Infoserve Group

Ok, here’s the next its-never-been-easier blog about the best ways to market your business online.

We’ve covered:

- Infoserve KeySites, which are one/two page websites specifically designed to rank highly in major search engines for chosen search terms, like “garden maintenance in Coventry” for example (see here).

- City-Visitor, which is one of the most used business directories on the Internet. You can get a listing on here to be found on the first page of major search engine results.

The next product?

- Infoserve eStart Websites

It’s all very well getting your business to the top of search engines, but what if your website is really old or you can’t manage it yourself to update the content? Or what if you don’t even have a website?

Infoserve’s eStart Website packages are simple.

Easy-to-manage, professional looking websites at affordable prices. There are a variety of designs which, using your own images and text, can be customised to your business.

They are like template websites so you don’t pay the huge costs of design and build.

Infoserve sorts the domain registration for you (yourbusinessname.co.uk), hosting (your website has to ‘sit’ somewhere to be available for Internet users to see), but then it’s down to you.

YOU get to maintain your company website and be in control; you can view reports on how many people have visited it, edit any text to include latest offers and upload any new photos.

And if one or two pages isn’t enough, try out eStart Plus product which gives you up to 10 pages on content.

So if you want to ditch your current website (Not modern enough? Not able to edit the content at all? Worried it will cost too much?) or want to start from scratch and build up a website for your business, give us a call. It really is pretty straight forward. The hardest part will be choosing your design…

As the virtual world plays an even greater part in our lives, there are two words that really get to me.

Those words are ‘UNDER CONSTRUCTION’ splashed across a company’s website.

I would hazard a guess that in the majority of cases, nobody’s doing any work on it and the words ‘under construction’ will remain for months and even years. It’s a cop out for most. They have bought the domain name, put up a holding page and think that’ll do until they get round to sorting it out, paying little attention to internet marketing.

But they don’t. Instead they forget about it not realising it will be doing more harm that good.

Companies need to realise that with 86% of local searches for businesses taking place online, the first port of call will be the website. It serves as their place of business in a virtual world.

And the fact is the virtual world is just as important as the real one, as it is the first stage in the buying process.

Consumers today are savvy. They want to know more about the business before they buy. So if they can’t find any information they’ll be off to a competitor. Just like they would in the real world if a note was pinned to the door telling them the business is not open yet!

And when people have researched online by taking a look at websites, 90% of those searches will result in offline activity such as calling the business or going to visit them.

So companies must make it a priority to get their website sorted out. For an investment of a few hundred pounds a company can have a site to be proud of which will tell potential customers all they need to know and drive business their way.

Only when it has been given the attention it deserves can online marketing be maximised, whether it is through website optimisation, a business directory or through PPC and sponsored links.

So if your website resembles more of a cobweb site, it’s time you dusted it down and gave it the attention it needs so you can attract more business rather than presenting them with a closed door.