Cryogas International had an existing website that was disorganized, difficult to update and maintain, and was not able to take subscriptions online. They are now fully functioning with an online eCommerce system in place, easily updated posts and pages and fully integrated with social media links. Currently they are well on their way to 1,000 targeted twitter followers. In the first 3 weeks, we were able to gain over 500 followers.

Visit the website: http://cryogas.com

AJAX needed a site to highlight their work in the Hospitality Hotel Industry. They specialize in commercial real estate development/investments and work with many of the major hotels chains (such as Westin) renovating their properties. For AJAX, a blog was developed and business pages were created on Linkedin, Google+, Facebook, a Youtube channel with slideshow of their projects, and a twitter account was created and we established 2,000 targeted followers in a span of four months.

Visit the website: http://ajaxconsultingservices.com

 
Visit the website:http://methodistweekdayschool.org

This site was created in 2010 using WordPress for content management and the Shopp ecommerce plugin. The client requested that the site be designed to match the Brigham and Women’s Hospital site while incorporating the gift shops own brand.

“When The Shop on the Pike decided to pursue a live e-commerce site for the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Gift Shop there were many challenges and obstacles to climb. Our site needed to reflect the proper image for our institution, one of Boston’s finest hospitals. We needed to comply with many guidelines set by Partners Health Care, our parent corporation. But most importantly we wanted a site that was attractive and easy to navigate both for the customer and our staff. Blue Iris Web Design managed to achieve all of these goals and beyond.

Not only do we have an attractive web site, but it is one that is fully integrated with the “look and feel” of the other sites associated with the hospital. It is superbly easy to navigate from the front end to the back.

Deciding to build a web site for any retailer is an intimidating decision and is complicated by the multitude of choices out there, be it hosting or credit card processing. Nina at Blue Iris knew all of the options available and managed the behind the scenes technical details perfectly. Our staff is trained on how to receive orders, and process them, we can update the site when needed, and we are confident that if a problem arises Blue Iris is just a phone call away.

I am happy to say that we made the right decision when we hired Nina Johannessen and Blue Iris!”

Patrick Lally
Manager of Retail Services
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Visit the website: http://brighamandwomensgiftshop.com

Orr Homes LLC was needing a new website to match their logo and branding. Built using WordPress, this site features a dynamic home page vertical slideshow, slideshow galleries on each project page, and social sharing buttons.  A matching YouTube channel was also created that features a slide presentation of many projects completed by Orr Homes.

Visit the website: http://orrhomesllc.com

Boston yoga

Boston yoga classes

Yoga Boston

“Nina designed and implemented my beautiful and outstanding web site for my fine art business…

Working with Nina was a pure pleasure, as she mindfully took the time to understand the nature and feeling of my artwork, and then reflected on it to create an artistic and technically perfect website, which is beautiful and original. Nina is very talented, works with an open mind, and is always on time. I continue to work with Nina to update my site, and I highly recommend her for her talents and technical expertise.”

Karen Watson

Visit the website: http://karenwatsonfineart.com

This website features online membership, event registration, eNewsletters, social media, videos, and slideshows. It has been a complete solution for the club to run their yearly membership drives, manage membership data, accept credit card payments for events, send eNewsletters and new post updates to their members.

Visit the website:  http://wppc-ma.org

This construction project management group wanted a clean and professional website that highlighted their 2 divisions: project management and specialty construction. The site has clear navigation, featuring photos of their many projects.

Visit the website: http://netcomanage.com

 “NETCO Construction Project Managers retained Blue Iris Web Design to do a “makeover” of the NETCO website. Nina Johannessen worked with both the marketing and project management personnel of NETCO to create an entirely new look to the website incorporating both the Project Management and the Specialty Construction Divisions into one fully integrated and seamless website. We are thrilled with the results, both in terms of the graphic design of our new website as well as the information content. Nina was instrumental in helping our company personnel complete this website in a relatively short period of time, provide important advice on content, and complete the work for a very reasonable price. We look forward to working with Nina to maintain the site as well as use Nina’s skills to help us use the site as an important marketing tool for NETCO.”

Dave Lager, President

“Nina designed a website for my employer a couple of years ago. She had great ideas and was very patient with our many questions and changes. We are extremely pleased with our website and with Nina’s services. “

Chris Gentile, Project Administrator

Journalist, author and scholar, William Bole needed a website with social media integrated to promote his books, articles and his new blog; TheoPol, a blog about theology and politics. Both his facebook page and his twitter account have banners and backgrounds to match his new website.

Visit the website: http://williambole.com

William Bole is an American journalist who writes about ideas, particularly as they stir in social movements and take shape in the lives of extraordinary people. Much of his writing is situated on the borders between religion, ethics, politics, and intellectual life. He also crosses frequently into other fields of interest, especially education and management.

“I hired Nina to develop and design my business website and I couldn’t be more pleased. She had valuable input and expert advice starting from conception to final design. I couldn’t be happier with the final result, a beautifully designed and easy to use website for my current and potential clients to visit. Her attention to detail, expeditious updates and continued support with my website has been extremely valuable to its success.”

Laurel Carey, Owner

Visit the website: http://indulgencedayspa.com

The Massachusetts Futsal League needed a new site for their premier girls futsal teams; the Pink Ladies. This site has event registration for their girls teams, their boys equivalent; the Netripper Futsal Club, and also their adult league. This site also sells a variety of related futsal gear and is completely integrated with Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Both the boys and the girls sections have their own blogs.

Visit the website: http://pinkladiesfc.org

Pink Ladies FC is the premier girls futsal club in the country. Now entering its eighth year, Pink Ladies FC guarantees unrivaled technical improvement, improved decision-making and speed of play, great success and great fun! The Netripper Futsal Club is it’s boys division. Both are part of the Massachusetts Futsal League.

Visit the site: http://vickiblier.com, Window Treatments and Design, Lexington

This site was created in 2011 using WordPress for content management and the Shopp ecommerce plugin. Client Susan Condon needed a new site after finding the Intuit Pro-Stores unusable. Along with eCommerce – complete with customer accounts, invoicing, wishlists – the site offers an eNewsletter sign up with a custom template as well a social media integration and a blog entitled “The Chatty Beader“.

Visit the website: http://eurobeadsboutique.com/

Susan sells Murano glass European beads and charms as well as custom-made glass bead jewelry.

Do your own test: search for your website as if you were a potential client or buyer looking for your services or products. In other words, be your own customer. Don’t use your domain or company name, instead pretend you are looking for the services or products you provide.  Are you showing up or is everyone else getting the first interviews while your site is waiting in line on page 150?

If you are not showing up when searching for your products or services you are losing that first interview with a potential buyer or client.

Search engine optimization (SEO) isn’t rocket science, but it is an ever-changing algorithm that web developers/designers need to stay on top of. All websites should be optimized and built with search engines in mind so your site has the best results possible from the moment it is launched. Unfortunately, many sites are not. Most often this is because the designer/developer does not have enough knowledge in the area of search engine optimization to build the site properly. There are lots of stunning websites on the internet that no one can find.

Recently, clients have called with beautiful existing websites but ZERO search visibility.  A quick look at the site’s coding showed very little, if any, optimizing had been done by the site’s developer. These sites were not showing up in the top 50 + pages of Google for key search terms relevant to their business. When your site is properly optimized it is naturally listed within the top few pages of Google. The term used in the industry is ”organic search results” (another word would be FREE search results). Every website should have a baseline of great organic search results before even contemplating paid search results and paid advertising.

SEO Client: Geckoes Rainforest Lodges, Costa Rica

Zoë Courtier and Tom Keller contacted me after finding me on Twitter in March of 2011. They had a beautiful site but were not being found for any relevant searches. They also had a prominent banner on their home page to a rainforest lodge booking agency that took their visitors off their site to the agency’s site where the visitors could browse many competing lodges in Costa Rica. While Geckoes Lodge is a member of this agemcy and is required to show the banner on the home page, it didn’t need to be front and center as a ‘call to action’.

After taking a look at the site’s code, it was clear that much could be done to improve the site’s visibility. Any search that did not contain ‘Geckoes Lodge’ (the domain is geckoeslodge.com) produced no direct website results within the top 40-50 pages and beyond of a Google search. Together we identified their target search terms: Luxury rainforest lodges, holiday houses, accommodations, costa rica, Caribbean and any combination of these.

The following was done on the site to incorporate these search terms:

• All title tags were changed and varied on each page.
• Meta descriptions were changed and varied on each page to reflect the page’s content.
• Key words were added.
• The home page content was rewritten to emphasize the target key search phrases.
• Links were added to the footer area to include the most major websites they are listed in creating ’round-about’ linking.
• Links were added to the existing Facebook and Twitter social media accounts.
• The agency banner was reduced and moved to the footer.

