Tips, Advice & insight
Practical website and marketing advice that actually works, backed by real-world insights and clear, proven strategies to help your business perform better online and grow.
Reviews help potential customers and search engines to trust your business’s services and products. There are many ways and places to get reviews. You can ask or send a link by email or text and some online apps can even handle the whole process for you. In this post, we’ll discuss different ways that you…
1. Google will crawl your website and index the content We have submitted your website’s URL (domain name) to Google Search. Sitemaps have also been provided to better help Google understand the extend of your content. If your domain is new, it can take 2-3 weeks or longer for Google to initially list your website…
There are usually 4 businesses shown in the map listings area on a search results page. See the description below for an overview of the whole Google Search Results page. What you can and can’t have an effect on Just like Google’s general website search results, the map area uses an algorithm to determine the…
Phishing is a type of spam content that pretends to be from a legitimate source. Normally the content tries to spoof a popular brand or a brand that you’ve purchased products from online. they cast a wide net… …hoping for a few victims out of thousands or even millions of emails sent. These attacks have…
When deciding on your marketing budget and where to put the focus, consider the following statistics from Search Engine Land, the online authority for SEO information. Average Conversion Rates by Channel 5% Organic Search 4% Email Marketing 4% Paid Search 4% Social Media Businesses receive and average of 5 Clicks from Organic Search vs 1…
MailPoet provides better tools and integration with WordPress websites than other E-newsletter programs like MailChimp. We’re always on the lookout for better solutions and MailPoet is the best thing since MailChimp! With more tools and a better interface for designing newsletters, MailPoet beats the competition hands down. MORE INFORMATION Expand MailPoet also offers a…
What is a website builder, should you use one and if so, what one should you use? This article will attempt to answer those questions. While we are biased towards custom WordPress websites, we understand that not everyone can afford to go that route. This doesn’t mean that you can’t still have a decent website…
Facebook offers an inexpensive way to advertise to a large audience. If you’ve already created a Business Facebook Page, it’ll be easy for you to get started. You can BOOST your posts for as little as $15. Use the instructions below to create an effective POST. We’ll then walk you through how to BOOST your…
We’ve curated some of our best tips and tricks to help you get the most out of your website and take advantage of social media networks to grow your customer base. Marketing is all about staying top of mind until a potential client is ready to make a decision. It’s also an important part of…
If your business has been affected by the Coronavirus ask what more your website can do for you. There are numerous ways that your WordPress website can help you and your clients during this pandemic. Whether it’s to just stay connected or to provide online services your website can do more. Take a look at…
There are normally 2 – 4 distinct spaces on a Google search results page. 1 Paid Google Ads At the top are paid Google ads. These are pay per click (PPC) ads that cost anywhere from a few cents per click to several dollars. Learn more 2 Business Identity On the right you may see a…
Facebook is a great place to connect with customers. Facebook has some great tools to promote your business for no charge, and if you decide to advertise on Facebook, they offer some affordable options. How Facebook for Business works Personal Profile/ Account You must have a Personal Facebook Account to create a Business Page. Your…
If you’ve claimed your Google My Business listing we can connect it to your Google Analytics account so you can see all your Google business information from one place. This form is used to connect your business gmail account with the Google Analytics account that we’ve set up for you. Your Google Analytics account is…
Organize and plan your online campaigns in advance. WEBSITE / BLOG It all starts with a well written and engaging article. Include photos, video etc. E NEWSLETTER Tell your contact list about your new article, share a link, excerpt, current sales, projects and events. Include social media links. FACEBOOK Share an excerpt and photo from…
A “Gif” is a file format, similar to a jpeg, png or pdf, but like all file types, they have a specialty. Gif files support multiple frames, like a video, they are also “rasterized” content meaning they rely on pixels, also like a video file. But Gif’s also support transparent pixels. This is what makes…
How to use social media to market your business Expand Use networks like Instagram, Facebook and YouTube as part of an organized marketing plan that includes your website and e-newsletters. Facebook MailChimp Visit our Blog to learn more Instagram is the most popular way to share photos. Create an Instagram…
Add text, your logo and other elements to images for posting on Social Media. OVER App Download from the App Store Everything shown here can be done with the FREE version of the app. More features are available with in app purchases. CREATE A POST USING AN IMAGE OR VIDEO FROM YOUR DEVICE PHOTOS Open…
In 2014 Canada implemented Anti-Spam laws to protect Canadians from electronic spam. Click here to read the complete legislation. Email marketing is so widely used because it’s effective. Ensuring that your marketing is in compliance is easy when you use a email marketing program. There are many to choose from and most are free or…
If you’ve ever wondered what the difference is between a PDF and a PNG or a JPG and an EPS? Read on to find out all you need to know about standard graphic files types and their uses. File Type Software Required Recommended Uses Vector (Scalable) Rasterized .pdf Adobe Acrobat Reader most popular file type…
