Online Pain Points: What to Avoid on your SMB Website

Many websites out there are polished, attractive, and easy to use. Unfortunately, just as many websites out there are annoying, confusing, misleading, or simply an eyesore. Which of these websites do you have? Of course, you want the former type, but if you’re stuck with a painful online experience, what do you do now? The first step is defining what makes a website painful for a visitor.

Let’s start with a fairly obvious thing, pop-ups. While they could get you a few email subscribers, the majority of people will flee your site at the first flash of a pop-up because they are truly annoyed by it. It’s better to convince people to use your services with well-written content and competitive, genuine offers that don’t interrupt their experience.

If you want to use multimedia content such as music or videos, that’s great. But whatever you do, don’t have it play automatically; let the user choose to play the media. If they are on the site while at work or on the phone, they don’t want sudden noises to disturb them. Some may quickly click the mute button, but more often than not, it’s easier for them to close their browser window. When that happens, you’ve lost them—now they’re not coming back to your site, and you certainly don’t want that.

These next few pain points are related to your content. Does your About Us page really explain what you do for your customers, or is it a bunch of business language and babble that no person outside the organization would understand? Use clear cut, simple language that explicitly lays out what you do and how you can solve a problem.  You also don’t want your Contact Us page to contain nothing but a form. While this is the easiest route, people want to know they can reach you through email, phone, or social media. A form alone makes people uneasy—they don’t know if they will ever get a response and it feels very impersonal.  Finally, make sure the copy on your call to action, be they buttons or simple text, match up to the offer. How frustrating would it be to see a 25% off coupon, click on a button to print it, and then find out it’s only good for Christmas items….and it’s now February? Updated and accurate offers are key to your reputation, online and off.

Beyond Custom Websites is aware of all these pain points and more and know how to not only avoid them entirely, but create a custom website that is pop-up free, incorporates multimedia the right way, and has relevant, precise content that viewers will enjoy reading. With free updates and changes, you won’t have to worry about getting nickel and dimed for updating a coupon or adding new product photos.  Our team of web developers, graphic designers, copywriters, and business experts will deliver a one of a kind website that truly represents your business. Beyond Custom Websites builds ongoing relationships with our customers—we don’t just hand off the finished product and drop away. Find out how we can increase yoursales and build your online presence.

Creating a Dynamic Landing Page

Custom websites serve as your home base online, the place where all other online marketing should stem from. Banner ads, mobile sites, social media pages, and blogs expand a small business’ online real estate. Another great tool that is discussed less often is landing pages. Some people new to online marketing may not even know what a landing page is. So what makes the perfect landing page? What types of landing pages are there? What can they do to increase leads for your business?

A great landing page will have a large, colorful headline that grabs the viewers’ attention.  This headline should be a catchphrase or overall statement about the company. The secondary headline should introduce the main focus of the landing page.  This is also a great place to put a brief testimonial, usually in the bottom left or right corner. Relevant images should separate and compliment each section. Finally, probably the most important aspect of a landing page is the main call to action button. This of course, is what will get the viewer to take the next step, whatever that may be.

When it comes to strategy, you want to match the writing style of the headline and the copy text. While links are a part of almost every landing page, go easy on them—you don’t want to overwhelm or distract the potential customer. With a website, quality control is always important, but it is imperative with a landing page. You only get one shot, one click, so it is paramount that the page loads quickly and correctly.

There are several types of landing pages, but each serves the purpose of convincing the visitor to become a customer through taking action. There are landing pages that stand on their own, micro-sites (where the viewer clicks on the landing page from the website and is taken to another small site), and internal website landing pages.  While any of these can work well for you, the key to a successful landing page is focus. The more direct and to-the-point the landing page is, the more effective it will prove to be. Landing pages are proven to increase leads because they draw customers in from several online sources. They also make people feel comfortable “taking a chance” on your services—committing to a new car insurance plan may seem scary, but requesting information about all your options is something they can try.

Beyond Custom Websites offers small business owners the full online marketing package. We create unique, customized websites for every customer along with mobile sites, social media integration, branded emails, and landing pages. Our web development team is creative, knowledgeable, and available for technical support at any time. Find out how we can get you a dynamicwebsite with a stellar landing page and grow your online presence.

Using Yelp Effectively for your Business

In the web design field, we see this all too often: small businesses link their website to social media pages including Yelp, but their page is virtually empty. A customer may check back at that link once or twice, but beyond that, no one will visit a page that isn’t updated. Customers may even forget about your Yelp page after awhile if you don’t use it. The thing about using social media in connection with a custom website is these pages are only helpful for a business if they use them. If you really aren’t reaping the benefits of a particular social media page, you might consider removing it, but if you want to know how to use Yelp to improve your business, read on.

First, it’s important to know why you would want to focus your efforts on this particular site. Yelp is a review site with over 60 million users and it’s where most potential customers are directed when they want to find out the opinions of other consumers like themselves.  Reading a positive review on Yelp may sway a skeptical viewer’s decision to give your company a try for what they need.

