April 2016 - Wordpress Web Design Hosting Syracuse NY

Five Things to Consider When Building a Website

in Web Design Syracuse NY by paulalbee April 30, 2016July 6, 2016

Building (or updating) a website can be a daunting task. There are lots of things to take into account, but here are five things to consider when building a website that are worth your primary consideration.

The internet is one giant warehouse full of companies vying for new customers, so it’s easy to get lost in the information. We have a few things that should always be considered as a necessary part of your website that can help your potential customers weed through that information and choose you instead of your competition.

Client Logos: Show Off Who You’ve Worked For

When building a website from scratch or updating your existing website, one thing to include right off the bat is logos of clients you’ve worked with. It’s great to showcase their work and even mention that you work with “numerous clients,” but when it comes down to it, visually showing exactly who you work with makes a larger impact than just text.

Employee Pages: Getting to Know You

Team pages, employee pages, meet us pages—whatever you decide to call the page that showcases exactly who you are internally, it’s a necessary part of your website. People generally trust other people, not corporations or businesses. When a member of a company takes time to do something extra or personal for you, generally you remember that more than you would remember just a great solution. Trust is built by showing that your company is just a human as the rest of the world.

Affiliations, Awards, and Memberships

If you’re a part of an organization larger than your company or you’ve received rewards recently, display them! It shows that not only are you a company that produces great work, but others have deemed your work great or worthy of a particular organization. People trust people that other people trust. That’s a mouthful, but if you think about it for a little bit, it will make sense.

Reviews or Client Testimonials

This really points back at the mouthful sentence from the last thing to consider. People trust trustworthy people. If you’ve done work for someone and they are impressed, satisfied, or even in awe, let prospective customers know! In sales, there’s a tactic known as the Jones’ effect. If someone else has it, I should too. So if one of your clients has your product, show others exactly why they will love what you can provide!

Building a Website: Quality, Timely Content Customers Want

Talk to your sales staff. They know what questions potential customers are looking for. Then get that information on your website in a clear, concise, straightforward manner that potential customers can find easily and understand. We are firm believers in writing content that’s relevant to the customer. So writing blog posts, quick snippets, and even reviews of other products shows that you can be trusted as a company—you’re not just out for your own benefit, but you’ve actually got your customers best interests in mind (which of course is in your best long term interest).

Remember these five basic principles and you’ll be good as gold!

Paul Albee is the digital marketing director of ATS Design Group in Syracuse, New York. Paul and his team specialize in all aspects of online digital marketing including Web Design Syracuse, SEO search engine optimization, social media marketing as well as print and advertising design.

Search Engine Marketing and Social Media

Search engine marketing (SEM) and social media are at the heart of digital marketing. Both are great tools in which to generate valuable leads for your business online. However, search marketing and social media take different approaches and therefore, require different expertise to deliver them effectively and the fundamental way in how they engage with a target audience.

Search Engine Marketing

What is ‘search marketing’? We are really talking about search engine optimization (SEO) and Google Adwords (PPC). These are the two ways in which a company can get themselves in front of potential customers based on what they search for on Google, but they work in different ways.

Search Engine Optimization is the process of doing what is necessary, both on your web pages and elsewhere, to get your website visible on the first page of search results when somebody types in a search phrase, and ideally at the top of those page one results. It does not follow, however, that the more you spend on SEO, the better results you will have. Like most other areas of products and services, you need to do your research to be sure you will actually get what is being offered.

With rare exception, SEO has a much higher ROI than PPC. It has been shown time and again, for example, that the amount of time a visitor spends on your site as a result of an organic search result click is substantially longer than the time they spend on your site from clicking on a PPC ad. The reasons are various, and we will devote some time to that in subsequent posts, so stay tuned.

You are probably asking yourself, if SEO happens ‘organically’ and it’s free, then what am I paying for? Well, this leads us back to the very fundamentals of SEO. Google ranks search results based on relevance to the enquiry or search made. But the term ‘relevance’ is a completely subjective term. If someone searches for “social media agency”, are they looking for help managing social media presence for their or are they really looking for a job in the digital marketing field? Due to the dynamic and complexity nature of Google, hiring an expert to manage your search engine optimization is where a bulk of your monetary cost will be.

