Mar
9
My Web Designs – Forte Services
March 9, 2012 | Leave a Comment
It’s been awhile since I updated the my web design and online marketing blog, but I promise you there is a good reason! I’ve been incredibly busy creating and developing online strategies for several new clients and small business in Windsor and the surrounding area!
One of my latest web designs was created for Forte Professional Services. They’re a small company serving clients in Windsor and Detroit on everything from utilizing tools such as fax all the way to web based applications.
When they initially contacted me about their new design, one of their main focuses was having a contact form and a custom professional looking design. Their original design was built using a do-it-yourself site builder on GoDaddy that served its purpose at the time, but became outdated in recent months.
They wanted their site simple, so I suggested 5 page site using the color of their logo mixed in with a bright green to attract people to their links and contact page. If a potential client or contact fills out the contact form, they will be notified right on site that their email was sent.
I also did some basic SEO work by editing their META tags and doing a bit of research on what their clients may be searching for when using search engines to find their business online.
My experience with Forte Professional Services was a huge success! I’d like to thank Karen and everyone at Forte for their help in building a site that I, and most importantly they love!
Dec
20
Facebook Business Page Design Windsor
December 20, 2011 | Leave a Comment
Busy, busy, busy! That’s what I’ve been since my last blog post a couple months ago! I apologize for neglecting my blog over that time, but I swear I’ve had good reason to! I’ve been busy the past couple months coming up with web designs for local businesses Forte Professional Services and Elegance By Design (Previews and live examples of both should be ready by the new year). The other projects that have been keeping me busy are Facebook business page designs! If you’ve been following my Facebook page or Twitter account, you’ve probably noticed posts about Facebook fan pages for Windsor Squash & Fitness, Royal Islander Owners Association and Natalie Cervini Chiropractor. Clicking any of those links will take you to their Facebook business page which I designed.
There are several ways for businesses both small and large in the Windsor Ontario area to enhance their Facebook page design. One of the first ways I always suggest to my clients is to create an extended profile banner. This is the first item required by Facebook when designing a page and is located in the top-left hand corner of your page. You can add basically any sized image in there and Facebook will re-size it to fit or you can have a web designer (like me) create an extended profile banner which is at most 180px (wide) x 540px (high). You can see examples of the profile banners I’ve designed below.
Another great way to enhance your fan page is to create a “welcome” tab. You can set this tab to be the first thing users see when they visit your Facebook page. This tab can be any size you want, however if you create one that is wider than 510px, chances are Facebook will add a scrollbar to the bottom of it by default. What’s nice about the welcome tab is that it can be created to give the user the illusion that they “must” Like your page before moving forward. Without a welcome page on your Facebook, users will automatically be directed to your Wall, where they can get all the information about your business without having to Like it first.
The last suggestion I usually make to my clients is that they add 5 images 98px (wide) x 68px (high) to an album titled “Profile Banner” or something along those lines. These images should be about the business in some way shape or form. For example, on my Facebook page, you’ll notice (if you’ve Liked it) I have 5 images across the top. These 5 images are of 5 web designs I’ve done over the past year. If you don’t add any images at all, people who have Liked you page will see blank images which is really just a waste of quality Facebook page space! (My apologies for the rhyme)
If you’re a business in Windsor and have a Facebook business page, you should definitely have at least 1 of the suggestions I’ve listed above. If you don’t, you could be missing out on potentially reaching thousands of new customers on a regular basis.
If you’re interested in having a Facebook page designed by me, please email me or call 519-995-7329. I have extensive experience in designing these pages and offer the most affordable rates in the city!
Sep
28
SEO Success – Sebastian Agosta
September 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment
Wow, it’s been far too long since I updated this blog with a fresh post. Sorry about that! Work has been extremely busy lately. Hopefully most of you have been following my latest updates on my Facebook and Twitter pages!
I figured today I’d write an accomplishment that I’m quite proud to have achieved. That accomplishment is getting my main portfolio site Sebastian Agosta in the top 10 search results for the term “Windsor web design” on both Google and Bing!
Considering the fact that the site is still less than a year old, I consider this type of ranking quite an accomplishment. As you’ll see in the images below, my website will show up in about the 5th or 6th spot for “Windsor web design” on Google and the 2nd or 3rd spot on Bing. Of course this varies depending on your location as well as which browser you’re using, but generally this is where I’ve placed! I’ve also placed for similar terms such as “Windsor web designer” and “Windsor online marketing”.
