Tips & Trends in Marketing and Business:
Tips & Tr
ends is designed to be an outreach section of our website that offers brief descriptions of marketing trends. It will also include marketing tips. You may see tips about Mail Chimp, Blogging, Website Maintenance, and any other current and relevant information that may improve your ability to market yourself, business, or products and services. We will attempt through Tips & Trends to identify trends in all aspects of Marketing and Business.
We encourage you to get involved by suggesting Tips & Trends that you encounter. After all, if it is something that is helpful to you it will probably be equally helpful to someone else. Share what you learn and help a fellow entrepreneur. Someday soon they may return the favor. You may learn something that instantly will improve your business.
Tip #1 – Domain Names
Have control over your domain (ie: mycompanyname.com in your name and in your own account, not in your website manager’s name or website developer’s name. We manage many of our clients domains, however, the client owns the domain and the account. There are many options for Domain Registrars to purchase a domain. Some very popular Registrars are GoDaddy, BlueHost and Network Solutions. If you don’t have control over your domain name you don’t have control over your website. Protect yourself and the investment you have made with a website. Unfortunately there are people who will take advantage of you. Several of our clients came to us for this very reason. Having control over your domain(s) protects you when your web designer or manager moves or even goes out of business and you can’t locate them.
Trend #1 – Internet Queries or Internet Search
Searches or Queries are done more frequently from mobile devices. Cell Phones or Tablets are quickly becoming the dominant device of choice for surfing the internet. This is especially true for everyone born after 1975. For this reason alone Google added “Mobile Friendly” to it’s search algorithm in May 2015. Nearly 65% of all internet searches in 2016 are done from a mobile device. That’s up over 500% from 2008. This trend is likely to expand as mobile devices become even more popular. The screens are getting bigger which facilitates the ease of operation, as well as, the improved viewing experience. Make sure your site is easy to view on mobile.
Tip #2 – Mobile Friendly Websites
Have you ever done an Internet Search on your cell phone? Most of you are going to answer yes. Have you ever done a cell phone search and landed on a page that you had to scroll left and right to follow the sentence structure? Again most of you will answer yes. When that happened you landed on a website that is not mobile friendly or mobile responsive. Bet you didn’t like it and also bet you didn’t stay on the website very long. Google doesn’t like it very well either. Therefore, they rank those websites below other similar websites that are mobile friendly. Ranking higher than your competition allows your website to be found easier. Make sure you pay attention to Google and their algorithm as it relates to your websites search-ability. The easier it is to find your website online the easier it will be to grow your business.
Trend #2 – Full Width Websites
Many new Website Designs are opting for a full width layout instead of a box layout. They usually come with a panel format as well. Lots of vertical scrolling also provides valuable information to be displayed on the Home Page. The also provides more options for “CTA’s” Call’s to Action. Each panel on the home page can have links to a full description of that panel’s topic. This is very popular and clearly a trend that will be around for awhile.
Tip #3 – Website Maintenance & Security
As a Business Owner, running your own business should occupy the majority of your time and energy. Therefore, use a professional for other services, like your website maintenance. Good maintenance should include:
Software Updates, Backups, Security, Analytics Tracking & Reporting, Web Hosting
• Full Service: Maintaining websites is tedious and technical so let a professional do it for you.
• Security: The Internet can be a dangerous place, make sure your site is protected.
• Peace of Mind: Staying on top of the latest updates and security warnings is a job for a professional. Don’t put your site at risk!
