Category Archives: Marketing

Is your website mobile ready?

Are you Mobile Ready?

Google, Marketing, Mobile, Site Optimisation, , , ,

Mobile devices are changing the way we exist. Many people would be bereft without their mobile as a source of information, entertainment and as a means of communication.

So much so that mobile access to the Internet has overtaken and now far exceeds larger devices such as laptop and desktop computers.  In a recent study commissioned by Google, 69% of smartphone users said they turned to mobile search in a moment of need.

2 years ago, Google announced they would be prioritising sites in the search results that were mobile friendly over those that were not. This continues today.  If your web site is not mobile friendly, then you are potentially needlessly giving away postions in the search results.

So how do you know if your site is mobile friendly?

Simple.  Google have produce a tool that will tell you instantly if your site is mobile compatible.

search console tool, mobile friendly
Google Search Console, mobile friendly checker

Put your website URL into the search box, click Run Test and see for yourself if Google recognises your site as mobile friendly.  If it is, then you will see a page something like the one below.  If it is not then you will get a series of warning and advice on what you need to do to make your site mobile friendly.

QD Design site successfully passing the search console mobile friendly test
This is how your site should look…

“But”, I hear you yell, “Most, if not all, of my visitors are using desktop / laptop computers, so it doesn’t matter to me, does it”.   Wrong.   Google will still penalise your site if it isn’t mobile friendly even though no mobile users currently visit it.

Can you really afford to needlessly give away search engine position because your site isn’t compatible with mobile devices?

QD Design only design fully responsive mobile friendly web sites that ensure you are not penalised by Google or the other search engines. If your web site is in need of a “tune up”, let’s talk.

How long to set up a shop and sell online?

e-commerce, Marketing, On Line, WordPress

How long does it take to set up a shop and sell online?

I’ve been asked this question several times in the last week.  When you turn it around and ask the questioner how long they reckon it will take, the answer is usually several hours, if not days.

What if it took less than 30 minutes to set up your own shop and begin selling on line, wouldn’t you do it?  Of course you would!

You design handmade jewelry, knit incredible garments, print custom T shirts or make amazing items of artwork and sell them to friends / family and through local independent shops.

No doubt your customers are delighted with your products and tell all their friends about you. But you are still only tapping into the tiniest proportion of your available market. Unless someone happens to know you / one of your friends or be in that independent shop, they have no chance of knowing about your product and thus making a purchase.

The answer (of course), is to sell online.  However, several conversations in just the last week show that for many people the idea of setting up their own shop is a daunting one, and one they expect to be complex and problematical.

Let me let you into a secret. It isn’t! You could easily have a shop of your own up and running in around 30 minutes.    Here’s how.

1. Assuming you have a website running WordPress, install the WooCommerce plug in. WooCommerce is part of the organisation that builds WordPress itself and it is the biggest (by a long way) e-commerce platform on WordPress.   Not got a WordPress website – no problem. Just about every server can handle WordPress*, it is easy to set up a simple WordPress site, styled to look like your current website and put links to it from the relevant places in your main site.

2. Configure WooCommerce – set up your location, currency, whether it is a physical or downloadable product (e.g. an e book), customise any email confirmations you want the system to send.

3. Download the Payment Gateway plug in of your choice (PayPal, Stripe, Amazon Pay, WorldPay etc) and configure your account.

4. Connect WooCommerce to your chosen payment gateway and link using the provided API key.

5. Create a product to sell in WooCommerce. Ideally with a product description, images, size / colour options etc.

6. Begin selling!

It is as simple as that.  In 30 minutes or so, your reach will have gone from local to potentially global.  What’s stopping you?   You have a great product, why not sell it as widely as possible!

At QD Design we can assist you through the process. From simple advice and guidance, to setting up the WooCommerce platform and Payment Gateway or even building the complete WordPress site to contain it all.

We eat, sleep and breath the web and want to help businesses make the most out of it. Call us for a chat or drop us an email and we will get back to you.

*If your server really can’t support WordPress, we need to talk, urgently!  You are being hosted on a device that may well be compromising your websites speed and thus your position in Google search results (Google hates slow sites and penalises them over faster ones).

iTunes GRRRRR

Marketing, On Line, ,

Podcasts are a great way to make use of time that would otherwise be wasted spent commuting, exercising or doing mundane chores. In another post I’ll share some of my favourite podcasts but one thing seems common to most of them…..

The presenters frequently ask listeners to go to iTunes to like and subscribe to their podcast. I understand this can raise the profile of a podcast meaning it has a better chance of getting even more subscribers. However, as an Android user I have no intention of going anywhere near iTunes for any reason, ever.  In fact, when I hear this it just shows how lacking in awareness the podcast presenter / producer is and how blinkered they are to think that every listener will be using an Apple device.

I’ll personally buy a beer for the first podcaster I hear acknowledge the fact that you can access and subscribe to podcasts through other means besides iTunes.

New website – what next?

Marketing, Site Launch, Site Optimisation, Web Design
New website checklist
Website just gone live, surely now it’s time for a break?

You have just completed (or your designer has) your brand new website.  The site is live and after many weeks of frantic effort you can finally take a break, sit back and admire the newly launched site, right?

Wrong!

Unfortunately, the hard work continues; in fact, some may say, it has only just begun once the site has gone live!  Any parent will tell you that the birth of a child is just the start of years of effort and commitment during which they see their loved one grow and develop.  A new website is spookily similar (though maybe with fewer sleepless nights and fewer tantrums)!

In essence, once your website has gone live you need to….

  • Drive traffic to the site to attract new visitors
  • Keep the content fresh to retain existing users and ‘convert’ new users
  • Measure site effectiveness and your marketing progress
  • Improve the site’s user experience

5 Vital Tasks for any New Website

Here is the QD Design checklist for how you can do this once your site has gone live.

  1. Use Social Media to promote the site and bring in traffic.
    Simply launching a site will not automatically bring people to it. You need to promote the site to your users, customers and potential customers through a focused and targeted strategy.  Ask yourself, where do my potential customers typically ‘hang out’ on social media.  Are you there too?
  2. Make it easy for people to share your content.
    You have created some amazing content, with insightful text and great images. social-sharingPlacing Social Media sharing buttons on pages will make it easier for people to share the site and in turn bring others to view it.
  3. Traffic logging.
    You should have set up (or the designer should have on your behalf) some form of traffic logging for the site. Of the many traffic monitors available, the biggest and probably best is Google Analytics. google analytics logoNow is the time to begin querying the data it provides.  This can help you see where visitors to your site are coming from, how long they stay for, and at what time of the day the site is most popular.  If you are selling goods and services through the site you can even begin to track how far a visitor gets through the buying process before they abandon – very useful for refining your pricing, your product descriptions or your product promotion.
  4. Develop more content.
    ‘What’, I hear you say, ‘it has taken weeks to develop the new site and you want me to create even more new content’?  Yes, I’m afraid so!  website development in progress on a laptopGoogle search hugely prefers sites that are up to date and have new content over ones that are static and remain the same month in month out.  Developing new content pleases both the Google search engine as well as your audience. New content is a great reason to contact your audience and promote the site even further.
  5. Optimise the user experience.
    Use tools such as Google Webmaster and their Page Speed Insights to check how quickly the site loads and what you can do to make it even faster. You should already have checked how it works on different sized devices but go through each and every page, top to bottom, ensuring the design does truly work.  html code displayed on a laptop screenOptimize image sizes and the white space around them to ensure that great content isn’t missing from the viewer’s eye.  Create a list of improvements to work upon come the date of the first site review.

If your chosen designer doesn’t have a process for continually improving your website, are they truly the right person for the job?  There is more to web design than just devising the site itself.  At QD Design we know that the design and deployment is the (relatively) easy part, maintaining and improving the site to achieve your business aims over the long term is where the hard graft is really needed.

QD Design can assist you every step of the journey; get in touch to find out what we can do for you.