Websites grow up fast around Twelve Horses, and we are pleased to see another one go out into the world with www.billmelatersolutions.com.

BillMeLater®, Inc., recognized by Red Herring as one of the “Top 100 Global Private Technology Firms Driving the Future” brought to the Twelve Horses team the task of designing their new merchant site. The goal - grow the existing BillMeLater® Merchant Network and add to the over 800 online retailers who currently employ a BML solution on their web site.

Designed with that goal in mind, the new site provides not only information about the suite of BillMeLater solutions and services, but also showcases key merchants’ experiences with their BML online payment solution. Visitors can view video testimonials and review case studies from merchants like eLuxury.com, Zappos.com, Overstock.com, and Continental Airlines, to name a few.

The clean look and streamlined navigation of the front end also translate to the back end implementation. Internal BML stakeholders can create and edit their own pages via the Twelve Horses content management system.

BillMeLater derives success from its ability to provide an effortless shopping experience for the online consumer. Their new merchant site does the same in producing an effortless decision-making process for those retailers seeking to improve their online order process.

One of Twelve Horses latest launches is the newly designed and developed Reno-Tahoe, America’s Adventure Place website located at visitrenotahoe.com. The Reno-Sparks Convention & Visitors Authority (RSCVA) looked to us to effectively communicate the excitement and value of the destination, as well as give them the necessary web tools to feature and promote the region going forward. Take a gander and let us know what you think of the look and feel.

Branding & Strategy

Before even beginning to architect the site or design comps we held several branding sessions to really uncover what the America’s Adventure place brand is and what the organization wants to project. In other words, what really differentiates the Reno-Tahoe destination from another location, and why would visitors want to go there? We identified the items of most importance, and the images and structure of the site reflect this.

Stakeholders also provided valuable input and feedback, which dictated certain elements of the site such as the Play-Stay-Dining-Events box directly below the main flash promo area.

You should also notice the emphasis on action, outdoor adventure, weather, which is prominent because of the large number of beautiful sunny days, and water because, unlike Vegas, Reno has a river that runs through it and is in close proximity to mountain snow and Lake Tahoe.

In general the homepage is designed to incorporate images, videos and feeds (such as the blog) to bring dynamic content to the forefront so it is never static. What’s new, what’s happening?  - there is always something exciting going on.

Website Design & Development

Building out this site required careful consideration to the organization of content (there were 6500 pages on the old site and currently 1500 on the new). Equally important was addressing the needs of marketing, convention and tourism sales, public relations, as well as the stakeholders that have a vested interest in the organization’s ability to promote convention and tourism business for Washoe County.

If you look at many other convention and visitor bureaus (CVBs) there is often a habit of creating specific portals for web visitors to enter the site. This is the way they deal with the challenging issue of organizing large amounts of content. For example:

The problem with this is it impacts the search engine optimization of the website as it relates to the ranking of the homepage, and one also runs the risk of not exposing say, a meeting planner to the information you would qualify for visitors/guests. We really tried hard to clearly present all of the information directly from the homepage.

Speaking of SEO and usability, before we launched the website the entire old site was mapped in order to maintain rankings while the search engines indexed the new site. This way, instead of receiving a 404 each page was referred to the proper page on the new website.

Web Development on the Backend

The RSCVA makes use of our Content Management System or CMS to edit and change all aspects of the website. It includes some cool custom applications such as:

• Stakeholder Application
• Individual stakeholders such as local hotels and casinos can edit their specific pages via their own login. They can change content, upload media and photos, and manipulate RSS feeds. These feeds are then displayed on the main calendar and events pages.
• Newsletter Application
• Instead of having to login in to a separate platform to design and deliver their email marketing campaigns, they can do it all through the CMS. All actions directly integrate with MessageMaker, so they can follow up on delivery rates and other pertinent statistics.
• Press Release Application
• The press release application gives public relations has the ability to construct press releases in the WYSIWYG editor and upload them to the website. They can also set specific permissions and date of release.
• Form Generator
• The form generator gives non-technical staff or webmasters the ability to build out promotions or giveaways to collect valuable customer information. The forms integrate with MessageMaker, which allows them to export lists to CSV or segment customers based on the specific promotions or items of interest.
• Search Engine Optimization Application
• The SEO application gives the RSCVA the ability to manage redirects, add analytics code, change meta data and much more.

Also included in the CMS are other useful items such as Workflow and Permissions. This gives staff the ability to send updates for approval and share the workload in order to keep content fresh and current. This extends across the board to all departments including:

• Finance
• Convention Sales
• Public Relations
• Tourism

Data Replication Engine

Behind it all is Twelve Horses’ Data Replication Engine (DRE). The RSCVA uses the DRE to take contacts from their website and push them into MessageMaker. It keeps the database current, and automatically manages action like, before email newsletter deliveries it does a check for all unsubscribes to be sure they never send an email to someone that does not want to receive it.

