blog

New website for Vine Trial launched

Tue, 08 May 2012 12:40:00 +0100

We're thrilled (in a sophisticated way) to announce the launch of the Vine Trail website.Â Vine Trail is the place you can go to find the finest artisan French wine.

We worked with Vine Trail to design and develop them a website very similar to an ecommerce site. Â The only difference is that, instead of paying online, VT's clients preferred to be invoiced so we built them a system to help. Â Vine Trail now manage their own website using a back end system that lets them to add procucts, view sales reports, manage their latest news updates and lots more.

Check out the Vine Trail website here - www.vinetrail.co.uk

The UK is the most internet-based economy

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 10:03:00 +0100

The UK is the most 'internet-based' economy, according to the BBC .Â Â It is fascinating how much our countryâs activity is reliant on the internet, and it looks like its going to continue that way.Â Â Internet activity currently contributes to a significant 8.3% of the economy, and is expected to increase at a rate of 11% per year, which is much higher than countries such as the USA and China.Â

With more people starting to use the internet more frequently, this is very good news for the many SMEs which rely on the web for business.

We also found the lower half of the article rather amusing, with some interesting statistics pertaining to what people would give up in order to maintain their internet connection!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17405016

Google Chrome more popular than Internet Explorer

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:02:00 +0100

It looks that the age of Internet Explorer may finally be diminishing!Â Â An independent source tracked internet browser activity last weekend and found that Google Chrome users in fact outweighed those who browsed on Internet Explorer.Â Â This is particularly interesting as it shows that whilst people are at home, not being compelled to use a particular browser at work, they choose to use Google Chrome, demonstrating Googleâs continuing success.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/9158756/Google-Chrome-takes-lead-from-Internet-Explorer.html

Optimising your SEO for better clickthrough

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:17:00 +0100

Spring has most definitely sprung here in Bristol, and what could possibly be a better way to welcome in the new season than looking at a bit of Google Analytics data?!

One of my favourite features in Google Analytics is the ability to view the proportion of visitors who click on your website when searching for a particular term in search engines. This is known as the clickthrough rate, or CTR for short.

You can access it by going to Traffic Sources > Search Engine Optimisation > Queries.

This shows you some really important web marketing information:

What search terms are causing my website to display in Google?
Where does my website rank for this term?
What proportion of people searching for this term click on my link?

If your website is ranking well but for the wrong terms, you may need to consider either:

Tweaking your SEO for different search terms
Or, revising your product offering to offer what visitors are really searching for

If your clickthrough rate is low, you need to look at:

Writing more enticing titles in your <title> tag
Writing better descriptions in your meta description tag

If your ranking is poor, you need to consider additional SEO to rise up the rankings.

Do you need any advice about your website design or marketing? Do get in touch.

Spend what's left of your marketing budget - get 10% off.

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000

'Tis the season to use what's left of your marketing budget!

We're celebrating at Siteclick by offering 10% off any work that begins before the end of March. This includes absolutely everything, nothing is off the table.

How does it work? Simply give us the go-ahead to begin work before 31st March 2012 and we'll happily chop 10% off the cost of the entire project.

Get in touch to get started.

The future of web design

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:25:00 +0000

There's no doubt it's a tremendously exciting time to be involved with web design here in Bristol – scarcely a day goes by without news of a new programming technique, cool widget, or useful web marketing tool.

So how will this impact on your website? I’m going to look at 3 key factors in this article.

1. Multiple Channels

The humble website used to be sufficient. Then along came social media, smartphones, the mobile web and internet-enabled TVs. Increasingly small businesses need to consider if and how they will compete across the following channels:

Conventional websites
Websites designed for mobile and TV
Mobile apps
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

They will also need to consider how their customers will use each of the above channels – the needs of a customer may be very different between the desk and the sofa.

2. SEO

Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO for short, is the business of tweaking your site so that it appears higher in Google search results pages.

I still meet small business owners who are under the impression that setting a few keywords will help their SEO efforts – but the reality couldn’t be further from the truth. SEO has evolved into a broad range of processes and tools that require serious effort to get right.

Recent changes to Google’s algorithms have seen links from social media such as Facebook and Twitter help to boost the authority of your site.

SEO isn’t necessarily that complicated, but I’ve come to the conclusion that e-commerce sites in particular will in all likelihood fail to succeed without an SEO campaign, or someone in the business that devotes all or most of their time to web marketing.

3. Website Design

Websites will need to display to mobile and tablet users. This may involve:

An ‘adaptive’ website design, that flows to a different shape depending on the screen size
Multiple website designs for each different device

With the Apple iPad 3, and the forthcoming Microsoft Windows 8 which will also support tablets, the case for considering mobile users has never been stronger.

Certain design elements such as rollover effects or dropdown menus must be reworked for a touch interface, since these elements won’t work with finger-based operation.

Conclusion

While it's certainly an exciting time for the web, small businesses face a rather bewildering range of options to market their business online. Why not contact us if you have any questions.

Mobile devices will outnumber humans this year

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000

"Mobile devices will outnumber humans this year, according to network firm Cisco's latest analysis of global mobile data traffic." (view original article on the BBC).

The BBC article quoted above speaks mainly about data-usage and how fast it's growing. We think it's more relevant to your business to make sure your website displays nicely on mobile. Is your business ready for the mobile revolution?

Tablet users spend 50% more than smartphone owners

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

A recent study reported on by Fast Company shows that a tablet user may spend up to 50% more than a smartphone user when shopping online. This may be because tablet users are more likely to have a higher disposable income (let's face it, nobody NEEDS a tablet), and also that they spend more time browsing the internet.

It’s an interesting development and a strong argument for designing and building your ecommerce site to cater to tablet users.

Read the full article by Fast Company here - http://www.fastcompany.com/1809535/tablet-users-spend-50-more-per-purchase-than-smartphone-owners

Facebook going public - just what does that mean?

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

You’re probably all aware that our favourite social networking site facebook has recently gone public on the stock market. It’s hard to imagine that this colossal corporation started out eight years ago in the dorm room of a geeky Harvard undergraduate. Have a read of this to gain a better sense of what ‘going public’ means for facebook, and what the future positive and negative implications for the company are:

http://www.economist.com/node/21546020

What we found even more interesting was this chart which contextualises the size and value of facebook. We were amazed to find that its ‘population’ falls behind only India and China!

http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2012/02/daily-chart-0

Win 500 pounds of photography equipment from Lavenderworld

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:29:00 +0000

One of our clients, Lavenderworld, are holding a competition where the first prize is £500 pounds of photography equipment. All you have to do it submit your best landscape / scenic picture and you could be in it to win it.

Full details can be found on Lavenderworld's blog. Best of luck to all the budding photographers!

New Junior Developer in the office

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

A lot has been happening in the office recently, and we’d especially like to extend a warm welcome to Eve, our newest recruit! Eve is here for a junior developer internship with us, and will be helping out in the office on various projects. It’s great to have a new member of the team.

We’ve got lots of new and exciting projects happening at the moment, so keep up to date on our website, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook!

Congratulations Nailsea Tithe Barn!

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Congratulations to our client Nailsea Tithe Barn for recently winning the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) People's Choice award! This is a wonderful achievement for this small community-based project which has grown tremendously since it was started twelve years ago. Their recent year-long refurbishment was obviously well worth it, and the community could not be prouder of living in a town which boasts such a prestigious award. Nailsea Town Council clerk, Ian Morrell, said: “We are absolutely delighted the hard work and dedication put into this project has been recognised with the support of the public”.

We are thrilled to have worked with Nailsea Tithe Barn on the redevelopment of their website, and we hope that it will contribute to the continuing success of this incredibly successful project.

Holiday opening hours 2011

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 09:16:00 +0000

Just a quick update to let you know our opening hours for the 2011 holiday season.

Our standard opening hours are 9 to 5, Monday to Friday.

22 Dec - closed at noon

23 Dec to 2 Jan - closed for holidays

Our standard opening hours are 9 to 5, Monday to Friday
22 Dec - Closed at noon
23 Dec to 2 Jan - Closed for holidays

We'll resume normal business hours on 3rd January, 2012. Have a very Merry Christmas and an awesome New Year!

New Recruit - Third week in!

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

We're pleased to welcome Emma Warby to the office! Emma will helping us with all kinds of bits and bobs - website planning, writing and basically helping whenever someone at Siteclick needs it most. Emma wrote a few words just to say hello:

It's been three weeks since I've started working as Siteclick's administrative assistant, and so far so good!

I am a fourth year student at the University of Bristol, studying French and Italian. Last year was my compulsory year abroad, and I spent half of the year on the French overseas department of Reunion (a short hop from Mauritius), and the second half in Verona. It's a hard life for a student, isn't it?!

I am now getting back into the swing of things of my final year of university, which is a slight shock to the system having spent the entire past year abroad, but I'm slowly but surely getting used to it!

