There
are four main services offered:
1.
Website Design. Essentially
you can have any style and composition
of website design you have ever seen
or have set your heart on. This might
include as simple as a simple blog,
through basic shopping baskets, to multi-million
pound turnover SQL database lead dedicated
servers etc. Along the way you might
prefer to go ultra-modern, ultra chic,
period style, even using Dali style
floppy clocks for that. We can do "flash"
programming, video streaming, and music
driven. In summary, if you can dream
it we can do it.
2. Computer Support.
The bread and butter of our work is
computer support coverage. This is software
support, so we can't help if you've
just dropped it in the bath, or kicked
it downstairs. However, if it's an installation
problem, Microsoft O/S domestic - commercial
or industrial computer this is where
you can get it back working again, networks,
printers, routers, wireless, IPAQ's,
Broadband, software conflicts, updates,
viruses, firewall, conflicts, crashes
etc you got it we do it.
3,
Photography. Often
there is a requirement for photography
of either product, places or people
when producing your website, literature,
signs etc. We pride ourselves as much
on the art direction as well as quality
of the photography we produce. Experience
includes many years producing sophisticated
famous shots for clients like Farr Pilot
House Yachts, including many on location
around the world and which were used
in International sailing press; through
to simple fast and economic shots for
The Wheatsheaf Inn for whom we took
photos of 200 different bottles of wine
for a menu in 2 hours. For
the portfolio click here
4.
Web Marketing. Having a website
that's aesthetic is great, having a
website that combines this with ease
of functionality and high volume traffic
is much better. Add in that it sells
loads and you're laughing. You do need
to learn how they work. Employing a
techie is handy, but read the books
too; you need to know what they are
talking about so no one "pulls
the wool", build your knowledge,
and don't be afraid to get your hands
dirty. Don't be afraid to learn the
jargon. A basic rule to websites that
sell lots of product is 3-clicks.
That's the average number a consumer
is willing to make to get to what they
want to buy. If it doesn't, they don't
buy. Does yours?
Most companies will achieve at least
40% of their turnover through the internet,
many a lot more. I was recently told
of a case where a client hadn't even
developed a site at all because he'd
been told it wasn't certain he would
get his "search-engine" ranking
high enough to be worthwhile!
How do search engines find you? Most
websites have things in them called
"meta-tags", which are keywords
that search engines read or "spider"
through to rank you. To check your meta-tags:
i. Open your website
ii. Click on "view"
at the top
iii. Click "source".
iv. Scroll to the very top of
the page
vi. Look down the left hand edge
coming down until you see META "NAME",
"DESCRIPTION" and "KEYWORDS".
(You can change them if you have Dreamweaver
MX and ftp access).
If they're not there its highly likely
you will never come up on the ranking
system. Get a copy of your website in-house
if you haven't already, and get these
changed so they work! Test your site's
submission friendly status by visiting
Meta-tags.
This is free and is ammunition to bash
your techie with if yours is wrong.
What does "Meta Tags" do?
These are the words used to sort you
by the search engines. While an established
website often also includes the content
too, these are the primary movers and
shakers. If you use the most commonly
used words you can increase your response
level even higher. Check out what would
be best for you here Wordtracker.
You should consider using the acclaimed
software http://www.webposition.com/
which offers free trial software for
you to use.
Regularly submit to improve search engine
ranking! You then need to submit your
website regularly to each search engine
(Google, MSN, Yahoo etc) to keep it
fresh and on top. A free multiple submission
engine can be found at Add
me or Submit
Express or Whatuseek.
Alternatively below are the direct links
to the submission pages of the top sites.
NB "All the Web" requires
a subscription.
Only through regular (once a month)
submissions to the search engines will
you achieve successful hits from them.
Google
uses http://www.google.com/addurl.html
Yahoo
uses http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request
AlltheWeb,
uses https://sitematch.overture.com/Overture/SiteMatch?realm=enrollRealm&event=enrollEnterUrls.jsp&o=
MSN
uses http://submitit.bcentral.com/msnsubmit.htm
Altavista
uses http://addurl.altavista.com/
Supercrawler
uses http://www.supercrawler.com/submit.html
Please
let me know if you think anyone is missing.
