Web Design Devon: Search Engine Friendly Pages - Updated for July 2016

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There is no point in building a website unless there are visitors coming in. A major source of traffic for most sites on the Internet is search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, and so on. Hence, by designing a search engine friendly site, you will be able to rank easily in search engines and obtain more visitors.

Major search engines use programs called crawlers or robots to index websites to list on their search result pages. They follow links to a page, reads the content of the page and record it in their own database, pulling up the listing as people search for it.

If you want to make your site indexed easily, you should avoid using frames on your website. Frames will only confuse search engine robots and they might even abandon your site because of that. Moreover, frames make it difficult for users to bookmark a specific page on your site without using long, complicated scripts.

Do not present important information in Flash movies or in images. Search engine robots can only read text on your source code so if you present important words in Flash movies and images rather than textual form, your search engine ranking will be affected dramatically.

Use meta tags accordingly on each and every page of your site so that search engine robots know at first glance what that particular page is about and whether or not to index it. By using meta tags, you are making the search engine robot’s job easier so they will crawl and index your site more frequently.

Stop using wrong HTML tags like to style your page. Use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) instead because they are more effective and efficient. By using CSS, you can eliminate redundant HTML tags and make your pages much lighter and faster to load.

What Next?

If you have been thinking about setting up a new website, or your existing site doesn’t work for you (or just needs updating), call us on 01271 324 841 or get in touch with us without any obligation at http://rightclickseo.co.uk/company/contact/.

We’ll do our level best to answer your questions without resorting to complicated jargon and industry-speak and then you can decide for yourself whether this service is something you would be interested in.

Web Design Devon: Marketing With QR Codes - Updated for July 2016

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Have you seen those little square barcodes around lately? They have been showing up in advertisements, posters, storefronts, and even product information material. They are called QR codes and were originally used as a manufacturing and inventory tool, but recently these codes started showing up in marketing material. Although somewhat of a leap, there was good reason for it. Smart phones and mobile technology. Because a huge segment of the population now use smart phones with zealous intensity, QR codes have become somewhat of a hit in the world of APPs.

Here’s how QR codes work with a smart phone. The smart phone owner can download a QR reader, activate that APP and then simply point their (camera) phone at a QR code which could be in a newspaper, on a poster, or in a store window perhaps. The reader sees the QR code and immediately opens up a browser on the smart phone that leads to a variety of additional information. This could be in the form of a text message, a webpage, a PDF file, or even a YouTube video. The idea is that those QR codes lead the user closer to a sale, an offer, or simply more information.

A business owner can use QR codes for marketing in many ways, limited only by their own creativity. It’s easy to create a QR code online as there are many free programs to do it. You just fill out some basic information – like for example the URL you want the QR code to redirect to, and then the software creates a QR code for you. You print that QR code up on a piece of paper or you put it in a print advertisement. Now when anybody sees that QR code and scans it, they will be brought to the URL you programmed inside of it.

You can learn a lot about ways to market with QR codes in your own city by just watching where they show up and how they are being used by other businesses.

One of the places I saw a QR code was inside a newsprint advertisement with a message directing the reader to scan the code to enter a contest online.

On the front door of a small bakery business next to its closed sign. Since it was closed on Mondays, scanning the code directed passersby to a webpage that had an apology that they did not realize it would close Mondays, and offered a special if the customer returned the following day. The cool thing about that is that they probably turn somewhat inconvenienced prospects into real customers that appreciated their efforts.

I saw QR codes in every vehicle on a used car lot that had high pedestrian traffic. Some of them linked to more detailed webpages, while others linked to short sales videos on Youtube describing the car in more detail in a very visual way.

Another way to market QR codes is if you’re in the real estate business and you attach a QR code to one of your real estate signs allowing the interested buyer to get more information about the property.

These are just some of the places that I’ve noticed QR code marketing within the last few weeks, so I think there’s going to be a lot more marketing strategies coming from creative marketers in the near future.

What Next?

If you have been thinking about taking advantage of the huge mobile market, then do call us on 01271 324 841 – or for more information visit our website at http://rightclickseo.co.uk/company/contact/.

We’ll do our level best to answer your questions without resorting to complicated jargon and industry-speak and then you can decide for yourself whether this service is something you would be interested in.

Web Design Devon: Reducing Load Time Through Image Optimisation - Updated for July 2016

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Load time for your website is still a major consideration. Generally, all the text on your website will be loaded in a very short time even on a dialup connection even though the majority of people are now on Broadband, even this can be shaky!

The culprit of slow-loading sites is mainly large images on your website, and it is very important to strike a delicate balance between using just enough images to attract your users and not to bog down the overall loading time of your site.

You should also go to a greater length and optimise every image on your site to make sure it loads in the least time possible. What I really mean is to use image editing software to remove unnecessary information on your images, and thereby effectively reducing the file size of your image without affecting its appearance.

If you own Photoshop, it will be obvious to you that when you save an image as a JPEG file, a dialog box appears and lets you choose the “quality” of the JPEG image — normally a setting of 8 to 10 is good enough as it will preserve the quality of your image while saving it at a small file size. If you do not have Photoshop, there are many free image compressors online that you can download and use to reduce your image’s file size.

