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Website Design

You are here: Home / Archives for Website Design

Case Study: Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (HERC)

October 7, 2019 //  by Luke Middendorf

About The Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (HERC) 

The Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (HERC) is supported by over 700 universities including Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford. Their mission is to help universities promote diversity and inclusion among their faculty and administration. They serve two primary audiences. The first are the universities that need help filling open positions with diverse candidates. The second are diverse job seekers. HERC provides a wide range of resources to those job seekers to help them find, develop, and advance their careers in higher education.  By doing that, they are able to help Universities that financially support HERC source great administrators and faculty members from a very diverse pool of candidates.

The Challenge

HERC’s previous website was difficult to manage. They had two versions of their website (one for desktop and one for mobile) and any changes or updates had to be individually applied to each version.  It was time consuming and impossible to maintain. As a result, the volume of organic traffic from Google was consistently declining.  Therefore their jobseeker audience was also declining and their members were dissatisfied as they had smaller and smaller pools of qualified candidates to choose from.

HERC needed a new website that would be easier to manage and update and they needed a strong SEO strategy to help recover from the decline in organic traffic.

The Assessment

WSI Connect was initially brought in to do a technical SEO audit along with a competitive analysis.  We completed the SEO audit, identifying a number of problems with their existing website and attempted to work with the existing marketing agency to fix a number of those problems.  However, the existing agency required a significant investment to rebuild HERC’s website on their own proprietary platform.  HERC asked us for a proposal as well and we put together a package that included a new WordPress responsive website, monthly SEO work, content marketing deliverables, website hosting and support, and monthly reporting and analytics. According to the team at HERC, the comparison of the proposals lead to a decision that was a “no brainer” and we signed the contract a week later.

Implementation


The timeline for deployment of the new website was very aggressive and both teams worked overtime.  The home page needed to be better optimized for job searchers.

HERCjobs - Home Page - WSI Connect Digital Marketing-1

HERC has 17 regional offices and we created SEO content for each location to help improve their rankings in Google.  Along with extensive technical SEO improvements, we also provided a significant amount of graphic design.

HERCjobs - New England Regional Page - WSI Connect Digital Marketing-1

After deployment of the website, we continued to support HERC’s website and developed a content marketing strategy.  The content marketing strategy included combining multiple blog posts into ebooks.  We created landing pages and workflows so that the ebooks could be used as gated content that helped build and segment their email database.Each month we produce a report tracking KPI’s based on data from Google Analytics and discuss areas for additional growth.

HERCjobs - ebook landing page - WSI Connect Digital Marketing-1

The Results

  • 30% increase in Google organic year over year growth
  • Since the new website launch in September: 60,000 people registered for a free account with HERC. Unprecedented numbers of jobseekers. 
  • 1,100 eBook downloads to date.

Harvard University is HERC’s largest supporter and Ruth Molina (featured in the video) is a key decision maker.  She is employed by both HERC and Harvard University and her video testimonial shows her level of satisfaction. 

Ruth provides great feedback on the new website and highlights the growth in job seeker registrations which is essential to HERC’s existence.  Without a growing pool of job seekers, the colleges and Universities (member institutions) that HERC depends on, would not provide their financial support. 
In less than a year WSI Connect was able to turn HERC’s decline into significant growth.

We were very excited to partner with WSI Connect in order to help us redesign our website… WSI Connect has been a great partner helping us come up with creative ideas to improve our marketing strategy. The WSI Connect team has come up with relevant and creative ideas for driving traffic to our website like ebooks which helped us repackage our content into materials that can be accessible … I was delighted to participate during this process. We hope to continue to engage with WSI Connect in future projects and we hope that they continue to assist us in helping identify ways to improve our marketing strategy”

-Ruth Molina, New England HERC Director at Harvard University

Very responsive and willing to go the extra mile

We had WSI Connect do a complete redesign of our website. They made us a responsive website, and it is now optimized for mobile phones. It really turned out great, and we are very happy with it. The WSI Connect team also helped us out with search engine optimization (SEO), and we are starting to see some really positive results on that front. It has been an excellent overall experience, and I would definitely recommend WSI Connect to anybody interested in website redesign and SEO!

