Moresense.co.uk - Web design and development blog

The impact of the new ICO's UK/EU Cookie Law

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 18:00:00 GMT

The impact of the new ICO’s UK/EU Cookie Law

As of 26th May 2011 the ICO have brought in to affect new laws that require website’s in the UK and EU to not store cookies on a user’s computer without first asking permission.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small bits of information that the website has stored on your computer, it allows the website to track your interactions with the website.

Do we need cookies?

Yes, sites which require you to log in such as facebook, twitter, banks etc.. need to track who you are. Once you log in this (among a few other bits such as user-agent and IP address) is how they know who you are.

Some problems

The biggest affect, I believe, will be with third party analytics software (Google Analytics being the biggest) which rely heavily on cookies. Look at this example of how analytics on ICO’s own website were affected http://www.flickr.com/photos/vickyb/5859873960/in/photostream

Analytics will not be the only area affected. Affiliate networks are also going to be affected, when you visit a site using an affiliate link found on quido.com or similar sites, the end site stores a cookie on your computer to track where you came from - these end sites will no longer be able to track your purchase meaning quido can't get the referral fee and then you can't get the cashback.

The law

However, I believe this new law is going to unenforceable! The number of sites out there that are knowingly/unknowingly storing cookies is in the millions and these sites won’t be updated - so I don’t feel that its going to be down to the web developers and site owners to deal with, it will come down to the browsers.

What can browsers do?

The browsers can simply pop up a confirmation box when a user first visits a website where cookies are trying to download and ask if they give permission for these cookies to be downloaded and if they don’t, a message could explain that "your experience on the site may be affected (unable to log in, post messages etc..)". This could even be a custom message that the developer puts in the page’s meta tag.

The browser Google Chrome will probably ask it's users if its ok to allow Google Analytics to install cookies - meaning the stats will continue to work when using Chrome, Mozilla Firefox will probably help out Google, but I doubt Mircosoft's Internet Explorer will help out. Of course Microsoft have their own ad network and probably also use cookies - so maybe the browsers will all come together to fix these issues together, I doubt it though.

We’ve gone this many years having cookies automatically downloaded without any real problems and so I think its a load of nonsense.

How to get your website found in search engines

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 18:00:00 GMT

How to get your website found in search engines

For example, searching for the term "web designers" in google results in about 559,000,000 results and only 10 sites show on the first page, so most of the time users will simply pick from the first page - the top 10. So you need to target search terms that you have a chance in getting high enough to be found, i.e. "web designers in canterbury" has around 4.5 million results - your chances are getting better.

Of course you can pay to become a sponsored link (top and right hand side of google), but the moment you stop paying you stop appearing near the top. The ultimate aim is to get 1st page ranking in the organic search results (on your own merit).

Search engines rank sites mainly on the number of inbound links the site has, the more inbound links the site has the more popular and relevant the search engines believe your site is. So if you want your site to rank higher in the google search results you must start getting back-links to your own site. There are plenty of good ways to do this (there are bad ways too):

Start a blog and within your posts mention something relevant to your main site and link those keywords back to your site.
Blogs are a great way of getting links, if what is written is interesting other blogs, news channels will pick up on it and write their own stories on it referring (hopefully) to your story.
Providing simple sharing buttons on the blog pages, allows visitors to quickly share the blog with their friends and the wider community and snowballs from there.
Start twittering, using facebook and get people linking to your site from there.

Or you can contact us and we can help you.

We've just launched the mobile version of our website

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 15:36:19 GMT

Mobile optimized version of our website is now live

Today we launched the mobile version of our website and we wanted to explain why.

With the forever growing number of users surfing the web using their mobile phone the need for mobile optimized websites is fast becoming the norm.

Why is it important?

If you have ever tried visiting a normal (not mobile optimized) website using your mobile network you'll find the page takes a while to download (3G helps a bit). This is due to the page's large graphics, ads, extra header and footer text, links and other content. And once on the site you have to scroll, not only up and down, but left and right too.

What makes a mobile optimized site different?

The page is smaller in every way, less content, smaller images (if any) and the page is built so that its width is fluid and can stretch to the device's maximum screen width easily, thus removing the need to scroll left and right.

How this can help your business?

The goal of your website is always to know your customers and their needs. We understand the needs of the customer and whilst building the main website we can decide what needs to be in the mobile version.

