I admit it.  I’m addicted to caffeine.  Once, in college, I even shot a video that included an IV drip from a coffee pot.  Living in the Pacific Northwest where there is a coffee stand on every other block (or at least it feels that way in some towns), you can’t help but be addicted to some form of caffeine.  But the Caffeine that I’m here to write about is Google’s new search technology.

For those who have been watching the Search Engine Optimization world lately, you already know that Google’s new search algorithm, Caffeine, went officially live on June 7th.  Partially released last September, it wasn’t until early May that the full promise of Caffeine hit.  The changes Google brought forth with this new search technology devastate some sites that were optimized using old tricks that no longer work.

Google yourself; search by your company name, by the terms you think your customers may type in to find you, and see if you’ve been affected.

Now that the dust is settling on Google’s changes, it’s time to take a look at the new Google Index, its new rules and top listings.  Here is what Google considers important in your sites:

• Fast Loading - delays of even a half of a second can have a negative effect on your site.  Visitor satisfaction will decrease, users will spend less time on your site and will return less frequently.  The trick is to not sacrifice quality for speed.  Smaller images would be key rather than using lesser quality images.
• Quality Over Relevancy - Long tail keywords were often relevant but lacked quality.  Having more incoming links and better matching specific search queries are what Google is looking for.
• Meta data is back – Google is using meta data description information for the descriptions in the search indexes. A quality description is once again an asset.  Keywords…not so much, but some.
• Social Media - While you can ask users to re-tweet or share your content to help give your ranking a boost.  Remember, an aggressive social media strategy does not replace a well designed and optimized web site.  Together, however, you have a powerful machine.
• Standard SEO Applies – The emphasis on the above is still small when compared to the SEO basics.  Build strong incoming links, produce unique content and optimize pages, videos and images.  Content is still the most important of all of these.

At beachdog.com, our SEO approach, for most clients, continues to be ‘white hat conservative‘.  We strive to apply standard SEO basics to help our customers generate longer-term ‘organic’ placement within search engines.  By focusing on our clients’ marketing goals, we make recommendations on how to best organize their online presence to remain competitive in the dog-eat-dog world of search.  Now, more than ever, is apparent that quality content, both visual and textual, delivered in an efficient manner, is more important to search ranking than fancy tricks that often drive customers away with increased load times or distracting images.

We’re offering some special pricing right now for clients who would like us to:

• Analyze what Caffeine means to their site(s)
• Make recommendations for improvement
• Make those improvements

As always, we like to meet you where you want to be met; we’ll be happy to teach you, guide you, or do it for you, at your discretion.  If you’re interested in learning more, zap me a note at karl@beachdog.com, or call on Code Puppy Ethan: ethan@beachdog.com or phone either of us: 360-642-4431.

Our fellow Web Hound, Blair, is working up some social marketing packages and plans for you.  Watch this blog for details soon.  With solid ‘white hat conservative’ SEO, a well-designed and functioning site and social networking, miracles happen!

~Karl

Post from: beachdog.com

Caffeinated SEO

Chair Becky Johnson developed a logo for the event and designed this year’s brochure.  We took care of the printing (we’ve got the best color tri-fold pricing around, gang!) and then Keleigh used Becky’s brochure as a base for designing a website for the event. Here’s a little peek into our process:

• Ethan took the design and, quick as a dog can lick a dish, turned it into a WordPress-based shell of a site.
• Intern David (who left us last week and whom we already miss terribly) ported the event information from its pages on funbeach.com into the new site’s database.
• Keleigh went behind David, re-purposing elements and information, adding photos from prior years, and, in general, organizing the facts for a user-friendly presentation.
• Meanwhile, Keith did some research on long-tail key phrases for the site, which Ethan and Keleigh then ran through our proprietary process known as “Site Wide Level I Search Engine Optimization”, so the site should come up with a solid, organic, search result.
• While that magic was taking place, Wendy, Sue and Keith were clicking through things in general, looking for errors, points of confusion or any other items we could improve.
• Finally, it all came to the inevitable crescendo known as site launch!

That’s when we told Becky we had started work on her site.  Long Beach Merchants Association Event Chairs are volunteers here on the Peninsula, so we try to help them out when we can, and not add work to their oh-so-full-and-unpaid platters.  Becky’s just about done giving the site her thorough once-over so we can make requested changes.  In a few short weeks, it will be time to change all the information for 2011!

Take a look.  We’re pleased, and hope you are, too.

Post from: beachdog.com

Have you got sand in your, er, shoes?

