Category: Marketing and PR

The Cosmetic Surgery area is a competitive industry and the cosmetic surgeons website is the first place that a prospective patient will visit before making an inquiry – if the website doesn't look world class, if it doesn't have that wow factor with all the necessary information, then the user will simply exit the site and look elsewhere. This is why having a website designed for any cosmetic surgeon is such a critical step for their business to succeed.

All other medical specialties basically rely on a referral system, mainly stemming from the patient’s GP. And generally when it comes to finding a specialist to look after their health, whether it be a surgeon, or a physician, patient’s just instinctively trust the recommendations of the referrer.

However, when it comes to cosmetic surgery, patients are very scrutinising in choosing their surgeon. Since patients usually choose their cosmetic surgeons based on their own research, the website is usually the first encounter with the surgeon or their practice.

Everything from the general layout, ambience, design, to the presentation of before and after photos, can have a powerful impact on the patient’s choice. The positive first impression generated by a professionally built website. A cosmetic surgeon is a artist and the website design is a reflection on the artist.

In the rest of the medical specialties, the results of treatment depends largely on whether the illness was cured or not. However, in cosmetic surgery, the results are completely subjective. Rather than wanting to get back to their baseline or normal level, cosmetic surgery seeks to improve on the baseline. Such being the case, Website design is paramount in getting the patient’s attention when they are researching on their procedure online. Having a great website design, allows your practice to zone in on the particular cosmetic surgery the potential patient is seeking.

One area that cosmetic surgeons should focus on is their websites conversion rates. That is what is the potential patient doing once they get to the site – are they landing on the home page and exiting the site? Are they going through the site looking at a few pages and not making any inquiries? For a cosmetic surgeon who is focused on generating new sales, they need to be looking at ways of optimising their website for maximum conversions. That is when they land on your website, they make the inquiry. Simple as that!

One other area cosmetic surgoens should focus on is their SEO ro search engine optimisation. Is their website geared up for this and has it been fully audited so it's Google compliant? PLUS is the SEO campaign being handled by a professional web and SEO agency? All these factors will seriously impact the success of the website and in turn the revenue generated for the business.

All these factors are so closely ralated and so intertwined that you really need to be speaking with a specialist team that can handle this for you…call us today at HOPPING MAD DESIGNS on 02 9360 8514. We will take your cosmetic surgery website, optimise it so it ranks on Google, improve the look so it's fully conversion focused and turn it into a powerful sales platform for your practice.

 

Mistakes happen when friends or family get involoved with your Website design and SEO. Simple as that!

1) Basically it will never get done. Why? Cause they are doing it for free and they just may get around to your website if they feel like it if they have a spare few hours. Months and months will go by and nothing will have been done. This is a certainty. After all, what they might promise you after a few drinks at the family BBQ, may not actually transpire. My guess is they will have forgotten about it. We get a lot of people coming to us at Hopping Mad Designs who have waited literally 6 months or a year and still don't have a site. We are left to pick up the pieces.

2) If things go pear shaped then so will the relationship, fights dohappen, lines in the sand drawn – a total nasty scenario. It’s easy to leave a designer, but a relative is not so easy. Calling and hassling them is not on if they are not getting paid for this. Imagine what it would be like if you only spent the money and got a professional outfit to help you out!

3) In the internet world, if your business has even the slightest chance of succeeding, you need to be working with a professional web and SEO team. Your website will never rank on Google and will not be designed for maximum customer conversion if it is handled by an amateur. Google has made ranking a website very specific and for this reason, you need an experienced SEO agency advising you on strategies and ways to out maneouvre your competition.

4) What experience have they got with SEO – the slightest bad link or the smallest on page website error can result in your website not ranking. Seriously, are you going to leave your business or livelihood to someone that has the ability to jeopardise it. Get real….this is your life you are trusting in the hands of a non professional – so be warned of the really bad outcomes that are awaiting you. Google penalties, lost clients, no money, loosing staff are just the beginning.

5) Are you going to leave it to them to write the copy, choose the images and handle the hosting, domain name registration and manage the whole project – how are they going to do this on a shoe string budget, after school/uni hours etc?

Most likely not. All you will get is a template  that will look the same as every one else.

