A privacy policy is an important legal document that outlines how a website collects, uses, and protects user data. While it may not be legally required for all websites, having a privacy policy in place can offer several advantages for businesses, including building trust with customers, ensuring compliance with regulations, and reducing liability.
Personal data, that most average small business collects through their website, includes names, phone number, email address, and mailing address, an e-commerce website collects payment information, billing and delivery addresses.
Advantages of Having a Privacy Policy
Build Trust
One of the key benefits of having a policy on the website is that it can build customer trust. According to a survey 91% of Americans agree that people have lost control over how personal information is collected and used by all kinds of entities. Being transparent towards users is the most essential factor. Showing your clients a clear picture of why and how you use their information.
Being transparent towards your users is possibly the most important moral reason. Providing your clients and customers with a clear picture of why and how you process their personal data makes them feel secure.
Make more Profit and Money
Making more money is a top priority for every business. One of the most effective ways to achieve that goal is by ensuring that customers feel secure and protected when they do business with you. By having an up-to-date Privacy Policy in place, you can instill this sense of security in your customers, allowing them to trust you and feel comfortable while doing business with you. Research has proven that people are more likely to take the desired steps on your website or app if they feel assured their personal information will be properly used and not shared without their consent.
Compliance with regulations
Another important advantage of having a policy is that it can ensure compliance with relevant regulations. Depending on your industry and jurisdiction, you may be required by law to have a privacy policy in place. For example, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union mandates that all websites that collect user data must have a privacy policy that complies with the regulation’s requirements.
Additionally, having a privacy policy can demonstrate professionalism and help to reduce liability. By having a clear and comprehensive privacy policy in place, business owners can show that they take user privacy seriously and are committed to responsible data practices. This can be especially important for companies that rely on user data to provide personalized services, such as e-commerce sites or social media platforms.
When creating a privacy policy, it’s important to include key information about how user data is collected, used, and protected. This can include details about the types of information collected, how information is used, disclosure of information to third parties, security measures in place, and user rights. According to the Federal Trade Commission, a privacy policy should be “clear, conspicuous, and easy to read and understand.”
Consequences of Not Having a Privacy Policy
Not having a privacy policy in place can have serious consequences for businesses, including legal ramifications, loss of customer trust, negative impact on business reputation, and potential loss of revenue. In some cases, failure to comply with relevant regulations can result in significant fines and legal fees. For example, in 2019, the FTC fined Facebook $5 billion for violating its 2011 consent decree related to user privacy.
Creating a Privacy Policy
Creating a privacy policy, a legal agreement can be a complex and time-consuming process. While hiring a lawyer to draft a policy can be expensive, there are several resources available to businesses that can help simplify the process. These include privacy policy generators and customizable templates that can be tailored to meet the specific needs of a business.
Conclusion
In today’s digital age, user privacy is more important than ever before. Having a privacy policy in place is a crucial step in protecting user data and building trust with customers. By understanding the advantages of having a privacy policy and taking steps to create one, businesses can establish themselves as responsible and trustworthy organizations in the eyes of their customers.
Small business Hassle-free solution for Policies
If you’re looking for a hassle-free solution to creating a privacy policy for your website, Turek Design can help. I learned it from my own experience the importance of legal documents, and how difficult and expensive it can be. So I searched for a easy and affordable way to create a privacy policy that meets my client’s specific needs. And i found a solution that is good and affordable.
In today’s digital age, having a website for your business is essential. However, having a website alone is not enough to ensure online success. Your website must be optimized to rank high on search engine result pages (SERPs) to reach your target audience. This is where SEO (Search Engine Optimization) comes in.
SEO is the practice of optimizing a website to improve its visibility on search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. SEO involves a series of techniques, including keyword research, on-page optimization, and link building, among others. To achieve the best results, it’s important to involve an SEO person in the planning phase of your website. Here are some of the advantages of involving an SEO person in your website planning:
Proper Keyword Research:
Keyword research is the foundation of SEO. It involves identifying the keywords that people use to find the products or services that you offer. An SEO person can help you identify the right keywords to target on your website, which can help your website rank higher in search engine results pages. We can teach you how to use the keywords on your service pages and how to write an SEO friendly blog post.
