Reach Marketing Pro

Category: Content & Strategy

  • How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy for Your Website: A Six-Step Guide

    How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy for Your Website: A Six-Step Guide

    Don’t know how to create a content marketing strategy for your website? It’s more than picking the highest volume keywords relevant to your business and using similar tactics from your competitors. It requires a data-driven approach that’s tailored to your brand’s goals and website metrics for a better ROI on your content marketing. 

    Below is a step-by-step guide on building a content strategy for your site to help get the results you’re looking for.

    How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy for Your Website in Six Steps

    Here’s how to create a content marketing strategy for your website in six steps, with best practices to follow:

    1. Clarify Your Content Goals to Structure Your Strategy

    A graphic of the three SEO content marketing funnels

    The first step to developing a content strategy for your site is understanding your goals. Do you want to build brand awareness? Increase leads? Convert more visitors? While this may be all of the above for your business, answering these questions will help determine the approach of your content strategy. 

    Website content is structured by funnel stages:

    • Top-Funnel (Awareness): How-to blogs, informational videos, etc. 
    • Middle-Funnel (Consideration): Case studies, comparison blogs, etc. 
    • Bottom-Funnel (Decision): Product pages, demo videos, etc. 

    Understanding which type of audience you want to attract ensures you create content with the right search intent. Some users may be ready to buy in the bottom funnel stage and want a short answer about your product instead of reading an in-depth blog about it. In contrast, others may be in the middle funnel stage and want to compare their options before buying. 

    Knowing the reason behind a person’s search online, combined with your goals, is critical to the success of your web content strategy. 

    2. Understand Your Target Audience to Personalize Your Content

    A graphic of a sample buyer persona template of a female marketing project manager

    Brands often have an idea of who their target audience is, but not at each funnel stage. They have different needs, concerns, and demographics at each step of their buyer’s journey—so your content strategy should be personalized for each one. 

    Before you start making content, conduct a buyer persona workshop with your team to create a general idea of who they are. You can find this specific user data on Google Analytics, customer data profiles, and past marketing campaigns. 

    There are also buyer persona templates and AI tools available that include details for you to fill out, including their age, gender, common pain points, and preferred online channels. 

    For example, the 25 to 30-year-old age range shows higher engagement metrics with your project management software demo videos than the 50 to 55 age range. The younger demographics are clicking and watching the video to learn more about your product, while the older personas are reading your case studies to determine your brand’s credibility. 

    These behaviors show that younger audiences have a more transactional intent at the bottom funnel, while older audiences have a commercial intent in the middle funnel, who want to compare providers.

    Considering these core details will help your site’s content be more targeted to the exact people you want to reach. 

    3. Conduct a Content Audit to Discover Opportunities & Areas for Improvement

    As mentioned above, you’ll need to leverage website analytics to determine the focus of your content marketing strategy. Do this by conducting a content audit of your website with tools like SEMRush, Google Search Console, and Screaming Frog. These platforms will analyze your site’s content performance and flag potential issues, like broken links, that may be impacting it.

    You may find that your blogs are bringing in the most organic traffic, so you can expand on the highest-performing topics. In contrast, you may find that your service pages are generating minimal traffic, uncovering areas for improvement with optimization, like replacing wrong search intent keywords and adding higher-quality images.

    A data-driven approach is the foundation of success if you don’t know how to create a content marketing strategy. 

    4. Decide the Type of Content to Create Based on Your Expertise, Audience, & Website Audit Metrics

    A graphic of a sample office location page for a business on a website

    After conducting a website audit and understanding who your buyer personas are at each funnel stage, you can decide the type of content to create in your strategy. This step is where you can leverage your brand’s expertise as an authority in your industry based on this information. 

    For example, if visitors are heavily entering the site from your Google Business Profile, this can be a great opportunity to create location-specific content. As a local business, you can utilize these metrics to make service location pages, like Denver Social Media Marketing, to target nearby audiences who live in these areas. 

    You can even expand upon this strategy’s success with related cluster blog topics like “What to Look for in a Denver Social Media Agency” and internally link back to your service location page. This approach is an effective way to strengthen your site’s on-page SEO and content marketing efforts.

    5. Plan Your Content Marketing Workflows

    With a better idea of the type of content to create and who you want to target, the next step is delegating who is responsible for executing these tasks. Create monthly content marketing workflows for everyone involved, such as SEO content writers and graphic designers for visuals. 

    You may need to ask website developers to embed features like calculators, maps, and social sharing buttons to produce higher-quality content. 

    These workflows should be done the month prior so they have enough time to prepare, including:

    • Assigning tasks to each assignee  
    • Scheduling a monthly content calendar
    • Organizing tasks at each production stage (plan, produce, and publish)

    Establishing an efficient process for your content marketing strategy is key to staying organized with multiple teams involved.

    6. Monitor Your Content Marketing Strategy Quarterly

    Customer behaviors change and search engine algorithms evolve, so your site’s content marketing strategies must adapt. Do this by monitoring their performance quarterly to ensure it stays successful. 

    You can use these tools to track the following key content metrics in your reports: 

    • Google Analytics 4 (GA4): Review the page views, bounce rates, and conversions to see how visitors interact with your site’s content through Exploration reports 
    • Google Search Console: Look at impressions, clicks, and positions for real-time organic search data of your content
    • SEMRush: Check rankings and keyword gaps against competitors to measure comparative content performance on search engines

    From there, you’ll know which areas of your web content strategy are working and aspects to improve for ongoing optimization.

    Work With a Content Marketing Team to Maximize Your Strategy’s Success

    A successful web content strategy requires a comprehensive understanding of your site’s analytics and target audiences, with heavy time commitments. Let us help you with the workload. 

    At Reach Marketing Pro, we’re a full-service digital agency with extensive experience in all aspects of web content marketing. From optimizing existing website content with site designers to creating data-driven blogs with SEO writers and producing custom branded visuals with graphic designers, we can strengthen your content strategy.

    Ready to see better results from your site’s content?

    Learn more about our content marketing services or contact us to get started today!

  • From Rankings to Conversions: 6 Types of SEO Content to Boost Site Performance

    From Rankings to Conversions: 6 Types of SEO Content to Boost Site Performance

    You know the importance of creating content for SEO. But, do you understand the main types of SEO content and when it’s best to use each one for your website? With unique frameworks and search engine guidelines, knowing their differences is key to maximizing ROI on your content marketing efforts. 

    Whether you want to boost conversions or increase keyword rankings, learn how to optimize your site’s online performance with these SEO content categories.

    6 Types of SEO Content for Websites & How to Create Them for Optimal Online Performance

    Below are the six main types of SEO content used for websites, their key differences, and how to create each one with the best practices to follow.

    1. Cornerstone Content

    Think of cornerstone content as your foundation for constructing a home. It’s what you’ll start with and build upon when creating future content. Also known as pillar content, it focuses on broader topics that you want your site to rank for and will eventually be expanded upon into more specific subtopics. 

    The purpose of cornerstone content is to bring evergreen SEO value to your website. It helps increase traffic and brand awareness by becoming a high-value resource specific to your industry. These are typically long-form and top-funnel-focused as they’re intended to attract readers and educate them.

    If your business is a Chicago apartment property management company, a cornerstone content example would be creating a general Chicago neighborhood guide for renters. You should include key information that apartment seekers look for online, including the different Chicago boroughs, an embedded map, their rental market rates, budgeting advice, and leasing tips. This can be used as a blog or as a pillar page on your site, which we’ll detail further below.

    Screenshot of the Luxury Chicago Apartments Chicago Neighborhoods website page
    Source: Luxury Chicago Apartments

    From there, you can create subtopic blogs or pages that dive deeper into Chicago neighborhoods, their top highlights, and why it’s worth living there as a renter while internally linking to your cornerstone content. 

    Screenshot of the Luxury Chicago Apartments downtown Chicago website page
    Source: Luxury Chicago Apartments

    Cornerstone content is an effective way to start and execute an SEO content strategy successfully.

    2. Pillar Pages

    Pillar pages are a type of cornerstone content. They’re intended to establish authority on a broader topic by being placed in a key area of your website, typically in the navigation bar and footer. That’s why cornerstone content is also known as SEO pillar content. 

    If your business is a web design studio that wants to promote its virtual trade show rendering services, consider creating a pillar page on this topic. Keep in mind that this is different than a service page that may focus on custom 3D web design. This pillar page will focus more on designing virtual trade show booths, the rendering process, and commonly used user-interactive features.

    Screenshot of the JAM Graphics digital agency virtual trade show booth services website page
    Source: JAM Graphics

    From there, you can create subtopic blogs that internally link to your virtual trade show pillar page, such as 2D vs. 3D booth designs. Linking to your pillar pages in content marketing is an effective way to strengthen your site’s on-page SEO and keep users on your site.

    3. Skyscraper Content

    Graphic of a person linkbuilding on a laptop with a plant next to her

    Skyscraper content is a type of linkbuilding strategy. It’s meant to strengthen your site’s SEO performance by having high-ranking websites link back to your content. Also known as backlinks, these are among the top-ranking factors that Google uses in its algorithm. That’s where the skyscraper content comes into play. 

    Known as the skyscraper SEO technique, it finds high-ranking content and what external links they’re currently using. Then, you’ll create your own version of it–but better. That way, when you’re doing backlink outreach, your skyscraper content will replace the existing one they’re linking to because it’s higher quality and mutually beneficial.

    So, how exactly do you create better skyscraper content that’s already out there? 

    Look for the following factors:

    Keyword Opportunities

    Check for the highest volume keywords that can be used to naturally optimize your content’s headings, text, and metadata. If there are several question-based keywords that the competitor is using as headings, take this opportunity to create an FAQs section and use it there instead. 

    Adding FAQs is not only a great way to rank for question-based keywords, but it can also help your content generate rich results–which users click on 58% of the time versus 41% of non-rich results. Because it visually displays your content differently and above traditional search results, it makes your skyscraper content stand out and perform better–making it more likely that your linkbuilding strategy will succeed as a result.

    Visual Opportunities

    There are several ways to make your skyscraper content visually stand out from competitors. 

