Birmingham Design In Print
While I have posted before about some of our other albums, this actually the first flush mount I’ve put on the blog. For those of you who don’t know the lingo, there are three major types of wedding albums:
- Traditional Matted Album: Photographic prints of various sizes are put in mats and then assembled into a book. This is the book most of our mothers have from their weddings. They are beautiful and classic, and still available, though flush mount albums are the trend right now.
- Press Printed “Coffee Table” Style Book: This book is printed on a printing press, and the quality, while still quite good, is not quite as impressive as a true photographic print. These books have thin pages, typical of a book you’d get at a bookstore. Our “coffee table” books have a hinged binding which allows the page to lay flat. I think this is so much better than the traditional binding because you can see all of the page. We love these books for sign-in books or parent albums.
- Flush Mount: This style book is also known as a “digital album”, but that term annoys me, because a book is NOT digital! A flush mount is made up of true photographic prints, but usually the pages are designed, so there may be multiple photos, white space, collages, etc. The entire print is then bound to mat board, then the whole thing is trimmed and hand-assembled into a book. Each page seamlessly runs to the edge, and the gutter (the center of the book) is very minimal or practically non-existant, when the print is folded.
Okay, I lied, there is one more type of book.
- Mounted Album: This style book is very similar to the flush mount, but instead of the print being mounted to the page prior to assembly, the book is put together and the prints are added afterwards. Instead of the prints going flush to the edge of the page, there’s a small area around each print where the underlying mat board is visible. This is still a fine quality book, but a little more economical than a flush mount.
As search engines change you should too!
As you know full well, the search industry is constantly changing, and that means SEOs and businesses must adapt. This is always made abundantly clear at the change of each year as the previous year is reflected upon, and predictions about trends in the upcoming year are discussed. SEOs know that adaptation and ongoing education are crucial. The problem is that businesses don’t always understand just how much the search landscape actually does change. This can present a whole different set of challenges for both the small business and the professional SEO.
What are some SEO tactics you’ve had a hard time convincing clients to employ?
Searching for Profit founder Amanda Watlington recently discussed some arising trends in the search industry and how understanding the changing search landscape is of vital importance. One example of change is the possible inclusion of site speed as a ranking factor in Google. Matt Cutts dropped that bomb a couple months ago, and while many welcome it, a lot are dreading it.
For one, businesses and clients of SEOs simply may not be so eager to put forth the time and money required to make the necessary adjustments to their sites to optimize for speed, although it is clearly in the best interest of the customer’s experience anyway.
Another challenge, as Watlington mentions, is personalized search. Companies don’t always get that not everybody is necessarily going to see the same search results for any given query, and it can sometimes be difficult for SEOs to convince them that this is the case.
Although things appear to be looking up, budgets have been tight, and businesses are demanding better results for their bucks, but they are not always aware of the big picture, which is why it is up to the hired SEO professional to educate them as best they can, and for other businesses to educate themselves.
Luckily, there are plenty of industry resources freely available on the web. After all, you’ve probably read about the very tactics you have in mind there yourself. SEOs should find instances to back up their case to convince stubborn clients. Some of them are just hung up on outdated trends. Obviously this can make it hard to produce the results they are after.
“The evolution has been slow, and I don’t think we’ve helped it as much as we could,” Watlington says of companies’ understanding of SEO trends.
If you are the client of an SEO or a business trying to get things done yourself, don’t stay hung up on old tactics that might be outdated. At this point, these are some of the things you should keep in mind:
- Site Speed (it’s going to matter, so don’t ignore it…here are some things to consider)
- Personalized Search (Not everyone is going to see the same Google results)
- Universal Search (Showing up here requires attention to different indexes)
- Real-Tme Search (look for more evolution in this area)
- Changes in Local (there are frequently tweaks made by Google here)
- Some things do stay the same (things like reputable links will always be in style)
- Most importantly, stay informed (just keep up with the latest in industry developments)
As Watlington notes in the interview, metrics are very important, and there has been a great deal of focus on them in the industry in recent years. New metrics come about, just as new tools do. Metrics can help illustrate the bigger picture, custom-fit to a particular organizations goals.
