Ok so we all know about online marketing, SEO, SEF, keywords, Meta data and numerous other acronyms that if you are anything like me drive me totally insane, but are we (that being the royal we) taking full advantage of the tools and platforms that we have readily available to us already.

Long gone are the days where Search Engine Optimization is a “Black Art” and only specific companies charging equally mysterious amounts in fees can help with your search engine optimization, search engine positioning and page rank.

Google has to be one of the most recognized search engines in the world, to such a degree that we actually use the term “Google It” instead of what we really mean which is to search the internet so I will base my comments and thoughts around them.

Google inc make no secret on how you can achieve good website position and page ranking in their search engine, they obviously don’t tell all but provide some great tips on what they see as important. They describe one of the most important steps to improving your website’s ranking is “Relevant Content”.
Google’s newest release “Caffeine” highlights the importance of marketing techniques such as blog articles, news articles and even forums posts. Caffeine web indexing means that new content will now be indexed faster and your website updates will appear in a more “real time” way.

So I guess what I am saying is Google just made the Social Web, Business Blogging, Forums and articles on our websites an even more effective way to promote your business.

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The purpose o f this blog article is to try and explain some of the differences (both functionally and cost) of having a CMS (Content Management System) vs Non Content Managed on your website.

Having a Web Developer /Web Designer Create a System that allows you, the non technical user, a method to update your own web pages not only seems like a great idea but indeed is one, however you first need to fully understand what it is you are asking for.

Full Content Management System – means a system that allows the user to create categories, add pages, and sub pages that can then be edited via a web interface. This system requires no intervention from a web developer. Anyone who can use a text editor can model, shape and create a website with an unlimited number of categories or pages within those categories. A system such as this uses a database for its content and structure and is relatively complex to develop and support. Expect to pay significantly more for a system such as this.

Partial Content Management System – usually means a system that allows the user to update a set amount of pages within a site. This type of system also uses a text editor and is straight forward to use but you can’t add additional pages, you can update to ones that are there but you can’t alter the structure of your website by adding categories and pages.

More likely the system will be set up so that you can update some of your pages, maybe your products page, or a page that is date sensitive e.g. Training Courses or Seminars your arranging.
Or perhaps you are happy to let your web developer update certain pages of your site but want to be able to add News & Events.

Although this kind of CMS also uses a database to hold its content it is not so complex, is more manageable to support and therefore you will see the benefits of updating your own pages with a much smaller price tag.

Hope this clarifies a few thing for you, but if not and you want some more details you can always just give us a call, or email us, we are happy to help if we can.

Testimonials for your website are a powerful marketing tool. Your website is a great place to advertise the wonderful things your customers might say about you. Testimonials are great way to differentiate your company website from your competition. If you are particularly customer service driven or you have the widest selection of products then this will bear out in comments your customers will make about you. So how do you ask for a testimonial for your website without pestering customers and how do you accurately record it without demanding a signed, written statement from a customer.

The ‘How’ of Getting a Testimonial

The best way for you to get a testimonial will really will depend on your business. If you have a restaurant, then a customer comment card might be a good idea. Just put on the card that comments may be used on your website. If you have satisfied regulars that you chat with you could explain that you are looking for some feedback from your very best customers and would they mind you using their comments on your website. If they are happy to fill out a form or comment card, great, otherwise just make short accurate notes. Other B2C (business to customer) businesses could use a similar approach to using comment cards but if you work on a B2B (business to business) basis then you have a couple of options. You could send a personal letter asking for feedback or as part of a questionnaire but I find a customer service phone call is the best way to elicit useful feedback. This really has to be a customer service call and not a sales call, so first explain why you are calling and check they have the time to spare for this. Start with asking them about the products or services you have provided and make a few short accurate notes as they talk. Once they have covered all the ground that they want to and you have handled any issues they may be having, you can be sure that you have a satisfied customer. At this point you can simply ask them, it is as simple as that. I would say something like, ‘Thank you for your time today and thank you for your feedback. Would it be OK with you if I posted some of your comments in the testimonials section on our website?’ If they are genuinely happy then nine times out of ten they will be fine with having their comments posted.

