Business Advice

Message in a bottle - How to get your website found

6 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website

All websites need traffic, people to find you and your services. Read on to find 6 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website.

Video, brings the Know Like and Trust Factor very quickly

Woo hoo! Your website is finished, what next?

Your lovely new website is finished and looks great, so what is the next step. Now you need to tell people where to find your website and bring in traffic.

Here are 6 ways to drive traffic to your website:

  1. Yes, video is the most the scariest way however it works.

Getting onto video will shorten the trust learning curve dramatically. Your protentional customers can “meet” you, see how you talk, how you look, how you dress and get to know you very quickly without ever being in the same room as you. We all hate to make a wrong decision or feel like we have been ripped off and video can make the jump to KNOW – LIKE – TRUST a short journey.

Once you have made your video you have multiple place you can share it. Start by creating a YouTube channel and upload your videos there, write a

description and add your keywords. Once you have your videos on your YouTube channel then you can add then to a page on your website. Don’t forget Facebook looks native video, this means videos that you have uploaded directly into Facebook and yes it can all be the same video.

  1. EngagementLet's start a conversation

Social media is called social for a reason, you need to engage, start a conversation.

Posting funny cat videos, what you had for dinner or even relevant information about your business is not enough unless you engage with your audience.

We have all been on Facebook pages that how thousands of Likes however noone ever visits the page and I bet you bounced out of there super quickly too, why because it was boring.

Engagement is the answer.

Write posts in the same fashion as you would if you were telling a friend about this great new product or service that you have just found. Explain to them the benefits and the great value it has and how it solves your problem.

Then get people to engage with your content, ask questions, offer solutions to their problems and make your page fun. Give your audience a reason to keep coming back.

  1. PartnershipsPartnerships, a great way to build business relationships

People buy from people they KNOW – LIKE – TRUST.

When you are looking to buy a product or service for the first time or looking for a new supplier what do you do? You ask your friends or business colleagues, we trust referrals.

Who can you partner with to get more referrals?

Can leverage off an influencer in your space, a business network club, sporting club or other memberships you may have?

Can you partner with another type of business whose customers may benefit from your content? Write articles for your local chamber of commerce magazine, be featured in a blog, shared on a group or be recommended on Facebook page with a large following.

Who can you partner to be able to have a long term business relationship with that will benefit both their customers and you?  For example an Accountant that is located near a coffee shop may offer free coffee’s to people how fill in a survey form that is located at the coffee shop. Win Win, coffees and referrals.

  1. Email

Just over three-fifths of respondents (those 25 or older in particular) would prefer to be contacted by brands via email. According to the Adobe Consumer Email Survey Report 2017.

Email is a very powerful business tool. How often do you check your email every day? I’m betting lots; most people have their alerts on to tell them “they have mail”.

Do you open all your email?

On average 60% of emails are opened and the rate is even higher when you take into account that most email services are set so you can read the email in preview mode without having the open the actual email. All in all, getting your message across by email is very effective.

One of the best ways to drive traffic to your website is to email your prospects and current customers regularly with helpful information which could be a brief description and link to your blog article, a feature product, how to information and so one.

Email marketing is a powerful way to reach your current and potential customers however a word of warning – One half of respondents (and more than half of females) find being emailed too often by a marketer as the most annoying when receiving email offers. According to the Adobe Consumer Email Survey Report 2017.

  1. Be Helpful

Answer your customer’s questions. You can answer questions by having an FAQ’s section on your website, then use these FAQ’s as content for your social media posts.

What are the questions you get asked over and over about your products or services?

Answer questions that are being asked in Facebook groups and forums that relate to your expertise or topic.

  1. Guest posting

Guest posting is where you write articles for other people’s blogs. The advantage of guest posting is you may be able to leverage their audience. Magazine style blogs are always looking for guest posts Sourcebottle is a service that is always looking for people to write content.

