UNIQUE Advertising Solutions + Graphic Design

Web Design, Marketing, and the aimless thoughts of an entrepreneur

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Here are a few signs that you have chosen the wrong SEO company

Making promises that are too good to be true.

 

Identifying a promise which “sounds too good to be true” can be tough. The most prevalent of these are is the promise, guaranteeing a #1 position on Google for any single key word or phrase. No legitimate SEO services company will ever do that because search rankings are notoriously variable and, despite your SEO guy’s best efforts, they will fluctuate over time and to achieve a #1 ranking can take a tremendous amount of time and a substantial investment.

 

More importantly is that ranking #1 on Google is meaningless in and of itself. What you want is new customers and Google can support that by delivering a steady stream of highly qualified prospects coming to your site, the analogy we use a lot is that if a website gets a 100,000 hits and all the hits are from other than your target and the site doesn’t convert that traffic its useless, but a few thousand hits of very well qualified hits is far more valuable.  Here at UNIQUE we take these things into consideration and focus on getting targeted traffic to your site, not just “traffic”.

 

Using “Black Hat” SEO Techniques

 

Black Hat refers to the SEO techniques that are designed to “fool” Google into thinking that a page has great content related to a given search term. When Google finds that black hat tactics are being used it will slam down your results off the first page and possibly even ban your site from being listed. This is not something that is uncommon at all.

 

According to the Hub Spot eBook on SEO:

 

“The best way to avoid falling victim to black hat SEO is to ask your current or potential SEO vendors if they use any of these common black hat tactics. If they try to talk you into doorway pages, link-buying schemes, or other black-hat practices, take your business elsewhere!”

 

 

 

Employing Shoddy Linking Schemes

 

Creating large numbers of high quality inbound links is another multifaceted subject which can get complicated, so I will keep it simple. There is an easy way to tell if your SEO company is taking shortcuts here, if they say something like “We’ll have hundreds of inbound links to your site set-up within two weeks.” They are using a linking scheme.

 

Promising to List Your Site in Hundreds of Online Directories

 

This is huge big red flag. There are hundreds of online directories out there, but only a handful can really help you with your SEO rankings and just a few are absolutely required. Someone who says that they are going to list your website on hundreds of search engine directories in a short period of time is going to use a software to do automatically which is utterly useless as it is not customized to your needs.

 

 

 

Driving Irrelevant Traffic

 

I touched on this earlier basically, driving huge numbers of disinterested searchers to your site generates no value whatsoever, it may look good within Google analytics but it will not in the financials.

 

If the SEO company you are talking to only talk about quantity of traffic and not quality and targeted traffic, RUN.

 

Offering a One-Time Fixes with No Ongoing Maintenance

 

SEO is something that is never ending so if you are talking to an SEO company and they propose a onetime solution, find the door because SEO is not a onetime solution.  We try to develop long term relationships with our SEO clients and provide continuous ongoing support.

 

Let’s face it, there are basically 2 reasons that we prefer to develop long term relationships with our clients.  First it means a source of continuous revenue and secondly, most importantly we know that true SEO success comes with time, and staying on top of it by analyzing traffic data and adjusting our methods to do more of what is working and less what’s not is the only real way to be successful with SEO.

KONY 2012 is it a scam?

In the past couple days nearly the entire world has heard about KONY 2012, and if you have not, you may want to crawl from under the rock.  Well last night I sat down with Irene and watched the video to see what all the hoopla was about and my immediate reaction was wow this is good cause.  But being a bit pessimistic I began to research about the organization.  I found that there was a lot of controversy surrounding them. So I dug deeper.

In case you don’t know there is a site called guidestar.org where you can see any non profits 990 form (basically public audit)  these forms will tell you where the money they raise goes.

Now with KONY 2012 many are saying scam because only 30% of the money they raised last year went to the “cause”.  So after looking over their 990 form let’s see where they spent the money.

 

Of the $8.9 million in donations they spent in 2011, this is the breakdown:

  • $1.7 million in US employee salaries
  • $357,000 in Film costs
  • $850,000 in Production costs
  • $751,000 in Computer equipment
  • $244,000 in “professional services” (DC lobbyists)
  • $1.07 million in travel expenses
  • $400,000 in yearly office rent in downtown San Diego
  • $16,000 in Entertainment etc…
  • 2.8 million (31%) made it to their charity program

 

Let’s look at the salaries first, as 1.7 million sounds like a lot until you find out that they had 45 employees which means the average salary is $38,000 per person.  Which depending on where you live is modest at best.  I don’t think 38k a year is lavish by any means.

Now the other expenditures I also can understand, last year they were gearing up for this campaign and I must say it is hugely successful.  I was keeping an eye on their YouTube video and in a matter of 24 hours it went from 700,000 views to over 36 million.  So the money that was spent in video, production costs etc I can see it being well justified.  Now what will be interesting to see is this same time next year that 30% should be far more as their donations should increase dramatically with this campaign.  If this time next year it’s still 30% I would be concerned but at this point I think it is a good cause and from what I can tell has been fiscally well managed.  Also on a side note the American Red Cross is at that same 30% as well, so 30% for a non profit seems to be the norm.

