Benefit 1: A website is extremely cost effective advertising

Working alongside other advertising media such as posters, leaflets, posting in directories etc, a website can be extremely cost effective in promoting your business. Most advertising is local, at most national. Radio, television, van signs, posters, they all target a local at most a national audience. The web is not local, its global! When your website is online there are no limits. People from all over the world can stumble across your website. It can cost as little as £200 to get a website, £7 for a .co.uk domain and £30 for hosting. With all those potential customers up for grabs, NOW thats VALUE for money!

Benefit 2: A website enhances your company image

Getting a website is not a substitute for other advertising media, but can enhance your image in conjunction with other advertising methods. For example, if you advertise in YELL business pages, or in other online directories, you are often given a cheap or even free website link option. If you were a potential customer would you choose the company with the appealing website or the one without?

You can also add your web address to other advertising material like leaflets, business cards, van signs etc. Once again, the first place people look to find a product or service is the internet, if you do not have a website they may question your credibility and professionalism. Even worse they may find your competitor and contact them instead of you.

Benefit 3: A website creates a competitive edge

As mentioned earlier, having a website gives you access to a massive pool of potential customers, if you have not got one you are missing out on them. Further to this, many small businesses have not got a website, if you get one you already have an edge over them. Even if you only get a 4 visits a day, its 4 more potential customers than your competition.

Benefit 4: You can target potential customers 24/7

The web is available 24hrs a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Internet users can access your information regardless of whether or not it is business hours. You can reach current and potential customers 24 hours a day. Your website is working for you even when you are not!

Benefit 5: You will have a global audience

Your audience is not only local, not only national, but international too. Nowadays the first place, and often the only place, potential customers look for a product or service is on the web. If you don’t have a website your missing out on a massive pool of potential customers!

Benefit 6: A website will enhance your communication efforts

Think of a website as a business card. You meet a potential customer, you give them a business card, that business card can only hold so much information about your company, and it often gets chucked in the bin! BUT add your web address, to the business card, or to your van, or to your leaflets and your potential customers can go to your site and read all about you, your company, your services, read testimonials, view your work…….. the list is endless!

Furthermore, nowadays, most people prefer to make contact via email, as it is quick, easy, cheap and convenient, having a website means they can contact you easily, 24/7. You can even include interactive features, such as feedback forms and FAQ’s. Even better, people can sign up for a mailing list to receive information on your latest products and services, you can keep on selling even after the job is done!

Benefit 7: A website can be easily updated

If you choose a content managed website, you can update information quickly and easily to include changes to your products, services, special offers or contact details. These details cannot be changed on brochures, flyer’s, business cards or any other existing print based advertising medium – they will all have to be reprinted costing you and your business money. make your leaflet smaller with less info but a link to your website and save money on printing and reprinting.

Benefit 8: You can trade online

Your website can act as an online brochure, putting your products and services where people can see them. People can find your products, read all about them, even write reviews, and also contact you by email to make enquiries. You can even provide online order forms. You can have an online shopping cart where the customer proceeds to a virtual checkout and pays by credit or debit card. The savings can be huge!

Benefit 9: You can operate with lower stock levels

You can have pictures and descriptions of your products and services on your website. When you receive a request for a product you can order it in specifically for the customer. You don’t have to buy lots of stock upfront; money is not tied up with unsold stock which cost you money to buy and is costing you money to store.

Benefit 10: A website will make the most of impulse buying

People can look at your online information straight away when it suits them. People are impatient and impulsive and may not be prepared to wait for your other advertising efforts to reach them. For example, if they have to wait 3-4 days for your brochure to reach them through the post, by that time they could have found another product from somewhere else.

This small article points out just some of the main benefits of having a website for you or your business. If you would like a quick FREE online quote please feel free to go to my online website quote page and fill out the form!

You may also like to read:

• Do I need a small business website?
• The About Us Page for Small Business Websites
• Small Business Advertising
• Explore the Benefits of Virtual Private Server Technology
• How to Promote a Website

10 Benefits of a Website is a post from: Build Me A Fab Website

Having a site built is just the first part of a long ongoing journey. Many people think, once their website is built, customers will be knocking on the door in droves. Yes, this is a possibility, but it’s also very unlikely, unless you put some effort into promoting your website.

