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Contractor Websites: Six Building Tips You Can’t Live Without

Friday, November 18th, 2011

It is very important for construction companies to highlight the services that they provide, whether those services are interior or exterior construction, roofing, painting, or the works. When individuals in a specific geographic area are looking for a contractor that has the services, experience, and the prices to do the job that they need done, they are going to turn to the Internet.

In order for potential customers to find the website, it has to perform well in local search engine results. It has to:

  • Look professional
  • Have the proper keywords throughout so that it is indexed and found in search engine results
  • Be easily updateable

Other suggestions include:

1. A Project Gallery

Before and after photos are priceless. Website visitors want to see the quality of the work and photographs are a great way to do that. Highlighting some of the best projects will bring attention to them. It can be good to list projects and then have a section where there are multiple photos highlighting the project.

2. Service List

A list of services is a necessity on the website. It tells visitors if the company has exactly what they are looking for. If there are a lot of services, it can be good to categorize them by placing them under such headings as exterior, interior, roofing, etc. Don’t forget to include such services as insurance claims assistance and financing options. Material options should also be specified so that visitors already have an idea of what they may need done to their home or business.

3. House Plans Inclusion

If a variety of house plans are offered, then placing those on the side in PDF format so they can be downloaded easily and images be zoomed in on is very helpful. The idea behind the website is to answer as many questions as possible for the potential customer. Without the website, the only way for house plans to be seen is to ask for them to be emailed or to physically meet with the homebuilder to see them. In this case, they are readily available and this saves time for all involved.

4. Specify Service Area

Visitors must know what area is serviced. It can help to specify on the website what cities are serviced. This also helps search engines index the service location better and saves the business time by not having to address inquiries that are outside of the service area.

5. Contact Information

Contact information has to be easy to find. Telephone numbers and emails need to be visible, but one great tool is the web form because it allows potential customers to get in touch very easily. The easier it is to make contact, the more likely a new customer will be had.

6. Social Networking

Social networking provides the opportunity to interact with even more customers and to direct them to the website. Visibility can increase a great deal, making this a valuable marketing tool that is free.

Bring In More Business With Professional Contractor Web Design

Friday, November 18th, 2011

When working in conjunction with your contractor web design company, there are things that you do need to keep in mind to ensure that your site is everything it can be in order to bring in clients. Here are some of those things that you should consider:

1. Think about what is going to set you apart from the competition. Visitors to your site need to see that you are different and not just like everyone else.

2. You want to ensure that textual content can be changed on your website frequently. The Internet is always changing and content needs to remain fresh. That content should also consist of keywords that are frequently used by web surfers when they are searching for something. This is called Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, and it is difficult for a website to survive without it. Adding content and updating it will ensure that you stay on top of your game in the online world.

3. You also want to keep your project portfolio updated. This means adding new project pictures when necessary. Many times, visitors will visit the site more than once and they like to see changes. Perhaps the reason for their visit is that you did work for them in the past and they are considering hiring you again. Although your company did a great job, they just want to make sure you’re the right person for the job again. It can be enlightening for them to see new photos, updates, etc.

4. Revisions will most likely be needed. The revision process is sometimes necessary to make sure the website is everything that you want it to be. Revisions are key to ensuring that the website stands out from all others and that your purpose, services, etc. are relayed to the public properly. This is how perfection happens.

5. Descriptions should accompany the list of services. This means telling potential clients why they need the service and how it will benefit them. Written content on the website needs to identify a need that the client has and explain how that need can be addressed with a call to action at the end.

6. Making contact needs to be easy and it also needs to be obvious when a free in-home consultation is made available. These are items you definitely want on your first page. The telephone number needs to be in a prominent location, as well as on every page of the website. A web form should also be made available because some individuals simply prefer to not communicate via the telephone.

7. Everything that is relevant needs to be included. Relevant information not only includes the services offered, but also the materials. For instance, roofing materials need to be listed. It is also not out of the question to list colors available in certain materials. Overall, all information the potential client wants to know should be present because the omission of an important piece of information could be the difference between securing them as a client and not securing them.

