It really pays to do the research on a domain name. This is your opportunity to showcase your Brand in the digital space, you only have one chance to build trust with a visitor – so make it count.

The right domain name will be a wise investment but it can be hard to change once your website and email is all setup. So make sure you’re thinking ahead by choosing a domain that aligns with your long term vision and will long out live any current trends.  

Choose a Domain that’s original, easy to type and makes you look professional.

Here are our Top 5 tips + 2 extra! to help you decide on your domain name, embrace these and we’re confident you’ll save time and money in the long run:

1. Perform Domain Name Competitor Research

2. Think Unique & On Brand

3. Dot COM Domain Names are King

4. Register Multiple Domain Names

5. Choose a Short Domain Name

6. Make Sure Your Domain is Easy to Pronounce & Spell

7. Try a Domain Name Generator for Ideas

1. Perform Domain Name Competitor Research

Take a close look at your top 5 competitors, make sure they aren’t using anything similar to your idea. The last thing you want is a potential customer to confuse you with them so make sure it’s totally different.

There is however another reason to be wary – copyright infringement.

In New Zealand we have strong copyright and trademarking laws (which is a good thing) but when it comes to your new domain if it looks similar to another established Brand, you could be in trouble.

Take your time, thoroughly check on IPONZ and on the major search engines such as Google and Bing for anything similar within New Zealand. Then confirm if your choice is available on a Domain Registrar such as Freeparking.

Freeparking is a New Zealand owned and operated business with great service and highly competitive pricing so when the time comes that you make a decision – they are well worth partnering with.  

2. Think Unique & On Brand

Your Domain name forms a part of your Brand, the very identity of your business online. So it’s really important it’s unique and stands out. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box and create something totally different but don’t draw too much inspiration from current trends. What’s popular right now, is unlikely to be next year.

One of the most important things to avoid when choosing a domain name is adjectives.

These are words that change the meaning of a noun and as a result they are used in many every day phrases and sentences – in other words, really common.

Adjectives such as Clever, Long, Helpful and Beautiful etc provide zero value to your domain so we highly recommend you steer clear. 

The last thing you want is your domain name to be lost in a massive list of 50 million search results so being unique is intimately tied to SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation. It is going to be much, much harder (and more expensive) to rank you highly in search results if your domain name is similar to lots of others – so be mindful of this.

3. Dot COM Domain Names are King

Dot COM ‘.com’ Domain names are still #1. They are perceived to be highly credible and trustworthy. They also have no association with one specific country and have become a general Top Level Domain, or TLD, for the world. Over 50% of all registered domains globally, are dot coms.

Dot com domains are also shorter and easier to type than others whilst having broad appeal too. If the ‘.com’ is available to buy, consider choosing it and assigning as your primary domain.

There are some exceptions to this advice however.

One of them involves small businesses in New Zealand who only sell or market their products (or services) to a local domestic market. If you are one of these businesses (or non-profits), you should consider registering the ‘.nz’ as your primary domain and registering the ‘.co.nz’ as your secondary. It makes it easier for your domestic audience to find you and the first place they are likely to look in New Zealand is on a ‘.nz’.

The ‘.kiwi’ domain names are a recent addition, however, we advise against registering just a ‘.kiwi’ domain on its own. They are still new and haven’t caught on in any major way just yet. As a result, there is very little analytical data available on how they perform versus a ‘.com’ or a ‘.nz’.

If you think one will provide value and help protect your Brand too, register it in addition to the others and forward it to your primary ‘.nz’ or ‘.com’ domain name.    

4. Register Multiple Domain Names

You can always buy more than one domain name. There are no rules or limits of how many domains you can buy, and in fact, it can be a powerful way to protect your Brand.

Domains can be forwarded to one another so you don’t need two or more websites, this is known as implementing a 301 redirect which is easy to do for any skilled website developer. This way one website can receive web traffic from multiple domains at once and there will be no confusion over competitors.

5. Choose a Short Domain Name

Keep it short, really short. Think about it, if you are trying to type in a long domain name on your laptop or mobile phone how long is it before you get bored and give up? Or worse yet, mistype it and get frustrated.

We’ve all been there, some domain names are just plain awful to type so avoid falling into this trap too.

