Our past year has been very exciting with projects of all sizes and types taken on. We’re currently booked into October 2010 for new projects and still have a waiting list of clients, hoping to come on board with us.

After the Summer break, we’re looking forward to working on projects for the A J Young Pottery, Wroxham Bed Centre and the Strawberry Patch Nursery (all are ripe for an exciting new online persona).

September will also see our new web designer, James Adcock working with us 3 days a week. James is passionate about web design and has already become a highly valued member of our team.

We’ll also be moving clients onto our new superfast and reliable dedicated hosting servers. So, it’s exciting times ahead…

In the meantime I hope your Summer has been enjoyable and warm so far. And hopefully you’ve found time to take a break too!

Since working with Lucy, we have been able to increase her enquiries for new business dramatically. Where her website had been fairly invisible on the web, forcing sales through agents and outlets (and having to pay commission fees), she is now highly visible on the internet. And her new website should last many years to come. Lucy has little doubt that the new website is the backbone of her marketing and will provide an invaluable tool for her to communicate with fans.

lucyloveheart.com

So this post contains the answer (‘in a nutshell’).

Identify your target keywords

First, lets, get one thing clear, straight away. The question should be ‘how can I make my website appear number one on Google for the keywords: blah, blah, blah’.

You need to work out what your targeted keywords are, i.e. the ones which you stand a chance of competing for and the ones which will actually bring you more new business. Keyword research in itself can be a complex area but a lot can be achieved by brain storming ideas yourself and checking these with the Google Keyword Tool (free) to see how many people are actually searching for these. You might be surprised by the results and you’ll probably get some other keyword ideas.

Taking action to get those higher rankings

Once you’ve established your keywords to target, what do you do next? Well, there are two major techniques of search engine optimisation (SEO) which are generally agreed to make the difference:

• Developing and writing quality content for your website
• Getting quality back links (links from other websites to your own)

I can highly recommend downloading ‘How to Create Compelling Content That Ranks Well in Search Engines‘ (by copywriters, Scribe). This 28 page guide is an invaluable free resource for anyone interested in developing website content. Grab it whilst you can!

And, of course, if your website contains quality content, you’re more likely to find that people begin linking to your web pages organically. Otherwise, you’ve got to go out out there and nurture link exchanges yourself. This is moderately easy to do but can be very time consuming (as well as distinctly boring). Getting entries on directory websites can be effective but you need to first appraise their quality (and don’t get ripped off).

That’s as much as I’m saying!

And that’s where I’m signing off this subject. If you want to get to number one on Google, this is how it all begins.

I could expand on the subject almost infinitely. But I’d definitely have to start getting slightly geeky, something I try to avoid at all costs!

We wholeheartedly recommend the services of dedicated SEO specialists such as Norwich based, Link Juice. But equally, much can be achieved by website owners themselves if they are prepared to learn the basics and commit the necessary time which will see results.

And remember – search engine optimisation requires an ongoing regular effort. You may achieve your number one listing one day, but lose it the next.

If you’re interested in employing a professional SEO consultant or you’d prefer to be taught the basics of SEO for self implementation, just get in touch with us.

Whilst Pine View has already become very popular with holiday makers, the owner realised that they could not afford to miss the enormous marketing opportunities presented online. It also offers prospective customers a chance to see the camp site and it’s facilities. Within 24 hours of launch, a booking was already placed via the website!

pineviewcaravanpark.co.uk

Google have just announced that owners of websites using a .co domain will be able to target users internationally. There was speculation that it could only be used to target Columbian markets but this concern has been swept away. Other popular country assigned domains which are able to be used internationally include ‘.me’ (Montenegro) and ‘.tv’ (Tuvalu).

However, we still think this domain type could be very slow to catch on (if at all), in a similar way to the failure of domains such as .uk.com. I can imagine somebody asking for a web address and repeatedly having the same conversation:

“What’s your website address?”
“It’s mybusiness dot co”
“dot what?”
“No, that’s it – just dot co…”

How many times would you have this conversation?

Their original website was very lacking and did not create the required professionalism and credibility for the Partnership. The new website offers all the key content that visitors are likely to want to know. Following a small amount of professional training, the Partnership are able to update the content of the website themselves and can post announcements and news onto their blog page (Latest News). This will keep the website fresh and encourage visitors to come back regularly.

