What do you want people to think of when they hear your company’s name and you are not in the room? Of course you want a strong, positive impression to come to mind. But whatever they think of, good or bad, that is your businesses brand.

Branding is vital to all businesses, but to the small business especially because branding is what enables you to stand out from the competition. After all, if you and the guy down the street are selling the same product, what is it that distinguishes your business? The answer is: Your brand. Your brand should communicate to potential customers why they should choose you.

Here at A Nerd’s World – branding has played a massive role in our companies success.  We are recognized as the leader of our saturated industry in Toronto.

Thank you,

Chris A. Hughes

The post 5 STEPS TO BUILDING A BRAND FOR YOUR BUSINESS first appeared on A Nerd's World.

Do you have any further questions for me? Leave a comment below and I will respond.

Today’s question is by Hancock Tee Shirt Collections:

For a tee shirt website or business online, what would it start at? I failed the first time but I want to try again.

Thank you for your question!

Chris A. Hughes

The post HOW TO MAKE A MILLION DOLLARS SELLING T-SHIRTS? first appeared on A Nerd's World.

*Subscribe to My Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe224…

Can you still make a decent profit purchasing and re-selling domains in 2018? The simple answer is, DAMN RIGHT YOU CAN!

In this video, I speak on my past success buying and selling domains, and share with you some of the top places to buy and sell in 2018.

Where To Buy Domains:
http://www.godaddy.com

Where to Sell Domains (or Websites)
http://www.flippa.com
http://www.godaddy.com
http://www.sedo.com
http://www.expireddomains.net

Appraise a Domain:
http://www.godaddy.com/domain-value-a…

20 Most Expensive Domains of All Time:
http://www.godaddy.com/garage/the-to…

Chris A. Hughes

The post BUYING & SELLING DOMAINS IN 2018 first appeared on A Nerd's World.

The post 100 Best Guerilla Marketing Campaigns first appeared on A Nerd's World.

Google is the most frequently used search engine in the world. A recent study has shown that over 70% of people use Google as their search engine of choice. For SEO professionals, every day revolves around trying to crack the “Google code”. Through experience and trial and error, we know how we can work with websites to optimize them for search engines, but Google has never explicitly given us the official blueprint to designing a high-ranking website.

Between Google My Business, Webmaster Tools, and Analytics, Google provides plenty of tools that allow you to follow your website’s statistics while also improving its search engine presence.

Google Analytics

Whether you’re a Toronto SEO professional or a business owner, tracking your website’s statistics can be an extremely valuable practice. Google Analytics allows you to track how many people are visiting your website, how long they’re staying on the site, and what pages they’re visiting the most—just to name a few features.

Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools (also known as Search Console) works in accordance with Google Analytics. Using Webmaster Tools you can claim ownership of your website and make suggestions as to how Google views and indexes your site.

By submitting your XML sitemap though Webmaster Tools, you allow Google index your website page, blog posts, and attachments more easily, which can go a long way towards improving your search engine presence. You can also find information on what search terms people are using to find your site through organic search and which landing page it takes them to, although the information is not as detailed as Google Analytics.

Google My Business

You’ve probably all seen it. When you search for a business’s name on Google, among the results you’ll see their Google My Business listing in the upper right hand corner, complete with their location on Google Maps as well as business info like store hours, phone number, website, and business reviews.

My Business listings are essential for local businesses from a local SEO standpoint. Aside from presenting business info in an easy-to-read format, it gives consumers the opportunity to leave reviews. Google reviews are today’s version of “word of mouth”. Accumulating positive reviews gives your business a sense of trustworthiness. Check out our blog from a few weeks ago on the importance of online reviews.

If you need help optimizing your business and website on Google, give our nerds a call today at (647) 726-2020. Our SEO Jumpstart package includes the implementation of everything mentioned here, along with keyword research and both on and off-page optimization. Google gives us all the tools to succeed. Let us get your business on the right track.

Charlie Ford

The post Getting Right with Google first appeared on A Nerd's World.

Because every website, business, and industry is different, search engine optimization strategies vary from campaign to campaign. All campaigns, however, start in the same place—with keyword research. Keyword research is the practice SEO professionals use to identify what terms consumers are searching for in search engines. By researching and identifying these terms, SEO professionals (like me!) are able to put together detailed optimization campaigns that can target highly competitive keywords while also identifying areas of opportunity that competitors may have missed.

