As we all know, a website without traffic is not worth much. Even a poor website with a lot of traffic will get at least some sales...but a fantastic website with no traffic is useless.
So how do we get web traffic? Does it cost money? How much time do we have to spend on it? These are very good questions which every small business owner and non-profit should think about.
Here are the top 5 ways to get traffic to your website. Some of them are very easy to do and are somewhat helpful, others are difficult things to do and are extremely helpful. We recommend using a combination of several methods, (if not all of them) so pick and choose the ones which you think will work.
1. Use Social Media
Even if you don't have a website yet, we recommend getting setup on all the major Social Media outlets. The four that Fresh Look uses for our marketing is Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and of course, Blogger.com.
At a bare minimum you should be using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, for the simple fact that once you get them setup, you can link them together. In other words, if you post something to Facebook, it automatically posts it to Twitter, and then it automatically posts it to LinkedIn.
What should you post on your social media pages? Well that's another topic all by itself, but basically you post whatever your customers will find value in. Appeal to your audience by lending your expertise without appearing to trying to sell them something all the time. Coupons, helpful articles, upcoming events, client of the month, etc are all good ideas.
Note: For assistance on how to use Social Media, come to one of our workshops. Receive our email newsletter (click here to sign up) or check back frequently to our website to find out when we are teaching our workshops on Social Media. Because it's such a popular topic right now, we usually have one every couple months.
2. Send out an email newsletter
We highly urge everyone to send out an email newsletter. Just like Social Media, it's very easy, inexpensive, and does not take a lot of time once you get it set up. A lot of the content you write for your newsletter will be similar to Social Media - announcements, coupons, resources, etc.
If you've been following our articles, you know we use Constant Contact for our newsletter, but there are lots of other options (read our article on email newsletters). Pick the one that fits you best, which will depend primarily on the size of your email list. Also, many of the options out there offer free trials to get you started.
We find that our web traffic spikes significantly every time we send out our newsletter. It reminds semi-interested people who we've contacted already about our services, without being intrusive or pushy. It is an extremely valuable part of how we get people to visit our website, and ultimately become clients.
3. Get found on the search engines
Search engines have the potential to bring exponentially more traffic to your website than any other avenue. You can reach people who you would never be able to any other way. It can be a huge boost to your internet traffic.
So how do the search engines find you? That answer is easy - the search engines automatically find you. You don't have to register with Google or anything, it will eventually happen automatically.
The real question though, is how do people find you on the search engines. Google may have found you, but if you show up on page 9 than that does you no good.
There are many factors that contribute to a websites search engine rankings. In fact, an entire new profession has been born out of the necessity to be found on the search engines, and that is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM). A search engine expert is in high demand these days.
So what's the solution? We recommend talking to a search engine marketing firm about your options. At Fresh Look Web Design we have several packages for different budgets so contact us if you're interested. Also, stay tuned for our article on do-it-yourself ways to improve your search engine rankings.
4. Facebook Ads
As we've already written about in our article - A Fresh Look at Facebook Ads, Facebook ads can be very helpful in bringing targeted traffic to your website. You can read more about it in the article, but with a smart Facebook ad you can directly target the type of person you want to view your website. You can set a specific budget so you don't spend anymore than you want to, which will help ensure you get a good return on your investment.
5. Business cards, email signatures, etc.
Basically everything else you can think of. Put your web address on the side of your company vehicle, billboards, signs in your store, t-shirts, coupons, any literature that you produce. Definitely make sure it's on your business cards as well as the email signature on the bottom of your emails.
We hope that some of these ideas will help you in bringing new traffic to your website. Unfortunately the "if you build it, they will come" concept does not apply to websites, but with a little work you can make your web presence a very successful one.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
7 Reasons Why People Love Their Web Developer
A couple months ago we highlighted some reasons why people have had bad experiences with their web developer. To redeem ourselves, we will now explain why people love their web developer and how having a website can help your business.
1. My web developer gives me a super employee
The super employee is of course your website. Your website can:
A good web developer MUST be a marketing expert. When you have a new product, service, or business opportunity, you may not know the best way to incorporate that into your website. You also may not have to time to figure it out. Your web designer will give you his expert opinion on how to get results from your website.
