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The importance of quick and secure delivery

If you have a business that mails out products or information then you should be aware of how important it is to ensure they arrive on time, in perfect condition and securely. Depending on what you are sending will help you decide the best method of mailing, as the Post Office for example has a a wide range of services you can chose from such as first class and second class post, signed for delivery and special delivery etc.

Using a mailing company for all your postal needs can be a cost effective way of relieving the pressure off in house staff and freeing up their time. It can mean that post goes out on time via the right method when needed and you can often save money if you are sending bulk post out.

Some companies will also manage any overseas postal requirements that you have along with quick same day or next day delivery. They often also manage delivery of parcels as well as letters and may be able to offering you tracking to see exactly where your item is and when it should be expected for delivery, allowing you to keep your customers updated.

 

 

Categories
Web Design

Choosing the right server to host your website

People sometimes do not realise how important it is to make the right choice when deciding on which hosting company to use and what type of server you want. You may find it a little confusing all the choices you have when it comes to the different services offered and often you may have to base your choice a lot on the cost of it. Dedicated servers are usually the most reliable, allow you to have the most control and also the best for search engine optimisation, but these servers often come at a price of upwards of £100 per month, which for a small to medium sized business is a lot.

Shared servers can be good for most small to medium businesses but they do have their down sides. As this server is shared with potentially hundreds of other websites you may not have any control on how it is set up. You will also find that if one of the other sites on the server is causing issues such as having a high load of traffic, this may mean your website and emails also go offline.

Shared servers can sometimes have a negative impact on your search engine rankings especially if the IP address of the server becomes blacklisted.

 

 

Categories
Web Marketing

Marketing for the New Year

With 2017 on its way out and 2018 very nearly upon us, it is a fresh start for many businesses who are looking to make 2018 their year for success. Don’t wait until January to work on your marketing plan which will probably not be enforced until February or March. Take this down time to reflect and hit the ground running in January before your competition get the chance to.

Content is King and when it comes to websites you really do need to have quality content on there to stand a chance. Quality content is crucial to dominate SEO rankings and to maintain consumer engagement, so why not pick a few key topics and start creating relevant content around those keywords / phrases to add to your website.

You may need to rethink where you are spending your marketing budget. In the past bill boards, radio and email marketing was the way forward but with social media and many companies offering all you need on their website, inbound marketing has to be top of the list. Move some of your marketing budget over to your SEO and online marketing to ensure that you have enough time and resources to achieve the goals you want to.

 

Categories
Web Design

Don’t let creativity take over your web design

You may think that being creative is a great skill to have as a web designer and that you can never be too creative, but you may be wrong. Yes, it is important to have a creative streak and know what works and what doesn’t but being over creative can take away from the main purpose of the website.

It is important to understand you are not just designing websites that you like or even your client likes, but for the users of the website. There is no point in having a flashy quirky web design that puts your visitors off and does not convert visitors in to sales or enquiries.

Research shows that people make their aesthetic judgment on your design in less than 50 milliseconds and that first impression can tell them if they want to stay or leave the site.

Users like websites that look clean and simple and also have some familiarity about them.

For example, on a blog website you would expect to see a sign up box somewhere on the top right hand side. When someone visits your site, this is the first place they are going to look for it and a percentage of people may not bother or leave the site if they cannot see it instantly and where they expect it to be.

Categories
Web Marketing

Making sure you build a responsive website

Responsive websites are extremely important as they need to be built to adapt to the device in which it is being view on. With many people now using phones and tablets, it is vital that your website displays and functions correctly on a number of different screen sizes.

If you already have a website and it is not responsive then you may be able to get a programmer to alter it for you, but this may be costly as its not always an easy change and may require many elements changing to get it all to work. If your site uses a theme from somewhere such as WordPress or Drupal then you can often find responsive themes which can be uploaded to the server. You can then swap your website over to use the new theme, but you still may need to do a few changes to get it to look as it should.

Google has actually started to use this as part of their algorithm (along with a number of other items) and is favouring responsive sites over non responsive ones to allow them to give the visitor the best possibly experience.

 

Categories
Web Design

Taking on too much work as a programmer

We all want to make as much money as possible and it can be very easy to take on more work than you can actually manage. If you are a self-employed programmer or run your own business, you need to carefully consider if you have the time and knowledge to take on a project before you agree to it.

Website projects can vary drastically from a simple brochure site to a fully-fledged ecommerce site that will be a lot more complex to build.

If you are only just starting out, then it may be worth doing a few smaller projects first to see how you get on with them and to check that your costing structure works and is accurate.

If you do take on a project and then realise that you can’t manage you either need to find someone that you can pass the work on to that is reliable or you will need to tell the customer that you can no longer work on. The son you can sort this out, the better.

You can always do online or classroom training courses to further your understanding and ability in areas such as design and programming.