BNI Membership

We are proud to report that we are now members of Reading Abbey BNI group, and are looking forward to many lucrative partnerships.

Charity Website makes the Reading Chronicle

On March 12th The Chronicle reported on the free website we built for a local charity Gloucester Road Playgroup. You can see the website at www.gloucesterroadplaygroup.co.uk

What can a website do for my business?

Getting a website is a bit like choosing a form of transport. You have to decide where it is you want to get, and how much you want to spend. Below is a very broad outline of the sorts of options available to small business that are looking for websites with roughly translatable modes of transport for price guides as a useful (but not to be too heavily relied on) analogy...

Website as barefoot - free and dirty
These days, more often than not you'll have been chatting to a great potential client, they'll be keen on using your services, and then they'll say: 'Have you got a website I can check out?'

Now you have three choices:

You can say no, you don't have a website, they'll have to take your word for it that you do what you do.

You can look shifty, nod reluctantly, making excuses about it 'just being something my brother-in-law knocked up' and how it 'doesn't have the latest work you've done.'

Or, you can...

Website as Bike - cheap and light
...beam broadly and say yes, proudly giving them your business card and declaring the domain like you can't wait for them to check it out. So if a potential client meets all three of these people, who is he going to pick?

At minimum, for about the price of a half decent bike, the website can be an online brochure for your business. It can contain images of your products, services and work you've done and testimonials from previous clients. It shows that you're serious about what you do and solid enough to have invested in a professional website.

Website as Car - affordable and versatile
A step up from that you can start having your website work a bit harder for as little as a cheap second hand car. It can find you new clients all on its own with great search engine optimization and a little promotion. If the site is well written, well presented with clear Unique Selling Points and an easy route to contact, leads can start rolling in. Increasingly people are using the Internet as their first screening for new services, and if you don't have a site there, you never leave the starting blocks. With a good site, easily found, you race past the rest.

Website as Limo - expensive but impressive
Go a bit further and you could make it more of an interactive experience, offering online services to visitors and clients alike. With e-commerce, enquiry forms, online quote requests, members' only areas, surveys, instant calculators and comparisons, your visitors could start off using the free services provided on your site and -impressed by what you can afford to give away - convert into paying customers. Clients may then find your private services invaluable and remain loyal.

Website as Air Force One
Finally you could go for a complete online business, offering secure banking services, or a web based application. Not for the layman.

If you have any comments about this article or would like any further advice, you can email us at services@simplewebsitedesigns.co.uk.

How to choose a web designer

Pick us.

Only kidding.

Below are some hints and tips on what to do if you want to choose someone to make your website and don't know where to start.

1. Always contact more than one to begin with, at least three is advisable, otherwise you have no idea of your options.

2. Check out their previous work. In our opinion they should have a wide range of examples of websites they've made on their website for you to view without asking. However, if they don't offer it right away and you do decide to ask, they shouldn't have any problem providing you with a list. If a web design company can only show you one or two websites they've made, you've got to wonder why...

3. Check out their previous work thoroughly. More than just look at it, use the websites. Are they easy to navigate, do they load fast enough? If they don't, chances are yours won't either.

4. Look at their website. A website is a showcase for all businesses, but for a website design company it's absolutely critical. If their website doesn't work it's an extremely bad sign. If their website is 'under construction' don't touch them with a barge pole. What web design company can't organise finishing it's own website?

5. Look for testimonials and recommendations. You could even contact their clients (you know who they are, you've seen their websites) and politely ask how they found the web design service. Most people will be happy to tell you if they've had good service, and even more keen if it was awful!

6. If there are any terms they use that you don't understand, don't be afraid to ask exactly what they mean. They should be able to explain in a suitable manner, taking into account the fact you're not a techie. If your designer can't explain it to you, there may be communication barriers later down the line, or they may just be trying to baffle you with jargon.

7. Make sure they can provide you with a clear breakdown of what is included in the contract. It's in both your interests to have it in writing to avoid disputes (often simply due to misunderstanding) after the project is underway.

8. They should be able to provide you with reports on your websites' performance, so you can see how many visitors you're getting once the site is live.

9. Check that they provide ongoing support, NOT on premium rate numbers or only via email or a list of FAQs, and not at extortionate rates.

10. Tech spec crib sheet for dummies (or just non geeks):

1. What browsers do you support?

• Ideal answer: IE6, IE7, Mozilla firefox, Safari and Opera (these are the most common).
  
• Bad answer: Cross-browser compatibility? What's that then?

1. Do you use cascading style sheets and up-to-date coding methods?
   

• Ideal answer: Yes, we use the most elegant script to keep the back ends of our websites light and Search Engine friendly.
  
• Bad answer: We use tables to structure our websites.

1. What SEO methods do you use?
   

• Ideal answer: We use only honest, 'white hat' methods, including keywords, titles, descriptions, search engine submission, and Google Sitemaps & verification.
  
• Bad answer #1 We don't do SEO.
  
• Bad answer #2. We guarantee you top positions in Google for all of your keywords, using all the methods that are available.

Hope that helps! If you want any more information regarding this article, please email me at services@simplewebsitedesigns.co.uk.

How to choose a domain name

How do I choose a domain name?

Often people are unsure what makes a good domain name for their website; below are some basic hints and tips to help you make the decision.

Your Company Your Website

If you can get it, the domain name should be the same as your company name – this may seem obvious but sometimes people think they need a different kind of branding for their website. You don’t and you’re just weakening your brand and giving people more things to remember. For example if your company is called ‘Wizard News’ get ‘www.wizardnews.co.uk’ don’t go for ‘www.sorcerersonline.co.uk’. If that one is taken, you could try adding ‘uk’ to the end of the actual domain name www.wizardnewsuk.co.uk as it’s more likely to be available and is easy to communicate.

If you can’t get your company name at all choose the most accurate description you can, that closely matches what people might enter into search engines if they were looking for your kind of site: www.latestwizardgossip.co.uk

.com or .co.uk?

If your main place of business is the UK, get a .co.uk domain name – many people in the UK prefer to buy locally and it could give you that advantage. However, if your business can cater for all international clients and you have no preference for the UK, a .com could give your company that multinational feel. Alternative endings such as .net and .org can be suitable although they suggest more informational, non-profit sites. If you do choose one of these endings, be aware that if you don’t specify in your literature that you are using one of these endings, people may not try them as a matter of course and may not find you. Most other endings look tacky, for example the dreaded .biz.

Meaningful is memorable

Make it meaningful to be memorable – make sure it is something that is easy to say and instantly meaningful. You may want to use an abbreviation to keep it short, but if what your final domain name amounts to is a random string of letters or numbers, it makes it very unlikely to stick in someone’s head. Then you have the danger that even if they are looking for you specifically, they can’t find you simply because they’ve got a couple of the letters mixed up. www.wzdns.co.uk only has five letters, but is infinitely harder to remember and interpret than www.wizardnews.co.uk which has twice as many letters but is a meaningful semantic string. Also, don’t forget people rarely type in domain names these days, usually they either click links or use autocomplete (where the computer guesses what you’re typing and completes it for you).

Short and sweet

Having said that, don’t go overboard trying to get your meaning across in the domain name – yes, you want to tempt people to click it, but you can’t include your whole business history. Choose something like www.wizardnewsforallbuddingyoungwizardsintheuk.co.uk and you may as well hang up your wand now. As a rule of thumb, three of four words max.

Basic Legal Requirements for Websites

The Internet is such relatively new technology and it has grown so quickly, it's taken a while for governments to catch up with all the new issues it creates. However, in the UK they are beginning to, with legislation regarding what you must and must not do with your website.

It's frequently changing as new developments take place, and it can be difficult to know whether you are complying with all the right rules at the right time. Websites can create both civil and criminal liability, so it's important to make sure you have at least the basics covered.

One of the easiest ways to get into trouble on the Internet is by copying text or images from a website without express permission - this breaks copyright law. While information in the public domain is free for you to read and look at, copying it for your own use (even personal) could land you in a lawsuit. In most cases, if it doesn't say the material is available for copy, you must assume it is copyright.

Buying a domain name that infringes on someone's trademark rights is also not allowed, even if it is slightly different. Unless you can prove that you have a reason to purchase a particular name other than to trade off somebody elses reputation (e.g. it happens to be your actual name as well), you may not be allowed to keep a domain name similar to an established company.

As a webmaster, you need to be aware of laws regarding accessibility, data protection, e-marketing and e-commerce. It is now a legal requirement to have a privacy policy available for view on your site, if you are collecting data in any way from visitors, be it via a form or simply over email. It is also extremely important to have a terms and conditions of use document, with disclaimers limiting your liability in case someone tries to claim damages for issues arising out of use of your site.

For more information on website law visit:

http://www.website-law.co.uk/index.html

http://www.weblaw.co.uk/

Free 1 Gig Memory Sticks

Well, we're back and raring to go! There are lots of new projects on the way, with a strong emphasis on branding and building a new effective business profile. We're also starting with a promotion, 1 gig memory sticks with every January order - making it easy for clients to transfer files and with a keyring attachment you can be ready to plug and save wherever you are.

We'd like to wish everyone a fantastic and prosperous New Year!