Our email newsletter is a one-stop resource for all the latest news and content about Webware.io, a digital toolkit to make your website and business successful online.

By signing up for our newsletter, you’ll have all the information you need related to website management, search engine optimization, reputation management, and a lot more.

Why should you subscribe?

Stay updated with the latest developments in online marketing, promotions that Webware.io is running, as well as guidelines and how to guides that will help your business succeed online.

Here’s what you can expect in our newsletter:

How-to guides: If you need help picking the right digital toolkit, avoiding costly online marketing mistakes, or general advice about taking your business to the top, our newsletter provides the guidance you need.

Interesting Articles: Our newsletter includes interesting, valuable articles to keep you entertained and informed.

Industry news: Stay up-to-date on the latest news trends in online marketing, website design, online reputation management, and e-commerce.  

Valuable blog posts: Preview our blog posts by clicking here, and head straight to the ones you want to read. Our blog is updated regularly with advice that will help take you to the top, information on valuable tools, product/service details, and trends in digital marketing.

Unmissable promotions: From time to time, we’ll share our most exclusive promotions with our newsletter subscribers. Don’t miss out!

We promise we won’t inundate your inbox with uninteresting information! Webware’s email newsletter is sent out bi-monthly with only the most relevant content for you!

Webware has all the ingredients to thrust your business into the digital spotlight, by designing the perfect plan that helps get your business online and reach potential customers. For a complete list of services we provide, please click here. If you have any questions about Webware, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with us here!

Sign up for our newsletter now to stay in touch with us. Sign up here!

The entire Webware.io team wishes you and your family a very merry holiday season and a prosperous New Year 2018! May the New Year be filled with lots of joy, health, and prosperity.

If you need any assistance from us during this holiday season, feel free to get in touch with us by clicking here, or give us a call at 1-844-WEBWARE.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! With the holidays upon us, so too is shopping season. While big brands always do well during this time of year, small businesses are in a great position to grab a piece of the spending action.

With more and more people starting their holiday shopping online to research products and services and find stores nearby, small businesses can use their website and online strategy to reach customers who are ready to buy now.

If you’re a small business looking to make the most of holiday season shopping, here’s four ways to get customers through your door, all backed by Google research.

1. Be mobile-friendly. Mobile searches for “where to buy” grew over 85% in the past two years. Shoppers are switching out in-store browsing for online browsing. Even if they eventually head to the store to make the purchase, consumers are starting their research online, and they’re using their phones. Don’t miss out on the action with an outdated, unresponsive website.
2. Help customers with their online research with store and product videos. “Shop with me” videos are soaring in popularity on mobile—growing over 10X more in watch time over the past two years. Customers want to be sure they’re buying the perfect gift for their loved one (or themselves). Shoppers want more details than product specs. When Google calculated the amount of time people have spent watching unboxing videos just on their phones, it’s the equivalent of watching the holiday classic “Love Actually” more than 20 million times. By creating a video showing customers around your store, highlighting popular gift items, “unboxing” favourite products, or demonstrating a service in action, people can get a better idea of their potential purchases. You can upload the video to YouTube and your website, and share it on social media to reach your fans.
3. Be ready to help. With their online research complete and shopping list in hand, customers are prepared to buy ASAP. Make sure your website’s online chat is up and running, your phone number/contact information is visible, and there is staff ready to answer questions, offer suggestions, and expedite shopping. Whether you have an e-commerce store or not, being on-call to help customers can make all the difference.
4. Make your business easily accessible to last-minute shoppers. Mobile searches for “store hours” peaked on Christmas Day. Even with the best of intentions and hours of online research, procrastination and busyness prevail. Ensure your hours and location are very visible on your website, and your Google+ Business Account info is up-to-date, so when customers are looking to make that last minute purchase, they know where and when they can find you. Top Google searches include: “what stores are open near me on Christmas,” and “what stores are open right now.”

Get your small business on the holiday shopping map with these Google research-backed tips. Are you missing a strong online strategy or a mobile-friendly website? Webware has all the tools your business needs to get online and be seen by potential customers. Get in touch with the experts at Webware to get your business online, today. Visit webware.io for more details.

A Webware website and digital marketing package also makes a great gift for the small business owner in your life. Get started here.

Article source: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/holiday-mobile-shopping-assistance/

With the fast-paced and dynamic landscape of the internet today, many small businesses are unsure of how to take advantage of an online presence. There are so many tools and strategies to boost a business’s bottom line, it’s difficult to know which ones are worth the time and money, and which are not.

To help you discover the right channels to get your business soaring online, we’ve answered your most burning website questions.

Can I get new business from a website and the internet?

Here are a few interesting facts:

• 84% of consumers believe that small businesses with websites are more credible than ones with only a social media page
• 83% of surveyed businesses that do have websites said “their online platforms gave them a competitive advantage over businesses without websites.”
• Google processes over 3.5 billion searches per day
• Google users are increasingly relying on local and hyperlocal search to find products and services

If your business has a comprehensive online strategy, the internet is a great place to reach potential clients. If you aren’t sure where to start, Webware has created the perfect package for small businesses to get online quickly and efficiently. Our Digital Services Plan includes the perfect mix of marketing activities to get your business seen online.

Does a website guarantee business success?

Absolutely not. Unfortunately, a website is not the field of dreams. Just because you build it, does not mean the customers will all of a sudden start calling and buying your products. A website is an extremely useful tool for reaching new customers but it works best in conjunction with a full online strategy.

An online strategy that will help your business succeed includes a variety of components. Your plan for online success should include a website, ongoing SEO (Search Engine Optimization), a social media action plan, Google MyBusiness integration, review monitoring, backlinks, regular website updates like blog posts, and a regular email newsletter to customers.

