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Yes, We’re Award-Winning Web Designers (Again!)

Written by Ysabel Mano on May 27, 2025. Posted in Blog.

Websites Made With Love Honoured in the 15th Web Excellence Awards

PARKSVILLE, MAY 20, 2025 – Websites Made With Love Inc. is thrilled to announce its recognition as a winner in the 15th Web Excellence Awards. Our latest project, New Website for Brussels Agromart, has been celebrated for its excellence in the Website Design – Agriculture category, underscoring our unwavering commitment to innovation and superior performance in the digital realm.

“Receiving this prestigious award once again is a testament to our team’s dedication to creating websites in the agriculture sector that are easy to find on Google and user-friendly,” said Founder Mark Beuerman. “We’re passionate about crafting beautiful, affordable websites that help position our clients as the local authority on ag production.”

The Web Excellence Awards, a pioneering platform that acknowledges and promotes excellence in web development and digital innovation, celebrated an impressive array of talent and innovation from around the globe, reinforcing its mission to recognize and celebrate extraordinary achievements by creative teams and individuals worldwide.

“Being recognized at the 15th Web Excellence Awards motivates us to continue working hard to deliver websites that meet and exceed our customers’ expectations,” concluded Beuerman.

This accolade highlights our team’s hard work and solidifies Websites Made With Love’s position as a leader and trendsetter in the industry.

About Websites Made With Love

Founded in 2018, Websites Made With Love has grown from a solo venture into a dynamic team of six dedicated professionals. With a portfolio boasting over 100 websites, we specialize in website design, search engine optimization (SEO), website maintenance, and graphic design . Our mission is to empower local small businesses and non-profit organizations by creating professional, brand-reflective websites that drive success.

Media Inquiries:

Mark Beuerman
hello@websitesmadewithlove.com

About the Web Excellence Awards

The Web Excellence Awards are a leading international competition celebrating the best in web development and digital innovation. Established to recognize and promote excellence across the digital industry, the Web Excellence Awards provide a platform for innovation and creativity to be acknowledged globally.

Contact: Daniel Martin
Email: info@we-awards.com
Website: https://we-awards.com

Websites Made With Love Earns Green Certification from BC Green Business

Written by Ysabel Mano on May 20, 2025. Posted in Blog.

Websites Made With Love is proud to announce its official Green Certification from BC Green Business (BCGB), recognizing its commitment to environmental sustainability, operational efficiency, and social responsibility.

From day one, Websites Made With Love has believed that digital success should go hand in hand with environmental care. That belief has guided the team in creating efficient, beautiful websites while also keeping their business operations low-waste, low-impact, and community-focused.

What is BCC Green Business (BCGB)

BC Green Business is a certification program that helps businesses across British Columbia become more environmentally friendly. It’s run by the non-profit Synergy Foundation and is designed to support companies that want to reduce their impact on the planet and give back to their communities.

Businesses are evaluated on things like energy use, waste reduction, water conservation, and community involvement. Based on how many sustainable actions they complete, they can earn a Silver, Gold, or Green certification.

To learn more about BC Green Business or how to get certified, visit bcgreenbusiness.ca

How did we qualify?

Website Made With Love completed 27 verified sustainable actions to earn its Green certification. These include energy-efficient building upgrades such as double-paned, draft-sealed windows, LED lighting throughout, and setting thermostats to 16°C when unoccupied.

In daily operations, Websites Made With Love goes well beyond the basics. The team has implemented six paperless systems (including invoices, payroll, and client documentation), composts all food waste and soiled paper, and recycles a wide range of materials from electronics and soft plastics to foil-lined bags and Styrofoam.

The business also practices low-emission commuting and travel, utilizing virtual meetings to reduce transportation emissions and making sustainable delivery and purchasing choices.

And with its Ocean Friendly Business designation, Websites Made With Love demonstrates additional care for BC’s marine ecosystems by following Surfrider-approved actions that prevent pollution and support clean waterways.

Read the full checklist on what Websites Made With Love achieved for this certification.

What does it mean for our clients?

Our certification as a BC Green Business shows that we care, not just about great websites, but about how we run our business behind the scenes.

