My new website is live.. now what?

Congratulations! Your new website is complete… There are many moving parts to a build, from coding to design and lastly to the content itself.

However, if you want to attract and retain customers, which let’s be honest… we ALL want. Then you cannot have a “set it and forget it” mentality. Marketing your business is not only about creating a presence on the web, it’s about maintaining it too.

It is therefore vital that you implement a ‘Website Update Schedule’ for your business.

Here are 4 reasons why a WUS is a wise decision:

1. Your business deserves to always shine in the best light.

Broken links, 404 pages, half-baked landing pages, slow loading times… your visitors will go elsewhere if they don’t find what they’re looking for… and FAST. The last thing you want is potential customers to become frustrated. It never ends well, and worse yet they’ll probably tell their family and friends not to come too.

Building trust is vital to operating a successful online presence. But at the end of the day, who’s going to want to enter their credit card or contact information when your website looks neglected? Ask yourself… would YOU trust this business?

Your website is the face of your organisation online, so invest the time and energy into keeping it current.

Actively monitor for bugs whilst simultaneously adding fresh content like blogs, articles, events and reviews. This way you kill two birds with one stone. We would recommend you do this at least once per week in order to keep your visitors engaged and to reap the long-term benefits of SEO.

2. Keep your website safe and secure for everyone.

You are not only responsible for protecting your own data, but you are also responsible for protecting your visitors’ data too. Security requirements are always changing, and nobody is safe – even big brands are targets for cyber-attacks and data breaches. To make this all the more challenging, if you are accepting visitors from countries within the European Union or US states such as California you are legally obliged to implement enhanced data security practices.

Towards the end of 2016, Uber announced the personal information of 57 million of their customers information and over 600,000 drivers had been hacked. To make matters worse, the company tried to hide the breach rather than report it.

In November 2018, Marriott International the hotel group came forward with information that cyber criminals had stolen the data of approximately 500 million of their customers.

Since hackers get smarter all the time, you need a program you can trust to keep your online assets safe.

Being proactive and protecting your website now is so much easier than dealing with the devastation, disruption and huge costs of a hacked site, lost data and destroyed Google rankings. And make no mistake, all of those negatives strike at once so it can be a scary time.

3. Secure backups, made regularly, will literally save your business.

A backup is a saved copy of your website, whether it’s from a day ago or a month ago. Backups are stored in files or in the cloud and can be restored if needed. There are two types of backup, full and incremental. They both have their benefits, but the full backup is the one you need to ensure is operating automatically and regularly.

If you don’t have a backup readily available and your website is hacked and wiped, you’d need to start over from scratch. You wouldn’t want all your hard work to disappear, would you?

4. Software updates are rarely automatic, but essential.

Software is ever-changing, whether it’s plugins and themes that need updating or security programs.

Your site isn’t going to run smoothly and will also be vulnerable to hackers if you don’t stay on top of software updates. The more often you update, the less likely you are to have problems.

Keeping your software updated also ensures your site loads quickly when visitors arrive; speed does have a direct impact on SEO.

Don’t miss vital leads or sales by neglecting content, security, backup and regular software updates.

Remember, spend a little money now and it will save you a fortune in case the worst happens tomorrow!

So, to recap. Ensure your ‘Website Update Schedule’ includes:

• Continuous state-of-the-art monitoring and “next-generation application firewall” protection against spam, malware and other malicious attempts. 7G firewalls are particularly effective.
• Ongoing automatic backups of your site in case it ever needs to be restored. Daily backups are expected these days as a minimum, in some cases hourly is recommended. Ensure the backups are stored away from the webserver itself and in a cloud location for further resiliency.
• Check every page of your website for broken images and links so it runs smooth and fast. As you intend for your visitors to experience it. Have your Web Developers’ phone number handy if you spot something amiss (in many cases quick fixes are free of charge anyway so why wouldn’t you).
• If you’re website is running on WordPress, make sure the ‘core’ is updated regularly (the latest is version 5.8 as of posting) and ensure your plugins are updated too for optimal performance and security. Make sure your webserver is running PHP version 7.4 or above. Many of our clients are now running on PHP version 8 for the enhanced security and performance benefits it brings.

