Client:  Main Course California

Project Details:  We re-developed the Main Course California web site using the WordPress CMS and the Genesis Framework by Studiopress.

Created With:  Adobe Photoshop CS5, Adobe Fireworks CS5, Adobe Dreamweaver CS5, WordPress,  Genesis Framework, PHP & MySQL.

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Take a look at this intro video that covers some of the great new features.

You can also read the full blog here: http://wordpress.org/news/2011/12/sonny/

While I am a huge proponent of Plugins and use a wide variety of them to build specials features and functionality into our sites, I prefer to limit the number of Plugins used to the smallest possible number.  This allows me easily stay on top of updates and prevent possible conflicts between Plugins that are developed by several different publishers.

Several years ago I began searching for ways to improve the usability and performance of WordPress without having to install multiple 3rd party plugins.  That’s when I discovered and began using the Thesis framework.  Although it made huge improvements to WordPress and simplified many of the tasks necessary for most of the sites we build, I continued my search for a better solution.  A few summers ago, while browsing through Chris Brogran’s blog, I cam across a post explaining why he moved his site to the Genesis Framework.  He had previously used the same framework that I was using, but decided to change for some very compelling reasons.  I browsed on over to Studiopress and was quickly sold.

Here are just a few of the reasons that I prefer the Genesis Framework by Studiopress as the foundation for all of my WordPress driven web sites.

1. Genesis helps us quickly create GREAT looking web sites

Whether designing a custom child theme, turning another designers PSD into a child theme or modifying one of the 43 Genesis turn-key designs, we know we will achieve our standards faster using the Genesis Framework.  This is achieved by separating all of the core functionality and SEO benefits of the Genesis Framework with the design elements of the child theme.  That means we can quickly build or modify existing child themes to change the look and feel of the site without touching the original genesis code.

2. Genesis is Search Engine Optimized

Genesis improves the SEO capabilities of WordPress by using state of the art code and smart design architecture.  This allows your sites content to be seen the way that search engines like it which in turn helps you to achieve the best rankings possible.  In addition, Genesis allows us to update their framework without harming your important SEO settings.  This means that you will always have the latest greatest version of Genesis running on your site.

3. Improved Security & Instant Updates

WordPress sites can be vulnerable to attack if not properly built and maintained.  Genesis is constructed with state-of-the-art security built on WordPress best practices.  Keeping your WordPress site up to date is breeze with Genesis.

4. Rapid Customization with Genesis

Genesis gives us all the functionality necessary to quickly modify our clients sites.  Rapid customization features include:

Widgets
WordPress widgets allow us to quickly add powerful functionality to your site.  Genesis gives us the ability to quickly create custom widget areas throughout our clients sites making widgets more powerful than ever.

Theme Options
The Genesis theme option panel allows us to quickly and easily change things like font and font size, blog categories displayed, number of posts on a page and more.  It also gives a quick an simple way to add custom code to the header and footer of every page.

Comment Functionality
Genesis extends the comments functionality of WordPress giving your users a more robust discussion experiencing including comments threads and gravatar integration.

Advertising Capabilities
Most of the existing Genesis child themes are advertising ready and building this capability into custom our child themes is cinch.

Auto-sized Featured Images
Genesis simplifies the use of images on your site by taking advantage of the WordPress featured image capabilities.

5. Built-in Custom Widgets and Layouts

Being widgetized beyond the sidebar, Genesis comes with the following custom widgets that can be used throughout the site:

• Category Navigation Menu – Display category navigation for your header
• eNews and Updates – Displays Feedburner email subscribe form
• Featured Page – Displays featured page with thumbnails
• Featured Posts – Displays featured posts with thumbnails
• Latest Tweets – Display a list of your latest tweets
• Page Navigation – Display page navigation for your header
• User Profiles – Displays user profile block with Gravatar

In addition, Genesis allows us to easily change the layout of each page use their 6 default page layour options:

• content/sidebar
• sidebar/content
• content/sidebar/sidebar
• sidebar/content/sidebar
• sidebar/sidebar/content
• full width content {no sidebar}

If your interested in learning more about Genesis, get in touch with me or head over to Studiopress.com and check it out for yourself.

