A few tips on how to make the most of your business online

I just wanted to share my Wednesday with you.

I went with a friend to the Web Fuelled Business bootcamp in Bristol. It was brilliant! It was run by Doug Richard, ex-dragon and generally very successful and funny guy - listen to him, I kept telling myself, he knows!! I wasn't sure what to expect but I came away with some practical, free things which I could do to give Just Mosaics it's best chance to grow as a business. I thought I'd share them with you.

Doug Richard in full flow

Firstly  getting noticed by Google is one of the most important things - you can't sell if you're not visible, How do you do that?
Well, make sure that you have every possible keyword imaginable linked to your website, so that you will catch any relevant searches. Google Keyword checker is your friend here. It takes ten minutes.

Nothing to do with Google - all to do with spring!

Next make sure that the home page of your website is precise, welcoming, clear about what you do and easy to navigate. It's the billboard for your business. You might have ten seconds of someone's attention - make the most of them!
He talked about including anxiety reducers - like a telephone number (reassuring that you are a real person who would love to talk to your potential  customers!), answering the questions -'what is my business all about?' 'what do I actually do and can offer to you?' The web browsers are strangers coming into your shop and you have to put them at their ease.

Photos taken by my dear friend Wendy..

Clear pointers for what you want them to do are also effective. Use a signature colour with clear positioning for what you actually want them to do - 'read more...' register now...' etc
Also, look again at how  your website comes up in the Google listings - is the description of what you offer clear and enticing? We had to write one sentence describing our business - and with some of the volunteers, Doug was still saying - 'yes, but what do you actually do?!'
Apparently we are a lazy nation of non- scrollers, so all your important stuff has to be at the top of the home page.

... I miss you, Wend!

Blogs are good!! All that new content regularly builds up in your site's memory bank so try and use as many key words as possible - mosaic, mosaic, mosaic - excuse me, done mine now!!
These are all on site tips, off site we must all try and get more good relevant links to our sites, which will raise its profile in the mystery that is Google!
And then the social networking revolution! He reckons we shouldn't spend more than three hours on it a week -that Twitter, Facebook etc are a tool for networking through which you might do business, or might not.  What you will do is interact, inform, learn, recommend, amuse, rant and so on - a bit like a good chat in the old days! That made alot of sense to me, and sort of put my mind at rest a bit, that I didn't need to be trying to do everything all the time, and end up doing nothing properly!

We covered loads of other things, but these are the ones that stuck in my mind writing this for you. I hope it's been useful - meet you on Google page 1!

You got any useful tips?

Felicity