As a regular web user, you likely see both types of websites all the time without thinking about it too much. Before you decide fully on one or the other, it’s beneficial to know the differences between website templates vs custom design and how it applies to your vision, budget, and ROI goals. 

Before simply hiring any website designer and developer, you should know that certain website aspects like plug-ins, integrated features, and other additions aren’t always built-in. They are also not guaranteed to function 100% as your website goes live. It takes the right team with enough experience and expertise to customize your website for an optimal customer journey from start to finish. 

It is crucial to understand the key differences between a custom website vs. a template before you make a decision that will impact the future of your business.  

Need a custom website for your business? Contact Exults today.

5 Differences Between A Custom vs. Template Website

You’re ready to use what you have to revamp your business’s website to fully reflect your brand and its purpose. But you’re still not sure exactly how much help you’ll need to get what you want out of your website. It’s easy to overthink something like this, but it may help to break down each one before getting into the nitty-gritty details.

What Is A Custom Website? 

A custom website is typically built from scratch and coded to include the integrations you want to offer your visitors to enhance their experience. A few of these integrations include items like…

• Chat capabilities
• Pop-ups
• Drop down navigation
• Contact forms
• Interactive scheduling

In addition to creating the exact user experience you envision, having a custom website vs. a template allows you to infuse your brand’s personality throughout with endless design options like…

• Consistent branding throughout
• Scrolling style
• Font and headline options
• Embedded videos
• Multiple photo galleries

And so much more! Custom websites are best for businesses needing a unique look and feel with added plug-ins and capabilities. This type of website design takes considerably more time and effort than a website template.

What Is A Template Website? 

Finding a website template for your business is much different than building a website from scratch. However, you will be limited in the number of features and custom integrations that are available. This is because a template is pre-designed or set to a specific amount of additional features that you’re capable of using. 

Using a pre-set website template means you can worry less about your website’s overall design. This type of website design is best for businesses that need to keep the user experience straightforward. But, there are a few drawbacks involved in going the templated route.

Here are 5 areas of focus to refine your website needs…

1. Code

As mentioned before, a custom website gives you the power to customize the user experience down to their final click – from choosing a dropdown style to ensuring branding is consistent throughout. Many people think these types of features come standard with any website build. However, this isn’t always the case.

First things first…The biggest difference is the one that you don’t see as a consumer, and that’s the code. 

To keep it simple, custom websites are built using custom code. As a result, it does require longer development hours; however, the end product is not limited by a templated framework and is instead highly flexible. And you own the website outright – meaning no one will have a website exactly like yours. With a solid developer, you reduce your risk of security breaches as hackers will have to spend dedicated time on your website alone to crack it. Templated websites provide hackers the opportunity to attack websites on a bigger scale. 

The downside is that your site may crash more frequently with updates unless you have a development team on standby to manage your website updates. 

Templated code is great for easy-to-launch sites and standardized development. For some companies, this is great as you may not use your website as a key driver in your business. So if you see your website as a brochure rather than a member of your sales and marketing team, templates may be the best option for you. Usually, templates are in the form of website builders. These are great for visual people because it offers a transparent view of what your website will look like when you’ve added all the necessary information.

Want to combine ideas from different website templates into one custom website design? Talk to the Exults team today.

2. Functionality

Do you have a special program for returning customers? What about seasonal promotions?

Depending on your website’s needs, you may prefer having a custom website vs. a template. Certain actions are simple and can be easily built into a template. But you may want to take your design a step further and go from “Call Now” leading to a contact form to “Schedule An Appointment” leading to an interactive calendar instead. Or, perhaps, you need an e-commerce website that allows users to safely navigate and purchase products.

Defining the functionality of your website is best done with a web designer or developer that can think through all of the possibilities from a user perspective. It’s essential to get this nailed down before putting anything else into action.

Whether you want to ensure a seamless mobile experience or create timely notifications with your colors and branding, compare a quote with a custom website developer compared to using a template. Fewer features on your website might leave you feeling as though using a template is the most effective way to communicate your business’s message.

3. Scalability

Regarding website design and development, scalability often goes hand-in-hand. On one hand, a template may not grow with you and your business as you reach higher revenue goals. On the other hand, a custom website means more routine maintenance to keep your website up-to-date and aligned with your business as you grow. If you have a trusted team of developers in your corner, you can worry less about maintaining your website and spend more time offering valuable information to your target audience.

Along with being able to maintain your website, having a custom-built website gives you more power in real-time to make changes as you see fit when reviewing your bounce rate, keyword standing, etc. A website template will usually let you change most copy or content, but certain other features may be set and unable to change.

4. Design

One of the major benefits of having a fully custom design versus being locked into a template is that your brand’s voice, tone, style, and branding can be intertwined into everything from headings to special effects that appear on certain pages. Your website will stand out compared to others in the same industry because it will have your company built into every aspect possible. 

Building your website from scratch with custom website design services means having FAQs with easy-to-read dropdowns and interactive graphics, videos, and beyond with your brand logo, colors, font choice, and so much more built-in. For many business owners, this is an ideal choice to stand out as a company and break through the noise associated with duplicated content, reused designs, and stock images. However, this can be a costly choice when compared to using a web template.

In addition to saving money, you can also adhere to a stricter timeline from strategy to launch. A website template is done for you and, for the most part, is set as far as features and functionality. Because of this, you have more control over its content and how quickly you plan on producing said content to be published on your website. After plugging in the right information into the pre-designed template you choose, you can launch your website knowing the technical details are taken care of. Again, a drawback here is that you’re limited to only what’s available.

5. SEO

Content is still king. And unique content will always be favored by popular search engines like Google. Because using a website template limits some of your ability to be creative, you won’t likely be largely distinguished as having more original content as a custom-built website. Even more, if you’re using pre-set copy, your SEO rank is susceptible to taking a hit. Unique copy with properly researched keywords and SEO strategies is more likely to appear at the top of most search engines. If SEO isn’t a concern for your business, this may not matter as much to your or your team when it comes to launching your website.

Beyond these 5 differences, choosing between a custom website vs a template usually comes down to one essential facet of your business – your budget.

Custom Website Design And Development All With One Dedicated Team

Still trying to decide whether you want to go with a custom website vs a template? 

Choosing a web template can be an ideal choice for companies without a website at all or startups without the larger budget of a well-established business. They can be a comprehensive tool used to showcase your services, company, and a way to connect with your potential customers.

Exults specializes in custom website designs for businesses across the nation. Interested in a custom web experience for your business? Get started with Exults today.

The post Differences Between A Custom Website vs. Template Website appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

When done right, your website can be your most powerful sales tool. And with the right law firm website integrations, you’ll spend less time on minute tasks that would otherwise fill your schedule. Plus, you can be confident that your information is correct with zero opportunity for human error. 

