islandburo

Make it easy to encourage positive reviews (updated January 2024)

koo@island-webdesign.co.uk (Koo Janzen) — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 14:52:39 GMT

A simple way to encourage reviews for your Google Buisness Profile - because more reviews = better rankings & better customer experience

Isle of Wight customers for Isle of Wight businesses

Here at Island Web Design we are passionate about local business being the first choice for local customers. These days, many potential customers will make extra effort to ensure they can buy what they need from a local business, as long as the service or product is of good quality, reliable and not that much more expensive than from large, national or international retailers.

But they have to be able to find it. They have to be able to find YOU! Your business needs to be 'on the map' so to speak and that means that, when the client goes online to search for the product or service, and if that search has local intent, Google will show them the 'map-pack' with the 3 businesses closest to them that can proved that product or service.

If you are interested in finding out more about the 'Map Pack' and what it takes to rank in there, take a look at my article Higher rankings and more customers for local business

Any local business owner can do this. You don't need to be an Island Web Design customer to optimise your Google Business Profile and to improve your online visibility to local customers. Just follow the "7 Google Business Profile Maintenance Tasks" in the above mentioned article and you are well on your way to make an impression.

How do I get more reviews from my customers?

Today I want to show you how my clients and I go about encouraging more reviews for their businesses so that you can do the same and start getting more reviews and start ranking better in local search results. And not only that, customer reviews are extremely powerful when it comes to influencing consumers to make a purchase, so it really is a double-edged sword.

The first thing you need to do it find your GBP review link. Open Google on your browser and search for your business name. As long as you're signed in as the manager of that profile, you will see 'Your business on Google' with a series of buttons and panels below. Click on the button that says 'Customers' and on the next page click on 'Reviews'. You'll see a blue buttn that says 'Get more reviews'. Click on that and on the panel that pops up, select 'Copy link'.
With that review link copied to your clipboard you can now visit an online QR code generator such as
https://www.qr-code-generator.com and paste it in the appropriate field to generate your QR code.
Choose your preferred format and download it to add to a business card, your invoice (or any other business stationery), or print it out on your printer and hang it up in your shop. Now, after every sale or service, give your customers a card or point them to the QR code on your invoice or your poster and ask them to scan it and leave a review.
Make sure to tell your clients how much helps a local business to get these reviews.
You can also send the link in text messages and emails so customers are only a click away from leaving you a 5-star review!

For one of our clients we created a square card (148mm x148mm) and used the back to promote the email marketing sign-up page in a similar fashion. For another, we created a simple business card style review request.

Should I reply to the reviews?

Absolutely. Good AND bad. If the review is good, make sure you thank the reviewer and if it is not so good, ask them to contact you via your website's contact page. Personally, I would not quote an email address or phone number and no matter what, never try and sort it out on the review page. Just say something like "I am really to sorry to hear we did not live up to your expectation and would be grateful if you could contact us via yourdomain.co.uk/contact so that we can try and resolve it and learn how to do better in future".

Most won't bother but it will look good for anyone looking at the reviews to see that you care.

Consistency of review acquisition is a huge ranking factor

In the dynamic world of online presence, Google reviews have become the unsung heroes of local businesses. Forget the notion of scoring a sudden influx of 100+ reviews and then hanging up your boots; at Island Web Design, we're all about the long game.

Picture this: a steady flow of reviews over time, signaling to Google that your business is alive, kicking, and genuinely cared about by the community. It's not a one-and-done deal; it's a continuous dance of engagement.

Why, you ask? Because in the eyes of Google, consistency is the secret sauce that propels your business up the local search rankings. So, here's the scoop: never hit pause on asking for reviews. Make it a seamless part of your marketing strategy, and watch as your business not only thrives online but also builds an unshakable trust with your audience.

At Island Web Design, we're not just crafting websites; we're weaving a digital narrative that echoes in the hearts of our community. Ready to join the review revolution? Let's make our online Island presence stronger than ever!

So, is that all there is to it?

Well, yes and no....

In and by themselves, reviews are not going to make all the difference in the world but as part of an overall package of GBP profile activity and optimisation, they form an important part of your marketing strategy. It does mean you need to monitor your GBP profile every day but you can set your phone up to receive notifications from Google Maps.

Island Web Design does offer a package of measures to help you stand out in local searches and we'd be more than happy to discuss the details with you. This will allow you to be more or less hands-off and we take care of monitoring and replying to reviews, as well as social media and GBP posts, citation building, website optimisation and so on.

But if your marketing budget is limited, it doesn't mean you can't make meaningful advances if you follow the advice in the aforementioned article and find a way to collect reviews as discussed here.

Let me know of you have any questions and until next time, Happy Marketing!

Koo Janzen

Island Web Design

Revitalizing Tradition: The Sussex Sash Website Makeover by Island Web Design

koo@island-webdesign.co.uk (Koo Janzen) — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 13:36:09 GMT

In the quiet corners of the Isle of Wight, where tradition meets craftsmanship, Sussex Sash stands as a beacon of expertise in the repair, refurbishment, and replacement of traditional joinery wooden sash windows. As artisans preserving architectural legacies, they approached Island Web Design (IWD) for a digital facelift, seeking a modern touch to complement their timeless craftsmanship.

Unveiling the Imperfections: A Digital Diagnosis

In our initial rendezvous with Sussex Sash, it became clear that their digital presence required more than just a cosmetic makeover. Beyond the need for a sleeker website, the client grappled with email issues, an outdated Google Business Profile, and a dormant Facebook page. These challenges presented a canvas for Island Web Design to not only design a visually appealing website but also address the underlying digital inefficiencies.

A thorough examination of the existing website uncovered structural flaws, sluggish mobile performance, and a lack of SEO finesse. The absence of meta titles and keyword-deficient page titles hindered on-site SEO, missing opportunities to climb search engine rankings. Moreover, the Google Business Profile, though created, languished in oblivion, violating guidelines and missing out on the potential for local visibility.

On the positive side, Sussex Sash had earned accolades from FENSA and Which?, accumulating a trove of 5-star reviews via the Which Trusted Trader scheme. Leveraging these triumphs, Island Web Design proposed a comprehensive plan to rejuvenate Sussex Sash's digital footprint.

The IWD Prescription: Crafting Excellence in Every Pixel

IWD proposed to devise a multifaceted solution to breathe new life into Sussex Sash's digital identity:

Logo and Corporate Image: We proposed to craft a modern logo and corporate identity to give Sussex Sash a fresh, contemporary look.
Website Overhaul: To design a robust, fully responsive website, eschewing templates for a bespoke touch. To use existing and new content, enriched with strategically chosen keywords, to form the backbone of the site. We ensure that the structure receives meticulous attention to complement on-site SEO, with compelling calls-to-action and an abundance of internal and external links. Local business schema and sharing Open Graph (OG) tags and images will add to the finishing touches.
Email Hosting and Domain Control: Island Web Design to take control of the domain and rectify the absence of email hosting by setting up reliable services for up to two email addresses.
Google Business Platform Mastery: The dormant Google Business Profile to be transformed into an active 'service area listing,' undergo verification and optimisation. Addressing the guidelines breach, Island Web Design revamps the profile to align with business practices.
Facebook Facelift: The outdated Facebook page needs a transformation, aligning its name and URL with the business identity. Regular updates and optimisations will breath life into the what is currently a dormant page.
Content Enrichment: We propose to turn image galleries showcasing completed projects engaging blog/news articles. Each article will adhere to SEO best practices, incorporating article schema, titles, and descriptions for optimal search engine visibility.
Reputation Management System: A tailored management package will allowed Sussex Sash to effortlessly contribute images and basic content for website and social media updates. An initial run of 500 review request cards to facilitate customer reviews on Google, with IWD monitoring and responding to enhance the company's online reputation.

The Digital Renaissance Unveiled

Starting towards the end of November 2023, Island Web Design and Sussex Sash worked hard to approve a new logo and create a new website.

We always start with the PC version of the website, which was then submitted to our client for approval and sign off, which the client was happy to do after a few edits and refinements. At this stage, we optimise the site for tablet and mobile view.

Once completed and ready for publication, it was at this stage we discovered the previous webmaster never had full control over the domain and that no email hosting had ever been set up, instead using forwarding to the client’s Gmail for all email traffic (this is a bad idea for so many reasons!).

However, after some digging around, we managed to locate the domain and get it transferred to the IWD servers. We were now able to publish the site and set up some robust email hosting at no extra charge to our client.

Overall this was a fantastic project to be a part of. From the content we had, the research we did and interaction we had with our client, Sussex Sash, it was apparent that we were dealing with a company steeped in tradition and staffed by the finest experts in their field. They combine traditional craftsmanship with modern, long life timber products, to preserve architectural features in historic properties and mix period splendour with environmentally sound initiatives in the form of the materials they use to the products they provide, that help homeowners to live in energy efficient homes.

See their website on https://www.sussexsash.co.uk and if you have enjoyed this article and feel Island Web Design can help your company make a positive step forward in the digital world, please hit the button below to get in touch!

Unlocking the Power of Small Business SEO: Local vs. National

koo@island-webdesign.co.uk (Koo Janzen) — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 13:19:07 GMT

In today's digital landscape, where the competition is fierce and online marketing channels are saturated, small businesses often find themselves wondering about the importance of SEO.

They may question its impact on their business, assuming that a good website and brand building are enough. However, understanding the intricacies of search engine optimization (SEO) and its different facets can be a game-changer for small businesses aiming to establish their online presence. This article aims to shed light on the fundamentals of SEO, its significance for small businesses, and the differences between national and local SEO strategies.

What is SEO, and why does it matter?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing a website to improve its visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). It involves various techniques and strategies that enable search engines like Google to understand the website's relevance and value to users' queries. SEO matters because a majority of online experiences begin with a search engine, and if your business isn't visible in the search results, you risk missing out on potential customers.

The Impact of SEO on Small Businesses:

Increased Online Visibility: SEO helps small businesses gain visibility in search engine results, allowing them to reach a wider audience and generate organic traffic.
Targeted Traffic: By targeting relevant keywords and optimizing their website, small businesses can attract users who are actively searching for their products or services.
Credibility and Trust: Ranking higher in search results instils trust and credibility in potential customers, as they often perceive top-ranking websites as more reliable and authoritative.
Cost-Effective Marketing: SEO is a cost-effective marketing strategy for small businesses compared to traditional advertising methods, offering long-term benefits and a higher return on investment (ROI).

National SEO vs. Local SEO:

While the core principles of SEO remain consistent, the approach can differ based on the target audience and geographical focus. Here's how national SEO and local SEO differ:

National SEO:

National SEO is the process of optimizing a website to rank for broad, nationwide search terms. It is suitable for businesses that operate on a national scale, without a specific physical location. Key aspects of national SEO include:

Keyword Research: Identifying high-volume, nationally relevant keywords to target.
Content Optimization: Creating high-quality, comprehensive content that caters to a broad audience.
Link Building: Acquiring backlinks from authoritative websites to enhance visibility and domain authority.
On-Page Optimization: Optimizing meta tags, headings, and content structure for broader keyword targeting.

Local SEO:

Local SEO focuses on optimizing a website to rank for location-based searches. It is crucial for small businesses serving a specific local community. Key aspects of local SEO include:

Google Business Profile: Claiming and optimizing your Google Business Profile with accurate information, reviews, and photos.
Local Keyword Research: Identifying location-specific keywords that potential customers might use to find local businesses.
NAP Consistency: Ensuring consistent Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) across all online directories and platforms.
Localized Content: Creating location-specific content, such as blog posts or landing pages, to target local customers.

