Archive for January, 2010
There is an assumption that more hits from Google will lead to more customers. Well I think that’s a bit wrong – and here’s why.
Receiving 1000 hits per day on Google is all very well, but what if only 2% of those visitors make purchases? That’s just 20 orders. The ratio of visitors/leads is called your conversion rate. There are three main reasons for a low conversion rate
- People are finding you on Google for irrelevant search terms.
- Poor website design. The website is not appealing to your target visitors (this in itself is a number of blog posts and a whole business)
- Poor website coding. The website is not working, perhaps not displaying in a particular browser or the code does not lend itself very well to being read by search engines.
I believe it’s better to focus less on hits per day and more on converting visitors into customers. I am not suggesting that this is always the case but please don’t be blinkered into believing that getting high up in the search engines is the only answer. High search engine positions should be just one of many strategies for website owners. If you have a budget for your website this year, look into splitting it into three: SEO campaigns, online advertising (which targets your customer directly) and website updates. By investing in this mix you can refine your goals and win more customers.
Do you need some practical advice about winning more clients from your website? Please get in touch i’d love to hear from you.
SEO | 13.01.2010 15:19 | No Comments
Grangewood Floors have been a client of our ours for a number of years. We didn’t design their original website (they came to us with a design but needed us to recode because their previous web designers had allowed some nasty virus on the server). So when we were asked to come up with a new design for them, we jumped at the chance.
We’d already supplied Richard with a CMS (website update tool) and he didn’t want a complete revamp of all the website content at this stage – in particular we know that some of the images being used on the gallery pages are too small.
Our brief was to
- Incorporate the logo and new company brand (which Richard supplied)
- Increase search engine visibility
- Retain any existing search engine credentials
- Convert more customers
The new design ticks all the boxes. The website is bigger and better than the old one and invites the visitor to click on. By adding more pages and a submenu the visitor can easily find content. The grey colors were a tad dull so we included a nice vibrant and fresh green to jazz things up. We have some more work to do on the SEO sites of things and link in the sitemap to the footer but on a whole this is a huge improvement on what was there! We have an ongoing relationship with Grangewood and work on SEO and conversions on a monthly basis for them.
Website Examples | 7.01.2010 17:14 | No Comments
If I’m totally honest, when I started working for myself back in 2005 I did have some tiny doubts about the website design industry. My major concern was that in 5 years time (ie now!) creating websites would be as easy as pressing a button and that our web skills would no longer be required. However building a website in 2010 is so much harder now than ever before. And here’s why…
More competition.
There are more websites than ever, and more competition means that you need to stand out. Publishing a generic template using Dreamweaver or WordPress is simply not going to get you noticed or taken seriously. And I’d definitely argue that the website is a very important aspect of a successful business. If you don’t take your website seriously, then how can you expect your customers to take you seriously?
Websites need to do more.
Technically, websites are expected to do more than before. A static 5 page website is not always going to cut it. Your website needs to include sign up forms, newsletters, interaction with social media like twitter and facebook, blogs, ecommerce options, downloads and online payments, and the list goes on! And I am not even going to start on the complexity of an SEO campaign!
Websites require different skill sets.
Employing your neighbours teenage son might get you online cheaply but will it help or hinder your business? At best I’d expect that it simply won’t make any impact at all. At worst your “cheap” website might cost you more in lost opportunities. In order to get the best out of your website you really need to have a team of experts all working with you. Whilst I do know of some fantastic freelancers, there are not many who can provide the whole package: fab design, great functionality, effective code, SEO. Many freelancers either fail in one area or specialise and outsource the aspects that they are not so confident in. If experts find it hard to provide a website with the full package, how can one expect their neighbours son to pull it off?
More Technology.
Our team now spends more time on testing and compatibility then ever before. With so many different browsers and the emergence of mobile technology, the art of actually coding a fully compatible website just seems to get harder and harder each year. More technology and more demanding visitors keeps website development out of arms reach for the novice. Just take a look at developer forums and blogs; they are filled with slightly annoyed developers struggling to get their customer’s website pixel perfect.
Quality Code.
Generally there are lots of people who can code up a decent looking website, but code is not all equal and the better the code the longer your website will continue to function, the less it will cost you to maintain and the better the results on search engines and usability. Over the past 5 years much has been published about best practices and you may ignore them at your peril!
To summarise – creating great websites is hard work. And I am ever so pleased since this means that our teams skills are still required!
Need some help?
Business link have a really useful guide that covers most considerations when creating a website. And you are always more than welcome to drop me a line. I look forward to hearing from you!
Website Design | 7.01.2010 13:22 | No Comments
Wow – 2009 was a bit crazy right? We probably all know of one other business that didn’t make it through 2009. Many small/medium sized business have swapped suppliers, choosing; smaller, cheaper, local and friendlier partners. This combined with less competition means that 2010 could be a great year for those of us left standing.
For 2010 business owners need to focus on ensuring that every aspect of the business is working as well as it possibly could.
As marketing budgets were slashed in 2009. Perhaps your website has not been touched for a whole year or more (eeek!)? If so then it will do a rather poor job of representing your business. You can not defend an out of date website to a potential customer, if the website is poor then they will simply move on to a competitors wesbite.
Start this year by ensuring that your website is tip top.
Where to start? Think about the typical sales calls you’ve had over the years. What questions do your clients ask about you? What do they need to know before you can convert them into paying customers? Write a list and start with your content. Fancy designs and flashing websites are all very well but a website revamp must start from your words and message. It might take some time and you may require some help, but get it right and your website can be a silent salesperson helping you to find more customers
If you do not think that your business is gaining as much as it could from your website, then we would love to hear from you. We can offer a free consultation to kick start the new year.
Digital Marketing, Everything else | 4.01.2010 11:12 | No Comments
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