Fridge vs Avocado Green, Stainless Steel, White…

Running Car vs Paint Colour, Shape window tints….

3 bedroom home plans vs spacial environment and finishes inside and out

Having worked in the construction industry for years before taking the design career by the horns has helped a lot in web design. A single building is drawn by an architect,  many engineers and a designer. The architectural drawings describe how it’s built, the engineering describes what size pipes, wiring, supporting walls etc. And the design drawing give the finishes. They almost always all work together at some point in the planning process.

Creating a web site can be just as complicated as house construction.

The web developer is like the architect. If there is no final wire frame (plan) in mind then that becomes part of the solution. The developer must create a website that allows for the design to be altered by the user.

The web designer brands, colours and re-shapes the functioning website.

If you hire a designer to develop your site, hopefully they will contract out the hard coding parts and not attempt to do it themsleves.

If you hire a developer to design and brand your site, hope fully the same will apply as above.

Very rarely do both co-exist in one person with any degree of success. It’s a simple fact of left brain right brain thinking.

No where in this post is SEO mentioned. That’s because SEO not just part of website construction alone and has nothing to do with branding and design. If SEO is important to the website owner (and who wouldn’t), it get’s built in as part of the development. It is then taught to the owner on how to use it, what content to write and where to put it. If SEO is the most important thing on your website list, don’t ask for it last.

Think of it this way:

A website is a bricks and mortar storefront, (Really it is the new store front of today but that’s entirely another post). How easy the door swings open is how easy it is for search engines to index. But here’s the kicker, (and a big giant ass kicker to some), if there is nothing inside your store worth going in for, then no one will go in, including search engines. It’s not that simple but close.

More and more people who understand this concept are winning the SEO battle. They treat their websites like a real store on a real street. They make it look good, inviting, social and interesting to the niche they want to attract. They change it up, keep it clean and easy to get around. The more people who visit the website, or should I say: The more crowded the inside of that store becomes the more popular it becomes – to search engines too. Go figure: it’s just . like . real . life.

If you see a crowd of people in a store, you go in, even if the door is a little hard to open. You are going to find your way in.

Not a believer yet?

Why then do I come up 2nd or third on a Google Search typing in the words BC Ferries Assured Boarding? Because it’s more interesting than the boring static government regulated website. People comment here creating more activity. You go there because you have to, you come here because you want to.

I found a great article that lists the importance of SEO techniques and other factors considered when everyone else is trying to shoehorn a site into search engine existence. The highest ranking factor is popularity among other things. but here are some of the things I found listed low on the SEO importance list that you may find interesting.

HTML Validation to W3C Standards is of minimal importance (a good thing for this site – let me tell you)
Server/Hosting Uptime minimal importance
Use of XML Sitemap(s) 29% minimal importance
Social Media/Social Graph Based Ranking Factors minimal importance

Surprisingly

Geographic Location of the Host IP Address of the Domain 57% high importance (wouldn’t have thunk it)

Check it out yourself at http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors/

MyRealPage

The video embedded below is provided by myRealPage and demonstates how to connect your blog to  Windows LiveWritter, one of many free third party blog editing software available.

You can view that release here.

Mobile listing solutions are going to take over as devices become more powerful, Connection speeds increase, displays more beautiful so websites don’t have to adjust to the scale as much. The term “mobile” might even become a word of the past (when describing online versions) as everything is expected to be online everywhere all the time. It’s just going to happen.

The future of the Realtor’s website will need to be more community driven. If their farm area is a certain location then they will be expected to have everything about that location on their website, listing every single business, every event, every listing and how about rentals? Oh, but there are community sites out there already doing this you say? Not really. It cost money and takes time to maintain a site like this. The paid links are not a good representation of what the community is. After all, paid links are what pay the bills.

A community site must be free to the community it serves. As more small business owners realize how important it is to have incoming links from outside sites pointing to them, they will look to a real community site that will list them for free and allow them to log in and list themselves for free, allow them to log in and post events, allow them to log in and take ownership of certain aspects of the community site and even guest post on the community blog. And yes, there will be real estate listings with walk scores, maps and much more. A successful Realtor will own this site.

A site like this is easier to maintain and keep current than most real estate sites are today, (those that do update their sites). It’s conceivable that a Realtor would hardly have to touch a site like this other than to confirm registrations (done through email) and farm the people who have logged in to get more information on the listings. They can go back to doing what they do best.

By providing this valuable resource to the community where a Realtor does business, their perception among those who live, work, play, list and purchase in the area can become a lot higher than it is now (below that of a used car salesman at the moment).

In summery a community site must have:

• Maps with walk scores
• Free organized listings of events and businesses
• Community blog for community postings
• A registration and login for the community
• A “mobile” version

Some Realtors are already starting this.

