Having an extensive website wish list isn’t a problem if your budget is limitless. But for most businesses, it’s important to keep the reins pulled in.

When business owners ask us to build a new website, they usually come with a wish list. Of course, they will want the usual pages and often features like a blog, search capabilities (sometimes sortable), galleries, integrations, e-commerce features, etc. The list can get long if you let it.

Consider Features that Make Doing Business Easier

Often people only think of websites as benefiting their marketing efforts. And they do increase your marketing prowess. But there are many other ways to use your website.

You can improve customer satisfaction through better communication and employee satisfaction by enhancing internal efficiencies with features like:

•         Optimized Sales Funnels for better leads
•         Careers Pages with applications for hiring
•         Member or Employee Portals
•         Scheduling Integrations
•         Fillable Online Forms
•         Document Library
•         Education information accessed by users via a password
•         Location Maps for your projects or business locations 
•         And more!

When You Want Too Much of a Good Thing

Having an extensive wish list isn’t a problem if your budget is limitless, but for most businesses, it’s important to keep the reigns pulled in.

Another reason we recommend breaking up extensive website wish lists into smaller ones is none of these features will help your business until your website is live. To give you everything on the list would take a lot longer than you want to wait to have the initial site built. So instead, we create the site with the most important features first, and then we immediately begin working on the remaining features. This allows you to use the site as soon as possible.

So, it is often a good idea to build a website that meets your needs and then add on the other features you want later. We often call this planning out your website into phases.

We may also recommend building a website in phases if your business is in a period of growth. You might anticipate the need for a particular feature during that time, but you aren’t quite sure how it will fit into your business plan yet.

How to Choose from Your Website Wish List

The first step is to meet with our salesperson, Shane Bader. Shane will talk about your business goals and what you want to get out of your website and digital marketing. He can help you sort through what features are essential now and which ones can wait until you are ready to add them later. Our goal at Iceberg Web Design is to serve your business in the way that will best help you grow now and in the future.

Contact us today to see how we can help fulfill your website Wish List!

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Most brands don’t have a famous narrator to keep audiences waiting in anticipation for their next ad campaign. But they should all have a voice—even if it is an imagined one.

Are you branding your company for the first time, rebranding, or just defining a brand that has never been clearly communicated before? One of the first things you need to do is to find your brand voice.

What is a Brand Voice?

If you want a literal example, there is none better than Ving Rhames. He has had an impressive career as both an actor and a voice actor. Since 2014, Ving has been the voice of the Arby’s commercials which tout “We have the meats!” Enjoy this “Try Not to Laugh” compilation of his ads.

Most brands don’t have a famous narrator to keep audiences waiting in anticipation for their next ad campaign. But they should all have a voice—even if it is an imagined one.

How Do You Find a Silent Voice?

A lot of imagination is a great place to start. But first, you have to know your audience. Who is your ideal customer? How do you speak to them in a way that is relatable and genuine? What kinds of language would you use or avoid using?

If Your Brand was a Person

What would your brand say? How would your brand move, dress, act? This is where imagination comes in. It can also be helpful to see how others within your company see your brand.

We recently did a simple exercise where everyone was asked to privately message me five words they would use to describe Iceberg Web Design and our services. It was interesting to see how many people had in common. And nearly everyone included the word “Responsive” as one of their answers. Other common themes were: reliable, friendly, and authoritative.

What are Your Brand Differentiators?

You don’t want to be just like all the other guys in your industry. But you also don’t want to be different just to say you are. So, what makes you different, and why does it matter? What are the things that you are—and are NOT?

Have One Person Write

As you are defining your brand voice, have one person do the writing until it becomes solidified. After that, anyone marketing or joining the writing team should get very familiar with that voice. Otherwise, you will be putting out marketing material and blog posts that don’t sound “on-brand.” Don’t worry. It won’t take long for the entire team to be able to emulate your brand voice.

Do You Need Help Finding Your Brand Voice?

From websites to branding, Iceberg Web Design knows how to market your business online. We have solutions to your business problems and can help you grow! We are just a phone call away, 763-350-8762.

