This month’s featured website design: Duri Homes

A behind the scenes look at how we launched a complete website design project in less than 30 days.

website-design-duri-homesWhen I walked into Duri Homes’ latest home in Aspen Wood Estates I was, in a word, impressed.

A long-time client, Dean Duri’s small home-building company had been steadily growing due to word of mouth and a steadfast commitment to quality.

In that moment I realized that Dean had arrived.  His new home was spacious, beautifully designed and absolutely luxurious. The calibre of homes Dean is now building has clearly come a long way since he started his company.

When we sat down to discuss revamping his website design, I knew we’d need to pull out all the stops to ensure it was an accurate reflection of the quality of this luxury home. To make sure we were on point, we reviewed a few Calgary website designs from competitors and colleagues and discussed his businesses goals.

A week or so later, I got a call from Dean asking if it would be possible to get the new site up in time for his Show Home opening on October 20th.

Typically our website design projects last about 3 months, so it was a tall order to complete the site within less than 3 weeks.

That being said, I knew how important it was to Dean that his old, outdated website design was replaced as soon as possible. I took a deep breath and told him we could hustle and get it done.

That week was spent in a flurry. Getting text written and approved, the images from the photographer and carefully reviewing my notes in order to ensure everything Dean needed for his new website design would be incorporated in the build.

On a Tuesday afternoon just 4 days before the show home opened, we got Dean’s approval on all the materials necessary to put his site together.

There was one huge problem though. Our website developer was going in for day surgery on the Friday, and the site was supposed to go live on Saturday.  Despite his impending surgery, our developer worked around the clock Wednesday and Thursday to get us a first draft of his site for Friday morning.

As I reviewed the first draft of the website design with Dean, I felt a sense of pride that we could pull through for a valued client in his time of need. Only a few quick revisions were needed, but couldn’t be completed until Shane had recovered from Friday’s surgery.

We agreed to meet online Saturday morning. I reviewed the changes and called Dean to confirm.

His new website design site went live 10 minutes ago, 15 minutes prior to his show home opening. It is gorgeous, and an accurate reflection indeed of what Dean is capable of creating for his customers.

As I sit back in my chair after a very early morning this sunny Saturday, I feel such a sense of gratitude.

I am grateful that our developer, despite his medical concerns was able to pull through for us. I am grateful that our designer put in extra effort to make sure the website design was “wow”, and I am grateful that we can be a part of Duri Homes’ success as they open a new chapter of their business.

Mostly though, I am grateful that I am part of such a fantastic team capable of pulling off huge accomplishments in support of our clients.

If you get a chance, visit Duri Homes new website design and check out their show home.

I think you too will be very impressed.

4 ways to use domain names to get better internet marketing results

internet-marketing-domain-nameThe best way to get better internet marketing results is to regularly review your campaigns and try new things if they aren’t producing the results you want.

Becoming familiar with the strategies you’re employing and being willing to tweak things a bit will provide you with much more accurate data to analyze, drive more traffic to your site, and ultimately get better results on Google.

Here are four things you can do with your domain names right now to enhance your internet marketing results.

Register Multiple Domains

The first step to leveraging domain names for internet marketing is to register several domains. Think of them as web assets.

Then you can use one domain name per campaign, which means you can now run split tests and track how well your advertising or media distribution is working. This is done by reviewing how much traffic you get from that specific domain name.

You will need to renew them once a year, but we think you’ll find the following 3 tips to leveraging domain name registration for internet marketing purposes will convince you this small cost is well worth it.

Leverage Domains to Track Internet Marketing Campaigns

If you own multiple domains, you can run split tests and hone your marketing skills and get to know what best appeals to your intended audience by observing how many people came to your site through the various channels your domains have opened.

Here’s an example. Say you purchase a banner ad as part of a campaign. In that ad you decided to use a secondary domain name, so instead of using www.mybusiness.com, you use www.bestwidgetsever.com.

Since you have not used bestwidgetsever.com in any other internet marketing campaigns, when you look at your web statistics, you’ll know right away how much traffic that particular domain name sent you and you’ll be able to compare it against your other campaigns. Did it work better or worse?

Also, this tactic is very useful for judging the effectiveness of traditional advertising campaigns like radio or billboards. A catchy domain name is easy to remember, which will help by driving more traffic to your website. If your domain name isn’t catchy, go buy one that is and see if it makes a difference to your site traffic.

Use domain names to increase your ranking on Google

Another way you can use domain names for internet marketing purposes is to purchase easy-to-remember domains with in-demand keywords.

We for example, we own bestcalgarywebsitedesign.com, which is catchy and also helps us rank highly on Google because it is full of good keywords.

Also, older domains typically receive better ranking than newer ones, all other things being equal. The better your ranking on Google, the better your overall internet marketing results will be.

Use Domain Names to Create Niche-Specific Internet Marketing Campaigns

Another way you can use your domain name for internet marketing purposes is to point a domain name to a specific, or even hidden, page on your website that is only accessible through the link you sent out.

In this way you can promote a specific campaign to a smaller niche market without everyone else seeing it. You can promote or even discount your inventory without having the discounted prices available to your regular customers by displaying these items only on, for example, ‘discountwidgets.com’ instead of ‘widgets.com’.

Another tactic for niche-specific marketing is to purchase and utilize domain names per specific geographical location you deal with, or per specific product you offer.

So say you have a campaign running in Calgary. The domain name discountwidgetscalgary.com will be an easy domain name to promote, remember, and it will likely rank well on Google.

If you can create a page on your website that is specific to the area and the campaign, you’ll find this performs better than if you didn’t use these internet marketing tactics.

There are many ways you can use specific domain names to help you track and optimize your internet marketing efforts if you get creative, but these three are easily the most fundamental.

Learn more about Internet Marketing

Have you used domain names for internet marketing before? What have been your challenges or questions? Tell us below.