If you often wonder how other law firms manage to focus on what matters most, then you need to step up the capabilities of your legal website. These 8 integrations can make your website do more and allow you to focus on big-picture items, increase revenue, and provide an exceptional client experience – all with less effort on your part. 

What Is A Custom Integration? 

If you’re not familiar with custom integrations, you may wonder why you need them. However, once you experience the benefits of integrations added to your law firm’s website, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without them. 

A custom integration is a software solution customized to meet your law firm’s specific needs. This may include plugins to transfer data, scheduling tools, and more that will save your office hours every day.

Learn more about what integrations to your website can do for your law firm. Contact us today for a custom quote. 

Strengthen Your Law Firm Website’s Functionality With These 8 Integrations

If your quarterly or annual goals include…

• Streamlining workflows
• Reducing administrative tasks
• Increasing productivity
• Improving client experience
• Increasing revenue

…It’s time to stop trying to recreate the wheel. In fact, there are several tried, tested, and proven integrations that competing law firms are already using. So rather than sit through another brainstorming session with your team, talk to Exults about integrations you can add to your website today.

CRM Integrations 

Your customer relationship management software (CRM) is the powerhouse of your law firm. Because no matter how capable your law firm is, you need the contacts to put your skills to use. 

With CRM integration, you never have to worry about a lost lead. When potential clients visit your website, they will have the opportunity to input their information. And that goes directly into your CRM.

Now, you can easily add these contacts to your email newsletter list and long-term nurture campaigns. Need an incentive to encourage website visitors to input their information? Speak to Exults about creating a valuable lead magnet or list builder to offer your audience in exchange for their contact information. 

Ready to experience the results driven by Exults? Contact us for a custom quote today! 

Booking Links

Scheduling a meeting seems easy enough. But then you get caught up in comparing multiple calendars to find a time that works for everyone. It can easily turn into a majorly time-consuming task that results in delayed responses to your potential or existing clients. 

Instead, add a booking link integration to your website. Visitors will be able to schedule meetings within seconds. The integration utilizes you and your team’s calendars without anyone having to sift through pages of upcoming events. 

You can even provide specific links for different types of meetings. For instance, a discovery call may require 30 minutes and a select few people from your team. Whereas another type of meeting may require a different amount of time with a different selection of your employees. 

Search Bar 

A thoughtful, well-executed website will accomplish several goals. For instance, it’s encouraged to include the answers to questions that you often find yourself clarifying over phone calls and emails. 

If you’ve made the decision to include a wealth of information on your website, help yourself and your audience by making that data easy to find. The best way to do this is to include a search bar. This way, your website visitors will be able to locate helpful resources within seconds. 

Otherwise, you may continue to find yourself on the other end of phone calls and emails explaining information that’s already on your website. 

Case Management Software

Look around your office. Do you see handwritten to-do lists scattered across every  desk? Moreover, are you constantly being asked by your team to confirm deadlines for specific tasks?

This can become time-consuming, confusing, and downright frustrating. But now, you can save your entire office time and energy with integrated case management software that will simultaneously improve your workflow.

Helpful case management software will allow your office to create tasks, delegate responsibilities, track time and progress, and confirm when each action is completed.  

Client Portal 

It’s fairly common for your law firm’s clients to call, email, or even stop by unannounced to inquire about the status of their legal case. While client communications are important, this can be burdensome and even annoying at times.

Between your CRM and client portal, you can keep your clients happy and apprised of their current status through these integrations. PRO TIP: Take a note from Exults and include key performance indicators (KPI) tracking in your client portal. If you’re a current or former client of ours, you know that you can access your KPIs at any time through our ARC client portal. It is mutually beneficial to all of our clients and the Exults team. 

Online Billing Software

How many people do you employ for the sole purpose of handling your billing and other finances? 

With so much of our lives happening online these days, it’s fairly common to not receive change of address updates as was once the norm. And with the amount of scammers and phishing attempts, legitimate emails are often inaccurately marked as spam. As a result, communications go missing. When this affects collecting payments, this can cause major issues for your law firm.

Instead of dealing with the headaches, streamline your bill collections into an online billing website integration. Clients will know to securely sign in to pay their bills. Plus, you can set up your online billing software to send reminders until the bill is paid. This saves your office time, energy, paper, postage, and more.

E-Signature Software

Whether your clients have all embraced technology, it’s a safe bet that the majority are fully capable of using your e-signature integration. 

Rather than having to track down all parties whose signatures you need, you can easily have them e-sign from their computer, tablet, or even smartphone!

Gone are the days of progress being held hostage while you wait for someone to get back in town or take the time to swing by your office to sign on the dotted line.

Google Connections

Are you showcasing your best client feedback? Or tracking your marketing efforts to see exactly what is and what is not working?

By integrating Google connections, like Google reviews and Google Analytics, your law firm can do more of what is creating positive feedback and results. And when the analytics show that a certain campaign isn’t performing as intended, this gives you the opportunity to pivot your marketing budget for the best results. 

Enhance Your Legal Website’s Capabilities With Integrations By Exults

Aside from integration research and implementation for clients, we use them ourselves. Having seen the results firsthand, we know that integrations are useful in streamlining workflows to increase productivity and revenue. 

Trust your law firm website to the experts at Exults who drive results. Contact us for a custom quote today!

The post Custom Integrations To Consider Adding To Your Law Firm’s Website In 2023 appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

A regular webpage and a landing page are distinctly different, regarding accessibility, navigation, format, and purpose. Understanding these differences is essential for developing a successful online marketing campaign.

Website Page VS. Landing Page

Website development can be confusing for the average business owner. The main difference between a regular webpage and a landing page is the differentiating purposes.

Purpose of a Website Page

A regular webpage essential nurtures leads through engagement and education. The purpose of a website page is to draw audiences deeper to explore your website and interest them in learning more.

Website pages also provide menus, relevant internal crosslinks, and informative external links and resources. These pages are designed and formatted to spark interest and educate audiences about your brand, products, and/or services.

Landing Page Goals

A well-designed landing page is an effective tool for lead generation. A landing page is developed exclusively to fulfill a specific marketing intention, gather leads, and increase conversions. The content on a landing page provides audiences with limited information only related to this specific offer, product, and/or service.

Page Accessibility

Website pages are developed to be easily accessible. These sites can be accessed via menus on the website and generally are linked to one another throughout the site.

Landing pages, however, are only accessible through a specifically designated digital space. These standalone pages are visible on search engines, via an email link, social media post, or other online advertisements.

Navigation

Website pages can be developed to serve numerous functions on each page. It is easy for audiences to navigate to other pages and access additional data on the website.

Landing pages are developed with specific intent and possess little navigational functions to accomplish this unique goal.

Content

A regular website page is generally lengthy and informs audiences with the intent to spark interest rather than make a direct sale. The intent to educate audiences means that the content on a website page is not limited in scope, length, or other restrictions.

