News & Design Blog

New! 8 New Pre-Designed Websites

Arora Designs — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 06:00:00 GMT

We've got 8 new pre-designed websites for our customers to choose from. This means that we now have a total of 84 designs to browse through when choosing either the pre-designed or pre-designed pro website packages.

Check out the pre-designed website gallery. And as always, let us know if you have any questions or concerns!

Share |

New! Online Stores

Arora Designs — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Arora Designs is proud to announce that we've added powerful new online store functionality to our website editor. With our new e-commerce solution, you'll be able to add products directly onto any page you like. You can manage products, orders, inventory, shipping and tax costs, and even customer information for marketing purposes.

We've integrated this new online store functionality into our website editor in every way - none of our pricing or website packages have changed, save for this new expansion of functionality. If you already have a website with us, your existing site now has e-commerce capability already built-in.

We're really excited about this new addition to the Arora website editor. If you want to learn more about the capabilities of our e-commerce solution, you can read all about it here.

Questions? Comments?

Have a question about our awesome new online store functionality? Ask us your question, comment below, or contact us for a free quote! Either way, we'll get back to you by the next business day.

Share |

New! Free Website Option

Arora Designs — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 05:00:00 GMT

We're proud to announce that we're offering a new website package - and it's completely free! Choose from any of our pre-designed custom websites and we'll set it up for you. From there, you'll have free access to our awesome website editor that will allow you to easily put all of your text, photos, slide shows, and more in to your new website.

As long as you have three pages or less, there are no monthly fees associated with this plan. And as always, there are no contracts - you can upgrade or cancel at any time without ever having to contact us. It really can't get any easier or simpler than that. Just choose a design and tell us which one you want, and we'll set it up.

Still not convinced? Try out the awesome website editor with a free demo website. And if you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to contact us!

Share |

A New Look

Arora Designs — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 06:00:00 GMT

If you've been to our website in the last few days, you will have noticed a big change here at Arora Designs. We've updated our look and redesigned our site to better serve our customers, showcase our work, and to better display the kind of design and functionality that we offer each and every one of our clients.

We've also updated some of our services as well as our design packages. So, if you're interested in seeing what's new, don't hesitate to check those pages out. We'll also be adding new custom websites to our gallery in the coming weeks, so look out for those.

Also, some time in the next few months we'll have a big announcement having to do with some new and exciting capabilities of our website editor system that comes with every Arora website. We think 2011 is already an awesome year... but it looks like it's just going to get better and better. Stay tuned!

Share |

The SEO Guide - now only $4.95

Arora Designs — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 06:00:00 GMT

The bestselling SEO guide, "Search Engine Optimization: Do It Yourself" is now only $4.95. We wholeheartedly recommend this guide for anyone wanting to learn SEO themselves without having to pay thousands of dollars for someone else or some company to do it for them (that includes us).

Learn more about The SEO Guide here. Don't want to download it directly? Try it on your Kindle or Nook. Either way, you'll pay no annoying shipping or tax costs when you buy this electronic book online for your computer or eBook device.

Share |

New Arora Service: Link Building

Arora Designs — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 06:00:00 GMT

We're pleased to announce a new facet to our search engine marketing services: link building. Like Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing and Social Media Marketing, Link Building is just one part of the puzzle when marketing your website online. Now that we are offering this service, we feel that our online marketing solutions are a whole lot more complete.

When optimizing a website (SEO), we are setting it up to be easily found by both search engines and potential visitors alike. SEO is by far the most important aspect of online marketing for a website. However, if the site is relatively new and is competing with much larger, older, and more popular websites, link building can really come in handy to speed up results, build traffic and popularity, and give your website the attention it deserves.

Link building is basically taking the keyword phrases used when optimizing your website and using them to create links around the internet that point to your website. Sort of like, "Web Design company in Dallas, TX" might be a good link for Arora Designs. Once enough of these links are created, Google and other search engines start thinking that your website isn't just any other new website that has to gain popularity, placement, and traffic over the span of months and years. The more links that point back to your website, the better.

It sounds really simple, but there are a few guidelines. You have to know which websites are worth placing a link on. The higher quality and relevant the website, the more likely it is a candidate for placing links that point back to yours. There are a lot of other considerations to take in, like relevancy, page rank, traffic, etc. If done correctly, link building can be a white-hat and extremely efficient way to build popularity for your website. If not done correctly, link building campaigns can get your website blacklisted by Google and other search engines.

We've seen a lot of website owners mistakenly destroy their chances at search engine supremacy by innocently taking part in black-hat SEO and link building tactics. Naturally, we don't like to see that happen.

In the coming weeks and months we will be redesigning the Arora website and adding link building to our list of documented services. If you're interested in learning more, check out our creative director's blog, the "Do It Yourself SEO Blog". For everything he's written specifically about this subject, check out his blog posts about link building.

Thanks for reading, and as always let us know if you have any questions!

Share |

Launched: The Game Effect

Arora Designs — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 06:00:00 GMT

We're extremely proud to announce that The Game Effect website has finally launched. As a new founded source for Game, Movie, and TV show news, reviews ,media, and more, The Game Effect strives to provide you with one of the most informative, functional, and stylish browsing experiences on the web. The staff of writers are passionate gamers and media enthusiasts who thoroughly enjoy being a part of this community.

