An Article About Heritage Web Solutions

What follows is an interesting article about Heritage Web Solutions originally seen in the Salt Lake Tribune -

Utah-based Firms among fastest growing

Heritage Web of Provo shot up by 3,400 percent over four years
By Paul Beebe
The Salt Lake Tribune

"How do you manage a company that grew by more than 3,400 percent from 2003 to the end of last year?

A big part of the answer is looking inward for talented leaders instead of bringing outsiders into the company, says Brad Stone, chief executive officer of Heritage Web Solutions, a Provo Web site design and programming business.

Heritage's revenue reached $8.2 million last year after growing by 3,443 percent over the four-year period. The blistering pace put Heritage near the top of Inc. magazine's latest inventory of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States. The list, which usually catalogs 500 companies, was expanded to 5,000 this year.

"It's been a home-grown group of leaders. We've not hired anyone from the outside to our leadership," said Stone, ticking off a list of managers who started at the bottom of the company and worked their way into executive jobs.

The vice president of sales and marketing began as a telemarketer. The vice president of accounting doesn't have an accounting degree; he was hired to compile statistics the company thought it should track. The manager in charge of Web design started as a designer, Stone said.

"I think coming up through the ranks is key for them to think as we think and to make decision the way we would make decisions. You bring someone in from the outside, they have their own style and sometimes baggage that's really not conducive to how we do things."

Heritage got started in 2001. Today the company has about 190 employees. The number moves up and down because Heritage regularly hires - and fires - workers in order to sift out marginal employees.

Heritage first spread the word about its services primarily through direct mail and telemarketing. Today, the company has shifted to the Web, spending about $100,000 a month on a pay-per-click sales campaign."

Heritage Web Solutions offers a number of different completely custom design options with a dedicated team. Call us or visit our website for details.

For more information, please visit http://www.heritagewebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

The Site Building Process

Designing a website can be an interesting and educational experience. A lot of times we tend to think of it as similar to something else; either print ads, or maybe television, billboards…it has elements of all these things, but it isn’t any of them. It is a unique and appealing medium in which to get marketing message across to your customers, in that it combines the attributes of several of the above media. It is similar to print, yet it serves the same purpose as a billboard in that you only have a few seconds to get their attention and hold it. It also has some similar features to television in that it gives you the ability to show customers flash animation and videos.

Because it combines many different kinds of media yet isn’t like any of them it is hard to know exactly what it is you want to express to your customers and how. Your designer will help you with this to some degree, but to a large extent you have to decide what the message is going to be yourself. You are the one that knows your customers the best, you know what they want, what they are after, why they want it, and how best to sell it to them and have them listen to the message you want to convey. Again, your designer can help you somewhat when it comes to how to convey it, but you must think long and hard on the above matters as they are critical to being a successful sales person for your product and / or your services.

A successful site does a few things and does them well, no matter what the subject matter is or the content.

1. Gains the viewers attention within a few seconds
   
   
2. Lets the viewer know exactly what you are about in a few seconds
   
   
3. Lets the viewer know exactly what you want them to do in a few seconds

If you are doing these things, you are doing what you need to do in order to have a successful site. Then you can concentrate on getting your viewers to stay, and more importantly, to buy.

More On SEO

Because SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is such an important subject, I felt you would benefit from more on this. The following is valuable advice when it comes to SEO, and Heritage Web Solutions is happy to provide it to you.

What is SEO or Search Engine Optimization?

Page optimization is making a website search engine friendly and making the keywords that you would like the search engines to find the site for standout. All search engines have varied algorithms but they are all trying to do the same thing, which is return relevant results to their customers. Even though all the search engines have their own algorithm known only to them they all look at the same things they just apply different weight to how important these things are. The first thing we do is find out what keywords are relevant to the sites content. If a phrase is highly competitive it will take a lot more to get to the top of the listings than if the term is not as competitive.

Page Title

Currently, the title is probably the most significant part of a website as far as search engines are concerned. No search engine optimization process is complete until you've added the keyword to the TITLE tag.

Usually it is best to place the keyword phrase to the beginning of the title. Short titles containing around 3-6 words seem to be generally preferred by search engines. In longer titles, the keyword easily gets lost in the "noise", which causes the ranking of the page to drop.

If you're going for a two or three-word phrase, try to keep it together for maximum effectiveness. "Widgets and Snorks by Joe" beats "Joe is a widgets expert and snorks guru", if the keyword phrase is "widgets and snorks".

It's Not Just For Robots

The most challenging part is creating a title that is visitor-friendly and keyword rich at the same time. Not only is the title seen by those who visit the page, but it is also clearly displayed when the page appears in the search results.

Titles that are simply collections of keywords in bizarre order can get a page to the top of the search results. However, they also tend to keep people from clicking the listing. It's hard, but try to strike a balance between search engines and humans to get the best results.

For more information, please visit http://www.heritagewebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Design Tips and Tricks part II

The following is a general list of website design tips and guidelines. Many of the following issues have been addressed in previous blog posts, some of them are tips we will go over at greater length in the future. This subject is continued from last week.

1. Above The Fold – Put enough content above the fold so visitors can make a stay or don’t stay decision without scrolling down or visiting more pages. Make sure that your conversion activities, like “add to cart” button, registration forms, etc., are above the fold.
   
   
2. Amount of Content and Images – Be careful to not make your pages too busy, especially the home page. It makes it difficult for your visitors to find what they are looking for. Too much to look at can be very confusing.
   
   
3. Images and Photos – Bad photos work better than clipart anytime. Also, a slightly imperfect photo feels much more real and believable than a glossy studio shot.
   
   
4. Phone Numbers – Use of phone numbers, and especially toll free numbers, adds to your traffic conversions in several ways. First, some consumers would rather just call than fill out a form. These calls will typically have a higher conversion rate of viewer to buyer than just filling out forms. Secondly, consumers will trust a website much more if it has a phone number prominently displayed. Put the phone number on every page and make it as easy as possible for the customer to see it.
   
   
5. Error Free – Make sure that your web pages are error free. Nothing turns a visitor off more than a broken page or a form error. With a click of the mouse they will be gone. So test every aspect of your web page functionality before opening the door for business.

These are just general rules and may or may not apply to your site design. Feel free to utilize any and all tips from these to help in developing a successful and beautiful website.

Heritage Web Solutions offers a number of different completely custom design options with a dedicated team. Call us or visit our website for details.

For more information, please visit http://www.heritagewebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.