September 2018

Branding on a Budget

Posted on September 26, 2018January 12, 2024 by Peter Mendez

Here are a few helpful tips to brand on a budget

Branding is one of the most crucial steps when it comes to marketing or rebranding your business. Marketing is what spreads the word and gets the masses moving. A powerful brand campaign conveys the right message to the target audience, creates awareness about your product, and compels people to consider purchasing your product.

Branding is a complex process that involves several stages, creativity, and plenty of innovation. The sole aim is to create an impression. A very specific one. This impression decides whether your target audience will want to know more about you or not.

Branding is essentially nothing but giving a clear picture of who you are and what your business does to the masses.

With this, I hope I have been able to bring home the importance of branding to any business. Branding is literally the proverbial bread and butter of any business, big or small. Despite this, many businesses continue to ignore the importance of brand campaigns and fail to integrate it into their marketing strategies. When asked why, the most common answer from these business owners were that branding is expensive.

So, is branding expensive?

No, not really. The expenses in branding campaigns largely depend on the way you have chalked it out. You can do it the expensive way, or you can do it the cheap way.

Here are a few tips for branding within a budget.

The brands logo says everything

Imagine that you are out buying shoes. In the store, most people are likely to reach out and take hold of the ones that have the logos of popular brands like Nike, Adidas, Puma, Reebok, and so on. Although these are brands that have established their presence long back, their logos are what attract attention. The logos of these brands have become a household name across the world.

A logo is very important for branding. It is a unique representation of your company, of the product you are selling. Logos appear on everything, right from business cards to the shopping bags available in your stores.

There are a number of inexpensive ways to develop a creative, yet meaningful logo. You can use logo making websites like AI logo designer or you can hire freelancers from platforms like Fiverr

Customer service can make or break you

A good customer service will bring back existing customers and help rope in new ones. Customers are the top priority in any business. A business that caters to the needs of their customers and offers an out-of-the-world customer experience is likely to remain etched in the minds of customers. Treat them bad and you will regret it for the rest of your business.

Customers are one of your greatest brand advocates. The way a customer feels will determine whether they will come back to your business or never step in again.

A satisfied customer is a loyal customer. He or she is likely to spread the word to friends and family, thereby increasing the likelihood of new customers for your business. Indeed, when it comes to certain things, I’d rather trust a friend or family member over an advertising campaign. Wouldn’t you?

Make your brand a part of their life

Nike continues to be one of the most popular brands when it comes to sports shoes. Today, Nike is more than just shoes, they offer their customers the opportunity to connect with athletes like Michael Jordan and Steve Prefontaine. Customers feel that somehow, albeit in a very small way, they are part of the lives of these great athletes.

Nike’s strong brand strategy transformed them from a brand selling shoes to a lifestyle brand. They are the trusted name in households when it comes to sports apparel. Their tagline, “Just do it” is capable of making a normal person feel like an elite athlete.

Drawing from this example, it is clear how it is important to become part of a customer’s lifestyle. The more a customer is able to incorporate and identify your brand with their everyday life, the better are your chances at reaching out to them and influencing them to keep coming back to you.

Social media is your best friend

There is absolutely no need to spend wads of cash on expensive branding campaigns when you have the greatest and most effective tool at your disposal. Social media.

Social media platform keeps people across the world connected and in the game. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, are platforms where people gather as a community and it is the best way to reach out to people.

Yes, certain social media campaigns do cost money, but you don’t need to get started with such campaigns right away.

The best you can do is to create a social media voice that interacts with individuals and communities. You need to create a persona for social media platforms. Your persona should be honest, inspiring, authoritative but still warm and friendly. Your aim should be to effectively engage the audience using simple but effective language.

In addition, it is extremely helpful to have a blog of your own. You want users to know what’s happening and a blog is one of the best ways to catch their attention. The key to branding using blogs lies in creating effective content. Effective content can include anything from infographics, images, articles, videos, and so on. The sky is the limit and creativity is your tool.

