Friday 24 December 2010

A Very Happy Christmas From Net Visuals

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all customers old and new for ongoing business, patience and support for our products and services. Our knowledge, talent and experience is slowly being recognised as one of the most forward thinking and modern web developers in the area and we're very happy you're with us.

We hope you have a safe and happy Christmas.

Best Wishes

Net Visuals Bespoke Web Design

Tuesday 30 November 2010

Measures Of Website Success

When analysing and measuring the success of your website it is important to cover a number of important aspects. For the best answer, ask your customers.

Direct Email Enquiries

Enquiries can take two direct forms, either by an enquiry form placed on your website or an email link which brings up a new email in their program. The first you can quantify as the email will identify it came from a particular website, the second however cannot be measured in the same way.

What that means is that for any direct email from a customer could be as a result of looking at your website or a referral from another site.

Indirect Email Enquiries
Indirect enquiries are emails that are sent through third party websites, booking tools, or via email links. Again this is difficult to determine statistically and presents the same issues as direct enquiries.

Telephone Enquiries

The enquiry or booking via telephone is a difficult one, sometimes a person will tell you where they saw you, or that they have been to your website. You will need to ask them where they found you to get the best analytical information.

Remember, just because someone doesnt send you an enquiry through your form doesnt mean that your website isnt working well, many people use direct email not using these forms, and many still prefer to use the telephone. Product sales are the key baseline here including overall enquiries.

Summary
In summary, ask your customers, they are the only ones that will provide you with information and whats on their mind, once the information is collated present it to your web developer and then implement changes so that it meets the needs and solves any problems highlighted by your customers.

Always ask where your customer found you, and if you are told 'the web' ask them where on the web.. it makes a huge difference!

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Google SEO For Website Owners

If you have often wondered what goes into search engine optimisation or SEO as its known in the industry then you should have a look at the following document.

The PDF (which will open in your browser window) is Google's introduction to SEO for webmasters and website owners and goes through alot of the elements of what you should look for not only when you have your own website created, but even when you ask for links from other people's websites what your link should say as that's important too!

Skim through the following GOOGLE SEO document at your leisure.

Remember, we can provide a full website SEO and drill right down to every keyword, tag and paragraph dynamically to help create a powerful search based website, why not enquire about our dynamic SEO subscription post web design.

SEO. Who's responsibility?

While there are many businesses that provide SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) either as their core product or service, or as part of their overall business services, who's responsibility actually is SEO?

SEO Is A Shared Responsibility Between You And Your Developer!


As we move towards a more electronically focused way of finding everything, search engines are a key part of that movement. For your SEO expert to maximise your business online he (or she) needs as much information from you as possible including key phrases used within your business industry. At the same time your developer has to analyse your data and further research to look at possible SEO options for your websites. If you are not providing information to your developer, you cannot expect them to provide you with the best SEO, instead you are likely to get a generic SEO that is used by everyone else - yes it will work, but not excel.

Nobody Understands Your Business As Well As You!


There are a multitude of different aspects in creating the perfect website, but 99% of the time no developer or SEO expert will know your business as well as you. What are your busiest months? What are your best products? What are your best selling points? What do you call your products? Who are your best buyers? Where do your buyers live? Why do they buy from you? Only you can answer these questions with sufficient detail to be able to make SEO work for you. Remember electronic means on demand, you have to be proactive and report often.

I Had SEO Completed Once But My Website Doesnt Rank Well?


About three or four years ago, you could create a website and pack it full of keywords and crack the top 10 of Google, today however is a completely different story. When your site is submitted it is analysed, sandboxed, compared to other websites and can take up to 8 weeks before it's even seen by major search engines, and even then it can have a low ranking. Existing websites are also impacted by changes which means that size, length of time online, amount of updates, inbound quality links and regular changes can make the difference between top 10 and top 100. And how many other websites have been added in your business category in 4 years and how much do they spend on their website and SEO?

