Web Development Misc
Blog, Just Thoughts..., SEO, Social Media, Spokane- Spokane Website Development Tips & Suggestions

My website is done. Right?

Posted on by Incyte Media

As a company that focuses on WordPress websites, customers frequently ask us when their website will be “done”, and for good reason. It is in many cases the manifestation of their dream. It could be the public face of their small business, their personal blog or even the online shop that they are going to retire on. We work on deadlines and do our best to make sure that by the launch date, their new site is as close as possible to the vision that they had in their head. But does that mean that their website development is done? Unfortunately, the answer is usually no.

People have websites for a variety of reasons. You want to look legitimate and current in your field. Maybe you are selling things or even trying to drive leads. Yet in most cases, regardless of the reason for your website, you are only effective at your goals if you are getting visitors or “traffic”. So the BIG question is, how do you get those coveted visitors to drop into your “sales funnel”? CONTENT! While your initial design is done, and it is fresh for a moment, it is critical to regularly update your site with fresh content related to your particular niche. We work with WordPress on a daily basis  as our website platform of choice and it provides very simple ways for even the most novice website owners to create new content and share it with the world on directly on your site and on social media with tools like the Sumo platform .In addition, there are free tools such as the Yoast plugin that let you see how your content is faring in the SEO world. You can adjust the way Google sees your site, research key words and even see when you have a problem.

The truth is that your site is never REALLY done. Whether you are generating content, making changes to your design or just doing everyday plugin and theme updates for security and performance. There is always something that can (or should) be done. The good news is that most of these things YOU can do yourself and if your site is on WordPress, there are many great members of the WordPress community creating great tools to put that power in your hand. However, we know how it is, sometimes life (or actually running your business) gets in the way and you need a hand. This is where we suggest you find a solid partner who can help you out with some of the ongoing tasks required to both maintain and improve your website and the way people view your business online.

Unfortunately, many website owners have no idea who to call when they have a problem. Whether they need to change some content, their site has been hacked or they just feel like it is not doing what they intended. They email the guy they hired online for help and it bounces, or the kid next door that used to help out went to college and they are stuck in a bind. We hear this story on a daily basis. Good News! We do not want you to feel alone. We can not solve all your problems, but when it comes to WordPress Development, Hosting (with our amazing partner WPEngine) and Maintenance we have you covered. We even have partners that help with things like SEO optimization, content writing and social media advertising. We might not be able to solve all your problems, but we will be glad to pass you on to someone who can. Just drop us a line, we would love to chat and see if we can help keep your online investment in tip-top shape, even though we both know that the process will never be truly “finished.”

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Just Thoughts..., Spokane- Spokane Website Development Tips & Suggestions

Why your website should be mobile friendly

Posted on by Incyte Media

Ten years ago the thought of making a website mobile friendly was looked at as a luxury that simply cost more with little actual benefit. Now in 2015 the idea of a mobile friendly site has become a necessity. At first the high demand was being driven from the growing use of consumers accessing the web via phone or tablet, but now the Big Dog itself (Google) has made quite the splash in the website world making everyone rethink mobile.

google_flat_logoGoogle has recently, April 21, rolled out a new search algorithm that punishes websites extensively for not being mobile friendly. A site that was previously ranked in the Top 3 could be bumped all the way down to page 45 for mobile searches.

With Google being the most popular search engine in the world it might benefit you to play their algorithm games!

So how can I adapt?

Adaptation is the key to survival in the Animal Kingdom AND the Google Kingdom.
So to stay on top make sure:

  • Your site is responsive.
  • Text sizes are readable without having to zoom.
  • Links are spaced evenly.
  • Get rid of flash as sites using it will be penalized.

Also, check for blocked javascript, CSS and image files; unplayable content; faulty redirects; mobile-only 404’s; app download interstitial; irrelevant cross-links; and slow mobile pages.

overwhelmed-help-300x190Sound like a lot? Well… it is, but luckily for you Incyte Media has you covered, we offer full website overhauls and mobile optimization at great prices whether you’re an existing customer or not. Reach out to us here…

Test you site to see if it is mobile friendly here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

Just Thoughts..., SEO, Spokane- Spokane Website Development Tips & Suggestions

The Value of Google Analytics

Posted on by Incyte Media

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How can Google analytics help you? Chances are in many ways, with all the updates and alterations made the new Google analytics essentially does everything except cook you breakfast.

