5 Tips for Lincolnshire Businesses Struggling with Ecommerce

Online Selling

The value of selling goods online has never been more apparent. As more consumers choose to shop from the comfort of their own homes, businesses must adapt. Traditional in-store sales have their charm, but if you’re looking to expand your market and reach, selling online is the way to go.

Simply put, when you sell products online, your customer base becomes virtually limitless. You’re no longer confined to the boundaries of your local area. Whether it’s a handcrafted pottery piece from Lincolnshire reaching an art lover in Tokyo or a bottle of homebrewed ale making its way to a craft beer enthusiast in New York, the internet brings the world to your doorstep.

Moreover, the round-the-clock availability of online stores is an advantage that physical stores just can’t compete with. This convenience, coupled with the ability to compare products and prices in a few clicks, makes online shopping a preferred choice for many.

But how do you get your local products to achieve global recognition? The answer lies in harnessing the power of social media marketing. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok have revolutionised the way businesses reach their customers.

Social media marketing offers a treasure trove of advertising possibilities. It lets you zero in on a specific audience based on their interests, demographics, or even their online behaviour. This ability to target your advertising so precisely allows businesses to reach a wider audience while still maintaining relevancy.

Moreover, the shareability of social media content can make your local product an internet sensation overnight. A catchy post, an engaging video, or even a well-placed hashtag can lead to your product being shared and re-shared, generating a buzz that could take your local product to the global market.

Interactivity is another huge plus of social media marketing. Direct engagement with your audience can create a loyal customer base and a sense of community around your brand. Responding to comments, answering queries, and handling customer concerns all contribute to creating a brand image that consumers can connect with.

Navigating the world of online sales may seem overwhelming, but fear not.

Five simple tips to help Lincolnshire businesses sell products online

  1. Optimise Your Website: Ensure your website is user-friendly, mobile-optimised, and fast-loading. These elements are crucial for a smooth customer experience and play a significant role in influencing purchasing decisions.
  2. Create Engaging Social Media Content: Social media is your ticket to global recognition. Focus on creating high-quality, engaging content that resonates with your target audience and is sharable to a wider audience. Video content is especially impactful due to its immersive nature and potential for virality.
  3. Leverage Social Media Advertising: Social media platforms offer robust advertising tools that allow you to target your ads based on specific demographics and interests. This helps you reach a wider audience, increasing your chances of converting them into customers.
  4. Embrace Customer Engagement: Interact with your online customers. Respond to their comments, address their queries, and take their feedback seriously. This not only builds trust but also fosters a sense of community around your brand.
  5. Work with a Local Expert: Consider collaborating with a local company like Drive By Websites Ltd for creating and managing your eCommerce website. A local company understands the unique characteristics of the Lincolnshire market and can offer personalised solutions to fit your needs.

Transitioning your business from traditional in-store sales to online selling, and taking advantage of social media marketing, are vital steps in today’s marketplace. It’s more than just expanding your customer base; it’s about moving with the times and embracing new opportunities. So get online, get social, and watch your local product turn into a global sensation.

Digital Accessibility in Lincolnshire: A Must for an Ageing Population

Digital

As a web design and digital services provider rooted in Lincolnshire, we understand the unique demographic realities of our region. Lincolnshire has a substantial older population, with roughly 170,000 people aged 65 and over. With an ageing populace and projections indicating an increase of 25% by 2030, it becomes crucial to ensure that digital platforms are not just accessible, but also intuitive and user-friendly for all.

Digital accessibility, put simply, is about making the online world available to everyone, regardless of any physical or cognitive impairments they might have. This is particularly pertinent for our ageing community in Lincolnshire. As we move towards an increasingly digital society, it is paramount that older people are not left behind in this shift.

Websites, apps, and online services must be designed and developed so that they are easy to use for individuals who may have visual, hearing, cognitive, or motor impairments. From straightforward navigation structures, larger, legible text, to compatibility with assistive technologies, these considerations become crucial in designing inclusive digital platforms.

