This blog category is focused on helping businesses create engaging and effective web experiences. Here, we discuss the importance of website design, user experience, and accessibility. We also cover topics such as content management systems, programming languages, and other strategies for making the most out of web design.
Back in June 2024, I had the honor of presenting a digital marketing workshop for the Ivy Tech Entrepreneurship Program led by Steve Thrash. I spoke with a cohort of small business owners, creatives, and students working through the final course in their Entrepreneurship Certificate.
That Zoom call planted a seed.
One of the students, Shawn Haymaker, reached out afterward with an idea: to rework his private practice website and elevate the way he serves the Indianapolis community through art therapy and mental health counseling.
🔗 A Collaboration with Purpose
Over the next several months, Shawn and I worked together to transform his online presence. We:
Reorganized blog content into SEO-rich categories like Art Therapy, Stress Management, and Mental Health Counseling
Created and optimized content descriptions, structured metadata, and internal linking
Tuned up performance for fast load times and mobile responsiveness
Our goal wasn’t just a better website. It was a more authentic and useful resource for Shawn’s clients and community.
🎉 A Perfect 100 Website Score
Shaymaker Counseling earns a perfect 100 score on HubSpot’s Website Grader, achieving top marks in performance, SEO, mobile optimization, and site security
Last week, Michelle Maddox, a marketing consultant working with Shawn, ran the site through her regular web audit tools. What she found surprised even her:
“This is a first for me! I run all new customers’ websites through a few website grading systems to get a pulse on where we are at. I have never seen a perfect 100 when I do this.
Shawn’s story is one of the most rewarding kinds of collaboration I get to be part of. He didn’t just hire me to build a site. He brought intention, creativity, and a clear vision for how his digital presence could align with his mission as a therapist.
And it all started with a single workshop.
This is why I love teaching. And it’s why I stay rooted in projects that serve real people with real stories.
The story of Indiana Greenscape Solutions begins with Kelly and Beth Fort—partners in both family and business—who, along with their four daughters, Rayne, Autumn, Bree, and Eden, had a vision. As lifelong plant science enthusiasts with deep agricultural roots, they wanted to bring high-quality, personalized lawn care and landscaping services to Bloomington, Indiana. With a strong commitment to family values and customer-focused care, they set out to cultivate a business that would serve their community while laying the groundwork for a legacy their daughters could be proud of.
When Kelly first sat down for a consultation with me, Dave Martin from David Martin Design, he had a clear objective: to build a reliable online presence for Indiana Greenscape Solutions. We weren’t just creating a logo or launching a website—we were sowing the seeds of a brand that would grow and thrive.
🛠️ Building the Foundation: Branding and Identity
We started with the name. We wanted something that combined local pride with a clear description of the services offered. After exploring several options, Indiana Greenscape Solutions emerged as the perfect choice—highlighting both the state-specific service area and the business’s focus on thoughtful, solution-oriented lawn care.
Next came the logo design. We chose a stylized leaf intertwined with the shape of Indiana, subtly reminding customers of the business’s local roots. The color palette blends earth tones for a sense of trust and professionalism with lively greens to evoke growth and vitality. The fonts were deliberately selected: modern and approachable for Indiana Greenscape and more traditional for Solutions to convey reliability.
The tagline came naturally: “Indiana’s Lawns, Lovingly Landscaped.” It was a phrase that reflected both the meticulous care the Fort family put into their work and the warmth they bring to customer relationships.
💻 Crafting the Digital Landscape
A strong name and logo deserve a home, so we turned our attention to the website, indianagreenscape.com. The goal was to create a simple yet professional site showcasing services, pricing, and a clear call to action for estimates. We focused on intuitive navigation and SEO best practices, ensuring the site is structured for both visitors and search engines.
During our screen-sharing session, I walked Kelly through the domain registration process. We registered the domain in his name—because, as I always say, I want my clients to own their intellectual property. It’s their business, their brand, their hard work.
Key features of the site include:
Service Pages: Clear descriptions of core services—mowing, fertilization, and aeration.
Contact & Estimate Form: Simple, user-friendly forms to encourage visitors to request free estimates.
Payment Integration: Stripe was integrated through WordPress plugins, making it easy for customers to pay invoices online.
🌿 The Services: Precision Lawn Care
Indiana Greenscape Solutions doesn’t just mow grass; they cultivate healthy, vibrant lawns with science-backed methods and family-level care.
Mowing & Maintenance: Each lawn is treated with precision. Mower blades are sharpened weekly to prevent grass damage, and mulching kits recycle nutrients back into the soil. Every mow is accompanied by meticulous edging, trimming, and debris removal.
Fertilization & Weed Control: With a certified pesticide applicator license, the team uses a five-treatment lawn care program that supports turf health while ensuring the safety of families, pets, and local wildlife.
Core Aeration: This annual service alleviates soil compaction, improving water and nutrient absorption and encouraging deeper root growth.
Seasonal & Specialty Services: From soil sampling and garden bed installations to snow removal and Christmas light installations, the Fort family understands the importance of year-round lawn care.
🚀 Tech, Tools, and Growth Strategies
Behind the scenes, we implemented several tools to streamline operations and prepare for growth:
Google Workspace: For professional email, document sharing, and team communication.
Stripe: Integrated for effortless invoicing and secure payment processing.
Yardbook CRM: To handle customer relationships, scheduling, and billing.
SEO Optimization: Structured content, relevant keywords, and plugins to control meta descriptions, helping the site climb local search rankings.
We also explored potential winter services like junk removal, fence staining, and pressure washing to maintain year-round revenue streams.
🌻 Marketing and Community Engagement
With branding and technology in place, we turned to marketing strategies to generate buzz. The team distributed door hangers and business cards throughout neighborhoods like Blue Ridge (47408). We encouraged customers to leave positive online reviews and launched a referral program offering discounts for word-of-mouth recommendations.
The #bragbox channel in The Mill’s Slack Workspace became a great way to share success stories and show off the beautiful lawns that Indiana Greenscape Solutions was creating across Bloomington.
🌐 Looking Ahead: Growing Stronger Every Season
The Fort family’s dedication to lawn care mirrors the care they put into growing their business. Every stripe on a freshly mowed lawn, every precisely trimmed hedge, and every lush, green yard stands as a testament to their hard work and family values.
So, if your lawn needs some love, don’t wait! Visit indianagreenscape.com to request a free estimate, fill out the contact form, or even shoot them an SMS to get started. Whether it’s a routine mow or a complete landscape transformation, Indiana Greenscape Solutions is ready to make your outdoor space the envy of the neighborhood.
Here’s to green lawns, thriving roots, and the incredible growth of a family business that started with a simple dream.
– Dave Martin, Marketing & Design Consultant, David Martin Design 🌱💻🌳
Switching to a new web designer can be a significant step in ensuring your website remains up-to-date, user-friendly, and aligned with your evolving business goals. However, the process of transferring a website is more complex than simply handing over a login. It involves careful coordination, clear communication, and understanding what to expect throughout the process. This guide will walk you through the essential steps and key considerations when transitioning your website to a new web designer.
Step 1: Clarify the Scope of the Transfer
Before initiating the transfer, it’s crucial to clarify the scope of the transition. Define which aspects of your website will be handled by the new designer. Will they take over all aspects of your site, such as design, development, and ongoing maintenance? Or will they focus solely on specific updates or a redesign? A clear understanding of these details helps set the right expectations for both parties and minimizes potential misunderstandings.
Step 2: Gather Essential Website Information
To ensure a smooth transition, gather and organize all the essential information about your website. This may include:
Domain Name Access: Ensure you have access to your domain registrar (e.g., GoDaddy, Namecheap) where your domain is registered. If you don’t have this access, work with your previous designer to regain control.
Hosting Information: Provide your new designer with access to your web hosting account. This includes login credentials, control panel information (e.g., cPanel), and any details about your hosting plan.
CMS and Website Login: If your website runs on a content management system (CMS) like WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal, make sure to provide the admin login details. It’s wise to change the password after the transfer is complete.
