“I was talking to a potential client about their new website and it made me think of all future clients, this one is for you” 

Our future potential client has a business website already created in another state. The owner of the company asked the web developer to build their new business website for their recently expanded Florida business. The team reached out to our company because they are in a tough situation without new clients and without prospects. The contact told me, we are going to see the new website in its completed format this Friday! After 2 months of waiting for something….. 

I gasped……I could see the anxst/concern/trepidation in her eyes…..I’m writing this for her/you. 

What Should A Typical Web Design Process Be With My Web Person I Hire? 

When you hire a company to build your website, there is a universal website design process that most reputable web development companies follow to support you, our clients. Most reputable companies will follow a similar set of process.

Style and Branding Meeting 

In order for anyone to design your new website with your specific brand in mind, we must interview you to understand what colors are preferred for your business. Understanding your specific fonts, types of imagery, tone, likes, dislikes, example websites, important functionality needs, and general direction for your new website are all necessary elements to gather at the beginning of the website development process to ensure the construction of all website visual elements are ‘on-brand’. On-brand is simply interal marketing jargon for ensuring your marketing materials capture the breath and the voice of your company through design elements. 

Sitemap 

Once we possess a better understanding of your design pallet, we will begin developing the architecture, page structure or bone structure of your website. Laying out the main heading pages referred to the ‘top level navigation’ pages, then identifying which sub pages will be included often referred to as ‘interior pages’ is the next step in your website design process. Each of your top level navigation pages such as; Home, About Us, Contact Us, Services, Shop, or Products, are all designed differently with a different look and feel. The sub or interior pages, will look like each correlating navigation page. As an example, all of your service pages will have a similar design as your main navigation service page. Once you approve your sitemap, you will start to see your website come to life.

Wireframe 

A wireframe is a blueprint drawing of all top-level navigation or variation pages that have different designs. The wireframe images look much like a blueprint of a house, but a blueprint of your website. It will typically be a black & white raw sketch of boxes, squares, triangles, and raw elements just to show you a really raw & rudimental layout of your website pages that contain different designs. There would be a wireframe for the home page, a different wireframe for the about us page, and a different wireframe for the contact us page. A low fidelity wireframe may be used in client relationships where the client is experienced working with several website designs so elements like the placement of their phone number may simply have the 999-999-9999 in as a placeholder. 

Clients that do not have as much experience with web development relationships may receive a high-fidelity wireframe which will show more specific and client specific elements whereas they would see the placement of their phone number with their actual phone number. The wireframe simply provides the raw overview of ‘placement of website elements on the page’, not the exact content that will be used. As an example you’ll see where a video will be placed, or where the banners will be placed but you won’t see the finished video or completed banners just yet. The wireframe is typically added with custom website or larger website projects and is typically not used in smaller or more templated web design projects. 

Visual Concept

In smaller or templated website projects many companies move directly to the visual concept stage after the sitemap is approved by their client. In custom websites or larger website projects, the visual concept will follow the wireframing stage. In this stage you will see for the first time, a graphic design image of all of your top-level navigation variation pages. Here is where you’ll see your colors, fonts, imagery, videography, and placement of website elements start coming to life. 

By this time, all of your website content should be turned in to your developer which includes all necessary page content, videos, images, sound bytes and graphics you specifically would like to include in your new website design. Your website specific content will start to be included but will not be exclusively added during this stage as there may be elements missing your website developer needs. It’s also important to mention during this stage your focus should be on the overall look and feel of the website, not worrying about links that are not working, or things that are not ‘clickable’. Remember your website is in development and not currently ‘live’. Many things are still not completed so many parts of the functionality will still not work at this time. Focus on the look and feel of each page you see. Do you like the layout? The color scheme, the typography, the sizes of the images, videos, placement of the content, videos, images, etc. 

Mock Up 

This is the 5th and final stage of your website design and development. The mock up is the stage where all of your content is inserted and the latin placeholder content is removed. Your specific website banner(s) are added, videos, images, written text, soundbytes and other contextual content is added. Once the mock up is complete your website will be mostly a completed website and ready to ‘go live’. Your website is still not live at this point so your external page links may not be working. Here is the time you’ll want to look at all of your images, your written text, your videos, sound bytes, etc, to make sure you are satisfied with them to go live.This is the stage for simple image swapping, simple content exchanging, and simple video replacement. This is not the stage for a major structural change on the website or for new pages to be added, or pages to be taken away. This is the stage for 1 last punch list of simple edits to be made and then your website is ready to push live.

