How to build a successful website tip #9: Engage your audience with colour

“I am a firm believer in choosing colours that reflect your brand personality. Your website says a lot about who you are and colours are a great way of reflecting this. 


You need to know and understand your audience. Who are they and what are they looking for? Then work around that. Will the colours and themes work for your target market? Are they likely to engage with this content? While we need to focus on our personal brand, we also need to ensure that our audience will like our themes too.” – Caroline Naguib

Caroline Naguib is a designer and PR expert. She is the co-owner of Infomatrix PR, a brand consultancy that helps businesses tell their story.

Caroline studied at the prestigious Enmore Institute and currently design websites, newsletters, merchandise and more for businesses. 

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How to build a successful website tip #8: Mobile, video + accessibility

1) Mobile-first strategy – With a majority of online traffic coming from mobiles, its time businesses begin adopting a mobile-first website design that is later optimised for desktop. This will ensure that your site drives results from visitors on their mobile. 
2) Use video content on your website – This can help drive traffic to your landing pages & blogs. Video helps you to engage visitors of your site, increasing the time spent on your page which boosts your Google ranking. 
3) Increase accessibility – Create more ways for visitors to contact you. This includes channels such as email, phone, forms & Facebook messenger. You may also encourage visitors to ask questions, take tours or make consultation bookings in order to nurture those who aren’t ready to purchase.” – Lachlan Hall


Lachlan Hall is a Business development manager for SBP Creative Media, a Melbourne based digital marketing company helping businesses to communicate effectively online. In this role, he assists businesses in finding opportunities to market online and develop strategies that will allow them to cut through the clutter of online content.

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How to build a successful website tip #7: PLAN!

“You Definitely should have a plan for your business and eventually your website. Is it going to be your virtual store, Customer service portal or just a glorified Brochure? – I mean a bricks and mortar business without a business plan is pretty silly! Why should it be any different for your website or landing pages? Have a plan for the coming month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months! Where do you see you and your website 5 years from now? Do you have an exit plan? Do you have a revenue plan? ‘By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.’” – Prosper Taruvinga


Livelong Digital helps small businesses to be found when their clients are searching for them. 

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How to build a successful website tip #6: Maximise conversions

“By far, the most important thing to consider when developing a successful website is how you can maximise conversions – whether that be an ecommerce sale, or a form submission for a service business.

People often get too wrapped up in a pretty website design at all cost – but that often doesn’t convert.

Some basic tips to improve your website conversation rate are:

  • Ensure you have a clear navigation and customer flow.
  • Provide simple and clear “call to actions” throughout the website.
  • Improve your website speed at all cost.
  • The right images can work wonders.
  • Don’t stop testing.”

David Pagotto is the founder and managing director of SIXGUN, a digital marketing agency based in Melbourne, Australia.


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How to build a successful website tip #5: Communicate who you are and what you do

“Ensure your website effectively communicates what it is that you do straight away. The average page visit lasts a little less than a minute, and a lot of visits last less than a few seconds, so connecting with your audience straight away is important.

Users take the time time to read just a quarter of the text on the pages they actually visit, so format your website in a way that makes it easy to read and digest. This includes utilising icons and imagery to support your messaging, dot points, subheaders, etc to break up your content. 

Nobody wants to read a wall of text on a web page, and if you do it they will leave almost instantly.

These basic design principles are vital, because any form of digital marketing you do without addressing these issues first will be in vain.”

Blake Smith is a digital marketing consultant specialising in growth hacking and SEO. He manages multi-channel strategies for clients, designing campaigns that focus on growth, lead generation, and engagement. Follow Blake on his personal digital marketing blog at www.blakesmithy.com or on his social accounts @blakesmithy.

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How to build a successful website tip #4: Mastered Marketing’s Top 5 Tips

“1. Make it incredibly user-friendly. Don’t bombard people with information – make every page reachable from the home page so they can easily access information IF they need it, but don’t smash them with it all at once.

2. Stating the obvious but being optimised for mobile is an absolute must-have. Not even mobile-friendly, it should be mobile FIRST. Make sure it presents correctly, loads quickly on mobile and works on every device. Mobile makes up for 70% or more of you traffic so don’t waste it.


3. Make it look modern and clean. If it looks outdated or clumsy it will leave a bad impression. 9 times out of 10 a clean, ‘less is more’ approach is the way to go, using realistic, powerful imagery (that doesn’t look like a cheesy stock photo). You can use Unsplash for great (and free) royalty free photos.

4. Make it SEO friendly. If you’re not an SEO guru don’t worry, just make sure each page has a title and description, minimise the images so it loads quickly, make sure you’ve submitted a sitemap to Google Search Console and you delete any pages you aren’t using. 

5. Create some blog content and send people to your website. Like I said, no need to be an SEO wizard but ultimately you want to send people to your site whenever you can.

BONUS – If you’re a local business, sign up to Google My Business so you start showing up when people search for you. It’s a quick and easy way to instantly increase your SEO.” – Mitch Hills

Mastered Marketing helps people help more businesses. A Brisbane-based digital agency passionate about small businesses, we help businesses explode their brand & get more customers online with world-class digital marketing. Connect on Instagram or Facebook. 

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How to build a successful website tip #3: Nail the 4 pillars of SEO

“Our biggest tips for creating a website are: 

Make sure all design is streamlined and that you invest in a professional graphic designer, content writer, web developer, and software engineer. Make sure to nail the four pillars of successful SEO: 

1. New and trending content creation
2. Specific content creation
3. Invest in Google Adwords and online campaigns
4. Network with other websites to gain backlinks from them. 


Following these four pillars will ensure that you’re relevant, specific, fair with Google advertising and a trusted source – all things Google loves! Make sure to target a niche and know your audience when it comes to content creation and take advantage of all social media platforms to market your website to the public.” – Kaylyn Jeffrey

Kaylyn Jeffrey is a Web Content Manager for Service.com.au, a business that connects everyday Australians with local service professionals. 

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How to build a successful website tip #2: Landing pages and call to actions are key!

Tip #2: Landing pages and call to actions are key!

“The main tip I would give is the importance of landing pages and call to actions. What do you want the person on your website to actually do? Do you want them to buy or phone you or sign up to something? You need a high converting landing page to capture a lead in some way – otherwise it is pointless even having them visit your website.” – Joanna Wells, Taylor Wells. 


We launched Taylor Wells in 2016 to help companies work out how to price their services. We help them build their pricing approach and also build pricing teams for companies. We have worked with some of leading ASX listed businesses.

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How to build a successful website tip #1: Get involved and create great content

As the owner of an online business, I am constantly exploring the best ways to improve our online presence. SEO, Google Ad Words, website design, content, landing pages…there are so many elements to consider when designing a successful website, and it’s constantly changing. So we asked some web experts and businesses “in the trenches” the question, “What are your top tips for a creating successful website?” 


We were inundated with great advice, which we will share as a series of separate posts that will hopefully provide you with some great advice to get your website in its best shape yet!

Tip #1: Get involved and create great content

“My top tip for your website is that the business owner needs to get involved. They will learn so much from a couple of months working on the website – they will save lots of money and heartache down the line – i.e. if they know how to post blogs, make small changes etc. and also know roughly how long a task takes to complete. They can then outsource that task with confidence.


The second thing I would say is that SEO is an ongoing and never ending journey. You need to create regular high quality content or you simply will not grow your organic traffic sustainably. This could be a blog, videos etc.” – Aodhan MacCathmhaoilwaster.com.au


Waster.com.au was launched in 2016 to deliver low co st waste and recycling to small Australian businesses on flexible 30 day agreements. We provide all services and really focus on boosting environmental performance.

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How to…Spring Clean your office

When we think about “Spring Cleaning”, we often just think about cleaning our home, especially tackling the big cleaning jobs that we don’t do during the year. But there are lots of other areas you can apply a good old “Spring Clean” to your life. We sought the advice of some cleaning and organising experts to find out how to spring clean your office this spring. Here are some of their helpful tips:

1. Completely clear your desk

Rather than picking bits of pieces off your desk and dealing with them one at a time, Professional Organiser and transformed messaholic, Kirsty Farrugia says, “My top tip is to completely clean your desk of everything. Create a clean slate and then only put back on your desk the things you use every day and that you love (a picture of your loved ones). Deal with all other items, put filing away, put rubbish in the bin, give things back that belong to others and throw in the bin rubbish. This practice will help you maintain a clutter-free desk and help spark creativity”.
Jane Wilson, head of marketing and social at Melbourne branch of Fantastic Cleaners explains that “Every spring we have a de-cluttering organised in our entire office. Every employee is kindly asked to get rid of all the unnecessary items from their desks, such as old notebooks, pens that don’t work, various pieces of paper that are no longer relevant, and other similar items.” 



By completely clearing your desk, this also allows you to easily perform the next step…

2. Wipe down your desk and office equipment

Wiping down your desk will get rid of any dust and left-over lunch crumbs, but don’t limit yourself to the desk – wipe down your phone, computer, keyboard and anything else on your desk that gets used regularly. Jane Wilson says that her team are “asked to wipe their desks and computers/phones with the products we provide,” but you can use wipes, dust clothes – whatever you have handy. 

