With more people searching and researching companies online, your website could easily be the first thing a potential customer sees about your business. Having a website design that hasn't been updated in years conveys that your company doesn't belong in 2010. Depending on the business, it is imperative to keep your website up-to-date. There are a few simple ways you can see if it is time for you to revamp your website. Your Style is Outdated - Your website should be informative, not distracting. Clip art, flashing animation, outdated colors, and distracting backgrounds are all guilty practices many websites fall into. Look ...

Small businesses are planning on doing more online marketing in 2010, according to studies from Vistaprint and Ad-ology. Small businesses are looking to increase their marketing plans for social media (14%), online and search advertising (11%). Also, only 38% of small businesses currently have a company website, but 32% of respondents said they would be interested in building a website if they had more time and money to spend on it. In a separate survey, Ad-ology found that 46% of US small businesses did not have a website. With more small businesses becoming interested in online marketing, it is critical to have a website ...

Having a great website can easily be your best marketing tool. Potential customers can learn about your company and its products and services. Only 3% of buyers from various companies say a website has no influence at all over a purchase decision, according to a survey by RainToday.com. A professional services website has had an increasing influence on purchasing decision over the past four years. The survey reports that a website holds at least some influence over 74% of buyers' decision. This is up from 2005 where it was only 51%. A professional design with valuable content, pictures, and information can help ...

2010 is well on its way and it can be easy to get caught up in the day-to-day activities. However, with the year still new, it is important to reflect on your business' 1-to-1 marketing and see if you are effectively executing your online solutions. Here are a few things to review and see if they are being properly utilized. Review your website. Look at your website with a fresh set of eyes. Is the information you want conveyed properly to your target audience? Could new visitors quickly find information about your products and services? Are you clearly highlighting how to find ...

Having a website that loads quickly does more than just help your visitors, it also helps your organic rankings on Google. Having a site that is image-heavy and uses things like AJAX, XML, and Flash could hurt after a certain point. Google announced a Site Speed site that provides resources to webmasters to speed up their pages. A faster loading website leads to a reduction in bounce rate of the site, more leads, greater chances of conversion, reduction of bandwidth and hosting costs and more. Here are some things that could be slowing down your website load time: Slow re-direct Hosting on a slow server Using ...

Now that the holiday season is here, there will be plenty of people searching online for the perfect presents to get their friends and family. To help your site perform the best it possibly can, it is best to try to reduce shopper cart abandonment. These are generally people who you were able to draw to your Web site with marketing, but were discouraged in some way. According to the 8th Annual merchant Survey, conducted by PayPal and comScore, here are some of the reasons why shoppers abandoned their shopping cart. High shipping costs If the shipping on an item seems to double ...

When running your own E-commerce site, there are plenty of obstacles that can prevent visitors from actually purchasing something from your website. According to the Retail/ E-Commerce Industry Report Q2 2009 from iPerceptions, some of the top barriers to buying were: Didn't find what I wanted (34%) Website navigation/usability (13%) Too little product information (8%) A bad website design is an simple deterrent for customers. If visitors can't easy find your product and services on your website, then they are less likely to become customers. The experts at OneIMS will guide you through a variety of available options to develop and deploy powerful websites. For ...

Are you at the point in your business where it is time to consider building a website? First of all, that is a great idea, and very critical to the growth of your business. Technology is advancing and more people are moving to online platforms for purchases, research, and decision-making processes. Your website needs to be your online storefront. Just as you were purchasing or renting a physical store space or business office, your website needs to be treated as a similar investment. The long term benefits are remarkable. If you don’t have a website, or your website is sub-par, ...

We are all familiar with the adage: “If everyone was jumping off a cliff would you do it too?” While the correct answer may be no, it is not always the case. In today’s highly competitive market, being everywhere and doing as much, if not more than your competitor, is compulsory. I have heard from many small business owners that they have managed to survive for years (even decades) without a website, so why get one now? While not having a website may not have made a significant impact on their sales years ago, today’s world is very different, and ...