Killerwebs a web design studio based in Bradford West Yorkshire with many years experience in Web Design, Logo Design, content management systems and Search engine optimisation (SEO).
Check us out at http://www.bradfordwebdesigns.co.uk
Killerwebs have designed and created many websites from as little as £50.00, below are some of the most recent:
http://www.a2z-freight.com
http://www.dsdremovalsltd.com
http://www.kinkiz.110mb.com
http://www.acreroofing.110mb.com
http://www.bradfordremovals.com
http://www.hv-transport.com
http://moneymattersadvice.blogspot.com
http://www.bradford-pc-repairs.co.uk
http://www.heatonbros.com
To see our full Web Design Portfolio, please click here
http://www.bradfordwebdesigns.co.uk/portfolio
Killerwebs are currently providing SEO services for
http://www.speednetuk.com
http://www.aztekintl.com
http://www.pdbannister.co.uk
Plus many more.
Our website packages start from as little as £50.00, check out our full range of packages here.
http://www.bradfordwebdesigns.co.uk/services
Thank you for taking the time to read this and hopefully visit our site, you can also follow us on twitter at
http://www.twitter.com/killerwebs_info
Or Facebook
http://www.facebook.com
Monday, 31 May 2010
Thursday, 20 May 2010
10 Tips for Building a Successful Website
Do you have a strong desire to build a website, yet don't have a clue where to begin? That was me six years ago. Like you, I desperately wanted to be part of the online community and stake my claim on the world wide web.
What have I learned in six years? A lot! It has changed my life and can change yours too. Here are some valuable tips I learned from some of my biggest mistakes building a website and working online.
Let's Get Started.
Have you ever been to a website and been totally confused about what it is they actually offer or do? I know I have. I get frustrated with websites like these and quickly start my search again for a website that focuses on the information I am after.
Tip #1 - Find a niche market for your website. Don't try to be a website for everything. If your website is about recipes, make it about recipes and products that compliment your theme. Don't throw in insurance quotes, apartment searches and etc.
Tip #2 - Stay away from wallpaper and dark background colors. Do you want visitors to see your services or your wallpaper? My guess is the reason you have a website is to promote a product or service, so make that the focus. Busy wallpaper distracts from the services and products you are trying to promote.
Dark background colors make reading web copy much harder and can be a bit overwhelming to most people's sense of calm and well being. When in doubt, do as other successful online businesses do. Notice no wallpaper or dark background colors on Microsoft, eBay and etc. It's okay to add a splash of color to your website, just not the whole page.
Tip #3 - Avoid using flash introductory pages. Sure they look nice and can be quite entertaining, but what do they really do for your website? In my opinion, frustrate your visitors. In today's fast paced society we want the facts and information quickly. Remember, there are still plenty of dial-up users who will become frustrated waiting for your flash page to load and will move on to your competitor's website.
Tip #4 - Turn your speakers down for this one. Nothing scares a visitor off more quickly than entering a website and being blasted with music. Avoid using music on your website. It just isn't professional, unless of course, you are in the music industry and your website is about music.
Tip #5 - Focus your web copy for your customer. They are looking for "What's In It For Me?" Take time to write good web copy or pay someone who can.
Example of What Not to Do: Welcome to our website. We are excited you have found us. Notice in this example, all the words really focus on the company: our, we, us. Nothing is really about the benefits for customers.
Example of What to Do: Are you frustrated with website builders that don't deliver? You need a professional website with state-of-the-art ecommerce solutions and you need it now. Doesn't this sound a lot more exciting and interesting? Notice the "you" in this text. It is about the customer and fulfilling a need.
An excellent book and learning tool for writing good web copy is, "Persuasive Online Copywriting: How to Take Your Words to the Bank," by Bryan Eisenberg, Jeffrey Eisenberg, and Lisa T. Davis. I highly recommend it and can say from experience, it is well worth the investment. You can find it easily online at Amazon.com.
Tip #6 - To bold or not to bold...that is the question? Bolding text can be a valuable tool for drawing attention to a product or service. If you bold each and every word in your paragraph, guess what? Nothing stands out. Use it sparingly to get your message across. Also, the same is true for using italics. Use it in moderation to highlight keywords of interest.
Tip #7 - Easy navigation. Can your visitors easily find what they are looking for or is there some secret passage they have to discover to get there? One way to determine how easy your website is to navigate is to send a friend to your website and ask them to find a particular product or service. Guess what? If they can't find it, neither can your potential customers. Keep your website clean and easy to navigate. A cluttered site will result in poor sales. Visitors become frustrated when they cannot quickly find what they are looking for on a website.