-Erin Bruns, Marketing Director at HERC

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Category: BlogTag: Case Study, SEO, Website Design

Case Study: Helping a Montessori School Increase Enrollment

June 25, 2019 //  by Luke Middendorf

Increase Montessori Enrollment - WSI Connect Digital Marketing Case Study -Core Results

About Hill Point Montessori

Hill Point Montessori is a private school for children ages 2-12. Their curriculum is based on Dr. Maria Montessori’s Montessori Method.  Hill Point’s students consistently test several grade levels ahead of their peers, illustrating the great success of their education programs. They specifically target parents looking who want to provide an advanced form of education beyond what the local public schools are able to offer. They deeply care about their students and put a tremendous amount of effort into hiring the best teachers and creating the best educational environment.

The Challenge

Despite having an outstanding educational program, enrollment was declining at Hill Point Montessori.  In the past, they grew almost completely based on word of mouth.  As students graduated from their program, they found it difficult to fill the excess capacity with new students.

Hill Point Montessori specifically struggled to attract new elementary level students.  They lacked the marketing ability to help local parents clearly understand Hill Point’s unique differentiators.  Without those distinctions, many parents were opting for the free public elementary option.

Hill Point Montessori needed to attract new families to the school, specifically parents. They knew they needed to get more parents to tour their school and really see the value of their educational program.  The conversion rate on tours is very high but they were only averaging 1-2 tours each month.  It wasn’t enough. 

The Assessment

We engaged Hill Point Montessori with a discovery call to clearly understand their goals for growth, current marketing strategies, and local competition.  They were anticipating 30 open seats across all of their classes for the upcoming school year.  With an average annual tuition of $13,000, Hill Point Montessori was at risk of losing $390,000 in potential revenue. 

We identified two core personas.  Parents with preschool aged children and parents with elementary school aged children.

The next step was conducting a competitive analysis to identify the marketing strategies used by other local schools.  Several of their competitors had better websites, stronger social media presence and had invested in PPC (although it was clear there was a lot of wasted ad spend).

The Strategy

At that point, we crafted the overall marketing strategy.  We focused all of our efforts on parents with an elementary school aged children persona.  This is where Hill Point Montessori had the most unused capacity.  Acquiring preschool students was less challenging as they didn’t have to compete with a free public school option.

It was very clear to WSI Connect that every part of the marketing strategy needed to be focused on driving parents to the school for a scheduled tour.

Increase Montessori Enrollment - WSI Connect Digital Marketing Case Study -2

Implementation

We began implementation of the marketing strategy by creating a new responsive WordPress website.  
We then optimized the content for SEO which significantly improved their search engine rankings. 

Increase Montessori Enrollment - WSI Connect Digital Marketing Case Study -1

We focused on conversion rate optimization in several areas.  We helped them develop content highlighting their highly qualified faculty and administration.  We added several CTA’s to drive parents to a dedicated landing page for the tour process registration.

We added several photo galleries for their programs, summer camps and extra curricular activities to help prospective parents gain a deeper understanding of their educational environment.
Upon completion of the tour form, parents are taken to a “thank you” page that includes videos highlighting a recent parent testimonial, a school overview and recent commencement speeches.  Parents also receive an automated email response with additional information about the tour process and next steps.

Increase Montessori Enrollment - WSI Connect Digital Marketing Case Study -4

We implemented a monthly content calendar and inbound marketing program to help attract and educate new parents about Hill Point Montessori and the Montessori Method. This includes blog posts that are distributed across their GMB, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest accounts. 

The Results

In the video above you our client details the metrics that we discussed frequently to help judge the success of the campaign.

Here are the core metrics that we reported back to the client to illustrate that success:

  • 96% Year over Year, Google Organic growth
  • Which led to a 300% increase in school tours.  
  • Based on their tour conversion rates they’ve been able to receive a 356% Monthly ROI!

Quote:

“ WSI Connect has helped immensely from implementing SEO, building an attractive and effective website, writing informative blog posts, creating Facebook ads, giving us monthly updates about our progress, being available to us for anything that we need and working with us collaboratively on different ideas. Always offering a creative and informed perspective… We could not be more pleased with our experience with WSI Connect. We recommend WSI Connect to all the other small businesses we know and we owe a great deal to their team for all of their outstanding work.”

Anishka Nawagamuwa
CO-ADMINISTRATOR
Hill Point Montessori

Do you need help increasing enrollment?
(Contact WSI Connect today!)

Category: BlogTag: Montessori Marketing, search engine optimization, SEO, Website Design

What is ADA Compliance and Does My Website Need to be ADA Compliant?

April 3, 2019 //  by Luke Middendorf

A number of business owners that we’ve talked to are growing more concerned about their website and how their business could be affected by ADA compliance. Lawsuits are up, even though the law remains unclear.

*It’s important to note that I am not a lawyer. I had a lot of help putting this together but it is not intended to be legal advice. If you are in the process of being sued consult an attorney.

This could be a good opportunity for your business.

It turns out than many of the elements required to make a website more accessible are the same elements that we address when optimizing websites to rank better in search engines such as Google. It can also expand your audience by making the content accessible to people with disabilities.

Both cases could help improve the amount of quality leads coming in through your website.

Here is a third-party free tool that we use to help identify some of the challenges a website may have regarding ADA compliance.

· ADA Compliance Checker

If this feels overwhelming, you’re not alone. Feel free to reach out with any questions and we will do our best to help.

Contact WSI Connect for a FREE SEO Consultation

What is ADA?

The ADA is also known as the Americans with Disabilities Act. This Act affects how buildings are designed, how schools operate, how government agencies are run, and even how websites are created. The idea is to make sure those with disabilities are not excluded from any area of life.

When discussing ADA compliance regarding website design, the intention is to make sure anyone from anywhere in the world can access and use your website. As technology has continued to grow, specific guidelines (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines or WCAG) have been developed to help ensure web content is accessible to people with disabilities, making use of the web a more even playing field.

The Elements of the WCAG

The WCAG has specific elements that every website must address when following website ADA Compliance Guidelines. First, the website must follow four distinct principles. It must be:

  • Perceivable
  • Operable
  • Understandable
  • Robust

These principles then lead to thirteen guidelines. These guidelines are designed to aid the designers and authors of the website when working to adhere to the four principles. They include:

  • Text Alternatives
  • Time-Based Media
  • Adaptable
  • Distinguishable
  • Keyboard Accessible
  • Plenty of Time
  • Adherence to the Seizure and Physical Restriction Threshold
  • Navigable
  • Input Modalities
  • Readable
  • Predictable
  • Input Assistance
  • Compatible

In addition to the principles and guidelines, the WCAG provides success criteria in which specific testing must meet the defined levels of conformance are conducted. Website compliance can be rated: A, AA, or AAA based on the success criteria testing.

Finally, there are a wide variety of techniques provided to either make the website sufficient or advisable under the confines of the ADA.

The Specifics of the WCAG

Each of the standards for website design as outlined by the WCAG is intended to make the website ADA compliant and useable for anyone who has a disability as defined under the ADA.

For example, creating a website that has a text option will greatly help those who may be considered legally blind or have difficulty seeing items up close.

Also, using color coding for different areas of the site and allowing to change the colors from a white background with black lettering to a darker background with lighter lettering may also allow those with difficulty seeing better accessibility to the content on the website. There is even the option to include closed captioning for videos and sound clips to read the website content, which aids those that are hard of hearing or even deaf.

Finally, the WCAG addresses the issues relating to seizures and other medical issues covered under the ADA. Technology is known for using the latest and greatest items to make anything stand out from the crowd. This also applies to website design. Designers want their websites to stand out. If they are creating a site for something considered hi-tech, they may be drawn to flashing lights or loud noises. Adhering to the WCAG will still allow these designs, within reason.

Additional references:

  • LA Times – Lawsuits targeting business websites over ADA violations are on the rise
  • Law.com – ADA Lawsuits Are on the Rise, Website Complaints Biggest Targets

Conclusion

Making sure your website compliance is up to the standards set by the WCAG will help you attract a larger client base and help keep you relevant in Google and other search engines. This could be a very good opportunity to expand your audience and grow your business.

Contact WSI Connect for a FREE SEO Consultation

Category: BlogTag: ADA Compliance, WCAG, Website ADA Compliance, Website Content Accessibility Guideline, Website Design

Hill Point Montessori Engages WSI for a New Website and SEO Campaign

November 27, 2018 //  by Luke Middendorf

Hill Point Montessori Engages WSI for a New Website and SEO Campaign

Hill Point Montessori Engages WSI for a New Website and SEO Campaign

Hill Point Montessori is a locally owned and operated Montessori preschool and elementary school. Founded in 2011, the authentic Montessori school serves children from preschool through sixth grade. As part of their Montessori program, Hill Point allows students the freedom to explore their curiosities within the curriculum as well as learn from older children as well. This encourages children to love learning both academics as well as everyday life skills such as cleaning up after themselves. Through ongoing assessment, teachers guide students to turn their weaknesses into strengths as they develop their interests and social skills.