FTP/SFTP Access: This is necessary for file transfer and access to your website’s files on the server. Ensure your new designer has secure access to your FTP/SFTP credentials.
Backups: Create a backup of your current website before initiating any transfer. This includes both the website files and the database (if applicable). A backup acts as a safety net in case anything goes wrong during the transition.
Step 3: Review Your Contracts and Ownership Rights
Before the transfer, review any existing contracts you have with your previous web designer or developer. Clarify who owns the website’s design, content, and codebase. Most clients own their website content, but it’s possible that the designer may retain rights to custom code or design elements they created. Understanding these aspects will help avoid disputes later.
If you’ve purchased stock photos, fonts, or other media for your website, ensure that you have the appropriate licenses to use these materials even after the designer changes. This can prevent legal issues related to content usage down the road.
Step 4: Communicate with the Previous Designer
If possible, maintain a collaborative approach with your previous designer. Inform them of your intention to switch to a new designer and ask for their help in providing necessary access and information. This can ensure a smoother transition and reduce the likelihood of technical issues.
Many designers include a clause in their contracts about providing a smooth handover. If there’s any friction or unresponsiveness, refer to the terms in your contract and, if necessary, involve a mediator to facilitate the process.
Step 5: Transfer of Domain and Hosting
This is a critical part of the transition process and involves a few key steps:
Change Domain Name System (DNS) Settings: If you are switching to a new host, your new web designer will need to update the DNS settings to point to the new hosting server. It typically takes 24-48 hours for these changes to propagate globally.
Migrate Website Files and Database: The new designer will transfer the files and database (if your website uses one) to the new host. They may use a migration plugin or do it manually through FTP and phpMyAdmin. This step requires careful handling to avoid data loss or broken links.
Update SSL Certificate: If your website has an SSL certificate (which it should for security), the new designer may need to reissue or update the certificate on the new host to maintain secure HTTPS connections.
Step 6: Testing the Website
Once the migration is complete, thorough testing is essential to ensure that everything works as expected. The new web designer should check:
Functionality: Test all interactive elements, forms, buttons, and links to ensure they function properly.
Performance: Verify that the website’s speed and loading times remain consistent. Hosting changes can sometimes impact performance.
Mobile Responsiveness: Ensure that the website displays correctly on mobile devices and across various browsers.
SEO: Check that SEO settings, such as meta tags, permalinks, and any specific SEO plugins, are correctly transferred. You don’t want to lose valuable search engine rankings during a transition.
Step 7: Updating Website Access and Security
After a successful transfer, update all access credentials, including passwords for the CMS, hosting, and any other associated accounts. This is an important step to maintain security, especially if third-party vendors had temporary access during the transfer.
Additionally, consider implementing security measures like two-factor authentication (2FA) on your hosting and CMS accounts. Your new designer can also review security settings to ensure that your website is protected against potential threats.
What to Expect During the Transfer Process
Downtime May Occur: While most designers strive to minimize downtime, some website transfers may result in a short period of downtime. Planning the transfer during non-peak hours can help minimize the impact on your users.
Adjustments Post-Transfer: Even with careful planning, there may be small adjustments needed after the transfer. These could include reformatting content, fixing broken links, or adjusting styles to ensure everything looks as expected on the new hosting setup.
Open Communication: Expect to be in close communication with your new designer throughout the process. A collaborative approach ensures that both parties understand each step, reducing the risk of misalignment or delays.
Final Thoughts: Ensuring a Smooth Transition
Switching web designers can be a valuable opportunity to refresh your online presence and align your website with your current business goals. By preparing all necessary information, maintaining clear communication, and understanding the technical steps involved, you can ensure a smooth and successful transition. A professional web designer will guide you through each phase, helping you retain control of your online assets while providing a fresh perspective to enhance your website’s performance.
If you’re considering a change and need expert guidance on transferring your website, don’t hesitate to reach out. A seamless transition can be the first step toward a website that better serves your business and your customers.
There’s something magical about visiting a new city for an event like WordCamp US—the excitement of a vibrant WordPress community coming together combined with the chance to explore the local flavor of the host city. This year’s WordCamp US took place in Portland, Oregon, a city known for its creative energy, lush green landscapes, and incredible coffee (which, let’s be honest, was very much needed!). From the moment I arrived, I could feel the buzz of both the city and the event as hundreds of WordPress enthusiasts, developers, designers, and contributors descended on Portland for three days of learning, collaboration, and community.
A breathtaking view of Mount Hood captured from a Southwest Airlines flight, with the snow-capped peak rising above the clouds and the plane’s wing in the foreground.Dave Martin and Jarod Maxwell kicking off WordCamp US 2024 in Portland, Oregon, with a photo op at the iconic Oregon welcome sign. A sign at WordCamp US Portland, Oregon, explains how interaction badges are used to communicate conversation preferences. Green indicates openness to chat, yellow signals limited interaction, and red means no conversation.
Contributor Day: A Day of Giving Back
One of the most fulfilling parts of WordCamp US is Contributor Day, a dedicated day where members of the WordPress community come together to give back to the platform we all know and love. Whether you’re contributing code, writing documentation, or helping others, Contributor Day offers a chance to make a direct impact on WordPress.
I started the day by joining the WordPress Themes table, where the magic of open-source collaboration truly came to life. I had the privilege of sitting next to Manesh Timilsina, a full-stack developer whose expertise and enthusiasm were palpable. Watching him dive straight into making contributions while offering valuable advice to those around him was both inspiring and energizing. It was clear that his deep understanding of WordPress development went beyond technical knowledge—he was also invested in helping others grow.
We delved into work on the upcoming WordPress 2025 theme, and it was exciting to see how ideas and code come together to shape the future of WordPress. Collaborating with the team provided valuable insights into theme development and the direction WordPress is heading.
But the learning didn’t stop there. I also met Alex Lende, a Gutenberg developer from Automattic, who shared the backstory behind one of the features he helped bring to life in WordPress 5.8—the Duotone filters. Alex explained how what seemed like a small addition has since unlocked new possibilities for SVG text effects and other design innovations. Hearing about the evolution of this feature made me appreciate the incremental but impactful advancements that continuously shape WordPress into the powerful platform it is today.
One of the most rewarding aspects of Contributor Day was reconnecting with friends from around the world and making new connections:
Alicia St. Rose ❤️: Her warm embrace and captivating stories about Burning Man brought a sense of magic to the day. Alicia’s energy is infectious, and her creativity knows no bounds.
Hans Skillrud & Donata Stroink-Skillrud: Reuniting with them after our epic encounter in the City Museum bird cage was a highlight. Their insights into privacy and legal considerations in web development are always enlightening.
Wendy Mahoney: Wendy’s kindness shone through and it was great being a volunteer together. She was even to help someone recover their lost phone!
Eduardo Telaya: Meeting Eduardo was one of the most amazing first impressions I’ve ever had. His warmth and radiance were palpable, especially after he finished his talk. His passion for WordPress and life is truly inspiring.
Dave Martin and Hans Skillrud from Termageddon reunite at WordCamp US 2024 in Portland, Oregon, after first meeting at WordCamp US 2019 in St. Louis. Their beards are as strong as their friendship!
I also had the pleasure of meeting Amy Rosborough, who runs a personal blog about gardening, book reviews, and lifestyle tips. We struck up a conversation about her site, and I was able to help her understand the differences between classic and block themes. Together, we updated her theme to WordPress 2024, enhancing the functionality and aesthetics of her blog. It’s moments like these that highlight the collaborative and supportive nature of the WordPress community.
Engaging with Brian Rotsztein: A Personal Highlight
Before his talk, I had the chance to engage with Brian Rotsztein, who was presenting “Innovative Pricing Strategies to Grow Your WordPress Business.” We discussed my journey, starting at $25/hour back in 2004, and how I wished his advice had been available 20 years ago. He smiled and said that’s exactly why he wrote his book.
Attending his session was the most impactful part of the conference for me. Brian’s insights into pricing strategies were both practical and eye-opening. His realistic, down-to-earth approach empowers freelancers and small agencies to succeed. I’m excited to implement what I’ve learned into my own business practices.
