Your logo serves a similar purpose for your business.

It makes the first impression on your customers, and a lasting one, as well. If you are hungry and spot a giant golden M as you drive down the highway, you know that you can pull off and have some fantastic french fries. If I say Starbucks logo, you can picture it in your head (even though it is pretty bizarre). That’s because these logos are easily recognizable. They are on their company’s buildings and the packaging that holds their products. They can be seen in every ad the company puts out, and these logos are definitely on their websites.

Yours should be, too!

Logos Create Connection

In the mid-80s, Guess Jeans were sweeping the nation. All of the cool girls had them. Most of us in the 6th grade had no idea if they were any better than other brands, but we sure recognized that trademark triangle. It was a coveted logo for a middle-school girl. That logo sold a lot of jeans!

The emotional connection of that logo still takes me back in time. Logos have that power over most consumers. Consider that: [1]

• 80 percent of consumers think that colors boost brand recognition
• 93 percent of purchasing decisions are made based on visual perceptions

Your logo can make an impact on how your customers perceive your business and your products or services.

A Logo Shows Professionalism

Your logo says you are serious about your business. Anything less makes customers wonder, “If they didn’t take the time to create a logo, are they really in this business for the long-haul?” Unless you are a professional designer, you should consult with one about your logo. They can make sure it will transfer well to different mediums, physical and digital.

Do you want your business to stand out from the crowd?

Our professional website development can make that happen. And if you need a logo, we’ve got you covered there, too! Contact us to learn more.

[1] “10 Reasons Why a Small Business Logo Is Important.” FreeLogoServices Blog, 11 Apr. 2019, www.freelogoservices.com/blog/2018/07/23/10-reasons-why-a-small-business-logo-is-important/.

The post Why You Need a Logo appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

Think of a small business website as your online welcome mat.

SmallBizTrends recently released a statistic that states nearly 50% of small business owners don’t use social media marketing for their small businesses. The small business monitoring website also mentioned that many of the small business owners that don’t promote via social media also don’t have professionally built websites.

Let’s cut to the chase: Responsive web design provides small businesses with several benefits. After reading the benefits, you should come away with an idea about how valuable a professionally built website is to small business owners.

Creates an Additional Sales Channel

Small businesses historically generated sales through two channels: Phone orders and in-store purchases. A professionally built website gives you a potent sales channel that not only expedites sales, but also guides customers throughout the buying process. From powerful calls to action to answering customer questions, you create a viable sales channel that increases revenue. The Yellow Pages no longer play an important role in attracting customers. Word of mouth advertising now derives mostly from testimonials and positive feedback left on a professionally built website.

Builds Credibility that Prompts Action

How valuable is a professionally built website for small business owners? Think of how you build the level of trust required for prospective customers to take action. A strong small business website includes professionally written content that educates customers about your products and services. Instead of reading a brochure or walking through your store, consumers now go online to learn about small businesses. Product and service pages, as well as “How to…” videos, increase your credibility. All of the information customers need to make informed purchasing decisions sits on your small business website.

Website Development Gets You Noticed in Search Engine Rankings

A professionally built website for small business owners invariably includes content that search engines love to see. Our Minneapolis web design team includes search engine optimization experts that know the search keywords customers use to find your small business online. By writing search engine optimized content and creating links that search engines reward, you move to the top of the search engine ranking lists. Without a professionally built website, your small business languishes in cyberspace.

The High Value of an E-mail List

Visitors to your professionally built small business website that opt-in to an email list provide a fertile base of customers. You can offer a complimentary eBook, monthly educational newsletter, and/or give away products and services to everyone that signs up for your email list. Email lists put “target” back into target marketing, as you learn what motivates customers to buy from you. Small business owners that include professional website photography within emails get a leg up on the competition.

Open for Business 24/7

Your doors close around the same time every day. If you fail to build a professionally looking website, the sales end when you close your office or storefront. With a powerful website that keeps visitors engaged, you have a small business that remains open 24 hours a day, seven days per week. Customers purchase your products and services, while you enjoy a restful night of sleep or take in a movie after storefront hours.

Nothing determines how valuable a professionally built website is to small business owners more than operating a business that remains open all of the time!

Let’s Get Started

Your website is your most important marketing tool. If your website has not been updated in the last 1-2 years, your business deserves the investment to make improvements. Contact our Minneapolis website development firm today to schedule a free phone or in-person consultation to discuss your website or online marketing needs.

The post How Valuable is a Professionally Built Website to Small Business Owners? appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

1. Try your business name first

The first thing you should check when looking for a domain name is your business’s name. It’s the easiest thing for customers to remember and it helps with consistency in your business’s offline branding. Your website address should be printed on all of your marketing materials – so choosing your business name just makes common sense!

