Make Your Own Website

Course Description

The post Creating a Website for Your Business appeared first on WeBC.

Laura moved from England to the resort town of Revelstoke, BC, and fell in love with the mountain lifestyle, deciding to make it home. Enjoying the autonomy of working her own hours and being her own boss, Laura built Revy Web Design around her passion for technology and her tight-knit community.  

Six years later, I’m “Revelstuck,” as they say, married to the best chef in Revelstoke and operating my business in a community that I love.

Laura’s business is a collective of professional creatives who help local businesses and individuals create polished custom websites, and is largely community-driven. She is dedicated to building up other invested professionals to help Revelstoke thrive.

Running my business is what really fuels me. I value the connections that I make with clients-turned-friends.

Looking for the opportunity to build out her network with like-minded individuals, Laura participated in Discovery Foundation’s Leadership (EM3) Program, presented by WeBC in 2021. As a mentoring program, it is designed to support women entrepreneurs to build and grow their tech-focused or tech-enabled businesses.

The program was an excellent opportunity for me to meet and network with individuals also in a similar industry to me. I have become more confident in how I present myself in terms of body language, my speech and the language that I use. This has helped me in both my professional and personal life. Especially in how I inspire and lead my team.

Q. What is one thing you learned that you were not expecting? 

Our mentor was excellent, and she inspired me in several ways. The program taught me how to look at myself and my business as others perceive it. 

My biggest takeaway from the program was that I have developed more confidence in speaking. In particular, how I speak about my business and speak with my team.

Q. How has the program helped you to form a plan of action for the future? 

Not specifically an action plan but it has made me more intentional. It has inspired me to take my work/life balance more seriously. 

I have become more consciously aware of how I present myself; how I speak in both my professional and personal life.

Q. Do you intend to stay connected with the other program participants? 

I will stay connected with one other participant as I can relate to her; she also operates a small business like mine. The other participants ran larger organizations, but I still found listening to them insightful.

Connect with Laura White and Revy Web Design:

revywebdesign.ca 

Facebook: @revywebdesign 

Instagram: @revywebdesign 

Phone: (250) 814-8685

The post Laura White, Revy Web Design, Revelstoke appeared first on WeBC.

Here are three mistakes you can avoid so more of your happy users become happy customers.

#1. Driving traffic to sources other than your website.

You’re always going share tips, tricks, photos and posts with your followers on your social media platforms. However, it’s important that your larger, original content lives on your website. Use snippets as teasers on social media to drive users to your website for the whole enchilada.

Keeping content on your website first is not only a great way to keep people coming to your website (and one step closer to becoming a happy customer,) but it’s also helpful for your page rank in search engines. The more time users spend on your website reading articles or watching videos will demonstrate to Google that your website has content that users find valuable. This is gold for search engines, as they only want to serve up the best content to their searchers.

#2. Not putting the needs of your visitors first.

In the same way that having a phone number doesn’t guarantee people are going to call it, just having a website doesn’t mean you will get traffic, nor that it will mean instant sales.

The way consumers buy has changed. The majority of people want to do their pre-purchase research online and only want to reach out when they’re ready to buy. If your website doesn’t give users the information they need to make a purchase decision, they’ll happily click that big ol’ BACK button and visit your competition instead.

People come to your website because they are looking for somebody to solve a problem they’re having. In reality, you have built your website for your potential customers, so it makes sense to put their needs first.

#3. Spending money on ads and SEO without doing an analysis of your website first.

Google, Facebook and other platforms that sell ad space are more than happy to charge your credit card regardless of whether you’re seeing any kind of return on that investment.

Many website owners—unhappy with the conversions they’re getting—pay for ads or search engine optimization. However, for many websites, traffic isn’t the issue. It’s the website itself.

Before you budget for any kind of activity that will drive traffic to your website, it’s so important to ensure that your website has what users need to make a purchase decision. Take some time to review your website and maybe run a small focus group before making that investment.

In addition to the mistakes you want to avoid to improve your users’ experiences, there are also many simple changes you can make to your website to make it even more compelling. A better user experience reduces user friction and breeds trust which motivates your visitors to pick up the phone, download that pdf or put that product in the cart.

Join Kris’ upcoming workshop, Supercharge your website: How to turn more traffic into leads or sales on November 25^th at the WECafe. Sign up for this free seminar today and get some great tips on making your website more enticing to users.

The post Supercharge Your Website: 3 Mistakes to Avoid appeared first on WeBC.

Did you know that persons with disabilities are the third largest economic power in the world, after the US and China? While there is an increasing awareness around physical spaces there isn’t as much around online spaces.

