Category: General

Storytelling: A Powerful Way to Build Your Brand on Your Website 

Posted on by jenny

As a business owner, you need to communicate your services to prospective customers. A high-quality website is a great place to do this.

So all you need to do is put up a web page and say what you do, right? 

If only it were that easy. 

Why should a client pick you and not your competitor? 

How will working with you be different and better? 

What unique combination of skills, experience, training do you have that others don’t? 

All of these qualities distinguish you from your competitors, and together they make up your brand.  

Your Brand and the Power of Storytelling

In today’s competitive business landscape, building a strong brand is crucial for success. One powerful way to build your brand on your website is through storytelling. Stories can come in all shapes and sizes. Once you realize this, you will start to see stories in so many places.

The power of storytelling lies in a story’s ability to connect with your customers. Consider these advantages that storytelling will give your brand in a very crowded online world.

Establishing Emotional Connections 

Stories create a connection. They tap into a feeling or emotion. They stick with you, are memorable, and they differentiate you from your competitors. 

By sharing authentic stories that highlight your brand’s values, mission, and purpose, you can create a sense of trust and loyalty among your target audience. When customers feel emotionally connected to a brand, they are more likely to become repeat buyers and advocates. 

Enhancing Brand Recall 

Stories have a remarkable ability to stick in our memories. When a brand tells a compelling story, it becomes more memorable and stands out in the minds of consumers. By associating your brand with a captivating narrative, you can increase brand recall and ensure that customers remember your business when making purchasing decisions. 

Generate a Reaction 

The most powerful stories elicit a reaction. They move you. Inspire you. Stories help drive the website engagement and sales conversions you want. 

Places You Can Tell Your Story on A Website 

Your business should have a clear and compelling brand story. Who are you? What kind of experience do you provide your customers with either your products or services? How are you unique and different from your competitors?  

Most websites actually have several opportunities to tell great stories. These stories can speak to different audiences who are coming to your site. Here are some key places where you can use storytelling to connect with your audiences. 

Home Page 

Your home page starts with short, clear messages about exactly what you are offering. However, as you scroll past the introductory sections, you can offer a longer explanation of what you do and how you are different. These longer explanations of your work can help attract customers who may need more convincing. Sometimes a brief testimonial can provide a personal story that will speak to prospective customers.  

About Page 

The About page is often the most visited page on a website. Why? It tells your story in a real, authentic, relatable way. It gives visitors a sense of who you are, your values, and the experience that customers can expect to have with you.  Everyone’s story is unique and different. While other companies may provide the services or products you do, your story will inevitably be unique to you. 

Careers Page 

Careers pages have become increasingly important to many companies who are finding it harder to recruit and retain employees. Rather than simply posting job openings, companies are going beyond the job post to craft a story about what it’s like to work for a company. This can be a great place to use an employee testimonial that connects with the type of employees you are seeking. 

Blog 

Your Blog or News page is made for your stories! Here is where you can run wild with stories that help build your brand. Show the impact that your nonprofit has in the community. Demonstrate how you provide your service in a way that makes your customers’ lives better. Talk about something that explains your core values and why they are important to you. Position yourself in your industry by sharing your expertise. The passion that you have for what you do will shine through your authentic stories about even the most basic product or service.  

Conclusion 

Building a brand through storytelling can be a powerful strategy to increase business sales. By establishing emotional connections, enhancing brand recall, and differentiating yourself from competitors, storytelling allows businesses to create a strong and loyal customer base. Your website offers many fantastic places for storytelling. Contact us and let’s craft your brand’s story today and watch your business sales soar. 

5 Easy Ways to Update Your Website  

Posted on by jenny

Looking for ways to update your website? Focus on these five important areas, and compete and win online. 

Update Your Website Homepage  

Your website’s homepage is the front door to your business’s online web presence. It “shakes the hand” of your customers and welcomes them, immediately conveying the tone of your business and the experience your customers will have with your products and services.  

Your homepage has three key sections that have important jobs. Let’s look at them and see how small changes to each of these areas can have an impact.   

The first section on your home page is the “hero” or banner section. The best banner sections are visually interesting and set the tone and personality of the site. If your website has had the same photo in the banner section for a long time, try adding a new photo or even a short video reel that is fresh and engaging.   

