So, what is the critical role that hosting and maintenance services play in ensuring a seamless, secure, and high-performing online presence?

Reliability Through Professional Hosting Services

Reliable hosting is the backbone of any website. Choosing the right hosting provider is crucial —it sets the stage for stability, uptime, and optimal performance of your site. Whether you’re a small business, an e-commerce store, or a large enterprise, investing in expert hosting services ensures that your website remains accessible, responsive, and reliable for your audience.

Performance Optimization for Enhanced User Experience

Website performance isn’t just about speed—it’s about delivering an exceptional user experience (UX). Professional hosting services employ performance optimization techniques such as content caching, CDN integration, and server-side optimizations. In turn, this minimizes loading times, improves page responsiveness, and enhances overall user satisfaction. A fast and responsive website not only keeps visitors engaged but also contributes to higher search engine rankings and conversions.

Security and Data Protection

Cybersecurity threats are inevitable in the digital world. Hosting and maintenance services go hand in hand to protect your website and data against attacks, vulnerabilities, and data breaches. Features such as SSL certificates, regular security audits, malware scanning, and firewall protection create layers of defense for your site. This instills trust and confidence in your online presence among users and search engines alike.

Seamless Updates and Maintenance

Websites are dynamic and require ongoing updates and maintenance to stay relevant, secure, and functional. Hosting and maintenance services encompass tasks such as software updates, plugin management, backup scheduling, and performance monitoring. By staying on top of these maintenance tasks, businesses can mitigate risks, prevent downtime, and ensure a smooth user experience for their audience.

Scalability and Future-Proofing

As businesses grow and evolve, so do their website needs. Professional hosting services offer scalability options that allow websites to handle increased traffic, expand functionality, and adapt to changing market demands. Whether it’s scaling resources on-demand or migrating to a larger hosting environment, these services ensure that your website remains agile and responsive for continued growth and success.

Elevate Your Online Presence with Hosting and Maintenance Excellence

In this competitive digital age, investing in top-notch hosting and maintenance services is not just a choice—it’s a strategic imperative for your company. By partnering with an experienced provider such as Beanstalk Web Solutions, businesses can unlock the full potential of their online presence, drive user engagement, enhance security, and achieve sustained growth for their company. Hosting and maintenance services are not just technical necessities; they’re the pillars that support and propel your site towards success.

Contact us today and let’s get started!

The post Hosting and Maintenance Services: The Key to Online Success appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

Each year, UpCity analyzes and scores more than 70,000 service providers based on their UpCity Recommendability Rating. UpCity then acknowledges the top national and local providers with an UpCity Excellence Award. The results are in, and we won!

We are proud to announce that the Beanstalk Web Solutions team has been recognized as one of the top B2B service providers of 2022 in the St. Louis area by UpCity! 

Dan Olson, CEO of UpCity, had this to say about Beanstalk Web Solutions:

“We’ve evaluated thousands of B2B service providers over the years and Beanstalk Web Solutions is truly top-of-class. We are proud to recognize them with a 2022 Local Excellence Award.”

—Dan Olson, CEO, UpCity

This recognition has been driven in large part by our 4.9-star review rating on UpCity. Here are a few of our favorite pieces of feedback we’ve received from our incredible customers:

• “I would highly recommend Beanstalk Web Solutions; they are simply great at what they do. Wonderful for small businesses like us. Rather than having one person performing our marketing needs, with Beanstalk we get an entire team of knowledgeable marketing executives well versed in everything from Google Ads, to website management, SEO, graphic design, and more. They also provide monthly recommendations along with detailed analytics, so it is easy to track your business’s online presence.” – Anneice G., November 2019
• “Beanstalk is always ready and willing to make adjustments on the fly and trying to optimize the marketing they do for us to reach the most people we can.” – Jared H., December 2019

We are so grateful for the love and support of our family and friends as well as our incredible partners at UpCity. 

Learn more about the UpCity Excellence Awards.

Learn more about Beanstalk Web Solutions and view our other awards here.

The post Beanstalk Web Solutions Announced as a 2022 Local Excellence Award Winner by UpCity! appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

The post Podcast: Tim Hebel – Growing a Beanstalk appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

We’re happy to announce that we’ve come up with a solution that will streamline the process for everyone! Any existing customer needing help, maintenance work, updates, or anything else, can submit a support ticket on our support form or email support@beanstalkwebsolutions.com to automatically be added to our support queue. This allows our project managers to assign these tickets to the specialist who can best solve the ticket, and also automatically sends the customer an email when the ticket has been solved. Don’t worry, this does not mean that your favorite Beanstalk employees are unable to talk to you, and you’ll still hear plenty from us – this is a way for us to make sure that everyone’s requests are addressed as efficiently as possible.

If you’ve already used the support ticket system, please let us know how you like it or what you’d like to see in the future. If you haven’t yet used it, keep it in mind for the next time you need content updates, help with new functionality on your site, or just have a question about your Web or Digital Marketing account with Beanstalk and how we can help you further your efforts to win online.

The post Beanstalk has a New Support Ticket System! appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

If you’re new to the world of Google Ads, it can be tricky to wrap your head around strategies and metrics to figure out what’s working. It’s only natural to make a few mistakes when optimizing your campaigns for maximum success. Here are the top 5 most common Google Ads mistakes we see at Beanstalk and our best advice for fixing them.

1. You’ve Targeted Relevant Keywords But Forgotten to Specify Negative Keywords

The Google Ads interface makes it super simple to create targeted ads for specific keywords. For example, if you run a bakery, you can create Ad Groups for cookies, cakes, and brownies before developing ads to match those searches and keywords. What people often forget about is that for every relevant keyword, there could be several irrelevant keywords that show your ads if you haven’t specified them as negatives. Irrelevant keywords like “cooking classes,” “recipes,” and more need to be added as negative keywords to your campaigns so that you don’t pay for clicks that aren’t searching for what you’re selling.

A great place to start when searching for negative keywords is in the search terms section of Google Ads. This will show you all of the phrases people who have clicked on your ads have searched. From there, you can add the irrelevant ones directly to your negative keyword list. For many businesses, we recommend adding things like “free” and “do it yourself” as negatives, to weed out users who aren’t looking to make a purchase.

2. You’re Running Ads All the Time

Every Google Ads campaign should have a goal in mind. Do you want a user to fill out a form, make a phone call, or send an email? These goals are your conversions. If you have a conversion in mind like a phone call or an in-store visit, then running ads when you’re not actually there to pick up the phone or when your store is open is wasting your money. 

Take the time to think about your Google Ads goals and create a schedule that works within those goals. For certain types of business goals, like e-commerce sales, running ads all the time can be useful, but for many, it’s a waste. If you have a limited budget for ad spend, try running ads at the times when people are most likely to convert in order to maximize conversions.

3. You Aren’t Using Ad Extensions

Ad extensions are like free space to flesh out your ads. They don’t cost any extra money. And, they can literally double or triple the space that your ad takes up on a search results page. Extensions allow you to link to relevant pages of your website, add a clickable phone number to mobile ads, promote your business’s sales, and much more – without taking up valuable headline or description space. If you write all of your ads and don’t quite have the space to squeeze everything in, then extensions are a perfect way to add in those extra selling points.

It’s best to use as many ad extensions as possible. They can help boost your Ad Rank, clickthrough rates, and conversions. Plus, they make a much larger visual impact to potential users.

4. You Don’t Have Enough Variation in Your Ads

Some Google Ads users write only one or two ads for each ad group, then leave them forever to be successful or unsuccessful. This is a big mistake. In order for your Google Ads to perform their best, you need a bit of variation to see what copy is working and what isn’t. 

It’s best to write 3-5 unique ads per ad group. Make sure to include a responsive ad, too. This is a special ad type that lets you instantly test several headlines and descriptions to determine which perform best. Each month set aside some time to assess the performance of each ad and swap out the lowest-performing ads with new copy to ensure that you are always optimizing for success. You can even use the experiments tool to quickly and easily run A/B tests and keep only the top-performing results.

5. You Aren’t Tracking Everything You Possibly Can

When you started Google Ads, you made an investment. The only way you’ll know if that investment paid off is if you track everything you can. For some businesses, like online stores, ROI, can be tracked to the dollar amount. For other businesses, it can be a bit trickier, especially if the conversion doesn’t necessarily correlate with a sale. Either way, it’s important to track everything you can. Set up conversions within Google Ads and compare them to conversions you set up in Google Analytics. Create UTM codes for each ad. These allow you to nail down the effectiveness of each ad down to a specific conversion. Give values to specific conversions – for example, if a phone call is much more important to you than a form fill, make note of that value in Google Ads.

The Google Ads interface offers granular insights into every component of your campaign, from broad, account-level data to tiny insights into which keywords are the most effective. Use these insights to calculate your ROI. Find areas for improvement to make sure you’re getting the most for your money. It might even be useful to create a custom dashboard where you can visualize the metrics that are most important to you, all in the same place.

Conclusion

There is a lot to keep track of when it comes to creating a successful Google Ads campaign. Even if you have a great campaign, you can’t expect it to stay that way forever. If something isn’t working, it can be overwhelming to figure out where to optimize. 