I achieved these results with a lot of hard work over the last 9 months which included; link trading, proper URL structure and plenty of useful and unique content that other blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts were happy to link to!
Here are a couple of the results I found when searching on Google and Bing earlier today.
“Windsor web design” – Result #5 – Google
“Windsor web design” – Result #2 – Bing
Neither of these results are guaranteed to be there forever, however I feel that the work I put it will help them both stay up in the top 10 for months to come. Of course my work here isn’t done either. My plan is to be in the #1 spot in both search engines within the next year!
*If you test these results yourself, you may see slightly different results. I was using Google Chrome and searching Google.ca and Bing.com without being logged in to either.
Aug
16
How Not To Be Annoying On Twitter
August 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment
For a few months now, I’ve been putting a lot more of my time into learning and understanding online marketing, specifically on Facebook and Twitter. I’ve come to learn a lot about both networking sites by reading online blogs about social media marketing as well as doing a bit of my own trial and error. Because I’ve done more of my trial and error on Twitter lately, I figured I’d write a quick post about how not to be annoying on Twitter.
1) Don’t always try to sell yourself or your product – This is easily the thing I find most annoying about some of the people and businesses I follow on Twitter. They’re always trying to sell me on something. They never post any quality tips or hints about their product and each of their posts links to some type of online marketing strategy.
2) Don’t have all of your tweets auto-posted – A person or business who auto-posts all their tweets from their blog or Facebook couldn’t be more boring. Just tweet after tweet of links moving me to their blog or Facebook. If I wanted to get info from their blog or Facebook I’d follow their blog or Facebook.
3) Don’t tweet so much – I can’t stand logging into my Twitter account and having my timeline bombarded with 10 of the last 15 tweets from the same person. I understand that most Twitter users are following over 100 people, but I’m only following 15 and when you post 10 tweets in and hour, that’s basically all I see.
4) Tweet once in awhile – The opposite of what I just posted. I hate it when I follow someone who seems like they’re tweeting useful tweets and then all of the sudden it just stops. In the last week alone I’ve gone to follow certain people and then I realize they haven’t posted a tweet since 2010.
5) Don’t get too personal – I understand that many people create Twitter accounts for themselves and not businesses, but even then I don’t really need to know about your personal life. It’s great that you went out and drank 15 tequila shots on Saturday night, but that’s not something you should be tweeting to a mass audience. Especially if you run your own business.
So what annoys you on Twitter? Fill in a comment below and let me know!
Aug
9
My Web Designs – Windsor Squash Mobile
August 9, 2011 | Leave a Comment
Those of you who have liked my Facebook page or follow my Twitter account, have probably already seen the mobile web design I did for Windsor Squash and Fitness. The reason it took me so long for me to write a blog post about it, is because I wanted to get a bit of data on how it was performing.
As you can see, it’s a very clean design, which matches the color and link scheme of the main website. You can view the full version of the site online by visiting http://mobile.windsorsquash.ca or going to windsorsquash.ca on your iPhone, Android, Blackberry or basically any mobile device.
I added a PHP code to the top of the main Windsor Squash site, which reads which type of browser the visitor is using. If it reads a mobile web browser of any sort, it redirects the user to the mobile version of the site. The web design itself was created using an HTML DIV based design as well as plenty of clean coded CSS.
So far, the site is proving to be very worthwhile for the great people at Windsor Squash and Fitness. Since the mobile version was launched, they’ve seen an increase in mobile traffic as well as a decrease in the bounce rate on the mobile version. For those of you unfamiliar with bounce rate, “it represents the percentage of initial visitors to a site who “bounce” away to a different site, rather than continue on to other pages within the same site.” Basically, it means more people are staying on the mobile version of the site now that it is optimized for mobile viewing.
I encourage all my clients to create a mobile version of their site. Many of the websites online are not optimized for mobile devices and this could easily mean loss of traffic and more importantly, loss of sales. Mobile users want quick and easy access to a website without having to “pinch”, “pull” or “zoom” in and out. If you’re interested in having a mobile version of your site designed, please get in touch.
Again, I’d like to thank Brian and everyone at Windsor Squash and Fitness for giving me the opportunity to work with them on their mobile web design. I look forward to continuing work with them on their online marketing in the future!