Once you know the potential benefits of using Yelp, you’ll want to make sure you claim ownership of your page. Many businesses, even new ones, are already listed on Yelp by someone who wanted to post a review about you. Search for your company name, then click on “Work here? Unlock this business page” If you find it.  Doing so will ensure only accurate information is recorded on your page. When you first start working with your profile, look at competitors pages with high ratings to see the techniques they are using that make them a Yelp success. Also check out a few low rated companies in your industry and compare the difference between the two—photos, interesting (or drab) links, and patterns in reviews. Then fill out as much information as possible to complete your profile—the more information a customer can get before coming to your location, the better the chance are that they will do business with you. Once your profile is accurate and complete, begin to build a photo gallery. Make the photos look professional and capture your location and main products. Finally, it’s important to read each review and respond to them appropriately. You can use positive reviews to add quotes to your site and negative ones to realize which areas of service might be getting overlooked. By keeping a close eye on your Yelp profile, (including the dashboard metrics), you will be fostering a helpful online marketing strategy.

Beyond Custom Websites includes social media integration as one of our many custom website design services. In addition to the unique layouts, easy to use navigation, relevant, search engine optimized content, and technical support; we include links to all the social media pages you use. Beyond Custom Websites has experience working with small businesses in several industries. If you want an ongoing, personalized experience with your web designer, contact us today. Visit our website to learn more about what we do.

Click Here! Learn More! Get Started!:Call to Actions

A call to action: this is probably one of the most used and yet, poorly defined phrase in web design and marketing. A call to action is a short phrase, usually placed inside a button that urges the viewer (aka, the potential customer) to take action of any kind. These serve as a jumping off point to using a company’s products and services. A well-crafted call to action can generate a lot of new business and spark continued interest where it may otherwise stop short. What are some examples of calls to action? How many do you need? Is a button enough or do you need to surround it with relevant graphics and marketing text?

A call to action can be as simple as header text, such as “Call today!”, or an email address that is a live link to Microsoft Outlook or another email service.  It can be within a banner ad on your website, where the function of the call to action is explained in the ad with the button underneath it: “The easiest e-card creation you’ll ever find! Design, Publish, and Send Out.”. The call to action then reads, “Get Started Free”. Another technique is a call to action button paired with an animation or slideshow graphic. This draws attention to what you want the viewer to do and creates a dynamic feel to the page, increasing the credibility of the button and the company.  A call to action can also be a “Buy Now” button next to a product, or a short form followed by a button, where a user selects options from a dropdown which than calculates results.

The number of call to actions you need throughout your site depends on a few factors: what type of business you are, what you want to accomplish through your calls to action, and the layout and functionality of your website. If you are a large, product-based business, you’re probably going to have more calls to action than if you are a small business who provides a few services. If you want your customers to do a lot of interacting with you online (such as filling out forms, using tools, and ordering from your website), you will want multiple calls to action with graphics and text that draw attention to it. Finally, if you do most of your business through your brick and mortar location but would like customers to give you call or email you questions through your site, your call to actions can stay on the more simple side.

Beyond Custom Websites incorporates relevant and customized calls to action on all of our websites, designed to increase interest in your business and generate more sales. Our web developers, graphic designers, content writers, and small business experts design custom websites for companies from every industry. We combine unique designs, search engine optimization, expert programming, and personalized customer service to create digital products you can be proud of. Find out more about how we can get you the results you want.

Google Maps and Your Website

Every well-made website has a contact page. Every really well-designed website has contact information and a call to action on every page in addition to the contact page. However, one of the best features you can integrate on your website to get people to find you is Google Maps. This feature can increase website traffic, expand the number of keyword phrases people can use to find you, and broaden your web presence by showcasing your business on other venues that link back to your website. That’s why Beyond Custom Websites offers Google Maps integration with all of our small business website designs.

Google Maps listings appear high in search engine results. When a user clicks on the listing, there is always a link to the company’s website, so long as they have one. This creates another path to find a small business website. When a user puts in a search term with a location into Google and they click on one Google Maps listing, it will also bring up other similar companies underneath that listing who are also in that area. This mapping feature does double the work by listing the direct link to the website right next to the Google Maps page in a search.

As you may have figured out by now, Google Maps is one of the best search engine optimization techniques. While all SEO takes time, listing your website with Google Maps will help your custom website move up in the rankings faster. If you are a restaurant called “Henry’s Diner” for example, people will most likely find you when they search for that exact phrase. If your website is integrated with Google Maps, it is more likely people will also find you when they search the term “restaurants” or “diner” with your location (“restaurants in Austin, TX”, for example). Searching with terms such as that one will bring up multiple restaurants in Austin that are on Google Maps. Beyond Custom Websites is all about creating the complete internet presence package. No matter how large or small your team is, it’s important to look big online. This feature is just one way that our services will help you do that.

Beyond Custom Websites is made up of an expert team of web designers, developers, graphic designers, content writers, and business strategy professionals who can not only create a unique, custom website for your company, but a full digital product line that will get you found by potential customers. We help businesses get the results they’re looking for. To find out more, visit our website.

*Image from: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.maps