We rarely get the chance to admire the full beauty of website designs when we’re limited to the cropped viewport of our browser windows, but there are some stunning examples of full page layouts out there. We might only see a finished website at a few thousand pixels at a time as we scroll down the page, but designers take great care to craft beautiful layouts in their design concepts.

Considering the fact that an eye-catching web design helps you attract more clients and can considerably help promote and also improve your business, it should be one of your main concerns. The final result should be the result of creativity mixed with powerful and professional features.
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Having a full page layout has its benefits and limitations. An important aspect is that you can make great use of the entire space to showcase your project. However, you must pay attention on how the final design will display on several devices, to make sure no important information is hidden.

Not sure if your business should invest in search engine optimization (SEO)?

As a core digital marketing strategy, there are plenty of reasons to invest in SEO — and even an SEO agency — to boost brand awareness, reach more customers, and earn more revenue online.
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That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the 15 biggest SEO benefits, from boosting your credibility to maximizing your advertising strategy. Keep reading to discover the full list of advantages that come with an SEO strategy!

When you invest in digital marketing strategies, you want to earn the highest return on investment (ROI) possible. With a smart and competitive SEO strategy, you can expect an impressive ROI. Why?

When it comes to search engines, they offer a close rate of almost 15 percent for new leads. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but when you compare it to traditional marketing — which is less than two percent — that’s a massive advantage of SEO. That means you can increase your lead conversion rate by almost 13 percent.

To put that in perspective, imagine that your average lead is worth about $800 and that you sign about 20 new leads a month. With digital marketing, plus SEO, you’ll now sign 23 new leads a month — that translates to an additional $2,400 a month, which means $28,000 in additional revenue a year.

For many businesses, that revenue increase is one of the biggest benefits of SEO.

A key benefit of SEO that many companies overlook is how it improves your credibility among consumers. Ranking on the first page of search results signals to users that Google — or another search engine, like Bing — trusts your website.

That’s one reason why 75 percent of users stick to the first page of search results. They trust search engines to filter results for them, eliminating spammy websites. Google, as well as other search engines, understand this, which is why they use on-page and off-page signals to rank websites.

These signals, which can range from the content you create to your website’s speed, demonstrate that your website is safe and credible. They also emphasize that your webpage answers a user’s query, such as, “how to clean an inside AC unit.”

Another way SEO can boost your credibility?

By optimizing your Google My Business listing. This listing, which appears in local searches and specific searches for your business, provides users with details about your company. It can also feature reviews from Google users.

3. SEO drives high-quality traffic to your website

SEO also helps you earn more high-quality traffic to your website. Unlike traditional marketing, digital marketing offers hyper-targeted tools. Instead of paying for a billboard and hoping that your target audience sees it, you know they’ll see your website in search results.

It’s critical to understand the impact of your investment, whether it’s in advertising or marketing. That’s why it’s a massive perk of not only digital marketing but also SEO that you can monitor the success of your strategies.

The best part is that you can access your digital marketing analytics in real-time.

With Google Analytics, as well as other web analytics tools, it’s easy to assess the performance of your SEO strategies. A few metrics to monitor include your website traffic, bounce rate, conversions, and time on site.
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Marketing software, can make monitoring your SEO strategy easier. It can also measure your digital marketing ROI, as well as provide actionable insights into your campaign — both of which enhance your approach to SEO.

Depending on your business, you may offer 24/7 service. If consumers can’t find your ecommerce website online, however, that doesn’t help. That’s where another key benefit of SEO comes into use — it can promote your business 24/7.

The rise of content marketing makes SEO even more valuable to businesses. With content marketing, which includes a range of content types, from infographics to guides to blog posts, you connect with consumers in every stage of your marketing funnel.

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The best part is that consumers love this approach. More than 60 percent of consumers prefer companies that create original content for them, which can also help build their brand awareness and loyalty for your business.
This benefit of search engine optimization is a win-win for consumers, as well as companies.

What is another benefit of SEO?

A better level of brand awareness among your most valuable shoppers. As consumers move through the buying funnel, they conduct a lot of different searches. If your company continues to appear in their search results, it increases their brand awareness for your business.

Even better, it builds their trust in your company.

With your content marketing and SEO strategy, you’re demonstrating to consumers that you’re more than a product or service provider.

You’re also a valuable resource for industry information, which increases your value to audiences.

One of the most mentioned benefits of SEO is the increased sales, leads, and market share that companies see. This perk is also something you notice in your day-to-day operations. You see the shoppers coming into your store or the product orders shipping out of your warehouse.

These increases happen because of your rank in search results. By appearing on the first page of search results for high-value keywords used by your target audience, you’re earning clicks and visits from the consumers that matter most to you.

To put the value of ranking on the first page into perspective, consider that the first listing in search results earns 33 percent of all search traffic. If you target the keyword, “central air conditioner installation,” which has a search volume of 1300 a month, you’d earn more than 400 visits a month.
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Not all those visits will lead to sales, but you can trust that some will.

If you’re incorporating digital marketing into your business strategy, it’s likely that you’ll invest in PPC advertising at some point. While PPC is a paid strategy and SEO is a non-paid strategy, they work well together — which is why you should think about partnering the two.

How does SEO help your PPC campaigns, though?

One, with SEO and PPC, you’re reinforcing your presence in search engines. Not only does your website appear at the top of paid search results but also organic ones too. That provides users with two opportunities to visit your website, plus emphasizes your brand.
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Another advantage of SEO is that you can apply your SEO data to your PPC campaigns. A webpage that leads in conversions, for example, may rise in value if you incorporate it into your PPC campaign. Even better, that landing page may target a keyword with a low cost-per-click (CPC).

With 80 percent of users relying on the Internet for researching a product purchase, expect your competitors to invest in SEO, as well as other digital marketing strategies. That’s why, if you skip on SEO, you can expect your sales and overall market share to decrease.

When users search for queries related to your services or industry, your website won’t appear — and if it does, it likely ranks on the second, third, or fourth page. Only 25 percent of users go past the first page of search results, however, which cuts into your potential profits and leads.
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That’s why, if you want to compete against your competitors, SEO is essential. Invest in SEO, as well as develop a smart strategy, and you can outrank your toughest competitors. Even if businesses in your industry aren’t using SEO, it’s a massive advantage to your company if you’re the first.

If you’re investing in digital marketing, SEO is probably a part of your strategy. It strengthens your overall campaign in multiple ways, however. Plus, it enhances additional digital marketing focuses, like content marketing, video marketing, and social media marketing.

By building a comprehensive, as well as a durable digital marketing strategy, you’re increasing your competitiveness in the online marketplace. That can serve as a significant advantage when competing in a tough market or against competitors with more resources than your company.

Plus, a stronger digital marketing strategy means a bigger ROI.
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With a better return on your digital marketing efforts, you can reinvest in your company’s success. Whether you decide to improve your SEO strategy, expand your in-house team, or increase your company resources, you can use those funds to make your business even better for consumers.

A key benefit of SEO is that it not only reaches audiences in every stage of the buying funnel but also connects with every type of target audience. Depending on your company, you may have a few different target audiences.

If you’re a lawncare company, for instance, you may offer commercial and residential services. Those services encompass two separate audiences — homeowners and business owners. While these audiences both want lawncare services, their journey through the buying funnel is likely different.

For example, a business owner probably has a different set of questions than a homeowner when it comes to lawncare and lawncare services. A business owner may even want a set of services not available to homeowners, like maintaining a sizeable pond.
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With SEO, you can reach each of these audiences by targeting keywords specific to their intents. A quick example is creating a service page that targets the keyword, “commercial landscaping services,” and another service page for the keyword, “residential landscaping services.”

SEO also benefits your business by lowering your advertising costs — and even your marketing expenses. With a well-planned SEO strategy, your company can rank on the first page of search results for high-value keywords.

That offers your business the option to decrease your advertising spend, as well as reinvest it elsewhere. For example, instead of running five PPC campaigns, you may opt to run two and then use your savings to expand your content marketing strategy.

SEO can decrease not only your digital advertising spend but also your traditional advertising costs. Many businesses discover, often within the first year of investing in SEO, that it’s more cost-effective than traditional advertising and marketing.
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Plus, it delivers even better results.

Even if you’re a local business that depends on offline transactions, SEO benefits your company. As more consumers become smartphone owners, local search rises in popularity. The value of local search is immense too, as 80 percent of local searches convert, which means more business for your store.

If you’re not investing in local SEO, you’re excluding yourself from shoppers that are ready to buy. For your competitors, that makes it easy for them to gain market share, as well as build their popularity in the area.
Don’t make it that easy for them. Instead, give your business a competitive edge with local SEO.

Unlike a lot of traditional marketing efforts, SEO is an ongoing strategy. That means your company continues to see the benefits of SEO, years after you invested in it — to see those results, however, it’s critical to view SEO as a long-term investment.

That means that it’s something your business invests in each year. To maintain your rankings, as well as evolve with search algorithm update sand user search habits, you continue to include SEO in your marketing budget.

By making a long-term commitment to SEO, as well as digital marketing, you’re maximizing your ROI. Even better, you’re building on the benefits of SEO. That can mean even better brand awareness, audience targeting, lead generation, and more.

SWIFT is a leading digital marketing agency that focuses on growing your business successfully with online marketing services.🔥✌


Whether you want to increase conversions, traffic to your website, or both, we can help you design an Internet marketing campaign that will help you reach your goals.😎
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By focusing on ROI from the starting line, our marketing team crafts PPC, display, geotargeted and remarketing campaigns engineered for success. Experience results from digital advertising that have a real impact on the bottom line.👌❤


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⠀⠀ #webdesign #startup #webdesigner #socialmediamarketing #seo #ui #uidesign #digitalmarketing

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​They are powerful trust builders for any business. Additional tools like rating scales and comment sections allow customers to leave honest reviews.