6) If you are in a competitive industry then you are going to need a site designed that is better than the opposition. The designer your choose MUST be able to create a site that will not only generate new business but also lays the groundwork for a search engine campaign. This takes a lot of skill and is not something that can be added later on once the site goes live. Everything needs to be mapped out early on, right at the first briefing meeting where your designer and SEO manager can plot the course for your online domination. Left to someone who has little or no interest in your websites success and who is doing this as a favour to you is simply a recipe for a massive meltdown. No jokes – I have seen the results many times before of what can happen to a website and the internet marketing if left in the hands of a relative.

Look, it’s your business and if you want it to work you can’t have an off handed ‘she’ll be right’  approach to this. It just doesn’t work!

You may have been able to do this a few years ago when you had other forms of marketing to rely on for new business. But, the competitive landscape for digital marketing is too sophisticated and needs someone who knows what they are doing to guide you. Like anything you need done for your business, you should have a professional look at it. Saving money up front may seem like a great idea, BUT I swear to you that in 99.99% of the cases things do go belly up.

A Website is the first step in your marketing regime.

Many small businesses that I come across feel that they can get by without a website. In this day and age this is amazing. They often say that they have enough work on and they don’t need to attract any more business. This is fine but for those people wanting to save a few dollars and reckon they can get by with letterbox drops and a few scattered ads in local papers, they are seriously delusional.  All and By this I mean every business out there needs a website. I don’t care about the type or size of the business. If you have an ACN or ABN number then you need to have a website. Even if it is a couple of pages, you still need to have a business profile online.

A good tip for people reading this and still unsure what they are going to do about their site design is try to go with a reputable company and definitely don’t do it yourself or get a relative to do it. Because a website is the foundation upon which you will build your marketing, it has to look half decent and has to be built using an open source content management system.

This is where a lot of businesses come unstuck and where the issues begin. So I seriously urge you to give me a call on 02 9360 8514 before you do anything or make any bad decisions from the beginning. Mistakes at the beginning are easy to do as there are a hell of a lot of web companies out there who are, lets just say looking for a quick buck and not really concerned about your businesses well being! For the uninitiated you can easily get ripped off and end up with a website that looks like a dogs breakfast and doesn’t work. Be really careful with your choices. Spend just that bit more to get the job done properly and to get a website that performs well.

The next area that is insanely competitive and probably the most difficult for businesses to get their head around is SEO or search engine optimisation. Think of it like the Yellow pages but an online version also known as Google. For any business this is the absolute, outright, unconditional place that you have to have your website. Forget anything else. This is the end game, the end of the road and the one and only place where your business has to be. Everyone and I mean anyone looking for a product or service will search on Google.

Doing adwords ( that is paid ads on Google) is a good start BUT if you are serious about getting more business then you need to be starting a SEO campaign. This begins now and I mean right now! A soon as you engage a web company to start your design they need to be looking at your search engine optimisation. If your web people are bad at SEO or outsource it, ditch them immediately.

Only and I am really going to emphasise this part of your marketing ONLY go with an agency that can demonstrate a clear and undisputable knowledge of web and SEO. The 2 areas are interrelated and if you are going to have any chance of success online you need to understand this. If they stuff up in any of these areas you are doomed.

If you think you can get one agency to do the web and another to do the SEO then this is a real bad move. On top of this watch out for the millions of extremely dodgy, shifty, cowboy style SEO operators out there who are so full of spin that the chances of you getting seriously ripped off in this department are quite high. This is not a joke, you can fall into their traps very quickly and you wont even know it.

The worst thing you can do in regards to your SEO is:

• believe the crap they tell you about page 1 guarantees
• believe them and sign a contract if they say they will work for free if they cannot rank a keyword  – total lies and outrageous statements like this are going to kill your business.

SEO is the key to business growth – is basically your call as a business owner. If you choose to ignore what I am telling you, do so at your peril. If you want to do it properly and are a little unsure about the next steps again, I really urge you to give me a call here at Hopping Mad Designs.

Rips offs in SEO land are the norm and not the exception to the rule. The business landscape is full of businesses with good intention and high hopes who have been put through the ringer and totally scammed. All I can say is watch out!

The next option small businesses can turn to for exposure is the multitude of social media platforms. There are so many of them out there but I suggest focussing on Blogging and Facebook to start with. Most people will already have a personal Facebook account so just repeat the process but in your business name. In so far as blogging is concerned this is a massive area and if you are really wanting to dominate your online space then blogging constantly is going to have a huge positive benefit. Again, these points are quite delicate and need to be well thought out and planned in advance. Social media in an ad hoc manner will have no benefit and poorly worded blogs with little effort put in will actually have the reverse effect. Look at the effort I go to in my blog writing!

