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Web Design in 2015

Posted by Ron Wicker on 7:25 am in Design | 0 comments

As time marches on, web design and technology continually make giant strides toward simplicity and better user experiences. While there are current trends in web design that will be around for a long time to come, others won’t exist in as little as a year from now. These are just a few of the current and future trends for web design, as well as ones that have already made their way out.

Current Trends

Responsive design is argued to be one of the most influential trends in web design to date, and there are plenty of reasons why. Responsive design creates a more flexible user experience for website visitors, regardless of the platforms they’re viewing from It’s predicted that responsive design will continue to stick around for a long time to come.

Right now, simplicity is also a monumental trend. Websites that utilize large, vibrant backgrounds behind minimal overlay content are very popular. Additionally, transparent/ghost buttons are being used heavily in conjunction with these types of sites due to their flexibility.

Websites with card/tile layouts are quite a hit at this point in time. Pinterest is a vast online presence that utilizes this layout, and many more entities are beginning to adopt it. It promotes better organization of content, and it enhances the user’s ability to quickly scan through information.

Growing Trends

Typography is already a valuable asset to any website, but it will only continue to grow in popularity as 2015 marches on. At one time, typography set kits were expensive to purchase, but they have become more affordable with time. This type of design element adds personality to a website, something that is extremely important right now.

Clicking is being replaced, at a surprisingly rapid rate, with scrolling. Rather than clicking to move from area to area on a website, a user can simply scroll to move onto new content. Many websites have already adapted this navigation process, and it’s only expected that many more will do the same in the near future.

Businesses are also beginning to show off their products in new, ground-breaking ways. Some products can now be viewed in interactive, 3D experiences rather than from just a single, stationary image. Users can rotate and zoom in on these virtual product displays to get a better idea about what they’re purchasing.

Simplicity will also continue to become more prominent across the web. Non-essential design elements and content are being left behind to create a more straightforward user experience.

Worn Out Trends

You might recognize some of these trends from the past, and you might also realize that they’re not implemented so commonly anymore. Trends that have essentially made their way out include:

• Web 2.0 design elements. Glossy buttons, flashy icons, and heavy use of texture are all a thing of the past.
• Hit counters. Hit counters have been ditched for back end analyrics. Analytics tools have proven to be much more accurate and powerful.
• Ribbon text. Text over ribbon graphics quickly became a worn out design concept.
• Text-heavy content. We aren’t seeing many websites with a lot of text these days. Web designers are going for simplicity and usability these days.

Because web design trends are constantly evolving, you need a web designer in Dallas who fully understands that. Any Dallas web design agency that uses outdated tactics and strategies to build websites is only setting their clients up for disappointment. Stay ahead of the trends by working with the best web designer in Dallas. We think our projects, clients, and experience speak for themselves when we say we’re the best in what Dallas web design has to offer.

SEO in 2015 and beyond

Posted by Ron Wicker on 5:25 pm in SEO | 0 comments

When looking at SEO, you are going to see that it doesn’t always work the way you think it will. Yes, plenty of company owners will go out of their way to spend time and money looking to rise to the top. However, in the end, many site owners don’t see the results they want. With this in mind, here is a look forward to 2015 SEO trends to look out for.

Quality will count more than ever: In the past, site owners would go out of their way to post dozens of articles all over the Internet. This worked for a while, but it is not a good way to rise to the top of the SEO Rankings. In fact, if you own a site and post junk articles all over the place without regards to making sure you write decent content, you are going to lose in the rankings. Not only that, you will waste a lot of time. Luckily, an SEO firm will help you focus on quality content, which will help you get to the first page of Google.

Social media: Without a doubt, if you want to run a company, you will need to use social media to reach out to clients. Furthermore, in the future, people will want to use social media to rise in the rankings. Simply put, if you are going to do well, Thinkit Media can help you get there. Then, when doing so and getting a great presence setup, you are going to do well in SEO. At the same time, your Internet presence on the social media sites will help you find more clients with ease. To take it further, site owners should try to use multiple social media sites to reach out to more people as not everyone uses the major sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Keywords sparingly, but no too sparingly: Previously, people used to use a keyword too much and still get results. However, Google is not stupid, and the leading search engine will punish a site owner if he or she uses content with high too many of the same keywords over and over. Instead, a site owner should aim for about 1-2.0 percent keyword density. That way, you can show Google what the site is about, all without writing weird sounding and annoying content. Fortunately, with SEO, you can do so and get to the top of page one. Remember, if you use the same keyword too often, you will bother your readers and hurt your SEO chances.

Frequent blog posts: Finally, if you want to succeed with SEO, you will want to post often to your blog. Think about it, if you are going to impress your readers and show of your product or service to them, you will want to post often. Then, with SEO, you can communicate with your followers and enjoy a higher conversion rates. While true, you need to concentrate on the other factors mentioned above as a site owner who posts too frequently runs the risk of putting up boring, uninteresting or dredged up content. Yes, if you have a blog and want to enjoy success with it, you will want to put out interesting and useful information, all with the right keyword usage.

Without a doubt, when running a site, one must understand future SEO trends. When one knows what is to come, he or she is likely to do well in the future. In fact, it’s the only way to survive in many industries as it’s hard to do well without getting on the front pages of the search engine results.

The King of Sex…Not Who You Think

Posted by Ron Wicker on 3:59 pm in SEO | 0 comments

The adult industry is undoubtedly one of the biggest markets out there and even though most of our nation frowns upon the thought of it, it’s big business. I understand we don’t want our kids to see it, but they will…eventually. It often makes me wonder if we weren’t so against it, if it would still be as big as it is. Or would it be even bigger.

When it comes to the online market, the adult industry has always been big because it gave the user the anonymity that most preferred without having to pull over to some abandoned looking building on the outskirts of town and do the ultimate walk of shame…twice. The adult related keywords are highly searched and if you were to take a guess who would dominate these terms, like ‘sex’, who would you guess? How about Funny or Die?

Sex Search

I hadn’t received a newsletter from them in a while, until the other day. It made me wonder if the website has lost it’s position as it had a couple of years ago. What I found was kind of shocking. If you do a search for “sex” in Google, you’ll find FOD right at the top. What is even more amazing is to view what SEMRush knows about them. They dominate the sex related keywords. They do have videos that parody sexually related skits, but it’s far from being a porn site. What they have done is found an angle to shoot traffic through the roof, which I’m sure coincided with ad revenue. When imagining Will Ferrell having a business meeting to discuss all of this, all I can see is this.

According to the SEMRush traffic graph, their traffic almost doubled from Nov’13 to Dec’13

Then look at their keyword domination and you’ll see that ‘sex’ makes up for a third of their traffic and they have over 40k page one results with most being adult related

Since search engines really aren’t keen on porn, why not make your site relevant to a busy market in some form so you can boost your traffic? FOD’s biggest competition, when it comes to this topic, is Break.com. Their graphs show they fair a little better in the number of page 1 results.

Their traffic has increased recently:

And their keyword breakdown:

After some fun with excel, I took the top 200 keywords for FOD, and sorted them by shortest words first. The shorter keywords are always harder to rank for versus the longer keywords.  Enjoy the list.

Jack Daniels – Social Media Boss Since The 1950s.

Posted by Matt Stoddart on 6:43 pm in Social Media | 0 comments

As a brand, Jack Daniels does a magnificent job of marketing online. And while much has been said about their content-driven digital marketing strategy and their adept and calculated approach to  social media , I was reminded just yesterday that their true marketing genius extends far beyond our computers and smart phones.

I have been a proud, card-carrying member of the Tennessee Squire Association since 1998 and since that time I’ve come to realize what a brilliant marketer this brand really is. You see, being a Squire is really just a novelty. A little talked about “club” whose members receive a 2″x 2″ plot of land at the distillery (complete with a deed), a membership card, quirky update letters every few months & even small gifts from time to time. (I do love the annual calendar I receive every year!)

Yesterday’s mail brought me one of said letters that I’d like to share. It’s from Randy “Goose” Baxter and while I won’t transcribe it here, you can click on the image to read it if you like. It’s not the actual content of the letter that impresses me. (I mean, I’d never heard of musk thistle before and was even more oblivious to the fact that it has a natural predator in the musk thistle weevil.) It’s the consistency with which they come that impresses me. It’s the diversity and creativity of each message that impresses me. It’s the mirage of exclusivity that impresses me.

