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What You DO and What You Are DOING

Photo credit Carl Heyerdahl

I’ve built quite a few websites over the years and have written thousands of blogs for my clients. When I first meet them and they decide to hire me, I initially found it difficult to explain what I was doing for them and why I was doing it. With web design it’s pretty cut and dried that they need a place for their potential customers to find them online, get in contact with them and/or get directions to their business but blogging is different. When I first started Web Force I struggled to explain in simple terms what on earth I was doing creating constant content but over time I realized that there is a simple way to do it so here it is.

Web Design and Content Marketing in Kansas City, MO

A website’s pages are quite simply what you DO, WHO you are, and WHERE you do it. Ideally, each page of a website should explain one component of what you do, what you sell, and why you do it better than your competition with the home page being a summary of everything you do or sell. That’s what you DO and your business likely does it all day, everyday which means that in most cases your website pages never really change much unless your business does. What you are DOING works a little bit different. Avenues like social media are a great way to show off what you are DOING like your latest projects, products, sales, or specials however using your website’s blog can make showing what you are DOING even more powerful. Unlike your website’s pages that are direct and to the point about what you do or sell, your blog posts can be used to show the lighter side of what you do, highlight seasonality in your products or services, flex your industry knowledge, discuss changes in your business or whatever you want so long as it’s relevant. As discussed in our previous blog, keeping your blog posts current and relevant will do wonders for you in terms of attracting the attention of the search engines and will keep your readers engaged as well. Personally, I treat every blog I write like I’m adding a page to a website only less structured and certainly less formal but nevertheless informative. The subject matter could be making light of something my clients see all too often that drives them nuts to something way out of left field like providing tips for smokers and vapers during the COVID-19 era. (FYI: I work with a lot of smoke and vape shops.) The point is that you can use your website to showcase what you DO while using your blog to show what you’re DOING and humanize your company so that your potential customers can get a glimpse of who you are and why they should do business with you. It’s tough to do at first but just like anything else, the more you do it the easier it becomes. Web Force KC builds websites that effectively showcase what businesses and do and what they doing. If you have questions about web design or using your blog as a tool, feel free to contact us.

Call Web Force KC at (816) 462-9128 for web design and online marketing in Kansas City.

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May 21, 2020
The Rise, Fall, and Rise Again Of QR Codes

I’ve been a big fan of using QR codes in marketing strategies for many years. Ever since the smartphone became something that nearly everyone had in their pocket, the QR code has been a pretty nifty bridge to take you from the physical world as we know it to the magical land of the internet simply by pointing your phone at the black and white blocked squares. If memory serves me correct, the first REAL phone I owned was the G1 which was one of, if not the first phone to run Android by Google. The G1 amazingly enough had an app for scanning QR codes. At the time it was absolutely astounding to scan codes but there weren’t many ways to actually generate QR codes efficiently or free for that matter. Now you can spot QR codes on everything from Heinz Ketchup bottles and TV commercials to the trailer of a remodeling company and the invoices they send to their customers which should scream to you that they still work. In fact, today’s smartphones make it easier than ever to scan a QR code because all you need to do is open your phone’s camera and point whereas previously you needed an app that was almost always ad sponsored to scan.

