Tag - naperville web Design

29Aug

Make Sure your Chicago Area Small Business is found on Google| Small Business SEO

You may have recently decided to dedicate a lot of effort and resources to get your website discovered. However, if the website has poor quality and lacks vital information, then it can have an adverse effect on your small business. In order to ensure your small business is found in Google(or Bing and Yahoo for that matter), you will need to be search engine friendly.  It’s also important that you provide content that’s persuasive and valuable for your potential client. Here are a few SEO tips to help enhance your visibility on Google: Being Found In Google Use Catchy Titles & Descriptions: Make sure each page has a ‘catchy’ title. It should include at least one relevant keyword. Your Meta tag descriptions should also include a keyword. It should also summarize what your web page is about. You’ll want to include a call-to-action. The key is to persuade people to click onto your website for further information. Use Relevant Keywords & Keyword Phrases: Always use the right keywords. You’ll want to use the keywords that your target audience is actually using to find your product or service. A web design company in Naperville or Chicago that offers SEO services can conduct an extensive keyword search and find the most popular keywords in your niche. Stuffing keywords in that don't have any relevant position to the page topic, or flood the page with useless info is a great way to be punished by the Google gods. Be Social Make sure you can be found on the social media sites that your audience is hanging out. It’s not necessary to sign up for every site. Simply sign up where the majority of your audience is hanging out at. For example, if you find out your target audience is hanging out at Foursquare, Facebook and Google+, you’ll want to make yourself available on those networks. Don’t forget to add the link of your website to your social media accounts, not only for the search engines, but so people can find you. Social Media traffic is one of the most dedicated driving forces of the internet today; ignoring it would be ignoring your businesses future. It’s important to understand that Google is constantly evolving. The key is to provide your visitors with a website that is not only well designed but a website that is relevant to the product or service you’re offering. Remember, Google is meant to function in a way that simulates the average person searching.  If you make your site more data-friendly to average users, it will also be friendly to Google. Contact us to find out more information about our Small Business SEO, web design, and development services. Naper  Design is a full-service web design and SEO company in Naperville offering mobile app development, website design & web development, mobile development and SEO services. 
By Marketing Methods, SEO, Social Media Marketing, Web Design, , , 0 Comments
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28Aug

Tips to Streamline Online Marketing Budgets

Marketing your business online to prospective customers doesn't have to cost a fortune. Often times, many people waste a lot of money with online marketing that doesn't produce the results they expect - mainly because they do not have a solid marketing strategy in place. In reality, you can experience good results with online marketing on a budget. Here are six effective tips: Tip #1:Your marketing strategy will never be lucrative if you don’t have an audience that is clearly defined. Before you spend a dime on marketing, first identify your prospective market. There is no need to pay top dollar to employ a prestigious market research firm. If you have knowledge of your product, then you should be able to identify the market yourself. Tip #2:You can determine what you’re looking to gain from marketing online, whether it is increased awareness or increased revenue. It is likely you’ll have various goals, but keep track of these multiple goals to measure your achievements. When you reach your initial goals, then you can set new goals for your company to reach success.   Our Naperville Web Design team can help you monitor and keep track of your marketing efforts with our various analytic tools. This will help you with growing your business. Tip #3:Once you are aware of who your target market is and have created goals, you can plan your budget appropriately. The best thing about marketing online is that you can be a success even on a tight budget. You can determine what outlets are the most valuable for your product and have the will to spend some dollars to achieve results. Tip #4:Set yourself apart from your competitors. There is a myriad of companies making an attempt to sell products online. Thus, you need to make your brand id notable. Naturally, this begins with a first-rate website. Our web design company in Naperville, will not only build an aesthetically pleasing website, we will create a website that’s mobile friendly and easy to navigate. Tip #5:Every business owner’s dream is to have his/her website displayed on the first results page of the search engine. This can be achieved with the proper use of relevant keywords, back-linking (white hat) and SEO friendly (and human friendly) Meta Tag titles and descriptions. Tip #6:Social media marketing can also help enhance your brand identity. It’s important that you provide your audience with valuable information that will persuade them to take action. This may include visiting your website or even sharing your content with their friends on various social media outlets. Also, your website, social media sites and marketing materials should complement each other. If you need help building a website or you need to enhance an existing website, our experienced Naperville Web Designers are here to help.  Contact us today or call: 630-803-8998.
By SEO, Social Media Marketing, Web Design, , , 0 Comments
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28Feb

5 Great Vector Design Tutorials

Today, we pay tribute to graphic designers and web designers who are good enough to share their vector techniques with the rest of us.  While many of these tutorials have been sited on other list, I find that any grouping over ten is far to much.  Five is the usual limit here at Naper Design because it's usually more than enough to please the senses.  What's the point of a compilation of 50 or 60 best tutorials if you can't make it through them?hidden links We hope you enjoy, and there will be more to come.

1.) Awesome Space Rocket Avatar in Illustrator

"We’ll draw a shiny, awesome-looking space rocket in Adobe Illustrator using advanced techniques such as gradient meshes, pattern brushes and opacity masks. We will then add a flare, smoke, clouds and sky to complete a fun illustration. Ready to launch?"

2.) How to Create an Alarm Clock Icon

"With simple shapes and gradients, this easy tutorial will show you how to create an alarm clock icon. We'll be using Illustrator CS4 for this tutorial, but those of you with older version should be able to follow along as well. Let's jump into this tutorial, which beginning illustrators will find especially useful!"

--video tutorial included--

3.) Tree Creation Guide

"Green is in vogue and clients everywhere want natural imagery in their promotional material. Ben the Illustrator shows you how to create a fresh-looking tree"

4.) Complex Circular Design Techniques

"Creating intricate circular designs and patterns may look difficult because the shapes can be very complicated, but you will be surprised at just how easy making these shapes can be. I will go over some neat tricks, tools, techniques, and settings that will have you pumping out perfect circular designs in no time using Illustrator."

