Meon Creative Website Design Blog

The great Google waiting game - post domain change

info@in8website.co.uk — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 09:26:48 GMT

On August the 1^st Meon Creative changed their domain name to coincide with out re-brand from In8 Design. We knew that Google wouldn’t take it well and that we would probably see a drop in our rankings – although we never really appreciated how much!

By August 6^th we had dropped from 2^nd listing on our main key term ‘website design Hampshire’ to 6^th page. Ouch! For ‘Marketing Hampshire’ we had disappeared off the listings entirely (why even count past page 10!).

As you can imagine, this is not the ideas situation for a web business that has just stepped up its impetus on growth and invested time and money into marketing. We had read that we could expect to drop by a page, maybe two and that the effects could last for anything up to 6 months while Google assessed you in its proverbial ‘Sand box’. 6 months on page two is an inconvenience, but 6 months on page six is a potential show stopper!

We continued our optimization efforts and began amending as many incoming links to reflect the new domain name as possible. We were using a 301 permanent redirect to take our visitors to the new domain, despite reading that a 302 temporary redirect would buy us more time to regain links – we were determined to follow the rules to hopefully appeal to Google’s better nature.

It is also worth mentioning that we remained on the first page on other search engines (Yahoo, MSN Live) after only experiencing a couple of listings drop.

So, a month and a half later, we are finally making some progress – thankfully! We can now be found on the first or second page of most of our keywords/phrases but we are hoping to push ourselves back up shortly… watch this space.

Anna

Meon Creative

Website Design Hampshire | Marketing Hampshire | Web Design Hampshire | Website design Portsmouth

Web Site navigation - simple and predictable is better!

info@in8website.co.uk — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 09:03:50 GMT

As much as we all love a beautifully designed website, some designers can get carried away with the look and forget what the site is there for. I am a strong believer that users (that's you and me) shouldn't have to work too hard to find what we're looking for. More to the point, most users have a less that 2 minute attention span when looking for something specific - they like to be spoon-fed. A good designer should know their audience well enough to anticipate what they might be looking for and where they might be looking for it.

As a rule, western users look for a horizontal menu structure at the top of the page, or a vertical menu on the left. They also expect to find links such as 'about us', 'site map' and 'contact us' in links at the bottom of the page, if not in the main menu.

One thing that really rattles me as a web design is not being able to find a telephone number. As a regular web user, you might think that I would be content with using a web form or email address - but I like to talk to people too! A certain telecommunications company's telephone number was so elusive that I had to cancel our direct debit just to get them to contact me. I subsequently moved my account. Remember that you want your potential customers to contact you, so make sure they can do so easily.

Another frequently overlooked element is the home page. If you don’t have a main menu structure, make sure that your logo links back to your home page – people don’t like to get stuck in your website! Giving them a way back makes them feel more at home.

A great way to improve your navigation is to include breadcrumb links. These are discrete links that tell you where in the site structure you currently are, for example, if you are reading this on my website your breadcrumb reads: Home > Blog. This give people an alternative to the back button and is also great for users who link into the middle of your site from a search engine.

A site map can be a tedious subject if your site isn’t database fed – as you will probably need to create and update it yourself. However, it is well worth it. The site map is often a users last-ditch attempt to find what they are looking for – and so this is your last chance to keep their interest.

We hope this helps, please feel free to contact us if you feel your site could be better!

Anna

Meon Creative | Website Design Hampshire | Marketing Hampshire

Meon Creative - New Look

info@in8website.co.uk — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 09:02:02 GMT

You’ve probably noticed that we finally have a new look to following our re-brand in August! We hope you like it!

We've taken a web 2.0 approach and reduced the amount of content on each page to force ourselves to focus and cut to the chase.

We would love to know what you think, please let us know via our contact page.

Thanks,

Anna

Meon Creative | Marketing Hampshire | Website Design Hampshire

Our rebrand - Introducing Meon Creative...

info@in8website.co.uk — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 11:11:23 GMT

Dear All,

I hope that you are all enjoying the summer so far and that business is blooming for you. Here at In8, we have been undergoing some major changes!

Re-brand to ‘Meon Creative’…

As of July 1^st 2008, In8 Design will be know as ‘Meon Creative’. After many years as In8, we feel it is time to make a change to coincide with other changes within the business. We hope you like it!

Increased Availability

Due to the closure of some recent commitments, we are now able to offer increased availability during office hours. As a result we are also investigating into restructuring our support processes.

New Support Structure

Feedback from some of our clients has indicated that you would like a more rigid support structure. Our initial thoughts are to introduce an SLA system where the client will be entitled to a number of monthly updates and SEO maintenance for a fixed monthly fee. We will of course, continue to offer 3 months free support after your website go-live date and technical problems are also covered throughout.