Hosted on our own exclusive dedicated servers, this website really ‘flies’ when it comes to speed and takes advantage of ‘Permalinks’, friendly web page addresses (look in the address bar as you move between pages). Friendly web page addresses are handy when the Partnership wants to give out addresses to particular pages within the website. It will also help the website to achieve even better search engine positioning.

www.holtareapartnership.org.uk

So why I have taken to the that old English favourite, discussing the weather? And how does technology come into this? Well, during this hot Summer, there’s a tendency to use laptops outside (or in areas exposed to outside). And, here’s the problem:

From personal experience, backed up by countless similar experiences shared online, it’s seems very common for thunder flys (also known as ‘thrips‘) to crawl under the top layer of laptop screens. Once under the screen layers, they can usually be seen crawling around for a short while (like a mobile comma!) until eventually they die and become a permanent feature. Of course, you may have seen the same problem with picture frames.

If you do ever notice a thunder fly crawling around your screen, the best advice is to switch the screen off and hope that the thunder fly walks away of it’s own accord (they’re attracted to the heat and light). Don’t squish it! Otherwise, it will certainly be there forever. Maybe, aiming a lamp towards the edge of the screen may help to lure the thunder fly out before it inevitably expires in a random location?

Any other tips or advice on this problem are welcome. It seems incredibly common.

Image from http://sacs.cpes.peachnet.edu

Please be sure to delete this email if received. Andrew Benn, who carries out computer repairs here in north Norfolk reported this to us and has already encountered instances of infection.

If you ever want to check that you have the most up to date version of Internet Explorer, just go to ‘Windows Update’ from your Windows Programs menu. Running the latest version is important from the aspect of security and functionality. But updates are usually automatically downloaded and applied as part of the Windows Updates (which should always be switched on).

The majority of businesses prefer to use a ‘client based’ software package such as Microsoft Outlook to manage their emails, contacts and calendar.

Emails are downloaded from the mail server to the users computer (using the POP3 protocol). Under this set up, it’s important that users keeps their email database backed up, alongside all their other important data.

Users are sometimes able to access their emails when away from the office using a webmail facility which effectively gives users direct access to the emails currently stored on the mail server (but not those previously downloaded back at the office).

Gmail – a better option if you’re always on the move?

For clients who are based in different locations or travel a lot, the traditional approach described above isn’t ideal. Users can’t access the emails previously downloaded (sent/received) back at the office. Nor can they access their contacts or calendar.

Admittedly, Microsoft Outlook 2010 (the latest version) can be configured with Microsoft Office Live services to offer webmail access, but most small businesses haven’t upgraded yet and probably won’t for some time to come.

If you’re looking for a great way of managing your emails online, our recommendation is to strongly consider connecting your business with Google’s own online mail service, Google Mail or Gmail, as it is better known.

Highlighted features of Gmail include:

• Over 7Gb (7,000Mb) of free storage space
• The ability to organise your emails using tags
• Threaded view of emails. Each message you send is grouped with all the responses you receive. This conversation view continues to grow as new replies arrive, so you can always see your messages in context.
• Effective anti-spam technology to keep unwanted messages at bay
• Mobile access – access to your Gmail on your mobile phone

Note that other popular online mail service providers such as Hotmail and Yahoo probably offer similar capabilities. But Gmail seems to be the most popular and it certainly seems to have the most to offer. But by all means check out what Hotmail and Yahoo have to offer.

Using Gmail for just one email address

If you want to keep things really simple and are only interested in using Gmail for a single email address, then this can be straightforwardly achieved by setting yourself up with a free Gmail account, setting your business email address to forward to the Gmail address and changing a few settings within your Gmail account.

When you send from your Gmail account, your emails can be cloaked so the recipient is not aware that the email was actually sent from a Gmail address. Various options are available to control how this feature operates.

The other choice – Google Apps

On the other hand, you have the option of employing the services of Google Apps. This is a more serious commitment where all emails for your domain are operated through Google Apps. It’s more complicated to set up (most users needing professional assistance) but presents lots of added features for your business such as Google Calendar and Google Docs.

Google Apps comes in different flavours for different types of organisations and businesses. The most popular versions are Standard and Premier. Whilst the Standard edition (aimed at ‘club, family, sports teams or group’ use) is available for free, the Premier edition requires a regular fee to be paid (approximately £33 per user per year at the time of writing this post).

In fairness, the fee is modest and the features are impressive, offering great value for money. For example, the Premier edition permits 25Gb of email storage per user and a 99.9% uptime guarantee. However, if you don’t have more than 5 users, then the free Standard edition could easily fit the bill.

If you’re a client of Josh.biz and would like to know more about the options available or you’d like us to help you with the management of your emails, just get in touch.

Related Links

• 10 reasons why Google think you should be using Gmail
• Google Apps Standard Edition (includes a comparison of features with Premier edition)
• Google Apps Premier Edition

The new operating system brings 3 key new features – the ability to organise apps into folders (reducing the many cluttered pages of apps many suffer from presently), multitasking (yes, we can run more than one app at a time) and wallpaper for your icons screens.

For more information, visit the Apple webpage about iOS4 update.