Local Web Design and Online Marketing in Kansas City, MO

What’s interesting about QR codes is that they aren’t necessarily a new thing. In fact, they’ve been around for many years before the advent of smartphones or the widespread use of the internet as we know it today. QR codes are essentially bar codes but they are read quite differently and are capable of storing much more information. The first bar codes were developed in the 1960s in Japan where the country was experiencing huge economic growth, especially in retail industries. Grocery store cashiers, at the time, had to hand key in prices and products which is not only inefficient but it was also exhausting. Once in use, the bar code revolutionized product pricing, inventory management, and global commerce as we know it. However, the bar code was soon found to have limitations most specifically in the amount of information that could be stored with an individual code. A typical bar code could only store around 20 alphanumeric characters of information which isn’t a whole lot. Plus, a bar code can only be read in one direction (left to right) with a singular scanner device (today’s bar code scanners have since fixed this with more advanced scanning techniques). That’s where Denso Wave Incorporated enters the picture as they were already developing more advanced code reading capabilities that could store much more information than a simple bar code. The QR code they were developing could be scanned unidirectional meaning no matter which way it’s facing or which angle you’re scanning from, it can easily and flawlessly be read. As expected, it took many years and a ton of trial and error before it worked seamlessly. Fast forward to 1994 when the Denso Corporation finally released the QR code as we know it to the public in Japan which prompted the Japanese automobile industry to quickly integrate the codes into auto parts and production processes. They were immensely popular (mostly in Japan) but they soon faded away from the public eye until around 2002 when the explosion of smartphones allowed everyone to have a scanner in the palm of their hand. As everyone on the planet began to get their hands on every increasingly powerful smartphone devices, the use of the QR code rose as well. QR codes have been used on everything from coupons and security badges to airline boarding passes and so much more (just look around and you’ll likely find a QR code on something near you). QR codes seemed to disappear for a number of years especially for public use and applications but with the most recent smartphones equipped with a code scanner in their camera app, they have seen a huge resurgence. While you would think that inventing something as useful and globally used as the QR code would make the inventor insanely rich, the creator did in fact patent the code but opted to allow public use without restriction.

Today it’s pretty simple to create a custom QR code for businesses or for whatever. At Web Force KC, we use them to help our clients get better customer reviews, direct their customers to non-public pages on their websites, add to their social media presence, promote sales, and many more applications and functions that are easily accessible to anyone with a smartphone. We strive to find new and creative ways to use QR codes for our clients to help them grow their businesses.

If you enjoyed reading this blog, do us a favor and pull out your smartphone, open up your camera, point it at the QR code below, follow the link, and write a review for Web Force KC. We would appreciate it!

Call Web Force KC at (816) 462-9128 for web design and online marketing in Kansas City.

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May 8, 2020
New Business Starter Pack

Photo Credit Alex Holyoake

My daughter and I are total meme geeks and one of our favorites has always been the “starter pack.” If you’re not familiar with them I highly recommend you check them out as they are hilarious. The starter pack meme is usually a series of images that collaboratively represent a type of person or character but with less then complimentary intentions. Anyway, I had an old friend ask me about starting a new website for his wife who had recently lost her job and was opening up her own private practice. It made me think about how I really don’t have a starter pack for new business owners. I’m not going to get into extreme details but instead I thought that providing some basic insight on setting up a website as, in my humble opinion, it is the most effective way to get a business going and start generating revenue.

Local Online Marketing and Website Design in Kansas City, MO

Get a good name for your business. I’ve worked with countless businesses over the years that have the weirdest names and honestly it takes more work to effectively market them. My advise is to pick a name that has at least little bit to do with what your business actually does. Made up words that don’t make sense to people likely won’t make sense to the search engines either unless you pound brand based content repeatedly when you could be spending your online marketing time more productively like pushing keywords related to what your business does.

Get a good domain name (that isn’t too long). When my clients ask me to research domain names I tend to look for ones that contain what they do and where they do it. For instance, one of my clients recently added a new location in North Kansas City and wanted me to put a website together specifically for that location. He owns multiple smoke and vape shops but this location is the first in what KC people call the “Northland.” I ended up picking SmokeShopNorthKC.com as it not only is one of the main keywords (smoke shop) we will be going after with our SEO services but also where we will be pushing those keywords (in North KC). Don’t bang your head against the wall trying to find a domain name that does the SEO for you because you’ll never find it but do your best to pick one that makes sense, is short and to the point, and most importantly one that is easy to remember.

Photo Credit Taylor Vick

Get good hosting. If want to build a website, you’ll need a place to host it. Hosting is essentially renting space on someone’s server for the files that make up your website. Ideally you should host your website where you buy your domain name but it isn’t absolutely necessary. Check out the reviews on the hosting company because most of them suck to say the least. No offense but GoDaddy really sucks. I’ve had to deal with them for years and each time it’s a struggle to refrain from yelling and screaming at them. Plus, they like to nickle and dime your for every little thing which is just silly. Web Force KC can provide hosting and website security through our partnership with Just Host. We’ve worked with them for years and have never had any major problems especially when it comes to their support which is exceptional. The downtime is minimal which means that our clients’ websites rarely, if ever, are “down for maintenance” which is a good thing.