Tip #8 - How can your visitors contact you? I have browsed websites where there is absolutely no way to contact the owner and I am amazed at why anyone would do this. What this tells me is there is "no" and I repeat, "NO" customer service so why would I want to do business with them? The trust factor on the web is totally different than the trust factor of doing business locally. At a minimum, you should provide a contact form or email. It's even better to provide a contact phone number.
Note: Respond in a timely manner to requests. Generally within 24 hours is best. Anything beyond that and people get hesitant about the legitimacy of your business and service. They want to know there is a live, eager person tending the store. Not one who checks in every few days or weeks.
Tip #9 - Dead End - No Outlet - Site Not Found! By this I mean, are your customers finding those links to nowhere on your website? Sometimes it can't be helped, however, check your website often for dead links, keep it updated and the content fresh. Finding a bunch of dead links on a website will send a very clear message to your visitors. No one is tending the store. Not much happening here! This is a sure way to quickly devalue your website.
Tip #10 - Should you link up? Yes! Quality link exchanges do work. Exchange links with websites that compliment the demographics of your website. If your website is about recipes, linking with other recipe sites, cooking sites and such are a good move. Linking to real estate websites, for example, would not be a good linking strategy. It is also best to categorize your link partners for your visitors: Italian Recipes, Mexican Recipes and etc. And, when possible, house your link pages on your own domain, not with a free linking service.
In closing, I am sure you are reading this article because you want a professional website. If you have programming skills and can write your own code, great! If not, there are many affordable, quality online website builders available. Avoid using the free website builder services. It's that old saying, "You Get What You Pay For," and it certainly is true in this case.
Bradford Web Designs by Killerwebs
What have I learned in six years? A lot! It has changed my life and can change yours too. Here are some valuable tips I learned from some of my biggest mistakes building a website and working online.
Let's Get Started.
Have you ever been to a website and been totally confused about what it is they actually offer or do? I know I have. I get frustrated with websites like these and quickly start my search again for a website that focuses on the information I am after.
Tip #1 - Find a niche market for your website. Don't try to be a website for everything. If your website is about recipes, make it about recipes and products that compliment your theme. Don't throw in insurance quotes, apartment searches and etc.
Tip #2 - Stay away from wallpaper and dark background colors. Do you want visitors to see your services or your wallpaper? My guess is the reason you have a website is to promote a product or service, so make that the focus. Busy wallpaper distracts from the services and products you are trying to promote.
Dark background colors make reading web copy much harder and can be a bit overwhelming to most people's sense of calm and well being. When in doubt, do as other successful online businesses do. Notice no wallpaper or dark background colors on Microsoft, eBay and etc. It's okay to add a splash of color to your website, just not the whole page.
Tip #3 - Avoid using flash introductory pages. Sure they look nice and can be quite entertaining, but what do they really do for your website? In my opinion, frustrate your visitors. In today's fast paced society we want the facts and information quickly. Remember, there are still plenty of dial-up users who will become frustrated waiting for your flash page to load and will move on to your competitor's website.
Tip #4 - Turn your speakers down for this one. Nothing scares a visitor off more quickly than entering a website and being blasted with music. Avoid using music on your website. It just isn't professional, unless of course, you are in the music industry and your website is about music.
Tip #5 - Focus your web copy for your customer. They are looking for "What's In It For Me?" Take time to write good web copy or pay someone who can.
Example of What Not to Do: Welcome to our website. We are excited you have found us. Notice in this example, all the words really focus on the company: our, we, us. Nothing is really about the benefits for customers.
Example of What to Do: Are you frustrated with website builders that don't deliver? You need a professional website with state-of-the-art ecommerce solutions and you need it now. Doesn't this sound a lot more exciting and interesting? Notice the "you" in this text. It is about the customer and fulfilling a need.
An excellent book and learning tool for writing good web copy is, "Persuasive Online Copywriting: How to Take Your Words to the Bank," by Bryan Eisenberg, Jeffrey Eisenberg, and Lisa T. Davis. I highly recommend it and can say from experience, it is well worth the investment. You can find it easily online at Amazon.com.
Tip #6 - To bold or not to bold...that is the question? Bolding text can be a valuable tool for drawing attention to a product or service. If you bold each and every word in your paragraph, guess what? Nothing stands out. Use it sparingly to get your message across. Also, the same is true for using italics. Use it in moderation to highlight keywords of interest.