Be sure to check it out and become a member for free!

Share |

New Testimonial: The Game Effect

Arora Designs — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 06:00:00 GMT

We've got a new testimonial! This time around, it's from the CEO EIC of The Game Effect, Joshua Garwood. We were really pleased to work with him on the new design for the Game Effect website. Check out the testimonial below:

"As someone who rarely finds complete satisfaction with external work, I have to say that I consistently find myself smiling at what Arora has created here. I can confidently say that I am elated with the site and the design that Arora has developed. It not only gives us a unique and appealing identity, but creates a functional and fluid experience for our users that they can't find elsewhere. I am happy to say that this is the best looking game site that I have ever seen, and can't wait to share it with the Internet masses. I've said it before, but I'll say it again, Arora Designs did an amazing job here!"

Thanks a ton, Josh! We look forward to working with you again soon!

Share |

Mobile Website Editing

Arora Designs — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 20:44:59 GMT

Today we're proud to announce a brand new feature of our website editor! This exciting new feature has already been rolled out and is ready to be used now.

The upgrade is a huge step forward in making our editor available on mobile and touch devices. We've empowered touch devices to be capable of accessing menus and settings, making the content areas on your website completely editable. In the past it was inconceivable to modify website text content, blog posts, or calendar events due to the fact that website editing is not compatible with current mobile web browsers. Consequently, we’ve upgraded this by way of delivering a substitute editing screen any time a person accesses the editor via a mobile internet browser.

The new editing screen is extremely straightforward, even permitting a person to see as well as modify the actual HTML located within the content. Just sign in and pull up any of your content areas within a mobile browser, and the new editing screen will show up, permitting you to make modifications to the content.

This is merely one of the first upgrades developed to enable our clients to edit their website content by using mobile or touch devices. There’s much more to arrive within the subject of mobile website editing, so keep checking back here for the latest developments!

Share |

Available Now: Web Design Index 9

Arora Designs — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 23:46:48 GMT

The annual web design showcase book is out in stores now, titled Web Design Index 9. You can pick up your copy at a local bookstore or simply navigate to Amazon.com and pick it up there.

The book features two of our websites: Beautiful 2.0 and Southlake Web Design. We're really excited to be showcased this year for not only one, but two of our websites.

Share |

SEO Guide: Now in Online Stores & Devices

Arora Designs — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 18:51:20 GMT

The #1 SEO Guide, Search Engine Optimization: Do It Yourself is now available in online stores and eBook devices. The online stores are: Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, iBookstore, LuLu, and Google Books. Through these stores, it is available on eBook devices such as Kindle, Nook, iPad, Blackberry, and more.

The guide is still 60% off at just $9.95. If you ever wanted to implement SEO on your own website without having to pay someone else to do it for you, or even if you just want to learn more about SEO and how it works, we definitely recommend this guide.

Share |

New Custom Website: The Game Effect

Arora Designs — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 18:50:56 GMT

We've been working on this one for quite a while now. The new custom design has not gone live on the site yet, but the site is up and running and full of content. The new Game Effect design is much more stylized and modern. It definitely stands out as one of the most user-oriented media sites out there, as opposed to ign.com or others within the niche.You can click on the images below to visit their respective designs. Again, the new design is not live yet, so you will just see a full, non-interactive visual representation if you click on its preview image.

First, we'll show you the "before" image:

And here's our new, custom design:

Obviously there is a huge difference. We'll announce when the site goes live with the new design. You can make The Game Effect your new stop for reviews, previews, and editorials having to do with games, movies, tv, and more. Check out the current Game Effect website.

Share |

SEO Guide Sale

Arora Designs — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:53:32 GMT

About two months ago, we announced the launch of the awesome new SEO guide, Search Engine Optimization: Do It Yourself. If you were ever interested in what search engine optimization is and what it can mean for the success (or failure) of your website or your business' website, this is definitely the SEO guide for you.

At the time it was launched, it was selling for $24.99. Now, it is on sale for 60% OFF. For a limited time, you can purchase this guide for a mere $9.95. Here's a few of the reasons why we recommend this guide:

1. This guide is not a huge encyclopedia; it's easy to follow and understand.

2. It doesn't skim on subjects, and goes even more in depth with the most important ones.

3. The guide is in eBook format, meaning you can download it - instantly.

4. The potential return of investment (ROI) for purchasing this guide is gigantic. This guide can save you hundreds of dollars and make you thousands from gaining traffic to your website by implementing SEO.

5. Readers of this guide can use the website (link below) to ask questions of the author, who usually responds within hours.

Obviously SEO is a service we offer here at Arora Designs. However, if you are one of the many businesses that simply cannot afford to purchase SEO for your website while we're in this Great Recession, then we wholeheartedly recommend this guide. Heck, we'd still recommend it if you just want to save money.

Learn more about The SEO Guide, or visit the Do It Yourself SEO homepage.

Share |

New Custom Website: Chess Republic

Arora Designs — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 19:39:03 GMT

We're proud to announce that we've been working on a custom website project entitled, "The Chess Republic". The website is currently still in development, but most of the design portion of the project is completed. The website will be the first of its kind. In other words, it will allow its users to earn money whilst playing, learning, or teaching Chess to other players.