The Thank You Social: Art, Music, and Connection
The Thank You Social was an evening filled with creativity and camaraderie. I truly appreciated the focus on including art, photography, music, and interactivity. The paint by number station was a delightful addition, allowing us to unwind and express ourselves artistically.
Attendees of WordCamp US 2024 join in a collaborative paint-by-numbers mural during the Thank You Social event, celebrating creativity and connection within the WordPress community.
Thank you to the organizers for the fantastic food trucks! The variety of options catered to everyone’s tastes, and the atmosphere was both relaxed and invigorating. Engaging with fellow attendees, especially Grant Kinney, in such a vibrant setting reinforced the sense of community that makes WordCamp so special.
Embracing the Spirit of Portland
Portland truly played the perfect host. The city’s eclectic vibe and friendly locals made exploring an absolute joy. The food scene was phenomenal—I’ve never had better coffee, and the breakfast burrito at Roseline Coffee was hands down the best I’ve ever tasted. Every meal was a culinary adventure, and the local eateries did not disappoint.
The modern exterior of Roseline Coffee in Portland, Oregon, with sleek black and gray tones, greenery, and a sign guiding visitors inside.A perfectly crafted latte with intricate foam art served at Roseline Coffee, one of Portland’s top coffee destinations.
I had the opportunity to ride over to the Google Portland office and participate in a special tour discussing exciting new features in Google’s Site Kit and Performance WordPress plugins.
On the train ride over, I met Mackenzie Hartung, Director of Delivery at rtCamp. We bonded over our kids and a shared love for the resurging jam band scene—turns out Mackenzie is also a Goose fan! We reconnected later at the Oregon Museum of Science & Industry (OMSI), further solidifying a newfound friendship. Speaking of Goose, it was awesome meeting Automattician Machelle Cox and working with her on the volunteer team!
Here’s some Goose, one of my favorite bands!!
Reflecting on the Experience
As I reflect on WordCamp US 2024, I am filled with gratitude for the connections made, the knowledge gained, and the memories created. From Contributor Day’s collaborative spirit to the engaging sessions and personal interactions, every moment was enriching.
Special thanks to:
The Hyatt Regency: Providing such a fantastic place to stay, located right across the street from the Oregon Convention Center. The hotel’s ambiance was welcoming, and its proximity allowed me to immerse myself fully in the event without worrying about transportation.
All the Volunteers and Organizers: Your hard work and dedication made this event seamless and enjoyable for everyone involved.
The modern exterior of the Hyatt Regency Portland, shining in the morning light, served as the primary hotel for WordCamp US 2024 attendees.The iconic Oregon Convention Center, with its towering spires and glass exterior, hosted WordCamp US 2024 in Portland, Oregon.The Portland MAX Red Line train passes in front of the Oregon Convention Center at dusk, offering easy access for WordCamp US 2024 attendees.
Looking Ahead
WordCamp US 2024 in Portland was more than just a conference; it was a celebration of community, innovation, and shared passion. I’m returning home with a wealth of knowledge, a heart full of gratitude, and an eagerness to implement what I’ve learned.
To the friends old and new, the speakers who inspired, and everyone who made this event possible—thank you for an outstanding experience.
Well played, Portland. Until next time!
Stay tuned for more insights and reflections. If we connected during the WordCamp US 2024 conference, feel free to reach out! Let’s continue the conversation and collaboration as we move forward together in this incredible community.
This project revolved around enhancing the online presence of Mitzi Alexander, a Travel Agent, & Magical Vacation Planner. Initially facing challenges in growing web interactions and bookings, Mitzi sought to create a more engaging online platform.
Her target audience included families, couples, newlyweds, friends, and groups interested in honeymoons, cruises, theme parks, and all-inclusive resorts. The project centered around developing an interactive website with reliable hosting and employing a SEO content strategy that highlighted Mitzi’s passion for travel and utilized targeted keywords for better visibility.
The result was a friendly and accessible user experience with increased customer interactions and conversions, amplifying Mitzi’s online presence and connecting her more effectively with her target audience.
Navigating Uncharted Waters: Mitzi’s Quest for a Unified Digital Presence
Mitzi Alexander, an accomplished travel advisor operating in Bloomington, Indiana, found not having a website hindered her ability to effectively reach and engage her target audience.
Despite her extensive industry expertise and commitment to delivering exceptional service, Mitzi lacked a cohesive online presence. The absence of a dedicated professional website posed a critical challenge, as she had no centralized platform to showcase her offerings comprehensively, share valuable insights through a blog, and cultivate direct connections with potential and existing clients.
Blogging, in particular, represented a missed opportunity for Mitzi. As a powerful content marketing tool, a well-executed blog could have allowed her to establish thought leadership in the travel advisory space, improve search engine visibility through SEO-optimized content, and foster engagement by providing travellers with informative tips, destination guides, and firsthand accounts of her experiences.
Without this essential digital asset, Mitzi’s marketing efforts were fragmented across various social media channels and disjointed web properties, resulting in a disorganized and inefficient approach to client acquisition and retention. This lack of a unified digital hub not only hindered her ability to reach a broader audience but also compromised the professional image and credibility she aimed to project.
Recognizing the escalating importance of a robust online presence in the travel industry, Mitzi understood the urgent need to implement a comprehensive digital strategy. Establishing a well-designed, user-friendly website with a strong content marketing focus would be crucial to elevating her brand, amplifying her expertise, and ultimately driving sustainable business growth in an increasingly competitive landscape.
Initial Consultation and Strategy Development
We kicked off the project by collecting information through a series of in-depth consultations to fully understand Mitzi’s business objectives, target audience, and unique value propositions.
Co-Creation and Iterative Design
Mitzi was actively involved throughout the design process, providing feedback and insights that shaped the website’s look, focus, and functionality. We employed an iterative design approach, allowing us to refine and adjust the website based on Mitzi’s input and user testing results.
Training and Empowerment
Understanding the importance of Mitzi’s ability to manage her own website and content, we provided comprehensive training on the website’s content management system (CMS) and best practices for SEO optimized content creation. This empowers Mitzi to publish new blog posts and make updates as needed, ensuring the website remains dynamic and reflective of her evolving business.
Custom CSS for Unique Branding
We delved deep into the customization of the WordPress 2024 theme, employing custom CSS and useful plugins to tailor the site’s aesthetics to Mitzi’s brand identity. This involved tweaking the color schemes, font styles, and layout structures to create a cohesive look that resonated with the essence of travel and adventure, essential to Mitzi’s business.
Interactive Features for Enhanced Engagement
To improve the site’s user engagement, we integrated a variety of interactive features. These included hover effects that reveal more information, smooth transition animations that guide the user through the site, and clickable elements that invite exploration and discovery. Each interactive feature was designed to enhance the user journey and encourage deeper engagement with the content.
Drop Shadows for Depth and Dimension
We employed subtle drop shadows in strategic areas of the website to add depth and dimension to the design. These carefully crafted shadows provided a soft lift to images and content blocks, creating a layered effect that drew users’ attention to key elements of the site. This technique not only added visual interest but also helped in organizing content in a more digestible and appealing manner.
Emojis for Relatability and Fun
Understanding the importance of relatability and personality in digital communication, we incorporated emojis throughout the website. These emojis were selected to complement the textual content, adding a touch of fun and approachability to the site. Whether used in headings, bullet points, or within blog posts, emojis helped to break down barriers and connect with users on a more personal level.
To specifically cater to the needs of travel planning, we developed custom features that enhanced the functionality of the site. This included dedicated pages for specific customer types, a blog section with different travel categories, and testimonials with shared experiences from Mitzi’s satisfied clients.
Keyword Research and Integration
To bolster the website’s search engine visibility and attract Mitzi’s target audience, we employed a comprehensive SEO strategy using the Yoast SEO plugin, a powerful tool known for its effectiveness in optimizing WordPress sites for search engines.
Our first step was conducting thorough keyword research to identify terms and phrases closely aligned with Mitzi’s services and the interests of her customer personas. This research included a deep dive into travel-related terms, with a focus on niches like honeymoons, cruises, theme parks, and all-inclusive resorts. We meticulously integrated these keywords into the website’s content, including headings, body text, and image alt tags, ensuring relevance and contextuality.