Tip #7 - Easy navigation. Can your visitors easily find what they are looking for or is there some secret passage they have to discover to get there? One way to determine how easy your website is to navigate is to send a friend to your website and ask them to find a particular product or service. Guess what? If they can't find it, neither can your potential customers. Keep your website clean and easy to navigate. A cluttered site will result in poor sales. Visitors become frustrated when they cannot quickly find what they are looking for on a website.
Tip #8 - How can your visitors contact you? I have browsed websites where there is absolutely no way to contact the owner and I am amazed at why anyone would do this. What this tells me is there is "no" and I repeat, "NO" customer service so why would I want to do business with them? The trust factor on the web is totally different than the trust factor of doing business locally. At a minimum, you should provide a contact form or email. It's even better to provide a contact phone number.
Note: Respond in a timely manner to requests. Generally within 24 hours is best. Anything beyond that and people get hesitant about the legitimacy of your business and service. They want to know there is a live, eager person tending the store. Not one who checks in every few days or weeks.
Tip #9 - Dead End - No Outlet - Site Not Found! By this I mean, are your customers finding those links to nowhere on your website? Sometimes it can't be helped, however, check your website often for dead links, keep it updated and the content fresh. Finding a bunch of dead links on a website will send a very clear message to your visitors. No one is tending the store. Not much happening here! This is a sure way to quickly devalue your website.
Tip #10 - Should you link up? Yes! Quality link exchanges do work. Exchange links with websites that compliment the demographics of your website. If your website is about recipes, linking with other recipe sites, cooking sites and such are a good move. Linking to real estate websites, for example, would not be a good linking strategy. It is also best to categorize your link partners for your visitors: Italian Recipes, Mexican Recipes and etc. And, when possible, house your link pages on your own domain, not with a free linking service.
In closing, I am sure you are reading this article because you want a professional website. If you have programming skills and can write your own code, great! If not, there are many affordable, quality online website builders available. Avoid using the free website builder services. It's that old saying, "You Get What You Pay For," and it certainly is true in this case.
Bradford Web Designs by Killerwebs
Monday, 10 May 2010
Facebook Taps Former FTC Chair to Make Its Privacy Case
Facebook has retained a former Federal Trade Commission chairman to serve as an advocate for the company on Capitol Hill, according to a report. The move comes weeks after changes to the social network's consumer data policies sparked outrage from lawmakers and privacy advocates.
The Financial Times reported (registration required) Tim Muris will help Facebook defend its privacy practices to elected officials and agency regulators.
Muris was FTC chairman from 2001 to 2004, during a time when e-mail spam was the key Internet policy issue facing digital marketers and consumers. After that stint, he joined the firm O'Melveny & Myers as counsel. Before President George W. Bush named him to head up the FTC, Muris had a long career at the agency - including stints as director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection and of the Bureau of Competition, both in the early '80s.
Muris would not be Facebook's first privacy appointment. One year ago the company snared Tim Sparapani, a former lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, where he had strong ties to privacy advocates.
Facebook's former chief privacy officer, Chris Kelly, quit the company to run for California Attorney General. Last week he appeared to distance himself from his erstwhile employer.
"Facebook's recent changes to its privacy policy and practices with regard to data sharing occurred after I left the company," he said in a statement. "When I am Attorney General, Facebook, like every company, will have to comply with its obligations to adhere to the law, provide truthful information to consumers and to keep its promises about their privacy rights."
Facebook declined to comment.
Bradford Web Design
The Financial Times reported (registration required) Tim Muris will help Facebook defend its privacy practices to elected officials and agency regulators.
Muris was FTC chairman from 2001 to 2004, during a time when e-mail spam was the key Internet policy issue facing digital marketers and consumers. After that stint, he joined the firm O'Melveny & Myers as counsel. Before President George W. Bush named him to head up the FTC, Muris had a long career at the agency - including stints as director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection and of the Bureau of Competition, both in the early '80s.
Muris would not be Facebook's first privacy appointment. One year ago the company snared Tim Sparapani, a former lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, where he had strong ties to privacy advocates.
Facebook's former chief privacy officer, Chris Kelly, quit the company to run for California Attorney General. Last week he appeared to distance himself from his erstwhile employer.
