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Mar 25
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SEO Services in Brighton

It’s Official: Google to Launch Doorway Pages Ranking Penalty

By SEO, SEO News

When was the last time you encountered a doorway pages in Google’s search results? Although this doesn’t happen very often, Google seems to think that doorway pages are still an issue. In the official Google blog, Google announced a new penalty for doorway pages. Here in the UK the term “doorway pages” might not be often used so:

What is a doorway page?

According to Google’s announcement, doorway pages are pages that are created solely to gain advantage in the search engine results:


”For example, searchers might get a list of results that all go to the same site. So if a user clicks on one result, doesn’t like it, and then tries the next result in the search results page and is taken to that same site that they didn’t like, that’s a really frustrating experience.”

How can you identify doorway pages on your website?

Google published a list of questions to help you determine if a web page could be regarded as doorway page:

  • Is the purpose to optimise for search engines and funnel visitors into the actual usable or relevant portion of your site, or are they an integral part of your site’s user experience?
  • Are the pages intended to rank on generic terms yet the content presented on the page is very specific?
  • Do the pages duplicate useful aggregations of items (locations, products, etc.) that already exist on the site for the purpose of capturing more search traffic?
  • Are these pages made solely for drawing affiliate traffic and sending users along without creating unique value in content or functionality?
  • Do these pages exist as an “island?” Are they difficult or impossible to navigate to from other parts of your site? Are links to such pages from other pages within the site or network of sites created just for search engines?

If you can answer “yes” to any of these questions for any of your website pages, the chances are that Google will think that your page is a doorway page and it could be penalised.

Will this penalty affect Google AdWords (PPC) landing pages?

Most of the things above also apply to landing pages that are used in Google AdWords (PPC) campaigns.

It has long been considered good practice to use individual landing pages for each ad group. Landing pages that have a strong connection to the ad text usually convert better than general landing pages.

Will Google penalise these landing pages?

Unfortunately, that’s not clear yet. Landing pages are good for pay per click campaigns but they are not suitable for organic search engine optimization (SEO). High rankings on Google and other search engines are the result of good on-site and off-site optimisation.

Tyler Consultants can help any Brighton or Sussex / Surrey based business succeed online – why not call us today on 01273 822755 or leave a comment below.

Mar 18
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Google to Add Mobile-Friendly Factors to it’s Ranking Algorithm

By responsive design, SEO, web design

In a post on Google’s official blog, Google announced the addition of mobile-friendly factors to their ranking algorithm. How will this change affect the rankings of your web pages and what do you have to do to benefit from this change?

What exactly has Google announced?

Starting on 21 April 2015, Google will be using mobile friendly factors in the ranking algorithm for mobile search results. The official post reads:

“Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results.

Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.”

In addition, Google has started to use information from indexed apps as a factor in ranking for signed-in users who have the app installed. As a result, Google may now surface content from indexed apps more prominently in search.

What do you have to do now?

It is important to make sure that your web pages are mobile-friendly. Fortunately, Google has made this a bit easier as they have created a tool for this that is available here. Just enter the URL of your website (website address) and click the “Analyze” button. If your website passes the test, you will see something like this:

responsive test

If your website fails the test then you have to adjust the design of your web pages. Instead of creating a separate website for mobile devices, which has little to recommend it, you could use responsive web design for your web pages.

Being mobile-friendly alone is not the answer to SEO

A website that currently does not have high search rankings won’t get high rankings just because it is mobile-friendly. There are many more things that Google wants to find on your web pages, all of which we can help you with.

Call us today on 01273 328877, or leave a comment below to find out more about our responsive web design and SEO services.

Mar 03
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The Best Stock Photography Websites - Premium Stocks by CanStockPhoto

Only The Best Stock Photography Sites

By Design, Recommended

Stock Photos are almost always behind a great design. Whether that’s a brochure, website or even a business card. Often choosing between a good stock photo and a bad one can make or break an entire design.

That’s why we thought we’d give a little helping hand with that first step to getting that perfect photo/image. Turns out, picking the right photo has a lot to do with searching on the right websites.

So without further ado, here are the best stock photography websites:

 

Premium Stock Photography

Alamy

The Best Stock Photography Websites by Tyler Consultants - Premium Stock Website Alamy

The world’s largest stock photography website with over 50 million images Alamy’s collection is so broad, that you’ll simply find a lot of everything and anything there. Whether your looking for a creative image, photos submitted by the public (via their subsidiary iOS app stockimo) or you want editorial photos Alamy will have plenty to choose from.

