Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Proper SEO Strategies that Lead to More Website Traffic

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of analyzing and enhancing your website to help potential customers find it on Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines. SEO is a process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a website from search engines via "natural" or unpaid search results (defined by Reno SEO companies as "organic" search results).

The term "search engine marketing" (SEM) deals with paid search. Search engine marketing seeks to increase the visibility of a website by promoting that website with the use of paid ad placement, contextual advertising and paid inclusion. Search engine marketing includes the use of Google Adwords, contextual advertising and other forms of online advertising.

Having your custom website design optimized for search is important because the higher your website appears in the search results list, the more traffic your website will receive from the various search engines. Website traffic is key if you want to have a successful online business!

Search engine optimization includes a lot of different kinds of search strategies in addition to your keyword search strategy. Image search, local search and video search are all components that should be included in your search engine optimization. By incorporating all these strategies in your SEO, your website will have a much better web presence, thus more traffic!

As part of your internet marketing strategy, SEO tactics should be incorporated into custom website development and design. Valid code is the foundation for effective SEO strategies.

Search engine optimization focuses on how search engines work and what specific terms people search for. SEO efforts should start at the bottom level of your website. That is, your HTML code!

The majority of web pages on the Internet are written in computer languages (such as HTML). This allows web designers and web developers the ability to structure text, images, multimedia content and more on a web page.

All software and applications written with computer languages are supposed to follow rules. This includes websites and web pages! A common mistake made by many web developers and designers is to NOT follow these rules. This is a huge mistake if you want quality search engine results.

Optimizing a website for search begins with valid HTML code. Quality, valid HTML code will remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines and make your online business search engine friendly. All of our Reno web design clients have websites built with quality code. In addition, we send an xml feed every 24 hours to all the major search engines, which helps our clients tremendously with their search results!

The term "search engine friendly" describes the overall layout and design of your custom website. Designing search engine friendly websites begins with valid HTML code. That code powers your overall layout and design, including: navigational menus, content management systems, images, blogs, forums, videos, shopping carts, and other elements that make up your online business.

In today's competitive business environment, proper SEO is critical to the success of any website. Whether you want to optimize your site yourself or want a professional Reno SEO agency to help you, Search Engine Optimization should be a keystone of your online marketing strategy.

The goal of your search engine optimization strategies should be to gain more visibility on major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines. Increasing traffic to your website is the only way to grow your online business.

If you need help with your SEO, SEM or your website design and development, contact Bullsprig today! We are a Reno web design and Reno SEO website design agency. But, Reno Nevada is just where we call home... we have a lot of clients all across the US and would love to work with you wherever you live!

Friday, October 23, 2009

Reno SEO Web Design

Designing websites with SEO in mind from the start is a good idea.

At Bullsprig, we're finishing the initial stages of a huge eCommerce online business. We have been focused on SEO from the start. With all of our eCommerce websites, we use friendly URLs for Reno search engine optimization. This means we put the product name in the URL. I'm sure you've been on sites that use crazy URLs like /aksdf&%%.php/_aksjdlf%kka and so on... we don't use this style in our Reno eCommerce web design.

Friendly URLs are ones that use the product name in the URL. This helps for SEO tremendously, and is user-friendly, allowing users to save bookmarks and/or email the link to their friends, and understand what the link is for.

In addition to friendly URLs for Reno eCommerce, we have been adding keywords and relevant search terms to the products we have been adding to catalogs. We are doing this from the start. This will really streamline the design and development process because we're doing it now and can add to it later.

For any Reno SEO web design agency, this is important to add the your websites. We have also started to do a lot of Reno SEO tag writing for our clients. Most clients don't know how to perform quality SEO... but, they expect you to! So, this has been another business segment we have expanded into for our Reno web design clients.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Online Business Functionality

What Do You Want Your Online Business To Do?

