One of our current projects at Abraxas Web Design & SEO is Web design and development for Mike Collins & Associates. Mike Collins & Associates  is one of the larger IT firms in Chattanooga with offices in Chattanooga, Nashville, and Knoxville.

Mike Collins & Associates (MCA) came to us asking for a new Web design that would both help them build on their current client base and be used as a resource for their existing clients. MCA’s previous design was done in-house and based on templates. They wanted to go beyond the original design with a more compelling look.

After meeting with the “stakeholders”, we began thinking about the Web design that MCA needed. Today we have a total of three mockups that we have presented. The first mockup is a very clean, straight forward design that focuses on information. The second mockup again straight forward and clean but put more emphasis and graphics and animation to draw the user to the information. The third mockup is a combination of the first two. These mockups were rendered with Adobe Photoshop.

[View with PicLens]

Will your prospective Web design company or developer do enough to help you reach your target audience. Does your prospective Web design company or developer provide search engine optimization (SEO)? Do they really understand  SEO with tangible results to show you?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the strategy of attaining higher search engine ranking position (commonly called SERPs). It’s obvious that most Internet users use the search engines to search for a solution to a problem, whether that problem is finding the best digital camera or finding a local florist. Knowing this, shouldn’t your website be positioned in the search engines so that you can take advantage of Internet users searching for the products and services that you offer whether those services are intended for a local, national, or global market.

Continue reading Web Design Tip: Ask The Right Questions

This article continues from SEO Tip: Improve PageRank (Google PageRank Demystified…Sorta) Part 2. As with any of our articles you should be aware of the disclaimer:

Disclaimer: Chattanooga Search Marketing Blog features SEO and Web Design tips for the benefit of our readers and clients in order for them to understand what we do and help them with their own SEO projects. As with any SEO technique, these techniques and tips are based on our experience and are our best opinions. Our opinion may change and this tip may still exist.

It has been a little while since I started this series of articles. I expect that everyone is waiting on pins and needles to learn more. After I bashed PageRank in the previous installment; you are wondering why you should read this. Honestly, PageRank isn’t going to help you much with SERPs.

Here’s what it will do for you: PageRank is Google’s way of measuring how important your Web site (actually Web page) is to the overall World Wide Web. If you have a PageRank of 10, then you must be very important. If you have 0 PageRank, then you aren’t important at all. Most Web site home pages have a PageRank of 3 or lower. Depending on what your PageRank is that is how Google treats you – but not in SERPs.

Continue reading SEO Tips: Improve PageRank (Google PageRank Demystified…Sorta) Part 3

Abraxas Web Design & SEO is releasing some results form an eight month SEO R&D project on the domain hdmusicvideosonline.com. It is not often that a SEO company will share with general readers specific results of a project. In this case, because this site was not developed for a client but instead as an R&D project and that the site will soon go up for sell, we thought it fitting to give our readers and our clients a chance to look at some real results.

The art and science of SEO is ever evolving, we have ongoing R&D projects so that we can measure and test our techniques. This particular project is drawing to a close after eight months with some really promising results in a competitive, yet new keyword space. We went head to head with well established and corporate sites with tons of money to through around. We spent zero dollars other than our time to achieve results that are very respectable.

To view some of the results as screen captures, head over to: SEO Eight Month R&D Project

I have written an article that is filed in the pages of this Web site offering up advice to Chattanooga business owners (and any other business owner) regarding picking a SEO company and a Web design company. I didn’t think the full article warranted a post in the Search Marketing Blog, because, there is no real SEO tip there, but is more intended for prospective clients. However, I did want to bring up a few highlights and point those interested over to the proper article for more details.

As most “real” experts in the SEO business know, we are constantly fighting false information, and companies offering less than desirable SEO techniques. Just as buying anything, the informed buyer is a better buyer. That’s the goal for this article, to inform the buyer.

Continue reading How to Avoid the Scam & Pick the Right SEO Company