If You’re Not Mobile Ready – You’re Unprepared

The prediction has been in the air for years. But now the stats show that people are searching on the their phones and growing speeds, with no sign of slowing down.  While 71% of businesses see the mobile value 78% of businesses are not mobile ready.  It’s a great advantage to  go mobile right now and stay ahead of your competition.  While many business owners cite cost as an issue most businesses have seen a decline in advertising expenses with the demise of yellow page phone books.  Recognizing a website is now the cornerstone of any and all advertising the shift is beginning.  While pay-per-click is still scary to most business owners investing in your organic website structure is building on solid ground.

Google News for Local Businesses

Recent changes make your Google+ page more helpful to your business.  Google used to display about 7 local businesses in its “maps” section on search results. That number will now be cut to 3 as Google gives more preference to its Google+ pages.  Google set guidelines to optimize the business pages.  Take advantage of it – give Google what it wants, don’t be the business that ignores helpful suggestions from Google.  Too busy to handle this yourself?  Inquire about my Webmaster Services.

Freshen Your Website

If your business is service related make the most of your images.  If your site is more than a few years old at that time keeping images small was the best strategy for user friendly load time on each page.  Now there are many ways to showcase your work with much larger sized images – still optimizing for download speed. There are many options to make your photos interactive (click to enlarge).  Read more.

It’s your website – your business online – grow it, make it shine – freshen it – make it work for you.

Why Should I Redesign My Website?

There comes a time when your website needs to be redesigned.  This usually involves multiple factors.  Code has changed substantially in the past 3 years which provides more options for your website, and  certainly better performance within browsers.  Leaner code means a faster download which is something Google favors in page ranking.  Websites benefit from a fresh view.  Look it over and discuss with your designer what elements can be improved upon, enhanced, things which are obsolete and how to optimize the space to lead the visitor through the website, while keeping navigation ease a priority.  A mobile presence is critical: whether a free-standing, side by side site or a responsive website (requiring a makeover of your old site) you can’t ignore mobile users.

website in need of a redesign

This site served well for its time, when monitors were smaller, dial-up connections were still around, images needed to be as small as possible, beveled buttons and gradients were trendy and 800 pixels was the maximum width the W3 consortium recommended.  Enter the fun.  Now browsers and monitors span much wider screens, large optimized images are easily handled by browsers and bandwidth. And the most fun of all, design has changed using a much broader palette of colors: beautiful bold, flat colors which let the design breathe and make the web page less cluttered while still offering the same key points, call to actions and copy.  Visual matters in marketing.   A website redesign will keep your website ahead of your competition whose sites may be tired and sagging.  A fresh looking website represents your business well to visitors.  It’s your first impression to potential clients – make the best of it.

Auto Shop Website Redesigned

 

Custom Website vs Template

Too many clients come to me after trying a template website, or do-it-yourself company. They are completely frustrated and often have spent too much money either not completing the site, or letting it go month after month and paying a sizable monthly fee.

Template sites from  major telecommunication companies (Yellow Book, AT & T, Supermedia) sound simple for a busy business owner, and do-it-yourself/create-your-own-website companies sound promising to ge you up and running in hours.

There are times when these might be ideal for business owners who are aggressive in learning basic code, SEO and photo editing, or needing something up quickly while developing a custom site.  Here is a side by side comparison to help you find clarity in what to choose.
custom website vs template

 
 

http://www.brendasimon.com/custom-website-vs-template-website.html

Email Marketing

Google AdWords campaign can be a bit scary for the novice business owner.  These need to be monitored and tracked to see if the results are new clients to your business.

My client base is service oriented from auto repair shops to veterinarians.  The ones using pay per click campaigns are finding the calls increasing, but the price shoppers’ phone calls are consuming a lot of time and are showing no return.  For the business owner with no staff this presents an issue of not getting back to the work of the day.

I am seeing a huge interest in email marketing for the very purpose of referrals.  Specialized services like transmission repair are not an often repeated service.  But for the business owner a satisfied, trusting client is the ideal person to refer a like-minded friend or family member.  Where service industries used to have loyal clients trends now are to price shop everything.

Begin to collect email addresses from your clients.  Develop a newsletter.  Auto mechanics keep on top of vehicle recalls.  Veterinarians can remind of “flea season” as we move into summer.  Giving advice from your profession has value.  Become a trusted source via email and ask for referrals.  If you want to include an incentive to your existing client AND the referee it’s even more attractive.  Most of us are happy to recommend a business we have a great relationship with.

And always put “review us” icons at the bottom of each email.  Reviews help drive websites!

 

Mobile Website for Auto Body Shop

mobile websiteThere are certain businesses which cannot be without a mobile website. If your services are urgent, or emergency this is a must. There are choices in a mobile website design and structure — the goal is to find what fits your budget and needs. You can redo your existing website to transform to mobile deives with style sheets, but the cost is substantial.  A simpler choice if you have limited content on your website (like a 20-30 page website) is to create a standalone sub-domain, mobile website.  It’s time efficient which translates into cost savings for business owners and will reflect your full website.

