Event wrap up: Geelong’s Small Business Festival 2024

We’re all about celebrating Geelong’s incredible small businesses. These local superheros wearing multiple hats every day, juggling a variety of tasks, and rarely taking time out, bring a whole lot to our city. Can you imagine a city full of only big box, same same stores and services. Small local business bring us one-of-a-kind services, products, connection to community and revenue into the region through employment and expenditure.

This month, the Geelong Small Business Festival has been in full swing, Making its the perfect time to shout loud and proud about the amazing entrepreneurs and business owners who make our community so vibrant and strong.

Why the Geelong Small Business Festival Rocks

From August 12th to 23rd, 2024, Geelong turned up the volume on entrepreneurship, innovation, and good ol’ community spirit. Now in its 14th year, this festival, which is held by The City of Greater Geelong in partnership with the Geelong Chamber of Commerce is like a booster shot of inspiration and connection for our local business community.

This year there was over 50 low-cost and free events. Something for every business owner - from the fresh-faced entrepreneur to those bringing years of experience.

Whether participants came to network, learn, or just soak up the good vibes, the festival was the pit stop everything small biz.

The Big Deal About Local Businesses

Let’s be real - local businesses are more than just places to shop; they’re the heartbeat of our community. They’re the job creators, the supporters of local suppliers, and the champions of keeping money where it belongs - right here in Geelong. Every time you support a local business, you’re not just buying a product; you’re investing in the future of our community. These businesses give our neighborhoods their unique flair, make us feel at home, and help define the Geelong identity. Plus, they’re the unsung heroes behind countless sponsorships, donations, and community initiatives that keep our city thriving.

Geelong has one of the highest number of small businesses in Victoria with 17,265 registered small businesses, and thats doesn’t even including the 7897 small businesses in the Surfcoast and Bellarine Peninsula.

The Launch Party

Like any good celebration, the festival always kicks off with a Launch night. In the past the likes of Ida Buttrose, Mia Freeman, Todd Sampson and Russel Howcroft (a personal favourite) have graced the stage at the festival launch. This year AI specialist Nadia Lee entertained those gathered at The Pier. Surely you’d agree, an iconic place to throw a festival celebrating geelong.

Throw in a glass or two of a local drop and a market style set up of local producers including Irrewarra Sourdough, Cakes By Thilini, Lard Ass Butter and Geelong Region Olives.

My partner and I are both small business owners, and therefore make the Small Business Festival Launch Night an annual event. With local and state politicians, Andy Pobjoy of Piano Bar fame racking some musical themed jokes and a host of great speakers the 2024 Festival launch night was nothing short of inspiring.

Top Pick Events

There was something for everyone so picking and choosing the top picks seems a little unfair however many flocked to Mastering Canva to tune up their design skills, Storytelling, Bookkeeping 101s and Managing Metal health were all go to and well populated events.

Did you join us at the festival?

We were lucky to have the opportunity to host three workshop events this year. I appreciate the opportunity to practise my in person presentation skills, also it also takes me right outside my comfort zone - and they say thats a good things to do for personal growth!

Until next year, may your small business highs be profitable and the lows quick and painless. But enjoy the rollercoaster ride that is small business.

*https://www.asbfeo.gov.au/small-business-data-portal

Want to know more about the Geelong Small Business Festival? Visit https://gsbf.com.au/

The GeelongSmall Business Festival flag waving outside the brand new Geelong Council offices.

“I got so much out of the first SEO for Beginners session with Kerri, that I booked into the second one - Local SEO, as soon as I left!  The presentations were not just informative, they were easy to understand with lots of opportunity for attendees to ask questions and bounce ideas off Kerri.  I’ve come away from both sessions with a long to-do list but totally energised to action all of Kerri’s recommendations.” 

Amanda, Smellies Flowers

"Attending the Geelong Small Business Festival was invaluable, offering excellent networking opportunities, and showcasing the local resources available to support my journey. The sense of community and shared experience was so inspiring."

