Lilac Creative

Search Engine Love

Genevieve — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:16:00 +0000

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is on every website owner’s mind. We all want our sites to be noticed and ranked (highly, we hope) by the search engines so that our target audience can find us easily on the web. That is, after all, the whole point of having a website! If you’ve done any research into SEO, it seems pretty straight forward. Use well-structured metadata

Key Words

Key words are, well, key. You want to make sure your metadata includes a list of keywords that your audience is likely to use to find you (or sites like yours), but don’t inflate the list. Flooding your metadata with keywords, or repeating keywords in multiple areas of your site such as your footer, even repeating key words unnecessarily in your post titles can all have a negative effect on the way search engines view your site. Hiding key word areas on your site by making the text the same color as the background is also a big no-no. It may not be visible to the human eye, but search bots aren’t fooled, and they don’t like sneaky tricks like that! Keep your key word usage reasonable, and let your content do the rest of the work!

Fresh, Original Content

Wanna really grab the attention of all the search engines out there? Fresh, original content posted on a regular basis is the best way to climb in the rankings. If you have a blog, try to keep a regular posting schedule. When you post to your blog, or update your site content, keep the content original. Use your own words. Your readers will sense your genuineness and come back for more, and search engines will recognize unique content and rank your site accordingly. It’s a win win!

No Filler

Some content can actually hinder your site in search engine standings. Lengthy lists of links (like bookmarks or favorites), content copied from other websites (even if you gave proper credit and linkbacks), or web copy that is shared within communities and used by many members on their individual websites can appear as filler to search engines’ robots (not a good thing). If you have long lists of affiliate or favorites links in your sidebar, consider trimming the lists down. If you can’t bear to part with a single link on your list, just remove the list from your sidebar (which shows up dynamically on every page of your site), and move it to one static “Links” page on your site.

SEO Tools

Most search engines have information about how their engine ranks sites. Read up and make sure you’re keeping within their guidelines, and you’ll probably even learn new things you can do to increase your site’s search engine love!

Google offers Webmaster Tools, a free service that can help you get a handle on how Google’s search bots crawl your site. If you’ve got a self-hosted WordPress blog, there are TONS of great SEO plugins that can automate a lot of SEO tasks for you. Type “webmaster info” into a Google search, and you’ll turn up lots of great info.

Helpful SEO Links

Google Webmasters Central
Google Webmaster Guidlines
Ask.com’s Info for Webmasters
W ordPress All-in-One SEO Plugin Pack
WordPress Google XML Sitemaps Generator Plugin

White Album Wedding Logo

Genevieve — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:51:32 +0000

Custom designed monograms with crisp, modern text create an elegant feel to this logo, designed for a professional wedding photography team.

The Summer is Booking Fast!

Genevieve — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:36:57 +0000

Whoo! May was a busy month for me! I finally had a chance this morning to post a couple of the projects I finished in May to my portfolio, but there are still more to come. I’ve had the opportunity to work on a wide range of projects from an online magazine, to a digital art project (still under wraps until the client is ready to launch her site), and a few photography logos and photoblogs, which are always fun for me!

June is already booked (and looking to be as exciting as May was!), and I’m already starting to book projects for July, so if you have a project you’d like me to start on, send me an inquiry soon so we can get you added to my design schedule!

Photo Bambino Photoblog

Genevieve — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:33:06 +0000

Natalia was ready to switch her photography blog from Blogger to a self-hosted WordPress photoblog, and was looking for a custom design that expressed the fun and vibrant personality of her child photography business. She wanted to use her existing logo, but wanted to add some funky flowers to the mix using the colors in her logo. With her direction, I came up with a fun and funky little graphic floral arrangement that is echoed throughout the blog design, as well as a fun and colorful navigation bar.

Laurie Nowling Photoblog

Genevieve — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:20:06 +0000

After we completed her logo, photographer Laurie Nowling’s blog was the next step in completing her branding. I designed the header to have a vintage label look that set her logo off perfectly. A fun polka-dot background featuring Laurie’s colors gives the blog a fun feel, while still echoing the slight vintage effect of her logo.

Laurie Nowling Photography Logo

Genevieve — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:12:48 +0000

Laurie was looking for branding that was a fun mix of modern and vintage. Here is the final logo and the additional concepts I created for her.

Stimuli Online Magazine

Genevieve — Mon, 18 May 2009 18:03:13 +0000

Maryanne of Urban Life Media wanted to create an online magazine aimed at women in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, that highlighted products, events, fashions and more found in their area. She wanted to bring daily snippets of culture and fashion to members’ inboxes, as well as making the content available on a centralized website, and also wanted the site to welcome member involvement in the form of a member-reviewed directory of local shops, restaurants & services. Lastly, she wanted to be able to offer advertising spots to local businesses.

Using Expression Engine, I was able to build a site perfectly tailored to Maryanne’s needs with the help of only a couple of additional modules for the ratings feature and members’ favorites feature. I customized the member registration to include a daily mailer sign-up that adds new members (via double opt-in) directly to the daily mailer mailing list, and custom-designed a daily mailer template that coordinates with the site’s design. I also set up OpenX, an ad server that allows Maryanne to add new advertisers and campaigns to her site via a user-friendly administrative control panel.

On the Road Again

Genevieve — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:30:52 +0000

About once a year, we make a pilgrimage back to my place of origin (the Detroit area) to visit with the ‘rents and the sibs (and the nieces). This year we knew it would be in May, but we weren’t sure when (it depended on some business-related things for my husband), and ultimately we decided about a week ago, that we were making the trip this week. Not a lot of planning time! So, I apologize if you’ve tried to contact me over the weekend and haven’t heard back from me yet. My weekend was eaten up by traveling and Mother’s day-type activities, and I’m just now getting caught up with emails (while still working on the projects I have going right now).

More big news for me, it was a serendipitous time for us to make a visit, because my brother’s wife had her baby today! So, I get to see my brand new nephew RIGHT after he was born (instead of seeing him for the first time when he’s 3 or 6 months old, as happened with his two older sisters)! I am so excited!

So, please bear with me as I work “on the road” for a week! I am accessible by email now, and I’m still on schedule with all current projects, so if you have proofs or other deliverables due this week, you can expect them to arrive on time! If you sent me an inquiry this weekend, expect to hear from me within the next day or two!

Julie G Photography Logo

Genevieve — Tue, 05 May 2009 02:03:50 +0000

Julie G is a child photographer with lots of energy and she was looking for a logo that would reflect her fun and cheerful approach to her business. She is decorating her studio in pinwheels, and wanted to bring that into the logo as well. Here is the final logo and the original concepts I created for her.

Elizabeth Winsby Photoblog

Genevieve — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:43:03 +0000

Once we had Elizabeth’s logo design completed, I created a photoblog to match. I used the little bug graphics from her logo to create unique post dividers, and a background that is fun and whimsical without distracting from her beautiful photography.