Have a professional write your website content. Nothing is worse than having terribly written content on a website. First, your potential customers can get annoyed really quick if your content is poor quality and end up bouncing off of your site to one of your competitors. Second, the search engines like rich, unique content that makes it crystal clear who you are, what you do, and where you do it. Content writers usually aren’t cheap but they do provide an invaluable service that make businesses money.

Photo Credit Christian Wiediger

Have good images. If you aren’t a photographer, no worries, you’re not alone. I’m by no means a great photographer and neither are most of my clients even though we have increasingly more powerful cameras on our phones. I’ve had clients that have held contests with their employees to take pictures which worked out pretty well but in the end nothing beats a professional photographer. There are many websites that offer free image downloads for any type of use including commercial use. DON’T USE PICTURES THAT AREN’T YOURS! Copyright infringement is real and can cost you a ton of money. (Trust us, we’re currently in the middle of suing a local business for stealing our images and content). We recommend checking out Unsplash.com for tons of great free images. In fact, we used UnSplash images for the blog you are currently reading and we think they look pretty damn good. You may not find exactly what you are looking for there but you can at the very least get some good ideas. If all else fails, go buy some stock photos.

Lastly, make sure your website makes sense. A website should allow users to get the information they need or get in contact with you quickly and easily otherwise they’ll go somewhere else. I can’t tell you how many times a website (or more specifically a web designer) over-complicated thing when the business offered a pretty simple service or product but made it almost impossible to actually get info, make a purchase, or get in contact with the company. Clean, simple, and user friendly always works.

At Web Force KC, our goal is and always has been to help our clients navigate the ever-changing world of the internet while helping them grow their business as well. Our common sense approach to web design, content creation and website hosting/security allows our clients to focus on running their business instead of worrying about the web.

Call Web Force KC at (816) 462-9128 for local web design, SEO, and online marketing in Kansas City.

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April 30, 2020
Grab Your Piece Of The Pie

Photo Credit sheri silver

We like to think of the internet as an infinite landscape of information which is, for the most part, fairly accurate. The driving force behind the constant expansion of the web as we know it is content generated by its users and the largest indexing system our planet has ever seen making sense of it. Whether it’s uploading a video to YouTube, posting on Facebook, or writing and publishing a blog like the one you’re reading now, it is the content creators that make the the internet what it is and what it will be in the future. At Web Force KC, we write accessible, functional content for our clients that is designed to capture a portion of online searches for specific keywords in specific geographic locations.

Local SEO and Web Design Company in Kansas City, MO

In the broad scope of things, there are over 80,000 searches on Google per second on average which is astounding to consider but as a marketing company, we tend to focus more on the searches that concern our clients and more specifically for what they do and where they do it. Just as there is a finite number of Google searches per second, there is also a finite amount of searches for a specific service or product per second, per day, per month, and per year and when the focus is specifically on a certain geographic area, the numbers begin to quickly shrink and become more manageable. Whatever the number of searches is for your industry (or more accurately for what your business does or sells), the sum of the searches represent an uncut pie with pieces being distributed to businesses (your competitors) that show up prominently for that specific search in a specific area. Sound confusing? Think about this example: in the spring months in the Kansas City area, it’s not uncommon to see hundreds if not thousands of searches per day for lawn care, lawn and landscaping, or other services that homeowners are looking for to spruce up their yards. Because Web Force KC works with a local lawn and landscape company in the Kansas City area, we position their website as high as possible on the search engines for the keywords that we know will be searched for and in the locations that we want to be visible in. When successful, the fact is that some business’ websites will be dropped down in rankings on the search engines and become less visible as yours rises.

Ideally, you want to see more searches driven to your business online based on what you do (category, product, or service) as opposed to your business’ name.

