1. Improved search engine rankings

Increased website security is an important search engine ranking factor. Google announced it in 2014 that HTTPS would become a relevant search engine ranking factor for all websites. Now, this correlation between higher search engine rankings and the use of HTTPS can be easily observed. Brian Dean from Backlinko analysed over one million Google search results and found a direct relationship between the two. Take a look at the following chart:

As you can see, domains with HTTPS and improved security are more likely to rank on the top position in Google SERPs. Assuming all other ranking factors are equal, HTTPS could literally be the difference between outranking your competitors and getting outranked by them.

2. Safeguarding user information

As an online business owner, safeguarding user information is your responsibility. In fact, it should be one of your top-most priorities. You do not want your website visitors to lose their private, sensitive information as a result of visiting and navigating your website. An incident like this can destroy your business.

If you are collecting personal information, such as name, email address, or credit card information, on your website, safeguarding user information becomes all the more important. E-commerce websites often have to deal with this added layer of security. HTTPS ensures that everything is encrypted and safe and that there is no chance to lose your site’s visitors’ personal information.

3. Higher credibility and customer confidence

Reputation and credibility are essential aspects of online success. You need to make a good impression — consistently — on your target audience. If your site does not have HTTPS, that objective cannot be accomplished. It’s because internet users will see something like this whenever they visit your HTTP website.

This is a major red flag that raises valid questions on a website’s security. Many visitors will quickly abandon a site after seeing this error. It can be difficult to recover and regain the trust of your website visitors with this negative impression. Using HTTPS makes sure that your website visitors do not get any notification or warning like this. This increases your website’s credibility and your customers’ trust in your online business.

4. Better conversion rate

All the points mentioned above lead to one result: increased user confident that eventually translates into a higher conversion rate on your site. When website visitors — especially first-time visitors — feel more confident about your website, they are more likely to complete transactions and buy products on your website. Otherwise, most will not even feel comfortable sharing their email address.

In today’s digital age, people are concerned about the possibilities of identity theft and credit card fraud. You need to make a great impression through the quality of your content, authenticity of your product images, and professional design. Using HTTPS and increased web security is just another part of that puzzle. That extra sense of online security will encourage more users to purchase on your website and help increase the conversion rate.

How to get HTTPS for your website

Getting HTTPS for your site is a three-step process:

• The first thing you need to do is to purchase an SSL certificate for your website.
• Next, you will need to install the certificate on your server.
• Once you install the certificate and check it for any errors, the third step is to notify Google that you have added HTTPS to your site. This is done through Google Search Console.

Conclusion

Using HTTPS isn’t optional anymore. It is mandatory if you are serious about the success of your online business. The various benefits mentioned in this article should only enforce its importance and why you need to install an SSL certificate to your website in case you haven’t already.

The post Understanding the benefits of HTTPS and how to get HTTPS for your site appeared first on Hatchit Design.

Use your time effectively
Realise that there are only 24 hours in a day, 8 or 9 of which are for working. If you exceed this amount you run the risk of burning the candle at both ends which will ultimately see a dip in the standard of the work you are completing. Better to stop at a reasonable time and continue with the task in hand the following morning after rest and sleep.

Set Goals
Set daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly goals which you can tick off when you have completed, allowing you to see how on-target you are with things.

Prioritise
Sort your workload into an order of importance. Decide which tasks need to be completed more urgently as priority compared to those that could take a bit longer. Once you have your list, make sure you stick to the order.

Try not to multi-task
Once you have set your goals and made a to-do list to prioritise the order in which tasks need to be completed, always try to complete everything in the order you have set. In the long run it causes more stress and ends up taking more time to complete if you do half of one task, begin something new and then keep jumping back-and-forth between the two. It is always best to focus your mind on the task in hand and get that finished before moving on to the next thing.

Manage expectations
When working with multiple customers, always give realistic timescales and manage expectations. There is nothing worse than having customers that haven’t been managed properly coming up with unrealistic requests. Communication is key.

The post How to be super organised appeared first on Hatchit Design.

Here are a few technical and not-so-technical tips that we follow when creating a website and taking into account the requirement for mobile-first browsing:

Design with Mobiles and Tablets in mind
What is a Call-to-Action? Well, quite simply it is an element that calls a website visitor to make an action. This could be clicking a button that links to a contact page, or filling a form in for some sort of incentive; perhaps a free download. Either way, the Call-to-Action is there to catch the attention of the person browsing a website and to direct them to complete that important action which converts them from a website visitor into a lead!

Use Percentages in your CSS
Using percentages for divs and containers in your CSS will allow your columns and other elements to shrink and stretch with the screen size. For example, your header div may be 100% width, your main content may be 70% and your sidebar 30% width. Then combine the width percentages with a max-width value in when using pixels.

Use Media Queries
Media Queries allow you to target specific sized browsers with CSS to only be processed by them. For example, you could set a CSS rule for a screen size of 320px or less which makes your font size bigger and easier to read on a small screen.

Make images flexible
Again, use CSS to target images for when they are being viewed on different devices. I usually set images to 100% width when being viewed on Mobile device screens. This means they are easier to see and click on.

Remember the sizes
As a general rule of thumb, I target up to 320px width for Mobiles; 768px max for Tablets; 1000px for Tablets in landscape mode and anything above for laptop and desktop computers.

Try and use SVG images
SVG images are a new thing. SVG stands for Scalable Vector Graphics, and make for crystal-clear images on a website that can scale up or down in size without losing clarity or sharpness. SVG is ideal for more simple images, however for images containing more detail, best to stick to PNG.

I hope the above gives you some insight into designing for Mobile and Tablet devices. If you are looking to have a new website built, or perhaps need clarification on the above points then feel free to contact us on 020 3637 4885 or via our contact form! We look forward to hearing from you!

The post 5 tips for responsive web design appeared first on Hatchit Design.

It’s common knowledge that keeping a customer happy results in repeat business, and it’s easier up-selling to current customers as opposed to new prospects. What about unhappy customers? We read this quote recently; “news of bad customer service reaches more than twice as many ears as praise for a good service experience.” But what is a CRM system? And how can it help?

What is a CRM system?
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. Simply put, it’s a system which you can use to store data about your customers, input leads, track sales and improve on your processes. Depending on your membership, you can add team members and assign tasks to them.

Do I need a CRM?
Not every business needs a CRM system, but in general we would recommend getting one if your business:

• Has a sales team – A CRM system makes things really easy for Sales team management. You can assign leads to your team members and track progress. Now you know who is performing and who needs some encouragement or further training!
• Receives a large amount of leads – Or at least, more than you can remember. Using a CRM system will enable you to post leads and track the sales process effortlessly.
• Has a long sales process – It’s easy to get mixed up or lose track of where a specific prospect/lead is within your sales process without a CRM system. With such a system, you can view each stage, get performance reports and improve upon it as you go.

Of course, these are just some of the benefits of using a CRM for your business, there are many more. Most CRM systems have a free trial period available, it’s well worth trying out! We hope you’ve found this quick-read blog helpful!

The post Do I need a customer relationship management system? appeared first on Hatchit Design.

As your business grows, everyone that works within it needs to follow a set of ‘rules’ which should affect the way they behave with other employees and with your customers. But how do you decide upon a set of values for your business? Here’s what we have found to be helpful:

Involve everyone
Anyone that is an influence within your company such as managers, directors, partners etc should be involved in the process of setting company values.

Patience is a virtue
Keeping to a set of values should be more important than turnover, cash flow and profits. It’s who you are and what difference you are trying to make. Your customers should buy into your values.

Hire and fire
Everyone who works for you should know, understand and believe in your values. And if not, they really shouldn’t be working for your company.

Tell everyone
Once you have defined your company values, spread the word! You should communicate these values in everything that you do both internally and externally, and every time you speak to your customers.

Review
You might already be regularly reviewing your company’s actions, achievements and failures, but now you should put these up against your values. Has the company been acting on behalf of these values?

Defining your business values is not something that can be quickly jotted down in 5 minutes. It takes time to think about, talk about and decide on the key rules of your company. Ask your employees for feedback, do they believe in the same ideas? Once you have these values set, you should start to notice and change in everything you do. Your employees should feel proud to work for your company because of it’s values.

The post How to define your core business values appeared first on Hatchit Design.

Reduce payment terms
It’s easy for businesses starting out to agree on lengthy payment terms to keep their customers happy, but this can be detrimental to both parties. If you feel overworked and underpaid, the quality of your product could suffer which starts a downward spiral. Consider reducing your payment terms. For example, from 30 to 14 days.

Make it easy to pay
This is the age of convenience, and people will almost always pay you via the easiest option. If you only accept cheques or bank transfers, your customers might take longer to pay due to the inconvenience. Worst still, they might even decide to work with your competitor if they have easier payment methods. Consider accepting credit cards, paypal, online payments etc.

Perform a cash-flow forecast
OK, this might not be the quickest way to improve cash flow, but it’s important you analyse when your sales are at their highest and lowest throughout the year, in comparison to your outgoings. This will give you an idea of where you need to bridge the gap between sales and outgoings, and there might just be something you missed which is causing problems.

Cut costs
The reason for your cash flow problems may not be down to sales, it could just be down to your spending. By creating a cash flow forecast as suggested above you should know when your quiet periods are. During these periods you should be spending the least amount of money possible.

Tell your staff
If cash flow is important to your business, your staff should be aware of this. You may have salesman on the front line who may just work a little bit harder if they knew the importance of every sale. Your accounts department may be just that little bit more pressing when chasing money.

It’s not easy managing business cash flow, but we found the trick is to get to know your company and it’s customers. When are your sales at their highest? When are your sales lower? When do your customers usually pay?

We hope you have found these tips helpful. If you would like some advice on how to improve your sales online, please get in touch now to see how we can help.

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