Are you about to make your first BIG MISTAKE as a new business owner ?

Well, you’ve done it! Congratulations! You’ve decided to set up a business, and whether it’s your first foray into the small business world or you’re a very experienced business person, you are probably smart enough to realise that your new business is going to need a website.

Now how would you know that? Because you are aware;

• Your competitors can already be found on the web.
• Your prospects will expect instant information.
• It shows you respect your prospect’s and customer’s need for information.
• That 80% of potential customers will look for you using search engines first and foremost.

Now, in order to get this website, you might be thinking along the lines of

“D’you know what, it’s easy to get a website, I know from the telly adverts I can build them for free, and I know someone who is quite techy about these things, and money is tight because I’m a start-up, I can’t really afford a website professional if I can get it for free”

This, is what could quite possibly, be your first BIG MISTAKE

That’s a BIG statement. Let me explain why I said it. First, here’s some stuff you might not know;

• 90% of Websites don’t WORK for the business.
• A website has up to 8 seconds to create the right image in a visitor’s mind. If it doesn’t, they leave, perhaps for ever.
• Websites don’t get found by search engines unless they’ve been optimised correctly.

Now I’m not going to pussy-foot around this subject. I have seen some websites that even the business owner believes are horrendous. That’s because either the business owner has built the site themselves or trusted it to a non-professional. Even with a smashing looking DIY website, it may not perform properly.


I get at least one call a week from small business owners who 6 months on realised they made the same mistake. They realised that the web site visitors they expected just weren’t happening or that the website really doesn’t look good to their market or people are looking at the site, but they don’t DO anything except, well, leave. Yes, even if the website looks good.

What those business owners had not realised, is that when they got a non-web, non-marketing person to do the job, THEY ONLY GOT 10% OF THE JOB DONE

I don’t want you to make the same mistake. Many people think that any sort of web presence or a web site will magically bring instant demand for goods and services, and all you have to do is build it and they will come. Well it WON’T bring instant demand and visitors WON’T just come. Not unless you get the other 90% right.

Even if you DO get visitors, having a website that doesn't engage your visitor immediately is just as bad as having a receptionist or a sales assistant chewing gum, scratching their backsides and ignoring your prospects when they walk in the door; or someone who answers the telephone in your business sounding disinterested and not able to answer the simplest of questions. A shoddy employee or an inadequate web 'presence' will BOTH drive YOUR business to your competitor. The difference is that an inadequate website will do it MUCH faster.

SO, THERE’S THE PROBLEM – WHAT’S THE SOLUTION ?

First, I run a web design company that knows about web marketing. When I design, write and build your site, I know how to get you found on Google. I know what people expect to be able to do when they reach your site. I know I only have 8 seconds to get their attention before they surf on, and I know how to design your site so that visitors stay a little longer and ‘do’ something; whether that's to pick up the phone and call you, or send you an e-mail, or even buy something from you. I even know how to make those customers ‘Customers For Life’. Think of the return on your affordable investment if THAT happens.

Secondly, the price I quote is the price you pay and all of my experience in online marketing will be channelled into making your site get found, and it will then WORK FOR YOU as hard as a good employee would work for you.

Third, I want to increase your visibility, your sales and your success. If I do, that makes you my customer for life too. Partners.

Lastly, I’m only going to ask an affordable £250 to £600 to build you a ‘proper’ website.

Call me. I don’t charge for chatting.

07767 304509 or 01243 573615

www.hwmarketing.co.uk

How To Find Out Who Links To Your Website

I can’t stress how important links from other relevant websites are to your website’s standing with Google.

Every link  from another website (or any web presence for that matter, Facebook, Twitter You Tube etc etc; but that’s another kettle of fish, let’s stay with websites) is seen as an independent ‘vote’ for your website.

The more votes you get, the more Google likes you. Simple. Not quite. Google also cares where these ‘votes’ are coming from. If you have a friend that is a Plumber and you link to him from your High End Audio Visual Retailers; Google is not stupid, and it’s not only going to ignore it as irrelevant; BUT, it may even knock a teensy weensy bit off your ranking.

Also, don’t use Automatic Link Building Farms. Google knows if you have used one. They can smell it a mile off; and they will DEFINITELY mark you down for that one. If it was that easy, we’d all have pages and pages of website links and no useful information or content; and it’s the sites with useful information and content AND ‘votes’ for that information and content that gets Google excited.

So how many links from other websites do you have ?

To find out go to www.google.co.uk to get Google’s Homepage.

In the search bar type

Links:{your site}

So for example for my own HW Marketing site, I would type

Links:www.hwmarketing.co.uk

Don’t forget the colon after ‘links’.

If the site has any links at all, you will get results that display each of the site pages that link to you.

If your results return something similar, then you can see immediately what sites, and how many, link to your site.

If you have very few links, then look out for next weeks blog which will show you how to get a whole bunch of relevant votes for your website and nudge you ahead of the competition.

Here is one HOT tip on linking that can put you just that little bit further ahead.

