Your homepage is like the entrance to a super-duper, all bells and whistles luxury car showroom.

If you’ve ever been in the market for a luxury car, you might remember the sparkling clean entrance, the comfy customer seating, and the smell of brewing coffee. An Espresso, you say? Don’t mind if I do.

In the same way, you want to show your potential customers that you’ve got the goods. Whatever the products and services you offer, you need to incorporate dynamic website design.

Keep your website clean and polished, and you’ll enjoy traffic to your site all day long. Is your website in need of a revamp? Read more to learn how you can give visitors a great user experience with dynamic website design.

1. Less is More

In the world of successful websites, you’ll quickly see that the simpler they are, the better.

Of course, you want to wow your visitors with cool graphics, funky fonts, and iconic images. But in web-design, you can have too much of a good thing, and that’ll put off visitors.

Too many images and colors (we’ll discuss these later) can feel confusing and claustrophobic. Instead, dynamic web design uses images strategically, to make a point.

Of course, if you’re selling items then you’ll want your images to stand out. For e-commerce sites, make sure your images are uniform in size and shape, and you leave a good amount of space between each one, so users can easily spot the item they’re looking for.

2. Build in SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it’s like the behind-the-scenes makeup artist in the world of websites.

With dynamic website design, what users see is a website that’s easy to use and fun to read. Those are some of the things that make them sit back, get comfortable and stay engaged.

When you build in SEO, though, you suddenly become way more attractive to search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

The bottom line is, your page gets bumped up in their search results. When a customer searches for something you can give them, yours will be one of the first names they see.

3. Make it Mobile-First

If you’re redesigning your website, the best thing you can do to future-proof is to go mobile-first.

With almost all of us owning or having access to a mobile device, mobile internet traffic overtook desktop traffic in 2015. This shows us 2 main things.

First, dynamic website design involves creating an easy-to-use site that’s accessible to both desktop and mobile users.

Secondly, if you mess up and focus on just one group, you’ll be alienating a massive section of the market.

But why do we say mobile first, instead of sticking with a standard design and adapting it to mobiles later?

A Truly Usable Site

If you create your website for mobile-users first, it’ll give them a perfect user experience.

When your website displays and functions perfectly on a mobile device, you’ll already be miles ahead of your competition. People will prefer your site to those that are hard to read, slow to load and too large for their device screens.

Easy to Scale

Unlike digital photographs, it’s hard to scale a large, detailed desktop site down into something suitable for mobiles. There’s often not enough space, and elements are crowded or don’t display well.

Dynamic website design means creating your website for a mobile device, so you can ensure display perfection. Once you’ve got it down pat, scaling up is easy.

You can add elements to a desktop site to make it zing and pop, but your mobile site will hold the same information and look just as good. It’s a win-win for you as you’ll drive traffic from the entire webisphere to your site.

4. Create a Favicon

When we’re browsing the web, most of us will open up multiple tabs in our chosen browser. For users to remember which one of their tabs has you in it, you’ll need a favicon.

A favicon is a little image that represents your website. Though it’s only tiny (think 16×16 pixels small), your chosen favicon is like your site’s ambassador, so choose it carefully.

As part of dynamic website design, pick an icon that blends with your brand. You could use your business or website logo. Or go with a shape or image in your site colors. You want users to look at your favicon in their tab-happy browser and know it’s you.

5. Speed it Up

There are few things more frustrating than a website that takes ages to load. In our busy, breakneck-pace lives, ‘ages’ can mean 10 seconds opposed to 3.

It might not sound like a lot but, actually, a slow-to-load website could drive away traffic. A user may see your page on a search engine and be genuinely interested. But if it takes a long time to see what you’re about, oftentimes they’ll shut you down.

There are several ways to speed up your website, like minimising HTTP requests, reducing the amount of time it takes your server to respond, or through image optimization.

If you’re a techie, you’ll be able to tweak these yourself. If not, hire a team of professionals to do it for you. They’ll have access to the best tools, latest technology and a lot of know-how, to get your site looking its best.

6. Choose Your Font Wisely

Did you know that the font you use can have a big impact on how successful your site is? Use a font that looks cool but is hard to read, and you’ll lose a lot of traffic. Users will head over to your site for all the reasons above, but once they get there, they can’t work out what you’re trying to say.

Or, maybe it’s not the readability of your font that’s the problem – maybe you’re using too many of them.

Like image overcrowding, a site that uses too many fonts will make a user confused. It will make it hard for your message to stand out, and will ultimately lose you business.

Think of that luxury car showroom again. Did you notice how they tend to group cars of the same size together? Imagine if, instead, they scattered cars around, putting big ones next to small ones, 4x4s beside sports cars. How easy would it be to spot what you’re looking for, now?

Instead of going crazy on the number of fonts you use, pick a good one and run with it.

Choose a font you love. Then, make sure it’s easy to read. Next, choose another 1 or 2 fonts that way, and stop.

You should only be using 2 or 3 fonts across your entire website. Rather than changing up the font itself, use different weights, styles, and sizes to make things stand out and catch people’s attention.

7. Make Use of That White Space

White space is pretty underrated, but it can mean the difference between minutes spent on your site, or just seconds.

To understand what white space is, think of that luxury car showroom again. Its shiny white floors provide the perfect focal point for those super-cool, iconic cars you came in to see. The more floor-space you see, the easier it is to spot the car you want and access it quickly.

The white space, or the space between images, icons, and text on your website acts as the floor-space in that showroom. The more white (or blank) space a user sees, the easier it’ll be for them to pick out just what they’re looking for.

Colors

If your luxury car showroom had a hundred cars packed in like multicolored sardines, it’d cause sensory overload. You’d be dazzled by the psychedelic colors and have no idea how to get to what you wanted.

For dynamic website design, when choosing your colors, pick one main color that compliments your theme and brand. Next, choose a contrasting color that’ll help your message pop. Finally, choose colors that compliment your base color. Adobe Color CC is a great free tool to pick colors that work.

You should only use up to 5 colors in your arsenal, but different shades are fine, too. That way your brand will be cohesive and clear, to help users understand what you’re all about.

8. High-Quality Content is Key

In the end, however incredible your website looks, and however easy it is to use unless it has some substance none of that matters.