The banner section, or the section beneath it, should also tell a visitor what this business has to offer. If a visitor comes to your website and knows nothing about your company, will they quickly learn what you do, where you do it, and for whom? If not, it’s time to get this in your banner section or toward the top of your page. 

Next, your homepage should engage with your visitors and connect them to the interior pages of your website. When you visitors click into your interior pages, it signals to the search engines that they are finding something valuable on your website, boosting your SEO. You can highlight your service areas. Or, you can show examples of work from your profile. Whatever you choose to show, make sure it will draw in your audience. 

 Add New Website Photos 

Updating your website photos is an incredibly simple and effective way to give your website some new life. Photos convey so much about who you are and the customers you serve. Take a look at the photos on your website and see if there are ways to improve.  

Here are some questions to ask: 

  • Are the photos you’re currently using clear and high quality? Or, can you get better ones? 
  • Are the people in the photos representative of the customers you currently serve or the employees that you currently have? 
  • Do you have more impressive project photos to show now that your company has grown? 
  • Is there an opportunity to substitute photos for videos or even aerial footage, which can be a great way of showing something that’s large in scale? 

Changing out the photos and videos on your website and showing better and more accurate depictions of your work is a great way to level-up your company. 

Refresh Your Copywriting and Boost Your On-Page Website Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 

Take a fresh look at your website’s written copy. Is it too long? Too short? Do you think people are reading it? Is it boring or impressive? Is it optimized for the keywords that people are using in their search queries?  

It’s been said that good website design draws people into a website, but it’s carefully crafted website copywriting that sells. Is your website copy selling what you have to offer?  

Website copy should be focused on the customer and meeting their unique needs with your products and services. The copy should explain what solutions the company has to offer and how the company can deliver those solutions better than anyone else. Period.  

Keyword research should help guide you in preparing your copy. In order for your website to be returned in search, you need to have the keywords and phrases that people are searching. Otherwise, why would the search engines return your website? 

Careers 

If your company needs to recruit employees in today’s competitive job market, a high-quality careers page is a must have. Many older careers pages just listed open positions, and that was it. Today’s better careers pages have photos that exude a warm, welcoming culture. They may have descriptions of the geographic locations where the company is located and the reasons why they are great places to live. The page will offer what’s unique about the company, culture, benefits, and more to attract applicants.  

The careers page should make it easy for candidates to apply. It’s better for the page to be mobile friendly and to include as few steps as possible. 

Take a closer look at your careers page. Does it make you want to apply? If not, some small changes could go a long way toward improving the page and your recruitment. 

Call-to-actions 

Many people underestimate the importance of quality call-to-action buttons on their websites. Take a fresh look at your website. Are you asking your customers to engage with you? Are you guiding them through what you have to offer and asking them to contact you? 

Every page of your website should have a call-to-action. To some people, this may seem pushy because you don’t want to come across as “salesy.” This is understandable. However, call-to-actions don’t need to be pushy. They should strike just the right tone so that your visitors reach out to you. 

Want to make your website standout among the crowd online? Contact us and let’s talk. 

How to Use AI to Help Write Website Blog Posts

Posted on by austin

Creating great website blog posts is a crucial element of content marketing. It helps businesses and
individuals establish thought leadership, engage with their audience, and drive traffic to their websites.
With the advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), it is now possible to harness the power of this
technology to streamline the process of creating exceptional blog posts. In this essay, we will outline five
steps to take in order to create great blog posts using AI.

Step 1: Website Blog Posts Research and Idea Generation

AI-powered tools can analyze vast amounts of data, including articles, blog posts, and online resources,
to identify popular topics and trends within a given niche. By leveraging natural language processing and
machine learning algorithms, AI can provide valuable insights into what content resonates with your
target audience. This helps in generating fresh ideas and identifying relevant topics to write about. By
using AI to streamline the research process, you can save time and ensure your content is aligned with
your audiences.

Step 2: Content Outline and Structure

AI can be utilized to create a comprehensive outline and structure for blog posts. By analyzing existing
blog posts and articles, AI algorithms can identify key sections, subtopics, and supporting evidence that
should be included in the content. This helps in maintaining a logical flow and ensuring that the blog
post is well-organized. Content that is well structured with clear headlines and sub-headlines connects
better with both humans and the search engines.

