Looking back at the last 12 months, we have found this GIGANTIC list of our most popular blog articles in 2015! Ranging from Inbound Marketing to the breaking news about Mobilegeddon. This was a crazy year and we hope you are excited as we are for 2016!

1. Google: Websites Not Mobile Optimized Will Plummet In Ranking on April 21st

Author: Alan De Keyrel

Google has announced its new, mobile-friendly algorithm (dubbed “mobilegeddon”) set to launch on April 21st. This change is expected to have the most significant impact on search rankings in at least three years. In fact, the new change is expected to be bigger than either of the major algorithm changes (Panda and Penguin) which had a major effect on search engine rankings.
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2. 5 Best Places to Work Remotely in Rochester, MN

Author: Alex Slack

Have a ton of work to do, but you need to get out of your house or office? In Rochester, MN, there are tons of great places to sit down and focus on that long, nagging to-do list. Of course, a delicious cup of joe doesn’t hurt. As you may already know, CWS has Office Free Fridays. Each week, our staff is able to work remotely from a locale of their choice. According to some of our team members, here are 5 of the best places in town to work remotely.
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3. Office Free Fridays – A CWS Experiment

Author: Alan De Keyrel

This summer, CWS is set to embark on our first “Office Free Fridays” where we are encouraging employees to avoid the office. Don’t worry, the team will still be available to support our customers, just not in the office. This idea came about because we were spending a great deal of time determining how to fairly staff the office during Fridays, when people often want to take PTO or work remotely.
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4. 5 Statistics: Mobilegeddon’s Effect on Non-Optimized Websites

Author: Megan Ludens

Mobilegeddon has been running full-force since April 23rd, 2015, and CWS team member PJ Calkins has been busy studying its impact on website statistics. It didn’t take long to get the message: mobile responsive websites have done far better than those without mobile optimization.
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5. CWS Infographic: The Psychology of Font Type

Author: Ethan Herber

It may be hard to believe that a font choice could evoke an idea, feeling or emotion just by viewing it. But it can.
Choosing a font for your logo should not be taken lightly. Today’s infographic covers the basic psychology behind the type of font choices. Learn how serif, sans serif, and display typefaces trigger a particular idea, feeling, or emotion.
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6. Significantly Increase Blog Traffic With Long Tail Keywords [Infographic]

Author: Ethan Herber

When creating content for your website, publishing advertisements on platforms like Google AdWords, or writing a new blog post, it is vitally important that you keep keywords in mind. But just telling you to keep keywords in mind isn’t enough, so we’re going to go into detail on exactly what kinds of keywords you should target.
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7. Step by Step Instructions: How to add Calls-to-Action on Your Social Media Platforms

Author: Ethan Herber

In December of last year, Facebook announced the rollout of the their new call-to-action (CTA) button available to all brand’s Facebook pages. This allows page visitors to take certain actions such as: Visit your website, book an appointment, or directly make a call to the business.
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8. This Short Exercise Will Change the Way You See Your Customers Forever!

Author: Sheryl Barlow

If you were asked to describe your customer, what would you say? True Story: Once I met with a car dealership who said, “My customer is anyone who has a driver’s license.” And a hair salon owner who said, “Our customer is anyone who has hair.” Deep down you know you don’t have a shot at everyone who has a driver’s license or has hair
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9. Infographic: Breaking Down Mobilegeddon and Responsive Website Design

Author: Ethan Herber

In the last few weeks there has been a lot of talk about Mobilegeddon. We’ve gotten a lot of questions and there is still some confusion.
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10. 5 Attitudes of a Dysfunctional Team

Author: Megan Ludens

With more companies deciding to refer to their employees, managers, and CEOs as team members, there’s been a natural focus on how to build that sense of teamwork and positive collaboration.
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11. Mayo Clinic Licenses Well Being Index Software to CWS

Author: Ethan Herber

Corporate Web Services, Inc. (CWS) announced today that they have entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Mayo Clinic for their Physician Well-being Index, Medical Student Well Being Index and Resident Well Being Index software. The primary goal of the well-being index is to strategically measure and decrease the stress levels of physicians and medical students through proprietary analysis and research data.
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12. 3 GIFS Explain Why Mobile Optimized Websites Nurture a Positive User Experience

Author: Ethan Herber

A responsive web design, or mobile optimized design, is an approach to website design that adapts to different devices a visitor to your website uses. This gives the user the best possible viewing experience and access to a simple navigation. The views can then enjoy your website rather than focusing on having to manually zoom, pan, or scroll to your desired.
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13. Off the Air: Witnessing Murder Without Warning on Social Media

Author: Ethan Herber

It all seemed to happen at once. I was just waking up Wednesday morning scrolling through my Facebook feed and saw a video posted by the Huffington Post of Alison Parker and Adam Ward getting shot on live TV. The autoplay feature for my app was enabled and I didn’t even know what was happening until it finished playing through.
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14. Secrets Tips from a Digital Media Placement Specialist

Author: Sheryl Barlow

Recently, I tried to place my own Google Ads for a personal project. I wanted to promote my e-book, Drowning Tory. After all, I have 20 years of marketing experience and have successfully placed millions of dollars in traditional media, plus Google and social media ad platforms walk you through it step by step, so how hard can it be? It’s not hard at all. I placed the ads. I did not get results.
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15. Make Your Website Your Best Salesperson

Author: Chris O’Byrne

Your sales team is valuable (especially if you’re the only one selling), but it’s easy to ignore the most important salesperson on your team—your company website. Most websites are allowed to do as little work as possible, and when a prospective client comes to visit, all it does is hand out a brochure and then never contacts the client again. If other salespeople worked like this, they would be quickly fired.
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16. Spam vs. True Traffic: How to get the most out of Google Analytics

Author: PJ Calkins

Congratulations, you just launched a new, beautiful, and responsive website for your business. It’s fresh, modern and has all the bells and whistles including this great visitor tracking tool called Google Analytics. You can’t wait to start evaluating your visitor data and start showing off how awesome your new website is performing.
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17. 5 Outdated Website Trends You Should Ditch

Author: Alex Slack

“You have the attention span of a gnat,” is a common insult. But the truth is, the viewing public is getting more gnat-like every day. Sure, a gnat has the attention span of only 0.2 seconds, but the average website viewer will only award you a precious 8 to 10 seconds before clicking off your site. What does that mean for your business? It means cutting some of the outdated crap—no offense—out of your website to be more succinct and relevant to your viewers.
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18. CWS: Rochester MN’s 1st Certified Inbound Marketing Agency

Author: Ethan Herber

CWS Becomes 1st Certified Inbound Marketing Agency in Rochester, MN Rochester, MN: Today, CWS announced that it has qualified as a Hubspot Certified Agency Partner becoming Rochester, Minnesota’s first certified Inbound Marketing Agency. HubSpot has developed the world’s leading inbound marketing platform.
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19. 5 Essential Things to Check for your Website Cleanup

Author: Jonny Yucuis

When we work with companies to create a new website, we often use the analogy that building a website is a lot like building a house. And when your house is finally built, you’ve moved in, add new stuff, and rearrange things, sooner or later your house tends to get a bit messy.
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20. 2 People Missing From CWS This Week: Look Where They Turned Up

Author: Sheryl Barlow

Yes, it’s true. Two of our own are missing from the CWS offices this week. PJ Calkins and Ethan Herber are attending Inbound 2015 in Boston this week – WOOT WOOT! They will learn tons of useful information to share with you about Inbound Marketing when they return. In the meantime follow their adventures on Twitter for updates from Boston.
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Top 5 2015 Downloadables