Showing posts with label Web Design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Web Design. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Web design for startups - Learn why you need a website

Web design for startups

In today's world, if you are a business owner and your business does not have a website you are - without a doubt - losing business. There is no way around it. Long gone are the days where a business was only local and you were able to make a living out of it. This kind of thinking could lead you and your company to the dark reality of going out of business.



Like the facts?

After all these years working on online marketing we still find many business owners that don't fully understand the possibilities a good website presence can bring to their business and overlook this aspect of their business, not considering it a priority. Look at the facts below and see if you come to the same conclusions:
  • More than 2.4 billion people use the Internet every day,
  • About 90% of those have searched online for something they intended to buy
  • 40% of the Internet users have purchased products or services online in the past month
  • More than 70% of potential new customers would check you up on the Internet before doing business with you.
  • 65% of buyers say they search for product/vendor information on the Internet
  • 62% of buyers say they expect half of their purchases to be made online by 2019.
Based on these facts you can easily notice how important it is to have your business visible on the Internet.

I have a website!

It is easier to convince a person that doesn't have a website to get one than it is to convince someone that their current website is not helping them at all. Many people believe that having a website will be all they need and very little effort is made on creating one.

Keep in mind, your website is not a business card or flyer; it is a VERY POWERFUL tool to enhance your business. The sky is the limit on what you can do with it and how large a market you can reach. The World Wide Web does not have the same restrictions that the physical world and you can go from local to worldwide as soon as you need it. It is all depends on the decisions you make and how you decide to handle them.

Got it, what else?

We could go on and on about it, but the bottom line is; Your website is important and it should be as unique as your business, you should be able to create and handle it as you see fit and it  should be practical to you. It is also important to keep in mind, not all websites are created equal. The code of your website can make you or break your success and having a kid creating your website from his garage does not improve your business chances at all, even when you believe you are saving money, in the long run you'll lose more than you can imagine.

The code affects the website?

Yes, it does. And this could go very good in one way or horrific in the other. Google, Bing and other search engines (the ones that bring visitors to your website) are 100% focused on how the code is written, how fast a website load and how relevant its content is. There is, more but those are the main things these giants use to qualify your website and, based on that, recommend it to your future customers.

This is one of the biggest errors business owners can make when having their website built for the first time. They don't know what to write or how to put into writing all their great ideas about their businesses, and normally the result is they fill up the web pages with images instead of taking advantage of all the available space to enter good content. Think about your website as an open box where you can put all the things you like about your business, will you leave it half empty?

I understand... but there is too much competition already...

Yes, there is a lot of competition online and it can be overwhelming sometimes, and that is understandable. But surely you already have a lot of competition in the physical world and that didn't turn you away from creating your own business. The same way, there were giants on the Internet already when you first thought of starting your own business.

Here are some more facts about ecommerce or online stores...
  • The U.S. e-commerce economy is worth $349 billion
  • U.K. reached an estimated £62.25 billion in 2017
  • Worldwide e-commerce sales reached $1.7 trillion in 2017
  • 8 out of 10 consumers will shop online if offered free shipping
  • E-commerce sales from social media grew by 202% in 2016
Well... I'm convinced... What to do next?      

Now that you've decided your business need a website, you'll need to start looking for someone that creates it for you in the most beneficial way. Do not look for the cheapest services; normally this approach does not work as expected. Ever had one of those 'You get what you paid for' experiences? Would you be willing to bet your business on it? How about if, instead, you look for a company with experience, check them up in Google, find what their current customers are saying, and make sure they will be able to create all you need before moving forward.

Going a little deeper here are some things you should check before taking your decision.
  • Make sure your website is unique and reflects you, your business and your goal for your business (aka not a cookie cutter type of site).
  • Make sure your website is not created with a template.
  • Check your developer's website and make sure it loads fast and looks good.
  • Check for online reviews about your provider.
  • Find out if they have real customers leaving video reviews for them. Video reviews are more difficult to fake and you can have a more personalized look at the person giving the review.
  • Check their portfolio.
  • Check their social media websites and likes.
Cool... what else?       

With all that said, you still thinking about creating your own website? If yes, please leave us a comment below. If not, give us a call (347.491.6711) or email us at sales@highranksolution.com. Our web developers at HRS Consulting are also Google Certified Partners so you know you will be getting a team that knows how to code and what the search engines like.We can make you an offer you can't refuse...

Monday, June 18, 2018

Free online advertising tips! Nothing is better than free...

You are opening or redesigning your online store. Your new website has been created, what other steps can you take to increase traffic to your website? If you don't advertise nothing will happen, that is guaranteed.



Here at HRS Consuting we will create a site that will speak to your target audience, we will work together with you and we will do a market research to find out what works for you. Our website will have ease of navigation and we will work hard to make sure that your client never has to look for your competitor.

