Good SEO requires an understanding of conversion rate optimization, analytics, Web design & development, social media marketing, good communication, copywriting, the economy in each industry, usability, user experience and even human psychology. Always beware of companies and firms offering “guarantees” when it comes to ranking and SEO and understand that some firms “game the system” which provide initial gains that can have negative long term consequences.

Start Where You Are or Build it in New

Understanding the landscape when it comes to the type of site you have and the type of SEO you will benefit the most from is not intuitive. Good SEO involves hiring someone with the skills and experience necessary. There is a financial investment and a need for continual attention to actually see results from any SEO efforts.

Below are some of the elements of good SEO services;
– Having a site with a great user experience or making improvements to your website to achieve this
– Technical improvements to code and structure of your website
– Social Media promotion
– Relationship building with other businesses and websites
– Offline marketing opportunities when they arise
– Links (in quality not quantity).
– Content creation/writing
– Keeping current with SEO and industry trends

Web Site Audit

If you already have a web site, and are interested in getting serious about SEO, a web site audit is a great first step. While there are no guarantees (or shouldn’t be) in SEO, there are always areas that can be guaranteed to improve your ranking. These can include identifying your core online competitors, analyzing and identifying core keywords, optimization techniques, link building, link bait/viral content, social media optimization, SEO analysis and training. There are free online tools you can employ as well. While not detailed reports – they can help. Keep in mind most free tools are also likely lead-gen tools – to sell you more products or services.

The post SEO Services & Web Site Audits first appeared on Mindy Schmidt New Media Design and Digital Marketing LLC.

Besides manually typing in your web site address into a browser, there are actually many aspects to how people can end up on your web site. Does your site meet W3C web site standards for accessibility? Is your site responsive or are you losing near 60% of today’s smart media internet users? Do you include best practices when it comes to SEO (search engine optimization)? Are you keeping your site content updated, utilizing cross linking, and integrating social media?

Why does social media matter?

Social media may be your new best friend in improving your site visitors and assisting in your conversion optimization.  In internet marketing, conversion optimization is a system for increasing the percentage of visitors to a website that convert into customers, or more generally, take any desired action on a webpage. Social media allows you to be present and personally engage with your target audience in a way no other form of direct marketing can. Read here for the many proven benefits.

An ‘on-line-and-real-time’ word of mouth opportunity

Gone are the days when most businesses or organizations invested heavily in ads in a local newspaper. People trust what their friends have to say and today social media allows a connection that includes businesses and organizations like never before. Companies and non-profits alike seek more “likes” on their Facebook page because they know there is proven conversion in this effort. The click through rate is always greater when recommended personally.

Social media has a great ROI

There are virtually no out of pocket costs in integrating these social media strategies unless you choose to hire out for this effort. In either case, the ROI (return on investment) is still one of the best ‘deals going’ in internet marketing today. If you follow best practices,  your organization will realize benefits from integrating social media regularly and consistently. Some of these benefits include brand recognition, creating an online audience with the ability to share what you share with their friends and a “click through” rate that your competitors will never have if they only have a web site.

Social media also benefits your site’s search engine ranking

On top of all the other benefits, social media also impacts your site’s ranking on search engines. Google, for example, includes areas like external ‘back links’ and ‘new traffic’ in determining whether your site is worth ranking well against sites with the same focus. Every time you share a post to your Facebook page you have just created an external back link. In so doing, you are also allowing new traffic to flow to your site. New traffic and back links prove to Google you and your site are more valuable than another site that does not show this activity. Read here for even more on this topic.

The post Social Media and Conversion first appeared on Mindy Schmidt New Media Design and Digital Marketing LLC.

Whether you need  a 15 second promo for use on Facebook or you want a longer more in depth video highlighting who you are and what you do – video and motion graphics (when done well) can make a great addition to your online marketing strategy. Videos help break up otherwise static posts on your web site or in a Facebook feed.

The post Online Video Marketing first appeared on Mindy Schmidt New Media Design and Digital Marketing LLC.

The term “responsive” was coined in May of 2010.  