Go Live 

This is the point where your website moves from a staging or development environment to the live server on the internet. Your website developer will point your domain name of your website (example: www.apple.com) to the newly migrated website that is now live on a server. They’ll make sure all of the internal page links and external page links are working, your social media profiles are linked, your contact lead form is working and your mobile website is looking as it should on all devices. They’ll also ensure your email is working properly after the website goes live. It’s important to note, there may be some downtime in the switch over from your old website to your new website. That downtime is typically only a few moments, but could take up to approximately 2 hours. 

Why Causes My Website Design Process To Fail? 

• *Most web development relationships only allow a client to provide 1-round of revisions per-each-stage of the web design process. 
  • One round of revisions for the sitemap, one round for the wireframe, one round for the visual concept and one round for the mock up. Some clients provide feedback in dribs-and-drabs, and some do not take the process seriously so they wait until the very end to provide any feedback. This not only causes massive project delays but you could be in a situation where you are in breach of contract, out-of-scope and owe your web development company much more money as a result of your actions. 
• *You did not deliver what you promised to deliver on time to your web developer. 
  • It is extremely common for clients to want to save money during the website design process and complete some of the work on their own such as writing their own web page content. In 9 out of 10 situations clients say they will write their own content ,however, do not write the content. In many of these cases, they do not turn it in on time, or at all, and they do not deliver other elements such as videos, images or sound bites in time to complete the website mockup. This failure to uphold your end of the contract also causes massive project delays and additional resources expended by the web development company. In many cases this brings the web development project to an immediate halt. 
• *The client does not provide real or tangible feedback during each stage of the website process and waits until the end of the line to take things seriously with feedback. 
  • When someone spends time, energy and resources to help you and your business, you should take that seriously and show the same respect in return to provide real and tangible feedback. Saying things like “I hate this, this is horrible, this sucks, this is ugly, are not helpful points of feedback and do not move the project forward towards a resolution”. Also, if you wait until the end of the development process to take it seriously and start ‘looking to provide feedback’ you could be providing feedback that was due 1-3 stages past in the development process, which may subject you to additional charges and cause significant project completion delays. 
• *The client ghosts to avoid making payments on the bill. 
  • Some clients ghost their vendor when the last payment is due to kick-the-can-down-the-road and avoid paying the final website paymentl. This only hurts you in the long run because the site you have online now is failing, if you even have one active at all. It’s already not helping you convert leads, built sales, transact sales, or support your businesses functionality. By playing games you are not only in breach of contract but hurting you, your family and your business.

More About Website Developement

The website design process involves collaborative brainstorming sessions, wireframing, and iterative design iterations to create a user-friendly and visually appealing online presence. From conceptualizing the layout and structure to selecting color schemes and typography, every step of the website design process is meticulously crafted to deliver an immersive and engaging user experience. Through a blend of creativity, user research, and technical expertise, the website design process transforms ideas into interactive digital platforms that captivate audiences and achieve business objectives.

Are You Under The Wrong Impression?

When it comes to the process of website development there are certainly a lot of grey areas. The majority of people who build websites do so on just drag and drop CMSs like Wix or Weebly and the results really show it. Often times these websites come out clunky and the optimization options you have are very limited. So you decide to look into hiring professionals to get your website done, but the main issue is you don’t have any idea what they are talking about or what the work really entails. Well, we are here to shed some light on the topic at hand!

Myth: You Can Develop An Effective Website In Just One Weekend

While this would be the best-case scenario it simply isn’t something that’s feasible. It is common for it to take up to a week if not longer to get the full website up and running it all depends on how big the website is. The only time development could take about a weekend is if only a landing page is being built. Do not be under the impression that there is a ready-made template that will fit your website needs. Custom-built websites are the only acceptable way to build websites. 

 

Myth: Website Developers Strictly Write Code

While it does take code do write code that is far from everything that gets done on a website. Website developers are masters at optimization in many different forms. Here are a few things that web developers keep in mind while on projects:

• Website speed optimization
• Image Compression
• Caching and server performance
• Security
• Design aspects to increase user experience
• Evaluating the optimal design for optimized lead generation
• etc.

