Congratulations to Sid Cook, Lisa, Andrea and the entire Carr Valley Cheese team! Check out their all new, WebWise-developed ecommerce website and buy some of their award winning cheese.
New from WebWise! Small Business Starter Websites
Starting a small business is a daunting task. There are so many pieces of the puzzle to think about and put in practice. It also seems as though every time you turn around, there is another check to write or bill to pay.
- We both know you need a website for your business.
- We both know you need it quickly.
- We both agree you need your website pages to do well in Google search results.
- We both know you don’t have extra cash for a fully customized website right now.
WebWise Design & Marketing has a solution for you!
Introducing our inexpensive WebWise Small Business (SMB) Starter Websites: Taking what we learned from over two decades of custom designing, developing, and marketing professional websites that get found and perform, WebWise Design & Marketing now offers professionally designed and developed “starter” websites for Small Businesses.
Our SMB Starter Websites* can be from one to four pages and can be expanded easily in the future.
- Free domain name registration for first year
- You may choose from some popular layouts and color palettes.
- You provide your logo (We can help with that.), or we can simply use your business name in a font/style you choose
- You provide your content (text and photos)
- We proofread your text and edit it judiciously, and add Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tweaks if needed.
- We add your logo/business name and content
- You review and approve
- We create Google Analytics and Google Search Console accounts for you, and GA tracking code to your web pages.
- We launch your WebWise Small Business Starter Website
* WebWise SMB Starter Websites require a website hosting account. (We can help with that.)
Make a positive impression with your Google My Business listing!
WebWise will provide you with free support for setting up your Google My Business account so you may take advantage of the most important element of marketing any business locally
Ask about our SMB Starter Websites Payment Plans.
Call Us Today! 1-800-281-9993 or 608-822-3750
The Google My Business Listing is Critical for Businesses
If you do not already know, Google My Business is a free tool for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps.
“Claiming or improving your Google My Business Listing is the singular, most important step you can take for your local business if you want to maximize results from Google Search.” I wrote that in this blog post on September 8. 2017. It is even more true today.
The Google My Business concept is not new. On July 29, 2008 (Yes, over ten years ago.) I wrote a post named Google – Get Local, Get Traffic Quickly about using Google Maps Local Business Center if you want to increase local traffic.
Since 2008, its name has changed several times and Google My Business is much more robust than it was back then. In 2008, there were roughly 173 million websites online. As I write this, there are over 1.9 Billion websites! Obviously, the competition for prominent display space in Google Search results has increased immensely.
Today’s Google My Business (GMB) Listing affords businesses several opportunities to enhance their presence in Google search results and Google Maps. Here is some information directly from Google:
Manage your information:
First it is imperative to “claim” your listing. If you have not, you may do so here: www.google.com/business If someone has claimed your Google My Business listing, go to
Request ownership of a business listing.
Be as complete and accurate as possible when entering your business information. Businesses offering the most detailed and accurate information will be easier for Google to serve your listing in searches.
It’s important to enter your business hours, but equally important to update them whenever they change. You may customize hours for holidays and other special events, and it is up to you to ensure they are accurate. Don’t make enemies because of incorrect hours.
As it does with website SEO, Google uses a variety of signals to serve search results, and including relevant keywords and search phrases to your business listing will help considerably, since your business website is listed directly within your GMB listing.
Interact with customers:
Read and respond to reviews from your customers, and post photos that show off what you do. Businesses that add photos to their listings receive 42% more requests for driving directions on Google Maps and 35% more clicks through to their websites than businesses that don’t.
Reviews are now a two-way conversation between you and your customers — be the first to know when you get a new review on your local Business Profile so you can respond right away (this is extremely important).
Photos:
You will likely be surprised how much adding even a couple photos will help the performance of your business listing. Just do it!
Q&A:
Save time by answering your customers’ questions before they ask. With Q&A, customers can easily ask a question right from your Business Profile on Google. To save time, you can pin frequently asked questions and highlight the top answers.
There is much more we could tell you about Google My Business, but the best thing I can do for you is to repeat this: “Claiming or improving your Google My Business Listing is the singular, most important step you can take for your local business if you want to maximize results from Google Search.”
Three Pre-Holiday E-Commerce Tips That Work
Is your e-commerce website ready? If you sell online, the holiday season is nearly upon you. Here are three items you should review and act on if necessary. Each of them will help you convert visits to sales.
You know what your customers bought or didn’t buy in the past. Take a good look at how you are currently presenting your products. It is a good bet that focusing on these three tips will make a considerable difference in your holiday sales.
1. Meaningful Product Descriptions — Do not copy and paste product descriptions from your vendor. Create unique descriptions for each item you sell. Do not shortcut this. Write them for your customer. More, but concise, information means more conversions. Explain what your product is or does and why they should buy it. Help your website visitor visualize using your product.
2. Professional-Quality Photos — It is simple. If you have professional quality products to sell, you need professional-quality photos. iPhones and many Android phones have great cameras, but the person taking your photos needs some photography skills. You do not necessarily have to hire a professional photographer, but you do need photos taken by someone who knows about and will incorporate lighting, simplifying the scene, framing the subject properly, aspect ratio, balancing elements, symmetry, viewpoint, using backgrounds, depth, and colors. The necessity for high-quality photos cannot be overstated.
3. Easy-to-find, Complete Contact Information — Your telephone number should be large enough to see and touch (for mobile users) easily. Provide your visitors with options: phone number(s), contact form, email address, mailing address, office hours. Include prominent links to shipping and return information as well as your privacy policy.
Today’s consumers want more and relevant information about what they buy online. The time you spend on these recommendations will serve you well.
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- Meaningful Product Descriptions
- Professional-Quality Photos
- Easy-to-find Contact Information
Make it a happy holiday season by improving these three areas of your ecommerce website!
Your Website Should Be Secure
For all practical purposes, Google is forcing the use of SSL and HTTPS on all websites! Prior to this, there was no need for you to purchase a SSL Certificate for your website and incur the expense of migrating your website from HTTP to the HTTPS protocol.
What is SSL
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a standard security protocol for establishing encrypted links between a web server and a browser in an online transfer of data. A SSL Certificate is necessary to create SSL connection. Having a SSL Certificate installed on a web server ensures that all data transmitted between the web server and browser remains encrypted.
Google says, “Beginning in July 2018 with the release of Chrome 68, Chrome will mark all HTTP sites as not secure.”
What Needs To Be Done
You must enable SSL for your website which is done through your hosting provider. The SSL Certificates (annual renewal) and implementation choices and costs vary depending on the hosting company and the plan you have.
Please see our page, Google Says Your Website Needs to Be Secure for more details, or contact our office, 608-822-3750 or 800-281-9993 or email support@webwisedesign.com.