Conclusion:

In the competitive landscape of digital marketing, small businesses can no longer overlook the power of SEO. It goes beyond having a good website and building a brand; SEO is the gateway to improving online visibility, attracting targeted traffic, and building credibility. Understanding the differences between national SEO and local SEO allows businesses to tailor their strategies to their target audience effectively. By implementing the right SEO techniques, small businesses can level the playing field and thrive in the ever-evolving digital world.

Are you starting a new business?

koo@island-webdesign.co.uk (Koo Janzen) — Sun, 06 Feb 2022 19:51:05 GMT

Starting a new business is exciting and a little bit scary at the same time. But with Island Web Design's all-inclusive START-UP DEAL, at least your website, logo, branding and email are sorted for a low monthly payment and no upfront costs!

Every year we put aside some time and money to take on a select number of Start-Up projects. Here at Island Web Design we strongly believe we need to look after aspiring entrepeneurs and help these brave people as much as we can.

Why? Well, in truth, some of our most loyal customers are those we helped with a special deal at the very start of their self-employed careers, and we have grown as they grew.

According to FundSquire, a global startup funding network, over half a million businesses start up in the UK every year . True, around a quarter of these fail in year one but we're confident yours won't be one of those! ��

SmallBusinessPro, a website that "offers new and prolific entrepreneurs a host of tools, guides and information to assist them in starting and building successful businesses", tells us that the most successful businesses are, in order:

Couriers
Coffee Shops
Car Washes
Catering Companies
Internet-based Companies
Landscaping
Food Delivery & Restaurants
Sandwich Bars
Manned Van Services
Professional Services like Accountants, etc.

Check out their website for a host of advice, tools and ideas for starting and growing a small business.

Marketing your new business is the first step.

Marketing is key to the success of your business. It doesn't just refer to 'promoting' your products or services - it is all about your customers and figuring out what they want emotionally and how you can give them what they want through your products or services.

This is not a marketing blog but if it was, we'd now be talking about the 4 Ps (or the 6Ps or 7 Ps, depending on far you want to go). Also referred to as the Marketing Mix, the 4 Ps are Product, Place, Price, and Promotion of a product or service. The other Ps are People, Process and Physical evidence.

Let's not get into too much detail here but try and remember one thing about the 'Product', the first P. This should be split into 3 levels: the core product, the actual product and the augmented product.

The core product is not the actual product (or service) you are selling but the BENEFIT the product offers the client to satisfy their need. Think of anti-ageing cream advertising. The makers don't 'sell' the cream, they sell the idea of youthfull good looks.
Only once they have you hooked on that, do they show you the actual product that is going to help you achieve those looks. This is why most of the models shown in anti-ageing cream advertising don't actually need, not have they ever used, that cream... #justsaying!
The augmented product is the non-tangible elements that add value to the physical parts, such as warranties and guarantees, customer service excellence, finance options for purchasing delivery options, installation services and post sale customer care.

Why are we talking about this here? Well, it is the first step to take when thinking about your marketing. Often, non-marketing professionals will start by looking at branding and corporate identity from a design point of view ("ooh, that's a pretty colour" or "that's a cool name") and doing this could cost you a lot of money in the long run.

For example, let's take a look at what you make, do, or sell. If you haven't yet settled on a name for your business, let's do some quick keyword research related to your product or service to see what the most searched terms or long tail keywords are. Is there a possibility of using some of these words in your business name? If so, that could prove a serious leg-up in your Local Search Engine Optimisation efforts to rank high for those keywords in a Google search. After all, keyword stuffing in your Google Business Profile's business name field is not allowed. It has to reflect the actual name of your business, as it is on your business card or above the door.

An example:

When John & Ryan decided to go into business together doing home repairs and renovations, they called themselves JR Services. They seriously missed an opportunity using that name. After all, home owners in need of repairs to their garden wall were never going to do a Google search for JR Services. They might look for Isle of Wight Builders & Home Repairs or any combination of those words. That would have been a better name for John & Ryan's business.

So the name of the business is important and in the case of John and Ryan above, 'Isle of Wight Builders' would have probably given us a theme for the logo - it's not a great stretch, is it?

From there, a domain name, a colour scheme and now we're ready to start building the website.

Looking for colour palette ideas and inspiration? Have some fun generating colour palettes with Coloors

How does Island Web Design approach a brand new business website?

From the very start we will be considering what it is you want your website to do for you. We want to achieve the right balance of information, design and search engine optimisation (SEO), and make it friendly, easy to navigate and perfect for viewing on a PC AND a mobile phone.

We'll learn everything we need to know about your business and we'll allow the structure of the website to be dictated by the amount of services you provide, products/ranges you sell, or the keywords we're trying to rank for.

We're not fans of single page websites. It costs as much to host a single page website, as a 5,6 7, or 100 page website, so why waste the opportunity? More pages = more chances to rank = customers can find you online!

We'll also disucss if you need any additional functionality, maybe an appointment booking facility or an event calendar.

Next is images. Original images are the best. If you're going to spend money on anything, make it images, so get yourself a good photographer (we can recommend some if you like).

Once the content is in place, we'll start the design process and you will get as much input in that as you like. You will get a link to preview the site and together we'll create something wonderful!

Then, we'll sort the privacy pages, the Consent Management Platform (to keep you on the right side of UK Privacy laws) and before you know it, we'll be ready to publish and put your shop, product, brand or service front & centre!

It's not all about the web design...

That's your website sorted! Now we get to work on all the other things we need to do such as:

Set up your professional email hosting and, if needed, set your emails up on your devices.
Claim or create your Google Business Profile
Claim or create your Bing Places for Business profile
Submit your website to Google Search for indexing and set up Google Analytics
Set up your business Facebook page, if you haven't already got one.

Unless you pay us an obscene amount of money, we're not going to manage your social media for you, but we'll show you some tricks to make posting to Facebook, LinkedIn etc. effective and easy, encouraging traffic back to your website.

We'll show you how to get reviews (reviews are especially important for Local SEO, see our article ) and what you do when you get some.

Finally, we'll show you how to keep your Google Business profile fresh and exciting and after that, we're always on hand if you have any questions or run into trouble. Think of us as part of your team, an IT person who doesn't cost you a yeary salary.

Keep your website updated - update, don't stagnate!

A website that does not get updated, is not going to do anything for you. Depending on the package you choose, you either get full access to the Content Management System (to make your own edits) or you get up to an hour of our time every month for updates and edits.

At Island Web Design we highly recommend you go for the latter. Regardless of how good your intentions are now, soon you will start running out of time and before you know it, your website will the last thing on your mind.

Ready to make the jump?

If you are ready to make the commitment to start your new business, give Island Web Design a call so that we can give you the support you need to make your new venture a roaring success!

You can contact us here or use the button at the bottom of this page to book an apointment straight into the diary. We can meet, have tea, and discuss how we can best help you. And it is completely free of any obligation!

See you soon!

Google My Business is now Google Business profile

koo@island-webdesign.co.uk (Koo Janzen) — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 20:58:37 GMT

Not just a rebrand - also changes to how you claim, verify, edit and manage your FREE Business Profile

In early November 2021 Google announced that they were making some substantial changes to Google My Business and part of those changes is the new name: Google Business Profile.

This is not the first time Google has rebranded this service. Those of you who have availed themselves of this free listing opportunity will remember that it used to be called Google Local in 2005, which became Google Places in 2009. Then it was Google+ Local in 2011 before changing to Google My Business in 2014.

We have enjoyed the longest period of stability until now and the changes, while not dramatic at first glance, are really quite far reaching and, according to Google, “…meant to make things easier”.

Essentially, Google wants many more businesses to claim their profile, and keep it up to date and relevant. So, claiming an unclaimed profile is now easier (as long Google knows your public facing phone number which they can use to verify your business) and you may already have noticed that, when you do a Google search for your business, you are presented with an admin panel that allows you to make edits and updates to your profile directly in Google Search or Google Maps.

If you log into your Google My Business platform, you may already have seen the message below:

Manage your business profile directly on Google Search and Google Maps

In all fairness, this has been possible for some time. Ben Schwartz from Search Engine Land made us aware of this in his blog in 2017, but now, what is called “inline editing” will soon be the only way you can make changes to your profile.

Sometime in 2022, Google is going to retire the mobile app and the Google My Business website although we are assured that for those of us who are managing multiple profiles, some form of web-based dashboard will remain.

How do I edit or manage my Google Business Prolife?

To manage your Google Business Profile, head over to Google and make sure you’re signed into the Google account that is associated with your business profile.

Type your business name in the search bar
You may have to scroll down below the sponsored results to see your profile
As long as you are owner or manager of this profile, you will see the buttons as shown below.

All the features you are used to seeing in your GMB dashboard are now available directly from the search results window, without the need to log into your GMB dashboard.

Check out the video below to see how you can manage various aspects of your Google Business Prolife including:

In the ‘Edit Profile’ tab:
Edit your business information
Add/edit your services
Manage your opening hours (including special hours for holidays etc.)
Add photos
In the ‘Promote’ tab
Check your listing’s performance on Google
Ask for reviews
Add an update, offer or event – previously ‘Add a Post’.
In the ‘Customers’ tab you can
View and reply to customer’s feedback and reviews
View and respond to messages
Manage your Q&A

Your listing’s performance on Google

An area that was sometimes easily overlooked in the old GMB Dashboard but a feature that is really essential to see how your business listing is performing on Google, can be found under the ‘Promote’ tab. Click on ‘Performance’ and see how many people viewed your profile, which searches triggered your profile, calls made from your profile (only those made from a mobile where people have clicked the ‘call’ button), messages sent and much more. You can also see how many people made direction requests from your profile, to get directions to your business.

Tip: If you embed your Google Business Profile map on your website, rather than a 3rd party map widget, any direction requests made on your site will be added to this total.

Claiming and verifying your listing

If you’re not sure whether you have verified your listing, you can use Google’s verification status checking tool to find out. Follow this link and log in with the email address associated with your GMB listing or Google account and follow the on-screen instructions.

If you haven’t ever claimed your business (or don’t remember doing so) start by searching for your business name on Google. If a panel appears as shown below, a listing exists but if you can see a link that says ‘Own this business’, chances are, it was never claimed.

You can now claim and verify the listing directly from Google search. Click on ‘Own this business’ and in the next screen, click Manage now. As long as the phone number of the business is known to Google, you can now verify the business with an automated call.

An unclaimed or unverified listing can be very harmful to your business and has to be the number 1 priority to sort out if you want to stand any chance of potential customers finding you online.

You Google Business Profile is FREE!

Yes, that is right. Creating and managing your listing on Google is completely free. Some say that it will not always be so but I am not so sure. For one, if Google wants to continue to be the number 1 search engine for the rest of time, they need to make sure they continue to give searchers the best and most relevant results for very search they do. They can only do this if every business has a fully completed, fully optimised Business Profile, in addition to a good website.

I am thinking that the main reason for making the business profile and, for lack of a better word, its ‘dashboard’ so much more visible in search, is to encourage business owners to take notice and claim, verify and regularly update their listing.

Nothing is more annoying for a potential customer looking for a particular product or service, to be faced with a series of results that do not lead anywhere or that are out of date.

So, set aside a few minutes of your day, grab your phone and search for your business. Then get to work! Although the name has changed and the interface looks different, my article Higher Rankings and More Customers for Local Business will give you 7 daily, weekly and monthly tasks to optimise your Business Profile which should help considerably in your quest to rank No. 1 in the Local Map Pack.

