In the Nerd Matrix,  you will find numerous posts regarding coding, programs and application development, and other insightful information for all of us nerds out there. Read topics about common prgramming errors, new standards of coding, or just good, clean technical information that you or someone else you know could benefit from. Please contribute by posting quality and clean comments, or just give a shout out comment to the rest of us fellers in the nerd community.

As nerds we should be proud that we can boldly go where the average person cannot. And those are the easy ones, lets not blow any brain cells with our in-depth knowledge of .NET frameworks, hypertext markup language, or the latest w3c output. Just like Budweiser’s Real Men (and women) of Genius, we salute you Mr. Programmer Rocket Scientist Nerd Guy. This blog is for you!

Alright, here it is ladies and gents. Impress your friends, family, all of your secret admirees, and maybe even yourself with this tiny piece of information. I am not even joking. This will make you feel like a genius while connecting whoever to whatever web site you want…whenever. Are you ready for it…Here it comes!

<a href=”http://www.lifeblue.com”>Web Design Company</a>

Of course I would like you to use this specific reference and plaster it all over your site, but then this article might not be so beneficial to you when it comes to impressing those listed above. This is a standard HTML coding tag that websites use to link other URLs. Have you ever right clicked on a site and viewed the source code? Odds are you will find this similar code in abundance throughout those millions of other characters and what nots displayed on the page.

It is simple as it looks:

(a href) is the HTML tag that says “Hey web browser, I am about to display a link here”

http://www.lifeblue.com is the actual URL that the link goes to. So you can put any up and running website address in this spot.

Web Design Company is the text displayed to click on the link.

</a> as any good HTML person would know, you always have to close out your tags.

Now you are saying “Okay nerd face, what good does knowing this mind boggling information do me.” Well I will tell you. Try typing out this code on a notepad document>Save it> and open it with your favorite web browser. There it is. You can also include it any website, profile, e-mail, etc that allows HTML. Well I believe I have done my good deed of the day. So long.

Britney Spears…who, what?  What did she do again?  Nothing is the honest truth.  So then what is this article about?   Don’t worry about that quite yet.  Let’s get back to the Britney topic.  Did you see that performance?  I believe I have now gone through all the phases of the grief cycle for Britney.  I have certainly been in shock, denial to say the least, anger and depression to the hilt, and now, thankfully, I am on the road to acceptance and recovery.  It is now truly at the point of empathy.  The poor girl just does not know which way to turn.  Don’t worry Britney, I am behind you 100 ½ %. 

Well it would not be a good web industry related blog if I did not tie all of this to some higher meaning subject.  So in honor of Britney’s downfall, today’s topic is truly Oops! I Did it Again.  What is the Oops?   The oops is the fact that you chose the wrong company to do your web design development and marketing….Again!    So in order to better help you get through this mistake, let’s go through the grief cycle for choosing the wrong web design company. 

Shock – That’s right.  You both saw your results and went into a vegetative state, or it has been months down the road and you are shocked your site isn’t the next hottest thing on the market.  Breathe deep, its okay.  Either someone did not tell you what you needed, you didn’t know, or your odds of success stood where most new un-marketed, un-targeted websites are…not good. 

Denial – Go ahead and deny for a while.  It lets us clear our head and come back to the problem once the initial emotion is gone. 

Anger- Anger is okay too; let us keep it simple though.  Crush a can or even hit your head a few times on a well padded wall…but not too hard, we don’t want forget what has happened and then have to start the process all over again. 

Depression – It would probably be a good idea to skip this one if at all possible.  Nobody benefits from depression.  Think happy thoughts, like what could happen if you choose the right web design company. 

Testing – Let’s start searching for the right professional web company.  Test the waters and see who is not going to let you do the same mistake?

Acceptance – Ahhh…here we are…recovery at last.  Use your past mistakes and input to help pave the way for new found glory.  Don’t worry, that sorry excuse for a site you are currently using can be undone with a snap of the fingers.

Do you feel better…are you still reading?  If you need to go over these steps with an expert website consultation provider then call us.  We are here to help.  Now if only a quality, well marketed website could help my girl Britney…if only.

As one begins their quest for finding the perfect web design company, it is often a daunting mix of price vs. quality, targeted results vs. redundant solutions, and the biggest of all…custom vs. template.  All of these really go hand in hand.  Now while there are so many things to consider, let’s discuss what a professional web design company really is.

Learning - A professional web design company starts with getting to know your business and how you want your online presence portrayed to potential customers.  Industry specific questions, calls with key business decision makers, and industry research all play a pivotal role in how your website will be created.  This upfront learning allows the developers to provide effective results without a multitude of features you don’t need, can’t use, and even worse, your users can’t either.  Bottom line, a good web consulting agency conducts thorough research before beginning a project to provide an effective solution. 

Innovation – A professional web design company provides innovative ideas, concepts, and tangible features to help set your online presence apart from competitors.  Whether it comes from graphically appealing design elements or a user-friendly application, it is these features that make people say “that is a great site”…or  you get the industry average of a less than 10 second view and that person never goes to your site again.  I am not a nay sayer but I don’t think even Walmart could stay open if everyone that went there walked inside for 5 or so seconds and left….well maybe Walmart could find a way but that is a different conspiracy theory all together. 

Long Term Relationship -   A professional web design company provides results that are long term.  However a website, just like a brick and mortar operation, needs to be updated, expanded, interchanged on a regular basis to keep existing customers coming back and bring new ones in.  It’s the same as a clothing store updating seasonal trends, or a doctor using the latest technology and ideas…you get the picture.  A good company continually provides new ways to expand your online presence and is there for you when you need it. 

In the end it seems budget drives a large percentage of determining which company to help you create your online dream.  While the bottom dollar is almighty there are always ways to provide custom, targeted results without breaking the bank.  Simply put, a quality website cannot be built in a day with a handful of pesos by seamstresses.  It takes a little time, the right budget for the right solution, and a skilled team of development and marketing experts.   Wait that’s us! Find out why we should be your professional web design company.

Of course we had to take time and mention the overwhelming response we received between July 9th and August 8th in conjunction with our “I Need a New Design” Contest here on lifeBLUE. Just to let you in on some of the raw numbers involved:

• There were 209 websites submitted that graced our “Wall of Shame”.
• 10,827 votes were cast over the 1 month span.
• Contest winner ReviewBack.com brought in 4,391 votes (and yes, we verified them).
• Blogs are powerful. Through our 2nd chance offer, ThirdFloorCards.com won out after offering up a blog post reviewing our website and ended up in 4th place overall before winning the random drawing of ‘2nd chancers’.

A full write-up of the contest is currently running in our Company News section. Most importantly, we want to thank everyone that took the time to make a run at being dubbed the worst looking website out there. We enjoyed having you here at lifeBLUE.

More often that not, a website can benefit from using a text-based navigation instead of an image-based navigation.  It’s commonly understood that words that are placed near the top of your code (page) are given slightly more consideration and weight by the search bots in determining what your site is about.  Because the majority of websites have their navigation across the top of the page or down the left hand side, placing important keywords in your navi and ensuring they are 100% crawlable can help boost your optimization efforts.

Don’t know if you’re navigation is text-based or images?  Take your mouse and try to click and drag over the text within your navi.  Can you highlight the words?  That’s text-based.  If not, you’re dealing with images.  Of course, you can add Alt-tags to your images to help the cause (especially if you can’t replicate the look and feel of the navi with plain text), but there’s still no substitute for using plain old text links.

Generally, if you are hoping to improve your SEM for a given set of keywords, those keywords can and should be used in your main navigation.  You have a home page that is a  catch-all area that then directs visitors to the categories and main themes of your site.  Those categories/themes should be highly visible pages within your domain, and the best way to make them stand out, pass on optimal benefit through internal linking, and make your site climb the SERPs is to drop them as text in the main navigation.

Go on, give it a try.  While there’s still a good 50 little odds and ends every website can run through to ensure their on-page factors are optimized for the engines, this is a good start and a practice that most of your competitors will be overlooking.

This is an extremely common question that we get asked here at lifeBLUE Media, as well as one that just about every webmaster or blogger or company with a web-based business has to consider early on in their online campaigns.   Of course every situation is different - different competition, different costs associated with PPC and SEO, different barriers to entry, etc.  So what does it really come down to?  Here are the 3 biggest factors in determining what marketing online would mean for your site/company with regards to cost:

1. Your Goals - Do you want to dominate the Google Sponsored results and rank top 3 organically for highly searched keywords?  Or are you more looking to test the waters and attack a few niche spots?  In short, it’s important to realize that you can spend just about as much money as you want to spend to go after online success.

2. Your URL and Current Link Profile - Do you have an authoritative domain?  Are you already getting some good search engine traffic from a decent (top 100) organic ranking?  It’s a lot easier (with respect to time and $) to take an older website, with a keyword-rich domain and some established incoming links to the top than it is a brand new site or a site that has no current ‘rapport’ with Google.

3.  The Competitive Landscape - In conjunction with #2, how crowded is the SERP for what you’re chasing?  If you’re going to go after selling shoes online a quick Google search will show that there’s a lot of big name brands littering the sponsored results and the organic results.  That’s not going to be easy.  That means time and money.  Looking to target dermatology in the Atlanta area?  Not as tough, and therefore not as much time or money.

Those 3 questions are the most important to consider hands down.  I know that doesn’t help place a monetary figure on any particular campaign, but those are the initial questions that you should consider when starting your plan to market online.   Performing well with respect to conversions and marching your website up the SERPs takes patience, execution, and money, but rest assured that no matter what type of website or business you’re running, there is untapped potential waiting for you on the internet.

After exasperating all of your organic leads, where else is one to turn for new links?

Here are a few ideas that may help you grab a few more organic links to help you get the edge over your competition:

• Offer some of your blogs or articles to Internet publishers, such as ezines. Aim for publishers that archive their past stories, which allows you to keep your links on their history pages for as long as the website is alive and kicking.

• Conduct article exchanges. Yes, they are almost exactly the same as a link exchange, but these are actually useful for both parties. Article exchanges do two things for you — provide useful and relevant content and a much-needed link.

• Finally, and this one is probably the most difficult, if you can get an address in the UK or Canada, then you are able to get into all of the UK and Canada directories. This would be the easiest way to create links, seeing as there are thousands of directories that are really good and relevant beyond the United States. Superpower no more.