    Before designing visuals, ask yourself the following questions:

    • What types of media are they using? Does the competitor’s content have strong, clear visuals that support the topic’s purpose? 
    • Are the paragraphs small and easy to read? 
    • Is the content heading structure properly formatted? Or can it be broken down further so users can quickly scroll and know exactly what the topic is about?

    Once you know the answers to these questions, you can find opportunities to make your skyscraper content’s visuals better. For example, if they wrote about a topic on on-page vs. off-page SEO, but only used stock images or graphics, create a comparison chart. It can be a graphic or a table that visually recaps their key differences more effectively.

    Content Writing Opportunities

    In addition to content visuals, the quality of its text is even more important. For example, if a website you want to gain a backlink from is currently linking to a dated blog, create a current-year version of it. Topics like “2024 Best SEO Content Writing Practices” can be replaced with a 2025 version to ensure it remains relevant and accurate. 

    Also, look at how helpful the content is. If the competitor is providing SEO content tips, like “make your content mobile-friendly,” but doesn’t provide how to do this or a link, include this in your skyscraper content. Add actionable steps they can take to optimize their content for mobile, like using flexible web page layouts and implementing max-width image source codes so the page is responsive on all devices.

    This step creates higher-quality skyscraper content that supports your linkbuilding efforts and is another top-ranking factor in Google’s E-E-A-T framework (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, & Trustworthiness) to provide helpful, relevant people-first information.  

    4. Blog Content

    Blogs may seem like a straightforward type of SEO content, which is informative articles. However, businesses often make mistakes when writing them that don’t support their site’s SEO goals effectively. Among the most common ones is doing keyword research the wrong way. While finding keywords with the highest volume is important, it’s not the only aspect to look for.

    You should also check the keyword’s search intent, which tends to be overlooked or not fully understood. Search intent is the general reason behind a person’s online search. Since blogs are top and middle-funnel, using bottom-funnel keywords wouldn’t be relevant to them and can hinder the content’s SEO performance.

    For example, you wouldn’t use “running shoes” as the focus keyword in your “best running shoes” blog. It has a transactional intent that generates product pages in the search results for people ready to buy, not blogs.

    Screenshot of Google search results for the keyword running shoes with a yellow arrow

    Instead, you’d find variations of the keyphrase “best running shoes” or “running shoes recommendations” that support an informational intent and generate blogs in the search results.

    Screenshot of Google search results for the keyword best running shoes with a yellow arrow

    You can easily confirm a keyword’s intent on Google and review what the search results show, or use SEO tools, like SEMRush, that will tell you. 

    Additional tips for creating high-ranking blog content include: 

    • Internally linking to product/service pages to increase conversions 
    • Internally linking to relevant cornerstone content and pillar pages to keep users on your site
    • Externally linking to reputable sites that support claims and data used in your blogs
    • Organized content structure with proper heading hierarchy, small paragraphs, and supportive visuals 
    • Compelling storytelling with introduction hook statements that grab readers’ attention, address their common pain points, and provide actionable solutions
    • Adding primary and secondary keywords throughout the text. Using long-tail keywords or adding them to more detailed headings can also help rank blogs for AI search engines.

    Quality blog content can be one of the highest ROI drivers over time because your target audience is coming to your website from them, engaging with the site, and building your brand’s credibility.  

    5. Landing Page Content

    Landing pages are a bottom-funnel type of SEO content. It’s the final destination after users see an offer of yours and click to learn more about it. They’re intended to attract transactional intent users and encourage them to complete their buyer’s journey for conversions. 

    Some examples of landing page content are:

    • Email blasts linking to a referral program page for existing customers to get a reward if someone they know buys from you
    • PPC ads linking to a product holiday discount page 
    • Social media posts linking to an event registration page
    Screenshot of the TurboTax refer a friend website landing page
    Source: TurboTax

    Creating landing pages requires a persuasive tone with short-form content and actionable language that aligns with where users are coming from. People who are visiting this page are already interested, so they shouldn’t have to sift through long paragraphs or irrelevant content. It should be easy for them to learn more about your offer and take action. 

    Additional tips for creating effective landing page content include:

    • Keep the landing page design consistent with where users came from to prevent confusion and ensure visitors that they’ve come to the right website
    • Implement a single call-to-action (CTA) or multiple buttons (sparingly) that lead to the same action you want people to take
    • Write short and simple action words that encourage users to take the next step in an appealing tone, such as: “Ready to stop wasting budget on PPC ads? Find out where.” over “Learn More or Contact Us.”

    Landing page content requires finesse and punchier writing to make your offer worth it.

    6. Lead Generation Content

    Screenshot of a HubSpot Sales Hub webinar registration website page

    Lead generation content is also bottom-funnel. It’s similar to landing pages, except it focuses on capturing leads versus conversions, although that’s the ultimate goal. They’re designed to gain the contact information of your target audience and, in exchange, give them a valuable resource. 

    Common types of lead generation content are:

    • Whitepapers or e-books that offer industry-specific insights from a notable expert, if they fill out a form with their name and email 
    • Webinars where people must register online to attend the event 
    • Downloadable templates or checklists that are sent to the submitted email address

    Also known as lead magnets, their purpose is, as the name suggests, to convert visitors into leads, then eventually customers. Accessing their contact information allows you to build customer data profiles to customize your content marketing strategies and target the right audience. If you don’t know who your buyer personas are, this is an effective way to learn.

    When writing lead generation content, ensure the offer you’ll bring in exchange is valuable to them, or they’ll look elsewhere where it isn’t gated. It should have a simple form with minimal fields (name, email, phone number) and short-form text that further promotes the offer. Lead generation content is also commonly used in landing pages. 

    Types of SEO Content FAQs:

    Graphic of three people working on SEO on a large tablet

    What is Cornerstone Content?

    Cornerstone content is a foundational type of top-funnel content marketing. It’s used to create general and high-value evergreen content relevant to your brand that you want to rank for, and then write specific subtopics from it to become an authoritative online resource in your industry.

    What is the Difference Between Cornerstone and Foundation Content?

    There’s no difference between cornerstone vs. foundation content. These are interchangeable terms used to describe broader, top-funnel content used as a foundation for your website to start improving its SEO performance.

    What is Pillar Content?

    Pillar content is another term often used to describe cornerstone content. 

    How Many Content Pillars Should You Have?

    There isn’t a set number of content pillars you should have, as it depends on several factors, including:

    • Website size and template
    • Content marketing goals
    • Industry 
    • Product/service offerings

    As a general rule of thumb, three to five content pillars are the best practice for most brands.

    What is Skyscraper Content?

    Skyscraper content is a type of linkbuilding strategy used to find high-ranking sites, create better content than they’re currently linking to, and become a replacement backlink.

    Strengthen Your Site’s SEO with Smarter Content Choices

    Content marketing is a multi-faceted approach. It requires a unique understanding of all SEO content types and consistent creation to generate optimal results for your website. 

    Don’t create content for the sake of doing it. Maximize your ROI with content marketing specialists instead. 

    At Reach Marketing Pro, we’re a full-service digital agency with extensive experience in all aspects of SEO content marketing, including website pages, blogs, and lead magnets. With in-house SEO writers, graphic designers, and web designers/developers, we know how to customize your content and make it stand out online.

    Ready to build better SEO content for your site?

    Explore our SEO services or talk to our SEO experts today! 

  • 7 Benefits of a StoryBrand Coach for Small Business Growth

    7 Benefits of a StoryBrand Coach for Small Business Growth

    Are you a boutique agency owner or marketing leader feeling stuck in company growth? Whether you’re pouring budgets into underperforming PPC campaigns or your website isn’t high-converting, the problem may not be your products or offerings. 

    It could be your brand’s message.

    Customers may not fully understand what you offer or how it helps them, exactly. A StoryBrand Coach provides professional rebranding services to help address these scalability challenges.

    Learn more about StoryBrand, the benefits of working with a certified coach, and how it can lead to more conversions, stronger marketing performance, and real revenue growth.

    Key Takeaways About Working With a StoryBrand Coach

    • A StoryBrand-certified Coach helps clarify your brand’s messaging so customers quickly understand your business’s value
    • Better brand messaging leads to stronger conversions, sales, and customer trust
    • StoryBranch coaching supports your website, brand strategy, and sales funnel
    • Companies often see stronger ROI when their content marketing becomes clearer and customer-focused
    • A StoryBrand-certified Coach helps align your team for long-term growth and cross-department consistency

    What is StoryBrand?

    Graphic of how the StoryBrand tells a clear brand story for businesses
    Source: StoryBrand

    StoryBrand is a globally recognized story-based branding framework developed by Donald Miller to help small marketing agencies, consultants, and freelancers grow their businesses. It’s designed to help you craft compelling customer-centric brand messaging that applies to your sales and marketing strategies. 

    Over 10,000 major brands and agencies, including Berkshire Hathaway, TOMS Shoes, and The White House, utilize their certification program—showcasing their credible, proven method.

    What is the StoryBrand Framework?

    Graphic of the seven-step StoryBrand Framework
    Source: Business Made Simple

    The seven-step StoryBrand framework includes how to:

    1. Identify something specific that your customer wants.
    2. Define the specific problem your customer has.
    3. Understand how to get your ideas across and sell more products or services.
    4. Build a bridge from the customer’s problem to the solution you’re proposing.
    5. Create a compelling call to action that encourages your customer to take the next steps.
    6. Show the negative consequences you want your customers to avoid if they don’t take action with your solution. 
    7. Give your customers a vision for a better future with the positive outcomes they’ll experience by using your products or services.

    It’s about making your brand’s message less confusing and your marketing easier for customers to trust and act on.

    What is a StoryBrand Coach?

    A StoryBranch Coach helps businesses apply the StoryBrand framework to their marketing and sales strategies. It’s more than marketing advice. They’ll identify where your brand’s messaging breaks down and help fix it so your company communicates with confidence and clarity. 

    This involves clarifying your message, strengthening your website copy, improving your sales process, and creating seamless customer journeys that convert. 

    Marketing performs better when the message is strong. Increasing ad budgets and creating more content rarely fix weak brand positioning. StoryBrand coaching helps build a stronger marketing strategy by improving the foundation first: your message.

    StoryBrand Coach vs. Marketing Consultant: What’s the Difference?

