So to simply explain this…

Crop marks are small lines placed at the corners of the document to indicate where the page will be trimmed. They are required because normally, paper can’t be printed to the edges. Slightly larger paper sizes are used then cropped to a standard size. This is where bleed is used.

Bleed is the area that overlaps the document’s borders. It gives the printers room for unavoidable errors in the cropping process. If bleed is not used, sometimes a thin white border can be seen on the edges of finished documents.

This basic SEO guide is aimed at website owners looking for a way to make their site(s) more competitive or anyone with a passing interest in SEO.

You won´t find any groundbreaking or innovative tips; the information here is easily available through a quick Google search – but we hope you’ll find this useful as a quick checklist reference.

1. Content is King

This is both the golden rule of SEO and the most challenging factor to get right. Content can be divided into three main elements:

• Text: Be sure to write articles that not only promote your company but also offer useful advice or information relating to your sector.
• Design: Complement good text with strong design. Users will spend more time on a site that’s easy on the eye.
• Functionality: Is your site easy to navigate? Stick to tried and tested web layout standards to make sure users can easily find what they’re looking for.

2. Choose your keywords wisely

Keyword Selection is a good starting point for any web design project. Deciding on your keyword list from the outset helps you avoid having to tweak existing content. The number of keywords you choose will depend on your level of commitment and available time, but ideally I would recommend 10 to 15 keywords per page. Google adwords keyword tool will help you in your keyword selection.

3. Check your on page SEO

Having established your keywords make sure they are being used throughout the site.

The keywords should appear in your page titles, headings, alt tags, meta descriptions and body text. A common mistake is to follow this advice to a degree where the readability of the text is compromised. The key is to include the keywords but not saturate your content with them.

4. Track your progress

In order to ensure that your SEO efforts are bearing fruit you’ll want to keep track of a number of relevant metrics. Updating a spreadsheet on a weekly or monthly basis will give you visibility on which of your actions are proving successful. Here are a few suggestions of data to track:

• SERP (Search Engine Results Page) position
• Monthly visits
• Bounce Rate
• Average Time on Site
• # Inbound links
• Page load time
• WooRank Score
• Website Grader Score

5. Know your competition

Identify your 5 – 10 main competitors for the keywords you’re competing on. Using the tools outlined in point #8 below you can analyze your competition to find out the following:

• Which keywords are they optimizing
• Who is linking to them
• Which SEO techniques are they doing right that you’re doing wrong

6. Gradual and Intelligent Link-building

Link building is the process of obtaining inbound links from other sites and is one of the main factors used by Google to rank pages. Any offers by unscrupulous companies to submit your site to 1,000 directories for £9.99 should be avoided. Instead be a gentle(wo)man and consider the following link building techniques:

• Create great content (see point #1)
• Become an active member of a forum related to your sector and post relevant questions or responses. Most forums allow you to include your URL in your signature.
• Submit to reputable directories such as DMOZ and yahoo.
• Submit to a few reputable niche directories.
• Be social – create facebook, twitter and linkedin accounts.

7. Host Long and Host Locally

As well as the response time of your servers, there are another two hosting related factors that will affect the success of your SEO strategy. An example is probably the best way to illustrate this:

Good Setup: A site for a company based in Spain hosted on servers based in Spain with a hosting plan that expires in 3 years time.

Bad Setup: A site for a company based in Spain hosted on servers based on the Cayman Islands with a hosting plan that expires in 3 months time.

…so be sure to contract a hosting company in the same country as your business activity and consider extending the duration of your hosting plan to show Google that you’re in this for the long run.

8 Take advantage of Online SEO Tools

The web is awash with tools that will help you optimize your site. Here’s a selection of some that we’ve found to be most helpful:

• Hubspots’s Website Grader (provides you with an overall ranking and tips on what you’re doing right and wrong)
• Woorank (provides you with an overall ranking and tips on what you’re doing right and wrong)
• Open Site Explorer
• Google webmaster tools – shows comprehensive data on how Google sees your site
• Google Analytics – provides detailed visitor statistics for your site.
• Pingdom – (site load times)
• Validator.w3.org (css and html validation)

9. Update your site frequently

Updating your site content regularly will encourage visitors to return and will stop your site from stagnating.

10. Reduce your page load time

With more and more people accessing the web from smart phones, it’s important that page content loads quickly. Nobody enjoys waiting for a page to load. Use pingdom to check how long your page will take to load and employ techniques such as image optimization and CSS spriting to cut the kilos.

If you’ve anything to add or think I’ve missed the mark – feel free to comment below.

By Nick at Design Lagoon

Music is creative, so sometimes I look at band websites for design inspiration. They often combine many elements that use modern web design technologies like WordPress, plug-ins, news and blog sections and make use of social media platforms. With the rise of online media, it seems ever more important for a music artist to have a website that engages with its audience, functions well and establishes their look. After recently producing our first music artist website for a Spanish pop-star, I have tried to compile a broad spectrum of mainstream band websites.

The following are in no particular order;

Chris Cornell

www.chriscornell.com

Nice news and blog sections, loads of videos all neatly displayed. An amazing artist, with a ‘non-pretentious’ site.

Beady Eye

www.beadyeyemusic.com

One of the Manchester based ‘Retro Fuzz’ finest websites. A tidy looking, technically modern, cross-platform friendly site where everything is working just fine.

Hieroglyphics

www.hieroglyphics.com

This long standing hip-hop collective have a new great looking site celebrating 20 years of innovative style. Impressive, upfront design, this website is bursting with useful plug-ins, whilst holding the vast creative content nicely together.

Florence And The Machine

www.florenceandthemachine.net

A Quirky and interesting site but solid and functional none the less.

Arctic Monkeys

www.arcticmonkeys.com

A no-nonsense site from the Northern rock n rollers that cuts to the chase.

Paolo Nutini

www.paolonutini.com

Nice and Quirky again with many useful plug-ins.

Katy Perry

www.katyperry.com

OK had to slip Katy Perry’s site in. Full of character, with excellent use of colour and design. I’m sure her fans love this ‘bubblegum pop princess’ site. I like the solid layout, one that I have taken inspiration from.

U2

www.u2.com

As you would expect from U2; a clean, solid, confident site, vast but concise.

The Rolling Stones

www.rollingstones.com

A modern-classic site for the lads. Loads of content and material all concisely ordered along with a great ‘shop’ section

Pendulum

www.pendulum.com

This site evokes the Pendulum spirit, it also manages to stay solid and has a great members section giving fans the ability to share and communicate.

That’s it for now folks. Check back soon for my electronic music orientated post!

By Steve at Design Lagoon. Please feel free to comment!