3. My web developer acts like a business partner
Your developer must be committed to see you succeed. They act as a business partner, not just a provider of a service. They view their relationship with you as a long term commitment and are dedicated to see you succeed. After all, your success is a prerequisite for them even being in business!
4. I need help getting visitors to my website
Need help finding creative ways to draw traffic to your website? Well a good web developer will show you how you can do that.
There is a lot more to a website than just building it - you have to be able to draw traffic. Search engines, social media, email newsletter, Facebook ads, business cards, email signatures, etc - these are all necessary to maximize your success. You need someone to help you come up with a list of ideas and how to go about making it happen.
Read our article on how to get traffic to your website.
5. I need training
Want to update your site on your own without paying anyone? A good website design firm will offer training on how to do exactly that. There is typically a cost with it, but the long term benefits may outweigh that cost. Just ask Jackie Vaughan from the Town of Farmville:
When I was given the task of managing the Town’s website, I was very nervous because I had no prior experience. But after a brief training session with Eric and the helpful training guide he provided, I have been able to update and set up new pages for our website with ease. And because Joomla is so user friendly, I can make changes to the website myself, instantly.
6. My business is completely online
Many businesses today only exist online. There is no brick and mortar store where foot traffic will provide at least some business. When 100% of the customers use the website to buy products, it is crucial to have a good relationship with your web developer.
7. My developer is very fast
This is one of the biggest compliments we hear from our clients. When they need something posted to their website, or need help with an issue, we respond with a solution very quickly.
Having a web developer that responds to your inquiries within a couple minutes is a life saver for the small business owner. In today's fast paced business world, you're losing money and/or customers if your website is outdated or in error.
We'd love to hear from you in the comments section about other reasons you may love your web developer. Thanks for reading!
1. My web developer gives me a super employee
The super employee is of course your website. Your website can:
- Give directions to your store
- Explain what your products/services are
- Sell products with shopping carts
- Have a contact form so people can email you directly from the website
- Act as a sales person through the search engines and search engine optimization
- Is open 24/7
A good web developer MUST be a marketing expert. When you have a new product, service, or business opportunity, you may not know the best way to incorporate that into your website. You also may not have to time to figure it out. Your web designer will give you his expert opinion on how to get results from your website.
3. My web developer acts like a business partner
Your developer must be committed to see you succeed. They act as a business partner, not just a provider of a service. They view their relationship with you as a long term commitment and are dedicated to see you succeed. After all, your success is a prerequisite for them even being in business!
4. I need help getting visitors to my website
Need help finding creative ways to draw traffic to your website? Well a good web developer will show you how you can do that.
There is a lot more to a website than just building it - you have to be able to draw traffic. Search engines, social media, email newsletter, Facebook ads, business cards, email signatures, etc - these are all necessary to maximize your success. You need someone to help you come up with a list of ideas and how to go about making it happen.
Read our article on how to get traffic to your website.
5. I need training
Want to update your site on your own without paying anyone? A good website design firm will offer training on how to do exactly that. There is typically a cost with it, but the long term benefits may outweigh that cost. Just ask Jackie Vaughan from the Town of Farmville:
When I was given the task of managing the Town’s website, I was very nervous because I had no prior experience. But after a brief training session with Eric and the helpful training guide he provided, I have been able to update and set up new pages for our website with ease. And because Joomla is so user friendly, I can make changes to the website myself, instantly.
6. My business is completely online
Many businesses today only exist online. There is no brick and mortar store where foot traffic will provide at least some business. When 100% of the customers use the website to buy products, it is crucial to have a good relationship with your web developer.
7. My developer is very fast
This is one of the biggest compliments we hear from our clients. When they need something posted to their website, or need help with an issue, we respond with a solution very quickly.
Having a web developer that responds to your inquiries within a couple minutes is a life saver for the small business owner. In today's fast paced business world, you're losing money and/or customers if your website is outdated or in error.