"This tutorial is split into 2 sections: The Rotate Tool, and a Custom Pattern Brush. The Rotate tool is faster and easier, but less accurate. So lets try it first, then move on to the brush techniques. Note: These techniques are intended for use with circles. Results will vary with other shapes."

5.) Swirl Mania in Illustrator and Photoshop

"There are lots of ways to create swirls in Illustrator, in this tutorial you will learn 4 ways to create swirls, and by mixing them you will learn some very powerful techniques that will allow you to easily make tons of different styles of swirls and crazy sperm vectors."
Jul 14

Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

Adobe Illustrator is a powerful tool for illustrating various elements one can use for web pages and print design. However, it’s important to know what to do in order to powerfully use its tools and achieve certain effects. So, step-by-step tutorials can provide a lot of help, thats why we spent a lot of time searching for the best tutorials out there and the result was 60 remarkable illustrator tutorials, tips, best practices from some of the best illustrators and artists; besides you’ll also find references to brilliant illustrator portfolios out there. Let’s take a look at some of the best Adobe Illustrator tutorials we’ve found in the Web so far.
You might be interested to check other Illustrator related posts:

Tutorials

1-From Sketch to Vector Illustration- A technique of vector illustrating that takes a little bit more skill is starting with a hand drawn sketches.This tutorial will focus on that technique of vector illustrating.

Il1 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

2-Craft a Dramatic Vector Landscape Environment- This tutorial will show the intermediate Adobe Illustrator artist how to make a dramatic landscape environment.

Il4 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

3-Draw Your Self Portrait- Learn how to transform your photo into your vector self portrait. You’ll review techniques for tracing photos.

Il5 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

4-Complex Circular Design Techniques- This tutorial is split into 2 sections: The Rotate Tool, and a Custom Pattern Brush.

Il6 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

5-Creating trees in Illustrator- Green is in vogue and clients everywhere want natural imagery in their promotional material. Ben the Illustrator shows you how to create a fresh-looking tree.

Il7 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

6-Illustrator Tutorial: Figure Shading- Drawing the human body is never easy, but shading it and giving it depth as well can be a real headache. A nice tutorial on figure shading by Russell Tate.

Il8 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

7-Texture- When working in Illustrator it’s nice to add textures that weren’t computer generated (like gradients or pattern fills). This is a step-by-step instructions on how you can create your own hand-made texture effects using a Chinagraph Pencil on simple Watercolor Paper.

Il10 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

8-Realistic Curtain- How to create a realistic curtain using the gradient mesh.

Il11 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

9-Wood Grain- Here is a quick way to create wood grain effect using the warp tools in illustrator.

Il12 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

10-Simple organic shapes the Illustrator way- Here is a nice way to create wood grain effect using the warp tools in illustrator.

Il13 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

11-Free Watercolor Brushes and Tutorial- How to create a couple watercolor brushes, and at the end of the tutorial you can download some Free Vectips Watercolor Brushes!

Il15 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

12-3D Logo Tutorial- In this Tutorial you will start with the making of a logo shape, going to rough 3D, and finishing it in Photoshop.

Il17 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

13-How To Create Your Own Vector Cartoon Character- Follow this tutorial to create your own vector character; Freddy the Fish.

Il18 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

14-Vector Polishing Techniques- This tutorial includes 9 Photoshop techniques that will show you how to add more depth, color, contrast, and texture into your vector art.

Il19 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

15-Chinese Bamboo- This tutorial will show you how to illustrate Chinese bamboo with Illustrator Symbol Sprayer and Mesh Tool.

Il20 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

16-ILLUSTRATE IMAGE INTO VECTOR- Basically, it is quite simple to illustrate an animate rather than a real object. Its color tone is simple and easy to apply. Yhis tutorial will teach you how to illustrate an image into vector.

Il21 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

17-Digital Art Tutorial - An old tutorial but worth every minute you spend on it.

Il55 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

18-Creating a Crazy Cool Logo

Il57 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

19-Create a Designer Font- How to break apart a font into vector bits that we can manipulate. This is a great way to add your style to a font or to make your own!

Il23 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

20-Swirl Mania in Illustrator and Photoshop- There are lots of ways to create swirls in Illustrator, in this tutorial you will learn 4 ways to create swirls, and by mixing them you will learn some very powerful techniques that will allow you to easily make tons of different styles of swirls and crazy sperm vectors.
By Tutorials, , 2 Comments
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07Jan

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.

By Marketing Methods, , 2 Comments
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19Dec

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.
By Best Design Venues, SEO, Wordpress, , , , 2 Comments
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07Dec

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.
By SEO, Wordpress, , , , , , 3 Comments
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17Nov

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.
By SEO, , , , , 0 Comments
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07Nov

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 Inc,  Naper Design and Naperville Strategic Marketing
By Naper Design News, SEO, Wordpress, , , , 0 Comments
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17Oct

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
By Wordpress, , , , 1 Comment
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13Oct

Follow-Up on Client Protection and Care

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.hidden links 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 pressingBiggest-SEO-Scam 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.
By SEO, Wordpress, , , , 2 Comments
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03Oct

Some SEO Companies Aren’t Protecting Their Own

s7
Feeling lost in the crowd?
Are you getting ripped off by your SEO and SEM Provider?hidden links 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.
By Wordpress, , , , 6 Comments
Read more...
03Oct

Some SEO Companies Aren’t Protecting Their Own

s7
Feeling lost in the crowd?
Are you getting ripped off by your SEO and SEM Provider?hidden links 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.
By SEO, Wordpress, , , , 6 Comments
Read more...