Website updates Archives - Drive By Websites Ltd.

The Quintessentially British Guide to Quality Content for Business Websites

3rd May 2023 by driveby

Greetings, fellow entrepreneurs! In the age of digital tea and scones, having an online presence as vibrant as a summer’s day in the Cotswolds is essential for businesses of all shapes and sizes, even for those nestled in the charming nooks and crannies of the UK. Today, we’ll spill the tea on what represents quality content on business websites, and how you can make yours stand out like a proud red phone box. So, buckle up, grab your cuppa, and let’s dive into this jolly good adventure!

Relevant Keywords: The Perfect Blend of Service and Location

First things first, let’s talk about keywords. Just like a splendid cup of Earl Grey, the right blend of relevant keywords can make your website truly delightful. To help potential customers find your business, it’s essential to include keywords specific to both your services and location. For example, if you own a lovely B&B in the Lake District, using keywords like “Lake District B&B” or “Lake District bed and breakfast” will ensure your establishment pops up when people search for a cosy place to rest their heads.

Video Content: The Ultimate Showstopper

Did you know that videos are the most engaging format for communication? In fact, they’re as captivating as a well-performed Morris dance. By incorporating video content on your website, you can showcase your business in a more dynamic and personal way. So, whether you create a virtual tour of your countryside inn or share behind-the-scenes footage of your artisan bakery, video content can make your website a true showstopper.

Quantity and Readability: The Great British Balancing Act

Finally, we can’t talk about quality content without addressing the delicate balance between quantity and readability. While it’s true that having a good amount of content is essential for search engine optimisation (SEO), one mustn’t overdo it like an overenthusiastic village fête organiser. Too much text can make your website seem cluttered, and nobody wants to wade through an ocean of words to find the information they need.

To master the great British balancing act, focus on creating clear, concise, and informative content. Use headings and bullet points to make your text easy to navigate, and always remember that quality trumps quantity. After all, a well-written, informative paragraph can be more effective than an entire page of waffle!

Advert Landing Pages – Website Design Tips

30th December 2021 by driveby

Did you know you should be creating a specific landing page for every ad campaign?

In this post, we’ll take a closer look at why landing pages are so important for your adverts.

Many advertisers only focus on the ads themselves when creating campaigns. Many businesses focus on ensuring that their ads comply with advertising policies. However if you create and engaging enough ad, you will generate visitors to a page on your website. Never miss the opportunity to take advantage of being able to create a perfect website landing pages, registration pages, squeeze pages, sales pages, or whatever you might call it.

You can create highly targeted ads that quickly build your mailing list, offer free consultations, coupon codes, events, giveaways/competitions, and many other incentives but the process has to be clear. You have guided customers to a page, now you must guide them through their next steps.

To avoid a low conversion rate, don’t force customers to search for the product or content they are looking for. Don’t use generic website pages or irrelevant landing pages that are specifically targeting your ad visitors.

A good website today is not necessarily one that is well planned or has a trendy design. The focus has shifted to clarity and content. You can draw inspiration from the latest trends, but make sure your design choices are based not only on your preferences. The focus should be on decisions that positively influence your customers’ behaviour.

So, What Is A Good Landing Page?

– A video that explaining the product/service
– A simple and prominent call to action button (buy, get a quote, contact us etc)
– A live chat function with an on hand sales representative
– A selection of reviews, partners and awards

Website Ads Support – Find us in Spalding

Give us a call if you’re still struggling. Drive By Websites Ltd can help you build website landing pages, create Pay Per Click campaigns, design bespoke graphics, and send mailshots. Whatever you need, we’re here to help. Give us a call on 01775 761512, contact us online or visit us at 14 Bear Lane, Pinchbeck, Spalding, Lincolnshire PE11 3XA.

