“Yeah – I’ve got a logo. You can just grab it off our website.” That’s not something any designer wants to hear. You need a VECTOR version of your logo – especially if you plan on using it anywhere but the web. What does that really mean, and how can you get there? You didn’t think I’d raise a question and not give an (absolutely correct and overly folksy) answer. Come on, I’m not THAT guy…
So, you’ve got a WordPress site. It’s your pride and joy (especially if we designed and developed it) and you’re really excited to show it off – but you’re not quite sure what to do to get traffic. The brass ring here is good placement with Google (and to a lesser extent, Bing and Yahoo.) How do you do that? You optimize your site – SEO. Search Engine Optimization. There are a few steps – and they can seem a little daunting, but for the next 21 days, we’re going to walk you through how to really SEO your WordPress site, get it set up right and get some asses in the seats.
3 weeks. No guarantee that you’re going to dominate Google, but in those three weeks, you’ll learn what to do and what not to do to set your site up for success with search engines – and more importantly, how to set it up for long term, sustainable and legit traffic.
Why do you want to SEO your WordPress site?
As good as dominating Google can be, you don’t want to put ALL your eggs in that basket – and you don’t want to design and develop your marketing strictly on the merits of good SEO.
Search Engine Optimization should be a part of your total marketing strategy. An important part – but a part, nonetheless.
There’s 3 reasons for that thinking:
So – don’t put all your eggs in the SEO basket. It’s important, but you need an overall marketing plan for your business (and your site.) Don’t neglect content, social media and traditional marketing efforts. SEO is part of the gestalt of good marketing. In this day and age, it’s enormous – but it’s not the only place to look.
Stay tuned for the next (now) 20 days. You’ll come away with a better understanding of what good SEO is, a little more intimate knowledge of your WordPress site and a bit of a plan to keep it up and get more visitors, more clicks and more sales. It’s gonna be fun, kiddies!
Tomorrow: Installing Yoast SEO and Setting Up Webmaster Tools
And, for your auditory pleasure, a vaguely relevant reggae tune…
Actually, logo design can be horribly difficult. There are so many forms, so many shapes, so many fonts, so many tools, so many colors that it can be a difficult thing to whittle down to the essential, creative process of logo design. We’ve nailed the process – and if you need a beautiful, non-crappy logo, you’re in the right place.
We’ve done hundreds upon hundreds of logos – everything from sports teams to e-liquid companies and pretty much everything in between – but the logo design process remains the same:
Step One: Gather info on who you are, what you are, who your audience is and what your “vibe” is as a person or as a business. We’ve got a comprehensive logo design questionnaire that we use to gather info, and we’re always happy to chat and gather ideas the old-fashioned way. Once we’ve got a lock on what you’re about and what you’re looking for, we gather it up, put it between the ears and get the process really rolling.
Step Two: Think. This is always the hardest part to bill – but it’s the most crucial part. Inspiration doesn’t always come when you’re sitting at your desk from 9 to 5. Sometimes, it’s in the shower. Sometimes, it’s while I’m feeding the chickens. I can spend, quite literally, 20+ hours thinking about a logo design direction before anything ever reaches paper or pixel.
Step Three: The blank sheet. I keep a number of sketchbooks, Moleskines, notepads and Post-it note pads around me at all times. When the ideas flow, they hit the paper as soon as I can get them there. Sketches, roughs, notes, dumb jokes – they’re all part of the logo design process. Ideas about your name, ideas about your audience, ideas for generating more ideas – all on the paper.
Step Four: The pixel. After the sketches are where they need to be (also known as coherent,) the work of digitizing the logo roughs begins. Photoshop, Illustrator and (gasp – 1997!) Freehand round out the tool box. A zillion fonts to choose from – but by this point, we have a pretty good idea of what we’re looking for. We build anywhere from 6 to 15 “rough” ideas and let you start narrowing them down.
Step Five: The back and forth. Once the initial round is done, we let you play with them. Combine, rearrange, add, subtract. It all helps us get down to the final, perfect piece. We usually find that 2-3 rounds of revision are sufficient, but if we need to keep going we can keep going.
Step Six: Done. You’ve got a killer, 100% original logo. We deliver in a variety of formats (PDF, AI, EPS, PSD, JPG, etc.,) and we make sure you’ve got everything you need – color specs, font specs, spacing conventions, all that jazz.
Since your logo is arguably the MOST important part of your identity and marketing, it needs to be good. Hell, it needs to be GREAT. Let’s get started on making something great.
We ran across this video of Aaron Draplin’s process – and while it’s a 15 minute video that shows how some of the stuff is done, it’s the years of experience and his genuine talent that makes the process look so smooth and quick. It’s worth a watch. Now, if you just imagine this guy being a 6′ 4″ graying doofus, about 100 pounds lighter and with a coffee cup permanently attached to his left hand, you get a good idea of what it looks like here when we attack the logo process. Enjoy! Then, when you’re ready to roll on YOUR logo, click here.
