Small business articles, SEO web design articles - DVH Design

Bambi Harrison Website is now Online

2009-07-07T22:13:00.002Z

The website of local handbag designer Bambi Harrison has been officially launched courtesy of DVH design at http://bambiharrison.co.uk/

Based in Essex, Bambi Harrison creates bags for a range of uses including shopping, promwear, evening, weddings proms or simply for everyday use. Bambi Harrison is also taking bookings for handbag parties.

Features to the website include a page showing the current range, a collection of testimonials from satisfied customers, a Flash showcase of the latest collection and an online enquiry form that can be completed for further information or party details. The facility to buy the bags online will be available in the short-term future.

Blue Plasters Is now Online

2009-06-24T09:47:00.002Z

It is my great pleasure to announce the launch of blueplasters.com, Suppliers of first aid products, finger covers and plasters for the food industry.

The website has been kept simple and easy to browse and clients can register their details, buy goods and review product lines.

The Best of Braintree Business Awards

2009-04-01T09:49:00.003Z

Unfortunately DVH Design did not win the most creative business over at the Best of Braintree over March.

But every cloud has a silver lining and my lining in this case was 12 very positive testimonials from my existing customers (also in most cases repeat customers).

A great big thank you to all my clients who both voted and had the time to leave their feedback, although I will also thank them personally when i get a spare minute.

Perfect Make-Up Photographic Portfolio now online

2009-03-16T12:09:00.004Z

It gives me great pleasure to announce the launch of the online portfolio of professional make-up artist, Rebecca Ryther.

The portfolio, presented in a slideshow format, consists of the recent photo shoots Rebecca has worked on. These vary from natural beauty make-up to fashion/editorial/conceptual.

Rebecca also has an online wedding portfolio featuring a showcase of her recent wedding work.

DVH Design has been nominated for the Most Creative Business 2009

2009-03-13T09:25:00.002Z

DVH Design has been nominated for the most creative business award at The Best of Braintree for March 2009.

If you do like my work or have worked with me in the past and liked it then please feel (very) free to vote for me.

Unfortunately I don't get an heavy golden thing to put on my mantelpiece, but I do get a smart graphic to add to my website on winning. Votes get counted on 31st March so you only have a couple of weeks!

Thank you in advance.

DVH Design is now covering Suffolk and New Services

2008-11-20T21:01:00.004Z

DVH Design is proud to announce that it is now covering the Suffolk as well as Essex.

We have also announced our new SEO advice/training and logo design services in anticipation to tomorrow's Enterprising Women conference being held in Cambridge.

The SEO training plan is designed for the small business owner and includes initial SEO, proceeded by a limited "hand-holding" period training the client in the key areas of search marketing, including keyphrase research, link campaigns and social networking.

Our logo design service displays a brief portfolio of the logos we have designed over the last 2 years. We also provide graphic design, intended to inject a little more pizzazz into your web pages.

Single Parent Travel Club is now online

2008-11-05T10:01:00.002Z

The new look website of the Single Parent Travel Club has this morning been launched at http://www.sptc.org.uk

The Single Parent Travel Club provides a community for single parents nationwide to enjoy holidays, day trips with their children.

New features to the website include an online subscription form, a new logo and a new section catered for older children (as old as 17!).

Why Isn’t My New Website Listed in Google's Top 10?

2008-10-21T19:38:00.004Z

Imagine the scenario: You have a new website and you're happy with it. Your web designer uploads it and now its there on the World Wide Web open for business. So you wait for some visitors to your website and in turn sales enquiries: No enquiries yet, but it's early days. You get a few friends come by and say "hey, nice website!" but you wait and wait and no enquiries still. So you check out Google, type in your main keyphrase (lets say novelty washing baskets) and you can't find your website listed on the top 10 … nor the top 20 … Oh my God, not even the top 100!

Reality Check

Before we start any type of analysis on what may have gone wrong, let's just take a quick reality check: Just because you have a website, does not mean that you are suddenly going to rank immediately for every keyphrase you've chosen. It may have worked 10 years ago when there were only a handful of websites on the internet, but nowadays there are literally millions all vying for different keyphrases.

To demonstrate my point, type your keyphrase into Google: How many results do you get? Google has 576,000 pages in its results for Novelty washing baskets. This can vary from direct competitors to a few pages that just happen to mention "novelty" and/or "washing baskets". If you're not within the first couple of pages for any chosen keyword, then don't expect many sales or enquiries.

Here are just a few things to consider before you begin to panic:

Does Google know you exist?

Google or any of the major search engines) aren't telepathic. You do have to let them know that your website is there to begin with. There is more than one way to tell the search engines about your website.

Site Map: A sitemap is an XML file that includes every web page listed on your website. It can also provide additional information such as date of last update and relevance of each page compared to the rest of the site. Sitemaps.org can provide more information on the whole concept of sitemaps. Once this is completed you can submit them to the search engines.

Directories: Although the jury is still out on whether search engines crawl and index online directories as much now as they used to, it is still good practice to submit to a few directories. The main directories include Yahoo directory, Dmoz and Best of the Web. Niche directories relevant to your trade or keyphrase can also prove valuable. They can be found by searching for your keyphrase +directory in Google.

Submission to search engines: Although Google (et al) tend to find websites by following links on other websites nowadays, most of the main search engines still offer a page where you can submit your web address. But this can take anything from several weeks to several months.

Where is your Keyphrase?

The next thing to consider is if your main key phrase is listed anywhere on your web page(s). Search engines (certainly the top 3) don't use people, they use automated programs (aka bots or spiders) to crawl and index web pages. If novelty washing baskets isn't mentioned anywhere on your novelty washing baskets website then your customers won't find it when they come to search.

At best, your main keyphrases should be included in the page title, main page heading and within your textual content. There are many recommendations online for the number of times you should repeat your key phrase within your content but I shall cover that in another article.

Domain Age Algorithm

If the problem isn't any of the above then the chances are Google just doesn't trust you. I'll explain:

All new websites used to be subjected to a honeymoon period to see if they are trustworthy. At seminars, Google reps used to advise new website owners "Don’t expect any real results from the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) for about 6-9 months, even a year". Although, if you haven't made any effort to optimise your website for your main keyphrases then this figure could be as long as 2 years.

It is still hard for a new website to get up in the rankings, but not impossible. There a few things you can do to get your website noticed by Google:

Links: Quality backlinks to your website can help you to override any domain age algorithm. Therefore start looking for related websites to link to your website. Ask Google directly by searching for your keyphrase +links. Also writing articles, social bookmarking sites (such as Digg and StumbleUpon), networking and just talking to other companies are some of the best tried and tested methods.

Unique Content: Links and content go hand in hand: Websites aren't going to link to you if your web content is the same as everyone else's. So look at your content again. Is it unique? A list of FAQ's, a glossary, how to articles, or an online tool, to name but a few, will help visitors especially if they are researching your product/service or new to your industry in general.

Google Tools: There are many channels of Google that are still quick and free. First of all, adhering to Google's Webmaster guidelines before launching your site will reduce Google's ageing delay, enabling your site to climb the rankings quicker. There is also:

Webmaster Central: Web owners resource where you can submit sitemaps and see how Google is crawling your web pages.

Google Analytics: Site analysis tool which can be used to monitor activity on your website.

Google Shopping: Price comparison resource. Handy for online shops.

Pay per Click: If the linking campaign is proving more difficult than you anticipated and you really want those visitors to come through the door, then consider a short term pay-per-click campaign. Google Adwords allows you to set up a daily budget and talks you through the whole process of setting up a campaign.

Conclusion

Google is responsible for 65% of searches on the worldwide web. It is good to get on their right side early on. I have only outlined some key areas today, which I shall elaborate on at a later date.

Any campaign on any website will take time and a LOT of patience, but if done correctly your site could rank in a matter of a few months.

Ravenna Consultants is now online

2008-09-08T18:59:00.004Z

The website for Putney-based Business Security Consultants Ravenna Consultants has this evening been officially launched.

The purpose of the website is to promote company and the services they offer. the layout is simplistic but professional. Both the website and the accompanying logo was designed by DVH Design.

Debbie's Faux Pas Answerphone Message

2008-06-23T15:42:00.003Z

I must say a big fat sorry to anyone who tried to contact me by phone today.

Basically I have been the victim of a practical joker who came over at the weekend and overwrote my answerphone message with an "Oh f**k off!" Hardly a welcome for anyone approaching a new supplier and I dread to think of the business I've lost today.

Luckily a friend of mine had the decency to tell me this, on the same note as she invited me to be a school governor!

Naturally the practical joker friend is no more, teaching them a valuable lesson that practical jokes just aren't funny.

DVH Design can now been contacted via Skype

2008-04-02T19:37:00.001Z

From this evening, DVH Design can also be contacted via the Skype service. Therefore if you already have a Skype account, you can simply click the button at DVH Design's contact page and contact us for free.

This service is to be used for genuine client enquiries only. For non-marketing calls, we have compiled an instruction page for marketing enquiries.

Online Business Women: A Step up from the Dark Ages?

2008-02-01T10:42:00.000Z

I have no idea where this article is going to take me, but I have to share with you an incident that happened a few weeks ago.

Basically when I find myself working on a Saturday morning (pretty often) I find myself listening to BBC Radio Wales Saturday morning show with Rhod Gilbert (A VERY funny comedian) and his sidekick Chris Corcoran (The fellow that makes Doodle Do watchable).

One of the many features on their show is Listener Bingo where listeners are encouraged to contact the show when they are listening while doing something eg, listening to the podcast next Wednesday, listening while on a helicopter etc. The one a few weeks ago was listening to the show whilst Googling your own name. I contacted the show as my blog ranks 5th under the keyphrase Deb Harrison.

In hindsight, quoting my name on the show was a bad idea, but my logic was that a few listeners might also Google my name and either like my writing or look at my many services and hey presto, Business Lead or subscriber. Result!

Wrong, wrong and wrong again. A few evenings later, I got an anonymous phone call from someone trying to sound sexy, but sounded more like he had both a lisp and bronchitis. I thought it was one of my mates messing about so I persevered for a bit. When this guy da-daa'd the stripper music, he then proceeded to start a striptease on the phone (even I am still scratching my head on that one). I proceeded to put the phone down to put the poor soul out of his misery.