Step 3: Writing Assistance and Language Enhancement

AI-powered writing assistance tools can provide valuable support to writers by suggesting
improvements in grammar, sentence structure, and word choice. These tools incorporate natural
language along with analytics to offer suggestions that enhance the readability and clarity of the
content. By using AI to refine the language and style of the blog post, you can ensure that your content
is engaging and easily digestible for your audiences.

Step 4: Incorporating SEO Best Practices

Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for driving organic traffic to a blog post. AI-powered tools can
analyze keywords, search trends, and user intent to optimize the content for search engines. By
suggesting relevant keywords to include in the blog post and offering recommendations for meta tags
and headings, AI can help you create content that ranks higher in search engine results pages.
Integrating AI into your SEO process ensures that your blog post is well-optimized for maximum visibility
and reach.

Step 5: Performance Analytics

AI can play a vital role in analyzing the performance of blog posts and providing insights for
improvements. By tracking key metrics such as page views, time on page, and bounce rates, AI
algorithms can identify patterns and trends in the audience’s engagement with your content. This data
can be used to refine future blog posts, tailor content to your audience’s preferences, and optimize the
overall content strategy. By leveraging AI analytics, you can continuously improve the quality and
effectiveness of blog posts over time.

AI has the potential to revolutionize the process of creating great blog posts. By utilizing AI, you can
enhance your content creation process and deliver exceptional value to your audience. It is important to
note that while AI can provide valuable insights and assistance, it is most effective when used in
conjunction with human creativity and expertise. By combining the power of AI with human intuition
and storytelling abilities, you can create compelling and impactful blog posts that engage readers, drive
traffic, and establish a strong online presence.

Do I Still Need a Website Developer? Or, Can I Build a Site Using AI Tools?

Posted on by jenny

The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made a significant impact on various industries, including website design and development. But is it possible to use AI to create a website or is a website developer still necessary? AI tools are rolling out fast and quickly changing what’s possible. Let’s take a closer look at AI and how it can be used in website design and development.

To begin with, it is essential to understand what AI is and what web development entails. AI is a system that can learn and execute tasks that would typically require human intelligence. On the other hand, web development is the process of creating and maintaining websites.

AI technology has advanced in recent years, and several tools and platforms have been created to help speed up web development. These tools use algorithms, plugins, and automation to simplify the web development process.

Despite the advances in AI technology, it cannot entirely replace web developers. 

Here are three reasons why AI tools don’t replace the need for a human website developer.

1.     AI Cannot Interpret Your Customers, Company, or Brand

AI lacks the ability to understand your unique business and the nuances of your company, customers and brand. In order to design a website that has the functionalities necessary to serve your audiences, you need the expertise of a professional web developer.

Your website is an essential marketing tool that should be uniquely branded to your business in a way that positions your company effectively. In a crowded online marketplace, a website that is tailored for your business is essential to your ability to compete for customers. At Bellaworks, our web design team will partner with you to develop strategies to showcase your business and guide your visitors to next step actions that help you convert them into customers. AI is a sophisticated tool that our team can use as we deploy your strategy, but the strategy is set by humans, not computers!

2.      AI Relies on Existing Data From Previous Projects

AI generated website design is inherently limited in the type of website projects it can generate. This is because it relies on tools to analyze and generate responses based on data from previous projects that are often similar to each other in design, layout, and functionalities.

On the other hand, Bellaworks offers a completely custom design process whereby we can create anything that you can imagine. We help you lean into your branding so you stand out from the competition. We listen to your pain points and offer solutions that make your life easier.

3.      AI Cannot Troubleshoot Ongoing Maintenance Issues

AI has revolutionized the web development industry by improving the web development process’s efficiency and speed. However, AI does not have the capacity to assess issues and then deploy the right mix of resources to mitigate them. It takes a human web developer to know when and how to make adjustments to website design, development, hosting and more in order to keep a website running smoothly. This is an important reason to maintain a partnership with a web development firm.

Summing It Up

Our team at Bellaworks loves strategizing with clients on how to help reduce pain points and to grow. We look at your whole digital portfolio – from branding, to copy writing, to design, email marketing, integrations, hosting and more. We identify where improvements can be made to help your company thrive. There’s no AI tool that can provide this.

