Rachel Schardt Design

09/13/2021

70% of you said you don’t look at your website data on my Instagram story poll a few weeks ago! I WAS SHOCKED!
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Because I'm willing to bet that whatever your business is, you use data. Whether you analyze email reports, sales reports, or conversion reports, it's all about that data, baby!
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When it comes to your website, we can look at the data for things like bounce rate, which tells us how many people are entering your site and then immediately leaving. We can look at the behavior flow of your site traffic, audience demographic data, and so many more nerdy numbers!
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Say you look at your data and notice a page has a high bounce rate - we’d want to take a look at the page and see how the design and copy could be improved to bring that percentage down.

If you haven't already, you’ll want to set up a Google Analytics account so you can start collecting all that good, good data!
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so let's get you rock'n, roll'n, and data empowered! 🕺🏻

06/24/2021

“What brand assets do I really need?!”
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When I get asked this, there’s a few questions I’ll follow up with.
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Do you sell physical products? Is your biz strictly online? How long have you been in business? Who is your target audience?
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By answering those questions, you can probably figure it out for yourself BUT.
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I do have one thing I think everyone should get.
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A mug (or mug adjacent) with your logo.
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Why???
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Imposter syndrome. Whether it creeps up daily, weekly, or monthly, it’s there.
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And there’s just SOMETHING about having YOUR brand, your logo, on your morning coffee mug that makes you feel like a legit bad ass. ✨
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Do you have your logo on your coffee mug? Something else you love? I wanna hear it! 💜
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P.S. These are notecards for my amazing client ! We worked on a whole suite of brand assets for her brand inspired by the evil eye! (Phone changed for posting purposes.)
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06/11/2021

Want to know a web design mistake no one ever talks about?
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Making the DESIGN the star of your website. The star is and should be your product or your service.
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As a web designer, I NEVER want someone’s first thought to be “wow, what a cool looking site.” (unless you’re a web designer - our brains just can’t help it!)
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I want the first thought to be “wow, what a cool product.” or “wow, I need this service.”
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Of course I want (we all want) your site to look good and be impressive. It can still do that without taking away or distracting from the overall goal of the website.
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See, our brains can only absorb so much information at once. So no matter how “cool” or “pretty” the design is, if there is too much going on, all my brain is going to be able to absorb is the design. 🧠
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Which means I’m going to leave your site not knowing a single thing about what you do or offer. And that’s just bad business.
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When in doubt, keep it simple. ✨
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05/06/2021

I’ve been getting this question a lot lately. So let’s talk about it because YES it’s confusing! 😂
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if you’re not immersed in the world of web design & development, you may not know that WordPress.org and WordPress.com are different.
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WordPress.org is a self hosted, open source platform. (That’s why you hear names like Bluehost & Siteground - they provide hosting services.)
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Using .org means you have access to the thousands of plugins (both free & paid), and you totally own your site!
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With WordPress.com, however, if you want to use plugins or run ads you have to upgrade to their business plan. (& even then you don’t have access to all of the plugins!)
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And if you want to sell on your website, you have to upgrade your plan yet again, when WooCommerce for WordPress.org is free.
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The downside to using .org is that you are responsible for site maintenance and security, but if that stresses you out most designers and developers will take care of it for you!
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And if this whole post stressed you out cause you just want something simple - Shopify, SquareSpace, or WiX are sometimes the way to go! I always assess my clients wants & needs before choosing which platform to set them up on!
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04/22/2021

I loved working on this brand and site!

04/07/2021

Still obsessing over how this site turned out for ***ir !

This project included Branding, Web Design, + SEO.

Oh and guess what? Within a month, Taylor is already ranking on page 1 for “Pittsburgh Bo***ir Photographer.”

I’m so glad Taylor trusted me with her brand, and her new size inclusive lingerie brand, , will be launching real soon too. 😍

02/10/2021

Rebrand for ***ir ✨
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I loved being able to bring her vision of this new studio to a digital space 😍 (The anchor color of this brand palette matches the paint color she chose for her brand new studio walls!)
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If you’re in the Philly area, Taylor’s mission is to create a safe, body positive studio and she does such beautiful work!
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I feel incredibly lucky that I get to work with so many bad ass womxn on a daily basis. ❤️
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I’m curious - have you ever done a bo***ir photo shoot?!
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***ir ***irphotography ***irphotoshoot

01/21/2021

We’re talking all things SEO!

Tune in to a new episode of the Upleveler Show TOMORROW January 22. You won't want to miss this! Featuring guest expert Rachel Schardt.

Tune in at 3PM EST 01/22: https://buff.ly/3egTMGY

01/21/2021

You know those projects that are just FUN?!

This was one of them!

I had such a blast designing this site last month for ! (It was almost as much fun as actually watching the series!)

If you’re looking for a laugh, Season 1 is now streaming on YouTube!

(& if you’re looking to bring your creative project to a URL, you know where to find me!)

Are you working on anything fun?! Let me know 👇🏼

12/14/2020

You’re going to want to go ahead and save this post for later!

There’s about a million things that go into Search Engine Optimization, but arguably the most important is KEYWORDS.

And guess what? The only tool you need to get started is your brain!

You know what problem your business solves, you know your service/product so reverse engineer that. Brainstorm what your Target Audience is googling.

Then you can use a tool like the Google Keyword Planner to get related keyword ideas and see the competition for ranking for them. (You’ll want to stick to low competition keywords!)

Once you have your keywords, you’ll want to incorporate them into your website’s heading tags and title tags!

Happy Brainstorming! 🧠

12/11/2020

The biggest mistake you can make in the branding process?
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Thinking you’re the most important person.
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Sorry, that title belongs to your target audience. 🙈
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I get it. It’s hard to separate what you like as a person, and what will actually serve your business.
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(That’s where a brand designer can help!)
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And listen, of course I want you to love your branding! But you aren’t hiring you, so it doesn’t really do you a whole lotta good if it doesn’t attract your ideal client.
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It’s important to check in with yourself and ask “who does this serve?”
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If you’re needing some guidance, next week I’m dropping a brand new freebie to help you get started with the branding process!
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DM me with a 😎 emoji and I’ll make sure to let you know as soon as it’s out!
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