“I’m a small business owner. Do I need a style guide for my brand?”

Yes! You absolutely do.

“But I thought that was only important for larger companies?”

Not quite true! A style guide is an important document for any brand, company, or organization regardless of scale.

If you own a small business or organization, and even if you’re just starting out, a style guide is an invaluable resource in helping you grow. A brand style guide sets the tone of your business and defines proper usage and utilization of your brand. This is just as important for small organizations as it is for any larger ones. It is a resource that effectively defines your brand’s elements and values and how to apply them across various media types.

Style guides are just as important for small businesses as they are for any larger organizations.

The difference between RGB, CMYK, and Pantone Colors.

You may have wondered why the colors on your image look different when printed out versus on the screen. The colors are off, but you don’t know why. No, you’re not crazy, and there’s a simple explanation for this. There are different color modes for viewing on a screen and printed on paper. They are RGB, CMYK, and Pantone Matching System (PMS).

The following article is an excerpt from a longer blog post we wrote on SEO for the University Website. This section does such a great job of explaini...

Heavy flooding from Hurricane Katrina absolutely destroyed the hosting systems used by the University of New Orleans, forcing them to take extreme measures to maintain at least some type of digital presence in the months following the storm.

Their homegrown solution relied on outdated technology that was surely going to be a temporary fix for the school. In 2010, as the school began to recover and stabilize itself, university officials knew they needed to transition to a more adaptable, robust CMS solution.

But which CMS platform would they choose?

One thing was for certain: the school wanted to turn to a CMS that was easy to install, affordable, and could integrate with systems like Active Directory.

The University of New Orleans chose DNN.

“DotNetNuke [DNN] enabled us to stick to our aggressive deployment schedule, and gave us great support from the very beginning stages with formal training and unlimited technical assistance,” said Walt Brannon, manager of messaging and media systems for University of New Orleans.

Under unique, dire circumstances, the University of New Orleans discovered that only one CMS – DNN – could offer them the full features they needed, in addition to a quick deployment.

But they’re not the only ones who’ve discovered the power of DNN.

School Websites, University Websites

Is your mobile website just a stripped-down version of your desktop site?
Then this is a must-read for you. 

For the last few years, marketers and web designers (us included) have emphasized how important it is to consider the mobile design of a website. Data shows that with each passing year, more folks use their mobile devices to surf the web than any other platform.

But now, with its latest announcement, Google is stepping up the ante.

Earlier this month (October, 2016), Google announced that it will begin to create a separate mobile index within a few months, that will serve as the primary index that the search engine will use.

In other words, Google has decided to start indexing search results for mobile separately from desktop in order to offer mobile users better and fresher content.

The standard desktop index will remain active, but it won’t be as updated nearly as frequently as its mobile counterpart.

So, what’s this mean for your website?

More than two-thirds of people say the most important characteristic of a website is ease of use, according to a survey conducted by Hubspot.

That survey might have been conducted in 2011, but the needs of the user has not changed, particularly now that most people access sites from tiny little mobile screens.

That’s why it’s so important to factor in UX design with your school’s website. UX design (or user experience design) is just a fancy way of saying that you’re doing all you can to make your website user-friendly for your audiences.

For your school, those audiences could include:

• Prospective and current students
• Recruiters
• Counselors
• Families of prospective/current students
• Donors/supports
• Alumni

A bad UX design could confuse your visitors, make it difficult for people to find what they’re looking for, and could prevent your school’s branding from making the positive impact you’d hoped for.

So, how do you avoid a bad user experience with your website design? Follow these 8 tips.

School Websites, University Websites