NOVAK Brand
 
Thanks to Ian Eberie for sharing this useful video!
 
 

1. Generate Your Sitemap.xml File

There are several online XML Sitemap generators however we find this one to be very easy to use: XML Sitemap Generator. Download the sitemap after it has been generated. Upload the 'sitemap.xml' file to your website's root directory (the same location as your 'index' file.

2. Submit Your Sitemap.xml File to Google

  1. Login to your Google account and go to Google webmaster tools.
  2. Add your site to Google by clicking on the "ADD A SITE" button and enter the website's URL. We recommend verifying your website at this time.
  3. Click on your site URL and then click on 'Optimization' then 'Sitemaps'.
  4. Click on the 'ADD/TEST SITEMAP' button and fill in the URL path of your sitemap XML file. If uploaded to the root directory the path would be 'http://www.yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml'.
  5. Finally select 'Submit Sitemap' and refresh the page to see your results.

3. Submit Your Sitemap.xml File to Bing

  1. Login to your Windows Live account and go to Bing Webmaster Center.
  2. Click 'Add A Site' and insert your URL (http://www.yourwebsite.com) and the URL of your sitemap (http://www.yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml). Click 'ADD'. We recommend verifying your website at this time.
  3. Bing will check the sitemap and begin indexing your site as soon as it's determined that the sitemap has no errors.

4. Submit Your Sitemap.xml File to Yahoo

YAHOO! You're done! No action required because Yahoo and Bing have merged.

With the completion of algorithmic transition to Bing, Yahoo! Search has merged Site Explorer into Bing Webmaster Tools. Webmasters should now be using the Bing Webmaster Tools to ensure that their websites continue to get high quality organic search traffic from Bing and Yahoo!.
 
 
Pantone Spot Colors
A spot color is a specific pre-mixed ink used in printing. They come in a rainbow of colors, including some specialty inks such as metallic and fluorescent. 

Spot color uses a method of specifying and printing colors in which each color is printed as its own ink. In contrast, process color printing layers four inks (yellow, magenta, cyan and black) together to produce color. When a brand's color identity is critical companies often produce advertisements using a combination of process and spot colors. This is commonly called 4+1. 4 representing the process inks, and 1 representing the brand's specific spot color.

Spot color printing is effective when the printed matter contains only one to three different colors, but it becomes prohibitively expensive for more colors. You can also use tints of a spot color to achieve the appearance of using more colors without the expense of additional inks. 

There are a number of color specification systems for specifying spot colors, but Pantone is the most widely used. These colors are also commonly referred to as PMS Colors (Pantone Matching System).

 
 
This is a very brief introductory overview of a few things you can expect from your Google Analytics account.

Our thanks to Dave Baldwin with Bottom Line Business Internet Consultants for sharing.
 
 
Blog: Think of blogs as journal entries which allow commenting. Blogs are typically unvarnished thoughts, tips, general information, ideas and opinions. Blogs are generally between 100 and 500 words with comment responses being very brief typically thanking the posting party for their assistance.

Forum: Think of forums as an individual (or group) looking for feedback on a specific question or topic. Discussion forums typically require a membership and often consist of like minded individuals. Forums often allow notices of new posts to be emailed to all members and in some cases the administrator can select the "most correct response".
 
 
Organic SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the use of website techniques to improve your website's search engine results. Search engines use specific algorithms to determine what website will be ranked higher for a particular query in search results. These algorithms are constantly evolving along with the internet, so it is important to stay abreast of SEO techniques. Organic SEO results typically take longer to mature than SEM results. Some examples of organic SEO techniques include using relevant page titles, informative page descriptions, image tagging and writing content relevant for human readers.

On the other hand, paid SEM (Search Engine Marketing) involves advertising campaigns such as Pay Per Click (PPC). This type of advertising may be featured in a banner or in the margins of websites or search engines. A company may gain immediate results with paid SEM campaigns. However, the website must be informative, well organized, well designed and capture the attention of the viewer within the first three seconds.
 
 
Every device connected to the public internet is assigned a unique number known as an Internet Protocol (IP) address. Think of it as something similar to your phone number. An IP address consist of 4 sets of numbers separated by periods; something like this: 96.254.120.18.

After NOVAK Brand Design has posted a website live we then install a tacking code which keeps track of these unique IP address visits. This allows us to provide our clients with valuable information pertaining to their website's visitors such as where the visitor is located, how they found our client's website, what pages the vistor viewed and much much more!

We often ask our client to provide us the unique IP address from ALL electronic devices THEY use to surf the web. Why? Because when analyzing their website's traffic it's necessary to EXCLUDE all internal website visits as they will provide misleading inflated data.

