terrytoledo.com - web design, graphic art and illustration

YidMatch Homepage – Web Design, Graphic Design and Logo Design

YidMatch – Los Angeles, CA – 2010
Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe ImageReady, HTML, CSS, PHP, VLDpersonals, WordPress and phpBB Forums

YidMatch is an social network (dating web site) built for marriage-minded Jewish singles. To build my client the most secure dating web site, we first purchased software from VLDPersonals. VLDPersonals is a web design company that makes internet dating websites. Outside of the VLDPersonal’s code, the web site also utilizes an additional wordpress cms system and a php forum installation that is synched with the dating site member database. The homepage design targets Jewish, marriage-minded singles. The launch marks the end of a two-year venture in social network programing and designing and I am happy to refer you to see the site here: www.yidmatch.com (feel free to sign up, too, if you are Jewish and single!)

The YidMatch Features page runs a javascript navigation and highlights the benefits to signing up.

After purchasing and installing the software, admins are presented with a number of features. Some of the default features were: Instant chat rooms, video, audio, friends, favorites, dozens of search options and a complex events calendar. I took this foundation in the php code, and added a number of modifications and additions to the software.

The YidMatch dating site allows members to modify a number of options on their profile pages. The profile options allow members to build custom web pages to match their personality. Members are able to choose their own graphics, backgrounds and menu placements on their profile page. I designed and implemented over 50 different graphic icons, five of which are part of the member’s profile page. The icons show a large number of characteristics like: eye color, religious background, career, sense of humor and hobbies. Other samples of profile pages are below.

Last Chance to Win – Web Advertisement

dhavir productions – Istanbul, Turkey – 2010
Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator

I like the simple animation on this ad. Not too flashy, but just enough flash to make it stick out on a crowded page. This ad is one of 7 advertisements I have made for dhavir productions.

Classic Clunker Online – Web Design

Classic Clunker – Los Angeles, CA – 2009
Wordpress, HTML, CSS, PHP, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator

This site was designed to display information, photos and videos of automobiles that survived cash for clunkers. I had to develop the site’s information architecture with a number of navigation techniques in mind. The automobiles can be searched and listed by use, make, model and location. The classicclunker.com site also includes a ranking system where visitors can rank their favorite clunker. In addition to the site-wide ranking system, the home page features a poll to elect the clunker of the month. All polls, galleries and content is now managed by the site’s owner using the wordpress content management system. All photographs in the site’s graphics are provided by the client, all illustrations in the site are done my me. The site also has a feedback/comment system and a contact page so viewers can submit photos of additional clunkers. You can view the site here: http://www.classicclunker.com

UFOTV – YouTube Web Design

UFOTV – Venice Beach, CA – 2009
Graphic Design, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe ImageReady

On the skinning of UFOTV’s YouTube page, I kept the theme of ufotv.com. Although the heading contains the same slogans and logo light effects, the navigation tabs and body background was given a new look. The dark background makes viewing videos easier, and the grey tabs attract the viewer to the links but do not take priority from the logo. The UFOTV YouTube site can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/user/UFOTVstudios

Hearistic Partnering – Web Graphics

Gray’s Web Design – Yachats, Oregon – 2009
Adobe Photoshop, Adobe ImageReady

I was hired by a web agency to design the graphics for this communication company.  People interested in eastern philosophies and progressive values were the target market.  I was provided the heart-spiral logo and created the remaining elements on the site design using textures from royalty-free photography sites.  This site design took 2 hours.

UFOTV – Website Graphics

UFOTV – Venice Beach, CA – 2009
Graphic Design, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe ImageReady

As the UFOTV website grows and provides additional products, I am often called upon to create headings for the new sections. I ultimately end up creating these graphics with images from the DVDs, stock photography or original illustrations by myself.