​Responses from real people give prospective clients a glimpse into the customer experience and can help encourage undecided potential customers to buy.
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Without a doubt, applying testimonials can result in increased customer satisfaction and conversion rates.

​ To minimize customers fears about price, quality and security, the best approach is to integrate customer testimonial for each product. ​​

Brand and website design is the first point of contact for many potential customers. People prefer easy to use websites. What it means it that a stunning website gives for the first about the business. A clean design looks professional allows visitors know that a business is legitimate.

Design is a trust factor that helps establish credibility even before users interactwith the website. To prevent users from looking elsewhere, invest in a stunning website that looks professional.
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Part of designing a professional looking website is remembering that the user experience is critical when establishing trust. ​

Visitors should not search far and wide on your site to find information. It is crucial for the customer to not get frustrated while looking for products and services.

For this reason it is crucial to create a website that is easy to navigate and attuned to the user experience. What is the actual value of making sure that your website's design is professional and has clear navigation?

​While they had a professional looking site that established trust with their customers, the navigation should not be cluttered for people to navigate. It is important to keep it simple and to streamline the navigation process. ​

Providing contact information, like a phone number and email allows customers to reach the business with ease. This is another great way to build trust with customers and provide access to services.

Knowing that they can talk to an actual person if they run into any issues can reassure consumers and alleviate fears of inadequate quality or service.

One of the best ways to provide business information is to spend time creating an “About Us” Page that is descriptive and visually appealing.

Showing the names and faces of employees personalizes your company and allows users to get an idea of how things are being run behind the scenes.

​Be honest with your customers and you will instill a sense of trust in them that will make them navigate from your "About Us" page to the product or service you are trying to sell. ​

​If you are looking for a stunning website. Look no further. We create gorgeous and easy to use websites with up to date and modern appeal. Flexible, Sustainable Site Structure that Evolves with your business. ​

At Swift Digital Marketing, our team will make sure that your site evolves along with it to appropriately communicate new relevance signals to search engines.

Do you know of any other tips that were not mentioned yet, please add in the comment section below!

Did you know that the brand voice is the way to connect with customers? Ultimately, it’s the way to share your company’svalues and motivations. Truth be told, brand design needs a voice and a stela concept to succeed. ​

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Avenues for expressing your brand voice include, but are not limited to are emails, website design, press releases, packaging, social media platforms and ads.

​Apple’s brand voice consistency conveys confidence and quality
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Apple’s been the company to look up to in terms of setting themselves apart from their competition. Everyone feels welcome and many feel spoiled by owning their products. Perhaps this connection is somehow based on the level of intimacy felt within owning their product?

The infamous and successful party game, Cards Against Humanity, leads their social posts with dark humor and snarky phrases to make a memorable mark on present, past and future customers. ​

Well known American health food store Whole Foods combines nutrition, playfulness, approachability and through their merchandise, website designs, and social media presence.
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This consistency throughout different platforms lets their customers know that they value community and wellness, and this is what is behind their brand voice.

​This consistency throughout different platforms lets their customers know that they value community and wellness, and this is what is behind their brand voice.

You can start by creating a logo. How can I create my own logo?

To create your own logo, you need to follow these 4basic steps:

​Find inspiration for your design

• Define your brand logo and style
• Create your ideal logo design
• Integrate your logo into your brand

It is fair that this is not an easy but fair question. Every business has a different set of needs and that’s exactly why different options exist. It boils down to determining what’s important for you and your business at this stage.

If time and money are stagnant right now, consider a temporary, generic logo from a logo maker.
Looking for a variety of options and a balance between affordability and design expertise? Launch a few freelance designers.

Did you find a trusted freelancer that can match your work style and your budget? Work with them.

Seeking a comprehensive, world-class branding package? Get with an agency.

Whichever method you choose, come prepared with a clear idea of who your brand is and how you want to present it to the world. Remember: your logo is your brand’s first impression. Make it a good one.
Need a design that makes your brand stand out?

Our designers can help you create just about anything.

These past couple weeks I’ve been working with one of my website design clients, making updates to the original brand and website I created a while ago.

As I’ve revisited fonts and tweaked colors, I’ve found myself using designer knowledge and experience that I’ve learned over the years.


I decided to share a few designer secrets with you in this post.

Yellow is a go-to color for happiness, warmth and positivity. If you ever need an attention grabber, use this color. This color is attention-grabbing. This is the reason why taxis are yellow. ​

Blue is also a popular color for promoting products related to cleanliness such as water purification filters, detergents. Not to mention, air and sky airlines, air conditioners, sea cruise lines, and bottled water.

This color is usually avoided in restaurant logos and food packaging because it’s said to suppress appetite. Studies have also shown that blue is the preferred color of men.​

Some common associations with orange include creativity, enthusiasm, lightheartedness, and youth.
Purple is color closely associated with royalty, luxury, nobility and extravagance. It is a very rare color in nature, many relate it to creativity and mystery. ​

​Common associations with black include class, authority, distinction, mystery, formality, seriousness, elegance, and tradition.

A strong palette includes a balanced mix of dark, medium and dark tones, regardless of whether it uses a monochromatic, analogous, or complementary color scheme.

Be sure to have at least one dark shade in the mix? If not, add black to one of the colors to create a darker shade or replace one of your existing colors with a darker color.

Do you have at least one light color in the mix? If not, add white to one of the colors to add a lighter shade or replace one of your existing colors with a lighter color. ​

Complementary colors are opposite each other on the color wheel, so complementary palettes often include both warm and cool colors. I usually strive to create complementary color palettes when I’m designing a brand. Not only does this type of color combination create more dimension, but it also creates balance.

For example, the colors of this brand by MaeMae & Co. include both cool colors (shades of green and mint) with warm colors (shades of peach, orange, and pink).

These complementary colors create dimension and interest because they’re opposite each other on the color wheel; the hues one color family has, the other lacks and vice versa. They create a nice balance.

Think about your color combination you’re currently starting with. Is it monochromatic, analogous, or complementary? Does that work for the overall direction of your brand? If not, make adjustments as needed.

If your is colors are monochromatic, consider adding colors that are next to your main color on the color wheel to transform it into a relaxed, understated analogous palette or add colors that are opposite your main color on the color wheel to transform it into a balanced, vibrant monochromatic palette.

If your six colors are all warm, analogous colors but you’re hoping for a creative palette with dimension, add a cool color from the other side of the color wheel. And vice versa.

And if your six colors are complementary but you’re going for a less-vibrant, understated, and refined brand, you might consider taking out some colors from one side of the color wheel so that they’re all warm or all cool colors.

Step 2: Include Both Light and Dark Tones
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One of the largest issues that I see when selecting a color I see among inexperienced brand designers is the use of a color palette that lacks contrast. ​

 Step 3: Choose Dominant and Accent Colors 

Now that you’ve settled on a color combination and a good mix of light and dark tones, it’s time to decide on 1-3 dominant colors and 3-5 secondary colors.

You usually won’t use every color in your palette for each collateral item, logo variation, or page of your website, so determine which colors will be used most often and which will be used as accents.

Make adjustments to your palette to ensure that the colors you’re using include an array of dark and light tones. This adds contrast and versatility to your brand and website.

Do you have to use six colors? Of course not - you’re free to add more or less colors depending on the aesthetic you’re trying achieve.

However, knowing the fundamentals of color combination, contrast, information about dominant and accent colors is helpful in being intentional about your brand that could be used for in social media and website design. It allows for the marketing process to be streamlined and versatile.

Call Swift Digital Marketing Agency Today (216) 339-6041

Your website matters to your bottom line. Whether you want to increase online sales, generate qualified leads, or drive in-store visits, an attractive, fast, and easy-to-use website (and an experienced professional web design company like Swift) can help your business achieve those goals.

Keep reading to learn how our web design agency can take your site and your revenue to the next level.

We don't just want to tell you about the beautiful work we do.

Swift is the professional web design company that small-to-midsized businesses (SMBs) trust when it comes to designing a brand-new website or redesigning an existing one.

As your professional website designer, we can help your business create and launch a site that:

1. Displays on all devices, from desktops to tablets to smartphones
2. Uses an easy-to-use content management system (CMS) for fast, no-hassle updating
3. Includes ecommerce functionality and database integration
4. Follows search engine optimization (SEO) best practices for visibility in search engines
5. Features original, SEO-optimized content from a dedicated copywriting team.

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Learn more about how our in-house design and development team can build a custom site for your business.

Or, connect with our team now by contacting us online or calling us at 216-339-6041 to chat with an experienced strategist about your website, company, and goals.

Creating a brand-new or redesigned version of your website is a daunting process.

At Swift, however, our professional web design company makes the process seamless for you and your team. Discover how our talented team of designers, project managers, and developers do it in this quick video.

3 core features of our professional website design services (and how they benefit you). As your professional website design company, we provide your business with a full-service solution to web design.

From design to development to maintenance, we offer everything your company needs to launch and maintain your site.

The three core features that stand out for our clients, though, include the following:

Custom website design.

Like your business, your website is unique to you. That’s why our professional website design company creates custom web designs tailored to your business, your customers, and your goals.

SEO-friendly design

For your site to accomplish your goals, from sales to phone calls, you need visibility in search engines like Google. That’s why our designs and redesigns follow best practices for SEO.

Responsive design

People browse the Internet with a range of devices, from desktops to smartphones, making a responsive site essential. That’s why our team only builds websites with responsive designs.

With a custom, responsive, and SEO-friendly website, your business can generate the traffic, leads, sales, and revenue you need. You can also build your brand, as well as your target audience’s trust, which can help you stand out from competitors and accelerate your growth.

What do your professional website design company’s services include? Every professional website design company is different, which is why it’s essential to learn what their web design services include. That way, your business can compare pricing and deliverables to choose the best web design company for you.

