Content Management refers to the organization, management, and publication of digital content within an enterprise. It includes creating, storing, organizing, and publishing content in digital form and making it available to users. It also involves tracking, archiving, and updating content to ensure its accuracy and relevancy.
We are thrilled to officially welcome Raymond Labban to the David Martin Design team as a part-time Digital Marketing & SEO Specialist! Raymond brings a fresh perspective and a strong passion for helping businesses thrive online. His skills and dedication are already making an impact, and we’re excited to highlight how he’ll support our growing portfolio of clients.
About Raymond
Raymond Labban is a talented professional with a knack for improving digital visibility. His role at David Martin Design involves:
Implementing SEO Updates: Conducting keyword research, optimizing site structures, and enhancing technical performance to improve search engine rankings.
Content Strategy Development: Crafting tailored strategies to boost engagement and connect businesses with their audiences.
Social Media & Reputation Management: Managing client profiles, responding to reviews, and monitoring digital interactions.
Local Search Optimization: Ensuring Google and Bing business listings are accurate, optimized, and impactful.
Monthly Reporting & Strategy: Assisting with performance reports, keeping clients updated, and driving strategic reviews.
Contributions So Far
In his short time with us, Raymond has already made remarkable strides:
Website Management: He has helped onboard new projects, including setting up essential tools like WordPress accounts and Gravatar profiles.
Digital Enhancements: Raymond has optimized business descriptions, ensuring a clear, professional presence across platforms.
Content Collaboration: He’s streamlined processes for crafting SEO-friendly meta descriptions and developed strategies for improved digital engagement.
Reputation Management: Raymond facilitated thoughtful responses to online reviews, helping to enhance brand trust and visibility.
Team Integration: From setting up Asana tasks to participating in team meetings, Raymond has embraced our collaborative workflow, demonstrating excellent adaptability.
Commitment to Community and Growth
At David Martin Design, we pride ourselves on being partners in the growth of our local community. Adding Raymond to our team underscores our dedication to empowering small businesses with high-quality, personalized digital marketing solutions. His work ensures our clients receive tailored support that aligns with their unique goals, and we look forward to seeing the positive impact he’ll continue to make.
Looking Ahead
As Raymond deepens his involvement with new projects, we are confident his expertise will further solidify David Martin Design’s reputation as a trusted partner for local businesses. His focus on innovative, data-driven solutions aligns perfectly with our mission to foster meaningful digital transformations.
Welcome aboard, Raymond! We are excited for all that’s ahead.
Are you trying to DIY your online presence but are struggling to understand all the search engine optimization (SEO) terms? Are you worried about causing more damage or harm than good, or overwhelmed with deciphering what practices are essential and what could be saved for a rainy day?
Hello and welcome to the first chapter of our WordPress SEO for the Busy Entrepreneur series where we help our clients, fellow entrepreneurs, and aspiring digital marketers better understand the foundational practices of SEO for their website’s organization.
We know the stress of trying to run a business on top of marketing it. That’s why people come to us and we have a business! (Talk about the circle of life!) But we also have many wonderful clients who aren’t at that stage of their entrepreneurial journey, who need a professional website with reliable hosting and can’t afford a marketing agency quite yet. Yet, many have a drive that knows no bounds and are more than willing to put in the work updating their website with edits and blog posts. They just don’t have the time to learn what’s important, what’s less so, what resources to trust and learn from.
It’s become clear to us that there needs to be a resource for entrepreneurs who are willing to put in the work, but can’t afford a single moment more. For those who need the pieces broken down and targeted specifically for their WordPress site. For those who aren’t technically savvy and have no desire to be, they just want things to work and for customers to go 📈. If any of these sounds like you, you’re in the right place.
Today, we’ll be talking about Image Optimization, why it’s important and how it plays into your institutions marketing success, and ranking each piece by what’s most important as well as the process we recommend you take for the most efficient use of your time.
What is Image Optimization?
Image optimization is the process of converting high quality photographs, artwork, and graphics from their original state into copies that are optimized for websites and social media platforms. This process involves two main procedures:
Cropping, resizing, and saving images into a compressed format while sacrificing minimal quality
Correctly categorizing and describing the images you’re using through image metadata
Just like you wouldn’t want to wear a t-shirt that’s 5 sizes too big and claims to be “wrinkle-free” when it’s clearly not, you wouldn’t want an image on your website that takes 2 minutes to load and ends up not being what the user was looking for. The process of image optimization is like tailoring that oversized t-shirt to fit just right.
