Wieting Design

SEO Basics: How SEO Can Be Helpful For Small Businesses

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SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a multilayered practice to enhance volume of quality traffic to your website. It is the first step toward digital marketing.

An SEO integrated online marketing strategy brings clarity and precision to your marketing efforts.

SEO has multiple variables which act at different layers together to bring out visible result. Basically, it tries to make your website appear in the first page of organic search results by increasing your page rank.

Many small business owners use SEO to achieve higher page rank in organic search results and avoid spending huge money on advertising.

What SEO Is All About

Well, SEO is not rocket science but it is not that uncomplicated either. I will try to make it less uncomplicated for you.

When we type anything in any search engine it replies us with numerous SERPs (search engine result pages). Websites appear one after another according to the level of their relevancy to the query typed in the search box. The website which appears at top of the organic search results gains the highest page rank. Organic search result is unpaid and comes after advertisements.

Improved page rank ensures enhanced traffic volume but are you actually getting the right kind of traffic? Are those visitors really interested in your product? Has search engine successfully identified you as who you are and what actually you sale?

It may happen that you sale red shoes but buyers who are searching for red dress or red bags often end up clicking on your website. The point of fact is you are not getting quality traffic. Only people who are searching for red shoes are your quality traffic.

When quality traffic clicks through your website it results in conversion (sales).

SEO is an all encompassing approach that tries to increases your website’s relevancy, usefulness, architecture and authority through improving and adjusting certain variables.

Which Search Engine Should I Zero On?

As we all know, Google is the most popular search engine in the world. According to the latest statistics of www.netmarketshare.com , it holds 74.06% of the market share. So, concentrating on Google would be enough for you. Microsoft’s Bing is the third most used search engine after Chinese search engine Baidu. Yahoo comes at the fourth place.

How Search Engines Work

Before indulging in how search engine optimization happens, you need to know how search engines create SERPs.

  • When someone types a query in the search box, automated robots, called ‘crawlers’, start finding out billions of relevant documents in the entire web. Bing’s crawler is called ‘Bingbot’.
  • Across the globe, search engines maintain various data centers, which store massive amount of data. These data storages help crawlers to bring information to search engine and create a web page index.
  • Using mathematical equations or algorithm search engines find out useful web pages in terms of their relevancy and popularity. According to algorithm the best pages with highest page rank appear in the first page.

Every search engine has its own algorithm that works differently from the others. Algorithms work on certain variables to determine page rank. These variables are called ‘rank factors’. Rank factors influence visibility of the web page.

If you are a small business owner, do not get agonized about those 200 odd rank factors, rather, you must know the fundamental factors of search engine optimization.

Building A SEO-friendly Website

Pillars of any SEO campaign-

  1. Relevancy– Relevancy is the key. Relevancy of any site can only be built through relevant and useful content; it must cater the need of your target audience.
  2. Popularity – There is no dearth of relevant pages in internet but search engines prefer websites, which have previously satisfied visitor’s requirement. Popular websites have following qualities-
  • Ability of attracting higher rate of visitors
  • The contents make the visitors spend considerable length of time on the pages and site
  • Ability to make the visitors pay repeat visit
  1. Authority- Authority of a website gets established when it-
  • Carries relatively huge number of incoming links
  • Gets mentioned in social media and important and influential websites (Government, education institutes, news organizations, industry websites etc.).
  1. Architecture- An SEO-friendly website is user-friendly, robust and fast for making a strong web presence. The content should be of high quality and must adhere to the demand of the potential buyers.

 Why Should Small Businesses Think About SEO?

For small businesses, SEO is a less expensive alternative for building brand awareness among potential customers. Every small business goes through different hurdles, biggest among them are building trust and reputation. SEO can ease that a little for you .When your brand appears in the first page of reputed search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo, people tend to start having trust in your brand. SEO can do the following things for your business-

  1. Drawing more customers
  2. Establishing brand awareness
  3. Beating competitors
  4. Increasing conversion rate
  5. Channelizing traffic for other online marketing campaigns

Basic SEO Factors For Small Businesses

For small businesses, required SEO is less complicated. SEO is done on three levels- i) On- site SEO, ii) Of-site, SEO iii) SEO and Negative SEO. Each part has its own set of variables.