You see, although Google likes links to your site it’s not all that keen, well I say not all that keen; consensus is that you get a lower score, marginally for Reciprocal links. What I mean by that is that for example is that if you have a website that is say a Hairdressers and your business friend the Tanning Booth Shop links to your site; from what I’ve said, that’s a good relevant vote for your site, but the catch is that your friend is going to want you to link back in return. Ok . Now you’ve both got relevant votes from each other. That’s a good thing right? I just said so earlier on.  Yes it is. But Google knows that it is likely this is an arranged ‘vote’ and marks it ever so ever so slightly lower than if the link is not reciprocated. That’s because it knows that the vote is likely not an ‘independent vote’.

To swing the ever so ever so slight marking the other way you could set up an incoming link  arrangement. This requires at least three participants.

Your hairdresser links to the tanning booth, the tanning booth to a local nail parlour, the nail parlour to the café next door, the café next door to a fashion boutique and they to you.

No reciprocal links, everybody has an independent vote, and there’s a basis for relevance all the way through.


HW Marketing UK are the Affordable Website Design Company of choice for Small or Startup Businesses in the area. Easily understandable pricing packages start at £250. 

Find Out If Your Site Exists

This chap is a ‘Googlebot’. At the moment, he really does control Earth. That’s because Google is by far the most widely used search engine at this point in time, and unless something drastic happens, will be for the foreseeable future. Google’s market share in the UK is 90.68% (Measured Jan 2011)

Have you ever wondered how Google knows which websites to place on Page 1 above all others, based just on one search phrase of just one word? How does that happen? How do they know what are the most relevant sites? And how do they deliver the search result pages (SeRPs) so quickly given that there must be billions of sites to look at ?

Quite simply, googlebots  crawl the web. Constantly. They crawl all over the pages of every website, looking at the wording, the description of the pictures, keywords, and a hundred other things. Then they ‘index’ you under a suitable relevant category (e.g. (We, Google, have decided that Bob is a) decorator, interior, blackpool, speciality restaurants, hotels ).

Then,  when a search is initiated, the search engine only has to look at the ‘relatively few’ sites that meet the search criteria. Sometimes ‘relatively few’ can mean over a million or just a few hundred; but that’s basically how Google can access results quickly.

There are literally millions of sites being created daily, so it may be quite some time, perhaps months, before a new site gets crawled and indexed. Some may not get crawled at all (eventually they all will, but I do mean EVENTUALLY). The top and bottom of this, is that if your site hasn’t yet been indexed by Google; your site will not be considered for display on results pages. Quite simply you don’t exist.

To find out if your site has been indexed, go to www.google.co.uk to get Google’s Homepage.

In the search bar type

Site:{your site}

So for example for my own HW Marketing site, I would type

Site:www.hwmarketing.co.uk

Don’t forget the colon after ‘site’.

If the site has been indexed, you will get results that display each of your site’s pages.

You can see that each of my site’s pages are indexed if you type it in in. If your results return something similar, then your site has been indexed; and that’s the first step on reaching Page 1

However, if your results are blank, then your site hasn’t been indexed and you don’t exist.

To get your site indexed use the link below to SUBMIT your site to Google.

http://www.google.co.uk/addurl

Submitting your site to Google is a request to be crawled and indexed (or re-crawled and re-indexed). It’s the quickest way to get indexed. Your webmaster should have done this as a matter of course, but if you built your own site, you may not have done it yet. You can submit your site more than once. Consensus says only submit once a month otherwise Google may view it as spam and not only ignore the request but mark your site down a notch. Some SEO experts say even once a month is too much. What we all agree on is that a new site MUST be submitted asap.


HW Marketing UK are the Affordable Website Design Company of choice for Small or Startup Businesses in the area. Easily understandable pricing packages start at £250. 

It's a Wrap !!

HW Marketing UK, a Chichester Web Design company are delighted to announce the launch of a new website for Winslow Engineering of Bosham.

In a fast moving consumer goods environment, Winslow Engineering knows how important it is for you to keep a packaging line in good order and working when it should.

Winslow Engineering are an independent, packaging system electronic engineering services company that  will provide you with a fast solution to all your automated packaging system technical problems.

Winslow Engineering have been providing a professional engineering service  to the food packaging industry for many years.

Based in West Sussex, they have a wealth of experience of many brands of packaging line systems, including flow wrappers and thermal transfer coders.

They have have experience of GMP guidelines (Good Manufacturing Practice) and FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods)

Repair and maintenance of packaging, coding and labelling equipment is a vital, mission-critical element of a packaging production line in a fast moving consumer goods environment. Automated packaging systems are designed for either stand-alone operation or straightforward and seamless integration into a factory IT infrastructure to deliver peak performance, so it requires a high degree of  technical engineering capability.

Winslow Engineering's ability to respond quickly to problematic situations has built their reputation as a reliable resource in the packaging industry.

HW Marketing UK are the Chichester Web Design Company of choice for Small or Startup Businesses in the area. Easily understandable pricing packages start at £200. The Company was established in 2009 by Neil Holley-Williams who worked for 25 years as a Freelance Consultant for IBM, Skandia Life, Invesco Perpetual and Carnival UK. Neil is also a trained Life Coach