The Difference Between SEO and SEM

SEO, (Search Engine Optimization), and SEM, (Search Engine Marketing) are often presented as interchangeable in the web design world, both among custom website developers and small business customers alike. Both of them are important and can serve your website and your business well, but they are very different.  Before investing in a campaign using either of these techniques, you should have a clear idea of what both of them are about. What exactly is the difference between SEO and SEM?

SEO in the broadest sense is the activity of ensuring that a website can be found in search engines when certain relevant words and phrases are entered by the user. This is done not only through placing these words in the written content of the website, but also through relevant tags. Tags on pages, images, text, and links help search engines to find the website’s content. Since search engines such as Google cannot “see” images, alt tags are used to label images with descriptive text, serving as a road sign for the search engines to find that particular image on that particular page of your site. Other techniques for successful SEO include internal and external links, ensuring each page functions correctly, and updating the site’s content frequently to keep it “fresh”, making the content appear newer to the search engines. Web developers implement all of these techniques when they create your website and maintain them over time.

SEM, (Search Engine Marketing), also helps your website get found in the major search engines. Unlike SEO which is often part of a good quality web design package, search engine marketing is a paid campaign in itself. Part of SEM is the practice of paid inclusion, in which the website owner pays a search engine or directory to add their site to their database immediately rather than allowing the site to be found by search engine spiders on its own. This can speed up the process of getting your site found. Another search engine marketing technique is placing paid advertising on search engine result pages that lead to your site and you are charged for the number of times your ad appears whether the user clicks on them or not.  Finally, “pay per click” or PPC ads are text only and the website owner pays the search engine each time the ad is clicked on. These campaigns need to be monitored for effectiveness and updated frequently to ensure they don’t become outdated. (For example, if you post an ad for a Christmas sale, you have to update it by New Years’ day or it will become irrelevant).

While SEM may seem like a more sure-fire way to get people to your site, it cannot work without SEO. If people do find your site through an ad, but if the keyword content is poorly written, page links don’t work, or tags are not used properly, visitors will leave the site and others who find out what your site is like won’t visit, either. SEO can work without SEM, but SEM doesn’t do much good without the proper implementation of search engine optimization. Beyond Custom Websites is knowledgeable in Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing. We can put together a group of customized techniques that will work for your company, your website, and your goals. Our team of expert web developers, graphic designers, and content writers can offer you a complete and powerful online presence. To begin your ongoing and personalized relationship with us and receive a custom website designed especially for your business, visit our website and get in touch with us today.

The Marriage Between Mobile and Desktop Website Versions

In 2013, every web designer knows the importance of the mobile web to reach the biggest potential audience. More people are browsing the web on their mobile phones than their desktops or laptops. Mobile websites are essentially a copy of the full desktop version, but a more compact and streamlined version. They have little to no images and vertical drop down navigation so that they load quickly on mobile network connections. Of course, mobile websites are not a replacement for desktop websites; one exists with the other. How do you create a good “marriage” between your full website and your mobile website?

One effective way to connect the two is to include a link on your mobile website called “View Full Site”, where the user can click to view the full version of your website on their mobile device. This will allow visitors on the mobile web to see details not included on your mobile site—full photo galleries, social media links, blogs, and extensive resources. While this is commonly placed below all the other links on the mobile navigation bar, it can also be placed in the header next to the logo. For viewers that want to go directly to the full site for whatever reason, this will make it easy for them and potential customers appreciate anything that makes browsing your site easier. Because visitors will be doing a lot of vertical scrolling, give them a hand by providing “back to top” links at the bottom of mobile pages. 

Another idea is to have the most action-oriented page links listed at the top. For example, a hotel’s full website may have a home, company history, gallery of photos of their location, a link to their restaurant, and etc, followed by “Book a Room”, “Cancel a Reservation” and “Contact Us” as buttons or pages near the end of the navigation. Consider placing these at the top and follow them with links to your other page content. That way, if customers already have a specific goal in mind, they can “get in and get out”, increasing their chances of using your services.

