Tag: website optimization

5 Ways To Give Your Small Business A Big Presence

Scott Asai2 Comments

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For a lot of small businesses, one of the most difficult things is competing against the bigger companies in your industry. A lot of people tend to trust bigger businesses, as they view them as more reputable. In order to create a similar feeling towards your company, you need to look for ways to make your business appear bigger than it is. There are a number of ways you can do this, as you will discover below.

  • Choose a prestigious address – One of the best ways to make your business appear bigger and more professional is to choose a prestigious address. This is something you can do with ease nowadays, as there are many companies that give you the opportunity to set up a virtual address. This means you can show a physical business address on your website, yet your mail will be emailed to you. This enhances convenience while also enabling you to build a great brand image and make your business appear bigger than it is. You should also make sure you have a prestigious business phone system set-up as well.
  • Pay special attention to your website – Your website says a lot about your business and your brand. If your website looks amateurish, this will make your business look unprofessional. You don’t need to spend a fortune on your website, but you do need to get it right. It should look sleek and sophisticated while representing your brand image. It also needs to load quickly, be optimised for use on all devices, and be easy to use and navigate. Plus, you should ensure your website is optimised for search engine result pages so that you can increase your presence, which will, in turn, make your business appear bigger and more reputable. After all, when you search for a business on Google, you are more likely to find one of the top results more trustworthy than a company languishing on page three, right?
  • Grow your social media presence – The importance of being active on social media cannot be ignored in the current day and age. There are many social media platforms to choose from, and it’s all about being active on the social media networks that your consumer base uses. With the exception of Facebook, which appeals to all, each social media network has a different, distinct demographic. For example, Pinterest largely appeals to females of college age. If this isn’t your target audience, you could be wasting a lot of time and effort trying to build your business up on Pinterest.
  • Use a virtual private branch exchange (PBX) – For those who are unaware, this refers to a type of telephone system that gives you the ability to switch calls between a number of lines while also allowing all members of staff to share the same, single phone system. You don’t need to spend a fortune on such a system when there are cloud-based options available, for example, those that use voice over Internet protocol (VoIP). By being able to provide a number of different extensions for your company, as well as selecting your own phone number, you will be able to make your business appear bigger and more professional.
  • Use larger invoice numbers – One easy and effective way to make your small business appear bigger is to use larger invoice numbers. If you use small invoice numbers, for example, let’s say you send an invoice with #12 at the top of it, this makes it appear like your business only opened a week or so ago. It shows that you only have a small number of customers. If this is not the sort of image you want to project, it is better to use larger numbers. For example, you could start your invoices from 1000 instead of 1, meaning you would put #1012 at the top of your invoice rather than #12.

As you can see, there are a number of different strategies you can use to make your small business appear bigger than it is. If you follow the tips that have been mentioned above, you can make your business look more established, and this will generate a greater sense of trust, which will make people feel more secure when choosing your business over others in the industry.

Tips To Help Improve Your Website

Scott Asai1 Comment

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Improving your website is an important part of growing your business because so many of us are spending more time online. And with so much potential reach out there that could translate into customers, you should be taking full advantage of this where possible. Here are some tips to help improve your website.

Utilize Call To Action

A call to action is where you provide an opportunity for your reader to do something. That could be commenting on an article or clicking on a link to take them to another part of the website that needs more traffic. It’s basically asking them a question, and they are choosing whether to answer it or not. Having more of these calls to action on your website can help with engagement and to give your readers an opportunity to make themselves more known to you as a company. It also helps you learn more about your readers so that you can tailor your website even more to suit them. So try and utilize the call to action option where you can.

Make It Mobile Friendly

When it comes to your website, there’s a number of things you can do to improve its functionality, but the main thing you want to focus on is how mobile-friendly it is. As more people hop online, more tend to use their mobile phones than anything else and so a website that doesn’t function well on a phone isn’t going to be great for business. If text is too small or buttons don’t function the way they’re supposed to, you’ll likely have more of your audience switching off out of boredom or frustration. Seek feedback from your audience about the response on phones as they can be different depending on the type of phone they own. It can be good to know so you can do what you can to improve it. You might want to look into app developers to see if an app version of your website is more appropriate.

Improve The SEO

Search engine optimization is important to get your website out there and ranked high on search engines which will essentially bring more traffic to you. There are lots of basic SEO practices that you can do like compressing images and just creating good content for your website. However, it might also be worth getting in the experts to take over management of this as it can tend to be a job that might take up a lot of time.

Fix Broken Links And Functions

And finally, try to fix any broken links and functions on your website when you spot them because it can be highly frustrating when you have new users going onto your website for the first time. Try to make it a regular thing that you check on so that it doesn’t start piling up and your website loses its ranking.

Improving your website takes time and effort on your part as a business, so implement the changes to make sure you’re making the best of it for your company.