Still AI offers incredible possibilities, and we’re excited the future of what AI can do. AI tools give us even more tools for our toolboxes, but AI is not a replacement in any way for what we, as humans, do in the process.  

Contact us and let’s talk about your website project and the tools that will best support your business. We’ll use advances in technology, including AI, to help build a dynamic site that meets your unique needs.

How to Use AI to Help Generate Valuable Website Content

Posted on by jenny

Great website design and development is only the start of a quality website. Quality content is necessary in order to connect with search engines and potential customers. Ongoing content creation helps feed the search engines fresh material and keywords, driving search results and ultimately traffic to your website. 

While blog posts are a great way to keep your website updated with fresh content, producing high-quality blog posts can be a daunting task. But what if we told you that there is a tool that can help with this?

Enter chat GBT. This innovative tool leverages the power of AI to generate high-quality blog posts in a matter of minutes. With chat GBT, you can turn your ideas into fully-formed blog posts with just a few clicks.

Let’s explore how to use chat GBT to generate website blog posts.

Step 1: Choose a Website Blog Post Topic

The first step in creating blog posts with chat GBT is to choose a topic. You can use the chat GBT app to generate topic ideas or choose your topics. Make sure your topic is relevant to your business and of interest to your target audience. Once you have a topic, use the app to generate a title for your post.

Step 2: Create a Website Blog Post Outline

The next step is to create an outline for your post. This will help you organize your ideas and make sure that your post follows a logical structure. You can use the chat GBT app to generate an outline based on your topic. The outline will include the main points that you should cover in your post, such as the introduction, the main body, and the conclusion.

Step 3: Generate the Website Content

Now comes the fun part – generating the content for your post. With chat GBT, you can generate high-quality content in a matter of minutes. Type in a sentence or two and let the algorithm get to work. Chat GBT uses advanced natural language processing algorithms to analyze your input and generates a coherent and engaging post. You can also use the app to refine the generated content until you are satisfied with the final product.

Step 4: Edit and Customize

Once your post is generated, you can edit and customize it to suit your needs. Use your own voice and style to make the post your own. You can add images, videos, and links to make your post more engaging and informative. Make sure to proofread your post for any errors or grammatical mistakes.

Step 5: Publish and Promote

Finally, it’s time to publish your post and promote it on your social media channels. Make sure to optimize your post for SEO by including relevant keywords in the title, meta description, and throughout the post. You can also include a call to action to encourage your readers to engage with your post.

Chat GBT is an innovative tool that can help you generate high-quality website blog posts in a matter of minutes. By following the above steps, you can create engaging and informative posts that will help you connect with your audience and drive traffic to your website. So, give chat GBT a try and see how it can help simplify your content creation process!

Contact us and let’s discuss how we can help with your website design and development.

5 Potential Obstacles to Your Website Project and How to Overcome Them

Posted on by jenny

As a website design and development company, you’d think we’d encourage anyone to build a website anytime they’re ready. Websites are an important asset, and keeping a website up-to-date and with modern design and functionality is something that most companies need in order to thrive.

However, after working with clients for over a decade, we have come to recognize certain situations that signal a need to take a minute before jumping into a website project. There are times when we uncover issues that need to be addressed before we begin.

If you’re considering a website project and wonder if now’s the time to start one, this list will probably assure you that you have what it takes. However, if any of these situations sound a bit familiar, there could be some work that needs to be done prior to beginning a website project.

Either way, our team at Bellaworks is here to help! We’re a small shop, and our core business is building websites and servicing our website design and development clients. We do all of our website work in-house from kickoff to launch. Plus, we provide hosting services. 

We can help your team overcome obstacles so that you can enjoy a smooth website process and finish with great results. 

5 Potential Obstacles to Your Website Project and How to Overcome Them

Reason #1: Your Company’s Management is Not Really on Board

Sometimes there can be a disconnect between the owners of a company and the person who oversees marketing efforts. 

The marketing director may see so clearly the potential that exists through a new or redone website. The business owner may agree to move forward with the website project, however, when it’s time for decisions to be made, they can have some reservations.

Sometimes business owners have a hard time making changes to the things they think made them successful. We’ve also heard people say that their last website project was so poorly run by another company that they dread doing one ever again. These are just two of several reasons we’ve heard that the management team just can’t seem to get on board.  

