Building a website is one thing, but what is the best, and most secure way to host that website for the world to see? How fast do you want your site to be presented? How many visitors are you expecting? What kind of tools do you want your site to have?
The answers to the questions above should not only help you determine what kind of web hosting your web site requires, but it can also help you succeed with building the best possible site you can accomplish. Web hosting is the process of choosing how your website will be presented to the world and there are a lot of way to host your site. It can be done for free, with limitations, or can be at a cost with unlimited possibilities.
Web hosting is where you choose how your website will be presented to the world. It can be accomplished with limitations, or you can pay for more root access. Web hosting will allow you to have space for you to install programs and run your site.
Free Web Hosting Service - Offered by online companies with limitations. Usually accompanied with advertisements. This type of service is very simple with very little choice of a Domain name. However, if you plan on having a lot of traffic or using this site for business use, I would not recommend using a free hosting service. It can be dangerous for your company’s privacy and won't be sufficient enough if you plan on having actual traffic.
Shared Web Hosting Service - Web hosting on the same servers as other sites; generally, from a few sites to hundreds of smaller ones. With a shared server it is typical that the websites use the same pool or server resources. Utilizing the RAM and CPU across any different web sites. Because of this the sites are limited to software and sometimes even updates. The format and programing for all the sites are typically the same on a shared network. Also keep away because everything is being shared across the servers’ load time and storage space may be limited, which is crucial when looking to create a successful website.
Reseller Web Hosting - This allows the website client to become a web host themselves. A reseller is more dedicated to the websites they are overlooking. Reseller hosting is where a reseller sells added services, usually providing web design and management services for the client. This way the hosting, management, design, and/or completion of the site is handled mostly by the reseller. This is typically the best option for people looking to build a professional site. Generally, the web host repackages many different services and sells them whole. This allows anyone to buy a full package deal for a web site design, saving them time and money.
Virtual Dedicated Server - It is technically both shared hosting and dedicated hosting. This is when you rent an entire server. It’s needed for people who have very high traffic to their websites or who need to set up a server in a very specific way. Resellers usually work though a VDS.
Dedicated Hosting Service - This service allows the customer full control of the server, with root access. Typically, the user doesn't own the server, making the client of the server responsible for security and maintenance of that specific server. This is usually a less costly option, but requires more work by the user.
Managed Hosting Service - This type of service doesn't allow the client to have root access to the server, disallowing them to change root commands or programs so that the provider of the server can guarantee quality of service. The user won't be able to change configuration settings or have the ability of modifying the server. This service is typically leased to the client.
Cloud Hosting – A fairly new form a of hosting platform that allows the user to host their site remotely on a platform that is paid for the space used versus paying for a determined amount of space. A cloud based site is considered more reliable because cloud hosting is decentralized. Unfortunately, however this type of service normally doesn't show where the data is being stored, potentially creating privacy or security concerns.
These are files the customer will have loaded onto your computer through your hosting server to complete the look of the website. These files will almost always be in standard format, like JPEG and MP3. Also includes the PHP script and/or html files. It is important to keep the site files organized so the server doesn't have to go through too many files to build the page. If it's not organized the server won't be able to send the information as quickly as it should, making your customer waiting longer which is one of the main reasons customers leave a site.
Also keep in mind that depending on the hosting server you must watch your storage cap. You don’t want to fully load your site because it will be slow and won’t be able to gather more information. This is the last thing that you would want as it would look very unprofessional.
Computer communicate using IP addresses to contact each other. Every site has a specific IP address to identify them correctly; kind of like a phone number. The Domain Name of the website acts like a contact in your phone. When you type in the website name into the browser correctly, it will identify the IP address of that website allowing you to visit the page.
Without a Domain Name clients will have to access your site strictly though your IP address; which is typically not a good idea. Luckily professional web designers can help you set up a Domain name to match your company name so you can be easily found.
No two leads are quite alike. Where one decides to take a step, another will go in the opposite direction. And no matter how hard you may true to streamline the buyer journey for your customers, the truth is that you can’t control most of what happens between when a user first finds your brand and what happens thereafter.
Ideally, each lead would follow the same linear pattern as they transition from discovering your brand to making a purchase. But since they don’t, understanding how to nurture each lead as they take different turns is essential to the success of your marketing strategy.
So, what are you to do in each unique scenario? Below, we discuss 4 of the most common situations that will pop up so you understand how you can best address each.
Have you ever been contacted by an over-excited lead who first discovers an offer on a Monday and by the end of the week is requesting information to close the deal on a sale? If so, it can be very exciting. But all too often, these very same prospects that are ready to move forward will slam the brakes unexpectedly.
