Five Website Mistakes That May Be Hurting Your Sales

Could your website actually be hurting your sales?

Just because you have a website doesn’t mean that it is working to convert visitors into customers. In fact, certain website factors could be causing you to lose site visitors and revenue. Take a look at the following five website mistakes to make sure that you are not committing these common, but detrimental blunders.

5. Not Being Found by Customers
What good is a website if customers cannot find it? SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can help your site be easily located for relevant search engine queries, resulting in more website traffic and revenue.

4. Difficult Navigation
If your site navigation is disorganized, you risk frustrating your visitors and missing out on the opportunity to convert them into customers. Make it easy for visitors to find the products and services that they are seeking by organizing your site navigation in a straightforward and logical manner.

3. Long Path to Purchase
Don’t complicate the purchase process with unnecessary fields or registrations on your ecommerce website. The more pages that your customers have to navigate through in order to make a purchase, the more likely you are to experience a high rate of shopping cart abandonment.

2. Slow Load Time
It is crucial that your site loads quickly in order to avoid a high bounce rate. Test your site using a free web tool to ensure that it is loading before your customers decide to look elsewhere. There are a few opinions as to how quickly your site should load, but I recommend no more than four or five seconds in order to avoid losing sales. If you do find that your site is loading too slowly, you can help to decrease that time by optimizing your HTML code and CSS, eliminating unnecessary or redundant items, and compressing images.

1. Ineffective Elements
How can you be sure if your content, images, headings, and other site elements are effective? Eliminate the guesswork and conduct multivariate tests to figure out exactly what works for your customers. Multivariate testing allows you to test multiple website elements simultaneously in order to determine which combination results in the highest conversion rate. Once you have statistical information that tells you which combination of website content, product images, headings, and price points produce the most conversions, you can dramatically increase your website revenue.

Need help improving your website’s effectiveness for increased conversions? Give us a call at 800.496.8001 or visit http://milestechnologies.com/.

Smart Technology: Predictable, Planned, Proactive

Failure to keep technology running smoothly is ultimately failure to keep a business running smoothly. The end result is lost data, lost productivity, and lost money spent on costly repairs that could have been prevented with regularly technology maintenance.

Here at Miles Technologies, we wanted to find a way to help our customers spend smarter by taking a proactive approach to their business technology needs. The solution? Monthly Budget Plans.

Here’s how it works: with a Monthly Budget Plan, a customer can receive a complete set of technology services for a predictable monthly rate. The plans are designed to be flexible, customizable, and free of obligation so that each customer can choose to continue or modify their plan on a month-to-month basis.

Included in the Monthly Budget Plans are IT infrastructure support and maintenance, website maintenance and updates, online marketing & PR activity, and custom or packaged business software support. The plans also include strategic consulting to focus on each business’ unique needs in order to make the best possible decisions for that business. There truly is no better solution for maintaining productive business operations within the unsteady economic conditions.

No one wants to waste money. So why do so many business owners do just that by waiting for their technology to fail before giving it the attention it deserves? With our Monthly Budget Plans, customers can take a predictable, planned, and proactive approach in order to keep their technology – and businesses – running smoothly.

The Key to Successful SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Wouldn’t it be great if you could mow your lawn once and have it stay freshly cut all summer long?

It’s a nice thought, but we know it’s just not possible. The grass is always growing, and sooner or later it will need to be cut again.

Mowing the lawn isn’t a “once and done” type of chore. If it’s going to be done right, then it must be done consistently. It is the same way with online marketing, and in particular, search engine optimization.

Because the internet is constantly being updated with new information, the search engines are constantly being updated as well. Unless your business is keeping pace with these changing tides, then you are in danger of becoming invisible to potential customers who are using search engines to look for your products and services.

Too many businesses look at search engine optimization as a “fix it and forget it” task. They spend a great deal of time and money on SEO initially, only to drop off and lose the results that they worked so hard to achieve. They actually end up wasting their resources on efforts that have very little impact over the long term.

So how do you make sure that your business remains in the online limelight? One of the biggest things you can do is to make regular, frequent efforts to increase your search engine visibility. Here are just a few tactics that you can employ on an ongoing basis in order to maintain a strong online presence.

Link Building: Gain quality backlinks by submitting your website to relevant directories, distributing online press releases, participating in targeted forums, etc.

Article Distribution: Writing relevant, industry-specific articles for online distribution will help to improve your online branding and search engine optimization.

Blogging/Social Networking: Interact with your target audience through blogs and other social media outlets for increased search engine visibility with the added benefit of boosting your online reputation.

Of course, there are a number of other ways in which to keep SEO in the forefront of your business plan, but these will give you a head start in surpassing your competitors and remaining relevant in the virtual marketplace.

Don’t make the mistake of taking a one-time approach to SEO. Be consistent, and be successful.

Findmymenus.com: Your South Jersey Menu Solution

Why is it that the more options there are, the harder it is to choose? Take South Jersey, for instance. We have plenty of great places to eat, yet deciding on just one restaurant that everyone in your family will enjoy isn’t always as easy as driving down the block and stopping at the first place you see.

When our team designed and developed findmymenus.com, we wanted to create a free, useful menu directory for members of the South Jersey Community. The site has menus from some of our best restaurants, representing nearly every type of cuisine from all price ranges.

You can narrow your choices down by location, and then click on a restaurant to see its menu. This way, you can settle on a place that everyone will agree on before you leave the house.

The best part about the site is that it’s free for restaurants, too. Any South Jersey restaurant can have their menu posted at no charge just by calling us at 800-496-8001.

So check out findmymenus.com the next time you’re looking for a restaurant that delivers lunch to your office, a caterer for your business meeting, or the perfect place to celebrate a special occasion.

Driving the Future of Business Technology Solutions

In the twelve years since Miles Technologies has been in business, our technology consultants have traveled in their own vehicles to provide onsite support to customers of all industries. I am pleased to report that this is no longer the case. We’re still traveling onsite, and we’re still providing the same comprehensive support, but now we are doing so in our Miles Technologies branded vehicles.

With the arrival of our first fleet of automobiles just three weeks ago, our employees are now traveling onsite in customized Ford Focuses. The cars have been wrapped using a large scale digital formatting process and now display Miles Technologies’ logo and graphics, contact information, and business technology service offerings.

We chose Ford for several reasons. First, the Focus has an excellent reputation for fleet maintenance. As a company that is constantly striving to achieve efficiency, the time and money that is required to keep our vehicles running well is important to us. Most importantly, choosing Ford gave us the opportunity to stimulate our nation’s economy and specifically, one of our big three automakers.

It is our responsibility as a business to support the economy that we depend on everyday and to provide our customers with unparalleled responsiveness in our service offerings. The Miles Technologies fleet is helping us to do both. With our growing employee and customer base, there is a good chance that we will be adding to our fleet in the future.

So be sure to say hello if you see us out on the road, and give us a call for technology solutions that get your business up to speed.

Smart Marketing – Part 2: Using Online Marketing to increase advertising response

Right now, I can’t think of a single business that can afford to spend money on advertising that will be ignored by potential customers. That’s the beauty of Online Marketing – it actively reaches out to your target audience, rather than waiting around to be noticed.

Let’s say that you own a flower shop, and that you want to advertise a Valentine’s Day sale on roses. A one page ad in the newspaper costs you $600 per day. You want the ad to run for five days, which costs you $3,000. How do you know who is going to see your ad? What are the chances that people who see your ad will actually respond to it? There’s no way to be sure.

On the other hand, you could run a five day pay-per-click online advertising campaign. Let’s say that you are willing to pay $3 per click, and that you set a daily budget of $600. You only pay when a customer clicks on your advertisement, and here’s the best part: people who see your advertisement are actually searching the internet for roses, on sale, in your area. Your ad is now much more targeted and much more efficient. You can even see exactly how much it costs you in online advertising to make a single sale. There’s no better way to determine whether or not your advertising efforts are providing value.

Questions about Online Marketing?  Call us at 800.496.8001 or visit us at www.milestechnologies.com.

Smart Marketing – Part 1: Attracting the right traffic, at the right time

It doesn’t matter how well-designed your website is, you will never make a single sale unless your customers know who you are and where to find you.

With more and more business being conducted online, it has never been more critical to have a strong internet presence so that you can be easily found by potential customers. If you aren’t aggressively pursuing internet visibility now, then you should seriously consider reevaluating your marketing strategy to make the shift.

Traditional marketing broadcasts your message to a passive audience who may or may not be interested in what you have to say. But Online Marketing appeals to a different kind of audience – potential customers who are actually looking for your products and services. The right online advertising campaign can help you to attract visitors to your website at the exact time that they are seeking your services. The idea is to gain more visibility and as a result, more sales.

