WordPress blog design configuration is now available from Christopher Merrill Web Design.

For $450 you can have your own WordPress blog with five separate links and the ability to make updates yourself.

A WordPress blog is the ideal solution for the individual or small business owner, allowing you to post regular updates that will keep your clients informed –  and helping you to develop a larger client base by boosting your rankings with the search engines.

With a WordPress blog, you can have the best of both worlds: strong visual impact AND the ability to make changes yourself.

For more information, contact Christopher Merrill at 773-755-2536.

Your new blog will be up and running in no time!

Emphasize your geographic area on your web site.

If the goods or services you provide are location-based (meaning you work within a specific geographic area), it is important that you emphasize your geographic location on your web site.

When looking for goods or services, many users will enter the name of their city or town into their search keywords or phrases. You can capitalize on this by combining the name (or names) of your geographic area with the goods or services your provide, and then indicating that phrase within the text of your web site.

So, instead of saying:

“I am a portrait photographer.”

say

“I am a portrait photographer in Jacksonville, Florida.”

(seeing as how most of your clients would likely come from the Jacksonville area if you were a portrait photographer in Jacksonville).

Posting Google and Mapquest maps to your business location can be helpful as well.

When deciding on which geographic locations to emphasize on your web site, be sure to consider not only the city or town in which you reside, but the neighborhood as well, since, for some users, the closer you are to their home or office, the more likely it is that they will follow up with you after seeing your web site for the first time.

Questions?  See search engine optimization tips.

When inserting keyword meta tags within the header section of your html code, consider inserting misspellings of relevant terms.

For an example:

<META NAME=”keywords” CONTENT=”chicag web designers, chicago web desingers, chicaog web designers”>

The days of stuffing keyword meta tags with endless keywords and phrases are long gone; however, inserting intentional misspellings that users might enter when searching for your services can help to boost your rankings.

See more information about organic search engine optimization.

A common mistake is to assume that your Web site should be like an online brochure. There are fundamental errors in this line of reasoning that will come back to haunt the novice web designer.

First, a brochure is printed material that is meant to last for years.  A Web site is meant to be updated regularly (weekly, if not daily, if you wish to achieve strong rankings with the search engines).

Second, a brochure is a piece of graphic art which occupies a given, static set of dimensions (i.e.,  5 inches by 9 inches). No such given dimensions exist on a Web site; your Web pages will display differently depending on the browser and screen resolutions selected by the individual user.

Finally, each page of a brochure represents a completed graphic design within the given dimensions, giving relatively equal weight to the images at the top of the page and the bottom of the page; Web sites give high priority to the material at the top of the screen and far less importance the the material below.

A Web design is actually a FRAMEWORK through which users can NAVIGATE between pages of different lengths. No such FRAMEWORK or NAVIGATION structure exists in a brochure.

A Web site design is essentially ONE design which is echoed throughout the site; a brochure contains separate, completely designed individual pages, that stand alone as the reader turns from page to page.

If you are still certain that you would like your Web site to resemble an online brochure, consider converting your printed brochure into a pdf and the posting the brochure itself to your server.

Remember, PRINT is not the same thing as WEB DESIGN!

To determine which keywords might be most effective in attracting your audience, try going to Google (or any other search engine) and entering various keyword combinations in the search box.

Observe the links that come up under each keyword search. When you come to search results that show a neighborhood where you would like your website to reside, copy down that keyword combination exactly and remember it! These will be words that you will want to emphasize in the title tags, description tags and text of the home page of your site (as well as on the inner pages).

Keep trying various combinations, making sure to emphasize your geographic area, if appropriate. Then, select perhaps the top 2-3 keyword combinations, and employ them on your website so as to attract the search engines.

Always make sure to test your keyword phrases in an actual search engine to see what comes up. Some effective keyword combinations may not be immediately apparent (and may even be counterintuitive). Do not try to guess or hope that you will have the best words: test them out first.

Learn more about organic search engine optimization.

One of the most common errors made by fledgling and experienced web designers alike is to fail to double check files to make sure the new versions have been saved and uploaded completely to the server.

This may sound like a small thing, but it can mean the difference between making the sale and not making the sale, especially if you are replacing vital contact information.

If your phone numbers or email addresses are incorrect on your site, it won’t matter how wonderful your site looks: the only thing the user will remember is that they tried to contact you and you didn’t respond. From now on they will think of yours as the website they reached out to — and got nothing in return.

Always be careful to check and double check the email links on your site to make sure that you will be able to respond quickly when users reach out to you.

If you have spam blockers on your email retrieval program, consider removing them so as to not lose possible paying customers.

And when you do respond to the client, consider sending them back to your website for further information: repeat visits are detected by search engines, and can help to boost your rankings.

Award Winning Photographer Allan Detrich Proves All Professional Photograhers are NOT Created Equal!

One look at these storm chasing photos posted by my client, award-winning photographer, Allan Detrich on May 11, 2010 shows the difference between the average photographer and a true artist.

In one afternoon, Allan Detrich can take a set of photos that it would take another photographer a lifetime to achieve.

Detrich was a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize in Photojournalism in 1998, and one of his storm-chasing photos appeared in Time Magazine as a photo of the year. He continues to win awards for his wedding photography, and he is an active storm chaser and storm photographer.

I’ve been working with Allan Detrich since 1999, and he never fails to astonish me every time he sends me a set of images to post: each photo tells a story, drawing you into the the drama and/or comedy of the situation.

Make no mistake: photography is NOT just a matter of pointing a camera and clicking: before you post your own photos to your website, consider hiring a professional, like Allan Detrich.