When potential buyers lose their immediate, intense interest the best move to make is to reach out and check back on a continual, scheduled basis. During this time, you can continue to send helpful articles or offers to inspire a sale in the future.
If a potential lead has contacted you and then disappeared, you may feel that all hope is lost. But this isn’t always the case!
In fact, there are a number of different tactics you can use to reconnect, such as:
New Approach – Sometimes, just changing the time of the day you call will make a difference in whether or not you’re able to reach each potential lead. Change How You Communicate – If you’re exclusively calling a lead, you may want to change up the method. Try connecting on social media or another platform to follow up. Stay Relaxed – It’s normal for leads to get busy and disappear for a short time, even if they were highly engaged when they first contacted you. Be patient and don’t send too many messages and many leads will return.
Every once in awhile, a lead will contact you and be in a “quick decision situation.” You know, the kind of situation where they contact you out of nowhere and want to make a decision as quickly as possible.
It may sound like a dream but often, there are a few ways to properly handle the situation:
Calmly Assess the Situation – It’s simple to get excited at the prospect of a quick sale, but you shouldn’t. Remain calm and take the time to learn more about the prospect, their needs, their budget, and your ability to meet their needs. Involve Your Staff – Don’t make decisions in high-pressure situations on your own. Instead, get your staff involved so that you can best assess how to handle the lead.
If you’ve done your part to create desirable offers, content, and more, you’ve probably come into contact with a few leads that have downloaded free offers but don’t take things a step further. And when this happens and you want to push engagement a step further, there are a few steps you can take:
Make Contact – Reach out to your prospects via email to take your relationship one step further and ask if they have any questions. Ask Direct Questions – If they don’t respond, it is a good idea to ask more direct questions about whether or not they are held back by one of many factors (budget, timing, etc.) or aren’t looking to commit to anything at the moment.
With any lead, it’s important to push them in the right direction to prompt sales and give them a reason to choose your brand over other options. And when you’re looking to do just that, the methods in the situations above are great places to start.
If you find that you’re struggling to guide leads, the team at Adonis Media can help. Get in touch with one of our team members today to discuss your unique challenges and how we can customise a strategy to push leads through your sales funnel!
When leads lose immediate interest, you should schedule follow-ups to keep them engaged with your brand. You may even want to send them relevant, helpful content. If a lead disappears, try contacting them at different times or through different means. Always remain patient and don’t contact them too much or you may drive them away. In quick decision situations, it’s best to remain calm and address the situation and potential client before making any decisions regarding your offer. If customers lack deep engagement, contact them and ask them direct questions regarding their needs and what you can do for their brand.
Now we want to hear from you: How do you nurture different leads through the buying process? Share your tips below!
Not all pages on your site are created equal. And while you probably know this already, do you know which pages are most important and what you should do to each to attract potential customers and increase conversions?
Chances are you don’t. And really, you aren’t to blame. On eCommerce sites (maybe yours included), there are sometimes hundreds of pages, each of which you consider to be important (and truly, every product or service is). But when you want results, focusing your attention is critical to your sustained success.
So, where should you focus your attention and how can you optimise each page? Read on to find out!
We all know what the word optimisation means, but what does it mean when it comes to website pages? It’s not always about inserting keywords (search engine optimisation) or even implementing tactics that will improve conversions (conversion rate optimization).
And when we say optimise the 4 most important pages on your site, we mean:
Focus on the User – Content on each of the pages we discuss below should be created with your specific user in mind. By looking at how users get to your site, what they want to learn, and what problems they need solving is a great place to begin your SEO optimization efforts. Focus on Your Goals – What do you want your potential customer to do on each page? Position your calls-to-action, links, and content on these goals. Focus on the Journey – Few (if any) users land on your site by chance. In fact, most will come to your site and each page for a reason. Where is each user at in their buyer journey? Consider this question to optimise successfully!
Now, let’s move on to each page and what you should do in terms of optimisation!
This is the most obvious of all the pages, especially because it’s the first page most users will see when they land on your site! Your primary goal on any home page should be to direct users to the next logical page in their buying journey. To do so, you should:
Create a Standout Headline – Headlines are often the first thing your users read. Make yours bold and catchy to capture the attention of your users. Direct Traffic – The area above the fold (i.e. before the user has to scroll) on your home page is prime real estate. Direct traffic to pages efficiently and you can move buyers through your sales funnel more effectively. Create an Attention-Grabbing – Call-to-action buttons should be a bold colour to grab attention and direct traffic with ease.
Your About page is the second most important page on your site. Customers will visit this page to determine whether or not your business and history is worth trusting, playing an important role in building relationships.