We'd love to hear from you in the comments section about other reasons you may love your web developer. Thanks for reading!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
How to Write Great Website Content
Writing content is usually the most time consuming process in developing a website. This is a surprise to most people, and what is even more surprising to others is that a lot of times your web developer doesn’t write your content for you.
The fact is that you know your business the best, and while it may be helpful to hire outside help, that can get expensive. Below is a helpful guide to know how to write content for your website.
What are your goals?
The first step of the writing process is determining the goals of your website. This is so easy to overlook but is very important. What is the purpose of the website? What are your goals? More specifically, "What action do you want visitors to your website to take?" This may seem obvious at first but websites can specialize in many different things. Some common goals are listed below:
"I want people visiting to my website to..."
Who is my audience?
Think about who your typical customer is. How old are they? How computer savvy are they? What is their education level? These are good questions to ask. Remember that web users do not read words on a website, they scan them. Therefore you will want to write your content in a style somewhat similar to a newspaper. Short paragraphs, headlines and lists are the best way to allow your user to easily scan your pages.
A very common mistake made in content writing for websites is to make it too informal. While you don’t want to sound like a college textbook, you also want to sound professional. If you are a small business you want your website to appear "top of the line" to compete with the larger companies. A website is a way to enhance your image. Take advantage of that and make your web content as professional as you can without being stuffy.
What information do I want on my website?
The next step of the writing process is creating a site map. A site map is simply an outline of what the information on your website will look like. Each item on a site map represents a single webpage. It usually consists of 5-7 main categories, with sub-categories falling underneath. The reason for sub-categories is to organize the content in a way that is easy for the web user to quickly glance over and comprehend.
Example Site Map:
Writing Styles
There are three different, unique ways to write your content for your website. Usually you will want a balance between the three. If you focus too much on one you will neglect the others, so do your best to keep all three in mind once you start your actual writing.
1. Write Succinctly for Web Users – In web development, we have a motto when creating websites. It goes like this: "Give me what I want, and don’t make me think". When writing web content, make sure that you are not long winded. Make things as easy and simple as possible. Use lists and short paragraphs, and occasionally use bolded text. Too much bold and it doesn’t stand out anymore, it’s just a distraction.
2. Write Professionally to Build up Your Image – One of the great things about the internet is that it can make a very small business appear to be quite large and accomplished. So give the readers some good facts, figures, and data that will keep them impressed with your organization. Remind them of your accolades. Keep this balanced of course with writing succinctly…while you want to be somewhat brief you don’t want to leave out important details.
3. Write Sneaky for Search Engines – I say sneaky because you don't want to make it too obvious to the person reading your website that you're writing specifically for the search engines. This is probably the hardest thing to keep in mind when writing because we are not used to writing with a Search Engine as our audience. But in reality, writing for search engines will go a very long way in your search engine rankings, and ultimately your website popularity.
How do you write for search engines? Search engines scan all the text on a website on a regular basis. You want any word that people may search for in a search engine to appear in your web content. These words are called "Keywords".
For example, Fresh Look Web Design has the following keywords (among others) on our website:
web design, graphic design, hampton roads websites, hampton e-commerce grant, shopping carts, search engine optimization
These words appear on our website very frequently. If we wanted to promote our e-commerce grant on our website we could say:
"Many of our clients take advantage of our grant."
...but this is too general. There are no specific keywords. The user gets the idea, but there's nothing for search engines to pick up on.
Instead, we should say:
"Our Hampton small business owners take advantage of our e-commerce grant."
See the difference? It's not as succinct, but the user still gets the message, and the keywords are much more present in the second example.
Keep in mind that there's a trade-off involved with the other two writing styles. You don't want to focus too much on search engines, because then your text might be too wordy for users. But you also don't want to be too succinct because you won't rank as well with the search engines. The best thing to do is keep a balance.
We hope this helps you in writing your website content. If you're interested in getting assistance with your content writing, don't hesitate to let us know and we'll be happy to help. Content writing can be a daunting task at times but once you get started you'll find that a lot of it comes naturally.
Good luck!
The fact is that you know your business the best, and while it may be helpful to hire outside help, that can get expensive. Below is a helpful guide to know how to write content for your website.
What are your goals?