Now for the other side of the fence, I agree with many that say we have enough problems of our own right now.  I agree with that whole heartedly, but I don’t think us as individuals spending a little extra time on this and the US military having 100 soldiers as advisors over there is a detriment to our current situation.  We obviously can’t do a lot right now in our own country to fix things so why not make something else better.

With all variables considered UNIQUE Advertising Solutions + Web Design is in full support of the KONY 2012 project.

-Trevor Hunter

 

EDIT: merely 30 mins after this was published it is topping 3000 views, along with that quite a bit of feedback.  There is another issue I’d like to address.  It is true that KONY is not nearly the threat that he once was and his military power has dwindled.  Many are saying that because of this the cause is wasting time, money etc.  The fact is, regardless if this man is a threat today or not he is a blight on humanity and has done some atrocious things in the past.  Just because he is not as powerful any longer doesn’t mean he gets a free pass, hell i say that’s the ideal time to take him down.  Justice still needs to be handed out.

 

UPDATE: The KONY 2012 project is currently not able to fulfill their orders due to high demand.  We are a web design company but we also provide printing services to our clients as well.  We are interested in helping this cause as much as possible so if anyone wants to get anything printed we will be more than happy to do it for cost.  If you are interested in having banners, or anything printed let us know and we will be more than happy to help out.

Click Here to contact us

KONY2012

KONY2012

Can’t I use Frontpage or Google Pages to build my website?

As a web designer I constantly hear “cant I just use Microsoft FrontPage or Google pages to build my site”?  With the invention of WYSIWYG editors there has been a massive increase of poorly coded D.I.Y web pages introduced to the Internet. Everyone and their grandmother now has the power to build a website. This is a wonderful thing,  you no longer have to hire someone to build your personal website, family reunion site, pet site, etc. However, there is a flip side to this. Self proclaimed website designers have sprouted up everywhere, that are more than willing to take your hard earned money to build you a substandard site.  I see it every day, and a new client comes to me and says I spent $1000 on this but it doesn’t quite work right.  After a 10 second glance at the code I immediately know that the fix is a complete rebuild, and at that point I am forced to explain to this individual that they were basically ripped off.  Now with that said I’m not saying that the designer intentionally ripped them off, many times the designer is as much in the dark as the client is and the simple fact is that they are not experienced enough to be offering a service but with the current economy they have to do something to attempt to make a living.

 

There is a huge difference in a hand coded, professional grade website compared to a website made in  FrontPage’s design view or Google Page builder. Website code, either you know what you’re doing or you don’t. Using any program’s Design View will 99% of the time eliminate any hopes of XHTML or CSS validity. You can also scratch off cross browser compatibility, it’s not happening.

 

Design view takes one very important element out of the website design process, Intelligence. That may sound harsh but it’s true. Both FrontPage and Google Pages along with a myriad of other WYSIWYG editors are designed for one thing and one thing only, to provide a means for the average computer user to throw together an amateur web page and that is awesome for family reunion, kids sports teams and so on but not for a business.  In fact a site like this will most likely do more harm than good.  When someone builds an amateur site like this for a business and I visit it I will usually automatically dismiss them with the thought “If there website looks like this what does their _____ look like” and then move on till I find someone with a professional appearance.

 

There are other immediate downsides as well.  If you have ever used a WYSIWYG editor and looked at the “code view” you have almost certainly asked “What’s all this extra code”? Well that’s the problem I can’t tell you. In fact, in most cases it extremely outweighs the actual content on the web page. The reason this code is there is that these WYSIWYG programs don’t have the ability to figure out the most efficient way to accomplish something (the intelligence factor I mentioned earlier).

 

The next question that is probably going through your head is what’s wrong with a little extra code? Isn’t it all about how it looks? Did you know that the code to content ratio actually has an effect on your search engine ranking? It is a very important factor in determining a websites ‘worth’ on search engines.  This is bad news for any website hoping to pick up traffic from search engines. Also this completely eliminates the chances of a website working in multiple browsers.

 

This is quite simple. There is no WYSIWYG editor or “easy to use web building software” that can efficiently write code and use proper design principles.  Now if you are looking to have someone build your website for you don’t be afraid to ask them about W3C Code validation and what programs they use to design in and then ask them ask them if they build in design view. If they do, you’re probably not where you want to be.  There is a caveat to this is using WYSIWYG editors to edit elements on a page is fine.  Me and my programmers use a program called Dreamweaver to “EDIT” pages once they are created.  What I mean by edit is swapping out pictures or something simple for a client the code is always hand coded.

 

UNIQUE Advertising Solutions is a North Carolina Web Design Company, all of our sites are hand coded by professionals based in the USA, we never outsource your project.  Our programmers are employees of UNIQUE.