The design features a clean, warm, and elegant style. The image below showcases the design and layout of the eventual landing page. For now, the actual website that's currently live is in a condensed preview form. Feel free to click on the image below to check out the website and even join its community:

Share |

Internet Explorer 9 Review

Arora Designs — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 05:00:00 GMT

A couple days ago, Microsoft officially announced the launch of Internet Explorer 9 (beta) and the capability for anyone to download it. This has been a long-awaited event, especially for web developers and designers who have been forced to work with Internet Explorer in its not-so-wonderful previous versions. Even the very idea of IE9 has caused designers and developers everywhere to get butterflies in their stomachs. Whether those are good or bad butterflies depends on the individual. In this review, we'll find out just how cringe-worthy (or praise-worthy) this version if IE actually is.

Internet Explorer: The Backwards Browser

Before we get started, we must impress that IE9 is still in it's beginning stages - it's now in "open beta", meaning it supposedly runs well enough to go public, but some issues are still being ironed out... which is understandable, as the last few versions of IE have been woefully lacking in website compatibility, supporting new web technologies, and current website standards and trends. In particular, IE6 has been and still is a veritable nightmare for developers and designers everywhere. If just some of the fixes and support that IE9 promises actually happens, designers and developers would be much happier... or at least we might hear a collective "FINALLY!".

Indeed, web professionals everywhere have been wresting with the IE "backwards browser" for far too long. With the availability of other browser alternatives, such as Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera, IE has been losing a lot of ground in the past few years. The IE "joke" has even spread into pop culture, where even the people that don't know why it's so bad make fun of it. Heck, even some of our older friends and parents (who don't know what a browser even is) find themselves using Firefox or Chrome, despite the fact that IE comes with Windows.

IE9 does not work with XP

That leads us to our next subject. IE9 will only work with Windows Vista and Windows 7. In other words, Windows XP will not support Internet Explorer 9, or at least most of its features. This is fine by us, as XP is now a fairly antiquated browser. Don't get us wrong, XP was a better operating system than Vista - but now that Windows 7 has been out for a while and Vista has had considerable amounts of much needed updates, XP is becoming less and less of a viable option. For those of you still running Windows XP with Internet Explorer 6, please throw your computers out the window. Thank you. Moving on...

A Brand New Look...

Internet Explorer 9 has a brand new design. It's much simpler and more streamlined. Check it out:

The address bar shown above also doubles as a search bar, which helps to clear up some much-need real estate for tabs. Another new and interesting feature of IE9 is its ability to let individual tabs be pinned to the Windows taskbar, much like folders and programs. If you're not familiar with this feature in Windows 7, the ability to do this might be lost on you. While this is a nifty new feature, we don't see much use for it since most people use their "favorites" for this - which offers much more room than a stationary taskbar.

What is IE9 like for web developers and designers?

Things like HTML5 and CSS3 are much improved, seeing as how IE has had very little if not zero support or compatibility for these things in the past. There are a few issues, errors, and problems to contend with when it comes to these things, but for the most part it's comparable to other modern and up-to-date browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera. The main things web designers care for and worry about (such as transparent PNGs, CSS rounded corners, box drop shadows, and font replacers such as Cufon) all work just fine. Granted, some of these items require simple workarounds to get them to work properly. Fortunately, most of these issues will be taken care of as soon as JavaScript utilities (such as Cufon) can update their coding. Of course, a lot of the work (most of it) has to be done by the IE9 developers while its still in beta.

There are still quite a few little quirks and issues that we are seeing that are arising from even some of the simplest CSS3 implementations, such as CSS text-shadows, border images, transform rotate, etc, etc. Most of the new HTML5 features, however, are handled quite nicely. This is in no small part due to the fact that a major purpose of IE9 from the beginning was to support HTML5 and pioneer a brand new era in browsers. Unfortunately, in our eyes at least, Google Chrome beat them to it.

So, What's the Verdict?

Obviously we can only complain about so much when it comes to the beta release of Internet Explorer 9. As it stands, IE9 definitely has its share of kinks to work out. Despite its problems and beta status, it is hands-down the best update to Internet Explorer in years (maybe ever). Make no mistake, this is definitely one huge step forward for the browser. Unfortunately, all it does is bring it in line with a lot of the other modern browsers out there. In other words, it's bringing the browser to where it should be.

Bottom Line: As much as we love (or hate) that Internet Explorer is now an actual, merit-based contender in the so-called browser wars, we can't give it points for finally getting to the point it should have been at a year or two ago. In other words, great job - but so what?

Share |

Facebook, Social Media, & Marketing

Arora Designs — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 02:47:03 GMT

Marketing as an activity is all about reaching the right customers with the right products, and the result sought is delighted customers who are more than willing to open their purses wide enough to boost your revenues. For many years, marketers stalked their target customers through various means and by trying to get their message across to spread awareness about their wares.

Traditional Means of Communication

Traditionally, marketing communications were conducted via print, broadcast and such traditional media through disruptive advertising, where advertisements appear in between the content of interest for the customer.