Bellaworks has worked with companies in a variety of capacities to overcome hesitancy and ease the perceived pain points on the way to creating a new website. 

Reason #2: Cost

Understandably, cost is an important factor. Companies need a quality website at a price that makes sense for their business. Since websites can range in price from free to many thousands of dollars, finding the right fit for your budget is important. 

In order to determine the cost of a website project, Bellaworks starts by discussing a client’s goals. Then, we scope the work involved. We determine whether an existing website can be updated or if it’s more cost effective to build a new website. If we determine it’s better to build a new website, we can discuss building it on a template or from scratch.

Our Bellaworks team always aims to find the most cost effective solution to achieve our clients’ goals. Having a clean, modern, responsive, secure website that positions your company in the best way possible is like having a great salesperson who is always on the job. There are many options that Bellaworks can offer, and you can rest assured that any website we build will be high quality and a great reflection on your company.

Reason #3:  Unsure of How to Present Products or Services

Descriptions of your products or services are a core component of a website. Yet, sometimes business owners can have a hard time describing their services to potential clients. We’ve seen this with clients ranging from business consultants to service people.

While we can’t make decisions regarding what services your company offers, we can help you present them in a compelling way on your website.

We like to help by offering suggestions for setting up your website navigation and information structure. We also provide clients with a content guide that has tips for preparing content. Many clients also choose to partner with our copywriting expert, who can really remove the burden of copywriting.

So long as you can outline the service or product you want to offer, we can help you package it and sell it on your website with compelling copywriting.

Reason #4:  You Don’t Have the Visuals that You Need

Some companies offer products and services that require the use of specific photos on a website. For example, if you are selling the use of a physical location or property, you need photos of it. Or, if you are offering a particular product, you probably want photos of your product.

It’s always preferable to have your photos ready before you start on website design. Our designer is inspired by photos, and good photos can really enhance a site. However, if you don’t have the photos you need, placeholder photos can be used temporarily. Custom photos aren’t needed for every company, and for service providers, we often rely on stock photography. 

At Bellaworks, we discuss your photography and video needs in our first meeting, so we can plan the best way to ensure you have the materials you need and get the best design for your website. We have excellent photographers and videographers that we can recommend to help you get the photos that you need.

Reason #5:  Not Prepared to Respond to Inquiries

Typically, one of the main jobs of a website is to generate next step actions from potential customers. The next step usually includes a request for more information or an interaction of some kind such as a quote for services, a newsletter sign-up, or even a phone consultation. 

We recently talked with one small business owner who provides a service. He said that he would like to have a website, however, his business is already booked. He doesn’t have anyone who can handle inquiries, so he doesn’t think a website makes sense right now.

Deciding how to interact with potential customers is an important part of planning a website. We discuss many different options with our clients in order to find the solution that works best for them. Generally, we are able to identify the right next step that will help our businesses move forward without overwhelming them.

In Conclusion

Our team at Bellaworks has been designing and developing websites for over a decade. We have experienced so many situations with our clients and have helped them to overcome countless obstacles that could have prevented them from building a great website. 

Reach out to us. Our team will be in touch with you quickly to begin discussing your project.

5 Reasons Why Bellaworks Uses WordPress for Website Design and Development

Posted on by jenny

If you’re in the market for a new or updated website, you’re probably seeing lots of different options that are available for website design and development. From Wix to Weebly to Shopify and Squarespace, there are so many products out there.  

At Bellaworks, we build websites exclusively on WordPress. Our small but mighty team both designs and develops websites in-house, giving us full control of the process and the results. We’ve built websites for small and large companies in a wide variety of industries. No two websites are ever the same. 

Here are some of the reasons why WordPress is our platform of choice and what advantages it has for you as a consumer.

Market Dominance

Almost one-third of all websites are built on WordPress. It’s the most widely known and supported website content management system (CMS). WordPress is an exceedingly flexible platform that can serve a wide variety of websites. 

One key advantage to business owners is that WordPress websites are very portable. Many industry professionals know WordPress and will be able to work on your website. It’s like having a car that most mechanics can work on versus a rare import that no one can find parts for or fix.

Easy to Update

As far as websites are concerned, WordPress sites have very user-friendly back-end dashboards. With training, even people with little tech experience can quickly learn to make updates to a WordPress site. 