Now I can only assume someone listened to the show and followed the same path as me, but I do not hold the show responsible. It was my own silly fault. Even though I do see women as equals and just as capable as doing the same job as men, obviously there are still a few inbred members of mankind that don’t. The ones who still think women are mere baby machines and all working women are witches that should be burned at the stake in front of the entire village.

I have no idea if Jill Whalen of High Rankings.com or Martha Lane Fox ex-MD of lastminute.com have ever had to encounter stalkers or pervy phone calls, but for any business woman reading this, but please do share your stories as I would love to know.

The entire experience was actually quite amusing, but one last thing: please could the tele-stripper make themselves known: Just so I can seek closure (and point and laugh!).

Optical Character Recognition in Images: Have your say

2008-01-15T14:57:00.000Z

The buzz in every major SEO news source over this last week has got to be the news that a patent that Google filed in June 2007 for optical character recognition (OCR) in static images and video has just become available.

Hello Liberated Web Design

For once, something that makes a SEO/web designer’s life easier! Up until this point, the web design community had 2 options when tackling headings: Opting for a font that is widespread on all/most PCs (very limited and very plain) and relying on stylesheets to spice it up a bit or creating a heading using any given font as an image and hoping that the search engines read the alternative text provided in the image tag.

With this new application, image headings can be read and indexed, as can videos, Flash presentations and even (and I dare to be bold) a whole web page consisting of 1 big image! Duncan Riley from Tech Crunch added further scope on the development:

"If Google has found a way to index text in static images and video this is a great leap forward in the progression of search technology. This will make every book in the Google Books database really searchable, with the next step being YouTube, Flickr (or Picasa Web) and more. The search capabilities of the future just became seriously advanced."

Goodbye CAPTCHA

With extreme technical advances also comes drawbacks. A Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA) is a script that generates a random word in an image and uses a variety of methods to distort the image, eg an angled line or crowded symbols making it harder for bots to encrypt. This method is widely used by sites such as MySpace and Blogger to reduce the amount of spam posted.

If and when this scripting comes into use, this could leave the CAPTCHA with its days numbered. If this technology can be developed at Google Central, then what's to say the same software can’t be developed elsewhere? Once the spamming community get their mitts on this hot potato, it will be across the community quicker than nausea at a Mika concert.

I have seen the damage this minority of the underworld can do on a forum with no security measures: Using their shared scripts to automatically generate numerous fake users with their spammy web links for all to see. Fair to say, I lost the battle of keeping that forum rid of spammers. This could become more commonplace if forum/blog owners don't act quick enough to protect their fort.

Even if Google has the patent giving them exclusive rights to OCR, are they going to nail every spammer, scammer, splogger, tinker, tailor, soldier, spy in cyberspace? It would be great if they could (with a long-awaited revolution where spammers are placed in stocks and pelted with rancid fruit) but lets live in the real world for now and assume that that is not going to happen.

So what do you all think: OCR sweet or OCR sour?

Getting Personal with Google

2008-01-11T14:13:00.000Z

One of my new year's resolutions is to work smarter not harder. Yes it is the old BT slogan, but if I am able to save a bit of time (and stress) during the day, that has to be a good thing, right?

Basically my morning routine (30 minutes before the kids get up) goes something like this:

Check my diary for the next couple of days

Check out emails at Hotmail

Look at Sky News for latest news headlines, and weather

Check my Starsign for the day (paper or online)

Read through my RSS feeds at Bloglines

Brief check of MySpace for messages

Now that's quite a few websites to visit isn't it? A surf session that is pretty much impossible to keep inside of 30 minutes. So wouldn't it be great if you could view all this information together on one web page without the need to go anywhere else?

I have been researching this over the Christmas period and basically you can. Google has got pretty sophisticated over the last couple of years: Not only has their search got sophisticated, including separate searches for video and image, but now with iGoogle you can keep all your favourites on one page.

First of all, you need to sign up for an account if you haven't already. Registration is free and surprisingly easy.

Once you are signed up and logged in, you can start adding widgets under the "Add Stuff" link. Well talk about a kid in a sweetshop! In this long list you can opt for the latest news headlines, eBay search, horoscopes. There is also games, jokes pictures and favourite Bush-isms. However rather than sift through the endless list, use the search function to narrow the list down. I am embarrassed to admit that I've looked, but there are also porn gizmos!

Now I have everything I listed earlier at a glance, along with a calendar and clock (not digital - one with hands), a widget that lists the latest scores and news for Norwich City (my team!) and a link to access my Google Analytics account. All it needs to do now is make the coffee and take the kids to school and that will be my mornings taken care of!

There is also a feature where you can ditch the familiar and very plain Google look altogether and opt for a new skin. At the moment there are about 13 skins under "Select Theme". There is however a downside as the box is constantly visible and cannot be moved or hidden.

However there is a workaround: iGoogle Skins v2.0 (Kudos to Bob Walsh at Web Worker Daily)is another little gizmo that can be added to your iGoogle page. It currently has about 50 custom skins and is growing. I say it growing because, there is also an option where users can create their own skins and share them with the rest of the community. As this is a widget, it can be reduced to save space.

I've opted for the Feeling Lucky option which changes skins every time you log into it

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to make their work/personal life a lot easier. I was surprised that Google was allowed to get away with calling their facility iGoogle. A bit cheeky that – and surprisingly lenient of Apple Inc.

