Wednesday 17 April 2013

How Your Website Can Give Something Back To Visitors

You will always hear people talking about engaging content onsite and how important it is when putting together a website that you want to optimise and hope to convert from.  Whilst this still stands true, interesting and unique content though incredibly important, is not the only factor that will help your site to perform well.

A website has two audiences - the search engine bot and the human visitor.  Whilst it needs to be coded, structured and written in such a way that it can be easily indexed and spidered, it is also important to engage the human visitor by giving something back.

Some of the most effective websites are those which appear to be alive - i.e. they feature regular blog updates and have a social feed from their Facebook and Twitter accounts which they also post to frequently.  This is a great way to approach website design - factoring in the need for social icons, links and feeds - because this is what visitors are looking for.  They want to see that you are active and not just a company that last updated their website 3 years ago.

Websites with added value are also more likely to perform and convert well.  If your site simply tells visitors what you can do and how great you are, it may be a turn-off for potential customers as there is bound to be someone else in the search engine listings that can provide a much better visitor experience.  So how can you give something back?

  • Tips - offer your website visitors tips on using or choosing your services, so they feel more comfortable and assured
  • Resources - offer something for free, whether it is in the form of a download with useful information or just a page that gives advice on using your products or the benefits of your services
  • Samples and Examples - if you are in the business of manufacturing you may be able to send out free sample of your product.  If not, you can give examples of the kind of work you are able to create by displaying photos or videos on your site.  This gives potential customers an insight into your abilities and may give them some inspiration for their own projects
  • Videos - human beings are naturally curious so you can play on this by incorporating videos about your products/services/staff or anything related to the work you do on your website.  Just make sure that they do not auto play when people land on the page as this is really annoying and off putting from a website visitor's perspective!
These tips will put you on the right line to creating a website that gives something back to the visitor and hopefully encourages them to find out more about what your business can offer.  To read more about SEO and site engagement please visit seo-it-right.co.uk

Posted by Frances Berry

Tuesday 9 April 2013

How social marketing has revolutionised traditional marketing strategies

Traditional marketing strategies used to include things such as television and radio advertisements, press releases and newsletter campaigns. However, as a result of the internet revolution, marketing has had to change dramatically in order to keep up with its target audience.

 Most of us nowadays have access to the internet, whether it is via a PC or a smart phone. Social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+ have allowed us to communicate with friends and business contacts on an instant basis, so many organisations have had to change the way they conduct their advertising and PR in order to keep up to date with these changes.

 A user friendly and professional website can really help to attract customers to the product or service. Most websites are now also becoming responsive, which means they can be seen and utilised easily by those users who use their smart phone more regularly than their PC.

Shopping cart sites can also allow customers to make an instant purchase if they wish to. Most large retail stores also have an extensive website where their customers can make purchases at any time of day or night. Smaller suppliers may also conduct all of their business via the internet, as this means they do not have the costly overheads of running and maintaining a shop or storing huge amounts of stock.

 By having a strong online presence, businesses can either create a new brand or they can continue to promote their existing image in a strong and positive way. The internet means they have greater access to their target market, which could also become much wider if necessary. Social media is a great way of increasing communication between an organisation and its audience, and if used correctly it can be an extremely powerful and positive tool.

 If you are interested in social media and wish to find out more about how a social campaign could help to promote your business, then visit our website www.seo-it-right.co.uk or get in touch, we’d love to hear from you!