Thanks to free programs like Google Analytics, it doesn’t get much easier to track the success of your campaign once it’s up and running. By showing you things like how many times your advertisement appears and how many potential customers respond to it, Google Analytics helps you to figure out exactly how well your Online Marketing is working and even helps you to fine-tune your efforts accordingly.

Measurable precision; you just can’t get that from print, television, or radio advertising.

Questions about Online Marketing? Call us at 800.496.8001 or visit us at www.milestechnologies.com.

Software That Makes Sense

Using software that is not adding value to your business is like keeping a car in your driveway that doesn’t have an engine. You can do it, but it won’t get you very far.

The right software should add value to your company, not cost. So how can you tell if your existing software is increasing your profitability or just weighing you down? It’s not as difficult as you might imagine. A good way to start is by taking the time to answer the following questions:

- Are you still doing a lot of things by hand?
- Do you have to enter data over and over into multiple in-house systems?
- Are you unable to get the reports that you need?
- Do you use MS Excel to manage key areas of your business?
- Have you ever felt that the present system doesn’t work the way your business does?

If you answered yes to any one of these questions, then it is probably time for a change. Advances in technology have brought forth some fantastic software solutions that can be tailored to fit the needs of your company.

Having the right system in place and knowing how to use it can produce a high return on your investment. Using technology to make business more efficient- it’s the heart of what we do here at Miles Technologies.

Want more information on how software can help your business run better? Give us a call at (800) 496-8001 or visit our website at www.milestechnologies.com.

A Proactive Approach to IT

What does system downtime mean for your business? Lost uptime usually means lost conversions, lost customers, and lost revenue. Those are things that few businesses can afford, and yet few take steps to avoid.
A proactive approach to IT can help your business to minimize downtime and keep systems running smoothly. Here are two simple ways to be proactive about your IT systems.
1. Monitor Your Networks
Ideally, your business should have someone watching over its network, servers, workstations, and applications all day, every day – not just during regular business hours. This way, in the event of a system crash, the issue can be resolved right away, minimizing downtime for your website and avoiding prolonged service outages.
Not only will IT monitoring keep your networks operating at peak efficiency, but by identifying and resolving system limitations early, you can also prevent costly collapses before they happen.
2. Protect Your Networks
Another proactive approach to maintaining your IT systems is through firewall implementation and management. A firewall is a hardware or software device that limits access to a computer network in order to prevent unauthorized intrusion.
A firewall is an important component of your overall IT maintenance strategy, working to prevent dangerous intrusions that not only pose a threat to information security, but can infect and shut down your entire system, resulting in unnecessary downtime.
By employing Proactive Information Technology Services to keep systems running smoothly, your business can optimize its time on the web, safeguard important information, and run at peak efficiency.
Have questions? Call us today at (800) 496-8001 or visit us at http://www.milestechnologies.com/.

Making the Most of Your Online Reputation

Never underestimate the power of word of mouth, especially when it’s traveling at megabits per second.

As Google secures its status as the go-to place for any and all information, the use of internet forums, blogs, and discussion boards is becoming increasingly influential. The instantaneous pace of global communication is changing the way the public sees you and your company – and what’s being said online matters like never before.

When search engine results make your first impression for you, your reputation is at the mercy of online word of mouth that is easy to pass along, yet difficult to reverse. Positive reviews are highly beneficial as they’re more visible than ever, but negative reviews that stem from disgruntled customers or personal agendas can cause immediate, significant damage to your personal and professional reputation. No one can afford that kind of adverse publicity, even if it is free.

The question is – exactly how do you protect and defend your reputation from unpredictable public scrutiny? Ideally, you could try to prevent negative reviews before they happen, but that isn’t always going to be feasible due to the impulsive nature of some internet users. When hostile reports just can’t be avoided, you may need to rely on Reputation Management to restore your good name.

Reputation Management can defend against personal attacks and preserve your company’s positive brand image by using strategic Search Engine Optimization and profiling to generate positive material and make negative results difficult to find. Whether you’re suffering from the effects of a damaged reputation, or making a proactive attempt to monitor and bolster your image, every individual and business can benefit from Reputation Management.

Right now, public opinion is more powerful than ever. Make the most of it.

For more details on Reputation Management, call us at (800) 496-8001, or visit our website at www.milestechnologies.com.