Dynamic website design includes quality content. Quality content is how you show people your site’s not just superficial but has brains as well as beauty.

Research topics your client base is interested in, and then write about them. You can find interesting topics related to your business genre all over the internet – take a peek at online forums and see what potential clients are saying.

Another way to create quality content is a customer-focused blog. Show off what you know in a helpful way.

You can use how-to guides, Q&A videos, or pick a topic that people are confused about, and give them the facts. Controversial topics work well.

Once your users see that you know your stuff, they’ll be coming back to see what else you can tell them, and you’ll build a loyal base of followers to boot.

The Takeaway from Dynamic Website Design

Like a luxury car showroom, your website needs to have a high-end finish with lots of effective design elements built in.

Use dynamic website design tools rules like keeping it simple, going mobile-first, and making the best use of white space. These elements will keep your website looking its best and will make it easier for people to find what they need, fast.

But the thing that truly makes a user sit back and smile is good quality content. The information you give out on your website is what makes it sing – it’s your voice and personality, so make it a reflection of you. Make sure articles are clear, well-researched and well-written so your readers will be coming back for another look, time and time again.

Ready for a website revamp? Our team is here to help you!

Contact us today to see how The Web Ally can help your business succeed.

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Are you up to date on the latest digital marketing trends?

With each new year, you need new strategies to stay on top of the digital marketing game. If you fall behind, it’s hard to catch up – the competition will already be moving ahead.

I’ve put together this guide to make sure you stay up to date on the latest in the digital marketing world. Ready to learn what 2018’s top trends are, and why they matter? Keep reading to find out more.

Why Digital Marketing Matters

Wondering why it’s so important to keep up with digital marketing trends?

The reality is that if you want to run a successful business, digital marketing is a necessity. Before diving into the top trends of this year, let’s talk about why digital marketing needs to be a part of your business strategy.

What is Digital Marketing?

Chances are good that you’ve heard the term “digital marketing” before, but may not yet know quite what it means.

Digital marketing is tricky to define since it’s a broad term for a broad concept. However, digital marketing basically refers to all the ways a business can connect with potential customers online.

This can involve a lot of different tactics. Digital marketing may include (but isn’t limited to) the following:

• Company site
• Social media pages
• Online content (photos, videos, blog posts)
• Email communications
• Online ads
• Apps and games
• SEO strategies
• E-commerce

Why does digital marketing matter? Here are a few top reasons why digital marketing is so important.

1. Helps With Branding

It’s not enough to just sell good products anymore. Today’s customers are all about branding and brand stories. You need to be able to share your brand with people to get them committed to your company and its vision, and digital marketing is the best way to do it.

On your company website, you can give a clear message about what you stand for. Customers love information about a company’s philosophy, origin story, and staff.

Through sharing videos, photos, and posts on social media and on the site, you can refine that message and keep customers invested in the story. Digital marketing helps customers feel like they can get to know your company.

2. Increases Visibility

Simply getting your company in front of potential customer’s eyes is easier said than done. But thanks to digital marketing, you can increase your company’s visibility at a relatively low cost.

Without digital marketing, you will only be able to connect with a limited number of customers. Putting your brand online allows many more people to discover what your company has to offer.

3. Builds Community

Businesses do better when they have a strong network. Digital marketing helps you connect with other people and brands that can turn into valuable partnerships.

This also helps build community and relationships with your customers. Through shares, likes, and comments, you can interact directly with clients and potential clients, and they can share your brand with their online circles.

5. Provides Information

With digital marketing, you can build a valuable pool of data that are useful in making future decisions for your business.

You’ll have a trail of analytics that lets you see who is visiting your site, when, and from where. You can easily see which content gets the most responses, and when it’s the best time to post new things.

With this information, you can strategize how to best connect with your customers in the future. This allows you to grow your business without wasting time trying things that won’t work.

2018’s Top Digital Marketing Trends

Now that you know why digital marketing is so important for your company, let’s take a look at the latest digital marketing trends.

In the online world, things move fast, and it’s easy to get left behind. Digital marketing is only as good as the tactics you use. Make sure to follow these trends to stay on the cutting edge of competition.

1. Shifting Away from Influencers

Right now, many companies are putting lots of money toward digital influencers. However, not all of those influencers are successfully promoting products.

This year, companies will start to focus less on influencers in general, and more on those few that get results. Some people are great at getting results, while others are just on the bandwagon.

Brands will start to recognize that awareness of a product doesn’t always translate into sales, and adjust strategies accordingly. If you’ve been putting money toward digital influencers, it’s time to take a close look at the numbers and decide if it’s really worth it.

2. Augmented Reality

Although the name sounds a bit creepy, augmented reality is already a common practice in digital marketing, and it’s not as bizarre as it may sound.

Augmented reality uses digital input to “augment” a user’s experience of reality. Just think of Pokemon Go, the popular app that shows gameplay against a real-world backdrop.

AR doesn’t have to be nefarious: it’s typically straightforward and fun for users. As apps and devices become more responsive and “smart,” AR is poised to become an important part of digital marketing. For example, a brand’s app could trigger sponsored AR content to appear when customers are near one of their stores.

3. Better Use of Data

As digital data is used by different brands, ways to use it more effectively are always being discovered. One of 2018’s top digital marketing trends is sure to be companies using data to better understand the customer journey.

“Customer journey” refers to the steps the customer goes through before making a purchase. Data will be used to track exactly what each step along that path looks like, making it easier for brands to push people toward making a purchase.

4. Stronger Targeted Ads

Targeted ads strive to get the attention of today’s customer, which can be a real challenge. Modern customers are good at filtering out anything that looks like traditional advertising and responds best to creativity and storytelling.

In 2018, targeted ads are going to become more refined and more effective at getting attention from these customers. Ads will become even more targeted to specific populations at specific places and times.

5. Higher-Quality Live Videos

Live video has become a huge part of digital marketing, especially since Facebook rolled out its “Live” feature. Customers love the raw, real-world feel of a live video.

However, this technology has been out long enough for brands to figure out how to use it strategically. One of those strategies is going to be creating higher-quality, professional live videos.

Live videos aren’t so great when they’re plagued by problems like noise, bad lighting, and shaky camera work. Adding professionalism means customers will still get the authentic experience of a live video with none of the drawbacks.

