February 2013 - Happy Belated Valentine's Day - Cape Cod Web Design and Development

Back to Basics – 10 Website Fundamentals

Often times we find ourselves caught up in the newest technologies all of which promise to bring a new level of connectivity to our lives and profitability to our businesses. The one constant however is that no technology is here forever, and throughout recent history your website remains the most resilient and effective form of marketing available to your business. So what does it take to maintain a successful website using fundamental strategies proven to promote long term growth?

1. Modern Custom Design: Your website should look and feel modern, and represent your business well. Every 2-3 years design should be revisited and updated.

2. Publish Content – Regular publishing of content such as news, blog postings, articles and resources to your website is a proven way to increase the time visitors spend on your website, and the overall volume of traffic.

3. eNewsletter – Build and maintain an email list to which you regularly send promotional and informative content. Consistency and value are two key elements of maintaining a healthy and effective email list.

4. Social Networking – Technology fads and social networks may come and go, but it doesn’t mean you can’t engage them while they are active. Link to and integrate within your website social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter.

5. Visitor Traffic – Regularly monitor your traffic using Google Analytics to identify strengths and weaknesses in your website. Statistical analysis will also tell your more about your visitors and where they came from which helps you target your marketing.

6. Search Engines & Keywords– Knowing what keywords to target helps you with fundamental #2 (Publishing Content) and allows you to monitor your rankings and placement in the top search engines: Google and Bing. Keeping in touch with where you rank and any potential issues is key to improving placement and traffic.

7. Call to Action – What do you want visitors on your website to do? Make it very clear with your content and design what action you want them to take, whether it be email, telephone, or purchase online you need to craft your website to direct the user to this action as effectively as possible.

8. Optimize – Just like a race car (my favorite analogy) which gets tweaked after every test lap your website needs to be tweaked on an an ongoing basis to make sure it stays fast, efficient, secure and maintainable.

9. Mobile – Having a mobile website, or a mobile and tablet optimized website is no longer a luxury. 2013 will see mobile usage for almost all of our clients surpass that of desktop/laptop use. You read that right, mobile is the new primary market.

10. Feature Development – Don’t just allow your website to keep it’s same feature set or structure forever. Innovate with new and fun ideas that will engage your website visitors and demonstrate your passion to potential customers. Contests, user submissions, games, video, live chat support, online customer control panels … the sky is the limit when it comes to how creative you can be with your website.

February Giveaway – $25 Montano’s Restaurant Gift Card

This months giveaway is for a $25 gift card to Montano’s Restaurant located in Truro on Historic Route 6. Serving New England seafare and Italian cuisine, featuring fresh made breads and pastas, pizza, fresh salads, early bird specials, full bar and a children’s menu! Open year round with dinner service beginning at 4:30pm.

Congratulations to our December Giveaway winner: Kim Marchand of Sesuit Harbor House

Business of the Month: Montano’s Restaurant

Montano’s is located on Historic Route 6 in Truro, Cape Cod. Chef and owner Bob Montano has been serving authentic Italian cuisine for over 25 years and prides himself on house-made cuisine.

The breads, pastas and tomato sauces are all house-made. Open year round, and serving dinner starting at 4:30PM nightly, stop in and enjoy fresh seafood and pastas, prepared daily.