Does Blogging remain effective in 2024?

Does Blogging remain effective in 2024?

by | Google, Website Design, WordPress

Introduction:

Content Marketing: Blogging continues to be a cornerstone of content marketing strategies for businesses of all sizes. It helps drive organic traffic to websites, improve search engine rankings, and establish leadership in various industries.

 

SEO Benefits: Search engines still prioritise fresh, relevant content, making blogging an essential tool for improving organic search visibility. By consistently publishing high-quality blog posts with relevant keywords, websites can enhance their ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).

 

Audience Engagement: Blogs provide a platform for businesses to engage with their target audience, share valuable information, and foster a sense of community. Bloggers can interact with their readers through comments, social media shares, and email subscriptions and build relationships over time.

 

Brand Building: Blogging allows businesses to showcase their expertise, personality, and values, helping to strengthen their brand identity. By consistently delivering valuable content that resonates with their audience, brands can establish trust and credibility within their industry.

 

Lead Generation: Blogs can serve as powerful lead generation tools by attracting potential customers actively seeking information or solutions related to a business’s products or services. Calls to action (CTAs) strategically placed within blog posts can encourage readers to take further action, such as subscribing to a newsletter or downloading a free resource.

 

Monetisation: For individuals and businesses alike, blogging can also be a source of revenue through various monetisation methods such as display advertising, affiliate marketing, sponsored content, and selling digital or physical products.

 

However, it’s important to note that the blogging landscape has evolved over the years, and success now requires a strategic approach, consistency, and a focus on providing value to the audience. Additionally, diversifying content distribution across other platforms, such as social media, podcasts, and videos, can complement a blogging strategy and reach a wider audience.

If you have a new website project coming up you would like to discuss, please get in touch. 

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Why A Business Needs A Website

Why A Business Needs A Website

by | Website Design, WordPress

Introduction:

In today’s digital age, having a website for your business is no longer just a luxury—it’s a necessity. Regardless of the business’s size, scale, or industry, a website acts as its digital storefront, representative, and often the first point of contact for potential customers. 

 

Visibility and Accessibility: 

As consumers increasingly turn to search engines to find products, services, or information, having a website ensures your business is discoverable. It is a 24/7 storefront, available to potential customers always, regardless of business hours.

 

Credibility and Professionalism: 

In many consumers’ eyes, a business with a website appears more credible. A well-designed website lends a professional image to your business, instilling confidence in potential customers.

 

Cost-effective Marketing and Advertising: 

Websites provide a platform for businesses to showcase their products, services, testimonials, and more. With proper SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and digital marketing strategies, websites can rank higher on search engines, leading to organic traffic and conversions without the continuous costs associated with traditional advertising.

 

Reach a Broader Audience:

A physical store or office has geographical limitations. A website, however, can be accessed from anywhere in the world. 

 

Improved Customer Service:  

Websites often feature FAQ sections, chatbots, contact forms, and more. These tools provide customers with immediate answers to their questions.

 

E-commerce Opportunities: 

Especially relevant in the post-COVID era, websites with e-commerce capabilities allow businesses to sell products or services online, adapting to changing consumer shopping habits.

 

Competitive Advantage: 

Many consumers perform online research before making a purchase. You’re at a disadvantage if competitors have a solid online presence and you don’t. 

 

Community Building and Engagement: 

Websites can host blogs, forums, or news sections, providing valuable content to visitors and establishing the business as an authority in its field. This drives traffic and fosters a sense of community and engagement around a brand.

 

Integration with Social Media:  

A website can be the hub of a business’s online presence, with social media profiles, email marketing campaigns, and other digital platforms branching out. 

 

In summary, a website is a multifunctional tool that extends a business’s reach, builds its brand, streamlines operations, and opens up new avenues for growth. In an era where digital presence is synonymous with existence, a website is a foundational investment that businesses must pay attention to.

If you have a new website project coming up you would like to discuss, please get in touch. 