The ‘When’ of Getting Testimonials

There is definitely a right and wrong time to ask for a testimonial. The right time is shortly after a successful sale. In the restaurant this could be as the coffees are served (assuming you will have checked that they have been happy with their meal). With a B2B sale this could be a few days or a few weeks after the product was delivered and could be incorporated into any usual customer service calls you might make. The key is to strike after the sale while the customer is most excited about your product, before that enthusiasm dies down.

A Final Note about Website Testimonials

Some marketers and Website Owners believe that testimonials should be written and signed by the customer but this is a bit over the top. Using the methods I’ve outlined above will get you plenty of genuine feedback that you can use. Also, some marketers and Website Owners will make something up and then get then the customer to OK it (and some customers ask for this also). This approach has two issues. Firstly you are missing a genuine opportunity to connect with your customer and make sure that they are happy with your service and secondly, your testimonials will all sound the same and represent the message you want to go out rather than the genuine advantages your business offers that your customers find important.

Setting up an account is simple, but if you are still having a few problems then here are some pointers to help you on your way:

1. Open a Browser of your choice and go to web address https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount
2. Fill in the details, accept the terms and conditions and create your new account.

3. Google will send you and a verification email (so make sure you use a valid address) that contains a link.
4. Click on the link – hey presto you now have your very own Google Account.

You now have access to an array of tools including Gmail (a free email account), Calendar, Analytics, docs, webmaster tools …..  The list is quite extensive.

When is a website not a website? When the website is ‘Coming soon’ If ‘Under Construction’ Pages will kill off your business the dreaded ‘Coming Soon’ web page will stop you before you even got started. This is usually (but not always) when a new company wants a website, registers their domain and then asks someone to put up a single page with ‘Coming Soon’ on it.

No One Does Business Soon

So who wants to do business soon? Who wants to do business with someone who is not actually here yet (but will be soon?). If your not actually trading yet then you are ‘coming soon’ but this is rarely the case. What is the message that you’re actually giving out with this? Are you saying ‘We can’t get our act together and sort out our website’, or is it more like ‘We’ve neglected our site, but we’ll try not to neglect our customers’? Feel free to add your own theme on this one.

So if this is what we’re saying to our customers and it is as negative as I claim, why don’t people get this sorted out? It must come down to the time and money see-saw. If you don’t have the time you have to use money, but getting it sorted out costs an unknown amount of money (and it is probably too much money, you assume). But you can get this sorted on a budget and can be cost effective.

It Doesn’t Have to be This Way

Getting one page up should be well within your time and budget constraints. Any web design company worth its salt will be able to get to get you a fresh design with images up and live on the web for a couple of hundred pounds (at the most). You’ll have to compromise on design. It won’t be all singing and dancing and it may not be exactly what you want, but it will be better and more effective than your old coming soon page.

You may struggle to get the words out and down on paper and if this is the case you should think about hiring a copywriter to write the copy (the words on the page) for you. Most web design companies will have a copywriter they can recommend if they don’t have one on staff and copy for a page might only cost you £80, which compared to the sales and reputation you’re loosing isn’t too bad.

Helpful Hints

1. Don’t use the words ‘Under Construction’
   The web is a fluid and in constant change. Your site will always be changing and is therefore always under construction.
2. Don’t use the words ‘Coming Soon’
   If you have a page on the web, you’re not coming soon, you’re here! If your website is one page, then that is your site. Better to have one great web page than loads of nothing pages.
3. Make it Keyword Rich
   Google loves text. Customers love information. The two go together. Get one interesting, information packed, keyword rich page with a few interesting images to let visitors know they have hit the right page. Have a clear first paragraph that tells visitors they are in the right place, then add a benefit proposition that is the way it is, but …
4. Include a Call to Action
   Once your visitor has read what you offer, tell then what you want them to do next. ‘We can arrange your free, no obligation demonstration by calling 01799 111 222′, or ‘Visit us on market days for a great deal’. Use something that isn’t too ‘hard sell’ but encourages your visitor to continue the dialogue you have started
5. List your Contact Details and / or Form
   Now your customers know what you want them to do, make sure that they can. A contact form that emails you the requested details is always good. If your mega tight budget doesn’t allow the emailing form then just make sure your address, phone number and email are on there.

