web design Archives - Kropmark Design

The nuts and bolts of web design

September 30, 2012 by Kelly Robinson

Do you know what you are getting when you purchase a web design? Business owners often pay too much for too little, receive a poorly crafted website from a developer rather than a designer, or are pushed into using a restrictive proprietary website system that is hard to work with. Don’t focus on price at the expense of quality, and make sure to compare several different designers before making a decision. Ask designers to line list what they do and explain why they do it.

At Kropmark Design, we try to make it easy for you to understand what we are going to do when building your website. Although we offer several different web and online marketing services, we have organized our web design services into three main packages. The best package for you will depend on your business goals, which is why we recommend an in-person meeting during which you can ask questions and allows us explain our offerings in greater depth.

Web design packages

For those who need a quick, simple and inexpensive web design we offer a basic website package. The design for this website will be based on a pre-existing template with no customization and we will not perform any search engine optimization. This package is best for businesses on a tight budget and includes the following services:

Installation of one content management system website (WordPress, Joomla or Drupal)
Setup of website navigation and structure for five total web pages
Logo implemented into the header (logo must be supplied by the client)
Population of website with text and graphics
Assistance with domain name registration and choice of web hosting
Setup of one business email account
One hour of training in the operation and management of your website

For businesses who want a custom-designed website with on-site search engine optimization included, we offer a standard web design package. Kropmark Design will customize the look of your website to match your company logo and overall brand, we will perform keyword research and competitor research for your business, and we will perform basic search engine optimization for your website. This package includes all of the services in the basic package plus the following services:

Design for three preliminary web design concepts
One revision to the selected website design concept
Competitor research and color theory research
Customization of HTML and CSS code
Testing in multiple browsers (PC and Mac)
Addition of Google Analytics
XML sitemap submitted to Google
Website registered with major search engines
Keyword research for your business genre
On-site search engine keyword optimization

For businesses that want to take maximum advantage of the online opportunities available to them, we recommend our enhanced web design package. Kropmark Design will help you set up and design your social media accounts, we will train you in their operation, and we will register you with five different online reputation websites to increase the accessibility of your business to online customers and the visibility of your website to search engines. This package includes all the services from the basic and standard packages, plus the following services:

Facebook account activation and design
Twitter account activation and design
One hour of social media account training
Online reputation check of your business
Account setup with Google+ Local, Yelp and any three other customer feedback sites

Website requirements not included in any of these packages are priced a la carte, and can include such things as photo galleries (priced by the number of photos), setup of online advertising (banner or sidebar ads), e-commerce applications and shopping cart setup. Kropmark Design also offers many other services such as copywriting of web content, Flash animation and link building-based search engine optimization.

Maintenance agreements are available for the following services:

Website updates and backups
Online coupon offers and regular online news releases
Professional blogging with SEO keywords
Regular posts to Facebook or Twitter based on your marketing strategy
Management of your Google AdWords or Facebook advertising campaigns
Email marketing (e-blast) campaign setup and management
Online reputation monitoring
Link building through registration with online directories

What makes Kropmark Design different?

Kropmark Design differs from other web design companies in that we use well-supported content management system websites with open source code, rather than proprietary systems. What this means to you is that you will own your website outright, rather than rent it. If at any time you decide you don’t like your web hosting, you can move your website anywhere else that you like. If at any time you don’t want to use Kropmark Design as your webmaster, you can use any number of other designers to help you. Your website will be that universally supported.

Many web designers want to control your website. Their proprietary content management systems force you to go back to them for changes, so that over time you pay more for your website. Kropmark Design leaves the control in your hands and allows you to choose the level of service and on-going support you require.

Our goal is to empower other small businesses to manage their website for themselves, and your new web design by Kropmark will allow this. Never before has website management been so accessible to the average businessperson. Making changes to your website is simple and does not require an intermediary. Because of this, Kropmark Design believes that our websites provide more value and bang for your buck than any other website provider. Try us and see the difference!

If you have any questions about the nuts and bolts of web design, give Kropmark Design a call at (719) 465-4599 or email us at info@kropmark.com. Unlike many of our competitors, our initial consultations are free and we love getting to know more about you and your business.

