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Houston Web Design

Houston Web Design from Jacob Hodgson on Vimeo.

This video showcases some of the work that I have created over the last few years. I’m a Houston based Graphic/Web Designer and I’ve been working freelance for about 5 years now. Please take the time to connect with me on Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Flickr, etc.

Thanks,
Jacob Hodgson

Cinematography Final

How Search Works

Geo Domain ranks in Google

Tonight I did a search for “Marketing Houston” and a domain that I bought a few years ago now ranks 7th in Google. Search results can vary depending on the data center that you connect to and I’m assuming that has to do with your geographical location. So, I bought this domain, MarketingHouston.com after doing some research on expired domains. It was collecting dust for about 3 years. I decided that I would take some time and develop it. Back in 1999 I worked for a company that bought and sold domains. I’ve always wanted to buy and possible sell these domain properties.  After careful review, I decided that MarketingHouston.com could be highly profitable if I could get it to rank.  The search volume for “Marketing Houston” fairs well with about 90,500 global monthly searches, and 74,000 local monthly searches.   I think I’ll tuck this one away and continue to develop it. Check it out and comment about the results you see and your location as they relate to the data centers. I claimed 2nd in google previously because I was logged into my google account and it appears that google moves these links up based on the amount of times that you frequent the link. So, I’ve re-listed it’s current ranking as 7th without being logged into my google account and it moved from 2nd to 7th. Still not too bad, and my goal is to get it to the 1st position for the terms “Marketing Houston” and then “Houston Marketing”.

Why do I need a company logo?

A professional corporate image can do many things to improve your business.  Your business image, and specifically your logo, will have much to do with how your customers think and feel about your business.  Quality logos give your business an immediate air of professionalism. Even if your business is new or less established, a customer will often give the benefit of doubt to a company that looks professional.  Every business eventually competes with others.  A unique and professional logo will help your customers distinguish your products and services and help them remember who you are.  Not only will a professional image help you with your customers, it might also help attract key employees.

Read more about our logo design and company branding solutions.

Web Presence Starts with a Good Web Host

I decided that it was time to write about something that not everyone knows about, but is present in our lives everyday. That something would be website hosting. Every website online has to be hosted on a Web Server. The companies that provide this service are called Web Host. Now, you would think that this is all pretty simple, just pay your measly $2.00 per month and be on your way. Well, it’s not that simple. See Web Servers are computers, but with much more memory and disk space. Each computer/server can run Windows, or Linux. I prefer Linux over Windows because I like to use open-source software like Wordpress and Joomla. Both of these content management systems us PHP, which runs on Linux natively. Windows offers this but I’m sure you probably have to buy some kind of plugin or something. Windows runs ASP nativel

Anyway, the reason I’m talking about this is because a friend recently came to me and wanted to develop a website on a Windows server. So, I logged in and went to install Wordpress and low in behold no databases were available. What? No databases. Well if we were on a Linux box we would not have that problem. So in order to install Wordpress or any database driven application I would have to buy 5 databases for an additional $5 per month on top of the already paid for services. LAME!  So my point is always research your Web Hosting company and read the fine print. I have 3 Web Host that I love, Media Temple, Site5, and another local Houston Web Hosting company called Host Gator that you should check out.
All offer great hosting packages and if your in Houston, it’s nice to support a local company. Also, if you host multiple sites, it’s good SEO practice to have each site on a separate account or IP address. That’s my 2 cents on web hosts and I hope you find it helpful. If you find yourself in a situation or need hosting advice feel free to contact me for your web hosting needs : ). Cheers!

School Days at the Art Institute of Houston

SEO Services in Houston

To be successful online in business or even just for fun, you need to get noticed. No one will read or buy from you if they can’t find you right? But, how do you get yourself out there so people CAN find you?  That is where search engine optimization, more commonly known as SEO, comes into play.

Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, is a series of tools, or thought processes and tasks completed on your web pages, that help your website or blog to get noticed by the search engines.  Search engines use clever things called bots and spiders to crawl sites for anything that makes them relevant to search parameters entered by Internet visitors. Read more..

“Round Midnight” Cinematography Project Week 6

Week 6 of Cinematography class at the Art Institute of Houston. We had to shoot 5 shots. Jacob Hodgson was Lighting DP and James Seyer was Camera DP. Dallas Box was chosen as the director and everyone else who played a role are listed in the credits. The style for this weeks film was Film Noir. We have a total of about 12 projects to complete in about 3 months. Thanks to everyone who participated in our projects and we look forward to working you in the future.

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