Before you knock down a wall, lay a tile or make any major purchases, you need to plan your bathroom on paper using a scaled graph. This will overcome the potential problems of buying a bath that is too big for the space, or finding you cannot actually open the bathroom door once everything has been installed after a bathroom remodel has been completed.

How to plan your bathroom:

• Start by measuring each wall of your bathroom. Transfer the dimensions on to a piece of graph paper, working to scale
• Once you have drawn the outline of your bathroom depicting its size and shape, mark the immovable features of the room - the windows and doors. Remember to allow enough space for opening the door. It is also worth considering whether the door could be rehung to open the other way and give a few extra inches of space.
• Mark the existing plumbing and electrics, including the layout of water pipes, sewer outlets, ventilation ducts, wiring and light switches on your plan. Mark sloping ceilings if relevant. 
• Decide on your ideal fixtures layout. Manufacturers usually supply exact dimensions of their products in brochures so you can plan each fixture exactly to size. Ensure you allow enough knee and elbow room and space for moving around each one. Try out several configurations before finalizing your plan.
• Mark in additional features such as towel rails, storage units, toilet roll holders and other fixed items like shelving. Make sure you have allowed enough space around cupboards and vanity units for doors and drawers to open fully, and that towel rails and toilet roll holders are within reach of features. Be sure to allow enough storage near basins and baths for soap, toothbrushes, shampoos, bubble baths and more.
• Think about your movements around the room. Ask yourself whether everything is placed conveniently  Is the room easy and comfortable to use? Is it safe? Will it suit all the family?

Remodeling points to consider:

​It is important to remember that while sizes are roughly standard when it comes to bathroom suites, there will be slight size differences from style to style and from one manufacturer to another. Be aware that certain styles will not work well in some rooms. A chunky Art Deco-style suite is bigger and will take up more room than a streamlined suite. So if you have a tiny room, you will probably have to rule out certain styles of suite, or risk having your room looking overly cluttered and cramped.

Bear in mind that most manufacturers have space-saving alternatives to the standard suites - and again these may vary in size. If space is a problem, look out for baths with tapered ends, smaller-than-average wash basins and narrow toilets. Also consider:

The Basin: Make sure there is sufficient space for washing and shaving in comfort with adequate elbow room and enough space to end over the basin.
The bath: Allow enough space alongside the bath for getting in and out. If you plan to install a shower over the bath make sure you have sufficient headroom to stand up comfortably while showering. We can help with any bathroom questions.
The shower: Give yourself enough space to step in and out with ease and dry yourself, and allow for an opening shower door if necessary. 
Storage and shelving: Finally, be careful where you fit wall-hung shelving and storage units, particularly when positioning them over baths, toilets and bidets, where somebody standing up quickly could get a nasty bang on the head.  More Remodel Tips>>

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.

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. 

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.

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.

We've been fortunate to have some great referrals in cities like Dallas, Royce City and Keller over the past few weeks. Some of our latest projects include work for:

DFW Landscaping - this was formerly a division of DFW Tree Trimming that has become a separate venture in the Dallas area. Specialties include xeriscaping and custom landscape design work.

Michael Nail's Retaining Wall Division - this new division specializes in residential work in the Keller and Southlake areas. They also have a pool removal division that we will be doing some consulting work for.

The DFW Fence Dr.'s Staining Division - Bryant has been a trusted client for years and his new fence and deck staining division is equipped to handle a variety of touch up services. This is one of the larger fence companies in the Dallas, TX area and they always produce great work.

We look forward to a busy summer and appreciate the referrals that brought these great businesses to us!

Our buddy Chance at Best Texas Appliance Repair in the Keller, TX area contacted us because he felt he wasn't getting the most out of his website. While it had good content, the old site wasn't HTML friendly and therefore wasn't search-engine-friendly. He was missing out on some huge opportunities since his site actually had plenty of credibility.

Since Best Texas offers services like:

• Washing machine repair
• Dryer repair
• Oven and dishwasher help

and eventually all of these appliances break, the competition for this type of work online, even in smaller suburbs like the HEB area, is pretty intense. We look forward to working with Best Texas for many years and expanding their online presence ethically and honestly.

Find Best Texas Appliance Repair on Google+

The "Contact" page is often the most misunderstood part of a website. Look at how most local service businesses lay their contact forms and pages out and you'll see a number of problems. Below are tips on what to do and what not to do when it comes to your company's "Contact Us" page if you own a local service business:

Bad Ideas:

• Not having a contact form - I see this way too often. The contact page simply has the email address and no real contact form. You click on the email address in hopes of getting a bid or scheduling an appointment and suddenly your Outlook is popping up and your computer goes crazy. You get frustrated and leave. Cobalt's contact page is a good example of what it should look like.
• Asking way too many questions - Some business owners think this looks more professional, but the longer the contact form, the lower the conversion rate. Why? Because people don't want to answer a laundry list of questions to get a simple answer or set up an appointment. You're catering to them. Not the other way around. Cut down to the essentials and your conversion rate will rise. See below.

Good ideas:

• Get to the point - The best contact form layout is to require a Name, Phone Number, Email (optional) and a Comment section. Why? Because this is the bare minimum you as a company need to make contact with a customer. Asking anything else is redundant and wastes their time. Make it easy for people to contact you while still getting the important info. If someone doesn't want to be called before noon, they will probably specify this in the "Comment" window. You don't need a separate drop-down menu for this.
• Let them know you don't sell info - A basic "We respect your privacy" disclaimer (you do respect their privacy, right?) at the bottom of the contact form ensures they know you are an ethical company.

In a nutshell - don't make the Contact page obnoxious and difficult to fill out. A simple contact form wins, every time.