Using Analytics Software

Apart from Google, there are numerous online companies offering analytics software to help improve your online business. By tracking the bounce rates of different pages throughout your website, you can discover where the weaknesses are and where you need to make the necessary improvements. Obviously, the software can’t solve all your problems, but by analyzing the various results, at least you know where to begin to improve your website’s bounce rates.

The Importance of Page Load Speed

It’s probably no shock to you that people don’t like waiting around when they’re looking for information. Some people may even give up after waiting five seconds for your website to load. Don’t risk losing potential customers because of poor loading times. Reduce image sizes and avoid pop-up ads. Also look into using various online tools available for checking and improving website speed, and talk to your webmaster about improving your website’s bounce rates by optimizing load times.

What Are Your Visitors Really Looking For?

Before doing any business with you, many first-time visitors to your site will want to know more about your business. Therefore, an “About Us” page is crucial to gaining the trust of potential customers and is an opportunity to promote your key marketing messages in the early stages of interaction. If you have poor bounce rates, make sure an “About Us” link is clearly visible on every page.

Visitors also need to know that you offer the goods or services that they initially searched for. Ensure that every page on your website includes your company logo and references to your key products and services. This should go a long way toward fixing poor bounce rates.

The Importance of Good Design

People will make a judgement about your website in a few seconds. It’s therefore essential to get the original design right to encourage visitors to stay on your site for longer. If you use a web design company, are there any improvements they can make to the fundamental design to improve bounce rates? Could your website look more professional? Many business websites still make the mistake of using poor-quality fonts and crude colors. Poor grammar and spelling mistakes will also help to drive away countless visitors from your site.

The Power of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Bounce rates are also affected by the quality of SEO applied to your website. Regular placement of keywords and keyphrases related to your company, products, and services will make it more likely that targeted visitors are entering your site via the search engines. Be specific in your choice of words. Generic product terms, for example, could lead to lots of irrelevant traffic. Placing keyphrases within headlines will also improve your SEO power and help your bounce rates by encouraging visitors to explore your content further. Consider hiring a reputable SEO company to handle the complex strategies of effective SEO.

Improving Your Website’s Navigational Structure

High bounce rates are often exacerbated by substandard website navigation. Work with your webmaster to ensure each page of your website is user-friendly. Position the main links above the fold. Create enough space between blocks of text to keep each page uncluttered. And enhance your call to action buttons by increasing their size and frequency on each page.

With larger websites, include a search box on each page. This will make sure your visitors always have an opportunity to continue exploring your site, even if they become “stuck” on a page. With analytics software, you can improve your bounce rates by finding out the most popular search terms and adding specific links to each page.

Improving the bounce rates for any business website doesn’t have to be a complicated process. With relatively small changes, you can make a big difference to the usability and effectiveness of your website. It may not be perfect for every visitor, but even a small improvement in website bounce rates can represent higher sales or strengthen your web presence, contributing to your long-term success.

Client:  Ventura Buccaneers Youth Football & Cheer

Project Details:  I performed a complete overhaul of the Ventura Buccaneer web site.  We started with a fresh installation of WordPress, installed the Genesis Framework bu Sudiopress, completely customized a Genesis child theme and then ported over all of the old content.

Created With:  Adobe Photoshop CS5, Adobe Fireworks CS5, Adobe Dreamweaver CS5, WordPress,  Genesis Framework, PHP & MySQL.

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Client:  Penfolds USA
Branding Firm: Asterix Group

Project Details:  I was recently chosen as lead developer by Asterix Group to develop the new Penfolds USA web site.  The site was constructed with the WordPress CMS and the Genesis Framework by Studiopress.  It was, as usual, a great privilege to work with talented designer Ilona Wall of the Asterix Group and Big Whistle Studios.

