Wieting Design

How To Best Optimize My Google Business Listing

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Google My Business is the best free tool out there to increase your visibility for local searches when someone is looking for your line of work. Almost half of all daily searches are from clients looking for information on local business’s.  When someone looks up a business the first thing they see is your Google My Business Listing.  So how do you make sure your Google My Business Listing is up to date and is informational?

Google My Business (GMB) is a free platform that powers business listings on search and maps. GMB is also crucial when it comes to mapping results. I searched for a “web designer Fairfield County CT” in the Fairfield County area and got many results. Google didn’t just list these names arbitrarily. Search Engines looks at a number of factors beyond location like a number of reviews, and other important information about your business before it pulls up your search . This is why the GMB is important to keep up and make sure your information is correct – it attracts high-quality, local prospects to your company.

Own Your Page

To start off, you’ll need to either create or claim your listing. Once you have control of your panel, you’ll want to add all your information. Add your business address, make sure your business hours and location are accurate, add your services, the towns you service and make sure all your general information on your business is correct.  Add relevant keywords during setup, as this will help Google match you with more relevant searches. If your not sure how to do it or what to do, you might want to consider looking at your competitors. You can also add your latest blogs to this listing which will help with searches even more!

Reviews

Once your information is verified, you’ll want to manage reviews. Five-star reviews are the best but don’t worry if you see a couple of 3 or 4-star ratings. (Remember you can always comment and address those reviews if they are not correct).  If you get a strongly negative review, respond to it! Other users will see your post which will give you an opportunity to demonstrate your customer service. Don’t leave fake reviews because Google will remove these if they think they’re suspicious and it’s pretty easy to tell when a company is pumping up their own ratings just by scrolling through their reviews. If you don’t have many reviews and want more, ask customers to leave them but don’t allow more then 1 week, posting 10 reviews in one day for example is a bad idea, as Google could possibly flag it and remove them.  Do it over time and do it carefully.

Add Photos Of Your Work

Make sure to add high-quality photography not screen shoots of your logo, your team and your work (if applicable).  Many local users will encounter your business through GMB before they even see your website, so it’s important to have a nice visual impression. If your ratings are solid and your photography are good, that user will most likely go to your website! Hence a phone or interest in your services!

Keep Up With Your Listing

Your GMB listing lets you manage more than just reviews. There’s a Q&A feature that lets users ask specific questions about your company. You’ll get notified when one comes in – don’t leave it hanging! Both the question and answer will be published on your listing.

This is a very basic outline of what you can do with Google My Business but hopefully you will understand the value this free service has to offer. If you haven’t verified ownership yet, do it now! I recommend looking at some of your local competitors’ listings, its always smart to see what your competitors are doing.  GMB also comes with free analytical insights. You’ll be able to track views, see the search queries people used to find your listing, and gather demographic data on your customer base. For a free service, GMB offers an impressive number of features and you should take full advantage of it. If you’re a local business, you cannot afford to ignore this platform. Be active on your listing and keep it up!

How To Access Your Google Business Page

Sign in to the Google Account you used to sign up for Google My Business. To find your Business Profile, search on Google for your exact business name. You can also search for “my business.” If needed, to manage your Business Profile, select View profile.

There is tons of information on the web about GMB, click here for more information on how to manage and set-up your account.

Wieting Design offers Graphic Design, Website Design, Search Engine Marketing, Video Production and Logo Design in Fairfield County CT. Contact us for more information on the specialties we bring to your business!

6 Signs You Have Outgrown Your Website

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Websites are never truly complete. You should always be adding to your website and tweaking the design and language to meet the needs of your customers. Without regular updates, you’ll fall behind the times and miss out on opportunities due to limitations in SEO, user experience and load speeds.

Each day, website trends adapt and change. You need to constantly evaluate your website to see if it’s adapting and changing with the trends. If not, you’ve likely outgrown your website and it’s time for a new website design.

For many business owners and marketing managers, undertaking a website project doesn’t sound like fun. So you want to make sure it’s time before embarking on such a project. We outline ways you can tell you’ve outgrown your website.

Your Website Design Embarrasses You

When you share your website, does it come with caveats of you saying things like “here’s my website, but it’s a little outdated.” Or do you find ways around sharing your website by guiding people to a Facebook page, Medium article or another third-party resource?

This is a big red flag that it’s time for a new website. As your business grows and changes, you want to make sure the look, tone and functionality of your website adapt and grow with you.

You should never be ashamed of your website. In fact, it’s your greatest marketing tool and the resource that most marketing activity points to. Upgrade your website if you’re ashamed of it or make excuses for why it looks or sounds a certain way.

