Making A Good Website Great
4 Quarters was already ahead of other deck builders when owner Brian Jacobson came to Five Technology. He had a custom web design, decent content and had educated himself on search engine optimization best practices.  But Brian also knew he could and should do more.

Five worked with Brian and enhanced the following aspects of his website:

• Custom web redesign – The old site was good, but a new design was sought to punch up the visuals and also give proper attention to further upgrades outlined below.
• Content management – Brian had long sought to be in control. Five built the new website on our CMS and now he can manage text, photos, add new pages and more.
• Enhanced content – Five worked with 4 Quarters to increase the amount of valuable content on the site.  The website went from 9 pages to over 25 by getting more specific on construction services like cedar wood decks, composite decks and remodeling.
• Custom blog design – 4 Quarters was already blogging, but used a WordPress site and not their own.  We moved the blog within the website to give users easier access to the posts and 4 Quarters the SEO benefits.
• Photos, photos, photos- Five added more photo elements to all pages as well as created photo galleries that will show clients what 4 Quarters can do.  It also allows 4 Quarters to add to and create more galleries.

A Complete Design & Build
Just as the 4 Quarters name says, Five executed a great web design and solid build of new features in this web project. We were also impressed with the level of decks that 4 Quarters builds, they truly are exceptional.  We really enjoyed this web design project.

View website: http://www.4qdb.com

Denver based SEO firm seOverflow recently posted their presentation slides on 7 Characteristics of an SEO Friendly CMS and I’ve embedded it below.

Lets look at each of the 7 SEO items and how they factor into our CMS, the Site Management Console.

1. Customizable title & meta tags – YES
Each page in the SMC has a “properties” option to edit your meta title tag, meta keywords and meta description.

2. Custom, keyword rich, SEO friendly URLs – YES
Each page gives you the ability to create it’s file path.
Example:  http://www.concretetreatmentsinc.com/concrete-services

3. Only one URL exists for each page – YES
The CMS will only let you have one unique file and URL structure.  No dynamic URLS, no canonical issues.

4. 301 Redirect Functionality – YES
Our CMS allows for 301 redirects and other redirects as needed.

5. Ability to add ALT tag to images – YES
In both our general content editor and custom templates, we allow for the ALT attribute for images.

6. Ability to create HTML & XML sitemaps – YES
Our CMS auto-generates  the HTML sitemap upon a full release and while we set-up XML sitemaps for our clients, they have access in our file manager to change this at anytime.

7. Ability to create keyword rich internal links – YES
Absolutely. From our initial design concepts, we are looking to help clients leverage internal linking and the CMS allows for multiple ways to easily control your links and their anchor text.

So overall, I think we get an A+ on this simple SEO checklist for our content management system. We offer these SEO benefits above and also have some more enhanced SEO features for larger sites or e-commerce websites.

With the vast array of functionality our CMS offers, you can see why businesses are often blown away by our web platform. Reliable, stable, flexible, scalable, easy to use and yes … very SEO friendly.

Ranchline Network is a national real estate listing website, focusing on high-end land and ranches for sale. The website features hundreds of listings from brokers and agents all across the US and even Internationally.

Ranchline was founded by real estate broker Paul Taylor III who has achieved incredible success in the industry.  Paul and the Ranchline team saw a great opportunity to bring their marketing and Internet success to others in the Real Estate industry as a tool for them to market their properties and homes for sale as well.

Ranchline Network – A Better Website
At the core of the Ranchline Network website is a focus on making real estate research easy for the consumer.  The website offers the ability for a user to create an account to save properties and searches.  The layout is clean and offers clear navigation in multiple formats for any user to find their desired property.  These include:

• Type Navigation like Ranches For Sale, Land For Sale & Waterfront For Sale
• By State Navigation like Montana For Sale, New Mexico For Sale, Texas For Sale
• Search filters for land type, location, price range, listing ID# or keyword
• Visual map search with listing population numbers by state (see below)

In moving through the real estate listings users are presented with both strong visuals, clear navigation and over property details. Once into an exact listing the page consists of a variety of images, content, details, maps and more.

Content Management System To The Extreme
Our web platform is extremely flexible, scalable and capable of some great custom features. This project offered us the chance to program some great features for the updating and adding of listings.  The back-end offers a great feature and tool set including:

• Online creation of client accounts
• Online payment of one-time advertising & membership fees
• Uploading of listings, data, photos, video and more
• Listing statistics for agents to view stats on searches, impressions, views, clicks & contacts
• XML feed capabilities to automate listing population & updating process

Overall Website Project Details
The Ranchline Network project was a very expansive project and the client is not engaged in online marketing strategies with Five as well.  As an overview, the web design project involved:

• Custom web design
• Content management system integration
• User accounts and agent accounts
• E-commerce & merchant account
• Multiple search & filter features
• Banner ad network
• Photo gallery features
• Google maps
• Various XML data feeds
• Search engine optimization
• Pay per click marketing
• Web analytics

Check it all out for yourself, we’re proud to work with Ranchline as part of their team and business success.

