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4 Ways to Tell If You’re Doing On-Page SEO Well

August 21, 2017 By Tara DuBois Leave a Comment

4 Ways to Tell If You're Doing On-Page SEO Well

Is Your Website Healthy & Successful? There Are A Few Ways to Tell

A successful website requires much hard work and painstaking detail, but when it comes to choosing the activities you need to focus most of your attention on, you first need to find out which activities bring the best results.

There’s a slight twist when it comes to on-page SEO in the sense that you need to do it (or get it done) and you have to do it right. But how do you know you’re on-page SEO is really working?

There are many factors involved in on-page SEO, namely:

  • Google algorithms
  • website changes
  • competition factors
  • changes in user behavior
  • keyword rankings
  • traffic

These factors fluctuate all the time, and they are mostly out of your direct control.

When you’re wondering whether your on-page SEO is working, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Are your most important keywords ranked?

When building pages on your sites, each page should focus on one primary targeted keyword and several secondary keywords. You have to constantly work at your excellent search rankings to ensure that they remain at the top of the SERPs, as they will fluctuate all the time.

Track your rankings on a regular basis to see how your site is performing based on your target keywords. However, there’s more to successful on-page SEO than just rankings.

2. Are you getting any organic search traffic?

Organic search traffic is when someone types in a search using one of your targeted keywords, and then links to your website through the search results, rather than the paid ads at the top of the SERPs.

If you’re featured at the top of search results, the search engines obviously view your site as a valuable resource on the relevant topic. Organic traffic increases when:

  • your rankings improve
  • you use quality page titles and meta descriptions
  • you create more content

There may be some seasonal fluctuations in traffic, but by comparing traffic month-on-month and with the same period from the previous year, you will see whether you’re on track. Google Trends is another helpful tool for search data.

3. What is your bounce rate?

Your bounce rate is dependant on how long visitors stay on your site before leaving. It forms the link between the keywords used to target your audience, and the content and design of your landing page. Your page should be a natural progression that provides more information about the search terms that brought visitors to your site. Slow loading times, poor design and a lack of content are some of the reasons why visitors click out of your site.

Some pages will naturally have high bounce rates, such as event information pages, listings and so forth. Aim to have a lower bounce rate on your landing pages, homepage and service pages.

If your bounce rate is over 70%, you should consider getting professional help. Between 35-60% is typically a good average, but if you can improve the user experience or site content on your pages, be sure to do so. Anything less than 30% is usually good!

4. How is your conversion rate?

No two industries share the same online conversion rates, and every business has its own definition for conversion. For some, it might be a sale, for others, a newsletter sign up, or a free download. But most of us agree that a conversion is an action taken by a percentage of website visitors.

Most companies will be over the moon with a 5% conversion rate, while many will be satisfied a 3% conversion rate. However, if you are losing potential customers, it is time to speak to a professional about your conversion rate.

In many cases, sites receive thousands of visitors, but extremely low conversions. That often signals incorrect keyword usage and poor user experience. Either way, a professional can help you optimize in such a way to convert your visitors into qualified leads.

How is your on-page SEO faring? Are you happy with your results? Let’s discuss in comments below.

Filed Under: Live Life Unbound, Living Life Unbound, new post, Time and Money, Uncategorized, User Experience and Mobility, Value, web maintenance, web presence Tagged With: content, on-page seo, seo, website

3 Steps to a Successful Small Business Website using WordPress

April 24, 2017 By Tara DuBois Leave a Comment

3 Steps to a Successful Small Business Website using WordPress

A Small Business Website is Important. Make Sure It’s Done Right

A successful website is the backbone of a successful business. WordPress makes it easy to create, manage and run a successful website, as it offers an easy and useful content management system.

Unlike a cheap static site, WordPress was developed to help you reach out to your audience, and with a plethora awesome plugins to choose from, you can completely customize your site to meet your needs.

A successful site combines:

  1. Functional yet stylish design
  2. Regular updates
  3. The right target audience

Here are my top tips for using WordPress to run a successful website.

1. Functional, Beautiful Design

Your website is the online face of your company. If you want to portray a professional image, you should have your WordPress site professionally designed. Your design should reflect your company culture and vision.