So Get On With It

So stop procrastinating and get going. Find a web company you feel like you can trust, will take a bit of time to chat to you and help you out and get one great page up on the web. The rest can come later.

Rake Mark can obviously help you with getting one great page up there ( or as many as you might need), just give us a call on 01785 256 222. We’re here and happy to help.

As a follow-up to’ Make Your Website Design Engaging, not Frustrating’ I thought it might be useful to give you some honest to goodness practises that will help your web pages load faster without breaking the bank.

Starting with the very basics:

1. Images – very pretty, adds colour, interest and supports the textual based content on your website page, an image speaks a thousand words and all that, but also adds weight. By weight I mean the amount of data that is on the page and has to be requested and served by the web server. Now don’t get me wrong most websites have images but all too often, I come across the website that has IMAGES, Large (imposing on the page), pointless (offers nothing to the user) and Heavy (takes valuable seconds to load).When designing your website page make sure your image adds value to your page, are correctly edited and well proportioned in size for the page that they sit in and correctly compressed.
2. CSS– where possible use CSS files for layout and formatting. Your browser can cache the style and format of your page form an external CSS and loads your page a lot faster than if it had to parse through longwinded style script tags on every load.

Tables– try to avoid using tables for anything other than data, and nested tables are a definite ‘Don’t Do’. It takes the browser some time (valuable time) to work out which end tag belongs to what, match everything up and render your web page correctly.

3. Duplicated Code – If you are going to use the same piece of code multiple times throughout your website then you might want to think about putting it in an external script file. This way your browser will already have it in cache and will recall it much faster than if it has to run the script multiple times.
4. Clean Valid Code – Clean code is king. Search Engines love it, reward it and on top of all that your browser will render well scripted tags faster than any ill formed tag. If you happen to be using a WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) HTML editor, take care to remove the (never ceases to amaze me) oodles of unnecessary, pointless scripting.

If you’re unsure what any of these tips mean then you should ask your website developer or you can ask us (we will be happy to help) by either leaving a comment on this post or emailing us directly, we are really friendly and tend not to bite.

Are ‘Under Construction’ web pages damaging your business? If your website has pages with ‘Under Construction’ live on the web then they are almost certainly costing you enquiries, leads and sales. You wouldn’t allow a customer to walk in your showroom only to tell them you were unprepared to help them. You wouldn’t answer the phone and say, ‘Sorry, were under construction’. You wouldn’t add a page to your new brochure or catalogue with Under Construction across it, so why do business owners allow pages with Under Construction on them live in their website?

Offending Web Pages on the Increase

Under construction pages seem to be back on the rise, I have come across several in the last couple of months, prompting this article. This is nothing new, a new website or new section of a current website goes live unfinished with the words ‘Under Construction’ accompanied by a horrific animated image. Why? I have never found a satisfactory explanation to this and it is usually the fault of the website design company. Some website design companies seem to be waiting for copy (the text to go on the page) and some seem to be pushing a deadline. The worst offenders may even be developing the client’s site live in the web (which is simply unforgiveable).

Whatever the reason, if you have these pages on your website, now is the time to decide that you need to either finish them or remove them. If it is up to your web designer then nag them constantly to get this sorted (and vow to never use them again). If you manage your own site then you can get them finished or take them down. If you don’t want to remove them completely then you can just remove any link to the pages.

Do this one thing for your online business before you do anything else. Under Construction web pages send the worst possible signal about your business to all who view them. Your website is your most valuable online ‘Real Estate’. Treat it with respect

How often have you used a website and gotten bored and left because of the website design? It’s probably not very often. If you’re buying a book or movie on Amazon, you search for it, find it and buy it. You might read a few reviews or browse for a few different comparable books or movies, you might get bored with the book or movie you bought from the site, but you are unlikely to get bored with the website itself.

Now count up all the times you have left a website because you were frustrated or fed up with trying to find the information you were after. If you use the web regularly then you almost certainly counted into double digits.

 You know the sites I’m talking about. They might have a flash introduction or the pages will be loaded with images that make the page take ages to load. The menu doesn’t seem to make sense and leads you on a wild goose chase and you get ‘de ja vue’ as you feel you are going around in circles trying to find the information you wanted. Eventually (or possibly, quickly) you leave the site, curse its name and never return.

