If you have a website for your business, you'd know that without visitors (aka traffic) your website is dead in the water. It's like a party with amazing food that no one goes to.

It's also important to know where those visitors come from and how they contribute to your bottom line, because like party guests - not all visitors are quality.

"How much does a website cost?"

A common and reasonable question.

The answer most people get is that "It depends".

And this is correct, but a general rule of thumb would be useful, right?

You'll see it mentioned in many online marketing articles:

Thou Shalt Blog!

Sadly, many people in small business' don't. Which is sad because they are missing out on a really good way to attract visitors to their website.

A blog is a useful, flexible mechanism for adding new content to your site without having to shoe-horn it somewhere into an existing site structure. You can call it 'articles', 'resources' or something similar if you want to. The ability to comment and/or share your posts makes it easier to promote your content and engage with people on the topic.

We all know that having a website for your business is critical. But there's no point if no one visits it!

Attracting visitors (aka traffic) is a task that takes up the majority of the time and attention of most webmasters (and mistresses!) and can be a huge challenge if you don't know where to start.

Making it harder is the fact that any old traffic isn't good enough – it needs to be the kind of visitor that has a good chance of taking you up on your offer of goods or services. And one important group are those that are physically close to you.

The first myth on this list was going to be one about having to follow lists of do's and do not's about web design.

A lot of articles and How-To guides on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) include something called Bounce Rate.  It is said that it affects how high up in Google's search results you appear (i.e. your search ranking).

This is not completely correct.  Even though it is a statistic worth paying attention to, the Bounce Rate reported in Google Analytics is not used to calculate where you appear in Google's search results.

You know the saying - "If it looks to good to be true - it is". Or how about "You get what you pay for".

Yet hundreds of business owners are being duped by offers of cheap Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

(updated January 2016)

If you are running Google Adwords, there's a good chance that you haven't been able to resist searching with your target keywords to see if your ad shows up, where and how it looks.

You have probably come across a situation where your ad doesn't show up – either it doesn't show up no matter what you search for, or it shows up for some phrases and not others, or perhaps you are getting anedotal comments that you're 'not there'.

And so naturally, you become concerned that something is wrong. But don't worry - there are legitimate reasons why this happens. Here are the most common....

When you setup a page on Facebook the URL will be something like www.facebook.com/your-page-name-1248972121.

This looks pretty ugly if you were to include it on any material like a business card or email signature!

But once you’ve got 25 people liking your page you can apply for your a URL that reflects your name or business name (also called a Facebook vanity URL).

Claiming a friendly username makes your Facebook page easier to find and looks more professional. Try and come up with one that is appropriate for your brand name but easy to remember and read.

Once you claim your username YOU CAN'T CHANGE IT – so choose carefully! *

Are you the proud of owner of a website that looks good, but for some reason isn't pulling it's weight?

Wondering why?

It could be that there is not enough on your website to encourage multiple visits or touches with your business.

Before your video is going to be a useful part of your content marketing strategy, you need to turn your raw footage into something entertaining, educational or otherwise compelling.  So lets first look at the more popular video editing software before checking out hosting options.

An application or 'App' is seen by many as the third option to deliver a better mobile user experience to their audience (along with responsive design and a separate mobile specific site).

Over the last year or two there has been a flood of apps appearing for everything from content delivery to music instruments, building tools, games, weather apps, calculators, e-commerce and of course social media.

However much kudos you might get from saying you have one, apps can be challenging to produce so they should make sense for your particular business. If your market is going to be looking for your product while out in 'the real world' and/or you can make use of mobile devices core capability (such as GPS) to add value, then it might be worth it.

If you want a mobile-friendly website – what does this mean and how do you go about it?

A mobile-friendly website is one that is easy to use on a smart-phone or tablet. Easy for many people means not having to struggle with tiny text. Pinching and resizing text, and trying to use navigation designed to be read on a PC sized screen is not fun.

But it can mean so much more than that.

Your website conversion rate is a simple calculation that says "of the people coming to my site, how many take the action I want?"

Headlines are the first thing people see. It's what will make them open your email or read your content – or not.

Because it's not your readers job to work out what you are trying to say, you've got to instantly grab their attention.