A professional design ensures that your content is laid out in such a way that it guides a visitor towards the most important information on your site. The images and typography connect with your audience on an emotional level, which makes them more likely to follow through on your calls to action.

Using a Genesis child theme with your WordPress site enables you to customize it to showcase your individual style. Genesis is a powerhouse platform which adds even more customization options, along with being a fantastic tool to ensure your site meets the latest web standards.

2. Regular Updates Made Easy

Search engines love WordPress sites due to the clean code, and we love it because it helps us better manage time. WordPress allows you to schedule your posts for future dates. That means that you can write posts when you feel inspired, and schedule them for a time and date when most of your audience will be online.

You can even make it easy for readers to access more information by displaying a “latest posts” widget on your homepage and a “similar posts” widget on the post pages.

Other widgets can help you to add new content on a regular basis from your social media pages, thus letting the search engines know that your site is alive and well.

3. Reaching Out to the Right Audience

There are many sites that promise to help you reach a massive audience. However, if you fail to reach the correct audience (people who actually want to buy what you are selling), it will be a waste of time and money. Before you post anything on your site, it’s important to first determine who your target audience is. Your website’s design and content should be aimed at your audience.

Search engine optimization is the number one technique we use to drive traffic from unknown sources to our sites. Making a success of your SEO involves knowing who your audience is, and finding the right keywords to attract them.

There are many ways to share your content, the most popular being:

  • Social Sharing
  • Email
  • RSS Feeds
  • Newsletters

Once you have attracted the right audience, you want to find good ways to stay in their minds and for them to share your content with their friends. You can also encourage your readers to share your content if they find it helpful, valuable and interesting. It can easily be done by installing some of these plugins:

  • Pay with a Like – Readers must like your post in order to read it.
  • Social and Floating Social – Great tools to encourage visitors to follow you on social media.
  • MailChimp – Newsletter platform and sign up form tools.

Now that you understand how these three elements work in harmony to help you achieve web success, you are off to a great start. How can we help you make the most of your small business website?

Filed Under: Live Life Unbound, Living Life Unbound, new post, Unbound Freedom, Uncategorized, User Experience and Mobility, web design, web maintenance, web presence Tagged With: business, Genesis, small business, small business website, web design, website, website design, Wordpress

Project Highlight: Living Well Life Coaching

November 21, 2016 By Tara DuBois Leave a Comment

Project Highlight: Living Well Life Coaching

Industry: Life Coaching

Company: Living Well Life Coaching

Type of Work: Web Design

Living Well Life Coaching helps people make positive changes in their life to become their “best” self in every sense of the word.

The Challenge

Jeanne from Living Well Life Coaching was in need of a streamlined website that was able to grow with her coaching business throughout the years, with little to no extra effort added to maintain it. She also needed the capability of a robust intake process and protected pages to work directly with her clients on the site platform.

The Unbound Solution

In order to meet the needs of the Living Well Life Coaching brand now and into the future, Unbound Web Design developed a smooth, WordPress-based site that offered beautiful design and ultimate functionality.

The Results

The resulting website is nothing short of simple perfection and does all of the heavy lifting for Jeanne and her coaching business. Now, she can spend more time helping her clientele find their way and less time worrying about her website.

Check out the Live Project Here

Filed Under: Live Life Unbound, Living Life Unbound, new post, Portfolio, Project Highlights, web design, web maintenance, web presence Tagged With: digital presence, project, web design, web design project, website

Project Highlight: Gulf Coast Regional Center

June 16, 2016 By Tara DuBois Leave a Comment

Gulf Coast Regional Center Project Highlight

Industry: Immigration Education

Company: Gulf Coast Regional Center

Type of Work: Web Design

The Gulf Coast Regional Center specializes in education and promoting the immigration of skilled people to enhance the economy in the New Orleans area.

The Challenge

With such a unique model and message, the Gulf Coast Regional Center needed a simple website that would be informational and offer an option for people to connect with the Center for more information.

The Unbound Solution

To achieve these goals, Unbound Web Design put together a simple, yet ultra-functional mobile-friendly website that offered all of the basic information and an additional opt-in to collect leads.

