Web Design FAQ – 10 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Designing a Website

Written on June 25, 2010

Many site owners make the mistake of building a website without laying out a clear plan for their online business. This is a sure set-up for failure. There are 1000s of abandoned sites on the internet due to lack of careful planning.

Before designing your website you should ask yourself some questions to avoid making mistakes down the road.

1. What Are Your Business Goals?

It’s easy to say, “I want to make money,” however, this is not a great motivator. Think of a deeper motivation that you feel passionate about e.g. “I want to have the financial freedom to spend more time with my kids as they are growing up.”

2. What’s the Purpose of Your Website?

This is the question most visitors will ask when accessing your website. Your home page must clearly explain the purpose and benefits of the products and/or services you are offering.

3. What Type of Products or Services Will You Sell?

Research the marketability of your products or services by doing keyword research. Use the free Google Keyword Tool to find out how many searches your main keywords receive every month. If there are no searches, it means there is not much demand and therefore not worth marketing.

If it is a very competitive market (millions of searches per month), it may be difficult to stand out from your competitors and create a profitable online business.

4. How Many Products Will You Sell From Your Website?

This will determine how many pages your website will have. If you’re only selling one product or service, you may only need 4 web pages e.g. Home, Product (or Services), About, Contact. If you’re selling 100s of items, you will need a database driven site to store and manage all of them.

5. How Many Variables Does Your Product Have?

Variables may include size, color, type, sku#, shipping, tax? Make sure your shopping cart allows you to include these variables.

6. How Will You Accept Online Payments?

To accept credit card payments online, you will need a shopping cart, merchant account, payment gateway and SSL certificate for secure transactions. This means you will have monthly fees and processing fees every time a customer purchases something from your website.

A less expensive option for accepting payments online is the Paypal shopping cart. You don’t need to purchase a separate merchant account, shopping cart, payment gateway and secure certificate. For a small processing fee it takes care of all this in one place.

7. Do You Have a Web Hosting Plan?

Your website needs to be hosted on a server for it to be available online. Select a hosting plan that has sufficient space for all your files and bandwidth to receive 1000s of visitors each month. Make sure you have the flexibility to upgrade your plan should you need more space and bandwidth.

8. Will You Need to Maintain the Website Yourself?

Asking this question before the design will determine what software your designer will use to build your website. If it only consists of a few web pages which don’t need regular updating, then use software such as Dreamweaver to build it. It creates clean code and you will have only a few files.

If your website has 100s of pages, consider a content management system such as WordPress, Joomla or Zen Cart. They all enable 100s of items to be stored in a database. The website can be managed (add, edit, or delete items or pages) by logging into an administration area.

9. Do You Have a Marketing Plan?

To create a profitable online business you must create a plan to promote it. Some methods may include, search engine marketing, pay-per-click, article marketing, press releases, social media, video marketing, etc. Website promotion needs to be done frequently and consistently to be effective.

10. How Will You Monitor Your Website Statistics?

Check if your web hosting plan includes site statistics (e.g. AW Stats). If not, create a Google Analytics account and insert the code on your web pages. It will track how many daily, weekly, monthly, yearly visitors you receive, where they are coming from and what keywords are being used to find your site in the search engines.

If you answer these 10 questions first, you’ll avoid the pitfalls of designing and building a website and increase your potential of creating a profitable online business. If you have any questions, NECSES Webdesign will be able to help you decide what is best for you and your business. They can be contacted by clicking here.

Top Ten Small Business Web Site Marketing Tips

Written on June 9, 2010

Many small business owners struggle with the seemingly overwhelming task of managing their web site. There always seems to be so much to do, yet no time to do it all (something we know all too well). This brief article should help to highlight the key aspects of web site management that will help them gain the most from their web site with the time that they have available.

The following ten tips are key to maintaining a successful web site. Follow these and your site will do better. Nothing will guarantee that a web site will be successful as there are simple too many different factors that impact web success – but as a general rule these ten tips will always lead to better performance.

• Content
• Freshness
• No Tricks
• Links
• Structure
• Accessibility
• Quality Code
• URLs
• Style
• Images

1. Content

Content is key!