 

Getty Images

Only The Best Stock Photography Websites, Premium Stock Photography Website GettyImages | By Brighton Based Web Agency Tyler Consultants

The leader in stock photography and editorial photos Getty has a partnership with the BBC giving you access to a ton of high quality video from wildlife to breaking news. Pricing can be expensive depending on your planned use. However Thinkstock by Getty images offers several subscription options for those who are going to need regular professional images.

 

National Geographic Creative

National Geographic Stock Photography Website

National Geographic provide some of the highest quality photography and videos out there and they have a huge 125 year backlog making their collection one of the most comprehensive. However, what makes National Geographic even more unique is there option to Hire their Photographers something worth seriously considering for larger companies.

 

CanStockPhoto

CanStockPhoto

A pretty standard stock photography website with some quite impressive shots and range. What really stands out about this stock photography website though is that it’s just a real bargain with photos starting from £1.63 and £6.51 for video. Even subscriptions are reasonable with 10 downloads a day for one week at £25.37.

 

Stocksy

Premium Stock Photography Website Stocksy - High Quality Images by Creative Photographers

Stocksy is a great little website which only adds photographers by invitation. This means that all of their images are unique and premium. Stocksy also features a very in-depth category system which works due to each photo going through a meticulous upload process. They may not have the most vast photographic library, but they are still absolutely one to check out.

 

Free Stock Photography

The Stocks

The Stocks, A Free Stock Photography Website - Large lits of fantastic high-quality stock photography websites all on one page
If you’re looking for free stock photography The Stocks should be for sure, on the top of your list of go-to destinations. Why? Because The Stocks is a website which collects some of the biggest names in free stock photography and puts them all in one place for you to browse from. All of these websites provide highly professional photos, though the majority are of nature.

 

StockSnap

StockSnap
StockSnap is a high quality free stock photography website which has a lot of search functionality. This is what makes it in my opinion a must-check when it comes to looking for the right photos. Search + free, high quality shots is a combination that must have been made in heaven! That said if your digging really deep for specific photos you’re unlikely to find them here.

 

StartUpStocks

Start Up Stock - Free Stock Photography Website for small Businesses and Startups
Another great free stock photography website Start Up Stocks focuses purely on photography which would be relevant to a startup business, Office photos and the like. The photos provided are of a high quality – however there is no search functionality at all so be prepared to do a lot of scrolling to find what your looking for.

 

Flickr

Flickr - Photographer Community where you can find Creative Commons images.
While Flickr’s main purpose is not stock photography, you can use this community of photo lovers to acquire an image you need. However there are some issues with Flickr, quality can really vary and you have to check each image’s copyright to see if it’s creative commons. The bonus of Flickr is that since it’s a popular service you should be able to find the photo you’re after.

 

Inspired to take the time to find a photo worth placing on your design?

I hope that this list will make things easier on your hunt for the perfect photo.

Good luck photo searching!

Feb 27
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The More Contact With Prospects, the Better

By Marketing

Did you know…

• 2% of sales are made on first contact
• 3% of sales are made on the second contact
• 5% of sales are made on the third contact
• 10% of sales are made on the fourth contact
• 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact

Source: National Sales Executive Association

What this means that you shouldn’t do one-off marketing, i.e a single email campaign.  We often hear disappointment when, for example, an advert fails to generate leads but to get higher conversion rates you need to contact your prospects at least five times over a half year period.

Talk to us if you want advice on the best ways to create a communication programme that delivers new customers.

Feb 14
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Magento Go Alternatives

By Design, Marketing, Website, Wordpress

Magento Go is a CMS system with the purpose of allowing users to build their own online stores completely free. Magento Go was aimed at small businesses and as such had a relatively simple builder allowing people to setup shop – fast.

Owned by Google, Magento has been frequently used by successful eBay users. Giving them an impression of a more reputable and established store.

However, now that Magento Go is closing down we thought we’d recommend the best online stores to replace your Magento Go Store with:

Magento Community Edition

NikeMagento

Magento allows a business to scale up quickly if you already have the groundworks in place and know your business will be a success. However the development costs are high and can take some time. We would not recommend Magento on a small budget.

Pros:

  • Premier Store Management – Magento is a feature rich online store solution, allowing users to manage multiple store front as well as simple multi-language and currency support.
  • Intuitive back-end – Navigation for store management features. Meaning that site owners have flexibility with their store.
  • Plugins Galore – Magento is a very successful ecommerce CMS and with over 240,000 merchants comes a lot of extensions and plugins. This makes Magento a very versatile theme.
  • Highly Customisable Design – Magento’s template allows a lot of customisable features meaning your store is limited only by the skill of your developers and designers.
  • Scalable – Magento is just as competent for enterprises as it is for startups, meaning your website can grow with you.

