Web Design & Digital Marketing Blog

The latest news & articles for Rhode Island Small Business Owners
Mar 24

What You Need to Know About Website Maintenance

By Creative Services, Website Design and Development, Wordpress Development

What happens after your website is completed and goes live? Can you simply sit back and watch the sales come in until it’s time to get another website years down the road? You could take that approach, but we wouldn’t recommend it. That would be something like buying a new truck for your business and then abandoning it after it needs a new tank of gas or an oil change. It’s much better, and more cost-effective over the long run, to simply invest a little bit of time and money into regular website maintenance. Because we know that might not be a topic you are very familiar with, today we’re going to share a few things you should know about keeping your company’s web presence in good working order… Website Maintenance Shouldn’t be Ignored The first thing to know about website maintenance is that it is important. Without it, the…

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Feb 27

SEO vs. PPC: Which One Do You Need?

By Digital Marketing, Search Engine Optimization

Which is a better way to find customers through your business website: search engine optimization (SEO) or pay-per-click advertising (PPC)? Ask that question, and you will find that there are many different passionate opinions and viewpoints out there – not just amongst web designers and online marketing professionals, but even within groups of business owners themselves. But which group is right? Before we can get to that answer, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each argument. What You Need to Know About SEO Proponents of organic search engine optimization will tell you that it’s more cost-effective over time to have customers find you in Google’s “normal” search listings than it is to pay for ad space. They’ll also tell you that a very low percentage of prospects actually click on paid ads and that PPC can get to be expensive very quickly. There are a lot…

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Feb 21
Wordpress Design

Why WordPress Makes a Great Platform for Your Business Website

By Website Design and Development, Wordpress Development

Are you thinking of launching a new business, or making some changes to your existing business website? If so, then you might be wondering what kind of content management system (CMS, WordPress) to start with. Naturally, your web design and development team is going to have some suggestions. However, we hope you’ll strongly consider building your business website on WordPress. Not only is it the world’s most popular CMS, but it brings several unique advantages. Here are just a few business owners should know about. WordPress is Very Inexpensive WordPress itself is entirely free to use. That’s not something you can say about every CMS. Besides, there are thousands of no-cost or very inexpensive plug-ins you can use to integrate shopping carts, inventory tools, currency converters, scheduling apps, and so much more. Add together what you would have spent on these with a different CMS, and it’s easy to see…

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Feb 21

Where Did My Web Designer Go?

By Client Services, Website Design and Development

Believe it or not, we hear different versions of this rhetorical question at least a couple times a month. In fact, when you are in our business, it’s easy to imagine dozens and dozens of web designers with their names displayed on milk cartons, or perhaps having been abducted by aliens. The sad fact of the matter is that clients often come to us because the web designers they were working with have simply disappeared. Sometimes this happens after a deposit has been paid, and on other occasions, it’s when the business owner needs urgent help with an existing site. No matter when it occurs, though, it’s never a good thing to find out that the person or company who put your web presence together is nowhere to be found. In an effort to help clear up some of the mystery, let’s look at a few reasons you might discover…

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Jan 28
building your website for customer personas

Are You Overlooking Someone Important on Your Website?

By Digital Marketing, Website Design and Development

One of the best things you can do, to give your business website focus and encourage conversions, is to think about your target audience. You want your pages to be designed and written for a specific type of persona so that it resonates with their needs, knowledge level, and emotional hot buttons. However, while most business owners and executives will have an easy time identifying one or more buyer personas, we try to remind them that there are other audiences for their content, too. Paying a little bit of attention to these other groups can make a website more profitable than it otherwise would be. So, who might you be overlooking on your website? Let’s consider a few groups that should be addressed on your pages. Overlooked Audiences for a Business Website Employees – are there online resources your employees could use, or that could save your company money? Good…

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Nov 13
hiring a new website designer

When is it Time to Hire a New Web Designer?

By Client Services, Website Design and Development No Comments

Often, when we meet with a prospective new client it isn’t someone launching a brand-new business. Instead, it’s the owner of an established company who has worked with another web designer in the past, or an executive looking for online marketing help that goes beyond the service they are already getting. In other words, these men and women made the tough call that it’s time to look at hiring a new web designer. Often, they’ve taken this step as a last resort, even though they know it’s the right thing for their business. Should you follow their lead? In today’s post we want to look at seven clear signs that it’s time to hire a new business web designer… #1 Your Website Looks Bad There just isn’t room for an ugly, non-functional, or badly organized website in today’s online marketing environment. Your competitors are only a click away on Google…

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Sep 09
Local SEO

Why Your Business Needs Local SEO

By Search Engine Optimization No Comments

There isn’t a lot in the world of online marketing that can be thought of as universal. What works for one company or situation might be wrong for another. Web design is as much of an art as it is a science, and differences between products and services, branding identities, and targeted customer audiences all point towards unique solutions for different clients. However, it’s almost always the case that we recommend business owners have their websites optimized for local search engine optimization. It’s a step that makes sense for almost everyone, regardless of what market or industry the company is in. To help you understand why, let’s look at a few things you need to know… Local SEO Gives You a Competitive Boost Many business owners don’t realize this, but Google doesn’t handle all searches in the same way. In other words, what you see when you search a term…

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May 21
Social media marketing rhode island

How To Use Social Media Productively in Your Business

By Social Media Marketing No Comments

Just about every business owner and executive in Rhode Island or even the rest of the world uses social media. But I would say that a small minority uses social platforms productively. That’s because some aren’t bothering to market their businesses through social media at all, and a lot of those who are trying aren’t getting results. There are several reasons for this disconnect. On one end of the spectrum, you have business people who claim that “social media marketing just doesn’t work.” Experience has shown me that they are incorrect, and are missing out on one of the biggest opportunities available to small and medium-sized businesses in decades as a result. On the other side, you have hundreds of thousands who are attempting to get customers and build relationships through Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites, but just aren’t getting any traction. I’m going to walk you through the…

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Jan 02
digital marketing concepts

5 Ways to Prepare Your Website for 2019

By Content Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Website Design and Development No Comments

Is your business website ready for 2019? Or, like a lot of business owners, have you put off making little improvements and upgrades and put yourself at a competitive disadvantage over the last couple of years? Don’t worry if you haven’t been keeping up with the latest web design trends, or if you aren’t sure whether your site doesn’t have all the tools and features it should. In today’s post, we are going to run you through five fast and simple ways you can check your web presence to see if you’re prepared for a new year. Let’s start with something you might not have immediately considered… #1 Check Your Website’s Speed When most business owners think about the condition of their website they think in terms of aesthetics – the look, layout, images, etc. That’s certainly important, but speed is quickly becoming a big determinant of whether customers will…

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Aug 15
Social Media for Small business

5 Reasons Your Website Might Not be Generating Leads

By Website Design and Development No Comments

For most of the business owners we work with, the whole point of investing in a website is to get more sales opportunities. What do you do, though, when you aren’t getting leads… or when you used to receive customer inquiries through your website but don’t anymore? Finding the solution is often a matter of correctly identifying the problem. Today, we want to look at five common reasons your website might not be generating as many leads as it should… #1 No One Can Find Your Website You aren’t going to get leads from your website if no one is bothering to visit your website. That’s just the way math works. For that reason, a good first step toward fixing your lead drought might be to study your web analytics and see what kinds of traffic sources you have. It may be that you need to step up your efforts…

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