I’m sure you’ve heard the term Web 2.0 design from some Reno web design agencies recently and wonder... What does that mean? Well, "Web 2.0" refers to a perceived second generation of web development and design, that facilitates communication, secure information sharing, interoperability and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Essentially, Web 2.0 design changes the way people use and interact with online businesses.

The concepts behind Web design 2.0 have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, social-networking, blogs, Twitter, et cetera, et cetera. There are some really cool web companies coming online and doing great things.

As a business owner, you’re probably thinking, "Web 2.0 means I need to spend even more money on my already oversized technology budget." Well, Bullsprig, a Reno SEO web design agency, is here to help!

With Web 2.0 design we need to change some terminology. Instead of talking about your "web site" let's talk about your "online business". The technology changes to the web have changed the way web sites work, or at least, should work. Instead of having your web site simply display your telephone number and physical address, web sites are now living working extensions of your business. Your Reno website design should be more proactive and work hard to:

  • Amplify Your Voice
  • Automate Your Customer Service (Self-Service)
  • Sell Products Online
  • Generate New Leads
  • Build Your Community
  • Build Customer Loyalty

Amplify Your Voice
One of the best ways to amplify your voice is through Reno Blog Design and Reno Email Marketing. Good content addresses your customers’ information needs, and search engines love good content (helps with your Reno search engine optimization. It also gives your business a human touch.

Automate Your Customer Service (Self-Service)
How many customer phone calls do you get asking about the same thing? And, how much time is spent answering the same question? Every custom website design should have a section that focuses on Customer Service. It is important your web site has an FAQ section, Webforms and Workflows and Secure Zones to help your business automate your customer service.

Sell Products Online
Building Reno eCommerce websites and selling your products online was once a very expensive, time-consuming adventure. The cost to develop online businesses has gone down dramatically. If you want tosell your products online, there is nothing standing in your way. Online businesses are a great way to expand your business’ reach and product offering.

Generate New Leads
Your web site should offer users an option of getting in touch with you. Webforms and workflows help ensure your web site is converting users to new leads.

Build Your Community
A good business will always have a community of dedicated customers. With your online business, Blogs, Forums, Comments, Customer Databases help to build that community and keep it strong.

Build Customer Loyalty
Building customer loyalty is a lot harder than it seems. It takes incredible focus to make sure your customers are loyal. Your Reno website design needs to help you do just that. Targeted Email Marketing, Comments, FAQs are all aspects of your online business that should be working for you to build that loyalty.

Businesses must embrace the strengths of the web and use it as a platform. Make your web site, youronline business, work for you!

Oh, and if you need a great Reno web site design and Reno web development company that can handle your Reno SEO, Reno Design, Reno Email Marketing, let’s talk.

We are Bullsprig, a Reno SEO web design agency. We’ll take you by the hand and provide good guidance. We give concrete ideas about suitable Reno web design, what functions your Reno online business should have, and help with business strategy to achieve your online business goals. We take the time to help our clients prioritize their goals so that we can provide you with a custom web design solution.

Drive Repeat Sales With Email Marketing

Email marketing is a powerful and cost-effective marketing tool to reach your customers and bring them back to your web site or online business.

With Bullsprig as your email marketing design partner, we help you send email campaigns with ease! You can set-up as many different subscriber lists as you want, and we’ll automatically take care of your sign-ups and unsubscribes. We even clean your lists for you -- taking hard bounces and unsubscribes off your list.

We also offer custom email reports showing you how effective your campaigns are. Bullsprig tracks the actions your customers take after they click, so you can measure the real effectiveness of your email campaigns.

Most of our Reno web design clients use this service in conjunction with their online businesses.

If you are considering a web design Reno design company, ask them if they can handle your email marketing campaigns and online advertising as well.

It's also important to check and see if your Reno SEO web design agency can handle your SEO, SEM, PPCfunctions of your online business.

If not, contact Bullsprig, a Reno SEO web design agency, today!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

How to Achieve Superior Results from your Website

Every business must recognize that their web site is an extension of their brick-an-mortar business. Sometimes, even more so! Your web site should be the center of as many activities as possible. Business owners should use their web site for many more items than they currently do. At our Reno web design agency, Bullsprig, we use our website for almost all of our activities.