At Swift, our website design services include the following:

1. Dedicated project manager
2. Custom design
3. Professional copywriting
4. SEO
5. Responsive design
6. Database integration
7. Ecommerce functionality
8. CMS​​​​​

Keep reading to learn more about each feature!

Dedicated project manager

As your professional web design company, we provide you with a dedicated and experienced project manager. Your project manager makes your experience seamless. From reviewing wireframes to signing-off on the final design, partnering with Swift is hassle-free for you and your business.

Custom design

A custom design provides your company with a competitive edge, especially when competitors use cookie-cutter designs. Your business also gets the advantage of receiving multiple prototypes from our internal design team, which helps you choose an original design that captures your brand.

SEO

More than 90% of online experiences begin with a search engine, which is why SEO matters. With SEO, your company can attract people looking for products or services like yours, whether your business operates online or offline.

That’s why our design, development, and SEO team ensure your site follows best practices for SEO.

From maximizing your page speed to optimizing your site copy, we take care of your technical and non-technical SEO. We also offer standalone SEO services that support your strategy, including content marketing, voice SEO, SEO content analysis, and more.

Responsive design

Responsive design is vital because more than 50% of Internet traffic comes from mobile devices. Providing users with a website that doesn’t adapt to their device, whether it’s a smartphone or a tablet, can damage your organic traffic, SEO rankings, and website revenue.

That’s why our professional web design company only creates responsive designs.

Database integration

A database, like a payment processing system, can play a critical role in your company’s operations. As a part of our web design services, we provide database integration. Whether you’re looking for a basic, advanced, or custom solutions, our development team can take care of it.

Professional copywriting

People may skim while reading online, but content plays a tremendous role in their purchase decisions.

That’s why our professional website design company features a dedicated copywriting team. With backgrounds in a range of industries, from technical to non-technical, our copywriters can compose SEO-optimized and on-brand content for your business and its website.

Ecommerce functionality

For ecommerce businesses, as well as companies that accept online payment for offline services, it’s essential to have a secure ecommerce functionality solution. Whether your company needs an enterprise-level solution or a no-fuss system, our in-house development team can handle it.

As a part of our services, we also conduct in-depth testing of your system. This proactive step ensures not only the security of your system but also its functionality. That way, your company can launch a site ready for placing orders and processing payments.

CMS

With more than 50% of businesses using content marketing, you need a CMS.

A CMS can help your team publish, manage, and update content with zero developmental expertise. While you can choose not to add a CMS, our professional website design company recommends it because building it into your website now makes it easy for you to take advantage of it later.

What is your professional web design company’s process for building a website? As your partner, our professional web design company aims to provide a seamless, hassle-free process for your team. From asking questions to viewing designs to sharing feedback, collaborating with Swift is simple.

Get an inside peek at our six-step process to see how we make the whole experience easy for you:

1. Consultation

When you choose our professional website design company, we partner you with a dedicated project manager. Your project manager serves as a dedicated point-of-contact for your team. Whether you have questions, feedback, or resources to share, you can send it all to your project manager.

At the start of your site’s design or redesign, you meet with your project manager, whether in-person, over the phone, or via video. This consultation allows your dedicated project manager to learn more about your business, brand, vision, and goals for your website.

2. Mock-ups

Following your meeting, our team starts building a series of mock-ups and prototypes for your site.

Since our professional web design agency features an in-house team of designers, we can have each of them create a mock-up for your website. This approach allows us to provide your business with several different options when it comes to the overall look and theme of your site.

Once your team views these prototypes, you can choose the one that fits your vision for your website.

3. Design

With your overall design chosen, our designers and developers begin the process of creating your site. From designing your homepage to developing your CMS, our team works with efficiency and accuracy to prepare your website and ensure its optimization for SEO.

Throughout this process, you receive routine updates from your project manager.

In most cases, your team will also meet with your dedicated project manager to discuss your site’s progress. These meetings, as well as routine updates, allows our professional web design company to ensure your website meets your expectations and requirements.

4. Copy

As your site’s design progresses, our internal SEO and copywriting team get involved. To make the process easier for your organization, we provide your business with a dedicated account manager that oversees your SEO strategy and website copy.

Following a meeting with your team, as well as research into your business and industry, your dedicated account manager compiles an SEO strategy for your website and its pages. After you approve it, our copywriting team begins writing your content.

Since our professional web design company features a diverse copywriting team, we can assign a copywriter experienced with your industry to your account. This ability allows your business to receive on-brand copy that speaks to your audience and their background and experience level.

Like your site’s design, your team will also review and approve all website copy.

5. Testing

When you invest in professional web design, you expect a flawless website.

That’s why our design and development team conduct thorough testing. We ensure the functionality of your navigation, database system, ecommerce solution, and more. Our team also assesses your site’s speed and performance to maximize the user experience and the ranking potential of your website.

After testing, we can move forward with the biggest step of all: Launching your website.

6. Launch

For our team, as well as yours, launching your site is a celebration.

On your preferred launch date, our project managers, developers, and designers undertake the process of taking your website live. Following your site’s launch, our professional website design company does another round of checks to ensure your website is error-free.

Once live, your business can start using your site in your digital marketing strategy.

For example, your company may continue building your SEO strategy with Swift. Or, you may start new initiatives with our diverse team of online marketers, like pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, video marketing, or social media advertising and marketing.

If you have any questions about how to market your site and maximize its performance, you can always chat with your dedicated project manager or account manager for recommendations. You can also get immediate advice before starting your website’s design by talking with an experienced strategist.

Contact us online or call us at 216-339-6041 for more information!

With our unique benefits, as well as our ability to provide full-service solutions to digital marketing, we’re the trusted choice for businesses searching for a professional web design company.


What is professional web design? Professional web design describes hiring a professional or experienced web designer or web design agency to create a unique website for you.

Does having a website help a business? Yes!

Having a website can help your business increase its credibility and visibility, which can improve your sales and revenue numbers. Without a site, it’s difficult for your company to reach a massive audience of consumers and business buyers that use the Internet to find products and services.

Why use a professional web design company?A professional web design company, like Swift, offers several advantages, including:

1. Extensive professional website design experience
2. Skilled designers and developers
3. Critical web design and web development resources and tools

Hiring a professional website design company can also help your team launch a site that is:

1. Responsive
2. SEO-friendly
3. Fast
4. Intuitive
5. Secure​​

All these advantages help your business create, launch, and maintain a website that can:

1. Rank in relevant search results
2. Generate valuable site traffic
3. Capture qualified leads, sales, and in-store visits

Many businesses that use website builders miss critical deadlines for launching the new site too. That’s because team members leading the design or redesign initiative will have other responsibilities that require their attention, which leads to publishing delays.

In addition to their day-to-day responsibilities, they also need to take care of the following:

1. Creating a design
2. Building various pages
3. Writing site content
4. Testing site features​

​All these drawbacks motivate businesses to research professional web design companies.

With a website design company like Swift, your company can trust that you will receive an attractive, original, and responsive site that matches your branding and uses SEO. Plus, you don’t have to worry about missed delays or bugs.

How much does professional web design cost? A professional web design project can cost anywhere from $1000 to more than $100,000.

Prices for professional web design depend on several factors specific to your company, site, and agency. A few examples include the size of your website, the experience of your agency, and the site style requirements of your company.

How long does a web design project take?

A professional web design company usually requires 12 to 16 weeks to create and launch a website.

If you need a site sooner, you can use rapid web design services, like those from Swift. With our fast web design services, our design and development team deliver your website in 30 days. This service, while expedited, still allows your business to receive a custom and responsive site.
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Earn more revenue from your site with our professional web design company. Swift is the professional web design company that businesses trust. Our experience, plus client-focused approach can help your company launch the best possible site.

Call us at 216-339-6041 or contact us online to get started on building your website!

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If you’ve ever wondered how to advertise on social media, you’ve come to the right place! With so many platforms out there, how do you know the types of social media advertisingthat your company needs and how to utilize them properly?

There are plenty of options out there and on this page, we’ll talk about them all.

To learn more, keep reading, but if you’d like to speak with a marketing specialist, feel free to give us a ring at (216) 339-6041!

Bonus Read: How to do a social media analysis to improve social success

Types of social media advertising.

Worldwide, there are 2.82 billion social media users. It’s no secret that social networking is one of the most popular online activities — also making it one of the best places for businesses to advertise their products and services.

But what type of social media advertising will fit your company best? We’ll talk about that in the next section — but for now, let’s talk about the types of social media advertising at your disposal.

Facebook advertising

​You can find everyone from your high school crush to your long-lost cousins on Facebook, but did you know that Facebook is also a great advertising platform?

Facebook comes with a proprietary ad platform that allows you to create ads in a variety of formats that speak to and engage your target audience.

You can target your ideal customer by demographic, previous online activity, and even interests — making Facebook one of the best places to advertise.

Facebook’s ad platform allows you to set a daily, monthly, or lifetime budget that you’ll never exceed — your cap is the most money you’ll spend on ads. From there, Facebook decides how to delegate your budget properly to get the most ad clicks.

Facebook ad formats include:

• Image ads
• Video ads
• Slideshow ads
• Carousel ads
• Instant Experience ads
• Collection ads

Instagram advertising

Instagram is an image-heavy social media platform that also doubles as a great ad platform. Facebook owns Instagram, so the ad process is extremely similar.

You can choose from a variety of ad formats that help you reach your target customer, and target them based on demographics, location, interests, and online behavior.

Instagram ad formats include:

• Stories ads
• Photo ads
• Video ads
• Carousel ads
• Collection ads
• Ads in Explore

Snapchat advertisingSnapchat is a unique social media platform that allows you to post content that expires quickly. For example, if you send an individual a Snapchat, users decide exactly how long the recipient can look at a specific snap, and once it’s gone, it’s gone for good. (Unless you take a screenshot, that is.)

Snapchat stories, on the other hand, expire after 24 hours and users can view and access them as much as they want during that timeframe.