Social media offers individuals and business owners alike a great deal of ability to get the word out. This could be for new services and products or about an event or promotion. Most people use social media of some kind – and what’s more, they keep it close to them with their mobile devices at the ready.

People share everything on social media, from their baby’s first steps to more mundane things like what they’re eating for dinner that night.

Being online and using social media to promote your business offers many benefits.

1. Brand Recognition

If your aim is for people to recognise your brand, it’s important to develop a branded appearance that you use across all social media networks. Use the same logos (albeit in in different sizes), introductions and slogans so you stay true to your brand at all times.

2. ‘Drip fed’ Marketing Converts.

When you provide information over a long period of time, your audience becomes accustomed to your message. Over time they develop trust, and after being exposed to your brand for several weeks to months they are much more likely to place an order.

3. Improves Authority.

When you post a lot of original, interesting and helpful information, people start viewing you as an authority on those topics. You essentially become a ‘Subject Matter Expert’ or SME. Once you’re viewed as an SME you are considered the most trust worthy in your field. This absolutely converts to sales. Ask yourself, do YOU trust someone who is an expert in their field?

4. Increases Brand Loyalty.

The more people who are exposed to your brand, the more loyal they will become toward what you offer. Your offerings should represent what your brand represents and you’ll find that people become more loyal to you as you stick to what you know and believe in.

5. Increases Traffic to Your Website.

Using social media to share and promote your blog posts and new offerings will increase the traffic to your website considerably. One of the best ways to rank higher on search results is to be active on social networks.

6. It’s inexpensive.

Of all the many forms of marketing, it’s very affordable. Take television for example with its eye watering average 30 second ad cost of $150,000. Social media starting at less than $2 looks like a bargain. It can also be fun. Guard yourself from getting side-tracked, but always be interactive and engaging with your followers. Remember, time is money. Automate what is not direct communication so that you can get more done in less time.

7. Allows for Useful Consumer Engagement.

Social networks can let you engage with users in a very beneficial way. You can have deep conversations about many topics. Just remember to keep it professional and handle controversy carefully. Learn to brush off your emotions when you encounter negativity of either your brand or offerings and instead use the opportunity to look exceptionally kind, patient and professional. Remember, we are judged when we are at our worst not our best.

8. Works with Mobile Devices.

Better than most websites and email, social media works effortlessly on mobile devices. Social media and mobile really go hand-in-hand. People take their devices on dates, and to bed – you’ve never been closer to your audience than now.

Although everything about Facebook isn’t perfect, it’s still the biggest social network and they want you to succeed using their advertising platform. This just makes sense. If you achieve your business goals while spending money on Facebook advertising, you’re likely to use that marketing practice again in the future.

At VIEWFULE, we actively encourage the use of marketing on social media. Simply put, it works as our clients see results from it and so can you too. Irrespective of your industry, we would love to work with you and for you to boost your social media presence. So, remember to reach out for your FREE initial consultation today.

A purely online based business with no ‘brick and mortar’ presence needs traffic in order to make sales and succeed. Essentially, traffic is the life blood of an online business. Without a reliable and highly targeted flow of traffic the business will surely fail it’s simply a matter of time. Therefore, acquiring and driving that traffic to your website should form a central piece of your marketing strategy. This has never been more important than in 2021 as there are more than 2 billion indexed websites out there… you need to make it clear why the visitor should choose you and FAST!

It is possible to buy traffic to your website, however there are many reasons why this is not a wise decision. We will cover this on another article but for now we’re going to delve deeper into 5 PROVEN METHODS that absolutely will drive more effective and targeted traffic to your website.

