Do I Really Need a Website?

Yes, you do. Many small business owners report they simply lack the time, skills and money to build a website. While some businesses say they don’t need one. The fact is, you need a website if you plan to have a successful business in the future.

Your company’s website can be an effective marketing tool that can also be cost-efficient. Let’s take a look at the benefits.

Available 24/7 

The best part about a website is they are always available and ready to serve your customers. Whether its relaying information, collecting leads or sell a product. It will be there when you are closed.

Creates Exposure

People search for services and products before they get to the “buying stage”. If you don’t have a website, you essentially don’t exist because you won’t show up in their search. Statistics show a website can increase your business’s revenue by 25% just by exposing your services and products to more people. That’s a huge chunk of customers you’re ignoring.

Want to dip into that 25% of customers you’re missing out on? Let’s build your first website!

Builds Trust

Building trust with new clients can be difficult. Having a website can verify your business and give reassurance that you are who you say you are. 64% of customers will not use a business if they cant research them first online.

Get Found on Google

In addition to getting a website, its best to incorporate SEO. Search Engine Optimization sets your website up to be found on Google. People who search for relevant keywords, services you offer, or products you sell are more likely to find you with SEO.

Sell your Products & Services

If you sell a product, share it with the world. There are unlimited opportunities to increase your revenue from an online store.  79% of U.S. consumers shop online or their phones according to Pew Research. That’s 8 out of 10 people who can’t see your products.

Services are fairly the same, the only difference is the viewer hasn’t given you the money yet. Though many consumers will research service in their area 3 times before making a decision, don’t be taken out of the running because you don’t have a website.

Convenient for your Customer

You may want your customers to call you. Facts are 67% of consumers prefer email or text than talking on the phone. Having a website can funnel customers to communicate with you whenever it’s convenient for them.

Tips & Secrets for SEO

seo tips, learn seo, seo company

Online Marketing is crucial to any type of business, big or small. If you are a fortune 500 company or a local dentist trying to get new patients, online marketing can take your company to a whole new level. Though there are many Types of Online Marketing, we will be focusing on SEO Tips, Search Engine Optimization.

Since every company is different, these tips for SEO may not work exactly for your business. For a complete evaluation of your company and how to improve your SEO, we offer Free SEO Evaluations.

Learn SEO – M.A.D.A.M.S.

Since there is so much involved in SEO, we will stick it to some of the basic. These SEO secrets can provide a great foundation for any starting website.

Metadata – Page Titles & Descriptions

Metadata is the text search engines use to index your page. Like categorizing a page about Poodle into the Dogs category. This is the place you can put relevant keywords targeting your page in order to be found in search. Titles are the most important element in the metadata. Metadata Titles influence the most when Google Indexes your website. Descriptions are supporting text to the page titles. It’s best to place some keywords here but make it readable so viewer know more clearly the subject of the page.

Architecture – Website Structure

Everything from your code to your content is crawled by search engines. Google looks at your website structure to determine what things are important and less important. Navigation hierarchy is a great example. Have a page listing in the top navigation indicates to Google it’s important to your website topic. Now if you had a page buried in sub navigations where people are less likely to find it, Google may take that as a less important page. Another great example of the proper structure is organization. Countless times I find website have these issues where rogue pages are out of place making it difficult for people to find them or even transition to other relative topics on your website. Which leads us into our next section, Creating a fluid User Experience.

Design – User Experience

Google takes User Experience seriously. From navigating the website to color contrast, Google crawls every bit of code and text on your website. When a website is not Mobile Friendly, more likely people are going to leave the website. On average, 46% of the population search using their phones. When they click on a site that does not display properly, chances are they will leave the site entirely. Every website has its own goal either gain leads, sell a product or educate. When building a website keep this in mind to serve your target audience better.

