Month: May 2013

1. Is Your Phone Number Prominent? People still like to speak on the phone and if your phone number is not on the top right hand corner of every page of your website, then you could be missing out on sales. This is a quick fix and should be done asap.

2. What is your Website Navigation Like? Is your website easy to get around or does it look like a jizsaw puzzle? Can the user find exactly what they want or buy a product easily. Ask for external advice, perhaps from a friend or family member and really take on board what they have to say. Poor on site navigation is a huge reason why people leave sites and in turn why sales can drop. 
I know that for our own website, we are constantly looking at ways to improve site process flows and improving the whole user experience. We try to make the whole process as easy as possible, with large call to action icons and colourful, clear navigation buttons.

3. See if your site is viewable on an iPhone or Ipad. Chances are you have an old site with flash components, which need to be taken off asap. Plus ensure that your website has responsive web design; that is, is will automatically resize depending on the screen size.

4. Are your social media links working and valid. Out dated, stale links are not only very bad for the customer experience, but is not a good look for your business. Social media, if implemented properly can be a powerful sales and marketing tool.

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5. Add clients you have worked with in the past on your website home page. This adds credibility and will impress businesses looking for a similar service.

6. Is your website loading fast enough. I know I hate it when I have to wait more than 2-3 seconds for a website to load. People expect speed and if you can’t offer this, expect them to exit your site. Delete all flashy, bling like images commonly used in the past. For strategic online success keep the entire interface clean and simple. This is a golden rule and should never under any circumstances be broken. Designing for the internet is not as easy as it looks and should only be undertaken by a professional web strategy design studio line Hopping Mad Designs.

7. Put a Google+ link on your website. This way your photo from Google + will appear alongside your site when it displays on Google.

8. If you see any photos of people shaking hands, talking in a boardroom or smiling at each other, get rid of them. These are cheesy stock images and will be doing damage to your site. Use actual images of real people in your company.

9. So people do not get lost, include a bread crumb trail within your URL structure.

10. Here’s a great one. Make your logo on each page a active link back to your home page. Allowing users to navigate easily is an essential strategy for website success.

11. If you have 2 businesses consider merging them into 1 website with 1 URL. Avoid confusing clients with too many web addresses.

12. Look at your web site home page and if the words: ‘welcome to such and such a site’ appear then the site is not being optimised correctly. Google will index the welcome part and not your services, so address this immediately.

13. Think about adding testimonials to the home page. Go one step further and add client video testimonials. It’s amazing the power that these have in converting browsers into buyers.

14. Check to see that your home page has a blog – this is an essential web strategy and can be used effectively for your SEO blogging and content marketing down the track. If you havn’t heard about this before then speak with your web company fast!

15. Probably the most web design strategy for online success that you can have for your business is to look the part online. Have a creative looking website that has been designed by a graphic or web design studio. This will make all the difference to the way you are perceived online. Never settle for a stock standard template web design as can often happen. Make the extra effort when it comes to this and be rewarded later on.

 

For more information on WEB STRATEGIES CALL 02 9360 8514.
 

This is bad news for the SEO industry and businesses that keep getting burnt by bad SEO techniques.

Following are a few stand out practices that SEO teams are still implementing. If you notice any of these they should be brought to the attention of your account manager before any more damage is done.

Keyword Stuffing.

How many key words can you put on 1 page that reflect your business? The usual trick was to put as many of these words on a landing page as humanly possible in the hope it would improve your rankings. Everyone used to do this and it worked well for a while, till Google picked up on this and now penalises this kind of senseless activity.

Thousands of In bound Links.

Once the favourite pastime of SEO companies, this is now huge no go zone. The theory was to get as many links as you can from external websites to your website and optimise 1 or 2 of your main keywords. The philosophy was, the more the merrier. This has now been outlawed by Google and I have seen websites receive massive rank suppression and penalties because of this. The proof of this was as recent as last week, where one web company that was occupying the first spot for the keyword ’web design’ is now a ghost and cant be found online.

SEO linking strategies are OK if they are performed in a slow organic fashion. Trying to fool the system may work in the short term, but ultimately your tactics will be found out and the price you pay will be heavy.

Duplication of Content.

SEO companies that are too lazy to write original content, deserve, in my opinion everything they get. What they do is take pages from other companies sites, alter a few words and claim it as their own. A shameful activity, thankfully that has been picked up by the search engines.

Title Cramming.

Every web page needs a title and some SEO companies will put as many services as they can on a page title. Ideally, a title should be up to 50 characters NOT 500. Title stiffing is bad SEO practice and can lead to poorer online rankings. Titles should be specific to that page and not generic.