1. Write fresh and unique content REGULARLY.

Your entire website should be full of relevant, unique and well written content from front to back. When visitors find interesting content on your website, they will learn to trust your business. By doing so, they will spend more time on your website, favourite it/ bookmark it and eventually buy your products or services. It’s a virtual certainty.

By posting lots of valuable information on your website, regularly, you will be viewed as a subject matter expert (SME) in your field. We recommend that most of our clients post at least one interesting and unique blog/article per week and share it across all their social media.

2. Search Engine Optimisation or SEO – is KING.

Making your website visible in search engines, known as being ‘indexed’, is essential. You need to ensure your home page and ALL YOUR SUB-PAGES are indexed too. Google currently holds a 90% market share of all search engines globally, therefore it would be very wise indeed that you spend most of your time promoting your website in Google.

Being on the first page of the search engines results page (SERP) will make you very popular. Traffic will increase, this is a fact. Investigate and test niche keywords and phrases and place these in your titles and in the rest of the content on your website to increase their density. But be careful not to ‘overdo it’, if you are believed to be keyword spamming this will negatively affect your website (don’t use the same keyword more than 12 times per page).

Usually, visitors search using keywords or phrases and as a result this increases the chances of your website being found for those specific keywords. Take your time on this, test test test and do more testing. You will find the sweet spot in time.

3. Pay Per Click or PPC Advertising WORKS.

However, it costs. That being said, Google often provides sign up bonuses for its system ’Google Ads’ which can add up to $100. So, keep an eye out for these promos. Depending on your industry, you will want to start out with a budget of anywhere between $500-$2000. You can write your own ads or pay others to do this for you, although YouTube can be really helpful and teach you a new skill. Nail the ads, the targeting options, and the time of day they run and you could be making sales within hours.

4. Join Forums related to your industry – ENGAGE with them.

Joining Forums, talking with other likeminded individuals and sharing your knowledge can be very powerful for gaining more traffic. Once again, this takes us back to that topic of the SME I mentioned earlier. Engaging with fellow members and making it clear how knowledgeable you are within your field will result in others wanting to learn more about you.

Find appropriate forums on the internet (Google search your industry, country and the word ‘forum’ as a start) and participate in industry specific targeted forums. The topics you interact with should align with the topics on your website. We would not recommend that you directly write your Website URL on the topics or within responses. This may breach forum rules (remember to check them) but do capatilise on your username and avatar being related to your business and remember to link your website in your signature as this is usually permitted.

5. Videos increase engagement by up to 300% – CREATE them.

Create videos, as often as you can. Discuss in them your business, you and the products or services you offer. Respond to questions and emails from customers this way too by recording a Q&A session. They say a picture speaks 1000 words…. Well, a video speaks 300% higher than that! Make sure you share them on YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion etc too and tag them accordingly. Today, many businesses use video marketing to drive traffic to their website and the simple reason for this is… IT WORKS! Ensure you post your Website URL on the video description as this will make it easy to link visitors straight to your website.

At VIEWFULE, driving traffic to our clients’ websites is a passion. Irrespective of your industry, we would love to work with you and for you to drive your traffic sky high. So, remember to reach out for your FREE initial consultation today.

Your website home page is a landing page. It’s where visitors have landed having found you online. Therefore, you should treat it just like any other landing page by following some simple ‘dos and donts’. Afterall, the last thing you want is your visitor to be confused over what you do or worse yet completely lost with no idea how to navigate.

With this in mind, we have put together a list of the ‘Top 5 ways to improve your website’.

1. What are you offering?

The first thing you need to be clear on when creating your website home page is precisely what products or services you are offering. When a visitor comes to your home page, they need to see within seconds what it is that you do and what you offer accompanied with a clear call to action.

Load your website and answer the following questions from your home page:

• What company is this?
• What problems do they solve for me?
• What stands out about this company?
• What can I do on this page?

