All websites need to be hosted on a server. Hosting is essentially the place where all the website files are stored and called upon when someone visits your site. Nowadays there are a number of different types of hosting packages you can choose from and all have their advantages and disadvantages. It may be that you do not know what hosting company you use as you pay for it as part of your web management package through a web company. Having the correct hosting company is not only important in terms of back up and restoring the files (should you need to in the situation of a hack or error in coding) but also to ensure that you have enough bandwidth to cope with the levels of traffic to your website along. The hosting company should also offer a secure server with regular security updates and support. The hosting of your website can also have an effect on how well your site performs on the... Read More »
Advantages of using WordPress
WordPress is an off the shelf content management system. It allows you to build a website from a very basic template that already comes pre-installed with it or buy your own theme to upload and amend. The beauty of WordPress is that there are literally thousands of themes out there for you to choose from so you will often find one that is very similar to what you want. It also has a great backend system that is very user friendly an easy to use. WordPress release updates to the code of the CMS system so that you do not have to worry about doing it yourself. You can install plug-ins which are essentially bolt on bits of code that provide different functionality such as scrolling header images or contact forms etc. The options really are endless with WordPress which is why so many programmers choose to use it. If you need a very bespoke website and CMS then you may decide to build your... Read More »
Making your website work for you
Having a web presence is, some would say a necessity for growing your business. Although there are some companies who rely on social media to promote their local business, a website could generate more business and possibly result in rapid growth and development of your company. When you decide to launch into designing your website you may have the skills to attempt this yourself and there are many useful online sites to guide you however utilising the services of a web designer will probably give you a more professional looking website. The home page of your website will be the first thing that a visitor to your site will see and so should be attractive and clear so that visitors can see links to relevant pages and contact information. A link to a map showing the location of your business is a useful addition to your home page. The following pages of your website should have the same colours and design as your home page... Read More »
How to set up a good Google Adwords Campaign
Lots of people know how to set up a Google Adwords campaign, but that doesn’t mean they know how to set it up properly. Adwords has grown massively over the last few years and there are so many different options and choices you need to make when setting up the campaign it is easy to get it wrong. You need to think about how you are going to split up your campaign or if you are going to have more than one campaign. If you want certain ads to show only to certain countries etc and have a separate budget, then it is better to have two separate campaigns. This will allow you to easily manage them and when the budget is used up on the one the other will still run. Within your campaign you need to set up Ad Groups. This is a way of grouping relevant keywords. It may be that you split the keywords up into groups based on locations or... Read More »
Having a marketing strategy for your business
Any business no matter how big or small should have a marketing strategy in place. A marketing strategy is essentially a plan of how and where you are going to market your business. It will usually include time scales and costs. It can be easy to get carried away with investing in multiple marketing avenues without really checking what return on your investment. If you are you are getting. If you do decide to use multiple companies for your marketing then you may find that they overlap their services meaning that you are paying twice for the same thing, or even missing out a significant marketing avenue. If you only have a small marketing budget and no one in house that has marketing experience you may be best to outsource it to an individual or marketing company. When creating a marketing strategy try to think of short term and long-term goals as some things are pretty instant such as Google Adwords and others take time... Read More »