What makes these results so special?

Bendigo Mitchell was established in 1978 and has had a website presence for over 10 years. When Managing Director Duncan Nealon approached us in early 2011 to discuss a redesign, the site was already quite dominant for many of the popular key-phrases within it’s sector.

Our brief was to

• Build a site that would give the company more control over it’s content
• Give the site a more modern feel, whilst retaining it’s established brand identity
• Retain the existing search engine rankings held by the previous site and find new ways to bring more visitors to the site
• Increase the conversion rate of visitors to the website

Whilst we can’t share too much of the data for competitive reasons, we were pleasantly surprised to have received the following comments and data from Duncan just before Christmas:

Working with Thomas and the team at Edge of the Web was exceptional. They obviously have a deep and all-encompassing understanding of the digital and design worlds. What is similarly impressive however is their quite superb service and commitment to consistently exceed expectations. I really cannot recommend their services highly enough.

Much more importantly, Duncan sent us this graph showing an increase in traffic of around 100%.

There are a number of lessons that other websites owners can learn from Bendigo Mitchell’s story.

• A correct implementation means that a re-designed website can usually retain most of it’s existing rankings in search engines
• Just because your website appears to be visible in search engines does not automatically mean that you cannot achieve more visitors and sales. There are always new search terms to seek out and conversion rate is just as important as site visitor numbers
• Bendigo Mitchell have always taken their Search Engine Optimisation seriously and have worked with an independent specialist long before they spoke to us about a redesign. We found their SEO advisor to be straight-talking, knowledgeable and realistic which are all-too rare qualities in that sector

We would like to thank Bendigo Mitchell for allowing us to share their data, wish them a very prosperous 2012 and we look forward to exploring new ways to help them move their online objectives forwards.

Question 1 – What is your website for?

• Ecommerce
  If you want your website visitors to buy stuff on your site, then you should know that ecommerce comes in many flavours. Here are some of the big issues to discuss with your developer:
• How many products will you sell?
• Will people buy more than one product at a time?
• How are your products categorised?
• Do your products come with customisation options?
• What payment solution do you need?
• How do your delivery charges work?
• How is stock managed?
• Service Provider
  This sort of website is for companies that perform a service rather than sell a product. The content you need depends on the type of service you provide, but here are some issues to discuss with your web designers
• What sort of information do you want to put on your site?
• Do you want to update the content yourself regularly?
• How much investment do you want to make in the design (look and feel) of the site?
• What information do you need to provide in order to get the process moving?

Question 2 – How will people find your website?

If you have high expectations yet no strategy for bringing visitors to your website, then you are probably going to be a bit disappointed when your site is launched. Buying a website does not automatically mean you have bought the right to appear in position 1 on Google for the most popular term in your industry.Your web designer will be happy to discuss ways to promote and popularize your website and help you achieve your objectives. It’s always best to discuss this before your site is built so that allowances can be made in the design for your marketing objectives.

Ask your designer about:

1. Search Engine Optimsation (SEO)
2. Link building
3. Content creation (blogs, news, articles)
4. Social media (twitter, facebook, google+, linkedin)
5. Offline advertising

Question 3 – How will you know what’s going on with your website?

Quick Quiz: Which do you think is the easier problem to fix…

• A website with no visitors
• A website with lots of visitors but no sales / enquiries

Answer: OK, so there isn’t an answer to this question. The point simply being if you don’t know what the problem is, there’s not much chance of you fixing it.

Make sure you discuss analytics strategies with your designer.

In Summary

Have a think about the above points before you have your first discussion with your preferred web design company, and you’ll find the whole experience is much more productive.

Networking can be quite a daunting idea, talking to a bunch of people and listening to them trying to sell you stuff may not sound like your idea of fun; however these people can be just the contacts you need to grow your business.

I have been to quite a few networking events in my time at Edge of the Web so I have put together a short guide to achieve successful networking.