Happy New Year from DVH Design

2008-01-06T22:22:00.000Z

DVH Design wishes all of its readers and clients a very happy new 2008. May it be a great one and much better than 2007.

It is a little late, but still in the first week of the new year, so its still valid.

Take the 7 Second Website Challenge

2007-11-19T22:36:00.000Z

At SES London in February, the best advice that summed up the entire 3 days was simply this:

"Design your website (or have it designed) with your target audience in mind first and the search engines afterwards."

Does that shock you? It would certainly make life a lot easier for the search engines that rank scores pages per day and would put paid to the existence of many a spammer and their spammy websites.

In particular, Shari Thurow from Grantastic Designs tackled the issue of theming your page to capture your target audience.

A good trick for this was to look at your web page for 7 seconds: Take in the headings, pictures, layouts and anything else your eye is drawn to. Then look away and try to guess what the page was about (be honest!).

Because unless you are focused on your market and not just the search engines, you might be in for a bit of a shock. Now might be the time to give some examples.

Note: This was my findings from 19 November 2007. If you are reading this article later than that, it may have changed.

The Sites That are Spot On

For an example of a website that has got it spot on, I needed to look no further than my local vegetable supplier River Nene My eye is naturally drawn to the Title of the page that specified both "Home delivery" and "organic vegetables" as does the logo and the visual of the van of the van driving away from trees.

If that couldn't be anymore obvious, the images of the farmer harvesting parsnips, and the wine, clementines and swede confirm the theme.

My Guess: Home delivery of local organic produce.

Correct

My next stop is Tesco, as we all know is a vast empire dominating many business to consumer channels so their logo and slogan alone could sum up their entire site. But they take the trouble to display their main areas high up on the page, above the fold (the first part of a web page where scrolling is not needed).

Their "Whats on" in store, "store locator" and "price check" buttons could be listed nearer the top of the page, but the page is laid out in easy to scan sections, resulting in being able to pick out key information quickly.

My Guess: Budget supermarket, also selling business to consumer products and services.

Correct

Some that need to tweak their page a bit

Looking at my business solicitors website Birkett Long the first thing that draws my attention is the banner at the top running on a mountain. I then see the run4fun icon further down the page. Is this a website about running?

So look at the headlines: Is there any clue there? Welcome to our company, an announcement about the expansion of the company's tax, trusts and probate team. Annual law conference and seminar update. Training? Accountancy? Solicitors? Maybe the running pictures stating Training are being used as a pun. It is quite a hard topic to tackle in imagery.

The clue is eventually solved by the page title and the very small Solicitors stated in the logo, but too late to spot in 7 seconds.

My guess: Business Training Services.

Wrong

Finally looking at International estate agents Rem-Max. My eye is drawn to the top of the screen where I see the branded balloon so I am guessing by that, the Re-Max Scotland logo and the map that this is a big corporation exclusive only to Scotland. I then see the image of what I assume to be the ruins of a Scottish castle which gives me the impression that this something to do with sightseeing and holidays.

The slogan below "Reward yourself" confirms this. The image under the featured properties section looks like a villa so I am assuming this is a holiday property site.

The rest of the page (worldwide, marketing etc) confirms this is a large scale company.

My guess: Holiday property to buy and rent in Scotland.

Wrong

These are just a few examples of how to do it and what to watch for. It is very easy to get confused on the internet. Visitors expect more and if your site tells them absolutely nothing about your company, they'll just hit the back button and look for a page that can help. Hey perhaps your competitor?

So how can you theme your pages:

Clear titles and headings What do you do is the best thing to start with at the top. State it clearly in the page title (the wording at the top of the window) and any visible headings on your page.

Themed images If you’re making a page for a mobile phone site, it makes sense to add some images of your mobile phones. If you are creating an ironing service website, your picture should be along the lines of a happy looking person pressing some smalls.

On the other hand, even I know it isn't always that simple: Last year, I had to theme a page for a hypnotherapist specialising in Trauma resolution. An image of the aftermath of an accident would both have been in bad taste and defeated the overall calming influence the website was designed to create. The final image we agreed on was of a hot air balloon above water symbolising peace. The bottom line is theme a page where you can but get creative when you cannot.

There is an abudance of royalty-free images on the web. Check www.sxc.hu first if you feel you really don't want to pay out for an image (note: read the smallprint first as some image owners request both notification and accreditation for use of their images). For an easier option, check out iStockphoto.comwho charge as little as 50p for an image.

Clear blocks for easy reading: Eyes scan from top-left to bottom right so anything on the right-hand side needs emphasis.

Having said that, it pays to keep all of your page elements clear and easy to identify. Display the most important blocks at the top of the page (also known as above the fold), but don’t cram everything into one space. Blank space on a website is not the enemy: If anything, it is good to allow space as this gives eyes a rest in between looking at each section.

Little to no adverts: One of the examples I was going to use was a code resource website with about 3 banner adverts for various screensavers. Too many banner adverts on your pages can trash all your hard effort. Keep adverts to a minimum or even better, don’t use them at all.

I’ve just realised – I have kept schtum about SES London

2007-10-17T13:16:00.000Z

In February, I was given a press ticket to the London Search Engine Strategies Conference & Exhibition. Three days of web design, search engine, content blogging, linking, web analytics, local search and plenty other advice lovingly crammed into my cranium and all I had to do was write up about it.

