RawkMedia Web Design | Saskatoon Web Design » saskatoon SEO

Beyond Web Design.. Your visitors want something to read!

Saskatoon Web Design Comapny — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:31:47 +0000

Filed under: saskatoon marketing, saskatoon SEO, Saskatoon web design, saskatoon website design, search engine optimization, Social Media Marketing, website marketing

Your brand is extremely important and an effective web design that reaches your audience and compels them to stay is likewise as important. That said, however, the primary goal of your website should always be to not only inform your visitors and potential customers what your company does, but how it does it, where it does it, and most importantly that your company is the industry expert in what it is that you do.

Ever heard the expression, “content is king”? When it comes to a business website, content truly is the king of all web design elements. The more the better… okay, get the spam prospect out of mind for now, you do not want to push out spam. What you want to do is generate informative, market focused, content. The easiest and most professional way to do this is via a company blog or news page that allows for weekly / daily posts describing your market, your industry, and your products & services.

By posting periodic content to your blog or news page, you not only inform your website visitors and potential customers, you likewise inform Google that your company is an expert in your industry. Google will in turn favour your website in google search results for the products and services that your business provides.

Below are a few examples of what type of content is common, acceptable, and easy to generate.

Content that builds trust - Inform your website visitors and potential customers. Talk about your industry and how your products & services serve your industry and your customers. Talk about the benefits and new developments in your industry in general. As an expert in your industry, this should be easy. In doing so, potential customers will not only recognize your company’s expertise, but its devotion to your industry.

Customer generated content – Admittedly, getting your audience to engage is difficult, however, with new developments in social media it’s getting easier. Create a social media page or profile via Twitter or Facebook and pose questions to your audience, request feedback, heck hold a contest, do anything that warrants a response! In doing so, you’re building an audience and a solid community around your content and your online profile that can be referenced by future visitors and potential customers.

Other people’s content – It’s not stealing or plagiarism to reference to content of others. Find White Papers on your products, services, or industry material that you feel is valuable to your potential audience. Do so on a regular basis, in doing so, you’re proving your commitment to your industry and your commitment to building trust and educating your audience.

As always, we’re here to help if you have any questions on how to ensure that your website is more than just a website. Contact a RawkMedia Creative Consultant today to learn how you can build and engage an audience around your online brand.

Beyond Web Design.. Your visitors want something to read! is a post from: Saskatoon Web Design | RawkMedia Web Design Group

Stoked For the Deep Dark Woods Return to the SK!

Saskatoon Web Design Comapny — Sat, 14 May 2011 01:08:35 +0000

Filed under: Deep Dark Woods, Hosting, saskatoon SEO, Saskatoon web design, saskatoon website design, Social Media Marketing, website marketing

We’re pretty excited for the June show for one of our favorite local exports, the Deep Dark Woods, as they swing through Saskatoon as part of their tour. For those of you who love genuine, warm, and melodically perfect music the Deep Dark Woods are for you… trust us . Click play and have a listen.. recorded live.. flawlessly.

Stoked For the Deep Dark Woods Return to the SK! is a post from: Saskatoon Web Design | RawkMedia Web Design Group

New Website Design Complete for One Bad Son

Saskatoon Web Design Comapny — Thu, 12 May 2011 02:10:45 +0000

Filed under: design, Hosting, saskatoon SEO, Saskatoon web design, saskatoon website design, Social Branding, Social Media Marketing, website marketing

SK export Rock Band “One Bad Son” requested a reinvention of their website that would include several new elements such as a music player, more dynamic homepage, a more integrated social experience, and a brand new aesthetic. Give us your thoughts on our follow through

New Website Design Complete for One Bad Son is a post from: Saskatoon Web Design | RawkMedia Web Design Group

The New Facebook Business Page Design

Saskatoon Web Design Comapny — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 17:47:21 +0000

Filed under: saskatoon marketing, saskatoon SEO, saskatoon website design, Social Media Marketing, website marketing

We often get questions around how Facebook can be used for business and what impact the platform can have on a Small Business Marketing Campaign.. the answer is always to point to Facebook’s Business Pages. With the new Facebook Business Page layout and functionality changes, released yesterday, we thought it’d be a good time to put pen-to-paper and offer a list of 5 ways your can improve your Marketing efforts via Facebook and the new page layout.

1) Upload and even tag photos. Facebook has moved business page images to the top of the page, similar to the layout you see in your personal profile. This is cool for one specific reason, visual exposure to your products, services, and/or portfolio. Take some time and put some thought into what images are best suited for the top of your business page to maximize exposure to your products and services. Here’s a few examples of clever use of the image-top layout for profiles.

