Get Success – Get a Website!

If you don’t have a website, it’s the same as trying to compete with a farmer who has acre upon acre of land, and you have a small back garden. You are simply missing out. That said it doesn't mean that by having a website, you are guaranteed business success. You need to recognise its potential and commit resources to take advantages of all the benefits. If you want to increase your brand recognition, or want more potential clients to visit you online, your website is the ideal place to make this happen.  Most businesses conduct themselves in ways that are professional, efficient and ethical, yet their image, as portrayed by their website paints a completely different picture. If this rings any bells, please consider the following advice:

Despite what People Say – A Book is Judged by its Cover!
Your website is sometimes your first impression prospective clients have of your company. What does it say about you? Not so much in words, but in the design, the overall feel of the site? We’re not saying your website has to be a masterpiece winning design awards. What we are saying is if you fall below the standard of design quality set by your competitors, you can’t expect to win business from them, can you? If your website looks like it was put together by a school boy, then people will correctly or incorrectly assume that your business is unprofessional, incapable and untrustworthy. You only have 2 seconds to Wow your potential customers. If you were a client, would you be compelled to stay?
A well designed website that engages with your clients can work wonders for your business. It instantly feels right and that your company is professional, reliable and trustworthy – top quality. This professional, polished look for your website doesn't have to cost you a lot. It should be looked at as an investment; you just need to find a web design team that can give you these benefits.

Content is King!
Your potential client will most probably have found you by typing specific search terms into Google. Make sure that the web page they land on gives them exactly what they are looking for. It’s important to understand your target market and know what they want and how they like to be treated. Are they visual people? Do they like images, or detailed text?

Your home page should be about your company, tell the world who you are, what products and services you provide, and the benefits of choosing you over your competitors. Keep the text short here your customer could be put off by information overload. You can always add Click Here for more product information. Give your potential customers reasons to keeping coming back to your website. Engage with them by offering things like tips, tutorials and special offers. Keep your content interesting and informative.

Guide Your Client with Excellent Website Navigation.
No-one likes being lost, do they? Your web designer should make sure that no how complex your business is, your website is easy to follow. Being able to effectively direct clients by channeling them to the products and services they need is of the utmost importance.  We suggest creating a plan, like a family tree, to understand the navigation aspects of your website before you do anything else! Make sure that it is user friendly and allows customers to easily find exactly what they are looking for.

I’ve Got a Ferrari!

Actually, I haven’t, but, if I did I would want people to know that I had one. It would be no good tucked away in the garage 24/7. It’s also the same as having your business card sitting on your desk or in your wallet, they do no good there! A great website gets you noticed, gets your business out there and this aspect of getting your website found is called SEO or Search Engine Optimisation. It is the fine tuning of your website so that the search engines, like Google, find it and place it in front of all those prospective customers. Search Engine Optimisation is a difficult subject to keep abreast of. But you don’t have to be a specialist; you hire one to make sure your website is found by the search engines and your target audience. PPC (Pay Per Click) is another way that can get you in front of them. You control your budget, keywords etc; under the umbrella of a campaign. If SEO isn't for you, maybe this will enable people searching for your products or services, find you more easily.

Link Juice
Link Juice is how some people describe the effect obtaining a link from another website to yours affects its ranking. An easy way to add link juice is to add your website link to your listings on online directories. Most directories will also give you the option to give a brief description of your business too. Adding your web address will help direct prospects to your website where they can find all they need to know about your business. Be careful though, other websites which take payment for links, or, all they do is provide links and nothing else are sometimes called link farms. A link from one of these link farms can damage your website, sending it the wrong way in the rankings. This is one reason why we would recommend professional help from a specialist SEO consultant.

Would You Prefer New and Fresh, or Old and Withered?
There is nothing worse than being out-of-date. The same is true for your website; it has got to keep your customers informed of new product lines, new offers and new services. There’s nothing worse than visiting a website in Easter to find all the Christmas offers still there! Make sure you choose a web designer who will manage these updates for you as frequently as necessary.

