rasberry web design

Whilst cooking Sunday lunch the other day everything electrical in the Kitchen suddenly stopped working. After the standard checks of fuse boxes it was obvious that the problem was not easily solved so I looked to the web to find a local electrician that provided an emergency callout service. This is how I came across Andy at Bright Sparks Electrical in Frimley. Within 30 minutes Andy was with me in Fleet and on the case and within the hour had us back up and working with a temporarily fix so we could carry on with lunch.

Obviously emergency local call outs is part of his service but still it when it’s you that something is helping you do appreciate the efforts put in so a big thank you to Andy at Bright Sparks Electrical who was very professional and prompt and I’d recommend him to anyone in need for electrical assistance around the house
www.frimley-electrical.com.

What great news that Dean Holdsworth has been appointed the new manager at Aldershot Town. I was a big fan of Dean's style as a player and I understand he was doing great things at Newport so I hope that he brings some much needed confidence to the shots who are struggling a bit this year.

Whilst I'm in football mode I'm still in a daze with the exploits of my first football love QPR this year. The prospect of seeing us back in the top flight is unimaginable given how long we have languished in the old division 1. Let’s hope we keep it up.

2010 was a great year for Rasberry Web Design and we look forward to 2011 being equally as good, even though economically it's tough times for everyone. Our focus remains on helping small business and sole traders in and around the Fleet area to get online at a cost that is reasonable. We like working in a community like Fleet because we can provide a more personal service to our clients. We think it's really important to meet people face to face so you know who you are dealing with and we can get a feel for you and your business.

It's that time of year again and Heatherside Infant and Junior Schools in Fleet Hampshire are very privileged to have Father Christmas as their special guest opening their Christmas fair which takes place on Saturday 11th December at Heatherside School on Reading Road South, Fleet, Hampshire GU52 7TH.

Father Christmas is a regular visitor to the Heatherside Christmas Fair and must be doing something right as his position has been elevated from bit part to main celebrity.

As a personal friend to Father Christmas I’m aware that he is very excited about Saturday and has broken off from his usual Christmas preparations to work on his opening speech to the local Fleet community.

Paul Cole from Fleet based House of Cole Photography is running in the 2011 London Marathon and is seeking to raise £2,000 for the NSPCC.

Paul is a local photographer who provides contemporary portrait photography for families and individuals. The NSPCC charity is close to his heart and to help boost donations he is currently offering free 1hr photo shoots for a minimum donation of £50 to his JustGiving website.

As well as the photo shoot you will get 10 professionally produced photographs on CD to keep, all for £50 which goes to a really worthwhile charity.

So if you are wanting some professional photographs taken of you or your family contact Paul through his website www.houseofcole.biz.

They are also a great idea for a Christmas present and Paul is offering vouchers which can be given as gifts.

Well done Paul

1. A website is cheaper and more flexible than print advertising
The Internet is extremely different from print advertising in that space is cheap, your advertisement is accessible for a longer period of time and you can potentially reach a wider audience.

2. A website is 24x7 365 days a year
The internet never sleeps and you never know what time of the day your customers will want to interact with you.

3. A website allows you to expand into different geographic markets
The Internet allows businesses to break through the geographical barriers and become accessible to virtually any country in the world.

4. A website adds value and satisfaction
Your website can add value to the visitor in lots of ways, by featuring tips, advice and with content that entertains and informs your customers.

5. A website offers convenience
A potential customer can visit your website whenever they like in their own privacy and comfort, without the stresses and distractions that exist in the real world.

6. A website provides credibility
A website allows you to tell potential customers what you are about and why you deserve their trust and confidence. The Internet also facilitates Viral Marketing where your website visitors spread positive word-of-mouth about your business i.e. your customers do your marketing!

Search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo use secret algorithms to determine the rank of your pages in search results. The search engine crawlers are constantly scanning through all of the known web pages on the internet so that the ranking of the pages can be updated. I mentioned that these algorithms are secret. In fact they are probably the best kept secrets on the internet and the search engines frequently change the formula used to ensure rankings are achieved in a natural organic manner and not through cheating the system.

Google do offer official advice to help website owners to improve their search engine rankings. Here is a summary of their top tips...

Create a keyword relevant title tag for each page that is unique remembering that this text appears in the search engine results page.

Have a meaningful description tag for each page which incorporates keywords as this can improve your ranking, and again this text is often used in the search engine results to make it meaningful.

