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A lot of businesses can benefit from running a Facebook Business (Fan) Page. It's completly free to use so why wouldn't you want to add it in to your marketing plan for your business? The success of your page will depend on how well you manage it - so here are some tips to help you get started.
Good Design Having a professional Facebook business page design is just as important as the design of your website or printed material. You can leave a lasting impression on your page visitors by making sure your cover image, profile image and application tab images are all professionally designed and in tune with your business brand look and feel. We have a Facebook Design package that can help you achieve this. Or if you are DIY'ing, make sure to take note of the facebook image sizes to use for each area of your business page so your images fit, and look perfect. Cover Image This is the most important part of your facebook page design as its the biggest image and really stands out. It should express who you are as a business and show visitors what your business is about at a glance. Profile Picture You want a profile picture that's easily recognizable by your potential Fans. That could be anything from a company logo for a big brand to a headshot of yourself. Application Tabs The four boxes under your cover photo are your application tab links. You can choose which apps appear on the top row and you should also customise the images to make them more engaging to visitors. Page Posting and Insights Posting not regularly enough can leave a negative impression on your page visitors and affect your reach. Posting too much could also drive fans away from your page. You need to find the right balance - you can do this by testing your frequency and watching your numbers to optimise engagement. Creating a content calendar can help you stay on track and make the process easier to manage. By using the Page and Post Export option in your Facebook Page insights, you will have valuable data to help you understand how people use your Page and what works best for your business. Facebook insights can provide valuable data to help you measure your Page success. Keep track of your numbers and adjust accordingly! What is Edgerank? Edgerank determines what posts appear on a Facebook's user's newsfeed. The formula includes:
About Section The About section under your profile image may allow for your to write around 155 characters which will be visible on your profile. Make sure to include your website address. Facebook Rules Breaking Facebook rules may result in having your page shutdown without notice. Be familiar with the Terms of Service. Keep in mind that TOS may change without notice. Visit Facebook to learn more https://www.facebook.com/policies. Facebook changes its terms of service…often. And unless you follow the company’s blog or frequently check their Page Guidelines, it can be difficult to keep track of what’s allowed—or not—during a given month. Of course reading social media blogs like Social Media Examiner will help you stay in the know, but page admins should still bookmark Facebook’s Page Guidelines and read the document at least once a quarter. Respond Respond to ALL comments and make sure your settings (under Manage Permissions) allow for people to post on your Page and your Page has turned on ”messages”, so that people can send you private messages. Post Good Content The 80/20 rule. Try publishing around 80% original and curated content that provides value to your followers and no more than 20% promotional content. Promotional content includes selling your products or services, posting about how great your customer find your business (unless your clients post it directly on your wall), showing your work or portfolio, promotion of your accomplishments, etc. What’s In It for Them? Whenever you post to your page, remember that your page visitors want to know “what’s in it for them”. Be mindful of the content your post on your page to make sure you provide value to your visitors and fans. Most Facebook users Like pages to:
Posting Links For all content that has links in it, be sure to place the link before the end of the fifth line of text -- that's where it will truncate and include a "see more" tag. That way, your Fans don't have to click "see more" to access your call-to-action. Promote your Page To increase your Page visibility, you need to tell people about it. Don’t forget to link your personal Profile to your Page. Promote your Page on:
Facebook Ads Include Facebook ads to your marketing budget to help increase your Likes, engagement, visibility, promote events, market your products or services, etc.
Other Likes Liking other business pages helps you build connections (and when they reciprocate, gives you added exposure), but you might not want certain pages to be among the first things visitors to your page see. Luckily, you can control which of the pages you’ve liked appear on your timeline. To choose featured likes, go to your Admin panel, choose Edit Page, then Edit Settings. Next, click More and then select Featured. From there you can edit your featured likes.
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The world of online shopping is a very competitive business industry so it helps to have a well thought out plan for your online store design and development.