I wish it could be easier for small businesses, but the reality is that there are now no short cuts and there are no quick solutions to getting new business. I’m afraid that if you are going to have any chance of success nowadays you have to be in it for the long haul and you have to be on top of your online marketing. Do a couple of courses, speak to as many people as you can BUT start the process now. Learn how it works, see what everyone else is doing and then get in touch with a bloke like me who can help you implement this.

Check these Social Media Statistics Australia – June 2014

1. Facebook – 12,300,000 users
2. YouTube – 11,500,000 Unique Australian Visitors
3. WordPress.com – 6,159,000
4. LinkedIn – 4,125,000
5. Blogspot – 3,050,000
6. Twitter – 3,733,300 Active Australian Users
7. Instagram – 1,860,000 Active Australian Users
8. TripAdvisor – 2,100,000
9. Tinder – 1,250,000 Australian users – this one is really amazing considering that this is a dating website
10. Pinterest – 890,000
11. Google Plus –85,000 monthly active Australian users – this figure is somewhat disappointing as Google was really hoping to take on Facebook with their own version – unfortunately it failed and these results are the worst for the online media giant.

Highlights:

• Instagram – this is the surprise of the social media platforms with a huge uptake – everyone I know is on this and it is growing by the day. If you are not on there get on it ASAP. This has taken off like wildfire and yes it might take a while to get your head around it but believe me when I tell you that this is a massively popular platform.
• Twitter – this is a no brainer, everyone and most businesses are on Twitter, so start tweeting.
• Without doubt Facebook is the king of all social media platforms – there are no rivals and it has absolute authority in this space. If you have a business and you do not have a business profile of Facebook for your website, then you are really behind in the game. In fact, ignoring FB, could be quite damaging for your brand. Users expect now to see that your business has an active FB profile – its really a must have web add on.
• LinkedIn has a stable user base and is always a favourite for professionals and businesses.
• Tinder has around 1 million Australian active users, which is really quite unbelievable cause it is really a start up – goes to show you how quick Aussies (especially singles) are happy to get online.

Of course it’s very difficult and time consuming to be on all these platforms. My advice is to choose 1 or 2 of them and be very good at these. Over stretching yourself and trying to be at all places at once is going to dilute your message. Being a master of say Facebook and being active on there daily will be a hell of a lot better than publishing small amounts of content, news or specials over 10 platforms. Be realistic with what you can do, set your marketing intentions and be committed to engaging your client base with regular and interesting updates. There are business out there that rely completely on social media, so rather than ignoring and thinking that this is a passing fad, it’s a better idea to join the masses. Being left behind only means that you will have to play catch up with your competitors.

Make your choice wisely. Be careful and study what your customer base is using and then market for them. No point being on Facebook when your clients are all on Instagram. It’s a pity cause you are going to loose business and be selling to the wrong kind of people. As always if you are unclear about this or need some advice please call us at Hopping Mad Designs

Designing a logo is not as easy as it looks. Sure there are crowd sourcing websites out there that will be able to cobble 50 different logo variations for you in about 3 days. But, in reality, if you are wanting your corporate branding or business logo to stand out, then you will need to have an design agency working on this that is prepared to invest the appropriate amount of time.

 

Logo Design is Not a Quick Process.

To truly capture the essence of your business and have an identity created that clearly reflects this, logo design is a staged process. Following are the stages or steps necessary that your design team must take to deliver the best possible logo for your business.

1) you need to brief your graphic designer about your business and what you expect your logo to look like. This doesn’t have to be an exact detailed description of your logo, but a broad outline of what you like and don’t like. Colours and fonts can be discussed as well. It would also be a good idea to have a look at your competition and see the way they are branded.

2) your designer needs to then go away and do some industry research and see how your business can be distinguished from the pack. Ideally, you do not want to look like everyone other business. That’s the reason why you are engaging a design team in the first place.

3) there needs to be at least 3 or 4 initial concepts presented to you based on the design brief given. When presenting these to you, your designer needs to come up with logical reasons and explanations about the design and how he/she arrived there.

4) from this point onwards there will be to / fro emails between you are your graphics guys till you are finally happy with the end result.

5) the approved final artwork is them applied to all of your marketing and sales collateral. This is where the fun really begins as you now need to look at your marketing and start applying your new brand to your website, stationary, brochures, social media and blogs.

