach. With the Google Analyticor, you'll have a constant gauge of how well you reach the target audience.
All Category SEO Updater - This Plugin offers more than just its SEO power. While it offers the ability to stuff extra Meta into the category list, it has another added quality. Have you ever had the nasty issue of attempting to add Category specific information to each Category Page? If so, you've likely run into a bit of a headache. This Plugin allows for a custom paragraph to be placed at the top of the content for each individual Category Page. For those of you as long-winded as myself, this is an incredible bonus and makes for heightened customization of each CAT Page.
SEO Friendly Images - SEO Friendly Images is a Wordpress optimization Plugin which automatically updates all images with proper ALT and TITLE attributes. If your images do not have ALT and TITLE already set, SEO Friendly Images will add them according the options you set. Additionally this makes the post W3C/XHTML valid as well. ALT attribute is important part of search engine optimization. Whatever images are not viewed by the crawler bots can easily be substituted with ALT Tags. This Plugin simply takes the hassle out of writing those Tags within the actual code (those of you who have know what a tedious experience it can be).

There are obviously more Plugins to help with SEO. Depending on what your SEO Plan consist of, you may require many more, or just what has been listed. In a posting later in this week, I will go into details of how to build a functional and transforming SEO Plan. I will likely ask for Featured Content from some of the best in the business. While we can offer quality suggestions for the SEO Development of local businesses within Illinois(especially Naperville), I will not discount the benefit of listening to those who are at the top of this business.

google-xml-sitemaps

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:51:06 +0000

1184141_ripple

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:25:19 +0000

1138325_rings_of_water

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:37:12 +0000

Visualizing Your Traffic Objective - Part 1

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:49:28 +0000

Reverse-Ripple Marketing Theory

So here we are, trying to improve our site traffic. Many people begin this aimlessly and without any clear idea of what they wish to accomplish. I can speak from experience, that quite often I have done the same. The misconception is that if you build a site, then send a bunch of invites and plug it to generic media, then people will automatically blow up your Alexa ranking, right? Not necessarily. A lot will depend on how targeted your approach may or may not be. Visualize The Approach Think of throwing rocks into a small pond or lake. The ripples will swell outward in various patterns and expanses. They become even smaller as they travel outward. As they encounter obstacles and other ripples, their direction shifts in many more obscure ways. This is the key visualization to increase site traffic... In reverse, of course. Our goal is to increase site traffic. This means that we have to create these ripples in their reverse form. Casting a large net across various related topics to your site will inevitably cause these ripples to develop and move back to their origin in waves of response. The net has to be cast wide and in substantial volume. Anyone with a blog presence can blow up their numbers for a few days. We see companies offering this for exorbitant amounts on a regular basis. They work with mob-like tactics; as soon as you stop paying, your site traffic immediately drops to the floor. This is not a reason to run back to them(unless you really enjoy paying money for a service that's rigged for only short term gains). Diversify to Enhance your Marketing View To have a traffic plan with true longevity, you have to think of all of the ripple in the pond. What happens when the ripple encounters an obstacle? It changes direction; it becomes obscure. No matter what basis you may think, all ripples of net traffic eventually become obscure. The point is to use the obscure traffic to grow your site. All of the direct and sharp traffic is like the ripple closest to the rock. They are large and even, but they only reach a certain radius. The same amplitude is expressed with the smaller, uneven ripples that have expanded outward. What separates them is that they are cast over a much larger area and range. This wider net causes for slow, sometimes bent and obscure group reaction. Keep in mind, all waves have roughly the same amplitude. With this thought, imagine pushing traffic in small, obscure waves that build in size while traveling back to your website. This requires a lot of work and interaction with other sites as well. Using the blogosphere, utilizing Press Releases, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Ning, Digg, Del.icio.us, LinkedIn, ect.... The list could go on for some time. Now these are the at the tops of most every "At Home SEO Expert", but what of the lesser known sites? What about blogs that are only minimally related to your goal. They "ARE" all fair game, regardless of what some experts may say. The point is to not just think of social networking, not just think of bookmarks, not to just think of the quick response websites, but to think of every possible eventuality in response to the content you have to offer. My Enemy Is My Friend But what you have to offer may be something to consider as well. When the ripples from different points of action intersect, they modify each other and cause for warps within their framework. This is also a benefit if we play the tape in reverse. By interacting with your competitors, you will wind up giving and receiving more traffic. By competing in a communicative manner, both sites win more traffic and reach a larger audience. This is only the first of a 5 part series of post. Using this "Reverse-Ripple Marketing Theory" will be a long, productive process, but the rewards for the work put into it are far better in yield than paying for quick jolt traffic that is bound to fall as quickly as it arrived.

spider_bot

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:06:31 +0000

Writing for SEO

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:08:29 +0000

I found an article at helpmeblogger.com that is great in relation to writing content for SEO without having to sound redundant or confusing. The link to the original article will be at the base of this post. -enjoy- You'll see lots of advice about "SEO" or Search Engine Optimizing, or "using keywords." Much of that advice can actually hurt your Google rankings, especially "keyword stuffing," or deliberately over-using the terms you think will bring your page to the top ranks in a search. Google and other search engines are constantly changing the way they calculate search rankings, and they're getting smarter about figuring out ways of rewarding quality sites. That means that the best way of making sure your pages and posts have top search engine rankings and appear in the first few results when someone does a search is to write well. Really. Good writing trumps all the deliberate use of SEO keyword techniques. But what, you ask, is good writing? I'm glad you asked, Grasshopper. To begin with, good writing means being as clear as you can about what exactly you're writing about. Use a very clear and specific title for your page or post. Remember that a lot of readers will only see your title in their RSS feed, and the title has to be clear enough that they click to read the post. You want to be accurate, descriptive—and brief. Don't use the same subject phrase over and over—that's called keyword stuffing, and it's not only repetitive and boring, it's down right obnoxious. Overusing a keyword or phrase can suggest to a search engine that you're a spam site, and your ranking will suffer accordingly. Do use the most appropriate descriptive and specific language. Being specific means that your reader doesn't have to guess what you mean or what you're talking about. SPecificity makes your work easy to find. Remember that just because you call cats kitties, doesn't mean that your readers will; so think about synonyms, and likely search phrases. What will help a reader find your post? You might choose to use cats, kitties and felines—and you might also deliberately choose to avoid using pussies, since you don't want to attract porn spam. Google offers some tools to help you write good posts. One of them is the Google keyword tool. This helps you figure out what your readers might search for, in terms of using the best terms for our post or page. There are also some helpful .pdf guides from Google. The Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide is exactly what it looks like; a basic how to in terms of writing that makes your content easy to find. Original Article by by:Lisala at helpmeblogger.com

google-sitelinks-seo-by-the-sea

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:20:22 +0000

google-sitelinks-wordpress

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:21:10 +0000

mapping

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:01:53 +0000

Visualizing Your Objective-Part 2

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:07:57 +0000

Mapping Your Objective

If you have done a map search for random companies lately, you'll start noticing a trend. Companies that aren't franchised and have only one physical address are popping up all over the place. If you do a search for Illinois Web Design, a few names... not mentioning them... will pop up across the entire map of the state, when they are located at only one address. This is a trick that is being used more and more for SEO and SEM. I won't take a stance to endorse or denounce this tactic because it does provide results. While some may say this method is dirty, tainted, or just underweight marketing, it's being used by business everywhere to propel their site recognition and visibility. The point is not to consider any form of media as to small to be useful. Whatever addresses are applicable to your business or site should always be listed in Google, Yahoo, and Mapquest Map sites. Unless there are privacy concerns, this is an easy method at getting multiple links and search traffic to your site. If there are privacy concerns, it is quite apparent that a lot of businesses are using addresses that are not their own, not remotely related to the company, and in a few cases, don't even exist. Like I said, I don't take a stance either way on the address issue. Whatever address you choose to use is your own business and will be pertinent to your site needs. The pint is to consider adding site traffic through any means possible and to elevate your position in the search engines. If you find that having multiple addresses within search maps allows for extra exposure, it might be worth considering.

highres_3199259

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:24:38 +0000

SEO! Could the experts be wrong?!!!

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:24:50 +0000

While stomping the SEO threads today, I came across an interesting question concerning keyword usage with search ranking. It ask a simple question, what if the "experts" are wrong? If you've kept up with most of my post, then you realize what my thoughts are of the self-proclaimed experts are. That being said, there are some points made by this article that are helpful and not as generic as many of the postings on line. All credit to webdesign.org for this article. -enjoy- Search engine optimization, or SEO, has become a huge online "industry". It's an accepted fact that if your website ranks higher in the search results for a given keyword then there is a better chance that it will get more visitors. The best part about this is these are considered "organic" visitors, meaning that you don't have to pay for advertising to get them to your site. In the online business world, this translates into huge earnings with very little advertising costs. In other words, the ultimate goal of any online business owner. So being able to figure out exactly how to get that 100% guarantee that your site will end up on top of the search results is basically the Holy Grail of SEO. There are people out there that dedicate their careers, even their life to figuring this out. Because they know that if they did they would become overnight millionaires. It would be like cracking the code that nobody else in the world could do. Some people may get parts of it figured out, but no one has been able to give that 100% guarantee. The problem is a lack of consistency. If you asked anyone who has a website how they were going to get on top of the Google search results, 99.9% would agree they would need the highest PageRank possible. Now it is no doubt that a high PageRank is important, but is it a guarantee that your site is going to make it on the first page of the results. A lot of people would say yes, and when Google announces that they are going to update the PageRanks most website owners are on pins and needles wondering if they are going to move up or down. But what if it didn't really matter? There is an internet marketer (probably one of the last truly honest ones out there) by the name of Jonathan Leger who has spent a great deal of time testing out the theories that the SEO experts or "gurus" have been selling to website owners for years. One of which is the "PageRank theory". He ran a very intensive case study and came up with some interesting results. He found that up to 1/3 of the time websites with lower PageRank actually ranked higher in the search results than those with higher PageRank. Some time a great deal higher. Consider a website with a PageRank of 4 ending up 5 steps above a website with a PageRank of 7 or 8. It actually happens!! But the problem is that this isn't the only theory that SEO experts have been preaching that doesn't stand up under Mr. Leger's study. He has found 7 (yes, 7!) different SEO theories that don't always hold true in the real world. That's why if you are at all interested in getting your website to the top of the search results then you have to read Jon's report. And of course, he surprises us all again by the fact that he isn't charging a single dime for it! All you have to do is go to his website below and get ready to download the free report. This whole thing could end up making some people very angry, but I have a feeling that the rest of us will be very happy! Original article from webdesign.org

bragging

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:06:27 +0000

Congratulations to Naper Design

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:12:29 +0000

As of this morning, Naper Design is the #1 ranked site for the search term "Naperville SEO". In only 1 month and 12 days, Naper Design has shown the ability to use non-purchased SEO and natural feeds to build site traffic. Now our goal is shifting, to also add a top 25 listing fr Chicago. If anyone thinks that sounds like setting a low goal, please feel free to Google "Chicago SEO". The goal is not only reachable, but we hope to be listed within this ranking by early October. We will also be focusing on increasing our rankings for the search terms "Chicago Web Design", "Naperville Search Engine Optimization" and "Naperville Web Design". Please feel free to verify the results. We were listed #1 this morning. As you can see, there is no login to Google, so nothing would be effecting the indexing based on preferences. This is further proof that large cost, local SEO groups are charging more for their services than the average business should be paying. This is in no small part a benefit of the mapping techniques discussed here

bragging

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:25:29 +0000

Chicago Web Design SEO Page-1

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 19:26:06 +0000

We believe technology can empower our clients - when it's used right. That's why Naper Design works hard to make things simple, not simpler. We work closely with every client to assess needs, goals, timelines, and risk factors -- all with the goal of arriving at the best solution with a solid plan to implement and deploy. Simple, not simpler. Our websites and applications are simple to use and simple to maintain. Our goal is to leverage tools and best practices to generate revenue, improve operating efficiencies, or enhance brand awareness for our clients. Whether it's on the web, in print, or on your phone, Naper Design has innovative solutions that can help your organization grow. We'll do the heavy lifting so you can focus on results. Naper Design. Simple, not simpler.

About Naper Design In Chicago

Founded in 2009, Naper, LLC, is a Chicago-based full-service web solutions company. Naper Design offers an attractive and competitive cost structure to its clients, which include some of the following: Motorola, Soldier Field, Discover, Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Lake Shore Athletic Clubs.

Chicago graphic design & corporate branding

We start with your logo — the basis for your entire brand image. From there, personalized direct mail campaigns to corporate brochure design and marketing collateral, we have done it all — and we do it with style. We also manage printing, taking jobs from start to finish to ensure quality work. Ask about how you can track and measure the ROI of your marketing!

Chicago graphic design

Chicago web design & template web design

We believe in attractive yet functional custom web design that targets your customer base. We cover all the bases with a detailed assessment of your current needs, then develop a web site that exceeds your expectations. we're going to design your website. We are the leading Chicago web design company, offering an array of services to our diverse clientele across the globe. Recognized by our peers as outstanding and inspiring web designers, we are the web design company that will bring your vision to life. Whether you seek to develop a brand identity for your custom social networking site, utilize our SEO services to boost your current website, or something in-between, we offer superior one-stop services as a web design, Search Engine Optimization SEO, and Graphic Design to the entire Chicago Area.

Chicago Website Design | Perhaps it's time for a browser upgrade?

Our website on Chicago Website Design requires Flash Player 8 or greater and JavaScript enabled. If you are seeing this message then you may need to update your Flash Player. If you have Flash 8 or greater than you'll need to enable JavaScript in your browser.

Creative & Interactive Web Design

Our Chicago web design firm converts your website visitors into clients with creative and interactive website design. View our portfolio.

SEO & Online Marketing

The prestige of being on Page #1 strengthens your brand and the visibility connects you directly to your consumers.

Web Design Chicago - Rainboworange

We are a team of professionals with over 6 years of experience in web site design and development, graphic design, search engine optimization and corporate branding for small businesses and organizations. We have the knowledge and creativity but, unlike many other web design companies, we do understand that creativity alone is not enough. Being business savvy, use our knowledge to provide our clients a positive return on investment. We design beautiful web sites and we develop user friendly web sites too. Naper Design is a website design company located in Chicago. Although our head office is based in Naperville and Aurora, we successfully work with clients from all over the world.

