Austin’s House was a very interesting and fast website project that was worked on over a weekend two weeks ago. A lot of times it can become very difficult to put a website together in such short of time but can be done if certain factors are in your favor. When working in Austin’s House our client came to us via referral from LaunchMob and the relationship we had developed with them over the years before there was a LanchMob or an Outlook Studios, that is how far back the relationship goes.
Austin’s House had a website designer who unfortunately was too busy to work on the project. When a door closes a window opens (that’s right, right?). What helped us complete the website was the Photoshop layout. It was sliced and ready to use for the coding process. Our goal is to turn around and have the website ready for review by the end of the weekend. With the Photoshop slices ready to be developed we we’re able to create a 5 page website with a store connection with an online ecommerce store from Mal’s Ecommerce. Their set-up is very unique but it did not affect the conclusion of the project. The trickiest part of creating the ecommerce is making sure that the discount is implemented into the items and that took most of the project time. The website was created using HTML, CSS, and Photoshop. We are pleased our client has happy with the result and the quick turn around. So make sure to check out and visit Austin’s House for some delicious Jam and Jelly.
Website: www.austinhouse.biz
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The Facebook Timeline
I myself have been very lazy about updating my personal Facebook page to show the new Facebook Timeline. Why? Well Facebook would eventually make the update automatically, so I’m sitting back and waiting for the day to come. Saying that within the next few days or so the timeline will start taking effect for EVERYONE. Many hate it just because it is Facebook and they like to share all of our information and a certain few who fear change. Sometimes change can be for the better only sometimes. The timeline will be something that we all have to get used to even if it is or is not for the better.
The only thing that I am actually excited about with the Facebook Timeline is the big header banner that I will see or have seen on some of my fellow colleagues and friends. There are some already in place such as Floyd Mayweather and Dane Cook. The celebrities are all over getting their pages on the timeline. The definite downside of having the Timeline is that there is no feeling of privacy and I believe that is pretty much what we all deal with when it comes to Facebook when joining. Always adjust your setting to what you want and that can help.
Changing Your Facebook Timeline
The best advice anyone can receive from this is that you should only show what you want your visitors to see. If there is anything we can take from this is that we will eventually get used to the new update on Facebook and if you check out any of the timelines you can see what Facebook is looking to accomplish, they want you to see your friends like you may have never seen them before. Just remember just like life make it what you want it to be it is up to you how much information you would want to share and what kind of pictures you would like to have uploaded on Facebook. What is your opinion on the Facebook Timeline? Are you already using it? Are you still going to keep using Facebook? Let us know what you think.
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Researching Search Engine Optimization
In the last two weeks I have seen an increase in phone calls with companies talking about being able to place our website on Page 1 in Google as well as provide a spot in places. As most have noticed or have not noticed Google now puts more emphasis on local search. First and foremost we have provided our clientele with multiple Page 1 rankings as well as created many places accounts for their businesses. The purpose of this post is to provide information on what you should be looking for when any of these companies call your phone and make empty promises. 
We Can Get You On Page 1
An example of one of the phone calls usually goes into discussing how many sites are currently on Page 1 on Google and provide you with information saying they can get you on Page 1. Most of the time the person on the phone isn’t the SEO Expert but the sales representative. They will provide you with what everyone wants to hear “I’ll get you to the top of Google”. Most don’t even ask you what terms you wish to rank for on Google or Bing. Do not get blinded by the idea that you can have a Page 1 ranking in 3 days. I have only seen website submission done in 3 days by submitting your website to Google. Another ploy is if you type in your website “www.outlookstudios.com” (as the example I’ll use our website) your website will appear on Google’s Page 1 ranking on the very top. Whether you are 1st or not you are still ranking on the first page and that is what you paid for. This is not fair and gives a bad name for a lot of professional SEO experts who have been doing this for years the right way. Getting submitted to Google can happen naturally in a few days up to a few weeks or through their submission link.
