Article in Worcester News
One of our more recent web site developments is featured on the Worcester News website:
The client is Heligan Investigations, a private investigation agancy in Worcester. their website is at:
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October 2007
October 19, 2007
What are we all looking for?
Well, we all appear to be looking for something – and most of us seem to be looking for many things if the latest round up of internet search statistics is anything to go by!
A total of 61 BILLION searches were made in August of this year.
The list below shows the latest available statistics for the total number of global searches.
Google sites 37 billion searches
Yahoo sites - 8.5 billion
Baidu 3.2 billion (china)
Microsoft sites 2.1 billion
NHN 2 billion (asia/korea)
eBay 1.3 billion
Time Warner 1.2 billion
Ask 743 million
Fox 683 million
Lycos 441 million
Total worldwide searches: 61 billion
Ensuring your website achieves consistently high rankings is essential in making sure it’s YOUR site a client finds when searching.
Statistics show that almost all searchers never look beyond the first page of results.
If you’re not happy with your website’s current appearance (or lack of it!) then drop us a line. We are more than happy to offer free, expert advice that can help boost your site’s performance.
October 18, 2007
New Website Launched
A new client website has gone live today:
http://www.legendshairandbeauty.co.uk/
Legends is a hair and beauty salon in Crabbs Cross on the edge of Redditch, and quite a large one by all accounts. I have to admit I'm not big in the hair and beauty world myself so I have to rely on what I'm told!
They have a very large team and offer a broad range of services including hair design, facials, tanning and bronzing, hair removal and a whole range of processes that sound like torture to a bloke like me but are probably a delight to my female friends.
It's turned out to be quite a big site as it gives plenty of detail on each of the services on offer which should give the search engines plenty of words to chew on. The real challenge for us in promoting this site though is to make sure it will be found by anyone searching for these services in the Redditch area. I suppose people would travel some distance for some of the more specialist services but for the basics the audience is definitely Redditch and its adjoining villages and countryside.
Dave Alekna, who owns and runs Legends with his wife Geraldine, is one of NetSecrets' longest standing clients. It must be 5 or 6 years since he came to us for web hosting and email services. He already had his previous website when he found us so it's taken a while for him to be ready to replace that with something more comprehensive. His 2 sons, Joe and Paul, have their own recruitment business in Redditch, and, thanks to their Dad's recommendation, had their site built by us a few months back ( that is www.e-responserecruitment.co.uk) and we have recently set up a blog for them too.
So we are all hoping Legends will reap some real benefits from the new site in terms of attracting new clients and maybe making their existing clients more aware of their entire range of services.
October 17, 2007
Has Someone Stolen your Domain Name?
Imagine you have had your domain name for 5 years. You have handed out thousands of business cards containing your email and website address, your letterheads, invoices, compliments slips have the same data, you even have your domain painted on your vans or trucks. Email marketing is your main way of finding prospects and you receive most of your enquiries by emial or from forms on your website. You have even started to make sales and receive payments on the net.
Then one day you come into work and you've no email and your website is down. Bit of a nuisance! Then you discover that your domain name now belongs to someone else and the impact begins to sink in. But surely this can't happen? It can't be that hard to sort out can it? There must be laws stopping this?
At best you will be without mail and website for several weeks, you will probably have to pay out thousands of pounds either in legal fees or in "ransom" money and at worst you will never get the name back and have to start building from scratch, all over again.
So how does this happen and what do you do about it? Here are a couple of non-extreme examples of what can happen.
A musician I know had a website selling his cd's, announcing tour dates, offering merchandise to his fan base, all doing him a lot of good. One day he noticed his email had stopped and his website had been replaced by a single page announcing "This domain is for sale - click here for more detail". To cut a long story short his domain registration had expired without his realising it, literally a few minutes after it had expired an automated monitoring system had notified the "scam" artists who look for such events, they re-registered it in their name and offered it back to him for $5000. Despite huge reluctance he paid it, he really had no choice.
Had it been a .co.uk domain he could probably have got it back within 3 weeks using Nominet's dispute system but as it was a .com he had no real recourse. He had gone for the cheapest domain registration system available so the standard of communication was poor so he wasn't adequately warned that his domain was close to expiry. By the way by going the cheap route here he saved himself maybe £2 a year!
Another company I know had a shock when their hosting provider went bust and the service ceased leaving them without email or website. No big problem, we could get them on our servers in a few hours. Except that the person who, several years back, had registered their domain name for them had in fact registered it in his own name so only he could authorise moving the site from the dead servers to our live ones. They had lost track of him so could not make contact. As their name was a .co.uk we were able to get the name back and all is now fine. But they were without service for about 3 weeks while it was resolved. Had there name been a .com it is unlikely they would ever have got it back.
The first thing to do is to see if you have a problem, before it hits you. Go to a reputable domain registrar's site, I'd recommend ours - http://www.kwikreg.co.uk
Use the search box to search for your domain. It will tell you it is already registered and there is a link to "Owner Info". Click on that and make sure it is your details that appear. Also check when the domain expires and make a note of that date so you don't get caught out like the musician mentioned above.
If there is any problem deal with it now! Don't leave it until it really matters, like when you want to move servers or maybe even sell the business.
If you need help or advice just ask. It won't cost you anything. Just post a comment or email me: tony@netsecrets.co.uk
October 09, 2007
Talking Head Video
Here's an example of a "talking head" video produced for use on a website. The reasons for having these are:
- Sets your site apart from the crowd
- Stamps your personality on an impersonal medium
- Gets your core message across to every visitor in an instant
If you want to know more about this option email sales@netsecrets.co.uk
October 08, 2007
The importance of sitemap.xml and robots.txt
The four leading search engines have provided an easy means of feeding a sitemap to their spiders. Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask have all agreed to abide by the same sitemap protocol and to pick up its location from the site's robots.txt file.
Now this is not a guarantee that your site will achieve high listings, that depends on a myriad other things, but it will ensure that the leading search engines will at least be able to access all of your content. Even if you have unhelpful issues such as use of framesets or an opening "splash" page the sitemap file will open up all your files for indexing.
To get this checked out, along with many other aspects of your site's design, why not request a FREE website audit from NetSecrets: www.netsecrets.co.uk/website-audit.html