2) Optimize your home image. The default size for Facebook images is now 180 by 540 pixels, which means that any image you upload as your “avatar” image will be resized to match those dimensions. First take some time to consider what your business page’s profile image is going to be (most likely your logo or marketing material that includes your logo) and then make sure it’s optimized for the aforementioned dimensions.

3) Create a custom landing page. Facebook has offered the ability to create a custom HTML page on your facebook business page. This is huge! as you can now customize at least a page to be more consistent with your website’s design. Furthermore, you can specify this page as your “landing page” or first page your facebook business page visitors will see when visiting your business profile. See here for some examples of innovative uses of the customizable facebook business page.

4) interact with your business page as yourself. Because Facebook has taken a step in the direction to untie your personal facebook profile from your business page profile, you can now interact with your business page as yourself (without visitors knowing you’re infact the owner of that business page). Interaction on your page is huge and very important in stimulating further conversation between your business page, your business, and your community.

5) Grow your community through business interaction. This last point is huge! As mentioned earlier, Facebook has now given you the opportunity to interact with other facebook profiles and pages as your business profile (not your personal profile). What this means is that you can now interact with other facebook pages and their community as your business. Engage on other business’ profile pages and maximize your business name’s exposure. This is a key way to growing your community.

As always, if you have any questions as to how you can grow your business through Social Media engagement, feel free to contact a RawkMeda Web Design Consultant today!

The New Facebook Business Page Design is a post from: Saskatoon Web Design | RawkMedia Web Design Group

Marketing in Saskatoon With Facebook Places

Saskatoon Web Design Comapny — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 01:25:09 +0000

Filed under: saskatoon marketing, saskatoon SEO, Saskatoon web design, saskatoon website design, Saskatoon website hosting, Social Media Marketing

Marketing With Facebook Places

Facebook Places is facebook’s location based service introduced several months ago. What Facebook places does is allows Facebook users to share their locations in the real world as well as passively see where their friends are.. It’s also become an extremely powerful marketing and customer engagement tool for brick and mortar Saskatoon businesses to offer potential customers incentives for taking a step out of the virtual world and into their store.

Whenever a Facebook user checks in to a registered location on Facebook Places, Facebook broadcasts that checkin to the visiting user’s friends’ news feed. This not only gets your company name infront of a broader audience (without you lifting a finger), but more importantly encourages potential customers to visit your store!

Getting Started

Below are 4 easy steps to getting started with Facebook Places.

Find your Place Page.
You then need to “claim” your business! This is extremely important… I suppose you could sue anyone who claims it before you, whether you’d actually win or not has yet to be seen. It’s also a good idea to get your products and services out there before your competitors do

Merge Facebook Places with your Company’s Facebook Page and your website.
By doing this, you’re ensuring that all of those Facebook users who’ve “Liked” your company’s facebook page, as well as those who will, will also receive “places” updates.

Encourage checkins.
This is huge. Use store signage or your social media network to encourage checkins. Not only does this bring people to your store but it also offers you metrics by which you can measure visits and engagement.

Reward those customers who checkin.
And finally, offer your customers incentives for checking in, not only for the aforementioned reasons, but to engage with your customers and create a dialogue that goes past “come again” . As you’re likely aware, customers respond well to a two-way dialogue.

Get intouch with a RawkMedia Creative Consultant to discuss ways you can leverage Social Media and your Social Networks successfully.

Marketing in Saskatoon With Facebook Places is a post from: Saskatoon Web Design | RawkMedia Web Design Group

Web Design in 2011

Saskatoon Web Design Comapny — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 05:54:09 +0000

Filed under: saskatoon marketing, saskatoon SEO, Saskatoon Social Media Marketing, Saskatoon web design, Saskatoon Web Hosting, saskatoon website design

The RawkMedia Creative Group is exited about what’s to come in the Website Design world in 2011. With the gaining popularity in HTML5, CSS3, Mobile Web, Javascript, and more, it’s difficult not to be. We thought it’d be a good idea to sit down and put pen to paper with regards to our thoughts on what’s to come in web design over the next year.

1. Mobile Web Design

There’s no denying the popularity that the last couple years have brought to mobile technology. App this & App that Something that often gets missed in the mobile technology buzz, is mobile browsing. Until the introduction of the IPhone, mobile browsing was cumbersome.. and downright pointless. But the introduction of the Safari mobile browser, and subsequent competitors’ browser technology have introduced a new and intuitive way to browse the web from a smartphone. This ofcourse begs the question, how does a website look in today’s smartphones. To answer the question, it looks better but typical websites were never really designed for the compressed display. And therein lay the opportunity for a mobile-friendly version of your website and mobile website design.

