Beautiful, affordable websites & SEO for
small businesses

When starting out in business, some people will consider using a website builder to produce a website. Now this certainly isn’t a post bashing website builders as there is no denying that they provide a platform to put together a website quickly and cheaply. With funds being tight when starting a new business, it is clear why this would be a viable option.

And indeed if you’ve got the time and are technical enough to work your way around a computer, why wouldn’t you save yourself hundreds of pounds on doing it yourself?

As with doing anything yourself, it can indeed be highly satisfying to know you’ve not only saved yourself a ton of money but also achieved something in the process. But there’s a very good chance a DIY job will never be as good as if a professional had done it. And whilst that might be fine for some jobs, a website should probably not be one of them.

Let’s not forget that a website is an online representation of your business - it’s probably the first impression someone will have of your business. So, shouldn’t it therefore be professional and well-built? And what about the site being found in the first instance? Isn’t this something that you would want to guarantee? Indeed, having a good website design should never be under estimated in terms of the value it can bring to your business. 

When you use a professional to do a job, whether it be a web developer or any other trade, you’re not only paying for their skills, but also their experience - and this is often something no amount of online tutorials can make up for. 

So, before you decide to go down the route of using the many well-marketed website builders that are currently available, just consider whether this is actually the right decision for the online representation of your business that could ultimately determine just how successful your site is in generating sales.

If you have ever asked around on Facebook for recommendations regarding companies who provide website design and development, you have probably been bombarded with messages from every Tom, Dick and Harry claiming to provide a massively cheap website with a quick turnaround and all sorts of extras ‘included’ in the price (website hosting, domain registration and unlimited edits).

Indeed, it can very tempting to jump on board with one of these enticing offers, especially if you’re going to get a full blown website with all the bells and whistles for just a few hundred pounds.  You might even feel a sense of relief that you did not get ripped off by that local company who quoted you double the price and then wanted you to pay for a domain name too!

Before jumping on board with the cheapest quote you receive, however, ask yourself why it is so cheap. Unfortunately, as with most things in life, you generally get what you pay for and this is also true when it comes to websites. The truth is that anyone can claim to be able to build a simple website and what you often find is that those offering the cheapest deals are either outsourcing the work to countries like India where labour is much cheaper or are simply using the same template that has been used for the 100 other sites they’ve build for clients. Effectively, it is all about quantity, with little thought given to quality. Suffice to say, the result will often be one that leads you feeling a little cheated, even if you did only pay a few hundred pounds. And the disappointment most often does not end there - after weeks of having your new website you realise that your site is barely even ranking on search engines, which means you are unlikely to generate any meaningful traffic.

You see for a website to work well in generating leads it needs to stand out and present your company in the best possible way. It should be professional, dynamic, innovative, interesting and above all user friendly - in essence, it should captivate the user. Think of it like a row of brand-new houses built in the standard redbrick. If someone then comes along and builds a beautifully designed limestone property at the end of the row, is almost certainly going to stand out for all the right reasons. It should also be remembered that a well-built site should rank more highly on search engines and work better across all devices.

So, before choosing a company to build your new site, make sure you do your research - as a bare minimum, be sure to visit their website and look for examples of previous work. Check to see where they are based and how easy it is to get in contact with them. If there is no contact number provided, you are at the mercy of emails, which can take days to get a response to.

If you are still unsure, ask to talk to some directly on the phone as this can often give you a much better impression of the company and gives you the opportunity to ask as many questions as you like.

If you have had your website for several years now you may be thinking whether it is worth updating it.

Web design has moved on massively over recent years and a modern web site offers many advantages over one built several years ago.

Many people now browse the Internet on mobile and tablet devices. This has led to a trend towards responsive websites that perfectly adapt to fit the size of screen they are viewed on. This offers a better viewing experience for the end user as it means they do not need to zoom in and scroll horizontally to view websites on a smaller device. Resize any modern website in your browser window and you should see the website layout change to ensure the contents fit the screen.

Furthermore, modern web design tends to make use of the full width of the screen, creating a sense of space and flow – indeed it seems that minimalism is now very much in, with cluttered sites frowned upon. Bold, bright, saturated colours are also very much in, which help your brand stand out from the soft neutrals that many companies have chosen over past years.

