As an independent creator, I prefer not to take on big projects, but I’d be more than happy to consult in specific areas where I can contribute. What follows is the range of knowledge and experience I can provide (which tend to be things programmers don’t like to do).
Search Engine Optimizations
Search engine optimization is the least understood and most over-promised consultancy to web site owners. Everyone drops an e-mail in your box, promising #1 placement for their services.
It might be good to realize that something as mundane as ‘BMW Dealer’ has 1,150,000 listed web sites. It’s going to be a stretch to ‘guarantee‘ a #1 listing out of that crowd.
Optimization is integral to site design, influences the work of all team members and may be a tough nut to crack. Usually I provide consulting in this area, allowing your own people to implement the work because effective optimization is time consuming, expensive and results are difficult to track.
Having said that, many sites have basic optimization mistakes that are easy and effective to change. Additionally, if your market is the Czech Republic (or even central Europe), optimizing is less complicated.
Web Structure
You may be surprised to hear that web structure is not a technical issue, but rather a logical one. Based on the amount of existing and planned content, web architecture divides information into reasonable and digestable chunks.
The rule is that a user must be able to arrive in his desired location within 3 clicks and this rule is invioable. This can be hard to achieve in large websites, so thinking it through, preferrably before starting the design work, is a must.
Keyword Analysis
A keyword is the word people type in to a search engine, when they look for your web site. In one case, a client was found to have optimized for ‘decorations for Easter,‘ which had 21 people looking for it every day. Meanwhile, he lost 596 potential buyers each and every day who were looking instead for ‘Easter decoration.’
You can’t know that without analysis.
Keywords are important not only for search engine optimization, but also for advertising and developing a marketing strategy. Before you start working on your project, you should know, what people actually search for. I can provide advice or complete the keyword analysis for you. It’s no good to spend money and time working on words no one types in their search.
Graphic Design
If you have your own programmers, I can provide you with design–the graphic elements, which compose the page–logo, buttons, banners, background, etc. This includes font specifications, etc.
Online Marketing Campaigns
Together, we can create banners and texts for your marketing campaigns, for use on other websites or distributed via email to your customers and users.
Copy Writing, Editing Texts and Translations
We can write, edit, translate and proof-read texts for your website.
Image Editing – ‘Retouching’ Photos
All photos that go on the web need editing. Even professional photography needs to be sized to fit the design or screen size. I hand edit, crop, adjust color, saturation of colors and ‘retouch’ flaws such as red-eye from camera flash or sunburned noses. Read more about Photo Editing
Usability … or User Optimization
Many websites suffer from poor structure, disorienting navigation, long texts or photos that download slowly. This discourages buyers and your competition is just a click away. It can prove useful to have your web analyzed by someone from the outside, who’s not familiar with your project and approaches it from a user point of view. If time and budget allow, we can also setup a session with a control-group of users.
Prices and Conditions
Price: 500,- CZK per hour
Conditions:
- Ideally, I can provide consulting via scheduled Skype session (or the telephone, in which case you call me). It’s fast and we can both have a monitor in front of us.
- I can answer simple questions over e-mail. Despite typing fast, it is generally a slow technique (and therefore more expensive). We usually end up with long correspondence which could have been solved faster over Skype or phone. Even so, you may prefer having my advice in writing for use later as a reference .
Can we help your website? Feel free to contact us.
- Free initial site/project overview.
- Flexible consulting services in Czech or English.
- Independent approach “from the outside” on an as-needed basis.