Archive for the ‘web development’ Category

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Easily Approachable and Quite Deep

Posted by pj on July 10th, 2009

Seth Godin writes

“There are very few products, services or organizations that are simultaneously easily approachable and quite deep. That’s an opportunity for you if you can figure out how to be both, but choosing just one is a more likely scenario. So, which are you?”

It’s a good question, here’s how I would answer:

The web seems really complicated but not to me. I just see it as a series of decisions that require particular expertise to do correctly. The best decision is the one that makes the next one seem more apparent. There is never going to be one person who is right about everything all the time. What’s important in doing a web site, or marketing strategy, or making any series of decisions is to make each one as close to right as you can so the next one is clearer.

We do that by first and foremost attracting the top talent in the region. Then we challenge them to do more, to understand the implications of these important decisions. Then we provide what we hope to be the top level of customer service for our clients.

The results are clear to me, some are big and some are small. I take a small amount of pride in knowing that we are growing while other web companies are going out of business or shrinking. But what I take the most pride above all is the relationships that I have built with those in the box with me, and the way we extend it to our clients. Of the huge number of sites we have helped produce, 99% of them are still online exactly as we launched them.

Key to our growth is the way we have extended our services beyond designing and programming websites. It is a complete array of services our clients need, and some they don’t. That’s the real Small Box difference right there, whatever people think they know about us, there is more.

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Posted in Everything Else, content management systems, culture, design, indianapolis, marketing, pay per click, search engine optimization, sem, seo, smallbox, technology, usability, web design, web development | 1 Comment »

A Website is never “Done”

Posted by jeb on April 21st, 2009

I was reminded of this today as I went into the Small Box CMS (Content Management System) to update some pages and adjust some of the titles in order to improve our ranking for target search keywords. In case you are curious- I want Small Box to be on page one for the search Indianapolis Internet Marketing so I tweaked some things to improve our chances. We are currently on page 2, as of this blog, and I’m not ok with that. We are at the top of page one for many other searches but not this one, yet.

The reality is that sometimes people still think of their website as being “built” and therefore “done”. A good website is never done, it is a constant work in motion. You need to add content to it regularly, update existing pages, obsess over how those pages are ranking in search engines, adjust tweak and repeat and then do it all over again!

Think of your website like a grocery store rack. You need to switch out products, move things around, find out what works and doesn’t work. Or you lose out to a competitor that is being more proactive. It used to be every company’s web presence consisted of a static, brochure style, website. This is no longer the case. Many companies have a dynamic, rich website that is complemented by their active engagement across many different web platforms including Twitter, Linkedin, etc.

A website is no longer enough. But it’s still the best place to start….and end. You want to use all the other avenues out there to drive people back to your site. That means you need to obsess over it continually. These are real people visiting your site, not robots. Pay attention to them, find out what they are looking for, be there when they are looking and be the site, and company, they need when they land on your page.

Posted in search engine optimization, web design, web development | 2 Comments »

Does Small Box Outsource?

Posted by jeb on April 13th, 2009

We had the interesting experience recently of a prospective client receiving a call from “someone” who made the statement that “Small Box outsources their SEO work”. Meaning that we had other companies actually do our Search Engine Optimization work for our clients. Since we have spent the last 2 years developing and expanding our team to specifically grow this area of our business I was a little irked that someone would actively spread a false rumor. So let me address the issue here as clearly as possible:

Small Box does not outsource any work- SEO, Web Design, Web Development, etc.

Now we do use part time freelancers regularly. These are talented individuals that we have trained on our systems and can help us manage additional work when our full timers are maxed. Also, it is part of our hiring process to bring potential hires on part time as freelancers to see if they are a good fit for the company. But I don’t think anyone puts part time freelancers in the same group with outsourcing since they are actually part time employees and not some anonymous firm over in India pounding out websites or building links.

We have considered outsourcing though, to be honest. But up to now we haven’t opted to explore it any further than entertain the occasional phone call from India. Bottom line, we want to spend our money locally and have a real relationship with the people that work for our clients. We realize this might make us a little more expensive than other firms that outsource but the outcome is better work done right the first time and on time.

We also partner with other companies when needed and sub-contract work, or act as sub-contractors, when the right fit is a hybrid of our respective services. This often done at the request of the client since they want what they consider the right mix of talent for their project. We like working this way and do so often. Sometimes we develop and another company designs, sometimes we project manage and do SEO. It’s a great way to learn and meet new companies doing cool work. The client is fully informed and since it’s usually their idea everything goes smoothly with few exceptions.

I’ve always thought that a rising tide raises all boats so I actively seek ways to promote companies that I know do good work. This town is full of them. I would make a list but I know I would leave so many off so let’s skip that. I’m really proud to be part of a tech/web scene here that is doing cool stuff. But when someone comes after my company and talks trash I will defend it since I know how hard we work and I can’t stand to see my team denegrated.

So I hope this little post has cleared things up or given you an idea of how we work. Our goal is to be as transparent as possible while still protecting what we consider propritary to our business. Have a great week!

Posted in search engine optimization, seo, web design, web development | 3 Comments »

Secrets of Psychic Web Pages by Small Box EXPOSED!

