MicroBrewr 060: How to make a website that people find

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Allan Wolfe is a beer writer who started UnEarthed Creative in Chicago, Illinois. His online marketing firm helps small businesses in the new world of online marketing. They specialize in marketing for small breweries.

“If you’ve got the best beer, but nobody knows it exists, what’s the point?” says Allan.

“As the craft beer industry becomes so much bigger, every market has a certain point where it’s saturated,” Allan explains. “The craft beer market is heading directly toward the saturation point. I think that’s when the market is going to get really competitive.”

As competition among breweries increases, it’s more important to have a meaningful web presence.

“The easier you make it for people to find you,” advises Allan, “and then once they’ve found you, the easier you make for them to buy things from you, the better off you’re going to be absolutely.”

Allan says the first thing to consider when you make a website is to use an easy platform that a lot of developers and content management specialists are familiar with, such as WordPress. Next you need to create helpful, useful content. And make a website that uses a “responsive,” mobile compatible design.

Because search results are moving toward helpful, useful content for the user, your website must have a lot of content. Allan says every website must have a blog and he offers these ideas for writing new content:

Brewery updates and events
What you’re doing
New releases
New equipment
Any sort of update or message you want to communicate with your customers

“If you’ve got the best beer, but nobody knows it exists, what’s the point?” [Tweet This]

Listener question:

From TastingNitch on Twitter: What is your preferred beer drinking vessel and why?

Book recommendation:

The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, News Releases, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly by David Meerman Scott.

Check out the entire list of recommended books, click here.

An upcoming beer style:

Experimental beers

Other resources:

The Science Behind Beer Foam, Allan Wolfe, CraftBeer.
Jester King Brewery, Austin, Texas.
Odin Brewing Company, Tukwila, Washington.
Google PageSpeed, tools to optimize the performance of your website.
Google Analytics, web traffic analytics service.
Google Webmaster Tools, data, tools, and diagnostics for a healthy Google-friendly site.
SEO Site Checkup, search engine optimization (SEO) tools for your website.
MicroBrewr 003: The Power of A Story w/ Adelbert’s Brewery, MicroBrewr, March 10, 2014.