We have been working with a client who asked us to help him rebuild his e-commerce website that has not seen any major updates in over 15 years. The site has continued to expand with new products over the years, but his content management system was in need of a massive upgrade. Whenever we take on any new web projects, one of the first things we analyze is the SEO of the site. We ask ourselves, how do we keep the current rankings and how do we improve the rankings after the launch. This site defiantly had some unique challenges, today I am going to share how we are approaching the URL redirects for our client’s aged website. We had a few ideas, for this store with thousands of products. Our ideas started with the concept of ripping it off like a bandaid and just 301 everything. Then we thought maybe it would be better to launch the new site – Read the full article
Lakeshore Branding was recently featured on independent news site RINF.com, with a couple of articles on social media for businesses, entrepreneurs, Internet marketers, and startups. RINF.com is a news website with an Internet marketing edge. It’s owned by Mick Meaney, who’s been working on and writing about all things technology since 1998. The first article is “What to Expect from Your Social Media Consultant”, with tips and key insights on what exactly that newly hired employee at the social media department in your office should be doing. Does the job entail tweeting and blogging 24/7? Does the consultant have to double your number of followers or quadruple your number of fans? Or should you be expecting more? Find out more by visiting the social media section of RINF. The second is “7 Twitter Mistakes Businesses Should Avoid”. Well, we all have heard great stories and testimonials from top brands on how Twitter’s so cool – and how amazing it is – Read the full article
E-mail: it’s one of the earliest and most widely used forms of communication on the Internet, even in the age of Twitter, Facebook, mobile apps, and social media. It can also be one of the most scandalous – and potentially one of the most embarrassing – sources of personal information, or just plain bad manners. Indeed, a lot of people can do with a little primer on E-mail etiquette in today’s world – regardless of whether they’re corresponding for business purposes, sending important information to various recipients, or marketing through E-mail. So for the sake of those who aren’t quite sure whether or not they have been misbehaving on E-mail, here are a few must-follow tips on E-mail etiquette: Keep it short and sweet E-mail marketers should be familiar with this rule. The longer your E-mail message is, the higher the chances are that your recipients are not going to read all the way through it. It’s a sad fact – Read the full article
Looking to stretch your advertising dollars? Try implementing a PPC (pay per click) campaign. It’s cheap. It’s ideal for small businesses. It’s not as costly as producing a full-blown advertising or Internet marketing campaign. It’s also can be very effective if executed correctly. Getting your money’s worth on PPC advertising means coming up first with a good strategy. A lot of people think that a PPC campaign can be hastily thrown together – “okay, I’ve chosen my keywords – I’m done!” – and they are the ones who are most prone to making costly mistakes. So, before you go about launching your own PPC campaign, take a look first at these helpful tips. They won’t just help you save money; it will also maximize your money and, subsequently, your sales potential. Keyword Selection Choose keywords wisely, and cast your net broadly. Of course you want a high PPC ranking. But that doesn’t mean you have to get the most popular – Read the full article
This week we received an email from a DePaul student (Go Blue Demons!), who was looking to interview a web design company about usability. I spent some time thinking about it and developing some answers and I thought I would share it on our blog- Enjoy! (1) Describe the company. Briefly describe the products they build and/or the services they provide Here are some quotes from our website but basically we are a web design company that focuses on Search Engine Optimization and Conversions by using the latest W3C complaint coding (xHTML and CSS) and also using the latest usability compliance. “Web design is more than just creativity, it’s usability. Understanding your visitors and how they use your website will lead to increased conversions. For each new website, our team of graphic designers, SEO consultants and marketing specialists work together on strategy, design, usability, and goals.” Lakeshore Branding, what started as a small marketing firm in 2007 has evolved into – Read the full article
