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How to Use Business Reviews to Boost Your Organic Search Results

Your business is awesome. You know it, we know it, but do your potential customers know how great you are? Having a wealth of happy customers may be the best word of mouth strategy but it does little to boost your organic search results online. When you transfer this word of mouth power to the Web great things happen! This is why many businesses are including online business reviews as part of their overall search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. You can use business reviews to boost your organic search results and drive additional traffic to your website. Online business reviews may be just the confidence boost your potential customers need before clicking on your link. [text_with_frame id="368c1dbfefba91dceb946d322e0e86bc" content="‹¨›p‹˜›‹¨›em‹˜›If you find this article helpful consider giving it a share‹¯›nbsp;‹¨›/em‹˜›?‹¨›/p‹˜›" line_color="rgba(0,0,0,.07)" text_font="body" heading_font="heading" animation="none" animation_speed="2" animation_delay="0" __fw_editor_shortcodes_id="e6852c2dacc162bc8c34ba646905e841" _fw_coder="aggressive"][/text_with_frame] Searchers Rely on Business Reviews Many of your ideal customers do not know who you are yet. They need to be introduced to you and your great product or service. Unfortunately, too many people think of online marketing as tricking the-great-Google-list-making-robot into including you near the top of its list. To the contrary, successful online marketing is about building relationships - not lists. Someone needs to introduce your ideal customer to you - their ideal solution. That someone is often Google. Yet Google listing you doesn't carry much emotional weight. Searchers tend to trust you more if you are on page one but there is still little emotional connection. Relational marketing happens often on social media. Yet it can happen on Google, Yelp, and industry specific websites as well! Business reviews are one of the most effective means of having your business introduced to…

The Mobile Trend

Online browsing habits have changed greatly over the last decade. No longer are users relying on their PCs for opening your emails, searching for your services, or purchasing your products. The majority of hours spent, search queries made, and emails opened are now from mobile devices. The smartphone trend has changed and will continue to change the Web. A slew of new smartphones are expected in 2018 including new iPhones (likely a total of three new handsets), new Google Pixels, and the LG G7. Innovation in mobile has slowed but not stopped with manufacturers now releasing handsets with always listening voice assistants, multiple cameras to detect depth, facial recognition, and processors faster than most office PCs. Thankfully your website can look beautiful on these mobile devices. You may not even need to completely rebuild your website to accomplish this. There are multiple solutions to mobile optimize your website including separate mobile URLs, adaptive design, and responsive design. Regardless of which method you choose to optimize your site the statistics show that your website must be mobile optimized to continue to generate traffic and convert visitors. An outstanding website is mobile optimized. Sales In 2016 the CEO of Intel, Brian Krzanich, stated that the upgrade cycle for PCs was slowing from an average of four years to an average of five to six years. He stated that "Right now, it's easier to move your phone to a new phone than your PC to a new PC". This comparison is telling. Buyers are using their phones to replace some of what their PCs do and PC sales are suffering. At the close of 2016 smartphone buyers were upgrading their devices at an…

How Your Business Can Leverage Google’s Longer Search Snippets

What is a search snippet? A search snippet is a description of or an excerpt from a webpage. The descriptions you see in search engine result pages (SERPs) are search snippets. What is a meta-description? A meta-description is a description of a webpage set by the site itself using structured metadata. Many search snippets you see in SERPs are set by the pages' meta-descriptions. What did Google change? Google has doubled the maximum length of search snippets from 160 characters to 320 characters. It is important to note that Google has not expanded all search snippets. So some web pages will show longer search snippets and some will continue to show shorter snippets depending on the meta-descriptions set and the search queries made. [text_with_frame id="368c1dbfefba91dceb946d322e0e86bc" content="‹¨›p‹˜›‹¨›em‹˜›If you find this article helpful consider giving it a share‹¯›nbsp;‹¨›/em‹˜›?‹¨›/p‹˜›" line_color="rgba(0,0,0,.07)" text_font="body" heading_font="heading" animation="none" animation_speed="2" animation_delay="0" __fw_editor_shortcodes_id="e6852c2dacc162bc8c34ba646905e841" _fw_coder="aggressive"][/text_with_frame] Will your existing links show longer search snippets? Your existing links may or may not show longer search snippets. Whether they do or not depends on what is searched for, the content you have written on your page, and the meta description you have set. There are two types of search snippets that show in SERPs: 1. Search snippets generated from your page's content Most of the longer search snippets Google is showing are excepts from webpages. This allows them to better show the context of keywords within the body of a webpage. When someone searches for something on Google - like a "free coloring page" (hey, I print stuff for my toddlers, alright?) - Google will return results relevant to those keywords. Some of these results will show longer snippets lifted from the webpage. 2.…

