Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is on every website owner’s mind.  We all want our sites to be noticed and ranked (highly, we hope) by the search engines so that our target audience can find us easily on the web.  That is, after all, the whole point of having a website!  If you’ve done any research into SEO, it seems pretty straight forward.  Use well-structured metadata

Key Words

Key words are, well, key.  You want to make sure your metadata includes a list of keywords that your audience is likely to use to find you (or sites like yours), but don’t inflate the list.  Flooding your metadata with keywords, or repeating keywords in multiple areas of your site such as your footer, even repeating key words unnecessarily in your post titles can all have a negative effect on the way search engines view your site.  Hiding key word areas on your site by making the text the same color as the background is also a big no-no.  It may not be visible to the human eye, but search bots aren’t fooled, and they don’t like sneaky tricks like that!  Keep your key word usage reasonable, and let your content do the rest of the work!  

Fresh, Original Content

Wanna really grab the attention of all the search engines out there?  Fresh, original content posted on a regular basis is the best way to climb in the rankings.  If you have a blog, try to keep a regular posting schedule.  When you post to your blog, or update your site content, keep the content original.  Use your own words.  Your readers will sense your genuineness and come back for more, and search engines will recognize unique content and rank your site accordingly.  It’s a win win!

No Filler

Some content can actually hinder your site in search engine standings. Lengthy lists of links (like bookmarks or favorites), content copied from other websites (even if you gave proper credit and linkbacks), or web copy that is shared within communities and used by many members on their individual websites can appear as filler to search engines’ robots (not a good thing).  If you have long lists of affiliate or favorites links in your sidebar, consider trimming the lists down.  If you can’t bear to part with a single link on your list, just remove the list from your sidebar (which shows up dynamically on every page of your site), and move it to one static “Links” page on your site.

SEO Tools

Most search engines have information about how their engine ranks sites.  Read up and make sure you’re keeping within their guidelines, and you’ll probably even learn new things you can do to increase your site’s search engine love!

Google offers Webmaster Tools, a free service that can help you get a handle on how Google’s search bots crawl your site.  If you’ve got a self-hosted WordPress blog, there are TONS of great SEO plugins that can automate a lot of SEO tasks for you.  Type “webmaster info” into a Google search, and you’ll turn up lots of great info.

Helpful SEO Links 

Google Webmasters Central 
Google Webmaster Guidlines
Ask.com’s Info for Webmasters 
WordPress All-in-One SEO Plugin Pack
WordPress Google XML Sitemaps Generator Plugin 

Whoo! May was a busy month for me! I finally had a chance this morning to post a couple of the projects I finished in May to my portfolio, but there are still more to come. I’ve had the opportunity to work on a wide range of projects from an online magazine, to a digital art project (still under wraps until the client is ready to launch her site), and a few photography logos and photoblogs, which are always fun for me!

June is already booked (and looking to be as exciting as May was!), and I’m already starting to book projects for July, so if you have a project you’d like me to start on, send me an inquiry soon so we can get you added to my design schedule!

About once a year, we make a pilgrimage back to my place of origin (the Detroit area) to visit with the ‘rents and the sibs (and the nieces).  This year we knew it would be in May, but we weren’t sure when (it depended on some business-related things for my husband), and ultimately we decided about a week ago, that we were making the trip this week.  Not a lot of planning time!  So, I apologize if you’ve tried to contact me over the weekend and haven’t heard back from me yet.  My weekend was eaten up by traveling and Mother’s day-type activities, and I’m just now getting caught up with emails (while still working on the projects I have going right now).

More big news for me, it was a serendipitous time for us to make a visit, because my brother’s wife had her baby today!  So, I get to see my brand new nephew RIGHT after he was born (instead of seeing him for the first time when he’s 3 or 6 months old, as happened with his two older sisters)!  I am so excited!

So, please bear with me as I work “on the road” for a week!  I am accessible by email now, and I’m still on schedule with all current projects, so if you have proofs or other deliverables due this week, you can expect them to arrive on time!  If you sent me an inquiry this weekend, expect to hear from me within the next day or two!

I’ve been on Twitter for a while now, and I love the idea of it: say your piece in 160 characters or less.  I often want to blog, but feel like I can’t come up with enough material for an entire blog piece, and Twitter has been the perfect solution for me.  I can Tweet the random thought that just popped into my head, or a brief status update, and not feel like I need to struggle with more content to go along with it.

Using Twitter to Socialize

Social networking definitely isn’t new.  Chances are, you’re already on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Flickr, and/or any number of other social networking sites and services.  Twitter is just another way to socialize on the web.  Grab your own Twitter account, and you can “Follow” all your friends–catch their latest updates, and let them know what you’re up to as well.  You can even Tweet on the go: Twitter allows you to tweet from your cell phone.

Using Twitter to Network

Just type a few key words into Twitter’s search, and you’ll pull up all the most recent tweets on that subject.  I’ve found this really useful for hooking up with other graphic and web designers.  Now I have a network of others in my profession that I can exchange ideas with.  Frequently, my contacts will post links to blog articles with helpful tips and tricks of the trade.  It helps me keep up with the latest design trends and best practices.

Using Twitter to with Your Business

Just like your customers follow your blog, they can also follow you on Twitter.  You can encourage this by feeding your Twitter updates into your blog and including a “Follow me on Twitter” link.  The key to using Twitter to promote your business is to keep it real.  No one wants to follow someone whose Tweets are just ads 24/7.  People want to know who you are and what you’re about.  Let that show in your Tweets.  If you’re a photographer, Tweet about how much fun that last newborn shoot you did was.  Tweet about a helpful new photography trick you just learned.  Tweet about the new blog entry you just posted that has super cute pictures from your latest senior session.  Be genuine.  This lets your customers/clients relate to you as a person, and helps develop trust in your business.

And with that, I’ll say that I just added my own Tweets to my site!  You can check out my latest updates down in my footer, and even find a link to follow me on Twitter.  I’d love to network with you!  But I’ll just warn you now: I tweet about food.  A lot.

There’s nothing I love more than having plenty to do, and January was definitely full of projects to be worked on!  I completed a few different logos, did a ProPhoto customization, and launched a custom photoblog last month!  I haven’t had a chance to get everything up in the portfolio yet, so keep your eyes peeled!

If you haven’t seen it yet, though, you definitely need to check out Freckle Face Photography’s new blog!  I just love the way this one came out, and happily, so did Carol!  The colors in her logo were so much fun to design with, and I got to completely trick this blog out with not only a custom design, but a custom-built private client area as well!

Availability update: I’m booked through February, and am now accepting projects to begin in early March.  Contact me for details!

Since I took the last part of December off, I decided to use the extra free time (between Christmas baking, a week and a half of holiday guests, etc.) to give Lilac Creative a little makeover! Aside from the cute new graphics, I also restructured some things to make my portfolio easier to peruse by both categories that are specific to the type of project, and tags that label different styles, blog platforms, etc. Under the contact section I added new request-for-proposal forms that will make it easier and faster to get a quote from me! Enjoy!

A little note on my current availability: I’ve got projects booked through the second week of January, so the wait is only two weeks at the moment. If you’ve got a project you’d like me to consider, head on over to the contact page and send me the appropriate project form!

WordPress 2.7 was released last week, and if you’ve been waiting for a significant new release to upgrade, this is what you’ve been waiting for! It has a plethora of cool new features, but it’s built-in upgrade feature alone is worth the upgrade. No more deleting files, worrying if you’re going to screw up and delete your entire site. Nope–now, you just click a button from your dashboard and it automatically updates WordPress from there!

For more on WordPress 2.7, check out the little video they put together highlighting all the fun stuff in this new release here.

Always be sure to backup your site before you upgrade.  If you’re not comfortable backing up and upgrading yourself, contact me for my upgrade service. It’s the last time you’ll need help with upgrading!

The Christmas holidays are quickly aproaching, and Thanksgiving weekend reminded me just how time-consuming the holidays can be!  With that said, I’m going to be finishing up the projects I currently have on my plate, and then taking the rest of the month off.

I’ll still be responding to emails however, so if you have a project you’d like to get started after New Years, email me and we will talk about getting you added to my 2009 design schedule!

Happy Holidays, all!