You Don’t Know How Your Website Works

There are so many tools on the market today that make website management simple. If your current website’s operations are a total mystery to you, you’re likely avoiding updates and upgrades to that site. Fix this problem with an update to a WordPress website or other easy-to-use platform.

Outdated websites are also a huge security risk. You could become a victim of hacking, phishing or other security concerns. And if you collect customer information through your website, that could leave your customers vulnerable. One data breach could put your company out of business.

Take the time to discuss with a website designer an easier process for website updates. That way, you ensure the long-term viability of your site and protect your company’s online identity.

Your Website Features Old Branding and Messaging

Many businesses go through an evolution of how they talk about themselves and their overall look and design. To keep your visual identity consistent, you need to make sure your website matches your current branding standards.

If your website features an old logo, colors or design elements, it’s time for an update. And while you’re updating to a new look, you can upgrade your tools to make your website simpler to manage.

Your Competitors Are Using the Same Templates and Design

Some templates and designs become quite popular within an industry. While your website might have been unique a few years ago when you got started, today it looks just like everyone else’s website.

Popular WordPress themes can make your website feel stale. It won’t stand out among your competitors or be memorable to your customers, enticing them to come back.

While the theme you chose for your website might be attractive and function well, don’t forget to consider how well it portrays your brand and what makes you unique. Market differentiators should jump off the page and make it clear that your consumers should not shop anywhere else to meet their needs.

Professional website design gives you a custom website that helps you stand out and clearly communicate with your customers. You won’t find another website like yours on the web when you work with these professionals.

Mobile Optimization is Lacking on Your Site

Mobile website traffic grows each year. In 2013, the worldwide percent of mobile users was only 16.2 percent of total website traffic. By 2019, that percentage had skyrocketed to 53.3 percent.

It’s no big surprise that Google puts so much weight on mobile optimization when ranking websites. If your website doesn’t look great or is not easy to navigate from a mobile device, it’s certainly time you update it.

According to research, 54 percent of customers indicate that they won’t recommend a business with a poor mobile website design. Referrals and recommendations mean a lot in today’s connected and social online environment.

When evaluating your mobile website, don’t forget to think about its speed. Slow websites harm conversion rates immensely, but website speed also impacts search engine rankings and your relationships with your customers.

Use Google PageSpeed Insights to learn more about your website’s performance to evaluate if it’s time for an update.

Lack of Modern Website Technology is Holding You Back

An outdated website generally has slow load speeds, limited functionality and makes it challenging to rank well for SEO. If it seems like you’re working extremely hard and have a good online strategy but you aren’t seeing results, it’s time to modernize your website.

Review your Google Analytics for big changes from when you first launched your website. If you’re seeing valleys of low traffic from sources that had always served you well, it might not be your marketing efforts that are lacking, but your website.

Websites from just a few years ago might run on outdated templates, technology or formats that hold them back based on today’s standards. Heavy CSS files, weighty JavaScript and poorly optimized images and videos can do a great deal of harm to your traffic and website performance.

Captivate Your Audience with Modern Website Design Services

When a user lands on your site, you have only a few seconds to captivate them with your design and messaging. Don’t miss out on opportunities due to a website you’ve outgrown or that has become outdated.

Wieting Design provides outstanding website design services to delight your customers and earn more business through your online presence. Contact us to learn more about how we can improve your online presence with an updated and modern website design.

5 Reasons Your Website Needs a Website Designer

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With so many website templates and simple tools like WordPress on the market today, many business owners and marketing teams think they don’t need a website designer. It’s an area where these businesses choose to save some money.

While just about anyone can create a standard website from a template using today’s technology, that doesn’t mean the website will perform well.

The standard templates lack a few key aspects that help engage viewers and get ROI for your website expenses. Good website design has a huge impact on:

  • SEO
  • Lead generation
  • Site speed
  • Customer engagement
  • Repeat customers

If you’re evaluating whether a professional website designer is worth it, read on for the 5 reasons your website needs a designer.

We Know How Design Impacts Customer Engagement

Website designers spend their workdays learning about how customers interact with websites and what makes those websites succeed. We know how to place calls to action in the right places.

Did you know that 57 percent of internet users won’t recommend a business if the website is unattractive or has a poor mobile experience? Website design is about more than just attractive colors and neat designs. It’s about encouraging your customers to keep coming back and engaging with you.

Most website templates scale accordingly on mobile. But have you considered how your website forms perform on mobile? And if you’re an e-commerce website, have you thought about your checkout process on mobile?

That’s the great part about hiring a designer is that we think through all that for you. We’ll ask you questions and help you create the right experience for your specific customers.

