Web Design Articles

We actively encourage our web designers and senior staff to write articles to keep our customers informed about the latest advances in search engine optimisation, website design, internet marketing and website accessibility.

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Finding Your Niche - Posted May 2008 by David Calvert

Test the Market

In an ever competetive online marketplace, it's becoming increasingly difficult to obtain good search engine rankings. I speak from personal experience as a web designer, because when you type "web designer" into Google you get hundreds of millions of websites returned, however if you type in "websites for personal trainers" Google brings back a mere 1 million search results.

You have to bear in mind that it takes Google 6-8 weeks just to list your website, never mind listing it on a page where your customers are going to ever see it.

The place to start is your keywords. Take your time to make a list of all of the possible keywords in your market sector and include any mispellings. You'll be suprised how many people search on mispelled keywords. If you like, use a keyword tool like Wordtracker.

Think about your business and it's demographic, do most of your customers live locally or are they nationwide? Which market are they in? These factors could help you find the particular niche keywords that people would use to find your business on the web.

Spend an hour on Google, Yahoo and MSN using your keywords to test how many results there are and if your well into the tens of millions, then you can assume that it's going to be a tough, time consuming and costly market to get into.

Design your website using your niche keywords

Once you know your keyword niche market, write content for each webpage using the keywords that you want to target. This part is where so many web design firms and their clients go wrong. By not considering your keywords at the start of the process, it can prove very costly in time and investment later and any good web designer with search engine optmisation experience should be ensuring that this does not happen.

Launch Your Adwords Campaign

Once you have your list of niche keywords and your great looking, keyword targeted website and you know your marketplace, then set-up a trial run Google Adwords campaign. Google Adwords is the best choice to start, because it is easy to use in comparison with Yahoo Overture or MSN.

Start off with a low daily budget and analyse your pay per click campaign a couple of times a week to see how many searches and clicks are being carried out under particular keywords.

Don't neglect Organic Search Engine Optimisation

O.K. you've got your website and your pay per click campaign and you've had some success from it and got yourself some new customers, but you're thinking to yourself "Lets go after some more popular keywords."

This is where the real work begins. Again, it's about analysis and re-analysis of your market and your niche keyword choices.

Set-up another Google Adwords campaign using more popular keywords and analyse the results after 1 week. Then, choose the most popular ones and conduct a search on Google to see how many results are returned.

Be realistic though and realise that it can take many years worth of link building and content writing, among other things, to see any real organic results from search engines.

Building Your Brand - Posted September 2008 by David Calvert

When most people think of brands, they think of large corporations like Coca Cola, Nike and McDonalds. However, every business, whether a sole trader or multi-national corporation is unique and by definition has its own brand. A brand is most readily identifiable by its name, logo, design, font, or perhaps a shape or specific colour. There are two main aspects to brands, the brand name and the brand identity.

When you first start your business, you will undoubtedly have some ideas for the types of names you will want to use. You do not need to form a company to have a brand name, as you can ‘trade as' a business name, or simply use your own name (which can also become your brand.)

In order to position your business in the marketplace, you will have studied the competition and considered them in relation to your own business. Amongst the backdrop of these other businesses, what is it that differs your business from these others? Is it price, level or quality of service? Or is it because you offer something different in terms of experience or value? You may be able to think of several things, or there might be one main difference. This is your Unique Selling Point, or USP, and will help you to identify the strongest aspects of your brand.

Then, you should decide how you want people to perceive your brand. Whether it's dependable, exciting, good value, conservative, fresh or something else, these words will help you to formulate your brand experience. This could be reflected in your logo, the colours you use and your tagline (if you have one), or could even be used in your business name.

So once you've got a brand, how do you go about reinforcing that brand? Here are some inexpensive methods: ensure that everything you send out has your business name and/or logo on it. This includes your email signature, and having stickers printed with your business name and colours on them. Make sure that all your promotional items match, in colour, design and logo. Consider starting an email newsletter to send to your existing customers or prospects who have left their details with you.

Consider joining online networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. One of the best ways to promote credibility is by establishing yourself as an ‘expert' in your field. Enhance this status by writing articles and submitting them to industry publications, and by making yourself available for comment about forthcoming stories related to your business.