The site was then re-submitted in March 2011 for the search engines to “crawl” (this term means they scan the site and re-index their findings). The site was crawled 2 days later and the results happened immediately. Of 20 combinations of the terms identified, over 6 phrases were instantly listed on the first page of Google results! Many other combinations landed Geckoes Lodge on pages 2 and 3.

Today, August 8th, 2011, Geckoes Lodge continues to enjoy fantastic ”organic” search results. Here are some of the results:

If you have a website that needs some help with search engine optimization or you just want to improve your current search results, Blue Iris Webdesign can analyze your existing site and provide the insight and services you need to increase your visibility in search results.  Services include helping you increase your rankings by using social media, reciprocal links, Google Analytics, email newsletters, key phrase selection for your target market, and the advantages of publishing web articles.

Ever open up one of those Share buttons on a webpage and see 100+ little icons and say to yourself WTH…? (yes there’s one at the bottom of this page – open it up and click on the +340).  Did you think it was going to stop at Facebook and Twitter? Nope! But what are all those icons? How does anyone have time for this? Who will stay and who will go?

All excellent questions, and – no – you don’t have time for this. At least not all of it. Many of those buttons will go as the field gets thinned and many of them are only relevant to certain countries. But you should make some time for social media. At least enough time to know what it is and how it’s impacting business and the world as we know it.

For some businesses social media can be a gold mine and not to be missed. For others, not quite as important but still something you mustn’t neglect. A word for the wise; enter into the social media world now – even if it’s just a little – regardless of what you do or what you sell. It’s not too soon. Do not wait to “see what’s going to happen”, because the social media world is here and is here to stay. 

Social media will continue to become a major avenue for how we do business.

Some social media players will be saying their goodbyes while others will explode into the market place. While Facebook is enjoying worldwide continued growth, it has started to decline in the US. Meanwhile Google Plus was launched on June 27th, 2011 and already boasts 20 million users at the time of this writing. Twitter and YouTube are growing exponentially and you can bet that Amazon and Apple will be buying up and producing major social media products as fast as they can.

Getting nervous about it all and don’t know where to turn?

Everyone is in the same boat so no worries – here’s some easy tips to get started. There’s lot’s of resources to help you navigate before you spend big bucks trying to figure out what you need or a good service provider to help you build up your social media presence.

Here’s a step-by-step to get you started:

1. If you don’t have Linked In account yet, set one up. This would be your business networking media account. It’s where you put your resume and link to fellow business associates. You can hunt for job opportunities and you can get introduced through your business links to people they may know in markets or companies you want to explore. But, MORE IMPORTANTLY, join groups. All the groups that are relevant to your pursuits and interests. Search their previous comment threads for information or start a new one. Perfect example: there’s several social media groups. Conversations about these very questions we are exploring now. People that have had good experiences, people who have had bad. Invaluable conversations that help get you on the right track. LinkedIn is also a great resource for finding reputable service providers for any field when you are ready. If you own your own company or sole proprietorship, set up a company page on LinkedIn as well.
2. If you aren’t on Facebook yet, do it today. Set up a personal page and get all your friends on board. Then set up a business page. Doesn’t take long – Facebook makes sure the network is working to alert anyone who graduated from any school the same time you were there and any company you worked at. You’ll be finding more people you haven’t been in touch with faster than you know it. You also don’t have to be active on your account. You can just collect those friends. Then on your business page, post news or new products and share them to your friends. You’d be surprised how many will support you. Your message then goes out to their friends, etc, etc. Don’t make the mistake of thinking this is silly. The under 40 market is using Facebook for job searches, service providers, and now shopping. We are just beginning to see how all-encompassing the Facebook market will be. Start your business presence on Facebook today.
3. Last but not least, set up a Twitter account. Twitter is an extremely powerful resource for reaching massive amounts of potential clients/consumers. The misconception I hear most frequently is people think it’s just about hearing what someone ate while dining out or what Charlie Sheen has to say about WINNING. But it is far more than that. It’s a conversation. A worldwide conversation from the mundane to the sales spam to the revolutions in the middle east. Any and every topic you can think of is being discussed and shared with people from all corners of the globe in real-time. It is the single most important platform where you can reach millions of people. Start an account for you and/or your business and begin to build up followers, try a few tweets, search the conversations and study the various ways people are using twitter. Twitter provides an avenue to find out opinions and trends faster than we ever have before. That translates into future markets, products and services for the savvy business person.