Small Business Websites can Level the Playing Field with Larger Business

New article on Small Business Websites can level the playing field with Larger Business.

Small businesses that use a dedicated web design agency  to build their website can give the same impression on the internet as a larger business, so allowing them to compete with even the biggest players in their industry, according the some reports.

Citing a study a little over a year ago by Yell and the University of Southampton, tested the notion. Consumers were offered two anonymous websites and were later questioned on which website they thought belonged to which business. Most of those questioned were unable to determine the larger from the smaller business.
When asked which website they preferred, 64 per cent choose the smaller website compared to just 21 per cent choosing the larger business, reports by bytestart.co.uk.
When asked which site they preferred, 51 per cent voted for the small business website (51 per cent) with 36 per cent voting for the larger business. This suggesting that more would buy from the smaller business than larger business.
When specifically asked where they would prefer to buy their goods, only 25 per cent said the size of a business would influencing their choice of where they would make their purchase and spend their money.
Read more on Small Business Websites versus Large.
More on tailormade website design in Suffolk UK from Afford Web Design.

Website Quality is key to Successful Business

"A well designed website is key to a website that is successful for business" according to Ben Hatton, a successful internet entrepreneur with a web-based business.

More and more people are using the internet to find businesses, research and then interact with them. So website first impressions are now crucial to attract and hold a customer by providing the information required as well as business brand perception.

And this is highlighted by a recent poll showing that a poor website would discourage 70 per cent of consumers from buying from that business (ref pingpr.com). Two thirds of business owners stated considered website quality to be very important, some saying this was a more import part of business that store or business location. These statistics appear to highlight the for skilled local web designer company to produce a website tailor made for each individual business.

Hatton also stated that "A well-designed website that is engaging, relevant and easy to navigate is important to building relationships and key to converting web traffic to sales.'' "With such a competitive and volatile marketplace, one of the biggest challenges businesses have online is building lasting relationships with consumers." He noted the growing need for mobile website options as more and more users access websites from mobile devices.

Business Websites can convey Business Confidence

Taken from Business Websites can convey customer confidence.

Customers and potential customers can get an immediate impression of a business from their website, from credibility to trustworthiness to friendly manner or efficient service.
So says Belinda White speaking at nebusiness.co.uk in Newcastle, she also added that even for businesses that trade offline, their website is often the first thing that any customer will see of any business, whether small or large.
She claims that this means the right website for your business is very importance to mirror your business, with content that delivers the desired image for your business.
Belinda went on to explain what she thought made for a slick website design.
She said: "How the user interface works and the overall user experience. Make sure navigation is easy and clear, and make it obvious what is important and where you want people to go on the site.''
"Text should have a clear hierachy. Then there's photographs. Make sure any images are of a high standard and, ideally, unique to your website."
A business that is serious about growing by attracting customers online should use a web design agency to optimise user experience and image, they should create a strong optimised website. Specifically targeting their website to a specific audience and customer profile.

How to Choose Keywords for Your Website? What is Keyword Research?

A common website mistake is using the wrong keywords or poor keywords or too competitive keywords. To find the best keywords for a website needs keyword researchand this research should be one of the first things in web design, before any design is made. Read more on this overlooked part of web design, keyword research by Suffolk Web Design.
In theory you could have 2 websites that looked identical, one getting very little traffic or sales whereas the other was very successful with traffic and sales. And the difference could be that the two websites were targeting different keywords.

 Choosing the right keywords and keyword phrases to target can help your website generate more targeted traffic, out perform your business competitors and increase your income.

 Finding the best keywords for your business needs methodical research, but once done, it provides the base for the whole web design. There are some factors that need to be included in good keyword research, as outlined below.

Long tail keyword phrases. For example the word 'hardwood floors' is a very broad term where as a long tail keyword phrase for this could be 'recycled hardwood flooring' which would have less competition. And the people that search online for such long tailed keywords are more likely to become buyers than those searching for more general terms.

Keyword competition. The amount of competition for keywords is very important in the likely success of the word or phrase. Specialist software can give competive values for words and phrases so that you can target accurate but less competitive words for faster success.

Any time invested in keyword research should show a good return in investment in how your website performs. For more on keyword research contact Afford Web Design on 01449 737352.

Search Engines - The facts you need to know.

Search Engines - What are they?
Search engines are the means to searching the internet by typing in a search term. There are lots of different search engines, although most people are familiar with the major ones, Google, Yahoo and Bing. Google started in 1996 so is just 15 years old.
The search words or phrases you type into search boxes are known as keywords and key phrases. When you type in a search word or phrase, the search engine returns a results page, known as SERP, and ranks the pages according to relevance.

Search Engines - How do they work?
Search engines use programs (called spiders, robots or crawlers) to search the internet and index pages and websites. The exact way that the search engines ranking is calculated is secret.

Search Engine - How do they rank pages and websites?
The 3 major search engines, Google, Yahoo and Bing, all use links, relevancy of page content and good site design as well as other factors.

A good SEO search engine optimization service should address these factors and more to gain higher ranking in search engine results. See SEO optimisation service from Afford Web Design to help.

SEO Services for Search Engine Success

Most people now research services and purchases online before acting. And this online research is via search engines rather than going direct to web addresses. So it is cruicial that your website is appearing prominently in the natural search engine listings. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the way to tune up your website content to improve visibility to search engine robots and spiders.

Performing well in the search engines is key to online success. Search queries provide users with a list of relevant websites. However, most search queries may provide hundreds or thousands of results and most people using search engines will not go beyond the first page of results. So it is crucial that your website ranks high in a search engine's index, so to be visible and create traffic and business. This results in more visitors and more customers.

SEO search engine optimisation services can help your website perform. Call Afford Web Design for more information.

What type of website is best for your business?

Maybe you already have a website or maybe you are just about to get one. Getting the right sort of website for your business is important to achieve your goals as well as to be cost effective for your needs.

Firstly what services do you require for your business website? The choices are broadly:

• Brochure web design - a static website that is like a brochure for your business, to showcase the benefits of your business, services, products, aims. As well as contact details for enquiries. The whole site would be SEO search engine optimised for best ranking results. You would not plan to update your site regularly, maybe a few times a year. You would probably ask a web professional to complete the updates, taking a few hours work per year.
• Content management systems (CMS) - a dynamic website with the content of some pages changing regularly. These websites are designed to be user friendly to edit, with either particular areas within pages editable or the whole website editable. This may seem like a great idea but if the website has been specially built with SEO search engine optimisation included, you would not want to risk loosing this optimisation or search engine ranking by editing important areas. A business needs to decide whether they have time and man power to edit the website regularly, weekly or monthly.
• E-commerce website design - this is another dynamic website design for retail sales online with CMS facility. Including secure payment portals. SEO can be included in all pages within the website. Editing of products/ services/ prices/ special offers etc through editable regions on pages. Time required to keep the website up to date would vary depending on numbers of products/ services, frequency of adding/ removing products or prices.Time to keep website up to date can vary from a few hours each day to a few hours a month depending on the business. 



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• Flash design - another dynamic website design. But caution needed as some of the features of flash design are not 'seen' by search engine robots and spiders so important SEO information could be lost.

Website designers should advise on type of website best for your individual business needs. They can then use their skills of how web users think and behave to create the best website for your business to ease usability and maximise business profile online. Ask for a free quote and advice from Web Designer Suffolk at Afford Web Design.