SEO: Effort, Time, and Techniques

Beyond Custom Websites has several goals for every client we serve: increase their sales, build their brand, and expand their online presence are a few major ones. Another focus of our custom websites is search engine optimization. In any conversation about websites or online marketing, you’ll always hear the term “SEO”. What does it really mean for your small business website to rank well on Google? Do have to be on page one, number one for every keyword phrase for SEO to be effective? How long does it take to see results? Three of the many basic principles that go into successful search engine optimization are effort, time, and techniques.

The initial effort made by the professional web team at Beyond Custom Websites is crucial to the ongoing success a website has in getting found in relevant searches, driving traffic to their site, and showing up in cities of focus with multiple keyword phrases. Our web team creates complete Meta data in HTML, meaning no Flash websites. Meta, title, header, and alt tags are created with succinct, brief keywords that point Google and other search engines to the customer’s website. Beyond Custom Website performs thorough quality control on every website before it goes live to ensure that every page works in every browser, PDFs download correctly, and the navigation is quick and makes sense—all key technical factors for “getting Google to like you” and find and rank the site. In addition to that, we write industry specific, keyword-rich content from information the customer supplies combined with our own research. No copying and pasting from other sites—we don’t

believe in duplicating content.

Once Beyond Custom Websites puts in intense effort and the custom website is made live, time does play a factor in moving up on those Google pages. A website has to be clicked on and searched for to gain an audience and when search engines see that audience, the site gets moved up. In the first couple weeks, keyword phrases may be entered and the site doesn’t appear until page three or four.  After another week, the site may come up on page two and within a month or two, page one is almost guaranteed. Keep in mind that even when your site isn’t on the first page yet, our SEO efforts are still working their magic and the longer your site is live, the more customers are finding you. The length of time it takes for a site to appear on page one varies and depends on several factors, but in a short time,  Beyond Custom Website’s small business websites will appear on page one of search results.

If a site doesn’t seem to be ranking well, there are techniques Beyond Custom Websites will implement to change that and bring more visitors to a client’s site. Google Analytics is part of every customer’s SEO package looking at these statistics closely can help determine strategies to improve search engine rankings and increase site traffic. Another SEO technique is to create a landing page with keywords in the content that targets specific services or products. Including links on a small business website to Facebook, Google Plus, and Yelp! also lead more people to the website and get it found higher up in the rankings. Beyond Custom Websites has experts in SEO and all other areas of web development. Contact our diverse and experienced team today to get a website that gets you results.

How Videos Can Benefit Your Website

You’ve already heard all about custom websites for your small business and mobile websites.  One great feature you can put on your website is videos. Video is the most straightforward form of media—the camera cannot lie. It allows you to visually display what you do and show you are up to date and tech-savvy. They can be linked to YouTube or incorporated directly onto your website. Here are a few ways video can benefit your website and your business.

Engaging promotional videos on a company’s website have been proven to increase conversion rates by up to 200%. More than that, 52% of all web traffic is video, so people are interested in watching!  Over 70% of visitors will watch your online video. Internet surfers spend an average of 73 minutes per month viewing short videos. Videos are so effective because the information is coming directly from you. Think about it: written text is great, but even in first person, it’s almost like a secondary resource to find out about who you are and what you do. With your customized video, you’ll be telling them that yourself.

The options for what you want to showcase through your video are almost endless. Give customers a tour of your facilities, demonstrate a new product or service, highlight a promotion, or profile one of your best employees. You could even record live footage from a company event. The length and number of videos is also up to you—create as little or as much material as you want to build a marketing campaign. This type of advertising can really connect you to your customers because they can put a face to your name and feel as though you are speaking directly to them (because you are).

Beyond Custom Websites will upload any video you provide for us through YouTube or other links to your website. BCW also has connections to get a video produced for you, so if you’re interested, talk to us. The online presence we build for small businesses is multifaceted to maximize your growing revenue.