Article Submissions.

Writing articles and submitting them to websites that recycle these in the hope of duplicating links across a huge article network used to be a great way to generate links, but will cause no end of headaches once these are syndicated over thousands of sites. A really bad technique and should be avoided at all costs.

Keep articles on your website or as a blog post where it can be regulated.

On Page Audits.

SEO companies should at the very least take a look at your site and make sure that all pages are compliant. Broken links, doorway pages, titles, invalid URL’s should all be checked and fixed before any further SEO is undertaken. Even check the status of the URL to see if it is clean and there are no issues with Google. Go to your web master tools account, pop in the URL and see if there are any messages.

Directory Submissions

Once a great way to get a better ranking, this tactic is a bad way to go and if you see that your website is listed on many directories, you need to stop this practice immediately.

They Do Not Update You, Failute to Communicate

Ideally, you should be reciving reports monthly on the SEO work, such as content marketing, linking strategies, blogging and on page work. Failure to keep clients updated usually means that little or no work has been carried out on your online marketing.

Over Promising

If your rankings have not moved in a couple of months and you still hear the same excuses ( that they need another month or two),  then this is a warning sign that the SEO team is taking advantage of you. Expect to see improvements in your rankings within 2-3 months. If not, go elsewhere as they could be harming your URL/website.

Be aware that many SEO firms still work on primitive practices that can have serious negative consequences for your business. If you have been paying for their services and are not seeing good results then you may need to speak to a professional SEO company like Hopping Mad Designs.

 

THEY NEVER MENTION WHAT CMS PLATFORM THEY WILL BE USING.

Most websites are built around a CMS platform or content management system. This allows you to get into the site and manage it for yourself. That is add content, images or articles. Its a great way to keep you site current and is a ‘must have’ component of the web process.

What web companies will not tell you or lie about is that they will be using their own ‘purpose built’ CMS platform. This means that once the site has been developed, you can never leave the company. That is, they own all the intellectual property surrounding this CMS and you are stuck with them for the life of the website. They ly renatl fees for the site, have absolute total control over the site and if you ever want to leave them, then you cannot take the site with you. Basically, you are just renting the website from them. This is a HUGE and I will repeat this a HUGE mistake and is made by businesses each and every day.

The web company will never tell you about this and once you are with them, then they start hiking up the monthly rental fees for the site, saying that they need to do a monthly maintenance or some other lies that just end up costing you more and more. Unfortunately, most people are unaware of this trap, and they end up having to work with a web studio that does not deliver the designs promised, over charges on a monthly retainer ( that is totally unnecessary), and ends up owning the actual site.

If you Google ‘web design’ and you are based in Sydney, you will see hundreds of web companies, all selling their wares. I can see, from my experiences, at least 50% of companies that are operating under this false system. They are not exactly telling you a lie, but they are not divulging the whole truth when it comes to your website. This is bad business practice and consumers are getting totally ripped off.

So please ask the question next time; is my CMS platform open source or not. If it isn’t and they have their own CMS, then never use this company as you will end up getting completely burnt.

THEY TELL YOU THAT ALL THEIR WORK IS DONE IN HOUSE.

This is one of the biggest lies that I hear all the time. So many web studios will be happy to take your business and then ship everything overseas for the design and development. I cannot begin to tell you this issues associated with this, but let me point of just one thing. How can an Indian designer, design for the Australian market and what are the guarantees on the quality of work you will be getting. I get at least one phone call per day from someone who has been lied to and ripped off in this manner.

Make sure that you GO AND VISIT the wed firm before you make any decisions. If they discourage a meeting then something is ‘fishy’.

The way they work is to promote themselves heavily online, and offer cheap prices in order to secure the sale. They have slick talking sales reps, trained on how to overcome any objections and will absolutely 110% lie to you over the phone about where the design is being done. On top of this, you never get to meet with them and it is rare to deal with the same person twice. This is a recipe for disaster and it happens over and over again. They do not care about you, your business or the end result. It’s all about the sale and you will be the loser if you get suckered into this.

How can I say this? Because I have to pick the pieces up when business owners call me ( often very upset).

GOLDEN RULE # 1: go and visit their studio and physically meet with the designer.
GOLDEN RULE # 2: if they are offering web packages that are under $500 – then this is a sure sign that they are offshoring your work, or just using some old crappy template.