Selling SEO Services When Your Website Is Not SEO Ready
Another example of a company which say they know how to get you on Page 1 on Google is when you visit their website just to make sure they are a legit company. Always do your research especially when it comes to your business. In this example I am not going to say what website it was because I do not want any issues. This company is not based in the US so no one for the time being has to worry. A few things that this particular search engine optimization company was offering was to ranking our website on page 1 and optimizing it for the web. That makes sense when you have a client that needs to have a website well optimized for the web and they offered the right services. But here is where they end up falling short, their website is very basic and kind of standard, nothing out of the ordinary but they were not on Page 1, 2, or 3 on Google’s search term for SEO services. They did not have a proper 301 redirect on their website. For example when you have your .htaccess file set to a 301 redirect it helps your website with the search engines. You do not want your website to be showing up as either http://outlookstudios.com or http://www.outlookstudios.com. Either have your website have the WWW. or not have it. This is really up to you as long as you select one not allow it to be both. The reason why you need to have the website be one way or the other is because all of the search engines read it as 2 separate entities if you do not make the correct change. So links being pointed to the website might not actually point to the correct website address. This is important to make sure that your website is set-up accordingly. The website company which came up did not have that set up on their business website. Right there and then I knew they could not help even if we let them. I politely hung up and continued my work with providing our clientele with the best work we can provide them.
Research SEO Conclusion….
In conclusion please, please, please do not just sign up with any company to do your search engine optimization service. Visit their website, ask for real world examples of clients who are actually on Page 1 for something other than their website URL when it is typed into the Google Search Bar. I have seen business lose total confidence in Search Engine Companies because of false hope and advertising by many companies out there that promise what sometimes can never be accomplished. Always remember that making it on Page 1 in any search engine takes time and patience.
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Why optimize my images?
This is probably one of the few things you consistently see with websites that may be well optimized. You may have your title, keyword, and content optimized for the web and search engines but if you are not optimizing your images you are also losing out on an opportunity to reach an extended audience. If you do a search right now on any particular service that you are interested in you are very likely to find images in that service but you might not find any at all.
For our example we searched ‘plumbing services in Orlando’; it is a very specific search and not a general search such as ‘plumbing services’ because we want to find someone locally. This also makes your search more refined for what you are looking for. The first 5 that show up on local search are:
- Frank Gay Plumbing
- Rainaldi Plumbing
- Westbrook
- Emerald Plumbing
- Jim’s Plumbing & Irrigation
When you make the switch to view the images none of the 5 local companies appear in the top 15 images. Some of the images in the top 5 are either named by numbers or do not have any words in association with plumbing or Orlando. This obviously is an element in search engine optimization that is not being taken advantage of by these companies. Very few local companies are taking advantage of this and being able to optimize your website in all levels including images can help your website continue to grow and develop into a new level.
Optimizing your Images for Search
Some of the bad examples that have been used for naming images have been naming the image as a number 32483.jpg, pic3.jpg, image1.jpg, and many more random names that are made by your digital camera. I don’t want to continue because this may take the rest of the post and I do not want to bore you. We have seen this and we all know that it is not the right way to name a picture that is going to be on your website. If you name any image like the example just discussed as a website designer how will I be able to identify which image to use? How are you going to distinguish pic3.jpg from pic5.jpg without having to spend the extra time to look at the picture and optimize them properly. Time is money and at the end of the day the more time you spend trying to figure out your pictures less time is being spent on the next step of your website.
Having the right size image is important when you are trying to keep your website optimized for search and for quick load time in one of the many available browsers. Search engines such as Google and Bing have made images a more important part in search engines and when they crawl your website having the correct size image can help. I have seen websites created and the image was not properly re-sized but shrunk and pixelated due to improper upload. If you visit a website and the last item to load is the image and it loads very slowly they have not properly optimized their image. The same way that the image loads on your website is the same way that it is crawled by the major search engines and that can be a tough penalty on your website.
Conclude Image Optimization
Images are as important to your website as it is having a good title tag and meta tag description. You want your images to become searchable no matter what arena you are looking to have your company established under. You never know when someone in Maitland or Kissimmee might be looking for plumbers and they happen to check out the images section and find your website. Make sure to properly name your images and have them upload quickly like the rest of your website. Have you seen any image naming mistakes or slow uploaded images? Let us know and talk about it.
