There are a lot of great ways to enhance your social media efforts and Facebook presence with the Concrete5 content management system.  Add-ons for Concrete5 like the Facebook Like Button and Facebook Comment are great ways to bring interactivity between your Facebook page and your Concrete5 website.  But there are additional ways that you can make Concrete5 and Facebook interact with each other. One way is to create custom pages on your Facebook page that embedds custom Concrete5 pages from your website into your Facebook pages as a tab.  You can see an example of this at on Pixo's Facebook Fan page (Like as as you stop by).  This custom page is completely editable, the forms are powered by Concrete5 and form submissions will show up in the Reports section of the Concrete5 Dashboard.  With this we can edit and update our Facebook pages at any time and with very little technical knowledge based on our marketing needs. Another great way to take this same concept to the next step is creating Like-Gate pages on your Facebook page that request users to Like you before they can have access to special coupons, contests or "Fan only" information.  Pixo Web Design & Strategy can help you setup your Like-Gate and then setup a custom Concrete5 page on your Facebook site that only Fans can see.  This is a fantastic way to build your communit, capture information from your community and drive new business. Contact Pixo today to find out how Concrete5 can be added to your website and integrated with your Facebook pages.

Often we are asked when we move an existing site into Concrete5 if the site's search engine ranking is going to drop with the change to Concrete5.  Our experience has been that in most cases the keyword ranking after the move to concrete5 actually improves slightly.  One reason might be the dynamic XML sitemap that is created by Concrete5.  Another might be the search engine friendly URLs.  Lastly, it might be that the page load time is sometimes faster with Concrete5 than other content management systems. We work with clients of all sizes doing SEO on their websites.  The ability to add title tags and meta tags is built right into Concrete5 with no add-ons, modules or plugins required.  We have found no limitations with Concrete5 when it comes to search engine optimization and have had a number of sites that instantley moved up in ranking after making the move to Concrete5.  Learn more about the Concrete5 open source content mangement system.  Looking for SEO services?  We would be happy to give you a free consultation on how search engine optimization can benefit your website.

Three years ago a long time client, while working on a new website for them told me that, "We aren't interested in search engine optimization.  Nobody in our industry uses the internet to find commercial real estate."  I had heard this once before and it didn't make sense to me either time it was told to me.  If I was looking to lease new office space the first place I would go would be online to find a broker or to find properties.  For the life of me I couldn't think of a better place to put a new business.  Particularly since there was a preveling attitude in the industry that "nobody was doing it" which to me says, "nobody is doing it SO I SHOULD BE DOING IT AND OWNING THE INTERNET." For this particular client we did our basic search engine optimization that we do for all of our clients and three months later I got a call from our client.  "Tell me more about that search engine optimization thing," he said as I answered the phone.  I began talking about the strategies and benefits of SEO.  The client then began to tell me that in the last two weeks they had got two new clients that found them on the search engines.  The next thing the client said was, "We want to do that search engine optimization thing." Three years later they are still doing serach engine optimization with us and continuing to find success. The beginning of this year that same client called us into their office and said, "We want to do social media optimization and we want you to do it."  They had learned from their previous experience.  I think some people would say that doing niche commercial real estate marketing through social media doesn't make any sense.  Nobody does it!  Which to them I would say that is the VERY reason you should be doing it.  In the first month 12% of this clients website traffic came through social media. If you would like to learn about Pixo's affordable search engine optimization and social media optimization services contact a Pixo representative.

This is one of those, "I wish I knew that before" blog posts.  After using Concrete5 for longer than I care to admit in this post, I just discovered a new tool that would have saved my dozens of hours over the last year.  The tool is the Add to Child pages tool that is found in the Default Page Types in the Dashboard.  With this tool you can add a block to multiple pages on a website by just click the block while in edit mode and then choosing Add to Child Pages.  I actually brought up the need for something like this to Franz, CEO of Concrete5, a while back and he said, "Ya, I know."  Didn't know that he did it and it has been in Concrete5 for the last two versions.  Great tool to use when you need to make an update on mutliple pages of your website after the pages have already been created. If you need to add blocks to new pages automatically when they are created you simply add the block to your Default page layout in the same section of the Dashboard.  Any new pages created from that point forward will then have the block applied to it (I've know about this tool for a long time). Have questios about Concrete5?  Please leave a comment below or feel free to contact us.