The Results

The resulting website offers great information on the subject while also being easy to navigate.

Check out the Live Project Here

 

Filed Under: Live Life Unbound, Living Life Unbound, new post, Portfolio, Project Highlights, Uncategorized, web design Tagged With: mobile friendly, mobile web design, web design, website, website design

4 Simple Reasons Why SEO is Not Dead

May 23, 2016 By Tara DuBois Leave a Comment

4 Simple Reasons Why SEO is Not Dead

Some people think that SEO is now less important than before, and some have commented that high-quality content is more important than SEO. Yes, content is crucial, but SEO is not dead and remains an essential element to your digital marketing strategy.

Yes, it is true that SEO changes as frequently as the weather, and sometimes it can be hard to keep up with the latest best practices. However, SEO is still the method by which search engines find us in an increasingly more competitive marketplace.

“I’ve been hearing SEO is dead since the moment it began. The bottom line for SEO is as long as there are search engines, there will always be a need to optimize websites.” – Stoney deGeyter Pole Position Marketing CEO

Without SEO, content alone can’t deliver the progress you need for your business to thrive. How will people find your site?

SEO complements great content – it is a symbiotic relationship. One can’t work without the other. Here are 4 simple reasons why SEO is not dead.

1. Google Says SEO Is Alive and Well

As the biggest search engine in the world, we trust Google. Through revolutionary and smart (almost human-like) algorithms, the search engine determines whether a site offers quality, relevant content based on user search queries. While they are secretive about the exact algorithms, they do offer an SEO guide that provides advice and how to make the most of your rankings.

Experts agree that focusing on SEO alone is not a good idea, but that it should incorporate other aspects too.

“SEO is not dead, however … if you believe the opposite get ready to watch your competitors take all your organic traffic. Pay attention to all three pillars of SEO because they are all equally important: Code and Structure, Content, and Keywords, and finally Authority (Links and Social engagement).” – Garth O’Brien

2. User Experience Goes Hand-in-Hand With SEO

There’s a direct link between SEO and good user-experience on a website. As part of your SEO, sitemaps represent another important SEO factor that plays directly into your user-experience. A sitemap opens up communication between your site and the search engines so that the search engines know when you’ve posted or altered your content. It also makes your site easier to navigate for your users.

3. SEO Allows Small Businesses to Compete Against Major Players

In his post on Entrepreneur.com, Jayson Demers explains how small businesses can compete with giants online, thanks to SEO. Now you don’t have to throw in the towel just because you’re competing with massive corporations, as Google has leveled the playing field for you.

“It’s getting more complex and more fun. Focus on how you can leverage first-party data and deeper audience understanding to create richer digital experiences. Bonus tip: technical SEO matters more than ever: ASO, app indexing, deep linking, JavaScript and dynamic sites, personalized content…the list goes on.” – Adam Audette

4. Google is Working Towards Processing Real Speech Patterns

As more and more people lean towards using mobile devices to search, Google must find new and innovative ways to capture the ever growing market. Google Speak is a prime example of the type of technology they are working on constantly improving, and as mobile search increases in prevalence, so does the importance of natural patterns of speech.

“Over time, people are going to increasingly gravitate towards voice search in environments where that is acceptable. Voice queries are much more likely to fall into the pattern of natural language queries.” – Eric Enge, Copyblogger

Based on these facts, it is pretty clear that SEO is alive and well, and going nowhere anytime soon. The only constant is the fact that Google constantly changes the way in which they process the keywords. I’ll close with a final word of advice from Craig Wilson of Media Hunter:

“SEO is not dead, but your business might be if you don’t rank for searches that solve customers’ problems. Advice: Write for humans first, Googlebots second. If you consistently publish great content that solves your potential customers’ problems, then optimize it for search, you have the potential to generate ridiculous amounts of traffic and leads.”

