Voice Search: What is it and Why is it Important to SEO Services?
“Hey Siri, where should I go to dinner tonight?” “Hey Alexa, what kind of toothpaste should I buy?” “Hey Google, what kind of workout should I do today?” These are just a few questions that people all over the world are asking their voice assistants right now. This probably isn’t news to you. Since […]
Video Marketing: Why You Need It in Your Marketing Strategy
The digital landscape is an incredibly competitive market, with new content being uploaded every minute. It can be incredibly difficult for a business to break out of the search results page and attract customers without the right marketing tactics. Video marketing is increasingly becoming one of the primary ways that website visitors like to consume […]
How Clickfunnels Can Increase Conversion Rate: Revisited
You have decided to open up an online store in the hopes of selling a great product or service. You have taken advice from trusted members of the online business community. These sources of wisdom preach the need for search engine optimization (SEO) or customer relationship management software (CRM), among other things. While these are […]
SEO Auditing: A Step-By-Step Guide to Boost Your Site Rankings
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is likely one of the first strategies you will use to establish a strong ranking for your website. After all, keeping your site visible and high-ranking is a solid benchmark for success in content marketing. However, you may be wondering how your competitors outrank you each month despite your efforts. […]
5 Marketing Tips You Should Know to Boost Your WordPress Site
WordPress is a major player in the blog and website development software choices for personal and professional use. An estimated third of all websites on the Internet has been built using WordPress, thanks to its user-friendly design and accessibility by the public. The need to have a background in coding is a thing of the […]
5 Steps to Make a Full Conversion Rate Optimization to Your Page
One of the most important aspects of digital marketing is conversion rate optimization, or CRO. Conversion is the term used when passive visitors to your company’s website become active customers who respond to a call to action, such as signing up for a product, newsletter, or even filling out a form. Optimizing your conversion rate […]
5 Writing Tips for 2019 SEO Content Marketing
Content marketing has changed dramatically in the last few decades. Search engines like Google are now the first place consumers turn for information about products and services they might purchase. For content marketers, this is a great opportunity! SEO Content Marketing allows marketers to reach consumers more directly by steering them to the content they […]
3 Ways ClickFunnels Can Help Your Traffic Actually Convert
You have one product or service that people around the globe cannot live without. You created a website to inform consumers of its greatness and how it will change their lives. With your marketing degree in tow, you have set forth spending your ad budget across social media. After a few months of toiling away, […]
Everything You Need to Know About SEO Content Writing
SEO content writing is becoming one of the most coveted skills. Why? Today, buyers prefer search engines over other, more traditional outlets, to help them identify the products and services they want. Directing customers to sites, therefore, requires high-quality SEO content writing, which helps expand a company’s visibility and rankings in search engine results. This […]
5 Alarming Web Design Statistics for Business
The internet has revolutionized the way businesses attract customers. In the old days, to reach a large audience you needed a large amount to produce and air a television commercial, run an ad in a major newspaper or buy billboard space. Now you can reach a much larger and more targeted audience for a lot […]
WordPress.com and WordPress.org: Which is Better for Your Business?
If you google “WordPress,” the first two selections that come up are links to WordPress.com and WordPress.org. This can be confusing. In general, we tend to think that “.com” is used by businesses like Amazon and Apple, whereas “.org” is used by non-profit organizations like NPR or Wikipedia. This is generally accurate, but when it […]
Wrong Ways to Report your Website’s Performance
If you have a website, you are probably trying to promote something. To find out how your website is operating, you should use the right methods and reports to check your metrics. There are plenty of ways that may not be appropriate to what you’re trying to measure, and many more that will apply. Zenden […]
5 Key Components Every Medical Website Design Needs
Ten seconds is all the time it takes for someone to form an impression about your website. While every website’s design needs to impress its audience, flawless medical website design is absolutely crucial. You are dealing with people’s health and they want to be sure they are putting their trust in the right hands. Their […]
How Often Should You Update Your Website Design
San Francisco is the tech capital of the world. For that reason, website developers take from Tokyo to New York to everywhere in between take their cues from the trends set from the world central hubs for all things related to technology and development. Unfortunately, a website is not exactly like a piece of art. […]
Implementing SERPs Features Into Your Keyword Mapping Process
Google dominates the search engine scope, capturing over 90% of the market share. To put that in perspective that means that at any given second, Google is processing over 60,000 search queries. With that kind of traffic, getting to the top of the SERP (search engine results page) is essential for any business. SEO, or […]
Why Website Maintenance is Critical for Your SEO
Unfortunately, your website updates are never over. It’s always a work in progress. Even if you have spent countless hours on website creation, for SEO purposes, you still need to do frequent website maintenance. This is because Google rewards a higher PageRank position to sites with fresh content, fast loading speeds, and no errors. Don’t worry; website […]
Minimalist Design: Why Basic Might Be Best
When it comes to design, there are many different philosophies. Some like to get complex with their designs, and layer in different details that the viewer might have to look closely at to be able to tell that they are there. Then there are those who choose to go about design in the simplest way […]
Why Relative Search Terms are Important for Your SEO
Ranking highly on popular search engines like Google can be difficult, especially if you don’t have a big budget to help things along. But, thanks to the way these search engine algorithms scan for content, there are some search terms you can use to get your page closer to the top. Even small businesses and […]
Web Design Tips – Keep Your Site Up-to-Date With the Latest Advancements
Running a website is a constant evolution. The ability to gather new data and interact with your audience in new ways is always improving and evolving. Your website should change right along with it. Even if you create a perfect, smooth-running and beautifully designed site there is always something new to be added to it. […]
The Mobile First Design: Why Working Backwards is the Best Practice
There’s a trend going on in web design, but a trend may not be the best way to describe it. Mobile first web design is starting to become the status quo for web designers and app engineers. In the past, due to more processing power desktops had their very own interfaces. But now, as more and […]
5 Assets of a Responsive eCommerce Web Design for Your Retail Shop
