Change the way your thinking, because the world is changing at dramatic pace

While assisting small businesses on the Mornington Peninsula south east of Melbourne with their web site design, seo and general reputation on the internet their ‘webutation’ I came to realize duh... people don’t know what I know.

Sounds stupid right. But to me while what I know seems like common knowledge in the realm of the internet... just isn’t common at all – let’s make it more that way J.  

Change your way of thinking, because the world is changing at dramatic pace!

While I now know, if you can think of it, it is probably already available and you’ll probably find it with a few google searches, most people don’t think this way.

In short I want to place this in your mind. If you want to find information: google it! You know this right? You know how to find your local mechanic, why the sky is blue, and what keywords your competitor is getting good traffic for right... hope to have you stumped on that last one there. My point is once you start thinking how do I find out what keywords my competitors are using you’ll know you can probably find out if you google away. There are tools available to give you all kinds of information, and in business today, what ever type of business you need to think like the younger generation.

So do you know how many visitors your website is getting per day / week / month? Do you know how many visitors are coming back?

Google Analytics – is FREE.

Since around August 2006*, 5 years now, Google Analytics has been available free to anyone who wanted to sign up. I still meet people who have a website and don’t have it installed, and even some who don’t know what it is. This tool alone provides so many answers to our questions, like does anyone even visit my website? People without it are being left behind in the information race. People who know more, can market better, cheaper quicker and prosper that way too. Old websites are like having a glossy brochure on the back shelf, new sites are even more effective than billboards on highways and advert’s on the tele.

Analytics will not only tell you this but a WHOLE lot more, too much to tell you here.

Installing the code so you get all of your information available may not be free if you don’t have an in-house man, but it is a simple task for the people you may pay to do so. So don’t get over charged, or believe anything other than that. I can’t do what I do unless I install it on my clients sites, so it is a ‘given’ that it is a part of the SEO process.

As a small business owner with a website you need analytics, and you need to know how to log on because you need to know how your website is performing. Do you know how many visits your website is getting per day/week/month?

The Easy Info you can get – How many people visited your site, how long they spent there, the percentage that came back, and if set up correctly how many ‘goals’ did you meet

More difficult – Analysing why! Why have numbers dropped, why is you bounce rate so high, why is no one viewing a certain page.

Where does as SEO fit in here?

You pay an SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) expert to get you on page 1 of google right? While they research keywords that will perform for you, do the work in the code, copy and some other fancy things, you are also paying them to Analyse the results they bring in and to continue to improve them so that you get on and STAY on page 1 of google. You don’t get on page 1 of google by sitting around and waiting. So now you have a basic knowledge that you can easily find out about how your website is being used, and what value an SEO is giving you.

We now offer Domain Name search & purchase and Website Hosting Packages

We have now launched www.shop.webutation.com.au where you can purchase Domain Names and Hosting Packages.

Visit our Shop site for the following:

Find available domain names and purchase them

Organise your hosting package for your website

Purchase a website template builder package to get your new site up and going quickly

Finally the Carpenter has started his own house, or in this case his own website

Yep, got myself nice and busy looking after clients, fancy that, but have finally started my own site in the fashion that I offer my clients themselves. K.I.S.S ... Keep It Simple Stup... well you know the rest.

So watch this space www.webutation.com.au ... I’ve got some work to do J

Social Media - how do i keep my socila media upto date?

So you run a small business and you are starting to grasp the importance of social media in driving traffic to your website. You’ve also realised that it takes a lot of time and effort to post all of these articles and posts you’re supposed to do to get the results you’re after.

I can hear you questioning – “How on earth do I keep up with all this social media stuff on top of my normal tasks”

Here’s a strategy.

Get your team involved in your social media endeavours!

At a guess most reading this will have younger savvier staff that almost live on their own Facebook pages. In most cases you’ll no doubt find them more than willing to get involved. They’ll all have different social media strategies and perspectives and your social media efforts will flourish from their involvement.

Set them Guidelines!

Set them clearly defined guidelines. An example:

-          Have fun

-          Try and use our ‘keywords’

-          Keep it work related

-          Have fun with it

Case Study

We work with a printer who had this exact issue. Wow social media is great... how the heck do I come up with new and fresh social media content so often. We got his staff involved, in his case we made it compulsory just so that it became part of their work routine. Weeks later they’re loving it. They all shop right, so when they’re out and about as they have always done, they keep a keen eye on printed materials and how they’re used. All we’ve done is said take a photo of it and upload it to the business facebook page with a few keywords we like. His social media is now full of fresh, inquisitive and informative content.

Do you make it Voluntary or set it as a work task?

Clearly this is up to you, they are your staff and you’re looking for results. Positive results. I would suggest that you make it Voluntary and wrap it up into an internal ‘competition’ Guys when we get to 300 the business will reward you by ... (Fill in the gap with your favourite staff outing) You may want to put a time limit on it also, or choose a variety of ‘get me a result with my social media and we’ll reward you strategies.