Category: Business

seo

Why SEO is Essential for Your Website

Posted on All 4 BlogPosted in Business

SEO or search engine optimisation is essential for your website. Why? If you have ever surfed the web you will know that you type in your keyword to the search engine and look through that first page of results. Then you usually choose one of the first three websites that look as if they have what you want. How do those pages turn up on the first page? Through Expert SEO techniques.

In actual fact, the search engines return many more pages of results for that keyword you typed in, but you – like most other people – know that those first pages have the most relevant information on them. You know this because you trust the search engine to find it for you. While some people choose to look at some of the results further down the page, or to click on the next few pages in their search, in most cases people will choose something from the first page and even from the top of that first page. It is human nature to want a speedy experience and this is how to get it.

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web-design

Web Design – Should You Always Follow the Latest Trends?

Posted on All 4 BlogPosted in Business

Web design is a bit like house design; different trends evolve over time. If your business website was designed 10 or more years ago and you’ve never changed it, you might be wondering if you need to upgrade. Much depends on what your website was designed to do – and if it is still performing as you would like it to.

There have been many changes in website design over just the last few years. Some are excellent; others not so good. Once it was thought that if a website had all the bells and whistles that were available and popular at the time, it would be a success. Then it was found that adding all that stuff not only confused visitors, but made the page load slowly.

Both of these results ended up turning visitors away from the website. Visitors to a website are looking for something specific and the quicker they find it the happier they are. If they have to wade through the muddy waters of too much stuff that’s not really what they are after they’ll leave. And of course, a page that loads slowly is a turn-off right from the start.

While it seems that simple is best when it comes to websites, remember that your ancestors had a simple house. They thought it was great because there was nothing else to compare it with. But it may not have had running water or electricity. Similarly, you can be too simple when it comes to websites.

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getting-your-business-online

Getting Your Business Online Quickly

Posted on All 4 BlogPosted in Business

Most businesses these days have an online presence. Not only is it good for your business, but people expect it.  With the upsurge of all things Internet over the last few years, if a business has no website people tend to wonder if it is actually a bona fide business. Once the decision has been made to go online you will want to get everything set up as quickly and efficiently as possible and the best way to do that is to consult a professional digital marketing agency right from the start.

Of course, you will have to work out what you want your website to accomplish before you go ahead. Is it just to advertise the business or do you want to take orders, sell products, offer a service or just provide a contact point? The digital agency needs to know so they can set up the website properly.

An eCommerce website will need a shopping cart and a merchant that accepts credit cards and PayPal at the very least. If you are just offering a service, these won’t be needed. If you are selling products you’ll need things like a returns policy and other similar things that you will have seen when shopping online yourself. But a website that is just to harvest email addresses will not need those extra things.

So having thought about how you want your website to work, you then have to hire the digital agency to do the work. You’ll work with them and may need to fill out a brief, answering the questions they need to know. Your business name and logo will have to be sent to them so they can use them on your website.

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Use Accountant

Why Should I Use An Accountant Instead Of Doing It Myself?

Posted on All 4 BlogPosted in Business

When it comes to accounting, either for your personal finances or for your small business – a lot of people choose to do it themselves. While there is no laws preventing this, it is often a very good idea to at least speak with an accountant before completing your tax return. There are a lot of benefits associated with using an accountant to complete your tax return for you, including:

You will save time:

Unless you have been doing your own tax returns for years, it probably takes you a long time to fill out your return every year. Unfortunately, the paperwork that you have to fill out to complete your tax return seems to change almost yearly, which can make it hard to keep up with if you aren’t an accountant.

An experienced accountant will know exactly what sort of paperwork they need to complete your tax return, and they should be able to fill it out quickly and efficiently. This will save you time, and allow you to do other things which could be more beneficial for your business.

Everything will be done right:

If you do your tax return yourself, there is always the chance that you will make a mistake of some sort. Although this may not end up being a problem in the long run, there is the chance of penalties or fines from the ATO if you don’t do your tax return right.

If you use an experienced accountant, they should know exactly what information needs to be included and how to include it. They shouldn’t make any mistakes, which means that you will be able to rest easy with the knowledge that your tax affairs are in order.

