December 2016 – ACS Reduc 2022

Get Your Web Design On: Best Practices for 2017 Part One

December 28, 2016

December is our time for peace, presents and annual lists reflecting on everything under the sun. As a full-service DC web design company, we would be remiss if we didn’t do a little reflecting on our own industry, specifically how web design has evolved in the last 12 months and where we believe the trends are headed. (Here’s a hint: Google’s Material Design Guidelines will play a big role).

It’s how we stay ahead of the industry curve and, more critically, how we help our clients outpace their competitors online. With offices in Maryland and Virginia, we have a slew of web designers in our immediate community. We polled DC web design, Baltimore web design and Charleston web design gurus to get a feel for the past year and what the future of web design holds. Here’s our list of best practices for 2017, broken into two parts.

Part 1: Trends for Look and Feel

1. Go bold.

As mentioned above, Google’s Material Design Guidelines are leading the way in terms of future trends. Not a surprise. Google has been stomping out its search engine competitors with innovative platforms for the last few years. In 2014, the company began developing guidelines for web design best practices. If you want your company to rank high on Google searches, understanding and complying with their suggestions is a no brainer.

For 2017, Google is pushing bold, both in terms of color palette and font. Gone are the ubiquitous white backgrounds of the past. Bright, flat colors wisely implemented can help guide the user experience and set your brand’s tone. Think blues and yellows and purples. Don’t be shy. Color is in. You can also use variations in hues to create elevations and shadows similar to how you might design a print piece. Check out the use of color on this website by So So Tasty. The yellows and oranges pull browsers in, as does the large type and interesting font.

Speaking of type, bold type will get you everywhere. And with Google web fonts, (our DC web design folk are huge fans) web designers are no longer relegated to Arial and Helvetica. They can choose from 810 web-friendly font families. Using type to differentiate your brand has never been easier. The upshot: if you want your website to get noticed on the web, be bold.

2. Duotones will be all the rage.

A subset of using bold, bright colors is the latest design trend: duotones. Duotones is the practice of using a halftone reproduction of an image that superimposes one contrasting color halftone (traditionally black) over another color halftone. This highlights the middle tones of an image. Typically, you choose a color like blue, red or yellow to superimpose over the black.

Our Charleston web design team likes the bold minimalism that duotones allow them to create. For example, see this website for UK headhunting agency, Holm, Marcher & Co. The use of duotone transforms this rather ho hum image into a much more interesting visual. It also allows the company’s key messages to stand out on the page—which is critical to any company on the web. Duotones is a great tool to “wow” users for a specific reason, and Google really likes when your design serves an intentional purpose.

3. Less is always more.

If you want your website to have impact, minimize your use of images and keep your content concise. That doesn’t mean you can’t share a boatload of information. You can, as long as that information is designed in a manner that the visitor can take in without getting overwhelmed. Keep in mind that you no longer need to fit all your key messages above the fold—a practice borrowed from newspapers. Websites are not newspapers. They scroll. The rise of responsive sites that work across all mobile devices has made user-friendly scrolling sites all the more popular.

Our Baltimore web design uses a mobile first approach when it comes to web design. Since an increasing majority of people browse the web on their mobile devices, considering what works best on mobile before desktop is sure to gain you some favor from Google’s new mobile-encouraging policies. Basically, choose your images and your key messages wisely. Then design them in a manner that is both appealing to the eye and communicates information quickly and efficiently across all platforms.

4. Say no to stock.

Royalty-free, generic stock images don’t appeal to anyone. Nor do they differentiate your brand from competitors—especially since those competitors are free to use the same images. Your best bet is to invest in a few really good images that you own to convey the essence of your brand. Otherwise you will look like everyone else on the web. Alternatively, you can use vector stock images that can be customized to your needs. Whatever you can do to avoid bad photography, do it. If the image doesn’t attract you, it’s not going to attract visitors either.

5. Think outside the grid.

Responsive websites have led to the grid revolution. Because of the way they reconfigure across different browser widths, responsive sites are built in sections of rectangles and squares that can move under and above each other. Responsive technology was a great advancement in mobile friendly web design. However, it has its drawbacks. Namely, really creative layouts have disappeared as designers parcel content into similarly shaped, geometric boxes. But it doesn’t have to be this way. There are new CSS frameworks on the horizon that allow for more flexibility, including the ability to create non-rectangular layouts. So web designers should feel free to stretch their layout imaginations. The technology is catching up.