When you work with Websites Made With Love, you’re choosing a company that:

Operates with sustainability in mind
Uses energy-efficient equipment and low-impact materials
Minimizes waste and recycles responsibly
Supports community and environmental initiatives
It’s our way of making sure that the work we do for you is not only high quality but also aligned with values that matter.

By choosing us, you’re supporting a more sustainable, community-driven future. And that’s something we’re proud to build, together.

Looking Ahead

“Being a certified BC Green Business helps us stay accountable and intentional. We’re proud to be part of a movement that proves businesses of all sizes can do good while doing great work.”

This certification is just one more way Websites Made With Love delivers on its promise: helping clients succeed online, while building a more sustainable, inclusive future offline.

Are you missing Google Reviews? You’re not alone.

Written by Ysabel Mano on March 31, 2025. Posted in Blog, Google Business Profile.

Recently, many users have been reporting missing reviews on their Google Business Profile pages. For no apparent reason at all, positive reviews have been getting removed. This bug is known to Google, and they are actively attempting to fix it.

Report Missing Reviews & Get Them Back

If you notice reviews have gone missing and you feel they shouldn’t have, please open a ticket with Google to investigate.

Save Your Reviews – Step By Step Tutorial

No problems, but still want to be on the safe side? There is a way for you to download your existing reviews so you have a copy in JSON (text) format.

Google Takeout is a service that allows you to download information related to your Google account. This includes Google Business Profiles.

Step 1: Sign into Google Takeout and click “deselect all”

Step 2: scroll down and select “Google Business Profile.” Then, scroll to the bottom of the page and click “next step”

Step 3: Export once by clicking “create export”

Step 4: When it is ready, you will get an email that contains the export file. Click to download the file.

Step 5: Unzip your downloaded file. If you mange multiple Google Business Profiles, they will be organized based on location ID. You can find this on your GBP under “Business Profile Settings -> Advanced Settings -> Business Profile ID”
Scroll through the many files until you find the reviews.json files. There may be additional review files, as seen below.

Step 6: Open it with a text editor, like Notepad. You will see the format looks a bit strange, but all the information is there.
In the example below, “displayName” is the person who left the review of 5 stars on February 14, 2025. They did not leave a written review, just a star rating. The business owner replied, “Thank you for this 5 star review!”
The reviews repeat from that point going forward.

Now what?

Now you can rest assured that you have an updated list of all your Google reviews. While you may not be able to link to all of them, you at least have them for your records. If something is amiss with your reviews, you can show Google Support these files as supporting evidence. It is not necessary to do this, but it is good to have on hand just in case.

Get More Reviews

Does your review count look a little low? Our team at Websites Made With Love has created a handy tool called a Review Generator. It helps with prompting your customers to leave a review.

Since reviews are becoming more and more powerful, it is essential that each business gets as many 5-star reviews as possible. With a one-time low fee, it’s a no-brainer. Contact us to get started.

Websites Made With Love: Your New Google Partner

Written by Ysabel Mano on November 8, 2024. Posted in Blog.

What is a Google Partner?

Since Google made its way through the internet a couple of decades ago, its success and achievements have been countless. They have launched a wide range of products and services that not only helped users but also revolutionized the search engine game. It has reached the point where we can hardly imagine what our day would be like without Google.

The Google Partners program is designed for advertising agencies that manage Google Ads accounts on behalf of other businesses. Being a Google Partner means gaining strategic benefits in education and insights, access to support, and recognition through awards. This partnership helps empower businesses to run more effective Google Ads campaigns.

What it takes to be a Google Partner

Interested to becoming one? Earning a Google Partner status signifies that your company excels in maximizing successful ad campaigns for clients. Sounds amazing, right? But, what about requirements?

There are 3 requirements categories :

Performance: The registered manager account needs to have a minimum optimization score of 70%.
Spend: Ads manager account needs to maintain a 90-day ad spend of $10,000 USD across managed accounts.
Certification: Needs to have a minimum of 50% of your account strategists certified in Google Ads, with at least one certification in each product area with campaign spend of $500 USD or more in 90 days.

These thresholds must be met and are checked on a daily basis.

Websites Made With Love–Google Partner

Websites Made With Love (WMWL) is excited to share that we’ve achieved our Google Partner Certification—a milestone that truly reflects our dedication to supporting our clients’ growth. This recognition is more than just a badge; it’s a testament to our expertise in Google Ads and our commitment to helping clients reach their goals.

