Karla Guccione, Web Designer

Is your Business located on Google Maps and Google Places for Business? 

GOOGLE MAPS Icon

If not, it should be! Despite the simple fact that search engines such as Google and Yahoo have replaced the stone aged telephone books, both of these search engine titans also possess business listing services. Google has Google+ Places and Zagat, while Yahoo has Yelp. All which utilize map based business listings. These map based business listings assist consumers in finding business near their physical locations. This is even more relevant in today’s age of mobile devices, such as smart phones and tablets.

For instance, as a consumer is driving on the Kennedy Expressway in Chicago. A person in this vehicle is seeking a coffee shop nearby. They grab their iphone, open their web search and enter coffee shops. Their mobile device will provide map results, prior to providing web page results because the search engine has detected that they are mobile. Will your business show up if a smart phone or tablet user searches for your business type? If your business is not listed on Google Places for Business or Google+ Local then the answer is no!

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KUNENA FORUM LATEST ACTIVITY -JOOMLAMany of our blog items provide in depth information for the average web design client. However, as a premier Joomla Web Developer located in the Chicago area, we often resolve common issues with Joomla website configurations, templates, components, modules, etc....

As a web developer with extensive experience with Joomla and Joomla 3rd party components, we sink our teeth into issues like this and often remedy issues that few Joomla developers can. Recently we resolved a very common issue with the Kunena Latest Activity Module. 

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How to update S5 Image Slider- SAMPLE-small-NINOS

There are a variety of Joomla modules that can achieve a sliding or rotating image effect on your website. This module can be useful in displaying a number of photos or images along with text within your Joomla website. The S5 Image Fader is a great way to display banner ads and rotate through the images on your website with a nice fade effect plus many other options.

This article provides a tutorial on how to update the S5 Image Fader using the Joomla Content Management System. *The steps provided below are assuming that this module has been installed and has been created to exist in your module manager. 

Back in the day, consumers relied on newspapers and/or the yellow pages to gain information and/or to select a contractor or business. With the birth of the Internet, it is clear that most people now rely on their favorite search engine to assist them in researching and selecting their contractors or company to do business with. Many of us have become so accustomed to using search engines, that it is really hard to believe that search engines did not even exist until about 1990.

SEO Secrets | Search Engine Optimization Web DesignBefore getting into the nuts and bolts of what SEO is all about, it is important to understand the basic mechanics behind search engines.  What is a search engine? A web search engine is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web, in which results are generally presented in a line of results often referred to as "search engine results pages (SERP's)". Unlike web directories, which are maintained only by human editors, search engines also maintain real-time information by running an algorithm on a web crawler. One of the first "all text" crawler-based search engines was Web Crawler, which came out in 1994. Unlike its predecessors, it let users search for any word in any web-page, which has become the standard for all major search engines since.

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LIGHTBOXI was recently developing a Joomla Website for a client who provided screenshots demonstrating their services. Embedding these images worked well for the article at a glance. However, what happened when a front end user clicked on the image? Using the typical  linking function provided in the Joomla Article editor, you could link to a larger version. However this larger version was simply a link to the actual JPG. This resulted in taking the user outside of your Joomla Websites Structure and into your Internet browser to view the actual JPG File. This was not appealing to the eye, nor for the sites overall content navigation.

As a result of the detailed images (screenshots) that the client provided, this project required the ability to zoom in on these large images. This article provides directions on how to achieve light-box image function ability for images embedded into Joomla Articles.

Monday, 26 November 2012 17:12

Facebook to Monetize Connecting the World

FACEBOOK To MONETIZEEven as Facebook currently enjoys recent gains in the stock market, questions continue to whirl in the media about how Facebook plans to satisfy investors in moving forward with a plan to monetize?

What does the monetization of Facebook really mean to its users? Is it possible that Facebook will require paid memberships, or will Facebook be able to satisfy its shareholders without asking it's members to foot the bill? This article reviews Facebook's stock performance history and explores the real mechanisms that Facebook is already implementing to monetize its successful social network.

As reported on the Joomla Website, Lenoardo Di Caprio uses Joomla on his new site LeonardoDiCaprio.com.

leonardo-SMALLLeonardo Di Caprio is one of the most famous actors in the world. Leonardo has shown the ability to choose great roles, starring in movies from Inception and Gangs of New York to Titanic and Catch Me if You Can. It seems he can also choose great software. His new site LeonardoDiCaprio.com runs Joomla. This is a particularly interesting site in its design and its navigation.

Who else uses Joomla? Leo joins the ranks of numerous other big names that use Joomla. Other big names that use the Joomla platform include Major Television Networks, Retailers, Car Manufacturers and even Government Agencies. Names such as McDonalds, JaguarPizza Hut, MTV, Sony Pictures, Mexico City and even the United Kingdoms Ministry of Defense.

Bad for SEO--FREE WEBSITE BUILDERS godaddy jimbdo wixAs many business owners have come to realize, having a quality web site for your business is no longer an option, it is a requirement. Where many business owners have gone wrong, is in thinking that just a having a simple info page satisfies the “web site requirement”. The key word is quality, not just in regards to design but in regards to SEO!

I will get straight to the bottom line in saying: Using a FREE WEB SITE BUILDER such as Wix, GoDaddy’s Website Builder, Jimdo and Zenfolio provide only one true benefit to businesses on a budget, it is FREE.   That single benefit of providing a “free website builder” is actually costing you more in lost revenues due to its weakness in Search Engine Optimization. Additionally, sites like Wix and Zenfolio cost much more on annual term to host. So your FREE WEB BUILDER is not exactly free. Compare Wix hosting with website at over $200 annually, to GoDaddy which will cost roughly $80 per year using Joomla or Wordpress.

Monday, 10 September 2012 01:41

K2 Blog Component for Joomla | Video Tutorial


video-tutorials--JOOMLA-K2-blogThis article includes a brief video tutorial that demonstrates the function ability provided by the K2 blog component for Joomla.

Blogging is an important factor in regards to Search Engine Optimization.  As Google and other search engines seek content rich websites that are frequantly updated and visited by unique visitors. Therefore, utilizing ablog on your website is important.

When it comes to blogging on your Joomla website, AdverGroup Web Design in Chicago recomends using the K2 Blog Component developed by JoomlaWorks. Using K2, you can transform your Joomla! website to a news/magazine site with author blogs, product catalogs, work portfolio, knowledge base, download/document manager, directory listing, event listing & more, all this bundled under one package!

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JOOMLA ERROR SOLVED: Joomla Admin Section Menu Manager Issue.

After performing Akeeba Back ups and jump starting the back up on to a godaddy hosting package I was unable to update or access and menu items in the Joomla Menu Manager of the administration section. This issue also surfaced after performing upgrades form past versions of Joomla to 2.5.  Being that my clients website was hosted with Godaddy, I was required to communicate with Godaddy Technical support who conveyed that this is a common issue to which no solution has been achieved. After hours of troubleshooting with no help from GoDaddy Support (whose only advise was to rebuild the site from scratch), I was able to solve this issue!

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