Snapchat advertising allows you to set any budget cap, and with their Ads Manager, you’ll never overspend.

Snapchat ad formats include:

• Snap ads
• Collection ads
• Story ads
• Lenses
• Filters

Twitter advertising

Advertising on Twitter is a great way to get more website traffic, boost brand awareness, and increase leads. You’ll target users with your ads based on keywords, demographics, interests, and more — making it one of the easiest platforms to reach your ideal customer.

There are a wide variety of ad formats on Twitter, and when we say wide variety, we mean wide variety.
Here are a few Twitter ad formats:

• Image ad
• GIF ad
• Plain text ad
• Promoted video
• In-stream video ads and sponsorships
• Website card
• App card
• Direct message card

LinkedIn advertising

LinkedIn is a great professional network, but it’s also a great place to reach future customers.
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You can promote partnerships and events while increasing awareness for your brand when you advertise on LinkedIn. You’ll also have a huge professional user base that you can target by job title, industry, gender, age, and degree — to name a few.

As you might have guessed, LinkedIn, like other platforms, also offers a wide range of ad formats to help you engage the right audience.

LinkedIn ad formats include:
​

• Sponsored content
• Sponsored InMail
• Text ads

Choosing your platforms

How do you know what platforms will work best for your business?

There are a few aspects you can determine upfront to help you make some guesses as to which platforms will work best. However, it’s best to test your ads on a variety of platforms to see which one delivers the best results.

Here’s a basic guide to help you decide the best social media advertising platforms for your business:

Advertise on Facebook if:
​

• You want to appeal to one of the biggest social media audiences
• You want to advertise a specific product or service
• You want to boost brand awareness
• You want to chat directly with customers via messaging
• You want to increase clicks to your website
• You want to target based on interests and online behavior

​

Advertise on Instagram if:

• You want to advertise a variety of products in one ad
• You already advertise on Facebook
• You want to chat directly with customers via messaging
• You want to appeal to new target audiences
• You want to retarget​

Advertise on Snapchat if:

• You want to make geofencing part of your advertising strategy
• You want to advertise a specific event
• You want to try selling one specific product or service
• You want to target primarily millennials

​

Advertise on Twitter if:

• You want to try a wide variety of ad formats
• You don’t want to spend a lot of money
• You want to boost brand awareness
• You want to increase website traffic

​

Advertise on LinkedIn if:

• You want to advertise to professionals
• You want to advertise to a specific income level, degree level, or industry
• You want to advertise an event or conference

How to advertise on Social Media

Now we get to the biggest topic of all — how to advertise on social media. We’ve broken down the steps it takes to create the best social media advertising strategy below.
​
Step one: Choose your platforms

We’ve outlined above a few reasons why you should choose each platform. Keep in mind that you’ll be most successful with social media marketing if you use more than one platform for your advertising strategy.

The more audiences you can get your ad in front of, the better.

Start your social media advertising strategy by nailing down what platforms you want to advertise.
Step two: Create an audience personaIt’s time to get creative. The second step is to create an audience persona for your ideal customer.

This persona will help you determine exactly what qualities you want to target and will help you decide which social media advertising platforms work for you.

For example, if you want to advertise a huge event that you have coming up that caters to senior college students, LinkedIn would be a fantastic place to advertise — simply because of the marketing persona that you created.

Similarly, if your ideal customer is a millennial that lives on their own and has a job, Snapchat would be a great place for you to advertise.

Your target persona should include things like:

• Age
• Gender
• Specific location
• Degree
• Marital status
• Interests
• Online behavior
• Job industry​​

Step three: Decide on your ad budget. Another important step in your social media advertising journey is to decide on your ad budget.

This step is crucial because skipping it can cause you to spiral out of control in the finance department. Ads can suck up a lot of spend if you allow them to, which is why it’s so important to choose a budget and stick to it.

You should start by determining an overall ad budget — you’ll divide this amount among all your platforms after you decide which are best for you.

Setting this overreaching ad budget will help you stay on track and give you a spending cap to keep in mind.

Step four: Determine your goals

What do you want to accomplish with your social media ads? Are you looking to drive more traffic to your website, sell more products, or improve brand awareness?

Maybe you want to do all three!

Whatever the case may be, determining your ad goals upfront will give you something to work toward. If you’re not accomplishing those goals with the ad strategy you start with, you’ll know its time to change up your strategy.

Step five: Decide if you’d like to hire a social media marketing companyIf you run your own business, taking over your ad strategy might be more than your plate can handle. In that case, many business owners turn to social media marketing agencies to help them design, craft, and launch their social media ads.

Not only that but when you work with an agency you get the added benefit of advertising advice based on years of experience.

Time To Level Up Your Sales

Our long list of services help you make waves in your industry and increase metrics that matter most - like sales.

In the past 5 years, we've managed over 9 million transactions across our client base.

Get A Proposal

Swift can help teach you how to advertise on social mediaIf you’re looking for an in-house team of social media advertising experts who are experienced with all types of social media advertising, Swift is here for you.

We’re known for the insane results we drive for our clients, our extensive portfolio and our more than 550 client testimonials.

But most of all, we’re known for the relationships that we forge with our clients. We’re not looking to take over your company’s social media endeavors, we’re looking to become an extension of your marketing team.

We’ll get to know your business and care for its success like it’s our own — because it is.

If you’re interested in learning how to advertise on social media from the experts, Swift is here to help.
Contact us online for a free quote or give us a call at 216-339-6041 to learn more!

​Join our mission to provide industry-leading digital marketing services to businesses around the globe - all while building your personal knowledge and growing as an individual.
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• Social Media Marketing Agency
• Social Media Marketing Services
• Social Media Design
• Social Media Advertising

Since the beginning of the Internet, website owners have looked for ways to reach the top of search engine rankings. At the start, this involved adding a bunch of keywords to their copy, whether they were relevant to their content or not.

This strategy worked when search engines were relatively unsophisticated and there weren’t that many sites competing for attention, but now that search engines like Google have highly advanced algorithms that can make distinctions between billions of websites, good search engine optimization, or SEO, is extremely important.

Today, good SEO not only means using the right keywords in the right places, but also creating great content, a strong link profile, and a solid user experience. It requires a significant amount of work and know-how if it’s going to be successful. So why do website owners do it? Why are they so concerned with where their site ranks on a search engine? And what do they expect to get out of it?

This page explains what is SEO used for and why it is a necessity for businesses trying to create a presence online. It also offers some steps to help you get started with your SEO strategy.
If you'd like to speak with an SEO specialist, you can reach us at  (216) 339-6041.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the combination of all of the strategies you can use to help your site’s chances of appearing in search engine results. For example, if you sell used cars in Atlanta, you want to be sure that users who type “used cars in Atlanta” into a search engine like Google are shown your site as a result. SEO is the best way to make that happen.

Common marketing problems that can be fixed with SEO
There are many common marketing problems that are easily solved with an SEO campaign.

They include:

Unqualified leadsIf your site has lots of visitors but an extremely low conversion rate, it is likely because you have a lot of unqualified leads. These are site visitors who were looking for something entirely different from what you offer, or stumbled upon your site by accident.

By doing SEO, you can increase the amount of qualified leads your site gets. This means attracting searchers who are interested in purchasing from or working with you, and have a much greater chance of becoming customers.

Low sales

The goal of most marketing efforts is ultimately to attract new customers or clients and make sales. Whether you use traditional or online methods, the ideal end result is increased revenue.
By attracting qualified traffic, you can boost your business’s sales. Leads generated by search have a close rate of nearly 15 percent, which is much higher than most traditional marketing methods.

High marketing costs

Every business owner wants a cost-effective way to attract visitors and customers. For many startups and entrepreneurs, these costs are prohibitive.

SEO enables these business owners to compete with larger marketing budgets and generate enough leads and sales to stay in business and even thrive.

What is SEO used for?

In the most basic sense, SEO is used to attract search engine users who search for keywords related to your website. By attracting these users, you can get more qualified leads and make more sales, with relatively low marketing costs.

But aside from using keywords directly related to your site, what else can SEO be used for? There are many different answers, but these are a few of the more common:

Geo-targeting

If your business has physical locations and your goal is to have consumers come to them (as opposed to ecommerce sites who can sell to customers all over the world), geo-targeting can be extremely useful. By including keywords related to your location, you can attract search engine users in your area.

For example, if you own a restaurant in Cleveland, including the phrase “restaurant in Cleveland” on your site can increase the chances that someone nearby who uses a search engine to find somewhere to eat will find your site.

Niche marketingYou may think that giant companies who sell a wide variety of products have an advantage with SEO because many users search for broad keywords. But while they may have a better chance of simply ranking, they also have a higher likelihood of attracting unqualified leads.

Time To Level Up Your Sales

Our long list of services help you make waves in your industry and increase metrics that matter most - like sales.

In the past 5 years, we've managed over 9 million transactions across our client base.

Get A Proposal. For example, let’s say you have a small business that sells women’s athletic clothing. While bigger companies may outrank you for keywords like “women’s clothing,” or “athletic clothing,” these keywords could attract visitors who aren’t necessarily interested in your products, like women who are interested in regular clothing, or men who are interested in athletic clothing.

With SEO, you can be as specific as you want when selecting and using keywords. This means that you can market to a specific niche, which will ultimately bring in more qualified leads.

Brand building

Established brands have no trouble attracting site visitors and making sales, because most consumers already know who they are and what they sell. SEO can help you build that kind of brand awareness, which will ultimately boost your site’s traffic and sales.

For example, if your business sells aquarium supplies, you’d want to implement SEO that allows you to rank well for specific terms that people looking for aquarium supplies search for, like “aquarium filters,” or “aquarium décor.” People who frequently search for these terms will see your company’s name, and over time, will start associating your brand with aquarium supplies. This means that in the future, when they need to buy something aquarium-related, they might search for your brand and go directly to your site.

