Search Spam, Emerging Search Technologies, and New Jersey
August 6th, 2007 by Hans Kaspersetz in New Jersey
This was the topic John Andrews was discussing when he referred to CXD’s New Jersey website. He seems to think that we did a pretty good job with our copy. Thanks John! We worked pretty hard on it and had a lot of laughs writing it. Allie and Grant were primarily responsible for it. They seem to have the best sense of humor about these things. We tried to draw on our personal experiences growing up and living in New Jersey. I grew up in Weehawken, Grant Hansen grew up in Ridgefield Park, and Allie Gaddy is a transplant from Charlotte.
We designed three or four run of the mill website design company websites for ourselves. Each time feeling frustrated and bored. We heard the song on our website and that sparked a flame in Allie’s creative head. So we found a theme. Many many many revisions later, we developed that theme into the content and design you see today. And it was a lot of fun! It was a lot of work to not build a typical web site design company website like this company. The example company talks about making an impact and establishing an identity, but their website looks like 100’s of other web design company websites. The only thing memorable about it is there isn’t anything particularly memorable.
It seems there is a lack of courage in the design world. We dealt with the fear that our Pharma clients might not like the design. We over came that fear because we are confident in the relationships we have built and the referrals we get from our clients. There would be far fewer spammy websites from web design companies and companies in general if they had the courage to develop something fresh and engaging. Maybe, something provocative that gets people talking.
I understand some clients will not go for it. They have an idea of what they want and that is what we will execute. But when we are our own client, we can not settle and go spammy to earn a good placement in the SERPS. We wanted to take the high road and it has worked wonderfully for us. I have heard some of our clients have spent an entire afternoon reading the site and laughing out loud. We have all had a Jersey hairdo.