3) ALL THEIR DESIGNS ARE FULLY CUSTOMISED BASED ON YOUR BRIEF.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard this then I would be wealthy. Cmon, think about it. How can they spend valuable, and expensive design time on your website for only $500. If you believe this lie then you probably deserve to be working with these guys. Designing a unique customised website takes lots of man hours. I know this because I see my web team spending days on the design and user interface process. It’s not something that is able to be churned out in a couple of hours.
So if they say that they are giving you a truely customised website and the cost is far too good to be true, then you are getting lied to.

If you value your business and your online profile. Then this takes design time and costs money. If you don’t care about the way you are perceived online, then probably this might be a good solution for you. BUT word of warning, don’t expect your online experience to be easy or successful. Failures online are common, due to these kind of lies and it is only those business owners who are prepared to invest their time and money, who will succeed.

GOLDEN RULE # 3: Avoid cheap n nasty web packages. THEY DONT WORK, NEVER HAVE AND NEVER WILL.

CHEAP TO START BUT THEN WATCH OUT.

They will offer you insanely good web packages, but if you want to make any of your own design amends or go beyond their; 2 rounds of changes, watch out. Lets say they come up with a design and you are unhappy with it, then any of you own design input will be charged at normal design rates. And this can sting! So what was originally thought of as a good deal, will end up costing you as much as a credible web company would charge. The only exception is that you have the crappy designs from a template design studio.
Basically, you got trapped and duped into believing that you were going to get a great looking website for a great deal. In fact, in reality, you are going to have to start the whole process again.

GOLDEN RULE # 4: Ask how many rounds of design amends you can have and the costs associated with any changes after this.

THE MORAL

Designing and building a website is like building a house. All the ingredients have to come together if you are going to have a solid, beautiful looking home. Web design, like the building industry is fraught with pit falls, con artists, rip off merchants, etc etc. So, it is up to the astute business owner to make sure that they have and are working with the right company to get the right end result. If you have built a home then you will know what I am talking about.

Don’t run into this blindly, as the saying goes:’ a fool and their money are easily parted’ and this can happen in the web industry very quickly. Do your homework, due diligence and then and only then make your decision.

If still unclear, make sure you engage a reputable web design sydney company like Hopping Mad Designs

Following are some pointers to help your users engage with your content in a much more positive fashion.

1. Your content just does not hit the mark

Having content that is truly engaging, that is, funny, informative, entertaining, ‘hits the spot’, needs to be written, by a professional copy writer. Copy that falls flat will leave the reader in no doubt about your companies online profile and integrity in the market. You will be able to get a much larger and more loyal base of followers if you are able to publish content that is a ‘must read’.

2. Bad Timing Can Kill Your Message

Know your audience and know what time they are active online. Professionals are more likely to be active during the day, with the younger market at night. Posting articles or news to social media platforms, whilst expecting a response can be fruitless if you mistime your marketing strategy.

3. Obtain True Followers with Appropriate Content

Having as many followers, or ‘likes’ as you can may not necessarily be the best move. You don’t want school kids or teenagers following your law firm if your piers and colleagues are viewing your site. Catering and targeting specific content to your audience will ensure the right fit for your company.

4. Leave Ego at the Front Door

Write without too much ego. Be true in your delivery and the audience will love you for this. Over indulgence in your abilities or overselling yourself may be perceived as offensive and your user engagement will suffer in the long run. Be humble yet informative and always be on message.
 

TIPS TO HELP YOU FIND THE BEST SEO COMPANIES IN SYDNEY

TIP # 1: Search for the words on Google ' SEO Companies Sydney'. Try to look for companies on the front page of Google. But herein lies a problem. Google is constantly tweaking it’s algorithm and the way it ranks pages, so these results can and will fluctuate daily. Finding a SEO company that has consistently remained at the top of search results is challenging, but if you conduct your search over a few weeks, you should see a trend emerge. Some SEO companies can have an awesome ranking very quickly, these types of SEO firms should be avoided as they are using spammy, dodge techniques to get a fast ranking. Google will pick up on this and they will be punished for their so- called ‘SEO friendly’ tactics. Best way to go about this is to pick the top 1 or 2 companies and go from there. NEVER EVER use a a company that has paid to be on Google via ADWORDS – this is the WORST mistake you could make. You have to trust me on this as the SEO agencies paying to be ranking for the keywords related to SEO – CANNOT RANK THEIR OWN WEBSITES – so how are they going to rank yours….this is really important so if this point is unclear please call me on 02 9360 8514 and I would be happy to explian this to you. Knowing this diffierence betweeen organic SEO rankings and Adwords is critical!