In 2016, online sales accounted for nearly 12% of total retail sales for the entire year for a total of $400 billion. That number is quickly growing which is why more and more businesses are turning to e-commerce. Even if you do not sell products, there are many reasons why you might want an e-store […]
Why Hiring Local Web Designers is Ideal for a Startup
Every good startup needs a website, and they need that website to look good. With the prevalence of Internet-based marketing and services nowadays, it’s essential to have a functional, attractive site if you want to get your name out there and compete in your market. Whether you repair roofing or plan weddings, your customers want […]
3 Attributes Every Web Design Company Should Have
The web design industry is a very unique one. It takes a particular set of skills that you might not expect in order to succeed. The success of your web design company depends on all your employees having the right qualities and being able to mesh well with each other. The best web agency in […]
Website Planning Process Guide with Marketing Intact
When it comes to redesigning an old, clunky website or launching a brand-new website, there’s a process that takes your website from a clear concept to a fully-functional, interactive website: the website planning process. Whether you’re doing this in-house or hiring a digital marketing agency, having a website plan in place can help eliminate unnecessary […]
Top 5 Reasons Why Your Business Can Benefit From Custom Website Design
Creating an online presence for your business is the best way to spread to make your products and services quickly discoverable by consumers while spreading your brand awareness. Therefore, your website should project a professional image that shows your clients, customers, and partners why they should do business with you over your competitors. With custom […]
6 Effective Website Design Tools for WordPress
WordPress is the single most popular open-source system for managing the content you put out there. Over 75 million different websites use it. Some of the most traffic-heavy blogs on the internet are based out of WordPress. The fact that WordPress is free has allowed thousands upon thousands of users to try their hand […]
3 Benefits of a Web Agency for Your Business in San Francisco
Silicon Valley is the heart of technological innovation in America. Sure innovation happens elsewhere as well, but nowhere else in America are there so many smart business people grouped together in one city like San Francisco. The city by the bay just keeps churning out hot new prospects in the start-up industry and other entrepreneurial […]
Small Business 101: Website Builder vs Web Designer
Comparing: Website Builder vs. Web Designer These days, a website is an integral part of the small business’s process. It’s how you get your name out there so that you can access a broader range of customers. Having a sleek looking website demonstrates to people that your company’s goods or services are professional and valuable […]
The Perfect Bounce Rate Formula: 5 Ways to Improve Your Site’s Conversions
Improve Your Website Conversions Website traffic is one of the top goals of every website on the planet. That goes all the way from CNN to Facebook to your own site. The problem is that as a business you can have all the traffic you can possibly imagine, but without conversion, it doesn’t mean a […]
Website Building 101: 5 Web Copy Tips for a Beginner
Basic Web Copy Tips for Beginners One of the first tips of SEO is writing killer copy. But how exactly do you do that? You might be the world’s greatest writer, but that doesn’t mean those skills will necessarily translate over to the web. But don’t worry. We have you covered. Here are our […]
5 Latest Website Trends and Advancement in Digital Marketing
With 2018 already in full swing, now is a good time to consider digital marketing developments in terms of the latest website trends. Certainly, 2018 promises plenty of new experiences, with the development of technologies such as machine learning, virtual reality, and voice all very much in evidence in website designs. Please read on, as […]
Business 101: 6 Must Have Shopify Apps for your Online Store
For viewers who may not know the concept, Shopify is a Canada-based e-commerce company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. Shopify resides on an e-commerce platform for online stores and retail point-of-sale systems and offers an impressive array of must-have Shopify apps to its clients. Started in 2004 by three founding members, it followed a somewhat subdued […]
Guest Blog, Guest Post Inquiries
Welcome! If you’re interested in writing high-quality and unique content for the Zen Den Web Design Blog you’ve come to the right place! Please send us an email with the following information: Your contact information The topic(s) you’re interested in writing about Sample articles you have published Any additional information If your pitch is accepted […]
SEO basics 101: 3 types of backlinks you should be using
How to use backlinks for SEO Whether you are new to marketing or speak SEO better than a second language, backlinks can be a tricky thing to understand. Backlinks are essentially references from one website to another. Generally, they come from larger, more established sites and prove to Google (and a broader audience) that the […]
Essential Web Design 101: About Page Ideas
It’s very easy for us to see the about page to be something of an afterthought. This is doubly true when you have gone into significant detail to make sure your website’s layout and design is just right. But most of your site’s visitors are going to be curious about who you are. There is […]
Top 5 Must Have WordPress Plugins for a B2B Company
These days, WordPress is one of the top places to design and host a website. With its easy to use templates and great metrics for analytics, it’s no wonder why it’s so popular. If you are operating a B2B through WordPress, you have already probably taken advantage of some of WordPress’s great built in features. […]
How to Efficiently Track Website Traffic Metrics
Collecting data is easy. Between Google Analytics and any number of third-party plug-ins or online tools, you can amass a mountain of information about your website fast. However, efficiently using that data to create a better performing strategy and strengthen your marketing and sales efforts is not as easy. To be efficient, you must understand […]
How to Optimize a website for Viewing on a Mobile Device
Bob Dylan’s times are still a-changing and the mobile evolution revolution is ongoing. While in living memory of Generation X, the height of chic was folding broadsheets in subways, without disturbing the person in the neighboring seat. In bowler-hatted London, the gentry was still reading advertisements in ink and paper, and shopping in brick and […]
Most Used Programming Languages
The best way to reach new clients and keep repeat customers is to build your website and maintain it regularly. Communication must always be open, and customers should receive responses to their questions in a timely manner. Furthermore, products and services should have detailed descriptions, be updated often, and revised as needed. It is vital […]
Changes to Web Design for 2018
It’s not true that the restless nature of web developers keeps them changing, changing things. We have to chase Google’s emerging algorithms, and there is wonderful new technology that helps our websites outshine others. San Francisco web development is shadowing these ideas excitingly. So what will web design 2018 look like, and where will it […]
How to Optimize an Infographic for Search Engines
Did you know that infographics allow you to take, what could end up boring, mindless content, and convert it to something easy to read? We all love eye-catching visual screen work but tend to shy away from huge chunks of text that burden our brains and put our eyes in sleep mode. The result for […]
The Difference between http and https – Why Is It Important?