Of course, if you would like to explore what Island Web Design can do for you to help you with your Local SEO, which includes the optimisation and management of your Google Business profile, all you need to do is ask!

So feel free to get in touch today and, until next time, happy marketing!

Koo Janzen

Island Web Design

Subscriptions - now available in our online shops

koo@island-webdesign.co.uk (Koo Janzen) — Fri, 11 Jun 2021 11:34:42 GMT

We have a new offering in your online shops that create recurring revenue and increase customer loyalty: Subscriptions! You can use them to offer all types of products and services on a recurring basis.

With recurring subscriptions, you can offer your customers a variety of products and services on a recurring basis - everything from weekly yoga classes to monthly puzzles and seasonal sock deliveries.

Subscriptions can bring so many benefits to your clients, including:

Creating recurring revenue
Increasing the lifetime value of customers
Building customer loyalty
Anticipating production needs

You can choose from several subscription billing cycles: daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually.

A few examples:

Food : Daily coffee, donut or bread delivery
Everyday products: Household items or magazine delivery
Cosmetics: Lipstick of the month
Subscription boxes: Regular deliveries of puzzles, socks, etc.
Memberships: Month-long access to online yoga classes
Recurring donations , and more

You will need one of our 'Advanced' or 'Unlimited' Shops to use subscriptions and you will need to have Stripe enabled as your payment processor.

If you're not yet an e-commerce website customer of Island Web Design, why not have a look at what we can do for you and if you are. and think a subscription based product or service on your online shop is something you would like to consider, please get in touch for more information.

Chat with your online shop visitors using their favourite apps

koo@island-webdesign.co.uk (Koo Janzen) — Wed, 03 Mar 2021 14:17:36 GMT

Proven to increase sales and enhance customer care on e-commerce websites

Go the extra mile for your online shop customers by installing the Chaty App directly in your store.

Chaty allows you to specify up to 20 different channels for your customers to communicate with you, from Whatsapp and Facebook messenger to Email and Text Message (SMS).

When customers want to contact you, they prefer to use the channels they already use and by giving them a choice, you will have made a positive first step in creating a loyal customer relationship.

What is more, once the link has been established, customers can continue to communicate with you even after they have left the store.

The app comes in 4 different price levels, starting with the free version that will cope with up to 500 views per month. The PRO versions are tiered for 10,000 / 50,000 and 150,000 monthly visitors to your shop with a few additional features and removal of the 'Get Chaty' credit. See the infographic below for a breakdown of the prices and features:

Free

Up to 500 visitors

Unlimited Channels

Widget customisation

Channels customisation

Triggers

Attention effect

Custom location

Google Analytics

And more...

£7 /MO

Up to 10,000 visitors

Everything in FREE plus:

Page targeting

Available days and hours

Country targeting

Multiple widgets

No 'Get Chaty' credit

£14 /MO

Up to 50,000 visitors

Everything in FREE plus:

Page targeting

Available days and hours

Country targeting

Multiple widgets

No 'Get Chaty' credit

£21 /MO

Up to 150,000 visitors

Everything in FREE plus:

Page targeting

Available days and hours

Country targeting

Multiple widgets

No 'Get Chaty' credit

Choose from 20 different channels

WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, SMS, Instagram, Telegram, Line, WeChat, Twitter, Google Maps, Slack, Phone (click to call), e-mail, Skype, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Viber, VKontakte, Waze, Poptin pop-ups and three custom channels of your choice, e.g. a link to an external channel or contact page

The Chaty App is fully customisable so we can set it up to match your website colours and appearance. We can add a 'call to action' message, add an effect to attract attention, change its position and more.

FAQs

Consent Management - Have your cookie and eat it

koo@island-webdesign.co.uk (Koo Janzen) — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 10:02:00 GMT

Build trust with your site visitors - Make transparency and consent a pillar of the relationship with your customer.

How you handle your customer's data is the subject of regulation by the European Data Protection Board .

And an update in May 2020 is having a direct effect on how you operate your website. This is not going to be another dry, boring essay on consumer protection blah blah blah - It is important you take note and at the end, if you've stuck with me, there is a small gift from Island Web Design!

So, strap in and get comfortable - I need 7 minutes of your time

In Europe, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires businesses operating in the EU to give consumers control and choice over the personal data that is collected and used and, in most cases, explicit consent is required before any data collection or tracking of any kind happens.

What does that mean? Well, it means that your cookie banner, informing people that you use cookies on your site, is no longer cutting it... (see what I did there? Cookie... cutter... never mind!)

It means that we need a definitive YES, or I ACCEPT, before a visitor makes use of your website.

In May 2020, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) updated their guidelines on consent under Regulation 2016/679. This update is important as it aims to remove any ambiguity on the official position regarding several aspects of cookie usage. Perhaps most significantly, these latest guidelines clearly state that Cookie Walls are prohibited and that the EDPB does not consider consent via scrolling or continued browsing to be valid.

Update April 2021. Since Brexit we are no longer subject to the EDPB unless your website is selling products and services to users in the EU. However, the UK Information Commissioners Office (ICO) states: "If your use of a cookie wall is intended to require, or influence, users to agree to their personal data being used by you or any third parties as a condition of accessing your service, then it is unlikely that user consent is considered valid" .

UK GDPR is a little more ambiguous about the use of cookie walls but in the majority of cases, they are not deemed to be valid consent. See their web page here .

Does my website use cookies?

Well, yes... that's the short answer. But it isn't just about the cookies. It is about all forms of personal data that is collected while a visitor is browsing your site. It is the information collected by the site to build the statistics and to run a number of 3rd party services such as Social Plugins and You Tube Videos for example.

If your site is connected to Google Analytics you are most definitely collecting personal data and your visitors have to be able to opt-in and/or opt-out of this, quickly and easily.

What is personal data and why do I need it?

According to the UK's Information Commissioner's Office , Personal data is information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual, and what identifies an individual could be as simple as a name or a number or could include other identifiers such as an IP address or a cookie identifier, or other factors.

Do I need to collect personal data?

Well, no. You don't in most cases. Some of my customers are perfectly happy for their website to just be a source of information and they are not interested in how many visitors they had last month, and where these visitors came from.

They have no interest in linking their website with their Facebook page, and have posts on Facebook link back to their website, to drive more traffic and win more customers.

They don't want videos on their site, are not bothered about running promotions with pop-ups and couldn't care less about a gallery on their site linking with their Instagram account.

For those of you that fit that description, there is a facility on your website that switches off all tracking and site cookies and we can delete all 3rd party services accordingly.

But, if you ARE interested in growing your business, run your analytics to improve your website traffic and the user experience, and if you like to dabble with social media, we will need to collect explicit consent.

And for that, we need a Consent Management Platform.

What is a Consent Management Platform?

You’ve probably seen pop-ups as you visit websites, asking for consent to use your data, or informing you that data is being collected before you can actually continue to use the site. This pop-up is the Consent Management Platform or CMP.

CMPs store proof-of-consent and preference choices, handle visitors who request to alter data that the website collects, and can provide additional transparency into a site’s data collection and usage practices.

User consent is required any time you collect any information from your customers, from cookies to email addresses and everything between. There are six legal reasons your business may gather data from customers, according to GDPR regulations:

A user consents to their data being collected.
Processing is necessary to satisfy a contract to which the data subject is a party.
You need to process the data to comply with a legal obligation.
You need to process the data to save somebody’s life.
Processing is necessary to perform a task in the public interest or to carry out some official function.
You have a legitimate interest to process someone’s personal data. This is the most flexible lawful basis, though the “fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject” always override your interests, especially if it’s a child’s data.

So, do I need a Consent Management Platform on my site?

Absolutely! And not just for the obvious reasons which are that consent is required by law and it avoids potentially heavy fines

Yes, it can be argued that the authorities are not doing much in the way of enforcing these privacy laws, and some will tell you (mostly this comes from bar-room legal experts) that very little of GDPR law has ever been tested in court so you don't really need to worry about it.

But apart from the risk of monetary fines that could result from not adhering to GDPR requirements or not being able to demonstrate compliance, CMPs can create a better customer experience. Businesses and organisations that implement a preference and consent management platform can deepen relationships with their customers when they make transparency and consent a pillar of their customer relationships. When your customers see that you are taking their data collection seriously, it leads to more trust in your business and, in turn, establishing trust through preference and consent will enable consumers to feel in control of their data.

What is Island Web Design doing about this?

I take the protection and safety of my customers' data very seriously, and we have a number of tools in place that allow our website clients to manage their customer's data in line with GDPR requirements as well.

So, I went out looking for a CMP that I could offer to my website clients and was instantly overwhelmed by the sheer number and scope of the different solutions out there. And the costs involved are not inconsiderable. Nearly all are trying to sell you a package that claims their CMP will enhance your advertising revenue and yes, if your website is about monetising traffic through marketing and generat6ing advertising revenue, than by all means, go and spend several hundred pounds a month on a CMP.

However, most of my clients are just trying to run their business and stay on the right side of the law. I think a basic CMP should be very cheap indeed.

So, we have settled on a CMP by Usercentrics. Usercentrics is a market leader in the area of enterprise consent management platforms (CMP) and empowers site owners to obtain, manage and document the consent of their users across platforms. What is more, Usercentrics’ solution is easy-to-implement, fully customisable and legally compliant.

They operate 2 plans: Standard and Business. If you would like to dive deeper into the differences between these 2 packages and learn more about consent management, please visit our dedicated web page here .

Save to say that their standard package is good enough for 95% of my clients. It covers you for up to 20,000 sessions per month and can deal with up to 2 languages, although customisation of the look and feel of the app is limited.

For more languages and more customisation you will need to look at the Business package.

Have a look at the Usercentrics pricing page and you will see the price of their Basic package is a very reasonable at €8 + VAT per month (approx. £8.57 in today's money), with the Business package coming in at €39 + VAT per month (approx. £41.75).

And here is my gift to you: IWD offers the Standard Package for FREE!!!

Yes, you read that right. Island Web Design is the gift that just keeps on giving!

Our website clients can have the Usercentrics Consent Management Platform installed on their site free of charge using the Standard Package.

To get the CMP on your site, just contact us and make the request. Once installed, visitors will be presented with a consent pop up and a somewhat ugly blue icon will appear on your site in the bottom left or right corner, which visitors can tap on to go back into the CMP and change their settings if they wish.

Yes, the button is ugly and obtrusive but you could also view it as 'transparent and caring' because it gives your visitors that warm fuzzy feeling that you care about their data!

The Business package allows for more customisation, including changing the blue icon for something less 'in your face', and while that will have an additional cost attached to it, I am pleased to say that we can offer you a good deal on that too.

Island Web Design clients can have the Usercentrics Business package for £25 per month. and enjoy more customisation, and support for up to 35 languages.

Make sure you contact Island Web Design if you do not already have an IWD website and if you do, make sure you contact us as well so that we can discuss your CMP requirements and get you on the right side of the UK and European privacy laws!

E-commerce Product Galleries

koo@island-webdesign.co.uk (Koo Janzen) — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 07:23:08 GMT

Showcase your products in our exciting Product Galleries and also filter the products by status and category.

With the festive season almost upon us, now is the time to spruce up your website and explore some of the new features we have to offer to make your online store stand out and encourage more sales.

Product Galleries can boost SEO and increase online visibility

The new Product Galleries are an iteration of our highly versatile image galleries but they get their content from your online store. A Product Gallery can be set to look at the whole store and thereby show all the categories, which is not dissimilar to what the Online Store Widget does, but it doesn't stop there.

