We launched another great site for ITW Texwipe at http://www.texwipe.com! This site seamlessly blends the functionality of Hannon Hill’s CMS (the Products, Industries and Technical Data menus) with a full-featured ecommerce store (the Buy Texwipe menu), with shared navigation and design. This is the first project that integrated both products at the same time and, thanks to hard work by pretty much everyone on the software dev team at one point or another. 

BEFORE

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Other interesting features of the site:

• Ability to “hide” pages from different geographical regions, based on the “region” selection of the visitor in the footer.

• Transition of transactional applications from old system to new
• Email verification required to place order

The Beacon Staff wrote nearly 200 blog posts in 2011!  So we are highlighting our Top 10 and want your help to identify the “Beacon Blog Post of the Year”.  Please check them out and leave a comment telling us which one you enjoyed most and why.  Some of these were actually written in 2010, but received enough views in 2011 to make the Top 10 List.

Top 10 Posts by Views

1. Slick Pop-up Video Player using GreyBox & Flowplayer by Thomas Brinegar

2. Google Analytics Event Tracking in a Template File by Eric Westerman

3. Google AI – Artificial Intelligence is the future of Google Search by Jeff Pickle

4. Robots.txt “Disallow” and “No Index” Meta Tag: What ‘s the difference? by Andrea Cole

5. Best PPC Call to Action Keywords by Jeff Pickle

6. Instant Messaging in the Workplace by Annette Fowler

7. XSL for Formatting pubDate from RSS feed by Tiffany May

8. TOMS Designs More Than Cool Shoes by Rick Boccard

9. 100 Call to Action Keywords for ad campaigns by Jeff Pickle

10. Facebook Developer Tools – URL Linter by Tiffany May

Please note Beacon will be closed on Dec 23, Dec 26, Dec 30 and Jan 2.

IMPORTANT DATES
12/23/11 (Fri) – Beacon Closed for Holiday
12/26/11 (Mon) – Beacon Closed for Holiday
12/30/11 (Fri) – Beacon Closed for Holiday
1/2/12 (Mon) – Beacon Closed for Holiday

*Most of the Beacon staff checks their email regularly, but if you have an emergency, please call Beacon PCS at 336-232-5699 or 888-893-0843.

Thank you and have a happy holiday from your friends at Beacon Technologies!

The Google Spirit stood among the search results, and pointed down to scroll. Scrooge moved his mouse, trembling.
The Phantom was exactly as it had been, but he dreaded that he saw new direction in its solemn algorithm.

“Before I draw nearer to that link to which you point,” said Scrooge, “answer me one question. Are these the shadows of rankings that Will be, or are they shadows of rankings that May be, only.”

Still the Ghost pointed downward to the search results by which it stood.

Scrooge paged and paged downward, trembling as he went; and following the finger, finally found a familiar link within
the list of the neglected websites bearing his own company name, Scrooge & Marley.

“Am I that person who ignored the move to social signals.” he cried, upon his knees.

The finger pointed from the listing to him, and back again.

“No, Spirit. Oh no, no, hear me. I am not the person I was. I will not be the person I must have been but for this decision.
Why show me this, if I am past all hope.”

“Good Google Spirit,” he pursued, as down upon the ground he fell before it: “Your nature intercedes for me, and pities me. Assure me that I yet may change these results you have shown me, by an altered organic marketing approach.”

“I will honor Web Marketing in my heart, and manage it all the year. I will live in the meta-tag Past, the link-building
Present, and the Social+ Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may ascend from the depths of this list.”

Happy Holidays From Your Friends at Beacon Technologies!

Cards of Holidays Past…

We’re proud to announce the release of the Greensboro Housing Authority redesign!  As always, Beacon was right on-time with our deliverables, which is always our goal.  The client chose a soft launch date of December 1, 2011 because they wanted to show the new site to their Board of Directors at their annual meeting that day.

Their Web site was designed and constructed in-house several years ago, which meant that it was time for a completely new look.  The site also had content that was very out-of-date, so the client took it upon themselves to do a complete rewrite of the content, and restructure the site to be more intuitive.  Also, they wanted to get away from having to update the site by-hand using HTML, and wanted it in a content management system.  Finally, they wanted a new Web hosting partner.

Enter Beacon:

• We provided them with a brand-new graphical design;
• Developed it to display perfectly in multiple browsers;
• Implemented the new site into Cascade Server (content management system) to allow multiple users to update the content with an easy-to-use solution;
• Incorporated a new search feature;
• Imported approximately 60 pages of content, including 20 fact sheets about each of their properties;
• Transferred their Web site to a shared hosting package here at Beacon.

