We may not have a crystal ball with all of the answers, but here at TheeDesign Studio we have a few 2012 predictions on how internet marketing will adapt to changes in web design.

Responsive design will become mainstream.

Responsive design is the concept of creating websites that automatically scale and rearrange their content according to the device and screen size it is being viewed. We saw a bit of responsive design in 2011 with smartphone applications and games, but in 2012 it will become necessary for websites to function and become just as visually adaptable.

Responsive web design will require internet marketing experts to decide what content is the most important and how it should be placed on the page. A call-to-action button, like “Call us Now” or “Place Order Here,” in a sidebar on a desktop computer might not fit on a mobile browser, and so they’ll have to think about the size and placement of that button on the page.

Mobile design will become industry standard.

Smartphones are everywhere and tablet usage is growing every day. In order to stay in front of their audience, websites are being forced to adapt to the various mobile platforms available on the market.

In 2011 we saw marketers start to capitalize on mobile technology by offering incentives to customers who used their smartphones to scan promotional codes or check-in their location at their business. We will still see this mobile approach to marketing in 2012, but we will also see more business executives using their tablets as high-tech marketing brochures. Mobile devices allow the traveling salesperson to bring and showcase their portfolio, quickly pull up reports, or process a credit card payment instantly and all on one device.

Flash will become extinct.

Flash was once very popular for web designers, but it has slowly lost momentum. In 2012, flash will likely lose all or most of its momentum. CSS3 and HTML5 have come into the picture and offer faster loading, interactivity for users, and is simply better than Flash for mobile devices.

HTML5 has taken over most of the actions that Flash could do. HTML5 will greatly influence internet marketing in 2012 because it can create really rich and interesting typography, graphics and video which combined can create a dynamic marketing website that compels the viewer to stay on the site longer or make a purchase.

Managing a business website is now easier than ever with the availability of open source Content Management Systems (CMS). A CMS allows a business owner to update and edit their website’s content without advanced webmaster or programming skills.

A good CMS helps you:

• keep your website well organized
• reduce site maintenance costs
• generate and manage sales leads

WordPress is a very popular blog posting platform. But what many people don’t know is that it is also an excellent open source CMS. Here at TheeDesign Studio, we use WordPress to design and build websites for our clients. Our designers and developers customize the CMS to fit each client’s needs and design preferences.

A few of the top reasons why we believe WordPress is the best open source CMS of 2011:

• Supportive global community.

Since WordPress is so widely used, there is an abundance of tutorials and help forums available to find any and all information a developer could possibly need in customizing the CMS.

• Easy content editing.

Once the design and development are done, our clients love the user-friendly CMS platform that allows them to update their content, post blogs or company news, or update contact information.

• Search engine friendliness.

WordPress makes it easy to optimize websites for search engine results. That means your site is more likely to land on the first page of Google, Yahoo, and Bing results when someone is searching for your keywords.

• Sales lead management.

We design websites are not just pretty, but are powerful marketing tools. WordPress is great for keeping track of your internet leads coming from your website and submitting information on your website contact form.

Many of us at TheeDesign Studio are from elsewhere; California, New York, Kansas, Connecticut, Michigan and even Hungary. We all agree that this is the one of the strongest economies in the country and an excellent place to raise a family.

Personally, I have lived all over the country and can say that there’s no place quite like NC. I like being able to drive for a couple of hours East to some of the most beautiful beaches the Atlantic Coast has to offer or drive a couple of hours West of here and let my kids experience natural wonders of the Appalachian Mountains.

The folks at NC Headlines agree with us and they created this awesome infographic that displays some of the best features North Carolina offers it’s residents and tourists. From the Hatteras Lighthouse to the Biltmore Estate to The Birthplace of NASCAR in Hickory, North Carolina is just about the best place to live and work.

Our marketing and web design team here in Raleigh is working hard filling your website and internet presence with holiday cheer (and search engine friendly keywords). But sometimes even hard working elves need to take a break and share a laugh…

Internet marketing efforts can fall into two holiday categories: Naughty and Nice. Here are a couple examples of both to help you assess, is your marketing Naughty or Nice?

Naughty List

• Boring Content

If you aren’t keeping your website and social media content fresh and interesting, you are wasting your time. A common marketing mistake for businesses is that they believe they should talk only about themselves and their achievements. This might be interesting to you and your staff, but can be boring to your audience.