What is a Keyword?

A keyword, in SEO jargon, is a phrase that people search for on search engines in order to find a good or service. To use as an example, if you were looking for a company to design and develop your website, you might search “web development”. That entire phrase is considered a keyword.

If you were looking for the best web design company in Toronto to develop your site, you might search “best web development Toronto”. This is considered a “long-tail” keyword. “Web development” is the base term, while “best” and “Toronto” are the long-tail qualifiers. For most businesses, targeting long-tail keywords with local qualifiers is the best strategy.

Identifying Keywords

There are hundreds of online tools that SEO professionals and business owners can use to conduct keyword research, but the most commonly used is the Google Keyword Planner. The Keyword Planner is designed for planning and purchasing keyword for pay per click (PPC) campaigns, but the information it provides is hugely beneficial for organic SEO, as well. The “average monthly search” number is the most important stat when identifying a good keyword, but the “competition” and “suggested bid” columns can also help to give you an idea of how easy/difficult it would be to rank highly for a certain term.

SEO with A Nerd’s World

Here at A Nerd’s World, our SEO experts work in tandem with our clients to formulate a keyword plan that is custom tailored to their business. By targeting a mixture of high, medium, and low competition terms, we put our clients’ websites (and our own) in a position to rank relatively quickly, while also trying to take down some of the “big fish”.

If you’re looking for the best SEO in Toronto, look no further than A Nerd’s World. Give us a call today at (647) 726-2020 or stop by our 986 Bathurst Street location during our new extended hours. We’re open from 7:30 AM – 8 PM Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and 7:30 AM – 6 PM Tuesday and Thursday. See you soon!

Charlie Ford

The post Keyword Research: The Backbone of SEO first appeared on A Nerd's World.

 “A video is worth 1.8 million words.” – Dr. James McQuivey

A lot of people know us as the best web developers in Toronto, but many of them don’t know that we provide drone photography as well. As a Toronto web-design company, we’ve noticed that a large number of the websites we’ve worked on were using old, low quality, stock images of the Toronto skyline. These images were getting recycled and were being used by almost everyone. We decided to solve this issue by providing our very own drone video service. We are currently developing a comprehensive catalogue of footage all across Toronto exclusively for our clients. Our service will be available by next month and all of our recordings will be in 4K HD resolution and shot with a DGI Phantom 3 Professional drone. We will be licensing these original 15-30 second videos for $100 dollars each, and I will be shooting the aerial drone footage personally.

“Online retailer Living Direct found that videos boosted conversion as well as increasing time on site by 9%.” – Internet Retailer, 2010

Putting videos on your website will make people view your webpage longer, it will retain their attention, and give them a better overall experience. These things will give a better impression of your company, and help you convert page views in to actual customers.

In fact, Influencing someone to stay on your website for longer periods of time will actually improve your SEO, this is because Google looks at how long someone has spent on a website to determine how relevant the webpage was to their search. An increased “dwell time” will improve your website’s “Page Authority”, which is a key metric that is used to determine your position on a search engine results page.

If you looking for an end-to-end solution for your business needs, look no further. A Nerd’s World can provide you with the best in web design, SEO, headshots, graphics, drone photography, and everything else in between. Give us a call or come visit us in person at our Bathurst Street storefront location for a consultation of our services.

Chris A. Hughes

The post Toronto Drone Stock Footage $100 first appeared on A Nerd's World.

At A Nerd’s World we believe in transparency and that’s exactly why on our website, and all our locations, we display pictures of the people at our firm. As a client, you know exactly who is going to be working on your website or taking your headshot. We believe our approach to business makes us more personal and creates a level of accountability that is lacking from our competitors.

Just because someone is wearing a nice suit doesn’t necessarily mean that they are good at what they do. We believe that professionalism comes from the quality of our work not the quality of the clothes we wear. We’ve created a casual and relaxed environment for our customers, making them feel comfortable, and promoting an open dialogue between us.

We are proudly 100% in house and don’t outsource any of our work. At A Nerd’s World we don’t like to use the word employee, we prefer the word artist. On our about us page we have all of our artist’s full names, photos, and a mini biography about each of them. We feel like expressing ourselves to our clients allows them to feel comfortable expressing themselves to us.

