Webadoodle

Webadoodle Web design Chester. Fresh, modern websites to help service-based small businesses grow. Wix websites to run yourself Based in Chester, Cheshire

02/12/2024

Set up automated responses on your web forms.

There's nothing more annoying than filling in a form on a website, pressing submit and... nothing happens.

So now you're thinking "Did that go through? Will I get a response, or has it not worked?"

So you fill in again, and the same thing happens, and now you're really confused.

To save your website visitors from this misery, ensure you have automatic responses set up so that when somebody fills in your enquiry form, they are reassured that the form has gone through and that they will received a response.

27/11/2024

Website tips for small businesses no. 29

Try using ChatGPT to do keyword research for your website.

Detail in the video.




30/10/2024

Website tips for small businesses no. 26
How to choose a good domain name
Probably the best thing to do is to use your company name unless there's a good reason not to. Think what someone would assume your domain name would be and go with that!
The main thing is to keep it memorable, simple and easy to spell.

Make sure that you use standard UK spellings. Don't do anything that's too crazeee.
Don't make it too long, don't make it too complicated for example with lots of underscores.
Think about how people are likely to write it down.
A good test is to imagine yourself saying it to somebody over the phone. If you've got to explain it and spell it , it probably isn't going to work all that well. Whereas, if it's easy to spell, it's memorable and it's what people expect, it probably will work quite well.
Generally speaking, for UK based companies, you'd want to go with.co.uk although many British companies do favour .com. If you wish to, you could always register both and just point one to the other.
If you know a friendly website designer then please ask them for their advice, because they're probably going to be able to give you some real help with this.
There you have it. My tips on how to choose a good domain.
Have you spotted any particularly good or bad domain names? My own bugbear is why is B&Q's domain name DIY.com?
More detail in the video.




..........................................
Hi! I'm Zena from Webadoodle
I create websites to help service-based small businesses grow. Making it easy for you to make the right impression & be found online.
Fresh and modern websites for SMEs, sole traders & startups.
Wix websites you can run yourself.
Website audits with practical bespoke tips so you can transform your own website.
Power hours - pick my brains!........................................

I'm posting tips like this every Wednesday. If you are finding them useful then maybe you'd benefit from one of my website design audits. I'll look at your website and give you clear, specific and actionable tips on how you can transform your website yourself.

https://www.webadoodle.co.uk/website-design-audits

23/10/2024

Website tips for small businesses no. 25

Check you have backups and you know how to access them.

I know it sounds boring but think how you'd feel if something went horribly wrong with your website. A few minutes now could save you a lot of heartache later.

If you have a cloud based service, it's quite likely that your website is being backed up regularly. But it might not be the case, so you need to double check with your provider.

And secondly, check how you would actually access those backups. Do you know how to restore to an earlier version of your website?

I'll give you an example. I do all my websites on Wix, and one of the reasons I chose Wix is because it's very robust and they do regular, automatic backups. They also provide a very easy way to roll back to earlier versions of the website. So, every time I publish a website or make major changes, it will save a version, and I can easily roll back to whichever version I prefer at any time.

Many hosting services offer something quite similar. But it's essential that you check now to make sure that is the case and that you know how to access those backups. You never know when you might make a real mess of things. Or you you might get hacked. So check it now for your peace of mind.

Do it now! Yes, I'm looking at you! 😂

More detail in the video.






..........................................

Hi! I'm Zena from Webadoodle

I create websites to help service-based small businesses grow. Making it easy for you to make the right impression & be found online.

Fresh and modern websites for SMEs, sole traders & startups.

Wix websites you can run yourself.

Website audits with practical bespoke tips so you can transform your own website.

Power hours - pick my brains!

16/10/2024

Website tips for small businesses no. 24

Embrace white space

In today's video, you'll notice I'm wearing white top. I've even got a white wall behind me. That's because I want to drive home the importance of white space on your website.

White space isn't anything complicated. It just means blank space around your text and your images to allow the design to "breathe".

This means don't try and cram everything in.

Don't put as many words as far across the web page as you can.

Don't insist on filling every bit of space

Filling all the space makes your website look cluttered, it makes it hard to read and it makes it look a bit cheap!

Instead, make sure you have some space around everything.

For example, if you have a got a block of text, leave some space around it. It'll make that text stand out much more and it'll make it much easier to read.

Confusingly, white space doesn't have to be white. It can be any color. It just means blank, unfilled space, and it's one of your best friends in making your website usable and looking classy.

Let me give you a quick example. Picture yourself walking into a shop and there are one or two beautifully presented items with lots of space around them. Doesn't that look a lot better that when you walk into a shop and everything's crammed in together?