Adding Value To Your Website – From One Page To Ecommerce

2nd November 2021 by driveby

It can undoubtedly be difficult to generate new content on the same topics regularly, but we are here to remind you of a few different ways to keep your site ranking highly in Google without always covering the same ground. Some suggestions might be new to you and as always we’re here to help. Here are a few suggestions for how to rethink your website content:

In 2021, YouTube is quickly becoming one of the most valuable marketing platforms to share useful or engaging content with returning/potential customers. Social video content in general is easily accessible on mobile devices without the extra effort of reading or scrolling. The same is true of your website. By connecting relevant search terms to your video and connecting the content to your website, customers can discover and follow your other content and website offerings.
You can use your website to help limit unpredictable customer service costs such as time spent answering social media enquiries or answering calls. With this your website can help provide a service to your customers and the business itself. As an example, Frequently asked questions (FAQ) areas can be a lot of work to write but will inevitably save time and money for your business.
Social media content is a perfect microcosm for your target customers to help determine the effectiveness and engagement of certain topics and content. With those valuable social media insights, you can expand on topics across your website and wider social network. From there, including prominent social sharing facilities on your website content is necessary to maximise the potential for visitors to share and attract new visitors.
You might think of writing relevant and engaging content as the only factor in achieving maximum value for money for your advertising and marketing, however your website can turn viewers into followers by offering newsletter subscriptions, coupon/discount sign ups and membership areas. A few simple tools on your website can even make this remarkably simple.
Social Giveaways can be vastly more engaging on social media than traditional content and fortunately it can be just as simple to write in valuable search terms and keywords for optimising your website. Services such as kingsumo actually make it even simpler to create landing pages for your giveaways that can attract entries for likes, follows, shares and email sign ups. With a bit of integration to your website, you’ll soon be able to regularly generate hundreds of extra followers and mailing list subscribers for little extra effort or expense than traditional content marketing.

Don’t leave your visitors hanging around or bouncing off your site, spend some time extracting as much value as possible from your website visitors.

Is Content Still King in 2021?

Over half of UK marketing companies prioritise blogging as their primary content marketing strategy. Clearly generating leads online is considerably easier when producing engaging and relevant content. When this is combined with other relevant value adding strategies such as the above examples, the process of acquiring and converting visitors into customers on your website has never been as effortless. It all starts with relevant original content. If you’re struggling to generate new ideas or exposure to the right demographics, we can help with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or implementing techniques such as those above. For businesses that are actively exploring content marketing opportunities, give us a call on 01775 761512 or contact us online.

Get Competitive on your Website Homepage

1st June 2021 by driveby

Video/Drone Footage

Accordions

Cloudflare Content Delivery

Blog Content

Automated Chat Bot for your Website and Facebook Page

5th February 2020 by driveby

In 2018 we heavily promoted the benefits of Live Chat facilities on website. At the time, research had found that customers respond very positively to the idea of a live chat over a contact form on a website. As well as this, employees using live chat features can productively engage with far more people at one time. But how can we top this in 2020?

Talking to multiple customers over the phone is clearly more time consuming than holding multiple live chats with your website visitors. However, the next productivity feature is here and it could make live chat boxes redundant in time.

Automated Chat Bot

Predefined questions and automated responses on your Website and Facebook Page.

We’ve written out a summary of what this interesting new trend actually offers to your business.

An automated chat bot can converse fluidly with website and Facebook users. Google’s Natural Language Processing allows the chat bot to provide realistic small talk and natural interaction that mimics the real world. Not only can they be programmed to manage your enquiries but It can also search your website, send contact details and provide user feedback.

These facilities are being improved all the time and already offer a significant competitive edge. Ultimately, it does a better job at converting visitors than your website does alone. It will still not replace manned live chat facilities for many companies but the limited time required makes the chat bot feature a serious consideration for overnight/weekend enquiries. With a chat bot you can sit back and collect more leads, conversions and satisfied customers without any effort.

Even predefined questions and answers alone will still generate more conversions than the ‘No one is Available to Chat’ message that can often be seen on a live chat box. So if you are considering an upgrade, give us a call on 01775 761512 or email [email protected]

Ecommerce – Moving Lincolnshire Magento 1 Sites to Magento 2

24th April 2019 by driveby

Switching to Magento 2

If you’re running an ecommerce website in Lincolnshire, it might be time to check with your hosts that you are future proof. We regularly have new clients in Spalding approach us with older ecommerce systems, unaware that their business and their customers are at risk. If they stay on an old system without receiving security patches, hackers will be more capable of gaining access to the hosting and website. The most prominent example we are seeing now is businesses running on Magento 1 systems. Now is the time to abandon Magento 1. The Magento 1 platform will reach ‘End of Life’ in June 2020. This means that all updates will cease, and your system will be considered expired. We advise you to invest effort in the migration to a newer platform, sooner rather than later.