Point the Gallery at any category and it will showcase all the products in that category, together with the product title, description and price.

There are a whole host of formatting options that make the gallery look interesting but the real benefit in this is that we can dedicate a gallery for each category and host it on its own page. This way, we can set aside a page for each category which will significantly improve your website's SEO and online visibility.

Filter 'New Arrivals' and 'Sale Items'

We can even have a page for 'New Arrivals' where the gallery will showcase all products added in the last 30 days. Similarly, a gallery can be dedicated to 'Sale Items' and this one will only show products that have been reduced in price (using the shop's 'Was/Now' feature).

While these latter two galleries will ONLY show either New Arrivals and On Sale items, special product labels will also mark On Sale on the relevant products when viewed in their original category, drawing the attention of the shopper to a bargain!

Refit your online shop with Product Galleries

Using the galleries can make your website more interesting and easier to navigate and doing it right will undoubtedly have some significant SEO benefits.

However, the way you format and populate your online shop will probably need to change a little. For example, if you are using the 'New Arrivals' filter, make sure you always have some (at least 3 or 4) new arrivals to display, otherwise the gallery will leave an empty hole in your site.

Similarly, items you're putting on sale need to use the discount feature and not just have their price lowered be put in a 'On Sale' category.

Finally, your product images need to be consistent in terms of dimensions and you must avoid having categories with products as well as sub-categories. Now these last two are nothing new. Best practice dictates that you to have images that are all the same dimension and orientation (at least within 1 category) and that mixing sub-categories and products is not a good idea.

More about Product Galleries

If you l ike to read more, visit our Product Image Galleries page .

Call Island Web Design for all your e-commerce requirements

If you are a current E-commerce client with Island Web Design or if you are looking for a new website with e-commerce solution, talk to me about the Product Galleries and let's create an online shopping experience to be proud of!

Higher rankings and more customers for local business (updated February 2022)

koo@island-webdesign.co.uk (Koo Janzen) — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 07:03:12 GMT

Your Google Business Profile is your secret and FREE TO USE weapon to drive more traffic to your site, increase your rankings and improve your conversions.

Did you know that your Google Business Profile is the largest contributor of the ranking signals that determine whether or not your business will show up on the Google Map Pack in searches?

Most businesses overlook this platform but, in truth, it is your best friend in your drive to increase your online visibility and beat the competition!

There are many elements to your Google Business Profile and it can become a bit overwhelming. So, here are my 7 easy to follow routine maintenance tasks you should be carrying out on a daily, weekly and monthly basis and, in time, you will see the benefit of more traffic, more conversions and more business!

If you haven't yet created or claimed your Google Business Profile listing, watch my video below:

First of all, what is the Google Map Pack?

Looking at the most recent local search ranking factor surveys, your Google Business Profile is by far the most influential in getting your business to show in the Google Map Pack for Local Searches.

The Map Pack (or Local Pack) is a section of Google’s search results that shows the local businesses that best relate to your query. Whenever your search query has local intent, Google will show three local businesses that it thinks are the best fit for your search.

In the past, these local packs were referred to as the 7-pack, as they displayed 7 of the most popular businesses in the area. In line with growing mobile phone usage, Google reduced their 7-Pack to just three results, along with some changes to the way the algorithm ranks local results. Now when you search for local businesses, whether on a desktop or phone, you will be shown the 3-Pack.

Below is an example of a 3-pack in Google search results, following a search I did for ‘Fabric shops near me’, while I was sipping my cappuccino at the Tea House in Ventnor and writing this article.

Have you created and optimised your GBP?

There are a number of features that determine your inclusion in this 3-pack but by far the most influential is your Google Business Profile.

A well optimised, regularly maintained GBP is by far one of the most powerful tools in your belt for driving traffic to your website, increasing conversions (sales & enquiries) and getting more business.

That said, just creating the profile and then forgetting about it, is not going to help much. There are many moving parts in a GBP listing and keeping it all ticking over and updated can be a headache, especially if you are strapped for time and busy keeping your business afloat.

That is why in this article, I am going to give you 7 Google My Business Maintenance Tasks to help you convert visitors into customers and to give you the best chance of having your business featured in the Google Map Pack.

Daily maintenance tasks

1. Reviews

Invite reviews
Ask for reviews from your customers the same day you do business with them or deliver a project or product. This is the best time to do that, while it is still fresh in their minds.
One of way of doing this is to send them a text message with a default link to your Google Business Profile review page. Unlike emails, 98% of people open their text messages so this increases your chances tremendously. The link will allow your customer to leave a review with only a few clicks. Click here to find out how to find your Google Business Profile review link .
Respond to all reviews
Answer all reviews, positive AND negative. This helps to build trust and is also recommended by Google who state: “it shows you value your customers and their feedback”.
Keywords in reviews
Encourage customers to leave a review that includes the keywords you want to be found for. Doing this via a text message may be difficult, so consider sending this by email. You can add some suggestions for your customers on what to write and thereby guide them to use some of your keywords.
Click here to sign up and download my FREE Review Email Template today!

2. Monitoring the FAQ of your listing

The Question & Answer feature of your Google Business Profile is one of its more undervalued elements. The FAQs will not directly help your ranking, but as anyone can add a question and anyone can provide an answer, it is important that you keep an eye on it daily. Sometimes, visitors feel this is the best way to get in touch with the business and the fact you haven’t answered their question, could be there for everyone to see.

There is also a little-known benefit of this feature. Any FAQ can be ‘liked’ by clicking the 'thumbs-up' beside it. The first FAQ that gets 3 likes will show up in your Google Business Profile listing panel. If you have more than 1 FAQ with 3 likes, the one with the most likes will show up. The good news is, you can ‘like’ FAQs yourself and ask friends and family to do the same!

Even better is that you can seed the Q&A feature with your own FAQs, thereby giving visitors the opportunity to learn more about your business and encouraging them to click through to your website.

Weekly maintenance tasks

3. Google Business Profile Posts

Fun fact: Google Posts first appeared in January 2016 and were initially only for use by US presidential candidates!

Now, however, they are available to all business owners and while they do not have any direct bearing on rankings, your posts encourage interaction from your visitors (for example by linking the post to a page on your site or a product in your e-shop), which sends engagement signals to Google and that, in turn, may help your listing rank better overall.

Your posts will appear at the bottom of your panel on a desktop and in the ‘Update’ section of your profile on mobile.

The life span of a post is 7 days so you should consider publishing a new post every week.

4. Add photos and videos

Just like Google posts, photos and videos encourage interaction from visitors, resulting in sending engagement signals to Google. So, you should consider adding photos and videos on a regular basis.

According to Google, “Businesses that add photos to their business profiles receive 42% more requests for directions on Google maps, and 35% more clicks through to their website than business that don’t”.

Get into the habit of taking images that best represent your business or product and add these regularly. Do NOT use stock photos from free sites as these will be removed.

5. Track your progress

If you keep up the daily and weekly routines, over time, your business will become more visible to potential clients and drive more traffic to your site. But how do you know that your efforts are working? Well, this should be the third of your weekly routines: track your progress.

Log into your Google Business Profile Manager and from the menu click on ‘Insights’. Here you have access to some amazing data that will show you how your listing is doing over time.

February 2022: Please note that Google is planning to move 'Insights' to a new look report.

Monthly maintenance tasks

6. Check for spammers and fake listings

Unfortunately, there are many unscrupulous people and business owners out there who will use a number of spamming techniques to try and rank above genuine business owners in the Google map pack for certain keywords or locations. These techniques can include:

Creating a fake listing. A business can do this to try and increase their range to areas where they do not have a legitimate location.
Business title keyword spamming. This is the adding of keywords to the business title to try and rank for those keywords. This is against Google guidelines.
Fake reviews. This one is pretty self-explanatory and in this case, we’re thinking about fake 4 and 5-star reviews designed to increase a business’ ranking.
It can be hard to spot these and although it's not clear cut, reviewers who leave feedback that could have been written by anyone are more likely to be fake than those that go into details.
Companies that pay for fake reviews usually use some kind of template and that can be relatively easy to spot. The reviews usually contain lots of keywords, repeating the company name multiple times, and often end with a sign off such as 'thanks!'. If the review is quite obviously a copy and paste, and really doesn't seem authentic, it probably isn't.

So, what can you do? Once a month or so, do a Google search from your location using the keywords you want to rank for and add ‘near me’. Have a look at the results and if you think any of the businesses that rank above you are doing so because of spamming techniques, such as title keyword spamming, you can try and update the offending listing yourself. If the owner of the listing does not respond to the suggested edit, chances are the listing will automatically be updated by Google. Alternatively, report the business using the Google Redressal Form .

7. Business Categories

The categories associated with your business listing is one of the most influential ranking factors in Google maps. Google adds new categories from time to time so it is a good habit to get into to check if any new categories have become available that can be used for your business.

So, those are my 7 Routine Google Business Profile Maintenance tasks that you should carry out on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

I know it can be daunting or maybe you just do not have the time to do any of this and want to focus on running your business. But remember that your competitors may well be undertaking some of this work and if you do nothing, sooner or late you may start to feel the effects and start losing customers.

That said, Island Web Design can help! Updating and optimising your Google Business Profile is all part of our Local SEO Essentials service, a customisable and affordable monthly package of GBP management, email marketing and SEO tasks carried out for your business with the aim of driving more traffic to your site and converting visitors into customers and browsers into buyers.

Want to find out more? Feel free to get in touch and we'll arrange a no-obligation, no-pressure, tea-accompanied meeting where we can discuss how best to get you more traffic to your site, more customers and more business!

Or book your appointment straight into my diary for ultimate convenience! You can set up a quick phone call, a Zoom meeting or a Face to Face meeting - your call!

Events & Classes Listing Preview

koo@island-webdesign.co.uk (Koo Janzen) — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 07:22:32 GMT

Easily and quickly list your events, shows, quizzes, trivia nights and classes.

We are always looking for ways to make important website tasks easier to manage and if you are running events, classes or shows, what's more important than making sure your website displays the latest information. And, do it in a way that customers will love to interact with and makes it easy for them to click for more info or book & pay.

We call it the Event Preview Widget and, once set up on your site, important dates are easily managed on a Google Spreadsheet, from your PC, tablet or phone.

We control the colours, the format (see below) and the link can go to another page on your site, a ticket page or a form download if you prefer.

The Event Preview Widget can be displayed in grid format or slider format and tailored to look great on any size screen.

Setting up the widget

We do all this as part of the set-up but, for illustration purposes, here are some of the options we have to personalise the Events Preview Widget and help it blend in seamlessly with your website.

We can choose the font, font size and colour, overlay and background colours and the speed and size of the desktop slider. Here is also where we specify which Google Sheet the widget gets its data from.

And yes, you can have multiple instances of the widget looking at different Google Sheets on the same page!

The Google Spreadsheet

As part of the set-up we'll create a Google Spreadsheet for the Events Preview Widget and load it with the data you've given us. Then, all we need to do is create a short-cut to the spreadsheet on your PC or phone (or both) and before you know it, you are listing events like a boss!

The only 'techie' bit will be managing the images. These need to be uploaded to your CMS and then the link needs to be copied and pasted into the Google Sheet. But we'll provide all the training and once you've done it a couple of times, it becomes second nature. Or you can, of course, always ask us to do it for you (free of charge!) as part of your IWD Website Management package.

What can the Events Preview Widget be used for?

