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  • WordPress: The Right Fit For Your Company?

    August 4th, 2010

    In our last article, we went through some of the benefits of ExpressionEngine, one content management system (or CMS) that Digital Peabody works with on a regular basis. But for many of our clients, a website built with WordPress as its CMS is a perfect fit for their needs. (Learn more about content management systems, and why your site needs one, here.) Below, we’ll highlight a few areas in which WordPress shines.

    Perhaps WordPress’ biggest advantage is its cost-effectiveness. WordPress is a free platform, eliminating at the outset of any website project the cost of paying for a CMS. Better yet, WordPress isn’t a substandard product by any stretch of the imagination — its content-management capabilities are right in line with many other top CMS competitors, with features like workflow management, multimedia posts, blogs and more.

    WordPress also has an enormous array of so-called “plugins” that allow users to extend their site’s functionality in nearly any way imaginable: e-commerce, social networking, Web analytics and more. Another popular WordPress feature is its support for widgets, which allow users to control the content that appears in the site’s sidebar without needing to make any edits to its code. The widgets that appear on any given page can be customized by page or section — or they can remain constant throughout the site. Among hundreds of others, popular widgets include one that displays upcoming events, another that shows a Twitter feed and another that displays a summary of the most recent post on the site’s blog.

    Redesigning a WordPress site is also relatively fast because of the platform’s use of themes to control design and content presentation. Themes are essentially templates into which content fits. If you think your site needs a new look, our designers can code and upload themes to control its appearance and interface without losing any of the content already on the site. And as a CMS, WordPress is well-known for its ease of use: you don’t need any technical experience to maintain a dynamic, interesting website using WordPress.

    Want to learn more about WordPress and how we can tailor it to your business? Contact Digital Peabody at 303-468-5707, and take a look at our featured sites for more examples.

  • Why Build a Website with ExpressionEngine?

    July 30th, 2010

    We’ve designed and developed all sorts of sites at Digital Peabody — business and e-commerce, real estate, healthcare and more — most of which feature content management systems. (What’s a content management system, and why does my site need one?) Deciding which content management system (or CMS) is right for your company’s website requires knowing what can be done with each option. For many of the companies and organizations we work with, ExpressionEngine, an industry-leading CMS, is the right fit. In this post we’ll highlight the benefits of ExpressionEngine, and follow it up with a post about WordPress.

    To begin with, there is almost no limit to what Digital Peabody can do with ExpressionEngine. One client, Matchstick Productions, needed a site that streams high-definition videos of extreme skiers and that was integrated with a Magento e-commerce system. We built them an ExpressionEngine site that does just that. Another client, THF Realty, needed a way to speed communication with retailers by posting documents for thousands of clients to download. We did that with ExpressionEngine, too. And we helped our friends at HuntFishGuide.com build a site to sort through thousands of hunting and fishing guides across the world, pick one out and book a trip, among other features. ExpressionEngine can provide all of that functionality and more — your imagination truly is the limit.

    ExpressionEngine also has a huge community of creatives and developers all over the world, so that even if something isn’t immediately doable, there are thousands of people working on all sorts of extensions to suit any need a client may have. On its Digital Peabody-designed and -developed website, the St. Louis Jewish Community Center needed a massive calendar that serves over 15 internal departments, with both repeating events and one-off events, so we built in this extension to serve their needs. The Colorado Bankers Association wanted a site with member polls, so we found these two extensions and built them into the site. No matter how specific your web needs are, the vast assortment of ExpressionEngine extensions that are available ensure that your new site will work exactly how you want it to.

    Another notable feature of ExpressionEngine is the ability to create customizable channels for your CMS. In other words, the information you are asked for when you are creating content for your site depends on what type of content you are posting. This allows us to exactly tailor your CMS to your needs.

    ExpressionEngine has also never had a major security breach in over 10 years operating, and is very intuitive and easy to use. We’ll show you how to use your new CMS, and you’ll be keeping up a dynamic, interesting site in no time.

    Want to learn more about ExpressionEngine and what it can do for your business? Contact Digital Peabody at 312-933-3430, and take a look at our featured sites for more examples.

  • Who Should Do SEO, and Why

    July 6th, 2010

    More and more, people find what they’re looking for online with search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. But for companies and organizations with websites, being found isn’t as easy as just throwing together a website and hoping for search engines to rank it highly. Search engine optimization, or SEO, aims to make sites more findable by improving their search engine rank. But who really needs to do SEO?

    The short answer: everyone could benefit from SEO. Most companies will turn up in the first few search results if they have a website and someone searches for the company’s name, but when it comes down to competition over keyword searches, SEO is a vital practice for nearly any type of company or organization with a website.

