A blog for those who want a successful website & marketing

About Craig de Fasselle

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About Craig de Fasselle

Craig de Fasselle spent his early career as president of Meter Equipment Mfg. He has six patents in flow instrumentation, developed a calibration bench for blood viscometers, and handled the company’s marketing. Craig's success in creating and leading user-to-user forums led to serving as a paid consultant for America Online and Women.com for over five years. He created his first website in the mid-90s, and the web sales generated evolved into a new, full-time career. Founding Web Refinements in 1999, Craig sold the manufacturing company to pursue web development full-time. He is an expert in the design requirements and strategies to achieve user-friendly sites, SEO, and driving targeted traffic to your web site. Craig can be contacted at 440-497-0029.

Making Design by Committee Work

Design

By Craig de Fasselle

We’ve all heard the old line that a camel is a horse designed by committee. Truth be told, designers would rather not deal with committees, and this post was initially heading in a “why you should avoid it” direction. Why—this classic YouTube video is a great example of how design by committee can go horribly wrong.

designing-stop-sign-th
Designing the Stop Sign

But since it’s a fact of life for designers, is there a way to make design by committee work? It’s understandable that organizations want to empower their people and seek their involvement. Designers want to encourage client feedback, and we want our clients to be pleased with the result. Continue reading Making Design by Committee Work →

Five Reasons You Need a Responsive Website

Web Tips

Responsive Sites Adapt to the Viewing Screen Size

By Craig de Fasselle

Responsive website design is the practice of creating a single site that adapts automatically to the screen size of the viewing device. So whether your site is viewed on a 30″ wide computer monitor or an iPhone, it will remain easy-to-use and deliver your marketing message, while looking great.

Here are five reasons why you need to make your website responsive: Continue reading Five Reasons You Need a Responsive Website →

The Web Design Project – Who Does What?

Design, Web Tips

The Web Design Project - Who Does What graphicTruly successful web design projects are a collaboration of your product/services expertise with our design and usability expertise.

As The Client, trying to find a template or create your own design using PowerPoint won’t help us as much as providing information on your organization’s strengths and specific goals for the website. Successful web projects tend to break down to the following division of responsibilities: Continue reading The Web Design Project – Who Does What? →

Why Search Engine Marketing is Better for Small Business Than Social Media

Marketing, SEO Tips, Social Media

 

Why SEO is better than Social Media for small business
SEO Trumps Social Media for Most Small Businesses

While they are not mutually exclusive, many small businesses are making a mistake by emphasizing social media versus search engine marketing (SEM for fans of acronyms). True, Fortune 500 companies are pushing social media to engage people, but they already have the brand recognition and resources for an effective social media campaign. If you’re a small business, odds are your priority is to get new customers.

Here are three reasons why search engine marketing trumps social media:

Continue reading Why Search Engine Marketing is Better for Small Business Than Social Media →

Should Your Website be Mobile Friendly?

Marketing, Web Tips

Responsive design web site that works on desktop, tablet and smartphone
With the introduction of the iPhone and iPad, there has been a rapid proliferation of smart phones and tablets in recent years. As of October 2011, according to comScore research, seven percent of all web traffic in the USA was from these handheld devices. Many predict handheld browsing will dominate within the next few years.

So what makes a mobile-friendly site, and does your site need to be “mobilized?” Continue reading Should Your Website be Mobile Friendly? →

SEO – Probably Not What You Think

SEO Tips
If a site isn't in Google, does it exist graphic
If a site isn't in Google, does it exist?

If you think SEO is just about hidden code, keywords, and link campaigns, think again. We’ve said it before, but it bears repeating:

The “secret” to SEO is good, compelling text content. As a site owner, that’s what you should focus on, and let professionals like us help with the rest. So what are the most important SEO Factors?

Continue reading SEO – Probably Not What You Think →

Keep the Social in Social Media

Social Media
Keeping the SOCIAL in social media (icons)

It’s become a marketing mantra–you MUST have your business on Facebook, or Twitter, or LinkedIn, or…

With hundreds of millions of daily visitors, it makes perfect sense to have a presence for this growing social media audience. But it’s not like the movie Field of Dreams where you build it and they will come. Successful social media requires a major time commitment, creativity, and focusing on your audience.

After all, it’s SOCIAL media, not ads media. Social media has exploded because it’s, well, social! It’s a place to find friends and family, share interests, and networking. No one will follow your social media site if it’s content is nothing but shameless ads for your products or services.

Before you start a social media campaign, carefully consider the following:
Continue reading Keep the Social in Social Media →