Graphic design is a creative process which combines art and technology to communicate ideas to a target audience. It helps to deliver your message, drive your sales and prospects and helps you stand out from your competitors. No matter what the stage of your business- whether you are just starting out or have been established for some time- it is important that the right identity design represents your business and its’ values, along with the products and services that you offer.

All graphic design begins with a message. First, the graphic designer and the client discusses what the message is and the best way to communicate that message to the targeted audience

The first step in Graphic design is to understand the desired outcome, Whether you need a website, business card, logo, brochure or stationery, they should achieve the goal of marketing, branding or selling you and your company or organisation.

The aim is to create something that is pleasing to the eye, and gets the attention of the viewer; however things can’t just look good they have to work as well.

Most common forms of graphic design include:

• Logos
• Websites
• Business cards
• Adverts
• Brochures
• Billboards
• Product packaging
• Magazine and  newspaper layout

This is just the start of a long list; graphic design is used in so much more of everyday things.

Here at Website Design North Devon, you will find a professional design company  who will help you create a perfect result for all your business needs by taking into consideration all of your aims and goals to attract your target audience.

Copywriting is used in different ways such as websites, newsletters, blogs, promotions advertising and more

Copy should always be useful and relevant and easy for the reader to understand. It is really frustrating for a potential customer to go to your website and find it really difficult to understand, therefore they give up and end up going elsewhere, losing you that potential sale.

Copy that has been presented well will encourage the visitor to your site to read on and will give them confidence in you and your service. Good copy should be persuasive, informative and concise while still being friendly and personal to make the visitor really feel at ease.

If your site is written well, it could be the difference in making someone who is a sceptical visitor into a  committed customer as it will grab their attention straight away and connect with them.

Getting a copywriter to either do the content for your site entirely from scratch or editing existing copy will help to promote your product or service in such a way that:

• Target visitor numbers increase
• Potential customers are persuaded to look no further
• Relevant and up- to- date information is easily accessed
• Your product or service message is concise and focused
• Helps customers to decide to buy your product or service
• Helps your company, product or service to feature strongly in the search engines, therefore attracting more traffic to your site.

So if you are looking to sell something or to build traffic, your copy will need to grab people’s attention and be clear and concise.

Here at Website Design North Devon, our copywriters focus on your requirements and will research your product or service and look at the most popular keywords and phrases to appeal to your target audience and attract search engine traffic, increasing the prospect of people finding you online.

If you want to increase traffic to your site while maintaining content and presentation control, then RSS is the answer.

RSS feeds benefit website owners or publishers as they can get their updated content to subscribers fast by submitting feeds.

The feeds are simple text files that, once submitted to feed directories, will allow subscribers to see content within a very short time after its updated. It provides an easy way to gather and display information from different sources, including news stories, updates to websites, new posts to blogs and more. So rather than visiting a number of sites several times daily, spending 4- 5 minutes looking for new information, you can subscribe to RSS feeds for those sites and the new articles will be delivered as soon as they become available.

Once you have set up the RSS feed, the headlines or summaries from a website will update automatically and you will be able to obtain the latest information from as many websites as you subscribe to. Then if something grabs your attention then you can just click a headline to go to the full information.

RSS feeds are great timesavers; they are not just a technology but a new way of communication. They allow you to customise the flow of information and control the content.

Here at Website Design North Devon we understand how RSS feeds can help attract traffic to your site and can build this into your site.

A logo can consist of symbols, text or a combination of both. It is a good idea before looking at a logo for your company; research what kind of logos appeal to your target audience. A well thought out logo will help attract a new customer base.

The logo design should be eye catching and simple, using simple colours and short text, it should also be innovative and make sure a similar design isn’t been used by another business so as your customers recognise you.

The five principles of effective logo design are:

• Simple
• Effective
• Timeless
• Versatile
• Appropriate

Your logo provides immediate recognition for people looking at your company and can be used on your website, stationary, and more to help advertise your products or services.

Your first impression lasts – whether you are seen online, in print or in other ways, it is so important to have a logo that shows your business message in a memorable way.

So whether you are just starting out with your business, or looking to refresh your company, come to us and we will work closely with you to produce a logo that projects the right strengths and values for your business.

How to Get Free Advertising on Google

Things You Need Before Starting Your Free Advertisement

·         A description of your business

·         Your phone number, address and any other contact info you want to advertise

·         A logo or image that represents your business

·         A coupon or special offer you want to advertise (Google also lets you add a coupon for FREE if you want)

Step-by-Step Guide to Free Google Advertisement

·         Go to www.google.com/local and search for your business to verify it is not yet listed with an advertisement.

·         Go back to www.google.com/local  and click on Add/Edit Your Business at the bottom left part of the page.

·         Follow the steps provided by Google.  They are pretty simple and straightforward.  As part of the process you will need to verify your business either by phone or mail.

·         Check back in a few weeks with Google and verify your listing.  If you want to update it, you can use the same process outlined here to update your listing. 

Zen Cart helps to deliver the ultimate online shopping experience to your customers, they will be able to navigate through your merchandise with ease, view different sized images of them and once the product is in their shopping basket, the customer will be able to purchase the product securely in 3 simple steps.

Key Features of Zen Cart are:

• Easily add/maintain your products from within a comprehensive admin panel
• Take full control of your website
• Run sales or promotions as and when you want
• Cross sell- by saying “customers who brought this product also brought this”
• Offer a website newsletter
• Allows customers to buy and to use gift vouchers
• Show special offers easily
• Multiple language support
• Multiple display modes
• Discount coupons
• Featured products
• Plus so much more!

Zen Cart also supports a wide number of payment methods which makes it easy for customers to buy your goods.
We can provide Zen Cart modules and add-ons for existing Zen Cart shopping carts. With our many years of experience as Zen Cart designers we can help make your entire marketing and managing process more efficient.

