Posts Tagged ‘website updates’
The Biggest Online Marketing Mistake Most Business Owners Make
Thursday, January 12th, 2012If you were pressed for an answer, what would you suppose the most common online marketing mistake is? If you’re like most of the business owners we work with, you might think of spending too much or too little, writing ads that don’t speak to your unique selling proposition, or maybe even pricing your products and services the wrong way.
These are all decent guesses, and maybe half-correct. That’s because the biggest mistake in online marketing is making any mistake over and over again.
How do you stop yourself from repeating costly errors? By evaluating the effectiveness of what you’re doing in a subjective way. In other words, by studying the numbers behind your business website. A lot of business owners can talk about the number of visitors their website is receiving, or how many sales they’ve been making, but getting a good understanding of your online business requires a deeper look than that.
Here are three easy to use and understand metrics you definitely want to keep an eye on:
The numbers of visitors coming from certain sources or advertising campaigns. Often, it isn’t possible to tell that a certain message is or isn’t responding to a segment of your market until you take a closer look at your traffic sources. Viewing these with a critical eye could show you where you need to tweak your offers or benefit statements.
Your most popular pages. In many cases, business owners see this kind of data as simply “the products and prices that customers respond to most.” That’s a starting point, but high numbers of views in your frequently asked questions or shipping policies, for example, could indicate that buyers have concerns about how quickly they’ll receive their order. This is only a simple example, but it’s representative of the kind of trend you should be looking for.
Parts of your site where visitors exit. This is even more important, since they can help you to identify parts of your site that aren’t fully optimized for conversions, or that buyers are responding to. If potential customers are leaving you at any point other than the one that brings them closer to buying from you, then it’s costing you money.
There is any number of mistakes with your content or marketing message that you can inadvertently make on your business website. The real mistake, however, is to keep reproducing errors by failing to study the numbers closely enough. Need help studying those numbers? Let Design Extensions help, and we’ll do what we do best so that you can do what you do best.
Three Parts of a Successful Search Engine Optimization Plan That Are Often Overlooked
Thursday, December 29th, 2011In the minds of a lot of new business owners and online marketers, the search engine optimization process goes something like this: decide to move forward or pay an SEO specialist, get some great content and links, and then watch your business make you millions overnight.
That’s a great thing to think about, but it overlooks some of the most common and important steps along the way. That’s because great SEO isn’t always as straightforward as it seems, and it’s not only about bringing traffic to your website – it’s about making your business more visible and profitable in the most efficient ways possible.
With that in mind, here are three parts of a successful search engine optimization plan that are often overlooked:
Planning. Sure, you want more traffic – but what kind of traffic? You might think you know what your best potential customers are likely to search before they find you, but first impressions aren’t always the best ones. It takes a lot of research and planning to figure out which search terms are preferred by buyers, rather than information-gatherers, along with the fastest ways to outpace your competition.
Conversion optimization. As we mentioned, gaining traffic is only half the battle; for it to have any effect on your bottom line, you need to persuade all of those wonderful prospects to actually do something. That’s where conversion optimization comes into play. Whether you receive one visitor to your business website each day or one thousand, your pages have to convince them to take the next step.
Adjustments to your plan. Over time, your search engine optimization goals are going to change. This might be because you discover new keywords and phrases, because your company has grown and changed its focus, or even because you’re trying to appeal to a different kind of buyer. Regardless of the reason, making adjustments – and getting more efficient at every step of the way – is a prerequisite for finding true and lasting success in SEO.
If you hadn’t thought about any of these parts of your SEO campaign, you’re certainly not alone. Why not work with a web design and search engine optimization team that knows what it takes to find bottom-line success and can help lead you in the right direction?
Design Extensions has a range of products to help you with your Search Engine Optimization needs, and we’d love to hear from you.
What do your website’s photos say about your business?
Monday, October 10th, 2011We rely on pictures to convey meaning and emotion, to tell stories where words fail, and the internet is no exception to this. Product images, biography photos, interesting photographic headers are all used on websites to help “sell”. It does not matter what your website is selling there is hardly a product or service out there that cannot benefit from great photos.
Customer Supplied Photographs
Perhaps you, or a relative is a hobbyist photographer. This is one of the lowest cost options for images on your website, but results do vary. With the availability and popularity of consumer digital cameras, this is a path many choose. While it is a lower cost option than hiring a professional photographer, but more personalized than stock photography it is also of the least “quality” options. Some of the industries best suited for using customer supplied photographs, are landscaping, construction, and other outdoor companies, where the ruld of photography are more forgiving and there is more available light.
Stock Photography
Stock photography is purchased for use on a website from a stock photography company. These companies; check, and sometimes rank images on quality and categorize them on many factors. It makes finding the “right” photo much easier. Prices for stock photography can range from a couple of dollars per image to upwards of $100 for very high quality work, or work that is by a master photographer. . . There is stock photography for almost any business out there, and this is a great option if you are not selling a highly personalized product or service, and is great for when you just need a couple of images to finish out a website design.