6. Automated Conversation

Siri, Alexa, and other automated conversationalists are now firmly out of the uncanny valley and a normal part of people’s lives.

It’s now easier than ever to create an automated conversation that is helpful and realistic. One of the latest digital marketing trends involves brands harnessing the power of automated conversation to interact with customers.

The conversation has been a natural way for brands to interact with customers since people first started selling things. However, paying customer service representatives to be on-staff can get expensive, especially when brands want to offer round-the-clock service.

Automated chats and phone calls can help meet customers’ needs cheaply and effectively. Expect to see a lot more use of this strategy in the future.

7. Increased Personalization

Many current digital marketing trends, like targeted ads, show that customers respond well to personalization. This year, the level personalization will only increase.

Brands might try personalized email newsletters instead of generalized email blasts, for example. The more targeted and personalized each interaction with a potential customer is, the more likely it is to translate into a sale.

8. Integrating Digital and Non-Digital Worlds

As tactics like augmented reality hint, the future of digital marketing trends involve combining the digital world with the “real world.”

Digital marketing shouldn’t feel like something that happens separately from a customer’s real life. In the future, brands are going to use online media to supplement in-person experience their customers have with their products, and vice-versa.

9. Use of Natural Speech Patterns

Today, more people are using voice-to-text to search for things online. The more companies learn to use natural speech patterns to their advantage, the better success they will have.

This includes things like using algorithms to predict what people will search for using voice, and how they will phrase it. People tend to say things differently out loud than they do via text. The better brands can understand that difference, the more they can use it to their advantage.

Which Digital Marketing Trends Will You Try?

Don’t wait to see how these top digital marketing trends play out. Get ahead of the game by working some – or all – of them into your marketing strategy now.

Digital marketing will never be a static industry. A year from now, there will be a new set of trends to look at. However, those trends build on each other, so you’ll want to make sure to jump on board with the latest trends now in order to be prepared for the future.

Of course, most small companies may not have the resources to tackle digital marketing alone. Need help staying on top of the trends? Contact us today!

Do you need help with your Digital Marketing Strategy? Our team is here to help you!

Contact us today to see how The Web Ally can help your business succeed.

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Stumped about what’s keeping you from getting the web traffic you want?

Your website is your primary digital marketing tool, no matter what business you operate. It’s important to have an effective website design to draw more visitors to your site and keep your current users coming back.

It is possible, however, to make a few mistakes when it comes to handling web design. These mistakes can harm your traffic and marketing campaigns more than you know.

Read on to learn about the top website design mistakes you may be making–and your solutions to fixing them.

1. Static Rather Than Responsive Design

This is one of the biggest website design mistakes out there, and an easy one to avoid.

Sites with static design are composed of a series of separate HTML files. Original websites relied on static design. Static sites are often cheaper, but may not give users the best functionality.

Responsive design, on the other hand, is pretty much the opposite. It relies on a content management system to handle pages, is easy to make holistic changes to, and lends itself to more interactive design.

In general, responsive design will maximize your user’s experience and make your job easier. Not only will you be able to easily make changes to your responsive site, but you will also be investing in a more reliable, functional, and cutting-edge design.

2. No Blog

A blog is essential to your website, and an important channel for you to produce high-quality and optimized content for your visitors. A website without a blog doesn’t give customers a chance to hear your real voice or learn important information about your business.

Blogs also go hand in hand with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaigns, social media marketing, and more.

Avoid this web design mistake today by starting up a blog and posting relevant and frequent content.

3. Content That Isn’t Optimized for Search Engines

This is one of the worst website design mistakes to make because it directly impairs your web traffic. It’s imperative to optimize your content for search engines so that you can boost your brand visibility and drive traffic to your site.

This means optimizing each individual page for specific and searchable keywords and phrases. You’ll also want to optimize blog posts for searches.

Local optimization additionally ensures that you appear in local searches for your product or services. For example, people searching for “independent bookstores in Kathmandu” will be more likely to find your site if it is optimized for local searching.

At The Web Ally, we can help you tackle a competitive and successful SEO campaign.

4. A Website That Doesn’t Suit Mobile

Mobile devices are the way of the future. People are relying on mobile devices more and more to search for local businesses and find information.

It’s essential to optimize your web design for mobile-use, otherwise you’ll be missing out on a large portion of the population. This means that your website will adapt to whatever screen is accessing it, for ease of functionality and use.

Websites that aren’t optimized for mobile use see high bounce rates and low traffic.

5. Too Much Content

This is one of the biggest website design mistakes because it’s so easy to do. You may be tempted to fill your website with important information for your user. This often leads to overfilling.

Too much content can actually overwhelm visitors and push them from your site. It can prevent valuable conversions and decrease profit margins.

Visitors shouldn’t have to keep scrolling to get to the useful information. Subject-wise, each page should be distinct and concise. Every sentence should have a purpose, otherwise, it should be cut.

6. Difficult Navigation

Users are picky these days, and will prioritize websites that are easy to navigate right off the bat. Make sure it’s easy to navigate your website and access key information with the click of a tab.

Difficult navigation can encourage high bounce rates and more frustrated users. Not having a search bar can also push people away from your site.

7. Poor Image Placement

Images are a critical component of your website. They supplement key information and add interactive appeal.

When it comes to website design mistakes, however, it’s possible to incorrectly place an image. Poor image placement — and choice — can take the authority out of your content and fail to capture your visitors’ interest.

It can be easier to place images poorly if you are using a free website platform, or one that is more limited in its design elements.

Images should be placed strategically but also sparingly. They should have a clear purpose and align with the content.

8. A Design That Isn’t Interactive

It’s important to think of your website as another channel of digital marketing. In this sense, it’s important for your web design to be interactive.

Interactive design may incorporate multimedia elements, such as video and infographics. If your website isn’t interactive, it may simply come across as boring, lacking in authority, and irrelevant.

Incorporate interactive elements into your web design. Also, incorporate interactive elements that educate or inform the viewer. This means a design that is both compelling and valuable.

9. Ineffective Linking

Every website is composed of a series of internal and external links. It’s important not to have too many of these links, links that are broken, or too few links.