The Best Chicago SEO

by admin There are millions website on the internet. Each website master wants his website to be visible and accessed by all internet users from the entire world. The intention of it of course to get profits because if there are more people visiting their website it means more buyer for their products. For some webmasters, more viewers mean more money for them because they join the Pay-per-View program or affiliation. To make your website visited by many internet users, you need to modify the code of the website. You need to insert certain codes that are usually used by search engines in the indexing processes. Once your website has been indexed by the search engine, your website will be displayed in their searching result lists. A website is the extension of a business or it can also be a part of your individuality, depicting what you are. Modern day websites need to be much more user friendly, in order to increase the traffic flowing into it. One of the simplest things to do is to add a CMS or Content Management System into your website,which will take care of all the contents being added to the site. With the help of the CMS, it becomes very easy to launch and maintain a site and keep it updated easily. One of the most popular Content Management Systems is the WordPress. It is being used by millions of users all over the world. The most important facility of the WordPress system is that it is very easy to install and maintain. So, even if you are not much aware of the technicalities of building a website, you can still use and upload the WordPress and start your own website. The WordPress is mostly used in the Blog sites, as the WordPress CMS is very well equipped to handle the requirements of a Blog site. The WordPress can handle many users at the same time, which is one of the major requirements of a blog site. If you are using the latest Web 2.0 technology in your website, then WordPress is the CMS to look out for. Web 2.0 is meant for better communication and interaction with the visitors who are coming into your site. The Web 2.0 also creates a better and user-friendly environment so that your visitors will be attracted to your site. This will mean that they will keep coming back to your site again and again. WordPress together with Web 2.0 can create a very dynamic site, which will be both interactive and entertaining for the visitors. It will be far better from the static site created by Web 1.0. WordPress teamed with Web 2.0 will allow you to make your site more socially connectable. This will lead to higher rankings in the search pages of major search engines. Higher rankings mean more traffic that can be converted into higher revenues. WordPress is cost effective too and so, you need not spend a fortune to create a website using the WordPress platforms. The platform along with Web 2.0 will give you results that are beyond your imagination. So, just try them and see the difference. Naper Design creates Wordpress powered websites for their business customers because they know that being found online is key and Wordpress helps them do that easily.

wordpress-permalinks

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 05:11:49 +0000

Dirty Domains Damage SEO

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 05:13:39 +0000

Changed Your Wordpress Permalinking Yet? You May Wish To. Toolbar pagerank used to be all the rage and most optimizers were all about creating those green pixels and maintaining it through any means necessary. One of the things optimizers noticed early on was that Pagerank seemed to be site based and distributed from “the top down”. What this means is that if your homepage was a low to mid PR5, any pages directly off the root of the homepage would be a PR4. Subfolders directly off the homepage would also be a PR4. But pages within the subfolders would be a PR3.

yourdomain.com = PR5 yourdomain.com/your-page.html = PR4 yourdomain.com/your-folder/ = PR4 yourdomain.com/your-folder/this-page.html = PR3 yourdomain.com/your-folder/another-folder/ = PR3 yourdomain.com/your-folder/another-folder/another-page.html = PR2

Back then, the higher your toolbar PR was, the higher the likelihood that your pages would rank (that wasn’t all there was to it - lower PR could beat higher PR, but toolbar PR was a big portion of things in those days). So a lot of optimizers took to creating “root based” sites. Which essentially means that every page of the site was built off of the root.

yourdomain.com = PR5 yourdomain.com/your-page.html = PR4 yourdomain.com/your-folder-now-a-page.html = PR4 yourdomain.com/your-folder-now-this-page.html = PR4 yourdomain.com/your-folder-another-folder.html = PR4 yourdomain.com/your-folder-another-folder-now-another-page.html = PR4

Back in the day it made sense. Nowadays, it’s pointless and messy. First things first, Toolbar PR is for entertainment. Most optimizers have known that for a long time. Secondly, PR either didn’t remain or never was “site based” (you can decide that one) and is instead based on the individual page factors (like inbound links). Thirdly, the Google algorithm is no longer a one ingredient wonder. Nowadays, we have trust, age, authority and varying other factors contributing to how a site ranks in addition to Pagerank. In addition to the strategy now being pointless, it’s also messy. Not only do you risk getting crawlers confused with a lack of a logical site structure, but it is also beyond annoying to someone who has to work with a site to have to trudge through a root based site with several hundred or thousand pages. It’s like opening a huge walk in closet to find a tie only to not be able to even walk into it because everything is simply thrown on the floor with no rhyme, order or reason. But it seems a lot of “SEO firms” didn’t get the memo and we are constantly seeing sites with this “SEO method” employed. A response to this posting and corrective changes will be posted momentarily.

555

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 05:23:48 +0000

Cleaning UP The Dirty Domain

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 05:24:53 +0000

Cleaning Things Up!! Fixing the Link. So now that you know this “method” of SEO is archaic, ineffective and sloppy, how do you go about fixing your site? Whether or not you should “fix something that isn’t broken” is something only you (if you have the knowledge), your in-house SEO or outside SEO firm can really answer as it really does need to be looked at on a case by case basis. There IS POTENTIAL RISK INVOLVED with changing URL structure that should be assessed. That said, I’ve had a lot of success with site structure migrations and most times, will choose to slowly migrate the site to a new, sensible URL structure. Some tips for site structure migration If you do choose to change your URL structure, you’ll find some tips based on my experience with my previous migrations below:

Prepare for the fact that it takes Google a bit to “figure things out”. The more often you get crawled, the less time it will likely take for Google to get with the program. I’ve seen URL migrations take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to get sorted out.
Always choose a small, “mid-level” traffic section to start with. This way, you can see the results before enacting things on a larger scale and/or with your most important keywords.
Make sure you have a good 301 plan in place for pointing the old URLs at the new ones. Without it, your new URLs will not “take the place” and the authority, link popularity and the rankings of your old URLs.
Change site navigation, but use your internal sitemap as a “reminder”. What I mean by this is that I usually change the links to the new links throughout the site naviagtion and within the site content, but I leave a link pointing to the old URL on the internal sitemap (not the one you feed to Google via WMC) until I’m sure Google has seen the redirect and removed the old link from the index.
Wait a few days, watch for the new URLs to be indexed, the old URLs to be removed and wait to ensure the new URLs take over the rankings formerly held by the old URLs.
If everything goes smoothly then I wash, rinse and repeat with other sections. Take things slow. It takes a while, but if anything goes wrong, you want it to go wrong with one small piece and not your entire site.

In addition to the above tips, it never hurts to go out and get some quality links to the new URLs from tightly themed sites to let the engines know that your new URLs are just as relevant as your old ones and that their still important to crawl regularly (and hopefully speed up the migration process).

subdomain-sitelinks

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 19:57:22 +0000

SEO Through Google Sitelinks

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 19:59:50 +0000

An excerpt from SEOpedia.org. Here they explain how and why it's beneficial to add sitelinks to your sites Google index. Please feel free to read the original article here. -enjoy- by Cristian Mezei I have been testing these Sitelinks for quite some time now on several websites, from new to very old, from few to zounds of visitors. What are Sitelinks ? They are a collection of links, automatically chosen by Google’s algorithm, to appear below the result of website, linking to main pages of your website. They are randomly chosen, although you can block any link from appearing. We will discuss more about Sitelinks in the Google Sitelinks FAQ section below. Recently, some of my websites got Sitelinks whilst I tried different ways of reaching this milestone. Some time ago, Vanessa Fox, from the Webmaster’s Central blog, wrote that the page from the Google Help describing these Sitelinks, has been updated to reflect “information on how Google generates these links”. That’s crap to say the least, because that Google Help page about Sitelinks, just states that they exist, are automatically generated and nothing more. Although no official explanation except this very basic page is offered by Google, I will try and write down a few of my own ideas, about when and how to get these Sitelinks for your website. Whilst I can’t promise you guys that ALL of the procedures below are involved in the process of making Sitelinks appear for your website, I can definitely guarantee you that SOME are. The above are true mainly because I have always (during months / years) tried 4 to 6 procedures at a time so I can’t really know which one had the most important contribution to the appearance of Sitelinks.

Procedures which may be involved in the appearance of Sitelinks:

The number of links pointing to your website’s index page, using the several main keywords of your website as anchor. For example, for my blog, the two main keywords are “Cristian Mezei”, my name, and “SeoPedia” the name of my blog. Sitelinks appear only for a few main keywords, not for every keyword your website ranks for.
The number of searches and SERP clicks for the main keywords I described above. you have to have a certain number of clicks for that keyword, to be able to reach a minimum requirement for the appearance of Sitelinks. This makes keywords which are not searched enough, to never have Sitelinks. Although some of my coleagues have mentioned that traffic has nothing to do or has everything to do with Sitelinks, I firmly believe that traffic for a particular keyword or keyphrase is very important.
The number of indexed pages for the keyword you are targeting is also important. Please keep in mind that I am not discussing about the number of indexed pages for your website, but for the number of results shown in Google for that particular keyword.
The age of the website is definitely an aspect when deciding how and when Sitelinks appear. As far as my tests go, and using a naturally and organically built website (no extensive or forced SEO), you can NOT have Sitelinks if the website is younger than 18-24 months, varying from case to case.
You have to rank #1 for that particular keyword (and the ranking has to be stable) to be able to have any Sitelinks at all. This is very important and it has been proven true in 100% of times.

Misleading advices about Google Sitelinks

Whilst many other specialists and/or bloggers from the industry around the Internet have tried to help you figure out some ways to get Sitelinks, I will try to contradict them because some of those advices might not have a contribution to your effort, mainly because they are just too general and my experience says that they could be just loose-ends. Some of these advices might be:

Making your website W3C valid. This is not a bad thing, but I highly doubt that it will make your website more prone to get Sitelinks. A lot of people have reported building their website with erratic code from 1992, and still having Sitelinks.
Having links from powerful websites. I doubt that this aspect will help you in getting Sitelinks at all. Have a look at how I see inbound links having an effect, above (in the Procedures section).
Having a lot of links (generally). I doubt that having tens of thousands of any links will move you up to the ladder, regarding Sitelinks. Whilst links will help I have explained above (in the Procedures section), specifically, in what way they will help.
Some advices were really something like : “Make the website useful” or “Add Meta tags”. Whilst these are surely helpful for any website, they may have nothing to do with your website getting Sitelinks.
Having a very well designed navigation menu. There were websites which had erratic or very well designed navigation menus and links within the website and still they all got Sitelinks.
Pagerank has nothing to do with Sitelinks. There are PR7 and PR2 websites that got Sitelinks.

Although I don’t want to contradict (I just did that, but well .. ) my fellow colleagues, the above are my personal opinions and I wanted to stress them out. The reason I didn’t named names is obvious. And as the title of my post says, below you’ll get the FAQ section, where I tried to answer most, if not all the questions that poped up in the past year, from all kinds of readers or people:

Google Sitelinks: The FAQ

Q: When are Sitelinks generated ? Is there some kind of Pagerank-alike update ? A: I do want to stress out that about 4 of my websites got Sitelinks in exactly the same 1-2 day period, although the websites are very different one from another. One is 2 years old, another is 3,5. One has 1000 links, the other has 40.000 links. One is in the auto domain one is my blog. They are not linked in-between them. So all of this makes me think that there is some kind of general update of the Sitelinks, much like the updates for Pagerank, Inbound links or Google Images. Since QOT got their Sitelinks on exactly the same day (6th Feb.) as many of my other websites, I am positive that there is a general Sitelinks update. Q: I can’t see any Sitelinks generated within my Sitemaps account, although they appear in Google! A: Sitelinks take anywhere from 2 weeks to 1 month to appear within your Sitemaps account, after they first appeared in the SERPs. Then you will have better control over some of the links. Q: Why doesn’t my very important “Clients” page get in the Sitelinks section ? A: This may have to do with the fact that Sitelinks are usually generated from the first level links only. This means that if you have a page reachable by two clicks, it will never be included in the Sitelinks section. On rare occasions, deeplinks will be chosen, but I am not sure as to how these websites are chosen. Also make sure that you have pure HTML links. No Javascript or Flash. Q: My website doesn’t have too much text links. Does this mean I’m doomed ? A: Google will generate Sitelinks from image links too, as long as the image has the ALT tag. As other people have found too, it seems that the Sitelinks algorithm may chose a Sitelink even if you have no link towards it from your website, but in exchange, the page has a large number of links from other websites. Q: What’s the point of having these stupid Sitelinks ? A: One simple and huge reason: Trust and brand. Sitelinks have began to resemble trust lately in the eyes of the normal surfer (not to us SEMs, simply because we know there are heavily penalized websites who still got Sitelinks), so any website who has them is more prone to get clicks from the SERPs, from the search terms that show Sitelinks. Q: What’s the minimum and maximum number of Sitelinks I’ll get ? A: Minimum 2, maximum 8. Nevertheless I still can’t figure it out how Google assigns the number of Sitelinks to each website, except popularity. Most of my popular websites have 8. Most of my not-so-popular websites have 2 to 4. Q: I don’t have a Google Sitemaps account. Will I still get Sitelinks ? A: Definitely. The only drawback is that you will not have any control over them. Q: How are the Sitelinks calculated ? Which links get in and which not ? A: There are all kinds of opinions. After closely studying all my websites, I myself will still believe that they are chosen randomly. Not after traffic, not after inbound links. There’s an interesting thread at SEW which you might want to read to get some speculation. Q: I have a page in the Sitelinks section that doesn’t exist anymore. What should I do ? A: It appears that the crawl delay of the Sitelinks is at least one month. So if you have a page that doesn’t exist anymore, try to 301 redirect it to the new one. The Sitelinks will then work ok. Q: In my Sitemaps account I can remove Sitelinks if I don’t like them ? A: Indeed you can. But please be careful when you do that, because if you remove a Sitelink it will not get replaced by another. This means that if you had 6 Sitelinks, and you block one because it’s not appropiate, you will be left with 5 Sitelinks in the Google SERPs. The 6th one will not be replaced with a new Sitelinks.

Vanessa Fox Nude forgotten all important post

The title is just a teaser for Vanessa. She’s had that Nude thing like forever :) For you guys who don’t know Vanessa, she’s been the women who lead the Google Webmasters Central team until she moved to Zillow. In this section I’ll analyze the post she made on her blog right after she left Google. I’m actually amazed to see how I can’t any reactions to this post, since IMHO it’s the most important post about Sitelinks ever. More important than what Google has released and certainly more important then I or my colleagues speculate, simply because she’s been involved in the process of releasing the Sitelinks. Block quotes are quotes from Vanessa’s post:

For instance, if I do a Google search for [duke’s chower house seattle], am I looking for directions? Hours? A menu? Google doesn’t know, so they offer up several suggestions. (Quality aside: a link to the menu shows up in the sitelinks, but if you do a search for [duke’s chowder house seattle menu], that same link doesn’t show up on the first page. In fact, no pages from the Duke’s site show up.)

Basically, what Vanessa is telling us is that Sitelinks will NEVER appear for specific search terms. So that’s why we get Sitelinks for “Computers” or “Cristian Mezei” or “HP” or generally, company names as well as very general industry terms.