There are a host of events and occasions where the widget can come in handy. Here we list a few but let us know in the comments if you can think of others:

Festival acts
Trivia Nights
Pub Quiz Nights
Fitness Classes
Yoga Classes
Art Classes
Cookery Classes
Online Events
Fashion Shows
School Trips
Interest Club Meets
Sports Club Matches

See the Events Preview Widget in action

So, what do you think? Can the Events Preview Widget work for you?

To see it in action, follow the link at the bottom of the page and see it displayed in slider format and grid format. Try and view it both on a PC/Laptop and a mobile phone to see how it looks on different screens.

We're always happy to give you live-demo of the widget and show you how easy it is to add events. If you are already an IWD customer, we can add the widget to your site for a one-off installation fee after which is is free forever.

If you're not yet an IWD customer, well, that's something we'll have to remedy, isn't it?

Either way, get in touch and let's talk event preview widgets - wow, living life on the edge or what?

ECommerce Trends For The 2020 Festive Season

koo@island-webdesign.co.uk (Koo Janzen) — Sat, 26 Sep 2020 12:23:28 GMT

On the eCommerce front, the trends for 2020’s Christmas season will be unlike any year we have ever seen before. Below, we list a number of eCommerce trends that are likely to have a dramatic effect on online and overall retail sales this year. Make sure you’re ready to get the best from your website!

85% OF RETAILERS THINK ONLINE SHOPPING WILL INCREASE THIS YEAR

While the move to eCommerce has been growing steadily for years, it has been pushed into a new gear by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. According to retail experts BaZaarVoice , 85% of industry professionals predict that eCommerce will increase this winter.

What does this mean for you? It means that those who aren’t ready for a completely different type of festive shopping season are likely to be left behind. If your business could profit from more eCommerce sales, now is the time to enhance your website’s eCommerce technology.

As more and more shopping moves online and the pandemic continues to disrupt our ability to visit high streets and shopping centres, clever business owners are increasing their eCommerce capabilities, in order to grab a bigger slice of the market than their less switched-on competitors.

71% OF ADULTS WILL DO MORE THAN HALF THEIR SHOPPING ONLINE

All age groups, right from the young adults of Gen Z down to Baby Boomers born before 1964, are planning on doing more than half their Christmas shopping online, according to research company eMarketer . This means that consumers of all generations will be shopping from their tablets and mobile phones as they sit in their living rooms in the next few months (possibly while binge-watching Netflix).

Businesses that want to cash in on this surge need to be prepared, making sure that their websites are up to date, fast, and accessible. It’s no longer enough to have great products, you need to make sure they are out there, getting seen by consumers!

FESTIVE SHOPPING WILL START IN OCTOBER THIS YEAR

The increase in online sales is predicted to start in October this year, instead of late November. It is rare for an eCommerce trend to significantly move the traditional retail calendar, but when an industry giant like Amazon makes a major change, the effects can be far-reaching.

After holding “Prime Day” during the month of July in past years, Amazon is rumoured to be shifting its Prime Day online sales to mid-October for 2020 . This is expected to form the start of the online rush.

As well as this move by Amazon, eCommerce purchasers are expected to allocate more time in their shopping to allow for possible shipping delays. This means shopping will start earlier in the season. Businesses need to get their websites ready now to take full advantage of the 2020 eCommerce shopping season.

“BLACK FRIDAY” WILL LOOK VERY DIFFERENT IN 2020

The COVID-19 restrictions, combined with increasing concerns around large crowds, will significantly change the Black Friday “doorbuster” sales witnessed in the past, as more commerce moves from in-person to online in order to comply with local restrictions, company policies, or both.

As major retailers significantly change their Black Friday approach, well-prepared independent businesses have an opportunity to fill gaps historically occupied by their big cousins. Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals are set to rise again in 2020. According to Adobe Analytic s, 2019 saw a near-20% uplift in traffic for those searching for savings on their festive gifts in some regions, and there is an expectation that this is likely to continue for 2020.

“CLICK AND COLLECT” ECOMMERCE IS PROJECTED TO GROW BY 60.4% OVER LAST YEAR

Compared to 2019, “click and collect” eCommerce orders, where a shopper orders an item online and then picks the item up at the physical retailer, is projected to grow by 60.4% this year, according to eMarketer .

Click-and-collect offers three major benefits for customers in this time of COVID-19. It combines the convenience of ordering online, the immediacy of same-day or next-day pickup, and the social distancing benefits of kerb-side collection. For people who don’t want to spend an extended period of time shopping in indoor venues with large crowds, click-and-collect is a convenient alternative.

MORE “BUYING” AND LESS “BROWSING” IN SHOPS MEANS MORE BROWSING WILL BE DONE ONLINE

Physical shops will need to reconfigure their in-store layouts to support social distancing and will need to minimise or eliminate the length of time customers spend inside. As a result, it is expected that more of the “browsing” activity that historically took place inside retail businesses will move online and take place before any actual retail visit.

This means that in 2020, there is likely to be a shift away from attractive window displays that entice customers into shops, to dynamic, personalised websites where visitors can browse and discover the items that they will want to add to their festive shopping lists for friends and family.

RETAILERS SHOULD PREPARE TO SHIP MORE FESTIVE ITEMS DIRECTLY TO CONSUMERS

More eCommerce means more shipping of items, as consumers expect the convenience of having purchases delivered to their door, or delivered directly to their friends and family. Successful eCommerce businesses will have processes in place to handle the shipping rush, and will be prepared for longer shipping times as the demands on courier companies increase.

Businesses will also need to manage their customers’ expectations for shipping times given these circumstances, as no one likes gifts to be late. Online retailers must prepare for this eCommerce trend early so they can correctly determine and communicate cut-off dates for orders placed via their websites.

BUSINESSES SHOULD EXPECT MORE ONLINE RETURNS COMPARED TO LAST YEAR

Along with an increase in online ordering and shipping, it is inevitable that eCommerce returns will increase as well. Retailers will need to update their websites to clearly outline their return policies and procedures. This will help to give purchasers peace of mind before they click.

Similarly, businesses must make sure that product descriptions and photographs help buyers understand exactly what they are getting, which will help to lessen returns. Processes for refunding payments and handling return shipments should be tested prior to the holiday rush, and the option of gift cards or e-vouchers is seen by many retailers as a useful addition to their product portfolio.

2020 IS GOING TO BE AN EXTRAORDINARY YEAR FOR ECOMMERCE

This eCommerce festive season is going to be extraordinary in just about every sense of the word. The interaction between consumers and retailers will be different, possibly with long-lasting results, as many industry experts predict that there will be no returning to the high street for many consumers, even after the pandemic. eCommerce sales are also predicted to be remarkable in size and scope, compared to past years. Now is not a time to be left behind. Businesses that have dipped their toes in eCommerce waters in the past must update their websites and processes without delay if they want to effectively participate in the festive season this year. And similarly, companies that haven’t yet made efforts to embrace eCommerce need to start now if they want to be able to take advantage of these trends that are reshaping the industry.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR SMALL RETAILERS - ARE YOU READY FOR THIS?

If you think this only really pertains to the big online retailers, think again. Yes, they are always going to be a force to reckon with, but small local retailers have the obvious advantage of being, well, local...

Even if traditionally your business was not geared towards e-commerce, having your products in an online store will enable local customers to find them. If you go the extra mile and provide an easy 'click & collect' or 'kerbside pick-up' service, customers will soon start to appreciate what you do, they will tell their friends and before you know it, you have turned a few more people away from buying at Amazon and supporting local business instead.

Getting your online store in order is not such a daunting task. At Island Web Design we're here to support you all the way. Get in touch for a no-obligation consultation and take the first step towards making money while you sleep!

Add To Favourites, an eCommerce feature

koo@island-webdesign.co.uk (Koo Janzen) — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 16:35:40 GMT

If your customers love it, give them a way to show it!

Our online store is already adorned with some fantastic features that help you reach more customers and sell more products, and this latest addition is definitely the icing on the cake.

Available on our Advanced and Unlimited stores, "Add To Favourites" is a way for customers to tag the items they like and add them to their Favourites list. Favourites never expire. A product will stay included in a list as long as that product is visible in the store. Customers can access the list from any device in their customer account: mobile, tablet, or desktop. They can also mark some items while browsing on their mobiles and complete the purchase from the desktop at home.

Customers who have a customer account can view their Favourites list either from their account by clicking on View favourites , or by clicking Favourites at the bottom of the storefront.

And here is the real magic...

We can set up an automated reminder email that emails the customer a few days after marking their favourites with a gentle reminder and a word of encouragement from you, to come back and complete the purchase. You can even take it one step further and create a discount coupon specifically for this reminder email and secure the sale by offering, say, 5% off.

And there is more...

This is, of course, only one of the many features of the Island Web Design eCommerce platform.

For example, your online shop is easily managed from the app on your Android or iPhone. Add products, control stock and set, activate and pause discount codes are just the tip of the iceberg. For a full demonstration of how you can take your online sales to the next level, get in touch with Island Web Design today.

Is e-commerce good for local business?

koo@island-webdesign.co.uk (Koo Janzen) — Thu, 04 Jun 2020 10:33:08 GMT

Short answer: YES. Even if your trade is traditionally local, now is the time to recognise how shopping behaviour is changing.

Search the internet and you will be faced with a raft of sites quoting statistics about online shopping. All will show a significant rise, whether it is the percentage of global retail moving online, percentage of online shopping done from a mobile device, numbers of shoppers who start their shopping experience online and so on...

All pretty meaningless for a small business on the Isle of Wight. Or so we used to think...

COVID-19 has changed shopping behaviour out of all recognition and e-commerce websites have been multiplying like rabbits as a result. That said, it may be the current catalyst of this growth but in reality, the rise of e-commerce is something that has been building for a while now.

And if you think that this doesn't really apply to a small Isle of Wight business, you are missing the signs and not reading the stats right.

It is thought that some 70% of shoppers will start their shopping experience online. Easy access to smart phones and the internet, means that anyone with a desire for a particular product is going to Google search that product to compare prices, check availability or simply window-shop. Invariably, they will arrive at Amazon's website and if they've paid their Prime fee, one simple click and it will be on their doorstep tomorrow...

Consumers don't know that you also sell this product because you're not online. They haven't been to your shop because parking is expensive. They've missed your adverts because they don't read the County Press. We all know we should 'Shop Local' and 'Support the Independent Business' and be 'Locally Loyal' but, quite honestly, how can that work if we're working during shopping hours and shopping when the local businesses are closed?

So yes, even if your trade is mostly from local shoppers, you'd do well to consider putting your products online and making them available to the wider world. No, you're not competing with Amazon but you are at least giving the online researchers, window shoppers and decision makers the opportunity to discover your business and some will happily spend a few quid more to know they're supporting local business. Just make it easy for them to buy the product and give them the choice to either collect it at their convenience or have it delivered.

E-commerce platforms have come a long way in the last few years but despite what some of them are telling you in their adverts, setting one up is not for everyone.

That is where a design agency like Island Web Design can help. We have extensive experience with our platform and know all the tips, tricks and tweaks to make the shop work just right for you.

We will set it all up for you, connect your payment gateway, do all the formatting and provide all the training you need to upload your products. We'll then run through some products sales with you so that you can see exactly how it works.

We'll set you up with your very own App so that you can control your stock levels, sales and products from your mobile. We'll give you the power to list your products on your Facebook business page so you can sell straight from that platform too. And we'll give you the tools to optimise your products for search engine visibility so that they can be found online.

And after that, we're only at the end of the phone if you need us but more than that, because you've bought local, we can provide on-site support in much less time than it will take you to get your latest Amazon order delivered!