It is more valuable to your marketing efforts if you can tell your audience what you can offer them. How you can make their lives better or easier. Useful or entertaining information is much more interesting than self promotion.

• Christmas Spam

A holiday ham can be tasty, but spam is a different story. No one likes spam messages regardless of the time of year. However many businesses abuse the holidays as an excuse to send excessive amounts of email promotions. Being too pushy or spamming with your internet marketing can have the opposite effect of what you intended, as your would-be consumers start to opt-out of your messages or blacklist you as a spammer.

Nice List

• Holiday Keywords

The holidays are a great opportunity for marketing your products or services as gift items. Including keywords like “Christmas” or “Gift” can help your target consumers find your products easier as they are searching for the perfect gift items for loved ones. If you are a bakery for example, you could add the keywords “Christmas cupcakes for holiday parties” or “gifts for bakers.”

• Spreading Social Cheer

Wish your Facebook fans a Merry Christmas. Take some time out of your busy day and write personal thank you messages to clients on their Facebook wall. Make someone smile for the simple joy that it brings. People trust brands with good intentions and respond well to messages that don’t have an alternative or hidden agenda.

Unless you are already experienced with website design, SEO, HTML, and CSS coding it’s probably an easy decision to just hire a professional web development company to handle the designing and implementation for you. Before you hire someone though, there are a few things you need to consider.

Initial thoughts are usually about price: “How much is going to cost me?” But along with cost you want to interview and assess the skills of the people who will be working on your site. Most successful website development companies work as a team utilizing a combination of specialists:

• PHP and MySQL Programmers
• HTML and CSS Developers
• Web and Graphic Designers
• Copywriters and Content Developers
• Internet Marketers and SEO Experts

Other “companies” may have one person trying to do all of this. It’s important to make sure you interview these individuals and making sure they are competent in each field.

Before searching for a website design company you probably want to give some thought to:

• What do you want your website to look like?
• What meta messages and content do you want on the home page?
• How do you want to convert your visitors: phone number, shopping cart, contact form or subscribe button?
• How many pages will you need?
• What color scheme do you like?
• Do you need a new logo or will you use your existing corporate identity elements?
• Do you have a video or need one produced?
• What kind of images will you need?
• Do you have any client testimonials and how do you want them displayed?
• What social media do you use or want to connect to?

A good website designer or website design agency can help guide you through these decisions. Your online marketing should be customized to what you want and doesn’t leave you stuck in a cookie-cutter template.

What to Look for in a Website Design Firm?

• Portfolio
  An established website design company will have a portfolio for you to browse. Along with impressive design, you want to look for originality and diversification. You should ask to see some “live” examples of their work online. Excessive flash designs are bad, as search engines have a hard time indexing them and can therefore hinder your search ranking. Look for social media connectivity, sign up forms, contact forms and other marketing features. Remember that a website’s purpose is to effectively market your products and services, not just look pretty.
• Originality
  Look for originality in the layout, design, graphics, videos etc. Anyone can copy photos and videos from the net, but it takes an expert to design quality custom images. You want your site to be as unique as your company.
• Experience
  Although someone new without a large portfolio might save you some money initially, if you are envisioning a large site with interactivity, videos, sales funnels, shopping carts, etc. you’re going to need someone with experience.
  An experienced website designer will be able to get the tasks done much faster – saving you time and money in the long run.
• Price
  Website design pricing can be all over the place. You can find a couple of hundred dollar quotes but these are normally only small-scale static page sites; not professional interactive marketing website with a content management system that you are probably looking for. Never choose the cheapest developer but you probably don’t want to pay the large agencies’ overhead either. If you want rotating presentations, green screen videos, newsletter systems, SEO, online marketing, social media and other features that will grow your business, you can’t afford to skimp! Get it done right the first time!
• Timeline to Complete
  You should expect that a good development team take about a week to research your company industry and competitors. Then they will plan your site structure and setup your site map. Based on the approved wireframe it takes about a week to design your home page. After approval, it takes about a month to develop a fully functioning CMS website, adding the content and optimizing it for search engines. If you have a particularly large site with a lot of products, shopping carts, and custom graphics then it may take longer.
• On-Going Support, Marketing and SEO Services
  One of the most important (and often overlooked) aspect of a website is SEO. When hiring a web designer you have to make sure they develop clean, search engine friendly codes based on CSS/XHTML templates. Then they need to tweak your text and optimize it for the major search engines. You also want to make sure they will be available when you need assistance or changes that your content management system doesn’t allow you to update.

