The first and most important stage of any website SEO campaign is the keyword research. If your keyword research is flawed and you identify words which are either too competitive for your budget, or which don’t attract a high enough search volume, you will effectively be fighting a losing battle from the start. Some companies will make the mistake of determining their keywords without carrying out any research. Considering how quickly keyword research can be carried out, this can prove to be an incredibly costly mistake. You may think you know your industry inside and out, but it is likely you will not think of the products and services you offer in the same way as your customers. It is possible to spend thousands on website SEO which targets keywords that there is absolutely no market for, and in so doing miss out on those little niches which can bring you some easy gains.
Long-tail keywords
Long-tail keywords are usually those which represent niches in the market. So where as the most obvious keywords which will be the most searched for but also the most competitive, a good long-tail keyword will still attract a good search volume, but with far less competition to battle against. If you operate as a florist then if your website SEO targets highly competitive keywords like ‘florist’, or ‘buy flowers online’, then you will find yourself competing against some of the biggest names in your industry, and may not feature until around page 20 of Google, even after a long-term website SEO campaign. Alternatively, as a smaller retailer it would make much more sense to target a niche with a long-tail keyword, which may not have quite the same search volume, but will make you show up on page one rather than page 15 and will consequently experience far greater traffic.
Identifying niches
Niches can often be identified by long-tail keywords i.e. those including two or more words. These usually identify users who are already knowledgeable about a particular product or service and are further through the decision making process. By targeting these words you are far more likely to find consumers who are ready to make a purchase. Broader keywords are used by searchers at the very beginning of the decision making process and are more likely to be carrying out a bit of research rather than being ready to make a purchase. In the case of our florist, a long-tail keyword like ‘mother’s day flower bouquet’ is likely to be far more profitable in the early days of a website SEO campaign than a broad keyword like ‘florist’.
But remember – there’s more than one way to skin a cat!
A good SEO website campaign will have a mixture of broad keywords as long-term aims with long tail keywords providing the quick wins along the way.
For further information on long-tail keywords and other website SEO techniques, please do not hesitate to contact our friendly website SEO team here at Designer Websites.
When you’ve got a new business idea or are determined to lead your existing business into the digital age, it is all too easy to be carried away with the excitement of it all. However, it is so important to take stock when choosing your team of website developers. It is these decisions early on which will make or break your business further down the line.
The best websites are often the most simple in nature. They provide all the information needed, but no more or less. Such websites will usually have a higher conversion rate as there are fewer distractions present for the consumer. The key to a successful team of website developers is creating a site with the right amount of content, is visually appealing and simple to navigate.
Let’s have a look at a few common mistakes website developers often make:
Too much content
A grave error indeed. High quality copy is essential as it helps to build a trusting relationship with your customer base. It is worth paying for the services of a good copywriter and fully briefing them on the ins and outs of your business, helping them to craft the words which carry the sentiment of your business directly to the end user. It is certainly worth paying for a specialist copywriter rather than doing it yourself. No more than 500-600 words should be on any one page; if possible even less. Say what needs to be said and not a word more. Web consumers scroll through pages looking for the information they need, so writing a thesis will be entirely counter-productive.
Confusing navigation
Stick with what works and don’t try to be fancy. Sometimes as website developers it is nice to be able to show off a little and really show what you can do, but website navigation is not the place. Web users are trained to expect dropdown menus at the top of the site which make it simple to manoeuvre through the site. Anything else will likely lead to confusion. Internal links are also important wherever another page is referenced. You should also ensure a Homepage link is always within reach.
TMI lead forms
Nobody wants to spend their time filling out forms; at least we hope not. Too much information (TMI) lead forms should be avoided at all costs. If a customer is filling out a lead form then they are already interested in the services or products your business offers. The last thing your website developers should be doing is reversing this decision with a clunky lead form which takes forever to fill in. This will reverse the trust your great copy, visual appeal and simple navigation managed to create.