How can you get started with SEO?

Now that you know what SEO is used for, how can you use it for your company’s site? Here are a few steps you can take to get started:

Define a goal

Before starting SEO, it’s important to know exactly what you hope to accomplish. And although “higher rankings” may be the obvious choice, you should be as specific as possible.

Do you want to rank for local terms? What are they? Do you want to attract more qualified leads? How will you define what “qualified” means? Do you want to use SEO to meet financial goals? What are they? Setting specific goals will help you assess your strategy’s success later.


Choose your keywords

Before doing SEO, you need to know what keywords to use on your site. Which terms are your target audiences using to search for websites like yours? Which ones will help differentiate your site from similar sites? What terms are people using now?

The answers will change over time, but you need some keywords to get started. Tools like Google’s Keyword Planner will help you determine which words and phrases users are searching for, as well as how difficult they are to rank for.

Create a measurement System

You might think your strategy will work, but you won’t know for sure without a way to measure it. There are many tools available to you, both free and paid, so choose one before starting your SEO efforts. This will help you assess your strategy and revise it to be even more successful.

Once you’ve chosen a tool, choose a few key performance indicators, or KPIs, to monitor. These should relate directly to your goals, and will give you a good idea of whether or not you are accomplishing them.

Assemble an experienced team

​SEO is relatively straight forward to implement, but requires a substantial amount of monitoring and maintenance. If your business is small, one or two people with a solid understanding of SEO should suffice.

If no one at your company is experienced with SEO, you may want to consider getting outside help. Although this may mean an additional marketing expense, an experienced team means better results.

Do you need and SEO campaign?When it comes down to it, SEO is used to achieve higher search engine rankings, more traffic, and increased sales. A successful strategy takes careful planning and a dedicated time investment, but can generate huge results for your company.
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If you need assistance creating or implementing an SEO strategy, or you want to improve your current SEO strategy, feel free to contact us. Our experienced team is more than happy to help you start using your site to its full potential.


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Media Matter for Business?
Short Guide to Long-Term Social Impact

Here’s the skinny — approximately 3.5 billion people use social networks, and that figure continues to climb. If you own a business, no matter your industry, social media is one of the best ways to connect with your audience.

So why does social media matter for business? In short, it helps you do one of the most important things in a business and client relationship — connect.

On this page, we’ll take a deep dive into the following topics:

• Why does social media matter for business?
• What are the benefits of social media for business?
• Social media marketing stats for business

If you already understand the huge positive impact social media can have on your business, and you’re ready to implement your own campaign, feel free to give Swift a call at (216) 339-6041

Otherwise, keep reading to learn some fantastic facts about why social media matters to every business.

Why does social media matter for business?Let’s jump right in!

Why use social media for business?

This is a common question — especially for new businesses, businesses that are new to marketing, or businesses that haven’t yet adopted social media marketing.

To keep it simple, there are a few main reasons why social media matters to all businesses:

Social media matters to business because: Billions of people use it

Like so many mothers ask, “If your friend jumps off a bridge, would you?”

Of course, the question is asked to prove the point that just because one person does something doesn’t mean that you also have to.

However, with social media marketing, you’ll want to follow your friend on this one.

With approximately 3.5 billion people using social networks as a form of entertainment and communication, it’s become commonplace to also find businesses on social media platforms.
In fact, many people look for a brand’s social media platforms to learn more about them and how they interact with clients.

Since most social platforms offer some sort of visual, visitors also look to a brand’s social profile to see images of things like their facility, their products, and even how others use their products.

Social media matters to business because: Your competitors use it. Wondering “Why use social media for business?”

One of the most important reasons is to stay level with competitors. If you want to stay on par with your competitors, it’s crucial that you use social media for your business.

If your competitors aren’t on social media but you are, it will put you one step ahead. On the other hand, if they are on social media, it will ensure that you’re just as visible to potential customers.

If you aren’t present on social media, you’ll miss out on the key benefits of social media for businesses that your competitors capitalize on. For example, some benefits of social media for business include:

• Increased customer satisfaction
• Increased website traffic
• Increased sales

But we’ll get into that later.

At the end of the day, you don’t want your competitors to have a leg up, so it’s vital that your business is present on social media.

Social media matters to business because: It lets you connect on a deeper level

Social media removes the veil between you and your customers.

In comparison to your website where users might have to fill out a contact form to get in touch with you, social media allows them to connect with you in the comments of a post, or via a platform’s built-in message platform.

This means that customers automatically feel closer to you as a business since it provides an easy way to get in touch.

Social media matters to business because: It supplements your website

Like humans, your website needs supplements to stay healthy. Social media is one of those supplements for your website.

Social platforms help keep your website healthy by providing a steady stream of new traffic from links that you include in your posts.

For example, sharing your website’s blog posts on social media is a great example of omni channel marketing since it involves two pieces of your online real estate — your social profiles and your website.

This increase in traffic means that your website gets more visitors, more leads, and more sales over time — if you use social media correctly.

What are the benefits of social media for business? One of the most-asked questions from business owners is “What are the benefits of social media for my business?”

After all, social media marketing takes a strong strategy, planning, and dedication to see results — so businesses often want to know what’s in it for them.

Read on to learn about some of the benefits of using social media for your business.

1. It lets you easily monitor resultsIf you’ve ever heard that your marketing efforts are useless unless you analyze them, you’ve heard correctly.

Unless you monitor and analyze your current social media marketing strategy, you won’t have any intel into what’s working and what’s not.

To experience the most success with social media for business, it’s crucial that you use the built-in analytics platforms that come with most social platforms to look at key metrics.

Facebook’s baked-in analytics platform called Facebook Insights, for example, offers i
nsights into metrics like page views, post reach, and page followers.

On the other hand, LinkedIn’s analytics platform offers metrics concerning visitors, updates, and followers.

Social media marketing is a strategy that you can easily analyze and track success — making it ideal for businesses looking to drive real results.

2. It provides advertising options

Social media platforms don’t just allow you to post your content, they also allow you to create ads.

You can use social media ads to sell more products, increase website traffic, and increase brand recognition and loyalty.

Most ad options are baked into social platforms, and an agency like Swift can help you create compelling ads that target your most qualified customers.

3. It helps you increase brand awareness. The more users see your brand, the more you can increase awareness. If you’ve already adopted a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, you’re likely already showing up higher in search results.

Fantastic search rankings in tandem with a social media presence and social ads can help you increase brand awareness so that more users remember your business.
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This also increases the chances that they’ll turn to you when they need you
products or services.

4. It’s a traffic driver

As we mentioned before, you can link to website content from your social media posts. But that’s not the only way social media works to drive traffic to your site.

You’ll also be able to increase your website traffic with social media ads that link to enticing landing pages. When you create a social media ad and a user is interested in the product shown, they’ll click to view your custom landing page.

This landing page is housed on your website and includes things like:

• Product description
• Price
• Materials used
• Colors available
• Dimensions and specs
• Photos
• Reviews
• Call to action (CTA) to buy

Let’s not forget that since social media also helps to increase brand awareness, having a profile can increase web traffic simply by keeping your business top-of-mind. When you have a social profile and stay top of mind with users, they’ll be more likely to navigate directly to your site later.

You can also post for free, and the only time you’ll pay to use a platform is when you opt to use ads.

Social media stats for business

We know that social media matters for business, but if you’re still not convinced, check out some data that we’ve collected to back up our claims.
Facebook stats for business

• 90 million small businesses use Facebook.
• 64% of people say that they’d rather message a business via Facebook than call or email them.
• 87% of all U.S. marketers will use Facebook marketing this year.
• 56% of users said that Facebook messaging is a part of their buying journey.

Instagram stats for business

• 92% of Instagram users say that after seeing a product or service on Instagram, they’ve either followed that brand, clicked their website, or made a purchase.
• 1/3 of the most-viewed Instagram Stories are posted by businesses.
• More than 75% of U.S. businesses will use Instagram this year.
• 130 million users click on Instagram shopping posts every month.

Twitter stats for business

• Twitter ad engagement is up 23% according to Twitter’s Q3 2019 report.
• 66% of brands with more than 100 employees use Twitter for marketing.
• 52% of users say they’ve bought a product they saw on Twitter.
• Companies that use Twitter for customer service see a 19% increase in customer satisfaction.

YouTube stats for business

• When users watch a YouTube video as a part of their purchasing journey, 80% of them did so early in the buying process.
• Users doubled the watch time on videos helping them decide which product to buy between 2017 and 2018.
• Twice as many small- to medium-sized businesses advertise on YouTube.
• 68% of users watch a YouTube video to help them make a purchasing decision.

LinkedIn stats for business

• 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn.
• 97% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn.
• 43% of marketers say they have sourced a customer from LinkedIn.
• 79% of marketers consider LinkedIn an effective lead generation source.

How to Create a Social Media Marketing Plan for Your Business in 7 Steps

Many people who are just starting out with social media marketing mistakenly believe that their experience with their own personal accounts is all they need to start using various platforms to further their business’s goals. Unfortunately, that’s not the case at all.

Much like any other aspect of your marketing strategy, you need to know how to create a social media marketing plan. Without it, your chances of reaching potential customers in a consistent, interesting way are slim, and it may end up being a waste of your time.

If you want to make the most of your time spent on social media, you need a comprehensive plan. Keep reading to find out why, as well as step-by-step instructions for creating an effective strategy for your business.


Organic or paid social media marketing? See what the experts say.

What is a social media marketing plan?A social media marketing plan is exactly what it sounds like – a detailed plan for how you intend to use each of your social profiles to further your company’s goals. Every post, tweet, status, and photo should ultimately be a part of this strategy, and it should aim to deliver a cohesive message across all platforms.

The most difficult part of creating a social plan is coming up with specific goals for each platform. While you should keep your tone and style consistent across all of them, each one requires content in different lengths and mediums, and as a result, different forms of measurement and analytics. Because of this, a one-size-fits-all plan simply won’t work.