 

SEO Can be Fun

If you have ever done SEO you will know that it is one of the most tedious, boring things that you can possibly do.  Well now there is a new thing to do that will dramatically boost your SEO ranking that is actually fun to do, and a bit addictive believe it or not.  Create hundreds of backlinks to your site and tons of traffic and have fun doing it.

 

Contact us for your website design and SEO needs

       

SEO can be fun

SEO can be fun

How much does a website cost.

I hear this question all the time.  Asking how much a website costs to build without any details is about the same as asking how much does a house cost, which is impossible to answer because there is not enough information to calculate a cost.

 

With just a few details we can get a fairly accurate web design quote put together.  Our basic website package price is 600 and that is for a fully custom website.   Adding content management system and other functionalities increases the cost.

 

I often hear how much for a cheap single page site.  Here at unique we make all of our graphics for each project so there is a lot of customization for every project regardless of how simple it is.

 

We also have website payment plans which we can provide to anyone, no credit checks or anything.  So contact us today for a quote for your project.

 

www.uniqueadvertisingsolutions.com

Cheap Logo Design, Not Really Cheap In Reality

In the web design industry we have 2 types of clients, we have the “how much is it”s and “I want this”s. These two types differ greatly, the first type, the “how much is it”s leads with that question and typically they want something cheap. The other kind, the “I want this”s know what they want and they are willing to pay to have it done right. Here at UNIQUE we have both of these daily, and we build sites for both. With prices starting at $600 for a completely custom design we can usually please everyone.

I have been wanting to touch on the “cheap ways” for a while now and really show what the difference is. So the other day I found a budget logo designer and paid for 2 projects. I chose 2 designs that I currently was working on myself for clients so that I would have comparisons. Now obviously if my “cheap designs” had turned out good I would not be writing this right now, but as expected they came out garbage.

Before we dive into the work let me explain a little about design, specifically our design process. When we design a logo we make the rough draft and with that rough draft we use a program to scan the internet to find similar or same images. If our new design comes back with no matches then we are typically good. But if something comes back too similar then we make something new. Why go to all this trouble? Well a company’s logo is probably one of the most important visual elements they have and if it is the same as someone else then it is not really unique, plus there are the trademark and copyright issues that are also important to avoid. When we design a logo we take all these measures to ensure that the user gets something truly UNIQUE and that reflects positively on their business.

The Cheap Designs

Now let’s get into the designs, I gave the designer some basic instructions. Simple, clean, and modern and here is what I received.

As you see both are quite bad, the first looks like a descent concept but it is very glitchy in the curves.

Here is the Real Design

Now here is the logo that we designed for the same project, and of course the client loved it.

Here are some other logos that we have designed.

Conclusion

Getting it done right the first time may cost a bit more initially, but getting a professional design, that has been checked to make sure that it is legal and original to use, the first time, saves you time and money in the long run. Paying for 2,3 maybe even more designs can get expensive, far more expensive than just paying for it initially to be done right.

New Press Release

With Google logging more than 2 billion searches per day the web has become an integral part of most businesses, even businesses that have been around for many years are having to build a presence on the web to continue to grow their business. Growing a web presence as many know is not an easy process and finding the correct company to design and manage a program is probably more complicated than ever. With what seems to be an endless supply of so called web designers how does one pick the right one?

Well UNIQUE Advertising Solutions + Graphic Design makes that choice a little bit easier. They have broken the traditional web design company mold with in-house financing. With a partial payment to start and payments as low as $100 per month it has never been more affordable to have a professionally built website. UNIQUE does a lot of things differently, with roots as a marketing company there is a solid understanding of advertising works. Building a successful website is far more than simply making a cool design.

A website is nothing more than a sales tool, sometimes that tool drives customers to a physical store or restaurant and sometimes it closes the sale before the user leaves the website. These variables are extremely important. A website should drive it’s users to the website owners ultimate goal, whatever that may be. To make that happen the web designer needs to have a solid grasp on marketing to specific demographics, and this is something UNIQUE thrives at.
With UNIQUE’s in-house financing programs and their unique out of the box style they are an affordable and solid web design solution for any business that is trying to build a web presence

Visit UNIQUE today at UNIQUE Advertising Solutions

http://www.uniqueadvertisingsolutions.com

See the Full PR Here

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UNIQUE Advertising Solutions Commercial with Morgan Freeman….

UNIQUE is a North Carolina Web Design company.

Why choose UNIQUE for your website project?

• We provide our clients with first rate design and website building services. We are ranked a top ten design firm by http://top10designer.com/
• We are a marketing company so we understand that there is more to a website than simply the design itself.
• We provide you with the cost beforehand and there are never any hidden charges down the road.
• We make our deadlines.
• Our prices for a fully custom information site begin at $600 and the average turnaround time is 10 days.
• We work very closely with our clients throughout the design process to make sure that we build exactly what you want.
• We do it RIGHT the FIRST time.
• We also can provide hosting, quad core servers, 100 mbit connections speeds, GUARANTEED 99.9% uptime $16.99 per month.
• A few other services that we provide, business card design and printing, brochures, promotional items, screen printing, direct to garment, we are a one stop shop for all of your advertising needs.

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