2. Social Media Integration… true integration

“Social Media” is no new buzzword. You’ve likely been hearing it in both ears for some time now. Your business has a facebook page, a twitter page, you’re “LinkedIn”. Your website links to all of these pages… Great! But are all of these Social Networks integrated with your business website? 2011 will be the year of a converged message and a single-point of distribution. We’ve been asked, “with all the opportunities for Corporate Social Profiles, why do we need a website?”. Your website needs to reflect your corporate image.. Social Networks are a great platform to get the message out, but they are definitely no place to satisfy your efforts in differentiating you from your competitors. Aesthetics is becoming much more important and a corporate website, designed properly, can speak volumes about your commitment to your industry. Where do the two meet? Your website is your soapbox, your platform to deliver your message. Your social networks are like a broadcast tower to distribute that message. Social Networks have made it easier than ever to integrate the two through their powerful (and free) API integration packages. The end goal is to automatically distribute your articles, information, and press releases to your social networks to increase your reach and potential customer base.

3. The Year Of JavaScript

Flash is dead, long live JavaScript! 2010 brought tremendous development in the JavaScript programming language, primarily in the form of powerful JQuery plugins. JavaScript and JQuery are what brings animation (cross-browser compatible animation) and aesthetically awesome jazz (for lack of a better term) to your web design. JQuery development continues to grow in an open-source environment and the community grows with it, giving web design companies like ours, the opportunity to engage and constantly learn and develop new tricks.

4. HTML5 and CSS3

HTML 5 is the new and exciting version of HTML. HTML5 is bringing new ways to interact with the search engines in making code more semantic and transparent. HTML5 will also be able to leverage open-source API development in a much better way. CSS3 is the next evolution in Cascade Styling Sheets.. effectively what determines the style of the elements on your webiste. It will add new elements to website design, including new selectors, pseudo-classes and properties. These new features will allow for a much more efficient way of designing websites in a structured way.

Web Design in 2011 is a post from: Saskatoon Web Design | RawkMedia Web Design Group

The Cornerstone of Website Marketing

Saskatoon Web Design Comapny — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 18:14:35 +0000

Filed under: saskatoon marketing, saskatoon SEO, Saskatoon web design, saskatoon website design, website marketing

If you’re familiar with our website and our blog, you’ll notice that recently we’ve put a lot of focus in articles regarding Social Media Marketing. We’re comfortable in the assertion that Social Media is the next great platform for your online marketing strategy and presents the greatest potential for growth in online marketing efforts. That said, however, we remain confident that your greatest success for return on your marketing investment remains Search Engine Marketing.

Why Search Engine Marketing?

Search marketing for your Website, whether pay-per-click (PPC) or search engine optimization (SEO) remains the cornerstone of any online website marketing campaign, why?.. because it remains the only form of non-Opt-in online marketing form that delivers your products and services to an audience that is actually looking for your products and services. The premise behind Search Engine Optimization is to ensure that your website appears in Search Engine search results for keywords akin to your products and services.

Sounds Great, but how?

Search Engine Marketing differs greatly from traditional marketing campaigns where you pay an outlet to blast your message to an audience, most of whom aren’t looking for your products and services (ie. TV commercials). As such, it is an ongoing process involving content creation, optimized website design, content distribution, all in the efforts of establishing an ongoing conversation with the search engines so that they understand what your products and services are and when to associate them with the audience searching for them.

Let’s get together and discuss ways that we can get your website infront of the audience that’s looking for you! Contact a Saskatoon Website Marketing expert today!

The Cornerstone of Website Marketing is a post from: Saskatoon Web Design | RawkMedia Web Design Group

Keep Potash Corp of Saskatchewan – “Of Saskatchewan”!

Saskatoon Web Design Comapny — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 21:08:42 +0000

Filed under: Saskatoon, saskatoon business, saskatoon community, saskatoon marketing, saskatoon SEO, Saskatoon web design, saskatoon website design, website marketing

We realize that a Web Design & Consulting firm has very little place commenting on the largest foreign takeover of a Canadian company (Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan), however we’d like to put in our two cents on how we feel it may impact the Saskatoon and Saskatchewan Business community.

In a recent report examining the numerous scenarios detailing the varied outcomes of the takeover of Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., the Conference Board of Canada has offered warning about the possible result of foreign ownership of our greatest asset. “It seems fairly certain that even if Sinochem puts together a financing consortium the underlying motivation would be to secure access to a key commodity,” the report said.

