Yearly Archives: 2020

How do you plan for your business in 2021

Posted on December 24, 2020 at 10:22 am

Planning ahead for your business has been harder than ever this year. It has been very unpredictable and there have been times when things seemed like they were starting to get back to some sort of normal and then we have had to go back in to a lockdown again. Trying to plan how and when to market has been tough and many businesses may not have made it through this year. It is vital that the ones that have survived continue to ensure that they stay ahead of the game and that there busy continues to thrive in 2021. You cannot plan exactly what to do next year as no one know what the situation is going to be but you do need to have ideas in mind which can be adapted if needed.

If you have been lucky enough to get some financial help from the government you need to decide what to do with it. In order to keep trading you will need to do a certain amount of advertising and marketing. It may be that change your marketing strategy to focus completely on the online aspect if your business has now moved online. If you have started trading online you will probably continue to do so even when things return back to normal.

Posted in News

Is your website secure?

Posted on November 28, 2020 at 2:21 pm

If you have a website, it is vital that it has been programmed in such a way that it is secure. Hackers can easily access many websites that have not been built using the latest advances and not been updated recently. This leaves these sites open to having content removed or added, information stolen or even fraud. Hackers are becoming smarter and finding new vulnerabilities in the code of websites.

Although there are many steps a programmer and hosting company can take to try and protect the website, nothing is 100% guaranteed and therefore it is important that you ensure it site is backed up regularly so you can revert back to it quickly if needed. If your website is compromised, you need to find out how they got in so you can fix it before setting the site live again.

Always make sure that you are using up to date versions of all plug-ins, external scripts and content management systems as often an update will contain fixes to known security issues.

If you have members of staff leave or use subcontractors, then you may need to change passwords for internal systems to help ensure that everything is kept secure. 

Posted in Website Development

Social media marketing in time for Christmas

Posted on October 11, 2020 at 4:01 pm

Christmas is creeping up on us very fast the is year and businesses have already started flooding the market with their products. This year has been like no other and people are starting to buy Christmas presents a little bit earlier than usual, maybe because they are concerned that we may go in to another lock down.

If you haven’t already, you need to start to market your business and products to ensure you don’t miss out on potential sales. Social media is a great way for many businesses to start to market their products and reach people instantly.

Christmas marketing campaigns by the major retail brands have become more elaborate by the year, with social media now playing an integral part. Year upon year these companies compete for the best Christmas ad and often refer to social media to get their viewers exciting and discussing it. With much of social media free to use, you do not have to spend a fortune advertising on these platforms. Often all you need is a bit of creativity and time. Social media allows even the smaller businesses to compete as ads can go viral within a few minutes of going live and reach thousands of people.

Posted in News

New Websites – What to Consider

Posted on September 27, 2020 at 11:44 pm

A new website is a big step for any company, not least of all because a good quality website will not be the cheapest option. It always pays to carefully consider a new website for your company, so here are some of the major things you might need to think about:

  • Load speed. This is an important one. Websites that load too slowly lose visitors, as they won’t have the attention span to stay. Prioritise load speed at all costs.
  • Ease of use. People need to be able to find what they want and to understand your website. User experience is a primary concern.
  • Ongoing maintenance. A new website isn’t the end of the process; it will need to be updated continually. See if you can continue to work with your agency to keep your website up to date – this might involve content changes, changes to individual pages, tweaking based on performance, and more.

Posted in News

Boost your website by using video footage

Posted on September 20, 2020 at 12:28 pm

Video footage of some form has become a common element on successful websites but how important is it for your business website’s effectiveness and what are the costs involved of using this media?

The type of business that you are in will dictate the sort of video that will be most useful in increasing the appeal of your site, for example if you are promoting a product that you sell, a product demonstration would be worthwhile especially if it is a new product that is unfamiliar to the general public but if your business provides a service, then videos showing positive customer reviews would be more advantageous as it promotes the idea that your business is friendly and that it rates customer satisfaction highly.

It is important that the video engages with the prospective client without causing them to lose interest because the content of the video is not relevant to them so make sure that the video is long enough to convey the message but short enough to maintain interest.

It is important that the video engages with the prospective client without causing them to lose interest because the content of the video is not relevant to them so make sure that the video is long enough to convey the message but short enough to maintain interest.

When it comes to producing the video footage, there are lots of online applications with the appropriate software to enable you to produce your own videos meaning that you don’t have to employ someone to produce a video for you to use on your website as this can be an expensive undertaking.

Posted in Website Development

Are you ready to launch your new website?

Posted on August 24, 2020 at 6:20 pm

If you have had a new website built and it is at completion then you need to think carefully about how you are going to launch it. Once the site has gone live the search engines such as Google and Bing will start to crawl through your site and index the pages. This can take a little while to complete and even when it does there are no guarantees that you will rank high enough to attract a large number of visitors immediately. TO try and achieve the best possible rankings for your website you need to ensure that your SEO is up to scratch and that you are constantly updating the site to not only maintain the rankings you have achieved but to also  improve them.

A good way to get traffic straight to your website is to use paid for advertising such as Google Adwords or Facebook ads. These can go live almost instantly and if you have set the campaigns up correctly, you can get the right people to your site the day it goes live. IT is important to set up these campaigns correctly as what may only seem a small error can result end up being costly.

Posted in Website Development