Two Telltale Signs Your Site Needs A Redesign

November 30, 2018 by anoadmin

A website is an important marketing tool because it is a business’ online storefront. When people are surfing the web and come across a website, they judge it and determine whether that business is a good fit for them. There are quite a few reasons that might deter someone away from a website only to go to their competitors. One of the biggest reasons is that the site is out of date and needs a redesign. Additionally, there is more than one factor at play that can put a website into this category. Below, we’ve described two of the biggest telltale signs that a website needs a redesign.

It isn’t responsive.

Time and time again we’ve stressed the importance of having a responsive website. A responsive website has a flexible layout that is adaptable to different screen sizes and devices. For example, take a look at the three images below, each image has the same image, titles, and text despite being on three different devices.

: Mobile Version

: Desktop Version

: Tablet Version

Now more than ever, people are using mobile devices and tablets to surf the web as much as a desktop, if not more. When users have a bad mobile experience on a website, they’re less likely to shop with that business. The proof is in the pudding, check out the statistics below to see how important a responsive website truly is.

46% of people will not shop with a brand again if they had a bad mobile experience (Google, 2017)
52.2% of worldwide online activity was generated through smartphones in 2018 (Statista, 2018)
57% of mobile users will not recommend a brand with a bad mobile design (socPub)
80% of mobile users are more likely to shop with a brand with a mobile website that answers their questions quickly (Google, 2018)
Consumers have twice as many interactions with brands on their smartphone than they do with brands on TV, in-store, etc. (Google, 2017)

(Source: Blue Corona)

Your competitors have newer sites.

If your competition’s website looks significantly newer than yours, it’s time for a redesign! Potential customers surfing the web will research a few businesses before making a final purchase. Part of their research is comparing you to your competitors. This includes the look and feel of your website. Generally, we encourage clients to redesign their website AT LEAST every five years. On the other hand, this recommendation may change based on the look and navigation of your competitor’s site. Although a two-year-old website may feel new to you, potential clients may not draw the same conclusion. Remember, a quality website represents a quality business. Periodically compare your website to your competitors. Check for a fast or slow load time, easy navigation, and how responsive your site is on a smartphone, desktop, and tablet.

Need A Redesign?

Don’t panic if your site isn’t responsive or if your competitors have newer sites. This is an easy fix. Depending on your needs, a new website can be designed in as short as a few weeks or as long as a few months. Of course, the quicker you get your website redesigned the better! If you have any questions about the redesign process, just give us a call or contact us today.

Use Good Phone Etiquette

One thing that is important for success in your business is using good phone etiquette. Answering the phone promptly within in one or two rings is a big plus. Use a friendly, welcoming tone; don't be abrupt or gruff. Put a smile on your face...it conveys in your voice. If you have to put the caller on hold, check back in with them - don't forget them. And, at the end of the call, be sure to "Thank" the caller. It goes a long way.

Mission Statement

Our mission at Old City Web Services is to navigate the world of web design, web development, and advertising for our clients so that they can focus on what they do best – running their business! Our business intentions go beyond the metrics of graphics, coding, and SEO. Located on Florida’s First Coast, we run a personable home front service and consider our relationship with our clients as a partnership in their success. If you are looking to increase your business’ visibility give us a call at 904-867-4112 or contact us today.

Sharing and re-posting this blog is encouraged. Please credit Old City Web Services when sharing. Photo credits: OldCityWebServices, Canva. Disclaimer: Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of information on Old City Web Services Blog.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

3 Cool Tips for Facebook Business Pages

October 18, 2018 by anoadmin

Facebook for businesses is a proven way to get your brand noticed by an array of audiences! From CTA (call to action) buttons to advertising options, the tools and resources provided by the social media platform are endless! But, to really optimize your presence and spice up your strategy, consider these three cool tips for Facebook - that you may not know about!

Keep track of your competitor’s activity with “Pages to Watch”.

Arguably so, Pages to Watch is one of Facebook's top analytic tools. If your Page has 100 to 10,000 followers, it allows you to track the progress of up to 100 pages. With information like the number of engagements a Page received in a week and what percentage their likes are up by, the Pages to Watch tool allows you to compare your Page to other Pages even if you don't follow them!

A screenshot of Facebook insight tool, Pages to Watch.

A screenshot of Facebook's Insight tool, Pages to Watch.

This can be extremely useful when you're thinking about your Facebook strategy. You can follow Pages in your industry and measure their success week by week. If they prove to be successful, it may be worth checking out their page to see what they're doing right! In the same respect, you can see which Pages are doing poorly and check out their Page as an example of what not to do.

To add to and find your Pages to Watch section, click the Insights tab on the top of your Page and scroll to the bottom.

Turn your cover photo into a slideshow.