Every office has its troubles.  Sometimes it is the missing Swingline stapler.  Other times it is power struggles within the Executive ranks.  Pixo Web Design & Strategy is no different than other companies.  Presidents and Vice Presidents often don’t see eye to eye on business issues, but when the President and Vice President are also husband and wife a whole new level of sparks can fly. The dynamic duo of Amber and Jamie started out as a married couple before joining ranks in the business world.  Their collaboration has been a marriage made in heaven except for maybe one little dispute.  Pumpkins.  Usually pumpkins don’t put wedges in business relations or marriages for that matter, but when Jamie is not developing world class websites and online marketing deals he usually can be found in the pumpkin patch cultivating his pumpkins.  Not just ordinary pumpkins but GIANT pumpkins.  The kind usually only found in fairy tales.  The kind that weigh around 1,000 pounds or more that are only moved by fork lifts.  And as a business founder and president, husband and father the time commitment to grow giant pumpkins can take away from family time. To put this dispute to rest once and for all Amber and Jamie decided to take their dispute to NBC’s The Marriage Ref to air their dirty laundry in front of a million of their closest friends and find out who is right and who is wrong. “I just want to grow big pumpkins,” said Jamie Johnson.  “I think everyone should have one hour per day to do what they want.  To get away from things and have a moment to clear their mind.”  Amber Johnson the other hand sees things a little differently.  “Jamie does an amazing job servicing our clients and coming up with great online strategies.  But after the work is done he goes to the pumpkin patch and that takes away from our family time,” says Amber. Watch the Pixo couple battle it out on NBC’s The Marriage Ref on June 26th.  After that contact Pixo Web Design & Strategy and find out how knowing how to grow a 1,000 pound pumpkin can translate into a world-class website design, search engine optimization and social media optimization.

One of the cool things about Concrete5 is the number of tools that come with it right out of the box. 90% of the websites that Pixo builds don't need a bunch of additional add-ons or custom code because most of what our small business customers needs are already in Concrete5.  This post lists the tools that come with Concrete5 and describes some of the functionality that they can be used for. Content Text Editor – this WYSIWYG text editor looks like Microsoft Word and it is what you use to edit the text on your website.  Most all content management systems have a text editor just like this one.  One thing that I LOVE about this one is the ‘Add a Link’ tool.  When you highlight some text or an image in the editor and then click this button you get a sitemap showing all of the pages on your website.  You simply just click the page you want to link to.  Now if you ever change the name or the URL of the page that you are linking to Concrete5 will automatically update the link for you on your page.  No more do you have to worry about fixing links all over a site because you decided to change a page URL. HTML Block – Add html to any spot on a page with this easy to use block.  Wish Wordpress had this.  I ran into an issue just last week where a client wanted a date display within the content of a page with specific requirements and there wasn’t an easy way to do it like you can do it in Concrete5. Auto Nav – Flexible dynamic navigation bar that can be used for menus, break crumbs, site maps and more Form – This is another great tool that Pixo clients love.  ANYONE can use this tool to create an email form where the data is saved to a database, can be viewed in the Dashboard and exported to Excel.  How cool is that? Page List – create a list of links based on your criteria for pages on the website.  Typically this is used for a top level page where you want a list of links to pages that are underneath a given page.  It is all dynamic so you don’t have to update the page every time you add a new page. File – Add a link to a downloadable file to any page of your site Image – display an image, with rollover effects if you wish, to any page of a site. Flash – Add Flash to any portion of any page of your site without much technical knowledge Guest Book – Add a cool, interactive Guest Book to any page of your site Slide Show – This is a popular tool with our clients.  This tool as a slide show that looks like Flash but will work with any browser that has a nice fade transition between each frame.  Looks great on homepages. Search – Add a site search with just a few clicks to your website Google Map – Add a google map for a specific address embedded into your website.  All you have to do is type the address and click submit. Video Player – Really easily integrate a video into your website.     RSS Displayer – Add the address of any RSS feed and display that feed on your website as if it was a part of your website. YouTube Video – To integrate a YouTube video into any page of your website all you have to do is copy the address of a particular video and paste it into this tool.  The YouTube video will then be embedded into the page.  How cool is that! Survey – Integrate an interactive survey into your website. Date – Display the current date on a page. Next And Previous Nav – Displays a nice navigation bar to the page before and after the current page. This is just a small list of the functionality that you get with Concrete5.  Adding new pages, moving pages in a site map, copying pages, creating scrapbooks, adding additional functionality with add-ons are all a snap with Concrete5. To get Concrete5 added to your website please contact Pixo for a free consultation.