Essential elements for the homepage

Essential elements for the homepage

by | SEO, Website Design, WordPress

Your homepage is your online shop front and needs to capture the potential customer’s interest instantly. We all know from experience that if a homepage looks confusing or messy, we switch off and look elsewhere for the product or service we were researching.

So, the homepage of your website needs to be attractive to look at and give a clear message about what your business does. Below are top tips for the elements you require to engage customers with your brand.

Below are 7 essential elements for every website homepage

1: Clear Call To Action (CTA)

When a visitor has managed to find your website amongst a vast array of others, what happens next? Make their journey easy to your goal, whether that’s buying a product, inquiring about a service or downloading a document. Add clear CTA’s across your homepage, guiding visitors along your sales funnel. Keep the CTA simple, making it obvious to the visitor what the next action for them is and don’t try putting in too many CTA with different requests, as this will confuse the visitor. For example, if your goal is to get them to subscribe to an e-newsletter, have a signup box at the top of the page and repeat the message halfway down or near the bottom so it’s still in their minds once they’ve consumed other information on the page.

2: Clear Navigation

Clear navigation helps your visitors have a simpler experience on your website, causing them less frustration and increasing your chances of a sale or enquiry. Your navigation bar is generally the area of the website which gets the most traffic, so it needs to highlight the key areas of your website clearly. If you’re confused about which pages warrant being the main focus, take a look at your Google Analytics (GA) and determine which pages get the most traffic. If appropriate, have the pages with the most traffic visible in the navigation bar. Sub-menus from the main navigation bar can be a great way of increasing traffic to pages of importance to your brand that visitors may not have considered.

3:  Engaging Visuals

Rustique-fine-dining

People process visuals 600,000 times faster than text.* This goes a long way to explaining why engaging visuals are so important on a homepage. Using high-quality stock photos take a look at my seven sites for free images for commercial use here,  explainer, take a look at my seven sites for free images for commercial use here; explainer videos, product images, infographics or even a creative colour scheme can break up the text information on your homepage dimension to get the visitor engaged. Remember, too, that Google encourages embedding YouTube videos to help with SEO. 

4: Contact Information

This is important; don’t make your visitors go through to your contact page to get the essential contact information. This may be a phone number or email address with a link to the contact page for more information, or potentially, your address will be needed on the homepage if you’re encouraging people to visit a physical location.

5: Reviews & Testimonials

Having honest reviews on your homepage provides a level of trust to the visitor. You can add these or use widgets from sites like TripAdvisor, Trust Pilot or Feefo. Ask previous clients to send testimonials and include pictures or visuals of them using the product or responding to the service. Include any recent positive media you may have received.

6: Accreditations & Awards

If you are part of an official organisation or governing body for your industry, please highlight this on your homepage using the logo. This once again builds trust with the visitor that you are a reputable business. The same goes for awards; always highlight your achievements.

 

7: What Differentiates You?

Last but certainly not least, ensure your content, both text and visuals, expresses what makes your brand/product stand out from the competition. For example, could you explain what your service or product does to solve an issue or how your awards and experience make you an industry leader?

If you have a new website project coming up you would like to discuss, please get in touch.

*Source – https://www.ragan.com/

The Principles Of Good Web Design

The Principles Of Good Web Design

by | Website Design

The Principles Of Good Web Design

Good web design can transform a company, draw in customers, and increase sales, but many people don’t realise how complex the process is. There are principles designers must follow to ensure the site flows, is visually appealing, and provides an exceptional user experience. In fact, studies show that users generally stay on a site for only ten to twenty seconds before deciding whether or not it is appealing and can meet their needs. That means your site must grab their attention, demonstrate value, and meet their needs in seconds! Now that’s a tall order. To accomplish this, designers incorporate proven principles into their sites that ensure a responsive and user-friendly experience that helps businesses succeed.