But, what else can you do to increase traffic and visibility to your website? Here are some simple steps to free online advertising:

  1. Ask us about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Trough the SEO process we will work to increase volume to your website, ensuring that your website will be indexed by the main search engines; therefore increasing your page ranking. Better ranking will mean higher traffic and more business to you, if you are not comfortable doing yourself ask us to do it for you. Here is what you should know about SEO.
  2. Have your own blog. People like blogs, they like it when they feel like they are being talked to in a personal level and they have the ability to respond and comment on your blog. Make it interesting and write simple and complex content for all audiences. Your web designer and web developer can include a blog section to your site. Ask us about it.
  3. Make sure you have substantial content that is relevant to your business and your industry, great content is everything in your website; remember to write what people want to read and not what you like to write.
  4. Submit your website to an industry site and/or industry directory. However beware of directories that solicit you for upgraded listings. Make sure the directory is widely used and accepted in your industry. Always affiliate your site with reputable sites, don't make the mistake of submitting your website to everyone that call be very bad.
  5. Exchange links with other reputable sites that are related to your business, links can bring great amount of traffic to your website...
  6. Utilize media clip websites such as YouTube to market your business. Only link related media that your consumers might find interesting.
  7. Issue a news release. Once your website is complete, send a news release to newspapers or industry periodicals. Find an event that might be newsworthy, write an article related to your business and send it in making sure you include a link to your website. Utilize traditional and web targeted media.
  8. Make sure you include your website address on all your business cards, stationary, flyers, brochures and all printed materials.
  9. Promote your site on online forums. There are thousands of forums, internet communities, and social networking websites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Myspace among many others. Find online communities with serious discussions and make sure you actively participate and advertise your website.
  10. Traditional paid advertising. Either printed media or internet paid advertising such as pay per click, ask one of our web developers for more information.
Our web designers and web developers (HRS Consulting) can help you advertise your website, if you need any additional help, please contact us at 1-347-491-6711 or  email us at sales@highranksolution.com

Sunday, June 17, 2018

What can a professional web designer do that i can't?

We would like to start this year's blog with a very common question we've read online:


What can a professional web designer do that I can't?

That is a question many people ask themselves and with all the tools, templates, and websites advertising these services the question is now more present than ever. And the reality is that many people try and put a lot of hours into this process just to give up at the end.


The answer is simple:
The Internet today is the most active and evolving place that has ever existed. Updates are constantly made, new technologies come out daily, and new innovators create new things every day and new trends seems to pop up out of nowhere. If you don't have someone who is constantly involved in this 100% of their time, it is nearly impossible to get a headstart with all this information, tendencies, and ideas.

Besides that, you also need to deal with a lot of other seemingly unrelated issues, but that can have a deep impact on your website future. You can make a beautiful website that works really poorly with the search engines so no-one can find you on Google or Bing. Without being able to analyze the code of your website from a web developer point of view you will never know what went wrong.

You can also make a website that looks great on your computer just to find out that it looks terrible in mobiles devices or that it's not mobile-friendly at all and is missing in more than a third of the traffic that any other functional website may have.
After all that you'll also need to know that what looks great to you may not look so good or even 'ok' to your visitors and future customers.

If you really want to tackle your own website you'll need to put a lot of time on learning how to code, languages to use, codes to implement and a lot of marketing coding and application.

At this point you could ask yourself, what will sell better, a professional and colorful brochure or a flyer done by yourself at home?

What to do then?
If you are a person with a lot of time in your hands and really want to learn I'll expect you to do your own site. Get some studies on photoshop, web coding, and online advertising and give it a try. Once you do all this, you'll need to study a bit more, learn a few more things and do it again or make what you had better.  

Then you may know someone who will ask you to do the same for them and. there you go, more practice on top of practice and eventually you will become a web designer and you can even make a living out of it.

But, if you don't have the time and energy to tackle this problem head on and your focus is in your business instead of making things yourself, then you should leave it to a professional. We will guarantee 100% our designs and we will not stop until you love it 100%. Our reputation is on the line.

What about Wix and Squarespace and Homestead?
Well, while Wix and Squarespace and Homestead are options with pre-made templates that will definitely help you start your adventure, we're sorry to tell you that it is not as simple as they say in their advertisement campaigns and you will not have the same results they said you would have.

And why not? It is obvious that these companies will make it all very easy for any person with very little experience to have their own site, but it ends there. The SEO you can make over those sites is very limited and also you need to know that internally, as you have based your site on a template, there will be literally thousands of other websites looking and behaving exactly as yours, and Google does not like that, they put a lot of weight into creativity and uniqueness and the truth is they won't see that on a website made from a template.

Ok, so what to do next?
It will all depend on what you are planning to create and how much time you'd like to spend on it.

We love to have our clients involved with their projects and we often welcome them in our offices to go thru the websites, changing and adapting things to their likeness without jeopardizing their options and online visibility. If a client asks for something we think it will put their future website in jeopardy we will let them know right away and look for ways to make it happen without compromise their project.

Web Design is like any other job out there, you need to study a lot and you need to be constantly modernizing yourself into every new tendency you can grasp. As I said before, this is the most dynamic land you'll ever see and it is constantly changing and mutating.
We are open for anyone to give us a call and ask as many questions as they may have. You'll soon realize that is lot easier to have someone, who is dedicated 100% to this field, take care of your project for a very affordable price.

Web works with HRS Consulting
With all that said, you still thinking about creating your own website? If yes, please leave us a comment below. If not, give us a call (347.491.6711) or email us at sales@highranksolution.com. We can make you an offer you can't refuse...