2am Media - Web Design Preston

NHS Blackpool’s New Sexual Health Services Launched by 2am Media

Simon — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 08:59:01 +0000

2am has long had a strong relationship with the NHS, especially in Blackpool and we’ve cemented that relationship further with the launch of the NHS Blackpool Sexual Health Services website.

The website is bright, taking the colours of the building it’s based in to create warmth, familiarity, whilst making the visitor feel welcome.

NHS Web Design

2am Media are NHS Web Design specialists, having built several websites on behalf of PCTs including NHS Blackpool.

Blackpool Web Design

2am Media are based just off junction 3 of the M55 and although our post code is Preston we also do a lot of web design in Blackpool for a variety of organisations (please review our web design portfolio page) for more information give us a call on 01772 686222 or visit NHS Blackpool Sexual Health Services

2am Launch Altogether Now – from NHS Blackpool

Simon — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 11:18:14 +0000

2am have once again joined forces with NHS Blackpool to produce a website for their innovative new programme spearheaded which is working in partnership with Blackpool Football Club Community Trust and Blackpool Council.

The club will be launching a new video at every home match in support of the campaign (read more from Blackpool FC).

The website uses the football theme with a grass background and chalk line border whilst liberally features Blackpool FC’s tangerine orange. For more information about NHS Blackpool’s new initiative visit Altogether Now.

If you’ve got a new web project that you want 2am’s creative team to have a look at then get in touch either on 01772 686222 or via the online contact form.

PHP Web Developer Wanted in Preston

Simon — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:57:13 +0000

Due to a raft of new client wins and an abundance of work, we are looking for a recently graduated web developer to join our team. We’re not expecting you to be the finished article, we’re more than willing to help you improve your skills.

Along with the devotion to quality, detail and deadlines you must have some experience or a basic understanding and willingness to learn the following:

Clean, pragmatic development with PHP 5.
MySQL and database administration.
Knowledge of the LAMP stack.
Experience customising large open-source packages such as Wordpress and Magento.
Good MVC fundamentals, as you’ll also be working with CakePHP and Zend (Django or Rails is a bonus).

Creative Web Developer

The successful applicant will enjoy a friendly, fun, open-minded, progressive and creative environment here at 2am. It is an exciting time to join as our accounts continue to grow in size and scope.

P.S being an excellent baker will score you good points in our cake friday competitions!

The deadline for all applications is the 20th of September 2010, so what are you waiting for?

We’re looking for people who want to go places, so only future superstars need apply, call 01772 686 222 or email your CV and some sample URLs to work@2ammedia.co.uk.

Strictly no agencies, thanks.

Upload Prints launched by 2am Media

Simon — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 10:58:46 +0000

We’ve launched our most recent development: Upload Prints.

Upload Prints represents a revolutionary method to order large format prints over the internet.

Automated Online Printer

The system is completely automated, the user simply selects the respective options and uploads the file they want to print and once they’ve completed the purchase all they have to do is sit back and wait for the prints in the post.

This bespoke development is at the forefront of image type recognition web applications, providing Upload Prints with a solid foundation for future growth.

Beautiful Web Designs

This is of course a 2am website, so we’re not just talking functionality here, this is a purely brand led web development which will be taken forwards by 2am’s online brand management team.

Seamless Web App Development

If you are looking for a large format printer who can deliver fast automated online service visit UploadPrints.co.uk

For more information about 2am’s web development and web design services give us a call on 01772 686222 or simply fill out the contact form.

The Shredding Alliance Launched by 2am Media

Simon — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 15:51:47 +0000

2am has worked closely with The Shredding Alliance to get their new website live.

The Shredding Alliance offer national coverage for either onsite or offsite confidential shredding services.

To find out more about The Shredding Alliance please visit: http://TheShreddingAlliance.co.uk

New Choice Hotels Websites Go Live

Simon — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:20:55 +0000

2am Media have recently launched a raft of new websites on behalf of Blackpool and Lake District hotel group Choice Hotels.

2am have worked closely with Choice Hotels for a number of years and the decision was recently made to expand the portfolio of websites to incorporate individual websites for each hotel.

New Hotel Website Designs

The following hotel websites have been designed and launched:

Previously, all hotels featured on the Choice Hotels Group website, however by putting them all on their own domain Choice Hotels will benefit from better visibility in the search results and allow each hotel website to be visually brought in line with the unique styling of the hotel they represent.

Example of the Claremont Hotel homepage:

This will enable better qualification of their target markets before they reach a hotel website whilst focussing the Choice Hotels corporate website on driving forward and expanding the Choice Hotels brand

Further to this we are also putting a number of other new websites live on behalf of Choice Hotels these include:

If you want more information about the range of web design and web development services 2am offer to the hotel, travel and leisure industry take a look at our portfolio pages and why not get in touch for a chat?