This is one of the easiest website design mistakes to make, especially if you find yourself focusing on content building and user experience. But keep in mind that user experience can be directly informed by effective linking.

Each page on your website should have 2-3 internal links that take visitors to unique pages. Be careful of redundant internal links, or ones that send visitors in a loop. Embed relevant external links into blog posts.

10. Ignoring Your Data

In order to stay on top of your website design performance, you’ve got to keep track of data. Failing to ignore data or not keep up with analytics is one of the biggest website design mistakes.

Download Google Analytics if you haven’t already. Or learn more about website visitor tracking through The Web Ally.

Top Website Design Mistakes

Your website design directly informs user experience. In order to maximize your users’ experience and drive traffic to your site, make sure you choose a responsive and interactive design.

Pay attention to image placement and internal links. Make sure your content is optimized for search engines and mobile use. Stay on top of that website data and focus on relevant, concise, and timely content.

At The Web Ally, we can help you avoid all of these mistakes and more. Let us transform your web design into a competitive component of your digital marketing campaign!

Do you have design questions? Our team is here to help you!

Contact us today to see how The Web Ally can help your business succeed.

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Looking to start working with a digital marketing agency?

Ready to boost your online presence?

Digital marketing is critically important for startups or businesses of any kind. However, while you may be eager to get started, it’s best not to go with the first digital marketing agency you come across. Skillsets, reliability, and results can vary from agency to agency.

If you’re looking for the perfect agency to work with, be sure to look for the following 10 things to make sure they’re the real deal.

1. Industry Experience

When looking for a digital marketing agency it needs to be clear that they have years of experience in the industry. Look for professional credentials and past successes.

Also, do what you can to research the individual experience of anyone who works for the agency. See what kind of past experience they have in the field and if they have any degrees that make them qualified in the marketing and technology fields.

In an industry such as digital marketing, backgrounds can definitely vary greatly. But by taking the time to determine the experience of a company you’ll know who you’re working with and if they have what it takes to deliver on your needs.

2. Recommendations and Reviews

In addition to notes on their experience, great digital marketing agencies should have plenty of testimonials on their site. An agency that has been in business for a while should have plenty of satisfied customers who can attest to a business’ expertise.

You should also look for reviews and opinions across the web. If you see plenty of poor reviews online you may want to turn the other way. Great sites to look for reviews include Google+, Facebook, Yelp, and the Better Business Bureau.

Additionally, ask for recommendations from contacts and friends as they may have experience with a particular agency you’re considering working with.

3. Proof of Satisfied Past Clients

A professional agency will be able to put you in contact with references. It’s important to evaluate the success that past clients have had with an agency and to communicate with them to get opinions on the agency.

An agency may also be able to show you a measured and full report of what they have achieved for businesses in the past and will be able to prove their success and know-how to you.

If they can’t provide you with concrete evidence of success in the past, they may not be able to help your company achieve results in the present.

4. The Online Presence of the Digital Marketing Agency

If you’re choosing a digital agency to work with, you should consider examing their own online presence and marketing efforts. Check to see if their own site is ranked in Google if their website looks professional and if their site seems to be well optimized for SEO.

However, in some cases be aware that this can be misleading. The agency may just be so focused on their clients that they fail to keep up with their own site.

While it’s not always the case that an agency’s own digital presence will reflect how they’ll handle the marketing for your business, this can still be a good thing to consider to see if their money is where their mouth is.

5. Skills and Specialization

You also need to be aware that different digital marketing agencies will have different areas of expertise and specializations. Consider what you most need out of a relationship and go from there.

For example, if you are a local business you may need an agency that is well-versed in local SEO tactics.

Additionally, some agencies will be more geared for helping your business with PPC and paid search tactics, while others will be focused only on search engine marketing (SEM) and SEO.

Finally, you should also consider if an agency has experience or expertise working with your specific industry. If you’re in healthcare, for example, you may want to look for a digital marketing agency that focuses on that industry and knows the specific needs of a healthcare organization.

6. A Focused and Tested Strategy

Any agency you consider should have solid strategies and operation methods in place that they can explain to you with clarity. If you ask them about their tactics and they have a wishy-washy response or can’t fully describe just what it is they do, this may be a red flag.

A digital marketing agency should have a tested plan that will provide you with attainable, measurable results. They should be able to tell you about what they expect to achieve, what they have achieved in the past, and how each tactic they use will help your website or business succeed.

7. Open Communication and Transparent Reporting

Continuing off of the point above, a digital marketing agency should have a way to communicate what results they have achieved for your business. It’s one thing to have a plan, but they need to show you that their plan is achieving the results you want throughout your relationship with them.

A reliable agency will be able to provide you with a regular report that shows statistics and analytics. These reports should show exactly what they have achieved for your business whether your goal is to gain more leads, website visits, or sales.

8. The Right Size

You need to also look for an agency that is the perfect size for having a relationship with your business. While there is no right answer, different sized agencies will have different strengths and weaknesses.

A small agency, for example, may be able to give you more personalized attention. They may also be a bit easier to communicate with, although this isn’t always the case.

On the other hand, a large digital marketing agency will likely have a wealth of resources and tools at their disposal that a smaller agency may not have. However, in many cases, they won’t be able to provide the personalized attention and easy communication that you may crave.

9. Costs That Are Defined By Value

Like the size of an agency, there isn’t necessarily a correct cost. The right costs can vary from agency to agency and will depend on your needs. However, you need to consider the potential drawbacks of working with a marketing agency who charges too much or too little.

An agency who charges very little for their services, may not be able to deliver the results you need. You may get what you pay for and receive service that is less than satisfactory.

On the other hand, an agency that charges too much can also be disappointing. Some agencies are charging so much because they’re relying on a well-marketed brand name rather than on the value they provide.

10. Access to Powerful Tools and Resources

You should also ask a digital marketing agency what tools they use and what kind of resources they have at their disposal.

A professional marketing agency will use many kinds of tools to achieve results for your business and get the job done right. These tools may be used for analytics, research, development, site optimization, management, or media buying.

While smaller agencies will likely have fewer tools than a large marketing firm, all professional agencies should have some professional tools that they will rely on to more effectively market your business.