Traditional media does give a large reach to a marketer with its programming of mass appeal. However, the wastage is equally high, since a large portion of the audience would belong to a different segment than the one that is to be targeted by the marketer.

Enter Social Media and the Internet

The revolution stirred by the internet as a medium took place because of the fact that it is highly personalized and provides more content on-demand than any other available medium. Social sites proliferated far and wide in their usage for a few simple reasons:

The power to create and distribute content is equally available to every user, irrespective of him/her being a customer or a marketer. In the earlier forms of media, that power rested with the editorial staff of the channel or the advertiser, but hardly ever with the user.

The medium is completely personalized, and a user can create or join groups and further create content based on what he/she likes.

Opinions are free and fair. This is one reason why social media is of utmost concern to marketers, since buying decisions are no more influenced as much by advertisements. The traditional word-of-mouth marketing approach has grown leaps and bounds on social networks.

Facebook – At the Center of Social Media

With 500 million (and growing) unique users worldwide, Facebook is the number one social networking site in terms of activity and subscriptions. What started as a garage initiative by Mark Zuckerberg has now become the biggest phenomenon on the internet.

A user interface that allows for quick communication and the ability to create fan pages and groups at the click of a mouse button are what make Facebook extremely popular. Another important reason for its immense popularity is the wide variety of social applications that have been developed and made available within the Facebook environment.

These applications can allow users and friends to do joint activities like playing games that run endlessly, sharing photos, videos, and web links, and many more.

How does this help a marketer?

Traditionally, media plans were drawn to include television channels, publications, or any other media that can grab maximum eyeballs and effectively reach a selected target audience. The science of segmentation and targeting has become only more accurate in the case of social media.

Facebook provides a wide variety of avenues to communicate with the audience, which opens up an entirely different world of possibilities to have a fruitful dialogue with customers. Some of these methods used popularly by marketers are:

Advertising: The first opportunity, which is the most obvious one, is advertising on Facebook. The difference, however, is the fact that you can create your own advertisement in a matter of minutes and also specify the details of your target group in terms of demographics and types of discussions where you want your advertisement to appear.

Fan Pages: Facebook allows every brand, as well as individual users, to create fan pages for their favorite celebrities and their own homegrown businesses. Large brands have also created their official pages on Facebook that have a huge, immediate fan following around the world. The fan page has immense utility to convey first hand information about the brand and also to collect immediate and frank feedback from your customers.

Branded applications: One of the most effective ways to engage a user toward your brand is by creating an application; this could be a game or a contest, with your branding coming across subtly through it.

What makes Facebook even more exciting is the way it allows you to target your communication sharply just to the customer segment you want to attract. It also provides analytics and page insights that give good feedback and measurement on the activity done.

The options provided by Facebook can be creatively explored and used judiciously for bringing about maximum benefits to any brand.

However, while doing all this, you need to be aware of the fact that customers have an equal say and have the ability to respond immediately to any of your actions with a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Availing the service of a social media consultant to work out a social media strategy may be required so that your efforts will not be in vain.

Share |

Do It Yourself SEO

Arora Designs — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 17:37:49 GMT

We're pleased to announce the launch of the new SEO resource website, Do It Yourself SEO. The website was designed and developed by our creative director, Christopher Nelson. While we are proud of the work we do for our clients on search engine optimization, we are excited about his achievement.

Not only is this new website a resource for anyone and everyone wanting to learn all that there is to know about SEO, it also features The SEO Guide, Search Engine Optimization: Do It Yourself. The SEO Guide is a downloadable SEO eBook that features articles, explanations, and how-to's of SEO. The purpose of the eBook is to be the ultimate guide for anyone wanting to optimize their own websites. This is especially good for business owners and start-ups that simply don't have the money to spend on extensive SEO campaigns.

The website also features an SEO FAQ section that allows visitors to read all about the different topics within the realm of SEO, as well as ask questions or make comments about anything they're having trouble with. It's basically a condensed summary version of the guide itself.

The SEO Resources section of the website has recommendations and reviews of all the best SEO tools, software, guides, and training available should anyone be interested.

If you ever wanted to learn more about SEO or start optimizing yourself, this is definitely the website to visit. Click here to check out Do It Yourself SEO!

New Custom Website: Light Pollution

Arora Designs — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 23:46:29 GMT

Nancy Wood came to us looking for something custom, simple, and unique. As an artist, her work is absolutely outstanding. Because of this we did not want to take the focus of the website away from her work in any way. So, we decided to base the design of the website on her works of art. The end result is a website that is more than reminiscent of a work of art in and of itself. The site has already been featured on several design galleries around the internet.

Check out our newest custom website: Light Pollution.

SEO: Backlinks

Arora Designs — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:11:35 GMT

In today's search engine optimization, backlinks are becoming more and more important. As a strictly white-hat SEO company, we haven't talked much about backlinks because of the inevitable gray area we knew we would find ourselves in. In the past, we've stressed that the more helpful your website is - the more of a resource it is for people visiting, the more folks will link back to your website naturally. While this truly is the right mindset to have, we've always known that this can also in many circumstances be naive.

Nowadays, we find that more and more small websites are starting backlinking campaigns. This either takes a lot of time, or a lot of money - and in many cases, both. Going to other people's websites with the single purpose to create a link back to yourself on a blog or forum seems a bit black-hat to us, but there are ways to rationalize doing it.