If you are having trouble nailing down the perfect strategy for Google Ads or you’ve tried several things that haven’t worked, give us a call. We specialize in Google Ads campaigns that generate valuable leads quickly.

The post Top 5 Most Common Google Ads  Mistakes and How to Fix Them appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

Local Service Ads are only available in certain industries, largely service & contracting industries. Google supports the following industries, although not all of them are currently available in all cities:

• Locksmiths
• Plumbers
• Garage Door
• Electricians
• HVAC
• Air Duct Cleaner
• Appliance Repair Service
• Auto Glass Service
• Auto Service Technician
• Carpet Cleaner
• Event Planner
• Handyman
• Home Improvement Pro
• House Cleaner
• Junk Removal Provider
• Lawn Care Provider
• Mover
• Painter
• Pest Control Technician
• Pet Care Provider
• Pet Groomer
• Photographer
• Roadside Assistance Service
• Roofer
• Tree Service Provider
• Tutor
• Upholstery Cleaner
• Water Damage Service Provider
• Window Cleaner
• Window Service Provider

Local Service Ads have a key difference from traditional Google Search Ads – instead of paying per click, you pay per lead. After a fairly in-depth certification process, including a background check and verification of licensing & insurance, you can have your very own “Google Guaranteed” badge next to your listing, which not only shows above the organic search results, but also above traditional paid search ads.

Benefits of LSA

Although the certification process may seem rigorous, this is at your advantage in the long run. As a legitimate business owner who is doing everything by the books and in best practices, it can be frustrating to see your search ads getting bested by companies who may not be following the same practices. With Local Service Ads, Google’s thorough vetting process ensures that only responsible, legitimate service providers are able to gain the edge of being at the top of the search engine results page with the Google Guaranteed badge.

Adding Local Service Ads To Your Marketing Lineup

LSA can be an incredible addition to your current marketing efforts, but like many advertising services, they can be difficult to effectively implement. Looking for help? Reach out to the marketing experts at Beanstalk to help boost your online presence & generate more leads.

The post Should You Be Using Google Local Service Ads? appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

Since we are staying safe and working from home for the time being, we asked everyone at Beanstalk for their top tips for working from home.

1. Set Up a Good Workspace

“Make your home office as much like your real office as possible – I find it very helpful to keep my work environment the same. I have my desk set up identically to how it usually is at the office. This also allows me to separate my work life from my home life, even though they are now existing in the same place.” – Suzie

2. Stay Active

“Try exercising every day to stay healthy. Outdoor walks, jogs, etc. help the mind significantly, not just the body.” – Tim

3. Keep Caffeinated

“Make sure you have plenty of your favorite coffee or tea on hand. We are still working standard office hours and we all need our favorite caffeine to get through the day.” – Asher

4. Pace Yourself

“Don’t fill your plate with too much at once. Pace yourself. Don’t get overwhelmed. And, take time in the morning to center yourself and just breathe before you get right into your workload.” – Rusty

5. Keep in Touch With People

“Keep in touch with people. If working by yourself isn’t your thing, set up a video chat and work alongside your coworkers or your friends. Just having people around, even virtually, can help you stay focused and keep you from feeling too isolated.” – Sam 

6. Minimize Distractions

“Hold daily meetings, stay connected, use a camera. Know your distractions, silence them. Turn off weapons of mass distraction. Wear clothes.” – Mike

7. Eat Right

“Now is the perfect time to prepare food at home and get healthy. Cooking is a great way to connect with others, exercise your creativity, and feel a sense of accomplishment. Find some new recipes online or make recipes you haven’t had in a while. Try something new like eliminating oil, eating plant-based, or even counting calories. You can order carry-out every once in a while, or support your favorite restaurants in other ways – like buying gift cards.” – Braxton

8. Separate Work from Life

“Have a designated space to do your work.  If you’re an early riser and want to fire off some emails from bed, that’s fine, but spend the majority of your workday in your workspace to keep your personal life and work life as separate as possible when working from home.” – Grant 

9. Stay Comfortable

“Make sure your desk and chair are ergonomic, so you aren’t uncomfortable by the end of the day or dreading sitting down to a source of discomfort.” – Anna

10. Take Care of Yourself

“Now more than ever it’s important to stay healthy while cooped up at home. I like to get a daily workout. Once my workout is complete I take some much-needed relaxation time. My favorite way to relax at the end of the day is by watching the Bachelorette and putting on a soothing face mask.” – Alex

The post Top 10 Tips for Working from Home appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

Among positions in the medical and financial fields, the most popular careers in the U.S. today are tech employees: IT Specialists, Web Developers and Market Research Analysts. In today’s advancing business world, most in-demand jobs require an in-depth understanding of technological and digital platforms. These positions are largely built around the use of technology. They require employees to engage with computers and other digital devices for over 40 hours each week. These advancements have created great efficiency and possibility in today’s society. They have also introduced overstimulation and inactivity into the lives of users. Technological advancements are not bad, but we, as users, need to find a balance between tech and a healthy lifestyle.

