After 9 months of research, planning and gathering details, a long time friend and I launched a new business, GO! Tattoo Removal in September of 2012. I’ve already covered the building and design of the site, but just because you have a website doesn’t mean people can find you and that a new business can succeed. Unlike my previous case study on SEO where the client had an existing site and client base, I was starting from nothing.
To start this project I took a look at the competition, but beyond that I tried to figure out how potential clients would find me. Being a walk-in location, this means targeting a much smaller audience that will actually convert to sales. The site itself has been optimized properly to allow proper crawling, but the contentious update of content has really helped move GO! Tattoo Removal to the top of the pack.
None of the methods used are what the industry considers black hat techniques which often give really great, fast results, but long term damage. All the work here took the better part of 7 months to accomplish, through hard work, effort and attention to detail. With that, I’m proud to say that for the targeted keywords GO! Tattoo Removal was after, they are not only ranked first in Google, but also second (after paid ads)!
Over the last few years I’ve had the pleasure of shooting Jaclyn and Ryan, from their wedding day to Christmas with their first child, Kali, then again the following year with the new family members, twins Lincoln and Logan. Time really seems to be flying because last month the boys turned one! Family and friends gathered at the house on a sunny and warm day and I was on hand to capture some memories for everyone. Jaclyn themed the event with her very own handmade sock monkeys and the boys’ aunt, Jaclyn’s own twin sister Kristie brought the floral arrangements. I’ve had the pleasure of shooting this family for so many years now that they make me feel apart of theirs.
Last fall I shot some promo photos for Lehigh Valley based DJ, Mister Dynamite. Here are two great examples of them in use for events he’s been DJing at, and one of my favorite from the shoot itself. Find him on Facebook and fan out!
Perhaps the most challenging aspect to doing web design is when you’re on both sides of the table. In early 2011 a longtime friend and I started talks that led to an LLC being formed and eventual opening this past fall of a laser tattoo removal business. This is a new venture for me, as we both received training and certification and have been open and running for several months. My role in the company, in addition to being a technician, is to handle the website, social media, minor graphic design and marketing.
Going through a typical checklist that I’d ask a customer for, I built the website on a dynamic platform so it would scale to mobile devices and tablets easily and quickly; we anticipated GO! Tattoo Removal‘s website would be a large demographic of users for our site. The logo was sub-contracted out to a local friend who did an amazing job, and without knowing we had intentions of going with orange, designed it that way. With a clean design and a dedicated FAQ section, tie-ins with social media in the header and footer and a clear, simply to use contact page, the site came together very well. While it’s still a new site, early SEO is showing very well in the geo-targeted area and we’ve had phenomenal growth on Facebook. All signs for my new business are looking up!
Late last year I had the pleasure of not only shooting Joe Stylez, but also building his website. One of the images was used in the flyer below for a local show where Joe is co-headlining with Chris Webby. Graphic design on the flyer was done by SFGD.