How to Create a Search Engine Optimized Company Timeline Using HTML and CSS

In this post we are going to demo how to create a search engine optimized company timeline using HTML and CSS. Company timelines are a common feature of business website about pages. Some visitors want to know where your organization has come from (and where it is going). And, let's be honest, most businesses like to show their growth over the years. Some companies design their timelines as a simple list - like Starbucks: Other companies design interactive timelines with accompanying media - like Ford: In this post you will learn how to create a company timeline using HTML and CSS that looks beautiful but stays simple. This method also maintains proper HTML heading structure so that search engines can easily index your timeline. You can use this method yourself on nearly any website. Our timeline will be stylized but simple. When we are finished we will have something that looks like this: [text_with_frame id="368c1dbfefba91dceb946d322e0e86bc" content="‹¨›p‹˜›‹¨›em‹˜›If you find this article helpful consider giving it a share‹¯›nbsp;‹¨›/em‹˜›?‹¨›/p‹˜›" line_color="rgba(0,0,0,.07)" text_font="body" heading_font="heading" animation="none" animation_speed="2" animation_delay="0" __fw_editor_shortcodes_id="e6852c2dacc162bc8c34ba646905e841" _fw_coder="aggressive"][/text_with_frame] Step 1: Write Your Timeline's Content Before you get to any HTML or CSS go ahead and write up your timeline. Here's ours: Rystedt Creative Origins Timeline 1994 - Gabrielle picks up a blue crayon and writes her name - a writer is born. 2002 - Joshua builds a PC and checks out some books on HTML from the library. 2005 - Joshua begins regular web maintenance for a display product retailer. 2007 - Joshua begins offering web-development consultation to organizations as a young word of mouth freelancer. 2013 - Gabrielle graduates college with a BS in business administration. Joshua and Gabrielle get married but don't…

Stock Photos are Killing Your Image (And What to Do About It)

Stock photos… To use them or not? Is that a question you’ve been considering for your brand? As a new year approaches, you may be reevaluating your content branding strategies to make a more solid impact in 2018. When it comes to your brand, there are some obvious refresh points to cover, like website design, written content and online marketing strategy. But some less obvious detractors - like stock photos - may be lurking on your site and harming your brand without your knowledge. [text_with_frame id="368c1dbfefba91dceb946d322e0e86bc" content="‹¨›p‹˜›‹¨›em‹˜›If you find this article helpful consider giving it a share‹¯›nbsp;‹¨›/em‹˜›?‹¨›/p‹˜›" line_color="rgba(0,0,0,.07)" text_font="body" heading_font="heading" animation="none" animation_speed="2" animation_delay="0" __fw_editor_shortcodes_id="e6852c2dacc162bc8c34ba646905e841" _fw_coder="aggressive"][/text_with_frame] Take in the Whole Picture Images are a great way to tell a story, and indeed, image-driven marketing continues to perform well year over year. There’s a lot of pressure to deliver a glossy picture-rich site and churn out clickable social media content on popular image sharing sites (notably Pinterest and Instagram). If a picture says a thousand words, then your site and social media images have a lot to say about your brand. What are they saying? A thoughtful, visually driven photo campaign can powerfully impact your brand’s messaging across platforms. But if you’re not delivering photography services, this may be difficult to achieve. After all, you’ve got content to write, clients to meet with or widgets to make. In an effort to save time, and maybe a little cash, you may be tempted to turn to stock photos to tell your story for you. However, they may be costing you more than you think. Yes, stock photos tell a story, and it’s not your story. Consider brands with websites that you really connect…

Introduction to Structured Metadata

Your website should help search engines and social networks understand it. Your content is designed and written for your visitors. Typically website owners expect Google, Facebook, Twitter, and others to just understand that content and display it logically. That usually works. Search engine crawlers have become quite advanced and social networks can often just pull an image and a text snippet. But what if you could ensure which title, description, and image show on Google, Facebook, Twitter, and beyond? Well you can with structured metadata! Help search engines understand your website Structured metadata is important content but it isn't visible to your visitors. Metadata is content written specifically for search engines and social networks.Structured metadata can be used to inform search engines what title and description to use for a page, what your hours are, what your logo is, who wrote an article, what a recipe's content is, and more. Structured metadata can also be used to tell Facebook and Twitter what titles, descriptions, and images to use. With different metadata styles you can even force your pages to appear differently on different platforms.Metadata doesn't directly improve your search rankings. However, it does eliminate the element of chance in how your links display. Usually if you can define how your links appear you can increase your click through rate. You know, perhaps better than anyone else, what your audience is looking for. Make sure that Google, Facebook, Twitter, and others are displaying your site the way you want them to.Structured metadata is quickly transcending its once exclusive purpose as a search engine tool. If you send a link to an iPhone user they now see a preview of the webpage…