Almost all the search engines scan a sites content now – almost ignoring things like meta tags. The more content you have on your site the more the search engines can scan – but there is more to it then that: people like content too. Many people measure a web site’s success by the number of visitors it gets – so ask yourself – why would people come to your web site? Do you offer them interesting and informative information that relates to your product or service? if not, why would they come?

Relevant content and lots of it is a key for a successful web site. There is always room for more content on a web site, and you can never have too much.

Take this article you are reading for example, while it’s fairly useful information for many of our visitors, it’s also additional content for our web site – and will serve to help our site do better. Writing articles about aspects of your industry is a great way to generate content.

Set asside an hour a day (or at least an hour a week) to devote to adding new content to your web site.

2. Freshness

Keep it current

Having lots of content is great – but if it is all three years old it’s not going to look like your site is much of a priority. The search engines actually track this. They monitor how frequently your site changes as they visit it for indexing. The more often it changes the better your rank in the freshness category.

What constitutes change? Pretty much anything – which is why keeping a BLOG or adding frequent news articles to your web site usually produces such good results. It is also the reason why having something as simple as rotating content and the current date on every page has been shown to make a difference.

3 No Tricks

Don’t try to outsmart the Search Engines – Eventually you’ll loose

Many web design companies promise success through the use of tricks, backdoors, and special tactics designed to sneak a web site into a top position rapidly. Something, of course, that the search engines are constantly battling to defeat. Why play the game? As the search engines find the cheaters they will plug the holes and a rank (that usually costs a pretty penny to achieve) will immediately be lost.

Rather, follow the recommendations of the search engines – most set out rules for web masters that outline what they would like to see in a web site. By following the rules the engines are actually battling all the cheating web sites and working to promote the sites that follow the rules – they are fighting FOR you!

4 Links

Links both in and out must be relevant

There has been a lot of talk about link exchanges – people linking to others merely to gain a higher rank (hmmm this smacks of breaking tip 3) if you are going to link to someone and/or ask them to link to you – ask yourself: is it relevant?

Any old link is not going to help you much – search engines will look at who is linking to you – they also pay very close attention to how many links you have off your web site on a page. This is being done to try and drop sites with pages of links (do you have a links page on your web site?)

It is far better to have relevant links places throughout your web site – on only those pages that specifically the topic that relates to the page being linked to.

Unfortunately you can’t exert too much control over the way that other sites link to yours but it is worth looking at how a site usually links to others before to specifically go requesting a link from them.

5 Structure

Organize your web site and everyone will thank you.

Both the search engines and your web visitors prefer a web site that is well structured. The search engines due to their very nature (being computer programs) must break down all web sites into elements based on the structure of the pages. People, so frequently rushing to find the specific information they are looking for, rarely read through web pages but rather scan headings and bulleted lists to find the detailed sections of interest. In both cases a well structured site will be far better received then one that is a mish-mosh of information haphazardly thrown together.

This is simple to do – but all too often missed. Make headings, use the correct coding tags for them, organize sections of content into groups, and use bold and bulleted lists to present key points.

Keep in mind when writing paragraphs of text that most humans will not read them unless they are specifically titled with a headline that matches what they are looking for.

6 Accessibility

A web site that speaks to all is better then a site that only speaks to some.

Tips no 6 and 7 are closely related: The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) provides a list of guidelines for how to create web sites that are accessible to as many people (and systems) as possible. Think about your web site – can someone with a visual disability (perhaps even something as simple as colour-blindness) still get information about your product or service? If not, how do you feel knowing that you have just excluded a vast segment of the population from accessing your web site?

7 Quality Code

Well coded web sites perform better.

Many small business owners don’t have too much control over the code used to create their web site – but it is still important to know how important it may be. Standard compliant code that has been checked for errors is easier for the search engines to assimilate. It is more widely visible across varied platforms (computer types) and in different browsers.

Ensure your web designer is writing standard compliant code that is validated for errors. You can also check your own web site using free on-line tools from the W3C (The World Wide Web Consortium – the standards body that administers Internet technologies). All NECSES Webdesign websites comply to W3C Standards – giving our customers peace of mind.