Here are 6 ways to drive traffic to your website are:

  1. Video
  2. Engagement
  3. Partnerships
  4. Email
  5. Be Helpful
  6. Guest posting

Just remember help and serve people (not go straight for the sell); then you will be able to find many ways to bring traffic to your website.

Need help? Give Cathy and the Team at CATCO Enterprises a call on 9797 0889.

Is Your Business A Secret? Is Your Website Heading For The Google Grave Yard?

grave yardCan Google find you?

Is Your Business A Secret? As business owners’ we are often very busy trying to do many different roles within our businesses; marketing, social media and our website don’t always get the priority they need. Not because we don’t want to just that we lack the time.

Websites are wonderful marketing tools and they can be anything from a lovely visual brochure to a fully functional online shop; however all websites depend on 2 things:

  • Being found by Google
  • Being found by your customers

If no-one can find you it doesn’t matter how great your products are, how beautiful your website is or how fabulous your customer services is; your business will not flourish. You wouldn’t dream of having a shop front and keeping the doors locked and not turning on the lights each morning.

Lots of small businesses don’t understand the importance that their website and social media platforms play in building their business.

3 mistakes that small business owners make

  1. Using a Gmail address not their domain name
  2. Not having clear keywords on the website
  3. Not having a social media plan

Using a Gmail address not their domain name

EmailIn business the impression you make is everything. You only get 1 chance to make a first impression. When you get an email from your phone provider, utility providers, car dealers or any other business these emails always come from the company’s domain name, not Gmail or Yahoo.

By sending your email from Gmail, Yahoo or your service provider you give the impression of being small, part-time or untrustworthy. Serious businesses always use their domain name for their emails.

When choosing your email address, stay away from the generic of sales@ admin@ office@ info@ because these type of email address are what spammers use and your email will get lumped in the same basket often getting caught in spam filters meaning that your emails will not be delivered.

Generic email addresses are fine just be a bit more creative and use your location, job description, description of service etc.

Not having clear keywords on the website

SMART Goals for business websites. Is Your Business A Secret?

Google land is very busy with thousands of websites competing for your keyword all the time. You need to give Google a very clear message of what your website is all about and who you would like your website shown too.

1 keyword per page. Write the content of your page around 1 main theme or idea.

If Google can’t clearly determine what your page is about they are unlikely to return it as a result to someone’s search and no matter how lovely your website is you will be doomed to the back corner of the Google grave yard.

Not having a social media plan

Social media, in particular, Facebook is a must have business tool; unfortunately, a huge percentage of small businesses don’t use their Facebook presence to their best advantage.

Posting what you had for dinner, your gorgeous cat or your wonderful children’s sporting activity is not going to make your business page a success. Even if you are posting wonderful business content here and there but you don’t have a strategic constant plan you are unlikely to see a meaningful result. Like any form of marketing, you need to have a SMART Goal to achieve a consistent outcome.

SMART  S – specific, M – measurable, A – achievable R – realistic T – time-based

Is Your Website Heading for The Google Grave Yard?

Is Your Business A Secret? With a little bit of planning, forethought and structure your website can be a wonderful digital marketing tool for your business and not another money drain. Work out your end goal and then plan backwards and remember to follow Googles’ best practices.

Not sure where to start?

CATCO Enterprises offers a range of social media and web design services from 1/2 day strategy sessions to teach you how and what to implement in this busy digital space;
to full done for you marketing services. Give Cathy and the team a call on 0409 489 464 for more information.

Perception is everything – however you must deliver

TeaI recently treated myself to a breakfast out. It had been a good week professionally and personally, so why not? I arrived at the café – beautifully lit with a few people but not too crowded – ordered my breakfast and a cup of tea.

I took my number and sat down. The friendly waitress brought me some water and a clean glass, very nice!

And then the tea arrived…….

