Casson Media Feeds

Google Plus Gets A Makeover

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 11:27:36 +0000

When I first heard about Google Plus, I wasn’t really blown away by this product of Google’s but now after its makeover, this platform is a lot more user friendly and simple to use. According to Vic Gundotra, …

Google Play Gets Ready To Launch

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:02:21 +0000

Google Play is an app that brings android market, Google eBookstore and Google Music together. Works on both Android and desktops. Full Google Play offering only available in US.

Track Logged-In Social Network Users – Google Analytics

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 09:32:00 +0000

This code will read the cookie left by Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other platforms and use this information to tell us what social networks your visitors are logged in whilst visiting your website.

Search, Plus Your World – Social And Search Integrate

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:00:26 +0000

Those users that have a Google+ account have noticed the big changes that Google has put in place with regards to their new "Search, Plus Your World" feature. Google has become the first company to successfully integrate search results and social media and I must say I do like the personalization of my search results with elements of my social circles.

What is Woza Online? Google’s Business Sitebuilder in SA

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:01:47 +0000

Woza Online is a new online product in South Africa that allows anyone, with or without any IT skills of web design knowledge to create a business website in minutes

Why Yahoo South Africa Fails As A Search Engine

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:37:47 +0000

According to Yahoo! South Africa, SA is in the UK! At least that is the impression you get when trying to find local South African companies on Yahoo search. I must say I got really excited when I saw …

What’s New in WordPress 3.3 “Sonny”

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 09:31:57 +0000

The latest version of WordPress, 3.3, was released earlier today and has been called “Sonny” in honour of the jazz master, Sonny Stitt. It is ready for download on the WordPress website, or within your WordPress dashboard (We ourselves have a ton of websites to go through and update this week!).

There are some incredible improvements on the latest release. Here are just some of the main new features:

WordPress 3.3 now has a much better user experience within the WordPress dashboard
It has a revamped “Welcome Screen” with a basic overview and some tips getting started
It has ‘Feature Pointers’ which are basically tool-tips that point out new features
An improved contextual help with a breakdown of all features for the current page you’re on to quickly solve problems
New dashboard menu no longer works like an accordion, but rather a drop-out menu (yay)
Dashboard header and admin bar have been combined into the new “Toolbar” found across the top of the dashboard
Drag-and-Drop Upload: This is my favourite update so far – The image, audio and media uploaders have been combined into one button, and the uploader now supports Drag-and-Drop. You can drop multiple file types at once, and it will upload them all together.
Finally, they’ve improved the touch support on the iPad and other tablets

All in all, a very exciting release! I’ve updated already and am enjoying exploring the new dashboard. Have you updated yet?

Google Freshness Update

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 08:24:01 +0000

Google has just announced their freshness update, something I have claimed right here on SEO Cowboy for over 2 years…. now it is just official. Fresh Content Marketing has been a key SEO strategy for all my clients since I …

Google Launches Dynamic Search Ads

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:09:42 +0000

Google has just announced a nifty new feature for Google Adwords called Dynamic Search Ads which they claim will increase your conversions by about 50%. What this new feature will do is create Google Ads for you based on the content of your website as well as actual keywords being searched on your site.

Google Analytics Privacy Policy Limits Keyword Data

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 09:05:47 +0000

There has been an announcement on the Google Analytics blog that has most SEO companies up in arms. Rightly so, as it seems that Google has decided to make a contradictory move. In summary Google has announced that they will …

Adwords Quality Score Part Three

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 12:41:54 +0000

In this Adwords quality score tutorial I am going to try help you to understand Google's search partners and how they impact your Adwords Campaign. Sometimes it is a good idea to monitor the performance of these search partners in order to keep your CTR nice and high.

SEO That Works – Do Not Get Scammed By SEO Companies

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 07:31:25 +0000

A certain company has popped up on the radar of a group of SEO professionals as being yet another company that is giving South African SEO Companies a bad name. Lets just call this the “SEO that works” …

Adwords Quality Score Part Two

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 08:35:25 +0000

In this Adwords quality score tutorial we will cover landing page optimization and how matching your ads to the content of your landing page will help increase the over-all quality of your Adwords campaigns.

A Design-A-Day Challenge: Day 17

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 18:26:07 +0000

Simple Infographic Design in Photoshop Part 2

Today I continued with my inforgraphic design for “The Website Design Process”. Yesterday I did the first ‘step’ in the infographic and today I added a second step. Here is the the complete design so far:

I’ll have to think carefully about the next step, but I enjoyed it, especially my silly stick figures (and my stick figure clutching a Mac hehe).

