Author Archives: Local Buzz

Why We Love WordPress

We use a WordPress platform for many of the websites we build. (Check out our website design portfolio by clicking here). WordPress is very customizable from a design and development point of view and very easy to manage from a clients point of view. And your website will definitely not look like a template – we only make custom websites here!

Here are just a few reasons why we LOVE WordPress and why we use it often:

Low Cost and Time Effective
Our clients love the fact that they do not have to call us to make edits to their website. The fact that our clients are able to edit their own website as needed, at their convenience, saves them a lot of time and money.

Easy to Use
Our customers are usually amazed at how easy it is to make changes to their own custom website. It is easy to add/edit/update text, add a new blog post, add/delete images and so much more. A WordPress Content Management System is designed with the end user in mind.

Access Your Website Anywhere
If you have Internet access, then you can access your WordPress administration panel from anywhere in the world. You do not have to change any files by logging into a File Transfer Protocol like Filezilla. All you would do is use the username and password we provide to login to your WordPress website and Viola! You will be able to make any live edits to your website from anywhere.

Highly Customizable
Wordpress is a development platform that we obviously love to use. We are able to build extremely complex websites, not template sites, that are custom, beautiful, professional, affordable and creative. There are ZERO limitations when it comes to using WordPress since we custom make all of the websites at Local Buzz.

These are just a few of the reasons why we love working with WordPress and why we know you will love your new WordPress website too.

Consumers are 71% More Likely to Purchase Based on Social Media Referrals

Word-of-Mouth and Online Customer Reviews are changing the Marketing World

Great article on Hubspot about why social media marketing is more important than ever for businesses of all sizes.

“Inbound marketing is a vital technique for businesses to learn. Research continually shows that consumers are averse to traditional marketing techniques; in-your-face advertisements and relentless communications are a thing of the past.”

So why should your business start social media marketing?

  • 71% of consumers more likely to purchase when referred by social media
  • 63% of social media users feel consumer ratings are #1
  • 90% of consumers believe brand recommendations from their friends.
  • 70% believe consumer opinions – this means people trust strangers over advertisements
  • 61% of consumers use search engines to read about products or services before a purchase

These statistics show social media is not a fad. Social media is here to stay and is growing rapidly in popularity. Keeping up with your business social media profiles and gaining followers is also a great way to increase customer retention rates and to keep an on-going interactive relationship with your customers.

Social Media is no longer a Luxury. It is a Necessity.

Social media used to only be for big businesses with big marketing budgets. Now small and medium sized businesses can greatly benefit from social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+, Blogging, Tumblr, Flickr and others. With all these social media websites to choose from it may seem daunting to figure out the right social media strategy for your business.

Many small businesses find it difficult to allocate the proper time and resources to the social media platform(s) that will benefit their business the most. However, social media marketing should not be ignored considering the very real benefit and quantifiable results that social media marketing offers.

Some benefits of social media marketing include:

  • Word-of-mouth advertising
  • Increased customer loyalty
  • Increased website traffic
  • Increased exposure
  • Improved sales
  • Higher search engine rankings
  • Company branding

A well planned social media marketing strategy involves planning and developing a course of action which will result in achievable and optimized goals. In order to determine how effective your social media strategy is and which social media platforms are paying off, you need to track your results with quantifiable tools and analytics.

Tips to start your social media marketing campaign:

  1. Integrate social media websites with your business and marketing materials
  2. Share valuable, educational and engaging content
  3. Start discussions and keep your audience engaged by asking questions
  4. Use a social media platform for customer support and feedback
  5. Choose the social media platforms that make sense for your business. This should be where most of your target audience spends their online time.

Search Engine Optimization for Small Business

Over 90% of potential customers turn to search engines such as Google to find local businesses. Appearing higher in search engine results is the most important and significant factor in growing your business. If you are not advertising your business where potential customers are looking for your products and services then you are missing out on a substantial customer base.

The goal of search engine optimization is to grow your customer base and bring more traffic to your website by optimizing the quality and focus of your website’s content.

Here are a few tips on how to start ranking higher on search engines:

Keyword Research: determine which keywords and phrases to target by examining search volume, how difficult it is to rank each keyword or phrase, and the conversion rate of website visitors for each keyword and/or phrase. Using specialized metrics for each of these will help build a plan for targeting the most worthwhile terms that will have the largest earning potentials.

On-Page Search Engine Optimization: improve the quality of content on each page by targeting specific keyword phrases. This would include optimizing design, user experience, keyword use, and meta titles and descriptions.

Web Browser and Mobile Phone/Tablet Compatibility: ensure that the website’s
information is optimal for search engines to crawl and compatible for web browsers such as Safari, FireFox, Chrome, Internet Explorer and Opera. Also display website beautifully on all mobile phones, tablets and a wide variety of other devices.

Social Media Marketing: grow your company following on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest and many other emerging social communities to build more web and foot traffic and positive brand awareness.

Back Links and Link Building: determine web sources for external links to acquire back links to your website.

Website Analytics – measure and track performance to ensure continuing on a successful SEO track and fixing mistakes or phrases that do not convert.

We know that starting a business can be a costly endeavor, and most small business owners have a limited budget to spend on their website and online marketing. That is why we deliver a professional and effective strategy that is less costly than the competition and delivers measurable results.

Call Local Buzz today for a free consultation at 732-447-6640.

Benefits of a Responsive Website Design

A responsive website is a website that resizes and responds to virtually any device ranging from desktop computers to laptops to tablets to mobile phones to TVs and more. A responsive website is quickly becoming the standard in modern web design.

responsive website design nj

What is the main benefit of a responsive website?

By having a responsive website design you are saving your resources by only creating one website that will adjust to any screen size. You won’t need to create a separate mobile or tablet website because your existing website will smoothly transition to other devices. Your customers need to be able to view your website regardless of mobile device or screen size.

A Responsive Design saves time and money

When a new device is introduced into the marketplace, you are not required to have a new website designed specifically for that device. Your current responsive website will be able to adapt beautifully to fit these new devices, and no additional time or money is needed. The upkeep is much more simple.

Responsive website design improves Search Engine Optimization

A responsive website has the same URL across all devices. This means that your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy can focus on one single website which will allow for a higher ranking. This is also very useful when users share your website link on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Users will be able to go directly to your website regardless of device.

Google’s search engine ranking algorithm favors websites that are optimized for mobile searches. So if you have implemented a search engine optimization strategy on your responsive website it will be ranked higher on Google than your competitors who have separate mobile websites. This will give you a competitive advantage since responsive design is fairly new and your competitors, especially if you are a small business, have probably not implemented this strategy.