By keeping these tips in mind, you can have a powerhouse of a contractor website design that gets the point across quickly and answer all of the questions your visitors have when they visit your site. If all of their questions aren’t answered, then they can see that contacting you is a piece of cake.

10 Restaurant Website Design Tips

Friday, November 18th, 2011

Professional restaurant website design gives visitors a feel of what the restaurant is all about. They want to know more about the atmosphere and the menu choices before they decide to spend their money there. The website has to be easy to navigate and visitors don’t want to be bombarded with information that they don’t need. Wading through a maze of complicated language and restaurant history and events can be a turnoff. So there are certain goals to strive for in the website’s design and they are:

  • To provide the information visitors are looking for so they will come to the restaurant
  • To give the visitor a feel for the restaurant
  • To show visitors that you know what they are looking for

Each restaurant’s website is going to be difference since each needs its own personality. Nevertheless, the same website design formula is followed.

1. Make The Menu Obvious And Easy To Read

Most visitors visit the website to look at the menu so that they can choose what they want to eat before they arrive at the restaurant. Many do this to speed the ordering process when they arrive, while others do it for monetary reasons. No matter the reason why they want to read the menu, it is important to make it easy to find and easy to read.

PDF versions of menus are not necessarily advantageous. They can actually hinder the experience because visitors do not always want to download anything. Sometimes computers do not handle downloads well, so this can result in the loss of a customer.

2. Tell People Where You Are

You have to tell people where the restaurant is located. This is done by providing directions and using a free mapping service. A proximity search function can allow individuals to find the restaurant by typing in their own address. This especially comes in handy if there are multiple restaurant locations.

3. Be Descriptive, Yet Simple With Restaurant Web Design

Language does need to be descriptive, but on a level that anyone can understand. This means no jargon needs to be present on the site because not everyone understands jargon.

4. Photos! Photos! Photos!

What better way for potential patrons to get a feel for the restaurant than to see photos of it? People want to see the outside and they want to see the dining room, which can visually tempt their taste buds. If it doesn’t look like a place they want to eat at, despite how delicious the food is, they won’t eat there.

5. Reflect Marketing Efforts And Materials

Logos, colors, graphics, and even the fonts used in marketing materials need to be consistent by being used within the website. When building a brand, it is important that it is recognizable throughout all correspondence with the public.

6. Stay Updated With Restaurant Website Design

There is nothing more frustrating to a visitor than an outdated website. If prices, menu choices, pictures, etc. are not up-to-date, then that can be a lost customer. Who’s to say the restaurant isn’t closed?

7. Contact Details

Sometimes potential customers need to contact the restaurant by phone or by email. These details must be easy to find. If reservations are required to dine, an online reservation system can come in quite useful.

Tips For Personal Trainer Website Design

Friday, November 18th, 2011

There is no limit as to how many industries professionals can have a website. As a matter of fact, a website needs to be built any time a product or service is being offered. In other words, every business needs an online presence. As time goes by, the Internet is becoming an essential part of doing business because, without it, a business doesn’t have a solid enough foundation.

The personal trainer is definitely not an exception. Consumers need a way to choose between the many trainers available to them by seeing what sets them all apart. To do this, the website has to be professional and it has to be unique. It has to highlight all of a trainer’s qualities to show that they are the right choice. The following tips will help do just that with effective personal trainer website design.

1. Content Is Your Best Friend

The text on the page is very important. Believe it or not, people like to read in order to obtain information and search engines like to read too when indexing a website under certain keywords used in searches. These two together can help push your website to the top of search engine results so that you are among the first physical trainers found when people in your area are looking for one. You want to be as close to the top of the results as possible. Content needs to remain fresh and talk about any areas that people are concerned about, such as why they need a physical trainer and the benefits.

2. Pre-Made or Custom?

Many individuals ask themselves if they should just opt for a pre-made site that allows them to fill in their content or custom made. The fact about pre-made is that it lacks uniqueness and it lacks character. A professional website designer is able to make the website personal by integrating your vision into a captivating design. If a visitor doesn’t see something they like within 5 seconds, they will leave. The site needs to grab their attention and maintain it and pre-made hardly ever does that.