SEO and PPC marketing are different in practice. With Google Adwords you only have to pay out if someone actually clicks on your advert and goes through to our website. With Google Adwords (PPC) you are bidding on space that is around the organic results for that particular search term. Anyone, with any business and any website, can do this no matter the quality of their content is or how established their site is.

The point is, if do have a website that is fast loading and incorporates mobile-friendly, responsive website design, with text that is written well and with an eye to the search terms that people are actually using, ranking well in search engine results will basically yield consistent website traffic and ROI. As a general rule, if you are using both SEO and PPC strategies, when you look at your website traffic stats in Google Adwords, you should ideally see more organic traffic than paid traffic. (As with any statement like this, there are exceptions to the rule based on industry type and other factors).

Search Engine Marketing and Social Media

The real difference is that search marketing is just that, people searching for a business that provides certain services or products. Social media marketing, on the other hand, consists of using social media to identify your target audience and drive them to your website. There are major areas of cross over of course. Especially between SEO and social media. Social media has an impact on SEO search engine optimization generally and Local SEO specifically in numerous ways, from YouTube hosted videos to Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yelp. The list goes on. Ultimately, at the end of the day, a well-rounded, diverse social media profile leading back to your company website will yield continuing benefits.

As with many forms of marketing, you won’t know exactly which avenue will work best for you until you actually give them a try. One of the major wins is that with digital marketing, you can accurately track multiple metrics and ultimately your return on investment.

Paul Albee is the digital marketing director of ATS Design Group in Syracuse, New York. Paul and his team specialize in all aspects of online digital marketing including website design, SEO search engine optimization, social media marketing as well as print and advertising design.

Does Your Website Need a Good Spring Cleaning?

in Digital Marketing / Uncategorized / Wordpress Web Design by atsny April 16, 2016July 6, 2016

Spring is finally here, or so it appears for the moment, so while everybody is thinking about getting out and enjoying the warm weather, it’s also a great time to take a dispassionate look at your website and see if a new Spring makeover is long overdue.

With everyone from millennials to baby boomers getting online to do their shopping as well as personal and professional research, it is clearly not a time to be “ho-hum” about the tired, outdated look of your website that was built five or 10 years ago and now looks hopeless out of date when compared to your competitors.

People look at your website in the context of all the other websites they visit, including your competition. Studies have shown that people judge a company by their first impressions of that company. And largely, that first impression is the company’s website. So why give that competition a leg up in digital marketing by looking less attractive than them.

Website Redesign: It’s Easier Than You Might Think

For a regular small business website, where your company is telling the story of who they are and what their products and services are, it’s easy and remarkably affordable to get a great new site with a modern, attractive look and feel. One of the hottest trends in website design is a clean, uncluttered, minimalist look that is easy to look at, easy to find what you’re looking for, and easy to contact the company. Lots of pictures, personable “About Us” page, project or product portfolio or gallery.

For companies looking to sell products and services online, it’s just as easy with modern, easy to use and maintain eCommerce solutions and secure payment options. Today’s eCommerce website solutions make it easy for customers to browse and shop, get detailed product information and checkout through a smooth, simple checkout process. today’s modern small business and eCommerce websites are designed to look good on all platforms, from desktop computer screens, to tablets and on your iPhone too.

So the question is how to move forward and do your research and due diligence to make your website update and makeover a reality. You might want to take a look at our portfolio and see what kind of work other companies have commissioned and then give us a call and set up an appointment to discuss your website design and update needs and requirements.

We’ve been doing website design and online marketing for just over 20 years, so we can help you ideas and inspiration to get you a step or three out in front of the completion fast.

Paul Albee is the digital marketing director of ATS Design Group in Syracuse, New York. Paul and his team specialize in all aspects of online digital marketing including Web Design Syracuse, SEO search engine optimization, social media marketing as well as print and advertising design.