Industry | Livewire Web Design Blog

Google Removing Anonymous Reviews

So it appears, as far as Search Engine Journal is reporting, that Google is removing anonymous reviews. And, honestly, why wouldn’t they? If you’re going to write a review you should have the guts to state your first name … or take the time to create a fake profile. At a minimum it will thin… Continue reading Google Removing Anonymous Reviews

Using Google URL Shortener

It really could not be easier. Google’s URL shortener is certainly the best one out there. https://goo.gl/ Our latest rollout, InfoGopher, uses this extensively. Our unique texting app needs short URLs in order to remain inside text character limits. Anyway, we love it. Google as usual gives you the goods.

CSS Animation, The New Flash?

I’ve used it, so I am not immune to the pull of CSS animation, but what are we doing here folks? Used sparingly, CSS animation is at best a small way to augment conversions (button wiggle), but at worst it is a resource hog that destroys readability and flow. I can guarantee that users would… Continue reading CSS Animation, The New Flash?

TradePMR has a new website

A really great client – TradePMR – just launched their new super awesome, totally spectacular, mobile responsive website! We worked with their staff for the last 8 weeks to put together an entirely new online experience for their customers. Livewire will be conducting conversion optimization audits over the next few weeks. This will allow us… Continue reading TradePMR has a new website

The problems with Wix

Wix is a do-it-yourself website builder. While this may seem to be in direct competition with Gainesville Web Design companies, they fill an important niche; mainly, those customers that cannot afford a professional website but still desire to have a nice looking design for their business. The templates are nicely made in most cases –… Continue reading The problems with Wix

Branding & Marketing Services

Livewire is proud to announce that we are now offering professional branding and marketing services. Phil, the owner, never considered branding services because, well to be honest, he is terrible at graphic design (he’s a programmer so it’s okay). Branding services include but are not limited to : Branding boards, iconography & custom logo design (which… Continue reading Branding & Marketing Services

You get 15 seconds! Web Design Trends for 2016

Mobile is in and users are becoming increasingly impatient. In 2014, 55% of users spent less than 15 seconds on a webpage according to data by Tony Haile of Chartbeat. This means you only have 15 seconds to capture a users attention and convert a visitor to a customer. User-Centered Design is critical to the success… Continue reading You get 15 seconds! Web Design Trends for 2016

Using Warning Lights or Guages

A good article on fox-business about whether your business uses warning lights or gauges to understand how your business is growing. The proper answer should be: gauges. A light is just either on or off, a gauge gives you much more information about where your business is headed, and in what condition. The article goes… Continue reading Using Warning Lights or Guages

Small Business Sees A Rise In Cyber Threats

Come on, let’s all live in the real world: we’re all vulnerable. Really the only chance you have these days is to make it as difficult as possible for any potential hacker to get to your valuable data. First and foremost this means protecting your data in transit. Using secured connections to transmit data is… Continue reading Small Business Sees A Rise In Cyber Threats

Redirects & Canonical. What’s The Difference?

There is a lot of confusion about the difference between setting redirects and canonicalization. Here’s the deal. What a 301 says to search engines. Hello, Mr. Search Engine. My page has has moved, permanently, to this other address. If you will please remove my old domain from your index and push everything through to this… Continue reading Redirects & Canonical. What’s The Difference?

Recover From A Negative SEO Attack

Nothing can be quite as irritating or as damaging as an unscrupulous competitor or determined unhappy client that is willing to go to any length to harm your business. It doesn’t take much for some people to launch an all out assault on your business, endangering everything you’ve worked for. Maybe they have a valid… Continue reading Recover From A Negative SEO Attack

Messaging When Switching From iPhone to Droid

Sneaky little issue pops up when you move away from iphone. Other iphone users that previously texted you won’t be able to text you the same way once you switch. This is because when you both were using iphones, the messaging system was not the typical SMS, but iphone’s messaging systems, native to it. So… Continue reading Messaging When Switching From iPhone to Droid

Pretty Awesome Image Packages

Nowadays, it’s just best to buy your images. As Gainesville Web Design experts, we purchase them almost on a daily basis. There are always projects that require different photos, icons or footage. Generally people purchase credits and then use those to buy images – kind of like an arcade, and seemingly archaic way to charge… Continue reading Pretty Awesome Image Packages

How To Survive A Good Google Dinging

This is a great demonstration of what can happen with unnatural linking schemes and getting hosed by using link farms. This company did some black-hat SEO and it came back to bite them. Luckily the article shows that it is possible to recover from a Google update nightmare, but it will be expensive and very time… Continue reading How To Survive A Good Google Dinging

Extend Your iPhone or iPad Battery Life

A common problem in todays world – batteries haven’t really kept up with the rest of the tech world and are absolutely the weak link in virtually any modern day tech pack. Things have gotten better over the years. My smartphone lasts about 18 hours depending on usage now, when a few years ago it… Continue reading Extend Your iPhone or iPad Battery Life

Authority + Trust + Relevance = Rankings

Here you go – the magic formula for ranking on Google. Yes, Yahoo and Bing still matter … even though the third most searched term on Bing is “Google” – people trying to get back to Google, but they’re still relevant. It’s just easier to focus on Google as they lead the algorithm predator/prey dynamic.… Continue reading Authority + Trust + Relevance = Rankings

Is PPC Advertising Worth It?

