The history of business cards dates back hundreds of years to the announcement of royalty in far off communities. It was later adopted into the social etiquette of the 17th century as a means of announcing the arrival of upper class dandies.
Fast forward to the so-called Information Age of social media and smartphones and the role of the non-digital world is threatened on all sides. Email has overtaken postal mail. Instant messaging has replaced memos. Robotic replicants have slowly replaced our political leaders in anticipation of the tepid dawning of a machinery-ruled dystopia… yeah, maybe not so much but you get the point.
However, business cards still matter, especially to small businesses, because face-to-face interactions still make memorable impressions and business cards are the follow-up takeaway that seals the deal. So, although your business may not cater to royalty, it's still important to have that physical business card handy to make your brand known in your own community.
Getting Into Their Personal Space
Small businesses, unlike large corporations with worldwide brand exposure, suffer from a double-edge sword of being more personal but less-known. Without universal brand presence that makes them instantly recognizable wherever they conduct business, small businesses rely on personal connections to establish a strong foundation of rapport.
Although this is a weakness of being a small fish in a big pond, it can also work to a small business’s advantage. Building a business on personal connections ensures a sympathetic customer base that will believe in you and what your business stands for.
This advantage, however, is contingent on the quality of the business relationship which is, in turn, dependent on an excellent first impression. Best first impressions are almost universally executed in person. A firm handshake and skull-piercing eye contact are the ingredients that burn the face of you and your company into the memory of your audience.
This means that, for all of the quantity over quality that the digital space can offer, the physical space is where a personal impression is solidified. That's why business cards, being a purely physical object, play such an important role for smaller businesses.
Put Your Small Business’s Best Foot Forward
When you’re meeting a potential customer for the first time, chances are they’ve been actively forming an opinion about you since the moment you entered their field of vision. This sounds like a lot of pressure, especially since you are not only representing yourself, but your small business as well.
However, having a business card handy will help to solidify a positive first impression. That seemingly small card offers a sneak peek at the professionalism and reliability that your small business has to offer. It also provides all of the essential information that your potential customer needs to remember to contact your business; who you are, what you do, where you are, and how to reach you.
This enables you to have something physical for someone to take away from your conversation, taking your first impression a step further. Handing over a business card is a professional way to convey information quickly and efficiently, as opposed to fumbling for a writing utensil and something to write on or forcing your information onto someone’s phone.
Get Your Brand Passed Around
Getting your brand recognized in your community is key to your small business succeeding and growing. Once your business card is handed out, its journey doesn’t necessarily stop with whomever you gave it to. Even if what you offer doesn’t match the needs of the current cardholder, the tangible information can be easily passed on to someone they know who may be in the market for services that you can provide.
Something physical is also more likely to be remembered and referenced later on, especially if it looks unique or professional. If someone with your card is having a conversation with a friend about needing services that you offer, your business will more likely be in the back of their mind because your card is in the back of their pocket, and they can hand off your information.
Look Like the Professional You Are
Having a business card is the easiest way to say, “Look, I’m legit, I’m reliable, and I'm a professional.” Especially if you’re newly established or not as well known, having a business card gives a face to the name, making your business look trustworthy.
Consumers want to go to businesses that appeal to their needs. They should not have to be putting in effort to find your brand. Having reliable information at their fingertips makes you a more appealing and professional option when it comes to looking for a business or service.
Your card is what separates you from your competitors. It’s a marketing tool that you can carry in your wallet, which is an easy way to get your brand out into your community. Your business is now legitimized, accessible, reliable, and circulating around.
The quality of your business card can also make or break your brand. If you hand out cheap, flimsy looking business cards, it says a lot to your potential consumers about the quality of work that you are willing to put into your services. A professional looking card equals a professional looking company. It’s worth putting in the extra time and effort needed to have a high quality business card complete with a unique logo in order to shine a positive light on your business.