We’ve maintained an optimization score of at least 70%, which demonstrates our ability to set up high-performing accounts for our clients. We’ve also managed a minimum of $10,000 USD in ad spend over the past 90 days, highlighting our capability to drive sustained growth and identify new opportunities for success. Finally, we have a skilled team with at least three account strategists, and over 50% of them have earned Google Ads certifications, proving their proficiency in Google Ads.

We’re incredibly proud of this accomplishment, and we look forward to using this knowledge to make a meaningful impact for each of our clients. We’re excited to continue making a positive impact on your success!

The Power of Consistent Reviews and Branding Across 3rd-Party Websites for Small Businesses

Written by Ysabel Mano on October 31, 2024. Posted in Blog.

In today’s digital-first world, online reviews and consistent branding on 3rd-party platforms are more important than ever for small businesses.

As experts in search engine optimization (SEO) on Vancouver Island, Websites Made With Love (WMWL) continuously monitors emerging trends to help our clients succeed online. One of the most significant changes we’re observing is how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping how search engines determine which businesses appear in search results. AI now actively consolidates data from multiple platforms, meaning your presence across 3rd-party sites – such as Yelp, Google, Facebook, and others – can strongly impact your ranking potential.

Here’s why small businesses should care about this shift and how consistent branding and reviews play a crucial role.

1. How AI Consolidation Impacts SEO

Search engines increasingly rely on AI algorithms that evaluate information from various sources, providing users with the most relevant results. This consolidation approach is effective for building a trustworthy online profile for your business, but it also means that inconsistent information or poor reviews on one platform can impact your entire digital presence.

When a search engine assesses your business, it’s looking for consistency. The more accurate, high-quality data it finds across 3rd-party sites, the more likely it is to view your business as a credible and reliable option. The reviews and branding elements – including your name, logo, tagline, and tone of voice – need to align across all platforms for AI to recognize your brand as a consistent and dependable choice.

2. The Role of Reviews in Building Trust and Authority

The correlation between high-quality reviews and higher rankings is not new, but the integration of AI is making reviews even more central to SEO success. AI-powered search engines analyze the quantity, quality, and recency of reviews across platforms. Consistent, positive reviews enhance your authority, positioning you as a top choice when users search for products or services you offer.

For small businesses, this means that every positive review is an opportunity to build trust. Conversely, gaps in review quality across platforms can signal inconsistency and reduce your credibility. Encouraging happy customers to leave reviews on multiple sites can not only boost your SEO but also assure AI-driven algorithms that you’re a trustworthy business.

For the biggest impact, encourage your customers to leave an image with their review.

3. Consistent Branding Drives Recognition and Reputation

Maintaining cohesive branding across third-party sites not only strengthens SEO but also significantly impacts customer perception. Users expect consistency in every interaction with your brand, from Google listings to Yelp profiles. A seamless brand image—in terms of logos, colour schemes, and even the voice used in responses—can help reinforce trust, making it easier for AI to understand and rank your business accurately.

If your branding varies, it can confuse potential customers and dilute your SEO efforts. A business with clear, unified branding across platforms is easier for AI to categorize and display to users, boosting its ranking potential.

4. How Small Businesses Can Optimize Reviews and Branding Across 3rd-Party Platforms

To take full advantage of AI-driven SEO and boost your online presence, consider these tips:

Encourage Review Frequency and Variety: Ask satisfied customers to leave reviews on multiple platforms. A steady stream of recent, positive reviews will reinforce your credibility and positively influence AI analysis.
Standardize Your Brand Presentation: Ensure your business name, logo, tagline, and colour scheme are consistent across all 3rd-party profiles. Even the tone and language you use in responses to reviews should be aligned to create a cohesive brand image.
Monitor and Respond Promptly to Reviews: Quickly address customer feedback – both positive and negative. Prompt, professional responses showcase reliability and show AI that your business cares about user satisfaction.
Regularly Audit Your Listings for Consistency: Periodically check all 3rd-party sites to ensure your information, from phone numbers to store hours, remains accurate. Inconsistencies can detract from your SEO score and confuse AI-driven algorithms.

