Martyn Gosling t/a CWS

Author: Martyn

  • Google My Business

    Google My Business

    Google My Business – Why it’s vital for your business, even if you don’t have a website.

    I’ve recently worked with two Colchester businesses, neither of whom are registered with Google My Business, which is a totally free service from Google allowing you to control the information displayed in the search results when someone Googles your business by name, even if you don’t have a website.

    At a time when we all need as much business as possible, it’s surely vital we don’t lose any business by an easily rectifiable mistake?

    Consider these two REAL Essex Business scenarios:

    Business A

    Business A doesn’t have a website, but is very popular by word of mouth recommendations. However when a potential client, having heard of the business Googles it, they are met in instead in the right hand pane of search results by a separate business, selling a similar product, but based 6 miles away. While the occasional potential client might indeed realise it’s not the same business, it’s not unreasonable to wonder how many chose the rival unknowingly instead.

    Business B

    Business B has a website but moved premises. While Google will in it’s own time update their search results accordingly, in the meantime Googling the business by name will show you an outdated address and contact number. In the current business climate, it’s not unreasonable that a client finding the wrong details might assume the business is no longer operating, or simply doesn’t bother searching for the right contact information.

    Am I registered with Google My Business

    When you Google your business by name, if you see “Own this business?” then you are not registered. If you don’t see this, then someone owns your business details on Google. If you don’t know who, it might be some long forgotten web developer and it’s vital you get it back.

    It’s a free service from Google, but if you’d like our help implementing it for your business please get in touch with Martyn on 07767 624985 or email martyn@colchesterwebsiteservices.com

  • Adwords Location Targeting

    Adwords Location Targeting

    Do you use Adwords?

    How is your location targeting? I’ve just been asked to review an Adwords account and the first thing I have identified is that a third of my clients budget is being wasted on targeting areas outside of their location.
     
    If you’d like your Adwords account reviewed please contact us. Alternately if you manage your own account, please check your Geographic Report to ensure you are not wasting money, then thank us.
     
    This isn’t just about the wasted spend, it’s also that you may have missed out on potential clients, with in this example, a third of your budget wasted.
     

  • Set up an Online Shop

    If you need to set up an online shop for your business, please consider Colchester Website Services:

     

    • Shoppable Posts for Facebook and Instagram.
    • Sell from a single product to 100,000 products.
    • Multiple Payment Options – PayPal or SagePay for example.
    • No Hidden Costs.
    • SEO Search Engine Optimised from the start.
    • Prices from just £400.
    • First year’s hosting and domain name around £65 (additional cost).
    • Fast local service based in Colchester, Essex.
    • Chartered Institute of Marketing trained.

    Who will own my Online Shop once it is set up?

    The shop, domain name and hosting will be entirely owned by yourself or your company. You’ve seen all the online store options, such as Squarespace, Wix and Shopify. If you were to use these, the designs and information posted would be owned by these companies. If the costs and commissions become too high for you (Shopify especially has high fees and commissions) then you will lose your work, data and product information.

    How do we set up your online shop?

    • Let us know the nature of your business and we can send through some shop design options. To keep the costs down for you, we will generally use a template based system. This can then be adapted to meet your requirements. Certain designs may add £50 to your costs, but it is unlikely to exceed this.
    • Following an online initial meeting, if you’re happy to proceed, we would ask for a £150 deposit.
    • If you already have a Website, you will have some choices to make. You can either run your online shop under a subdomain, ie. shop.yourcompanyname.com, under a main domain name such as shopyourcompanyname.com or alternately, you can move your website over to combine it with your shop. This may incur an additional cost depending on your current website.
    • Two hours training – the main effort involved in setting up to sell online is actually adding the products to your website. We will include two hours shared screen training to teach you how to upload your products. 
    • Add your products for sale – within 24 hours of your deposit being paid, your shop will be ready for you to add your products. This will speed up the process for you. You can get your products online while we finish working on the design.
    • You decide on your payment options ensuring you have, for example, a PayPal business account, or for regular credit card payments with a lower commission, consider SagePay combined with your existing merchant account, as this is often much cheaper.
    • While we offer our own hosting and domain name registrations, to ensure you will be fully in control in years to come and to take advantage of some hosting companies’ introductory pricing, we would suggest and we would help you set up an account with Ionos, as this will reduce your hosting, domain name and SSL Certificate (secure padlock in your browser) at a cost of approximately £50 for the first year. 