    While a StoryBrand Coach and marketing consultant share similarities, such as improving business growth, they solve different problems. 

    A StoryBrand Coach helps answer: “Why aren’t customers understanding what we do?” 

    A marketing consultant helps answer: “Why isn’t our marketing generating enough leads?”

    Understanding the differences helps you choose the right support for your goals and stronger results:

    CATEGORYSTORYBRAND COACHMARKETING CONSULTANT
    FocusClarifies brand messaging Develops broader cross-channel marketing strategies
    GoalImproves messaging, position, and customer communication for stronger conversionsImproves overall marketing performance, lead generation, and campaign results
    ApproachStoryBrand framework so people know exactly what you offer and your brand value quicklyCustomized marketing strategies based on business goals, industry trends, and campaign performance
    DeliverablesBrand messaging, website copy guidance, sales funnel messaging, customer journey clarity, and brand scriptsMarketing strategy plans, campaign audits, channel recommendations, lead generation strategies, and reporting
    Website ImpactStrengthens home page messaging, CTAs,
    landing page clarity, and conversion-focused copy    		Strengthens traffic generation strategies and overall website marketing performance
    Sales Funnel SupportMessage clarity throughout the buyer’s journey to
    reduce confusion and
    increase brand trust    		Campaign optimization and touchpoints to attract users
    into the funnel
    Long-Term Business ValueRepeatable messaging framework that supports all future marketing effortsStrategic direction and optimization for ongoing marketing growth
    Who It’s Best ForSmall businesses struggling to explain their value or convert website visitors into leadsBusinesses needing full-service cross-channel marketing strategy support

    7 Game-Changing Ways a StoryBrand Coach Can Grow Your Business

    Here are seven ways a StoryBrand Coach can help effectively grow your business and scale with confidence.

    1. Customer-Centric Brand Messaging Development to Convert More Leads

    Graphic of how StoryBrand helps businesses with their sales funnels in three steps
    Source: StoryBrand

    Website traffic isn’t fully valuable if it’s not converting. Many businesses lose leads because their sales funnel lacks clarity. A StoryBrand Coach helps refine your brand’s message so it’s clear, compelling, and encourages people to engage. If your website makes people work too hard to understand what you offer, they’ll leave. 

    For example, if your marketing agency’s home page says:

    “We provide innovative digital solutions that empower brands to maximize their full potential.”

    While this sounds polished, visitors still don’t know:

    • What services you offer
    • Who you help
    • Why they should trust you
    • What they should do next

    Brands often use marketing buzzwords or generic website copy that explain almost nothing to their target audience. Clear messaging removes this friction from the buying process.

    A StoryBrand Coach fine-tunes your message and positions your company’s offerings more powerfully, such as:

    “We help law firms generate more leads with SEO, website copy, and high-converting sales funnels.”

    Now, users instantly understand what your company does, who you help, and the results they can expect. In return, it streamlines their buying process, with businesses seeing close rates increase by 28% on average from strategic rebranding.

    2. Greater ROI from Your Marketing Efforts

    Tired of throwing money at marketing strategies that don’t work? A StoryBrand Coach develops personalized customer-centric messaging across your marketing collateral for a greater content marketing ROI. 

    These include:

    • Nurturing email sequences and sales funnels with customizable templates
    • Lead generation PDFs
    • Landing page and web copy wireframes 
    • Keynote presentations with brand scripts for prospects and upselling existing clients
    • Step-by-step onboarding guides for installing new agency processes

    According to Forbes, consistent cross-channel brand positioning increases revenue by up to 23%.

    It’s more than visual aesthetics.

    Strong differentiated branding helps your company stand out in a crowded marketplace. It creates lasting impressions, builds deeper customer relationships, and achieves measurable returns.

    3. A Customized Business Growth Plan for Long-Term Support

    During the 12-week onboarding process, a StoryBrand Coach will create a customized business growth plan with your entire company for ongoing support. From sales to social media departments, your entire team will be aligned for a consistent and clear brand message. 

    This service includes how to:

    • Create company goals with step-by-step 90-day planning and staff accountability calls
    • Implement new marketing strategies on what products/services to offer and how to market them with sales support 
    • Install new marketing systems to achieve measurable growth based on the coach’s feedback
    • Compare business progress with other similar StoryBrand-enrolled business group calls and grow your network

    From bi-weekly Brandscript Bootcamp calls to monthly seminars and group workshops, you’ll receive staff-wide support from a StoryBrand-certified Coach long-term.

    4. Increased Business Value and Prices to Scale Effectively

    Are you a marketing consultant who wants to earn more and work fewer hours? Or an agency owner experiencing decreasing leads and sales? StoryBrand coaches will guide you through how to charge more for your services by better showcasing your business’s value.

    They’ll recommend new profitable hourly rates and provide you with sales support tools to attract new high-paying clients—while gaining the confidence to stop undercharging.

    5. Diverse StoryBrand Coaches to Cater to Unique Company Needs

    A phone rep helping a B2B business owner grow their company

    Previously known as StoryBrand Guides, there are many types of coaches available to help meet your diverse market needs, including:

    • Agency owners, marketing consultants, and marketing department leadership
    • Copywriters, SEO marketers, and social media managers
    • Graphic designers and video marketers
    • Web developers
    • AI engineers and IT technicians
    • Slack experts
    • Lead generation and sales managers

    Working with a coach who actively works in these roles has the field experience to offer you relevant and tailored business expertise.

    6. Many StoryBrand Resources Available in Different Media

    In addition to ongoing support from your coach, you’re provided a vast StoryBrand resource library to reference anytime. These include live calls with recordings, marketing article guides, online courses, and an active Slack workspace in different regions with multiple industry channels for networking and feedback on projects your peers are working on.

    StoryBrand Coaches give you more than just advice. They provide you with exclusively valuable plug-and-play resources.

    7. Exclusive Access to the StoryBrand Community for Networking & Expanded Market Reach

    Working with a Storybrand Coach gives you exclusive access to a vibrant StoryBrand community. Whether group calls or live seminars, you’ll have networking opportunities to swap referrals, collaborate on projects, and receive advice to expand your market reach. 

    Your company will also be listed in the Marketing Made Simple directory. It’s where potential clients actively search for products and services related to your business. These include copywriting, sales funnel, website development, marketing strategy, email marketing, and full-suite marketing agencies. 

    Additionally, there’s an annual StoryBrand Marketing Summit in downtown Nashville, where coaches and like-minded businesses attend the three-day event for in-person learning and connecting. 
    Can’t make it in person? You can also register for their Virtual Summit.

    Maximize Your Small Business Potential with a StoryBrand-Certified Coach

    Whether you need higher-converting sales funnels or compelling web copy, working with a StoryBrand-certified coach can unlock your small business’s next stage of growth. 

    At Reach Marketing Pro, our CEO, Carmen Leonard, is a StoryBrand-certified Coach, backed by a full-service marketing team—not just a standalone consultant. 

    That means you get more than strategy.

    You get execution from SEO specialists, copywriters, website designers/developers, and graphic designers, who know how to turn StoryBrand strategy into measurable results.

    Ready to get your brand out of its growth rut?

    Let’s chat about how our StoryBrand coaching can help take your business to the next level.

  • Referral Program Benefits: How Automated Platforms Enhance Your Referral Marketing Efforts

    Referral Program Benefits: How Automated Platforms Enhance Your Referral Marketing Efforts

    No matter the industry your business is in, an online referral program benefits your bottom line significantly. From increased customer retention to strengthened brand trust and higher conversion rates, nurturing your loyal network is essential.

    Learn more about referral marketing programs, their advantages, and why your business should leverage automated platforms to help supercharge your growth.

    What is a Referral Program?

    A referral program is a system that encourages your existing customers to recommend your company’s products or services to people they know personally. It’s typically reward-based to incentivize them to promote your brand, such as future purchase discounts, store credits, and free products.

    Referral programs are designed to help expand your customer base within your current audience’s network and gain the benefits they offer.

    7 Benefits of Referral Programs & Automated Platforms for Businesses

    A graphic of a person sharing a product on a megaphone with three customers

    Below are seven ways an automated referral program benefits your business.

    1. Automated Customer Referral Acquisition & Engagement

    Did you know that referrals are the highest customer acquisition channel? Referral marketing statistics show that referrals convert three to four times more and drive at least five times more sales via offline word of mouth–including more than paid advertising impressions! 

    Depending on the referral marketing software, they typically have key automated features such as:

    • Triggered welcome emails for new customers with pre-written messaging
    • Unique generated referral links for current customers to share 
    • Targeted referral campaigns on social media channels 
    • Limited-time monthly challenges, giveaway winner emails with reminders, and reward points

    Brands with referral programs can utilize automated platforms to increase conversions and customer engagement even further.

    2. Streamlined Referral Marketing Workflows

    Referral marketing platforms streamline workflows to make your business more productive and profitable. Tasks like tracking and rewarding referrals can be time-consuming when done manually via spreadsheets or emails–especially for large customer bases.

    When your staff becomes more efficient in performing daily referral responsibilities, it becomes more cost-effective for your company.

    3. Organized Referral Management

    In addition to staff workflow productivity, online referral programs bridge your teams together more efficiently via organized referral management. When your sales and marketing departments use one automated referral platform, it centralizes all customer data and communications.

    They’ll be on the same page and see customer lifecycle updates in real time by preventing siloed-related issues.

    4. Increased Customer & Brand Loyalty

    A graphic of a person attracting customers with a magnet on a laptop

    Customers who refer your products or services are like the backbone of your business and should be rewarded for that. Showing them you recognize this and care about their word-of-mouth marketing can increase retention and brand loyalty. 

    Referral marketing statistics show that more than 50% of people are more likely to refer a company when offered a personalized incentive or access to an exclusive loyalty program. This same study shows that 65% of consumers increase their purchase frequency when receiving rewards. 

    According to Annex Cloud, the top monetary and material incentives that increase a customer’s chances of referring a brand include discounts, free products, and gift cards. 

    Referral marketing software can help you capitalize on this with automated and individualized reward features, such as:

    • Annual customer anniversary swag or discounts
    • Free customer birthday gift or online store credit by a set order amount 
    • Exclusive referral promotions or offer emails based on the customer’s purchase history 

    A referral program benefits your current customers by giving them the motivation to share your business with people they know–who are more likely to trust your brand from a friend, colleague, or family member.