Andera, Simplify Separation & Divorce

“I look forward to the Geelong Small Business Festival every year.  I’ve been to so many valuable sessions in the past seven years.  Equally beneficial to what I can learn from the presenters is the connections with other small business operators who also attend. The Geelong business community are so generous and there’s year round opportunities to connect via the Chamber, Tourism Authority and COGG events.   I love doing business in this region.”

Melinda, The Melbourne Map

“The Geelong Small Business Festival was a fantastic opportunity for local business owners to connect, learn, and grow. The knowledge shared at these events, like Kerry Bennett’s insightful presentation on Local SEO, truly enriches our community and helps us all succeed together. It’s inspiring to see so many experts generously contributing their expertise with no strings attached”.

Moisés, mnvideos

Why seeing 'Add Order Note' at checkout gets me fired up

Can we chat for a minute about barriers to entry on eCommerce website? Website design often adds are a number of barriers that stop potential customers in their tracks and one in particular gets me all fired up. Does your site use ‘Add Order Note’ at the shopping cart? Read on

Everything someone has to ‘think’ and make a decision, it opens the door to ‘I don’t know’ and the customer can leave.

Have you ever been asked to answer a survey and the answer you want to select is not there? You face either making an unhappy choice or giving up entirely. The same can happen on an eCommerce website.

There are a number of questions your customers are answering during the process of shopping on your site. We’re not going to review all of them here, rather I want to focus on one that gets my goat the most - the ‘Add a Note’.

I’m sure you’ve seen it before right at the check out stage. Just by asking that unassuming question your asking your customer to make a choice. Leave a note or not.

By seeing the note section they could be thinking is this the place that I add delivery information such as ‘please leave near the back door ‘. If the customer chooses to leave it blank they can be questioning t if they have provided all the clear and accurate information that is required.

If you are using an order note feature that is available as a standard feature in all Shopify stores - please change the wording so that it informs the customer exactly what information should be left in this space. If you don’t have anything that they should add, then turn it off.

SEO Acronymns - A beginners guide

Please note: this entire article has been written by ChatGPT as a test for its capabilities

SEO, or search engine optimisation, is a crucial aspect of digital marketing. It involves making changes to your website and content to improve your search engine rankings and drive more traffic to your site. With SEO, you want to ensure that your website is easily discoverable by your target audience. However, the world of SEO is filled with acronyms and technical terms that can be overwhelming for beginners.

Here are some of the most common SEO acronyms and what they mean:

• SEO: Search Engine Optimisation. The process of optimising your website and content to improve your search engine rankings.

• SERP: Search Engine Results Page. The page that displays the results of a search query on a search engine.

• PPC: Pay-Per-Click. A type of online advertising where you pay a fee each time someone clicks on one of your ads.

• CPC: Cost Per Click. The amount you pay each time someone clicks on one of your ads.

• CTA: Call to Action. A button or link on your website that encourages visitors to take a specific action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.

• CTR: Click-Through Rate. The percentage of people who click on one of your ads out of the total number of people who see it.

• CRO: Conversion Rate Optimization. The process of improving the percentage of visitors to your website who take a specific action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.

• KPI: Key Performance Indicator. A metric used to measure the performance of your website and digital marketing efforts.

• HTML: Hypertext Markup Language. The code used to create the structure and layout of a website.

• CSS: Cascading Style Sheets. The code used to control the design and layout of a website.

• JS: JavaScript. A programming language that is used to create interactive elements on a website.

• API: Application Programming Interface. A set of rules and protocols that allow different software programs to communicate with each other.

• GTM: Google Tag Manager

• GA: Google Analytics

• GMC: Google Merchant Centre

• GBP: Google Business Profile

Understanding these acronyms and terms is important as they are commonly used in the SEO industry. If you want to improve your search engine rankings and drive more traffic to your website, it's important to stay up-to-date on the latest SEO best practices and trends. This includes understanding the acronyms and terms that are commonly used in the industry.

In conclusion, SEO can seem intimidating at first but with time, effort and patience, one can master the art of optimising their website to drive more traffic and improve their search engine rankings. Understanding the acronyms and terms that are commonly used in the SEO industry is a good first step to getting started with SEO.

