Loyalty Programs: More Critical Now Than Ever

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Loyalty programs encourage customers to return where they frequently make purchases. Some of the incentives could include advanced access to new products, additional discounts, and free shipping perks. Customers register their personal information with the retailer and are provided a membership account. Some programs are free, while others with more quality bonuses have an annual fee. 

Customer Relationship Management

Retailers use these programs as a form of CRM, Customer Relationship Management systems. These systems help maintain a record of their sales process and market goods or services efficiently. The signup process of loyalty programs allows for insight on each customer. They provide information that helps the retailer make specific and strategic marketing plans for optimal results. According to a study presented by LoyaltyOne, loyalty program members contribute to 43% of companies’ annual sales. In addition to the increased sales, 95% of companies within their study reported that members spend more annually, with 60% reporting that members spend two to three times more.

Walmart’s Take on Loyalty Programs

Walmart recently released their newest loyalty program, Walmart+. According to the Walmart press release, “Along with the power of its online presence, Walmart+ has the reach of more than 4,700 stores, including 2,700 stores that offer delivery as fast as the same day.” Walmart+ members will receive unlimited free delivery from stores and fuel discounts. In-store shoppers will have access to a “Scan & Go” feature that allows them to scan items from their phones and pay for them using Walmart Pay, allowing them to avoid the checkout line. It will cost $98 a year or $12.95 a month and includes a 15-day free trial period.

Walmart has now put themselves at a higher advantage point than most retailers and created competition with other loyalty programs such as Amazon Prime. By releasing this new membership program, Walmart anticipates continuing its increasingly fast growth in e-commerce, where it’s already become the second-biggest online seller in the US.  Amazon being the number one. The fuel discount will bring in more customers just for the simple fact that gas is expensive, and it will never go on sale. 

Loyalty programs are more critical now than they ever have been. Due to the increasing demand for the perks of shopping online and in-store, retailers must keep up. Amazon and Walmart being just two of many, there is significant headway coming for customers and retailers with a simple loyalty program. 

Curiosity Marketing Group has the knowledge and expertise to keep you above and beyond your competitors. As more and more brands roll out loyalty plans, will you be able to keep up? Have you thought of starting your own Loyalty program with an integrated CRM. Curiosity has helped launch combinations of Loyalty programs as well as CRM integrations for better client service and happy customers. Contact us to help you give them a run for their money!

Custom or Pre-Built? Which WordPress Site is best for you?

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WordPress was designed to be a CMS (content management system) that can be used by everyone, from professional agencies to personal portfolios. Statistics show that 35% of the internet is powered by WordPress. That means that around 455,000,000 websites are using WordPress right now! While WordPress might be the best CMS in the market, it can also be vulnerable and unstable, causing your site to crash. In this article, I’m going to discuss those vulnerabilities and how to avoid them. For those not familiar, there are two ways to build a WordPress site: using a pre-built theme or building a custom theme.

The Cheaper Option: Pre-Built Themes

The easier and cheaper option is using a pre-built theme. This is the most popular option in building a WordPress site because it’s quick, easy, and cost-efficient. Users can have a personal website built within a couple of hours using a pre-built theme, but this is where the vulnerabilities come in. The reason a site can be built so quickly is because of page builders and other plugins. A page builder is basically a drag-and-drop interface that allows users to quickly add new content and adjust the page layout. The issue with page builders is that they’re not native to WordPress, meaning it’s a third-party plugin. These plugins will receive updates periodically to fix bugs and improve the plugin, but sometimes these updates can actually cause your site to break. There are many issues that can cause this, but most of the time it’s caused by the plugin not being compatible with the version of WordPress the site is running or there’s a conflict with another plugin. The more plugins a site has, the more vulnerable that site is to breaking and/or it being hacked. At the time of writing this, WordPress has suspended the Astra theme for violating terms that affected over 1 million users.