Make sure your pages provide good quality content that is relevant to your niche and not just full of words that you think Google will like (Google can spot a cheat!)

Optimise your images in terms of download size but also ensure that you have descriptive alt tags and image file names as these can also help your rankings.

Promote your website URL through reputable online methods such as blogs, social media and online directories relevant to your product/service.

If you offer a local service then register your website address with Google's local business centre.

It's not rocket science, more a series of logical steps to make your website known and relevant to the search engines. But bere promises by SEO companies offering to boost your rankings quickly. Unless you have stacks of money to throw at it gaining a good search engine ranking is more a methodical process that takes time and a degree of trial and error.

The beauty of the internet and the search engines like Google and Yahoo is that it allows local people to connect together. You think of the internet as being a global connector of people but equally it also allows people that are geographically close to each other to connect together.

From a small business perspective the internet is the modern equivalent of the yellow pages or the classified ads in the local paper. In fact for most people a Google is the way they search for a local service they need. Personally I recycle the Thomson Local and Yellow Pages as soon as they drop through my letterbox as I never use them. What about you?

Let’s look at a positive of the credit crunch. Many people are being forced to look for new and innovative ways to earn a living and as such lots of new and exciting small businesses are popping up all over the place. For some people the credit crunch will be the catalyst for them to take that leap of faith into a new business venture that they have been considering for years. This is truly a positive life changing time for lots of people.

So if you have started a new business you’ll want a way to advertise yourself cost effectively and in these modern times a must have is a ‘brochure website’ that tells the world that you exist. But if badly designed and implemented your website could be ‘invisible’ to people, or even worse, will be turn off once someone does find your website.

At Rasberry Web Design we have focussed on ways to deliver low cost but highly professional websites for small businesses. We focus on what is important to you and your business and unlike many designers, we don’t try to over design your website to satisfy our own egos.

I was asked recently why we are offering to build a website for £189 when other companies want much higher fees. “It’s simple” I said, “we are in a credit crunch and this is a credit crunch website offer!”.

I've been developing, designing and implementing computer systems for over 20 years but I built my first website for my wife's business using a free CMS provided by a website hosting company. I was really satisfied that within a few hours I had purchased a domain name and built a website using the CMS tool provided. Over time though my satisfaction grew into frustration as I realised how limiting the CMS was in controlling how the site looked and how the site was laid out. Then via another project I was introduced to the concept of Search Engine Optimisation of websites and my frustration was extended even further when I reviewed how Search Engine unfriendly the HTML generated by the CMS was. This was part of the driver for me starting Rasberry Web Design as I could see that small businesses needed a cheap way to build a website that was an alternative to the quick but limited build your own CMS tools.

RocksX is a company based in Fleet Hampshire selling quality jewellery, handbags and accessories. The business is based around selling is products at Ladies Nights which are held at people homes with the host receiving a share in the profits. Anyway, Rocky the owner of RocksX asked us recently if we could extend her website to also include an area that allows visitors to browse and purchase products online. We were more than happy to help and we were able to quickly get set-up a full e-commerce site that allowed Rocky to self maintain all the stock. Plan is to have the site fully populated ready for the Xmas market. So if you are looking for a present for the wife, girlfriend mother etc, trust me, they will be very happy with a RocksX present.

http://www.rocksx.co.uk

It was Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams that was told "if you build it he will come". And low and behold he did build his baseball pitch and they did come. But then this is Hollywood not reality.

The reality is with websites is that you can spend a fortune designing the best looking website in the world but unless people can find you then what was the point? This is why at Rasberry Web Design we like to focus on effective websites that look good, rather than over designing fancy websites that may never get seen by anyone.

But don't be thinking it's easy, all this SEO stuff. It takes skill, experience and a good degree of trial and error over time to get right.

I'm no petrol head but working on the recent project for the new Jones Customs Cycles website has been really cool. Ants who owns the company builds custom Harley Davidsons, V-Twins, Old School Bobbers. We are talking proper American Chopper type stuff with chrome and custom paint jobs.

You may be starting a new small business venture or perhaps seeking to gain some new customers with an existing small business. In this modern world every company needs a website to tell the world that they exists. The power of the internet for marketing and linking you with new customers should not be under-estimated. Especially for smaller, more local businesses. So if you provide a service or product mainly to local customers then you should be specific within your website content about the areas that you work in. This is because the modern search engines are very location aware and also your customers are very likely to include locations within their search criteria - which is a great way to match you with local prospective customers.