Working at Siteclick has so far been a really enjoyable experience. We are a very small team, which I love because there is a very relaxed and friendly atmosphere in the office. It also means that my work is really varied, and I feel that it is truly valued. Having had previous experience at an IT consultancy company, I don't feel completely out of my depth, but I feel that I'm learning new things each day. I also really enjoy having something to put my mind to besides constant reading and studying!

I am really looking to my time at Siteclick am and confident that it is going to be a great experience.

-Emma Warby

Graduate Internship Opportunity

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:59:00 +0100

An opportunity has arisen for a web developer to join our team as an intern, working on real-world projects such as database-driven websites or e-commerce stores.

The role will be largely technical in nature, with a focus on development and database work rather than graphic design.

Supervision and assistance will be given for each task.

Key Duties:

Interpreting client requirements into technical specifications
Website development using PHP and MySQL
Developing plugins for our CMS system
Producing thoroughly commented code
Producing documentation for users
Other duties as required

The role is designed for a graduate with a relevant degree in a related subject.

If you're interested please email james@siteclick.co.uk for a full details. The closing date is the 19th October.

Thanks!

Your business website on an internet TV

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0100

You know by now that many people aren't viewing your website on a standard computer. Your businsess website is just as likely to be seen from a smart phone or tablet these days. Now there's one more screen to cater for - the internet ready TV.

It's becoming more and more important to have a website that works across all of these platforms. Be sure to ask your web design and development team how they'll handle these challenges.

The BBC have an interesting video about internet ready TVs - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/9585840.stm

Web design choices for your business

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:16:00 +0100

With such wide-spread use of the Internet these days, thanks to all the online-accessible gadgets on the market today, including mobile phones, laptops, and even flat-screen TVs, if your business doesn't have a properly designed website, you're not going to do well against the competition. A business needs a web presence that not only solves the target market's problems, but that also gives that audience a reason to return again and again. This is no small feat, but it's one that's made easier with the following web design tips. Keep these tips in mind when designing your company's website and you'll go far, online and off.

Who Does Your Business Appeal To?

In order to design the ideal website, you will need to identify your target market. For instance, is your company targeting corporations or the everyday consumer? Are you more concerned with targeting the medical field, or are you going after local small business owners? If you don't pinpoint your target audience, you will never get your web design exactly right. It will always miss its mark and that's not good for business at all.

Finding Your Audience

Once you know who you are marketing to, you then need to find out what where that audience congregates online. This is where social media comes in beautifully. Using the search functions that come built into Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and any other platforms you can think of, find the individuals or companies you're trying to target. But do not engage that audience just yet. You must first listen to your audience to find out what they want. This data mining will help you design your site from top to bottom, allowing you to populate the various web pages with everything you need to satisfy your prospects and customers adequately. But before you begin designing the perfect site, you need to find out what problems you need to solve.

Solving Problems

The reason you shouldn't engage your target audience just yet is because you need to find out what that audience needs and wants. What questions are your prospects asking? What problems do they desperately want solved? That's where your website is going to come in. For instance, if your target audience consists of individuals in the market to buy a house, your website may help your prospects find good homes to buy in the area, and it may help with the proper paperwork, financing and all the other problems future homeowners face when trying to purchase a new home.

The idea is to put yourself in your prospects' shoes. What would you look for in a website if you were looking for a new home, or a doctor, or even a web design service? These are the questions you need to ask yourself if you're hoping to design the perfect website for your business.

The Competition

In order to build a web presence that dominates your field, you'll need to remain abreast of what your competitors are doing. The only way to do this is to search for and examine your competitors' websites, blogs and even social media profiles. What colors are they using? What designs? Are those sites easy to navigate? How are those sites solving your target audience's problems? Again, ask yourself plenty of questions and really critique your competitors' websites to find out what you should do differently, and better.

Putting It All Together

The above data mining is crucial if you want to design the perfect website that appeals to your target audience, but that also establishes your business as the authority in your niche. But now comes the tricky part. You must take all of your research (your audience's needs, your competitors' designs, etc.) and you must put everything together so that it goes nicely with your company's overall brand. If you can do this effectively, your competition won't know what hit them. They'll wonder where you came from and how you managed to construct a web presence that dominates in such a short period of time. That is the power of proper web design. Use the tips provided above, listen to your target audience and study your competitors and you'll never find yourself wanting for traffic, customers or revenue ever again.

A new home for Siteclick

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 10:50:00 +0100

We're excited to announce we have just moved into a new larger office! It's a lovely light and airy space in which to be creative.

Please note our new address which is:

39 Alma Vale Rd
Bristol
BS8 2HL

How to market your E-Commerce site

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 17:15:00 +0100

Setting up a website alone is no longer enough – with competition fiercer than ever it’s important to market your website effectively to ensure it becomes successful.

This is particularly important for E-Commerce websites, where the website isn’t just there to provide leads – rather it should be providing cold hard cash!

Here are some top tips to help you get started marketing your E-Commerce website.

1. Decide your strategy

Hopefully you've heard your web developer harping on about Google Analytics (or other web analytics program). This is where it comes in handy to help you decide what to do:

You’re getting hardly any visitors - perhaps the website is new, or scores poorly in search engines. Your strategy should be to increase visitor numbers
You’re getting lots of visitors, but hardly any orders. Your strategy should be to focus on the conversion rate of your website (how many visitors buy something).
Your website is doing well, but customers hardly ever come back. You need to focus on customer retention and encouraging repeat business.

2. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

If your strategy is to increase visitor numbers, you need to focus on Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO for short. This means tweaking your website and trying to build links to it from other sites, so that it appears higher in search engine results pages.

If you find you’re getting lots of visitors, but your conversion rate is low, SEO is useful to ensure the keywords being targeted are relevant.

3. Send e-newsletters

Everyone hates spam. But that doesn’t mean you should neglect the humble email newsletter, provided that the people on your list have opted in.

Every E-Commerce site should really have an E-Newsletter, especially if your strategy is for customer retention and increasing repeat business.

4. Submit a product feed to Google Shopping

You may have seen the Google ‘shopping’ results – this is a great way for customers to find your products! First you need to submit a database of your products to Google so that it can add them to its results.

If your website uses our iEvolution CMS we can set this database up for you – get in touch and we’ll be happy to help.

5. Include a promo code in every parcel

Print out a small leaflet or slip of paper with a special offer (for example, 15% off your next order), and enclose this in the parcel with every order. This can help persuade the customer to buy again, or better still they may pass it on to a friend who may become a customer too.

6. Start a blog

Creating a blog can be a great way of engaging your customers, and can help your SEO efforts too as your site fills up with juicy relevant keywords.

It must be said, and the same goes for Twitter and Facebook too, that your posts shouldn’t be overtly salesy. Think about what your customers are interested in and put yourself in their shoes while writing the post. However, a great idea is to include a special offer in or at the end of each post to reward your readers and encourage them to buy.

7. Create a Facebook page

Facebook has become a great way to engage with your customers, and reach out to new potential customers too.

Bear in mind that you may sometimes face the odd disgruntled customer when engaging through social media. Don’t delete these messages – instead keep very calm, and respond professionally and do everything possible to rectify the problem. Going above and beyond what the customer would expect puts you in an excellent light, and will help earn the respect and trust of other customers.

8. Create a Twitter page

Creating a Twitter page and garnering a following is a great idea – especially when your strategy is to build visitor numbers. Again, be sure not to only tweet about your own offering – instead share useful information, make friends, and become a useful source in your industry.

If you’re confused, take a look at your competitors to see how they’re managing their social media. What works well? What doesn’t?

9. Use Pay Per Click (PPC)

Pay-per-click adverts are the sponsored listings you see in Google, Yahoo, Bing and others whenever you do a search. You generally only pay when someone clicks on the advert. It’s possible to measure the return on investment (ROI) for your adverts by having your friendly web developer insert some code whenever an order is placed.

For a brand new website, your SEO efforts can take months to have a real effect, so it may be particularly worth considering PPC at this early stage to get some visitors.

Pay-per-click can cost a lot of money without getting you any customers at all if you set up your adverts or keywords incorrectly, so it may be worth having an expert manage your campaign for you to get the maximum ROI.

10. Monitor your turnover

With so many ways of marketing your site these days, it can be easy to lose track of what really matters. But for any E-Commerce site ultimately it’s the turnover (and resulting profit) that really counts. Whatever your website marketing efforts, they should all be focused on increasing sales – and if they don’t work after a few months, change your tactics.

I hope you've found these ideas useful - if you want to discuss your web marketing strategy do get in touch.

New website: Viewranger

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:55:00 +0100

We're thrilled to announce the launch of ViewRanger's new website! ViewRanger is an insanely popular smart phone app for outdoors-y people.

It's been called 'a five star must have app' by the Sunday Times and rated as one of the top apps by the Gadget Show. If you're interested in walking, rambling, cycling, mountain biking, sea kayaking, horse riding or any other outdoor activities, it's something well worth checking out.

We worked with Bob Design and Marketing to get this website online. ViewRanger are using our content management system, iEvolution to manage their website. That means they can log in and manage all of the info on their website without having to do anything technical.