Have You Heard About The Latest Movie? 
Facebook and Twitter are the places where you hear about the latest happenings. New movies, new albums and your new products! Yes today, more and more businesses are using these forms of social media to inform online communities about their line of work. You can create your own Facebook page and post articles about your company, promote new products and offers and invite people to follow and like you. These forums, tweets and blogs provide a means for customers to interact directly with you and each other. It is this ability to share knowledge with others that will help to build your company’s brand and elevate your company’s position within your specific sector. It is easy to post press releases, hint and tips onto your website and then share them to your blog, Facebook and Twitter. When visitors see them, they too can share with their friends. Utilising these social media facilities also has the added benefit of giving your website SEO links which help you rank even higher in the search engines.

Summary.
There are many things you can do to make your business website more successful, and reflect the professional qualities of your products and services.  Your website is a marketing asset, a true business investment.  Take time and ensure the design feels appealing. The content is interesting, informative, and the site is easy to navigate. Next see what you can do to promote your website using SEO techniques to get it found more easily by the search engines.  Don’t forget the simple things too. Things like adding your web address to your business card and including it on other forms of advertising like posters, brochures and your company vehicles.

Links:
Newcastle Website Design Middlesbrough Website Design Darlington Website Design York Website Design
Search Engine Optimisation
Facebook Web Designer
Google Plus Web Designer

Where Do Your Customers Come From?

How to keep Track of Phone and Email Enquiries

When you receive a phone call or email into your business, it is vitally important to track the original source. Tracking of all your marketing activities is absolutely crucial. Once you know what is working and what isn’t you can reallocate your marketing activity for maximum effect.

If you have Google analytics installed into your website you are provide with a fantastic tool to tell you what is going on there. But and yes, this could be a big one. Analytics doesn’t tell you if a prospective client rang your phone number from your call to action in your websites description. Because they can do this without even clicking on your website!  If they send you an email from your website, you can set up goals to measure this. I like to set up a goal as reaching the thank you page for this purpose. But once again analytics does not tell you if a customer decided to call your business from the phone number they got off the website.

The challenge seems to be figuring out where your phone call enquiries come from. There are several ways you can monitor this. The most effective, fool proof way is to have a separate telephone number for different marketing activities. One for leaflets, one for advertising in local press, and another for your website. Each month you can get an itemised bill which will show the volume of calls received from each marketing source. The second and cheaper alternative is to ask everyone who calls where they got your number today. Then log them all on a simple tally chart like this.

Day/Source	Leaflets	Press	Website	Word of Mouth	Saw Van
Monday	II	I	IIII	I
Tuesday	I	I	III		I
Wednesday	II	I	IIII	I
Thursday			IIII	II
Friday	II		IIIII II	I

A more comprehensive method of tracking would be the use of a sales funnels like this one:

Name/Source/Action	Source	Enquiry	Follow Up 1	Follow Up 2	Sale
Mrs Smith	Website	Phone			£59.99
Mr Brown	Leaflet	Email	28 Jun 13	1 Jul 13
Miss Jones	WOM	Phone	28 Jun 13		£215.00
Mr Black	Website	Email	29 Jun 13	3 Jul 13	£87.49
Mrs White	Press	Email	1 Jul 13	4 Jul 13

Using these simple tools will make your business more profitable! Without them you will never know where your customers are coming from, and by association you will not know where your profits come from either.

Duncan is an Entrepreneur with specialist skills in website design, search engine optimisation, marketing, photography and electronics. Please do subscribe to our channel to keep up to date, you can also follow PWP Web Design on Twitter and Facebook

Help for Small Business in Darlington

Darlington Councils, Business Engagement Team

The Business Engagement Team works with other business support agencies and directly with local businesses to help promote and support a thriving economy in Darlington. Highlighting the town as a great business location.

The council’s engagement team offers a wide range of business services with the principal aims to create and safeguard jobs in Darlington. Achieving this by stimulating business opportunities,  attracting new investment from outside Darlington and by offering encouragement and support to new businesses and existing businesses wishing to expand. The team acts as a focal point for businesses looking to communicate with the Council, providing named points of contact to assist the smooth transition of business enquiries.