For more information about Zen cart modules and Zen cart web design please click here

A web host is a company that has computers hooked up to the internet 24 hours a day 7 days a week on servers. These servers are either owned or leased for use by the company’s clients.

There are many things you should take into consideration when choosing a web host. Price is important but never forget quality. It’s no good getting the cheapest service if the service is terrible. If your website is going to be down frequently you could potentially lose money and custom, it also gives a bad look to your business. Finding a web host that is right four you and your products or services will take a little research, so you can be sure you know you are getting the right hosting that you require.

Hosting is vitally important to your website. If you have poor hosting that loads slowly and is at a slump often, it will be hard to convince people to end up with to your site. Return visitors are absolutely vital to your site. Whether your site is commercial or personal, you will be much more successful if you convince those to return to your site.

There are different kinds of web hosting services:

Shared web hosting is several websites located on a single server. Most small to medium size businesses operate their websites on a shared host effectively and efficiently.

Dedicated web hosting is one server is used solely for the purpose of hosting one website. If you plan to have an extremely popular website, this option will allow you to host many more visitors than shared web hosting.

Virtual Private Server lies in between shared and dedicated web hosting. It allows one server to host multiple “virtual servers”.

Here at Website Design North Devon we understand the importance of good hosting and as such offer affordable, yet reliable web hosting services and have the solution for your hosting needs, whether it is a large business, small business or even a personal website.

Web usability is about making your website work in such a way that your site users can find what they’re looking for quickly and efficiently. A usable website can reap huge benefits on to your website and your business. It is crucial to create Web sites that your customers will want to return to. If they can’t use the site, they won’t stay and they certainly won’t return.

A website is considered usable if the customers coming to that site can find what they need and accomplish their goals. Usability is all about making things easier to use

Web Usability can help you define the needs of your target audience and develop a site that will meet the main needs as follows:

• Your website has to be easy to navigate
• The website should have a good design
• Pages must download quickly
• Information should be easy to retrieve
• Links should be obvious and descriptive
• The content should be easy to read
• People should be able to recognise the site they are on- for example your logo on every page

Some of the benefits of good website usability are:

• Keeps visitors on your site
• Maximise sales or other conversions
• Repeat business
• More likely to get more recommendations and endorsements.

Ultimately, you want each of your users to have the perfect experience on your site, or at least one which results in them getting what they want.

With the sheer number of sites out there, the ultimate goal should be to have an effective site and this is where usability comes in.

At Website Design North Devon, we understand the importance of making your website usable, and we can help you to attract your target audience and get them to return.

Some of the differences from traditional marketing are:

• One – to – One approach. The internet user is typically browsing alone, so marketing messages can reach them personally
• Tailor made-Each site can be marketed in different ways, and by using specific keywords for the site can ensure your target audience find you.
• Appeal to specific interests- Again by using keywords and search engine optimisation, you are ensuring you are marketing your products and services to your target audience. This is because when they are looking on the internet they tend to be looking for something specific.
•  Geo targeting- You can market your content based on location, so that again it reaches the right audience for you.
• Easier to research- You can look at your competitors a lot quicker on the internet and get an idea of what they are doing and how you can do it different . This gives you a chance to stand out from the crowd.
•  Easier feedback- It is a lot easier to fill in a quick feedback form on someone’s site then write in comments manually and spend time posting it, so a lot of people are filling in feedback forms now. This helps your marketing as you can get ideas on what your audience likes and dislikes.
• It works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week which means more people are able to find you

 There are website marketing techniques that can give you the edge helping your business be found on all major search engines You are able to gain more internet traffic using website marketing techniques like search engine optimization and paid for sponsored links like Google AdWords  service

 If you market your site the right way, you can really promote your services or products, increasing the traffic to your site, which in turn can bring you more customers, which means more profit.

 At Website Design North Devon, we understand the importance of marketing your site and use Search Engine Optimisation in helping your site stand out. We submit your site to all the major search engine databases both in the UK and internationally. At all times your dedicated technician will be working with you to help you achieve what you want from your site.

 You should consider the following:

Audience Think about your target market. Who is looking at your site already? Who are you looking at attracting to your site? Once you know this, then it makes it a little easier to think about the way your site’s content and layout.Look at Search Engine Optimisation and research what people actually search for, then you can find the best words and phrases for your web site to be listed under. These are the words and phrases that will bring you the most relevant traffic.

Objective Think about what you want to achieve from your website. With an objective in place you can market your site exactly to the right audience. If you don’t even know what you want from your website, how are you going to get it to stand out?

Layout   Consider a bespoke layout for your website- one that is tailored exactly to your needs and goals. By creating something unique, you will look different from your competitors and the user will find your website more interesting as it doesn’t look like everyone else’s. Make sure your layout is appealing, usable and effective.

Navigation Make sure your website is easy for the user to get round. You need to make sure that all of the links are working; nothing is more frustrating to a user to click on a link and find it does nothing.
If you have too many links, consider drop down menus, so that the user isn’t confused by all the possible links and is not sure on which one to go to. Use clear and precise headings for each page so that the user knows what each page will contain.

If visitors can’t use your site, they will simply leave and never become customers, so make sure your navigation is user friendly.

Content Your pages on your site need to load fast and immediately- someone coming across a slow loading page will soon be bored and will come off your site and look at your competitor instead.Make sure the content is written in a way that is easy for your readers to understand, try not to use too much technical jargon as people won’t know what this means and get fed up and leave your site. One of the most important things with content is to make sure it is kept up to date and relevant.

At Website Design North Devon, we understand the importance of your business looking good on the internet and we offer a range of website design solutions to help you stand out and attract more traffic.