Filed Under: Business Development, Live Life Unbound, Living Life Unbound, new post, Uncategorized, User Experience and Mobility, web design, web maintenance, web presence Tagged With: improve search rankings, search engine optimization, search engines, seo, SEO basics, web design, web maintenance, website

4 Easy Ways to Spruce Up Your Website for Summer

May 16, 2016 By Tara DuBois Leave a Comment

Summer’s finally here! The days are warmer, and everyone has sunshine, waves, and ice-cream on the brain. But, as a small business owner who is trying to keep things running smoothly during the quiet season, this presents a great opportunity for you to spruce up your website for summer. Not only is it a good way to get regular maintenance done ahead of time, but it puts you in a great position to make the most of your busy season.

Why You Should Give Your Site a Summer Spruce Up

Working from home during the summer can sometimes be difficult if you’re a business owner. Oftentimes the summer to-do list has already been completed, and you’ve got extra time on your hands. So with everything done, and too much time on your hands, this presents the ideal opportunity to get your site in order.

Summer is here!

If you’re going away for a few weeks, it’s even more important to ensure that your site is ready to handle summer traffic. In this post, we will look at some of the best things you can do to get your site ready for summertime:

Run Summer Promos

Is summer usually the slow season for your business? Take advantage of that with some simple summer promotions.

Everyone likes a good discount or promotion, so use social media marketing, Search Engine Marketing, and email marketing to promote your promos and to stay in touch with your audience.

Get Responsive

Have you been too busy to make sure your site is responsive or mobile ready? Now is the time!

Take advantage of the quiet season to switch to a responsive theme, like the versatile Altitude Pro theme from Studio Press. Your database could easily be migrated, and the added bonus is that it will probably rank much better than before. Also, there is currently a penalty placed on sites that are not mobile-friendly, so by remedying this, you’ll receive more organic traffic.

Revamp Your Brand

The average website or brand has a two to three-year shelf life, so if you haven’t done so yet, now is the time to treat your site to a makeover.

Now, we know that this is a huge and often stressful step, but you don’t have to go completelyrazy. Hold on to what works and let the rest go. The changes shouldn’t be too big, particularly if you already have some degree of brand recognition. A good rule of thumb is to introduce one change at a time, which gives your visitors time to get used to it.

If you don’t want to revamp your site, at least use this time to run regular website maintenance.

Give Yourself Some TLCYou deserve some TLC, too!

When you’re feeling overwhelmed, that’s always a sign that you need a little tender loving care. Whether you treat yourself to a pamper session at the spa or sign up for a personal or professional development course – the choice is yours. Just do it!

Need help or advice with sprucing up your site this summer? Our creative team can help develop the perfect website strategy and brand that will complement your business and provide a smooth user experience for your visitors.

Filed Under: Business Development, Live Life Unbound, Living Life Unbound, new post, Time and Money, Unbound Freedom, Uncategorized, web design, web maintenance, web presence Tagged With: benefits of website updates, small business website, website, website design, website maintenance, website update

6 Ways That WordPress Plugins Make Your Life Easier

April 11, 2016 By Tara DuBois Leave a Comment

6 Ways That Wordpress Plugins Make Your Life Easier

It’s no secret that we’re huge WordPress fans. After all, it is the best content management system available, and with a multitude of plugins to choose from you don’t need coding skills to manage complex functions. The addition of WordPress plugins can easily increase the functionality of your website and make your life easier with a simple click of the mouse.

Use keywords to find the plugin you need in the built-in WordPress library, click on Install, then Activate – as simple as that!

6 Benefits of WordPress Plugins

Now that you know how easy WordPress Plugins are to install, let’s take a look at how you can use them to make your life easier.

1. WordPress Plugins Can Prevent Time-Consuming Spam

Few things are as disappointing as logging into your site to see a notification that you have 1, 490 comments… just to find out that they are all spam.

Spam can really drag down your site’s authority and removing it can be a full-time job. Instead, use the pre-loaded WordPress plugin Akismet to help protect your blog from trackback and comment spam. Learn more about how Akismet can help you avoid spam from day one on our recent blog.

2. Backup Your Site to Avoid Losing Valuable Data

A security breach on your website can cause a ton of damage, especially if you store client details and personal information on it.

To avoid losing valuable data, a smart option is to employ a combination of security and backup options to make sure your site is absolutely bulletproof.

