Posts Tagged ‘web design’

Marketing a Portfolio Site 101

November 10th, 2009


For web designers and web developers (as well as other professionals, such as photographers) the portfolio website is one of the most important assets. In many cases the portfolio site will be a leading source of inquiries from potential clients, and it is the best way to showcase your work to anyone who is interested.

Although the importance of the portfolio site is obvious, having an effective one requires that people actually see it. Having a great portfolio is one thing, but getting it seen is another. There are so many designers out there that competition is very stiff and without marketing your site it is likely to get very little attention.

Here we will go over several tips that can help you to get more out of your portfolio site by increasing its exposure to potential clients.

1. Consider Search Engines

SEO (search engine optimization) is a huge topic that could never be covered in one brief article. However, one of the basics of optimizing a site for search engines is to simply make it easy for the search engines to crawl the site so they can accurately determine what the site is about.

To make your site search friendly, use valid code that is clean and well-organized. This includes proper use of headings, and choosing not to do anything that will trick search engines or make it difficult for them to crawl your site.

2. Include Keywords and Phrases in Your Page Titles

Page titles are critical for search engine rankings, more so than any other on-page factor. Give lots of thought to the titles that you choose for your pages and try to match them up with the same words and phrases that people are likely to use in a search to find that page.

Since there are so many sites out there already that are about web design-related topics, it’s best to pick more specific phrases that can narrow down the amount of competition you have and increase your chances of ranking high.

Try using a specific phrase like “custom WordPress themes.” This will be highly relevant to the services that you offer, plus it will give you a better chance of actually getting search engine traffic since there will be less competition for your keywords.

3. Don’t Forget About Localities

One way to make your website stand out is to optimize it for local searches. For example, instead of targeting the phrase “web designer,” try targeting “Philadelphia web designer.” This will drastically decrease the competition that you have for search rankings and it is something that local clients would actually search for.

4. Build Links

Along with the page title, links from other websites are as influential to search engine rankings as any other factor. In a way, search engine rankings are a bit of a popularity contest. Google views a link as basically a vote. When you link to another website you are essentially endorsing it.

Anyone that aspires to build a site that gets lots of search traffic will need to focus on link building. Here are a few ideas of ways to get links to your portfolio site:

Put a blog on your site – Portfolio sites and blogs are popular combinations, and part of the reason is that blogs attract links from other blogs. It will take some work to maintain the blog and publish new content, but it is one of the best things you can do for search traffic.

Market your site and blog via social media – SMM is a great way to get links. Articles that draw a lot of attention from social media users will generally get a lot of links.

Exchange links – You can make an agreement with other website owners and bloggers to link to each other.

Submit to galleries – If your site has a high-quality design you may be able to get a lot of traffic and links from web design and CSS galleries that showcase sites.

5. Create Something Amazing

In order to get your portfolio site accepted at design galleries it will need to be of very high quality. When designing and developing your portfolio site don’t rush and lose quality. Take the time to make it the best that you are capable of.

6. Use Freebies to Draw People In

Giving to get is a popular method of promoting a website. People love free stuff, so if you can give something of quality that people will want, you will increase the number of people that come to your portfolio site. You could give away free website templates, code snippets, or anything else that will attract links and visitors.

Steven Snell is a web designer and freelance blogger. He maintains a gallery of portolio websites and a gallery of ecommerce websites.

Comments Off »

Posted in Search Engine Optimization

Tags:

Web Design Nottingham

September 10th, 2009


What to look for so you know you will get a good deal.

Before choosing a web designer in Nottingham I would strongly recommend you see examples of their work before you instruct them to make a start. That seems obvious I know but here is where lots of people fall foul – make sure that the sites you see are representative of the site that will be built for you. Some web designers in Nottingham have a variety of packages for different budgets.

A good web design company in Nottingham should speak to you about your requirements before they start work. This is so they know they can do what you want. Make sure you tell them what you want at the start, don’t rely on them to know!

Check the full level of services available. Building a website is like building a hotel. It can be a beautiful hotel, but if no one can find it there is little point in its existence, as no customers will come. You need to put signs pointing to the hotel, and you need to advertise it. Many web designers in Nottingham don’t offer SEO (search engine optimization) or website promotion, try to get one that does both so your website can be found and you save money.