On the desktop version of your custom website, refer your mobile site in some way, at least mentioning that you have one. First time visitors will be glad to know your website is available to them no matter what device they are using. So what about tablets? While they are in between large screen and small screen resolutions, most tablets can accommodate the desktop version of the website—do a few tests to see what version of your site works best on tablets.

Beyond Custom Websites is knowledgeable and experienced in creating mobile websites, marrying the content and functionality of your desktop and mobile site, and what makes each of these versions effective. Our team of web developers and business experts come together with our customers to create a website that is a unique representation of your business. We’ve worked with business owners in almost every industry and we can’t wait to work with yours. Find out what we’re all about and contact us to get started. 

Best Practices for Small Business Websites

As the world of web design and small business changes, so do the best practices for small business to use on their website. What people find most helpful and visually appealing now is different from what worked best five years ago, even last year. It’s important to work with a web design company that understands the continuous evolution of web trends. What are some things to keep in mind as you work with your web developer to design your custom website?

Videos are a dynamic website feature that you can use to showcase your personality and visually display services the workflow of your business.  Videos can be instructional, informative, or promotional and can be embedded directly on pages of your website or you can connect your website with a YouTube channel. Testimonials are very effective and personalized in video form as well. You don’t need expensive, high tech equipment, either: a decent digital camcorder and microphones should work fine for this purpose.

Your website’s homepage should lead into the rest of the website. Keep content brief, but distributed evenly on the page, using boxes, “Learn More” buttons, colorful photos, and of course, your logo and contact information. The home page will be the first page most visitors will see, so use it to introduce your company and get people interested in exploring the rest of the site.  The navigation that appears on your homepage and throughout the site should be effortless for the user. Don’t make it hard for them to find contact information or have a navigation link leading to an irrelevant page.

When it comes to content you’re publishing on social media, focus on quality over quantity. Small business can create a strong social media presence by posting on each account they have two to three times per month. That way, you appear active, but not so active that you aren’t spending time working your business.  It’s also a good idea to promote a few other local businesses on your site with exterior links—they can do the same for you on their site. Publicizing a few other businesses will help you to appear integrated with the community.  Finally, you should include several call-to-actions throughout your site in different forms. These can be buttons, links, or copy in itself and can be anything from “Call Us Today!” to “Print Out this 40% off coupon”.

Beyond Custom Websites and their team of web developers can integrate videos, a dynamic home page, easy navigation,  links to your social media, calls to action, and more to complete your custom website and establish your web presence. Our team of web designers and business experts also offer excellent customer service and business advice to develop a relationship with each customer. Get started with BCW by visiting our website. 

Great Customer Service Means Answering the Phone

When customers are trying to gather information about a type of product or service, the first thing they’re going to do is get online and find the website. The second thing they are going to do is pick up the phone and call you to ask questions, get more information, and set up an appointment. Having prevalent contact information on every page of your site doesn’t do much good if you don’t answer the phone or reply to emails. It may seem like a no-brainer, but surprisingly, many businesses either don’t answer the phone or say they will call back and never do (or they wait until hours or even days to reply with a brief answer).

Every small business owner gets busy—if you didn’t, you wouldn’t stay in business very long. However, you should make it a priority to answer the phone. Customers expect a response within 60 minutes in most cases. If you have someone available to take customer service calls during normal business hours, they should be able to take calls and return messages relatively quickly. The pace and tone for responding to customer requests begins with the first contact.

If you become a customer of Beyond Custom Websites, rest assured that we will answer your call, or return it within a few hours. We do what we say we’re going to do. In fact, one of our services that sets our small business website company apart is that we not only answer customer calls, but we can make changes to your website in real time. From technical support to updating written content and images, we can take care of that for you over the phone while you refresh you page and let us know if we’ve got it right.  In addition to free updates and changes, the Beyond Custom Websites team of developers, designers, and small business experts will create a website that gets your company found online. Attractive layouts, relevant content, and optimal usability will ensure that customers will keep coming back to your website. If you want to not only build a website, but begin a professional relationship with knowledgeable team of web experts.

