Category: Blog

The internet is here to stay, and if your business hasn’t found its place online yet, it’s time to start considering it. If you’re looking to have an online presence for your business, you might be wondering what your options are. There are a lot of ways a business can promote themselves and connect with customers online. Two of the most popular options are websites and landing pages, but what is the difference between the two and which one is best for your business?

Website

You’re most likely pretty familiar with websites already and have visited them for your favorite brands and businesses. Websites are multi-level online systems that can provide a variety of functions to customers. Depending on what type of business or brand you have, you might want to use your website to provide information to customers, gather contact information, sell products or services online or book appointments. Regardless of what type of business you have, a website can be a very helpful and necessary tool to grow your business. 

Landing Page

Now that we’ve covered websites, you might be wondering what a landing page is. A landing page often looks very much like a website, but it is limited. Landing pages are typically a single page that provides some sort of information like links, contact information, directions or service hours. A landing page is intended to convey information to the customer but not be their end destination. Landing pages are meant to drive them to other websites, in-person storefronts/offices or urge them to contact your business in some manner. 

Goals & Growth

When deciding between a website and a landing page, the big decision comes down to your goals and the opportunity for growth. If you want to offer products or services for sale via the internet, you will need a website. If you simply want to let people know where they can shop your products or how to get to your location you might only need a landing page.

Websites give your business room for growth in the online space. You can add more content to your website as your business grows and have a one-stop shop for that content to live. With a landing page, you’re limited to the amount of information you can provide and the ability to expand your online presence without the use of a website. 

Cost & Maintenance Difference 

Creating, designing and maintaining a website is more costly, but ultimately it is a tool you can use to grow your business and hopefully increase revenue. Landing pages are a smaller commitment of time and money as they don’t need as much updating or maintenance, but they can only help your business grow so far. 

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Trying to decide how to present your business or brand online? Contact Southern View Media today! From websites to social media marketing and everything in between we can be your full-service digital marketing agency. Our talented team can help your business grow from the ground up!

Did you know that the average household has at least 30 separate promotional products in it at any given time? Think about it – do you have cups in the cabinet that bear the name of a local business? Do you have pens given to you from your favorite insurance agent? A promotional product is cost-effective advertising for any business, and is very useful for the average consumer. 

Pelican Promos, LLC. is a local business that caters to the entire Gulf Coast (and beyond!). This successful business just turned 1 year old under the leadership of Kayla Murray. She currently serves as the Director of Promotional Products for the company.

“We have embraced the Gulf by maintaining a Coastal theme in everything we do,” Murray said in an interview. “We also work day and night to ensure our clients are getting high-quality, low-cost items with low minimum quantities. We understand that small businesses want to represent themselves in the best way possible, and that most of the time, they are dealing with a limited budget. We work with them to determine which promo items best match their marketing goals and make the most out of their advertising dollars.”

Pelican Promos does not function just as a producer of promotional materials. The company also takes pride in serving the Gulf Coast community by partaking in several volunteer activities and organizations. Pelican Promos currently works with Bras for a Cause, and also co-hosted the 2021 Eastern Shore Business Expo back in May earlier this year. Bras for a Cause is a non-profit dedicated to raising funds for local breast cancer patients; the Eastern Shore Business Expo is an annual fun networking event.

When asked why the average business owner should choose Pelican Promos, Murray responded: “Our passion for what we do and the meaning behind it surpasses many in our industry. We welcome all of our clients like they are family.”

Let Pelican Promos help you scoop up the competition with high-quality promotional products and friendly customer service!

When it comes to running a business, we understand that you have enough on your plate. While your daily operations may begin at 8 a.m. and end at 5 p.m., your business in the online world doesn’t stop. At least, it won’t if you are utilizing SEO tips to the best of your abilities to keep advertising your business. That’s why we’ve come up with a list of easy SEO tips to keep building your brand and business while you’re offline… Or at least while you’re working your business!

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and can really make or break your business. We’re now living in a world where online updates, standards and changes never stop. Staying updated on strategies and methods you can use to optimize your SEO is absolutely critical to staying ahead of the game.

1. Optimize your social media.

Social media platforms are an incredibly powerful tool when promoting your business. It’s easy to create a post and share it here and there, but it’s impressive when you can optimize your social media to your benefit. This can include taking keyword research (that’s another blog to read about) and distinguishing what keywords provide the best description of your business and what product or service you’re selling. Social media can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be when you have the right approach. 

2. Claim your Google My Business.

This tip is one of the easiest things you can do as a business owner. Not only is the platform free, but it’s an affordable way to market your business. Google My Business actually helps you show up online, like being on the first page compared to the second or third page. Using this tip to your benefit can help make your business more discoverable and more likely to help improve your local SEO. Even if your business has already established an online presence, claiming your Google My Business listing will aid in receiving top results.

