How to Combine On-Page SEO With Your Roofing Website Design

How to Combine On-Page SEO With Your Roofing Website Design

You can either chase the competition or become the competition.

If you want to stand out from other roofing companies in your local area, you will need a strong online presence.

That’s why you must focus on on-page SEO with your roofing website design.

So, to help your brand stand out from the crowd, we are offering some top tips to help you drive more search engine traffic.

Combine Your Keyword into the Title Tag

It is important to add your most important keyword into the title tag (article title).

If you want to rank in the first pages of the search engine results pages (SERPs), add the keyword at the start of the title.

Add Modifiers into the Title Tag

If you want to encourage visitors to your website, add modifiers into the title tag, too.

Modifiers can be words like “best”, “review” or “guide”.

This is a great way to rank for long-tail keywords that people will search for in the likes of Google.

Create SEO-Friendly URLs

The one thing stopping you from ranking on the first page of the SERPs could be your URLs.

Ugly, long URLs will not do you any favors in Google.

Keep the URLS as short as possible, whilst ensuring they’re keyword rich.

Wrap <H1> Tags in the Title

When writing a blog post, make sure to wrap your title in an H1 tag.

The likes of WordPress will automatically create a header one tag for a title. Yet other CMS systems might not.

Wrap <H2> Tags in the Subheadings

Every good blog post should have a subheading. It provides the reader with a flow and is more visually appealing.

So, it’s important to wrap the subheadings in an H2 tag, which is a little smaller than the H1 option.

You should try to use at least one h2 tag in a blog to help Google crawl the article with ease.

Use Multimedia

Do you want to make your roofing website design stand out for all the right reasons?

Add multimedia across a website, such as high-quality images, videos, and infographics.

It will ensure a visitor spends more time on your website, so can improve your bounce rate. Both are two Google ranking factors.

Use a Keyword in the First Paragraph

If you want to rank for a keyword, use it in the first 100 words of an article.

This will show the SERPs what your blog is all about, so you can rank for it in Google.

Create a Mobile-Friendly Roofing Website Design

When creating a roofing website design, you must ensure it is mobile friendly.

In 2015, Google stated websites unresponsive designs would face a penalty.

So, your design must adapt to desktops, smartphones, and tablets.

Click here to discover the many benefits of a responsive web design.

Add Outbound Links

Outbound links are a great way to help Google learn more about your website’s topic.

Also, ensure you only link to trusted URLs to become a trusted source in the SERPs.

Aid Navigation with Inbound Links

Aid user navigation with inbound links, which can reduce your bounce rate.

Try to add between two to three inbound links per blog post.

If you’re unsure how it’s done, take a look at how Wikipedia uses inbound links to aid visitor navigation.

Improve Your Website’s Speed

You can’t beat the competition with a slow website.

So, you must improve your website’s speed or you’ll always be behind the competition.

A website’s speed is a ranking signal in Google, and it can also make people click away from your site and turn to a rival.

So, compress images, remove slow videos and switch to faster website hosting.

Write Long Articles

Have you heard of the SEO saying “length in strength” in on-page SEO?

Well, it is. The longer your content, the higher you will rank in the SERPs.

Plus, the higher the quality of the content, the more people that will share and link back to your website. So, you’ll receive endless traffic if you execute an engaging content marketing strategy.

So, consider on-page SEO before the aesthetics of a roofing website design.

After all, this will determine how well you rank in Google and could boost your online exposure.

Have you got any on-page SEO tips to share? We’d love to hear them. Write a comment below.

6 Ways to Bolster Your Roofing Website and Win More Sales

6 Ways to Bolster Your Roofing Website and Win More Sales

With over 101,000 roofing businesses in the United States alone, you need to do everything possible to make sure yours stands out.

Here, we’ll tell you six of our favorite digital marketing strategies to take your roofing website to the next level.

1. Post Your Reviews

These days, close to 90% of people value online business reviews just as much as they do recommendations from friends or colleagues.

This means that if your reviews aren’t easy to find on your roofing website, potential customers will just go to your competitor.