For instance: you can be helpful all over the internet - not just on your own website. Join forums and follow blogs that are in your business field or niche and start making useful, helpful and constructive comments and feedback on those forums and blogs. Add to their content - answer people's questions, and generally be helpful - legitimately. Simply going to these other websites and typing "I agree" with a link simply will not cut it. At least not to us.

This will create backlinks for you. Not all of the links may count, but they will still help people find your website as well as add to your positive reputation. Here are some ways to create backlinks for your website:

1. Blog commenting
2. Classified ads
3. Article submission
4. Social bookmarking
5. Press releases
6. Online group posting
7. Forum posting
8. Directory Submission
9. Social Networking

Remember to always keep in mind the quality of the website you are creating a backlink on. Don't use link farms or directories that aren't legit. You'll most likely know them when you see them. Basically, anything that looks like a collection of links is probably just that and nothing more - and won't do much for you. If you participate in buying/selling links outside of legitimate advertising, you could even be penalized by Google or even banned.

Good luck, and let us know if you have any questions!

New Website Templates

Arora Designs — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 22:14:16 GMT

We've just added great new website templates to our website template gallery. As with any of our pre-designed website templates, you can choose any of them to base your website off of. You can choose our "do it yourself" option which costs a one-time fee of $99, or we'll customize it to fit your brand and business for only a one time fee of $399. We'll change colors, logos, images - pretty much anything you can imagine to make it your own. Contact us today to order your website!

Check out all the new templates below:

How to Promote Your Website on Google

Arora Designs — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Sometimes, even after we educate our clients about SEO (search engine optimization), we get the question, "Yeah, but how do I promote my website on Google?". Well, for starters, that's what SEO is all about. But for the laymen out there, (and for those of you reading this that are not clients of ours) we'll provide a very basic list of things to keep in mind when attempting to get better search results in Google.

1. Create a cross-browser compatible website
2. Submit your website to dmoz.org and other directories
3. Start a Blog with an RSS feed.
4. Sign up for Google Analytics
5. Set titles on all pages (H1, H2, H3, etc.)
6. Include meta data (description, keywords)
7. Create a robots.txt file for search engines.
8. Create a site map on your website.
9. Write useful and helpful content on your website.
10. Write useful and helpful content on your blog.
11. Make your website a resource for those that find it.
12. Make sure there are no broken links on your website.
13. Set up a smooth navigation structure. Make sure it's not confusing.
14. Start a Facebook and Twitter account connected with your website and/or blog.
15. Begin link building: the higher quality the connections, the better the results will be.
16. Own your domain for more than one year, and buy more than one year at a time. Google likes permanence.
17. Make sure people can comment on your Blog. Respond to them.
18. Be sure that every image on your website has an Alt Attribute.
19. Make sure that the file structure of your website is simple and intuitive.
20. Use naming conventions that are clear and make sense for all images and files.
21. Relevance, Relevance, Relevance. Make sure that your HTML title, meta data, content titles (H1, H2, etc), images, and actual content are all tied in with each other for each individual page on your website.
22. Do not try to trick Google. Stuffing keywords, repeating content, copying content from other sources, or link farming can get you penalized or even banned from Google.
23. Update your website regularly.
24. Update your Blog at least once per week. The more often it's updated, the better.
25. Don't give up.

Honestly, some of the items listed above will be confusing even to the layman. If you're not an SEO expert, web designer or developer, the truth is you really aren't expected to know these things. That's why businesses like ours offer search engine optimization as a service. However, there are some great points on here that you should pay attention to. The quality, usefulness and helpfulness of your content is completely within your control. Google would argue that the quality of your content is the most important thing, and we don't disagree.

Join us on Facebook

Arora Designs — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 18:27:19 GMT

Come join us on Facebook! We'll be posting all our blogs, ideas, and thoughts on web design and development, along with SEO and online trends. We'll answer your questions and comments there too, just like we do here. It's a bit more convenient than coming to our website just for our blog updates - so check it out!

ALSO - we'll be posting deals and discounts on our services. So visit our Facebook page and "like" us so you can get the latest news, thoughts, ideas, trends and deals updated right there on your facebook.

See you all there!

SEO Friendly CMS?

Arora Designs — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 19:47:36 GMT

Do you have an SEO friendly CMS? In other words, does your content management system (website editor) quickly and easily allow you to implement search engine optimization on your website? Besides that, there are many other important "SEO friendly" features and benefits that a great CMS should have. Our CMS has them all.

Even if you don't choose our CMS for your website editor, this list will help you in deciding what to look for in your next content management system:

1. HTML Control: Does your CMS allow you to view and edit the HTML on your website? It should. This is where you can place codes for things such as Google Analytics in order to follow and analyze your website's success online. This also allows for "cleaner" code, making it easier for the search engines to index your website.

2. URL Control: A good CMS should allow you to have complete control over all naming conventions on your website. Our CMS allows you to name each page according to your design. No automatically generated page names here. You name it all.