Now, I am a tea snob – I know it and I proudly own up to it. My kitchen boasts hundreds of different tea bags and anything taxing in my life is made better with a cup of tea. I am a proud VIP of T2 and even my children know that to get on my good side, you just need to make me a good, hot cup of half English Breakfast/half Earl Grey tea leaf blend and everything is wonderful with the world again.

But this tea was not wonderful. It arrived with a nice teapot but with the milk caddy INSIDE the cup (my pet peeve). OK, it’s OK, I thought, just let the tea brew and let the milk thing go.

I go to pour the tea and my world is completely upended at the discover of a TEABAG inside the teacup and merely hot water in the pot! All my tea dreams have been shattered……OK maybe a little on the melodramatic side, but in the lovely little tea pot sits only hot water, ready to be poured over a commercial, substandard bag of EB leaves. Not happy!

A few minutes later, my breakfast arrived. It was the most amazingly yummy breakfast I have had in some time and it really was very delicious.

But will I return to this café for breakfast anytime soon?

No.

Why?

Because they did not deliver on their promise to me, the customer, after advertising their tea as ‘nice’ and ‘brewed’.

Yes, I am a tea snob, but I enjoy a fresh cup of tea and I paid for more than a pot of hot water and a tea bag. The tea was important to me in this instance and my customer experience was severely diminished and any other positives from the occasion were overshadowed by the small matter of the tea.

But small things matter – a lesson learnt by this business, now they have lost a customer.

BusinessWhat small things are you overlooking in your business?

Is it something so small you could consider it insignificant, but it is fundamentally affecting your bottom line?

In today’s business world, we have lost the art of ‘clever’, over making profits and attracting big numbers, whether it be to our establishments or to our online platforms. We have lost the simplicity in asking for customer feedback, giving our customers solutions to simple problems and recognising that the customer is always right.

The best way to keep, grow and improve your business is by talking to, and LISTENING to, your customers.

Something as small as changing from fresh tea leaves to commercial tea bags has lost this particular café who knows how many clients in what is probably a bid to cut costs at the expense of the customers simple, small delights. Disappointing yet far to common place in today’s business world.

Are you listening to your customers?

When I was a kid we moved into a new, old home. New to us, however 50+ years old, at the end of the front verandah was a black rose. Yes black, not dark red, deep purple or any other colour but BLACK.

My Mum took a photo of it and after 12 photos were taken, off she went to the local chemist to have it sent away to the photo lad to be processed for $24. That might not sound as if it was much but it was a huge deal; in late 1970’s a price of a loaf of bread was 54c and that was from the bakery not a big subsidised supermarket.

The photos came back red. My Mum was devastated, she had spent all this time getting the right light, the composure, the angle on these photos of this precious BLACK rose. She repeated this process again and this time took it directly to the local photo and told the salesperson that the photos were of a BLACK rose and not a red rose and please don’t correct the colours. As you can imagine the cost was even higher this time unfortunately, the result was the same and the photos came back red again.

ListeningAre you listening to your customers?

The reason I tell you this story is because these 2 service providers didn’t listen to their customer, my Mum and assumed they know what she wanted? As a business owner have you ever made that assumption?

This product would be better for the client because they can’t afford the other one.

We have all hear stories of rich business people going into expensive car sales rooms in their garden clothes to see if they will get real service or not?

Customers like to buy not be sold too!

When offering your products and services are you giving enough information so that your customer can make a choice:

  1. To buy
  2. What to buy
  3. Have options

Customers of today are very savvy and can obtain reams of information in a heartbeat, are you being part of there sale journey, do you have the information they need on your website, promotional material?

Tell your customer what they want to know.

Customers often just need a little more information to help them with their choice. If you are being asked the same questions over and over the easiest way to address this have a Frequency Asked Questions (FAQ) section on your website.

Generally, the people that ask are just the tip of the iceberg and many more potential and current customers want to know but don’t want the hassle of asking, so just move on.

What do my customers want to know?

