Archive for August, 2010

Help Visitors & Search Engines Discover Your Web Content by using Dynamic Site Maps

Posted by Sheryl Sargent in Internet Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Site Map on August 31, 2010

A site map helps both human visitors to your site and search engines bots (or crawlers) sent out by Google, Yahoo, Bing and all the others to index your site.

There are three types of site maps.

User-Friendly Site Map: Located on your website, it’s accessible to all human and bot visitors to make navigation simpler.
Xml: This one is standardized specifically for search engines, making your website searchable to web crawlers from Bing, Yahoo, Google, etc. This site map can be submitted directly to search engines and. must be updated manually.
The Marion Dynamic Site Map: Developed uniquely by Marion, this site map helps the SEO process, consequently impacting your ranking among search engines. It’s called dynamic because it updates automatically as you add or delete pages from your website. While xml site maps only provide search engines with the URL, the Dynamic Map contains URLs, clickable page titles with keywords in them, description tag text, and h-tag text. This allows SEO analyst to view all important SEO elements all at once.

Additionally, you will be able to quickly identify SEO weaknesses for continuous improvement on your site.

View our own Dynamic Sitemap aiding us in search engine optimization.

To further optimize your website and increase your online traffic, view Marion’s SEO Services .

Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, seo, sit map, user-friendly

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Our Prescription is a Marion Blog Subscription

Posted by Sheryl Sargent in Internet Marketing, RSS Feed, Search Engine Optimization, Web Design on August 25, 2010

To stay current with the Marion blog, become a subscriber to our RSS Feed.

This is achieved through just a few easy steps.

Go to the Marion Blog (Look at that, you’re already here. Good job!)
Click the orange RSS icon on the right side of the screen where it reads “Subscribe to the Marion RSS Feed.”
If you have,
- Internet Explorer (IE): Choose the personal account or preferred browser (i.e. Google, Yahoo, Bloglines, etc.) through which you want to receive blog updates or simply add our feed to your IE Favorites.
- Mozilla: Choose the personal account or preferred browser (i.e. Google, Yahoo, Bloglines, etc.) through which you want to receive blog updates or simply bookmark our feed, choosing “Live Bookmark.”
Click “Subscribe Now.”

Voila! You’re now a Marion Subscriber and you didn’t even break a sweat.

Don’t even know what a RSS Feed is? Click here to learn more.

…And if you like our blog, you’ll love our services. Marion’s custom web design services include blog design and development and even content development. Find out what Marion can do for you.

Custom Web Design, Internet Marketing, RSS Feed, Search Engine Optimization

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Why Marion for Custom Web Design

Posted by Sheryl Sargent in Brand Building, Mobile Marketing, Web Design on August 24, 2010

While we could write you a list of answers with more entries than a phone book, allow us to summarize…

Marion goes beyond web design. We are a fully integrated agency able to offer businesses a full array of advertising and marketing services on the web, in print, broadcast, social media and video. Marion has the tools and skills to create a total brand experience for your customers. (See more on Graphic Design Services and Brand Consultancy.)

We also stay ahead of the curve, keeping you ahead of the competition. Marion now offers Mobile Web Design so you can have a version of your regular site formatted specifically for smartphones and other mobile devices.

Naturally, we provide a full range of the services you’d expect from your web developers, including:

Original custom designs – no templates
Full-time and in-house staff of:
- Web Content Developers
- SEO Specialists
- Web Designers
- Web Developers
- Internet Marketing Specialists
- Internet Brand Consultants
Brand positioning for clear, persuasive messaging
User-friendly site structure and flat navigation
Innovative Interactive Applications
Lead capture backend
Single Source for:
- Photography
- Video
- Flash
- Custom illustration
On-going Internet marketing support
Increased VOLUME & QUALITY of traffic to your site
Proven success in making businesses grow through their websites (references available upon request)

For more proof, see our custom web designs for yourself.

Brand Building Services, brand builing, Custom Web Design, fully integrated marketing, mobile

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Get some Web Action with Google’s Website Optimizer

Posted by Sheryl Sargent in Internet Marketing, Web Design on August 12, 2010

So your website is up and running with more traffic than a Houston freeway. So why are sales or sales leads (aka conversions) so low? Unfortunately, no matter how great your site is, without the proper persuasive content or even eye-candy (great graphics and images), your website is no more than a corridor to the competition.

No need to fear, Google is hear. Google has created an exciting remedy to solve your conversion issues by using Google Website Optimizer . This tool employs A/B Testing and Multivariate testing to evaluate what design and layout will best generate conversions for a desired action (i.e. make a purchase or complete a contact form).

A/B Testing compares two or more variations of your webpage against each other. Multivariate testing evaluates hundreds of alterations including differences in copy, graphics, headlines, and designs simultaneously to see which will produce optimal results.

Google Website Optimizer is a handy tool and best of all, it’s free! You may notice all those high-speed travelers start to take the scenic route through your website and even park for awhile.

As part of our custom website design process, Marion can do this optimization testing for you to transform your website into an online powerhouse.

custom website design, website optimizer

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Using QR Codes & Mobile Marketing to Discover Your “Sixth Sense”

Posted by Sheryl Sargent in Mobile Marketing, QR Codes on August 11, 2010

Imagine this.

You arrive at the airport, look down at your ticket and it displays “delayed”. Shaking your fist at the gods of transportation you proceed through the gate witnessing people check their email across the wall and watching news reports in the New York Times. Continuing on, you stop at a bookstore. Glancing down at a book, you read hundreds of online reviews from Amazon, along with current prices. You find out it is way over priced, but you buy it anyway. Thanks to a new device called the “Sixth Sense”, this scenario may not be too far in your future.

The Sixth Sense is described as “a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information.” Translation anyone? Simply put, the internet will literally be at your finger tips. Consisting of a pocket project, a mirror, and a camera, it recognizes images and gestures you create with your hands then displays this information on almost any surface imaginable.

If you hold your hands as if you are taking a picture, Sixth Sense takes the picture! It can then provide available information on that image as if you Googled it. This function can also scan and open QR codes, giving instant access to the URL or the address linked to it. A QR code is a two-dimensional bar code which stores addresses and URLs that can be placed on virtually any form of print media (magazine, signs, etc.). But wait…There’s more! It can also stream videos and check email. (Simply draw a @ symbol on a surface.)

While the device is still in need of modifications, consumers can build their own for around $350. This groundbreaking mobile device will certainly change the way we interact with the web, but some skeptics are not convinced, which brings our planet to a new epic battle. The Sixth Sense vs. the smart phone… (for help with the latter see Mobile Web Design Services.)