    5. Centralized & Customized Customer Analytics for Data-Driven Referral Strategies

    As mentioned, online referral programs centralize key customer data and communications between your sales and marketing teams. In addition to organized referral management, your staff can analyze this information to develop new and optimized data-driven strategies more effectively.

    You can identify your top referrers, key customer purchasing behaviors, and transactional data trends to learn what motivates them when creating referral campaigns.

    For example, you may find customers respond better to standalone referral programs where they get a discount for each referral after they make their first purchase. In contrast to referrer loyalty programs, which allow customers to accumulate points for each referral that becomes a customer and gain a larger reward after a set amount, like a free high-value product.

    That way, you don’t waste campaign budgets on referral strategies that aren’t performing well.

    6. Customer Privacy Data Compliance

    A graphic of a person logging into a platform on a locked desktop with a fingerprint login

    One of the most critical online referral program benefits to gain is automated customer data privacy compliance. Referral marketing software ensures your business adheres to customer data privacy laws with development compliance, ongoing security updates, encryption, and secure third-party app integrations. 

    This feature is especially crucial for companies with large-scale customer data platforms that require strict cybersecurity to prevent their information from being unlawfully collected or leaked.

    7. Simplified Business Scalability

    Online referral marketing programs make it simpler to scale your business and expand market reach. From automating manual tasks like reward allocation to centralizing siloed sales and marketing teams and centralizing key customer data, it gives you more time to focus on company growth. 

    Depending on the referral marketing software, some offer scalability-focused features such as:

    • Landing page integrations with simplified code for referral campaigns 
    • Generated omnichannel referral messaging with links for customers to share easily across the platforms they use, like social media, email, and texts
    • Automated post-purchase referral promotion emails 
    • Personalized rewards for those who referred multiple people and converted them into new customers

    Accessing your loyal customers’ personal network allows your brand to reach into untapped markets and cost-effectively grow your audience within your target demographic. 

    Work Smarter, Not Harder: Let Your Loyal Customers Refer Your Business For You

    Your loyal customers are arguably the most important advocates for your brand. Capitalize on their efforts in the long term with ongoing growth opportunities. 

    At Reach Marketing Pro, we offer Proferra, a platform to simplify and optimize your referral marketing process, including:

    • Customer data dashboard setup with configurations per your unique business goals and branding guidelines 
    • CRM integration to centralize all referral data into your existing systems seamlessly
    • Custom landing page design with an embedded form to capture key referral and affiliate information for future campaigns

    Have more questions about the Proferra platform or our referral marketing services?

    Contact us to learn how we can help you foster customer relationships and boost sales today!

  • Product Page SEO: How E-Commerce Brands Can Maximize ROI From Search to Sale

    Product Page SEO: How E-Commerce Brands Can Maximize ROI From Search to Sale

    As an e-commerce brand, investing in product page SEO is non-negotiable. Selling products is the core mission of your business. If your product pages aren’t properly optimized for search engines and users alike, they likely won’t perform successfully. 

    SEO for e-commerce product pages is essential to promote online visibly, clicks, and conversions from organic traffic. If shoppers and search engines can’t discover them or push them away from poor SEO, they won’t support your bottom line as they should. 

    Learn e-commerce product page best practices and how you can generate a greater ROI with SEO content optimization. 

    SEO for E-Commerce Product Pages: A Step-by-Step Guide


    Below is a step-by-step guide on product page SEO with common mistakes to avoid.

    Write Unique Product Page Titles & Descriptions

    A graphic people writing content on a page with a pencil

    SEO for product descriptions and titles requires unique copy for better search visibility, especially for e-commerce brands with large catalogs. Duplicate copy in your product pages can cause crawling delays from search bots because they don’t know which version to save in their database for indexing. 

    It also wastes your crawl budget, causing you to wait until you can request again, leaving your product pages undiscovered online. 

    More ways to improve your SEO product descriptions include:

    • Internal links to relevant product pages in the same collection to promote upselling and cross-selling opportunities
    • Backlinks from reputable sites that recommend your product to demonstrate trustworthiness and credibility
    • Not using the same product descriptions as the manufacturer’s website, as they’re not created for SEO or shoppers and keep your brand separate

    In addition to unique titles and descriptions, they should also provide an added value proposition. Instead of only explaining what your product does, showcase what customers will gain from it.

    If you’re selling winter coats describing them as, “engineered to keep you warm” is obvious, as it’s what they should do. Saying something like, “engineered to keep you warm at -10° F” is a stronger selling point.

    Displaying your product’s specific benefits, along with its features, better addresses your buyer persona’s challenges and concerns.

    Optimize Your Copy with the Correct Search Intent

    All shopping starts with a search. While you may be familiar with keyword optimization, businesses often make the mistake of choosing the wrong ones. 

    Your keyword research is more than finding queries with the highest search volume and lowest difficulty from your competitors. It should also include selecting keywords with the right search intent to attract the appropriate audience. 

    For example, if you’re an athletic footwear brand and optimize a product page description with a keyword, like “best running shoes” this wouldn’t provide the best SEO opportunity. This keyword generates blogs in the search engine results page (SERP), not product pages.

    Screenshot of Google search results for best running shoes with a yellow arrow pointing at the search bar

    While “best running shoes” has a commercial search intent, the SERP shows users comparing options by reading blog recommendations before buying. Optimizing your product pages with this keyword can cause fewer people to click on them or quickly leave because that’s not what they’re looking for with that search query.

    A transactional keyword, like “running shoes” generates product pages in the SERP, showcasing the intent of people ready to buy. Adding this to your product’s description and page URL attracts relevant traffic, promoting a higher chance of converting them.

    A screenshot of the Google search results for the keyword running shoes with a yellow arrow pointing at the search bar

    A slight keyword change in your product page SEO can significantly impact its performance. Luckily, SEO platforms like SEMRush tell you the search intent behind every keyword, so you don’t have to guess. 

    However, it’s easy to check yourself. Simply enter the keyword into a search and review the SERP for what they show. If it generates product pages, you have the correct search intent.

    Use Clear, Captivating, & Optimized Product Visuals

    A graphic of three people adding photos to a website page

    While you may have high-quality product page images, are they captivating enough to customers? In addition to displaying your product, fully showcasing how they apply to the real world resonates further with shoppers. Instead of only using product images on a white background, include lifestyle visuals, too. 

    For example, if your brand sells hiking boots, include photos of people in a mountainous landscape wearing them to provide a better visual context. If you sell office chairs, use a short-form video to show their different sitting configurations, demonstrating the product’s diverse usability and comfort further.

    Once the product page visuals are finalized, ensure they’re optimized next. Writing image alt tags with descriptive language ensures it’s ADA-accessible for all online shoppers. Also, aim to use target keywords in your image alt tags naturally to improve your page’s search visibility via metadata.

    Implement Structured Data Markup to Generate Rich Results on Google

    Screenshot comparing the rich and search results on Google for running shoes

    Structured data markup is one of the most critical components of product page SEO. In a saturated online market, e-commerce brands must stand out in the SERP more than ever. As a form of on-page SEO, structured data markup helps your product pages generate rich results. 

    Rich snippets visually showcase your product differently than the SERPs and are placed above traditional search results. They’re designed by Google to enhance the shopping experience without having to click on your online store. When users click on rich results 58% of the time versus 41% for non-rich results, it’s worth optimizing your product pages for.

    Examples of structured data types for e-commerce product pages are:

    • Review Snippets: Average rating, number of reviews, reviewer information, etc.
    • Product Schema Markup: Carousel image, pricing, product availability, etc. 
    • Sitelinks Search Box: Sitewide product search in the SERP, without having to click on your website
    • FAQs Schema Markup: List of common product questions, assembly directions, etc. 

    Structured data markup gives customers a streamlined shopping experience while providing Google with the standardized language it requires to generate rich results for your product pages.

    Create Valuable Call-to-Action (CTA) Buttons

    As an online store, you must encourage users to take action via CTAs to increase click-through rate (CTR) and conversions. These CTAs should be more than buttons below your product description stating, “Buy Now.” They should also be convincing of the value your products bring. 

    If you’re a skincare brand selling facewash, instead of creating a “Shop Now” CTA button, write something like “Start Your Self-Care” to showcase to customers that it’s a worthy investment in themselves. 

    Additional ways to create valuable CTAs for e-commerce product pages include:

    • Using Multiple CTAs to Meet Customers Where They Are in Their Buyer’s Journey: add to wishlists, you might also like, one-click checkouts, save payment methods, address autocomplete, email signup discounts, etc. 
    • A/B Testing Button Designs to See What Resonates Best with Your Target Audience: button locations, shapes, colors, fonts, sizes, etc.
    • Placing CTA Buttons Strategically to Streamline Users From Product Page to Purchase: minimal pop-ups, responsive button designs on mobile and desktop, etc. 

    Conduct a Site Audit to Correct Page Performance Issues

    Graphic of three people conducting a website audit on a desktop

    You can do all the optimization in the world and still not have success if your product pages have performance issues. If they have slow loading times or poor mobile design, they can push potential customers away. Also known as user experience, it’s about making your site easier to use for a seamless shopping experience.

    Look for the following issues in your site audit to improve your product page SEO:

    • No breadcrumbs for easy site navigation from product page to checkout
    • Low-quality compressed product visuals on mobile  
    • More than four seconds in page load speed on desktop and mobile
    • No SSL certificate to secure your website and shoppers’ saved sensitive payment information

    User-friendly e-commerce websites help people discover, browse, and purchase from your product pages more. 

    Stop Losing Shoppers from Poor Product Page SEO: Get Found Faster & Sell More Today

    Drive more transitions to your product pages with digital marketing professionals. At Reach Marketing Pro, we’re a full-service agency with extensive experience in site-wide optimization, including Shopify, WordPress, and custom e-commerce websites. 

    We have graphic designers to create customized, compelling product visuals per your unique brand. Our SEO copywriters write effective product page copy that adheres to Google guidelines and customer needs. Additionally, our web designers/developers ensure your site’s shopping experience is seamless and engaging. 

    Together, our in-house team provides you with the full suite your e-commerce website needs for a stronger product page performance.

    Ready to generate more organic traffic and transactions?

    Learn more about our digital marketing services or contact us to reach more customers today!

  • Automate & Elevate Your Content: 6 Best AI Writing Tools for Businesses

    Automate & Elevate Your Content: 6 Best AI Writing Tools for Businesses

    Artificial intelligence (AI) text generators initially received a bad reputation for lack of unique content. However, machine learning and training in properly using these apps have advanced AI content writing to help businesses streamline their marketing efforts ethically. 

    So, how can you automate and elevate your content with AI? Learn our six recommendations on the best AI writing tools and how to leverage them correctly to create personalized content. 

    What is the Best AI for Writing? 

    A graphic of two people working with an AI robot on a cloud system


    AI has disrupted the digital marketplace in all facets, from SEO to advertising, and it’s here to stay. Current AI marketing trends show it’ll continue to advance, so your business should understand how to find the best text generators. That way, you use them correctly to prevent accidental plagiarism and promote a greater ROI on your content marketing. 

    How to Find the Best AI Writing Tools

    When searching for the best AI tools for writing, there are key attributes to look for, including:

    • Plagiarism Detection: They should offer a feature to run their generated content through a plagiarism scanner to ensure it’s original.
    • User-Friendliness: They should be easy to use for all skill levels, such as text prompt templates and recommendations to enhance your AI content. 
    • Content Personalization: They should have specific industry categories or target audience prompts for you to create personalized short and long-form content.
    • Fact-Checks: They should have a feature that scans their generated content through a fact checker to verify its accuracy. 
    • Content-Specific Platforms: AI tools differ in content focuses, like novel writing and SEO blogs, so the platform you pick should be specific to what your business requires.

    While it may seem daunting to try AI if it’s new to your business, leveraging it offers several advantages for your content marketing. They help reduce writer’s block by generating topics and text as inspiration to kickstart the creation process. AI writing tools also provide simplified summaries of long-form content to analyze them faster. 

    These are just a few of the benefits of using AI content. 

    However, they all share a primary purpose—boosting productivity by reducing manual writing tasks so your company can become more efficient. 

    How to Use AI Content Generators Correctly

    As with any marketing software, there are pros and cons of AI content writing if you don’t know how to use it. While some applications offer plagiarism detection, you should never use their generated text word for word. AI content tools should act as a foundation and inspiration, not a replacement for your writing. 

    Additionally, if you’re using AI text generators for SEO blogs, this doesn’t replace your keyword research. They don’t gather keywords when you enter prompts, so you must still use SEO software to optimize your AI-generated content.

    Best-use practices for AI writing tools include:

    • Detailed Prompts: Enter as many instruction details as possible into your prompts to generate a higher quality content output, including tone, target audience, and the company it’s for. 
    • Referential Research: In addition to detailed prompts, include your own research and add necessary citations for the AI tool to reference and enhance its content accuracy. 
    • Personal Fact-Checks: While AI writing tools offer fact-checking, also check this yourself to verify its accuracy by reviewing it or using third-party tools, like Google Fact Check Explorer. 
    • Content Editing: Always edit AI-generated content to tailor it to your client’s branding and prevent harming your credibility with plagiarism.

    Remember, AI is still relatively new. But it offers countless opportunities to save you time by using it properly. 

    Streamline Your Content Workflows: The 6 Best AI Writing Tools Businesses Should Leverage


    Now that you know the benefits of using AI-generated content, how to use it, and what to look for in different applications, below are the six best AI writing tools to consider and why they make the list. 

    1. ContentShake AI

    A screenshot of SEMRush's ContentShake AI interface
    Credit: SEMRush

    If your business creates SEO content, such as blogs and web page copy, look for AI generators focusing on producing optimized content. As one of the leading SEO platforms, SEMRush has its own AI text generator, ContentShake AI. What separates it from other AI writing apps is that it combines SEMRush’s SEO data to create high-ranking AI-generated content 12 times faster. 

    ContentShake AI uses real-life competitor insights to create SEO-optimized content for organic traffic and engagement. It even scores how well it’s optimized per Google’s algorithms and SEO content guidelines. 

    While SEMRush claims you don’t need to do extra keyword research, we always recommend doing so to verify its accuracy and maximize your content’s SEO performance. 

    2. ChatGPT

    A screenshot of OpenAI's ChatGPT interface
    Credit: OpenAI

    You’ve likely heard of ChatGPT, as one of the original AI text generators. Developed by OpenAI, it’s an AI chatbot that generates content via conversational prompts and machine learning models. 

    While ChatGPT doesn’t have a specific content focus, you can use it for diverse writing tasks, including:

    • Emails, articles, web pages, outlines, essays, resumes, cover letters, poems, etc. 
    • Application and website coding in multiple programming languages
    • Summaries of long-form content, including research journals, books, etc. 
    • Complex problem-solving, like debugging your existing website code, content edit suggestions, etc.

    What makes ChatGPT one of the best AI writing tools is it remembers your conversations. As you continuously use it for clients, it stores information from your previous prompts and references it to better produce ongoing personalized content.

    3. Jasper AI

    A screenshot of the Jasper AI interface
    Credit: Jasper AI

    If you’re looking for business-focused AI content generators, consider JasperAI. Like ChatGPT, it’s also a large language model that uses AI to create content. However, JasperAI is the better option for marketing-oriented AI content. It’s specifically programmed for marketing content writing, like emails, blogs, and social media posts.

    4. Google Gemini

    A screenshot of Google's Gemini AI interface
    Credit: Google Gemini

    Google has its own AI content generator, Gemini. It has two focuses: web developers and businesses. If your company wants to streamline web builds and designs, it uses state-of-the-art generative AI models for coding in various programming languages. From flexible frameworks to customizable code and problem-solving, it provides countless solutions for your developers.

    Regarding business use, Gemini acts as your AI writing assistant across your Google Workspace. It integrates with Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and more to centralize and automate your writing tasks. 

    Gemini crafts content drafts, including blog posts, proposals, advertising copy, and more. It can even generate customized images with a single prompt to enhance your visual branding

    5. Claude AI

    A screenshot of the Claude AI interface
    Credit: Claude AI

    Similar to ChatGPT, ClaudeAI is an AI-powered chatbot designed to generate various types of text based on conversational prompts and large language models. From coding to long-form content summaries and proofreading, you can leverage ClaudeAI for almost any writing project. 

    However, ClaudeAI produces more human-like writing that sounds less generic than ChatGPT. While ChatGPT excels at complex problem-solving, ClaudeAI is best suited for more personalized content. 


    6. CoPilot

    A screenshot of Microsoft 365's CoPilot AI interface
    Credit: Microsoft 365

    Like Google, Microsoft has its own AI content writing assistant, CoPilot. It similarly integrates across Microsoft 365 apps, including Word, Excel, Teams, and PowerPoint. CoPilot combines large language models and your company’s organizational data to streamline production workflows. 

    Some notable content writing features include:

    • Creating and refining existing content by referencing up to three Word documents
    • Transforming and condensing PowerPoint presentations from existing documents with speaker notes
    • Summarizing complex data in Excel to help you analyze it faster with filters
    • Recapping Teams conversations and key discussion points based on chat history

    CoPilot is one of the best AI content writing tools because you don’t need to enter prompts to generate text. It directly pulls information from your Microsoft apps, including files, emails, chats, and meeting notes—making it user-friendly for everyone. It also has different CoPilot versions for small to medium-sized businesses and specific industries, like public sectors and education.

    Words Matter–Get Quality Content Writing That Works with Reach Marketing Pro

    While AI text generators streamline your content marketing workflows with automation and advanced learning models, you can maximize their performance with professionals. AI writing tools still require a learning curve to leverage their fullest potential and precise editing to ensure it’s accurate and original. 

    Let us help you generate a greater ROI for your content marketing. At Reach Marketing Pro, we’re a full-service digital agency with extensive experience creating content across diverse industries. From SEO-optimized blogs to compelling website messaging and effective ad copy, we create high-quality content that supports your bottom line.

    Learn more about our content writing services, or contact us to boost your business’s marketing productivity today! 

  • Website Project Management: A Complete Guide for Design & Development 

    Website Project Management: A Complete Guide for Design & Development 

    Your website is a multi-faceted platform with various moving parts and siloed teams to track continuously. Do you have an organized system to manage ongoing projects and daily tasks simultaneously? 

    From regular maintenance to complete site redesigns, having streamlined workflows for website project management is essential. It ensures the design and development of your site remains efficient with the time and resources your business invests in. 

    While certain aspects require collaboration, your web developers, designers, SEO copywriters, and clients should all be on the same page to better deliver quality work. 

    If they’re constantly disrupted to redo site designs that stray far from the original concept or complete multiple rounds of copy edits that could’ve been consolidated, it can cost you more than necessary. It also increases the chance of mistakes happening due to this lack of focus. 

    Below is a complete guide to project management for websites to maximize your work efficiency and budget—without overwhelming everyone involved. 

    Website Project Management for Design & Development: A Complete Guide for Seamless Collaboration & Execution

    A graphic of three people meeting and reviewing statistics

    Website project management should be a separate department or assigned to a specific role outside your dev ops and designers. They’re responsible for their own technical tasks and need proper guidance from a website project manager to execute them efficiently. 

    Here’s how to ensure you set your web teams up for success in design, development, and everything in between. 

    Create a Website Project Plan 

    The first step for completing anything related to your site is creating a clear plan for everyone involved. This includes project management for routine site maintenance, new web builds, and redesigns for internal and external teams. 

    A website project plan should include the following:

    Understanding Your Web Project’s Goals

    What are the goals behind your website’s tasks or projects? Whether you’re redesigning, building a new one, or optimizing it for SEO, understanding the reason behind your site’s projects is the foundation of its success.

    For example, if you’re creating web content for the sake of doing it, it’s not researched-backed. Your website’s projects should be data-driven to ensure you remain on strategy for your bottom line.

    Ask your team the following questions if you need help figuring out your site’s project goals:

    • Why are we redesigning this site, and what is this aiming to accomplish? 
    • Why are we building a new site, and what is this aiming to accomplish? 
    • What are our top and lowest-performing web pages? 
    • Which website performance metrics do we want to improve or sustain?
    • How do we want our website to support our business goals?  

    That way, everyone is aligned on the overall mission of the website’s project goals. 

    Defining Key Web Project Details

    Before you begin assigning tasks to your web teams, you must define the key details of how these will be executed and the project scope. 

    Buffer Budget with All Website Deliverables

    First, create a client-approved buffer budget for additional tasks that may pop up or take longer than expected. This budget should include exact deliverables, like the number of redesigned pages or written blogs. Don’t forget to include potential subtasks required, like A/B testing page design concepts and publishing blogs after approval to prevent going out of scope. 

    Deadline Schedules with Your Preferred Project Management Method 
    A graphic of three people creating a calendar schedule for tasks

    Next, set the deadlines for your website’s tasks and how you want to complete them. 

    You can create milestones, like building a few web pages at a time and submitting them for client review. Known as agile web development, this project management methodology allows your team to work in short sprints with a few weekly or monthly deliverables at a time. 

    If you prefer to complete your web projects all at once, choose the waterfall web development approach. However, you must understand the pros and cons of each that best suits your web project’s goals. 

    Agile web project management is best if you’re on a tight deadline because you gain continuous feedback throughout the design and development process that can be turned around faster with fewer deliverables. Waterfall methodology is best for long-term web projects because it allows your team to work uninterrupted and the extra time to finalize the process. 

    Website Project Management Template or Software 

    We can’t stress enough the importance of using website project management platforms like Jira and Trello. Taking advantage of automation saves you time and headaches from manually creating workflows for your site’s projects.

    Depending on the application, these may include:

    • Pre-built website requests for new page graphics, copy edits, add-on features, etc. 
    • Interconnected action items that prevent future web tasks from being assigned until the previous one is completed
    • Sequenced site design/development steps, like preliminary design, code review, and testing
    • Organized web tasks by priority and status of completion  

    Web project management tools streamline your tasks and teams visually and easily in an automated, centralized platform. 

    Organize Web Tasks by Phase 

    Now that your website project plan is finalized, next is organizing the tasks by phase. While project management tools automate this for you, this helps guide your teams throughout the process. 

    Your site’s tasks should be categorized in the following order: 

    Website Project Discovery

    This discovery phase occurs when you first create your website project plan. This initial step is the ideation of your site’s project. However, it requires careful guidance to prevent your discovery meeting from expanding into unrealistic or disorganized expectations. 

    Ensure you only include people directly involved with the project, like a lead web developer, site designer, website project manager, and client representative. It prevents you from having too many cooks in the kitchen and promoting over-communication. 

    You should also prepare questions from your website project plan, like client goals, buffered budget, deliverables, timeline, and project management methodology. That way, there aren’t any surprises that may delay everyone before you start design and development.  

    Web Design

    A graphic of three people designing a website with HTML and CSS

    The site design phase involves multiple people, including web designers, SEO copywriters, and potential clients for approvals. They’re responsible for how the front end of your site will look. It’s especially crucial to organize the design stage of a web project because of the multiple roles you’ll manage. 

    Set your web design team up for success with the following:

    • Submit website examples to your designers for visual layout inspiration, must-have features, etc. 
    • Provide your web designers with everything they need, including branding guidelines, images, logos, optimized web copy, etc.
    • Give platform access to everyone involved to complete design tasks simultaneously across siloed teams
    • Schedule design tasks from highest to lowest priority, like your Home page first and Testimonials page later
    • Centralize all communications within your project management software for internal teams and update their tasks timely if you have edits from clients after review

    You should also standardize core web design processes, including:

    • Creating wireframes for web developers to reference when building sitemaps for the site’s structure
    • Designing the visual layout of all web pages, including colors, font, visuals, and staging links for client review
    • Setting up a content management system (CMS) to host, manage, and upload visuals and text assets for all web pages
    • Registering a web domain so your site owns the rights to its name

    Keep in mind that your web designers and developers work together to complete site projects. The main difference is that site designers create the visual elements, while web developers build and make them usable. 

    Web Development

    The web development phase primarily involves your dev ops team. They’re responsible for building the back end of your site’s functionality, requiring complex processes that must be executed successfully. While each web build is unique per platform and project, you can streamline their workflows more efficiently.

    Standardizing core web development processes should include:

    • XML Sitemap Creation: Creating a blueprint of the site’s structure, navigation, information hierarchy, etc. 
    • Platform Plug-in Installation: Installing popular plug-ins separate from your site platform, like Yoast SEO and WooCommerce. 
    • SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) Certification: Acquiring the code on your site’s server to create an encrypted connection and secure its data.
    • Website Analytics Software Integration: Connecting the software to your site to track its performance. 
    • Site Code & Tests: Building and testing the site’s various codes and markup languages to ensure proper functionality. 

    While you can use a website project management tool to automate these processes, it still needs to be properly assigned and scheduled.  

    Site-Wide Testing

    Testing your website is comprehensive, but you don’t need to complicate it more with a set process in place. That way, your dev ops and web design teams ensure they don’t miss any crucial steps.

    Create a site-wide testing plan for the following: 

    • Website accessibility for disabled users per ADA compliance 
    • User experience (UX) to provide visitors with seamless interaction in all aspects of your site, including minimal pop-ups, balanced white space, easy navigation, etc. 
    • HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) to ensure the HTTP version is redirected for site security 
    • Page load speed on PageSpeed Insights for mobile and desktop 
    • Site audits to check for potential issues, like broken links, invalid CSS/HTML, duplicate headings, and missing metadata 

    Website Launch

    A graphic of three people launching a new website with a rocketship

    Now that your website is ready to go live, your team is in the final phase of design and development.

    Include the following in your workflows for a successful site launch:

    • Submit sitemaps to Google Search Console for crawling and indexing 
    • Train internal staff training for website management, like content uploads and performance tracking
    • Proofread all web copy to ensure everything is accurate and error-free

    Remember, you can always fix minor issues and make design changes once the website is live—so don’t delay the launch for aesthetics and quick fixes! 

    Post-Launch

    Even newly launched websites must be continuously monitored and maintained to ensure they perform as they should. From troubleshooting bugs to optimizing the site for new search engine algorithm updates, your website isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it situation. It’s an ongoing responsibility for your business. 

    Create a post-launch checklist for your web team, including:

    • Scheduling weekly website backups to save your site from accidental data loss
    • Checking conversion paths for proper functionality on forms, page displays, etc.  
    • Cross-promoting the website on social media 
    • Fixing bugs when necessary

    Make Your Site’s Projects Smooth Sailing with a Website Project Manager

    As you can see, project management for website design and development is time-consuming and can get complex, even with automated platforms. Let a website project manager do the heavy lifting for you. 

    At Reach Marketing Pro, we have extensive experience in all aspects of web project management, including site design, development, and maintenance. We’re a full-service digital agency equipped to handle all aspects of your site with our in-house web developers, web designers, graphic designers, SEO copywriters—and, of course, project managers. 

    That way, you can focus on what you do best—managing your business and being an expert in your trade.

    Ready to optimize your website’s workflows and better support your bottom line? 

    Learn more about our website management services or contact us to make your site’s projects smoother sailing today! 

  • Keep Your Visitors Happy: Top 10 Attributes of User-Friendly Websites

    Keep Your Visitors Happy: Top 10 Attributes of User-Friendly Websites

    A user-friendly website is vital for your bottom line. It determines the ease of usability your site has for lead generation, conversions, SEO, and more. In contrast, poor site usability can make it harder for people to navigate, leading to higher bounce rates, lost sales, and dropped keyword rankings. 

    Learn more about the significance of website user-friendliness and how to achieve successful usability to support your business goals. 

    What Does User-Friendly Mean for Websites? 

    The meaning of user-friendly for websites is making them easier for people to use. They should be able to browse, search for information, and complete actions on your site quickly and easily. 

    Not to be confused with user experience (UX), which focuses on your site’s overall experience for people, whereas usability is for specific tasks. However, user-friendliness falls under the UX umbrella. Anyone should be able to use your site’s features easily and have a positive perception throughout the process.

    For example, if your website has an easy-to-use custom product builder, but your page takes too long to load, it can compromise its usability. User-friendly sites and UX design go hand-in-hand.

    Designing for Users: 10 Key Attributes of User-Friendly Websites

    A graphic of a person logging into a website on a laptop sitting down


    Learn the top 10 attributes of user-friendly websites with mistakes to avoid, tips on implementing them, and why each one matters.

    1. Responsive Moblie & Desktop Design

    Your website’s security is arguably the most important reason to take care of it. If your site’s platform hasn’t been updated to the People browse, research, and shop on mobile devices more than ever. In August 2024, studies show that nearly 62% of website traffic is from mobile users. At the same time, this doesn’t mean to neglect your desktop users. 

    Compared to mobile, people using desktop devices visited 100% more pages and spent almost 38% more time on websites—an average of four to seven pages than mobile’s three!  

    That’s why having a responsive website design on desktop and mobile is crucial. 

    A responsive website means its layout can easily adapt to any screen size. If your site has the same design for all devices, it can make it harder for people to navigate, a.k.a. not user-friendly. Examples of non-responsive web design include shrunken pages on mobile that make your text too small to read or grainy images that stretch too far on desktop. 

    You can optimize your site with user-friendly responsive design by:

    • Testing your website on different devices after major updates to ensure everything remains responsive 
    • Using flexible website grids and layouts via CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) code for optimal screen resolutions and orientations (portrait, landscape, iPads, Android phones, etc.)
    • Implementing max-width image source codes so they resize proportionally to all devices
    • Minimizing UI (user interactive) elements to prevent cluttering your site’s layout and complicating navigation

    2. Fast Page Load Speed

    Did you know if your website takes more than three seconds to load 40% of users will leave? In a rapid digital age, you can’t afford to lose visitors for slow page load speed. 

    Common reasons for slow websites include:

    • Large media files like long background videos and non-optimized images
    • Insufficient web host plans that share servers with other websites, slowing your site’s queue and lowering server performance
    • Limited CDN (Content Delivery Network) capabilities with smaller networks and no caching features
    • Dated CMS (content management system) that hasn’t been updated regularly or has many unused plug-ins
    • Unoptimized CSS and Javascript code with unnecessary rules or dense code, leading to increased HTTP requests your server can’t handle 

    You can improve your website’s page load speed with the following:

    • Compressing large media files and resizing them to a lower resolution
    • Upgrading your web hosting plan or switching providers with larger networks
    • Using CDNs with caching features for browsers and servers 
    • Downloading CMS updates regularly and removing unnecessary plug-ins
    • Minifying CSS and Javascript code to reduce the number of files loaded on your web pages

    Not to mention, slow page load also impacts your website’s technical SEO performance, like lower SERP rankings and reduced crawl rates. Google prioritizes fast-loading sites because it strengthens UX with quick content access. 

    Additionally, poor technical SEO makes it harder for search bots to crawl your website, delaying the indexing process. If Google takes a while to discover (crawl) and index (store) your site in their database, it’s essentially invisible online to users. 

    3. Seamless Navigation

    A graphic of a person navigating a website on a mobile device

    Your website’s navigation can be the main reason users browse or bounce. A beautifully designed site is nothing without successful functionality. If your website has no breadcrumbs for users to return to a page easily or has cluttered menu bars with too many web pages, it makes it harder for people to navigate. 

    User-friendly websites provide a seamless navigation experience, including:

    • Organized menu hierarchy by page priority with the top ones in the beginning, the lowest in the middle, and the contact page at the last 
    • Simplified menu bar design with a short list of options at the top header or side (seven maximum is recommended for most sites) 
    • Implemented breadcrumbs for users to backtrack easier or for sites with complex structures 
    • User-focused navigation experience with a recognizable search bar and accurate content label categories 

    4. Clear CTAs & Proper Placement

    As a business, your website must encourage users to take action. Whether it’s generating user engagement, leads, or conversions, your site should have various calls to action (CTAs) for your bottom line. CTAs prompt user interactions by guiding them to take the next step, like submitting a contact form, scheduling a demo, or downloading a free guide. 

    However, your CTAs require a careful balance to prevent them from making your site less user-friendly. Using too many pop-ups can overwhelm people, adding buttons that aren’t recognizable can easily be missed, and writing non-persuasive copy can make them ineffective. 

    User-friendly websites have clear and impactful CTAs, including:

    • Adding CTA buttons with bold colors, responsive sizing, and easy-to-find placement
    • Minimizing pop-ups that are distracting or spammy and make users bounce
    • Using persuasive CTA copy with action-oriented verbs that support the page’s content appropriately, like “Start Your Free Trial Today” instead of “Sign Up”
    • A/B testing your CTA buttons to see which designs resonate with users more

    5. Compliant User Accessibility

    Your website must be accessible to all users by law. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) now requires business websites to have accessibility-designed features and functionalities for disabled users. 

    The ADA’s website accessibility guidelines include: 

    • Writing descriptive image alt text for blind users to understand the purpose of your visuals, including pictures, logos, and charts
    • Using screen readers that speak the text of your web pages and online forms for blind users 
    • Implementing keyboard navigation for users who cannot physically access a website via mouse 
    • Adding captions to your videos for people with hearing disabilities 

    You should also check with your state and local governments if they have specific regulations for website accessibility requirements. Remember, user-friendly sites are meant for all users. 

    6. Balanced Layout Design

    A graphic of a person designing the layout of a web page

    Adding more website designs and features doesn’t always mean better when it comes to user-friendliness. In fact, it can do the opposite for your site’s usability. Text-heavy pages and too many visuals can make your site look cluttered and harder to read for users.

    User-friendly site designs include:

    • Contrasting page colors to create a balanced layout design
    • Ample white space to break up heavy text 
    • Easy-to-read fonts with sufficient sizing on all devices
    • Appropriate number of visuals that support your page’s content without distraction 

    7. Organized Content Structure

    Site maintenance costs depend on several factors, including:

    Your website’s content must pass the scanability test for users and search engines alike. They should be able to quickly scroll and know instantly what it’s about to ensure your site’s content has strong usability and SEO performance. 

    User-friendly content formatting for websites includes:

    • Headings, subheadings, bullet point lists, and small paragraphs with four sentences minimum for easier readability 
    • Proper heading hierarchy for search engines to crawl and index faster (Ex: One H1 per page)
    • Keyword-optimized heading titles that briefly and clearly describe the content sections below it for search engine relevancy and user understanding

    Organized website architecture can boost your conversion rate six times and be your highest ROI driver over time.  

    8. Simple Online Forms

    Your website’s online forms are how you capture contacts and generate leads. If you make this harder than it should be, users can easily leave in the middle of filling them out due to the inconvenience—potentially losing customers from poor usability. 

    User-friendly forms should be straightforward. Include the minimum number of form fields you require, like name, phone number, email, and a button to submit their information. Adding too many required or optional fields can reduce your form’s lead generation as a result. 

    You can also strengthen form usability by having an option to save their contact information for future use. Returning customers like the convenience of minimal clicks to check out their purchases. 

    9. Clean Code & Valid Markup

    A graphic of a person coding the back-end of their website on a laptop

    Having clean site code and valid markup is not only beneficial for users but also for your web developers to enhance its usability more easily. Cluttered or error-filled code and invalid markup, like missing tags, make it harder for developers to read for regular website maintenance, scale it for site redesigns, and troubleshoot it for technical issues when necessary. 

    On the user end, sites with organized code and proper markup language have stronger browser compatibility and SEO performance. 

    In addition to different devices, users visit websites with various browsers, like Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, which all interpret web pages differently. Since quality code is more stable with fewer loading errors, it allows your site to have a consistent browser experience so its usability performs and looks as it should across all of them. 

    Regarding SEO, clean code makes it easier for search bots to crawl and index your site’s content because they’ll understand it better. In return, it can improve your site’s visibility and keyword rankings for search engines because it’s optimized for them. 

    You can check if your website has user-friendly code and markup language with the following:

    • Code comments for future web developers to reference without overdoing them
    • SEO crawlers, like ScreamingFrog, flag and help you fix HTML errors on your site
    • Code cleaner tools, like DirtyMarkup, reformat your disorganized HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code

    10. Valuable User Feedback

    Who better to learn how to make your site more user-friendly than the people you’re designing it for? Your users know what they like and don’t like from your website the best. You can gain valuable insights from the people you’re trying to attract directly. 

    Online surveys are a simple way to get feedback on the user-friendliness of your site. You can add them to the home page or in email blasts and even offer incentives for users to fill them out, like one-time discounts or gift cards. 

    Include questions in your site’s surveys like:

    • On a scale of 1 to 10, how easy was it to find what you were looking for? 
    • How likely are you to recommend our website to people you know?
    • What features would you like to see added or changes to be made to our website? 
    • Did you experience any technical issues while using our website? 

    Don’t Push People Away: Make Your Site User-Friendly Today

    Don’t push potential customers away from your website with poor user-friendliness. Your site is a significant investment and the foundation for your business. It should attract your target audience and keep them by making it as easy as possible for them to use. 

    However, it’s understandable to not know where to begin and have the time commitment to maintain since it’s multi-faceted. User-friendly websites require regular updates on the front and back end, which can be challenging for businesses to do themselves—especially if it hasn’t been maintained for a while. 

    At Reach Marketing Pro, we’re a full-service digital marketing agency with extensive experience designing, developing, and managing user-friendly sites. From website redesigns to UX optimization and custom code, we can improve your site’s usability in all aspects. 

    Ready to keep your users happy for your bottom line?

    Learn more about our website design & development services, or contact us to make your site more user-friendly today! 

  • Website Maintenance & Management: How it Keeps Your Site Up & Running Efficiently

    Website Maintenance & Management: How it Keeps Your Site Up & Running Efficiently

    Like other aspects of your business’s digital marketing, your website needs regular upkeep to ensure everything runs smoothly. Website maintenance is an ongoing process, even if you recently launched a new one. 

    From site security risks to optimal SEO performance, learn more about web maintenance and management and why keeping up is imperative.

    What is Website Maintenance? 

    Website maintenance means, as the name suggests, taking care of your site as needed. 

    Your security software will eventually need to be updated to new versions to maximize your site’s protection from new cyber threats. Sometimes, there’s a significant shift in Google’s algorithms, and different aspects of website SEO need different optimization, like its new AI search engine, Search Generative Experience. 

    There are even website accessibility laws, where your site must be ADA-compliant for users with disabilities.

    The digital landscape is ever-evolving, and your business website must adapt quickly. That’s where web maintenance comes in. It prevents your site from experiencing several online risks and performance issues. 

    What is Website Management? 

    Website management and maintenance are interconnected. Maintaining your site falls under the management umbrella. However, site management is more than updating it as necessary. It involves monitoring your website’s overall performance and uploading new content as part of your digital marketing efforts. 

    Web management and maintenance are both key focuses for keeping your site’s functionality and health in top shape.

    Why Web Maintenance & Management is Necessary for Businesses

    A graphic of two people inspecting their website for checkup

    Website management and maintenance are essential for businesses. Learn why investing in these services is necessary for your bottom line below.

    Prevents Site Security Risks

    Your website’s security is arguably the most important reason to take care of it. If your site’s platform hasn’t been updated to the most recent version or has expired SSL certificates, your business is at serious risk because your data isn’t protected.

    During site maintenance, web developers scan it for these potential security issues to prevent you from cyber attacks, malware, and leaked sensitive information. 

    Strengthening your site’s security typically includes:

    • Updating security codes
    • Re-certifying SSL
    • Installing web application firewalls (WAFs)
    • Implementing multi-factor authorization (MFA)
    • Limiting user access settings

    With a 72% increase in data breaches last year alone and at a record high, now, more than ever, it’s critical to safeguard your company’s website from cyber crimes. 

    Strengthens SEO Performance

    Google’s algorithms are constantly changing, and your website needs to keep up for optimal SEO performance, including on-page, off-page, and technical SEO. 

    SEO website management and maintenance tasks may require:

    • Technical SEO: Compressing large media files to increase site speed, fixing broken links, redesigning pages for mobile responsiveness, etc.
    • On-Page SEO: Optimizing metadata with new target keywords, including page titles, meta descriptions, image alt text, and fixing related issues like duplicate content or word count limits, etc.
    • Off-Page SEO: Creating sitemaps for crawling or indexing issues on Google Search Console, removing toxic backlinks, etc. 