Promoting your Website Online

Put it this way, if you run a small business, you may advertise in the local paper, occasionally running a week long advert to generate some business. You will spend time arranging the advert design, thinking about what you want it to say, but it won’t get noticed unless you ring the paper and get it posted. In a months time you may want to run the advert again for a further week, but you may want to change some text on it to try appeal more to your customers, again, more time and effort is put in.

The same applies to running a website. You have to get links to the site, you have to advertise your website, promote your website, and put a little effort into getting people to visit it, just as you do with an advert in a local paper.
OK, so how can you get more visitors to your website? What can you do to stimulate website traffic? These days many people search for local businesses on the Internet. Fortunately, for a local business you don’t need a complex and expensive website to be effective. You’re not competing with the best of the best nationally, you just need to present yourself well to local residents. In fact, your website may not directly generate business for you, but if your business has a nicely designed website customers are likely to choose you from a directory of businesses, than the company without a website, even more so than the company with a badly designed website.

So how do you get more people to visit your website? Here are a few suggestions:

Website linking strategies

Links to your website from other websites bring additional traffic, but Google and other major search engines also consider the number of incoming links to your website as an important factor in ranking. Google examines your site and awards points according to their own criteria (though they do not tell web developers exactly how their system works but they do offer advice).

One of these criteria for getting points is quantity combined with quality of incoming links. All links, are not treated equal. The aim is to get links from good established, well visited and highly ranked sites that are (most importantly) relevant to your site and not just some random site with no obvious reason for linking to you. So choose your link partners wisely.

Think about posting advice on appropriate forums related to your site or industry and adding your URL in your signature. This will not only get you precious quality links but may also get you a customer or 2 if they like your advice.

Add your URL to business advertising directories, especially FREE ones. Yell.com, freeindex.co.uk are just 2 of the best. There are many example free advertising websites for your website on my small business advertising page, so take a look and get linking.

*** WARNING: Do not sign up to link farms, avoid them like the plague, they will ruin your ranking on google and may risk getting you banned. Look for quality links and suitable directories to advertise your website.

Submit your site to search engines and directories

Your site should be submitted to all the big search engines and any web design company worth their salt will do this for you. How can anyone visit your website if they don’t even know its out there. Without submission to search engines you website is like a desert island out there all on its own.

FABI Designs submits your website to lots of search engines, including google, yahoo and msn. There is also a search engine submission tool in our customer hosting control panel which submits your website to 10 major search engines just incase you want to be doubley sure. Be patient as it can take a while for search engines and directories to crawl / submit your website. Re-submitting will not help matters, in fact it may prevent you being listed at all.

Submit your website to industry websites and specialised directories

You may find some directories focused on particular industries, such as plumbing, or more generically tradesmen. You probably belong to various trade associations that feature member sites. Ask for a link! Even if you have to pay something for a link, it may help boost your Page Rank.

Beware of directories that solicit you for “upgraded listings.” Unless a directory is widely used in your field, your premium advert won’t help! Be careful choosing which directory you place a paid advert in, some are better than others, but the link itself will help boost your Page Rank and hence your search engine ranking. If you are going to pay then experiment. Place a short add to run for a week or 2 on your well researched and chosen website such as www.gumtree.co.uk and then try another website for the same length of time. Stick with the websites which worked and forget about the ones that just drain your money – make sure you keep an eye on how much your web advertising is costing you. It’s all common sense really!

Request Reciprocal Links

Find complementary and related websites and request a reciprocal link to your website. Be careful where you put the reciprocal link, best to bury it somewhere relevant in your website and not on the front page, since you don’t want to open the door to visitors only to send them straight out the back door to another website. Don’t over do reciprocal linking. Reciprocal links do not hold the same weight in google terms as a one way link to your website (i.e. google do not award the same level of points), but they can help generate traffic and business. Remember these links should always be relevant or else search engines may penalise you. For example, there is little point getting a reciprocal link from a chocolate maker if your a plumber!

