by Artisan | Website Design Journal
I have a client in Maine who provides tutoring services to student writers. There are many writing tutors in Maine. When new client prospects call, she has to sell them on why she is a better tutor than her competition. This is difficult to do on the phone. She offers references, lists her credentials, and tries to be good natured, but so do all her competitors, many of whom have equally impressive credentials. The other day, she told me “Every client who sees my website hires me.” They love what they see. It is a better website than her competitors. It conveys a positive attitude. It is very well organized. It answers all their questions. It offers Post articles from which the client can begin to learn immediately. Like it or not, believe it or not, these days, every new client will check out your website and that might be their first big impression of you and your service or product. They might even check it out initially on their tablet or phone. You can’t afford to fool around with amateur productions any more. If you do not have a state of the art website, there is a very good chance you are losing customers as we speak. Why would you do that?
Advertising is essential to success, and the most potent and common and important form of advertising in the year 2015 is your website. Yes, doing it right costs money. But when you buy tools to make your product the best it can be, then purchase bad quality advertising, you are not taking your effort or your business seriously. Website Marketing is just as important as the product. If you have ever taken a class or a seminar teaching you how to be a salesperson, you know that the most important moment in sales is “closing the deal.” The customers is looking for the right amount of information. When they have that, then they wait for you to suggest their next move, which should be to make an appointment. Your website design should be an organized tour through the most important information, decorated with excellent photography that gives the customer a good feeling, then it should offer them the next step and a way to take that step.
by Mark Saintonge of Portland Oregon
by Artisan | Website Design Journal
The effectiveness of a website design depends heavily upon the application of attractive content. Words and colorful graphics are a fundamental necessity, but video is a powerful marketing tool too. It animates a website with a sense of life and action. Google does not read a video and rank you differently, but people tend to stay longer to watch a video than to read a lot of words.
When you script and produce and launch a video, it opens up new opportunities for your marketing. You can post the video on YouTube and expect a lot of traffic you can redirect to your website. If your video is particularly good, you can post it on Vimeo for the same effect. You can place it on your home page to capture the attention of visitors and encourage them to investigate your service more thoroughly.
No one can predict the marketing edge you will get from this, but in most cases, it is a significant boost. People are getting fond of information delivered through video. It is easier and more entertaining. You will draw additional traffic from YouTube to your website. You will impress your customers with more stimulating advertising.
Video Marketing Statistics
- Video increases the chance of a first-page Google result by 53x (Forrester)
- Video in search results have a 41% higher CTR than text (ReelSEO)
- Video in email marketing has shown to increase CTRs by 96% (Implix)
- Visitors who watch a product video are 85% more likely to buy.
As your Website Designer, I would encourage you to produce videos, post them on your YouTube channel, and let me include them embedded into your website.
by Artisan | Website Design Journal
It has been widely known and believed for several years that search engines look for links and trace them to their destinations. Furthermore, these pathways through information are used by the search engines to determine the relevance and value of the information you provide on your website. If the links lead to information that does not relate to your field, you lose rank in search results. Also, if links on other websites that are not relevant to your field lead to your website, you also lose in ranking. Links in or out should always be useful and relevant. Better still, those destinations should share important key words and phrases.
So, how does one acquire cross links from other websites leading to yours? Well, you have to offer them information or a reason to link to you, then make them aware of that fact. Listing yourselves in lots of small time directories is not very helpful. Those directories usually do not have a context that is relevant to your website, rather they are quite general in nature, and they are benefiting a lot form your listing, but you don’t get much in return. Instead, you want to be an expert in your field, publishing a lot of good information that others want to use for reference in the form of links.
On your own website, you will want to do the same. Write about your field in a blog post and include links to references you have found elsewhere on the web that support your information. Outgoing cross links are a kind of bibliographical reference system that also improves your search ranking.
Website design and marketing is an ongoing process. Your website designer can help you over time build a better Blog, but it is your job to keep the momentum going. As you improve your ranking strength, so do your competitors, if they are smart. This means you have to keep improving to stay ahead. One of the strongest ways to do this is to keep on referring to other well written resources with links. Then try to get others to do the same for you.