The only drawback was because WebProNews provided my ticket, All reports and articles had to go directly to them. Even though I did promise that I was going to report on all my web design, SEO etc etc advice, and looking back on my archives today, I realise that I haven’t done it. Sorry about that.

In my defence it has been hectic this year and its only working 4 mornings a week that I have managed to keep my workload under control.

So over the next few weeks, I shall twin the valuable advice given along with my research and findings. This isn't latest advice, but it is still valid so it certainly isn't a golden moments in SEO yet. It might also introduce me to a routine that I can stick to.

Hell Hath no Fury like a Customer Scorned

2007-09-14T08:08:00.000Z

Before going on holiday, I had to buy a new mobile phone as my one was on its way out. I didn't want to spend too much but wanted to be able to make and take calls, text and if another tree decides to land on my car, I can take a half-decent image to give to the insurance company.

So I went online and looked at the cheap phone shops. I won't name them, but I bought a Sony Ericsson phone which had the best price in comparison and did what I wanted so I ordered it.

Four days passed and after 3 days of annoying the postman, I thought to myself "Where is it?" So that morning I rang them up on their 0870 number. I was told it was about to be released from the warehouse as stock was low. I should get it soon and they'll let me know when.

The following afternoon and I got thinking "Am I going to get this phone by Saturday when I go on holiday?" So I rang again. This time I got told: "We're out of stock and we don't know when we're getting any more". In which case I told them to cancel the order. I was informed that the payment may have gone through, whereas I told them to cancel it. They also said that they'll send me an envelope in case the phone arrives.

On asking to explain this weird occurrence, the very bored operator snorted that I might still get the phone even though I've cancelled the order. When she asked me in a very saccharine voice "Is there anything else I can do for you today?" I replied "Yes. Get some customer service training" and put the phone down.

It turns out that this is just one in a number of stories about this company's shoddy customer service, faulty (if existent stock) and generally rubbish existence. No product/service can please everybody, but it's an absolute nuisance when a company fails to deliver and leaves the customer out of pocket, minus the goods and very annoyed.

The internet is fast and available to many, which in the case of a retaliating customer, can be a problem to any company's online reputation. So where should you look and what can you do about it?

The old anti-website

In the earlier days of the web, where domain names were abundant and so was time, the annoyed customer used to take the time and trouble to set up an anti-website. They would normally involve a similar logo and design but would have "sucks" on the end of the company name or a variation of the name.

The only example I can find that still exists is Microsuck.com However, I have a feeling that their days are numbered because of the similarity in logo and design to their corporate nemesis. However they aren't just an anti-site, they also list alternatives to Microsoft products as do MS Boycott.

Most of the anti-sites are no longer there so they have probably been told to pack up or face a very long, messy and expensive legal battle, especially if the company/product is a registered trademark.

So other than the threat of legal battles, another method of preventing this was (and probably still is) to buy any variation of your company name that could be vulnerable. www.yourcompanysucks.com or any variation on your company name for example, www.queasyjet.com The secret here is thinking of them before the disgruntled customer does.

Then you can either keep them and divert them to a separate page stating its your property or set up a permanent redirect to the main site, like EasyJet does for www.queasyjet.com I'm undecided if that's such a good idea, but at least in adopting this method, the names are put to good use.

Review Forums

In this modern age, the internet is now a great source for information and research. Therefore, my first of port of call was to share my experience online, to prevent any other hapless consumer making the same mistake that I did.

Review forums such as Reviewcentre.com have reviews on everything from wedding planners to holidays, and movie reviews to mobile phones. I wish I had read the offending company's web reviews prior to using them in the first place as they were all saying the same thing!

It is easy to sign up as a contributor and within 5 minutes I was writing up my experience. This option is definitely easy for the person that has little time, but wants to hit the company where it hurts.

Other Forums, Blogs and Social Networks

Another point of attack can be in the local communities in which your product/service is associated. There are many forums, blogs and social networks out there for each community: Plumbing, Nursing, Engineering, you name it. Although on these 3, malicious posts ("eg X Product is f-----g c--p and the c--t MD sucks c--k") are removed quickly and the user banned, but what happens when recommendations are needed?

On the TIP and WPW forums which I moderate for, I have been asked often to recommend reputable companies for software and hosting. I do so, but as any recommendation is based on one's experiences, I also make sure that I disclose who not to go to as well.

So in theory, its better to have an ex-customer that is an angry bad-mouther sounding off, than a professional who shares their experiences in their niche community as they are more likely to be taken seriously.

On that same note, heaven help you if your ex-customer has a blog with a loyal following! HineSight's article on why Microsoft suck is a prime example of this: both the article and the accompanying 15 comments. On another note, social networking site Digg.com has 3 pages worth of results for the key phrase "Microsoft sucks"

Online Petitions

Another 5 minute job, although slightly more involved, is setting up an online petition. PetitionOnline and UK based Go Petition are just a couple of the many places you can create an e-petition for.

The company I attacked in a couple of my earlier articles have had a petition set up against them The Victims of Iomart and RapidRank petition which demonstrates the damage caused when scorned customers get together (377 of them at time of publishing). In this example, I urge you to read Comment number 124 made by Mickey who apparently works for the offending company. Whilst he was getting cocky, with the petitioners, he was also signing his name on a petition against his company. A clever fellow? Not particularly.

