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Loebig Ink is a small business consulting firm
fueled by coffee, creativity and music to provide
SEO, web design and social media solutions.

Category: Website Design

Loebig Ink Ranked #11 Best Web Design Agency in Silver Spring

Posted on by Brian Loebig

Loebig Ink starts 2021 on a high note as it was ranked #11 among all web design agencies and professional web designers in Silver Spring, based on a web design market-share analysis conducted by SEOlium. [see ranking here…]

Top Web Design Agency in Silver Spring Chart

We are both humbled and excited to be on this list, especially since they used data, not voting or a popularity contest, to determine rankings. In their own words…

“This isn’t one of those web design contests where agency owners submit an application and then a jury decides who gets what.
We had a different idea. We asked ourselves: “Who knows what’s best for the people of Silver Spring”? That would be Google, of course.

And “Would you trust Google to show you the best web design firm in Silver Spring ranked #1, the second-best ranked #2, and so on?” Yes!

Luckily, SEOlium is a Google Rank Tracker so we googled “web design Silver Spring”, “web designer Silver Spring”, and “web design agency Silver Spring” from every ZIP-Code in the city and came up with this analysis.
After carefully reviewing 25 “candidates” relevant to the 303,044 people living in Silver Spring (in 7 zip-codes), we selected the most relevant 11 top web design companies/freelancers for our “Silver Spring Web Design” market-share analysis. Should you need a stunning new WordPress website, web development services, professional web hosting – be sure to pick one from the list below.”

We wanted to know more, which is why we reached out to them and asked for more details. Turns out – they did a national best web design agencies in USA contest as well. Apparently, we rank in Google in 11 distinct states. Here’s where we’re most prominent 🙂

Best Web Design Agency in Silver Spring Chart

We’re very proud to receive this designation that reflects our dedication to design and build websites for over 15 years.
Loebig Ink provides a wide range of support services for small business and non-profits in the areas of SEO, Internet Marketing, Web Design, Small Business Coaching, Social Media Management and Social Media Marketing.
Our goal is to provide our clients with the most relevant marketing and advertising solutions, and we are committed to offering a personalized, hands-on approach to each and every project.

Check out Loebig Ink’s Best in Search award from TopSEO’s.com as well!

Getting Spam Messages through Wix? Learn How to Prevent it.

Posted on by Angela Martinez

Add a Captcha Box to Your Wix Contact Forms

Step 1: You will first need to login to your Wix account and go into your editor.

Step 2: The first step is locating the pages where you have contact forms, such as your contact page. See the image below.

Site Menu to Contact Wix dashboard graphic

Step 3: Once on the contact page or form, you want to right-click on the box (see image).Wix forms graphic

Step 4: Make sure to hit the plus button and look for the “reCAPTCHA”. Once you hit that, you will notice it comes up on the right-hand panel. Be sure to hit the checkmark to add it to your form.

how to add a reCAPTCHA graphic

Step 5: After that has been done it will automatically add it to your contact box. You cannot change the size or style of this box. However, you can change the placement. I would recommend that you also move your submit button so it lines up correctly with the rest of your form.

submission form

Done!

For additional help please contact us!

 

Meet Our Lead WIX Developer – Angela Martinez 

Posted on by Robin Renee

Loebig Ink Team Member: Angela Martinez

Meet Angela Martinez, Lead WIX DeveloperAngela Martinez met Loebig Ink founder Brian Loebig through a freelancer website named Elance (now Upwork) eight years ago. Brian wanted Angela’s graphic design expertise for his newly growing business. Soon, Angela became one of the first members Brian took onto his team for Loebig Ink. With her outstanding creativity and visual perspective, Angela is adding a tremendous amount of value and experience to Loebig Ink’s portfolio. She has grown into the Lead Wix Developer responsible for Web Design Project Management, Logo Design, Graphic Design, Social Media Management, as is currently getting into her first SEO projects. 

Angela grew up in Tacoma, Washington and is currently living in Puyallup, Washington. Before Angela met Brian, she was a housekeeper in hotels for 13 years. After having her first child at a young age, Angela decided to start school again. With a full-time job, two children, and finishing school, she has shown marvelous strength through hard work and unselfishness. She graduated as a graphic designer from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 2010. As a creative graphic designer, Angela is professionally trained and competent in a wide range of design software and equipment, including Adobe Creative Suite. 

Though she lives many miles away on the other side of the US from Loebig Ink’s headquarters, Angela has the feeling of belonging to a strong team. Now as an experienced Web Developer, she is at the point in her career where she enjoys teaching new team members for Loebig Ink. Learning from Brian has made Angela realize that she wants to give back with the knowledge she has gained. Angela admires that Brian has the devotion to help make other people knowledgeable in specific areas and to push them toward growth so they can ultimately advance and expand their horizons. “Brian helps everyone recognize that they are much more capable of growing than they think they are,” she says. 

Out of all that she does professionally, putting her creativity into designing custom logos has been Angela’s passion. For her, it’s all about creating impactful visual communications that builds brand identity and engages customers. But favorite project was having the chance to create her daughter’s school’s official logo. One of the most rewarding things about it is that she gets to see it every single day. 

Angela Martinez loves living with her family of four in Washington State. Her husband and her two daughters, who are nine and fifteen, enjoy hiking around the beautiful mountains. Angela loves drawing cartoons, going to her favorite local coffee shop, and she used to Kickbox for many years. She is competitive, easy-going, visual, and a giving person. She describes herself as a West Coast girl who has never been far away. In the future, she would like to take more international trips. She has her eye on Italy. A long-term goal is to move into her own little house at the bottom of Utah after her daughters graduate from high school. 

