This page contains a broad selection or articles I've written on the subject of web design.
These days Google likes a lot more information it can chew over and churn out, prioritised – in the search results. In November 2019, it got even tougher for website owners – Google is now applying 'neural matching' to local search results ...
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A & D Swimming Pools are Yell website exiles and haven't for one moment regretted the decision to commission a truly bespoke website that performs better in the search results and costs a fraction of their previous ...
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Jon Gillmore is a craftsman and knows his wood! He's had years of experience using his joinery skills for commercial businesses and other organisations along the south coast. Jon recently moved to new premises in Gosport ...
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Paying monthly for websites is a contentious issue these days - what exactly are you paying for month after month - indefinitely? Doing the sums can be scary. Such companies, and I have one in particular ...
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Puzzled by web jargon? View my web design glossary. All areas of work bring with them their own terminology, techno–speak and specialised languages – 'jargon' of course being the collective word ...
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Successful online e-commerce businesses spend thousands of pounds to build and maintain their e-commerce websites. I occasionally receive calls from people who would like to turn their hobbies into profit-making businesses ...
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We're constantly being told about the marketing value of Social Media and many businesses report that it's a hugely valuable free asset. For the purposes of this article I'm concentrating on the best ways to make use of Facebook ...
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I've been designing websites for business clients across Hampshire since 2006 – many of these are Fareham based. All of my websites are individually built from scratch – with no traces of a Wordpress template ...
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I'm a local web designer over on the other side of the harbour and I've loads of clients in the Portsmouth and Southsea area – all of whom rank well in local searches for their services in and around Portsmouth ...
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I've just built my first website for a client who did absolutely everything right. The client did all I advised him to do from thinking carefully about his domain name – right up to the last curl on his specially designed logo! ...
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Few of you with business websites will have escaped being told about the need to be gearing up for GDPR on May 25th, 2018. Even if you hold the simplest contact details you'll still need to take action ...
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The immediate answer to that is between 4 - 12 months. Yes, that sounds like a long time but it's the truth and it's why SEO companies charge such a lot of money to make the necessary changes to your website ...
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The truth about AdWords and other myths that circulate about Google. Over the years clients have told me they believe that buying AdWords from Google will help their websites to appear higher in the search results ...
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Updating your own website content seems an attractive idea at first - the ability to add pictures and text exactly when you feel like it without paying someone else to do it for you but it's often why reasonable looking websites end up looking a mess ...
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This may come as a surprise to some people but for me it's logical. Sliders, sometimes called carousels, are a distraction and they're bad for SEO and most people think they're banner ads. For most websites they should be avoided ...
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I'm not alone in being highly suspicious of this latest offering from Yell. They've long been pressing the panic button as a result of declining interest in their services. I shan't go into discussing their exhorbitant fees again ...
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DIY SEO is a great idea and you can certainly make improvements to your website if you want to get to #1 in Google search engine results (SERPS). Get listed in more online business directories. It's a tedious job but it will reward you in the end ...
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Google has already encouraged website owners to ensure that their websites are hosted on SSL certificate enabled servers. Now we learn that from October 2017 Google will be warning visitors to all sites without that added "S" in the url - that they are visiting an un-secured website ...
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I shall concentrate on preparing photos for your web designer. Wherever you're using photos on your website your photos need to optimised to reduce their natural file size. Your pictures must be edited so they are the exact size needed on your web page ...
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Hardly a day goes by without some suspicious email dropping into my inbox blatantly trying to rip me off in some way or another. Luckily, I'm able to smell this kind of thing a mile off. However, it worries me that some website owners who will also inevitably receive this kind of garbage ...
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A friend of mine Skyped me from Spain the other day and suggested that I make some sort of public protest about large companies that offer free online website building. He'd just heard from a friend who'd been caught out by a very well-known company – with a very unexpected bill.
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Like me, if you've got a website, hardly a day will go by when an email doesn't drop in to your inbox promising you no. in Google. I do and my site already ranks no.1 for many search terms! Some SEO companies even claim they're affiliated with Google - it's a lie.
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Build Your Business Ethically. It's a bit like re-inventing the wheel I know, but I reckon that if you treat people well and with respect, normally they will respond in kind. And so the circle turns ...
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Improve Your Search Engine Ranking on Google. Assuming your web designer knows his business and has built you a well-designed SEO friendly website - there is still plenty you can do to help you get on the first page of Google results. Google My Business You can register your business here and link it to ...
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Writing for the web is a process that requires some careful thought. Many people fall into the trap of writing web content to be read like a book or magazine article. This is the wrong approach. It's an age when being top of the search engine results is the only thing that matters ...
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Pay as you go websites seem like a good idea. No up-front fees, you get online quickly and there's the offer of support if and when you need it. The monthly payments for such sites range from £10 to over £500. It's a great deal if you're only planning to be in business for a year - BUT ...
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I don't build them for several reasons - they're overweight, with un-wanted functions and coding, they're prone to hackers - and they're vulnerable to problems and crashes if not maintained by an experienced developer. WordPress has a massive library of off-the-shelf themes/templates ...
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Content Marketing has been seized upon as the latest way to improve a website's performance in the search engines. It isn't actually a new idea - more of a re-focus. Websites should always be built for the visitor experience - not for the search engine crawlers ...
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Build Your Business Ethically. It's a bit like re-inventing the wheel I know, but I reckon that if you treat people well and with respect, normally they will respond in kind. And so the circle turns ...
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This will not surprise the many thousands of web designers - many of whom use this free, open source kit. They not only use the system to build their clients' "bespoke" sites - but also their own. One good reason is that they don't actually build websites themselves any more ...
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Be warned that your search engine ranking is being put at risk if you don't follow some basic web design rules concerning the use of photographs. The search engines will look closely at the time it takes to download pictures to view on your website ...
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