Make sure, in addition to having reviews on pages like Google My Business and review websites like Yelp and Angie’s List, that your customer testimonials are displayed on your roofing website.

Show at least a few lines from satisfied customers on your homepage, and try to create a page in your drop-down header menu that’s dedicated to what your customers are saying about your services.

2. Include Videos

Video content has become more and more popular this year in digital marketing!

These days, people don’t always have time or patience to read through the internal pages of your website.

Think of a homepage video clip as your 2-minute elevator pitch. Plus, it helps people to have a face to put with the brand’s name and services.

Let people see your roofing equipment at work, and introduce yourself!

3. Share Your Social Media Links

Everyone is on social media these days – yes, even roofing websites.

You’d be surprised just how many potential customers are combing through the roofing hashtag on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram for inspiration and for services.

Make sure you include links to all your social media profiles on every page of your website – remember, you can’t guarantee that every visitor will land on your homepage.

Encourage website visitors to follow you on social media for giveaways, discount codes, and inspiration!

4. Get Local

Local SEO is more important than ever.

To help local clients find your website and book your services, always make sure that your company’s contact information is current and is updated on both the website and on Google My Business.

Try to include your town’s name, the state you’re active in, and your complete service area in as much of your content as possible.

Also, make sure you frequently update your website to stay at the top of local results!

5. A Picture Is Worth A Thousand (Key)words

You probably already know just how important using images to both break up your content and give people a visual idea of what your roofing styles look like is.

But keep in mind too that image file names and captions are the perfect place to include keywords to bump your site up in the rankings!

6. Make Your Roofing Website Contact Page Visible

Lastly, always make sure that the “Contact Us” page of your website is crisp, visible, and easy to navigate.

You may want to put your contact information in both the header and footer of your homepage, as well as on your internal pages.

Even if you’re using a contact form, still display your email, address, and phone number clearly.

Get The Most Out Of Your Roofing Website

Use these tips to see big changes in your rankings!

Remember to always check back with us for more tips and tricks about how to get the best digital marketing strategy for your business.


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3 Great Responsive Web Design Benefits for Your Business

3 Great Responsive Web Design Benefits for Your Business

80 – 90% of people will research a business online when looking to make a purchase like a new roof.

And data also tells us that 30% of small businesses with a web presence generate more than 25% of their revenue online.

About 66% of the U.S. population (211 million) consider themselves as digital shoppers.

A responsive website will mean that your business is available to them 24/7, whatever the geography or time zone.

Responsive web design benefits you and your business; 44% of smartphone users make purchases with their smartphone.

If your website isn’t responsive, you’re going to miss out – 38% of people will stop engaging with a website if the content or layout is unattractive.

An unresponsive site is most definitely ‘unattractive’.

This is why we’re giving you three key responsive web design benefits.

Responsive Web Design Benefits

Google will share the love

Performing a search on the internet has long been classed as ‘Googling’, despite there being a number of other search engines available to you.

It seems that Google is the King (or Queen) of internet search; you don’t search for something, you Google it.

So when they tell you that your site will be disregarded from their results if it isn’t mobile friendly (responsive), you need to listen.

Regardless of how you feel about the pervasion of giants like Google, the fact is simple – fit with them or pay the consequence.

Viewer Engagement

94% of people that regularly use online services have said that they rejected or mistrusted a website out of hand purely because of the design.

People access the internet through a number of different devices, be that a smartphone, tablet, laptop … the range of devices continues to grow daily.

And remember that just because your site works on something with a 4″ screen and a 16″ screen, it doesn’t mean it will work on the sizes in-between.

And what can be worse than having to scroll through a site, swiping left, right, up and down just to read something?

Worse if you’re trying to make a purchase and can’t see the options or boxes that you should fill in.

One Site Fits All

For a while, there was a transition period of businesses knowing they needed mobile browsing while still retaining full desktop functionality.

This led to two different websites – the mobile version and the ‘proper‘ version.