    It ensures your site maximizes its online visibility for search engines and target audiences.


    Saves Your Website From Data Loss

    Another major impact of website maintenance is saving it from data loss with routine backups. Whether you accidentally deleted files, have a hardware failure, transferred information incorrectly, or experienced malware, these are the most common reasons your entire website’s data can become lost. 

    If you don’t regularly back up your site, you’ll have nowhere to recover it. You may lose customer contacts, saved passwords, complex codes your developers created to customize your site, and more. 

    Website backups make a copy of your existing site by safely storing it offline or in a secure cloud so you can always recover the most recent version. How often you should back up your website depends on how frequently you update it. 

    If you only post monthly blogs, backing up your site at that rate should be sufficient. If you’re redesigning your site, backing it up daily or weekly is recommended.

    Supports Your Bottom Line

    A graphic of two people repairing their website on a computer

    Web maintenance strengthens its user experience (UX), which, in return, supports your bottom line. Even if you regularly take care of your site, any updates may negatively impact its UX. 

    For example, large media files like background videos may significantly slow your site’s page load speed. In today’s digital age, 40% of users will leave a website if it takes more than three seconds to load. During maintenance, web developers may recommend compressing these files or replacing them with new media that doesn’t slow your site down. 

    Additional UX site maintenance tasks may include:

    • Adding breadcrumbs for users to navigate your site pages more easily
    • Installing one-click checkout to increase cart conversions
    • Uploading clearer visuals for a sleeker site design and a stronger brand impression

    Website Maintenance FAQs

    Below are some common FAQs about web maintenance asked by businesses. 

    How Often Should I Maintain My Website?

    As mentioned above, how often you should maintain your website depends on how frequently you update it. If you change it daily, weekly, or monthly, your site maintenance should meet this same rate. That way, you can recover the most recent version of it should you lose any data and ensure it always performs as it should.

    How Much Does Maintaining a Website Cost?

    Site maintenance costs depend on several factors, including:

    • Website size
    • Website platform
    • Web developer rates
    • What you’re updating: (Ex: domain names, SSL certificates, web hosting providers, content updates, SEO optimization, etc.) 

    In 2024, the average pricing for web maintenance plans ranges between $15 and $300 per month. 

    Should I Hire a Website Maintenance Company or DIY?

    While some web maintenance tasks may be doable yourself, like on-page SEO, there are risks your business poses without prior experience. Complex tasks, like site security updates, should be done by web developers to prevent related risks. You’ll also spend more time and resources doing it yourself instead of professionals who can do it quickly and more efficiently.

    What’s Included in Professional Web Maintenance Plans?

    Professional web maintenance services offer various plans, depending on the company. Most web developers will include plug-in updates, site theme changes, security scanning, and website backups in their plans.


    Keep Your Site Updated & Safe with Professional Web Maintenance Services

    Because web maintenance is ongoing, you may not have the time to commit to these necessary tasks. You have to manage your business while being an expert in your trade. At Reach Marketing Pro, we can lift this workload off your shoulders and ensure your website performs as it should. 

    We’re a full-service digital agency with extensive experience in web design, maintenance, development, and management. Our site maintenance services include technical support, UX design changes, WordPress updates, and more. 

    Learn more about our website services or contact us for questions about how we can upgrade your site today! 

  • How to Create a Website in Webflow: A Beginner’s Guide

    How to Create a Website in Webflow: A Beginner’s Guide

    Are you considering building a website or migrating an existing one to Webflow? Whether it’s a new business launch or a site redesign, Webflow is a user-friendly website builder that makes it easy to do so. 

    From drag-and-drop features to pre-designed site templates and a flexible content management system (CMS), you can customize your new Webflow website no matter your experience. 

    Learn how to create a website in Webflow with tips and mistakes to avoid in this beginner’s guide. 

    How to Create a Website in Webflow in Six Steps

    Here’s how to create a website in Webflow in six simple steps.

    1. Sign Up For a Webflow Account


    The first step to building a Webflow site is to sign up for an account. Webflow offers free starter accounts with fully customizable templates. It also has paid site plans with access to premium features like custom domains and additional monthly contact form submissions. 

    2. Select a Site Template

    A screenshot of Webflow's free website templates

    Next is choosing a website template. Webflow has over 1,500 free pre-designed templates with diverse themes from non-profits to fashion, medical, and more. Regardless of which you pick, they’re all easily customizable without code. Webflow also offers blank templates if you prefer to build a site from scratch. 

    If you have limited to no experience creating websites from site builders, we suggest using a pre-designed template. It gives you a foundation to customize, so you don’t have to build certain page elements or features on your own. Pre-designed templates also allow you to have a quicker turnaround for launch. 

    However, selecting the right Webflow template is one of your most important decisions. It must fully support your business needs, showcase your unique brand, and keep your customers happy when visiting your site. 

    Consider the must-have designs before building your website, such as: 

    • Industry-specific features like payment gateways and one-click checkout for e-commerce 
    • Total pages required (these are limited per template)
    • Type of pages required: collection, service, product, blog, etc. 
    • Brand-centric themes like 3D elements or demo contact forms for SaaS 

    While the details may seem overwhelming, you can start by choosing a category that closely aligns with your industry. Webflow also allows you to preview their templates by testing them to ensure their functionalities and designs meet your business needs. 

    3. Customize Your Site Template

    A GIF of a user designing a web page in Webflow's interface
    Source: Webflow

    After selecting a template, you must customize the design to match your branding guidelines. Change the theme colors, text fonts, and logos to showcase your unique brand. Otherwise, it’ll have stock imagery and look like a pre-designed template that wasn’t customized—which your audience will notice.  

    You’ll need to become familiar with Webflow’s interface, but luckily, it’s easy to navigate. In the upper right-hand corner, open the Navigator tab, which organizes your site structure in one list. Depending on your template, it’ll display your site’s Body, Header, Section, and Footer, where you can simply drag and drop elements to customize the design.

    In addition to aesthetics, ensure your updated template has optimal UX (user experience) design. UX is crucial in web design because it’s built with your users in mind. If potential customers experience text-heavy pages, slow page speeds, and blurry mobile images when navigating your site, they’ll quickly bounce.

    In fact, 40% of users will leave a website if it takes more than three seconds to load and are five times more likely to abandon a task if it isn’t optimized for mobile. Your website should be generating traffic and converting leads. Don’t be the reason they leave from poor UX. 

    Some UX-centric site design tips include: 

    • Balanced white space
    • Clear visuals
    • Responsiveness on mobile and desktop
    • Easy-to-use navigation with site breadcrumbs
    • Compressing large media files for faster page load speed

    Keep in mind that you don’t have to customize your template in one sitting. It takes time to create a website, even with Webflow. Start with your core site pages, like Home, Service/Product, About, and Contact Us. Then, you can branch out to design the rest one page at a time. 

    4. Create or Migrate Your Website Content to Webflow

    A GIF of a user designing a web page in Webflow's interface
    Source: Webflow Blog

    If you’re migrating content from an existing site to Webflow, you can use migration tools or CSV plug-in files to transfer text and media to their platform. 

    If you’re creating content within Webflow, you’ll need to insert your text and media via Webflow Editor. It’s like the Navigator tab for your site structure mentioned above but for content. 

    The most common Webflow Editor elements to create content within your template are Sections, Headings, and Paragraphs. All you have to do is fill in your text and upload visuals in their CMS fields that are shown visually right on the page. Webflow also offers dynamic content features, like 3D visual transformations and pop-up variations for different pages.

    While websites built with Webflow have built-in SEO tools with no plug-ins necessary, you’ll still need to optimize your content. You can write your metadata, add schema markup, create sitemaps, migrate 301 directs from an existing site, and more. You can even set editor settings for collaborators to access your content to help you create and optimize it. 

    5. Preview Your Webflow Website

    GIF of a user designing a website page in Webflow
    Source: Webflow Tutorial

    Once your site template is customized and your content is added, the final step before launch is reviewing it for design and functionality. Webflow has a preview mode where you can check if all the site designs look and perform as they should as a saved draft.

    Test your web design on mobile and desktop for the following:

    • Click all buttons and links to ensure they work 
    • Look at your content on different devices to see if they have easy readability
    • Measure how long your site takes to load on Google PageSpeed Insights
    • Share your preview link with others for further review on details you may miss

    Don’t get too hung up on the details during this part. You can always update your site once it’s live with ongoing website maintenance. 


    6. Launch Your Webflow Website

    When you’re ready to publish your website, you can use a subdomain of webflow.com or create a custom domain with a paid Webflow account. Just make sure to index your web pages on Google Search Console so it can index and crawl your site. Remember, if Google can’t discover your website, it’s essentially invisible online.

    In addition to indexing, monitoring your new site’s performance is critical. It ensures everything is running smoothly for your visitors. 

    Track the following in a post-site launch:

    • Indexing status on Google Search Console
    • Overall website performance with Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
    • Potential SEO issues like duplicate headings and broken links with website crawlers like ScreamingFrog 

    Finally, start spreading the word! Cross-promote your new Webflow website on social media or advertising to generate audience discovery of all the hard work you put in.


    Unlock Your Webflow Site’s Potential with Full-Service Web Design & Development

    Although Webflow makes it easier to build a website, it’s still a comprehensive process that must be done correctly. Your site must be accessible to users with disabilities, properly optimized for Google’s changing algorithms, and regularly maintained for optimal performance.

    As a business owner or leader in your trade, it can be time-consuming and challenging to navigate the complexities of web design. At Reach Marketing Pro, we are your one-stop shop for everything you need to launch or migrate a new Webflow site. 

    We’re a full-service digital marketing agency with extensive experience in Webflow, including design, maintenance, development, and management. Our team includes graphic designers to make custom visuals for a powerful site and brand design. We also have SEO content writers with the expertise to create and optimize your site text for target audiences and Google. 

    Ready to unlock your Webflow website’s full potential? 

    Learn more about our web design and development services, or contact us to kick off your new site journey on the right foot today!