There is much more to it, but hopefully this gives you a good idea of what went into the website. Certainly a great level of consideration and technology has been applied to the construction of this website.

tags: website design, web site development, search engine optimization, seo, data replication engine, content managment system, reno, tahoe, rscva, ” reno sparks convention & visitors authority”

Quite a number of our clients use blogs for business to establish an online presence and publish informative and searchable content to the web. Of those blogs/websites, we always use Wordpress because of the flexibility for custom design and access to a seemingly endless array of community applications.  As powerful as Wordpress is, it is not always the easiest application to use for non-technical business owners and employees who want to provide more than just text and links. However, there is a solution.

Windows Live Writer is a free, downloadable desktop application that runs on your Windows PC and allows you to publish pictures, videos, and other rich content to your blog/website. There are also a number of useful free extensions available that you should check out if this is of interest to you.

As an example, I will use it to show you some recent blogs/websites that we have launched in the past week or so.

Here is an example of how you can use Windows Live Writer to create a table, format, insert pictures and links. No html knowledge required.

Business	Location	Business Type	Website
Red Rover	Corvalis, Oregon	Software
Eagle Gate	Salt Lake City, Utah	Education
SouthernLINC	Atlanta, Georgia	Telecom
Big Valley Honda	Reno, Nevada	Retail
The Godfather	Las Vegas, Nevada	Entrepreneur
International Bank	Concord, New Hampshire	Finance

You can also use it to insert videos or maps. I’ll just stick to the same example as above and show the locations of these particular clients.

View Larger Map

You can also input tags that specifically relate to your blog post, which help with search engine optimization.

tags: blogging tools windows live writer

When you are ready to publish your post, simply click Publish, and it will also do a quick spell check for you. If you are not ready to publish yet, simply Save Draft for later, or set the publish date and it will post automatically. There are several other handy little features for you to explore and find on your own.

To get started, simply go to the Windows Live Writer page to download it. Once you have installed the application, go to “Weblog” in the upper navigation and select “Add Weblog Account.” There you will be asked to give the url of your blog, as well as your username and password. That’s it! You can even add other blogs if you like. It will detect the styles, plugins, categories, and recent posts for each one.

A key component of a successful blogging strategy is doing it fairly frequently The more empowered you and your colleagues are to publish content to the web the more likely you are to do it. I hope this helps.

When developing a new website, site design and usability should be one of the highest priorities on your development list. Without a usable design, users will quickly become frustrated with your website and will stop visiting. Thankfully, there are a few basic usability practices that you can employ to help make your visitors’ experiences the best they can be.

1. Use different colors. Color design on your website should not be garish or unprofessional, but you can utilize different colors to help draw attention to various portions of your website. If, for example, you wish to emphasize certain points in your content, then a bold red or blue color will draw a visitor’s eye directly to that portion of the site. You can also draw attention to other portions of your website, such as your navigation bar or certain pages that you want to attract more attention. Be cautious of over-using colors, though, since a proliferation of different, non-complementary colors on a website is a surefire way to drive people away from your site.
2. Focus your design on the objective. The design of a website should always focus on the end goal of the site. If the site is designed to inform people, then the focus should be predominately on content and ease of navigation. If your goal is to sell a product, then focusing a design around product displays and easy product searches should be your goal. In focusing on your goal, you can use colors and design patterns that help draw the attention of the customer to certain portions of the website. You can also make things like checking out easy, which will reduce the chances that they will become frustrated with the site and leave before making a purchase. Regardless of the goal, designing your site and marketing it with certain features being in dominance will help stimulate traffic throughput, and is likely to increase your overall return on investment (ROI).
3. Use a consistent formatting scheme. There are few things worse than a website whose formatting and design is inconsistent from page to page. This type of haphazard design and layout smacks of unprofessionalism, and is a big turn-off to visitors. Even if your website consists of only one or two pages, use a consistent design across them. If you have different sections of your web site that require differing designs, link them with some common theme, like a header that remains the same, or a sidebar that doesn’t change. If you can make transitions between designs on your website nonexistent or as smooth as possible, then your internet visitors will feel less jolted during their time on your website.
4. Have simple buttons and links. Long links and large, flashing buttons can be difficult on the eyes and makes it difficult for people on a website to navigate around to different pages. Oversized, flashing, oddly colored and unnaturally placed buttons distract from your content and keep visitors away from your website. To avoid this, design your buttons with simplicity in mind, and steer away from ones that are unconventional. Oversized links that join multiple words in a sentence are also distracting, and it can be difficult for a user to tell if the collection of words is one link, or multiple links all next to each other. Instead of creating links that span multiple words, just use one word, or two at most. The users of your website will then be able to enjoy the content you have created without getting distracted by annoying underlining and linking.
5. Provide a sitemap. A sitemap, while sometimes thought of as outdated, is extremely helpful, especially for larger sites. New visitors to your site will benefit from a sitemap, since it will provide them with an easy way to view all of the pages and sections of your site. If a new visitor comes to your website from the internet, then having a sitemap to direct them to the page they want to go will be a huge help from a usability standpoint. It will also provide repeat visitors with a way to stay up to date on new parts of your website, and will let them find pages on it that they haven’t seen before.
6. Make all sections of the site easy to access. Above all, make sure that your site is easy to access, both for novices and experts. Don’t make links confusing, and avoid any unnecessary obfuscation. If you want to keep people out of a certain part of your website, then either don’t put it up on the internet, or use a password system to protect it. You should also have links on all of your pages that remain consistent in a place like a header, footer or sidebar. These links should go to main pages on your website, such as the homepage, a contact page or other important pages. This reliable set of links will make navigation and accessibility each for users, and will encourage first-time visitors to come back again and again.

