The Benefit of Online Directories

Print, radio, television and traditional advertising mediums are beginning to fall off the map while the internet is taking over. Advertising online, on mobiles, tablets and PCs is fast becoming the only advertising needed for small and large businesses alike.

These days, everyone and everything has an internet presence, from Facebook and Twitter to websites and the increasing media of online directories.

The internet and its ease of use, has made it quicker than ever for people to find a local business and its contact details, while  also researching their work and reading reviews.

Online Directories are now the place where all of this important information can be found. Sites like Bath Business Web, Freeindex and Scoot help businesses connect with potential customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and joining an online directory has been proven to be one of the most effective tools to help a small business’ website get noticed on the web.

Online Directories perform especially well with “longtail search terms” which are more detailed or descriptive phrases that people use to search for something or someone online.
For example: “Walcot Street Italian Restaurant”
Because the listings in the directory are usually comprised of these terms, or very similar, and comprise of categories, sub categories and keyword descriptions they perform very well in online searches.

Having your business website linked on the listing is also very beneficial, forming a “backlink” from a well-known and trustworthy source, further driving your website’s results up in Google. It also brings more traffic to your site and gives a better chance of you being contacted by a potential customer regarding your services.

Many of our directories category pages have front page results on Google, meaning that certain search terms, such as “autolocksmith bath”, will bring up the Bath Business Web Online Directory. In one morning, we received four phone calls regarding services registered on our directories, had we any registered businesses on these categories – they would have received those calls instead!

Online business directories are getting better and better, giving local, immediate results to potential customers. With the internet unlikely to be going anywhere, it is vital that small businesses invest time and money into an online presence, including social media, websites, online directories and other forms of online advertising.

What success have you achieved from online advertising such as directories? Do you ask your clients where they found you? How do you track your online responses? 

Bath Business Web Ltd – Professional Web Design & Bath’s Premier Local Online Directory.

Social Media - Common Mistakes That Can Cost You Business

Social Media is proving to be incredibly important to businesses, large or small. Every time you send a tweet, update a status or publish a blog, you are creating something that is made for the world to see. Engaging with current and future clients, sharing knowledge and becoming an online presence can be conversational, fun and highly profitable. 

However, making silly mistakes such as spelling and grammar, or publishing inappropriate content or content not relevant to your business can be worse than having no social media presence at all. Remember, what goes on the web, stays on the web. 

TOP TIPS

Spelling & Grammar

Inappropriate  & Relevant Content

As a business, you need to beware of being associated with certain opinions that may cause your business or reputation harm by putting off potential customers. People use your Facebook or Twitter to get to know the person behind the business, be sure they like what they see. If you don’t want them to see your private information, set up a completely separate profile. 

• Avoid overly political views, pictures, rants  – debate a news story if it is relevant to your business, the local area or trade but avoid being too one sided.
• Don’t swear, post offensive pictures or comment on other peoples posts in an offensive manner.
• Keep photos relevant to your business, staff, locations etc. ( Ask your staff first before posting any pictures of them)
• Avoid directly "bad-mouthing" other companies. If it is a complaint regarding services, contact them directly. If it is a company in direct competition with yours, they will come off better in the long run.

If you aren't sure if a post or tweet is appropriate for your business, then it probably isn't. 

Bath Business Web Ltd - Professional Webdesign, Professional Results.

Social media and the tradesperson

Builder, carpenter, electrician, plumber, gardener... whatever your trade, you are probably aware that the Internet has taken over the world of advertising and marketing in the last few years. Business cards, newspaper adverts and TV commercials all display their website address or email. The phrase "Like us on Facebook" or "Follow us on Twitter" has become common on the high street and in restaurants. 

But where do YOU fit in? How do you, as a tradesperson, make use of the Internet to attract new clients? How can you get social media to work for you?


Have faith in the medium
For many of us, the Internet is something we understand and use every day. We search for restaurant offers or movie times, we browse Facebook for pictures of kittens and we tweet about our day. But when it comes to promoting our business, we don't trust it. How many times have you heard these phrases:
- I had a Facebook page but it didn't work, I didn't get any Likes
- I used Twitter occasionally but I didn't have many followers so I stopped bothering
- I got a website but no one visited it and I didn't get any new work

These are things that Bath Business Web hear a lot from tradespeople. The key to all of them is the same. The website, Facebook pages and Twitter profiles are all tools to help you advertise and promote your business. They have to be used to be successful, and used in the right way.