White space is your friend. It's a simple way to allow your design, your words your messaging and your images stand out.

More detail in the video.






..........................................

Hi! I'm Zena from Webadoodle

I create websites to help service-based small businesses grow. Making it easy for you to make the right impression & be found online.

Fresh and modern websites for SMEs, sole traders & startups.

Wix websites you can run yourself.

Website audits with practical bespoke tips so you can transform your own website.

Power hours - pick my brains!

08/10/2024

Website tips for small businesses no. 23

Make sure your Call to Action (CTA) is easy to find by keeping the design and position consistent.

Last week, we talked about the importance of having consistency in the visual elements on your website. I want to expand on that today by talking about consistency in the visual appearance and also the location of the calls to action on your site.

Two or three months ago, we talked about calls to action. You can have a look back at that video if you'd like some advice on what your call to action should be. But briefly, your call to action is what you want the visitor to do. So it might be "Call me!", "Book an appointment", "Buy now!". It normally takes the form of a button.

Ideally your CTA button should be in a contrasting colour to everything else on your website, so that it really stands out and it's easy for your visitor to find. It should have a consistent design. So if you have used a rounded button with a certain font on the homepage, keep it looking like that on the other site pages. Ideally keep the wording consistent too, unless there's a good reason not to.

The point is that you're trying to teach your visitor to recognize the call to action button, so that when they are ready to click on it, it's easy for them to find.

For that very same reason, you want to be consistent and logical in where you locate that button.

Normally, you would have that call to action button at the very top of the page in the header and at the very bottom of the page, so that when people scroll to the bottom page, they know where to go next. If it's a very long page, you might also want to judiciously dot it throughout the page.

The main takeaway here is be consistent. Make it easy for the visitor to find both by how it looks and where they're going to find it.

This will make your website a lot easier to navigate so it will be easier for the client to take the action that you want them to take when they are ready to take it.

More detail in the video.










..........................................

Hi! I'm Zena from Webadoodle

I create websites to help service-based small businesses grow. Making it easy for you to make the right impression & be found online.

Fresh and modern websites for SMEs, sole traders & startups.

Wix websites you can run yourself.

Website audits with practical bespoke tips so you can transform your own website.

Power hours - pick my brains!

02/10/2024

Website tips for small businesses no. 22

Be consistent with the visual elements on your website.

Choose a nice, harmonious color palette and use it consistently throughout your website. You may pick a contrasting color for your call to action, for example, but in general stick to a limited palette and use it consistently through the site. This will give a feeling of harmony and unity.

Similarly, choose one or two fonts and use those in just one or two colors consistently throughout your website. It will look much more professional.

If you use any design elements, for example a motif or a little cartoon that forms part of your brand, use it systematically and consistently throughout your website. Again, it will give a sense of harmony. It will be pleasing to the eye and therefore more professional. It's a cheat's way of adding a bit of class to your website.

Would you like another cheat's tip? Why not design a few repeatable blocks? Take a designed block that you really happy with, then copy and paste it in different parts of your site. Simply change some of the text and swap out the photo, but keep a consistent layout.

Consistency looks professional, but don't over do it. Make sure that your pages don't all look the same as each other. They should look like they're part of a harmonious whole. But it should be obvious, when you move from one page to another, that something has changed so the visitor knows they have successfully reached a new page.

Have a look on your website. Have you been consistent? Or does it chop and change a lot? Make it consistent. It'll really help the professional appearance of your website.

More detail in the video.






..........................................

Hi! I'm Zena from Webadoodle

I create websites to help service-based small businesses grow. Making it easy for you to make the right impression & be found online.

Fresh and modern websites for SMEs, sole traders & startups.

Wix websites you can run yourself.

Website audits with practical bespoke tips so you can transform your own website.

Power hours - pick my brains!

25/09/2024

Website tips for small businesses no. 21

Make your website about your client not about you!

One of the main mistakes I see is that people make the website all about them, not about their client.

I hate to break it to you but your website should be all about your client and not about you. Why? Because your client cares about themselves , not you!

Do this and your website will resonate much more with your potential clients.

Watch the video to learn about a great Airnbn ad which shows how it should be done.

More detail in the video.





Last chance to grab a bargain.Until midnight tomorrow I'm offering my bespoke homepage audit for only £75.I'll look at y...
19/09/2024

Last chance to grab a bargain.

Until midnight tomorrow I'm offering my bespoke homepage audit for only £75.

I'll look at your homepage and use my twenty years of expertise to give you a written ten point plan which you can work through at your own pace. You'll get specific actionable tasks which will transform your homepage. And you can apply many of the lessons to your whole site. It will make such a difference to your website.

