Make sure your website is on page one of Google for highly-ranked keywords

The benefits to your business for improving SEO – search engine optimisation – are all about getting more web visitors and making your business more profitable.

Helping people to find you on the Internet means more visitors, more potential clients, more conversions and increased profits.

One of our clients who has had his new website up and running for less than two months writes about the sensational results that we have delivered.

Our enquiries from our website is at an all time high. The big increase according to our web stats since the new website went live is the page loads. More people are going to more of our pages and staying longer on our site too. I’m sure this is because the site is so much easier to navigate.

October is a record month for first time visitors and unique visitors and we still have three days to go. The keywords has made all the difference.

Key stat comparison between Oct 09 and Oct 2010: Oct 09 had 2500 page loads, 908 unique visitors, 779 first time visitors and 129 returning visitors.

Oct 10 had 8855 (up 250%) page loads, 2414 (up 165%) unique visitors, 2047 (up 165%) first time visitors and 367 (up 178%) returning visitors.

If you want to get some impressive results from your website, have your website working 24/7 for you and generate strong leads and new customers, contact Bold Type for a free consultation about your website and SEO.

A good website helps, helps then sells. People want to trust your business. By giving them information, by making it easy to navigate and by explaining your points of difference from your competitors, you will get the business.

What are your most profitable lines. Create specific webpages about these products or services. Include genuine testimonials from real customers who love your work.

If you have good SEO (search engine optimization) working on every webpage, many visitors will come in on any number of your pages, however, your homepage is important too.

Is the message on your homepage selling your points of difference, why you are the best? The message might change over time which is why having a dynamic website with a content management system is important. It allows you to change your message (and other content) as you wish.

A website is like a shark – it needs to be constantly on the move to stay alive. Keep your message relevant and remember, help, help, sell wins the day!

And make sure you have excellent SEO working for you. If you can’t be found, you won’t get the business. It’s that simple.

2. How easy is it for web visitors to navigate your website?

Three clicks and you’re there. That’s the max. Does your website pass the test?

If you have lots of products in different categories (and many businesses do), list product or service types in these category names that mean something to your clients. List the products under these categories, again in product names that make sense to the web visitor – your potential clients. Whether you are a one product business or have 100s, make sure your website tells your visitors what they are looking for.

3. You need a call to action

What is it you want your customers or potential customers to do? Do you want them to ring you for a quote? Do you want them to ‘buy now’ if you have an ecommerce website?

A clear call to action can work by directing your potential clients to act. Every page needs a call to action. Does your website have this? If it doesn’t, it needs a revamp.

4. Can web visitors easily contact you?

In the iPhone era with unlimited call packages for mobile phones, people want to call and speak to someone – preferably a real person.

How easy is it for you to find your telephone number on your own website? Do the test from a potential customer’s point of view. Imagine you are a potential customer, you like what you see and you want to contact the business right now.

So where is your telephone number on your website? The key position is the top right banner for every webpage. This is the perfect position but don’t let that stop you putting it everywhere else too. In the footer, on pages where people will read about or see what they want. Make it easy for people to call you straight away.

Include a Contact Us link. Having a ‘contact us’ link to a contact form is also good as some people (like me) want to leave a message and let the company get back to me. But it is proven that talking with a potential customer can make all the difference between you getting the work or your competition.

But wait, there’s more …

Special offers such as ‘buy one get one free’, ‘bonus package with every sale’ – they work. Make sure your special offers are accessible. Using the middle of the top banner (so it appears on every page) is a great position. Offering a ‘free quote’ or some other special offer can get you that important lead.

Every webpage should work to sell your service or product. Linking pages within your website is one way to help web visitors to browse and investigate why you’re better than all the others.

Internal links provide ways for your potential customers to stay on your website and find what they want. Then they will call because they can find your telephone number easily. See no. 4.

Does the web design suit your business?

A very sophisticated web design will work for a very sophisticated business. A funky Newtown hairdresser will want something completely different. A lunchtime café and takeaway needs a completely different design from a 5-star restaurant.

Getting the right design that suits your business is important. Great web design is about finding the right balance for each individual business. The design also plays a vital role in functionality. There is no point having a great looking website that no one can navigate. And if any web designer suggests using Flash, go somewhere else. It is so last century!