As you can see the design process for your logo is not a simple 1 step process. It is quite labour intensive and takes a certain skill set and high level of expertise to get it looking just the way you want it to look.

Remember, your logo is the foundation of your business and if it is created by a professional agency from the outset then you will never need to change it, or at least for the next couple of years. If you rush the design process and expect a logo in a matter of days, then you are going to end up with sub standard branding, that simply won’t work.

Hopping Mad Designs has developed logos and identities for well over 1000 businesses and if there is one thing I can tell you from my experience in this industry; expect the process to take at least 2 weeks. Rushing designers and pressuring them to complete your branding and style guide is going to result in sloppy artwork that leaves your business with an uncompetitive logo. All we ask for is a reasonable and realistic time frame.

A new website is often perceived as a cash cow for businesses. They launch their new website and expect everyone to love it including Google. When not much happens despair sets in and the reality of the online world and marketing a website becomes very real.

I have seen a lot of business owners, who after 1 or 2 months, with little or no traffic to their website, become very stressed and worried about the direction of their business. The issue is that their expectations of online success, post website design, is often unrealistic. Expectations run high, but the reality is that building a client base and establishing a web presence on Google takes at least 6 months, if not more. The patient entrepreneurs get this and are prepared to wait and invest the time and money necessary. The unrealistic web owners, who demand to be on page 1 of Google in less than 3 months, eventually pay the ultimate price of a web penalty.

Getting a great search engine ranking is not as easy as it looks. There are far too many SEO and website companies online, who would love to take your money and not really do anything for the service. Understanding what’s involved and what SEO is comprised of, will help business owners demystify this clouded and often misunderstood technique.

OK, let's start at the very beginning…

So what are search engine rankings?

When you are looking for a product, service or a term on search engines and I will be specific here when I say Google, they throw up results. On the far right hand side and on the top 3 displayed results on the front page you will see paid adverts or what is commonly referred to as adwords. Underneath these you might find some local listings in the form of maps and below these are the organic listings or search results. This is where you want your website to be and the higher up you are on these results, the more traffic you are going to get and the better off your business will be. Therefore search engine rankings are a vital component to the survival of your business and this is why companies like Hopping Mad Designs exist. To get your website a better position online. Its all very simple. The higher up you are on the page, the better off you will be. Finding the right SEO company is a massive challenge, and this is why you really need to know the difference between ‘white hat’ and ‘black hat’.

Did you know that ‘Black Hat SEO’ is a certain death for your website…

Many SEO companies you find on Google are offering cheap SEO prices with outrageous and outlandish guarantees. Their core business is to lie directly to you just to get your money. They generally have no clue about SEO and have no idea about getting great search engine rankings. Many of these cheap providers practice ‘black hat’ SEO, which will kill your website. This is 100% certain. Black hat is the name we industry insiders give to SEO companies that perform dubious, problematic and fishy SEO. The do this cause they are not getting paid much to begin with and will look at every manageable way to cut corners and make as much money as they can from you. These practices are unethical and once Google indexes their work (that relates to your website), you will be the one that suffers the penalty. There are many horrible SEO practices such as: keyword stuffing, blog comments, directory submissions, the list is endless and continues to be abused. These practices were popular and common years ago, but today they are just ‘spammy’ and illegal according to Google. If you are in doubt of this check what Matt Cutt’s has to say about all this – he is head of Googles quality control and has clearly outlined what is deemed white and black hat.

 

So think twice if you think that you can get to page 1 of Google by using a cheap company. These guys are not out for your best intentions. They are there to completely rip you off and hide behind a set of very strong terms and conditions. Some of these companies will even harass you at work by telemarketing you from India, promising the world for less than $100 per month. Rule of thumb here

 

Points to note: Your Site Might Be Seen As Spammy if…

• You quickly get a LOT of inbound links to your website in a short period of time – these links are also coming from non authoritative websites.
• You have duplicate content on various pages of your website – you might have copied these accidentally or unaware of how it got there, but this is of little concern to Google.
• This one is the most common form of black hat is keyword spamming. Let’s say you are trying to rank for your main keyword. Lets say you are a electrician in Sydney and you want to come up on page 1 for ‘electricians Sydney’. If you are a black hatter you will just focus on optimising this 1 keyword phrase. You will back link it from as many websites as you can and over time this will trigger an alert within Google’s very sensitive algorithm. OUTCOME = penalty!