The landing page content is used specifically for marketing and is kept short, concise, and target-specific.

Elements of a Landing Page

The purpose of a landing page is to push audiences to engage directly with your business and convert. Landing pages are simple in format and content to eliminate distractions and specifically benefit your desired action.

• High-Quality Image
• Compelling Headline
• Clarity
• Information about a Specific Promotion
• Call-to-Action or Form

Elements of a Website Page

Website pages are a part of a series of pages that are developed to showcase your organization, products, and/or services.

• Multiple images/video content
• Several text sections that reveal various information about your organization.
• Breadcrumbs, navigation tools
• Wider scope

How to Develop a Landing Page

The first step in developing an effective landing page is to establish an intention. Decide what the page will be designed to accomplish.

Landing Page Goals Include:

• Purchase a Product
• Invest In Services
• Sign-up for a Newsletter
• Subscribe to a Channel

Next, you will need to develop the landing page content. Choose a webpage template with one image, and a single text area, and create a landing page title.

Landing Page Content Should Include:

• Use the text area to entice audiences with a strong offer in clear, direct content.
• Include a call-to-action and ensure that all links are functional.
• Add sharing icons for social media to promote your marketing efforts.

Choose which digital channels you will use to share this landing page. Utilize email to send the promotional page to a targeted list of potential clients. Share this page on social media and add a link to the page in a relevant blog post.

Landing Page Analytics

There are several analytics points that must be evaluated to understand the performance of your landing page.

Conversion Rates

The most revealing key performance indicator (KPI) is your landing page’s conversation rate. This represents the number of people who choose to fulfill the page’s intended goal.

Bounce Rate

The bounce rate is the percentage of people who view a website and did not convert. A high bounce rate may indicate that your landing page presents an unclear message and/or a misleading promotion.

Professional Website Development

Website design is vital for running a successful digital marketing campaign. Allow a team of professional website design experts to help you develop an effective marketing campaign.

Exults Digital Marketing Agency specializes in website development, including core website design, landing page creation, search engine optimization, and more.  Request a custom quote today.

The post Landing Page vs Website Page appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

One way to look at digital marketing is by seeing your business as a central destination that anyone across the world has access to. But the customer journey is a long one full of roadblocks, distractions, detours, and beyond. 

Digital marketing is a crucial element in the success of businesses across all industries. The entire strategy made simple gives your business a strong digital presence across multiple platforms to…

• Reach consumers
• Build a positive brand image
• Increase revenue

These are your main goals measured and led by your digital marketing efforts. The problem here is that because most business owners are already wearing so many hats, they have little to no quality time to spend on their digital marketing strategies. Without up-to-date knowledge of best practices in the digital marketing realm, it’s even harder to know what to do next. 

Digital marketing agencies (like Exults) act as a top-notch travel guide for your business. We will make suggestions (social media posts, paid ads, sponsored landing website pages, etc.) as your target customers road trip or browse the Internet – leading them towards your business on their travels. Again, because most business owners are generally too busy, we give them the marketing services they need to establish and maintain a presence in the digital landscape.

Many digital marketing agencies make promises but fail to execute results. So how do you choose the best digital marketing agency for your business? Dive into the top 10 things to consider when hiring a digital marketing agency.

What To Look For In A Digital Marketing Agency

Want to know what to look for in a digital marketing agency? Questions on how to choose the right digital marketing agency and why hire a digital marketing agency? After working with hundreds of companies, we’ve learned a thing or two about what to look for in a digital marketing agency when hiring (and especially what to avoid). 

1) Determine Business Goals

Remember your simplified digital marketing strategy from above? The reasoning behind having a multilayered digital marketing approach is to support your ultimate goals. 

Whether you’re starting from scratch or power-boosting your digital marketing efforts, the first thing that you need to do is to evaluate your organization’s unique goals. Then you need to tie that to your digital needs to answer the question…What digital marketing services does your business need to reach its goals? 

Explore these sample business goals:

• Grow revenue
• Increase conversion rates
• Decrease bounce rates
• Expand lead generation pathways
• Improve brand image
• Boost brand awareness
• Reach a certain number of social media followers

Keep in mind that narrowing down your ideal business goals also assists in providing you with an accurate budget quote. A successful digital presence requires businesses to be established on several online platforms. This includes having a core website, relevant social media accounts, Google Search Console, and online directories. 

As you explore your needs, consider digital marketing services that will help you achieve your goals. When looking at this part of your business from the perspective of your “road-tripping” target audience, it helps to think of each actual service as a billboard along the highway. You can also look at your efforts as an aircraft flying with a banner advertisement or a digital pop-up ad that appears as you wait and pump gas into your car. The point of any of these is to grab your attention as you travel and learn more about the business being advertised. In the digital world, those ads look more like the following:

• Digital Branding
• Website Design and Development
• eCommerce Platform Development and Management
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Social Media Marketing
• Digital PR
• Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)

Digital marketing also requires businesses to engage in regular posting, website updates, search engine optimization, and other creative services. Businesses turn to digital marketing agencies to handle all of these aspects of their online business. It is important to research each agency thoroughly because not all agencies offer a full suite of marketing services.

2) Performance-Based Results

Performance-based results are one of the most important elements to consider when choosing a digital marketing agency. Does the agency provide its clients with promised results?

A reputable agency should gladly share data that demonstrates the effectiveness of its services. Measurable results should be available, including past client ROIs and other analytical data.

Additionally, we realize that most customers gauge whether they want to try a business for the first time through reading testimonials. The best testimonials a business can offer are ones that are real, honest, timely, and detailed. You should expect the same level of quality testimonials from your digital marketing agency. 

3) Clear & Frequent Communication

Regular communication is the key to any professional business partnership. This means choosing a digital marketing partner you don’t need to micromanage. You already don’t have the time to do your own digital marketing, so the digital marketing agency you choose to hire should be a self-starter. 

Regardless of who you initially speak to, the agency you choose should be open, honest, and available to communicate when you have questions or concerns. Having someone available at all times, via email, chat, or phone to put your mind at ease makes a huge difference to our clients. 

Don’t forget to look for answers on the agency’s website to commonly asked questions and issues. This gives you extra padding in your communications and saves everyone time as the answer is (usually) readily available and can be answered quickly (or as fast as you can scroll and click).  

In addition to having a clear point of contact and answers to FAQs, look up whether the agency you’re considering offers additional forms of support through a crafted newsletter, blog, podcast, etc. These tools can offer valuable information, insight, and tips that you can use or learn more about as they’re updated.

4) Creativity

Creativity is at the core of all elements involved in digital marketing. Standing out amongst the competition requires creative thinking and original ideas. This requires an agency that employs a team of natural creative thinkers who are knowledgeable in what can set a business apart.

While creativity is one of the more subjective factors to consider when hiring a digital marketing agency, it’s crucial to determine what’s important to you in this category. 