These were just a few thoughts about choosing your web design partner. Do your own research and decide wisely.

Between WordPress.com (the free blogging platform) and WordPress.org (the open source content management system platform) WordPress powered websites almost eclipsed 60 million sites. Stunning! To put it in perspective this is the equivalent of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and New York populations combined and represents almost 20% of all the websites in the world! I say, “Impressive!”

Interestingly WordPress growth shows no indications of slowing. It’s been documented that as of 2011, there have been over 100,000 new WordPress sites created EVERY DAY! Blogging including business blogs not only continue to be popular but the trends are indicating even greater growth. Individuals, businesses and publishers are creating all kinds of sites going beyond simple blogs to company websites, news sites, sports sites, magazines, social networks and so much more that this page probably couldn’t hold all the possibilities. So how does WordPress compare to other content management systems?

In a word… DOMINATION! Out of the three top CMS site – WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal – WordPress captures almost 55% with Joomla and Durpal well off the pace with only 16% combined! WOW! Need we say more?

Why Is WordPress So Popular?

EASE-OF-USE! Quite frankly “it’s so easy a cave man could do it!” and that’s the truth. No coding, just type into an editor that looks like a “word doc” editor.

WordPress themes were designed for content management now known as a CMS website. Because of that emphasis it allows the user to easily upload images, pictures, videos, cut and paste content, graphics and more. These sites can be as complex as any coded custom site but without all the HTML coding. Now when you have an employee quite or you want to add a new article, or you have to change your online calendar or location, you don’t have to call your web programmer or track down the original designer to make it happen. Your admin area is easily accessible for quick changes.

Standard features are available via plugins or custom features can be developed by a WordPress developer. The additional features are too many to cover but here’s a taste; calendars, SEO tools, analytics to track visitors, interactive commenting, headers with rotating images, ecommerce shopping carts, rotating testimonials, social bookmarking, social media inter-connectivity, and much, much more.

Lets clear up some confusion for those of you that think WordPress websites are just blogs. WordPress.org and .com were alluded to in the first paragraph. WordPress.com started out as a free blogging platform. Grandma talked about her knitting, the kids talked about what clothes they bought today. Gradually businesses picked it up as an inexpensive – free actually- way to have a web presence. Unfortunately WordPress.com does not have the functionality need for a full blown business website. For example, you don’t have access to plugins and for another you don’t have as many themes to choose from. But with WordPress.org that all changes.

WordPress.org is a hosted, open source CMS application based on themes, which can be merely customized or fully developed into a totally custom content management system yet still with the ease of personal management mentioned above. WordPress websites are now the rule rather than the exception and setting the standard for today’s CMS websites and are paving the way for website innovation moving forward.

Who Use WordPress?

You might ask, who use WordPress? The answer is simple, everyone from a small mom and pop shop, my neighbor’s family blog and the fortune 500 companies such as UPS, Old Spice, Play Station, Samsung, Nikon and much more.

TheeDesign Studio creates only custom designed and developed WordPress websites to meet your exact business requirements. We will provide any feature no matter how obscure you may think it is. Plus, when done, our professional team will coach you through how to use your new site; no frustration, no hassles, no wanting to throw your computer against the wall! Isn’t it time you had the number one website platform working on your team? Don’t hesitate to call us at 919-341-8901 or schedule a consultation with one of our WordPress specialists today.

Similar in function to the Facebook “Like” button, Google’s +1 indicates a personal recommendation on search results. Incorporating personal social recommendations all over the Google network will possibly change the way we choose which search results to actually click on, and can therefore change the approach to search engine marketing.

What & Where

Basically, the Google +1 button is an easy way of saying “this is cool” or “check this out”. The direct impact of Google Plus on site traffic is unknown so far, since it’s so new, but we can anticipate it changing the way users choose to select sites that come up in search. You will be able to find the +1 button directly next to search results and on the page itself. Google has released the short code to embed the +1 on your site, which lets visitors know just how many people have recommended you. If you pay for Google AdWords PPC, the +1 will also show up next to your ad.
In Google Search, anyone who is logged in while searching will see the +1 button. The aggregate annotations are public to everyone, and signed in users will also see personalized +1s from their address book in Gmail, contacts in Google Talk, and people in their circles on Google+. We expect that these personalized annotations will become the most useful, since they are coming from individuals with whom the user already communicates with.