    E-commerce: No matter what you’re selling, customers need to find your site before they can even think about buying your product. If you’re one of the top results on Google, then actually achieving a sale is just a few clicks away — whereas if you’re on the second page, the third page or the 50th page, selling your product becomes harder and harder. In a competitive industry, SEO work can mean the difference between success and failure.

    Other businesses: Even if you’re not trying to sell anything over the web, your web presence is key to direct physical traffic and attention to your business. If you operate X type of business in Y city and people search for X type of business in Y city, a strong search engine presence means you will be noticed and likely end up with new customers. A weak presence, on the other hand, will probably mean more business for your competitors.

    Nonprofits: Nonprofits need SEO work, too. If you’re operating a nonprofit, you want people to find your organization, hear what you have to say, access your resources and maybe even make a donation. If your site isn’t easily accessible on major search engines, that entire interaction is lost.

    Dollar for dollar, SEO gives you excellent return on your investment because it will send highly targeted traffic to your site. And it lasts, too: cleaning up a site’s architecture is a lasting improvement that doesn’t expire like a PPC ad campaign. Most of the work in a SEO campaign is done at the beginning, meaning that as time goes on, cost per new click decreases — and you get better and better value out of your investment.

    Even if you’re already appearing toward the top of rankings, SEO can help you stay there. Chances are, your competitors aren’t going to be content sitting on the fifth Google page while you’re on the first, so staying up to date on the most current SEO practices is key.

    To learn more about SEO and the practices Digital Peabody will use to keep you at the top of search rankings, contact us at 312-933-3430.

  • How to Make a Good Website – The Key Ingredients

    September 17th, 2007
    • Intuitive Navigation
    • Fast Loading Pages
    • Attractive Colors
    • Smart Page Layout
    • Browser Compatibility
    • SEO Friendly

    Intuitive Navigation

    When you run into the store to buy a gallon of milk, you want to find the dairy section immediately, right? The same thing applies when a visitor comes to your website. They want to find information or products quickly. By using intuitive navigation, site visitor will be able to find important information with ease. It is always a good practice to place your main links at the top of the page as well as the bottom. Sometimes it is more convenient for your users to click on a link at the bottom of your page than to scroll to the top of the page.

    Another important part of the navigation is the menu design. Use drop down menus. With drop down menus your visitors can easily see where they may navigate in the web site.

    Slow Loading Pages

    Internet time is warped. Seconds seem like minutes. Nobody, not even the most patient person in the world, wants to wait for a page to load. You literally have a few seconds to for your page to load or your visitor will click on to the next site.

    High resolution graphics and rich interactive media are the typical culprits for slow loading web pages. When you work with a good web designer, like Digital Peabody just as an example, graphics are handled in a special way so that you can achieve fast loading pages.

    Appealing Color Scheme

    This is an important and underrated element in web design. This is feel good time. This is time to add a little extra sugar to make it sweet. You want your visitors to enjoy and savor the website – not to strain their eyes. A professional web designer knows how to use contrasting and complimentary colors just right.

    Steer clear from dark backgrounds or bright ones like red, yellow or green which can draw attention away from the key messages. In addition, do not use dark text on a dark background. That’s like burning the chocolate chip cookies. Above all, make sure your text is easy to read and is more prominent than the background.

    Page Layout

    Be consistent. Create a model in which carries throughout the site. If, for example, you use a two-column layout, then every page should have a two-column layout. The top and bottom navigation should always be in the same location. Have the important information located in the section that is most easy to find. Most of us are trained to view a web page starting with the top right corner and then going down toward the lower left on a diagonal. Layout your key points with this in mind.

    Cross Browser Optimization

    Just because your website looks perfect in Internet Explorer does not mean it will look the same in other browsers like Firefox or Safari. Each browser and version of that browser will handle HTML Tags differently. A web programmer or developer who is at the top of their game will know the tricks of the trade to make your website compatible across all commonly used browsers.

    Take Advantage of SEO

    You wouldn’t think of having jelly without peanut butter. So, why would you have a website and not optimize it? At the very least, you should add a title to your website, META tags, ALT tags, relevant content, title tags on links and other SEO practices. Internet marketing is its own beast to tackle.

    Internet marketing takes a lot of time and dedication, but making sure your website is SEO friendly is the first step to attract targeted visitors to your website.

    WRITTEN BY:

    Lauren Engel: President of www.digitalpeabody.com. Lauren is widely acknowledged as a leading Website Strategist in Denver and Chicago.

 

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