Responsive sites dynamically change layout depending on the device accessing the site. (Tablet/smart phones etc) to best fit and format for readability or usability. Google currently has a preference for responsive Web design and is trending to only continue in popularity. This is both because of the benefits of SEO/accessibility factors and especially as so many more people only use their mobile devices to surf the net anymore. Providing an easy way for users to access your web site from a smart phone is what ideally all businesses should aim to do.

Why Does It Matter?

Because it’s better and you will only hurt yourself in the long run if your site is not responsive.

Responsive Design, What Does It Cost?

If you have a relatively simple brochure website for your business, modifying your existing website to be responsive design may cost you as little as several hundred dollars to perhaps a few thousand. That is assuming the design lends itself to becoming responsive. But if you haven’t redesigned your website in several years chances are you’ll need to go through a complete redesign process and the answer to what it will cost is, as usual, “it depends.” If you have a vendor you work with you on your website, simply ask them if it’s possible to overhaul your existing website to be responsive, and what it will cost.

The Future Is Mobile

While going responsive can present challenges for website owners and online marketers, I return to my previous point that without a mobile-friendly website your future online is bleak. If you’re not providing a mobile-friendly experience for your customers, they’ll bounce off your website and go to your competitor whose website is easier to use. The future is mobile, as we see people increasingly favoring their mobile devices over desktop computers. Nielsen says that over 60% of all mobile phone owners in the US use a smartphone. A recent study by Walker Sands Digital showed mobile traffic to its client base increasing by 171 since Q3 2011. Statista says that 5 billion people will use mobile phones by 2017. Making your website responsive is a small price to pay to reach all these people.

“If you read Peter Cashmore’s piece from almost a year ago proclaiming 2013 to be The Year of Responsive Web Design you might wonder if you’re too late. No, you’re not, because in all likelihood all your competitors are late to the game as well. 2013 turned out to be the year when those companies and industries that tend to stay somewhere just behind the cutting edge of online marketing and web design got their acts together when it comes to responsive design. Most businesses lag behind the cutting edge by at least a year when it comes to such things. You’ve been safe for the time being, but now your competitors are figuring things out.

Read the article from Forbes on this topic from 2013 here.

The post Why Go Responsive? first appeared on Mindy Schmidt New Media Design and Digital Marketing LLC.

First, anyone you plan to hire should have actual web sites for you to review. If they do provide sites for you to see, visit them. (Here is some of my work.) Be sure that each meets the below basic checklist. If their other web sites don’t meet these criteria …. then you should back away, nay run!

There are at least 80 different items, including the basic ones provided below, that I complete for all my web site clients today. 

Dr. Peter J. Meyers, a former start-up executive, cognitive psychologist, and lifelong programmer came up with the list below and while they don’t necessarily make for stimulating reading, they are completely critical in providing users with web sites that can be found easily, are accessible, compliant, work well with all current social media efforts and that have passed all usability testing.

Ultimately you don’t need to worry if you know what any of that means, but any web designer and/or developer that is worth hiring, should know.

Section I. Accessibility

This section contains not only traditional accessibility issues, but anything that might keep a visitor from being able to access the information on a website. If no one can load your site, or the type is too small to read, all of the usability in the world won’t matter.

1. Site Load-time Is Reasonable
Call me old-school, but I still like to see sites come in under 100KB (60KB is even better). If a site takes forever to load, most people will just leave. Yes, many of us have broadband now, but that makes our patience even thinner.

2. Adequate Text-to-Background Contrast
Dark-gray on light-gray may seem stylish, but I’m not going to ruin my eyesight to read your blog. Eyes and monitors vary wildly, so keep your core copy contrast high. Good, old-fashioned black-on-white is still best most of the time.

3. Font Size/Spacing Is Easy to Read
Opinions vary on the ideal size for text, but err on the side of slightly too big. Poor readability increases frustration, and frustration leads to site abandonment. Also, make sure your line spacing is adequate – white-space is a designer’s best friend.

4. Flash & Add-ons Are Used Sparingly
No matter how great your site looks, people won’t wait 5 minutes for a plug-in to load. Use new technology sparingly and only when it really enhances your goals. Sticking to standard HTML/CSS is also a plus for search engines.