EMail
Me!
Beware there are people out there who
charge for submissions, whose efforts
range from over zealous and the consequent
banning of your site from that engine,
to no action whatsoever except spending
your money. So choose a reputable firm
or better still one recommended to you.
HOT NEWS: Google now offer a
means to assist your web ranking called
Google sitemaps (Beta) here
your need to add one to your
site, and a good generator is available
here
this will ensure your site gets spidered
regularly and helps explain all the
detail to improve your lot.
How
do I get more traffic to my site?
To see how many hits your site is getting
I recommend you install the Alexa toolbar.
This can be downloaded at Alexa
Whoever is your ISP (Website host) usually
has a control panel with all the hits
you are receiving captured, commonly
in raw data. Simply navigate to their
site enter your Username and Password,
which will have been provided to you,
and you can print them off. Or you can
buy a variety of analysing tools should
you wish. Try here.
People don't just use the search engines,
they often try entering the URL's of
what they are looking for directly into
the address bar at the top of the page.
It is also useful therefore to buy generic
names for your industry, and even some
of your suppliers brand titles etc.
Being careful not to fall foul of cyber-squatting
or indeed your suppliers! However if
you sell prestigious cars and happen
to have "www.astonmartin.co.uk"
you're likely to get tremendously more
hits. To research what's available go
to www,register.com
or www.domainbuster.com
A
little wrinkle of advice; no one said
you can't use a little subterfuge with
your web-promotion too. Enter it for
as many awards as you can, as it'll
be sure to then appear on other sites
databases. I suggest sites like http://www.favouritewebsiteawards.com
And what's to stop you saving a database
of people who think your site is good
enough to enter for an award too? there's
a definite buying signal if I ever saw
one. Finally what's to stop you giving
awards out yourself, a great way of
developing customer loyalty and reason
for coming back to the site?
A
few words of Caution!
Many people like to use programs such
as Flash or put music and other similar
pretties on their site. While they look
and sound good they take ages to download
(few people have ADSL Broadband or even
ISDN yet), so long downloads puts people
off. You also can't put meta names,
keywords and descriptions to search
engines on those pages, so bang goes
your ranking. Far better to concentrate
on selling more product than worry about
aesthetics.
Where
you host you site can cause problems
too. Quality of service and friendly
efficient response to problems and queries
can vary enormously between hosts. I
am happy to recommend www.hostinguk.com
who are a pleasure to do business with.
It is widely accepted that by far the
majority of internet users in the UK
use IE (Windows Internet Explorer),
although the range from IE3.1 through
to IE7 still amazes and frustrates web-designers.
Netscape is however also used by a fair
percentage of the world, and what sites
appear like on both should be checked
before you let your site go live, remember
there is a cost implication for developing
a site to be able to service both.
Danger Warning! Get rid of
proprietary web-surf ware including
AOL, Tiscali, Wannadoo etc
from your computer! These deliver intrusive,
prohibitive and parochial controls over
your use of the internet. To earn their
"pound of flesh" they prevent
you from installing / downloading certain
functions and controls, and always want
to dictate control of what you see and
what gets sent to you. They sell advertising
space - that's how they earn their money!
The first thing to do is use someone
else, BT
or search on Google,
cancel your subscription and send them
a recorded letter confirming your cancellation
date as they usually require 1 months
notice. They will continue helping themselves
to your money by direct debit if you
don't! Then delete absolutely anything
with any of them from your computer
and block it with your firewall. It
is that bad!
Finally, there are many pieces of software
out which you can use on your site which
are available either free or relatively
cheaply, such items as shopping baskets,
and payment gateways. I can also help
choose the right merchant account for
you. For the more technically informed.
I am proficient in HTML, Javascript,
Coldfusion, SQL and ASP. Here are a
few sample sites to look at which I
have helped recently.
I hope this information has helped or
at least reassured you that what you
are doing is right.
(Oh,
and one final thing, for those of
you kind enough to thank me for this
information -given freely, this is
just the tip of the iceberg and if
you want it done professionally, you
can always employ me! - after all
thats the points of the website)
If you are familiar with SEO tools
then the following is a recommended
purchase.
