The WebWise Blog – Page 15 – WebWise Design & Marketing

Landing Page Key Elements Refresher — SEO Notes

SEO, Web Design / By John / March 18, 2014

We often talk about important key elements of a well written landing page when we are talking with clients and prospects. Every page on your website is a potential landing page, so it doesn’t hurt to mention these key elements even more frequently.

Of course, pages vary greatly due to the nature of their content. However, there are some basic tenets that should be nearly universal. Here are some key elements that should be included in nearly every page.

Headline
- Short description of what is on the page
- Contains same keywords as title of page
Sub-Headlines
- Makes for easy scanning — People scan before reading
Content
- Page-specific, well-written descriptive text
Images or video
- Visuals attract attention — Videos engage website visitor
Bulleted and/or Numbered lists
- Makes for easy scanning — Did I see this somewhere before?
Calls to action
- Call us today at 1-800-281-9993 or 608-822-3750 for help with your landing pages.

Every page on your website is a potential landing page.

Too many people still believe that nearly everyone sees the home page first when visiting a website. That is far from the reality. You need to treat every page as a landing page that conveys your message, or describes your product or services effectively.

Did I mention calls to action in the key elements of landing pages?

We could be “Putting The Web To Work For YOU!” Call 1-800-281-9993 or 608-822-3750 today!

Have an Old Website That No Longer Ranks Well in Searches?

Google, Search, SEO / By John / March 10, 2014

For years, many have believed the age of a domain name is a factor in Google search results rankings. We have seen anecdotal evidence that it seems to be true, to a point. Google’s Matt Cutt’s answer to a related question in a Google Webmaster Tools video prompted this post.

Does this sound like your business?

Your domain name was registered several years ago.
You had a website before a lot of others understood the importance.
Your website was doing pretty well in Google for many keyword searches
Lately, the last statement is no longer the case.
You are wondering why you no longer do as well in Google SERPS (Search Engine Results Page) rankings.

Does this sound like your business or organization?

You have not done any meaningful updates to the content on your website in years
You have not redesigned the look and layout of your website
Your photos and graphics are not optimized to be fast loading
You are not using Social Media
You have not included Social Media share & follow buttons
Your competitors have been doing all of the above

Take a fresh look at your website to see just what visitors are experiencing, and compare that to what they experience on your competitor’s or other similar websites.

Don’t just listen to us. See for yourself what Google’s Matt Cutts says in his video, “How can an older site maintain its ranking over time?“

B2B Companies are Making Connections Using Video Storytelling

Marketing, Video, YouTube / By John / December 12, 2013

Good content marketers know storytelling, done well, works. Business-to-business companies are starting to embrace what business-to-consumer companies have been using successfully for quite a long time.

B2B companies are awakening to the fact that we all enjoy a good story, especially when told in a video. We simply like to be entertained. Businesses that want to get their message out to as many as possible are finding that the story is the important part to ensuring more views. It has to be interesting.

Statistics from eMarketer show the actions taken after watching a technology-related video, according to their B2B Video Marketing: Best Practices for 2014 report.

The bottom line: visually telling your story can work in the B2B world.

Carr Valley Cheese Wins Big at the World Cheese Awards 2013

Announcement / By John / December 7, 2013

Sid Cook and his team at Carr Valley Cheese represented Wisconsin’s Dairyland well, as international cheese experts meeting at the World Cheese Awards 2013 in London, England awarded Carr Valley Cheese ten awards.

Bringing home the gold is nothing new to our friends at Carr Valley Cheese. In the past five years alone, Carr Valley cheeses have won more than 400 top awards in U.S. and international competitions. Here are the latest award winning Wisconsin cheeses from Carr Valley’s artisan cheesemakers.

Super Gold Award Winners: Billy Blue (Goat Cheese), and Cave Aged Marisa (Sheep’s Milk Cheese)

Gold Award Winner: Black Sheep Truffle (Sheep’s Milk Cheese)

Silver Award Winners: Smoked Billy Blue, Virgin Pine Native Sheep, Smoked Ba Ba Blue, Bessie’s Blend

Bronze Award Winners: Aged Marisa, Virgin Pine Native Blue, Menage

More than 250 cheese experts gathered in London at the World Cheese Awards 2013 event to whittle 2,777 entries down to just 58 SuperGold cheeses, as well as awarding gold, silver, and bronze medals to nearly 700 well-crafted cheeses. The cheeses were chosen by a panel of 16 expert judges representing 13 nations. Organized in 1988 by The Guild of Fine Food, the World Cheese Awards has grown into the largest international event of its type in the world.

All of us here at WebWise Design & Marketing want to congratulate Sid and his entire team including his cheesemakers and support people for the latest awards acknowledging the skill, pride and care they put in crafting their Wisconsin cheeses and in making it available for everyone.

Visit the Carr Valley Cheese retail website www.carrvalleycheese.com or their website for chefs, cheesemongers, and other wholesale customers www.artisancheesesource.com where you may purchase their award winning Wisconsin cheese.

Quick-Start Social Media Plan for Small Businesses

Branding, Marketing, Social Media / By John / October 16, 2013

If you run a small business, you are already more than busy. If you are not using Social Media for your business, you have likely considered it. Feeling there is not enough time nor extra money for expensive projects are generally two reasons Social Media gets shoved to the back burner for many small businesses.

Don’t wait! The benefits of a planned and well executed Social Media strategy are many. The good news is, you can get started with relatively small budgets of time and money.

How? First, don’t be afraid.

You have been using Social Media (Email) for years. Social Media is all about engagement, and that is what you have been doing when corresponding with clients, prospects and co-workers. How you do it with the different Social Media platforms and services varies, but it is basically communication between you and your customers. Really successful Social Media campaigns consist of two-way communication, not just pushing out information.

Second, don’t try to do too much.

We recommend you start with a monthly Newsletter and one other Social Media platform/service. Using one Social Media platform or service regularly and doing it well is far better than using two infrequently and poorly.

Here is a start up plan that will work for many of you.

The Social Media service(s) you choose may vary depending on your customers and prospects, but if you follow this relatively closely, you will be off to a good start. Before you start, read our blog post Five Keys to Using Social Media Successfully for Your Small Business.

Start with an email Newsletter using Constant Contact or similar service.

Many of you already send out monthly or quarterly newsletters or sales flyers. If you do, use Constant Contact or a similar service that has easy-to-use contact management tools and great reporting.

Twitter (unequivocally, the lowest barrier in cost/time effectiveness)

Start slowly.
Lurk at first – start following Twitter users in your line of business, your customers, your vendors
Read posts/tweets a couple of times a day, and reply or comment promptly
Tweet regularly and as often as possible.
- There are tools to help with this. Our favorite is Hootsuite, which lets you post to multiple Social Media accounts, and schedule Tweets and posts. Try it. You will find it invaluable.

Then…

Blog – If you have a blog (and you should), post at least once a month, and more frequently if you can. Strive to post weekly.

If you are able to manage those effectively, then explore and think about:

LinkedIn (for some of you, but not all)
Facebook* (for some of you, but not all)
Google+ (for some of you, but not all)
YouTube Videos (for some of you, but not most)
Pinterest (for some of you, but not most)

That’s the Quick-Start Social Media Plan for Small Businesses. Do yourself a favor. Start today!

* Some, businesses can get by just using Facebook for their only Social Media presence if they have a decent following by actual paying customers, and time to communicate at least twice (more is better) a day. That said, you would be limiting the growth of your business.