You might be surprised to learn how much the quality of your hosting directly impacts how Google and Bing rank your site . . .

So if SEO and website user experience are important to your business, you should start questioning your hosting now.  And question it every month with regular monitoring to make sure you’re with the right hosting company and right hosting configuration.   Because you may not only be surprised with what you find, you might be shocked.  There was a time when we were shocked at what we found.

Here are a couple sample questions to ask your host and real-world scenarios that relate.

“Mr. Web Host, how often do you take back-ups of our site?”  A good example of how often would be “full back-ups daily and saved for 30 days.”  A bad example would be a no reply or “we don’t take back-ups.”  Real world example:  A host was attacked by a virus and, subsequently lost entire websites on their servers.  They were unable to restore them because they didn’t have any back-ups.  (Happy ending:  one former client sought out Ad Ventures, their original web development company, who was able to restore their website from an original copy.  It wasn’t the most current copy that the host had been hosting, but it was better than nothing.)

Another sample question to ask your host and a real-world scenario:

“Mr. Web Host, how come my site is generating a “slow server response?”  A good example of a reason would be, “your server is full and you need to upgrade to the next level so you have additional bandwidth.”  A bad example is stating this response when the actual reason is because the server’s equipment is old and obsolete.   Real world example: Weeks of email and phone call tech support requests reporting several hosting technical issues from slow server response to uploads not appearing right away always generated the same, tired responses from the host not only denying any responsibility, but denying issues even existed. Tables turned when another department at the hosting company did an email send announcing they were retiring their “old, obsolete equipment” and transferring clients to shiny new hardware.  (Why didn’t they just say so to begin with?)

If you want to stay on top of your hosting, ask your website maintenance company if they are savvy with hosting and, if so, to include hosting monitoring in your package.  They’ll run multiple tests weekly or monthly and act as  a go-between on your behalf.  With all the good and the bad in hosting companies out there, this is an absolutely must-do.

Google ranks websites weighing in several factors, including site load speed, popularity and time spent with your website.  So it’s crucial that your host company serve up a fast server response time for your website.

Typing in our usual “Ad Ventures Marketing” brought up another “Adventures Marketing” – same industry, same city.  Two little differences and one BIG difference from us:  Their “Adventures” was one word, ours was two.  We had “Inc.” They did not.  And the biggie:  They had an “F” rating, we had an A+.

WOWSA!                                                                            

Of course, it didn’t get by us that we could be confused as being the other guy.  And we know people often type in “Adventures” instead of “Ad Ventures” when searching us out.  As a result, they could easily stumble across the no-do-gooder, not the real Ad Ventures,  and we would be caught in a mistaken identity trap.  (No, we are not them!)  We did significant research and testing that day doing BBB and Google searches, etc., to confirm that the likely path people would take trying to locate us would lead them to the bottom-barrel culprits.

So who the heck is this other not-so-twin company named “Adventures Marketing,” “licensed” in Washington?  We looked up their business license in Washington State’s database and found that it belonged to a company that had closed doors in the late 1990’s.   So this “AdVentures Marketing” was actually an identity thief of a company out of business and also a big-time spammer which Google searches confirmed.

What prompted us to check into BBB to begin with?  Phone complaints from unhappy people who had done business with the spammer, mistakenly (and very irately) calling us to get their money back for email list services paid for but never delivered.

The identity hacker’s “adventuresmarketing” website eventually went down, and they, apparently, skiddaled from their fake Seattle office, never to be found again.   But that nasty F rating and the fake company name remained in BBB.

Rather than get in touch with BBB and try to explain that the real A+ “Ad Ventures Marketing, Inc.” might get confused with the F-rated fake Adventures  Marketing,” we decided to take matters in our own hands.  The potential consequences of not doing anything were serious.  So we changed our searchable DBA and dropped “Marketing” in favor of “Design,” The added bonus was “design” is a much higher-valued keyword for SEO purposes.  The new “Ad Ventures Design” DBA was born.

Now you can easily find us in BBB searching for “Ad Ventures Design” or “Adventures Design”, and  in Google page 1 for “Graphic Design Seattle” and “Branding Seattle” keywords.  Or, you can take the easy path and just email or call us now to find out that we are the real deal when it comes to an A+ marketing and design agency!

Karen Skeens  is Ad Ventures’ creative director/cyber visionary, since 2001.
Ad Ventures Marketing, Inc.
DBA:  Adventures Design
A+ BBB Rating
http://www.bbb.org/western-washington/business-reviews/graphic-designers/ad-ventures-design-in-seattle-wa-7053546

To get this exact combo (custom +Wordpress), you have to ask for it in just the right way which isn’t as easy as it sounds . . . Ask for it one way, you might get “template,” ask for it a different way, you might get “custom” and that’s because there are two different meanings to the word “custom” in the world of WordPress development. One means a WordPress template that’s been customized. The other means a built-from-the-ground-up custom website with a custom-developed WordPress theme.