Optimization of Website Content:
Content is king when it comes to SEO. An SEO person can help you optimize your website content to make it more appealing to search engines. This includes optimizing your titles, meta descriptions, and tags, among other things. Proper optimization of website content can improve your website’s visibility on search engines and attract more traffic.
Proper Website Architecture:
The architecture of your website is critical to SEO. An SEO person can help you create a website structure that is easy to navigate for both users and search engines. This can help search engines crawl your website and index your pages more effectively, improving your website’s visibility on search engine results pages.
Improved User Experience:
SEO is not just about optimizing your website for search engines; it’s also about creating a better user experience for your website visitors. An SEO person can help you create a website that is easy to navigate, loads quickly, and provides a great user experience. This can lead to higher engagement rates, longer session times, and more conversions.
Competitive Advantage:
Finally, involving an SEO person in your website planning can give you a competitive advantage. With the right SEO strategies in place, your website can rank higher than your competitors’ websites on search engines, attracting more traffic, and generating more leads and sales.
In conclusion, involving an SEO person in the planning phase of your website can be extremely beneficial for your online success. An SEO person can help you with keyword research, website content optimization, website architecture, user experience, and competitive advantage. So, if you’re planning to launch a website or redesign your existing website, make sure to involve an SEO person to help you achieve the best results.
Believe me, if you have a client and something goes wrong, they will not hesitate to share their negative experience, write a bad review and tell the world about it. However, this can be offset by having a balanced representation of positive, satisfied, and happy client reviews.
Online reviews from customers are important for businesses because they provide valuable insights into customer satisfaction and can help increase the credibility of a business. Google reviews are big deal for businesses, those are the social proof that they provide a great service. And let’s face it, we all want to know if a business is worth our time and money before we try it out. Plus having a bunch of positive reviews can help boost the business’s online presence, making it easier for potential customers to find them. And as a cherry on top, Google pays attention to how many and what kind of reviews a business gets, which is actually affects where is shows up in search results.
How to ask for reviews?
In working toward the goal of reviews on Google, the first step is to request reviews from your happy clients. Aim for quantity, and quality as the reviews should be new, unique and previously unpublished anywhere else. They can be displayed on your website, or other trusted review sites. When placed on your website, there should be a different one on each relevant page or practice area.
Here are a few ideas for how a business can ask for reviews:
After providing great service: You could say something like, “We’re so glad you had a great experience with us! If you have a moment, we’d love it if you could leave us a review on Google. It helps others see just how much they can trust us too.”
In an email follow-up: You could write, “Thanks for choosing us! We hope you loved your experience. If you have a second, would you mind leaving us a review on Google? Your thoughts mean the world to us.”
Email signature: Place your direct review link to your email signature, which is one of the most viewed marketing tool for a business.
Send a text message: Write a nice email with your direct link and send it as text message. Most people submit reviews via mobile devices and due to various technologies, including dictation typing, clients can often do this more easily than via email.
On social media: You could post, “Hey everyone! If you had a great experience with us, would you mind leaving us a quick review on Google? It would mean the world to us! Thanks in advance!”
On your website: You could add a simple call-to-action such as, “Love our products/services? Let others know by leaving us a review on Google.”
These are just a few examples, but the key is to make the request in a friendly, non-intrusive way. Making the request in person increases the chances that customers will be willing to leave a review.
In conclusion, asking for Google reviews is a great way for businesses to increase their online visibility and credibility. By providing excellent customer service, following up with satisfied customers, and including calls-to-action on your website and social media, you can encourage customers to leave a review and improve your online reputation.
Increase Your Google Five Stars Ratings
Boost Quantity
The more four and five star ratings you have, the better your average will be. If you are starting to acquire reviews, focus on quantity. Ask for a review when you are finishing a project, or when the customer is at a big milestone.
Keep Providing Great Client Service
As with any service-based business, great service often leads to great reviews. Do not forget to share this with your employees, especially if they are interacting with the customers.
Do Not Ignore Negative Reviews
Although they can be discouraging, everybody receives a negative review once in a while. This is normal and nothing to worry about. Resist the temptation to freak out, and do not ignore the negative review. Consider the following tips for responding to negative reviews:
Do not respond immediately. Take time and think it over to avoid responding out of emotion or defensiveness.
Gather the facts related to customer concerns.
Proceed with empathy.
Compose your thoughts and write out a draft before posting anything.