Cons:

  • Lack of Developers – As a web developer Magento can be a challenging prospect – If your looking to really make the most of Magento you’re going to need an experienced Magento developer which can be expensive.
  • Hosting – Unless hosted on a dedicated server Magento can create a slow and frustrating experience for users.
  • Time – Magento has a lot more options and flexibility than most other CMS systems however this means that development can be relatively complex. Expect Magento websites to take more time than other CMS solutions.

OpenCart

MultiStoreOpenCart

OpenCart is a free and open source software which allows you to create your own online store you can select from free and premium themes from which to design your store generally premium themes will give you a lot more versatility and features to customise your website with.

Pros:

  • Lightweight – OpenCart is a easy to download and silky smooth for customers to use. Whereas Magento is very demanding for both developers and hosting.
  • Simple customisation – OpenCart in comparison with other eCommerce solutions, is less complicated and does not require technical skills.
  • Short Development Time – OpenCart is perfect for startups as it requires minimal investment and will allow you to open your store in a short amount of time.
  • Support – OpenCart’s support team and community are very helpful with any issues you may have and

Cons:

  • Relative Lack of Extensions and Plugins – OpenCart does not have as large a userbase as some other eCommerce solutions and therefore doesn’t have the same amount of support in terms of addons.
  • Poor SEO – OpenCart does not generate SEO friendly URLs.
  • Weaker Store Management – OpenCart has less features with the purpose of improving the customer experience. Features like order history, recently reviewed products and tagging items are not available in OpenCart.

Shopify

GreatsShopify

Choose one of three monthly packages from 29$ a month to $179.

Whereas Magento provides the opportunity to scale up into a large enterprise sized business, Shopify focuses on the small to medium sized business.

Shopify will effectively handle everything for you; hosting, design, analytics, SSL certificates etc. While this is useful in the sense that you won’t have to worry about setup it also means that Shopify is incredibly limiting in any actual choices you want to make for your store.

Plus, with the rolling monthly costs, it’s not cheap either. That said, Shopify is still a strong solution for creating your online store.

WordPress WooCommerce

NicHarry

The most obvious benefit of WooCommerce is that it’s not only open source and free to attain, but the CMS you’ll be running it on is also open source. This means that when you choose to use WooCommerce you’ll gain access to the wealth of features, themes, plugins etc. Which come with WordPress.

That’s a really strong pro, because WordPress is already a highly tuned and powerful system, while having the bonus of being easy to use. However with that benefit also comes the cons, WooCommerce is only available through WordPress so if for whatever reason you don’t want to go in this direction it won’t be available to you. The other flaw is that while WordPress has an almost unlimited amount of options available some of them are premium, and if you want a highly polished, professional site you’re going to need them.

If you’re looking to replace your Magento Go ecommerce website, hopefully you’ve found some interesting information which you can use to make the change.

If you’re still not sure what kind of CMS you’d like to use for your website, don’t hesitate to give us a call on 01273 328877

Jan 12
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Our Predicted Web Design Trends for 2015

By Uncategorized

What’s in Store for Web Design this year?

2014 has seen some pretty major changes to web design and with the announcement of Spartan and the continuous reach of site-builders web designers are going to have to seek out new skills to break the mold.

We’ve tried to cut our list down to exclude predictions which are already clearly expected and to make sure that these are actually noteworthy, interesting additions to the web.
Here are our 5 Web Design Trends for 2015:

1. Diverse Typography

With the rise of CMS websites one of the most in demand aspects of a website is to look as theme-free as possible. This means giving your websites unique fonts which will stand out and personify your business and solidify your brand message. While Google Fonts will definitely still have precedent over everything else, typography design could turn out to be very lucrative in 2015.

 

2. Material Design

Google unveiled Material Design and Android Lollipop in 2014, while there are only a handful of phones with Lollipop right now… We think that with the big third-party Android phones getting to grips with Lollipop this year you can totally expect a big splash of Material Design on the web scene too. What does this mean for Designers? Start checking out Micro-Animations now, clever gestures on hover really makes a big impact on the UX of a website.

 

3. Pooled Analytics

The issue with Google Analytics, and other analytic software for that matter is that for start-ups which have small visitor counts – results are inconclusive. That’s why in 2015 we suspect groups of like-minded, forward-thinking businesses will accumulate their data together to get some clear results for themselves. This gives start-ups and small businesses increased opportunity for rapid growth. A truly exciting prospect in this age of viral marketing.

