Sign-up using our home page to receive your free copy of our information packed e-newsletter. This month Managing Director David Woodroofe guides you through planning your own e-commerce website and give you all the top tips from Create Design Studio about selling your products online.
This is for those Wordpress users that host their blogs on their own domains.
We have had a few of these to sort for clients over the last few months.
The problems affect the admin area of the blog and have occurred when pages are updated or edited. We have also seen cases where you cannot view the lists of pages or posts from within the admin area.
Plugins seem to cause most of these issues, so the solution is to deactivate ALL your plugins and then re-activate them one by one, but testing your blog each time you activate another plugin.
You should find that when you reach the problem plugin the error returns. At this point there seems to be only 2 solutions, if you are using the most up to date verison of the plugin, replace it with another or just live without it.
In some cases we have found that more than one plugin has caused the problem.
If you need help please contact David Woodroofe on 01962 737989 or david@createdesignstudio.co.uk
There are three really important Meta Tags that will help get your website found by search engines: the Meta Page Title, Keywords and the Meta Description.
The Meta Page Title appears in the bar at the top of a browser window, in the case of Microsoft Explorer it is the text that appears immediately before the wording in the blue bar that says Microsoft Explorer. Most search engines place a lot of importance on this title when ranking web pages, so you should ensure that you have a unique title for each web page and that it contains your top search phrase for that page.
The Meta Description, is as it sounds, a description of what that particular web page is about. It is also the text that many search engines use to describe the web page in their search results. Again this is an important Tag that can help get the website found. Like the Title Tag most search engines do read these descriptions and place a lot of importance on them.
Meta Descriptions should also be written with real people in mind, as a well-written Meta Description can attract people to click on that site when faced with dozens of listings on a results page, even if it is listed towards the bottom of the page.
The Keyword Tag started life as the place to put all the phrases that you wanted your website to be found by, however many website owners found that they could out smart the search engines using them, most search engines no longer pay much attention to them. However some do use them and most will check to see if they have been included, so it is important to include them.
Keep in touch with your customers and promote your website at the same time
Any correspondence that you send from your organisation to a customer can also promote your website. Think about printing on your envelopes, having printed headed letter paper, printing your website address onto your invoices, comp slips, flyers and anything else you post out. Also have an email signature with your website address on it, these can be updated easily so you can always promote whatever you are doing online to any clients you communicate with via email. If you hand out any promotional items like pens, postcards or notepads then have these printed with your website address in addition to your logo.
Create Design Studio offer a range of new media marketing services, and we have years of experience designing and building websites and blogs, speak to our MD, David Woodroofe on 01962 737989.
A well thought-out website works hard acting as a salesman working 24/7 on your company’s behalf: always providing information, reassurance and your contact details to potential and existing customers who are looking for goods or services. Now that mobile devices are increasingly used for internet access your website could be guiding customers straight to your door.
A really effective website is updated regularly to remain at the top of it’s game. Without new information on products or services and company news it can slip down search engine rankings and customers may drift away from a site that always looks the same.
Take an objective look at your website: are there parts that could do with an overhaul? Make a list of things you could add to your website that could make it more effective as a sales tool for your business, always think from a customer’s point of view and try to imagine what they would be interested in. Why not survey your customers to find out what they would like to see on your website or take a look at the websites of your competitors to see what they do. Critically assess websites that you visit and work out what features you find useful that could equally be applied to your organisation’s website.
Making your website more effective means helping visitors to find you easily, stay longer once they arrive and more likely to initiate contact or leave their details with you. Once site visitors engage with your web site they are more likely to buy from you. These topics will all be covered in the next few weeks on this blog.
Personalised support to update and change your website is available from Create Design Studio if you would like to speak to us about your website please call 01962 737989.
4 August 2009 – Create Design Studio, specialists in Graphic, Print and Web Design, share secrets for improving online sales through websites.
According to IMRG Cap Gemini’s recent report, the recession has started to hit online sales growth and the exponential increases previously experienced by the e-tail market have begun to slow. Whilst this is not severe, marketers’ and business owners should be aware that there are ways they can improve the effectiveness of their websites.
“A website is a marketing tool that is available all day, every day to any potential customer”
David Woodroofe, Managing Director of Create Design Studio.
Create Design Studio offer Ten Top Tips to improve online performance:
For people thinking about starting a new online business, Creative Design Studio is putting together a special package of logo, business card, letterhead and website. They can also put people in touch with other business experts who can smooth the path of starting up.
For more information visit: createdesignstudio.co.uk or keep up to date with them on Twitter: Charlotte_Lamb
-ENDS-
Create Design Studio – UK Press Office Abby Singleton
Mobile: 07739-461-061 Office: 01252-715-168 Email: abigail@singletonpr.com
Provided the name is not already registered by someone else you can pretty well use whatever you like and you can have a number of different names pointing to the one website.
The most popular domain names for businesses end with either .com or a .co.uk. So which do you choose?
A co.uk clearly shows to people that you are a UK based company, is this important to your customers?
A .com is associated with a non geographic international businesses, that is to say ones that are looking for customers in many countries or wish to appear as an international organisation.
So you have decided between co.uk and .com, how do you choose the rest of the name.
There are 2 routes that you can take to choose the rest of the name, you can simply use your company’s name, which is fine. Or you can choose a name that reflects what you sell or the services you offer.
Whatever you choose you need to remember that your domain will also form your email address, the name needs to be as short as possible and you should avoid the use of hyphens etc, to make it as simple as possible for your customers to remember.