You need to engage customers by regularly posting on social media platforms. There are several social media scheduling apps available in the market. These apps can automatically update content in your social media platforms as and when required.

The key to establishing your brand lies in consistency. You need to be consistent in your activities and interact with the audience through comments, discussions, likes, and so on. You need to be constantly out there and always active to help people understand you and your brand.

If dealt with strategically, social media can become one of your best tools for branding.

There’s More to SEO than Keywords

Posted on September 24, 2018April 29, 2023 by Peter Mendez

Here’s What You Need to Know

Not too long ago, the discussion on SEO mainly revolved around the use of keywords. Optimization strategies literally depended on keyword research and usage. To put it simply, everything was about keywords.

But, those days are gone. Keywords no longer form a core part of the SEO strategy. Google is working actively towards eliminating keyword stuffing while prioritizing content quality.

So, if you’re one of those businesses that still depends heavily on keywords, you’re going to have some trouble meeting your goals. Either you’re going to end up being penalized for keyword stuffing, or your obsession with keywords is going to force you to miss out on all the other important aspects of search engine optimization.

You see, various other strategic elements make up a comprehensive SEO strategy.

Here are a few examples:

Content positioning

Now, we aren’t saying keywords aren’t important. They still very much are. However, keyword usage isn’t about how many keywords you use in your content. Rather, it’s about where those keywords are positioned within the content.

For instance, the inclusion of keywords in the title or heading of a page is far more useful than incorporating it into the body or the footer. So, you need to bother about how keywords are incorporated into your site’s overall structure. Search visibility is highly dependent on the quality, value, and shareability of your content; not on the number of keywords it contains.

Use synonyms

Google receives around 6 billion searches a day. Needless to say, that’s a ton of information; information that needs to be assessed in order to understand what searchers are trying to look for. So far, Google’s assessment has determined that synonyms play a key role in about 70% of searches.

In order to meet the challenge, search engines make use of an inventory of synonyms and variants for the various search phrases that they receive on a daily basis. This allows them to match the queries with the right content.

For example, searching for ‘sports cars’ can be very different from searching for ‘cars with sporty engines.’ Search engines need to be aware of these subtle differences in order to provide the proper results.

Using variations can also provide semantic meaning and help search engines overcome the problem of disambiguation. Disambiguation is a standard issue with certain search terms. For example, ‘vehicle’ can refer to actual automobiles or even a medium. The meaning varies based on context.

Currently, Google’s Hummingbird algorithm leverages co-occurrence to look for synonyms that match the query.

Go social/mobile

These are some of the key areas that businesses today tend to forget – social media and mobile. Websites today need to be responsive, i.e., optimized for mobile use. Most of the web traffic today comes from mobile devices. So, a responsive design is necessary for a better search engine ranking.

The same goes for social media. Social media is a highly effective traffic-generating platform because it encourages link sharing. So, make sure you have a presence on major platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Also, make sure those platforms are linked to your website.

Navigation and structure

Search traffic is also impacted by your site’s design, especially with regard to navigation and structure. You see, users don’t want to use sites that make it hard for them to find things they want to find. This is why Google plays the role of “enforcer” and ensures that only the most navigable sites make it to the top of the search results.

So, if your site possesses clean navigation, with clear menus and sub-menus, you are much more likely to find yourself being ranked high in the search results. Also, make sure you add a sitemap along with standard pages such as About Us, Services, and Contact.

It is necessary for your website to have a proper structure in place. Just good content won’t cut it.

Entity salience

Search engines are now looking to understand the relationship between multiple entities to determine topic relevance. One such technique is entity salience.

Entity salience goes way beyond the traditional use of keywords for identifying relevant keywords in a document by looking at the relationship between entities. Here, the term ‘entity’ refers merely to any well-defined or distinct item in a document.

If the relationship between entities is strong, they will acquire more significance.