 

Why ‘White Hat SEO’ is the best for your business.

 

White Hat SEO, is really the best way to go and is totally search engine compliant. There are no dodgy back links, copied content or over optimised pages. If you are able to find a company that is white hat friendly then stick with them. They will be trying to get you to write original content and look at ways to optimise your website so that it complies with the strict guidelines as set out by Google. White hat SEO is all about making your website and online marketing look as organic as possible. The more natural and organic it is, the better your search engine ranking. It’s not rocket science, but it does involve many man hors and this is where the costs come in.

 

How to get proper organic online website traffic

 

If you have launched your website and want to see immediate traffic, you may like to use more traditional forms of marketing like radio, newspapers or magazines. On top of this an Adwords campaign is a good start to get visible on Google. All this is expensive but if you want immediate results then you better have deep pockets. This is all done in conjunction with your SEO campaign, so all this can be simmering away in the background for 3-6 months till your SEO kicks in. Even then be prepared to battle it out as getting to page 1 is half the battle. The other half is staying there and keeping your competition away.

 

Remember that Patience is the Key To Success.

If you want to take anything away from this blog then the 1 thing is – BE PATIENT!

If your website is important to you then you need to do everything you can to protect it and your good name. Having is banned from Google is a disaster, but if you want to do SEO the right way you can avoid all these hiccups, mishaps and disasters.

Travel Insurance Plus is underwritten by Allianz Australia Insurance Limited, one of the largest Underwriters of travel insurance in Australia, and part of the Allianz Group. Being backed by the experts makes all the difference when it comes travel insurance claims. It also means our customers have access to our 24/7 emergency service, provided by Allianz Global Assistance. It’s one of the largest global emergency assistance companies, so it has the size, reach and expertise to help people in need of emergency medical care. Located all around the world, and including 400,000 service providers, 240 correspondents and 37 operation centres, our customers can feel confident that with Travel Insurance Plus, they will be taken care of in times of need.

Business model & needs

We have created a low cost business that delivers market leading products, service and customer care.  With the increasing shift away from traditional retail ‘bricks and mortar’ shopping, to online purchases, we believe the economic and social demographics favourable to the establishment of a successful online brand.

Hence, our retail outlet is our website, underpinned by the Travel Insurance Plus brand and e-commerce capability.

Website design, functionality and search engine optimisation is crucial to success.  We defined our online needs as:

• Understandable: What is the most important piece of information on each page and is it easy to find. Our customers must easily understand the content and the associated user actions or directions.
• Actionable: Clear to the user what actions are available and what path customers need to take. These pathways need to be guided by prominent and attractive visual aids or call to action buttons.
• Engaging: We want people to find our site aesthetically pleasing, easy to navigate and provoke a willingness to engage with our content and ‘quote and buy’ function.  Success will be measured by loiter time, customer exit points and sale conversion.
• Search Engine Optimisation: Critical to success is the ease in which customers locate Travel Insurance Plus.  Search engine optimisation across multiple key words that rank highly is how our customers will find us.

Website Development & Search Engine Optimisation:

We conducted an industry search for an agency that met several parameters, not limited to but included:

• Combined web development and search engine optimisation capability;
• Willingness to form a partnership not conduct business at a transactional level;
• Proven portfolio of satisfied customers;
• Proven ‘ethical’ search engine optimisation success;
• Ability to demonstrate a consultative, professional and project managed development process; and
• Transparent communication.

 

Hopping Mad Designs

We selected Hopping Mad Designs from Sydney.  They most closely met our requirements and we are pleased with the outcome.

The website design brief stage was a process of working out what we didn't want. It involved evaluating the competition and looking at what they do and hopefully doing it better. Hopping Mad Designs provided a bespoke design solution for our business. Several concepts were developed, fine tuned and then Hopping Mad Designs refined the one we thought would work best.  They took on board our feedback and made us a part of the design process. The final results met our expectations and furthermore the project was delivered ahead of schedule and on budget.

 

Without a successful search engine optimisation (SEO) campaign, our website will be lost amongst the half a billion other travel insurance pages.  Hence, we need to eventually rank on the first page of Google, Bing and Yahoo. But we have to get their in a professional and ethical manner.  That is what Hopping Mad has committed to do and is delivering.

