It goes without saying that the global outbreak of COVID-19 will have profound and far reaching impacts on our society and economy. The situation is rapidly evolving but we’re already seeing a massive surge in web traffic. By some estimates global traffic has already doubled.

As more people are working from home or self-isolating, they’ll be browsing more and more websites looking for new products and services, ways to save money and do things differently, and re-evaluating their existing providers.

Here at The Red Fox Group we’re also taking a moment to think about how we can help small and medium businesses to get through this incredibly challenging time.

Often the first time someone will find out about your company is when they see your results in a search engine (your website is Search Engine Optimised, right?) and the first chance you’ll have to engage them is with your homepage.

Many will often judge your business, rightly or wrongly, on your website.

Now more than ever it’s vital that your business has a modern, responsive and up-to-date web presence.

One example we’re well aware of is mortgage brokers – they’re currently flat out fielding calls from clients wanting the most up to date information. We’re already working with several brokers to modernise their web presence so they can more effectively communicate with their clients.

Here at The Red Fox Group we’ve developed WebFox, an end-to-end service that takes the pain out of a website build. We can work with your existing brand and collateral or help you get something fresh. We’ll then build you a customised site designed to bring in the leads. We can take care of the content so you don’t even need to worry about that.

We appreciate many organisations are facing significant uncertainty regarding cashflow so we can also work with you to make ensure that isn’t a barrier to upgrading your presence.

 We believe in long term partnerships – our Melbourne-based team is always here to provide training webinars, help and support and we’ll perform regular health checks to ensure you’re getting the best results out of your site.

Get in touch today and let’s have an obligation free phone or video call about how we can help.

You probably already know this: mobile phones are very popular. Chances are you’ve already heard that your website needs to be mobile-friendly if you want to be competitive. But if you haven’t made the jump yet you might be wondering if this is all just hot air.

How important is mobile?

Mobile internet traffic has grown over 500% since 2011. Back in October 2016 the world hit a tipping point – where global mobile web traffic officially surpassed desktop traffic.

The key takeaway is if your website is not mobile friendly, chances are over half of your visitors are going to have a bad experience.

But my users are old school!

Are they? This is always worth reviewing. You can easily jump into Google Analytics (you’ve got that installed, right? If not, we can help you get Google Analytics setup), and under Audience select Mobile and find out what proportion of your users are visiting you from desktops, tablets or mobile devices.

Do I need a separate mobile website?

Web technology has moved on a lot since the early days of the first iPhones. Back then it was common to build a totally separate version of your website for mobile users. Now modern web tools like WebFox allow you to build responsive layouts – that are designed to respond to whatever size screen they are being displayed on. A table might collapse into boxes to fit on a mobile screen, and large images and video will scale down.

We’ve built WebFox with grids that automatically collapse on mobile, so you’ve got maximum flexibility on desktop, and don’t have to worry about it also looking good on mobile.

Where to from here?

The absolute first step you should do is visit your own website on a mobile phone. How easy is it to find all the details that a mobile user might be looking for? Can they see your key products and services? Find your office location? Give you a call or an inquiry email?

If you think your website’s mobile experience isn’t up to scratch, get in touch. We can talk though your options and how we can build a great mobile experience for you with WebFox (and we’ll even install Google Analytics for you too!).

Regardless of if you run a top end management consulting firm, a yoga studio or sell hot dogs – you need a website.

Long gone are the days when someone would pick up the Yellow Pages or a specialised business directory and flick through making calls to companies looking for leads. These days people find businesses via web searches (mainly, but not exclusively, Google).

Your website is your front door

This means that often the first time someone will find out about your company is when they see your results in a search engine (your website is Search Engine Optimised, right?) and the first chance you’ll have to engage them is with your homepage.

They’ll be looking to make sure you have a clean, modern design and up to date content.

You can’t ignore this

Would you buy clothes from a retailer that hadn’t refreshed their line in years? Of course not, and that’s why people are much less likely to engage with companies who have vastly out of date websites.

Do you have a blog that hasn’t been touched in a year, or a copyright date that is years in the past? If you do, people will notice that you’re not putting the effort into maintaining how your business looks to the world.

It doesn’t have to be hard

Technology has come a long way in the last few years. Companies like The Red Fox Group exist to take the pain points of it. Our new offering, WebFox, makes getting a fresh and modern web presence a painless experience.

As part of our services we’ll take your branding and build you a mobile-responsive site with a layout so flexible you’ll be able to easily move things around and keep it up to date. And we’re always here to help with our Australian-based team on the end of the phone.

Want to take a few minutes to talk about how we can refresh your web presence for 2020? Get in touch today!