WordPress
WordPress has two versions – WordPress.org which is free, open-source software and WordPress.com, a paid for alternative with different plans to choose from depending on the requirements of the user.

Originally developed as a tool for publishing blogs, WordPress.org has evolved to the platform we know today that allows you to create any type of website you like! WordPress is an open-source content management system (CMS), perfect for people to build their own website! Free to download you would need to pay an annual fee for third party hosting. It does require a bit of technical knowledge so is more suited to those who are more website savvy.

WordPress.com Includes managed hosting, taking care of the tricky technical side so that your website is optimised for speed, security, and performance. There are a variety of plans available to suit most needs and budgets. This is perfect for most users who don’t have the necessary skills to build their own website from scratch.

WIX
WIX is a really easy to use, intuitive website builder. Perfect for even the most technophobe among us, WIX can help you create the perfect website for your business. It has loads of options depending on your requirements, you just need an email address to get started with the free plan. You can personalise your website to suit your brand – choose from a range of templates or use the AI options!

Its main downside is that once you’ve picked a template you can’t just switch it out when you fancy a new look! WIX allows you to have as many sites as you want in your account so you can choose a new template and then import over elements and pages before transferring your domain name and plan. 

Weebly
Another user friendly website builder, Weebly is another great option for beginners. Its drag and drop features make it a breeze to use and the affordable plans make it easy to see why it’s such a winner with many small business owners. Their ecommerce side is fantastic for any budget conscious small business.

Squarespace
We can’t talk about website building software without discussing Squarespace. It has gorgeous designs to wow any visitor to your site, it’s intuitive to use, great analytical and e-commerce tools and free SSL certificate. On the downside, Squarespace doesn’t offer a free tier, unlike the majority of its competitors. You can try it for free but you only get two weeks to see if it’s right for you.

With drag and drop features, this is a super easy platform for beginners. Like Wix, it has an AI tool which allows you to input a few details about your brand and business so that Blueprint AI can generate design suggestions.

As you can see there are loads of options when it comes to building your website and you can be as hands on as you like. 

If you need more advice and support on building your perfect website we can help you – from advising on the right type of website for your business to offering bespoke design, domain name registration, website hosting, one page websites, Content Management Systems (CMS), e-commerce websites, website optimisation, email hosting, bespoke website functionality.

When creating a mobile-friendly site you have three options:

• Responsive Design - Google recommends Responsive Web Design because it's the easiest to set up and maintain.
• Dynamic serving - Uses the same URL regardless of device.
• Separate URLs - Serves different HTML to each device, and on separate URLs.

Because most of the indexing on your site comes from the mobile site it’s important you ensure that both versions of your website contain the same content! You also need to remember to put the same metadata (title and meta description) on your mobile version and desktop version of your site.

The use of video content on the internet is becoming more and more popular and Google indexes videos from millions of sites. Videos can appear in several different places on Google, including the main search results page, Video mode, Google Images, and Discover.

Best Practices for Images on your Website

To help Google find and index your images:

• Use HTML image elements to embed images
• Use an image sitemap
• Responsive images
• Use supported image formats
• Optimise for speed and quality

To optimise the image landing pages:

• Check your page title and description - avoid vague descriptives such as ‘home’ for homepage, don’t make titles unnecessarily long and avoid using too many keywords.
• Add structured data
• Use descriptive filenames, titles, and alt text
• Opt out of Google Images inline linking
• Optimise for SafeSearch

Best Practices for Videos on your Website:

• Ensure your video can be found by Google by making sure they are available on public web pages. Include an HTML tag and create a video sitemap.
• Make sure your videos can be indexed.
• Include a high quality thumbnail - BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, and SVG and minimum 60 x 30 pixels (larger is preferred).
• Describe your video using structured data.
• Use stable URLs.

Responsive Web Design
Responsive web design ensures your site is optimised to work across all devices. It automatically adjusts to fit on the device and browser, ensuring all the content is displayed properly. For most businesses, a responsive website is the perfect solution to ensure your site can be accessed on all devices. It’s a cost effective solution and easy to maintain.

• Save your business money long term
• Positive user experience
• Increased visibility in search results
• Faster site loading

It makes most sense to opt for a responsive web site from the outset - Google favours responsive websites in search rankings as they provide a better user experience than sites that are not mobile friendly. More importantly, you will be less likely to miss out on potential leads - visitors to your optimised site will be able to view all the content regardless of the device they are using.

Need help developing your business website that is responsive and mobile friendly? Contact Creative Remedy for a free consultation.

What can you do to get more sales through your website?
If your goal is to increase the amount of sales you are getting through your website then there are a few simple steps you can take. Try looking at your website as if you’re seeing it for the very first time. Is it inviting? Does it encourage you to find out more about the products or services available? Does it look tired and in need of an update?

We’ve put together a helpful list of tips to get the most out of your website and hopefully increase those online sales:

• Homepage - keep it simple and easy to navigate. Don’t be tempted to cram as much as possible on your homepage, this will just overwhelm visitors and could lose you sales.
• Try adding videos for product demonstrations and information - we process visual images much faster than reading text making video a great way to communicate with your audience!
• Call To Action - a simple yet effective ‘Buy Now’ button could be all you need to turn that enquiry into a purchase!
• Marketing - is an integral part of any business. From digital marketing to the more traditional, offline channels, they all have a part to play in helping your business to grow and be successful. For your marketing to be a success you need to have a plan to follow strategically rather than just a knee-jerk reaction to changes in the business climate.

​Once you’ve ticked all those boxes the sales will come flooding in, right? Well no, unfortunately it’s a bit more complex. Once your website is fine-tuned and your marketing plan is updated there's still more work to be done to improve customer engagement to ultimately increase sales. This is where a marketing funnel can really make a difference.
 
What is a Marketing Funnel?
It might surprise you to learn that only a small percentage of sales happen the first time a customer visits your website. Just being aware of your products and services isn’t enough and all customers will go through a personal journey before they finally decide to make a purchase. A marketing funnel is simply a way to analyse this customer journey and understand how and when you can help convert the sale.
 
Your many and varied marketing channels all have the same aim... to lead the customer to your website and bring customers on-board.
 
Every customer or potential customer that visits your website goes through their own unique journey before they engage with you for a service or make a purchase. Understanding that journey is difficult and sometimes the only way to find out is to ask the customer through research eg. feedback questionnaires, emails and speaking to your customers.

This marketing funnel infographic gives an example of a typical customer journey.

Attracting customers to your website
There are many ways to draw customers to your website, such as email marketing, social media and Google Ads but it’s also important to remember that customers are heavily influenced by other aspects of your website such as design, user experience (make sure it’s easy to navigate), call to actions, relevant content and mobile optimisation.
 
But, as you know, just getting the potential customer to the website isn’t enough, what you want is for the customer to take the next step:

• A phone call
• An enquiry/contact us form
• An order /purchase

 
What you can do to help a potential sale
Get yourself acquainted with the granular details with your print and digital marketing, know your numbers! You can do this through understanding the data in your Google Analytics account or social media insights. To really improve your customer experience you need to put yourself in their shoes, start simple, take a look at your website - what can you change on your home page or a landing page to pull more customers in?
 
Need some support to understand your Google Analytics data or social media insights? Book a FREE Health Check.