 

We wanted the same agency to design and develop our website and then manage our SEO to ensure our site and content are optimised, that we maximise our return on investment and provide a great customer experience.

3 Reasons Why Your Website is Failing

i) Probably the greatest let down for website is the design. I see so many websites that look absolutely appalling, it’s no wonder they are not working. A lot of business owners over the last couple of years have been content and satisfied with just a web presence. It was enough to have a website online, no matter how it looked or how it reflected on the business. In other words, anything will do so long as it’s online.

They would go with the cheapest web company they could find online and settle for a substandard, inadequate, lousy, shoddy web solution that did absolutely nothing in terms of performance or converting online shoppers or browsers into actual paying customers. That is, the website was ultimately underperforming and not doing the business any favours.

Being tight with the web budget upfront is a serious infectious and epidemic problem amongst Sydney businesses. They think they are doing a good thing by their business by shopping their web project around. The cheapest bidder, in most cases (especially in the web and online environment) is simply a BAD MOVE and the negative repercussions can multiply over time.

I have blogged about this so often, that cost should not be a main factor when it comes to your website design. Spend accordingly, don’t bust prices down to the bare minimum or you will end up loosing out big time! Cheap web solution are there are so many companies out there are extremely detrimental, harmful and destructive for your business – I am not saying this for the sake of this blog – we get literally dozens of calls per month from business owners that have been ripped off, conned and cheated by these so called web agencies.

ii) Another reasons why your site is loosing you business and not doing what was expected of it is SEO or search engine optimisation. This is a massive topic so I will limit my rationale here.

SEO is the technique of getting your website high up there on the search engines, especially Google. You can have the best looking website in the world with all the bells n whistles but it will be an underperforming asset if there is no SEO or rankings.

Again, I have banged on about this many times before but if your website is not found online by potential customers then it’s not doing it’s job. Essentially it is a waste of what should be a very productive sales tool for your business.

There are a multitude of reasons why your SEO is not on target and these include; poor web copy, slow load times, over optimisation of keywords, incorrect titles and web semantics. The list goes on and on but SEO is without doubt the most critical factor in website performance.

iii) The last reason why your website is underperforming is the content on the site. More often than not, this part of the web process is often overlooked and in turn your web site suffers. Content is a driving force in funnelling consumers down the buying path. It influences their behaviour, can play on their emotions and will ultimately play a big part in the sales process.

If your content is too thin or lacking in passion, gusto or intensity, then it will contribute to your websites dismal performance.

How To Improve your Websites Performance?

If your graphics or website visuals have not been looked at in the past 12 months, then it’s time you had a website audit – look at ways to improve the visuals of all website pages so they are optimised for conversions.  If you are at all concerned about the look and feel of your website and it’s direct relationship to performance then give it to a web company that is not going to be bargained down to the point where they have to cut corners.

 

Be prepared to open your wallet (remember, web design is a tax deduction) and spend accordingly – you might be pleasantly surprised by the end result.

To rank on Google you need SEO and to rank properly and have your website operating at peak performance you need to be working with a web and SEO company that can combine the 2 disciplines. If you want to take it a step further, why not be proactive and call us here at Hopping Mad Designs on 02 9360 8514 – we are one of the only Sydney Web and SEO agencies that does everything in house.

Once your website is ranking and sitting on page 1, you will know what I mean by the power of this technique – SEO in all its glory will SUPER CAHRGE your websites performance. If you ever wanted a sales person that was working for you 24/7, then your website combined with SEO is the answer.

 

In April 2013 Google implemented a massive change in their ranking algorithm – this was known as the Penguin change and it affected an unbelievable number of websites across the whole internet. Basically, it penalised sites with poor content and rewarded websites that had rich content.

The affect, in my opinion was needed as sites that offered a poor user experience ( if they were optimised) often ranked higher than legitimate sites. Companies could launch any type of website, implement a SEO campaign and have it ranked very quickly.

The follow up algorithm change by Google, known as Hummingbird was the death knell for these type of weak sites. It happened very recently and and now means that websites must now look at a raft of variables if their website is ever going to have a chance of ranking.

Simple put, the more organic, the more natural, the more informative a website is, the better chance it will have of ranking. Google will rank sites based on the quality of the content and the authority of the in bound links as opposed to a scatter gun, over optimised strategy.

Many businesses suffered tremendously with these changes and sites disappeared overnight. It also killed off many SEO providors but has left an extremely bad taste in the mouth of some people who have a complete distrust of seo companies.