Google autogenerates the list of sitelinks at least in part from internal links from the home page. You’ll notice in the Duke’s example that one of the sitelinks is “five great locations” which also appears as primary navigation on the Duke’s home page. If you want to influence the sitelinks that appear for your site, make sure that your home page includes the links you want and that those links are easy to crawl (in HTML rather than Flash or Javascript, for instance) and have short anchor text that’ll fit in a sitelinks listing. They’ll also have to be relevant links. You can’t just put your Buy Cheap Viagra now link on the home page of your elementary school site and hope for the best.

In the above, Vanessa confirms me what I already told you in the FAQ section above. Sitelinks will be chosen from links present in the homepage only. I still firmly believe that some websites have Sitelinks from deeplinks within the website. How and when these websites are chosen, is still a mystery. One more important thing we learn is that Sitelinks are chosen from relevant links in the homepage. Instead of repeating what Vanessa said about relevance, read the above quote. There is a lot of other useful information inside Vanessa’s post, but since I already tackled those points in my previous sections, I left them aside.

Other opinions about Sitelinks

I asked a colleague of mine involved in SEM too, what he thinks about Sitemaps. I thought to put his answer here as well:

Marius Mailat www.submitsuite.com

Cristian asked me about my opinion regarding Sitelinks. Breaking this question in small parts, here are my thoughts. The sitelink option in the Google results are similar with the siteinfo.xml provided for the Alexa toolbar, a simple option for a webmaster to provide most important direct links to his website structure. Google version of Siteinfo is different because you cannot specify WHICH link in your website is a Sitelink. You can only ask remove one link from the Sitelinks (Google Webmaster panel option). Why are the Sitelinks appearing, when and under which algorithm? The algorithm used is totally automated and is taking in consideration the following criteria’s:

Old powerful website.
The sitelinks are pages which are coming on first position in SERPs.
The sitelinks are most of the time associated with top results related words: “domain”, “domain download”, “domain demo” etc.
The sitelinks are probably not influenced by PageRank.

Other very useful locations on the web for Sitelinks

Have fun with Sitelinks. If you have any questions, suggestions or rectifications, write a comment.

Submit your website to Webxperience! and Webotopia directories and get bonus deeplinks.

color-wheel-300

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 03:50:30 +0000

Web Design and Color Importance

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 03:52:08 +0000

While adjusting for the thoughts for our new design, I have been thinking a lot about what colors will be used. Every site will inspire a response with not just the design, but the colors used within the framework of that design. Now that our web design service is fully available tot the Naperville community, we want to have our site brought to it's peak performance(the new unveiling will be 1 month from today). Designing web-sites involves numerous skilled disciplines from type to layout & color. Color is particularly prominent as it provides the first impression to the user. The correct colors can create a good user experience, while incorrect colors can have a bad impact. To create a good website, the website designer needs to know what affect colors can have on people. People subconsciously react to colors & associate them with different emotions and feelings. Colors don't just stir up emotions & feelings that might influence how a site is seen but they can also be cleverly used to direct users to specific sections of your site. Every single color that you can think of can be used on the internet these days, which means that picking the right colors can be a mammoth task. Here is a swift summary of how some colors can provoke certain reactions. Green is linked with nature, peace and jealousy. It is also a truly relaxing color and is perfect to use for a relaxing effect. The color white stirs up feelings of purity, simplicity, emptiness and innocence. If used as the main color of a site, it creates a clean and simple feel. Blue is most commonly associated with business sites as it's a strong color that's associated with confidence, coldness, depression, water and peace. The color blue is linked with confidence, loyalty and coolness. It's the best-known color in the world and it's used by many companies to create a feeling of strength & confidence( plus, blue and orange seem to be the Naperville and Chicago favored colors). Black is linked to feelings of mystery and refinement. For more detail go to: www.instant-video-streamer.com. An extremely popular color in design and photo web sites, it can be used effectively to contrast and liven up other colors. Green is linked to organic, nature and relaxation. The paler end of the green spectrum can be used to give a site a relaxed feel. Grey can be associated with respect, humility, decay and boredom. It's used a lot to form shiny gradients in website design to give a professional, ordinary feel to a site. Orange is strongly associated with spirituality and healing. It's the color that symbolizes Buddhism and it has a calming energy about it. It's a bold color that is not as lively as yellow but not as deep as red. Darker shades of purple can be very deep and luscious. It is linked to royalty, spirituality, arrogance and luxury. Lighter shades can represent romance and delicacy. It's a color that's not really used much on sites. Full of energy, vibrancy and stimulation, orange is a fantastic color to use in designing web-sites. It is used to bring youthfulness to a design. Color's role is not just to make a website look good; it can encourage feelings & emotions from the audience. In the Chicago and Naperville areas, this can be especially important because of how emotionally driven local customers can be. Choosing colors that annoy the end user can have damaging effects on your website, while cleverly selecting can mean that the website meets user expectation.

Good Site Structure

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 04:09:52 +0000

I am grateful to offer this article for repost. While posted originally at webdesign.org three years ago, it offers the best reason to look deeper into the site structure you;d wish developed in advance of the design. Those in Naperville and Chicago should take notice to these suggestions. Thinking of them in advance of a web design can save a lot of money and prevent buyers remorse when the site reaches completion. Ever visited a site and wondered "what am I supposed to do?" Ever got lost in someone else's tangled web?(if not, go to Aurora,Il homepage) Often, people will create a site loaded with information, and present it in such a way that you have to work the site out before you can do anything with it. While it's necessary to organise your information into a logical structure, remember that people find it hard to comprehend anything but the most simple and obvious structures. You may say "Well, it's pretty obvious isn't it", but that's only because you know your site so well. Often, I've wandered aimlessly through sites, not knowing how many levels there are to it or how much information there is "out there somewhere" on the site, and without any idea of what I've missed or whether I "took the right turn". In this example, I've created a hierarchy that organizes a site with recipes, photos and stories. Each of these options is very commonly used on the web, and with any option, the items are all accessible, but what's the best way to organize those items?

[caption id="attachment_507" align="alignnone" width="96" caption="One-Tier Site: All the information is on one page."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_508" align="alignnone" width="200" caption="Two-Tier Site: On the main page, there is a link to each of the six items. "][/caption] [caption id="attachment_509" align="alignnone" width="200" caption="Three-Tier Site: On the main page, there is a link to a page for each category. These pages may have thumbnails or brief descriptions on them, and have links to the items in that category. "][/caption] The advantage of a one-tier site is that there are no internal links, and there is no navigation. Everything is right there on that page. This is perfect for sites that have very little information on them, but if you have a site that's not minuscule, this would just create a totally disorganized "Wall of Text". The two-tier site allows for a fair bit more information, but if you have a large site, it will confront the visitor with an unsightly "Wall of Links". This site is a three-tier site. I chose that format when I created the site, as it works well. I have a main page, and then you can choose tutorials, articles, resources etc. and then you choose the specific tutorial, article or resource you want. The only problem is that you can't see the third tier from the first page. I sometimes can't remember whether something's a tutorial or an article, and visitors have to choose whether they want a tutorial or a resource without knowing anything about what they will find. When I get around to redesigning this site, I'll to organise it with a Top-Heavy combined three-tier system, explained below. Bottom-Heavy System: This system combines the second and third tiers, with a link to each category on the main page, and multiple items (e.g. stories) on one page. This is perfect for if you have lots of categories, but with not much content in each category. If I tried to set Pegaweb up like this, every tutorial would be on a single "Tutorial Page". It would be about 800k, and about ten miles high. :) Top-Heavy System: As long as this doesn't create mass clutter on your main page, this option has all the advantages of two and three tier systems. The links to each item are on the main page, but are organised into tiers on that page. There will be a fair few links on the main page, but the organisation of the site will be very easy to understand. This is the system I intend to use when I redesign this site. On the main page, there will be tiers, with links to each individual tutorial, article or resource etc. If you look back up the page, you'll find that this system is very similar to the two-tier system - in effect, it IS a two-tier system. The moral of the story is - design your websites to be two-tiered. Choose the bottom-heavy or top-heavy systems as necessary. Unless your site is gigantic, it's possible to keep your site two-tiered, especially by using the bottom-heavy system and creating/removing categories, to balance the clutter between your main page and the rest of the site. This is a reposting of a 2006 article by webdesign.org. The value of this article is still very much a topic of relevance for web design in the Chicago and Naperville areas.

4

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 04:11:50 +0000

1.1

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 04:18:00 +0000

2

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 04:21:18 +0000

Two-Tier Site: On the main page, there is a link to each of the six items.

3

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 04:22:37 +0000

5

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 04:25:31 +0000

Test link page

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:39:57 +0000

Illinois Web Design Internet Marketing Proxy List

Pricing Table

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:42:12 +0000

IMPORTANT:

The prices below are our best estimates given our experience with clients. Be aware that these prices are not guarantees in any ways, and to get a final price for your web site you need to contact us. However, if you're "just wondering" what a ballpark site would cost, you can use the below prices as rough guidelines. Also, if your project does not fit into one of the "boxes" described below, you really can't depend on these numbers to be an accurate ballpark. Note that in many cases the right solution is a combination of several of the elements described below, and that there are always exceptions to these rules! Also, more detailed descriptions of many of the products can be found above. For more accurate descriptions of these services, please visit our Web Design Mission Page for full definitions of our web design services. Feel free to use the Pricing Index Tool from Design Quote or use our Cost Estimation Tool.

Product

Description

Pricing

Basic Web Site

Small (approximate 5-7 pages) web site. Can include Static & Paypal E-Commerce, or Adobe Contribute Content Management System.

Typically $300-$500

Premium Web Site

Like a basic web site, but with fancier graphics and effects. Can include Static & Paypal E-Commerce, or Adobe Contribute CMS.

Typically $500-$1000

Dynamic E-Commerce

Full database-driven E-Commerce site, including credit card processing directly on your site and the ability to add/edit/delete and unlimited number of products.

Starting at $1500-$2000

Database Driven Content Management System (CMS)

Content Management System relying on a database. Does not cover Adobe Contribute CMS, those are significantly less expensive.

Starting at $1500-$2000

Database Driven Blog

Comprehensive blog with database and many bells and whistles. Does not include Adobe Contribute blogs, which are significantly less expensive.

Starting at $1000-$1500

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Analysis

Determine the pertinent keywords and develop a search engine strategy for your business. Highly recommended this is done before site construction starts.

$500

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Site Prep

Modify your existing web site to be more friendly towards search engines and build links.

Custom - Contact Us

Ongoing SEO Optimization / Pay-Per-Click Marketing

Tweaking and further optimization of your web site for search engines, including your pay-per-click budget.

Typically $100 - $5000 monthly

Custom Mailing Lists

Custom programmed mailing list housed directly on your server. Does not include Constant Contact or iContact mailing list solutions, those are much less expensive.

Starting at $500-$1000

Forums

Have forums users can participate in directly on your web site.

Starting at $1000-$2000

Social Networking / Dating Web Site

Build a social networking or dating web site.

Starting at $1500-$2000

Logo Design

Develop a Logo and Branding for your business. Price variance indicates quality differences.

Typically $100-$500

Standalone Graphic Design

Graphic Design projects not connected to the graphical layout of a web site. Web site graphics included with site pricing.

Custom - Contact Us

Video Upload Site

Site where you and users can uploads your own videos, a capability like YouTube has. Simply posting videos to your site is significantly less expensive.

Starting at $2500-$5000

Flash based Web Site

Web Site done entirely in Adobe Flash

Starting at $1000-$2500

Large Custom Sites / Web Applications / Database Development

Large, custom solutions for your very unique idea requiring large amounts of custom programming.

Starting at $2000-$4000

Shared Web Hosting

Rental of the server space on which to house your web site.

Approximately $36.00/year

Video Editing

Preparation and editing of raw video to make it presentable to end users.

Custom - Contact Us

SEO Pricing

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 05:14:14 +0000

Search Engine Optimization Starting at $200.00/MONTH

Internet Marketing Packages Beginning at $400.00/month

Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing have become a necessity to internet businesses. While some will claim to have you on Page#1 with "pay-per-click" advertising, your site winds up spending more to dive people to it the are uninterested in the theme. Why would you want to pay to have someone visit your site that is completely uninterested in your product, message or method. This practice is still being used in the Chicago area, but is not one we endorse or utilize to grow our customers SEO. Instead, we use techniques that are specific to the bringing a site up through more natural means. This increases the duration of your site exposure and will maintain your ranking growth in a far more efficient way than "pay-per-click" advertising ever will. We use some of these techniques: Expand Natural Search Engine Ranking SEO Based Web Design Content Creation Here are some of the Methods we use to propel your site to a much higher ranking that it would naturally have:

SEO Analysis - Done before anything else, here we determine a keyword strategy and get an overall idea of how competitive a certain field is in terms of SEO. This takes approximately 5-6 days. For new web sites it is HIGHLY recommended to run concurrent with site construction.
Site Modifications / Link Building - Before you can see SEO results, a site has to be modified so that it is highly readable by search engines and then your selected keywords need to be placed in strategic locations. Additionally, relevant links must be placed going to and from the site. If a new web site is being constructed with an SEO priority Naper Design will ensure that the proper inbound links and keywords have been adding. Please don;t assume that simply stuffing keywords will help a site build. Done in the wrong manner, and your site will be viewed as either lacking importance or spam. This needs to be done with care and forethought to avoid improper placement.
Site Tweaking - This is ongoing monthly research that determines the effectiveness of your SEO /Social Networking. This research can be done quickly or pretty in-depth. The more in-depth this research is done, the more accurate and the quicker your SEO results will be; however that requires a higher investment on your part.

Our charge to customers begins at $200.00/month. We do not mislead our customers by making claims to have them at page #1. This guarantee always leaves a customer upset when they realize their page #1 is with a phrase that no one will ever use. Instead, we guarantee high exposure and Alexa Ranking through social and viral marketing. Having this taken care of will boost you to the tops of the pages and usually above those paying thousands monthly for people to land on their site. These methods have proven themselves to be far more effective tools in the SEO market. Please feel free to contact us for a free consultation.

CMS Packages

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:12:14 +0000

Content Management Systems Beginning at $1,000.

Are you paying far to much to have someone else update your website? If you're worried that a lack of constant maintenance will reduce your web traffic, you should be. Without regular updates, Search Engines will view your website as have little to no relevance. We all need relevance in the eyes of the search engines to bring more traffic to our sites. Rather than pay far to much fo people to make minor changes to your site or add content, consider having a content management system. By this method, you will be able to update and add content to your site with the ease of typing a document and pressing a button. In the Web 2.0 world, many users have an expectation to be able to update their sites (specifically text and pictures) without the aid of a web designer. This is done through the use of a Content Management System (CMS). In the traditional sense, a Content Management System is a full database-driven web site that allows for constant and convenient content updates. While relatively easy to install, these systems are incredibly complex and often require dozens of hours of customization work in order to meet a client's requirements. While in certain cases a system like that is the right direction to go in, we have found that for most of our clients a Content Management System based on Wordpress software is a much more practical application. Wordpress gives users the editing power of most database-driven CMS, and with a significantly lower development cost.

How a blog can boost my business?

This is a very common client question. Blogs are very popular in the Web 2.0 world, and are excellent for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes as well. From a technical standpoint a blog is simply a Content Management System that allows you to create entries that consist of text and pictures. One of the better CMS systems, Wordpress is the simpler and more robust way to blog. As very capable blogging system is Wordpress, is a full database-driven web site. It has many features such as posting favorite links, auto-archiving, custom forms, image galleries..etc. Again, like a traditional CMS, a Wordpress installation is very straightforward however customizing it to blend seamlessly into your web site can be an incredible amount of work. It will require a full, and always free consultation to determine your site needs and developmental cost. That being said, here is a basic cost analysis of our CMS Services. Obviously, site details and time of build will be a factor in the overall cost.

CMS

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:44:30 +0000

Marketing

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:44:48 +0000

commerce

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:45:07 +0000

seo packages

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:45:23 +0000

Web Design

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:45:36 +0000

Contact For A Quote

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:28:44 +0000

More to follow

quote

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:30:48 +0000

E-Commerce Design and Development

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:06:51 +0000

E-Commerce and Shopping Cart Style Websites Beginning at $1250

One of the biggest obstacles for businesses wanting to make money selling products online is integrating their E-commerce system into their existing business processes. This means using a system customized to match your business. E-Commerce sites (or shopping cart sites) offer many solutions for businesses, both large and small. Whether your product line is one item or thousands of items, we can provide an e-commerce solution to fit your needs and budget. We can integrate your product catalog online, allowing users to purchase easily and securely from your Web site. At Naper Design we take special pride in having the fastest growing Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing footprint within the entire Chicago Metro Area. We are proving our ability to launch sites faster and more effectively than design groups with many years of service to this region. Besides our known ability to propel a website into high traffic, we also include the following with every E-commerce System that we produce:

Search Engine Friendly Advanced Shopping Cart Web Design
Layout Professionally Customized
Payment Gateway Included
Unlimited Products (Our setup cost will be extra for bulk products)
Supporting Pages ( About Us, Contact Us , etc)
Includes Additional Site Map Page
Includes Additional Privacy Policy Page
Includes Additional Terms & Conditions Page
Includes 2 hours of Update Training
Database Web Hosting On A trusted Hosting Provider - Optional
Domain Name Registration - Optional
Comprehensive Website Statistics With Google Analyticor Installed
Dedicated Project Manager With Email, Chat, Physical & Phone Support.
Turn Around - Approximately 10 Business Days or less.
6 Day Express Service Option *Additional Fee*
Full Service & Complete Customer Satisfaction.
Multiple E-commerce design concepts.
One Time Cost for Web Design
Optional Blog for addition traffic to the main site

Custom Web Design

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:23:30 +0000

Premium Web Site --- Starting at $1500 Like a basic web site, but with fancier graphics and effects. Can include Static & Paypal E-Commerce, or Adobe Contribute CMS. Dynamic E-Commerce--- Starting at $1750 Full database-driven E-Commerce site, including credit card processing directly on your site and the ability to add/edit/delete and unlimited number of products. Database Build Content Management System (CMS)--- Starting at $1500-$2000 Content Management System relying on a database. Does not cover Adobe Contribute CMS, those are significantly less expensive. Database Driven Blog CMS--- Starting at $1500 Comprehensive blog with database and many bells and whistles. Does not include Adobe Contribute blogs, which are significantly less expensive. Social Networking / Dating Web Site--- Starting at $2250 Build a social networking or dating web site. Video Upload Site--- Starting at $2000 Site where you and users can uploads your own videos, a capability like YouTube has. Simply posting videos to your site is significantly less expensive. Flash based Web Site--- Starting at $2750 Web Site done entirely in Adobe Flash Large Sites / Web Applications--- Starting at $2000-$14000 Large, custom solutions for your very unique idea requiring large amounts of custom programming.

featured-content-gallery-wordpress-plugin

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:20:41 +0000

6 Great Wordpress Image Plugins

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:20:53 +0000

Here's a List of 6 of my favorite Wordpress Plugins for Images. Obviously there are more functional jQuery Plugins , but this is a good list of basics. Fancybox For Wordpress- Seamlessly integrates FancyBox into your blog: Upload, activate, and you're done. No further configuration needed. However, you can customize it from the Options Page if you like. Featured Content Gallery - Featured Content Gallery is a plug-in for Wordpress which lets you to pick a few posts from a specific category or via post IDs and then display them in a slide show. The slide show is very cool which displays an image in background and description of post in a fading gray box in bottom of this widget. Thumbnails For Post - Thumbnail For Excerpts search the post for the first image. If exists, than it will search for the thumbnail created by default by WordPress for the image, if it was uploaded from WP administration area. If not, it will show the image itself, but of course, scaled (IMPORTANT: since version 1.2, there is an option to let the plugin to automatically generate the thumbnail where it do no exists.) SEO Friendly Images – Images can be a great source of traffic as people search for images of various subjects, and this plugin helps you with making sure that you have “alt” and “title” tags on all of your images so that the search engines can properly index them. Lightbox 2 – Plugin used to overlay images on the current page into neat Javascript-powered overlay pop-ups. Flickr Photo Album – This Flickr plugin for WordPress will allow you to pull in your Flickr photosets and display them as albums on your WordPress site.

screen1

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 03:37:15 +0000

screen2

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 03:37:23 +0000

New Design Coming Soon

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 03:37:38 +0000

Please continue to visit during the coming weeks. We will be performing a complete site redesign and would love some feedback on ideas to critiquing. We will be looking forward to your responses and thoughts on what directions you think would go well with our content and its ability to enrich the Web Design and SEO communities of both Naperville and Chicago. [gallery link="file" columns="2"]

BUSINESS BLOG MARKETING

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 03:57:21 +0000

If you've been considering a business blog, perhaps you already know some of the benefits:

Establishing yourself as an expert or industry leader
Improved search engine rankings
Better leads and more qualified traffic for your Web site.
Interacting with prior, present and future customers of the Naperville, Chicago, and even Illinois areas.

You may also know that blogging is a powerful tool because it has three channels of distribution: a Web page, a newsfeed(RSS )that can be syndicated, and an email feed for people who want to receive your posts via email(feedburn). However, with the popularity of blogs for business, there's a lot more a small business owner needs to know and do to make blogging an effective part of your Chicago and Naperville marketing strategy.

Naper Design helps our business blogging clients in the following ways:

Blog Design: Although most blogging platforms offer several attractive templates, a customized design by Naper Design will complement the rest of your marketing materials and improve your brand recognition. Once you've piqued the interest of your blog visitor, sending them to a similarly-designed Web site will smooth the transition and improve your conversion rates. Blog Setup & Configuration: You probably don't want to spend time learning the ins and outs of a blogging platform when you could be using that time to run your business. Naper Design can setup your account, configure it for maximum exposure and ease-of-use, and implement our custom designs into templates. We can also go "under-the-hood" to improve your blog's search engine optimization and "find-a-bility." Once we've set it up all you need to do is write! Business Blog Consulting: Blogging is like breathing: a minute to learn, a lifetime to master. We've been blogging steadily since 2005 and helping clients develop effective blogs for almost as long. We can help you get links from other bloggers in your niche, rank higher at the search engines, write posts that your prospects will be interested in and drive blog readers to your site. We can also train you in how to use the blogging software. Business Blog Promotion: Naper Design can help you get listed in blog directories, get more incoming links, improving your pinging and tagging strategy and more to increase your readership and subscriber base.

"I'm ready to start a business blog. How do we begin?" [caption id="attachment_586" align="alignnone" width="550" caption="Get your business on the map"][/caption]

map_regional

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 04:01:22 +0000

digg-logo

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 04:27:20 +0000

50 Powerful DIGG Tactics

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 04:34:04 +0000

I was reading an article that I could only find in PDF version. I've decided tonight that rather than expect everyone to wait for its download, it would be nicer to just post it here. A link to the original will be at the base. -enjoy- 1. Sign up for an account, and plan to participate daily. A wishy-washy attitude will not work well with fellow Diggers. 2. Be sure you understand how Digg works before you begin actively participating. 3. Pay attention to user comments, and be prepared to respond as well as become an active part of the conversation. 4. Get a feel for how and why certain stories become popular. This will give you a better understanding of Digg, and also give you insight into how to make your stories and postings more popular as well. 5. Try to accumulate as many friends as you can. Much like Twitter, you want as many contacts and outreaches as you can garner so you can affect more people that way. 6. Start a buddy list. This list is designed to give you a one on one ability within Digg. It allows IM use, but be careful and try to not use this feature too much or you'll turn people off. 7. Build your profile up to make it look as thorough and professional as possible. Just like any other website or service, this is the home base where people will be looking to find out who you are and what you're about. Make it as good as you possibly can. 8. Look for the power users of the site, and then be friends with them. This is a huge help to you because others will see that you're associated with them, and it will help you get much more exposure in the long run. 9. Only submit content that is worth something. Don't bombard the site or your page with worthless links and silly stories. Make sure they are interesting and relevant. 10. Send out shouts. On Digg, people can send out shouts to each other. This is the single best way to get noticed and to get some feedback, so send shouts often. 11. Keywords are very important. Just like any articles or information on your website, keywords are what get peoples' attention, so think some through and then use them in your posting title and in your content. 12. Aim to become a top user. The top users on this website get the most notice. 13. Do your homework and find out what people are talking about and then expand on that with your own postings. 14. Learn the language and how people express themselves. Every website has its own unique lingo that users pick up on, so be sure you are in the know. 15. Only keep friends who provide feedback, who link to you, and whom you can link to as well. Get rid of any friends who are just idle or who are not contributing. 16. Try to dedicate yourself to taking time each and every day to focus on content expansion and editing. Dedicating this time will really reflect on your profile. 17. Keep up on what the Digg users like and hate. For example, most users love Apple products, but hate Microsoft (as a whole). Get a feeling for the pulse of what is popular. 18. Overall, there are more male than female users on Digg. Get an idea of the demographics of the site so you can have more success. 19. Relevant content is important, and currently topics like the environment, science, breaking news, politics, technology, and comedy are hot topics. Use these in relation to your business somehow, so that people will want to know more. 20. Do not vote thumbs up on too many of your own articles. This can raise a red flag and could potentially get your account removed. 21. Make your title WOW viewers and visitors. This is your first line to people and the best way to get noticed and get some Diggs. 22. Descriptions are also important, so be sure to write these well and with important keywords included. 23. Use real numbers instead of written numbers. This really does get more attention than a lot of people realize. 24. Try not to just comment on stories. Remember the purpose of Digg, and if you like something, Digg away 25. Avoid spamming people with keywords. They are very important, but too many of one particular thing can drive people away almost instantly. Savvy users know spam when they see it, so DON’T DO IT! 26. Do not use any non-English websites or content. The temptation to post some Chinese language website links to reach out to global users might be really strong, but it's not allowed on the website since it is an English speaking only site. 27. Subscribe to the RSS feed offered by Digg so you can keep up with the latest updates and see what is the most popular post. 28. Check the upcoming stories, link to other's postings, and push your way up to the top by recommending others and making as many friends as you can. 29. Write about Digg. Although this may sound a little redundant, fans of Digg actually want to hear more about how to get the most out of the website. 30. Discuss the latest technology, since many people who use the site are big fans of the latest applications, websites, and electronics. Firefox noticed a large influx of users after people discussed them on Digg, and this can happen for your business as well. 31. Participate in the Digg Town Halls. The site now has occasional town hall style discussions, where you can share information, ask questions, and meet new users. 32. Be sure your content is a must see. Try to post things that have not been put up before, and make them intriguing and tantalizing. Again, this is where the effective title writing comes into play. 33. Unlike some other sites, users on Digg do not like for you to ask for Diggs. Instead, let your content speak for itself. 34. Try to be selective about your friends. Too many friends will be overwhelming, and your inbox will get overloaded. It's good to have a lot of contacts and friends, but too many can actually be a bad thing because it takes up way too much of your space and time. Choose friends who will do you a favor, just as you will do for them. 35. Do not Digg every single thing you see. By Digging every little posting, you look less legitimate, and you're giving certain people more credit than they actually deserve. The goal is to Digg content that is relevant and well put together, not just everyone's postings. 36. Remind people to Digg your stuff from other sites, like your blogs and even your home page. 37. Submit a good amount of posts, but don't overdo it. Some people will submit so much content every day that they overload the website and their profile. It's not a attractive habit, and it can make people leery. Instead, only post a few, select things per day. 38. Think about the numbers involved with Digg, such as the number of hits per hour, number of buries, and the number of popular articles that have hit within the last day or so. All of these statistics and more are important and help you gain a better grasp of your progress. 39. Don’t try to do it all on your own. If you're a very busy business owner or website host, recruit coworkers and friends to help post some things on Digg. As long as they follow your own personal guidelines for posting, it can be a huge help. 40. Be sure to include a picture for a thumbnail. Choose something that will get peoples' attention and make a statement, as well as something that defines who you are. 41. Widgets are an awesome new way to get more people reading. These can be personalized so you can make them all your own, and they really add personality to your page. 42. Add the Digg button, image and all, to your company or personal website. 43. Numbered lists make for easy reading, and keep peoples' interest. Write some content with top 10 lists, or other forms of numbered lists, which create small tidbits of information. 44. Keep in mind that the top 100 users on Digg control over half of the website's content ranking. Pay close attention to what they are looking at and commenting on. 45. Be as unique and individual as you can. Try to stay with the feel of the site, but go against the flow with your content. 46. Be open. The users of Digg are pretty open, honest, and out there when it comes to how they feel about things. If you do not like something, don't feel like you cannot express it. Just do so with a bit of discretion so you are not bashing people or businesses to the point of no return. 47. Focus on your audience, and decide what topics are of the most interest to them. 48. Do not make baseless claims. If you post some topics or information, do not make promises you cannot keep. It's never a good idea to sound like a salesman or make pitches for things people may not want. Instead, entice them to your site to make a purchase with relevant content. 49. Utilize the newest buzz on Digg to your advantage. While you never want to copy others' content, you can use the popular topics to give you fresh ideas that will rope people in. 50. Have fun. While the purpose of using Digg in this context is to expand your business and gain new contacts, remember to have fun! Found at this location

5 Web Design Elements Not To Overlook

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:06:06 +0000

Web design is tricky business. Often small things that go unnoticed turn out to be significant in impacting the overall performance of the website and further influencing crucial factors like website traffic, revenue generation and conversion figures. Here are some factors that are often overlooked but are by no means unimportant and should be taken very seriously. Mystery Meat Navigation This is the type of navigation where icons or pictorial buttons are used to represented navigational links. Unlike regular navigation links, they are devoid of text that defines its location. Therefore users are left to wonder the location by themselves. This handicaps the browsing experience because users are often unable to locate the designated look. Mystery meat navigation require JavaScript and images in order to function. This also bloats the size of web pages and increases their load time. This further hampers the accessibility quotient of the website. Even if you decide to use images for link, make sure you complement them requisite text links as well in order to make the navigation menu accessible and usable. Smooth and flawless browsing experience ensures rich user-experience. Page Titles Page titles are the texts that is displayed on the title bars of the web browser. It is the 'title' of the web page and should define the contents of the same. Many web designers make the mistake of writing the website name first followed by the page contents. Ideally, the title of the content should precede the name of the website in the title bar. This is because Internet users and search engines are able to locate the contents of the website more easily. Contact Information Websites are your corporate face on the world wide web. And it is very important to establish your credibility. One of the ways you can ensure this is by letting your audiences know that there is a live presence behind the online presence and providing them a point to get in touch with them. Providing adequate contact information not only grants legitimacy to your online business but also helps your visitors to communicate with you. Provide your business address, relevant phone numbers and a mailing address. If you are concerned about undue spam, provide a secure contact form on your website. Site Map One of the oft-forgotten but extremely important feature of a website. Many web designers forget to include a site map on their website. A site-map lists all the links of all the pages of a website according to the hierarchy and order. A site-map acts as a links page for search engine pages to crawl and also aid estranged users to locate their exact positions on the website and navigate to where they want to go. Moreover, sitemaps also strengthen the internal linking of a website and provides a defined structure for the same. Standardized Markup In order to ensure the proper accessibility and usability of a website, it is very important to maintain a standardized mark-up. Be it using tables for layouts or the proper use of line breaks, just about everything counts for proper markup. Use semantic markup that ensures forward compatibility. Original Article can be found here

typing

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:12:39 +0000

web_directories

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 21:59:49 +0000

Free Directories

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 22:08:25 +0000

On a regular basis, I will be updating this page with the most recent free directories that I've found on the net. I do not believe reciprocal or purchased links do much good with the new format for the Google Algorithm. As a result, I will only be listing directories that are free and have at least a Page Rank of 3. Should you choose to purchase, that would be your choice, but here in Naperville and Chicago, our SEO and Internet Marketing has been conducted in a completely free manner, yet we are quickly overtaking the web design and SEO searches for the area. It is good to consider, why pay for something you can get for free? This list includes both the site link and the Page Rank of the directory:

Aauml Web Directory	5
Jjhx Free Directory	5
Investhz Web Directory	5
I-Dio Web Directory	5
Pcib Directory	5

Ccwos Web Directory	5
Studio Zebre Web Directory	5
Digital Returns Directory	4
DLOAB Web Directory	4
DKX Free Web Directory	4
Invitation Directory	4
Cedpro Web Directory	4
Project Inner Space Directory	4
Amray Directory	4
Urban Void Directory	4
Felzenberg Web Directory	4
YepNew Web Directory	4
Clear Indices Directory	4
Neks Directory	3
ProjectEmpowerment Directory	3
Winding Sheet Directory	3
Cisos Web Directory	3
NBHA Free Directory	3
Pontofla Web Directory	3
Mozizona Web Directory	3
TK Free Web Directory	3
Replacement Shield Directory	3
Celdca Web Directory	3
Linkroo	3
Xwdn Web Directory	3
Tournament Directory	3
Hitang Web Directory	3
Cqcea Web Directory	3
Mistu Directory	3
Eubc Web Directory	3
Web Directory 2010	3
Lyuban Directory	3
Cafelaunch Directory	3
Zero Gravity Directory	3
Baritony Web Directory	3
Rfidststemsonline Web Directory	3
Dofol Web Directory	3
A Visual Web Directory	3
Chaqra Directory	3
Seal Bait Directory	3
Bombeiros-Algarve Directory	3
Link Site Directory	3
Vankia Web Directory	3
Bikeut Web Directory	3
Pengs Search Engine & Directory	3
DHD Web Directory	3
ArticlesZones Directory	3
Foqe Web Directory	3
Big Web Directory	3
Wilridge Directory	3
PonosRijeCana Directory	3
American Services Directory	3
Abbsl Web Directory	3
Saint Directory	3
Kupmed Directory	3
Oloffson Directory	3
Nepotistic Directory	3
Wqlj Web Directory	3
Dwna Web Directory	3
MktData Web Directory	3
Jet Pack Pilot Directory	3
Loco Magic Web Directory	3
Rumble Beat Free Directory	3
Help Me Directory	3
Lebateauivre.com Web Directory	3
Ifccfbi Web Directory	3
Mapgh Directory	3
Timbenderhats Web Directory	3
Stent Card Directory	3
iWait Web Directory	3

Natural Ranking SEO

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:59:27 +0000

-Internal Link Optimization Within the context of search engine results pages, how you link to each page within your website matters. The frequency, location, and destination of each link determines authority and your site’s ranking abilities. How you are linked from other pages is also vitally important. The higher the pagerank of websites linking to yours, the more likely your site is to receive a higher pagerank. -Tag Optimization Meta Tags and H1 tags are nothing more than subtitles, telling the reader and search engines what a particular page on your site is in reference to. Specified and relevant, these metrics are powerful when applied effectively. -Site Architecture Optimization Optimizing the internal link structure, meta tags/ H1 tags, and Title tags qualifies high rankings and conveys authority. If you want higher rankings, it all starts here. Minor changes can have drastic impacts on your ranking abilities. This is a major benefit to many of our Chicago based customers who have to compete with businesses with similar titles and structure. -SEO Copywriting / Content Creation Naper Design offers an array of SEO services. Content creation services include:

Article Marketing, Custom Blog Content & Article Content Creation
Content Creation for Blog Posts using Select Keywords
Press Releases & Ezine Distribution
Article Marketing and Directory Submission Services
Landing Page Content Creation
Inbound Link Production

-Targeted Link Building Each link to your site can be thought of as a vote. While the number of votes you receive is important, who is voting for you and how they are doing so matters in equal weight. The manner in which we build links to your site is concreted in value-based objectives. Affirmations of our efficacy are viewable in the testimonial listed on this page.

SEO Based Web Design

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:08:24 +0000

What use is SEO if your website has a dated look? Getting visitors to your site is half of the battle, keeping them there boils down to content and visual appeal. How many thousands of visitors are you willing to lose until you determine that design matters. Not just any design, your web design should rank as great as it looks. Don’t waste precious impressions showcasing an ordinary web design when with a bit of effort and an SEO website redesign, you could have extraordinary results. Use superior web design and SEO tactics to become more searchable than your other Chicago and Illinois based competitors. Why wait?Naper Design offers professional search engine optimization and website development & design services.

Content Creation

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:37:54 +0000

Search engines are scouring the web looking for unique web pages, which means, the less you update your content, the, more likely you are to get outranked by your competitors vying for the same keywords. In other words, the more content you create on a topic, the higher your relevance score is for that topic. Therefore by creating fresh, relevant content, you can develop website authority on virtually any topic (much like Wikipedia) and rank for multiple keywords respectively. Content Creation Services include:

Article Marketing, Custom Blog Content & Article Content Creation
Content Creation for Blog Posts using Select Keywords
Press Releases Distribution
Article Marketing and Directory Submission Services
Landing Page Content Creation
Choreographed and Scheduled XML Site-mapping

To rank competitively for keywords in search engines, those keywords must present on your pages. In addition, if your content fails to appeal to human visitors from improper grammar or simply lacks a compelling call to action, your visitors will simply leave your website to find a better offer (from your competitors). If your content has a newsworthy angle, then you can increase landing page conversions and create spikes in traffic using the time-released content inherent in search algorithms. Finding the right balance of which keywords to use, how many pages are needed and how to link them internally is all part of our SEO content creation process. Need content creation done, then Request a proposal today to let our talented writers get started on your next project Oftentimes meta tags, including the keyword tags are completely ignored from search engines. So how do you achieve improved ranking for your keywords and terms? The quality and popularity of the content on your web pages. SEO Design Solutions offers SEO copy writing services to optimize your website, article or blogs. Employ spider catching copy during new content creation or revise your existing content to rank higher organically in search engines. In a matter of hours, our SEO copy writer’s can edit lackluster copy from your website and replace it with keyword-rich stimulating online copy that’s compelling to read as well as naturally improves organic search engine traffic. For more information and search engine optimization pricing from Naper Design, follow the link for additional information. Our team can provide new content creation or writing services for your Chicago business. Contact us today for a free in depth analysis of your website, or feel free to review our additional SEO services. Purchase SEO writing services for your website so that your visitors and search engines hear your message. Proper SEO writing is particularly more effective achieve improved search engine placement when combined with off-page link building services. SEO writing services differ from ordinary writing services, the emphasis is to hone your existing content into focused search-engine friendly copy that increases your website’s organic search engine rankings, while not losing sight of your Chicago audience or your brand. We offer a variety of SEO content writing services in the Chicago and Naperville areas. Let our seasoned professionals carefully select the most powerful key words and key phrases that pertain to your industry. From there we will seamlessly weave them into your website’s title, meta tags, back links and content to encourage website spiders to index your optimized content and increase your search engine rank position accordingly. Supercharge your website, articles or blogs today with Custom SEO writing & content creation.

2512148775_61fa58b4b3_m

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:17:04 +0000

Searching For An SEO Group

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:23:56 +0000

With millions of competitors vying for the same spot, businesses want to know if it is possible to get top placement using Organic SEO Service. SEO generally refers to “natural” or “organic” SEO—meaning someone looking for a dentist in San Francisco types in “Dentist San Francisco” and finds several listings on the left side of the page. This is considered the most coveted place to be for several reasons: 1. The majority of search engine users (as many as 75% by some estimates) ignores the sponsored ad listings and only trusts the unbiased Organic Search Results. 2. A business listed in the sponsored listings is paying to be there—as much as $5 or $10 or$25 per click—and there is no guarantee those clicks are from legitimate customers. 3. By contrast, a natural result can be clicked on unlimited times by unlimited numbers of users at no cost to the site owner. 4. A high natural ranking means that site is really popular (at least that is the implication) and people like to be part of the most popular anything. So top natural listings attract 80% of people searching, and cost nothing to be clicked, while sponsored advertisers compete for the remaining 20% and pay for every click—whether the new lead is qualified and ready to buy, or a six year old playing with her mother’s computer. Natural is naturally the place to be. But how does a business get there? Begin with these thoughts: "Size Does Matter and Bigger is Not Always Better" A large company can completely lose track of the small businesses because their eyes are set strongly for taking up large contracts. The larger businesses are also far mre likely to overprice and charge for unneeded services. Pay-Per-Clicks are still more likely in the larger companies than the smaller groups that work local and small businesses. When searching, it is always advisable to choose a local group that doesn't have a load to heavy to handle. If they are overburdened, it's very likely that some of their clients are going to fall through the cracks. If you have ever tried SEO and gotten poor results, you might conclude it is a waste of time and money to even try. You may have even spent a massive amount of capital on building a site, on;y to realize that the method used was not adequate for your business model. SEO is not the same for every website or business. Many SEO companies tend to try the same tricks for every client, regardless of their individual needs. Of the thousands of SEO companies, you can bet that not all can really deliver meaningful results. And what is meaningful in a business sense? First page placement on relevant keywords is critical. The majority of users never go to page 3, and of those that do, almost none make it past page 4 or 5. So improvement from page 50 to page 5 might look good on an SEO progress report, but it means almost nothing in increased business results. Page one is the grail, but if promised by a company that is not there themselves, it's likely a scam. So how does a business owner separate the myth from the grail? When selecting an SEO company here are some key questions to ask: 1. How long have you been in business? 2. What is your guarantee? (Listen for page one is usually a dead giveaway for a scam!) 3. What is the SEO campaign plan for the site? 4. Will you be shown how to improve and maintain your own score after the promotion period?(this one is crucial. Do you wish to be elevated to a point of maintenance, or to be trapped and addicted to the cost of their services?) Locating an SEO company is easy. Search “(your location)SEO ”. Check the natural results. If the SEO Company is ranked well you know you have one that has been around a while.

drn

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:58:48 +0000

PPC? Why waste your money?

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:00:57 +0000

Ok. First of all, I should explain to everyone that I am fairly cheep. I can't see the reason in paying an inflated price for something I can have for free. It makes no sense to do it for myself, so why mislead my clients into doing something that I would find wasteful.

I hear many comment’s from my prospective customers about Pay Per Click. Most of which suggest that some feel that this form of online advertising is a necessity to make their marketing work. This may be true for a few niche industries but certainly not for most, and a well structured campaign with the correct budget can waste money on a product that is far less than a well managed campaign.

As with SEO, a Pay Per Click campaign cannot be just set up and left, the campaign must evolve, being tested, tweaked, and adapted to fight off the competition; and of course, maintain the lowest costs to you whilst bringing the highest return on your investment. A fair return is possible, but advertisers must be aware it takes a lot time to make sure the campaign is running well by testing adverts, keywords and landing pages consistently and constantly.

The problem is this. If you are running a store online, or selling something other than participation and outreach, yes, PPC can be something that can greatly influence your conversion. On the other hand, if you are simply trying to increase site traffic, then PPC is likely not a direction you'd want to take.

Many firms and companies are trying to pass PPC off as the sole way of producing strong marketing for the web. While turning a blind eye to "Natural" SEO, they convince their customers to shell out dollar after dollar on unneeded ads. I met a Dentist this past week who is spending $1000.00/month for a PPC campaign, and the firm that set it up is sending the ads to areas outside of his office reach. As of yet, he's only received 3 customers from these ads. This ratio makes his PPC campaign completely overpriced for his situation.

Pay Per Click is not the solution for most SEO and SEM. Natural linking, network building, and inbound linking are generally the best way to bring in more clients. Most people now view the "pink box" of Google search as obvious spam. As pointed out by Vertical Leap, spammers and scammers are more likely to use these purchased ads, and most people are on to their game. Because of this reputation, the average person is now even less likely to follow your link back to your site. If they happen to, it will likely mean that you just paid for someone who is going to spam you contact form.