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We have seen plenty of articles out there regarding which is better when starting a WordPress website. Why use a .com over a self-hosted WordPress website? That is the number one question that comes up when deciding on what type of approach you plan on taking when using WordPress for the first time. One of the best things about WordPress is that no matter which way you plan to start it will benefit you in many ways.
For a complete detailed list of what the benefits of having a WordPress.com website from a self-hosted WordPress website and vise-versa you can click here for the full details. Ultimately the decision will be yours to decide at the end of the day. Both are great options but as a company Outlook Studios is behind being able to have a self-hosted WordPress website. A lot of our client work is made from scratch and from WordPress. Attach a blog such as Mid Florida Medical Group or create a complete website such as the Baby DJ website.
Advantages to WordPress.com
A lot of first timers that hear about how amazing WordPress is do not know the difference but everyone knows when you hear the word ‘FREE’ you can’t help but to take advantage of that. I believe everyone starting with a WordPress site for the first time should start out with a WordPress.com website. You get many advantages such as easy set-up, upgrades, security, and your content backed-up automatically. Those are a few of the advantages that you will receive when you have your website hosted through WordPress.com. A few of the disadvantages is that you are limited to the layouts they provide, there is no modification, and the plug-ins that will help your website grow are limited. Having the option of being able to select from a large number of plug-ins can take your website to a whole new level you may not have thought about. From adding maps, Facebook comments, social media bookmarks, and many different styles of contact forms.
Advantages of Self-Hosted WordPress Website
With having a self-hosted WordPress website you can enjoy the benefits of being able to upload your own custom made layout and the many free available online, a variety of different plug-ins that best fit your website. You have complete control of the website and allows you to update. That can also be a downside if you do not have a reliable website design company that can take care of any issues your website could go through, if you are not able to take care of it for yourself. Such as updating your website with the latest WordPress updates as well as any plug-in updates that are needed for your website. With your website having the latest updates to the security feature your website will remain safe and secure. If your website provider takes care of your updates you do not have to worry about dealing with any security issues. You can use any hosting provider to maintain your website allowing you to take full control from the moment you upload your website. As previously stated if you are not able to install WordPress to your hosting provider it is best to go with a website hosting company. This is the largest disadvantage of having a self-hosted WordPress website.
Conclusion
Make sure to check out the link on WordPress.com which provides you with a full selection of benefits of selecting either style of WordPress website. It’s great in starting out with a WordPress.com website just to get a better understanding of what the program can do. As a website design company I’m suppose to tell you otherwise but remember we create standard custom websites as well they are all not made on WordPress. We provide honest work and provide information to help your website move into the right direction. With a self-hosted WordPress website you get the benefit of expanding your website to a whole new level that you will not receive when your website is hosted through WordPress.com. You can have a lot of features added to your website and have it show the full potential of what your website can do.
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Just recently we got an opportunity to provide assistance to a new client who already has an established website. They needed content update and some of the stock images that were being used updated. When visiting the website for the first time you can see 2 images on the home page. Both of the pictures have the Istock Photo trademark on the pictures. Our goal was to make the updates to the content and the images for the client.
This project was not only providing a quick edit. Another part of the project was to provide our client access to her CMS. Her website was created in Joomla and the website designer who worked on it previously was no longer accessible to the client. We have dealt with situations similar to this and it is a shame that the client has to deal with an unresponsive developer. It makes all other hard working website design companies like ourselves hard to be trusted. Since we we’re not able to contact her previous developer we logged in to the hosting database and got ourselves into the website and provided her a new log-in. It is never easy working on a database because you never want to ruin what has already been created. We were successful in accomplishing our goal and providing our client with a complete job.
website: www.skminc.net
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We recently got the opportunity to work with the nonprofit organization Baby DJ and develop their first website. Getting an opportunity to help the nonprofit organization make their presence online is what we strive for on a day to day basis. Providing assistance to those that need it most throughout Central Florida has been the key to the success of Baby DJ over the years.
With a blog page to provide news and information on anything related to helping those in need. We even added a map to help all the visitors of Baby DJ to find their nearest toy drop off location.
