Before you launch into your next website development, we recommend that you set aside some thinking time so you can develop a strategy for your website that is aligned to your overall business goals.

Start by determining the purpose of the website

Most businesses know they need a website, and often get one designed so they can tick it off from their list of marketing requirements. It’s very tempting to send through lots of content and a few thoughts to your web firm and tell them to ‘go for it’. If they’ve got a good understanding of your business and a marketing mind then you may well get back a website that will really add to your marketing efforts. But why take that kind of chance? Depending on the size of your business, it could take up a considerable chunk of your marketing budget. So you want to get it right. Without a clear purpose it’s also impossible to measure the site’s actual effectiveness. Once you know the purpose of the site you can come up with a number of ‘calls to action’ to get your visitors completing the goals you have. Examples include: join your mailing list, pick up the phone and call you, print off a voucher, request more information via a web form, or buy an item online.

Work out your target audience and what they need from your site

Most websites have multiple audiences, and one of the best ways to plan for their requirements is by using ‘personas’. A persona is a fictional character who has a background story. You can then brainstorm on how the persona (for example, Jane Smith, 32, professional, lots of disposable income, socially and environmentally responsible) will use your website. You’ll be surprised at how quickly ideas will spring forth from this exercise, as it really helps to say things like ‘Jane would like that we are carbon neutral and donate to good causes’. Personas are part of what is termed user-centric design, which at its most basic is designing a website around the needs of your users.

What type of content will attract people via search?

Getting traffic from the search engines should be one of your top priorities. Your corporate pages (About Us, Services) should rank highly for your main keyword phrases (the terms that describe your offer). You will also want to capture traffic from what is called the ‘long tail’ of search. These are search phrases that are very specific. An example long tail search might be ‘what is the weather like in New Zealand in June’. The best way to attract this type of search traffic is by writing articles or blogs on a regular basis. This can be hard work as it’s not always easy to come up with new ideas on the spot. But once you have one idea, it’s not long before you have a dozen. We recommend that you set some time aside for idea generation. You don’t have to write everything at the same time, but having a content plan for the next few months (at least) will take some of the pressure off.

Don’t try to do everything at once

Phase your website development, as doing everything in one go increases the complexity of the site and the development time. It’s better to have a site live now rather than delay it by trying to make it perfect from the get-go. A website is always a work in progress, and once you have some metrics on what is going on with your web visitors you’ll find you are in a much better position to make intelligent and well-informed improvements as you go. And lots of small changes can really add up to large changes over time.

If you’ve got questions about developing your next website give us a call on 03 366 33 40 or email info@tmlwebdesign.co.nz. We are happy to answer your questions and discuss your requirements with you.

Thirteen minutes after publishing our most recent blog post on ‘how to market your restaurant online’, we ran some web searches in Google.co.nz to see if the post had been picked up by Google. As you can see from the screen shots below, the blog was ranking for keyword phrases within 13 and 18 minutes respectively.

Now that’s impressive.

Found in Google after 13 minutes from publishing.

Just 18 minutes after publishing the post we're number two in Google.co.nz

“Most people just want to get in, get it and get out. For them the web is not a goal in itself. It is a tool.” Usability expert Jacob Nielsen,

We couldn’t agree more. But with the advent of web 2.0 it is all too easy to get sidetracked with the latest internet fads and web trends. Don’t get us wrong, we love innovation and the cool new things you can do online, but we know from experience that many web surfers are frustrated that their basic information requirements are not being met.

Many people use websites in quite simple ways. Often they are just after an address, a phone number or opening hours. So keeping it simple is often better, and if you can cross off the items from our checklist below, then your website visitors will be respond positively to your site. And that means more enquiries and ultimately more revenue – something every business can do with right now!

Once you’ve got the basics right, you can advance to the fancy stuff – that’s if you really need it.

So, here are some of the 10 website basics you need to get right:

1. Put your phone number on your homepage – and make it really obvious. You’ll be surprised at how often people just go to sites for the phone number. Your customers will love you for it.

2. Add your full contact details to your website footer (the space at the bottom of the page – address, email, fax, phone, etc).

3. Your contact page should be one click away from your homepage. We recently heard of a site where it took three clicks to get to the contact page.

4. Have an enquiry form on your contact page and keep it short and to the point. People are busy and don’t respond well to long web forms with endless questions.

