Kropmark Design

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Archives for September 2012

The nuts and bolts of web design

September 30, 2012 by Kelly Robinson

The nuts and bolts of web design by Kropmark.

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

Filed Under: Web Design Tagged With: analytics, backlinks, blogging, browser testing, content management systems, css, customer feedback, domain names, Drupal, e-commerce, Facebook, html, Joomla, keywords, maintenance agreements, online advertising, online presence, online reputation, photo gallery, search engine optimization, shopping cart, sitemap, social media, Twitter, web design, websites, WordPress

The Basics of SEO

September 21, 2012 by Kelly Robinson

Colorado Springs SEO and website design by Kropmark.

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

Filed Under: SEO Tagged With: blogging, customer feedback, online presence, search engine optimization, social media, web design, websites

Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?

September 13, 2012 by Kelly Robinson

The World Trade Center on fire on September 11, 2001.

This is off the topic of website design, but since it is that time of year I thought I would reminisce about where I was on the day of September 11, 2001.

In the spring of 2001, I had been laid off from my job. I wasn’t alone. Nearly half of the workforce of the company that I worked for had been laid off in a downsizing, and since I was relatively new and the low man on the totem pole I did not make the cut. Rather than accepting an offer for a full-time position from another company, I decided to take the adventure of going freelance as a graphic designer. I had already been freelancing on the side while working full-time and some other work-from-home opportunities came available for me just at the right time.

The morning of September 11, I woke up ready to get some work done for one of my regular clients. However, something drew me to turn on the television that morning to check the news. I tuned in after the first tower had been struck, but before the second tower was struck and before they both collapsed. Needless to say, I did not get much work done that day.

I sat there mesmerized and wondering whether my country was about to go to war. I worried that the attacks would happen nationally, and whether living in Colorado Springs with our many military installations would make us a target. And I was very sad and burdened by what I was watching. To this day, the thing that makes me the most emotional is the images of people jumping out of windows to their death in order to avoid the intense heat of the jet fuel.

Near lunch time, I began thinking of my mother who lived in town. I called her to see if she was okay, and I could tell that she was having a hard time with it. So I left my house and headed over to see her. When she opened the door, we just hugged each other for a few minutes and let out our emotions. We spent most of the afternoon together, talking and watching the news for the latest information. It was very eerie that day. All the radio stations were broadcasting information and playing patriotic songs like Lee Greenwood’s “I’m Proud to be an American.” I learned that song in elementary school and can still sing most of it. Funny how it only gets played at times like these.

After that day, some good and some bad things happened. The good? People were much more open in their love for America, displaying flags on their cars and in their homes. It also reminded us once again of the frailty of life and the importance of telling the ones you love how you feel about them. Even though it led us to war against the terrorists, I feel that it brought our country together in many ways. I am not old enough to remember Pearl Harbor, but as a fan of history I love the Franklin Delano Roosevelt “Day of Infamy” speech. Just as then, our generation has now experienced a “day that will live in infamy.” No longer should we rest on our laurels, thinking that America is safe from the dangers that so many people in the world experience all the time.

Of course, there were many bad things that happened as a result of that day. Most importantly, we lost nearly 3,000 unique and irreplaceable people in the attacks. We ended up in multiple wars where we lost even more of our noblest countrymen. New York City was devastated and our country entered a recession that forced many people out of their jobs.

The recession took it’s toll on me as well. The freelance jobs that had been giving me regular work began to dry up. By 2002, I was forced to take a contract job as a photography assistant at my former employer. This turned out to be a great blessing for me because I eventually was re-hired to a graphic designer position very similar to the one I had been laid off from a year earlier. I had come full circle.

I hear stories from many others about where they were the day the towers fell. Every person seems to have a story they want to share, and each story is interesting in it’s own way. There’s a great song by Alan Jackson that talks about that day better than I could ever express it:

Where were you when the world stopped turning on that September day?
Were you in the yard with your wife and children or working on some stage in L.A.?
Did you stand there in shock at the sight of that black smoke risin’ against that blue sky?
Did you shout out in anger, in fear for your neighbor or did you just sit down and cry?

Did you weep for the children who lost their dear loved ones and pray for the ones who don’t know?
Did you rejoice for the people who walked from the rubble and sob for the ones left below?
Did you burst out with pride for the red, white and blue and the heroes who died just doin’ what they do?
Did you look up to heaven for some kind of answer and look at yourself and what really matters?

I’m just a singer of simple songs, I’m not a real political man
I watch CNN but I’m not sure I can tell you the difference in Iraq and Iran
But I know Jesus and I talk to God, and I remember this from when I was young
Faith, hope and love are some good things He gave us
And the greatest is love

Where were you when the world stopped turning on that September day?
Were you teaching a class full of innocent children or driving down some cold interstate?
Did you feel guilty ‘cause you’re a survivor? In a crowded room did you feel alone?
Did you call up your mother and tell her you loved her? Did you dust off that Bible at home?

Did you open your eyes, hope it never happened, close your eyes and not go to sleep?
Did you notice the sunset the first time in ages or speak to some stranger on the street?
Did you lay down at night and think of tomorrow or go out and buy you a gun?
Did you turn off that violent old movie you’re watchin’ and turn on “I Love Lucy” reruns?

Did you go to a church and hold hands with some strangers?
Did you stand in line and give your own blood?
Did you just stay home and cling tight to your family
Thank God you had somebody to love?

I’m just a singer of simple songs, I’m not a real political man
I watch CNN but I’m not sure I can tell you the difference in Iraq and Iran
But I know Jesus and I talk to God, and I remember this from when I was young
Faith, hope and love are some good things He gave us
And the greatest is love.
And the greatest is love.
And the greatest is love.

Where were you when the world stopped turning on that September day?

Image courtesy of the Prints and Photographs Division. Library of Congress.

Filed Under: Life

A good referral

September 10, 2012 by Kelly Robinson

Good referrals for Kropmark Design are businesses who need website help.

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

Filed Under: Networking Tagged With: business, content management systems, networking, online presence, referrals, search engine optimization, social media, startups, web design, websites

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Kropmark Design
based in Colorado Springs, CO
Phone: 719-465-4599

Social media feed for the Kropmark Design Facebook page.Twitter feed of Kropmark Design, with news about web design and graphic design.

All artwork and text used on this website is the copyrighted intellectual property of Kropmark Design (except where noted) and may not be downloaded, copied or used without permission.

About the owner

Kelly Robinson started Kropmark Design in 2009 to focus on providing small businesses with high quality website design.

He is married and has three kids who consume lots of no-bake cookies. His interests include creating and coding, making a difference in the universe and sleeping to recuperate. He is a Colorado Springs native, a sixth grade spelling bee finalist and will remain a jeans and t-shirt guy even inside his own casket.

Tags

analytics animation backlinks blogging browser testing business cascading style sheets collaboration content management systems css customer feedback design process domain names Drupal e-blasts e-commerce experience Facebook html Joomla keywords lead generation maintenance agreements networking online advertising online presence online reputation photo gallery php portfolio price referrals search engine optimization security shopping cart sitemap social media startups strategic partnerships timeframe Twitter web design websites WordPress

Social Media, etc

Kropmark Design
based in Colorado Springs, CO
Phone: 719-465-4599

Social media feed for the Kropmark Design Facebook page.Twitter feed of Kropmark Design, with news about web design and graphic design.

All artwork and text used on this website is the copyrighted intellectual property of Kropmark Design (except where noted) and may not be downloaded, copied or used without permission.

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