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.

**** Announcing the lifeBLUE Media “I Need a New Design” Contest ****

There’s so much beauty in the world — despite all those horrendous, two-bit websites made with two lines of code and paper clips.

We at lifeBLUE Media cherish the online aesthetic and want to do our part to bring more beauty to the web. With that in mind, we’ve decided to give away our sought-after services to the neediest site owner on the web.

Today marks the start of our “I Need a New Design” Contest. We’ll give away a free site design to the website deemed the worst by visitor vote. So, if you’re constantly bemoaning your awful, highly dysfunctional website, here’s a chance to redeem your online presence — and stick it to your competitors. To learn more about how you can get a spanking-new site, check out the Contest info here.

We’ll log and tally votes through Aug. 8 here on lifeBLUE.com, meaning you’ve got about a month to scrounge as many as you can. So, start thumbing through your Rolodex, pester distant friends and old high school flames and get grandma online to start pleading your case. Post on your blog, email your buddies — do whatever it takes to bring in the most votes and you’ll have a snazzy new website by the fall.

And, for the record, the web designers at lifeBLUE graduated from two lines of code and paper clips a while ago. To get an idea of what kind of revamped website awaits, here’s a little look at some of our work in the lifeBLUE portfolio.

Now, let the contest begin. Best of luck to the worst among you. We look forward to sifting through your submissions.

We’ve touched on this before, but it’s so important that we decided to return. Anyone who claims that search is cooling off is likely to have pants ablaze.

But even we were a bit shocked when we read recently that 20 to 25 percent of the searches conducted by Google represent brand-new queries that have never been seen before (Thanks to SEOmoz for the reminder). Stop for a second and think about that. It’s simply astounding, considering the millions of searches enacted each day on the Search Engine of Search Engines.

It also underscores how challenging the field of search engine optimization and marketing can be at times, given the ever-changing nature of so many key elements. But that rate of spanking-new searches should also be a big red flag to companies and website operators — if you’re not investing in SEM/SEO services, you’re probably going to get more and more lost amid the shuffle of the online marketplace.

Keeping pace with that amazing rate of new searches is a tough job. It’s easy for companies to fall behind or fail to capture the wave of potential flooding Google every day.

Get your head above water. Give some serious thought to the importance SEM/SEO strategies can play when it comes to your bottom line. lifeBLUE can help you serve those millions of new searches every day.

For a newspaper reporter, there’s nothing worse than waking up in the morning to find a terrible — or worse, misspelled — headline atop your big scoop. Nothing ruins a good, resume-worthy story faster than having a sleepy copy editor decide to spell “bucks” with an “f,” as in: “MAYOR CAUGHT PILFERING BIG BUCKS.”

The most grating part, as any reporter will quickly tell you, is that they almost always never write the headlines. But they’ll be the first to tell you how important they are — a good headline is the Holy Grail of entry points, guaranteed to ensnare readers who otherwise might never read your story.

This maxim is actually more important on the Internet, where people are already in a hurry and used to blowing through mountains of information in a matter of minutes. Often, a catchy, memorable, intriguing and all-around entertaining headline is the only shot you have at getting visitors to actually give your content a look.

And, unlike those ungrateful reporters, bloggers, content developers, SEO heads and other online copy writers can’t typically blame a copy editor. Odds are you’re your own writer, editor and coffee-fetcher. Feeling your pain, and still getting our own coffee, we at lifeBLUE wanted to offer a few tips for writing good headlines for blog posts, link bait, viral pieces and all other manner of social media content. So, here we go:

1. Be succint

Don’t give all your good stuff away in the headline. A piece titled “Nightmare at Lambert International Airport As Drunken Passengers Refuse to Stop Screaming ‘Cockpit’ and Throwing Pretzel Bags While Bemoaning the Lost Genius of Jeff Buckley” may intrigue a few frequent fliers and JB fans, but others will see little reason to read further. Instead, stick with something a little shorter and attention-grabbing, something that leaves readers of all backgrounds wanting to learn more. Something like “Nightmare at Lambert” or “Nightmare at 35,000 Feet.” We do miss JB, though. Tragedy.

2. Use active verbs and bold words

That’s bold as in strong and connoting action and authority, not bold as in bold. Although, it is always a good idea to find ways to make your headlines stand out in color or size from the rest of the text. Using passive constructions like “to be” verbs and the past tense are shown over and over again in readership studies to be boring gateways to nowhere. You’re only using a few words to lure people to your cache of content, so make them stand out and sound good and strong to the ear.

3. Provocative

It’s much easier to do this online than in print. Take a stand in your headline, call someone out or tease us with your amazing knowledge. If you really know why someone is a complete jerk, then say so, using bold words, in your headline. But being provocative doesn’t necessarily have to be loud and in-your-face. Don’t be afraid to provoke thought, either. Some folks might turn away from a headline blaring “Why Judas Iscariot Totally Sucks,” so look for another way to bring people to your copy. How about: “Christ’s Downfall Started With a Kiss.” We’re cool with JC, here, too, so we’ll probably read both.

4. Classify the Copy

Social media sites like Digg and Reddit may soon render this rule obsolete, as stories simply headlined “Cool” or “Wow” will invariably be Dugg about 5,683 times. But it’s still a good idea, especially for link bait and viral pieces, to give readers some semblance of what your content is all about.

5. Embrace lists and pictures

This is another online rule driven by social media and networking sites. While lists are incredibly standard, almost cliched means of communicating information, they’re also never going away because people love to read them. Give us 10 easy tips or hints or reasons Karl Rove sucks and we’ll devour each one. It’s human nature to want something neatly packaged and chronological. Don’t churn out list after list, but don’t be afraid to throw some “Why XXX is Destroying America” or “Ten Reasons XXX Gives Me a Headache” list copy out there. The picture rule is simple. If you’re posting on social media sites, put this little abbreviation (PIC) in your headline, assuming you have a picture. It’s amazing how many high-traffic pieces become high-traffic because of that little abbreviation — and because there’s a great photo on the page, too. If you’ve got great art, let the reader know.

6 . Be Funny, Never Pun-ny and Think, Darn It, Think

Stay far away from puns in headlines. Very far. They’re awful, old “tools” that readers today will recognize as lame and unworthy of their precious time from a mile away. Dedicate real chunks of time to crafting funny, entertaining, provocative and engaging headlines. It makes no sense to spend three hours writing a top-notch blog post or link bait piece only to slap some stupid, completely uninteresting and unappealing headline on top after 4.39 seconds of thought.

Got it? Speaking of JC, though, we’ll leave you with one of our all-time favorite headlines. After a rain-swollen river threatened to flood a Pennsylvania town twice in two days, readers woke up the next morning to this gem: “Second Coming of Crest.”

That, friends, is a keeper.