Creating a website with good usability traits can be difficult, but the rewards are well worth it. Increased traffic, a higher ROI and more success from your marketing campaigns will all result from your initial hard work in putting the site together. By following these few usability tips, you can make this process much easier.

On the heels of three other recent website launches, we are pleased to have taken the Monterey County Convention & Visitors Bureau website live. Take note of the flash features like the promo area, the multimedia gallery, and my special favorite, the Insider Tip, which you will find on any of the sub pages under the main Flash promo area. It is just a subtle little addition that gives some personalized information related to the areas you are interested in and want to visit.

Visitors can take advantage of some other very useful features like being able to create a profile, build out their own itinerary, and conduct searches based on locations, categories, and events. Stakeholders have their own user interface that allows them to create and edit their own pages; and Monterey controls it all with their own content management system.

The site also features an interactive map, the ability to book online, and the option to sign up for newsletters. I should also mention that the site is tag-based, which organizes content in a very clean and searchable fashion.

There is a lot going on behind the scenes that makes this site work well. Kudos to our web designers and web developers for bringing it all together in a user-friendly and functional manner. Next step - a little dash of search engine optimization to help Monterey attract new visitors and meeting planners to an unquestionably beautiful area of California.

Hi,

I’m Mike Henderson, a new Content Developer here at Twelve Horses. I just started about 3 weeks ago (just in time for the Holiday Party…) and already I am pretty impressed with all the cool projects we have going. I’m going to be working with clients on creating and developing website content including, copywriting, blogging, photography, video and social media. I’ll also be doing some of that stuff right here on Horse Power!

Last week was a busy week at the Twelve Horses Reno office. I helped the team Q/C and launch new websites for three Reno, NV based companies! Not that that excuses us for not updating the blog… Still, I think they look pretty nice and show off some cool new ideas.

The Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada’s (EDAWN) new website is now open for business. This one was interesting because it required organizing a large amount of content in a user-friendly manner. Notable features include an event management system that ties into Salesforce.com, which very efficiently organizes customer data. The member center provides access to a lot of helpful information. The website also makes use of the RSS puller application, which is a very handy feature within our Content Management System (CMS).

Griffin Transport features a sharp design and a cool Flash locator map with roll-over hotspots to show the global office locations.

Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NCET), for which Twelve Horses is a sponsor, launched a new web site design featuring many social media features to better interact with Nevada’s entrepreneurs and students. Overall, a good example of what you can do with Wordpress.

So that’s what we’re up to. Let us know what you think!

-Mike

Want to know about one simple SEO strategy that takes less than five minutes to implement and can have a very positive result in regards to rankings in the search engines? If so get ready to change the footer on your website.

The footer on your website usually simply contains a copyright statement and sometimes some other links. Many websites have a two line footer where one line is devoted to links and the other is devoted only to the copyright. Adding a company statement to your footer is an easy way to implement an seo strategy that is simple and doesn’t take a lot of time. Here is an example:

Previous footer: © 2007 Twelve Horses

New SEO Friendly Footer: © Copyright 2007 Twelve Horses - A Web Design, Development & Search Engine Optimization Company in Reno & Utah

It usually works best when you have the text footer [non-link footer] fit on one line. Here are some key points that this new footer accomplishes:

1. This particular website or business is focused on providing web design, web development, seo or search engine optimization, email marketing, and social marketing services. Although that is a very long list sometimes you have to pick and choose what you can fit in a footer. The above example ensures that every single page of the website contains the keyword phrases of ‘web design, development, and search engine optimization’. This will help the search engines recognize that this website is related to those key terms since they appear on every webpage. This strategy not only assists search engines in knowing what services you may provide but also human web visitors. If a website visitor can not figure out what the website is all about they general do one of two actions; either leave or look in the footer for an ‘about us’ link. Having this line of text in the footer ensures that if they do glance at the footer they will be able to know what the website is about without having to click to another page.