To help Hill Point Montessori reach parents interested in alternative schools and finding a match for developing their children’s education, Hill Point Montessori has partnered with the SEO experts at WSI Connect to develop their internet presence.

After collaborating on Hill Point Montessori to understand their programs unique attributes, WSI conducted keyword research to understand content areas of interest to prospective parents. This lead to the development of an SEO program for Hill Point Montessori, including a new, SEO optimized and mobile friendly website highlighting their programs for prospective students and featuring an overview video with parents and student testimonials, as well as an ongoing SEO program aimed at off-page optimization. This off-page SEO optimization program will include including link building, and blog development. From this work the following SEO pages have been identified as key pages for increasing their online presence:

  • Montessori Primary Program: https://hillpointmontessori.com/curriculum/montessori-primary-program/
  • Montessori Lower Elementary Program: https://hillpointmontessori.com/curriculum/montessori-lower-elementary-program/
  • Montessori Upper Elementary Program: https://hillpointmontessori.com/curriculum/montessori-upper-elementary-program/

The offsite SEO program will focus on creating unique content about Hill Point Montessori and the Montessori method.  The offsite blogs will be published on Blogger, WordPress, and Weebly websites.

WSI Connect is looking forward to the continued success with developing the internet presence of this local Montessori School and assisting them in celebrating children’s intellectual curiosity and social developing.

Category: BlogTag: Local SEO, Website Design

The “Effective 7” Must-Have Website Trust Signals

August 21, 2018 //  by Tabitha Middendorf

Have you ever met someone or walked into a place and suddenly…feel – a little uncomfortable?  Maybe you couldn’t quite find the right words to describe that feeling, but you just knew something did not seem quite right?  That gut reaction was your intuition telling you to be wary.  Intuition is an immediate insight formed on past similar experiences.  Have you ever had this feeling about a website? A social media page? An email???  Consciously or subconsciously, your intuition guides your ability to trust what you are seeing and reading online.

A 2018 study by Harvard Business Review found that online consumers rely more on intuition than on logic and rule-based processes (deliberation) for decisions involving risk. This research “offers an explanation as to why things like aesthetics, professionalism, and other implicit clues matter for building online trust” (HBR, 2018).  To be successful, you must overcome some challenges inherent to online marketing.

Consider this. In the consumer products world, statistics show only 1%-4% conversion rates for online purchases compared to 20%-40% offline retail (HBR, 2018). Because humans look for both verbal and nonverbal cues to create trust, the lack of direct personal contact is a likely factor. In the service industry where lives are directly affected, trust is even more critical. Therefore, the first goal of your website should be to establish trust with your prospective customer. Without it, the relationship ends.

Fortunately, building trust doesn’t require magic. The following example of two Montessori schools in Cleveland, Ohio will show you how to incorporate 7 strategies into your website to immediately and intuitively inspire trust.

The “Effective 7” Website Trust Signals

1. Secure your website.

With Chrome’s browser recent update, your website may now be a hindrance to attracting customers.  If you haven’t installed a security certificate on your domain, you run the risk of losing potential customers even as you read this post. Do it today.

Effective 7 Website Trust Signals - Not Secure No SSL Example

Question: What if my site is purely informational; do I still need an SSL certificate?

Answer: Yes, an SSL certificate helps your website gain the trust of visitors, helps promote credibility, and helps your ranking in Google.

2. Make it easy for visitors to contact you.

If you have ever landed on a website and struggled to find a phone number, then you already understand the frustration.  If a visitor wants to call or contact you for more information, then your website should make it easy for them to do just that: contact you.  Placing your phone number in your website’s header and including a map showing your location either in the footer or on your Contact Us page, makes for a frustration-free visitor experience.

Consider these two examples

Both schools utilize a “Contact” link which takes a visitor to a contact form. However, if we look closer at their contact forms Ratner’s contact form is above the fold, uses reCAPTCHA protection and is clean and simple in design; thus minimizing the opportunity for a visitor to click off the form. Whereas, Ruffing’s contact form seems to take a back burner to the other more prominent links and to the Google map at the top.  If a visitor wants to complete the form, they might have to scroll down to finish the form before hitting the “send” button. 

In the photo above, Ratner’s Contact form is above the fold and clearly displays the address and phone number at the top. The form takes center stage on this page.


By contrast, in the above image Ruffing’s contact form is in the left column and seems to take a back seat to the other elements on the page.