Most businesses get traffic coming from their posts' in the News Feed and not from their actual Facebook Page. However, you still need to optimize your Page for the users who are visiting it. One sure way to do this is by adding a slideshow to your cover photo. It allows you the opportunity to show your audience several aspects of your business. For example, sightseeing tours and charters might find it useful to showcase several tours here; a restaurant may find it a great place to show off their specials of the week or a few well-known dishes; boutiques and gift shops may find this as a great space to promote several sales or campaigns they are running; realtors could find displaying several properties here as beneficial! With a recommended image size of 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall, this is the most prominent area on your Facebook Page and is sure to draw the eye of visitors!

Why not give them more to look at?

News Feed Targeting can help you target your ideal customers.

Facebook Business Page options allow you to target specific audiences for each of your posts! Similar to Ads Manager, Facebook allows you to narrow down an audience by their interests, language, age, gender, and even their relationship status and education level! By segmenting individual page posts with these criteria, you can concentrate on the audience you think will benefit most from your post.

Create unique audiences by going to the options at the bottom of each post. Click on the Public tab and three options will appear under it: Public, Restricted Audience, and News Feed Targeting. If News Feed Targeting doesn’t appear, you need to activate this setting for your page. Click the Settings tab in the top right corner of your Page; next, click the General tab; click the Edit tab next to Audience Optimization for Posts; check the box that says, “Allow preferred audience selection and the ability to restrict the audience for your post.”; click the Save Changes tab.

A screenshot of General Facebook settings.

We hope you've found these three tips for Facebook useful! If you want more tips or have a follow-up question, send us an email!

Mission Statement

Website Terms to Know

October 4, 2018 by anoadmin

Most businesses hire a web firm to navigate the enigma that is the web world. From registering your domain to ensuring responsiveness, web firms take care of the nuances of your website. However, it’s important that the information they give you is translated correctly. To help you understand your web firm better, we've created a list of frequently used terms in the web world.

Website Terms

CMS (Content Management System) - A CMS is software that is used to manage your website content for your website. It may allow multiple people to manage a website's content and is usually internet based. One example is WordPress.

Development - This is the act of programming or coding that creates features and functions so that a design concept can be built into a website.

Development Site - An alias website with a different domain than that of the actual website. While a site is being built or undergoing a redesign, a development site is used. The purpose of a development site is to have a private space to build a website.

Design - The overall appearance of a website including colors, fonts, images, spacing, and style.

Domain Name - A domain is the name of your website and where users can access your site on the internet.

IP Address (Internet Protocol Address) - An IP address is a unique set of numbers that are separated by periods. Each series of numbers identifies the computer or server that a website is hosted on; think of it as the street address of where your website resides.

Open Source CMS - Software that is open to the public to create, edit, and transform and is usually free. In most cases, no single individual owns an open source CMS, rather, a community of developers and programmers work simultaneously to improve it.

Plugins - Plugins are functions that you add to your website such as a calendar, a reservation bar, a scheduling bar, or to convert to an eCommerce site.

Responsive - Responsiveness is a website's capability to adapt to different devices. Design and functionalities of a responsive website stay intact whether the website is being viewed on a desktop, smartphone, or tablet.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) - SEO is the act of using techniques, strategies, and content to help a website appear at the top of the SERP (search engine results page) allowing the maximum number of people to visit your website. Google is an example of a search engine.

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) - An SSL certificate is a technology that encrypts information between the web server and a browser; it is an extra level of security for your website that protects you and visitors. Read about Google's part in promoting SSL certificates.

Themes - A theme is the underlying functionality of a website.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator) - A URL is the address of a web page; each web page has a different URL. URLs, links, and web addresses are interchangeable words. An example of a URL is https://oldcitywebservices.com/services/.

User Interface - The user interface is how users navigate a website after landing on a web page. This includes menus, the layout of the text, contact forms, buttons and more. A designer and developer must consider and optimize the user interface to make the user experience as friendly as possible.

Web Host - A web host is a business that provides the servers where your website files are located so that they can be accessed through the Internet.

WordPress - WordPress is an open source CMS that we encourage clients to build their websites on. WordPress offers over 45,000 quality plugins, exceeding offers from Drupal or Joomla (which are rivalry CMS').

Tip for Success – Research, examine and execute.

This list of terms may have opened your eyes to areas that your website is lacking in. But, if you’re website is lacking several characteristics, you may be asking yourself “Where do I start?” and “What can I afford?” The best thing to do is research, examine and execute.

Research your website needs.

The first step is to determine what your website is lacking. You can research this by using materials like this blog of defined terms, calling Old City Web Services, or reading material online.

Examine your choices and budget.

What is the biggest piece missing from your website? If your website is missing several things, you'll have to decide what's most critical to its success. This is a great question for us, just give us a shout! We can lead you in the right direction based on your unique needs.

Execute the process.

This is the easiest step! Inform us of your final decision and we'll get the ball rolling! Remember to relax - the tough part is over and now you can lean on the trustworthy shoulders of your web firm team.

Mission Statement

Sharing and re-posting this blog is encouraged. Please credit Old City Web Services when sharing. Disclaimer: Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of information on Old City Web Services Blog.

St. Johns County Lane Closures Sept. 22-28, 2018

September 21, 2018 by anoadmin

St Johns County Lane Closures for September 22-28, 2018

Every effort has been made to make your travel as safe and worry free as possible, but sometimes there is a need for lane closures from time to time to make repairs. Below is a list of roads that are scheduled to be worked on by the Florida Department of Transportation for the week of September 22-28, 2018 in St. Johns County. Weather or unforeseen conditions may arise that will impair the scheduled workings and they will need to be rescheduled.

St Johns County

A1A (Anastasia Boulevard) just south of the Bridge of Lions
Daytime lane closures Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. for construction of a new hotel.

A1A – Matanzas Inlet Bridge
Southbound and northbound lanes are narrowed and shifted through fall 2018 for St. Johns County water utility work. Daytime lane closure Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. for water main and force main pipe replacement.

State Road A1A from North of King Street to Picolata Road (436161-1-52-01)
Nighttime lane closures Sunday through Thursday from 9:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. for work related to a resurfacing project.

State Road A1A South
Daytime lane closures with flaggers Monday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 8266 State Road A1A for drainage pipe replacement.

San Marco Avenue from May Street to Nelmar Avenue (434556-1 & 210452-4)
Nighttime lane closures Sunday through Friday from 9:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. for work related to the intersection project.

State Road 13 from State Road 16 to north of Collier Road
Daytime lane closures Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. for equipment placement and material removal.

State Road 206 over the Matanzas River ICWW
Daytime lane closures Thursday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. for routine bridge maintenance.

U.S. 1 South from Godwin Road to Favor Dikes Road
Daytime lane closures Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. for shoulder repairs.

U.S. 1 from West San Carlos Avenue to Dismukes Street (434556-1 & 210452-4)
Nighttime lane closures Sunday through Friday from 9:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. for work related to the intersection project.

West San Carlos Avenue from San Marco Avenue to U.S. 1 (434556-1 & 210452-4)
Nighttime lane closures Sunday through Friday from 9:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. for work related to the intersection project.

For More Information Please Contact:

FDOT Communications Manager
Tracy Hisler-Pace, 386-758-3714
Tracy.Hisler-Pace@dot.state.fl.us

FDOT Communications Specialist
Troy Roberts, 386-961-7830
Troy.Roberts@dot.state.fl.us

FDOT Communications Specialist
Emma Donestevez, 386-961-7837
Emilia.Donestevez@dot.state.fl.us

See the latest blog posts, visit http://www.nflroads.com/Blog

Stay Informed:

Use the FL511 app, dial 511 or go to http://www.fl511.comm to find out if your route has any traffic incidents. Sign up to receive free personalized alerts by phone, text or e-mail.

Images: Seo and Accessibility Do’s/Don’ts

September 7, 2018 by anoadmin

Websites are a marketing piece that consumers use to learn about products and services. But, what if your website isn’t accessible to everyone? For example, what if your website isn’t user-friendly to American’s with disabilities that use screen readers to navigate the internet? Although many businesses are not in spaces that require ADA compliant websites, SEO and accessibility are imperative for every website.

Optimizing your images, videos, and other non-text elements for screen readers is a sure way to make your website more accessible. But, many times the way you optimize for a screen reader can conflict with the way you optimize for search engines. So, we’ve devised a list of do’s and don’ts to help you navigate improving the accessibility of your images, videos, and non-text elements without compromising SEO.

Do This

Do write alt attributes for people and not just for search engine robots. This way, when a person using a screen reader visits your site, the description of the image makes sense. See Figure 1's caption for an example.
Figure 1: An appropriate alt attribute for this photo is, "A photo of a tan french bulldog laying down." This is a good alt attribute because it is short and accurately describes the image.
Do keep alt attributes short, sweet, and to the point. If you have a detailed photo and would like to add more information put it in a caption or in the body text. Most screen readers are programmed to read up to 125 characters in an alt attribute.
Do use the word "null" for decorative images. A decorative image is an image that doesn't make the content of a website richer; it serves solely as a decoration. "Null" signifies to screen readers and search engines that the image isn't crucial and it can safely be ignored.
Do use terms like "Figure 1:", "Image 1:", or "Illustration 1:" to describe the image you are captioning if you have many images on a single page. This way, persons using assistive technology will know exactly which image you are referring to.
Do provide full transcripts for videos and audio. This is twofold as it assists those using screen readers and helps search engines understand the content of non-text elements.

Confused about the "do's" above? No problem, give us a call and we'll explain them to you.