shipping options Free Shipping Create an incentive by offering free shipping for orders over a certain dollar value. Easy setup. Flat Shipping An easy way to recover some shipping costs. Easy setup but inflexible. Local Pickup A great way for locals to shop online Using specific postal codes we can offer this method to only…
payment options Online Payments Credit card payments Paypal, Stripe, Square, Moneris etc Transaction fees vary drastically and can be as high as 3% and 30 cents per transaction. Some companies may offer lower rates but have higher fees. Off-site Payments Cheque Cash E-transfer account setup You can use the links below to set up your…
Your WordPress website is the perfect platform from which to launch all your marketing. Follow our step by step online marketing guide below. You’ll see results from minimal effort and cost. This is our online marketing Golden Standard for providing the ultimate user engagement. 1. What you need to get started: A Blog section on…
what is a blog? A Blog in it’s simplest form is just a group of posts or articles. Posts differ from Pages in that they have an inherit structure and functionality to them. what are categories? Posts are organized into Categories. By default your website comes with at least one category called Uncategorized. Unless you…
In 2018 many website browsers started showing the words “Not Secure” in the address bar next to website addresses that aren’t secured using an SSL License. What is an SSL License? An SSL License provides an extra layer of security and privacy for your website and users of your website. The SSL certificate encrypts the…
There are endless options for adding extra functionality to your website’s Blog. Whether you have just one category called “Blog” or a series of sub-categories, offering an easy way to keep users engaged is the goal. Providing a structured Blog is the most important part of setting up for success. Consider how your categories and…
What is a Privacy Policy, Do I Need One and Why? A privacy policy is a statement or a legal document (in privacy law) that discloses some or all of the ways a company (website) gathers, uses, discloses, and manages a customer or users’s data. LEARN MORE Wikipedia GDPR Canadian Lawyer Magazine Article CBC Article…
The Anatomy of a Google Search Results Page Expand There are normally 2 – 4 distinct spaces on a Google search results page. Paid Google Ads. At the top are paid Google ads. These are pay per click (PPC) ads that cost anywhere from a few cents per click to several dollars. Business Identity.…
Having a properly built website is just the start. If your website is new or your online presence wasn’t well established before launching a new website, you’ll need to be a little patient. The best thing you can do during this time is keep adding more content to your website. You can also get the word…
On northern Vancouver Island and other rural towns across Canada it can be hard to locate specific goods and services. It’s the perfect atmosphere to generate sales for your Campbell River, Courtenay or Comox Valley business. Every business needs a website and every location should have a convenient online alternative for their customers. It’s never…
WordPress enjoys being most popular Content Management System…for the most part. Many unsavory people have also taken note. WordPress out of the box is not all that secure and hackers take advantage of “do it yourself-ers” who may not understand the basics of WordPress website security and actually how easy it is to setup. We recommend…
A responsive website is one that adapts the content styling based on the users device, usually the screen size. With the popularity of mobile devices and users accessing the internet on a huge variety of platforms and screen sizes your website needs to respond. No more pinching and zooming or scrolling around and trying to use…
The price range to have a website built is just like anything else and you get what you pay for. Even the old adage “to poor to be cheap” applies. What’s the point of a poorly worded and unattractive website? It can cause you to loose trust with potential clients by being so…broken, un-usable and just…
Appearance matters…a lot. Especially in business, your image says a great deal about the quality of your services. Professional marketing materials such as a logo, business cards and a website help establish your business’ credibility. Potential customers need to trust your company to provide high quality products and services. Campbell River, Courtenay and northern Vancouver…
You’ve got great content, images and a nicely designed website, now what? If your website doesn’t rank on page 1 or 2 or even 3 in the Google Search Results, no one will find it. As I mentioned in my last post, the holistic approach to SEO involves digging in and providing your potential users…
No one can make this type of guarantee first of all, so that should make you very suspicious. If your business manufactures running shoes are they guaranteeing that your website site will outrank Nike? Not likely, they don’t even know what products or services you provide because chances are they haven’t even visited your website.…
Software that allows manipulation of website content (text, phones etc.) in an easy to use interface. This process allows our clients to access the “back-end” of their website to make changes to content such as add images and text, add new products and services, share videos and downloadable files and much more. We build custom…
A process that helps increase the visibility of a website through keyword searches on search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo and more. What factors determine a websites position on the search engine results page? (SERP) There are a lot! Proper search engine optimization starts at the beginning stages of a websites development. Planning for high value keywords,…