Why drag and drop website builders can be the best client solution

This article is a response to an article we read last year on avoiding drop and drag builder websites. In this article we explore why you should embrace drag and drop website builders and be cautious around web developers who won’t even consider them for your website project.

Last year I read an article describing  how business owners should avoid drop and drag websites. As an agency that builds many websites on a range of platforms including some drop and drag websites like Shopify and Squarespace, I read the argument with interest.

Whilst I understand there can be certain drawbacks to using drop and drag builder websites, there are also some very important advantages

So to balance the argument, lets list some of the positives of drop and drag websites.

Support. When you build with a drop and drag website, you get access to their support channels. Shopify offer 24/7 online chat support and Squarespace offer live chat support and email support. 

Built in hosting. The drop and drag websites we work with including Shopify and Squarespace have built in hosting, so as a business that's one less thing you need to worry about.

Free from tech jargon. For the most part, drop and drag builder websites are targeted to non-developers therefore the language they use when an update is required or something needs attention, isn't filled with unfamiliar jargon but rather regular language that is easy to understand.

Designed for purpose. Shopify is specifically designed for eCommerce. The company invests heavily in continuous research in the  eCommerce landscape and regularly roll out new and improved functionality.

SEO. It was mentioned in the article that drop and drag website are poor for SEO, however this is not correct. Drop and drag websites provide full access to optimise on page elements, Shopify now allows access to the robots.txt file, provides URL redirection options and both Squarespace and Shopify provide full xmll sitemaps. Keyword research and backlink building, both of which are imperative to SEO have nothing to do with the platform a website runs off.

Budget. Drop and drag websites can leverage advantage from prebuilt themes, helping start ups and small businesses to create a highly professional and effective website without the budget requirements of a custom build, hand coded website.

Huge user base. The popularity of Shopify in recent years means that the user base is large and therefore resources to assist and support are easy to find. 

Easier to use. Lets face it, as a business owner you’re busy enough. The last thing you need is to spend a crazy amount of time and stress just to add that blog post or update that phone number on your website. The admin panel on Shopify and Squarespace is user intuitive and the learning curve to using it is much shorter than on something that has been build by a developer who feels very comfortable in surrounded by jargon and code.

A website that is rarely updated, overwhelming to use and causes endless frustration is a not good website solution for any business. It's my belief that clients should be allowed and encouraged to explore the pros and cons of numerous types of website build options.

I take it as my responsibility during client discovery to determine the needs of the client, not just the immediate need of building a website but also the understanding of how that website will be ongoingly managed and used within the organisation.

If that results in a custom build website on an open source platform, then so be it. But if the best solution for the client comes in the form of a drop and drag builder website, you can bet that I’m going to confidently and strongly recommend that option to my client along with the reasoning behind that recommendation.

So to those developers who turn their nose up at drop and drag websites - I’d ask, who are you really serving by being so linear in thinking that custom coded websites are the only solution?

Shopify Website Renovation & SEO: Edwards Providore Bendigo

Edwards Providore approached us to help with a renovation to their Shopify store and assistance with SEO implementation to help them increase their presence locally for hampers and take home meals .

They had a talented graphic designer onboard in Petite Pixel Design, some stunning photography and a well established physical store in Bendigo but their online presence was a lacking a little.

We focussed first on the site renovation, in particular migrating to a theme that better powered the usability and functionality they required. The involved shuffling the navigation and organising much of the content to create better flow for the user. We also created pages and collections that would facilitate the SEO objectives.

Once the Shopify website makeover design was complete, we undertook keyword research and optimised on page elements including headings, alt text, image file names and titles and meta descriptions for each product and collection. We ensured they we established with Google My Business, Google Search Console and that Google Analytics was correctly configured.

Edwards Providore now attracts significant traffic to the site from organic sources and ranks in top positions in the search and image results for ‘Bendigo Hampers’, ‘Gifts Bendigo’ and ‘Hamper Delivery Bendigo’ along with 298 other commercially focussed keyword phrases.

Theme: Turbo
Tasks: Onsite SEO, Local SEO, Shopify Renovation

SEO Optimisation growth chart