We have had great success with using Concrete5's ecommerce add-on to create online catalogs for customers.  Based on our clients needs we create categories of products with product attributes that allow our clients to sort and display products based on their needs.  We then turn off the shopping cart portion of ecommerce so that customers can't buy products online but can still take advantage of the great ecommerce tools.  Adding products and services to the catalog is very simple for our clients and we have done a number of bulk import implentations where we do the initial load of products into Concrete5 for them. The end result:  a robust catalog or products and services that are very easy to maintain and easy for customers to browse and search through. To learn more about Concrete5 or to create a catalog of products online Contact Pixo.

Have you found the ideal website design on a service like Monster Templates but want to use it on a Concrete5 website?  We can help!  Pixo Web Design & Strategy are experts in creating custom Concrete5 themes and converting existing website templates into Concrete5 themes. For as little as $75 we can change an existing website template into a ready to use Concrete5 template desing.  For a free consultation contact us about your website design needs or learn more about our Concrete5 website design services!

Often you have the need to have an area of your website that you want only certain people to have access to.  Concrete5 out of the box has a fair amount of functionality to allow you to create user accounts and permissions to lock down pages on your website.  The problem is that you don't get everything you need with Concrete5 to create a login area and it takes a little coding and a number of steps to create the login and permissions on the website. Pixo can help you setup user accounts, groups and Advanced Permissions for your Concrete5 website.  We have extensive experience with installing Concrete5 and setting up password protected areas on websites contact us about Concrete5 to learn more about our very affordable services.

It's been my experience that a blog is the most important tool in your web marketing tool box. It benefits you by increasing your visibility on the search engines and within the "social web." Here's how to get the most out of your business blog: Create a Category for Each Service: Blogs are organized by categories; make sure you have a category for each one of your service offerings. You can certainly blog outside these services, but if you're trying to attract prospects and promote your services, you'll need to cover these topics regularly. Write blog posts that are specific to your customer needs: Think about what keywords people are searching for on the internet when looking for your products and services and use those words in the copy for your blog. Write Informational Blog Posts on Your Services: Don't make these posts too salesy; by taking a more even-handed, educational approach you'll do a better job establishing your credibility and expertise. However, you should take your best keywords and link them to appropriate pages on your web site where it's more appropriate for you to be selling, and finish with a strong call-to-action. Answer Your Prospects' Questions: Once a week choose a frequently asked question you get and turn it into a "Dear Abby" type post, where the question is the post title. Reword it to make it more keyword-rich if necessary. Remember: for every time you've been asked that question it's been asked a thousand other times at Google or Bing; by blogging the answer you can reach new qualified prospects. To have a blog added to your website or to get a consultation on how to create a social media campaign with your blog contact the blog experts at Pixo.