Promoting your Website Offline

Once you have your new website there some of the more traditional advertising methods can be enhanced. Don’t forget to update and change your normal promotions to integrate your new website URL (your web address e.g. www.mynewwebsite.co.uk).

Further, don’t suddenly forget about the more traditional methods of business promotion just because you now have a website. Traditional methods should now work hand in hand with your new website and the new online promotions you can take advantage of.

Here are some things to start thinking about once you have your new website:

Add your web address to business stationary

Surprisingly this is often overlooked! Make sure that all reprints of cards, stationery, brochures, invoices, receipts, letters, and literature contain your company’s web address. Make doubly sure that your printer gets the URL name correct, you don’t want your new stationary arriving with the wrong web address on it now do you! Further, you NEVER need to have the “http://” included only the www.domain.com portion.

Put your web address on your company van(s) or car

Again this is something businesses don’t think about. Your van or car is a moving advert seen by hundreds of people a day. SO make the most of it, if you already have your company name and logo on it add your web address too. If you don’t have any company branding on it think about getting it, as it can cost as little as £20 for a rear window decal for your car to £300, dependant on your requirements.

Promote using traditional media

Don’t discontinue print advertising that you’ve found effective. But be sure to include your web address in any display or classified ads you place and purchase. Never forget to add your website URL on new and existing promotional methods.

If you have taken advantage of free online advertising before you got your website, then go back and add your new web address everywhere you can. If you can’t remember what sites you signed up for, simply google your company name and see where you are listed. It’s important to show your link where ever you advertise and although this can be time consuming it’s definitely a worth while job!

View your website as an information addition to your adverts. Consider other traditional media to drive people to your site, such as direct mail, classifieds, post cards, etc. With your new website you don’t have to squueze as much information on your traditional adverts since you can now just point your potential customers to your website for more information.

Promote your website in online forums and blogs

The Internet offers thousands of very targeted online forums, blogs, and news groups, made up of people with very specialised interests. However, don’t use aggressive marketing and overtly plug your product or service – you will likely be banned. Rather, add to the discussion in a helpful way and let the “signature” at the end of your e-mail message do your marketing for you. People will gradually get to know and trust you, visit your site, and do business with you. For example, if you are an electrician search google for electrical DIY forums in your area. Search for sites to offer people who are having electrical problems helpful free advice, as when they see your web address in your signature they may visit your website and decide you are the person to help them with their electrical needs.

Exchange adverts with complementary businesses

Are you selling a product for a supplier you use regularly, if so offer an advertising exchange. For example, if you use a bathroom parts supplier for bathroom installations you do, offer to display an advert for their site in exchange for an advert for your site and services on theirs.

Paid website promotion ideas

The above methods are pretty much free in terms of money, they do take time and energy, however, if you want to grow your business more rapidly, there comes a point when you need to pay for increased traffic. Here are some options:

Buy a Text Advert in an e-mail newsletter

Some of the best buys are small text ads in e-mail newsletters targeted at audiences likely to be interested in your products or services. Many small publishers aren’t sophisticated about advertising and offer attractive rates.

Use Google tools

Perhaps the biggest and most popular search engine is Google, so use it to your advantage and sign up for free tools and some reasonably priced advertising to boost your marketing campaign. Some are mentioned below:

Google Ad Words – these are the ads appearing as featured links to the right of “natural” search engine results – those labelled sponsored links.

You create your own site ads on google – choosing keywords, which are words or phrases related to your business. When people search on Google using one of your keywords, your ad may appear next to the search results. Now you’re advertising to an audience that’s already interested in you. How often your advert appears is determined by how much you’ve bid for a particular search word compared to other businesses.

Google adwords can be a cost-effective way to get targeted traffic, since you only pay when someone actually clicks on the link. There is loads of information on how to set up and use GoogleAdwords in my Google Adwords Tutorial and in my Article about to Google Adwords.