If that sounds way too confusing, don’t worry. The following seven steps will help you create a comprehensive, effective strategy for your social media marketing efforts:


Now, let’s take a closer look at each of these seven steps.


1. Examine your social profiles as they areIf your business has no social presence whatsoever, you can skip this step. But if you have any social accounts at all, examining what you’re already doing can help you identify where there is room for improvement.

For each platform, take a look at how many times you post per day or week, and what kinds of content you post. Then, look at which posts received the most engagement. For example, do you get more likes or favorites on photos, or on business-related content? If you’ve included links in your posts, which ones had the highest clickthrough? These questions will help you identify what kinds of posts your followers like.

When combing through your profiles, you should also take note of the tone you use in your copy. Does it sound serious and professional, or is it more friendly and casual? If multiple people have made posts (or you’ve just used a few different styles yourself), this can also give you an indicator of what your followers respond well to.


2. Scope out the competition

Once you have a good idea of how your business is doing on social, it’s time to see how you stack up against the competition. You probably already know who your main industry competitors are, so take a look at their social profiles and see how well they’re doing.

If you don’t know where to start, take a look at the “Pages to Watch” section of Facebook Insights, and choose a few of the businesses they suggest. How often are they posting, and what kind of content? Which posts do their followers engage with the most?

This will help you understand what your followers (and potential followers) expect from you, and it may even give you some ideas for your own social content.


3. Determine your objectives

Arguably the most important part of creating any plan is determining what exactly it is that you hope to accomplish. What do want to achieve with your social media presence? And where does social media fit with your marketing goals as a whole?

Social media can serve a wide variety of purposes, but here are a few common objectives you may choose to pursue:

• Building relationships with your followers
• Engaging with existing customers or clients
• Reaching new customers or clients
• Attracting the attention of potential applicants/employees

There are many possibilities, and these only scrape the surface of what you can do with social media, but I recommend that you stick to one or two per platform. Connecting with an audience is much easier if all of your posts are intended for the same group of people.


4. Choose the platforms that suit your objectivesFor example, if you want to use social media for recruiting purposes, you should definitely be on LinkedIn. But if you want to focus solely on building customer relationships and showing your company’s personality, you could safely stick to Facebook and Twitter.

Of course, this decision also depends heavily on your target audience. Not all demographics use the same social platforms, and you may have to do some research to determine where yours spends time online. And if teenagers are a part of your intended audience.


5. Set specific social media marketing goals

Part of learning how to write a social media marketing plan is learning to set solid goals. Once you have objectives, you need to create a specific plan for how you intend to meet them. These goals will depend on what exactly you’re trying to accomplish, as well as how much time you’re willing to spend on building your social presence.

Your first set of goals should be content goals. How often will you post? What types of content will you share, and in what amounts? What tone and style will you use, and will it be the same across all platforms?

From there, you may want to create a calendar or set reminders for yourself. These goals are entirely up to you (or your social team) to meet, so it is 100% possible to meet them even in your first month.

The next set of goals, however, depends on your followers. If you’re trying to attract new followers, how many? If you’re trying to build engagement, how many likes or comments do you want per post? These goals will be a bit more difficult to estimate, but your current social platforms, as well as those of your competitors, should give an idea of what to expect.

The content calendar approach to goals

A great way of handling this is to structure your social media marketing goals as an official, team-wide content calendar. Content calendars provide you with a top-down view of all monthly goals and progress, and ensure there’s no intra-team confusion or overlap. If you’ve had trouble sticking to deadlines in the past, or find yourself failing to post as frequently as you’d like, maintaining a content calendar is a great idea.

When you want to perform a month-end analysis of your goals (where you succeeded, where you failed, etc.), all you have to do is look at your content calendar. It simplifies the entire process by keeping all important information in a centralized place.

If you’re interested in going the content calendar route, the complexity of it is up to you. You could have a bare-bones calendar that simply marks what dates your social content will be published. Or, you could create a more complex calendar that also tracks things like re-post frequency, engagement levels on different days, and so on.


6. Define which metrics you’ll use to measure

After you’ve set goals, it’s time to figure out how you’ll measure your success. For your content and follower count goals, this could be as simple as using tools like Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics.

For other goals, you may need to dig a little deeper. If you’re attempting to increase site conversions (like ecommerce purchases or contact form submissions), you’ll need to set up a goal in an analytics tool like Google Analytics.


7. Measure and revise your social media marketing plan

Once you’ve spent a month or two with your plan, it’s time to analyze your success. This is what determines whether or not your strategy is working, and whether or not it’s time to head back to the drawing board.

Of course, you need to be honest with yourself here. If you haven’t actually stuck to your plan, analyzing your results probably won’t tell you much. But if you’ve followed it reasonably closely (give or take a tweet), it’s time to take a look at how your results stack up with your goals.

If you took the time to define your metrics clearly and set up the correct analytics tools, this should be a breeze. And if you’re happy with your results, then you’re well on your way to social success. If you aren’t so happy, however, you’ll need to revise your plan.

If you realize that your goals were too ambitious, this may be as simple as setting more realistic goals with the intention of eventually scaling up. But if you think that your goals were reasonable, and your methods were the issue, you may find it helpful to zero in on metrics of your individual posts.

Which ones did users engage with? Which ones did they ignore? Engagement is one of the most telling metrics on every social platform and should give you an indicator of what your followers respond well to.

Of course, if you’re completely at a loss, outsourcing is always an option. And while some marketing agencies may only work with clients who allow them full control over all aspects of their strategies, you can also opt to find an agency that works specifically with helping clients
build online communities through social media.


Time to get started

!If you haven’t created a social media marketing plan yet (or know that your current one needs work), it’s time to get started. And if you have any questions about coming up with a strategy, or any suggestions for others who are attempting to do the same, feel free to let me know in the comments below!
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Social media has the potential to be a powerful marketing tool for your business. You can use platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram to connect with your target audience and encourage them to become customers.

It isn't enough to just create profiles, though — social media requires strategy and maintenance to be effective. These platforms can be valuable for earning and converting leads, but only if you’re willing to invest the time it takes to create a strong social media presence.

A great way to make the most of your social media profiles is using social media optimization, or SMO. A strategic approach will help you more effectively develop your profiles and interact with your followers. 

Call us today at (216) 339-6041 to speak with a strategist about social media optimization services from Swift, or keep reading to learn how you can start using it for your business today.

Social media optimization: What is it?

Social media optimization (SMO) — a relatively new term — harnesses social media networks to grow a business’s online presence and help them achieve their goals. A digital marketing strategy, social media optimization is used to:

• Increase awareness of a brand, products, and services
• Build relationships with current and potential customers
• Drive traffic to your website
• Encourage conversions, sales, and revenue growth
• And more! 


• ​While search engine optimization, or SEO, is the more-well known process of boosting a website’s rankings the search results, SMO is a similar strategy focused on social profiles.​

When you utilize SEO, you focus on optimizing your site to reach as many searchers in your target audience as possible. This is similar to SMO. With SMO, your focus is on improving your social profiles in order to reach more users in your target audience on each platform.

SEO and SMO are great to use in conjunction with one another. They perform similar functions for different areas of your digital marketing strategy. You can make the most of your digital marketing plan by using both.

SMO is a great method for growing your digital presence through social media. You can build a strong social media plan to connect with your target audience and drive more conversions. 

You can also increase brand recognition, generate leads for your business, and more effectively connect with your audience. You can develop a stronger social media presence by utilizing SMO.

7 social optimization tips for businessesIf you are ready to start optimizing your social profiles, there are numerous tips that will help you do so effectively. To get started, follow these social media optimization steps:

• Create a plan.
• Build out your social media profiles.
• Conduct keyword research.
• Post original content.
• Schedule your posts.
• Include social buttons on your website.
• Monitor your social media analytics.

Let's take a look at each step of the social media optimization process.

1. Create a plan

When you are creating any marketing campaign, you want to create a plan with defined goals. It is important that your SMO strategy has clearly-defined goals that you can structure your campaigns around.

These goals should be specific and measurable. Measuring success is difficult — if not impossible — with vague goals, so have metrics in mind when you create them. 

Your goals should all be based on metrics you can easily track. Then, based on the results, you can measure your success and adjust accordingly. A set plan will help you make the most of your SMO strategy.

2. Build out your social media profiles

One of the biggest mistakes that companies make is not making the most of the available space on their social profiles. Many companies rush through this process to get their pages launched and leave certain forms blank.

And while it takes time to fill out every possible piece of information, doing so is worth your time. If users find your business on social media for the first time and seek out important information, it should all be available on that platform. 

Your social profiles on each platform are the foundation of your SMO strategy. You need to have strong profiles in order to see results.

Start by adding all of the necessary photos, like profile photos and possibly a cover photo, depending on the platform. These are the first things people see when they come on to your page and they should quickly grab visitors’ attention.
Your profile photo should be your logo. This will help people associate your pages with your business and is an easy to build your brand recognition with your followers.

The second step is to completely fill out your profile information. On Facebook, you can post details like your address, hours, contact information, and services. On Twitter or Instagram, on the other hand, you have a more limited amount of space. Include as much information as you can on each platform.

The more information you include on your profiles, the more helpful they’ll be to your followers. This is a great way to improve your SMO strategy.

3. Conduct keyword research

If you already use SEO for your business, you’re likely familiar with the concept of keyword research. You have to know what keywords your target audience searches in order to decide which ones you should include on your site. SMO follows a similar process.

When you are conducting keyword research for SMO, you want to focus on phrases and topics that your target audience likes. You’ll want to research any topics of interest that grab their attention and get them interested. 

Keyword research is a little different for SMO. You need to focus on keywords that are trending on social media and not necessarily topics people are searching on the web. 