That’s all very well, but then you need two lots of development, two SEO strategies, in fact, two of everything.

A fully responsive website will work on all platforms, with all browsers, using just the one strategy, and that’s going to save a significant amount of money.

Of course, it needs only one development path as well.

Spending your money on a website that isn’t responsive is a bad investment. 

You wouldn’t pay over the odds for a service or product, or let your customers pay you half of the invoice, and that’s exactly what you’re doing with a non-responsive site.

Giving money away.

To find out more about responsive web design benefits, or to see why web development is our specialty, you should contact us today or call us at (970) 578-0234 to talk to one of our professionals.

We’ll make your brand shine. 


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Spectrum Interactive Group Named Kentico Gold Partner

Spectrum Interactive Group Named Kentico Gold Partner

JOHNSTOWN, CO, March 16, 2017 — Spectrum Interactive Group announced today that it had become a Kentico Gold Partner with Kentico Software, the Web Content, and Customer Experience Management provider.

Spectrum Interactive Group is known for creating unique and customized digital platforms for small and medium-sized businesses with limited marketing budgets. Spectrum Interactive has chosen Kentico as the platform for client websites because of its ability to provide a customized solution while also allowing for an easy-to-manage interface for the non-technical content administrator. As a Kentico Gold Partner, that service will continue.

“What an honor to be named a Kentico Gold Partner,” said Michael D. Wailes, Founder of Spectrum Interactive Group. “It is great to continue our partnership with a product that we have come to know and trust. By using Kentico, we feel confident that we will continue to meet our customers’ needs, and deliver the projects on time and at a very affordable price.”

“Spectrum Interactive Group is part of a growing breed of technology-savvy digital marketing agencies,” observed Petr Palas, Founder, and CEO of Kentico Software. “They are partnering with companies large and small across a wide range of vertical markets and providing industry-leading counsel and solutions. They are exactly the kind of agency that Kentico goes to great lengths to work with.”

About Kentico Gold Partner

The Kentico Solution Partner Program offers three partner levels, each with distinct requirements. The highest level, Kentico Gold Partner designation identifies Kentico partners who have proven a deep knowledge of the Kentico platform. Kentico Gold Partners are active participants in the Kentico ecosystem.

About Spectrum Interactive Group

Located in northern Colorado, Spectrum Interactive Group is a full-service interactive/digital agency. Our collective team of industry experts/veterans have over 50 combined years of experience in the business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketing space with an emphasis on digital and interactive projects.

Our primary mission is to leverage our experience working in larger agencies to the scale and price point for small and medium-sized businesses. To learn more about the services we offer with Kentico, please visit the web-development section of our website.

About Kentico

Kentico’s product line includes Kentico EMS, the all-in-one CMS, E-commerce, and Online Marketing platform and Kentico Cloud.

Kentico EMS’ rich selection of out-of-the-box web parts, easy customizations, and open API quickly gets websites operational. The all-in-one platform combines a full set of integrated solutions, including Online Marketing, E-commerce, Online Communities, and Intranet. Kentico EMS allows you to manage contacts, campaigns, track the customer journey, and provide global e-commerce functionality. Additionally, Kentico EMS allows you to measure and analyze visitor data to create and manage experiences easily.

Kentico Cloud is the cloud-first headless CMS and digital experience platform. Users can manage structured content for multi-channel delivery, use the API-first CMS to display that content on any website or device and track visitor interactions to personalize the digital experience.

Kentico Software was launched with one vision in mind: to build exceptional digital platforms that allow clients to connect with their customers, surpass their business goals, and achieve digital marketing success. Kentico’s 24/7 support and 7-day bug-fix policy help customers deliver projects on time and budget.

Founded in 2004, Kentico Software is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner headquartered in the Czech Republic with offices in the US, UK, Netherlands, and Australia. Kentico Software has 1,000 digital solution partners and powers 25,000 websites across 100 countries. Customers include Gibson, Twinings, Ingram Micro, Mazda, Kingspan, Hunter Fan, Starbucks, and Allergan.