The post Finding Your Brand Voice appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

At Iceberg Web Design, we have an entire team of penguins dedicated to helping you solve your business dilemmas with web-based solutions. Our newest developer is Josh Smith. Today in our Penguin Profile, we will be talking to Josh to learn more about him and what he does at Iceberg.

Josh | Senior Developer Penguin

How long have you been working for Iceberg? 

I started working at Iceberg in February, 2021.

Have your duties changed since you first started working here? 

Even though I haven’t been at Iceberg all that long, I’ve worked on some really exciting projects. I really enjoy the mix of working on new projects and providing support to existing customers.

What do you do for Iceberg’s customers? 

I help our customers create or enhance their online presence in a way that reflects their business values and goals. Using the latest web technologies, I make sure that our solutions work well and follow the highest standards for functionality, accessibility, and design.

What’s your favorite part of your job? 

I really enjoy working with customers and coming up with innovative solutions. I also like constantly learning the latest in digital technology and marketing. 

What is your #1 goal when working with a customer? 

My #1 goal is to understand the customer, what their business objectives are, and how we can bring all of their vision to their website.

In what other industries have you worked? 

I’ve worked in IT, product development, ecommerce, digital marketing and web development.

Tell us a bit about your family (including pets): 

My wife and I have 2 kids, a dog and a couple fish.

Do you have any hobbies/special interests? 

I enjoy playing guitar, discovering new music, reading great books, and mountain biking with the family.

What is something about you that might surprise your customers and co-workers? 

My wife and I have taken on many DIY home & garden projects over the years. Our kids are now reaching the age where it’s fun to teach them some of the skills we’ve learned.

Describe your perfect day: 

Wake up early enough to watch the sunrise with a good cup of coffee. Then a day filled with some work, reading, listening to music and a bike or motorcycle ride. And a perfect day would always include trying out a new recipe and having time to cook a great meal.

Science or History? Which is your favorite and why? 

I really like both, but as a sociology major, I’ve probably studied a lot more history and do find it fascinating how much history repeats itself.

If you were guaranteed the correct answer to one question, what would you ask? 

What is the secret to eternal happiness?

What is your best piece of advice? It can be about anything. 

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Connect with Josh and the Iceberg Team

Thank you, Josh, for sharing a bit about yourself for this week’s Penguin Profile. And thank you for all you do to build our customer’s website projects in a way that will meet their business objectives even better than they imagined possible. 

Learn more about The Iceberg Team. Read Some Of Iceberg’s Reviews!

The post Penguin Profile: Josh Smith, Developer | Iceberg Web Design appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

At Iceberg, we can often find affordable website-based solutions to your business problems. It can help to have a conversation with our team every couple of years so that your website can grow along with your business.

We recently looked at how to have a website built on a budget. But there are even more ways to save money while still getting a professional website.

What do you need on your website?

When building a website, it pays to sit down with a website consultant and decide what you need on the website versus what you would like to have. Get the bare bones down and the features that will benefit your business most now.

Scale Up with WordPress

One of the great things about a WordPress website is that it is so scalable. You can start with your immediate needs and then add features on later as you can afford them or need them more. You might add:

•       Newsletter Integration
•       Scheduling Integration
•       Custom Forms
•       Special Calculator
•       Online Payment Feature
•       Any other feature that would make your site more effective!

At Iceberg, we can often find affordable website-based solutions to your business problems. It can help to have a conversation with our team every couple of years so that your website can grow along with your business.

Be Responsive

The easier the developer can reach you, the faster the process will go. Good communication with your developer will aid in the project’s smooth progress, which can help you avoid hourly additions and late fees.

Plus, when you communicate well with the team working on your site, you develop a relationship with them. Often, people will go out of their way to help those they genuinely like to work with.

Invest in a Maintenance Package to Save Money

It can often be challenging to understand the benefits of a maintenance package and why they cost as much as they do. That’s because a maintenance package is a little bit like an insurance policy with added benefits. With an insurance policy, you might wonder why you are paying for it each month, but you are thankful to have it when an issue arises.