 

Forget About Doing The Following – these practices are LONG GONE!

The recent Penguin, Panda + Hummingbird algorithm changes have outlawed some past SEO practices which were once favoured and approved by SEO teams and the search engines. These techniques were so common, because they worked – how times have changed! If you find that any of these following practices are being implemented by your SEO company, and you find that your rankings are suffering, then you might end up in worst case scenario, a Google penalty. My advice: stop all SEO work immediately.

Keyword Spamming – Most clients I used to work with with had one main concern or request. That is; can you optimise 1 keyword for me. Please put it on my home page as many times as possible and have it linked throughout my site where ever feasible. This used to work, nowadays, it looks terrible, reads poorly and in some cases will get your site penalised. If you are looking at your web pages, and you see this, delete them immediately.

Link Swapping – If I link to your site and you link to mine and I link to another site and then they link to you etc etc. You get my drift and so does Google. These fraudulent activities are going to get noticed and you will end up paying the price. If you receive emails from dubious companies offering links or swapping links, just ignore them.

Putting your link on many Blogs – its really easy to do this. There are so many blogs out there and they all allow you to voice your opinion, publish your thoughts and guess what? You can add a link back to your website. How good and easy is this for promoting your business. WRONG! These are a huge NO NO and once you get picked up for this type of online spamming, you are going to see your website plummet. Thats for sure!

Build Dodgy Links – Businesses who used to employ SEO companies for this specific purpose are now crying. They built thousands of links and in turn over optimised their site. Once easy to do – you could buy 1000 links for $45 – now probably the worst thing you could do .

Have You Submitted Articles to Poor Websites – Article submissions to article websites are a waste of time. what these guys do is takes your article and resell it off to other companies looking for content – this gets syndicated all over the internet and the results for your website is catastrophic. Far too many links that appear spammy pointing to your website are now spun throughout the internet. Delete as many of these articles as you can and do it now!

Poor web Content – If you think you can write one or two lines for your main landing pages, think again. This won’t work. Google needs to index content and display this to users. If you cant satisfy this, then don’t bother ever thinking about ranking. It just wont happen. I tell all my clients to keep the word count up and keep on publishing valuable information. It is hard to do, but thats the way it is online for the moment.

 

What Hopping Mad Designs is doing Properly to Help Clients with their SEO.

Forget about the bad SEO practices, they are so so 2012. Let’s look forward to the future and I will tell you ways in which we are helping over 500 client’s with their SEO – what we are doing properly and why we are considered the ‘go to’ company for search engine optimisation in Sydney.

Content and On Page Amends – This is rally the first place to start when it comes to your SEO. 3 years ago it was all linking, but today, you need to have a serious audit of your website to make sure that its site wide compliant. Of course linking is vital and a massive factor, BUT you will go no where unless the proper semantics, URL structures, titles and a whole heap more are in place.

Build a Websites Authority Naturally – Its not a one size fits all. Many SEO companies will take your dollars and just do back linking. This is not how it works. We fully customise a SEO campaign to fit your business niche. For example if you are a local real estate agent your campaign will differ vastly than that of a national freight carrier. We employ different methods and tactics to rank sites and build authority. Local sites will get local citations with local directories and positive links from relevant geo specific websites. National websites looking for authority will receive links for larger more recognised sites as well as a greater push with the social media. Our point of difference when building authority is that we actually care and pay attention. We look at the best custom fit solution to your digital marketing and implement this in a very organic and natural way.

Focus on Social Media – Hummingbird has meant that websites need to focus on their social media. Getting liked, tweeted, shared, commented and playing in the Google + space is a good way to generate interest in your business. Not only does it drive traffic to your site but it is a good trigger for the search spiders. We are able to strategise and plan social media campaigns a year in advance so we have an actual plan and expected outcome. We don’t want to have a rambling, scattered, disorganised approach to your social media marketing, but one thats co ordinated and planned. Its perfect our designers can come up with the graphics or ads, our copywriters can come up with the campaign wording and we are able to monitor its effectiveness and adjust based on results.

Conversion Rates – We monitor your websites performance through analytics and watch whats happening religiously. We monitor bounce rates, time spent on each landing page, site speed and make sure that your pages are converting into paying customers. The advantage of using a company like Hopping Mad Designs is that we are a web design and SEO company. So, if you need any on page graphic amends to compliment the SEO we have the skill set to do this. ALL UNDER 1 ROOF. You can leave all your worries behind about working with 2 sets of people of companies. We can do the lot, which is a blessing for your business. You have to trust me on this. If we are able to co ordinate the design and SEO, you are going to be a big winner!