3. Improve Your Conversion Rate With Good Links

When you change or delete a page, you may not always consider which internal pages link to it. Or you may link to an external site, and that link could move to another location without your knowledge. That’s why it’s a great idea to install Broken Link Checker to keep on top of that, without you needing to manually go through every page of your site once a month, which is how often this should be done.

4. Create a Google XML Sitemap Without Any Input From You

There are some terms that even novices understand, but for many newbies, the term “XML Sitemap” might as well be Greek.

It that describes you, then head on over to the plugin library and search for Google XML Sitemaps. This handy plugin will generate an XML sitemap on your behalf. An XML sitemap is important in helping search engines index your blog on Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask.com.

5. Plugins Let You SEO Optimize Like a Pro

You know that your site needs SEO, but do you know that you can easily save money on SEO costs by installing Yoast SEO for WordPress?

This handy plugin is an all-in-one solution that helps you set up a variety of important SEO functions, even if you’re a novice. SEO helps determine just how well your site ranks on the search results pages.

Plus, you can also use the Yoast SEO Plugin for your XML Sitemap instead of the Google XML Sitemaps plugin.

6. Quickly and Easily Insert Ads Into Posts

You’ve written a blog post, and you’d like to monetize your lyrical way with words. Instead of laboring over hex codes and sizing charts, use Quick AdSense to quickly and easily insert Google Adsense and other types of ads into the post. It offers a range of flexible solutions.

Apart from the ease of installation, plugins are easy to remove, if you need to do that for whatever reason, and you can install as many (or as few) plugins as you wish. Of course, most experienced WordPress users will have many opinions about the plugins mentioned above, but the ease of installation means that you can easily experiment until you find the ones that work best for you.

Filed Under: Live Life Unbound, Living Life Unbound, new post, responsive web design, simplicity, Uncategorized, web design, web maintenance, web presence Tagged With: plugins, web design, website, website maintenance, website optimization, Wordpress, wordpress plugins

10 Amazing WordPress Plugins That Your Website Needs

March 21, 2016 By Tara DuBois Leave a Comment

10 Amazing Wordpress Plugins That Your Website Needs

It’s a new year and you want to refresh your website and build upon last year’s results. We get it and we did it, too!

The beautiful thing about WordPress sites run on the Genesis Framework is the fact that there’s so much you can do to improve it’s performance, appearance and functionality through simple plugins.

Today’s post, 10 Amazing WordPress Plugins That Your Website Needs Now, will give you the low-down on some of my favorite WordPress plugins that will benefit most sites, whether you want to:

  • Increase your SEO results
  • Ensure that your site is backed up
  • Improve web performance
  • Install some powerful features
  • Minimize spam
  • Track your results
  • Increase your conversion rate
  • Achieve more shares

Plugins offer so many different options, and the benefit is that, in 99% of cases, you don’t have to touch the code at all. That means that your website stays intact (especially if you don’t really know what you’re doing!), but… better.

Top 10 Amazing WordPress Plugins That Your Website Needs

Let’s get right to it:

  1. Increase Your SEO Results

Recommended Plugin: WordPress SEO by Yoast

Yoast SEO Plugin

There are many SEO plugins, but WordPress SEO by Yoast has been hailed the best by most experts. Why? Because it offers a total web optimization package and not just SEO.

  1. Ensure That Your Site is Backed Up

Recommended Plugin: BackupBuddy

Perfect for people with limited experience, BackupBuddy combines backup and migration to allow you to quickly (and easily!) set up an automatic backup schedule. It will store your backups in the cloud, and you can rest assured, knowing that your valuable content is safe.

  1. Improve Overall Web Performance & Speed

Recommended Plugin: W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache Plugin

Search engines will consider your website’s speed when it comes to allocating your rankings. If you want to increase your performance and speed, W3 Total Cache will allow you to set up a content delivery network for static files, compress large pages to ensure quicker downloading, and setup browser and page caching.

  1. Install Some Powerful Features

Recommended Plugin: Jetpack by WordPress

Jetpack Plugin

Jetpack is a powerful suite of essential tools that cover a range of needs, ranging from increased visitor engagement to improved site performance, enhanced security and additional features, such as Post by Email, Related Posts, Social Sharing and spam-free Comments.

