Studio490: Creative Services » Web Design & Development

In The Studio – Your Road to a Website Solution

admin — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:29:14 +0000

How to get started?

Objective (what are you trying to do with your website)
Goals (short term / long term)
Expectations (awareness or sales)
Who’s in charge of the project
Updates / growth

What are some of the options out there?

FREE Websites (get what you pay for)
Templates (easy fix, but not you)
Custom html
CMS
Blogs

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ReThink – Why Your Company Needs A Website

admin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:30:11 +0000

If you have a business, you need a website. It doesn’t matter the size of your corporation, small or large, a website presents a presence of your company in the internet world. You are losing business because other companies do have a website that is promoting or selling their products/services. The purpose of having a website is so that anyone who may be interested in your products/services may find you quickly and easily and to learn more about your business.

With that being said, it isn’t enough just to have a website. You will be given only one chance to make that first impression and it best be a good one. With a well designed website, you can compete with other companies regardless of their size. You must have a professional looking website so that your potential customers will want to purchase from you. If your site looks like it was designed by a 13 year old with no experience, your chance of making that first impression a good one is lost. Customers come to the web world seeking information about product before purchasing anything. Make sure they find you on the web.

Other reasons you must have a website:
You are open for business 24/7. Customers can contact you via your website at any time during the day/night. This, in turn, increases your business’ revenues through the website. Your customers will increase in volume as well.

You can reach customers from all over the globe. You are not confined to just local businesses. Your products/services can be offered to anyone who interested in your products/services in the global market.

Having a website is an inexpensive way to advertise your business. A website offers good value to money spent. And you can launch promotions easily and costs less than the traditional methods of advertising.

As you can see, there are lots of pros for having a website. The most important reason being making your presence known in the web world!

Next up: Your website and SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Tj and Dana Todd

Studio490

ReThink – Search Engine Optimization

admin — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 17:00:09 +0000

One of the most critical components to getting top search engine ranking is the number of inbound links and link popularity a web site is able to build. There are several existing link building strategies available to small businesses. Social media can help create additional high value on target inbound links that are essential to achieving top placements in the search engine.

To be valued by the search engines, inbound links must be from relevant web sites. Search engines give social sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkIn great value. These sites are highly visible to search engines and are constantly taking updates from users.

Creating visibility for your business and your brand is really the key when using social media for building links. Brand recognition leads to your inbound links coming from bloggers, colleagues, customers, and other people who are exposed to your links that find your links useful and then share with their own contacts.

Many businesses are starting to use social media as a way to promote their business, reach their customers and find new customers. By increasing those inbound links, you will improve your visibility in search engines which will increase your business.

Tj and Dana Todd

Studio490

ReThink – Successful Case Study

admin — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 17:30:15 +0000

Problem
Calvary Baptist Church contacted us to help them develop their church brand and web site presence. They were currently under contract with another vendor that failed to provide a redesigned website and logo. The chosen vendor had received a portion of the payment upfront to begin the project. After 5 months of dealing with broken promises and undelivered products, they had had enough.

Challenge
They approached Studio490 and explained their situation in extreme detail. We came to understand that their trust in vendors had been broken on top of not getting what they paid for. Our challenge was to discuss what we could do for them, how we were going to do it, how long it would take and how much it would cost.

Solution
We explained that we do ministry work for 50% off our market rate and that would help offset some of the expense that they had incurred with the previous vendor. After several meetings discussing their goals and objectives, we gained their trust and commitment to proceed.

We branded a new logo for their marketing materials along with redesigning their web site. The part that impressed them the most was the quality and speed of work for the price quoted. We provided them with several logo variations within 1 business week of their commitment. Once we established ourselves, we then proceeded with providing them a wonderful online solution that took less then 8 weeks to complete. The web solution we provided costs less then 54% of the previous vendor.

We felt that we had proven that good creative resources still exist out there and that we are indeed one of them.

Tj and Dana Todd

ReThink – Plan, Produce, and Promote

admin — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:00:08 +0000

Plan:

Each plan starts with gathering ideas about your audience, brand, and specific goals or needs. We will study and research your business as well as your competitors to gather relevant information to plan the most effective solution.