Visit the website: http://www.ranchlinenetwork.com

Streeter Companies, a Maple Grove, MN Commercial Property firm came to us with this situation.  They were satisfied with their current web design, but wanted to be able to change web content themselves, get more traffic from Google and offer more features on the site for users.

The Website CMS Conversion Provided:

• Control – Streeter can now add new pages to their website, new property listings, change or add photos and more. Our SMC tool gives them complete control of their website.
• Features – Streeter’s former website only allowed them to display a PDF and a few details on each property for lease. We upgraded each listing to display photos in a slideshow, interactive Google maps of the location, overview text of the property, auto PDF flyer creation, contact forms and social sharing features.
• Search Engine Friendly – The move to our CMS upgraded the Streeter website to keyword URLs, HTML & XML sitemaps, semantic content structure and internal linking.  These SEO enhancements are the start to their website earning better trust and rankings from the search engines.

So if your web design is acceptable and you need a better web platform for control and to build upon, give us a shout about converting to our CMS.

An Improved Website Across The Board
Rosen Properties had been using a real estate website solution for some time that lacked in many areas.  While it did provide Rosen a presence online it didn’t have enough value to bring in new customers.  Five’s web design and Internet marketing skills went to work on:

• Web redesign to improve consumer trust and 1st impression
• Improve navigation and usability
• Improve search engine optimization and ongoing SEO
• Easy to update website powered by the SMC
• Added a blog to improve SEO and communication
• Stronger tools to market homes for sale, rent and rent to own
• Web analytics and goal tracking

The end result is a well rounded web design and web platform that Rosen can continue to build upon.  In this market where people need foreclosure assistance, credit re-building, rent to own options and a faster way to sell a home, Rosen Properties brings a ton of options.

Make sure you check out the new website:  www.RosenProp.com

A shift is taking place on the web for small business.  Websites and web content are moving to reality, far away from marketing hype.  If a company can change their approach and find ways to bring valuable content to users, then they can improve traffic and ultimately leads.

A Clear View, Show What You Can Do
A buzz word in the web design world is transparency.  To me, this simply applies to the ability to show potential customers and current clients just what you can do for them.  Instead of pitching them that you are “the best, the leader, number one” why not drill into exactly how you can help them?

Example 1: A CPA Firm could use their content to outline their menu of accounting services … and their content might read the very same as 10,000 other CPA websites in their industry.  If they shift their approach, they could provide a summary of how they helped a small business find financial efficiency, position it for growth and help it succeed.

They could show their target market exactly what they ARE doing and make it easy for that user to understand the type of benefits they bring with their service.  Their services mix to create success for a client, instead of a users trying to guess what they need off the standard services list.

Example 2: A Restaurant can show their menu items and a burger is a burger is a burger in print version.  But if you take a short video clip of making your gourmet or special burger, post a series of photos and customer comments on it … you have something to bring hungry stomachs in.

In taking the approach to show the reality of your ingredients, the process and the visual WOW factor, you have created a distinct difference from your competitors websites.

Those are just two quick examples of how taking a better approach to web content and involving ideas, media and real web content can have an impact.  EVERY business out there can find these valuable ways to better illustrate how they can benefit, help and serve their clients and customers.

Build you website visitor a clearer picture on your offering, expertise and process and you will become a clear choice as the one to buy from.

We obviously like the features and benefits of our CMS, the Site Management Console, so we thought we’d give you 5 good reasons to work with our web platform.

ONE: User Friendly Interface - The SMC interface was designed for the business owner to update website content, not the IT staff (like other CMS solutions). It’s very easy and intuitive to manage content and website features.

TWO: Scalable – Watch your website grow from 30 pages to 3,000 as your content and feature requirements increase. Road blocks for future business processes do not exist, as the SMC is fully customizable to integrate and evolve with your needs.

THREE: Software as a Service (SAAS) – The SMC software and hosting infrastructure are maintained and supported fully by our staff. No requirements to staff a technical crew who’s responsibility is to ensure your website is up and running 99.99% of the time, we cover that.

FOUR: SEO Friendly – Features built into the SMC will not guarantee you will be on the first page of Google for a competitive keyword, but it will ensure the basic SEO standards are easily implemented on your site. With properly designed layouts, the SEO basics such as Title Tags, Page Names, SEO URLs, Site Maps, Alt Tags, H Tags, etc. will all be taken care of when you add content.

FIVE: A Proven Platform – The SMC has been managing websites for over 10 years. The attrition rate on the SMC is amazing. The SMC is loved!

So there you have just 5 reasons of the hundreds we could list off (including fresh bacon, just ask). If you are having a tough time picking the right CMS for you, give us a shout and we can throw a great content management solution your way.