The Safest Option: Custom Themes

The best way to avoid these vulnerabilities is to build a custom theme. While a custom theme is more expensive and time-consuming, it will also be a lot more future proof and optimized than a pre-built theme. Custom themes don’t rely on plugins to build a site, instead, they’re built using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP.  Custom themes will still use a few plugins, but these plugins aren’t critical for the site to work.  You might be thinking ‘I don’t know how to code, how will I make changes to my site?’. Developers can utilize custom fields in the WordPress admin for clients to easily make changes to their site.

With all that being said, pre-built themes will be sufficient for a majority of today’s websites. Everyone doesn’t have the same needs or wants which is why WordPress is such a great CMS.  It has the ability to cater to any budget or project. From my experience, a custom-built theme will last longer and be more stable, but it comes with a cost.

If you would like to discuss these different options in more detail please let us know. We have years of experience with both options and can share success and horror stories from the past. We look forward to working with you!

Click below to schedule a consultation.

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Reputation Matters

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The saying has always been, “A happy customer will tell ten people about their experience. An angry customer will tell 100.” With the availability of the internet and increasing ease of leaving reviews, it is vital that you have a handle on your reputation, especially online. Some years ago, Google introduced the notion of what they called the “Zero Moment of Truth.” This refers to when prospective clients, instead of going to stores and talking to an expert, started turning online for recommendations.  Now, if there is any question on a product, YouTube is your specialist. Locally, Google business listings are your expert, and in some cases, there are sites specifically created to handle reviews. For example, doctors should be paying close attention to Health Grades, Construction and Maintenance – Angie’s List. But what is the actual effect on your business if negative reviews exist? Short answer, there is a lot to lose.

According to recent studies, 67% of consumers make their purchasing decisions based on reviews. Of the people using reviews as a basis, 94% of consumers will avoid a business with bad reviews. Businesses with one 1.5 star rating report 33% less revenue than businesses with a 4-5 star rating. This does not mean that the company with the 4-5 star rating is that much better. They may have better customer service or a better product, but maybe not. It could just be that they are paying close attention to their online reputation. Don’t let reviews online spoil the excellent service and reputation you have built away from the internet for so many years.

The other vital part of watching your reputation online is the effect it has on your search rankings, most importantly with local search results. As Google and other search networks evolve, they continue to modify their results that are displayed. They do this to make sure that the viewer coming to their site for information, gets the most accurate and helpful info that they can. Google does not care about your business. They care about their user getting this accurate information. Negative reviews have a very strong effect on your rankings. You can have the best-looking, easy to navigate website with a ton of helpful information, but if your business has poor reviews, Google will push you down the list.

So what can you do to protect yourself from negative reviews? Below are a few things to do to plan and work to protect your reputation:

  • First and foremost, invest in an online reputation monitoring system, either internally or find a partner. We operate with numerous clients to help them keep reviews in check but also to help generate positive reviews. These systems include responding to negative reviews as well as integrating into CRM and ERP solutions to help facilitate positive reviews. 
  • Avoid negative reviews where possible, but know they will happen.  When you do receive a negative review, it does not go away. The best thing to do here is to provide a timely response to the review, offering more information on a subject, or offering to fix the problem. Apologies go a long way. 47% of users that see a quick response to a negative review will not skip a business due to a bad review if they are offering a solution. 
  • Encourage happy customers to give positive reviews. As we mentioned early on, positive reviews are hard to come by. If the service is good, the happiness is not shared as quickly as the bad experience. With integration into your check-out process, review requests can be easily facilitated. This should be a priority in your strategy listed above. 

Curious about what else you can do to gather 5-star reviews? Check out our guide on getting more Google reviews!

In the day of the internet, your online reputation will either drive customers to you or drive them to your competitors. Reviews will continue to convey the way customers have been treated at your business and what their experiences were. It is essential that businesses monitor their online reviews so that their brand and business are represented in the most positive way possible. Make sure you ensure your ideal customers see you in a positive way.