It’s really important that typing your domain name is as easy as possible for your visitors so length is everything. If you’re unsure, ask a friend or family member to type it on a message to you – was it frustrating for them?

If your registered business name is a long one, shorten it or better yet use acronyms. There is no rule book that states you must have a Domain name as closely named to your business as possible – so create your own rules.  

6. Make Sure Your Domain is Easy to Pronounce & Spell

Hyphens/Dashes and Numerals more often than not, confuse people. They are hard to explain and easy to forget too. Thankfully businesses are moving away from using these so we definitely recommend avoiding special characters where possible.

The only exception to this rule are any characters used in Te Reo Māori (or other languages) as they are well ranked and widely used in New Zealand.

At the end of the day, your aim is for your target audience to remember your Domain.

So avoid anything they might misunderstand or mistype. Best case scenario, they ask again if they forget. Worst case scenario, they become frustrated and buy from your competitor. The risk just isn’t worth it so keep it simple, one word if possible, and you’re on to a winner.

7. Try a Domain Name Generator for Ideas

The chances are you have considered a list of potential domain names by now. You may have even thought of the perfect domain. However, sometimes your number one choice domain name might not be available.

Frustrating sure, but no need to panic. You can always get creative and gain some inspiration another way!

Why not try a Domain Name Generator like the one from Alpha Domain Search. Give it a try and see if it comes up with some fresh ideas? 

Your next steps.

At VIEWFULE, we would love to save you time and the frustration with choosing a domain name. It isn’t easy to get it right, and many hours have been wittled away by people trying to choose one – you aren’t the first and certainly won’t be the last. To remind, when it comes to registering we highly recommend you consider Freeparking. They are New Zealand owned and operated with highly competitive pricing so when the time comes that you make a decision – they are well worth partnering with. Either way, remember to reach out for your FREE consultation and we’ll be glad to help!

Two really important things you need to decide for your website before you even think about the website itself are the Domain and the Web-hosting.

Both are essential services in order for your website to work. But here’s the thing, they are not provided equally… not even close.

There are thousands of hosting companies out there, all around the world, but the prices will vary greatly and so does the service offering (what you actually get for your hard-earned money!).

In this article, we’re going to help you ‘see through the marketing’ to help decide which web hosting provider, and package, is most suitable for you.

Shortlist at least 3 web hosting companies and perform detailed comparisons.

The best advice we can give right off the bat is to choose based on your needs tomorrow, not today. Choose a package that’s flexible and offers more storage, bandwidth or even more domain names than you have a need for right now.

Anything can change in a month, never mind a year, so it pays to think ahead and not be restricted right from the start. It’ll cost you more to change later so gain some breathing room right from the beginning.

For most people, the ideal web hosting provider will deliver in five key ways:

1. Technical Support

2. Affordable Hosting Packages

3. Service Uptime Guarantees

4. Server Location & Performance Technology

5. Freebies Included

1. Technical Support

We highly recommend you choose a web host that provides technical support by Phone, Email and Live Chat. Having all three options available provides you with peace of mind so you have help available to you in the form that’s easiest for you when the need arises.

It’s all well and good when a web hosting provider markets ‘support emails are replied to within 1 hour’ but if your eCommerce Website is totally down, you could be losing hundreds if not thousands of dollars in sales per hour, you need immediate help and nothing beats talking on the phone or chatting with them via live chat.

If the web host is based in the same country as you, reaching them for support is obviously going to be easier. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be available when you need them or even available on the package you bought.

Support availability is often tied to how much you pay for the package and if you bought a cheap one, expect limited support in return. It always pays to do the research and what’s clear in 2022 for companies based in New Zealand; is that web hosting providers located in Australia, Asia and the west coast of the U.S are often available immediately when you need them due to the favourable time zones.

2. Affordable Hosting Packages

Going off-shore is still the most cost-effective option for web hosting in 2022. Whether it’s a shared web hosting service, dedicated server or a cloud based solution. Choosing an on-shore web host within New Zealand can be as much as 30% more expensive for the same service offering.

For most people, this negates any benefit especially once it’s all setup and working and that initial on boarding support is no longer required. There is nothing wrong with looking off-shore, just make sure you ask the questions and read the fine print prior to buying. You will not be protected under New Zealand law if you request your money-back.