Website Designers Know the Latest Requirements

From site speed expectations to SEO standards, we know how to create a website that meets the latest requirements. That way, you aren’t prepping to change your website again in a few years, which is a lengthy and expensive process.

Website infrastructure is like the backbone of your website. It includes lots of technical information in the background that you probably never see or interact with. But it’s just as important as the front-end pretty design. The more modern your website’s infrastructure is now, the longer it will perform well for you.

When using pre-built templates, you might be also basing your website on technology from many years ago. That means you won’t see the same performance you would from modern website infrastructure.

We’ll Help Promote Returning Website Visitors

Ensuring website visitors return means having some way to stay in contact. One way of doing that is to gather their contact information when they first visit your website. Or, getting the customer to follow social media sites.

Ecommerce websites can do this through popup notifications at the end of the checkout process and an effective follow-up strategy.

At Wieting Design, we ask you questions about your goals for the website to make such recommendations. That way, you don’t have to be the expert about every aspect of your website.

You Won’t Have to Worry About Website Support

Websites are never complete. As requirements change and trends adapt, you’ll need to update your website. Knowing a good website designer who understands the ins and outs of your website will help you immensely.

Building such long-term relationships will help as your business grows. Our website design team can make minor changes for you to update your website according to new needs or requirements.

Perhaps you start your website without online chat but realize it’s an essential way to connect with your customers. Your website designer can work with you to get this new feature added and looking great. And the chat won’t look out of place at all because your website designer knows how to integrate it into what you already have.

Long-term, Hiring a Designer Will Cost Less

The price tag of hiring an expert is normally what leads people to do-it-yourself solutions. But the investment in website design is one that really pays off. Using an expert means your website will be up and running sooner.

If you do it yourself or have a friend do it on the side, it will take you a great deal of time to get your website ready and operational. And not only that, but the end product might lack an attractive design and strong user experience.

Budget website solutions can mean you just end up paying for a proper solution later, which costs you even more long term than just doing it right the first time with an expert.

Wieting Design provides expert website design and maintenance plans to help your business succeed. Contact us to share the details of your project requirements and get started working toward a modern, attractive and high-performing website.

Wieting Design offers modern websites that delight customers and turn website visitors into prospects. We have experience designing websites for a variety of industries and would love the opportunity to discuss your project with you. Contact us to learn more.

Wieting Design offers Graphic Design, Website Design, Search Engine Marketing, Video Production and Logo Design to our clients.

 

Why Simple Website Designs Are Trending for 2021

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Before embarking on a new website design, you should first consider the customer buying journey. If your website isn’t based on the customer buying journey, your conversion rates will be significantly lower.

That’s because the main goal of creating a website is to guide your visitor through the most important content on their way to making a purchase with your company. When your website is visually complex or has too many modules, visitors can get overwhelmed and choose to leave and go elsewhere.

Large blocks of text, complicated color schemes and challenging navigation menus all contribute to website visitor overwhelm.

So if you’re looking at a website redesign in 2021, here’s why simple websites are trending.

Simple websites have higher conversion rates

When your homepage takes the customer through the buying journey with relevant information with each scroll, they’re more likely to make a purchase or reach out for more information.

Complicated websites with tons of ornamentation and complex navigation structures are not the way to go anymore. Your visitors won’t be impressed with fancy animations that slow download speeds or make it harder to find the checkout button.

Your website should not read like a sales brochure. Instead, make it a casual conversation with the visitor where you show that you understand their needs and their pain points.

Your simple website isn’t likely to go out of style

The trendier you go with your website design, the more likely it will be that you need a redesign in 3-5 years. The beauty of simple websites is that they’re timeless.

Website trends, like all digital marketing trends, move rapidly. If you’re trying to keep up, you’ll find yourself redesigning your website regularly. The simpler your design, the less likely it will be that your website will look outdated in a few years.

And, it’s simple to make minor adjustments to a minimalist website without needing to rewrite content or do a full overhaul. So you can freshen up your website a few years down the road without having to go through the full website design process.

The simpler the website, the less distraction for your visitors

Too many calls to action can lead to confusion for website visitors. The simpler your website is, the clearer your calls to action will be, leading to a higher conversion rate. While video is great, too many could lead your visitors to get distracted and not convert.

Likewise, a gallery serves some visual companies, like interior designers, quite well. But when there are too many photos or the viewing experience is too complex, the visitor can get distracted, lose track of time and move on to other internet tasks.

One way to focus your visitors is to avoid putting all your webpages in your main navigation. Only put the most important pages there. You can link to lower-level pages from higher-level pages, but the lower level ones don’t need to be in your main menu.

