Month: March 2013

HOW DO SEARCH ENGINES WORK?

It is really important that readers understand this, if they are going to start a SEO campaign for their company or business. There is much confusion in SEO land and if punters can differentiate between SEO companies and what they are offering, then they are less likely to be ripped off as you will have a thorough and clear understanding of the logic behind SEO.
Please continue to read on for a clearer pathway and enlightenment to the many whys and hows regarding search engines and SEO.

 

Question # 1 What is a Search Engine?

Basically, a search engine is a technique that allows spiders or crawlers to trawl the entire website looking for information, web files, images, videos, anything that is detectable and readable online. When a new published document has been crawled by a search engine it becomes indexed online and this is referred to as the process of caching. These documents that are stored are then ranked in order of what the search engines deem relevant and ranked in order in its SERPS’s or search engine results page.
The best way to get a site indexed is to have a link from another site pointing to the new page. This will trigger a alert for the spiders that there is a page to be indexed and cached. Depending on the relevance of the external page, will determine your SERP. The higher this page, the greater the value search engines will place on your site.

New sites can also be introduced to bots ( these are search bots that are waiting for signals to index a new page) by the introduction of a sitemap or robot.txt files that can be added to each page. In truth, I have launched a new WordPress site and it has been indexed by the bots in less than 24 hours. If you look at the Sydney Morning Herald website, you can see this as a perfect example. They can launch a new site and it will be indexed and displayed within minutes. This is because the main SMH site is constantly changing content which is triggering the search engines to keep trawling the site for new content. Ultimately, for your business this means that you should be updating your pages regularly. This will keep the search engines interested in your site and in turn every time you update or upload a new page, it will be indexed.

QUESTION # 2 What is indexing?

One a website document or page has been located by the crawlers, this data is stored on the search engines database so that the information can be displayed when a online user makes a search inquiry.

The immense marketing power of this has led to the rise of the SEO industry where businesses are wanting to be the first thing people see when this search inquiry is made. The order of how your business will rank depends really on the capabilities of the SEO company you work with. Working out the engines algorithm ranking rules is the battle as these are very complex and always changing. What ranks a site one day may not necessarily work for the next day. This is the tricky part, but overall, if you work on the philosophy that you should be working on an organic and natural approach to your online marketing, then you should be ranking very well.

In summation, indexing is there to make certain that questions asked are speedily answered as quickly as possible. In most cases in less than half a second!


QUESTION # 3 What is the most popular search engine?

By far the biggest is Google. In Australia over 95% of online searches are conducted using this search engine.
The second is Bing, but to me this is just a formality. I have never in my 16 years of working in this industry ever once had anyone want to rank on Bing. Basically, if it never existed it wouldn’t make the slightest difference. In fact, Google has sucked up all the directories condensed it into one small search bar.

Again, this is only for Australia. I know in Europe and the US the same holds true. But, in China and other emerging countries they have their own search engine preferences.


Why should I worry myself about how a search engine works?

If you have a business or are a company that relies on getting traffic through to your site then this is a very crucial question. We live in an era that is evolving and changing at a very fast pace. This means that if you are not up to speed with the machinations of the search engine environment then you are going to be in big trouble. Forget about traditional marketing. This has been dead and buried for well over 5 years now and the new kid on the block is Google and Facebook; which like a search engine is called a social media platform. I wont touch on this now but if you are reading this I strongly urger you to contact me on 1300 885 375 so we can go over this in detail. Your website must appear highly on the SERP’s.

Why is Search engine optimisation an ongoing and committed investment?

As discussed above, what we do for your company with SEO has shifted considerable over the past 2 years. For any marketing person working on their SEO, they would be aware that Google makes at least 2 changes to it’s algorithm daily. Credible, SEO companies are always working on these changes, keeping up to speed on what they might be doing and making the necessary adjustments to compensate for any new trends that may emerge. Point to note is the Penguin + Panda updates made by Google that caught most people off guard. This is what you pay for. That is the responsibility of getting your site high up inn the SERP’s and then minimising any potential fluctuations in these rankings.

A lot of businesses think that if they are ranking, then they can stop the SEO. This is massive over sight and who ever gave them this impression is sorrily mistaken. SEO is a process that needs to be continually managed. Hence the constant fee.

OK so you no have a better and clearer insight into how a search engine works, you should be smart and take the next contact a SEO Company Sydney professional like us at Hopping Mad Designs. You will find:

• What your major competitors are doing and how they are doing it. Always nice to know!
• What plan of action we will take to beat them. This is the fun part.
• How to drive more traffic to your website and get more inquiries.
• How to turn those visitors into paying customers.
• PLUS heaps more!
 