Social media is SOCIAL
The biggest mistake people make with social media is misunderstanding its function. Social media is designed to let people socialise. Businesses can make use of this by interacting with other users, getting their brand known and trusted. They can showcase their work, their offers or promotions and put a personal face and voice to the brand name. Replying to contacts from people, sharing their interests as well as your own and building a relationship that lies between professional and personal are the keys to building a strong social media profile.

Sadly, many businesses ignore this function and instead expect a mere presence on Facebook or Twitter to earn them Likes and Followers. They fail to realise that you must earn your profile strength in this world, by producing great content and interacting with not only your existing fans but all of your potential ones as well. 

Paid advertising on platforms like Facebook and Twitter can produce excellent results, getting your company name specifically targeted at people in your area who want your services. This is why social media is powerful for business - all the information Facebook or Google + collects about you as you browse is used to point adverts at you that you'll love. But ultimately if your adverts direct potential clients to an empty Facebook page with no Likes, it's wasted money.

The bottom line
Think of social media as a 24hr business lunch, a way to talk to your clients no matter where you are. When you visit a client you would probably give them a pitch, discuss their expectations from the work and their needs. You'll make sure you are dressed appropriately, maybe in work clothes, maybe in uniform. You'll be honest and open with them, talk about the challenges of the job and probably tell them about yourself, your company and how you've dealt with jobs before.

Social media lets you have those conversations with many potential clients at once and without intruding on the rest of the day. Be accessible, be honest and be professional and you will find that social media is a tool your business will benefit from. 

See also:
Social media mistakes you don't want to make 
5 Small business secrets

Web design, when you need it - email us and mention "the blog"

Social media mistakes you don't want to make

Social media is everywhere. Any web page you visit will almost certainly encourage you to tweet, like or pin its content. Companies are creating brand new forms of advertising to cater for the social media networks. Engagement with social media is at an all time high and even countries that have banned certain sites like Facebook are showing massive growth.

source Wikimedia Commons

Businesses are rapidly finding out that social media can mean increased brand awareness, growth of their client base and relatively low cost yet effective marketing. Clever companies have used social media to launch viral videos, competitions and stunts, driving up their popularity. 

 

source Wikimedia Commons

 
There are however, some risks when you introduce social media to your business strategy. A single misstep or innocent blunder can render your brand a laughing stock. So before you dip a toe into social media as a business, read the tips below...

3) Check, check and check again
One of the most attractive parts of social media is the ease of use. Type a short, pithy comment about your business, possibly with a picture attached, click one button and voila! The latest piece of marketing gold has been launched into the twittersphere. The disadvantage of this, however, is that a few moments of not concentrating, a moment of bad judgement and you have launched something that will cripple your reputation and never, ever be lost, because once information is on the world wide web, it is never lost.

Enter American firm KitchenAid, who allowed an astonishingly bad taste joke about the president's deceased relative to find its way onto their twitter feed. A quick fire round of retweets later and the company was in hot water, with many public apologies and hurried denunciations made over the following days. The damage was done however, and despite the company deleting the tweet almost immediately, echos of it will be floating online as a cautionary tale long into the future.

 

source Wikimedia Commons

2) You hold your company's reputation in your hands
If you've been in marketing for more than five minutes, you'll know that reputation is everything for a brand. Without a rock solid reputation for honesty, good choices and quality, growing a business is nearly impossible. Throughout your marketing you will have been developing your company's image. Badly thought through social media campaigns can turn all that to ash in a surprisingly short amount of time.

So it was for The Redner Group, who oversaw the launch of much loved shooter Duke Nukem's long awaited new release, 'Duke Nukem Forever'. The PR section posted a public statement on twitter that appeared to threaten to withhold new review copies of titles from outlets who gave the game a poor review. The backlash from fans, reviewers and the larger industry was deafening, leaving the company's reputation for fairness in tatters. 

1) You may loose more than you think
Social media mistakes can have wide reaching consequences. A slip up (or gross stupidity) may cost you money, time and possibly your job. Worst cases may even result in legal consequences. Again, this often comes as a result of impulsive posting behaviour, but in some cases what may appear a silly, harmless prank can lead to disaster when they hit the public forum.

Two employees at a New York branch of Domino's Pizza learned this the very hard way when they posted a video they filmed showing various misbehaviours at work on YouTube and the social media networks, quickly coming to the attention of their bosses. The evidence of their antics was slammed as 'disgusting', caused a major dent in Domino's reputation for hygiene and standards and swiftly led to the sacking of both the stars of the show. If that wasn't enough, both of them were brought up on legal charges for various health code violations. 

source Wikimedia Commons

So when you embrace social media for your business, embrace also the lessons to be learned from these and the countless other similar stories on the internet. Remember, with great social media power comes great responsibility...