Workplace Wellness

Creating a clear plan of action for workplace wellness within the office is one of the most effective ways to produce a productive, happy, and healthy team and work environment.  

Workplace wellness plans can help employees thrive at the office and in their positions. However, a lack of participation is a common obstacle, as organizations cannot force employees to participate in these group initiatives and activities. They can, however, strive to provide informational content, optional activities, and rewards to help employees become healthier and more aware of the health risks associated with desk jobs.

To encourage employee participation and awareness, companies can send informative emails and hang flyers throughout the office, offer optional activities such as daily team walks or conference room yoga or create a fitness competition. As a reward for participation, provide employees with healthy break room snacks, local gift cards, or extra PTO. 

Incentivizing employees will help motivate them to better themselves in and out of the office. This will create a healthier, more productive workforce. 

Overstimulation

When working with technology day after day, tech employees become vulnerable to the effects of digital eye strain. Digital eye strain is a grouping of vision-related impairments. Overexposure to digital devices, such as computers, tablets, and smartphones can increase digital eye strain. The side effects of digital eye strain include eye pain, headaches, blurred vision, neck, shoulder, and back pain.

Employees can combat these side effects by taking frequent breaks from digital screens, avoiding poor lighting, and glare when using digital devices and wearing blue light blocking glasses. Unnatural blue light is emitted from digital screens. Natural blue light is emitted from sunlight and helps keep employees awake and stimulated during the day. This furthers their motivation and focus. Taking frequent breaks and adjusting the brightness and position of devices allow eyes to readjust to the natural blue light around them.

Blue light blocking glasses help employees avoid unnatural blue light. The lenses filter out the blue light emitted from digital screens. 

Work with Technology

Technology can cause employees to become overworked, fatigued, and unproductive. But it doesn’t mean they have to cut it out of their lives in order to be healthy. If used correctly, technology can help tech employees become more active and productive. Using wearable devices that monitor calories, heart rate, sleep patterns, inactivity, and vitals can encourage workplace health. Wearables like the Apple Watch and the Fitbit, as well as services like Google Fit and CircleCare, motivate users and improve activity levels, mental health, and motivation, to name a few.

Tech employees are becoming more and more popular as society advances. Instead of falling victim to all of the health risks technology can cause users, employees need to work with it, rather than against it, in order to remain active and healthy.

The post Workplace Wellness Tips for Tech Employees appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

On May 28th at 5:00pm Beanstalk Web Solutions officially cut the ribbon to our new location at 23 N. Gore Ave in Webster Groves Missouri. Beanstalk Web Solutions was joined by over 75 guests who looked on as Tim Hebel, the owner of Beanstalk Web Solutions cut the ceremonial ribbon to open our new location.

Below are a couple photos of the event.

The post Beanstalk Web Solutions Ribbon Cutting appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

Beanstalk Web Solutions, a local web development and internet marketing company, is proud to announce a Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony.

The grand opening will commemorate the opening of its first office, located at 23 North Gore Ave, Suite 004 on Thursday, May 28 from 4:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. Beanstalk Web Solutions was founded in 2013 by Tim Hebel when he was 22 years old. “Though we have been a fully functioning company for two years, we have never had a space of our own,” Hebel said. “The ribbon-cutting ceremony for Beanstalk Web Solutions marks the launch of a new beginning for ourselves and for our clients.”

Beginning with just three employees, Beanstalk’s first staff members all worked from home.

Now, seven employees work together at the new location. “Though working from home was not a bad thing, being able to just walk to the next room to talk to my coworkers is a lot easier than waiting for an email response,” said Casey Messmer, Beanstalk’s Internet Marketing Manager who has been with the company for one year. “Brainstorming and working together has really become a part of our daily process.”

Beanstalk Web Solutions creates, designs, and maintains websites for its clients while providing web-related services that go above and beyond the expectations of its customers.

Web development and internet marketing is an industry where companies prey on those who lack knowledge on the subject by making their work seem more necessary and complex than it actually is. Beanstalk Web Solutions strives to strike down this stereotype by conducting business honestly and transparently.

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