Contact Key Web for Business Cards
Having a business card is the perfect way to bring your business to the next level. Here at Key Web Concepts, we want to help you take your vision and create a business card that reflects everything that you have to offer. Take a look at some of our past projects and contact us today to get started on designing your very own professional business card.
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[post_content] => Author’s Note:This post covers laws about ADA compliance on websites but it is not written by a lawyer and should not be used as legal advice. Please speak with a lawyer if you need legal advice.
Since 1990, small businesses around the U.S. have invested in making their physical locations more accessible for people with disabilities. This is why we have handicap parking spots, ramps, and automatic door openers.
A new strain of lawsuits, however, has opened up the eyes of the Richmond small business community to a new type of ADA-compliance. Many companies are worried about what it could mean for them.
Does ADA Compliance Apply to Websites?
In the physical world, it is a bit easier to understand what ADA-compliance looks like. Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act “prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in the activities of places of public accommodations.” This means that businesses need to do what they can to minimize barriers to entry for disabled individuals who wish to enjoy their product or service.
Because the ADA was enacted in the infancy of the web, there is no aspect of the law that officially pertains to the internet, but there are many people who have visual, hearing, and motor impairments that make it difficult for them to use websites that weren’t made specifically for them.
This raises the question of whether the “places of public accomodations” in Title III should be extended to apply to business websites. If a business that has a handicap ramp at the front door of their office also has a website that acts as the online equivalent of a front door, should that virtual “front door” also get a virtual “handicap ramp?”
To further muddy the waters, the Department of Justice has, as of 2019, passed down no official ruling on whether websites are under the same obligations as physical locations. According to a Virginia law firm, Williams Mullen, “the Department of Justice (DOJ) formally withdrew its notice of proposed rulemaking regarding accessibility of web information.” This was despite giving a notice of proposed ruling in 2008 showing that they were moving towards making website ADA compliance a legal requirement.
All of this ambiguity on the subject only adds to the concern of small businesses throughout Virginia who are often facing $15,000 to $25,000 in settlements from lawyers of disabled people if their website is not in compliance. Lawsuits pertaining to website accessibility have been on the rise recently. 2018’s lawsuits nearly tripled 2017 figures.
What Does ADA Compliance Mean for Websites?
Despite the lack of clear guidelines from the Department of Justice, there are some guidelines from World Wide Web Consortium, the internet’s authority on web development best practices, that are widely accepted. While there is some extensive documentation on the subject, we recommend focusing on these areas:
Screen reader compatibility
Captioning for videos
Compatibility with keyboard-only navigation
Screen Reader Compatibility
Reading a website is difficult for people with sight impairments. Some of these sight impairments require increased contrast between text and its background. Some require the absence of seizure-inducing visuals. For anyone mostly or entirely blind, being able to access content through tools called screen readers that read everything on the website is crucial.
While reading off the text that is on screen sounds straightforward enough, the pictures can be a bit challenging. This is where what is known as alt text is necessary.
Alt text is the text that appears as an alternative to displaying the picture. It is meant to be interchangeable with actually viewing the image. Screen readers rely on reading off the alt text to tell the user what is in the photo.
With today’s technology, machine learning is still in its infantile stage of guessing what is in a given image. This means that unless a human specifically fills out the alt text for the image by looking at and describing what is in a picture, there is no way for a computer to know what is being shown visually.
Captioning for Videos
If your website includes a video, it should have captions to go along with the audio. This is for the deaf people who wouldn’t be able to hear the audio otherwise. There are many resources on the web for automatically adding captions to your videos. Some of them cost little to no money but can have poor quality results. It helps to play through the finished video afterwards to make sure that you are getting the best results for your deaf users.
Compatibility With Keyboard-Only Navigation
Some users have disabilities that make it hard for them to use a mouse. For these individuals, being able to navigate the whole site using buttons on their keyboard is essential to experiencing your business’s website the same way your other users do. A website that is compatible with this type of navigation should allow the user to move from link to link on using only the tab key.