So what can you do to keep abreast of what's being said online about your company?

Google Alerts: Google spiders forums, petition sites, social sites and blogs regularly so why not let Google do the donkey work for you? Sign up for email notifications at Google Alerts for your company name and Google will send you the results and links, each time a page containing your company name is updated or listed. If that’s likely to be a lot you can always opt for daily or weekly alerts.

Monitor Review sites: If your company/product/service is already set up on review sites then bookmark the site and check it on a regular basis. If the review site has an orange button like and then click it and sign up for feeds, (but none of them did when I looked).

Better customer support: If a customer knows they have no way of resolving their issues then of course, they will naturally sound off elsewhere. At least by having efficient support that's available both online and offline reduces the risk of scorned customers rubbishing your company in cyberspace.

Encouraging good publicity: You've heard from the dissatisfied customer, what about the satisfied customer? Encourage them to leave good comments about your service. This could be a page on your website dedicated to good testimonials or offer an incentive (eg 10% off next order) if they leave a comment on a review site, or drop your name when it comes to recommendations. In theory the good publicity online can drown out the negative publicity.

To conclude with, no company is perfect. As a whole the human race are known to whinge more than praise and armed with the internet and online communities, this has been made easier for the consumers and more damning for the companies. But with a bit of know-how, you can limit the damage.

If you do have an ongoing problem with a company, then check out HowToComplain.com that provides a free, independent service to get your complaint resolved.

Whats your Motivation? Here's Mine.

2007-07-16T10:51:00.000Z

I was flicking through one of the many "publications" that get sent to me every month (without me even requesting them). And I needn't have bothered because the only thing that caught my full attention was the advertisement on the front cover of the magazine advertising, ironically advertising space. So I have included it for you all to see:

What they seem to have done is taken my personal details (My name, where I'm from, my company name to name but a few) and added them as graffiti. It would have been even better if the occupation section wasn't a drop-down list.

But having said that, it is the smartest and most personalised advert I've ever seen in a publication and this advert now graces the cork board in my office. Not just because I like it, but it is also a pretty good piece of motivation.

I would love to hear from my readers what motivates you. Is it a cartoon, a thought, a dream, revenge? Leave me a comment and I'll list the most bizarre (or failing that) best one in a couple of weeks.

Go on - be a devil ;)

Press Release: Essex Web Design Firm Launches New Search Engine Marketing/Reporting Service

2007-06-21T08:26:00.000Z

Small Business web design firm, DVH Design has launched its new search engine marketing/reporting service for small businesses in the Essex area. The launch of this new service is one of many changes being made by the Essex-based web services company.

One of the changes is the new-look website, blog and company logo, which was launched at the Enterprising Women conference in Newmarket on Wednesday 13 June.

The new website also highlights the other web services offered by DVH Design, including Web site maintenance, E-commerce solutions and website revamping, where old websites are given a fresh new look.

DVH Design's Managing Director, Deb Harrison commented: "We changed our image as our company is improving its current services and expanding."

"We have a lot planned for the next few years, namely expanding our services to East Anglia plus adding to our current range of web services. DVH Design is no longer a small player. We are going from strength to strength and it’s only going to get better."

A copy of this press release can be obtained from UK PR Wire and at Press Box.

Update: Without my knowing it, The Essex Chronicle have published this article in last week's edition (dated 12 July 2007) It can also be read online at ThisIsTotalEssex.co.uk Sadly the link to my site doesn't currently work, but I have just notified the editor so hopefully this will be sorted out shortly.

Why I've Opted for Fixed

2007-06-15T09:39:00.000Z

Apart from a few minor tweaks needed here and there, the long-awaited revamp to my website is finally online. The feedback has been constructive (hint - ask your family and friends to take a look, you'll be surprised what they come back with).

So why after years of me transforming my fluid, fits-on-any-resolution website and bleating on in the forums that fluid design is best and anyone who thinks otherwise should be quickly shooed away before causing any real embarrassment to themselves? Well for a few reasons really:

Easier to Develop: With fixed width pages, the only thing you really need to test for is that you do not get the dreaded horizontal scroll bars at the smallest possible resolution. with more fluid layouts, you also have to test that the site doesn't look ridiculous and unreadable at multiple resolutions. This saves time and money.

Bigger screens: The most commonly used resolution has increased to 1024 x 768, and screens are still getting bigger. My main screen is 1280 x 768 and one guy at WebProWorld boasts of 1680 x 1050! But a website that expands the entire space of a larger screen will stretch to fit the page and look ridiculous.

As a workaround to take up all that excessive space, a seamless background or gentle colour can make up the space and even bring the fixed page to life. Storvite Ltd's London skyline background adds to their branding and makes a nice feature regardless of resolution.

Easier to Read: Despite all these massive screens and large resolutions, the irony is that its very difficult to read font on a screen. The eyes have to work much harder, compared to reading type on paper. Therefore it is also very easy to lose your place. Fixing the width of any textual content is the least you can do to encourage your visitors to read your content.