Where’d All The People Go? Understanding Bounce Rates And What To Do About It

Does your website have what it takes to hook visitors in and get them to stick around for a while? Maybe you’ve considered this concept at length and are doing everything you can to make your website a virtual lounge where people like to come and just hang out. Or perhaps you haven’t really given it much thought. Regardless of which camp you fall into, it’s important as a site owner to understand why your customers come to your website and how to get them to stick around. Often, people come to a website and stick around only long enough to realize they just don’t want to be there. And of course, for web pros like us, there’s a nice fancy phrase to explain those visits: bounce rate. Your bounce rate is calculated by measuring the number of visitors that click onto your page - through whatever means you may attract them: web searches, social media links, backlinks on other sites, opened emails, etc. - and almost immediately click to exit. A high bounce rate, meaning that you have a bunch of visitors that only stick around to see next to nothing, is not good for your website health. Think about it: the customers that you’re going to convert into sales are the ones who stick around to see what you have to say/what products you have to offer. When people are sticking around for less time than the average yawn, they’re not seeing the content that you’ve developed to draw them in. And worse, they’re certainly not sticking around long enough to make a purchasing decision. We all want a lower bounce rate. Part of accomplishing this is to…

Website Self-Evaluation

Some organizations contact us because they are aware that their websites need improvement but they are unsure what exactly needs to be done. In order to assist these organizations in prioritizing their web-work we provide free website evaluations and initial consultations (contact us if you want to take advantage of these services). To complement our evaluations and consultations we have developed this website self-evaluation. Don't just take our word for it - evaluate your own website! We encourage you to download the PDF version of this document for use in your organization. Call a meeting of the decision makers and knowledgable leaders within your organization, load your website, and discuss the questions for the sections relevant to you. Purpose: Should our website primarily be for members/employees or non-members/customers? (This is your audience) What content is our audience looking for? Is that content easily available on our website? What content is our audience looking for that is either missing or difficult to find? Design: What is the atmosphere of our organization/business? Does our website’s design reflect that atmosphere? Why or why not? How could our website better reflect that atmosphere? Is our website easy to navigate? (For example: Are the contact and blog pages where you would expect in the menu?) Is our site mobile optimized? Engagement: What is the most natural way for our audience to contact us? Is that contact info available on every page? Is there a way to streamline this contact method? (For example: a contact form is better than an email address and a social media feed is better than a social media link.) How easy is it for website visitors to share…

Rocket Active Gear

"Joshua at Rystedt Creative was beyond helpful when we ran into technical issues with our website. His extensive Wordpress and Woocommerce knowledge helped to answer all of our web development questions. He was always available with a friendly demeanor and ready to talk us through our questions and what needed to be edited or changed on the website, and even showed us via screen-share the exact steps necessary. We greatly enjoyed working with Joshua and would recommend him to anyone!" - Mallory Olson, Rocket Active Gear and Elk Creek Designs Rystedt Creative recently assisted with the launch of rocketactivegear.com. Rocket Active Gear sells active gear such as camping, cycling, and hiking products through their WordPress powered store. Like Rystedt Creative, Rocket Active Gear is based in Maryland. Upon running into some roadblocks that they were unable to solve or were spending too much time attempting to puzzle out Rocket Active Gear asked Rystedt Creative to assist them in launching the site. Part of our time was spent researching possible causes of problems they were experiencing, providing recommendations for possible solutions, and demoing those solutions. We also assisted Rocket Active Gear by... Building a custom product category navigation menu The theme powered product category navigation they were attempting to use was not compatible with some of the other software powering the site and caused numerous bugs that complicated the navigation of the site. We disabled the offending navigation software, built a category navigation menu, implemented it, and thoroughly tested it. Now Rocket Active Gear is easy to navigate. Installing recommended solution to bundle a free gift with a customer's purchase Rocket Active Gear wanted an option to offer a free downloadable…

Why Your Website Needs a Blog

Your website needs a blog. Yes, yours. Whether you are painting houses, equipping non-profits, or selling herbal remedies for cats, a blog will demonstrate your authority in your field, increase traffic to your website, and increase lead conversions and sales. Ideally your phone is ringing off the hook with potential clients who were recommended to you and you have more work than you can handle. If this isn't the case for you then your organization needs a robust inbound marketing strategy. Inbound marketing is the creation of content that brings potential customers to you rather than requiring your marketers to always go to them. Most successful businesses generate sales through a combination of referrals, inbound marketing, and cold contacts. Inbound marketing has a higher return on investment than cold contacts and consequently is one of the most effective marketing strategies. At the top of the inbound marketing list of methods is leveraging blog content. According to HubSpot's State of Inbound 2017 report, 53% of marketers consider blog content creation as their top inbound marketing priority. Marketers are pushing blog content creation because it works and it will work for you if implement it well. Whatever it is you do you have blog potential. Some organizations think that what they do doesn't lend itself to a blog. Yet potential customers want to know about you, what you do, and how to improve their lives. If you sell feline herbal remedies, for example, write about how to cure common illnesses, how to improve your cat's activity level, how to encourage healthy mental development, debunk common myths about herbal remedies, give behind the scenes looks at your company, etc. Get creative and get…

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