June 23rd, 2011
 Many of the websites I see have glaring SEO (Search Engine Optimization) errors that are very easy to fix and can make a massive difference to how Google – and other search engines – rank your website. Website SEO is curcial in order to position your web pages at or near the top of search term results. Did you know Google uses a program called Googlebot that crawls your website, records the data and inputs that data into it’s “classified” algorithmic process. They then rank your website accordingly. Simply said, if you want to rank higher in Google, follow these five easy steps!
1. Use the Title tag, properly!
Incorrect use of your TITLE tag will almost certainly guarantee you will not rank in Google, and other major search engines. Yes, you can still rank but why make it hard on yourself? Missing titles or having generic names like “Welcome” or “Home” is not any better. Be sure every page in your site has useful titles, try to incorporate your keywords into your title such as “LI Web Design – Providing Web Design Services for Long Island’s Fortune 500 Companies”. Never duplicate titles across the site, be sure each page has it’s own unique, relevant name.
2. Add your web pages to social media/bookmarking sites.
It’s free and it’s easy. Add every useful page on your website to Digg, StumbleUpon and Reddit. Not only will you be adding inbound links, but users of these services can discover your website and may choose to provide you a link. Keep in mind that quantity is great for inbound links, but quality is king. A PR8 link from adobe.com is better than 200 links from a low quality site with a Page Rank (PR) of PR1.
3. Use H1 tags for web page headings.
H1 is the highest-level headline tag and search engines know that they are a good guide to page content. Try to produce a compelling and accurate description of the page in around 35 characters, apply the H1 tag and incorporate your keywords into this phrase. Google will rank you because of it, trust me.
4. Use keyword-driven permalinks whenever possible.
If you’ve ever seen URLs like http://mysite.com/site.php?id=try?topic=1266342, you’ll know as a human these URL’s are hard to remember, for search engines they are hard to interpret. Nowadays web servers are capable of using permalinks, which look like http://mysite.com/auto/mercedes, and this allows you to use keywords to indicate what the content is about. Bonus: If you are using a WordPress theme, permalinks can be switched to /%postname%/ from the dashboard.
5. Often overlooked: Add a sitemap!
A sitemap is a small XML file that describes the contents of your custom website design and the relationship between all of your web page links. Often the spiders will eventually figure this out, a sitemap is the easy way to guarantee this happens quickly and effectively. If you’re using a CMS system such as Joomla, use your automatic sitemap plugins.
By following these five easy steps you will be giving your website a better chance of ranking higher in the search engine results. While there are hundreds of other things you can do, just following these will position you higher in Google and the other major search engines.
Long Island Web Design Services by Blue Barn Graphics, Inc.
Posted in SEO Tips | 1 Comment »
June 11th, 2011
How to Find Good Freelance Website Design
 When you’re surfing the internet for quality freelance website design, it can be very hard to choose the right person for your particular project. Whether you are looking to have a new logo, business card, brochure or website designed, the biggest problem you face is how to find a good reliable freelance, one that will do the job properly with high quality work and finish it on time (or ahead of schedule).
Many websites you can find on the internet offer you a place to post your projects to be bid on by the freelancer. All of these sites let you contact offshore workers that live in countries where wages are only a fraction of what they are in the more industrialized nations, such as the United States. This allows you to keep your project budget low and save money by keeping your full-time staff small. However, by outsourcing your freelance website design project oversees you immediately lose control over the project. The ability to communicate one-to-one with your freelance designer by meeting with him/her at the local Starbucs® to discuss your project is priceless.
“By hiring a local freelance website designer, you share the same hours, and can communicate 24/7 without having to wait the next day for a reply.”
I’ve personally seen (my clients too) how many positives can be gained by sitting down with your freelance over a cappuccino for an hour on your way home from work. Once the line of communication and rep-or are personally established, your freelancer will have an inside advantage of your goals, and the (positive) results will show in the final website design.
So, how can you find the reliable freelance website designer who delivers quality work on time and within agreed upon budget? There is no simple answer. The best you can do is using the tools provided by the freelance websites to try and minimize your risk. First, you can Google search for “freelance graphic design” or “freelance website design” and type in your area code or town, for example, I reside in Bethpage, I would type “freelance website design Bethpage” or “freelance website design 11714″. When viewing the Google results, start at the top and work your way down the page. You want to click on a few sites, for starters, and view their website portfolio. If the work is similar to what you are looking for, or you generally like the style of the particular companies websites and logo design, then contact them and send the detailed information of what you are looking for your custom website design project.
Don’t rush into anything. A good freelancer will provide samples and testimonials of their work, view these samples and if you like, contact the last three companies the freelancer designed website for and ask their experience. If the reviews are good, ask them to send a proposal and if you agree on the contract, give them a shot at building your custom website!
Good luck!
About the Author: Blue Barn Graphics, Inc., is a LI Design Firm who connects the website designer with the business person who need their services.