To give you an example, think of terms such as Mercedes, BMW, Toyota, etc. used in an article. These are nouns that have a strong relationship with phrases like ‘automotive industry’ or ‘car manufacturer.’ So, even if these latter phrases appear once in the article, they still have a strong entity relationship to the brand names which we mentioned. So, the overall significance goes up.

However, if another term such as ‘Johnson’s Car Dealership’ appears in the article more than once, it will have a weaker association. This is because ‘dealership’ doesn’t necessarily mean car dealership. So, the significance is lower.

Security and site speed

Site speed is another major factor that impacts searchability. There is way more competition on the web now, and the web itself has become more accessible. So, in order to stand out, you need to make sure your site speed meets the current expectations of users.

This can be done by establishing a clean caching system, eliminating clutter, and optimizing content, especially media content such as images, animation, or videos.

Another major component is site security. Your site ranking also relies heavily on security. For instance, sites with SSL encryption are likelier to receive preference in search rankings over sites that don’t have SSL encryption.

Site security will only grow in significance in the near future.

So, as you can see, there is a whole lot more to search engine optimization than just keyword research and usage. In fact, we’re moving towards an era where advances in search algorithms may even begin to ignore keywords in favor of some of the elements that we just discussed. So, it’s best that you start playing catch up.

For more on SEO, do visit Crafted.

How to Design Your Music Website

Posted on September 22, 2018April 29, 2023 by Peter Mendez

Whether you’re an individual musician or a firm involved in selling or promoting music, you need to do a few things to market yourself. One of those things is to establish a website. However, creating a music website isn’t the same as a creating any other website.

There are a few key ingredients that go into the mix to create good music websites that stand out. This is exactly why so many musicians and music-based businesses have a problem getting things right. To be more specific, most of the problems crop up on the design side of things.

After all, this is a music website we’re talking about and music is art… and if you want your art to stand out, you need to make sure that everything about it is unique and far away from the mainstream. At the same time, you also need to make sure that what you’re doing is appealing. All of this applies to your website as well.

So, what does it take to create a perfect music website? Are there any key considerations to be made? These are the kind of questions that are likely to be circling in your head. Well, we’ve got all the answers lined up for you right here.

Keep it professional

It’s always a good idea to use professional images on your site, whether it’s of you, your band, or of artists represented by your brand. Makes sure you also use a wide variety of images. Images are a core part of web design and, pretty much, the starting point for proper web design.

In fact, images play an even more significant role in a music website. Their use on such sites is diverse and widespread. This is because images are what typical visitors on a music site will look a first.

So, if you want to make that first great impression with your site, professionally shot images are a must.

Keep it clean

The next major aspect of a music site, or any site for that matter, is a clean layout. Visitors want things to be easy and a clean, well-organized layout helps meet their expectations. After all, you want them to explore your site without any hiccups.

Start off by finding a template that meets your requirements. Once you do that, shift your attention to individual elements and sort them out one by one.

One strategy that works well is positioning your homepage as a portal to the rest of the site. Use a catchy ‘call to action’ to draw in audiences. Then, design the rest of the pages to focus on specific topics. Ideally, stick to one topic per page. For instance, your bio page must only contain your bio and nothing else.

Similarly, your gallery must only contain images and your portfolio page must only showcase your music/talent. You can include basic details about various music projects if necessary.

Your visitors aren’t going to spend more than a few minutes going through your site. So, you have very little time to make an impact on them. So, avoid cluttering up the pages. Stick to the ‘keep it simple’ rule.

One standard technique to create a simple layout involves leveraging white space. White space is the space that surrounds your images and text. In other words, it’s the space that’s been left unused. A clean layout must contain plenty of white space. Apart from providing an organized look, whitespace can also create emphasis, which is a good thing.

Keep it cohesive

When choosing colors or graphic elements, make sure they reflect your image or brand. One way to do this is by referring to the images you’re currently using. Pick a few colors from the image and contrast them with the rest of the visual content.