Be as brief as possible. Three or four sentences might be best.
Realize that some people cannot be satisfied, so after trying your best, simply move on.
Note, that Google reviews can be changed by the reviewer. If you resolved the issue with the client, ask them politely if they would change the 2 starts rating and update their review.
What To Do When a Google Review Is Not Showing Up
Because too many fraud reviews were on the Google Business Pages, right now Google is more strict about publishing them. Many times the reviewer sees the review on his own account, but it is still not published. Even real client reviews can be flagged.
Below, you can find out what to do when a Google review is not showing up:
Gather evidence. If a Google review is not showing up, gather any evidence you can that relates to the new review you cannot see on your GBP listing. This typically involves getting screenshots of both the email notification you received of the review and the reviews currently listed on your GBP profile to demonstrate that a review is missing.
Seek support. If Google recently suspended your GBP listing, speak to their support team and use your reinstatement details and case number to transfer any missing reviews to your new listing. In contrast, if Google did not suspend your listing, ask Google’s support team to help with locating your missing reviews. Try this link first to get support
Ask the online community. If Google’s support team does not resolve the issue, consider posting your issue on Google’s community forums. Doing this, you may attract the attention of a helpful Google employee who might assist with this matter further.
Summery
Reviews are very important for clients and therefore they are important for businesses. The main thing is that your should start doing it. Don’t be shy! Reviews are an important part of your marketing and growing your business.
Is it better to Have a Contact form or to display an email address?
The entire point of having a website is for visitors to contact you and become your client. In order for them to contact you, you should provide a way to do so on your website.
Are you wondering whether you should use a contact form or display a simple email address?
Both methods can work, but here are some reasons why a contact form could be better.
It looks professional
It can send emails to several accounts
It hides your email address, so you get less spam 🙂
Visitors can contact you from your website directly
You can connect your form to an email list
It can collect valuable information
Look professional
The most common features on websites are contact forms. No matter how small the company, they likely have a contact form.
Could send emails to several accounts
Multiple email addresses can be added to the form to receive emails. This is useful for bigger teams so that the right people get notified immediately.
Hide your email address
Showing a plain email address on your website is asking for spam. Who wants to do that?
Spambots search the internet for email addresses to add to their mailing list by recognizing the @ symbol. A contact form safeguards your email address and lets you add additional spam prevention measures like Google reCaptcha. (you know, the find the traffic lights kind of things)
Visitors can reach out from your website directly
With a contact form, all a user has to do is fill out the form and click the submit button.
If you display an email address, the user has to copy it into an email software before writing a message.
You can connect your form to an email list
If a user sends you an email, they can also request to be added to your email list so it can grow. Who does not want to do that?
Collect valuable information
This is my favorite benefit of a contact form. You can have a form that asks for more than just the name and message. Some of the questions I ask prospective clients on my website’s contact form are:
How did they find my website?
How long have they been in business?
Do they have a website already?
Are they a local business?
What type of service are they interested in?
I believe that the more you learn about a prospective client before the first phone call, the better.
Recently, I created a website for a local construction company where the contact form filters prospective clients based on their location, project size, and budget, saving the owner a lot of time with clients not in his target audience.
Conclusion
Are you now convinced that you need a contact form? All website platforms—Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, or WordPress—offer contact forms nowadays to easily add to your site. WordPress provides plenty of different plugins for both simple and complicated forms.
Next time I will post about where to place the Contact forms. Stay tuned!
Did you know that I offer Website Evaluation? I take your not-money-making website apart, find the issues, and explain how to fix them DIY.
Everyone has an Instagram account these days. If you operate a business of any type, your social media platforms are essential for connecting with both potential and present customers. Social media is a powerful tool if it is leveraged right. Each platform has tools that are designed to help you leverage its power to reach and connect with your audience.
That’s what LinkTree is to Instagram. With the help of LinkTree you are able to connect your audience to other accounts; to a landing page, to an article, to a shop or a signup page or your other social accounts.
However, it is not in your best interest to use LinkTree when it comes to your site.
What is LinkTree?
