Esther
Good morning and welcome to the Monday morning marketing podcast I'm Esther.
Melanie
And I'm Melanie.
Esther
And today we're talking about Web sites. Do you really need one?
Melanie
I think so. Personally, I think it's your instant open shop window to your business, and although I would be a social media advocate, I would always tell people to originate their business from a website, but there is one person out of us two that would really know what they're talking about here, and on this particular occasion, it wouldn't be me.
Esther
You're so knowledgeable in so many other areas Melanie.
Melanie
Did you have to sound quite so smug saying that?
Esther
Of course.
Melanie
So you're the website specialists? So tell us, why do you think people need a website?
Esther
Well, reason number one, and the most important reason of all is that it's yours. You own it. You're the one who has decided the domain name, the domain name remember is your www dot whatever, and Melanie'skidsstomp.ie and ours is IPAgroup.co.
Melanie
Good promotion there.
Esther
Yeah. See, slipped it in. Nobody noticed. So it belongs to you. You paid for the domain, you paid for the hosting. So you pay for it to be up on Google and Yahoo and find everywhere on the website are on the Internet. So it's yours 100 percent, whereas you might be paying Mr. Zuckerberg and the guys over at Twitter and everywhere else to promote your business but that doesn't make your Facebook page or your Twitter handle yours.
Melanie
No, I mean, we are essentially renting social media platforms from the owner, and if at any stage we do something that they don't like, they can just delete our page. They can make us impossible to find, they can change the algorithm so that anybody who has certain characters or sent letters or whatever they're feeling that day be completely removed in an algorithm change. And I mean, let's face it, organic search on social media, especially Facebook, is almost down to zero and is so difficult to populate a popular social media platform to the general public now without paying for it. So if you're going to pay for something, why don't you let it be yours rather than rent?
Esther
Yeah, exactly. And websites don't have to be expensive. OK, yeah, there are lots of different types of websites, so you could have just a landing page, which means just one page, no clicking across to different tabs, no fancy contact buttons, etc. whereas it's just one page and you scroll up and down and all the information's right there on that one page, you could have a static website where it's just information about your business, you don't have to be in updating it, although that's harder to be found because of SEO search engine optimization, we'll talk about that some other day because it's a huge topic or it could be dynamic where you're going in like Melanie and putting up blogs very frequently, could be an e-commerce website where you're selling at, could be just one package, it could be a membership website where you've got logins for your members, people that are paying for it. There are so many different types of websites and the cost all depends on what type you decide. So if you're a new business starting out and you don't have a product to sell yet or a service to sell yet where you want people to pay for it online, then by all means go for landing page to start with, just to get people interested and going to your site and learning more about you. How did you start Melanie?
Melanie
Well, I was told to claim my business name as quickly as possible. So yes, you're not quite ready to start your actual business and transactions, it's worth claiming the name if you can, and there are so many options out there, you've got SEO, I've got .ia, there's .com, there are so many different options, and sometimes it's worth looking at getting several endings, I don't know what they're called, so what they called? They're not just called endings, are they?
Esther
Oh, no, no. But right now, off the top of my head, I can't remember what they're called. Thanks for that spot. But yeah, you can have .eu which right now in the UK, you're not allowed to have anymore because of Brexit, you can have the normal .com, .kotak, .uk, .party, .biz. Yeah.
Melanie
Never knew that.
Esther
Yeah, there's lots and lots of endings.
Melanie
But you got .co, why did you get .co?
Esther
We also got .uk and we got .mx because we are in the UK and in Mexico, so .co covered both of those, so .co is the new .com and they are running out, so .co is just exactly the same as a .com, but not as used as the minute, yeah, and if you go and look for your domain name with a .com then chances are somebody else has already bought it.
Melanie
Well definitely mine. Mine belongs to a bunch of people that go around smacking garbage.
Esther
That sounds fun.
Melanie
I've actually seen them live The Fantastic, highly recommend stunt people out there. They travel around all over Europe. Yes. We're digressing here. Let's get back to websites. When I first started up my website, I had zero budget, and frankly, I'm not gifted with the knowledge of how to create my own website from scratch. So I went to the local enterprise office or whoever whichever country you were in, this is like a local startup from your state.
Esther
Or your council area could have one.