A Design-A-Day Challenge: Day 16

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:44:47 +0000

Simple Infographic Design in Photoshop

Yesterday I stumbled on an infographic by Skype. I was immediately inspired and I’ve been wanting to do one myself for a while. An entire infographic would take too long for my daily challenge, so I decided to do a step a day until I have completed one.

Here is step one in “The Website Design Process”:

I didn’t find any tutorials for today’s design; I just had an idea in my head and wanted to keep it super simple and flat. I also wanted an interesting way to explain to people how the whole process of designing websites go. It was also fun playing around with the elements that have surfaced with my new website design. I’m excited about the next steps and completing the infographic.

I know my first attempt might not be perfect and perhaps it should’ve been done in Illustrator, but I think I’ll learn a lot and be able to create better infographics in the future.

A Design-A-Day Challenge: Day 15

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 15:49:37 +0000

Gold Text in Photoshop

Today I decided to try a gold text tutorial, in line with my text effects theme. Gold, in my opinion, is hard to achieve realistically. It usually looks heavy and fake. I found a tutorial which was very simple and very elegant. Here is my final result:

Super simple and literally took me 10 minutes to create. I found this tutorial on psdtuts+.

Adwords Quality Score Part One

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 07:03:59 +0000

In this Adwords quality score tutorial I am going to show you how to improve your ad relevancy by creating ads that are to the point. It is time to lose those catchy phrases and make your ads more keyword based and direct.

Boosting Quality Score in Google Adwords

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 08:37:18 +0000

Quality Score is the single most important factor in any Google Adwords campaign. Over the next few weeks I will be posting pointers on how to increase your quality score in Google Adwords which will drive your cost-per-click down and your clickthrough-rates up.

A Design-A-Day Challenge: Day 14

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 07:29:58 +0000

3D Molten Text in Photoshop

Following my theme of text effects, today I found a cool-looking fire and ice 3D text tutorial. The tutorial wasn’t very clear and I overdid it slighly, but I loved the layer effects in the tutorial and it also gave some nice resources to some awesome Photoshop brushes. Here is my final design:

Like I said, I overdid it a little but I don’t think it ended up too bad. That is why I called the design “3d Molten Text” instead of “Fire and Ice”… I found this tutorial on Francesco Mugnai’s blog.

A Design-A-Day Challenge: Day 13

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:52:16 +0000

Light & Shade Text Effects in Photoshop

Today, in continuing my theme of text effects, I decided to try a really nice one that played with lighting effects. Here is the final result:

I wasn’t happy with the final result at all, it looked nothing like the tutorial. I did learn some neat tricks though and I guess not every design will be perfect. I can live with that.

Why is ClickThrough-Rate Important in Adwords?

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:38:03 +0000

Clickthrough-Rate (CTR) in Google Adwords is one of the most important factors in bringing down the overall cost of your "search network" campaign and it is also the answer to a higher conversion rate.

A Design-A-Day Challenge: Day 12

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 20:16:16 +0000

Western Logo in Illustrator & Photoshop

Today I searched online for some more text effect tutorials. I found a really nice Western text tutorial, and thought I could use it for idea’s for a new logo for my husband’s blog. Halfway through I decided I didn’t like the tutorial any longer and improvised. Here is my final design:

I’d like to make some changes and finish it up for my husband… one day. And maybe one day give him a new website design, maybe… I found this tutorial on Vectortuts+.

A Design-A-Day Challenge: Day 11

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 18:42:45 +0000

3D Text Effect in Illustrator & Photoshop

Today I decided to do another text effect tutorial (I really enjoy these and they’re quick). It was another combined work of Photoshop and Illustrator, and I loved the final result. Here it is:

This is the first design that looks exactly the same as tutorial; I feel my skills are getting better and more defined. I found this tutorial on pshero.

A Design-A-Day Challenge: Day 10

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 16:43:46 +0000

3D Text in Illustrator & Photoshop

I’m enjoying creating text effects, so today I found a beautiful 3D text effect I wanted to try. It’s also so fitting since we’re heading into Spring. Here is my final artwork:

This was such a creative tutorial and I really enjoyed it. Again, I was familiar with all the techniques and got to learn how to apply them in new ways. I am pretty happy with the final result. I found this tutorial on 10Steps.SG.

