Name: Mark, aka "Sheriff"

Email:

Web Site: http://www.gmlconsulting.co.uk

Posts by Sheriff:

    Is the website an important factor to my Business?

    February 20th, 2012

    Do these statements ring any bells?

    1.    No one seems to be viewing my website!
    2.    I never get any enquiries!
    3.    My website brings in little or no income!
    4.    I get better results from word of mouth!
    5.    My existing customers are always placing orders, so I don’t need to bother!
    6.    The web is here today gone tomorrow!
    7.    I don’t need the added expense!
    8.    Most of my customers don’t use the web, they pick up the telephone!

    My reply would be! From answers 1-8.

    1.    No one seems to be viewing my website! There are many reasons for this! But the main answers would be:

    •    Has the website been optimised?
    •    How do you know that no one is viewing your website?
    •    Does the home page show all the services and products that you offer?
    •    Does the home page grab the potential customer’s attention?

    2.   I never get any enquiries!  Enquiries may not be coming in because?

    •    Is it clear enough where to submit an enquiry?
    •    Submit an enquiry button is not on the home page!
    •    The enquiry page is too complicated!
    •    Is the website interesting enough to make customer make an enquiry?
    •    Has the customer found what they want?

    3.    My website brings in little or no income?

    •    Chicken and egg! No visitors to the website, no enquiries, no sales!

    4.    I get better results from word of mouth!  Word of mouth is an excellent way of producing new business, but!

    •    Not everyone spreads the word!
    •    You have to have more than one string to your bow!
    •    By looking at your website is by far the best way a potential customer can check you out!
    •    First impressions count for a lot!

    5.    Existing customers are very important!

    •    New customers are equally as important!
    •    Do your existing customers want to order online! Have you asked?
    •    Are your existing customers aware of all the products or services you have to offer!

    6.    The web is here today gone tomorrow!

    •    Business on the web is increasing every year, many companies and smaller businesses now set aside an annual budget for web and online marketing.
    •    Busy people of today do not have the time in normal working hours to call you! They want to look and place their orders online.
    •    Many companies have restricted or even cut out completely the normal paper and yellow pages style of advertising, realising web is the way forward!
    •    No company’s website is perfect for everyone’s use; however the basis of the any good website is clear navigation, easy to use, straight to the point, fast loading pages! Good interesting content. Enables customers to find what they want easily.

    7.    I don’t need the added expense!

    •    Can I afford not to?
    •    Speculate to accumulate!
    •    Are my competitors leaving me behind?
    •    Probably even your most archaic of competitors are now on the web!

    8.    Most of my customers don’t use the web, they pick up the telephone!

    •    Do you know this for a fact?
    •    If you could sell online, would they spend more?
    •    What about after working hours and you’re not there, and they want to place an order?

    To summarise:

    Many people and potential customers of all ages are now searching and buying items online. Christmas 2011 saw a huge increase in online sales with many businesses making the most of what had been a tough year.

    Websites were also something of an afterthought and were something they thought they had to have because their competitors did. These thoughts have changed, and have been for some time. Businesses are now setting aside budgets in their marketing plans for website development, and with social media now fully on board for many companies, they are now extracting new revenues that they hadn’t had before.

    Customers are now more aware of the products and services they offer and in many cases this is saving money for companies, who now do not have to design and print expensive brochures and magazines, these can now be viewed and downloaded on the web.

    If you would like your questions answered, contact us for an informal chat.

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    The Importance of SEO, Find Out More…

    January 6th, 2012

    Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the art of both building and promoting a website to ensure the highest possible rankings in the major search engines. The aim is to use various advanced techniques to make a website appear in the first few positions of the organic search results. When people search for specific words or key phrases on major search engines such as, Google or Bing.

    When looking for information on the internet people head straight for the search engines to find it. Your website will be competing with millions of other sites to try and get people to visit. Therefore it is crucial to optimise your site with the latest SEO techniques so that your website will be found above your competitors. Generally, businesses that are at the top of the results use a company with specialist SEO knowledge to push them up the rankings.

    GML’s clients are now increasingly aware of competition from other companies and see SEO as a way of getting one step ahead of the competition. SEO skills enable our clients to generate new business daily, at a fraction of the price of traditional advertising and with a higher return on investment.

    SEO is by far and away the best and most cost effective way to make sure your website is getting seen by the correct audience, promoting your services or products, and increasing brand awareness. SEO and Google constantly evolve, and our team at GML keep on the ball with this in order to provide our clients with the best level of service ensuring their website/s are performing effectively. SEO is not a ‘quick fix’ and requires on-going work for a period of time to start to see results. With regular monitoring of statistics and monthly reports this can be easily achieved.

    If you would like to know if SEO will work for your company’s website call GML for an informal chat.

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    Why everyone should analyse the traffic to their website

    December 13th, 2011

    Protecting your investment, whether it be your house your car or something of value is important in our everyday lives, we look after our house, do the repairs needed and have our car serviced once a year.

    Do you look after your website? Do you maintain it, service it or repair it when something’s wrong.

    A good website will have cost time and money, so why not look after it!

    One of the best ways of doing this by analysing the traffic that has visited your website

    •    What pages are being looked at most?
    •    How long are potential customers staying on the website?
    •    What are they searching for?
    •    What country, or even what time or day are they searching?
    and perhaps most importantly
    •    Are you being contacted from the website?
    •    Is your phone ringing as a result of the website?

    Gaining this information is invaluable, it’s like a performance and an on-going progress chart to monitor how these visitors have found your website, and have they achieved what they are looking for.

    Traffic to the website is important but quality visitors is more important, would you prefer 5,000 visitors per month with a 5% enquiry rate or 3,000 hits with a 15% enquiry rate?

    One of the ways of achieving this is by making the content and photos on the website relevant to the product or service you are offering. If a potential customer is looking for a specific product or service you provide, make sure your site is built in such a way that the customer doesn’t have to trawl through the website to find what they looking for.  They can be directed by the build and design to exactly what they want with relevant information and details of the product or service they require. This is also a very important factor in making sure your website ranks highly with search engines.

    Much has been made of “bounce rate” in recent times, what should my bounce rate be! Is 55% too high?

    Well what is bounce rate?

    Bounce Rate is the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left the site from the same page they entered.

    Depending on your website, the importance of your bounce rate will vary. But whatever your site, it’s likely that you’ll want your visitors to stick around for a bit and take some action that’s valuable to you. For example, you may have a link from a landing page (often your homepage) to some kind of form where users can sign up for your service, or make a payment. Most of the time you’ll want your users to do more than just look at one page of your site, which is why looking at the bounce rate is an important measure of how many of your users are taking action, or leaving immediately.

    A low bounce rate means…

    Your website is attracting the right kind of audience, who are clicking through to your other pages of content, which means there’s a good chance they’ll convert (meaning they will do something valuable like buy a product, download a white paper, or fill in an enquiry form.)

    A high bounce rate means…

    Visitors to your website aren’t finding what they’re looking for when they arrive on your site, and are not clicking through to any of your other pages or converting. They’re leaving immediately. These visits aren’t very valuable to you, so you need to address the problem.

    Does your website have a “bounce rate “problem?

    Does your website provide the customer what they want?

    If your answer is ‘no’ or ‘not sure’ – why not call GML for an informal chat.

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