Latest Web Site Related News and Developments...

Is your website making the most of the Christmas season? This is your once a year opportunity to capitalise on the free flowing Christmas spirit.

We've all heard about web scams, usually we hear after the event when one of our colleagues tells us about it, we here's the heads up on two which have recently appeared.

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Do you have a website? If so is it 1st, 2nd 3rd generation or what?

View what are QR Codes as a Video Blog

QR Codes, or Quick Response codes, are funny little square 2D barcodes which look a bit like modern art, but in fact they contain information for your company such as your company, or companies contact addresses, like web address, phone number and key person to contact. QR Codes are free to produce and can be read by mobile phones via a free QR Code barcode reader application - and it's not JUST for IPhones.

QR Codes can then be printed off and attached to off line advertising or installed on your company website, this way your customers or potential customers can just scan the barcode into their mobile phone and have all of your company or companies contact information stored for later.

Yes I know this could be considered lazy, but it is a very convenient way to get your company information sent straight to busy clients who are always on the go, some restaurants are using it to provide you with their menu information, now I can certainly see the advantage of this.

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Google started life as a search engine but these days the Google folks are into all sorts of things; email, calendar, web browser, mobile phone operating system, web statistics, docs, groups, sites, video, they own You Tube, My Sites but these last two are another story. Google dominate the search engine market, and via this have created a world renowned brand and a revenue stream via their phenomenal ad words advertising system. Bill Gates famously said that his one big mistake was to underestimate the web search engine market!

The details below followed on from a conversation I had with an existing client, I felt that the details would be of interest to a wider audience, so please read on......

As discussed, you have a number of options for moving your website forward and the ones we discussed were as follows;

The search engine prominence of your website, is an important area and it’s vital you get it checked – improvement of a websites’ search engine prominence is not easy, cheap or a quick task I’m afraid, but it is an area in which we spend a lot of time. You have two options; 1-Google paid listings (SEM) and 2-natural search listings (SEO). The first option is instantaneous but you must pay EVERYTIME someone clicks on your advert, the second option takes a minimum of 3 months, but then you don’t pay no matter how many people click on your website. Paid ads can work particularly well if you have a niche market, if not set your budget at a reasonable level, at least £100/mth and regardless of how much you plan to spend it is essential that someone monitors the campaign at least once a week.

An old scam is rearing its ugly head again, Protect Your Brand, another company is looking to trademark your company name, don’t dismiss this one as “it’ll never happen to me”, as it can come across as very legitimate and quite scary.

I have seen it in a number of different forms, as an email, a letter or a phone call, the latter is particularly underhanded, the caller, let’s call him Fred, gives a story that they have been contacted by an individual who wishes to buy virtually all the domain names that you don’t own, but which have your domain name in them, e.g. Specnet.com, Specnet.net, Specnet.me, Specnet.co etc, but Fred really doesn’t want to sell to this other guy as he was very rude, and when Fred asked him what he planned to do with these domain names he told him to “mind his own business”!

The .co domain names have now moved into general release phase so you may be able to get yours at a lower price, but what should you buy, why and what will you do with it? There are a host of domain name extensions available; .co.uk, .com, .net, .uk.com, .me etc., my advice is to source your domain names in this order.

• Buy the .co.uk or .com, these are the most popular so should always be your first choice.
• Avoid hyphens "-" if at all possible, just because a lot of people aren’t even sure which ones are hyphens.
• Keep your domain name short, don't forget you'll have to give out your email address and a long domain name means a REALLY long email address!
• Write a list of preferred domain names and order the list, then you can look to source them in that order
• Purchase a keyword rich domain name e.g. "mensclothes.co.uk" or "ladiesshoesonline.com"

Welcome to the Specnet June Newsletter, this month we've been sweltering in the FANTASTIC weather, shedding a tear or two for England and planning a summer holiday.

Domain names

The latest release of domain names is the .co, this used to be used for Colombia, but now it has been changed to general release via a somewhat convoluted process, first a 'sunrise' where you could apply to trade mark your preferred domain name and therefore get first refusal, now the 'landrush' where you can apply for a particular domain name, this ends on July 20th after which the domains will be offered on a first come first served bases as is the case now for most other domain names, for more information see the official website at www.cointernet.co.

Recently Specnet started search engine optimization work for a company wishing to promote their video testimonials service via their website; The Video Testimonial Specialists With experienced search engine optimization techniques Specnet have now secured this websites position on page one of Google for the key phrases "video testimonial specialists", "video testimonial", "video testimonials", "website video testimonials" plus an additional 10 other important key phrases.

Should video be present on your website?

Demand for video is on the rise and is set to consume the world wide web. Businesses looking to stay ahead of the game and maintain good ranking are strongly advised to look at adding video to their website. Google is rumored to be working on new algorithms that will be able to interpret the content of online video's and use the information to rank your website.

So if you have a good ranking and want to stay ahead of your market then get video. As those who have it will find their Google rankings sore when their new algorithm is introduced. But remember not all video is great and can do your website halm so if you do add video to your website then make sure it is good relevant video. It will be as important as your text to get right and ensure the relevance promotes your key phrases.

Specnet helps Hardy & Draper reach TOP Ranking on Google. Specnet the Earl Shilton based web site Design Company have been working with Hardy & Draper Carpets and Interiors also of Earl Shilton, in order to assist them in marketing their products and services via the internet.

We’ve all seen them, really, no REALLY bad websites, but then we also know that one man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure, so are they truly bad per se or just bad IMHO?

Well I believe in every drop of rain that falls – oh sorry that’s the wrong rant. I believe that the proof of the pudding is in the success of the website, and on that note there are thousands of truly bad (unsuccessful) ones.

Does your web site have an entry page? Does your web site need an entry page? If the answer is yes then my question to you is WHY?

An entry page is nothing more than an irritation to most viewers. An entry page is simply an image or animation with a button that says Enter Here. An entry page is just one more door to open before your viewer actually reaches the information they are after.

There’s a saying a business, “there’s no such thing as standing still – you’re either moving forward or moving backwards” well you should be please to hear that Specnet are moving forwards. There’s another saying “there’s a difference between working IN the business and working ON the business” – due to time constraints and perhaps our inability to manage time to perfection it’s often difficult to find the time to work ON the business, which basically means guiding it forward, but somehow over the last couple of months we’ve found the time to completely revamp our own web site – take a look it looks brilliant, if I do say so myself!!