Blog
Monday, April 14, 2008
Hackers exploit poor website code
According to a BBC report, hackers are exploiting poorly coded websites using a technique called cross site scripting (XSS). By using XSS, hackers could potentially hack into your site and place malicious code into your pages causing your visitors to become open to attack. If your website uses a login screen then you could be vulnerable and it is worth getting it checked out. You wouldn't want your visitors to get attacked when visiting your very site would you?...
Monday, March 31, 2008
BBC news launches new look site
BBC News this morning has revealed a new look to the site. Many people cite the BBC News site as one that they really like to use so the BBC were taking a big risk by redesigning. However, on closer inspection they haven't changed much which is good to see. The website editor explains more about the refresh in his blog. There are a few things that we can all take from this redesign: The new site is 1024 pixels wide and they estimate that around 95% of visitors have a resolution of this size. Gone are the days of...
Friday, February 22, 2008
Use Flash or not to use Flash? That is the question!
We have been pitching for a website tender recently and we have come up against the age old argument of where to use Flash. The client want to use flash for the whole site (everything built using Flash including the navigation and content) which we disagree with. As it is fresh in my mind, here are the arguments for and against the use of Flash for web design: The arguments for using Flash According to Adobe the Flash plugin can be found on around 97% of computers worldwide meaning that you can expect it to work on most computers Although...
Thursday, February 14, 2008
How long does it take to rank well in Google?
This is a question we find we have to answer a lot but the answer is not always that straight forward. The general rule of thumb is that it can take up to six months for brand new websites or sites that have little or no online optimisation. Consider the following points to help you understand how long it is likely to take to rank well within Google (As always I'm using Google as an example but in general these rules apply to all search engines). How competitive are the results? If the search term you are competing for is...
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
A guide to submitting your site to directories
Recently we've been working on the linking strategy on a few of our customers websites and we eventually came to the question of directory submission. Directories are becoming less and less important in your search engine optimisation strategy as the search engines give less importance to the links they give. In most cases it probably isn't even worth the time it takes to submit to a directory and your time would be better spent elsewhere. However in some cases a link from a directory can be very valuable and if you are going to try and get one, it should...
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Google Adwords Online Seminars
If you run Google Adwords for your website then you will be interested to see that Google are running a series of training "webinars". The webinars are designed to teach you how to manage your AdWords account more effectively by covering topics from best practices on account setup, bidding and campaign management strategies to understanding and using performance reports effectively. All you need is a computer with an internet connection and some headphones. You will need to register with your AdWords account but otherwise they are completely free. Unfortunately they have already started but there are still 10 webinars left...
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Christmas Operating Dates
The Connexion office will be closed on the following dates: Tuesday December 25th Wednesday December 26th Tuesday January 1st Out of hours support will be available to contract clients as normal. We wish you all a Happy Christmas and every sucess in 2008!...
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Connexion are Microsoft Gold Partners
Connexion are pleased to announce that they have been awarded Microsoft Gold Partner status. Being a member of the top tier of Microsoft solutions partners means that Connexion now has access to premier tools and resources only available to Gold Partners, including exclusive online content and technical support. We can now pass these benefits on to our clients, enabling us to better service their needs....
Monday, December 10, 2007
How valuable is a link to your website?
I found an interesting article here which details the factors that affect the quality of an incoming link to your website. This isn't simply the opinion of one person but instead they interviewed 17 leading SEO experts for their opinion on which factors are the most important. The idea behind this research was to determine which factors professionals from the field of SEO consider to be of influence on the value of a link. Because most of us understand the value of links in terms of traffic, this research mainly focuses on the value that search engines may allocate to...
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
The MOST important change you can make to your website TODAY
The biggest factor contributing to the search engine performance of your website is the page title (the words that appear in the blue bar at the top of your browser window). It is the first thing that search engines show site visitors about your site, and it is the text of the link that site visitors click on when they visit your site from search engines. Most search engines place much more weight on the page title tag text than any other on page element. Changing the titles of each page on your website will significantly improve the performance in...
Friday, November 9, 2007
Cost effective Website promotion
Promoting your business on the web doesn't have to be expensive or complicated. We have been amazed by the success we have seen lately on a local website called The Best of Reading. http://www.thebestof.co.uk is a website that champions trusted local businesses right across the UK. It's divided up into regional portals such as our local http://www.thebestof.co.uk/reading. For the fraction of the cost of yell.com or Goodle adwords, the site gives businesses their own page, which typically contains contact details and a profile (the profile can contain photos, and audio) and a link to their website. Each business also gets...
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
A perfect example of how to make life difficult for your users
Whilst browsing through my local council website, I came across a link at the bottom of the site to an organisation called browsealoud. Browsealoud reads web pages aloud for people who find it difficult to read online. Reading large amounts of text on screen can be difficult for those with literacy and visual impairments. Imagine the horror of a user with literacy or visual impairments coming to the homepage of the Browsealoud website for the first time and being presented with this: If you have low literacy and reading skills, do you think you will understand a word they are...