Check out the ViewRanger website here - www.viewranger.com

New website: Wonderland Avenue

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 16:35:00 +0000

We're happy to announce the launch of Wonderland Avenue's website! Wonderland Avenue is where you'll find all the best wedding photographers. Photographers have to apply for membership and are carefully vetted before they're allowed to be listed. There's some seriously gorgeous photography, it's well worth a look (especially if you or someone you know has a wedding coming up).

Since launch, WA has been going from strength to strength - photographers are saying it's the best wedding photography directory they've ever been a part of - probably because it's vetted by a pro photographer that's been hired by big wigs like John Lewis.

WA have even been featured in the major wedding blog, Rock N' Roll Bride. We're chuffed it's getting such great reviews!

We worked with Bob Design and Marketing to get this website online. Wonderland Avenue are using our content management system, iEvolution. That means they can log in and manage photographer's profiles, write new blog posts, and make updates or changes to their website whenever they want.

Check out the Wonderland Avenue website here - www.wonderlandavenue.co.uk

UK leads Europe in online shopping / ecommerce

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 10:50:00 +0000

According to comScore's finding, the UK has the highest percentage of people shopping online in Europe. In October 2010, over 89% of people reported that they shop online.

Retail websites are highly popular among UK users and widely used. World-wide, the UK beat America, coming second only after Canada in terms of retail site popularity.

What does this mean for UK businesses?

If you are selling online, now is the time to invest in your online shop and make it work at its best. Determine the most popular products - can you cross sell similar items? Are you creating special offers and promotions to encourage higher spend? Are you sending out a newsletter to your regular customers with your latest offers?

If you aren't selling online, now is the time to consider how you can start to use ecommerce to your advantage. What do you create that you can also sell online? Find a niche and get started so you can start reaping the benefits.

UK world leader in ecommerce

With petrol prices rising, shopping online is convenient for customers, saves them time and often saves them money. The BBC reported that it will only continue to grow and that the UK is a world leader in ecommerce. It's an opportunity not to be missed.

New website: Smile Solution

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 17:16:00 +0000

We're excited to announce the launch of Smile Solution's new website! Smile Solution is an orthondics practice that specialises in beautiful smiles. They also specialise in being welcoming and friendly. In fact, according to their most recent NHS Vital Signs Report in 2010, 100% of patients were satisfied with their care.

We worked with Bob Design and Marketing to build this get this website online. Smile Solution are using our content management system, CreationCentre. That means they can log in and make updates or changes to their website whenever they want, from any computer with an internet connection.

Check out the Smile Solution website here - www.smilesolution.co.uk

What a lovely surprise from Anne Guy

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 17:47:00 +0000

Completely by surprise we received a beautiful hamper from Anne Guy catering in Bristol today!

There's all sorts of tasty things inside - homemade chutneys, marmalades, fudge, and shortbreads, plus chocolates and champagne. It's definitely getting us into the festive mood.

Earlier on this year we developed a new website for Anne Guy, who in addition to gifts and hampers cater for all sorts of events such as weddings and commercial events.

If you have an event, why not visit the Anne Guy catering website or give them a ring on 01275 462796.

Thanks very much to all at Anne Guy for this wonderful surprise, we wish you a very happy Christmas and New Year!

Are you a freelance PHP developer?

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 15:53:00 +0000

We're looking to form relationships with Bristol-based freelance PHP developers to help us manage our busy project workload.

The type of person we are looking for would typically have:

A friendly, positive, 'can-do' attitude to work
Degree level education in a relevant subject
Excellent knowledge of PHP5 and OOP
MySQL
XHTML/CSS
The ability to work remotely using own equipment

Additional brownie points for:

jQuery
Experience with MVC frameworks
Basic working knowledge of Photoshop

If this sounds like you, please get in touch with us at info@siteclick.co.uk including the following:

CV
Your expected rates
A few links to some of your completed projects
A short example of some of your PHP code

After this, the next step would be for us to meet for an informal coffee and chat. We look forward to hearing from you!

Please note: no agencies

Google are changing organic search - it pays to be local

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 14:13:00 +0100

Over the next few days, Google is rolling out their new 'Place Search' update. Google will guess when you're looking for something local and display local results. The real change is that it will display these results in a way that makes it easy to make comparisons between all of the listings.

How will it effect you?

It will make it easier for you to make decisions about the listings. You'll have more information without having to click through to another website. The extra info will help you to decide what results are relevant and interesting.

How will it effect your business website?

Your website ranking will probably be effected by this change, but only time will tell. It will become harder to rank somewhere locally unless your business has an actual address there. For example, it will become harder to rank for 'web design in Bristol' if your business doesn't have a physical address based in Bristol.

What's the difference?

The new results include a lot more information (see Google's example of the new results here):

Title
Description
Web address
Contact information
Picture
Star-rating
Quote from a review (as well as links to different online reviews)
Map of location

The old search results included (see Google's example of the old results here):

Title
Web address
Phone number
Link to reviews
Map of location

So if you're looking for a web design company in Bristol you would search for 'web design Bristol'. But you don't want find just web design company, you want to find the right one. The new Place Search feature being rolled out over the next few days will make it faster and easier. You'll be able to compare different web companies at a glance and quickly decide who's worth a second look.

When? Where? How?

This will start to appear automatically in your search results in the next couple of days. If you want a sneak preview, check out this special link (provided by Google).

For more information, read Google's original blog post: Place Search: a faster, easier way to find local information

New website for Prepit Ltd

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 12:40:00 +0100

We're pleased to announce the launch of Prepit Ltd's new website! Prepit helps medium and large companies improve their sales processes - with the end result being that their clients end up making more money. It's clear they get the job done, and they do it well - just check out their testimonials.

We worked with Bristol-based Prepit to develop a clean, clear website design. We used lots of white space to keep the site feeling open, but still professional. We also built them a 'Latest News' section that they could update themselves - in fact, the whole website is powered by a content management system. Prepit can log in to a back-end system and make updates or changes to their website whenever they want to, from any computer with an internet connection.

Check out the Prepit website here - www.prepit.co.uk

Need a website? There's a new online project planner.

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 12:13:00 +0100

Try our online project planner »

We've just put a new project planner online to make it faster and easier for you ask about buidling or improving your website.

When you're thinking about a new web design, there are so many options to choose from that it's easy to get bogged down. Often people just want a guide price without having to commit to long drawn out conversations and potential sales-pestering

Our online project planner will help to give you an idea of what your budget should be if you want to build a website and brings you business (and makes you money).

Simply choose the options you're interested in, send us the info, and we'll get back to you with time frame, pricing, and any other information that you need to make the right decision.

Try our online project planner »

You won't see a huge list of options, because we include all the essentials in every website we design and build. You'll be able to:

Proudly tell people about your beautiful web design - Your web designer has over 10 years of experience
Control your own website at no extra cost - Your website comes with a Content Management System (CMS)
Improve your Google ranking - Use your step by step search engine optimisation (SEO) wizard or let us handle your ongoing SEO for you.
See how many visitors you get every day (and a lot more) - Check your detailed website statistics
Get up and running without confusion, we’ll handle the technical stuff - Your domain name, hosting, email are included
Relax because we support you - Most support requests are answered in under one hour.

Try our online project planner »

Email is getting smarter - Google's Priority Inbox

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:20:00 +0100

If you run a business website, you probably get too much email. Here at Siteclick, we get hundreds of emails everyday and we know what it feels like to feel bogged-down when you see your over-flowing inbox.

But it seems Google is coming to the rescue again with their new 'Priority Inbox' feature that launches in beta this week.

The Priority Inbox can take all of your business email, or messages you get through your website, and sort it so the most important messages are brought to your attention first. It's kind of like having a personal assistant go through your email and tell which ones are the most important.

Also, the longer you use it, the more it 'learns' about what emails are the most important to you. It will get more accurate the more you use it - saving you time and potential angst.

The beta of Google Priority Inbox is rolling out this week.

You can read more about it on the BBC Website ('Google's priority inbox aims to conquer e-mail overload') or on Google's Blog ('Email overload? Try Priority Inbox').

Google's priority inbox aims to conquer e-mail overload

New website - Lavender World

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:08:00 +0100

We're excited to announce the launch of the Lavender World website. Lavender World is the place you can go to buy all of your Lavender-related products. It's also a good place to hang out if you like purple. At Siteclick we're especially taken with this awesome purple washing up bowl :)

We worked with Lavender World to design and develop them an ecommerce website so they can sell products easily online. They also manage their own website using a back end system that lets them to add procucts, dispatch orders, view sales reports, create special offers and discount codes and lots more.

Check out the Lavender World website here - www.lavenderworld.co.uk

New Website - Voss Street Furniture

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:44:00 +0100

Today marks the launch of the Voss Street Furniture website. Voss Street Furniture specialise in making stylish, robust street furniture. In fact, they did all of the street furniture for Broadmead Shopping Centre and Cabot Circus in Bristol.

We worked with Voss to design and develop them a website that let their beautiful furniture design 'do the talking'. Voss was looking for something simple and elegant. They also wanted their audience to be able to get to their furniture quickly, without having to hunt around.

