Digital Marketing

Why Small Businesses Need Professional Websites

by | Jun 15, 2022 | ,

Professional websites are marketing vehicles

Professional websites are marketing vehicles

Professional websites can seem like big investments to small business owners. Online marketing is such a huge topic that it can be hard to work out where to begin.

So why do small businesses need professionally designed websites? Why do their competitors invest thousands in professional web design? Here’s an analogy that may help.

Professional Websites Are Marketing Vehicles

Your website is your main marketing vehicle in the non-stop race for sales. To extend that analogy, hosting is the garage you rent for it, and your domain is the address of that garage. Site visitors are passengers that you pick up briefly, and some of them convert into customers.

However, your vehicle won’t get far without regular maintenance (support and updates) and good driving (active marketing).… Read the rest “Why Small Businesses Need Professional Websites”

Automatic WordPress Updates – The Pitfalls

by | Oct 27, 2020 | , , , , ,

WordPress updates and website maintenanceHere’s a great example of why automating updates in WordPress is only smart for non-business websites. As I write this, one of the WP plugins published by Facebook just released an update with invalid code.

Not just a bug — code so wrong that it crashes sites. Code that wouldn’t have passed basic testing.

I’m sure “Facebook for WooCommerce” will be fixed promptly. However, over 900,000 online shops use it. If they were all running automatic updates, almost a million shops would be offline right now.

Other WordPress Update Problems

This comes on top of the GADWP fiasco earlier this year, too. In that, ExactMetrics changed the nature of their popular plugin without warning, through an “update”.

Version 6 of the “Google Analytics Dashboard for WP” plugin was “redesigned from the ground up”.… Read the rest “Automatic WordPress Updates – The Pitfalls”

Small Business Coronavirus Lockdown Help

by | Oct 22, 2020 |

Coronavirus lockdown help

Don’t fret — act!

Get in touch today!

Wales is entering another COVID-19 lockdown (as of October 23rd). Folks found this post helpful back in March, so I’m updating it with some new offers.

As small business owners in these difficult times, we need to remember:

  • Adaptability is the small business advantage.
  • Negativity undermines creativity and planning.
  • Our families and teams need to see confidence, not fear.
  • Stress undermines the immune system. Breathe, and calm.
  • Mutual support, determination and flexibility will win.
  • No entrepreneur survives without being able to see hope in adversity. Silver linings may be a razor’s edge at times, but that’s where we find the silver.

Business Reality Check

Choose opportunityMany UK firms panicked at the first lockdown, fretting about remote working and scaling back on expenses.… Read the rest “Small Business Coronavirus Lockdown Help”

Top 5 SEO Myths Hurting Small Businesses

by | Sep 1, 2020 | , ,

SEO Myths vs Reality

Let’s smash some SEO myths!

Even after over 20 years of search engine optimisation, several SEO myths seem particularly persistent. With so much misinformation flying around, it’s no wonder small business owners treat SEO with caution.

It’s one thing to see these myths surfacing in small business networking groups. It’s quite another when flaky “SEO specialists” promote them in sales emails.

Yes, I get those emails too. So this article has bee prompted by yet another dodgy “SEO specialist” site review listing fake SEO problems they’d “found”. Whilst real SEO reviews can help, spammers just send out cookie-cutter lists and hope you’ll bite. These can be hard to spot unless you keep up with current SEO best practices.

Asking non-expert friends and colleagues may feel reassuring, but uninformed advice just increases risk.… Read the rest “Top 5 SEO Myths Hurting Small Businesses”

Small Business SEO Mistakes

by | Mar 16, 2020 |

Small business SEO - Google Trends SEO searches 2015 to 2020

UK SEO searches 2015-20
Latest version

Skip to the solution:

Cost-effective small business SEO

Small business SEO is now more vital than ever. Why? Because with more people working from home, offline advertising will struggle to compete with online searches.

Your competitors know this. That’s why Google Trends shows that searches for SEO in the UK recently (March 2020) peaked higher than at any time in the past five years.

Still, small businesses face special problems when it comes to investing in SEO. This leads to three common mistakes.

Mistake #1: DIY SEO

Small budgets make DIY seem tempting. Yet whilst the basics of SEO can seem simple to learn, they take years to master — and they keep changing.

Besides, the simple parts won’t get you far.… Read the rest “Small Business SEO Mistakes”

Top 3 Tips for Small Business Website Growth

by | Mar 10, 2020 | , , ,

data-driven website growthSo you’ve launched your new small business website? Congratulations! Or maybe you’ve had one for a while — and are now wondering if it’s really working? Well, building your site was just the beginning. Now you need to focus on website growth.

Not sure where to start with that? Don’t worry, that’s quite common. So here are three vital things that many small businesses overlook.

1. Use Your Website Stats

Any usable business website generates a lot of stats on its visitors. If yours doesn’t, you’re flying blind. It usually takes weeks to collect enough data to start seeing meaningful trends though. So you need to fix this immediately.

Thankfully, most sites are easy to link to Google Analytics, Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.… Read the rest “Top 3 Tips for Small Business Website Growth”

Need Help?

Since 2005, I’ve helped small firms grow online through cost-effective:

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