There are 3 key areas of importance to any website, particularly online shopping websites: Ranking - Making sure your website is found by search engines Conversion - Getting people to actually buy from your online store Retention - Keep customers coming back to your site Here are our 10 best tips to consider when starting an Online Store: 1) Choose a well-known platform There is no point reinventing the wheel by using custom solutions for eCommerce. There are plenty of tried and tested eCommerce platforms you can use. Trying to figure out the best one to use is the challenge! Make sure you choose one that is popular, has great support and produces beautiful looking shops. We recommend Shopify - it can be set up without any customisation. But ideally if you have the expertise, you can also customise the HTMl and CSS to tailor your website specifically to your business. 2) Fast loading pages There is nothing more frustrating than a page that is a slow to load when you visit a website. Most people will just move on to another website when this happens. Make sure your use a platform that fast loading pages and don't use things like flash which can slow things down. 3) Be original with your content Make sure you take your own photos and write your own descriptions for the products you are selling. If you don't, your content will be more or less the same as other online shops that purchase from the same supplier. 4) Search engine ranking Search for a keyword that your hoping to rank highly for and compare the results. If the websites are badly designed or outdated then you've got a good chance of our ranking them and selling in that area. If they're fantastic websites and doing well then consider whether you can actually compete with them. Your site needs to be more than just a shop - write high quality blog posts to keep the content on your web page fresh, link to your own products and establish yourself as an expert in your chosen topic. This will help gain your customers trust and also increase your search engine ranking. Make sure you can allow your customers to share your products via social media. Include customer reviews or videos about your product and these may also appear in your search results to encourage customers to visit your site. 5) Retain Customers The best way to retain customers is to get them to sign up to a newletter. Prompt your customers to sign up to a newsletter throughout your website, and make sure this process is quick and easy to do. Giving a discount coupon off a customer’s next order is also a great way to entice them back for another sale. 6) Social Media Facebook is a direct marketing tool and its free so you’d be silly not to take advantage of it. You can interact with your customers, answer questions, run competitions, notify customers about new products, sales and discounts. Pinterest is also becoming more and more popular and can also be used to drive sales by pinning your products to a board. Displaying social media buttons on each website page is essential - including your product pages. 7) Do some research Make sure you know what your want to achieve with your online store website. Check out what your competition is doing and how you can do it better. 8) Consider Postage Costs The one major down side of shopping online is the additional of postage or shipping costs to a product purchase. Offer free postage if you can, or research your options for sending goods to customers and try and get the costs accurate and as low as possible. 9) Website Design A stunning looking website makes all the difference but make sure your website design matches what you are selling. Think about your target market and what kind of look and feel you think will appeal to them when viewing your website. 10) DIY stores verses using professional services If you are a new business then you’ll probably be looking for a low cost solution with basic ecommerce functionality to begin with, but with the ability to use more advanced ecommerce features in the future. If you decide to run your own store, then you need to decide whether to set this up yourself or to use a professional. This decision will depend on a range of issues: your budget, your level of technical knowledge, the amount of customisation required and the amount of time you have. An ecommerce platform can enable you to get online quickly with a fully functional site at a low cost. However a web designer will add that professional touch to your website that will give more assurance to customers and hopefully increase sales. Creative Web Designs has a couple of very affordable eCommerce website packages available to get your online store website up and running with a professional look and feel. We’ll create your stunning website for you and afterwards you’ll be able to add/update content, add new categories/products, add new functionality etc with no further costs involved. We also provide email support and helpful tips and tutorials to assist you with this. Contact us now to kick start your online store development. How People Read Information On Websites
It’s important to understand how people read information on websites so you can tailor your content accordingly. Readers attention spans are short when reading information online, so you need to make sure your readers can find what they’re after quickly and easily. Most people skim website content and read the parts that are important to them. And if they don't find what they're interested in after a few seconds - they'll move on to the next website. Next time you are doing a search on the internet and looking for a service or information, take note of how you 'read' the websites you visit and how much time you actually spend reading the content. It’s All About Them Make sure your content is geared towards your customer needs and not yours. Make sure your content tells the reader what benefits they'll get from doing business with you. They really don't want to know all about you and your company or products, they just want to know what benefits or solution you're providing for them. Gain Trust You need to gain your readers trust and credibility in what you are offering. Content that is too wordy, has too much marketing ‘fluff’ or just isn’t clear won’t gain you that trust. The 3 Most Important Content Writing Tips Aim to be concise, factual and direct with your entire website written content. How To Organise And Write Your Page Content
Conclusion If you follow the points above you'll easily improve the content of your website and get visitors to stay around longer. If you would like some professional help with your website content, there numerous content writing services available to help with this important and sometimes overlooked part of your website development. Now that you have read SEO Part 1 you’ll have an understanding of on-page SEO techniques.
What is Off-Page SEO? Off-Page SEO techniques are methods that can be used to improve the position of a website in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) – this goes beyond website design. It is an on-going process and it’s really important if you want to achieve top ranking in search engines. It generally takes a lot of effort and time. But if you put in the hard yards you will see results over time. If you are aiming for top rankings in Google, you really can’t do this without applying an off-page SEO strategy. The Importance of Keywords If you are using more competitive keywords it can take longer to improve your rankings than if you are using less competitive keywords. This is why keyword research is an important part of your website development. What are some examples of off-page SEO techniques? Off-page SEO is all about link building and includes things like:
Remember - the harder the link is to get – the more value it will have for your website. Don’t try to trick Google by buying lots of links from dodgy directories – this will only harm your site and could possibly get you banned from Google. Make a great website and promote it properly and you’ll get there. I’d really recommend reading this book if you’d like to learn about SEO in more depth. Don’t worry it’s not a huge book that you have to trawl through to find the bits that are actually useful – it is a great reference guide with lots of practical examples and ideas to apply to your own website: SEO Made Simple: Strategies for Dominating the World's Largest Search Engine What is ‘SEO’ and why is everybody talking about it?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's "natural" or un-paid ("organic") search results. source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization Which essentially means the process of trying to improve your website rankings for particular keywords in search engines so that when people are searching for services that you provide – your website will appear as close to the top of the list as possible. Resulting in potentially more leads, sales and interest in your business – that’s why everybody is talking about it! SEO is more of an art than a science and sometimes things you think will improve your rankings may in fact actually impair your rankings. There are two parts to SEO: on-page and off-page. This article covers on-page SEO - the process of applying SEO principals to your website pages at the time of development. How do I apply on-page SEO to my website? Make sure your website setup covers these points:
There is a fine line between too much on-page SEO and too little SEO – at Creative Web Designs we use our knowledge and experience to get the balance right. However…that’s not all you need to do to get Google to notice your website. You normally can’t get top rankings without applying off-page SEO practices as well. But with on-page SEO applied to your website, the groundwork has been done and you’re ready to move on to the next step. Read part 2 of this article: Off-Page Search Engine Optimisation If you're considering developing a website for your business or are looking for ways to improve your existing website, request a copy of our special report - 7 secrets to get maximum value from your website.
These are the main sections in the report 1. How to create the right first impression 2. How to guide visitors when they visit your website 3. Make it ridiculously easy for people to contact you 4. Why customer reviews are so important 5. Why is SEO important and what the heck is it? b. How can I get instant results 6. Getting your customers to come to you 7. Monitoring your website performance ...no, you need a way to generate leads.Having a website does not automatically mean, you'll start generating more leads for your business - you'll need an Online Marketing Strategy to really start seeing a return on your investment.
A website can be an important part of an Online Marketing Strategy designed to attract new customers or increase inquiries for the services your business provides. We offer a range of very affordable Online Marketing options for small to medium sized businesses - if you'd like to find out more, please get in touch. The internet is incredibly competitive these days and the algorithms that search engines use to rank websites have also changed. No longer is it just a case of adding in a few keywords to your website, and voila, your website starts ranking in the first few pages of google. Organic Search Results Organic Search results are the results you see in google from a search that aren't ads - ads appear at the top and organic results start appearing about halfway down the page. We apply on-page SEO to all website pages we develop to build a base from which to start your SEO efforts. Off-Page SEO, is the next step in continuing to improve your ranking within search engines. Pay-Per-Click Advertising Chances are your website isn't appearing on the first page of google - and there is no magic way to get it there. Good search engine rankings take time and depending on the competitiveness of your industry you may not be able to achieve the results you need organically. This is where an online marketing strategy comes into play - one part of this strategy may be Pay-Per Click Advertising. When you do a search in google, you see the ads first, and the organic search results afterwards. If pay-per-click advertising (or adwords) is setup properly, the new leads or sales generated should far outweigh the cost of the ads. We do not recommend our clients set up adwords themselves - it is far too easy to end up spending hundreds for little or no result. If you'd like to find out more about how we can help you with your online marketing strategyand get your website really working for your business, drop us a line. Cheers Jeanine Your business logo design is the most important element of your overall business branding so you want to make sure your logo designer understands what your business is all about and how your logo is going to be used.
At Creative Web Designs we specialise in small business logo design in Auckland and can capture the essense of your business in a creative logo supplied to you in various formats according to your needs. Here are some things to consider when thinking about a new logo design for your small business: 1) Who is your ideal client? A business needs to know who their ideal client is and communicate to them. There is no point designing anything without knowing who its for and making it for them. 2) Less is more. A logo should be simple but simple doesn't mean a lack of complexity. Take out elements that confuse and clutter. Quite often we have clients wanting to add in their tagline to their logo - in lots of cases it makes sense to leave it out and use it in other places for the business branding. 3) Logos should be adaptable. Let your logo designer know everywhere you are going to use your logo now and in the future. 4) Size Matters. Your logo should scale well when shown in different sizes. The text and graphics should still be clear and readible. 5) Timeless Design. It is important for a great logo to capture current trends, but not so much as to become quickly dated when those trends change. Your logo designer should incorporate these points into their processes when creating a logo. We start this all off by asking our clients to complete an online logo brief. We hope this has been helpful and if you'd like and further information please get in touch. This article is aimed at helping Creative Web Designs clients achieve good search rankings for their website - if you're not one of our clients, you might still find some useful tips here to apply to your own website.