Templates vs. Custom Designed Websites

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The question we get all too often… “Can’t we just use a template for our website?” The short answer is sure you can. For our clients however there are a number of reasons we do not, and more often than not decline to use templates. Whether you are a new startup company, working to build a personal brand or a seasoned company looking to bring your digital marketing to a higher level, a custom designed site will always give you a more successful growth-driven tool for better marketing results for a number of reasons.

 

Stand Out From the Crowd

The world of web templates is a very crowded one. In most cases, templates are created with a general setup and are very cookie cutter style in design. When theme developers create themes you have to remember that they are focusing on a general market. They are focusing on getting their theme purchased by as many people as possible. That is how they make their money.  A theme developer is not taking your business goals and forming the site around them. This is where custom designed websites excel. Every business has a voice, a tone, language that they use to portray their brand messaging to clients or about their product. This same tone or theme needs to be presented within your website. A custom built site allows this to be the focus and the structure should be formed around your business goals. Websites today are more than an online presence. They are digital marketing tools. Make sure it is set up and positioned correctly.

 

Build Around Your Specific Business Needs

As stated above, templates are built with a more general approach in mind.  Without extensive code knowledge, they can be very hard to customize.  Even with our level of expertise, templates can be difficult to personalize and often times take more effort to adjust versus building a new custom designed website.  Before we start any web project we like to learn as much about the business we are designing and building for as possible. Every client gets a questionnaire to answer that helps us understand the items we need to know before there is the first click of the mouse or keystroke towards creating the site.  We do this to make sure the custom site design is focused on conversion for better lead generation and working for the client. Websites need to be a working part of your digital marketing strategy.

 

Avoid the CMS Clutter

Content Management Systems (CMS) are very big these days. One of the first questions we get while in a consultation is “Will I have access to my website to make content updates?”  Clients are looking to make sure they have access to control their content on updates, events and specials around their business. Our answer is yes. Whether the site is built on WordPress, Drupal or Hubspot’s COS, clients have access to update their websites. But like the general approach to design template developers have, they also have the same approach to the CMS control as well.  Template back ends often have a lot of extras or clutter that cannot be removed and only add to a user’s confusion but also slow the speed of your site. In a world where the attention span of a website viewer is approaching 7 seconds, speed is a big component of a well-built site.

With all of our sites, we remove the clutter and customize the CMS to only have what you need. Keeping things as simple and as fast as possible. This customization helps clients effectively manage sites in a timely manner.

 

Make Your Brand Stand Out

Templates are placed in many markets by developers. They want their template to be purchased as many times as possible to generate revenue.  In our industry the most popular ones surface quite often. For example, we can view a site and regularly name the template or link it to a developer group that specializes in templates.  The biggest downfall of templates is that they can be used over and over again by different people and instead of businesses standing out, they fall into the crowded web world not pushing your site to the front of the crowd.

Custom designed websites are built for you and only you. Once we build the site, the design and theming of the site are solely used for the client at hand. Just as the next business we help will have a custom look to their site as well.

And We’re Out!

We want to further stress that custom designed sites will always give your business a better web presence and be easier to manage in the long run. As the template world grows, and more people come online, standing out from the crowd will become increasingly important.  Giving your business the ability to speak your language and portray the business brand in the way you originally set out will always make for a more successful digital marketing strategy.
If you would like to receive a free consultation on how we can bring your brand to the web in a custom way, drop us a line and we’ll be in touch.



Is Your Business S.M.A.R.T?

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UPDATE

Just like your business, we are constantly growing, learning and adapting to new ways of doing things. Although creating S.M.A.R.T. goals has been an awesome business tactic in the past, we’ve discovered a process that works even better for reaching and exceeding your goals.

An Evolved Process

Our new and improved process starts with discovery. We’re curious to know more about the ins and outs of your business and what makes it unique. We’ll ask questions to get a better feel for your company and where you would like to see it grow.

The next step in our creative process is to develop a strategy that can help you be successful in meeting your business goals. We will help you discover the things that are important to you and pave the way to meeting those aspirations.

A plan is only as effective as the team that is implementing the strategy. As the saying goes, actions do speak louder than words. In the execution stage, it is critical to have a group of individuals that utilize the latest and greatest tools and industry knowledge to help you meet your campaign goals.