Other than that, pay attention to color psychology. Studies have shown that colors have an impact on people’s perceptions and that they do carry meaning. For instance, brown is symbolic of earth and would be great for music that is earthy or mellow. In fact, if you look at sites associated with the genre of heavy metal or any other metal sub-genre, you’d notice that most of them make use of dark colors, especially black. This is because metal as a genre is associated with darkness, sorrow, aggression, and power etc. These emotions are also typically associated with the color black.

Ideally, you’ll need three colors – primary, secondary, and tertiary. Your primary color should be the one reflecting the overall theme of the website. The secondary color is necessary for contrast and the tertiary color is the accent color.

Keep it legible

Of course, no site is complete without textual content. Textual content is necessary to complement visual content. If you want something to be conveyed clearly and in detail, text is your best bet because its practical.

However, when using textual elements, make sure you use an appropriate font. The most basic requirement, with regard to fonts, is readability. The font you choose must make reading easy or at the very least, avoid making things difficult. So, the font for your primary content must be simple and legible.

Next, make sure you opt for the right color as well. The font color must be in stark contrast with the background color. For example, black on white or vice versa. This is the most effective way to make sure that the text grab’s people’s attention.

Finally, never forget consistency. Ideally, you must use the same font throughout the entire site. However, that might be difficult to do in some cases. If you are ever forced to use a different font, at least ensure that it shares a similar style with the primary font choice.

But, in the case of text used on your images and your musical content, you can go wild as long as the style of the music you’re marketing suits the font choice.

So, there you have it – a few basic tips on getting your music site design right. However, if you’re having trouble, it’s always better to get professional help. Get in touch with Crafted for more information.

Why Promotional Products are Good for Branding

Posted on September 20, 2018January 12, 2024 by Greg Valvano

When it comes to cost-effective methods of marketing your brand, there are several strategies that you can rely on. One such approach is the use of promotional products. The concept of promotional products isn’t a new one. In fact, it is a tried and tested concept that’s helped even major brands establish themselves within a chosen market.

So, if you’re a business that’s looking to gain that first bit of traction with your brand, using promotional products can be a great way to get things started.

Here are a few statistics to convince you.

Around 80% of American consumers accept/receive promotional products.
About 60% of those customers tend to keep these promotional products with them for two years.
89% of consumers actually recall the brand that provided them with the product even after two years.
85% of consumers tend to continue doing business with a brand that has given them a promotional product.

As you can see from these stats, promotional products do have an impact on the customer and the establishment of a brand. According to a PPAI study, around 94% of consumers remember when they last received a promotional product. The study also found that 83% of consumers prefer to receive promotional products that possess an advertising message. 85% of these consumers continue to engage in business with the said brand.

Here are a few more reasons why promotional products are great for your brand.

Promotional products boost brand recognition

As we’ve already told you, most consumers tend to recognize the brands that provided them with promotional products instantly. Here are a few more stats from an Inkwell study.

25% of consumers state that their impression of a brand is more positive after they receive a promotional product.
60% of consumers tend to keep promotional products with them for a period of two years.
50% of consumers use their promotional products.

It is the desire of every single business out there to establish a positive reputation. However, it can be quite tricky to achieve this. On one side, you need to stand out from the competition. On the other, you need to make sure you stay true to the consumer’s preferences.

One way to overcome these challenges and establish a good reputation is by leveraging promotional products. Promotional products are often retained for use by consumers for extended periods of time, increasing brand exposure each time they’re used.

Promotional products also increase customer loyalty

Customer retention is another key objective for most businesses. As you might already know, retaining existing customers is a far more cost-effective option compared to acquiring new ones. Promotional products are a cost-effective answer to achieving this goal. By handing out promotional products, brands can boost their customer retention rate in a very short time.

However, they need to make sure that their promotional merchandise meets certain quality standards and reflects the brand appropriately. The more “premium” your promotional product is, the better it is for your brand image.

A high-quality product can go a long way toward ensuring customer loyalty. According to a study published in Risinghillmarketing.com, 52% of consumers who received a promotional product chose to stick to the same brand for longer.

