Does a domain name with keywords help SEO?

Posted on January 2010 in Articles

Over the last few months there has been a big increase in the number of customers wanting to register keyword loaded domain names, so rather then the normal www.mybusinessname.co.uk for example they want to register www.hotelinyorkshire.co.uk or www.gardenservicescornwall.co.uk. So if someone searches Google or Yahoo for Garden Services Cornwall then you’d expect a match domain name to appear, well that’s the theory.

I too have read the usual search engine forums on the subject so as usual we’ve tested the theory and the results are surprisingly interesting.

We created a website of Self Catering Holiday Cornwall properties, with a domain to match. After less than a week the website appeared on page 1 position 2 of Yahoo, but as yet we have no show on Google, but then it’s early days, and we know that Google doesn’t do things quickly, it will look at this new website using a team of virtual forensic scientists to figure out whether it should appear and where!

Watch this space for further news.

An important point to remember is that the website is genuine, it contains relevant pages and information, therefore doesn’t break any rules specified by Google or Yahoo. Registering mulitple keyword loaded domain names and merely pointing them to your main website does not work. Keep it ethical and you’ll beneifit long-term from good organic search engine positioning.

Yahoooo! We’re number 2 already!

Posted on January 2010 in Articles, News

Having just released another website to promote self catering cottage website that we have designed the site has appeared as number two in Yahoo for the search term self catering holiday Cornwall. The site was released just last week and is already proving successful.

The site is an example of our continued commitment to help promote websites that we create, we believe no other website agency tries to do the same thing.

If you would like to appear on self catering holiday Cornwall website please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Goodbye coffee machine, goodbye Gaggia rotten customer service

Posted on December 2009 in Articles

I know this isn’t any technical or a fab new website, but since a wonderful machine has now given up I feel it’s only fair to document it for all to read (although you may not want to).

Imagine starting the day with a coffee made from Italian beans simply by pressing a button. The sounds starts with gentle click to let you know it’ll be delivered to the cup shortly, the beans are ground and a two clicks are heard as the fresh powder is dispensed, than water heated to the exact temperature is poored through and into the cup, coffee perfection every morning…

… imagine if one morning you press the button and nothing, not a click, before you totally freak out thinking that instant coffee could be the only answer, you run through the usual routine of checking the ‘bits’, pulling drawers etc. but nothing seems wrong, a sad morning…

Whilst the pleasure of creating coffee from a bean right through to a cup is an expensive one it did come with a 2 year warranty, and yes it still within warranty just! With 6 weeks left the machine had failed within the time allowed!

“Gaggia customer service, how may I help you”

“I’ve got a very expensive, though fantasic coffee machine that’s broken down, and we’re very”

“Oh, never mind if it’s within warranty, we’ll send you the labels, pay the postage and fix it for you”

“That’s wonderful news, thank you”

The whole office sang and danced with joy!

Many weeks had passed and morale was getting low, the problem was obviously serious, time to find out… (the following has of course been edited, there where several phone calls inbetween)

“hello Gaggia customer services”

“hello there, we just wondered how you are getting on with our coffee machine”

“what coffee machine?”

“the one we sent you”

“oh, did you, what’s your name”

“Mr Carne”

“well Mr Carne, did you know that the machine is nearly out of warranty, so I’m not sure we can fix it”

“but the machine broke down within the warranty”

“yes but there is only one week left”

“there was more than one week left when we sent it to you, it’s because you haven’t done anything, and besides where are we going with this conversation, don’t you know the law”

“ok, well want’s wrong with it”

“you’re suppose to find that out and then fix it”

“ok, leave it with me and we’ll get back to you”

A week had passed, time to call…

“… customer services”

“how’s are coffee machine…”

“well it needed a new motor, you’re very lucky that we were able to order one, the machine will be back with in next week”

And sure enough, the machine was returned time to test it.

The days of listening to the nice gentle sound of coffee being prepared were at an end, the motor was obviously replaced with a lawn mower engine and probably from a 1970’s diesel engined lawn mower, once the noise stopped coffee spat into the cup, which I think was now mixed with diesel oil.

When you get such bad customer service, and waste so much time, no one wants to call up and start the process again. The machine was well over £300, but the customer service was worthless, useless and rude.

Goodbye Gaggia machine, goodbye Gaggia.