If you’re unsure how to prioritize what pages go in your main menu, know that you should have no more than six tabs. And each of those tabs should not have more than a few options underneath them.

Consider which pages are designed for conversion and essential to the customer buying journey, and place those in your main navigation menu.

The website will meet user expectations

Website visitors have certain expectations for where they’ll find things on your website. That’s because website trends have taught website visitors where to go for a variety of pages and functions.

For example, users expect to see these features on your website:

  • A logo in the upper left that they can click to return home from any page.
  • The menu bar at the top of every page, or a hamburger button that expands the menu.
  • Contact information in the footer of every page.
  • For e-commerce websites, a cart button in the upper right corner.

While there are a variety of ways to handle these website features, you want to meet users’ expectations so that your website is easy to navigate and key information is quick to find.

Simple websites appeal to all visitors regardless of demographic

If your business serves a wide age demographic, a simple website can appeal to your full customer base. Instead of making features familiar or impressive to just one category of customers, make it appealing to all with simplicity.

There’s nothing spammy about a simple website, which also means your users are more likely to stay once they land on your site.

Here is an example of a simple one page scroll site that conveys the message the client wanted to get across:  https://westparkny.com

You’ll enjoy faster load speeds

Load speeds have a large bearing on the success of your website. The faster your website loads, the better your website will rank for SEO and the less likely your users are to abandon your site. According to Google, 52 percent of mobile users will abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load.

Heavy use of graphics, videos and animations can slow down your website. So the simpler the design, the better in getting users to stay and engage with your content.

Appear trustworthy and professional with a simple website

Clean website design looks professional. A cluttered website is often a signal that the company threw it together quickly using a standard template and put little thought into how it would perform for customers.

Stanford research found that 75 percent of website users make judgments about how credible a company is based on their website design. Not only that, but 94 percent of a visitor’s first impressions of a company come from website design.

You can easily adapt a simple website

The more complicated your website is, the more chances there are for things to go wrong. Updating a complicated website is tedious and can cause so many headaches for your company.

The cleaner and simpler your website code is, the better. And with clean and simple website code, you can make minor adjustments and updates with ease. This makes you more agile to add new products or services pages and meet the changing needs of your customers. Example: https://cransbaldwinllc.com/

Large companies prove simple design is effective

Over the last 10 years or so, designs have become simpler to adapt to the digital age. Take a look at some recent logo changes from large companies and you’ll see that fine details have disappeared in favor of raw simplicity.

There’s a good reason for that. Users stare at screens all day long, consuming information and gathering details about companies that interest them. This can lead to eye strain and mental fatigue.

So the simpler you can make your designs, the easier they’ll be for visitors to consume and the more likely they’ll be effective in earning new customers.

Simple website design services

If you’re convinced that it’s time to revise your website with a simpler design, contact Wieting Design. We offer clean, modern design services to help you meet the trends for 2021 and beyond. Improve your website’s conversion rates now by getting in touch with us.

Wieting Design offers modern websites that delight customers and turn website visitors into prospects. We have experience designing websites for a variety of industries and would love the opportunity to discuss your project with you. Contact us to learn more.

Wieting Design offers Graphic Design, Website Design, Search Engine Marketing, Video Production and Logo Design to our clients.

 

Website Launch CransBaldwin, LLC

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We are very excited to announce the launch of CransBaldwin a Luxury Design Collection company based in Darien, CT. Crans wanted to make his new website faster, easier to navigate, and more user-friendly.

Our goal with this new website is to provide his visitors an easier way to learn about CransBaldwin’s services and to browse information based on their own choice. The new website gives better access to Who He Is, How They Work, Contact Information For Each Supplier, Galleries, Expertise & Services. VIEW WEBSITE

Why your website design could make or break your online sales

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Ample website traffic is only the first step in growing your online business and increasing sales. Once you’ve built that traffic, you need to analyze what makes a visitor become a customer, and that task can be much harder than driving traffic.

The reality is, consumers have very high expectations for websites now, meaning you better tailor a fantastic experience that wows them and makes the next steps apparent. And for this to happen, it all comes down to one thing: website design.

Your website design can make or break the sale. And with online sales continuously growing year after year, it’s the elephant in the room you can’t ignore. According to Digital Commerce 360, 2019 U.S. online sales accounted for $601.75 billion of consumer spending. That’s a 14.9 percent increase over the prior year.

While focusing on website traffic is good, it won’t matter if that visitor came from a search engine, social media, or email marketing, they’ll need a clean and clear design once they get there that sets forth everything that’s important about your brand and makes it clear what they should do next.

