Facebook Business Pages in Windsor I Like

As most of you know, I recently set up a Facebook fan/business page for my freelance Windsor Web Design work. You can read more about my Facebook page experience here.  Before I started it, I spent a month or two checking out a few other Facebook business pages in the area to see what worked and what didn't. I kept note of which ones I liked so that I could give them a little love on my blog one day, that day has come!

Eyes On Windsor

I really like the "Welcome" page on this site. Anytime you can signal people to "Like" your page, in a descriptive way is a good thing. Eyes On Windsor also has a nice Facebook profile image which signals people to click the Wall or Info.

Caesars Windsor

Not surprising that a BIG business like Caesars Windsor has a fantastic Facebook page. They update it regularly (daily) with fresh info about what's going on at the Casino. They also run contests and have giveaways on a regular basis.

There are a bunch of other pages I like, but I don't want to make this post incredibly long by adding picture after picture, so I'll just list the others here; Windsor Stars Soccer, Windsor Squash & Fitness, & Perfect Shutter.

Many small businesses in Windsor are really catching on, on how to generate business through Facebook. If you're interested in having a Facebook fan page designed, please contact me!

New Square Sized Web Advertisements

In the last couple of weeks, I've created a couple of square web ads that I wanted to share with everyone. I've been thinking about purchasing ad space on several websites that are Windsor related and I'd really love your opinions.

If you've visited this Windsor web design blog in the past month, chances are you've seen the first ad. It's a square 290x290px ad with several different shades of blue. It's an animated GIF that rotates between a few of my latest web designs.

The second web advertisement I created is also square sized. This time a bit smaller at 250x250px. This square ad has a bit of a "lighter" feel to it. Not as cold or dark as the first one. Again, this one displays a few of my latest works, only this time they don't rotate. The animation is now at the base of the add and is rotating through a few different lines of text.

I think both of these are fairly well done. If I had to choose which is my favorite, I'd probably go with the smaller ad because I feel that it's a bit cleaner and more eye catching.

All comments, suggestions and criticisms are welcome! Thanks!

Web Design Review - SummerFestWindsor.org

With the Windsor Ontario Summer Fest (previously known as Freedom Festival), right around the corner, I figured I'd give everyone a quick review of their web design. Overall the site isn't too bad. It's easy on the eyes, informative and very clean however, there are a few things about it that I would probably changed had I done the web design.

  

Judging by the copyright, the general look and feel of the site was designed back in 2009. It's been updated each year according to the dates and events of the Summer Fest however the main design of the site is unchanged. I really like the header of the site. The image rotates between a few different images every 10 seconds or so. What I don't like about the header is the fact that the summer fest logo wasn't saved in a high resolution. Just cheapens the site a bit. I also don't like the navigation links. My next big criticism would have to be the navigation links. Using images as navigation links is fine as long as all the images are saved in high resolution. The images are clearly saved in a low resolution and the white text is sometimes hard to read on the burgundy background.

As far as the details and information on the site. I'd probably have a daily schedule of what's happening. They have a list of general information that's coming up. I'd probably have a calendar on the homepage where each date is a link that opens to a new window with information about what's gin on that day.

My last two problems are the links for the OLG website and the Facebook group. First of all, I understand that the OLG is probably a big sponsor, but to have a link to their website in the main content section of the Summer Fest website just doesn't seem right. As for the Facebook group, why not change that to a Facebook page? Also, instead of having a link that says "Follow us on Facebook", why not add a "like" button to the site or possibly use one of Facebook's many cool ad-ons.

As I said in the opening, overall the web design of the site isn't too bad. I'd just really like to see a calendar on the front page, removal of the OLG link from the main content of the site and more integrated Facebook options.

My SEO Skills: Tony Rauti Luxury Homes

Just wanted to write a quick post today talking about the search engine optimization work I did for my client Tony Rauti Luxury Homes. One of the first things they wanted to talk about in our initial meeting was how they could get better results in Google. I explained to them the ways in which I would try to get them better rankings. The first thing I asked them was which search terms they'd like to rank for. Initially they said generic terms like "custom home builder" or "luxury homes". I explained to them that since they're a local home builder that most of the people searching for those type of terms would most likely attach a city to the end of them. We collectively decided to go for the terms "custom home builders windsor" and "luxury homes windsor". I did both on-site and off-site search engine optimization for them and after just 5 months here are the results when searching on Google.com.

"Luxury Homes Windsor" - Result #2

"Custom Home Builders Windsor" - Result #5

I'm the first to admit; the competition for these two keyterms isn't as great as some of the more generic terms however, considering the fact that the domain is only 6 months old and the site is only 5 months old. I'd say I did a pretty good job optimizing this website.