Getting results from your online business begins with getting your employees and your customers to regard your custom web site design as something of great value. Your web site should be seen as an online business. Something that is constantly evolving, changing... getting better. Something that is working for you all the time.

Your online business should be the center point of all your communications, internally as well as externally. Need to tell clients about an important product upgrade? Post it on your web site and refer to it often. Do you find that certain questions are being asked by your customers? By employees? An FAQ page is a great spot to put all the answers to these questions. Do you have print materials about your company? Great! You should. They should be on your web site as well, available for download in pdf format, or Word doc, or CAD drawing, anything. If clients and employees are looking for a document, they should find it on your web site.

Another important aspect of your online business is your support center. Your web site should be the first place customers look for support. You need to train your clients to do this. Instruct your employees to mention the web site all the time to people. Get your staff in the habit of referring everyone to your web site. As a business owner, you need to do everything to keep your employees and your customers thinking of your website as the place to find the information they need.

One great tool of custom website design are online forums. It's a great idea to let your customers talk to each other--get the conversation going about your products and services. You should also have interactive forms where users can fill out to request support or to be contacted. Online blogs are also a great tool in creating a community around your online business. Your web design company should help you determine what web services can be used effectively on your web site.

Your business will have lots of additional needs. One of your online marketing tools should include email marketing design. This is a great way to stay in-touch with your customers, and your staff! Email marketing should go hand-in-hand with your web site, they should work with each other. This is a great tool to get more business from your current client base.

Now, you're probably thinking, "sounds great, now what?" Well, you need to find a website design and development company. You can always start locally. Let's say you live in Reno, Nevada. You could start a web search for reno web design and see what comes up. Or, search website design reno. You could search for web design Reno, or Reno SEO, or Reno Advertising, or Reno design. Additionally, if you really like a certain web site, find out who designed that website and talk to that Reno web design company.

One of the best things about the internet marketing and internet advertising is the world-wide reach. Custom web site designers can be found everywhere. At Bullsprig we have clients all over the country. The majority of our clients are in the San Francisco / Bay Area and Los Angeles. We're bidding a website now for a client in New York City! The power of the internet has allowed this great opportunity. But, we still do a lot of Reno website design work for our Reno web design clients!

You need to use the web and your online business to reach your customers, and create value behind your web site. Being involved in PPC, SEO, SEM, and email marketing takes work, but people are doing it every day. Our Reno web design clients have been having tremoundous success with their online businesses. Each website powered by the Bullsprig Platform.

The Bullsprig Platform is a high-powered, user-friendly web infrastructure, designed to help companies with their online web sites. We use this technology infrastructure on every online business we design and develop. This technology allows us to deploy custom web sites in a short amount of time. We design custom web solutions that not only look good, but function seamlessly.

If you need help designing and developing a custom web site, contact Bullsprig today!

Fair and Reasonable Price Expectations for Web Design and Development

Every week we receive emails from prospective Reno web design clients about web design and development. The number one question from 90% of web design Reno clients is, "How much will a website cost?"

The answer is what you'd expect: "It depends." Ultimately the price for website design and development is dependant upon the amount of time spent on the project. One must realize, design is a premium service. A luxury good. Businesses who value good design have an advantage over those who don't. Other factors that way on the cost of the custom website design is your company's location. If your business is located in Reno Nevada, your price might be different than if your business is located in New York City. Reno web design will cost less than New York City custom web site design.

Any credible Reno design agency will follow a process for estimating Reno web design work. We respond to inquires with a request for proposal document (RFP). This document is filled with important questions pertaining to your business, your online business goals, key business indicators, website functionality and look and feel.

