Our friends at 360 Innovations Roofing recently reached out to us about creating a website to target the 75205 zip code of Highland Park, a top-notch suburb in North Dallas. And thus, roofing75205.com was born. Roofing 75205 dot com will serve as their primary sales site in the Park Cities area. This is an affluent suburb with countless amazing roofs and houses to potentially work on. 360 is a top-tier roofing service and this setup should work well for them going forward.

Services they offer include the usual commercial and residential options including:

• Gutters
• Downspouts
• Roof replacement
• Roof repair
• Leak repair
• Help with insurance claims
• and more

The site is still under construction but we plan to have it live soon. 2019 is looking good!

Most people have hair. And if there's one constant about hair, it's that it grows. Fast. No but seriously folks, hair stylists will always be in demand and it's a service that will always be important to the people of Dallas, Plano, Frisco, etc. 

That's why we are thrilled to announce a partnership with our latest client, hair stylist Annette Burns of Plano. Annette specializes in corrective color treatments and handles haircuts for men and children as well as women's hair, her speciality.

No matter what your hair needs are, Annette is here to help. She has been faithfully serving the city of Plano for over 2 decades and has a great rapport built up with countless clients in the north DFW area. We were referred to Annette by a mutual friend who suggested to her that it was time to, well, get with the times and build a website.

Obviously having a website isn't enough and Annette wanted to make sure her new site was found by people looking for the best in hair care and styling. We were more than happy to oblige. Annette is a great friend and we recommend her to anyone looking for a quality cut at a fair price. No matter what your needs, she has you covered. Cheers, Annette!

Find Annette's Room at Salons on the Creek on Google Maps

Our friend Erin over at Apartment Fit (www.apartmentfit.com) contacted us for advice on getting her site some visibility. Her old web designer had her site set up to not allow spiders to crawl her HTML data.  This is something that needed to be changed and we obliged. Apartment Fit is planning to open more offices across the state of Texas, with Austin and Houston next on the list. More to follow.

One of the fastest-growing industries here in Dallas, and really all over the country, is iPhone repair services. Yes, our smart phones are amazing pieces of technology that keep us connected and functioning in 2017. It's a sad/strange addiction but it's the truth. However, for all their engineering beauty smart phones are also very fragile. And since we use them constantly, there's a constant risk of dropping them. Then they shatter. Ouch.

Luckily, there's a massive groundswell of companies in the Dallas area that repair mobile phones, specifically the glass screens that can shatter in an instant if your phone slips out of your hand. One such business is G&S Wireless Solutions - an on-site phone restoration service that also has a new retail location in the 75220 zip code near I-35 and Walnut Hill. If you need help immediately, hit up their contact page.

Gilbert, the owner, was referred to us by a mutual friend and former client. He has an amazing vision for his business and wants it to be known as the very best in the DFW area. We want to help him get there. We're re-designing his website, as well as expanding his online reach to include Youtube how-to videos. 2017 should be a great year for G&S and we look forward to being along for the ride.

There's ethical, honest, "white hat" SEO. That's us :)

Then there's shady, off-shore, cloaked, "black hat" bad-guy SEO. That ain't our scene.

And then there's.... uh.... "ULTRA-SHADY, GET SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR 36 MONTHS" SEO. In the Dallas area, no less!

Huh?

​Basically, some guy named William Stanley (age 53 and complete with plenty of aliases) was recently arrested and sent to prison for attempting to extort money from companies in the Dallas area. After being hired on to help with SEO services.

Lovely.

The full story can be found here. I'm spotlighting this article because in all my years of doing SEO, I've NEVER seen anything like this. 

The awesomely-named Somethin' Like Texas Pool Fence Company reached out to us about building a sales site for their brand. There are a lot of contractors in North Texas, but only one specializes in safety fences.

Who's the target market for this niche? Young families who have moved into new homes with swimming pools and a need to protect their children. We look forward to helping them grow their brand in the coming years, especially during peak seasons like spring and summer.

An existing client decided to expand his business in 2015 by founding Dallas Wholesale Nursery - a full-service plant nursery that also handles all manner of sod grass, trees, ground covers and more.

The new venture is located at:

2118 California Crossing Rd.
Dallas, TX 75220
Ph: (214) 280-9208

and should be open as of January 20th. We look forward to helping this green and eco-friendly business becomes a Dallas fixture for many years to come. More coming soon, plus pics of the building.

One of the best books on website design (and online advertising in general) is Don't Make Me Think. It blew my mind the first time I read it and it's a must-read for anyone who owns a business. Yes, it's that important.

Why? Because it's the only book on web design you need. When a visitor reaches your site, he's presented with options. Learn more about your company, read testimonials, coverage area, etc. He's bombarded. And that's not good.

Obviously you want to present information that's relevant. This info should be presented "above the fold" to use a newspaper analogy. While it might be tempting to fill your site with a long history of you and your business, most people don't care.

What they do care about is how to get in touch with you. If you own a carpet cleaning business, I don't need to see 100 pictures of you standing in front of a company van, and I don't care that your business was started in 1994 and has grown. I care about getting my carpets cleaned and that means getting in touch with the company.

If your existing website doesn't feature a phone number or contact form prominently displayed, you might want to find a different web designer. I know, I know - this site doesn't feature those things, and that's on purpose. But the vast majority of the sites we see and work on do.

Your conversion rates will sky rocket because LESS IS MORE. Don't make a visitor think when he hits your site. You only have a few seconds to get to the point before he clicks "back" and is on to the next (competing) company's website. 

Also - make sure your contact form works. This happens way too often and there's no excuse for a non-functioning contact form on a website. It makes you look amateurish and only frustrates the end user.

Your website doesn't need to be flashy. In fact, the opposite usually works better. People don't want Youtube videos exploding on them when they hit your site. They don't want 100 links to sift through. They want a clear, concise presentation about who you are and what you can offer them.

If someone really wants to read about the history of your business, or view a slideshow, they will seek it out. And that's fine. But most people are as busy as you are and just want to speak with someone about their problem/need. Make it easy and you'll get more business.

Two newly-formed ventures have joined our ranks for October. We are pleased to now be working with the following businesses:

DFW Chimney Sweep - A new division of a long-time client of ours, they plan to offer one thing and one thing only: professional chimney sweep services. They are located in McKinney, TX and will be operational in a month or two, just in time for the cold weather. Learn more at their (still developing) website. Services year-round.

Somethin' Like Texas Pool Fence - Much like the above company, this is another offshoot of an existing client's fence company. With an overwhelming demand for iron pool safety fences, they decided to start a division devoted entirely to this niche speciality fence. This is a popular purchase in the Spring and Summer, so we have plenty of time to work some magic in the meantime.

Both of these are seasonal industries and we will be offering special pricing since (in the case of DFW Chimney Sweep) there really isn't much action in the dead of summer. We look forward to working with both companies for many years to come. A wildlife portion might well be introduced sooner than later to handle the summer months.

Our friends at Little Elm Tree Trimming recently reached out to us regarding a basic site overhaul and we were happy to oblige. The owner's son, Sean, had built a basic site using a free site builder and we wanted to step the look up a little. Our philosophy with local business websites has always been clean and simple and we never want creativity to get in the way of the company's message. We implemented this design strategy yet again with a new site that is both functional and good looking.

Tree trimming services abound here in DFW and we look forward to helping this local company stand out from the crowd in the years to come. Since Little Elm is a popular destination for new home construction and has over 30,000 residents (and booming) this should be a win-win over the next few years.

Update: Little Elm Tree Trimming has been acquired by our friends at North Dallas Tree and Sod.