The first step of the writing process is determining the goals of your website. This is so easy to overlook but is very important. What is the purpose of the website? What are your goals? More specifically, "What action do you want visitors to your website to take?" This may seem obvious at first but websites can specialize in many different things. Some common goals are listed below:
"I want people visiting to my website to..."
- Get information about me, and call me
- Get information about me, and fill out an online form which will come to me in an email
- Buy my products
- View upcoming events with my online calendar
- Download my brochure so I don’t have to mail it to them
- Find directions to my store
- Make an online donation
- Stay updated on what’s new with my company
- Register for upcoming events
- View my portfolio
Who is my audience?
Think about who your typical customer is. How old are they? How computer savvy are they? What is their education level? These are good questions to ask. Remember that web users do not read words on a website, they scan them. Therefore you will want to write your content in a style somewhat similar to a newspaper. Short paragraphs, headlines and lists are the best way to allow your user to easily scan your pages.
A very common mistake made in content writing for websites is to make it too informal. While you don’t want to sound like a college textbook, you also want to sound professional. If you are a small business you want your website to appear "top of the line" to compete with the larger companies. A website is a way to enhance your image. Take advantage of that and make your web content as professional as you can without being stuffy.
What information do I want on my website?
The next step of the writing process is creating a site map. A site map is simply an outline of what the information on your website will look like. Each item on a site map represents a single webpage. It usually consists of 5-7 main categories, with sub-categories falling underneath. The reason for sub-categories is to organize the content in a way that is easy for the web user to quickly glance over and comprehend.
Example Site Map:
- Home page
- About Us
- Our Staff
- History
- Board of Directors
- Services
- For Your Home
- For Your Business
- Press Room
- News Articles
- Press Releases
- Photo Gallery
- Events
- Contact Us
Writing Styles
There are three different, unique ways to write your content for your website. Usually you will want a balance between the three. If you focus too much on one you will neglect the others, so do your best to keep all three in mind once you start your actual writing.
1. Write Succinctly for Web Users – In web development, we have a motto when creating websites. It goes like this: "Give me what I want, and don’t make me think". When writing web content, make sure that you are not long winded. Make things as easy and simple as possible. Use lists and short paragraphs, and occasionally use bolded text. Too much bold and it doesn’t stand out anymore, it’s just a distraction.
2. Write Professionally to Build up Your Image – One of the great things about the internet is that it can make a very small business appear to be quite large and accomplished. So give the readers some good facts, figures, and data that will keep them impressed with your organization. Remind them of your accolades. Keep this balanced of course with writing succinctly…while you want to be somewhat brief you don’t want to leave out important details.
3. Write Sneaky for Search Engines – I say sneaky because you don't want to make it too obvious to the person reading your website that you're writing specifically for the search engines. This is probably the hardest thing to keep in mind when writing because we are not used to writing with a Search Engine as our audience. But in reality, writing for search engines will go a very long way in your search engine rankings, and ultimately your website popularity.
How do you write for search engines? Search engines scan all the text on a website on a regular basis. You want any word that people may search for in a search engine to appear in your web content. These words are called "Keywords".
For example, Fresh Look Web Design has the following keywords (among others) on our website:
web design, graphic design, hampton roads websites, hampton e-commerce grant, shopping carts, search engine optimization
These words appear on our website very frequently. If we wanted to promote our e-commerce grant on our website we could say:
"Many of our clients take advantage of our grant."
...but this is too general. There are no specific keywords. The user gets the idea, but there's nothing for search engines to pick up on.
Instead, we should say:
"Our Hampton small business owners take advantage of our e-commerce grant."
See the difference? It's not as succinct, but the user still gets the message, and the keywords are much more present in the second example.
Keep in mind that there's a trade-off involved with the other two writing styles. You don't want to focus too much on search engines, because then your text might be too wordy for users. But you also don't want to be too succinct because you won't rank as well with the search engines. The best thing to do is keep a balance.
We hope this helps you in writing your website content. If you're interested in getting assistance with your content writing, don't hesitate to let us know and we'll be happy to help. Content writing can be a daunting task at times but once you get started you'll find that a lot of it comes naturally.
Good luck!
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