For example, do you need a content management system? A blog? An online forum? Are you going to sell products on your website... and so on. All of these questions help your Reno design agency determine how much time they need to spend on your project. Once that is determined, an estimate can be accurately submitted. Getting this information is very important for your Reno web design agency to complete an accurate website design proposal.

One of the questions we ask our prospective Reno website design clients is: "Have you worked with a Reno design agency before?" This is an important question because the answer will tell us how much we have to educate the client on process, prices and expectations. Most clients have not worked with an interactive agency before, and therefore we spend a lot of time educating them on what to expect.Reno web design clients are great to work with because they understand the relationship.

Often times, when we present our estimate for custom website design, clients experience "sticker shock." Scary thing is, our prices are reasonable by comparison, and actually lower than comparable design agencies. Some prospects even say, "I can get (insert cheap company here) to design a site for $10 a month." Yup, you absolutely can. But, in 6 months, you'll come back to us for the solution you needed in the first place.

Our competitive advantage is our completeness, creative vision, client service and commitment to your ongoing success. Our Reno website design clients are partners for life. We want you to succeed, it makes us look good. And, we get and keep more and more web design Reno clients through word-of-mouth.

It's been said, making the complex look simple is one of the greatest skills. That is absolutely true withweb design and development. Website design is a process. There is a lot of work and time put in behind the scenes. Work and time the Reno web design client never sees.

Here's a quick study on what to expect from a reputable design agency. This is what you're paying for:
Client, Industry, and Competitive research;
Graphic Compositions in Photoshop;
Client Reviews and Revisions;
Taking the Approved Comps and Mapping them to a CSS / XHTML Grid;
CSS / XHTML Production and Testing;
Content Management Database Design;
eCommerce Functionality and Testing;
Search Engine Optimization SEO


These steps require professionalism and expertise to produce a robust solution. Most first-time clients have no idea what it takes to produce this work. Website design and development is very complicated. Making the complicated look easy is what your Reno web design firm should do, and do well.

Great Website Design and Development Inspires Trust

Let's cut right to it: First impressions matter. A lot. Both personally and in business. In this article we're going to talk about the importance and impact of your marketing design... both online (custom websites) and offline (your print marketing materials).

We just finished a huge project for DirecTV. It's just the beginning. We created a 50 page capabilities presentation for their VP of marketing to review. Getting this right was super important. Presenting the ideas in the best possible light was worth all the extra time and effort.

But, let's step back for a moment. You might be wondering how a Reno web design agency located in Reno Nevada could get the opportunity to present concepts for a huge company like DirecTV. The answer is great design.

So what is great design? Design is like art, it is subjective. At Bullsprig, we classify great design as work that solves business objectives... and so do our clients. Every single one of our Reno web design clients has come fromword-of-mouth marketing. These businesses love our work, and they tell their colleagues. It's pretty neat to see... overwhelming at times.

Just this week, we're received 3 requests for proposal. "How'd you hear about us?" we ask. "Oh, a friend told me about you. We looked at your website and really like the work." Boom.

We got the lead from word-of-mouth. But the connection happened when they visited our website, looked at our work, saw that we are a Reno web design agency. First impression. Well maybe second impression, but you get the idea--first impressions count.

Presenting your online business in the best possible light is well worth the investment. It is worth the time, effort and money to get it right. Your custom website design is the connection between your customers and your online business. The quality of a site's design and functionality tell a lot about a company and its values, or, what does that company find important.

What about your print marketing? Same thing. We educate all our clients about the right way to design print materials. More than 90% of our interactive website design clients contract Bullsprig to handle their print materials. If you are looking for a Reno design agency (or any design agency) ask them if they can handle both print and online marketing. It's super important to have all your marketing materials come from the same Reno design agency. Using this strategy will insure your brand's integrity. Help you build a strong brand online.

The quality of a company's Reno graphic design and Reno interactive design speaks volumes and builds trust. It's important to contract with an experienced design agency when putting together your online business and building your print marketing materials. Quality design is critical for a company to get results and solve business objectives.