Current prices of Potash on the global market is no secret. If you’re a citizen of Saskatchewan, you’ve likely heard reports of the continued rise of the commodity’s price. The price in potash prices over the past 5 years has been the result of a carefully controlled supply, coupled with increasing demand.. Any foreign ownership of the world’s largest potash company would likely result in soaring levels of production, a plummeting price, and billions in revenue lost for Saskatchewan. The Conference Board’s report estimated that the resulting supply shifts would cost Saskatchewan $5.7-billion in lost taxes and royalties over a 10 year period.

Outside of a massive loss to our revenue, we would also lose control of one of Saskatchewan’s most valuable assets, given the fact that potash is the major ingredient in the fertilizer our farmers use to fertilize their soil.

As a Saskatoon based company and a proud Saskatchewan business, we’d love to see a strong, Canadian owned Potash Corp of SASKATCHEWAN… we encourage our Saskatchewan Government and Mr. Brad Wall to continue the good fight in their efforts to keep PCS Canadian.

Keep Potash Corp of Saskatchewan – “Of Saskatchewan”! is a post from: Saskatoon Web Design | RawkMedia Web Design Group

The Neil Young Trunk Show Opens in Saskatoon!

Saskatoon Web Design Comapny — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 21:28:42 +0000

Filed under: Hosting, Saskatoon, saskatoon SEO, saskatoon web consulting, Saskatoon web design, saskatoon website design, Saskatoon website hosting, website marketing

We know this is somewhat off-topic, given the general theme of our website and blog, but we wanted to push out our adoration for Neil Young and even more so for Saskatoon’s Broadway Theatre for boldly going where no other Saskatoon theatre generally goes. In this case, for showing an epic documentary about Neil Young’s epic 2007 performance “Chrome Dreams II performance” in Philly’s Tower Theatre. We had the privilege to catch old shakes perform in both Regina and Saskatoon and can vouch that this documentary is worth watching! Thanks again Broadway Theatre for giving us so much more than what CGI driven no-plots ever could The Neil Young Trunk Show can be considered a “sequel” to Demme’s “Neil Young: Heart of Gold”. This time he gives us raw concert footage from Young’s 2007 Chrome Dreams II tour performances at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby, Pa. Word is that Young and Demme are looking to make this series into a trilogy and a third film will soon follow. If you’ve read this far, you’re a fan of Young, Demme or both – so don’t miss this one. Young’s work is characterized by his deeply personal lyrics, distinctive guitar work, and signature tenor singing voice. His clawhammer acoustic guitar style and often idiosyncratic electric guitar soloing are the defining characteristics of a sometimes ragged, sometimes melodic sound. The Neil Young Trunk Show from saskatoon-web-design on Vimeo.

Why SCN Matters to Saskatchewan!

Saskatoon Web Design Comapny — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 01:19:14 +0000

Filed under: Hosting, saskatoon SEO, saskatoon web consulting, Saskatoon web design, saskatoon website design, Saskatoon website hosting, website marketing

As a longtime fan of Saskatchewan based programming and the cultivation of homegrown talent, Local Programming in general, and obviously Saskatchewan based media in the Saskatoon Web Design community, we’re sad to hear that SCN Saskatchewan has lost funding that has been allocated to the station in the Saskatchewan provincial budget for over 20 years. According to Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport Minister Dustin Duncan, “There is no longer a role for government in the broadcast business,” adding that the decision to cancel Saskatchewan’s only self-made television outlet was based on “efficiencies” outlined in the budget,y. The channel was created in 1989, and began broadcasting in 1990, During which time it served as the Saskatchewan’s primary platform for indie film producers to have their work broadcast. With the announcement comes speculation that most, if not all, of those producers will have their contracts terminated. We do indeed hope that the province is able to find a comparable replacement for local programming and homegrown arts cultivation outlet of SCN caliber in the future. Here’s some reasons why SCN matters to Saskatchewan:

http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=blogsearch&oi=blog_result&ct=result&cd=1&ved=0CC0QmAEwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftimtyler.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F04%2F14%2Freasons-why-scn-matters%2F&rct=j&q=SCN%20saskatchewan&ei=Y2nGS5eRCcbGrAenvPiUDg&usg=AFQjCNGqUYdW2GSGek48QMlh49qYhYD

Why SCN Matters to Saskatchewan! is a post from: Saskatoon Web Design | RawkMedia Web Design Group