With no time to waste, we will start this article with the essentials because this is going to be vital evidence in this argument. Have we grabbed your interest? We hope so, and we hope you read further. First up, what do “http” and its sibling “https” stand for? Naming Difference Between http and https […]
How a 404 Page Can Hurt Your SEO
We have all experienced them when browsing or searching, but do 404 – “four-oh-four” in geek speak – affect SEO? It all depends on the 404 message returned, but most of these categories do not directly influence SEO. One thing all 404’s share in common however, is their ability to frustrate and permanently turn away […]
The Essential Elements of Modern Web Design
Web design is constantly evolving: what was once limited by hard-coded, static HTML has now grown into a dynamic entity that literally drives businesses today. Web design trends continue to go in and out of vogue; with some trends slowly edging their way out (we’re looking at you parallax scrolling), while some older trends are […]
3 Major Website Holdups to Improve
It’s no secret that the most important aspect of your site and its success is the quality of the content within the pages that contain it. But, with all of the focus fixated on the content creation, there are relevant technical facets that are seriously lacking in receiving the attention that they rightfully deserve. What […]
Why AI Won’t Replace Web Designers
Web design is a relatively new job. When websites first came into existence, there was no need for designers — sites were made up of pages containing just text. As Internet speeds began to increase, it was possible to make pages more complex, first by adding images, then videos and other rich content. Read: 3 […]
Are Homepage Sliders a Bad Idea?
Times have changed quickly. When we go online and search for something, no matter what it is, there are a host of different websites offering the same thing. Price will always be a determining factor with consumers, but the second most important item is website design and ease of use. Cumbersome user interface, pages that […]
Project Questions a Web Designer Should Ask You
Creating a website can be nerve wracking. You know how important your web presence is to attract customers and convert sales but with so many theories out there about what is “the best process” can become confusing and downright intimidating. Choosing the right web designer is a critical first step. Not all are created equally. […]
Can Your Hosting Affect Your Online Success?
Picture this. You have worked long and hard at designing and developing a website for your business, taking each careful step to ensure a bug-free, user-friendly experience on your website. But, after a successful launch and a few good days, you start receiving complaints from customers about being unable to access the website or being […]
Decision Time: Web Designer vs. Website Builder
The World Wide Web continues to expand exponentially. This opens an interesting debate that focuses on choosing between a professional web designer vs. website builder. The key difference between the two is a website designer builds from scratch. In contrast, a website builder provides ‘canned’, customizable solutions. The Great Debate – Web Designer vs. Website […]
The Tactical Use of Whitespace in Web Design
Silence between notes in music creates a rhythm that seizes our attention. When a speaker pauses in the middle of a sentence, we eagerly anticipate their next words as we imagine what they might say. White space between objects makes them stand out better and seem more attractive. Visit an art gallery and you will […]
3 Decades of Evolution of Web Design
What do the Internet – also called the World Wide Web – and Baby Boomers have in common? Some older readers may say ‘not an awful lot’, thanks to resistance-to-change labeling, but they would be wrong. Come join us and find out more, as we celebrate over three decades of the evolution of web design. […]
How to Write a Killer Product Page
“How do I create a product page that will entice my customer into buying from me?” As pivotal a question as this is to a business’ online presence, the answers to it are as diverse as the businesses that ask this question. However, regardless of what your business is, it comes down to describing your […]
In the Know: Major 2017 Google Algorithm Change
We’re now well into 2017, and changes – in every aspect – just keep coming! As a business owner operating from a website, you most likely try and keep up with best practices and implement strategies that can get you traffic and leads. You have embraced responsiveness and your site is functioning perfectly on small […]
How to Stand Out: Homepage Web Design Tips
How many websites are currently offered to the world? Millions? Billions? It’s probably near impossible to track down and count every single website ever created. Not to mention, who has that kind of time? However, the overall point is simple: There is a never-ending supply of websites available to consumers. Where does your site rank […]
What Defines a User-Friendly Website?