It’s important to keep your website updated with current information and fresh content, and the ease of doing so is obviously crucial. Our Bellaworks clients appreciate the ability to login and make changes to copywriting, add blog posts, or switch out photos as the need arises. Some of our clients prefer to have us make updates by initiating a work order.  

Flexible Functionality 

WordPress is compatible with a wide range of plugins and other software that can be very helpful in extending the functionality of your website. Plugins are individual pieces of software that can be downloaded and added to your website. You can think of them like apps that you add to your phone. Plugins can help increase speed, security, and SEO, and they can capture leads and so much more. There are both free and paid options available. 

Websites can and should do more than just provide information about your company. They can provide tools that help you work more efficiently and effectively, and plugins are a way of adding these tools.   

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

WordPress is widely regarded as one of the best platforms to use in order to build SEO with the search engines. It has countless tools and options you can use to help you format your copy and photos to help build SEO.

One of these tools is a free plugin called YoastSEO. Yoast can help you optimize your website’s content in order to connect with the search engines. For example, you can customize page URLs with user-friendly keywords for which you want your website to be found. You can optimize the size of photos so your pages load quickly and add alt text with words and phrases that can be found in searches. It can help you format your pages with headlines and subheadings that help the search engines understand information on your website. 

If SEO is important, WordPress is an excellent choice for your website.

Hosting

Our WordPress websites are self-hosted, meaning that you choose your own hosting provider. You own your WordPress files and have full control of them through your login credentials. You can select the hosting provider that has the right combination of speed, service, security, and price for your website.

WordPress allows you options with hosting, just like it does with so many other areas of website ownership. When you host with Bellaworks, you are backed by the Bellaworks team and you can have live support 24/7 from a team of hosting experts. 

In Conclusion

Our team of experts at Bellaworks uses our knowledge and experience to create WordPress websites for all kinds of companies in all kinds of industries. It allows us full flexibility with design and development and our clients enjoy full flexibility with website service and support. 

Reach out to our team, and let’s get started on a new website for you.

The Three Key Pieces that Run Your Website

Posted on by jenny

If you are diving into a website design project for the first time, it can feel like entering a whole new world. Terms like “domain name” and “hosting services” get thrown around, and it can quickly become overwhelming!

To help with this, we are going to explain these three key things that you need in order to operate a website. 

  1. Website domain name
  2. Website files
  3. Website hosting

This will give you some understanding of what these services are and the different types of options for each one.

Website Domain

Simply put, a website domain is a website’s home address on the internet. 

Domains can have different extensions like .com, .net, .org, .edu and so on. The value in the common extensions like .com or .org is simply that they are standard and easy for people to use and remember. 

Domains are purchased through registrars like GoDaddy or Namecheap. A domain price can change based on add-ons and services, but the price for the actual domain will be the same regardless of where you buy it. The price is based on what the sellers think that the market will bear. Common names that might appeal to many people can be expensive. Unique names are often cheaper. Either way, simple names that are easy to use are preferable.

Pro tip:

Once you purchase your domain name, you need to keep up with the renewals. The invoices are usually sent by the registrars via email, and they can be easily missed. If your domain is up for renewal and your credit card on file has expired, your domain can fail to renew. If this happens, your website will go down, and you will likely spend hours fixing the mess. In order to avoid all of this, Bellaworks offers clients the option of keeping domains in our account. We keep up with the renewals to make sure you never miss one.

Fun Fact:

Curious as to how domains work? Here’s a quick explanation. 

Computers talk to each other using numerical IP addresses. While this works great for computers, it’s not very user friendly for humans. So, when you type a website address into an internet browser, that domain name helps route you to a server that decodes it into an IP address. Then, you’re pointed to the specific website that you want to access. Handy, right!

You might wonder… What’s the difference between a URL and a domain name?

The URL is the complete address of a specific webpage. A domain name is the root address for an entire website.

Here’s an example:

URL = https://bellaworksweb.com/about

Domain name is in bold.

Website Files

Did you know that websites are really a bunch of files? Yep. The pages are designed and laid out with your copywriting, photos, etc. and then they are developed, or coded, on a platform. 

At Bellaworks, we build all of our websites on WordPress. We can use preset design templates or we can custom build your website from scratch. Once we build your website, you will own the files, and there is no ongoing subscription type fee just to have your website files. 

Fun fact:

When we build a new WordPress website, we will build it on a development server. Once your website is built, we will compress and save your old website files and send them to you if you’d like to keep them. We will then redirect your domain from your old website files to your new files. This cuts out website downtime and makes the process very smooth.

Pro Tip:

Imagine you are updating some content on your website and something goes haywire. Your page is all of a sudden a mess, and you can’t figure out how to fix it. Agh! One huge safety net is having access to daily backups of your website files. This way if your site is ever compromised for any reason, you can quickly roll back to the last copy of your website files.

Hosting

A website host provides stable and secure storage for your website files so they can be easily accessed by internet users. Quality hosting contributes to the proper functioning of your website and a good user experience. In turn, this can affect your website’s position in search engine returns.  

There are many different types of hosting options available with a variety of price points. Less expensive hosting typically offers customers space on a shared server. Your price may be low but the risk of your site being compromised will be high because the environment will be less secure. On the other end of the spectrum, you can have your own dedicated server where you host just your website. This cuts security and performance risks but increases your costs. 

At Bellaworks, we provide high-quality hosting services that balance security, space, and price. We use managed WordPress hosting. This type of hosting goes beyond just providing a spot on the internet. It includes additional support that helps optimize the performance and security of your website in order to keep it running smoothly. This can include blocking malware and hacking attempts at the server level, making sure you’re always running the latest and most secure version of WordPress, and caching your pages to ensure fast loading. Also, our clients can have access to real live human support 24/7 should they ever need help, like a copy of a website backup file.

In Conclusion

Our team at Bellaworks hopes this article helps demystify these three key pieces that combine to run your website. If you have any further questions or want to talk about your website or hosting, please contact us. We are always happy to share more information about how all of this works so our clients can make the best decisions for their company. 

 

 

 

6 Reasons Why You Should Use Video On Your Website’s Home Page

Posted on by jenny

Over the last couple of years, our Charlotte website design clients have been making some really fantastic use of high-quality video. With the changes that are underway with Google Analytics, video stands to offer even more benefits to the companies who incorporate it into their website. If you’re considering a website design project, you’ve probably thought about what kind of photos that you’ll use. However, have you considered adding video footage?

Here are 6 reasons why you should.

Boost Your SEO 

Google Analytics has been overhauled, and the way Google tracks website “bounces” has completely changed. Google now tracks what it calls “Engagement Rates.” If a person comes to your website and stays for 10 seconds or longer, your site gets credit for engaging a visitor. This is also the case if a visitor has at least two pageviews or completes a conversion event, such as clicking on a call-to-action button. The more people who come to your website and “engage,” according to Google’s definition, the better it is for your search results ranking.

Because a video can command a person’s attention for longer than a still photo, using video footage is an excellent way to drive visitor engagement and to boost your position in search. Video combined with well written copy plus a catchy call-to-action button is even better!

Instant Branding

A video provides an unmatched opportunity to communicate an experience, a community of people, and sense of place. It instantly gives visitors a feeling of “ah, so that’s what it’s all about.” In seconds, videos can illustrate an atmosphere and setting. Is this experience formal or casual? Outdoor, indoor, or both? It shows the people who are involved and their age, ethnicity, vibe and even characteristics like whether they have mobility challenges or other accessibility issues.

Add Movement

When we plan website design projects, we often look for ways to incorporate movement into a website. This can make a site more appealing and interesting for visitors. Movement can be accomplished in a variety of ways such as by using custom animations or sliding sections. However, nothing beats the movement that a video can offer on a website.

Show a Variety of Services or Activities

One of our most long-standing Charlotte website design clients is the US National Whitewater Center. If you know about Whitewater, then you probably know that there’s so much more to do there than just rafting and kayaking! The homepage video provides a perfect place for them to highlight the wide variety of activities that are offered at the Center. Further, the video allows them to also capitalize on other areas that we’ve covered, like movement, branding, and SEO, which are also very important to them.

Show Size/Scale

Have you ever tried to take a photo of a beautiful place and thought that the photo just didn’t capture it? We get it. When our clients want to show the scale and how impressive a location is, video is always the best bet. In fact, aerial footage using drones is often the most effective way to capture the scale of a location.

