Hardy Farm Updated Site Launch

The last time we spoke about Hardy Farm on the blog we were just getting started with them Wedding Venue Marketing Success : Client Hardy Farm Books 20 Wedding In First 6 Weeks Since, they have continued to roll and get some amazing coverage on Martha Stuart, 100 Layer Cake, Maine Magazine, Rustic Weddings and numerous others! The owners, Greg and Deborah Link have done an amazing job of continuing to improve the grounds with a woodland chapel and addition of a 103 ft sail clothe tent. They have also been great ambassadors for the brand with every couple that has toured or been married there! You can see from their availability calendar that they are completely booked out for 2016 (have been for some time) and are now filling up for 2017!

The property and brand have come such a long way, we felt a brand refresh to just Hardy Farm and a new website was in order.

The Importance of Mobile-Friendly & Responsive Design

<Originally published on June 3rd, 2015 - have updated some number and republished today> A couple of weeks ago, Google announced that mobile search finally surpassed desktop search. Recognizing an obvious trend, Google announced that it is now ranking and promoting sites based on how "mobile friendly" they are. This means, at the very least, your website should be mobile friendly. Best case scenario? Your site employs "responsive design".

So what the heck is the difference between mobile friendly and responsive? According to Signal Fire, "Mobile friendly refers to a site that displays accurately between your desktop/laptop computer and a mobile device...While it will appear smaller on a phone and may not work perfectly on a touchscreen tablet, a mobile friendly website will be perfectly functional." Responsive design is very similar, however rather than a smaller design that works fine on any device, each page is designed three different ways: one for desktop, one for tablet and one for mobile, with the end result being a perfect experience no matter where viewed.

While mobile-friendly is fine for now, responsive design is more easily adapted to future technologies (yes, eventually we will all have to learn yet another technology!). As you can imagine, it takes work to make your current site mobile friendly, and a whole new site to incorporate responsive design, but the importance cannot be emphasized enough.

Google will rank a mobile-friendly or responsive site significantly higher than a website that only works on a desktop computer.

Still not convinced? The average American citizen surfs the web on their phone at least 2 hours and 42 minutes per day! That equates to 41 days each year! We can guarantee this trend is only moving upwards, so if you're not mobile friendly, it's time to jump on the band wagon.

Wondering if your wedding website is mobile friendly? Google has made a helpful tool for us all to test our sites: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

You can also Google your business name on your mobile device and you should see the "Mobile Friendly", see image below. For some awesome examples of websites employing responsive design, check out: http://www.fpmaine.com/, http://www.cairnevents.com/, http://www.thefritzfarm.com/. A great example of a mobile-friendly designis: http://www.loveandlobster.com/

Ready to take the plunge into updating your site? Tide Creative is here to help! Contact us today to schedule a free consultation!

New Client - Live Well Farm

BALANCE REVERIE RETREAT

JOIN ME AND SOME AMAZING WEDDING INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS THIS FALL!

Secrets of Social Media, SEO, & Marketing

Marketing expert J Sandifer guides us through creating a powerful social media and marketing plan, how to use social media to further business growth, and techniques for putting social media to work for you. J will talk about why and how to use Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and your blog.  As part of J’s class, invaluable worksheets, tips, and print outs provided by J Sandifer, Reverie Gallery’s professional bloggers, and Erica Powell will be provided. Mentor: J Sandifer

JUST A COUPLE OF THE OTHER STANDOUT SESSIONS!

DREAMSCAPING

Dreamscaping allows you to think about your life and your business long term, find out what your dream life looks like, and figure out the reasons you are looking for success. Once you have a clear vision of your end game, Erica will give you strategies for redesigning your life to fit your priorities, as well as your personal and professional goals.  Mentor: Erica Powell

Elevating Your Business through Branding

Branding is much deeper than just a pretty logo, and can do so much more for your business than you can ever imagine! Luxury branding expert, Vanessa Kreckel, reveals what luxury level branding is, and how it can change everything for your business. Vanessa walks us through her professional branding process and shares practical and actionable tips for elevating your brand through a stronger online and offline marketing presence. Mentor: Vanessa Kreckel

The Power of Being Authentic

Abbey Kyhl shares the power behind being your true self and standing out from competitors, the process of creating a brand that reflects who you truly are and sticking with it, staying on the cutting edge and ahead of the crowd, and how having an authentic brand and online presence can attract the clients you want to work with most. Mentor: Abbey Kyhl

IF YOU ARE WONDERING IF THIS WILL BE GOOD FOR YOUR BUSINESS, PLEASE REACH OUT AND WE CAN TALK!

Make Sure 50% Of Your Website Traffic Is Seeing A Great Site

Google announced a couple of months ago that mobile search surpassed desktop search for the first time! We all know that our mobile devices are being used more and more, and now Google is ranking and promoting sites as "mobile friendly." This means that at the very least you need to have a website that is viewed as mobile friendly by Google and that at best you should have a site that employs "responsive design." According to Signal Fire, "Mobile friendly refers to a site that displays accurately between your desktop/laptop computer and a mobile device...While it will appear smaller on a phone and may not work perfectly on a touchscreen tablet, a mobile friendly website will be perfectly functional." Responsive design is very similar in that it means that when the site is viewed on different types of devices (think tablets, phone, different size desktop monitors) that it will appear tailored to that specific device's size.

The difference between mobile friendly and responsive is that mobile friendly is designed for specific sizes of devices, whereas responsive designs are created with the intent that they will automatically adjust to any screen size, making them more easily adapted to future technologies. As you can imagine, it takes a lot more work to create a mobile friendly and responsive website, but Google ranks them significantly higher than websites that are not designed responsively.

Need more convincing? The US average for mobile usage is 2 hours and 42 minutes per day! That equates to 41 days each year! This trend is only going to grow, so make sure your web presence is inline with the current reality.

Wondering if your wedding website is mobile friendly? Google has made a tool for us all: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

You can also Google your business name on your mobile device and you should see the "Mobile Friendly", see image below. Responsive design takes mobile friendly to the next level and allows for your website to be designed page by page for each specific device. The design for each takes into account the functionality of each specific platform. You can see below how the smaller versions of the site function differently on the homepage. Take particular notice of the mobile phone version, where users are able to email, get directions or phone directly from the homepage. This is super helpful for wedding guests that are traveling to a venue and just need to find out how to get there!

Desktop Version

iPad Version

iPhone Version

Tide Creative has been building mobile friendly and responsive websites(depending on your budget :) ) and would love to help yo update yours! Reach out here to schedule a consultation.