Created With:  Adobe Photoshop CS5, Adobe Fireworks CS5, Adobe Dreamweaver CS5, WordPress,  Genesis Framework, PHP & MySQL.

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Client:  Lure Fish House

Project Details:  Web site design and development for Lure Fish House using the WordPress CMS and the Genesis Framework by Studiopress.

Created With:  Adobe Photoshop CS5, Adobe Fireworks CS5, Adobe Dreamweaver CS5, WordPress,  Genesis Framework, PHP & MySQL.

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The size of web pages on a site and the amount of page content provided is an important aspect of SEO. Search engines make the assumption that a website that has meaningful content will have web pages with a substantial amount of good content. A website will not be considered an authority on a topic if it has only a small volume of content. There have been examples of research where additional content, such as a piece of Shakespearean prose, has been added to a page and the page has jumped in the search engine rankings, simply because of the increased volume of text. The effect may be difficult to isolate to this one element, however the principle does also meet the ‘common sense’ test.

Websites do not exist in isolation, but usually share space on a server with other websites. The IP address of the web server will be noted by search engines. Where a large number of incoming links are from websites with the same server IP address, search engines will assume they may be related to the target site and SEO benefits will be reduced. There may also be a reduction in SEO benefit if the web server is host to sites frowned on by search engines. These include ‘link farms’ and websites delivering spam email. It is good to know who your neighbors are. You will find a number of online resources that will enable you to check your reverse IP and tell you who else is sharing your server. If you have dodgy neighbors you should approach you website host to ask for a move to another server. Anything that detrimentally affects your SEO status should be looked at and amended if possible.

In the past, many browsers facilitated poor HTML structures. This was especially true of Internet Explorer. The situation is now changing, and browsers are becoming more critical of HTML use.  Search engines parse web pages to examine content and in doing so have to analyze the HTML tags. There is a reasonable assumption that professional, authoritative websites will be constructed using industry-standard HTML. Have your web pages checked by an online HTML validation tool to ensure it is compliant with current standards. This will make it easier for search engines to index your web pages and will show them your website is not a ‘home made’ project.

There is no point in optimizing a website so that it ranks high in search engine listings and then have it delivered at frustratingly slow speed. Users are now very impatient with web pages that fail to load quickly. Search engines are now very impatient with web pages that fail to load quickly. Speed of server delivery has become another variable in the search engine ranking algorithm and must be considered as part of your SEO process. If you find your web pages are slow to download using a number of different Internet connections, check your page content is appropriate and move servers or host if necessary. A ‘clean’ simple test page can be created to check if slow download times should be attributed to the page content or the server delivery.

Websites that have been around a while gather kudos because of their life experience. If all other factors are even, older websites carry more authority than younger websites. There is little you can do to further this process; however it is a warning against frequently changing your domain name to suit fashion trends.

As with good HTML, search engines recognize good language structure. Identify your market and use the appropriate language version such as US or UK English. For a world-wide audience, US English is best. This is simply because more people enter search engine queries using this version.

The suggestions provided above show that search engine optimization is not only a consideration of appropriate keywords. There are other relevant factors to consider. Build your website with all of these in mind and the SEO process will bring even greater benefits than before.

Client:  Spencer Makenzie’s Fish Company

Project Details:  We recently re-developed the Spencer Makenzie’s Fish Company web site using the WordPress CMS and the Genesis Framework by Studiopress.

Created With:  Adobe Photoshop CS5, Adobe Fireworks CS5, Adobe Dreamweaver CS5, WordPress,  Genesis Framework, PHP & MySQL.

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Client:  California Kitchen Creations

Project Details:  CCS was hired to re-develop the California Kitchen Creations web site using a content management system with blogging capabilities.  The new site was developed using the WordPress CMS and was built on the Genesis Framework by Studiopress.

Created With:  Adobe Photoshop CS5, Adobe Fireworks CS5, Adobe Dreamweaver CS5, WordPress,  Genesis Framework, PHP & MySQL.

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