Palm Harbor / Florida / United States
The Top 10 Things to Look for in a Web / SEO Design Firm 1. SEO: Understanding Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a must. Google captured 78% of the worldwide search traffic in December 2018. They are the most sophisticated in providing quality results. To stay consistently organically ranked on the first page, you need to follow their guidelines and stay current on their algorithm changes (the logic the web robot crawlers use to index). If a web design firm cant tell you what Googles algorithm update in December called Hummingbird was and why it is important, then they may not be qualified. 2. Mobile: More and more search is coming from smart phones. Not only should the content on your site automatically optimize for the device to eliminate pinching and zooming, but a tab that easily allows the user to call, email, and map to your location should be a minimum. Most graphic artists wont know how to do this. 3. App: If you are a large firm, you may want to provide "an app for that". The design and architecture of your main website should take into consideration that you may want to add an app for some of the functions on your site. If built properly, this can be significantly facilitated to both share and collect data from a common source on your website. 4. Its All About Your Customer: The landing page should have a definitive call to action or unique selling point. If someone cant find what they want or what brought them there in the first place, they will often move onto the next search result in less than 10 seconds. Do you have a USP (Unique Selling Proposition)? Why are you different? Your website is a free 24/7 commercial. Are you capturing the interest of visitors within the first seven seconds of visiting. If not, you are like most and have over a 50% bounce rate. 5. Social Media links: Make it easy for your customers to LIKE you. This helps convert new customers as they will often opt for a place with a good social site history than one that has no or minimal feedback at all. This can also be facilitated by handing postcards to your happy customers as they leave asking them for feedback on one of your social channels. 6. Designated IT Person: Most web firms originated as graphics artist that moved to the web using tools like Frontpage and Dreamweaver. The hacking of websites is a real threat and reports come almost daily of new attacks. Selecting a firm that has experienced IT Professionals will ensure that your back-end is protected. 7. Local Directories: Being linked by local search directories significantly helps your rankings. A partial list of some of the Internet directories you should be listed in include; Acxiom, eLocal, Best of the Web, Infogroup, YellowPages, and SuperPages. 8. Analytics: Google and Bing Analytics tools allow you to monitor your website and all traffic. This can provide valuable information to your marketing department about who is finding you, from where, and how long they are staying. You can also monitor the results of A/B testing different landing page designs. Additionally, you should track calls made from phone numbers published on your websites. This further assists with conversion tracking. 9. Locations: If your firm has multiple locations and/or multiple disciplines then it is recommended you optimize pages on the website for those locations/disciplines. This will help with optimizing related search terms and allow unique selling propositions and branding. 10. Conversion: Most firms focus on more traffic. The hardest customer to get is a brand new one. You are three to five times more likely to convert someone that has already visited and expressed interest. Make your site sticky. If they are searching for a cardiologist, keep showing up in their related searches. Any firm you select should be able to provide this. This isnt everything. I havent touched on properly architecting a site using meta data, programming back-end databases, integration with existing ERP or EHR syste
