Web Design Syracuse NY

website design maintenance syracuse ny

Website Design & Maintainence Monthly Checklist

in Web Design Syracuse NY / Website Hosting  by atsny

Website Maintenance & Items You Should Check Monthly

It is essential in this digital day and age to have some sort of online presence for your business. Did you know that maintaining your website is just as important? We aren’t talking about just big changes like when you move in a different direction or rebrands itself with a whole new image. Even simple things can make a huge difference to online visitors and your business. Below we list the items you need to stay on top of when maintaining your website.

Contact Information and Forms

Your potential customers or clients won’t be able to get in touch with you if they don’t have the tools to do so. This is why you want your contact information to be the first thing that is visible on your landing page or easily accessible without a lot of searching.

Something else you need to check is any contact forms on your website. There could be a technical glitch, a bad email address attached for leads to send to, or any number of reasons that they may not function properly so questions, concerns or requests can be handled.

Promotional Offers and Deals

If there is one thing that annoys someone is finding a coupon or promotion and discovering they are too late and it has expired. If you offer deals or special that require a coupon be sure to update them often so they are valid. When people see outdated coupons and promotions, they get the impression your website is neglected and that is not the impression you want to make to customers. Simply by doing regular updating and changing promotions and coupons you give your visitors a reason to keep coming back and that is exciting for your business.

Image Errors and Broken Links

If your website has URL’s, external and internal link paths that have broken links and images that don’t display on your website, search engines will panelize you. Search engines takes those sorts of things into consideration as a ranking factor. Checking links on your website is something you should be doing monthly. Go through your site and make sure images are displaying correctly and that any links on your site take you to the appropriate page. While this may take some time for website that are larger and more complex, it is very much worth the time and effort and your website will be rewarded for it in the rankings.

Site Loading Speed

There is another maintenance thing you should keep on top of because it can significantly impact your ranking and more importantly conversion rates, is the speed at which your website loads. We live in a world where we want everything now. Statistics have shown that 40% of visitors to a website will leave it if takes more than 3 seconds to load. When designing & developing your website, this should be kept in mind. Even in established website as they go changes and pages are added or removed, that can impact the loading speed. By checking your website’s load times regularly, you won’t be losing business from slow loading speeds.

Your Website’s Blog

If your website doesn’t have a blog that might be something you may want to start. Surveys show that businesses with a blog often receive 55% more website visitors and 97% more inbound links just from having a blog. One of the most important aspects of a blog is making sure to keep it active and updated. Just like other items we mentioned, if a visitor sees outdated content, they get the impression that your website is also neglected and that is not an impression you want to give. Make it a habit to update your blog post with news products, and events related to your business. The bonus of this content is that you can share it across your social media platforms.

By keeping your website maintained, visitors to your site will be better informed and they will have more reason to give you their business.

 

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 for the construction trades including Web Design Syracuse, SEO search engine optimization, and eCommerce design and development.

Building a Website. Syracuse NY

Five Things to Consider When Building a Website

in Web Design Syracuse NY  by paulalbee

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.

Successful Website Redesign Considerations

in Web Design Syracuse NY  by atsny

 

Far too often, when a company undertakes a website redesign project, it is with a sense of urgency to solve an immediate problem.  But you can’t just take a “fire hose” approach to your website redesign.  With the recent Google “mobile friendly” algorithm change, may small business owners felt a sense of panic.

Before you undertake any website redesign project, it is helpful to take a deep breath and think about what this opportunity gives you a chance to do.  The last thing you want to do is spend thousands of dollars and end up with a website that solves the immediate problem but doesn’t address your overall brand and marketing goals moving forward.

Successful Website Redesign Considerations

Step number one for any website design or redesign project is “have a detailed plan.” We’ve written a blog post on this process that you might find interested: Successful Website Redesign Strategy.  Take a look. It may be helpful in understanding what you want to accomplish going into a website redesign project.

The most important thing is to step back and take a look at the overall picture.  Define your goal and what it is that you want to achieve, whether it is better search engine visibility, a better user experience on mobile devices, more traffic and sales leads, higher conversions, a more modern and up to date look and feel?

Set aside some quiet time – maybe two or three evenings at Starbucks – and think it all through.  Look at your competitors websites. See what they are doing. Think about your overall brand message.  How do you want your website to integrate with social media sites like Facebook or LinkedIn  Writing everything down will help you stay focused and not get distracted.

Don’t Forget About Your Mobile Users.

Having a mobile friendly website (by Google’s standards) is no longer an option. A responsive web design allows your web page to dynamically change and resize itself based on whichever device it is being viewed on: a desktop computer, a tablet, a smartphone.  In May 2015, Google announced that for the first time in history, mobile search (smartphones) outpaced desktop search in 10 countries, including the United States. Your customers are looking at you through the eye of their smartphone. It is important that they like what they see. Making sure your new website is built on a mobile “responsive” platform makes it easy to be sure your content and your brand looks good on all devices.

For additional information, please contact an ATS Web Design Syracuse team member to discuss your needs.