Ask. It is a good practice to ask your customers if they are happy with your service, your products and if there are other things you could be doing to help them. It is far cheaper to keep loyal customers and get them to buy from you again than try to convince new customers to buy from you.

A lot of business’ spend far to much time and money trying to attract new customers with – this discount or that offer and quite often this approach can drive your existing customers to your competition because they are offering their “New” customers a better deal.

People are creatures of habit and we like easy.

The number 1 reason customers leave is indifference!

Customer will go through all the effort of finding a new supplier and leave your business when they think you don’t care. Caring, this is why a lot of big brand have loyalty programs where they are emailing, messaging and sending you things by snail mail to make you feel special and make sure you remember them.

Are you listening to your customers?

Today’s tip of the day is to listen to your customers, really listen and ask them questions about what they want and like. Go through your database and contact some old customers who you haven’t seen for a while and find out how you can help them now.

People like to deal with businesses they KNOW – LIKE – TRUST. To build trust is not as hard as you might think, start with the little things, start by listening to your current customers, make them feel special.

Need help? Contact Cathy and the team at CATCO Enterprises.

Why Was My WordPress Website Hacked?

Why was my WordPress website hacked; it’s often an issue with the security that leaves the door open for the burglars to get in.

Hackers are burglars; they are usually trying to gain momentary benefit from hacking your website. If you aren’t keeping a constant eye on it, you stand to lose a lot more than just your money and it won’t happen to me as I am just a small business unfortunately just won’t cut it. This is a worldwide problem that is not limited to the rich and famous, your identity is valuable and can be sold.

Why Was My WordPress Website Hacked? Is a common question.

3 most common ways that hackers can hack into your WordPress site include:

  • Security breaches in 3rd party plugins
  • Non-secure passwords and logins
  • Old, unattended sites

Security Breaches in 3rd Party Plugins

Plugins are the little programs that help to run your website

All plugins available on WordPress are third party program, which means someone else (not WordPress wrote the code to plugin). Plugins are the little programs that help to run your website, make the forms work, the social media button, let you see your analytics etc.

Any plugins that you install on your website are 3rd party and carry some amount of the risk of your website being hacked. Don’t get me wrong plugins are awesome and can make your life so much easier and your website run really well with all the bells and whistles, however be aware that you are letting a stranger knock at your door and you need to run a few checks before inviting them in and letting them contribute to the functionality of your website.

How to check the creditability of a plugin before downloading:

  • Good reviews from other users
  • Regularly updated
  • Has been downloaded a lot

If your plugin ticks these boxes, then you will be ok and you can be sure of its authenticity and safety. Remember you must keep your plugins updated to protect your website..

Non-secure Passwords and Logins

Do you use the same password for everything?

Is it something obvious or easy to guess?

Change it now!

Brute force is one the hackers favourite ways to try and get into your website and a weak password is like leaving the door open. Make sure you don’t use the default “admin” as your login name either.

According to The Telegraph in the UK, the most common passwords still are not very strong.

  • 123456
  • 123456789
  • qwerty
  • 12345678
  • 111111
  • 1234567890
  • 1234567
  • password

A lot of software and websites are now forcing you to have stronger passwords by making you have a Capital letter, a number and a special character; yes it’s a pain in the butt however it might just save your ASS! You should make it a blanket rule to uses these type of passwords (PASSWORDS plural – not the same one for everything).

Old Unattended Sites

If you aren’t keeping an eye on your website, someone else will be and for all the wrong reasons. If you are unaware of the health of your website you won’t know something is wrong until its really, really wrong.

Here are some common tell-tale signs of a site being hacked that you won’t pick up unless you regularly check your website:

  • Malware warning popups
  • Your website disappears
  • The website loads really slow or just crashes
  • Your website redirects
  • Extra links or your site is covered in ads to unrelated products
  • Hacker code left behind – gibberish text at the bottom or top of the page
  • Emails being sent to spam
  • Lots of undelivered emails to addresses you don’t know.