There are many, perfectly more effective methods of site traffic generation that we have perfected. We will be more than happy to share them with you and watch you site grow. Unlike the other sites in Naperville, we don't charge $1000's a month to have nothing to show for it. We use skilled SEO techniques, performed at fair prices, to propel our clients to a larger audience. Our record speaks for itself.

free

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 02:06:09 +0000

Free Web Design Competition

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 02:12:06 +0000

Today we start our "Free Web Design Competition". We are asking for submissions through our Contact Page. Basically, we are asking for people to write to us a basic email explaining why your business would be best for us to give a full design and development to. The business with the best reason and most compelling story will be given a full site design including SEO Pack and up to 5 pages and 5 post. The rules are simple:" No Spamming Honest Story... Enjoy!!!!

magno2

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:55:35 +0000

magno

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:55:37 +0000

Latest work

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:56:22 +0000

In the past week, we have gotten much busier and are happy to announce the birth of a few websites. A new one to the group is for Distinctive Dentistry of Naperville. Their original site was lacking the back-bone needed to build a quality Natural SEO campaign. Seeing this, the teem offered to have us rebuild their site in Wordpress and to adopt directorie listing techniques t boost their site performance. Today the site was ready for personal launch. Much of it was based off of the Epsilon theme, but many changes had to be made to its code. The header had built-in scripting that was highly damaging to SEO value. There were other scripts throughout the php files that had to be either configured or completely replaced. While starting with a basic theme, one should always consider how useful the theme will be to completion. This one proved true to the task and we now have a working project for Dr Magno that we feel comfortable with sharing with our viewers. Please note, there will still be a lot of content changes and minor tweaks as we prepare this site to overtake its neighbors on the Google listings. Enjoy the before and afters: [gallery link="file" columns="2"]

seo-blog

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:13:12 +0000

Is an SEO Blog Worth it

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:14:22 +0000

Again, I'm reposting from a respected site. Since this is a design, business, and SEO blog site, this post is pertinent for both our purposes as wel as our clients. I'd like to give special thanks to Skitzzo at SEO for such an interesting and valid view of this subject. "When I first heard about search engine optimization, I was given a set of CD’s and tasked with learning how to bring traffic to a website from the search engines. While those CD’s helped educate me in the basics, it wasn’t until I stumbled across an SEO forum that I really started to learn the methods and tactics that produced results. Since that time, SEO blogs have become increasingly popular as the default place to learn the discipline. However, as search engines takes a more and more active roll in the community and SEO bloggers continue to publicly discuss previously untapped link sources, little known but effective methods, and conversations held in private, I’ve found myself asking a recurring question:" Is SEO blogging worth it? That question may seem obsurd, especially since it’s being posed on an SEO blog, but I think it’s an important question. Obviously blogging allows us to communicate with others in the same industry or profession. It allows us to share our knowledge with newcomers (as I said, this is essentially how I learned what has become my profession). And for some SEO bloggers, it attracts clients. Unfortunately, all of those benefits are not without their costs. Every time a blogger posts about a new place to obtain a free clean link, or reports a site selling links, or demonstrates how one of the search engines is being gamed, they are making every other SEOs job that much harder. The link source closes the loop hole, or the links are devalued by the search engines. The site selling links receives a penalty and the buyers lose value. The site being used to illustrate the point loses rankings, loses authority, or loses it’s competitive edge. The next time you come across a great source of free links, wouldn’t you be better served by using that information to improve your site’s or your client’s site’s rankings? Sure blogging it might bring you some attention and maybe even some links, but will a few extra subscribers benefit you as much as increased rankings would? Do you really get enough business from your blog that it would be more valuable to expose that link source than to use it to improve the quality of service you’re providing to your current clients? I realize many of these types of posts are written with the best of intentions, to achieve all of the benefits we mentioned earlier, but many times that’s not the end result. In this age of social media, interactive SEO courses, and cheaper and more frequent confrences or events, do we really need SEO blogs to achieve the benefits we’re seeking? Someone once told me that with every decision I need to ask myself whether or not the juice would be worth the squeeze. So I ask you, all you SEO bloggers out there, is SEO blogging really worth it?

ladder

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:43:23 +0000

On Your Own SEO

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:43:32 +0000

Below are seo tips covering the basic seo steps required for your website to get found in the natural search results Climbing your own ladder of SEO Success The first step when carrying out SEO on your website is to define which keywords or search terms you would like to be found under. We help you with the keyword selection and you approve the final list of search terms you want to target for your seo campaign. Keyword sources generally tend to include search tools such as Google adword keyword checker, overture and obvious keywords relative to your business. Most clients generally tend to already have an idea what they need to target for the SEO campaign and we elaborate further using the seo tools provided by Google. Keyword selection is imperative for SEO and can often decide how effective your seo promotion will be long term. If the right keywords are targeted you will receive better conversions through your website. Second seo tip is keyword grouping Keyword grouping involves an analysis into the keywords which have been agreed you for the SEO package. This SEO process is to define which keywords are to be targeted on certain pages within your website. An old method many SEO companies use is to create a new page targeted for each keyword. Due to Google algorithm changes a more efficient way is to group keyword variations together and target these phrases across one optimized page. This reduces the risk of content repetition across a website which is essential for successful seo promotion. It is important to target key phrases on website pages with a relevant theme. For example if a keyword 'marketing' was optimized on a web page called 'web design', it will be a lot more difficult getting to page one in the organic search for 'marketing'. Try and call the web page a top phrase that variations can be written up in the body of text to compliment the web page name. Unique content is key for seo We create unique content based on the agreed keywords for your SEO campaign. The content generated is then placed onto relevant pages on your site. We ensure not to spam the keyword density of the keywords targeted as over optimizing can have an adverse affect on your search engine ranking. Unique content plays an important part in seo as should the content appear anywhere else on the internet Google refer to this as 'mirroring' and could result in no positioning depending on how much content is copied on your website. SEO tips for a web page layout There are areas with your web page layout to please the key terms you are targeting that makes your web page layout stronger than if they were not in place. These areas are titles tags, meta tag descriptions, meta tag keyword placements, alt tags, headers (h1 h2). Ensure you do not repeat yourself page to page when placing in the coding of your web pages. To be stronger than the competition it is essential that every page in your website reads differently. The more specific you are when implementing these seo techniques the easier it is not to repeat yourself. Backward linking is the seo tip that brings the whole seo process together Backward links are internal links and external links. Internal linking is favored by the search engine spiders as they know they can trust the source, your own website as opposed to external linking. External links are governed stringently now by Google due to all the link farms used by unethical programmers and the difficulty in governing them. To appear high in the search results is not about budget, it is about what clever seo techniques are implemented for your website. Backward keyword anchor text linking plays a fundamental part in your website appearing on page one in the natural search results. Website development is key for long term success in the search engines. Using the seo tips provided, you will need to keep adding new web pages, building folder structures around your targeted search terms and linking them together with the key phrases is key for seo to be a success. We explain in an 'easy to understand' way on all requirements. Visit our search engine optimization page to know what you can expect from Naper Design as a client.

Psychology of Colors

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:33:33 +0000

I have been doing a lot of research today into color psychology. I know, this is boring and repetitive, right? Actually, I find it quite fascinating how many people are printing and reproducing the exact same material and then telling others not to reproduce their work. It's obvious that someone's copying someone else, but hard to tell who. It should be known that I will never reproduce someone elses creative material without attributions being given to them for their intellectual property. Here is a story that seems the most valid and has been labeled as re-printable. I'm imagining they were one of the original authors, but then there are so many that are carbon copies that have "no-reprint" tags to them, it's hard to tell. Anyway, here is the article and additional links will be at the base. -Enjoy-

Web Design and the Psychology of Colors

Written by Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. Web design is not an easy task, especially if what you need is to create a business website in plain HTML, with a very simple layout, easy to navigate, fast loading and, above all, distinctive. To reach this purpose web designers don't have too many options. Typically all they can do is blend colors harmoniously to create an appealing website that combines attributes of simplicity and logic while providing valuable content. It is therefore important for any designer to know what colors mean and what subtle message hides within every tone. Red is the warmest color, passionate and energetic: the color of romance, love and enthusiasm. Red is attention grabbing, alarming or charming: a mixture of paradoxes feelings and sensations. A good web designer understands red and its power: he or she will know where to use this color, how much of red means sales, how much will just drive visitors away. Take a look around and note how red is used on a daily basis: sales tags are red, a red Ferrari is anyone's dream, a red rose is a passionate declaration of love, a red flag is often associated with war... Red is power, means power, inspires and motivates. As red, orange is warm, happy and full of life. It's the color of fire and light. Orange is usually used for websites related to the food industry, but it could also work for lamp manufacturers and other entrepreneurs from the light and energy areas. Yellow is a dual color. It's happy and inspiring but many people do associate it with cowardice and jealousy. Use it careful in web design, and never use it for fonts on a white background. Green means nature, purity and freshness. It symbolizes hope and growth. Usually companies selling herbal products, nutrients and cosmetics use a fresh green ? for example lime green ? to inspire their visitors. World class companies such as Yves Rocher or Garnier employ green a lot in their web design because they sell products based on natural plant extracts. Used in the wrong context, green might have negative connotations. Money is green ? too much green is often associated with greed or poison (Paris Green). Blue is a already a standard business-to-business color. Navy blue, or dark blue is used for business logos, business suits and so on. Even hospitals and health sites use blue for their design. Light blue symbolizes happiness and Heaven, while some shades of blue are depressing. Use blue carefully for web design. Violet is an exotic and royal color, associated with wealth, spirituality and meditation. It's rarely used in web design, because it takes real skill to combine with other colors. Web designers use it mostly for ads and banners, as it grabs attention and calls to action. White is not a color, but the manifestation of all colors as one. White is associated with purity, divinity, modesty and simplicity. For web design white is the ideal choice. However, although in life, white is complete, online it always needs to be completed with other colors. Finally, black means the absence of white and the absence of all colors. Although, generally speaking, black has negative meanings (death, mourning, sin) it is still a very elegant color and, combined with the right colors it can make a great enhancement to your website. Anyway... you probably use black as the color of the fonts. A great supporting article from Wynn Wilder; a Website Psychologist and owner of Critical Thinking. And below is an article that looks like a carbon copy, but didn't want anyone copying them.... Ironic Much The Meaning and Psychology of Colors

Synesketch_big

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:43:10 +0000

s7

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:27:54 +0000

Some SEO Companies Aren't Protecting Their Own

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:30:32 +0000

[caption id="attachment_706" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Feeling lost in the crowd?"][/caption] Are you getting ripped off by your SEO and SEM Provider? Have you found yourself paying an exorbitant amount for SEO only to find that the company you've hired to handle your optimization is working for your competition as well? Has this left you feeling lost in the crowd of your fellow competitors? If you've never considered this, you should. Many SEO and SEM groups will cater to a specific market without regard to their actual clients. From even the most basic perspective, this is counterproductive. If you are trying to get higher in the ranks than your opponent(and they trying to get higher than you), ho wins with you both competing at the same optimization vendor?... That's Right! The vendor wins twice! With both of you paying for his services, the effective outcome is for both clients to dole out more money and resources than needed and have a virtual stalemate as a result. Unfortunately, this is one of the main reasons people are left with a bitter taste in their mouths about SEO. I'm writing this post today in response to a SPAM comment left on our site. It read "why not handle your own SEO before telling others about it?'. I did some further research of the IP and found that it was written by an individual upset with the progress we've made with one of his former clients page rank. I can understand that there may be some frustration with a competing group giving better results to his former client, but I don't think he understands why. At Naper Design, we have chosen to only handle One Customer, Per Industry, Per Location. We have only one Dentist in Naperville that we impart SEO for, There is only on Interior Designer in the Naperville area that we are employed by. Yes, this does limit our clientele, but the reward is worth it. Not only are we relieved of the burden of apposing clients, our portfolio shows a dedicated practice to a satisfied client. Like all sales, marketing, and business, everything comes down to a simple questions:

Will I provide the best quality service to a long term and valued client, or will I grab a mass of clients I don't care about and give them sub-par results?

When we began Naper Design, it started as a community oriented and group development project. We never knew we were going to make a company out of an organization of people who enjoy working with others. Now that we find ourselves competing with organizations in a higher level, we may decide to perch at the level we have obtained. While that limits our ability at growth, we don't have to become the scoundrels that pit client against client for a financial windfall. We cannot emphasize enough the need to ensure that your SEO group have your best interest at heart. If you find that you are only paying to the same group as your competition, one of you might wish to move to a different vendor. Otherwise, both of you are likely to lose. Now that this rambling is complete, I'm quite anxious to see the angered SPAM from my own competitors. I may actually let their post through this time.

Biggest-SEO-Scam

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:36:45 +0000

Follow-Up on Client Protection and Care

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:37:07 +0000

I have been away from the key-board for a few days. I was asked to help a few friend re-roof a house in Bolingbrook, Illinois. A word of advice: if a friend ask you to help put up a new roof, ensure he is on the roof helping as well. He's asked me to help with another house here in Naperville, but this time I think I'll be a bit to busy to join. I wanted to follow-up on my most recent post. The responses to Some SEO Companies Aren’t Protecting Their Own brought so much good communication and received enough interaction to be revisited once more. A comment made to this post was key:

"Shane Gray on Saturday 3, 2009

Christian, Good topic. On the whole this was a well thought out and highly relevant piece. I have some more specific comments but they are sort of off topic and ask that you email me for a more thorough reply. It is a pressing issue you present. One of my first ever jobs was making bagels in a small family owned bakery at the end of a strip mall. The business went under because the new owner of the strip mall refused to honor the no competition clause from the previous landlord and allowed a Dunkin Donuts to open at the other end of the strip mall. What you present is the digital version of the same greedy and irresponsible behavior." We've met with several large SEO Groups in the Chicago and Naperville area recently and have been given feedback that would make some cringe. They were highly upset that we were letting people in on the dirty secret of the SEO market. From this posting, many thought that we had broken some unwritten code that all SEO groups should never tell the customers the truth about what we do. I'd like to make it very clear that there is no secret handshake or code that we have with other groups and that all of our loyalties are entrusted with our customers, not our fellow marketers.

If your SEO and SEM group will not sign a "No Compete", you may wish to move on to those who will. While this is not needed in all cases, for a local marketing campaign, it should be considered a key to success. Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization are of no use if your Marketer is working for both you and your competition. In Naperville, this has been happening far to often and is taking away from the ability of competing sites to actually compete. The most recent meeting we had was with a gentleman who claimed that his system would democratically rotate his clients through the top pages and spread the wealth of business throughout all of them. Many businesses who employ him have no idea that this is even occurring. The customer only knows that they are paying to be listed on the top pages of the search engines. Why pay for competitive marketing when there's no competition? Anyone who thinks that SEO and SEM is not competitive marketing is gravely mistaken; were it not, it wouldn't be worth as much in cost and value as it has been elevated to. Again, I've ranted and rambled throughout this entire post, but the message and points made are key to ensuring quality customer support. If your SEO or SEM group is not offering a "No Compete Contract" you may being throwing your money and potential business into a burn pit. Consider how much time and money you will likely invest into a quality SEO and SEM campaign; do you really want it to be given to a group that will be supporting your competitors with the same if not more interest than your own. Please forgive the rant appeal of these two post, but for me it is still a sore issue that has a bitter consequence.

phrase-identification

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 01:03:07 +0000

SEO Through Algorithm

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 01:35:16 +0000

Today I was approached by someone in Naperville that swore they had found the secrets to all of Google's Algorithm. I am not one to be so distrusting of people, but this statement is always a Red Flag that something is wrong. There are several reasons to never believe that anyone alive has completely solved Google's constantly, changing Algorithm. It would also be safe to say, that anyone who eer could would not be working in a No Name SEO group in Naperville, Illinois. Here are just a few reasons why no single individual can solve for this Massive Equation.