PDX Bridge Festival – Web Design

Boomtown Productions – Portland, OR – 2009
Wordpress, HTML, CSS, PHP, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator

PDX Bridge Festival is raising the bar for city sponsored events by closing a number of bridges to celebrate the 100th birthday of the Hawthorne Bridge. The website raises the bar for creative splash pages by asking the user to raise the bridge in order to navigate the website. I used an adobe javascript code to implement the animation of the Hawthorne Bridge. This site is a good example of simple, yet effective design. See the animation for yourself here: http://www.pdxbridgefestival.org.

dhavir productions – Web Design

dhavir productions – Istanbul, Turkey – 2009
Wordpress, HTML, CSS, PHP, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator

dhavir productions is a Middle Eastern production company serving the greater Portland, Oregon area. The site was designed with Photoshop and hand coded in HTML and CSS by myself. The code is WC3 valid. As CDs and DVDs are produced, the admins for dhavir will be able to set up descriptions for products in WordPress and sell products through PayPal. Currently the site will archive two important newsletters: The Portland Middle Eastern Update and Dhavir Productions Newsletter. The site can be seen here: http://www.dhavir.com.

Debra Beers – 2008
Wordpress, HTML, CSS, PHP, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator

Debra Beers is a Portland, Oregon artist that has been showing her art since the 1980′s. Her site runs off WordPress with the NextGen Gallery Plug In. The bulk of this project was actually prepping over 200 images to be used for the web. A large number of photographs needed to be cropped, touched up and the levels adjusted. Fortunately, I have experience in image prepping from working on product catalogs. This experience helped me keep the project within a reasonable time frame. Her website can be found here: http://www.debrabeers.com.

A new service is available for 2009, I am now able to install and customize an open source application called Prestashop. It comes with a PayPal gateway, great web stats and some sharp effects. The admin control panel is completely customizable, so if you want the information architecture rearranged you can spend 10 minutes on the site map. Same goes for the storefront, too. I’ve tried eCommerce, Zen Cart, Magento and a number of other free applications but this is the best by far. Thanks Prestashop!

Take a look at my paintings, too! I now have a way to sell my artwork over the web. So far, everything in my store comes with free shipping. Check back often as I offer digital prints of past work, cafepress tees, stickers and my first comic book.

I’ve attended conventions like the Portland Code Camp at Reed College.  One of the classes that I felt most involved with was the Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing lecture.  The class was taught by Colleen Wright and assisted by Jennifer Goudey-Forster. Although much of the class covered information I have already written about, I was introduced to additional ideas worth mentioning.  I’ve also learned a great deal about Social Networking and SEO from the small business class at Mercy Corps NW.  The Foundations Class was taught by Bill Horton and featured a lecture by Benjamin Tomkins.  I also follow a number of bloggers on SEO topics, check back as I plan on organizing a nifty “Links Page” soon!

There are two methods of optimizing a web site for search engines:  On-Page and Off-Page

On-Page Factors

Creating HTML documents that are formatted to give important information to search engines is essential to reaching your target market.  Some of these factors are:

• Title Tag
• Page Name (H1, H2 and H3 Tags)
• Bolded Text
• Anchor Text (the text that becomes hyperlinked)
• The text displayed at the top of the content
• Image Tag and Name
• Meta Tag (Search engines still use this info.  Meta tags give information on what your page is about, but this info does not get displayed unless it appears in some kind of search result.
• URL (although it may not actually be in the HTML document, but the url contains the domain name and the document’s name.  Both names will benefit the site if they are part of the site’s keywords.
• 5% to 7% keyword density

A note on density:  Although it is important to have your keywords appear on your site often, how those terms are placed is equally important to search engine optimization.

Keyword Strategies other than density

• The relative distance between keywords – Search engines will note when keywords are often used together in a sentence.
• Where the keywords appear on the HTML document – When a web page is built correctly, the most important terms relating to the document should appear near the beginning (the title or heading on top).  After the main content is placed after the header, less important terms (links, images, forms) should be arranged in order of their importance.  The least pertinent terms should be saved for the bottom of the HTML document.  When using columns and tables, it’s important to remember that search engines count the terms in a linear way.