10 Proven Ways To Attract More Leads 2019

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Attracting more leads in 2019 isn’t rocket science, but many business owners do find this task quite difficult. However, something as simple as changing the positioning or color of a call to action button could help you to attract more leads. It really doesn’t have to be some big gesture that gets a lot of attention – although those kinds of things can help too. 

Below, we’ll take a look at just some of the ways you can attract more leads this year. 

Get Your Landing Page Design Right

Making sure you get your landing page design right is key, as it’s often the first page people land on after having searched for what you offer. Choose the right keywords for the page, making sure you’re targeting the right key phrases. Be creative in banner or header section design, and make sure you think carefully about your call to actions, too. 

You can do a number of other things too, such as use genuine customer reviews and give detailed information on why you believe the person should work with you. 

  1. Be Smart With Your Email Marketing 

Email marketing isn’t something that’s going away any time soon, but getting it right is essential or you’ll have a ton of unopened messages. Avoid spammy words in the subject line, such as ‘prize’ or ‘purchase’. These words instantly turn people off. 

Personalize emails with the person’s name, too, as this will always mean more opens and click throughs. Ensure the content within your email is good enough to avoid people unsubscribing too – if you promised free tips each week when they signed up, make sure you stick to that.

  1. Promote On Social Media

Social media is a great place for people to discover new content. It can also help you to build links that quickly turn support into SEO efforts. Having a consistent social media plan will enable you to reach people, so consider hiring a social media manager so you can stay on top if it. It isn’t something you can update sporadically. It really isn’t enough to post a couple of times a week. Usually, a business must post multiple times a day at the right times to get the best results. This can be difficult to remember and fit in as a business owner, so consider a social media manager a good investment. 

  1. Website optimization

Your site should be well optimized. It should provide information that customers are looking for, and focus on the customer in many ways. What is their experience when using your site? Put yourself in their shoes as you use your site so you can get an idea of how they feel. Your site should be easy to navigate, have content to help with making purchases or deciding what to purchase, and should be easy for them to purchase what they need. 

Clear pricing, clear contact information, and a clear way for them to contact you. Your site is your 24/7 storefront, so Website optimization is absolutely key to generating leads and business. Investing in a great web design and ensuring the person/company who creates your site focuses on optimization from the get go will be a big help. 

  1. Post relevant & Useful Content On Your own Blogs and Niche Sites

Posting useful content on your own blog helps you to establish yourself as an expert. When people believe you’re an expert, they will come back again and again. Posting on other sites can help you to raise awareness and share your expertise further. 

As often misunderstood, content should not be limited to text format only. Creating content isn’t just blogs, either. It also includes the following:

  • Social Media
  • Ebooks
  • Case Studies
  • Podcasts
  • Templates
  • Infographics
  • Videos
  1. Try Paid Promotion For Instant Results

Using paid promotions can help you to get instant traffic. Using PPC in harmony with other optimization and SEO techniques can help you to get great results. It isn’t about choosing just one, although you do need to carefully monitor your results of each one so you know what you need to change for future campaigns. 

  1. Host An Event

Hosting an event, depending on the type, can help you to get the attention of various clients and prospects. This could be a workshop where you share your expertise, a summer barbecue, or something else. Make sure it attracts the people you want to market to and that you have a way of following up afterwards. Consider raising funds for charity at your event, as this could help you to give back to the community and raise more awareness of your event. 

  1. Launch a PR campaign

Press coverage is like free advertising, so launch a PR campaign. This gives you more credibility and PR campaigns are far more likely to convince potential customers to take a look at you. 

  1. Join Forces With Another Business

Joining forces with another business will mean attracting more customers while the other business benefits, too. Think about it: does your business complement another business you can think of? Is the product used with another kind of product regularly, or does it work well with one your audience may not know about? This partnership must be beneficial for all involved, so think carefully about who you can join forces with. When you approach them, make sure the benefit is clear for them. 

  1. Find Something To Sponsor

Sponsoring an event or product can help you to reach a target audience and increase your brand awareness. Bear in mind that what you choose to sponsor should be relevant to your target market and ‘on brand’. It might be a good idea to look at a few disasters that other companies have had with sponsorships so you can avoid anything similar happening to you. 

Attracting more leads in 2019 can be achieved using any of the methods above. Would you like to add something to the list? Leave a comment below!

 

These 3 Tactics Will Help You Transform Your Conversion Rates

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If you’re unaware of what a conversion rate is, then you already have some catching up to do. In a world that’s dominated by the obsession of gaining web traffic, conversion rates refer to the proportion of said traffic that goes on to complete an action on your website. For example, how many people visiting your site will actually buy something?