Whether you’re working from a market town like Spalding or a city like Peterborough, Magento 2 is a costly build for lots of companies and this may be a big barrier to taking the next step. It’s not the only option. Magento is a very good platform but it’s often overkill. There are alternative platforms that offer security and stability long term. If you’re unsure where to look next then give us a call.

We use a variety of systems depending on their intended purpose. This includes using Magento on larger ecommerce sites or scalable sites with larger intentions. The countdown to 2020 can be an opportunity to explore the features, performance and security enhancements provided by the range of future proof platforms, including Magento 2.

For more information on how to get moving, contact us on 01775 761512 or email [email protected]

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Making Progress with Website Content – Refreshing a Site

28th July 2018 by driveby

SEO is about asking the right questions

It’s tough to stay inspired when it comes to updating your website but a few basic questions might help get you started. Maybe rethinking the content you want on the site is enough to inspire whole pages of valuable new content to be ranked in Google. This is search engine gold.

Our clients (primarily in Spalding, Peterborough, Boston, Bourne and Holbeach) often forget that they have assumed their main keywords are taking priority in their content. Unless deliberately added, this is often the case. You can avoid this by asking, ‘What keywords are used the most?’. If you then follow this up by adding or reinforcing the true priority keywords in your content, this will dramatically improve your google ranking.

Another area that clients assume is certain service based information that they provide on a daily basis, but new customers won’t be familiar with. Issues like this can be highlighted by asking, ‘What information is missing/assumed?’. I have seen some clients miss hundreds and hundreds of valuable words on their first draft by assuming their customer will fill in the blanks.

Finally, the toughest question to tackle is, ‘What keywords are actually ranking in google?’. You can find this by using google search results and analysing your ranking. A more accurate overview could be acquired on Google Analytics. You can rate the quality of those keywords against each other (or other potential keyword additions) by using the Google Trends analysis. I’ve created a demonstration by comparing ‘Keyword’ and ‘Search Term’ (two keywords for this post). Visit Google Trends Demo

Mastering tools like this will allow you to prioritise the right keywords for your audience. For any of the above e are obviously happy to help. We regularly advise our clients on how they can improve their content in ways like this. Ultimately, your customers don’t need to think you’re and up and coming author, but you should be able to make some regular improvements with your website content by asking questions like this.

Here are some other website content questions:

Is the content localised adequately? (so search engines can place you at those locations)

Could you criticise this content on a competitor website?

Have you highlighted your strengths in comparison to your competitors?

Writing new original content

If you’re looking for information on how to write brand new original content for your site we also have some information to help. For more information and content writing tips, visit our recent blog: Check out our content writing tips

Writing Content For Your Website – Blogging Tips

9th July 2018 by driveby

It’s not easy coming up with content for your website. While we cannot help make that much easier, we can tell you how to make the most of what you do write. Here are some ways you can improve your content quality:

Localised Content

Over the course of a year your can ready spread your reach far and wide if every website page or blog post is specific to a different location. In some areas you may not have the ability to crush the competition in one website page or blog post but in others there may not even be any competition and you’ll effortlessly make it to the top. Worst case scenario, even in the toughest areas to crack you can still be a few pages back in the search results for those more scrupulous searchers. The point is, unless you localise your pages and posts Google doesn’t see you as being everywhere, it sees you as being nowhere. For our business we usually specify clients work as being in towns and cities such as Spalding, Holbeach, Bourne, Boston, Grantham, Long Sutton, Lincoln, Peterborough.

Content is King

Don’t be one of the many people that uses too few words in their website pages or blog posts. You can maximise your SEO potential by exceeding the recommended minimum of 300 words. Although time is a big factor, I would still suggest putting aside at least an hour to write each new update instead of trying to cram in into a spare 5 minutes. It’s vital that content updates are done properly because there’s a very high chance that one of those updates will become somebody’s first impression of your business.

Blog early and Blog often

Did you know that companies that published 16+ blog posts per month had roughly 3.5 times more traffic than companies publishing from 0 to 4 posts monthly? It’s important to note that it’s the content that takes priority, but there is a balance to be struck. Why not pad out two quality, lengthy blog posts into four over the same period of time. Provided you aren’t cutting to close to the recommended minimum of 300 words, you’re probably substantially improving your visitor numbers. Some of the websites we host update their content on a daily basis.

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

10th May 2018 by driveby

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.