2. Brainstorm 6-8 keywords

If your business’s name is not available, try coming up with six different keywords that describe your business or the services that you provide. After you’ve done that, play around with the words adding prefixes or suffixes to the name. For instance, if you run a coffee shop some great keywords would be coffee, morning delight, coffee beans, aroma, liquid gold, and coffee lover.

3. The Shorter the better

As you’re creating your domain name, remember to keep the name as short as possible. Your domain should increase your company’s brand as well as make it easy to direct people to your website. If, for example, you own a windshield glass replacement company and your business name is Jo’s Windshield Glass & Repair. This would be a bad choice for your domain name:

www.jodoesthebestwindshieldrepairwestofthemississippi.com.

When you say the slogan in your head, it sounds great but actually written up, it’s a lot to deal with.

A better website address instead would be www.joswinshieldrepair.com. It’s simple and it contains the name of your business as well as gets across to potential customers what it is you do before they even visit your website.

4. Make it easy to remember

Just as you want the name to be short, you also want it to be easy to remember. This will help your customers find your website. If they can’t pronounce it or spell it, then for sure they won’t be able to find you online. Just like in the example of Jo’s Windshield, the first url had way too many chances of misspellings or even getting all the adjectives right. Best it keep it simple all the way around.

5. Be original and creative

One way of making sure that your domain name is memorable is to give it a creative twist. It can be a play on words or something pun-erific. As long as it plays to the demographics of the majority of your customers, it should work. An example of this would be an art gallery who specializes in Monet reproductions who chooses the website name www.impressions.com after the art movement or www.lilyspond.com after his series of Water Lily Paintings. The possibilities are endless.

Remember not to go too overboard. You don’t want to end up getting so creative that no one really understands what exactly your website domain name is referring to. Also, avoid alternate spellings. It’s difficult to remember which spelling that you used and any misspellings will make your company look bad. Keep your creativity within the boundaries of keeping it simple, easy to spell, and memorable.

6. Avoid popular naming trends

Using odd misspellings or multiple hyphens (as was popular in the early 2000’s when domain names were SEO-optimized) can actually hurt more than help. While it may seem like the best thing to do since everyone else is using that strategy, it won’t help with getting your website seen. In fact, your website might blend in with all the other sites that are using the same naming scheme as well. Even using general adjectives such as Phoenixhotcoffee.com or bestwindshieldrepairco.com just makes your domain name longer than it needs to be, and doesn’t add anything to the creativity or originality of the name. Save the catchy tag lines and adjectives for the actual copy on your website.

7. Target your locality

This strategy works well for both local businesses and local franchises. Adding your location to your domain name can help distinguish you from other companies that are similar to yours. For example, if you have a coffee shop with a common name in downtown Anoka, try brainstorming domain names using the keywords: anoka + coffee shop. This will also help website visitors know exactly where to find your store.

8. Choose a dot-com based domain

For your primary website, it is best to stick with the dot-com extension. Mostly because it’s the most popular and has been the default extension that everyone has been used to using for years. Even though .net, .biz, and even some specialty domains like .guru are available now, reserve those for secondary or add-on domains. They can also be used for niche marketing to sell just one of the many products or services that you have to offer.

Here is a list of the most common domain name extensions besides .com, and what they are generally used for:

• .co – This is an abbreviation used for a company, commerce, and community
• .info – This extension is used for informational sites.
• .net – Usually technical and internet infrastructure sites use this extension.
• .org – This extension is used by non-commercial organizations and non-profit groups
• .biz – Used primarily for business or commercial like ecommerce sites.
• .me – This extension is used for blogs, resumes, or personal websites.

9. Protect your brand

One of the best ways you can protect your brand is to buy various domain extensions as well as the dot-com extension. It will help prevent competitors from registering other versions of your website on different domain extensions. If you want to go an extra step, you can also purchase misspellings of your domain name to ensure that if anyone does mistype your url, they will be directed to the correct page.

Don’t worry about having to set up and build a website for each of the domain extensions. You can forward all domains to your main website.

10. Research

Make sure to Google any and all possible domain names you find available. You should make sure that a company with a bad reputation has not used your domain of choice. You may want to double check that Google has not banned the domain either.

If you do decide to buy other extensions of your domain name, make sure that when you research the name that you’re also checking to see if other extensions are also available.

After you’ve chosen your domain name, act fast. Domain names sell quickly. Luckily they are inexpensive if not already bought by someone else.

Ready to get started?

Iceberg Web Design can help you choose the best domain name for your website, and recommend some alternatives if your name of choice has already been taken. If you have your domain name registered and you’re ready to get started with building your website, our Minneapolis web design company has a great reputation for building and maintaining small business websites. Please contact us for more information on how we can best serve you and your company’s needs.

The post How to Choose the Right Domain Name for your Website appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.