You can either email us via our Contact Page or Book an Appointment to set up a no-obligation meeting to discuss your website & e-commerce project.

Arrange meetings & appointments 24/7

Thu, 23 Apr 2020 18:20:17 GMT

No more back-and-forth with the calendar - arrange meetings even if you're not at work

We've all become used to the time-consuming, old fashioned way of setting a meeting with your customer.

"How about Wednesday at 12", you say. "No", says the client, "I can't do Wednesday. How about Friday?" "No good", says you, "I don't work Fridays"... and so on. Tedious at best and time consuming at worst.

There is a better way. Ask your customers to visit your website and pick a day and time suitable for them. How? Well, we'll install an app for you that, together, we have configured with your working hours or availability, so when the visitor on your website wants to make an appointment, they can only choose from those days and times. You can integrate your own calendar so that if you have a dentist appointment on Thursday at 2pm, your clients will not be able to book that time with you.

The above image is a screenshot of our own website appointments page.

From this page, new and existing clients can schedule a phone call, a set-time real-life meeting (i.e. a 30 minute introductory meeting or a 60 minute product evaluation meeting etc.) or even a Zoom meeting.

We have integrated our Zoom account so when a client makes an appointment for a Zoom meeting, a Zoom will automatically be created, and the client will get an email with the (secure) Zoom link already embedded.

And all this happens behind the scenes, while you are washing your hair or grilling burgers on the barbecue!

There are a number of apps on the market that can do this for you but we have been looking at Bookafy - https://www.bookafy.com/

There is a free version and a ‘Pro’ version. The benefit of the Pro version is that you get the calendar integrations and you can integrate with your Google, iCal, iCloud, Office 365 or Exchange calendar. Here at IWD we think that is worth the £7 per month cost!

You can integrate your Stripe account and take payments for services at the time of booking.

If you run classes, you will appreciate the Group booking feature available on the Pro plan.

Software review website, Capterra, has 128 reviews on Bookafy and they score 4.8/5 for overall satisfaction and 4.6/5 for ease of use and customer service. Check out the reviews for yourself here

A couple of examples:

for Personal Trainers

Running Coaches, Personal Trainers and Wellness Professionals with online scheduling for One-on-One training appointments, group sessions and classes.

Online Scheduling
Class and Group Scheduling
Payments
Reminders
Reviews
2-way Sync to Google/Outlook
Beautiful Interface
Much more!

for Coaches & Consultants

Busy professionals know that time is money, so we're here to help you organise schedules, automate confirmations and reminders… and make it simple for your clients to schedule a meeting with you on their time. In a Nut Shell:

Gain hours each week from endless emails and phone tag to schedule a meeting
Allow your customers/clients to schedule meetings online 24/7
Customize when your appointments can be booked. If you want to schedule lunch meetings, you customize it to only start at noon. “Never eat alone”. Maybe you want to have new client meetings only on Thursdays! No problem.

If this is the scheduling solution you have been looking for, why not give us a call at Island Web Design? Or better still, visit our appointment page by clicking below and schedule a call or meeting at a time convenient to you.

We'll help you set up the app, integrate it into your IWD website and before you know it, clients will be booking appointments and services with you!

Online Food Ordering Solution

Mon, 13 Apr 2020 09:18:39 GMT

For restaurants and take-aways - NO commission & NO contract!

We will look back on these months during 2020 as a strange and worrying time as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The lock-down we are experiencing has forced many of us to work very differently and one of the industries affected by all this has been the food ordering and delivery business. It has all of a sudden forced many restaurants and take-aways to start offering contact-free ordering and delivery methods and has shone a light on how much of a challenge this can be.

There are many services and apps out there that can help but, quite frankly, if your passion is cooking and creating delicious food, you may not have the skill, time or patience to teach yourself the ins and outs of an online ordering app and who could blame you?

Some large companies have cashed in on that skill-vacuum and have quickly gone on to take over the world using a large slice of your profits! I won't mention any names here and give them a free SEO boost, but if you are in the restaurant trade, you will know who I am talking about.

As part of my research in developing this new service from Island Web Design, I discovered that one of these food ordering giants will charge you £295 + VAT just to sign up and will then take 14% + £0.50 (+VAT) per order after that, for the rest of your natural life. According to the statistics, the average fish & chip shop in the UK turns-over roughly £3k per week. I don't think it is a huge leap of the imagination to expect, if managed correctly with a powerful online presence and marketing effort, maybe half of that income can come in from online orders (whether for collection or delivery). Do your sums if you like, but with the figures above, that will equate to almost £4.60 per £20 sale or roughly £1,500 per month!

That is just crazy. I went back to their website to check if I had missed something. Maybe this figure included pay for the delivery driver as well. It doesn't...

However, there is a better solution, or should I say solutions! There are many apps out there that promise the world, and that they will solve all of your online ordering woes for free. And yes, they are free. Up to a point that is. They are free to sign up to, free to create a menu in and give free advice on how to add an 'Order Now' button to your website. Heck, some of them even automatically create a free website for you as part of the service. Case closed, you don't need me - stop reading!

You still here? Excellent. Being from a family that has spent 30+ years in the hotel & catering industry, I think I share with you all a healthy dose of cynicism and the sure knowledge that nothing is really for free. And so it is with these apps. They are free until such time that you want to add a payment processor to the platform and then the monthly charges start. Not a lot, mind you, but no longer free.

And let's face it, is having the app enough? Well, no, not if your customers can't find you. So you need to make sure your website is set up correctly, your SEO is fine-tuned and that Google holds you in high esteem. Otherwise, you are just wasting your time and money.

So, after researching a number of these alternatives and signing up to some of them, I have partnered with Global Food to bring you what I believe is one of the better ones. I say 'one of' because, quite frankly, many are very similar.

What I like about this one is the flexibility of the menu design process and the fact that the restaurant owner can confirm the order and delivery/collection details in real-time.

It can also double as a table reservation app and allow your customers to place their orders even before they arrive at your restaurant, cutting down waiting times and allowing you to get more use out of your tables during busy times.

Have a look to see how a typical order for delivery is placed and dealt with:

So, NO commission and also, NO contracts. Yes, there are some set-up costs involved, here is why:

Website

At Island Web Design we will create a new website to go with your app so that we can make sure you are getting the best possible chance of getting and keeping new customers for your app. There are many benefits in having an IWD website, chief among which are that it will be secure, regularly updated and set up as a PWA (Progressive Web App). You can forget this term immediately, all it means is that your website will sit in the app tray of your customer's phones, just like a native app. One click and they are ordering from your menu!

If you already have an all-singing, all dancing website, let me know and we'll take a look, run some tests and decide how we go forward after that.

Equipment

You will also need some equipment if you choose to use this app. You will need a dedicated phone or tablet for the restaurant manager to receive the orders and update the delivery times (as seen in the video). Any phone or tablet will do as long as it not too old.

You will/may also need a printer to print out the orders. The app will only deal with thermal printers made by Epson, Seiko or Star and you can buy them for anything between £100 and £300. The printers connect to the app via your restaurant's WiFi or are hard-wired into your router (recommended). When you send the order to the printer, it will print 2 receipts: one has all the order and delivery details for the manager, the other is a 'kitchen essentials' receipt for the chef. If you have a large operation, you can have more than one printer and choose which printer prints which receipt.

See our website for more about the above equipment.

I am happy for you to buy the equipment yourself or we can supply it for you.

Menu creation.

Part of the set-up service includes your menu loaded up into the new app. We can take care of all this for you and will work with you make sure it offers your customers all the options and choices they are used to getting at the counter. This is quite an involved process in the first instance although, once done, it is a cinch to make changes on the fly (such as taking a dish that has run out, off the menu and so on). Of course, if you want to do this yourself, that is fine too and will save you some money. Your call.

App set up

After we've loaded up the menu, there are a couple of dozen steps we need to do to make the app live on your website. Among this is setting up a payment processor. delivery parameters, optional service fees and so on. All part of the set-up service.

So, how much?

The overall total will depend greatly on what equipment we'll be supplying so get in touch for tailor-made quotation. But, to give an idea, it will be significantly less than ONE month of the commission payment mentioned at the top of this article.

The on-going monthly subscription will also be tailored to your requirements and is influenced by the level of support you choose. It starts at £89 per month and, to be honest, that is suitable for 90% of customers.

Well done if you've made it as far as this part of the article. I hope I have given you some insight into the online ordering process and if you feel there is room for us to work together, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

It costs nothing to talk!

Stay safe!

Koo Janzen

Island Web Design

Your Instagram feed on your website

Mon, 27 Jan 2020 11:11:14 GMT

Connect Instagram and bring this hugely popular social network directly into your web site.

It will boost site engagement, ensure images are always fresh, and increase your Instagram exposure and ROI.

What we'll do is simply connect a Photo Gallery widget to your personal or business Instagram account, and your up-to-date Instagram images will be displayed on your web site, with no additional effort or maintenance. This means we don’t need to go into the site to update images. They’ll automatically update every time they update on Instagram creating a seamless connection between your website and social media.

The power of Instagram in 2020

Instagram is the world’s fastest growing social media platform, and has huge benefits for businesses of all types and all sizes. Here’s why:

Instagram has 1 billion+ monthly active users. That makes it the third most popular social network in the world (after YouTube and Facebook).
Instagram is increasingly popular among older audiences. Instagram has always been popular amongst younger ones, but the largest growing audience is older than 18, making it super important for businesses who market to this age category.
80% of Instagram users follow a business. And the number is growing all the time. This makes Instagram a great way for businesses to reach customers when they are not on their site, ultimately increasing engagement and conversion.

Integration is easy and flexible

Once we connect your site with Instagram we forge a direct connection between it and your social network. In addition, you ensure an ongoing source of high-quality images on your site. No need to update the gallery manually.

Some gorgeous inspirations & examples

To start adding Instagram to your site right now, get in touch and we can make it happen as part of your monthly updates. Here are some design ideas that we can recreate in your site:

Added security for your contact forms

Tue, 21 Jan 2020 09:35:58 GMT

Introducing reCAPTCHA v3 - making it easier for your users!

The contact forms on your site have an extra layer of protection with Google’s invisible reCaptcha. It protects your forms from spammers while speeding up the form submission process for real site visitors, for a better experience all around.

CAPTCHA is an acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart") and is a type of challenge–response test used in computing to determine whether or not the user is human.

The term was coined in 2003 by Luis von Ahn, Manuel Blum, Nicholas J. Hopper, and John Langford. The most common type of CAPTCHA (displayed as Version 1.0) was first invented in 1997 by two groups working in parallel. This form of CAPTCHA requires someone to correctly copy and enter a sequence of letters or numbers in a distorted image displayed on their screen. Because the test is administered by a computer, in contrast to the standard Turing test that is administered by a human, a CAPTCHA is sometimes described as a reverse Turing test.

ReCAPTCHA was developed in 2007 at Carnegie Mellon University's main Pittsburgh campus and acquired by Google in 2009. It is a form of CAPTCHA that went further in trying to prevent bots from pretending to be humans.

An example of how a reCAPTCHA challenge looked in 2007, containing the words "following finding". The waviness and horizontal stroke were added to increase the difficulty of breaking the CAPTCHA with a computer program.

In 2012, reCAPTCHA began using photographs taken from Google Street View project, in addition to scanned words. In 2019, image identification captchas—such as store fronts, buses, cross-walks and traffic lights—became the only type of captcha offered by the system.

In 2014, reCAPTCHA implemented another system in which users are asked to select one or more images from a selection of nine images.