Once our team has executed strategies to help maximize your campaign, we start the analysis phase. This is easily the most important, yet often overlooked, step of our goal identification and attainment process. Our team compiles all campaign data and analyzes it to identify the things that worked well as well as the things that could possibly be altered or eliminated going forward. A proper analysis can help your business get the most out of your marketing efforts.

Think. Do. Rinse. Repeat. At the end of our process, we’ve identified the goals important to you and your business, developed strategies to help you meet those goals, professionally executed each and every step along the way and analyzed data to provide an overview of your campaign success. The last step in our process is simply to start anew back at the discovery stage. Repetition is key in refining and optimizing your marketing efforts, so don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.

Sources

https://curiositymg.com/process/

Giving Curiosity a Facelift

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Well, it is that time again. New technologies, new techniques, and even more fun: new platform.

As we have always done in Curiosity, we work to stay on the leading edge of design, techniques, and offerings to allow us to better serve our clients.  As the site will continually evolve we hope to bring many resources and helpful information to the site. Be on the lookout for eBooks, infographics, tips, tricks, and more.

Meanwhile, as we continue to add to our general information on the site. Please feel free to download our free eBook below.  It is a collection of information we gathered during the redesign in regards to what we felt was needed to help push our site to the next offering level for visitors.

Enjoy!

8 Steps in Choosing a Panama City Web Design Agency

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We recently were guest writer for the Business Innovation Center in Panama City. You can read our article: Why Every Small Business Must Have a Website in 2016  here (link).

We wanted to add to this article by offering some tips on what to look for when choosing a website designer and developer. Below you will find 8 steps you should consider when looking for an agency.

Following these steps will not only make your choosing of an agency easier, it will vastly help the process in crafting your web solution needs and requirements. And of course connect you with a solid agency.

Step 1: Know Your Need

Often times a client comes to us and they want or need a website. But our first question to them is what does your site need?

For example, if you are new company your site may be more of a general information site.  What does your company do, how does someone contact you, etc. It will be very clearly brand awareness focused.  If your website is e-commerce focused, you will want to turn your attention to return-on-investment (ROI), converting sales, and building and maintaining your customer base.

What to do:

Ask the agency to show proof of how they have approached clients in the past with similar goals and how they approached them. Seeing these can help you determine if the agency can accomplish what is required for your business.

Step 2: Know Your Budget

Ah, the elephant in the room. We place this towards the top of the list for a good reason. Budget will highly dictate what is a realistic approach to your goals. A great agency can work around a budget for a possible solution. However, do keep in mind the phrase “you get what you pay for” is a resounding response we have heard a number of times from clients.

But how do you determine this budget? The process is actually very simple. Do your research as you would with any marketing purchase. Look at the average costs of creating a website. Talk to fellow business owners about their costs. Compare this to your current marketing budget and see what the company can afford. Do keep in mind a strong honest agency will only offer what is really needed for your business to succeed based on your goals.

What to do:

Go into your consultation with the agency with a budget in mind, but also don’t be surprised or concerned by sticker shock. Ask the agency how they see your return on investment working and how their solution fits into the plan. Overall if you complete your research on your current marketing you will possibly see other areas that have not been effective. You can move some of the budget into digital and inbound marketing.

Step 3: Know the Track Record

With the growth of digital marketing, there are a number of fly by night agencies and so called garage workers that will surface. Just as you would ask for references, licenses, insurance with a roofer, electrician etc.; ask the same of the agency.

A solid agency can easily point you to these documents and references should be very easy to come by. If these cannot be produced in a swift manner, that should raise a red flag rather quickly. Also be sure to ask around to friends and other business owners that have done business with the agency. Sometimes the most honest reviews are not from the agency directly.

What to do:

This one is rather simple. Ask questions. An agency should produce answers, documents and case studies measured metrics to you rather quickly.