3. Speed & Quality: Is your CMS attached to a great hosting solution? The response time of your website can determine the overall quality and site speed. This is definitely a ranking factor - the faster the site, the less of a problem search engines are going to have placing your website before others in search results. All our websites are hosted at a Tier Four Data Center in Dallas, TX. It's one of the most state of the art facilities of its kind.

4. 301 Redirects: If you delete or add new pages, change URLs or even just redesign your entire website, that can potentially leave search engines with a whole lot of old web addresses that don't go anywhere. This is bad for your SEO. Our CMS allows you to quickly and easily create 301 redirects. This lets you forward the old web address to the new one. In other words, if one of your old pages was www.mywebsite.com/awesome.html and the new page is www.mywebsite.com/just-awsome, then you would be able to set that forward up in about 6 seconds.

5. Sitemaps: A great CMS will auto-generate a sitemap for your website. A sitemap is kind of a one stop shop for search engines and users to find what they are looking for on your website. A sitemap allows your entire website to be accessible from one page. Our CMS auto-generates sitemaps based on the way you have set up your website.

6. Meta Control: Our CMS allows you to edit your meta data (title, description, keywords) on a per-page basis. This is extremely powerful, convenient, and simple. It's one of the most important things a CMS should be able to do. Sadly, not all of them out there can do this for you.

7. Blog Feature: Want a blog, podcast, company calendar or news section? That's great. Search engines absolutely love blogs. Our CMS allows you to easily set up as many blogs as you want, tie them in with each other for a master blog, or even have separate blogs on every page, controlled by different users. The possibilities are endless. Most people choose to just have one blog, but sometimes one is just not enough. Our CMS Blog features auto archiving, tagging, tag clouds and pagination. It's simple and incredibly easy to use.

8. RSS Feeds: A blog wouldn't be "whole" if it didn't have an RSS feed that people could subscribe to. Our CMS is XML and RSS friendly. In fact, any blog you set up on our system automatically generates an RSS feed that people can subscribe to through their browser. You don't have to do one thing to set this up. Of course, if you want to customize your RSS feed on Google's Feedburner, you're more than welcome to. Like most things on our CMS, it's customizable.

Have any questions about our CMS or more details on SEO-friendly features? Leave a comment below or contact us.

Top 10 Reasons for Website Failure

Arora Designs — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:15:09 GMT

In our experience, the following problems are the most common culprits of website failure. These are issues that many of our clients had before deciding to hire us to redesign or take over their websites. Keep these problems in mind when either developing a website on your own or hiring someone else to do it for you!

1. No Purpose

A website that has no clearly defined purpose will often fail dramatically. Make sure your website has an obvious reason to exist. If you try to make your website into too many different things, you'll lose your target audience. Have an overall objective or subject with your website and stick to it.

2. No Specific Demographic

It's that old adage, "If you try to please everyone, you'll end up pleasing no one." Don't only define your audience through your website content - alienate everyone that is not your audience.

3. Wrong Demographic

Do some research. Who will be interested in this website and its content? Once you find that out, write specifically for that audience. They are the people you are interested in and want to focus on - no one else.

4. Bad Design

People relate to visuals. If they think a website is unprofessional, does not match the content, or is just plain bad, they'll press the infamous 'back' button before they even read the headline. Make sure a website is designed professionally.

5. Wrong Design

Don't have your website designed for you. Have it designed for your target demographic. Unless it's your personal website or blog, having pictures of your favorite pet, images of your face all over the website, or polka dots (just because you like them) is probably not a good idea if you want to attract visitors.

6. Inconsistency

Everything must be consistent. Your content, your subject matter, the website layout and imagery should all flow with each other to make a concise message that is easy to understand by the viewer. Don't confuse people by including random content or imagery in your website.

7. No SEO

Many companies and individuals underestimate the need for search engine optimization (SEO) on their websites. Don't make the mistake that your demographic will somehow find your website anyway, or that word of mouth will make your website a success by itself. It won't. SEO is an absolute necessity for any website struggling for not only more visitors, but the right visitors.

8. Update Your Website

Always update your website as frequently as possible. If you have a blog, we recommend updating it at least once per week. This allows the website to stay fresh in the search engines as well as to your viewers. The more new content for search engines and people to munch on, the better.

9. Lack of Content

Don't just title a page and write a few sentences. Your website needs lots of rich, relevant content in order to attract visitors and search engines. You don't have to write a novel, but a good number to stay around is 800 words per page. Many times this doesn't seem possible, especially for resource pages where all you may want is a list of links to other sites. If this is the case, try to write a few sentences about each link or resource. The more content, the better. Remember: content is king.

10. Browser Compatibility

Make sure that your website works in other web browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera, etc). If it doesn't, the visitor you've just brought to your website via search engines or from giving them your URL will not be able to see your website. It can be even worse when they go to your website and see a broken website where the layout and content is askew. This makes you look unprofessional at best, incompetent at worst. Make sure to hire a web design company that ensures browser compatibility*.

* Some browsers are just bad. For example, Internet Explorer 6 is known to create numerous and horrific problems for websites. While some problems cannot be solved, your web designer/developer should at least be aware that the problem exists.

Questions, comments? Feel free to leave them below.