TIP # 2: Ring up their previous clients. Testimonials on their websites are fine, but make the extra effort and call their past clients. People will be more than happy to tell you if they have had a bad SEO experience. Also, if they say that they have been able to rank a client on page 1, do your homework and physically check this out.

TIP # 3: See how long they have been in the SEO business. Fly by nighters come and go. SEO is a new industry so it is wise to work with SEO companies that have been in business for at least a few years. SEO start ups without any solid background or past proven history should be avoided at all costs. Because barriers of entry into the SEO game are so low, Sydney businesses need to be on guard for SEO companies that are either not accredited, certified or able to demonstrate a track record. 

TIP # 4: Have a good look at their website. Many new, untrustworthy SEO companies will have cheap, amateurish looking sites. Be proactive and look critically at the site. If it looks dodgy then the SEO tactics used by these companies will probably be as well. Be aware that some SEO firms can have many websites online at one time. This is why you have to physically meet with them.

TIP # 5: If they promise miraculous results in less than 3 months, then you need to ask what they are doing behind the scenes to attain these rankings. What goes up must come down, so if they say that they guarantee a top SEO result quickly, then again, avoid these guys. It's just a massive scam!

TIP # 6: Look for SEO firms that don’t want to lock you into yearly contracts. Having a 3-6 month locked in contract is fine but anything over that is risky. Rankings need to be achieved organically over time. If speed is an issue, and you need your website exposure quickly, then adwords is a better alternative for you.

TIP # 7: Pay peanuts and you get monkeys. Many SEO sites offer packages that seem just far too good to be true. Like any profession where results are expected, you have to pay; and in some cases a considerable price for quality SEO services. The playing field to rank websites has shifted and a lot of work is now needed in order to rank a site and maintain this ranking. Therefore, only go with the SEO Sydney companies that charge fees accordingly. Try to remember that this is your business and for it to succeed online you need to be working with the best SEO companies. Cutting corners, reducing budgets might be OK in some other areas of marketing but unfortunately with SEO, cutting costs will be catastrophic for your SEO positioning. More information on SEO costs can be found here.

TIP # 8: See if they have in house copywriters. Web content is a crucial component of any SEO strategy and having the right mix of web content writers and SEO technicians, all under one roof will mean that you are certainly dealing with the best type SEO company. Known as content marketing this will do wonders for your online position.

TIP # 9: Ideally the company should be based in Sydney. This means that you can actually go to their office, meet with your SEO consultant and learn as much as you can about their service offerings. If they don’t have a physical address and want to build a relationship via email, then this may cause a few issues. Don't do everything in the virtual world – meet with them.

A huge warning here !!!!

If they outsource their SEO work, then don't even think about it. I have seen far too many good businesses get hammered on Google because they were duped into trusting a SEO company that promised that they did everything in Australia. This is a con. Visit their premesis to see them working locally. It’s just not worth the risk.

TIP # 10: Make sure they know about social media and conversion rate optimisation and the close relationship between the various social media platforms and SEO rankings. A quick quizz on this subject by you should give you the answers you need. If they faulter, or don't know what they are talikng about then again this is not one of the best SEO firms that you should be engaging.

TIP # 11: If you are in business or part of a marketing team then use your instinct. If you get a bad vibe from your first contact or have met with them and something just doesn’t seem right then look elsewhere. Keep on looking until you are comfortable with your choice. Make sure they have explained everything to you in a very clear and transparent way. If they seem over pushy or unclear about any SEO subject, then this is generally an indication of bad things to come.

TIP # 12: If you have an existing website make sure they will do a thorough audit of past SEO work. They will need access into your web master tools account in Google for this. If your rankings have suddenly dropped for no apparant reason, you will need to address this issue as your website might have incurred a Google penalty and be sandboxed – this happens all the time and the SEO team at Hopping Mad Designs can fix this problem for you.

Hopping Mad Designs has just launched a new website called SEO Sydney Experts. Its aim is to help businesses in Sydney with their SEO – give them a call on 1800 916 191 and let them show you how they can help your business succeed online.
 

Look at your website again.

When was the last time you had a good read through your website? If the answer was over 6 months ago, then it’s time you gave your web online content a good read through. If some of what you read makes you cringe, then it’s a good idea to invest in a web copywriter, who can craft well worded content, that is at least current and reflective of your business at this point in time. Out dated content written by amateurs will provide no benefit to your business and actually drive people away from your site.
Make sure you look at your business from the consumers’ perspective and try to highlight your unique selling point ( USP). Never oversell but be confident in who you are and the product or service that you are trying to engage the consumer with. Online content, written from the heart, will win over new customers. Mechanically, dry worded content will just bore web users and eventually cause them to look elsewhere.
Personality in what you say is key to the success of your online content. Add some spice and life into what you are selling and the rewards will come.