Article Title: How to Find a Good Freelance Website Designer
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Posted in Freelance Website Design | No Comments »
June 4th, 2011
NY web design companies continue to feature the most coveted graphic artists, website designers and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts in the world. The demand for a NY web designer is higher than ever, as the New York web designer continues to lead the industry in building high-quality websites complete with the latest SEO technologies in mind.
These NY web design firms realize that a complete website design involves a lot more than web page template with custom graphics mixed into the equation. Similar to building a house, these premium New York websites are built from the ground up. By intertwining the web design with customer usability and SEO technology, you can be sure your NY web design firm will provide the highest quality website that is not only user friendly, but also ranks high with Google.
In order for a website to be successful, there are two key requirements:
- The website must be created to meet all of the needs of the end user, this means the website must be aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate.
- The website must receive a considerable amount of links directed at the website to build website traffic. Increased traffic results in improved sales, which ultimately results in increased revenue.
As a result of the tremendously high demand, these NY Web design businesses continues to expand.
There is no website project too big or small for their expertise and they continue to provide full graphic design, website design and SEO services for the entire New York area.
While many companies may be able to create a website that is artful and eye pleasing, it can be extremely difficult to combine the beautiful web design with the SEO techniques needed to get listed on the first page of Google. Adobe® Flash movie files for example, is highly regarded as SEO-unfriendly, as the search engines cannot differentiate the content inside a flash movie. The text is not readable essentially making the web page blank (in the search engines point of view). A good web designer will know when to use and when not to use Adobe® Flash.
In conclusion, the NY web design companies are simply some of the best in the world. They continually train their employees on all if the most effective and best SEO methods to guarantee their customers are continually happy. Their job is to ensure their customers succeed in their business; this is good for the NY web design companies and for their New York customers.
Visit:
http://www.bluebarngraphics.com/website-design.html
and
http://justcreativedesign.com/2008/02/25/99-graphic-design-resources
Posted in Web Design & Graphics | 1 Comment »
May 27th, 2011
Hello Everyone,
We launched this blog as a resource for the website developer who monitors the latest Search Engine Optimization (SEO) trends with Google, Yahoo, Bing and more. Everybody wants to rank #1 with Google, and with our techniques, we can help you achieve those goals. Regularly we will provide SEO tips for building new websites as well as techniques for building traffic to your website that is already online. Our first blog “Use Backlinks to Direct Traffic to Your Website & Get Listed Higher on Google” shows you how to build traffic to your website by posting on blogs and forums, check it out!
All The Best,
Stefan J.
Blue Barn Graphics
Posted in SEO Tips | No Comments »
May 26th, 2011
Use Backlinks to Direct Traffic to Your Website & Get Listed Higher on Google
There are a number of factors that search engines such as Google and Yahoo use to determine the position of your website in the search engine results, once of the most important, in my opinion, is backlinks. Backlinks (incoming links to your website) plays a large role in search engine optimization (SEO) because the number of backlinks is one indication of the popularity or importance of that website. Search engines often use the number of backlinks that a website has as one of the most important factors for determining that website’s search engine ranking, popularity and importance.
Fact: Google will rank you differently than the Yahoo
Google puts more importance on the number of websites that link to your website than any other search engine. If you want your website to be listed high in Google, you must have a large amount of quality links directed to your website. This is called link popularity ( gaining new links from outside websites to your website) and has been proven to be a popular way for businesses seeking to improve their search engine rankings.
Gain backlinks to your website by doing these three things:
1) Write unique web copy
As people discover your website and realize its benefits, the likelihood of them linking to your website naturally increases. For example, if your a photography studio you may want to write tips on how to take good photographs, if you are a long island web design company you may want to write about tips for building a quality website. Remember, the easier you make it on your audience to find good information, the more likely they are to link to it.
2) Directories
It’s very important to receive backlinks from is topic specific or niche directories. These are websites that are dedicated to news and information that is an exact or close match to your services. If you have a website that does slide scanning, then you want to be listed on sites that focus on scanning and photography. In the case where a website doesn’t know about your website, try asking them to link to your home page (9 out of 10 teims you won’t get a reply). However, send a personalized email telling them the benefit or feature their users will get from linking to you.
3) Build Partners
Overlooked for building link popularity is backlinks from partners and vendors for your business. Because you already have a business relationship with these companies or individuals, you are more likely to be able to request and receive a link from their website. These websites help validate your place online and also establish you within a community of websites online.
By hiring a qualified website designer that is knowledgeable of the latest search engine practices and techniques such as building backlinks to your website, you will be on your way to getting your website listed higher in Google.
Tags: Backlinks, Google, SEO, Website Traffic
Posted in SEO Tips | 3 Comments »
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john a 
Quite Useful article. Im heading to vist your updates. Do you have a rss feed?