We develop and design websites every day that we are excited about.  This isn’t fan-service or corporate speak for “we take your project seriously, so hire us.”  This is the truth.  Sure, we work on projects that have parts of the project that we aren’t crazy about.  I’ll admit that too.  Sometimes a design or development requirement occurs that makes our concern level rise about the project.  The joke in the website design industry and around the office which I will now refer to as the “Client’s Dog” rule is that every client wants something on their design that can be seen as inappropriate or out of place for the design.  Sometimes this is a mascot.  Sometimes it is the owner.  Sometimes this is a picture of the owner’s boat, favorite sport’s team, or other interest.

Usually it is a pet.

We realized as we reflected on our role in facilitating that rule, that we have also embraced this rule for a couple of other clients with strong success

We realized a while into referring to this rule that this is in fact a rule that we have broken to the nth degree with our business.  Chewie is a pet, and the business does not only have her on the site, but is also actually named after her.  In this case, she is my pet. We realized as we reflected on our role in facilitating that rule, that we have also embraced this rule for a couple of other clients with strong success.

And we also realized something important that day.

Despite the state of any project we are involved in at any given time, and despite the level of “Client’s Dog” that is taking place within a project – we are universally excited about the project that goes out into the world.  Every. Single. Time.  We get attached, we work programming magic to make things better or more robust than the project calls for.  We make lists capable of handling hundreds of items, when there will only ever be 4 items.

We build websites that we want to see on the internet.  And because of this, our excitement usually mirrors that of our clients’ excitement.

We make images that expand and contract automatically when these images will hardly ever change.  We build websites that we want to see on the internet.  And because of this, our excitement usually mirrors that of our clients’ excitement.
And this is where the thrust of this entry is found.

Websites need to be given a chance.  We’ve been conditioned that since everything is so quick with technology, that our amazing website that has everything and the kitchen sink will also be able to climb the ranks of google in one day and sit atop that lofty throne like the champion that it is.  Unfortunately, this is not always the case.  The case is that the brand new site that just got created is now competing with all of the other existing websites out there of its kind.  And those have been around for a lot longer and have a lot more content and a lot more money spent into crafting how content has been created to show up when someone looks up anything to do with their site.

This helps organic listings.  We make sure meta-tags, descriptions, relevant content, location tags, and structure all fall in line with what google likes.

Google is not instant.  It will crawl a site, but it will take time to decide on how your site should be ranked.  Age has something to do with it, frequent, relevant content has something to do with it.  And sometimes it just takes a while to see how the site will be situated in the rankings.  Having a properly built website is the first step; we make sure that is taken care of.  This helps organic listings.  We make sure meta-tags, descriptions, relevant content, location tags, and structure all fall in line with what google likes.  The second step is of course your content: updates are important.  The third step is SEO and advertising.  This can be done with google adwords and campaigns.  This also can be done with advertising – the more people that hear about your site, the more visitors you get, and the more Google ranks your site.

Rome wasn’t built in a day and unfortunately, Google rankings can’t be as well.

But this all comes back to expectations.  We expect this to be instant.  The doors open and suddenly the internet basks in the glory of that new website.  New website smell bursts through the google ranks and into the homes of the entire population of planet earth.  This doesn’t happen though, Rome wasn’t built in a day and unfortunately, Google rankings can’t be as well.

However, this isn’t a bad thing – this is a great thing.  This means that you can appear at the top as well.  Just continue doing the right things: building a quality website, doing quality work as a business, and being good to your clients.  And much like your company, your website status will grow.  Spend some money on SEO, but get the word out there too.  You will see monthly visitors grow.  And this is the important metric – not total visitors, but comparison from previous months.

Because even if 200 people see your site in a month sometimes, that is 200 more people who know about your business than a month before.  And the next month those are 200 or more people again.  Your website is an amazingly powerful marketing tool that can be used to get your message out to everybody that can possibly get to your site.  But it’s still a tool.

So give it a chance.

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