Green River Pottery
Working with Theo Helmstadter at Green River Pottery has been a great experience. In addition to being a talented stoneware artist he has developed a working knowledge of developing websites using Adobe Dreamweaver and was certain of the design and layout he wanted for the site. Unfortunately, using a WYSIWYG editor can leave a lot of undesirable code. This can hinder a website when it comes to search engine optimization, standards compliancy, and conformity amongst different web browsers and viewing platforms. We spent a good deal of time on understanding the fundamentals of using CSS and inspecting the code for standards compliancy. Afterwards, I recoded the website and reformatted his design using CSS, in anticipation of moving towards HTML5 and preparing the website for mobile platforms.
Shop Green River Pottery, Santa Fe, NM
Project goal completions for Green River Pottery:
- Understanding HTML coding. By bringing Mr. Helmstadter up-to-date in the evolution of HTML, and incorporating emerging trends in the marriage of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, we were able to establish a new platform on which he could continue developing his website independently.
- Search Engine Marketing. We began with the use of SEM to increase and establish web visibility. I wanted Mr. Helmstadter's potential customers to first and foremost be able to find his studio. Studying analytics and determining keyword optimizations we were able to raise his page ranking for the most searched for keywords pertaining to his craft. In many cases we brought GRP from a listing of several pages back in a web search to the front page of searches that expressed interest related to his craft. We set-up and verified online listings to ensure they expressed his availalbe hours and willingness to interact.
- Following industry standard best practices. Making sure your website is accessible for the visually-impared is a proper thing to do and increases availability of your content to the public.
- Social Media Marketing. Instead of using social media as a marketing ploy, we focused on establishing a relationship with existing and potential customers. Expanding from email marketing we incorporated Facebook, Twitter and Google to keep a continuing dialog with his base. By setting up a WordPress based blog associated with the studio we were able to take Theo's excellent literally skills onto a platform that provided ease of distribution as well as interactivity with his fans.
A Potters Notebook - Creative Life in the Clay Studio