One way to Improve Your Website Bounce Rates

What is bounce rate:

According to Google analytics, “bounce rate is the percentage of visits that go to only one page before exiting a site.”

Factors that influence bounce rates:

Improve Website Bounce Rate

If you stop and have a think about it there are just a few reasons why someone visiting your website would hit the back button, rather than browse more pages.

·         Your website does not contain what they are looking for.

·         They believe your website does not contain what they are looking for.

·         Page load times are too long.

·         Your website is designed in a way they cannot see it properly, like some flash sites.

Any website designer worth their salt could quickly design out the last two items on the list. If your website is about dry cleaning and the browser was looking for wet suits, there is nothing you can do. So, this only leaves one way to improve your website bounce rates. You have to convince people coming to your site that it contains exactly what they are looking for. How can you do this?

Compelling website visitors to stay:

Recent research by business coaches and marketing analysts says that you need a statement at the very top of each page that engages with people browsing it. This statement is not your business name, nor is it your profession. I call it a descriptive marketing statement where you are selling the sizzle not the steak. In other words this is matching the benefits of your product or service with the needs of your target audience.

A cleaner might say – “we don’t cut corners we clean them - thoroughly”

An Engine Tuner– “save money on fuel and gain extra performance”

A photographer – “a lifetime of beautiful memories, captured forever”

How to double the effectiveness of descriptive marketing statements:

Your website visitors have to be subtly led if you want to increase the effectiveness of your descriptive marketing statements. We do this by linking them with strong calls to action. A call to action simply tells your visitors what you want them to do. “Click here for latest offers”, “ Call now to reserve your place”, “download your free diet plan here” .

We all live our lives at a thousand miles an hour and know what we want and if we can’t find it we move on. Or click back! This is why on every single page you should have a descriptive marketing statement in pride of place at the very top of the page. Research suggests that if you can fit in other statements and calls to action, the visitors to your website are more likely to stay longer. The longer they stay the more likely they are to become a customer.

About the author:

Duncan Malloch is an entrepreneur from the UK with specialism’s in online marketing, website design and search engine optimization. If you are looking for a one stop shop to promote your business online, visit the PWP Web design website by CLICKING HERE. Thank you

Boost Your Online Performance for only £99

Boost Your Online Performance for only £99

Boost Your Online Performance

Have you noticed listings with pictures in the Google search results? Like these?

Get Your Picture in Googles search results

Which listing would you be more likely to click on?

For only £99 you can have your picture included with your search results, gaining you a bigger market share. But there is more. The onsite html code, (which we provide) and the link we build for you also BOOST you higher up the search rankings, generating even more customers.

Can you see how, for a one off £99 this is the best investment to boost your online performance?

It’s a simple three step process

1                   Call Duncan on 07795 681 507 to get things started

2                   Send your picture to our email address info@pwpwd.co.uk

3                   We will add the code and verify your email, then that’s it – Your BOOSTED!

Visit our website by clicking our name here: PWP Web Design

Microsites and Their Benefits to Business

Today’s business world comprises of several amazing things and one of them is the ability to create sub brands of the main brand. Traditionally, companies who had a strong brand could translate this into sub brands. These individual sub brands served to strengthen the company’s overall image, and add consistency. Now with advancements in website technology, the modern business age has added its own trends regarding the marketing of these sub brands and a popular way to promote them is known as microsites.  

So what exactly are these microsites? Basically they are smaller, more focused websites which concentrate on a specific product, service or geographical area. A microsite when used as a single individual web page that functions as a discrete entity within an existing website is referred to as a landing page. Today many top businesses have various websites for each product or sub-brand they wish to market. These targeted websites provide many benefits not only to the specific product but to the parent brand and its umbrella of products or services. A microsite should carry across the design theme and feel of your main website and be tightly focused. Usually the webpage is very heavily and highly optimised using identified and specifically targeted keywords or phrases, to attract specific customers.

As there are several benefits of creating microsites, many companies are now jumping on this successful bandwagon. There are thousands of microsites online all over the world. Many feature great content and use creative techniques to promote your services or products. In order to increase your sales of particular products or services, businesses continuously develop new targeted microsites to gain amazing results. Let’s have a look at the benefits that you can expect by having a microsite designed for your business:

• ·         As a business owner the first thing that you should consider when thinking about your professional website is SEO. Search engine optimisation is the key factor in successful online marketing. Microsites have their own unique URL’s, or web addresses which help your customers to find your products and services more easily. Keyword analysis will allow you to choose a rich domain name that will give added power to get found in the popular search engines like Google.

• ·         Microsites are an effective branding option for those businesses who are looking to launch new products or services. You can use them to specifically focus on your target market which will make you stand out as an expert.
• ·         Creating microsites are recommended should you wish to update detailed information about new products and services, resulting in more engagement and contact with customers.

• ·         Microsites can be designed to market seasonal promotions that may have short life span. There are several businesses that use this technique successfully to market their at key times of year.
• ·         A microsite makes the perfect experimental marketing tool. If you want to experiment with your online strategies then this could be your best option.
• ·         The best benefit a small microsite gives you is that it is the cheapest way to get your business online. Because these microsites have less pages and are highly targeted means that they can usually be developed and designed easily, quickly and cheaply.

Above are just some of the benefits of microsites. Your business can gain much more by hiring the services of a web designer with microsite design experience. The one aspect to remember is to focus on just one product, one service or one geographical area. Figure out who your target market is and then your designer can combine this information with keyword analysis to create an effective, fully optimised online presence for your business. 