5. Images Have Appropriate ALT Tags
Not only do sight-impaired visitors use ALT tags, but search engines need them to understand your images. This is especially critical when you use images for key content, such as menu items.

6. Site Has Custom Not-found/404 Page
If a page on your site doesn’t exist, a white page with “404 Not Found” is a good way to lose a customer. Create a custom 404 page, preferably one that guides your visitors to content.

Section II. Identity

A key question when someone first comes to your site is “Who are you?” It’s important to answer it quickly, and make the paths to obvious follow-up questions (“What do you do?”, “Why should I trust you?”, etc.) clear.

7. Company Logo Is Prominently Placed
Put your logo or brand where it’s easy to find, and that usually means the upper-left of the screen. People expect it, and they like it when you make their lives easy.

8. Tagline Makes Company’s Purpose Clear
Answer “What do you do?” concisely with a descriptive tagline. Avoid marketing jargon and boil your unique value proposition down to a few words. This is also a plus for SEO.

9. Home-page Is Digestible In 5 Seconds
In usability, we often talk about the 5-second rule. There’s some disagreement over just how many seconds you get, but website visitors are a fickle bunch, and they need to get the basic gist of your home-page in just a few moments.

10. Clear Path to Company Information
The good old “About Us” page may seem boring, but confidence is important on the web, and people need an easy way to learn more about you.

11. Clear Path to Contact Information
Similarly, visitors want to know that they can get in touch with you if they need to. It’s also hard to do business if no one can contact you. Preferably, list your contact information as text (not in an image) – it’ll get picked up by search engines, including local searches.

Section III. Navigation

Once people generally know who you are and what you do, they need clear paths to the content that interests them. Information architecture is a huge topic, but these points cover some of the basics.

12. Main Navigation Is Easily Identifiable
Almost every site on the web has had a main menu since the first browsers came on the market. Make your main navigation easy to find, read, and use. If you have two or more navigation areas, make it clear why they’re different.

13. Navigation Labels Are Clear & Concise
Don’t say “Communicate Online With Our Team” when “Contact Us” will do just fine. Your main navigation should be short, to the point, and easy for mere mortals to grasp.

14. Number of Buttons/Links Is Reasonable
Psychologists like to argue about how many pieces of information we can process, but if you start to get past 7-or-so menu items, think hard about whether you need them. If you’ve got 3 layers of flyaway Javascript menus, do yourself a favor and start over.

15. Company Logo Is Linked to Home-page
This may sound minor, but people expect logos to link to home-pages, and when they don’t, confusion follows. I’ve seen video of users clicking on a logo over and over, with no idea what to do next.

16. Links Are Consistent & Easy to Identify
The underlined, blue link is a staple of the web. A little artistic license is ok, but consider at least making your links either blue or underlined. Links should stand out, and you should use them sparingly enough that they don’t disrupt your content.

17. Site Search Is Easy to Access
If you have a site search, make sure it’s prominent. Usability guidelines tend to prefer the upper-right corner of the page. Keep the button simple and clear – “Search” still works best for most sites.

Section IV. Content

You’ve heard it before – Content is king. If you don’t want the kingdom to crumble, though, content needs to be consistent, organized, and easy to skim through.

18. Major Headings Are Clear & Descriptive
Most people don’t read online, they skim. Use headings (major and minor) to set content apart and keep it organized. Headings should be clear, and for SEO benefit, using heading tags (<H1>, <H2>, etc.).

19. Critical Content Is Above The Fold
The “fold” is that imaginary line where the bottom of your screen cuts off a page. Content can fall below the fold, but anything critical to understanding who you are or what you do (especially on the home-page) should fit on that first screen. Average screen resolution these days is about 1024×768, depending on your audience.

20. Styles & Colors Are Consistent
Make sure people know they’re still on your site by being consistent – confuse them and you’ll lose them. Layout, headings, and styles should be consistent site-wide, and colors should usually have the same meaning. Don’t use red headers on one page, red links on another, and red text somewhere else.

21. Emphasis (bold, etc.) Is Used Sparingly
It’s a fact of human cognition: try to draw attention to everything and you’ll effectively draw attention to nothing. We’ve all seen that site, the one with a red, blinking, underlined “NEW!” next to everything. Don’t be that guy.