Are you searching for…?

• Diversity in design
• Scale of deliverables for a given client
• Uniqueness 

5) Flexibility

Digital marketing is an ever-evolving industry. An agency must be flexible and able to adapt as changes occur. Look at the recent developments in AI…That’s changed the landscape for digital marketing agencies around the world. 

An exceptional digital marketing agency will be able to identify emerging trends and adjust campaigns accordingly. This puts your business at the forefront of the latest digital marketing trends.

How do you determine whether an agency has flexibility? Evaluate the conversations they’re having on their blog, podcast, social media, and/or in meetings.

 6) Specialized Team

An innovative and passionate team of marketing specialists is a crucial element in every successful digital marketing agency. A reputable digital marketing agency should employ a team of experts who specialize in each of the elements of effective digital marketing.

The last thing you want is to hire a full-service digital marketing agency that is a one-man show. There is not enough time for them to be a master in every service they offer. 

A full-service marketing agency should have a team, including social media marketers, search engine optimization (SEO) specialists, and skilled account executives. This vast range of skills is essential for effective web marketing.

7) Transparency

Transparency is crucial for all business relationships. It’s the starting point for building trust and rapport between the client (i.e. you) and the agency. 

First, check the agency’s website. A website that seems too good to be true, does not provide enough information, or otherwise seems sketchy is probably not legitimate. 

Then, trustworthy digital marketing agencies should provide prospective customers with complete transparency. This includes honest pricing, easy-to-understand contracts, and customer testimonials. If there is anything that you considered sketchy in your search, ask them about it. Their response will tell you a lot about whether you can trust that agency with your business’s marketing.

Finally, a reputable agency will also be happy to review documents with prospective clients before any commitment is made.

8) Data-Driven Services

How data is measured is often a frequently asked question and rightfully so. It’s incredibly hard to track progress without having any way to do so. Effective digital marketing campaigns require advanced tools, technologies, and skilled professionals. All of these, are not typically available or easily understood by someone unfamiliar with digital marketing.

When searching for a digital marketing agency for your business, you should ask them how they measure data and whether they can track your digital marketing progress in real-time. One way an agency might do this is by offering data and analytical reports to keep their clients abreast of any major changes or trends. 

Furthermore, frequent data tracking is the best way to adjust your campaigns as needed to maximize your budget for optimal success. True professionals should use analytical data to drive decision-making processes that generate results.

You may also ask about tracking your digital marketing progress on your own time with client dashboards. These dashboards will keep you informed about the progress that the agency’s services are providing. An added advantage of having a client dashboard includes quick and easy ways to get in touch with your team should you have any questions.

9) A Strong Focus on Business Revenue

A full-service digital marketing agency is the best way to ensure your web presence reaches its maximum potential. Some agencies focus solely on lead generation, website traffic, or other web goals. While these are important elements of a successful digital marketing campaign, this is not the end goal. The right digital marketing agency will work to plan beyond these initial elements of marketing and focus on the end goal of increased revenue.

Marketing’s purpose is to generate quality leads that turn into sales. 

That starts by improving your brand image and building a greater reach into your target audience. 

Beyond that, marketing needs to funnel leads so that your company can see a significant increase in conversions.

NOTE: Marketing is not sales, so you must have an effective sales process to close the quality leads your marketing efforts provide. 

10) Attractive Web Presence

Finally, evaluate the strength and reach of any prospective digital marketing agency’s web presence. A reputable company should appear highly on search engine results pages and regularly post on social media. They should not fall under “the cobbler’s kid goes shoeless”. 

You want to choose an agency that has invested in and successfully established its own digital presence before hiring them to handle yours. There are several reasons for this:

• Their website is the cornerstone of their entire marketing. 
• Agencies should use their website as their personal portfolio.
• They are most likely testing different marketing strategies before trying them out with your brand.
• If they can’t generate leads through their website, how will they be able to generate leads for you? 
• Their ability to invest in their marketing indicates their willingness to invest in other areas of their business (i.e. technology, personnel, continuing education, etc.).

Exults is a full-service digital marketing agency that provides our clients with a range of results-driven services. Explore our services below:

• Website Design
• Website Development
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Sponsored Search
• Social Media Marketing
• E-Commerce Development
• Digital PR

4 Questions To Ask When Hiring A Digital Agency

Wondering how to choose a digital marketing agency? Ask these questions when interviewing agencies. 

How Does Your Digital Agency Track Metrics? 

Every digital agency should hold itself accountable for the leads they are generating for businesses. However, that is not always the case. So ask how and what metrics they track. You may also want to find out if they will provide those metrics to you so you can hold them accountable. 

How Do You Adjust When Things Aren’t Going The Way We Want It To? 

Leading into our second question, the data may show that things aren’t going the way they should’ve gone. Although marketing does require a level of testing and experimentation, it should also have an iterative process. The most important thing is to search for in an agency is someone who will be transparent and proactively provide the next steps to circumvent a negative trend. 

What Involvement Do You Need From Me As The Client?

Depending on what your digital agency proposes, your involvement may vary. When you ask this question, you also need to communicate if you can be involved at any level. 

When Will I See The Results? 

This is a great question because it sets expectations for both parties – the client and the agency. 

The agency will be able to see how quickly you’re expecting leads. That may impact their recommendations. For example, if you want leads yesterday, they may offer paid ads instead of SEO (which can take a couple of months to produce meaningful results). 

The client, on the other hand, will be able to set their personal expectations so they aren’t hounding you for results.

6 Factors To Consider When Choosing A Digital Marketing Agency

Beyond what to look for in a digital marketing agency and questions to ask when hiring a digital agency, you also need to consider the following factors:

• Experience
• Expertise
• Communication
• Budget
• Reputation 
• Business model 

1. Experience

Based on what you’re trying to accomplish, you need to know that the digital agency you’re considering has the experience to take you where you want. For example, if you want a digital agency to create an omnichannel marketing strategy that includes SEO, public relations, social media, billboards, and paid ads, you don’t want a green agency that has experience in only one or two categories. 

Take inventory of what experience you require from an agency.

Then evaluate their work – either through clients listed on their website, case studies provided on their website, or even blogs outlining what they’ve done for themselves. 

2. Expertise

Paired with experience, the next factor to consider when hiring a digital agency is expertise. Your agency needs to be able to know how, when, and what they need to do in the specific marketing strategy they’ve pitched you on. 

As your prospective agency about the team members that will be assigned to your business. What are they skilled in? Why should you trust them with your business?

3. Communication 

This is a big one. Communication can either be the key to a successful partnership or the demise of one. While you may not be able to get a good read in the sales conversations alone, there are a couple of things to look at: 

• Responsiveness via phone, email, and/or text
• Do they answer your questions (or skirt around them)? 
• Welcoming messages to get you excited about partnering together
• Recap emails from meetings or conversations
• Follow-through on action tasks

4. Budget 

Do you have those narrowed digital marketing goals in mind? You need to know if your budget aligns with the agency you’re evaluating and what services you’re requesting. Some agencies have minimum monthly retainers. Others have no floor or ceiling for monthly budget requirements. 