 

Define The Purpose

To ensure your site meets the user’s needs, designers begin by defining its purpose and building from there. To do this, they look at your products or services and determine how you meet your customer’s needs; from there, they follow four core deliverables:

  • Describe your businesses expertise
  • Build your reputation
  • Generate new leads
  • Encourage sales and follow-up business

Minimisation

If your site is cluttered and chaotic, customers will run the other way. Web designers understand the power of minimalism, incorporating it through different avenues, including:

 

Imagery – Imagery is a powerful tool on your site, pulling customers in and embodying your brand. Designers will use high-quality, professional images that evoke emotion and capture your company’s spirit.

 

Colour – Colour is an excellent way to grab users’ attention, invoke an emotional response, and influence their behaviour. Most designers limit the number of colours to no more than four complimentary shades to create a feeling of well-being, excitement, and happiness among customers.

 

Typography – Typography or font acts as a visual interpretation for your company and should be limited to three or fewer per site. Remember the cleaner and easier the font is a lot better for the end user.

The Principles Of Good Web Design

Site Navigation

Site navigation is vital as it can create a positive or negative experience for customers. If users can’t find their way around quickly and easily, they will leave your site and never return! After all, there’s nothing more frustrating than a site that makes no sense and makes it impossible to find what you’re looking for.

 

Visual Arrangements

Arranging elements through their order of importance guides users throughout the site and ensures a sensible and enjoyable experience. This process is accomplished through imagery, style, size, texture, colour, contrast, whitespace, and topography and, when done correctly, creates an incredible user experience.

Mobile-Friendly Browsing

The vast majority of users browse sites on their phones, so ensuring yours is mobile-friendly is vital to ensuring user satisfaction.

 

Responsiveness

If your site takes more than two seconds to load, you’re going to lose at least half of your potential customer base. By ensuring all image sizes are optimized, web designers ensure the site is responsive and lightning fast.

 

If you’re ready to discover the power of web design for your business, turn to Build Your Business Online. At BYBO, we build responsive, easy-to-navigate sites that provide an exceptional user experience and help you maximise your conversion rates. We work hand in hand with you to create the ideal website that promotes the heart of your business, helping ensure your success. Don’t trust your site design to just anyone; let us show you the difference a high-quality website can make for you!

Do you dream of starting your own business but aren't sure where to start when it comes to finding an idea? Don't worry, we've got your back. Here's a simple guide to help you think of that perfect business idea.

 

Look at What Bothers You

Think about everyday problems you face. Maybe you've thought, "I wish there was something that could help with this!" That could be your business idea!

 

Improve Existing Products or Services

You don't always need a brand-new idea. Sometimes, just making something better can be a great business. Have you ever thought, "I like this, but I wish it could do this other thing too"? There you go!

 

Turn Your Hobby into a Business

Do you love doing something in your spare time? Maybe others would pay for it or products related to it. From baking to crafting, hobbies can be great business opportunities.

 

Think About What People Need

Pay attention to what people around you complain about or wish for. If many people have the same need, you might be onto a winning idea.

 

Do Some Research

Look at the market and see what's missing. Use the internet to help. Maybe there's a product that's popular in another country but isn't available here. That could be a gap you can fill.

If I use social media, do I still need a website

If I use social media, do I still need a website

by | Website Design

If I use social media, do I still need a website

 

The answer to this question is definitely YES. Social media pages are essential – may be as important as having a website. However, that doesn’t mean that they can take the place of a website entirely. Why? Here are the main reasons.

 

You own your website.

You own your website’s content, the layout, the pictures, the URL, how things look, what your website visitors see first, and what the flow is.

Social media platforms own how things look on your brand’s page. These platforms hold what your page visitors are going to see first. They are in charge of who sees your posts and when they see them. That’s why it is a flawed strategy to rely on social media pages only for your online presence.

 

People use Google to search.

Having a site gives you the ability to write your content with the keywords that people are most likely to use when searching online for your products or services. For instance, if you own a gift shop in London, you can use the words “gift shop” and “London” multiple times throughout your site. Search engines like Google will then crawl your website, see those keywords and put your website on the first page of search results that appear when someone in London searches “Gift shops near me.”

 

This kind of website traffic is precious. Think about it. These people are already looking for the product or services you provide. When your site shows up in those search results, you put yourself in front of the people already interested who are therefore more likely to convert into a paying customer.