Posted by ben on November 19th, 2008
You’re probably thinking that just like with John Edwards of Crossing Over and the magicians David Blane and Criss Angel, there’s got to be a “trick” behind the seemingly other-worldly, metaphysical, mind reading powers of Psychic Web Pages by Small Box. If so, you’d be right.

Psychic Web Pages by Small Box use techniques very similar to those used by the most successful mentalists and poker players. Mentalists and poker players rely upon observing “tells” (i.e. often overlooked details of speech and behavior) to successfully infer what’s on your mind. Similarly, Psychic Web Pages by Small Box make note of the “tells” you leave around as you surf the web.

One of the biggest “tells” you leave around is the URL of the page you just visited. Whenever you enter a new web page, your browser tells the server of that web page the URL of the page you just left. So, anytime you leave Google to visit a web site, that site “knows” that you just came from Google.com Not only that, it also knows the exact URL on Google.com that you came from.

Now take a closer look at the URL for the Google search of “indianapolis labor attorney” in the screen shot below. It contains the keyword “labor”.

When you click on the entry for Harrison Moberly, the server “knows” that you just came from a Google search that used the keyword “labor”. So, it serves up a homepage that features the Employment Law Practice Group and one of that group’s attorneys.

Even though it’s not magic, it still seems pretty magical to your site’s visitors when they see highly targeted and relevant content that matches exactly what they’re looking for. This will result in a lower bounce rate and increased number of conversions from your site’s visitors.

Getting this to work just right requires a team effort between Small Box web developers and Small Box SEO consultants. The web developers implement the technology that allows a server to see the URLs of referring sites and serve up dynamic page elements based on a defined set of keywords. The SEO consultants do the content and keyword analysis to determine which dynamic page elements best match the user intent behind the search phrases used to enter the site. Over time, Small Box SEO consultants also “train” the site to become a better “psychic” by conducting periodic reviews of site’s web metrics in Google Analytics. These reviews uncover new keywords visitors use to find the site and also reveal effectiveness of particular dynamic page elements against their assigned keywords. As this data driven maintenance is carried out, the web site becomes more and more uncanny in its ability to read the mind of its visitors.

Want your very own psychic web site? Then contact us through our web site or give us a call at (317) 254-0932.

Posted in internet marketing, search engines, web development | 2 Comments »

Website Project Management: a Guide and Overview

Posted by pj on October 13th, 2008

This is the first of a series of Small Box blogs devoted to Web Site Project Management, check back each Monday for more about the Small Box Method for your Web Campaign.

Businesses and individuals looking to create a web site would be well advised to use a systematic approach to developing a website. Today I will be sharing with you an overall approach that works well for 90% of the work we do. The web is full of poorly designed sites that need to be redone as soon as they are launched costing your business more money and not capitalizing on the complete opportunity of defining yourself and your business.

Web Site Planning – If you haven’t started by articulating the goals of the site then you haven’t done it right. Simply knowing you need a site does nothing to define your goals. Start with a budget, timeline, site map, and list of features you require. Features may include descriptions of your services, products, staff, and promotions for your site. We can help advise you on other ideas which are easy to implement based on our year of experience planning hundreds of sites.

Web Site Development – This is the design and programming phase. A well designed site executed with content management is the standard approach we take for most of our clients. Small Box designs use a combination of new and existing imagery and the site map we work on together to generate an attractive interface for your web audience. Most people are essentially looking for the same thing: a site that uses clean designs, user friendly navigation, and performs well in search engines. Programming in PHP and MySQL provides a site that can be easily extended without proprietary software. These sites are the hallmarks of our work.

Making sure that all the design and programming elements occur for all major browsers is a key to having a site that performs against all the standard measures. Every site we launch goes through a dual review, first according to our internal checklist and then after an exhaustive review between us and our clients.

Digital Business Integration – Now that you have a website, how are you going to use it? The biggest complaint we hear from businesses and individuals is that they can’t DO anything with their site, it simply sits there and without them understanding it, it becomes a business liability with more expense than usefulness. We provide thorough training and documentation of the website in a single document that provides all the information you need and more. It also includes insight into each decision that was made and a checklist of services we have provided.

Web Site Promotion – A beautiful site means very little without the necessary push to get it in front of the world. In a very broad sense this is called Internet Marketing, but is actually made up of several tasks related to Search Engine Marketing, External Link Building, Viral Marketing, and Site Promotion.

In addition we provide services in offline promotion as well, including graphic services like print ads, brochures, and signage. Media services are best contracted out to third party firms but Small Box can work with these producers to make sure your message is well integrated between your online efforts. Finally, Small Box can repurpose this content through online promotions so you get the best bang for your buck.

Web Site Analysis and Evaluation - How did we do? What are the next steps? These are questions whose answers can be found through a thorough review of usability, web analytics, and surveys of your customers and target audience.

That’s what 360 Internet and Marketing is all about, because then, if we have done a good job, we get to do it all again and we know exactly what to do.

This blog is really only scratching the surface. Every Small Box clients has special needs and goals. In the weeks to come I will be providing more detail on each of these broad tasks to help you better define your own project. Feel free to add your comments which I will answer personally and if you need advice or assistance in defining your own web project, feel free to call me directly at 317-254-0932.

Posted in internet marketing, web design, web development | No Comments »

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