5. Reputation

Another factor to consider when hiring a digital marketing agency is its reputation. What do clients say about them on Google or social media? What do employees say about them on sites like Glassdoor? 

When evaluating reviews, here are a couple of things to consider:

• Recency. Throughout the lifetime of a business, there may be rougher seasons. That may not tell the current picture though. So it’s imperative that you look at the most recent reviews to see what people are experiencing right now. 
• Detail. Evaluate the level of detail a reviewer is providing. Too much detail may be as much of a red flag as too little detail. If you’re unsure about the legitimacy of the testimonial, check out the reviewer’s other comments. 
• Response. There will always be bad reviews. But what matters is how the company responds to those reviews. Are they being gracious, understanding, and proactive? Or are they blaming the reviewer and leaving a bad taste in your mouth? 
• Your Gut. As always, take a gut check when evaluating the agency’s reputation. If something feels slimy, you may be avoiding a potential disaster of an agency relationship.

When searching online, be sure that the digital agency you’re looking into has testimonials readily available on the marketing agency’s core website. You can also search online for reviews from previous clients. You should also pay attention to any agency-given responses to customer complaints or praises. However an agency chooses to respond to their customers online can say more than you may think about their daily operations.

6. Business Model

Depending on the agency and your personal preferences, one type of agency may be better than another. 

First, there’s a more boutique approach where every strategy is designed around the client. Because of their uniqueness, they may take on fewer clients. There may also be a little more experimentation here, but the results could take you into the stratosphere. 

Then there is the other approach where the agency has a proven formula for marketing success. While there may be a little less customization and flexibility here, it’s no less effective. And you’ll see amazing and more importantly, consistent results!

Determine what style and results you’re looking for and keep that in mind when choosing a digital marketing agency to hire. 

Expand The Power Of Your Digital Marketing Strategies With Exults

There’s far more to a successful digital marketing campaign than meets the eye. Where you see social media posts, we see a number of clicks, copy that converts, and eye-catching images. When you’re browsing through blogs, we see relevant and real content with custom copy optimized for the right audience. And where you see your website as it is, we see a ton of measurable results that change daily.

If it sounds like a lot to be responsible for, you’d be right. This is why we partner with businesses and entrepreneurs like yourself to help you stand out among your competitors, promote your brand and voice, and give you access to higher-quality leads.

Are you ready to elevate your customer journey with digital marketing solutions?

Contact Exults Digital Marketing today if you are interested in rebranding your company for the digital business world to spark meaningful engagement and online sales. Visit the Exults website or call 866-999-4736 for more information.

The post The Most Important Things You Should Consider When Hiring a Digital Agency appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

Rebranding doesn’t have to be a daunting task for your business. Even something as simple as a digital logo redesign can overhaul your company’s identity and completely reshape the impressions made on both your potential and existing customers. 

It is important to recognize that as businesses continue to thrive and expand into online channels such as eCommerce, classic branding that may have worked effectively years ago communicates a more “tired” message to the modern consumer. Businesses with loyal or elderly audiences may benefit from this familiarity, but for those seeking to remain active and involved with younger target markets, a digital logo redesign is necessary for crafting a stronger brand identity.

Recently, many companies have found that adapting and updating their logo can better position their brand for present and future endeavors, such as expanding into new categories. The challenge digital branding for logo imprint imposes is that icons need to be able to stand alone to concisely represent a brand, whereas in the past logos had a luxury of space.  

This remains especially true for social media platforms given the high degree of layout variance across different desktop and mobile sites. For instance, Instagram cuts off content that exceeds a certain size threshold. This means having a logo that is reasonably sized and easily replicable is crucial for consistent digital branding.

What’s in a great logo? Put simply, it has to illustrate the best parts of your business in a clear and concise manner. Impressions happen easily, but are just as easily forgotten if the brand fails to resonate with its intended audience early on and consistently into the future.

At Exults, we could write entire volumes about this subject, but a picture’s worth a thousand words when discussing visuals. With that in mind, here are five companies in recent years that each pulled off a digital logo redesign using unique approaches towards their rebrand:

Mozilla

When organizations begin a rebranding process, they often keep development of new branding materials away from the public view, sometimes for over a year or even longer. Mozilla took the complete opposite approach when redesigning their logo, opting to share each stage of the development process with their audience in order to generate constructive feedback.

This resulted in one of the most strikingly creative logo redesigns a major company has undergone in recent years. Not only did this build public interest in the rebranding process itself, but it also emphasized Mozilla’s commitment to Internet services that prioritize user experience. 

The Firefox provider cleverly working part of the hypertext transfer protocol secure element of a URL into its name (i.e. https://) helps it stand out among other technology companies. It also remains one of the rare modern logos that succeeds without the use of color. 

Slack

Slack’s original logo materialized before the launch of the company itself. While it illustrated the fun atmosphere the brand intended to bring to internal business communications, it also was incredibly difficult to reproduce across platforms. The hashtag/pound symbol used 11 different colors and required rotation at precisely 18 degrees to remain consistent with the original logo.

For a brand that prioritizes cohesion, this inability to apply consistency when implementing the logo elsewhere presented a big problem. To correct this, Slack adopted a logo with simpler colors, sharper text, and a more easily replicable symbol that still invoked familiarity with the original branding.

Now, rather than having to constantly adjust shades and angles when developing content and materials, Slack has an identity that brings excitement and simplicity to its potential audience and existing users.

Android

Making adjustments to a massive corporate brand never comes easily, but this is especially true when the consumer base consists of roughly 2.5 billion active devices around the world. 

Last year, when Google opted to give Android’s branding a facelift for the first time in over half a decade, they sought to achieve many of the same goals as Slack did above. But how does a company improve on branding that has already worked so effectively for so many years in the modern era?

Seeking simple replication without sacrificing resonance, Google opted to keep the bugdroid mascot but stripped away its entire body in favor of retaining the head. Additionally, they updated the color pallet to a more distinctive tint of green while also making their name more legible by changing the font and color. With these two crucial elements now optimized for reproduction across multiple mediums, Google decided to make the “Android” name a permanent fixture alongside the logo, dramatically improving brand consistency. 

Popeye’s

Popeyes had a wild end to 2019, sparking a chicken sandwich war in the fast food industry after their highly-anticipated offering sold out nationally within days. Entering 2020, the company had to drastically adjust to the sudden windfall of customers, and this included the need for a rebrand to keep up with the times.

