After a series of recent project wins, this month we’re pleased to announce the launch of www.loughborough-student-houses.com

The website is operated by landlord Anthony Moor who lets a range of modern and upmarket student houses in Loughborough, Leicestershire.

Fast, reliable & standards compliant

As with other projects, the Loughborough-Student-Houses website has been expertly hand-coded and then validated by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

As part of our rigorous quality control procedures and pursuit of excellence, the site has been tested in over 10 different web browsers. Since not everyone uses Internet Explorer to browse the web – many use Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari – this last point is crucial. It ensures that the site is compatible, fast and renders consistently for all users.

During the consultation process it was determined that when students look for accommodation, it should be an enjoyable and positive experience. Many student landlords fail to achieve this by using “home-made” websites or overly-formal, estate agent type designs.

With a fresh, vibrant and funky appearance, Loughborough-Student-Houses incorporates an informal edge intended to appeal to a young generation of students.

Google’s obsessed with speed too!

With Google’s announcement that page speed will be playing a factor in the ranking of a website, we’re one of the first web design companies in Leicester to run each project launch through the Google Page Speed checker and shout about the results. In this instance we’re proud to say that the Loughborough-Student-Houses homepage has a Page Speed score of 95 out of 100 which is, on average, 20 points higher than the competition.

This reflects a number of core principles that we adhere to, such as writing efficient and compact code, optimising images throughout each webpage, and fine-tuning the site’s hosting environment for maximum performance.

All of the above demonstrates our overwhelming commitment to producing professional, high-quality websites that not only look fantastic, but can be considered "the cream of the crop" when it comes to their construction under the bonnet.

Driving visitors to the site with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

The student accommodation market is competitive, but we’re pleased that Loughborough-Student-Houses is already ranking very well in Google as you can see from the table below:

Information up-to-date as of 4th June 2010

As part of our SEO programme we will be carefully monitoring the site over the forthcoming months and making refinements when required.

If you’re based in Loughborough and you’d like to find out more about developing your own website, contact us without obligation for a free consultation.

It’s been another busy week at the 1st WebDesigns’ offices in Leicester, and we’re pleased to announce the launch of a new web site for our client www.linguistsdirect.com

Compact, fast & functional

Linguists Direct are a language recruitment agency specialising in bi-lingual and multi-lingual job vacancies. As with previous project launches, the site utilises CSS sprites – a new method of reducing server requests and speeding up web pages.

In fact, with a Google Page speed score of 99 out of 100 not only does the site look great, but by following best practise guidelines during development it’s compact, fast and functional. As part of our quality control procedures, prior to its launch the site was tested in 10 different web browsers for maximum compatibility at the point of going live.

Integration with Twitter

Having advised Linguists Direct on how to best take advantage of social networking for their business, the site has been successfully integrated with Twitter. With an easy to use content management system, they can post new vacancies online which are then automatically added to their Twitter page.

Google Sitemap

Finally, a Google sitemap ensures each webpage is crawler friendly and accessible. Whenever Linguists Direct make changes to their site, the sitemap is re-generated and Google is instantly notified.

Joy Bradbury, Managing Director at Linguists Direct, said: “We are very pleased with all the work you have done towards the website and think it is absolutely brilliant. Within a short space of time we are already receiving an increased number of candidate submissions online.”

If you’d like to discuss the implementation of a Google sitemap or Twitter integration for your own website, contact us today without obligation.

Reduce costs by integrating your ecommerce website with Sage

Integrating Sage with your ecommerce website can help to massively reduce the time you spend on book keeping tasks and reduce your costs by streamlining the process between the two. In fact, it can require a full-time member of staff to re-type orders or invoices from a busy website into an external accounting package. Not only is this laborious and time-consuming, but it’s also prone to mistakes and errors.

How Sage integration works

Shoe String Laces are a company based in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, who manufacture and sell shoe laces and various shoe-care products to retail and trade customers online. Following on from the successful re-vamp of their website, 1st WebDesigns have recently integrated the Shoe String Laces ecommerce platform with the company’s Sage Line 50 accounts software.

This means Shoe String Laces no longer have to manually input their orders into Sage; the system automatically imports them at regular intervals without any intervention at all. This is achieved via a direct data feed from the website as opposed to exporting and importing CSV files. Not having to re-type and check several hundred orders a day has freed up more time for the company to focus on its sales and customer service operations.

Find out more

If you’d like to explore the possibility of linking your sales orders, invoices, receipts or sales and purchase ledger transactions with your ecommerce solution, contact us today.

1st WebDesigns were delighted to be chosen by FTC to design their new website www.forwardtradecontracts.com

Working to a tight deadline of just over a week, we were able to produce a new and attractive brand image for the company, in time for their visit to a trade exhibition in Canada.

We’re also proud to say that the pages throughout the site validate as strict XHTML 1.1, which means they have been built to a professional standard and are compatible across as many web browsers as possible. The site also utilises CSS sprites – a new method for reducing server requests and making each page load faster.

Finally, the site has been assigned a Google Page Speed score of 100 out of 100. This further demonstrates our commitment to producing quality, functional sites that are attractive, fast and reliable.

If you’re interested in finding out the Google Page Speed score of your own website, contact us without obligation.

The good news is, we’ve already shown many of our existing clients how to harness the power of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to their advantage.

In a nutshell, social networking can bring the following benefits to your business:

• Increase your network of customers.
• Build personal relationships with your customers.
• Provide a mechanism of interacting with and updating your customers on a regular basis.
• Establish and increase your online reputation.

Social networking is a low cost marketing method that is currently used by small and large businesses alike. If you’d like to find out how it can benefit your business contact us today.

As one of the longest established web design companies in Leicester, founded in 1999, we’re pleased to announce our 10th birthday!

To celebrate, we’ve overhauled our website and launched this blog to bring you latest industry news and keep you informed of what’s going on at the 1st WebDesigns’ offices in Leicester.

We’ve gone from strength to strength; starting out with a handful of clients we now provide services to over 200 small, medium and large businesses across 3 continents.

Our areas of expertise have expanded from simple 4 page brochure websites to encompass database driven sites, ecommerce solutions, Sage integration and full-blown stock control systems.

We’re excited about the next 10 years ahead and will be helping our clients to make the most from their current Internet presence, as well as keeping them up-to-date with current trends and new technologies.

If you’d like to find out more about us and how we can help your business online, feel free to contact us.