So, it would serve you well to make promotional products a key element in your marketing mix. Branded promotional merchandise is one of the best ways to get people talking about your brand.

Take the time to come up with innovative ideas for promotional products. Promotional merchandise should never be something you just hand out. It must be relevant to your business and complement other marketing media, such as print or TV. This is necessary for your marketing campaign to have the intended impact and for your brand to enjoy a better profile.

According to Valeria Aguerri, the Marketing Director/Sales Manager for Orleans Embroidery, popular promotional merchandise is what people find useful. Aguerri believes that the key lies in identifying the perfect product instead of a trinket. It must have relevance and value.

For instance, if you’re a travel company, a good promotional product would be something that is travel specific, like a duffel bag or a toiletry kit. These are perfect examples of “useful” promotional products. Apart from being useful, they would be extremely relevant as well in that they would represent the business and the brand. So, when people use the bag/toiletry kit each time, they are reminded of your brand. This is one very useful way to get customers to stay loyal.

Seasonally appropriate products can also do the trick. For instance, if your business operates in a location that is known for being cold, a jacket with your branding might be a good idea. This is useful, relevant and every time the customer uses it, he/she actually ends up advertising for you.

Promotional products help you stand out from the competition

Promotional products can also help you stand out from the crowd. There is no limit to the kind of products you can put your name on. You can even tailor the product to meet the specific needs of your audience. To put it simply, it’s not that hard to present yourself in a unique manner.

Here are a few ideas.

Come up with catchphrases that add personality to your brand. Then, incorporate these catchphrases into your products. For instance, a t-shirt with a slogan printed on it.
Keep looking out for trends and find out if your audience is actively engaged in following these trends. Then, incorporate the latest trend into your promotional product strategy. For instance, if you have a younger audience, they may be into toys such as fidget spinners. So, how about a fidget spinner with your branding on it?
Don’t stop with one kind of promotional product. Make sure you have a repertoire of such products, especially if you’re catering to more than one demographic/market. Also, make sure there are specific to the demographic/market you’re catering to.

Are you interested in knowing more about establishing your brand? If yes, get in touch with Crafted. We might be able to bring some clarity.

Why Luxury Brands Should Not Ignore Video Marketing

Posted on September 18, 2018January 12, 2024 by Peter Mendez

If you’d take a look at all the marketing trends that have come and gone, you’d notice that there’s one method that has always survived. In fact, it is still used to this day, and it’s more relevant than it ever was. The “method” that we’re referring to is nothing but the art of storytelling.

Of course, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t evolved. We’ve come a long way from the days of simple oral narration. Today, stories are told through the lens of a camera. In the world of business, we have a more specific term – it’s called video marketing.

Video marketing is effective. In fact, if we could rank the various methods and forms of marketing, video marketing would come out as the most influential. This is because we currently exist within an ecosystem where the consumer is always on the lookout for the next big interaction. Needless to say, a video has become the preferred medium of interaction.

It possesses a tremendous amount of power when it comes to convincing the customer, irrespective of the format that it is presented in. Whether it’s bite-sized video content or infotainment, a video has the ability to change perceptions and influence the way people think.

This proliferation of video marketing becomes even more apparent when you take a peek into the world of luxury brands. Today, major designer brands like Ralph Lauren, which were known for their anti-marketing approach, have taken a leap into the world of video marketing.

So, why is all this happening? Well, here’s why:

Video brings ideas to life

As we stated earlier, the art of storytelling is still very much alive, although in an evolved form. That “evolved” form is video. Video can convincingly present information. It attracts attention because audiences are presented with something real and not imagined.

Video offers sensory information, which isn’t the case with other media. This works very well for luxury brands because there is always an aspirational component to luxury products. When audiences view their object of desire in their state of use, it can have a more tangible effect on them.

Static media fails in comparison because everything is left to the imagination.

