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 A website create a first impression for a company. It is therefore important to choose a design that will be attractive and easy to use for potential customers. A poorly thought-out website design may cause potential customers to close the browser and switch to a competitor’s website. Likewise, poor website design will impact the effectiveness of your content marketing strategy.
What is content marketing? Content marketing is the strategy of digital marketers to publish interesting, helpful, and relevant content related to a brand without directly advertising the brand. How web design affects the effectiveness of your content marketing Well-thought-out content marketing will help you rank high in search engine results and in turn will generate more leads. However, publishing high-quality content will be useless if your website design deters users from staying long enough to read your content. Here are some factors of web design that can impact your content marketing. Content Accessibility Your quality content will not yield positive results if it is not readily accessible by visitors. Your website must be designed with an intuitive navigation map to allow visitors to effortlessly reach every page of your website. A website that compels visitors to unnecessarily go through several pages before accessing their desired content may cause them to abandon the website. One way of making your content accessible is to include fixed elements such as a sitemap, drop-down menus and search bars to enable your visitors to easily reach the content they are looking for. Content Readability Content readability is affected by design elements of your web page, including the font used for the text, the colors of the font and background, and all the images and visuals of your page. For example, a poorly designed web page may have visual elements that clash with each other making your content not readable. One way to create readable content is with neatly spaced content. Likewise, your web design should have a visual hierarchy to help visitors focus on more important content than visual elements. Overall User Experience Web design is not only about the placement of different elements on your website. Web design should also emphasize the pleasant experience of visitors as they navigate and read your content. If visitors find themselves enjoying the elements of your webpage, they are most likely to stay longer and engage with other areas of your website Web design and content marketing should go hand in hand. Your marketing efforts will not gain positive results if your web design is unappealing to your visitors. If you would like to find out how well your website is performing for your business, Perfect Layout can carry out a Website Health Check, which will include a report listing recommendations to improve your website’s online visibility.
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 Keywords used to reign supreme with regards to SEO, but those days are long since past. The rules of SEO have changed from a keyword-centered scheme to a topic-driven approach. Content marketing is a vital part of inbound marketing, where the goal is to move your potential customer to where you want them to go by giving them valuable and compelling content.
Your site's content should be relevant to what your site is about and not randomly packed with keywords. Your content should be engaging and seize the user's attention straight away. It is a vital building block in creating content for your website so that it won't have a high bounce rate. Don't fall behind your competitors with antiquated thinking about how content should be created to improve your SEO. The key is content, not just keywords.  SEO Stands for Search Engine Optimization and basically refers to the processes that are followed when it comes to optimising (getting the most out of) a website to be ranked by search engines. The most popular search engines on the internet are Google, Yahoo, Bing and Microsoft.
When a website is designed and developed, it should represent more than just a portfolio of your products and services. After all, what’s the point of having a website that looks awesome, but goes unseen by the people that would like to buy your wares? SEO is the technical part of marketing online as it helps your website get promoted to the correct location – right in front of buying customers. There are various techniques used to get more traffic to your website from search engines, which can be broken down into two categories. Off-page SEO, is the work undertaken externally to a website and on-page SEO are the changes made on the actual website.  Have you considered starting a blog for your business but you’re not quite sure if it would be of benefit? You're aware that creating a regular blog will take up your precious time and you aren't sure if it is worth the effort? Well today, we’re hoping to dispel your worries and explain to you how a regular blog can help your business in a number of positive ways.
 Here's a sobering thought. Most blogs are created, and then abandoned. Yes, most new bloggers write just one post, and then give up. This is mostly due to the weight of their own expectations. I've been blogging for the past decade. I have literally hundreds of blogs, and while I may occasionally get bored with a blog, I've never found it difficult to write for my blogs. Writing is both relaxing, and fun for me. In this article I'm going to give you four easy tips which will help you to write more and write well on your blog -- and have fun while you're doing it, just as I do. 1. Imagine Your Reader - Your Reader Is a Real Person Yes, I know that you have thousands of readers, or you hope that you will have someday. But consider that each of those readers is one person, sitting in front of a computer screen. You need to talk to that one person, and not the crowd. Get an image in your mind of the person you're writing the blog post for. It's easiest if you imagine one of your friends. Pretend that you're writing each blog post specifically for your friend. When your readers are real people to you, it's much easier to write for them. 2. Stop Thinking About Writing As "Writing" "Writing" can seem intimidating. You're self-conscious. The bad news is that it takes years to lose your self-consciousness when you write, but there's good new too. The good news is that you can lose your self-consciousness today if you wish. All you have to do is stop thinking about writing as being writing. Here's an easy trick which works for many people: write each blog post as an email message. Start with a salutation, such as "Dear Fred". Then write. When you're done, delete "Dear Fred". You've just written a blog post. 3. Create a Goal and Achieve It Whenever I create a new blog, the first thing I do is create a goal for that particular blog. For every blog I own, I have goals. As soon as I achieve a goal, I set about creating a new one. Your goals can be as simple or as complex as you please. For example, you might have a goal to get 50 readers by the end of this month. Once you start thinking in terms of something that you want to achieve and you have a deadline, your mind gets to work creating plans. You'll find all sorts of ideas pop into your head for how you might achieve the goal. Write the ideas down. Turn your ideas into tasks, and enter each of those tasks into your calendar. Now all you need to do is complete your tasks each day. 4. Build an Inventory of Ideas: Brainstorm Ideas for Blog Posts Brainstorming is fun. I like to sit down with a sheet of paper, and just think about my blog and the people I'm writing it for. Then I just start writing ideas as a simple list right down the page. It helps me if I get away from my computer when I'm brainstorming. A change of location might work for you too. Go and sit in the garden, or go and sit in a café and brainstorm there. Be perfectly relaxed as you brainstorm, make it fun. In fact, you can use this phrase to get started brainstorming: "Wouldn't it be fun to write about________". Try these easy tricks. They make blog writing fun. Article Source  Organic SEO or search engine optimisation is one of the most powerful online marketing strategies available to webmasters and bloggers. It takes a combination of high-quality content, social media presence and other factors to climb to the top of the search engine rankings for your specific keyword phrases. Without the right ingredients, your SEO strategy can actually backfire. It all starts with the keyword phrases and the theme of your content. Without unique, high-quality content, you will struggle to find your website or blog listed on Google, Bing, Yahoo or any other search engine. According to Optimonster these are the most important SEO ranking factors:
Below, you will find the top five organic search engine optimisation techniques and a few tips to help you gain a larger web presence. SEO is no longer a world dominated by the website receiving the largest number of backlinks. Good content Content matters and it must be high-quality content. Low-quality, poorly written content doesn't rank very well because it doesn't provide the user with a great experience. The goal of Google and all other search engines is to deliver the best possible search results for their users. High-quality, usable content provides the type of experience internet searcher want. Most searchers seek information, such as a solution to their problem or a how-to type of article about something specific. When your content delivers this type of experience, you gain higher ranking on the search engines because they consider your content to be high in quality. Use videos or images Not all content requires a video or an image, but the use of both or at least one can greatly aid in ranking higher in the search engines. Images provide away to break up your content, give the user something to draw them in and give you the opportunity to increase your on-page SEO. Whenever you provide a relevant image with your written content, you can change the ALT tag and the image title to match your theme. By using your main keyword phrase or a secondary keyword phrase as the ALT tag and title of your image, you score extra SEO points. Images also provide a second benefit. Google and other search engines will list the images in the "image" search category. This means, when somebody is searching for an image and they find yours, it could potentially lead them back to your website. However, if you don't provide an image title or ALT tag, you may not get listed. Videos are another very powerful way to deliver content. Providing a video with your written content gives the visitor a better experience, as long as the video fits with the content. This is a very powerful way to build better organic SEO. In addition, videos tend to gain higher ranking on Google than some written content does. We can constantly find out more concerning techniques for organic search through correct searching. Create a blog Websites without a blog can still rank high on Google, Yahoo and Bing, but they are missing out on one of the most powerful organic search engine optimisation techniques online today. Blogging provides the ability to target a broader subject area and cover very narrow topics within the broader spectrum. Every blog post acts as a small traffic engine and provides the opportunity to gain more traffic from the search engines. Think of blogging this way, when you post high quality content to your blog, it's like deploying an army of individuals with a stack of business cards. Each blog post will go to a different corner of the internet and attract a different type of individual to your website. Not only can the blog posts take over first page ranking on the search engines, but they also help you build a community. If your blog post covers topics somebody is interested in, they will subscribe to your blog. When somebody subscribes to your blog, you gain multiple opportunities to sell your products and services to them.  Use social media Social Media is not going anywhere and it is important to be present on all relevant platforms.Google and other search engines track the networks that your business is connected to. Social signals factor heavily into organic SEO and if you want to rank high for your target keywords, you must use social media and social bookmarking. Sites, such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest many others offer great leverage if a business is looking to increase their organic search engine optimisation. By sharing blog posts across these social media sites, gives you the ability to increase organic search and gain social traffic. Meta tag your website
Your META title, description and tags are really important to your overall SEO. Search engines use the meta data to better understand what your page or post is all about. When a search engine creates your listing, the meta data is used for the title and description showing up for your page or post. With the right title and description, you improve your SEO positioning. Now that you know five of the most important techniques to help you get organic search traffic, it’s time for your to take action. This is not an overnight job, it takes a strategy, a plan and then dedication to keep it up regularly. If running your business is taking up all your time and you need someone else to manage your organic search traffic for you, contact the team at Perfect Layout on 01708 578 015.  Are you failing to get leads from your website? Does it feel like a ghoul has hijacked business leads? Are you scared about this ever-changing world of digital marketing? Well, Perfect Layout are here to rescue you from your nightmares as we explain how Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) works. If you put in place these strategies, you will see your ranking improve. Are you ready to handle more leads coming to your business? If you’re serious about wanting people to find you through a Google search, Search engine Optimisation (SEO) must be at the top of your priority list. You won’t be able to generate leads for your business if nobody can find you. So, what happens after someone makes a search? Here is the likelihood of someone clicking on a link, depending on their organic positioning. Breakdown of Google Click-Through Rates in by position Position 1 – 20.5% Position 2 – 13.32% Position 3 – 13.14% Position 4 – 8.98% Position 5 – 9.21% Position 6 – 6.73% Position 7 – 7.61% Position 8 – 6.92% Position 9 – 5.52% Position 10 – 7.95%  Be the first to be found in your field That means if you’re not number one on the page, you just missed out on a fifth of potential traffic. Most people won’t even click on the second page of the search results. If you are wondering why other websites are ranking higher than you on Google. It is because they are making a concerted effort to work on their SEO. The good news is that it's never too late to start...you just have some catching up to do. There are techniques and strategies that you can apply to get you going. The following 17 tips will increase your chances of getting ranked higher on Google searches. 1. Optimise your site for mobile devices Long has the tablet and smartphone been around. They have taken over as preferred devices to search on when compared with a laptop. If your website design is not mobile friendly, you are going to be penalised. Why? Because Google recognises whether your site is mobile-friendly and ranks sites accordingly. Your website must be optimised for mobile users. If this means investing in a new web design, it will be money well spent. Ignore this tip at your peril. 2. Make sure your site is readable Is the language that you are using on your site, written with your customer in mind? If you want people to visit your site and spend time there, speak in a way that they will understand. Don’t try to sound too professional. Write your content in clear and simple terms. Use short sentences. If you are not sure if your content is readable, use the Hemmingway App. It highlights where your content isn't working as well as it could be. 3. Format your page When designing your website, take time to think about the layout for each page. Make sure it is neat, logical and uncluttered. Consider things like your font size and typography. Use coloured text, bold font, and italics sparingly. Consider using bullet points and checklists to make it easy to scan through your content. A clean design and format will improve your organic ranking. 4. Encourage people to stay on your site How much time do people spend on your website per visit? If your site has fresh information, it will keep visitors on your page longer and this can be achieved in various ways, as outlined below.  Keep the content on your website fresh 5. Produce high quality content There is no substitute for great content. Quality content created for your audience will increase site traffic. How often do you update your website? To encourage visitors to return you need fresh content. The more traffic to your website the more you will increase its popularity. Your content needs to be high quality, recent, and relevant. 6. Start blogging Blogging is great for your business. It’s an outstanding tool for lead generation and helps you engage with visitors that come to your website. If you can create a group of loyal readers, you can get lots of traffic to your site on a regular basis. Blogs that incorporate good SEO practice, such as links, increased readability, and keywords, all positively impact on your search engine ranking. 7. Use keywords Keywords play a major role in ranking. Brainstorm your sector. How do you think people will find you? 'Plumber in Romford', vs 'Central Heating Company in Romford' or 'Emergency Plumber in Romford'. There are so many ways people may look for your company. Now you need to include these 'keywords' into the content of your site. But do it sparingly. Keyword stuffing is frowned upon by the search engines and you will be penalised. Keywords should fit naturally into sentences: · Include them in your header tags · Include then in image captions · Include the use of long-tail keywords, (three or four words that make phrase) If your keywords match their search, your website will have a greater chance of getting ranked higher. 8. Break up your content with header tags Headings are another way to help improve the user experience. They break up the content and make it easier to read. If your website is big block of text, people are going to click off your website. If you’re not using headers, try and incorporate them within your content now. 9. More than words Your website shouldn’t be only written words. Break up the pages with relevant, high-quality pictures. Consider also adding videos, slideshows, or audio to your site. This improves the user experience, as not everyone enjoys just reading. Also remember what we said about the time people spend on your site. Videos, for example, can extend significantly the amount of time spent on your website. If that happens, it will boost your search ranking. 