All these points are important but ultimately you will need to strike a balance between design, SEO effectiveness and the user experience for whilst too much information can be off-putting, not enough can be detrimental, so a good balance and clear message is required.
To speak to website developers with the knowledge and experience to know exactly what makes your website sell, call Designer Websites. Our website developers have the technical know-how and intricate understanding of search engine optimisation to bring you the traffic and conversion rates your site needs.
It has been well over 2 years since we updated our own website, so back in March we decided to get on with a new design, however we have struggled since then with our schedule to fit in completing the work, anyway now we are finally at a point where our new design can go live. We believe that the new website is more informative as well as being more attractive.
We have purposely designed our website to provide a more tailored and rewarding experience for our users, depending of course on what they are looking for. We acknowledge that no client will want to read the entire site instead they will likely be looking for a specific service relevant to their needs, so for example they might be looking for an ecommerce website designer, so they hit the ecommerce specific page which provides them with a little information followed by 5 case studies to assist in their decision process. Here's how it looks..
We think the design looks great and the examples provide enough information, without going over the top, to assist potential clients with their decision to use us for their next website.
You may have also noticed that we have integrated our promotional products and promotional clothing ecommerce websites, take a look we are very proud of these sites.. Promotional Clothing
Of course being the website optimisation specialist we have optimised our own website to rank for keyword terms like websites designer, ecommerce websites, website optimisation and many many more. We obviously rank extremely well for local terms like website design cardiff or ecommerce websites Cardiff but now we need to improve our ranking on a national scale.
If you have any opinions we'd love to hear them, but please keep them constructive! Thanks for reading.
We have just launched a new website for a flooring specialist company. Floormaker sell laminate flooring, solid wood flooring, cork tiles and engineered wood flooring and all at very competitive prices.
The company approached Designer Websites for an ecommerce website that would give them flexibility, scalability, a great image online and most importantly they approached us for an optimised ecommerce website, for which we have a reputation which is second to none. The ecommerce website that we created not only looks good but has a bespoke content management system, is integrated with SagePay, has a bespoke product review system and a very functional and bespoke product filter system. All-in-all the website is precisely what the company were looking for and provides the carefully considered buying journey that they wanted for their potential customers.
The website is brand new at this stage but we expect it to do extremely well in the near future. Click here and take a look for yourself!
In the initial stages of website design designers look into browser consumption and which browsers are in favour with the targeted web users. This helps designers to use the relevant code to ensure their pages look good and function well within each browser’s interface.
It can be a real challenge to keep track of what the browser market is doing. Firefox 5, Chrome 12, and Opera 11.5 were all released last month with more updates expected in the near future. Updates are also hard to track down with many browsers set to auto-update and others set to never update or to receive updates manually. This can make website design harder than ever and a lot of testing at the development stage is often required.
The big news for anyone involved in website design is that July has seen the usage of Google Chrome rise above the 20% mark for the very first time. Microsoft IE is still currently the big daddy of the browser world, but with Google firmly on their heels things could be changing in a big way which will impact website design and development.
This June saw Google Chrome 11 topple Firefox 3.6 to become the world’s second favoured browser. However, the release of Google 12 has caused a split in Google’s user-base and Firefox 4.0 has now regained its second place position.
It’s not all good news for Mozilla though; Firefox experienced a drop of almost 1% in its user-base in June which was three times that of IE and one of the biggest declines Firefox has experienced in its lifetime. The reasons are not clear. Whilst Firefox 4 and 5 have been well received they have not stopped Google’s popularity or progress. Maybe the updates and changes were a little on the radical side for some. Those involved in the website design game have certainly been scratching their heads wondering which browser is going to give Microsoft a run for their money.
When it comes to good website design it pays to keep on top of the latest browser developments including updates and new releases. This will ensure the correct coding and formatting of pages is carried out and that the user experience is uniform across all major browsers including IE, Chrome, Firefox and Opera.