We would like your feedback on our ideas for a new support structure - if you would like to take part in our survey, please let us know and we will contact you when it takes place.

What does the re-brand mean?

As of July 1^st 2008, all invoices, literature and stationery will be branded Meon Creative. All cheques and direct debits should be made payable to Meon Creative. Our telephone numbers will remain the same, but our web address will change to www.meoncreative.com as well as our email addresses, although our old addresses will work for the next few months.

We hope these changes will enable us to provide a better service to both our new and current customers.

Thank you for your time.

Anna Tarrant

Meon Creative

DotNetNuke in the UK

info@in8website.co.uk — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 10:59:24 GMT

More and more sites are being developed in the UK using the DotNetNuke Open source platform. When Meon Creative began, we were one of only very few who were building and designing on the platform and we have watched it grow from an unstable toddler to a much more reliable and sturdy maturity.

Once understood, DotNetNuke (DNN) is a powerful tool that allows web designers to easily and cheaply offer content managed websites. However, if you cannot master skinning and adapting tokens to suite your style, your web projects can quite easily turn into a DNN-typical site. These sites are often characterized by the DNN standard ‘blue skin’ or its container package. The [SOLPARTMENU] is a dead giveaway on most DNN site, but it offers an easy and manageable solution to your menu structure.

One item that web designers cannot seem to avoid is the typical DNN login box. Not so easy to customize, this is the first thing I look for when identifying the website platform.

The availability of DNN modules makes it an incredibly versatile platform. Sites such as SnowCovered list modules from hundred of differed developers across the World and allows you to read reviews, rate products and see just how effective their support system is.

So where is DNN going? I personally predict that more and more people will realise the potential of DNN and systems such as Microsoft’s SharePoint will start to lose out to the open source-ness (?!?) of the platform. The collaboration element of DNN is its real selling point and it masters User Management and Logins as a matter of course.

As a result, we will soon be publishing a separate DNN blog to help those of us in the UK to share ideas and knowledge within our time zone. To follow this will be an IMeon Creative DNN site to allow the collaboration that DNN promotes.

Watch this space…

Anna

Website Design Hampshire | Website Design Wiltshire | DNN in the UK

New ECommerce / Shopping Cart website launched

info@in8website.co.uk — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 10:57:49 GMT

Meon Creative are proud to present our latest launch, an ecommerce website for Handprinted.co.uk. Shirley, owner of Handprinted.co.uk, contacted us to discuss a fully content managed shopping cart that allowed her to totally control the products, sales and content of her website. The new site would also need to help to improve the site’s search engine listings and general visibility on the internet.

Handprinted was already well listed on very niche keywords for their market place, but were not listing on some of the more general search terms. Their new shopping cart allowed Handprinted to optimize a page for both general keywords and product specific keywords, depending on where the visitor was in the navigation.

Meon Creative also implemented a simple navigation structure to allow visitors to quickly and simply find what they are looking for. Also added was a resource area allowing download of help-sheets and guidelines which are also heavily optimized to improve the site’s ranking with search engines.

Features included in the shopping cart are:

Most Popular Products
Featured Products
‘Customers who purchased this also purchased…’
Customer accounts
Sales pricing and sale dates
Product categories
Product configuration (colours, styles etc)
Stock control
Delivery fees based on price

For more information on shopping carts, ecommerce website and online stores, please contact Meon Creative on 0845 639 80 79 or use our contact page.

You can see the Handprinted site in action, here: www.handprinted.co.uk

Website Design Hampshire | Website Design Wiltshire

Ecommerce Website Solutions

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) from Meon Creative

info@in8website.co.uk — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 10:56:53 GMT

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is vital to making your business website a success. Search engines are the number one way of finding what you’re looking for online, and if you not listed for your product or service keywords, you simply will not get noticed.

Meon Creative offer comprehensive SEO services for your individual situation. You may already have a website and want an analysis of its current success and hints and tips as to how you could improve. You may just want to monitor your SEO rankings using a tool like Google Analytics – we can set this up for you and teach you how to read the results.

Alternatively, you may be looking for a new website or a complete SEO overhaul. We can offer a comprehensive SEO service, from keyword planning and research and SEO analysis to SEO Training, SEO Consultancy and Search Engine Submission and monitoring.

We only offer organic search engine optimization training as we believe this is a viable, long-term approach that will reap a good return on your investment. If you are looking at taking the reigns yourself, we can offer SEO Training fully customized to your website, which mean you can make changes while you are learning.

For more information or for a quotation, please contact us.

Meon Creative

Web Design Hamshire | SEO Hampshire | Search Engine Optimization Hampshire

Questions to ask your web designer BEFORE hiring!

info@in8website.co.uk — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:36:08 GMT

If your looking to hire a web designer to build your website, chances are that is because you cannot do that yourself and lack the required knowledge. So how are you supposed to make a decision on whether your web designer is any good? We give you the key questions to ask before hiring...