Consider pre-paying yearly or longer. Paying monthly, especially when you intend to keep the package for a few years is unwise. Hosts often provide discounts or incentives to encourage you to pre-pay for longer periods. See if the Annual, Biannual or even Triennial prices result in a good saving.

Avoid getting caught up in the marketing jargon. The word ‘Unlimited’ is being used a lot these days and it’s misleading to say the least. ‘Unlimited Bandwidth’, ‘Unlimited Storage’ etc… you’ll see these terms advertised prominently and with good reason. Simply put, they work!

These hosting companies realised long ago that advertising any caps or restrictions deter shoppers so what did they do? Just re-worded them, they didn’t really change anything on the service side of things. Therefore, the old saying ‘if it seems too good to be true it probably is’ applies here.

Nothing in the world of web-hosting is truly unlimited. Fair use policies apply in the vast majority of cases and in the rest it will be based on ‘access per second restrictions’. Such as transmitting anything more than 10MB per second results in you reaching a cap, for example. Make sure you ask them about these hidden caps and restrictions, some can be reluctant to reveal them and if that’s the case for you – our advice is to walk away.

3. Service Uptime Guarantees

Look for packages with a guaranteed up time of 99.9% or above. An up time guarantee of the ‘three nines’ or 99.9%, is currently considered to be the industry standard for web hosting services and it translates to less than 0.1% of downtime in any given month.

This equates to less than 45 minutes, roughly per month, that your website is inaccessible. Anything longer than that could lead to impact and your business being percieved as unprofessional. Is it worth the risk? 

Money-Back Guarantees are common place these days in web hosting but ‘caveat emptor’, they are not created equal.

Some companies offer very generous 90-Day Money Back Guarantees with minimal conditions. Others only 30-Days with lots of conditions applied. Always ask about your guarantees prior to ordering so if the time comes you do need to cancel, you know exactly what will happen when you do.

If a provider is offering a free Domain name with a purchase you need to ask if you’ll lose this but often they can be negotiated and retained for a small amount. Remember to check the fine print as not every provider offers a money-back guarantee but as a general rule of thumb, if they are willing to offer a strong refund policy – they are confident in their service quality.

4. Server Location & Performance Technology

Geography matters in web-hosting and directly impacts performance. Think about it, if you have to travel all the way to New York to receive data and then travel all the back to Wellington it’s going to take time and this results in your website loading slower. Especially when compared to travelling between Auckland and Wellington, for example.

But it’s important to know there are a few quick and easy ways to mitigate this and one is to ensure you are using the latest version of PHP. As of writing, PHP 8.1 is the latest and greatest.

When compared to PHP 7.4, which is still the most common version, it’s as much as 40% faster and can handle more than 50% more requests. This is a huge improvement and absolutely worth your time, so if you’re website is running php 7.4 it’s time to perform that compatibility assessment and update.

Compression is another easy win and relies upon the web server and web browser supporting it. Thankfully, most do these days but they might not be using the latest one.

Brotli compression is incredibly efficient at compressing your website down for the journey between the web server and the visitor and once it arrives it decompresses the content quickly and serves it. This is totally seamless and all happens behind the scenes.

Gzip used to be the way to do this, but Brotli is the new king. In some cases the overall front-end decompression is up to 64% faster than gzip so ensure your web server is using this.

Content Delivery Networks, or CDNs, have really helped improve website loading speeds as they are a distributed network of servers located in almost every major city. They are often called ‘nodes’, they store small amounts of data on your website such as structure and images.

When a visitor loads your website, they are directed through the node that’s closest to them and it shares what data it has. Depending on how much you pay the CDN, it can share a lot of data, perhaps even most of your websites content.

Ether way, this all helps reduce the amount of data traveling over long distances from the visitor to the web server which ultimately results in a faster loading experience for your visitor. CDN’s are a topic of themselves and we covered them in more detail in a separate article which you can find here.

The fastest web-servers in 2022 are often powered by Litespeed technology. It’s an alternative to the legacy Apache servers (which we no longer recommend) and NGINX servers which have long been considered the fastest. Litespeed cache technology is very fast and they partner with a CDN called QUIC Cloud. When these two technologies are combined, your website can load up to 67% faster than NGINX so it’s well worth asking your next web-host if they use Litespeed technology on their web servers.