If a user is visiting your site from a mobile device they will want the information quickly and in small bite sized chunks. So we need to reduce the information we give to the user as much as we can without losing the companies message, product or service. Getting the right balance is important and they can always go away and view the site later and they will be more likely to remember or bookmark your site if they had a great experience and got what they wanted quickly using their phone.

Company websites, blogs and e-commerce sites would benefit greatly from a mobile version.
An e-commerce site could quickly display the product details, an image and price - allowing them to buy through an online payment gateway such as paypal which also has a mobile optimized version making the whole process more suitable for mobile devices.

And most of all, your users are more likely to return again if they had got what they wanted - quickly!
We can help.

Our mobile version can be found here: http://www.moresense.co.uk/m

Online Sports League Management Web Application

Sun, 02 Jan 2011 16:27:48 GMT

Online Sports League Management Web Application

A few years ago we designed, developed and built a league management system for a few netball leagues in the Kent area, including; Thanet, Canterbury and Dover.

Since then a number of other netball leagues, squash and table tennis leagues have adopted the system to manage their teams, players, fixtures, results and provide their members with an online forum, gallery and news area.

The system allows any number of administrators to manage everything. The league tables and player stats are automatically calculated from the results entered by admins and team captains who are pre-approved by admins to enter their own results - keeping the league tables up to the minute (well, a few days old at most).

We are blogging about this because we thought you might be interested in the other types of web applications that are possible, other than the normal e-commerce and company websites which we love to do. It might also help you realise the full potential of the web applications we can build and provide to your customers.

We are based in the Canterbury area, and are always happy to talk or meet up to discuss your web design and development requirements. If you have a web start-up idea for a web application that you would like to talk over please email us.

Below is the list of sports leagues that are using the web application we built:

If you want to discuss your website needs, please contact us.

Why Bad Publicity is Sometimes Good Publicity!

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 GMT

Why Bad Publicity is Sometimes Good Publicity!

A recent story in the NY Times has caused a lot of trouble for popular search engine ‘Google’. According to DecorMyEyes, Google has enabled them to get more traffic thanks to bad publicity. The Brooklyn based opticians have gained a lot of additional traffic; even though they have been criticised for ripping their customers off.

Google advertise the fact that they help only the best businesses and content to get to the top of their listings. However, the DecorMyEyes case clearly shows that isn’t true. Anybody can get to the top, regardless of whether or not they deserve to be there. This therefore begs the question – can bad publicity also be good publicity? It certainly seems that way for DecorMyEyes.

Making a Change

After being under scrutiny, Google has now made a few changes to its search ranking rules. It has even defended itself by making a public statement. This is a rare thing and it perhaps shows how worried the company is that it will affect their advertising sales. The SEO community have been less than pleased with the findings and that is no doubt what forced Google to make a few changes.

The reason for the popularity of DecorMyEyes in the search engine was blamed on third parties. According to Google, official and important websites had referenced the company and that is why it was showing higher up the listings than it should have been.

The Flaws in SEO Listings

Google may be a huge company but there are still loopholes in the system which has enabled bad companies to get recognised. The main reason why the SEO community is outraged is because Google has high tech tools that should prevent this from occurring. With specialist analyst tools and web 3.0, the company should be able to control the content so that only the best and most relevant content ends up at the top.

Seeing the Big Picture

The whole DecorMyEyes case highlights the problems with SEO. Many businesses are not focusing upon the big picture. They are instead targeting purely on content and drawing in customers. They are not thinking about ways in which to keep those customers happy. The key to a successful business is to keep your customers happy. So is bad publicity really good publicity? The answer is no.

Having the right SEO content is just one step to running a successful business. When you keep your customers happy, they are more likely to buy something else from you in future. They are also likely to recommend you to their friends and family. This is a much more powerful marketing tool than plain SEO.

If you want to gain additional business then you will need the right content. We provide you with only the best, relevant content. We take into account your brand, your products and most importantly, your customers. With our help you can draw in new business and reach the top of the search engine rankings. Keeping the business and becoming more successful will depend upon how well you treat your customers once they have found you.

If you choose to rip off your customers like DecorMyEyes then it will eventually come back to haunt you. No business can stay afloat for long once they start to receive bad publicity. Even if the bad publicity brings in new customers, you will not be able to keep them.

Overall why make your business suffer? Start treating your customer’s right and they will repay you. With the right content and the right frame of mind, you could expand your profit margins and run a successful, high ranked business.