Kreative Webworks, Inc.

Letter to a customer about a Penguin

Just got done writing this note to one of our search engine optimization clients who expressed interest in the new Google Penguin algorithm and how it might affect his business.  Reading it over I thought it was a pretty simple description of Google’s war on black and white animals. What you need to know is that a major factor in how Google decides where to place a website in the search results are the quality and quantity of other websites that link back to you.

“Steven, I have a note from Simon that you were curious about the new Penguin algorithm that Google released on April 24th. This is similar in nature to the "Panda" algorithm that they released in February of 2011, but this is designed to thwart incoming links that they don't like, as opposed to bad content as the Panda was designed for. 

I’ll give you two examples:

Repetitive Anchor Text: (the actual words that are linked back to your website from other web properties). If Google sees the same anchor text repeatedly from around the Internet linking back to you, they assume that was an intentional campaign and you lose credit for the link (a major component of how search engines rank you).

Links from bad websites: This is designed to thwart "link farms". A link farm is where an unscrupulous optimizer builds a bunch low quality websites for the express purpose of linking back to their client's websites to artificially build the incoming link count. A very dangerous issue with this is that it opens the door for what we call "negative SEO". What is to prevent someone from intentionally setting up links to their competitor's website from these link farms to intentionally get them penalized? This is unethical, but you know that someone is probably already doing that.

The Panda was more discriminating on how it affected websites throughout the Internet. They actually did a pretty good job separating good websites from bad ones. This new “Penguin” (notice the black and white animal theme?) is less discriminating and is affecting a lot of good websites as well. Ironically in many cases the quality of search results actually got worse, so I am expecting an update.

As far as you are concerned, don’t worry, your rankings are higher than ever. We have never used any of these “black hat” techniques and never will. We’re a “white hat” optimization service (Black hat, White hat… Panda’s, Penguin’s… I assume Orcas and Zebras are next on Google’s hit list).

Have a great weekend!
-Chuck”

To learn more about our Digital Marketing services, contact me directly at chuck@kreativewebworks.com.

Good website design is the result of small eloquent touches

Good website design is not always the result of an over the top conceptual masterpiece. Sometimes it’s just the result of an accumulation of small eloquent touches that taken in their entirety have a subliminal effect that separates them from most of the formula driven cut n’ paste websites that dominate the Internet today.

I’m pretty demanding when it comes to the creative look and feel of our website designs, so we only hire the best and the brightest. Still, sometimes that creativity has to be harnessed.

The last thing I want to do is stifle the creative juices of my design staff, but at the end of the day we’re not filming an episode of “designers gone wild”, we aren’t designing websites for ourselves. Believe it or not, we aren’t even designing them for our clients. We’re designing websites for our clients’ clients.

Whenever we bring in a new designer to the team, I usually like to have a “philosophical orientation” to create the expectation of quality design standards. These are typically interactive sessions, but I thought you might like to see my outline:

Website Design 101

I generally start with a list of attributes that I look for when evaluating my designer’s work:

1. Restrained use of soft shadows in the right place
2. Image Interaction
3. Color and shape balance
4. General composition
5. Appropriate design for the industry and the target market
6. Appropriate image selection (meaningful images with the right colors)
7. User friendly (and interesting) navigation
8. Easy to read text (appropriate font, size and spacing)

One surefire way to get the point across is to show actual examples as we explore the finer points of web design. The website we developed for CalPac online charter schools in California is a good example because my designer Adrian did a phenomenal job of tying in all the elements of good design into a package that showcases this online charter school while telling the compelling story to the students and parents of students.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the more subtle elements of design:

Soft Shadows: notice how the slight shadows around some of the basic shapes give them a 3-D feel as they seem to pull away for the page. The use of shadows is very common in web design, but I applaud Adrian’s restraint to not over use them…and in keeping the “spread” minimal so that there is just a subliminal hint of shadow instead of overstated “in your face” wide shadows. The watch-word here is “restraint”.

Image Wrapping: Actually the images don’t technically wrap around each other, but by placing one image on top of the other and allowing it to extend past the edge, it gives the appearance of wrapping behind the base image and enhancing that 3-D effect. Notice on the CalPac site how the navigation on the upper left, and the decorative ribbon on the lower right appear to wrap around the back. Clever and restrained use of image and shadow.

Color & Shape Balance: This is a little harder to explain. It’s also something that is difficult to teach.  It’s more something you have to feel… or sense. Everything on a page has what I call “visual weight”. Colors and shapes can draw your attention…not necessarily by themselves, but in conjunction with each other.

It is typically a good idea to stick with a primary pallet of colors and a secondary highlight color. In this case it’s various shades of blue and green while the photo selection brings in a variety of complimentary colors.  How colors and shapes interact? That’s the part you need to have a gut feeling for.