There are plenty of other ways that are less obvious and could be damaging your site or mean your site is being used to forward on harmful information.

To minimise your WordPress website being hacked

Make sure it is backed up and kept your website up to date, have a reputable security system installed and follow the information in this article. Have you upgraded to HTTPS for you website, that is another great way to help protect your website, read our HTTPS article for more information?

Need help? Contact Cathy and the team at CATCO Enterprises.

 

3 Common Website Mistakes – Power Tip Podcast

3 Common Website Mistakes

Images that are too big

“You want to have nice, crisp, clean images, but you don’t want to have huge files sizes.
People take photos on their smartphone and load them straight up to their websites.
Those images are too large, so your website is going to load very slowly.
Use something like picresize.com to reduce the size of your image.”

Websites too minimal – no content

“People are going for minimal designs at the moment, which is great, but often they don’t contain any information for Google to find.
If you’re relying on search traffic you need to let Google know what each page on your website is about.
For instance, a page about physiotherapy needs to contain words and pictures about physiotherapy.”

Forgetting to promote the website

“People build these fabulous new websites but they don’t send anyone there.
They don’t tell anybody they’ve built a website, and they don’t tell people what you can do with it.
Remember to include your website at the bottom of every email you send. And make sure you’re using an email attached to your domain. Don’t use hotmail, gmail, yahoo or your service provider. That’s advertising another company instead of your own, and it doesn’t look very professional.”

A bonus tip about email addresses

“Don’t use sales@, office@, admin@ or any other generic email address. They’re more likely to get stuck in spam filters and you won’t even know it happened.”

3 Common Website Mistakes by Cathy Smith – CATCO Enterprises

For more power tips go to Cath Wood’s Power Tips.

Do I Need Big Images For My Website?

Big ImagesNo. In fact, you should not have large images on your website. Large images make your website load slowly and page speed is a very important ranking factor for Google. People are impatient and they want the results of their search to appear quickly, and if your page is slow to load that won’t happen.

Quality Images not Large File Sizes

You want quality images and you can have full width images but not large file sizes.

To resize your images the best tool are Photoshop or Photoshop Element, however most people don’t have access to these. Start with what you have, do you have Paint? If not canva.com or picresize.com are is a great free tools and there are plenty of others free tools you could use.

Warning on Reducing Image Sizes

When reducing images you need to be aware of a few things:

  • Keep your proportions
  • Reduce in degrees

Keep Your Images in Proportion

websiteBe careful to lock your proportions so you reduce the width to the same percentage as the depth. You may need to crop the image if it doesn’t fit into the area you have allocated.

Reduce Your Image in Degrees

When resizing or reduce large image sizes don’t just grab the corner and make it really small. Reduce your images in bit size pieces to maintain the quality and integrity of the image. Don’t reduce your image by more than ¼ at a time. Never try to make an image bigger if you have reduced it too far, undo or start with the original image.

What Images Should I Use on My Website?

The best images to use on your website are crisp clear images that you own, either you have taken them yourself or you have permission to use them. You can’t use an image just because it is on a website or social media; the copyright belongs to someone else. Copyright infringement can be costly. On several occasions, I have had stock photo companies contact me in relation to “proof of use” for their photos all with significant fees attached, of course on all occasions I have been able to provide proof of purchase but if I hadn’t it would have been very costly.

For stock photos proof of purchase is required by the end user so if your designer or advertising agency has purchased them on your behalf make sure you document that so if it comes to be an issue you are covered.

Image Size

Image size has 2 components

  1. The dimensions ( size of width and height (or depth)
  2. The size of the file.

GalleryYou can have a large dimension for a full width image for example 2050 px (pixels) wide, however you don’t want this image to be any more than 150kb (kilobytes) in file size.

If you have multiple images on a page you must make sure that your image sizes stay small.