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Spectrum Interactive Group introduces Kentico Cloud development

Spectrum Interactive Group introduces Kentico Cloud development

JOHNSTOWN, CO, March 13, 2017 — Spectrum Interactive Group today announced it will begin offering development services using the Kentico Cloud platform (http://www.kenticocloud.com), to provide customers with a truly robust online presence.

Spectrum Interactive Group is known for creating unique and customized digital platforms for small and medium-sized businesses with limited marketing budgets. Spectrum Interactive Group chose Kentico as the platform for their clients’ websites for its ability to provide a customized solution while allowing for an easy-to-manage interface for the non-technical content administrator.

“Development on the Kentico Cloud platform creates a unique opportunity for all of our clients to deliver their content across a broad spectrum of devices,” said Michael D. Wailes, Founder of Spectrum Interactive Group. “Kentico has, once again, allowed us the ability to provide a complete solution to our clients.”

“It’s important to choose the solution that’s right for your web project, but success also depends on the skills and expertise of the company that delivers your website,” said Dana Tousova, Channel Marketing Manager at Kentico. “Through this partnership, we are sure that the end users of our product will be provided with top-level professional services.”

About Spectrum Interactive Group

Located in northern Colorado, Spectrum Interactive Group is a full-service interactive/digital agency. Our collective team of industry experts/veterans have over 50 combined years of experience in the business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketing space with an emphasis on digital and interactive projects.

Our primary mission is to leverage our experience working in larger agencies to the scale and price point for small and medium-sized businesses. To learn more about the services we offer with Kentico, including Kentico Cloud, please visit the web-development section of our website.

About Kentico

Kentico is an all-in-one CMS, E-commerce, and Online Marketing platform that drives business results for companies of all sizes, both on-premise or in the cloud. It gives customers and partners powerful, comprehensive tools and customer-centric solutions to create stunning websites and manage customer experiences easily in a dynamic business environment.  The Kentico Web Content Management Solution‘s rich selection of out-of-the-box web parts, easy customizations, and open API, quickly gets websites up and running. When combined with the full set of integrated solutions, including Online Marketing, E-commerce, and Intranet and Collaboration, Kentico fully optimizes the digital customer experience across multiple channels.

About Kentico Software

Founded in 2004, Kentico is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner headquartered in the Czech Republic with offices in the US, UK, Netherlands, and Australia. Kentico has 1,000 digital agency partners and powers more than 25,000 websites across 100 countries. Customers include Gibson, Twinings, Ingram Micro, Mazda, Kingspan, Hunter Fan, Starbucks, and Allergan.


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Calculating Ems using Sass

Calculating Ems using Sass

Calculating Ems from pixels is easy. Calculating pixels to Ems is hard. Calculating Ems is nothing more than the quotient of the intended pixel equivalent (IPE) divided by the default font-size of the parent container:

Em = IPE/default font size

The concept is simple, the explanation of it…not so much.

First off: IPE is a term I came up with – it is simply the pixel size you are attempting to set. Let’s look at a simple example using real numbers.

Let’s say your design calls for your <p> tag to be 14px. Most browsers (I think we could say “All browsers”) have a default font size of 16px. Based on the above formula, 14 will be the IPE and 16 will be the default font size. Armed with those two numbers, calculating Ems would be:

Em = 14/16

or

.875em
p{
  font-size: .875em;
}

See, simple right?

Where things get confusing is that now any other Em measurement you apply to the <p> tag now has a default font size of 14px. Let’s return to our example and I will illustrate.

We have our font-size set, but now let’s set the line-height. Our design calls for it to be 16px. Your first instinct would be the following:

Em = 16/16

or

1em

But that would be wrong. Doing this would set an IPE of 14px for your line-height; tighter than what our design requires.