Content Strategy & Web Usability Sharpen The Tool
The Minneapolis Star Tribune recently was the focus of a press release by their CMS and Analytics provider citing a 50% increase in site traffic in the 6 months the tools been integrated. The story also highlighted how StarTribune.com became the top newspaper website in the country for visitor length of stay, which is very impressive.

I couldn’t help but see the true reason for the increases further into the press release though, not so much the specific tools, although the abilities they game them are a factor, it was this:

“Through the integration, editorial staff members increased interlinking within pages to Related and Most Popular stories to augment site visitor stay time. These improvements in viewership have resulted in higher ad rates and a dramatic increase in annual revenue for the StarTribune.”

The tool gave them the ability, but it was having a strategy with their content and making it more user friendly that truly drove their increase. By interlinking from story to story based on relation and popularity, StarTribune.com began to give users more of a path to follow. In turn the users went further down the path. More related information, more links, more insight into what others are reading turned into more time on their site.

So in a simple format, here are the goals and what lead to making them.

Website Goals:

• Land new visitors
• Increase repeat visitors (by making them happy)
• Increase length of stay and page views
• Increase ad impressions and ad values from above items

Web Content Strategy:

• Easy to update content with CMS
• Use analytics to understand the users and content
• Link internally to related & popular stories to keep users interested
• Increase page views & visit length (which increases ad impressions)

With educating and enabling their editors to keep visitors interested by engaging basic content strategy and usability they accomplished their goal. They stopped just adding content and started optimizing it with a strategy.

I often head down this same path with our web clients. We build all of our websites on our content management solution, the Site Management Console but the tool alone is nothing without the right content structure and strategy. Having a purpose and following the right guidelines when adding and editing content can make all the difference.

It’s a great start to have the right tools, but it’s even better to have a strategy on how best to use them.

Web Design Layout
Simply put, layout is where things go.  When I start looking at layout needs and options I consider the following in this order:

1. The user.  What do they need to see, read and do.  Usability is a big factor in good layout for me.

2. The target market as a whole.  There are certain expectations a user might have of a small business website compared to a social media website.  These differences determine the navigation, placement and number of “areas” or aspects in the layout.

3. The website owner/company.  In building CMS integrated websites for 8 years, we consider the types of information, the amount of information and the placement of that information.  The areas of the layout will offer up some static areas of content or functions and others will be dynamic or manageable with the CMS. You must give your client the right tools to offer up their message, communication or features.

Wireframes: The blueprint of the layout
Instead of just jumping to a full blown web design, taking the time to create a wireframe to plan the sites layout, usability and features is a great starting point to your visual design process.  It also allows you to worth with your client on these aspects and start understanding the users possible experience.  Q & A about CMS features, user needs and structure all can be determined with a wireframe.

In writing this post and doing a bit of research I also ran across these helpful posts on wireframes:

• The What & Why of Wireframes
• Improving Your Process With Wireframes

The wireframe serves as a great plan, where the design elements are the polish and can include colors, graphics, gradients, photos, buttons, icons and more.  As a designer, it also provides a great in between step for getting your design approved and embraced. You have outlined and provide some foundation to the client, so the first design concept is less of a surprise and of a continuation and enhancement of the wireframe.

A Wireframe Example
Here is a project we are starting work on and shows our wireframe concept and then the first design mock version of the website.  Many web designers will just start adding their design elements right over the exact grid and wireframe once that has been approved.  Some prefer to start on paper sketching as well.  There is no right or wrong way.

As you can see we also provided some notation on the areas.  This is up to you to provide this detail or just keep it to content blocks and usability features.

Next is the web design concept.  Keep in mind that this is a rough version one, the finished product will take on more polish and elements.  But it serves the purpose for a visual example.

I hope this helps you understand the web design process a bit better and the value of wireframes in the layout and design steps.  Feel free to either comment as a client or web designer on how a wireframe has helped your process or maybe you realize it’s time to start using one.

Here are just 5 ideas to add fresh content to your website with a CMS or blog:

1.   Write a short comparison article on your product or service versus the competition.

2.   Produce case studies on clients you have helped.  Describe the solution and how it benefits the client.

3.  Have some fun.  Put together a Dave Letterman type Top 10 list like “The Top 10 Reasons Our Web Geeks Are The Best”.  Humor can also educate.

4.  Spotlight on an employee.  Breakdown their job position, their interests and how what they do is of benefit to the customer / client.

5.  Recap a company event, a community event you participated in or a networking event.  Add a photo to the recap and show your involvement.

There are just five very basic ideas to add content to your website.  These angles not only produce fresh content but will likely contain keyword phrases that are important to your search engine optimization.  We often work with a client to develop ideas on building better content on their website and it can take only a few minutes of creativity to develop a list of 40 to 50 ideas.

The goal is to show both users and search engines your website is alive and well, not ignored and out of date.