ON-Site Optimization

  • Content Is The King- Any online marketing practice is incomplete without high quality content. If your content is relevant then search engines won’t recognize it. On the other hand, only a useful content is linkable and would generate repeat visitors.
  • Keyword Selection- Your keywords should be relevant to the words that the potential buyers are typing in the search box. If budget is constrained then keywords do not have to be very competitive for small businesses. The first 10 websites in the organic search result are your competitors.
  • Page Titles Should Be Relevant- Each page should have unique titles along with relevant keywords. The length of the title must be under 70 characters.
  • Meta Description- A 156 characters long meta description comprises of relevant keywords along with alluring calls to action. You can also add phone numbers or promotional offers.
  • Header Tags- If possible use <h1>, <h2>, <h3> header tags. These tags must have strategic and meaningful keywords in them.
  • URL- Your URL should be short and crisp containing rich keywords. Keywords always have to be relevant to the content and strategically placed. Avoid using symbols and numbers in page titles.
  • Easy To Crawl Website- In an easy-to-crawl website, search engine crawler or spider crawls easily. Crawler has to recognize on-site variables for further indexing.
  • Speed- Unless your website loads fast, the search engine won’t recognize it as user-friendly.

 Off-Page Optimization

  • Social Media- Do your website link appears in social media channels? When your website gets referred in social media and gets shared by popular individuals or organizations, they strengthen your reputation. Search engines will not ignore your website if you have strong reputation and popularity.
  • Backlinking- When reputed, trustworthy and high quality websites mention your website link, it reflects that you are getting good backlinks. Organic backlinking benefits both parties but reciprocal backlinking doesn’t. Backlinking is more beneficial when it comes from different types of quality websites.

At the initial stage, you can ask your family, friends, customers and suppliers to link your website to their social media platforms or in their own websites. You can also ask relevant bloggers to link.

  • Trust Issues- Your website appears trustworthy to the search engines when visitors pay you repeat visits and spend a good length of time.
  • Optimization of Anchor Text- The visible hyperlinked clickable text is anchor text. Branded and relevant anchor text easily catches the attention of the search engines. It is important that relevant anchor texts should appear naturally in your website.

Negative SEO

Negative SEO is an unethical practice where someone deliberately tries to drag down your page ranking. It is mostly done by off-page SEO, for example- building unnatural links or spam links, scraping content and hacking. However, there are controversies regarding its efficacy.

Conclusion

SEO does not reflect the result instantaneously to your page rank position but slowly with the rise of number of visitors, your rank will improve.

SEO does not bear fruit over night. The secret behind a successful SEO campaign is proper knowledge, well conceived strategy, considerable amount of time and money.

If you would like more info about our SEO services, feel free to contact us directly at 203.414.9692

 

Wieting Design | Search Engine Marketing Fairfield County CT

Wieting Design is a full-service, graphic and website design agency based in Fairfield County, CT and serving all of Connecticut (CT). We are committed to sharing our experience and expertise in website design, graphic design, social media marketing, search engine marketing (SEO), and video production to help build powerful tools and campaigns that work for your Connecticut business. Whether your objective is to grow your reputation, create client loyalty, drive traffic to your website or set up a marketing strategy, we will adapt our approach to get you the results you need with the services we provide.

 

5 Changes that will make a difference in your business and your life!

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About 60% of us admit that we make New Year’s resolutions, but only about 8% are successful in achieving them. Regardless of the outcome a year ago, the majority of us go right ahead and make a new set of resolutions–hoping for the best. This year we want to inspire you to see the next twelve months differently and find success and happiness in wherever your business is.

Here are 5 small changes that will make a difference in your business and your life to help you start the new year off right:

Don’t promise more than you can deliver – you want to deliver value to your clients, but if the desire is bigger than the possibility, you have to scale back. Desire vs. possibility. Weigh them. Stop, think. A lot of the time, desire is 10 and possibility is 2. If you’ve apologized for missed deadlines or not meeting expectations in 2017, examine how you can set realistic expectations this year.

Keep it simple silly – systems perform best when they have simple designs rather than complex ones. KISS is also an acronym for “keep it short and simple” and “keep it simple and straightforward”. Ask a friend to hear out your idea or plan for a new product, if they don’t understand the product or how to get to the end result, step back and simplify it.

Give more than you take – THIS is how you build personal and professional relationships. Share your knowledge, your connections, and help fellow businesses. You never know where life will take you, but 99% of people do not forget those that helped them along the way. It’s just about listening to what people want, and if you can make an introduction or a connection — or even a simple thank-you — doing it.

Put the social back in your social media – Cut through the clutter of all that content you just don’t care about and take a moment to get back to basics. Remember the sociology behind social media, and why this whole thing started — as a way to allow people to more easily keep in touch with those who matter. Build relationships and it will pave the way for your marketing goals.