However, the fact remained that reCAPTCHA relies on the use of Google cookies that are at least a few weeks old. As such, it has become very burdensome to complete for people who frequently clear their cookies and criticised as yet another Google lock-in strategy.

So we welcome this new development and are pleased to be able to offer invisible reCAPTCHA to all our website customers. Invisible reCAPTCHA benefits can be summed up as follows:

Prevents spammers from attacking your sites by determining if a form submission is coming from a human or a bot.
Improves user experience by swiftly validating the reCAPTCHA behind the scenes if Google detects that it’s a real user.

We will apply this update to all our customers free of charge over the next few weeks.

Why you need to encrypt your site

Wed, 01 Jan 2020 08:52:25 GMT

Stay with me, this is not as boring as you think!
(This is an update of a post originally published in November 2017)

So if you haven’t thought about encrypting your site, now’s the time to get moving. I am still surprised on a daily basis how many sites are still un-secured. Please check your site imediately because Google is making some major changes this year.

According to Google, Chrome 79, which will be released to the 'stable channel' in December 2019, will come with an option for users to unblock insecure resources, like i-frames and scripts, which are currently blocked by default. The unblocking of such mixed content will be available on a per-site basis.

In January 2020, Google will release Chrome 80 which will mark even HTTPS pages with mixed content as Not Secure. It will also auto-upgrade mixed audio and video resources to HTTPS, and resources that fail to load over HTTPS will be blocked by the browser. Users will have the option to unblock affected audio and video resources (as in Chrome 79) using the setting described above.

In February 2020, Google Chrome's version 81 will block images outright if they fail to load over https.

Now for the good news. At Island Web Design we will provide you with a standard security certificate absolutely free of charge. All part of the service! And remember, we provide the best value for money website design fees and if budgets are tight, why not take advantage of our monthly subscription payments? Get in touch for a free, no obligation chat.

BEFORE & AFTER WIDGET

Fri, 07 Jun 2019 20:44:41 GMT

GRAB VISITORS' ATTENTION & KEEP IT

We are pleased to introduce to you our new, interactive 'Before and After' widget. Two images of the same subject, before and after you did your magic. Whether it is garden make-over, a human or home make-over, a treatment or even a pet grooming!

Just shoot the two images and we will take care of the rest. Make sure your images are composed as identical as possible or, if you're taking an image of a landscape or a room, that you stand in exactly the same place. We will edit the images to make sure the subject is framed the same and the same size by overlaying the images and comparing them.
Once that is done, we can upload them into the widget and you can share your achievements with all your visitors!

This widget is simple to set up and looks fantastic on all devices. We can customise the label text and fonts (and we'll add alt text to support SEO) and choose the colour that best emphasises your images or fits with the scheme of your website.

So many great ways to use this widget

There are countless ways to use this widget - for everything from showing off home renovations to highlighting the effect of photograph filters. Here are some examples:

Handyman or home renovation website (before and after renovations)
Beauty salon or stylist (before and after beauty treatment)
Nutritionist or personal trainer (before and after training program)
Landscaper or gardener (before and after landscaping)
Photographer (photo editing services)
Pet grooming, cleaner, orthodontist, dermatologist and more

Good for SEO, too

Not only does adding Before & After images engage site visitors by giving them something interesting to see on your websites, but keeping visitors on your site longer (also known as Dwell Time) is good for SEO, as it indicates to search engines that visitors like what they see.

Have a look at the Before and After widget in action on our website and let us know in the comments below how you would use this widget!

Your Google Calendar on your website

Sun, 02 Jun 2019 10:18:06 GMT

Engage visitors at a glance - share your events with the wordl

Always staying at the forefront of new developments, Island Web Design is very excited to introduce to you our new Google Calendar Widget!
It’s a great way to show your upcoming events, workshops, seminars and more. The widget provides a seamless integration with public Google calendars. We can customise the look and feel of the calendar by setting the colour, font and style for the month and days of the week. When visitors click on a specific day, an event popup is displayed showing all the events scheduled for that day.

All the content for this widget comes from Google calendar you select, so that’s where you’ll go to set events. For more on setting up a public Google calendar, read this article .

Calendars are a perfect addition to many types of sites

Entertainment venues: Tourist attractions, zoos, concert venues and art exhibits – adding a calendar to these sites enables site visitors to see upcoming events at a glance.
Schools: Help students, teachers and parents by posting the school calendar directly on the school site. It’s a great incentive for visitors to bookmark the site.
Not for profits & charities: Using a calendar to display fundraisers, special events and more is a great tool for promoting events.
Gyms & community centres: Post upcoming classes that can be viewed at a glance. Add a contact form immediately below so visitors can sign up for a class.
Restaurants: Post daily and weekly specials, holiday meals and more. Add an OpenTable widget on the same page, making it easy for visitors to make reservations.

See our sample calendar in action

We found the event calendar for the England Cricket team and linked that to the widget on our website. Follow this link to view it .

Could your website do with a calendar?

Get in touch today and let's see how Island Web Design can help you talk to more of your customers and visitors, send more traffic to your website and create the ultimate user experience with our new Google Calendar widget!.

Wave Accounting not MTD compliant? Who cares!

Mon, 01 Apr 2019 08:29:30 GMT

Bridging software bridges the gap!

It is no secret that I have been a lover of Wave accounting for some time now. It is free, extremely easy and intuitive to use (much more so than Sage or Quickbooks), easily accessible from wherever you happen to be working and wonderfully collaborative which, for us at Island Web Design where we look after the book keeping needs of several businesses and clients, is a must!

The only tiny fly in the ointment was the introduction of MTD, this ridiculous scheme dreamt up by the idiots at HMRC, which is pushing all of us small business owners into the welcome embrace of vastly over-engineered and hugely expensive accounting software companies. I shudder to think how much of their client's monthly subscription fee Quickbooks spends on their TV adverts. MTD must have seemed like all their Christmases coming at once!

We have been scare-mongered, Brexit style, into signing up with one of these subscription based account packages saying that nothing else will do once MTD becomes a fact as from today (1 April 2019). However, I have been monitoring this for a while and it already became evident last year that a few companies were developing bridging software to facilitate those still doing their accounts on spreadsheets. No such advice from HMRC of course. In fact. the House of Lords was less than complimentary about the efforts of HMRC, as reported by Accounting Web's editor, Tom Herbert in this article .

I, and many others, contacted Wave and asked "What are you doing about MTD?". As a Canadian company with the majority of their clients across the pond, you would have expected it not to be on the top of their list of priorities. But, in their support article they stated: " Wave has been closely following the development of the MTD agenda and its technical implementation. Given the partial nature of the launched solution by HMRC, the anticipated changes to the structure of the VAT100 return that will arise from the UK’s departure from the EU, and lack of clarity around future evolution of the MTD environment as it progresses towards income tax filing, we have decided at this time not to build a direct connection from Wave to HMRC. Instead, we will enable Wave customers to comply by using approved bridging software."

Today, I received an email from Wave support stating:

New VAT100 report
This week, we’re releasing a new VAT100 report to our UK customers. Access the report by clicking Reports in the left-hand navigation menu. This new functionality helps you comply with the digital filing element of MTD. The VAT100 report will allow you to export your data to a spreadsheet, which you can then upload to approved bridging software in order to file your return.

I have read VAT Notice 700/22, section 8 and I am still none the wiser whether this solution can be permanent or is only valid until April 2020. But I, for one, am happy to be able to continue using Wave. I am sure people much more clever than myself will come up with any necessary solutions for future MTD developments to keep us out of the clutches of Sage et all!

How Google works

koo@island-webdesign.co.uk (Koo Janzen) — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 11:03:15 GMT

Set aside some time every week for a few basic tasks to improve your ranking

Getting a top ranking in Google search results is top priority for every small business out there, but just creating and publishing a website is not going to achieve that goal by itself. Sure, we can make sure your website is optimised and structured correctly so that Google can index it properly and find all the relevant key information, but here is so much more that goes into your search ranking, and while we can influence some of it at the design stage, the rest will only come after more time, effort and (sometimes) money is invested. Have a look at this video by Matt Cutts, explaining how Google search works:

So, as we now know, a very important factor is links to and from your website. In the old days, we used to have a page on our sites with a list of 'friends' - other companies and websites we recommended or collaborated with, and this would give us a nice SEO boost. But, like keywords, Google has now learned to more or less ignore this, favouring organic content that is 'on topic' and that makes up part of the overall story or subject.

So, to go hand in hand with our previous article, " Do I really need a website " this article could be called, "do I really need a Facebook page?". And yes, you do. Apart from the fact that you can create a valuable (important) link to your website from your FB 'about' page, you can also create regular posts on Facebook that can drive even more business to your site. And not just Facebook, Twitter as well.

That is where the deep sharing options that IWD offers to its clients come into its own. Of course, you can create or buy an image and upload that to Facebook and create some content around it to make up a post. But when a user sees the post and clicks on the image, all they get is a bigger image. How much more exciting would it be if you could just copy and paste the URL of one of your website pages into Facebook, watch Facebook create a preview made up of an image and text we have set, in consultation with you of course, at the design stage of your website and THEN add your extra text, your special offer, your anecdote or your crazy new idea.
Now, when the user clicks on that image, it takes them straight to the page on your website. As I said, it can be an existing page on your site to highlight one of your services, or maybe a landing page created just for this month's special offer or event. Hey presto - more links TO your website, Google will be happy!

The deep sharing coding we add to each page of your site will also keep a count of the number of times that page was shared so you can see how well you're doing. And if you share that page on Facebook and someone shares that FB post, it will add to the number of times shared, even if the user didn't visit your website (hence 'deep' sharing). Clever, eh?
From time to time we can change the image and text to keep the content fresh but that is entirely up to you. For the sharing to be most effective, we create 2 images for each event, one for Facebook at the optimised size of 1200 x 630 pixels and one for a standard Twitter card at 600 x 600 pixels.

You can, of course, pay someone to manage your social network activity for you but, quite frankly, who has that kind of money to spare? But with a little bit of discipline and maybe an hour or so of your time at the start of every week, it is easy to do. You make a decision about the events, special offers or even just little rants you want to post on Facebook that week (let's say 3 posts) and you create them, linking each post to a page on your site. Facebook allows you to schedule the posts to be published at a day and time you specify and once that is done, you can focus on your work.
Remember that creating a Facebook post that only exists to sell something is much less effective that one that looks for a response, starts a discussion or imparts unbiased information. Think about it a while, make it fun and interesting. Do some research on the web for inspiration and, while you're at it, pay attention to the search queries you enter and the responses you get. After all, you now know how Google works!

Do I really need a website?

koo@island-webdesign.co.uk (Koo Janzen) — Sat, 26 Jan 2019 15:22:24 GMT

Some small business owners believe they do not need a website. Are they right?

“Do I really need a website?”

Well, we would say ‘yes’ but then we can be a little biased when it comes to this subject. The truth of the matter is, yes you do. But maybe not for the reasons you think. A website on its own is not enough but equally, anything else you do without the back-up of a website is pretty much a waste of time as well.
Business owners in surveys are often quoted as saying they don’t have the skills, the time or the money to build and maintain a website. Some even say they don’t think they need one. But as we work ever harder to attract the attention of our customers, so are our competitors. It is no longer good enough just to ‘exist’ and expect the customer to come to you. Less than 10 years ago, a good reputation was more than enough, and word of mouth took care of the rest. Now, people spend more time on Social Media than on recommending trades, shops and services to one another verbally, so opinions are formed, and decisions are made, largely by what people see online.