One way to figure out popular keywords on social media is through Twitter’s keyword report. This feature enables you to track keywords that you think your audience would use. You can add them to this report and track the volume of the keyword over time.

This gives you a good idea of which keywords have a high volume of interest. You can use these keywords on your social media pages and create content that includes them. 

Your research can also include hashtags. Hashtags are a popular way to organize and search for information on platforms like Instagram, and being aware of the ones your target audience uses can help you effectively incorporate them into your strategy. Then, when users search those hashtags, they’ll be able to find your content.

When you know what interests your audience, you can tailor your content around those interests. You’ll want to make sure that everything is relevant to your brand, but you can take some of these trending topics and put your own spin on them. This is a great way to draw people to your accounts.

4. Post original content

​After you’ve done keyword research to determine what kinds of content your audience searches on social media, you’ll need to create content around them. 

There are two main types of content you can post on your social profiles: Original content, and links to content on other sites.

Original content is a great way to get people interested in your business. You can drive users to other parts of your online presence, like your website or blog. This is a great opportunity to drive traffic to places where they’re more likely to convert. 

Another type of content you can share on your profiles is content from other sites. If you find articles that are relevant to your target audience, you can share them on your profiles and encourage your followers to leave comments with their thoughts. This is a great way to get your followers to interact with your brand.

When you post content from other sites, it is important that you select content that has value to your audience. Everything you share should serve a purpose and interest people in your target audience.

As you are creating and sharing content, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind. One important habit to get into is including pictures in your content. You’ll keep your audience’s interest by having visual elements in your content and the content you share from other sites.

When you create content, you should also try out different headlines and accompanying text. The text you include will have a major impact on clickthrough rates, so it’s good practice to come up with a few different headlines and test them out to see which ones garner the most responses.

Once you write a post and are ready to share, you may also want to consider including hashtags, depending on the platform. This will help you track interest in the topic and see if anyone is talking about your content.

Content can have a powerful impact on your SMO strategy. By creating and sharing content, you can bring more people to your social profiles and earn new followers.

5. Schedule your postsThere are many tools you can use to schedule posts in advance on social media, and you should take advantage of them. This will prevent you from having to log into your accounts multiple times per day or remember to publish new content.

As you schedule your content, you can also make sure that you’re publishing it when your target audience is active on each platform.

The time frame when you post will depend on the social site. People are active on certain social sites at different times of the day, and this also varies by demographic. You’ll need to figure out when your target audience uses each platform the most.

You’ll also want to control the number of posts you put on each platform. Each one has its own standards for normal publishing schedules, but the important thing is that you don’t overwhelm your followers with posts.

On Facebook, for example, you won’t need to post as much. Excessive Facebook posts are often annoying to followers and could lead them to unfollow your page. On a social site like Twitter, however, you could post five times a day because of the structure of the news feed.

6. Include social buttons on your website

​Adding buttons that link to your social profiles to your website is an easy way to encourage your site visitors to connect with you on different platforms. You can place them in the header or footer of your pages, and so that users can see them regardless of the page they’re visiting.

You can also add social sharing buttons at the end of your blog posts and articles. These buttons enable readers to easily share your content on their own social accounts — and the easier it is to share your content, the more likely they’ll be to do so. 

7. Monitor your social media analyticsYou need to monitor the performance of your posts on your social pages in order to see which methods are most effective for your business. This will give you an idea of which types of posts are successful and which ones don’t garner as much interest.

There are several metrics you can monitor, including impressions, clicks, and engagements. If a post receives a lot of engagement, this is a clear indicator that it is interesting to your target market. You can use this to figure out which types of posts are the most effective for your strategy.

Swift knows social media optimizationSocial media is an integral part of your digital marketing plan. If you’re ready to start making the most of your presence on popular platforms, Swift can help. We’re a social media optimization company with years of experience creating effective social strategies.

Our team of social media experts stays up-to-date on the latest trends, so when you partner with us, you can be sure that your strategy is constantly being updated for the best results.

We know what it takes to drive results with digital marketing. In fact, we’ve driven over $2 billion in sales and over 6.3 million leads for our clients to date. We’ll always put your success first — which is why we have over 550 client testimonials from a variety of industries. Check them out to see what it’s like to work with a top SMO company like Swift

Get started todayIf you’re ready to start earning more customers with your social profiles, contact us online or call us today at  (216) 339-6041 to speak with a strategist. We look forward to hearing from you!

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Call  (216) 339-6041 or contact us online today!

Web Design Services That Maximize Your RevenueIn today’s digital world, your website is the first interaction consumers have with your business.

That's why almost 95% of a user’s first impression relates to web design. It’s also why web design services can have an immense impact on your company’s bottom line.

That’s why more companies are not only reevaluating their website’s design but also partnering with Swift Digital Marketing agency, the web design agency.

With over web design services under our belt, we're confident we can design a custom website that drives sales for your unique business.

Invest in your site’s success with Swift website design services. When you invest in our professional website design services, you will receive a website that’s:

• Custom
• Responsive (sometimes called mobile-friendly)
• Optimized for search engine optimization (SEO)
• Secure (HTTPS)
• Professionally styled

You can also include additional features as a part of your professional website design. For example, you can request our developers to integrate a database into your design, enable ecommerce functionality, and more.

Transparent prices for award-winning web design services. Choose our web design services, and your business can count on 100 percent transparency. From our personalized quotes to our initial designs, our team provides your company with complete access to our web design pricing and strategies.

Get a free, accurate, and instant quote for our web design and development services with us.

If you’re looking to launch your redesigned or brand-new website fast, we offer rapid web design services. Partner with our team of web designers for this service, and they’ll create a site in 30 days for your business.

What do web design services from Swift include? Our team tailors our web design services to your company and its unique needs. That’s why you can customize every feature of our services to your company, products or services, and goals.

The result is a website that your company — and your visitors — loves.

Learn more about our website design services:

Search engine optimization

We maximize the results of your website design or redesign plan, as well as improve your digital marketing strategy, by ensuring your website follows best practices for search engine optimization (SEO). SEO refers to an umbrella of techniques that enhance your website’s ranking for relevant search results.

A higher ranking in search results correlates to higher visibility among users in your target audience. With better visibility for relevant search results, your website can earn more clicks and traffic from high-value users — that can translate to more store visits, online purchases, quote requests, and more.

As we feature a team of talented designers, we can coordinate with our Internet marketing team. Their teamwork ensures your website not only looks good but also ranks well in search results.

Website Pages

With our web design services, you can rely on our designers to create every page of your website.

Whether you’re an ecommerce store, brick-and-mortar business, or service provider, our designers can create the webpages that your company needs to reach, inform, and convert your target audience. As a full-service digital marketing agency, we also offer content marketing services to enhance your strategy.

Our web design cost calculator features five tiers for the number of web pages:

• 1 to 10
• 10 to 50
• 50 to 150
• 150 to 250
• 250+

What if you need a lot more than 250 pages?

Just contact us online — or use our project quote calculator to submit a request for an exact quote. Our experienced strategists will provide you with a customized plan and quote for the pages your site needs, whether it’s 300, 500, or more.

You can also call on our team if you’re not sure how many webpages your website needs. They can provide years of advice and trusted recommendations when it comes to web design. Just give us a ring at  (216) 339-6041 to chat.

Customized style

It’s essential that your website captures your brand, which is why our web design services include unlimited style options. For example, if your company requires a sophisticated design that emphasizes the quality and price range of your products, our team can achieve that for you.

Additional examples of website styles include:

• Simple and attractive
• Moderate styling
• High-end
• World-class

Our web design quote calculator features these four styles, as well as a no styling option, to provide you with an accurate quote estimate. We don’t limit you to these five options, though, as no one wants a cookie-cutter website.

We encourage you to share your style preferences when requesting a quote online or chatting with our strategists. Your dedicated project manager will also invest the time to learn your business, goals, and vision. That allows our designers to create a custom, one-of-a-kind website.

Website copywriting

For maximum impact, we also offer website copywriting with our web design services. We feature an experienced and specialized team of copywriters. With their expertise in technical and non-technical industries, we can create compelling copy that engages and converts website visitors.

We offer three website copywriting tiers, which include:

• 5 to 10 pages
• 10 to 25 pages
• 25 to 50 pages

If you need more than 50 pages, we can customize your quote and design plan to that specific number.

As a part of our website copywriting services, we optimize your website copy for SEO. What does that mean? Our digital marketing specialists research high-value, relevant keywords for your business, industry, and webpages, which our copywriters then use to optimize your webpages.

When consumers use those keywords in their searches, your website appears near the top of search results. That’s an immense perk, as 75 percent of users don’t go past the first page of search results — in fact, more than 30 percent of all search traffic goes to the first search result.

Responsive design. Our website designing services also offer the option of responsive design. However, we recommend responsive design because it supports mobile users, which can consist of shoppers using their tablet or smartphone to browse the web.

With more than 50 percent of the Internet’s traffic coming from mobile users, it’s imperative to provide support for users on-the-go. It’s also best practice for SEO, as Google now follows a mobile-first index, meaning it crawls and views websites from the perspective of a mobile user, not a desktop user.

If your website doesn’t support mobile users, Google sees that — and modifies your ranking in search results. That can lead to a lower ranking, pushing your site to page two of search results and away from your target audience.

With our responsive design option, we prevent that from happening to your business.

Database integration

Many company websites feature a database, such as for processing payments. We provide full support for database integration, which we separate into three tiers — basic, advanced, and full development.

As a part of our database integration services, our team of designers and developers work with your company one-on-one to ensure we develop and launch the exact database your company needs and wants.

Not sure what kind of database integration your company needs? Talk with our experienced strategists. They can provide a recommendation, as well as coordinate with our web developers, to ensure you receive what your business needs.

Ecommerce functionality

For ecommerce companies, we also offer ecommerce functionality deliverables. Like our database integration service, we offer three tiers — basic, advanced, and enterprise. If you’re unsure which level provides your business with the best results, you can chat with our experienced strategists.