Several Beacon staff members made this project a success:

• Wendy:  Without much direction from the client, Wendy put together a design that they liked on the first try, which is phenomenal.
• Stephanie:  She was instrumental in getting the project off the ground, attending the initial meetings and providing meeting notes, the business requirements, and proposed site hierarchy.
• Zed:  He was thrown into the fire, as this was his first development project here.  He developed the front-end HTML/CSS/jQuery, and implemented the site into Cascade Server (which he picked up on very quickly), and entered most of the content.
• Tiffany:  Provided assistance and training to Zed.
• Justin:  Project Management and Cascade Server documentation & training.
• Beacon’s Technical Support Group (TSG):  And finally, no site hosting transfer is complete without the efforts of TSG, specifically Caleb and William, for setting up the hosting and troubleshooting some DNS issues over a weekend.

This is another high-quality design to add to our portfolio, and another non-profit site we can be proud of.   Thanks to everyone involved!

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Beacon Technologies, Inc. is expanding its team and seeks qualified candidates for the following positions.  Please click on the link to learn more about each specific opening.

• Account Executive / Sales Representative
• Senior IT Project Manager
• .NET Developer

To Apply: send resume via email to: operations@beacontec.com

ABSOLUTELY NO WALK-INS or PHONE CALLS! Otherwise, your application may be rejected.

We are very pleased to announce the NewBridge Bank redesign is complete.

Here are some highlights of this site:

• Rotating flash piece on home page
• Contact Opportunities – It was important to NewBridge that visitors be able to interact with them in many different ways. To accomplish this we implemented the following:
  • Our Banking Professionals application
  • Contact Us by Email
  • Contact Us by Phone
  • Locations
  • Connect with Us – Social Media
  • Social Media  – Icons in the footer and LHN, as well as a Social Media page showcasing the investment that NewBridge has made in that area
  • Product detail pages — Added additional product detail pages to their site so users have required information at their fingertips
  • SEO-friendly site
  • Integrated product demos into site

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Many thanks go out to Wendy, who provided a great design. Many thanks to Miral for developing the site and putting it into Cascade Server, Gary for handling all of the database work – specifically for developing the awesome banking professionals application, as well as the locations application, Thomas and Keana for their assistance during the content phase of the project, Nicole who provided Web Marketing feedback and analysis, and last but not least, Wayne, William and John whom all had a hand in the launch of this site – thank you for your assistance!!

We launched a new ecommerce site yesterday at http://www.tpgseminars.com. This site uses the newest version of AspDotNetStorefront . This site is slightly different in that its products are actually continuing education classes that required by the state of New York for tax preparers and accountants.

The site features the following:

• Multiple static content (topic) pages that can be updated by the client via Admin site
• Dynamic filtering on Live Conference landing page (by date, location, and topic)
• Opt-in mailing list that can be downloaded by client via Admin

Thanks to Tiffany May and John Wallwork who did the primary development on the site and to Wayne Van Zandt and Caleb Pruitt for assisting with launch yesterday.  Also, thanks to John Scaramuzzo for client support.

Beacon is pleased to announce the launch of Framingham State University’s Academics section redesign.

NEW Academics Section

After completing a redesign of Framingham State University’s main website in the summer of 2010, the client contracted with us to address the Academics section such that it would be more effective in reaching prospective and current students.  Well, we are proud to announce the launch of the newly redesigned Academics section and all department sections as well.  The client had a very tight deadline for this project in order to have the new site launch coincide with a planned ad campaign.  Beacon’s Web Development Team juggled its resource plan to complete this project on time and within budget (again)!

NEW Department Section

Justin Klingman managed the project and Wendy Honeycutt, worked directly with the client to create the beautiful design.  Keana Lynch completed the template and Cascade development a little early and perfectly, and Thomas Brinegar customized the jQuery homepage slideshow on the Academics homepage.

Here at Beacon, we strive to make our clients and prospective clients feel like we are here to help. We want everyone to feel like we are all part of the same team and we all are working towards the same goal. We know that Web Design, Search Engine Optimization, and Web Development are areas of expertise that might generate a lot of questions for anyone not familiar in them and because of this we want to open up a line of communication for YOU to ask US questions. So if there is something you don’t understand or want better clarity about, now’s your chance to ask us!

To Enter a Question:

1. Send us a tweet using @BeaconTec
2. Make sure to include #AskBT in your tweet. This way everyone can see the questions being asked.

Answered Question: 

Answers to more in depth questions will be posted on the blog. Some answers might be in the form of a video while others are written out.  Any simple answers to questions will be posted on twitter. For answers posted on the blog, a tweet will be sent out notifying participants that a question has been answered.

Rules and Regulations:

*Beacon reserves the right to only answer questions we feel appropriate for the subject matters listed above.

*Profanity and slander are prohibited.

*Participants can submit more than 1 question but Beacon cannot guarantee that each question will be answered.