Check out the Voss Street Furniture website here - www.vossstreetfurniture.com

Get inspiration and ideas from the new Google Images design

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:20:00 +0100

Just a quick update that we thought you might find helpful.

Here at Siteclick, we love Google Images - it's a one-stop-shop for visual inspiration of any kind. With over 10 billion images indexed, you'll almost certainly find what you're looking for.

Google Images has just changed it's design so it's much easier to use.

Searching will now return a compact layout of tiles, making it easier to scan through lots of images quickly.

Also, hovering over an image will open a larger preview including more details including title, a link to the image, the size in pixels and the website it's found on.

To see the new design in action go to www.google.co.uk and search for 'Clifton Suspension Bridge'. Then click on 'Images for Clifton Suspension Bridge'

It's worth mentioning that these images may not be available for commercial use for your website - so do contact the owner and check the copyright.

But most of all, enjoy the new layout and the free inspiration!

Our new website - why the new look?

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:22:00 +0100

Today marks the launch of our new website design, and we have a big ol' crush on it - but why the new look?

Here's a quick run-down of the improvements we've made to our web design:

Examples of what we do - where you want them

Most people that come to visit us online hang out on the portfolio page. So we made it really easy for you to see samples of our work right from the home page. We added a gallery of our latest work with big beautiful pictures and also a place to feature our most recent website.

Easy access to our blog

Based on web stats, our portfolio page is the most popular, but the blog page is next in line. We're chuffed you keep coming back and we've made it easier to see our three latest articles on the home page. You can also subscribe to our blog from the home page, too.

Twitter

We've added our latest tweet to our homepage so we can easily connect with you. It'll also keep you in-the-know about what we're doing right now.

Website footer of your dreams

We've made the footer of our new website work for its dinner. We've taken all of the information that you look for the most often (our services, testimonials, blog posts, social media info, and contact info) - and we've added it where you can find it quickly and easily. The same information appears at the bottom of every page to save you time when you're looking around.

Support - our obsession

We're really proud of the support we give you, so we thought we'd show you how important it is to us. On our support page, we're now publishing live information about how quickly we give support, and how reliable our website hosting is (our 'server up-time'). You can also easily submit a support ticket or pay an invoice online from our support page.

Let us know what you think!

We're itching for feedback about the new website, we'd appreciate if you'd leave us a comment at the bottom of this post. Don't be shy - and thanks for stopping by to check out our new website design!

New website - Clifton Rentals

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 11:37:00 +0100

We're pleased to announce the launch of the Clifton Rentals website that we built for Bob, a design agency based in Bristol. Clifton Rentals is a rental property listing website for properties in Clifton, Bristol (it does what it says on the tin!)

Bob brought us on board to do the technical development of the website while they provided the design. We work closely with Bob quite a bit these days and there are more projects on the way soon.

Check out the Clifton Rentals website here - www.clifton-rentals.co.uk

New website - Melody Antiques

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 12:49:00 +0100

We're delighted to announce the launch of a new website for Melody Antiques. We worked with Mike Melody to create an online antiques showcase - www.mikemelodyantiques.com

We worked in partnership with Level Films to design and build a website that includes video and other cool features, too.

Visitors can subscribe to a monthly email newsletter that will include new antique acquisitions. Visitors can also zoom in to see the finer details of individual pieces. Here's an example, just hover your mouse over the main image - Click to view the West Indian Specimen Table.

New website - Splendid Thing Media

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 11:41:00 +0100

We're pleased to announce the launch of Splendid Thing Media - a website that specialises in online media and communications training.

www.splendidthingmedia.com

Splendid Thing Media is aiming to be the top resource for online media and communciations training. With past clients that include the BBC, Open University, ITV and Imperial College in London - we're looking forward to watching their online success.

New support video for the SEO wizard

Tue, 18 May 2010 10:01:23 +0100

We've added a new support video to our online knowledge base. It will help our existing customers use the SEO Wizard that's built in to our CreationCentre content management system.

The SEO Wizard helps you add keywords and summaries to the code of your website - no technical knowledge is required.

Free Bristol stock photography for your website

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:59:00 +0100

Here are three free pictures of Bristol, courtesy of Siteclick. Feel free to use them for your website, your business literature, or print them out and hang them on your wall. :)

James Carmichael, the Managing Director, is often seen with a camera in his hand. A big thanks to James for sharing is work.

These pictures are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works license. You can freely distribute them, all we ask is that you link to www.siteclick.co.uk to give James credit for his work wherever these pictures are used.

We hope you enjoy!

What keywords are your competitors targeting on their website?

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 11:25:00 +0100

You can find out what keywords your competitors are using on their websites using the Google Keyword Tool. If you're like us, you check on your Google ranking frequently and are always trying to climb over those listed one or two places higher.

Google have launched a new beta version of their Keyword Tool. They've made it much more obvious that you can search a website for the keywords it's using.

That means you can enter the web address of your competition's website to see what keywords they're targeting. Or better yet, you can check out the websites that are listed on the first page of Google to see what keywords they're using.

Use Google Keyword Tool to check out the competition

Visit https://adwords.google.co.uk/select/KeywordToolExternal
To use the new beta version click 'New Take a look at the New Keyword Tool (beta).'
In the 'Website' field, enter your competition's website
Click 'Search'
You'll see a list of keywords being used by that website.

Which keywords are valuable?

Each keyword shown comes with some helpful information. As well as a list of keywords that website is targeting, you'll see the following columns:

Competition - How many other websites are competing for those keywords. A full green bar means there's a lot of competition (lower is better).
Tip - Click on the 'Competition' heading to sort by the level of competition. This will also work for global and local monthly searches.
Global monthly searches - The number of searches made worldwide in a month. The more searches that are made, the more likely you are to get visitors (higher is better).
Local monthly searches - The number of searches made in your local area in a month. This one is especially useful if you're a business with a local client base. The more searches that are made, the more likely you are to get visitors (higher is better)
Local search trends - The fluctuation of local monthly searches displayed as a small bar graph.

In a nutshell, you're looking for keywords with a high monthly search, and low competition. This will give you a rough idea of which keywords may give you the best return for your website.

Eight simple things a website needs

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:38:33 +0000

Here are a few simple tips that your website should follow:

Attractive design - you don't have to pay thousands for a custom design, but your website does have to be attractive. Clean and professional is a great place to start.
A call to action - tell your visitors what you want them to do and they'll be more likely to do it.
Contact details on every page - Someone loves your business and has decided to get in touch. Awesome! Make sure it's easy for them to reach you.
Current content - that means content with a current date attached to it. Import your twitter feed to your home page, have your latest blog post listed on your home page, something that shows that your website has been updated recently.
Search or sitemap - give your visitors every tool they need to find the information they're looking for. This means providing a sitemap or a (good) search feature.
Content that a 12 year old can read - Your content should be kept as simple as possible. Avoid jargon like the plague and stick to the facts. No flowery language required - but don't be afraid to let a little personality show through every now and again.
A way home - clicking the logo should take visitors back to the home page, it's what many visitors will expect.
Website statistics - you'll never know if your website is doing well or going down the pan unless you track your web stats. Google Analytics is free to install and quick to learn. Once you get in to your web stats, you'll love itÃ¢ÂÂ¦

Think something is missing from this list? Contact us at info@siteclick.co.uk and we'll add it!

New website - Chescombe Trust

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:33:00 +0000

We're pleased to launch a new website for Bristol-based Charity, Chescombe Trust - www.chescombetrust.co.uk

They've been awarded the highest possible rating for Care Homes and are currently building a new premises as a part of their success. We designed and built them a website to help keep people up to date.

Accessibility was on the top of the list for this sight. We made sure that Chescombe Trust's new website is:

In keeping with current accessibility guidelines - WCAG 2 AAA Compliant
Designed using high-contrast colours making it easy to read
Resizeable - it's easy to make the text larger and small using the buttons in the upper right corner
Built to work well with screen readers. Screen readers read a web page aloud to people that are visually impaired
Hand-coded from scratch using valid HTML and CSS

We welcome any feedback that may improve our work - contact us using the form at the bottom of this page and let us know what you think!

Your website visitors expect you to be social

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:23:00 +0000

No doubt that you've heard all about social networking and social media. According to some stats on Facebook there are 400 million active users. Twitter boasts an estimated 5 million users according to internet marketing giant, HubSpot.

The future of the web is social

Facebook and Twitter are essentially about the same thing - communication. They both allow you to keep in touch with people. They'll even allow you to keep in touch with people you've never met (some of them in sky-high places).

Want to say something to Bill Gates? Go right ahead. Fancy a twitter-chat with Steven Fry? Be my guest. These accounts have been verified by Twitter so you know that they're linked to the right people. Essentially, it's a powerful way to get in touch.

Social interaction is becoming an expectation

Clients, consumers and even complete strangers are beginning to see communication as their right. The news has long been open to public input with blog comments and invitations to 'text your views'. Many businesses have twitter accounts where they publicly manage praise, problems and complaints for all the world to see.

