Webadoodle

Website tips for small businesses no. 26
How to choose a good domain name
Probably the best thing to do is to use your company name unless there's a good reason not to. Think what someone would assume your domain name would be and go with that!
The main thing is to keep it memorable, simple and easy to spell.

Make sure that you use standard UK spellings. Don't do anything that's too crazeee.
Don't make it too long, don't make it too complicated for example with lots of underscores.
Think about how people are likely to write it down.
A good test is to imagine yourself saying it to somebody over the phone. If you've got to explain it and spell it , it probably isn't going to work all that well. Whereas, if it's easy to spell, it's memorable and it's what people expect, it probably will work quite well.
Generally speaking, for UK based companies, you'd want to go with.co.uk although many British companies do favour .com. If you wish to, you could always register both and just point one to the other.
If you know a friendly website designer then please ask them for their advice, because they're probably going to be able to give you some real help with this.
There you have it. My tips on how to choose a good domain.
Have you spotted any particularly good or bad domain names? My own bugbear is why is B&Q's domain name DIY.com?
More detail in the video.




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Hi! I'm Zena from Webadoodle
I create websites to help service-based small businesses grow. Making it easy for you to make the right impression & be found online.
Fresh and modern websites for SMEs, sole traders & startups.
Wix websites you can run yourself.
Website audits with practical bespoke tips so you can transform your own website.
Power hours - pick my brains!........................................

I'm posting tips like this every Wednesday. If you are finding them useful then maybe you'd benefit from one of my website design audits. I'll look at your website and give you clear, specific and actionable tips on how you can transform your website yourself.

https://www.webadoodle.co.uk/website-design-audits

Website tips for small businesses no. 25

Check you have backups and you know how to access them.

I know it sounds boring but think how you'd feel if something went horribly wrong with your website. A few minutes now could save you a lot of heartache later.

If you have a cloud based service, it's quite likely that your website is being backed up regularly. But it might not be the case, so you need to double check with your provider.

And secondly, check how you would actually access those backups. Do you know how to restore to an earlier version of your website?

I'll give you an example. I do all my websites on Wix, and one of the reasons I chose Wix is because it's very robust and they do regular, automatic backups. They also provide a very easy way to roll back to earlier versions of the website. So, every time I publish a website or make major changes, it will save a version, and I can easily roll back to whichever version I prefer at any time.

Many hosting services offer something quite similar. But it's essential that you check now to make sure that is the case and that you know how to access those backups. You never know when you might make a real mess of things. Or you you might get hacked. So check it now for your peace of mind.

Do it now! Yes, I'm looking at you! 😂

More detail in the video.






..........................................

Hi! I'm Zena from Webadoodle

I create websites to help service-based small businesses grow. Making it easy for you to make the right impression & be found online.

Fresh and modern websites for SMEs, sole traders & startups.

Wix websites you can run yourself.

Website audits with practical bespoke tips so you can transform your own website.

Power hours - pick my brains!

Website tips for small businesses no. 23

Make sure your Call to Action (CTA) is easy to find by keeping the design and position consistent.

Last week, we talked about the importance of having consistency in the visual elements on your website. I want to expand on that today by talking about consistency in the visual appearance and also the location of the calls to action on your site.

Two or three months ago, we talked about calls to action. You can have a look back at that video if you'd like some advice on what your call to action should be. But briefly, your call to action is what you want the visitor to do. So it might be "Call me!", "Book an appointment", "Buy now!". It normally takes the form of a button.

Ideally your CTA button should be in a contrasting colour to everything else on your website, so that it really stands out and it's easy for your visitor to find. It should have a consistent design. So if you have used a rounded button with a certain font on the homepage, keep it looking like that on the other site pages. Ideally keep the wording consistent too, unless there's a good reason not to.

The point is that you're trying to teach your visitor to recognize the call to action button, so that when they are ready to click on it, it's easy for them to find.

For that very same reason, you want to be consistent and logical in where you locate that button.

Normally, you would have that call to action button at the very top of the page in the header and at the very bottom of the page, so that when people scroll to the bottom page, they know where to go next. If it's a very long page, you might also want to judiciously dot it throughout the page.

The main takeaway here is be consistent. Make it easy for the visitor to find both by how it looks and where they're going to find it.

This will make your website a lot easier to navigate so it will be easier for the client to take the action that you want them to take when they are ready to take it.

More detail in the video.










..........................................

Hi! I'm Zena from Webadoodle

I create websites to help service-based small businesses grow. Making it easy for you to make the right impression & be found online.

Fresh and modern websites for SMEs, sole traders & startups.

Wix websites you can run yourself.

Website audits with practical bespoke tips so you can transform your own website.

Power hours - pick my brains!

Website tips for small businesses no. 22

Be consistent with the visual elements on your website.

Choose a nice, harmonious color palette and use it consistently throughout your website. You may pick a contrasting color for your call to action, for example, but in general stick to a limited palette and use it consistently through the site. This will give a feeling of harmony and unity.

Similarly, choose one or two fonts and use those in just one or two colors consistently throughout your website. It will look much more professional.

If you use any design elements, for example a motif or a little cartoon that forms part of your brand, use it systematically and consistently throughout your website. Again, it will give a sense of harmony. It will be pleasing to the eye and therefore more professional. It's a cheat's way of adding a bit of class to your website.

Would you like another cheat's tip? Why not design a few repeatable blocks? Take a designed block that you really happy with, then copy and paste it in different parts of your site. Simply change some of the text and swap out the photo, but keep a consistent layout.

Consistency looks professional, but don't over do it. Make sure that your pages don't all look the same as each other. They should look like they're part of a harmonious whole. But it should be obvious, when you move from one page to another, that something has changed so the visitor knows they have successfully reached a new page.

Have a look on your website. Have you been consistent? Or does it chop and change a lot? Make it consistent. It'll really help the professional appearance of your website.

More detail in the video.






..........................................

Hi! I'm Zena from Webadoodle

I create websites to help service-based small businesses grow. Making it easy for you to make the right impression & be found online.

Fresh and modern websites for SMEs, sole traders & startups.

Wix websites you can run yourself.

Website audits with practical bespoke tips so you can transform your own website.

Power hours - pick my brains!