Interactive Websites - Involving the user in your website

info@in8website.co.uk — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:26:09 GMT

We all know that something that is interactive is more effective at engaging interest than something that is static and flat. The same is true for websites - if the visitor is invited to interact with the website - or indeed the company, they are more likely to take a better recognition of the website and its content.

Great interactive features which you may wish to include on your website:

Forums
As well a providing lots of great content, forums allow the user to ask questions and participate in online exchanges.
Tests and Quizes
Humans like to test themselves and measure their ability - make the most of this interest by providing a quiz or test.
Calendars
If you have an event, why not allow your visitors to book online?
Listing Websites and Searches
If you have lists of product and services, why not allow the visitor to search through them on their own criteria? This will help to create a more memorable experience.
Comment and Rating Websites
Allow your visitor to have an opinion on your product/service/listing - if they add content, they are more likely to value the content of others.

For more information on creating interactive websites, please visit www.in8website.co.uk

Website Design Hampshire | Website Design Wiltshire | Website Design Swindon

What is Web 2.0 and what does Web 2.0 design look like?

info@in8website.co.uk — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 10:07:41 GMT

A few years ago now, people started talking about this concept; Web 2.0. No-one seemed to be able to define what exactly it was, and lets be honest, unless you were involved in web design, why would you want to know? Also, no-one ever really talked about Web 1.0 before Web 2.0...so where does the '2' come from?

When web designers and web developers realised that there was a change in how people were using the web, they coined the term Web 2.0, meaning that anything before was Web 1.0.

So what is it? Here is my humble attempt at a definition:

Web 2.0 is essentially a web platform that grows and develops organically through the input of others - 'an architecture of participation'. To put this into context, here are some example of web 1.0 and web 2.0

Web 1.0	Web 2.0
Britannica Online	Wikipedia
Personal Websites	Blogging
Directories	'Tagging'
MP3.com	Napster

So, Web 2.0 is Wikis, Forums, Tagging, Social Networking, Social Bookmarks, Tag Clouds and Resource Sharing.

Web 2.0 Design

Web 2.0 design can be characterised by:

Bold Logos
Bold Colours
Gradiants
Rounded edges and corners
Simplicity
Larger text
Reflections
Few Collumns
Simple Navigation

We love web 2.0 at In8 Website Design Hampshire. If you're looking for a web 2.0 design, please feel free to get in touch for a quote!

Anna

Website Hot Spots and Website Design Standard Practice

info@in8website.co.uk — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:50:35 GMT

You may think that the layout of a website is often more a case of design than judgment, and in a lot of cases this is true. However, as a marketing tool, your website design should use sound marketing sense to ensure you convert more hits to sales and enquiries.

Where you place content on your site is crucially important. Research has proven that content placed in certain areas on your web page is more likely to get read and ‘clicks’ that potentially the very same content elsewhere on the page. As you would expect, different research has given different results.

Also important, is accepting web standards and what your visitors expect. Trying to be different is great in theory, but not if it makes navigating or accessing the content of your site more difficult for your visitors.

Common lines of thought are as follows:

Menus to the left, or top

This is standard practise and is what most people look for and expect on a site. Trying to be clever with obscure menu systems can be detrimental to the sites success.

Logos

Predominately, logos are expected to be in the top-left of the web page as this is what you this is the first element you would want people to see in the western culture of reading from left to right, top to bottom. Logos should also be links back to the website home page.

Contact page

A contact page must be easily accessible. Your visitors will not search for long for a method of contact, they will simply visit another website where contact is made easier!

Call to action

A call to action is content which encourages the visitor to act. Most research shows that these are best placed on the right hand side of the web page. An example of a call to action is ‘Request a Quote’, ‘Register Online’ or ‘Buy Now’.

Summary

It is important to include a summary of your entire page content in the top left, or first paragraph of the text area. Remember that your visitors may not want to read all the content and the first paragraph may be all you have to encourage them to read on.

For more information on getting the right website for you, visit www.in8website.co.uk

Website Design Hampshire | Website Design Swindon | Website Design Wiltshire

Business Startup Websites – getting the right first website.

info@in8website.co.uk — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 19:17:41 GMT

A website is often seen as an expensive luxury by startup businesses and entrepreneurs. A first budget website is often three or four pages of static html content, which although appears on the internet, does not actively work to help the business grow. Any expense at the crucial startup period needs to work for the business and create a return on the investment.

In8 build websites that work as a marketing tool for the business, providing another avenue for enquiries and potential new customers. We ensure that you website is fully optimised for search engines to ensure your site is listed on your crucial key words. Our content management software is developed with search engines in mind – and we can teach you how to use this technology to its full potential.

All of our startup websites are fully content managed which allows you to ensure your website is always up-to-date and therefore keep your visitors coming back. Give your customers a place to get current information easily and quickly, when they need it. Provide document downloads, customer logins, images galleries you can update and even forums to allow your visitors to communicate with each other.

Our websites cost, on average, the same as static html websites, so why would you settle for anything less than a content managed website?

All our prices include design, set-up and consultation and training to help you start using your site straight away. Not only that, we will set you up with monitoring software to allow you to track numbers of visitors and see how they are finding your website.

For more information or a free telephone consultation please get in touch, or visit our website www.in8website.co.uk.

Anna Tarrant

In8 Website Design

Website Design Southampton | Website Design Hampshire

Hints and Tricks for Search Engine Optimization

info@in8website.co.uk — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 13:42:20 GMT

Getting your website listed (indexed) on search engines for relevant keywords won’t happen on its own. Especially with a new website, it is very important to get it right from the start.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is vital in marketing your website online. Searching for services/products/people etc, online via search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN is increasingly becoming the most popular method of finding information. Being at the top of listings for individual keywords is the path to a successful website!

Getting to the top of Google, Yahoo and MSN's search listings isn't as easy as fixing your meta tag keywords! But it is a good start and is the foundation of Search Engine Optimization.

The BEST way to improve the rank of your website is to increase the number of high-quality sites that link to your pages. For more information about improving your site's visibility (Google only), we recommend getting a free account with Google and reviewing the webmaster guidelines.

If you are looking for someone to help with your SEO rankings, In8 offer customizes plans to help you reach your search engine goals.... however.....we do not believe in promising number 1 listings, or 'top of the table' results - and those who do should be checked out before handing over any money.

Ultimately, if you have great content and a website that people want to refer to and visit regularly, you should have no problems! However, to help you on your way, we offer the following tips:

Keywords

Having the least specific keywords can be hard work! Consider using more specific term...for example:

Don’t Use 'Website Design'
Do Use: 'Website Design Portsmouth'

Stuck for ideas? This is a fantastic FREE tool - go to: www.GoodKeywords.com

Simply download and plug in your broad keyword and it will suggest others! Fantastic!

Different Types of SEO

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can be split into two forms; On Page and Off Page. On Page is that which you do with your web pages, and Off Page involves links, directories and more!

On Page SEO:

Include your keywords in your page title (very important and easy with our content managed sites).
If possible, give you page name a relevant name. ‘Page 2’ means nothing, but ‘Content Management’ means a lot. Ideally these would be your keywords too.
Include your keywords in your page description. You page description should effectively be your keywords put into a human legible sentence.
Use only your main keywords. Don't use filler words. The '|' character will act as a filler.
Use header tags. Header tags are numbered 1-6 and can be created in the text editor using styles. We would of course, set this all up for you!
Bold, italicize, and underline some keywords (Not every keyword, just some - and only one of each per page).
Place your main keyword at the beginning and end of your web page. Remember that Bots (from Google, Yahoo and other search engines) search from left to right and top to bottom.
Include your keyword in the copyright footer of your webpage - i.e. 'Copyright 2007 | In8 Website Design'.
Use image Alt tags and include your keyword, plus the word "image" or "graphic" etc. The HTML tag for this is:

Alt="keyword"
These can be added to all images when adding the image to a page with the text editor.
NEVER have links to the same page that you are currently on - i.e. have a link to your homepage on your homepage.

Submit Your Website to Search Engines

You need to let search engines know that your site exists - they are not psychic! There are many people who offer to do this for you at a fee - you don;t need to do this, you can do it for free yourself! Submittion pages are here:

Google - http://www.google.com/addurl/
MSN Live - http://search.msn.com.sg/docs/submit.aspx
Yahoo - https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit

Get a Google Account and manage your site through webmaster tools! This service is really VERY good!

Off Page Optimization:

Get as many reputable websites (with a good Google ranking) linking to your website. You can check a website's Page Rank using the Google Toolbar. You can download this here... http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/toolbar/FT3/intl/en/index.html

Get listed on some directory sites, including:

- www.FreeIndex.co.uk
- www.Friday-Ad.co.uk
- www.FreeAds.co.uk
- www.SmallBusinessDirectory.co.uk
- www.BusinessInternetDirectory.co.uk
- www.crazyleafdesign.com/webdirectory/
- Plenty of othes online...

Place free ads on:

www.Gumtree.com

www.LondonGlue.co.uk

Get a Profile page on:

- www.MySpace.com
- www.Konnections.com
- www.LinkedIn.com
- and others...

Post on forums - but don’t just spam them, only add relevant content.

- www.Graphic-Design-Forum.com
- www.WebDesignForum.com
- others available...

Add articles and white papers to library sites

- I would only recommend doing this if you have something to say that others will want to read. Otherwise this could have a negative effect on your SEO!

The best results will be gained from dabbling with all of the above. Try to avoid any obvious web link farms as you may be penalised for using them. Time is often the best tool with search engines - you site is ranking also on how long the site has been live. Remember...success won't happen overnight.

Thank you for reading, and good luck!

Anna

Website Design Hampshire | School Website Design | Content Managed Website | 360 Virtual Tours

Member Websites | Forum Website

Estate Agent Websites and Listings – Kick the RightMove habit!

info@in8website.co.uk — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:57:26 GMT

Estate Agent websites are become a thing of the past with many now choosing to just use Right Move. Estate Agency Websites are very important in order to attract customers from the web. Using Right Move puts you in the same boat as all the other estate agencies - you should try to stand out. Listing Properties online is great for search engine optimisation and can double up as an office tool which allows your customers to search just your properties from your website.

Having recently been through the saga of trying to sell my house and buy another, I have, like thousands of others in the UK, been trawling the Right Move website for properties that suit my needs. I can definitely see the benefits of the Right Move estate agency website – everything in one place, simple searches, and a layout standard which allows your to compare easily. However, with uniformity comes monotony. I probably visited this site everyday for 3 months and I was desperate to look somewhere else to hopefully find something new to look at!

Estate Agents seem to be neglecting their own websites and purely listing their properties on Right Move. I wonder if Estate Agency is now one of the few markets which do not use search engines to advertise and attract business. Property is a huge market and by all using one platform, surely estate agents are putting themselves all on the same playing field. A lot of estate agents don’t even list their available properties on their website. The content alone from adding the listings would help to move them up search engine rankings.

When targeting a local area, it can be very important to have a content rich website to feed your search engine listings. For example, if someone was to search for ‘estate agent Portsmouth’, or even ‘house for sale Portsmouth’ you would home that in this more limited market, your Portsmouth Estate Agent website would be listed – not just Right Move where you may not be found or appear among another 100+ estate agents in the area.

With conventional static HTML websites, managing your property listing could be a lengthy task, but with content management and listings modules, it can be very simple and even produce your property listings for you. There are obvious benefits here for letting/rental property lists, as your clients can search your database themselves online and print their query results. You can very easily have a ‘featured properties’ panel which is linked to your database to advertise your best properties – which can be updated daily to keep your website fresh!

For a totally maintenance free listing, it is even possible to use and I-frame to show the Right Move listings for your estate agency on your website.

Finally, it is important for estate agents to capture data of their own, without relying on Right Move. Agents should capture this data on their own website and email their database regularly. In8 websites can manage all your ‘opt outs’ for you ensuring that you comply with data protection.

In summary, Estate Agents do not need to rely on Right Move for all their custom – their website should create a proactive impression of the business and allow their customers to communicate with them directly online. They should not see their website purely as an information site, but as a marketing tool.

For more information on estate agent website design please visit www.in8website.co.uk

Anna Tarrant - In8 Website Design Hampshire

Content Managed Websites that work for you.

New websites need promotion - existing alone will not make it a success!

info@in8website.co.uk — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:56:12 GMT

I don’t need to tell you how many people surf the internet on a regular, if not daily basis. I don’t need to tell you that technology is constantly progressing. And I definitely don’t need to lecture about how important it is to have a website if you’re a business. But is just having a website enough? If only things were that simple!

Some websites are about as useful as a chocolate tea pot. Here are the top 5 traps that people fall into with their new website.

Website Never Found
It’s very sad when your website goes unnoticed. You MUST tell the search engines (google etc) that your site exists; they won’t read your mind. There are a number of ways of getting your site ‘indexed’. The fastest is to get another website to link to it, and the quickest way to achieve this is to place an ad on Gumtree.com. If you don’t mind waiting, you can submit your site to the search engines individually – just do a Google search for ‘search engine submit’, this will produce some options for you. However, DO NOT PAY FOR THIS, you don’t need to!
Website found, but not for relevant keywords
You must make sure that your content is totally relevant to your keywords. There should be a clear similarity between your page titles, keywords, page description and also your page content – this will get you the best results.
Out of Date Websites
If your website gets out of date your visitors will see this as a reflection on the company. Out of date relates to both look ad feel (out of date style and tired design) and also content (dates etc that are in the past). With a content managed website you can manage your content so make sure it’s up to date.
Bad Names and Domains
Think long and hard about the name of your business and the website domain name. Ideally the domain name should have some relevance to the site content although this isn’t always possible. Instead of ‘Eds.co.uk’ choose ‘EdsRestaurant.co.uk’ – this will rank you far better on search engines.
Created and Abandoned
You must monitor your site’s performance on search engines. All of In8s customers are entitled to be setup on Google Analytics. You don’t need to be a brain surgeon to understand the stats and figures; the system is very user friendly and offers great insight into where you are doing well and where you are not.

Naturally, our customers never fall into these traps :o) . In8 website design will coach you through getting your site effectively listed and working for you - after all that is why you have them!

Do not get a website just because you should - you should plan your site, and ensure that it will work for you. Do your research first - who are your competitors and what do they do to promote their website?

For more information on getting an effective website, contact In8 Website Design on 0845 639 79 80 or visit our website www.in8website.co.uk.

Until next time....

Anna

In8 Website Design Hampshire

Free Website Advice and Resources

info@in8website.co.uk — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 12:45:16 GMT

Good Afternoon...

We have been very busy at In8 working to get our new Help and Advice area ready for launch. We have now finished setting up the area and we are delighted to invite you all to visit!

You can find our web help and support area on our website www.in8website.co.uk/

We have also launched our new free website analysis service. The service is available to absolutely anyone who may be considering getting a new website or revamping their current website. The web analysis will identity any problems you have be having and point out the solutions that are available. Why are we doing this? Because we hope that if you are looking for a new website, you may consider using us!

Have a great day!

Anna

In8 Website Design Hampshire

JPG or JPEG? Gif what? Image file extensions explained...

info@in8website.co.uk — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 20:18:06 GMT

I'm quite often asked why I use a gif for one thing and a jpeg for another, so I thought I would document it all here to share with everyone. It is important to get these right when using the content management to add pictures. There are valid reasons for using different file types and its not just to do with the program you're using. There are far too many to list in full, so here are a few of the most common ones:

Gif The gif (Graphical Interchange Format) file is often used in web design as it offers a good quality image at a small file size. It can contain up to 256 'indexed' colours. The colours are called 'indexed' because they are chosen when saving the file. High detail images are probably better with a Jpg. GIF images can also be animated and saved as "animated GIFs," which are often used to display basic animations on websites; they may also include transparent pixels, which allow them to blend with different color backgrounds; however, pixels in a GIF image must be either fully transparent or fully opaque.

Jpg or Jpeg The Jpg (Joint Photographic Experts Group) are commonly used for storing digital photos since the format supports up to 24-bit color; also a common format for publishing Web graphics. Jpg are not good at being compressed - they will dramatically loose quality.

Png The Png (Portable Network Graphic) is a common web file. It is often used because the image loads in quality, rather than in stages. This means that the image will appear from the offset on the web page will gradually load. As such, the Png is often used for higher quality images.

Bmp The Bmp (Bitmap Image) is an uncompressed image file. This file type looses quality dramatically if resized. They are not the smallest of images either - best stick with a Jpg!

That will do for now! If you have and questions, feel free to ask...

Anna

Website Design Hampshire | Content Managed Website | Low Cost Website Design | Ecommerce Website Design | School Website Design

Search Engine Optimization - beware unrealistic guarantees

info@in8website.co.uk — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 08:07:47 GMT

This week alone I have received 5 emails, 2 letters and 3 phone calls from various businesses promising to get me to the top of the Google listings. With prices ranging from a rather off-putting £200+ a month, to a more tempting £50 a month, it's tough to know who are the experts and who are the all-promising, zero-producing scammers. From £30 a month you may just be tempted to sign up to one of their deals - but please don't without knowing all the facts.

Here are five things to remember when considering using a Search Engine Optimisation 'expert':

1. Anyone who says they can guarantee to get you to the top of the listings without even knowing what you business does, is probably worth being suspicious of.

2. Just because the letter or email comes addressed to your name of business, doesn’t mean that they have research into you specific situation - they probably just bought a data list from somewhere.

3. Those companies who are good at this type of thing do not need to be sending out emails and letters to get business - if they are worth their money they will get enough customers through referrals.

4. If you are going to use a company off the Internet, without recommendation, try to contact one of the businesses they have testimonials from. If they are a genuine testimonial, they won't mind you contacting them.

5. If you are happy with a business' credentials, make sure you get in writing how much you are going to pay, what you are going to get and also how you can get out of any contracts you enter into.

Generally, the best way to know exactly what you're getting is to go with someone who has been recommended by someone you trust who has perhaps used them themselves.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask via our web help and advice page.

Thanks for reading, don't have nightmares ;o)

Anna

For more information please visit our website http://www.In8Website.co.uk

Website Design Hampshire | Content Managed Websites | School Websites

Web Design Tip - Get Rotating Images with an Animated Gif!

info@in8website.co.uk — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 09:03:52 GMT

Sometimes a bit of simple movement can enhance a website design and offer your visitors a more interesting experience, but people are often put off by the workload.

Getting changing/rotating pictures on your website dosen't necessarily mean spending a couple of hours messing around with Flash. Gifs are normally thought of as just images, but they can also be animated. I was recently directed to a fantastic piece of FREE software which takes your images and turns them into a rotating gif.

Please Note: You only seem to be able to use JPG files.

You can download Animator Nine from here:

http://www.download.com/Animator-9/3000-2186_4-909432.html

Basic instructions:

Download, install and open Animator Nine.
Select 'Stitch'
Click the little file tree icon in the top left and browse to the folder that contains the JPG FILES that you want to rotate. You don't need to select the individual files, just the folder they are in.
Select the images you want to use from the file list window and click 'Add' for each
Select the size of the rotating gif (the images should all be the same size or they will look funny!)
Select 'Done'
Save the file.
Select 'Control'
Set the frame delay and loop delay (its best to play with this to work it all out!)
Split Format - Gif
Autorun after load - Make
Then, click 'Make' in the main menu
Save your animated gif, and that's it!

Then, just upload your image to your website using our Content Management and the images will rotate like a charm!

You cannot edit a file once made, but hey, its a nice simple tool...

Have fun!

Web Design Tip - Favicon: What is it? How do I get one?

info@in8website.co.uk — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 21:30:17 GMT

Good evening...

I often get comments about the 'little details' that make our service special to our web design customers. Just yesterday, I was asked about a Favicon for a website (or as they put it, "the funny little icon thing in the web browser"), so I thought I would take this opportunity to enlighten you all!

What is it?

The favicon is an icon file ( extension .ico) that your web browser looks for to replace the internet explorer (or firefox etc) logo in the web browser address bar. If you looks at ours, we have a little green leaf . It also appears if your site is saved into somebody's 'Favorites' and it makes your site easier to find.

How do I get one?

Well there are two ways to go about this really:

Create your own icon in Photoshop (or something similar). Create yourself a square image that is 16 pixels x 16 pixels. Create your design and save it as a .gif . Then, rename the file to 'favicon.ico' (the .ico bit is the file extension). You then need to save it to your web hosting root directory - or get your friendly website designer to do it for you.
The easy way!! Visit my favourite Favico website: http://www.htmlkit.com/services/favicon/ You will need to upload your logo (ideally this would be a square shape or it will become distorted) and then the website does the job for you! You can test the favico in the website browser, and if it's OK, download it as a .zip file. You will then need to upload the extracted .ico file to your hosting root directory.

The site also create rolling text favicos - I personally don't like them and they are a little more tricky to install, but if you like it, go for it!

Tips

Keep it simple!! Anything too complicated will be lost anyway, so try shrinking it down to real-size in your design software and see what it will really look like.

Good luck - if you need any help, you know where to find me....

Anna

In8 Website Design Hampshire
www.in8website.co.uk/

Next time, we will talk about rotating gifs and how damn useful they can be!

Website design accross Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire and accross the globe!

info@in8website.co.uk — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 12:11:07 GMT

Just a quote entry to say that we are now in talk with am international client - how exciting! In8 Website Design Hampshire are quoting to create a multi-lingual solution for a large international company. The site will cater for partners accross the globe, who will be able to select the language in which they would like the content.

Watch this space...

SEO Obsession - my trials and errors

info@in8website.co.uk — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 09:44:02 GMT

I don't like to consider myself a work-aholic, but I must admit that I do feel the need to check my Google Analytics quite frequently! My better half and I have an unspoken rule that on weekends I shouldnt need to be on my laptop all day, and I do agree. However, I can't seem to avoid quickly checking my emails or logging-on to Google Analytics to see how many visits I had the day before and where they came from...

I think it has started to become a bit of an obsession. How sad does that sound? But when you think about it, it is my livelyhood and I do spend a hell of a lot of time trying to better optimize my site and get more inbound links.

I am offen asked by my customers how much time you need to spend on SEO in order to achieve good rankings. How long is a piece of string! What you need to do really depends on your individual website. The trouble I find with Search Engine Optimizing my website design site is that every bugger in the industry SHOULD be quite good at optimizing their site and links should be plentiful from client websites. This means that trying to pull your way to top rankings on a keyword like 'website design' is near on impossible without large budgets and an extra 300 days in the year.

Some of my clients have been lucky enough to be targetting relatively untapped keywords (or at least keywords where the top listings are at the top more through luck than judgement!). In fact, I recently managed to get my client straight to the top of the google listings just because their site was the best optimized.

So, I would definitely recommend looking for the less common relevant keywords when optimizing your website. A very useful tool for this is www.goodkeywords.com. This free software allows you to type in your most general keyword (e.g. website design') and it wil suggest other less common alternatives (e.g. shopping cart website design). Now, you may get less people using this search term, but it does mean that when they do, they are more likely to find you that on page 245 of the ' website design ' keyword listings!

Right, must get on - have a great week.

Anna

I'm Back - and fully recharged!

info@in8website.co.uk — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 08:43:47 GMT

Hi everyone - as you may be aware I was away last weekend relaxing in the west country! Lucky for some ay! ;o)

I've had some advice that I should use my blog in a more personal way, rather than just sharing news about clients and web launches - so here goes!

You may have noticed that we have added a couple of new tabs to our site recently...these are links to our sister sites which have been around for a while, but I felt it would be better make a connection between the websites. In8 Design and Print offers design and print service including brochure design, leaflet design, logo design, etc....as affordable prices - just like In8 Website Design. In8 Photography offers affordable photographic services including studio photography, commercial photography, product photography and also 360 virtual tours.

Speaking of which...we have also added a fairly new tab for 360 virtual tours, which you can see on the In8 website (http://www.in8website.co.uk/360VirtualTours.aspx ). We at In8 really like these and have added this to our list of services - and of course these are very affordable, starting from just £50 to take the images and setup the tour (depending on where you are based of course!).

We will be adding a new demo tour soon which was captured whilst I was on my hols in Devon ;o)

We are also investing in a support site which will be at www.in8support.co.uk very shortly. The aim of this site will be to enable In8 customers to knowledge share and also get support in a more structured way. You will be able to post your support requests and monitor their progress via the website. Naturally, you will be able to login, amend your details and potentially even make payments via the site. We are also considering running workshops quarterly to help our customers to learn a bit more about the internet and how to make it work for you - but this is a little further in the future at the moment - but watch this space!

I think that will do for today - thank you for reading!

Anna

Community and Networking functionaliy putting Women 1st

info@in8website.co.uk — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 12:11:13 GMT

In8 is currently working with Women 1st, a Dorset based Womens Networking Group to build a community forum that involves its users and members. Women 1st is a new and exciting ‘networking’ event for all women – a meeting point for friends, with a tailored programme of talks, and a small supporting exhibition for you to browse whilst enjoying a warm welcome and relaxing atmosphere.

Women 1st started out with a HTML based website that was proving costly to update and did not nurture the community aspect of the business. Kathryn, the founder of Women 1st, was referred to In8 by another customer. In8 created a community website for Women 1st based around their current website, while extending it with community features.

The Women 1st website now consists of:

Community Forum - fully managed by Kathryn,
Speaker Profile Directory - a listings module that Kathryn can update herself as new speakers join
Events Payment Facility - a paypal integrated events modules which allows Women 1st to monitor signup
Gallery - an interactive gallery module that members can add their own photos and images to

More information on community websites and forums is available on our website. For a quote or more personalised informaiton, please contact us.

A New Ecommerce Back-End for Hampshire Based Films Company

info@in8website.co.uk — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 11:54:13 GMT

In8 Website Design is currently working with helping Hampshire based company, Tomahawk Films, to streamline their shopping cart and payment gateway facilities. Tomahawk films originally used a 1990's 'unpack and go' shopping cart, which collected order details and emailed them to Tomahawk Films. Although secure, the system was needlessly complicated and Brian, the CEO of Tomahawk Films, was single handedly trying to run the website and the archaic back-end was holding him back.

Tomahawk Films did not want to chang the lok and feel of the site in any way and was keen to retain the web processes, so as to not alienate their loyal customers. With this in mind, In8 created a simple back-end solution that fitted in with the current look and feel, as well as the structure that was familar to Tomahawk users.

Brian can now collect payment, manage and track orders and market to his customers all from his website. The simple ecommerce package allows Brian to totally manage his web shop and indeed his business.

For more information of Ecommerce Packages, please visit our ecommerce web page. To find out how In8 can help you to effectively sell online, please contact us via our web form, or call us on 07809 709 308.

Search Engine Optimization Tips

info@in8website.co.uk — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 14:19:00 GMT

In8 is offering visitor and clients Search Engine Optimization Tips with no catch or cost! Visit our 'SEO Tips' page in our 'Info' section for details.

In8 Offers Visitors Free Downloads and Resources

info@in8website.co.uk — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 14:46:00 GMT

In8 has decided to offer its much appreciated visitor a selection of free resources over the next few months. In8 believe in helping web newbies to help themselves using a range of specialy selected resources. The first resource is 'Make Google Love Your Site'. The download is now available on www.in8website.co.uk Enjoy!

Reale Photography Launch

info@in8website.co.uk — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 12:54:00 GMT

Reale Photography have become the latest Portsmouth based business to get an In8 Website. Rhys Meale, Photographer, has been looking for a website solution to suite his budget and In8's Basic Package allowed him to get online!

News - Want to vary your content depending on your user?

info@in8website.co.uk — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 09:52:00 GMT

Coming soon....In8 Customers wil be able to control what content users see on a user level, not just role! Interested? Please contact us. This service SHOULD be available in April 2007.

Introducing.....the In8 Blog

info@in8website.co.uk — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 09:47:00 GMT

In8 Website have decided to run a blog from our website.