5* Web Design 2020 | Monthly Website Design

5 Google ads mistakes to avoid

Internet users strongly rely on search engines to provide them with the content they’re looking for. Google in particular is not only noted as the largest search engine, but statistically also accounts for over 85% of search traffic on desktop and mobile devices, globally.

As marketers, we’re constantly having to stay on top of industry changes to have a clear understanding of these components and how they can positively or negatively influence advertising.

We sat down with our in-house Google specialists, who collectively have more than 20 years’ experience in Google advertising and got some valuable insight. While they deem Google a worthy investment that can yield excellent results, they raised some key mistakes to avoid.

Low quality score on your landing pages

Who you are speaking to and the relevance of your ad to its specific audience are crucial factors in advertising. Knowing who you are speaking to and showing them what they want to see has a major impact on your quality score.

Quality score, in a nutshell, consists of: your ad quality, keywords and landing page experience. The better your quality score, the better your ads will perform. This results in a better clickthrough rate, better ad ranking and paying less for clicks.

Broad geo-targeting

The more specific you are with the area and keywords you’re wanting to target, the less likely you are to waste budget. Broad geo-targeting will reach people who are either not interested or not close to where you’re based.

Not doing conversion tracking

In a world that is rapidly advancing in terms of tech and internet usage, all marketing efforts should be centred around conversion tracking.

You need to know and understand what works and what doesn’t. You may, for instance, find that you’re getting lots of clicks from mobile users, but they aren’t converting. On a laptop however, the conversion rate is better. This means your efforts and budget is better invested where your conversion rate is better. A better conversion rate = a better ROI.

Not implementing negative keywords

The keywords you’re looking to target or rank for are important, but so are the keywords you should be excluding (negative keywords). When you add keywords unrelated to your product or service to your negative keyword list, you’re essentially telling Google to not show your ad for any searches containing the negatives.

Bidding broad

Lets say you’re selling leather shoes, your focus should be the audience specifically looking for leather shoes. When you bid broad and include the keyword “shoes”, you’re likely to waste budget as “shoes” is a broad and general keyword that could include people looking for “sports shoes / running shoes / hiking shoes” etc.

For businesses, Google advertising is a means of marketing that effectively allows you to capitalise on the thousands of searches that take place daily. Through targeted ads and avoiding some of these common mistakes, you can reach and advertise to your intended audience within your budget.

Why aren't people visiting my website

When you’ve invested time and money into getting a website up and running, a lack of traffic, and more importantly, quality website traffic can be frustrating and bad for business.

Below, we dive into some factors that contribute to your website’s performance and what can be done to improve its overall performance.

You are not advertising
The internet is a jungle that’s anyone’s game. Lots of traffic (potential customers) means lots of competition. When you’re not advertising your website (business), you can’t expect to make money.

And while advertising usually comes at a cost, there’s ways in which you can help market your website that carries little to no advertising cost.

Ramp up your SEO game, it’ll help with your organic rankings.
Include your website link on your social media pages and in your email signature.

Your website is not ranking
Ranking in search engines increases your website’s visibility, and this directly impacts the amount of visitors your website will get. When people search for your product or service, you want to rank on the first page.

To do so, there are a few factors you’ll want to consider:

Understanding what SEO is and how it will benefit your business.
Installing Google analytics, it helps you monitor and analyze data from all platforms.
Installing Google search console, it helps you understand and improve how Google perceives your website.
Installing an SEO plugin, like Yoast or SEOprofiler.

Irrelevant content
Content will always reign supreme in all aspects of the digital realm. That is why your content should be relevant, unique and engaging.

Make sure your website isn’t text heavy, if it contains too much text, people will lose interest.
Check for spelling and grammatical errors. You don’t want to come across as unprofessional.

Your website is not secure
The internet is laden with hackers and viruses that pose a threat to your website. When your site not is secure, visitors will be hesitant to visit your website or share their information with you. This can ultimately result in a negative reflection of your business.

To safeguard your website against potential threats, you need to:

Install an SSL certificate
Do constant backups
Make use of anti-malware software
Update your website from time to time

It’s not indexed
Indexing a website simply refers to the process by which a search engine adds web content to its index by means of “crawling” to gather and process the data from pages.

Here’s how to get your website indexed:

You need to submit your website to search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ask.com etc)
Install Google Search Console and Google Analytics

Website loading speed is slow
There’s nothing as frustrating as visiting a website, only to find that the contents thereof takes ages to load. This will cause your visitors to lose interest, and will result in them leaving your site.

Not mobile-friendly
Perhaps 10 years ago a website designed for mobile viewing wasn’t as relevant. But times have changed, and mobile usage has drastically increased. This means, designing with mobile in mind is one of the most important factors as the number of mobile users outweigh PC users.