7. Choose Bold Type for your money-making website

Making great looking websites that work for our clients 24/7 is what we do best. Best of all, our clients can manage it. As one of our customers said:

I can’t believe this is so easy. I can add new products, take down out of date content, upload images – it’s amazing as I have no computer skills.
Read some of our testimonials from clients.

Yes, your business will make more money. We’ve had great success in building visitor numbers. One company had a 3000% increase in the first year. Yes, 3000 per cent! If you want your website to start working for you, call us now on 0410 037 635. Sue will take your call and organise a free quote. Or fill in our contact form (if you are like me and prefer to get on with business!).

Written by Sue Stevens, Principal of Bold Type

Colour graph showing business growth

Many business owners, small business owners included, want to grow their businesses but are not sure how.

In one-man bands, where your time is money, it’s a challenge to grow a business without an exponential hike in the number of hours you work. But there are ways and means!

Here are four ideas about how to increase the revenue and profit in your business.

1 Increase your prices

Are you too cheap? If you are a service provider, your quotes may be too cheap – you spend more time than anticipated in which case you end up working for peanuts. Under-quoting on time for work completed not only means less per contract, as you only have so many hours in a day to work, your overall ability to increase your income suffers as well.

If you are in the business of selling products, an increase in the price of your goods can have a real effect on your bottom line. Many people don’t mind paying more for the right quality product.

Here’s a strategy. Do an audit on what services or products are the most profitable and which are not. Ditch the unprofitable lines and focus on the 80 percent. Increase your prices for these services or products by 10 percent.

Develop a communications strategy that tells existing clients of the changes. Work out a script on what to say and collect supporting documentation such as testimonials that show you deliver quality products on time. One company that did just this increased their bottom line by over $100 000 and lost only three clients.

2. Develop a relationship with existing clients

This is an easy way to grow your business and yet it’s often overlooked completely. Keeping in touch – without becoming a pest – can grow your business without having to find new clients. Start an email marketing campaign to keep your clients informed about your industry, your business and other relevant information.

Do a survey of your clients. Use your email marketing to find out what your clients want. Ask some simple questions to get feedback from your clients.

• What did you like about the work we did for you?
• What could we do to improve our service?
• What are your plans for the coming year?
• How can we help?

You’ll find some survey programs on the Internet clients a survey – online products such as www.surveymonkey.com.

3. Find more customers

Firstly, determine which areas of your business are the most profitable. You might need to do an audit on costs verses income to see what is making you money and what is not. Streamline your marketing to focus on profitable areas.

A business without a functional, well-designed website in the 21 century is not a business!

Modify your website so that your best selling products are more prominent. Improve your website and make sure it is search engine optimised. Websites go in and out of fashion just like everything else so if your website is looking old and tired, it may need a makeover.

Use your analytics program on your website to assess your ratio between number of visitors, number of enquiries to actual sales ratio. Make changes to your website to improve

• the number of potential customers who are looking for your service or product
• to get people to trust your company
• to choose you over competitors.

More people use the Internet to find products and services than ever before and the numbers are going to continue to grow so having an effective website is essential for growing your business.

4. Increase your profit margin

What can you do to make your business more profitable? We’ve talked about increasing your prices. Consider also how you can reduce costs.

Speak to your suppliers. Discuss costs with them and see if you can strike a better deal.

Become an environmentally friendly office. Tell clients and potential clients that you are a business that wants to protect the environment. It’s a win/win situation. You can save money by turning off equipment when not in use and recycling what you can. And, many of your clients are keen to work with businesses who care about the environment so you’ll potentially increase your number of clients.

Read more about:

Search engine optimisation

Website makeovers

See our website portfolio

Visit Bold Type’s dedicated website for all things web, Balmain Website Designs.

In today’s Internet savvy world, having a website that delivers great marketing results is a must. A website needs to help your existing clients find what they want; and it needs to bring in new clients which means it needs to be very visible on the Internet.

Want your website to look fantastic, perform well and get attention?

With Bold Type, your website will:

• make a great impression with clients and potential clients
• get potential clients to take action
• establish your credibility in the market
• give you control over your best marketing asset
• have fast loading pages
• be search engine friendly.

We can help you:

• discuss all the options in plain English, not computer speak!
• manage the process from conception to going live and beyond
• write keyword specific content that will improve SEO
• save you money on your web hosting
• create a website that individually designed to suit your business needs.

Get a free website appraisal

Contact us now for a free website appraisal on 0410 037 635 or by email.

Based in Balmain in Sydney, we can work with you wherever you are located.