Putting Together an Immaculate Business Website

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To run your business smooth means that you will have to mark your presence online, and offline as well. However, unless you have a good website, people will just quickly click away to look for what they need elsewhere. You should never wait for updating your webpage until it is too late, because by the time you have everything done, your business might have missed out on many opportunities.

Let Customers Praise Your Products and Services

Telling how great your business is, will never be a good practice, because people will want to hear what other peers are thinking. It will be absolutely necessary that you include reviews, and to alter them very little, so that people can read what others really meant. Not only will it be helpful for other people, because it will tell them clearly if they should work with your business or not. But, on the bonus side, if you have good reviews, it will be an invite for everyone to come and check out your business, meaning that you will have more traffic.

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5 Digital Success Tips For Small Business

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Our competitive landscape has completely changed. Customers expect more from businesses, on and offline. Technology is transforming the way we search, connect, engage and purchase. New tools, platforms, lower barriers to entry and accessible insights are evening the playing field for small businesses.

Is your mobile and digital technology use currently limiting your digital potential?

Here are five tips to help you become a leader, not a laggard.

1. Get the basics right

•    Stalk your customer – Understand your customers’ buying journey and exceed expectations. Tailor the online experience to complement your other channels and customer interactions.

•    Have a realistic budget – Customer attraction and retention are crucial for small businesses. Have you set aside a budget for marketing? As a guideline 5% of revenues is recommended for existing businesses and approximately 10% for start-ups. ROI (return-on-investment) should always be key when measuring your marketing efforts. Smart investments will ensure you are well positioned to attract consumers now and in the future.

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Tips for Maximizing SEO on a Small Business Budget

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Small businesses are becoming more visible these days as consumers actively search for them online. There are more opportunities than ever for small businesses to impact the local community and make a positive change in the economy. However, in order to take advantage of these opportunities, small businesses will need to step up their marketing game. Competition, especially in the digital marketing space, is now fiercer than ever.

While most businesses know they can benefit from an SEO company’s services, their marketing budgets may not be big enough to enable them to purchase an all-inclusive package with all the bells and whistles. Instead of giving up, these companies should do some groundwork to ensure they get the most out of their existing SEO campaigns.

Research your competitors

Small business owners often don’t have a very clear idea of who their direct competitors are. They also tend to be unfamiliar with the wants and needs of their target audience, and clueless as to what’s “trending” in their industries. In addition, business owners often develop tunnel vision and a single-minded focus on sales. This can be fatal in the online space.

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How To Use Images Online Without Getting Into Trouble

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Where do you get the pictures you use online?

Like most people, do you simply do a Google Search to find something that matches what you’re looking for?  Another really common practice is to just use clipart.

Unfortunately, just because you can find it online doesn’t mean it’s free to use.

There is a growing trend for artists and image copyright holders to send out letters of demand to people using their images.  If you read forums you’ll find that there are people who think this is a scam and unfair. To give you some context, if artists gave away all of their work for free, they would starve and there would be a lot less high quality images for you to use. Copyright law came about for the purpose of protecting the livelihood of creative people and to make it worthwhile for them to continue to produce creative works for the rest of us to use or appreciate and enjoy.

Claims for payment for use of copyright images are not often scams.

When a copyright owner starts to lose income from their work, they have the right to chase up people who are breaching their rights. Copyright is a bundle of rights rather than just one thing and can be breached in a variety of ways. Copying, distributing, republishing, changing, adapting and translating can all be breaches of copyright. If you are in breach, there is a chance that you will receive a letter of demand.

Letters of demand vary depending upon whether they are a form letter, such as those sent out by Dun & Bradstreet on behalf of Getty’s images, or a letter specifically sent out by a legal firm on behalf of their client. We’ve worked with all sorts.

A letter of demand for breach of copyright will usually cover the following:

·         it has been found that you are using the image on your website “for online promotional purposes”

·         the writer is the artist or is authorised to represent the artist or distributor

·         the artist or distributor holds copyright in the work

·         the writer has been unable to verify that you have permission or are licenced to use the image

·         you are requested to immediately remove the image

·         you are asked to pay a licence fee

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7 Legal Essentials for Business Online: Part 7 – Discrimination & Accessibility Online

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An accessible website should operate the same way for all its users, regardless of their physical ability. In other words, web accessibility is all about inclusiveness; it is about making sure no one is left out because they cannot see, hear, or use a mouse or keyboard like any able-bodied person. With Google’s algorithm change in April 2015, this also means your website has to be mobile friendly.

Advocacy groups argue that having an inaccessible website is discrimination and violation of human rights. Some have even gone on to file high-profile lawsuits against multinational companies like Target, Sydney Olympic Committee, AOL and others receiving favorable decisions in court. These cases were able to set some important precedents so that if your site is not yet optimized for disabled users, your company may be at risk of civil litigation.

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7 Legal Essential for Business Online: Part 2 – Privacy Online

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What is the big deal about privacy? Everyone gives all their personal information to companies like Facebook and Google, so why not give it to your business? Data privacy is a big deal, particularly in Europe and Cyber-crime is on the increase, or at least awareness of it is. If you collect information, then you are obliged to provide at least minimum protection against disclosure.

So who is covered? If you collect the contact details of your customers, you are collecting personal information which is protected under privacy laws.  If you are a small business, you may not have to comply with privacy laws, but if you want your customers to feel secure in giving you their information, it is advisable to comply.

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Google Gadgets

Free Google Tools and Gadgets

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Gmail

Gmail is a new kind of webmail, built on the idea that email can be more intuitive, efficient, and useful. And maybe even fun. Gmail has less spam, mobile access and gives you lots of space, so you never have to delete any of your messages.  You can access it anywhere in the world, so it’s particularly great if you are travelling.

http://mail.google.com/

Google Notebook

With Google Notebook, you can browse, clip, and organize information from across the web in a single online location that’s accessible from any computer. Planning a trip? Researching a product? Just add clippings to your notebook. You won’t ever have to leave your browser window.  For more information go to:

www.google.com/notebook

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How to Create The Best Homepage

How To Create The Best Homepage For Your Website

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by Ivana Katz

The front page of your website, also known as the home, welcome or index page is THE MOST IMPORTANT part of your site, as the majority of visitors will enter your website through there. You have approximately 7 seconds to grab someone’s attention and entice them to read more or take particular action. Unfortunately, most website owners don’t realise this and forget to include key elements, which include:

1.Features and Benefits

Make your welcome page about what you can do for your visitors. Outline the benefits and features your business can offer them. Solve their problems.

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Key Elements Every Website Should Include

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Whether you are creating your first website or have one that is not working as well as you hoped it would, it’s time to ensure you have key elements in your website which will not only please your visitors, but search engines as well.

One of the biggest mistakes I see many website owners make is to create a site, which is about them rather than what their visitors may want to see. Whenever possible, try to put yourself in your potential customer’s shoes and provide them all the information they need to have in order to make a decision to buy your products or services.

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Website Design

Website Design Checklist – How To Create a Successful Website

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Whether you are creating your first website or looking at improving an existing one, use this checklist to ensure the success of your business online.

1. Domain Name

Register a domain name that has keywords related to your business. Even if your business name is John Smith & Sons, registering a domain name with just the name is not going to help your business from a search engine point of view. Try including some keywords, eg. Johnsmithplumbing.com or yourcityplumbing.com. You can always register additional domain names with your business name or product names to protect your brand and identity, but for the main domain name, make sure you have some key words included. This will help with search engine optimisation later on.

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