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digital-marketing-agency

How to Find a Digital Agency for Your Website

Posted on All 4 BlogPosted in Business

Having made the decision to take your business online you now need to find a digital agency such as Slinky to design the website so it can accomplish what you have planned, whether that is to gather email addresses or sell products – or both. It is important to choose these people with care so your website can be the best ever.

Web design skills

In most cases you’ll need to outsource the work, but don’t choose just anyone whose qualifications you cannot validate.  There are many people who can put up a website, but do they know anything about Search Engine Optimisation? SEO is an essential part of the success of your website. It is enhancing the text and many other elements in a way that will help the search engines recognise your website as a top quality one that offers value to searchers.

Online marketing skills

The people who design and build your website also need to be able to market it for you, unless you know all about how to do this in the online world. There are many ways to market a website business, from social marketing to Google adwords and each one has its own set of criteria that needs to be implemented for the best result.

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business-contracts

How to Ensure Your Business Contracts are Fair

Posted on All 4 BlogPosted in Business, Legal Advice

When you run a small business you will come across any number of standard business contracts that are essential to the day to day running of your small business. Most commercial lawyers like Rowe Bristol, that would find on a lawyer’s list know that in general, many of these are actually unfair to the small business because they are not drafted in favour of the larger companies that offer them.

Many standard form contracts have not been at all fair to the small business. Up until now, there was not much you could do about it, except try to have a clause put in that covered your liability, but the other party didn’t have to agree to it, so it was either sign up or lose the deal.  However, that has just changed, so you don’t have to suffer under any unfair contracts any more.

However, just so that things don’t swing the other way and become unfair to those who  offer the contract, unfair terms must be examined in a court of law to ensure they are truly unfair and will cause the small business undue financial or other kind of hardship if not removed.  It must also be proven that removing them will not adversely affect the other company.

This particular law was passed in November 2016, even though there was another similar law in place since 2010. This particular law was passed to protect the interests of small business where standard contracts are concerned. This applies to both new contracts and renewed ones. If any contract is varied after the 12th November 2016, the law also applies to that.

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Planning Retirement

Why Planning for Your Retirement is Essential

Posted on All 4 BlogPosted in Business, Health & Fitness

Financial planners such as Andep, would tell you that a plan for your retirement is an essential part of any financial planning.  For a start, as we age, our health often deteriorates so we need to have the finances to cope with the additional expenses of medical treatment or a stay in the hospital. A financial advisor can help you plan for your retirement in the best way possible and the sooner this plan is implemented, the better it will be.

Of course, retirement planning is not all about health. There are many wonderful things you can do once you no longer have to work all day. Retirement gives people the chance to follow a dream they had no time to devote to when they worked. They might want to travel, have luxury holidays, start up a craft or sport, or purchase a property in the country or on the beach to retire to.

It is also necessary to plan for health aids or health care for when you get more frail or have major health problems. Being able to purchase a mobility scooter can help you remain independent and have fun outside even if you can’t walk well. You may need to put in a ramp or add a lift to your home so you don’t have to move, but can stay in it for longer if it is a home or location that you love. It could be that you need to pay for home help such as cleaning and laundry as you get older.

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best-website-design

What the Best Website Design will Do for Your Business

Posted on All 4 BlogPosted in Business

There are many different kinds of website and not all have the best website design. For many, it doesn’t even matter because they just want a way to get their story out onto the world wide web. But for a business website the design is extremely important.  You need to have a clear goal for your website and have it designed so it succeeds in doing whatever your goal is; selling products or services, offering valuable information to gain an email address or simply advertising your offline business to the local area.

Ease of use

The best website design will include many of the latest technologies and trends to keep customers safer when using it and to ensure that traffic flows to and through it, easily finding what they want. It should integrate many elements seamlessly so that potential customers not only find what they want, but have no trouble – or hesitation – in purchasing it.

One thing everybody who goes online wants is to achieve their goal in the fastest possible time. Busy people may only have a few minutes to find out or get what they want online.  They use their iPhone to access the internet while travelling to work or standing in the checkout queue of their local supermarket.  If they can get to your website and purchase what they want in that time, then they will deal with you again, knowing that your website was one of the easiest and best to use.

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marketing-simplifie

Adwords Marketing Simplified

Posted on All 4 BlogPosted in Business

Business people who talk about Google Adwords marketing know that it is a way to increase their profits exponentially if done properly. But often, businesses don’t spend enough on advertising to make a profit. That’s not to say you have to spend thousands, although larger businesses can and often do. But when you are starting a new business, this kind of budget is rarely available. That doesn’t mean to say adwords marketing is out of your reach; it just means you need to set your budget properly.

If you are starting to feel a bit confused, here are 3 tips to simplify things.

  • You can get started for as little as $25 per week
  • Google adwords can be as simple or as complex as you like. Keep it simple if you are new to it.
  • Have patience. Don’t quit too soon, but watch your spend carefully.

When you start your adwords campaign you’ll have many blanks to fill in on the adwords forms. The main ones are your daily spend, the target audience, and writing your ad. The adwords website makes it all quite easy to fill in with automatic infill in some cases.

When setting your budget you have to work backwards from the profit per sale to the conversion rate cost and the cut you give to Google. But setting a low daily budget will ensure the ad is not shown after the limit is reached, so it can never ‘accidentally’ cost you more.

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obligation-of-directors

Obligation of Directors in Shareholder Disputes

Posted on All 4 BlogPosted in Business, Legal Advice

When you run a business, things don’t always go according to plan. Instead of the plain sailing you expected, suddenly there are shareholder disputes to settle. If you are the director you have certain obligations and the first one is the consult with a commercial lawyer such as Summers Legal to ensure you take the right road to recover. If you don’t, it is possible to lose the business altogether.

The first thing to be done is to negotiate with the other parties to try and resolve the conflict. If this doesn’t work it can be taken to mediation where a neutral party helps to facilitate the discussion so that the parties can hopefully, resolve the conflict. The mediator has no say in how the parties resolve it or in seeing that the resolution is a fair one.

Where failure to resolve once again occurs the matter then must go to arbitration. The only trouble with this is that the decision for how the resolution should come about is taken out of the director’s hands and even the shareholders will have no say. Very often the company must be wound up and everyone loses out. While the resolution is enforced legally and the judge considers his decision to be the fairest for all concerned, very often the parties are still left unsatisfied with how things were worked out.

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Right-Advice

How to Find the Right Advice and Guidance for Your Small Business

Posted on All 4 BlogPosted in Business, Legal Advice

Setting up your own small business may be a dream come true, but if you don’t want it to turn into a nightmare, it is essential to get the right kind of advice and guidance. There are many professionals who can help you from web designers and general internet business consultants, but talking with a good Perth Wills Lawyer should always be one of the first steps. In fact, it is a good idea to keep on with the same lawyers all the time so they become familiar with you and your business and can advise you quickly whenever you need it.

Apart from solicitors, who else can help you in business? Setting up a business can be a complex undertaking and you should never fly solo unless you intend to be a sole trader; even then you’ll likely need an accountant. Here is a list of people you are likely to need for advice and help.

  • Accountants – apart from lawyers, an accountant is the next most important person to have guiding your business. Having an accountant to do your books will save you time and many headaches. An accountant can also advise you on many financial issues from whether your business can afford to expand through to legally paying the least amount of tax possible.
  • Insurance advisors – having a professional insurance advisor – one who doesn’t work for any specific company – will enable you to protect your business from many risks, even those that you haven’t thought about. They can tell you just how much insurance you need as well as what kind.

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Commercial Cleaner

What Are The Benefits Of Using A Commercial Cleaner Vs Doing It Yourself

Posted on All 4 BlogPosted in Business

If you own or manage some sort of commercial or large residential building, you may find yourself responsible for making sure that it is cleaned properly and regularly. Although many people decide to take up this cleaning responsibility themselves, it is usually a good idea to hire a professional commercial cleaner.

Professional cleaners are usually very good at what they do – especially if you choose one with a decent reputation – and they will generally be able to get things done much quicker than you would if you did it yourself. Some of the benefits of using a commercial cleaner, instead of doing it yourself, include:

You Will Have More Time To Spend On Other Things

Imagine if you had three or four extra hours per week to spend on the things that you want to. Over the course of a year, three extra hours per week would come to almost seven full days of time – more than enough to learn a new skill or to get a whole lot accomplished!

Employing a commercial cleaner can help you free up this time. If you currently clean your own building, the chances are that you spend at least three hours per week doing so – probably more. Stop wasting your time, and employ someone else to do your dirty work for you – you will thank yourself later!

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