Image courtesy of Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Basics of SEO

September 21, 2012 by Kelly Robinson

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is an important component of any good website design. Yet many times when I speak about SEO to business owners, they still don’t know what it is or why it is necessary.

Every web page has two sides: the side which is seen by human visitors to your website (sometimes called the front-end), and the code behind your website which determines the content, the layout, and how it will be displayed by browsers. Many incredibly beautiful sites on the web have inferior coding or don’t take advantage of the code-based SEO opportunities available to them. Flash-based websites are great examples. They look great to human visitors, but are limited in their search engine optimization capabilities.

Kropmark Design offers online marketing and seo services. — This is how a website looks to humans.

On the other hand, many websites look terrible but get excellent rankings on Google because of their superior SEO. Great SEO is important, but not at the expense of professionalism and the ability to close the sale through your visual presentation. Kropmark Design helps businesses take maximum advantage of their online marketing by creating websites that are attractive to customers and search engines both. After all, what is the advantage of having a beautiful website if no one will ever see it?

Search engines rank your website based on two main criteria: relevant content and inbound links. Relevant content is established by having good copywriting that is rich in the keywords that your customers use in searches. Your site needs enough keywords to be found by Google, but not so many that you get penalized for artificially adding them, also known as “keyword stuffing.” As a result, websites with an abundance of well-written text will outperform websites with minimal content. This is why we recommend that businesses include a native blog component, updated regularly, into their websites.

SEO is making your html code get noticed by Google. — This is how a website looks to search engines.

Maximizing the presence of keywords within your html code is also key. Many business owners ignore file names when uploading photos to their blog or website. Humans who view uploaded photos on your website won’t ever see this filename, but Google will be able to read it in your code. The Colorado Springs SEO value in a file named colorado_springs_web_design.jpg is significantly greater than a file named 92b54h5.jpg. Renaming your files effectively is an easy way to add greater relevance to your website. Kropmark Design can help you with many similar techniques such as utilizing alt tags, writing strategic link and title copy, and using effective meta keywords and descriptions.

Inbound links to your website also raise your prominence in search engine results. Websites which have longevity, a good reputation, and are considered worthy of linking to by the online community are assigned greater value by search engines in website rankings. Most businesses want to get listed on the first page of a Google search the day their business opens, but off-site search engine optimization is a process that is best done over time. Registering your website on customer feedback websites and getting good reviews on these sites is very helpful. Linking to your website from online directories and submitting your blog to aggregator sites are also great techniques that Kropmark Design can implement to get you noticed on search engines like Google.

Opinions about best practices for search engine optimization cover a wide spectrum. Those practices which are condoned by search engines are called white hat SEO services. Techniques that are discouraged by search engines, or that use deception to accomplish better rankings, are called black hat SEO services. Some companies are looking for a quick fix that will get them ranked immediately. They contract SEO companies to trick search engine algorithms by creating artificial links and spam. However, Kropmark Design believes that white hat SEO techniques have greater payoffs in the long run and are also more ethical.

Additional avenues to increase your online presence include video marketing, social media marketing and pay-per-click advertising. Kropmark Design is an all-in-one online marketing company and can help you with any of your web marketing strategies. We can copywrite your social media posts and blog posts, optimize your content and code, and provide you with a beautiful website that will convert your customers into sales. Get found online. Call Kropmark Design today at 719-465-4599.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A good referral

September 10, 2012 by Kelly Robinson

If you network, you will certainly hear the phrase “a good referral for me is…” more than once. Networking is, after all, a way to help other businesses to succeed and to be helped in the process. I rarely bring referrals up in my own networking, as I prefer to allow leads to grow naturally and organically. However, this topic does give me an excuse to discuss who my clients tend to be and what to look for in businesses that might be helped by Kropmark Design.

