may 31, 2011 02:12am
We have some exciting news to share with you!
As some of our clients may already know, last week we introduced our new proprietary billing system and project management web-app: my.HunterConnect.com!
It took us nearly 2 months to program, test, and migrate all of our clients to this new system, but we're happy to report that this lengthy process was carried out smoothly and we've already received an overwhelming amount of positive feedback from new and existing clients.
What's the fuzz all about you ask? You see, with our new web application, My Hunter Connect, our clients are now able to track the progress of their design projects, communicate with their designer on real-time and interact with our support staff faster and easier than ever before.
Managed Hosting subscribers are also able to manage their hosting service and add or remove add-on services such as Search Engine Optimization & Monitoring in just a few clicks.
Hunter Connect, your outdoor web solutions company, continues to innovate with you in mind; from our industry-first and now very popular Managed Hosting approach, to our relentless commitment to each project and client, we continuously strive to empower your outdoor company's online presence and deliver solutions that can make your life a little easier.
Whether you're a yacht manufacturer, hunting outfitter, fishing guide, or horse stable, we're the company that can better help achieve your goals and understand your needs.
Stay tuned for more exciting announcements coming later in the year.
Happy Summer!
april 13, 2011 04:10am
Yesterday we went over some of the ingredients needed to generate more leads from your outdoor website. I gave you some pointers to make your site more effective and ensure that prospects are able to contact you before your competitors. Of course, it may prove rather difficult to generate leads (in the form of a call, or website submission from interested prospects) if you don't have a sizable number of folks visiting your site in the first place. That's why today, we're going to look into the essential tactics you need to know about in order to grow your traffic and solidify your site's position on Google.
First, let's start with the basics. What does it mean to 'optimize' your website? Search Engine Optimization (commonly referred to as 'S.E.O.') is a technique used to make a website communicate more effectively with search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc..) and improve its visibility in organic (non-paid) search results for a specific set of relevant "search terms" (also known as website keywords).
Why should you concern yourself with SEO? Because optimizing your outdoor website is by far the most efficient and beneficial strategy for getting long-term exposure online. if done right, it can be a worthwhile investment that pays for itself time and time again, if done poorly, it can just be a waste of time and money.
Optimizing is done by understanding what potential clients are searching for and phrasing your website content accordingly. For example, if you're a fishing guide in southern Alberta, you might want your website to appear organically when anyone searches for "southern alberta fishing" or "southern alberta fishing guides".
Let's have a look at some of the ways you can begin optimizing your website to increase your traffic.
Place appropriate keywords throughout your site. These keywords should be relevant to the topic being discussed on each individual page and to the general subject of your website. Your page titles, text content, and image descriptions (alt-tags) should contain a generous number of keywords in order to maximize your exposure.
Make it a point to update your website regularly, giving Search Engines reason to crawl your website more often, thus renewing and enforcing your site's visibility. Websites that get updated often are indexed much more regularly than those that don't. Eventually, your website will start to either climb or fall in Search Engine results pages (SERP's) depending on how frequently your website is updated and the relevancy of its keywords.
A site-map, is a page on your site listing and linking to all other pages on your site; this makes it easy for anyone to navigate your website and easy for search engine spiders to crawl your site as needed for indexing purposes. If you don't have a site-map, chances are you're making it difficult for Google and others to crawl and index your website without missing some pages. Creating a site-map is easy and will only take you a few minutes of your time, while the advantages of having one are many.
I hope this post has been helpful as you embark on the journey of optimizing your outdoor business website. Check back soon for more tips on creating and maintaining a successful online presence as well as an in-depth look at other effective outdoor web marketing strategies you won't want to miss.
Want to learn more about how we can optimize your site? Give us a call at 1.888.707.5717 or request a free consultation with one of our dedicated outdoor web designers!
april 12, 2011 03:08am
Many of our clients want to know how they can improve their traffic organically (without paying for Adwords) and generate more web inquiries in the process. Understanding why some websites are more popular than others is the first step to improving your own website and making the necessary adjustments to bring in more leads, so that's where we're going to start. For now, we're not going to talk about specific Search Engine Optimization techniques, keyword do's and don'ts, but rather, the general concepts you need to grasp before your website can succeed on the internet.
