Benefits of WordPress

SEO! - You can optimise your website for search engines very easily by adding tags to all your pages and posts or installing the SEO plug-in which allows for meta data to be added. Its also very easy to update on a regular basis, and Google loves new content!

Customization! - You can change the look of your website by installing new themes that can be customized to fit your brand. Themes are composed of images and cascading style sheet (CSS) webpage layouts, and this makes it very easy to customize the look and feel of a WordPress site using a pre-existing Theme.

Social Media! - WordPress is fully compatible with all forms of social media. Facebook, twitter and youtube can all appear on your site, and it can be synced with them so any new website updates are immediately announced.

A site for life! - WordPress is always being updated and further developed so you can keep it looking modern and fresh! Also it is easily expandable, you may add a new section, page or post, to your website with just a few clicks, for absolutely free. Want a site that can expand and change alongside your business, WordPress is it!

Integration! - Newsletters, online payment systems, social media, contact forms, E-commerce, music players, search bars, WordPress has a huge range of freely available plug-in's that can be installed with literally the click of a button, and even for the slightly more advanced ones, any good web design company will be able to point you in the right direction.

For more information on how WordPress can help you start blogging or manage your own website contact us today.

Ask yourself; would you like your website to look and work better? Do you want more traffic and the ability to retain that traffic? Assuming that the answer is a resounding "Yes!" these goals can be accomplished by designing a site that appeals to both first-time visitors and repeat viewers alike. So what should you have in mind as you get started?

You can't address your customers' online needs without having a strong idea of what those needs are. Finding your target audience is the first step, but an even bigger step is determining what customers actually need from your site. Are they browsing for products? Looking for tips, recipes, or archives? Or are they trying to get news that is time-sensitive and/or frequently dynamic in nature? All of these answers will help you determine how your customers are visiting your site, and can help you develop a site with the right pace. Customers with a sense of urgency don't want to be bogged down with special effects, crazy page transitions, or hard to find material. Broadband technology allows your customers to view your site at high speeds, make sure that your site is providing them with the same luxury. Multimedia items like video clips, slideshows, and streaming audio all allow your customers to multi-task rather than sifting through text. These types of alternatives also give you a level of descriptiveness and space saving that you can't get with text-driven articles.

Conversely, if the nature of your business encourages browsing, you don't want to overwhelm customers that want to take their time or learn a little more before making a purchase. In this instance, you may want to use more text than video for your articles, but use a storytelling element to your information that draws the reader into the body of what you're trying to tell them. You can also incorporate pictures, charts, and graphs for a little bit of visual variety while still providing a static image that allows the user to move at their own pace.

No matter which of these styles you provide, the prevailing theme should always address your target audiences' needs, giving them what they need as opposed to giving them what you want them to have. Here are a few important keys that can keep your site from becoming obsolete:

• Keep your navigation simple and useful. Use the same page structure throughout your site to store information. You're spending time and money to broadcast your business, don't hide the information from potential customers.
• Make sure that your color scheme reflects your business image. Remember that you're presenting yourself via the internet in the same way that you would during a sales call. If you wouldn't wear a rainbow colored suit to a cold call, spare your new viewers the myriad of effects and fonts that are available for web site designs. Remember, show them what they need and not what you want them to have. Let the product stand out, not the page.

Once you've determined what your customers need, you're ready to bring this information to your web design team and have a better understanding of what you want them to do for you. Armed with this knowledge, you'll be able to provide your web pro with the right vision and directive to get the most out of your site.

The answer? Person-to-person communication.

In the identity blurring world of cyberspace it can be easy to forget that the goal of a website is to share information with another person, not another computer. But by understanding, engaging, and inspiring your visitors you can ensure that your site meets its goals.

Know your audience:

The path to effective communication is paved with knowledge. Understanding your audience and communicating directly to them demonstrates that your business understands your individual customers. A thoughtful and appealing design can quickly peak the interest of a targeted visitor. Then through key word placement and eye-catching visuals, visitors can quickly be funneled deeper into your site and guided directly to specific areas of interest.

Engage your visitors:

Once you have captured a visitor's attention, your next course of action is to engage. The Internet is an interactive medium, and visitors anticipate an exchange. They want to experience something.

Choosing from an ever-expanding list of web technologies, a good designer can orchestrate visual experiences that both stimulate and educate. But offering an active and stimulating environment requires careful balance and smart design. Slow loading times and too much activity can quickly turn visitors away. High-level designers know how to take advantage of emerging technologies and use them to better articulate your site's message.

Tell a story:

Telling a story can be an effective means of infusing the online experience with personality. By showcasing testimonials, highlighting breaking news, and sharing customer profiles, web designers can orchestrate a human connection and evoke an emotional response. Today's variety of multimedia technologies allow designers to tell a compelling story in different ways, using slideshows, streaming video, time-lapse photography, sound, animation, and more. These tools can further involve visitors in the context of your site and allow them to connect with the personality of your business.

A call to action:

Although many websites are strictly informative, all are seeking action. Whether you want your visitors to call for more information, purchase online, make donation, or just come back again, you want your visitors to leave your site with a plan to act. A well-crafted design can help you effectively guide visitors to a logical and pre-determined destination-a call to action.

The effectiveness of your website can be evaluated by measuring hit counts and time spent on different pages. But your site's true value is best qualified by the actions your visitors take after they leave. Success in business is driven by consumer action and a thoughtfully designed site can help ensure your visitors become your customers.

Perhaps the most common response for owners and managers is that their business is too small. They view web sites as something for bigger, more established names. Others feel that their customer base doesn't go online or would rather get their information in a more traditional manner. Or is it the old refrain that technology is just "too expensive"? Answers like these are the myths that keep businesses from being as successful as they could be and from seeing the type of revenue that they've always hoped for.