Bottom line: Your visitors are far more likely to get impatient and fed up with your website than they are likely to be bored.

To underline a point, when Facebook redesigned its website a poll of its users revealed that 94% didn’t like the changes. When Amazon changed its menu it took me a while to get used to it and their sales took a dip because of it. Were the users of these sites protesting and demanding change? Not a bit of it, in fact when Facebook brought in its news feed in 2006 there were organised protests against the changes.

So Where Does it All Go Wrong?

In  (very) short, it goes wrong when you choose style over substance. Or to put it another way, it goes wrong when you choose to forget about what your website objectives are and concentrate purely on thinking ‘That looks cool!’
The old statistic is that you have eight seconds to grab your users’ attention and after this they will leave. This stat is proven in study after study and is generally accepted by most, but flashy graphics in isolation are not the answer. These same studies also state that users look for ‘visual clues’ in that eight seconds to work out if they are in the right place (or on the right page) and an effective use of these visual clues on your web page will help you ‘hook’ the user to find out more. 

Using Visual Clues Effectively

Flash animation

Flash animation is eye catching and naturally the users’ eye will be drawn to it. So if you are going to use flash animation then it must re-enforce the primary messages and encourage the user to stay. Be aware that page load time is a big reason for users to get frustrated and if they are faced with the ‘loading’ progress bar, your cool graphic may well have the opposite effect that you intended.

Images

Supporting images are helpful for users to find their way. You may think this is obvious, but having an image for the sake of it is not helpful. So if you sell baby clothes then a picture or a montage of pictures showing smiling babies wearing your product range is going to be a big clue to your users that they are in the right place.  But if a photo is not appropriate then don’t crowbar one in. A graphic image showing a sales chart or carrying other sales massages will be more appropriate if you need to break the page up.

Headlines

This is probably the most important element of each page. The text on your page has been crawled and indexed by Google and Google is where most website owners I work with find that the majority of their traffic comes from. So it makes sense that if you put a relative, attractive, attention grabbing headline this is going to be of immediate interest to a user. They are going to read it and realise that this page is in tune with the Google search that brought them here. Then they’ll start to read the rest of the information that you have added to your page.

Once you’re your using your website design to engage with your customers you then have a chance to convert them into a customer.

Most of us (those who show any interest in the web), if we are in the industry or not will have heard about or know of Cascading Style Sheets/CSS.
Old Style coding was to style the page, on the page e.g.

But as I am sure you can imagine, not only did this make the page really cluttered, it also meant that every change would need to be done on every page, which is ok if you have 4 pages but if you had 100 pages this could make updating you website a bit of a chore.

Enter stage left CSS – Separating content from design and layout is a much slicker way to develop. It keeps pages clean and uncluttered, it keeps pages loading faster (browsers cache CSS) and makes updates not such a daunting task.

Ok, so building from your very basic web page in our previous tutorial we can now alter how our page looks from an external CSS (Style sheet)

If you are using an editor then create a style sheet giving it the name “StyleSheet.css” in the same location as your web page e.g. if you web page is on the desktop your CSS should be saved their also.

Go into your web page and add the element:

To the Head tag. Your syntax should now look as below:

Go back to your Stylesheet and enter the sytax:

Save it, reload your web page, if your web page has just changed colour then I guess you are all set!

Blog Tip: If you are using multiple style sheets on one project, don’t forget to note them at the top of your page, a reminder for you and a helping hand if another developer edits your code.

Starting with the basics of all basics, what is a web page? A web page is a file that sits on what we call a web server and is read or rendered in a browser like Internet Explorer or Opera or whichever browser you prefer to use really but one thing remains consistent – they all render Basic HTML Syntax/ our web pages.

The standard syntax of a web page is:

Open notepad, Copy the above text, save it as myFirstWebPage.html onto your desktop and run it (double click on the file). It will display a very basic HTML page displaying “My First web page”

Well done, you have written your first web page. Try changing the text within the “title” tags see what happens.

Now all we have to do is make it a little more interesting!

I plan to make this a regular blog topic, and when I think of something that I think you guys might find useful I will be sure to post it …. Requests are also more than welcome.

Blog Tip: Keep you code clean and neat, Google loves clean code and the neat thing is for when you have to de-bug – and you will learn the value of that if you don’t.