One of the oldest forms of business marketing takes place when customers pass on your details and recommend you to friends and family. This is called word-of-mouth marketing, and is particularly relevant amongst the trades, such as plumbing, electrical and tiling.
In web design, you could say the equivalent of this is citations. That is, where your business name and address appear on other websites, even when there are no links - for example, Chamber of Commerce pages, business associations, and so on. Important For Google Ranking Citations are a key component of Google's ranking algorithms, yet there are still those who doubt its usefulness. As with many web design trends and tools, there are plenty of myths surrounding the use of citations and how they affect local SEO. So we are going to de-bunk a few, starting with what details to include. As mentioned earlier, citations should be your business name and STREET address - you do not need to include your suite number. In fact, doing so could negate the citation. And what's more, if your business name appears around the wrong way, it probably won't make any difference! Search engines such as Google are smart enough to work it out. Truth Or Myth If one of your citations is on a site such as local.com.au, it will probably show up in dozens of other minor directories. Due to the myths surrounding this, some businesses panic that the effect of any mistake will then be magnified but, firstly, if you fix the source, it will work its way through. Secondly, those smaller directories are unlikely to even register in Sunshine Coast SEO. Some of the information currently circulating about citation building is blatantly wrong, such as the one about it being the only type of link building strategy you need for successful Local SEO. If you are unsure about what to believe, I suggest consulting a professional SEO company on the Sunshine Coast.
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Websites have both a front-end and back-end, right? The front-end is the user interface, and the back-end is where the developer or coder does the technical stuff. Simple. In the past, changes to a website, such as adding new content, were carried out by a webmaster and, generally, the website owner didn't touch a thing.
Over time, however, website owners wanted more control of their site, and sought ways of managing their own content. This mostly grew up around bloggers. So along came some pretty amazing CMS - or Content Management System - software, such as WordPress, Joomla!, Drupal and others. Front-End Editing CMS software allows content editing to be carried out through the front-end, without the input of a webmaster. Generally, a business will engage a professional website development team on the Sunshine Coast to create the site, and then take over content management themselves. Joomla! is a great choice of CMS, largely because it is both user-friendly and mobile-ready. It also offers thousands of extensions and designs; around 65 languages, and regularly wins awards. The fact that there have been over 75 million downloads says a lot! Improved Functionality Some web development teams on the Sunshine Coast, such as Suncoast Web Solutions, use open source content management systems like Joomla! for all their websites. The reason being that they are free to use, offer regular security updates, and endless plug-ins for better functionality. Just like any software, however, it needs to be kept up-to-date - so it may be time for you to update your Joomla! software. That way you can be across all the latest features, and rest assured your site is safe and secure. The latest Joomla! update offers many UX improvements which you won't want to miss out on, so check it out yourself or give the professionals a call. From strange emails allegedly sent by your friends, to the collapse of the Census website, hacking is all around us these days and isn't about to go away. Statistics show that it's getting worse, but we must balance those figures with the increasing use of the web in our everyday lives.
Talk to any web development team on the Sunshine Coast, and they will say the same thing: hacking happens, but there are ways of making it harder for the culprits, and ways of fixing the damage caused. Web Hosting Services That Fail Website building systems such as WordPress and Joomla! appear to be highly affected, but that's largely because of the very high number of people using the software. And, if truth be told, the problem usually occurs because the website owner has failed to update security plugins, or has chosen a less than refutable web hosting service. The latter is actually the most common way in which hackers will access your website, which is why professional website development companies, like Suncoast Web Solutions, always recommend using a known provider. While $1 deals might sound attractive, ask yourself whether it offers reliability, security and true cost effectiveness. Prevention Better Than Cure In short, will it cost you a far higher price in the future, in dowgntime, repairs and lost data? If you are unsure how to protect your Joomla! website, and keep it up-to-date with security plug-ins, you may need to engage professional web development services. They deal with these issues every day and can make cost-effective, constructive suggestions as to how website security can be improved, through software upgrades, more frequent backups, more secure hosting, and regular maintenance plans. There's an old saying that suggests 'prevention is better than cure', and that's certainly the case with websites. It is far easier and cheaper to protect your website from hackers, than to fix it once they've been in! Unless you avoid computers altogether, it's a pretty sure bet that you have been the target of email marketing this week. It's unavoidable really, because our lives largely revolve about giving and receiving information. But before you complain, think of this: if you own a business, email marketing can be a very powerful tool.
Professional website design incorporates many different elements these days, all working together to promote your business and attract and hold customers. Email marketing can easily be incorporated into your overall strategy but, just as your website design needs to be spot-on so, too, do those emails. Cater To The Average Human Brain The first rule is to avoid an endless, unbroken chunk of text. News flash: no-one will read it! You've probably heard the phrase, sound bite, meaning a short and carefully selected extract of sound. The same applies to text. The average human mind takes more in when it's delivered in small chunks. Interaction is crucial, too. Get the viewer involved by using menus, animation, even the screen equivalent of scratch the code! These are not gimmicks - they are proven ways of making your email marketing campaign deliver. Give A Sense Of Urgency One that is currently doing the rounds very effectively is the use of counters. You know, where you've only got 8 hours to claim your free gift and the time is disappearing before your eyes! This creates a sense of urgency or missing out that works very well on the human psyche. Remember, all of these techniques have to work as well on mobile devices as they do on desktop computers, so space saving is a bonus. Sliders are good for this, with the screen changing or 'sliding' every few seconds to reveal more products. Again, it also uses movement to catch the eye. Don't Get Caught Out By Anti Spam Laws And you should definitely include social media share buttons. People love to share information, or seek friends' opinions - and every share is more marketing for you! There are many tools that can be used as part of an affordable web design package and it's worth seeking professional advice. Remember, Australia has strict anti spam legislation and you don't want to risk falling foul of that with a botched DIY email marketing campaign. We often hear fashion designers and architects discuss timeless design, but it's not a term I would generally use to describe websites. The very nature of our digital world is that it is forever changing and evolving.
However, with this year's move towards minimalistic web design, with more white space, cleaner lines and larger images, I can see how we might start to use that description. Sophisticated Yet Personal I guess the best definition of timeless web design would be modern yet classic. Sophisticated, even. But still personalised enough to appear real and honest. And that is quite a challenge, which is why it is generally advisable to hire a professional website design team! The point is, as well as being more visually appealing, this evolution is a very necessary part of our journey towards more responsive web design. With increased browsing on mobile phones and tablets, there just isn't the space for all the bells and whistles. Greater Focus On Content Timeless design is also the perfect match for our increased focus on content. Google loves good content. Long content. Which is why so many organisations are now hiring professional writers. But to make masses of content look good, you also need less clutter and more white space. There also seems to be a welcome return to using a grid. Just as pictures hanging on a wall look wrong when they are all at different heights, the same applies to badly designed, jumbled up websites. Visually Appealing You see, all these components are actually working well together to create websites that not only do their job as far as SEO goes, but are also visually appealing and easy to navigate - the ideal definition of good small business website design, really! Taking a look at some of the web design work on the Sunshine Coast, it's clear that not everyone is into timeless design. But maybe they should be, as it seems to me this could be the way of the future. |
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