• The frequency of the keywords – Search engines use linguistic formulas to determine if keywords are being used properly.  Nouns and verbs are recorded in relation to sentence building, keywords that are used frequently in proper context will receive a higher rank.
• How keywords relate to the main topic (and the sub topics derived from it) – Keywords planted on the page will be meaningless to the search engine if they are unrelated to the document’s content.

It may be common sense, but some SEO services still duplicate keywords into HTML documents without regards to sentence structure.  Although I may not always use the best grammar, the fact that my keywords are presented within readable content will give them credibility.

More On-Page Factors that assist in Page Rank

The On-Page methods involve the HTML coding and copy writing processes. I use a number of methods in my coding when optimizing web pages for search engines. Here a are some HTML and CSS tips:

• I use the “display: none;” type style very cautiously. Search engines are sensitive to key word stuffing, so this HTML practice is only used for short headlines, company names or slogans.
• I keep all important information near the top of the HTML document because search engines give higher rank to leading content.
• I use sub navigation lists that repeat key words while allowing users to access parts of the site with fewer clicks.
• A legitimate way to add links to a content management web site is by listing search results within your site. For example, after a search has returned a list of links in your site, a sub navigation can offer suggestions to the current search results. This sub navigation will list a number of similar keywords found on the site. An extra benefit to having search results listed as urls are the extra HTML pages that will be created on the server side. The web crawlers will call up the urls and force content to be pulled from the cms database. These large additional html pages will be created by the cms when normally they are only created by a web browser whose search triggers the cms to que the database.
• I make sure that my code is validated with the Web Consortium. This will assure correct emphasis on HTML tags and page content. Also, since I state W3C validation in my contract, my clients and I have a non-biased service that determines when our project is finished. I usually charge extra for cross browser errors (Internet Explorer consistently breaks web sites when interpreting HTML code and WordPress sometimes places paragraph tags in random places, conflicting with a validation). The W3C service is priceless.

I’ve been writing HTML code by hand since 1996, I’ve learned a great deal in the past 14 years!

Off-Page Factors

(submitting data and links to other sites)

Web sites that connect to your site with hyperlinks are often called backlinks. There are a number of ways to develop free backlinks to your site:

• Directories
• Internet Press Releases
• Social Networking Sites

Search engines rank backlinks by a number of criteria:

• Authority Sites (major publications, blogs or forums) that have a large following will benefit your page rank by hosting a link to your site
• Sites with a PageRank of 5 or more will increase the value of your site
• .edu and .gov sites are considered excellent references
• The age of your backlinks also plays a factor in adding value to your site
• If the site linking to yours has similar content, search engines will put more emphasis on the backlink

There are a number of ways to find backlinks for your site, one way is by contacting me!  I can provide a free estimate on optimizing your site with on-page and off-page methods.  Of course, SEO will not guarantee you a great PageRank, but with proper planning and strategically placing your url linked on other sites, your website will be in a better position to grow in popularity.

Hits coming from search engines are called organic visits. If you’re a business, however, you might as well call them new customers. Most businesses invest in a website to expand their customer base, unfortunately, without proper attention to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) a nice website can sit unnoticed.

Each click that leads to your website is a vote. These votes are weighed with additional factors that ultimately determine a page rank by a search engine. The process of ranking every website is so elaborate, an independent industry has developed to provide search engine optimization. Companies can now guarantee page rank results by adjusting html files and adding specific content. Optimizing a website can run up to $3,000 and can turn a business into a multi-national company within a year. For the best explanations, visit Wikipedia’s search engine optimization and PageRank definitions.

In Search Engine Optimization, Content is King

Search Engine Optimization often involves something that most web designers avoid. Writing copy. The content of a website will always be the main factor in search engine results. Search engines will read and analyze your content, determine common phrases and store the results among millions of other sites. Researching key words and including them within your content is a standard way to improve your stats. Keyword density in document text is most effective when your keywords appear more than 3% of the time. Anything near 10% may indicate keyword stuffing and cause your site to be flagged. A good way to check your site’s keyword density is to visit http://www.webconfs.com. Keywords that are used at the beginning of the document are also considered more important. Keywords that are used together are called key phrases and add extra value to a page rank, especially if the phrase is repeated on multiple pages within a website. I have been adding content to my site for over five years and have finally noticed the benefits in my page rank.