 

It expands marketing opportunities.

Ranking on the first page of search results is highly beneficial for your marketing, but it can take some time. Fortunately, this is not the only reason why you should have a website. Search engines offer “pay-per-click” (PPC) advertising for companies. That increases search engine visibility and drives website traffic. With PPC ads, you can purchase keywords you want your business to show on the first page of search results.

 

That’s not all. Facebook ads offer the “Facebook Pixel.” The pixel is a code received from Facebook that you can place into your website’s header section. This pixel acts like a “cookie.” When you put the code in your website, anyone who visits it is noted by Facebook and stored in your Business audience as someone potentially interested in your product/service.

 

Website costs have decreased significantly.

For the most part, gone are the days when websites cost £10,000 each. If you are a small business, there are several great ways to build a website yourself.

We offer out Hybrid Website Coaching Programme contact us for details here

If you’re thinking, “I don’t have the time to build a website,” “I don’t know how/don’t want to learn,” or “I’d rather have someone else do it,” contact me! No more excuses. Get your business a website.

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Stunning web design trends for 2021

Stunning web design trends for 2021

by | Website Design

Stunning web design trends for 2021

Each year web design trends promise to beam us into the sci-fi future of our dreams, given that they are based on technology. But this year trends are nowhere near that. They appear to share a common theme: rather than aspiring to hi-tech fantasy, web designers seek new heights of realism. Designers are blending the digital and the aspects of everyday life like never before. In this way, the following web design trends for 2021 are breathing life into the digital world.

 

Parallax animation

From micro-interactions to particle backgrounds, we have witnessed the rising popularity of web-based animation trends year after year. 2021’s web animations are getting even more forward by separating page elements into the foreground and background extremes. And this creates a parallax effect.

Parallax is the optical illusion that occurs when objects near to the viewer appear to move faster than things farther away. Although we see this in everyday life, for instance, when viewing passing scenery while driving, web pages’ effect comes across as equal parts authentic and surreal.

The depth created through foreground and background also has the added benefit of immersion, transforming the computer screen into something closer to a theatre stage. As users navigate the website, they are drawn into its convincing performance as if by magic. And at the end of the day, isn’t magic what the internet is supposed to feel like?

Retro fonts

We have seen many old things become cool again and then, in turn, become even more uncool. Think handlebar moustaches and mom jeans. Irony has a short shelf life.

Retro fonts have encountered this same decline and flow in their popularity, and many designs featuring vintage typography have not aged well.

Still, throwback typography has gone through a bit of a resurgence. We do not see the same tired fonts. Instead, stylisation and a bit of artistry are reimagining what retro fonts can be.

Instead of feeling old and cliche, they breathe new life into traditional bold fonts with a bit of experimentation. That is an excellent example of taking traditional fonts and giving them a bit of a cool and modern spin while maintaining legibility.

Retro Font

Horizontal scrolling

Horizontal scroll is having a comeback, even though it was previously regarded as a web design faux-pas. Nowadays, more web designers are experimenting with horizontal scroll. And those who do it best break the pattern not for the sake of being distinctive but as a way to disclose secondary information progressively, like in an image gallery.

 

Dark mode

Cue up AC DC’s “Back in Black” because the dark mode is hitting more screens this year. More designers embrace the dark mode aesthetic, with black providing the perfect dark backdrop to make design elements pop from the screen.

 

Prominent brands like Apple, Hublot, and even individual portfolios like Clock Strikes Twelve use it. The dark mode is a great way to add a modern, elegant touch to any website and allowing designers to play with more creative elements, such as pastels and neon. There seems to be a shift towards more products that offer a dark mode setting or are only dark driven, based on studies that reveal the impacts of glare and blue light exposure on our precious battery life.

Web design dark mode

Ready for the biggest web design trends this year?

It’s always exciting to see how web design continues to change and the no-code movement’s continuing momentum. I also can’t wait to hear what you want your website to look like this year.

Not sure where to begin?

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