I’m already on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Why do I need a website?

Social media platforms are great ways to communicate with your existing customers. However, when it comes to finding a business online, most people begin their search on Google. If your potential customers are searching for a new real estate agent, mortgage broker, doctor, contractor, or any other type of business, they’re not looking on social media. Your website puts you on the search-map.

In addition, a website offers a superior opportunity to outline your products and services. There’s no clicking through a Facebook profile to find what your business provides or doesn’t provide. An instagram profile offers little to no information beyond a quick description, geographical business location, and a link to the website. A website provides your clients everything they are looking for in one place including a comprehensive list of products and services, ‘about us’ details, FAQs, and most importantly, easily accessible contact information.

Is SEO (Search Engine Optimization) a one-time, set-it-and-forget-it, activity?

First things first. What is search engine optimization (SEO)? According to Google, search engine optimization is “the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine.”

Google runs each website through a system of checks to help decide where the website should fall on the search engine results page (SERP). While no one knows the exact formula, Google considers a broad range of factors like your website’s schema markup, your business’s reviews on Google, website load speed, quality, frequency and size of website content updates, backlinks, mobile responsiveness, brand power and social signals, and more.

The perfect mix of SEO factors is constantly changing to improve the quality of search engine results for Google users. This means your website’s SEO strategy should be regularly reviewed and updated to keep up with ever-changing internet world.

What search terms should I optimize my website for?

Ranking for the right keywords for your business on Google Search is critical to your website’s success. Spending some time developing your keyword strategy could help attract the right kind of visitors to your website.

There are two types of keyword search term strategies. The first is a short-tail keyword strategy. These are one to two word phrases that describe your business and corresponding website content. Short-tail keywords can be difficult to rank for because they are broad search terms with potentially thousands of other businesses vying for the same keywords. For example: immigration lawyer, gold jewellry, interior designer, wedding caterer. Your website should be optimised for these short-tail keywords to help describe the content on your website and what your business does.

However, for a stronger keyword strategy, it’s important to also incorporate long-tail keywords as you optimize your website for search. These are longer phrases which potential customers could plug into Google. For example: the best immigration law firm in Toronto, contemporary art-deco interior designer in Montreal, delicious italian dishes to serve at a wedding.

As you create your keyword SEO strategy, keep two things in mind

1. Include words that help describe the content of your website
2. Include longer phrases that incorporate more specific keywords to help drive the right kind of traffic to your website

How long does it take to build a website?

The industry average to build a website is between 4 and 6 months. At Webware, we aim to get your business online right away. With a One-Page website launched within the first week, we launch your full website within 5 weeks.

With so many people using the internet and Google search to find businesses, you could be leaving a lot of money on the table by not taking advantage of a strong online strategy. If you’re hesitating to grow your online presence, or aren’t sure where to start, Webware is here to help. We’ve designed the perfect plan to get your business online and help you reach potential customers. Get started today at webware.io!

Even though website technology, design, and marketing services have catapulted small businesses that have opted to go digital, into increased profitability or have provided varying degrees of success over the last couple of years, there are still several similar businesses that are shackled with misconceptions about whether it will work for them or not.

Some of these faux facts have been repeated so often, that they are almost beyond the reach of critical analysis. Though they are baseless, these canards have become the foundation of numerous debates and often result in small businesses ditching the idea of creating an online presence for themselves and reaching out to a wider target market.

If you’re a small business owner who has reason to believe, you should keep your business offline, we’re going to bust three myths that may change your mind.

MYTH 1: Going digital and staying there is expensive!

A common misconception is that it takes a lot of money and skills for a business to be successful on the internet. In reality, that theory is light years away from the truth. It’s even further away if you’re working on a Webware platform. Webware provides you with everything you would need to be successful at a fair price.

MYTH 2: Website changes require HTML code experience!

Chugging down coffee and the ability to dish out HTML code is no longer a prerequisite for making changes to your website requires. Website changes can be as easy as ‘A-B’C’ as Webware has an easy to use content management system, that allows anyone to easily make changes to colors, content, pages and more!

MYTH 3: Website content and eCommerce require separate platforms!

Whoever stated that you need a separate website for content and another platform for eCommerce, has never been more wrong. The policy of divide and rule may get you a little mileage, but if you really want to conquer the market, you need to unite all your resources. At Webware, we do just that! By throwing in our blog platform as well, you get something that normally takes three platforms to do, all under one roof.

In addition, one larger site trumps two or three separate sites and gets you way more SEO juice. “One website to rule them all” … if you may.

Myth 4: SEO takes thousands of dollars to get you to page one.

This statement is a million miles from the truth and is absolutely untrue. However, Webware can get you there without you having to spend thousands of dollars. Improving your ranking is all about showing a consistent effort across multiple channels including keeping your website up to date, creating new content, getting good reviews and having others talk about you.

Myth 5: You can do it on your own

Propelling your business onto the internet is not something you can do through a DIY handbook. The side hustle that you see being promoted by Shopify, Square Space, Go Daddy, Wix and others, is that you can become an online millionaire for fifty bucks a month. Well unfortunately, if it were that easy we would all be rich! Facts are you need to wear multiple hats and it’s highly unlikely you posses all the skills it takes to build a successful online business. You need to be a writer, a designer, a tester, a user experience expert, a marketer, a customer support agent, an order manager, know stock quantities, tax, payments and much more! Can you really do it all on your own? Or is it going to take a team?

The web is always growing and changing to suit, and even to shape, the needs of consumers. Their tastes and online habits can change quickly. If you’re looking for an innovative and outstanding, yet simple to use web platform, Webware.io has all the ingredients to thrust your business into the digital spotlight. For a complete list of services, please click here. If you have any questions about Webware, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us here.