3. Make sure alt tags are added to all images.

Have you ever seen a graphic or photo that has trouble downloading on a website? It may have had words or phrases in place of it. That’s where your alt tags come into play. An HTML attribute used on image tags helps provide an alternative in text copy for search engines. By applying alt tags to images, you can positively impact your business’s search engine rankings. Basically what this means is that search engines read like we do, resulting in search engines deciding how images interpret a web page and where that web page should stand on Google rankings.

4. Make sure title tags and meta descriptions are set with the keywords you’re trying to target.

When it comes to title tags and meta descriptions, there are two things to keep in mind: You need to understand how your customer thinks and how Google as a search engine “thinks”. Each search on Google delivers different results, depending on what phrase or word is typed in. Title tags need to be optimized to include your prime keywords for your business, and the same goes for your meta descriptions that go directly under the title tag. These meta descriptions are what is going to help incline an audience to want to click through to your site. Each of these title tags and meta descriptions should be unique to each page that it’s displaying. Improving these two things can easily move your business forward in the right direction to solidify your SEO strategy.

SEO changed the online game tremendously, and as a business owner, it’s your job to play the game well to continue making moves. Staying updated on standards of keeping your business online is critical to your success. Southern View Media has a team of professionals ready to craft your business a winning SEO strategy to keep you online so you don’t get left behind. Contact us today!

There are many different events that compose the cultural cornerstone of the Gulf Coast: Mardi Gras, Hangout Fest, Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo and, of course, the Greater Gulf State Fair in Mobile, Alabama. But what about the individuals behind the scenes? What would these memories be without them?

Join Southern View Media as we raise a celebratory toast to Josh Woods, the executive director for the Greater Gulf State Fair and The Grounds!

An Alabama local, Josh Woods was born and raised in Grand Bay, Alabama. He graduated from the University of South Alabama with a degree in finance. Before curating memories at the fairgrounds, however, Josh worked at BB&T. He began as a relationship teller and, in 10 years, left the bank as a commercial credit underwriter and vice president. But how did Josh make the leap from finance to the Greater Gulf State Fair?

His answer lies in the fact that he served with the Mobile Jaycees.

The Mobile Junior Chamber of Commerce, also known as Mobile Jaycees, is a nonprofit organization for young professionals. Members can participate in different boards. The Mobile Jaycees is also the parent organization of the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo (ADSFR), the Azalea Trail Maids and the Greater Gulf State Fair. Josh served on the board of directors before assuming the position of executive director in 2016.

“It is the best job I’ve ever had,” Josh said. “Every day is different. You might have a reptile show one day and then you have a market style day the next.”

A family man with sons and a wife, Josh understands how much the fair means to families along the Gulf Coast.

“I have three boys and my favorite memory [with this job] is watching my 6 and 3-years-old sons have their first experience of the fair,” Josh said, smiling. 

Learn more about the Greater Gulf State Fair by visiting www.greatergulfstatefair.com! You can also find the Mobile Jaycees on Facebook.

Many call the Gulf Coast their home, including beach-lovers, artists, athletes, fishers, foodies and, of course, the mosquito. But who makes the Gulf Coast a home for this vibrant, multifaceted population? The realtor. Let’s all raise our glasses to Elaine Sessions, a Gulf Coast leader in both real estate and volunteerism.

Elaine has the honor to work with Roberts Brothers, the oldest local real estate company on the Gulf Coast, as leader of the Sessions Team. Founded in 1946, Roberts Brothers recently celebrated their 75th anniversary and continue to expand their business. Elaine herself has worked in real estate for 44 years.

“My job is to make a real estate transaction as stress-free as possible,” Elaine said. “I help people with their budget, match a home to their lifestyle and counsel families to help make wise decisions.”

However, even with that impressive resume, Elaine’s impact on the Gulf Coast expands beyond real estate. Elaine serves with several organizations, including the Mobile Chamber of Commerce and the Southwest Mobile County Chamber of Commerce. She works with McKemie Place as a board member. Elaine also serves as a board member of Pretty Feet, an organization that supplies shoes to children across the world. Elaine’s work with children includes serving as a Big Sister to a young girl for 7 years.

When asked what she plans to do in the future, Elaine said, “Continue working with the homeless, continue working with under-privileged children and continue to be active in my church, Dayspring Baptist Church.”

If you or someone you know needs real estate services, reach out to Elaine Sessions at Roberts Brothers.

With a “Hey, y’all” and an offer of sweet tea, anyone is welcomed on the Gulf Coast. Some visitors even stick around and make the coast their home. Jake Wallace, born in New York and raised in Boston, MA, is also a Gulf Coast transplant. Although, when you meet Jake, you won’t recognize him as anything but a coastal native, through and through.