LinkTree is a tool inside Instagram. Since Instagram only allows a single link in your bio area, LinkTree offers you a way to store all your links in one place. Then you put the link to your list of links in LinkTree in your bio. From this one link, you are supposed to be able to grow your followers and increase traffic to multiple links. LinkTree provides room for several links based on the package you purchase. You can include your Amazon affiliate link, your website, and your Facebook pages too. All your links housed in one link sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? There’s just one problem.
LinkTree is not good for your website SEO!
10 Reasons You Do NOT Want to Use LinkTree on Instagram
If you don’t have a website, you are fine using LinkTree, because there is no better alternative. It will work for your purposes, help grow followers, and send them to your other social sites, etc. But if you have a website and you’ve filled it with great content and useful information, you do not want to use LinkTree.
Here are 10 reasons why:
Your social link send traffic to LinkTree website and not to your own domain. When a user clicks on your social link, the first thing they’ll see is LinkTree’s site, not yours. Their site offers users their first impression of you and your brand outside of Instagram. And lets face it, it is not much customization that you can do. 😞
The user will have to click at least two times to even get to your real website.
Users are less likely to click beyond the LinkTree page.
Some users may click on a different link or button once they land on the LinkTree page. That means your site gets zero clicks. You miss out on traffic that could have benefited your SEO.
The LinkTree website isn’t customized to your brand – it’s great for theirs though!
LinkTree’s free plan doesn’t even allow you to customize your landing page on their site to your brand. You miss out on some important branding opportunities! This can lead to users feeling disconnected from your brand on Instagram and it may prevent them from pursuing clicking any further.
Users may not ever see your website URL. That means they won’t be able to return to your site later.
Studies indicate that 98% of the visitors to a website do not engage in a transaction on their first visit to the site. That means that a user’s first visit to your site is not likely to result in a booking, consultation, or appointment with you.
To ensure that potential clients have a cohesive experience with you, your brand, and your practice you need YOUR URL in your bio.
When you have the URL to your website in your Instagram bio, it allows potential clients to build familiarity with your brand. They will be more likely to read your blog, learn more about you, and pursue more information about you and your services.
If You Do Not Use LinkTree, What Should You Use?
Use your own website and create your own version of LinkTree inside of your website. You get the benefit of sending traffic to your site instead of letting LinkTree get the traffic you have created. Traffic to your site is great for its SEO. Why is that important? Ultimately, organic traffic generation increases your conversions and sales. You can use Google Analytics to find out exactly how many visitors you are getting from Instagram.
That just makes sense, right?
You spent your effort, time, and money on creating your brand. When you set up your Instagram landing page, you kept all that consistent, right? You’re creating an image. You probably used your logo to build brand recognition and used professional images to tell your story. It took a lot of work to create a consistent story and connect your products and services to users. It wouldn’t make sense to give that all away. Leverage your IG account for YOUR benefit.
Final Thoughts
LinkTree is fine if you are just starting out and you need a place to put your links. However, if you are serious about leveraging social media and using it to create brand recognition, increase your followers, and make more sales, you will benefit more from using the link to your website in your IG bio. If you want to, you can create a landing page that houses all your links. It would serve you as well as LinkTree, but provide you with a lot more!
The insurance company couldn’t go out and meet clients during the pandemic. They were missing out on revenue opportunities by not being able to meet in person.
But the digital age removed the need for personal meetings. They wanted to create landing pages that explain what they do and how their products can help families. Through the landing pages, people are able to schedule appointments with the benefits counselors and continue the conversation virtually without meeting in person.
This solution is a big progress in a company life which previously were driven on personal connection.
We used Monika to set up landing pages for each of our clients. With the many moving parts of our organization, Monika was able to understand and pull it all together. The results have added a new revenue stream for our company.
The construction industry is growing at a rapid pace, but without a well-designed site, companies are getting left behind. Tridome Structures owners realized that they need a new website to support their sales team effort to reach new clients and new industries.
Tridome Structures LLC’s previous website did not provide much information about the company and its offers for different industries. We needed to structure the website 20+ pages and showcase all the amazing projects they have done around the USA and Canada.
The company already had their market research and copywriting for the website, which was a great help. Our project was to take the copywriting and the market research and create a brand new website, which supports the sales team and gives tremendous information for different industries looking for steel buildings. The new website includes individual pages for each industry and explains the benefits of using steel for large outdoor buildings.