As you can imagine, the better the conversion rate, the more sales and customers your business will see. So, how do you improve a poor conversion rate? There are loads of ideas, but these three tactics are the best ones to use:

A/B testing

In the conversion rate world, testing is a fundamental part of improving your site to the point where your rate is through the roof. The idea here is straightforward; you have a web page, and you test the conversion rate. Then, you make a change to the page, and test again – and so on. The aim is to see which changes are leading to the best conversion rate. After which, you can redesign the web page with the changes included, which will elicit more success and more sales.

Heat mapping

Heat mapping is something you’re probably not aware of unless you’re a bit of a website nerd. In simple terms, it’s a way of showing you how customers interact with your site. As you can see on vistacomm.com, many companies offer this as an extra service in a digital marketing package. It literally gives you a heat map view of your website to show you where everyone is clicking. By seeing this, it lets you figure out the path most people take when they convert into customers or complete an action. Therefore, you will notice patterns that tell you which specific elements of your site are leading to the best conversion rates. So, you can focus on highlighting these areas even more, giving your rate a boost.

Customer surveys

Finally, the best way to help figure out what makes someone convert into a customer is by asking an actual customer. Send out emails to existing customers asking them about your website/business. The questions should be focused around what made them become a customer, how they found your site, what they liked about your website, and so on. By collecting the data, you’ll see patterns emerge. It could show that the majority of your customers found your site by an online ad which took them to a dedicated landing page. In which case, you know to invest heavily in more online ads. The point is; you see what made people convert from traffic to customers, and can use this information to create more conversions.

Some people may argue you need more than just three tactics is you want to improve your conversion rates. However, I think these three things are all you really need. They help you figure out what’s making people convert so you can use your findings to alter your site and digital marketing approach.

The Updates Your Website Might Need

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If you’ve got a business in the modern day and age, then you’ve got a website, and being able to continually update and innovate it to make sure it stays relevant is a skill few possess. And because of that, a lot of us need some pointers on where to start before we know where to take our brand next! So if you’re someone who feels your website is lacking in certain areas, is too much trouble for you to run in its current state, or simply doesn’t have as much of an online presence as you hoped, here’s a couple of the best updates you might want to put it through.

New and Exciting Content

Fresh content always means you’re going to have someone new clicking on your site, reading through what you’ve posted, leaving a like or a comment, and it’s the main way you can build more and more of the following you alway wanted when you started your business. So the main update your website is going to need is a better upload schedule, and relevant content you know you can churn out on a regular basis.

Fresh content also ranks you higher on the search engines, as you’re updating regularly, and that pushes you to the top of the feed. Not to mention the potential amount of SEO content you can implement here, to make sure you get to the top and stay there!

A Better Server

A better server means better security, better storage, better content management, and simply, better service for your customers all round. And when you move servers, you’ll notice a much better stream of traffic to your website – alert all of your existing customers that you’re changing, and see how many of them flock to your site all at once to see the difference!

When you’ve got a new server on your hands, you might also notice a difference in costs and maintenance; plenty of web hosting services out there know you’re looking for them and offer specific deals for changing over, and you’re going to want a company that offers more in terms of support for your business! But you might want to invest in a vps here, especially if you’ve been a small time operation up until now. It’s a good stepping stone between what you are and the fully dedicated and extensive server you’re hoping to end up on.

Ready to Update?

Updating your website means you’ve got a lot more opportunities to take your company to the next level. Whatever that level is is your choice – you started your company with a goal in mind and you carefully planned out the steps you’d need to take to get there. All in all, running your website carefully and with consideration for the changing times puts you on the fast track for making more and more of a profit!

Is Your Website Performing As It Should Do?

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When you launch a website, naturally you want to ensure that it performs as well as possible because if your website is going to lead to success for your brand, it needs to perform properly, doesn’t it? The fact is that website performance is absolutely critical because your visitors expect more and more from your site by the day. When a website fails work properly or load quickly, this is when you put your brand at risk of losing customers, which is why it’s so vital that you have a high performing website from the start.

If a customer doesn’t find a website to be a good site, they will most probably tell their friends about how poor the site is, which will mean that you lose out on your old customers as well as new ones. That is why you need to nail it when it comes to your website’s performance, to ensure that it is performing as it should be. The question is, of course, what does it take to create a website that is performing perfectly?

For everything that you need to know about ensuring that your website is performing perfectly, have a read of the advice and information below.

Optimize your images

When it comes to ensuring that your website is performing as it should be, it’s essential that you take the time to optimize your images.

Firstly, it’s important to understand that the larger the image size the longer the load time and longer load times aren’t necessarily good for your website’s performance and customers as people don’t like having to wait for things – instant gratification is a very real concept in the website world. That’s why you should always choose the right image size for the job at hand, as that way you can ensure that it will load properly.

It’s also essential to understand that not all images come in one format, different formats are available for different uses. So you need to ensure that you are choosing the right one for your website’s specifications.

