Writings from Force 5 Basecamp

10/10/19

By Bob Earley So, now that you have a fair understanding between traditional and digital advertising solutions, now comes programmatic or OTT advertising. What is OTT you ask? Is it the newest and greatest thing since “sliced bread” for advertisers?” OTT simply means Over The Top. What does that mean? With more and more people choosing to cut the cable

07/26/18

by Camille It doesn’t matter where, what country, which state, what city – creativity is everywhere. As a rising senior at the University of Notre Dame, pursuing a BA in Visual Communication Design, I thought I already knew and believed this. With my marketing and design internship at Force 5 coming to a close, I reflect back on the summer

02/12/16

What is a Favicon?  It is a 16×16 pixel image that is shown next to your web page’s title on the tab in browser address bar. Favicons are usually overlooked, but I think they are a nice touch on a website.  I thought that maybe it was just a quirk of mine, but then I read the article “What’s The

02/11/16

On a search engine results page (SERP), the listing of results returned by a search engine in response to a keyword query generally show two bits of information from your webpage, the title tag and the meta description. TITLE TAG – Title tags / Page Titles are critical to giving users a quick insight into the content of a result

01/26/16

An effective customer-centric website design requires the designer to put himself in the customer’s place to build a site that is user-friendly, while providing all the information that the visitor needs.  If you find it hard to put yourself in your customer’s shoes, there are services out there that will critique the usability of your website for you.  Some, like

01/04/16

One sign that you might need a new website is that it doesn’t look good on mobile devices.  According to a recent study, mobile device usage is significantly higher than desktop usage, with people viewing 51% of the content on mobile versus only 42% on desktop/laptop.   (Five years ago, it was 12.5% mobile vs. 75% desktop/laptop).  Mobile Friendly Not Mobile

12/31/15

1) Do I Need a New Website? The team at Force 5 shares their thoughts on signs that your business might need a new website. 2) Happy Halloween A Halloween post with downloadable pumpkin stencils of the Force 5 team. 3) Is Your Website Mobile-friendly? A blog about the importance of having a mobile-friendly website. 4) SQL Case Study –

12/29/15

According to a recent study by HubShout, 94% of people use a mobile phone to search for local businesses. So what information are they looking for when they get to your website? 88% are looking for your business hours (46% are annoyed when they can’t find business hours on a website) 85% are looking for your phone number (42% need

11/02/15

In a recent Facebook post, colleague Marty Heirty took us back in time to remember or learn about the famous confrontation between Muhammad (formerly known at Cassius Clay) Ali and George (before the grill) Foreman. When a young, strong, well-trained, highly-conditioned Cassius Clay took “the ring,” his strategy was encapsulated in his signature phrase, “float like a butterfly; sting like a bee.”

10/29/15

Do you need a new website?  I surveyed the team here at Force 5, asking them each for 2 or 3 signs that someone might need to update their web presence. Some of their responses are based on functionality, some on user experience, and some on overall look-and-feel, but here are their answers: Christian Mattix Web Application Developer & Network

10/22/15

When I read about the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Highway Beautification Act, which was intended to limit billboards and other forms of outdoor advertising along federal highways, it reminded me of the iconic Mail Pouch Tobacco barns. According to Mail Pouch barn enthusiast Eddie Robberts, farmers were willing to let Mail Pouch Tobacco paint their

10/05/15

I recently wrote a post about the importance of having a mobile-friendly website.  I have created a dashboard in Google Analytics to see how your mobile traffic stacks up against your desktop traffic.  If your mobile traffic doesn’t fare well against your desktop traffic, you might need to look at making the website more responsive. To download the GA dashoboard,