Need Help Building a Website? We build websites tailored for you. Your success is our success! Contact Us Today

Authority – Link building – Directories – Business Listing

Building authority for a website is not easy. The best way is to encourage Google to trust your website. Here’s how…

Directories are great since they act as another venue to discover a business through search. Though in many cases, the information can be inconsistent. Making sure the information is correct will help Google trust the information it finds on the web. Link building is much like building friendships. Creating a referral to the website in order to increase traffic and authority. Lastly, and the most important… Google Business Listing. If the business doesn’t have one, hasn’t claimed or verified it then they are already losing customers. Zero-clicks means people find the business before even entering the website, most times through a Knowledge Graph. We can help you create, optimize, claim & verify your business listing. Contact us about SEO Services.

Make it your own – Content – Relevant – Unique

In the SEO world, content is gold. Always create content that is written for your audience and is relevant. If the business is not able to provide content in their own words, SEO content writing is available.

Copying content from the internet or Web Design Marketing Agencies who use the same content for all their clients can seriously hurt a business’s website.

Site Speed – Loading

A fast loading website is a productive website. 56% of all online traffic is done through mobile phones. Which is why Google decided in 2018 to crawl mobile-friendly websites as ranking factors before the desktop version. Here is why site speed is important. 53% of mobile users abandoned a site if the mobile site takes longer than three seconds to load. Every one-second delay in site load time can decrease conversions by 12%.  Making sure the websites mobile load time is 3 seconds or less to prevent losing customer.

Hiring an SEO Company

Though you may feel confident to do SEO on your own, these are only a few tips in best practice SEO. Unfortunately, there is no “cookie cutter” way to SEO as every business is different and has different needs. When hiring an SEO Specialist or SEO Company makes sure the goals are realistic. I see countless companies promise “Rank 1 guarantee” when realistically there is no guarantee with SEO.

Basic SEO - What Every Business Needs To Know

Online Marketing is crucial to any type of business, big or small. If you are a fortune 500 company or a local dentist trying to get new patients, online marketing can take your company to a whole new level. Though there are many types of Online Marketing, we will be focusing on SEO Tips, Search Engine Optimization.

Since every company is different, these tips for SEO may not work exactly for your business. For a complete evaluation of your company and how to improve your SEO, we offer Free SEO Evaluations.

Why Can't Customers Find My Restaurant?

When someone is looking for lunch or dinner, customers typically resort to searching on Google or Yelp for good restaurants in the area. That means SEO for restaurants is no longer optional but nessecary to bring in new customers. Local SEO is extremely important to restaurants because its what customers see first when seaching for restaurants near me. Let’s face it — we are visual animals and customers skim quickly through web pages to find what they want. Having an appealing website with eye catching photos help gain attention and look professional. To get more customers, you will need a well designed website that is fully optimized to deliver results. 

Did you know that ordering online for catering services is now the most fashionable thing in the restuarant industry? Most organizations and individuals have invaded the online market to search for catering services as well as place orders for different foods and meals — all conviently located online. Coming in to order is the way of the past with delivery services and online ordering.

marketing for restaurant, get more customers in restaurant

Benefits Of SEO For Restaurants

Increasing Traffic to Your Website

When you invest in your website with SEO, you will increase the digital traffic to your website. More traffic to your website means more oppurtunities to gain customers. It also create more awareness of your restaurant and the services you offer. Imagine delivering pictures of your mouth watering dishes to hungry people searching for dinner. SEO can help get your website in front of those hungry people.

Building Brand Awareness

New restaurants can really benefit with SEO by creating brand awareness in your area. even if your a seasoned restuarant, search engine optimization can launch your business to greater heights if done by an expert. SEO experts in restaurants know what content to include and how to identify the right keywords for your restaurant. SEO websites for restaurants must contain the right content so Google can correctly and positively give it a high ranking.

More Money

More traffic to your restaurant website means more conversions. More conversions mean more money for your restaurant. This is why many restuarants are now seeing the nessecity for search engine optimization to help their business grow.  Competition in the restaurant industry has become fierce — don’t get left behind.

Increasing Customer Engagement

Good content is engaging and informative. People are becoming hungrier for good content and Google uses it as a ranking factor. Keep customers engaged with content they want to see like healthy cuisine, how to cut weight while eating healthy and other informative health news. Relative and unique content acts like magic and soon you will find your website flowing with more and more of visitors.

