WordPress (Photo credit: Adriano Gasparri)

Sometimes I see people throw WordPress out there in a derogatory way and act like only small time, hobbyists use it for their website.  In actuality, 17.4 percent of websites in the English speaking world use WordPress including blogs from small time hobbyists like UPS, the NFL, CNN, and Time magazine along with full websites from Outbrain and Techcrunch. Besides those stats and big names, there are a specific list of reasons we use WordPress for our clients including:

1)      A WordPress based website will allow for regular updates because you don’t need to know  HTML or other coding (java or PHP) to make updates.  As the designer, I would need to, but once it was set up, a WYSIWYG  (what you see is what you get) editor would be available to make those changes.  What I usually do for my clients is make a step by step video showing exactly how you will be able to make those changes.  This makes it so I have no need to charge ongoing fees to your organization for basic maintenance.  It also allows for more immediate changes to be made by the client.  In other words, it saves our clients money.

2)      WordPress offers a ‘development team’ unparalleled in the web design world since in actually it is composed of thousands of independent, voluntary developers – many of which have a huge passion for open source stuff – like WordPress.  Most things companies and individuals are looking for is likely already available within the WordPress plugin “marketplace”.  It is simply a matter of plugging in it and most importantly, make sure it works flawlessly (that can be the sticky part sometimes).  The key is that no coding is required for these items other than customization as necessary.  It is much easier than recreating the wheel.

3)      WordPress comes pre-search engine optimized and there are also a couple of fantastic modules on the WordPress ‘marketplace’ that fills in the spaces.  Meanwhile, pure HTML sites require a lot of manual work to set up to be search engine optomized and further more, requires a ton of additional development work to ensure you stay that way.  In other words, we save ourselves time and we save our clients money.

4)      Finally, WordPress is a nonprofit that not only releases frequent, free feature updates and more importantly, SECURITY updates.  This ensures that your page won’t fall victim to hackers nearly as easy as a pure HTML website might.

I hope that better explains the reasoning behind us using WordPress to make professional websites for our clients.

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“I need a super easy/basic design with this, this, this and THIS and I need it done by tomorrow.  My budget is $50.”

or

“I have a really great idea and just need a web programmer to make it happen.  I don’t have a budget at all but the web designer can have a portion of the profits when they inevitably begin rolling in.”

But then there is a 3rd group – the crazy, insane, hilarious requests.  This is an actual post I saw yesterday:

“I need a web designer that has a PHD is mathematics and is amazing with algorithms (this is really what the poster said).  I have an idea to compete with Google.com but no budget (I love how he says Google.com as if we may not have heard of them).  I am even thinking of buying one dedicated server for this project.

Now everyone will likely laugh about the ‘competing with Google’ part and wanting a PHD mathematician with no budget – obviously fantasy, but only the tech savvy know how truly ridiculous his post is.  As of 2011, Google used no less than 900,000 dedicated servers to do what they do making that 1 dedicated server he may buy bring us .000001 percent of the way there.  I hope that Mathematician is really good at server load balancing as well.

Finally, there are a few requests that actually make sense.  The poster has a budget, realistic expectations and has an idea of what they want in a new website design.  I would say these account for 1-5% of Craigslist posts and are competed for fiercely.  Usually that competition brings the cost of services down so low that it is impossible to make enough money to make it worth the time to do the work.

In summary, I have generally found Craigslist to be a waste of time.  Anyone else have success?

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Not every exciting website discovery is specific to my favorite CMS.  My most recent discovery was Unbounce.  If you sell something on your website, are in the business of getting leads or even want to get a bigger email mailing list, Unbounce provides the product to do it better.

You see, Unbounce is a landing page creator.  And that’s it.  But you know the expression, if you only do one thing, do it well?  They do it well…and then some.  Landing pages, for the uninitiated are the pages successful companies use as links for those Google Adwords and Bing Ads you see all over the web  Basically, it is succinct ad copy that gets the visitor to do something.  Maybe it is to watch a video, fill out a form, buy a product, or something else.  Unbounce makes creating these pages incredibly simple.

At this point, you may be saying (if you talk out loud to yourself), “Unbounce has to be paying this guy.   He is using so much hyperbole; he is probably an Unbounce affiliate”.   But, I’m not being paid, reimbursed or thanked in any way.  Unbounce doesn’t need me and my article anyway.  There are already a ton of other, more important people that love what they do.  Unbounce has made a tedious task of every web developer fun by making an incredibly simple drag and drop interface for any type of landing page.  Seriously, it’s slick.  Even better, they have integrated all of those forms, sign-ups, etc with whatever email marketing software or CRM (think SalesForce) you might be using.

Besides the ease of design and integration, they also offer the ability to easily test different iterations of your pages.  This allows for you to easily figure out ways to get the most bang for your buck.  Traditionally, this testing process is done through a combination of additional code being added to your website along with setup and goal creation in Google Analytics.   But in Unbounce, it takes just a few clicks and everything is tracked and tested within your Unbounce account.  It is a huge time saver and makes even lazy website designers look good (I hope I’m not unconsciously talking about myself).

The one ‘catch’ for some companies/design studios is that it carries a $99/month charge.  And while that may seem like a lot (admittedly, it is for me as well), if you are spending money on pay per click ads on Adwords or Bing and spending hours of design time or your own time creating each new landing page you make, you are easily saving money by using Unbounce.  In short, Unbounce is an evolutionary product and one that I am excited to see develop further and look forward to using going forward.  To see Sharp Guys’ landing page, click here.

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The other major reason to do social media is to drive traffic to your website where the actual transaction or conversion can take place.  When it does happen, make sure you give your visitors ample opportunity to interact with your company.  Make it easy for users to comment on your blog (you have a blog, right?) by using a comment system like Disqus.  Use forms that give you enough information to reach out to your visitor but not too many fields that the visitor gives up before completing it.  Use quotes from your clients to showcase your products.   Having been in sales for years, showcasing your existing clients’ experience with your company works much better than simply telling someone that your stuff is the best.  Besides, no one likes a bragger.

When we do web design for our Indianapolis clients, we try to integrate all of these ideas into our design.  Your company’s website is like a city’s visitor center that people actually go to.  Make sure that when people come that you are open for business.

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This isn’t unique to Smile Dentistry.  Using text messages to get a point across to clients is new business but it is also one of the most efficient open rates in the land at around 95% – seriously.  Email rates are lucky to hit 20% or so.  And like a chump, I continued to open the texts regardless of the fact the messages had nothing to do with me.  In fact, I found that only made things more interesting.

So with this in my mind, I have decided to launch an all out marketing broadcast via text and email to tell everyone about today’s pottery lesson being moved to tomorrow.  Then I’ll remind them that pottery was actually yesterday and that I meant next week’s pottery class would be moved.  Once I clearly have their attention and know they will be listening, I’ll strike and say, “Sharp Guys Web Designs makes the most inexpensive, yet fantastically professional websites in the Indianapolis area – buy now”.  How can I miss?

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OK, I truly do have an ulterior motive.  All too often I read blog posts just like the one I was making fun of above.  The idea of keyword stuffing is not new to anyone, but the idea that it still works is somehow still around despite all of the proof it no longer works.  In fact, creating posts stuffed with search engine optimized keywords, links, etc in a short article is likely to lessen your page’s overall worth to Google regardless of how helpful the rest of the content is to your reader.

More than ever, you need to be careful with what you write and how you write it.  When writing blogs, using key, keywords is fine.  Using them literally as the subject and every other sentence is just going plain overboard.  It’s like that song by Blues Traveler, Hook.  In that song, John Popper writes:

It doesn’t matter what I say

So long as I sing with inflection

That makes you feel that I’ll convey

Some inner truth of vast reflection

But I’ve said nothing so far

And I can keep it up as long as it takes

And it don’t matter who you are

If I’m doing my job, it’s your resolve that breaks

And all too often, blog posts read the same way this song does.  They are written for the sake of being written and for the sake of SEO.  If you actually write to inform and teach, those things will likely rank better with Google as well.  Then again, I’m just a simple web designer in the city of Indianapolis…

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That being said, services like Facebook, Twitter, Vimio, and the like are difficult to forgo for many small businesses that don’t have the expertise, budget or resources to serve the same function on their own.  In fact, for any size business, it is impossible to provide the same function and reach as widely used services like Facebook and Twitter.  So what does a business owner do to help feel better about their situation?

While situations liked the LinkedIn hacking that occurred 2 weeks ago are increasingly more common, so are additional security measures meant to stop it from occurring again.  And while there is always the very real possibility of a .com service of going out of business, the larger the company, the less likely it is to occur.  So pick your server providers, video providers, email clients, etc carefully.  Don’t be afraid to try the new kid on the block who is offering cheaper prices and a slicker interface, but remember that they have a greater likelihood of failing than a publically traded company or an experienced privately owned company.

Why would Sharp Guys Web Design, a relative newcomer to the Indianapolis web design market, mention this?  Well because all of our clients utilize servers and services from industry stalwarts that are exactly as described – less likely to fail or change their terms and prices.  Since all of our website designs are sold as a project, owned by our clients, and based on the open source and widely used, WordPress platform, the risk is further minimized.

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Number 1 – businesses don’t make their contact information easily accessible – this should really be available throughout the webpage and any number of different areas but it should certainly be available on the bottom of your site. There should also be a way for potential clients/existing clients to contact you with questions, not just a lead form.  People should feel comfortable enough to ask questions and not expect a sales pitch.

Number 2 – if you have your email address easily accessible, don’t use an AOL, Comcast or Cox Cable-type address. Those types of email addresses make you look like a fly-by-night business and I have found that even companies selling technology have email addresses that are from the 1990’s.  There is nothing wrong with keeping those old email addresses but set up a new one that features the name of your .com.  It just looks more professional and is an easy switch to make.  You can even make the new email address forward all emails to your old email address.  One other thing, email addresses are nearly always free so make more than one of them.  Even if you are just a small shop, you can easily have 3 email addresses.  One should be called info@domain.com, the second should be for leads and be called sales@domain.com and the final one should be your personal business email address and be called yourname@domain.com.  These are simple changes but will always ensure your business looks like it is here for the long haul – not some Nigerian prince run shop.

Number 3 – Have a call to action. Regardless of your business model, a call to action is important.  If you are a plumber, you are obviously not asking for payment on your website but you could easily provide a form for your guest to fill out their email address.  Why?  The value add is that you could send them a white paper with the work you do, quotes from your past customers and an example of the damage to the wallet and to the structure of a building unchecked water leaks can do.  You also have their email address going forward for future coupons, sales, etc and your company is on their mobile devices email if they have another leak.  A .com site may have a much more classic call to action where a signup leads to an auto reply email with whatever you promised them for signing up.  These rewards don’t have to be huge, nor do they have to be discounts.  Remember that people are coming to you because you are an expert.  A little bit of expert information may just give them the incentive they need to sign up for your email newsletter or put themselves on your mailing list.

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A client based blog can be an amazing addition to your weekly or monthly blogging repertoire.  First off, it shows your client that you respect what they do and you value their opinion.  Secondly, it gives you some additional insight into how they use your software or service.  Finally, it sells visitors to your site on your services because you aren’t doing your own sales pitch – your clients are.

Regardless if you use this method for a weekly blog or just once per quarter, utilizing a client to write your blog can be a neat idea that you can bet, not a lot of your competitors are using.  Try it out sometime and let us know what kind of results you have been able to achieve.

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Green Box Go wanted a site that could easily showcase their 3 step process. The website delivers by showing that 3 step process via a simple slider on the main page. In just 5 seconds, a potential client will know what Green Box Go does and how they can help meet their needs. Green Box Go also needed a quick way for potential clients to reach out and make an order. The custom web form we created gives them all of the information they need.

This site utilizes

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