Month: June 2018

We’ve just launched our Instagram

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INSTAGRAM Spalding

As many of our clients have recently discovered, we have just launched our Instagram business page.

Instagram can make a business look fantastic online and it does have a good share of quality users. Unfortunately, the best practice for achieving the most involves maximising engagements and it’s easy to forget that this is where most of your likes are coming from. Engagements are the highest priority for a social media manager (personal or commercial). The more you engage the better you’ll do. Hence, if you don’t have the time or patience, it’s tough to grow your audience on Instagram. Businesses using Instagram will often feel their time is well spent while collecting a large number of likes that add no value to their business in reality. But this is obviously no reason to avoid it entirely. The overall benefit is still quite high with expectations properly managed. There is a growing audience on instagram, both globally and locally. Around the Facebook privacy controversy, Instagram has benefited from a 30% boost in users.

So now we’re live and it’s rejuvinated some excitement for social media again. We are regularly engaging with our growing audience now and hope to set a good example to our customers. We’ve reached 136 followers in around a week, which we are quite pleased with. We’ll be promoting graphic design just as much as website work on our Instagram page.

Visit us on Instagram

Drive By Websites Ltd (@drivebywebsites) * Instagram photos and videos

136 Followers, 111 Following, 12 Posts – See Instagram photos and videos from Drive By Websites Ltd (@drivebywebsites)

Live Chat – Website Design Features

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live chat feature

We’ve been working on a lot of ‘Live Chat’ plug-ins on recent website development projects, but benefits are not often considered for most businesses. We’ve written out a summary of what this interesting new trend actually offers to your business. 

  1. User Preference

Research has found that customers respond very positively to the idea of a live chat over a contact form on a website. In many cases, this research also includes a preference for live chat over telephone or general emails. 

  1. Time Management

Despite being the priority business contact point, the traditional phone call is comparatively inefficient. Using a phone, how many users can one employee be dealing with at one time? Certainly not as many as during a live chat. An employee could productively engage with far more people at one time. 

  1. Competitive Edge

How fast can your competitors respond to an email enquiry? Probably not anywhere near as fast as during a live chat. Even if your competitors respond in minutes, what’s the incentive for the customer to sit and wait? For all they know it could be hours or days before they get a response. In the case of the live chat, customers will patiently await your response.

Live chat boxes are not for everyone, but it may suit you better than you realise.

Did you know that you don’t need to sit and wait at your computer? You can manage it all from your mobile by receiving convenient notifications.

Did you also know that you don’t have to literally respond to every request? You can have an automated response for common questions and even have customers leave their questions for you to respond to later by email or telephone. 

Give us a call on 01775 761512 or email [email protected] to see how we can help you with your website design features.

SSL Certificates – Safer Websites and Higher Rankings

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ssl spalding

After installing hundreds of SSL certificates on websites, we decided it’s probably time we wrote you a blog about them!

An SSL certificate is visible on websites with the padlock next to the web address. These addresses technically start with https:// instead of  http://.

SSL sends encrypted information over the web so only the intended recipient can understand it. It’s most valuable when sending sensitive information, such as payment details over the internet. It also instills a lot of extra trust in customers. 

We can set up your website with a security certificate at a very low cost and with very fast turnaround time. You might feel like it’s unnecessary but technology moves at such a rapid pace and we see it as our job to ensure your website is up to date with these changes.

Your website will suffer without a SSL Certificate. Give us a call on 01775 761512 to discuss setting up an SSL certificate on your website. 

The Problems with Freelance Web Designers and One Man Bands

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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.