“OK, if that is the case – surely having a Facebook page is enough…”

Well no, not really. Remember that Facebook will only show its users what it decides (or calculates) they want to see. Agreed, a Facebook user may stroll across your post once or twice but at the moment they want to make use of your services, or buy your product, they may not be able to find that post again. Consider also that not all your customers are on Facebook. Other social networks are available, but the challenges remain the same. A change of algorithm or a policy shift in the boardroom and before you know it, your (potential) customers are no longer being shown your page or posts. Your website, however, will act as an anchor, a steady rock in a choppy sea. Always there just at the moment when the customer needs it.

"How do I look?"

A professional website meets customers’ expectations. The majority of people will start by doing research online. Even for a small purchase and even when it comes to dealing with a local shop or service. The browsers on their phones, tablets and laptops are usually geared to access the Google search engine and even a partial entry of your name, location or service should bring up your website. Not having a website will lead customers to believe you’re stuck in the dark ages and that is not a great message to send. What’s more, Google aims to please so will bombard the searcher with alternative suppliers which, if at all possible, are no more than a few miles from their current location. Remember: customer loyalty is important, but convenience is ‘importanter’ …

If you do not have a website, they will not find you

Facebook and other special networks are an important platform, there is no denying that. Some traditional forms of advertising are still valid as well. Print media adverts are becoming increasingly expensive and may not work for everyone, but you still need to find ways to make your customers aware of your product or service. Leaflets, posters, cards etc. are all useful marketing tools for company name awareness but I can absolutely guarantee you that the moment customers want to get in touch, practically all of them will grab their phone and start searching online for your contact details and at least half of them will want to do so out of office hours.

Although budgets and demands vary, there is no real difference between the website of a large multinational company and that of a small business working from a tiny room of a small house in a little village on the Isle of Wight. A clean and professional looking website completely levels the playing field because you can present yourself and your business any way you like. A well-designed site will bolster customer confidence and will help you jump that first hurdle, creating a good first impression. After that, when you meet the customer face to face for the first time, he or she will already have a favourable opinion about you, maybe already feel they know you a little bit at which point your sales skills, you expertise and knowledge, or maybe just your striking good looks and dynamic personality can come into play to make the sale, cut the deal or get them to sign on the dotted line.

"But what would I say?"

They don’t need your life story or a multi-page, information hub of your services. In some case, a simple single page website will do. Less is indeed more, use short sentences and grab their attention in the first few seconds. And make sure the information is regularly updated and refreshed. Out of date info is one of people’s top ‘pet peeves’ and is sure to send them into the arms of another supplier! Don’t worry if you’re suffering from writer’s block. We will research your subject, check what search terms are being used for the type of service or product you offer and weave all that into the content to ensure excellent SEO.

Ready for the next step?

In a survey carried in June 2018, nearly all small business that didn’t have a website, said they planned to have one by the end of the year. If you were one of those but Christmas, New Year and cash-strapped-January got in the way, give Island Web Design a call and let us sit down over tea to see how we can help you get the best out of a new website or a re-design of an old site. Let me show you how our care package gives you free updates to keep your design and content fresh and how our all-inclusive service makes sure you can be found on Google.

Let’s meet up soon!

At IWD it is not about ‘design and forget’. We are your invisible IT & online guru, there when you need us and always ready to lend a hand. We only recently started collecting reviews on Trustpilot but feel free to head on over to https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.island-webdesign.co.uk and see what some of our customers are saying. Hopefully, we can welcome you to the IWD family pretty soon too!

Top tips for making your website more user-friendly

Wed, 14 Feb 2018 08:43:31 GMT

Does YOUR website give the right impression? Grab a coffee and read our 5-minute article on what to do to make the best of your website, regardless of what you do or sell!

A website is like a peep through your living room window. It tells people a lot about what you – and your company – are like. Of course, you wouldn’t invite people over to your house and welcome them into an untidy room full of clutter, not give them a welcome drink and feed them out-of-date food before sending them home. Make sure your website doesn’t do that either!

Get to the point. According to Nielsen Norman Group (a bunch of clever people who spend their lives trying to work out exactly what it is we do online and how we could do it better), users may only read 20% of the words on your page. That means that if your website is cluttered, out of date or does not provide the information they are looking for, they are not likely to be there for long.
Include a mission statement. No, not some creative out-of-the box story about why you are saving the world, but a clear statement that tells people:
1. Who/where you are
2. Who your audience is
3. What they will get
4. What benefit that will give them
  
  Here at Island Buro, our mission statement reads like this:
  
  “Island Web Design [our company] is where small and medium sized businesses on the
  Isle of Wight [our audience] can find expert, practical advice and support on web
  design, content and print services [what they can get from us]. Our goal is to help
  you get more customers and better financial returns, while allowing you to get on
  with what you’re good at - the running of your business [what benefit].”
Say what you mean. Too many people fall into the trap of using jargon, abbreviations or internal lingo. Always make sure that your website can be read by someone who has only a limited grasp of your industry. Don’t try to be clever, but empathise with your visitors and use words they would use. If you promise to get back to people the same day after an enquiry, don’t tell them it will be by EOBD (End of the Business Day) but say 5pm. Just because you know CMS is a Content Management System, people who want to have a new website made don’t necessarily know that.
Include a Team Page. People want to know about the person behind the product, and want to know, like and trust you before they buy from you. Include some photos of people working behind the scenes, plus a short two-line bio on each of your main employees. If someone in your company is particularly involved with or good at a certain aspect of the business, mention things like: “for spares, contact Graham – he knows exactly what we carry in stock at all times” or – not sure how much fabric you will need? Call and speak to Sophie, she has been here a long time and knows all about our fabric range”.
Be mobile friendly. That is not optional. Not anymore. It may at one time have been a nice thing to do, but since Google updated their mobile search rankings algorithm, mobile-friendly web pages will now rank higher in mobile search results than non-mobile-friendly pages, and more and more people are searching for your company on their phone or tablet. And let’s be honest, you have been there, on websites that come up with print too small to read, photos that take too long to load, and information that has nothing to do with what you are looking for. Did you hang around? Didn’t think so. So, make sure that you have a mobile-friendly site that people can navigate around easily and make sure they have a good experience. That way they are much more likely to come back and buy from you.

Why the humble business card will never die.

Sat, 03 Feb 2018 16:02:43 GMT

Business cards are brand builders, tangible and great for unexpected meetings

In this age of digital technology, mobile phones and state-of-the-art apps, the demise of the humble business card has been predicted on numerous occasions. But, in fact, the use of business cards is on the rise again!

In an article in on the Guardian Small Business Network , this revival of business cards is actually attributed in no small way to the digital revolution. With access to easy design options and the low cost of digital printing, even the smallest business can now arm themselves with some great-looking business cards without having to break the bank.

Why are business cards important?

With almost every aspect of our lives and businesses being run digitally now, it may sound odd to say that physical stationery is still so influential and important, but it is. A good business card creates an image of professionalism and credibility - issues that score high for many potential clients. In addition, business cards are one of the most powerful marketing tools a business can have. Why?

Business cards are brand builders. Business cards can help you establish your company’s brand, which makes your business more recognisable. The key details you should include (your name, logo, business description, contact details and social media icons, all set against a design of your choice) create a company’s identity and reinforce your brand with everyone who sees it.
Business cards are tangible. Technology may be our present and future, but there’s still something appealing about the tactility of the business card, especially one that looks and feels good. Of course, you can put email addresses or phone numbers into your database, but this information can be hard to find later. A business card that stays on someone’s desk or in their wallet allows your details to be found much more easily.
Business cards are great for unexpected meetings. The opportunity to get a new piece of business or meet new contacts can happen absolutely anywhere. Dictating a lengthy email address in a noisy environment is, as anyone who has ever tried knows, virtually impossible. But whip out your immaculately designed business card and people have everything they need to contact you, instantly.

Get connected

So, if you already have business cards, take a good look them – do they still give people the correct information? Do they put across your brand, the personality of your business? Do they stand out enough for people to notice them? If not, it may be time to have some new business cards designed. And if you do, don’t leave those boxes of cards sitting on the corner of your desk. The business card is portable – it should go wherever you go. Put them in your car, in your pocket, or in your handbag and don’t lose that opportunity to hand out your card whenever it presents itself.

If you want some (new) business cards but don’t know where to start, just give us a call here at Island Web Design. We’ll work out some designs, incorporating any ideas or wishes you may have, and make you look good. And with our contacts in the printing world, you’ll be amazed at how reasonable the cost is –even for as few as 100 cards.

Sorry, I'm blogging right now...

koo@island-webdesign.co.uk (Koo Janzen) — Sat, 31 Dec 2016 11:42:43 GMT

It may be the last day of 2016 but there's still time for something new...

Buckle up buttercup, you're a blogger now!

Really the main reason for starting this blog is to illustrate to some of my clients that it's not all that hard to do and, after all, I advise them to do it if for no other reason than that it will help with their online presence (apparently Google loves bloggers!).
But whenever I suggest it, there is that eye-widening look of panic that accompanies the onset of some imagined stage-fright and you can generally see the range of emotions flashing through their eyes in a matter of seconds, starting with 'that's a GREAT idea' through 'imagine me, an author' , 'millions will read my blog' , to 'but what shall I say?' , 'omg, I have nothing of interest to say' and finally ending with 'what if people think I'm boring or weird' , 'I could NEVER do this' all of which is then followed by much shoulder-slumping and resigned capitulation...

It's not the same as posting images of your dinner on Facebook or re-tweeting your friend's shenanigans from last night's party. Blogging requires a bit more effort but if you stick to what you know, recount experiences from your day's work or share your knowledge of whatever it is you specialise in, you can't go far wrong.

There are lots of websites out there that will help you become a blogger and many of these will charge you for the honour. Like buildyourownblog.net , which has some good points to make and if you want to dive really deep into the world of professional blogging maybe you should part with some of your cash and go for it. I didn't and I don't recommend you do it either but there are pitfalls and things only experience will teach you but remember: mistakes made in real time are the best teachers.

Blogging means simply writing whatever you feel like..

So, once you've mastered your fear of becoming an instant celebrity and have decided you have something interesting, exciting, humorous or worthwhile to share, now comes the big one: how do I go about it.
There are many platforms out there, some better than others, free and paid-for. The good news for Island Buro customers is that adding a blog to your website is simple and FREE! And with access to your site using our unique MyIslandBuro editor, you can access, edit and update your blog from anywhere at anytime.
The process couldn't be simpler. Images are easily added, text is automatically spell-checked and the formatting is taken care of by the editor. All you need to do is provide the content. And the jokes...
We'll help you get started, show you how it all works, best practice and all that. After that, it's up to you. Of course, if writing isn't your 'thing' we can arrange a meeting with one of our experienced copy-writers and make the process even less painful!

Why should I blog?

Howtostartablogonline.net claim to have 34 compelling reasons why you should start a blog with suggestions ranging from the obvious to the ridiculous. For me, and many of my Island Buro clients, it is mostly about adding another bow to your string. In a world with an ever-increasing amount of data vying for our attention every minute of every day, we all have to find ways of bringing our message to our customers and a blog will certainly help you to do that.
Yes, it does help you to learn new things, think clearer, write better and build your confidence and these are all commendable reasons but more importantly, it sets you apart from your competitors, increases your search ranking and helps to bring your name and your business to the forefront.
Of course, if anyone asks, we're really doing it to change the world, one blog at a time!

Have a wonderfully happy and prosperous 2017!