Produce:

The content of your website or marketing tools tells others about who you are in relation to your philosophies, aspirations, and benefits of using your services. Content is the voice of your company. It will be used to inform, persuade, and entertain your audience. You will want to perform in the most effective way your medium will allow. We will craft the building blocks to help you with future conversations with your customers. Not only is the voice of content critical, so is the placement of the content. You want your target audience to be able to find you in today’s Google or Yahoo search engines. One powerful step in the process is placing targeted keywords and meta tags in your website, this will allow the customers to find you before your competition.

The design of your website will define the success of the message you are trying to communicate to your audience. As you build your Brand Equity, you will have a stronger presence in the market and to your target audience. We will work with you to discover how to communicate your message through designing and branding your identity.

Promote:

This step of the process is the most overlooked part of the development process. After your project is designed, we must create a connection between you and your target audience. We will work on creating and delivering your project through custom email campaigns, press releases, blogs, social media, and etc. By promoting your product/service, you are creating relationships with your audience and their desire for your product or service.

TJ and Dana Todd

Studio490

ReThink – Flash vs html (Updated)

admin — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 17:00:37 +0000

You’ve just been to 3 new websites that look more like a video game than a website. The talking avatars and Myst like pages are still dancing in your head like Christmas morning sugar plums. You sit back in your chair and say to yourself, I need a site like that. I want something that wows someone when they visit my site. I’ll get the next Webby for sure.

You contact a design studio (such as Studio490) and they rain on your parade by telling you that an all Flash site is all but invisible to Search Engines.

You may ask yourself, then why do I see so many sites with all the crazy movement, voice overs, transitions and more?

The Answer….

They usually belong to an established company which really does not need to worry about being Found. It’s more about reinforcing their brand with a cool site. Here is a test, what is the name of the shoe company that has a tag line of “Just Do it”? Can you find their site without having to use Google?

When you don’t have to worry about your audience discovering nike.com, you can focus on different brand angles.

I believe a combination of Flash and html is the best of both worlds. The flash sets a tone to the site, but the html provides you a platform to stay “Findable” on the search engines.

Your objective should be to educate your soon to be clients on your products/services and entertain them enough to have them remember you.

Let Studio490 take you to the next level of web development.

UPDATE: As of 3/29/2012 Apple doesn’t support Flash on it’s mobile devices and Adobe is phasing it out as well. There are better ways to get movement and style on your website than Flash.

Contact us today and let us show you how

Tj and Dana Todd

Studio490

ReThink – The Professional Web Designer

admin — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 17:00:14 +0000

We’re often approached by clients who have run across someone who sold them a bill of goods and left them with a less than perfect web solution. Just as a big hat doesn’t make you a chef, just because a person says they are a web designer doesn’t mean they are a professional one.

What makes a professional web designer is their ability to listen to the client and suggest the right business solution. Even though that solution may not be something the “Designer” does. A true professional should tell you what you need and not just what you want to hear.

It does Studio490 no good to design and develop a web solution that never exceeds its clients business expectations. That simply makes a unhappy customer and they don’t return.

The Client

Just as it’s important to hire a professional web designer, we believe it’s important for the client to know what they are asking for. If they don’t, then be open to feedback from that professional. Know when you’re asking for a Lexus on a Yugo budget. We offer Consulting services to help with this process.

Spend some time learning what you will need to ask for before you find someone to provide that service. Look for a professional who has references, testimonials and samples. Ask about qualifications and how they do business. A professional will be more than happy to talk about their company.

Know what’s included and what is not in the scope of the project. Project Creep is very common in web development and it’s best to define what the cost will cover.

A committed web professional and a educated professional client is a winning combination. You can see our references to see.

Contact us today!

Tj and Dana Todd

Studio490

ReThink – SEO is a Marathon not a Sprint

admin — Sun, 01 May 2011 17:00:08 +0000

Many companies aspire to see their site listed on the first page “above the fold” on Google, Yahoo or MSN. Some of you maybe saying, so how can I get there? Well, you can, but know that those companies you see there now, didn’t get there overnight and didn’t get there cheaply.