Don?t worry, be social

It may seem scary to be 'gettable' in such a public way. What if someone leaves a bad review?

Be prepared for good, bad and luke warm feedback. Know that it will happen, and try not to worry about it. The only way to get perfect feedback is to be perfect. If you do your best work, people will usually understand that you're only human.

The truth is, feedback is the best part. You can use it to become better at what you do. We run a handful of blogs, twitter accounts and an online forum so we know how it works first hand. The occasional constructive comments are dealt with quickly and with a level head.

Get started

Being social on the web is a great way to continue an open conversation with clients or consumers - get involved now and reap the rewards.

Getting a better Google ranking: is link swapping bad?

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 10:05:38 +0000

Recently a couple of our web design clients have asked us about link swapping. They wanted to know if it's a bad idea (will it 'get them in trouble'?) and also if it's still a powerful way to get a better Google ranking.

What is link swapping?

Link swapping describes when two website owners include a link to each other's websites.

Getting inbound links from other websites is one of the most effective ways to improve your ranking on Google. Link swapping is one way to get more inbound links for your site.

Is link swapping bad?

Not necessarily. There is one word that Google always uses when describing best practices - relevance. Are the links relevant and useful for the people browsing the website? Keep focusing on your website visitors and what will benefit them. You won't go far wrong.

Avoid the bad guys

Outgoing links to 'bad neighbourhoods' might hurt your ranking. If spammy, inappropriate or irrelevant links are made from your site, Google will catch on and your ranking could suffer.

Too much of a good thing

Excessive link swapping can also be penalised because it's unnatural. Inbound links to your site should appear steadily over time, not all at once.

Best practices

The best case scenario is that you create content on your website so interesting and compelling that people start linking to you naturally. Your number one goal should always be to create interesting, original web content for you visitors.

Will it help my website's ranking?

Yes, if it's done right. One of our favourite new SEO blogs, Coffee Kicks just wrote a great article a bout deep-linking. Deep linking describes when other websites link to pages 'inside' your website (rather than the home page) - it's worth reading if you're looking at build up inbound links to your website.

You can also read what Google thinks about link schemes on the Google blog.

Website recommended by the Good Web Guide

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:05:00 +0000

A website we designed and developed has just been recommended by the Good Web Guide.

They've reviewed www.MyKidsCan.co.uk and called it "an extremely useful resource for parents and their children" and "the UK's most comprehensive family directory."

Read the full review here »

The Good Web Guide are "the definitive guide to the best sites on the internet." They asses websites and provide an unbiased reviews.

We're chuffed that the site is doing so well (and so are MyKidsCan)! It's lovely news to get on a Friday afternoon.

Faster help with Siteclick SupportCentre

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:53:00 +0000

Some clients have already noticed in January that we've been trialling a new support system which lets us help you faster and more efficiently.

It seems to be working a treat, so we're now launching it for all clients - if you have a support query (help using software, problems with hosting or email, etc) please now log on to the following address rather than sending an email:

support.siteclick.co.uk

Why the change? You get a record showing all the solutions we've provided and we can measure how fast we're responding to queries, our target being to resolve issues within 1 hour. If you're a customer of ours, please feel free to try and out and we'll get right back to you.

We hope you find it helpful!

Being social can help you rank in Google

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:06:00 +0000

On 27th January, 2010 Google started rolling out Social Search on Google.com (in beta). Social search will return relevant content created by your online contacts (for example, their blog posts or tweets) when you do an online search. These results may be more relevant to you because they're from sources you know and trust.

For example - say you did a search for 'web design Bristol'. Google would show you a list of web design companies based in Bristol. However, you may also begin to see content from your online contacts appear in the search. These results will be labeled 'Results from your social circle'.

So if one of your online contacts blogged about how amazing their Bristol-based web designer is - you would see this blog appear in your search. Or if one of your contacts tweeted about a new web design company that they're working with - this tweet would appear in your search results.

These results may be more relevant to you because you know and trust these people - so you're more likely to believe what they say.

On the flip-side, the content you create may also appear in your contacts' searches.

Although Google Social Search is brand-new and only just getting started, it's a sign that businesses and individuals need to be creating regularly published, interesting and relevant content.

If you'd like access to Google Social Search, you'll need to set up a free Google profile and link it to your online profiles (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc.). You'll also need to use Google.com, it hasn't yet been launched for Google.co.uk. More information can be found on Google's blog.

Free business networking and seminars in Bristol

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:50:00 +0000

If you're a business owner in Bristol, then this event is for you. The Best of Bristol Exhibition offers open networking, business seminars and over 100 exhibitors. Last year the event sold out quickly and caused quite a buzz.

Free-to-attend business seminars are being led by Bristolian experts including a representative from the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Full details of the seminars can be found on the Business Extra website »

Delegates pay 10.00 to attend and receive a buffet lunch, free tea and coffee, access to all of the business seminars and open networking included in the price.

We'll be exhibiting on the day and offering free web design help and advice for Bristol businesses. Stop by, say hello, and pick up some of the freebies that we'll have on offer.

The Best of Bristol show takes place on 2nd March at the Mercure Holland House Hotel and Spa in the centre of Bristol from 10:30am to 3:30am. Details on how to book can be found on the Best of Bristol website »

An Evening with Colston Hall, Bristol

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 08:52:00 +0000

Last night we spent the night sipping beverages and touring Colston Hall in Bristol. GWE Business West regularly plan evening events for its members - sometimes the venues are pretty stunning. For example, we've networked at the Roman Baths in Bath, and the S.S. Great Britain and Colston Hall in Bristol.

I learned about Colston Hall's education programme for young people. It turns out that they have amazing facilities for young people in Bristol that want to get involved with music. We cheekily asked for a tour of the educational music facilities (it wasn't 'on the menu', but they seemed happy to show us around). I was impressed by what I saw. Rehearsal space, recording space, and equipment to help young people learn how to mix, master, and produce their own music.

They also host learning workshops and invite working musicians in to talk about their working lives.

I encourage people to keep these facilities in mind, and spread the word. These facilities are free to use for 15-18 year olds - pretty amazing when you think of it. There's more info on the Education section of the Colston Hall website.

_{(photo used courtesy of Colston Hall)}

Are you safe when you're browsing the web?

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:19:00 +0000

This week both Germany and France issued country-wide warnings against using Internet Explorer. The web browser contains security flaws that could leave your computer open to malicious attacks.

Earlier this month 'highly sophisticated and targeted attacks' were made on top internet/tech companies including Google and Adobe. The companies were attacked partially due to a security problem in Internet Explorer. Microsoft have admitted being partially at fault and are taking steps to improve their browser.

Internet Explorer 6 is considered the most vulnerable. Anyone using this version of IE should upgrade to a newer version immediately. To find out what browser you're using, visit this website - http://www.thismachine.info/

Better yet, use a different, safer browser. We recommend using Firefox for browsing the internet. It's free to download, quick to install and transfers your old info from your previous browser. The best part is that it's about 8 times faster than Internet Explorer - you'll be able to browse the internet more quickly.

Download a new, safer browser:

More Information about this issue:

France warns against Internet Explorer use (Telegraph)
German government warns against using MS Explorer (BBC)
Behind the attacks on Google (CNET)

New Yorkshire Lavender website launched

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 13:08:00 +0000

The new Yorkshire Lavender website is online and can be seen at www.yorkshirelavender.com.

We helped Yorkshire Lavender launch their new site last week with a new e-commerce feature that lets visitors buy lavender products online. In only one week Yorkshire Lavender sold enough from their online shop to cover the ongoing costs of running their website which is fantastic news!

We're looking forward to helping with Yorkshire Lavender's ongoing success on 2010.

If you have any feedback about the new website, we'd love to hear from you - use the contact form at the bottom of this page to get in touch with us and let us know. All feedback is welcome and we might even put a quote from you on our website, with a link back to you (only with your permission, of course).

And how could I forget? Happy New Year! :)

Struggling with Twitter? Try TweetDeck

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:56:00 +0000

If you've just signed up for a Twitter account, and you're anything like us, you may be wondering what the fuss is about. At first it seems like simply a place where you can post status updates - just like a myriad of other sites.

It's only when you start looking at some of the other tools that are built on top of Twitter that it starts to get exciting.

Tweetdeck is one such tool - and it's free. It allows you to search Twitter for particular topics and see tweets appearing in real-time - so you'll always have the latest info about your business sector, your competitors or your customers.

You can set up searches for certain keywords, for example we have searches set up for 'CreationCentre' and 'Siteclick' so we're notified if someone is tweeting about us - we can then speak to them via Twitter (using Tweetdeck) to see if they need help or have any feedback for us.

It also let's you manage multiple Twitter accounts, so if you have a personal account and a business account you can easily manage them both from one place.

We manage eight different Twitter accounts using Tweetdeck and it has seriously cut down on the admin time we spend updating our tweets. You can even view and manage your Facebook account from Tweetdeck (ahem, all for business, of course)

First, you'll need to sign up for a free Twitter account at https://twitter.com
Then download Tweetdeck for free at http://tweetdeck.com

Then launch Tweetdeck and let the fun begin!