A Design-A-Day Challenge: Day 9

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 21:58:02 +0000

Grunge Banner in Photoshop

I enjoyed the grunge buttons I created yesterday, so I decided to do another grunge tutorial, this time a banner with combined text effects. My husband needed a new Adwords banner, and since our company website is sort of grungy, I could kill two birds with one stone. Here is his grungy Adwords banner:

I’m familiar with all the techniques they used, it just gave light on how to use them in new ways. (I’ve lost the page where I did the tutorial. I’ll share the reference when I find it again)

A Design-A-Day Challenge: Day 8

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 19:56:10 +0000

Grunge Social Media Icons in Photoshop

Today I decided to design another set of Social Media icons. We need new one’s for our company website, namely a Google+ icon, but because I originally used a premade set, I couldn’t recreate mine to look the same. So I decided to create a brand new set of my own. Here is the final result:

I’m pretty happy with how they turned out, but I should have made the ‘flap’ smaller so there was more space for the actual icons. I’ll probably tweak and then add to our website. I found this tutorial on Dawg House while doing a Google image search for a grunge button tutorial.

WordPress SEO Website – Autosure

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 09:13:00 +0000

Autosure was originally only a SEO client. They had ongoing search engine optimisation as well Adwords management (I wrote a case study on their Adwords Banners a few weeks ago) headed out by our SEO Specialist, Bryan Casson.

After the increase of clicks with his newly designed Adwords banners, we then gave his Facebook page a facelift, and after a few weeks they decided to give us their website to redesign.

Below is their original website design:

The original website was built in old code (tables) and was terribly hard to update because of it’s structure. Updates that should’ve taken 10 minutes took an hour or two. The forms were also not functioning properly.

We proposed a completely new design, built into WordPress with a new structure. The forms were redone (we added spam protection, a submission page and wrote the info to a database), we added photo’s, made the text layout more appealing and overall tried to make the website better in terms of user-friendliness and SEO compatibility. We also added Social Media sharing as well as beautiful call-to-actions, such as the SMS button.

The WordPress platform allows for quick and easy updates by the clients and is also a very SEO friendly platform if the right measures are put in place.

Here is the new and completed design:

Casson Media Becomes Google Engage Partner

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 07:20:19 +0000

At Casson Media we are proud to be accepted as a Google Engage partner in South Africa. This new initiative by Google is an attempt to allow marketing agencies , webmasters and SEO's direct access to Google Adwords Support as well as training programs, study material and important information so that they do not become stale in advancing their knowledge of Adwords for there clients

First Page Ranking Guaranteed With Infinite Scroll

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 14:02:49 +0000

Looks like Google is looking at the possibility of using infinite scroll for web results as they have done for image search. Infinite scroll which is used by many leading content providers like Twitter, Google+ and Facebook does indeed help …

Full WordPress CMS Solution – Cakes by Cleo

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 07:26:51 +0000

In January 2011, we met with a client who created exquisite cakes for birthdays and weddings etc. and discovered she needed a website redesign. She could update the current website by herself, but it was on a custom built CMS (content management system) platform which was very limiting and too complex for the average user. She showed interest in a new website that was easy to maintain and more user friendly than the current CMS website she had.

Here is the original website design:

After the next couple of months, we discussed the new website (which would be done in WordPress) and some of the new easier to use features and functionality, including the web gallery for her cakes. In April, we sent the client the new design, which she loved and after a few changes we completed the build by the end of April.

The population took a while only because of the clients massive amount of cake photo’s she had to source (which was imperative for the website). After a few weeks, she added enough photo’s and content to give the website a completed feel, and the website went live mid-June. She is still adding more and more photo’s and maintaining the website herself much more easily.

Functionality of the website includes an easily maintainable gallery with albums and a lightbox, an enquiry form with spam protection, a cake blog and a random testimonials widget. The website really compliments the beautiful business she runs.

She also had professional SEO done by us which ensured the old website redirected correctly to the new pages, we targeted the correct keywords per page and amended the titles as well as other optimisation included in our Advanced SEO package.

Here is the completed new website:

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Adwords Banner Designs – Autosure Warranty

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 09:31:24 +0000

One of our clients, Autosure Warranty, has on-going SEO. We provide on-site optimisation, keyword analysis etc. for them each month and are also in the process of developing a new website for them. Another service we offer is Adwords Management. They already had existing Adwords Banners but because of the old artwork, their click-through ratio was appalling. To help with the click-through ratio, we redid the designs to something more modern and classy and added some basic animation.

I ran into a few problems once the new banners were completed. I soon discovered that Google has a lot of restrictions on the animation of Adwords banners. You can read all their Advertising Policies here. Some more specific problems I ran into included the following:

My animation was too long – Limit is 30 seconds
Animations are not allowed to repeat
The file was too big – limit is 50kb

I reckon the above are quite common, in .gif and Flash animations, and it is very limiting but it stops users from really abusing the animations. Anyway, once I was finally compliant, we completed six brand new banners for them.