Moving Forward with AI-Optimized SEO

The digital landscape is shifting rapidly, with AI at the forefront of search algorithms. For small businesses, consistent branding and reviews across 3rd-party platforms aren’t just optional steps – they’re essential to building a strong online presence that resonates with AI. Websites Made With Love is here to help Vancouver Island businesses stay on top of these trends and optimize their digital footprint.

If you’re interested in improving your online presence, feel free to reach out to our team for expert guidance. Let’s make sure your business is ready to succeed in the AI-driven world of SEO!

New customers search. Character looking through magnifyer. Business development in a new targeted group of clients. Promotion campaign. Flat style vector

Google’s August Core Update – What are they doing with AI?

Written by Ysabel Mano on September 15, 2024. Posted in Blog, Search Engine Optimization News.

As of early September, Google has completed its August Core Update.

“This update is designed to continue our work to improve the quality of our search results by showing more content that people find genuinely useful and less content that feels like it was made just to perform well on Search.”

So, what have we learned?

It has been a mixed bag when it comes to these core updates. Even without making any changes, your website’s traffic can plummet to almost nothing. On the other hand, it can suddenly spike for no apparent reason. While we do not fully understand what happens behind the scenes at Google (hint: no one really knows), our team at Websites Made With Love regularly crawls the web and learns from Google experts about what’s happening.

In the last year or so, we have learned how impactful artificial intelligence (AI) can be when prompted correctly. Enter a prompt, get a response, and away you go, right? Wrong.

As it turns out, people aren’t that creative when it comes to prompts. Not to mention, tools like ChatGPT need to be double-checked to make sure what it is spitting out is accurate and true. AI takes in a ton of information, more than any human can comprehend, organizes it, and then spits out what it “thinks” is most relevant. This isn’t always right, but will likely improve over time. Yet, we can use AI to our advantage despite its infancy.

First, we don’t know what AI will pull to determine rankings on search engine result pages, but we do know it will pull as much as it can find before making that decision. We can use this to our advantage by spreading ourselves in places like online directories, a Google Business Profile, social media accounts, and so on. The key is to ensure all the information matches perfectly. This is nicknamed NAP – name, address, and phone number. If Google can see matched instances of your business’ NAP features across the board, it may help in domain authority. To be frank, we don’t know what Google will choose so best to be prepared, right?

Secondly, it has always been our goal at Websites Made With Love to create website content primarily for the visitor, not the search engine. We work with our clients to figure out what content they want on the website, then we tweak it to make it easier for search engines to read and understand. By focusing on the structure, length, and quality of content, we help boost the probability of being indexed for the target keywords and audiences. Now that Google has revealed they are pushing towards more helpful content instead of automated ChatGPT responses, we feel we are ahead of the curve for many of our past and current clients.

Some agencies rely heavily on plugins to automatically add internal links as a method to slip in keywords. We prefer to manually review each page for tweaks such as these. Why? Well, we’re writing for people and hey, we’re people, not plugins! Having that personal touch and the care to take the time to do things right is important to us. We look at what other competitors are doing and put ourselves in the shoes of a potential visitor. What would we want to see? What works and what doesn’t? From there we can make the best website possible for people to use and search engines to find.

By the way, the impact of third-party websites like Reddit is starting to matter more and more. Why? It’s usually a direct source of content that is (usually) not flooded with AI responses. Each subreddit is specific to a particular topic, which helps narrow the focus for finding information. We won’t be surprised if we see more third-party websites having more of an impact on rankings than the target website itself.

So, while AI can be a helpful tool to help build content for a website, it can do more harm than good if not handled correctly. If you’re looking for a website truly made with love, let’s chat.

Cover image for post about WMWL receiving a Web Excellence award

Yes, We’re Award Winning Web Designers

Written by madewithlove on May 21, 2024. Posted in Blog.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Websites Made With Love has been honoured as the winner of the 12th Web Excellence Awards

PARKSVILLE, MAY 21, 2024 – Websites Made With Love Inc. is proud to announce that it has been honoured as a winner in the 12th Web Excellence Awards. The company’s entry, New Website for TCO Agromart Ltd, has been recognized for its excellence in the Website Design – Agriculture category, showcasing its commitment to innovation and superior performance in the digital space.

“We are thrilled to receive this prestigious award, which reflects our commitment to helping our agricultural clients with digital innovation and excellence,” stated Founder, Mark Beuerman. “This award is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our team, who consistently strive to build beautiful websites at an affordable price that also push the boundaries of what is possible in the digital space,” added Jamie Geche, Senior Web Designer.