 

4. Brand Direction

Holistic brand approach on content and marketing – to imprint your companies USP and brand values into someone’s mind it’s best if you embody those values throughout your website. For example if your website is about security, rather than just having a photo of a lock you can take it one step further – Giving your members an outstandingly secure, private account setup and login.

 

5. Responsive Video

Namely, Mobile Video. The web has seen a huge growth of video in 2014 with the increase of quality content being produced by businesses and advertising. One of the other largest trends of 2014 has been Mobile devices and responsive design, so it makes sense that people will be making the effort to deliver video to mobile. Why miss out on such a large portion of your audience with some of your highest quality content?

 

Hopefully you’ll enjoy our poke at predicting web design trends for 2015.

Jan 08
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7 Security Tips for WordPress

7 Fundamental Security Tips for WordPress

By Website, Wordpress

WordPress has become the most popular Content Management System or CMS in the world. However, they’re not stopping there.

WordPress is an incredibly powerful tool for web design because it gives clients a sample of what their website will look like (theme previews). They allow clients to edit content themselves with relative ease. But most importantly they considerably reduce the costs to build websites by significantly shortening the time needed to build them.

That said, WordPress’ biggest weakness currently is security. Fortunately, most security mishaps related to WordPress are due to errors made by the user, and are easily avoidable – here’s how.

7 Security Tips for WordPress:

1. Overall Desktop Security

You can’t expect any of your online profiles to be safe when your computer’s security itself has been compromised. This isn’t just relevant to WordPress it’s a must for anyone valuing their online privacy.

So make sure that you have solid antivirus software, firewall protection and scan for malware often. If you have a laptop or a tablet I’d recommend getting a highly secure, positive password from Mantra Password too.

2. Secure web Hosting

Another frequent issue with WordPress security which isn’t actually relevant to WordPress itself is insecure servers. The only way to really know whether a host will be secure is by checking out reviews and perhaps getting in contact with some of the clients.

Remember servers will always be compromised at some point, sometimes it’s better to judge who to get hosted with based on how providers have dealt with the issue.

3. Keep WordPress up to date

The more time a hacker has to attempt breaking into your website the more likely they are to succeed. By regularly updating WordPress, your theme and all of your plugins you can avoid the majority of issues.

Sometimes this may mean investing in a new theme, as they will only be updated for so long before developers move on to newer themes.

4. Use only the most popular tools and themes

Firstly, WordPress themes and tools become popular for a reason – they don’t just look great, but they are versatile and easy to use.

Another benefit of using a popular theme is that developers will continue to invest in them for a longer period of time. This means that your theme will be updated frequently, giving you access to new features – but more importantly, your latest security needs.

5. Delete unused plugins, tools and themes

Just because a plugin or theme isn’t activated doesn’t mean that it can be used to breach your WordPress security. Don’t risk your website over a plugin which you don’t even use. Get rid of it, now!

6. Protect your Login

A secure password is a given. We’re talking numbers, a mix of upper and lower case and most of all a phrase which is unrelated to you as an individual.

I’d highly recommend using a phrase you can remember and purposely placing numbers in the place of characters which look somewhat similar.

For example: 4NgryAppl3 = AngryApple.

However you shouldn’t stop there, a secure password will only get you so far. The Login LockDown plugin can make your login more secure by locking for a set period after your password is repeatedly typed incorrectly.

The Captcha plugin can allow you to add a captcha to your WordPress login this will increase your security considerably.

7. Keep your WordPress website backed up

If your using these tips your WordPress website should be highly secure. However accidents sometimes happen and nothing is certain. Backing up your website can if nothing else give you peace of mind – if something does occur, however likely you can always just back up.

Jan 05
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Word Lens Translation App

By Recommended

Ever find yourself struggling abroad with directions? Menus? Language barriers can make what should be one of your most relaxing periods of the year into a pretty stressful ordeal. Luckily, Quest Visual (now working with Google) have produced an app which will completely change your holiday experience.

Word Lens is a Translation app with a difference. Using your mobile phone’s camera Word Lens is capable of translating well lit, vibrant, physical objects in real time. Though there isn’t the largest library of languages:

+ English ⇆ Russian
+ English ⇆ Spanish
+ English ⇆ French
+ English ⇆ Italian
+ English ⇆ German
+ English ⇆ Portuguese

Word Lens will make things significantly easier to communicate when there aren’t any helping hands nearby.

Plus, not only is it great for travel – but it’s also a great app to show off with your friends!

Jan 02
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5 Smart Logos

By Design

Your logo is a graphic representation of your company.  In a brief glance at a logo you can sum up who you are, your company culture and what your business does.

We strongly believe that the best logos are simple, typographically based and, above all, clever.

Just to whet your appetite below are some excellent examples of what we think is good logo design.

Motion Logo

Foot Logo

Killed Logo

Martini House Logo

Snap Logo

If you think your logo is in need of a little TLC give us a call on 01273 328877 and we can have a chat about what kind of logo would suit your business.

Dec 22
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Our Top 10 Recommended Design Tools - MailChimp Snap

Our Top Recommended Design Tools

By Design, Email Marketing, Marketing, Website
In this month’s recommended top 10 list we’re looking at design tools.

This list is aimed at designers and developers. We’ve included new apps to improve your marketing efforts, design resources, cloud storage, tools for building professional infographics & slideshows with ease – plus much more. We’re sure you’ll find something useful so check it out!

Almost everything in this list is free or is available for a small fee, we’re trying to provide useful tools for both professional experts and beginners.

If you have any suggestions feel free to leave a comment below! Or if you just want to share your thoughts on this list, that’s fine too!

10 Design Tools That’ll Take You from Stuck to Unstoppable

1. Infogr.am

Let’s be honest, reading can be fun, but in general visual content will always be more compelling and done well, more interesting. According to Market Domination Media people remember 80% of what they see and do, 20% of what they read and only 10% of what they hear. Plus “an infographic are 40 times more likely to be shared on social networks” – Kissmetrics.

The only real issue with infographics is, they take up an awful lot of time to create. Infogr.am makes designing visual data incredibly simple via a drag & drop editor.

Infogram

2. Slides

Much like infographics Slideshows can be seriously effective content, why? Implemented correctly slides are a very visual medium which get straight to the point – and emphasise that point clearly. There is a reason why presentations are generally backed up with slideshows, they are an effective form of communication.

However, much like infographics, slideshows can take a really long time to design.

Slides is a slideshow presentation editor built with simplicity and functionality in mind. You can access them from anywhere online on any device, but you can also download your presentations for offline presentations.

SlidesEditor

3. GoMoodBoard

I’m a big believer in planning ahead. You’re never going to capture a perfect logo or web design on your first attempt – no matter how experienced you are. However being able to fall back on a clear design objective and inspiration can really push you in the right direction.

GoMoodBoard is a website which allows you to quickly build and share a selection of images to capture a brand “mood”.

Top Recommended 10 Design Tools - GoMoodBoard

4. The Stocks

Imagery is incredibly powerful for conveying your message and branding. However good photography can be pricey. Lately free Stock websites have been becoming more diverse and closer to the complete packages paid websites can provide.

The Stocks is the must go location for Royalty Free Photography as it gives easy access to all the top quality Stock websites.

TheStocksSample

5. Canva

Canva is an online design tool which is aimed at beginners. The tool is incredibly simple and easy to use, filled with tutorials and resources which you have very easy access to. The one drawback is that since it is so simple, it just doesn’t hold a candle to the all encompassing amount of options available from paid services provided by companies like Adobe.

Our Top 10 Recommended Design Tools - Canva

6. Adobe Creative Suite

Adobe provides the definitive design tools for editing and building images, whether that’s for the web, print or more or less anything. Having a recommended design tools list without Adobe would honestly just not feel right. However Creative Suite is very expensive and is not beginner friendly.

Our Top 10 Recommended Design Tools - Adobe Creative Suite

7. DropBox

DropBox is a very useful tool for designers. Allowing you to share work between colleagues from one central system without having to worry about space! DropBox for Business allows additional storage at no extra cost. DropBox can also recover any accidentally deleted files and allow easy sharing through links or private folders.

Our Top 10 Recommended Design Tools - DropBox

8. FileZilla

The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is the standard network used to transfer large files between computers. Allowing you to transfer files from one host to another.

FileZilla is a free FTP solution for both clients and servers.  This is a must for web designers in particular, as you will be frequently required to update a website rather than build from scratch.

FileZillaSample

9. Pixeden

The perfect way to show off your design work in style! Mockup templates allow you to create an image with your design on it’s appropriate platform. Whether that’s a business card, books, brochures, mobile devices etc.

Pixeden provides a large selection of professional looking free graphics and mockups. Plus a fantastic range of premium resources. If you ever find yourself needing a lot of image resources Pixeden can provide them for you.

PixedenSample

10. MailChimp Snap

Email Marketing is still very effective, with the rise of mobile people are accessing their emails from anywhere increasing your chances of a successful campaign.

The new MailChimp Snap harnesses the mobile email marketing ethos. Allowing you to send simple, photo-based email campaigns straight from your mobile device, and they look fantastic. Marketing has never been so easy!

Our Top 10 Recommended Design Tools - MailChimp Snap

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