Monitoring for Downtime

There is a lot more to a maintenance package than just taking care of a downed website. However, this is an aspect of maintenance that shouldn’t be taken for granted. Several things can result in downtime for your site:

•       Problems with the Server
•       DNS Issues
•       CMS Failure
•       Cyber Attacks
•       A Lapse in Maintenance

When you have a maintenance package in place, your site will be continually monitored for downtime so that if it happens, we can get your site back up and running as quickly as possible.

Content Updates

One of the most important things you get with your maintenance plan is regular updates to your site’s content by a professional developer. These updates will help you avoid broken links, outdated information, and dead pages. The developer can also make SEO recommendations and marketing.

Updates to CMS, Theme, and Plugins

These might be monthly or quarterly updates, depending on the maintenance plan you choose. Updates to your site’s CMS, theme, and plugins will prevent many issues since outdated themes and plugins increase your site’s vulnerability to attacks. In 2019, over 56% of all CMS applications were out of date when hacks happened. (Source: Sucuri)

Do You Have a Budget and Need a Website?

Iceberg Web Design has options that can make a professional site affordable.

Contact Us

The post More Ways to Save Money on Your Website appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

When we consult with a new client, we talk about the content for their site. How will the content on your website be organized? We begin by planning out a site map that will help us plan the menu and be a roadmap for the developers as they assemble the various parts of the website. In WordPress, your content is either put on a page or a post.

What is a Page?

Pages are static, permanent parts of your website. They aren’t affected by the date, and while they can be edited, their overall structure doesn’t change. Pages are listed in your site’s menu and include your home page, about page, and contact page, among others.

What is a Post?

Posts are more like newspaper articles. You frequently update them with new content to keep your readers coming back. They can be displayed in chronological order or reverse chronological order. You can also customize the way they are displayed. For example, some people like to keep one post pinned to the front of their blogs. This is called a sticky post.

When people think of posts, they usually think of blog posts. But there are other kinds of posts. For example, many businesses share press releases on their website using a custom post type.

On e-commerce sites, products’ sales pages (which are actually a custom post type) are organized into categories, just like they would be in a brick-and-mortar store.

Organizing Your Posts

Recently we met with a client who is a prolific writer—and a good one! He has been adding content to his blog for years and now has hundreds of posts. In planning his new website, we discussed ways to make it easier for readers to access the specific content they search for on his site. We came up with several solutions that would create an appealing, well-organized website. But the first job was to put the content into categories.

Organize Your Website With Categories

If you put the posts from your website into a book, you would want to do it in a way that makes sense. You would organize it in whatever way works for your business, and the names of those categories would be the table of contents, showing readers the main topics you would be covering. If they prefer to get right to the matter, they are interested in, and they can bypass the chapters that don’t pertain to them and read the one that does. That’s what categories do.

Don’t Let Your Website Be “Uncategorized.”

All WordPress posts must be categorized. If you don’t organize your posts, WordPress will do it for you, placing them under the heading “uncategorized.” By the way, it is a good idea to change that to something else like “other.” “Uncategorized” looks like you didn’t finish the details of the post.

If you have a health and nutrition site, your categories might be:

•       News
•       Nutrition
•       Mindfulness

These are Pretty Broad Topics 

That’s why you can also use subcategories to organize your website posts.

 News

COVID-19

Nutrition

Vegan

Keto

Gluten-Free

 Diabetic

Weight Loss

Mindfulness

Mindfulness Apps

Mindfulness Techniques

Even the subcategories are broad, but at least they will get your readers pointed in the right direction (of course, you don’t have to use subcategories).

Limit Your Categories

Try to limit your posts to one category (occasionally two). At the same time, limit the overall number of categories to no more than ten. Keep the number of subcategories to a minimum, as well. This is better for SEO and the overall organization of your website.

There are, of course, exceptions. For example, large e-commerce sites often have many more categories.

Leave it to the Experts

At Iceberg Web Design, we create unique custom websites. We also offer hosting and maintenance packages that will give you security and peace of mind. Contact us today!

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When you intern with Iceberg Web Design, you work with an entire team of web marketing professionals to learn and grow. We have been spending time getting to know some of our full-time employees pictured above, but today we will get to know our intern, Cece Talbot. We are helping our business, and our community grow by giving opportunities to new people to the website industry, and we can’t wait to see all that Cece will acomplish.

