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A Small Business Guide to Building the Ultimate Website

01/03/2024 by scmarketing

In today’s digital age, having a website is a necessity for small businesses looking to succeed in a crowded online marketplace. Not only does it help you establish your online presence, but it also provides you with an excellent opportunity to engage potential customers and build brand awareness. However, building a website can be a daunting task, especially if you are doing it alone. Here is a guide on how to build the ultimate website for your small business.

Determine Your Website Goals

Before you start building your website, you need to determine your website’s goals. What do you want your website to achieve? Is it to increase your brand’s online visibility, generate leads, or sell products or services? Knowing your website’s goals will help you decide on the right design, content, and structure that will help you achieve those goals.

Choose the Right Domain Name

Choosing the right domain name is essential for any website. Your domain name is your website’s address, and it’s the first thing people see when they visit your website. Ideally, your domain name should be short, easy to remember, and relevant to your business. Make sure it’s easy to spell and doesn’t contain any confusing characters.

Create a User-friendly Design

Your website’s design is crucial in creating the right impression with your visitors. A user-friendly design focuses on making your website easy to navigate, ensuring that your visitors can find what they are looking for quickly. A well-designed website should have a clean layout, a clear call-to-action, and use professional images. Make sure your website is mobile responsive, as most people now use mobile devices to access the internet.

Write Content that Engages Your Visitors

Your website content is vital in engaging your visitors and driving conversions. Ensure that your content is relevant, informative, and written in a tone that reflects your brand’s personality.

Optimise Your Website for Search Engines

Key to a successful website is having it optimised for search engines. This includes using relevant keywords in your content, using proper meta titles and descriptions, and ensuring that your site’s loading speed is fast. You can also implement local Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategies to help your business appear in local search results.

A Website that Stands out

Building a website for your small business is a process that requires careful planning and execution. By following these tips, you can create a website that not only looks good but also performs well in search engines and helps you achieve your business goals.

A well-designed website will help your business stand out in a crowded online marketplace and attract the customers you need to succeed.

Website Pricing Calculator

Unsure of what budget you will need for your website? Then take a look at our website pricing calculator to get an estimate of how much a new website will cost you.

We can also work with you to update your current website as a brand refresh.

Unlocking the secret of SEO

10/04/202308/14/2023 by scmarketing

With the majority of people browsing the internet for products and services, your website is often the first impression for a prospect. But how do you make sure your website is showing up in search results and attracting customers?

The answer is in search engine optimisation (SEO). Here, we explore how small business owners can boost their website in search engine results pages (SERPs) by unlocking the secret of SEO with these essential SEO strategies.

Understanding the basics of SEO

Before diving into strategies, it’s essential to understand the basics of SEO. Search engines like Google use complex algorithms to determine which websites to show in search results. SEO is the process of optimising your website to meet those algorithms and improve your website’s visibility in search results. There are many factors that go into SEO, including keywords, title tags, meta descriptions, and more.

To understand how SEO can help your small business, it’s important to first understand the basics of how search engines work. When someone enters a query into a search engine, the search engine uses algorithms to determine which websites should be displayed in the search results. These algorithms take into account a variety of factors, including the relevancy of the website’s content to the user’s query, the quality of the website’s content, and the popularity of the website.

Choosing the right keywords

One of the most important factors in SEO is choosing the right keywords for your business. Keywords are the words or phrases that people type into search engines when looking for products and services like yours. Conducting keyword research will help you determine what key phrases are most relevant to your business and what your target audience is searching for. Once you have identified your target keywords, be sure to include them in your website’s content, title tags, and meta descriptions.

Creating high-quality content

Another essential aspect of SEO is creating high-quality content. In today’s online world, content is king, and search engines reward websites that consistently produce fresh, high-quality content. This can include blog posts, infographics, videos, whitepapers, eBooks and more. When creating content, be sure to use your target keywords in a natural way, provide value to your audience, and make it easy to read and share.

Building quality backlinks

Backlinks are links from other websites that point back to your own website. When high-quality websites link back to your website, it signals to search engines that your site is worthy of appearing in search results. Building quality backlinks takes effort and time. Reach out to other businesses in your industry to see if they would be interested in linking to your site.

You can also build backlinks through guest posting on other blogs or creating valuable resources that people want to link to. This is a very time-consuming task and there’s no guarantee that another website will add a backlink. So, ensure to regularly follow the other steps listed to keep your website optimisation ticking over.

Analysing and refining your strategy

SEO is an ongoing process. Once you have implemented your SEO strategies, it’s essential to analyse and refine your approach. Use free SEO tools like Google Analytics to track your website’s performance, including traffic levels, bounce rates, and more. This data can help you identify areas where your SEO strategy may need improvement.

Hiring an SEO specialist

If you don’t have the time or expertise to optimise your website for search engines yourself, you may want to consider hiring an SEO expert. An SEO specialist or digital marketing agency can help you choose the right keywords and improve your website’s overall quality to help it rank higher in search results.

