(FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE) Tampa, FL – May 16, 2012

Tampa Web design company, Leverage Digital Media recently completed the design and development of a custom WordPress CMS Web site for Burby Engineering, a structural engineering firm based in Tampa, FL. The new Web site can be viewed at BurbyEngineering.com. Burby Engineering provides innovative structural engineering solutions for architects, building owners, contractors, developers, and manufacturers both locally and nationally.

For their new Web site, Burby Engineering had three primary goals. These included having the ability to manage the site in-house, providing a clean and intuitive user-interface for visitors, and showcasing the firm’s experience and expertise.

The ability to easily manage and update the site without having to rely on the technical support of a professional Web developer was a key feature for Burby Engineering to have in their Web site because of the frequent need to add and update content and images of ongoing projects. As a solution, Leverage Digital Media designed the new Web site on a custom WordPress CMS platform, which allows Burby Engineering to conveniently manage and update the site’s content in-house.

Burby Engineering also requested that the design of the site be professional, clean, and user-friendly. Using a minimalist approach, Leverage Digital Media was able to design a clean and intuitive user-interface that is not only easy to navigate but is also consistent with the Burby Engineering brand, especially since Leverage Digital Media also designed the Burby Engineering logo. The simple navigation structure and intuitive layout allows users to quickly and conveniently navigate through the site and locate the specific information they are searching for.

To achieve the third goal of creating a site that showcased Burby Engineering’s experience and expertise, Leverage Digital Media strategically placed high-resolution photos of projects throughout the site, so that every page would display one of the firm’s past or present projects. Leverage Digital Media also developed a rotating slide show for the homepage that immediately engages users entering the site for the first time with large scale, high-resolution photos of featured Burby Engineering projects. In addition to providing great visual impact, the slide show provides users with a direct path to an interactive photo gallery for the projects that are featured on each slide.

“We are more than pleased with the quality of service and professionalism we received from Jay Taylor and his team at Leverage Digital Media on our company website. Jay worked closely with us from start to finish, and is providing ongoing support and collaboration as needed. He helped to create a website that is easily navigable and serves as a “first impression” to our clients that makes us proud. We plan on using Leverage Digital Media on future projects and highly recommend them,” stated President of Burby Engineering, Jason Burby.

About Burby Engineering

Burby Engineering is a full service structural engineering firm that provides services throughout Florida and the U.S. The firm specializes in structural engineering for new buildings, renovation and repair to existing buildings, construction inspections, and design of special structures. Burby Engineering provides engineering solutions to architects, owners, developers, contractors, and manufacturers with honesty and integrity as the firm’s core operational values. The firm is built upon relationships and their goal is to serve their clients with technical excellence, professionalism, creativity, and efficiency. For more information, please visit http://www.burbyengineering.com.

About Leverage Digital Media

Headquartered in Tampa, FL, Leverage Digital Media is a digital marketing firm specializing in Custom Web Design & Development and Search Engine Marketing. Leverage Digital Media’s professionally designed Web sites combined with their proven search engine marketing strategies ensure that searchers convert into customers. Leverage Digital Media works with companies across the U.S. and in industries ranging from, but not limited to legal, health care, engineering, financial and accounting services, human resources, construction, defense, entertainment and leisure, automotive, real estate, and more. For more information, please visit http://www.leveragedigitalmedia.com.

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Burby Engineering

Burby Engineering is a full service structural engineering firm that provides services throughout Florida and nationally. They provide engineering solutions to architects, owners, developers, contractors, and manufacturers. Burby Engineering has been involved with a number of well-known projects in the Tampa Bay area including the USF Health Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS), and the new Cheetah Hunt roller coaster at Busch Gardens.

Florida Health Care News

Florida Health Care News is the oldest and largest family of health care information publications in the state. Since 1987, Florida Health Care News has been a highly respected, widely read and trusted source of health care information for readers throughout much of Florida.

Saunders Ralston Dantzler Realty

Coldwell Banker Commercial Saunders Ralston Dantzler is Polk County’s premier commercial real estate firm. They are the only commercial real estate firm in Polk County with expert local market knowledge, a national presence, and a global network, allowing them to bring together worldwide resources to provide real estate solutions for their clients.

