Tips and Tricks

Are you stopping visitors from commenting?

Blog comments are something that you should typically encourage because they give readers a chance to participate in the conversation. Comments give readers the opportunity to relate their experiences, offer their point of view, and provide related information. This interaction within the blog can help to expand the original blog post, sometimes giving it a life of its own. If one of your blog’s goals is to encourage commenting, you should try and make the commenting process as simple as possible. In this post, we will describe some ways to encourage WordPress comments, while dealing with the inevitable, unwanted comments…
Does your website have an effective call to action?

A “call to action”, as the name suggests, tells your visitors what they should do. In the case of a website, it’s basically a message that links to a desired action. A successful CTA will help persuade visitors to take your desired action, which you should be able to determine based on your business goals. It can be a short phrase as simple as “Click here!”, but should be something at least a little more specific or sophisticated. In this Online Friendly article, we break down some of the core concepts of designing an effective CTA. Think of your audience…
How to read your site’s statistics: 6 tips

As we wrote in a previous post, statistics are necessary to determine if your website is meeting its goals. But it’s hard to know if you’re meeting your site’s goals if you don’t know how to read the multitude of numbers and graphs provided by a service like Google Analytics. In this post, we offer five suggestions on how to read your Analytics statistics beyond simply hits or views to help you determine if your site is attracting the traffic you want and if visitors are getting the experience they want from your site. 1. Determine what your bounce rates…
Do you own your blog?: Owning your domain

With the wide variety of free blogging platforms, blogging is essentially free. However, to get the impact you’re looking for, it may be worth it to blog using your own domain. In fact, it can be easy to setup and doesn’t have to be terribly expensive to get your blog on a URL that you own. Many blogging platforms allow you to buy a custom domain, including Google’s Blogger platform, and WordPress.com. You can also transfer a domain name you have already bought for your Blogger or WordPress.com blog. This post will outline some major reasons to take ownership of…
Integrating your blog and your website

Having a ‘blog’, featuring news, articles and thought-provoking content, is a great way to help your business gain credibility and enhance its reputation. But in order to make the most impact on both your target market and on search engines, your blog and organization’s website should be well-integrated. There are, however, several different methods of integrating a blog with an existing site, including the use of “iFrames”, rebuilding the site using a blog or CMS platform, creating a new theme or child theme, and using a RSS feeds. Each have their own benefits and drawbacks. iFrames An iFrame is an…
Hiding your prices – Don’t do it!

Talking about money is hard, even for online business. Many times when you visit a website, it is not easy to find the prices for the offered services. You can go through three or more different windows with trials and special offers but you cannot find how much you will finally have to pay for them. Some weeks ago, Brent went to the WordPress.com website looking for the prices of the premium features offered by the blog platform. He spent almost 20 minutes browsing the website and he could not find any prices – they simply weren’t available. WordPress.com spoke…
Don’t wait, start the sharing

In July, we started a blog series on the importance that an updated website has for your business. In our first blog post about website updates, we discussed how regular updates are a great way to legitimize a small business website. We also explained ways to find website content for your visitors and how to do website updates. In our previous blog post, we talked about the power of social networks and how you can help your visitors share the content of your website with their friends. In our last blog post of this series, we talk about how you…
7 Questions to Discover Content For Your Website

In our previous post, we introduced you to the concept of regular ‘website updates’. As we explained, when you frequently change your home page, you tell your visitors that you are an active company. In addition, you show them the value that you give to the communications you have with your clients and potential clients. Your Update Checklist When companies ask our president Brent Kobayashi about ways to create content for their sites, he usually draws a quick checklist. As he explains, this list helps our clients to understand the multiple options they have to easily find new and useful…
1 (Big) Step to Legitimize Your Small Business on the Web

When was the last time anything on your home page changed? As you probably already know, your home page is the most important page of your site. Your homepage is the first impression that your clients get of you and your business. Changing it frequently tells your visitors that you are an active company. It will tell them the value that you give to your site and how you see your business. Keep in mind that your website may be the most frequently viewed image of your business. In this first article, we introduce you to the concept of web…
6 Basic Search Engine Friendly Tips

In our previous blog post about creating a successful brochure web site, we slipped in a few descriptive links to ourselves and our clients. We did this to help tell Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines what these sites are about. Doing this is part of an online marketing strategy called Search Engine Optimization and it is something all business websites should consider. . Search Engine Optimization is a big field, and running a search marketing campaign can take some time (and dollars). However, there some things you can do (and should do!) to make sure your homepage and…
3 elements for successful brochure website homepages

Very often your websites homepage is the first impression any of your customers will have of you. Like a warm smile and a strong handshake, your homepage sets the stage for how your customers think of you, and what action they will take next – will it be the one you want? Other than a compelling design, and good writing, most successful homepages for brochure websites have at least these three elements: 1. Home page visual focal point: A picture that “says it all”. For Casa Duna (a cottage in Southampton Ontario), an animated slideshow for the focal point quickly…
4 key aspects of a brochure site

The first goal for many small business websites is to support existing “offline” sales efforts. One way to do this is through the creation of a “brochure site”, which could be as simple as one page with some basic information on your business. So, how does a brochure website help support your underlying business goals? In this post, we’ll provide an overview. First – it exists. Like a business card, a logo, and even a business name, it is one way of showing that you actually see some longevity to what you are doing. A clear way of saying “yes indeed…