HTML Optimization

Using key phrases and words within the html is a science to be mastered. Links may be the most important part of html on your site. URL titles are also considered by search engines. Luckily, the content management systems I use to build my sites add URL titles, file names and meta data automatically. A website that names for html files with keywords will be rewarded with a higher page rank. There are a number of tags that can be labeled with key words. Here are a list of tags that I use to optimize websites.

• Title Tag – This is one of the most important places to have a keyword. What is written in the title tag shows in search results as your page title. The title tag must be short and words towards the front are given more emphasis.
• Heading Tags – There are 3 or 4 levels of heading tags that can be utilized on a page. Most content management systems will automatically put your page title in a heading page.
• URL Title Tag – This tag defines the box of text that appears when a pointer is moved over a link.
• Image Alt Tag – The images that are used in your site can drive traffic from image searches. Keywords placed in IMG ALT tags will add to the importance of those words.
• Meta Tags – These tags are typically hidden from view and give information about the content. These tags are becoming less important over time yet are still automatically filled out by most content management systems.

Outside Links to Your Site

You want more people to link to your site. Not only do you want more links, but you want links from websites that are popular and have a strong page rank. Links from popular sites will add points to your ranking. To find where backlinks are coming from, type in “linkdomain:www.yourdomain.com” in the search field at yahoo.com.

There are only so many things you can do to add links to your site, but here are a few ideas.

• Take part in online forums – If you have opinions or experience in a field related to your keywords you may be able to drive traffic to your site by helping others solve problems. The internet is full of forums debating politics, revealing scientific breakthroughs and defining history. Contribute to your online community and search engines will reward you for it. Just make sure to include a link to your website in each post and interested readers will want to learn more about you.
• Write articles for online magazines – Not only will this help your page rank, it can be profitable.
• Get involved with a nonprofit or your local government – Get involved and make sure your website is credited with a link. Links from .gov or .org websites have a better reputation and carry a stronger vote for your site.
• Get listed in directories – Having your organization listed with yahoo.com, DMOZ, citysearch.com or uscity.net and add more links to your site from other domains. Directories can also help drive new visitors to your site without using a search engine.

If you are placing a link to your website from an outside source, include it only once and it will become more important to the search engines. In any case, professionals discourage attempts to trick the search engines. Chances are, Google has already thought of it. Attempting to trick a search engine with mirrored content, hidden text and high-jacked rss feeds will hurt your ranking and perhaps lock your website out of future search engine results. Manipulating computer language compromises the search engine service. Organizations like http://www.seopros.org are working to expose hackers and standardize appropriate methods for optimizing web sites.

I can help you grow your web site’s page rank.  Give me a call if you would like a free estimate on any search engine optimization.

A new service is available for 2009, I am now able to install and customize an open source application called Prestashop. It comes with a PayPal gateway, great web stats and some sharp effects. The admin control panel is completely customizable, so if you want the information architecture rearranged you can spend 10 minutes on the site map. Same goes for the storefront, too. I’ve tried eCommerce, Zen Cart, Magento and a number of other free applications but this is the best by far. Thanks Prestashop!

Take a look at my paintings, too! I now have a way to sell my artwork over the web. So far, everything in my store comes with free shipping. Check back often as I offer digital prints of past work, cafepress tees, stickers and my first comic book.

I plan on sending these postcards out very soon. Let me know if you would like a copy by sending me your address with the contact page!

Do you visit a number of web pages for information? Does it also relate to your web page? If so, you should think about offering posts from those sites on your website with RSS feeds. An RSS feed can add links and text directly to your site. Plus, it updates itself automatically! In fact, this post is an RSS feed found on my homepage and on the admin panel of all my client’s web pages. It’s a new way I can keep everyone up to date with new services that I can provide. If this sounds interesting to you, give me a call or send me an email and I will be happy to explain it more. Cheers!