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Build a blog, and they will come? If it were only that easy. Here are 13 tips to increase value and engagement for readers of your blog.

Here is a little inspiration for your day. Feel free to download the desktop wallpaper and share with a friend.

With over 54 million Facebook pages online, standing out from the crowd is essential. After designing many Facebook pages, I'd like to give you two tips to follow when designing your Facebook page.

Don't all WordPress websites look the same? Find out why this is wrong, and also some examples of well known companies and brands using WordPress.

In this post we showcase an eCommerce website that we designed and developed for a local business in Ellensburg, Washington. Specifically, I want show you the ordering system we created that allows their customers to place an order online.

We speak with small business owners and start-ups every day that request a simple website. Up until now, we've only offered services for small to mid-size companies and start-ups that have a larger goal and budget set aside for their online presence.

In this video I show how we integrated a custom online payment form through PayPal so that the Friends of Willamette Valley NWRC can allow people to signup for their memberships online.

Hiring a design company or freelancer can be tough. If you're like most people, you type in a quick Google search (or browse Craigslist) and are inundated with literally thousands of results to scour through. Some of  these results look promising and others just terrible. To make things worse, prices are all over the place, from $99 to $25,000 for a website. What gives? It's actually pretty simple: you don't understand what you're hiring. That's okay though, there's a first time for everything and I'm here to help you make a little more sense of it. Here are a few pointers and red…

Last month we were hired by the Maverick Institute to help redesign their existing website. Their current website accomplished what they needed for the past few years, but they now wanted a refresh to better reflect their lean strategy and also improve their sales funnel online.

With WordPress, there are literally thousands of plugins and countless strategies that you can use to better optimize and speed up the function of your website. Over the years we've honed in on our own strategies and plugins, and we'd like to share a few of those with you.

You may be familiar with the term wire-frame, but still haven't a clue of its importance in design. It's something we use on almost every project we work on, and it's been extremely helpful for us, and more importantly for each one of our clients.

This is a question that I get asked daily. In this article I'd like to help you understand exactly what WordPress is and how it works. All without your typical technical web jargon

Your website may be built on WordPress but this does not mean that your website functions in the same way as every other WordPress website. Although the look and feel is consistent, they can be drastically different in usability.

If something happens to your website right now (it gets hacked, your server fails, or your database gets corrupted), what system do you have in place to restore it to it’s last working version? In this video I go over two options of how you can easily get your WordPress website backed up today.

Earlier this year we were hired to re-design and develop Schick Shadel Hospital’s website based out of Seattle, Washington. It was an extremely fun and rewarding project, especially being that their mission is giving people a second chance in life.

I've created this video to go over our design process and what it's like to work with us. We'll start from the initial call or email, all the way through to the final product. Video: Our Design Process - Graticle Design   Video Transcription Hi, my name is Shawn and I’m with Graticle Design. We’re a web and graphics company. Today I’d like to go over our process so you can know exactly what to expect when working together. From first contacting us, to a finished project. Every company is different in their process, and that’s why I want to…

Absolutely. Knowing this bit of information is fairly common in the web design industry, but I want to break down why WordPress is great for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with a few examples. First, I should explain which version of WordPress I will be talking about. You may not know, but there are two types of WordPress websites: WordPress.com and WordPress.org. The difference is that WordPress.com is hosted by WordPress itself (often identified by a domainname.wordpress.com address), while WordPress.org provides a package that allows you to install WordPress on your own server—a do-it-yourself if you will. I’ll be discussing the…

Responsive web design (RWD) been a fairly hot topic over the past year in the industry so I've created a quick video to help you better understand it. I've also included an "in the wild" example of a responsive website that we've designed and developed on WordPress. Video: What is Responsive Web Design? (with EXAMPLE) - Graticle Design   Video Transcription Hi my name is Shawn, I’m with Graticle and we’re a web design company. I just want to go over what responsive web design is and a responsive website that we've built for an example. Responsive web design (or…

When a new business owner asks us about steps they should take online, our first recommendation is listing their business with Google Local Business Along with a website, a Google Places listing provides great visibility within local and regular search results (not to mention it’s free). For instance, if you search "Graticle Design" on Google, the majority of real estate on the page will be dedicated to our Google Business listing. You’ll notice our logo, a map of our location, contact information, and even our hours of operation. This is the next best thing to having a website. Here are a…

I've created a quick 2 minute video on how to sign up for a Facebook Business Page. I will walk you through the signup process and provide enough instruction so you can sign up right now. Video: How to Setup a Facebook Business Page - Graticle Design Video Transcription Hi, this is Shawn Hooghkirk with Graticle. We’re a web design and development agency. Today I want to show you how to setup a Facebook Business Page for your brand or company. I’m going to do a basic setup so that when you’re finished watching this video, you’re able to create…

As of 2012, in the United States alone there were 313 million people. Of those 313 million, 245 million were on the internet, and 166 million on Facebook. That’s more than half of the United States on Facebook. Even more importantly, half of those Facebook users log in everyday. I talk with many business owners that are unsure if they should have their business on Facebook. With numbers like I’ve listed above, it’s hard to believe you’d consider not having your business on Facebook. Now for some Facebook education. On Facebook, there are two types of accounts you can create:…

In this video I explain what hosting is and the differences between Dedicated Virtual Hosting (VPS) and Shared Hosting. Video: What is Hosting? Dedicated Virtual vs. Shared Hosting - Graticle Design   Video Transcription Hi, my name’s Shawn and I’m with Graticle. We’re a web design company. Today I want to go over what web hosting is, and the difference between Shared and Dedicated Virtual Hosting. What is hosting? Every website consists of many files that need to be served to the user when they arrive at your website. There are many different types of hosting, but we offer two:…

In this video I go over what a domain name is and how you can find out if the domain name you want is available to register. Video: What is a Domain Name? - Graticle Design Video Transcription Hi, this is Shawn and I’m with Graticle Design. We’re a web design and development agency. Today I want to go over what a domain name is and how you can get one today. I have a lot of clients that will ask me: “What’s a domain name? Is this something that I need to take care of?” A domain name is…

White space is a common topic that comes up daily in our design work. Someone will approach us for a job they need us to design (brochure, business card, flyer, etc.). We discuss their product or service, ask about their USP (Unique Selling Proposition), and talk about their current client base (among many other things). We move forward and the person sends over their content document (images and text). The majority of the time there is a lot of content here, especially for the medium we’ll be designing for. Depending on the marketing piece, audience, and message will determine the…