At Webware, we love making our customers happy. But don’t just take it from us! Here’s what our satisfied customers are saying about us:

*****

“I have been quite impressed with the team at Webware & the plan in which they follow to get my website created, active & promoted. The process to get my website up & running has been seamless and effortless. The team has been most helpful, patient & professional and they take the time to understand my needs in order to best promote my business. The communication is well coordinated & I feel I can get all & any concerns & questions addressed in a timely manner.”

Pinkus Interiors, www.pinkusinteriors.com

*****

“Great service - Everyone has been very helpful and super creative building my website, blog and social media. They created my website around me and my business. Best part is they haven’t just created and left me to figure it all out, they continually tweak, blog, message and push me to finetune all my sites. I have a super busy career and my web presence has always taken a back seat, they push me to be better and pay attention. Great experience. Thanks.”

Christine Gazzola, www.christinegazzola.com

*****

“Efficient, fully transparent and excellent customer service. They got my website done, professionally, quickly and were insanely patient with my questions and changes. Webware is a godsend in business.”

Lisa Robazza, www.lisarobazzadesign.ca

*****

“Webware has proven to be the best website and internet business development firm I have dealt with in 25 years. As a Chicago attorney I am in one of the most competitive marketing areas. Webware provides monthly reviews for blogs, social media and organic website development. Webware account managers are task masters that encourage you to participate in developing a competitive marketing program. They are the best I have found!”

Robert Hanaford, www.hanafordlaw.com

*****

“There is not enough space to fully explain the experience that my law firm has had with Webware. I have a law partner that was very skeptical that they could deliver, but thus far they have exceeded our expectations. They are setting this firm up for success in the highly competitive market of Charlotte, North Carolina. Our web presence is poised to be very aggressive and competitive on the scale of the much larger firms and I would say much more aesthetically pleasing to the eye. They are responsive and attentive and seemingly only work for you. I know they don't but Ms. Amrita sure does make me think so. I only wish that I encountered this company in 2007 when I opened my law firm. They take the grunt work out of marketing a successful business...Absolutely the best!”

Phillips and McCrea PLLC, www.phillipsmccrea.com

*****

“Thank you Webware...I love the website you designed for me! Throughout the entire process and beyond, the Webware team has continually been courteous, professional and available for any questions I might have, and in such a personable way.”

Vanessa Webb, www.lettersinyoga.com

*****

“Amazing company. I've worked with a few of them for my website and seo and each one was a pleasure to deal with. Any request made to them is answered promptly and properly and they pull things off that you would not expect. Shoutout to Helen, Wisdom, Reggie and the rest of Webware.io!”

Neal Grabarnik, www.primeparalegal.ca

*****

“Excellent interaction with the representatives. Overall a wonderful experience.”

Gaurav Shanker, www.businesslawchamber.com

*****

“Sooooo happy!!! Excellent communication throughout the entire process! I would DEFINITELY recommend!”

Kristen Gignac, www.kristengignac.com

*****

“This was so easy that I'm sorry we didn't do it years ago. The results have been beyond our expectations.”

Joe Smith

*****

“I was completely happy with the service provided by Webware. They are very professional and my website turned out beautiful.”

Tesia Brooks, www.empowereddivorcesolutions.com

*****

“My first experience with Brandon was at his earlier position and I followed him to Webware. I had 100% confidence in him then and now. The confidence trails down to his team. Each and everyone who I deal with from design concept to accounts are respectful, knowledgeable and they are so necessary in the growth of my businesses. Thank you for your patience in helping us (who don't have the skills) get things done quickly and beautifully. God bless.”

Angie Girgis, www.thegirgisestate.com, www.myangelictreasures.com

Click here to read these and more reviews about Webware on Google

Webware is a complete tool-kit designed to help small businesses navigate the digital world. Webware’s technology and team of experts provide SMBs with everything they need to manage and grow a successful online presence. You’ll have access to all the tools and personal assistance you need to get your business online.

Join our happy clients from all across Canada and the US. Click here to sign up for a demo today!

As an essential component to your website’s success, your business can’t afford to overlook online marketing. If you’ve just built your website or never tried online marketing before, there can be a lot of new and confusing terminology to master. Don't Worry - Here’s a simple breakdown of the terms you need to know and what they mean.

Getting Started - General Online Marketing Terms

Online Presence- All of the activities your business participates in on the internet. Your website, social media posts, and blog are all part of your online presence. 

Online Reputation Management- To monitor and improve a business’s online reputation with a specific focus on it’s search results performance.

Content Marketing- Creating and publishing media to ultimately drive new business (e.g. blog posts, videos, photos, email newsletters, e-books). The aim of content marketing is to position your business as a leader in your industry by providing useful and relevant information to customers.

Blog- A website, or a section of a website devoted to long-form, written content. Blog content is frequently updated with new “posts”, usually written in an informal, conversational style. Used by both individuals and businesses, it’s a written way to express your knowledge and thoughts on a particular topic.

Content Curation- High-quality, share-worthy media (photos, videos, blog posts, news articles, etc) that is handpicked to tailor to a particular audience.

E-Mail Marketing- Reaching your customers through email with newsletters and promotions.

Social Media Marketing- Promoting a business and/or website through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, and YouTube. 

Market Online For Free! - Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Terms

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)- The free discipline of making your website easy to find on search engines. SEO means several factors work together to build your website’s visibility like: website content, mobile-friendliness, website quality (speed to load pages, duplicate pages, broken links, etc), website architecture and geophysical location to name a few. 

