Wikipedia, WordPress and thousands of other sites are blacked out today in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act. SOPA is a piece of legislation that would allow the government to censor the internet by shutting down sites without due process of law at the mere accusation – warranted or not – of rights infringement. This law has the potential to affect thousands of legitimate websites causing job losses. Please read more about SOPA and make your own decision to act by visiting http://www.americancensorship.org.

]]> http://rvadv.com/2012/01/18/web-blackout/feed/ 0 http://rvadv.com/2011/06/13/rearview-gets-sweet-with-sugar-kneads-cakery/ http://rvadv.com/2011/06/13/rearview-gets-sweet-with-sugar-kneads-cakery/#comments Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:18:09 +0000 admin http://rvadv.com/?p=1361 Sugar Kneads Cakery in Loganville, GA needed to update their web presence and streamline their website management for their successful family-owned business. Rearview developed an eye-popping design to reflect Sugar Kneads’ fun and creative brand and built custom features so that keeping their site fresh didn’t take time away from the kitchen. Keep an eye on SugarKneads.com to see what these guys are up to. They are always adding new designs to the Design Gallery that amaze and inspire us!

You can see more of Sugar Kneads Cakery on Food Network’s Cupcake Wars Season Premier this Tuesday at 8pm when they battle it out against 3 other baking teams for cupcake supremacy.

QR codes connect offline with online. No searching, no typing, just taking a quick picture can connect your user with more information about your product when and where they want it. Placing QR codes advertising and marketing materials, signs and even  products can provide additional information then in turn will help close the sale.

SEO copywriting is a big part of the organic SEO movement. Organic search engine results require time, effort and dedication, but if the optimization is done properly, they bring the traffic. Studies reveal that less search engine users visit paid search advertising sites than visit organic sites. In fact 4 out of 5 search engine users report that they seldom and often never click on paid search results. According to Forester Research, more than 70% of search engine users report visiting organic search on a daily basis.

Effective SEO copywriting is all about picking the right keyword phrases. If you are trying to market watches, unless you are the lucky owner of watches.com, you have to be specific and implement a phrase like men’s Rolex watches, for example. Not only there’s less competition for that term, but also the more specific key words are, the more visitors they will potentially bring to your site.

1. Establish a purpose. Ask yourself: “Why would anyone go to my site?”

If your purpose is to sell a product, then show off your product. Photos, videos, virtual tours and other media can help show your customer a variety of angles and options. However, beware of going overboard, nothing can send a website visitor away quicker than being bombarded by too much media at once. Keep media concise and easy to navigate and save sound files for videos only.

If your purpose is to establish your brand, then make sure your site carries your message from start to finish. Your design should enhance your logo and message so your customer leaves the site with a strong impression of what your company is about. Stay away from fad designs and gimmicky text, they only detract from your brand.

2. Establish a call to action. Buy something? Contact you? Refer their friends?

If the next step for a user is to contact you, then make it easy for them to find that contact form that not only works but also is easily accessible and effortless to use. Don’t require too much information from your customer, people are reluctant to give up more than they are comfortable with. Focus on what you need to follow up and what specific questions your customer has. Then, follow up! Respond as quickly as possible to any questions you can answer. If you need more time to gather your response, at least contact your customer personally to let them know their questions have been received. Do not rely on impersonal auto-responders to queue your customers for you.

If you  are looking to expand your referral business, give your customers easy access to social networking tools to refer their friends to you. Customers are becoming more reliant on these and they are an easy way to spread your name, service, and product.

3. Update, update, update.

Nobody, including Google, Bing and Yahoo, wants stale content. That award you won in 2006 was great, but customers really care about what you are doing right now. With the economy changing businesses so quickly, it’s important that your customers feel confident that your business is alive and thriving. Blogs are a great way to keep company events in the forefront and can be used to push content to a variety of other media. However, beware of Stale Blog Syndrome, which can have an adverse effect on your site. Delegate writing new web content and create a calendar for new post target dates. Make posting in your blog and refreshing your web content part of your daily routine. Just 10 minutes a day can pay off big on your website.

Would you hire yourself based on your own website? Or would you hire your competitor? If you’re not sure, you need to give us a shout.