3. Use authentic photos of facilities, executives and/or staff.

Having photos of your business, service and/or staff help visitors relate to your brand.  Both Ratner Montessori and Ruffing Montessori include messages from the Heads of School; and, photos of the schools, students, and staff. Each of these elements serves to foster trust with their visitors. 


Ratner Montessori’s menu organization (image below) is organized around their visitor experience.  The navigation menu on the right is sequenced in the order a visitor might want to explore: Welcome from the Head of School, Faculty, and Staff, Board of Trustees, Beyond Ratner, Employment Opportunities, About Montessori, and then finally Mission and Core Values.

Effective 7 Website Trust Signals - Menu Navigation

4. List and display accreditations, licenses, professional recognitions, association memberships, and certifications.

If your business is accredited by the Better Business Bureau, is a member of the local chamber of commerce, or has any other professional memberships,  these should be listed on your website.  Details matter in building trust. Ratner loses a possible engagement opportunity when the “Read More” button under key metrics directs visitors to an Events Calendar instead of a page that substantiates their numbers.  Whereas, Ruffing Montessori does a great job of listing their accreditations.  Our only recommendation would be to list “Recent Accolades” in descending order. Ratner Montessori lists key metrics; however their link to “Read More” goes to an events calendar. As a visitor, this would be confusing as I would be expecting to read more about their teacher/student ratio, their accreditations, and so on.

Effective 7 Website Trust Signals - Accreditations


 

5. Ensure your website is mobile friendly and includes links to social sites and testimonials.

With approximately 67% of consumers owning and using a mobile device to search and shop, you want your website to be responsive and resize to fit on a smartphone. If your website is not mobile friendly, you are losing potential customers. If your website is responsive but is a convoluted mess of information and not streamlined or designed for mobile use, you are likely losing potential customers. According to socPub, 57% of users report that they will not recommend a business if the mobile website is poorly designed. This aligns with HBR’s findings on the role aesthetics plays in building trust.

Another way to boost credibility is to have links to your business’ major social sites such as a verified Facebook page, Twitter account, Instagram account, and Google My Business page.  Having social sites established and regularly updated demonstrates that your business is active and communicates with its user base.  It also easily allows your customers to leave a review for your business!  In the example below, Ratner Montessori has links to three social profiles, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram; whereas, Ruffing Montessori doesn’t appear to be on social media.

Although it wasn’t apparent on their website, Ruffing Montessori does have a Facebook page with 24 reviews for a rating of 4.8 out of 5.  If we were advising Ruffing Montessori, we would have them verify their Facebook page and create a link to it from their website.

6.  Create great first impressions.

Look at the images below.  Visually, which website creates a better first impression?  Although they both use main photos, they differ in design and mood. Ratner Montessori’s photos and website design overall is more professional. It is organized and uses white space.  When making decisions for their children’s education, however, parents look to other cues to understand the environment. Images speak volumes. The banner of sliding photos shows Ratner’s children smiling and happy. Visually, it seems to set the expectation for the culture of the school.  Ruffing’s background photo sets a different tone. It shows a child who seems to be focused and deep in concentration. Although both images depict positive situations, Ratner’s image slider prominently highlights happy children and may elicit a different gut reaction than Ruffing’s serious student.

First impressions matter.  Ratner Montessori (left) is streamlined and organized.  Photos of smiling children help establish their brand.

First impressions are also formed in the details. Disclaimers, cookies, and privacy policies should be clear and easy to find. Be sure to scan your website for any broken links.  Broken links simply serve to frustrate a potential customer. No one wants to click on an image or hyperlinked text only to be told that the page or destination doesn’t exist.

7. Build easy conversion paths.

When thinking about your website menu structure, you want to consider how many clicks it will take for the desired action to be completed.  For example, every page on Ratner Montessori’s website is one click away. They are not using submenus. With Ruffing Montessori’s website, it takes more than one click to learn more about their art program.  When it comes to design, you want the desired conversion path to be as easy and direct as possible within one or two clicks.  Anything more and you may lose potential leads and inadvertently create a negative experience.

Every page is one click away.

Use these “Effective 7” website elements to build intuitive trust — convert your visitors to customers

Effective website design starts with your trust signals. The above 7 trust signals, when combined with a clean, logical design will help create an enjoyable user experience that directly serves the needs and wants of YOUR customer. 

We’re very good at this. If you have any questions about our 7 trust signals, or if you aren’t getting the results you need from your online marketing efforts, please contact us and we’ll be happy to assist you.

Click for a FREE Consultation
(and discover why you should work with WSI Connect!)

Category: BlogTag: Website Design

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