Optimizing Metadata for Enhanced Discovery
With the Yoast SEO plugin at our disposal, we optimized the website’s metadata with precision. Titles and meta descriptions for each page were crafted to include targeted keywords while remaining engaging and informative. This not only improved the site’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) but also increased the click-through rate by compelling users with enticing summaries of what Mitzi’s site had to offer.
Improving Site Structure for SEO
Understanding the importance of a well-structured website for SEO, we used Yoast’s insights to organize Mitzi’s site content in a way that enhanced navigability and relevance. This included creating a logical hierarchy of headings (H1, H2, H3, etc.) and ensuring that internal linking was both user-friendly and beneficial for search engine crawlers, thereby enhancing the site’s overall SEO performance.
Content Optimization for Engagement and Relevance
Each piece of content, especially the blog articles, was carefully optimized to strike a balance between engaging Mitzi’s audience and meeting SEO best practices.
Outcome
Review left by Mitzi Alexander
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐5 Stars!!
“Working with David Martin Design on my website was a remarkable experience. Their understanding of my vision, coupled with their creative insights and technical proficiency, resulted in a website that exceeded my expectations.
Throughout the project, David and Jarod displayed a lot of patience and flexibility, accommodating all of my changes and requests with ease. Their in-depth knowledge of technology ensured that every aspect of the website was meticulously crafted and up to date with the latest trends.
David is not just a web designer but a true partner in bringing my vision to life. If you’re seeking someone who combines expertise with patience and a commitment to excellence, David is the perfect choice. Highly recommended for anyone looking to create a standout website.”
In the journey of building and launching Mitzi’s website, our collaboration was not just a one-time project but the beginning of an ongoing partnership. We are committed to providing Mitzi with continuous support, ensuring her website remains up-to-date, secure, and aligned with the latest web standards and trends. Our team is here for regular maintenance, updates, and to answer any questions or address any challenges that may arise.
Looking ahead, we see a wealth of opportunities for future projects with Mitzi. As her business evolves and her needs grow, we are excited to explore new avenues to enhance her digital presence further. Whether it’s expanding the website’s functionality, integrating new tools and features, or embarking on targeted digital marketing campaigns, we are eager to continue our collaboration.
Our goal is to be more than just a service provider for Mitzi; we aim to be a trusted partner in her business’s growth. By staying engaged and proactive, we anticipate the needs of her travel advisory business and offer solutions that not only solve immediate challenges but also pave the way for new opportunities. This long-term partnership underscores our dedication to not just meeting but exceeding Mitzi’s expectations, driving her business forward in an ever-evolving digital landscape.
David Martin shares his final thoughts on the project:
Dave Martin: “Working with Mitzi on her website has been a uniquely rewarding experience. It’s always a pleasure to receive referrals from existing clients, and having the opportunity to work closely with both Mitzi and her husband has truly been a highlight. The collaborative spirit of this project allowed us to delve deep into Mitzi’s vision and bring it to life in a way that resonates with her passion for travel. It’s projects like these that remind me why I love what I do.”
The project with Mitzi Alexander was more than just building a website; it was about capturing the essence of her passion for travel and creating a digital space that reflects that enthusiasm. The collaborative process, from conceptualization to launch, has been a testament to the power of partnership and shared vision. As a team, we look forward to supporting Mitzi in her ongoing digital journey and are excited about the potential for future collaborations that continue to push the boundaries of design and functionality.
🌞✨ Big shoutout to Brightside Café! 🌟 We just wrapped up an incredible consultation with them today. With the influx of Indiana University students coming into town, Brightside Café is ready to welcome everyone with open arms. Whether you’re looking for the best breakfast in town, a delicious espresso drink made just the way you like it, or gluten-free food options, they’ve got you covered! 🍳☕️
But that’s not all—Brightside Café is also the perfect spot to hit the books and study! 📚 With lightning-fast internet speeds (just look at the speed test results in the image below! 🚀), it’s an outstanding place to get work done while enjoying a cozy, welcoming atmosphere.
If you’re new to Bloomington or just looking for a new favorite spot, be sure to check out Brightside Café and feel the Brightside vibes! 😎🌈
Transforming Ideas into Virtual Reality: The Genesis of 67storage.com
The creation of 67 Storage was a branding project that challenged our creativity and technical expertise but also strengthened our belief in the power of one-on-one collaboration.
Our partnership with Roman, the business owner behind 67 Storage, started with a mission to craft a digital web presence and branding that mirrors the efficiency, security, and user-friendliness of their recently built storage units on Highway 67.
Our branding project began with making a pivotal decision. Roman initially sought to name his venture after his last name, “Manley Enterprises”. However, after sitting down with Roman and getting a better understanding of his marketing goals, we found an opportunity for a more intuitive connection with potential clients.
We brainstormed and design a brand that wasn’t only a name, but also a literal signpost. A logo that encapsulated the business’s essence and its geographical significance. Drawing from its strategic location off of Highway 67, “67 Storage” was born.
This decision wasn’t just about picking a name—it was about crafting a scalable, recognizable, memorable, and easily searchable brand identity across both digital platforms and physical mediums for future customers. ’67 Storage’ was more than a choice; it was a strategic decision that streamlined the discovery process for potential clients.
Brand Identity Creation – Forging the 67 Storage Identity Inspired by the Open Road
With the name “67 Storage” setting the stage, the journey towards creating a cohesive brand identity began.
Color Scheme
A Palette Born from the Road
The color scheme transitioned from concept to palette, drawing from the distinctive colors of highway road signs. This choice was intentional, aiming to evoke a sense of reliability and guidance, much like the road signs that navigate travelers to their destinations. The colors chosen were more than just visually appealing; they were a narrative in themselves, telling a story of trust, direction, and safety.
Typography
Typography plays a pivotal role in bridging 67 Storage’s brand identity with its digital presence. Research into the typography of highway signs—specifically Highway Gothic and Clearview—revealed the practical challenges of licensing and digital optimization. Thus, for the logo, we chose Interstate, a font inspired by highway signage yet suitable for digital use, found on Adobe Fonts. For the website, Overpass from Google Fonts was selected for its web optimized design and open source license, ensuring a consistent, readable online experience. This thoughtful selection allowed us to maintain a connection to the brand’s roots while adapting to the digital landscape.
ClearviewHwy font single computer license purchase page indicating the cost of $795, which informed the decision to select Overpass for the 67 Storage website.
Screenshot highlighting Overpass, a versatile typeface from Google Fonts, chosen for its compatibility with 67 Storage’s branding and logo.
Logo Design
Drawing inspiration from the very roots of the name, the brand’s visual identity took cues from highway signs—a nod to the name’s origin and a brilliant play on familiarity and visibility. The logo was fashioned to mirror the clarity and straightforwardness of highway signage, ensuring instant recognition and connection.
Business Card Design
For the business card, we compressed 67 Storage’s brand identity into a readable, impactful design. The layout and iconography is intentionally minimalist to focus on clearly displaying key contact information. To balance the white space of the card, we crafted a background that aligns with the shield logo on the right. This enhances the card’s visual appeal and brand recognition. Moreover, a QR code links to the 67 Storage website for ease of customer access. Our design approach makes the business card an efficient networking tool and extension of the 67 Storage brand identity.
Picking 67storage.com: Securing a Strong Online Presence
Selecting the right domain name for 67 Storage was a crucial decision to make. Picking an overly complicated or hard to remember domain name could considerably impact it’s ability for customers to find and remember. To avoid this, we decided on 67storage.com, a short, straightforward domain name that both reinforces the brand identity and simplifies the customer’s journey to finding the business online online.
WordPress Website & Design: Crafting a User-Centric Online Space
The website for 67 Storage was intentionally designed to radiate its unique identity while focusing on two primary objectives: attracting new customers and enabling online payment for storage unit rentals. Using WordPress, we customized the latest 2024 Theme and enriched it with hand-coded Custom CSS. This approach added a layer of interactivity to navigation elements, buttons, and links, improving the overall user experience. For style, significant customization was made on the page template to echo the brand’s signature shield motif, ensuring a visual consistency across the digital and physical aspects of the brand.
Key features of the site include detailed information about available storage units, a comprehensive FAQ section, and integration with a payment processor, facilitating easy rent payments for customers. Additionally, the website is equipped with contact forms designed to cater to prospective customers, simplifying the process of inquiring about rentals. This strategic combination of form and function embodies 67 Storage’s commitment to service accessibility and customer convenience, ensuring the website not only serves as a digital storefront but also as a tool for operational efficiency.
Key Takeaway
Working closely together with Roman, we took the initial seeds of a business idea, patiently nurturing them through a collaborative journey to fruition. It was our personal approach to this collaboration—taking the time to understand Roman’s vision, marketing goals, and the core values he wanted to portray—that let us create more than just a name or logo; we built an identity that truly embodied the key principles of efficiency, security, and customer focus.
This project was more than a branding initiative; it was a testament to the power of personalized collaboration. By establishing a strong sense of trust with Roman and understanding his vision, we were able to ensure the branding truly reflected the essence of his business. This synergy created a robust, impactful brand that held a distinct logo and strong digital presence.
67 Storage is no longer only an idea, but a living representation of Roman’s vision, bringing a tangible impact to the marketplace. It stands as the embodiment of thorough deliberation, cooperative work, and perseverance, and we’re immensely proud to be part of this evolving journey of 67 Storage. Our collaboration with Roman underscores the incredible outcomes that can be achieved through an individualized, insight-driven approach to business development.
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.
In the past, people used to jot down the website address if they found it on a poster in a business storefront. While one could look up a business or event, this approach leaves much to be desired; It’s a process to search online. Think about the number of steps involved in an average search:
Navigate to and open your phone’s browser
Tap on the search bar
Type in the business or event
Find their website on Google or Bing
Go to the website
Scan the homepage and navigation
Locate and read the content you want
For somebody walking by an advertisement, event poster, or storefront, this is inconvenient and awkward at best. At worst, a potential customer or participant who’s too busy at the moment or not yet invested in your business or event could simply keep walking, or intend to look it up later but end up completely forgetting about your business.
Enter the QR Code
On the other hand, imagine a potential customer walking by a storefront and noticing an intriguing advertisement with a QR code displayed prominently. With their curiosity piqued, they quickly pull out their smartphone and effortlessly scan the code. The convenience, ease, and excitement of this seamless interaction leave the customer positively impressed, reaffirming their belief in the brand’s commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction. This is the power of QR codes: bridging the gap between the physical and digital realms.
A Brief History of the QR Code
The automotive parts manufacturing company Denso Wave created QR (short for Quick Response) codes in 1994 for inventory management. Inspired by black and white Go game pieces, QR codes have many advantages over traditional UPC barcodes. They have a much larger capacity – featuring up to 7000 characters compared to UPCs’ 20. QR codes are readable at any angle, even if they are partially damaged. They are also read 10x faster than traditional barcodes.
The Flexibility of QR Codes
QR codes have revolutionized the way businesses and event organizers connect with their audience, offering a seamless bridge between the physical and digital realms. With their flexibility and ease of use, QR codes have become invaluable tools for businesses and events to enhance customer experiences and streamline various operations.
Some ways QR codes are commonly used today include:
Digital Menus: Many restaurants, cafes, and event venues are using QR codes to provide digital menus to customers. This reduces the need for physical menus and can be easily updated for different events.
Contactless Payments: QR codes can facilitate mobile payment transactions at both retail businesses and event venues. Customers can scan the code to make payments, reducing the need for physical cash or cards.
Product Information: Retail businesses and event vendors can use QR codes to provide detailed information about a product or event offerings. This is particularly useful for products or events with limited space to display information.
Digital Business Cards: Instead of giving out business cards with a printed email or LinkedIn address, professionals and event organizers can share a QR code that reveals their contact information. This allows for seamless networking during events.
Link to Reviews or Testimonials: Encourage customers and event attendees to leave reviews or read previous customer testimonials about your products or services. This can help build trust and credibility.
Direct Customers to Your Social Media: Boost your online presence and engage with customers and event attendees by directing them to your social media platforms. This allows for ongoing communication and promotion.
Promotions or Discounts: Offer promotions or discounts that are exclusively revealed when the customer or event attendee scans the QR code. This can incentivize purchases or attendance at events.
Check out these styled QR codes for some local Bloomington websites, created easily thanks to Styled QR Code Generator:
Things to Consider Before Making QR Codes
Certain QR code generators produce short links that redirect to your website, instead of directly linking to it. Be aware that these services may disable your code a few weeks post-creation unless you subscribe, potentially leaving you with non-functional codes in your printed marketing materials.
Be sure to make it clear why customers should scan the QR code and what they stand to gain from it. Failing to clearly explain the purpose or benefits of scanning the QR code can lead to confusion and disinterest from customers. A simple call-to-action, such as “Scan here for more information,” can help customers understand the purpose of the QR code.
Position QR codes strategically so customers can easily spot and scan them. Avoid overusing QR codes to the point where their novelty wears off.
Unless you’re looking to make a stylized QR, most of the time you don’t need any special generator platforms. Google Chrome lets you make direct QR codes on any page simply by right-clicking on the page and selecting “Create QR Code for this Page”:
Other options for direct QR code generators that have more style options include:
QR codes have emerged as powerful tools that bridge the gap between the physical and digital realms. They offer convenience and ease of use, making it effortless for potential customers to access information and engage with businesses and events. From providing digital menus to facilitating contactless payments, QR codes have revolutionized customer experiences and streamlined operations in various industries.
If you have any questions or concerns, we at David Martin Design are committed to offering the best possible service. We believe in fostering strong relationships with our clients by ensuring transparency, commitment, and a collaborative approach. Feel free to get in touch with us at any point. Your success is our top priority, and we look forward to hearing from you and helping you achieve your goals.
Written by Jarod Maxwell, Digital Marketing Specialist at David Martin Design
The ability to create and maintain your own website is a skill that can bring tremendous value. While there are numerous resources available for creating and maintaining your own website, it’s always best to work with a local web designer whenever possible. Local designers are not only easily accessible, but they also understand the local market and can better tailor your website to meet the needs of your local audience. They are also more likely to provide personalized service and support. However, if you choose to go the DIY route, the following resources and tools can be quite helpful in your web development journey.
For beginners, resources like GreenGeeks (https://www.greengeeks.com/how-to-create-a-website) offer a comprehensive guide on how to create a website, from domain registration to web hosting. It’s an excellent starting point for anyone looking to build their first website.
Choosing the right domain registrar is key to ensuring your website’s success. Some of the top domain registrar companies include NameCheap (https://www.namecheap.com/) and Squarespace(https://domains.squarespace.com/). A domain name is your online address; it’s how people find you on the internet. Therefore, it’s crucial to select a name that is memorable, easy to spell, and reflects your brand.
When it comes to web hosting, there are various options available depending on your needs. Services such as IndianaWebHosting.com, GreenGeeks.com, & BlueHost offer reliable and scalable hosting solutions. These platforms ensure that your website is always available and accessible to your target audience.
WordPress is another essential resource for web development. With its user-friendly interface, it is an excellent platform for beginners and experienced developers. The platform has an extensive library of resources at (https://learn.wordpress.org/) to help you get familiar with WordPress and create a functioning website. Moreover, there are courses and playgrounds available, such as Getting Started With WordPress: Get Familiar (https://learn.wordpress.org/course/getting-started-with-wordpress-get-familiar/) and Creating a 4-page business website (https://learn.wordpress.org/course/creating-a-4-page-business-website/). These provide hands-on experience and step-by-step guidance for building your website with WordPress.
The digital landscape is always evolving, and staying up-to-date with the latest trends and technologies can give you an edge in creating better, more responsive websites. Building a successful web presence requires a blend of the right resources, continuous learning, and practice.
https://learn.wordpress.org/ Whether you’re a first-time blogger or seasoned developer, there’s always more to learn. From community members all over the world, these vast resources will help you learn more about WordPress and share it with others.