Step 4: Educate Yourself

One of the biggest phrases we hear when a new client comes to us is “I don’t understand this web stuff, that’s why I am here.” As an agency we are flattered that you are looking to trust us this much. However, a lot of times we have to educate clients just to set the expectations. Don’t get us wrong, we love to share our knowledge but other agencies are not. Having a basic understanding of WordPress development, digital advertising and social media management will vastly help you understand if the agency you are talking to is a professional and you are not blindsided by just a good salesman.

What to do:

Study. We wouldn’t ask you to know everything like an agency would. Leave that to them. Learn enough to be able to talk about it. Read some blogs, download some ebooks, watch some YouTube Videos. Spending a couple of hours reading can vastly help you understand enough to be dangerous in your consultation.

Step 5: Start Gathering Content

The item that will most delay your website development process is the creating / gathering enough content to fill your site to a comprehensive level.  You want it where people can feel comfortable knowing you are an authority on the type of business you are in.

Often, more than not, this will stall your website development process. Realistically content is the biggest hitch in development. A good agency will offer to help write your content or take existing marketing collateral and help you “refresh” it for the web.

What to do:

Start with current marketing collateral. Gather as much as you can for a starting point. Content is everything when it comes to your website. So gather everything you can: text, images and even videos to help speed the process up when you finally start. 

Step 6: Know what you want to achieve

We have already spoke on your needs, but now think of some specific goals of your new website.

  • • Is it for lead generation?
  • • Sell a product?
  • • Are you building the next gamer forum?
  • • Improve brand awareness?

A good agency will ask you these goals when beginning your website design. If they know what they are doing, the site design will be tailored around these goals. Designing a site in a vacuum is never a good a idea and results are never to your liking.

What to do:

Dig deep into your answer from Step 1. Having a solid understanding of what you want the site to achieve will vastly save time in the process of getting your company online.

Step 7: Ask For Strategy Advice

A good agency will be more interested in your website as a marketing tool verses the only item they are trying to sell you. If the agency does not talk past the site launch you may be talking to the wrong one. A strong agency will want to talk about Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Inbound Marketing and Social Media to name a few. If the agency does not want to talk past the site, move on. 9 times out of 10 they will not be a good partner for your digital marketing.

What to do:

Ask the agency to explain their process past the website design. Ask how they will fit their process to your budget and a timeline for these suggestions. 

Step 8: Maintain Quality

Your site is built, now what? Getting your business online is only the beginning of a successful digital campaign. Now you have to work at maintaining a good quality site. Ask the agency how they track metrics. A good agency will assist you in your analytic reporting and ensure that your website is helping you reach your goals.

What to do:

Ask the web agency about their existing ongoing relationships. How are they helping them? What hurdles have they faced and how did they solve them. Do they have ongoing service, maintenance and marketing plans?

CONCLUSION:

There you have it. Our list of 8 Steps for finding a Web Designer in Panama City.  If you follow these steps we can almost guarantee an easier process of beginning your web journey, but also help you choose your agency partner.

Inbound Marketing For Northwest Florida

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HOW DO YOU ATTRACT CUSTOMERS WITH INBOUND MARKETING?

In today’s world, reaching your intended customer has become more demanding. Advancing your digital marketing is crucial to your success. However, one of the underlying issues with digital marketing is that customers are in a pandemic of online information. So how do you reach these individuals and provide them meaningful information?

Consumers do not want a barrage of digital information when they are looking for solutions to their problems; that’s where Inbound Marketing steps in. Inbound Marketing is the philosophy of attracting the right customers, at the right time, by producing the right content. When a consumer is searching for “Top 10 vacation spots in Florida,” your search result will be displayed because you have written an article on that very topic that has been viewed by previous consumers, organically placing your search result higher up the page.

“Inbound marketing is the philosophy of attracting the right customer…”

Inbound marketing is a customer-centric philosophy, as opposed to being product-centric. Instead of wasting valuable marketing resources on individuals who do not fit your buyer personas or are non-relevant to your product, inbound marketing focuses on creating meaningful relationships with your consumers. The ultimate goal is to produce long time advocates of your business’ product. From companies like Intel to small businesses like Joe Coffee Shop, marketing is seeing a huge shift from outbound to inbound marketing.