10. Optimise your images Pictures and other images are not only visually great for your website. But when they are optimized properly they can improve your SEO ranking. Make sure you do the following: Resize your images. Huge images can slow your page loading time, which can hurt your ranking. Use your images to sneak in keywords by naming them accordingly. Add keywords in the title of your image as well as the caption or description. 11. Include internal links Internal links direct visitors to other pages on your website. Not only are you encouraging the reader to find out more about what you do, you are keeping visitors on your site for longer and reducing your bounce rate. 12. Use outbound links When you are writing a blog or have content that researches a topic, link to sites you have used for information or that go into further detail. Connect your facts to the data source with a hyperlink back to them. When you source something, try to ensure that it is the most recent information. 13. Create anchor text properly If you ever type 'Click here for more information'. STOP. Start creating relevant links within the text. 'Click here means nothing to the search engine. “Central Heating Installations” is rich with keywords. It will improve your search engine rankings, as well as the ranking of the page you are linking to. 14. Provide appropriate contact information Have you ever struggled to find the contact information of a business on a website? This should never happen. All your contact information should be easy to find. Make sure you have a footer on every page of your site that includes your Name, Address and Phone number, otherwise known as the NAP. 15. Sharing is caring Every business and website need to be active on social media. Your SEO ranking will improve when people share links to your website on social media. If you encourage social sharing as a regular part of your SEO campaigns, you will see a difference. Include social sharing icons on all your content and share links on your social media pages. 16. Title Metadata Title metadata is the page title displayed at the top of a browser window and as the headline within search engine results. It is the most important metadata on your page. Make sure your site has this section filled in. 17. Description Metadata When you see the results in organic search there will be a title and a description. This description metadata is vital to encouraging visitors to click to your site. Conclusion Search engine optimisation isn’t going away. If anything, it is getting more sophisticated and complex and is an ongoing job that needs focus and attention. This blog contains a long list of actions but don’t be put off! Write these actions on your to-do-list and go through them week, by week. Every improvement you make will stand your website in good stead. Monitor your results monthly. Checking your traffic and search ranking will help validate your SEO strategy. It will also highlight areas on your website that need more attention. Who knows, by working on these elements, you might claim that elusive number one spot! It's all about outsmarting your competition. That’s what we at Perfect Layout Digital Marketing are working on every day with our clients. These are only a few of the many methods for improving your search engine ranking. If you want to learn more, we recommend that you visit: Improve your performance on Google Search or give us a call and speak to our friendly team. Call 01708 578 015.  Whatever type of business you have, there is no getting away from the fact that people will expect you to have an online presence. Whilst some business owners are able to make a reasonable income via social media platforms (like Facebook and Instagram) or e-commerce platforms (like Etsy and Shopify) having your own website has many benefits. If your budget limits you from hiring a website designer, or you are attracted to the idea of creating a website yourself, there are many website providers to choose from. They will advertise low-cost packages with guidance on how to do it yourself, but will the end result generate more customers coming to your site? Five top tips to having a great website  Top tip 1 – ensure that the content on your site accurately reflects the services/products of your business. Your bounce rate will increase if your writing style includes over long sentences, has grammatical mistakes or has a dull/flat tone. Analyse your competitors and review what does and doesn’t work for them. Let your website reflect your personality and the type of business that you have so that you don’t come across as cold and boring. Brainstorm the terms that your customers search for you. Googles keyword planner is a tool that can help you pinpoint relevant long and short tail keywords. Having relevant keywords allow search engines, like Bing and Google, to match the right business to the right customer. We understand that creative writing is not everyone’s cup of tea, so if the thought of doing this doesn’t sit well with you, why not give us a call? We have an excellent copywriting service that can be accessed in isolation or as part of an ongoing package. Top tip 2 – be sure to encourage your conversion rate by giving those perusing your site every opportunity to get in touch or make a purchase. Using Call to Actions (CTA’s) throughout your website are a great way of nudging customers to act. CTA’s can be contact forms, telephone or current special offers.  Top tip 3 – gone are the days when all websites were difficult to view on a mobile phone. Business owners on platforms that are not mobile friendly will be penalised by search engines, which could negatively affect your rankings. When creating your site, make sure it has the ability to respond to the device (mobile phone, laptop or iPad) that is being used. Customers do not like websites that have poor navigation. Make it easy and obvious for people to find their way around your site as clumsy navigation that has not been thought through could lose you income. Top tip 4 – take the time and get your business listed on external directories. This will help boost your online presence as search engines view you as a trustworthy business. Read our blog for more details about why your business needs to be listed on directories. Top tip 5 – consider the layout of your website. Have a theme that limits the use of colours, fonts and gifs. You will want each page to look its best and engage with customers – not distract them. High engagement leads to a higher conversion rate. Pages that are cluttered will prohibit users from scanning text for key points. The use of photographs can really bring a website to life. Avoid using stock images, wherever possible, as they can depersonalise your business. Having images of yourself, staff and business premises will assist customers build a picture of who you are and the service/product you offer. This list will definitely put you on the right track to getting the most from your website. If you find that later down the line your rankings haven’t improved, why not get in touch? Our Perfect Layout web development team are ready to help!  The success of your website is determined primarily by its content. Good content is what sets your website apart from the masses and delivers the right message into the minds of your customers or audience. Having clear, relevant and keyword-rich content that delivers the right message with power and conviction is the key to success. The content of your website should always begin with proper market research. Taglines and slogans that are customer-centric (focusing on the needs of the customer) are essential to capturing their attention. The content on your website should target your audience, engage them and persuade them to take action. Content marketing involves the creation and publishing of content and sharing that content in order to acquire customers. This information can be presented in a variety of formats, including blog posts, videos, white papers, infographics, case studies, and so on. Posting relevant, valuable and frequently updated information on your website will help boost your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). It will also help by placing you in the position of an expert and allow you to build relationships with your audience professionally.  Your SEO keywords are the key words and phrases in your web content that make it possible for people to find your site via search engines. Quality content writing is the most important part of your SEO. Keywords are very important for every business and a website drives targeted web traffic to your business for free. When a visitor uses a search engine, like Google, to find what they are looking for the content on your website comes under scrutiny. With quality content and SEO-friendly formatting the Google algorithm will look for important words at particular places on your web page or blog post – thus enabling you to get found. Another important detail to keep in mind are long-tail keywords. These are keyword phrases that contain at least three words, and sometimes more. Long-tail keywords are used to target niche demographics rather than mass audiences. In other words, they're more specific and often less competitive than generic keyword terms. They are very specific to whatever you are selling. So, said more specifically, whenever a customer uses a highly specific search phrase, they tend to be looking for exactly what they are actually going to buy. Some businesses choose to include keywords relevant to their business in their domain name. This strategy works as long as the name is in line with the brand identity for the website. It is also important not to limit your business by choosing a name that is applicable for your business only in the short term. Let your 5 to 10 year business plan reflect where you want to be long term. One way in which to create relevant and powerful SEO keyword-content for your website, is through brainstorming. Try and put yourself in the position of your customers and think about the words they might use to search for the services and/or products you are offering. This process can be undertaken on your own or in a group.  