See also:
5 Small business secrets...
The battle of the browsers...

website design and online directory listings

5 search engines you never though to try...

We're an Internet savvy culture now. Even those of us who cheerfully admit to being hopeless with technology know what an email is for (although maybe not how to open one!) And we all know about Google. 

Google is THE search giant, the biggest and most well known of the search engines, the King of the SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages). It dominates Internet search, commands  respect from  web designers hoping to make it to the fabled Google Front Page for their customers and has even gone toe to toe with the heavy hitters of the mobile phone world. 

But the Internet is a far more mysterious place than it at first appears. Buried far in the corners, in the damp dark places hidden by Google and Windows, there lies the alternative search engine. Strange things with unfamiliar logos and confusing names that shuffle and scurry in the shadows. Most of them are for niche subjects, like Slidefinder which comes in 35 languages all dedicated to finding a truly bemusing number of PowerPoint presentations on any subject, or Retrevo, your go-to search engine for electronics. Knowing what, and where they are can make for a fascinating trawl through the Internet.

Lets drag the top few of them into the light.

5) Brainboost

This remarkable engine not only gives you the answer you are looking for, in plain English, but also gives you half a dozen links to related questions that your original query might prompt. So from "why do birds fly?" we get a concise answer and a prompt to further questions from the philosophically fascinating "If a fly can fly can a bird bird?" to the science teachers next paper "What bird do not fly?" Grammar errors excluded, that's a pretty good range of followup questions. 

4) WorldCat

Brilliant for students and the studious alike, this engine is quite simply a library finder. Think of a book, any book, type it in and let WorldCat find it for you. Tap in your location and it will find the nearest copy. In a world of electronic information this may not seem that useful, but it bears remembering that a great deal of books aren't electronic and most older papers and books needed by students will also fall into that category. 

3) Dogpile

Dogpile is what's known as a meta search engine. This means when answering your searches it grabs relevant information from many other search engines, including Google, Bing, Yahoo!, MSN and so on. This is important when you realise that websites have to be submitted to a search engine before it can display them in search results. Since popular search engines vary between countries and preferences vary between web designers, it's nice to access all the other engines at once and without having to go looking for them.

2) Wikipedia

Originally considered as an on line encyclopedia, Wikipedia has blossomed and grown from these humble beginnings to become a monster of search in it's own right. Estimating over 4, 000, 000 articles in English alone, with more being added every day, it is hard to imagine a search term that isn't represented somewhere. Whilst the quality of the information in the return may sometimes be suspect, owing to the Wiki gimmick that allows anyone to edit it's pages, there are always useful links to be found and often the information itself answers the search query sufficiently. Plus, you generally learn something new whilst searching! Beats scrolling through pages of unhelpful SERP's looking for an obscure company name or definition.

1) Infomine

This powerful engine deals in the other world, the world which search engines traditionally are forbidden to enter. Known as the Invisible Web, the Deep Web, the Undernet and other spooky and tempting names, it is the home of password protected library databases and company intranet that is private and uncrawled. Whilst not illegal to search these things, the spiders and bots that work for Google and friends do not normally have easy access and so ignore them. Estimates on the amount of info hidden in this Deep Web are staggering - around 7,500 terabytes were thought to be lurking there back in 2001. If information is currency, there's gold in them there hills... plus, you get to feel like a movie hacker whilst using it!

For quality web design and high search results, visit www.bathbusinessweb.co.uk today or find us on Facebook and twitter

See also:
The battle of the browsers
Beware of Google pay-per-click

Buckle up for ad:tech 2012

 
Big boss Duncan and our chief web designer Dan will be heading to London tomorrow for ad:tech, a two day festival of all things technology. We're only down for the day, but what a day that will be! 

ad:tech is described as an interactive conference and exhibition focused on technology and advertising. The UK dates this year will be held in the London Olympia. It boasts an impressive conference program of speakers and panels, with additional seminars and exhibitions throughout the event. 

New to the conference this year is a brand new floor plan, new seminar theatres and a new networking area. The conference program is brand centred, with a mobile video summit on day one and an advertising summit on day two.


Team Bath Business Web will be there for the Wednesday as it's all about mobile technology, a subject close to our hearts (see our Responsive Web Design blog from a few weeks ago). We'll be tweeting the most exciting discoverys and important updates throughout the day, so make sure you follow us on #adtech and @Bathbusinessweb.