Google Maps and the local business centre – Millions of people search Google Maps every day. A free listing on Google Maps makes it easy for them to find you. Use the Local Business Centre to create your free listing. When potential customers search Maps for local information, they’ll find your business: your address, hours of operation, even photos of your store front or products. It’s easy, free, and you don’t need a website of your own, but if you have one you can add your web address too. Further google maps sometimes appears at the top of natural searches near the sponsored links! BONUS!

We hope these simple advertising ideas have given you some ideas on how you can improve your advertising campaigns using your website. What are you waiting for, get Advertsing!!You may also like to read:

• Small Business Advertising
• 25 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website
• Effective Link Building To Improve Page Rank
• Search Engine Optimization In A Nutshell
• A Brief Intro to Link Building for Small Business Owners

How to Promote a Website is a post from: Build Me A Fab Website

Do you run a small business? Do you have a small business website? If you do you will know how it’s performing then? You will know approximately how many hits you get? You will know how people find your website? You will know if it was worth the cost? If you don’t then why don’t you?

The biggest mistake small business owners make is to get a website designed then think it will run itself and so forget about it! If you are going to do that then don’t bother getting a website! Websites take time and effort to run. Your websites should be part of your weekly business routine. You should be looking after your website at least once a week. Thinking of new ways to promote it and drive more traffic to it.

If a website isn’t maintained, monitored or updated then the owner has no idea if the website is benefiting the business and more so the website probably isn’t benefiting the business at all!

A website is a promotional and a communication tool. You can use it to attract new customers, and to engage with existing ones. In order to do this you need devote some time and effort to promote, update, monitor and maintain your website.

Promoting your Small Business Website

Once your website is live you need to include it in all your existing promotional methods where possible, and look to new promotional methods which take advantage of your new site. It’s up to you how successful you online promotions are. Your new website is just the start, you need to make it work!

As a website owner many new methods of cheaply and effectively promoting your businesses will become available; but remember these are in addition to the existing offline methods.

It is important that you become familiar with the main website promotion methods such as SEO, PPC and email marketing), as well as including your website in your offline efforts by including your web and email address on your stationary and other promotions, vehicles, etc. Read our article on website promotion tips for more advice and take a look at our small business advertising section for some great sites and ways to advertise your website and drive traffic.

Keeping your website up to date!

Now many small businesses opt for a static site. I often tell clients that the best website to choose is a website you can update yourself. Why? Not because that is a more expensive package BUT because it is important that your site looks fresh and so you should ensure that you update the home page from time to time. Not only that but search engines LOVE frequently updated sites. If a site has not been changed for months, search engines can mark it down as old and not as important! OK getting a static site may get your online presence off the ground BUT after a year or so you should start thinking about upgrading your site to include content management (a way to update your site yourself).

The easiest way of keeping your site fresh and up to date is to include news/Blog headlines on the home page. You could also write useful articles for your potential clients (just as I am doing now!) Search engines will love these extra pages, and in very simple terms the more useful pages you have out there indexed by google the more likely one of them will be found by your potential customers.

Because you will need to update your site it is important that you know how, or employ someone who does. This is why I always advocate that you become familiar with basic web site technologies as it makes running your site much easier.

Maintain Your website

Make sure your site:

• Is online
• Contains no broken links
• No missing images
• That the site map is up to date.
• That it displays correctly in various browsers.

Monitor your website

This is perhaps the most important part, and the one than very few website owners do. How is your site performing?

• Is your traffic increasing or decreasing?
• Where is your traffic coming from?
• What keywords are your visitors using?
• How is your traffic converting to customers?
• How profitable is your site?
• And last and most importantly, HOW can you make your website work better for your business!!!

At FABI Designs we set up all our sites with access to google analytics. This gives you access to some great statistics about your website, such as, how many hits, how many unique hits, how users found you, where they are in the world, what sites are refering you etc etc.

The essence of this article is to point out how important it is for you to take interest in your website once it has been built. A website does not run itself, yes a static site may not need much involvement, but you need to take interest in how it is performing so that you can consider ways to improve it and get it noticed by potential customers.You may also like to read:

• Do I need a small business website?
• Google has released a major ranking algorithm update
• Benefits of Search Engine Optimization for your Website
• How To Get Your Visitors Returning Back To Your Website
• How to Promote a Website

Running A Small Business Website is a post from: Build Me A Fab Website

If your business does not have a web site you are missing out on sales and potential profits. Whats-more, if you have a web site that is not professionally designed, you run the risk of losing customers that do look at your site.  If your competitors have a web site and you don’t, you WILL lose sales as more and more of your customers look to the web to do research on their buying decisions.