SEO agency in Croydon

Unlocking the secret of SEO can be the difference between your business being buried in search results or appearing on the first page of search engines like Google. However, implementing an effective SEO strategy takes time, effort, and patience. By understanding the basics of SEO, choosing the right keywords, creating high-quality content, building quality backlinks, and analysing and refining your strategy, you can give your small business a boost in search engine rankings and attract more customers to your website.

To discuss your wider digital marketing needs, why not contact our marketing experts based in Croydon and we can help develop a marketing strategy tailored to your business.

Content for effective digital marketing

10/04/202307/31/2023 by scmarketing

As a small business owner, you may be wondering how you can improve your website’s ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs) while also targeting your ideal audience. One effective strategy is to create different types of content that both engage your target audience and improve your search engine optimisation (SEO).

Here, we’ll go through some content ideas that digital marketing agencies use to improve website visibility and attract the right customers to your business.

Content tips to improve SEO and attract customers

Start with a blog: A blog or news webpage is one of the most effective ways to create sustainable SEO rankings for your website. Regular blog updates improve website visibility, attract and engage new visitors, and create opportunities for backlinks to your website. By updating your blog regularly with industry-specific content and targeting keywords relevant to your company, your website can boost your search engine ranking, ultimately driving traffic and leads.

Engage with visual content: Today, visual content such as videos, infographics and photos are increasingly becoming more popular, necessary and impactful. According to a recent study, visual content gets shared 40 times more on social media and is much more easily digested by the viewer. When creating visual content, ensure that it is relevant, high-quality and visually appealing. This will help boost your chances of it being shared, and it will attract viewers who are more likely to stay on your website longer, resulting in improved SEO.

Invest in SEO-optimised landing pages: Creating SEO-optimised landing pages is another key strategy for attracting quality website and organic traffic. Landing pages are an essential part of a digital marketing campaign that can help to improve search engine rankings and increase conversions.

Often used in partnership with a Google Ads PPC campaign, with appropriate and relevant content, high-quality images, and clear calls to action, landing pages provide a memorable means of engaging potential customers and growing visibility.

Publish case studies: Case studies are the ideal way to demonstrate your company’s credibility and expertise. The detailed analyses of successful projects, proven results and satisfied clients encourage prospects in choosing your business over your competitors. Since case studies are popular and can be well-optimised with targeted keywords, their content is an effective way of capturing long-tail search traffic and engaging ideal buyers.

Focus on creating quality social media posts: You may have a perfect website and professionally created content, but you need to promote it efficiently on social media. High-quality, visually attractive social media posts help attract visitors to your website and also inspire engagement and conversations about your brand. From curated content to customer testimonials, social posts should form a creative mix of content that resonate with your audience and help build audience relationships and loyalty.

High-quality SEO-optimised content

Creating high-quality content along with SEO-optimised copy is essential to remain competitive in today’s digital world. These were just some of the ideas of the several types of content that can help improve your website’s visibility and, as a result, attract the right customers to your business.

Investing in a combination of these content types, such as blogging, specific landing pages, visual content such as video, case studies, and social media posts, can certainly help you to effectively target the right audience, boost engagement, and strengthen your position in the search engine rankings.

Talk to us about your digital marketing requirements, our team of SEO experts are on hand to take you through the tactics that can help your business be seen online.

How to estimate the cost of creating a website

10/04/202307/26/2023 by scmarketing

Creating a website can be a time-consuming and expensive process. As a small business owner, you may be wondering how you can determine the cost of building a website without breaking the bank.

Fortunately, Smart Cow Marketing has developed a simple, easy-to-use pricing calculator that gives you an estimate of the cost of creating a website quickly. Here, we explain how our website pricing calculator works and how it can help you make informed decisions about your online presence.

Website pricing calculator

Our pricing calculator is designed to ensure that our clients can make informed decisions about their investment in their online presence. Our experienced team of digital marketing experts has taken the time to develop this accurate pricing calculator that takes into account various factors.

Using our website pricing calculator is a practical and straightforward way to get a quick estimate for your website. Once you enter the type of website you need, whether brochure, e-commerce, select your design preferences, and other add-ons you may require, our calculator will give you a fast estimate of the cost of building your website.

Who we design websites for

Our pricing calculator is specifically designed to cater to small to medium-sized businesses, online stores, and other local firms that need to build an online presence. We understand the importance of creating a website that reflects your unique business needs. That’s why our pricing calculator takes into account essential factors such as your business goals, target audience, and design preferences.

Our pricing calculator provides you with a quick estimate that is transparent and customisable to meet your budget and unique business needs.

Working with a Croydon web designer

A website is a valuable asset to any business, and investing in building one is crucial to your online success. Our website pricing calculator is designed to ensure that you can make an informed decision about your online investment. We understand that as a small business owner, you have unique business requirements and budget constraints. Trust us to create a professional website that is customised to meet your needs without breaking the bank.