While content is extremely important, including a good keyword strategy to your web pages is also crucial as Google and other search engines use it to rank your website.

busy restaurant, digital marketing, local SEO

SEO Tools For Restaurant's Websites

Keyword Planning Roadmap

You should incorperate target search terms that will give your restaurant website ranking with search engines. Some restaurant websites have become very prominent online with simple keywords such as ‘Chicken Wings’ or ‘Pizzas’. A keyword plan with the right target can boost your restaurant business to greater heights in the long term.

Local-based SEO

Your restaurant serves customers within a certain range of your business location. Location-based SEO helps restaurants reach their goals through local SEO for restaurants by optimizing your Google Business Listing and geo-tagging. Local SEO ensures that your restaurant features prominently to customers searching for “food” and “restaurants” within your proximity.

List Your Restaurant On Review Sites

When your restaurant receives positive reviews from existing customers — it can propel your business even further. Word of mouth and online reviews are like stricking gold. They can make or break a thriving business. Make sure your restaurant is listed on Google My Business, Yelp, and Facebook. Reputation management is another key element in maintaining great ranking online. As hard as we try, every customer may not leave happy, so make sure to respond to reviews online — whether they are good or bad.   

Get Relative Websites To Link To Your Restaurant’s Website

When your website appears on other websites related to your business, it builds trust. Google uses backlinks as a ranking factor and can help improve your visibility in search. A great example would be a blogging customer tries your restaurant, writes a compelling post about it — then linking to your website. Not only do you gain a backlink but also referral traffic. Another way to discover your restaurant in search which means more people will visit your website and may become customers.

Online Ordering System

One of the biggest adjustments due to the pandemic is the importance of online ordering for restaurants. One of the many industries hit hard from Covid was restaurants and hospitality. The online ordering system is another SEO tool for restaurant to perform better. Many visitors now resort to online ordering and delivery services to get their favorite dishes and drinks. Even after Covid dissipates, online ordering will more likely be nessecity and be expected by customers to use. 

Mobile-Friendly Website 

And finally, make your restaurant website mobile-friendly. 75% of searches now happen through a mobile device instead of a desktop or laptop. Google recognized this and now ranks web pages based the user experience through a mobile phone. Not sure if your website is Mobile-friendly? Try Google Mobile-Friendly Test.

Get An SEO Expert For Your Restaurant

An SEO Specialist can provide maintenance to your website’s visibility, increase traffic, and gain more customers with measurable data!  Laced Media has the professional SEO experts to get your restaurant thriving. Schedule a free consultation call today.

digital marketing for small business, is digital marketing worth it

Page Speed, Waiting to Load

Waiting For A Website To Load

Have you ever sat staring at your phone waiting for a website to load? Clicking the refresh button in frustration. It’s not your WIFI, its the website. On average, a user will look at their phone a total of 5 hours a day! The way people use their phones now have seriously changed within the past 10 years and is the vessel of obtaining information.

So Why Does Having a Fast Website Matter?

Users tend to be impatient in a world of instant gratification. Web pages that take longer than 6 seconds to load are prone to loss their audience. 1 to 3 seconds could lose 30%, 3 to 5 seconds may lose 95%. If your website is taking longer than 6 seconds, you’ve more likely lost a potential customer.

70% of phone connections will be at 3G or slower thru 2020 (information provided by thinkwithgoogle.com)

Website Speed Test

Check your website for Desktop and Mobile PageSpeed: Google PageSpeed Tool

If your website is producing some low numbers, you may consider a website redesign. Laced Media offers many types of packages that are affordable and specific to your business goal.

Website Speed Test

Users tend to be impatient in a world of instant gratification. Web pages that take longer than 6 seconds to load are prone to loss their audience. 1 to 3 seconds could lose 30%, 3 to 5 seconds may lose 95%. If your website is taking longer than 6 seconds, you’ve more likely lost a potential customer.

70% of phone connections will be at 3G or slower thru 2020 (information provided by thinkwithgoogle.com)