Keyword- Tags that you assign to your website or blog that categorize and describe what it’s about. Using keywords makes it easier for your website/blog to be found through search. 

Short Tail Keyword- a short, generic search term that will return broad results. For example, “diamond”.

Long Tail Keyword- a specific, detailed phrase (usually contains more than 3 words) to narrow search results. It generally contains a short-tail keyword. For example, “where to buy conflict free diamonds online”. Long tail keywords are also useful for paid search marketing campaigns. 

Meta Keywords- Tags in your website code (website architecture) to help describe the content of the pages to search engines.

Meta Description- The text blurb that shows up in search results to describe a website.

Organic Search Results- Search engine results directly related to the relevance of the search words used; not any paid marketing effort.

Organic Traffic- Visitors to your website that you didn’t pay to find you. Their Google search terms led them directly to your website.

Inbound Link- When someone posts a link to your website from their website. This leads traffic to you and is important contributor to SEO.

Go Beyond SEO - Paid Advertising Terms

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)- The paid discipline of making your website easy to find on search engines. SEM works in tandem with SEO to increase the success of your website with sponsored listings, and pay-per-click advertising through programs like Google AdWords or Bing Ads.

Non-Organic Search Results- Search engine results that are influenced by paid marketing efforts.

Non-Organic Traffic- Visitors to your website that came through paid marketing campaigns

Impressions- The number of times an ad is viewed. 

Cost Per Impression- The dollar amount paid for each view. 

Pay Per Click (PPC)- A type of paid online advertising campaign. A business posts an ad on a website or search engine (like Google) and then pays the website or search engine each time that ad is clicked.

Cost Per Click (CPC)- The dollar amount paid for each click in Pay Per Click ad campaign.

Click Through Rate (CTR)- A measurement of success for online marketing campaigns. The percentage of people who saw a link (on a webpage, in an email, or as an advertisement) and clicked on it. Generally, the higher the CTR, the more successful the campaign.

Google Adwords- A service where you can purchase pay-per-click advertising from Google. This is a type of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to boost your Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Measure Online Marketing Success - Website Analytics Terms

Analytics- Measurements of what’s happening on your website/blog to provide valuable insight on how your website is found and used. Analytics include basic things like: how many unique visitors your website had and where those visitors came from, marketing campaign statistics, and which pages on your website have the most visitors.

Web Traffic- How many people land on your website.

Unique Visitors- A count of how many new, original people visited your website/blog. Even if they visited your website 10 times in one day, they are counted as one unique visitor.

Page Views- The total number of webpages viewed. Repeated views of a single page are counted as separate page views.

Bounce Rate- The percentage of visitors who leave a website without navigating beyond the first page.

Engagement Rate- The amount of interaction people have with your online presence. Engagement rate measures how many likes, comments and shares on your social media and blog.

Call to Action (CTA)-  A visual focal point on your website that invites customers to act. Common examples of Call to Action are “Buy Now” or “Signup Here” or “Enter your email”. 

Conversion Rate- The percentage of people visiting your website who participate in the Call to Action. For example, how many website visitors entered their email addresses when prompted or clicked the “Buy Now” button.

Online Marketing is essential for any business that wants to grow. Whether you want free or paid options for your business, this glossary is a great starting point to understand the basics. Bookmark this page to refer back to when creating your business’s online marketing strategy.

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A quick Google search of “DIY Website” and you’re bombarded with DIY Website Builder ads and articles that list your best DIY website options. You know your business needs a website, so DIY seems like a reasonable, cost-efficient solution, right? Not necessarily. 

As the use of smartphones continues to increase, so does the value of your website and online presence. Handing the important job of building your business’s website and online presence to professionals ensures the job is done right the first time.

Here’s why we love Do-It-For-You services and you should, too!

Professional Results

In an internet focused era, it’s not enough to have a website; it needs to be great. A poorly designed and implemented website can raise red flags for potential customers. Aesthetics and usability are extremely important- How does the customer feel when they look at your homepage for the first time? How easy is it for them to navigate the website and find the information they’re looking for? Web designers know what makes an attractive, intuitive website to give your customers the best possible web experience. Your website can be a truly valuable asset for your business and a professional team means professional results.

Save Time

As a business owner, your time is one of your most valuable assets. If you’re focused on your business, building your own website and online presence can end up eating up more time than you expect. Even once your business website is built, regular updates keep it relevant and interesting. Hiring a Do-It-For-You Service means a quality designed website built for functionality with a minimal time commitment from you. It also means it’s easier to make quick changes to your website like a new homepage banner to promote a sale, or adding new products to your online store for an upcoming launch. The less time you spend building a website, the more time you have for what’s important to you. 

Extend Your Team

Building a successful website encompasses a lot of details. Wouldn’t it be easier to hire a team of professionals to handle the tasks you don’t have the time and/or expertise to manage? Designing your website, building your website, writing content, setup of Google tools, maintenance of social media accounts, reputation management are time and energy consuming tasks. Instead of you trying to build it on your own, Do-It-For-You service will assign an entire team to your website so each task is completed by a dedicated professional. Your website should be a well-crafted and accurate reflection of your business; extend your team with the best people for the job.

Stay Up-To-Date

With features, trends, and product updates. While you’re managing other aspects of your business, it can be difficult to stay up to date with the latest technology news. As an ever-evolving field, the fast pace of website technology and trends can leave even a year old website looking tired and out-dated. Hiring someone to do it for you means your website is always fresh and current. A Do-It-For-You service will make sure your website technology is in line with industry standards and updated regularly to stay competitive, so you don’t have to. 

Focus On Your Business

There’s a reason you started your business; you’re knowledgable and passionate about what you do! Letting someone else design, implement and market your website means you can stay focused on your business. A Do-It-For-You service team will be knowledgable and passionate about technology. Let them build your website and online presence so you can spend your time and energy on what you do best, your business! 

Business owners are coming to recognize the value of having a strong online strategy. Whether they want to sell online, market online or simply have a content website, most small business know that being online can help increase their bottom line. Choosing Do-It-For-Me over DIY means no missed details and no time wasted. Your business’s website and online visibility are more important than ever. Consider hiring pros for the job; you’ll be happy you did! 

Speaking of pros, Webware’s Do-It-For-You Service means professional results for your business’s entire online presence, from website and design to digital services and online reputation management. Get a custom-design, mobile-friendly website that not only looks good, but also adds value to your business at webware.io. 

Exposing your small business to the online community means more than just setting up a website with your business address and contact information. It means creating a virtual version of your business, with an attractive, informative website and a social media presence. In this digital era, people use online search engines for almost everything they need. For many, Google search is the first place they go when they have a question or want to know more about something. Given the reliance on the internet today, not maintaining an active online presence can be potentially fatal for small businesses. If you are wondering how to get online, or how to take your business online, this post will explain why and how to establish a strong online presence.

Why Your Small Business Needs a Strong Online Presence:

• Visibility & Accessibility - Customers are more likely to turn to the web for research when they need information. They may either be looking for specific information on your business, services/products your business offers, or general information about your industry. Going online will give you the upper hand over your competition. The easier it is for your potential customers to find you, the more likely they will invest in your products and services.

• Build trust & confidence - A quality website, active social media, and an updated blog immediately give your business credibility to potential customers. It reassures clients that your business is established and trust-worthy. Open communication and quality customer service, through your website or social media, can help increase customer confidence and brand loyalty.

• Marketing & Ecommerce - In this new online era, the internet allows you to market to anyone, anywhere in the world. There are a number of online marketing and advertising avenues which can help extend your reach and increase both online and offline sales. Whether you’re displaying testimonials from clients or photos of your newest products, it’s never been easier to show the world what your business offers. Displaying your products or services on your website allows customers to easily learn about what your business offers.

How to Establish a Strong Online Presence:

• Website - A website serves a primary source of information about your business. The importance of local search is growing as we evolve. Most customers access the Internet, and use search engines to research everything, from entertainment to professional services. Having a website is the first step to interacting with your existing customers and attracting new customers to your business. Building an attractive, easily navigable website is a great first step to securing your online presence.

• Blog - Blogging significantly increases SEO and lands your business higher in Google search results. The more quality content on your website and the more often that content is updated, the more Google will favour your website over others. This is easily achievable with consistent, quality blog posts, relevant to your industry and business. A blog can also help establish your business as knowledgable and a go-to source of information for customers. 

• Social presence - Having your small business on recognized online platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest is essential in expanding your client base. Through these platforms, customers can learn more about you and your business. Webware offers its customers a Facebook Store, where a business can sell products directly from the business Facebook page. All your social platforms should display your expertise in your industry and maintain open communication with your customers.

• Webstore - If your business sells products, adding ecommerce to your website can increase your visibility online. Online shopping is a growing force in the retail market and can help you reach a new customer base, outside your local area.

• Reviews - People often check reviews to help them decide between products or services. People generally trust their peers so good online reviews can be a gold-mine for your business. Reviews also help increase your business’s ranking on the Google Search Results page. Again, the more quality content that links back to your website, the more Google will favour it. Install a Review widget (like Yotpo) on your website and encourage customers to write reviews about your products and their experience with your business.

The Bottom Line

In today’s Internet-focused world, a business that doesn’t maintain an active online presence will go unnoticed by Google and potential customers. To avoid being lost in the internet clutter, ensure your business is easily accessible both locally and across the globe.

Your website and social media presence are opportunities to make a great first impression.  Inspire trust and confidence in your clients from day one with a well designed and comprehensive digital strategy.

Webware is a leading cloud-based web platform designed for small and medium sized businesses. Businesses can use Webware and our expert support team to design, set up, manage, and grow a website or webstore.

Whether you’re starting an online business, taking your existing business online, or are ready to upgrade your website, Webware has all the key components for a successful digital business, all in one place:

1) Website

A website builds your brand, increases your business’s credibility and, ideally, will bring you more customers. But it’s a lot of work to build and maintain a website, even if you’re outsourcing the work.

Webware's Do-It-For-Me team will design a website to reflect your brand and give your customers an informative and easy-to-use online experience. Here’s how it works:

• The Webware expert team will start from one of our beautiful website templates, get your inputs and preferences, and build a website that fits your business brand and needs.
• Once it's built, you can run and manage the site yourself with our easy-to-use web-based tools.

With Webware, anyone can have a beautiful, mobile-friendly site at the lowest rates available, all within a quick delivery timeframe.

2) Webstore

Want to sell your products online? The Webware Do-It-For-Me Team will deliver a beautifully designed webstore, fully integrated with reputable payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe that support mobile-based transactions.

Site visitors can browse, add to cart, and make payments right from their smartphones, tablets or desktops, using our integrated, straightforward checkout process.

Then you can log into your Webware's Workspace to:

• Manage your products, orders, and customers from one, easy-to-use online Workspace.
• Create coupons to drive more sales and draw in customers.
• Add apps from our App Store for additional features, like customer service chat, surveys and reviews.
• View reports on order activity, visitor stats, and referral sites, so you can keep tabs on your business.

Webware's platform gives you all the tools you need to digitally manage your ecommerce business, from one convenient place.