To optimise your About page, there are 2 main suggestions to keep in mind:
Keep it Succinct – Customers want to have any questions they’ve developed in their mind answered, but they don’t want to search through paragraph after paragraph searching for answers. Keep your About page as to-the-point and succinct as possible. Create a CTA – You shouldn’t just provide information on your About page, you should redirect traffic to another page once users have found the information they were looking for.
Did you know marketers who have prioritised blogging are 13x more likely to enjoy positive ROI? Now you do, but not all blogs are created equal. To optimise your eCommerce blog, there are a few steps you can take:
Keep it Organised – Users will come to your blog to find information on a range of different topics. By categorising them appropriately, you can make it simple for users to find the information they’re looking for. Pack in the CTAs – You’re providing value to blog users in the form of free guidance, information, or entertainment. By including CTAs in the posts, you can engage and connect with users and get them to subscribe for future updates or information.
Most companies mistakenly think that the contact page is only for the contact information and no other content. However, there’s more to an eCommerce contact page than just the information itself:
Put Information Above the Fold – Again, don’t make the user go hunting for information! If they’re on the contact page, they’re ready to make a move and you don’t want to complicate the process. Make Contacting You Simple – Don’t just list out your email address; create a form so users don’t have to leave the page to contact you. Remember, it’s about making things as simple as possible so you don’t lose potential leads.
If you’ve been focusing your attention in all the wrong places, the suggestions above make it simpler than ever to optimise key areas of your site and keep your users engaged with your brand.
When you’re ready to take your optimiZation efforts a step further. Contact a member of our team today to discuss your own personalised optimsiation strategy to engage and build relationships with leads. We look forward to speaking with you!
Optimization means focusing on the user, your goals, and the buyer journey to create website pages that engage, intrigue, and prompt users to take action. Optimize your home page with clear headlines, h1 Tags CTAs, and guidance that directs users where you want them to go. Keep your about page succinct and include a CTA to optimise it properly. Organise blog posts by category and include CTAs on each individual post to build your email list and gather leads. Put your contact information above the fold and include a contact form so potential leads can easily contact your brand.
As of June 2015, there are 968 million daily active users on average each day on Facebook. And if you’re like most savvy eCommerce storeowners, you understand that this makes it essential to maintain an active brand presence on the platform.
But being on Facebook isn’t enough to be successful.
In fact, how you use the platform and what you do to construct each post matters, especially when you’re hoping to engage and build relationships with your audience.
So that leaves one question: How can you accomplish this? Below, we discuss 7 Facebook statistics you need to know that reveal simple strategies you can use to build an audience on Facebook. Let’s get started!
And by interactions we’re talking about combined likes, shares, and comments.
The fact of the matter is that most Facebook users are browsing the platform late at night as their day is winding down. As such, publishing posts at this time is essential to get noticed by your target audience.
When you’re creating posts, use a program like Buffer to schedule posts for the time your audience is most likely to see it. Doing so will increase engagement simply because you’re in the right place at the right time.
This statistic probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise. After all, in a sea of text and status updates, including an image in your post is enough to get your audience members to stop scrolling and take notice of your brand.
Include custom graphics, custom images, or other graphics with posts to stand out in newsfeeds.
Asking readers a question at the end of the post is a simple way to show customers that you’re looking for engagement rather than just a quick read. Additionally, asking a question shows your users that you care about their thoughts or opinions, making it simple to better understand your buyer psychology and how you can use this to your own marketing advantage.
Who would have thought that one small question could accomplish so much?
Shares are marketing gold on Facebook. After all, this is a free way to get your post in front of new audience members that may have otherwise never encountered your brand.
As such, including videos when possible is a great way to fuel brand awareness while demanding the attention and engagement of current audience members as well!
Think about it: Sunday is the day of the week most individuals take to relax or spend time doing things they want to do. As such, they’re on social media much more than they would be if they were at work or out and about on a Saturday.
Schedule important posts for Sundays to maximise engagement even further.
Characters include numbers, letters, and spaces. So, as you can imagine, the most successful posts are quite short at just 150 to 200 characters. But this statistic isn’t surprising either!
After all, few individuals enjoy reading long narratives in their newsfeeds. Instead, they want short, informative posts with an image or video accompanied by a link to learn more if they want to. As such, you should do your best to keep posts to this length and say as much as possible in as few words as you can.
As an eCommerce storeowner, short form content means linking to product pages, your home page, or other generic content. Instead, you should link to the unique blog posts you create regularly to engage your audience.
By doing so, you’re not only going to enjoy the increased interactions promised by the statistic above. You’ll also build authentic, meaningful relationships with your audience because you aren’t using your page just to market products; you’re using it to deliver value in other forms as well.