Customers of Kropmark Design typically come to us for the following reasons:

You are starting a new Business

Most folks starting a new business today realize the necessity of a website and will make it one of their first priorities. The downside of this is that new businesses rarely have a lot of capital, causing some owners to make the mistake of getting a cheap (and cheaply done) web page design. Which leads me to my next type of client…

You are unhappy with your cheaply-made website

Although a website built through a free website builder will work in a pinch, most business owners realize quickly that there are significant drawbacks to these types of sites. For one, they rarely look as professional as a web page design should be in order to bring in finicky (discriminating?) clients. Second, many of these hosting providers will include only the most basic functionality in your website. Adding a blog, e-commerce or other advanced functions will often increase your monthly rate. These nickel and dime style charges begin to accumulate, and your “inexpensive” website becomes significantly more pricey. This process leads me to my next type of client…

You want to upgrade to a more powerful, flexible and functional website

The restrictions of a non-cms (content management system) website eventually will frustrate most business owners, forcing them to look at better website options. Why would any business pay a monthly charge for blog functionality on a cheap website when they can get a powerful and flexible website with an integrated blog for a one-time fee? Businesses that come to this conclusion will discover that a cms website provides the balance of good looks, adaptability, ease of use and power that other web page designs lack.

You are not getting found by the right customers

Many business owners have great websites, but they are not tapping into online clients as much as they should. These businesses ask for help with their search engine optimization, Google Analytics, or Google Places accounts. Some businesses need help creating quality print advertising or coupon offers.

You ARE getting found by the WRONG customers

Some businesses receive scathing online reviews that they previously did not know existed (Note: you can run your business with top notch customer service and still recieve bad reviews). These businesses realize the damage that negative online reviews can have, or they realize the positive impact that five star reviews of their business can have and ask Kropmark Design to help monitor their online customer feedback.

You want to market your business in other ways, but don’t have the resources

Many businesses want to tap into social media but don’t have the time or knowledge to do so. Some businesses come to Kropmark Design because they want professional print design and layout for their presentations, but they don’t have the proper software or ability to design it themselves.

So then, who are the customers of Kropmark Design?

Business startups
Growing businesses who need web page design or advertising help
Businesses who have at least ten customers a day and need their reputation monitored
Business that have a storefront, especially restaurants and retail

Kropmark Design enjoys working with other designers, marketing agencies and programmers who need additional design help but don’t want another full-time employee. Kropmark Design has also worked with many publishers in need of design, pre-press or production help.

We help other businesses to succeed. It is not just our mission statement, it is what Kropmark Design does and who we are. If you can relate to any of the above descriptions, trust us to provide a quality, high value product that is made with creativity, integrity and precision. We look forward to working with you.

Image by Comstock

Competition versus Collaboration

August 30, 2012 by Kelly Robinson

I do a lot of networking, and as you might expect I have run across many other businesspeople who are in the field of web design. Most of them are quite friendly, although I get the feeling that they wonder if I might take food off of their children’s plates some day. Although I have a great deal of respect for my competitors, these encounters have made an impression on me of the vast differences between competition and collaboration.

Those who are focused on competition see their counterparts in the same occupation as a threat. They may try to “one up” their competition at networking events when discussing their businesses, or even secure clients that are already in negotiations with other designers. They may not be receptive to working in collaboration with another business that they consider a competitor.

It’s my philosophy that in a town of 500,000 people there is more than enough web design work to go around, so I don’t really feel threatened by other Colorado Springs website designers. But there is an even greater desire within me to do something more than just make a buck, and that is to steadily increase my impact by expanding my network, my influence and my power to help other people. In other words, I believe in the power of collaboration rather than competition.

It is a basic premise. I once heard that one oxen can pull with only it’s own strength, but two oxen yoked together can pull significantly more than double the strength of just one ox. There is power in collaboration, whether it is on the football field or the archaelogical dig or in the world of web design. Because of this, I am always looking for other web designers to team up with who are talented and who share my view of collaboration. I also look for businesspeople who are open to strategic partnerships where we can work together on projects, and I’m developing some great relationships with other businesses because of this.

Ultimately, I believe that website designers who are collaborative are better at what they do. After all, isn’t design itself a collaborative effort between the client and the designer? The best designers are GOOD LISTENERS who hear what you have to say about your business and your marketing goals and put their own agendas aside in order to serve you. They will think about your competitors and your customers, and their designs will cater to the likes and dislikes of your market rather than their own personal biases. Designers that are prima donnas or who don’t comprehend that graphic design is driven by customer service miss the point and ultimately fail their clients.

Once, when I was employed full-time as a book designer (although most of what I did was art direction), we contracted out an illustration to a local Colorado Springs design company. The designer was given the text of a children’s book and asked to come up with cover illustrations based on the book concept. The result was an illustration featuring a cute little bee, which unfortunately had absolutely nothing to do with the concept of the book. When asked do justify the choice of a bee in the design, the designer responded by saying, “Well, I like bees.”