What makes this philosophy/strategy so advantageous, you ask?

Inbound Marketing is:
  • Cost-Effective
  • Improves Customer Relations
  • Highly Visible ROI (Return On Investment) and Metrics

INBOUND IS COST EFFECTIVE

Inbound Marketing is Ultimately Cheaper and More Effective

How is it cheaper and more effective? Instead of blindly firing your message to consumers who may or may not be interested in your services, inbound marketing aims at finding out who your buyer personas are, who your consumers should be, and then tailoring content to help find solutions to their problems. Instead of trying to find your audience, your audience will come to you. You will learn your audience, and through these exchanges, you’re able to classify your audience into different buyer personas and service them better.

Incidentally, it is a lot easier for your business to gain leads from consumers interested in something you provide or offer as opposed to those who just aren’t interested in the slightest. It’s no wonder many businesses are switching or incorporating inbound marketing into their marketing strategies, with contrast from outbound marketing to inbound marketing delivering a whopping 54% more lead generation. (Hubspot)

IMPROVES CUSTOMER RELATIONS

Inbound Marketing Creates Meaningful Relationships

One of the huge advantages of using inbound marketing is that it’s a two-way communication where customers interact with your business. They will post on your company’s social media pages, comment on your blogs, or take part in contests or surveys. When they participate, they become invested and engaged in your company. Consumers today want to be in control of what information they receive and when they receive it. Instead of bombarding them with information they may or may not care about, your company instead encourages consumers to come to you because your company has a solution to their problem. That in itself starts to create a meaningful relationship with your customers.

HIGHLY VISIBLE ROI

Everything With Inbound Marketing is Tracked

Everything within your business is analyzed; why not analyze the interactions your consumers have from the first click on your website’s link in a Google search to how they browse your site after they become customers? With a software program like Hubspot you can start analyzing which blog titles are getting the most clicks, calculating the ROI of every campaign, and understanding which ones are bringing the most money to your business. Also, for every campaign, you can analyze what parts of the campaign were successful and what parts were not, such as which call-to-actions were clicked more than others and/or what landing pages saw more visitors than others.

Need a refresher on the metrics that measure marketing success? Check out our list of key metrics and what they mean for your campaigns.

CLOSING NOTES…

For Northwest Florida companies in Panama City, Panama City Beach, Destin, Pensacola, Tallahassee, the 30A area, and beyond, inbound marketing offers so many great tools for your business. More importantly, your consumers will appreciate it! Inbound marketing does not aim at bombarding your consumers with information but rather solving issues they have with useful resources that point them in the direction of your business.

Are you ready for more customers to start pouring in? Click below!

Embrace Your Curiosity +

Web Design Must Haves for Leads Generation: Get Found Online

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Websites have no use if they are not being visited.

In this part one of 4 series, we explore the first few items that every web design needs for proper and effective lead generation.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a must-have to any website strategy. For SEO to be successful it takes hard work and consistency when aiming for the top spot.

Every website has the goal of reaching the number one position in search engines. What gives you that first place ranking?  Off-page search engine optimization is one factor to increasing your ranking results.

Link building is not an easy process, but it is very beneficial to your website. High-quality links connected to your website can significantly increase your chances of ranking higher on search engines. There are a couple of key tips to remember when you are building links. The first is to ensure your links create high-quality, educational, or entertaining content. Secondly submit your website to online directories. This will help categorize your website.

On-Page Optimization

On-page search engine optimization is another important aspect and consists of placing your most important keywords within the content elements of your actual pages. These on-page elements include headlines, sub-headlines, body content, image tags, and links.

To ensure your on-page search engine optimization is done right pick a primary keywords for each page. Do not use too many keywords on one page otherwise the page will lose its importance. Search engines won’t have a clear idea of what the page is about. Focus on optimizing one keyword per page.

  • • Place your primary keywords in your headline and sub-headline. These          areas of content have greater weight to search engines.