Why

The +1 button will be useful for not only the users, who will be getting personalized recommendations from friends and colleagues they know and trust, but it will be equally useful for business, whose page will be shown as recommended to the contacts of everyone who adds the +1. In addition, +1 will also impact the ranking and relevancy according to Google. Google assumes +1s to be highly recommended, highly relevant, and highly credible, thus ranking it above a similar site with fewer or no +1s.

How

So how will adding a +1 button help your business? Well, sites with a number of aggregated +1’s may increase your page’s visibility in search results and because the +1’s are all added by users, all of their contacts will see your page as highly recommended, thus drawing traffic to your site. Google is constantly changing their algorithm and this new ranking symbol is sure to have an impact on search results and overall traffic.

Innately, all search results will come up with a +1 button next to the page title. In addition, webmasters have the opportunity to add the button itself onto the page by adding this code:

<!– Place this tag in your head or just before your close body tag –>

<script type=”text/javascript” src=”https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js”></script>

<!– Place this tag where you want the +1 button to render –>

<g:plusone></g:plusone>

Each website owner tends to know their visitors best, so when determining where to put the button on the page, consider the location where your viewers will notice it and where it can be most effective. I recommend near the page title or next to sharing links. Also note that Google is likely to crawl your pages with the new +1 button, so now is a good time to go over your Meta data and content, as well.

To learn more about search engine optimization, internet marketing and other emerging technologies, check out the rest of the posts on our blog. If you are looking for ways to take advantage of the Google +1 button with internet marketing and SEO, contact our experts at TheeDesign Studio by calling 919-341-8901, or by filling out our inquiry form. Also, don’t forget to +1 TheeDesign Studio whenever you can!

We’ve seen Google try to do the social thing before (Google buzz, Google wave) and it didn’t work out so well. This time, however, it seems as if Google may have caught on to how individuals actually want to make the Google experience a social one. Still on trial run to a limited invited few, Google+ combines the way humans function in real life with the way humans function online, and have created a integrated and logical way to connect with the people in our lives. The key features include Circles, Hangouts, Instant Upload, Sparks and Huddle.

Here is a quick rundown of each feature:

Circles

This feature is a way to categorize friends, acquaintances, family members, co-workers and everyone else in your life. Similar to groups on Facebook, Circles creates the literal and virtual counterpart to the real life social circle. The interface is great; just click and drag people into the appropriate circle, just like you would in real life. Circles are an easy way to group and share information with the right people.

Hangouts

Again, Google must have considered how social interactions most naturally happen in real life and then tried to find a way to seamlessly apply that to virtual and online interaction. So, most often when we gather in real life, we hang out. Until now, online interaction has never been as casual and easy as real life. Instead, one must initiate a conversation, share information, or schedule a time to get together online. With Google + Hangouts, the “unplanned meet up” comes to the web for the first time. Now, whenever online, you can let specific friends, or entire circles, know your hanging out and whoever else is hanging out can drop in for a video chat. This multi person video chat features volume sensitive focus, drawing attention to whoever is talking, or talking loudest, just like in real life conversation.

Instant Upload

Instant upload pulls photos immediately from a phone to a Google+ account. Although a small feature, this is extremely useful to share photos instantly, never having to plug in and sync. Also, share photos with your circles with one click!

Sparks

Sparks lets you add your interests, and then it feeds information that it thinks you will like. Whether it’s a blog, article, video or page, Sparks gives you interesting content to enjoy on your own time. Sparks really lets you filter the internet, bringing you cool things that actually interest you.

Huddle

Huddle turns group text into group chat; letting groups of friends contribute to a conversation on the go. Huddle with an entire circle and easily coordinate with others. Huddle saves your texting fingers from relaying a single message dozens of times between friends, and helps keep everyone on the same page.

We are really impressed with Google’s venture in to social media. Needless to say, Google+ blows Wave and Buzz out of the water. By combining real life human social behaviors with the power, intelligence and popularity of Google, we see Google+ becoming a social second nature.