Bring your “Why” back in to focus. Most of the time when people say they have no time, what they really mean is “I don’t see the value in that task”, that task makes them feel overwhelmed, or they don’t understand the task”. Why are you in the business you are in? Why did you want to become a business owner? If what you are doing now doesn’t make you happy or doesn’t make sense, change it. Share your goals with your team around you too so they understand the “Why” behind their actions too!

These 5 sayings do not belong to us, but are churned around the internet on motivational quote cards, pinterest boards, and social media. Our happiness and success rely on thinking constructive thoughts, acting with intent and creating strong relationships with others. Small changes made consistently over time can have a big impact on your life. Actions you can take starting today.

Happy New Year!

 

 

What Is A Website Redesign And Why Do I Need One?

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What is a website redesign?

A website redesign is a complete overhaul of the code, and look of your website. You may decide to keep the concept, but the text content, layouts, and user experience is all totally new. Why does your site need a website redesign?

Websites can last forever BUT there are signs when you should start thinking about a website redesign. If your website loads slowly, is difficult to navigate, isn’t mobile friendly, and your competitors have new websites its time.  Your website is the most important asset to your business, when someone is searching online for a service you offer or a product your selling you need to found, and it needs to load fast, be mobile responsive, and have a modern clean feel.

Websites establish company credibility – meaning if you take your business seriously, you will want it to be informative, easy to navigate, engaging, and attractive.

Why does your site need a website redesign?

• Search Engine Rankings Are Low
• Low Revenue Conversion Rates
• High Visitor Bounce Rates
• Slow Website Load Times
• Your Business Has Grown
• Your Branding Has Changed
• Poor Mobile Experience
• It’s Been 2-3 Years Since You’ve Last Updated.
• User Experience Is Lacking

If you’re not sure if you need a website redesign, ask yourself these 8 questions. Make notes along the way of how you’re website is doing compared to your goals.

Why do I need my site to rank high on search engines?

At one time, the key to winning at SEO was to plug your content with as many keywords as possible. But thanks to Google’s ever changing algorithms, it’s all about original high quality valuable content. Google’s search engine algorithms are aimed at helping people find answers from trustworthy sites. If you want to see how your site is ranking, you should be using Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics to monitor search queries, click through rates, and your position in ranks. If you want your website to rank, you need to give value on this topic and make it easily accessible.

SEO is one of the best assets you can leverage to grow your brand online, but it’s a slow steady and painful process. First you need to build trust with Google, then you build a healthy authority profile, lastly focus on delivering dense well written content that engages your readers and solves a problem they have. Once you have the content, make sure your site is designed for users to easily access it.

Why do I have low visitor conversion rates?

A conversion rate is the term used to define how many website visitors take a defined action like subscribe to your newsletter, add to cart, or pay for your product or service. What’s a low conversion rate? That depends on your point of view and your industry. The only way to benchmark yourself is to compare yourself against others selling the same product or service. For example in a generic ecommerce industry the add to cart conversion rate is 8% in the United States.

Do a quick Google search for “(your industry service or product) CVR average” and compare to your stats available on your Google Analytics Dashboard. If you are falling short, it may be the visuals, the navigation, or the content on your pages. Are you considering your ideal customer profile and speaking to them directly? Are you creating content they care about or trying to accomplish a hard sale?

Why do I have high visitor bounce rates?

Your bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who come to your website and leave without viewing any other pages on your website. Google Analytics houses this data and will show your bounce rate month over month or year to date. Take into consideration the pages your customers are bouncing from, did they fill out a contact form, did they call your telephone number, or did you refer them somewhere else? If your visitors left on these avenues, your bounce rate might not be a bad thing. On the other hand, if your customers are leaving unplanned, you need to drill down your content, calls-to-action, and create more sticky content. Add links to to more pages on your website and think of where a visitor might want to go next.

On the other hand, if your customers are leaving unplanned, you need to drill down your content, calls-to-action, and create more sticky content. Add links to to more pages on your website and think of where a visitor might want to go next.

If it’s a blog, do you have additional content on a similar topic to recommend? If it’s a product page, do you have similar products that are frequently bought together? Lastly, not all visitors are ready to make a decision about your business, so offer them ways to stay connected with you whether it’s social media links or subscribing to your newsletter. Don’t lose your visitors permanently.

Why is my website experiencing slow load times?