Let's say you're the owner of an up and coming hunting operation in Illinois. You offer guided and semi-guided hunts for trophy whitetail deer. Chances are, you have a few dozen competitors doing the same thing, and wanting new business just as much as you do. So simply having a website, with a description of your services and a few pictures ain't gonna do the trick. What is required to succeed is that you analyze your competition carefully, exploit their weak points and market your website to take advantage of these weaknesses. You also have to explain your services in a unique and refreshing manner, show potential hunters that you're not just like the other outfitters in your area, you are the best, and if they're looking for a good time they should choose you and not the other guys. In short, your website has to stand out and be truly different from the rest, it has to show that your company understands its clients and their individual needs in a way that your competitors just can't.
Let's examine some of these key concepts in more detail.
Everybody wants a popular website that generates countless leads and revenue, but few business owners are willing to put in the work required to make this happen. Simply, don't be lazy; If you're wanting to increase your traffic you need to work hard at it, and this hard work begins with researching what your competitors are doing right, what they're doing wrong, and creating a winning strategy for your own website and ultimately your business.
Take a look at how they write about themselves, carefully examine their 'About Us' page and get familiar with the terms and phrases they employ to explain their services. Think of what's missing. Pretend you're a hunter looking to book a guided hunting trip with your wife and kids; You have questions, concerns, doubts and anxiety. You want to be re-assured that your family hunting excursion will be safe, fun, exciting, and that the outfitter you book with is professional and knowledgable.
Your website needs to do a superb job at getting these points across. It needs to effectively convince your visitors that your outfit is the one and only they should consider. Carefully analyzing your competition can give you the advantage needed to make your website wildly successful, if you use this knowledge wisely that is.
So, now that you've seen what your competitors are up to, and you have some ideas for your own website, think of how you can develop an edge for your site, how to avoid the cliches and overstated phrases that make you seem like you're just one of the bunch. Begin by structuring your winning strategy: Find a different way to write about your company, explain your services in a fresh new way to generate interest. Remember that chances are, your prospect visited another 3 or 4 sites before they landed on yours, so it's your job to make it stand out and convince them that you're the one they need to contact.
What do you look for in a website? What is it you wish to know before deciding to do business with a particular company? Consider this carefully, and build your website around this notion. Many outdoor-based business owners make the mistake of thinking of their website as a glorified business card; an online brochure complete with pictures and text. Don't do that. In today's fast-paced e-commerce world, your website is the face of your company. It sets the tone and creates an image that can either make you or break you as a business. Your outdoor website can be your most powerful and effective method of advertising, or it can just sit there and be seen by no one. Offer something unique, keep your content fresh, and you will eventually see a return on your investment.
Lastly, your website needs to make it easy for anyone to reach you. You'd be surprised how many websites we see on a daily basis that seem to go out of their way to hide all contact information, some barely have any at all. Make it easy for prospects to contact you! Have a phone number and email address displayed on every page of your site, and provide an easy-to-use contact form that can be filled out quickly and effortlessly. In fact, have at least 2 phone numbers listed and an alternate email address as well. If your visitors have a hard time contacting you, they will move on to the next website and give up on you before you've had a chance to make your case. Understanding this is key to your online success, and although it seems fairly obvious, many business owners miss this concept entirely.
We hope you found our insight interesting and worth your while. If so, check back soon for more tips on generating inquiries and leave your comments below, we'll be glad to read and reply to them.
april 11, 2011 11:50pm
We have exciting news to share with everyone! As some of you may have noticed, our website has been undergoing a rather intense makeover over this past month. First, we spent nearly a week redesigning our badly-dated template and quickly began revising every bit of content throughout the site. It took some time, but we are almost done now. We introduced a slick new logo, and so far it's getting great reviews from our clients. So, we have a brand new look, but that's not all.
It occurred to us recently that we've been doing this for just over 3 years now, and it might be about time to re-examine and perhaps update our popular design packages as well as our signature managed hosting plans, ensuring we continue to offer the best possible web solutions for years to come.
Our unique Managed Hosting concept has been wildly successful, and since its inaguration just a few years ago, we've been able to acquire hundreds of accounts, turning skeptics into satisfied clients; but we're ready to take it to the next level. We're keeping the same low prices, starting at just $10/month, but we're adding a new plan for those looking for more of the good stuff. Our all-new 'Paramount' managed hosting plan, comes with 10 gygabytes of storage, 30 email accounts, and our legendary monthly 30 minutes of Web Support. Most of you won't ever need that much storage, or that many email accounts, but we think of it as the perfect plan for large websites and big companies looking for an easy, simple approach to web hosting.
Projects big and small now have their ideal design package. That's because we've added 2 new design options to fit those on a budget, as well as those with a big project on their hands. Take a look at the new design packages and let us know what you think.
More news to come soon.