It’s like…

chocolate and peanut butter
The best thing since sliced bread (In fact I would trade it)
Breakfast at Denny’s 3:30am Sunday Morning
Getting a parking spot in front of Starbucks down town Vancouver
Getting a parking spot anywhere downtown Vancouver
CSI man

a. Scan your computers for viruses / malware, especially if unauthorized tweets continue to be posted in your accounts even after you’ve changed the password.

b. Use a password that you don’t use anywhere else and never use the former password on a compromised account. Create a new and difficult password unique to Twitter that consists of both letters and numbers

c. Check the Connections page at http://twitter.com/account/connections and revoke the access privileges of any third party applications that you do not recognize.

d. Avoid providing your username and/or e-mail and password to untrusted third-party sites. (Many are phishing sites offering more followers)

e. Remove any updates that you did not post personally; leaving these updates can result in your account being re-suspended.

I want to add the risk involved adding third part sites to your Twitter account. Many of these sites promise more followers. Any account that asks for your password is probably phishing.

Here is a link to the Wikipedia.org article on it.

Have a great weekend!

Google changes up their logo to match holidays and big events. The key to this is be consistent. It’s expected and there are no surprises when it happens. it’s seen as a ’step up’ and they were prepared to keep it up. What’s more is everyone knows the Google logo and can easily replace it in their mind when mashed up with some Christmas design. Look at Vanity Fair or Maclean’s Magazine the next time you’re in the grocery check out. The cover art, (usually a model or person) covers the Magazine’s name art. This is to get more real estate from the image and the image sells. This can be done because our minds know these brands well.

So how is this handled with personal branding? The answer is very carefully and once we start, we keep it up – forever.

One way is seasonal. It keeps the brand changes to four times a year. It’s authentic because we all change with the seasons, especially if you live in Vancouver. Don’t pull a Google mash up with your name if you’re dealing with personal branding. It’s a bad idea and you’ll end up in my Design Fail Category, (so please send it in if you do). Just be authentic and put yourself where your community is. Keep it real to your clients and you’ll end up with a successful and refreshing look and feel without killing the brand.

Happy Summer!

Richard Branson, although from a well-to-do family, values personal adventure and risks more than some with less to lose. We understand Branson's Personal Brand.

Personal Branding is becoming an important topic as social media continues to be discovered. Most industries are starting to get it.

Realtors: with the addition of Social Media bringing about a change in marketing directions it’s now more important than ever to step up your branding. That is to say, ditch the old school slogans and awards and become authentic with who you are.

A Realtor’s business life and personal life mix on social media to the point where (I have read) that some create two different accounts on social media networks. Some good recent posts on the subject can be found here and here. What’s worse in my opinion is they have one account and only write about their business  activities, market reporting and name dropping. These Realtors seem to follow each other too. A better alternative  would be to follow your friends and community who happen to be your client base and not talk business, (but bring it up when asked or the opportunity arises).

Let’s do a case in point

(first a disclaimer): For this case-in-point I am going to pick any old slogan out of the hat and in no way intend to intentionally pick on anyone in particular. The fact is the slogan I choose to use as an example will sadly be in use by many Realtors – so you’re not alone if it’s yours.

“Vancouver’s Family Home Specialist”

Let’s choose that one (or something like that anyway- you’ll get the point). If this is a Realtor’s slogan but they don’t comment on family blogs, write blogs about family, advertise on family websites to support them, talk about family matters on Twitter and Facebook and don’t have a following of people with the same interest then what is the point? Their branding is not authentic and everyday people can now see this.

What I’m talking about here are some new concepts in marketing. Conversational Marketing, Permission Based Marketing and a Seth Godin’s new favourite, Leading a Tribe (which people are picking up now and calling Tribe Marketing). This type of marketing all begins with an authentic brand and story that are based on your values.

Realtor’s are always on when it comes to marketing. Anyone could be a future client. Why not just make your life easier and deal with people you choose, create a fan base and deal with all the residual business that naturally comes in as well.

Remember, with all things being equal people do business with people they click with. Even more importantly, with all things not being equal, people still do business with people they click with. So go out there and have real conversations online.

I’ve often found the need to see when a page was last modified, for one reason or another. I know how to do it, but the need to do so is usually few and far between, and by the time I need it again, I always forget. It’s a nice little tidbit to know and squirrel away somewhere – so I thought I’d squirrel it away here, when others can get use out of it.

Here’s what you do.

Simply copy this line: (the entire line as is)

javascript:alert(document.lastModified)

and paste it into the address bar of the website you’re looking at. Hit the “Enter” button on your keyboard. Look at that! A little window pops up telling you the date and time the page was last updated.

Now bookmark this page and you’ll always be able to come back to it and use the info again.