3. Must-Have Elements To Be Included

There are a number of elements that have to be included in the website. These include:

  • Articles that invoke a feeling of motivation and makes people want to set healthy fitness goals. They also need the motivation to keep those goals.
  • A chat room or message forum where individuals can interact with one another and with you regarding their fitness endeavors.
  • Individuals can learn how to become physically fit, lose the weight they need to lose, and tools can be present to help them with their fitness endeavors.
  • How-to videos showing how to exercise can keep them coming back again and again.

These are just some ways to make your personal trainer website everything that it can be. These are all tips that help you to personalize the visitor experience. When visitors can invest a part of themselves in it, then your site will be the go-to for information regarding their health. Plus, you will be their go-to when they need someone by their side guiding them to a much healthier lifestyle. Get started on your personal trainer web design by giving us a call at (612) 558-1020.

4 Tips To Having a Successful Law Firm Website

Friday, November 18th, 2011

For a law firm site to be successful it has to be professional. This means that professional website design can get the job done. The site is one that requires a lot of care and consideration. It cannot be thrown together quickly or it could look like the competition’s or not possess the information that the website’s visitors are looking for.

What is required for a great website is dedication toward putting together the best site possible. Most of the time, the website is the first impression an individual has of a firm, so the presentation has to be perfect and that momentum must be maintained throughout the entire site in order to keep the visitor on the website.

The following are tips toward ensuring the website is one that will do its job by obtaining clients:

1. Personalization Is Important

The website has to be personal. It cannot look like another law firm’s site. It has to be unique and offer something that the rest do not. Information regarding firm history and experience should be available, as well as any track record that exists. Certain case scenarios can be highlighted so that visitors can see the great deal of strategy used in those cases. Even integrating audio, video, and a personal message from the attorneys to the visitor gives it the personal touch needed to bring about comfort and confidence in the firm.

2. Study The Competition

You want to know what your competition is up to so that you can ensure you are integrating elements into your website that they are not. When looking at their website, be critical and write down everything you know you can do better and ensure your website developer emphasizes those items so that visitors can see and feel the difference between your site and the other guys.

3. Keep The Lines Of Communication Open

Your website developer has a talent for turning your vision into reality, so don’t hold back on telling what you want. Be sure to specify the colors you want used, any slogans, the tone you wish the site to take, and what kind of information you want made available to the public. You also want to ensure any logos or graphics you wish to include are provided, as well as attorney biographies and any specific information that is important to you.

4. Content Is Everything

A good law firm website has a page dedicated to each practice area that describes what the practice area is, the law as it applies to it, and a call for action at the end that contains contact information. These pages are important because they contain keywords relevant to that practice area, which are the very words people type when they are searching for the services that your firm offers. You want to be one of the first, if not the first, firms they see pop up in the results. Most importantly, the pages give the visitors an idea of what their legal situation entails even before they sit down for that free consultation.

With these tips, you can easily convince a person to choose your firm. Your web developer will also make your contact information obvious for when the visitor decides to pick up the phone and call. The developer can also place a web form on each page, making contacting you even easier by giving the potential client less time to change their mind about making contact.

Mankato Web Design In “Minnesota Lawyer”

Thursday, September 9th, 2010

Mankato Web Design and Matthew Peschong will be featured in an article discussing the strategies employeed to design and market law firm websites in Minneapolis / St Paul in the upcoming month’s issue of “Minnesota Lawyer” magazine. Check it out and grab yourself a copy!

Top 5 Ways To Improve Your Blog Posts

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

Looking to improve your blog posts? Below are five great ways to get the readership, the comments and the traffic you are looking for:

1) Revamp your Title Tags and URLS Format

You want your title to be catchy but you also want to highlight the keywords in your phrasing. This can be tricky. One way to keep your title informative but also throw in the keyword phrase is to make use of your title tags. You also don’t want to discount meta descriptions which appear under your title in the SERPS. Don’t waste the opportunity to rephrase your title and add another keyword phrase. It is also important to keep your URL’s short, sweet and to the point of your content. Try to remain in the 3-5 word range and get rid of any of those unnecessary “its”, “and’s” and “I’s” which are ignored by the search engine.