If visitors come to your home page and have no idea what value you provide, they are just going to leave. Worse yet, they probably won’t return either.

2. Design the website for them, not for you.

Developing a customer persona is one of the main secrets to create not just an aesthetically pleasing website but also an incredibly effective one. This results in a home page that feels like it was designed just for that visitor. This both includes the design and the copy. To create the persona, think about these questions:

• What is their main problem or pain point?
• What is their demographic?
• Who is your ideal customer?

Once you answer these questions, you’ll be able to design the website for them rather than for you. It’s your website but it’s made for them and that really is the aim here, to connect with them. Step into your ideal visitors’ shoes so they feel comfortable and confident you are the right choice.

3. ‘To the point’ navigation.

What you include in your home page’s navigation is important. It should only be the most essential information that you want the visitor to see and act upon. This avoids too many distractions and focuses the visitor’s attention. To maximise your lead capturing, you’ll need to keep your navigation choices low.

• Limit top level options
• Avoid dropdowns as much as possible
• If you do use dropdowns use visual cues
• Keep the header height small
• Ensure your page is responsive

The best home pages only have a handful of options such as Contact, About, and the Blog. If you have a shop, you might also include a shop page on the main navigation links but we would recommend against adding anything else. Keep it simple and to the point.

4. Include a clear Call to Action.

Most websites unfortunately don’t include a CTA on their home page. As a result, they leave their visitors confused about what to do. Don’t fall in to those 70% of websites too. If you want your visitors to call you, state ‘Call me on…’ or ‘Message me by clicking here’ etc.

Ideally you should have more than one CTA on your website. With the aim of covering as many bases as possible, multiple entry points collect the maximum number of leads.

5. Be Mobile & Tablet Optimised.

Ensure that your website offers a responsive design so that it can be viewed equally well on desktop, tablet and mobile. In 2022, there really is no reason your website should not be responsive as it’s fast to implement by any skilled website developer (we actually do this for free when designing websites).

This really is important as almost 50% of your visitors, irrespective of your industry, are almost certainly browsing your website on a mobile device. As a result, the priority should be that your website loads correctly and has no errors. In addition to ensuring that all images render correctly and are sized accordingly. If these basics aren’t covered you are losing money it’s as simple as that.

Reach out to us if you would like any guidance on how to implement the above methods by visiting our website https://viewfule.com and contact us for a FREE consultation.

Welcome to VIEWFULE. We are new to New Zealand, having previously been based in the UK. We’re excited to share our global expertise with the local community here on the Kapiti Coast in Wellington.

My name is Oliver Corby and I’m the Founder of VIEWFULE. I bring 17 years of specialist Retail IT skills to the Kapiti Coast. Over the course of my career, I have worked for small right up to large billion-dollar businesses. Such as The Body Shop, The Estée Lauder Companies and Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessey Group (LVMH) amongst others. From these experiences, I intimately understand the many methods a company can connect with its consumers. Some very effective and some not so.

I founded VIEWFULE with the simple mission of giving back. The Kapiti Coast has provided me so much, a beautiful baby girl being one. There is so much potential in this region with an extraordinary number of businesses eager to be known on the global stage. With my skills and experience, I can help them achieve this goal.

I fully appreciate that no two businesses are alike and therefore each of our services are tailoured specifically to your business. Whether you need Retail IT Consulting services, guidance on choosing a new POS or CRM system. Or Web Design & Development work to draw out the most potential from your online image. We would be proud to work with you and for you to make your business shine in the best light.

One fine note, we also offer specialist SEO Services. Utilising a combination of ‘on page’ and ‘off page’ methods and the latest techniques for 2022 we can design a powerful strategy that will catapult your website to the front page of Google. Remember, if you aren’t ranking for your keywords then your competitors certainly will!

Once again, welcome and we look forward to working with you soon.

Ngā mihi,

Oliver Corby
Founder
VIEWFULE