8 URLs

Prudent choice of URLs will impact your web site’s performance

Professional web designers should already know this – but if you are using a content management system to build your web site, or portions of it, it is important to understand the significance of the URL used to access pages on your web site.

Search engines look at the address of every page on your web site and try to extract key-words from the content of the url. For example, you may have a page about “Widgets” on your web site called “somewhere.com” creating the page with a filename of widgets.html will give a better keyword rank then page6.html

This is a fairly subtle point but makes a significant difference for most search engines. It can also make it much easier for people that are typing in a URL to access a specific page of your web site. Notice the URL for this web page – it’s called http://www.necseswebdesign.co.uk/top-ten-small-business-web-site-marketing-tips/ for a reason!

9 Style

Looks do matter – but perhaps not the way you think…

In the grand scheme of things the “looks” of a web site in the classic sense are not really that important – honestly! Once people have looked at a web site for a few minutes they will quickly discard their first impression (based on looks) and move immediately to asking – is this site giving me the information I need – and can I find it quickly (going back to tips 1 – content and 5 – structure)

So what are we on about with style? Simple – ensure the style of your site makes it easy to read. Avoid things like black backgrounds with white text (inverse text is harder to read) and ALL CAPS (humans read by identifying word shapes – writing in all caps forces people to read every letter and quickly becomes annoying – plus on the net it is used as a typographic method of indicating you are shouting) font.

10 Images

Selling a product – better make sure it looks good

If you are selling something that has a visual representation – then professional looking photography is key. Even a multi-million dollar resort will not look good if the photographs are amateurish. If you care about what you have to sell, then it’s worth investing in some professional photographs to show people what you have. Remember, on-line people can’t get a hold of your product – so you need to give them some really good photographs so that they can feel confident that it meets their needs.

NECSES Events

Written on April 29, 2010

NECSES Webdesign’s sister organisation NECSES Events needed a re-designed website that had four main requirements;

• To promote their range of Professional Development Fairs and Business to Business Fairs
• Serve as a source of information for exhibitors and visitors to the fairs
• Generate revenue by advertising exhibitors on the site
• Create a memorable design along with logo creation

Using Word Press as a content management system we created a simple design that allows the utilisation of both sidebars for navigation as well as advertising on the site. Features within the site include a News Blog, Gallery and contact forms. Using Word Press widgets allows the full optimisation of the website ensuring that optimisation costs are kept to a minimum whilst giving full exposure to search engines.

Testimonial

“We wanted a vibrant design for our website, whilst also allowing the opportunity to advertise exhibitors services within the site. NECSES’s website designers gave us just what we needed, and optimised the website so that within 2 weeks of launch we were appearing on the front page of Google for the UK as a whole.”

Beata Stachyra, Events Manager, NECSES Events.

The haves and have-nots

Written on March 24, 2010

Can You Be Successful Without a Website?

I don’t think there’s any question that you need a web presence to survive in today’s business climate. But do you still need a traditional website, or has the web moved on in that regard?

First off, let me be perfectly clear in that I’m not advising anybody not to have a website. That said, there are a lot of ways to have a web presence without actually having a site, and let’s face it – maintaining a site (let alone a successful one) takes time, money, and resources.

According to data from Compete, Facebook has become a bigger traffic source than Google for some sites, and for many others, it is right up there with Google as a major traffic source. If it can drive the traffic, then that means the people are already at Facebook. You can be on Facebook without having your own website. Businesses can build a Facebook Page, complete with analytics provided by Facebook itself, and they can spend time making that page a good one. Here are some tips on how to do that. Facebook pages are perfectly capable of being found in search engines. In fact, they are often right on the first results page.

You know what else is often right on the first page? A set of local search results from Google Maps, courtesy of Google’s Universal Search integration. Within those results (which are very often right at the top of the SERP) are links to individual businesses’ “Place Pages”. From here, users can find coupons, reviews, store hours, etc. There is a very good chance users will find this before they find your site anyway.

