Getting reviews for your business has always been an important tool to attracting new customers, as well as retaining them. While certain platforms like Yelp and TripAdvisor have been around for some time, Google Reviews has become the new leader in online customer feedback aggregation. More customers and businesses are turning to Google to both find and list important information, such as revised store hours, safety policies, and more.
As children we were all encouraged by our parents, coaches and teachers to “learn from our mistakes” and “get back on the horse after you fall.” No this isn’t quite the same as the “everyone gets a trophy” jab that younger generations these days get tagged with, but rather the encouragement to take risks in search for high reward and learn from the mistakes and failures along the way in order to improve against the theory and try again for a better result.
If you’re a small business owner, then you need to be careful with your money. But you also know that you needed to start investing in marketing your business online yesterday.
There are plenty of articles that teach digital marketing. But they don’t tell you is where you should start. They assume you have the budget and the knowledge to figure that out on your own.
Like many businesses, LUMINUS had two Google+ pages for a long time: a Brand page and a Local page. And like many businesses, it took us longer than it should have to figure out to merge both Google pages together.
Recently we posted a link on Twitter and Facebook to the Google press release regarding their rollout of the new “Mobile-Friendy” tag in their search results. This not only improves the user experience on Google directing them to the most mobile friendly websites available in the search, but also benefits those that have taken steps to redevelop their current or new websites to respond to a variety of device sizes to benefit their visitors’ experience.
There are a lot of websites designed & built between 2010-2012 that while not appearing out dated in terms of looks are out dated in terms of structure. Namely, being able to respond to the visitors devices screen size and collapse vertically as needed. Even sites in our portfolio from that time period follow into this category.
“Mobile ready websites increase sales”
It’s a bold statement, but one that can be said with more confidence as each day passes in this new smartphone encouraged “instant access” world we live in.
As of May 2013, 56% of the mobile market is using a Smartphone (iPhone, Droid, etc.) to browse the web on the go. Not far behind, is the new boom in the tablet market, now overtaking the desktop world.
It’s a new reality that as high as 25% of your web traffic is being viewed on a non-desktop device.
The world of website standards is constantly changing. With the introduction of new devices literally every year, the browsers that accompany them, and the varying screen sizes, you can never really know how someone will try and access your site.
We’ve mentioned before (as the web world has been noting for the better part of 2 years) that responsive design has taken a front seat in the web production process. Along with that, search engines have been fine tuning their methods for discovering the best relevant pages for search results.
Both of these new standards have made one thing and one thing only the most important part of your website: