Website Validation. Does your Website Have Errors?

There are many website designers to choose from. We have been in business for two years, and have over 12 years of coding experience. In those two years we have helped over 50 clients succeed in business by providing them with a custom website, unlike the generic template sites that many other "designers" are offering. Sure, we can offer template websites too, but why settle for a template website and continue to pay monthly fees, when you can OWN a custom website unlike any other?

Website Validation

Website Validation, what does that mean? The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) are the people who maintain the high standards of the internet. They basically make the rules that we coders have to follow. When we moved to our new location at 333 E Avenue K4, we found that our clients were using us because we had a higher quality product. They could use our competitor's templates, or they could use us and get their site the way they envisioned it.

So we thought to ourselves... How can we make a good product even better. We did some research and found that the W3C has built a Website Validator for designers to ensure that they are designing their sites per the W3C standards. We decided that from that day forward, all sites that we design MUST pass through this Validator. It forces us to follow the many detailed rules of the W3C, but also gives our clients a higher quality product.

We also found during this research process that 90% of our competition could not have been using this service, because even their own sites were not only coded to the old HTML 4 Standard, but were full of coding errors!!

If you would like to check your website for errors, simply visit: http://www.dkdesigns.ws/validate

If your website has errors and you would like us to update your website coding, we will re-code your website to pass the W3C Validator with no errors, simply contact us for a FREE consultation. If you mention offer code: DK09VAL you will receive 5% off, or $100 in Google Adwords Credit (Your Choice) with your paid service! This offer is valid through September 30, 2012.

Social Media... Is it for you

I often have clients ask me, should I have a FaceBook Page? What about a Twitter Account? LinkedIn? YouTube? The answer I give them is Yes--IF you have time to work it.

What do I mean by "Work it"? Here's what it boils down to:

The Search Engine

A search engine is a program on the internet. They are run by a spider. No, not the kind that scared Miss Muffet, the digital kind. They got the name "spider" because of how they work. A search engine's spider(also known as a crawler) scours the internet, gathering data from every website out there. It then takes that data and compiles it into a large database. Each search engine's spider works in their own unique way, which is why your website will appear in different positions on each search engine.

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization is where a company figures out what each engine looks for in their database, and customizes your website to cater specifically to that search engine, thus "optimizing" your website.

Social Media

So where does Social Media come in to play, and how do you "work it"? For an effective Social Media campaign, you need your posts, tweets, articles, etc. to reinforce what you have already stated on your website. This means that if you have a website that sells widgets, you don't want a FaceBook Page that only talks about what you did last tuesday. Now, granted, you need to keep up the personal aspect, but it needs to stay professional (don't put that you brushed your teeth, although you should still brush them).

For example:

• I had a great lunch today with one of my clients: Joe Smith! (Good)
• People can be real mean sometimes, I can't stand it!! (Bad)
• It is a beautiful day today, great day to go to the beach! (Good)
• I had eggs, bacon and milk for breakfast, got indigestion. (Bad)

Try to stay positive, remember, potential clients will read this stuff, and they will gather their first impression based on what you post there. Along with personal posts, you should occasionally post special offers, completed projects, and updates about your business. I say occasionally because your potential clients will ignore you if all they see is Ad after Ad in your status. I would say no more than monthly on your offers (unless you are a food service, then you can do daily, people love food)

So are you using your Social Media? Need advice? Set up a Consultation today! Call us at (661) 727-3375. We can also do the initial setup and configuration for you at a surprisingly affordable rate.

Enter to win a $10 Starbucks Card!

We want to increase our total Facebook Page likes to 100! So we are offering the following promotion:

• Step 1) Like our FaceBook Page
• Step 2) Share our page with your friends
• Step 3) Get your friends to like our page

On the day that our total likes reaches 100, we will draw 5 winners from anyone who has liked our page up to that day. We will post the winners that same day with instruction on how to claim your Starbucks!

Google Analytics and You

Do you know:

1. How many people looked at your site last week?
2. How long they stayed on your site?
3. What city they were from?
4. How they got to your site?
5. What they typed to get your site to appear in the search results?
6. What your most visited page is?
7. What is your least visited page?
8. How many of your visitors are new?
9. How many of your visitors are returning?

Did you answer YES to all of these questions? If so great! If not, then you need to keep reading.