Final Thoughts

Digital marketing couldn’t be more important for your business. However, it’s important that you find an agency that you trust and that you can build a relationship with

Take the time to look for all of the things and you’ll make sure that whichever digital marketing agency you choose if fully capable of helping your business and getting the job done.

Ready to boost your online presence? Contact us today to see how The Web Ally can help your business succeed.

Ready to boost your online presence?

Contact us today to see how The Web Ally can help your business succeed.

Contact Us

Visitor tracking to your website takes can be a daunting task which is often neglected. Unfortunately, though, you could be making a big mistake if you are not tracking visitors on your website..

Visitor tracking is critical to the proper and successful function of your business. It can help you improve your content strategy for starters. You may also better optimize your design and even generate leads!

It’s important to remember that just because something works for a similar business in your sector, it doesn’t mean it will work for your business. You shouldn’t rely only on external data and campaign statistics to gauge your marketing efforts and to improve your website.

You may need to boost your website (content, design, user experience etc) in order to attract more visitors. Visitor tracking is the first place you should look to get started.

There are other reasons why you may need analytics performed for your business. Keep reading to learn more.

Sourcing Traffic

Perhaps the number one reason businesses perform visitor tracking on their websites is to gain a better understanding of where their traffic is coming from.

Find out which search engines are sending traffic to your site. Also, gain key insights by determining  which traffic comes from which links and from which sources. You can use this information to increase your online presence where your visitors are most active and interested.

Top Ten Ranking

With visitor tracking, you can easily learn more about your top landing pages.

Something that feels right to you may not be working for your customers in terms of page content. Track your top ten pages so you can learn what your customers like.

Rearrange your top ten pages according to your customer’s interest to reflect the most important details about your business. Offer ways for customers to connect with you here.

Evaluations

Just as with your top ten pages, you should be reviewing your entire website with visitor tracking to gain a better understanding of your customers’ likes and dislikes.

Evaluating your website for content that draws more business can greatly improve your content strategies. Likewise, allowing your customers to ‘leave’ can have a great impact on your evaluation process. This gives you the opportunity to incorporate the content that customers are looking for into your website, thoroughly.

Learning Your Customers

Based on tracking results, you can also learn just exactly who is visiting your website and why.

Is the visitor male or female? How old are they? Where do they live and work? Analytics can track and provide this information.

Search Engine Optimization and local online and mobile ads, as well as social media group campaigns, are great ways to target traffic from a specific location. Utilize your tracking results to accurately and precisely facilitate these orders.

Unique Visitor Tracking

While looking at the total number of visitors to your website is great, looking at unique visitors reveals a lot more information.

Unique visitors are those that request pages from your website, regardless of how often or not they visit the site. With this information, you can make better decisions about content strategies for those specific pages or those specific customers. Or both.

Unique visitor tracking provides an accurate picture of the size of the audience you’re reaching.

Lead Generation

Tracking your visitors is a good source of leads, too.

Once you understand your customer’s wants and needs based on the results of their searches, you can better cater to their needs on your landing pages.

Make sure your keywords match with your content and learn which keywords convert to increase sales more rapidly.

Visitor tracking provides a unique source of lead generation.

Conversion Ratings

Find out how many customers are actually making purchases. See which type of customer responds to social media. How many visitors sign up for email or newsletters? Set up goals and track how many visitors reach the goal.

When you’re tracking the customers on your website, you’re more involved with them at other levels. Analytics can provide pertinent details relating to customer preferences, purchases and feedback. You can also track the success or failure of a social media marketing campaign or your pay per click (PPC) efforts.

Find Errors

What if your website is running with errors or defects. This could affect how many visitors are coming to your pages and influence whether or not they decide to stay or come back.

You can easily find things have gone wrong on your website when you’re using analytics because you’ll notice the difference in traffic to those pages. A dip in traffic on a particular page could mean that the page is not loading correctly, so you might need to solve any pending issues.

Referrals

Similar to sourcing traffic, tracking visitors provides a unique look at where your traffic is coming from when it is being referred from other sources.

Use this information to gain rapport with your customers when you link your site back to these referred sources so that your customers can find you easily.

Auditing

Using tracking sources to audit your marketing. You want to make sure you’re spending your money where it really counts.

Tracking your visitors can provide important information about marketing campaigns and web page content. Learn where to funnel marketing funds with analytics that show you exactly what appeals to the customer.

Exit Pages

Learn how many times a customer visits your site, the time spent on your website before they leave. Using analytics you can see the customer journey on your website,  that shows how many and which pages were visited and for how long.

When you know more about which customers are staying and leaving, you’ll have a better idea about how to design your website to provide a better user experience. Improve your content strategy and links on your site pertaining to what your customers like or don’t.

Bounce Rates

You want to keep your bounce rates low since this has become a ranking factor for Google.

This is the rate at which visitors are coming to your site and immediately leaving or never making it past the first page.

This information is crucial for conversion tracking and keeping a tally distance between those bouncing visitors and those that actually stay longer on your site.

Website Visitor Tracking

Visitor tracking is essential for any business to capture key information and details about their website performance. Any business large or small can benefit from being aware of how customers are behaving on their website and optimise your site to convert visitors into leads.

You might feel that there is so much to do and you don’t know where to start ! buy you don’t have to go at it alone. We can help you setup and configure the best tools to track your website visitors and also to convert visitors into leads. Contact us when you’re ready to take your website tracking to the next level!

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There are various factors that Google uses to rank a website and get high quality backlinks SEO, amongst which backlinks are undoubtedly some of the main building blocks of a good Search Engine Optimization. Believe it or not, backlinks are the cornerstone of any SEO service today – and not just any backlink, but quality backlinks.

But what exactly constitutes a quality backlink, you may be pondering. Backlinks are links directed towards your website and the more backlinks you have, the higher Google will rank you in their search engine results pages. Not all backlinks have the same value, hence when you are trying to build backlinks to your website there are some places you should never attempt to get backlinks from. If you are not an expert at building links there are many web development companies that offer to build quality backlinks as a part of their digital marketing services. There are many ways to get quality backlinks, but choosing the ones which will give you the best and quick results is important. The following are some strategies that leading SEO service providers use to build quality backlinks the right way.