Contact Loebig Ink about web development and design, logo design, or social media management, and you may get to work with the very talented Angela Martinez. 

The Importance of the XML Sitemap for Blogs

Posted on by Philip Day

How to Submit an XML Sitemap to Google Search Console

What is the most important reason your business has a website?

Xml sitemap steps

It seems like a dumb question but we all know the answer: It is so that people will buy your products and services.

Now, if they can’t find your website, they can’t buy your products or services. This makes the elements of any strong website important: keyword phrases, search engine optimization, high-resolution images, alt tags, easy navigation, and mobile-readiness.

You then need to submit an XML sitemap to Google when changes have been made to a large number of website pages, such as when metatags have been updated in a comprehensive SEO improvement process. The XML Sitemap acts as a road map to your small business website.

As Yoast explains:

You want Google to crawl every important page of your website, but sometimes pages end up without any internal links pointing to them, making them hard to find. An XML sitemap lists a website’s important pages, making sure Google can find and crawl them all, and helping it understand your website structure.

Here is how you do it using Loebig Ink blogs as an example:

  1. First, log into Google Search Console

XML Sitemap Step 1

  1. Then, go to Sitemaps on the left side menu.
  2. Next, click on Sitemaps where it says “Add a new sitemap”

4.  Once you have clicked it on, then type in “sitemap.xml” in the form and hit “submit”:

 

        5. Once it has been submitted, you will get this report:

These steps show you how to submit the sitemap to Google Search Console. In WordPress, the blog is automatically added to the sitemap in the back end of the website. So, your website pages will be found by the search engines!

Google’s XML sitemap is crucial in helping search engines find your website content and also detecting any issues that could make your website unreachable.  Now, your pages are indexed and can be found much easier by search engines which will point the visitor to the link. Once they have clicked on the link, they will now be on your website! Thus, you have increased traffic to your website, educated and engaged the visitor and sold your products and services.  

If you would like for your small business website pages to be search engine optimized, contact Loebig Ink, LLC. We have search engine optimization specialists who can submit the XML Sitemap for your blogs every month. For more information, contact us at (301) 244-TECH or brian@loebigink.com.criminalthinking.net.  

How Much is Too Much?: A Content Guide to Your Website Home Page

Posted on by Brian Loebig

The age old question is this: How much is too much?

That is definitely a subjective question as what may be too much for you may not be too much for someone else. So, the answer remains rather ambiguous. Loebig Ink home page blog

However, in the world of website development, there can be “too
much” on your home page. (This blog covers a typical multi-page website not a parallax website which will be covered in another blog.) Too much text, too many images (photos and/or graphics) and too much other content can make for an overloaded, crowded and busy home page which may turn visitors (potential customers) away.

In fact, the home page can have so much content on it, visitors may miss the more important pages on your website and not convert (purchase) the products you are selling. A seemingly endless home page can be a detriment to your company’s bottom line for having a website so it is important to design and populate a well-written quality content for the all-important home page.

Home pages remain one of the three most visited pages on small business websites. (Services page and Contact page being the other popular pages.)

When designing your home page, keep these factors in mind:

  1. Brevity: Most visitors to your website look at your home page as they do a cover of a magazine. It should introduce the visitor to your company or products. So, it should not have all the facts about your products on it.
  2. Attention span: Most website visitors spend scant seconds (eleven seconds or less in some research) on each page until they find what they want or have some interest. They will not spend a lot of time reading your text if it is too voluminous or heavy in text and photos.
  3. Quick information: Some website visitors may have looked your website up just to get your contact information so they can contact you. That information should be readily available and easy to find.

Now that you know what most small business website visitors’ expectations, here is a list of the content you should include on your home page (and some content you should avoid.):

  1. Company services: A short list of what your company does, in bullet or list form, so that visitors know exactly what you do. How many times have you visited a website and wondered, “What do you do anyway?” Avoid going into too much detail. Add a hyperlink to the services page in the text or make it easily navigable so that they can then double-click and find more details on the services page.
  2. Location: Knowing where you are located is crucial, especially for restaurants, physicians, medical services and service industries. Visitors need to know if you are nearby so they can find you or call you to have you make house or office calls. (This is not as crucial for ecommerce or mail order websites.)
  3. Contact Information: As we mentioned, many visitors may already know what you sell. They only want to find your phone number or other contact information so they can order your product or find out other information. Website contact information should be easily found in the header (banner) of your website and at the footer (bottom) of your website. Whether on a laptop, phone or tablet, the phone number and address should be prominent.
  1. Accurate Menu with drop-down pages (if needed): Easy navigation is a MUST for any website, no matter what the industry. Visitors must be able to click on any page and find what they need easily and quickly. So your menu must be accurate and have pages in their priority of what the website visitor needs to see. So, make sure it has after the home page, your services, products, testimonials, and blog and contact page. Of course, your products may vary but make it easy to find everything. (Google penalizes websites that have poor navigation so it is a necessary for search engine optimization.)
  2. Call-to-Action: Now that they are ready to buy or contact you, make it easy for them to do it. Have a “call-to-action” box on your home page so visitors can purchase right away. Usually located on the right sidebar, the box is simple with name, email address, phone number and comments. Or you may have a product order box there instead. Anyway, make it easy for them to buy and they will return.

Remember, your website should always be a positive shopping experience. Visitors should find exactly what you want them to find and, hopefully, purchase from you. Make it an experience they will recall fondly and return again and again.

If you’d like to learn more about websites or need one for your small business, please contact us at www.loebigink.com. We offer web design services, write copy, do search engine optimization, content management, and social media marketing. You can also reach us on our contact page.  We are located in Silver Spring, Maryland but serve the entire USA.

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