There are ways to get to the top of search engines and here are 2:

Organic SEO: in which you constantly work on your site content, link exchange, keyword research, meta tags, title wording, networking, blog support (see Studio490.com), online marketing, promotions, email blasts, direct mail, web banners and more.

Buy your way to the top by Pay-Per-Click: you pay to be listed above the fold when someone enters a certain keyword.

.As a reference, the term “DSL” was selling for 3.05 in 2005 and is now up to 6.24. So if you were the highest bidder for “DSL“; every 100 people that clicked on your link would cost you 624.00. As you can see it wouldn’t take much to blow your budget out of the water if you were going after a popular keyword.

** Quote **

Successful SEO Needs Effort, Not Quick Fixes
By: Mark Nenadic

If you want to be successful with search engine optimization, you need to commit yourself to achieving long-term results. This does take patience, but is necessary if you want to come out on top. The following tips can help bring you closer to your high ranking goal:

Tip 1: Conduct thorough research for keyword phrases- Use effective keyword programs such as Keyword Discovery or Word Tracker. The paid programs of their software will help you generate the best keyword phrases for your business.
Tip 2: Valuable web content- Don’t create a website that is overrun by graphics. SEO spiders will crawl right over these graphics and by pass you. Your website needs a reasonable amount of web content that is pumped full of valuable information. It needs to be clear and concise. And it should also convey your website’s message, which needs to include the keywords you’ve selected to rank high.
Tip 3: Relevancy- Ensure that all of your link anchor texts and title tags are relevant to one another, as well as to the web content that is presented on your site.
Tip 4: Patience is a virtue- It will take almost a year, or even longer, before you begin to see any traffic from the natural results of search engines. Try not to let this get you down. Take this time to continue to improve your site and give the competition a run for their money. Eventually, your persistence, patience and positive thinking will pay off.

** End Quote **

While not having a website at all is still worse than not doing any SEO (search engine optimization), it’s not by much. If you plan on not doing any SEO to your site after launch or in production, keep your site lean with good content until you can afford to do some.

Contact us today!

Tj & Dana Todd
Studio490.

ReThink – The Web Development Process

admin — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 17:00:20 +0000

When it comes to web design & development, the process doesn’t have to be a mystery to either side. Clear communication takes the guess work out of expectations, payment and results. I always suggest to my clients, “know what you’re asking for before you ask or be willing to spend the time learning about it”. We spend a lot of time with our clients discussing their projects and like to cover all the bases before we start. But just like any good company, we provide that process in our proposals to refer to along the way.

Web Development Process:

Define Your Objectives
Develop a Proposal
Approve Proposal
Provide some reference points to help determine your style and taste
Design a sample of the homepage and an inside page
Approve Design
Production
Test Site
Approve Site
Launch
Promote

After this process, we move into Phase II which usually involves added features, text tweaks, expansion, social media, promotion and level II SEO services.

We’ve found that communicating frequently along the process keeps our client informed and assured their project is moving forward.

Contact Us Today!

Tj & Dana Todd
Studio490: Creative Services

ReThink – Your Web Presence

admin — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 17:00:48 +0000

So you have a web site?

Congratulations!

Welcome to the World Wide Web.

Now we can get down to business. Getting your website launched is the first step to the many steps it’s going to take to have an effective online presence.

Launching your website could have been a very long and expensive process for you, but know one thing, you are not done. Have you planned on Tracking your site? Promotion it? Search Engine Optimization? Developing a Blog component? Social Media Campaign? Updates?

As you can see, while you may have taken the most important step in the process, it is but the first one. As the old saying goes, How do you eat an Elephant? The answer, one bite at a time.

Studio490 can help you with the entire web development process. From Website design and deployment to web marketing, SEO, Social Media Development and more.

Contact Us Today! to find out what steps you need to take to make your website become the online tool it was meant to be.

Tj & Dana Todd
Studio490 Creative Services