It’s no more about advertising

The current perception attached to videos is that they aren’t tools designed exclusively for advertising. Instead, they are seen as effective tools of branding. This is why brands that create videos with a strong narrative tend to garner more attention.

In other words, the artistic vision of the brand comes into focus rather than just the product or service

Targeted engagement

It’s the era of social media, and the one thing that everybody loves on social media is video content. This is because video provides a level of engagement that no other content format has been able to achieve. Now, add the magic of extreme targeting and we’ve got custom made content that can generate instant responses.

Plus, with modern tools, video production is no longer an unaffordable expense. Today, it is possible to create videos at a fraction of the old cost and still deliver impeccable content that guarantees a positive ROI.

Now that we know why video is the way to go for luxury products let’s look at how they can make the most of it.

Video is the preferred medium

According to a study of upper-class males by research marketing company iProspect, customers displayed a preference for video ads. This is because they felt the video content was interesting. Other than that, consumers also liked the fact that videos are shareable.

Video It’s simply superior

Print has always been the go-to medium for luxury brands. Now, the problem with print is that it’s too expensive and you’re probably going to have to pay exorbitant fees. For example, a full-page ad on Harper’s Bazaar can cost $150,000.

The situation is no different when it comes to TV advertising. A 30-second ad on prime-time TV can cost up to $400,000.

A video, on the other hand, is significantly cheaper. It is also much simpler to run a targeted ad campaign. With behavioral data and what not, businesses can identify exact prospects.

Creating the perfect video for your luxury brand

One way to get things started is by focusing on being authentic. In order to sell a luxury product, you need social proof that’s authentic. A common tactic often used by luxury brands is the testimonial. However, this isn’t all that effective, unless the recommender manages to convey the message with passion. More often than not, it simply looks forced.

Audiences want to see more authenticity, and there’s more of that in a blooper reel than in a scripted testimonial.

1. Don’t keep it simple

Also, it is necessary for luxury brands to communicate in a more confident manner in order to generate greater appreciation. Often, luxury brands find themselves forced to simplify their communication in order to relate to certain sections of their target groups.

However, this is a bad strategy, concerning brand image.

2. Cinematography

“Cinematography” is defined as the art of camera work or photography in filmmaking. Luxury brands need to focus on cinematography if they intend to create the right perception. You see, when it comes to luxury brands, audiences generally tend to possess tall expectations. This applies even to the images that such customers prefer to see.

So, luxury brands must make sure that the imagery they use is relevant and also of high-quality. It doesn’t matter how significant the content is; luxury brands cannot avoid looking like a million dollars.

Anyway, the point at the end of the day is that video marketing is the most influential form of marketing and luxury brands shouldn’t make the mistake of avoiding it. As time passes, video marketing will probably be the most preferred method of marketing, and it’s always a wise idea to strike while the iron is hot.

To know more about video marketing for luxury brands, please get in touch with Crafted.

SEO for Your Law Firm: Things You Need to Know

Posted on September 16, 2018April 29, 2023 by Peter Mendez

Running a law practice comes with its own fair share of pitfalls, risks, and problems, especially in this day and age of online searches. Any law firm would want its phones to ring off the hook and enjoy a consistent flow of legitimate clients.

But, how can all that be achieved in a cost-efficient and ethical manner while overcoming the various challenges that come with operating in a digital business landscape? Well, one way would be to leverage SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

However, SEO for law firms has always been a complex topic. Often, such firms find their efforts going to waste. Well, in this blog, we’re going to look at how law firms should ideally utilize SEO. After all, SEO is more than just keyword research and implementation.

Let’s take a look at some of the “less known” strategies that law firms should make use of to boost their leads.

Video marketing

Video marketing is one of the best ways to boost your website’s rankings on Google search. However, many law firms still fail at it. Well, this is primarily because these firms are unaware of how to link video portals like YouTube to their website.

It is never enough just to put up a video and hope that things will work out.

One of the most basic things that law firms need to do is include the link to the site on their uploaded videos. Any link from a popular video sharing portal like YouTube is highly valuable. Now, you may argue that users don’t follow YouTube links. However, the key goal of SEO is traffic; not purely rankings.

So, connect your website to your video channel. Make sure you link pages that are relevant to the content of the video. These links will drive traffic to your site, which will eventually boost your rankings.

Use long-form content as the primary content

Statistics tell us that long-form content (1000 words or more) tend to do better with regard to search rankings. Of course, creating long-form content can be quite difficult. However, the results it can deliver is worth the effort.

Long form content plays a very significant role in the area of SEO. Content that offers in-depth coverage of certain topics, especially legal topics, tend to enjoy higher engagement. More importantly, they position your agency or firm as an expert on the topic being discussed.

Discuss primary practice areas

Search engines, such as Google, do factor in aspects such as ‘focus’ in order to rank sites. What that means is you need to be clear about what your law firm is all about, if you want to see a good ranking. So, make sure you offer brief or detailed information about your core practice areas.

When you do this, you make it possible for Google’s search algorithms to determine the focus of your site and rank it appropriately.

On the other hand, if you fail to discuss your core areas of practice, Google will ignore that content and rank it much lower.

Now, one way to make sure your core content remains noticeable is by positioning it strategically. Make sure core practice information goes to the front and center of your homepage. When visitors see this, they’ll immediately know what you specialize in.

Also, when listing your services, make sure you list each practice separately, instead of clubbing it all under a single category. However, it’s okay to club your secondary or tertiary practice areas.

Leverage the power of social media

Social media has a huge impact on your search rankings. For instance, using hashtags that are relevant to your strategy can help clients find you in a much easier manner. You can also use photos to present yourself as an approachable practice. Photos on social media are a sure-shot way to boost your engagement and generate traffic.

Limit your use of keywords

There’s such a thing as overusing your keywords. It’s more popularly referred to as “keyword stuffing.” As we stated earlier, SEO is much more than just using keywords. So, don’t make the assumption that keywords are everything. There is a strategic way to leverage keywords.

To begin with, the keyword must fit into your content naturally. Stuffing it out of context isn’t going to help you. You’ll end up with low-quality content, and that’s a bad thing in terms of search rankings. There must be a certain amount of relevance to your chosen keywords.

Secondly, make sure your keywords are placed where they’re most effective. Generally, apart from the body of the content, keywords need to go into your title tags and your meta-descriptions. Other than that, you can use what’s known as an “alt tag.”

Alt tags are basically text alternatives to the images you use on the site. These alt tags are read by screen readers to determine what kind of pictures will show up along with the content. Alt tags are a great way to incorporate keywords into your content while avoiding “keyword stuffing.” But, alt tags also need to be used in moderation.

Conduct an SEO audit

Finally, make sure you conduct an SEO audit. An SEO audit a core part of your overall SEO strategy because it’s basically aimed at fine-tuning your strategy. It helps you identify problem areas and correct them. Statistically, it is possible to bring up your website traffic rate by almost 200% with just a simple audit.

You can use tools such as a web ranking software to measure your progress as well. The advantage with these tools is that they can offer insights on what’s effective and what’s not. A good example of such a solution is Google Webmaster Tools or Google Analytics. You can also use the Google AdWords Preview Tool for manual tracking and observe listing according to regions.

So, there you have it – basic strategies to help you boost your law firm’s search rankings. If you’re looking for more guidance on search engine optimization, get in touch with Crafted. We might be the right fit for your needs.

Native Apps or Web Apps: What Does Your Business Need

Posted on September 14, 2018April 29, 2023 by Peter Mendez

The fact that businesses need apps today is indisputable. So, we aren’t going to discuss that. However, what we are going to discuss is what kind of app works best for your business. You see, we generally work with two types of apps – the native app and the web app.

Now, before we go into which one of these is ideal for your business, let’s first get ourselves introduced to each type of app.