In this day and age, it’s critical for your business to have a user-friendly website. If your site is difficult to navigate, many people will get frustrated and your bounce rate will sky rocket. If you take the time to implement a few best practices, you can increase return visitors and boost sales. Here are […]
How to Use Videos on Your Website
Do you currently use a website to promote yourself or business? It doesn’t matter what sort of product you have to offer – if you want to increase viewership to your site, and bring more awareness to what you’re selling or offering, then you ought to explore using videos on your website. Videos are a […]
2017 Web Design Trends. What You Should not Dismiss
Are you searching for the best 2017 web design trends? If so, we’ve got quite a list for you! It’s true, in order to be the best, you’ve got to learn the best techniques. The New Year is right around the corner, meaning if you want you and/or your company to be successful, then it’s […]
Backlinking Strategies that Work in 2016
Backlinking strategies are obviously important, and can go a long way in helping to get your website (i.e. business or product) noticed. So, that being said, can you define backlinking? Not only do you need to know how to define it, but you should also be able to list specific methods that work. Backlinks (or […]
How to Choose a Good Website Color Scheme
First impressions are everything, that’s why a brand representative website color scheme matters. Today, if you want your business or company to become successful, then it’s vital to have an online presence. Specifically, you must have a website to keep clients and/or your target audience informed. After all, how else do you expect to stand […]
It’s All in the Local SEO
If you want your business to become successful, which you most likely do, then you should consider getting getting educated on local SEO. SEO, or search engine optimization, can help your company rank on the Internet when potential clients or customers go searching for a specific product . . . a product that you have […]
8 Effective Web Design Principles
If you read around you will come to realize that the approaches to effective web design principles don’t vary much from one source to the other. The simple explanation is that conventions are a good thing and there is no need to reinvent the wheel. That is not to say your website can’t have bells […]
10 Steps to Increase Your Domain Authority
The future of business is undeniably online, and to beat the competition, it’s incredibly important to establish domain authority. Without domain authority, you have less of everything. Less traffic, which leads to less repeat visitors which leads customers which less to less reviews, less data – you get the point. Domain authority is critical for […]
5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Use a Free WordPress Theme
At first, a free WordPress theme for your blog may seem like a simple and effective way to garner attention and attract customers to your products. It’s true that there are a lot of color and layout combinations, and given the advantage of saving money, it’s easy to see why a free theme might be […]
Does Website Speed Impact Search Ranking
If you’ve just recently started up a website or even a partner site, and you’re not getting the kind of traffic you want, you may find yourself wondering “does website speed impact search ranking?” Search engines like Bing and Google have a checklist of things that they look for and evaluate when organizing the most […]
5 Tools To Retarget eCommerce Abandoned Carts
Deemed the plague of digital retail, eCommerce abandoned carts are amounting to billions of dollars lost in revenue. If you’re operating an online shop, you know all too well, and dread, the abandoned items, forgotten, dismissed or removed. Retargeting customers that once showed a strong intention of purchase is necessary but shouldn’t take all of your […]
10 Tips To Optimize Mobile Site Speed
Will you lose customers while your mobile pages slowly load, or will you gain loyal followers as you optimize mobile site speed? The choice is yours, but Google plans to add mobile website speed to SERP ranking, so wise businesses are moving to optimize mobile site speed now. The majority of consumers are mobile and […]
5 WordPress Website Themes To Use In 2016
Finding a needle in a haystack might seem easier than choosing from the staggering collection of available WordPress website themes. That job becomes a lot easier with careful consideration of your website’s purpose and priorities. Use this rundown of features in five important WordPress website themes to determine what’s best for your site. 5 important […]
Google AdWords Changes : truth and myth
On February 18th, 2016, Google AdWords changes took the digital marketing industry by surprise. The removal of right side ads on desktop results page created panic and much heated debate. While discussions are still going strong on the topic, most agree a month later that Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Armageddon will have to wait. Again. […]
“Tag, you’re it”: what heading tags are and how they impact SEO
The importance and compared merits of heading tag in website pages and posts has been (and still is) generously commented and there seems to be little argument about it: heading tags are necessary to boost SEO and improve user experience. Heading is code name for structure Heading tags (or title tags) are designed to add […]
Best Keyword Research Tools for PPC and SEO
Keyword research tools are to SEO professionals what a scalpel is to a surgeon. An extension of themselves, an obsession that wakes them up at night. What keyword will improve their website ranking, trigger the click on the ad attached to that word or group of words. Finding relevant keywords is crucial to online businesses, […]
How to boost SEO with Google Adwords?
The question whether one can boost SEO with Google Adwords has been asked many times and is much debated. Most digital marketers tend to keep them separate in the campaign strategies, yet the goals are the same: traffic and conversion. The main objective of SEO is to increase an online business’ visibility and place well […]
Do higher conversion rates depend on both SEO and CRO
Do higher conversion rates depend on SEO and CRO working hand in hand? Many digital marketers will focus on search engine optimization and let another team take care of what happens after a visitor landed on a page. Does it make sense? Are conversion rates not intimately related to SEO? Is CRO not depending on […]
Causes and fixes for 406 Error – Not acceptable
The response “ 406 Error – Not acceptable ” is not as common as a “404-Page not found” but does happen occasionally and should be fixed. What causes a 406 Error When you click a page link or access a website, your browser sends a request to the host server. In other words Chrome (for […]
How to Identify ‘Not Provided’ Keywords in Google Analytics
In the SEO world where keywords play an important role, not being able to identify ‘not provided’ keywords in Google Analytics (the search terms that brought visitors to a site) is comparable to sailing through heavy fog. The imposed blindness weakens our performance and productivity. In the absence of actionable data, what can we do […]
Best Mobile Analytics Apps 2016
Mobile devices have become an extension of our desk and mobile analytics apps let us do our job anytime, anywhere. Running an online business, managing websites, or optimizing digital marketing campaigns… We are not necessarily sitting in front of a screen all day; we need access to data when we are off work. Such is […]
Must Have Chrome Extensions for SEO
Chrome Extensions for SEO are tools to rapidly access important information at a glance. Behind the scenes, most of those appendages also offer more comprehensive content and analytics. Chrome Extensions for SEO help you get a website on the first page and stay there. How to Install Chrome Extensions for SEO 1. Go to Chrome […]
