Blog

  • Shall we blog?

    Eddi_the_Jack_Russell_Terrier_puppyLike an over-excited puppy, you created a blog on your website because that is what brings traffic in (all the research said so…) and you started with gusto, creating blogs that you faithfully published every week and then…

    (whistles, looks at watch)

    (carries on whistling, admires hair in mirror)

    …nothing.

    (Disappointed sigh)

    Why as a local, online business, you should be blogging

    It’s all about content. It’s all about thriving and surviving in a competitive market place and even though you think that your local customers are just fab, you all need to sharing your eggs around your basket. Relying on one market for business, local or otherwise, is the ‘putting your eggs in one basket’ thing, hence where there are fluctuations in the market place they hit you hard, their impact magnified. Being in business is all about looking for the next thing, improving, creating and selling whether that is a local butchers with award winning sausages or a local foot clinic.

    Your customers’ tastes change as they influenced by marketing, opinion shifts and budget constraints; they are busy people too so booking online for a foot treatment is great – unless they don’t find your website. We live in a 24 hour world, where we spend the majority of our time in front of different screens, from our smartphone to our tablet, then mooching around on the laptop for the next big thing.

    But, people search the web differently too. They may think they have an ingrowing toe nail but how do you know? They hop on the web and do some research and guess what? Google (or any search engine) will note their location and you, wrote a blog or two on the perils on ingrowing toe nails. Google likes the look of your blog, as people have been reading it and liking it or sharing and guess what? Your website bobs up in front of their very eyes and, better still, they can book online and you have a new customers booked in for a consultation on Wednesday afternoon at 4.30pm.

    Imagined if that happened once or twice a week; that’s 8 customers a month that you may not have had before…

    “So I’m blogging for survival then?”

    Sounds a bit melodramatic but yes and, well… er, no.

    There are, the last time someone counted 164 million blogs – but that number has probably fluctuated up and down several zillion times since the man in the back room started his tally chart.

    The vast majority of these blogs will have less than a 1,000 visitors a month and represent a disaster zone. Why?

    You blog for months and months, seemingly for little reward and it is human nature that if you slog your guts out for months and months on something you find stressful and difficult, another tiny little thing to add to your already busy day, you will stop doing it. Fact.

    How to avoiding failing at blogging…

    Creating content it is GREAT! But do you market it?

    If you don’t, you are not promoting yourself or your business hence you will not extend your readership passed you mum and your sister. Their ‘liking’ or sharing it on Twitter or Facebook is great, but you need more likes and shares and comments and readers…. So promote it!

    And don’t forget it is not just promoting new blogs; promote older ones too. If there is an article in the news on the importance of cutting your toenails properly and you wrote a piece on it a few months, promote your blog with some well-placed hashtags.

    You have permission to jump on the bandwagon.

    You will then find, possibly, that people will read some of your other podiatry diatribes on the ingrowing toenails, bunions and athlete’s foot and learn something; people like being informed, hence your blog starts to gain authority with an increased following.

    The next step is to start linking your blog with other authoritative sites; the ‘you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours approach’. Again, this is all about building a reader base so why not try your hand submitting a ‘guest post’ to another site, with a lovely link to your own blog? And then, ask someone to do the same for you – they write a post for your site, and your share links and readers back and forth.

    Avoid: plagiarism and replicas

    What does not go down well is nicking stuff from other people or simply writing a blog that says the same as everyone else’s. This can be a bit stuff as there is only so many ways and times you can take about a subject and, if it is current and in the news headlines then a blog on it simply adds you voice to many others.

    Nicking someone’s stuff that they have possibly spent hours crafting is not only morally slightly-dodgy, but can earn you a penalty point from Google and other search engines. Before you know, your blog and website has disappeared without a trace and it is very hard to get it back in Google’s good books again.

    The lesson is thus…

    • Creating content and posting it regular is great – once a week is fab
    • Promoting it via your social media platforms is also great
    • Keep promoting older blogs too
    • Advanced bloggers also look to guests posts and links with like-minded blogs and websites
    • Keep doing it!

  • Social media wars: which is better?

    With the fallout from the Google Authorship and ‘is it a ploy to get us all using Google+?’ question still being bandied around, businesses can be easily confused as to which social media platform is the right one for them.

    It can be tempting to be on everything but the problem with this blanket approach is that you may be using platforms that are not suitable and, keeping up to date with them all can be a timing nightmare.

    In this article we look at Google+ or G+ and what it can offer you, as well as looking at arguably the most powerful and well-known of social media platforms, Facebook.

    Things are changing

    Facebook is the ‘daddy of ‘em all’, with a reach that is phenomenal it has, for many years, held the top notch position; it was and still is, the social media platform you must be on. If you wanted to reach out to the largest audience ever, then FB was the place to be.

    But things change and on the world of online sharing. Once the poor relation, is seems that the ugly duckling is blossoming into the beautiful swan; 2014 has marked the best year for G+ yet, with its monthly active users reaching 540 million across the globe.

    The difference between the two? G+ allows people to search for your business and is obviously geared towards this end of the market, whereas Facebook is more ‘personal’ in its approach but there are reasons why both could be useful, if not essential.

    Circles

    Some people think that circles on G+ are complicated but they are far from that. It’s a way of sorting the wheat from the chaff if you like and rather than being bombarded with every single post or share, you can group people together, choosing what you see and when.

    Facebook has a similar set up now with Edgerank, the algorithm it introduced in December 2013. Rather than users being bombarded with items or posts they may find irrelevant, this algorithm sorts what it thinks the user will like. The only problem with this is that you don’t control it – unlike the G+ circles which you set up – the algorithm checks what you have been looking at and makes the decision for you.

    Reach

    On Facebook, any posts or statuses you make will need to reach a certain level of ‘likes’ over a set number of times before it is available to the masses, hence the almost begging Tweets and messages from businesses imploring you to like them on Facebook.

    BUT, if this doesn’t work, you can always pay for the privilege with various adverts to boost your appearance and views on the platform. But, some say that this is losing sight of its original intention as small businesses may not have the budgeting resources to play alongside the big players.

    The algorithm

    Facebook’s algorithm is a double-edged sword; on one hand it has a positive impact but recent bad press from experiments such as the ‘emotion experiment’ has made some people question the platform and its integrity.

    However, you cannot throw away 1.32 billion users around the world lightly and so, by improving your Facebook posts, from asking questions to running competitions, you do have an excellent way, at your fingertips of attracting new people and customers to your business.

    Is it just about numbers?

    Reaching the masses is great but, if only a small percentage buy your product or service, is it worth it for a local, online business?

    No sale is a bad sale, and so if it reaps the smallest reward then that is not to be sniffed at but if it comes at a cost in terms of both time and money, it may be worth a re-think.

    A G+ ‘hangout’ is as some people say, an awesome resource that allows businesses and customers to connect. Think of it as a modern-day equivalent of consumer research and with G+ and Google being the same, you are sending out some strong signals to the most popular search engine.

    So, who to choose?

    Internet trends change from week to week; it would be sheer folly to predict today what will be right next week or the week after and so on. However, the rub is that, as a business you need to connect to a wide an audience as possible, but balance it against time spent ‘doing’ social media and the return it gives you.

    The answer is this – place the same post across the social media platforms you currently use and see where you get the most responses; do this a few times at different times of the year and it gives you an indication of where your audience is at.

    Once you feel you know which platforms are right for your business, put time and energy into creating a plan so that you have something to offer customers and something to talk about over both G+ and Facebook – and any others too!

    Which platforms do you use? How did you decide which social media sites were best for your local business?

  • WordPress – a counter argument

    WordPress WebsitesHere at Locally, we use WordPress as the basis for great business websites. We work with a growing range of clients, all local businesses making their presence felt online too.

    We work with start-ups through to larger companies who offer a range of high quality products and services locally, as well as nationally and, in the vast majority of cases, globally too.

    We know that websites need to be creative showcases that have high quality content, great graphics that are not overdone and that the whole thing needs to search engine optimised.

    We also know that every business is different and so every website needs to be different; what suits one free school in one area of the country will not suit another free school is another area. Businesses may occupy the same trade or industry, but it doesn’t mean they offer the same product or service, in the same way.

    So, we don’t have ‘templates’ as such, although we have an innate understanding of what a business could want and, working alongside our clients, we create great websites that work.

    WordPress – not everyone’s cup of tea

    WordPress is an open source platform, which, without getting too technical, means that brilliantly technically minded people (like us here at Locally!) can create rather wonderful and spectacular websites for businesses (for anyone, in fact). Associated with a  vibrant and fabulous blogging movement, you can create, with the addition of plug-ins and design creativity, a bespoke WordPress website.

    But it’s not everyone’s cup of tea as highlighted in a recent article we came across and so, we think it is only fair to present the other side of the argument and why WordPress can create fabulous, creative websites that really do work…

    The criticisms levelled at WordPress websites were:

    • WordPress sites are not ‘truly’ able to be updated or created in a bespoke way – not true! And we think we have a growing portfolio that points to evidence to the contrary. There is also mention that people who create such websites do not know much about code and that they hitch a ride on other developers, using their ideas and creations. Here at Locally we add to the WordPress community, as well as share ideas. Since when has this been a bad thing?
    • Plug ins – as an open and sharing community, developers from across the web community create plug ins that others can use of their websites to enhance it. Detractors suggest that these plug ins often conflict and break, suggesting that the security of the website will be compromised. With all the recent hacking scandals and dodgy photos making their way online this is, to all intents and purposes, playing on people’s vulnerability. With the right technical help from a company like us, these breakages and conflicts in plug ins can be avoided.
    • Security – continuing with the theme of security, some industry experts also suggest that the open community behind WordPress is also its greatest weakness. As the platform is written by and shared by large numbers of people, suggestions are it is easier to hack and therefore, your WordPress website could be compromised. Funny how the recent hacking scandals have not affected WordPress but other open source programs…
    • Every site is the same – again, a common misconception we feel around WordPress is that people assume that because there are thousands of themes to choose from that this means every website looks and feels the same; we disagree. We do create bespoke WordPress websites. Simple.
    • Lacking in originality – another criticism of WordPress is the perceived lack of originality and that search engines, such as Google, will note this, giving such website a ‘miss’ when it comes to page 1 rankings. This doesn’t seem to affect Beyonce’s WordPress site… hers seems far from lacking in originality and ranking. In fact, research any major topic online and you will come across many bespoke websites that use WordPress and do not seem to struggle from lack of originality.
    • Updating – apparently the penchant for updating WordPress every few months is an issue that some find deplorable. We think that keep your website fresh, with all the latest technical wizardry a rather fabulous thing…
    • SEO – ah, the old search engine optimisation argument. In fact, we think our earlier point about WordPress websites figuring high in the rankings more than blows this point out of the water…

    For those that knock WordPress we think you are trying to kick an open door; it is a futile exercise! Take another look at what this platform can offer your business.

  • “Jingle bells, Jingle bells…”

    Christmas WebdesignWE love Christmas here at Locally! Any excuse to wear a dodgy looking jumper and extra sparkle for a day. A bright hiatus in an otherwise grey month, we dream of snow and crisp blue skies.

    As we bask in the driest September since 1960, you may have noticed that there are the odd reference here and there to Christmas. Yet to take hold, we all know that by the time the clocks change, the retail industry will be in full Christmas swing.

    Just take a look at your personal Facebook or other social media site and will see the odd Christmas graphic creeping in, telling you that you have less than ‘x number of Saturday’s’ before the arrival of the festive period. But, before we get there and you once again wear the jumper you will never wear again, let us think about all the things you have to do… and add one more to your list;

    Calling all of our online, local businesses who have products and services to sell: check your website.

    BUT, before you go plunging ahead with the following suggestions for a spruce up of your website before the Christmas rush, we need to mention a pro and a con of this…

    • PRO: the money you make during the Christmas rush will be a large % of your overall turnover
    • CON: don’t make rash decisions. Think carefully before you opt to change anything…

    That said, we need to talk about your website… its content and the small little tweaks you could make in time for the Christmas rush. But, you won’t have a Christmas rush if you website is a bit squiffy so here goes;

    It makes perfect sense to me!

    But does it to everyone else?! One sure fire way of getting some honest (brutal) feedback is to get a friend or relative to be a critical shopper. How is it really to find what a customer wants or needs? Is the checkout process clunky?

    Real life example – we have seen a local cattery and kennel who give cats and dogs a great holiday while the folks are away and yet their website and marketing material has a picture of rabbits on it. Do they take rabbits for holidays? No. So why have rabbits on your website…? We suspect to fill a space.

    In other words, is your website easy to use and easy to buy from?

    Does your website ‘say’ what is needs to?

    Rather than just looking at your content, look at the overall image that is conveyed by your website and bear in mind your target audience. If you attempting to appeal to parents, does it look like a trusted website? Are the goods and products on offer, offered in a way that says ‘buy me with confidence’?

    A longer term project, but what about your descriptions and photos? Good quality or due for a change.

    NEVER underestimate the appeal factor your website must have…

    Overboard design

    This could be a whole separate post in itself but if you design needs tweaking then you need to get someone with a fabulous design eye to take a look. The festive season is not an excuse to go overboard with dancing snowmen and an abundance of snowflakes, flashing away when someone lands on your page.

    You have 3 seconds from the moment someone lands on your website to make the right impression… or they simply go away!

    ‘Buy NOW’/ ‘Click here’/ ‘Add to basket’/Buy 2, get the 3rd free…

    What do the four above phrases have in common? They are all calls to action and, even though we know that consumers are not dunces, psychologically they need permission, guidance, direct instructions – call it want you want – to buy your product or services. You may have a lovely description about how your locally made produce is the best, but are you telling them to ‘buy it now before stock run out’?

    If not, why not?!

    What’s that smell…?

    It could be your stale content. Sorry. There is no other way to say it but your content can ‘go off’ after a while. Not only does Google like to see fresh, bountiful content but so do consumers. If they visit a few times and keep seeing the same thing, they’ll start asking if there is anyone at the other end… keep the rolling news bit going, get the blogs happening, update the welcome etc.

    A short term solution that could add some sparkle but this is no excuse to blunder on in and change everything.

    Be realistic about what you can achieve and do smaller portions of you website well, rather than a whole quick change that is not right.

    Smartphone compatibility

    Figures vary, but 75% of consumers may, at frequent intervals use their mobile to do their shopping online and so if your website is not fit for this, you may be losing a valuable number of potential customers.

    Bits don’t work…

    … and finally, if you do nothing else this side of Christmas, you simply must check that all the bits and bobs work, like your social media buttons. Not only do broken bits and bobs send a negative message to your potential customer, it also means that they are missing out on the more social aspects of your company or brand – if they can’t like you Facebook page or follow you on Twitter, then you are missing out on a growing audience.

    The pre-Christmas summary is this:

    • Get someone to take an objective look at how easy it to find products and buy through your website

    • Chivvy up the content but rather than going wholesale, pick the parts that could be improved

    • Keep blogging and adding content

    • Check ALL the important bits and bobs work – and keep doing that

    • You have 3 seconds to make the right impression…

  • Could your social media presence mean more sales in 2015…

    Thumb Up Sign

    …and how your SEO plan will look like to harness your audience

    Now that the summer sun and heat (!) have started to cool, the Christmas countdown has started and, dear reader, you will be pleased to know we are around 100 days away from the festive season where we are all jolly, ruddy cheeked and over-stuffed.

    However, as we gear up to the time of year that the majority of our online retail businesses make their money, we take a sneaky peek in to what 2015 could offer us…

    … and it seems that the next ‘big thing’ will be the growth in sales from social media. In fact, back in 2012, experts and industry commentators were predicting that by 2015, social media was going to burst in terms of increased revenue and, that the shopping experience would improve immensely over time.

    It seems that someone, somewhere has been doing some number crunching too – predictions are that by the end of next year, almost half of the sales will be generated by social media and that, for online, local businesses, could be worth thousands and thousands of pounds.

    And which social media platform could hold the balance…?

    Facebook.

    Love it or hate it, the social media platform’s power seem to keep growing and the numbers of consumers it is referring to businesses is set to increase. Thus far, statistics suggest that it send around 25% of referral traffic to businesses and so if you are not on Facebook, or perhaps do not harness it as much as you could, the tail end of 2014, just before the Christmas rush, could be the right time.

    It seems that having a fan base on Facebook for your brand will pay dividends – 80% of your Facebook followers are likely to buy from you through your offers compared to 41% who are not your followers – the moral of this story? Start growing your fan base and offer them some great offers and discounts!

    Recommendations are just as important too, so ask people to like and share as again, 70% of your followers will apparently do this, compared to ‘strangers’.

    You also need to keep an eye on your competitors and check out how well you are performing on social media compared to them…

    • Around ⅓ of online, small and local businesses have a Facebook page or presence
    • Being on social media of this kind can also decrease marketing costs meaning your sales revenue takes less of a hit with expenses
    • The reach of Facebook and many other social media platforms is huge BUT, don’t forget that it is not just there to sell at all costs! Don’t forget to have a mix of offers, discounts and interesting links and ideas.

    Not the only social media platform…

    But, Facebook is not the ‘be all and end all’ of online selling and sharing platforms, and whilst predictions are that its power and focus will grow in 2015, it is important to keep an eye on other predictions that could affect your local, online business;

    • The ‘humble’ mobile is no longer ‘humble’ –Smartphones are everywhere and predictions are that during 2015, 50% of web traffic will be through consumers using their phones. Is your website mobile friendly? If not, you need to tap into this lucrative opportunity.
    • Be social! – Just as we have talked about social signals before and how some people refute that Google takes any notice of this social signals, it seems at odds with the prediction that 2015 will see social media grow increasingly dominant in the world of search engine optimisation. Take a look at your social media presence – is it working?
    • Email marketing is here to stay – But, if you think that a Facebook page and the odd Tweet will be enough, you’d be wrong! But, any email marketing you do will need to be more consumer focused, as well as personalised and targeted. This is simply because as web users, we are being increasingly bombarded with information and data.
    • Real-time – We are impatient, no more so than when it comes to buying something or asking for help; predictions are that response from companies to consumers will increasingly become in real time in 2015 – none of this “we aim to respond in 5 working days…” lark!
    • Content in context – We have been saying for some time now that your content needs to be of quality, with any keywords or phrases well placed within the article or post – and we have been proved right! 2015 promises to be the year that if your keyword sticks out like a sore thumb, you’ll be bounced back past page 10 in the search engine pages! You really do need to be using words and phrases in a way that is semantically correct – in other words, written and used in the right way.

    Don’t get left behind in 2015…

    • Search engine optimisation will be essential
    • If your website is lumpy, complex to use and just s-l-o-w, then Google will take no notice of it
    • Quality content that is fresh!

    Don’t wait until 2015!

    However, there are still 100 days to Christmas and so this is what you need to do:

    ü  Take a look NOW at your website and see what small maintenance ‘jobs’ can be done to refine it

    ü  Spruce up the content now

    ü  Look longer term: sort out the site for mobile

    ü  Use your social media platforms to good effect

    ü  Look longer term – get that online strategy written!

  • Tempus Fugit! How do you charge for your time?

    Website Design WokingTime does truly fly.

    We’ve all seen the usual photos of friend’s children, scrubbed clean after the summer holidays ready for the new school term, posted on Facebook in crisp clean uniforms, with comments underneath that usually say something along the lines of, “where has the time gone?!”

    But, time flying past can have a serious consequence; if a project is bleeding time, you are losing money…

    Bleeding time?!