Google is actually going to great lengths to get people using these Place Pages. They are even sending out stickers with barcodes for stores to hang on their windows. When a user scans this barcode with their mobile phone, they will be taken to the business’ Place Page. Social media profiles can also appear on these pages (although so can website links of course).

I probably don’t have to tell you that the web is rapidly becoming more mobile. Smartphone usage and mobile broadband subscriptions continue to accelerate, and people are using a variety of devices, operating systems, browsers, and apps. Making sure you have a site that looks right across all of these is no easy task. This is not so much of a worry when it comes to Facebook pages, Google Place Pages, and other third-party entities.

In many cases, it seems that small business sites are becoming harder to find through organic search. If you look you can find them, but users want convenience, and they are probably not going to look too hard if they can find what they are looking for on the first search results page (or right within Facebook where they’re already spending their time).

Social profiles show up in search, and often early. The very nature of social media is viral. If one Facebook user becomes a fan of your Facebook page, that user’s friends are going to see it. Then, maybe a couple of them also become fans. Then maybe a couple of their friends become fans, and that trend can continue on and on. The more people who become fans, and the more exposure that page gets, the more chance that page has of acquiring links, which of course can lead to better search engine rankings, not to mention a larger presence on Facebook itself, where a large percentage of Internet users are already spending a great deal of their time. Your reputation and following within the social networks themselves may do your profile well in the eyes of Google too.

If you sell things online, there are obviously many different options out there without having to sell from your own site. In fact, even Facebook and e-commerce are on the road to becoming more and more closely attached. People can buy/sell physical goods through Facebook.

A great deal of focus has been placed on Facebook in this article for the simple fact that it is the world’s most popular social network. That could all change in time. But that doesn’t mean the points would not sill apply to other services. Google is going to be placing a lot of emphasis on Google Buzz this year, and it’s going to become integrated with more and more Google products. Currently, Google profiles are kind of the central place for a Buzz presence. Users can include any links they wish right into that profile (Facebook page, Twitter account, blog, eBay/Amazon listings, etc.)There’s no telling how big Buzz can be, and there’s always the possibility that something else will come along and take the world by storm. And that is one of the reasons…

Why it Still Pays to Have a Site

Can you be successful without a site? I think so. However, having a site gives you a more stable foundation, and still creates more opportunities than if you didn’t have one. When you have a site, you have control. You don’t have to adhere to the policy guidelines of any third-party platform. If Facebook decides to shut its Pages down (as Yahoo did with GeoCities, for example), you still have your own site that they can’t touch. For that matter, having your own site certainly lends credibility to your brand.

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the matter

Bounce Rate Explained

Written on January 5, 2010

What is the Bounce Rate?

I’ve had a lot of people asking about this web metric recently. So just to clarify a few things on what it is and isn’t. The bounce rate is the amount of people who leave your site immediately on first arrival. A high bounce rate can be indicative of a number of things, but can also be influenced by a number of things.

Here’s a brief break down of a few of those:

1) Your content isn’t what they expected

So you turn up on a search for “bananas” when you are selling “apples”. Nothing much you can do about that, but don’t expect visitors to wait around. You may want to perhaps start growing a potential banana business by providing a page on your site about where they can find them.

2) Your site design isn’t professional

We make judgement calls on people’s appearances within 30 seconds of seeing someone. Unfortunately the same is true online. If we are in “buyer mode” then it is all the more important to make first impressions count. A poorly thought out navigation system, or an ugly site banner, could be enough to put people off.

3) Where you’ve been linked from

If you have been linked to from a highly trusted resource, the chances are your visitors will stay longer than if you get a link from say comments in a blog.

Think of it this way.

If you are stumbling on the web, and are in what I call the “bored browser” mindset, you will be fickle. If you have ever used StumbleUpon – you’ll know what I mean by this. If however you are in the “ready to learn” mindset you examine web pages more carefully, you read around the subject you are researching.

4) The speed of your site

If you are running on a slow server, people aren’t going to stick around. Better to invest in a lightning quick hosting package than to have visitors leave because they are waiting for pages to load.

5) Audience profile

Lets say for the sake of argument you are a retailer selling shoes. If your traffic is coming from young and hip social networks such as Bebo or Myspace or Facebook – you need to analyse how many of these people are bouncing. Adding additional tracking metrics can help you determine if your online stock is appealing to younger audiences, and can actually help shape your buying decisions. Remember that age can influence how fickle an audience potentially is.

Off line Marketing ideas

Written on December 3, 2009

A lot of us work hard to promote our online business but one thing we might forget is that we can get a lot of traffic by promoting offline as well. Following is a list of ideas you can use to promote your online business, offline.

1. Brochures – Brochures are a great marketing tool because you can provide a lot of information about you and your business. Contact your local Chamber of Commerce and other businesses to see if you can put out your brochures.

2. Newspaper Ads – Run classified ads in some local or not so local newspapers. Remember these points when writing your ads:

• You must get the reader’s attention.
• Once you get their attention, you must keep them interested.
• Turn their interest in desire for your products.
• Give them a call to action!

3. Radio Ads – Check with popular radio stations to see what they charge for a short ad and make the ad pop as much as possible.

4. Promotional Items – Have your URL printed on caps, t-shirts, sweatshirts, etc. and give them to as many people as you can to wear. This can be very effective in getting your business known.

5. Postcards – Postcards are very cost effective and versatile. You can announce new items, offer special deals, promote a special business event or announce your website and what types of products/services you offer.

6. Offline Networking – Join your local Chamber of Commerce. Get involved in business clubs and groups and talk about your business whenever possible.

7. Car Signs – These are great products because they allow you to advertise your business wherever you go – family outings, running errands, visiting family, etc!

8. Business Cards – Design your business card wisely. They are no longer just for listing your name and address! Have your business card double as a coupon or gift certificate. Hand them out whenever the opportunity becomes available.

9. Flyers – Distributing flyers is a very affordable way to market your online business. Be sure to specify what service/product you offer and use incentives to get people to ACT NOW. You can also encourage people to pass the word if your products/services can help anyone they know. Parades and other public events are great opportunities for handing out your flyers.

10. TV Ads – TV ads are a bit more expensive but if you have the budget it would definitely be worth looking into.

11. Coupons – Print out coupons and hand them out wherever and whenever you can. Offer special deals, sales discounts, etc. This can lead to many sales and a larger customer base.

12. Freebies and Samples – People love getting things for free. Offer small items as free samples. You have seen grocery stores do this many times. Give a free sample of a good product and you will get more sales!

13. Letterheads – Have your business name and URL on everything that gets mailed out of your office/home. You never know who will be reading it and if they might take an interest in your products/services/opportunity.

14. Catalogs – If possible, have catalogs made and distribute them as much as possible. Use direct mail as well, if you can. Offer x amount of dollars off their first order or a free gift with first order.

15. The Yellow Pages – Get listed in the Yellow Pages so more people can find out who you are and what you offer!

16. Billboards/Signs – We all notice billboards and signs and they can be very effective in increasing your business.

17. Job Fairs – If you offer a good business opportunity, make it known by participating in job fairs and career days.

18. Print Magazines – Purchase advertising or try submitting articles to various print magazines. Getting an article published can do a lot for your online business.

19. Greeting Cards – Send personal greeting cards or even thank you notes to all your customers as well as people who expressed an interest in what you offer. This is guaranteed to make a lasting impression!

20. Gift Certificates – Print out gift certificates and distribute them as much as possible. Put them in mailings both personal and business. Work with other businesses to distribute each other’s certificates (complementary not competing businesses).

21. Community Involvement – Getting involved in your community events and activities can be one of the most effective ways to get your business noticed. Volunteer for school activities, work for charities, attend social functions, etc.

Social Network Marketing or SEO?

Written on December 3, 2009

There’s much to be said about the respective values of social media and SEO, both as individual entities and a collective. A cornerstone of search engine optimization is linking, while social media is all about being, well, sociable. But which is better today?

That’s very much a question that’s open to debate, depending on who you ask, you could expect to hear a whole range of answers. Networking has become ingrained in the Internet marketer’s psyche, building relationships while interacting with your fellow professionals and consumers. But can it really compete with building an impressive linking infrastructure when it comes to marketing your website online?

Let’s start with the positives…

Both techniques work in very different ways. You build links by making requests, payments (only to the right people – directories and the sort) and creating content that causes a stir. Networking can of course help this process. When you get noticed by more people, they may be inclined to link to you; there’s no certainty of course, but social media is a way of raising a profile and showing off your expertise to the world – prime link bait conditions.

There are easy ways to get links and hard ways. Even if you create a fantastic blog, a great new piece of shareware or a stunning design, there’s no assurance that people will find you. Quality links are often those that happen organically, the kind of thing that you can’t force. Article submission and press releases will assure you of at least one (sometimes more) link back to your site; while the every little bit helps strategy is a good one, that link can take time to gain and time is precious, particularly when the outcome doesn’t quite justify the means.

Of course the main reason most people create an article or release, at least in an SEO capacity, is to get it picked up and syndicated across a number of sites. The dream ticket is a major news agency picking up a story on their newswire and sending it global; this, of course, is extremely rare. For this to happen, it needs to be relevant, it needs to be interesting and it needs to provide something new. Regurgitating the same stuff over and over again may save time, but that could well prove to be a false economy.

But once again we’re thrust back into the realms of Web 2.0. If you want to get people talking about your content, you may first need to start shouting about it. Herein lies the weakness though of social media.

…Now for the negatives

There is still a cloud of mysticism that hangs over the social side of the Internet. Just how effective is it? If you have the time to dedicate to interact with the wider community day in day out, then the benefits can’t be argued. Normal people have become celebrities, while the celebrities themselves have been out there growing legions of new fans. All very positive. But what is the value of a follower or a friend? Commenting on blogs, reciprocating tweets and conversing offers a fantastic community spirit; allowing users worldwide to get involved in a continuous conversation.

What all this won’t do, necessarily, is improve your site and its strength. You might get traffic, in fact you will almost certainly get traffic, but if this comes from the same basic group of people, none of whom have the slightest interest in using your business or buying your products, is it really worth the investment of time? Friends and followers aren’t just an ego trip; it shows a level of influence and provides a wider sphere of influence. A strong linking strategy though goes further.

Every link you earn will join a wider group of inbound pointers. Google likes websites that people like pointing to. Therefore, Google likes nothing more than a site with links going to all pages, coming from a variety of sources and in a natural fashion. While there are dangerous links out there, toxic ones that will cause more damage than good, these can be avoided and banished if need be.

Whether it’s on a directory, bolted onto an article or has come from a respected source organically, the power of the link is hard to question. Aside from a permanent new gateway for targeted traffíc to find you, it adds vital strength to your website’s overall profile. PageRank maybe all but defunct, but that doesn’t mean that links are treading the same path.

We wouldn’t ever discourage people from using social media; it has fantastic potential and is evolving all the time. But if website promotion and search engine marketing is what you’re looking to do, the tried and trusted link may well prove a more constructive use of your time. It maybe a quieter way of going about things, anti-social even, but links get you seen on search engines and search engines get you seen by consumers.

Your online profile may ebb and flow, your popularity wane, but when you build a strong link profile you create stability and open the door to continued development. They are the foundation to any successful site; so while it’s always nice to have flighty friends, the stability and long-term benefit of a link is still very much the method of choice for most.

Template Website: The Pros and Cons

Written on October 22, 2009

While NECSES Webdesign does not build template websites we do want to give consumers all the facts about template sites so they can make an educated decision about what type of website best suits them. Below is a list of the pros and cons of template websites.

Pros of Template Websites

Template websites are a less expensive method of making websites. Template websites are a lot easier and take less time to create than custom websites which is what the site cost should reflect. While template websites should be cheaper than custom websites, that is not always the case. Many website design companies say they build custom websites but in reality they build template websites and charge clients for a custom website.

So how can you avoid paying too much for a template website? Get a quote from a custom website design company and compare it to the price of a template website company. Since template websites require a lot less work than custom websites, the price of a template website should be significantly lower than that of a custom website. If the custom website is close or lower in price than a template website than just go for the custom website.

Template websites are usually simple designs that take less time to build than custom websites. Template websites are less complex and have less functionality than custom websites thus taking less time to build and get running. Companies that are looking to get an online presence up immediately may decide to go with a template website.

It seems as though there are many more website design companies that offer template websites than custom websites. That being said, it could be easier for a business to find a template website company than a custom website company. More availability could make it that much quicker to find a website design company to build a template website than a custom website.

Cons of Template Websites

While template websites usually offer simple and clean designs, they can be very limiting. With a template you get what you see. Template websites are very limited in the changes that can be made to the design and functionalities that can be added. For many companies paying less money for a website is not worth the limitations offered by template websites. Companies should not build websites around a template but websites should be built around a company. Custom websites properly reflect who a company is and what they do, while template websites most of the time do not properly reflect this.

The simplicity of template websites does not let companies stand apart from others. Custom websites stand out from template sites because many template websites look similar and don’t offer much distinction. While template websites are very similar and plain, you can design custom websites any way you want allowing businesses to have a more professional unique appearance.

Most template websites are not search engine optimized. If a website is not search engine optimized it is likely to not be found in search results. What good is a website if it cannot be found? One of the reasons NECSES Webdesign builds custom websites is so that they are search engine optimized. If you want a website to show up higher in search engines then a template website is not the way to go.

Many smaller companies may be fine with having a limited amount of website functionality but larger companies especially require more functionality than template websites offer. Template websites are premade so they are not built to suit any particular company. Larger companies should choose a custom website design company to work with rather than a template company so that the website will be built around all of their needs.

Template websites are quick and easy to build because they work from a pre-made design and structure. Premade designs work for some companies, but they limit what can be done to the site. As a business grows their website should grow with them. Template websites cannot be built scalable so as a business grows and changes their website will not work for them.

With all of the cons associated with template websites, why would any company use a template site? Template websites may save companies money initially, but will cost more money and cause problems in the long run. Custom websites are the perfect solution for nearly every business. Contact NECSES Webdesign to discuss how a custom search engine optimized website can help your business.

Landing pages – can they help achieve more sales?

Written on August 27, 2009

Building a great landing page should be on top of any business’s priority list if you want your website visitors transformed into customers.

While a great looking website can grab the attention of your visitors, a strong landing page will keep them involved and get them to buy your products or services.

Wikipedia defines a landing page as:

‘The page that appears when a potential customer clicks on an advertisement or a search-engine result link. The page will usually display content that is a logical extension of the advertisement or link, and that is optimized to feature specific keywords or phrases for indexing by search engines.’

Wikipedia’s definition sums it up nicely but there is certainly more to a great landing page then relevant and keyword rich content. Here are 10 things that you should be looking at when optimizing a landing page:

Relevant Content

A landing page’s content should be directly related to organic search results, PPC campaign, anchor text in inbound links and any other targeted inbound advertising, online and offline. If people don’t get what they expect, they will be more likely to leave.

Multiple Landing Pages

A landing page shouldn’t necessarily be your homepage. In many instances a homepage is a good landing page. However, for more targeted traffic and better results, you want a landing page to be focused on a specific offering and specific call for action. To accomplish this, a given website should have multiple landing pages. Create some deep link landing pages that will focus on a specific proposition and your conversion rate will be higher.

Focus on Functionality

More and more visitors seem to judge the professionalism and credibility of a site by its design. To satisfy this, many website owners concentrate on the design aspect instead of focusing on its functionality. A well-designed landing page is essentially worthless if the prospect can’t accomplish anything. While I wouldn’t suggest skimping on the design, it shouldn’t be your priority. Focus on the exact steps you want your visitor to take and design a page with that in mind.

Call To Action

You got visitors to your landing page, now direct them to take action. Make it clear and highly noticeable without overwhelming your audience. Whether it’s a sign-up form or a “buy now” button, make it the focus of your page.

Send a Clear Message

Keep your landing page clean and clutter free so your visitors stay focused on your message. Emphasize the biggest reasons that they should carry out the applicable call to action with larger text, contrasting colors, images. Make it easier for them to scan the content by using lists and getting right to the point.

