All posts by Kelly Kothary

6 ways to improve your income on your website

Websites

6 ways to improve your income on your website

So you’ve got a website up and running and you have ways to make money through it. But it’s not doing as well as you hoped, what can you do? Read our are ideas on how to increase those profits and get your audience engaged.

1. Solve a problem

Consider your target audience and what they maybe looking for when the come to your site. What is a common problem that people have in your market area that needs to be solved? Finding that problem and giving people a easy solution will hook them into your brand and build trust so that they come back to your website again and again and are most likely to spend money with you.

2. Make your website friendly

Make your website user friendly and mobile friendly. Give your users a clear direction on where to start when they visit your website. If your website has a blog a user may become overwhelmed in which article to start with first. Create a start here page to guide them through your site and links to your products.

3. Good content

Create excellent content that is better than your competitors. Write in-depth articles that search engines love and your uses will equally find interesting. Don’t forget to add links to your products and services. 

4. Get email signups

Get your users to sign up to your email list. This list is invaluable. These are people that are generally interested in your site and what you do. Having the ability to email them regularly means that you can pitch your products to people that are most interested and likely to buy or visit your site again.

To encourage users to sign up to your email list offer them free coupons or report in exchange for their email address. Offering them free, even better content, will make them want to sign up.

5. Target your subscribers

Once you have a new subscriber to your email list send them a follow up email. Send them links back to your website to show them the key areas of your site. 

Email or blog on your passive income products to help sell them. You can’t simply rely on just having a product on your site and hope that someone sees it. Make a feature blog on it, notify your email subscribers about it.

Email your subscribers regularly offering them more great content, special offers or your products.

6. Limited time offers

Offer limited time offers. Creating a good, cheap deal for a short amount of time will get people to do business with you. Once you have them buying and hooked to what you can offer they will be hungry for more.

How to change your URL

Wordpress

How to change your URL

Once you have created a page or post in WordPress it gives you a suggested URL based on your title. You can change this at any time by doing the following.

1 Open your page or post in WordPress to edit it.

2 Click the Edit button next to your permalink or URL.
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3 Make any changes to your URL. You can not make changes to the base part of your URL which is your domain. This is fixed. It is simply the address of the page or post that your are editing here.
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4 Click OK once you have made your changes.
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5 Click on Update to save changes to your page/post.
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Read10 tips on creating good URLs

 

How to set alt tags in images using Gmedia

Wordpress,

How to set alt tags in images using Gmedia

An alt tag is what you name an image for search engines to read. If an image could not be displayed visitors would see the alt tag instead. All images on your website should have something in the alt tag. This is how to set alt tags in images.

1Click on Gmedia Gallery in the sidebar.
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2Click on Gmedia Library.
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3You can view the current alt tag for each photo on each image. To change the alt tag select the picture (it will turn blue).
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4Click on the Action button to enter the edit mode.
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5Edit the alt tag by changing the Title.
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6The changes will be automatically saved. Click on Gmedia Library to return to all the images.
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10 tips on creating good URLs

SEO getting traffic to your site, Websites, ,

10 tips on creating good URLs

A URL is the address of your web page. It can be hard to know what you should put for your URL and how to make it search engine friendly, so here are 10 tips on creating good URLs.

  1. Always use lower case.

    The server your website sits on can sometimes handle uppercase URL’s differently and could show the user a ‘page not found’ page. Best stick to having all lower case to avoid this.
    good-urls1

  2. Keep it short

    A URL should have about 50-60 characters according to Google. However, they won’t penalise you in your website rankings if it’s longer. Also long URL’s are difficult to cut and paste.
    good-urls2

  3. Match to your page title

    Try and match your URL to the title of the page. It this then obvious to a visitor what the page is about.

  4. Leave out stop words

    Examples of stop words are; and, or, of, but, the, a. You don’t have to put these in, they don’t improve the URL and it just makes it longer.

  5. Safe characters

    The only safe characters to use in a URL are:   _ –  . + ! * ’ ( )  do not use any other characters.
    good-urls5

  6. Make it easy to say

    Try and make your URL logical and easy to say. It gets complicated when you have relay every dash, slash and dot. Although slashes and dots are unavoidable in URLS.

  7. Not too many sub folders

    Inserting the page into many sub folders can make the URL too long.
    good-urls7

  8. Add keywords

    Add keywords into your URL, it helps with being indexed properly and it clearly states what the page is about.

  9. Don’t repeat keywords

    Repeating keywords is something that search engines frown upon.
    good-urls9

  10. Make it readable

    You may have many pages to your website and start giving each page numbers, but who is going to remember a load of numbers? Make sure the URL is readable for humans.
    good-urls10

    ReadHow to change your URL

How can I make my web page search engine friendly?

FAQ, SEO getting traffic to your site, Websites, , ,

How can I make my web page search engine friendlyHow can I make my web page search engine friendly?