To put your website on the Internet the wed design company will have to purchase a domain name (the www.yourbusinessname.co.uk address) and also pay to host it. These are legitimate costs but you need to know whether these are extra charges or whether they are incorporated in the fee.

Make sure you own the content. It is likely that the Nottingham based web design company will buy the domain for you and host the site. Make sure you own it and can change it as you wish. Agree the charges for changes with the web design company. You don’t want to pay for a complete rebuild every time you want to change a word or 2.

Nottingham Logo Design are a web design company based in Nottingham and offer a full service. This even includes printed shirts and flyers for those that require it. Visit our main site for Web Design Nottingham

No comments »

Posted in Search Engine Optimization

Tags:

Combine Viral Marketing and Article Marketing With Unique Article Wizard

September 8th, 2009


Free ebooks are great for a viral marketing campaign. Viral marketing is a good way to market your online business. Article marketing can make your viral marketing campaign a success. Targeted traffic to your site rewards you with customers that buy. Viral marketing can be a profitable platform for years of revenue.

Here are good reasons why this is true today and will also be true for the foreseeable future.

1. Ebooks are not expensive to make and do not take long to set up. You can even combine articles that you have already written about the subject you are promoting and put them into an ebook.

2. You want your ebook to reach a large audience so be sure it contains something people will want to share like good information or humor. People will pass along something that makes them look like they are in-the-know.

3. A great way to sell products and a great way to sell products other than the one you originally targeted. Isn’t that the result you want when you promote your site?

4. Your reputation and credibility will be strengthened. It is your implied recommendation if you give a quality ebook and users pass it on to others.

5. It is a good idea to give the visitors of your website a free gift for subscribing to your newsletter. If your ebook contains material that people want to share, they will pass it along to to others and you will make money.

6. Allow people to place an advertisement in your free ebook if they give away the ebook to their web visitors or ezine subscribers.

7. When you write articles about your service or product, give people permission to reprint your articles on their website, in their ezine, newsletter, magazine or ebooks. Make sure to include a resource box and the option for article reprints at the bottom of each article.

To make article marketing easy, I recommend using Unique Article Wizard. Every article you write will be turned into hundreds of unique articles and will be submitted all over the internet for you to niche websites, directories and top ezine publishers. Your articles are also available for reprinting. Combine viral marketing and article marketing for a successful marketing campaign.

Unique Article Wizard is a very powerful and cost effective internet marketing tool. Make your viral marketing and article marketing strategy a success. Increase your credibility! Bring traffic to your business!

No comments »

Posted in Link Building

Tags:

What Makes Good Website Design Service

September 5th, 2009


Website design service can be a little difficult and distressing to hire out sometimes. Web design firms all have different policies for deciding the way layout your site and how to promote your new site. A little research before selecting the firm to work with in these areas will help to guarantee that you get the site you’re after.

Design Concept

A professional web design company will also have its own idea of how to structure the design of your website. Some methods are obvious and universal in all good and useful sites. But successful sites can be very different from each other.

Take a look at other companies or competitors in your industry or genre. It is safe to assume that you can build your website close to how most of those do. One thing that should be universal in web design is resolution consideration. It is still important that on any web site, design firms house most of the main content within a rectangle that is 1024 px wide by 726 px high.

SEO

SEO stands for “search engine optimization”. A lot of web marketers claim to have it down pat. All you have to do is ask for their results. Listening to someone about how to promote or market your website should be approached very carefully. Ask for details about their successes.

The rules of the internet are constantly changing and it takes quite a bit of work to keep up with state-of-the0art tactics. Monitoring your websites progress and the effects of your search engine marketing is the best way to make sure that you are not wasting your money and that you are getting a proper return on your investment.

When looking for the best web design company, you must consider their views on web design format, content management systems, design layout and internet marketing. Web design is a key part to your business growth nowadays, so take the time to investigate how the internet can open new opportunities for you. Be careful not to pass it off to someone you think you can trust without knowing exactly what they are going to deliver.

When choosing your web design company, be thorough in explaining your expectations and in collecting from them the details of their plan to complete your website. Learning what to expect will save you money and grief and hopefully put you well on your way to expanding your business onto the web.

Contributor B. Dalton has been in multimedia many years, read all his articles for more on web design firms and website design service.

No comments »

Posted in Search Engine Optimization

Tags:

wp