SEO is now a dynamic requirement responding to events and using information before your competitors to maximise traffic, links, markup, and new technologies. If you do not have an ongoing SEO contract you should consider one.

Net Visuals Bespoke Web Design offers an ongoing site maintenance, SEO, and social networking management subscription as part of your website aftercare from October 2010 so that your web portfolio can remain competitive and change often.

Tuesday 16 November 2010

Website Links & Email Link Requests

Linking with other people's websites is a key part of what helps assist or direct visitors to find and buy products and services from key businesses, but also plays a considerable part of search engine optimisation.

It's no secret that having more inbound links than outbound links can increase your websites performance in search engines, but there are a few key points which are important when building a link strategy.

1)Links From Small Sites Are Worthless
Inbound links from higher authorities will give your website link weight and therefore increase the importance of your site with search engines, so a link from Tarbertlochfyne.com as number 1 in Google is much better than Tarbertlochfyne.co.uk (which is not at all associated with Net Visuals! a cheap copy).

2)Relevant Links Are Helpful

Links that are relevant provide better linkweight, but also on a level of common sense linking with local websites will often provide a higher conversion rate than national sites or large directories.

3)Reciprocals Are Helpful
Reciprocal links are a handshake with other endorsed businesses and normal practise, you should be building up a set of links with websites and businesses and asking for reciprocal links.

4)Premium Web Links Are Essential
Alot of premium websites like Kintyre.org or Tarbertlochfyne.com rarely provide reciprocal links or outbound links, this is partly due to the commercial nature of the websites and the significant link value that they contain. You should subscribe to advertising on these websites to make the most of the links weight.

5)Choose An Advert? Choose The Home Page!

Home page adverts are essential. If you are advertising on a website, always go for the home page first, why? The home page of any website receives the highest sustained number of visitors and therefore the highest potential number of people to see your product or service. Additionally, and more importantly the link weight from a website home page to your site is significantly more than one two or three clicks deep. If you wondered why advertising on the front of a website carried the highest tariff, then now you know!

Some Hints & Tips On Developing Your Link Strategy


1)Obtain links from websites related to your product or service.
2)Obtain links from your suppliers websites and benefit from their marketing.
3)Obtain links from regional websites.
4)Pay for adverts and links on the top regional and product related sites.
5)Link to prominent websites as linking to smaller websites can be damaging.
6)Dead links can cost you search engine positions, cull them!

This represents a small proportion of activity and link strategy theory, however is a good starting point. It can take hours, days, weeks, and months to create and manage a professional and affective link strategy, if you don't have the time then that's why Net Visuals can help you.

One last, and very important tip, do not add links to your website that you receive through businesses or services that you do not know, or are unrelated. For example, we received an email only this morning from greenislandholidays.com with the title link request. These are not for your benefit, but for theirs. Imagine they request 10,000 email link requests by email and everyone links to but dont receive a reciprocal link, thats alot of link weight! That domain would have considerable value and by sending one link to another website can make a huge difference to the position of the site, this is link funneling - it's like concentrating lots of light into a single high powered beam. Even if everyone was still to supply a reciprocal link, this would be detrimental to your website, and this is a practise known as link farming. Notice that you do not get a link to your website first!

Do NOT participate in link farming as it is detrimental to your website and only consider one way outbound links to websites you want to see perform well!

Friday 12 November 2010

Domains - Who Owns What?

It's a popular question, and it has an uncomplicated answer.

Specifically referring to Net Visuals customers, as I can't speak for other businesses and their practice, we adopt industry standard registration.

Registration Of New Domains
When you ask us to register and manage a domain name for you, we register the domain to your personal care or to your business as required. The domain name registered, on completion of payment, becomes your registered property for the duration you register it, such as 2 years which is normal and up to 10 years in some cases.

Regardless of location, or detail stored in the domain name registration records the domain name that you have registered and paid for is your property until expiry.