“Being recognized as a winner at the 12th Web Excellence Awards not only highlights our achievements but also motivates us to continue raising the bar for agricultural industry website standards,” concluded Beuerman.

Winning the Web Excellence Award is a significant accolade for Websites Made With Love, its team members and their families. This recognition underscores the company’s outstanding contributions to the digital realm and its dedication to pushing the envelope in web design and digital marketing innovation. The award also enhances the company’s reputation in the industry, solidifying its position as a leader and trendsetter.

About Websites Made With Love

Websites Made With Love began in 2018 and has grown from a one-man show into a team of 6 full and part-time team members. Their portfolio continues to grow (100+ websites), including many agriculture-related websites, which have a special place in our founder, Mark’s, heart.

Their main services include website design, search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM – mainly Google & Facebook Ads), website maintenance and security plans, and graphic and logo design. They love to help local small businesses and non-profit organizations by building new professional-looking websites that reflect their brand identities. And if they don’t have a brand identity yet, they love helping them from the ground up to develop an online presence.

Media Inquiries for the winner: Mark Beuerman, hello@websitesmadewithlove.com

About the Web Excellence Awards

The Web Excellence Awards is a leading international competition celebrating the best in web development and digital innovation. Established to recognize and promote excellence across the digital industry, the awards provide a platform for innovation and creativity to be acknowledged globally.

Contact: info@we-awards.com

Website: https://we-awards.com/

A web agency that works with its clients

Written by Ysabel Mano on June 7, 2023. Posted in Blog. No Comments on A web agency that works with its clients

What sets us apart from other web agencies

We pride ourselves on our commitment to working with our clients instead of for our clients.

What does that mean?

It means that we do our best to understand your needs, goals, and limitations and work with you to find solutions to get you what you want. We do this by having an initial consultation with all our clients so we are on the same page from the beginning. We get clear on what your goals are and why they are important. In some cases, knowing the “why” has helped us suggest other ways to reach your goals. We are a digital marketing agency, after all! Our goal is to help you reach your business goals by utilizing the powers of the internet.

Small businesses and NPO’s love working with us

It can be a dog eat dog world out there, especially for a small business trying to get their foot in the door. Often, funds are limited and business owners are extremely motivated to do as much as they can themselves to improve their business.

On the other hand, many non-profit organizations are usually run by a board of volunteers that don’t have any specialized training in web development. However, they are usually open to learning and helping out as much as they can.

What do small business owners and NPO’s have in common? They both are willing to put in the time and effort to do as much as they can on their own. We dig that enthusiasm and love to work with these clients to give them the break they are looking for.

How Websites Made With Love helps the little guys

After we meet with our clients, the next step is to build a development website. We work collaboratively with the client to nail down things like the logo design, colour schemes, page layouts, all that good stuff. Once it is approved, we launch the website and everyone does a happy dance for a job well done.

It doesn’t end there.

So many web agencies churn out websites like a fast food restaurant churns out burgers. They miss the point that if you go through the effort of constructing a new website, that it should continue to hold its value for longer than 5 minutes after launch. It’s obvious when a website is neglected and outdated. It hurts the reputation of the business or NPO that owns it, plus the web developer that built it. Maintenance is key.

We are well known for making custom video tutorials for our clients so they can feel confident in updating their website. Most small updates can be done by the client, so we walk them through step-by-step how to do that in our tutorials. This is great for NPO’s that may have a different set of volunteers from time to time.

In another case, we met weekly with a client to target what kind of updates she wanted to do and then showed her in an online meeting (screen share) how to do it. These meetings can be recorded, too.

Oh and about that maintenance? We offer several website maintenance plans so clients can choose the one that suits their budget and needs the best.

Want to give us a try?

If you’re looking for a web agency that listens to your needs, works through your problems with you and offers solutions, then why not give us a ring? We offer a free, no-obligation 30 minute consultation so we can both see if we are a good fit for each other.

And hey, if you’re wanting a web agency to take over and do everything, we’re cool with that. But if you want to get your toes wet and do a few things yourself, we are down with that too. Our team is flexible and passionate about what we do. If we can help you, we will!