Gecko - Reinventing Event Space

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:35:00 +0000

We're excited to be working on a new website for Gecko - a company that offers gorgeous tents for hire.

But Gecko doesn't hire out your average, bog-standard tents - they're offering something unique. Your tent will look more like something that's grown organically out of the ground - graceful curves and peaks that catch the light and leave your guests speechless (at least for a second).

Gecko asked us to design their branding and their website from the ground up. We've worked up their new logo and we're now working on building their new website.

We'll keep you posted about their new site and let you know when it's online! There will be lots of pictures of these stunning structures - it's something you have to see!

New website on the way - Rally4Real

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:31:43 +0000

We've started work on a website for Rally4Real, a rally driving experience company (you can check out their holding page at www.rally4real.co.uk). Rally4Real specialise in the real thing - real rally cars, real rally drivers all on a real rally stage. Add all of it together and it leads to some real excitement for everyone that hops on board.

Naturally, we feel we should test their services in order to truly understand how it works - we'll keep you posted. :)

Does Google use the keywords meta tag?

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:54:00 +0100

We're often asked the simple question: "how can I improve my Google ranking?"

Sometimes clients are particularly interested in setting the "meta keywords" tag within their HTML code. This tag was invented in the early days of web search, and simply lets you attach a list of relevant keywords to each web page so it can be indexed.

The problem with this approach is it's open to spam - you can easily attach keywords which have nothing to do with the page content. Because of this, search engines developed more reliable methods for indexing content. You can hear Google's Matt Cutts clarify in the video below that Google does not use the keywords tag at all to index pages.

That's not to say that developing a list of keywords isn't a part of the SEO process - in fact it's crucial. It's just that the strategy should be to place the keywords in appropriate places within the page content itself.

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New website for Clinic Express

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:20:00 +0100

We've been working with Clinic Express, a private health clinic that serves Bristol and the South West of the UK. We're excited and pleased to announce the launch of their new website, www.clinic-express.co.uk.

Clinic Express redesigned their previous website and were looking for a clean, fresh look. They also wanted to feature their online shop and the screening services they offer.

We worked with them to create a bespoke website design and transferred their content across from their previous site to help make the whole process hassle free. Check out Clinic Express and see what you think!

My Kids Can add Facebook log in

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 08:48:00 +0100

We've been working with My Kids Can (www.mykidscan.co.uk) to allow their visitors to log in with their Facebook accounts. Once visitors log in, they can rate and write reviews of any of the businesses listed - and the best part is that they can then post the review to their Facebook wall so their Friends can see it.

We're excited about these improvements and we've even logged in to leave a couple of reviews ourselves! To see how it work, check out www.mykidscan.co.uk and log in with your Facebook account.

If you want to see it in action - find a business in your local area and write a review to let My Kids Can know what you think :)

What is Twitter?

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:57:00 +0100

Everyone is talking about Twitter... 'tweets', 're-tweets', 'direct messages', 'tinyurl's, it's a smorgasbord of new terminology!

What does it all mean? Is it just another flash-in-the-pan trend? What's the point? Can it help my business? Well be running a series of articles over the next couple of months to help you understand and use Twitter.

Topic 1 - What is Twitter?

When you use Twitter or you 'tweet', you're answering the question "What are you up to right now?" You're tweets are limited to being short (no more than 140 characters - 1 or 2 sentences) and you can include links to websites if you wish. To give you an idea of how it works, here some examples of our past tweets:

New website for Euro-Pacific Partnerships launched - this project was a blast, our contact, Liz, is awesome to deal with http://bit.ly/l2lCf
Sketching out a website design for a Bristol law firm - loving using a pencil and paper instead of a 'puter...
It's coffee time! Say it with me everybody... COFFEE TIIIIIIIIME!

Twitter Terminology

As soon as you start using Twitter, you?ll notice a whole range of new language. Here?s a quick list of definitions that you might find useful. You don?t have to use any of these terms, they?re all optional ? but once you?ve gotten used to them, they make Twitter a lot more versatile.

@

Put the 'at' symbol in front of someone twitter username to talk to them directly or reference them.
Example: @siteclick How do I add a picture gallery to my website?
We would see this tweet directed at us in our Twitter account and be able to respond via Twitter as well.

RT

RT stands for 're-tweet'. If you read someone?s tweet that you like you can re-tweet it so your followers will also see it.
Example: I couldn?t agree more! RT @siteclick Internet Explorer is making me lose the will to live?
In this example ?I couldn?t agree more? is what you?ve added. ?RT @siteclick? shows that you?re passing on one of our tweets. ?Internet Explorer is making me lose the will to live?? is our original tweet that you?re passing on.

D

D stands for ?Direct Message?. Putting a D in front of someone?s @username let?s you send them a private tweet that only they can read. You can only send direct messages to people that you follow on Twitter.
Example: D @siteclick I?ve finished the copy writing, just have to finalise it and I?ll email it across for you to proof.
We?ll receive this message via Twitter. The ?D? means no one on twitter can see this message but us at Siteclick.

http://bit.ly/l2lCf
This is an example of a shortened URL. Shortened URLs were created to save you space in your tweets. Since you only get 140 characters for your tweets, a shortened URL will leave you more space for your message.

#

This is a hash tag. Placing a hash tag in front of a popular word will turn it into a tag. People can then search for these tags within twitter to see all of the relevant tweets. You can have as many tags per tweets as you like (although it can become hard to read)
Example: Great article by BusinessLink - Plan to grow your business http://tiny.cc/DKpFs #small-business
'Great article by Business Link' is our description, 'Plan to grow your business' is the title of the article, ?http://tiny.cc/DKpFs? is a shortened URL that leads to the article, ?#small-business? is a tag to let everyone know that it?s a good article for small businesses.

The Next Step

Our next article about Twitter will discuss the benefits of using Twitter and will include tips on how to get started tweeting right away. You can subscribe to our blog via RSS to be notified of our free hints and tips as they become available.

CreationCentre for Care Homes website

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:43:03 +0100

Alexandra Homes is a Specialist, Residential Care Service for adults (18 to 65) with Asperger Syndrome and Autistic Spectrum Disorders. There are two registered homes, Alexandra House in Knowle and Ash View House, in Kingswood in the Bristol area.

Alexandra Homes had an existing website design that they were happy with, but couldn't update it themselves. They needed the facility to update their own website in their own time, without having to pay for changes.

We worked with them so they could keep the design they love, but we 'plugged in' CreationCentre so they could start making updates without constantly having to pay a developer to do it for them.

We just got a great testimonial back from them, so we thought we'd share it with you!

"The service from Siteclick was fantastic. From the initial meeting at a trade show, the whole process was very, easy, quick and efficient. The service was first class and the finished product was great too. I only wish we had known about the service earlier."

John Duggan, Alexandra Care Homes

Thanks John! We're happy to help and we're looking forward to continue working with you.

New website for award-winning tourist destination

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:00:00 +0100

We're pleased to announce that we'll be working with the award-winning tourist destination, Yorkshire Lavender.

Yorkshire Lavender continues to be one of the most popular tourist attractions in Yorkshire and has been recognised by both the Yorkshire Tourist Board and the British Tourist Board. It's located in the beautiful Howardian Hills and promises stunning views, along with a cafe that provides home-made treats like scones and ice-cream. If you've never tried lavender ice cream, we highly recommend it!

We've begun work on the design and Yorkshire Lavender will launch their new website before the end of July 2009.

New website launched - My Kids Can

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:02:00 +0100

My Kids Can is now online! We worked with entrepreneur, Sam Goodwill to design and build this quickly-growing online directory for parents.

Since its launch, we've watched as listings have poured in (and they're continuing to do so!) It's an exciting time and we wish Sam all the best with his new success.

We're working a host of new features for My Kids Can, so watch this space for new updates and features in June.

If you know parents that are looking for a great resource, or any businesses that would like to add a listing the mykidscan.co.uk for FREE, here's the details you'll need:

www.mykidscan.co.uk
Follow My Kids Can on Twitter

CreationCentre CMS video online

Thu, 28 May 2009 17:34:00 +0100

We've just added a video to our website showing Creation Centre 2, our new drag and drop content management system (CMS).

It covers several of the most popular features of the software:

Creating pages
Adding text and images
Adding galleries and videos
Inserting links
Publishing

You can check it out now on the CreationCentre page. Enjoy...

Five free online marketing tips

Fri, 22 May 2009 10:30:00 +0100

They say you can't get something for nothing - well that's not always quite true! We've come up with a list of free services to help market your business online:

LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com a social networking site for business. Once you've joined you can link up with other contacts and this helps you build an online network. You can post your profile, skills, employment history and so on.
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com I'm sure you will have heard of Facebook in the news, and most people use if to find friends/family etc. But you can also set up a 'company' page for business use.
Free Index - http://www.freeindex.co.uk A popular free online business directory.
Twitter - http://www.twitter.com A place where you can regularly post short (140 characters) status messages. This could be on a particular topic relevant to your business area. If you get lots of 'followers' (people who subscribe to your messages) this can help you become an authoritative voice in your field. It can also help with networking as you can link up with other contacts. Why not post a promotional discount code in one of your 'tweets'?
ECadamy - http://www.ecademy.com not a quite such an elegant website, but it can be useful for online networking.