    Sounds painful and unnecessary but when we say this we mean effectively undercharging for the amount of time you spend on a project. In fact, it can be quite a wake up call. Especially when you come across a program that can link what you input on the timesheet with creating an accurate invoice…

    However, like most things, the internet has the answer; there are a plethora of applications and software that can effectively and efficiently track the amount of time you spend on a project.

    How do you charge for your time?

    Go on, admit it! You hazard a guess and, at best, hope that it hits the mark. You probably don’t bother re-negotiating for the odd few minutes here and there of the over time you do but, if you can see the project running and running you will, hopefully, re-negotiate a better deal.

    If you are a one-man band, this may be OK-ish; when problems can become apparent is when it comes to leaking time (and therefore, money) is when you have a team of people working on various projects at once.

    Which is why you may need one of the many online applications or programs to help you note the amount of time each employee spend on each project or assignment.

    The cloud computing options

    Remember our article on cloud computing? Well this is a great way of investing in programs that do not need downloading or expensive updates. These time sheet type applications can be free but other charge a monthly fee for their use.

    Of course, as with all things, you need to research each of these applications thoroughly, checking that what they offer for the price you can afford is something useful; don’t be bamboozled into spending money you don’t have!

    Likewise, as with all cloud applications etc., check out the security too; online reviews are a great place to start for which timesheet programs could be a contender for your business.

    Some ideas…

    There are some great online timesheets that can function from a basic timesheet, to setting up projects so that more than one employee can input their time for each project. This way you can see what time is being spent on each portion of a project; you can then adjust your quotation system but also assess if there are some aspects that can be streamlined to make them flow quicker.

    We’ve come across some great applications, all with varying degrees of complexities including Basecamp www.basecamp.com and Timegenie www.thetimegenie.com

    One application that we find useful is Toggl. Not only do you complete timesheet per project but they can also be used to create invoices – meaning you streaming the amount of time spent on creating invoices – take a look https://www.toggl.com/tour/web

    Who could Toggl be useful for?

    Anybody who charges by a ‘time unit’ and is intended for anyone who wants an overview of time spent on projects. It bills itself as an easy-to-use programme that can be up and running within minutes.

    They draw their customers from across a wide sectors of industry and from across the globe, including consultants, book-keepers, designers, students for example and they also say they have  small to large businesses using their application too – from charities, not-for-profit organisations to big, global companies.

    Security and reliability

    We have all, however, been in that dreadful position when we have tried to use an online program to complete a simple, yet essential task only to find that we are attempting to do so when there is essential maintenance or a glitch in the system.

    So when checking for security and reliability with any cloud service is that they are duplicated and backed up – so if the night time cleaner inadvertently pulls the plug, your important data is not lost.

    You will also find, like Toggl does, that cloud services talk about ‘uptime’ and you are looking for a high percentage of time – Toggl say they have an uptime of 99.9%, with data backed up every 12 hours, as well as being encrypted and stored in several separate locations. All in all, it seems that they take security and reliability seriously.

    Should you pay? Or is free good enough?

    Depending on what you want to use the service force, and how complex you need the functions to be, there may be a charge but, in all honesty, the majority of cloud services such as timesheet and connected invoicing are reasonable.

    You will also find that many of these application and programs reel you in with a 30 day free trial for example but look out for…

    • Contracts, termination fees and the like which may mean that once signed up, you are tied in for months…
    • There are discounts available with many of these online services, such as for charities, not for profit organisations, students etc. as well as for larger companies
    • As easy as they say they are to use, you may struggle with some features – what is the support like? Is there a cost to this?
    • Many are run from countries across the globe – if you are on a different time zone, how does support work then? It will be no good if you have a burning question but it can’t be answered as the sun’s not up in America yet…
    • Synchronicity is great too and so you may want to check if you can access it or have updates etc. across the range of technology you use

    Is it for you?

    It could be and with a bit of research and some tome spent getting to know the program, you could find that you actually charge for the time spent on a project!