Moreover, for older adults, who might be less familiar with the latest technology, the importance of digital accessibility is even more pronounced. Simple, intuitive interfaces that don’t require a steep learning curve are key to ensuring they can engage with online services comfortably.

An accessible website is not just about inclusivity, it is also about reaching a wider audience. For businesses in Lincolnshire, ensuring digital accessibility means reaching a substantial segment of the local market that is often overlooked.

At Drive By Websites Ltd, we place digital accessibility at the heart of our web design process. We understand that our web solutions must cater to Lincolnshire’s unique demographic makeup. By incorporating accessibility principles, we ensure that the websites we design and develop are not just compliant with regulations but are genuinely usable for our older population, providing them with the opportunity to engage fully in our digital society.

The future of Lincolnshire is digital, and it’s our mission to ensure that everyone, irrespective of their age or ability, can be part of that future. With strategic design and a focus on digital accessibility, we aim to make the internet a place for all.

Digital Accessibility Options

At this stage, we have provided countless solutions to aid website accessibility. We have a range of available services and features that can help you engage a wider portion of your audience. Please contact us to discuss upgrades or ideas for your own website.

Lincolnshire Website Development in 2023

Lincolnshire Website Development

In today’s digital age, having a strong online presence is crucial for businesses of all sizes and industries. This is especially true for businesses based in Lincolnshire, as more and more consumers are turning to the internet to research products and services before making a purchase. Investing in your business website is one of the most effective ways to ensure that you are reaching as many potential customers as possible, and to ensure that your business stays competitive in today’s fast-paced digital landscape.

Read more

Search Term Trends – SEO You Need To Know

We recently featured a video on our social media profiles to show our customers a great trick for simply finding the best search terms for their SEO and content.

In this blog, we are going to go even further to explain what to do and why this matters for your business.

Analysing a search term for SEO is easy!

Let's get started by considering what search terms you believe you would expect people to type into Google to look for businesses like yours. In the video, I used the example of a bookshop. Four terms stood out as being the most expected search terms:

  • Bookshop
  • Book shop
  • Bookstore
  • Book store

We also analyse the popularity of terms in our own industry. It has been important for us to compare terms like 'Logo design' to 'Graphic Design' or 'Website Design' to 'Web Design'.

Now compare the terms using the Google Trends website (trends.google.com).

With this data, you can easily determine the most popular search term. This may not actually represent the highest value search term for your business however. If the search term is highly popular but there are significantly more search results for that term than others, it may be possible to find an easier route to the top. This can be done by comparing search results with the next most popular search term.

In the bookshop example it was quickly discovered that 'bookshop' is the most popular search term, and conveniently this happens to be the least competed for search term. The results below show the term followed by the number of results in the search engine:

 

Results data

 

This is the best result possible for SEO and content marketing, as it will now confirm that 'bookshop' is the highest value search term. The next step for many people will be to analyse every possible combination of terms that could be interchangeable in the search engine. Perhaps you need to compare your service terminologies or even a common misspelling/American spelling?

It's important to understand that without analysis like this, you could be spending time and money on the wrong content and keywords. If you need help taking your content and SEO to the next level, we can conduct more in depth analysis for your business or even put some of this valuable data into practice with your SEO. For more support contact us.

Struggling to write content for your new or existing website?

If you're happy with your keywords but struggling to write new content, you should check out our other recent video on writing hundreds of words of content quickly and easily.

Is It Too Late To Upgrade? Websites in 2020

website upgrade covid

Our blog earlier this year, ‘Redevelop and Remain Productive‘, was intended to remind people that it’s never been more important to have an up to date website. The opening line reads:

“If you find yourself debating how you will remain productive during this difficult period, we suggest you start with your website.”

As we head into 2021, I am confident your business will continue to face new challenges with the same resilience that so many of our clients have. However, if you did not get round to your website, perhaps your competitors did?