It is a Massive Equation. The last best estimate assumes over 250 separate and distinguished parameters involved in the monstrous equation. It's simply inconceivable that any lone person can at any time make the calculations needed to outsmart a constantly evolving AI.
It is an AI. While there is a dedicated team of engineers who devote their entire careers to this Algorithm, Google Bot and the Database behind it is running more of itself than external control. With this scenario in place, there's no way that any SEO expert, in Naperville or anywhere else in the world, could conceptualize every move this AI will move to next.
While we know some of Basic Criteria that are factored into the ranking system of the Google Algorithm, SEO in any form is limited by the fact that some of it will always be a misnomer. Certain Criteria are known, but their weight can change on a very(and sometimes daily) basis.
SEO for Google can be a daily event. Google's Algorithm has been known to change variables more than once within the same day. While major updates usually happen every 1-3 months, the system is making constant small adjustments. It's not feasible to collate that much data and determine ranking to the most finite detail.

There is some Good News though: So far in this post, I have been bashing some guy in Naperville who thought he'd found the Holy Grail of SEO. While I seriously doubt that he thought before speaking, there's hope for him to end up ok. We do know some of the basic building blocks that the Algorithm looks for.

Domain- Domain naming and SEO through domain have a direct influence on what page you will come up if they match the specific keywords being searched for. This is the "No-Brainer" of SEO. Last week I noticed we did not have the number 1 slot in Google for the keyword "Naperville SEO". The reason is that someone had set up a site with the matching url while I missed my chance to purchase it. In passing up this option, the Google Algorithm immediately launched them to the top slot. This will not complete the puzzle for him though. While simple changes such as Domain and Url manipulation can help with a giant and almost immediate boost, they have no chance without durable SEO work to back them up. I have no doubt that we will again take the first slot for the search terms "Naperville SEO" because he has done nothing more to improve the site.
Linking- Inbound links from established and reputable sites is a necessity for anyone wishing to improve their site recognition, traffic, and if it matters to you, Page Rank. Page Rank is not exactly something I care about, but what it symbolizes is. The placement of quality links on informative sites will mean more traffic to your site. The Page Rank is just an added bonus that can only be seen in the rear view. Having links from high Page Rank sites will improve your ranking to an extent, but having many, many links from across many, many spectrum of the internet, will heighten the chances that visitors will find your site. Ultimately, why are your links out there? Do you wish to have a vanity trophy of Page Rank, or are you more concerned with building quality traffic and elevation in the SERPS?
Content- If you aren't giving quality time and effort to your written content, you are not going to receive the ranking you could from the search engines. There are many services now that will even write your content for you. Here in Naperville, and throughout the entire Chicago are, there are businesses of writers that do nothing but write content for Website SEO. This is becoming a highly specialized career field and is one of the few areas of job growth for good and thoughtful writers.
Have Fun- If you are working your own SEO, have fun with it. If you've taken on the task of maintaining your own SEO, enjoy the experience. The good and the bad moments can be entertaining, but if it becomes a beast of burden, turn it over to someone that can take on the challenge. Ensure that they know what they are doing as well.

Those of us who build SEO for a living are usually willing to offer advice or point someone in the right direction if asked. As is, the one SEO "expert" that should not be trusted is the one who is unwilling to at least offer direction to those seeking it. We don't give away the Keys to the Castle, but a SEO Engineer is usually willing to point the way. That being said. Here is a list of the top 25 SEO Blogs as defined by Daily Blog Tips. -Enjoy-

#1	Search Engine Land
#2	SEOBook
#3	SEO Moz
#4	Matt Cutts
#5	Search Engine Watch
#6	Search Engine Roundtable
#7	Search Engine Journal
#8	Online Marketing Blog
#9	Pronet Advertising
#10	Marketing Pilgrim
#11	SEO Chat
#12	Search Engine Guide
#13	SEO Blackhat
#14	Stuntdubl
#15	Graywolf’s SEO
#16	SEO by the SEA
#17	Link Building Blog
#18	Jim Boykin
#19	SEOpedia
#20	DaveN
#21	Bruce Clay
#22	Blue Hat SEO
#23	Tropical SEO
#24	SEO Refugee
#25	Small Business SEM

sample

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:53:53 +0000

sample1

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:53:54 +0000

sample2

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:53:55 +0000

New Website Builder at Intuit

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:00:49 +0000

For years now, Intuit has been a shining star to many small businesses because of its highly acclaimed TurboTax, Quicken, and Quick-Books software. I myself have been an avid user of their small business tools and have enjoyed the time it saves with handling budgets, bills and payrolls.

Recently, Intuit began a major push for their new website building software and I thought I'd give it a shot. If it's better than Go-Daddy's horrid "Website Tonight" software, that would be a great improvement for businesses beginning a web footprint. I've decided to break down my critique of their builder into three basic categories for this assessment. There are certainly other criteria that could be used, but I would likely write much more than anyone would be willing to read. After discussing the criteria, we will make a founded assessment of the value vs cost of their development price. The three categories we will discuss are for design structure, code development, and what SEO and SEM their builds enable a site with. We'll use a scoring method of 1 to 10 with 1 equaling Go Daddy's Website Tonight and 10 equaling a Free Wordpress Theme.

Design

Score= 4

First of all, their design structure, while a bit cliche, is one of the first autobuilder formats that has some decent design structure to their templates. That being said, these are templates and will not move far. Of the ~2000 templates they have, there are only about 100 that are really going to get peoples attention. Of these 100 templates, take a guess at how many times each one will be recycled continuously across the internet. On the positive side, the builder does allow you to tweak certain aspects and containers of each template to allow for some impression of originality on your site. This will help to an extent, but eventually there will be repition of your site throughout your market and maybe even your direct competitors. While far better than the templates that most autobuilders use, there's still a lot to be desired here.

Code Development

Score= 7

Some of you familiar with their templates are going to be scratching your heads after seeing a score of 7 on this one. Yes, it may be a little high for legacy HTML, but there is a good reason behind this thought.

They're using Quality CSS and don't have tons of tables being shot out at your browser. If familiar with other autobuilders, you understand that the majority of their build are conducted in long and dirty table design. The CSS in the Intuit sites are actually decent. Anyone hoping to see PHP within their listings, hope you can find one, but after and hour of search and reading "index.html" as many times as I did, it was apparent that there are no PHP driven sites within their selection. This means that there is less functionality available through these sites, but if you're using them, you probably don't even notice. All in all though, the HTML is written well for template use and the CSS is clean enough to earn an 8 in this category.

SEO and SEM

Score=2

Ok, here is the category that hurts them. While it was hard to find any sites built with this tool(besides spend money and make one), I was able to find a few that we could run through website. grader from Hubspot. The sites saw a "Best Ranking" of 30. At no point in my life has a score of 30 been a passing grade. The same occurred when running it through the tools on SEOmoz(know some of you hate them, but they have easy tools). There's simply no excuse for a website builder that will leave a client with a site of limited ability and still be published mainly through PPC style advertising. If there is any suggestion for Intuit, or specifically people thinking of using there site builder, it would be that there needs to be more focus within the code structure to benefit the customer needs. If you are looking for a website that allows people to find your business and not just a vanity plate to put on a business card, avoid this builder as well.

Final Score= 4.3

While Some of my fellow designers will vehemently disagree with my assessment, I think it's like to be the best summarized review that could be offered. It should be mentioned as well, that this is only a grade of the Starter system, since that's the one being offered for $4.99/month(while the only one with the tools needed for business cost $49.99/month). The problem with the price is the "Bait and Switch". If we look at the pricing table, it becomes apparent that this is not the fantastic deal that they make it out to be in the commercial(imagine that happening). Here are there price columns per service.

As you can see, there's not much you're getting for their advertised $4.99/month or even for their Cadillac Package that could legitimize this site build being used for a long period of time. It is understandable that some businesses must use one of these auto builders to get started, but it should only be a temp fix. These should not be used over six months at max; otherwise, it becomes a money pit instead of a money producer. A quality CMS system built for your business will save you money in the long-run, and will do more for your income as well...

not worth it

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:02:49 +0000

party-balloons-275x300

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:16:06 +0000

Officially A Business

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:16:17 +0000

While it may be small potatoes to some, Naper Design is now an officially recognized business in the eyes of the IRS. We filed for and received our EIN today and will be submitting our Articles of Incorporation within the next month. The new customers we have been receiving and the welcomed response to our product and work ethic have ensured that we are a business that will stand the test. We'd like to especially thank all of our clients for the continued increase in business and networking. The referal business is a testiment to the qualiity of clients that we have been continuing to enjoy. Thank you, and we look forward to moving forward with the full marketing potential of Naperville SEO Inc, Naper Design and Naperville Strategic Marketing

Free Website for Non-Profit

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:23:24 +0000

Today, Brett and I had a moment of clarity. We've been learning and becoming strong with both design and structure of websites for some time now. We've built for companies and friends, but haven't had the chance to feel as though we've really given to our area as much as we'd wished. Because of this, we've offered and will be working with two seperate non-profit groups to donate a web design for a charitable cause. As artist at heart, we have the urge to bring vision to the world through our talents and abilities. In doing this, we are hoping that the groups will be able to have a greater reach to their audiences, and we gain the joy of giving back to our community. We believe that given the opportunity, we can all come together with our varied talents to help others around our community. For those in the Naperville, Aurora, and Chicago areas with suggestions for how to better use our talents to assist the community, we encourage your responses and correspondence. "We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if that drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. I do not agree with the big way of doing things."

-Mother Teresa-

nonprofit-main_Full

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:35:11 +0000

Naper Design to Partner with Naperville SEO Inc

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:32:55 +0000

Recently we were invited to partner with Naperville SEO Inc. with their virgin movement in the Chicago Suburbs. While there are several groups apparently wanting to refer to themselves by this name, there is only one recognized as having this title by the IRS and the State of Illinois. Naperville SEO just began launching the site http://naperville-seo.com and has asked us to complete their design now that they have built much of their source code. It is a great honor and privilege to be working with them and look forward to this shared partnership and the rewards it brings for us and our customers.

NCHS_Seal_-_Staff_pin

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:35:08 +0000

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Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:26:48 +0000

Free Web Directory

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:27:03 +0000

We are adding a free web directory to the assorted list of tools used by Naper Design. When focusing on web design, it is imperative to ensure that the website built has the opportunity to be seen. Our web design practice has been blessed in the last few months with several good clients and a network of fellow web designers who are coming together to make a greater impact on this area. As a result of these new networks and contacts, and an increasing desire for our web design to be seen by more, we have worked with Naperville SEO Inc to build our fist free directory at the Naperville Business Directory. There will be more coming in future days and we will be designing them more completely to function with a more vast community across the web. Again, we are incredibly grateful for the web design and development opportunities that have presented themselves this year. With the addition of these sites, we will move forward into the new year with a more broad outreach for our clients. Please register your business with us, regardless if we maintain your website or not. Our goal is to ensure that all small businesses in Naperville have the opportunity to be seen.

chibiz

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:39:14 +0000

Chicago Business Directory

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:45:19 +0000

It's official.!!! We are launching the Chicago Business Directory this evening. Yes, it needs some styling and work.... We Know!, but that's OK. All in good time, right? For now, we are just very excited to turn this next corner in the developement of our business and its sponsors. If you know a local business that needs some added exposure, please have them contact us today. The first 10 businesses that register for free will be given Featured Listings for free for the next 6 mons. This is all in an effort to get the word out and will hopefully get the excitement up for everyone. Again, a lot of thanks to Naperville SEO Inc and Naperville Strategic Marketing for their concepts and ideas.

Blog

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:35:16 +0000

here's the blog on web design in Naperville

Services

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:38:48 +0000

Bringing Naperville Web Design to a new level of quality.

In the past, web design was held by a class system that was usually only available to the most highly educated programmers and coders. Within Naperville and Oswego we found this to be the local standard. In recent years, various forms of content management software have arrived to allow site owners to manage their own website. These Content Management Systems (CMS) have been a welcomed change for any business that wishes to update their website on regular basis. Regular updates to a site produce better traffic, better customer service interaction, and better Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Along with other CMS programming, Wordpress was born to the blogosphere. While initially intended only for blogs, Wordpress has become just as powerful a CMS as any out there. Along with its powerful abilities to manage content, Wordpress is inherently built for SEO. With the ability to update content easily and interact with others, Wordpress is becoming the best way to reach customers and clients of the Illinois and Naperville Web Design and SEO Marketing Community. With such a powerful tool available to web developers, it is interesting that it has been used little in the West Chicago area. There are certainly other great programs to be used to develop and optimize a website. It is not the purpose or mission of this site to diminish sites built on other programming. What we offer is an affordable site that is easily able to compete with sites built in highly priced programming. We are now live and open to service customer needs within the West Suburbs of Chicago. We are based in Oswego Illinois, but are accessible all of Northern Illinois. Feel free to contact us and comment on the work we’ve provided. While we will also be focusing on Chicago SEO and Web Design, our greatest efforts will be in the Naperville Design community. Please see our Pricing page for more information on packages and pricing. While there are countless host out there that we respect: Is by far our favorite. They have some of the best tech support, and have such fast servers. We’re listed in Oswego web design services section of Illinois web design services directory at Finders – US web design directory Areas and Services: Naperville Web Design and Search Engine Optimization(SEO), Search Engine Marketing(SEM), E-Commerce Design and Development, Internet Marketing, Wordpress CMS Chicago Web Design and Search Engine Optimization(SEO), Search Engine Marketing(SEM), E-Commerce Design and Development, Internet Marketing, Wordpress CMS

Naperville web design specialist

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:28:22 +0000

When it comes to web site design and development, You want your business, non-profit, or ministry web site to reflect the quality and credibility that you have worked to achieve. You want the same image from your employees, and potential and existing customers and your web site. You want to portray the professionalism it takes to meet your client’s needs through your web site design, development, and Search Engine Marketing. Naper Design-Naperville Web Desin does not solely focus on web site design and development, but takes into account the factors that can cause your website audience to purchase or not participate in your products or services. This is what sets us apart from other web site design companies, and benefits you as the person looking for a new way to market your services.