Websites are also now more interactive, with stylish animations and effects featuring predominately. This creates a more exciting user experience and provides flexibility over conveying information. After all, browsing a website should be something you enjoy, and it is important to stand out against competitors by offering something that little bit different.

Finally, it is only right to mention website security, which is something taken much more seriously in modern websites. Hacking is now a far greater threat than in past times and unfortunately many older websites (or those without the appropriate security procedures in place) are compromised all the time. This does not necessarily mean that data is stolen. Most website security breaches are attempting to use your server as an email relay for spam, or to set up a temporary web server, normally to serve files of an illegal nature. Modern web technologies offer much greater security benefits and SSL (the padlock displayed next to the website address to denote it is secure) is now standard practice.

Suffice to say, if your site is more than three years old it is certainly worth considering an update to ensure your site remains secure, current and on trend.

You’ve probably heard the term SEO mentioned a few times - this is collectively a term for the optimisation of a website so that it has more visibility on search engines. More specifically, It covers a multitude of on-site and off-site techniques that when combined all contribute towards improving the general organic ranking of a site on Google and other search engines for related keywords.

When searching for a product or service online, the majority of people will automatically use Google or another search engine. For many of us, it’s just part of our natural online routine.

According to a recent study, the top listing in Google’s organic search results receives 33 percent of the traffic, compared to 18 percent for the second position, and the traffic only degrades from there.

Realistically, if you’re not listed within the top five results on the first page of Google, you’ve got very little chance of generating traffic organically.

Great SEO is therefore paramount in achieving success through organic methods. However, it’s not an easy thing to get right and takes a lot of time, effort and persistence - for larger sites, it can almost be a full-time job.

Arguably, the most important aspect of SEO is making sure content is fresh and unique, but that's just part of the SEO journey. Indeed, SEO covers content, performance, back-links, internal links, blog posts, social media, article submissions, video content and much more. More technically, it is about ensuring search engine complex algorithms are adhered to. More simplistically speaking, it’s all about providing as much content (whether on-site or off-site) as possible to allow search engines to accurately match the products/services offered by your site with relatable keywords entered on search engines. Of course the process of SEO will be timelier for more competitive products and services, rather than those that are more niche.

Get SEO right and the rewards could be huge - this is why you should always budget for regular SEO work when launching a new website. Type in Web Design Bourne or Web Design Spalding and you should see our site appear near the top of the search engine listings.

Most of us have heard about Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook when it comes to social media. Indeed, these platforms provide a great way of promoting your business to a group of loyal followers, helping to generate valued leads by pushing content out to those who are most interested. Build up a large enough following and you might even generate enough business from these platforms alone. 

But now there’s a new kid on the block (well, a kid who’s recently started to get noticed more!). Let us introduce you to TikTok! It’s best described as a video-sharing social networking platform that allows anyone to upload video content for browsing by other members. Browse through TikTok and you will be forgiven for thinking that’s it’s just a bunch of teenagers performing dance routines and funny stretches of shows by-gone. Dig a little deeper though and TikTok is much more than this - it’s educational and can help raise awareness of important issues amongst young people, including homophobia, bullying, racism and sexism. More importantly for businesses, it’s a fantastic way of getting your products/services noticed by a much younger audience than what might be available via other social media outlets. People also love to watch videos - let’s face it, they’re a lot more interesting then reading words on a screen or seeing a pretty picture. A video can help engage the viewer a lot more by telling a story and getting your message across in a more dynamic manner. 

Indeed, when thinking about using social media to promote your business, TikTok should always be given strong consideration. Of course, creating a catchy, dynamic, and professional video is a pre-requisite, but there are many companies out there who can do this sort of thing for you (including us!). 

We were a little cautious about using TikTok ourselves at first, having not really considered this avenue of advertising before - but we thought we’d create a video, upload and see what came of it. To our surprise, the video received 100s of views after just a few days, which resulted in more traffic to our website. Great result all round. 

If you have ever read up on SEO practices, you have probably seen the phase ‘Content is King’ quite a few times. Indeed, content is now considered one of the most important aspects of SEO. And why would not it be… after all, the content of your website is really all a search engine and indeed a potential customer has to go on when it comes to establishing an initial understanding of your business.