Optimize your content

Text renders far faster than images and is also far better for SEO than images, which is why it’s so essential that not only do you optimize your text, but that you create the right text for your website. It must be clear, concise and exceptionally well written. You can’t expect your users to contend with text that is poorly constructed, can you?

SEO isn’t always easy to understand or utilize effectively, which is why if you’re unsure how to take advantage of this clever marketing tool, it’s best to be smart about it and outsource the task to an experienced SEO writer. After all, you don’t want to make the mistake of going DIY with it and it having an impact on your website’s performance, and thus your business’s success, do you?

Take advantage of site crawler tools  

If you want to ensure that your website’s site layout is perfectly designed and is error free, you might want to take advantage of sitecrawler tools, because these can help to create a map of your website.

They are also fantastic for highlighting where there are any errors – these can then be fed back to your web developers and dealt with quickly and efficiently, before they have an impact on your website’s performance.

Optimize your HTML

Never make the mistake of copying and pasting text from other sources, such as Microsoft Word, as this can result in a lot of complex HTML code being copied over, which can make your website run far slower than it should do.

Aim to use simple structures in your HTML and always ensure that these structures are compliant. As that way, browsers will be able to see and crawl your page more effectively if this is the case.

Don’t forget to leave white space on your page. A lot of people don’t realize is but white space is actually great for site crawlers and needs to be there in order for your site to be crawled effectively.

Choose infrastructure wisely

When it comes to your website’s infrastructure, it’s essential that you choose it wisely. Whether you are hosting your website on a shared server or you have your own, you need to realize that you get what you pay for.

If you are running a website that is packed full of content and has hundreds of pages, it is best to opt out of sharing a server, instead it’s better to pay for your own. Otherwise, it may take far too long for your site to load. Your hosting infrastructure should always be personalized to your website, if you want to ensure that it will run as effectively as possible.

Your business’s website is a key part of its success, particularly now that the majority of purchasing is done online, with more people buying via online retailers than ever before. Your website is an extremely vital too for your company, which is why it is so essential that you take full advantage of it and look after your website properly. You need to ensure that you know what you’re doing with your website, and are aware of how to guarantee that it is performing as it should be.

If you fail to take care of your business’s website properly, you will find that it may not perform as it should do, which could lead to all kinds of different problems for you and your business, not to mention your website. If you are going to give your business the very best chance of success, it’s vital that you put your all into your website, and ensure that it designed to function perfectly and to the highest quality possible.

A lot goes into running a successful website, which is something that a lot of business owners don’t always initially realize. However, understanding this is key, because if you don’t take care of your website, it won’t take care of your business and your customers.

4 Ways a Strong Online Presence Can Uplift Your Brand

Scott Asai3 Comments

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We all know that using the internet to our advantage is one of the surest ways for us to launch a brand successfully. A digital presence is incredibly strong when used correctly, but it takes a lot of planning, research and a well-executed strategy in order to make the most of the internet.

In this post, we’re going to look at four ways that a strong online presence can grow your brand, expand your business and ultimately help you succeed in the competitive world of business.

  1. Websites are like virtual storefronts

The first encounter a customer has with your company is going to be the first impression they have and, much like in other areas of life, first impressions count. A website acts much like a virtual storefront; it’s your first encounter with a business (outside of perhaps their social media accounts) and the way it’s presented will make a lasting impression. This is why it’s crucial that you make a website that’s informative, well-designed, coherent and fits on both desktop and mobile devices to ensure a great customer experience.

  1. Social media is huge

Social media is one area where you can spend little capital for big gains. With the exception of hiring a social media manager, it’s one area where you spend little money for a huge competitive advantage–assuming you know how to use it. Some crucial social media marketing steps include understanding your audience, being consistent with social media and also latching on to trends whenever possible. It’s also about increasing engagement with your customers to show that you listen and are willing to interact with them.

  1. Word of mouth is powerful

The internet is a place used by billions of people around the world. While you might only realistically target a small portion of those users, there’s nothing that physically prevents them from purchasing something from you as long as they know your website. However, exposing your website to them involves spreading the word, hence why word of mouth marketing is so strong especially on the internet. All it takes is an organic backlink and suddenly you’re known to a completely new group of people that could continue to spread the word.

  1. Staying competitive

One of the biggest reasons to have a comprehensive online presence strategy is because you need to stay competitive. There are many strategic IT consulting services that you can rely on to help you create a plan and stay competitive, but you need to understand that success in this area doesn’t build up overnight. Instead, it’s all about staying consistent, adapting to trends and understanding the audience that you’ve built. Without knowledge about your customers, it becomes incredibly difficult to make sense of the internet and how it can become such a huge driving force that promotes your brand to new audiences.

At the end of the day, a strong online presence can benefit you in many different ways. Although it can be expensive at times, it’s also crucial to have and a worthwhile investment.