The most often types of questions I am asked are as a website company:

Why isn’t my website ranking for my business? Why spend all that money? It’s never provided the leads for me. I have great products and services, no one finds me.

And I am afraid I am not surprised, as most business websites don’t get any traffic because of some very key elements a business owner forgets to look after.   So my conversation turns to ask the business owner to consider the idea that their website is like a garden and like a garden it needs attending too in these key elements. That has presupposed the website has already included the key content elements in what makes a good website in the first place. So why is gardening good for your website? To find out more about how to look after your garden/website read on

Probably didn’t even think it about it and up until now you didn’t have to worry. The only real hold over a website for consumers was the distance selling legislation.

However, from 1^st March 2011 all websites will fall under the codes of practice for advertising. Thus your website can be reported as inappropriate, misleading or giving unsubstantiated claims, or falling foul of the advertising standards around children, weight loss or distance selling.

Why haven’t your heard about this? Some of you may well have found out about this through casual conversations with other businesses, some Professional Organisations such as the Osteopath and Acupuncture bodies have told their members, but on the whole small businesses I have spoken too, have not heard about this new requirement.

I would add there is no need to panic, but you might want to read on if interested

If your website is the first true contact you make with a prospective customer, either by an on-line search or a referral suggesting a look at your website – how do you build a relationship without being face to face?

Building relationships with your website

Successful businesses who know how to build relationships with customers do so by adding value to what they can offer – for instance when you enter B&Q ever had a basket or an offer handed to you by someone? It’s the start of building a relationship.

So what does a website have to do?

This article is for those small businesses who have set up a website and wondered why they bothered.

Website, Marketing, Internet, Money, Customers

Why did you set one up? Can you remember why you set one up? Was it because someone told you, “you have to”?  But now you wonder why you bothered as it doesn’t work, it costs a fortune to change, it takes weeks to change, no-one contacts you via it. Now you’re thinking  I should get rid of it, the renewal date is coming up I can save myself some money, I can do some other advertising, it makes sense.

So what should the reasons be to set up a website? I look at 10 reasons why you need one continue to read the 10 reasons

Well some would argue that the advertisers are the ones who decide how we should advertise. However there is a large and powerful amount of evidence that the Internet has a changed advertising. As a result as small business owners we need to understand this just as we had to with the traditional ways of advertising.

OK depending on your business the recognised and usual means of advertising are snail mail, radio, TV, press and sponsorship. For small businesses the likelihood is that we use mail and press, possible emails, but the others were way out of our marketing budget. So what is advertising but a means of communication, and the biggest tool now used by nearly 73% of the UK to communicate is read on to find out

It’s simple – you do!

"Simples?"

Whether you are a business owner or a customer you are the one who makes it good.  Let me explain.

In a good website the business owner has to make sure the basics are right and if done correctly, then many customers will also make the site good because they visit and stay on your site – why? Because you offer them what they are looking for. As Alexandr the meerkat says – “Simples?”

So why doesn’t this happen? The problem lies with find out where the problem lies

Twitter is officially now the first of our human social networks to dominate the wider universe! Astronaut, Douglas Wheelock, better known as his pseudonym @Astro_Wheels, has been tweeting since the 22nd of September, when he assumed command of the International Space Station. Uploading photo’s he has taken several times a day to twitpic, in 170 photo’s, Astro has currently accumulated almost 80,000 followers and is gaining over 5,000 a day!

What has this got to do with you? Apart from getting to see some stunning photos, there are lots of things we can learn from twitter expert and rocket scientist Doug (well, strictly speaking, aerospace engineer!). Keep reading for online strategy tips that are out of this world…

I was advising 3 potential clients this week about how keywords and search engines work. Working out what their clients might be searching for and, in turn, which keywords to add to their content! All were delighted with the insight and felt they are now more confident about websites and how they can tap into this knowledge.

I use a range of tools to help work out possible keywords, so if you are struggling and need some inspiration then here are a few…

Find out the tools of the trade

Here at It’seeze Reading, nothing makes us happier than when our customers are happy. It’s showing off a little, but here is a video of Chris Morriss, a Reading Osteopath saying good things about us!

Chris Morriss, Osteopath - www.chrismorriss.co.uk

or to see more websites it’seeze Reading has made, click here.

Is your company spending too much on marketing? Still feel that you need to spend more to see the results you want? Maybe the marketing you are choosing is ineffective?

Between the time you got up this morning and when you will fall asleep tonight, you will have been exposed to hundreds of adverts. Estimates vary, but somewhere between 2000 and 5000 Go on, Keep on reading!..