Website: www.babydj.org
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We all know someone who has been affected by breast cancer. During the month of October we are called to remember and support our loved ones who have been affected; while raising awareness and funds for a cure. Social media has been a great way for individuals as well as organizations to do these things. So in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness we have found some nice pink themes that you could use for your WordPress blog to help support a great cause:
Octopink
A two columns pink WordPress theme, releases in conjunction with breast cancer awareness month.
http://demo.simplywp.net/octopink/
Pinkvisor wordpress theme
Pinkvisor is a 2 columns fixed width WordPress theme by MagPress.com. This WordPress template has theme options, featured content slider and categories, Adsense ready and many more.
http://www.duothemes.com/pinkvisor-wordpress-theme/
Pretty Theme
A pink and white clean, minimalist, classic, elegance and stylish two-columns layout theme to blossom your fashion and beauty side made by flamaa
One Day at a Time
A two-colum clean and simple wordpress theme with a menu bar and Breast Cancer ribbon in the top right. Designed by
uteman23
Pink and Purple
Theme with esthetic tab menu in the header. Modern background, widgets ready. Good for blogs for women (as main colors used in the theme are pink and purple) by Sukienki
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The great thing about Google is that they always seem to progress with new search engine optimization techniques. The latest is the Infinite Scroll and as an SEO practitioner I have mixed feelings about this. When Panda first came out I was excited because Google was putting an emphasis on more relevant content while pushing out the irrelevant content. It makes for better content when optimizing a website or designing a new website. With the Infinite Scroll getting a position on Page 1 will be more important than ever. Again this is just my opinion but if the stats are true and almost no one goes to Page 2 how much of an effect will “show more results” have? It’s not going to be easy but since when has Google ever made anything easy?
On the positive side I do like how Google is continuing to make search a lot more friendlier for everyday users. I believe this will be a positive feature that will make it easier for everyone to search online and not spend too much time doing multiple searches.
Check out the full article on Search Engine Watch and let me know what your thoughts are on the Infinite Scroll Testing that Google is currently doing. Do you think it’s going to be a good idea? Will it make it tougher to rank for Page 1?
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Many people who don’t understand Twitter see it as a waste of time or don’t understand what it is all about. As a web designer at first I did not like what it was all about. Once I got a better understanding of what twitter can do for me I became a big fan of this service and have become more active in the past few months with our own twitter account. I am providing 5 Twitter Accounts that are a MUST follow because they provide a lot of the information that is very useful and informative. They provide industry information everyday from the latest to the most talked about technology news.
Take a look and make sure that you are following these companies and bookmark their websites so you can visit them on a regular basis. They work hard to make our lives easier and help us stay involved on what is happening.
5 To Follow On Twitter
@Wired
Is so deep with information that if you have an interest they probably cover it or have covered it. Wired has you covered on all the new technologies from the great companies out there. If you are a geek, like myself, then you will definitely be coming back on a regular basis just to see what is new and what new gadgets I would like to get my hands on.
@TheNextWeb
The Next Web is a great website even if you are not in web design. Their website is clean and simple and their Twitter account updates throughout the day with news from Apple, Social Media Companies, Apps, Facebook, Google, and so on.
@TechCrunch
TechCrunch like TNW is also one of the well known websites around. They recently did a redesign of their website. TechCrunch provides new information about the latest technologies and the most popular companies we all respect and follow.
@BreakingWeb
Is a bit different but similar approach. All the articles and latest news come from Topic Fire that do Real-time ranked news. Find the latest news on gadgets, technology, gaming, Web 2.0 and more when you are on their website. When a new twit comes up from Breaking Web you can’t help it but check it out and view what the article is about. There are times when you’ll find it here first then you would in any of the other companies.
@Mashable
Everyone show follow
Mashable. I didn’t find out about them until a few months ago and started following them on Twitter. I like to believe they are what Twitter is when you are using it the right
way and not just following a celebrity. Mashable talks about the latest trends in the industry from business to television. You name it they are involved in it one way or another. Mashable is possibly one of the most informative sites you will ever visit and retweet their information when you follow them on Twitter.
I hope that this is helpful and provides any of the newcomers a starting guide on who to follow on
Twitter. If you are looking to stay up-to-date with what is new on a day to day basis these companies are the ones to follow. If you know any other Twitter accounts to follow or who you would recommend comment below and let us know.
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