One reason it isn’t as easy as it sounds asking for and getting a custom WordPress website is because many WordPress “developers” don’t even understand the difference between the two meanings of “custom” WordPress websites. So how can they possibly guide you down the right path? Hard to imagine, right? The internet’s popularity has attracted many wanna-be developers who bypass getting a formal computer science education and teach themselves online how to modify WordPress templates, otherwise known as “themes.” So when you ask them if they do “custom” WordPress websites (when it’s not really in their skillset,) their answer often is “sure!” They don’t necessarily understand that their answer is incorrect and that a custom WordPress website requires a custom theme developed. They may know how to customize existing WordPress themes (templates,) but they don’t know how to build custom WordPress themes from scratch.

So when you interview web design companies or web designers, ask for this: “Built-from-scratch website in CSS3 / HTML5 with custom theme development.”

And if you’re told yes, view the source code in some of their portfolio websites for proof that they can deliver.

Here are two examples of website source codes. One confirms a WordPress template, the other a custom theme developed.

WORDPRESS CUSTOM THEME DEVELOPMENT:
Theme is named after business: If you see the business name, for example, in the source code, “http://www.adventuresdesign.com/wp-content/themes/adventuresdesign/style.css” that means it is developed with a custom theme – which is what you want if you want flexibility to enlarge pictures or move things around during the design process.

WORDPRESS TEMPLATE:
Theme is named after WordPress template: If you see this in the source code, “http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/pub/superhero/js/flex-slider/flexslider.css” then you know they do WordPress template customization. Hint: look for a unique, descriptive word in the CSS URL, then do a Google search on it. For example, search “Wordpress superhero theme” for this example to verify it is an existing template theme. If you do a search, here’s what you may find:

The better, easier solution may be for WordPress to just change their terminology so neither developer nor client gets confused between “customized WordPress theme” and “custom WordPress theme.” Just call websites with custom theme development something like: “GroundUp.” Or how about “this-ain’t-no-cookie-cutter-custom-theme”? And then WordPress websites could get a whole lot easier to request.

Next article: What happens when you ask for “custom” but get “template.”

Karen Skeens is Website QA and Project Manager at Ad Ventures Design & Marketing in Seattle who has interviewed and tested hundreds of web developers over a 10-year span.

You complain, ask for changes and three weeks later the changes haven’t been done yet. This cycle repeats, and repeats again. Why? Probably because your web developer doesn’t know how to customize your website template beyond the limitations of the WordPress theme.

Why are you so locked in? Because your website design company sold you a customizable WordPress template, pre-programmed code at fixed dimensions. “Customizable” can mean a lot of things, often just customization of the color or the font choice or the text size. But not customizable when it comes to moving things around on the web page, enlarging photos, and many other design touches that makes a website design unique to your company. Often when a developer chooses to build your website working with an existing WordPress theme, it’s because they are working with a bargain basement budget, or their skillset doesn’t allow them to do more advanced custom theme WordPress development.

What’s the end result when your company requires “custom” but gets “template”? You lose several months of website marketing productivity, website deposits, and time trying to manage a no-win web design only to have to start over with another web design company who does do custom websites. OR….you settle with a cookie cutter template and suffer the consequences.

How do you prevent this from happening? Read this article about how to ask for a custom WordPress theme-developed website in a way that assures you “custom from scratch” and not “customized template.”

That should do it. In a week or so, Google’s search robots should pick up our new address, which means it will appear in the Google search results when people search for our company name. If we wait for Google Places to process our address change, it could be another few months!

Hurry up Google Places! Let our new address be on the Google Places map!

To readers here, please check back soon to see a follow-up on this blog. We’ll let you know exactly how long it takes for our above new address to appear in Google search results, thanks to SEO (good old search engine Optimization.) We’ll let you know how we did it.

In the meantime, come visit our new place at 302 N. 72nd Street. Give us a call. You know where to find us now!

Ad Ventures Design & Marketing
302 N. 72nd Street
Seattle, WA 98103
206-282-1719
www.AdVenturesDesign.com

To protect their legitimate interests, many stock photo houses now use sophisticated image recognition software that allows them to identify un-purchased photos, or images with expired licenses. No matter how obscure the photo is on your site, and even if it has been altered, the software can spot it. And the site owner will be billed.

The site owner is responsible even if a third party company provided the photo such as photos included in one of those bargain-basement priced website templates. The “I didn’t know” defense is no defense at all.

So if you’re not sure, check it out now, especially those photos that have been up for years, racking up potential fines. Be in the know. If you find you do have an unlicensed image on your site, you have two options.

1. Contact the stock photo company and negotiate payment for past and future usage, or
2. Immediately remove the image(s) everywhere it appears in your website – even archived e–newsletters, blogs and other website pages. Once the image recognition software has trolled your site, it may be too late to remove them to avoid fees.

What’s our advice going forward?