Do Not Do This

Do not use an alt attribute for an image with a link attached if there is anchor text near the image with the same link attached. Screen readers will read the anchor text and alt attribute for the image, so it will sound repetitive and weird. Instead, use "null" as the alt attribute for your image. From an SEO perspective, it isn't ideal to skip an alt attribute for an image you'd like to appear in search engine results. In this case, we recommend attaching the link to the anchor text and not the image, this way you can optimize the image by adding the appropriate alt attribute.
Figure 2: An example of a text graphic.
Do not use an alt attribute if you've used a caption unless you enter completely different text in each. Screen readers will read both the caption and alt attribute for images, videos, and other non-text elements; it will sound repetitive if you use similar descriptions.
Do not try to convey the information from your infographic in an alt attribute. Screen readers aren't programmed to read long alt attributes. In the same respect, it is important that a person using a screen reader has access to the information from the infographic. Be sure to describe your infographic in the text of the body or in a caption.
Do not use text-graphics when possible, unless it is for your logo. Instead, write the text out and find a more appropriate image.

If you need help with SEO or the accessibility of your website, contact us!

Tip for Success - Backing Up Your Files

We often hear about the importance of securing personal information to keep it safe from hackers. But, it is just as important to secure your business information. The heightened threat of ransomware, hackers, and phishing emails all point to one thing: it is critical to make good backups for your business files.

Additionally, it won’t cost you a lot of money. In fact, it will save you money in the long run because not getting hacked means you can avoid paying to fix computers when your computer has been hacked and someone is holding your files hostage. If you are a small business, like us, you can purchase external storage devices to back up your files on. But remember, after backing up you must remove the device from your computer.

Backing up is also helpful during this time of the year when hurricanes are brewing, and you may not have the space to take all your office computers with you. It is easy to pack a one, two, or three terabyte external storage device and off you go! It will save you time and money!

Mission Statement

Sharing and re-posting this blog is encouraged. Please credit Old City Web Services when sharing. Disclaimer: Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of information on Old City Web Services Blog. Photo credits: Old City Web Services.

Your Easy Season Business Checklist

August 15, 2018 by anoadmin

Easy Season Guy

St. Augustine locals have little secret, can you guess what it is? That’s right, it’s Easy Season. Years ago, Easy Season didn’t exist. But as the number of tourists who visit the City rises each year, many businesses are relieved at the thought of easy living. A time when visitors go home for a few months and locals get to enjoy the endeavors and nuances of the city they adore! Don’t get us wrong, we love visitors and sharing our beautiful city with them. But, while visitors are on vacation the hotels, bed and breakfasts, attractions, boutiques, gift shops, museums, galleries, coffee shops, restaurants, bars, and other local services are hard at work making sure these visitors have the best vacation of their lives.

Now, you can choose to plan your staycation during Easy Season and take advantage of the quaint St. George Street and that school is back in session. In fact, if you’re a St. Johns County resident you can even visit many of the area’s best attractions free of charge. While this may be greatly needed after the hustle and bustle of the Summer months, we have a more productive idea.

We challenge you to take advantage of Easy Season in a different way. Prepare for St. Augustine’s next busy season, the holidays - better known as Nights of Lights. To make your Easy Season productive, we've conducted a list of things to review before the holidays.

Hurricane Preparations

The good news is, the 2018 Atlantic Hurricane Season Prediction claims there to be only a 10% chance of above normal activity and 60% chance of a below-normal season. However, preparation is at the forefront of any good business’ checklist. Don't worry, we've got you covered with our Hurricane Preparedness Guide.

Re-identify your Ideal Customer

This shouldn't come as a surprise. In fact, it's likely you know who your ideal customer is. But, do you think the ideal customers you interacted with in the Summer are the same ideal customers you’ll interact with during Nights of Lights? It’s possible, but just in case, take the few minutes it takes to re-identify your holiday season ideal customer.

Reassess Your Marketing Materials

Before you can advertise to your ideal customer, you must narrow down the marketing materials you’ll need. Consider freshening up your print media. If you don’t have any, you’ll need to create a budget and purchase business cards, pamphlets, or flyers. Don't forget about your website! Freshen up its look with new content on the Home Page, new products, and be sure to ditch these seven site characteristics.

Advertise to Your Ideal Customer

a photo of tourists

Now that you have your marketing materials squared away, start planning your advertising strategy. If they are living in the area, send them direct mail. If they are living out of state, advertise on a trustworthy St. Augustine travel website. If they are signed up to receive emails from you, plan an email campaign. Need more ideas? Check out this blog.

Prepare to Launch Deals and Sales

During the Nights of Lights and holiday season, many businesses in the area host sales, discounted services, or room packages to entice tourists to do business with them. Start planning the deals and sales you’ll carry out during the holiday season. Tell your employees, friends, and family to spread the word and don’t forget to push it out on social media! Additionally, consider when the best time to launch your big news is. We suggest Light Up! Night.