Business Support & Advice in Darlington

Darlington has a dedicated team of business advisers on hand to offer support and advice to established businesses or individuals considering a move in to self employment. This is achieved by providing 1 to 1 sessions; mentoring and follow up support. The business support team can provide advice on a range of subjects including developing a fledgling business idea; business planning, ICT,  marketing,  expansion of existing businesses,  trading with the public sector, moving business location, identifying local sources of training, recruitment needs and sources of finance. The council’s advisors can also direct enquiries to other agencies that may be able to assist with elements such as improving productivity, new product development, energy efficiency and reducing a business’ carbon footprint.

Networking & Keeping Businesses Up to Date in Darlington

The council’s Business Engagement Team works closely with other organisations to support businesses within Darlington, encouraging collaboration through the promotion of inter-trading events, hosted company visits and various seminar programes. Networking opportunities offer local businesses the opportunity to share best practice and to enhance their knowledge of general business issues. You will probably meet fellow businesses who can help with accounts, website design, marketing and promotion, lots of  like minded business people.

Darlington Markets Free Market Stall for Business Promotion

Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Morrisons all started out as market stalls and are now hugely successful businesses. Markets are therefore a fantastic testing ground for a budding entrepreneur with a bright idea and a limited budget. Not everyone want to grow to become a multi-million pound industry, but market stalls can make great contributors to the local economy and central to the vitality of Darlington town centre and regeneration of the wider area.

These markets offer local Darlington business start-ups the opportunity (as a one off) to have a stall on a Monday and Saturday, completely FREE of charge, to help promote and showcase your business, with the potential to reach out to a new customer base.

A fully weather proof gazebo can be provided, together with tables and lighting/power if required. Businesses can book an available stall and stock up with an attractive display. You may not want to sell anything but just use a market stall as an advertising medium where you can hand out literature, leaflets or business cards. Once you’ve had a taste of trading at Darlington Markets for FREE, you can sign up for a series of non contractual stall hires for just £20 a day on a Monday and Saturday. Established businesses are also entitled to this excellent opportunity. View this as an inexpensive way to reach new customers. Why not use the stall to advertise your business, get your company noticed.

Useful Links:

Darlington Council Business Webpage

Darlington Web Design

Darlington Online Marketing Company

Google Penguin 2.0 Update

If you haven’t yet heard about the latest Google update, referred to as Penguin 2.0 you will! Why? Well because this will affect websites who use, either intentionally, or unintentionally, manipulative SEO practices!

What is a manipulative SEO practice? That I suppose is the million dollar question. Looking back at previous updates these have been things like paid listings on various websites and directories. The first to go were links from so called link farms, basically websites just set up to get money just for putting links back to another website. Since then it has been difficult to say which links are going to get penalised and which aren’t?

It amazes me that the likes of Yell.com, Thompsons and the like are still in business. There business is taking money for links back to websites? The difficulty as a webmaster is knowing where the black and white is, but there is a lot of gray about! Of course Google cannot say how its algorithms work, because even more cheating would go on.

The problem as I see it is down to Google in the first place. Any search result or web page ranking that has anything at all to do with back links is simply asking for trouble. I have wrote an answer to Matt Cutts on his blog with what I think is the answer. AS I see it Google are chipping away at the black with a tooth pick, instead of using some good old TNT!

These pesky back links are to blame. Unless you have a lot of friends in very high (ranking) places, you are always going to struggle. The focus should be, and should always have been on the design, structure and content of the website. By using Google very own tools webmaster can find out the popularity of certain words throughout their website. Presumably a website that has “Ford Cars” appearing more times than any other phrase will have something to do with Ford Cars. You don’t have to have 1000 back links to discover this. Also if a website has 99 pages about wedding photography, then you can be fairly certain the whole website has lots of information on wedding photography – a lot more than a 3 page website, for instance.

Websites should also be easy to navigate, not for Google, but for the people who want to use it. Next you should have not just page after page of text, but also include pictures and videos. Matt Cutts has always said that “content is king.” At the moment it is on the substitute’s bench, but I hope, really hope that one day soon, it really will be the prime consideration when judging a website.

My name is Duncan Malloch and my company is PWP Web Design which offers customers around the World advice on web design and search engine optimisation. Were on Facebook and Twitter too