Keys for Managing Website Design Projects

With every custom website design project we undertake, we stick to specific guidelines to complete the project on-time and on-budget. That is, of course, easier said than done.

With every client wanting the absolute best work for their online business, it's best to stick to your project management guide or your design contract to fulfill your end of the bargain.

The absolute most important point in your contract is the one defining the scope of work. In our web design contracts, we are as detailed and precise as possible when dealing with project scope and reviews/revisions. If you let the project get out of control with client revisions, your project will be drained of any profit you calculated in. Nothing drains more dollars than unnecessary client revisions.

Stick to your project goals. What was the original business goal for this project? Sometimes we have clients try to make changes after they have approved the original design. This happens. More often than not, the original design was the correct decision. We always go back with our clients and review the project goalsand articulate the logic behind the original design decision.

Sometimes client revisions are due to another, higher-level manager in the company. It's vitally important that you get the names and information of each key decision maker on the project, and involve them!

How important is client involvement? There are several phases of web projects where client approval is necessary to move forward. We let clients know how many revisions are budgeted in the project scope. And, when formal revisions take place, we always get a signature for approval.

It's important your web design agency takes the time to educate clients on the web design process andbusiness goals that will be solved via your custom website design. If you're working with a web design agency, you've probably chose them because you liked their work. Trust them! At Bullsprig, we're in business because our clients trust our judgement when it comes to the design and layout of websites.

At Bullsprig, our clients are responsible for providing constructive feedback at each revision cycle. Each revision cycle is designed to move the project forward, to solve business goals as specified by the client.

At each milestone in the web design process, we insist on client approval and involvement. The website design and development should be completely 'client approved' prior to launch. This will prevent last minute delays and unexpected costs due to revisions.

After the site is launched, the education process continues. Clients need to know how to use their website, how to get traffic and how to evaluate strategy moving forward. Successful business owners know that in order for their website to gain traffic, convert visitors, and solve important business goals, the website has to be constantly updated, reviewed, tested, linked and maintained.

We build all our websites on an advanced technology infrastructure that makes it easy for businesses and individuals to maintain and grow their online business. After the launch of any website, we train all our clients how to use this platform. The Bullsprig platform boasts a wide array of powerful modules forempowering your website.

If you have a business in Reno Nevada, and are looking for a Reno web design agency, let's get in touch.

Follow Your Business Goals when Reviewing Website Design

The design and development work involved in creating a highly effective website begins with the first client review and continues until the site goes live. Unlike any other industry, custom website design is open to criticism by anyone. To streamline the creative review process, it's important to follow your initial business strategy for your website. That is, what exactly do you want users to do... what is the number one function for your website?

Do you want users to purchase your products on your online shop? Are you trying to generate leads for future sales calls? Are you trying to build a community around your products and/or services?

Getting the best creative results are found when you follow your initial business strategy. Strategy and business initiatives are key.

At the beginning of your web design process, you had certain goals and business objectives. During your website reviews, your main concern should be focused on hitting these goals. Will the design and layout help increase newsletter sign ups? Have we given users easy access to purchase the products we offer? How does the layout influence users to fill out our forms so we can follow-up on the information? And so on.

During your creative reviews, you should ask your web design agency questions that will help articulate your business goals. How will my customer purchase products from my site? Does the look and feel of the site reflect my company's brand values? Does the look and feel of the site appeal to my customer? What graphic elements have you used in the design to lead customers to what we want them to do? What benefits are we giving customers with this site? Will customers know exactly what business we're in by viewing the home page?

Communication is key. Does the website communicate your business goals? Does the design support a unique experience? What value is being communicated? Are your goals being met?

If the answer to any of the above is no, tell your website design agency. Be honest. Any agency dedicated to their client's business success with take the criticism seriously and change the work to meet your goals. You should never approve creative that does not meet the business goals you have set for your online business.

When you give your web development and design agency concrete strategic design direction, they can create a site that will meet and exceed your business requirements.

If not, it's time to choose a new web design agency.