How Key Web Can Help With Your Website’s Accessibility
Key Web Concepts, as a custom WordPress web design agency in Richmond, VA, has built many websites over the years. Although very few clients ask that their websites be ADA compliant, the recent increase in lawsuits and mandates at the municipal level have many clients starting to realize that incorporating ADA compliance into their new or existing websites is necessary to protect themselves from potential legal action.
We also have a focus on search engine optimization, which is how we optimize your website to be easier to find in Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Some of the web accessibility standards are already a part of our monthly SEO plans because the goals of SEO and accessibility overlap. Adding alt text to images, for example, is something that we include because, along with helping screen readers, it also helps Google to understand what is being shown visually on the page.
Don’t Panic. Talk to Us.
If you have any concerns or questions about your business’s website ADA compliance, give Key Web Concepts a call. The future of website ADA compliance will probably include more lawsuits and/or stricter legislation. We can help you rest easy by staying ahead of the curve.
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[post_content] => Your search engine optimization strategy is key to attracting organic web traffic to your site. It’s all about increasing your visibility in search engines so more people find you naturally as they're searching for businesses like you.
But the landscape of SEO best practices is constantly changing. Increased competition in the industry means that being on the cutting edge of trends is increasingly necessary to staying on top. In this sea of websites, the border between page one and page two of search results marks the waterline that you are doggy paddling to stay above. It may seem like a fight for survival.
It’s our hope that with these five 2019 SEO trends, you won’t just survive the latest wave of updates, you’ll ride on top.
Rich Snippets
One reason Google became the undisputed champion in search engines was its clean interface. In a time when the internet was peppered with pop-ups and obnoxiously flashy colors, Google’s straightforward listing of blue links against a white background was a site for sore eyes.
Now, over a decade later, Google maintains its focus on user experience by providing search results that answers user questions as directly as possible.
Rich snippets are a part of that continued commitment. Google is increasingly encouraging searchers to retrieve their answers without navigating off of Google’s first page of results.
Rich snippets put user information front and center. Here are three examples of Google Snippets:
Local Packs
For local small businesses, local packs are Google search results that work in conjunction with Google Maps. It is a rectangle at the top of the page that shows local search results. Which businesses get featured at the top of the results are determined based on a number of criteria including proximity to the searcher, number of reviews, and whether keywords are mentioned on the website, Google My Business listing, and in reviews or off-site mentions of the company.
[caption id="attachment_7332" align="aligncenter" width="676"] Pleasants Hardware appeared first in Local Pack when Richmond locals searched for "hardware gift ideas" during the holiday season.[/caption]
Knowledge Graph
In the right hand margin of Google search results, a company’s knowledge graph is their ticket to representing their business with information and photos. Google My Business is the portal that companies use to control what is featured in their knowledge graph. Some items, such as hours, phone numbers, Google Posts, and other features are within a business’ direct control. But there are also reviews, busiest hours, and customer-submitted photos that are less easy to influence.
[caption id="attachment_7333" align="aligncenter" width="511"] Key Web's Knowledge Graph[/caption]
Featured Snippets
Featured snippets answer web queries with short answer paragraphs or lists when appropriate. This means that, if a searcher asks Google what the steps are to build a delicious sandwich, Angela’s Bakery with “7 Steps to Make a Heavenly Sandwich” will have her seven steps listed first as the definitive answer to the searcher’s question. Your potential customers will be eating up those information breadcrumbs out of Angela’s hand. It puts her brand name on the radar for qualified leads that might not have known about her bakery otherwise.
Meanwhile, your bakery that doesn’t have any content optimized for a featured snippet is listed further down the page. She is stealing the bread right out of your mouth by answering a likely searcher query directly in a way that Google can repackage and feature in “position zero” as the very first thing a searcher sees.
[caption id="attachment_7334" align="aligncenter" width="673"] Mike Wilson Plumbing, one of our SEO clients, gets a featured snippet for queries about a special types of plumbing[/caption]
Mobile First Index
In 2018, Google announced that it would begin indexing sites according to how they appear on mobile phones. As the internet is increasingly viewed on smartphones and tablets by a majority of users, Google will continue to favor web designs that optimize for mobile web viewing.
