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Three Basic but Vital Components to a Great Website

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The following is a quick list to three basic but extremely vital components that every business absolutely must have on their website.

The list may seem very basic but it’s very important. And you would be surprised at the number of company websites that don’t have even these simple components in place!

#1 Dynamic Content

Your website must serve as an education tool about your product or service as well as the overall industry you’re in. Your role is to inform your potential customer why you’re the best in the business.

Additionally, you’ve got to demonstrate through your knowledge how you can solve their problem. In other words, you’ve giving them a sample of what you can do for them.

Videos and blogs work great for this. Through videos, you can literally demonstrate your knowledge in action. Blogs work the same way but just in a written form (and visual with images).

#2 Call to Action

Once you’ve informed your website visitors about your business, you must tell them what to do. Again, this may seem basic but you cannot assume that your visitor knows what to do next.

Think about it.

What do you want them to do? Do you want them to call you? Do you want them to fill out a contact form? Send you an email?

Tell them! Have a big red button (or something that works well with your branding colors) in a prominent location on your website that can be seen at all times.

Somewhere in the header or upper right hand corner is usually good.

#3 Contact Information

Closely related to your call to action is having your contact information proudly displayed. The whole goal of your website is to sell your visitors on your business.

Supposing it does its job, you’ve got to make it easy for them to now contact you to buy. Have your phone numbers, emails, and all other contact sources displayed in a very visible location at all times.

Preferably, you’ll have your contact listed somewhere near the top, middle, and bottom of your website.

Also, you should have an entire page dedicated to how to reach you. This can include a map of your location and a contact form.

You should also include all of your various social media profiles. Regardless of your business, you should have at least links to Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

You might not personally spend much time there but you never want to limit how a customer with money in hand can contact you.

So that’s it!

Put these three basic but vital pieces in place on your website and watch your business grow!

Of course, if you need assistance with this, we can help!

Contact us today at 415-857-5715 or contact us here.

(See how we did that?!) 😉

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Content is King – Why Google Loves Content

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There’s an interesting new infograph that was recently published by Brafton.com showing the relation between content and search. This should be nothing new to anyone who’s trying to market their business online.

Content is what people are searching for. Content is what answers peoples questions. Content is what leads to purchasing decisions.

And now with the added layer of social media, people are sharing that content with their contacts. But there’s a catch – it’s got to be quality content! Search engines and real humans are not going to share bad content.

With that said, take a look at the graph below and think about how you can apply it your online marketing efforts. Of course, if you need to know where to get started, pulling quality content out of you and marketing it online is one of our specialties!

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Brafton's Infographic: Why Content for SEO?

7 Ways to Modernize Your Website

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Chances are if your company’s website is over 3 years old, it’s already outdated. In the “olden days” (olden days being late 90’s/early 2000’s) it used to be enough to have a website. For the most part, it acted as a place holder online for your company giving some basic info and maybe a way to contact you.

Nowadays, having a simple website isn’t enough. Your website must engage. It must share your knowledge. It must sell. And it must do it all quickly. To do this, it’s got to have an up-to-date feel or you risk losing your visitor before you ever got a chance to woo them.

So here are 7 ways you can modernize your website:

Add a Blog

There are a number of reasons why adding a blog helps your website. It helps with your SEO and discoverability, demonstrates your expertise, and pre-sells your customer. A blog also helps you to prove to everyone that you’re active on your own website. And being active means increased customer engagement.

Add Social Media

Social media is still relatively new and by adding all of your social media links to your site, you’re showing that you’re on top of the game. It also adds multiple ways for your visitors to get in touch with you and learn more about your business. Add as many social media outlets that you have a strong presence on.

Add Video

Few things are as powerful as having video on your website. It’s one of the best ways for people to consume your content. By having even just a short introductory video on your homepage, you’ll increase the time visitors stay on your site and the likelihood they’ll want to learn more from you.

Add an Email Opt-in

Online there’s a saying that the “money is in the list”. This refers to building your database of potential customers by getting their name and email address. You can offer something of genuine value in exchange for their name and email. Then you can go to work turning a random visitor into a possible customer by setting up a drip marketing campaign.

Change to WordPress

Many of the older websites out there were built using good old fashioned HTML. Not that this is bad, but there are much easier ways now to build (or rebuild) your website. WordPress is one of those ways. You can pick a template (they call them “themes”) and have a new, professional looking site up within a day. And you can do it with little to no web design skills. The result? A modern looking website that’s aesthetically pleasing.

Make it clean

Many of the older websites are jumbled with a bunch of text and photos with poor choice in colors. When you go to upgrade your website, be sure you make sure it’s clean and easy to look at. Use light, pleasing colors, great images, and simple, concise text. Many of the most successful websites are highly minimalistic. Just look at Google or Craigslist. Simple. Effective. Clean.

Make it sell

This is one of the most important aspects of your website. You’ve got to make it work as a sales tool for you. Instead of just listing boring information about your products and services, show your visitors (like through video) the benefits of doing business with you. Then, have a clear call to action placed prominently so visitors know what to do next.

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