4 Step Web to Lead Form Integration for Your WordPress Website
Web to Lead Form Integration is an important component of a website design and build project. We’ll assume that you have the perfect mix of modern design, responsiveness, professionally written copy and optimized user experience. Next, you need a convenient way to collect leads in a CRM so you can organize, prioritize and schedule follow-ups […]
Google Webmaster Tools for Beginners in 3 Easy Steps
You’re redesigning your website to make it more appealing to potential customers, so now you need to make sure those potential customers find your site in the first place. Luckily, Google gives you the tools to improve your search rankings: Google Webmaster Tools (GWT). Monitoring GWT can help you naturally increase your site’s search ranking, […]
The Importance of Good Copywriting for Your Website
Your website is the world’s introduction to your company. It is the first impression many people will have, and it is frequently the tool people use to form opinions about your company—good or bad. If your website is unprofessional, visitors will probably think your business is unprofessional. Web design is a huge component of making […]
Responsive Web Design and Google’s Mobile Friendly Update
On April 21, Google made a major change to its search engine results page (SERP) algorithm on mobile devices: websites that are mobile friendly are now placed higher in the results. If your website is not mobile responsive, this algorithm change could have a significant impact on your web traffic. Let’s take a look at […]
Recent WordPress Vulnerability and Security Updates
Zen Den Web Design feels it is important to share the information we get regarding WordPress, particularly and security updates that may affect our customers or the WordPress community in general. We’d like to bring to your attention a recent XSS vulnerability affecting multiple WordPress plugins and themes. The vulnerability is caused by a common code […]
Better Website Design with SASS and Compass
Working with Sass & Compass offers a lot of tools that enhance our ability to work with color in the website design process. From simplified opacity to mixing and matching colors on the fly, utilizing Sass & Compass has become a irreplaceable part of our front end workflow. I’m going to over a few basic […]
Creating a Custom Video Carousel to Display YouTube Videos
We recently completed a project for a customer that required the development of a custom video carousel to show their YouTube videos by category. We wanted a large hero Video on the page and a carousel of other videos in a scroll bar below. It needed to look something like this: We were surprised to […]
5 Ways Your Website is Driving Customers Away
1. It’s Too Slow Your website speed is usually your very first impression for your brand or business online. Here are few stats related to site speed from Kissmetrics: 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less. 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds […]
Analyze Website User Behavior with Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a powerful free tool that lets you analyze website user behavior every move with one simple interface. It also provides powerful data about users such as the device they are using, how they found your site, and even where they are located geographically. If users are signed in to Google or some […]
Using Buffer To Manage Social Media
With so many social media platforms to choose from, it can be difficult to keep them all active. Posting consistently can be a pain when you have other things to do, which is where Buffer comes in. So what is Buffer? Buffer is just what the name implies: a buffer between you and everything social […]
Custom WordPress Shortcodes in the Web Design Process
It’s a common problem in web design, as a web designer with a broad knowledge of HTML and CSS standards, I can craft beautiful and complex sites, but at some point I have to hand that code over to a client. A client who doesn’t have the time or interest in bringing themselves up to […]
Free Cloud Hosting with Amazon (AWS) Free Tier
Amazon Web Services Free Tier Hosting Besides leaving packages at our front door, Amazon runs a massive cloud computing operation branded as Amazon Web Services (AWS). Many companies, e.g., Amazon’s store, Netflix, Reddit, Pinterest, etc., use AWS to back their systems. Even some federal US government agencies employ AWS: NASA and the CIA. As an […]
Top Web Design Trends to Adopt in 2015
At the time of writing this, the web is almost 24 years old . From what started as a strange science project has grown into a media consumption and human expression engine like the world has never seen before. The internet is a constantly evolving machine that has reached roughly 40% of the world and […]
Set your WordPress Data Free (WP Rest API)
The Future of WordPress WordPress is a great piece of software that has grown way beyond its meager blogging roots. But the future of WordPress might be as a set of components that allow you to pick and choose what you need from it. With the recent 1.1 version release of the new WP REST API […]
We Preprocess our CSS with Sass and So Should You
What is Sass? Sass is a CSS preprocessor. It greatly expands on the capabilities of vanilla CSS, allowing us to use features that aren’t going to make it into the CSS spec anytime soon. The best part is, we don’t have to wait. We can use these features today, because Sass is processed and output […]
5 Reasons Your Company Should Be Using WordPress
Branding is a vital component of your business. Your customers know what to expect when they make a purchase, and your brand provides that assurance. A good brand delivers quality and consistency, both of which help acquire and keep customers for the long haul. One of the most effective ways to spread your brand is […]
3 Simple yet Effective SEO and Website Design Tips
An appealing storefront with bright, visible signs and an ad in the Yellow Pages was an effective way to draw in customers a generation ago, but in today’s digital world, having a presence in search is crucial. Do you know how many new customers you are acquiring through online search? When people need something nowadays, […]
3 Questions About SEO Services You Need to Ask
Questions About SEO? A lot of Americans dream of opening their own company one day, and being the boss certainly has its advantages. However, starting a business is incredibly risky. Most people wait until they’re fairly secure financially to open up shop, but by that point, they have usually started a family and have […]
We’ve Officially Moved!
From humble beginnings come GREAT things Let’s look back and reflect on how Zen Den Web Design first started. I have 2 passions; surfing and music and at the time I was surfing as often as I could at Ocean Beach and playing bass in a local bar band. I needed a website for for […]
Pros and Cons: BigCommerce, Shopify, & MagentoGo
At Zen Den, our web development and design team is well versed in a variety of ecommerce website platforms having built extensively on Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, and Zencart, to name a few. Of course in our client’s best interest we choose the eCommerce platform that meets their needs and provides the right solutions for […]
New WordPress Website Launch: Merritt Mental Health
By: Mae Demdam Whew, another one down! We’ve just finished the launch of a new medical website for our client, Merritt Mental Health. This was an exciting and seamless project thanks to the integration of Basecamp and our client’s constant communication. What is Merritt Mental Health? Dr. Eli Merritt, a psychiatrist in the San Francisco […]
We’ve Teamed Up with AltTox and the Humane Society of the U.S.