As far as web-literate consumers are concerned, internet search engines generally offer the best way to track down a local tradesmen or find out where the nearest supermarket is. With this in mind it is a shock to know that many small business still do not have a website! Of those that do many have a terribly designed one that will send potential customers running for the hills!

At the end of the day, the invention of the internet brought a new audience to the small business. Not only were small businesses able to communicate and advertise to their local area, but suddenly a whole new world of customers came within reach. As a business, big or small, if you are not already marketing your business on the internet, you are missing out on hundreds of new potential customers!

With all this in mind it staggers me that so many small business, especially in these hard times, are not taking advantage of such a fantastic marketing medium. It is becoming obvious in these tough times that many small businesses will face the ultimate scenario, keep up, or lose out!

Small Businesses need to make the most of their website

On the other hand, if you are going to begin promoting your business on the internet you have to make the effort to get the most out of your website. A website is not a miracle solution to falling sales and slowing business. A website is an addition to all your other marketing methods, it should compliment all your other business processes and advertising. Most importantly it will not work unless you put time and effort into running and promoting the site. Read our great articles on promoting your website and free advertising for the small business to help you make the most of your website in your marketing campaigns.

Small businesses do one thing well, and that is failing to maximise the potential of their website. Do not blame your web designer if your website is not generating business for you, it most probably is not your web designers fault, it is probably yours. If you are not actively promoting your website then your site will not be found and it will never find you a new customer!

Getting a Website

So you now realise what you are missing out on if you have not got a website, it’s time to decide what you want from your site, find a designer and get your business online.

As a novice you will make many mistakes on your internet mission. Unless you possess online marketing skills you will make a lot of poor decisions. You might want certain elements on your website just because you like the way they look, are convinced you have to have a certain pages just because every other site does and demand a certain colour because you think it “looks professional”. STOP now, take the time to think what your potential customer would want to see and read. Do you really need to list your services? Do you really need an about us page? Would you really get value for money from an online booking system – would your customers use it?

You may argue that your web designer should help you establish a successful online presence. That’s what you hired him/her for right? Unfortunately most web designers are not online marketers, but they will be very good technically and creatively. They may even know a lot more about the internet and online marketing than you, but that does NOT make them an expert, it makes them a help, but you should be the one who looks into your market and thinks about how you promote your website.

Research your Competitors Websites

Research your competitors websites, see what they have on their site. See what you like and what you don’t like, but DON’T copy. Why? Because most small businesses have not got a clue what they are doing with their website. They don’t know what they should have on their site, so copying them is probably not the best start. The best thing you can do is make your own decisions. Think about what will be useful for your customers, think about what your customers would want to see and read.

Of course some of your competitors will have great sites BUT don’t just copy, do your research.  Copying other websites rarely works effectively. Most other small business website owners don’t know how to market online so you will repeat what doesn’t work.

Make a sale with your website

A website can convert prospects for you without you personally selling at all. When your potential customer finally contacts you they are pre-sold, you don’t have to do anything but take their money and provide your services or products. How can you get your website to work like this? By understanding online marketing! I will be writing some articles on this in the future so please browse my site for more information.

In conclusion, do small businesses need a website, hell yes, if they don’t want to be left behind their competition. It does not have to be a fancy all singing and dancing website, it can be simple with only a few pages so it can be added to business cards, BUT it need to look proffessional and contain information that your customers will want to see.

Contact us for a FREE web design consultation on 0113 2797731 or 07818 058158. You can also request a free web design quote using our online website quote form.You may also like to read:

• Running A Small Business Website
• 10 Benefits of a Website
• Are you just following your competitors?
• Small Business Advertising
• The About Us Page for Small Business Websites

Do I need a small business website? is a post from: Build Me A Fab Website