Recently a client of mine lost her entire site when the server her site was hosted on crashed unexpectedly.  Many things can go wrong with a website, most of which you may have no warning of and no control over.  For that reason, performing regular back ups of your site database is a necessity.  Bad things can happen to your site, but if you have a back up, you can get your site up and running again in no time, with no data lost.

What do I need to back up?

Your Theme Files. If you are running a WordPress blog/site, there are two things you want to be sure you keep backed up: your theme files, and your database.  If you’re using a free theme you found on the internet, backing up the theme may not be as big of a deal because you can easily download the theme from its original source.  But if you’ve had a custom theme created for you, or you’ve extensively modified a theme you discovered online, you definitely want to make sure you keep a back up on your computer (or maybe even burned to disc).  Do not count on your designer keeping a back up of your theme for you; many web designers delete finished project files off of their computers in order to save space, and keeping back ups of your files is your responsibility.

If you don’t already have a copy of your theme files on your computer, you can download them from your server.  Using the FTP manager in your cPanel or an FTP program such as FileZilla, navigate to your themes folder.  The path will be something like this: public_html (not used on all servers) > your blog directory > wp-content > themes.  Then select your theme and download the entire directory to your computer.

Your database. Your blog’s database contains all your posts and pages, and all of the customized settings specific to your blog.  This is the core of your site and the item it is most important to back up.

Backing Up a MySQL Database

Your site’s database is most likely a MySQL database.  You can find it by logging into your cPanel or hosting account and clicking on phpMyAdmin.

Once you’re in phpMyAdmin, you’ll see a menu on the left hand side that will list all databases your site is using.  It’s a good idea to back up all your databases, but you can only do it one at a time, so select the database you want to back up.

On the right side, select “Export” from the horizontal menu across the top.

You should now see a screen that looks similar to the figure below.  Under “Export” make sure all options are highlighted, and the SQL radio button is checked.  Under “Structure,” check “Add DROP TABLE,” “Add AUTO INCREMENT value,” and “Enclose table and field names with backquotes.”  Under “Data” check “Complete Inserts” and “Use hexidecimal for BLOB.”

Then at the bottom select “Save as file.”  Under compression you can choose whichever option you’d like, although I recommend selecting either “None,” or “zipped.”  If your blog has a large number of posts, “zipped” might be the better option.  Then click “Go” and the database backup will download to your computer.

How Often Should I Back Up?

That depends on how often you post to your site, and how critical your content is.  If your site is business related and you update it frequently, backing up weekly (or maybe even more often than that) would probably be a good idea.  If you only post once every other week, you might be okay to only update once a month.  Ultimately, you need to decide when and how often to back up based on your needs.

My Site Crashed – Now What Do I Do?

If something has happened to your site and you have a back up of your database, your site can be restored to the way it was at the time of your most recent back up.  If you’re not sure what exactly has happened to your site, contact me and I can try to diagnose the problem.  From there I can help you decide what steps to take next.  I provide a variety of maintenance services including database restoration and general troubleshooting.

Well, it has been a BUSY summer!  I am now booking for October, so if you’ve got a project you’d like me to consider, hop over to the Contact page and drop me an inquiry!

Here’s what I’ve been up to in August:

Cat of Your Memories Live was ready to start up her own scrap-for-hire business, and wanted a professional-looking blog to use as her business front.  I created a sleek, monochromatic design for her, complete with drop-down menus and an extra-wide posting area.

Erin of My Urban Suburban wanted to start a blog to inform people in her area of all the hip and trendy restaurants, shops, & events available to them.  Here the goal was clean and simple with a touch of retro-chic.  In addition to the blog design and installation, I hooked her up with site stat tracking and social bookmarking tools through Feedburner to help her understand and expand her readership, and a double opt-in mailing list that will allow her to keep her readers up-to-date on all the latest posts.

Jillian Kirby was one of my first blog design clients, and I was so flattered when she and her business partner came to me to help them get the site for their new business venture up and running!  La Storia Studios combines the talents of two amazing photographers to cover all of life’s milestones.  They had already purchased a WordPress theme they wanted to use, so the design is not mine, but I helped them customize the graphics and colors to match their logo, and I added a secure “client’s only” area to the site.  They are not officially launching until January 2009, but I can’t wait to see what these talented ladies come up with next!