Top tip: be sure to link back to your main company website from the profiles you create.

Siteclick go green in Bristol

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 11:00:00 +0100

Siteclick are excited to be a part of Bristol Green Capital initiative!

The Bristol Partnership are calling for Bristol businesses to take action to help make the city a leading UK green capital. We've jumped on board and updated our green policies to make sure that we do our part in keeping the world clean and green.

We will continue to recycle whenever possible and use materials from sustainable resources. We've also started recycling all of our food waste which has cut the amount of rubbish we throw away by almost half. To reduce our carbon emissions, we will aim to reduce our car-travel by 50% by using public transportation or walking whenever possible.

And last, but certainly not least, all Siteclick website's will continue to use UK-based, carbon-neutral hosting. So you can rest easy knowing that your Siteclick website will leave a lasting impression on your visitors, but not on the environment.

If you have any questions about our green policies, or any ideas about how we could improve, we'd love to hear from you. Please contact us via our website or email Emi Carmichael at info@siteclick.co.uk .

Siteclick have moved to Bristol

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Siteclick has moved! We relocated to Bristol on the 20th of March. Bristol is a science city with a strong focus on digital sciences and engineering - it's the perfect place for us to be!

If you want to send us anything in the post after 20th March please use the address shown below. We'll also include our new address in all of our future emails (located in the footer). Our phone number will remain the same (0845 094 8405):

Siteclick Ltd
St. Brandon's House
27-29 Great George Street
Bristol
BS1 5QT

All business and website services will be maintained without interruption during the moving process. All Siteclick websites will be unaffected and no action has to be taken by any of our customers.

Questions? Please contact us or call Emi Carmichael on 0845 094 8405 with any questions or concerns - she's happy to help you as always!

Venturefest Success!

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 13:34:00 +0000

Venturefest has come and gone in a flurry of activity and excitement. We arrived on time, smiled and chatted all day, and went home exhausted but happy.

We had an incredible day! We won our stand at Venturefest along with a place in the Innovation Showcase for our new CMS (Content Management System), Creation Centre. We wanted to live up to our 'innovatation award' so we used Venturefest to launch the newest version of Creation Centre and gave hundreds of demonstrations to the crowds.

We were amazed by the reaction from both business owners and re-sellers and we spent the following weeks setting up countless meetings for business websites or re-selling accounts. It couldn't have been a better opportunity to launch the newest version of Creation Centre - if you missed it call us now on 0845 094 8405 and we can show you how it works by connecting to your computer and giving you a brief tour.

Want to sneak a peek at Venturefest? Watch this short Venturefest video (and it even has Emi in it!) - http://www.blychannel.co.uk/videos/innovation-showcase/

Hosting improvements

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:50:00 +0000

The following notice applies to customers who joined us before February 2008 and use TControl. Customers using CreationCentre will not be affected.

Please be advised that we will need to briefly shut down one of our servers while technicians perform an internal hardware realignment.

The realignment will be performed overnight on 05 March 2009. Technicians will begin at 11:00 PM and finish by 5:00 AM the next morning. The server will not be accessible for up to three hours during this time.

Update: all upgrades performed successfully.

New look for Siteclick

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:15:00 +0000

Have you noticed anything different about us? Perhaps it's our brand new logo that we launched in February!

After a fantastic first year, we wanted to freshen up so we re-branded and launched our new website - you can see it at www.siteclick.co.uk. We're also planning to launch several micro-sites that will let you 'have a play' with samples of our website updating software and more. We'll keep you informed in future newsletters - or you can always read the latest news here our blog. Watch this space!

Gearing up for Venturefest

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:30:00 +0000

We're really excited to have won a place at the Innovation Showcase at Venturefest Yorkshire 2009!

The event is tomorrow (Wednesday 11th February, 2009) and we're looking forward to seeing you there. For more information, and to free registration, head over to the Venturefest website

We're busy making our final preparations and all is going well - we hope to see many of our existing customers there as we will be previewing CreationCentre v2, which all existing CreationCentre customers will receive as part of their package.

The new version includes a whole raft of features and improvements, including:

RSS feeds
Podcasts
Form field validation
SEO wizard
Improved URL handling
Status updates on the Dashboard
Improved file handling and compatibility with MS Office 2007 formats
Redesigned work area to allow easier editing on smaller screens
Improved workflow for inserting links and uploading images
Banner management - allows easily customisable banners
Integration with ClearMailer email marketing solution

Internet Explorer security scare

Sat, 06 Dec 2008 12:18:00 +0000

Today, a security flaw has been announced in Microsoft Internet Explorer, which is so serious it could potentially enable a hacker remote access to files on your computer.

We therefore recommend switching across to Mozilla Firefox, which is available for free, at least until the security scare is over.

We always recommend using Firefox anyway, not only because it is generally regarded as more secure, but also because it is faster and is more standards compliant.

Now we know that 'standards compliant' doesn't sound very sexy, but if all web browsers adopted the standards, it would take us (and every other web developer in the world) less time to complete each website which would mean lower cost, lower stress websites for everybody. Now wouldn't that be nice?

Siteclick are winners!

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 12:18:00 +0000

We are so excited!! SiteClick have been recognised as one of the top technology companies under three years old in Yorkshire, winning a place in the Innovation Showcase at Venturefest Yorkshire 2009.

Venturefest is an expo of Yorkshire's most inspiring science, technology and knowledge entrepreneurs and will be held at York Racecourse on February 11th 2009 from 8:30am - 6pm. It promises to be a fabulous networking opportunity so we hope to see you there!

We think our software, Creation Centre, got their attention. Using Creation Centre anyone can drag and drop interactive 'elements' right into their website like building blocks - without needing to know anything about programming! Building an e-commerce store, capturing data about customers or prospects, starting a blog, or adding multimedia such as image galleries, audio and video is easy and quick for anyone with basic computer skills.

Now every small business can have an in-house web genius - you!

If you'd like more information, or just a friendly chat, contact us.

15 tips to help market your website

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:17:00 +0000

Submit your website to major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN
Add your business details to Google's business listing service
Remember to put your web address on all your business stationery, cards, signs, event displays, and vehicles if you have them
Add a link to your website from your email signature
Ensure your website copy contains 'keywords' - the words visitors are likely to search for to find your business, particularly in the main page title and headings
If you use Creation Centre to manage your website, ensure you type in 'summary' and 'keywords' in for each page
Find online trade directories that are local or relate to your business sector, and add your details to them, including your web address
Contact other related websites, and agree to exchange links (place a link from your website to theirs, and vice versa)
Post helpful tips or advice to others in online forums, adding your web address to your footer when posting
Contact existing customers and tell them about your new website
Keep your website content fresh and up-to-date to encourage repeat visits
Ensure your website emphasises your unique selling points, such as personal service or unbeatable price
Consider adding additional free content to your website, such as articles or information, to attract additional visitor.
Consider online pay-per-click or banner marketing such as Google Adwords
Consider traditional methods such as newspaper, magazine, radio, television or postal adverts

New Features for CreationCentre

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:15:00 +0100

After feedback from you, we've added some cool new features to Creation Centre that will help you to grow and advertise your business online evern more!

Blog Feature

Drag in a Blog Element into any page to begin a blog
Use your blog element to display your posts, your blog catagories, or your blog archive
Click 'New Post' to write a new post
Organise blog entries into categories
All blog posts are also archived for you

MP3 Player

Drag in an MP3 Player Element to add a music track

New Picture Gallery

We've revamped the picture gallery so that you can use it to display your pictures as tiles OR as a slideshow

Click on a tile to see a larger version of the picture
Use it as a picture gallery
Use it to display a list of logos
Use it to display a list of sponsors

Download your form-responses

Visitors fill out your form online
You receive an email when each form is sent
Each form-response is also saved in a 'downloadable' spreadsheet in your Creation Centre account
Use this spreadsheet for e-newletters, printing delegate information such as name badges, or just as a record of every visitor that has filled out your online form

Accept payments online

Drag in a Buy Button Element to create a button that will allow your visitors to buy items from your website
Drag in a Basket Element so your visitors can see what they've added to their online basket
Accept payment using PayPal

Update your website in minutes

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:12:00 +0100

You might think that managing your own website takes training, expertise or (worst of all) time. But updating your own site can be done in minutes and can make the difference between a visitor leaving your site without a second-glance, or picking up the phone and contacting you.

