November 28th, 2009 admin Location: Raleigh, North Carolina
Ok let’s talk about the future of competitive website design for a second: it is just that: competitive. By looking at the Google Insights graph at the top you can clearly see that the trend of search for web design in the North Carolina area has dropped almost by half! You could probably attribute some of that to the specificity of search, however in my opinion it also highlights that web design is being searched less. Read the rest of this entry »
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October 22nd, 2009 admin Location: Raleigh, North Carolina
Hi guys. This is a very quick post about a topic that I am sure interests most for-hire web designers. Job postings. Places like monster.com and Career Builder often send all these emails trying to catch the right candidate for the right position. The companies get high quality talent and the people get jobs. It is great, isn’t it?
Well, kind of. One thing I have noticed as a trend is that companies using this services are coming up with an outrageous number of requirements to hire. You may think that is because of the bad economy, but I don’t think so. I think is more a matter of not wanting the job listing to look empty or un-professional.
In any case, the reason behind is not so important. The real problem is what they are causing in the minds of talented web designers and developers out there.
Take a quick look at this snippet:
- 4 Year Degree in IT
Required Skills and Experience
- .Net
- C#, C++
- Drupal
- Photoshop
- Flash
- Illustrator
- HTML
- PHP
- JavaScript
- Linux
- MySQL
All I have to say is wow. First of all: .Net is a Microsoft based platform (which is not free). PHP is a similar platform (which is open source, in other words is free). C# and C++ are two separate high level derivatives of C which use compiling and runtime. Drupal is an Open Source content management system based on php. Drupal is primarily seen as a CMS of preference for social-type websites. Photoshop is obviously the weapon of choice for website design, color correction image manipulation and Raster-based content. Flash is the world of interactivity and animation for both the desktop (AIR) and online. Illustrator is the most powerful vector-based application there is (as opposed to raster). HTML is full online markup language. PHP is the most well known server scripting language for building dynamic websites. Javascript is a client-based scripting language as opposed to the server-side of PHP. Linux is the operating system that runs in most web servers in the world, however it doesn’t run Photoshop, Illustrator or Flash as applications. Finally MYSQL for database storage.
In the notes section they state this:
At least 3 years of interactive (front-end and back-end) experience.
HTML; JavaScript; Linux; mySQL; PHP; XHTML; XML
On top of all this please make sure that you completed a 4 year degree in IT.
And finally, they top it with this sentence:
Experience with 3D apps, video editing and/or sound design, a PLUS!!!!
A Plus? Are you kidding? Getting an expert in half of the requirements is a plus. Getting an expert in all these things and on top of that having video and sound design experience is not a PLUS.
Why am I fired up? Well, I take this as an insult to our profession. Imagine what would happen if a hospital wanted to hire only doctors that are experts in oncology, brain surgery, heart surgery, microsurgery and if you can also do Eye surgery then is a PLUS!
The moral of this post is this: As a designer, don’t feel bad about this kind of job postings. Believe me, I have spend much of my life learning on a PC, LINUX and a MAC how to design in Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, InDesign, Fireworks and others, how to code in TextMate, Dreamweaver, Coda and others. How to Build in XHTML, CSS, PHP, Javascript, Jquery, Mootols, XML and others. How to program in C, Objective-C (for the iPhone and MAC OS X). How to port to Drupal, Joomla, WordPress and others. I have plenty of experience with sound recording, mixing, editing and mastering. I have experience in Video recording in both SD and HD and I also read constantly about Digital Photography and HDR. I have my bachelors (4 year schooling) and I have a masters in business. All this time I have spent in this and when I see this kind of posting I feel the same way that people with less background do.
Don’t feel bad when you see a post like that. Feel good. Make sure that you don’t apply for a position like that. Why? Because the company that has the audacity to request that from you is also going to request more than what they can afford. They will force you into surrendering your free time, the one they don’t pay for. They will take away your self-esteem as a designer and they will take your creative kid away.
When you see a job posting like that, look at it and then walk away knowing that thankfully you saw their true colors before you stepped into their office. I don’t really know why they don’t ask you to run 100meters under 10seconds too. They probably should.
Be happy and creative, until next time…
Alex_ @ merkados
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January 6th, 2007 admin Location: Raleigh, North Carolina
To design and to build great websites is getting easier and easier every day. However, the best web designers that I know come from a graphics design background. Having that in mind, I have prepared this seven essential search engine optimization tips to help those web designers maximize their value to their clients. Here they are:
- Make a fast keyword research before starting. I am sure that most professional designers have a planning stage where they gather all the copy, pictures and information from their clients. This step has to include a gathering of at least the top 10 keywords that people would use to search for that particular website. There are free tools out there such as Overture and Google Suggest that can help. This is important because this can help you prioritize the content in coherent sections.
- Include your keywords in your filenames. Instead of using the company’s or client’s name in the naming convention, use your keywords. Most designers would love to have extra time to go picture by picture after the design is over to rename them with appropriate keywords, but the truth is that this is time consuming and most designers don’t do it. By including your keywords in your file naming conventions you provide SEO value while you are not using extra time.
- Use custom Meta-tags. Templates are a great way to get your websites up and running in no time, nevertheless in SEO world, repetitive tags don’t work. Try to use relevant and unique meta-tags for each of your pages. Use the four important meta-tags in each page: Title tag, Description Tag, Keywords Tag and Robots Tag. In this keywords keep readability and marketing in mind and remember to use your keywords wisely.
- Top-bottom rule. Keep in mind that the spiders crawl websites from top to bottom. I have seen numerous websites where the web designer has placed 1000 lines or more of JavaScript, Css or JS code right in the home page before any of the “real content”. This means that the spider will spend a lot of effort discarding this information and getting to the real juice of the page. The work around is incredibly easy: html includes. Make a call to those scripts in the page and create separate files for each script.
- Consistent code writing. Even though most SEOs agree that this is not mandatory to validate your code for XHTML, HTML or XML standards, I suggest taking the extra time to revise your code to make sure is consistent. For example, if you decide to use XHTML strict then make sure that you are closing every single tag. This recommendation will save you time and effort in the future.
- Use text wisely. The one most important element in search engine optimization is text. If you have original and compelling copy for your client’s website you have already won 80% of the SEO battle. Don’t repeat your content in different pages to make it look full. Use at least 250 words per page and place your content up in the page as possible. I would suggest using as much CSS as you can, but I understand that transitioning from table design to CSS takes time. Use headings to increase readability and bullets for key aspects; keep in mind that most people read around 300 words per minute, even less when they read in the internet (they are reading in a screen), so be brief and clear.
- Design a congruent structure.What I mean by this is: Start by understanding your client’s business and its client’s needs, then and only then, define what is important for the home page, what is important for second level and what is left. Once you know what is most relevant then keep that content no further than a click away from the home page. If the website you are designing is smaller than 1000 pages then it is ok to keep your files directly in the main level directory. If your website has more, then create subdivisions according to clients’ expected behavior in the site. For example if it is an e-commerce site you might want to create a directory for support and another one for sales. The main recommendation is don’t create directories that would end up looking like this: services/fast-services/printing/color/photographs/index.html, instead do something like: services/color-photograph-printing.htm
Consider these recommendations in your projects and I assure you that your clients will love the extra value that basic Search Engine Optimization can bring to their business. Also remember that there is way more to SEO than just this, but your search engine marketer will appreciate the effort you have made in making things a lot easier for him.
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