articles by Kelly Patchet

Going Mobile – How Responsive Design Solves the Device Dilemma

A quick look at any of our clients’ analytics will reveal an undeniable trend, year over year more people are visiting their sites on mobile devices. In the last few years, there’s been a tremendous amount of discussion about how to ensure your site works well across all kinds of devices and screens.

If you’ve been wondering if you need to invest in the development of an app to make sure your site seen on mobile devices – there’s good news on the web front. It’s a one-stop solution for browsers big and small and it’s called Responsive Design.

Facebook’s flaws exposed in this great video

Can advertising with Facebook can actually decrease engagement? A while back I watched a great video – an exposé on the reality of advertising with Facebook. More recently an article on Business Insider by Jim Edwards relays a bitter dispute between Facebook and a successful fashion company right here in Toronto pointing to the same issues explained… Read more »

Can your marketing make me cry? WestJet Video is a Slam Dunk

Okay, I’m not going to lie: WestJet’s Christmas themed video made me a bit teary. This is my pick for brand-building video-of-the-year. And here’s why: It is a story brilliantly told and executed It taps into the sentiment of the season It never tries to sell anything but at the same time subtly reminds us… Read more »

How to write for your blog – getting started

Writing Blog Posts

If you’ve ever wondered “how do I write a blog post?” you’re not alone. I probably get asked this question more than any other in my business. Our clients know that a blog is a great vehicle to tell their stories, answer questions and help their customers and followers, it’s just the doing it, that’s the hard part.

We’ve had many phone meetings to help our clients get the blog ball rolling. Finally we’ve coalesced all these calls into a top tips, how-to that we hope will help ignite the writer in you.

If you’re new to blogging, your blog is lying dormant, or you’re questioning your ability to do this blog thing, this article is for you.

5 Clear Cut Reasons to Budget for Video This Year

If you’re wondering if video is important for your site, if it would enhance your content and help build an audience, the answer is YES.

“But hold on,” you say. “You don’t even know me or my business.”

And you’re right but my answer remains a firm, enthusiastic YES! I can’t conceive of a business or other organization that would not benefit from video.

So let’s make the case right here and now!

An Introduction to SEO and What You Need to Know

Anyone charged with the responsibility of a website today is likely familiar with SEO or search engine optimization. Or more likely, you’ve heard of it and you know it’s important that someone on your team understands it.

For newbies to SEO here’s what all the fuss is about

Behind the list of results Google suggests in response to your keyword or phrase, is a complicated algorithm (actually algorithms, plural) that assess each possible website across a dizzying array of parameters for the query at hand. The main algorithm and bolt-on algorithms are being tweaked and modified regularly to keep black-hat SEO’s from gaming the results and to take into account changes in how content is judged to be relevant.

3 Great Reasons to Feed Your Blog

The last few years for us has seen a spate of redesigned and developed sites for several long-time clients. Many of their old sites didn’t incorporate a blog. In the early site planning meeting this usually meant a conversation about the new blog. If clients haven’t been blogging, there is often an uneasiness about this idea of a blog – even today. “What is this blog thing anyway?”, “I don’t know if we can do it” and “we don’t really have anything to write about.”

Taking Charge of Your New Website – 5 Reasons to Demand WordPress

It’s really important to ensure that your site is built on a content management system (CMS) that works for you. In fact, it’s a make or break decision.

After all, it is going to be your gateway – the interface – that connects you with your website.

If the way you update your website is clunky and difficult to work with, chances are, you won’t update your site nearly as much (or at all) rendering your new website static and keeping you from building a following for your fresh and useful content. Not to mention foregoing the SEO advantages associated with great content creation.

Why Not All WordPress Sites Are Created Equal

You may be surprised to know how much a good developer can customize WordPress. There’s so much flexibility with WordPress that one client’s view of the dashboard may look entirely different from another.
It all sounds so “plug and play” doesn’t it? Well it’s a bit more complicated that that because not all plugins play well together or like the server its on and that’s where working with an experienced developer pays dividends. And many plugins require configuration to take them where we need them to go.

Why You Need to Plan for Success

Example of a website flowchart indicating content organization by gk media

Okay, we admit it – we’re a bit obsessive about the planning stage of our projects. Sure, we know, it’s not the sexy design stage that everyone wants to get to right away. It’s that eat-your-vegetables-discipline stage, that, *yawn* our clients are quite happy to have us fuss over.

But it is THE thing that makes for a successful project; it’s the glue! It is the blueprint for the structure of the site and it guides design by indicating what each page needs to accomplish and lead to, and it is a roadmap for client content creation.