Here are some quick and easy tips to updating your site:

Latest News = Greatest News - Having a section with your business's latest news is a great idea. Any time your company has a new press release, launches a new product, or even hires a new employee, it should be added your Latest News. Now your visitors will see how active your business is! It's also a great reason for past visitors to return to your site, to see what's new with you.
Blog, baby! - Writing a blog is a quick way to drive visitors to your site. A good way to get started is to blog about the very next question that one of your customers asks. Chances are, there are thousands of other people with the same question.
Use their news - If you can't think of your own news to write, find someone else's! Lots of people use mainstream news articles as inspiration for writing their blogs, especially if it's relevant to their business. But be careful about copying content directly from other sites, you can be penalised by search engines if you're caught doing this.
Ask the Expert - Why not set up and 'Ask the Expert' section on your site? Your visitors can submit questions via and online form on your site and an expert will respond with an answer that will also be posted on your website. This is a sure-fire way to make sure all of the latest, most relevant questions are being answered.
Interviews - Send a list of questions to an expert in your field, then post the interview on your website! Always make sure to maintain the integrity of the interview, don't change any of the answers after they've been sent to you.
Add customer's content - Set up a way for your customers to send you content after they've used your products and services. Many of your customers may have pictures or blogs related to working with you, just ask! With their permission, you can post this on your site for your visitors to see.
How-to guides - Everyone loves a good 'how-to'. Write a series of quick guides that will help to solve your customer's problems. If you become known for your helpful 'how-to's, your visitors will come back again and again for your hints and tips.
Copywriters: modern day superheroes - Of course, the easiest way to keep your site up to date is to hire a copywriter to write new content for you. The most common way to do this is to have a pro-copywriter write articles for your business. You would then post these on your website to drive visitors to your site. You can set up a schedule, or even just try it as a one-off. Either way, you'll be thrilled every time a well-written, well-researched article magically appears in your email inbox!

Add content that will help or interest your customers and that's clearly relevant to your business. For an example, check out one of our customer's blogs and www.vanillablack.co.uk . They're a London-based vegetarian restaurant

Do you want to be in control of your own website, when you want, where you want? Contact us now, we're always happy to help!

CMS ? What's that??

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:11:00 +0100

We're not big fans of jargon or abbreviations so we'd like to shed some light on one of the buzz-word of the website world.

'CMS' stand for 'Content Management System'. A Content Management System is software that allows you to add or change the content of your website yourself.

News, text and images can become out-dated quickly in the fast-paced business world. Previously, making changes meant paying a web developer to do it for you. This can be costly and time-consuming and Content Management systems are the solution!

Ideally, a CMS is designed to be familiar from the first use, with buttons and menus that are similar to programs you're already familiar with. This means you can make changes instantly. Also, a CMS should track your visitor statistics so you can see which pages on your website are the most popular. Being aware of your most popular content means you can quickly and easily add more of what people want.

No Sloppy Copy - 5 tips for writing better website copy

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:00:00 +0100

Writing good copy is crucial to have a successful website, but it doesn't have to be a big song and dance! Here are 5 quick and easy ways to write better copy for you website.

Nice and tidy - This may seem obvious, be careful that your spelling and grammar is correct. Your visitors will lose confidence if there are lots of errors in your copy. Free web-browser, Firefox, offers a reliable (and free) addition that spell-checks everything you type within your web browser.
Keywords - You've heard it before and you'll hear it again, but that's because it's important! In order for Search Engines like Google to find your website, you should include keywords that will make it easier to find. For example, if you sold toasters you would want to include keywords like 'toast', 'bread', 'two slice', 'four slice', etcetera. Your keywords should appear in the title and main body of your website.

If you'd like to know more about keywords for your website, we offer a free keyword-checking service that will offer suggestions of the most useful words for your website. Contact us for more information.
Focus on your customer - It's important to write for Search Engines, but it's even more important to write for your visitors. Write copy that explains how your products or services will benefit your customers. For example, if you were selling a toaster with a new fast-toast setting:

Don't - Includes fast-toast feature
Do - Want more time to relax in the morning? New fast-toast option cuts wait-time in half so you can spend more time on what matters most.
Offer up potential problems and then provide the solution. Avoid long lists of features, flowery language or jargon. Write just like your target audience speaks in order inspire confidence.
Specific is terrific - Write copy that specifically tells your customers what you want them know. Avoid words like 'New and Improved' or 'Amazing' and choose more specific descriptions like 'Now fits thicker bread slices' or 'new crumb-tray technology means no more mess'
Be polite - Avoid using ALL CAPITALS, lots of bold, or hundreds of exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This can be distracting, or worse, annoying and Search Engines are 'learning' to ignore web pages with copy like this.

Wilf Williams Furniture - www.wilfwilliams.co.uk

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 11:00:00 +0100

Wilf Williams is an accomplished furniture maker based in York. His work is inspired by modernist architecture, minimalist sculpture and traditional Shaker design. He designs and builds bespoke furniture using primarily sustainablly sourced materials.

"Designing for a client's needs can be challenging. I design [and] craft a piece of furniture that incorporates their ideas and needs" - Wilf Williams

Wilf's work carefully balances function with aesthetics and form and he needed a website does the same. We worked closely with Wilf to develop www.wilfwilliams.co.uk, a clean design featuring a gallery of his work. Wilf can update his website's text and add/change images easily at no extra cost, so his visitors can always see his latest pieces.
Wilf Williams is an accomplished furniture maker based in York. His work is inspired by modernist architecture, minimalist sculpture and traditional Shaker design. He designs and builds bespoke furniture using primarily sustainablly sourced materials.

"Designing for a client's needs can be challenging. I design [and] craft a piece of furniture that incorporates their ideas and needs" - Wilf Williams

Wilf's work carefully balances function with aesthetics and form and he needed a website does the same. We worked closely with Wilf to develop www.wilfwilliams.co.uk, a clean design featuring a gallery of his work. Wilf can update his website's text and add/change images easily at no extra cost, so his visitors can always see his latest pieces.

James and Emi's music released across America

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 10:00:00 +0100

Back in May we told you some exciting news about our music being distributed all of the US! Now you can download it for yourself by visiting the Santa Margherita website! You can check it out (and download it for free):

- Visit the Santa Margherita Website
- Click on 'Host Your Own'
- Click on Music
- Click where is says 'Emi Jarvi - free download'

Then sit back and enjoy some free tunes on us!

SiteClick at the Yorkshire Business Market

Wed, 14 May 2008 12:01:00 +0100

SiteClick was happy to have a stand at the Yorkshire Business Market in Harrogate on 28thApril. The Yorkshire Business Market is a yearly Exhibition that allows businesses in the north of England to come together and showcase their products and services.

We wore our snazziest suits and biggest grins. We shook hands and handed out free cd-rom video-tours of our software and services all day.

We really enjoyed the atmosphere with businesses of all sizes taking part. We exchanged website hints and tips with fellow business owners, arranged meetings with those who wanted to know more and networked until sunset. We found it to be incredibly valuable and hope to take part again next year! SiteClick was happy to have a stand at the Yorkshire Business Market in Harrogate on 28thApril. The Yorkshire Business Market is a yearly Exhibition that allows businesses in the north of England to come together and showcase their products and services.

We wore our snazziest suits and biggest grins. We shook hands and handed out free cd-rom video-tours of our software and services all day.

We really enjoyed the atmosphere with businesses of all sizes taking part. We exchanged website hints and tips with fellow business owners, arranged meetings with those who wanted to know more and networked until sunset. We found it to be incredibly valuable and hope to take part again next year!

New Website!

Mon, 12 May 2008 12:00:00 +0100

We launched our new website this week! siteclick.co.uk has a new clean, bright and breezy look.

We don't like complicated or confusing things at SiteClick and we think you probably don't either. We wanted a look for our site that reflects what we do; We provide business owners like you with beautiful, simple and effective updateable websites.

We'd love to hear from you! Do you have feedback about SiteClick.co.uk? Would you like a fresh look for you website or some more information about how we can help you? Would you like to receive a free video-tour or arrange a complimentary demonstration? Get in touch!

Success Stories

Mon, 05 May 2008 15:45:00 +0100

Success Stories is a unique learning system which has been developed by Margaret Parkin over the last decade with the help of storytellers over the last two thousand years!

"Hearing a story actually changes our brain function; research has shown that... listening to a story can actually promote relaxation and reduce stress. Listening to a story also helps us to by-pass our normal, analytical functions; we actually become less critical, and more receptive to change and new ideas." - Margaret Parkin

For more information on how the art of story-telling can improve your business, visit www.success-stories.co.uk

James and Emi's Music News

Thu, 01 May 2008 11:58:00 +0100

Posted in music on 01/05/08

70,000 copies of a CD by James and Emi are being distributed all over the USA.

James (guitar, producer, engineer) and Emi (vocals) were approached by a major wine company in the States to arrange, record, mix and master 5 tracks of public domain material to be part of a national advertising campaign. The CD will be a give-away with 70,000 bottles of a top-selling wine in the United States. They will also be available for download from a promotional website when the campaign is launched.

The 5 tracks are a fusion of alt-pop and jazz that create a bridge between the Classic and Modern. They?re tunes you can sit back and relax to with a glass of your favourite wine.

James and Emi loved the challenge of nudging some old classics into the 21st Century, but this is a story with lots more to come. More details of where you can find the tracks will be included in next month?s newsletter.

Watch this space!