Wise Property Managment

In business since 1981, Wise Property Management is a leading homeowner association management company in Tampa Bay, and is responsible for managing some of Tampa’s most well known and respected communities.

Caban Skin Institute

With locations in Tampa and Brandon, the Caban Skin Institute and Dr. Francis A. Caban provide clinical, cosmetic, and surgical dermatology services to the Tampa Bay area.

TLC5 – The Life Coaching Connection

Traditionally reserved for high net worth individuals, TLC5 makes life coaching accessible and affordable to everyone through their unique online membership program.

Below are 5 often overlooked keys to creating a successful sales generating Web site. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but rather a list of some of the most significant attributes of a succesful sales generating Web site. Keep reading to learn how implementing these 5 keys correctly will significantly improve your Web site’s ability to acquire more customers and generate new sales.

The 5 keys are:

1. Visibility
2. Design
3. User-Experience
4. Call-to-Action
5. Cross-Browser Compatibility

1. Visibility

Visibility is the first and most important key, because in order for any of the other keys to matter, prospects must be able to find your Web site. A search engine optimization campaign is an excellent ways to significantly increase the visibility of your Web site on the major search engines. Remember, many prospects won’t search for your company by name. Rather, they will search using keywords related to the service or product their interested in. So, having a Web site that is search engine optimized for the keywords that your target audience would use when searching for your product or service is essential to your Web sites ability to generate new business.

2. Design

First impressions are everything. Because your Web site is often the first point of contact between a prospect and your business, it is essential that your Web site communicate professionalism and quality through its design. This can only be achieved with a professionally designed custom Web site. Consumers are savvy, and they can sniff out a cheap $5/month Web site within seconds of landing on one. A cheap Web site can not only result in poor first impressions, but it can also significantly diminish your company’s credibility. Consumers expect legitimate companies to have professionally designed Web sites. So, don’t settle for a cheap Web site that will diminish your brand. Invest in a professionally designed custom Web site that caters to your target audience. Remember, just like any other advertisement, your Web site is an investment in your overall marketing strategy, and if designed well, can result in a significant return on investment.

3. User-Experience

When a prospect lands on your Web site, the goal is for the prospect to engage with the Web site long enough to find what they’re looking for. If the prospect becomes frustrated with the site during this process, they will most likely move on to another, more user-friendly Web site, resulting in a lost customer. For this reason, an effective sales generating Web site must provide a positive user-experience. A positive user-experience can be achieved by developing a site with pleasing aesthetics, an intuitive layout, easy-to-use navigation, and pages that load quickly. Have you ever been on a Web site that had a terrible design, a layout that made it difficult to locate specific elements on a page, navigation that was difficult and frustrating to use, or pages that took forever to load? If you answered yes to any or all of these, then you understand why addressing these elements is so important to providing prospects with a positive user-experience.

4. Call-to-Action

Of the 5 keys, having a clear and concise call-to-action seems to be the most often overlooked. Have you ever been on a Web site, where you were interested in what was being sold, but you weren’t sure how to make the purchase or request more information? That’s because the Web site was missing a clear call-to-action. All sales generating Web sites should contain a clear and concise call-to-action, such as “Join Today!,” “Call Now!,” etc. This is such a crucial element in a sales generating Web site, because the prospect has gone this far (they found the Web site, they engaged with it, and they’re ready to take action) only to end up not becoming a customer because they aren’t sure how to take the next step. Be sure your Web site has a call-to-action on each page that clearly identifies the intended action you would like the prospect to take.

5. Cross-Browser Compatibility

There are many different browsers available such as Internet Explorer, FireFox, Safari, to name a few. Each browser renders Web sites differently, and because your prospects could be using any one of them, it is imperative that your Web site render properly on all them. If you built your Web site yourself, this is almost guaranteed to be an issue. If it was built by a freelance Web designer, it’s probably still an issue because they most likely built and tested the Web site on a single browser, without regard for the other browsers. If you hired a professional Web design company, they should have tested for cross-browser compatibility, but you may want to check anyways to be sure. Adobe currently provides a free browser compatibility testing service, called Adobe BrowserLab. You can use it to see how your Web site renders on each major browser. Also, here is a nice breakdown of current browser usage, so you know which browsers you should place the most emphasis on.

Begin implementing these 5 keys today, and let your Web site do the selling for you!

(FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE) Tampa, FL – November 7, 2011

Tampa Web design company, Leverage Digital Media, recently launched HR-Shield.com, a custom membership site designed to provide businesses with essential human resources tools and information, at a fraction of the cost of traditional HR outsourcing services.

Through the HR-Shield.com Web site, HR Shield, a Division of FIRM Consulting is able to offer a unique and affordable alternative to HR outsourcing for businesses. HR Shield members have access to a library of HR-related tools and resources, as well as HR consultants to help them manage their human resources needs efficiently and effectively. The time and cost savings with regards to human resources provided by HR Shield allows its members to focus more of their time on revenue generating activities.

“HR Shield is a truly unique service in the marketplace, and we were very excited to work with FIRM Consulting on this project to help them take HR Shield from concept to reality. HR Shield is a revolutionary concept in the human resources industry, and businesses across the country will benefit tremendously by having access to this service,” said Jay Taylor, CEO of Leverage Digital Media.

The HR Shield Web site needed to achieve two major goals. First, it needed to serve as the primary marketing tool for HR Shield by attracting and retaining visitors. Second, it needed to serve as a fully functional membership site, complete with an automated signup process and varying membership levels for the user to choose from. In order to achieve the first goal, Leverage Digital Media created a modern and attractive design combined with an intuitive user-interface that ensured a great user-experience for first time visitors. In order to achieve the second goal, Leverage Digital Media developed a members-only section that provides access to a wealth of HR related resources and tools. Leverage Digital Media designed the entire sign up process to take place on the Web site itself, making it easy and convenient for a user to become an HR Shield member, while also reducing administrative burden on HR Shield staff. During the sign up process, a user can choose from multiple membership plans depending on their unique needs. Users can easily upgrade their membership at any time to gain access to more resources.

“The HR Shield concept is relatively simple, but the delivery is not easy. The team at Leverage Digital Media took the time to really understand our business model and what applications we needed to deliver a solution. We have worked with other companies in the past that could not deliver on time tables or communicate effectively and that is why we are so glad to have found Leverage Digital Media as they have exceeded our expectations of time frames and design, and we have already contracted them for more development work,” stated Patrick Moraites, CFO of FIRM Consulting Group.

About FIRM Consulting
FIRM Consulting bridges the gap between business owners and service providers. Their client-centered solutions are measured for value of service versus price competition and presented to the business owner objectively as a third party consultant. As a result, FIRM Consulting ensures long-term successful business relationships in which their clients depend on them as their go-to resource for finding solutions for all of their non-core business needs. For more information, please visit http://www.firmconsultinggrp.com.

About Leverage Digital Media
Leverage Digital Media is a Tampa SEO company that specializes in Custom Web Design & Development and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services. Leverage Digital Media’s professionally designed Web sites combined with their proven SEO strategies ensure that their clients’ Web sites convert searchers into customers. Leverage Digital Media works with companies across the U.S. and in industries ranging from, but not limited to legal, health care, financial and accounting services, human resources, construction, defense, entertainment and leisure, automotive, real estate, and more. For more information, please visit http://www.leveragedigitalmedia.com.

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As a business owner or marketing manager, you’re most likely inundated with ads and promotions from so-called SEO firms on a regular basis. These days, every business needs a solid search engine optimization strategy, so how do you know which SEO company to hire? Price may be your first reaction to this question, but research SEO companies further and you’ll find that they’re not all created equally. Continue reading to learn about the 3 different types of SEO companies you will most likely encounter in your research, and how to know which type is the right one to hire.

Offshore SEO Companies

Offshore SEO companies are very common and can sometimes provide effective technical SEO services, but due to language barriers and lack of verbal communication, mistakes and sub-par results are typical. These companies may have the technical ability to achieve first page rankings, but because they never truly understand their clients’ business objectives and target audience, the ability of their SEO campaigns to deliver the right people to their clients’ Web sites is where they usually fall short. Additionally, because they are located outside the U.S., if they were to inadvertently damage your Web site, not render services as advertised, or simply not deliver results, there would be little to nothing you could do about it.