Turek Web Design has been a true asset for our company. Our new webpage is dynamic and professional. Working with Monika has been a true pleasure. She is extremely responsive, accommodating, knowledgeable and always comes to meetings with great suggestions while taking in the needs of our company and the design we were striving for. Our team would highly recommend Turek Web Design for all of your design needs!
You’ve probably found yourself spending more time online lately. Since you are searching, working, or socializing more than usual, you may have noticed a lot of buzz about blogging. Blogs are not new they got their start in the late 90s. They started out more as an online journal. But over the last few years, they’ve evolved into an integral part of businesses both small and large. It may surprise you to learn that blogging can provide numerous benefits for your business. Here are six reasons why it’s important to maintain a business blog.
Quality Content Helps Drive Traffic to Your Site
Ultimately, your blog posts will need to provide your audience with value-rich content. Most business websites use blogs as a way to drive more traffic to their sites. Blogging is an ideal way to increase your search ranking. There are basically two main ways a blog helps search engine optimization.
A business blog gets updated regularly. Every time a new blog is posted, it offers another opportunity to make your site more visible to your potential clients. Search engines tend to take notice of sites with fresh content. Well-optimized content can help your site appear in search engine results for a variety of search terms. This ultimately brings more visitors to your website and over time, gradually increases traffic.
Blogs can be beneficial for increasing your social media performance. When you have blog post content that adds value, is compelling and engaging, users tend to share it across social media outlets. As your content reaches a wider audience, your social media engagement and reach expand.
Blogs Can Keep Your Audience Updated About the Business
You as a business owner can think of blogging as a direct communication channel with your audience. It can be leveraged to keep customers and potential customers in the loop about your business. Your website content is more straightforward and practical. A business blog is more flexible and casual making it easier to connect with customers. You can share updates in such a way that it demonstrates who you are and not just what you do. It’s the perfect space to go into more depth about your products and services, comment on industry trends, and share timely content.
Get Valuable Feedback from Customers
A business website does a great job of presenting customers with the information they need. It’s only one-way communication. Customers don’t usually have room to ask questions, start a conversation, or comment. This is what gives a blog power. It can be designed to give your customers a voice. You can encourage feedback and discussion in the comment section of a blog. When you engage in great conversations with customers, you build trust, rapport, and authority for your brand. You also get to see your business from their point of view so you can make improvements where necessary.
Relay More Information About Your Products
Relevant content gives you the space to go into more in-depth explanations about your products or services. You have room to discuss how they are used and their advantages. You can share reviews, provide case studies, explore some of the specific benefits, or provide “how-to” guides with your target audience. This type of content helps to establish your company as an authority in the industry. This builds a knowledge bank; it also helps breed creativity and innovation. When you provide readers with deeper, more complex information on your posts, you are more likely to generate more ideas.
Quality Content Are Useful For Generating Leads
Search engines index blogs separate from the rest of your site. This provides a great opportunity for it to generate leads if you add a CTA or “call to action” to each post. This can be as simple as asking the reader to give you a call or schedule an appointment. It can also be an offer such as a free eBook, template, free trial, or some other type of content that visitors are willing to trade their information to receive. It’s not difficult to develop a CTA and involves just a few steps.
Create a piece of valuable content your visitors are like to exchange their information for.
Offer the free content and call-to-action by adding a popup or banner in your post.
Set up a landing page to send people who click the call-to-action. This is the page you will use to capture their information.
Once a visitor provides their information (email or phone number), they get access to the promised content.
The term branding doesn’t just mean your logo and slogan. Branding is now used to refer to how customers and potential customers respond psychologically and emotionally to your brand. Your blog should be a reflection of your brand and it should incorporate the same slogan, color scheme, and motifs as your brand and your website. You’ll want to continue solidifying your branding that you’ve used on your website and social media platforms. This helps keep your brand consistent. Maintaining a blog helps build your brand identity as it becomes an extension of your brand on a level customers can easily engage.
Final Thoughts
These are just six great reasons why consistent blogging is important to your online presence. As a matter of fact, blogging as a business entity hasn’t ever been more important than it is right now. Your business could experience more leads, more site traffic, well-established industry authority, and a better relationship with your customers. If you haven’t been blogging, then now is a great time to start. If you have been blogging there’s never a better time than now to make the most of it to increase your online visibility. Developing an effective blogging strategy can be just the boost your business needs!
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