Check out this video that our client Big Beverages uses on their homepage. Big Beverages is a new bottling company that has quickly grown. They want to show their state-of-the art facility and how large and pristine it is. Mission accomplished.

Add Human Connection and Emotion

In a digital world, one of the elements that always makes a difference is showing human faces and emotion. People connect with people. People do business with people. Showing a video that truly captures human energy and emotion is a powerful component to add to a website.

Our friends and clients at The Institute for Speech and Debate could have settled for a nice group photo to use at the top of their website. Instead, they are using a short, dynamic video loop that brings their summer program to life. It contains an aerial shot that also shows the size of a summer camp session along with the energy of the group.

Bellaworks Can Help

Adding a video to your home page is a small change that can make a big difference. Contact our team, and let’s make a plan for using video to engage with your website’s visitors. We can recommend what to shoot and connect you with the right professionals to get it done.

 

 [j1]

Website Owners, Take Note! Google Analytics Is Phasing Out Its Original Code

Posted on by austin

Our Charlotte, NC website design team has been all a buzz about the changes coming from Google Analytics. If you own a website, you’ll definitely want to get up to speed on and prepare for the transition in Google’s products.

If this is all news to you, you’re in the right place. Read on to find out more about the changes that are coming.

Here’s the Scoop

Google is preparing to phase out its Universal Analytics (UA) data tracking properties, making way for the new GA4 analytics tracking system. These are two separate data streams, and you can have both UA and GA4 running on your website simultaneously. Over the next year, website owners are encouraged to use both and to compare the differences in how the data is being tracked and to make changes to any reports.

What’s the Timeline?

  • GA4 actually rolled out in October 2020. If your website was created on or after this timeframe, you probably already have GA4.
  • You can install GA4 anytime and begin collecting data.
  • As of July 1, 2023 UA will no longer track data. If you install GA4 now, you’ll have a year’s worth of data by then and your GA4 tracking will continue.
  • You will have about 6 months after UA stops tracking to download all historical UA data.

What’s Changing?

This is all part of a foundational shift in how data is collected in several key areas. To give you a sense of what’s changing, we’ll review three core areas that are undergoing overhauls as part of GA4.

Privacy Tracking

The old methods of tracking data through IP addresses, cookies, and tags are becoming a thing of the past. A higher level of privacy is being demanded today across various types of activities. You can read about the moves to protect consumer privacy which can be traced back to the European Union’s 2018 rollout of the General Data Protection Regulation.

GA4 will use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make predictions and assumptions about website traffic and user behavior. This will supplement the data and fill in gaps created by increasing privacy restrictions.

Cross-device Tracking

Google’s previous tracking was largely based on collecting data from individual devices and sessions. Information was tracked in silos and was often duplicated across devices.  

GA4 offers a shift from a focus on individual metrics to a focus on the customer’s journey. It stitches together multiple data streams and sources, for example, from both websites and apps, to offer a more accurate picture of where a customer is in the sales funnel. It uses multiple identifiers to measure a single user’s journey, providing far more valuable insight into engagement and effectiveness.

Engagement Tracking

The metrics used for tracking are being redefined. This will provide a more realistic assessment of your user’s interaction with your website.

Here’s an example.

In UA a user’s visit to your website for several minutes without a next step click or interaction was recorded as a bounce, even though they could have found value in the website.

In the new GA4, Google will track what they’re calling “engaged sessions.” These are defined as the number of sessions that lasted longer than ten seconds, had a conversion event, or had at least 2 page views or screen views. You can see that the new GA4 parameters certainly more accurately reflect today’s user engagement.

GA4 has a number of default actions and events, like page scrolls, clicks, file downloads etc., that can easily be tracked without requiring manual set-up as it did in the past. Together with cross-device tracking capabilities, the data GA4 collects provides a much truer assessment of user engagement.

Take Aways

The new GA4 is a complete overhaul of Google Analytics, designed to be flexible with the changes and increased regulation that are already in motion for the industry. This is the time to install GA4 and to get familiar with its capabilities and how they can help your business. Set up your tracking criteria and begin to learn how to use the reports. And, of course, understand that GA4 is still in its infancy, and more changes will come. The internet and associated technology and regulations are still developing at an incredibly fast pace.