Archive about November, 2011

Saving money by spending money

Friday, November 18th, 2011

I am feeling very excited this morning as I have just upgraded my version of Adobe Design Premium Suite CS4 to CS5.5 thanks to a very good deal from Cancom (they offered 20% off!).

Adobe Creative Suite 4

So why does this save me money? Quite simply with the latest upgrades you can operate more efficiently, and I certainly noticed the difference in InDesign CS3 to CS4, their upgraded preflight function means I can check files for print so much quicker.

This time they have upgraded Dreamweaver and I can’t wait to see it in action!

Cornish Leaf and Coil Club website

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

The Cornish Leaf and Coil Club is a local club who enjoy 4×4 off roading and generally driving their Land Rovers and the like through mud.  Their website had become outdated and was due for a revamp, and they approached Hooper Graphics as they a local company so that any support or training could be provided quickly and easily.

Cornish Leaf and Coil Website

The Club wanted something that looked good and was easy to navigate.  They also to be able to update information themselves, allow members to post items for sale within a Classified Ads Section, and  whilst Access to the Content Management System was required, it was important that this was restricted to certain people and that restrictions were such that only certain people (or 1 person only) could edit specific pages.

To fulfill the brief we built the website using WordPress, customising the design of the TwentyTen Theme.  Using WordPress allows various editing restrictions to the website, and by using the plug-in ‘Advanced Access Manager’, the level of access for specific pages could be controlled.

To cope with the Classified Section the plug-in ‘AWPCP’ was used, this allows any member to add an item for sale directly from the classified page without going through any complicated routines.

The site is up and running www.clcc.uk.com and the club are finding it useful and easy to operate.  Steve Traill, one of the Directors sums it up

Jane interpreted our requirements perfectly and has produced a very simple to operate website that looks good and also gives us the security that we needed.

Banner for West Cornwall Business Club

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

Earlier this year I designed Receipts for West Cornwall Business Club and they were very pleased with them, as they felt it demonstrated the professional status of the club, who hold Networking Breakfasts once a week at Tregenna Castle Hotel in St Ives.

Tregenna Castle is a superb location for the Breakfasts meetings, the room we use can alter depending on what other events are taking place that day. So the Business Club organisers decided it would be helpful to have a large Banner outside the room, giving people a clear indicator where people should go.

West Cornwall Business Club members display their new Banner

It would also serve as a promotional item to other people at the Hotel that day, or could be used at other external events in order to encourage new members.

The Banner needed to reflect the personality of the Club and its members, and they are delighted with the final result.

It was printed by KallKwik and I am delighted with the quality, so thanks to Karen Schofield for her help.

Basic Search Engine Optimisation

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

There have been a lot of changes with how Google ranks websites nowadays, but somethings just don’t change and here are some simple guidelines.

  • Content, content, content — in other words nothing replaces good content.
  • Each page of your website should be about one subject or topic. You can then tailor your keywords to that page and use them for the title of the page as well as the heading. Then these words should be sprinkled through the content, but not in a way that sacrifices readability.
  • These are some basics and it is worth spending time on these, or if you are struggling, give me a call and let me help.
  • Relevant keywords need to be within the first 90 characters after the heading.
  • Whenever you link to this page, don’t use the words “click here” with the link, use the keywords as part of the link instead. For example: Looking for a web designer in Cornwall?
  • Get links back to your website, the more links the better! This is why social media is having an impact on Google page ranking. If you link to your website pages from places like Facebook; Twitter and LinkedIn, it will raise your own profile and hopefully get lots of visitors.
  • Simple Facebook tip — don’t put all of the information on your Facebook page, just add a teaser, then link to a page on your website with the rest of the information. This tip can work for Twitter and LinkedIn as well, but just make sure the link goes to the right place and the content is relevant, otherwise if they leave the page quickly, it will work against you.
  • and lastly, but never least, Design. Google like a well-designed website. (Talk to me about this one!)

It is worth spending time on thinking about content and keywords at the beginning of the website process, if you need any help then give me a call and we can chat it over.

But remember Google are quite simply wanting people to find the information they need using their search engine, quickly and simply.