Outdated
Updating an outdated website is like giving a house a fresh coat of paint. It’ll look as good as new and is more likely to get people’s attention. More importantly, an outdated website doesn’t perform well and won’t give you a good return on investment.

Staying on trend and changing with the times will increase your chance of getting website visitors.

In order for your website to yield the results you’re hoping for, it’s worth noting that none of the above factors act in isolation. Collectively, it will help improve your website and improve its visibility.

Fully designed website from R299 per month

A fully designed website from as little as R299 a month? The surprise in people’s tone or facial expression often makes it sound too good to be true. But if you’re wondering whether it’s true or possible, the simple answer is YES, it is.

Throughout the 6 years that we’ve been operating, we’ve always believed and maintained that every business, regardless of how big or small you are should have a website. And more importantly, you shouldn’t have to put your house up for sale to afford one.

On average, agencies tend to charge between R7 500 - R15 000, or more for a website. And this price doesn’t always include the cost to maintain the site. So, you’re essentially looking at a once-off design fee plus an additional hourly rate for maintenance that can range anywhere between R350 - R500 an hour.

With the number of small businesses in South Africa increasing at a rapid rate, we know and understand that paying a large lump sum is not always feasible for small businesses.

And for this reason, we have chosen to position ourselves as the “web partner” every small business needs.

Packages

We have 4 pricing options that accommodates both your needs and budget.

1. Splash page website
A splash page is a static one page website that contains your company details: logo or company name, contact details (contact number, email address) and services.

This option generally suits start-ups with a limited budget. Although it is only a one-page website, you’re still able to display your services and have a business email.

What is included?

Splash page only
.co.za domain name
1 email address
1GB hosting

Price: R99p/m

2. Startup website
Our startup package is ideal for businesses that requires a little more than what a splash page offers, but doesn’t contain a large amount of information.

What is included?

.co.za domain name
5GB hosting
Complete website design up to 5 pages
3 stock images
5 email addresses
1 hour free monthly maintenance and support for any updates and / or changes
A gallery with images of your products (no individual product listing)
List of your services
Mobile-friendly and mobile responsive

Price: R299p/m

3. Business website
If you’re an established business in need of a website that can accommodate a large amount of content, then a business website will be the perfect fit.

A business website is generally best suited for blog or news sites, product catalogues or guesthouses to name a few.

What is included?

Complete website design up to 25 Pages
.co.za domain name
25 email addresses
25GB hosting
Dedicated designer
High converting landing pages
5 stock images
1 hour free monthly maintenance
Mobile-friendly and mobile responsive

Price: R499p/m

4. Shopping cart
With a shopping cart design you can easily and conveniently sell your products online.
What is included?

Unlimited products - we load the first 20 products/items/listings and give you full guidance and access to load more at your convenience
An online ordering system
An integrated payment gateway (we recommend: PayFast, Shopify or PayGate)
Full product image and descriptions
.co.za domain name
25 email addresses
50GB hosting
1 hour free monthly maintenance
Mobile-friendly and mobile responsive

Price: R699p/m

How it works
Our process is fairly simple. If you wish to sign up for any of our packages, our sales team will make contact and can assist with any questions you may have. They’ll forward the necessary documentation to start the process

Once we’ve received the completed paperwork, we then proceed to either register or transfer your domain.

In the interim, a project manager will get in touch to guide you through the content requirements (check our FAQ) for your website. When we have all that is needed, your website will go into production.

Within 5 working days we’ll present the first draft, this way, you’re able to check that all is in order and advise on any changes if or where necessary.

When you’re 100% satisfied, we’ll make your website secure, mobile-friendly and submit it to Google for indexing before going live.

Affordable Website Design in South Africa

A website is instrumental to the online success of any business. And for this reason, we believe every business, both big and small, should have a website. More importantly, we believe a website should be affordable.

But what exactly is affordable web design and what does it entail? Firstly, affordable does not mean cheap. Affordable refers to reasonably priced, while cheap implies low cost and low quality.

As a web design company who has helped 1 000’s of small businesses in South Africa, we’ve destigmatized the notion that affordable translates to low quality websites.

We’ve grown to understand not every business can afford the price tag most agencies put on a website. And our ability to provide businesses with an affordable website that doesn’t compromise on quality or functionality has set us apart from many other web design agencies in South Africa.

Furthermore, our affordable web design promise to small businesses ensures:

We meet our clients’ needs and standards
We strive to constantly improve and stay on top of industry trends and technological changes.
We make it our mission to keep your website on trend and updated.
We offer affordable website design packages that fit your budget and needs.

In addition to affordability, we believe in transparency, and allow you to make changes to your website when necessary. With Joomla and Wordpress CMS (Content Management System) as the backbone systems of our designs, we make it convenient for you to have complete access to your website.

If you’re looking for a company who can help you get your business online and grant you access to affordable web design in South Africa, get in touch with us!