My own experience of PPC has been one of total disappointment. It's far better to target organic SEO IMHO. PPC costs run away too easily and the conversion rate for many products/services is too low to justify it. With my own little business projects I'm finding it really difficult to 'get out there'. If you are not careful you can burn money with little/no return.

Just checked out your website - a few suggestions if you are interested:

1. The laserflair logo should link back to the "home" page. Most users expect this of a website and utilise this feature regularly without thinking about it.

2. The landing page could do with more flair (pun intended) and some more content. I'd perhaps make the 'store' section a separate page and build the home page to really showcase and introduce the business and products. Some nice high quality images showing off the best work and some engaging copy to capture the imagination and generate interest. Don't forget a nice big call to action button like "Browse Products" somewhere above the fold.

3. Underlining the links is pretty old fashioned. A different colour and, if necessary bold text, is fresher looking.

4. The main menu text is a little plane jane (pun intended again ). I'd be a bit more daring and perhaps stray from Ariel.

5. The menu order seems strange. I'd have a home page, then about us, then materials, image prep, contract manufacturing, shop, gallery and finally contact us. Remember, users will often work through the site sequentially so the about us page should usually feature early on. Each page should build the users knowledge and further entice them to make a purchase. When they get to the shop at the end their mind should be made up.

6. All pages should link to and drive users towards the shop page. You don't want people to leave your site without performing a desired action. If that is to buy something, then you must constantly push them in that direction.

7. Don't be afraid to get a little geeky somewhere on the website with details about the machine/process. I personally chose one printing company against 3 others simply because they had a youtube video of their 4-stage printer. It was the size of a room and bad ***; enough to convince me that I wasn't dealing with a guy in his parents attic.

8. If Jane is happy to be contacted by phone it always helps to have a phone number so that people can raise an enquiry over the phone. You can get 0800 numbers for like a £5 a month.

 

Thanks Kenny, will have a look at all those ideas. Some of the style is limited to the Yola/Getting British Business online templates, but it is a bit Apple like in its walled garden approach. Geeky section is coming.

 

Made some further updates, new products, improvements, video.

Obviously a work in progress but the traffic is increasing nicely with a low bounce rate and a decent time on the site.

 

I've actually found PPC to be effective, though only with Google AdWords.

I ran identical ads on Google, Bing/Yahoo and Facebook. All for the same time, budgets etc.

The click-through on Bing/Yahoo and Facebook we're tiny, less than 1%, whereas on Google, they were over 18%.

I'd be happy to look at your AdWords campaigns, if you have an account, and make some suggestions. If you do not have a Google AdWords account, I can refer you for a free a £75 voucher.

 

Thanks. Google have run an introductory £75 over the last few days and it has resulted in one sale, with many more through Facebook/word of mouth.

What sort of value/items are you selling? Our stuff is often about £5.

 

If your voucher hasn't been completely used up, I'd recommend pausing the advert to save the credit until your adverts are optimised.

 

Think it has gone now but Jane said it was someone from Google who advised and configured it. We have another offer that came with our hosting, will need to check T&C and see if we can use that too.

Thinking of some non-flash animated galleries and banners. Also the shop wasn't revealing its categories to search engines so we have put them in HTML to match keywords. Doing this before on body text helped the organic results.

 

Hi John

I've been working with your wife on laser engraving pieces of leather as part of our business. It's been a fantastic start and I'm hopeful that my customers will start seeing this as a viable alternative to foil embossing.

Jane has been massively helpful and kind in organising test pieces, and the whole process has been pain free!

If anyone else is thinking about getting in contact, Jane is a true professional and know's how to work with her customers.

Cheers

Mark

 

Thanks Mark, she has enjoyed working with you very much, they look like like interesting designs.

 

Site updated further with clickable gently animating banner to home, "calls to action", sliders showcasing products with links to shop (SEO friendly shop headings as previously when we added the product category to our name the search failed!), new products. Work in progress, but starting to feel more professional.

Site still loads fast and works on iOS and Android in our testing.

We haven't changed the underlined link style based on some accessibility advice.