There’s generally no “right” or “wrong” way to use social media. But when it comes to successfully engaging your audience and growing your eCommerce store, the 7 statistics above demonstrate that there are better ways to engage than others.
If you aren’t sure where to begin with your Facebook presence, the team at Adonis Media can help! Contact us today to design your own custom social media strategy to utilise the best of what Facebook has to offer your business. We look forward to speaking with you!
Post between 10 and 11 pm EST for the greatest number of interactions. Use posts to enjoy 179% more interactions than average Facebook posts. End posts with a question for 162% more engagement. Publish videos on your page to take advantage of sharing (which puts your content in front of new audiences at no additional cost). Publish posts on Sundays for 52.9% more interactions than average Facebook posts. Use just 150 to 200 characters in posts to ensure you don’t overwhelm users with content and maximise engagement in the process. Link to long form content in your posts to increase interactions and deliver value to your audience
We want to hear from you: Which of the statistics above do you find most surprising? Which do you plan on using for your store? We look forward to reading your thoughts in the comments below!
Statistics: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/facebook-engagement-statistics
If eCommerce storeowners aren’t looking to find new customers, you can bet that they’re looking for ways to increase average order value. After all, if you could easily get your customers to spend more on each order, wouldn’t you?
Of course you would! But you can’t do so by raising prices or pushing upsells or cross-sells every chance you get. Instead, you should be offering value that will delight customers and make them excited to make a purchase (even if they’re spending more money in the process).
So, how can you accomplish this? Below, we share our top 3 tips you can use to increase average order value in an authentic, meaningful way.
If you shop online at major retailers, chances are that you’ve encountered free shipping limits in the past. You know, where retailers offer free shipping when you spend a specific amount. And in most cases, setting these limits is a great way to get users to spend more money.
To really amp up excitement, you may choose to offer expedited shipping for free if users spend a certain amount. This will incentivise larger buyers and give them a reason to remain loyal to your brand (especially if you offer the promotion on a regular basis).
For the best results, you should feature these limits on your home page and the checkout page. You may even want to show users how much they need to spend to qualify for free shipping while they’re in their shopping cart to simplify your offer.
The best part about eCommerce shopping is the ability to bundle deals together to give customers a reason to purchase more, even if they don’t necessarily need to. An example of this is to offer a discount on a particular item if customers purchase 2 or more. If the savings are enough, customers will want to buy more (even if they have no use for the additional item at the moment).
Getting more for less is always an attractive offer. By bundling your deals together in this way, you can take full advantage of each customer’s desire to strike a deal.
Discounts are a touchy subject for eCommerce storeowners. You don’t want to offer too many discounts because doing so may encourage customers to wait for a discount to make a purchase.
However, offering discounts may also increase the average order value when done properly. For example, you may offer a discount to first-time users that sign up to your email list but they can also get the percentage off after spending a certain amount. Doing so this way protects your profits and gives you a way to encourage buyers to spend more while they still save money (creating a win-win situation for everyone involved).
If you’ve been seeking better ways to keep your average order value on the rise, the 3 tips above are a great place to begin.
For a more comprehensive strategy on increasing order values and sales, the team at Adonis Media can help! Contact us today with your unique needs and to create a strategy all your own!
By creating free shipping limits (and different shipping options for different spending limits) you can encourage customers to spend more on each order. When you bundle deals together, you give customers a reason to purchase additional products (even if they have no immediate need for the products at that time). When you offer discounts but only for a certain spending amount, you give customers a reason to spend more to save (all while making more money and protecting profits on your end).
What strategies have you used in the past to increase average order values? Let us know in the comments below!
Our mission is to create the most up to date, mobile friendly, visually dynamic website for your business to attract visitors and keep them. We build websites for businesses and organizations of all sizes. Tatem Web Design LLC has been in business in South Florida for 20+ years. We service all of South Florida including West Palm Beach, Stuart, Jupiter, Port Saint Lucie, Fort Pierce, Boca Raton, Vero Beach and any where in between.
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Expert Web Design and Local SEO Company in Stuart Florida. Tatem Web Design LLC. has been doing professional website design in Stuart Florida for the past 22+ years. We service Businesses and Organizations all over South Florida and can be reached at 772-224-8118 for a FREE Website Design, Shopify Website, Local SEO, or Social Media Marketing Proposal.
We love to speak directly to our Florida web design and SEO clients so why not just give us a call directly. We can speak about your website or SEO project in more detail? We promise to give you the full attention you and your website design project deserve. You can find us on Alignable, Yelp, Facebook, & Manta.