We are a counter to the corporate world of stock images and suits. We may come in to a meeting in khakis and a t-shirt. But, we are experienced and knowledgeable, and at the end of the day we put more importance on that than our clothing.

One of the things that sets us apart from other Toronto web design firms is our 986 Bathurst location, a walk-in boutique style office. Our clients can drop by to sit on our bar stools and inquire about their current project, schedule a corporate headshot, or talk about a website they’d like made. Unlike a lot of other web design firms where you only communicate with them via a phone call, an email, or Skype, we allow people the ability to have a good old fashion face-to-face conversation.

Giving your company more personality allows it to stand out from a crowd. If you are the face of your company, you are using your individuality to your advantage. CEO’s like Richard Branson, Gary Vaynerchuk, Mark Cuban, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs are the faces of their companies and it has worked well for them.

We strongly encourage businesses to do the same and celebrate what makes them different.  Putting a face to your company will improve your businesses’ reliability, and will make people feel like there are doing business with a person rather than an inanimate object. For a lot of businesses’ their employees’ individuality has been an untapped resource.

And remember we also have Barrie Web Design, Oakville Web Design and Mississauga Web Design services.

Chris A. Hughes

The post Putting a Face to Your Business & Website first appeared on A Nerd's World.

At A Nerd’s World, we opted to do something creative agencies never do – open up a retail store.

Yes, that means you can literally walk in off the street, speak with one of our nerds, and order your services on the spot. 

We pride ourselves in standing out from the crowd while being recognized as having the best website design in Toronto – and we want that to be obvious to someone passing by on the street. 

Location is everything. 

Located at 986 Bathurst Street, we are just north of Bloor – at one of the busiest intersections in Toronto. For that actor walking by in need of a new headshot or that small business owner thinking of redesigning their website – they now have the incentive to get it done, and they have a name of a local website design company in mind without having to do any extra research – even if they never step foot in the store. 

On a recent trip to Chicago, I was inspired to add more bold signage to our window storefront. I contacted Mural Form and Jason Rouleau visited our shop and made our design into a reality. This is the second hand painted set of sign that Jason Rouleau has completed at A Nerd’s World. We highly recommend Mural Form for their unique style in signage that will draw attention to your business. In 2013, Jason Rouleu of Mural Form painted the tallest mural in the world on 200 Wellesley street east – measuring in at over 29 stories high. 

The new addition on our store windows can be seen from blocks away. There is no question as to what we do with our vibrant signage. Every design we create is unique – so it was important that our sign be one-of-a-kind as well. After serving over 3000 happy clients around the world we are certainly proud to call ourselves “World Famous.”

Our services are also listed on a hand painted sandwich board in front of the store – so everyone can see that we specialize in web design, photography, video, logos, copywriting, and seo.

Clients around the world get a sense of who we are. 

Getting personal is important – while many of our clients are not located in Toronto – being able to show them our storefront and what happens inside is vital. 

We also change the storefront sign every year to reflect our passion for design – it is always evolving and so are we. It is the perfect way to show off our professional graphic design skills while acting as a billboard for our services. 

If you’re looking for web design in Toronto and you happen to drive down Bathurst Street – you’ll easily see our big bright sign and remember us – and that’s the way it should be.

Chris A. Hughes

The post Our New Hand Painted Store Windows by Mural Form first appeared on A Nerd's World.

Fifteen years ago I was the manager of a 5000 square foot discount department store called “The Factory Outlet Club”. We specialized in everything from refurbished electronics, cookware, and apparel. My boss was my mentor, his name was Benji. He taught me valuable lessons in running a business. The company at its height had 15 stores across the GTA. He would open a store beside his biggest competitors who had the budget for advertising. Each Factory Outlet Club was situated in prime locations that already had the target customers because of the main retailer that was settled in the area. Besides the big budget his competitors had to promote their business with advertisements, Benji had a simpler approach with signage and balloons that caught everyone’s attention. He spent approximately $250 on helium balloons monthly per store and it would draw crowds of new customers outside of the store everyday.

The post Red and White Balloons first appeared on A Nerd's World.