1. Networking is not just about selling your product. Be prepared to listen to others as they may have something which will help your business
2. Do not put anyone you are talking to on the spot. This is the fastest way to get your fellow networker away from you (not advised unless they have bad breath).
3. Networking is about building trust. You wouldn’t spend money with them straight away so don’t expect them to spend money with you.
4. Get involved and ask lots of questions. Don’t sit in the corner and be shy, it’s perfectly okay to join into a discussion.
5. Quality is better than quantity. Spending time talking and engaging in 2 or 3 conversations is much better than have a quick chat to 6 or 7.

The main thing to remember is that networking happens all the time even at the pub on a Friday night! There are opportunities everywhere so be sure you carry plenty on business cards.

This week’s post may seem fairly obvious (and slightly bias as we are a web design company) but it is possibly the most important and the first thing you should do. You need to have a website.

"Yes... having a website has made me loadsa money!"

Websites can pretty much do anything you want (except fix your car or do your washing) and are a great way to represent your image, ethics and more importantly, your message to your customers.

Websites also:

• allow you to grow your business by showing the services you provide so your customers can make an informed decision whether to use your services
• provide information 24/7 (opening times, address, etc)
• give you the opportunity to explain about your background and experience
• give you credibility – everybody uses the internet now

The main reason for having a website though, is to give your customers and potential customers confidence that you are a professional company and are serious about your business.

1)      You wish to remain anonymous

2)      You are up to no good

3)      You can’t afford one

4)      You don’t want more customers

5)      You hate computers

6)      You are scared of competitors stealing your business model

7)      You don’t want to go through the pain of getting a site built

8)      You have other priorities and are too busy

9)      Your customers don’t use the internet

Of course, each of these reasons are nonsense (except the “up to no good” one, in which case I recommend you keep a low profile).

Here’s why you do need a website

Growing your business

Your website can be great for attracting new business. People use the internet all the time for sourcing products and services. If you don’t have a website, you have no chance of winning any of this business.

Helping your existing customers

Here are some questions that your existing customers and suppliers will ask:

• “when are you open?”
• “can you help with …?”
• “what is your address?”
• “what is your availability?”
• “how does this product work?”
• “what do you charge for…?”

All of these questions can be answered on your website, and can be available 24/7/365 instantly.

Credibility

It’s just a fact that pretty much everybody uses the internet now. Customers, job applicants, partners, suppliers, journalists, competitors and pretty much everybody else expects to be able to find you online.

Caveat: The worst thing you can do is have a rubbish website.

You’ll get few / none of the benefits of having a website, with the added kick in the teeth that you look cheap, unprofessional and untrustworthy.

A rubbish website will (in any combination) look awful, be hard to navigate, contain typos, be factually incorrect, out of date and won’t work in a variety of internet browsers.

Cut out the other thousand things you were doing.

Why provide seventeen mediocre services when you can provide two that are fantastic?

Why have five processes for each order when you do it in three?

Why use ten web pages to say what you could say in two?

When you start a business, it’s common to lose focus. Your ideas and plans for the company often change and shift when you’re just starting up, and as a result, things often get overcomplicated.

At every stage, you will save money, time, and energy by keeping things simple.

Don’t try to do everything adequately.

Do one thing, and do it brilliantly.

It's all about you

Every website needs 3 staple pages, Home, About Us and Contact.

But sometimes the lines blur between the content for Home and About Us pages.

But there’s an easy way to solve it.

“You”

Your home page is undoubtedly the most important page on your site. It’s your best opportunity to create your message, build up interest and pull visitors towards the buy it now button and the contact page.

So don’t waste it talking about yourself.

Your Home page has to focus entirely on your customer, on how they benefit from using your company, on the ways their purchases/experience/life will be improved through this relationship.

If you have a sentence that begins with the words “we”, “our” or “I”, then they either need to be re-focussed, or banished to your About Us page.

“Us”

About Us is the place to explain who you are and how your company works. This is the place where “we” belongs.

So for a simple rule of thumb: If it’s about them, it goes on the Home page, if it’s about you – it’s About Us.

Easy!

Sometimes, however, you hit the jackpot.

For example: last week, everyone’s favourite Sir/Lord/Businessman/Reality TV Character/Walking Catchphrase managed to offend the very people he’s supposed to be “championing” in government.

That’s right folks, Lord Alan Sugar, Enterprise Champion for the Government, told small businesses they were “moaners”.