To find your IP Address:
  1. Visit this site: www.whatismyipaddress.com
  2. Copy the entire set of blue numbers (including periods) in the upper right corner of the page. It will look something like this: 96.254.120.18
  3. Paste the set of numbers into an email and send to adam@novakbrand.com
 
 
Pronounced: kash
Your computer stores small bits of information which can be quickly accessed to help speed up certain tasks. Occasisionally those bits of information need to be cleared to make way for new bits of information.

To clear you cache:
  1. On the Internet Explorer 8 Tools menu, click Internet Options. The Internet Options box should open to the General tab.
  2. On the General tab, in the Temporary Internet Files section, click the Delete Files button. This will delete all the files that are currently stored in your cache.
Empty Browser Cache
_Here are instructions for emptying your browser's cache in Internet Explorer 6.x and up:
1. Click on 'Tools' and then 'Internet Options' from your browser menu.
2. On the General tab click on the 'Delete Files' button under the 'Temporary Internet Files' heading.
3. Check 'Delete all offline content' and click OK.
4. Click the Refresh button.

Internet Explorer 7
1. Click on 'Tools' and then 'Internet Options' from your browser menu.
2. Choose the 'General' tab.
3. Next to 'Temporary Internet Files', click Delete files... .
4. Click Close, and then click OK to exit.

To clear the cache for Netscape Communicator 7.0 and up:
1. Open the Edit menu and click on 'Preferences'.
2. Go to 'Advanced' and click on 'Cache'.
3. Click the 'Clear Memory Cache' and 'Clear Disk Cache' buttons.
4. Click 'OK'.

Here's how to clear your browser's disk cache in Mozilla and Mozilla Firefox 1.x and up:
1. Click the 'Edit' menu.
2. Click 'Preferences'.
3. Click the 'Advanced' menu to expand its hierarchy.
4. Click the 'Cache' menu.
5. Click the 'Clear Cache' button and then click the 'OK' button.
6. Click the 'Reload' button.

Here's how to clear your browser's disk cache in Mozilla and Mozilla Firefox 2.x.
1. Click the 'Tools' menu.
2. Click 'Options'.
3. Click the 'Advanced' menu to expand its hierarchy.
4. Click the 'Clear Cache' button and then click the 'OK' button.
5. Click the 'Reload' button.

To clear your browser's cache in Apple Safari 2.x and up:
1. Click the 'Safari' menu on the taskbar.
2. Click 'Empty cache...' option.
3. Click the 'Empty' button in the subsequent confirmation dialog box.
4. Reload the current page if necessary.
 
 
Vector VS Raster
It's NO Competition! Vector and Raster Graphics Have Very Different Purposes.

Vector Art Connects-The-Dots

Vector Art Example

Raster Art is Made of Square Dots

Raster Art Example
The word "raster" is a synonym for formation. A raster image is a collection of dots called pixels. Each pixel is a tiny square with an assigned color value. The image is created by using a grid of pixels to define the image.

Common Uses: Raster graphics are primarily used for photographs, digital paintings, websites, television and monitors.

Formats: Common raster formats include BMP, GIF, JPEG, JPG, PNG, PICT, PCX, TIFF, PSD.

Software: Microsoft Paint, Adobe Photoshop, Corel Photo-Paint, Corel Paint Shop Pro

Raster Pros: Excellent handeling of photography, great detail can be applied in a style similar to airbrush or painting. Very smooth working environment with minimum control limitations.

Raster Cons: The quality depends upon the ORIGINAL resolution of the object. Better quality equates larger file size. Not easily scalable as pixels must be estimated when expanded or shrunk. Contain backgrounds unless specific steps are taken to remove the background. Must be recreated by hand to duplicate in a vector format.

Important to Know: When you're using a brush tool you're typically creating a raster graphic. Because a raster object depend upon their resolution image quality is defined at dots per inch (dpi). When scaling an image larger computers must interpulate turning one pixel into several. This is often the result of compression artifacts or "jaggies". Typical desktop laser printers print at 300 dpi while monitors display raster graphics at 72 dpi. Creation and scans should be originated accordingly.

 
 
Definition: CMS is an acronym for Content Management System. CMS is a tool for editing, adding and changing content (text, images and pages) on a website.

What CMS Does: NOVAK Brand Design is proud to offer ALL of their websites with CMS functionality. Our CMS websites empower our clients by allowing them the freedom to make changes through a user-friendly interface without having extensive internet coding knowledge.

If you're ready to take control of your company's website email our owner Adam Novak or call (863) 66-NOVAK today!