Shopify Setup Help April 26, 2018at 01:49 am By: James Byrne After Dark Grafx Shopify Setup Help After Dark Grafx offers Shopify Setup Help, Shopify Design, Shopify Theme Integrations, Custom Shopify Development and Integrations. Do you only need help with setting up Shopify? No problem. We can help. We can setup payments, entire backend, account, shipping, collections, products, navigation, payment and more… The team at After Dark Grafx is well versed in Shopify. Do you need to add products to Shopify manually or import thousands of products to Shopify, we can help. We specialize in Shopify and Shopify updates. Migrate to Shopify for another Ecommerce Platform: Migrating to Shopify is easier than you think. We can migrate your site away from most shopping carts or integrate your existing website to use Shopify for your shopping cart. Contact us for details on migrating over to Shopify. Our Shopify migration services are fast and easy. We are Shopify Experts. So, please call or email us today with your questions or to start a new project. Questions? Contact Us Today for a FREE QUOTE! Call Toll Free 1-888-578-8300 or (619) 702-7377
After Dark Grafx – Top 21 Web Designers out of 285 by Expertise.com April 18, 2018at 18:53 pm By: James Byrne After Dark Grafx Well, not to toot our own horn, but Expertise.com has listed After Dark Grafx as 1 of the top 21 Website Designers in San Diego out of 285 companies reviewed. Their goal is to connect people with the best local experts. They scored web designers on more than 25 variables across five categories, and analyzed the results to give you a hand-picked list of the best web designers in San Diego, CA. “We approach every web design as a custom design. We analyze the company and culture and devise a design strategy around this criteria. This allows us to deliver focused content and design to our clients and helps to increase their brand awareness.” – James Byrne, Information Architect, Owner (USMC VET) – After Dark Grafx (From Experise.com) Finding the right highly-skilled professional takes significant work, including in-depth research, detailed comparisons, and deciphering which online reviews are reliable and authentic. We feature only objectively quantified and qualified professionals such as dentists, attorneys, or roofers, taking care of the work for consumers by understanding what they need when searching for experienced authorities. Unlike most other websites and directories, a business can’t pay to be included on Expertise. This gives our users the confidence to find and connect with exceptional businesses that are objectively qualified and authentically well-reviewed.
Google Chrome Marks Websites as Insecure March 21, 2018at 19:58 pm By: James Byrne After Dark Grafx Beginning in July, Google Chrome, the world’s most popular web browser, will start marking ALL websites as insecure if they are not running under HTTPS. Is your website ready? Are your client websites ready? If you are not sure if your website is secure, just open up a new tab or browser and go to https://YOUR-WEBSITE-HERE (of course you will put your website where in place of YOUR-WEBSITE-HERE above) If you get to your website and see this: Then this means that your website is potentially not secure or it is setup incorrectly. You will want to contact your current host or contact us and we can get a new Digital Security Certificate for you and install it. If you are unsure of what to do, please contact us and we will help you. If you would like to purchase a Digital Security Certificate, please go here. We will install it for free after purchase. Here are 4 more reasons to make your website secure with HTTPS: SEO — Google says it’s way past time to move your websites over to HTTPS. They are now giving an SEO ranking boost to secure sites. Simply put, you’ll rank better in SEO. SECURITY — SSL protects your site data and visitors. It encrypts data transferred over the web, like form submissions and credit card transactions. E-COMMERCE —If you’re taking any payments on your website, SSL is non-negotiable. SSL is an absolute must for e-commerce and membership websites. AFFORDABILITY — In the past, SSL certificates could get expensive, but the rapidly transforming web landscape has made switching to SSL practical and affordable. (partial content above by email from Cory Miller, CEO iThemes Security) James Byrne, Information Architect (USMC VET), is a web and app developer, designer, consultant and search engine optimization expert since 1992. Over the past few years, James and his team at After Dark Grafx have successfully transferred hundreds of client websites to HTTPS. NOTE: If you are NOT HOSTED WITH AFTER DARK GRAFX, we will need the following: A) Control Panel Access to your website. In most cases this is all that we will need. B) FTP Access: Only if the Control Panel Access above does not provide the correct information needed to make the necessary changes. C) WORDPRESS: If you would like us to update your WordPress Installation, please let us know as additional fees will apply based on your theme and configuration. We will need your WordPress Admin access in order to provide an estimate or simply create a new WordPress user and give it admin access then provide the username and password to us. You can then delete this account if you do not hire us or if we are finished with your website. Questions? Contact Us Today! Call Toll Free 1-888-578-8300 or (619) 702-7377
Shopify Products Carousel on Homepage March 16, 2018at 20:40 pm By: James Byrne After Dark Grafx If you are wondering how to add a product carousel on your Shopify Homepage, look no further! by James Byrne, Information Architect (USMC VET) After Dark Grafx Depending on your Shopify Theme, you will need to adjust the code accordingly. NOTE: The below integration requires a paid app. If you are interested in adding a home page product carousel to Debut, Brooklyn or any theme that uses SLICK then we offer a different integration for $85.00 that does not require an app – Contact Us Here. Today, we are going to describe How To Add A Product Carousel Slider on a Shopify Homepage utilizing the VENUE THEME, found in the Shopify Theme Store. This integration is for an advanced developer so be sure to backup your code before beginning this integration. We will be editing the main theme liquid code of Shopify, uploading a few files then changing the way the template shows a featured collection on the homepage. All themes are different, so you can use this information and code to troubleshoot your own theme or HIRE US and we will do it for you. There are many apps in the Shopify App Store but you have to pay for them or subscribe and pay for them on a monthly basis. THEME: VENUE CODE INTEGRATION: Flickity – Use Free for Personal Use or Pay the Commercial Integration (Recommended) CODEPEN TESTING: Click here to see BASIC integration for HTML We are assuming that you have a Shopify Account – if not, you can signup for one here. We are also assuming that you have purchased and installed the VENUE THEME. STEP 1: Download Flickity – Use Free for Personal Use or Pay the Commercial Integration (Recommended) Under DOWNLOADS on the page above right click and SAVE-AS and save these files to your computer. We usually start with the NON-MINIFIED versions so that we can edit them if needed. (note: screenshot below – you will have to go to the website above to download) STEP 2: LOGIN TO SHOPIFY AND UPLOAD THESE FILES a) Left side in Admin click on SETTINGS b) Then click on FILES c) Then upload all files d) Copy each of the new links https://cdn.shopify….. to a new text document as you will need these later in this post. STEP 3: Go to your theme and add the code references a) On left click ONLINE STORE b) On right click on the ACTIONS dropdown and select EDIT CODE c) Under LAYOUT on the left fine theme.liquid (it is usually best to make a backup of this code before editing it.) Scroll to the bottom of this file and paste for CDN referenced files below: <link rel=”stylesheet” href=”https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/####/####/files/flickity.css?####################“> <script src=”https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/####/####/files/flickity.pkgd.min.js?####################“></script> Do not use # as these were placed in this post to hide the numbers from our files 🙂 Just paste YOUR CDN files that you copied from STEP 2 above Right above the closing </BODY> STEP 4: Remember, we are using the VENUE THEME so finding where to make the following edits will be dependent on your theme. Under SECTIONS on the left, find home-collection.liquid Around line 31 find this code and ADD THE BOLD ITEMS IN BELOW <div class=”home-products__grid”> <div class=”o-layout o-layout–center{% if settings.product_grid_masonry %} o-layout–masonry{% endif %}{% if section.settings.grid == 8 %} o-layout–small{% endif %} layout-slider js-layout-slider js-layout-slider-{{ section.id }} carousel” data-flickity='{ “groupCells”: true }’> {% for product in collection.products limit: product_limit %} <div class=”o-layout__item {{ grid_item_width }} carousel-cell”> {% include ‘product-grid-item’, grid_image_width: image_size, page: ‘home’ %} </div> Save the File. STEP 5: ADD FEATURED COLLECTION TO HOMEPAGE a) Click on ONLINE STORE on the left b) Click on CUSTOMIZE BUTTON on the right c) Scroll Down on the left and select ADD SECTION only is the FEATURED COLLECTION is not showing on the theme. d) Select FEATURED COLLECTION e) Select the FEATURED COLLECTION that you just added and name it to whatever you want. d) Change the PRODUCTS per row to whatever you want e) Change the ROWS to the maximum number. I chose 5. Save this page. FIN! Now go to your homepage and you should see the products in a carousel.
