Should you add testimonies to your website?

Testimonies are often used on advertising media for a company, mainly on websites, where positive comments and praise is posted on the site supposedly from previous customers.

The problem with this is that from a pessimistic point of view there is no evidence that the testimonies are actually real and a lot of people would automatically presume that even if the accounts are real only the positive ones will be published onto the website. If you are fully confident in your company a more openly respected form of promotion would be a link to an independent review website that shows both positive and negative feedback to give customers a balanced view.

This way any negative reviews can be responded to correctly and can make potential new customers confident in doing business with your company in the future.

If you have customers who are happy to promote your work you would be better to have them do it through social media linking to your website so that it’s evident that the review came from a real customer.

Adobe Photoshop has become subscription based only

Recently Adobe released that they will no longer be selling Photoshop as a boxed software product and than instead you would need to sign up to a monthly or annual subscription. This has caused a few discussions on the social media sites and throughout the press as it is a rather large change and could potentially lose them business. Many small businesses and individuals would buy a version of Photoshop and use it for years having only had to pay a one off fee for the software, with this no longer an option they are now being forced in to paying for it monthly or finding an alternative.

For some this monthly cost is going to eat in to an already tight budget. There are some advantages of the cloud based subscription software which allows Adobe to update it on your PC as and when without having to wait to add all the updates to a new software release version, but for many they often find that the updates are not all that significant for them so they would not have normally upgraded to a newer version anyway.

Adding Social Media Feeds To Your Website

Social media plays a massive part in online marketing, and is used by many companies in all different sorts of industries.

Some of these companies have chosen to have a feed from Facebook on their website, showing their latest posts, reviews and comments. I wanted to investigate if this was a good idea and what the benefits were to doing this.

As long as you have set it so that you have to approve posts and comments first, then you should not have to worry much about the content that is appearing on your website, otherwise be warned that you may have negative or inappropriate feeds showing on your site.

Adding Facebook to your site is a good way to gain more followers and shows that you are active on the social media platforms, this looks good to not only customers but also the search engines that take social media activity in to account when it comes to ranking.

Why all small businesses should have a website

Any business no matter how large or small should have an online presence or some sort, ideally a website.

When discussing the importance of a website with small business owners, you often find that they do not really see the benefit it would have to them and their business. It can be hard for the owners to see past the initial outlay as to the benefits it could offer them in the future.

If you are a small business owner or sole trader, below are a few points to consider before dismissing a website:

  • Tracking – unlike with most forms of advertising, a website can tracked very closely and give you that all important feedback about how people are finding you and if they are staying or browsing your website.
  • 24/7 business – during the hours your shop or business is closed – the website will stay open, even if only for information purposes. Many people browse the internet in an evening looking for a product or service. They will then contact the companies they have found online when they are open to discuss their requirements.

Checking the functionality of your website

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Having a website is one thing, but making sure it works correctly is something that all website owners should do on a regular basis. Once your website has been built, and preferably before it goes live, you should check all aspects of it. Click through the pages and fill out any enquiry forms or calculators on there. If you notice any errors inform your website developer and ask for it to be fixed in a timely manner. If you are happy that everything is working as it should then do not assume that this will remain the case, as even if you do not make changes to the site there may be an update applied that can stop certain elements from working. This is especially the case with websites that are build using WordPress or Joomla for example, which can be set up update themselves. Having a website that does not work properly can put people off visiting it again, and it is advised that it is not set live until the site is fully functional.

Should your web design include photos of your staff and business?

This is a question that seems to come up time and time again when people are agreeing the design for their website. Sometimes photos of premises, staff and surrounding areas are essential. If you own a Bed and Breakfast for example, then people will want to see what the place looks like, surroundings and possibly who is running it, with other types of business this may not be as essential.

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Many companies are now finding new and innovative ways to create an “our team” page by using caricatures or hand drawn images. This is often used for a design company or for a business that wants to show that they are modern and a little bit different. This can also be a great way of talking about your staff without having to put their photo up which many employees are unsettled with. Have a play about with the contact us or team page and see what works for your website.

Attractive website VS functionality

When someone is having a website designed it can be a bit of a constant battle between the website own on how the site should look compared to the programmers view on functionality.

The truth is a good website can have both and it is an important quality to have both of these elements to make it work. From the end users point of view, they do not want to go on to a website that looks amazing but crashes everytime they want to do something or they find it very hard to navigate round. On the other hand research has shown that if a visitor goes to a site that is unappealing to the eye very often they will leave.

This is all about finding a happy medium and ensuring that you test the site thoroughly prior to it going live to iron out any issues that may be there.

Adding social media to your website

Many companies are now adding not only links but feeds direct to and from their social media accounts. This has proved very popular with social media uses as often it shows them that the company is proactive about speaking and communicating with their customers and also that if a customer has an issue they can voice it on their profile. This shows quite an open way of allowing customers to give their opinion on the company’s products / services and customer care.

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The search engines also seem to favour websites that also have an active social media presences, as again it shows that the company is keeping up to date with media advances and that they are happy to have a rapport with their visitors.

Social media is a great way for companies to send out information quickly to a number of users about a new product/ service they may want to promote.