At Kropmark Design, our greatest satisfaction is helping other businesses to succeed. We do this by listening to what you have to say, by examining what your competition does well and does poorly, by analyzing what your customers are looking for and how to appeal to them, by communicating with you at every step of the design process, and by revising and refocusing until the final product is just right. It is a COLLABORATIVE process, not a competitive process. If you want to buy a widget, you go the the store and pay the price of a widget. No collaboration is needed. However, good web design and good graphic design grow from a working relationship between professionals striving to attain the same goal. Great Colorado Springs website design is what we do at Kropmark Design.

Image courtesy of Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Gain CONTROL of your website – Ask the RIGHT questions before hiring a web designer

August 22, 2012 by Kelly Robinson

I have been researching “Top Questions to ask before Hiring a Website Designer” on Google. The results I have found are typical of ones that you would ask for any profession: What is the Price, the Timeframe, your Experience, Referrals, and your Availability? Some of the things I came across are web design specific, such as: Do you have a Portfolio, do you know the appropriate Programming Languages (HTML, CSS, PHP, etc), and do you understand Site Security? These are all great questions to ask, but it seems like there is one incredibly important question that is being overlooked.

This question is:

“Will I own my website, hosting and url and will I be able to make changes to the website on my own?”

What this VERY important questions asks is, “WHO HAS CONTROL?” Do you, the business owner, have ownership of your website, or does the website designer have this power (and do you trust them with it)?

The reason all these questions came about for me is because of a networking one-on-one I had this week. The colleague I was speaking with was meeting me for the first time, and he wanted to ascertain if I was a legitimate website designer or not. So he asked me whether I buy the domain names for clients or if I let them buy it themselves. My reply is that I usually have the clients buy their domain on their own, and only make recommendations of what url to purchase (so that it is SEO friendly) and how and where to obtain their own hosting.

This was a positive answer in the opinion of my colleague, because he has encountered crooked website designers who purchased the domain name and hosting for their clients only to abuse and extort their clients later. As soon as the domain name was up for renewal, these website designers would increase their prices to exorbitant levels. Apparently, they view their clients as sources of income rather than human beings.

As you know, there are people who make an entire profession of domain name reselling. Similar to a ticket scalper at a sporting event, these people buy “in-demand” domain names anticipating that a business might be willing to purchase them at inflated prices later. However, for a website design professional to engage in this type of activity is a clear conflict of interest.

It comes down to a basic question of ethics: Are clients only an avenue from which to gain money (self serving), or are they people who deserve your respect (serving others)?

It also frustrates me that some website designers force their clients to use proprietary programs for their websites. These custom-coded systems severely restrict the access that business owners have to their website, forcing them to pay the designer for any changes that need to be made. But why would a website designer force a client into a content management system that is accessible only to the designer, especially when there are so many reliable, universally supported open-source systems available to use? It may be argued that the custom content management system is more efficient for the designer because he knows the program so well. I would argue that this prioritizes convenience for the designer rather than prioritizing the goals of the client.

At Kropmark Design, we operate our business with integrity and look out for the interests of our clients. We will not purchase your domain name or hosting for you, unless you specifically request this. Although we do make web hosting recommendations and are affiliates of some hosting programs, we do not force our clients into any of these choices and are happy to work with any legitimate hosting company. And most important, we do not force our clients to use a proprietary website system that only we can edit. We only use well-supported content management systems such as WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. These systems allow you, the business owner, to make most changes to the website yourself without the need to pay us another penny. And if you decide to work with another website designer for future website modifications, these systems will allow that (although we would be sad to lose you as a customer).

In other words, we give YOU, the business owner, CONTROL. We know that if you are smart enough to run your own business, then you are also smart enough to manage your own website. Once your website is completed, we will train you in how to manage your own online changes and will give you full administrator access to every aspect of your website. We hand over the keys to your website when the job is complete, and any website designer who does something less than this is suspect.

Don’t forget to ask the right questions of your website designer. Make sure that you can own and manage your website yourself and don’t feel forced into any situation where you feel you lack control or are getting a lower value product from your website designer.

Images courtesy of Pixomar and Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net