  1. Minimize Web Spam

Recommended Plugin: Akismet

Akismet Plugin

There’s only one downside to owning a blog, and that is spam. Thanks to Akismet, though, that no longer needs to be a problem. This awesome plugin automatically checks comments against the Akismet Web service, filtering out any comments that look like spam.

You can view the history to see comments that were cleared or flagged by Akismet.

Recommended Plugin: CAPTCHA

Prevent web form spam with CAPTCHA, a free service to integrate with your registration, login, comment forms and recovery.

  1. Track Your Results

When it comes to tracking your results, there are many different factors to consider, and obviously, various tools to use.

Recommended Plugin: Google Analytics +

Google Analytics + allows you to view and track search results for all your sites. Now you don’t have to log into your Google Analytics account in a separate browser window because it is all in your WordPress dashboard. Google Analytics + is easy to navigate, whether you’re using it one on site, or all your sites.

Recommended Plugin: Extended Analytics

Take your analytics to a new level with Extended Analytics, which allows you to track events, such as downloads, and outbound links, as well as linking your Adsense account to analytics for greater reporting ability.

  1. Increase Your Conversion Rate

Recommended Plugin: Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 Plugin

This flexible, simple plugin is ideal for creating, managing and customizing multiple forms and mailing lists. Set it up with CAPTCHA and Akismet to help manage spam.

  1. Achieve more shares

Recommended Plugin: ShareThis

ShareThis Plugin

Get more social love with ShareThis, a powerful plugin that allows for easy sharing of your articles across 50 different social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and Digg, to name a few, as well as email. The plugin also has the Google+1 button and the Facebook Like button.

These amazing plugins will provide you with the essential basics you need to achieve a variety of functions on your site. In fact, we use each and every one of these plugins and options on our own website.

Did we miss any? Please share your favorites in comments below.

Filed Under: Analytics, Business Development, new post, responsive web design, simplicity, Uncategorized, web design, web maintenance, web presence Tagged With: benefits of website updates, functionality, Google Analytics, plugins, User Experience, web design, web design project, web upgrade, website, website project, Wordpress, wordpress plugins, wordpress themes

Project Highlight: The FB Ads Method

March 4, 2016 By Tara DuBois Leave a Comment

Project Highlight: The FB Ads Method

Industry: Business Coaching

Company: FB Ads Method

Type of Work: Website Design

The FB Ads Method is the brainchild of our friend Kerry at System Envy. She is striving to make Facebook Advertising easy for everyone, and here’s how Unbound Web Design helped her do that.

The Challenge

Kerry was in need of a beautifully designed, responsive landing page for her new product, The FB Ads Method. This page needed to be super functional, gorgeous and suit all of her customer’s needs.

The Unbound Solution

In order to make this amazing landing page/mini site happen for Kerry, we designed a responsive page with a unique parallax design that allows for infinite scrolling without the loss of context within the page.

The Results

The results? Amazing!

“Oh, AND…The FB Ads Method site is so ridiculously good that I am getting sales from it, literally, when I’m not even in launch mode or doing any marketing. It’s also housing my course – it’s extremely functional and valuable. Really…I could go on (and on).”

Check out the Live Project Here

Filed Under: Business Development, Portfolio, Project Highlights, Uncategorized, web design, web presence Tagged With: benefits of website updates, new website, project, unbound project, web design, web design project, website, website design, website project, website redesign business coach

Updating & Rebranding Your Site: The Whats, Wheres, Hows, and When’s Explained

March 7, 2014 By Tara DuBois Leave a Comment

unbound blog 3-6-14It’s that time of the year – out with the old, in with the new. You guessed it:  I’m updating my site, refreshing my brand. What I love most about my job is sharing it with you, so this post is all about “How Do I Know When It’s Time to Update My Website?”

Ideally, it’s a good idea to spend a couple of hours every month working at your site, keeping it up-to-date and aligned with your business goals. But let’s face it – even those of us who do it for our clients, tend to let our own work get behind… – a typical case of the shoemaker’s children walking barefoot.

Rebranding and updating your site can have the same effect on your business as a day at the spa can have on you. It’s worth it!

Why I Decided to Rebrand my Site

It can be quite embarrassing when you visit your own site for the first time in months and realize that information has changed, or perhaps you have been pursuing a different focus. I’m a big one for speaking in one voice, so looking at my site, I realized that it was no longer ME.

While my website offered a range of expert services in multiple areas, I really just love building websites, because it allows me to use my techie side to create visually pleasing sites for my clients. That’s where I’m at my happiest.  I find it rewarding, because my skills empower my clients, and it gives their online businesses a place to call home.

As I started thinking about my site and my business and lifestyle goals, I started going much deeper into my rebranding than I ever anticipated…

  • I refocused my packages
  • I updated my pricing
  • I redefined my purpose
  • I fine-tuned my mission
  • I adjusted my service offerings

and much more.

It has been like recreating my business in its entirety, and I realized just how much I have learned and the extent to which my business has grown. I feel rejuvenated and look forward to Unbound success.

But first I want to help you rebrand YOUR website too.

When you look at your website, does it look dated? Even if it doesn’t –  if you have not updated your site in six months or more – it probably could use some TLC.

Technology changes at lightning speed, and design trends change nearly as fast. At the same time, the market’s demands grow. Your site has to be able to keep up with all that!

Now, remember that there’s more to redesigning and rebranding your website than just making it look good. While most technology changes are for the better, they each bring about their own set of problems, which you have to solve. It’s about presentation, loading times, user-experience and much, much more.

Before You Start Updating and Rebranding Your Website

Before you decide to update and rebrand your website, first ask yourself these questions, so that you don’t waste time spinning your wheels:

  • What is my mission? Why do I own this business?
  • What service offerings make me happy?
  • What changes would my clients like to see?
  • Is my pricing current, reasonable, competitive and justified?

In thinking about these questions, you will discover whether your business is making you happy, and how you can improve certain elements. Unless you’re happy doing what you’re doing for the foreseeable future, you will have to redefine your goals and methods to help you get onto the right track.

 

Aspects of Updating and Rebranding Your Website

These are some of the basic factors you should consider to ensure that your website is running smoothly and providing your visitors and experience.

1.  Responsive Design

Does your site look good no matter which device or browser your visitors use to access it? The key is to make the transition from one device to another seamless, without hindering user experience. You can test your site here.

2.  Content Management System

Is it hard to update your site, because 1) you don’t know how, or 2) you don’t have time? Those excuses are costing you, but they are easily solved. If you don’t have the time to do it, it might be a good idea to hire someone to do it for you. Search engines also like sites that are updated regularly. WordPress is a great content management system that allows you to easily add pages and posts and for those who want to venture in a bit more you can easily update even more!

3.  Outdated Functionalities

Are there items on your site that take up space, but offer very little value? Some business owners have started removing certain social media tools from their websites, claiming that they no longer bring the value they once did. Use this time of redesign and rebranding to delete outdated functionalities.

4.  Loading Speed

Nobody wants to wait more than five seconds for a site to load. Smartphone carriers and ISPs limit the amount of data people are allowed to use, and therefore you should ensure that your site loads fast and downloads very little data. Using a solid and credible host helps mitigate speed being an issue.

5.  Bounce Rate

Do people visit your home page but they don’t click on any of the other links to go deeper into your site? You may not know that, unless you use analytics tools, such as Google Analytics.  If your home page is causing you to lose visitors, it’s time to update it, to rebrand it and to entice them to go deeper.

Closely related to the bounce rate, is low traffic. If your site is slow to bring in visitors and to keep them coming back, it’s definitely time to update and rebrand your website.

Bonus Updating and Website Rebranding Tips:

  • If search engines don’t know you exist, update your SEO efforts.
  • Update the copyright year in your website’s footer.
  • Check for broken links, those pesky hyperlinks that lead to pages that no longer exist.

Ultimately, you get to decide when and how to update and rebrand your website. If you don’t know where to start, contact Unbound. We’ll happily advise you!

Filed Under: Business Development, Create, simplicity, User Experience and Mobility, web design, web presence Tagged With: new website, rebrand, website, website update

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