5. Have a Google map on your contact/location page and keep it up to date via Google Local Business Centre.

6. Make opening hours really obvious (preferably on the homepage), and then repeat them again on another relevant page.

7. Tariffs and pricing – make them really obvious, especially if you are in the tourism or hospitality industries.

8. Less is often more. People do not want to scroll through screeds of text about how fantastic you are. They want to know the essentials and how it benefits them.

9. Make sure it is obvious what you want your web visitors to do on your site, such as completing a survey or an enquiry form, or joining your mailing list.

10. Keep bullet point lists to 7 or less items. People can only take in 7 items at a time.

So is there room for improvement with your website? Yes? Then give us a call 03 366 3340 for a consultation, or email info@tmlwebdesign.co.nz.

When it comes to finding somewhere to go for dinner or lunch, people are increasingly using the web to find restaurants. Discovering special offers and reading feedback from other diners online seems to be the way forward when it comes to selecting where to eat.

Ensuring your website projects a positive first impression is essential in today’s market. In response, we have developed a web design and online marketing package specifically for the needs of restaurant businesses, and as a result, we have put together a list of our top website tips for restaurateurs.

First up, here are a few quick observations:

1. According to the Google AdWords Keyword tool, during April 2009 there were 14,800 search queries for the phrase ‘restaurant Auckland’ and another 2,400 for the phrase ‘Auckland restaurants’.
2. If you do a search for this phrase in Google.co.nz, only one restaurant website is in the top ten of the Google results. The rest of the results are dining and travel guides.
3. Google Maps are being displayed above the main search results.

So what does this mean for your restaurant website?

1. You must have your website search engine optimised for the phrases people are actually searching for (check the AdWords tool for more on this).
2. It will be difficult, but not impossible, to rank above the dining guide websites. This will require a concerted and ongoing promotional campaign of link building, search engine optimisation and fresh content.
3. If you can’t beat them in Google (the dining sites) then make sure your restaurant is listed on them and keep your details up to date.
4. Your business must be listed in Google Maps. Take full advantage of this listing by optimising your content on it.
5. There is a lot of competition online, so your website must make a great first impression and provide all the necessary details people need to make a decision.

What you should have on your website:

• Opening hours – the days and hours you are open.
• Capacity – how many diners can you seat? What’s the biggest group booking you can take?
• Functions – can people book out the entire restaurant?
• Wheelchair access – how accessible is your restaurant to diners in wheelchairs or with limited mobility?
• Menus – add all of your menus (breakfast to dinner and beverages) onto your website as either web pages or as PDF documents that can be downloaded.
• The telephone number must be highly visible (put it up the top and have it on every page), don’t just add it to your contact page.
• Credit cards – which ones do you accept? Let them know online and avoid that uncomfortable moment when diners realise they can’t pay with their preferred card.
• A location map – preferably a Google Map so people can enter in their address for directions to the restaurant. List all of your locations if you have several restaurants.
• Parking – is there any available or can you recommend a good place to park? Will the customers be required to pay for parking?
• Reservations – make it really clear if reservations are required and how much notice you need (if any). It should be obvious how they can make a reservation. Do you take reservations online? Can diners reserve a specific table?
• Your license – are you fully licensed or BYO?
• Food allergies – is there anything people should know about your cooking methods?
• Special diets – can you accommodate someone who wants to order something that’s not on the menu?
• Add your reviews and diner testimonials. Reviews from local papers and magazines are always great, but the older the review the less credible it’s going to be (anything over a year old is probably losing some of its gloss).
• Specials of the day – don’t just put these on a blackboard, login and add them to your website as well. This will blow people away as practically no one does it.
• Add coupons to your website – one free glass of wine with each main ordered etc.
• List your events or theme nights – do you ever have live music? Is Tuesday steak night?
• Have photos of your food and of people enjoying their meals (your website must convey the experience they will have when dining with you).
• Make sure your content is well written, persuasive and free of typos, spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.

Online Marketing Methods

Having a great website will only get you so far – you’ve got to support it with other marketing methods. Here’s a few to get you started.

Email marketing – this is a relatively inexpensive tool but extremely effective. We know of restaurants that have been able to book out entirely within 36 hours by running a promotion through their mailing list. Step one is to have a great email marketing system (we happen to know of one).

Next you need to make it very easy for your customers to join your mailing list; either get your staff to collect their details at the end of the meal or have a glass jar where people can drop in their business cards. Ideally, you want to get their birth date recorded so you can run monthly promotions around birthdays. Whatever method you use to collect details, make sure you have made it clear that you’ll be adding them to your list.

Have a newsletter sign up form to your website that uses a ‘double opt-in’ function. With double opt-in, the subscriber will get an email asking them to confirm they would like to go onto the list. Give them a good reason to go on the list (‘email only’ offers are very popular).

Social media websites – Facebook is great for restaurants. There are loyal patrons who like to recommend their favourite dining spot. Being able to do this online through Facebook means customers can become a ‘fan’ and ‘like’ the content you add. This is a free and extremely easy way to harness an entirely new and increasingly popular method of word of mouth marketing – all it takes is a bit of time. You may also like to try advertising on Facebook as you can create an advert and target a very specific demographic.

Blogging – blogs rank very well in the search engines and are still something of a secret weapon. However to blog effectively, you have got to publish a steady stream of content (at least weekly). People can subscribe to your blog using RSS and with some email marketing systems your blog posts can be automatically emailed to your subscribers. Ideas for content may include blogging about new wines, how to match wines with food, what produce is in season, interesting new ingredients, new menus and so forth.

Search engine optimisation – make sure your site is fully search engine optimised for your keyword phrases. So if you are a vegetarian restaurant in Auckland then ‘auckland vegetarian restaurants’ is one of your keyword phrases. If you also offer organic meals then another phrase would be ‘organic vegetarian restaurants Auckland’. Basically think of all the different ways you can describe your restaurant and those are your keywords.

Dining review websites – with the advent of user generated reviews and content, it is a fact of life that your restaurant will eventually end up on a review site and will be rated. Good reviews are fantastic and will bring you new business and lots of warm fuzzy feelings. No so good reviews might sting, but wouldn’t you rather find out and be able to put things right rather than live in blissful ignorance? Don’t even consider creating a fake account on these types of sites – people see through these very quickly and it will back fire. Just as you would put things right face to face with an unhappy diner, here is your opportunity to do the same online.

Your next step and getting help
Take a good look at your website and see if there is room for improvement. Check if you can find yourself in the top 20 results in Google.

Need help? That’s what we’re here for. Give us a call and you can speak to one of our consultants. We also have a web design and marketing package designed specifically for restaurants that we can tell you about. Phone 03 366 33 40 or email info@tmlwebdesign.co.nz

We still don’t have flying cars or personal jet propulsion packs, but an online revolution is taking place right before our very eyes. Like most revolutions, it has been a growing movement led by the technology gurus who have seen the future and are staking their claim in the new web space.

With the rapid advances and evolutions taking place online, it’s a very real possibility that some business owners will discover they’ve been caught taking a Sunday drive in the slow lane of the information super highway.

If you’re scratching your head and wondering just how your business can benefit from this new technology, you are not alone. So sit back, relax, grab a coffee, and we’ll help make sense out of the 2010 web and how your business can be prepared for the next decade.

Since the early 90s, groups of individuals have embraced new web technologies. These trends have spread virally, and once there is a critical mass of online users, the business applications soon become apparent. After all, where there are eyeballs, there’s a marketing opportunity. Blogging is the perfect example of a web activity that started out as a personal endeavour but is now also used as a marketing tool. And now we have ‘micro blogging’ sites like Twitter (www.twitter.com) which have reached the point where marketing consultants are telling businesses to start Twittering (and from our experience it does generate new traffic).

So, then, just what does make up the web in 2010. Leading technology blogger Robert Scoble (http://scobleizer.com/) has recently explored this subject. Here are just a few of the trends:

1. It is real time communication, and you can see what is happening online right now. Facebook and Twitter are examples of this technology, with major worldwide events being Twittered in real time before even the major news networks can pick them up.
2. It’s mobile – we’re taking the web with us everywhere we go, thanks to mobile devices like the iphone.
3. It’s more social than ever before, with people having more conversations online, even with the companies they do business with.
4. It’s smart and getting smarter. Robert lists http://www.wolframalpha.com/ as an example. This website has the goal to ‘make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone’.

So what does this mean for you as a business owner? We suggest that you do your homework and choose a website platform that can take full advantage of some of these new trends.

So here’s a 2010 web functionality check list for your business:

• Have an RSS feed on your website so your content can be subscribed to and other web sites can syndicate your content on their site
• Have a blog that is integrated into your website
• Create a Facebook page or a Facebook group
• Have your blog posts automatically published to your Facebook page
• Be able to import your images from Facebook into your website
• Get a Twitter account
• Have your blog posts automatically published to your Twitter account
• Connect your Flickr images account with your website

If you’d like to get a 2010-ready website, give us a call on 03 366 3340 or email info@tmlwebdesign.co.nz.