If you want any hope of ranking high in the search results on Google, mobile web optimization can’t be an afterthought. Designing a mobile-friendly website as part of your initial web marketing strategy ensures your website will have a good foundation for mobile SEO.
Luckily, investing in this priority is never ill-spent. Mobile web viewing overtook desktop web viewing in 2016 and continues to play tug-o-war to dethrone desktop for good. Most websites Key Web monitors traffic for are viewed on mobile 42%-57% of the time. So if you design your website with mobile users in mind, it is good for your potential customers just as much as it is for Google.
Check if your site is mobile-friendly at this link.
Optimizing for User Intent
One of the most far-reaching SEO strategies you can bet your marketing efforts on is optimizing for user intent. Old-fashioned search engines depended heavily on keywords to figure out the relevance of your website to answer a given search query.
With each new update to the reach of algorithm-based programming, search engines use more advanced machine learning to find the best search results. This depends less on the specific words that a user types into the search bar. Instead, Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others are leveraging a plethora of factors to guess at true searcher intent. This is why searching for “bacon movies” pulls up results for movies that star Kevin Bacon rather than films about everyone’s favorite breakfast food.
These updates make it increasingly important to maintain an SEO strategy that targets long-tail keyword topics with a comprehensive content marketing strategy rather than one-and-done SEO tactics. With a hierarchical topic format for addressing long-tail keywords, you cast a wider net on all of the potential questions that may lead a searcher to your business.
This means content is still king and just as important as its always been. It not only improves your ranking in search results either. A great content strategy organically guides your leads through the layers of their buyer’s journey to your website’s doorstep. What’s good for Google is even better for answering potential customers’ questions as they look for anyone on the internet to solve a problem that your product can fix.
Voice Search
Our final SEO trend is a culmination of the aspects of some of the other trends we’ve already covered. Voice search is making waves in SEO and is predicted to make up over half of all web searches in 2019. Due to the nature of voice search, Google, Alexa, or Siri aren’t able to spout off a list of every search result for each question you ask. Instead, they use features like rich snippets to determine the one result to give the user based on how they understand user intent.
With only one search result used as the definitive answer to any given query, SEO strategists need to be on top of their game to rank well enough for featured snippets. As our future interactions look more and more like a conversation with HAL 9000, websites that answer questions surrounding long-tail keywords with user intent and a conversational tone in mind will have a considerable edge.
Riding the Wave of Streamlined Search
Staying on top of a lot of these 2019 SEO trends centers around having a ongoing SEO and content marketing strategy that aligns well with your audience. In dawning heydays of the Information Age, search engines have served as curators and dispensers of knowledge. Their job is to connect the best information to the end user.
As a hopefully reputable company that improves the lives of your customers, your information ought to be intrinsically trustworthy and valuable to the end user. Making your content SEO-friendly helps search engines’ jobs easier as they help you help them help you help end users. From this perspective, staying afloat in SEO should be a little less intimidating.
If, however, you are feeling overwhelmed for any reason with your website’s search rankings, give us a call. We’ve helped dozens of small businesses stay grow their organic traffic and, with customizable monthly SEO plans, Key Web Concepts can work within almost any budget.%MINIFYHTMLcb609bd4e5763903378af3754bdad96c6%[post_title] => Surviving SEO in 2019
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[post_content] => With how often hackers launch attacks on websites everywhere, why aren’t there already permanent security measures in place to stop them?
In our other blog posts about brute force attacks, we explained what hackers do to get access to your site and what they do once they have access. Preventing the vulnerabilities that lead to attacks can be easier said than done, however, because security is an ever-changing landscape.