Myth: Website Development Needs To Cost A Fortune 

A lot of other website development companies will probably hate us for this statement but it is the truth. A lot of the time clients of website development companies are being WAY OVERCHARGED. There are instances in which they will charge people for the smallest things. One of the most annoying things to us as a company is receiving a client that was being grossly overcharged by other development services. Those companies do nothing but capitalize on ignorance and it is a horrible thing to do. That is why we are crystal clear about what we are doing, how we do it, etc. Just to ensure we step out in front of the curtain and you can rest assured knowing we are working WITH the client in achieving their website dreams.

Myth: Developers Only Handle One Project At A Time

While sometimes we wish that was the case it is not, website development agencies are constantly bouncing around on projects to try and get as much done as possible as quickly as possible. If we are ever feeling burnt out on a website we will move our focus over to another one just so we can come back refreshed so that we can only bring the highest quality content!

 

Myth: Once A Site Is Launched You Cannot Make Changes

Reuploading websites with fresh new content is actually always an amazing thing to do! It shows search engines that the website is still active. With our services, we offer website maintenance services that covers any changes you want to be made to your website!

 

Myth: Contacting The AD Leaf Is A Bad Idea

Okay so this is a myth we made up because let’s be honest it is NEVER a bad idea! We are here to answer all of your questions and help you through your website development process as well as after it all! If you are ready to take YOUR website to the next level then contact us today!

Search engine optimization is the most effective and cost-efficient method to understand and engage customers in key moments. Businesses owners have a lot going on at any time, which leaves them with little time to devote to their own organic SEO efforts.

Many people still do not know or understand the importance of search engine optimization. Without SEO, your business will not get the recognition it deserves from Google, Bing, or any other search engine. Here is why your business needs SEO:

Organic Traffic

Traffic from organic sources is valuable because it is targeted. You’re more likely to convert users who arrive at your site from organic search results if you can provide a solution or an answer to their question.

You get the best results from organic search traffic since it’s organic traffic that isn’t related to paid search ads. Basically, potential customers found your link on Google and clicked on it naturally without any outside interference.

When this happens, it is crucial to take note because the viewers are coming directly through the search engine rather than referral links or social media posts; they are searching for exactly what your company is offering!

User Experience

Marketers place a high value on the user experience. Almost everyone wants to rank high organically and have maximum visibility. Many do not realize, however, that optimizing the user experience is key to reaching the desired goals.

Good user experiences have become crucial to the success of a website, and Google and other search engines have learned how to interpret them.

Marketing professionals in all industries should adhere to Google’s Page Experience Update as part of its longstanding commitment to improving the customer experience.

Local SEO

The objective of local SEO is to optimize your website for a specific location in order to increase your visibility, so customers can find you quickly and easily, ultimately leading to a sale.

The goal of local optimization is to establish a means of communicating a brand’s message on a local level within specific neighborhoods, towns, cities, regions, or even states.

Long Term

A significant impact of SEO can be seen as soon as a year after taking action, and many of those measures will last for several years. Although organic SEO is something that takes time, in the long run, it is the best option for your business.

Paying for Google Ads and for leads is far more expensive than organic traffic. Paying for ads is the fastest way to see a quick turnaround, but the goal is to keep that constant flow of organic traffic that comes to your business because you have exactly what they are looking for.

Contact Us

The AD Leaf specializes in many different marketing services like social media, content, SEO, and PPC. Give us a call at (321)255-0900 to start optimizing!

How can you write better copy? Business professionals from every industry struggle with their writing, so you’re far from the only one asking. Even marketers struggle to write focused, compelling copy from time to time. So what is it about putting ideas to paper that trips so many people up? Let’s dig into 4 tips for writing better content.

1. Start With a Plan

If you don’t have a plan, your writing will lack focus. Without knowing what the end goal is, it’s difficult to determine what steps need to take to reach that destination. When you sit down to write, start by outlining your main points and then filling in the supporting details.

This strategy benefits user experience in the end, especially for pages on a website. When a writer starts with a main idea and breaks it down into smaller digestible parts, the writing will also be easier to read. Great online content starts with a title (main idea) and breaks that down into smaller digestible parts (subheadings). This way, when someone goes to read that page, they can quickly navigate to the section of the page they’re looking for.