Image Compression: Tailor Your Images to the Digital World
Image Compression is ultimately about carefully cropping, resizing, and compressing the image file so it loads quickly and looks great on screens – without sacrificing the quality or intent of the original image.
Image Compression can be broken down into 4 steps:
Crop: Crop the image so that the main focus is centered, if needed. Consider the platform(s) you’re uploading to and whether they use a square, rectangular, or circular aspect ratio. This not only reduces the file size, but also improves it’s impact.
Resize: Digital cameras today are capable of taking superb quality photographs in 4K resolution. But images on web pages or social media platforms are rarely displayed at this resolution, since most images are not displayed full screen and the majority of internet users are using devices lacking 4K output. When in doubt, a 1200px width is more than enough for the vast majority of images used on a web page.
Reformat: There are plenty of image formats out there nowadays. Each come with their own benefits and drawbacks, but to keep it simple: Use .jpg for images that have a background, and .png for images that have a transparent or no background. The default quality option should be sufficient.
Compress: Using a free image compressor like compressor.io can further reduce the file size of an image by up to 80% sometimes without making a noticeable impact on quality. Now would be a good time to rename your image for SEO purposes (more on that below.) If you follow nothing else in this guide, using these image compression tools are an extremely easy and straightforward way to reduce page load time.
Crop & Resize Images on Windows
Open File Explorer and find the image you want to edit.
Right-click on the image, hover over “Open with,” and select “Photos.”
Click the “Edit & Create” button in the top-right corner.
Select “Edit” from the dropdown menu.
Click the “Crop & rotate” button.
Adjust the cropping frame by clicking and dragging the corners or edges of the frame. Once satisfied, click the “Save a copy” button to save the cropped image.
Open the cropped image in Paint (right-click the image, hover over “Open with,” and select “Paint”).
Click the “Resize” button in the Home tab.
Ensure the “Maintain aspect ratio” checkbox is checked.
In the “Horizontal” box, enter “1200” (the vertical dimension will adjust automatically). Click “OK” to resize the image.
Click “File” in the top menu bar and select “Save as.” Choose the desired location and format, and click “Save.”
Crop & Resize Images on Mac
Locate your image in Finder
Open the image in Preview (double click on the image)
Press and drag your selection
Hover on Tools in the top menu bar, select Crop
Hover on Tools again, select Resize Image
In the width box, put 1200px & confirm
Save the image by hovering on File in the top menu bar and selecting save (or press ⌘S)
Image Metadata: The Catalogue Card for Your Photos
Before we delve into Image Metadata, let’s back up and ask the question: “What is Metadata?”
Metadata defined for the laymen
To define it simply: Metadata is data about data. It’s information that categorizes and summarizes what something is.
To use an analogy: In the 80’s you needed to find a book (website) at the library (web). You would use the library catalogue (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) to search for the book either by it’s name or author. When you found the right card (search result), it would tell you the call number or location. You would then go through the shelves or ask a librarian for help (click) and eventually find and check out your book (website).
In our case, we use metadata describing your website to help the robots that search engines use to rank search results better understand who your organization is, what you do, when you’re open, how to contact you, etc. and ultimately rank as high as possible.
What do I need to know about image metadata?
Image metadata is important not only because it helps these robots understand images they can’t actually see (yet) and determine if they’re relevant or not, but also ensures your website remains accessible for those with sight disabilities or a painfully slow internet connection by providing descriptions of what they’re viewing.
Image metadata can feel complex to understand considering all the various elements that go into it, and even harder to know what to prioritize. But luckily, the elements that have the greatest visibility impact are also some of the simplest to incorporate. Here are the three most important elements concerning image metadata:
Alt Text: Alt text, short for Alternative Text, is the most important part of image metadata. This is really just a brief description of what the image is. It’s used for people who rely on screen readers, when the image fails to load to give context (common for those with slow internet connections), and for showing search engines that this image is relevant in relation to your organization.
File Name: An images name before uploading it plays a huge factor in helping search engines better understand the image content and increase it’s visibility. This is a great place to tie your images with your company and it’s specific services or people. Instead of “mark.jpg”, something like “Mark-Scott-Sales-Manager-Generica-Inc.jpg” helps search engines recognize that Mark Scott is the Sales Manager at Generica Inc, this is his picture, and that this image is relevant to the blurb describing him below it.
Title: The title tag is used as a tooltip description, providing supplemental information when the user hovers over an image. However, the this only applies to users on desktop. This is a good place to add keywords if warranted.