The plan will be specific to your site but typically includes such things as how to improve the customer journey and how to make your site more appealing to your ideal client.

You've got till midnight tomorrow.

A small deposit is required and the work must be completed by Christmas.

Is it time to up your game?

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18/09/2024

Website tips for small businesses no. 20

Add meta titles and meta descriptions.

Don't run away! 🏃‍♀️

I know it sounds technical and I know I promised not to do techy stuff in these tips, but people keep asking me for this. So bear 🐻 with me and I'll keep it as simple as possible.

"What on earth is a meta title or a meta description?"

I promise you, you are actually very familiar with them.

A meta title and a meta description is what you see in Google search results.

You'll notice each search result has a heading. That's the meta title.

Below that is a brief description. It's is a sort of snippet that goes into a bit more detail. That's your meta description.

For example, if you search for my company, Webadoodle, Google will show you this:

Webadoodle | Websites for service-based businesses | Chester (meta title)
Web design simplified. Websites to help service-based small businesses grow. Wix websites you can run yourself. Website audits. Based in Chester. (meta description)

If you don't specify your meta description, Google will make it up based on what's on the page. This might not be the wording you want. So be sure to add a meta title and description to every page and blog on your site.

Tips for good meta titles and descriptions:

They should be brief, eye catching and very precise.

They should indicate exactly what it is you're saying on that particular page or blog post.

Try to be unique. Each title and description should be different from the other pages and blog posts that you have.

Include keywords.

If appropriate, include a geographical location as this helps a lot with SEO.

Did that make sense? I tried to keep that in plain English but if it's all gobbledegook to you, speak to your website designer or a copywriter who will be able to help you.

More detail in the video.






..........................................

Hi! I'm Zena from Webadoodle

I create websites to help service-based small businesses grow. Making it easy for you to make the right impression & be found online.
Fresh and modern websites for SMEs, sole traders & startups.
Wix websites you can run yourself.
Website audits with practical bespoke tips so you can transform your own website.
Power hours - pick my brains!

16/09/2024

Think you can't have it all?

Many people think they have to choose between having a professionally built website or having a website they can update themselves.

I have good news!

You can have the best of both worlds.

You can have a website built by a professional designer but still run it yourself!

✅ Professionally built site
✅ Looks fabulous
✅ Effective customer journey
✅ Works on mobile
✅ Attracts the right level of clients
✅ No need to spend weeks building it yourself
✅ Makes you look professional and gives you confidence
✅ No ongoing designer fees
✅ Complete control of your site
✅ Ability to update it whenever you want
✅ Ongoing ad hoc designer available only if needed
✅ No pesky plugins (If you don't know what they are don't worry, you won't have to now.)

I can build a professional website for you on Wix. Once it's published, I hand it over to you to run. Simple as that.

See. You can have it all 😁

11/09/2024

Website tips for small businesses no. 19

Don't use stock images on your website.

Stock images make your website look inauthentic and not trustworthy.

Stock images don't look like it's really you.

Think about when you have been on a website and it says, "Call me today!" next to a photo of a twenty year old with shiny white teeth and beautiful, thick hair. They don't look at all like the middle-aged accountant in Crewe that were expecting. Does that make you feel more or less trusting?

If your website contains photos that are genuinely of you, people can relate to you. They will identify with you. They want their accountant to look like somebody who lives locally and is real.

It doesn't matter that you think that photos of you aren't flattering.

Nobody cares what you look like apart from you.

What your client wants to know is they're dealing with somebody who is authentic and relatable.

Here's an example. I was asked by a client to advise how they could improve their website. It was a small business in a serious, regulated industry in the northwest of England. It was important that they looked trustworthy and local. The photo that was supposed to represent of their office had huge glass windows that looked out onto a bright sunlit outdoor pool. This website did not look like it was for a company based in Warrington! 😂

What they needed was a website that showed the actual office in Warrington and showed the real staff. That would have looked genuine and would have engendered trust.

You need a website that shows you.

If you're a sole trader, show your real face. That way, you'll be relatable. You'll be authentic. People will trust you.

Invest in some professional photos. It's probably not going to be as expensive as you think, and you will be able to use those photos across all of your other marketing, including your social media. It'll be money very, very well spent. And, it'll be probably the single best thing that you can do to most make your website look great and look professional.

Respect your client enough to show them the real you. 🤗

More detail in the video






..........................................

Hi! I'm Zena from Webadoodle

I create websites to help service-based small businesses grow. Making it easy for you to make the right impression & be found online.

fresh and modern websites for SMEs, sole traders & startups.

Wix websites you can run yourself.

Website audits with practical bespoke tips so you can transform your own website.

Power hours - pick my brains!

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