Native Mobile Apps

Native mobile apps are what you’re thinking of when you hear the word “app”. The term “native” here simply refers to the fact that these apps work within a native environment i.e. they work on a specific platform.

These platforms are nothing but the mobile operating systems that we commonly use, such as Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. So, to cut a long story short, native apps are the apps that are designed exclusively to work on our smartphones.

The main benefit of these apps is that they offer an optimized user experience. Since they are designed purely for a given platform, they work in sync with that particular platform. There are very few compromises being made.

However, if you’re looking to tap into a customer base that’s not limited to one particular platform, you’re going to have problems with native apps. For instance, if you have customers on both, iOS and Android, you will have to build two different versions of the app. This can be a problem if you have a tight budget. Plus, if you limit yourself to a single platform, you’ll end up missing out on a chunk of your target audience.

Web Apps

A web app is one that doesn’t have to be installed on a phone and isn’t limited to a specific platform. These apps are accessible via a web browser. So, in a way, accessing these apps is like accessing a website. In fact, you can even argue that these apps are basically websites.

Web apps are developed using programming languages such as CSS, HTML5, and Javascript etc. Though they may look like websites, they are far more optimized and offer, more or less, the same user experience as native apps.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Native Apps

Now, let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages of having either of these apps.

With native apps, as we discussed earlier, you have the benefit of an optimized user experience. The app will work just the way it should on your phone. This includes a well-developed interface, great speed, high-quality graphics, and a host of other features that match the functionality offered by your OS, be it Android or iOS.

Native apps are also easier to distribute because you have specific marketplaces such as Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store. So, it’s easier to reach out to a wider audience. In fact, you might even get free promotions if your app does well.

Native apps can also offer certain functions offline.

As for disadvantages, native apps are limited to specific platforms. You will have to build one for each platform that you’re targeting. This can prove to be quite expensive. Though there are cross-platform tools, they only work if your app offers very simplistic functionalities.

Having two versions of the same app brings in other problems as well. For instance, updating, bug tracking, and general maintenance can become very complex.

Native apps also have to be installed on the device’s storage unit, which means the user will have to ensure that there is enough space. This can be a deal breaker at times.

Finally, updates are controlled by the user. So, improved versions may not be delivered at the right time, which can lead to abandonment or dissatisfaction.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Web Apps

To begin with, web apps have no need for installation. You can access them with just an internet connection and a good internet browser.

They are already developed to work across multiple platforms, so you have a single version to deal with. This can save money and time.

Maintenance and updates are done on the developer’s end, which means the latest version is what users will have access to at all times.

Finally, since the app doesn’t have to be distributed via a marketplace, you don’t have to worry about third-party agreements or terms of service.

However, there are disadvantages too. For starters, Users will have to remain online to access all functionalities. Of course, you do have HTML5 which permits application caching. So, access to previously visited pages is possible. But, then again, this is still not much of a solution.

Finally, since the app doesn’t have to be distributed via a marketplace, you don’t have to worry about third-party agreements or terms of service.

Then, there’s the issue of optimization. Mobile apps are not optimized for a specific device or OS. So, they may work exceptionally well on some devices and not so well on others.

You also have greater problems in terms of security. There are several vulnerabilities that affect sites and these same vulnerabilities affect web apps as well.

Finally, all the data is stored on a server. This leads to more queries, which, in turn, leads to greater server loads.

The Decision

The decision of which type of app is better ultimately boils down to what your business specifically requires. For instance, if your requirement is high-quality graphics and an optimized user experience, native apps are your best bet. You cannot rival them when it comes to performance and speed either.

However, web apps are great if you’re looking to reach out to a wider audience. Since they aren’t limited to a specific platform, this is possible. Web apps are also good for processing voluminous data.

So, sit down and work out your actual requirements. Once you have a really good idea of what your business needs, it becomes easier to determine which of these apps is perfect for you.

But, if you’re still confused, we at Crafted might be able to help. We’re a professional app development firm that has worked with multiple clients. We can help you figure out what’s best for the business.