Cultivate Your Garden of Good Online Reviews

December 21, 2016

Earning five star reviews and positive online feedback is the kind of effective marketing that can really nurture your business. Why? Because almost everybody reads them. BrightLocal’s 2015 Local Consumer Study showed that 92% of consumers tend to consult online reviews when researching a local business. So what others say about your small business can critically affect your ability to attract new customers.

Those reviews also influence your Google search engine rankings. A similar study by Moz.com reported that the quality and frequency of online reviews account for over 8% of your company’s local search engine ranking—more than Facebook likes and Twitter followers. Taken together, these stats suggest that positive online reviews, and developing marketing strategies to leverage them, are key to your profitability. Unfortunately, good reviews don’t grow on trees. You need to plant a few virtual seeds in order for them to grow.

Five ways to grow online reviews.

The first step to setting up your good review garden is developing marketing strategies that include actionable items. Meaning you need to ask for reviews and respond to online feedback. But, and this is a big but, a lot of sites have rules regarding how you can solicit reviews. Here’s how you can successfully encourage consumers to give you five stars without incurring the wrath of the review gods.

1. Check-in, please.

A surprisingly high number of folks like to “check-in” when they arrive at a restaurant, shop or event. This is an especially effective marketing tool for avoiding Yelp’s spam filters that weed out review requests and seemingly fake reviews. So in addition to asking consumers who frequent your place to write a review, encourage them to check-in on their Yelp app. Yelp will then take on the task of asking those that checked-in to write a review for you.

If you’re one of those business owners who feels uncomfortable requesting reviews, then this strategy is particularly good for you. Yelp does all the work and you get the stars—and those stars have been proven to raise revenue. A study by UC Berkeley looking at reservation rates among independent restaurants in San Francisco showed that reservations grew by 19% with just an extra half star increase on Yelp. If you want a simple “how to expand your business strategy”, getting active on Yelp by responding to feedback (both the good and the bad) can do wonders.

2. Claim your Google My Business listing.

First it was Google+ Local. Then it was Google Places. Now the 100lb gorilla of the internet has evolved its tools for small businesses into Google My Business. This change is an effort to streamline the management of your company’s Google presence and make it easier for you to improve your business. There’s no charge to claim your Google My Business page, but if you don’t use it, leaving it out there could cost you profits. According to Google, the benefits you’ll reap include:

Putting your business front and center on searches
Displaying company location and hours right in the search
Including pictures and a virtual tour
Showing off your company reputation with those stars you’ve earned
Ability to respond to reviews and track what consumers say about you online
See how many clicks and calls your business is getting

No effective marketing strategy should be without a Google My Business plan. Not only will this drive more traffic to your website, but you’ll be able to instantly gauge how consumers feel about your company.

3. Don’t be shy about asking.

Those loyal customers you’ve spent years doing business with are happy to tout your services. They are probably doing so already. So why not formalize the review process by including a post-purchase eblast campaign when developing your marketing strategies? These eblasts can include a personalized thank you for your customer’s business as well as a link to leave a Google review.

Similarly, many review sites offer widgets you can place on your own site to facilitate reviews. The trick to those beaucoup 5 stars is to make writing a review on a business as easy as possible. You also want to let your customers know that their feedback is much appreciated. Take a second to respond to the review online. That kind of engagement with your customers can really improve your SEO reputation management.

4. Incentivize. Incentive. Incentive.

When it comes to effective marketing, a review rewards program should also be on the top of your strategy list. Many companies offer extra loyalty points or small discounts in exchange for a customer business review. There is nothing wrong with thanking customers for taking the time to write about your company online.

5. Don’t forget the little guys.

While Google and Yelp are the biggest go-tos for searches and ratings, other search engines and review sites are worth pursuing. Yahoo! still gets 10% of searches, and it costs nothing to set your business up on Yahoo! Local Listings. It’s similar to Google My Business and helps your website rankings. Foursquare, Trustpilot and MerchantCircle are all worthy of consideration as well. After all, a good review anywhere is likely to help grow your business. Some of these review sites also make it very easy to share your reviews on social media—which you should do. If a customer says something nice, spread the word.

SEO reputation management can get a little overwhelming for busy small businesses. That’s where ACS Creative comes in. We’ve got these strategies and many more ready to serve your company. Contact us to learn more about boosting your online reviews.

Boosting Your Word-of-Internet

December 14, 2016

Once upon a time in the not so distant past, people asked their friends and colleagues for recommendations regarding everything from plumbers to restaurants. “Hey, anyone got a handyman?” you’d say, and someone would scribble down a phone number and slide it over. This still happens, of course, but in today’s “Just-Google-It” world, our circle of trusted referring folk includes the entire planet.

We want a restaurant, we go to Yelp. Backyard need sprucing up? Try Angie’s List. The number and popularity of websites dedicated to crowd-sourcing reviews is growing. Google is also in on the act. Its star ratings appear right in the search results and influence which links consumers click. The upshot: If your company reputation is not promoted online, then you are losing out on potential business. Word-of-internet is the new word-of-mouth. What people say about your company online can and will affect your profits. We outline below how to improve business, utilizing online reputation management.

How’s your online company reputation?

According to a 2014 online survey by BrightLocal, 88% of consumers trust online reviews—that’s almost everyone. Plus 40% of those consulting online reviews form their opinions of a company after reading only three entries. That means you have little time to forge a positive first virtual impression. When there’s fierce competition for your product or service, consumers’ initial reactions to your company can be critical to your revenue. That’s why a savvy marketing strategy for managing online reviews should be at the top of every company’s “To Do” list. ACS can help with the ins and outs of creating a lead-generating company reputation online. After all, developing marketing strategies for small businesses is what we do.

How to improve business with stars.

Or thumbs up or little smiley faces or whatever other icons review sites are using these days to let the world know your company is worth a try. Studies show that 31% of customers are likely to spend more on businesses with positive reviews, so you want to hoard these icons and communicate a positive online reputation to everyone searching for your company, products or services.

With millions seeking reviews on Google, setting up your business for success with Google is particularly important. Their 5-star rating appears right on the search page. Consumers don’t have to visit Yelp or another review site. Your company reputation is thrust front and center, and your bottom line will be affected by the number of Google stars you have under your name. The website Marketcharts states that overall star rating remains the most important factor for consumers when judging a local business on its reviews. Google shows the consumer stars before they even click through to your website. Google also pays attention to your star rating. The more stars you have, the higher you will rank when consumers search for your products and services.

Good reviews are not luck.

All those companies with high ratings and hundreds of positive reviews didn’t get them by chance. A positive and prolific company reputation is the result of a smart marketing strategy. You can offer the best products and services in the world, but this will not help you generate business online if you are not spreading the virtual word and developing a stellar online presence. ACS recommends a two-fold approach to generating more online reviews.

Step one: The first part of your online marketing plan is building a website that is modern, responsive (meaning it automatically adjusts to mobile and desktop viewing) and makes consumers feel good about your company. A dated-looking website that does not work well or makes information hard to find will be a ding on your online reputation. This is no different than having a messy store or slow service at your restaurant. The appearance and functionality of your company’s website will influence both your sales and your future reviews.

Cultivate a feel-good customer relationship.

Step two: In addition to a friendly and helpful website, you want to engage in regular email marketing—this really is the key to increasing business through good reviews. Now we’re not talking spam here or begging customers to give you 5 out of 5. The purpose of email marketing is to provide relevant and useful content that cultivates loyalty. If you nurture your customer relationships, those customers will write glowing reviews. They’ll be happy to do it when prompted. Then those reviews will attract new customers who will write more positive reviews and so on and so on. The equation is really simple:

Great product/service + well-designed site + skilled email marketing = positive reviews.

Oops, got a bad one.

Unfortunately, negative reviews happen even to the best of companies. Fortunately, here’s the real advantage of online reviews: you can respond to negative ones. Unlike before when you had no idea if someone was verbally trashing your company’s reputation, these days you can reply to the upset customer—and it is important to reply.

Keep in mind that your response is not just for them. It’s for everyone reading the review. If you let the negative review go unanswered, potential customers won’t know if your company stands by its products and services. You may never be able to satisfy the writer of the negative review, but you can sure let the world know that you tried—and this is critical to managing your company reputation online. Plus sites like Yelp and others do monitor reviews. You can request that a particularly vicious and unfounded review be removed. It is important to have a marketing strategy for dealing with negative reviews promptly.