Recently I was asked to fix a website because it wasn’t loading properly – actually wasn’t loading at all. It turned out that the home page of this website had 25 MB (megabytes)  of images. 25 MB of images is like trying to park a semitrailer into a park in a parking spot designed for a mini, there is just no way that will that work.

Do I need images on my website?

Yes absolutely.

The brain processes images so much faster than words so images are really important to your website just be careful of the size of files you are uploading.

Article by Cathy Smith – CATCO Enterprises.

Why Is My New Website Not on Page 1 of Google?

Many business owners ask, “Why is my new website not on page 1 of Google?”

You have paid good money to have a website built or built it yourself and it looks great but why isn’t Google listing it? There is no simple answer to this question however in my experience of over 10 years building websites there are often common things that you can do to help Google find your website, so let’s get started.

Firstly

Does Google know your website exists?

Where can I find my URL

The easiest way to let Google know about your website is to get a free Google account where you will be able to access Google Console (which also includes webmaster tools) and Google Analytics. With these Google tools you are able to let Google know that your website is ready to be listed. Don’t be daunted by the names, there are lots of simple things you can do with them and plenty of good tutorials if you want to go deeper.

The first thing you should do after setting up your Google Console account is Submit your URL to Google. Your URL is the address of your website and is found at the top of your browser.

Here is an example of my URL using Google Chrome browser.

How new is your domain name?

If you have only just registered your domain name, then Google doesn’t have any history on your website; that is why very old domain names with a bad website will still rank well. If you have an older domain name for your business, maybe something that was really long, make sure you still point it to your new website. If your domain name is very new there is nothing you can do about it, read on to follow these other tips on factors that you can control.

Have you told your friends?

Tell your friendsMake sure you tell everyone including your friends about your new website. Your friends aren’t generally going to be your target audience, however in the beginning, the more eyeballs (traffic) you can get to your new website the better. Plus, often our friends don’t really know what you do and it can be a good refresher to remind them and a good way to get referrals from their friends.

Are you sending traffic to your website?

What email address are you using for your business? Are you still using a Gmail or Hotmail address? If so STOP.

By using an email address that is associated with your website you are creating a more professional business impression plus you will also be advertising your website address (URL) every time you send an email.

website traffic

Does your email signature contain a link to your website? Make it easy for people to find you and do business with you. Add your website address to everything you can, your business cards, stationery, invoices, promotional material, social media pages, car and building signage.

Do you have a Frequently Asked Questions page, so you can send customers there when they have common queries? That is another great way to drive traffic to your website and can free up your staff having to answer the same questions over and over.

Has your website been written with your customers in mind or you?

How is your website written? Is it friendly and jovial or dry and technical? Write with your customers in mind.

No not the business, the customer!

After all, you know all about your business, however you need to convey what makes your business special and how you stand out from your competitors to your protentional customers.

Language to use!

Customer Focused

Different websites will be written in different ways depending on the customers – think about the type of language they use.

There is no point ranking for page 1 for a search term that your customers will never use. For example, if your website talks all about “Junior Slacks” and your audience is searching for “Kid’s Pants” unless you have a huge website with a very large budget your audience are unlikely to ever find you, for that term even if you are on page 1 because it is not a term they are looking for.

The style, tone and look of your website should be governed by the type of business you are in and what your audience expects.

Is your website helpful to your customers?

Google likes to send traffic to websites that help its search clients.

When a visitor enters a search query and arrives on your website, Google wants to know that you will help them. If the visitor bounces straight back out of your website and looks for another search, Google won’t be happy. Google will probably send the next visitor with that search term to someone else’s website. One of the many ranking factors Google looks at is time spend on your page/pages of your website and then where your visitor goes when they leave your website.

Customer focus

If a keyword on one of your website pages is “How to get high quality parts for a xxxxx”

You may rank well for “How to get high” however it will be for a very short time because people with that search people would bounce straight back out of your site when they realise your content is not what they are looking for.