It is simply not enough, however, to provide a fleeting description of your business using some content that has been ‘borrowed’ from a similar website and revised to suit. Content should be useful and informative, credible, unique, and high quality. Furthermore, content needs to be fresh and up to date. Indeed, it is always worth investing some time on creating engaging content for your website that goes above and beyond to provide highly informative content, containing reference to your most important key phases. That does not necessarily mean writing an essay, people generally do not have the time or concentration to read through reams of text, but it does mean focusing on the quality and presentation of the content. It is often a good idea to break down content into manageable chunks of information that is easier to digest. A keyword-rich subheading should also be used for each content block to effectively summarise the purpose of the content – this is not only great for the general presentation of the content but also for search engines who love nicely formatted content.

Unfortunately, the hard work does not end once the website goes live as that fresh, unique content you started with will start to become stale over-time and will no longer be given the kudos it once was in search engines. For this reason, it is important to update content on a regular basis as this will demonstrate to search engines that your website has fresh content, giving your site a boost in the rankings. A blog is a great way of creating unique, engaging content that is updated on a regular basis and should certainly be something you consider including on your site, if you have the time to devote to keeping it updated.

Keeping on top of website content can be a hugely challenging and timely process but get it right and it should produce dividends when it comes to maintaining a high ranking on search engines.

There is no denying that Facebook is a great communication tool for individuals to keep in touch with friends and family using a variety of communication channels, including posting, messaging, audio calls and video calls. Furthermore, it provides all this communication free of charge and anyone with a basic knowledge of the Internet should have no problems figuring out how to do it. 

Along with communicating with friends and family, Facebook also provides a great platform for businesses looking to engage with potential customers. Many businesses opt to have a Facebook business page to help promote their services/products through this social media giant. By liking a business page people can see posts made by a business and find out more about them by reviewing photos and content. A Facebook business page is also great for directing people to a website or other social media accounts. Indeed, you may well be wondering why a business even needs a website if they have a strong Facebook presence, especially as many businesses will report getting customers from Facebook and rejoicing in the fact that they have not had to pay a penny. 

Facebook is certainly an important part of successfully promoting a business and should never be overlooked. However, it should be incorporated as part of an overall marketing strategy and not solely relied on. There are a few important reasons for this.

First and foremost, not everyone is on Facebook. Currently it is reported that around two-thirds of adults online have a Facebook account. That does mean, however, that there are one third that aren’t - and then there’s those that have a Facebook account but rarely use it or don’t actually use it all. So, that is potentially quite a large pool of people that a business is missing out on by only focusing on having a Facebook presence. Furthermore, even if someone is on Facebook and interested in the services/products offered by a business, they still must be able to find the business on Facebook and that is not always easy if they aren’t aware of the name of the business. Many businesses rely on posting on local business groups to get noticed but this often requires posting regularly to have the greatest chance of getting seen by people looking for those services/products at that time.

Secondly, Facebook messages aren’t always seen for a number of reasons. Even though a Facebook business page is linked to a personal account, seeing messages requires a business to review their business page separately to see messages sent via their business page. With a busy schedule, this process can often be overlooked. Furthermore, if a business messages someone on they are not friends with on Facebook (and who hasn’t messaged them first), their message will be sent as a message request and therefore the recipient must review their message requests in order to see this. Not everyone is aware of the message request feature and therefore may miss messages because of this. 

Finally, Facebook does not offer the level of detail about a business as a website and therefore may not always provide enough of a hook to get a customer to engage. By having a professional website design, this offers an opportunity for a professional online representation of a business, whereas Facebook offers more of a snapshot into a business. Some people simply may not feel comfortable engaging with a business they know little about. 

You’ve probably heard the term ‘QR code’ quite a bit recently, but what is one and how can it benefit your business?

A QR code can be easily identified by a pixelated code, shaped in a square. Put simply, a QR code is a bit like a barcode that stores information, which when scanned using a digital device can then link directly to a digital source (usually a webpage or app) that will allow you to find out further information, make a booking, access discounts, download apps and much more.

A QR code can actually be a fantastic way of generating traffic to a website as it can provide access to discounts and promotions on a site that are only accessible when a QR code is scanned. The website page containing this information will otherwise be hidden to the general public. This allows for printed materials or apps to provide a direct link to a website - of course, the QR code doesn’t have to provide access to promotional material, however, it could simply act as link to a page containing further information about a product or service, or indeed a business in general.

If you think this could benefit your business, we have the skills needed to generate a QR code (to provide access to a webpage) and provide this to you to use in any way you see fit. Contact us at enquiries@mk-web.co.uk for more information.