It might be time to take a look over your competition online and check you’re still on the cutting edge. If you aren’t providing sufficient opportunity for your customers to help you through this difficult period, your business and Google ranking will suffer. We have been helping our clients analyse their competition from around the country in order to help keep them focus their priorities. While different sectors vary greatly, there has been a huge uptake in instant engagement systems.

Businesses that had previously focused their attention on social media adapted incredibly well, with many find opportunities for higher engagement. Examples of this were offerings of support into their communities. These contributions to support causes and charities were exposed to a captive audience over the lockdown and for many this was perfect advertising. That heightened engagement carried over to websites, with many more businesses using integrated social media messaging and live chat systems.

Businesses that had not previously used social media or had neglected it are finding their customer engagement is still not returning to normal. Expanding your online offering could be one of the simplest ways to adapt to the changing times. We can take care of all of your requirements and make it as simple as possible for your team to adjust to.

“We might not be running if our website wasn’t ready before the lockdown and we just wanted to say how thankful we are. You took us out of the dark ages!”

A live chat facility offers a simple faceless contact window for website visitors to acquire quick answers to their questions. If you are not available to answer these live chat queries, you could opt for an Automated Chat Bot. These are growing very popular on websites and Facebook pages. The information you can capture from these passing customers may be very valuable to your business. It will also help you improve your website as customers will inform you where your content could be improved.

If you rather speaking to your customers, there’s an option for that too. Smartphone users are very unlikely to scroll down and read a whole load of content wording and then send you an email, especially if there’s a lengthy form to complete. Because your mobile visitors are already holding their phone, allow them to call you with one simple touch of the button. No more copy-and-pasting or memorising the phone number for your customers.

Here To Help

If you’re short of ideas, we’re here to help. The generic advice we post on our blog relates to as many businesses and organisations as possible. We can provide highly specific advice based on your customers needs and competitor analysis. Contact us for more information on how you can enhance and improve your website.

Website Designer Spalding

Boston Website Development

The Problems with Freelance Web Designers and One Man Bands

freelance developer spalding

New clients in areas such as Spalding, Holbeach, Peterborough or Boston always come with new stories. Unfortunately, they often sounds quite familiar. Many clients have already worked with a developer before, a freelancer. Perhaps having even worked with a developer they were originally very happy with. In the end, there’s a number of problems that inevitably arise. We’ve tried to narrow it down to just a few:

  1. Poor Quality Work – It’s hardly a surprise that scarcely qualified developers working in their spare time aren’t able to meet the same quality expectations of many potential clients. It’s very often what’s happening behind the scenes that reveals this. For example, one of our new clients had found that their beautifully designed website was not hitting the rankings as they had hoped. After we had moved it onto one of our servers, we quickly discovered that this is because the website was clearly rushed together in the shortest possible time. Often, all of the developer’s effort goes in to the look of the website. This is likely because they are not specialists in the field, but enthusiasts.
  2. Missing Deadlines – Other commitments are a big problem with freelancers and one man band website designers. One might wonder why an expert would not start establish a company on the back of a good reputation. This rarely happens because they are committed to other companies or even entirely different jobs. There are exceptions of course, but in general this tendency of missing deadlines is very common. In the experience of many of our clients, these individuals undercut the competition and start with overwhelming enthusiasm but that rapidly becomes irrelevant as soon as another commitment comes along. Specifically consider the need to upgrade or update a quality website in order to achieve the best possible results, even if the developer does publish the website on time.
  3. The Freelancer Disappears – Yes, this is a horror story you’ve probably heard before. This is commonly known because it is so frequent. The lack of commitment and often poor reputation mean a one man band can do even better by leaving the area without saying a word. This can leave your business in a VERY tricky situation, especially if your website is not yet finished. Now suppose the developer is still very keen and wants to continue to support your business long term, it’s still not what you had bargained for. You can’t drop in or get a quick response, you’re just locked in to a very fragile arrangement.

Exceptions exist and we are confident that you’ll make decisions that are right for your business, but keep the above problems in mind if you’re considering a freelance website developer. If you’re looking to move your website to a local company with a commitment to every client then we would be very happy to help.

How does a Page Builder stack up to a Web Developer?

Free Website Builder

Almost all our clients come to us knowing exactly what they are looking for. Generally, it’s something like this:

  • They want someone to build a website
  • They want someone they know and can trust to build a website
  • They want to be able to drop in and see their chosen web developers when it suits them
  • They want something bespoke for their business, and not a generic template
  • They want to be able to discuss web development options and choose what’s right for them
  • They want the development to continue for years to come and not stop once the website is live

All our clients fit into this list somewhere, but there continues to be new customers that need to be convinced of these benefits first. We don’t push our services on anyone and often I’ll just direct people to where to research the benefits of real web development over a cheap page builder. In some cases, I’ll even recommend that they use a page builder at first and come back to Drive By Websites once they have outgrown it. These cheap page builders on Wix, Godaddy or 123-Reg have their benefits. They’re easy to work on and they aren’t much on the pocket either. But that’s as much as you can expect, the benefits end there.

Website Builder (cheap/free) vs Drive By Websites In Spalding

Our services include optimising websites. From as early as the initial design stage we’re implementing ideas and trying to focus on SEO strategies to enhance the potential reach of the site. Further still, we implement the tools to allow our clients to take SEO into their own hands. Now, there is some training and a learning curve involved but we aren’t working by the hour and we’ll take as much time as it takes to get our clients geared up to make continuous improvements to their websites.

We also put all our website design costs up front. This is where the page builders have gained a very bad reputation. Suppose you’ve got a nice simple website to get you going, you then want to go live. Already you’ll incur costs as they want to throw in a domain cost and a connection cost. Then you’ll find it’s not high enough in Google, so they offer you an SSL certificate for even more cost. Over time these issues will arise and leave you wondering why you had started with the page builder in the first place. It is likely still cheaper in the end, but you’ll certainly not be trusting your host like you should.

The main issue, above all else, is these page builders are missing all the fundamentals named at the top of the page. All the priorities for almost all our clients are missing from the page builder offering. I would still go as far as to say it’s just scratching the surface because the technical advantages of our systems over these page builders are endless. Nonetheless, that isn’t often what matters most for our clients.

For more information on what we offer or the technical benefits of our systems, give us a call on 01775 761512.

What Are the Benefits of a Blog?

blogging

Continuous fresh content will mean Google needs to regularly index your site and is also a consideration when Google decides how to rank your website in search results. If your website doesn’t contain a lot of content, or any fresh content, a blog would be the perfect way to achieve this while also target specific keywords.

While it isn’t easy to commit to a blog, keep in mind that it may only be a weekly or biweekly update that is all you need to start increasing visitors. If don’t know where to start, try creating a list of different content opportunities. We regularly suggest using testimonials as blog posts, as they usually contain excellent keywords but also don’t require any writing time for the blogger. You can also use events, industry news and business changes.

How does this bring a return in visitors? As well as ranking new pages into Google, a good blog psot can also receive social media shares and links from other websites. All of this will also increases your ‘Domain Authority’, where Google considers your site a higher authority than your competition.

If you would like more information or a quote to get set up with a blog, or for us to blog for you, give us a call on 01775 761512.

Google’s been busy. Has your hosting provider?

Google Hosting

Google has been busy in the last year with:

  • 1,653 new search changes
  • 9,800 live traffic experiments
  • 18,015 side-by-side experiments
  • 130,336 search quality tests

What we don’t know is how many of those 1,653 new search changes are algorithmic or ranking changes. Those would be the changes that impact you and your business. There is believed to be over 200 ranking factors working to compare your site with your competitors. When changes are made to these many factors, webmasters are rarely quick to act. In fact, nearly all of the clients that move their website to our hosting servers are out of date in some form.

While you are keeping your content fresh and relevant, we are working all the time on making the most of that content. Upgrades to our systems take place on a weekly basis and allow your site to remain as relevant in two years as it was the day it went live.

Contact us regarding website transfers for a free quote and helpful advice.