Melanie
Yeah, exactly. And they were running a course at the time, "Design your own website using WordPress", which is the platform that I use, now there's lots of different platforms out there, but I use WordPress, which was quite fortuitous because I didn't realize at the time I was going to be blogging quite as much as I am, and it's quite a well known, recognized blogging platform, so when I set this up, it was very, very basic, but that's all I needed. When you first start, you've got no content and a very little clue which direction your business is going realistically. So I set this up and by the end of three weeks, I had a working website that I could access, that I could update, that I could make my own, and, you know, for me that was ideal, but there are other people out there that need even more support they're more of a technophobe than I am, and that's where Esther comes in, so what kind of supports can you offer people?
Esther
Yeah, our business offers support from day one, so if you don't know what you want to put on your website or what needs to go on your website, then we analyze up for you and we go into the different options that you have, giving you a strategy on how to populate your website, how to fill it in. So whether you just need, like I said, whether you could just start with the landing page and grow it from there, or whether you need a five 10 page website from the very start, whether you've got thousands of products that you want to get started selling on, on e-commerce, all of those is what you need to determine first. OK, so, yes, your website should grow with you, as Melanie says. OK, so you're going to start, if it's a brand new business, zero content, maybe not even knowing what to fill in the about section like who are you? Why do people need to find you? Why are you there to help people? So we can also help with content creation in that we can find ways of writing about you if you can't find the words yourself. And also when you're starting out, it's important to get everything connected up. So most websites that you'll see, the social media buttons are at the bottom. So follow us here, find us here, find us there, and that's important to say that you've got links between all your different platforms where people can find you.
Melanie
Yeah. I mean, yeah, that's the biggest gripe I have with a lot of clients. I mean, they've got social media buttons up there, but they've never actually linked the social media platforms to the website, which is really annoying.
Esther
Oh, yes, very. And then if you're on Facebook, for example, make sure your Facebook pixel is embedded into your website and make sure that your Google Analytics is embedded into your website so that you can find everything on those tools so that you can reach the people that have found you.
Melanie
Yeah, I mean, it's all about retargeting when it comes to the Facebook pixel, and that's a valuable tool. I mean, most people won't even realize it, but when you go down to the likes of Amazon or any place that you've got a shopping cart and you've just explored an area, but you've never actually bought anything and then you're followed by this picture and please buy me for the next two weeks. This is the retargeting that is coming from people that you say you visited the Amazon website and now Amazon is following you around trying to keep top of mind, and you can do that to other people. Wouldn't that be nice? You could do that to other people yourself.
Esther
You can stock them. But, yeah, your website should be yours. It should be unique to you. So having your content rather than copying other people's content, just a bit of legal stuff. Have your cookies, have your privacy policy, have your terms and conditions. Make sure your GDPR if you're having a pop-up, everything needs to be legal and above board. Don't just wing it.
Melanie
Totally, and I'd also recommend on a personal note that if you're going to have a host, make sure that your host is in your time line. So, I mean, I'm with Black Nights, I'm a .ie company, I want to support an Irish company, made sense to me and for me, I found it really, really good that I can contact them on a free chat system. So if I get really stuck on doing something, they do it for me, you know, because they host me, they've got my domain, it's easy enough for them to go in, but nine times out of ten, well, actually, every time they try to empower me to do it myself, they will explain how to do it, where to find useful content to help me do it, if it's still just over my head, then I'll say, look, sorry, guys, but would you mind doing this for me? because it's just easier, you know, you're doing, what would take me all day, would take them 20 minutes and they do. And you can find your own servers and your own hosts that can do that for you as well, without extra charges, you just have to shop around.
Esther
Yeah. And that takes time and it takes a bit of knowledge also in the area, don't just go with the first one that you come across because there are loads out there, so don't limit yourself to any of that.
Melanie
Well, I think we've covered as much as we can in this short podcast, but if you've got any questions at all, Esther, how do people find you?
Esther
You can find me at www.ipagroup.co, you can also look for IPA group on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.
Melanie
But obviously, everything originates from the website faster.
Esther
Of course, we'll be back talking about web sites at a later date, because there's just so much to cover. But in the meantime, keep up the good work, guys. Thanks for listening. And we'll catch you next week.
Melanie
Bye for now.