Putting aside the genius of his comments for a moment, as a news item this story is fantastically attractive because it combines the interests of a particular audience (small business owners), with the interest of a huge number of people (anyone who takes an interest in The Apprentice, or Suralan himself).

This gives you both a wide exposure, but still keeps the high level of relevance to your audience.

Having someone famous in your headline is always going to get you more exposure, but be careful not to be disingenuous. If your headline states “Britney sniffs our socks”, and it turns out that Britney is an 8 year-old Basset hound from Wiltshire, you’re going to lose most of your visitors as soon as they arrive.

With your news, you should never sacrifice relevance for wider exposure (search engines will punish you for this even more than your visitors) – but you should sure as hell make the most of it if you can combine the two!

Of course, if you do want to write silly stories about Basset hounds and kittens and high heels in the workplace, I suggest you start writing a blog instead!

Of course, the more people you get to your site, the better opportunity you have to turn those visitors into customers, and make more money out of your web presence.

Keeping a relevant news feed can be massively valuable. Search engines always prefer sites with relevant content, especially if they update that content regularly, and a news feed can help you do this.

Getting into a news aggregator, such as Google News is also highly valuable, and can help your site get much wider exposure.

It isn’t an ideal option for everyone though – news means different things to different people. If your clients have an interest in your industry, keeping them updated with the latest news is going to matter to them. However, if you’re selling socks, updates on the availability of cotton and the newest darning machines is probably not going to titillate your customers.

News feeds are of most value when you have a clearly defined audience, with a specific area of interest. Of course, once you’ve identified your target audience, you need to provide them with stories that matter to them. Tailoring each article to the interests of your visitors will keep your news feed relevant to them, and relevant content is something that search engines adore.

So, news can give you wider exposure and a greater volume of relevant content – which are both excellent ways of improving your standing in search engines, allowing you to reach out to potential customers and bring more visitors to your website.

there's always time for blogging

“Blog” – even the word gets most business owners backs up. Perhaps they are hearing “spam” or “personal diary” or “unprofessional” or “more work”??? Who knows! Either way it’s worth knowing the benefits of a blog before you decide they are a waste of time.

A blog has value to multiple groups of people and also from a scientific online marketing perspective.

A blog can be as professional or as intimate as you choose, although most companies take the opportunity to inject a little more personality into a blog than they might into any other content on a website.

A blog doesn’t have to be written by the MD exclusively, in fact, it’s probably best if it isn’t

So … let’s get down to “what’s the point”.

Well, firstly a “cared for” blog overcomes one of my personal bug bares that you find on so many websites. “Corporate bull****”, particularly the type that small companies write because they feel that’s the tone that wins big contracts / sales. A blog is 10 times more interesting (insightful) to read on a companies website before deciding whether to engage their services.

You can use a blog to show that you know what you are talking about. This is great on many levels. If you are passionate about your skill or service, shout about it, every detail, regularly. Would you prefer to have your wedding photo’s taken by a “paying the bills” hobbyist or a photography fanatic? It’s hard to tell the difference with corporate website text.

A blog shows that you are real people. You like to do business with real people…? me too.

Blogs are written by people (duh!). Leave your name at the end of each blog post you write. When I have somebody coming to visit me (for interview, meeting or other) the first thing I do is Google them. It’s not impressive to see drunken, sun burnt holiday snaps (usually) in Facebook, but it’s very (very) impressive to see a list of articles that prove this person knows their onions in their industry.

Blogs are loved by search engines. If you use one of the smart free tools to write your blog (like wordpress) your blog will be read by Google and indexed in it’s blog search within 10 minutes of you posting your entry. How good for marketing and website discovery is that?!? (It’s very good).

Blogs also notify other blog owners if you send links or make reference to their blogs. Quite often these other blog owners comment on what you have written, and send a link back to your blog so that their readers know what they are talking about. Let me phrase this sentence in another way…Blogs are a brilliant way to get loads of links from relevant websites!!! (Links are pretty much the currency of the internet).

Still not convinced about the value of blogs?…ok, but at least you took the time to consider some of the benefits.