2) Pull Quotes

You’ve seen this tactic done before – somewhere in an article, the author will take a certain piece of text, make it better, use different colored text and wrap the rest of the text around it and viola, pull quotes! These quotes are eye-catching and break the article apart in the same way a picture does. Furthermore, you can use these quotes to highlight something particularly interesting in your piece to attract readers to the rest… or you could always use the quote as a great way to highlight a specific keyword phrase without looking too spammy.

3) Include Images

Like quotes, images will automatically attract reader’s attention and break up the writing for easier reading. Images can highlight your words and make your page look pretty. But this is not the only great thing about images. Used properly, images can also help with your search engine ranking. You need to use the alt text key to describe the image (placing a keyword in there wouldn’t hurt either). For those trying to sell something, an image is a great way to connect to your visually enhanced customers and for those offering advice through a blog, images can make the posts much more readable.

4) Highlight your Internal Linking

Internal linking is central to any successful SEO campaign. It will connect your posts to one another for the maximum traffic possible. To benefit from internal linking, use a cross-linker to automatically interlink a number of keywords together.

5) Focus on Keyword Research

We’ve saved the best for last and that is your keywords. You always need to focus your posts around a central keyword phrase or two. Once you have an idea about what to write, check out Google Adword Keyword Tool to find the most popular and most relevant keywords to use in your posts. It may only take a couple of minutes but it will be worth the time in the end.

Keep in mind that there are a number of other great ways to update your blog and attract the traffic you are looking for. Contact us today for more information on how we can improve your business or create your company a web presence that will dominate the search engines and deliver results. Call today at (612) 558-1020 for a free phone consultation.

Writing Keyword Pieces that Are Actually Worth Reading

Monday, August 16th, 2010

One of the hardest aspects of writing any search engine optimization content is finding that balance between keyword enriched and interesting. You do not want your posts to read like a walking advertisement but you also do not want to exclude those much-needed keywords in order to get your point across. After all, if your posts are too keyword-riddled then you will not get the readership that you need. However, without these keywords your readers will have a hard time finding the article and your great writing may never be read. There needs to be a happy medium between both. So how do you do it?

First of all, never underestimate the power of subtitles and headings. Not only will a subtitle split up your text to make it more readable but it can also be a great place to add in a keyword phrase. People will automatically turn to the subtitles when scanning an article. You will be able to explain what the post is about but will not disrupt your writing with a keyword-riddled phrase. It is also always a good idea to include a keyword phrase in the title, even if you think it does not belong there. Restructure your wording and try to find a balance between edgy and useful.

Another great way to combine great content with keyword phrasing is to adopt the head and tail content strategy. You will need to write two articles – one of them based on a commercial keyword phrase (the tail piece) and one of them based on really interesting content (the head piece). Next, interlink the head and tail articles on publication. Once the head piece has gained links and the traffic begins to slow down, you can focus the anchor text used to connect to the tail pieces.

If you are having trouble coming up with keywords for your post, then it’s time to do your keyword research. There are a number of tools out there for free that can help you determine what keywords to use for your posts. One of the best ones (that is also free) is the Google Adwords Keyword Tool which can help you determine the weight and popularity of keywords that could work in your post.

Another excellent way to really see the difference in your articles is to use Scribe SEO. Yes, you have to pay for this service but it really is worth your while. Why? Scribe SEO analyses the different SEO factors in any post. It works as an editor that goes over your article and points out what is missing or overused. Scribe SEO will give your post the once over (something you should be doing anyway) and point out any SEO factors so you know exactly what to expect from your posting.

It is completely possible to write an informative or opinion based piece of writing that is also keyword enriched. Contact us today for more information on how we can improve your business or create your company a web presence that will dominate the search engines and deliver results. Call today at (612) 558-1020 for a free phone consultation.


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