Exceptions

There are only two exceptions to this registration ruling. If you have registered a domain name and not paid for it, the ownership falls into the hands of the business who has paid for it, so until full payment is received from the date of renewal the domain name belongs to your registrar. Net Visuals, or any business, subject to terms and conditions and continued non-receipt of payment can take ownership of the domain and even sell it, although this is unlikely to happen within a 6 month period with Net Visuals, other businesses may not be so lenient.

The second exception, when you have registered a domain name which is someone elses brand, business or trade mark you may be liable to a dispute from the respective brand or business owner and lose the domain name without compensation. In real terms you cannot register a business name that already exists, the same applies to online registered companies and trade marks, its one and the same.

Domain Name Transfers

Just as we can transfer your domain names to other providers at any time, and normally without charge, you can also transfer domain names into us to manage for you. We encourage our customers to register and manage domains through us, so that they are automatically renewed on expiry, but also to keep everything in one place, its much more efficient to remember one number and one password, rather than half a dozen services by different providers.

In conclusion then, all domain names registered by Net Visuals on behalf of you or your business belongs to you or your business, and while they are paid for and do not constitute a copyright or trademark infringement, then it remains your property for as long as you renew it.

This is a legally binding statement and can be referred to with regard to your domain names.

Monday 8 November 2010

Net Visuals Service Updates

Generating business online is now much more competitive than ever and as businesses start to reduce advertising budgets in favour of online advertising and the use of free tools such as Facebook, the way in which we use the internet to generate custom is changing dramatically.

We're one step ahead, so let us help you with everything you need, here's a quick guide.

1) Advertise locally, regionally, and nationally.


Most people have free links from low traffic websites and put an advert occasionally on a website to support a friend or colleague but it's simply not good enough! Make sure you advertise locally, on your village and town websites, regionally on the area websites and nationally to hit those large numbers e.g. Tarbert, Kintyre, Argyll and Visit Scotland. Look at Google, Yahoo and Bing to see which websites are at the top for key search terms and place names and take advantage of high traffic!

2) Develop your website, change it regularly and inform your customers.

Static websites are no good anymore. You need to change your website front page at least once a month, develop new content and pages at least once every 3 months, and email your customer base at least once every 3 months! You might not have the time, ideas, or knowledge to do any of these, but don't worry - that's what we are here for!

3) Get Facebooking, Blogging & Tweeting


Not everyone uses search engines, alot of people use Facebook, in fact millions of people do every day. If someone follows you on Facebook you will be able to supply them with information directly into their feed. With mobile phones now Facebook and Twitter enabled people are using them hourly! Not sure how to, or where to start, again don't worry - if you havnt got time, we can help develop and manage your social network portfolio. Contact us for more information.

4) Get Analytics


There's no point having a website and not knowing where you're visitors are coming from and how many there are. You could be wasting hundreds of pounds on ineffective advertising. All our websites have Google Analytics installed, so get stuck in and find out where your visitors are from and how many there are! High web traffic doesnt necessarily mean its good, the conversion rate is the key factor.

5) Google Adwords


Google Adwords can increase your web traffic and potential custom quite dramatically, although at a cost from 10 pence per click through to your site. We can assist or manage an adword account for you to help you make the most of your online advertising setting a maximum budget each month.

6) Provide Content

If you have nothing to say, how would people know to buy from you? Local and regional websites are there to promote the area and village directly to your potential customers, send them emails with special offers, new photos of your rooms, interesting snippets and stories about visitors, wildlife and try and make sure these are linked visibly on their websites.

7) Avoid Large Websites

Avoide huge websites. Lots of websites have masses of content, often unrelated, several links deep, and are superceded by content on a daily basis which reduces the importance of your content.

Look local, buy local, support local as these will always provide the important business with the highest conversion rate.


8) Have More Than One Website

Multiple websites can generate great rewards for your business. The sheer number of websites, keywords that you can target, and consumer tastes means that by having a single website you limit your potential customer base.

Consider one or more sites for a large business for more customers!

9) Don't Rely On Visit Scotland and Your Local Council

Arguably it is the responsibility of Visit Scotland and your Local Council to advertise, promote and market your area and tourist destination, however if you are relying on them as business to generate your custom, then don't.