Provide Incentive

Bribing your visitors with freebies and samples is a proven method of enticing them to sign up. Provide more than your competition but don’t sell yourself short either. Provide a list of reasons why your offering is better and what exactly the visitor can expect. Provide references and testimonials.

Make Visitors Stay

Avoid sending your visitors to another page unless it is absolutely necessary. That includes any internal navigation as well as external banners. If you eliminate all distractions and limit navigation options, you stand a better chance of keeping your visitors around.

Simple is Better

Make it easy for your visitors to complete the action you want them to. Less confusion and decision making for your visitor means better conversions rate for your landing page. Don’t provide multiple choices and throw in optional extras. Focus on the pitch the page was created for.

Power of Freebies

Everyone likes free offers. They are hard to resist and can be a powerful conversion tool. Whether a call to action is free or something free is received as a result of carrying out a call to action, it certainly doesn’t hurt. If your competition charges for something and you provide it for free, you’ll win the customer. Remember, just because you make a free offer doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be quality.

Provide Guarantees

Providing a guarantee for your customers inspires confidence in your products or service. A money back guurantee or price guarantee could be the factor that sways your visitor to buy from you.
Testing

Testing various text, call to action forms, layouts will give you a true idea what produces the best results as far as conversion. With NECSES Webdesign’s content management system websites, you have control of your website and can make changes instantly, making the testing process that much easier.

Creating a successful and effective landing page takes a lot of work but should be the focus for anyone involved with a website. As a website owner you must be aware of the components that comprise a solid landing page. After all this can mean a website’s success or failure.

3 steps to sales satisfaction

Written on August 26, 2009

Sales Completion: How to get it

One of the main problems in Internet marketing is that it is often a “winner takes it all” game. That means that the best website will get the deal and all other websites will get nothing, no matter how good they are.

Suppose someone wants to book driving lessons in Bury St Edmunds. They may search Google for driving instructors in Suffolk, take a look at the top 10 results and then decide to book  their driving lessons with one of the sites. That means that one site gets the sale and the other 9 sites get nothing.

Your sales can dramatically increase if your website is just slightly better

The above has an important implication: you just have to be slightly better than your competitors to get many more sales. If you make the change from being one of the discarded sites to the site that is chosen by the searcher then your sales will increase dramatically. You’ll make the change from getting nothing to getting everything.

How to be better than your competitors?

1. Choose the right keywords

Being better than your competitors starts with choosing the right keywords. If you target keywords that aren’t used by the people who want to buy then you might get a lot of visitors but no sales. Your web pages should be optimized for keywords that attract people who are looking for the products and services that you sell on your website and who are ready to buy.

2. You must be in the top 10 results

While it is important to target the right keywords, your website must also be found on the first result page of Google, Yahoo and Bing to attract customers.
Most people only take a look at the top 10 results on the first result page. If your website cannot be found on the first result page for your keywords then potential customers won’t find your website.

3. Your website must be convincing

It’s not enough to be listed on the first search engine result page. Your website must also be convincing. It should give the customer what he is looking for, it should have a professional design and it should make it as easy as possible to buy your product or book your services. That is why it is so important to work on improving the conversion rate of your web pages. By improving your conversion rate, you can generate more money “out of thin air” from your existing rankings.

A trustworthy and professional website with a good conversion rate also has positive side-effects. Your customers probably will stay longer with your company and people are more likely to link to your website.

The winner takes it all

It takes some time to optimize your web pages, but it is worth the effort. Even small changes can have a huge impact on the number of sales that you get. Make the change from being one of the discarded sites to the site that gets the sale and your sales should improve.

Remember that your competitors are also working on their websites. Even if you are better than your competitors you have to continue with the optimization to stay ahead.

NECSES Webdesign’s content management system inclusive websites give businesses the flexibility to manage their search engine opptimisation themselves, allowing them to constantly monitor the effectiveness of their site’s optimisation and adjust accordingly. For further information on how our websites can be of benefit to your business please click here