Hiring a Professional Photographer
This is genrerally the most expensive option, but by all accounts one of the best. If you are selling a highly personalized product or service, then this is the only option. If you have a storefront, or physical business that you will be enticing people to visit from your website this is also one of the best options. It is also great for bio photos of yourself, and your employees. Professional photographers combine the quality of stock photography with the personalization of taking your own photos. Professional photographers know how to “sell” ideas, not just take pictures.
If a picture speaks a thousand words, what are the photos on your website saying? Design Extensions has solutions when it comes to the images that you use on your website. We have professional relationships with photographers in many disciplines, (even one on our staff) and would love to help you make the web a more beautiful place.
You’re Great. . . Make Sure Everyone Knows it.
Tuesday, September 20th, 2011You know your business is great. Clients have told you your business is great. Whether it be the great prices, customer service, or unique products you offer, people love you. But how do you let new clients know just how great you are. For many businesses word of mouth is a large driving factor for revenue. The best way to drive that same stream on your website, is by including testimonials.
Testimonials are a great way to include endorsements from previous clients on your website. Sometimes a whole page can be devoted to them, if your business is geared toward a service provided. Sometimes maybe just a sidebar graphic with a couple of choice reviews will suffice. Whatever is right for your business you usually can’t go wrong including praise from previous customers, for future ones to see.
The best way to get the testimonials you want on your site, is first of all be great at what you do. If for example you sell shoes for a living, instead of focusing on selling the most shoes that you can, focus on helping the most number of people get the shoe that is right for them. Then instead of getting a testimonial based on how well you sold a product or service, you’ll get on on well you helped.
Don’t be afraid to ask clients for testimonials. We love receiving unasked for praise, but sometimes it is okay to ask a client how your performance was. If it was stellar, then great that would be a good testimonial, if it was less than fantastic, now you know what you need to work on. It is also quite all right to feature testimonials that you know matter the most, first. It is great to get feedback that you can use on your website from specialists in the area that you cater to.
There are also other options to get testimonials on your site. Perhaps its a google places rating, that you’d like put on your site. We can get a feed from google to show reviews of your business that will update as people add new ones. There are numerous other sources that we can pull a “feed” from that will keep the testimonials and reviews on your site up to date and current.
Don’t be afraid to tell the world how great your business is. Maybe you need a brand new website, or maybe your old one just needs some testimonials added to it. . .Whatever the case, Design Extensions would like to help with that. ***And just to note, any blog comments made below, may be used to tell the world how great we are.
Brand Identity
Monday, August 15th, 2011Brand identity should not be rocket science. You want your customer to recognize “you” as quickly as they would recognize Coca Cola, Apple, or any other successfully branded product. This is true whether you are selling a product, service, or a combination of the two. If your logo, or tag line is too complicated to understand at a glance, then it is too complicated. Colors, shapes, and fonts are an important part of many successfully brand logos.
In the design world many fads come and go, but brands that have staying power rely on something more important. They stay relevant. What is popular today, may be old news tomorrow and so while some elements of popular design are great to include is small doses, the best brands stay true to the businesses’ core values, customer base, and roots. Design Extensions will use your feedback and our experience to craft a website as well as logos, business cards, and other print collateral as needed to convey the image you want for your business.
Many businesses fail to realize their potential, simply by not maintaining uniform branding across all sectors of their business. Design Extensions can help, from business cards, letter head and other print collateral, to websites and online advertisements that keep your business’ image consistent. One of the benefits of utilizing all of the features Design Extensions has to offer is that our design team is all in house, and all files/logos/and content is accessible for use across all platforms to reach new customers. For the few aspects of your business that we may not have an in house solution for, (clothing, and novelties) we can recommend a service provider, and will be happy to design, or provide design elements to them.
Blog, Blog, Blog, Blog Blog…
Friday, July 29th, 2011We are bad bloggers. We preach from the rooftops that blogging is important, updating your website with new and fresh content is important, and yet we fail to do so ourselves.
We are like the barber that never gets a haircut.
Why don’t we blog more often? For the same reason most people don’t… we are just too busy with actually running a business and serving our clients.
What most people fail to realize (and we fail to lead by example) is that blogging can be a great way to drive in new business! It can build an audience of people who are interested about a topic and drive search engine optimization results to your site.
You can easily get started with your own blog (for free) by using something like wordpress.com or blogspot.com.
The better solution, however, is to integrate a blog directly into your website. You can call it news, information section, or something else if you prefer not to use the blog term for some reason.
An integrated blog (like what you are reading now) fits right in with a website, keeps your brand consistent, and helps with your search engine optimization.
There are not a ton of business’ here in St. Augustine or Jacksonville currently blogging, but it’s a growing trend.
We are going to try and do a better job of leading by example and will let you know what the results are.
Stay tuned here for more news, ideas, and tips. If you have questions, or would like to see info on a specific topic, leave us a comment below!