Holiday Hours, Extended Hours

Sure, maybe the locals know your bizarre holiday schedule. But, it's important that it's clear to visitors as well. Be sure to update your holiday hours or extended hours on each of your listings: Facebook, Google Business Listing, and especially your website. This way, there will be no confusion.

Did you know, according to a 2017 report from National Retail Foundation, more than half of consumers begin research in September and October or earlier? It is just as important to create a well-thought-out holiday season strategy during these months. Take the lull in business during Easy Season to get ahead.

Tips for Success - Plan Ahead

Aligned with this blog is the idea that the early bird gets the worm. From your advertising strategy to your marketing materials, it is never too early to start planning. In fact, most times you’ll find the earlier you put things in action, the more success you have.

Not only does planning help you check things off your to-do list, it also allows room for change and creativity. For example, if you plan out your marketing materials now, you’ll have extra time to distribute your print media and announce the launch of your new or updated site.

Mission Statement

WordPress vs Squarespace

August 9, 2018 by anoadmin

Terms to Know

Open source – Software that's built and added to by the public. Open source CMS’ don’t have owners. A community of developers, programmers, businesses, individuals work on it simultaneously and have rights to the plugins and themes they create.

Themes - A theme is the underlying functionality of a website.

CMS (Content Management System) – A platform for your website that allows multiple users to manage website content, such as WordPress.

Plugins - Plugins are functions that you can add to your website such as a calendar, a reservation bar, a scheduling bar, or to convert to an eCommerce site.

Let’s Get Started

Credit: First Site Guide

So, how did we decide which builders to compare? We chose WordPress because of its long-standing reliability – which is also why we recommend it to customers. We chose Squarespace for its growing popularity. Before we get into the major differences between Squarespace and WordPress, it’s important for you to know the context in which we’re comparing the two CMS’.

Businesses that use WordPress hire a company (like Old City Web Services) to manage their site. In the same respect, businesses that use Squarespace for their site manage it on their own, without ownership or the expertise of search engine optimizers and designers.

Limited Design Capabilities with Squarespace

WordPress

Businesses depend on designers and developers to create a website that accurately portrays their business, even if that owner knows how to work their way through a WordPress site. Designers have a trained eye for critical architect-based issues, they know how to make your site responsive on every device, and they know how to grab the attention of users.

Squarespace

Initially, Squarespace is less expensive than hiring a company to build your site. With easy-to-navigate templates and simple, appealing design, anyone could build a website on this software and have it running in a day. But with this quick fix comes some downfalls to be aware of. Your choices of the themes and plugins are extremely limited. You also risk building a biased site that you think is great, but customers might not feel the same about.

A DIY Squarespace website with a DIY logo on the Home Page. As you can see, there is no clear call to action on the Home Page, the logo is distracting, and the image quality isn't great. These are all common mistakes you can avoid by hiring a designer.

You Don’t Own Your Squarespace Site

WordPress

You legally own the rights to templates and plugins you purchase for your WordPress site. Contrary to that, if you wanted to move your site from WordPress to Joomla or Drupal, you won't be able to use those plugins in the new CMS. However, this is usually a non-issue for people. The versatility of open source CMS' is way beyond that of CMS' like Squarespace. So in a scenario where you're already using an open source CMS, you're unlikely to feel the need to move it, because they don't have the same limitations as Squarespace.

Squarespace

In the section above “Design”, we spoke a little on the disadvantages of designing a site yourself. Now, Squarespace may help you with some design issues such as by providing you with templates that you can insert content or images into. However, that is not your property. They own your domain. If you ever wanted to merge your website over to a more versatile software such as WordPress, Joomla, or Dubla you can’t take your Squarespace site, themes, or plugins with you. To move your content to another CMS, you'd have to copy and paste it from Squarespace.

Additionally, unlike WordPress, Joomla or Drupal, Squarespace doesn't back up your site for you. If you're adding content to the backend of your site, Squarespace doesn't save your earlier drafts. In case you need to refer back to old content, they only recommended that you copy and paste your content into a word document and save it. WordPress, on the other hand, keeps a record of your revisions.

SEO is More Difficult & More Expensive When You DIY

WordPress

There are plugins available for your WordPress site that can help you with SEO. One of the most popular ones is Yoast, which is easy to use and approaches SEO with a step-by-step mentality. Furthermore, Yoast offers a free version of the plugin that is suitable for many of our customers. The free version of Yoast focuses on keyword optimization, calculation of the Flesch reading score of your content, technicalities in code, along with checking for duplicate content.

Squarespace

While Squarespace has a few plugins, they have nowhere near as many as WordPress. The majority of Squarespace plugins are generic, such as social media icons, photo galleries, and accordions. This means you’ll have to hire extra help with optimizing your site so that it ranks in Google and other search engines. Of course, you can always attempt to optimize your site for search engines yourself. But, this trial and error method will take up a lot of your time.

To Sum it Up...

Since we’ve told you All About the Benefits of WordPress, we thought we should also shed light on the major differences between WordPress and DIY (do-it-yourself) website builders. Using a DIY website builder runs the same risks as creating a DIY logo. In fact, most of the time we recommend our clients only use opensource CMS’ like WordPress and hire a team to build the site for them. We hope this information was helpful!

Tip for Success

Bobby here with another Tip for Success about the risks associated with building a site on Squarespace without a designer. Squarespace is popular because of its easy-to-use structure, right? But, just because the average person can build a website with this software, doesn’t guarantee the finished product is rock solid. To understand this, its important to know the fundamentals of what goes into designing a site.

The task of a designer goes beyond the metrics of color schemes and placement. In fact, a good designer will analyze every characteristic of the page: the navigation, the padding around text blocks and images, the amount of text, the spacing and readability of the font, the sizes of images, the quality of images, the flow of the page, and so much more. The key to successfully doing this is being objective and unbiased – which designers are trained to do!

Mission Statement

Local Social Media Campaigns

July 24, 2018 by anoadmin

There are three overall reasons to conduct an online campaign. In the text below, we’ll explain each scenario for you. Then, we'll give you an example of a successful local campaign that you can follow when it comes time for your business to launch a campaign of its own.

Note: Social media is only one of the methods you can use to promote your product, brand, or launch. A few other methods include optimizing your website and content, SEO, and pay per click ads on Google and other search engines.

Monetization Campaign

Chick-fil-A fans may not know it, but this is a method of word-of-mouth advertising.

A monetization campaign’s intent is to get your customers to generate sales from existing customers or fans. The best way to do this is by encouraging your ideal customers to promote and advocate for your business.

Chick-fil-A

If you haven’t heard by now, cows around the world want you to eat more chicken, or so says Chick-fil-A. On Cow Appreciation Day, Chick-fil-A promised a free entree to any customer dressed like a cow. Hundreds of people witnessed posts of diners dressed up on social media as did hundreds of people witness their costumes in public. The core of a monetization campaign is to generate revenue from existing leads. Although Chick-fil-A may have lost money on that day by giving away free entrees, customers along with people who noticed their customers dressed as cows, are likely to come back and spend money at the restaurant.

Fun Fact: In 2017, 1.8 million people participated in Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A.

Engagement Campaign

An engagement campaign’s purpose is to create brand advocates and get people involved with your brand. The key component in this is to gain excitement that will become profit.

St. Augustine Police Department

St. Augustine Police Department Facebook Post

St. Augustine Police Department's #lipsyncchallenege Facebook post. Photo credit: St. Augustine Police Department.Recently, the St. Augustine Police Department launched a campaign with the hopes that they would gain a larger audience. On July 10, 2018, the SAPD posted on Facebook that their department would compete in the #lipsyncingchallenge. However, they also told followers that the only way they would compete was if their Facebook Page reached 9,000 following and likes. In only a few days, their page (which had roughly 7,000 follows and likes to begin with) gained the 2,000 follows and likes they wanted. They engaged followers with the Facebook challenge and reached their goal of 9,000 follows and likes.

If you follow them, chances are you’ve witnessed another one of their social media campaigns in action, the #9PMRoutine. Although this is more of a monetization campaign (because it generates revenue - or in this case safety), it gets a lot of engagement on Facebook – which results in more locked cars and crime-free nights.

Watch the St. Augustine Police Department's #lipsyncingchallenge here.

Acquisition Campaign

The lounge area of newly renovated The Hyppo Coffee Bar.

The purpose of an acquisition campaign is to acquire new prospects and customers. The key elements needed to execute this are awareness and converting old customers into new customers.

The Hyppo Coffee Bar

Although The Hyppo Cafe (located on 312) has always sold coffee, in May they decided to put an emphasis on coffee beverages and rename the restaurant The Hyppo Coffee Bar. This satisfies the conversion element of their campaign; we can assume the emphasis on coffee beverages was to acquire new prospects from old customers.

On May 4, The Hyppo announced on Facebook and Instagram, that they were closing for renovations and rebranding. They followed up with educational content provided in another post. Additionally, they let the community know why they were making these changes and how important our support is to them. Finally, a week later they teased followers with a photo of a recently painted mural inside the new cafe.

This is great information, but my company doesn’t market online.

We agree some of the best advertising methods include print material like pamphlets, brochures, billboards, and direct mail. But, online presence is increasing every year. In fact, according to Pew Research, 77% of Americans go online every day; additionally, 8% of that group goes online only once a day; in the last three years, “constant” online activity in the US has increased by 5%. So, although we promote the old-fashioned offline marketing, it is just as important to reach your ideal customers online.

(Source.)