Different Media Styles: The big argument has always been "If you have a fluid website, it will be compatible on a handheld device" (eg Mobile or PDA). But it is pretty easy (and quick) to set up a separate stylesheet for different medias. This ensures that your site will be accessible for the PC, Print or the steadily increasing smaller-screened audience.

I do not just think for these reasons, fixed is best and if a client wanted me to create a fluid site for them, by all means I would (I am currently developing a combination of free and fixed for a client). But I am also finding that certainly my recent clientele are favouring fixed width pages over fluid ones.

At the moment this page (and I'm going to hate myself for this next comment:) is developed for browsers on an 800 x 600 resolution. But through regular analysis of my website, this may change sooner than you think.

Like the New Skin?

2007-06-10T20:48:00.000Z

After about 2 and a half years of promising it and 6 months of finally getting round to planning it, I have finally launched my new blog skin twinned with the revamp of my new website. All save for a few minor tweaks, the main website is functioning normally.

This re-launch coincides with the new logo, my new SEO analysis and reporting service, greater details of all my web services, and the launch of DVH Design expanding its operations to the East of England.

The official launch will be made at the Enterprising Women Conference in Newmarket on Wednesday 13th June.

This Blog is not for Spamming

2007-03-27T11:32:00.000Z

I was spammed by a wannabe web designer a couple of weeks ago. He/she/it was trying to promote their website onto my blog as comment spam (making them extremely reliable in the SEO sense as well - *coughs*)

Anyway a reply to them later basically saying "nice try, moron" I have now decided to moderate the comments on my blog. Basically if you would like to leave a comment on any of my articles or maunderings then I just need to look at them first.

Genuine comments don't have to worry as I am pretty efficient (I might also have a nose at your site/profile as well), but anyone spamming might as well not even bother wasting their typing time because it will either be rejected or the offending poster will be publicly shamed by me. Very little gets past the Deb (Look at WebproWorld, TIP or Burf.com forums for evidence of that).

Also apologies for the lack of articles at this current moment - most of my time is taken up during the day revamping my website and this blog. So keep posted for the final skin as it coming soon!

Designing Search Engine Friendly Websites

2007-03-07T15:56:00.000Z

SEO on a website should begin during the design, redesign or template stage not as an afterthought once the site has been launched.

At the recent London SES conference, Shari Thurow of Grantastic Designs touched on this topic in her presentation Designing Search Engine Friendly Websites.

First of all we established what search engine marketing is not: It is not a design created primarily for obtaining top search engine positions. It is actually a user-friendly web design that can be easily found on both the crawler-based search engines and human-based search engines (directories). Does that come as a shock? It shouldn't.

Basically design your website with your target audience in mind first and then consider the human-based and crawler based search engines afterwards.

Equally as important, how your words, graphic images and multimedia files are arranged on a Web page communicates the content that you feel is important to both search engines and to site visitors. When designing any web page, keep in mind the 5 basic rules:

Easy to read – that kind of goes without saying. If its not clear what a web page is about, then the average visitor is going to hit that back button and find a website that does make sense. Maybe one of your competitors!

Easy to navigate – Not everyone is going to enter your website via the homepage. A website that uses a tool such as a breadcrumb menu means your visitor knows their whereabouts at all times so a "sense of place" is established immediately.

Consistent in layout and design – This contributes towards having a sense of place. Your customers need to know they have come to the right place and having both a consistent design and layout establishes a unity throughout the site. This is where careful thought of using white space, CSS, elocution, fonts and color comes into practice.

Quick to download – Even in 2007, not everyone is on broadband. I know at least 2 local villages that do not as yet have broadband. You should strive for your web pages to download in less than 30 seconds on dialup (56 kbit/s). Having said that, the average a visitor will wait for a page to download is less than 15 seconds.

Easy to find – Your customer needs to be able to find your site quickly, so listing it on search engines, related sites and both web and niche directories is a must.

However, the end user also needs to go directly to the relevant page. A visitor will on average click 7-8 times to find the data they need. You should strive to make your pages accessible in less clicks, but visitors can actually click up to 25 times and still feel comfortable.

Keep your most important information above the fold. Touching briefly on FAQ pages, a better (and more user-friendly) approach than listing a question and its answer is to include the questions above the fold and have them link to the section of the page where the answer can be reached quickly. Use a maximum of 8 and make sure they are keyword prominent.

Also include your contact information in a prominent place within your website. Be careful of using footers as these can be overlooked if someone is scanning the page.

All crawlers will at minimum index your text and follow the links on your pages. So provide a means of accessing keyword rich text and a site navigation and URL structure that search engine spiders can easily follow. Without it, your site cannot rank well in the search engines.

So what kind of text should you be using?

• Key Phrases: Including your main key phrases and any other variations that your target audience is typing into search queries to locate your site for a start. Do not include marketing hype. No one searches for "state of the art", "second to none" and so on.

• Focused Content: When visitors view a Web page, does the content appear to be focused? A good test for focused content is to view the web pages for 8 seconds and then turn off. What were your memories of the page? What would you say the page was about? If the page is not targeted then it won’t be effective.

• Visible body text: The main contributing factor to focused content. Your visitors should not have to perform any type of action to view the most important text on your page. The title tag, intro paragraph and concluding paragraph are the main areas. Select all the text in the web browser and then copy visible body text into Notepad. All Search engines use this basic method this to determine relevancy. Another method is to show it to your Mother. Shari does and if it sounds bad, she'll spot it.

