Website Support

Digital Accessibility in Lincolnshire: A Must for an Ageing Population

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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.

Is It Too Late To Upgrade? Websites in 2020

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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

Making Progress with Website Content – Refreshing a Site

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Google Trends

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

Newsletter: We’re Here to Help – Hosting & Support

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website support service
We’re sending out this latest mailshot as a reminder that we’re here to help all year round. Our hosting and support will cover most of your website update requirements but if it doesn’t we’ll never surprise you with unexpected costs. The last thing we want is for our clients to leave their websites idol while their business is active.

Website Update Ideas

  • Expand on an existing page or write a new page. Just a couple of hundred words can go a very long way to optomising your website for search engines like Google.
  • Update your website photos. This doesn’t make a lot of difference in Google but it does help convert your website visitors into customers. Out of date photos make a big difference to the impression your website gives.
  • Rebranding is a great way to reignite momentum in a business. Design trends change contantly and the best brands keep up to date with them. Your website can do exactly the same without needing a whole new website every time.
  • GDPR updates have become very common since the new regulations came in. This could mean adding a cookies notice, privacy policy or even adding an SSL certificate.
  • Re-engage with your social media followers. We recently decided to re-engage our social media followers and gained over 30 extra facebook followers in one week with very little effort. We also recently launched an instagram page and managed to attract over 100 followers in one week.
  • Direct customers reviews to your Google listing to demonstrate your service quality.
  • Expand into new technologies. We recently announced we were beginning to work with cryptocurrencies on our clients websites. We also made some predictions about what’s next for website technology for anyone that wants to get ahead of the curve.
So remember, we’re here to help. These are just some ideas to get the ball rolling. If you want anything updating on your website, contact us on 01775 761512.