Jeff and Shelly wanted to be able to easily edit the site themselves, and poise themselves for additional marketing flexibility, but were still really happy with the site they co-designed with Keleigh and Sabrina as the restaurant opened.  They think it looks a lot different now, testimony to their attention to detail.  The best compliment we’ve received is no comment at all; even the Pelicano customers who are quick to remind us that a menu posting is a day late have been silent.  Is it possible they don’t see the difference?  We hope so!

We helped Lewis and Clark Historical Association, the group behind the bookstore at Fort Clatsop, put their inventory online a number of years ago, but weren’t ready to dive into online transactions.  When you’re a private entity working within a National Park, things aren’t quite as simple as they are in the non-governmental arena.  Going through a new design process at the same time made time line prohibitive AND they were happy with the basic design, so we kept it!

Goodwinds recently purchased Avia Sport, leaving them with half a dozen domains, two shopping carts, a blog and a small handful of essentially non-functioning sites.  Most of these online resources were diluting the market more than feeding one another.  Principals Roger Holeman and Amelia Cook had a long talk with Keleigh about the direction of the company and the three made a plan for how to best leverage online resources for the long haul.

What you see above is the Goodwinds Blog, which got a new header and sales tools in its sidebar that lead back to the Goodwinds e-commerce site, which gets its new, similar header very soon.  The Avia sites will soon re-launch with a similar look that is designed to transition customers with Avia brand recognition to Goodwinds.  It’s a bit of a complex tumble of dominoes–and a lot of fun to watch it roll out as expected.

Post from: beachdog.com

3 Examples Of Overhauling A Website Without Anyone Knowing

It has been an absolute delight to work with the Lewis & Clark National Park Association, which runs the bookstore in Fort Clatsop, the main visitor center of the Lewis and Clark National Historical Parks.  Not only do I love, love, LOVE the park itself, the people that work there are pretty spectacular.

If you’ve not been to the Park in awhile, take the time to make a visit.  Personally, my favorite days are summer, when the Fort Replica fills with the sights and sounds of a turn-of-the-century working camp and, in winter, when trails are quiet and imaginations can run rampant with what it was really like to winter over there in 1805-1806.

Lewis & Clark National Park Association is a private non-profit organization which supports educational activities at Fort Clatsop and offers an incredible depth and breadth of Lewis & Clark memorabilia and educational items in their on-site bookstore, as well as online.  They’re a hard-working lot that always has a smile, a can-do attitude, and a passion for history and the park itself.

Consider using our latest brochure for the group, to join and support the educational activities at Fort Clatsop, which you can pick up at the book store, or here at beachdog.com.  As I type, hundreds of schoolchildren are finishing up ranger-led field trips, a Youth Nature Writing Contest has just concluded, Nature Adventure Camp is about to put smiles on kids’ faces, and these are just a few of the many events and programs in store.  This is top-notch, family-fun, educational entertainment, folks.  And it is right here in our own back yard.

Enjoy!

~Keleigh

Post from: beachdog.com

Fort Clatsop Historical Association

Is it really THAT quick and easy? Absolutely. Twitter is a microblogging service; a tool that allows the user to broadcast brief messages (140 characters) to a diverse community that has grown to nearly 100 million users since its birth in 2007. You pick and choose who you follow… and you have the option to sort them into manageable lists (i.e. Friends, Media, Business, etc). Imagine the success that business owners alone can achieve through being active on this site. How? By directing traffic to your website, building your brand, obtaining constructive feedback, sourcing information, or simply networking with like-minded folks! Better yet, there is no cost to use the service. Yes… we’re talking about FREE (and incredibly effective) advertising. Not only are you proving that you have an innovative marketing plan… but you’re putting yourself directly in front of your sphere of influence. Did I mention that Twitter is approaching 100 million users…? “I’m out there, Jerry, and I’m lovin’ every minute of it!” -Kramer, Seinfeld.

The most common objection to Twitter is predictable, “Do people really care what I’m doing right now?” While the original rollout was arguably self-indulgent (I’m eating lasagna – I’m playing video games – I’m washing my car), let’s fast-forward to 2010. The perception and value of Twitter has transformed immensely. While personal touch is certainly important (who wants to read article after article, anyhow?), it’s no longer a platform to continuously applaud yourself. Today’s casual user will post links to their favorite websites, share recipes, contribute to polls, network with potential employers, dispense advice, whatever… Gone are the days of “I’m petting my cat” and other useless announcements.

Want tips on how to utilize this great tool for your biz… or how to manage your feed and understand the lingo? Do not hesitate to get in touch with me… I’d be glad to point you in the right direction. I would also recommend taking a peek at the ultimate Twitter guide book.

“It will be hard to wait out Twitter because it is lightweight, endlessly useful and gets better as more people use it. Brands are using it, institutions are using it, and it is becoming a place where a lot of important conversations are being held.” –Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody, a book about social media.

Tweet, tweet!

-Blair

Post from: beachdog.com

Twitter: The Quick and Dirty on the Birdy

Mark and Helen are quite smart about their branding and identity development and it has been an absolute joy to work with them on a variety of branding projects as they’ve prepared the restaurant for opening.  Wendy and I can honestly say we’ve never made 8-foot roo patterns before.  Stay tuned; our web hounds will be giving you a peek at the newly designed Lost Roo website any day now.

~Keleigh

Post from: beachdog.com

Ri Ruv Roo!

Menus usually pose the challenge of putting a lot of information into a comparatively small amount of space.  Menus should be easy to read by all ages in mood lighting and most restaurant owners want to include a fair number of graphics and images, as well as use an interesting font or two.   As a designer, I want to create lots of space for the eye to rest, and keep consistency of brand.  The challenge compounds when a restaurateur needs to be able to edit the final product themselves, meaning I need to use a tool like Word instead of professional page layout software.  It’s not always an easy puzzle, but it’s usually fun!

Don Shaw of Don’s Portside Cafe and the Loose Kaboose is easy to work with because he gives quite a bit of freedom to design once he dictates the page count and provides the text.    By putting me in charge of more elements of the puzzle, Don saves money because we go through fewer revisions.  His full-size menus came out very readable and engaging this year!  The take-out menu is half the size of what you read in the restaurants, which makes it affordable to get it in the hands of the many visitors to our beach without losing integrity of design.

Post from: beachdog.com

Menus: An Interesting Puzzle

This site started its life as a template.  We changed the header to include the Willapa Harbor Helping Hands logo and made a flower out of the cancer ribbon.  We also adjusted the page templates a bit to accommodate presenting the WHHH material well.  Beyond that, building the site was as simple as creating web site text out of existing print materials, finding some appropriate stock photography, and putting it all together.  A final pass to do some light search engine optimization and we were ready to launch.

Another of Keleigh’s “working too late brainstorms”, this site was knocked out in a couple of hours after Keleigh received an email from Cathy saying she was running for County Commissioner.  The look and feel came from a “theme”, a WordPress template, and the text and photos came from the email from Cathy.  It’s grown a bit since, as the campaign team has added their magic, but is a great example of how a good-looking site doesn’t have to take a lot of time & money to get started, or web experience to grow and change.

Tides West Community Association worked with Karl to customize a theme and make it their own.  The end result bears little resemblance to the original theme; the function and spatial layout of the theme remain.  This made it quick (read “inexpensive”) for Karl to develop a full-featured site for the group that they could maintain on their own –without breaking their bank.

It sure looks like a custom site, doesn’t it?  Look closer.  Keleigh drew the logo based on font specification and design concept from the site owner, and also turned it into a background tile.  Karl chose a theme with the appropriate color palette and function, added the text and images from the client, give him a brief tutorial on WordPress by phone, and whoosh!  A site was born on a tight budget.

Post from: beachdog.com

3 Examples of “out of the box…sort of” Websites

The Breakers hotel in Long Beach has been doing a lot of remodeling over the past several years and we were able to give them custom door plates to match their clean look.  Engraved plastic is actually pretty inexpensive, whether you need key fobs, name badges, door plates like these, or larger signs.  We can get most colors of plastic and turnaround is only about a week once you approve the art.  Stop by and browse samples!

The Breakers also ordered some custom pens recently for a special campaign.  They turned out really well, and match the specs we were given about as perfectly as one could hope.  Even better, we found a pen that met the specs at a really great price.

Don’t you just love happy endings?

Post from: beachdog.com

Engraved Plastic & Custom Pens

This project is a great example of how quickly we can get things done when everyone does their homework promptly.  We met with Terri on a Tuesday and Blair had her site all but finished Thursday afternoon.  Terri still needed to send us some text and photos, which she did, and that same day, the site was ready to go live.

Our team has plans for improvements down the road, but the Park was able to get their online presence going before the busy summer season made it impossible for Terri to even think about planning a website.  And it was super-affordable, to boot!

Meanwhile, Keleigh re-drew the Park’s logo, as the original art had been lost and they were also in need of some business cards.  Bundling this project with the website made it easy for us to create all the logo art files at once, which made it less expensive for the Park.

Congratulations on your new site, CranberryRVPark.com!

Post from: beachdog.com

Cranberry RV Park