Stay well away from jargon-filled blogs and article releases.

The temptation might be there to show off with your knowledge of a particular field, but try to steer away from being over technical. Keep content short and snappy with interesting grab statements and paragraphs. Over use of complex content within the blog is again not a good idea. Readers want ( unless they are specifically after very technical information), easy to read and entertaining/informative blog pieces. Give them want they want and with out a doubt, website traffic will increase.

Be harsh with your content

Be honest with yourself and see if what you are publishing online is a good read. Go over it again and again and see if reads well. Only you can be the best judge of this, but if at all unclear, try it out on an unbiased friend or relative. Positive criticism is great for your online marketing. Remember the more online content your write, the better you will become at it.

Give Your Social Media the Once Over

If you have uploaded content to your blog or other social media platforms in the past and they don’t seem just quite right, then either edit them or delete them. If you do end up getting rid of old content, make sure you put a 301 redirect on the blog piece. Your web developer should be able to advice you on this.
 

1)If you are in business you must have a LinkedIn profile. If you currently do not have one, then register your business name today and complete the online profile. If you have an existing profile then make sure it is updated and check out any new potential contacts that you can make. A good way to ramp up your social media status is to get past clients to write some testimonials for you and post them on your profile.

2) Get a Google+ page and add your photo ASAP. We do this with our website and each time our URL comes up on the search engines Google, my photo appears along side this. It is a great way to highlight your website, attract visitors and improve sales. Ask your web developer about this awesome technique. As a social media platform, Google+ is also a great way to engage with people and let them know about your business. Unlike Facebook this platform lets you segment friends, businesses contacts and relatives into separate groups; which is great for targeted marketing

3) Facebook is without doubt the biggest social media goliath. An absolute must is to register your Facebook page and make regular postings about your business. The aim here is to attract followers who are interested in your offerings and continually feed them with news, updates, specials, basically anything to do with your business. You might even think about buying some ad space on Facebook and specifically target consumers in your area and demographic.

4) Invest in a blog on your website and start blogging right away. Writing about relevant news or issues in your particular industry is another powerful social media strategy and should be undertaken on a regular basis. If you are stuck for content, speak with a web copywriting company, who will be able to write articles for you every month. A good idea is to try to publish one to two articles per week. A content strategy for your blog is a must and should be on your marketing agenda asap.

5) Delete stale, old and out dated connections you may have. There is nothing worse than marketing to people that have no interest in your business anymore. Have a browse around LinkedIn and look for industry related connections. Finding new people to engage with online is a great path to take if you are looking for fresh new contacts.

6) Be careful about your social media channels. You don’t have to be on every platform online. Be discerning and picky about where you want to go and who you want to engage with. Examine the time and effort needed to maintain each platform and pick the ones that will yield the maximum reach and user engagement.

7) Be proactive about making new contacts. You may be surprised who is online and just a little effort can go a long way. If you are able to make a contact, try to email them personally, but never spam them.

8) Measure results and be sure to find out where your customers came from. Google analytics can be coded into your website and will provide you with the information you need to monitor your social media effectiveness.

9) Run a competition and see how many people actually fill out a form or apply. If it doesn’t give you the results you were looking for, dont be negative. Look at what went wrong and try again.

10) Watch out for negative comments on all social media platforms and mitigate these immediately if you find any. It is easy to write off a person or business on any of these platforms, so being vigilant about comments or feedback is a positive thing to do for your social media.

11) Don’t rely entirely on friends or family to ‘like’ your website, blog or profile. Be realistic about your target audience and put together a social media marketing campaign that will encourage fresh, new users. This is not as easy as it looks, but if you are unclear about where to begin, contact companies in this industry who will be able to offer some marketing advice. The investment now will pay huge dividends in the future if you are committed to improving your brand online.

12) Lastly, don’t bury your head in the sand thinking this will go away. Social media is growing in popularity and as part of the business community, you need to be involved. Take very small steps to start with and over time you should get the hang of it. There is no point being afraid of social media just because you don’t understand it. These platforms are here to assist and promote your business. By carefully looking at this from a marketing perspective you will soon see how easy all this can be. Social media is designed for everyone and if you feel that your business has been excluded then the the process to turn matters around is simple.