Cece | Design Intern Penguin

If you could describe Iceberg in three words, what would they be?

Fun, Caring, and innovative 

What have you enjoyed so far about working for Iceberg?

The Creative freedom, ability to learn so many things in different areas, and I enjoy coming into the office to be with great people.

What do you do for Iceberg’s customers?

Help design mock-ups, websites, and fill in the content.

What’s your favorite part of your job?

Building mock-ups; It’s fun to watch how much it changes as you create, change layouts, colors, features, and build out new ways to navigate. Creating Style tiles is fun. Taking words and matching them with images, fonts, colors to make the company’s message come to life. 

What is your #1 goal when working with a customer?

Creating something they love and something that not only can help their business grow but something that can grow with the business.

In what other industries have you worked?

I worked in the Dance industry my whole life. From working in LA, Atlanta, Chicago in front of the camera to working behind the stage and in the studio. Creating is what I love to do, whether it’s on a computer screen or on the stage. Dance also led me to start my own Dance equipment business. I have also worked in the restaurant industry. 

Non-Work Related Stuff

Tell us a bit about your family.

My mom is my best friend and someone I’ll take on every trip with me. I got my love for fast cars from my dad, who used to drag race and had a mud truck my whole life. The best memories with my dad are going to his races and mudding! I also have an older brother who I can always count on. I can never forget about my dog Ziggy!

Do you have any hobbies/special interests?

DANCE and Fast cars. Although I love dance and fashion with two walk-closets full of sneakers and clothes, I am not your typical girly girl. I will get my hands dirty and change a front rotor, or go wheels deep in a mud pit!

Describe your perfect day

Sunny blue skies hanging with my dog and family, definitely staying busy with activities if it’s the farmers market, swimming, or trail riding.

Now for Some Deep Stuff

Science or History? Which is your favorite and why?

BOTH. I am a big history snob and know a lot of weird random facts about history and science, especially astronomy. 

If you were guaranteed the correct answer to one question, what would you ask?

Is there a way I can live forever?

One last question: What is your best piece of advice? It can be about anything.

“It’s all good.” 

Connect With  the Iceberg Team

 Thank you, Cece, for sharing a bit about yourself for this week’s Penguin Profile. And thank you for all you do to keep our customer’s design projects running smoothly. 

Learn more about The Iceberg Team. Read Some Of Iceberg’s Reviews!

The post Penguin Profile: Cece Talbot | Iceberg Web Design appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

The Benefits of a Multilingual Website

Your Content Will Reach a Wider Audience Worldwide

Worldwide, only 25.9% of internet users are native English speakers.[1] The next three are:

•         Chinese 19.4%
•         Spanish 7.9%
•         Arabic   5.2%

If you have a business that could benefit from a worldwide audience, you must serve a worldwide audience by adding another language to your website.

Your Content Will Reach a Wider Audience in the United States

Even though most people within the United States speak English, many don’t or prefer to use websites in their own language, especially when making purchasing decisions for products or services online. 

According to the American Community Survey in 2017, in the U.S., these are the ten most common languages spoken at home by people five years of age or older[2]:

•         English only – 239 million
•         Spanish – 41 million
•         Chinese (including Mandarin, Cantonese, and Hokkien) – 3.5 million
•         Tagalog (including Filipino) – 1.7 million
•         Vietnamese – 1.5 million
•         Arabic – 1.2 million
•         French – 1.2 million
•         Korean – 1.1 million
•         Russian – 0.94 million
•         German – 0.92 million

Do you live in a Multilingual Region?

If you have a product or a service that anyone can use and are only marketing to people in English, you could miss out on much potential business! This is especially the case in some regional regions where languages other than English are spoken in more significant numbers. For example, if you live in California or Texas, it would be worth considering adding Spanish to your site. If your business is in San Francisco, Chinese would be an excellent language to consider adding. You know your business and the area it serves. Do some research and decide for yourself.

A Multilingual Site Will Also Improve Communication with Customers

It is important to be able to serve your customers beyond the website, as well. You wouldn’t want to have your photography site translated into Russian and have no one at your business who can speak Russian when the customer comes in to get portraits taken. You would need to figure out how you will serve that customer.