3. Organise, organise, organise

Completely clearing off your desk will allow you to see what pieces of paper need to be actioned, tossed, delegated, or filed. The key is to make a decision about everything you pick up – “Don’t just shift stuff from one area into another. Be realistic and know that things must go,” warns Susanne Thiebe from LessMess.

Don’t just stop at the physical files either. Use this time to also tackle your computer files. In Jane’s office, “Everyone also makes a small organising of their computer files, they get rid of everything they don’t need and every computer gets cleaned professionally,” which will enhance your work experience and efficiency when you can quickly find what you need. 
Just be careful not to over organize your files/docs/emails, advises Susanne. After all, “Filing is about retrieving. If you know you are never going to read that information again, put it in the bin!!”

4. Tackle all areas of your office

Look around your office for other opportunities to clean and refresh your space – this applies to both small home offices and larger commercial offices alike. “Other spring cleaning routines we have is to have the carpets in the office washed, the windows as well, the office plants get re-potted and trimmed if needed, and all the common areas like kitchens, bathrooms and storage rooms get decluttered of old items, everything gets organised and dusted,” says Jane. 

And don’t forget to “Get rid of excess furniture, paper, magazines, books etc,” Heather Gibson and Sara Hall from Finer Details Concierge & Organiser Services advise. Removing the larger items, especially furniture makes a remarkable difference in making your space feel less cluttered. 

5. Spring clean your timetable

If you don’t have time to spring clean, maybe you need to spring clean your diary and To Do List. “Say NO more often. If you don’t have time to do things now – it’s unlikely that you have time later. Cross unrealistic items off the to do list for good,” says Susanne. Consider your overarching goals and vision. If there are things on your To Do list that don’t align with your bigger goals, carefully consider if they need to be on your list in the first place. 



6. Set some ongoing “rules” for keeping your workspace organised

Heather Gibson and Sara Hall recommend the following “best practices” for ongoing maintenance:
1. Keep a clear desk – tidy at the end of each day
2. Allocate a time to deal with incoming mail – file, action or bin
3. Label storage areas so things are easily returned  
4. Clearly mark disposal date on archives so you don’t end up keeping years of unnecessary paperwork
5. Use the “one-in one-out rule” – when insurance, licences and other annual renewals arrive in the mail, discard the old straight away  

And finally, Susanne shares four motivating organising tips to remember:
1. Organising doesn’t come naturally to everyone, but “organising is a skill everyone can learn”.  
2. “It’s more important to get it done than to get it done perfectly.”
3. “Start small – with one easy drawer or box.”
4. Celebrate your achievements

Be kind to yourself, spring cleaning and organising your space will take time, especially if you haven’t done it for a while. Block out some time in your diary to minimise distractions and get it done, put on some comfy clothes and great music and imagine how great it will feel when it’s done!

Thank you to our contributors for sharing their wise words:

1. Kirsty Farrugia: Professional Organiser and transformed messaholic. 
Passionate about helping others to find space in their heads, hearts and homes, Kirsty wants to share with others the freedom that comes from living a decluttered life. 

Owner of Feels Like Home Professional Organisers, and co-producer of popular podcast The Art of Decluttering, Kirsty is on a mission to help those who are too busy, too confused, too tired, too stressed or too overwhelmed to deal with their own clutter – working with clients to create order and make long-term improvements in all aspects of their lives. 

Kirsty lives in Sydney, Australia with her uber-organised husband and her two gorgeous children.


2. Heather Gibson & Sara Hall, Finer Details Concierge & Organiser Services
Finer Details is a West Australian based Concierge & Organiser Service who have assisted local, interstate and overseas clients with their organisational needs. Sara and Heather are the owners of the longest operating Concierge business in Perth WA with a team of capable and dedicated employees. Learn more at www.finerdetails.com.au, or check them out on Facebook and Instagram

3. Susanne Thiebe, LessMess
LessMess is a Professional Organising business specialising in family management and office organisation. Susanne (Thiebe) has been running her business LessMess since 2006. She trained in Germany and has an engineering degree in Interior Architecture. She is married and mother to three boys. She is an accredited Expert Professional Organiser and founding member of the Institute of Professional Organisers (IOPO). Susanne writes a regular blog as well as a fortnightly newsletter that contain organising tips, interesting web links and snippets of her families’ personal journey to live a life less stressful and more fulfilling. Learn more at www.lessmess.com.au, or connect on Facebook and Twitter (lessmess). 

4. Jane Wilson, Fantastic Cleaners, Melbourne
Jane is a business manager, a mum and a blogger. She is originally from London, but moved to Melbourne more than 5 years ago. Jane manages the Melbourne branch of Fantastic Cleaners as the head of marketing and social. Jane also has a small personal blog, Modern Housewives, where she post articles on different topics, like home improvement, cool DIY and gardening projects, tips on raising children and more. 

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