As a business owner, there often comes a time when you want to spread your wings and venture in to new locations. If you already have an online presence established then this will be a bit easier to do. If you are new to the world of online marketing then you may want to concentrate your efforts in one areas first and then look to expand later on down the line. When expanding to new areas it is important to know what your budget is and how quickly you want to see results. If you are looking for a quick turn around then you may want to look at something like Google Adwords which can give you instant results. If you are after something a little more long term that will not cost a huge amount in terms of running costs, then search engine optimisation is the way to go to try and build up your organic listings. Seeking the advice of a professional marketing... Read More »
Should you cut costs on your website?
When having a website designed and programmed it is easy to lose sight of what’s important. Some business owners get carried away with installing gadgets and pretty banners, forgetting what the main purpose of the sight is. Other businesses may become obsessed with the cost of the website and therefore end up cutting the budget down so much that they end up with a sight that is not really functional or that cannot be found on the search engines. Before going ahead with a website project, be sure to make a list of items that you feel are important to your customers and potential customers. It may be such things as online calculators or easy ways to contact you such as forms or live chat areas. Then add a list of “nice to haves”. These are additions that you can speak to the programmer about and get an idea of cost. Once you have the cost you can work out if you think it will... Read More »
The of the importance of managing your domains
When it comes to managing your website you need to ensure that your domains are always renewed on time. Most domain name providers give you ample notice of when your domain is due to be renewed and are often also offer you the option to automatically renew your domain. Even if you do forget and your domain name expires you would normally get a grace as period of about 60 days to allow you in which to renew the domain before anybody else can purchase it. If you do forget to renew your name and the 60 days passes then the domain will become available to the public again which may mean you may lose it. If you domain name is purchased by somebody else then you have no right to claim it back. Once your domain has expired your website will go offline. If this happens then you will have to purchase a new domain name and change your website a point across to... Read More »
Making important additions to your website
Too many companies or individuals have a website and do not update it often enough, if at all. Many business owners believe that they only need to update their website when information needs to be added or removed but this is simply not the case. When the search engines such as Goole and Bing are choosing how and where to rank websites in the results pages, one of the things they look at is how often the website is updated and how fresh the content is. A website that has not changed for years may be outdated and will probably not offer the viewer the best experience and most up to date information, therefore the search engines will not want to recommend it and will push it down in the listings. If as a business owner you are struggling to find ways to add new information to your website then you could consider adding a blog or news section. This will allow you to add... Read More »
Moving your business applications to the cloud
Cloud computing is becoming increasingly popular. There are a huge number of advantages to using the cloud as part of your business IT network. Many businesses are now looking to move much or all of their software to cloud hosting. Using the cloud allows them to access data and records from anywhere that they have an internet connection. It can save money on hosting space and also offer extra security and more effective backup methods should they need to retrieve data following an incident. For many, the main concern when it comes to switching to the cloud is the time it takes to migrate everything and the issues it may cause initially. It may also be concerning who the new systems are going to work, it may be that the new cloud software requires the content to be input in a different way, therefore, all extracted data from the old system will need to be changed around and configured to upload in to the new... Read More »