3) Blog

Blogging significantly increases a website’s SEO and lands your business higher in Google search results. Whether you’re selling online or promoting your business with a website,Webware's blog platform is a great way to increase traffic to your website. It’s also a great place to link to content on your website and products/services on your webstore.

Your customers will experience a seamless transition between your website and blog, while you enjoy the convenience -- and SEO benefits -- of managing both from the same platform.

4) Social Store

Use social media to get your fans onto your website and convert them into buying customers! With the Facebook Store feature on Webware, you can sell your products on your business Facebook page.

Consumers love to research their potential purchases online and frequently ask their social networks for advice. Your Facebook fans can easily view your products on your Facebook page, and share them with their social networks. This will increase your reach and allows you to harness the power of word-of-mouth through social media.

When your fans want more information, or are ready to make a purchase, they click on the product from your Facebook Store and are taken to your website.

Social media is vital to online success - increase your web traffic and engagement with Webware’ Facebook Store.

5) Loyalty Program

Once your fans become customers, it’s important to treat them right to keep them coming back. With Webware's loyalty program, you can award points to customers who register with your website and/or make purchases. And you can decide how customers can redeem their loyalty points. A Loyalty Program helps increase customer satisfaction, customer retention and brand loyalty.

Conclusion

In today’s world, it’s imperative for businesses to have an online presence, and your website is the heart of it all.  But a static website alone is not enough. 

If you’re selling products online – whether it’s physical products, professional services, or takeout menu items – you need a secure, easy-to-use ecommerce store.  And extras like a blog, loyalty program, and social links are now critical elements to success.

And even for those businesses who are not conducting sales online, you still need your customers to find your website, learn about your business, gather the information they need to make an informed decision, and follow your call to action.

Webware's, with our team of experts, will design and setup your online business and give you the tools you need to manage it, all with minimal cost and effort to you.  For more info, start a free trial or contact us.

‘No Pain, No Gain’ seems to be the way things go for everything in life, whether it’s a fitness program or even an online business. No matter what it is we want to achieve, we have to endure a painful ordeal to get it, right?

Let’s look at all the hassles you will have to go through (or already have gone through) when you want to build an ecommerce store and/or take your business online.

PAIN #1: Finding the right designer

You need someone who can translate your vision for your website in a web-ready design, while keeping in mind all branding requirements.

PAIN #2: Finding the right developer

Then you need to find a website developer who can translate the visual design into a functioning website, keeping in mind user experience and functionality.

PAIN #3: Finding the right domain-selling and hosting company

You need to decide where to buy your website’s domain name from and on whose servers you will host your website. Understanding the choices and all the features offered requires major time spent just educating yourself on all of it.

PAIN #4: Finding the right payment gateway

If you’re selling online, you have to choose a payment gateway that is right for you, based on many different technical and non-technical parameters, then have your web developer integrate it with your website.

PAIN #5: Finding the right vendor for site maintenance

Once your site is ready and launched, you will need someone who will update and maintain your website on a regular basis. Often, the developer who built your site has then disappeared when it comes time to make changes!

PAIN #6: Finding the right fulfillment partner

Finally, if you’re shipping products to customers, you will also need to find the right logistics partner and then negotiate with him to offer you a reasonable deal.

THE BIGGEST PAIN: The Cost

More than anything else, you will need to start with a large capital investment to pay for all the above-mentioned professionals and expenses.

It is easy to see why so many people are put off by the thought of taking their business online.

But imagine if this process was not as convoluted or as expensive as it is right now… Would you let anything stop you from breaking the Internet barrier and offering your goods and services to the large number of shopping buyers online?

Meet Webware.

Webware is a DIY Online Store Builder. We believe that ecommerce has the power to transform the lives of small business owners, and that it should be as easy as possible for them to have a great website where they can promote their business and sell products. That’s why we’ve created an extremely easy-to-use platform that’s as effortless as managing your Facebook page.

With Webware, you get pain-free access to:

1. Create your own professional-looking website yourself in a matter of minutes using our beautiful website themes.  And they're all free, even the mobile responsive ones.  
2. Or you can have us build it for you in a matter of days, at about one-third the cost you’d pay a web developer!
3. Try out many different designs, colors and other elements of look-and-feel of the website, as many times as you want until you have a website that you like - and it’s all for free!
4. Web hosting on blazing-fast Amazon servers. And the hosting cost is included in your highly affordable monthly subscription.
5. The best Payment Gateways available, like PayPal and Stripe, pre-integrated into your website. Just enter your merchant account info and you’re ready to accept payments for orders.
6. Webware  tie-ups with several logistics partners to help you find the right fulfillment partners at reasonable rates.
7. Finally, Webware is such a simple platform to manage that you will be able to make any and all changes to your online store on your own. You’ll never have to rely on a developer again!

Webware offers a host of other features that make it easier for you to manage your website easily, like:

• Easy web-based tools to manage orders, update product info, and communicate with customers
• Integration with social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter
• Discount coupons and Loyalty programs to grow sales
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) friendly
• Blog platform hosted right on your site
• App Store with a wide range of third-party apps to plug into your site

Webware does not require any upfront or setup fees, so you avoid a large upfront capital investment, plus the monthly subscription prices that you pay are also extremely affordable. Check out our Pricing Page to see for yourself!

So, what are you waiting for? Join hands with Webware, and say good-bye to the pains of cobbling together a website and chasing elusive and expensive web developers! Set up your online store in minutes and watch as your business grows online!

Search engines like Google are the primary way in which your web site gets found by customers and interested parties. So, helping search engines find you is absolutely critical to your ability to build traffic to your site. The process of getting search engines to notice your site and report it in the search results is called Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO for short.

SEO is everything to do with managing how well and how high up you appear in the search results when a potential customer types in keywords relevant to your site. People rarely go beyond the first page of results, so your aim is to get into the first twenty search results for your keywords.

To clarify, this is different from being placed in the advertising sections of the search engine results page, ie, the ones in yellow on top, or in the right-hand column, of a search results page on Google. To appear there, you have to pay for a Google AdWords campaign.  That is a separate discussion.  Below the ads are called the “organic” search results, the unpaid ones.  You want to be as high on that list as possible, that is the purpose of SEO.

Since over 85% of searches are done on Google, we will focus on Google in this primer on SEO.  Here are some guidelines to consider.

1. Identify your keywords

This is THE most important step, so we’ll go in depth here.  Think about your business and your site content. What words or phrases are people likely to use when searching for sites like yours? Make a list of these, then go to the Google Keyword Planner and enter your words and phrases into the tool. In order to use the tool you need to create a Google AdWords account which is easy to do and is free.

Type in your preliminary list of keywords, and you will get two important results: search volumes and related searches. The “related searches” results will likely return some keyword options you did not think of, so add a few of those that you think work for you to your short list.

You can also type in the URL of your website in a separate box provided for the same. This allows Google to crawl through your website and identify the most common themes and return a list of keywords that are most likely to be appropriate. (If the results come up with keywords that are not directly related to your business, you may want to re-think the content of your website!)

Competitive vs. Niche Keywords

When you choose the keywords that you wish to optimize for, you can adopt one of two strategies – optimize for competitive keywords or for niche keywords. Some words naturally generate high search volumes and such words usually are of interest to a large number of web sites and hence are highly competitive keywords. For example let’s say you have an online store selling traditional wooden toys from Channapatna, which is a town famous for such toys. The key words “Toys” and “Wooden Toys” have search volumes of 12100 and 590 per month and are labeled as competitive. Now look at the search volumes for the keyword “Channapatna toys”. The volumes are reasonably high at 720 per month and the level of competition is low.

Now you could tune your SEO to the keyword “Toys” and try to get a high ranking and hence a high potential traffic volume from the 12100 searches every month. But you would need to do lots and lots of things better than the other toy web sites in order to earn that high ranking.

If you adopted the niche keyword SEO strategy, you would optimize for “Channapatna toys” and you would stand a good chance of attracting a percentage of the not so high but not so low search volume of 720 per month. In other words, one strategy is to aim for a small share of a large market and the other is to go after a large share of a small market. The choice is yours. Now, let’s explain what to do once you have selected all your keywords.

2. Create titles for each of your website pages

Page titles are what appear at the top of the browser when a page is displayed. It is part of the HTML code for the page. You should include two or three of your keywords which are relevant for that page in the page title. And try to keep the title short, so that it is not cut short by Google in the search results. As a general rule, stick to a max of 65 characters in your titles.

Also, place your keywords early in the title. For example:

"Pure leather handbags, style accessories | Aparna Fashions"

works better than

"Aparna Fashions | Your online store for stylish leather handbags and fashion accessories"

Try to have a unique title that contains some or all of the keywords you have selected for that page. Now do this for all the pages in your site. If you built the site yourself, you should know how to edit and create the page titles. If someone did it for you, give him or her the page titles to enter and upload.

3. Write appropriate Meta Descriptions for each page

Meta descriptions and keywords were originally used by Google as an input into deciding page ranking, but this is no longer the case. Google's various algorithm upgrades, ranging from Panda to Hummingbird in October 2013, have shifted the importance more towards natural content and away from backend manipulation. Meta descriptions however often appear in search results as the snippet below the page title. Because of this, you should think of your meta description as if it’s an ad for the page.

However, search engines are not obliged to use the meta descriptions you have added unless they really do reflect the page’s content correctly. If they don’t, the engines will simply use snippets from the page’s content and this may not always turn out to be in your best interest, depending on which snippet it chooses.

So, make sure that your meta description accurately matches the content of the page it points to. The best way to do this is to ensure that you use the prominent words that actually appear on that page, like your headlines, bullet points, etc. Make sure it is well-crafted and keep within the recommended limit of 150-160 characters to ensure it appears as a full message.

4. Write content that is search engine friendly

Google is smart. It will figure out if your content is of good quality and whether it addresses users’ search queries. So once you have your keywords, go through the copy text on your site and check whether you have used the keywords naturally AND added value and information relating to the keywords. Your content needs to be engaging to visitors, as this helps to build up your page reputation. Google looks at average time spent by visitors to your page, so your content needs to make the visitor want to linger. But if you fill page with irrelevant content, Google will punish you. You need to maintain the relevance by ensuring your keywords are naturally sprinkled throughout the page.

5. Make your images search engine friendly

Search engines cannot “read” images, so you need to associate some text with them to help the engines read the pictures. First of all, give your images descriptive file names. If the image is a picture of a Channapatna wooden toy car, give it the file name “channapatna_wooden_toy_car.jpg” and not some filename auto-generated by the camera.

Secondly, give the image an “Alt Tag”. This is a feature available on the platform you use to build your web site. In event of the image not being displayed, the browser will display the alt tag as text in the space reserved for the image. Also, provide a description of the image. Try to use a relevant keyword in your alt tag and in the description, and keep the description short and accurate.

Finally, keep your image file sizes as low as possible so that page loading time is minimized. Google considers loading time for the page when deciding on your search rank.

6. Carefully build external links to your site

Google measures your web site reputation by the number and quality of external links to your site. But the moment you have a link from a spam site, you risk being taken off the Google directory altogether. Hence it is better to have genuine back links in limited numbers rather than vast numbers of junk links.

