Welcome to the second edition of “Invest in your website”

In Edition 1 we highlighted key benefits that can be achieved by investing in your website, and introduced you to “Mason’s Butchers” a family run business in Bournemouth. We established that a Google search returned useful results that would easily direct potential customers to their business. However we discovered that their Facebook page could do with some TLC.

For Edition 2 we will go through how improvements can be made on key components;

1.Confirm the details

Starting with the basics is key. The following details need to be confirmed which can be completed easily;

Business Name: If the business is registered in the UK you can check Companies House be sure to check that any apostrophe’s, spaces or hyphens are included;

Business Address: This can be checked with Royal Mail if the business is within the UK;

Business Telephone Number: The easiest way to validate this is to call it and see who answers.;

Business Email Address: The easiest way to this is if you have access to web hosting;

Business Social Media Profiles: The business should hopefully have these details to hand, however if not a quick Google search will bring up any pages.

Now that these details have been confirmed you can start to get to work.

2. Check the Website hosting

Is the website hosting reliable and provided by a reputable company? To check this you can use 1and1 or Bluehosts (affiliate links )

3.The Website.

Here we have 2 options:

1. Remove the annual holiday details and leave the website as is continuing to work on the rest then revisit the website later. Jump to next step
2. Overhaul the website now and get it working then proceed to drive traffic from different sources.

So What would we do with the website.

1. Move from Joomla to Wordpress. This is a personal preference as I specialise in wordpress. Joomla is good but would need a specialist to code. During the move I would keep the site as is, developing a new site on a staging domain.
2. On the staging site create new pages then set them all to go live together.
3. Create an online catalogue showing off the different items they can sell. As the prices could vary this would be the easiest way. Allowing people to link to the product in the catalogue and make sure each product is detailed containing allergy information, where is it sourced from and what fed on. How often it is delivered and the months it is in season, also links to recipes would be an idea.
4. Change the favicon (the little image in the tab above) this would be the company logo i.e white square with red text saying Masons going through.
5. Makes sure there is a contact page with all the information and also a form so customers can send us an email with any special requests.
6. Add more photos of the shop, the layout so customers feel familiar when they visit, perhaps some pictures of the prep area.
7. Set up a blog page so they can then blog about recipes using the produce they sell, farm visits to see the next batch of meat before it is sent for slaughter. Health advice about some of the speciality meats, advice about which cuts of meat are best for which meal. Promote drinks from a local off-licence to have with the meats.
8. Set up email collection so people can be e-mailed when new seasons start and new meats come in to stock.
9. Set up a simple ordering online or online payment for customers who would like delivery in the local area.
10. Set up An SSL certificate (https) making the website secure.
11. Link to the company social media sites
12. Make sure the website is mobile responsive, with mobile search now greater than desktop search this is a must
13. Link the website to google webmaster tools and search console so you can see what people type in before they come to your website so some target pages could be created for greater traffic.

4. Claim the social media pages.

Facebook

Claim the Facebook page and make sure all the details are correct. We would setup the customer as the main admin then request access through our business portal so we do not need to know your password. getting a graphic designer to create a range of header banners for different seasons and public holidays. i.e BBQ season in the UK, chicken at Easter, Turkey for Christmas/ Thanks giving. etc.

Also promote new blog posts on the Facebook page again taking potential customers to the website so they can see the produce. and promoting new products.  Allowing customers to check in whilst in the shop and also leave reviews.

Twitter

Setup twitter as for Masons there is no account. Then getting a graphic designer to create a range of header banners for different seasons and public holidays. This would be another platform to inform customers of new products or when deliveries have arrived.

Instagram

This would be great for posting Photographs of the different meat cuts, prepared meals, life in the shop. These do not have to be professionally taken, many business use a mobile phone with a good camera. There are good guides on taking photos with mobile phones here

5. Claim the Google My Business and Maps listing

Claiming this makes sure people can find you on google business directory and the information is correct, you can also reply to any reviews of the business here, This will also set up a Google Plus page for the business where you can post updates, blog posts etc. Thinks google version of Facebook.  This will provide the web master a wealth of information about how people interact with your website. We can be set as an admin once the account is setup, this means if you did decide to move web companies you could go in and remove access (but we hope this doesn’t happen)

6. Directory Listings

We would now proceed to search the web for directory listings, making sure they have the correct information in them and if they have any reviews we can monitor them to reply to.  We would put the review sites in a spreadsheet with links and login information so they can be easily checked. For sharing passwords we would recommend Last pass

7. Remarketing and Email marketing

we would now add the google remarketing code to the website and the facebook Pixel to the website so if a customer comes to the website once we will follow them around the website. We can adjust the parameters on how this happens so we are not constantly bombarding them.

We would sign up to Active Campaign or Mail chimp. This would collect name, email address and contact method so we could email them at the start of a new season, when specific meat they have enquired about is in stock or to wish them happy birthday

8. Advertising

Now we could move on to advertising on Facebook ads, Twitter Ads, Google adwords to promote any offers, and get the word out to the local community

9. Promotion

When we have gone through everything above we would then post on our social media pages and Linkedin pages. this would help promote our business and skills and also the customers business.

You can follow this guide through and let us know what results you got or if you would like us to do this for you please contact us.