2. Focus on the Reader’s Perspective

This tip may seem obvious, but when it comes to putting our ideas down for someone else to read, we all too often write from our point of view instead of theirs. Practicing empathy in your writing and trying to put yourself in the reader’s shoes can go a long way. Here’s a mental exercise that may help. Think about your ideal reader, consumer, or audience member and not just your target audience. If you could only get the result you want if they experience the fullest extent of your product or service, what would you tell them?

Considering your audience’s pain points will not only make you a better writer by making your content more relatable, but it will also show that you can solve their problems and alleviate their concerns. And that’s what great marketing boils down to in the end.

3. Be Direct and Be Clear

Have you ever thought, “I’m not sure how to phrase this”? If you’re like most, this thought has surely crossed your mind at least once or twice. The tried and true solution to this dilemma is:

Challenge yourself with another question, “What is it that you’re trying to say?”

Say it out loud, detach yourself from the writing process for a moment and verbally summarize to yourself what the message is.

Next, write that down. It sounds simple enough, but we can get so sucked into typing out the next sentence that we give ourselves “analysis paralysis” and freeze up. Explain it to yourself or someone else, and then write that.

A common trap many writers fall into is that they try to sound “smart” by using uncommon words and phrases or some roundabout way of conveying their message. No one likes to feel confused when they’re reading; if anything, confusion will encourage them to put it down or read something else. The best writers can take complex topics and make it so anyone can understand them.

This strategy doubles as a filter for industry jargon, cliches, and passive voice, which hurt your writing and usually waste the reader’s time.

4. Proofread!

The quickest way to lose credibility with your audience is to make careless errors that make it to the final draft. The great Stephen King said, “To write is human, to edit is divine.” It can be easy to cut corners and skip the proofreading/editorial process, but the writing will always suffer for it. If you’re coming up on a deadline and are pressed for time, save time at the end for proofreading and editing.

• Read your text and reread it
• Read your writing out loud or ask someone else to read it over
• Check for typos, grammatical errors, and inconsistencies (if you’re not sure about a grammatical rule or how to spell something, look it up)

Professional Content Marketing With The AD Leaf Marketing Firm

Writing important, compelling, conversion-focused content is a time investment. Research, planning, writing, and proofreading not only takes practice and years of experience to do well, but it also takes time away from you running your business and spending time with your family. Save yourself the hassle of having to do yet another thing and call 321-255-0900 or email info@theadleaf.com and ask about our Content Marketing services.

Have you ever wondered how websites gain so much organic traffic? There are many different aspects that contribute to gaining traffic, but one of the most vital points is keyword optimization. Keyword optimization or keyword research is the process of studying, evaluating, and selecting the best keywords to target in order to attract the right visitors to your website from search engines.

How To Begin Your Keyword Optimization

To begin, consider the subjects you want to rank for. You should come up with roughly 5-10 subject that you believe are relevant to your business, and then utilize those topics to assist you to come up with some particular keywords later in the process. Think of these topics from a buyer persona. Thnk to yourself what subjects your target audience would look up that you’d like your company to be found for.

Figuring out the monthly search volume for specific keywords will help you see the importance of this word to the audience you are wanting to target. After figuring out what topics you are wanting to target, then you can begin choosing the best keywords for your pages content. These keywords that you choose are going to be vital to rank for in the SERPs (search engine results pages) since your target consumer is most likely searching for these keywords.

Another clever technique to get keyword ideas is to determine which terms your website is already being searched for. You can use website analytics tools like Google Analytics or HubSpot’s Sources report, which is included in the Traffic Analytics tool, to perform this. Take a closer look at your website’s traffic sources and through your organic search traffic to find out what terms visitors are using to find your site.

It is essential that your web page solves the problem that the searcher wanted to solve rather than merely include the term that the searcher used. So, how does this effect your keyword research? It’s easy to accept keywords at face value, yet they can have a variety of meanings beyond the surface. Because the purpose behind a search is so critical to your ranking potential, you must exercise extreme caution when interpreting the keywords you target.

Finding and Choosing Keywords

Once you’ve decided on a list of keywords for which you want to rank, it’s time to narrow it down to the best ones for your website.

You can gain search volume and traffic predictions for terms you’re interested in using Google’s Keyword Planner. Then, use what you’ve learned from Keyword Planner and utilize Google Trends to fill in the gaps.