SEO vs. Adwords – Which is Better For Marketing February 14, 2018at 02:21 am By: James Byrne After Dark Grafx Adwords and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or Organic Search Engine Optimization should be the first place that you start to place your SEM budget. These two components are among the main traffic drivers to your website. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaigns should encompass this mix in order to be successful online. Bing Ads are quickly becoming the second choice for more cost conscious vendors. A smart approach to quickly building targeted traffic to your website would be to use these in tandem. So… What is Google Adwords? If you are a newbie, then you have heard terms like PPC, Adwords Paid Search, CPC, bids, campaigns thrown around by marketers during general conversation. These are simple buzzwords that are used to explain certain sections, reports and functionality of Adwords. QUICK STUDY: PPC = Pay Per Click Adwords Paid Search = Adwords CPC = Cost Per Click Bids = How much you will bid on a keyword Campaigns = A section in Adwords where you can setup a group of keywords to target. (ie: Web Design – then place all your targeted keywords under this group) Google Adwords is an advertising platform owned by Google. Advertisers can pay to use this platform to place their advertisements high in the Google Search Results based on how much they bid for their proposed keyword(s). Google places these ads on their network of websites to include but not limited to: Youtube, Gmail, etc. and thousands of other websites that are a part of the Adwords program as publishers of content. Also known as Google Adsense. But that is another post. When you setup your Adwords account, you can choose to pay when someone sees your add (CPM means Cost Per Thousand Impressions) or when someone clicks on your ad. (CPC means Cost Per Click). Basically, it is a huge auction site where advertisers compete for the highest advertising space. Granted, Google says that it “rotates” the ads so that everyone gets an equal share, but we have found that the more you pay, the more you show! Get a Free Google Adwords Consultation Today! No obligation…please contact us toll free at: 1-888-578-8300 or click here to contact us. PROS Of Using Google Adwords: You can get listed in Google Quickly. CONS Of Using Google Adwords: Expensive. If you do not have a defined budget and goal (of how much a customer is worth) then you should really research and find this number before you spend one marketing dollar on advertising. What is SEO (Search Engine Optimization)? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) also known as Organic Search Engine Optimization is a manually programmed and monitored service to help get your website listed high in the search engines using multiple “white-hat” (meaning Google won’t penalize you because we do it correctly) tactics to help get your website listed over several months. Getting listed with Organic Search Engine Optimizaton starts with analyzing your site design and code to make sure that it meets “search engine guidelines” or “search engine friendly”. A search engine friendly website can easily be read by search engines quickly. Next, utilizing Social Media, posting to websites, forums, classified websites, building backlinks, videos and all things needed to get listed. Get a Free Search Engine Optimization Consultation for your Website Today! No obligation…please contact us toll free at: 1-888-578-8300 or click here to contact us. PROS Of Using Organic Search Engine Optimization: Cost effective. You will get listed on more than Google’s own networks. Build a larger web foot print. CONS Of Using Organic Search Engine Optimization: It takes time and patience to get listed for your chosen keywords or phrases within the search engines. Some professions such as real estate or loans will take longer to get listed (upwards of 6 to 12 months) whereas a local landscaper or construction business who is targeted with their key phrases may get listed in as little as 60 days. CONCLUSION: So which one is right for your business? It depends, if you are interested in getting traffic right away and have a budget, then Adwords is your choice. If you have time and want to develop a wider footprint with maximum exposure then Organic Search Engine Optimization is the way to go. The BEST WAY TO MARKET WITH SEO is to utilize a mix of Paid Adwords, Bing Ads, etc. PPC, along with Organic Search Engine Optimization. Then, if after a few months, you realize you are getting more traffic from Organic listings than Paid Listings, then you can simply turn off the Paid Advertising or Pause It! I generally tell clients to use Paid Advertising to do “A” and “B” testing. Meaning, try two different advertising headlines for the same product or keyword. Then, once you see which one had more clicks, you use that in your marketing. Then turn off the Paid Listings and market it via SEO and Social Media. QUESTIONS? – CALL US TOLL FREE: 1-888-578-8300 or click here to contact us.