On the other hand, you can opt to save your images in PNG format to get the best quality at the least file size. You can also save your images in GIF format — the image editing software clips away all the colour information not used in your image, hence giving you the smallest file size possible. However, saving in GIF format will often compromise the appearance of your image, so make your choice wisely!

What Next?

If you have been thinking about setting up a new website, or your existing site doesn’t work for you (or just needs updating), call us on 01271 324 841 or get in touch with us without any obligation at http://rightclickseo.co.uk/company/contact/.

We’ll do our level best to answer your questions without resorting to complicated jargon and industry-speak and then you can decide for yourself whether this service is something you would be interested in.

Web Design Devon: Pros and Cons of Flash-based Sites - Updated for July 2016

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Flash-based sites have been a craze since the past few years, and as Macromedia compiles more and more great features into Flash, we can only predict there will be more and more flash sites around the Internet. However, Flash based sites have been disputed to be bloated and unnecessary. Where exactly do we draw the line? Here’s a simple breakdown.

The good:

Interactivity

Flash’s Actionscript opens up a vast field of possibilities. Programmers and designers have used Flash to create interactve features ranging from very lively feedback forms to attractive Flash-based games. This whole new level of interactivity will always leave visitors coming back for more.

A standardised site

With Flash, you do not have to worry about cross-browser compatibility. No more woes over how a certain css code displays differently in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera. When you position your site elements in Flash, they will always appear as they are as long as the user has Flash Player installed.

Better expression through animation

In Flash, one can make use of its animating features to convey a message in a much more efficient and effective way. Flash is a lightweight option for animation because it is vector based (and hence smaller file sizes) as opposed to real “movie files” that are raster based and hence much larger in size.

The bad and the ugly:

The Flash player

People have to download the Flash player in advance before they can view Flash movies, so by using Flash your visitor range will decrease considerably because not everyone will be willing to download the Flash player just to view your site. You’ll also have to put in additional work in redirecting the user to the Flash download page if he or she doesn’t have the player installed.

Site optimisation

If your content was presented in Flash, most search engines wouldn’t be able to index your content. Hence, you will not be able to rank well in search engines and there will be less traffic heading to your site.

Loading time

Users have to wait longer than usual to load Flash content compared to regular text and images, and some visitors might just lose their patience and click the Back button. The longer your Flash takes to load, the more you risk losing visitors.

The best way to go is to use Flash only when you absolutely need the interactivity and motion that comes with it. Otherwise, use a mixture of Flash and HTML or use pure text if your site is purely to present simple textual and graphical information.

Mobile Devices

Apple dropped Flash! If your customers view your site on any Apple device they will see NOTHING! Just a greyed out box! When over 6 in 10 searches are from mobile devices, this reason alone is enough to say no to Flash!

What Next?

If you have been thinking about setting up a new website, or your existing site doesn’t work for you (or just needs updating), call us on 01271 324 841 or get in touch with us without any obligation at http://rightclickseo.co.uk/company/contact/.

We’ll do our level best to answer your questions without resorting to complicated jargon and industry-speak and then you can decide for yourself whether this service is something you would be interested in.

Web Design Devon: Mistakes To Avoid When Using Web Templates - Updated for July 2016

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Website templates are very affordable and they save you a lot of effort and time when you want to create a new layout for your website. However, a lot of people make mistakes in the process of choosing and using a web template and end up with something that was unlike the image they had in mind. Here are some guidelines to help you avoid those mistakes.

The first obvious mistake you should be aware of is using a template that is very popular. If many people use the same template, your website will not appear unique at all and your credibility as a solid, different website will be tarnished. In other words, you will appear generic just like your next-door neighbours.

To whole point of using a web template is to save time and effort. You just change the title and appropriate details and you’re done. The biggest mistake one makes is to customize the template beyond recognisation. While that may be good in the sense that you’re creating a unique graphic, you’re defying the very purpose of using a web template – saving time and effort.

However, on the opposite side, if a template you purchase is suitable but some changes must be made to suit your site’s theme, then you will have to take some time to make the changes. For example, you can find a very nice template that suits your hobby site except the original designer has put an image of stamps in the header. You can find images of garden plants and spades to replace the stamps for your gardening hobby site. However, do only make the necessary changes and don’t redesign the whole template.

In some circumstances, some people simply make the wrong choice of templates. This is a very subjective issue but you have to be careful in selecting templates to suit your audience. Do not choose templates just because they are pretty, choose them because they serve your purpose.

What Next?

If you have been thinking about setting up a new website, or your existing site doesn’t work for you (or just needs updating), call us on 01271 324 841 or get in touch with us without any obligation at http://rightclickseo.co.uk/company/contact/.

We’ll do our level best to answer your questions without resorting to complicated jargon and industry-speak and then you can decide for yourself whether this service is something you would be interested in.

Web Design Devon: Why The Correct Web Design and SEO Are Essential - Updated for July 2016

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Here’s a great article on why the correct web design and SEO are important and why one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to your business website…

Web Design BarnstapleThere are not many businesses, no matter how large or small, who will not derive a great amount of good, and boost their profits, by having an Internet presence.

The first aspect of appearing online is, of course, having a website designed by a professional web designer. A professional can advise the would-be site owner of the sort of design that would be most suitable for the services or goods that he provides, the budget he envisages, how long it will take to design the site, when it is likely to appear online, etc. etc. More…

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