Not much required change, but again, the need for easy replication while retaining familiarity was clear. As such, Popeye’s stripped their color palette down to one hue of orange, placed a chicken prominently in the center of their logo, and kept a similar font for their name while straightening it out for legibility purposes. In addition, they kept the “Louisiana Kitchen” phrase while removing the redundant fleur-de-lis in favor of the company’s founding year.

Popeye’s will likely claim one of the most successful digital logo redesigns of 2020. The company has clearly had no problems reproducing its new branding across online marketing or its packaging materials, as evidenced by the company’s rapidly rising same-store sales quarter over quarter.

Mall of America

Mall of America’s rebrand represents perhaps the most dramatic change out of those on this list. At a glance, it stands in stark contrast to the one taken by Slack given the abundance of color in the current logo. 

Though Mall of America’s previous identity above displays in black and white, it’s important to note that the traditional branding utilized a red, white and blue format consistent with the American flag. While this worked well in the early years of the mall’s inception during the ‘90s, it left the brand feeling tired by the time the mall hit its 20th anniversary.

As diversity became an increasingly important component of American culture during the 2010 decade, Mall of America sought to create a logo that represented this shift while retaining its distinct American identity. By retaining the star at the center but giving it a profound facelift with respect to color, Mall of America firmly illustrated its place as the intersection of “fashion, entertainment, cuisine, thrills, and community” to local Minnesotans and audiences across the United States.

Eight years later, it remains an extremely effective example of how prioritizing intricacy over simplicity can actually improve a company’s image.

What a Digital Logo Redesign Can Do for Your Company

What do all of these rebranding efforts have in common? They all sought to implicitly reposition the ways in which new and existing customers interact with a company’s brand. Though the approaches vary across industries, the goals remain the same, and the success remains consistent.

Whether subtle changes for replication purposes or dramatic transformations to completely overhaul identity, a digital logo redesign can positively reshape your company’s perception among your target audience. In doing so, you’ll ensure that your branding remains both consistent and dynamic for keeping up with the ever-changing trends of the modern business world.

At Exults, we already offer effective digital marketing solutions ranging from web design to social media management, and so our understanding of what goes into great digital branding comes built-in. Rest assured that as an agency with a full suite of Internet marketing services, we can help you craft a new brand identity that thrives across the digital landscape.

If you’re interested in seeing what Exults can do for your company and its brand, give us a call at 866-999-4736 or request a quote today.

The post Five Great Digital Logo Redesigns, and Why Your Business Should Get One appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

One of the best perks of using WordPress for your business website is that this platform allows for straightforward setup and endless customization. If your plugins don’t give you what you need for your business, you could be missing out on revenue, traffic, and new customers. Take a look at these WordPress plugins you need now to make your website better than ever.

Yoast

Yoast SEO is one of the most popular WordPress plugin of all time.

There’s a reason this plugin is at the top of every good web designer’s list. It’s ideal for implementing search engine optimization (SEO) best practices on any website, and you’ll need it if you want to help your website rise to the top of the search page. Out of all the WordPress SEO plugins, Yoast offers the most comprehensive solution with all the features and tools that you need to improve your on-page SEO.

** Note that while Yoast SEO is easy to install and set up, you’ll need a mid-level understanding of SEO to make the most of it.

It helps you to:

• Add Meta Data
• Generate Sitemaps
• Noindex Pages
• Optimize your sitemaps to include the page-types, post-types, and archives that you want to be indexed by Google’s crawlers
• Connect your site to Google Search Console
• Optimize your website for social media
• Add Schema Code
• and more!

Gravity Forms

With more nearly two decades in the industry, we have tried all types of forms for our clients on WordPress, and Gravity Forms is BY FAR the best solution for form submission on a website.

With Gravity forms, you can create custom forms on WordPress, which is great because you can configure your form, set up thank you pages to use as goal completions in Analytics, and choose the fields you want based on your business needs – It’s the easiest-to-use, secure, and reliable WordPress form builder plugin for your website.

Schema Pro

Creating a schema markup is no longer a task! Using the Premium version of Schema Pro, with a simple click and select interface you can set up a markup in minutes. All the markup configurations you will set are automatically applied to all selected pages & posts.

• Reviews. Perfect if you review Products, Movies, Books, Music, etc on your website.
• Local Business. Are you a local business? This is a must have Schema on your website.
• Article. Perfect for news & blogs to get enhances appearance in Google search results.
• Service. Provide any services? Let Google specifically know by implementing this Schema.
• Product. Let Google provide detailed information about your products in rich Search results.
• Course. Let your prospective students find you by marking up your course lists with Schema.
• Recipe. Let your recipes appear as rich card in Google when someone is searching for it.
• Person. Let Google know specific information about person with this Schema.
• Job Postings. Add structured data to the Job Posting page to get more relevant applicants.
• Software Application. Show off your software applications with star ratings in search results.
• Book. Make books on your website more discoverable in Google search.
• Event. Let more people discover your events through Google Search and Maps with this Schema.
• Video Object. Mark up your video content with structured data to make better search result.
• FAQ. Let users quickly access your FAQs and their answers in Google search results.
• How-to. Markup your how-to pages to be eligible to have a rich result.

Securi

Security should be a top priority for all online business owners. Sucuri offers a WordPress security plugin and web application firewall that is probably one of the best protection you can get for your site.

They monitor and protect your site from DDoS, malware threats, XSS attacks, brute force attacks, and basically every other type of attack. If you don’t have a firewall on your website, then you need to add one today.

WooCommerce

In 2015, Automattic (the company that owns WordPress) acquired WooCommerce and continues to improve it for its customers. This makes it one of the best e-commerce plugins for WordPress sites. WooCommerce has inventory management, has support for popular payment options like PayPal, and works for digital or physical goods. It’s a great tool whether you’re a small local business or international seller.

Smush

Great for image optimization and compression!

We use Smush to optimize images, turn on lazy load, resize, compress and improve Google Page Speed with this incredibly powerful and 100% free WordPress image smusher tool.

Click to download here.

iThemes Exchange

Not only does iThemes Exchange work with physical and digital goods, but it also has a subscription option for companies that sell memberships. This plugin is known for its quick setup and usability, though it lacks the strong developer community that WooCommerce has. However, if you have a small operation and don’t have need for many bells and whistles, this option could be for you.

WP eCommerce

WP eCommerce has been helping businesses since 2006, though some users are moving toward other plugins like WooCommerce to manage their online orders. Like WooCommerce, WP eCommerce is free and adds a shopping cart features to your WordPress site. The main advantage of WP eCommerce is that it offers PayPal Standard and PayPal Pro for payment gateways, along with other options in its extensions.

Cart66 Cloud

Cart66 Cloud is the only paid plugin on this list (available for $95 per year), but its functionality makes it worth it for many business owners. Other plugins have free options but then charge the customer for premium features and extensions. Cart66 Cloud offers them all to customers who pay for their service. You might end up paying the same amount by the time you have the extension you want.