Accessing the internet every day, 70% of persons with disabilities will leave a website instantly if it is inaccessible.

As a result, you could be losing potential customers because of something as simple as website design.

Besides the fact that eighty percent of persons with disabilities rate accessibility above price when choosing where to purchase, creating a more accessible website helps to create a more equitable world. 

On August 19, 2021, Women’s Enterprise Centre hosted Kale Gosen, Co-Founder of Humanize Consulting, for a WECafe session where she shared her expertise about creating accessible online environments.  

Here are some key insights from her session to help you make your online presence more accessible:

What is accessibility?

Accessibility refers to the design of products, devices, services or environments for people who experience disabilities. 

Why does accessibility matter?

In the western world these days, you might be hard pressed to find a person who doesn’t access the internet daily. 

This is acutely true for people who’s disability affects their ability to leave their home. Using the internet widely, they not only access products and services but also use it as a platform to share voices, tackle isolation and connect with their community.   

How do people with various disabilities access the internet?

There is some very cool assistive tech out there that helps to convey information on a website in different ways. For example, screen reader software and magnifiers, to name a couple. 

How you set up your website will directly affect how well this tech is able to read and convey the information presented.    

Types of barriers, and how you can minimize them

For most people, if you can’t navigate a website or find what you want within the first few minutes, you leave.  

Here are some things to consider to avoid common accessibility barriers:  

Website design

• Be mindful of your headings and subheadings – Screen readers will differentiate between H1, H2, H3 etc. allowing the user to skip through and navigate the website efficiently. 
• Pick a responsive design – Your web pages will automatically render to suit the user’s device for a better user experience.
• Use simple language – it is easier for people to understand your message and for assistive technology to convey.  

Colour Scheme 

• Use high contrasting colours for text and background – This will benefit people with low vision. It will also help people to battle eye fatigue.
• Be aware of colour blindness – when certain colours are next to each other, they might not be visible for some people. For example, text on a call to action button.
• Use high contrast images – they’re easier to see and help to distinguish text and non-text elements.

Pop-ups 

• Do not use them – They are not accessible. Instead, try an obvious button; people will sign up if they want to, regardless of whether you use a pop-up.

ALT Text 

• Use it! – It provides a short description that will show if an image is not able to load (e.g. in case of a poor internet connection or if the image blocker is activated). It can also be read by assistive tech.    
• When to use it – Any image on your website including pictures, banners, logos, icons, links and buttons.
• How to use it – Describe the context of the image. Try to use 30 words or 125 characters for readability and user experience. 

Other things to consider

• Social media Hashtags – CapitalizeEachWord, this makes it easier for everyone to read each word without running on, including assistive tech.
• Survey forms – provide an email as surveys are not always accessible.

And remember:

The power of the web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of their disability is an essential aspect.  

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Inventor of the internet.

Watch the Recording

Gain more tips for your website in the full webinar recording!

The post Small Changes, Big Impact: Creating an Accessible Website for All appeared first on WeBC.

It’s a representation of your brand online that will be referenced in everything you do, from digital advertisements, to social media posts, business cards and car decals.

Getting a top-notch domain name is one of the best marketing investments you will ever make – and understanding this at the start of your business journey will help your brand set itself apart online.

Over the 20-years since Webnames was founded, we’ve helped register more than a million domains and yet, the fundamental best practices around searching for a domain name haven’t changed that much. What has changed is there are now more than one thousand different domain extensions (the part after the “dot”) to choose from, a thriving secondary market of registered domains available for sale, and a much busier, louder, more competitive world wide web for businesses.  

To help you navigate today’s domain landscape and choose a perfect domain name for your business, we recommend following these tips.

10 Tips for Finding a Memorable and Effective Business Domain Name

1. Begin with a good old fashioned brainstorm

With nearly 400 million domains already registered, the more creative ideas you can throw up on a whiteboard, the more options you have to play with in a domain search. Get a group of your favourite creatives together and start bouncing ideas, jotting down the names that make an impression.

2. Your domain doesn’t need to match your business name

Finding an exact match domain to your business name can be extremely difficult  – and it’s also not necessary (although it is preferable). Tesla, for example, used the domain telsamotors.com from 2003 to 2017, when it finally acquired tesla.com.

Make a list of prefixes and suffixes that you could append to your business name to increase the available options just like Tesla did with the word “motors”.

3. Prioritize brand impact over being literal

When it comes to your domain, aim for something distinctive. What exactly do we mean by that?  A brandable name makes an impression, whereas descriptive names typically do not.