Black Hat (Unethical) SEO Companies

Black hat SEO is an illegitimate or unethical form of SEO that uses deceptive tactics to trick search engines into increasing rankings for a Web site. These tactics usually work in the short-term, but once search engines discover the deceptive tactics (and they do) the target Web site’s rankings will plummet overnight. If the black hat tactics used are severe enough, search engines will even remove the target Web site from their index altogether.

Google says, “While SEOs can provide clients with valuable services, some unethical SEOs have given the industry a black eye through their overly aggressive marketing efforts and their attempts to manipulate search engine results in unfair ways. Practices that violate our guidelines may result in a negative adjustment of your site’s presence in Google, or even the removal of your site from our index.”

In other words, Google puts the onus on you to make sure you hire the right SEO company, and are not forgiving when you hire the wrong company. Black hat SEO companies are very common, and can be spotted easily because they usually offer some sort of guarantee, such as a certain number of first page rankings within a certain period of time, or your money back. Legitimate SEO firms NEVER offer guarantees of any kind, because search engines are so unpredictable. Google stresses being wary of guarantees and provides a list of warning signs to look for in order to avoid black hat SEO firms and scams.

White Hat (Ethical) SEO Companies

White hat SEO is a legitimate or ethical form of SEO which uses best practices that are generally accepted by the major search engines. SEO companies are common, but legitimate SEO firms that practice high quality, white hat SEO are much more difficult to find than one may think. You can spot a legitimate, white hat SEO firm because they will be eager to learn about your business and your customers, they will be transparent about their SEO strategy, they won’t make any guarantees, and they will be honest with you about the amount of time it may take before you can expect to see results. First page rankings can take months to achieve, and white hat SEO firms are always upfront about this fact. This is why firms that guarantee rankings within a certain period of time are never legitimate.

At Leverage Digital Media, a Tampa SEO company, we only practice white hat SEO. As an ethical SEO firm, we are committed to helping clean up the search engine optimization industry by educating businesses, so they ultimately choose to work with the right SEO companies.

What is the Panda Update and How Does it Affect SEO?

Google’s last major update, called “Panda,” was launched on February 24, 2011 for U.S. sites and became worldwide in early April. The update was an algorithm change designed to bring high-quality sites to the top of the search engine rankings and bury low quality sites with questionable content. The goal for Google is and always has been to provide its users with the the most relevant content possible, and to improve the overall user search experience. Panda is another major step forward in achieving this goal for Google. As a result, many popular search engine optimization techniques have been rendered ineffective. After Panda, business owners must now place more emphasis than ever on making sure their website consists of high-quality content, a professional web design, and an effective SEO strategy that does not violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

What Can You Do to Improve Your Rankings After Panda?

The challenge now is to understand what Google wants from a website and use that knowledge to rise in the rankings. This most recent update makes it imperative that business owners pay attention to the quality of their websites.

If you wish to achieve first page rankings on Google, you must provide useful information on a well-optimized and attractive website that loads quickly. Inferior design, duplicate or poorly written content, and keyword stuffing won’t cut it. Likewise, a poor link building strategy may do more harm than good.

The most effective way to proceed is to carefully perform an SEO analysis of your site. Determine if your rankings have been negatively affected by Panda. If they have, review your website and analytics to try and determine what aspect of your site Google is penalizing. Have you borrowed content from other sites? Does your site have a high bounce rate because it’s poorly designed? Are backlinks from questionable sites or link farms linking to your site?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then proceed to correct them. Remove duplicate content and replace it with high-quality, unique content, replace your current web design with a professional design that is user-friendly and loads quickly, and have backlinks from questionable sites removed.

A Professional Web Design is Essential to Your SEO Strategy

One of the most overlooked aspects of a successful SEO strategy, a professional website design is more essential than ever to achieving first page rankings. Google takes into account a website’s bounce rate, or the percentage of visitors who leave a site without visiting any other pages after initially entering it. A high bounce rate indicates to Google that users do not find a site relevant to their search queries, and Google will lower its rankings as a result.