Elementor

Whether you’re selling products or services, landing pages are essential. With a plugin like Elementor, you can quickly and easily create landing pages that showcase your products and services, drive conversions, and generate sales. Use the plugin’s tried-and-true templates or get creative and make the ideal page for your audience. Since Elementor fits seamlessly with your WordPress theme, you don’t have to worry about changing designs or reconfiguring landing pages every time you update your site, either.

BackUpBreeze

When your website is the face of your business, you have to make sure it’s always on. Hacking problems and website fails can happen at any time, but if you back up your website regularly, you can get it up and running again in no time. BackUpBreeze makes website backups easy since you can quickly save essential files to your preferred cloud storage service.

Best Plugins for Lead Generation Websites

The best websites turn new visitors into returning customers. If your landings pages are making people bounce, check out these four WordPress plugins for improving lead generation.

OptinMonster

One of the main benefits of OptinMonster is its flexibility. You can easily create multiple lead generation forms for various campaigns and then organize them clearly for your sales team. If you’re unsure what type of call-to-action will work, use an A/B test to try out your forms against each other to see which ones work the best. You can also easily create forms with the drag and drop feature. OptinMonster isn’t free and has plans starting at $9 per month.

Sumo

More than 30,000 websites currently use Sumo including Airbnb, Canva, and BarkPost. When the top names trust a plugin to perform, you can too. No coding experience is needed to use this plugin, and its creators boast you can get its system running in 37 seconds. Sumo has tools to better capture leads and keep customers on your website longer.

HubSpot Marketing Free

The best way to market to your website visitors and turn them into customers is to learn who they are and what they want. To solve this, HubSpot created a free marketing suite with tools like lead generation forms, activity trackers, and analytics. This will give you more insight into how your audience ticks.

Scroll Triggered Boxes

Scroll Triggered Boxes has more than 9,000 active installs and has a five-star review on WordPress. The premise of this plugin is simple: after your customer has scrolled to a set point on the page, the plugin shares an opt-in banner to encourage them to sign up and receive more great content.

866-999-4736

The post Best SEO & Web Design WordPress Plugins for Your Website appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

Millennials have the strongest buying power of any demographic – and they also use their phone 150 times a day.

That should be all you need to know to realize that a mobile-optimized website is beneficial for your business.

Think about how often you browse on your cell phone while you’re out and about, or when you’re chilling at home but your laptop is in the other room. That’s how everyone is now surfing the web, too.

It’s becoming increasingly important to have a website that is optimized for mobile. Not convinced? Keep reading to find out exactly why you need to optimize your website for mobile.

4 Reasons You Need a Mobile-Optimized Site

People aren’t just using their smartphones to browse Facebook anymore. New technology, easier browsing experiences, and mobile advertising have all impacted on how, when, and why mobile browsing is more popular than ever.

1. More People Than Ever Use Mobile Browsing

Mobile browsing has overtaken desktop in the past two years. More and more people are using their smartphones and tablets while they’re on the move, thanks to more mobile-friendly websites and ever-cheaper data tariffs.

At some point in the buying cycle, users will use their mobile to make a decision. People who always complete a purchase on their desktop are still likely to consult a mobile website while they are on-the-go or in the research stage.

Think about it: how often have you sat on your couch and seen something cool on the TV that you want to know more about? You swipe open your smartphone and give it a quick Google.

You’ll think about the product, then the next day when you’re at your laptop will open the same website again to have another look. This is a classic example of how users are switching screens to influence their purchasing decisions.

2. People Use Mobile Browsing Differently

It isn’t just the frequency of mobile browsing that is of note: people use different search terms between mobile and desktop use.

That means you need to pull a few SEO tricks to cover both desktop and mobile search queries if you want to boost traffic from mobile sources.

The increase in mobile search is also related to voice search. People are using voice search on their smartphones or devices such as Alexa and Google Home to find the answer to their on-the-go questions.

The words used in voice search will be different to those typed into a search bar, so optimizing your website for mobile will need to include more speech-related search terms if you want to rank well.

3. You’ll Benefit From Local Search Conversions

The rise in on-the-go browsing allows users to find businesses in their area to satisfy an immediate need. For example, if you have a strong desire for takeout you will probably search “pizza in my town” or something similar.

Google’s search results will pick up on your location or search term and provide the most relevant and local results.

Without a mobile-optimized website, you’re missing out on tons of potential custom as search engines push other local businesses ahead of yours in search results.

A shift in how Google looks at your website content means you could be missing out on high rankings in search results just because you don’t have a mobile-friendly site.

The search engine has started to shift towards a ‘mobile-first’ preference. That means website with mobile-optimized content will rank higher in searches than those without. This can apply even to searches on desktops.

3 Tips for a Mobile-Friendly Website Design

Optimize Your Images

While a giant photograph of some of your top-selling products or smiling clients might be eye-catching on a desktop site, oversized images can slow loading speed to a crawl — and seriously mess with the formatting — on a mobile device.

Instead, make sure the images you use on a mobile version of the website are as light as possible. Switch to JavaScript, choose one central image as opposed to a slideshow, and post lower resolution photos.

Don’t forget to crop and study up on the aspect ratio to seriously save on bandwidth and ensure images load quickly and completely.

Stop the Autoplay

We know that video marketing is on the rise, and it’s true that it can be an excellent addition to your overall digital marketing plan.

However, stop to consider if it really belongs on a mobile-friendly website.

Eliminate the autoplay features of a video, and instead allow mobile users to click on a link to be redirected to a video instead.

When it comes to choosing the right mobile video player for a mobile site? We suggest going with an HTML5 player, which is compatible with most mobile devices.

While we’re on the subject of automatic features — skip the pop-ups and automatic redirects to an app store or another site. Not only will it slow things down, but it’s also off-putting to consumers.

Consider Site Design

The final step in learning how to make your website mobile friendly.

Make sure that you’ve optimized your overall site design.

First off, make sure to include follow buttons to your social media profiles, and always ensure your contact information is visible.

When you look at your website, search for things that can be cut. This includes excess plugins, large images, slow-loading graphics, and especially giant walls of text.

Remember that the mobile screen is much smaller than a desktop, so aim to de-clutter your mobile website as much as you can.

Above all, if you include appointment request forms, question and answer forms, or contact forms on your mobile site, ensure they’re mobile friendly.

Need Help Moving to Mobile?

Now you’ve seen just why a mobile-optimized site is essential for boosting your online business, it’s time to revamp your website with this in mind.

If you’re not confident with web development and want to leave it to the experts, get in touch to chat about how we can help.

The post Why A Mobile-Friendly Website Will Boost Your SEO and Grow Your Business appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

But, how do you do that?

Ads are a great way to send targeted traffic to your website, but if you’re not using proper PPC optimization, then you’re going to miss out on a lot of leads.

Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about PPC marketing.

What is PPC?