Unfortunately, Security Can Never Be a One and Done Affair
Security is a continual battle because man-made computer systems, such as the internet, though complex, were engineered and, with effort, can be reverse-engineered. This creates an eternal struggle between security measures which operate like puzzles and puzzle-solvers (i.e. hackers). As humans continually attempt to make an unhackable system, an arms race escalates between puzzle-makers and puzzle-solvers.
Staying Up To Date
This is why updating your system can be the most important step you take to secure your site. Security must continually evolve and develop to keep you safe. By making sure that you are using the latest WordPress updates, you avoid being caught bringing a proverbial knife to a gunfight.
Updating your CMS gives your website the latest level of security available. WordPress, as an open source platform, is under continual attack and much update every so often to remove the vulnerabilities that hackers exploit to get control of your small business’s website.
Updating your plugins also ensures that your site is safe. This can get a bit sticky, however, as many plugins that are fundamental to your site’s design might cause issues with new updates. A web design firm can check the site with their regularly scheduled SEO updates and make sure the you are not at risk with out of date plugins without breaking your site.
What Can You Do About Hackers?
If your site has already been hacked, give us a call. It is possible that we can clean your site of malware and keep your online presence safe.
If you are worried about future attacks to your site, consider installing a security plugin on your website. Security plugins can do everything from hiding the login portal to banning suspicious IP address with too many failed login attempts. Some can even block countries where you don’t plan to do business so that only potential customers can view your site. These plugins gather data about hacks when they happen and update their program to block the latest threats.
For Key Web customers, our Pro website hosting package includes the installation of several security plugins to cover all of the bases. By continually monitoring your security, we will ensure that you win the ongoing battle of website security. Your website will stay safe.
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The history of business cards dates back hundreds of years to the announcement of royalty in far off communities. It was later adopted into the social etiquette of the 17th century as a means of announcing the arrival of upper class dandies.
Fast forward to the so-called Information Age of social media and smartphones and the role of the non-digital world is threatened on all sides. Email has overtaken postal mail. Instant messaging has replaced memos. Robotic replicants have slowly replaced our political leaders in anticipation of the tepid dawning of a machinery-ruled dystopia… yeah, maybe not so much but you get the point.
However, business cards still matter, especially to small businesses, because face-to-face interactions still make memorable impressions and business cards are the follow-up takeaway that seals the deal. So, although your business may not cater to royalty, it's still important to have that physical business card handy to make your brand known in your own community.
Getting Into Their Personal Space
Small businesses, unlike large corporations with worldwide brand exposure, suffer from a double-edge sword of being more personal but less-known. Without universal brand presence that makes them instantly recognizable wherever they conduct business, small businesses rely on personal connections to establish a strong foundation of rapport.
Although this is a weakness of being a small fish in a big pond, it can also work to a small business’s advantage. Building a business on personal connections ensures a sympathetic customer base that will believe in you and what your business stands for.
This advantage, however, is contingent on the quality of the business relationship which is, in turn, dependent on an excellent first impression. Best first impressions are almost universally executed in person. A firm handshake and skull-piercing eye contact are the ingredients that burn the face of you and your company into the memory of your audience.
This means that, for all of the quantity over quality that the digital space can offer, the physical space is where a personal impression is solidified. That's why business cards, being a purely physical object, play such an important role for smaller businesses.
Put Your Small Business’s Best Foot Forward
When you’re meeting a potential customer for the first time, chances are they’ve been actively forming an opinion about you since the moment you entered their field of vision. This sounds like a lot of pressure, especially since you are not only representing yourself, but your small business as well.
However, having a business card handy will help to solidify a positive first impression. That seemingly small card offers a sneak peek at the professionalism and reliability that your small business has to offer. It also provides all of the essential information that your potential customer needs to remember to contact your business; who you are, what you do, where you are, and how to reach you.
This enables you to have something physical for someone to take away from your conversation, taking your first impression a step further. Handing over a business card is a professional way to convey information quickly and efficiently, as opposed to fumbling for a writing utensil and something to write on or forcing your information onto someone’s phone.