Tip For Success

While website platforms like WIX and Squarespace seem worthwhile at first, there are serious risks associated with them. For example, did you know that these platforms use template designs? This means that the versatility and functionality of your site is extremely limited. Additionally, the software they use is “proprietary” meaning that the brand (like WIX or Squarespace) fundamentally own the abilities of your site. So, if years down the road you’d like to add an e-commerce function, you’d not only have to move your site elsewhere (because they don’t have e-commerce capabilities) but you’d also have to start from scratch. Starting off, the initial costs of these platforms won’t burn a hole in your pocket, but they will cost you more in the long run.

Mission Statement

A Few FAQ About Email

July 13, 2018 by anoadmin

Let's face it, the days of checking your inbox once a week are long gone.

Communication is a huge component of every business and emailing is a simple way to communicate efficiently. But why does it have to be so complicated?! No worries, we've answered some of our clients most FAQ about email for your convenience.

FAQ About Email

What is an email client and how do I set it up?

An email client is a software program that you download to your desktop, phone, or tablet. It allows you to receive, send, compose, and read emails. The most popular clients include Windows Live, Thunderbird, Gmail, and Microsoft Outlook. Your email address (example@domain.com) will look different depending on your email client. For example, domains registered with Gmail often end in @gmail.com or at @google.com.

Setting up your email client is easy! Go to the app store on your device and type in the name of the client you need. Download it and enter your information!

If you host your email with us, watch the tutorials from our Help Desk and read this blog to learn how to setup your email in a browser and on a desktop or device.

What is an alias?

With an alias email, nobody has to know what your actual email address is.

An alias email address has no username, password, or means for storage, it is only an address. Essentially, it is used to forward messages to other email addresses. These are two scenarios in which an alias is beneficial:

If you would like a contact form to send inquiries to several addresses (also known as fanning out). This way, there are multiple people receiving that email. Like Cecile, CEO of Old City Web Services, once asked "Do you have a contact form on your website? Are you the only one that is set up to receive it? What happens when you go on vacation, are out sick, or have a family emergency?"
If an employee is no longer working for you and you want to receive the emails they received; you can set up their email address as an alias and their emails will get sent to you.

What are phishing emails?

Phishing is a type of email scam. More specifically, its when spammers send an email appearing to be from a legitimate business like a bank, insurance company, credit card distributor etc. The phishing email asks you to validate or provide sensitive information such as your birthdate, a part of your social security number, credit card information, passwords, and account numbers. Phishing is a spin on fishing, scammers are dangling a fake lure (or email) hoping users will ‘bite’ (send sensitive information).

Warning: If you suspect you’ve received a phishing email, do not click any links in it. You could possibly download malware or ransomware to your device.

How can I identify them?

If the email was truly from a legitimate business, the email would address you by name instead of by a variation of “Dear Customer”.
A phishing email will have an excuse to contact you that is similar to: there have been too many attempts to log in, your account was double charged due to a system error, your account has been suspended etc. If it seems fishy, chances are its a phishing email.
Bad grammar or misspellings are a huge clue. In an age where autocorrect is included in most email clients and software, professional emails should have no grammatical errors.
Check the links on the page. 1) The links should lead to the business' legitimate website. 2) Every link should have a different destination.

This example is from our last blog "Get More Clicks on Your Expanded Listing". As you can see, if you hover over a link, the destination URL will appear in the bottom left corner of your screen.

What is a blacklist?

A blacklist is a list of email addresses that you have blocked from sending you emails. Once you mark an address as blocked you will not get any emails from that sender, so always be cautious in choosing which addresses you block. Additionally, if you accidentally add an address to your blacklist that you'd like to receive emails from, you must add them to your whitelist.

How do I create a blacklist?

If you host your email with us, the steps are simple!

Go to mail.oldcity.com and log in.
Click on "Mailbox Filters" at the top of the page.
Add email addresses.
Click on "Save".

What do I do if I forgot my password?

For security purposes, we do not keep a file of email passwords. Instead, we can reset your password for you and provide you with the new password. If you host your email with us and forget your password, then contact us.

If you don't host your email with us, click on "forgot password" on the login page.

What should I do if I have a problem sending or receiving emails?

Unfortunately, there is no easy answer as to what the problem could be. Possible issues include: your email client settings aren't set up correctly, there is a block on the server hosting your email address, there is a block on the server hosting a sender's email address, your internet connection is weak or nonexistent. The best thing to do is go to our Help Desk.

Do you want to learn about email marketing? Read these 6 quick tips!

Email Etiquette

Back in the day, it used to be that your email was only set up on your desktop. Nowadays, I can bet that your email is set up on your phone, tablets, desktop, and laptop! While it might be tempting to click “reply” and type up a quick response from your phone, your personal and professional image can suffer from a bad email. The downside to that is that writing good emails takes time. So, here are four reminders that will shorten the time you spend in your inbox.