Choices!

Veterinarian Website

Had fun with this website. The blue works nicely for the pet medical field. Payne Ranch is a small clinic, but has a long history in Chino Hills. A simple ten page layout worked well for their content.

Veterinarian Custom Website

Veterinarian Custom Website

Photos by Douglas Simon Photography

Does Website Design Matter?

There is a constant stream of advertisements for “create your own website” for free, after 30 days pay only $7.99/month or simple sounding ads like “Design your website in minutes.”

It’s sounds so easy and the price sounds unbeatable.  In the early days of the internet this might have been just the tool for many businesses.  As a web designer who codes these templates are cumbersome to use. For the novice they require a lot of time and frustration to learn the software.  You will still need your content: photos and page copy.  Your photos need to be optimized to download  quickly, so you need some photo editing skills and learn how to choose what compression is best.  You need to spend time learning at least some basic search engine optimization (SEO) and learn about meta data to compete for organic results.  All of the above are the nuts and bolts of using a template website.

Websites need “call-to-actions” which are eye appealing and well placed.  Navigation needs to be simple – easy to figure out so customers can quickly find what they are looking for.  Frustrated visitors won’t become your client.

Beyond all the code and functionality, yes, design matters.  A welcoming website sets a tone for your business, the same as a showroom displays your products.  The layout and design bring all the elements together.  The bottom line is people will judge your business based on the looks of your website.  Statistics reveal over 90% of people said they trusted or mistrusted a website based on design alone, less than 10% said it was content.

It’s much like packaging of food.  Yes the generic brand is cheaper, but the jar/box isn’t nearly as creative as the name brands, who give great thought and expense to their brand.

While it doesn’t have to be award winning you want your design to send a message of trust, professionalism and quality.  You know your business, hiring a professional to create your website is a good investment.

Website Marketing

Your website has become the cornerstone of your business.     All roads of marketing point to your domain.

Website RedesignIt’s not uncommon to want a new look for your website. A “refresh” can be the solution. Change photos, add a JavaScript slide show, update the page content and a critical step: review the SEO. Google changes rules more than 500 times in a year.

Thinking about blogging? A blog is a huge asset to driving your website. You know your business, who better to write short articles and post periodically? Sites adding new relevant content are seen as reliable and this, in turn, improves your rankings. A blog on your website is an easy way to add regular content while expanding your web presence. Give me a call if you have any questions. ph 909.595.0610

 

Mobile MarketingIt’s hard to ignore the usefulness of “going mobile”. Our phones have created a new market place for businesses.

Your mobile website needs to feature the most important aspects of your desktop website in the most user friendly way with quick download time. Equally important is giving the user a quick way to view your full website and avoid a frustrated user experience.

Give me a call if you have any questions. ph 909.595.0610

Online Reviews Your online reputation is part of your internet presence. It’s an opportunity to engage with customers via websites they trust to to be accurate.

You may get negative reviews, but you can turn this into a positive, by addressing any issues. The fact your business has responded to a negative review  often is the tipping point for a potential customer. It’s an opportunity to  build customer confidence in you and your company.

I have created Webmaster Services to help you fine tune your online presence to make it a more effective marketing tool. Give me a call for more details, or read online.

Why Have a Website?

Businesses choose to have an online presence for multiple reasons.

Connecting with new clients is typically a motivating reason for moving online.

Tired of paying phone book directories which seem to be archaic means a business has to be somewhere in order to compete.

Some of my clients wanted an online brochure.  Presenting your past workmanship is a breeze, with the ability to show more content than hauling portfolios to prospective clients.

A wesbite can serve to give basic information from your phone number to hours of operation for a past client who lost your phone number.  It’s a time saver for businesses answering phone calls to give this basic info – everyone is happy.  A website is your 24/7 contact point.

Here is the one which the Internet has taught us: a website adds legitimacy to any business.  When considering doing hiring a company their website is just the place to research them before picking up the phone. While they have built the website and control the message – it’s a beginning.

I recently needed a product which was “difficult” to find.  The online community  buzzed with resources to find this item.  A simple Google search on the company name and I found they are located 3 miles from me.  Despite the location not being a typical retail store, they do sell at this facility.  A huge time saver for me.

Not having a website is no longer an option.

http://www.brendasimon.com/website-design.html

Drive Your Website

This really surprised me. Google has always ranked sites according to the frequency of changes. This is why a blog is a great tool to help drive your website.

A recent study shows that most small businesses update their websites monthly. The study goes on to say as few as 5 updates a month can dramatically increase web traffic by 300%. That’s the stat: 300%. Pretty impressive! Little cost-huge impact.

Keep your website working for you. It needs refreshing.

If your website is truly an online brochure you send clients to visit and you don’t need any new traffic you can leave it stagnant. If you are trying to pick up new online clients refresh your content. Factor it into your advertising plan and let it work for you.