Many people often say, “I wish I volunteered more,” or “I wish I could somehow give back to the community.” Often, people simply just don’t know where to look for volunteer opportunities, and the idea becomes pushed back into their minds once more.  The nonprofit, government-funded organization Volunteer Texas, one of our newest clients, makes volunteering a more viable reality. Ultimately, the organization makes it easier and more cohesive for people to volunteer all across the state. Volunteer Texas connects both residents and out-of-state volunteers to opportunities throughout Texas.

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Building a website isn’t a simple process, and there are various factors that go into the design/development of one. Think about making the perfect cheeseburger. There’s the obvious ingredient, the burger itself. But it wouldn’t be the same without the cheese, bun, and, depending on your preferences, ketchup, pickles and other add-ons. Now think about removing all that stuff that makes the cheeseburger taste good. Not so tasty anymore, right? Consider a website with just the bare minimum—like that plain burger, it’s dry—bo-ring.

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Ahoy, matey! Pirate Energy, a cocktail-inspired line of energy drinks, has partnered alongside the HMG Creative team to create a highly custom ssh client , energetic and industry-disrupting web experience. A division of Blue Matrix Labs – the brainchild of Kendall Harter – Pirate Energy brings the party to your taste buds with five tasty, healthy and outright exciting energy shots.

In an effort to break into the market in a revolutionary way, we crafted a carefully formulated digital experience for Pirate and its customers. At the nucleus, a responsive, informative and user engaging site with custom animations and an easy-to-navigate user experience. But the site wouldn’t be as enthralling if it wasn’t for the compelling copy. Aligning ourselves with the party theme of the brand, we used a tongue-in-cheek approach to content creation. Using hilarious pirate innuendos, we created informative product-specific copy while portraying the quirky company culture and instilling it into the readers’ minds.

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Awhile back, we wrote a blog post about Pageless Design. Now, as promised, you’re getting more information about the growing trend. In case you missed my last post, Pageless Design is a type of web design that encapsulates an entire site’s data into one seamless webpage. It’s compelling to visitors because it tells a story while simultaneously being visually pleasing. While not appropriate for every website, Pageless Design is perfect for startups, freelancers, small retailers and those selling a single product or service, such as a chef or author.

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Often when designing or redesigning websites, we mostly think about the design and overall aesthetic, and less about the ability for users to find the site, or the overall optimization. What’s the point of a website that looks amazing but can’t be found and isn’t functional? Or even a site that can easily be found but isn’t visually engaging? The whole purpose of a website is for it to be found and for relevant content to be delivered to its visitors. The design and optimization of your website affects your SEO campaign, PPC campaigns, and the overall user experience of your website, reason why you need to makes sure to use a low code development software.  When building or redesigning a website or pages, it’s crucial to incorporate aspects of both SEO and PPC. These tactics should be utilized during the design process and also used for future optimization further down the line. Let’s take a look at some of the most useful SEO and PPC tactics and practices you should apply when creating a new website.

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As ubiquitous as the Internet is, there are still many people who do local SEO company marketing that don’t realize how important having a good web presence really is. Or a website at that. When was the last time you searched in the Yellow Pages for a plumber or that new restaurant your friends are talking about…’99? I thought so. But nowadays, having the courage to just start a website isn’t good enough – anyone can have that since it’s not 2004 either. The key is to have, as the title says, a good web presence.

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If you’ve been on the Internet lately (read: everyone), you’ve probably come across a site with an unnecessary amount of pages, too much going on, and most likely, you have no idea where to click first.  You find yourself thinking, “Should I visit the ‘About Us’ page? What about the ‘Contact Us’ link? Maybe I should read the testimonials first to get a better idea of the product.” All you really wanted to do was check out your neighborhood’s new café, maybe order a sandwich for lunch, but now you’re about ready to throw your computer at a wall. Somehow you’ve found yourself overwhelmed by enough buttons and links to support an international company’s website.

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Picture this. You’re halfway through college, your major is still “undecided” and you’re feeling the pressure to choose a sensible career path. You’ve always been interested in law, but let’s face it; you probably slept through most of your Intro to Law class freshman year. You want a resource that’s resourceful yet engaging enough to help you learn more about the process of becoming a lawyer. That’s where our client, Texas Young Lawyers Association (TYLA), comes in. You do some research and find out TYLA has a program called “What Do Lawyers Do?” After browsing through the site, you notice right off the bat that it’s a) visually engaging, b) easy to navigate, and c) has all the information you could possibly want about becoming a lawyer. You’re sold.

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Avalon Communications, a leading Austin-based PR agency, approached HMG with a problem they had been looking to solve for some time: create an online presence for Avalon that is representative of their brand and of its recent exponential growth. In the last year and a half Avalon has acquired a multitude of high-level clients that have each been propelled to the forefront of their respective fields through Avalon’s savvy and industry-refined PR tactics. Knowing this, we embarked on a journey to pair Avalon’s longstanding professional legacy and its industry-changing solutions with a newly revamped online presence.

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Web design isn’t an exact science. There are broad principles to follow, but at the end of the day, you have to figure out what works for you and your audience. However, you should always remember that your customers have itchy back-button fingers, and some web design mistakes will make them bounce every time. Here’s a list of our top eight design mistakes:

• Making Content Look Like Advertising
  Web users these days have developed “banner blindness.” Anything that looks like a banner ad or block ad will be ignored. Avoid the common web design mistake of putting essential information in a format that looks like advertising.

• Using Non-Intuitive Navigation
  If you have to explain how to navigate your site, you’ve done it wrong. Navigation should make sense to someone who has never seen your site before. Group similar links under headings and make it easy for visitors to find their way back to a previous page and to the home page.

• Automatic-Play Flash Videos
  No one wants to be held hostage while you play a 20-second introductory video before loading site content. Video is great, but make it optional by providing a play button for the user to click when he or she is ready.

• Not Listing Product Pricing
  What’s the point of having an ecommerce website if you make the visitor call, register, or start to checkout before he sees actual prices? This includes shipping rates as well. Provide estimates before checkout to reduce sticker shock during the sale.

• Unclear Call to Action
  Can visitors immediately see how to take action on your site? Your call to action should use descriptive, action-oriented language that clearly communicates what you want the visitor to do.

• Long Blocks of Text
  Our attention span is short and even shorter online. No one has time to read through a long page of tiny text. Break copy up into smaller chunks using subheadings and bullets, and make the font bigger so content appears less intimidating.

• No Search or Bad Search
  Placing the search box in a difficult-to-find place (like halfway down the sidebar), not being able to handle misspellings, and not including search capabilities at all are common web design mistakes. Bad search can leave users frustrated and ready to bail.

• Links that Don’t Look Like Links
  Use color to designate clickable text, and change the color for links that have already been clicked. Don’t be too creative with this. Underlines, italics, bolding, and unusual colors may look cool, but users may not pick up on the fact that they can be clicked.

Do you happen to be guilty of any of these disastrous web design mistakes? If so, it’s time to start testing a new design that will make it easier for your customers to convert. Give us a call and we’d be happy to talk through this with you!