Top 5 Questions About Mobile-Responsive Child Care Websites

If you aren’t already aware, having a mobile-responsive website is now more important than ever.  Your customers and potential customers expect your website to adapt and be user-friendly on their smart phones and tablets and more importantly, the search engines now consider that as part of how they rank websites.  Here are some FAQ’s our clients have about updating their website or creating a new one, that is mobile-friendly:

Question:  Is this going to be a separate mobile site? 
Answer:  No, when you have a mobile-responsive website, you don’t have to go through the expense and hassle of having 2 separate websites to manage.  You will still have just one website but it will be coded in a way that the format will automatically adjust / adapt for the user’s screen size – whether it be desktop, tablet, or phone.

eblast_googleQuestion:  Do I need to decide what content will show on phones/tablets?
Answer:  No.  All of your site content will still display on every page – just reformatted and optimized so that users don’t have to scroll left/right or pinch/zoom to see all of the content.

Question:  Will some parts of the website not work on phones/tablets? 
Answer:  Your entire website will be 100% mobile responsive.  That includes any slideshow features, photo galleries, videos, website forms, buttons, links, etc.

Question:  Do I really need a mobile-responsive website?
Answer: Absolutely!  More people now browse websites on their mobile devices than on desktops. You don’t want to inconvenience potential customers who expect your site to be mobile-friendly.

Question:  What will happen if I don’t optimize my site for mobile users?
Answer:  You will certainly lose more and more customers as a result over time, as your competitors provide a better website experience.

Are you taking advantage of free advertising with Google Places?

If you haven’t added your local business to Google’s local map tool (called “Google Places”) do it today!  You are missing out on your business showing up in the local results that appear at the very top when someone searches for a local business.  Here is a one-sheet flyer on all the benefits of Google Places.  Unlike the way Google indexes and ranks websites automatically, your business won’t get added to Google Places unless you submit your website to them.  So, here’s how you do it:

  1. Google-Places-1Go to www.Google.com/places and click the link to add your new business. You can add lots of details regarding your business so take advantage of all of the available fields so that your listing stands out from the rest.
  2. You will have to wait for a letter to be mailed to your physical address to confirm your location.  This letter will contain a confirmation code that you will need to enter back on Google’s website.
  3. Once your listing is confirmed (typically takes a week or two), you should start to see your business appear when someone searches for your type of business in their local area.
  4. Don’t forget to add an embedded Google map to the contact page of your website AND be sure to take advantage of Google+ reviews as those appear alongside your business listing!

You don’t get many free business advertising opportunities but this is one that could send you lots of organic (and free) internet traffic your way so don’t delay!

Mobile Responsive Child Care Website Design

You may or may not have heard the term “mobile responsive” but if you haven’t (and you have a website) you should read this article to find out more.

First, mobile-responsive just means that your website is setup to automatically reformat to fit any screen size (on a computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.)  It means you don’t have to squeeze, expand, scroll left-right to be able to read a website on a mobile device (and we all know how much we hate to do that.)

mobilerespoWithout going into a lot of explanation, let’s just say that Google thinks this is now a pretty important aspect of what makes a quality website so that means it should be important to you too.  (Unless you don’t care about those silly website rankings.)  Bottom line: you don’t want your website to be pushed down in the rankings because your site isn’t optimized for mobile users.

Websites for Daycares now builds all new websites in mobile-responsive format and if you have any questions about this topic, feel free to drop us a line or call us at 979-848-8266.

Here are a few examples of recent sites we built that are mobile-responsive.  Open them in your browser window and resize the window to watch the content rearrange for optimal viewing.

www.perfectbeginningschildcare.com.au

www.boldspringsacademy.com

www.kiddieuinc.com

www.childrenscastle.org

I launched my new website yesterday – why isn’t it showing up on Google?

Patient not ImpatientIf you launched a brand new site to a brand new domain recently, you are in for a bit of a waiting period with Google’s search engine.  Simply put, your new website simply doesn’t have enough authority to rank well yet for your keywords.  Google needs some time to verify that your site is not malicious and that there is relevant content on your site.  This delay doesn’t apply to our client’s that come to us with an existing site or domain that is at least a year old.  This is for the client that has no existing website or domain and is just starting out.  Be prepared for a 3 month, 6 month, possibly even a year delay to start seeing your site show up in the search results for your keyword phrases.

First, know that Websites for Daycares always optimizes our client sites with the client’s most important keyword phrases so there’s nothing “wrong” with your website.  We wish we could magically control Google’s algorithm to get your site out of the Google sandbox faster but this is unfortunately a penalty all new sites have to pay initially.  I hate telling my clients in this situation about this delay but the good news is that there are some things you can do to move things along more quickly.

1. Submit your local business to Google Maps / Places and do the same for Bing and don’t forget to incorporate your keywords with your listing!  They will send you something in the mail to confirm your physical location and once your listing is confirmed (may take a few weeks) this will help you get more exposure and hits to your site because your location will appear on their local results searches.

2. Look for established websites in your community that could offer you a link to your site from their site.  Look at your local chamber of commerce, getting an advertising link on your local news website, or submitting an article to a local magazine that will include a link to your site.  Do not get links from low-quality sites or pay for links from spam-filled directories.  This will hurt your site in the long run, not help it.

3.  Utilize social media!  Get that Facebook page created for your business and ask your local friends to like and share your new page.  Create posts on your new Facebook page and include a link to your website wherever possible.  For example, you could create a post letting people know you updated your school calendar and link people to that page right on the post.  The more visitors and hits you get to your site, the more likely you are to get out of the sandbox early.

Most important:  don’t give up and be patient – your site will start working for you very soon. You might also consider advertising (pay-per-click ads) with Google until you are getting more organic traffic in the coming months.  Set your daily or weekly budgets for clicks and this will help you get a jump-start on your site traffic.

Are you utilizing online reviews for your child care business?

Whether you have been in business for 5 months or 5 years, it is important that you share positive customer feedback with potential new customers.  Your website may include a Testimonials or Reviews page but your website visitors are going to know that you put those there and may not trust the reviews.  The best approach is to get your happy customers to talk about your business on 3rd party, social media sites.

???????????????????????At a minimum, you should be asking customers to review you on Google+ and Yelp.  Your reviews on these 2 websites will have a direct result on your search engine results because they rank very highly for local business and mobile searches.  If you have 10 or 15 5-star ratings with these sites, your listing is going to stand out on their search results against those with few or none.  Make sure you have a business profile page setup with both of these sites and customize it to the maximum extent possible.  Add a banner photo on Google+ and include details about your business.  Remember, most people will see this page or results before they find the link to your site so include the highlights and link to your website, of course.

Share the link to both sites with your customer base and also include it in your email signature, website, and social media pages.  It’s important to keep the reviews fresh and up-to-date so try to actively keep this a priority.

Once you have some established reviews on both sites, take advantage of the website widgets that you can add to your website.  This will allow your website visitors to read your reviews on those sites and also allow current customers another way to leave your business feedback.

If you utilize these sites and actively pursue positive feedback from your customers, your business will receive more traffic and conversions and ultimately more business!

Should you have any questions or need assistance friends, please contact me. I’m here to help you and as always, I would love to hear from you!