Web Design - JOHN RETTIG DESIGN

Web Design

Portfolio site of John Rettig – Graphic Designer, Web Designer, and Photographer.

Web Design – UX/UI Displays

Omnitapps is a program for touch table displays. I use this program, Photoshop image assets, along with video and titles I create in Adobe Premiere and After Effects for the interactive touch table display used by West Chester Protective Gear at the center of its trade show booth. Designing content for Omnitapps utilizes an amalgam of different programs such as video editors, image editors, XML code editors, and even presentation software like Power Point.

Web Design – Websites

I started doing web design while working for the Department of Energy. In the past, most wireframing was done in Photoshop. Now, platforms like WordPress allow for development on a live site using private or password protected pages for clients to review and approve before going live. Adjusting the site Theme and stylesheet templates can be very effective for rebranding a site.

Web Design – SEO

I have worked on many websites for the sake of improving their SEO. Search Engine Optimization involves setting up websites so that they adhere to Google best practices, along with making content that is useful for end users. I have done technical SEO on many websites for businesses both while working at an agency and as a contractor.

Web Design – Email Campaigns

I have been responsible for designing content for email blasts, implementing those designs through email platforms like Constant Contact, and also maintaining and updating contact lists and design templates for company wide use. I have also set up templates for businesses to use to simplify their workflow and maintain consistent branding.

Web Design – Social Media

My experience with Social Media has been both creating content and implementing content on multiple platforms. I have set up new accounts, integrated those accounts with software like Hootsuite, scheduled content that I created, and responded with the audience. For much of the content that I have created, I have been the photographer, the designer, and the copywriter.

Web Design – Infographics

Infographics are a great way to express statistics as a powerful visual. Infographics are great both for Social Media, website content, and business presentations.

Demystifying SEO

Most people may be confused by what is SEO. In essence, SEO is setting up your site's code so that search engines like Google can best read it. Think of it as like good grammar for code. Also, there is a human element to making the content interesting for people. Best practices like keeping your code current and safe, along with constantly updating content on a website can all help to increase site traffic. If a site is set up correctly for Google and end users find the content useful, it is likely to increase a site's search ranking and traffic. A larger and wider audience can be gained through optimizing a website for search engines.

SEO can seem like a confusing form of magic that all are seeking but not all understand. To me, SEO is about correctly adhering to Google best practices with code, the structure of content, the use of titles and keywords, correcting errors, and making sure tags are used correctly. SEO is not necessarily complicated, but it does require diligence and thoroughly applying basic coding standards to all content on a website.

Meeting certain word and character length requirements, utilizing keyword research, and most importantly having quality content for end users that can be indexed. Some basic tools that I use are the WordPress plugin Yoast SEO, Raven's Tools, SEM Rush, Backlinko, and others. Websites should show constant content improvements and utilize scanning services to correct errors.

In my career, I have worked both at an agency doing SEO on clients' websites, along with working directly as a freelance contractor. At West Chester Protective Gear, older outdated Drupal sites from before my time finally became a security liability. I was given the go ahead to replace them and I was able to migrate that content into one WordPress site, which I was then able to apply many SEO best practices. My efforts doubled the traffic to the WCPG website, and greatly increased the amount of search impressions.

Web Design Portfolio