Regional enterprises, organisations, and businesses are largely responsible at to promote and develop tourism in your area, if you do not invest in businesses and local organisations then the long term sustainability of your business is put at risk.

Net Visuals is developing one of the most important tourism development web portfolios in the west of Scotland, advertise, support and be involved to ensure that we keep delivering business to you while Scottish Tourism continues its decline!

Contact Net Visuals For More Bespoke Web Design Advice

We have brand new service subscriptions that can manage your website, your social networking, search engine optimisation and much more besides especially if you do not have the time or understanding, that's what we do, let us help and do it for you.

If you are a business in Tarbert, Kintyre, or other areas of Argyll then you should be thinking about contacting us and letting us take your business forward online proactively.

Don't get left behind, give us a call for a no commitment review of your website.

Thursday 4 November 2010

Brand New Website

Please head over to www.netvisuals.co.uk to browse our new business website now our full rebrand is complete.

Net Visuals, if you don't know already, provides a complete bespoke web design service for your business, particularly if you require web design in Argyll and Kintyre.

We offer full bespoke design services, upper and lower tier management including search engine optimisation, even social networking development which is crucial for modern online marketing.

If you would like information about any of our services please do not hesitate to contact us at any time.

Kintyre Way Annual Conference

As the appointed web developer of the Kintyre Way and also the new Kintyre.org website we were invited to attend the Annual Conference yesterday for the Kintyre Way, a day that was focused on marketing, promoting your website, and also developing new customers and initiatives for our own businesses and for the Kintyre Way.

We exhibited a fantastic video of some of our photography, video footage from around Kintyre and Argyll and some screenshots of some of our customers for attending as part of an exhibition. You can view the video at www.netvisuals.co.uk/videos/annualconference2010.php

For those that didnt attend, on perhaps the presumption it would be a day talking about walking, grass and changes to the route, missed an interesting, informative and innovative day covering numerous topics that not only will help the Kintyre Way, but it helped members and advertisers understand the amount of work being put in by the directors now and the aims for the future and why it should be part of your standard membership and regional support expenditure.

At Net Visuals we've also been attendanding online webinars working towards a certificate of competence in providing and understanding professional web services and skills to the industry which is sure to help us, and you benefit from our commitment to evolving.

Wednesday 1 September 2010

Appointed As Kintyre.org Developers

We are incredibly proud to announce that Kintyre.org, the official tourism website for Kintyre, has been leased to Net Visuals Web Design UK for a minimum period of 3 years to enable us to develop a fantastic website that will generate visitors and provide up to date information about Kintyre for the future.

The website, established by the old Kintyre Marketing Group and now in care of the Kintyre Way board, has had one basic update during the last 10 years and is now in desperate need of development to sustain and create tourism in Kintyre.

The website is number 1 on Google, Yahoo, Bing and most other search engines for the search term 'Kintyre' and is featured prominently in printed publications such as the Rough Guide To Scotland, combined with many inbound links from websites throughout the internet enhances Kintyre.org's importance as an information provision and tourism development tool.

We aim to develop a professional website that not only will bring it's subscribed businesses significant customer enquiries and subsequent business, but also to provide income to the Kintyre Way to support and partially fund it's activities and marketing.

We will hopefully bring you more news on this fantastic Kintyre development during the next month and contacting businesses throughout Kintyre to be included. Net Visuals will also be exhibiting at the Kintyre Way Conference in November so please come along and meet us and see the wonderful work we do.

Sunday 29 August 2010

A Quick Update

It doesnt seem almost a year since the last post on this blog, but it's been so busy and with so many projects ongoing it's hardly surprising.

We've been snapping up valuable domains and working on some really brilliant projects and concepts aswell as continuing to support our evolving customer base.

So if you are reading our blog, please accept our apologies and hopefully we'll be able to keep you up to speed over the next few months on what we're doing and giving you some useful information to look after your website.