Keep up with TheeDesign Studio via social media. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or subscribe to our YouTube channel. And of course, if you have any questions about social media marketing or custom web design, call us at 919-341-8901 or schedule a consultation with one of our experts.

See, in 1862 Congress passed The Homestead Act. Which basically allowed you to be part of the great race West, out over the Great Plains and into the future of America. In short, you (literally) staked your claim at whatever location you felt fit your needs and, if you maintained and improved your lot for 6 months, you could buy your parcel of land from the federal government for just $1.25 an acre.

This set the stage for mad dashes, frenzied searches, cutthroat competition and (barely) contained chaos in a land of undefined borders, no clear parameters, numerous and conflicting agendas and wiiiiiide open spaces – spaces that held many unknown perils and dangers.

You know, kind of like searching for the right internet marketing firm to partner with…

At TheeDesign Studio, every day we speak with business owners and dreamers with a vision (or, D.W.A.V.) who stroll in with perplexed looks on their faces. They obviously have been to talk with some local, BIG-BOY FIRM – you know the type; they would prefer to demonstrate their intelligence by laying down the beats of jargon and lingo to a clearly overwhelmed prospect, (“Look at the big brain on me!”) as opposed to speaking with them at whatever particular level of technological know-how they happen to possess

Or…

We talk to business owners or D.W.A.V. that have gone the “Skippy Route”. They listened to the voices who told them it was silly to align with a professional firm when “my youngest, Skippy, just graduated from Somewhere University and he can do the whole thing for just $750.00!” These folks are generally not happy and not ready to trust again so quickly.
When a representative of these groups walk through our door, we slow the entire process down. We talk TO them, not AT them. And we make… things… simple.

We are a turnkey internet marketing firm. If you are in need a functional, malleable, accessible and professional web presence, we will shepherd you thorough the darkness, around the obstacle and pitfalls, from step one all the way through your site’s launch, and continuing on with the marketing of your online presence.

We design. We develop. We consult. We listen. And we market.

In other words, relax. Exhale. We got your back. You’re in good hands. And your traveling days are over.

So when the time comes to hitch your wagon to an internet marketing firm remember the old rule: KISS. Keep it simple, um, Sally.

TheeDesign Studio, provides dedicated, in-house talent and has every step of your cyber journey covered.

(Oh, and we’re really good, too).

Wagon’s Ho!

Call 919-341-8901 or fill out our inquiry form today to set up a free consultation with one of our internet marketing experts.

Since WordPress’ inaugural entrance into the content management world, we have seen a huge shift in web standards and what kinds of site are desired by businesses and individuals. WordPress itself has gone through a large series of upgrades since its birth in 2003, including three major redevelopments. WordPress 3.2 (beta) was actually just released about two weeks ago. Since February, variations of WordPress 3.0 had been downloaded over 32.5 million times.

History

Back in 2003, two developers, Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little began creating WordPress as a fork of b2/cafelog, which, as a precursor to WordPress, was written in PHP for use with MySQL, and was used on approximately 2,000 blogs as of May 2003 when WordPress launched. WordPress gained a lot of attention and many users quite quickly. Within 6 years, the Open Source content management system Market Share Report concluded that WordPress had the greatest brand strength over any other open source content management system.  14 releases later, WordPress still retains the greatest brand strength and is used on more than 14% of the 1,000,000 biggest websites.

Future

We just saw the release of 3.2 (beta) earlier this month, and after the official release of this version, Matt Mullenweg and his team plan on taking a release cycle off from the software in order to focus on improving and expanding the WordPress community.  With this focus, we expect WordPress to grow into a sustainable community of loyal users backed by a reliable and useful content management system. In future software updates we look forward to more custom developer tools. Taking into account the community of WordPress users and developers and the open source nature, we foresee a progressive future ahead of WordPress and we look forward to being a part of it.

At TheeDesign Studio, we build all of our clients’ sites in WordPress, since it is the best open source content management system available. Our PHP and MySQL programmers have been building custom WordPress software and plug-ins since 2004, and we look forward to our long future with WordPress. Happy Birthday, WordPress!

If you are interested in utilizing WordPress for your website, call us. We design and build custom themes as well as personalized software and plug-ins to cater to our clients’ individual needs. Our phone number is 919-341-8901 or fill out our inquiry form and one of our web design specialists will be in contact with you soon.