During the day, Jake is a financial advisor for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. When he is off, however, Jake is a dedicated volunteer within the Baldwin County community. He is particularly proactive in the local chapter of the Kiwanis Club, an international service organization. You may recognize it as the older relative of Key Club. Among a variety of child-focused projects, the local Kiwanis Club has contributed money to local sports teams and the Baldwin County Child Advocacy Center. 

Besides serving in the Kiwanis Club, Jake is also an active member of the Alabama chapter of the Gift of Adoption. A national non-profit organization, Gift of Adoption hosts fundraising opportunities in order to raise funds to assist families with adoption. Instead of funding the full $35,000 to $50,000 for adoption, the organization funds the final stretch in order to assist more families. As of December 2020, the Alabama chapter has helped more than 70 families secure funding for adopting a child.

When not working in finance, volunteering with the Kiwanis Club or working with Gift of Adoption, Jake also serves as a chamber ambassador for the Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce. He is a dedicated husband and a proud father of two daughters. Even as an avid traveler, Jake now calls the Gulf Coast his home, and the children of the coast are all the better because of him.

When individuals think of New Orleans, LA, they think of the trifecta: beignets, Mardi Gras and ghosts — in no particular order. However, New Orleans’ coffee industry also deserves a toast of recognition.

Bob Arceneaux is the owner of Orleans Coffee, a humble roasting establishment with 30 years of experience and a stellar reputation, and the new Parish Coffee brand. Orleans Coffee was the first specialty coffee roasting company in the city. In 2007, Bob became the owner of the company after working for 12 years as an employee. He now gets to enjoy traveling to Central and South America countries to visit coffee farms and mills. Bob’s dedication to brewing the perfect cup of coffee clearly shines.

Orleans Coffee is known for its contributions to a vibrant Gulf Coast food scene. When browsing their website or shopping in stores, you will discover a variety of roasts, all hand-selected by Bob and his team. If you crave more exclusive flavors, then you can also shop for Parish Coffee! Whether you are a local or a tourist you can find Orleans Coffee or Parish Coffee online. You can also find their one-of-a-kind roasts being served at several local coffee shops or purchase the grounds from many local grocery stores to roast at home! 

When prompted about future plans for Orleans Coffee and Parish Coffee, Bob explained that they will soon be donating to Hunters for the Homeless. A non-profit organization, Hunters for the Homeless is dedicated to eradicating hunger among the homeless population. Hurricane Katrina left many individuals homeless in New Orleans; as recently as 2019, 1,179 individuals were without homes. Bob, thank you, for taking the initiative to help these individuals!

So, whenever you are in New Orleans, feel free to take a minute to browse these specialty roasts in local retailers and supermarkets in the area! You know what they always say: stop and smell the…coffee?

THE CLIENT

Have you ever wanted to run your own business?

An entrepreneur, vehicle expert and family man, Scott Blair has launched many successful businesses. Now, he wants to help other individuals launch their own. He enlisted Southern View Media to not only build a website for T.R.A.C.K., but also to design and develop a website for 2U Mobile Solutions.

2U Mobile Solutions is organized to help individuals run their own mobile tire businesses. Yes, that is a real thing and a good business.

THE WEBSITE

Like Scott’s personality, the website is bold and honest. Design elements include tread mark graphics, simple animations and real photos of the business.

One of our designers created mockups of the homepage and secondary pages. After the client approved the artistic style and creative direction, one of our seasoned developers got to work. The developer built the site in Elementor over a period of days. In the meantime, a copywriter collaborated with Scott to write verbal content that reflected Scott’s messaging.

THE RESULTS

What is most important about the 2U Mobile Solutions website is that it distinctly differs from Scott’s other website that we created. At Southern View Media, we understand individual branding and messaging. Our sites are uniquely created to each client’s standards and purpose.
View the website for yourself here. Then, consider opening your own mobile tire business.

Google is the biggest, and by far the most used, search engine on the internet, with over 63,000 searches on the site every single second. That’s 5.4 billion searches per day, making Google a titan of a platform. As a result, getting a website listed on a coveted front page spot on the search results has become an industry all its own. That is a form of marketing we call Search Engine Optimization, or SEO.

SEO is defined as the edits and optimizations we make to our websites that coincide with Google’s standards and algorithms. These changes make it more likely that our pages will show up in results. Gone are the days where setting keywords is all you have to do. Nowadays, it’s an art, especially now that many of Google’s most valuable algorithm secrets are just that: secret. But as marketers, we’ve uncovered many of the things that Google looks for when deciding on the best result for a search, and today we’re counting down 6 of those things that you can go and implement on your website today.