Get Your Brand Passed Around
Getting your brand recognized in your community is key to your small business succeeding and growing. Once your business card is handed out, its journey doesn’t necessarily stop with whomever you gave it to. Even if what you offer doesn’t match the needs of the current cardholder, the tangible information can be easily passed on to someone they know who may be in the market for services that you can provide.
Something physical is also more likely to be remembered and referenced later on, especially if it looks unique or professional. If someone with your card is having a conversation with a friend about needing services that you offer, your business will more likely be in the back of their mind because your card is in the back of their pocket, and they can hand off your information.
Look Like the Professional You Are
Having a business card is the easiest way to say, “Look, I’m legit, I’m reliable, and I'm a professional.” Especially if you’re newly established or not as well known, having a business card gives a face to the name, making your business look trustworthy.
Consumers want to go to businesses that appeal to their needs. They should not have to be putting in effort to find your brand. Having reliable information at their fingertips makes you a more appealing and professional option when it comes to looking for a business or service.
Your card is what separates you from your competitors. It’s a marketing tool that you can carry in your wallet, which is an easy way to get your brand out into your community. Your business is now legitimized, accessible, reliable, and circulating around.
The quality of your business card can also make or break your brand. If you hand out cheap, flimsy looking business cards, it says a lot to your potential consumers about the quality of work that you are willing to put into your services. A professional looking card equals a professional looking company. It’s worth putting in the extra time and effort needed to have a high quality business card complete with a unique logo in order to shine a positive light on your business.
Contact Key Web for Business Cards
Having a business card is the perfect way to bring your business to the next level. Here at Key Web Concepts, we want to help you take your vision and create a business card that reflects everything that you have to offer. Take a look at some of our past projects and contact us today to get started on designing your very own professional business card.
We know our industry can have its complications. Between editing metadata and analyzing backlinks, we like to spend a little time writing posts on this section of our website. It’s our platform for explaining the specifics of what we do, what’s changing and why it matters to you.
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[post_content] => We published a blog post entitled “The Importance of Your Site’s Homepage” back in 2010, and while we’ve noticed it still gets a ton of hits, we’re also here to admit that a lot has changed since then. So, as the saying goes, out with the old and in with the new: here’s a 2017 guide to your homepage.
THE BIG THREE
We’re into making things a little simpler and more streamlined these days, so we’ve cut that 2010 mega-list of 8 homepage “must-haves” down to 3:
Establish an identity and make a good impression with a clean design that utilizes your brand colors, typeface, logo, photography style, and any other elements that showcase your company’s personality.
Be user-friendly—highlight main attractions or pockets of information on the homepage and offer a clear navigation system. Take into consideration which pages users are likely to visit most often, and those which are necessary, but can be tucked away in a more inconspicuous location.
Supply relevant content. Ask yourself what visitors (both new and returning) are coming to your site to see, and provide them with the useful information they’re seeking.
So what did we cut out? We decided a site-wide search tool is not necessary on all websites, fresh content doesn’t always trump relevant content, and—while we always want site visitors to read more—gimmicky “teasers” on the homepage are never a good idea.
GONE ARE THE DAYS OF “ABOVE THE FOLD”
In our 2010 post, we emphasized the notion that everything you want visitors to see on your site should be located “above the fold,” or above the 600 px mark (whatever is visible without scrolling). This concept is outdated, largely thanks to the pervasiveness of social media—in 2017, users’ first instinct upon arriving at a new website is to scroll, so the pressure to fit all content of importance within a screen-sized page is off.
There’s no doubt that you should certainly still seek to secure your users’ attention with that first screen, but there’s no need to cram in all of your relevant content. Ask yourself what you want your visitors to know about you first and also what your visitors most likely want to know: are you an architecture firm who seeks to grab new visitors with a stunning image of your most recent building? Or do you need to let your large population of returning visitors know about an event that’s just around the corner?