Did you know that 47% of consumers expect a website to load in less than 2 seconds? Web page loading time is a major contributing factor to page bounce rates. If a potential lead hears about your company, visits your site, and waits…and waits…and waits… for your website to load, they already have a negative experience. They’re going to bounce and write your company off because of the traction they experienced before ever learning more about your company.

Your visitors care more about page load time than they do about all the bells and whistles on your site and it affects your SEO too. If you want to know how your website is stacking up, visit PINGDOM.COM. If you’re ranking is low on either desktop or mobile, you have lots of work ahead of you and should work with your website developers to reduce the friction for your visitors.

Has your business grown?

Take a look at your business last year, and the year before; it doesn’t look the exact same year to year. Your business has a unique story that’s always evolving and your website should communicate your growing story. Maybe there has been a shift in the market and you have picked up a new product or service line. Maybe there have been updates in your target market. Whatever the reason may be, business goals can change over the years and your website should reflect the goals of your business as it is today.

We’re all familiar with the saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, but this mentality can be hurting your business’s bottom line. If anything has changed in your business, a website redesign can highlight how your business looks today. Too often, companies see the launch of their website as an end point. It’s something that’s constantly in motion, growing, improving and developing.

Why should I re-brand my company?

Your logo is everywhere; from your website, t-shirts, water bottles, baseball hats to your business card. It is there to identify, not to explain. Your website is one of your most important business assets and your branding should be consistent. Your website is your digital business card and in many cases the first impression a potential customer will have of your brand when they visit your website.  If the look and feel of the site doesn’t line up with your current brand, then it is time to redesign your website. Consistency is key.

Has the technology on websites changed?

Pretty much everyone owns a smartphone these days – in fact, over 80% of internet users own and regularly use a smartphone. And what’s more, according to Google 61% of users are highly unlikely to return to a website that doesn’t work well on mobile, with 40% visiting a competitor’s website instead – all because the original website they intended to visit wasn’t mobile friendly.

Was your website built in Flash? This trend used to be very popular, but is now highly outdated and is unsupported on mobile devices and tablets. It’s also hurting your rankings for SEO, because search engines cannot read and crawl this content. If your website was built on flash or not designed with a mobile experience first, your website will not rank as high, and the user will take their business elsewhere.  MOBILE RESPONSIVE WEBSITES ARE KEY.

How do I know if my website user experience lacking?

Is your website producing the results you want? If your navigation is too long, you don’t have room for calls to action, or visitors have trouble finding the pages and content that’s relevant to them, chances are you’ve outgrown your current website. It’s crucial to put user experience (UX) and functionality as your top priority.

Use data to define what your customers find interesting about your site, where do they spend the most time, where do they drop off? Next, you need to work on gathering feedback. This includes insights from those within and outside your company. Those within will the company will give you a good idea of what is and isn’t working below the surface, while customers and focus groups can provide feedback regarding visual appearance and functionality.

In the end, you should redesign your website as much as you need to as often as you need to. But the only way to know whether you need to is to know your business inside and out. Have your business goals changed? Has your ideal customer profile changed? Having a website can be both a good visual reminder of how much time has gone by since you last examined your business and a way to track how successful your efforts have been.

You should feel completely proud of your site and have 100% confidence in it. If your site feels tired or unexciting to you, chances are your visitors probably agree. A fresh design can be just the change you need to stir up some excitement and liven up your website. For a redesign to be effective, it must stem from the understanding of what does and what doesn’t work on your current website, and how user needs have changed since the last redesign.

If your thinking of redesigning your website give us a call at 203.414.9692 or email us! to learn more.

Wieting Design | Website Redesign Connecticut (CT)

 

 

Wieting Design Has A New Redesigned Website

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Our new website is launched!

“We believe that this new site will allow our visitors to have a very informative experience as we continue to grow and increase our market presence.” Our new website offers robust information for our clients as well as potential clients to give them a better understanding of the services we offer and the work we do. We have added Video Production Services with some examples of our work, included some new website design work and more information about our studio.  We thank all our clients both old and new and always appreciate the business we receive.

Our Services in Fairfield County CT and Hartford CT include:

Website Design
Video Production
Graphic Design
Logo Design
Search Engine Marketing

Our website will be updated on a regular basis with news of launches, business activity and lots of new blogs! Give us a call at 203 414 9692 or email us to learn more!

VIEW OUR NEW WEBSITE

Let us know what you think, we would appreciate hearing your opinion!!!