So you have a website but it doesn’t come up when you search for it on search engines.  Google states no set time for the search engine to index new websites or pages. But when it finally does get indexed you need to make sure that your site is optimised in the best possible way.

Below is SpiralNet’s recommended guide on how to format your pages for search engines.

Select your keywords

Each page of your website should have a different focus keyword. A keyword is one or more words that users will use to find your page in a search engine. For this example we have used the word ‘Blue Bananas’.

Set the right URL

A URL is the address of your web page. Adding your keywords in your URL will help, but it is not always necessary in order to rank well. Sometimes it’s more important that your website pages have a logical URL that’s short and easy to remember, approximately 50-60 characters.

page-seo-1
Read10 tips on creating good URLs

Titles and description

Add keywords to the title and meta description.  This is what will show up in search engine results.  It’s important here to think about how you can stand out from your competition amongst the search results. What is going to make someone click on your link?

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RULES:

  • The page title should be between 35 and 65 characters.
  • The meta description, however can be up to 156 characters.

Keywords in the text content

The text is very important when it comes to the adding keywords.

RULES:

  • The keyword should appear in the first paragraph so that it is obvious what you page is about.
  • The keyword should appear in a heading.

The content of your page

Google ideally likes to see a minimum of 300 words on each page. This is not always easy if you are creating a contact us page. The last thing you want to do is fill it with unnecessary dribble so this may be one rule you can’t always stick to.

The keyword should be found in your text, but repeat it too many times and you’ll be penalised by Google.

If you have a WordPress site with SpiralNet you will have a plugin that tells you if your keyword density is too high in your text.

Keywords need to be put in the alt tag of an image. An alt tag is what you name an image for search engines to read. If an image could not be displayed visitors would see the alt tag instead.

Blue Bananas

ReadHow to set alt tags in images

Good readability

It is important that your page reads well. Google will be looking for easy to read web pages so try and follow the rules.

RULES:

  • Keep your paragraphs short.
  • Try not to have too many sentences more than 20 words long.
  • Each sub-heading should not have any more than 300 words in the text that follows it.

If you have a WordPress site with SpiralNet you will have a plugin that rates the readability of your text.

ReadWriting content for your website

A word on blogs

Blogs are a great way of getting more traffic to your website as it allows you to create more pages that target many keywords.

Inbound links

The more inbound links you have to your website the better.  Google ranks a website higher if it has good reputable links coming from other websites.

Writing content for your website

Websites

Writing content for your website

How often do you spend more than five seconds on a web page? Usually, it’s a case of quickly scanning a page before moving on to the next. This is something we need to remember when writing content for websites.

Break it down

Creating a whole chunk of text is not going to attract any readers so break it down.

Use titles and subtitles so that visitors can quickly see what your page is about. Short and to the point makes sure the reader doesn’t have to do any guesswork.

Having a short paragraph at the top of your page that summarises what the page is about will inform the visitor quickly if it’s something they want to read more of.

Think about what your visitors will want to know when they get to your site. When you are searching for a tradesman, restaurant or club, what do you want to know?

Tips for reducing content

When you think you have written the perfect page, cut it down by half and then reduce that again by half. Extreme I know, but don’t forget that website visitors just scan, they will not read huge paragraphs of text. So cut down using these tips:

  • If your page is about prices then just layout your prices. It’s a complete waste of time adding paragraphs of text introducing your prices. All visitors will do is skip down to the prices and then move on. So cut it out.
  • Adding content like ‘Welcome to London Hairdressers’ is not necessary as it’s on the top of every page of your website and it’s not giving any information that’s new. So cut it out.
  • Don’t add simple instructions such as ‘click on this button’ or ‘fill in your name, phone number and address below’. If it looks like a button or a form then it’s obvious what needs to be done. So cut it out.
  • When you read back your content do you find yourself saying ‘blah, blah, blah, blah’? If you do then you’ve just written a load of waffle. Cut it out! 

REMEMBER: Cut your text down. Having a long chunk of text is boring and it could also mean that visitors will leave your site.

7 reasons to have a website

Setting up a business, Websites

7 Reasons to have a website

1. Great first impression.

A professional website acts as an impressive first contact, convincing the potential customer that they need what you are offering and inviting them to contact you, via telephone, email or contact form on your website.

2. Open 24/7.

A website is a cost-effective tool that allows your business to attract new customers continuously 24/7.

3. Increase your target area.

Attract new customers that otherwise would never find you and they can do so when your business is closed.

4. A website address is much easier to remember than a telephone number.

Include your web address on all your promotional material allows customers to take action straight away when they see your advertisement or hear about your services.

5. Increase customer confidence.

With the right content, easy navigation, and quickly accessible contact details, your website greatly increases customer confidence in your company and therefore more business.

6. Find out what your customers want.

Website statistics makes it easy for you to find out what customers are looking for on your website, how long they spent on your site and if you have want you want.

7. Low cost Advertising.

Use links to Facebook and other social sites to promote your business to a wide range of potential customers.