One example is Bienvenidos Law. They are specialists in immigration law in Anoka, Minnesota. Clients can read their site in English or Spanish by choosing the language in the menu. When you go to their law office, the people who work their also speak Spanish, so it is a seamless system that serves both English and Spanish speakers well.

https://www.bienvenidoslaw.com/en/opening-doors-united-states/

This is also an obvious example of a business that should have a multilingual site since their client base is usually not native English speaking.

Businesses that Should Consider Adding Languages to their Site

Aside from businesses serving non-English speaking clients, other types of industries that should have a bilingual or multilingual site are:

•         International Ecommerce
•         Travel and Tourism Companies
•         Hotels and other accommodations
•         Sightseeing and cultural centers
•         Transportation
•         Event Organizers
•         Companies in countries with more than one language

Another business that has a multilingual site is La Perla Tortillas. Because they sell their products in restaurants and grocery stores, English and Spanish speakers alike will be purchasing their products. Customers can choose in which language they would like to read the website’s content. All they need to do is click on the flag of their choice on the upper right-hand side of the page. Go ahead. Open the site and try it for yourself!

Reaching Your Audience

If you need help reaching your audience, contact the experts at Iceberg Web Design. We look forward to talking to you. 

[1] Johnson, Joseph. “Internet: Most Common Languages Online 2020.” Statista, 27 Jan. 2021, www.statista.com/statistics/262946/share-of-the-most-common-languages-on-the-internet/.

[2]American FactFinder, Census Bureau, 2020

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When you work with Iceberg Web Design, you work with an entire team of web marketing professionals. But just who are these people who are hard at work helping you connect with your customers? For the next couple of months, we will be profiling our team of penguins. Today we are talking with our Project Penguin: Mariann Martin. Mariann is our Project Manager, so every website client we take on will work with her throughout the website creation process.

Mariann | Project Penguin

As Iceberg’s Project Manager, Mariann keeps everything running smoothly and on track. She is adept at identifying potential problems and prevents issues from arising with her proactive approach.

How long have you worked for Iceberg?

Since April 17th, 2017

Have your duties changed since you first started working here?

Yes, I started as the CSR (Customer Service Representative), Project Manager, accounts receivable person.  Then I added content writing to that role.  After that, I dropped the CSR role.  And then added the VP of Finance role and dropped the content writing. Now I’m the Project Manager and VP of Finance

What do you do for Iceberg’s customers?

I am the main point of contact for customers when they have an open, active project.  I plan and organize their project within their scope of work and schedule our product calendar. I also handle all client billing.

What’s your favorite part of your job?

I like learning about the different businesses we serve.

What is your #1 goal when working with a customer?

To deliver on time and in scope.  Preferably early and over-deliver.

In what other industries have you worked?

Radio, Retail, and Automotive

Tell us a bit about your family (including pets):

I have a husband named Alexander (whom I call Alex). We got married in 2019.

Do you have any hobbies/special interests?

We keep plants, a lot of them, and hope to have someday a conservatory or year-round greenhouse full of them.

Although I have not done this much in recent years due to lack of space, I also sew. I hope to be able to do it more when I have a dedicated space for it soon. In addition, I love to make clothes from my designs.

Describe your perfect day:

To be at home with my husband and later have friends and family over for brunch and games.

Science or History? Which is your favorite and why?

Definitely history. It’s fascinating.  The history you learn in school is so limited, so there is always more out there to learn.

If you were guaranteed the correct answer to one question, what would you ask?

What are the meanings of life, the universe, and everything?

What is your best piece of advice? It can be about anything.

Drink more water.

Connect With Mariann or the Iceberg Team

There you have it. Thank you, Mariann, for sharing a bit about yourself for this week’s Penguin Profile. And thank you for all you do to keep our customer’s website projects running smoothly. 

Learn more about The Iceberg Team. Read Some Of Iceberg’s Reviews!

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Keep it Simple

The most important job your contact page has is to put your readers in touch with you. That’s the whole point of your website, so in a way, the contact page is the king of pages (Okay, we know that it isn’t, but it’s still essential). By keeping your contact page simple, you will let your audience quickly and easily contact you in a way they feel most comfortable.