Now that your website is live, there are some on-going tasks that you can carry out to ensure you get good search engine ranking long term for your new website. For websites that are using a brand new domain it can take a few months for google and other search engines to completely index your site - so if it isn't appearing in search results straight away don't worry! For websites that are using an existing domain, your new website will still need to be re-indexed by google. Redirects will have been added by us to ensure that people trying to access old page links will be redirected appropriately. Off-Page SEO During your website development on-page SEO best practices were applied to every page of your website. This means your website pages are targeted for specific keyword searches and you have a good foundation for further SEO efforts. Off-Page SEO is required to improve and maintain a good page ranking in search engines. Google considers website with lots of backlinks to high ranking sites to be more important than a website without backlinks. Google also considers websites with great content that is updated regularly to be worth crawling and reindexing more often. These are the types of websites that will be shown higher up in search results when people are searching on the internet. Recommended Next Steps We recommend dedicating a little time each month to work on your off-page SEO for your website and improve it's ranking in search engines. Unfortunately there is no fast-track solution available, in fact if you try and trick Google by purchasing backlinks for example, that is a sure fire way to get your website demoted or even blacklisted. Off-Page SEO Tasks 1) Add fresh content to your website. The best way to make your website rank long term is to continualy add good quality and relevent content to your website. This could be 1 or 2 new blog posts per month, business news, testimonials, a new page etc. 2) Work on attaining more backlinks to your website. Social Media pages are a good starting point because sites such as facebook rank highly in Google's eyes. Make sure to include a link back to your website when you post on these pages. Social media sites that you may like to consider are:
4) Add customer testimonials to a 3rd party review website. Having reviews on a 3rd party review site is very important for SEO. We recommend asking your customers to place their reviews on your Google Plus page. 5) View website statistics in Google Analytics. Understand what people are searching for when they come to your site and see what pages they are looking at and for how long. This can help give you ideas for new blog articles and general marketing strategies. At Creative Web Designs we design websites that work for your small or medium sized business to generate new sales and leads.
These are the areas we believe are the most important when developing a website: RESPONSIVE DESIGN These days with the majority of us having smart phones, your website needs to be able to adapt to whatever device its being viewed on, this is known as responsive design. All websites that we deliver are responsive and will look great on a mobile, tablet or desktop PC. COMPETITIVE PRICING We work from home and communicate primarily via email so our overheads are significantly reduced. This means we can offer web design services at very competitive prices. Our websites are all based on proven professionally designed templates. We believe that simple, modern design is the key to a great looking website. When you choose to have your website developed by us, we will customise the html and css of the template to completely match your brand and business style. Every website we produce is unique to the specific business. These factors mean we can offer great prices on our web design services without compromising on the quality of the websites we deliver to our clients. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION What use is a website if nobody can find it? SEO is the process of optimising a website for certain keywords or phrases that your customers are likely to enter into search engines to locate your business. One of the pitfalls of using DIY tools to create your website, is that it may not be properly optimised for search engines. Included in our website development is on-page SEO - including basic keyword research. This is a very important step of any website development - before you even think about how you want your website to look! All our websites have on-page SEO best practices applied during the development of your website. We also provide off-page SEO suggestions after your website goes live so that you can continue to work on and improve your ranking in search engines. It's an on-going process to climb up the ladder in search engine ranking. The websites we deliver provide an excellent base from which to work on your off-page SEO. You can read more about SEO in these articles: On-page SEO Off-page SEO This article gives you 3 good reasons to choose us for your small business web design. If you would like further information about any of the services we provide, please don't hesitate to contact us. |
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We're Small Business Website Specialists & Shopify Experts.Creative Web Designs create great looking, affordable business websites and eCommerce websites. We have over 15 years experience in the New Zealand digital industry.
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Contact DetailsPhone 021 211 2384
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Affordable web design for small businesses in East Auckland including: Howick and Pakuranga, Manukau and East Tamaki, Beachlands and Maraetai, Highland Park, Botany Downs, Pt View Drive, Flat Bush, Papatoetoe, Farm Cove, Burswood, Whitford, Clevedon, Bucklands Beach, Eastern Beach, Half Moon Bay, Cockle Bay, Sunnyhills, Mt Wellington, Panmure, St Heliers, St Johns, Mission Bay, Point England. We work remotely and offer our services Auckland-wide, throughout the rest of New Zealand, Australia and beyond.
Creative Web Designs 1/49 Meadway, Sunnyhills Auckland 2010