That is how you take your piece of the pie (well, it’s not quite that simple but hopefully you get the point.) By creating rich, relevant content on various online mediums, we increase our clients’ visibility on the web to capture more and more of the pie over time. Unfortunately this isn’t something that happens overnight and it takes an enormous amount of work, consistency, and collaboration to make it happen. In fact we plan for months ahead on how, where, and what we want to be positioned for with all of our clients year round. The point is that there are only going to be a certain number of searches locally for lawn care services or for whatever it is that you do or sell and by making certain that our clients’ websites are visible, accessible, and make sense to potential customers that visit them, we take a good piece of the pie and make those searches become productive and profitable to a business. Positioning your business’ website for visibility will no doubt help add new customers that are searching for what you do or what you sell but ultimately you and your staff are responsible for converting them into actual revenue. Web Force KC helps small businesses put themselves, and more specifically their online presence, into the spotlight locally on search engines where their potential customers are already looking. Our content marketing strategy has proven time and time again to be successful at generating new business and helping our clients grow.

Call Web Force KC at (816) 462-9128 for local web design, SEO, and online marketing in Kansas City.

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April 24, 2020
What Does Your Website Do?
Photo credit Carl Heyerdahl

What does your website do? Seems like a pretty simple question, right? But when I meet with business owners for the first time, they can rarely give me a good answer. More often than not, they say, “nothing,” which is probably why they are meeting with me. So, I’ve learned to ask this instead: “What do your want your website to do that it isn’t currently doing?” and it’s at that point the answers start flowing like a river. Of course, you can probably guess that the most common answer is “make me more money” and that’s a perfect answer because that’s what a website should do, right? The question then becomes “How can your website make you money?” and that’s when things get interesting.

Local Web Design in Kansas City

I am lucky enough to get paid to play on the web pretty much all day, every day with very few exceptions and I see a TON of websites. Over the years I feel like I’ve become a mean critic of most of the websites I see because it seems like they are more of a design dog and pony show without a quick call to action which is typically how websites generate income. For the most part, the local businesses that I work with want 3 things from their websites:
- Phone Calls
- Customers getting directions to their location(s)
- Email inquiries/quotes on services
Seems pretty cut and dried right? It’s actually not so easy. You see, just because you build a website, doesn’t necessarily mean your customers will come (Field of Dreams was somewhat misleading). In order for a website to generate traffic, it must be easily found and not just for the name of your business but rather for what you do (lawn care, copyright attorney, handyman, bar and grill, pizza delivery, smoke shop, gas station, brewery, dry cleaner, car wash, tattoo shop, etc.). That’s where Web Force KC comes in. We’ll never claim to build the most gorgeous websites you’ve ever seen but you can be damn sure that they will be found by potential customers when they need your product(s) and/or service(s) locally.

Photo Credit Christian Wiediger

The way that we approach web design is by asking simple questions like “How do you want your customers to find you? Do you want more calls, emails, or both? Do you have a physical location that you want customers to come to?” The answers to these questions are how we design your website meaning a business that wants more phone calls would have their phone number listed prominently and repeatedly through the website along with perhaps a ‘Click To Call‘ button for mobile searchers. The same applies to a website designed to capture more emails. Obviously a simple and easy to fill out contact form would likely be placed and more importantly visible all over the site. (We discourage displaying actual email addresses as it will tends to generate a TON of spam.) Brick and mortar locations that want foot traffic coming through the door will rely heavily on Google maps integration and calls to action that suggest visitors to the site “Click To Get Directions.” So I guess the real question becomes ‘What do you want people to do when they are on your website?‘

You would think that this is all common sense and the average web designer would have a firm understanding of how this all works but the fact is that most don’t. We’ve rebuilt countless websites that literally had no coherent direction, no call to action and worst of all no traffic going to them. We refer to these types websites as “billboards in the middle of a very vast desert.” No one ever sees them and they do nothing for the business.

Think of your website as the frame and interior of a vehicle. It may look ultra cool and have fancy functionality but without an engine, it just sits there, going nowhere, doing nothing. Web Force KC builds websites that cater to the search engines and ultimately make money for our clients. With every web design project we’ve taken on, the results and stats have been overwhelmingly positive for our clients as their websites begin to show up on the search engines for what they do and convert the searcher into an opportunity for them to add new customers. If you’re website is doing nothing for your business, call Web Force KC at (816) 462-9128 for a free consultation.

Call Web Force KC at (816) 462-9128 for web design and online marketing in Kansas City.

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April 21, 2020