Let’s get to work: An actionable Image Optimization checklist
Now that we’ve explained the abstract concepts behind Image Optimization and it’s two major components: Image Compression and Image Metadata, let’s go through a step by step process on how to actually incorporate these pieces efficiently:
Gather your images into a folder called something like [subject]-originals
Decide where you’re uploading these images and crop each one as needed
Resize the width of each image to 1200px
Reformat each image. Are they photographs? Go with .JPG. Are they graphics or use transparent backgrounds? .PNG is the way to go
Create a folder called [subject]-optimized and upload your edited images to compressor.io
Download each image, saving it into the [subject]-optimized folder and rename each image to relate to your organization and the relevent service or person
If you want a break, now’s a good time
Login to your WordPress website, and navigate to the Media tab in the admin panel
Upload your optimized images
Return to the media library, click on the first image thumbnail in the upper left. This will open the image metadata panel. In the alt field, write a brief description of the image in question either manually or use AI to assist you. If you have a premium ChatGPT plan, use our A11y SEO Image Wizard.
Fill out the alt text (and optionally the title) for the remaining images. Congratulations! You’ve now optimized the images on your website. Your images can be now be added to the posts or pages of your choosing.
If you followed this checklist, you can rest easy that the most important standards concerning image optimization are being met. Your web page will now appear more attractive to search engines, as well as improve the page load times and accessibility for your visitors.
In today’s ever-evolving digital marketing and web design scene, streamlining your workflow is more valuable than ever. Amid a plethora of tools, identifying those that can truly streamline your strategy instead of distract can be a formidable task. Figma’s community shares files and plugins that are helpful for crafting professional web and marketing content. In this article, we focus on five practical user-made Figma tools that can refine your creative process and make your web and marketing strategy faster and more professional.
Today, responsive website design isn’t a nice to have – it’s a requirement, and favicons are no exception. This handy design file by Ernest Ojeh takes your finalized favicon image and lets you see what it looks like across different browsers and devices. This is perfect for ensuring the chosen brand icon can be easily recognizable across devices and to show clients what it’s going to look like in various browser tabs and search engines. Additionally, each version that’s generated is contained in a frame with a matching name so using the included embed code is a simple copy paste procedure.
Remembering all the different ideal image sizes across all the different platforms can become quite a headache. Failure to do so often results in subpar, low quality, and pixelated posts that look unprofessional and uninspiring to viewers. This plugin by Andreslav Kozlov allows you to import perfectly sized Figma frames tailored for a wide array of social media platforms at the click of a button. Whether it’s the square layout for Instagram, the wide banner for Twitter, or the unique dimensions for LinkedIn, this plugin has all the popular platforms. This useful plugin saves time and elevates the quality of social media posts, ensuring they look crisp and engaging on any platform.
Having your social media images in the proper size and body content ready is great for clients, but this Figma file lets you take that to the next level. With Social Media Templates by Ravn, now you can show exactly what a client’s content will look like across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X/Twitter. It even includes a prototype section with interactive carousel mockups for posts with multiple images!
This isn’t your average color palette generator. realtimecolors.com is a color and font visualizer platform specifically for web designers. Using a website structure template, now you can generate and see colors and fonts provided via Google Fonts in real time. Another notable feature is it’s expansive export options – you can save and send these examples simply by sending a link to clients, providing an easily accessible starting point when making design decisions. You can also export by download, QR code, CSS code, the Figma plugin, and more, making documenting and implementing these colors and fonts on your website and marketing materials a breeze.
If using the Realtime Colors plugin isn’t easy enough, here’s another to make things even easier. ColorLabels by Naren Abbaraju quickly lets you label color swatches on Fimga in a variety of formats, including RBG, HEX, HSL, and HSB. The best part? Color Labels can also automatically detect and apply Coolors.co‘s custom color labels. Calling a color swatch Aquamarine instead of #67EFE1 or “the light greenish one” is much easier for you and your clients to say, understand, and remember. It’s one of those simple changes that make the process a little more approachable.
Closing Thoughts
Navigating the world of Figma tools designed to enhance your web and digital marketing strategies can feel like entering a gold mine. With the right tools, you can supercharge your creative process, increase your efficiency, and present a polished, consistent brand image that resonates with your audience.
Every new tool feels like a game-changer. But remember, this is just the tip of the iceberg. The vibrant community of Figma is loaded with new plugins, files, and ideas that are just waiting to be discovered, used, and shared.
So, what’s the next step? Start including one or more of these tools in your strategy today. Share your triumphs and trials with them. Trade ideas with the community, learn from each other, and keep your toolbox ever-evolving. Most importantly, remember that in the ever-changing world of web and digital marketing, your greatest tool is your adaptability.