PPC stands for Pay Per Click. It’s a type of advertising you can do in which you pay when somebody clicks on your link. When you do a Google search, the ads at the top are PPC ads.

Compared to other types of ads, PPC is more cost effective because you only pay when someone actually interacts with your link. This means that the number of people that see the ad is irrelevant.

However, you can also end up wasting a lot of money on PPC advertisements if you’re not optimizing your landing pages. Landing pages are where a potential customer ends up after they click on your PPC ad.

If you have a lot of people clicking the link thatddoesn’ttake any further action on your website, then you won’t make your money back on advertising. This is why PPC optimization is vital.

How to Optimize Your Site for PPC Marketing

Here is a brief guide to optimizing your website for PPC campaigns:

1. Related Content

When someone clicks a link, it’s important that they get exactly what they’re looking for. For example, if someone searches for “how to tie a shoelace” and your ad pops up, the page that ad takes them to needs to be about tying a shoelace.

2. Visuals

We can not emphasize enough the importane of appealing visuals. The brain processes images significantly faster than it does text, so it’s crucial to include images and videos on your landing pages. You want a visitor to quickly be drawn into your site, and visuals are a great way to do that.

3. White Space

As important as visuals are, white space will also allow a visitor to hone in on only what’s most important.

Picture a web page where every inch of it is covered in blocks of color, tacky banner ads, and excessive text. How much time would you spend on that page trying to find useful content?

Make sure you have plenty of white space so the images and text stand out.

4. Easy to Read

Don’t have a rainbow of colors in fancy fonts moving across your page. You want the content to be easy for your visitors to read. Include headings, small paragraphs, bulleted lists, and tables where you can.

This is especially important because of how many people use mobile devices to browse the web. Keeping things easy to read keeps visitors on your site.

5. Clear Call to Action

Your call to action (CTA) needs to be clear. Once you’ve provided a visitor with the answer to their question, tell them what you want to do next. Should they order a product from you, sign up for your newsletter, or schedule an appointment?

Pick just one action you want a visitor to take, then let them know and make it easy for them to do so.

Get Help with PPC Optimization

By preparing your landing pages and carefully selecting keywords, you’ll be able to grow your business by capturing targeted leads.

We want to provide a free assessment of your website today, so fill out our form and we can help you implement PPC optimization for your business.

The post The Importance of Optimizing Your Landing Pages for PPC Campaigns appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

Users decide whether or not they like your website within the first 5 milliseconds of their visit. That statistic alone is enough to be wary of unappealing website design, as you’ll never get another chance to make a first impression.

Considering that 94% of negative website reviews are related to bad website design, ignoring or neglecting your web design simply isn’t an option.

Let’s take a closer look at how outdated and poor website design is costing you money.

1. You Can’t Optimize For SEO

Google updates its algorithms incessantly. Some of these updates can have a major impact on a site’s SEO ranking, such as the Google Panda update. Some massive sites were essentially knocked off of Google’s front page overnight.

It’s essential to be able to easily reconfigure your website to avoid a drop in Google SERP rankings. You need to make sure you have ready access to your website and that your web developer doesn’t hold all the keys to the kingdom.

If you ARE working with a web developer, it’s incredibly important that you can reach them quickly. Google updates come out of the blue and it’s important to be able to react quickly if you need a website redesign.

2. Slow Page Load Time

Page speed is becoming an increasingly important metric for determining search engine results page (SERP) ranking. Users expect a website to load in four seconds or less. Anything more than that and you’ll start hemorrhaging site visitors.

Google knows this and ranks websites accordingly. Google will rank websites with faster page speed load times. If your goal is to reach the front page of Google (which it should be), you need to make sure your site loads as quickly as possible.

3. Non-Responsive Web Design

Mobile users account for 51.2% of all Internet traffic in 2018. Ignoring their needs essentially overlooks half of your potential audience.

Google now indexes the mobile version of a website before desktop! Mobile-friendly design was a prevalent trend a few years ago, but these days it’s a must. This means some website owners and webmasters cannot overlook the importance of having a mobile-friendly site design.

Anyone who doesn’t could be accused of having bad web design. Think of how annoying having to scroll over to read a landing page. Now imagine you’re the one who’s doing the annoying.

Is this the impression you want to leave your audience with?

The Internet is becoming more intertwined with how we live our lives each and every day. Seeing as how a negative review can inflict lasting damage on your company’s reputation, it’s essential to avoid outdated and unresponsive web design whenever possible.

Ready To Overcome Outdated Website Design?

Web design is evolving at the speed of thought. It can be hard to keep track of what’s good and what’s bad web design. Luckily, we’ve got you covered!

Check out our custom website services and look at a few examples of Exults work!

The post How an Old Website Design Is Costing You Money appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

Don’t let how it sounds scare you; An API simply means an Application Programming Interface. So, a Google Map API is an already programmed app software that allows you to display maps on your website, and that’s all there is to it. Let’s take a brief look at the four primary functions a Google API does;

1. It causes maps to crop up for the user.
2. It provides data about a latitudinal or a longitudinal location.
3. It allows us demand maps from Google.
4. It permits us to request an address from Google.

Google launched its Google Map to our delight thirteen years ago. Ever since then, Google has undergone various transformations and also changed multiple policies. They recently announced an update to their Google Map API, calling it the Google Map Platform- their next generation Google map business. It encompasses API products and new solutions to boost innovation.

So what does the Google Map API update change?

In May this year, Google updated their Google maps API platform where they streamlined eighteen individual APIs into three core products; Maps, Places, and Routes. Google also announced a new pricing scheme for firms making use of the Google Maps APIs to convey customized maps, places and routes exposure for their users. These announcements ended confusing the public the more, so here’s a rundown through the most significant changes and what they connote for prolific users of Google Maps Platform.

1. The new pay as you go model: Google maps API platform will move to a pay as you go arrangement from June 2018. Google gave developers an extra month lead. So while the product’s updates began on the 11th of June 2018, the new pricing took effect from 16th July 2018.

2. First $200 worth of API calls are free: Google’s new pricing policy for their map platform is “freemium” in all shades as every user is entitled to make $200 worth of API calls for no charge each month. In more precise terms, this implies that;

Users can get up to 28,000 worth of free loads of Dynamic maps.

• Users can get up to 40,000 free directions calls.
• Users can get up to 40,000 free Geolocation calls.
• Users can get up to 100,000 free loads of static maps.

3. All projects will need to have an official API key linked to a Credit or Billing card: The scary part for many developers will be the credit card policy. Their cards will be billed if users exceed the number of free API requests.
This change may make many software application developers to seek other alternatives to the Google Map Platform. Users can, however, find solace in the fact that the new map platform offers simplified pricing, scalable solutions, and streamlined products.

If you have any questions regarding web design or digital marketing strategies for your business, call Exults today at 866-999-4736!

The post All you need to know about the updated Google Map API appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.