By: Mae Demdam Our innovators, designers, creative thinkers, strategists AND most importantly animal lovers, are so proud to have been chosen to redesign AltTox.org’s (in partnership with The Humane Society of the United States) website. The goal of this collaboration is to bring their current website up to date, make it responsive, and create an […]
Let’s Break These Unhealthy Work Habits and Be More Productive
By: Mae Demdam At Zen Den we’re not the hoodie wearing, Cheetos eating type, although we like both, nor are we Bosu ball sitting and the “shoes off” meeting kind of agency either. We’re a creative agency with individual personalities working together in our best version of a “zen-like” state, but that doesn’t mean we […]
Web Redesign for Buffalo Bill’s Brewery in Hayward CA
By: Mae Demdam We’re proud to announce that we’ve partnered with Buffalo Bill’s Brewery to create a responsive website to strengthen their online presence and assist with their re-branding and marketing. Buffalo Bill’s Brewery was founded in the 1980s by beer enthusiast and famed photojournalist Bill Owens. He envisioned opening an authentic brewpub that would […]
8 Great Websites for High Quality Free Photos
If you spend enough time shopping around for stock photography you begin to see the same boring stock images. You know the ones, a sterile corporate type writing a generic message in the air with a white marker. Or the solo cup of coffee on a desk alongside a notebook and pen. The point is […]
3D Flip Animation using CSS3 Transform Properties
By: Chad Bell Create modern engaging website designs using CSS3’s 3D transform properties. This is tutorial explaining how to create a convincing 3D card flip animation. You can display any HTML on either side of the card. Our example is from a portfolio page. The front of the card displays a screen cap of one […]
Using Buffer to Manage Multiple Social Media Campaigns
By: Mae Demdam Businesses should know the importance, value and essentialness of social media, but it’s much more than throwing up a Facebook Business Page or Tweeting once a week. Proper social media management takes extensive research, strategy creation, and most of all time. A majority of the customer experience happens online, thus social media […]
Understanding the eCommerce Conversion Path
By: Mae Demdam As eCommerce business grows, purchasing and consumer behavior continues to adapt to its technology, thus it’s important to fully understand how consumers are getting to our websites and how they interact with it to convert to sales. Conversion Path vs. Purchase Path There are two specific paths when it comes to eCommerce […]
How to Organize Your SEO Strategy
By: Mae Demdam It’s always helpful when people can share tips and tricks of their trade with others and because of our SEO experience we want to be one of those helpful individuals. There are a lot of different factors to take into consideration when it comes to optimizing your website. Many of which happen […]
Why Businesses Should Hire Professional Content Writers
Writing Your Own Content? Although no one is going to know the nature of your business better than you, we still don’t recommend that clients write their own content, primarily because they normally aren’t expert writers. Not only are there major pitfalls when clients without professional copywriting experience try to produce web content, more often […]
Conquering the Dreaded Web Design Launch
By: Mae Demdam All the hard work and stress is over, or so you thought. Even when a site is 99% complete; the design is approved, the site has been tested, and it’s ready to launch your client is hesitant and won’t pull the trigger. It can be frustrating when your client has cold feet, […]
Woocommerce Product Category Taxonomy with the Yoast Plugin
By: Mae Demdam It’s no surprise that our team is enamored by WordPress. We love the plethora of features, plugins and eCommerce extensions like WooCommerce and when building a recent client’s eCommerce WordPress website, check it out here, we wanted to deliver a cohesive design and search engine optimization strategy that increased their business and […]
Website SEO Checklist & Free SEO Spreadsheet Download
By: Mae Demdam Website SEO Checklist It’s always important to check your work prior to launching a website with implemented SEO strategy. Once the site goes live it’s accessible to your audience and you want to ensure that you’ve gotten most, if not all of the kinks fixed and your ducks in a row prior […]
Do you have a comprehensive SEO Content Strategy?
By: Mae Demdam SEO Strategy Comprehensive SEO content strategy is vital in getting indexed on the first page of SERP’s (Search Engine Results Pages) and isn’t an easy task. Let’s face it, technology has made us somewhat lazy and we, as consumers crave instant gratification with the least amount of work. Thankfully Google, Yahoo, Bing […]
Popular eCommerce Platforms: WooCommerce Magento or Shopify?
By: Mae Demdam Which Platform is Appropriate? Making a successful eCommerce website it no easy task. You need to consider what eCommerce platform works best for your business and and your budget. With all the choices for eCommerce websites out there, it may be difficult to decide which popular eCommerce platform is right for your […]
eCommerce Website Standards for Easier Online Commerce
By: Chad Bell eCommerce Website Standards Every day millions of people around the world a making purchases online. Since the early 2000’s people have been buying things on the internet. Since then the process has been greatly improved with data and analysis of billions of purchases thus forming a certain set of eCommerce standards. Platforms […]
Q: How Do You Convert Visitors Into Customers?
By: Chad Bell A: Optimized Website Content Converting eCommerce website visitors into paying customers is not an easy task. Thankfully there are a few fundamental techniques for optimized website content to help you when planning your new website. 1. Know your visitors Before you start planning and generating your content, you should be able to […]
Brand Identity and Graphic Design
By: Chad Bell Brand/Identity Insanity Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Einstein believes this to be true, and we couldn’t agree more. Not too long ago, we noticed that we weren’t getting enough information about brand and identity of some of our clients during their initial design […]
Modern Techniques in Web Design
By: Chad Bell Modern Techniques and Technologies in Web Design Leveraging modern techniques in web design will not only keep your site up to up to speed with your competition, but it will also protect your investment. Let’s take a look at some of the latest technologies being used today: HTML5 Another modern technique in […]
How Are Websites Designed?