Let’s embrace Figma to not just reach, but to exceed our creative and strategic goals, and propel our narratives into the stratosphere.
Blogging is rapidly becoming an integral part of running an online business. While some business owners are quick to dismiss blogging as a waste of time and energy, the statistics are suggesting otherwise. As more and more websites start maintaining a blog, there’s an increased demand for a more blog-friendly content management system (CMS).
Although WordPress started out as a meager blogging engine, it is now considered the preeminent content management platform. As the largest CMS in the world, WordPress powers roughly 39% of websites. Its flexibility, reliability, and customizability attract web designers over other CMS competitors.
Here, we’ll explore why it’s important for businesses to understand WordPress and why publishing fresh content is a must.
WordPress JetPack Plugin – Artist Wall at the 2019 WordCamp US in St. Louis
Why Businesses Need to Know About WordPress
Whether you’ve heard about WordPress in your research about website development or this is your first exposure to it, you might be wondering what makes it so different. With dozens of other reputable platforms from which to choose, what makes WordPress so unique?
That’s a great question and one which has no shortage of answers. However, we’ll only stick to a few of the most compelling to help small business owners understand what they’re missing out on. Here are a few reasons why businesses need to know about WordPress.
It’s completely free.
Free…it’s music to any business owner’s ears. Unlike other content management systems, WordPress operates under what’s known as a GNU General Public License which essentially means it’s free for anyone to download, edit, and customize. When compared to other, more costly CMSs, WordPress has risen through the ranks as one of the most popular among small businesses that are trying to keep costs down. While you’ll eventually need to spend money on web hosting and domain names to get your website up and running, WordPress saves you on costs other platforms wouldn’t spare you.
WordPress is totally customizable.
As a business owner, you know just how vital it is to set yourself apart from competitors. A common complaint among web developers about more rigid CMSs is their lack of customizability. Due to WordPress’s open-source design, anyone is free to upload add-ons, plug-ins, and other features that maximize customizability and flexibility. If you can think it up for your website, there’s a good chance somebody has already contributed the functionality to WordPress. With a single click, you have access to tens-of-thousands of unique features. As the needs of your online business change, WordPress can easily keep up with its unmatched flexibility.
It’s SEO-optimized by default.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the method through which your website is primed for optimal exposure on search engines like Google to increase your chances of reaching your target audience. Without an SEO-optimized site, your content can easily get lost in the shuffle. WordPress takes the stress away by ensuring all sites made on the platform are SEO-optimized by default since their structure is recognized by most search engines. However, your website SEO can further be maximized by downloading SEO-focused plug-ins that are available to everyone.
Business Blogging Statistics
As a small business owner, it’s understandable why you might be hesitant to dedicate valuable resources to developing and maintaining a blog. You can’t afford to waste time and energy on areas of your business that won’t offer a return. Fortunately, there’s a wealth of data underscoring the positive impact that blogging can have on businesses.
Here are a few of the most impressive statistics:
Blogs can lead to a 97% boost in indexed links and a 434% boost in indexed pages. (Demand Metric)
8 out of 10 internet users engage with both blogs and social media sites. (Demand Metric)
Businesses with blogs generate 67% more monthly leads on average than their counterparts that don’t have blogs. (Demand Metric)
Blogging businesses see 55% more online visitors than companies that don’t blog. (HubSpot)
In 2019, marketers prioritizing blogging saw 13X more return on their investments than those who didn’t. (HubSpot)
The Importance of Publishing Fresh Content
Of course, having a blog doesn’t do small businesses any benefit if they’re not regularly updating it. Although there are several advantages of maintaining a constant stream of fresh content, there are two primary reasons:
Search engines prefer newer content.
It’ll be easier to keep your audience engaged.
When forced to choose between ranking an older site that regularly posts new content and a site of the same age that hasn’t posted in months or years, Google will rank the former website higher even if the content is relatively similar. Reflecting the demand for new and updated content, Google wants to present its users with the freshest content. Most search engines work in the same manner. In order to prime your website for higher rankings in search engines, you need to post new content regularly.
Another critical reason to keep your site updated with fresh content is to keep your audience engaged. Whether you’re wanting to catch the attention of new users or keep regular visitors coming back, you need to make sure your site is providing something worthwhile. While the content you put out matters, the rate at which it’s produced also plays a role in the overall success of your site.
If you’re a small business owner who’s ready to reap the benefits of having an optimized blog, feel free to reach out to David Martin Design. With decades of experience building and managing websites for small businesses, David knows how to maximize the return on your website investment.