  • • Include keywords in the body content, but don’t use them out of context.

  • • Include the keywords in the page URL and keep the URL clean.

  • • Lastly, write for humans. Prepare your content for your audience and then    look to optimize it for search.

Meta Tags

Meta tags (a line of code that is contained in the background of a web page) is another SEO component to keep in mind. Meta tags are not as important as SEO, but they are still important. The reason why Meta tags are important is because search engines look at them to learn more about the page.

 

XML Site Maps

XML sitemaps help contain listings of all your pages and when they were updated. The incentive behind an XML sitemap is to help search engine crawlers sift through your pages more efficiently. Sitemaps are easy to create. You can find sitemap generators online that you can simply upload to the root directory of your website.

 

301 Redirects

The last component to keep in mind is a permanent 301 Redirect. This method is used to change an old URL to a new one. When a page is moved to a new URL and the old link hasn’t been directed to the new page it causes a broken website link. This causes a lost opportunity for your customers or potential buyers. 301 Redirects helps SEO know where to find your new pages.

Website Redesign: The Importance of SEO and Search Marketing – Always Perform a Site Audit

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Are You In The Panama City Area Looking For Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

When it comes to redesigning your website, form and function are a must.

Functionality comes before looks on your website. If people can’t find your website via search, and if they can’t intuitively navigate through your site’s pages and easily understand what information those pages contain, your site will not matter.

Redesigning your website isn’t just an exercise in aesthetics. Looks for your website are very important, but a great website redesign also requires you to improve what people can’t see.

When redesigning your website it is important to take search engine optimization into account. While the way we think about SEO is always evolving – with the focus now shifting toward optimizing content for the searchers themselves, as opposed to following designated search engine “rules” – it’s still something you can’t afford to overlook.

 

Not thinking about SEO from the start

Website redesign requires more than aesthetics. To ensure your new website will truly resonate with your target audience you need search engine optimization (SEO) to be ingrained in your design strategy from the very beginning.

For many online shoppers, their research about products begins by using search engine optimization. People want to be able to easily find free advice and information about products and other services online.

Search engine optimization will help consumers find your website in the beginning of their research. “Businesses with websites of 401-1000 pages get 6x more leads than those with 51-100 pages (HubSpot Lead Generation Lessons from 4,000 Businesses, 2011).”

The biggest SEO mistake you can make during a website redesign is to not think about SEO from the beginning. If you don’t have SEO in mind from the initial strategy session, you’re going to lose what you have built.

Search engine optimization helps people find your website. If you build a website that people can’t find it serves no purpose. Integrate SEO in the beginning so people are able to find your website that you worked hard to build.

If you do not integrate SEO in the beginning, it can cost the company more time and money redoing design and coding.

 

Not doing an audit of your existing site.

In the beginning stages of redesigning your website, examine what is working and what isn’t for your website. Whenever doing a website redesign, it is important to reassess the purpose of each page. If you don’t learn anything from the page, neither will your viewers.

“86% of consumers stated that using a search engine allowed them to learn something new or important that helped him/her increase his/her knowledge. (Pew Research Center, Search Engine Use 2012).”

Some key metrics you may want to consider when auditing your site are:

  • Number of visits/visitors/unique visitors (monthly average)
  • Top performing keywords (in terms of rank, traffic, and lead generation)
  • Number of inbound linking domains
  • Total number of pages indexed
  • Total number of pages that receive traffic.

 

Plan your site content with a sitemap.

Building out a navigation map that takes SEO into consideration will save you a lot of time and frustration throughout your website redesign.

Important elements of a website redesign oftentimes get pushed to the side when time frames are constrained. One of the most important components of a new design project is to take time at the beginning to analyze current traffic to ensure current visitors are not lost.

Review which pages on your website have incoming links, which have the best page-rank, and what keywords on your pages drive traffic and conversions. Communicate with your website redevelopment team and make sure important pages are not removed or deleted with the new layout.

Do not overlook this crucial step when redesigning your website.

Curious about SEO?