Local Business Comments

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:20:32 +0000

Recently, there was a disagreement in practice of how to properly utilize Google Maps for Local Business. This disagreement stemmed from an unfortunate practice that is making the service less and less reliable. For some time now, businesses in general have been leaving their own string of positive statements on the optional commenting spaces. This is problematic in quite a few ways,and can lead to a negative response from those in web design, SEO, and the general public. While looking through the site index of our business listing, I came across several negative remarks that were coming from a group of people who were also commenting positively about a similar business within the local area. As a web designer, I always make it a point to not speak negatively of our competitors, and in most cases, I'll not comments at all on their business unless they are the very best in the field. After reading a few of the comments, it was apparent that they were coming from someone associated with the business and from the same individual. This persons business had roughly 20 "positive" comments about their business, but had not made the effort to ensure that they weren't noticeably written by the same individual. Inevitably, another web designer began making fun of the scenario. This is where the self serving positive comment become a nightmare for multiple businesses. For reasons unknown, this business owner began raging against his competitors, Naper Design included. Since we focus on both Web Design and SEO, he assumed that all of the joking statements must be coming from our team. Admittedly, we did have a few clients who were less than kind with their responses to his form of deception, but he only took this to mean that we were involved. His response was to post this laundry list of negative statements about our company to the point that he'd committed slander and defamation of character. The situation was resolved with the assurance of our strong legal teams ability to sue him, and the comments were removed within just a few minutes(proving they had been written all by him). He still maintains a large list of fake comments on his page, and assuredly, others will likely continue to make light of the shady business practice. I referred to it as "shady business practice". I did son because that's exactly what it is. When afforded the chance to have clients give feedback, both positive and negative, some businesses will immediately begin writing comment after comment about their own business to appear more user friendly. While this is not one of the more hanus actions a business can commit, it is one of deception and can be easily dtected by those reading the responses. If the comments are written in the same style and manner, if they are written in a way that shows the same character, and if they are in the same vernacular, it becomes obvious to the reader that they have been forged by one single individual. While this situation has been resolved, multiple businesses have sustained damage to their credibility and are working hard to repair the damages made by these actions. As a web designer, credibility is something that has to be earned, not self stamped within a comment field. If found to be untrue or being decptive in ones actions, a web design company can lose all of its business and clients from just such an action. I don't wish for this competing business to go under and hope for their recuperation after these recent events, but I do hope that they learn to not make such blatant attempts at manipulating the system. The web design community may be competitive, but that doesn't prevent us from being both civil and cooperative.

google-business-card

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:24:50 +0000

Is your site out of date?

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:46:37 +0000

When dealing with our clients and giving consultations, we are often asked, "how often should we update our site?" This is not a pointless or easy question to answer. Often there are many considerations to be made to find the correct answer for the site owner. We consider a variety of criteria to decide what the proper choice should be for each individual site. In this post, we're going to share the top five questions used to determine the need and frequency of site updates and revisions of web design needed to keep the site up to par. 1. What do your customers and site visitors know you for? To some this may seem like an unlikely question to start with, but it really needs to be the basis of all choices with web design. Like a logo, letterhead, and all print media associated with a company, a site can be a major branding for the basis of client recognition. If the website design is one recognized by the readers, it may cause a negative response to make a massive change in the way it's is read. Likewise, if the website is the weaker link of media associated with the company, it will need to be designed in a way to compliment the company and its preexisting media. While content will always reign supreme to the search engines, genuine viewership is still the ultimate goal of a website. 2. Is this a vanity website or one meant for inbound marketing? Ok, we've talked about this before and heard negative response for the choice term "vanity site", but it is what it is. It's not a negative or positive statement about a website to call it a vanity site. If the only purpose of your website is to have one to be followed off of a business card, then you may not be concerned with how the site looks on a regular basis. The use of these sites, while decreasing, is still common enough to be asked when deciding web design criteria. It may not be in the interest of the site owner to have frequent and extensive web design if the website is only to be viewed by a select group of people. Often major web design updates are associated with a website that is trying to build and convert newer and inbound traffic instead of regulated and specific visitors. 3. Much like the last question, what is the site to do for you and your business? It's very difficult to design a website or revise one when there is no clear goal to be set. Some view web design in the same way they would view making a pamphlet or Power Point slide-show. Those who have experienced a bad design have found that web development and web design are key to converting visitors into regular viewers. If a site is meant to be informative in a serious manner, but looks like something of a comical nature, viewers will be confused.(one more reason to stop using Comic Sans) The website design must match the content for readers to truly appreciate it without confusion or blatant distaste. While there are still debates of how much psychological responses to a design can be felt, there is a consensus that they do impact readership. Bringing the design of your site in line with the theme of its content will ensure that readers are left with an accurate interpretation of the content meaning. 4. Code, Code, Code!!!! If your website is still trudging away on legacy HTML with tables, it may be a good time to consider moving to a better framework. Table usage in websites was never meant to progress to the levels that it did. They were invented for simple actions, but after some time, were being manipulated to design all aspects of site layout. With the advent of CSS, these tables are no longer needed in such long and drawn out lines of code. Your website can move more efficiently, be designed in a better and cleaner way, and... Oh Yeah, the search engines will appreciate it. 5. HTML or PHP It would also be good after asking the previous questions to determine if the HTML in your website should be replaced with PHP. Whether using a database driven CMS like Joomla, Xoops, Drupal and Wordpress, or just wanting a basic PHP scipted website, you'll be able to more easily updated for content. Regular updates can be helpful to sites that aim to offer newer information to viewers on a regular basis. It would be good to know before making any site changes to know how often content would need updated. Be aware that if you should choose to remain with older framework, even content updates will have their cost. If the page is to stay static, this shouldn't be a problem and it may be a waste of funds to do a complete update of the code.

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Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:49:38 +0000

Mission Continued

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 07:23:20 +0000

Custom Design While there are many open source themes for any form of web build, most people want more out their website than a picture on a screen. With the use of styling with CSS, optimizing the sites code for better navigation, ensuring that you are fully equipped with the means to update your own content, we ensure that you receive the most helpful and marketable website for your cause. SEO While we offer several different packages for SEO, there are basic principles included with every site we build. The inclusion custom keywords, Mete Tags, an RSS Feed, and field data being filled in on your site, enables you to bring a site to a higher level of traffic. Obviously, there are many other factors involved in optimizing a site for search engines, but we also include many of these tips while training our clients to use their sites. Site Usage Site usage is critical. The old way of doing things included buying a website and never doing more than answering a couple of emails, or paying a developer to update it when needed. CMS, in our case Wordpress, allows you to update and change content information on your site whenever you need to do so. There is no real need for the revolving door to the web developers office now. With one build, your site can be updated and updateable for some time to come. Pricing We do not mention pricing on this website for a reason. With every customer being an individual, we believe in making attempts to fulfill your individual needs. While some designers will claim bargain pricing and one stop shopping, we've found that this usually results in the customer receiving a site that either isn't what they wanted, is lacking the aspects of a good site, or both. Instead, we prefer to meet with our clients directly for a free conversation. This personal meeting allows for a realistic and fair estimate to be made for a site build. Highly Styled Power Point Presentation For many companies, PowerPoint is still the standard for presentation and marketing seminars. We offer custom built PowerPoint sideshows and movies to fulfill you meeting and convention needs. Contact Us For the opportunity to meet and receive your free estimate, please Contact Us to schedule an appointment.

Page #1

Web 2.0

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:50:02 +0000

You may ask, what does it really mean? For the answer, you'll actually be requiring a few different descriptions. Many people use the term "Web 2.0" to describe:

a resurgence in the web economy
a new level of technological interactivity between web sites and services
or social phenomena deriving from new types of online communities and social networks

Many others also use the term in reference to a recent school of web design. I'm comfortable with using it in that context here. In sociological terms, movements impact people on many levels: economic, cultural, political, etc. Is skate-punk about entertainment and sport, music and the music industry, fashion, or the breakdown of society? We like to keep it simple in the respect to the new and cutting edge methods of design, but with respect to the basics of a website:

Web sites have goals and all web pages have purposes.
Users' attention is a finite resource.
It's the designer's job to help users to find what they want (or to notice what the site wants them to notice)
Stuff on the screen attracts the eye. The more stuff there is, the more different things there are to notice, and the less likely a user is to notice the important stuff.
So we need to enable certain communication, and we also need to minimise noise. That means we need to find a solution that's does its stuff with as little as possible. That's economy, or simplicity.

We build with all of the descriptive aspects of Web 2.0to ensure that your website is ready to achieve the basic needs of your business and clients. Please view any of these services for more information on our many design packages:

images

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 05:24:37 +0000

Free Website Analysis

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 05:25:24 +0000

Is your website at its optimum performance? Does it bring you business and clients?

In Naperville, we have found a home and community that has been quite good to us. In looking for ways to give back to the area(including Chicago and Aurora), we decided to offer web analysis to any business owner for free. This special is being offered through the spring for any business located within Naperville, Aurora and the Chicago Metro Area. We will evaluate your website and ensure that it is providing peak performance for your business. Our staff will use their years of dedicated experience to measure how effective your web design, web traffic, and conversion rates; and ensure that they are in keeping with your business model.

We will conduct our evaluation in typical After Action Review standards.

Keep----->Sustain All aspects of your web presence that are positive

Lose------>Improve Portions of your website that may require improvement.

Remember, the website, and your web design are supposed to "work for you", not the other way around. Our suggestions and rating system will enable your business to find the most beneficial and efficient way to increase your web presence, for the least amount of time and money.

We offer no charge and no pressure, only a desire to interact with our neighbors in the Naperville, Aurora, and Chicago Metro Area. Feel free to submit your website to us for a free evaluation, and we'll be glad to offer our free analysis to improve your web presence.

Designing in the "New" Naperville

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:31:48 +0000

While many in the City of Naperville jokingly refer to themselves as "Napervillians", the area is considered one of the finest to live and raise a family. The area is filled with entrepreneurs and families from the population boom of the 90's. They are gifted with one of the lowest crime rates and highest public education systems in the entire country. Because of the, and many more positive aspects of the area, Naperville has become a thriving market for capital investment and small businesses to make their marks. Along with business headquarters moving to Naperville, marketing firms have grown by leaps with the surrounding area. For many years, there were only a handful of graphic and web designers in the area. Web design in Naperville was a decision made on lack of options. Even recently, independent web designers just began to make a name for themselves in the area. Most of the web design and development for all of Illinois was being maintained out of Chicago or Oswego. Five agencies did 95% of all design and maintenance for the businesses who are now part of the community. It shouldn't be shocking that most businesses who have been here for some time, have websites that look alike and have no real distinguishing characteristics. With a lack of major competition, the web designers and developers that were here, got complacent and would typically make sites that mirrored even the clients competitor. As a result, Naperville has now opened up as one of the best markets for the design and develop of website services. Although there are still a lot of "basement hosting groups" here, it has gotten considerably better with the infusion of hard working Freelancers in the area. The hosting companies with "Auto Builders" are becoming less trusted because of their obvious attempts and successes at preying on their customers; Freelancers have made a difference here as well. At last count, there were over 100 freelance web designers just within the city boundaries of Naperville and another 150 in Aurora. This added amount of competition has enabled the area to introduce higher quality websites than were previously available. The price for high quality design has also normalized from the days here a select few ran the books. The recent changes in the market have evened the playing field. Web Design companies that had massive overhead at their clients expense are going under. The freelancers and small businesses are surviving and becoming more trusted due to their ability to survive on their humble status. The prices for a good site have become realistic. Instead of a local Steel Company that paid $15,000 for a pitiful 8 page HTML site, now designers locally are charging based on work and experience. I hope that it doesn't come across as though I'm excited about the way the markets have fallen. I understand a lot of people, including myself, have lived through a lot of suffering this economy has left us with. It is on the way to recovery, but it is coming slowly and there will be more to weather. The economic downturn has hurt business, but maybe it can be a functional way of resetting the clock. Even in these tougher times, it's becoming a better experience to be a web designer in the city of Naperville. Naper Design in Naperville, IL

site

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 21:42:49 +0000

Breakfast Menu

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:26:18 +0000

Here will be ther Breakfast Menu. s s ss s s s s s s s ss s

Best Web Design Venue

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:28:13 +0000

Our favorite place to work tends to be coffee shops and delicatessens. In all of the chaos and varying conversations, we can get lost in the work at hand. One particular place that we've come to enjoy more than most is the Atlanta Bread Company in Warrenville, Illinois. Since this franchise is family run, the atmosphere is not only welcoming, but quite inclusive and friendly. The kindness, the artistic fervor, and the immersion within a flowing sea of people coming and going actually makes for our most productive work environment. The families that manage and own the store are some of the first people I met when moving to Illinois. I have a large amount of gratitude for the kindness they showed me when arriving here and when we came back to Naperville this past spring. They have welcomed us and our clients into their establishment and given us a warm environment to conduct our business meetings and web design presentations. Artist tend to flock to the "Bread" as well. On any given night there will be some form of artistic group that is having a meeting at their location. There are women who stitch on one night, trading card women on another, painters discussing canvasses, and many other niche artisans who wish to meet and share their talents. For those familiar with the area, Naperville and Warrenville aren't exactly thought of as Art Mecca's, but within the Atlanta Bread, there is an exception that is a pleasant change for the Chicago Suburbs. Lastly, the absolute chaos of a busy lunch cycle completes our A.D.D. persona and elevates our productivity. We tend to get more accomplished in a two hour rush at a coffee shop, than in eight hours of quiet within our on office. we're going to post a lot more on this in coming weeks. There's just an odd correlation between our better work performance and the amount of interactions taking place at the same time. We'll be posting more about our favorite working environments in the weeks to come, but at this moment Atlanta Bread is our favorite local coffee shop for web design and seo meetings and work.

abc_logo_0

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:26:31 +0000

Bigger and Better

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:34:35 +0000

Hello world!

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:31:50 +0000

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

wordpress.2010-02-01.xml_.txt

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:33:54 +0000

http://naperdesign.com/naper222/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/wordpress.2010-02-01.xml_.txt

flur

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:56:15 +0000

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Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:13:35 +0000

Our Process test

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:12:25 +0000

Website Design Getting you online, in style – this is our goal and our pride.	Marketing Big or small, we know how to take your product and spread the word.	Search Engine Optimization Optimize your potential by maximizing search engine capability. We can help.	Branding & Identity Get a head start; let us help you create your own, identifiable brand.
view more »	view more »	view more »	view more »

Development

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:28:50 +0000

PHP Development

At Naper Design, PHP Development has been made very much cost effective meeting your target business requirement with quality enrichment. read more »

Services

Vast array of Services include open source development to Microsoft .Net technology for your various business needs up to the maximum benefits. read more »

Web 2.0 Development

Web 2.0 Development has become very affordable at Naper Design, facilitating your maximum benefits in terms of cost and quality. read more »

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Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:12:53 +0000

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Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:07:38 +0000

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