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Adam Price - SEO Expert
With job losses reaching their highest rate for 17 years and warnings of a recession loaming, it can be hard to stay positive in the current economic climate. In these difficult times companies will try every strategy to stay in the market but many forget the main concept of business – the customer is key. Learning more about what your customer wants and needs and adding that little bit extra to the service you offer could be what helps your company stay afloat.
Many of you may already have heard of Adam Price and the products he has developed. Well he’s here to answer all those questions you have been desperate to ask but never really sure who to trust.
Adam’s background really speaks for itself, working for large organisations such as Lord Chancellors Department, RAF, Pirelli and now with his company IT3.com developing online projects for companies like, West Bromwich Albion Football Club, Kettler GB, The Sinclair Group and Ipswich Town Football Club.
Questions and Answers
I have just been made redundant and want to start up my own business. I’ve never done anything with websites before and all my friends and family are telling me I should get my website up and running. Can you help?
The first thing you need to think about is ‘What are you trying to achieve by having a website?’ Some websites are purely designed to promote your products and services and can be used as an information resource. You can also look to engage your visitors and create a site that is interactive to gain their feed back. Going to the other end of the scale you could create a site that is full eCommerce driven and gives you the ability to sell online.
Once you have decided what you want to achieve from your website there are three more things to consider. Firstly - who do you want your website to target as this will alter the way your website will look, secondly - would you want to manage it yourself or do you want someone to do it all for you and thirdly – will you need Search Engine Optimisation to help drive traffic to your website?
The look of your website will have a big impact on converting the visitors to your website in to clients. As an example, if your targeting a budget market, to have too glossy a site could mean that the visitor will still think he can get the products cheaper and alternatively, if you’re targeting high worth visitors, a cheap and tacky design may not give them the confidence to put a credit card in or give you a call.
When managing your website it is much better for you to have control. This allows you to update your site whenever you want therefore keeping the content fresh. Relying on someone else can often slow down the process. There are content management systems available in the market designed especially for non technical users which would allow you to do this.
Search Engine Optimisation, is something all companies with a website must think about. There are a few companies that are in the lucky position where people will visit their website without it being listed highly in the search engines. As we say at IT3.com ‘If you can’t be found, you can’t compete!’
This industry has many cowboys and the best way to find a good company is ask them to prove what they have done for other companies. Ask them to show you the rankings they are getting for their Clients and most importantly, do they manage to keep their Clients using their services year after year. Make sure you research a few companies before you reach a decision.
You have the option of paying the search engines for paid listings like Google Adwords – Pay per click. This can be costly and isn’t always as effective as Organic Listings. Organic listings appear on the left hand side of a search page and the more your website is search engine friendly the higher it will rank in the search engines.
The way your website has been technically developed (e.g the programming) will also have a major impact. Therefore finding a good partner who is able to develop your website to make it search engine friendly should be a high priority BEFORE you create the website.
My company has been doing extremely well for years but recently we are finding the competition to be getting extremely competitive and our local market does not seem to be buying as many of our products. We need to increase our potential market but have no idea how to get to them.
The internet can be a great cost effective way of getting to new potential customers. If you have a retail product then selling online can dramatically help increase your sales. However, there are certain things you need to consider. Just getting any old ecommerce or the cheapest website isn’t necessarily going to help you.
Things to consider:
· Make sure your online shop is easy to navigate and standards compliant
· Make sure the buying process is easy to use – don’t put any barriers in the way for the customers when they want to buy something
· How competitive is your market? More than likely you will need your shop to be optimised. Not many ecommerce shopping systems are search engine optimised so search around and ask for proof.
· Get advice on whether Pay-per-Click could help you in the short term.
· Make sure your new ecommerce system is easy to manage.
Hope this helps!
If you have a question please feel free to send it in to me at – asktheexpert@it3.com
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