Jack Daniels created the Squire Association back in the 1950’s as a way to appease antsy patrons who couldn’t get their hands on enough of their whiskey. The brand exploded when it was popularized by stars like Frank Sinatra and the distillery simply couldn’t keep up with demand.  So, the Squire idea was born as a way to pacify their anxious community and build incredible loyalty while the company was working to increase production. Talk about social media! Well. Done.

It comes as no surprise to me that they are doing so well online. The storytelling that began around the stills in Lynchburg back in 1866 continues today through the interactive timeline on their website, their social channels and those quirky letters. Their 4.6 million likes on Facebook is overshadowed only by the high-level of active engagement you’ll find on their page. Jack Daniels has taught a master class on brand-building and customer loyalty. Jasper Newton himself would be very proud, I’m sure.

Oh, and their whiskey is awesome, too.

Does PageRank Matter?

Posted by Ron Wicker on 11:37 pm in SEO | 0 comments

If you have been around since search engines started popping up, you will remember when Google blasted into the scene and their PageRank algorithm took the world by storm. Everyone started scrambling to figure it out because the better PageRank you had, the better your site ranked on your search terms. It all came down to how many links pointed to your site and how good the PageRank was from the sites linking to you. This form of link building was what everyone sought because it wouldn’t just help your rankings, it also improved your own PageRank. Think of it like an illustration of how popular your site was.

After many updates with many names, focusing on what the PageRank of a page is really taking a shot in the dark. So the question asked, “Does PageRank Matter?” … the answer is “Yes”, however, not to anyone outside of Google. We’ve known for a while that toolbar PageRank is usually an indicator of a pages rank many updates before what you are seeing. In other words, a PageRank on January 1, 2012 we can see is probably what it was many months prior. As of this post, it is going on 9 months since the last update has happened and Google has admitted their pipeline to send updates to the toolbar is broken and there is nothing planned to fix it.

In summary, PageRank should not matter to you anymore. There are many other things to focus on and while PageRank might be broken, link building is just as important today as it was 10 years ago.

How Can SEO Help Your Business?

Posted by Matt Stoddart on 7:59 pm in SEO | 0 comments

The internet is a crowded place. With about 250 million active domains on the web, it is has become increasingly difficult for commerce-related websites to get the visibility they need to turn a profit. Sure, you can pay to promote your site through standard channels like pay-per-click and display networks, but these can be prohibitively expensive depending on your budget and the vertical market in which you compete. So, what do you do?

Optimize. Constantly.

SEO has been around for so long that I almost feel silly discussing it on such an elementary level. But the fact of the matter is, I talk to business owners almost every day who still know nothing about it or how it can help their business thrive online. Even successful businesses that rank inherently well for many, or even most, of the competitive keywords related to their industry can always do more to push their organic traffic skyward.

This article is by no means intended to serve as an “SEO 101″ tutorial. No, I’d rather just answer the question in title:

“How can SEO help your business?“

The short answer, and the one everyone wants to hear, is “make more money.” Better SEO generally means better search engine rankings and, therefore, more traffic to your site which ultimately (one would assume) leads to more sales. And, sure, that is probably accurate. But there’s more to it.

If you’re really “optimizing,” the implications will be much farther reaching than just improving your online presence. Your entire company will benefit from a mentality of “constant innovation.” I mean, think about it. Just because your site ranks well does not necessarily mean it converts visitors into customers, so getting them there is only half the battle. But if you are constantly innovating and optimizing, you are creating new and useful content for your visitors and that is what will increase those conversions along with improving your rankings. That’s where the “make more money” part comes in.

And if you are constantly optimizing, you are (or should be) sharing that new and useful content through your social media channels; which leads to community-building; which leads to a whole host of oft-forgotten avenues of exploitation. Leveraging social media can help your business in an immeasurable number of ways. By establishing a direct line of communication with your community, you immediately improve things like customer service, brand awareness and loyalty. You open the door for instant feedback which is invaluable for gauging audience response for special promotions, new product ideas or anything else you’re looking to monetize. Again, that’s also where the “make more money” part comes in.

But it all starts with good, solid SEO and strategic planning. It’s not just about putting keywords in title tags, writing keyword-rich content and getting links to your site. It’s about helping your business grow in a meaningful way so that it transcends the online/offline divide.