22. Ads & Pop-ups Are Unobtrusive
Ads are a fact of life, but integrate them nicely into your site. Don’t try to force ads and pop-ups down peoples’ throats. Also, do people a favor and make your ads clear. If you blur the line between ads and content too much, your content may suffer.

23. Main Copy Is Concise & Explanatory
This isn’t a lesson in copywriting, but look at your home-page – can you say the same thing in half as many words? Try to be concrete and descriptive and avoid jargon – nobody cares if you can “leverage your synergies”.

24. URLs Are Meaningful & User-friendly
This is a point of some debate, but meaningful keyword-based URLs are generally good for both visitors and search engines. You don’t have to re-engineer an entire site just to get new URLs, but do what you can to make them descriptive and friendly.

25. HTML Page Titles Are Explanatory
More importantly, your page titles (in the <TITLE> tag) should be descriptive, unique, and not jammed full of keywords. Page titles are the first thing search-engine visitors see, and if those titles don’t make sense or look spammy, they’ll move on to the next result.

Facts are facts.

Sure, you can take your chances and trust the little fella and hire your nephew to build your web site.  Just realize that when, or if, your new site goes live that it will most likely be missing some of the “guts” that make professional web sites purr right by when the light turns green. Saving money on one end only to realize a gas pedal was not installed or that your vehicle won’t pass any kind of emissions test, will make it hard not to take a spoonful of mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving, tilt it back and let it fly at nephew-buddy.

The post My nephew builds web sites… first appeared on Mindy Schmidt New Media Design and Digital Marketing LLC.

Over the years I have had the opportunity to provide graphics packages for Sam Barlow High School. I have always donated my time and work for two reasons: One: I really enjoy stepping outside the “pixel” to see things installed in the three dimensional world. Two: The Gresham-Barlow School District is where our boys attend(ed) school (one graduated and one soon to graduate from Barlow). #BruinPRIDE!

New Wall mural on the Pool Building by the Football and Track Stadium.

In 2021, I enjoyed helping Barlow with their interior graphics for their new or newly remodeled offices, conference rooms and student departments. I helped with exterior graphics in the parking lot near the football stadium.

Barlow Band Wall of Fame

I helped design the large mural for the Barlow Band Program in the entry into the auditorium by the performing Arts Center.

Barlow Gym

The Gym received a facelift. Specifically, we replaced the cloth Mt. Hood Conference banners and State Championship banners (that were gathering dust on the walls) with vector graphics printed and installed directly onto the walls. We also did this with our American Flag! We added large paws and Bruins as vinyl graphics all around the gym as well as a new wrap to the scoreboard! AtoZ Graphics and Issam Abushakrah did a wonderful job with the printing/installation of the vinyl graphics and has become Barlow’s go-to when the need arises.

HR Posters

Here is one other project I was hired for with the GBSD HR Department. These are posters highlighting some of the amazing educators that work for this school district. They were printed as 3 foot by 4 foot displays. There is also a an AD for GBSD’s HR Department sporting their new logo and QR Code. The logo (bottom right of each poster) is also part of my  work portfolio. 

I also have provided help with the Honor Roll Board, other posters, promotionals, programs, banners, and quite a lot of web support over the past 21 years as well.

In addition to my volunteer hours, I was also hired to provide GBSD their logo years ago. I still feel lucky that the district seeks out my help on projects here and there and I love knowing that I can help (pro bono or otherwise) to support the school district that is full of such wonderful people, staff, kids and families.

The post Go Bruins! first appeared on Mindy Schmidt New Media Design and Digital Marketing LLC.

Our organic veggies are grown with soil that uses only the fertilizer from our hens/pigs and the cover crops that get tilled in each spring before planting. We have been raising chickens for eggs for about 18 years now – but have most recently added in meat chickens, our own pork and turkey for our freezer. The pigs and turkeys we are raising are heritage breeds and we really enjoy them. We hope to add news of a solar system to our property on this site one day – and maybe an underground water collection system.

We are excited to share with our friends and family what we are learning and try to keep our farm blog updated!

The post Homesteading Yo first appeared on Mindy Schmidt New Media Design and Digital Marketing LLC.