Google Analytics is the easiest, most user friendly free website statistics analyzer available today. Creating a Google Analytics account is easy. Simply visit the Google Analytics Website to create a free account.

For questions in setting up your Google Analytics Account, call us at (661) 727-3375. We can also do the setup, configuration and monthly monitoring for you at a surprisingly affordable rate.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly of Wordpress...

WordPress has become one of the most widely used Content Management Systems (CMS) on the web today. As far as entering and updating content, most people find it easy to use, navigate and revise. However, too many "Web Designers" are relying on the WordPress System.

There was a day when being a "Web Designer" meant that you designed the website from concept and graphics, to code, to upload. Those days are becoming far and few between. Several people these days are calling themselves "Web Designers" and they have little to no coding experience at all, and even if they do, it's only some knowledge of basic HTML.

So, why am I going on this rant you ask? Well, I am here to set the record straight. Wordpress is a great tool, but take it for what it is a "tool". That being said, here is my opinion of the product.

The Good

•    Hundreds of templates
  
  Wordpress allows Coders to create their own templates and other give them away, or sell them for a profit. This is a good niche for the Coder to get into if they want to code without having to deal with micro-managing clients.
•    Frequent Updates
  
  Wordpress is always doing its best to improve its system by constantly providing security updates to its software to prevent unauthorized hacking and security breaches.
•    User Control
  
  Wordpress gives the account administrator the ability to assign users and allow them to modify portions of the website as needed. This is a great feature for the part-time Do-it-Yourself-er.

The Bad

•    Hundreds of templates
  
  With hundreds of templates to choose from, how do you know which ones are secure, which ones are spam, and whether or not the coder is railroading you with higher than normal prices. Unless you are Web savvy, you don't.
•    Frequent Updates
  
  Frequent updates, yes. Making sure the proper person gets notified to install the update, not so much. Wordpress can do their best to notify the account admins and users of updates to the system, but somebody still has to go in and install the update.
•    User Control
  
  Giving the user control to modify sections of their website is a great idea, or is it? It depends on the level of control. Entering text, no problem, images, no problem. Anything more than that, and you open your site to problems.

The Ugly

Seeing a pattern yet?

•    Hundreds of templates
  
  Did he say Spam templates? Why yes, I did. There are coders out there that will give you a "free" template or even a widget. Nothing is free. That "free" item may just be sending your information to a data-miner that sells your private information to a third party for profit. Not so free is it?
•    Frequent Updates
  
  What happens if I don't update? I have heard horror stories about Wordpress Accounts and website being hacked into and spam inserted into the content of a webspace. Imaging your friendly Dog Grooming Website populated with pharmaceutical ads. Not cool.
•    User Control
  
  I am all for letting the client change a few paragraphs, add images, and the like. But be sure that there is something in place to guard against spammers and malicious coders.One wrong symbol entered into the wrong editor can send a site into a programming glitch that will shut down the site.

So, those are my rants, if you have questions, or comments, please feel free to visit us on the web at http://www.dkdesigns.ws

Extra! Extra! DK Designs Launches New Website!

Extra! Extra! Come see the brand new website with new navigation, new layout, and 100% HTML5 and CSS3 Coding!  Tell your friends to come and "like" the new site. We will be sending out our first official DK Mail Newsletter soon.  

Feel free to browse around the site, if you find a broken link, please let us know so we can fix it!

New Month, New Site, and New Services

Beginning next month, we will be launcing a new website to serve you better. The new site will have a feed to follow us on Twitter, FaceBook, and YouTube. We are changing the navigation structure as well to make it more user-friendly. In adition to that, our new site will have an online quote system, a free consultation center, new products list, a redesigned portfolio, and a featured Website section on the front page.

We are also excited about the combination Blog and Newsletter we are calling DK Mail. DK Mail will keep you up to date with tips and updates to the internet and how it may affect your website. As a preferred DK Designs client, you are already subscribed to this list. However, we understand there may be a large volume of emails you may already receive, so if you would prefer not to receive this helpful newsletter, feel free to click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email. To ensure that you keep receiving these emails, be sure to add mail@dkmail.us to your whitelist.

Our new website is scheduled for launch on May 1, as well as a few new services that we will be adding to serve you better!