So, submit your website for a listing on directories you are familiar with, those pertaining to your industry or trade, perhaps a locality guide, or even wider interest directories. Provide the option for visitors to share your web pages either on social media networks like Twitter or Facebook or to add the URL to social bookmarks like Reddit. In order to earn these shares, you need to have dynamic content on your site such as news feeds, and also have useful content like blogs or white papers that are valuable enough to be shared by visitors.

7. A caveat: do not try to fool Google

There are a bunch of disingenuous techniques called “black hat SEO” which some web sites use to try to get seen as more relevant and reputable than they actually are. NEVER do this, because you stand the risk of being blacklisted completely by Google. For example, do not put keywords into your metatags that are not relevant to the particular page. Do not have gibberish text full of keywords strung together in meaningless sentences. Do not conceal keyword-stuffed text on your site in small size fonts and/or same colour as the background. These are all tricks that Google knows about and will penalise you for.

Now What? Do not expect overnight results

SEO is an extremely important part of marketing your web site. There is no quick SEO solution. Once you start doing SEO, you’ll want to monitor how your site is ranking. You will find the movement sluggish at first. It takes a couple of months for Google to notice what you have done and then move you up the rankings. On your part, keep fine-tuning your SEO and when you do reach Page 1 of search results, do give us a shout by adding a comment below.

The future of SEO

Google is always tweaking or even modifying their search algorithm. The most recent update is called Hummingbird and was rolled out in September 2013. The principles that guide the new update are mobile search, social media, and author reputation. Mobile search will have more speech inputs and hence natural language. Social media and author reputation imply that Google+ will start playing a bigger role in search rankings, and so will the presence of your website and blog on social media networks. But these are the basics of DIY SEO, and they will not change in a hurry.

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Related Articles

How the Right Title Tags Can Improve the Performance of Your Website

Why Content Trumps Images for SEO

Google Announces Important SEO Update

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Related Webware Support Topics

An Overview of SEO

Adding SEO Meta Tags to Your Webwarer

Which of these describes you?

• I have an existing small business that I want to take online
• I want to sell products or services online
• I have little or no knowledge about web development
• I am in a hurry to get my online business started
• I have a limited amount of money to invest in building my business
• I want to test the business idea before putting a big investment behind it

If any of the above applies to you, then read on to learn how the new ecommerce platforms are starting a revolution of sorts, putting millions of entrepreneurs and their shops or businesses on the web, quickly and on the cheap. Just so you don’t get confused, here are some of the different terms used to describe this new service.  All of these mean the same thing:

• e-commerce platform
• hosted platform
• online store builder
• DIY e-commerce solution
• ecommerce SaaS application

The Old Way

The old way of setting up an ecommerce site was to go to a web developer and commission them to build a site. But there are issues with that approach, as this illustration shows.

And The New Way

E-commerce platforms are powerful tools which already incorporate the best practices of online selling. So business owners are not just getting a neat tool, they are also getting highly user-friendly, slick-looking stores with most of the necessary services like shipping and payment gateways available through a single point of contact.

Take a closer look at some of the online store builders out there. You can start with Webware. We have an easy-to-use service that’s perfect for first timers who want to start light and add features as they go along. And for those who want to build an online store over the weekend.

So many people out there have exciting business ideas, but they have one thing in common – they are new to doing business online. And naturally there are a lot of questions about how to get started. So if you have ever thought about going online with your own store but were not sure how to do it, read on.

1.Think about what you want to sell online.

It can be anything. Your business idea could be conventional or unusual ... Maybe your wife makes a very good masala powder for some dish, or you can source T shirts with funky designs real cheap, or you already have an offline business that you want to take online. Whatever your business idea, think about how you are going to source the goods and how you are going to deliver them to your customers.  

2. Give your business a name and register the name for your website.

So if your name is FunkyTees, then you might want to register www.funkytees.in. There aremany companies who do this for you online. Big Rock, net4india, and GoDaddy are some of the popular domain registering firms.  Just ensure that domain name is registered in your name and your email ID is associated with the domain for renewals and cancelations.

3. Build your online store.

This is the fun part. With the right online store builder platform, you can do it in as little as a day. The new e-commerce platforms make it possible for a businessperson with basic computer and internet skills to actually build an online store, stock it with merchandise, and dress it up just like a designer would. You can have sections in the store such as different sections for men, women, and children. Decide which products go into which section. Then upload pictures of the products you want to sell, give them names and short descriptions, decide on the pricing and your store is almost ready. You can play around with themes to change the look of your store until you find one that you really like.

Of course, you can also get a web developer to build you an online store from scratch, but not only will you need to make a large upfront investement, you will also likely to forever be dependent on the developer to make even the smallest changes on your website. An online store builder is not only quicker and easier, it gives you complete control of your online store.

4. Sign up for your payment gateway.

Don't get scared by the big words. You need a payment gateway to be able to accept payment from your customers via credit or debit card or online bank transfer. Your store builder or e-commerce platform will help you get your account set up and walk you through the application process. You will need some standard documents for the “Know Your Customer” (KYC) submission.

5. Sign up with a courier company for delivery of the goods you sell.

Initially you may want to try out a few different courier and delivery services. You can start with Indian Post and send your packages by parcel post. If your customer is in a hurry, then use a courier company like Blue Dart or First Flight. After your business picks up, do a deal to get bulk rates from these couriers.

These are the basics, but that's really all there is to get your feet wet in the fast growing world of e-commerce. You can be in business in as little as one week. After starting your shop, move on to the next stage of business development. Run some marketing campaigns to grow the business, develop new products, analyse who your customers are and serve their needs well.  As the number of people visiting your store builds up, so will your orders.

But the first step is to get started. So what are you waiting for? Get started today!