• Avoid using rights managed photos whenever possible, unless you find “just the one” and are willing to pay and keep on file proof of payment, are willing to monitor license expirations so they stay current, and willing to assume the risk factor. You can’t assume the stock image company will notify you of expiration, and lack of notification by them is not a defense against unlicensed usage.




• Take the safe route with royalty free stock images that never expire. You could save yourself a lot of headache….and thousands of dollars.

Of course, every business and their project is different and will need a custom solution, so the highlighted trends below are general ideas to keep in mind.

What’s In for 2011 and going forward:

• Image sliders (or any kind of rotating image on the home page) – For the client that wants to deliver multiple messages or showcase several products within limited home page real estate, this solution works wonders. Technically, it’s relatively affordable, fast and easy to implement.
• Clean and Simple – The trend is even more “clean and simple” in design than has been seen in the past.
• Hard edges and corners – Simple squares and rectangles to shape blocks of copy or images are trend forward in 2011, although, clean, rounded corners are still modern.
• Lots of white space – “Less is more” provides more breathing room to add focal points to the page.
• Typography – Put more design into headlines and sub headlines to draw in the eye to your leading message(s).
• Big typography – Bigger headlines, bigger font is trend-forward design, brought on by hand-held devices with smaller viewing screens.
• Google Fonts – This invention is a dream-come-true for the website creative team that wants both great design and good search engine optimization. In the past the “good,” more stylized fonts could only be developed as graphics, therefore not readable by search engines. With Google fonts, you get both nice font styles and search engine readability.
• Large pictures or images – Create visual focus and show the eye where you want it to go within the first couple of seconds of viewing.
• Blog-formatted news sections – These are in more now than ever. Even if your prospects don’t read your website articles, search engines do and those keyword-relevant articles do count in SEO.
• “Deep” design – Over 65% of computer users now do their viewing on monitor screens 1024 x 767 or larger. So give these larger-screen-viewing people something of value to look at the bottom of their screen and maximize your available home page real estate.
• Texture – Add shadows and background images to create texture for the sense of sight to “see” and the sense of touch to “feel.”
• Light colors or colors with bright or bold contrast – Light colors, including pastels, white, and two-tone, dominate modern web design.
• Bigger “rollover” dynamic navigation – The navigation buttons gets bigger and more detailed with large drop-down menus that offer up page overviews, descriptions and thumbnail photos.
• Social media integration – Website-featured Facebook and Twitter linked buttons are becoming so popular in business to consumer web design, that the question becomes not if they should be included, but if there is a valid reason not to include them.
• CSS3 and HTML5 technologies – these two technologies become the new basic standards to aim for in business web design.
• Content management Solutions – CMS, particularly WordPress, find their way full-blown into large, high-end design, custom websites. With its June 2010 release, WordPress isn’t for just blogging anymore.
• Large footers – Integrated into the site design, footers at the bottom of a web page add more function and navigation ease, and are no longer limited to a handful of words.

What’s out or on its way out:

• Busy designs
• Grunge
• The “box” look
• Flash
• “Heavy”
• 3D
• Gradient effects
• Dated code or technology solutions
• Flash

Screen shot of our new home page.

So I left the “Facebooking” to the younger demo in our office…until…

…an old fashioned-sleepover party with my old high school classmates happened upon me one weekend not too long ago. There they were, 50-year olds, not teenagers, with cell phones and laptops in hand, checking up on Facebook and sharing pictures with each other. And this went on from evening until morning when they all left. I couldn’t believe it! I thought I was the one who was “addicted” to my computer and the internet. They were taking cell pictures of the group and posting them on Facebook within minutes. When I got home, two weeks later and only out of curiosity, did I go to Facebook to see the slumber party photos.

Ahhhh…but Facebook makes you sign up to do that.

Well, before I knew it, I spent about 4 hours on Facebook that same day, and another 3 the next day uploading my own pictures and friending a bunch of old high school classmates and peers. How exciting it was to be put in touch with people I hadn’t heard from in years! All’s it takes is quick punch of the “friend me” button. No chatting, no emailing…until you want to. It’s Facebook protocol. You can friend someone without ever typing a word.

Facebook is easy. It’s a quick “coffee break” if that’s all you want to make of it. It can be time consuming if that’s how you want to spend your time. I love my new Facebook access and it definitely now has a place in each of my days.

Let’s take a look at some of the best fonts Google has to offer:

Sans-Serif

Josefin Sans
Also comes in a serif version, this font is great for creating an elegant look with its light line-weights and simple geometric shapes.

Cabin
On the converse, Cabin is a strong, weighty font best suited for headlines.

Serif

Merriweather
A great all-purpose sans-serif font for when you need variation on Times or Georgia but still need readability.

Crimson Text
Although it comes with a large file size (almost 100k), Crimson Text is one of the best fonts due to its usability in every day projects.

Handwritten

Dancing Script
One of the newest fonts, this simple cursive font is a great handwritten option for any website.

Covered By Your Grace
Another great handwritten font, Covered By Your Grace is great to add a little fun to your web project.