Web developers and web designers need to take into account security measures and appropriate payment processors when designing and developing websites. Heavily regarded payment processors certified with PCI compliance, such as Stripe, PayPal, and Authorize.net should be considered.
Web hosting also needs to be taken into account, as the hosting company must offer secure encryption protocols such as Secure Socket Layer (SSL), Transport Layer Security (TLS), and Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). Additionally, the hosting company should provide daily backups. This way, customers can be sure that their private data is safe and secure.
When it comes to web design, WordPress and WooCommerce are two of the most popular content management systems for e-commerce sites.
WordPress and WooCommerce are the perfect foundation to build a successful e-commerce business or to simply collect payments. WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress that adds a range of e-commerce features. With WooCommerce, designers can create an online store in minutes, and can easily begin collecting payments with Stripe PCI compliance. Lastly, web designers should be sure to adhere to all web design standards to ensure the website is both functional and aesthetically pleasing.
When developing websites for small businesses, e-commerce, HOA neighborhoods, and other organizations with customers’ sensitive data, designers need to be vigilant and strategic in their plans. In these scenarios, web designers should employ secure certificates, trusty web hosting, and payment processors with PCI compliance. By following these guidelines, businesses can be certain that they are providing a secure and protected online experience for their customers.
Local Bloomington musician Andy Cobine had been working with GoDaddy’s marketing experts to build a new website for Wizard Pants Party Band since November 2022. After numerous parleys with GoDaddy and bestowing several hundred gold coins for marketing aid, he began to question if his endeavor would ever take flight.
Linking the Physical and Digital Realms – David Martin Design featured in the Ryder Magazine with a QR Code
Andy found David Martin Design’s QR Code in the June 2023 edition of the Ryder Magazine. This was his maiden encounter with a QR Code and, after laying eyes on the advertisement numerous times, he found himself muttering, “I must summon him, I must summon him indeed.”
David was able to aid Andy in his quest to navigate the bewildering sea of technological enigma, understand his initial efforts, and identify the paths towards crafting a professional portal where folks could listen to and acquire his band’s harmonies.
At one point during their collaboration, a perplexing email issue arose which left Andy flustered. This is when David stepped in, not just as a designer, but also as a “tech therapist.” He was able to quickly diagnose the problem, navigate through the complex systems, and propose an effective solution – successfully restoring deleted emails. David’s calm and collected approach amidst the chaos served as a reassuring presence, reminding Andy of the importance of patience and perseverance when facing such enchanting complications.
Connect the dots, la la la ♪
Bloomington, Indiana, a town known and celebrated for its close-knit folk, was fittingly illustrated in David’s fellowship with Andy. It’s a community where connections run deep and serendipity is more common than not. In a twist of fate, David recollected having played some of Andy’s sire’s melodies (the legendary minstrel Al Cobine) during his school years. This heartwarming memory further solidified their partnership, exemplifying the interconnected ties within their community.
Student & Teacher – David often expresses a profound appreciation for his diverse clientele, who not only provide an opportunity for him to experiment and innovate but also to learn and grow. His approach to clients is both educational and collaborative. On one hand, he imparts his insights and best practices, honing their understanding of the intricacies involved in web design and digital marketing. On the other hand, each unique project and its challenges push David to keep expanding his knowledge base and maintain his edge in the rapidly evolving digital world. This symbiotic relationship underscores his philosophy that design is not simply a service, but a journey of shared discovery, fostering stronger relationships and better outcomes.
The Gateway to Better Selections – In this age of boundless etheric commotion, David’s wizardry served as a lighthouse, a testament to the might of camaraderie, and the living embodiment of the perfect duality of the tangible and intangible realms.
From their joint adventure, David worked intimately with Andy to traverse the vast array of available choices for the band’s new website. They explored various options for website building, email management, payment gateways, social media, and marketing. David’s comprehensive approach demystified the confusing technical details, helping Andy make informed choices tailored to his creative journey. With skillful navigation of the complex digital world and an empathetic, patient approach, David offers a model for a more human-centered approach to tech-based solutions, highlighting the advantages of a local, personalized service over impersonal global providers.
This entire experience came full circle back to the Ryder Magazine and the QR code that prompted Andy’s initial call. It was a reminder of the incredible value of keeping business local and collaborating with Bloomington’s local service providers. In an era of digital overwhelm, David’s guidance served as a beacon, a testament to the power of community, and a symbol of the seamless blend of the physical and digital worlds. This story resonates with the unique relationship between David and Andy, highlighting the importance of bridging both the physical and digital realms in today’s interconnected world. It serves as a testament to the success of local businesses supporting each other, underpinning the vibrant culture of Bloomington, Indiana.
May this tale serve as a testament to the magic that can arise when the tangible and intangible, the real and the digital, the old and the new are woven together with skill, care, and a deep sense of respect for the community. This yarn of collaboration is not merely about the crafting of a mere portal, but about the creation of harmonious connections, the bridging of gaps between the mundane and the mystical, and the reinforcing of community ties.
Michael Dopp’s website now features a modern WordPress platform, making it easier and more efficient for Michael to showcase his artwork and share his stories with the world. The WordPress platform makes it easy for Michael to quickly and easily make changes to his website. With the power of WordPress, he can easily update images, add new blog posts, and manage any new information.
We are proud to announce the launch of their newly redesigned website. In a few short weeks of work with David Martin, IUStudentApts.com has developed a website that offers a modern, intuitive, and streamlined user experience.
Newly Redesigned Website Powered by WordPress
The newly redesigned website is now powered by WordPress, a feature-rich and secure content management system, allowing for a seamless transition to the optimal online rental experience. The website’s intuitive user interface and optimized search functions make it easy to find the perfect rental for students at Indiana University. In addition, the website has been optimized for SEO, ensuring high rankings in search results and easy access to IUStudentApts.com’s rental offerings.
Enhanced Productivity with Email, Forms, & a Google Workspace For Their Domain Name
In addition to the website redesign, IUStudentApts.com is now using Google Workspace for its email accounts. This lets users securely access their emails from any device without needing to install any software.
Using Google Forms for their website contact forms allows users to provide their information quickly and securely. This ensures that all inquiries are answered in a timely manner and customers see a swift response from the IUStudentApts.com team.
IUStudentApts.com can enjoy a stress-free technology experience with advanced security, collaboration, and productivity features with Google Workspace.
Google Analytics to Track Website Performance
Google Analytics allows IUStudentApts.com to track and analyze website performance. This allows the team to better understand how customers are interacting with the site and make adjustments as needed for improved website usability. They can now see the metrics that matter most, such as page views, average time spent on site, and conversions.
In 1998, in my junior year of high school @ Bloomington High School North, I took an Advanced Social Studies course taught by Joann Frye and Pat Wilson. I participated in a group project in which we had to present important historical events from the 1960s. As part of the class presentation, I decided to teach myself how to create a website, rather than using a PowerPoint presentation.
On one of the lunch breaks I even remember signing up for one of the first free webmail services (Hotmail) in 1997! Here’s a snapshot of their homepage on Dec 10th, 1997
Thankfully, the Bloomington North library had a bank of computers that students could use on their breaks. I invested countless hours surfing the web, reading articles, learning HTML, and playing online role-playing games.
It was awesome being able to send messages online, play games with others, and even have my own email account! Little did most of us know, that the World Wide Web was about to explode into our daily lives in ways we would never imagine!
The open nature of the internet and being able to view any website’s source code allowed me to learn how to create custom HTML designs and integrate elements from other websites. Our school IT department allowed our teacher some web hosting space and Mrs. Frye gave me the credentials so that I could upload my website files. Thank you to everyone involved for making this happen!
After studying the HTML source code of other websites, I learned that I could copy and paste the HTML source code from what others created and then modify it for my purposes. I’d make changes, save the file, and then upload it to the school server. After refreshing my browser, it was like magic!
David Martin – Web Designer
My very first website had all sorts of “rookie mistakes”. I chose really trippy psychedelic fractal backgrounds that changed on each page, linked to other people’s images on their server instead of downloading them to the local server (graphics of Elvis, Vietnam, JFK, “The Love Generation”, etc…), and all sorts of other web design no-nos. I even learned about copyright on this project because one of the photographers of an image that I used about the Vietnam war emailed to ask us to take the image down!