Dynamic Pages to Static URL ‘Search Engine Friendly’

Posted on December 2009 in Articles

Hi

Here’s something I just sent a friend who had rewritten a simple CMS system, with dynamic pages (index.php?Pageid=nn), in this case directory

es were also used, so all you need to do is create a .htaccess file and place it in to the relevant web directory, here’s an example of the contains of an .htaccess files…

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule about_us.htm$ index.php?Pageid=7
RewriteRule index.htm$ index.php?Pageid=7

Hope that helps, if not ask and I maybe able to help you further.

“Should I try Adwords?”

Posted on December 2009 in Articles

A question I’m often asked is “should I try Adwords?”, well the answers is always yes. It’s worth a try, as far as advertising goes it’s cheap and easy to control your spend, you can specify anything you want per day and adverts can cost as little as 0.4p per click (depends on competition), if you spend £30 a week and get one ’sale’ worth £500 it’s easy to work out your Return On Investment (ROI), you can normally work this out within a couple of weeks, so there isn’t any long-term costs, you can stop advertising (spending) instantly.

Flash _getURL and _self doesn’t work!

Posted on December 2009 in Articles

Well what an interesting afternoon. Although I don’t use Flash very often, I like to think I know what I’m doing. I had been given a Flash file from another company in order to integrate the file into the clients websites. The file needed some additions as in order to link up some buttons. This is normally very simple using the actionscript _getURL(URL,”_self”), however no ever told me that from Flash 8 security setting have changed, so after some painful hours of rewritting the actionscript and uploading etc etc. All you need to do is add the following to your html!

<param name=”swfversion” value=”6.0.65.0″ />
<param name=”expressinstall” value=”Scripts/expressInstall.swf” />
    <param name=”allowScriptAccess” value=”always” />

If you can’t get _getURL “_self” to work I hope you find this post!

Time to manage your own content

Posted on May 2009 in Articles

Three out of the last four websites we have created have been developed using a Content Management System or CMS. Gone are the days when CMS costs much more to integrate than a normal static website as there are many open-source (already developed systems) that can easily be added to your website.

Adding CMS has many beneifits, firstly you don’t need to contact your web company to get them to change a word! You can do it yourself. You can also keep the content up-to-date yourself further increasing the life of your website.

So next time you need a website make sure it’s a CMS website and your investment will last even longer!

FREE DEMO - CHANGE YOUR OWN CONTENT ON YOUR OWN WEBSITE

To show you just how powerful our content management software is, we can show you by creating a demo that will allow you to change a page on your own website. Time to take control and update your website when you want.

Our latest CMS edition even creates history of changes to enable you to revert back to previous changes.

A website in an investment - isn’t it?

Posted on April 2009 in Articles

I’ve been doing website design and development for over 7 years and I’m surprised by the number have people who don’t see a website as an asset. On average a good website lasts over 3 years, so if you take a professionally developed and marketed website that would work out around £50.00 per month. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that if you are a holiday cottage or hotel that £50 equals one booking! Now, if a professionally created website doesn’t give you more bookings your website has been developed by the wrong people. This is a rant, because in most cases a website is an asset, your best marketing tool that should last a very long time.

If your current website hasn’t made you a penny it doesn’t mean that websites are a waste of money it was probably developed by the wrong people in the first place.

Google will get you in the end…

Posted on March 2009 in Articles, News

Just finished talking to someone who has disappeared of Google, they used to have page 1 for many good search terms. They used a search engine optimisation company to increase their links. Their website, wasn’t too bad apparently before using this SEO company, but now they have dropped off any top spot.

There is no point in trying to anything unethical when targeting search engines, in fact there isn’t any point. You need to build a long-term relationship with Google, build trust, keep it simple, exchange genuine links with other people in your business. It takes time but it will pay off.

Why rent a Content Management System? - Be careful out there!

Posted on February 2009 in Articles

I’ve just but the phone down on some enquiring about a Content Management System. They paid a great deal of money to have a website built to maintain their properties which they rent out. The website wasn’t fantastic, but it did function ok. The main surprise from the conversation was they were paying £100 per month to use a CMS system, which by the sound of it wasn’t the right CMS for the job.

The idea of a CMS is so you don’t have to keep going back the website design company to make changes, so paying £100 per month to use a CMS doesn’t seem right. Why bother? Why not just pay a web company £100 per month and get them to do it?

Maintenance contracts are a great idea, but paying £100 without any ‘maintenance’ isn’t right.

The idea of CMS is to make updates to your site, simple and inexpensive, so be careful who you approach.