Top 10 Reasons to get a Website

Arora Designs — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:05:11 GMT

In light of today's level of technology & communication (and of course the economy), we thought we'd share a top ten list with you regarding why it's so important to have a website if you are a small business, entrepreneur, artist, job seeker - anything, really. All sales talk aside and in all seriousness - you really can't afford not to have a website. Here's why:

10. Cost Effective Advertising: you don't have to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars to advertise your products or services on your website, unlike paying for an ad in the yellow pages, newspaper, direct mail, TV or even radio.

9. Online Selling: sell your products or services on your website. Easily set up an online store that you can update, change and reorder to your heart's content.

8. Location, Location, Location: you can set your website up to be "located" anywhere you want. Using search engine optimization techniques, you can target your city, your entire state, or even the entire world. A website increases your geographic range.

7. Awesome Versatility: a website can be a business website, an online store, an artist portfolio, a gallery, a resume, or even an educational website. A website can be whatever you want it to be.

6. Marketing Tool: a website is one of the cheapest and most effective forms of marketing your products or services. It can greatly increase your customer base in ways that networking, cold calling or having a brick-and-mortar location simply can't.

5. Communication: Make announcements, post some news, start discussions and even get feedback from your customers. Used in tandem with Twitter and Facebook, your sales, announcements, news and press releases will go much, much further than printing out a few hundred fliers.

4. Be Findable: A website can help potential customers or other interested parties find you. If a customer finds you online before they find another local service, they're most likely to choose you. If your competition doesn't have a website, this gives you a huge advantage.

3. Create a brand: With a website, you can completely control your brand and the experience potential customers or users will have when they visit. You can define your target demographic in a way that no other form of marketing can by attracting the specific types of people you want.

2. First Impressions: In any interaction having to do with people, first impressions are made in a matter of seconds. With a website you can control what that first impression is down to the tiniest detail. The best websites take advantage of this.

1. It's Always On: Unlike any other kind of advertising, marketing or PR, a website is always available to the public. Visitors can be attracted to your website 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. For the cost of designing and developing a website and minimal hosting charges, that kind of advertising is priceless - and that's why it's our number one reason why you should have a website.

Questions? Comments? Don't hesitate to leave a comment below. Thanks for reading!

Pauley Financial Services

Arora Designs — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 20:31:25 GMT

Arora Designs has just launched the new Pauley Financial Services website! While we definitely don't feature every website we complete, we like to showcase certain aspects of our CMS Web Design capabilities from time to time.

The folks at Pauley Financial came to us with a problem: they already had a large website with a content management system (CMS), but it just wasn't working for them. The CMS was not nearly powerful enough to do what they wanted to do. Sometimes it was the simplest of things; creating a slide show, implementing SEO, create a blog, event calendar, etc. They simply couldn't use the antiquated system for anything other than basic layout and text editing. The design templates that were available to them looked old, drab and extremely simple.

Worse, the company they were with was charging extra for everything - domain purchasing, SEO monitoring, SSL, URL forwarding, etc. When we showed them the templates we had and told them about the capabilities and benefits of our CMS, they were excited to say the least. Also, we don't charge extra for purchasing domains, URL forwarding or even SSL. We're proud to say that it's all part of the package.

The Pauley Financial website is a perfect example of how one of our pre-designed website templates can be customized to fit the needs of any client. For their project, they chose this template:

We used their existing branding, colors, content and new ideas and turned it into this:

Not bad for a pre-designed website template. They're extremely excited with all the new functionality their website has, not to mention the ability to easily log in to their website to add and edit content themselves. For only $399, we customized the template to suit their branding and business, added all of their existing content for them and took care of all the domain issues for the new website.

Pauley Financial Services is one of the best companies we've had the pleasure to work with, and we're pretty certain they feel the same way about us. Even when they have a question about the CMS (we give unlimited support for free), they come back with, "Oh, that was so simple!". We agree.

At Arora Designs, we're all about creating a hassle-free experience for our clients. At the same time, we love to empower them and give them the ability to take control of their website and branding in ways they never thought possible. We're invested in your success - when you're a client of Arora Designs, you're a partner. And we're not just sayin' that. We're designers, not salespeople.

As usual, thanks for reading! If you have any questions about our CMS Web Design services or have any other comments or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact us or write a comment below!

Web Design vs Web Development

Arora Designs — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 20:32:55 GMT

Time to time we have to explain the difference between web design (front end) and web development (back end). While the answer is readily available to anyone with the question and a search engine, most folks don't even know to ask it.

Web design refers to the process of designing a website or template that includes all of the graphic and visual elements you see on any given website. Web designers are also sometimes called "front end developers". The design can be created using a graphics program such as Adobe Photoshop, or many other graphics-oriented programs available on the market today. The design provides the framework for the look and feel of a website and visually communicates information and branding. Layout, navigation, visual hierarchy, color scheme, depth, dimension and tone are all terms well known to a good, professional web designer.

It is important to remember that many web designers are actual designers, whereas not many designers are actually web designers. Why? Because some coding is required in order to call oneself a web designer. Firstly, you have to know how to implement or manipulate HTML. Secondly, you must know CSS. The "web 2.0" look that we mentioned in our last blog post completely relies on this advent. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is the revolutionary industry standard at this point, and should be required when it comes to designing websites.