Web Design Prices Sydney

If you have never had a website designed or developed before then the following information should be very useful and give you a good idea about website prices.

An overview of website costings:

The first step is talking with a web agency like us at Hopping Mad Designs to formulate a brief or an idea of the type of website you want, and then we can tailor a web design package to suit. Website pricing can be divided in to 3 main categories:

1. Website Prices For Business Start Ups

Suitable for start up or small businesses needing to have a presence online. These are usually a 4-5 page website, with key information about the company or service to get your business message across. The design is customised to fit with your corporate branding, to deliver a unique and relevant site.

The navigation and interface ( UX ) of these websites are quite simple, but can all be added to or developed further in the future as the business expands and grows. All of these sites are built around a WordPress content management system, which allows for ease of updates. They sites are all mobile friendly and are SEO ready. This is a great solution for small businesses that want a website up and running quickly. Obviously, there are free websites out there and templates online but these do not work and offer a ‘cookie cutter’ approach so your site well end up looking like every other site out there – not a good idea!

Web design prices for sites like this are generally between the $2,000–$4,000 price range.

2. Website Prices For Larger Established Companies

This is suitable for businesses looking for a more involved web design solution, combined with back end functionality, such as databases, e-commerce solutions, membership areas, photo galleries, responsive (mobile friendly web design), and search functions integrated with a WordPress content management system.

Websites like these are usually for larger, more established businesses needing to make more of an impact online and drive sales. Often these sites are stage two of an online presence – the company might have had a basic style website in the past and are looking to upgrade or just want to move forward with a few more “bells n’ whistles”.

Websites like these usually require a higher level of design time and the interface is generally more complex. There will be a heavy emphasis on SEO, which is implemented throughout the design and development phases. These sites can have various structures and layouts depending on the requirements of the owner. But one thing that is a common thread among these type of sites is that they are all designed to either sell a product or service and generate vast site wide traffic and visitors.

Web design prices for these sites will fall anywhere between $5,000–$15,000. It is important to note that these sites are all built around a content management system or CMS, which means that site owners can make product, service or prices changes through out the site at their discretion. This is an extremely powerful marketing tool which is what the site was intended for.

3. Complex Website Solutions

These websites are usually reserved for those businesses, companies or government bodies that not only require a highly complex interface but need a lot more in terms of design and web site architecture. They require a team of web designers to work on the design and top programmers to bring it all together. They will also have web copy writers and site architecture specialists to coordinate the page links.

Prices for sites like this generally start at around the $20,000 level.

Why use Hopping Mad Designs for the design and development of your website?

We are flexible in our web design prices and can meet your business budget constraints if required. Most businesses starting out or under going a transition need to be watching their marketing spend. At Hopping Mad Designs we are acutely aware of these constrictions and are able to advice you on the best web package or web design price to match your businesses requirements.

We take the time at briefing stage to look at your business, learn about what you want to achieve and advice you based on this information on a web design solution that will give you the best results. We are not interested in offering you every plug in available, but prefer to start with a relevant and workable solution that can grow with your business needs.

We can handle any sized web project and are always on time and on budget. As a very experienced Sydney based web design studio we are able to scale up our resources to meet the demands of any sized project. Give us  your design brief and we will tailor make a digital online solution that meets your requirements. We are just as comfortable with the small start up jobs as with the complex eCommerce, database driven websites.

Hopping Mad Designs is not a web design studio that operates with “hidden extras”. We are upfront about all costings from the start.

There are some guarantees that go with each site we design and develop, no matter what the price point.

  • All websites are built around a very user, and SEO friendly WordPress CMS platform.
  • You deal with a team of professional web designers who have been in the industry for a long time and have the experience to deliver a successful website.
  • If it looks like there will be a cost blow out we  make sure that you are aware of this prior to making any decisions.
  • All web coding is implemented with the intention of having your site ranked well on Google.
  • We offer web support as soon as the site goes live. If you run into any problems – we are here to help.
  • We advise you on social media, blogging and mobile websites.
  • Our team of web experts will advise you on any design or interface issues that were not brought up in the initial meeting.
  • We will never present template designs. All our websites have been carefully thought out and customised based on your specific business requirements. This way you end up with a unique looking site that’s different from all your competition.

If you would like to get some more information about our website design prices & SEO packages please call 02 9360 8514.