Dealing With Changes to the Default Font-Size

This common mistake happens because we have changed our default font-size for the <p> tag to an IPE of 14px. So now any calculation we make moving forward for the <p> tag needs to be based on a default font-size of 14px:

Em = 14/16

or

1.143em
p{
  font-size: .875em
  line-height: 1.143em
}

It’s the change in default font-size that can make working with Ems so confusing. Going back to pixels once you have your Ems set is also a challenge primarily because you don’t have the benefit of knowing the default font-size of the element you are working with without doing a little homework.

You might have some reservations to using Ems because of calculations and commenting your code in such a way that you can easily see what the IPE of the Em is.

I had the same concerns when I began using Ems in my designs – and my code comments were no less confusing:

.my-element {  
  font-size: 1.125em; // 18px/16px  
  line-height: 1.44em; //24px/18px … remember the parent element is now 18px
}

And I eventually would get lazy, and the above would turn into:

.my-element {  
  font-size: 1.125em; // 18px
  color: #fffff;
  font-family: serif;  line-height: 1.44em; //24px
}

At which point, it became a pain to maintain.

There had to be a better way.

Enter Sass Functions

I love Sass. It has completely changed the way I relate to and write CSS.

I used to hate writing CSS mostly because I was pretty horrible at it – tons of redundancy, unnecessary properties, and a liberal spattering of commented-out code left me with some horrendously bloated files that were agonizing to maintain.

If you are new to Sass, I cannot give a higher recommendation for Dan Cederholm’s (@simplebits) book Sass For Web Designers. If you are a Sass veteran, I cannot give a higher recommendation for Dan Cederholm’s (@simplebits) book Sass For Web Designers. That’s not a typo… you need to buy that book.

Sass simplifies a plethora of issues when writing your CSS. Variables and Mixins help prevent the redundancy that creeps into every project and allows for you to have some fairly robust templates at your disposal allowing for faster and more efficient starts to your projects.

But one of the more powerful features of Sass is the ability to use functions to automate calculations – specifically, calculating Ems.

What I set out to create was a simple function that would allow me the ability easily and intuitively converts pixels into Ems and is able to easily and intuitively allow me to maintain that code later by showing the default font-size in all measurements.

Calculating Ems with a Sass Function

Here is what I came up with:

@function calc-em($pixels, $context: $browser-context){  
  @return ($pixels / $context) * 1em;
}

Functions in Sass are similar to functions you would write in any other scripting language (think JavaScript).

First, we declare the function:

@function calc-em(){}

Now let’s require some parameters to be passed when the function is called:

@function calc-em($pixels, $context){}

$pixels will be our IPE and $context will be our default font-size. But passing the default font-size all the time can be a pain, so let’s create a variable and use it as a default variable if the $context variable isn’t passed:

$browser-context: 16;
@function calc-em($pixels, $context: $browser-context){}

: $browser-context basically says, “if $context is blank, use $browser-context”

We have all the numbers we need, now all we need to do is perform the calculation and return the quotient:

@function calc-em($pixels, $context: $browser-context){  
  @return ($pixels / $context) * 1em;
}

Why are we multiplying the quotient by 1em? So we can output the result in proper CSS syntax.

So now something like this:

.section-leader {  
  h2 {    
    font-size: calc-em(50);    
    line-height: calc-em(48,50);  
  }
}

compiles neatly into:

.section-leader h2 {  
  font-size: 3.125em;  
  line-height: 0.96em;
}

This function can be used to calculate Ems for things such as margin and padding as well:

.section-leader {  
  h2 {    
    font-size: calc-em(50);    
    line-height: calc-em(48,50);    
    margin: calc-em(20,50), calc-em(50,50);  
  }
}

Which compiles into:

.section-leader h2 {  
  font-size: 3.125em;  
  line-height: 0.96em;  
  margin: .4em, 1em;
}

And because you only edit your .scss files (Sass), maintenance is a breeze because you are abstracted from the calculation and simply see the intended pixel equivalent and default font-size.

For more information on Ems, Kezz Bracey  (@KezzBracey) has a great article Comprehensive Guide: When to Use Em vs. Rem that gets into the meat of flexible units of measurement.

Do you have any cool functions you are using with Sass? If so, share them with us!


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