Beyond innovative graphics, layout, HTML and CSS, we start to venture into developer land. This is where we start to see Javascript, AJAX, Flash (designer/developers combos in their own right) and an understanding of PHP and MySQL. This is the gray area between designing and developing. It is not uncommon to meet a front-end web developer that is comfortable with Javascript and a little AJAX and Flash. They might even have a small understanding of what PHP and MySQL are capable of, but beyond that, they're worthless in the database area. (Probably because the concept of manipulating databases bores them to tears).

Web development is typically used to described the programming required to construct the "back end" of a website. The back end is the area of the site that isn't seen by visitors, but which does the work required in order to present the right information in the correct format to the visitors. Web development is used to describe any database-driven web designs using dynamic scripting languages like PHP, ASP, ASP.NET, Coldfusion and sometimes Java and AJAX. Web development also covers database design and development using MySQL.

As you can see, these are two completely different areas of expertise. It is the difference between Architecture and Interior Design, Art and Physics. You might find someone out there that can do it all, but watch out: they might just be far better at one than they are at the other.

For all the web designers out there looking for work, it is unfair to expect them to know everything about everything. An award-winning web designer should not be expected to also be an expert in ASP, PHP and MySQL. Likewise, a web developer should not be expected to be a Photoshop guru. It's just unrealistic. Like we said, there's definitely a gray area between the two functions - but let's face it: there is a huge difference between front-end web design and back-end web development. You wouldn't want your interior designer to lay the foundation for your new house, would you? In most cases the answer would be a resounding "no".

Have any questions, comments, or hatemail? Send us your thoughts in the comments below or shoot us an email. Thanks for reading!

What is Web 2.0?

Arora Designs — Mon, 17 May 2010 13:50:12 GMT

Officially, web 2.0 is the perceived second generation of web development that aims to facilitate communication, information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and applications; such as social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies like Digg and Delicious.

As a leading Dallas web design company, we find that we are constantly barraged with clients asking for a web 2.0 look. Sometimes after designing beautifully complex and graphically innovative website concepts, we get the response, "make it more web 2.0". This can be frustrating to us. Web 2.0 was, is and always will be functionality; a turn in technology - not design. Web 3.0 won't be the next design trend or layout fad. It will be the next level of usability, functionality, and technology on the internet.

At first we tried to fight this misconception by clarifying the meaning of web 2.0 to clients and designers alike. After many frustrating conversations, we found that we were fighting a losing battle. Apparently when clients want "web 2.0", they want the current design fad seen on many designer's portfolios today. This design fad is centered, fixed, uses large text, minimal design, uses large amounts of negative space and usually has equal, centrally oriented columns. This design trend has become so commonplace that it has been mistakenly coined "web 2.0" to the design laymen. And it seems that talentless web designers are more than happy to accommodate this unreality.

Don't get us wrong - this is an actual style that can be used to great effect in a great many cases. In other cases, however, it is copied, templated and used over and over in the web design world to recycle the same old look, again and again, client after client. With good branding, a "web 2.0" styled website can be very effective. Twitter is a good example of this - it has both actual web 2.0 functionality as well as the supposed web 2.0 style. Simplicity at its best. Unfortunately, when a data and information driven website wants to be "web 2.0" it doesn't work well. They end up with template-like sites that have very little in the way of design, and just end up looking like information soup, with a bold looking logo slapped on the top. Not very effective.

Here at Arora Designs, we're not "web 2.0" designers. Not at heart, at least. We find it difficult to reign ourselves in enough to showcase a minimalist design. While many of our websites have "web 2.0" style qualities, we tend to showcase "the pixel" more often than not. But, like anything in the design world, it is subjective and relative. Even this website could be called web 2.0 given the right (or wrong) perspective.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And unfortunately, the beholder is more often than not in love with overused template websites that were designed with little to no creativity. The old story about the bridge comes to mind - and everyone seems to be jumping.

New: Custom Twitter Backgrounds

Arora Designs — Wed, 12 May 2010 19:08:15 GMT

Arora Designs is now offering Custom Twitter Backgrounds. For only $149 you can escape the generic mediocrity and brand yourself or your business on Twitter. Every Custom Twitter Background also comes with your very own custom Twitter profile icon.

We'll work with you to create the most perfect, unique, and personalized experience for your current and potential Twitter followers. Have any questions? Contact Arora Designs today.

Pre-Designed Websites now only $99

Arora Designs — Mon, 10 May 2010 18:18:02 GMT

Arora Designs is pleased to announce that our pre-designed website package is now only $99. That's a savings of $100. Even then, it's only a one-time fee to get you up and running with the website you've always wanted.

The way we have things set up around here, you could end up paying us only $99... ever. Just pick the pre-designed website template of your choice and we'll set it up. We'll buy or transfer your domain (www.yourbusiness.com), set up the web hosting and website editor, and pretty much take care of everything that goes on behind the scenes so you don't have to.

To top it all off, if you choose to have three pages or less on your website, our web hosting and website editor is FREE. You'll never have to pay another dime for your website (unless you want to of course)!

There really isn't a deal like this anywhere online. You won't find the quality, price, customer service or simplicity anywhere else that's boiled into one $99 package. Believe us, we've checked.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us. Oh, and don't forget to check out our pre-designed websites!