The crowds have gathered for your site's big launch. You eagerly pull back the curtain, and the audience gasps in amazement. The buzz is music to your ears. "We should get Treefrog to do our new site," you overhear amidst the oohs and aahs. The content is well-crafted for your target demographic, and the design is ready for whatever devices they're using. This you know, but when you look out among the crowd, you're surprised to see who's sitting in the front row. A cartel of hardened tech giants, scrutinizing every corner of your site. A cold sweat beads on your neck. You…
Since we started making WordPress sites almost 6 years ago, we've grown almost as much as the platform itself. Our WordPress framework, Canopy, represents the sum total of that growth. Work smarter, not harder. Right from the outset, we could see the need for a framework. Many of our projects required similar features, and no programmer worth their salt will miss an opportunity to reuse code. We looked at established frameworks, but found them too feature-bloated to serve our clients' best interests. Instead, we started with the absolute minimum in WordPress templating and worked our way up from there. This…
With information about SEO trends and tips running rampant on the internet - some of it years out of date - it is easy to become overwhelmed and misdirected. Floods of information, seemingly giving new advice on updated trends, easily leads us to believe SEO practices are constantly in flux. And, while there is some truth to this, Google's frequent updates to its algorithm aren't always major game changers. Google Hummingbird, however, launched in September 2013, actually is a new algorithm as opposed to a simple update to the existing. Prior to, and especially after the announcement of the new…
Search engine optimization requires time, dedication, and in many cases some monetary investment. While there are many free SEO tricks, it may be worth it to spend a bit of money to increase traffic to your business. Hiring a marketing firm to design and develop an optimized site or paying the yearly dues to the BBB and/or the Chamber of Commerce in order to gain some back links are wise investments. A more flexible means of funding higher searchability is through SEM, or search engine marketing. SEM, or search engine marketing, also known as pay-per-click advertising, is the process of…
In our previous post we explained how search engines operate, and how to search engine optimize your site on-page. Now it is time to take a look at the second cornerstone of SEO success: Off-site SEO. Your beautifully optimized site will only get you so far. The next step in the process is generating exposure on the internet. Off-site SEO is all about internet presence. You want people talking about your site and providing back-links, or inbound links, to your site in as many reputable places as possible. This can take a lot of work, especially for a business just…