"Facebook's recent changes to its privacy policy and practices with regard to data sharing occurred after I left the company," he said in a statement. "When I am Attorney General, Facebook, like every company, will have to comply with its obligations to adhere to the law, provide truthful information to consumers and to keep its promises about their privacy rights."
Facebook declined to comment.
Bradford Web Design
Friday, 7 May 2010
Why New Google SERPs Might Mean More Traffic for You
Now that the masses have access to Google's newly redesigned results pages, it's time to consider this in an SEO light if you have not already been considering it.
How do Google's New SERPs Affect SEO? Comment here.
Google has had its search options available for about a year, but they have not been in the face of the user like the newly redesigned SERP is. With this new design, users don't have any choice but to notice the options that are available. It's not too different from Bing or Yahoo in that respect (Danny Sullivan notes that Ask pioneered this design). The difference is that way more people search with Google on a regular basis (in fact, last month Google reportedly dominated the search market by even more than usual).
SEO Strategies and Increased Engagement from Searchers
The new SERPs may shake up SEO efforts, simply because users will start going to the different options Google provides them, taking them to different sets of results. Now that the options are in the limelight, users are more likely to use them.
Yahoo tells us when they added features to their left-hand navigation bar, engagement increased. "We've been steadily adding more filtering options and relevant search suggestions to our left-hand navigation bar...and have seen engagement and click-throughs for those features double over the past seven months." I can't imagine why Google wouldn't also see an engagement increase for certain features that are now more visible.
It's going to come down to evaluating the different options for any given query that you wish to rank for, and focusing efforts upon those. I'll refer back to the article I posted shortly after Google launched its search options in the first place you can find some tips in that. The same general thinking still applies, but it just got more important.
New SERPs Make Social Even More Important
The options in the left panel pull from "everything" - classic Google results (universal, organic, paid, etc.), blogs from Google Blog Search, Books from Google Books (which includes magazines), Images from Google Image Search, News from Google News, Maps from Google Maps, Shopping from Google Product Search, Videos from Google Video (which includes videos from YouTube and other sources), and Updates from Google's real-time search.
That last one is of particular note, because before users generally only saw Google's real-time search in action on select newsy queries unless they hunted them down. Real-time search for any query is now much more accessible, which makes real-time search a bigger deal for search marketing (here's some tips for getting found in real-time search). Here's how Google ranks tweets.
Social interactions are becoming more important. The new SERPs also place much more emphasis on social search results. The same goes for location. You'll notice "nearby" is one of the options. Discussions is another option. Google appears to draw from a variety of sources for this one, but it stands to reason that engaging in conversation throughout the web has some value to Google's results. There are definitely a lot of results from forums in these results - another reason forum participation can be a valuable use of your time. Forums and Q&A are actually a couple of sub-options, but I've seen blog posts in the discussions results too.
Emphasis on Diversification of Where You're Ranking in Google
What it boils down to is that ranking in all of Google's different search engines has become even more important for getting traffic from Google. Here are some tips for that. I expect traffic for sites listed in any of these to increase as a result of Google's New SERP. Keep in mind that Google has been testing this for a significant amount of time. If you think Yahoo was seeing increased engagement, imagine what Google will attract.
I would watch for Google to add more options to the left-panel at any given time. Though they have already experimented a great deal with this layout, I expect we'll see a lot more tweaking as time goes on.
Bradford Web Design - Killerwebs Web Design Studio
How do Google's New SERPs Affect SEO? Comment here.
Google has had its search options available for about a year, but they have not been in the face of the user like the newly redesigned SERP is. With this new design, users don't have any choice but to notice the options that are available. It's not too different from Bing or Yahoo in that respect (Danny Sullivan notes that Ask pioneered this design). The difference is that way more people search with Google on a regular basis (in fact, last month Google reportedly dominated the search market by even more than usual).
SEO Strategies and Increased Engagement from Searchers
The new SERPs may shake up SEO efforts, simply because users will start going to the different options Google provides them, taking them to different sets of results. Now that the options are in the limelight, users are more likely to use them.
Yahoo tells us when they added features to their left-hand navigation bar, engagement increased. "We've been steadily adding more filtering options and relevant search suggestions to our left-hand navigation bar...and have seen engagement and click-throughs for those features double over the past seven months." I can't imagine why Google wouldn't also see an engagement increase for certain features that are now more visible.
It's going to come down to evaluating the different options for any given query that you wish to rank for, and focusing efforts upon those. I'll refer back to the article I posted shortly after Google launched its search options in the first place you can find some tips in that. The same general thinking still applies, but it just got more important.