Check out the website www.soundsnap.com as it contains over 100,000 MP3 and Wav files arranged in a host of categories including animals, industrial, multimedia and sports.
You can sign up for free and download 5 clips per month, there are also various paid membership levels, with the top level offering unlimited monthly downloads.
These are ideal clips for your website or PowerPoint presentation.
Posted by Charlotte Lamb, Designer
Today is supposed to be the busiest online shopping day of the year. If you want to sell online it isn’t difficult to set up an e-commerce website (call us for tips on e-commerce websites on 01962 737989) and enable your customers to buy easily using just a credit card, you could make sales even when your office is closed!
To help your customers buy from your e-commerce site with confidence there are some things you can set up that will help the buying process.
Put your office telephone number and address on the website prominently. Displaying a real-world address and telephone number reassures customers that if a problem should occur they can still contact you. Customers can also call up to order by phone if they aren’t comfortable using their plastic online.
Have a secure way for your customers to pay you online. All customers need to be convinced their credit card details are not going to fall ino the wrong hands. A dedicated secure payment server with software or a PayPal account means customers can pay you easily and safely. Have a section on your website that explains your payment system.
Let customers know promptly if you can’t fulfil orders immediately. Tell customers quickly about delays, keep your customers informed of when their order will be dispatched.
Make sure your web pages are easy to navigate and images of your products are clear. Help customers find what they want to buy with ease. Show customers exactly what you are offering, detail sizes, colours, functions and prices to help reduce returns.
We help plenty of customers sell their goods online successfully, if you would like to join them contact us on 01962 737989 and ask for David or Charlotte.
More and more video is being used on websites to promote and endorse products and services, the technology is relatively cheap and easey to use, but why do so many people get it wrong.
Martin Shepherdly of video production company Web Epics has kindly agreed to share his 4 steps to creating an effective video for your website.
Getting the Message Right
The most important part of the process comes down to defining factors such as:
What exactly is the key message?
A video is like a building.. if you don’t give it firm foundations it won’t stand up!
What format will work best?
Depends on where and how the video will mostly be viewed.
What is the creative approach?
What ‘look and feel’ are you trying to achieve? What emotions are you trying to envoke? Understanding this helps to decide what shooting style should be adopted, whether to use any special visual effects, music and/or sound effects.
This normally is a joint process with the Producer/Director interrogating the client’s needs, thoughts and ideas. Once these parameters are defined an outline shooting script or in some cases a storyboard is developed that forms the basis of the production. It is unlikely to be ‘right first time’ and over the course of the production this will inevitably be fine-tuned and developed.
Capturing the Content
It is easy to sport the difference between amateur and professional video.
As well as mastering the technicalities of the camera itself, skills such as composition, lighting, camera moves, understanding depth of field and how to use focus to emphasise specific parts of the picture all make an enormous difference. Mastery of sound is – surprisingly perhaps – even more important than the image.
Video shoots can be lengthy and sometimes stressful, as interruptions may come in many forms; the weather, external noises (such as planes circling overhead – strange how they seem so attracted to video cameras) or even intrigued members of the public wittily waving at the camera!
Putting It All Together
Following the shoot, all the raw footage is loaded into the edit suite. It is then a case of literally building the programme shot by shot, until the story is complete.
Next, under the guidance of the Director, the Editor will work through this first cut, adding further images, mixes and other effects, layering music, possibly an audio commentary, adding captions, animations and titles and tweaking the audio to create something close to the finished product.
At this stage the client is able to see the work in progress – of course this can easily be achieved over the web. Any necessary amendments required for the final edit are then discussed with the Director and the agreed changes carried out.
The Editor then carries out a final ’sound dub’ (smoothing out sound levels and getting rid of any intrusive noises) and ‘grading’ (adjusting the colours or brightness), ready for a final client sign off.
Publishing To The World
If you are planning to use your video online, the approved programme will now need to be encoded to Flash video (or alternative format if you prefer) before uploading to the streaming server.
Depending on where the video is being hosted and your own technical abilities, this will either generate a piece of HTML code for you to paste on to your web page, or a URL for you or your web person to integrate into a player.
Posted by Charlotte Lamb, Designer
There are good reasons why most websites follow an unofficial set of design rules that guide placement and layout of the content. Research into the way that people use websites has revealed that users tend to scan firstly along the top of the web page from left to right and then down the left hand side of the screen from top to bottom. These places correspond with the usual menu and headline locations and these would appear to be the places people look to guage content and navigation links. The amount of time spent looking for the thing they want by visitors to your site is tiny, measured in seconds, so make it as easy as possible for them to find what they want. Avoid cryptic link titles so that visitors stay with your site rather than moving on to your competition.
The headline is the next place the visitor looks at, it is the most effective way to grab their attention. Writing concise headlines can help visitors find the information they want quickly and keep them on your site.
Don’t use too many colours and shapes on the page – it’s visually distracting to page visitors.
Leave white space around your content so visitors don’t have to struggle to find what they want in a clutter of things. (Compare this to the paper-covered desk where locating the right piece of paper becomes time-consuming.)
If you add pictures, choose ones that enhance what you are saying, or illustrate your product nicely and effectively show your visitor the thing they are searching for. Beautiful pictures are attractive but may not hold visitors on your website unless you happen to be selling the images as art.
If you would like to see the report about this from the BBC Working Lunch programme the film is here.
We have 10 years of experience with the web, we know what makes an effective website. Call us on 01962 737989.
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