1. Cut down the data and speed up the site

One prominent aspect that Google monitors is your website’s load speed. Sure, people using your site may have slow internet, but that doesn’t mean it’s their fault that they can’t see your content. Large unoptimized images, embedded content and advertisements… All of these things often contribute to a site being considered slow. Google doesn’t just want fast-loading sites, they want lightning-fast loading websites. Your website should not take more than 1 or 2 seconds for the average person to load it. If your website takes longer to load, you’ll begin to see a major increase in your bounce rate. This rate measures how many people immediately leave (or “bounce”) your site for elsewhere. Consider all of the data on your site and optimize everything you possibly can. 

2. Avoid Duplicate Content

This one is more something to avoid than something to do, but it may be something to go back and fix. Google is harsh towards sites that feature loads of duplicate content, which is text that is the same between different pages. This can happen easily, as you copy-paste things like calls to action, blocks of information, and so on. Rewriting all of them to be at least slightly different will make Google consider those areas to be valuable extra bits of information.

3. Don’t Ignore Images

When optimizing for search engines, many website owners are quick to obsess over the text content of their site. But the fact is, Google places just as much of an emphasis on images. Your site’s images are key. Ensuring that you explicitly tell Google how to interpret them is the goal of a well-optimized site. Ensure that every single image has a descriptive file name and a written ALT tag describing the image in as much detail as possible. This is also important for your site’s accessibility, which is another plus on Google’s end. After all, it wants as many users as possible to be able to fully enjoy your website. Optimize your images, never forget that.

4. Link to other, relevant websites

“The web” is called such for a reason. No one website stands alone, and cooperation can make for an enormous impact on SEO. It may seem counterproductive to link to other websites, but for SEO purposes, we implore it. Linking out to other, relevant websites begins the process called link building, a crucial and often underlooked aspect of SEO. Many of the most successful websites link out to other high-quality websites because it creates a trackable traffic stream sourced from your website. 

Google can tell where people go and how they get there. If your users get to more sources of information from your website, Google will actually acknowledge that. It means that you’re providing more value to your users, and you’re willing to focus on giving them what they need. Of course, the natural next step to that is…

5. Getting some links for yourself!

The second part of link building is the all-important backlink. A backlink is when another site links back to yours, it’s as simple as that. But the complications begin there. Having amazing backlinks can hold immense value to your search rankings, but having “bad” backlinks can actually hurt you. So, what’s a good backlink and a bad backlink? Well, it all has to do with trust. Google implicitly has a trust score for websites that it ranks and uses that to determine the quality of a backlink your site receives. Essentially, a backlink is like declaring a partnership. You don’t want your partner to be a scammy .ninja website selling bottled air and snake oil. Instead, highly reputable sites with plenty of traffic and a proven track record make for the best backlinks. For example, backlinks from a .edu website almost always score high on Google’s trust, because of the requirements necessary to, well, BE a .edu. 

Also, hint hint, this is the precise reason that social media marketing is super important to your SEO as well.

6. Don’t overdo it.

All of those things said, modern SEO is about one thing, and one thing only: providing value. Optimizing for Google is important, but Google will take notice if you’re pandering. Remember that they’re focused on how you provide value to real people. Always write for humans first, and Google second. Trust Google to understand that your users are the top priority, and with enough effort put into helping them, your site will benefit on the SEO side of things.

Search Engine Optimization is, without a doubt, very time consuming, and not something every business owner has time to sit down and do themselves. But here at Southern View Media, we’re experts in the craft and know-how to make your website visible. If you’re interested in hearing more, give us a call. We’ll be more than happy to discuss how we can help.

This week, we’d like to raise a metaphorical glass to Gulf Coast staple, Beef O’Brady’s.

Without exaggeration, Jim Mellody changed the world in 1985 by launching the first Beef O’Brady’s. But that is not who we are here to talk about today. Larry and Linda Kessler’s story with the franchise began long before they opened their restaurant in 2006. Larry and Linda ate many delicious meals at Beef O’Brady’s while raising their two sons, Nick and Joel. By the time that the boys reached adulthood, Larry and Linda realized that it was only natural to invest in the Beef O’Brady’s franchise.

Larry and Linda live life with a glass-half-full perspective. Just look at their charity efforts! In the past 14 years, the couple has sponsored the following organizations: Spanish Fort High School Football Team, Daphne High School Football Team, Spanish Fort Elementary, Rockwell Elementary, Spanish Fort Middle and countless Little League teams. When they are not sponsoring Baldwin County schools, the Kesslers also host Spirit Nights. The nighttime festivities support all types of local organizations. For example, Spirit Night in October raised money for Breast Cancer Awareness.

What is next for the Kesslers and Beef O’Brady’s? The future is bright despite COVID-19 challenges. The Kessler family plans to continue supporting local schools and teams, as well as continue hosting Spirit Nights. If you would like to discuss sponsorship opportunities with the Kesslers, you should reach out to them!

In summary, the Beef O’Brady’s in Spanish Fort is a community cornerstone. Baldwin County is better with the Kessler family in it… And our stomachs are better with their jaw-dropping burgers!