With their expertise, they can help you determine the most useful tier for your business. Plus, our strategists can coordinate with a designer and developer to confirm that the basic, advanced, or enterprise tier will provide the best return on investment (ROI) and user experience (UX).

Content management system (CMS)A CMS is another optional add-on for our web design services.

Whether you’re an ecommerce website or informational website, a CMS offers immense value. It can help your business manage and streamline your content, which can improve the efficiency of your content marketing strategy.

In most cases, our team recommends a CMS as a part of our web design services. We offer three CMS tiers — standard, advanced, and enterprise. Depending on your company and its size, a standard CMS often works.

For the most accurate recommendation and quote, however, contact us online.
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As a full-service digital marketing agency, we can match your exact web design needs. Our ability to customize every aspect of our web design services to your company also allows us to provide an unmatched level of personalization when it comes to web design.

Why invest in professional web design services? If you’re unsure about the value of professional web design services, there are several factors to consider. For example, you could increase your conversion rates, competitiveness, and search ranking. All are results that could have a direct and positive impact on your profits, market share, and growth.
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Learn more about the specific benefits of web design services:

1. Increase your conversion rate

A conversion can range from a shopper purchasing a product to a user signing up for an email newsletter — it’s unique to your business and your goals. No matter your conversion goal, web design services can help.

Why?

Today, most conversions relate or include an online interaction. For example, maybe you want to drive more in-store visits through local SEO — for reference, 80 percent of local searches convert — which will likely involve users interacting with your website.

If you feature an outdated website with poor usability, it’s impacting the first impression of users. That first impression shapes not only their opinion of your company but also their decision when it comes to visiting your location, purchasing your product, or joining your email newsletter.

With a user-friendly website that’s intuitive, as well as modern, you can create a positive first impression with consumers. That can make users more likely to convert, whether by stopping at your store the next day, calling your team for a quote, or becoming another subscriber of your email newsletter.

2. Optimize your user experience

A website’s user experience offers an immense return on investment (ROI) for businesses — $100 for every $1 invested, on average. It can also deliver a tremendous blow to companies that ignore UX testing, as almost 90 percent of users shop with a competitor after a poor user experience.

With professional web design services, your business can provide users with the best experience. For example, our team can improve the usability and readability of your website, whether on mobile or desktop. That makes it easy for consumers to find the information they need and take action.

That action can include visiting your store, purchasing your product, and more.

3. Maximize your competitive edge

No matter your industry, you have a direct competitor — and it’s essential for your company to have a competitive edge. While you may provide a better product and a better experience, those unique selling points can become lost in an outdated, unusable website.

With our website design services, you can ensure that your company maximizes its first impression with users. You can also make sure that your business stands apart from competitors in your industry, emphasizing that your product or service is the best.

For example, if you’re a pest control company looking to generate leads, it’s a tough market. You, however, can make it easy for potential leads to contact your company by investing in a website focused on the user experience.

In this scenario, your company can benefit from the fact that 89 percent of users shopwith a competitor after a poor user experience. That is an immense gain for your business, offering you the chance to increase your sales and market share with a simple redesign or a quick update to your website.

4. Improve your search rankings

Whether they’re searching on their tablet, smartphone, or desktop, users rely on search to find what they’re looking for, from services to products. That’s why Google processes more than two trillion searches a year, and why 80 percent of users turn to search when they need something.

If your website doesn’t rank on the first page of search results, however, it’s difficult for your company to connect with those consumers. That’s why SEO is an essential part of web marketing — you need your website to rank to drive conversions, sales, and subscribers.

With a competitive SEO strategy, as well as professional web design services, you can ensure your website ranks for keywords or search terms relevant to your business. Plus, you make sure your site provides the best user experience possible.

For example, if you provide landscape services in Cleveland, Oh, you may want to rank for the keyword, “landscape design Cleveland,” or, “landscaping Cleveland.” Depending on your strategy, you would probably create a webpage optimized for this keyword.

With our design strategies, as well as optimization tactics, it’s likely this webpage would rank on the first page of search results. That allows your company to reach high-value users in your target audience, transforming them from leads to customers.

5. Enhance your digital marketing strategy

In digital marketing, your website is your foundation or home base. It’s where you direct users, whether from search results, social media, or another source. As a result, it’s critical to maintain an optimized and up-to-date website that can support your digital marketing strategies.

With a robust website like that, your business can improve the results of its other Internet marketing strategies. For example, if you use email marketing, our web design services can increase the number of subscribers earned through your website’s sign-up forms by upgrading your website’s usability.

Another example comes from pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. With our design and marketing expertise, our team can develop landing pages optimized for conversions for your PPC campaign. That can improve the results of your PPC campaign, maximizing your ROI.


How does Swift design websites? At Swift, our web design services provide a 360-degree experience, which includes:

• Layout development
• Content creation
• Conversion optimization
• UX testing

How do we create our customer winning websites, though? By following the five principles of web design.

Appearance

Creating a beautiful website is the first step to earning new customers.

The appearance of your website tells visitors more about your company than your words. A site that incorporates modern design elements, optimized images, and other multimedia is much better at converting customers than a website that looks like it's from 1996.
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As a result, the appearance of your website plays a huge role in its success!

This factor also includes incorporating responsive design into your site.

Responsive design is the technique of making your website re-size itself to fit on the screen of any device. So, whether someone's looking at your site through an iPhone or a 27-inch desktop monitor, they'll still get a great, easy-to-use experience.
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That experience — often called user experience — is the first step in getting a new customer. When users see you have a sleek and attractive website, it’s easy to keep them on your site. But a good-looking website is just the beginning. You also need clear navigation.

Navigation

Navigation is the part of your website that lets people find what they want.

Modern websites have simplified navigation to work on desktops and mobile devices. One of the most popular and effective navigation elements is the breadcrumb. For an example of a breadcrumb, check out the image below.

Breadcrumb navigation got its name because it links to every page a person views as they move through your site — kind of like when Hansel and Gretel left a trail of breadcrumbs to follow in their fairy tale.

With breadcrumb navigation, your website’s users can jump back to any page they've previously seen. So, if you're an ecommerce site, you can let someone go from a product page to a category page with one click.

If you profit through lead generation, you can use breadcrumbs to get users from information pages to index pages, so they can read and learn more about the same topic.

For example, a manufacturing website design may feature a breadcrumb menu that guides users from general to specific services, like coating services and then coating services for specific materials. This breadcrumb menu makes it easy for users to go back to the general service and find the service they need.

Breadcrumbs are just the beginning, though. You can also use mega menus like the one we have in our header. These menus feature big text, links to information centers, and additional links to specific topics.

With hundreds of other navigation styles available, there's no right or wrong answer. It's all about what works for your brand when it comes to providing a stellar experience for your users.

Giving them a great experience has another benefit, too — you hold their attention.



Once you have a visitor on your site, it's crucial that you keep their attention. If you lose it, your visitor will leave your site, and you'll miss out on a sale.

Attention is valuable because it keeps someone focused on your brand, products, and or services. So, if you want to make a sale, you need someone's attention on your website.

With that in mind, different companies can hold attention in different ways, including:

• Video marketing is especially effective at catching someone's attention since video is a visually-oriented medium. Video empowers you to summarize complex ideas in a matter of minutes instead of forcing visitors to read long pages of text. While text can get boring after a few seconds, video keeps users enthralled from start to finish.

• Downloadable content is another great way to keep someone's attention. Most downloads can consist of a .zip file full of resources or a text-based PDF packed to the brim with insider information. This content is ideal for earning new leads as well since you can gate it and ask someone for their email address before they download the materials.

• Infographics keep people's attention by presenting industry-related data with simplified, easy-to-understand visualizations. Even though hundreds of new infographics come out every day, you can still earn traffic, attention, and links for infographics by holding yourself to a higher quality standard than your competitors.

Once you have your visitors' attention, it's time to give them a sense of direction on your page.

Direction

Direction refers to showing someone how they can proceed on your page — in most cases, this directs a user to scroll down your page. Vertical scrolling is the most common form of progression on websites because it's simple, intuitive, and useful.

The catch is when you use vertical scrolling on your mobile site design.

While desktop users use a mouse or scrollbar to progress through your page, mobile visitors use their fingers. That means your mobile-side pages are easy for someone to tap, hold, and swipe so they can scroll just like your desktop users.

This design feature goes back to the concept of responsive design.

Responsive design may mean that all your site visitors get the same great experience, but how they get that experience is entirely different. Your desktop-compatible site might use mega navigation in the header with lots of drop-down menus and big, eye-catching visuals.

But that’s too much content in one area for a mobile site.

Instead, mobile sites should have a hamburger menu — a navigation style that lets users tap a button, open a menu, and choose their next page from there. Hamburger menus get their name from their distinctive symbol. You may recognize it as looking something like this:

With a hamburger menu, it’s simple for mobile users to navigate to any part of your website.

ActionAction is the ultimate goal of earning any new visitor to your website. But visitors won't take action if you don't encourage them! That's why it's so important to use a calls-to-action (CTAs) at the end of every page on your site.

A CTA acts as instructions, telling visitors what they should do next to get one step closer to becoming a customer. While that may sound bossy, studies prove that CTAs dramatically increase conversions in every online business model, from lead generation to charitable donations.

Whether you want to get someone to a contact page or have them make a purchase, it’s essential to include CTAs in your web design. That’s why our team of copywriters develop compelling CTAs that support your digital marketing goals, from increasing email subscribers to product purchases.

CTAs can take the following forms:
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• Text links
• Image links
• Buttons
• Form fields
• And more​

It takes time, revisions, and editing to make a performance-driven website — something the Swift web design team has nailed down to a science. Working in your best interests, our web designers will create a website that fulfills these five tenants to make sure you succeed online.