Before we redesigned the banners, the click-through ratio was about 0.09% and after the new designs it went up to 0.80% (Remember, these are display banners a good percentage is about 1%. From 0.09% to 0.80% is a huge improvement for display banners).

Some of my completed banners are below (to see the animation, refresh and scroll down quickly):

Identify a Professional SEO Company

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 11:56:23 +0000

Do you know your SEO company? Take our quiz to find out if your SEO professionals are for real of if they are doing more harm than good. Do not get taken for a ride, know what is expected when is comes to the SEO services you deserve.

WordPress Website with SEO – Mogs International

Tue, 31 May 2011 10:30:42 +0000

Casson Media are proud to announce our newest WordPress website that was “Designed for SEO” – Mogs International

This project began in March 2011. Our client wanted SEO but his current website had very outdated coding (tables) that Search Engines don’t like. We therefore had to redo his entire website. In April, we presented a new design to him which he signed off on immediately and built in WordPress. The client then proceeded to populate it himself.

We installed a gallery and a news section (which uses WordPress’ blogging functionality) as well as simply plug-ins for a contact form and search bar. He had Flash video’s which we loaded into a very slick lightbox (view here).

Once the new site went live, we optimised it for SEO (the layout of the homepage was specially done for SEO – it contains small excerpts and links to his services). He took the advanced package which includes features such as keyword analysis, content optimisation and making his site “Search Engine Friendly”.

Here is the completed website:

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WordPress Website – Emil Trautman & Associates

Mon, 23 May 2011 09:30:42 +0000

Casson Media are proud to announce the launch of another WordPress website for Emil Trautman & Associates.

In late March 2011, I got an enquiry from my design blog for a WordPress website. A financial planner, Emil Trautman, had seen one of my other completed websites (Blink Consulting) and loved the design (he is also in the same field and required a lot of the same features, such as the Budget Planner). Emil knew exactly what he wanted from the start and even the many pros of using WordPress.

We met with Emil immediately and in mid-April we sent the first proofs for his new design, which he loved. He purchased relevant stock images and after a few small changes we proceeded to build the site. Once built, Emil actually populated the website himself and I went in to do the last style changes once he was done.

Emil’s website contains many tools and features. We created a lovely visual overview of his services in the sidebar, added his Budget Planner widget and created his Latest News blog.

Before we launched the site, we prepared the website for SEO and with this head start, Emil’s website listed very well almost immediately. Emil now maintains the website with relevant articles that boosts his rankings in Google. A combination of our SEO setup and Emil’s dedication to his website will get him the results he wants.

Here is the completed website:

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Now that his new website is live, we are proceeding to design for some of his Social Media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook.

Free R300 Adwords Voucher

Tue, 10 May 2011 07:45:04 +0000

Try out Google's famous advertising platform today by signing up for a Google AdWords R300 FREE advertising trial! Promote your business for free and take advantage of this free trial. Sign up is easy! Request an Adwords Voucher today.

Mobile & Web Marketing Conference 2011

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 14:23:52 +0000

Join Bryan Casson at the Mobile & Web Marketing Conference 2011 as he covers the all important topic of Google Places and how local search can benefit your business. Come learn how to claim your company on Google Maps and how to enhance your Places listing so that your company can be found with ease.

WordPress Website – Blink Consulting

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 10:11:55 +0000

I am proud to announce our latest completed website project for Blink Consulting. This was a lovely project with an amazing client!

In September 2010, I got an enquiry from my Design Blog for a brand new website design and basic company identity. My client, Heather Raath, required a new logo and a website she could update herself. She had a set budget and we worked a logo, email stationary and a full website into it.

We began with her logo and I supplied several concepts. She chose a design, which was a emblem-type logo of her “B”, and we developed it further. We decided to go with a completely black corporate identity with one other strong colour. I presented several options and she decided on the rich red she has in her logo today. In the final proofs, we decided to have the word “BLINK” as the main logo, with the “B” slightly off center to the right, exactly like a “Power To” symbol.

Her identity then developed around the colour black, with hints of red in places. For her website design, we did a completely black design, and things like the links and headings were in her deep red. The end result was a strong website with a lot of contrast.

Heather chose to use stock images that related to her business, and each header of the website had a different photo. She also had stunning testimonials, which are different on every page. These small elements made her website more dynamic and interesting to page through.

She filled her site with stunning content, including a blog which she populated with stories from her newsletter. She now maintains the website herself through WordPress.

She was a great client from the start and the entire project was completed over email. We spoke over the phone for the first time after the website went live so I could begin showing her how to update the site.

Here is the completed website:

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