5. Freebies Included

Who doesn’t love something for free?? But free doesn’t necessarily mean worthless. Especially when it could involve a free Domain Name, Free Email Accounts, Premium SSL Certificates and Dedicated IP Addresses.

We encourage all our clients to use Premium SSL Certificates, the simple reason for this is security and the guarantees they can provide. It is extremely unlikely you will be hacked if your website uses 256-bit Encryption and is protected by a GlobalSign approved SSL Certificate.

Some SSL Certificates even come with money-back guarantees to help with the recovery costs if the worst does happen. Wouldn’t you feel more at ease if you had access to $10,000 or more to help with the associated recovery costs? Premium SSL Certificates can offer you this peace of mind and in some cases could be worth their weight in gold, so consider them carefully. Try to avoid the free ‘Let’s Encrypt’ SSL Certificates, they only provide the bare minimum level of protection and are not designed for high traffic eCommerce Websites.

Another thing that really helps with security, but more so with spam protection, is having a Dedicated IP Address.

More often than not when you a buy a web-hosting package you will be put on a server with 50 or more others. These are called ‘Shared web-hosting’ services and are the most common form of web-hosting available.

The problem with this approach is that all it takes is just one of them to be flagged as a spammer and you all could be impacted because you share the same IP Address. Ask yourself this question, is the risk worth it? Do you want your business to be flagged as a potential Spam source?

We don’t believe the risk is worth it and recommend our clients choose Dedicated IP’s to avoid it. This provides them reassurance that the decisions made by others won’t impact them.

Your next steps.

At VIEWFULE, we would love to help you decide on your Web hosting package. We highly recommend HostArmada for web hosting, they offer super fast Litespeed technology on Cloud SSD servers for affordable prices with a strong money-back gurantee so why not include them in your comparisons. Either way, we would be more than happy to provide you tailoured guidance on finding the right hosting package for you. So why not reach out for your FREE consultation?

VIEWFULE is Your Responsible & Trusted Web Services Company.

We are the Web Services Company that chose the responsible approach to business by putting Accountability, Community and Sustainability at the centre of our day to day operations. Asserting our Corporate Social Responsibilities, we proudly donate a percentage of our profits to organisations that champion sustainability and improve peoples lives around the world. We promote these 5 industry-leading commitments so you know you’re partnering with the right company:

You Own What We Create 100%.
Guaranteeing Ownership was one of our founding principles. You own 100% of your Website and any copy we write for you.

1 Tree Planted For Every New Client.
We partner with One Tree Planted, a non-profit dedicated to global reforestation. They help plant native trees within New Zealand.

We Are A Carbon-Negative Company.
Being Carbon-Neutral is simply not enough. We offset 50% more Carbon than we generate and aim for 300% within 5 years.

Percentage Of All Profits Donated.
We currently donate 2% of all our profits to causes the Sustainability Trust recommend. Improving homes and peoples lives every day.

‘Let’s Make It Right’ Policy.
This incorporates our Money-back Guarantee and Refund Policy. Please read our Terms and Conditions for more information.

We would love to help showcase your Brand online by championing your Website and we’ll get it found in major Search Engines too with our affordable search engine optimisation services. So reach out for your FREE consultation and experience the VIEWFULE difference today!

The same cutting-edge services – with a fresh new look. Welcome to VIEWFULE. ‘The only Web Services company you’ll ever need’.

VIEWFULE is a leading partner for Websites, SEO and Ads on the Kapiti Coast. We are excited to announce our re-brand which reflects the way our company has grown, adapted and our service offering expanded over the past year.

We were founded in 2021 with the ambition of challenging the status quo in the region by driving down costs to make the latest techniques affordable to everyone. Leading with analytics and psychology across all our services means we understand your customers better so you can sell more easily to them.

We have released a new logo, slogan and website re-design that will better suit our growing business model and cement our position here in Kapiti. We will also be retaining our industry-leading terms and payment flexibility.

“Now more than ever, our clients need an edge to better connect with their clients. We believe our refined service offering and website meets that demand.” – VIEWFULE Founder Oliver Corby.

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