Wieting Design / Website Design CT

4 Ways to Improve Client Communication

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Communicating efficiently and effectively during a web design or website marketing strategy is key to a successful outcome. The relationship between a client and our agency is a true partnership in where both sides bring vital information to the table. Web design is only partially about the actual design and our designer. Communication plays a large role in how visually appealing your design will be how quickly the project can be completed.

4 Ways to Improve Client Communication

Build a connection. We are people first and foremost and it’s easy to forget this simple niceties when we’re focused on work goals. However, taking the time to start with something other than business talk, gives both sides a chance to strengthen the relationship.

Who Calls the Shots? We’ve all heard the expression “too many cooks in the kitchen” and nothing gets done or it takes twice as long. In business, when too many client reps  are in charge of a project they all tend to make their own changes/opinions. Similarly, sending a messenger to key meetings may halt a design change or important information being lost in translation. Key decision makers must be present at key meetings and presentations in order to maintain quality communication. We would never send a “fill-in” staff member to a meeting, as they’re not the expert on your project and we value the time you spend with us.

How and When to Communicate. As your partnered web design agency, it’s our responsibility to determine the best time and methods for communicating with you, our client. One of the most effective ways to ensure we are delivering constant communication is through monthly review meetings. This is not to say we’re not always available, but a monthly review keeps the project on track and moving towards the goal. Constant communication is extremely important in our development projects because we rely on your feedback. Delays in responding can halt a project from moving forward and extend the timeline for delivery.

Communicate on the same level. We don’t understand the complexities of your field of expertise, so we would never assume you understand ours, like how HTML5 and CSS3 are providing the best UX for your project. As the expert in Web design and client communication, we’ll let you know we’re using the latest web development technology to bring your customers an easy to use and navigate website that’s mobile friendly. In the end, we are still talking about responsive design and CSS3 media queries, but we are focusing on the business results instead of the technical execution required to achieve the results. Send us visual examples of what you like, images of your store, brand, products, etc so we can follow your references and give you the best visual design.

Quality communication is not one-sided. It has to flow in both directions: from us to you and from you back to us. The best projects we’ve developed have all been a direct result of consistent, clear communication.

The website and graphic designs we present are about you and your business which is why we take the time, upfront, to get to know you. It’s really about our clients that make Wieting Design the kind of company it is. Call us at 203.414.9692 for free consultation for your next project and get to know us.

4 Reasons Why You Should Choose A Web Designer With SEO Knowledge.

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4 Reasons Why You Should Choose A Web Designer With SEO Knowledge.

Why are you considering creating or updating your website? To help your target audience find you and choose your business to service their needs. Hours spent curating visuals and content will be wasted without traffic to see it. Hiring a web design company that’s experienced in SEO will clear the path for your customers to find you and help you convert traffic into sales.

Here are 4 reasons why you should choose a web designer with SEO knowledge:

  1. Mobile Friendly Web Design with SEO  – Industry trends are reporting 60% of all searches are performed from a mobile or tablet device. When designing a website, it’s important to consider the mobile user interface or you could be slashing your traffic in half. Don’t settle for a secondary simplified mobile site, choose a web designer that creates one stunning site, optimized for every platform.
  2. Quality Content Focus & User Engagement – Traffic is flowing to your site, what are you going to do with it? An SEO experienced web designer not only considers what looks good but anticipates on page SEO that creates a clear path for your audience to see who your are, what you do well, instill trust,  and encourage doing business with you.
  3. Image Optimization  – With platforms like Pinterest and Instagram gaining in popularity,  visuals are speaking volumes over lengthy text content. An SEO knowledgeable Web designer knows which tools and tactics to use to help users relate a viral image to your brand. If you’re creating visually stimulating pieces, you need to make sure you’re bringing users back to your website.
  4. Social Media Integration – User sharing is still King in marketing your brand. Are you making it easy to share your content with social share buttons? Is your content optimized when it’s shared, every blog has a featured image sized for social media?  The best Web designer with SEO knowledge anticipates this dilemma and ensures all your pages and content are optimized so your content is getting the eyes and recognition it deserves.

Web design and SEO are two entirely different beasts, so please do not assume every web designer is also an SEO expert. Wieting Design specializes in optimizing websites for SEO in Hartford & Fairfield County, CT because we know that the best website, is one that attracts website traffic and helps you convert visitors into lifetime customers. Not all companies are alike and not all web designers are created equally.

Give us a call at 203 414 9692 or email us we would love to help your business grow.

Wieting Design | Website Design Hartford, CT

 

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Serving: CT, Fairfield County CT
Hartford  CT, New Haven County CT