Use the Keyword Planner to identify any phrases on your list that have too little or too much search traffic and don’t help you maintain the healthy selection we discussed before. But, before you remove anything, check Google Trends for their trend history and estimates. You can assess whether some low-volume phrases are something you should invest in now – and reap the advantages afterwards.

Big businesses often target high search volume terms, and because these brands are already well established, Google typically awards them with authority over a wide range of topics. You should also choose keywords with less competition. Keywords that don’t already have numerous searches for the top rank might give you the slot by default – assuming no one else is competing for it.

Having The Right Team To Back You Up

Search engine optimization and keyword optimization are a vital part of your business. There are so many aspects that go into SEO and can be daunting to the average person. Business owners already have so many other responsibilities on their plate and will choose a marketing firm to do all the work for them while they focus on running their business. The AD Leaf has a dedicated group of individuals that focus on generating these leads and traffic for your company.

The AD Leaf has a large spectrum of what can be done. We work with creating content for your website, maintaining your social media platforms, SEO and Google Ads, graphic design, and much more. The sky is the limit when you have a large team of professionals taking care of all your website and media needs.

Writing social media captions can sometimes be challenging. We know!

While developing your copy, you may find yourself questioning whether it should be serious or lighthearted. Should you include another exclamation point? Emojis? What will you use as a call to action? 

Let’s talk about it!

 

Why Are Captions Important Anyway?

Pictures may be worth a thousand words, but words are still significant. When written correctly, captions make social media users stop scrolling. A powerful caption educates, inspires, or entertains. If you’re good at copywriting, you’ll accomplish more than one. With everything you publish on social media, it should be your goal to invoke emotion, tell stories, and ultimately drive results.

Yes, writing captions can be difficult, but it’s not unthinkable. If you’re looking for a “cheat sheet” to writing social media captions that perform, look no further. The four tips we’ll talk about today are a great place to start!

 

1. Know your audience. 

We talk about target audiences all the time, and it’s because they’re that important. Once you identify your audience, you can dive into what matters to them. What do they want to hear and see from you? Will they understand your language and references?

Once you identify your audience, you can tailor your messages to resonate with them. If someone came up to you to share information you deem irrelevant, you’d stop listening.

Don’t be that person on social media. Assess your audience’s problems and pain points and speak to them in your captions.

 

2. Place the most critical elements in the front.

Is your business offering a limited-time-only deal? Are you hosting a giveaway? Even if you’re sharing tips on solving a problem or making someone’s life easier, let your audience know right out of the gate. 

The goal is to captivate as soon as possible. You know it, and we know it: attention spans on the internet are so short! It’s an average of 1.7 seconds, so grab their attention while you have the chance, and stop their scrolling in its tracks. You’re more likely to see engagement, drive traffic to your website, and see other wonderful results when you do this!

P.S. This tip is particularly important on Instagram, as only the first few lines of a caption are available for preview while users are scrolling along the timeline.

 

3. Edit your captions.

Copywriting is an art, so don’t rush the magic. Take your time!

It’s a process, so plan, edit, and rewrite. Take the extra steps to avoid grammatical errors and misspellings to ensure you hit the mark every time.

You can utilize many online tools to help proofread – Grammarly, Ginger Proofreader, Spell Checker, and more. If you’d prefer to avoid downloading more software, have a friend read over your captions before you publish anything online. It takes a few extra minutes, but in the end, you’ll be glad you did!

 

4. Utilize a call to action.

If you want to see specific results, just ask! A call to action can be as simple as requesting users to like the post or tag a friend in the comments. You can direct your audience to click on links or fill out forms. You can even turn scrollers into buyers by encouraging them to purchase your goods and services. Your goals and desired results will dictate your call to action.

Whatever you choose, it should be simple yet creative. How many times do you see “Call 555-555-5555” on Facebook? It works, but it can be better! Try to keep it fun and fresh. Instead of “Call Now,” try something more inviting like “Start Your Journey Today!”

 

Contact The AD Leaf Marketing Firm!

These four tips serve as a mini cheat sheet for caption creation but are not an exhaustive list. That’s why we’re here. You don’t have to crack the code or reinvent the wheel. You certainly don’t have to do it alone!

Quit playing the guessing game, and eliminate the stress. Turbocharge your social media strategy with captions that perform by calling The AD Leaf Marketing Firm at 321-255-0900!