To Wix or Not To Wix

December 7, 2016

That is the question a lot of website-seeking small businesses ask themselves. At first blush, Wix appears to be a great solution. It offers drag and drop features that allow you to create a website in an afternoon despite zero knowledge of CSS or SEO or any code at all. It sounds like a non-developer’s dream come true.

For many individuals then, the Wix vs WordPress dilemma is an easy one to answer: go with Wix. It is simpler than WordPress and currently boasts over 1 million websites.

But here’s the catch: if you are not an individual looking to give travel advice or chronicle the life of your cat, the website-in-an-afternoon route is not going to cut it. If instead, you are an entrepreneur or a small business owner who wants to harness the power of the web to build your company, you want a web development company that creates responsive, high Google ranking websites designed to perform. Here are the whys:

Why #1: Wix vs WordPress is like Apples vs Oranges.

The first big difference between WordPress and Wix is that WordPress is a free, open source platform for creating websites. Wix technology is not open source. Wix allows you to create free websites using a basic level of the company’s technology. The company earns money by charging for premium upgrades. So, if you want fancy things like Google Analytics (you do want this if you are a small business), e-commerce or extra storage, there is a Wix cost. You pay a small monthly fee that ranges from $14-$25 a month. This includes hosting by Wix. Important to note: you can only host your Wix website on Wix.

In contrast, WordPress technology is free for everyone and anyone. You can host your freebie site with WordPress.org for a nominal amount, or you can host your site elsewhere. That is why over 26 percent of the world’s top 10 million websites are built in WordPress. The thousands and thousands of available plugins also add to WordPress’s robust capabilities. WordPress web developers far outnumber Wix web designers for this reason.

Think of a Wix website like a coloring book. You buy the book and add the colors you like between the fixed lines. You need nothing more than the ability to pick out colors to create a cute website. WordPress is like a blank page. It requires some skill and knowledge to create a WordPress website, but you can hire a web development company to create exactly what you need for your particular business. You don’t have to stay between the lines, and that’s really important because in the future, you might need to change your picture. With Wix, you can’t change, which brings us to….

Why #2: Wix themes cannot be updated.

Wix does offer several hundred themes to choose from on their site. This might seem like plenty to you now, and you might think you’ve found the perfect one for your small business, but your business is going to grow. That theme which first caught your eye might not accommodate your business’s future sales channels. Unfortunately, you are stuck with it like a virtual tattoo. Wix does not allow you to switch your theme. You have to build a new website from scratch. This is a big disadvantage.

Looking again at WordPress vs. Wix, WordPress is the far better choice here. Because of that open source thing, there are thousands upon thousands of WordPress themes available to your developer. Your web design company may have even developed its own proprietary theme for its customers use. Plus, WordPress themes tend to be highly customizable.

Wix themes are more rigid. Layouts are typically pre-determined, and you can only drop in pictures and words. Lastly, and most critically, you can interchange WordPress themes. You can switch your theme by simply uploading and activating a new one. Sure, you may have to go back and reconfigure your content to your new theme, but that’s a whole lot easier than starting from scratch. This is why good web designers prefer WordPress over Wix. Wix puts your web content into an existing box. WordPress lets you design the box and change it at will.

Why #3: Wix e-commerce is relatively basic.

If you really want to set up shop online, the free Wix platform and even some of its premium upgrades do not have the capability for sophisticated shopping transactions. They lack the ability to automate confirmation emails. This is a problem even for micro businesses. Eventually, you might get bigger and need a more robust platform that automates some business and marketing functions. Imagine having to manually send out purchase confirmations 100 times a day!

Wix did recently introduce a new market app that allows you to configure sales tax, integrate with Shopify and build a bigger online store with some new automated features. However, it’s one app. With WordPress, you can choose from many e-commerce themes and plugins. Your savvy WordPress designer can also configure your web store to your shop’s needs. Again, the WordPress vs. Wix question leans towards WordPress.

In the end, we’re talking flexibility.

Ultimately, when deciding between Wix and WordPress, you have to consider the future vs. the now. The website you need today may not be the same site you need tomorrow. This is an important factor for small businesses. You may not be able to pre-determine the features you’ll require as your business grows, but your business is going to grow.

The high customization and numerous integrations available with WordPress make it the smarter choice. And, yes, building a WordPress site on your own is not as easy as creating one on Wix or the dozens of other website builder platforms available. To that we say: hire a web designer. Make the investment in your company’s online presence. It’s sure to pay back dividends.