The troubling reality is, if you choose to ignore your outdated online presence, all your traffic could be for naught because visitors will just leave and find solutions to their problems elsewhere. So here are the ways your website could be sending your visitors to your competitors instead of converting on your website.

Your website doesn’t guide the user to important content

Today’s consumers are rather spoiled from outstanding online experiences. Whether it’s a car dealership that puts information in the header graphic to go here for used cars and there for new cars or Apple who sets up easy-to-read charts to compare their technology, consumers expect a lot out of websites now.

So if your website isn’t offering that guidance to your visitors, the consumer might feel misunderstood and fatigued from navigating your site. And so they leave and you miss out on that sale.

Good website design makes it so that the next step is clear. Bold calls to action that tell the user specifically what to expect when they click on them, effective value positioning, and suggestions for similar products you sell at the bottom of every product page can all help tell the user what to do next.

Clutter and slow load times frustrate the user

A slow-loading website is a website that most people don’t have time for. You have seconds to showcase who you are, what you offer and why all of that matters. After all, there are plenty of websites out there that sell what you sell or offer the services you offer. So why would a user stay on your site and wait for your content to load?

Even if your website loads quickly, if it’s cluttered and busy, you’ll overwhelm your visitor. For example, some websites have two or three calls to action before the consumer even scrolls. That’s too many and can weigh down your online experience unnecessarily.

Well-designed and executed websites load quickly, offer important information on the first page and compel the user to take the first step toward purchasing with your business.

Discuss with your website designer file types that provide the best user experience and quick load times. Even if that’s the only aspect of your website you can fix right now, it will have a huge impact on your online business.

Calls to action are lacking or ineffective

The calls to action throughout your website might be the most important content you host. They tell users how to get more information about you, where to go to purchase a product, how to navigate the purchasing process and what number to call if something goes wrong.

Some pages might have primary and secondary calls to action, such as make a purchase and join our email list. So what happens if both calls to action are strong and demand the user’s attention? Simply put, they won’t function as primary and secondary calls to action. Instead, they might confuse and overwhelm your visitor compelling them to take neither action and leave your website.

A website designer is skilled at presenting your calls to action in a bold yet inviting manner. Sometimes, removing hyperlinks from your body text or images can strengthen your buttons and primary calls to action to nudge the visitor to the pages and information you really want them to view.

In your preliminary conversations with your website designer, make sure you discuss the customer journey and the information consumers need to make a purchasing decision. This information can help your designer ensure that this customer buying journey is visually presented within your website and optimized for conversion.

The website is outdated and lacks the “coolness factor”

This aspect of your website is a bit more abstract but still very important. Outdated websites can be a serious turn off for visitors. They might exude a certain image that you don’t care what the consumer thinks and that isn’t a great look.

And not only that but websites that lack a modern look and feel are less likely to be shared. To show your consumers that you care about them and about engaging with them, you need a modern design.

Build in encouragement for social sharing. That doesn’t mean cluttering every page with social media buttons or saying “share this” on every webpage. Be strategic and highlight the most shareable pages. These might be your images, blog posts or product pages. Use subtle calls to action on these pages to share with a friend.

Or even include the option to share the fact that they’ve purchased with your company. Luxury brands or services that are social events, such as concerts or 5Ks, can benefit from a purchase thank you page that offers the option to share that purchase with the consumer’s social network.

Purchasing or completing a form from mobile is too hard

Just about every website platform on the market today has a mobile-first design because mobile is essential. So why are we still talking about mobile websites? Easy, because many still lack the features and ease for mobile that encourages purchases and engagement.

Whether you like it or not, the Amazon app allows consumers to make purchases with the click of a button. No, we can’t all be Amazon. But when you think about how convenient they make it, you have to at least come close.

All forms and your online purchasing process must have a mobile-first design. That means enabling autofill, simplifying the information you request to only what’s essential and offering the option to log in so that consumers can complete the purchase process using the information you already know about them.

Mobile e-commerce sales continue to take up more and more of the online purchasing marketplace. And with that comes the importance that your website design be ready to meet this demand.

At Wieting Design, we know that websites are a crucial aspect of all business strategies, even those that sell in-person at a brick and mortar location. We’ve made it our mission to help local small businesses convert more visitors into prospects and more prospects into customers. Contact us to learn more about our services and what sets us apart.

Wieting Design offers modern websites that delight customers and turn website visitors into prospects. We have experience designing websites for a variety of industries and would love the opportunity to discuss your project with you. Contact us to learn more.

Wieting Design offers Graphic Design, Website Design, Search Engine Marketing, Video Production and Logo Design to our clients.

 

 

 

 

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Wieting Design, LLC
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Serving: CT, Fairfield County CT
Hartford  CT, New Haven County CT