Author - sicksens

Designing in the "New" Naperville

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.hidden links 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
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Designing in the “New” Naperville

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.hidden links 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
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Free Website Analysis

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.hidden links  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.

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Is your site out of date?

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. hidden links 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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Local Business Comments

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.  hidden linksThis 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.
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Chicago Business Directory

It's official.!!! We are launching the Chicago Business Directory this evening.hidden links 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 development 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.
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Free Web Directory

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.
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Naper Design to Partner with Naperville SEO Inc

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.hidden links
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Free Website for Non-Profit

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 separate non-profit groups to donate a web design for a charitable cause.hidden links 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-

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Officially A Business

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.hidden links party-balloons-275x300 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 IncNaper Design and Naperville Strategic Marketing
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New Website Builder at Intuit

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 allownot worth it 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...

hidden links
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SEO Through Algorithm

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. hidden links Here are just a few reasons why no single individual can solve for this Massive Equation.
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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:phrase-identification 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.
  1. 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.
  2. 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?
  3. 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.
  4. 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
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