2. The above example also contains ‘Reno and Utah‘ in the sentence. Twelve Horses has headquarters in Reno, Nevada with a secondary office in Salt Lake City, Utah. Having these terms in the footer lets the search engines know what geographic area this particular website primarily provides web services to. You may wonder why the footer contains Reno, a city, and Utah, a state. Through some keyword research it was discovered that people in Salt Lake City generally search for ‘utah [keyword]‘ rather than ’salt lake city [keyword]‘, maybe because Salt Lake City is too long or time consuming to type out and Utah only has one major metropolitan area which is the wasatch front. On the other hand Nevada contains several metropolitan areas such as Reno, Las Vegas, etc. which are spread out from each other. From keyword research we discovered people in Nevada are more likely to type in the major metropolitan area they are in compared to just ‘Nevada [keyword]‘. Again, this also provides website visitors information on the geographic area the company is based in by glancing at the footer.

3. This is a very simple and effective SEO strategy that literally should only take 5-10 minutes to implement on your website and will have a profound effective compared to the investment of time that is required.

If you enjoyed this SEO strategy and would like us to post more please post a comment and we will be happy to share our knowledge with you.

Recently, I attended an American Marketing Association event here in Phoenix on the topic of Emotional Advertising and Advertising Effectiveness. E. B. Lane presented an excellent case study on their client, Cable One. Cable One was faced with increased competition from satellite providers, and therefore, decreasing retention of their customers. E. B. Lane determined that a strong emotional sell would be the best way to improve customer satisfaction and would lead to customer acquisition.

At the end of the presentation, they showed five or six television advertisements centered around the tag line, “Watch us make you smile.” The campaign was focused on the personal side of Cable One and how a company that cares about its customers, listens more and out performs the competition.

At the end of the presentation, a lady asked the questions, “How do you extend this emotional sell on to the website?” It seemed clear that understanding the Cable One strategy and creative for this group of professionals was a no-brainer, but trying to apply these techniques to the Internet was the mystery.

Here’s my attempt to answer her question. In the advertisements, Cable One is making the promise that when you deal with them on the phone and in person, they are going to make every effort to be prompt, courteous and understanding. What needs to be done on the website is to continue to answer this promise. This is more than tacking the new tag line in the upper corner and showing copies of the TV ad encoded in the latest video format. Instead, Cable One needs to make it extremely easy for customers to find out about services in their area, get a hold of service reps, or anything else that would allow the customer to watch Cable One make them smile.

This is where the advertising agency, the customer service department, and the web team need to get into a room and figure it out. Marketers can no longer look at a website as a online brochure or interactive advertisement. Instead, they need to treat these interactions as if they were a point of sale transaction, customer service call, or billing discussion. Interactions with the website can make or break that customer relationship just like the physical interaction Cable One was trying to influence. It also can’t be left to the web team alone to know how to handle these high touch relationships. Unless the company outsources their web work to a highly trained marketing company (shameless plug), IT professionals are not going to understand the intricacies of branding that occur during the customer experience.

So, to sell the emotion online, you have to actually live up to the promise of the advertisements. It will take effort, consistency, and practicing. But those who do it well, can truly separate themselves from the competition.

Downloading Inspiration in the City of Roses

I had a great time at this year’s WebVisions in Portland, Oregon. Twelve Horses was kind enough to send me, Steve James = Interactive Designer, away for the two-day event at the Oregon Convention Center. I didn’t learn so much about design, but rather something much bigger and important: people. Almost all of the presentations I attended were based on the user experience in some aspect. It was inspirational to hear these speakers talk about projects and the scenarios they faced when endeavoring new work. Additionally, they all admitted that there is not a cookie-cutter solution for a client. It helped confirm that all clients need to be approached in a unique manner.

I was able to attend an informative CSS presentation, Ruby on Rails breakdown, and an AJAX demo. These were much more geeky and Web savy presentations. After the seminar, I was able to chat with some inspirational friends and former collegues in Portland and tap their noggins on the latest trends in the Web world. I also managed to find some great food, entertainment and nature while running around the rainy city. Oh, and I sucked the town dry of all their great coffee! It was one of the greatest times I’ve had in Portland and I will be back next year with out a doubt.

Check out SOME of the places I frequented while I was at the conference!

I received an email today from the Google Analytics team alerting me to their new user interface. I immediately went to the Twelve Horses account to login. Upon login, I was offered a tour of the new features, but was disappointed to see I didn’t have access to the new UI. Apparently they are rolling it out over the next few weeks. After watching the tour, I am salivating over the new features and ease of use.

If you use Google Analytics, look forward to the new UI.