Many of us will have heard of the term blogging or blogger, but what is a blog? Quite simply, a blog is an online diary or journal located on a website, often containing written articles that relate to the products or services a business provides, presented in reverse chronological order.

But is a blog really that important on a website? Well, actually – yes, it’s very important! But not so much from a website design point-of-view. Firstly, a blog is a great way to help a business build trust with potential customers and this could lead to more sales – a blog can help educate potential customers about services and products, therefore giving them the extra push they need to comfortably proceed with a purchase.

The main benefit of a blog, however, is to increase visibility on search engines (a process known as SEO - see our SEO in Bourne page). Put simply, the more blog content you create, the more opportunities you'll have to show up in search engines and drive organic traffic to your website. This is because search engines love unique, fresh, and well-written content and a blog is a great way of delivering this. It must be emphasised, however, that blog content should not be plagiarised as duplicated content is not taken too positively by search engines. There is no easy option in this respect – content should always be written from scratch, containing keyword-friendly terms and internal/external links were appropriate. Content should be kept relevant to the title of the article and care should be taken to ensure spelling and grammar are correct.

Not only does a blog provide search engines with the fresh content they yearn for, each new blog post is also one more indexed page on your website, which means one more opportunity for a website to show up on the search engine results and drive traffic to this. Furthermore, well-written blog posts encourage sharing across social media – another opportunity to drive traffic.

When you search for something on Google you will see related websites that are listed displaying a title and description. This information is most often extracted from what is called metadata. Metadata is quite simply a title and description provided in the background of the site - it's information that cannot be seen by public on the front end of the site but can be seen by search engines.

This metadata is therefore very important for ensuring a website is optimised for search engines as it effectively tells the search engines about the content of each page of the site as well as providing the user with a suitable title and description within the search results. It can be the difference between someone clicking on your website in the search results or not.

What's frustrating is that any changes to this metadata can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to be indexed and then shown by search engines. There are ways to speed up this process (requesting a manual reindexing and ensuring the site has some good quality backlinks are two ways of doing this), however, it's always a case of being patient as you're very much at the mercy of search engines.

Metadata can have an impact of how well your site is ranked for certain keywords, so once a site is reindexed you may also find that its position in the search results changes (and not always for the better!).

It should also be noted that other changes that involve optimising a website for search engines may also take up to several weeks to be picked up by search engines. 

What this all means is that any optimising of a website won't have an affect straight away - patient is certainly a virtue when it comes to SEO! 

If you're looking to boost your online presence and attract more visitors to your website, starting a blog can be an effective strategy. Here are some benefits of having a website blog:

1. Increased website traffic: A blog can help drive more traffic to your website by providing fresh and engaging content that people are interested in reading and sharing. This can lead to more visibility on search engines, as well as more referrals from social media and other websites.

2. Improved search engine rankings (see Search Engine Optimisation): Search engines like Google love fresh, relevant content, and regularly updated blog posts can help improve your search engine rankings. By targeting specific keywords and topics related to your business, you can attract more organic search traffic to your site.

3. Establishing thought leadership: By sharing your knowledge and expertise through blog posts, you can position yourself as a thought leader in your industry. This can help build trust with your audience and establish your business as a go-to resource for information and insights.

4. Building a community: A blog can help you build a community around your brand by encouraging discussion and engagement with your readers. By responding to comments and encouraging social sharing, you can foster a sense of connection and loyalty among your audience.

5. Cost-effective marketing: Compared to other forms of advertising and marketing, starting a blog is relatively inexpensive. With a little time and effort, you can create valuable content that attracts new visitors and builds your brand.

In conclusion, a website blog is a valuable tool for any business looking to improve its online presence and attract more visitors to its website. By providing fresh, engaging content, establishing thought leadership, and building a community around your brand, you can position yourself for long-term success in today's digital landscape.

When someone visits your site and it loads slowly or throws an error, that moment shapes their opinion instantly. People tend to associate a slow or broken site with unprofessionalism or lack of reliability. Even if your product or service is strong, the experience suggests otherwise.

A poor performing website may also hinder search visibility as search engines like Google factor site speed and reliability into rankings. 

It's therefore very important to address any website glitches or performance issues quickly.

Got a website issue that needs fixing or a slow performing site that needs optimising? Contact us today to find out how we can help?