Because algorithms are constantly changing, it’s paramount that you keep a fresh eye on the content of your site. If people are changing the way in which they search for you – the keywords on your website will need to reflect this too. Why not have a look at your site today and think through some of the keywords your customers might be using. Do they appear on the pages of your site?  Simple answer - YES! Whilst there are website design companies like us that optimise websites for a living, undertaking this role is something that you can do yourself. For example, designing a landing page that’s built for leads doesn’t have to be an overwhelming nor time-consuming exercise. By simply looking at examples of some of the best converting lead generation websites, you can learn precisely what works and why. If you want to attract visitors who have a strong intention of ultimately using your services, your landing page will have to have plenty of good content, quality links and authority.  14 Top tips for optimising your website… The following steps are proven to increase not only conversions, but also your site's trust factor and presence. For good optimisation of your website that will help generate more customers it's worth considering the following... Top tip 1 - add forms to the pages that get the most traffic To begin with, conduct an audit of where most of your online traffic and outreach comes from. Here are some of the most common places that a business might get visitors from: Email Marketing - traffic might come from users who click through to your website from one of your emails that you have provided. Social Media - traffic might come from users who engage in a campaign through one of your social media profiles linked with your website. Live Chat - traffic might come in the form of users who reach out to your customer service team through a live chat window on your website. Blog Posts - traffic might come from your highest-performing blog posts. Top tip 2 - start with a basic CTA on your homepage If your homepage's design is what catches a person's attention, the CTA (Call to Action) is what keeps it. Your homepage sits at the top of the marketing funnel and should therefore offer either a free trial or subscription to a recurring campaign, such as a newsletter. Consider including one of the following CTAs on the front of your website:
 Top tip 3 - offer ebooks for download on specific blog posts Another way to generate interest in your business is to create blog content that promotes an ebook or whitepaper, wherein your website visitors can learn more about the same topic they have just read about on your blog. We are always writing about the importance of blog posts and keeping content on your site fresh and relevant and this strategy is where lead generation meets search engine optimisation (SEO). To start, conduct keyword research on a topic that's relevant to your industry, and create a group of blog posts around this topic. Then, draft a report that delves much deeper into this topic. Package this report into a PDF that your blog readers can download using their name, company, and email address.  Top tip 4 - develop a live chat service for your website To generate leads though live chat, audit your website to see which pages your visitors spend most of their time on. With the right development resources, you can install a live chat tool on the pages where customers need the most assistance or information. This allows you to practically collect and log insight on their product needs while answering their questions. Top tip 5 - personalise your calls-to-action Personalised calls-to-action convert 42% more visitors than basic calls-to-action. Visitors who see website pages that remember them from an earlier date are more inclined to stick around and start a conversation with you. Top tip 6 - make your videos speak to the user Online videos greatly increase conversion rates for a wide range of industries (particularly e-commerce websites). The highest performing videos speak to the user rather than at them. Online users who viewed a product video are much more likely to convert over users who simply viewed an ad. Top tip 7 - use action oriented words when describing your offers Using action-oriented words in your offer (such as, ''feel'' and ''get'' etc.), places the customer in a pivotal role as the one receiving the benefits as opposed to simply imagining them. Top tip 8 - featured image Every great post has a great image. This makes the post more attractive, both on your site and in the social streams when it gets shared. This is your chance to explain concepts visually with informative charts or diagrams. Top tip 9 - descriptive header A descriptive header is good for visitors and good for search rankings. Top tip 10 - social sharing buttons Make it easy to spread the word. Share buttons can appear at both the top and bottom of the post, or even as a “sticky” element that follows them as they scroll down the page. Top tip 11 - try to avoid cookie-cutter site templates It is best you avoid any cookie cutter “all-the-work-is-done-for-you” website templates. Instead, consider investing in the best possible website that you can afford, and make sure you make the purpose of each page clear, up front, so that the designer can tailor it to generating leads.  Top tip 12 - evidence, data and social proof Add evidence of your legitimacy and the value of your services. This may include examples, statistics and research. Top tip 13 - personality, values and your story Talk about your values, your origin and why this work is important in order to make this a page that sets you apart. Top tip 14 - nurture your leads Place leads into a workflow once they fill out a form on your landing page so they don't forget about you. Deliver them valuable content that matches their interest. Lead nurturing should start with relevant follow up emails that include great content. Finally, take a look at your website. How do you think it’s doing against the above points? Call us today so that we can discuss how we can help you put in action what you currently have missing.  Last week, 13 July, Christine Huntingford from Perfect Layout Digital Marketing was invited to give a presentation at the Havering Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCI) breakfast meeting, where members and visitors attended. She thought long and hard about what to talk to them about and decided to make it an interactive session with the participants and let them know in 10 minutes, after a few simple checks, whether their website was working well for their business and whether their website and digital marketing need some real Tender Loving Care (TLC). Firstly, to get a sense of their initial thoughts she asked the following questions:
This gave everyone a moment to reflect not only if were they genuinely happy with their current service, but also to validate if this was a way in which they were bringing in customers. Now we know its all very easy to think that everything is fine with our website, but how do we really know? Well, these next simple tasks can reveal whether your website is working for you. You can do this for your site at any time.  Task 1 Open your search browser for the internet and look for your business, by type and location. Please don’t type in your company name but instead type in say ‘Accountants in Romford’. Is your company is listed on page one? If it is that’s great news. Potential customers have a chance of finding you and calling up your business. For those of you that didn’t appear on page one, you may need to think about how to improve the content of your website to help you to be found. Task 2 Whilst before you were asked not to type in your company name into the browser, this time, do exactly that. For example, for our Company it would be, ‘Perfect Layout Digital Marketing’. Can you see the Google My Business (GMB) listing for your business? Can you also see photos, posts and full details about your company? Do you have reviews? If it’s a ‘yes’ for all of that, that is excellent! You are on track with taking full advantage of GMB’s latest updates and features. If you didn’t, Perfect Layout can help you either set up a Google My Business, or help you enhance what you already have there. Task 3 Keeping the page that you had open for task 2, now scroll down the results page, do you have your business listed in external directories? Such as Yell, Thomson, Netmums, or any online directory for your sector? If you have more than 3 external directory listings, you are doing well, these connections on external sites help give your website relevancy and demonstrate that you are an active business. If you are not listed on any external directories, it is recommended that this strategy is employed in order to help your business get found. Task 4 Does your website have a blog section? If it does, was the last post published within the last month? If this is you - congratulations! You are doing a good job of sharing news about your company’s activities and products to your community. If you don’t, get in touch with Perfect Layout about the benefits of a blog, which can help your website rank better.