Friday, November 2, 2007
Website success story
One of our Clients, English Village Designs, dropped me an email today to let me know that the orders on her site are coming in so I thought I would share the good news. Anne makes cardboard cut out models of historical buildings and Dolls and around 9 months ago we built her a site to sell these online. The graph below shows you an indication of the traffic that she is getting to her site. As you can see in March there was very little traffic but now they are receiving around 200 unique visits to the site each...
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
The power of great design
We maintain the website for a local fish restaurant in Winnersh near Wokingham called 'A Fish Called Walter' Our job is to optimise the site in order to maximise the number of visitors they get and ultimately the number of bookings. The site was producing good results; however we felt that it was looking a little dated, so we decided to give it a makeover. The content of the site was fine, so we decided to simply give it a refreshed design. Redesigning the look of the site, or re-skinning as we call it, without changing the content was a...
Friday, August 24, 2007
Web analytics and what to measure
Previously I discussed the importance of measuring the performance of your website in order to understand the ROI you were receiving. Nowadays there are plenty of very comprehensive web statistic packages out there that will give you every single detail of how your website is performing. These details can be quite confusing and if you don't understand what it is you're looking at then you are missing out. Listed below are the key items I look for when analysing a website and why they are important. Visitors Naturally, this item measures the number of visitors (sometimes unique) to your website....
Monday, August 6, 2007
How to measure ROI on your website
In a previous post I asked "Is your website ever finished?" and discussed how your site should be constantly evolving. Following on from this I'll explain how to measure the return on investment for each change you make to your site. It is imperative that you measure the return you get from each marketing campaign or change you make to your website otherwise how will you know what works and what doesn't? If you can measure exactly how much of an impact or money your marketing campaign has made then you pretty much have the key to a successful -...
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Is your website ever finished?
Your website should never be the finished product - well at least if you want it to be successful. It is impossible to get a website right the very first time, and I'm sure most (realistic) people will admit that. It is therefore crucial that you plan to improve and adapt your website over time. However, without measuring your website performance it will be very difficult to judge if the changes you are making a difference.There are many tools available that will help you to measure the effectiveness of your website, but the main tool everyone should use is website...
Friday, June 22, 2007
Does your website sell?
I have just returned from a sales course in London and it got me thinking about how we sell and how your website fits within the sales process. Your website is the first point of contact for many of your prospects and so it must do the initial sales job for you. Ask yourself this: would you put someone on the phone to a prospective client who has no sales skills and doesn't appreciate the sales process that your company goes through? I assume the answer to this is no. So if your website is the first point of contact...
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
How you can take what Avis is doing and apply it to your blog
I found an interesting article on e-consultancy where they interview Xavier Vallee - the head of marketing for Avis UK. In the interview he discusses how Avis are using business blogging to their advantage. I was interested to find out more because before I read the article I could not see how Avis would benefit from a blog. The customers want to rent a car and that is it. Why would Avis want to blog? What advantage would this give them? What would they blog about? And most importantly, is it really worth all the money? Ask yourself the same...
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Writing effective web copy
While writing a brief guide on how to create effective web copy, I thought I would post it up here as well. In order to write successful content for the web, consider the following advice: Make content scannable. Your users do not read text on your web page word for word so make it easy for them to pick out key messages. Adding bullet points, bold words and short paragraphs helps to make your content more scannable. Use only one key message per paragraph. Users will become confused and uninterested if you try to include too much information too quickly....
Friday, June 1, 2007
New Connexion Identity is launched
On the 1st of June Connexion went live with its new corporate identity. Developing our new identity hasn't simply been a case of designing a new logo and a new graphical look for our business; it's been so much more than that. We have tried to fully understand our business and its strengths, and to fashion a brand that effectively communicates what we do and the way we do it. If there is one thing that we have learnt above all else over the last 13 years, it is the need for us to Think Beyond Technology. In other words,...
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Top 6 ways to help promote your website
So, you've spent some long, hard hours and invested your hard-earned money into creating the perfect website for your business. Now its time to start promoting. But what exactly does that little word, "promote", mean? Well, to tell you the truth, it doesn't have ONE meaning. It has a LOT of meanings, or at least you might say it has a lot of different elements. Many people believe that all they have to do is submit their site to the search engines, and sit back and wait. Actually, there are a lot of people who think that all you have...
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
50 'coolest websites'
Time magasine has released a list of the 50 coolest websites The magasine breaks its choices down into categories including entertainment, shopping and news. Three years ago websites such as Ebay, Hotmail, Paypal, Google and the Internet Movie Database made the list of honour. Although this list is very US-centric, there are many sites there that even I haven't seen. We must use these sites as a benchmark for the future as next year they will be the norm. Every website owner can take inspiration from at least one of these and maybe use some of the features for their...
Monday, April 2, 2007
Times New Roman
As a designer, my number one pet hate is Times New Roman. Whenever I see it used it makes me cringe. As we all know Times New Roman is the default font used by most programs (for example Microsoft Word) and using it makes your document look completely unstyled. Times New Roman makes it look as if no thought has been put into the styling or design of the document, as if the author can't be bothered. While doing some research for a client of ours I came across this Clinical Trials site. The developer has obviously not put any...
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