A great example is Triangle.com, Canadian Tire’s reward program. They could have gone for CanadianTireRewards.com, or something similar, but it’s not nearly as evocative in terms of marketing, not to mention that it’s a mouthful to say and a lot more to type.

4. Tread lightly when it comes to keywords

Using keywords in domain names used to be a go-to SEO tactic years ago, but over the last decade, Google has made algorithmic changes to deprioritize websites that feature keyword rich domains but aren’t otherwise high-quality in terms of their content.

Today, the prevailing wisdom is to use keywords only where it makes sense to do so. Remember that point above about appending a relevant prefix or suffix to your domain for more options? This can be a good opportunity to insert a relevant keyword.

Are you targeting a Canadian, or international audience? If you’re doing business in Canada, .CA is preferred by Canadian shoppers.

Are your services local in nature? If so, consider optimizing for local searches by adding in a placename, like your city or province.

5. Shorter is better

The average length of a domain is about 13 characters – that’s 1 character shorter than “canadiantire,” 6 shorter than “womensenterprise”, and 5 characters longer than “webnames” by way of example.

Shorter is desirable for good reason. Not only are short names easier to type, spell and remember, but they’re also more likely to be shared in their entirety as links without being shortened. This helps to increase your brand’s visibility.

It’s also important to note that shorter domains are easier to navigate to directly on mobile – which comprises nearly 40% of all web traffic in Canada. We’d suggest aiming for something shorter than 15-characters before the “dot.”

6. Make it easy to pronounce, spell and type

Easy to say names create positive associations and enhance memorability. Before you register anything, always say it aloud. Does it roll off the tongue? Would you remember it if someone said it to you? Would you know how to spell it?

And speaking of spelling, what does it look like typed out as a domain name? Many seemingly great names fall flat when they get compacted into a single string with no spaces.

Regency Technologies is a perfect example: their original domain name years ago was itscrap.com (aka IT scrap) and it still forwards to their website regencytechnologies.com today, so they don’t miss out on any of that original type-in traffic.

Other things best to avoid are doubled-up letters and hyphens, which can be tricky to type correctly and read. If you decide to embrace some creative spelling, a la Fiverr.com or Flickr.com, be prepared to spell it each and every time you say it.

7. Choose the right extension(s)

All domain extensions are more or less equal when it comes to their innate SEO worth – and that’s because what really matters is the content and optimization of your website.

That said, most SEO and marketing experts still favour extensions that are trusted, recognizable and intuitive to your audience like .COM, or in Canada a .CA domain as its’ preferred by Canadians. The challenge is that long established extensions – .COM in particular – have far less availability, so it can be challenging to find a great domain that is available for registration, rather than listed for sale by its owner.

We also recommend exploring new and less well known TLDs that align with your business, for example .app, .eco, .store, .site, .realty and .quebec – just to name a few. Not only are these extensions increasing in popularity and familiarity, you’re more likely to find a short and highly relevant name in them. 

8. Consider buying a domain in the aftermarket instead

Don’t underestimate a domain’s value as a business and brand asset – and be open to spending some money to acquire something great. 

If you resign yourself to a second-rate domain that’s available instead of the one that you really want, you will feel that disconnect in all of your branding and marketing efforts – and if your business doesn’t work out, you can always resell a high quality domain.

When you do a search for a domain, you’ll typically see variations related to your search listed for sale in the results. There are also domain name marketplaces and auctions that you can browse.

For a few thousand dollars or sometimes much less, you can acquire a domain with great branding potential. It’s an  investment on par with a digital ad campaign or a no-frills direct mail campaign to a couple thousand homes, but one with far greater long term impact.

If you do decide to buy your domain, we recommend using Webnames’ domain broker service. For a modest fee you’ll receive a detailed report about that domain’s history, an expert assessment of the asking price or an accurate valuation of the domain if it’s not listed for sale, and of course expert, confidential negotiation to help you acquire it.

9. Avoid using names trademarked by others

Conduct some due diligence to make sure that the name you register as a domain is not under trademark or copyright by another party. If you’re doing business in Canada, a good place to start is by searching the Canadian Trademarks Database.

Also, keep in mind that owning a trademark does not entitle you to the matching domain if it’s already registered.

10. Act swiftly when domains are available

We’ve had a lot of customers over the years come back after a few days of mulling over different domain names to find the one they wanted registered by somebody else.

Most domains are inexpensive, so if you like something, but are not 100% sure about it, you should consider registering it anyways. It’s a low cost insurance policy and you don’t have to renew next year if you don’t want to.

We hope that these tips help you to zero-in on and acquire a domain name that helps your brand stand-out and your business thrive!

The post How to Choose the Perfect Domain Name for a Business appeared first on WeBC.