Engage your Customers: Interactive Website Features

An aesthetically appealing, customized website is important to get potential customers to find you online and peak their interest. One way to increase the chances of leads turning into paying customers is to have interactive features on your site than engage the user. Web design technology is continually changing, which means it’s important to pay attention to which website elements will keep people coming back. What type of features can you incorporate into your website that will offer users more information, increase SEO rankings for your pages, and make the experience more fun for your customers?

There are features that work well for potential customers, returning customers, or both. A response form allows visitors to provide feedback directly on the page. The most obvious is a contact form, but you can incorporate response forms in other ways that are targeted at specific services, areas of your website, or locations. Customers love to share their opinion and they will respect that your small business is open to various types of direct feedback. You can also include links to other sites, whether that means affiliates, other branches, or resources. You can also provide links to PDFs, videos, and larger-scale images. This will make your website and company more memorable and give users something to save and come back to later while they research your type of products and services.

Images that change when a user hovers over it with their mouse are great for businesses with products that have multiple colors, sizes, and styles. You can have one large image with a description and smaller images with the different color swatches that change in the large image with a mouse hover.   

A customized search menu is also a good idea for customer engagement. For example, an auto parts store can have a dropdown menu where customers can select their make, model, year, and mileage of their car to help them find the right parts and information.

For loyal, returning customers, a fun feature for them may be an option to register for updates. Once they opt-in to receive updates, they will be subscribed to emails regarding sales, new products, and company news. This will keep your company fresh in their minds. Blogs are an effective way to talk directly to your customers; allowing them to make comments will allow them to converse back to you.

These are just a few of the many interactive website features you can create to help your website and your business stand out among competitors. Beyond Custom Websites can create features like these and more based your input and designed especially for your business.  Our team of web and graphic designers, developers, content writers, and small business experts will work to offer you a successful, dynamic website that gets you results. Talk to us today to get started.

The 411: Helpful Info for Your Designer

Placing the creation of your custom website into the hands of a web developer begins a partnership with experts who can advance your online marketing. A skilled web designer and developer should be able to take simple, broad ideas and run with them to create a website that perfectly matches what you, the small business owner, are looking for. On the other hand, the more information you can provide in the initial consulting stages, the smoother the design process can go. So what information is most helpful to give your web designer in the beginning of the process?

If you already have a logo, provide your web company with the most updated version. This can be incorporated into the top banner of your website throughout every page, along with anywhere else you deem appropriate. Sometimes, a color scheme is obvious, but having a general one in mind is a good idea to serve a jumping off point. Are you a coffee shop with the city’s best cinnamon rolls or chai lattes? Do you have a slogan that sets your company apart from competitors? Let your designer know. “Best cinnamon rolls in Charleston” or “We’ll get your car moving again”; specific phrases that speak to your customer base will serve you very well online.

If you have photos that display samples of your work, these make a great gallery page. Contact information is often displayed in the header and/or footer of each page and of course, on the Contact Us page, so provide thorough and up-to-date contact information is also important. Along the way, if anything changes (you move into a new suite or add a new phone line), let your designer know right away so your site can be updated. Other information will vary depending on the type of business you have and how you want your website to look and function.

The best web designers can work with very specific ideas or broad ideas that require more development and no matter what, produce a website that wows the client every time.

Beyond Custom Websites gathers all this information and more from every small business owner. However, our team of experts can also help you develop logos, choose color schemes, and offer advice on other types of marketing (such as a blog). BCW also writes industry specific content and can edit photos to look flawless on your website. Beyond Custom Websites combines innovative web design and development with ongoing customer relationships and customer service that will exceed your expectations. If you need a website or want to revamp your current website, get in touch with us. We’ll offer you a custom website, branded emails, social media integration, a mobile website and more.  Discover what we can do to expand your online presence.