You Should Be Online!

Get British Business Online

Its the end of the week and we were wondering if we should post something to our blog; the general rule is if you have to think about what you should post then don’t bother. ONLY POST if you have something useful and relevant to say. However we did give this a little bit of thought and we were reminded about a post from Chris Brogan on recycling your blog content, so rather than not bothering at all we had a quick look through the archives and found this post: Get British Business Online.

The concept is simple, if you are a small business without a website or blog head on over to Get British Business Online and you can create your website (Including .co.uk domain name) for FREE! Our core business is selling websites and blogs to small and medium size business but we are big fans of Get British Business Online and believe it is well worth shouting about. More info in the video below…

What Does an Effective Home Page Look Like?

Don’t forget that your homepage is your first impression

Lots of info graphics still doing the rounds and when we come across one worth sharing we do just that! Kissmetrics take the credit for this explanation of what makes up an effective home page.  (You may also want to check out their collection of other info graphics, lots of good topics covered and well worth a read)

Get Started with Google Analytics

Google Analytics

An essential tool for any business with a website

Do you use Google Analytics? If not then you may find a recent article from Mashable of some use. They offer a step by step set up and user guide. We use Google Analytics everyday to check how our sites (And clients sites) are performing but there is so much more you can do, check out this summary of some of the reports you can run:

  • Visitors: This shows many things about the people coming to your site, including where they’re located geographically, what language they speak, how often they visit your site and what computers and browsers they use to get there.
  • Traffic Sources: Here you’ll find how people got to your site. You can track which sites link to your page or keywords people search to find you.
  • Content: This tab gives you insight into specific pages on your site. It can help answer questions about how people enter and exit your pages, as well as which ones are most popular.
  • Goals: If you’re aiming for established objectives, reports in the Goals tab will be helpful to you. Here you’ll find data about desired actions from users, including downloads, registrations and purchases.
  • Ecommerce: You’ll only need this tab if you’re selling items on your site as it houses all merchandise, transaction and revenue activity information.

(Installing Google Analytics and similar tools is much much easier if your using WordPress!)

 

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT MASHABLE

The Evolution of Web Design

From the early 1990′s right up to the mobile web

Nice infographic from KISS METRICS illustrating the evolution of web design. Hope you enjoy it.

Web Design Mistakes Made by Small Businesses

Top 5 in no particular order

This is worth reading, pop over to Mashable for the full article. Mashable post a lot of useful articles, hints and tips so it is worth subscribing but we thought should share this one. Top 5 web design mistakes made by small businesses are:

  1. Poor navigation
  2. No clear calls to action
  3. Colour and contrast
  4. Content, content, content
  5. Clutter

Agree or disagree? Read the full article for a good explanation of each and some advice on best practice.