Google is very focused on giving its customers the best user experience they can and returning the search result they are expecting. Your website can help Google do this by being customer focused and giving your visitors helpful information.

Does your website have any content?

Minimalism is all the rage, especially in website design. We are told to keep it simple. Yes, this can work if you have a large Facebook or social media following that you can send to your website, or if you have a large budget you can use to drive traffic to your site.

If you are looking to rate organically on Google Search, then you will need to have content. Information on your page which tells your customer what the page is about and how you can solve their problem. Not just a page of feel good gibberish (because people won’t stay) but actual valuable information that helps them work out how to solve their problem. You might be offering a product to solve their problem, or a service or just additional information. It could be as simple as having your phone number easily available now they know you are the correct solution for them. If you don’t have any content, then they are unlikely to have found you in the first place and if they do they will not know if you can help them or not.

Does your website have very large images?

People are visual.

Attention span less than a goldfish

Would you have kept reading this article if there weren’t any pictures? Probably not because your mind would have got to overwhelmed with all the text. Our brain processes images 60, 000 times faster than text, so images are really important on your website.

If you have image file sizes that are large they will slow down your page loading time and people won’t wait.

Did you know in 2015 the average attention span of a person dropped below the that of a goldfish?

In 1980, a person’s attention span was approximately 20 mins and by 2015 it is 8.25 seconds1 .

Your website needs to load fast or your bounce rate will be too high for Google to take your seriously and they are unlikely to give you quality leads from their search results.

Why Is My New Website Not on Page 1 of Google?

Google SearchWhat to do next . . .

Go back through this article, check your website and habits; are there things that you could be implementing to get your website to rank better?

Want to know more? Download our free eBook for more tips ranking your website better on Google Search.

Need help?

Cathy Smith and the team at CATCO Enterprises can assist with SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) advice and implementation. Maximising traffic, reach and engagement with your website can be difficult to master. If you would like to have the most of organic search engine marketing strategies and other techniques contact us.

At CATCO Enterprises our emphasis is on relevant quality content and marketing strategies for your business. Call Cathy on 9797 0889 today.

Article by Cathy Smith – CATCO Enterprises.

Why HTTPS Matters for ALL Websites

Protect for website securityGotta confess I am a need to know girl, so when something this important comes across my desk I am telling you, YOU need to know. 

Here is Why HTTPS Matters for ALL Websites. HTTPS is how we / you protect your website privacy and secure your user’s information.  “HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is an internet communication protocol that protects the integrity and confidentiality of data between the user’s computer and the site. Users expect a secure and private online experience when using a website. We encourage you to adopt HTTPS in order to protect your users’ connections to your website, regardless of the content on the site.” From Google Yes, this is a bit techy but it is important.

HTTPS is not the plural of HTTP

When checking your bank account or shopping online, you probably already know to look for the lock icon in your web browser’s address bar. This indicates your client (browser) is passing data to the site with encryption.

By default, a web page is served to the browser using the non-encrypted HTTP protocol. The protocol is the bit found at the beginning of a URL, or web address.1

HTTPS – the important part is the “S” Security, regular websites were just labeled as HTTP. You obtain the “S” in HTTPS by getting a SSL certificate which is the “middle man” to protect your website from cyber attacks, reduce malware, unwarranted exploitation and protect your website visitors.

Google HTTP Warning

Chrome and other browsers will display a “Not Secure” warning in the address bar (at the top of the page where your URL – website address is) before your website address. Google is trying to protect its users from security attacks.

Why do I need an SSL Certificates now?

SSL certificates are not new and have been used to protect online payments and information transfers for years.

You might be asking why do I need an SSL certificate (which creates the HTTPS) now? I am not an online shop, I don’t collect huge amounts of data so why do I need and SSL?

The answer is SEARCH. You need to follow Googles guidelines to have your website picked up and continue to rank in search. If your customers can’t find you in when they search for your keyword, the term you want to help them with eg “Light fitting X town” then it is the same as hanging out your digital closed sign, no one will ever come into your website.

