We at Advanced Digital believe one of the most important factors in creating an effective design for web or print is a client-designer relationship. 1-on-1 meetings with our clients throughout the process fosters not only an end product wherein you, the client, are happy but also leaves little room for surprises.

Initial Web Design Meeting: Everyone wants more clients or an increased revenue, but what are the specific goals of your business? Are you looking to sell a specific product or service? How long have you been in business? What colors are your brand? These questions and more are what will be gone over during the initial design meeting.

During this initial design meeting, we also request a few things from our clients, such as written content, photos, etc. As well, we will go over designs that highlight different functionalities (social media integration, IDX Real Estate search features, etc). The overall goal for the initial web design meeting is for our designer to obtain as much information as possible in order to begin creating a product that is in line with your vision.

Design Presentation: After our initial design meeting, the team will put together unique and effective designs for your company’s consumers. This meeting allows you to give feedback on designs and make any changes such as the color scheme, content layout, etc. Once we have your feedback, we will make the requested changes or move forward to our finalizing process. It is truly a collaborative effort.

Final Presentation: For websites, we will present you with their programmed website, account information and set up a training session if it is needed. All photos and content have been populated. By this point you should see a final product that includes much, if not all, that was discussed in your initial design meeting as well as the design presentation. As we said, our goal is to present you with a product that best represents your brand based on an effective and collaborative client-designer relationship.

We pride ourselves on the ability to build and maintain client relationships. All of our services are collaborative efforts so you are not left in the dark.

Companies using social media to connect with potential customers is becoming increasingly popular. Small and large companies are able to reach an increased number of people by sharing a tweet, Facebook post or an Instagram photo.

Improve Customer Service

Having a consistent and positive relationship with your customers plays an important role in having their repeat business. Google+ and Facebook allow consumers to leave reviews, which can be responded to easily. Many believe that you get a better look into a company’s customer service based on not only how but as well as how often a business interacts with their client base on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, G+, etc. Ensure you are replying to users in a timely fashion, as well as in a professional – but engaging – demeanor, much like you would if you were interacting with them in person.

Expand Your Audience

The sharing of content, likes and follows show that consumers trust your business and services. Much like your website has no “closing hours” and can be accessed at any time of day, your social media profiles are set up the same way. Utilizing hashtags is a great way to expand your audience. By applying relevant hashtags to your posts, you’re increasing the probability of customers finding your services while searching. Customers are able to learn more about your business and your brand at any time, on any day. Your business’ brand representation should be consistent on both social media platforms as well as your website.

Increase Organic Search Engine Rankings

Not only are your social media pages encouraging external links to your website, but it also helps you gain authority in the eyes of search engines. If the content you’re adding is original and useful, it will increase engagement and show that your business is trusted by consumers. Google’s most recent algorithm now makes it so that all likes, shares, favorites and replies count towards the increased authority of your website providing of the interactions are genuine and not bought through proxies.

Establish Trust with Consumers

Studies show that 7 out of 10 consumers prefer to do business with a company that has a presence on social media. As social media has become such a staple in our every day life, it is understandable that consumers would want to do business with a company that is up to date with current trends and likely making them more accessible. Reviews on your pages, likes and shares on any platform show potential customers you can be trusted with your services due to the nature of the full transparency that comes with social media.

With over 78% of of Americans having social media profiles, it is important for businesses to utilize the marketing opportunities platforms offer.

Keyword research starts a foundation for search engine optimization, as it allows you to understand what your customers are searching for when it comes to your business. There are three questions you should ask yourself when searching off your research:

• How frequently is the keyword phrase searched?
• Are the terms relevant to your business?
• How competitive are the keyword phrases?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is not a one time task. Your website needs to constantly and consistently be updated with fresh and relevant information. Knowing the number of people searching for a keyword phrase may influence which services you target first. You may find the number of times a keyword phrases is searched increases based on how competitive the market is.

It is important to remember you are creating content for your consumers, not for a search engine. Narrowing down phrases that are relevant to your business will help you decide what content needs to be created.

Keyword Research Tools

Moz Research Tool – Launched in May of this year, the Moz team brings you an extensive tool to best help you with keyword phrases analysis. After plugging in a keyword phrase for research, you will receive keyword phrase data including but not limited too: additional keyword phrase suggestions, search engine result page (SERP) analysis, and keyword phrase metrics.
Google AdWords – This tool provides you with the number of times a phrase is being searched and offers new suggestions you could be missing. It important to remember, they will not show keyword phrases that have an extremely low search rate.
Google Analytics – Find the keyword phrases people are searching for when it comes to your website. With this tool you will also be able to determine not only what keyword phrases people are searching, but also what area’s the keywords are being searched from. You may find that one particular keyword phrase garners more traffic based out of one city more than it would in another city that you business targets.

By combining all of these tools together, you are now well equipped to answer the core three questions and begin to increase your organic search result ranking.

Chances are you have heard the phrase, “Content is king,” from your marketing or search engine optimization team at one point or another in the last few years. It’s a valid statement. But with all of our talk about the aesthetics of your website, you may be asking yourself: “Why is content important to the first impression of a website?”

To put it simply, the content is going to communicate to users your services and why they should trust you. With a brick-and-mortar store, for example, during hours of operation anyone is free to walk in and speak with someone face to face and get to know what they offer. As your website doesn’t have a closing time, it is important that your content can communicate your business to your potential customers perfectly and clearly.

Let’s say your garage door is making an awful sound and you need it fixed quickly. As you’re researching companies you will have a list of questions running through your head. Do they offer what you need? Are they reliable? Are they affordable? etc. It’s late at night so you are unable to call someone to ask these questions, so you’re left to browse websites. The first website you look at offers very little information on their services and very few testimonials from past customers; it looks outdated and it is hard to navigate. Based on what you’ve seen, your first impression may be that they aren’t knowledgeable in the repair, the company is disorganized or the customer service is poor due to the lack of reviews. The website you look at next offers you a great explanation on the services they provide, the website is easy to navigate on all platforms and the website includes testimonials raving about their professionalism, knowledge and affordability. Which company would you choose to go with for the repair? The answers pretty clear. Your content speaks for you around the clock, so make sure it is saying the right things.

Although content is just a fraction of what goes into SEO, it is something that has increased in importance over the past few years. The high-quality unique pages and blogs increase the visibility of your website and increase social engagement.

Additional things to think about:

Some extra things to keep in mind when it comes to your website’s content:

• Support images with text. Infographics are great for communicating your business’ message and keeping the attention of your users. However, search engines do not have the ability to read the image, instead they rely on supporting content to explain the graphic content.
• Titles and meta data. This information is going to explain to users (and search engines) what your page or blog is about. The characters are limited, so you want to grab the attention of users quickly. Your descriptions should make you stand out amongst the competition.
• Use blogs to branch off additional content. Content creation is extremely important to your website, this way you can link back through your website and show search engines you’re constantly offering your customers reliable and relevant information.

We hope that this blog series on first impressions has given you a lot of food for thought when it comes to your website. Advanced Digital Inc. keeps all these aspects that we have discussed in mind, as well as more whenever we work on our client’s websites. If you’re interested in updating your own website in order to make the very best first impression possible, Advanced Digital Inc. is happy to help!