Research shows that users judge a website’s visual appeal immediately upon entering it. Users want an aesthetically pleasing site that allows them to easily find what they’re looking for. This is why poorly designed and difficult to use sites tend to have high bounce rates, which cost them in the rankings. In addition to design, the load time of a site is very important. Sites that load slowly are frowned upon because they create a poor user experience. Slow loading sites will have higher bounce rates than sites that load quickly, which can result in lower rankings. Even more importantly, Google is now taking into account user-experience by allowing users to block sites from their search results. While blocking a site only affects the users’ search results, Google now utilizes this user feedback to tweak their overall rankings. In other words, if enough users block your website from their search results, there’s a good chance Google will drop your rankings in order to provide a better search experience for its users. This only reinforces the need for a professionally designed custom website that is aesthetically pleasing, designed with an intuitive user-interface, coded properly, fast-loading, and creates an overall pleasing experience for the user.

Next Steps to Creating a Winning Post-Panda SEO Strategy

While we may never know exactly how Google decides the fate of each site, it is clear that there is much that can be done to rise to the top of Google.

The foundation of a successful SEO campaign after Panda is to create and follow a long-term SEO strategy that includes publishing unique and useful content, having a professionally designed, user-friendly website, and utilizing best-practice SEO techniques to optimize and promote each page.

To accomplish this will take a lot of time, effort, and expertise. As a business owner, your time is better spent running your business, not your SEO campaign. For this reason, consider hiring an experienced web designer and SEO professional, or a credible SEO company with web design expertise (or vice versa) to manage your SEO campaign. Either way, your SEO services team should include a web designer who knows how to create an attractive, properly coded, user-friendly website, and an SEO professional who utilizes best-practice techniques and has a proven track record of success.

In this article, we’ve only scratched the surface on how to create a winning post-Panda SEO strategy. Next month, we’ll go into even greater detail on what you can do to get your website back on the first page of Google!

Aesthetic Skin Studio offers a variety of unique services and products that differentiate them from their competitors. Being that they are in a highly competitive market, it was essential to show this uniqueness by differentiating the Aesthetic Skin Studio brand from their competitors through their Web site. We accomplished this by creating an exceptionally unique custom design that reflects the calm and soothing, yet healthy and invigorating nature of their services and products. Carefully chosen imagery was incorporated throughout the site that reflects the hydrating and soothing effects of Aesthetic Skin Studio’s treatments. Bright colors and earth tones were used to represent the organic qualities of Aesthetic Skin Studio’s treatments and products, as well as to evoke warm and positive feelings from the end-user.

We also wanted to make the user-experience of navigating the Web site and locating Aesthetic Skin Studio’s contact information as pleasurable as possible. With this goal in mind, we strategically placed Aesthetic Skin Studio’s phone number on every page of the site, eliminating the need to search for it. We also provided three different methods of contact, including phone, email, and a contact form, allowing the end-user to choose the option that is most convenient for them. Last, an interactive map was integrated into the site, allowing the end-user to easily acquire directions to Aesthetic Skin Studio’s location. Not only do these strategies create a pleasurable experience for the end-user, but they also increase the likelihood they will become an Aesthetic Skin Studio client.

To learn more about Aesthetic Skin Studio, and to visit their new site, please click here: www.aestheticskinstudio.net

Our primary goal for BSP, was to design a Web site that communicates to potential clients that BSP is a leader in its industry, and has both the knowledge and resources to help companies run more efficiently by outsourcing their non-income generating activities to BSP.  We accomplished this in a few ways. First, by creating a first-class custom design with the intention of providing a “wow” factor to the potential client upon entering the site. Second, by providing rich content complete with detailed descriptions of BSP’s services, and third, by providing numerous written client testimonials strategically placed throughout the site. The result is an attractive custom Web site that makes a great first impression, combined with rich content that educates, and client testimonials that support BSP’s track record as an industry leader.

At Leverage Digital Media, usability is an important factor in every one of our clients’ Web sites. We want users of our clients’ Web sites to be able to find what they’re looking for, fast. However, since BSP offers a number of different services, this was no easy task. So, another goal was to create a Web site that made searching for each of BSP’s specific services simple for the user. We achieved this by grouping BSP’s primary services into three distinct categories on the homepage, and itemizing each sub-service beneath its corresponding primary service, making it very easy for a potential client to locate the specific service they are interested in. We then linked each sub-service to its corresponding service description. So, within “1 click” and “no scrolling,” a potential customer can learn in detail about a specific BSP service. Within 2 clicks, a potential customer can learn in detail about a specific BSP service, and access the “Contact Us” page.

To learn more about BSP, and to visit their new site, please click here: www.bspcorp.net