The other elements in my list are somewhat self explanatory, however there is one more bit of subtlety that I want to draw your attention to. That is the way Adrian treated the navigation. Hold your mouse over the navigation buttons on the Home page and any of the “Enroll Now” buttons. Notice how the colors gently reverse out, signifying that is the button you are interacting with at the moment. Did I mention small eloquent touches?

By the way, here is another article I wrote on my personal blog featuring Six Website Page Layout Tips you Absolutely need to Consider! That article focuses more on the layout aspect of a web page rather than the graphic design elements.

Kreative Webworks is a profess

ional digital marketing agency in Orange County California since 1999.  Our website designers are always on top of their game, and throughout the year I will be showcasing and critiquing their work from our website portfolio. Even if you don’t have the patience for my comments, you’ll probably enjoy our website designs.

SEO Guarantee's Don't Ensure Results

I don’t often defer to my colleagues to read my mind and post their articles instead of mine, but in this case I’ll make an exception. My friend and colleague Kimberly Nichols wrote one of the best, most concise articles on “SEO Guarantee Scams and How to Avoid Them” that I’ve read in a while.

Unfortunately not all Digital Marketers have your best interest in mind. They typically come in several flavors: Those with current knowledge, those with outdated knowledge, and those who abuse their knowledge. I can’t tell you how many clients came to us perplexed as to why their reports looked so good, yet their phone wasn’t ringing.

Case in point is an article I recently wrote: “Don’t let the “S” in SEO stand for Sucker” detailing an actual client that was intentionally misled by a classic “bait-and-switch” with his keywords. The company in question served themselves a “softball” simply by making long tail keyword phrases even longer in his monthly reports so they can meet their guarantee.

Legitimate Digital Marketing Experts will educate you as to what their strategy is, and not pull any punches as to what you can and can’t reasonably expect. Naturally you should expect a keyword placement report on a regular basis, but understand that is only part of the equation. It shows progress that the SEO Company should be using for themselves to show trends and progress, not absolutes. More to the point would be the actual analytics reports showing actual traffic and what keywords drove the traffic.

Keyword selection should address 4 components:

1. Relevance: Are the phrases that are targeted actually relevant to your business…or just easy to obtain?
2. Popularity: Are the keyword phrases that are being targeted actually searched on in sufficient volume to drive sales.
3. Acceptable levels of competition: Is there a reasonable expectation that first page rankings are obtainable? This is where a legitimate “long tail keyword” strategy comes into play.
4. Monetization: Can you actually make money and grow your business by driving consumers to your website by targeting those phrases?

Do yourself a favor and read Kimberly’s article. And as she says at the end of that article: “If it looks too good to be true…”

My recorded Online Reputation Management Workshop now available

A few weeks ago I conducted a special “Insiders Guide to Leveraging your Online Reputation” workshop for U.S. and European audiences.  

What’s that all about? Well the fact is that people may be saying nasty things about you without you… whether they are true or not. You can’t stop it, but you can manage it.

This is actually more than a lecture; it’s an actual workshop, complete with the same techniques and actual forms that we use to track our client’s online reputation.

The actual workshop is available at: http://wsiinstitute.com/media/ec/cb/Insiders_Guide_to_Leveraging_your_Online_Reputation_-_Flash_(Large)_-_20110812_04.40.24PM.html

I’ve also put together a special edition kit that includes all the forms that we actually use for our clients along with examples of how they should look when completed. If you think they would be useful, just contact us: http://www.kreativewebworks.com/contact.html

The Insider's Guide to Leveraging your Online Reputation:

People are talking about you without you!

Before the Internet, businesses controlled their public image and message through television, Yellow Pages, radio and print advertisements. But now people are openly discussing your business image, products and services on social networks, review sites, online directories and blogs. Not only that, what they say impacts the buying decisions of your potential customers. During this workshop webinar, you will be presented with a step-by-step systematic approach to evaluating, improving and managing your online reputation. Make no mistake, it DOES MATTER. You can’t stop it, but you can manage it! Not only will you learn how to manage your online brand or personal reputation, but we will provide you with the actual worksheets that we use with our own clients.

There are two sessions to choose from:

Register: Wed, Aug 3, 2011, 8:00am PST *

Register: Wed, Aug 3, 2011, 11:00am PST

*The 8:00am PST session is to accommodate our European audience, so don’t let the 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM BST time on the registration form fool you… both of these sessions are open to everyone.

Note: You will need to use my name, Chuck Bankoff, to complete the registration.

Both of these sessions are free and include our Special Edition Resources Kit which is comprised of the same tools that we use for our own clients.

Chuck Bankoff is Director of Web Services for WSIeWorks, a full service Digital marketing firm in Orange County California.