Written by Justin Ensz
Graphic designer and webmaster

Social networking has become a priority in today’s standard of communication, even in the corporate world. With most people and businesses connected by Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, today we’re highlighting how to integrate your Twitter feed by adding Twitter’s customizable, real-time widget to your website or blog.

With this widget your Tweets will update on your Twitter feed and on your Facebook, website or blog at the same time. Since your time or your employees time is so valuable, it may be worth looking into posting your Twitter updates on your website and let technology do the work!

One example of a business using this widget is a long-time PAZ Design client,  Oral BioTech, the creator of a product line named CariFree. PAZ Design Group created the Oral BioTech website and blog site and recently added a live Twitter feed to both. See for yourself at blog.carifree.com and carifree.com. Without making changes manually to their website, Oral BioTech has up-to-date news, info and tips streaming on their site with the click of a button from their Twitter account. Simple! Links nestled in each Tweet can take browsers to more information, and their web content is well on it’s way to seeing more traffic.

If you’re interested in adding a Twitter feed to your website, fill out this form, check the “Social networking” box and write “Twitter widget” in the message.

Written by Justin Ensz
Graphic designer and webmaster

If you want well-written content for your website but don’t have the budget for a professional web writer, the following steps will help you make the best of writing content on your own. WIth ten key points in mind, you can bring your content up a notch and keep your expenses down.

1. Start by researching similar or competitor’s websites before writing, analyze likes and dislikes — get your creative “juices” going

2. Research Google keywords (what are Google keywords?) for implementing in later steps

3. Identify the specific goal of your webpage, article, or even paragraph

4. Begin by writing a rough draft

5. Go back through to cut out anything that is extraneous or can be shortened (as a rule, less is more)

6. Replace any key words with Google’s keywords

7. Perform spellcheck

8. Read through to see if you accomplished your goal

9. Have the text reviewed again by yourself and at least one or two other people — make sure it conveys your goal

10. Upload your new content

Following these steps will help you create professional and effective content for your viewers to read, and great results from search engines.

Search engines thrive on “fresh” information, so update your content often.

Happy writing!

Written by Justin Ensz
Graphic designer and webmaster

When working with clients and asking for their email address to place on their website, business card, or other promotional piece, often I’m given something attached to Yahoo, MSN, Gmail, or the epitome of free web mail — Hotmail. Today’s blog is devoted to clarifying what a professional email address is and how it is looked at in the business world.

Your email address plays a valuable role in your company’s identity because it provides you a professional outlook and retains your brand through all points of contact. Yahoo, Gmail, etc. are all great for a personal account and are useful for friends and family, but when it comes to your business, your image deserves consistency. Additionally, by separating your email accounts — business and personal — it will help organize your work from play. It may even prevent you from forwarding that hilarious video to your client instead of your pal by mistake.

If your business has a website, it is easy to set up an address under your URL address for you and anyone in your company. For example, your new address could be bobsmith@professionaldomain.com. You won’t even have to give up your current (i.e. Yahoo, Gmail) email address — the one most of your contacts have saved in their address book. Your new email address will forward mail to your personal account and can even send mail out of your personal account under your business address. Most hosting companies provide this service free of charge as part of the website hosting package. Either you, your host, or a web programmer can help setup your new email addresses, a simple process.

Once you’ve set up your professional email address account, there are a couple of options. You might find that you like the new interface of your host’s email service better than your Hotmail interface and switch over – exporting and importing your saved contact list is easy to do. Or if you still feel more comfortable using your previous email account, you can setup email forwarding to that address. Now you can start promoting your new email address on your business materials and correspondence.

If you have a personal email account that needs to be switched to a business account or if you need to set up a business email address, you can let us know by filling out our web quote form. Just check the box that is labeled “Hosting administration” and let us know that you are interested in “setting up email” inside the “Additional details” box or call us at 503-588-2822.

Written by Justin Ensz
Graphic designer and webmaster

Google has always been noted as innovative in almost all areas of the web, but when it comes to searching information, it still holds number one. With its high standard, we suggest Google keywords to our clients looking to expand their web presence and searchability. Read on to learn more.

There are two primary purposes for Google keywords. The first is in writing your content; learning the popular keywords that a user will likely type into a search engine to find your website. The focus here is to first write your website content as you intend it, then go back and edit the text by switching out some key words for the most-searched words your potential customers are using. The result? You create a tag that sticks out a little further than the rest of your competitors, bringing your website closer to the top of a search engine’s results. For today’s web standard, this is the most important thing you can do for your site’s searchability.

The second purpose of the Google keyword list is to buy several of the popular keywords to insure your spot in one of the top three sponsored links on Google. If you are looking to spend a little advertising money, you will want to use this list to find out which words are worth purchasing – and it is a lot cheaper then putting an ad in the paper!

If you would like help in this area, let PAZ Design Group know and we will get you a free quote. If you would like to look into Google keywords yourself, then go to https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and type in your own keywords.