The main elements (primary text) a search engine will use to determine relevancy are:

• Title tags
• Visible <body> copy
• Text at the top of a Web page
• In and around hyperlinks

However only some search engines will also consider some secondary elements:

• Meta-tag content
• Alternative text
• Domain and file names (these are rarely used)

How you title and headline your Web pages can impact your site’s link development campaign. It was suggested that if you're not a recognized brand, add your product name to the page title and only include your Company name for non-shopper pages (eg: PR pages, etc) unless you are already a renowned brand such as Tesco

Link Component Site and Page Architecture

It is a fact that some site navigation schemes are more search-engine friendly than others. When designing your site navigation scheme, there are a few things to consider:

• URL structure
• Type of Web page
• Page layout and structure
• Cross-linking

There are many different types of site navigation, listed in order of most user-friendly first:

• Text Links
• Navigation buttons
• Image maps
• Menus (form and DHTML)
• Flash

If a dynamic menu is functional without any JavaScript, then engines will crawl it with no problem. However, search crawlers can't fill out forms.

Having said that, if a site navigation scheme isn't search engine friendly, should you use it at all in your page design? Well yes, you should. It was advised to have at least 2 forms of navigation on your website: One for your target audience and one for your search engines. They often compliment each other. For example your visitors may like to navigate your site using that innovative image map, but not everyone can display images and the text links below the image map act as a back up.

An effective way to emphasise your keyword rich content, is embed links in your content. This can be used in a number of pages, for example to link to the biographies of professional staff or links to the main news and media section.

This works because, not only because your key phrases are in or next to the anchor text, but also the blue links stand out better on copy. But one point to note: it is easy to overdo it so don’t cross that line.

Cross-linking

Along with a spider-friendly navigation scheme, all sites should have cross links.

• Hierarchical (vertical) Breadcrumb and contextual links
• Related Links (horizontal) Press releases, other news/media pages and product pages.

Information Pages vs Doorway Pages

Information pages are always good for the end user. Whether they are FAQs, glossary, product page or How to page, they contain the factual information that your target audience (and the search engine spiders) are interested in and are often in a simpler layout than the rest of your site pages. How many times do you use a search engine to find information? It pays for these vital pages to be keyword-focused for maximum benefit.

We've all come across doorway pages, the pages that are put together by spammers to trick the search engines into ranking them. So how can search engines distinguish between an information page and a doorway page?

Information Pages

• Primary goal is to provide information
• Match the rest of your Website
• Reside on your Web server
• No extra click(s)
• High-quality link development
• End user and spider see the same page

Doorway Pages

• Primary goal is ranking only.
• Are typically text-only pages with gibberish
• Often reside on doorway page company’s server.
• Extra clicks and/or redirects.
• Low-quality link development.
• End user and spider do NOT see the same page.

Your page layout should be designed with the acronym MPABS (Most People are Basically Stupid) in mind. Sounds offensive, but the average visitor shouldn’t have to figure things out: The message should be clear and any calls to action should be clear and either at the front or centre (an image illustrating a call to action is effective as your eye is naturally drawn to it.

Tip: Be wary of companies that claim to build information pages. There are many factors that raise a red flag with the search engines and any of the following can land your site in hot water:

• Doorway pages/domains
• Hallway pages
• Envelope pages
• Mini or micro sites
• Satellite sites
• Attraction pages
• Magnet sites
• Channel pages
• Shadow domains
• Theme-based sites/pages
• Directory information pages (DIP)
• SEE pages (search engine entry pages)
• Advertising pages
• Instant link popularity
• Permanent positions
• Guaranteed positions
• Country-specific engines

So What is Popularity?

There are many ways other measuring popularity on your website. In the simplest terms possible, do your visitors

• Continue navigating your site?
• Link to your site?
• Bookmark your site?
• Return to your site?

There are many factors that affect a site's popularity. In a recent survey, 61% of people interviewed said they would leave a website due to poor performance. On further elaboration, the performance would vary from lack of ease in navigation to confusing design.

Other Design Considerations

Of course no website would be complete without a home page, but even this requires some careful planning.

We’ve all felt the utter frustration when the web owner insists that his website must have Splash page either containing a lot of graphics or a Flash introduction. Search engines hate Splash pages, but there is an effective workaround: For Splash Pages, you can display the art above the fold in a style of splash page and visible text below for end users to read. For Flash movies, the magic text link words, Skip Intro enables the spiders to crawl past this page and visit the rest of your site.

Whatever type of website you are designing, your page should at least have:

• Search-engine friendly characteristics to include in your home page:
• Keyword-rich text
• At least one spider-friendly navigation scheme
• Link to the most important sections in your site
• Visible link to a site map

Back from SES London

2007-02-17T11:33:00.000Z

Well what a hectic 3 days that was. Not only did I tackle one of my biggest fears (commuting in London), but I have had Search Marketing advice from 15 separate seminars, 40 different speakers and 3 networking lunches stuffed lovingly into my head.

Anyway, as I was there in the first place thanks to Mike and Chris at WebProWorld I did promise my notes and articles to them first, but proceedings have kicked off already with my take on the whole event. The video follows below: