In landing a website redesign project for a window washing company we knew it had to be a clean web design, streak free content and a clear focus on local search results. Ryan Doliber, the owner of Sparkling Clean Window Washing has been in business for a few years and realized it was time to move up in the web world and decisively differ his brand appearance from the competition.

Sparkling Clean Website Before

When launching his business in 2005, Ryan utilized a do-it-yourself website building tool (Yahoo Sitebuilder) and put together the site himself. It was a web presence, better than nothing, that covered the basics but it lacked the branding, usability and search engine optimization Ryan truly wanted.

Sparkling Clean’s Website Redesign

As you can see from above and in visiting the website, we pushed things to a new level. Our website redesign was able to accomplish:

• Moving the website to a new domain that contained the business name for better branding
• A new interface design with a more inviting color scheme and stronger visual impact
• Clear content sections for home window cleaning and business services
• Best web practices, proper site structure and page structure
• An easy to use free estimate form with date and time requests
• Focused local search optimization through the use of geographical terms like Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis and lists of other main cities served.

Overall, we’re very pleased with the website redesign outcome and so is our client. Visit the new website and think about requesting a free estimate if you’re in the Minneapolis area.

If your thinking it’s time to clean up your website, contact us about a website redesign for your site today.

For me there is nothing better than hitting up some of the great CSS gallery websites as well as the different CSS and web resources out there. I’m one of those in a constant push to find new techniques, angles, connections and develop new lines of thinking.

That said, I’m not a radical or into confusing a user for the sake of “cool”. I am however after the almighty goal of creating easy to use web interfaces and designs that make an impression so my client can win business by being remembered (branding ya say!).

So today I came across a new resource when viewing the updated screenshots on CSS Mania. Take a peak at Noupe if you like posts/articles with tutorials, links and examples galore.

Here are 3 articles that I thought rocked. Glad I found another source of creative knowledge, from another source of inspiration.

• As a fan of CSS, how about 50+ Creative Examples & Tutorials in CSS, there are some great links to some great info
• If you are a fan of backgrounds and want a good collection of latest, greatest, coolest and crazy … then these 63 website backgrounds and tutorials will satisfy you. bonus: Char at Keystrokes highlighted 13 texture resources that come in handy for fresh backgrounds too.
• Want more than 63 of something? How about 70 impresive website headers.

Have a great weekend.

With search engine optimization being a process (not a trick) I thought I would post a series of updates over time on our own SEO process.

We have identified the search term “minnesota web design” as our most sought after keyword term.  With the newly re-branded Five Technology website up for just 2 months we are at least now on the radar on Google appearing on page 8 for this search.  It won’t be easy or quick, but we plan on moving up by doing the right things.

I will get more in-depth on some of these in the future, but here are the basics of SEO we have conducted so far.

1.  Identified our top search term and  designated the home page to compete for it.

2.  Designed our website search engine friendly with CSS and proper website structure.

3.  Created content to inform site visitors first and please the search engines second.
(We are still tweaking and evaluating  enhancing the content further … as always!)

4.  Completed on-page optimization of structure, meta data, images and anchor text.

5.  Started building links into our website/url with anchor text involving “minnesota web design”

Again, this is just a short glimpse but you get the gist it involves proper research, building, content creation, on-page optimization and link building.  That last one, link building, is the hardest yet most rewarding in both rankings and relevant traffic.  More to come on our SEO progress and all of these basic steps.

You need a change, you need control of your website. Maybe you have depended on a webmaster or an internal employee with some web skills to make updates to your website, but it no longer is the right method. You want things to happen quicker, you want to enhance your content and functionality and you’ve heard it can be done without knowing all that HTML stuff. You want a content management system and you’ve heard right, it can be easy.

Five uses a content management system called the Site Management Console (SMC), developed by our parent company, Intrcomm.

In simple terms it allows your organization to fully control your website, without web skills … add pages, edit text, photos, create online forms and more. On the complex side of things it can handle just about anything you throw at it from e-commerce to user accounts to database integration.

We usually integrate our SMC tool when we are doing a new web design or a website redesign, but sometimes we will just integrate an existing website design into the SMC. Below is an example of a basic conversion to our content management tool we just did this week.

Content Management System Integration Example
National Wall, a concrete wall systems company, had contracted another firm to build their first website just last year, but they soon needed control to update the site with more information. In reviewing their website, we could see they had more areas for improvement, but getting them control was first and foremost.

National Wall’s SMC enabled website has only been up for two days, but in that time they have already:

• Edited content on their existing pages
• Added a Contact Us form
• Added the KonCote product page
• Added PDF documents for download
• Updated their News & Events page
• Uploaded new logos and project photos

Below is a screenshot of the SMC console for editing basic page content. As you may notice, it’s similar to creating or editing a Word document.

During the SMC conversion process we also corrected some of the site’s structure and usability issues making it a little more attractive to the search engines as well as users. There is still work to be done down the road on the interface design and SEO, but it’s much better off today then last week. If you have the need for control of your website, drop us a comment, a contact form or call us.

If you are considering adding a blog to your small business website here are 3 reasons to start a blog today. Business blogging is a growing strategy of many small businesses for a number of reasons, but here are three with visuals I built to accompany them (I’m a visual guy).

Start a Business Blog Reason #1 - Build Content
Many small business websites consist of basic page structure. You’ll find many a four or five page site covering information about the company, the services, the products and how to contact or visit their location. By adding a blog and posting just once a week, you’ll have 52 more pages of content (each post becomes it’s own page). That additional content will be search engine friendly, contain keywords and industry terms and valuable information to clients and potential customers. Just one year of blogging can grow your site’s content by 1,000%!

Start A Business Blog Reason #2 - Provide Answers & Examples
A business blog is an excellent opportunity to get more specific with your experience, product or service. Posting on details, processes and possibilities in depth often answer visitors questions and build trust. You can also post on examples of how your service works or benefits a client and recap examples of this success or use. This can increase even further when readers of your blog ask questions in the post comments and you respond.

Start A Business Blog Reason #3 - Link Building
Link building is the most difficult part of search engine optimization, but many will argue it holds the most weight. Links are like human referrals, just online. Websites or blogs that link to you are saying you are a trusted source for this information, service or product. Blog posts with tips, in-depth information, industry news and examples become great resources and other bloggers and websites love to link to great resources. It’s tough to get someone to link to your company overview page, but a good blog post can attract many links.

There you have my three reasons. If you are in the Minneapolis area and are interested or just starting in blogging, there is a local business blogger meetup on April 28th. I’ll be there.