As fewer people use yellow pages and turn to the internet when searching for products and services in Niagara, and around the world, the need for web design small business niagara Web Design: Every Niagara Small Business Needs These Pagesa small business web design becomes much more important. Over and over again Niagara small businesses are finding that their website is in fact helping to improve business growth. A website helps you to keep up with, and in many cases surpass your competitors. But to make your website as effective as it can be it will require certain information and pages.

Your home page is the first page on your small business website that your visitors see. This page should have information about your business. Describe what you do and give some compelling reasons as to why you’re the company to deal with.  It’s important for your visitor to quickly see that you have what they’re looking for .  It’s also important to get the visitor engaged in your website by using video.  If your business is in several locations, or cities, you’ll want to include those as well.

If your business is a brick and mortar location where you want people to visit, you’ll want to display your complete address on each page of your website. If you’re a business that visits your customer’s home or business, you might only need to put your address on the home page and on the contact page. You’ll also want to clearly display your business name, email addresses, and phone number.

Your small business web design needs a way for visitors to contact you, which is why you will also need a contact page. Both your mailing address, and physical address (if they’re not the same), should appear on the contact page. Make your phone number and email address easy to find as well. On your contact page you can have a contact form that visitors can fill out to send you a message.

You need a page that explains in more detail what you do. This can be a “Product” page, “Service” or “Project” page. Explain to your visitors what service you provide or what products you sell. This is also a great place to put a price list for your visitor’s convenience. If you provide a service that has a finished project, like landscaping, home repairs, or pool installation, add some pictures of the end results.

Next you’ll want an About Us page. This is where your visitor gets to learn more about you than anywhere else on the site.  In fact, this is the only page that you should be talking more about yourself than you are the needs of the visitor. You can tell your business history. Explain why your visitors should use your small business instead of the competition.

I just viewed a video that I wanted to share with you. It’s on Michael Krisa’s amazing Real Estate education site; “That Interview Guy”.

The video is from Barry Lebow who is a Canadian icon in the Real Estate world. Barry talks about differentiation that a Real Estate agent must be aware of and specifically he drills into niche marketing.  He makes the point very clear that Real Estate Agents must strive to become the “Go To Expert” in their defined niche; expensive condos, horse farms, etc.

If you’re a seasoned Real Estate professional, or you’re just getting started, you’ll get some great tips from Barry Lebow’s video.  But even if you’re not in the Real Estate business, Barry’s sage advice can apply to any business you can think of.  It’s all about specialization and becoming the recognized Go To Expert in your field.

If you want to find out about a great way to use video to brand yourself as the “Go To Expert” in the niche you choose, please have a look at the video on our home page.  Video marketing is the most effective way to brand yourself, and sell your products and services online.  If you want to learn more about this, please send me a note or give me a call.
You might also want to check out our video advertising samples.

In the meantime, here’s the link to Barry Lebow’s video, and while you’re on Michael’s website, leave him a comment…tell him Murray sent you.

Murray.

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What is local search? Simply put it’s when a person is searching for information about a local business in Niagara on the internet.  When that searcher types in the product or service they’re looking for into Google, if your business is listed on the first page of the search results it’s very similar to being in the highest visibility area on the busiest street in town.
Niagara Local Search1 Niagara Advertising: Niagara Local Search Marketing.Today it’s not enough to have your business listed in the Yellow Pages. You see people in Niagara are using the internet to search for products and services more than they are the phone book.  Google and the other search engines are giving businesses in Niagara an opportunity to include their business listing in their local search directory.

Because it is the goal of Google and the others to provide the most relevant results to a given search, it’s very likely that your business will show up for your product or service in Niagara if you’ve taken the steps to get listed.

Many online searches are done on mobile phones these days.  That’s even better news for Niagara business, and more reason for them to get listed in the directories.  You see, smart phones provide local search results with clickable links which make it easy to call the Niagara business in question.  But you need to be listed to make this work for you.

You can also help your potential customers get to know you before they visit your business in Niagara by adding video to your local search listing.  Or how about offering electronic savings coupons to entice the searcher to visit your business.  Hey Niagara business…this is all FREE!

It takes a little effort and time to learn how to get listed, but it’s not rocket science.  This is probably the most powerful advertising you can do at NO COST!  If you’re not comfortable trying this yourself you can hire someone to do it for you…probably less than $400.00 bucks.

Using internet marketing in Niagara and being listed in the local search directories is a sure fire way to generate more sales and new customers.  So what are you waiting for Niagara?

Need help with this?  Give me a call!
Murray.

I’m really happy to announce our brand new program called SEO Video.

SEO Video is designed for anyone who wants to sell anything on the internet.  It’s an inexpensive, totally hands-free method to get your product video created and distributed throughout the internet.

Here’s an SEO video for the car market that will give you an idea of how this all works.

This is a great marketing service for;

  • Car Dealers
  • Realtors
  • Boat Dealers
  • RV Dealers
  • Motorcycle Dealers
  • Scooter Dealers
  • Ebay Product Sellers
  • Private Car Sale
  • and many more applications.

If you’d like to learn more about SEO Video, please give me a call at 905-328-6957 or send me an email at murray@webtrafficsolutions.ca

In a new study from the Kelsey Group over half of the car dealers that participated in a survey intend to include web video on their websites over the next 12 months.  Currently only 1/3 of car dealers are using video on their websites.  Dealerships are also “rapidly adopting” marketing strategies that include Web 2.0 marketing such as social media and online reviews.  These are “becoming an integral element of the marketing mix” for car dealers.

Click to watch video below.

SellMoreCarsWithVideo 300x169 Online Video Marketing: Car Dealers Starting to Get the Value of Web Video Marketing!
The Kelsey Group conducted the survey, online, last month.  Of the dealerships that responded, 59% of them stated that they intend to get involved on video sharing sites over the next 12 months.  That number is a large increase over the current 33%.

This research carries the same basic message that can be increasingly found in other such reports that says traditional local media will continue to lose ground to Internet advertising.

A whopping 62% of car dealers will increase their web marketing spend over the next 12 months.  That compares to only 17% who said they’d increase their traditional marketing spend.  Further, Kelsey reported that 46% of dealers who participated in the survey plan to spend less on traditional media this year, and only 8% will decline their online spend.

Steve Marshall, Research Director with the Kelsey Group reported that about 200 car dealers participated in the survey.  It clearly appears that more dealers will use customer ratings and reviews at 43% up from 29% over the next 12 months.  Marshall reported that only 15% of the car dealers are engaged in social networking sites but twice that number, 33%, plan to give it a try this year.  “A car dealer will set up their own site on MySpace or Facebook or Yahoo Groups,” said Marshall. “Or they will…put up a blog post or link on a relevant site.”

Marshall said that 28% of the car dealers plan to put video ads on sites other than their own, like YouTube or one of the other social sharing sites.  Currently only one out of every five dealerships are doing this.

Dealers also plan to increase their mobile advertising quite a bit. Marshall said only 5 percent currently use mobile but 15 percent said they’ll be involved a year from now.

Most of the video ads for automotive dealerships have a “down-home” quality and are “a little unpolished”, Marshall said that it’s clear the ads aren’t being done in-house.  Dealerships simply don’t have the resources internally to do this type of production.  Marshall also said that car manufacturers are not participating in the cost to do online video and other Web 2.0 strategies.  For the most part these ads don’t support the car brands since most of the videos are clips of display lots and showrooms.