Website Design Process: Mockup Designs We know that one of the most exciting steps to building a website, for both designers and clients, is the Mockup Design process. After all, we can talk about to the functionality and graphics with words all day long, but most of us are visual learners. In order to deliver […]
eCommerce Website Design Prices
By: Chad Bell eCommerce Website Pricing Fact is there are a lot of options to consider when budgeting for the design and development of an eCommerce website, it can be a bit confusing. Websites are not unlike cars and eCommerce website design prices can range from $5,000 – $500,000+. At the lower end of this […]
Optimized Images for Improved SEO and Website Loading Time
One of the usual suspects to a slow website is large un-optimized images. Fortunately, this is a fairly easy fix and can lead to improved SEO. Let’s take a minute to talk about the different image formats for web design. The Most Common Image Formats in Web Design Are: Jpeg Jpeg is a commonly used […]
The 80/20 Rule of eCommerce Web Design
The 80/20 Rule We’ve all heard of the 80/20 rule, originally created to describe the unequal distribution of wealth. Named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto who observed that 80% of the income in Italy was received by 20% of the Italian population, the assumption is that there are a “vital few and trivial many”. […]
How Business Consulting Can Save You Money
A Guy and His Start-up Idea I recently met with a potential client to discuss his new website project. Now, I meet or take phone calls on a daily basis with potential clients who have a web based business idea. Its a mixed bag of good, bad, and terrible ideas for the next big Internet […]
Turn WordPress into an eCommerce Website
Why We Love WooCommerce For a lot of eCommerce stores WordPress running Woocommerce is more than sufficient. I speak with a lot of clients who are sold on Magento for even though they have less than 1000 sku’s and don’t expect to have 100’s of sales a day. Magento is an awesome eCommerce platform but […]
My Top 6 Business Books to Read for Entrepreneurs
By: Chad Bell Business school taught me the fundamentals of business which I use in my everyday management of Zen Den Web Design. However, my MBA did not prepare me for the challenges I would eventually face as an entrepreneur. I filled that huge gap with books that have not only taught me valuable lessons, […]
Simplified Web Design and Increased Conversion Rates for eCommerce
Some Simple Design Recommendation for eCommerce Websites Regardless of your website’s overall purpose or message, everyone has the same end goal… Conversion. When it comes to websites, conversion means turning clicks into customers. Whether that means sales, memberships, or calls, the higher your conversion rate, the more successful your eCommerce website becomes. Too Many Choices […]
Project Management and Client Expectations
A major challenge in our industry is project management and client expectations. We’ve all experienced the project that went south resulting in major stress and a frustrated or angry client. However, most of these problems can be resolved before hand if you set reasonable expectations up front. Easier said than done in my experience. So, […]
The Value of Site Map in Information Architecture
The Value of the Site Map Diagram in Web Design So you are doing your due diligence of investigating the top creative web design agencies in the area to build the best website money can buy. There are likely to be a plethora of players and qualifications on your checklist, making this a challenging and […]
Social Network Website for Customer and Employee Portals
Social Network Websites Social networking online has become a crucial part of life and has helped many companies grow. Small Businesses have a lot to gain by integrating social network features into their general web presence. Combining services and products with various social networking features creates the ability to connect with consumers directly. It’s about more […]
The Importance of Responsive Website Design
What is Responsive Web Design? Responsive website design leverages the latest technology and coding techniques to deliver a website that responds to any device, regardless of size, resolution, or brand. Whether your audience is viewing your website on a desktop computer, laptop, tablet, or mobile phone; the layout and design will automatically react to the […]
Google + and Rich Snippets to Improve Your Local SEO Ranking
Google Plus and Local SEO Keeping up with the latest search engine optimization SEO techniques can be a full time job. However, if you are in business then it really pays to stay on top of your website’s SEO. As business owners we are all clawing our way up the search engine results pages (SERP’s) […]
5 Web Design Tips to Keep Your Open Source Website Secure
What is Open Source? In the web design industry the term Open Source is widely understood. It has allowed web design companies and freelancers to build websites at a fraction of the cost and time that projects would take building from scratch. These cost savings have been past on to clients and have not only made […]
Monetize Your Website Content
Subscription and Premium Content for your Website Does your website offer a subscription or membership option to your visitors? If not, you’re missing out on a lot of potential revenue. Imagine if just 10% of your visitors paid you $10, $25, $100, or more every single month! It doesn’t just have to be content, you […]
WordPress Newsletter Campaign Plugin
Start a Newsletter Campaign Need to manage your company newsletters and want full control to customize design and functionality? Well, you can use a WordPress newsletter plugin which will integrate seamlessly with your existing WordPress website and make your email marketing campaigns a breeze. With a range of customizable features a newsletter plugin can be […]
3 Tips for Optimizing Images for Better SEO
SEO Opportunities Optimized Images Do new customers contact you as a result of finding you through a Google Search? Well, if this idea appeals to you and your business then read on! Recently the good people at Google wrote a blog reminding the world of how relevant website images are to the world of search. […]
Zen Approved – Design Element Providers
By: Chad Bell When it comes to adding personalized elements to your site, you may be confused about where to find inspiration. Here you will find a list of recommended sites with inspirational design elements to help better achieve your dream website. Our top picks will help you find stylized elements, including color schemes and […]
Instantaneous Advertising to Millions of Consumers
By: Chad Bell Imagine a time when lead generation was created through trade papers, customer response cards and classifieds. Many SMB (small to mid-sized businesses) can relate to the agony of waiting by the phone in hopes the next caller would be a sale. As generations grew older, technology improved vastly as “out with the […]
3 Elements of a Strong Brand Identity
By: Chad Bell When people hear the term “brand identity”, they usually think of a logo or a slogan. But exactly what goes into creating these identifiers and what makes one brand more recognizable than the others? As the Internet inevitably becomes inundated with your competition, it will be increasingly important to properly define the […]
WordPress Tutorial 2 – Part 1. Quick & Easy Tips for Images & Galleries
By: Chad Bell Learn how to add images and galleries into your WordPress blog or site quickly and easily in just 6 minutes. Next up, watch our WordPress expert optimize the ways you can display images with the popular NextGen plugin.