New SERPs Make Social Even More Important
The options in the left panel pull from "everything" - classic Google results (universal, organic, paid, etc.), blogs from Google Blog Search, Books from Google Books (which includes magazines), Images from Google Image Search, News from Google News, Maps from Google Maps, Shopping from Google Product Search, Videos from Google Video (which includes videos from YouTube and other sources), and Updates from Google's real-time search.
That last one is of particular note, because before users generally only saw Google's real-time search in action on select newsy queries unless they hunted them down. Real-time search for any query is now much more accessible, which makes real-time search a bigger deal for search marketing (here's some tips for getting found in real-time search). Here's how Google ranks tweets.
Social interactions are becoming more important. The new SERPs also place much more emphasis on social search results. The same goes for location. You'll notice "nearby" is one of the options. Discussions is another option. Google appears to draw from a variety of sources for this one, but it stands to reason that engaging in conversation throughout the web has some value to Google's results. There are definitely a lot of results from forums in these results - another reason forum participation can be a valuable use of your time. Forums and Q&A are actually a couple of sub-options, but I've seen blog posts in the discussions results too.
Emphasis on Diversification of Where You're Ranking in Google
What it boils down to is that ranking in all of Google's different search engines has become even more important for getting traffic from Google. Here are some tips for that. I expect traffic for sites listed in any of these to increase as a result of Google's New SERP. Keep in mind that Google has been testing this for a significant amount of time. If you think Yahoo was seeing increased engagement, imagine what Google will attract.
I would watch for Google to add more options to the left-panel at any given time. Though they have already experimented a great deal with this layout, I expect we'll see a lot more tweaking as time goes on.
Bradford Web Design - Killerwebs Web Design Studio
Sunday, 2 May 2010
New testimonial page
New testimonial page added to HV Transport & Removals website http://htxt.it/nGIn - http://htxt.it/nGIn/testimonials.html Also created new blog http://htxt.it/5LxW
Yahoo CEO: "Google Is Going To Have A Problem"
It's no secret that Google has, on a very steady basis, dominated its competition and managed to return big profits. And Carol Bartz may be in no position to question the company's methods. But Yahoo's CEO nonetheless chose to point out a potential weakness this week, and she may be on the right track.
Bartz told Jonathan Fildes, "Google is going to have a problem because Google is only known for search. It is only half our business; it's 99.9% of their business. They've got to find other things to do."
Also, in terms of how Google will be judged as it attempts to find those other things, Bartz observed, "Google has to grow a company the size of Yahoo every year to be interesting."
The 99.9 percent figure is obviously an exaggeration. Still, if you figure that Google has a market cap of around $169 billion and Yahoo's market cap is closer to $24 billion, the second remark doesn't seem too inaccurate.
So as Bartz indicated, that puts a lot of pressure on Google to succeed at something other than search. Whether that something's Android, Google Apps, the TV Ads program, or a different product doesn't matter, but in this light, Yahoo's rather scattered network of properties starts to look a little more attractive.
UPDATE: A regulatory filing has revealed that Carol Bartz received $47.2 million in compensation for her work in 2009, which is far more than either Eric Schmidt or Steve Ballmer collected.
Bradford Web Design - http://www.bradfordwebdesigns.co.uk
Follow Killerwebs on Twitter - http://twitter.com/killerwebs_info
Bartz told Jonathan Fildes, "Google is going to have a problem because Google is only known for search. It is only half our business; it's 99.9% of their business. They've got to find other things to do."
Also, in terms of how Google will be judged as it attempts to find those other things, Bartz observed, "Google has to grow a company the size of Yahoo every year to be interesting."
The 99.9 percent figure is obviously an exaggeration. Still, if you figure that Google has a market cap of around $169 billion and Yahoo's market cap is closer to $24 billion, the second remark doesn't seem too inaccurate.
So as Bartz indicated, that puts a lot of pressure on Google to succeed at something other than search. Whether that something's Android, Google Apps, the TV Ads program, or a different product doesn't matter, but in this light, Yahoo's rather scattered network of properties starts to look a little more attractive.
UPDATE: A regulatory filing has revealed that Carol Bartz received $47.2 million in compensation for her work in 2009, which is far more than either Eric Schmidt or Steve Ballmer collected.
Bradford Web Design - http://www.bradfordwebdesigns.co.uk
Follow Killerwebs on Twitter - http://twitter.com/killerwebs_info
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