Adding Google analytics to your site is not only beneficial but very simple to do.Google analytics can be your business marketing pro with loads of features to improve your website traffic and SEO all together. Here’s just a few key features we find the most useful and how simple it is to get started.

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The first one is their remarketing feature. This shows you people who have recently searched or bought products similar to what you sell and then shows them ads for your company while they surf the web. This helps extensively for web marketing because it creates a specific target audience for you to advertise to instead of casting a line blindly (your money).

The second key feature being real-time reporting. This shows you who is on your site and where specifically they came from. This is very helpful because it allows you to see what recent ads or promotions brought in the most traffic.

Most importantly though all it takes to get started is signing up then you input the code received in your header and just like that you’re up and rolling!

Talk to Incyte now to learn more about adding Google analytics to your website!
(208) 405-0289 or email info@incytemedia.com

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Just Thoughts..., Spokane- Spokane Website Development Tips & Suggestions

One Page or Traditional?

Posted on by Incyte Media

When creating a website you generally have two choices. It can be a traditional site which holds many different links and portals within the site itself. Or it can be what is becoming more and more popular which is a one page site.

Why are people creating one page sites when they could have an extravagant 30+ page website? The answer is technology, mobile web users are increasing daily. Most people access the web through their phone now instead of computer.When accessing the web mobily a traditional  website is larger and may load slow, while a 1 page site is less data to load and can be easily navigated through a mobile device.

While a one page site is more mobile friendly a traditional site also has it’s values. The main being there is much more you can do with a traditional site in terms of features and layout. Also with a traditional site you can have more information instead of having to be short and to the point.

As true for anything though you get what you pay for. A one page site is not as complex and is going to cost you less in the end. But a traditional page for a more expensive cost might be what you have in mind for your the purpose of your site.

See for yourself here’s some slick one page sites as well as complex traditionals.

Slick one pagers: http://www.awwwards.com/websites/single-page/

Traditional Sites: A great example of a traditional site is Georgefox.edu, or on a large scale even walmart.com

Just Thoughts..., SEO, Spokane- Spokane Website Development Tips & Suggestions

The Importance of SEO/SEM

Posted on by Incyte Media

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What is SEO?

If you have a website or have talked about creating one, SEO and SEM are two things you’ve heard about before. What exactly are they? Let’s start with SEO, (Search Engine Optimization), which by direct definition is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s “natural” or un-paid search results. To put that simply, SEO determines whether your website shows up when people are searching via Google, Bing, or other search engines. When dealing with SEO and trying to optimize your results word choice and titles matter. Search engines will narrow someones results down to the sites that use only the words they selected. So, if your website is about landscaping, but you don’t have the word “landscaping” at all on your website, the search engine is not going to find you. The more you use target words the higher you will be ranked to be found in the search engine. Using effective titles is also very important because often this summarizes the website entirely.

Why are titles critical?

seo 2Be sure to choose a title that is relevant to what your website is about. If your website is about landscaping services you probably don’t want to have a title that talks about your trucks, instead you want to have something people are looking for like “3 tricks to kill dandelions for good”.Links and reputation also play a big part in SEO to determine where your website gets ranked by the search engine. If your website has a large amount of links relating to your website the search engines can see this also which can result in a higher rank, but only if they are legit. If you just buy a bunch of links to point to your page that aren’t relating at all this will be noticed, but if you have trustworthy sites this works in your favor, kind of like kudo points for your ranking. The key to SEO is making the search engines happy. The only way to do this is by use of effective links, titles, and words. With quality information on your site it’s only a matter of time before your site is the #1 recommended by the search engine’s.

 What is SEM?

So that’s SEO, but what is SEM? SEM is Search Engine Marketing, Which is a form of internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites, generally through PPC which is short for “pay per click”. PPC are the paid ads that you see show up at the top of search results or in the sidebar. The main difference between SEO and SEM is cost, one is free and the other is money driven. Also while SEO is very broad and SEM is used to target specific users with paid links. When using SEM you are paying to bring more users to your site and potentially can increase your search engine rank. Together these two search tools help provide you with the best visibility possible for your website. Another difference is that SEO is used to capture a broad audience of people via generic search, while SEM is used to target specific users with paid links. The idea behind SEM is to figure out other searches people do that identifies them as possible customers for your business.The basic idea behind SEM is to target likely customers who may not be searching directly for your products or services.

So why are they important?

Obviously the more people who see your website is more potential revenue. To be successful you will need both of these search tools not just one as they work together. So by maximizing SEO/SEM you can achieve the highest traffic from users possible with the end result of more business for you!