Apr 27
MikeWeb Design, Web Industry 404, dc website firm, Web Design
404 error pages are often overlooked and taken too lightly. If designed well, these pages can reel back in a lost or misguided visitor and bring them to the page or information they initially set out to see. Unfortunately, many websites don’t use 404 pages. If any of their links are broken, pages down, or any other mishap they run the risk of losing their visitor.
The last few days, we took a look at over 30 404 pages hosted by local DC website firms. The research was quite startling:
- Nearly 1/3 of the DC website firms didn’t have their own 404 page;
- Roughly 1/2 of the firms had very dull and plain pages; and,
- Only a very small handful had ones that reeled back in their users and added a creative twist at the same time. (Another reason, I’m a big fan of creative 404 pages is because they are rarely seen and thus design agencies, or any company for that matter, can be more creative with this page.)
Here are a few great examples:
Cohenspire, http://www.cohenspire.com/404/
Text: Oh no you broke something! Ok well…let’s be honest I probably messed something up. Find your way home or let me know what broke.
nclud, http://www.nclud.com/404
Text: Whoops! We’ve slipped! If you think a page should be here, then there probably should be one. We’ve slipped-up and apologize; but rest assured that someone somewhere just got an email about this, we’re sort of fanatics about that whole user-experience thing. Don’t let one bad banana hold you back. Learn more about us, our work and our process, read a bit from our sketchbook or contact us. If you’re one of our many awesome clients looking for our client login, you can always login at http://clients.nclud.com
TK Designs, http://www.tkdesigns.tv/404
Text: OMG! I think I’m lost. ?#$! Looks like the file you are looking for is not available. This may be because we just added our new page and it is still missing a few files. You may contact us or go back home.
And of course, our very own 404 page…
Text: 404 Oops, the bulb burned out. You must have entered in a wrong URL, or the page is down… or maybe we should build a new page because you thought there would be one here. We’re not blaming anyone… let’s get through this together. Here’s the way back, browse through our work, learn about our expertise, read our story, view our awards, or get in touch with us.
Apr 09
MikeClient Spotlight, SEO, Website Launches redesign, SEO, spilled milk catering, Web Design
A few months ago, Washington DC catering company, Spilled Milk Catering, contacted us for help expanding their clientele and reaching a wider target audience. Although the site redesign and preliminary SEO took place back in February, we haven’t had a chance to sit down and tell the world about this exciting project. Actually, it worked out for the best — since a couple of months have passed, we’ve been able to get a good glimpse of how our optimization and content restructuring efforts have helped Spilled Milk.
During our analysis of the website, we noticed that there was limited content on the site and all of the search traffic was coming from brand name keywords, not a single local targeted or service specific keyword. Unless the prospective customer knew “Spilled Milk Catering”, the DC catering company was invisible. To address these concerns, we:
- Improved the site structure. Geographic pages were added to speak to each of Spilled Milk’s target markets (Maryland, DC, and Virginia). Additionally, specific service pages were added to maximize the search engine exposure of each of their individual service offerings.
- Researched and analyzed keywords. Keywords were researched and analyzed to capitalize on the high local search volume and catering-specific keywords.
- Optimized the web content. Using the keywords identified, keyword density was improved to build credibility and relevance in the eyes of the search engines.
In a short ten week span following our efforts, we’ve accomplished quite a bit.
- Improved total website traffic by 163%
- Improved the number of unique visitors by 207%
- Improved traffic coming from referral sites by 234%
- Improved the number of landing pages in which users entered the site by 120%
- Improved the number of page views by 146%
- Placed 24 keywords on the search engines radar that were not previously ranking
- Improved the ranking of the #1 desired keyword by 94 places in Google
It’s been a pleasure working with the guys over at Spilled Milk. Since SEO is an on-going process, we haven’t completed the job yet but the results are headed in the right direction. Lastly, if you have an event coming up, give them a shout. Tell them I sent you and try the Three-Cheese Puff Canapes – you won’t regret it. Yummmmm………
Oct 28
MikeFeatured Work, Web Design award, featured, Web Design
It’s always an honor to receive love from clients, colleagues, and anyone really…after all, who doesn’t enjoy a high 5, a pat on the back, or a “good job”?
A couple days ago, Reef Light was featured in [Re]Encoded’s “40 Beautiful Uses of Typogragphy in Web Design” article. Please feel free to check it out here. (For those that aren’t familiar with [Re]Encoded, they are a very popular (150,000 page views/month) resource for web designers and developers, alike. )
We all (designers) are aware of the changing trends in web design industry and have something new and creative to see every day. I think we discussed enough regarding Typography in web and print design industry in our earlier articles and very well know the importance of Typography in web and print designs, so today we are here with a round-up of beautiful web designs showing creative use of typography. (From Reencoded.com article)
Overall, it’s a great collection of beautiful websites. It’s an honor to be among them.
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Reef Light Interactive is an award-winning agency specializing in web design, search engine optimization and more! Like anyone else, Reef Light enjoys being featured, given a “high 5″, or receiving compliments. Feel free to browse through some of our work and/or contact us to learn more about our services.
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