HTTPS protects the integrity of your website

We all want our visitors to have a good experience on our website and follow through to become customers, buyers, long term clients and HTTPS is an important way of showing Google you are serious about your website security. Way back in 2016 Google was asking for websites to consider HTTPS – Chrome Developers Summit, now it is not an option HTTPS is a must for all website. Having a NOT secure label on your website is not a good user experience and this will scare off your potential visitors, therefore affecting your search ranking.

How do I get HTTPS on my current website?

Your first step is to contact your website hosting provider. A lot of website hosting providers are now offering free or low cost SSL certificates and will help you install them on your current website.

Need help with SSL certificate and HTTP to HTTPS migration, contact Cathy and the team at CATCO Enterprises for help.

1. Source – sprydigital.com/security-2/chrome-http-warning-fixed-with-ssl

5 Top Tips for Small Business Websites

WebsiteNo matter what size your business is, you need a professional website to ensure your customers can recognise your product and contact you efficiently. Websites provide an effective platform for many methods of communication, however there are some aspects you absolutely must include and others that you need to omit to ensure your website is noticeable and achieves its desired objectives.

Whether you have had your website professionally designed, created and hosted or are doing it yourself on a website builder platform, you need to ensure you’re following these tips to bring customers back, entice new customers in and give everyone an enjoyable and productive experience on your website.

The top design tips to make your small business website work for your business include:

  1. Clutter Free
  2. Google and Mobile Friendly
  3. Easily Located Contact Details
  4. Professional Branding and Images
  5. Relevant and Authentic Links and Content

1. Clutter Free

Think small business, think simple and unique. You want to stand out from the crowd, but you don’t want to bombard your prospective and current clients with ads, images, branding, products and in-your-face information. Don’t let your viewer feel overwhelmed or frustrated, keep your website design simple and exude the image of professionalism.

Make sure when they arrive at your website they know what you sell and how you can help them.

Google2. Google and Mobile Friendly

If your website is not Google friendly you won’t show up in Google search and no one will be able to find you. Your website needs to use SEO (search engine optimisation) best practices in the form of relevant content, clear keywords, current links and easy navigation to ensure it ranks high in Google searches. Ensuring your website is also mobile friendly is essential, because a vast majority of your potential online viewers will view you on a mobile device, it is also important because Google houses a mobile-first index; meaning those websites that are adapted for viewing on a mobile device are listed higher than those that are not.

3. Easily Located Contact Details

You can have the best-looking website in the market but it’s not worth a cent if your prospective and current clients cannot find how to locate or contact you. Ensure your phone number is on the top of every page plus you have a contact page that includes your basic contact details, such as phone number and email, on your home page.

4. Professional Branding and Images

Invest some time and money in professional branding. It is your logo, the symbol or picture that customers associate with you, so it needs to last and make an impression. Keep all fonts and colours uniform across all pages and ensure the images you use are your own or you have permission to use them. Purchase stock photos for generic use and brand your own images in an image editing app to establish ownership. Copyright infringements are expensive and just because it is on the internet doesn’t mean you can use it.

5. Relevant and Authentic Links and Content

Hands of white collar worker typing on laptop keypad

As previously mentioned, relevant content plays a major a role in getting indexed by search engines (especially Google), and the presence of authentic links to other websites and internal links to your own work not only promotes ‘visiting’ between relevant sites, it can establish you as an expert in your field. Provide your viewers with as much information as possible to give them an informative and productive experience. A great user experience will also keep your visitors viewing your website longer which is also another Google search indicator.

Who Can Assist Me With my Small Business Website?

CATCO Enterprises has over 16 years’ experience in graphic and web design and are specialists in the field of building effective websites that work for your business.  If your business marketing is not performing to the best of it’s ability, contact Cathy on 9797 0889 to discuss how some small changes can yield big results for your small business.

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