Duncan Malloch is the microsite specialist at PWP Web Design

You Can Have Great Web Designs and Great Customer Service

Web design services have gained immense popularity as an effective way to boost customers to your business. As one of the best internet marketing techniques, various website design companies have sprung up as everyone tries to find a niche in this lucrative industry. While this is commendable, it has presented a whole new challenge to potential clients and consumers. How do you choose among the plethora of web page designers available?

PWP Web Deisgn Services

To ensure that you get a transformational service which will help your business to the next level, web design skills on their own, are simply not enough. There is need, as with any business, to ensure that your chosen web design company has impeccable customer service. While most of the companies offer a great web design service, their downfall comes with very poor customer service. What should you look for? Customer services which offer easy access between the client and the designer. Thus enabling you to get the best overall product to promote your business online. To arrive at the perfect combination of the two, is surprisingly easy when you think about it. You have to choose a web design company, not have them choose you as a client. If when you call your company you here “sales chatter” in the background, then you know it is a call center. The chances of getting through to the person designing your website, is almost nil, once you have handed over your bank details! The smaller web design companies offer well executed, functional designs and excellent customer service, all at a great price.

Helping with Your Bottom Line

Like everything in life, to get the best out of your web development company, you just need to be a little careful. This ensures that you find a company that meets your needs and one with which you can build a long standing relationship. Building your website is a step by step process which takes both time and some basic homework into things like keyword analysis. In order that you benefit fully from web design services, it’s critical that your business goal and company message comes across and your branding is recognizable across all advertising. To achieve this, you need great two way communication, the value of this should never be underestimated; you must be able to communicate directly with your web designer inside and outside normal working hours, say from 9 to 9 everyday.  As opposed to larger, national companies who seem to care more about profit than customer service, you will have no call center to speak to, charging you high telephone rates just for being on hold!

Example websites

You don’t want that, so with a smaller independent website company you can chat to the actual person designing your website and you’ll be able to discuss  your, ensuring  every aspect is  integrated into each web page design. The message you want to get across to your customers is also vital, it is this message that will turn a website browser into a prospective customer. Make sure that you understand the full cost of your website and that there are no hidden extras. Most companies stick to their original estimate and cost only increase if extra web pages or significant redesigns are necessary.

Search Engine Optimisation

Once you have defined your business goal and have a budget in mind, choose a web design company which has the prerequisite experience and expertise to ensure you get tailored-made website designs, not rehashed templates. When evaluating your designers’ experience, look at the websites they have completed for other clients, their “portfolio” and see whether they resonate with what you want. If not, then speak to the designer and find out if they have the ability to handle what you want. Optimisation is important so you must check to see that previous clients are ranking in the top pages of Google for their target keywords.

Variety of high performance websites

To achieve an engaging design together with first class customer service, is an investment that often works out cheaper than the big companies too, just be choosy. This is the only way to meet your goals, budget and web design needs and………………………….Be Happy.

Happy people please call 07795 681 507 to speak direct to Duncan Malloch website consultant

For web design services please click here

For SEO advice please click here

For Microsites please click here

Adobe Muse: How to add the Google plus Button

This "how to" video shows  Adobe Muse users how to add the Google +1 button to their websites. More videos are available on our you tube channel CLICK HERE

If you are looking for a professionally designed website, optimisation for your current website, reliable web hosting or just need some friendly advice pop along to:

PWP Web Design at www.pwpwd.co.uk

You will find direct numbers to the consultants listed on the website

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

Web Design Darlington

web design examples one

As a part of business world we all know how it is difficult to get business and how much efforts it need to get profit from your website? Today with the reaching of internet in everyone’s hand, before using any product or service, customer first search about the company over the web and after confirming all the things, they make their decision.

With such a boom in internet world, every business owner wants to make their website visible for more visitors to gain more profit and rank on search engines. But is only visibility matter to get high business? Or are there other factors too that can affect your online business? It’s a fact that visibility on search engines is necessary but if you look on other side, you will notice that there are various factors that are essential too with online presence.

One of the major factors is designing of the website. It is the first thing that customer see when he/she search about your services and products. The layout of the site, its content and images all are part of the website designing. We all live in a world where everything keeps on changing and in this living environment, having a normal website with some flashy templates will not provide you desired results. You need to make your site in such a way that it attracts more and more customers and apart from this makes your potential customers to stay on your site so that they read about your services and take a look on your products images as well.

web designs example two

Don’t make your website just like an online page. Make it responsive for your precious customers and to make it alive, it needs a professional touch such as Web Design Darlington. Genuine content, designing the site by keeping the concept of SEO in mind and how to generate the revenue is all what these experts do while designing your site. They create your online presence in such a way that it helps Google to rank the site on top results.

Getting business in SEO world is really hard if you don’t have knowledge about how search engines actually works? To make internet presence, a unique, attractive and professionally designed website is all needed and you can get all this with the help of Web Design Darlington. In addition they offer you advices about how can you constantly stay on top pages of Google? And what are the factors you need to consider while running your marketing campaign to generate more revenue?

So now if you are looking for such a firm, remember to do your job first for finding the best SEO and web design professional. Fake companies present everywhere and therefore various companies are there who claims to provide you best, even when they don’t have appropriate experience in the field. While browsing the net check online reviews and compare several company offers, and then make your choice of hiring the expert and professional firm.

Web Design Darlington | Cheap Web Design Darlington