Being on external directories can improve your online visibility with prospective clients. Having a blog section is an opportunity to update your community on what you are doing and makes your business more authoritative. In the second half of the presentation we introduced an alternative strategy for phone-based businesses who don’t have the money to invest in a new website or redesign of their current website - but need to be earning more money and secure new customers. To clarify, a phone-based business is when people would call you as their primary way of contacting you, rather than via email or walking into your business premises. Let’s imagine the following: Our client, a dentist, gets some enquiries from his website, but he would like more. His family is growing and they need a bigger house, but what he is currently earning isn’t quite enough to be able to move, just yet. He doesn’t have the money to rebuild his website and invest in keyword-rich content. However, as a phone-based business, he has the option of securing potential customers through a customer generating website that’s run by a digital marketing agency. This website will generate new contacts specifically for his business by creating a new website free of charge. It will be found organically on the top pages of search engines and could bring him that extra revenue that he is looking for. From these new clients there’s a high likelihood of them becoming repeat customers, who will visit for check-ups, as well as the need for ad hoc additional treatments. Fabulous recurring revenue for years to come. It’s a no brainer – so where's the catch? It’s simply a matter of paying a small fee to the digital marketing agency for each enquiry that comes via that website. If this has struck a chord with you and you would like your business to build up its client base and recurring customers, give us a call today to talk about whether your niche would suit such a website.  The Perfect Layout has a team of copywriters that can create relevant content for your website. Having a team means that we are able to provide a wide ranging bespoke copywriting service that caters for all markets. You will have seen us write about content in our blogs before. The importance of content on your website relates not only to the visitors to your site, but also when it comes to being found by search engines like Google. We understand the importance and will ensure that the language of the text: • reflects you – the face behind the business • your ethos – what your business stands for • and describes your services and products in a way that will engage your customers and allow them to quickly grasp what you do  It’s paramount to create content that people will be interested in reading and that’s exactly what we do. Our process is simple. We will meet with you face-to-face or arrange a time to Skype or talk to you on the phone. We are good at asking questions and the more questions we ask, the more we will be able to write in a way that sounds like you. We want to hear how you would speak to prospective clients so that when it comes to writing about what you do, it will be as though you wrote it yourself. We will ask questions like:
These are questions you could ask yourself now. Does the content on your website answer these enquiries? If not, it may be time to either re-write your content or give us a call. The fact is, whether you are in the line of work that provides a locksmith service or have just started your own firm of solicitors – the principles behind asking these types of questions remain the same. For every service, we’ll incorporate relevant facts that are appropriate. For example, your new firm of solicitors will need to include an overview of how the law impacts on what you do for your clients. It’s always key to remember who your target audience is to ensure that your services can be understood and accessed by as many people as possible. The content we produce will also incorporate keywords relevant to your sector. Are you a locksmith that is able to change the locks to only certain doors? If so, describe the type of doors. Do your services cover a certain area? If so, describe the services you provide and where. Does your business offer a 24 hour lock changing service? If yes, then say how and where your out of hours facility works.  Let your content build a picture of how you are... Think of pertinent questions that your customer might ask and answer them. That way you will begin to build a picture of your business that will contain relevant keywords to get you found by your customers as well as the search engines. Other than listening to what you need, our service also includes offering ideas that will help draw out the best aspects of your business. For example, ideas that will: • make you stand out from your competitors • incorporate current trends within your industry that should be included in your content • include changes that are occurring in the local area that could have an affect your service Get in touch if you feel that your content is in need of being re-worked. The bottom line is, great content will get you noticed for all the right reasons! Give Perfect Layout Digital Marketing a call on 01708 578 015, email us at hello@perfectlayout.co.uk, or complete the contact form below.  There are good websites and there are bad websites. If you have had a website for a while, but you find that you are not getting much from it, in terms of traffic, leads, calls etc, it could be that people are finding your website tricky to navigate or difficult to find the right information. I know it’s hard, but every six months or so, it is worth doing an audit of your website with, 'a fresh pair of eyes’, to check that everything is relevant and it all still makes sense. Is it mobile-optimised? The first thing to check is whether or not your website is on a mobile optimised platform? If not, the search engines will penalise your organic rankings. You will also find that customers, who have to pinch and expand the page to read the text, will more often bounce off to find another website that has a better user experience. - Check: Is your website built on a mobile optimised platform? Is your site easy to navigate with clear navigation buttons? Most websites follow a similar structure which includes, a home page, an about page, pages on the services that you offer and a contact page. It may also be useful to have pages about the areas you serve, a portfolio of what you offer (whether it’s services or products) and even a testimonial page. - Check: Are your navigation headers clear for a brand new visitor to understand? Do you explain what you do? It is all well and good you knowing what you do, but is this clear to your potential customers? If your business is selling products, do they have relevant descriptions that will help minimise the chance of those products being returned? If you offer a service, do you explain, in everyday language, what it is that you offer? When you work in a particular sector, it can become second nature to speak the jargon of that industry. But would everybody be able understand such specific terminology? Also make sure that you have clear headings throughout each page to make it easy to skim read. Often people are time-poor, so make your website a breeze to read through. - Check: Is your website easy to understand? Ask a friend or family member to read through to see if it is clear to them. Do they have any questions about elements that remain unclear?  Can you add more visual elements to your website? As they saying goes: ‘A photo tells a thousand words.’ Remember to include high resolution photos (that are saved for web) that convey clearly your products and services. If you offer a service then show before and after photos of projects that you have worked on. Be proud of the transformation that you can achieve. - Check: What are the photos like on your site? Do you have relevant images that are crystal clear? Blurry photos will convey a slap-dash image of your company. Do you have ways that customers can reach you? The majority of users will be viewing your website on a mobile device. No longer is it OK to have your phone number only on the Contact Us page. Think about adding your contact details in your footer, so that it is easy to find you. If you are on a mobile optimised platform your web designer will be able to enable phone number hyperlinks, so that visitors can click on your number and call you straight away. Also think about other Call to Action buttons that you could include on each page. - Check: How you can optimise better user engagement on every page, so that visitors can contact you immediately. Does your footer have contact details? What are your customers saying about you? If you are getting positive feedback from clients, then add this to your website. Why not create a testimonial page to enable new visitors to see what your customers think of you. Lots of lovely reviews will more likely result in a new visitor engaging with you. - Check: When did you last upload a testimonial? Visitors will look for recent reviews, so keep adding them to your site. Is your logo on your website? Add your logo to the top left of your pages. The readers’ eyes will read from left to right and top to bottom. So by adding your logo to the top left will ensure that it is the first thing the reader sees. This implants your branding into their memory; making it easier to remember you when they re-visit your site. - Check: Is your logo positioned in the top left hand corner? For more user-friendly tips for your website visit Hubspot’s article. Is your website in need of redesigning in order to make it a more user-friendly? Or perhaps you want to take this opportunity to start afresh? Either way, give Perfect Layout Digital Marketing a call on 01708 578 015.  Blogging has definitely become a more popular way of engaging with customers since it first appeared in the late 1990’s. The purpose behind blogging has also changed. When it first appeared, its purpose was mostly to relay a person’s thoughts or opinions about whatever took their fancy. These days, the concept adds value to the business world and, as a result, many online businesses have taken to writing blogs about their industry, service or product in order to take advantage of the benefits.  So how does it work? Today, content is a huge factor in what drives the internet. It’s what search engines love to find and use to rank a website as an authoritative and trustworthy site - hence content being at the top of the pecking order when it comes having a great website. You may have heard the term ‘content is King’? Well, the importance behind that term still stands and writing blogs is a way of creating the content that will boost your rankings. You can read more about the importance of content from one of our earlier blogs. What are the benefits? Having a blog for your company can: · Get more customers/traffic looking at your website via inbound links · Demonstrate that you're an expert in your industry, whilst reinforcing your brand and credibility · Improve the performance of your website and SEO (search engine optimisation) As you can see the benefits of starting a blog and sticking with it can really benefit your business. Why not create social media pages too (like GooglePlus, Facebook and LinkedIn) as other platforms that will help you reach more interested parties. You can post links to your blogs on your social media pages that will help maintain and generate interest. Three statistics that will make you want to start writing a blog today!
The downside to writing a blog… …time. Yes, I’m afraid there had to be something! Making the time to invest in planning, preparing and writing great articles is what can put a lot of people off. If you’re currently finding it impossible to put aside the time to do this; or if the thought of getting creative and writing a blog chills you to the bone - then why not let us to do it for you? We have a team of great copywriters that are experienced at writing about all types of subject matters in a natural and free flowing way. So increase the online traffic to your website and start your blog today!  If you’re new to the idea of having a website made for your business, or you’re thinking about having your current site revamped, it’s important that you take a long hard look at your content. Your homepage is particularly important, as it’s the page that represents the ‘shop front’ of your site. You want people to look through the window, open the door and peruse further by looking at other pages, and ultimately engage with you and buy either a service or a product. Enticing someone to make a purchase takes work and that’s when many businesses overlook the need to write about all that they do on the homepage. Thought should also be given to the words (keywords) that someone might enter into a search engine when looking for your service or business.  These methods go towards optimising a page – basically packing in what you can (in a natural, free flowing way) to hold the attention and inform the visitor, as well as being found by search engines. In order for you to be found in this way you should include an overview of the following: • Who’s behind the business, the ethos • What services the business offers • What products the business offers It should reflect a bite-sized version of what you have on your about page, services page and products page. Try and make the content throughout your site unique and on the homepage, you should aim to write at least 800 words, preferably more. But what if you have a business that is based on producing visual goods or services – like a cake shop or a photographer? People just want to see the end result right, not read about how it was made? Whilst many people do skip to the gallery and review the end result before committing to buy, many users these days want to make an educated decision prior to that happening and who can blame them. Today, more than ever, people have a greater choice about which service provider to use. With so much choice, this means that businesses have got to be more transparent about what they do and how they do it in order to look unique amongst the competition. It would be hard to appear exclusive in a couple of paragraphs (unless you’ve got some serious marketing money behind you) compared to doing so in 800 or so words. Read more about the importance of writing great content from one of our previous blogs. If the thought of writing creative, relevant and interesting content overwhelms you, why not let us help?  No two websites are the same and no two clients have the same requirements or work in the same way. Perfect Layout offers a content creation service for customers who don’t like writing or simple don't have the time. If you require this service on top of us building your website, your product will take longer for us to complete. In the consultation stage we will decide on a site map for your website – determining the pages and subpages most appropriate for your site. We will also determine how visual your site will be and how many images you may need for each page.  If you have a collection of your own photos we may be able to use those, alternatively, Perfect Layout Digital Marketing can source high-quality stock images for you. So once the foundation is in place and all content and images have been approved – the turnaround time for showing you the first draft of your website can be as short as two weeks. Call or email Perfect Layout Digital Marketing to find out how we can help you: 01708 578 015 or hello@perfectlayout.co.uk  As the saying goes, ‘you shouldn’t mix business with pleasure’…In our business, quite often we are told by clients that their friend or a family member was building/has built their website but: …they have spent months (even years) working on it and it’s still not finished ...it doesn’t look the way they thought it was going to ...it's not working the way that they want it to Usually, when they are a friend or family member (and not a web designer), they invariably take an off-the-shelf package thinking 'how hard can it be?’. It’s true that building a website from one of these off-the shelf-packages isn't necessarily hard, but do they really know what they are doing? Do they really understand how to make a website perform well and not just look good? There are thousands of cook books out there and it's easy to follow a recipe, but that doesn't mean the results will always be the same, or that what you make will even taste nice. There is a knack to good cooking and the same principle applies when building a website. Often it's the things that look simple that can be complex underneath.  Building a website in itself isn't rocket science, but there is a method to making a website great. A website with all the right elements in place will add value to your business. A nice looking website, may simply be aesthetically pleasing but does nothing for the growth of your business. The fundamental components you need include: Superb content By that it needs to be clear, well-written, grammatically correct and keyword rich. Content IS King. Being found in search results is determined by the search engines algorithms matching the users’ keywords with the content on the site. If your content is sparse, poorly written, not properly thought through (using a range of keywords) it is likely that you will feature low down in the rankings. Search Engine Optimised headings Headings carry more weight than body text, so ensure that your headings are relevant to what your audience is searching for. Using keyword-rich content in header tags will improve the search engine visibility for your target keyword. Mashable also recommends not having the same article title as you would for your page title, and advises how to write a good meta description. Easy to use navigation If your user experience is cumbersome and clunky, it's likely to put customers off. Make sure that you think carefully about how your users might navigate through your web site. Keep it clean and simple. Before you ‘go live’, test your website out as if you were visiting it for the first time. Can customers navigate your website easily? Is it clear and easy to understand? Could any steps be simplified? High quality images, but not high resolution There are so many stock photo agencies these days, that having low quality images is not an excuse any more. Your photos need to be clear and crisp, but they must also be saved as smaller files. Large image files will make loading your page slow, which may put people off staying on your website. Calls to Action A Call to Action (CTA) on a website is a prompt to get the user to take some specified action. It could be a button asking you to ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Subscribe’. Visually it can be a button or hyperlink. When designing your website consider how your customer might want to get in touch with your business. Are you making it easy for them to do so? Are you giving them choice; email, online forms, telephone numbers? Find out more about why Calls to Actions are important.  When Perfect Layout Digital Marketing works with customers, these are the core principles which we adhere to as the starting point for building their website. These fundamental steps are the foundations to having the building blocks for great online presence. Though don’t be mistaken with thinking that the work starts and ends with a website alone. Consider the website edging of the puzzle - there are still other pieces to put together before the picture is complete. Perfect Layout Digital Marketing can talk you through what other digital strategies would work best for your business. Perfect Layout can of course create a website that looks great and functions well - but we prefer not to do that. Because we want your business to beat your competitors and bring in a consistent stream of genuine customers, we encourage our customers to take up a support package. Month-by-month we will monitor your website against the competition, check where it is ranking in organic search and, if needed, suggest tweaks. We also apply other digital strategies to ensure that your visibility online is not just limited to your website. Are you active on the right social media channels? Is your business listed correctly in external directories? If you are unsure of what your next step should be, give us a call and let’s have a chat today.  The term ‘Content is King’ has been bandied about for many years. It’s something that you may have heard mentioned on one of the blogs at Perfect Layout or whilst perusing the internet for news and top tips on how to make your website attract customers. So, what does the term Content is King mean and from where did it originate? The term ‘Content is King’ came from an essay that Bill Gates wrote in January 1996 entitled, ’Content is King’. It was published on the Microsoft website and stated… “Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting.” Imagine, Bill Gates, the creator of Microsoft computers made this statement over 20 years ago! Did he have a crystal ball? We’ll never know, but his intuition was certainly firing on all cylinders as his prediction has become a reality. Today, content is a huge factor in what drives the internet. It’s what search engines love to find and use to rank a website as an authoritative and trustworthy site - hence content being at the top of the pecking order when it comes having a great website. Is content on a site that important? There’s really no getting away from the fact that having interesting, informative, content on your website is great news for your business. Think of it this way, you wouldn’t buy a book entitled: ‘How to create a great blog’ if the ideas contained within it was not about blogs and full of grammatical mistakes. It’s the same with a website. Nowadays consumers aren’t solely surfing to buy a product or service. They want to be clued-up, educated or tickled with something that will draw them in to press the buy, subscribe, like or recommend button, and ultimately come back for more. The right content on a website can help a business achieve these things – but it can’t do it on its own. That’s where the rest of the royal family come into play…next up, ‘The Queen’.  So, what is the role of the Queen? My thoughts are that having great content is not a stand-alone facet of getting customers to a site. There has to be a strategy behind the content to ensure that it’s relevant and directed at the right customers at the right time. The content that’s being offered should have the right ‘context’ which means offering information that is relevant and helpful to the customer in their current situation. The more relevant a post is to that person’s need, at that point, the more that person is likely to buy that product or service. To fully merge the right context into your content means thinking about what context would be helpful for your customers and then identifying the kind of factual data you need to identify that context. The work of The Queen doesn’t stop there. Her role also holds the title of ‘creative development’. Making your content stand out and really shine amongst the competition isn’t easy. Depending on your niche you will have a particular demographic and age-range that you need to appeal to. Do your research and tailor your content to appeal to them. I believe that the final role of The Queen (such a busy lady!) is that of ‘distribution’. What platforms are the best to get your content seen by those that need to see it? Nowadays, there’s a plethora of social media platforms that can be used to get your content seen by the right people. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and Google+ are just some of the ways in which you can distribute your content directly to the people that want to see it. So, during the planning stages you will need to think about:
And last but not least…The Prince and Princess  Whilst there’s little written about the off-spring of this royal family, I’ve taken the liberty of identifying who they are and the role they play in keeping the King on his throne. The key to ensuring that your website, and the content contained within it, are working optimally, are Web Designers – surprise! They may also go under different Marketing titles, but I’m writing this blog so have the freedom to be biased! If you are unable to write content like a King with the right context and undertake all the other tasks included within the role of the Queen, the Princesses within this company can assist you to:
Be inspired to… think and write creatively My husband has a beard. Not a moustache, goatie or bit of stubble – he has a full-grown cave man beard. It suits him. It draws him attention and makes him stand out from the crowd for his unique style. These days, having a business online can be difficult to master. Depending on your niche, getting a foothold amongst your competitors can be a daunting task. You have to think outside the box, be unique and have the equivalent of a really big beard (!) to draw customers in. We are accustomed to writing content and thinking outside the box when it comes to promoting local online businesses. We write content that’s relevant, interesting and full of keywords that will get you seen by the right audience. The key is to making the text sound natural, interweaving an outline of your services and products into the content all the while helping you to stand out from the crowd. What role do you think The Prince and Princess play in this royal family?  It was earlier this year, when we were away for my son's rugby tour, when the stars seemed to align and offer me another opening for a client for newly formed Perfect Layout. As you do (when staying in a holiday camp as part of a rugby tour) I headed to the club house to socialise with other parents from the team and partake in a little beverage - mine was a white wine! As I arrived at the table, I heard one of the dads moan about his website and how it was doing 'nothing' for his business. In the seven years that he had been with this reputable household-name web design company, he said that the only calls he was getting were cold calls. All of his work came from word of mouth. He was thinking of ending the contract, as he was paying a considerable amount of money each month with no real results and couldn’t see the point in continuing.  I decided to join in the conversation and let him know about Perfect Layout Digital Marketing and the work that we do. I didn't lay it on thick; that's not how we work. But I asked him what the domain was and that when I had a moment I would take a look, do a quick website analysis and let him know my observations. Over that weekend, when I found a connection to Wi-Fi (not so great in the middle of the country) and had a look. I was shocked! This reputable company was taking a fair amount of money each month, for nothing. Their web account manager appeared to be always on the upsell telling him if he did x, y and z, their organic search would improve. What a joke!!! The only credit I can give - and don't get too excited - is that their website was on a mobile friendly platform, but the content was next to nothing! Across the entire site was a total of approximately 500 words. How would his company ever be recognised for the services he offered when there was no content talking about what he did on his website? How were search engines expected to return his company in organic search when there was so little to go on? Through a few sketchy headings, you got a sense of what they did, but it didn't even come close to what the recommendations are today regarding the amount of content there should be on a website. It also failed to explain the services they provided and there was no geographic explanation of which areas they served. No wonder he was miffed in spending money each month on this. To cut a long story short, we recently launched his new website (Oct 2017). We created a comprehensive home page giving a full overview of the company and developed unique pages for each of the services offered. Each page is rich in keywords, making it easier for the algorithms to decipher the business that this company is in. We are confident that in the next few weeks, we are going to see his site climbing up in organic search and that in the near future he is going to be receiving calls and winning new business.  This is the point where most companies would hand the website to the client, say thank you very much and leave you to it. Not with Perfect Layout. With all of our customers who are on a monthly package, we will invest our time on other digital marketing strategies. In our opinion, having a great website is like making a cake with all the right ingredients. If you want a fantastic cake you will need to enrich it with flavours and toppings. In today’s world, being basic just won’t make you stand out. So the moral of the story is: listen, because you never know what you might hear...and more importantly, speak. Don't ever be afraid to tell people what you can do, especially if you can offer your services. Whilst it was a 'win' for Perfect Layout to sign another client, our mission is always to strive for a 'win-win' all round. We will monitor the site month-on-month and continue to apply digital marketing strategies to ensure that this website gets noticed. If you're not sure why your website isn't delivering leads to you, give us a call. Let's have a chat and we will schedule a free website consultation. What's your website status? If you’re a business that’s just starting out, jotting down ideas, creating a strategy, it’s never too early to start thinking about the type of website design you might have. Perfect Layout is a company that gets excited about helping new and established clients obtain a website that’s designed just right for their business. Every project is met with enthusiasm and we are happy to offer our advice about how your ideas can be translated and understood by your customers when in website format. Identifying your target audience is key to ensuring that your future plan takes into account the ebbs and flow of the ever-moving online traffic. Your website design should include photographs that are personal and reflective of the service you provide. Content should be interesting and applicable to your product and written in a language that draws people in. During your free consultation, Perfect Layout can help you focus and offer ideas that you may not have thought about. As an online business, it’s paramount that you get this right or otherwise you’ll end up stuck, going nowhere fast. Be inspired - have a well thought out strategy Travelling home on the motorway recently (from a wonderful week in Cornwall!) the strangeness of people’s behaviour whilst driving really struck a chord. All lanes had traffic, but it didn’t stop many drivers constantly swapping lanes. The effect? The traffic slowed down even more rather than speeding up. And there I was thinking that us British were always patient whilst queueing! If you’re a business that is constantly changing its strategy, trying to get ahead of your competitors but getting nowhere fast, it may be time for you to take a new approach. If you’re a new start up business or your website hasn’t been looked at for a while or you’re a business working without a website – now is the time to make that change and get in the right lane to making your business work. We’re not like some motorway drivers that can’t help but change lanes when they come up to a bit of traffic. We think long term and avoid reactionary behaviour. A constant 55 mph is way better than bombing it at 70mph for a quarter of the journey then travelling at 30mph for the remainder.  Let Perfect Layout clear your path for the perfect website. With many do-it-yourself website building packages out there, with drag and drop functionality, many small business owners look to build their own website. But as with most things in life, what looks easy on the surface, may not be so in practice.  Often Perfect Layout Digital Marketing gets a call from a business owner asking us to help them with their website. Not a problem. By giving us the log in details to your provider, we can make the necessary changes to help make your website look and perform exactly as you would like. We can look at your content, to make sure that it is keyword-rich, which will attract customers to your site. We will ensure that the layout and functionality is user-friendly and we will look at Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to ensure that you have greater chances of being found in organic search. Perfect Layout Digital Marketing recently helped an entrepreneur based in Romford, Essex with his website. This is what he had to say about our work. My website now looks outstanding, it's exactly what I was looking for. I can't thank you enough. You gave it the wow factor. Ian, Romford, Essex. If you are struggling and need help with making the design of your website look more appealing, give the Perfect Layout team a call on 01708 578 015.  Having a good website seems easy to do these days. There are many website builders on the market offering web packages at reasonable prices, but there’s a lot you need to know when it comes to ensuring that your website design has everything in place to make it work for you - especially if you want to generate more leads. 1 Content is King. Make sure that you explain what your business is about, ensuring that you use keywords that customers will use when searching for you. Google can then marry up your website with their search terms. If you don’t have the copywriting skills yourself, we can help you get keyword-rich content onto your web pages. 2 Use Call to Actions. If you want your customers to strike while the iron is hot make sure that you have Call to Actions on your page. This could be your phone number, contact forms or special offers to make them act at that moment. 3 Make sure your website is user-friendly. Make it easy for people to find their way around your site. Bad navigation could lose you a lot of business. 4 Use external directories to help boost your online presence. Is the platform that you are building on mobile friendly? 5 If your website isn’t responsive Google will penalise you and your website could suffer in organic rankings. These are 5 essential tips to keep in mind when you are looking to build your website. If you feel out-of-your-depth and would like some help, Perfect Layout Digital Marketing can offer you a free consultation and put together a digital strategy to get your business to where you want it to be. We can either look at hosting you on one of our monthly packages, or you can arrange ad-hoc work, such as re-writing your current website copy, based on our hourly fee. If your website has already been built, but you feel like you are not getting enough new leads, it could be because you are missing out on other digital strategies that help boost your online presence; this is known as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). If you don’t know how to do this, Perfect Layout can help you with elements such as keyword-rich content, setting up and activating Google My Business and Bing Places accounts, as well as listing you on other directories. Perfect Layout Digital Marketing is a web design company in Romford, Essex. While most of our customers are local to us we do have clients in London and across Essex. Whether you need ad-hoc work to help improve your website design and online presence or you would like ongoing website support, we can help you. Give the Perfect Layout web development team in Romford, Essex a call today on 01708 578 015.  To ensure that your website delivers more business to you, we will follow these essential steps: Mobile Friendly Design In April 2015, Google announced that it would favour websites that are “mobile-friendly”. Companies that are not investing in new websites, could see a decline in their business leads as their websites fall down the rankings. A responsive web design ensures that no matter what device someone uses (i.e. tablet, laptop, mobile phone) your website is displayed on the screen in the most effective way. No longer should mobile phone visitors see a website that is used for standard desktops, like a laptop, which can make viewing content, navigating menus and clicking on links difficult and awkward to use. Your site will be built to be suitable on all devices. High-Quality Content and Excellent Customer Experience The content, or written word, on a website must be of good quality. Without it you can’t tell your story, attract new and repeat customers, or explain the services that you have to offer. All content on your website should be informative, engaging and useful. It should be easy to read, and delivered in short paragraphs that match the interest of your customers. High-quality content demonstrates authority and will naturally lead visitors towards purchasing whatever your company has to offer. Whatever the customer is searching for, it must be easily accessible. From company contact information, product specifications or prices, browsing should be a pleasure, not a burden. At its highest level, the function of your website should be about giving your customer what they want before they even know that they need it! We will write content that encourages your visitors to purchase your services or products, whilst at the same time having a great online user experience. Fabulous Design Visitors will be more inclined to navigate your entire website if it looks good. It should appear clean, logical and informative, with the correct amount of visual content balanced alongside the written word. The impact on a customer’s emotional response to your website should not be underestimated. Visual design has a huge part to play in how customers consciously and subconsciously perceive your company. If your website design has a below average visual appearance, the customer will believe that this is a reflection of your services/product. Nobody wants to give a sub-standard performance, so set yourself apart from the competition and invest in a website that is better than the rest. We will work hard to ensure that all aspects, of your website are attractive to the visitor, encouraging them to stay on your site and find out more about you. Robust Platforms The platform upon which your website’s design is built will have a huge impact on its usability as well as how efficiently you are able to update content and interact with visitors. We can’t overstate how important this structure is to the performance of your website. This is particularly important for e-commerce websites (sites that sell goods). To build your website on a platform that:
 The Perfect Introduction Having the perfect introduction to your site is really important. When meeting someone face-to-face for the first time, people form an impression within the first 60 seconds. It is no different for visitors browsing a new website and studies show that they spend less than a minute on most of the websites that they visit. This means that you only have a few precious moments to convey who you are, what you do, who you do it for, and why they should keep reading your site. So make sure you nail your pitch on your homepage, but also bear in mind the importance of content on your other pages as customers do not always start looking for what they want on your home page. We will spend time with you perfecting your core marketing message and ensure that your logo design, tagline (catchphrase or slogan) and the initial paragraph of your website copy is clear. We will show that your business has credibility as well as describing what you offer upfront. There’s a lot to communicate in just one paragraph. Clear Call to Actions (CTA) A clear call to action is an instruction (to the audience) that should provoke an immediate response. Such as, ‘call now’, ‘find out more’, or ‘buy now’. The best website designs will include value-led CTAs that will subtly encourage visitors to take the next step and engage with the customer, guiding them to making a purchase. Visitors to your website need specific information before committing to make a purchase or inquiry. By using CTAs effectively, they can pre-empt the customer’s next step and gently lead them through your website in the way that you want them to experience your website, all the while delivering the information they are seeking. All of our websites will have your phone number at the top of every page of your site and your contact information on the footer of every page along with quick links to your most valuable content. This is even more important for mobile websites where prospects are often just looking for a quick phone number, hours of business or address. Track Your Conversions Conversion tracking is a free tool that shows you what happens after a customer clicks on your ad. It is a powerful insight into your customers’ habits and can often be overlooked as a useful tool by some web designers. Yet for every business, it is vital to know how many inquiries and sales are received through your website. For example, have those website customers purchased a product, signed up for your newsletter, called your business or downloaded your app? Conversion tracking allows you to accurately measure your marketing spend, evaluate the success of any improvements or modifications in your website design or online marketing, and ultimately measure the underlying success of your website and business. We will help you with tracking your conversions and understand how your website is working for you. Engaging ‘About Us’ Page Your company exists for your customers. So by logical extension, your About Us page (even though it is about you) is also about your customers. They want to be informed about the engaging profiles of the personalities behind your organisation because it gives them insight into who they will be working with. They also want to know how you and your company are going to provide them with solutions. Your About Us page, like the rest of your website, should present all information in the context of how it will benefit your customers. We will plan the best way to present your About Us page specific to your business – for your customer. Marketing beyond the website build An online presence alone isn’t enough to generate leads. You need a strategy to work out how best to broadcast your content, attract search traffic and convert browsing customers into buying customers. Options available to you include pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, search engine optimisation (SEO), email marketing and social media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc.). Depending on your business and industry some strategies will work better than others. The key is to find what best works for your business by experimenting with all of the available channels. Ultimately, it’s a process of trial and error while you discover what is most effective for your potential customers. If you would like to use our marketing expertise to help drive more traffic to your business, we will create a package that is just right for you.
 Bespoke Curtains & Blinds in Romford, used to be based in North West London. With many existing clients and referrals still coming from that area, the business owner decided that by creating a website, she could attract new clients closer to her premises, as well as the Home Counties. Perfect Layout Digital Marketing worked with the owner, to understand the industry and wrote all the content for the site. it created specific location pages within each of the counties to ensure that her site would be found in organic search. Within a week of the site going live, her first local lead called through.  When a local hypnobirthing instructor set up her business, she was not aware of the importance of search engine optimisation and the use of keywords; in not only her site and but her url. Whilst having a successful website under the business name Magical Baby Moments, she felt that having a second website, specifically called Romford Hypnobirthing would help her with local search. Both sites are on page 1 of organic search, for key terms such as ‘Romford Hypnobirthing’ and ‘Hynobirthing in Romford’. This success on the search engines isn’t by luck, but instead because of tools and techniques implemented to deliver these results. By adding these factors to her business, there has been an increase in local leads being generated from online searches. If your business is struggling to be found online call Perfect Layout Digital Marketing today on: 01708 578 015. |
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