Our own recent redesign really showcases how a longer homepage can work for you. Our “above the fold” content has few words but lots of color, and what’s there gives our users our identity in a nutshell: we “help businesses build better digital identities,” and the services we offer include web design, branding, graphic design, and SEO. Upon scrolling, visitors find examples of our featured work, a brief description of our process, and an invitation to meet us for a free consultation. Each full-width section has its own visual identity, which gets the reader excited to continue scrolling and find out what’s next.
NEW VS. RETURNING VISITORS
It’s not necessary to prioritize one group of visitors over the other. A clean, comprehensive homepage should allow new visitors to explore and learn more about your company, and it’s safe to assume returning visitors will go directly to the page they need upon landing at your site.
FUNNELING YOUR USERS
This sounds much more manipulative than it really is. In theory, you shouldn’t have a lot of information on your website that isn’t important in some capacity, but there are still certain things you want your user to see, read, or interact with earlier or more often than other entities. Strategic design and calls-to-action can help you guide your users’ experience through your website and get the return you desire.
Design best practices, like using blank space to provide visual breaks or presenting essential information in a way that attracts the eye, capitalize on users’ natural tendencies to control their journey through the site. Using contrasting color, exaggerated sizing, or interesting shapes can also draw attention to specific pieces of information or calls-to-action.
Calls-to-action use graphics and/or words to compel users to complete a specific action: to sign up for a newsletter, join a program, enter an email address to receive a free trial, etc. They are often attention-grabbing buttons or full-width sections that are nearly impossible to ignore, and their verbiage should be enticing and specific to the action they are asking users to take (“sign up here” for a newsletter or membership). Stating up front the benefits to the user can also be helpful (“to receive 25% off your next order, enter your email address”).
THE BOTTOM LINE
We ended our 2010 post by emphasizing the necessity of making your purpose clear to your visitors within a few seconds of viewing. While it’s true that your website should be honest and straightforward in presenting your purpose, we know now that most users are web savvy, smart, and willing to scroll. Rather than cramming lots of information “above the fold,” try for a clean, visually-pleasing design that won’t intimidate or turn users off, then let your content unfold naturally down your homepage.
Is your homepage cluttered, outdated, or just plain ugly? We can help with that. (See what we did there? This is a call-to-action—one that hopefully entices you to check out our services!)
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Pleasants Hardware appeared first in Local Pack when Richmond locals searched for "hardware gift ideas" during the holiday season.[/caption]
Key Web's Knowledge Graph[/caption]
Mike Wilson Plumbing, one of our SEO clients, gets a featured snippet for queries about a special types of plumbing[/caption]
Luckily, investing in this priority is never ill-spent. Mobile web viewing overtook desktop web viewing in 2016 and continues to play tug-o-war to dethrone desktop for good. Most websites Key Web monitors traffic for are viewed on mobile 42%-57% of the time. So if you design your website with mobile users in mind, it is good for your potential customers just as much as it is for Google.
Check if your site is mobile-friendly at this link.
These updates make it increasingly important to maintain an SEO strategy that targets long-tail keyword topics with a comprehensive content marketing strategy rather than one-and-done SEO tactics. With a hierarchical topic format for addressing long-tail keywords, you cast a wider net on all of the potential questions that may lead a searcher to your business.
This means content is still king and just as important as its always been. It not only improves your ranking in search results either. A great content strategy organically guides your leads through the layers of their buyer’s journey to your website’s doorstep. What’s good for Google is even better for answering potential customers’ questions as they look for anyone on the internet to solve a problem that your product can fix.
Fast forward to the so-called Information Age of social media and smartphones and the role of the non-digital world is threatened on all sides. Email has overtaken postal mail. Instant messaging has replaced memos. Robotic replicants have slowly replaced our political leaders in anticipation of the tepid dawning of a machinery-ruled dystopia… yeah, maybe not so much but you get the point.
However, business cards still matter, especially to small businesses, because face-to-face interactions still make memorable impressions and business cards are the follow-up takeaway that seals the deal. So, although your business may not cater to royalty, it's still important to have that physical business card handy to make your brand known in your own community.
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