Options, Options, Options

There are plenty of options you can offer to website users for reaching you. People often have strong feelings about these options. One person may hate forms while another loves them. Text is becoming a more popular contact method than ever, and it can be set up with an autoresponder outside of business hours. Some business owners are concerned with having an email on their website, thinking they may get a lot of spam. Thankfully, there are ways to ensuring you are being emailed by a person and not a robot.

Special Considerations to Keep in Mind

While offering options to suit most web users is ideal, you also want to consider what fits your business model and lifestyle. If you are a contractor who never checks your email more than once a day, you may want everything to go to your phone number.

Some industries are subject to specific regulations such as HIPPA laws, which affect how and when you can contact someone. Unless you are using a particular server that is secured consistent with HIPPA, providers cannot send outgoing emails. In those cases, collecting a name and phone number via a form may be the best solution, and having your phone number available for people to call your business.

Have Your Contact Information Available

You should include the addresses, phone numbers, and contact emails of your primary location and each satellite location, franchise, or alternative office. Please discuss with your web development company whether each of these locations merits its own page or not.  

Having a location map is also a good idea. If there are multiple locations, you may want to add a locator feature that allows visitors to find the location nearest to them.  

This contact page from Select Eyecare is a good example that includes multiple locations.

Keep it Consistent with the Rest of Your Site

The thoughtfulness you put into your content and design shouldn’t come to a stop when you hit the contact page. The contact page should be a natural extension of your site, naturally flowing from it, giving your readers confidence to reach out to you. It should reflect the personality and beauty they have seen up to that point. This contact page from the Animal Behavioral Clinic of New Jersey is an excellent example of that.

The Best Contact You Can Make

The best contact you can make is with Iceberg Web Design. We’re experts at helping businesses connect with customers. We have a website-based business solution for you! Contact us today. Read Our 5 Star Reviews! 

The post Creating the Perfect Contact Page For Your Website appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

Business Locator

If you have more than one brick and mortar location, having a location page is an essential complement to your local SEO because it is a great way to target location-specific long-tail, location-specific keywords.  

Hirshfield’s

One great example of a store locator the one Iceberg Web Design built for Hirshfield’s.  For this page, the customer has several ways from which to choose a location.

•         If they want to allow location services, GPS will enable the list to automatically show the closest stores to their location at the top of the left sidebar. You can accomplish similar results by putting in the zip code of the area you are looking for.
•         Perhaps they have a favorite store already. In the lower-left is an alphabetized list of links to all Hirshfield’s stores.  
•         You can also look at the interactive map. The map links to store hours and other information a customer may want to have.

For a business locator as in-depth as this, it is important to ensure that all locations have a unique page for that specific store only. The address and GPS location allow location services to find the store that the customer is looking for quickly.

Stonegate Builders

Thinking outside of the box can lead to new ways of using old tools. For Stonegate Builders, a Division of Gonya Homes, we built a location page to help potential homebuyers find where they had available homes for sale. The way theirs works is through a map that shows the various neighborhoods with Stonegate Builders homes for sale. When you click on the link, it takes you to a page where you can learn about the community, the houses in it, and how to get more information.

Stonegate Builder’s location page is different from Hirshfield’s because each of their customers has their own unique buying habits. In the end, it comes down to what the customer is going to respond to best.

Select Eyecare

Select Eyecare is an eye care clinic with an in-house lab and three locations in the northern Twin Cities metro area. Iceberg Web Design created a location page for Select Eyecare that had their locations on a single page as part of the company website. We chose to have their location page laid out this way because it best suits their needs and customers’ needs.

Avoiding Doorways in Your Location Pages

It’s essential to make your location page unique and useful for users, and if possible, have one location for each of your physical stores. That’s because of something known as “doorway pages.” This black hat SEO tactic can become a trap that is easy for you and your customers to fall into. To learn more about doorway pages, read this article by Google Search Central. Follow Google’s recommendations, and have a separate Google My Business page for each location.

To avoid any pitfalls and reap the rewards of a business locator page, it is best to use an experienced website developer like Iceberg Web Design. We would be happy to meet with you and discuss your next project. Contact us today!

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