How to choose a name for your business

Setting up a business

How to choose a name for your business

Choosing the right name for your business shouldn’t be rushed. There are many things to consider when choosing a successful name for your company. Here are some things to consider.

Be clear or be abstract?

Your company name could reflect what your business does. It’s clear and doesn’t need any explanation. The drawbacks is that it could be restricting if you decide later to branch out into other areas.

“Leafy tree trimming”  “Blooming Flowers”

There have been many very successful companies that have names that are more abstract. They don’t state what the business is about but they work well in all areas of business as they expand.

“Amazon” “Sainsburys” “Moon Pig”

Should you include your location?

Adding your location to your name seems like a good idea but it may become a problem if you change locations or if you expand your business then it looks as if you only serve the area you specify and this could be very limiting for the future. Whether you add your location or not really depends on if you feel you any of these points will be an issue for you.

“Sunbury Windows” “Cards for Cardiff”

Using your name

Many people use their name as their business name. This gives the impression that it is a business run by a sole person.  In some cases this can work well as it shows that the client will get a personal service.  If you plan on increasing your work force do you feel that using your name will work so well?  If you are female and single, what would happen to your company name if you got married? And if you are married, what about if you got divorced? Well you never know!

“Marta Cayzer Photography” “Kelly’s Cakes”

Traditional or modern?

Think about how your name will sound 10 years from now? Will it date or sound just as fresh as it did today?  Maybe you want a classic name from the past.

“Telephonic” “Caths Classic Cakes”

Is your name catchy and memorable?

Your name should be easy to spell and remember. Obviously the shorter the better and try and avoid strange words and unusual spelling. Do you want to explain it’s Cuts with a ‘z’ everytime?

What does your name mean?

If you are planning to do business with other countries it may be worth check to see if your company name doesn’t have another meaning in those countries. It could end up painting a negative picture of your company without you realising.

Is it already being used?

Check to see if there are any companies that are the same or similar that you wouldn’t want to be mistaken for. You could also lose business easily if a customer confused your name and ended up calling a different company. This can be checked easily by searching the internet, checking phone books and directories for your business name or similar sounding names.

Ask your friends and family

With so much to consider it can be hard to come up with some good names. Ask your friends and family or post a request on Facebook for people to give you ideas. Then go through the points above and rate each idea out of 10.

Pin a piece of paper up in your kitchen or office and write down any words that pop into your head as you think of them then sit down and play around with them until you find something that works. Check it then works with all the points here and before long you will come up with the ideal company name.

One last thing…

Think you’ve worked it out? If you are planning to set up a website for now or the future,  have you considered how your name works as a domain name? Read our blog on Choosing the right domain name for more advice and tips.

How to choose the right domain name

Setting up a business, Websites,

How to choose the right domain name

OK, so you have your business name and now you want a website. You need to start with a good domain name. Read on for advice on good and bad domain name choices.

If you haven’t worked out your business name yet check out our blog on Creating the right name for your business.

What is a domain name?

A domain name is also known as a website address. It is a name that a website visitor has to type into a web browser in order to visit your site.

Why don’t I just use my business name?

Using your business name may work very well as a domain name. Just check that no one else is currently using your name. You can check this by using our domain name checker below. You can look domains up in any search engine but sometimes domains are purchased and unused, use a domain name checker to tell you easily if the domain is already owned by an individual or company.

 

Keep it short

The best domain names should be short and easy to remember when they see it on the side of a van or on an advertising board. If your company name is long is there a way of shortening it to create a good domain name?

Avoid using hyphens

Having hyphens in your domain name is hard to communicate on a telephone and looks unprofessional. Choose www.theredprintingshop.co.uk rather than www.the-red-printing-shop.co.uk.

Avoid plurals

Be careful with this as this can be confusing. www.sunnygift.co.uk can be confused with www.sunnygifts.co.uk . The best way around the problem is to purchase both domains. This doesn’t mean you need to have two websites. A redirect can easily be setup between one to the other.

Avoid spelling short cuts

Another confusing one for the telephone. Having spelling shortcuts in your company name can cause problems in your domain name. You don’t want to have to explain that “Flowers 4 u” is www.flowers4(the number) u (the letter on its own).co.uk. It will drive you mad I promise you.

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 .com or .co.uk?

If your company is based in the UK and you have no attention of expanding world wide then purchasing a .co.uk is enough. However if you plan to go global then consider a .com domain name. Whether you purchase other domain names (.uk .net .info) it’s up to you but it will guarantee that they are not taken by anyone else.

Check similar domains

Check to see if there are any domains that are similar that you wouldn't want to be mistaken for. You could also lose business easily if a customer confused your domain name and ended up on website for a different company.

Check your domain

Before you make that final decision and purchase that domain check to see if your domain has recently changed from registered to unregistered status. It could be that the domain was previously connected to a website that was considered adult content and you would not want your company to be associated with this.