Category

Affordable SEO

Oct 29
0

How to Make Your Business a Success

By | Affordable SEO, Online Marketing, Pay per Click (PPC), Printing, Website Design, Website Marketing

How to make your business a success is an important topic for most small businesses.  There is no one-size-fits-all solution to achieve this. Marketing and having an online presence is a very important part of achieving that success.  Different marketing plans are needed depending on the type of business, product or service on offer. To be successful you need to have a plan that you stick to and put in the time and effort required to make it work.

Here are a few things you can do to get your small business noticed:

  • Get a professional website.  We’re not just saying that because WebDesignGuys are web developers!  These days a website is an absolute must.  Your website needs to stand out and give potential customers exactly what they need when they visit.  An unprofessional homemade site just isn’t going to cut it with most people and can decrease their confidence in your brand or service.
  • Don’t forget Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).  Many people set aside just enough money to get a website built but don’t allow anything in their budget for search engine optimisation or pay-per-click advertising (Google AdWords).  What’s the first thing you do when you need a product or service?  You Google it, no doubt!  And how many pages on Google do you go through before you stop looking……one….two…three tops?  Most people stop looking after page 1 or 2 so if your website is past that, forget it.  No one is going to find you!  SEO and pay-per-click advertising are needed to improve your position in Google searches. You can read more about it here: Why is SEO so important for my business?
  • Customer contact. Understand who your customers are, what they want, and remain in contact with them after the sale or job is complete.  A good way to do this is through email marketing.  It’s a great idea to build a database of current and past customers and communicate regularly with them via newsletters and emails.
  • Research your target market.  Your target market needs to be specific! Targeting your marketing efforts specifically at the people who need and want what you’re offering is the best the way to generate enquiries and close sales.
  • Don’t neglect branding and print media. These are super powerful marketing materials. Your logo, business card, brochures, signage, uniforms and vehicle signwriting are all important in getting your business noticed.  WebDesignGuys can help you create a brand that gets noticed.
  • Use social media. Using Facebook, Twitter , LinkedIn, YouTube and blogging are great ways of getting the message out there about you and your business.

WebDesignGuys are here to help.  We can assist with creating and hosting a fantastic professional website for your company, email marketing, SEO, branding and print media.  Call us now to get started!

Contact us today
Aug 31
0

10 Website Design Mistakes to Avoid

By | Affordable SEO, Website Design, Website Marketing

Here at Webdesignguys we know what it takes to design a great website – one that not only looks awesome but actually works! We know what to avoid and the tricks to use to maximise site functionality and traffic to your website. We can help your business get noticed.

Many websites have flaws that can easily be avoided if the designer knows what they are doing. Some problems are irritating and others prevent visitors accessing information they need and may discourage them from ever returning.

Our Top 10 List of Website Design Mistakes to Avoid:

  1. Not using Responsive Design

    More and more people are using mobile phones and/or tablets to surf the web and quickly get frustrated with a website that is not user friendly on such devices. Your website must display and function well on all screen sizes. Search engines now penalise websites that are not responsive. Responsive design is an absolute necessity.

  2. Search Engine Unfriendly

    Having a website built is all very well and good but kind of pointless if no one can find you on a search engine! Your beautifully designed and fantastically functional new website will just hang around in the back blocks of cyber space with no one to appreciate it – potential customers included! Basic on-site SEO should be included in your design.  For example: search engine friendly URLs, optimised meta tags, header tags and images etc.  So make sure you include this critical element when getting your website built.

  3. Elusive Contact Information

    So many websites make it hard to find actual contact information. It is crucial that your contact information is displayed clearly and prominently. This also helps reassure visitors that they are dealing with a genuine business or organisation and not a scammer.

  4. Splash Pages

    Don’t waste your home page with a splash screen which then requires visitors to click somewhere to enter your actual site. Your visitor is already at your website so they want relevant information immediately. Splash pages are not good for your search engine ranking either.

  5. Ineffective or Confusing Navigation

    Navigation through your website should be obvious. You want to use standard techniques and locations for navigation items such as menus and links. You want to make it especially easy for your visitors to find the “home” and “contact us” pages. It’s important to keep in mind the number of clicks it will take to find information – keep this to a minimum.

  6. Pop-ups

    Pop-up windows are highly annoying and are blocked by many browsers. Avoid unless absolutely necessary.

  7. Broken Links

    It looks very unprofessional to have links that don’t work. They will irritate visitors and may cause them to doubt their confidence in your organisation or business. All links on your site must function correctly.

  8. Slow Loading Pages

    Web users today are an impatient fickle bunch! They will leave slow sites rather than wait for them to load. Your site should load in no more than a few seconds.  Avoid using unnecessary or excessive amounts of graphics as these have an impact on loading times.

  9. Lack of Contrast

    Your website needs to be readable. This may seem like an obvious concept but you’d be surprised by how many websites out there are difficult to read. Attention needs to be given to the amount of contrast between text and the website background or any images used behind text. A bad colour scheme and/or lack of contrast will be off-putting for visitors.

  10. Software Installation Required

    Visitors don’t usually want to wait around installing software before they can view your site. Most browsers will block the install anyway. This is a sure fire way to turn potential customers away.

So there you have it – our top 10 things to avoid in website design. Fortunately, Webdesignguys know what we’re doing and can help create an effective website for your business or organisation. To learn more contact us today and we’d be glad to help.

Jun 17
0

Why is SEO important for my business?

By | Affordable SEO, Online Marketing, Website Marketing

Every business needs a marketing plan to get exposure and growth. A large portion of your plan should be focused toward Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). First off you may be wondering, what is Search Engine Optimisation? Put simply SEO is the process of making sure that all of the major search engines and most importantly your potential customers can find your site. The online search trend is growing as more and more people hunt for businesses, goods and services online. Did you know that right now there are 3.5 billion searches on Google every single day? That’s a lot of people trying to find stuff! If you have a burst pipe and are wanting to find a plumber in Auckland, or if you have a lot of tax to pay and need an accountant in Wellington then most likely you’ll be typing that straight into your favourite search engine. Google is my preferred choice, but some use Bing or Yahoo etc.

So in short, if you have a business that you are serious about and you want to make some money then you need SEO!

So what is all this about 1st page?

Studies say that Google’s 1st page search results show 90% of people never click beyond the first page! The first 10 positions are most desired as they get 93% of all clicks. This means that if you have a position on the 2nd page you have already lost lost the fight. If your website is positioned further down, 5th, 10th, 20th then your site basically won’t get found by anyone.

How do I get to the top?

Contact us at WebDesignGuys! Our process involves making sure your site is set up correctly so that the search engines can easily crawl through your pages and code. We perform a target market business analysis looking at some of your main competitors, then keyword research, content optimization and link building/submissions. Then we measure and tweak. And tweak some more! There’s no point in having a website if no one can find you, right? So call us now and we can start work on marketing your business and getting it growing!

Contact us today