It’s amazing what you can teach yourself after thinking back on all of the things I have learned since this first web design project! Teaching myself a new skill was so awesome and it lead to me realizing that one of my true passions was to be a web designer and create things for the internet.
We are pleased to announce that David Martin Design has become the newest member of The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce! This is a great occasion to celebrate as it will definitely help the community to have another verified member in the Bloomington Website Design category.
Since 2004, David has designed websites with Bloomington business professionals, entrepreneurs, & individuals. David offers website design, web hosting, & helps business owners become more capable with digital marketing tools to make their lives better.
I’m excited to be joining The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce because I see it as an opportunity to network with other business professionals who are also looking for creative solutions.”
David Martin, owner of David Martin Design
The Chamber strives to promote the continuous improvement of the common good and the quality of life in the community through the pursuit of new business; the cultural, social, and economic education of our citizens; and by providing accurate and timely assistance to the business community.
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.
Above all, websites are vehicles designed to help you achieve larger goals. For example, a restaurant’s site might be created to increase awareness and encourage patrons to visit (or order takeout). An entrepreneur might rely on a website to inform potential clients about his or her services.
While a website is an ideal tool for online marketing in the 21st century, there’s no guarantee it’ll work the way you intended. Website design requires constant monitoring, updating, and adjusting in order to ensure a site is optimized for performance.
In order to be able to make the right adjustments, you have to first gather accurate information about your site’s functionality. Fortunately, there are a plethora of online web design tools that provide insightful and in-depth data about a site’s performance. Let’s take a look at a few you should know about.
SEMRush
Touted by many online marketers as the premier and most comprehensive online marketing tools, SEMRush offers users an in-depth analysis of their site’s advertising information.
It offers data regarding paid and organic search traffic, domain referrals, backlinks, and more. This is all available in SEMRush’s free report, although you can unlock an even more extensive review for the paid version.
Despite being advertised as an all-in-one platform, SEMRush probably won’t eliminate the need to use other online web tools. Still, it’s a great place to start your advertising research.
ScanWP
If you know a site is running WordPress but aren’t sure which theme, that’s where ScanWP comes in handy. Simply plug in the URL of the site, hit “search”, and you’ll be provided with a host of helpful information such as the theme version, price, associated tags, and where the theme can be purchased.
ScanWP even comes with Plugin detection so you can get a better idea of what’s been added to the site. Compared to other online web design tools, ScanWP is rather minimal but that’s one of its advantages too! It’s a great option for WordPress fans and can even be downloaded as an extension for Chrome browser for integrated use.
Nibbler
Nibbler isn’t as well known as some other online web design tools, but it still earns a spot on the list. With the free version, you can put five different pages through the Nibbler tests which analyzes your site based on more than a dozen factors and offers an overall score.
The total score (out of 100%) is an aggregate rating of your site’s accessibility, experience, technology, marketing, and more. In addition to this composite score, you’ll get a deeper breakdown of each factor, giving you a better look at your site’s strengths and weaknesses.
Nibbler even offers a handy list of top priorities for improving your site.
GTmetrix
GTmetrix is an informative online web design tool that analyzes a site’s page performance. Whether you’re trying to improve search engine optimization (SEO) or implementing a new theme, it’s always important to know how site changes are impacting overall functionality.
In its “speed visualization” section – pictured above – GTmetrix provides an insightful breakdown of how quickly (or slowly) your site loads by second. This gives you a better idea of how users interact with your site.
This online web design tool’s report page acts as an analytics dashboard where key indicators of site load speed are neatly organized and summarized. Similar to Nibbler, you’ll also get actionable tips for improving your site page speed.
Pagelocity
Customer experience is an integral component of website design. If you’re looking for a web design tool that’s geared towards analyzing your site’s optimization in this area, Pagelocity is an excellent choice. Its analysis focuses on three different categories: on-page SEO, performance, and code insights.
On-page SEO offers insights into various factors on your site that are critical to SEO such as headings, keywords, and links (both internal and external). Performance analyzes your site’s composition including scripts, style files, and images to determine its overall functionality. Lastly, Code Insights goes a little more in-depth to look at a site’s markup which refers to tags, classes, and page speed.
Your Local Web Design Expert
If you’re not sure how your website is performing, David Martin Design can help. With decades of experiencing building, designing, and optimizing sites, David knows what it takes to keep websites up and running efficiently to meet your goals. Feel free to contact David to learn more.
This search engine optimization tip goes way back to the early 90s – back when I first started building websites. In the 90s, it was essential to build websites that were quick and optimized because people still had dial-up internet connections. In order to build a fast loading website, you had to be very careful not to use too many large images. If you did include bigger image files, then it would take forever for the website to load, and we all know that we only have a fleeting amount of time to capture somebody’s attention.
What does Compressor.io do?
With Compressor.io, you can easily upload your images in a variety of formats – including PNG, GIF, & JPEG – and this program will try to condense them without losing too much quality. As you can see from the featured image of this post, I was able to capture an image of myself taking a picture in my car’s rearview mirror that was over 8 megabytes and compress it down to a much smaller size. The image has maintained it’s quality without causing my site’s load speed to slow down every time a visitor clicks on this page.
Whenever you upload your images to Facebook, Instagram, and other sites, they automatically apply compression to your images to make them load faster for a better user experience. When you run your own website though, WordPress doesn’t automatically include compression functionality out of the box. There are different plugins that you can use to help compress your images when you upload them to the media library, however, I like to compress the images before I upload them by using Compressor.io.
How do you use Compressor.io to condense images?
It starts out with you getting your original image from your camera. Then, once you have it downloaded on your device, you can upload it to your website. Then, after Compressor.io compresses your image, you can download it onto your local machine again. Once it is on your local machine, then you go into your WordPress media library and upload it. It’s as simple as that!
How does this application impact my website’s SEO?
Compressor.io works to condense your website images to help them load faster. In turn, this ends up increasing the load speed of your entire website. With no bulky image files eating up bandwidth, your pages can refresh quickly for visitors, greatly increasing user experience. Perhaps most importantly, it will improve your website’s SEO. Because page speed is such an important factor for the algorithms that rank your web pages, your site will reach closer to the top search result when load time is optimized Using Compressor.io is a simple change that can work wonders for your website’s performance.
Whether you’re looking for ways to improve your site’s exposure or you want to build a site from scratch, David Martin Design can help. I’ve spent decades building, editing, and optimizing websites, and I’d be more than happy to support you in your business ventures. Feel free to reach out to me to learn more about what I offer.
It was a challenge at first to figure out how to best work together due to the Covid-19 pandemic and technology restrictions. We began with a Google Meet and it was great to meet online. It was really easy to use and helpful to see Henry face to face and to be able to share screens with each other.
Henry and David discussed where it was best to store information for the new website. Using a shared Google Drive folder, Henry could upload photos of his artwork, an Excel spreadsheet of inventory, and a Pages file of painting information. After securing the digital workspace folder it was time to work on developing the website content. Henry & David created a very organized Google Sheets spreadsheet, assigned SKU numbers, and developed product descriptions, captions, and filenames based on the shared online inventory catalog.
Optimized Filenames with Keyword-Rich Information
David renamed all of the images with the sku number and hyphens between keywords that would describe each one. Instead of uploading an image from the camera with a default name like “IMG6480.jpg”, it’s important to rename the image henry-leck-art-195-Harbor-Scene-after-C-Curry-Bohm.jpg so if someone were searching for this type of image it would be more relevant and come up in a search.
After learning about search engine optimization (SEO), Henry understood the importance of optimizing images with keyword-rich file names, optimizing title tags, using headings, meta tags, the taxonomy of WordPress pages, posts, tags, and how to name categories. After organizing all of this information, it was clear that David could begin building the website.
Preferred Domain Name: HenryLeck.com
Henry let David know that he had worked with a web designer previously and they decided to try and recover the old domain rather than starting out with a new one. This was an important decision because not only is it better for branding, but how long a domain name has been registered for is definitely a search engine ranking factor.