6 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR WEBSITE LOOK FABULOUS

1) Your Website Should Have Purpose. You should write down very clearly all the goals that you want your website to achieve: is it to be a sales tool or used as an information portal, is it to be an ecommerce website or a site whose goal is to showcase your work. Set your intention of the website and stay on path.

2) Your Web Audience – who is it? Make certain that you do a lot of research on who your online target market is. Know exactly who they are and what will drive them to make an online inquiry with your company. Basically, what triggers them to make a buying decision. Are they shopping around looking for a bargain, or are they on your site to get information. Give them what they want and make it easy for them to find it. Never hide or make important sales features difficult to find. This is especially true if it is an ecommerce website.

3) Have a Very Strong Offer. Do a website audit and look really hard at all special offers on your website. What is your ( USP) unique selling point? Play on this and sell this to your clients. Do not ever be afraid to boast about these points of difference. People online are very quick to judge a website, so make your position clear on the home page. If you are selling products on your website, put your best product line on the home page, or have a sales/specials ' hot box' that will stand out and promote an offer.

4) Make Web Navigation as Easy as Possible. A huge part of your web usability, is allowing customers to easily browse and navigate their way around the website. There should be no dead ends and users should be funnelled down the site to the check out or inquiry page. This should a maximum of two steps from the home page so users do not get overly confused or lost.

5) Be Better than your Competition. Look at what your competition does and try to do better. A web company like hopping mad designs will be able to make sure that all your internal pages throughout your site look much better than your competition

6) Consider what extra features you want the site to have. Extra cool new features such as responsive web design or parallax website design can really add so much more online appeal.

 

We can help you make your new website look fabulous CALL 02 9360 8514.

 

Brand Management Experts Sydney

Your brand is your intellectual property. It reflects who you are, your companies core values, its direction as well as the client base. It needs nurturing and strict brand management if you are to maintain the integrity and value of your brand. This is why you need to use a professional graphic design and digital agency when designing any marketing or sales material. Compromising your brand or identity will have a serious impact on your business and the way it’s perceived by the buying public.
Why use Hopping Mad Designs for your brand management?

Simply put, we understand design. We are able to design a brand for your business, company or product and ensure that all future sales and marketing material adhere to the strict brand guidelines that we will create. After each and every unique brand we design, we make sure that you have a comprehensive style guide that will be the benchmark for all future print, web or social media material used. Our design style, is always fresh, clean and contemporary which means that your brand will always look as though it has been well thought out with a comprehensive brand strategy behind it.

We understand corporate branding. If you need to develop your stationery or marketing collateral, we are able to take your new brand and apply it to all your new communication pieces. We are brand management experts when it comes to business card, letterhead, with comp slips, brochures, reports, envelopes and email signature design.

We can offer graphic design and web design solutions for all of these items based on the brand that we create. Managing your brand at this stage is crucial for your marketing. Just think about how many business cards you give out on a daily basis. If these cards do not look the part then it can diminish your brands value. It is small things like this that are often overlooked by businesses that can have brand consequences in the future. This is why YOU MUST engage the services of a company like hopping mad designs who can manage your brand throughout all stages of its evolution.

We know website design. This is where your brand can easily become diluted with all the internet noise as well as the online competition. If your website does not articulate your brand clearly, users will become confused and exit your site. Maintaining the strength and positioning of your brand online will be key to the success of your website. Sending out mixed messages, with conflicting brand statements will cause more harm than good.

We know how to draft and create engaging and sales focused copy. So you have a great looking brand but need to position it in the market place. We have copy experts that can take your brand,; whether, business, corporate, organisation or product and come up with concise, fresh and very relevant content that will compliment your brand. As brand management experts in Sydney, we know how difficult coming up with clever content can be so this is why we only work with industries to bring your brand positioning statements; whether print or web that work.

WHAT HAPPENS IF YOUR BRAND HAS BEEN DAMAGED ?

This happens more and more as site reviews and customers comments and blogs become the norm. It is just so easy to trash a brand nowadays online. Anyone who has access to the internet can get in there and post malicious comments about your brand which will eventually get indexed by Google. At Hopping Mad we have a dedicated SEO team that can watch out and monitor any internet chatter about your brand and immediately address any negativity. We call it online reputation management and can help negate and reduce the impact of any bad reviews or content written about your business online.

Ideally, you need to work with just one company that can design your brand, work up a style guide and handle all your external marketing and communication material. At Hopping Mad Designs we have the design experience and wealth of brand management knowledge to ensure design harmony and brand consistency when handling your material.

Please call Hopping Mad Designs on 02 9360 8514 for a chat about your next branding exercise. Or if you are wanting to get a new website design then please call one of our web design team.