1. Guest Blogging:

The backlinks that you get matter and there is no better platform to get quality backlinks than writing for other blogs related to your niche. This one of the best link building strategy offered by digital marketing service providers as a part of their SEO services. Guest blogging helps you get free exposure in front of a new audience ( the audience of the blog you are guest posting to). Along with the exposure, it will help you to get a backlink or two to your site. If you post on a really popular blog, you can get substantial amounts of direct traffic to your site and in the ideal case, when your product is of interest to the visitors from the other blog, you can make sales.

2. Social Bookmarking Sites:

Today all leading companies offering digital marketing services use social bookmarking as their marketing strategy to build links. Social Bookmarking is an off-page optimization technique of SEO that includes submitting your web pages in bookmarking websites in order to generate more traffic and backlinks. These websites are being crawled continuously by Google and other search engines platforms. Thus your content will be indexed with a greater speed when Google finds links to your content across various social bookmarking websites.

Some of the recommended social bookmarking sites are as follows:

– Digg

– Reddit

– Delicious

– Stumbleupon

3. Document Sharing Sites:

Document Sharing is a method to upload a document on Document-sharing websites. When you upload any piece of a document on document sharing site then it will also be accessible to other people all over the globe. If any reader likes your document then you will get a backlink as he visits your site. There are many document sharing sites available where you can upload documents or your best blogs converted into pdf. Make sure to link your documents to your site before submitting them to these sites.

Below are two great document sharing sites for you to get started:

– Dostoc

– Scribd

4. Article Marketing:

For a long time, article marketing has been one of the best and most effective ways to get quality authority backlinks to your blog. Before trying to foster your blog using article marketing it is very crucial to know that not every article directory is good and some don’t even worth your time. For instance, if you are offering SEO services ensure that you post content on an article directory that has specialized in SEO niche. Don’t forget to use anchor text that links back to your blog/website, if you do not make effective use of your anchor text, your link is almost valueless.

Two great examples of best article directories are Ezine Articles and Article Dashboard.

5. Blog Commenting:

Commenting on a blog post to get authority backlinks for SEO is another great strategy for improving your website ranking on SERP. To increase your blog’s leadership you may simply start commenting on other blogs. It is very important not to just comment because of the backlinks as this can be very dangerous, I believe your purpose for commenting should be to build relationships. Many of us know that blog commenting can really be a good traffic source for one’s blog, another great advantage of blog commenting is that it can serve as a source of quality backlinks. Don’t forget to check whether it’s a do-follow blog before commenting. otherwise, the backlink you just created will have no value for real.

1. Conclusion

Remember, hundreds of thousands if not millions of pages of great content are published to the web daily, but without good links a good content is nothing. When you are getting started, just like anything else, the whole process might be very time-consuming, but in the end, it will be worth every second. Start today and use the strategies above and you will reap a healthy harvest in the months and years to come. Don’t waste your time with links that might cause trouble for you, only build authority backlinks for SEO.

Do you think backlinks are useful? What is your favorite way to build backlinks to your blog? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Do you need to build more links to your website?

Get in touch and we can help you improve your website rankings!

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Online Reputation Management. Have these 3 words ever come up within the walls of your work place?

Probably not. You may think that an internet reputation strategy is something only big corporations need worry about.

Well…. you would be wrong!

Let’s face it, in today’s world there really is no distinction between protecting your reputation and your online reputation. Everyone is online in some way or another.

It is therefore only logical that online reputation management should be considered by everyone, from the small family businesses around the corner to the larger multinational corporations. In fact, anyone who wishes to protect their brand and their image from all hearsay found on the world wide web.

However, before we get into the ‘how’, we have to understand the ‘what’ and the ‘why’. So let’s dive right into it.

What is Online Reputation Management

Your online reputation management is one of the most valuable assets of your business. It’s what people find and see about your brand on the web, and as expected it heavily shapes their impression of you.

So it should be no surprise that your internet reputation should be managed properly. This is where online reputation management comes in.

As a simple definition, Online Reputation Management is the process of measuring and altering the internet’s perception of a brand for the benefits of your company.

Pretty straight forward, right; but what does this involve?

In essence, ORM requires you to monitor what is being said about your business on the web and respond appropriately in order to build confidence in your product or service.

In today’s competitive marketing environment, however, just managing your online reputation is not enough. Your competitors might be taking a more active role in developing their online brand reputation so as to engage new customers.

Social Media has shifted the Marketing Power Game

You will remember a time when brands used to advertise and sell to a relatively passive audience where communication came from promoters to the public and there was little interaction the other way around.

Well, marketing messages are not that easy to control anymore. Those days are long gone and Social media has shifted the power from the businesses to the consumer.

As you might expect, therefore, Social Media plays a pivotal role in any Online Reputation Strategy. Platforms like
Face Book, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram allow people to interact, create and share information and ideas about anything under the sun, including your brand.

Two aspects of social media are pivotal to understand when addressing your internet reputation;

• Interaction: Unlike traditional marketing, social media marketing is a 2-way street, therefore we need to make sure that we are involved in the conversation and that we are saying the right things. This is managing our online reputation.
• Community: We need to create a community around us with which we engage and add value so that the community sees us as an authority. This is where we develop our online brand reputation.

Why bother with ORM. What’s the worst that can happen?

I’m just going to come out and state it. The consequences of doing nothing can be catastrophic!

Yes, really.

It’s quite simple actually. If you don’t control your brand online, then someone else will. This exposes you to uncontrolled negative online reputation.

The public’s opinion about your products can easily be expressed, shared and go viral. There’s no way to run away from this, however, you can take measures to control it.

Negative review sites such as ripoffreport.com, in which users can express their opinion on your brand, are a very powerful platform to fuel negative online reputation for your business. These sites tend to rank quite easily on Google search results, which means that the criticism about your brand will be exposed to large audiences.

The outcome of this bad press may be as small as having a potential customer clicking on a competitor’s search result instead of yours or as intense as an industry-wide boycott of your brand.

Apart from the financial implications of negative internet reputation you need to consider also the time and resources you will have to sacrifice to address the situation.

Since this is the internet we are talking about, you can rest assured that the outcome of any bad publicity will continue to come up in search results for years after you remedy the situation.

To drive this point home let’s look at a real life example.

If you’re a fan of reality TV, maybe you’ve heard of Amy’s Baking Company. This was the company behind a coffee shop that was featured on the Chef Gordon Ramsay’s popular TV show, Kitchen Nightmares.

The coffee shop was owned by a married couple, whose behaviour on the show was so terrible that Chef Ramsay had to walk off the episode for the the first time in his career.

Following the airing of the show, the public got on social media and started expressing outrage and ridicule at the couple and their business. Negative comments about the restaurateurs also appeared on Reddit and Yelp.

There were various ways how the owners could have handled the situation however their lack of any ORM awareness (coupled with their lack of common decent behaviour) led them down the social insult route.

The couple went against the public on social media and actually posted offensive comments and abuse. As a consequence, the bad feedback from the public kept growing and went viral.

As you can expect did this not end well, in fact they went out of business very fast shortly after.

There are various other situations of companies missing the mark when it comes to social media posting. Check out some of other social media disasters.

How To Get Started With Online Reputation Management

A good online reputation repair system can mean the difference between a dissatisfied customer setting off a viral wave of bad publicity or spinning a bad situation into a positive PR exercise for your brand.

Without the knowledge and proper online reputation management techniques, however this process can be a very frustrating, time consuming and costly exercise.

Do not despair yet.

If you want to get your internet reputation strategy on the right track, start by looking into these 7 processes.

1. Build a Competent Online Reputation Team

First off you need to Build capacity within your organisation and have the right people handling this function.

ORM is a two-way conversation, which means our customers are engaging with us continuously, therefore, the person or team taking on your internet reputation management must understand your product and have some background in customer service.

Having an appreciation of the customer’s perspective is key when posting on social media.

In fact the Golden Rule of Online Reputation Management is quite simply to treat your customers how you would want to be treated yourself.

So, exercise empathy and restrain before posting or replying to complaints. Remember that everything you put out there will make it in the public view and will have a digital time stamp, which means that you will not be able to get it back.

2. Develop a Stronger Online Presence by Blogging

When you need to have an online space where you write long form content you will need a blog. Blogging is actually one of the best online reputation management tools.

There are various online resources out there where you can find guides to creating a blog, and it is not our intention to go into detail on this here. We do, however, have the following tips, in order to make the most out of your blog from an ORM perspective.

• Publish high-quality content on your site as this will allow your site to rank better.
• Update your page regularly with new content.
• Make sure you are regularly present on your site to reply to blog comments from readers.
• Register with local business directories like Yelp and Crunchbase.
• Optimise your blog’s SEO to enable your site to get to the top positions in search engine results.

Your aim is to get your blog posts at the top of search engine results. Think of Google’s First Page as your online business card.

When consumers search for information about you or your brand you want them to find relevant and positive results. If Google’s results are crowded with indifferent sites or worst yet negative statements then the user isn’t finding something that will compel them to buy.

So you need to control as much as possible what is appearing on the first few pages of Google’s search results when someone searches for your brand.

Which sources are talking about you on the internet and what are they saying?

If it’s mostly negative, then your online reputation management strategy will be to push the positive comments and pages to the top spots of the search results. This is where Search Engine Optimization comes into play, and since SEO can get quite technical and complicated you should consider getting professional help for this.

3. Maximise your social media presence

Open a Facebook account, LinkedIn, YouTube or any other social media account you can reasonably maintain. Do not open social accounts just for the sake of it however.

Managing different social platforms requires considerable time commitment so only open accounts for which you have the capacity to manage and build up. Better to open one and maintain it well than be present on 5 different social media which are rarely updated.

It goes without saying however, unless you’re a celebrity, you should not use your personal account to promote your business. Create a separate business account instead. This is free anyway.

Now the golden rule for social media is to post regularly and maintain relevant and updated content to gain followers and entice shares. So you should try and understand what messages will trend, what type of posts will get people motivated to share and view your brand in a good light.

Let’s take a quick look at the main social media platforms available and when to use them.

Facebook is the most popular one out there with the maximum number of followers. If you have to open just one account probably Facebook is the one, especially since you can share various types of information, like blog posts, images and videos. It is also very easy to communicate with your audience on Facebook.

LinkedIn is easier in terms of maintenance compared to other social media. It is a more professional type network and would be ideal, for example to find potential candidates to work for your company and also for setting up your Company’s professional reputation.

YouTube is excellent to show off your products to potential customers with detailed walk-troughs of the product features. Posting on YouTube is probably the most time-consuming and difficult of all social platforms as you need to ensure you have high quality videos. This makes it a big financial and time investment.

Pinterest and Instagram are image based social platforms and therefore ideal for sharing photos with your audience and also short videos. These platforms are good for connecting with your most passionate customers and sharing photos of new products in stock, for example.

Location based social media are good for brick and mortar businesses. To put yourself on the map and be found easily, platforms like Yelp, TripAdvisor and Foursquare are ideal resources.

Manage Your Social Accounts Intelligently

Now managing various social platforms can be quite daunting however if you have the appropriate tools these can make things much easier. Two such helpful programmes are Hootsuite and Trackur.

HootSuite lets you manage your entire social media presence conveniently from one place. Schedule posts, get detailed analytics to measure the performance of your campaigns and also share tasks with other team members.

Trackur monitors the main social media sites and forums. It allows you to audit keyword searches, and determines their ratings and their influence. It also provides a handy mobile dashboard showing the key performance indicators in one place.

Hashtags – Make sure you know what they’re all about

Trending hashtags can be a great source of exposure on social media platforms like twitter and instagram. Many marketers jump on this bandwagon to get new followers and brand recognition, however you have to make sure to research the hashtag and address it appropriately.

The popular clothing brand GAP, for example, did a very poor job at this during Hurricane Sandy. With people dying and several losing their homes Gap sent out a very insensitive tweet.

It eventually took it down and apologized, but the the brand reputation damage had already been done.

4. Protect Your Name

It would be a good idea to register your brand name with various social accounts (even if you don’t actually create a profile on each social platform). There are two reasons for this.

Firstly, you would already own the name in case you decide to start engaging on the platform in the future. When any of the social networks don’t have your name available this can cause a disruption in your marketing strategy.

Secondly, you avoid your brand name from getting taken up by other users. This is more common that you might think.