The answer is: it depends. In our experience it really comes down to your industry, your ad’s effectiveness and … dum de dum dum … money. First, your industry should be visible online in the first place. Holly’s Bakery is probably going to do fine on Google ads or Facebook but John’s Elder Entertainment Center… Continue reading Is PPC Advertising Worth It?

Don’t Get Smacked by Copyright Infringemnt

Developers do it all the time – they need an image for a website and head on over to Google images, put a keyword in and voila! Free pictures for everyone! Not so fast. Many of these images are protected under copyright law and if you get caught, it’s a hefty fine. We have heard… Continue reading Don’t Get Smacked by Copyright Infringemnt

Firefox is dead to me

That happened a long time back. Now it seems that the once beloved browser is now in the same situation with the majority of its former users. I personally feel that the browser lost its roots in version 12, but it was showing signs of becoming yesterdays news long before that. The trouble wasn’t too… Continue reading Firefox is dead to me

Offline linking

This is a profound point. A lot of linking takes place offline. Sounds weird but many great links sprout from the personal relationships you make as a business. Noteworthy links can be found at your local chamber of commerce just like any Hotfrog or elocal directory site. “This is definitely the most commonly overlooked SEO tactic of… Continue reading Offline linking

No Business is too Small for Mobile

No matter how small your business is, you need to be on mobile. There are more mobile users these days than traditional desktop/laptop users, so the benefit is apparent. If your website is not mobile ready, you are at a distinct disadvantage. First, the user will probably have a slow experience on a mobile device… Continue reading No Business is too Small for Mobile

Sitemaps

Back in the day a simple website could get away with an on-page sitemap. Just a simple list of pages somewhere on the site. Not so much anymore. Sitemaps – at least the ones we intend for search engines to look at – are all internal. We use a programming scheme called XML to create… Continue reading Sitemaps

Jquery XML Shopping Cart

We’ve built all kinds of shopping carts – many from the ground up. Experienced with all the third party vendors – zencart, opencart, xcart, etc… we know that clients need something completely customized sometimes. Many shopping carts are simply to complicated for some clients to use – also a case where a customized shopping cart… Continue reading Jquery XML Shopping Cart

Raven Tools

Took a look at Raven SEO tools today. Really, not all that impressed. They have a good price but it mostly looks like you’re just hooking up other services to be managed in one location. That’s valuable in and of itself, but not really what we’re looking for with SEO management software. We’ve gone back… Continue reading Raven Tools

CSS3

Lots of new fun with CSS3. CSS makes styling web pages a snap. Now CSS3, the third “version”, allows for incredibly robust styling possible. For instance, background gradients are a breeze when before developers had to create them as images or use CSS ‘hacks’ to accomplish those goals. The standards allow us to rely less… Continue reading CSS3

What we’ve been up to lately

Here’s what’s been going on at Livewire in the last few weeks – because, well, why not? It’s a blog ,isn’t it? Finishing up the LDM iphone app – which has been a big project that has presented us with some unique challenges. The Android version is likely to come out even before the iphone… Continue reading What we’ve been up to lately

What You Should be Asking

When hiring a developer, many people don’t know what questions they should be asking – if they knew, then they’d probably be doing the work themselves, right? First and foremost – ask for examples of previous projects. The surefire way to weed out the novices is to look at their previous work. How much of… Continue reading What You Should be Asking

Gainesville Web Development

What a market. Gainesville has it all, especially its share of web developers. With new blood coming into the market – funnelled into and out of Gainesville via the University – our little town has an abundance of web developers looking to make a name for themselves. And we wish them all the best of luck. The… Continue reading Gainesville Web Development

Project Gutenburg

Every heard of it? If not, make sure to check it out. They have tons of books online, free for anybody. Our favorite? A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/86 Got a smartphone? Just download a free e-reader and you’re all set. Download the epub version for most e-readers. http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

Facebook Dings Developers

In the ever growing app community, Facebook is putting the screws to developers looking to use their vast resources to build their apps. Really, they’re just looking for a little “reciprocity”. But come on, how much do you need? You already own and operate the largest website in the world. Do you really need more… Continue reading Facebook Dings Developers