Answer emails as soon as you open them. If you aren’t going to respond right away, wait to open the email.
Blacklist all spam emails, because in the time it takes you to figure out it’s a spam mail you could have read another important email.
Don’t feel pressured to engage in small talk! That’s what texting is for.
Be sure to set up your signature on your phone and tablets and not just on your desktop and laptop.

Mission Statement

Get More Clicks on Your Expanded Listing

June 29, 2018 by anoadmin

Where will you place your ad? What will the title be? What image will you use to showcase your business? Since the text in a listing is limited, how will you describe your business in a few words? In this article, we'll walk you through how to get more clicks and improve your existing or recently purchased expanded listing.

Note: The following applies to expanded listings as well as super-expanded listings.

Advertisement placement is key.

If you only have room in your budget to advertise on one or two pages, you must narrow down your options by considering your ideal customer. Ask yourself, which pages are they going to visit? For example, a hotel in the Historic District whose ideal customers are typically married is not likely to need to advertise on the Weddings Page. However, if that same hotel sees an influx of wedding bookings during a specific time of year, they should place an ad on the Weddings Page during that time.

Don’t forget about the Calendar Page! Locals, travelers, and all types of ideal customers travel to this page to find events. Note: Expanded listings and super expanding listings are not permitted on the Calendar Page, but button and banner ads are.

Choose from Where to Stay, Things to Do, Where to Eat, The Community, and all of our subpages.

Keep the title of your expanded listing short and sweet.

You have a few seconds to get the attention of users on a website. In these seconds, users decide whether they’re interested in an advertisement by glancing at titles and images. The title of your expanded listing should be inviting and uncomplicated. Most of the time this is a non-issue, as people often use the name of their business as the title. In the same token, don't be afraid to use a tagline or a call to action as your title! Keep in mind, titles on OldCity.com should exceed no more than 40 characters. If they do they might run to a second line and create negative attention for your advertisement. Thinking about switching up your title? Send us your ideas!

Quality imagery gets more clicks.

This is the photo Blue Dolphin Beachfront Cottage uses for their expanded listing. It has proven to be successful in their monthly statistics report.

The imagery on your expanded listing is as important as your title. Again, you only have a few seconds to capture the attention of users and can easily do this by making your ad pop-out with compelling photos! Imagery should be professional and accurately represent your business.

As our designer, Bobby Jones once said, “A poorly shot photo reflects poorly on your business and speaks to your consumer subtly about the quality of what you are offering them. It could be the difference between choosing you or your competitor. Look at professional photography as a worthwhile investment in your success.”

Keep in mind, the expanded listings on OldCity.com only permit one photo, if you’d like to display several photos upgrade to a super-expanded listing.

The text in your advertisement must be authentic.

The title of your expanded listing is your hook; the image is your line; the text is your sinker. You were able to hook and reel in a user with your title and image and now they’re reading the text. Is it captivating enough?

expanded-listing-text-descriptive

The text in Petit Bout de France's expanded listing was created by Kim Yerty.Your ad's text needs to: educate users about the perks of doing business with you, hold the reader’s attention, and accurately describe your service. Avoid using cheesy words like magnificent, award-winning, exciting; instead use words like charming, excellent, thrilling. Additionally, try not to mention that your business is the "best of" on sites like TripAdvisor; instead, describe what got you great reviews in the first place! Check out Petit Bout de France's expanded listing for an example of great text.

Don't set and forget your expanded listing advertisement.

Remember to tweak your expanded listing advertisement occasionally. This especially applies prior to holidays like the 4th of July, St. Augustine's Nights of Lights, Valentine's Day, and Summertime! You can easily do this by editing the text to correspond with the time of year and switching your image with a festive one.

If you have more questions about advertising on OldCity.com, check out these frequently asked questions.

Image contains screenshots of a secure address bar and not secure address bar. Does the web address bar show in red "Not Secure" before your business' URL? Then you know that your site needs an SSL certificate added to it. July 1 was the deadline to have one added. This is not just for e-commerce sites anymore. A viewer to your site needs to know they are safe to visit even if it is to just look. Your hosting provider will be able to help you with this in case you don't have one. Don't let your competitor rank ahead of you just because their site is secure! Any questions - give us a call!

Mission Statement

Our mission at Old City Web Services is to navigate the world of web design, web development, and advertising for our clients so that they can focus on what they do best – manage their business! Our business intentions go beyond the metrics of graphics, coding, and SEO. Located on Florida’s First Coast, we run a personable home front service and consider our relationship with our clients as a partnership in their success. If you are looking to increase your business’ visibility give us a call at 904-867-4112 or contact us today.

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Disclaimer: Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of information on Old City Web Services Blog.
Photo credits: Old City Web Services, Blue Dolphin Beachfront Cottage, Petit Bout de France, OldCity.com