Margaret Matthew Marketing Consultant

 
Margaret Matthew Marketing Consultant

Website

It has come to the stage where anyone who wants to run a business needs a website.  Just like printed promotions, the quality of your website will reflect the quality of your business; the fundamentals of good design, good images and good copywriting apply. 

I get all my work through word of mouth recommedation, so my website simply provides additional information to any potential client.  However, for many of my clients, the website is the main promotional tool.  Providing a business with the best website demands a clear understanding of their products and markets and a clear brief.  My role is often to develop and interpret the brief between client and webdesigner, ensuring the "look and feel" and navigation works for the target markets the website is aimed at.  I also provide copy, images and basic Search Engine Optimisation.  I work mainly with two companies for web design; Heehaw for more complex websites, examples include www.hopetoun.co.uk; www.themajesticline.co.uk; and Oncreative for good quality budget websites with a CMS, for example www.quadmaniascotland.co.uk and www.sthildaseaadventures.co.uk.  A website should always come with a good, simple to use, content management system (CMS) so that you, or your marketing support, can update the content on a regular basis and optimise the pages for search engines.

Make sure your website domain name is on all promotions, print and stationary.  It is very easy now for anyone to be able to get a domain name or url, set up a simple website, do sufficient optimisation, and manage a content management system themselves.  It is simply a case of learning how to do it and there are many courses available.  I search for and buy domain names at www.redstation.co.uk and have used Microsoft Live successfully, which is totally free. 

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is often presented as a dark art to get your website displayed on the first page of google.  Yet it is a simple process that requires a bit of time and understanding.  Ensure you have a website with its own Content Management System (CMS) so that you can do this yourself.  The purpose of the process is to allow search engines to find your webpages with certain search keywords on. 

1. Think of the keyword/key phrase your customers might use to search for your products.  Using The Majestic Line as an example I decided on "Scottish Cruises" for the home page

2. In your CMS system, firstly find the title tag and type in the keyword with the company name - e.g Scottish Cruises|The Majestic Line.  Make sure you always do the title tag, it is vital in getting SEO to work.

3. Write the copy for the page and try and get the key phrase to appear several times.  Its not worth putting in the key phrase so often that the copy reads badly - the purpose of getting your web page noticed is so that people are enticed by what they read and buy your product!

4. Now find the meta descriptor tag and type in a phrase which contains your key phrase and which is also carried in the text on the web page.  For The Majestic Line it is "Our Scottish Cruises provide the experience of a lifetime"

5. Find the keywords tag and add your key phrase and other key phrases contained within the text, although it is doubtful how effective this is

"Scottish Cruises" achieves The Majestic Line a spot on the first page of Google.  On all the other web pages the same process is applied with other chosen key phrases for example "Skye Cruises" brings the page with the Skye Cruise itinerary up on the first page of google.

There is a lot more can be done by SEO experts, but if you get these basics right, you are well on your way to a well optimised site with very little effort and no expense.  When getting or upgrading a website these are the key things to remember: