Wordpress – Drive By Websites Ltd.

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]

The WooCommerce App – More Mobile Advancements

29th August 2019 by driveby

The WooCommerce App could allow you to save time and effort by allowing you to manage your online shop at any time while on the move. The app is powered by Jetpack and has a lot of useful features. If you don’t have an online shop yet, this could be enough to tempt anyone over to WooCommerce.

Monitor Your Online Shop

Find out which products are performing best

Check your total income

View order/visitor data by day, week, month and year

Mobile Sales Facilities

Filter through specific orders and order details

Expand on order information such as product(s), value, customer data, shipping details, and notes.

Simple order fulfilment

Mobile Order Notifications

Get notified about activity such as new orders and product reviews on your products (including a cha-ching sound!)

Drive By App Review

Effective across multiple types of devices. Quite a simplistic app overall but if you’re looking to be informed of orders as quickly as possible then this would be a great option. If you’re looking to replace the dashboard of your website completely, it’s not there yet in our opinion. I am happy to recommend an app that doesn’t do everything if it does what is claims to. Once the app evolves, we might need to revisit the review.

Connect Your Shop

We’re going to be testing out these new features with existing clients. If you’re not an existing customer and you’re interested in finding out if your website is compatible then call us on 01775 761 512.

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

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.

Nick’s Strength And Power Website Now Live

5th October 20175th October 2017 by driveby

Drive By Websites Ltd are pleased to announce the launch of one of our latest websites, Nick’s Strength And Power. Nick is a successful YouTube personality with over 200,000 subscribers at the time of launching. Nick creates informational videos about natural bodybuilding, the bodybuilding industry, dieting, training, nutrition, supplementation, contest prep, and more.

Website Design For A YouTube Channel

The website features a video gallery (updated live from his YouTube channel), online store and a blog. The online shop is built with simplicity in mind, making it easier for Nick’s followers to purchase merchandise. The blog will help improve the site’s organic SEO ranking, and actually includes all of the blog posts from Nick’s last site as well.

The development was almost entirely undertaken via email, since Nick is not based in the UK. This is becoming a development style that is more frequently required in our industry. It was a pleasure working with Nick on this project and we look forward to supporting the site for many years as Nick’s channel continues to grow.

To view the website, go to: www.nicksstrengthandpower.com

For more information on this or to see how we can help you, contact us online.

What Are the Benefits of a Blog?

28th June 2017 by driveby

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?

1st May 20171st May 2017 by driveby

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.

A Fresh Site For Blast Off!! Services – Responsive Website Design

6th January 20175th January 2017 by driveby

It's that time again when we pick one of our nice new sites and show them off to demonstrate what we can offer. Today we are proud to reveal the complete overhaul of the website for Blast Off!! Services (Spalding) Ltd. The process of developing this website was a great example of how easy it can be to offer and develop new ideas when communication is prioritised. As a result, the design features a number of unique elements, such as the responsive homepage layout that would have likely left most responsive developers scratching their heads. So, as always the question is how do we go from an inventive idea such as the image on the left (desktop view), and make it a mobile friendly page of code. Our chosen solution was to order a new layout of the same elements one after the other, as demonstrated in the image on the right (tablet view).

While this will no doubt reiterate the quality of responsive design we offer, this is not where the need for a revamp had come from. As it turned out, the Blast Off!! Services (Spalding) website had been in need of a refresh for a while and sometimes a fresh pair of eyes can make all the difference. Having a dedicated in house designer has allowed us to provide this exact service straight away and proceed to development with the assuring of a fresh, modern design.

This website was a pleasure to produce and we are looking forward to hosting and supporting the site on behalf of our new client in future.

If you would like to get in touch to discuss refreshing your website, give us a call on 01775 761512 or contact us.

Recruitment Website – Early Years & Nannies

21st June 2016 by driveby

Both Drive By Websites & Drive By Design’s expertise was required to carry out the work required by Finnelle Recruitment.

Spalding-based, Finnelle Recruitment supply childcare professionals for nurseries and schools specialising in the recruitment of Nursery Managers, Deputy Managers either permanent or temporary.

For parents, Finnelle recommend nannies that have been personally interviewed and thoroughly screened by an experienced childcare consultant. The recommended nannies will possess the necessary skills and experience.

First of all, Drive By Design was set the task of designing the Finnelle Recruitment logo. Our graphic designer just loves getting creative and we feel that the logo design conveys Finnelle perfectly. We hope you agree.

The Finnelle Recruitment website was then designed with the new logo in mind and, of course, mobile friendliness. We’ve also integrated a Facebook newsfeed. Newsfeeds are an ideal promotional tool providing they are kept up-to-date. We are delighted to report that Finnelle have a good relationship with social media and they regularly update their Facebook page.

During the initial stage of the website design, Drive By Websites will create 4 website designs from which you can choose or mix and match. Once the design has been agreed, we will then implement our technical skills to actually build the website. To view the Finnelle website, please click here

For more information in respect of good graphic design please visit – www.drivebydesign.co.uk

Mobile Websites – The Stats Are Staggering

15th June 2016 by driveby

The future is mobile friendly with the provision of Superfast 4G. Over the past couple of years or so, we have changed the way we shop, bank, communicate and even watch TV. The writer of this blog has recently returned from a weekend break in London which is living proof that Smartphone users take more photos than on any other device. According to the stats provided by www.ofcom.org.uk 60% of adults say that they use their Smartphone most of all to take a pic, rising to 89% of 16-24 year olds. Just over one in five adults (22%) mostly use their digital camera. From August 2013 to August 2014, people in the UK took an estimated 1.2 billion ‘selfies’.

Ofcom reported that in March 2015, two-thirds of people owned a Smartphone using it for almost two Time Spent Online hours every day to browse the internet, access their social media, bank and to shop online. This figure compared with just over an hour spent online using their laptop and PC.

On the 21st April last year, Google announced that if your website doesn’t pass the mobile friendliness test, it will feature less prominently on its search engine results. In a blog, the company stated that “this will have a significant impact in our search results. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimised for their devices”.

At the same time last year, research began to show that visits to retail websites via mobile devices had overtaken desktop traffic for the first time. Mobile commerce now accounts for 36% of the UK e-retail sales, rising to 40% for clothing and apparel websites.

At Drive By Websites HQ, we regularly develop and maintain completely unique responsive websites which re-size and re-proportion according to the browsing devices.

Drive By Websites’ choice of platform to use for mobile friendly websites is WordPress because:

ease of user – you can easily make updates.
sites can be managed from any computer or device
search engines love WordPress sites
there’s no HTML or FTP software required (for the end user)
websites are designed to be future-proofed and grow along with the development of the business.

Drive By Websites securely hosts and manages over 150 mobile friendly websites mainly locally but nationally too.

Drive By Websites offer a fast turnaround, we are affordable and easy to get along with. Please feel free to get in touch by calling us on 01775 761512.