Upgrading Your Small Business Web Presence
By: Chad Bell Once upon a time, a simple website with a logo, company blurb, and contact info was good enough to inform customers about your business. Although these aspects are still essential, modern web users are accustomed to a higher standard. In today’s day and age, there are a few platforms that you can […]
Top 5 WordPress Plugins
By: Chad Bell As powerful and full featured as WordPress is in its default configuration, sometimes you need a little (or a lot) more. Fortunately, the WordPress community offers a huge array of plugins to expand its functionality. Even as an experienced developer, I am constantly amazed by the scope of what are available. Almost every […]
5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Starting a Business
By: Chad Bell Recently, I met with a prospective client who had an idea to develop an eCommerce store for a new product he had created. He waxed on about how great the product is as well as the value that it would provide his future customers. Having met too many people who have not […]
Not Your Grandmother’s Project Management System
By: Chad Bell An increase in project acquisition is usually the first sign of growth for small businesses. Great as it is for your business development goals, taking on more work also means more room for mistakes. To maintain your momentum while also keeping up with the unique demands of each client, project management tools […]
WordPress Tutorial for Beginners
By: Chad Bell Take a look at Zen Den’s WordPress Video Blog Tutorial for Beginners! Despite its powerful features, WordPress is designed with ease of use in mind. Once your site is running, you simply log in and manage your content from the administration panel. Find out how you can do this easily by watching […]
5 Tips to Increase Website Conversion For Your Online Store
Your conversion rate is a measure of the number of potential customers that actually go on to make a purchase from your website. Many websites concentrate solely on increasing the number of visitors to their site, when often they have fairly simple problems that, if solved, would have a huge effect on their conversion rate. […]
3 Quick SEO Case Studies
By: Chad Bell When it comes to SEO (Search Engine Optimization), understanding of the concept usually caps off at name recollection. Our Lead Developer has spent over 10 years working in internet marketing and web development. Join him as he discusses the following case studies that highlight 3 major SEO considerations crucial for all websites. […]
Top 4 Trends in Logo Design
By: Chad Bell The company logo functions to establish identity and boost sales – it is often one of the first and most important things every company must consider. In many cases, a logo update is called for every ten years or so to keep up with modern design trends and business logo styles. While […]
Baking with the 960-Grid
By: Chad Bell When a designer starts a project from scratch, a good amount of time is usually spent on setting margins, text spacing (padding), positioning (floats), and defining sections of content (div). The 960-Grid is a favorite method of Zen Den designers to improve the structure and design of web layouts. How exactly does […]
Branding with Neuromarketing: Past, Present, & Future
By: Chad Bell As the majority of purchasing behavior is found to be subconscious, the field of neuromarketing attempts to understand reactions of our brains to brand stimuli. One of the major factors behind its attractiveness is the idea that traditional marketing research may not be fully reliable in determining consumer motivations. Instead of relying […]
The Power of WordPress – More Than Just Blogging
By: Chad Bell More and more websites these days are being designed entirely in WordPress. WordPress is a free platform that makes it easy for anyone to create and update content for their site without any technical knowledge. Originally intended to be used primarily for blogging, it has since evolved to be capable of handling […]
7 Ways to Improve Your Craigslist Ad
By: Chad Bell Craigslist can be a great source for new customers once you learn to create and manage your ads effectively. Zen Den’s Craigslist ads prompt at least 25 calls each week and the majority of these calls become solid leads. So how can you generate a solid stream of leads from your CL […]
E-mail Rules I Try to Live By
By: Chad Bell A recent article in Business Week, Respond to All (Relevant) Email Yourself (April 13, 2010), started me thinking about the nature of building client relationships and the use of email. As business owners, we are acutely aware of the marketplace becoming more competitive everyday. Whether our business is acupuncture or general contracting, we […]
Sticky-er Notes: Using Evernote
How to use evernote in a way that helps you become productive, and very user friendly.
SEO?…I So Don’t Know What that Means
I have quickly learned through experience as a newly hired intern, that SEO’s are a crucial part when it comes to internet marketing. However, not having any idea what it was didn’t help. The first couple of questions that came to mind were: What is an SEO? What does it do? And why is it […]
Simple SEO Tips for Blogging
By: Chad Bell Recently, a friend of mine asked me about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). He inquired, “Isn’t it just putting words together that match your content? Like, if I was selling cars, wouldn’t I use “cars” as my title or something?” He had a point. In fact, if you were to describe exactly what SEO does […]
Content Management Platforms
In college, I took a class called Internet Business Applications. In this class, I gained experience with using open source content management systems (CMS). Drupal, an open software, leverages the contributions from thousands of brilliant coders around the world. Drupal gave me the basic framework for which I was able to create and customize FindHype.com (a social […]
How to Build an ecommerce Store – Part 1.
By: Chad Bell So you have decided to save some money and build your online business yourself. Good for you! Here is a guide outlining the logistics of eCommerce development. 1. Finding the right open-source software for your business. Very rarely will a developer write an eCommerce store from scratch. It would be too time […]
Survival of the Strategist
By: Chad Bell Once upon a time, social media were just means to more efficiently conduct public relations for businesses. Nowadays, they not only provide one-way marketing communication in the form of a push strategy, but also allow for companies to pull the desire for products or services from potential buyers. As the distribution chain […]
Zen and the Beauty of WordPress
By: Chad Bell One of the most common requests I get from customers is the ability to add/edit/delete the content of their website without knowledge of HTML. Most hosting accounts have an HTML editor, but fewer have a text editor that allows users to add/edit/delete written content on their site, and if they do, the […]
From the Withered Tree, a Flower Blooms
By: Chad Bell Whether you are managing your own AdWords campaign or someone else’s, you have certainly asked yourself at some point, “to content network, or not to content network?” Well, Google now calls the content network the Display Network, but whatever you choose to call it, it can become a money pit of unfruitful […]
The Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with One Step….
By: Chad Bell ….and so goes the process of SEO. I emphasize process, or journey, when speaking of SEO, because it is not something that can be done and over with. For many individuals and small/medium size businesses owners, they build a website, launch it, and wait patiently or impatiently, whatever the case may be, […]
Why Hire a Web Design Company to Create an eCommerce Site?
By: Chad Bell Well….its basic economics. You know, the comparative advantage theory? Actually, unless you have taken an economics class you probably are not familiar with the concept. I know a lot of potential customers that contact me do not consider this basic principal when they are shopping around for an eCommerce web designer. Just […]
Client Expectations and Google AdWords
By: Chad Bell Having worked with clients to manage their AdWords campaigns, I have discovered a common theme. They don’t have clear goals for their advertising campaign. Everyone wants to join the AdWords gold rush, but very few people know what to expect. I asked a client, “What do you want to achieve through AdWords?” […]
Zen Cart – How to Install Credit Card Logos
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How to Comment Out a php Line
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Displaying Multiple Posts on WordPress Home Page
Figuring out how to change the number of posts on the homepage using The Morning After template is tough, so we did the hard work for you!