After transferring the domain registration and updating the contact information, David set up a new cPanel business web hosting account and pointed Henry’s domain to his new web hosting server. The web hosting service that David Martin Design provides includes a FREE SSL certificate, email service, spam filtering, and lots of other great features.
After installing WordPress and configuring the optimal settings David built all of the pages, posts, categories, and tags. David installed the WordPress Twenty Twenty theme and worked with Henry to choose the preferred layout and colors. David set up plugins for website security (WordFence), spam (Akismet), SEO (Yoast SEO), and others to add more options to his WordPress website.
Tracking to Understand How Customers Use The Website
In addition to building the website it’s important to track how it performs. David setup Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Microsoft Clarity for Henry in order to see reports about how people interact with his website.
David & Henry have built a great website at https://henryleck.com and we hope that you’ll go check it out and see what you think.
About Henry Leck
An internationally recognized choral director, Henry Leck is a professor emeritus in choral music at Butler University, where he served on the faculty for 27 years. He is the Founder and Conductor Laureate of the Indianapolis Children’s Choir where he served for 30 years. He has conducted on podiums throughout the world, and still finds some time to teach, conduct, and edit.
Since Henry’s “semi-retirement” in 2016 he has taken up painting …. oil painting to be specific. While continuing to conduct, teach, and edit music, painting has quickly become one of his passions in life. He is an active member of the Upland Plein Air Painters and the Indiana Plein Air Painters Association.
An SSL Certificate is vital for your website’s success. If you accept e-commerce orders, it helps you secure credit card numbers, passwords, and other sensitive data your visitors submit through your site.
Even if you don’t sell products via your website having an SSL certificate in place will increase customer confidence, improve SEO ranking, & protect your data.
How Do I Setup an SSL Certificate?
If your website is hosted with David Martin Design, it includes a shared SSL certificate for the sites on our server. This covers the basics of security and will take care of complying with security requirements.
If your website is hosted elsewhere, then you will need to check with your hosting provider. A lot of times GoDaddy, BlueHost, GreenGeeks, or another hosting provider will offer you an SSL certificate from a 3rd party company that will be installed on their end. Check with them to see what your options are.
Do I Really Need an SSL?
That depends on your risk tolerance. Are you OK leaving your car doors unlocked at night? Are you OK with leaving your front door unlocked?
I think we both know the answer to this. Take the time to set up your infrastructure the right way and you can avoid a lot of headaches in the future. Yes, set up an SSL certificate.
These are the top FREE plugins for WordPress according to WordPress.com. This data is from September 2019.
Akismet Anti-Spam – Used by millions of websites, Akismet filters out hundreds of millions of spam comments from the Web every day. Add Akismet to your site so you don’t have to worry about spam again.
All in One SEO Pack – Use All in One SEO Pack to optimize your WordPress site for SEO. It’s easy and works out of the box for beginners, and has advanced features and an API for developers.
All-in-One WP Migration – This plugin exports your WordPress website including the database, media files, plugins and themes with no technical knowledge required.
Classic Editor – Classic Editor is an official plugin maintained by the WordPress team that restores the previous (“classic”) WordPress editor and the “Edit Post” screen. It makes it possible to use plugins that extend that screen, add old-style meta boxes, or otherwise depend on the previous editor.
Contact Form 7 – Contact Form 7 can manage multiple contact forms, plus you can customize the form and the mail contents flexibly with simple markup. The form supports Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, Akismet spam filtering and so on.
Duplicate Post – This plugin allows users to clone posts of any type, or copy them to new drafts for further editing.
Elementor Page Builder – A page builder that delivers high-end page designs and advanced capabilities.
Google Analytics Dashboard for WP by ExactMetrics (formerly GADWP) – This Google Analytics for WordPress plugin enables you to track your site using the latest Google Analytics tracking code and allows you to view key Google Analytics stats in your WordPress install.
Google XML Sitemaps – Use this plugin to greatly improve SEO to create special XML sitemaps which will help search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask.com to better index your site.
Jetpack by WordPress.com – Jetpack is a popular WordPress plugin created by Automattic, the people behind WordPress.com. The plugin brings many of the most powerful features available on WordPress.com to self-hosted WordPress sites and thereby contributing greatly to the improvement of WordPress powered blogs and websites.
Really Simple SSL – Really Simple SSL automatically detects your settings and configures your website to run over https. To keep it lightweight, the options are kept to a minimum.
TinyMCE Advanced – TinyMCE Advanced introduces a “Classic Paragraph” block for the block editor (Gutenberg). If you are not quite ready to switch to the block editor or have plugins that cannot be used there (yet), using the Classic Paragraph block is your best option. It lets you continue to use the familiar TinyMCE editor for most tasks, and at the same time gives you full access to all blocks and new features in the block editor.
UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin – simplifies backups and restoration. It is the world’s highest-ranking and most popular scheduled backup plugin, with over two million currently-active installs. Backup your files and database backups into the cloud and restore with a single click!
WooCommerce – With 80,876,475 downloads, WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce platform for building an online store (stats from Builtwith).
WordPress Importer – The WordPress Importer will import the following content from a WordPress export file: Posts, pages and other custom post types, Comments, Custom fields and post meta, Categories, tags and terms from custom taxonomies, & Authors.
WP Super Cache – This plugin generates static html files from your dynamic WordPress blog. After an html file is generated your webserver will serve that file instead of processing the comparatively heavier and more expensive WordPress PHP scripts.
Yoast SEO – Yoast SEO is the most complete WordPress SEO plugin. It handles the technical optimization of your site & assists with optimizing your content.
Hans & Donata from Termageddon. This picture was taken from inside the birdcage @ The City Museum in St. Louis at WordCamp 2019. What a great place to meet!
I met Hans & Donata at WordCamp in St. Louis recently and we immediately hit it off. They run an awesome web service that helps businesses with websites comply with data privacy laws.
In a Google Meeting with Hans, he walked me through the process to set each one of these up and we were able to build these rich data policies without needing a super expensive law firm. Their service was easy to use and we were able to generate the policies and get them live in under 1 hour!
I can rest assured that my policies will automatically be updated with the newest language and I am compliant even if the laws change. I can trust that they’ve got my back!
It’s SUPER important for anyone with a website to pay attention to these things. It’s going to be the law soon & it’s important for you to be aware of these things.
It’s been a pleasure working with Steve and Mary over at Ava’s Waste Removal in Ellettsville (pretty close to Bloomington) since the beginning of February 2019.
Mary, Ava, & Steve holding hands
We’ve built each page by handcrafting each web page title, each web page description, the canonical URLs, the open graph meta tags for social sharing, and important information for a high performing business website.
Steve and Mary agreed that in addition to a custom website, we needed to make sure that other important accounts were also setup. In addition to building a responsive website for Ava’s, David did some additional account setup including:
connected Google Analytics to keep track of website visitors and statistics
setup Google Search Console to see keyword queries that people are searching for
setup Google Photos for sharing photos to put on the website and improving them
built helpful content for customers that also accurately described Ava’s Waste Removal and their services (weekly trash pickup, dumpster rentals, roll off containers).
After developing some great content, we turned that into structured semantic HTML with Schema data for good results and high ranking on the search engine ranking pages. I tested the website for valid HTML and pagespeed and was very happy with the results. There was a tradeoff when we added the Facebook Messenger widget into the website. It caused two errors and also made the pagespeed score go from 99 out of 100 to 41 out of 100. The pagespeed decrease is worth it in my opinion so that customers can message them on Facebook Messenger.
Steve & Mary from Ava’s wrote a great review about our work together and it’s so nice to have that happen.
“David did a great job! He’s responsive, organized, and generally cares about helping us grow our business. From beginning to end David was attentive to our needs and delivered a great website. Highly recommend his services!”
Google Review from Steve @ Ava’s Waste Removal
I look forward to seeing their progress as they build a great small business. It’s been great working with them and if you need trash service in Bloomington, Ellettsville, or the surrounding area, definitely see if you are in their service area.
