Month: July 2009

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Things I Am Working On For the Future

Okay not the far off future, but for this summer specifically. There are some new technologies that are emerging and I want to learn more, so here is my laundry list of things that I am actively and aggressively going after to learn, implement on my own website, and am testing to use for clients.

Rich Snippets

When Google speaks I listen. Recently it was announced that Google was embracing Rich Snippets. There is a special syntax to use that is XML based for creating your snippets and embedding them in your source code and I want to review, try them on my own website, and see how the search engines really use the information. Will it help in anyway with what is shown in the results, does it give a website a bump over the others? Whatever I find out, I’ll make sure to share with you here. Learn more about Rich Snippets at Search Engine Land.

Spry Features

I moved to Dreamweaver and am now introducing several new XML technologies into my own website. Right now I am working on creating and XML feed to show my online web design Portfolio. Dreamweaver makes it pretty easy to do this stuff, but the applications for other content and sites may be really cool, so I am chinking away at learning more about the use of accordion panels and data sets. I am already heavily using the Spry drop down and fly out menus. They are nice and very search engine friendly, but I would like to skin them better with background graphics for a more custom look. I’ll point to my projects when I am ready to show them off.

Web Slices

This is another brand new technology introduced with Internet Explorer 8.  Web slices are little snippets that you can change and people can subscribe to to review in their browser favorites bar without visiting your site. Could be a very cool way to show discounts, feature products, or snippets of content that change regularly. I think that this will have really cool application for websites and want to understand them more. Here is some information from CoDe magazine on how to build a web slice.  I’m not sure what search engines are doing with the information yet, but just like RSS feeds this could be a huge new technology that will bloom in the months to years to come.

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Check Out Our July e-Newsletter

You can visit our e-newsletter online here: http://www.mccordweb.com/e-newsletters/2009/july-09.html or you may want to consider subscribing to get our newsletter in your inbox.

Topics for this month are:

Graphic Electric Inc. Moves to the Web

Facebook Advertising Reviewed: Is It Worth the Money?

Microsoft Releases a New Search Engine Called Bing

As always you’ll get my candid comments and review as well as notes on special features or things to keep an eye on.

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We’re All A La Carte Baby!

I had a client tell me the other day that I needed to create a web design and AdWords package all rolled into one on top of offering my Quick Launch website pricing with all custom design features for his needs.  Well, packaging sometimes can be good, but every business person should evaluate what packages make sense for their business first.

For us, we are niche suppliers. My firm specializes in organic placement and the creation of Web Authority websites. That means, great website design full of SEO built from the ground up and content rich. You will pay for this kind of website truthfully, but with nearly nine years of experience we know our stuff! Our typical client will spend about $4,000 to $5,500 for the initial website and then continue to add content and enhancements to it over time. At around the end of one year, we typically will have excellent organic placement on Google and a marketing machine built for the client that is propelling their business forward.

Many clients will tie the original design work in with our blogging services, article marketing, and Google AdWords services after the website is launched. However initially rarely do we sell all items as a package together. I really feel that I want to see what is needed after the site is launched before we recommend the next step.

I have long felt that the best approach for businesses is to allow them to “cherry pick” our service offering based on what their needs are and their budget is. I have rarely created big packages as I feel that each client is different and each persons need is different. We want to help the client make great decisions not based on a package we sell, but based on where they can get the most “bang for their buck”.