We Never Pay For Links – we own our own website and are able to drip feed authority into your website. We can control this like a tap and do this uniformly over time. Our SEO is so sound and effective and this practice works so well that all our clients are ranking on page 1 – the litmus test is see for your self. Have a look at our own awesome rankings – this should be proof enough! We have been at the top for years and will continue to remain there. So if you want to be a winner and work with a company that has sound SEO knowledge and experience, call us today.

A point to note – if you are thinking about a SEO campaign – think long term SEO – short term gains do not exist any more so ideally you need to be in this for the long haul. It’s not a bad thing once you are on page 1 – you will want to keep this going on forever.

In conclusion, SEO is NOT DEAD, it is very much alive. What is DEAD, is the unsound and disreputable practices of a majority of SEO companies.

Google has tightened its ranking criteria, and closed many loopholes that allowed these types of companies to exist. I say, well done Google and I look forward to the future to see what new updates will bring and the challenges they present us with.

 

Fed up with NOT RANKING? Need Some Sound SEO Advice

If you are fed up with you poor rankings or feel that you have been given a bad deal, please call us on 02 9360 8514 and we will show you exactly how SEO is done properly. 3o minutes with me, will turn you entire thinking around and enlighten you to the full potential and magic that is, SEO.

 

You don't need to pay a fortune for your logo design or business branding

Logo design can be affordable. Long gone are the days where you had to spend an absolute fortune to get a unique and customised looking logo. You might have heard stories in the past where big name brands have spent a kings ransom to get a logo designed, with some very ordinary looking results. Or perhaps a freind of yours went to get a logo designed, paid way too much and was unhappy with the final result. These days are completely over now that you can turn to a design agency like Hopping Mad Designs.

Graphic design agencies like us, are able to reduce the cost barriers associated with design and make creative logo designs accessible to all sized businesses, catering to all budgets – now every one can afford to have a professional looking logo without having to break the bank or deal with an over priced ad agency – FORGET ABOUT THAT!

Those days are LONG GONE and well over.

Why Use an Agency like Hopping Mad Designs?

Unlike most cheap n cheerful logo options, WE ACTUALLY design based on a detailed brief and NEVER outsource it to a bunch of students, crowd sourcing or freelancers. Most cheap companies offering logo designs for $99, will ALWAYS outsource the work. They don’t do it themselves and are just middle men. The results are more often than not, very ordinary.

At Hopping Mad Designs, all our design work is carried out in house in our studio in Darlinghurst, Sydney. We make sure that we take a proper design brief from you, and then will fully customise a logo for you, without ever compromising on the design process. What you get at the end is a logo that you can be proud of and one that will give you the best chance of winning new business.

It's all about Brand Perception

Your brand is the first thing people see when you greet them at their home, they come to your office or when you hand them your business card.

The perception that this brand creates, in the mind of the consumer might be the difference between you making the sale, getting a new client or securing the deal.

Many big corporation will spend millions creating an illusion or perception about their brand. Obviously, as a small business you do not have these kinds of resources, that's why we are here to offer you a very affordable and alternative solution.

Let us come up with the creatives for your identity ( all at very cheap rates) and you too can go out there and compete with the ‘big boys’. Now you can also get that professional look and feel that you were always after for your company!

Forget about settling for second best, give us a call on 02 9360 8514 –  I guarantee you, that your going to be very surprised at what your marketing dollar can get you.

Other Marketing Material You May Also Need.

Your logo is really the first step in establishing a business brand and getting new customers. This is why we can also offer you very competitive rates for all your other design needs such as : brochure design, business card design, and lastly your website. On top of this we can also help you with you online marketing.

How good is that – finally a studio that can handle all your graphic design and marketing needs under one roof – all at cheap, small business friendly rates.

If you are a small business in Sydney and already have a logo and are now looking for a website – why not get in touch with us and let us design and devlop an affordable website – don't be intimidated by the online world – we can get you up and online within a matter of weeks with our cheap web design packages.

So there you have it. We can create your entire business profile and help you market it as well on Google. In fact, we can also manage your social media marketing, SEO and content marketing. Again, at rates that are really very friendly for most small businesses.