The truth is that having a web site actually works in favor of small business owners. Web sites provide a chance to level the playing field and eliminate factors like location and budget. A professionally designed web site gives a business of any size a corporate look and feel. And nearly 70% of the world goes online. That's a figure that has universal appeal from the biggest corporation down to home-based businesses. Not only is the cost of a web site less than the cost of advertising on the radio or cable TV, the internet provides your potential customers with 24/7 access to your products and services.

So once you've decided to get a site, what do you do? Here are some helpful tips to get your web traffic moving:

• Hire a Pro- You wouldn't hand-write your business cards or storefront signs, so don't leave your web site design to chance. Having a web design company develop your site can save you time and insure that your site is both attractive and easy to navigate.
• Start your engines- Your search engines that is... Search sites like Google and Yahoo rely on keywords about your business to prioritize online search results. 'Search Engine Marketing' (SEM) allows you to market your business via these search engines. Proper marketing will insure that you receive a higher "rank", meaning that your business will appear closer to the top of a user's results page.
• Find the right words- Making sure that your site is utilizing the proper keywords is known as 'Search Engine Optimization' (SEO). If you elect to use a professional web designer, they'll make sure that your site is using the best combination of keywords and phrases so that you're appearing as close to the top of the search results as possible.
• Set a mouse trap- Another SEM option is Pay-Per-Click. Search engines will list you at the top of their results for certain search word combos. In exchange, you pay a small fee to the search engine company every time that your link is accessed through their results. Think of it paying for pre-qualified leads.

The average web site viewing time when someone is searching online is 30 seconds. By using any or all of these tools you'll be making the most of your first virtual impression.

These devices serve a similar purpose today. But in cyberspace it's not about selling. The goal is to grab attention. Web designers and copywriters craft these bolded strings of text to gain visitors, retain visitors, and funnel them deeper into a site.

When a visitor first arrives on your site, they are looking for information. Whether they have arrived through a search engine or by typing in your direct address, you have less than one second to demonstrate your relevance and retain the visitor. Headlines can help you to efficiently state why your site fills their needs before they click off and move on.

Some suggestions for writing a headline:

• Be creative
• State a fact
• Use a quote
• Use a testimonial
• Give a command
• Ask a question
• Announce news

Use simple text
Once you have captured your visitor, you have to continuously make a case to keep them. Carefully chosen text can allow you to sell your product or service. But it's important to remember that most visitors spend more time scanning and clicking than reading, so use simple language that is easy to read. If your site is text-heavy, consider cutting your language or using carefully placed headlines to guide your reader through the text and lead them to sections of importance. A professional designer can work with a copywriter to craft a flow to the site using creative language and design.

Make information easy to find
Increasing, the web has become a resource of first resort. Web users hop online to quickly find answers to a variety of questions. Most people will not pour over content to find an answer when they can click away and look somewhere else. Designers and copywriters must keep this in mind when creating and choosing text to highlight. Targeted text can direct your viewers to the areas of your site that is most likely to hold their answer. It is also important to note, that people read slower online, by almost 25 percent. To avoid frustrating your readers, choose language that is easy to digest.

Use Simple Directives
With any site, the most important goal is the call to action. Every business wants visitors to leave with a plan to act. Headlines can remind visitors what to do before they leave. Never underestimate the power of a simple directive like "buy now."

What is professional updating? It means going beyond just updating your site with current photos or new products and contact information. Professional updating looks at everything from the layout and navigation, to the actual code and software used to develop your site. Think of it as a makeover for your business. You've invested the time and money to put together a web site for your company; make your web site keep up its end of the bargain.

Still Web Sites Run Deep - Remember the old commercial that asked 'How Many Licks' it took to get to the center of a candy-filled lollipop? Well a poorly designed web site will have customers asking 'How Many Clicks?!', and then moving on to view your competitors. Information on your site should be easy to find and not require page after page of clicking deeper into the site. When your web company updates your site, they will look for weaknesses in your navigational structure and create new categories and links if necessary. Web surfers will make a decision to stay or go within three seconds of viewing a page. If your information isn't right there, customers won't be either.

Ready For Your Close-Up? - Ever looked back on your high school pictures and cringed at some of the fashion choices that you made along the way? Although they may send chills down your spine now, at the time it seemed like a very cool way to go. The same theory applies to the way that your web site looks. That multi-colored, spinning 36-point font that might have seemed pretty cool when you first built your site has gone the way of feathered bangs and Aqua Net. Your site needs to project the same image that you would want if a customer was meeting you face-to-face. This goes for your e-mail as well. Running your site on a free hosting site and using an AOL or Yahoo account to conduct business screams "hobbyist" to your potential clients. Your customers trust you with their business, and will wonder how you're going to take care of them if you're not serious about taking care of yourself. An update will not only address the navigation of your site, but also insure that your look is on par with other sites in your industry.

Left Out In The Code - It's one thing if your customers don't understand all of the code that makes your web site run... it's a bigger problem when their computers don't understand it either. What's the point in updating your site with brand new product pictures and descriptions if all your potential customers can get is that darned blank box with the funny logo in the corner? Trying to keep a site fresh with outdated code and software is the same as answering your business calls with "'Tis he, who art thou?" A professional update will look to make sure that your site is making use of the most recent technology available, allowing newer computers to display your new content properly.

So what's the result of all of this testing and testing? More traffic with more staying power. So not only are you getting more unique (non-returning) visitors, but those visitors will stay longer and find their information faster. You'll also be letting the masses know that you're ready for business and be able to grab a stronger hold on your market. Contact a web design company and let them know that you're ready to upgrade. Many companies will even assess your current site free of charge.