    Stock Control & Shipping Methods

    The Woocommerce system fully supports managed Stock Control and multiple shipping methods including click and collect.

    Search Engine Optimisation and Google Registration

    CWS have trained in SEO and Digital Marketing with the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

    We are recommending this solution based on our expertise and training in SEO and PPC management. We will also ensure your website is registered in the Google Search Console and help you register it with Google My Business.

    For further information or to discuss your requirements, please contact Martyn Gosling on 07767 624985 or email: martyn@colchesterwebsiteservices.com

  • Should I use Shopify for my online shop

    Should I use Shopify for my online shop

    While Shopify must work well for some people, it’s surprisingly popular, In my opinion the running costs are too high.

    If your Website Developer is suggesting using Shopify, are they being transparent with you regarding their earnings from signing you up?

    And are you fully aware of the charges when using Shopify?

    Even for simple things like adding a Social Media Feed? Something that on WordPress for example would at most be a one off fee, on Shopify becomes a monthly charge.

    After your initial setup, and with a domain name and managed hosting from just £10 per month, with no other or hidden fees, to find out why we would recommend, and could set up a Woocommerce website for you, please contact martyn@colchesterwebsiteservices.com

  • There has been a critical error on your website – Solved

    There has been a critical error on your website – Solved

    Petrina Day of Daybooks Essex Ltd contacted us about her WordPress website. Despite being hosted on a managed WordPress server with GoDaddy, the site had still failed.

    Visiting either the home page or the admin area gave of the same error message:

    Had the admin area been accessible, there would have been different options to explore, but as the admin area was unavailable, we had to be more creative.

    Happily the Daybooks Essex Homepage now looks like this:

    And we have another happy customer!

    Please contact us if we can help with your website!

  • PayPal / Opayo (Sagepay) Payment Integration

    We can integrate both PayPal and Opayo (SagePay) into either a custom built website, or into Woocommerce for online stores.

    PayPal

    While there are many other online payment methods, with it’s ease of client use, no name or address information needing to be manually entered by the client, it makes for a very efficient online ordering and production system for dealing with those online orders. There is a trust issue here too, with PayPal generally considered to be trustworthy by consumers.

    PayPal IPN (Instant Payment Notification)

    When a buyer completes a payment within PayPal, the PayPal server sends back a notification to your website, or a server of your choice, notifying you of a successful payment. The details returned include the Buyers address, the shipping address, and important for high value items, whether the address has been verified with PayPal. Your website or production system can be immediately updated with a fulfilled order.

    Opayo (SagePay) Payment Gateway Integration

    While not as flexible as PayPal’s, we can also offer integration of Opayo (formerly SagePay) payment gateway including integration of the gateway with cloud based production systems.

    The advantage of the Opayo (SagePay) gateway over a service such as PayPal, especially if you have an existing Merchant Account, is that the commission charges are much much lower.

    Available payment methods within Opayo (SagePay) are set by yourself, and these can if you wish, confusingly, include PayPal.

    Opayo (SagePay) virtual terminal

    A great feature from Sagepay is a virtual credit card terminal. Something you can then use for telephone orders etc.

    For more information please contact

    Martyn Gosling
    martyn@colchesterwebsiteservices.com

  • Switching from ISDN to SIP

    If you’re considering switching your old ISDN phone system to a SIP (Session Initiation Protocol for those that wonder what the hell it means, and are still no wiser) I couldn’t recommend it highly enough!

    Essentially if you are already using ISDN for your phone lines, your calls are already running over a data line. Switching to SIP means that instead your calls run over an existing or new MIA (Managed Internet Access) line from a supplier such as BT or Virgin Media. Surprisingly even moving from BT’s ISDN lines to BT’s SIP program can still offer a massive cost saving.

    Switching to a company such as Welcomm www.wellcom.co.uk gives an even bigger saving. The reason for this being, that with each SIP monthly line rental, about £10 per line, 5000 Landline minutes and 2000 Mobile minutes are included per month, meaning that for most businesses, there are no ongoing call costs.

    I recently instigated a switch to SIP for Metro Imaging Ltd using the companies existing Virgin Media Internet access to carry their SIP lines, Welcomm for the actual ‘Lines’, Kerio Operator for the phone system, and IT Collective for the installation, and the results have been highly impressive to say the least!

    If you’re considering switching get in touch!

    Martyn