Your brand username can be taken up by other individuals either in order to make a quick buck from you for the rights to the name; by an affiliate to promote the product, or worst yet, by an angry customer or competitor with the intention to damage your brand name.

A useful tool to keep track of the social networks and register your username on each is KnowEm which lets you build various profiles on a number of different social networks.

5. Monitor what they are saying about you

When people are frustrated or disappointed they naturally look for a source to vent their anger. That’s why so many angry customers take to Twitter and Facebook to rant about everything, from lost luggage to faulty products.

In order to keep on top of this, you will need to be constantly monitoring your brand for any social media mentions, so that you can address any issues before they spiral out of control.

Addressing a customer complaint with a prompt statement is better than a late reply with more information. Respond with a simple statement like “We are aware of the problem and we’re working on it. We will get back to you as soon as possible”.

Even large companies with all their resources can find it overwhelming to stay on top of things 24/7. A good example of this would be British Airways Twitter account mishap.

Following a bad flight with British Airways, one customer took to Twitter to complain about his poor experience and lost luggage. Nothing new here; however when BA did not address his tweet he took the matter a step further. He used Twitter’s paid service to promote his Tweeted complaint to BA’s followers. That’s 406,000 followers.

British Airways failed here because it did not address this customer complaint in time. It was damaging to them because the tweet came out and got interaction before they could even address it.

In fact, it took BA over 8 hours even to respond to the promoted Tweets. This was because BA did not have a 24/7 social media presence and the tweet came outside of the office hours. A brand as large as British Airways should obviously have 24-hour online customer care representation.

The consequences of doing nothing can be disastrous. Having a well-trained and reactive customer service department would have prevented all this negative publicity from the start.

The larger you grow your presence online, however, the more there is to keep track of and you can find that monitoring can be quite overwhelming and time consuming. Fortunately, there are various tools that can help you with this task.

Google Search
A simple and free tool for monitoring your brand online is google search. Search engines are often overlooked as a way to find mentions of your company or its products.

Google Alerts and Yahoo Alerts
Set up Google Alerts for your brand name, company name and any other common variations associated with your company. Google/Yahoo will monitor the web for any new content that may pop up related to you and send you automatic daily emails.

Social Mention
This is another useful tool for monitoring which focuses more on social media platforms. Social Mention offers real-time social media search and analysis, thus helping you catch immediate conversations around a specific keyword. You can subscribe to the feed, get email alerts and even download the results in Excel file.

6. Encourage positive reviews and Promote them

Build the Credibility of your brand by leveraging testimonials. Testimonials can be collected directly from clients or picked up from social media sites and reposted on your company website.

Customers will easily get on social media to complain and criticise but they will rarely take time to make a positive review unless you prompt them. You therefore have to make it easy for them to post online reviews that throw a positive light on your brand reputation.

The statistics presented by this Local Consumer Review Survey clearly outlines the impact that online reviews have with consumers nowadays.

To collect reviews from customers you need to provide them with a quick and easy method for them to leave comments or reviews. It is very important that your website clearly displays your company contact details and different options to contact you. Also, make sure that the review function is easily accessible on your website.

Encourage them by directing your customers to a place where they can leave reviews. E-mail them after an order has been shipped, for example, with a link to the review page. You may also try to encourage feedback through incentives.

Take every opportunity to ask your customers to leave reviews both on your own blog page as well as other important third party websites within your industry. Linking to other website feedback is also an important SEO strategy since this will signal to google to rank those reviews even higher up in the search results.

Building a record of positive reviews and promoting them will give potential customers confidence in your brand and encourages them to shop with you instead of your competitors.

This is even more essential if you’re the new kid on the block. Try and get a few reviews under your belt as early as possible to start building trust in your brand.

7. Deal with negative reviews appropriately

We know. It hurts to read poor reviews about your product or services, but these can be an invaluable source of information to learn more about your audience and help you improve your brand or your message. Therefore be open to criticism and feedback.

Bad comments should not be deleted, especially if they are true, but they should be addressed and solved.

If negative content is up on another site and the claims are false then you need to contact the webmaster of that site and ask for it to be remove or edited. In this case be prepared to supply documents or proof to support your claim that they are reporting false information.

If the comment is true, then you have to present your side of the story honestly and authentically and take steps to correct the situation.

Whatever you do, never attack people on social platforms and make sure you are calm and composed before replying to any bad comments.

Let’s take a look at how a big brand, like Nike handled a negative situation to come out on top.

On St Patrick ’s Day of 2012 Nike launched a pair of running shoes as a salute to the Irish. The company dubbed these runners as The Black & Tans. However, what they didn’t realise, at the time was that this name has a very bad connotation to the Irish.

The Black & Tans where British paramilitary troops sent to pacify the growing Rebellion in Ireland during the 1920s.

This marketing idea therefore backfired badly and it was apparent that someone at Nike did not do their research very well. However, their online reputation management team did a brilliant job to repair the situation.

First off, Nike came straight out and apologised. They then shelved the running shoes and those that were already produced where given to charity.

These actions by Nike were essential for them to turn a bad situation into a good marketing spin and Nike actually came out on top of this situation.

With all the sources available for people to vent their frustration, it can be difficult to know if you’re the subject of any online rants or damaging internet reputation reviews. This is why a tool like Complaint Search Box can come in handy.

Complaint Search Box performs a specialised search on over 40 complaint websites. You can therefore perform a quick daily search to find if customers are posting any negative comments about your brand. This will allow you to address them in a timely manner.

Start planning for the future of your brand reputation

So, is your business set-up for proper online reputation management?

If not, you should consider where to begin. Start by finding the right persons to run your Online Reputation Management strategy and get them to set up your business blog and social media accounts. Make your brand available online to address customer complaints and negative comments as fast as possible and highlight the positive feedback.

Dealing with online reputation management is essential within any business because you need to be out there to safeguard your brand name when it is being tarnished.

Online Reputation Management, however is not just about reputation repair. It is also about positioning your company as an authority in your space in order to drive the online conversation positively around your brand.

The following infographic prepared by MDG Advertising brilliantly incorporates the most essential aspects of Online Reputation Management in one poster.

Do you need more information?

Would you like to know how we can help you monitor your brand reputation?
We are eager to help you achieve a better online presence. We are based in Malta but with a Worldwide reach!

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