2am Media Launch Hotel Booking Engine: BookitWith.com

Simon — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:05:58 +0000

2am Media are proud to announce the launch of our newest web application: BookitWith.com.

BookitWith.com has been developed on behalf of umi Hotels to replace their existing booking engine that lacked usability and which users often commented seemed antiquated.

Booking Engine Software

The hotel booking engine software has not only been created to manage umi’s online bookings, but also to provide umi with the platform and infrastructure necessary for an international hotel brand, capable of not only facilitating brand direction and culture but also the e-support and functionality required to succeed in a world dominated by online bookings.

As 2am’s most recent web app development BookitWith.com is the cream of hotel booking engine software and further cements the continued relationship between 2am and umi Hotels.

If you’d like to have a look at our new web application visit Book London Hotel Rooms, alternatively please visit BookitWith.com for more information.

Upload Prints launched by 2am Media

How to get some good ideas for copywriting

Simon — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:32:53 +0000

There’s no such thing as writers block – writers block is probably just your minds way of telling you you’ve nothing good to write about.

The trouble with internet marketing is you have to keep writing – you have to keep that churn going because you are competing in a noisy market place to attract the most number of people – whoever shouts the loudest is likely to be able to get more customers – that means writing as much as possible and getting it out there, that also means you’ve probably made the same point a few times by now and you’re not sure how you can repackage it and bring some fresh thoughts to it.

Don’t worry this happens to everyone; even the most creative copywriters I’ve ever worked with have experienced this.

Where should you look for inspiration for copy?

A technique used by many writers is to create a swipe file. Whenever you find an article that’s of interest copy it and save it into your swipe file. Whenever you need inspiration refer back to these articles and you have a whole bank of ideas and angles to go at.

Another great way is to keep a local calendar that details all the holidays such as bank holidays, school holidays etc, you can research the holidays in more detail to add in informative localised and date specific information to your copy.

How to use an online survey to get inspiration for copy?

Most businesses own a website, so why not make your visitors work for you. When they come onto your site ask them a few questions, you could have a poll rotating through a few standard questions, after a while you’ll get some good information and statistics – and statistics are always a great starting point for an article. Make sure you are keeping all your results in your swipe file and refer back to them when you are looking at other articles, you might get some interesting correlations.

How to use hoaxes to get some good traffic and content

Hoaxes and myths are often a very overlooked source of copy inspiration and information for your swipe file.

There is a massive amount of readership for these types of things and relatively few corporate copywriters tap into it.

Google Places: Changes to how it’s Displayed in Search Results

Simon — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 09:41:57 +0000

Google have rolled out changes to the way a places account is displayed in Local Onebox in the search results. I think this is a permament change as I’ve used a number of IPs to check it out and they all reflect the same change.

What changes have been made to the Local Onebox?

The website’s first listing which previously sat below the Onebox now sits above the Onebox
The more info link has no changed to “Place Page” which now appeas under the business name
There is now a Map Pin next to the name of the business
The business name no longer links through to the website

Google had to do something about what was Google Local Business listing – as I’ve discussed before the system was a mess, the rebrand to Google Places was part of that reinvention, however these changes show Googles real intention – to create the new Yellow Pages by creating the biggest and most widely used Local Directory ever.

The fact that they’ve stopped linking out from the title of the business would also suggest to me that they are looking to provide more information and be a one stop shop rather than an portal for other people’s information.

How to Use Twitter for Copywriting

Simon — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 14:56:37 +0000

Just about everyone and their dog is on Twitter – if you’re not you should be, the thing is everyone has a Twitter account and most of them are inactive, or they aren’t being used to there best advantage.

Have you ever thought about how you can use Twitter to improve your writing style?

How does Twitter improve my writing?

Twitter makes you concise – simple. There is no room for over embellished, flowery, purple prose in Twitter, it’s techy, straight to the point, in your face, attention grabbing stuff. You have to be able to say exactly what you need to in as few words as possible.

Most people like to construct a sentence and 140 characters generally isn’t enough to pull it off effectively.

Why a large vocabulary is important for Twitter posts

You only have 140 characters. How are you going to say what you need to say in 140 characters? You need to find short descriptive words – get rid of those three words and use one short one.

How to inspire an action from a Twitter post

First of all don’t just post anything, if you want people to sit up and take note of what you’re saying go back and revise what you’ve written, several times if needs be, you need to put your editors hat on and get something really compelling.

Remember the old copywriting and marketing adage – feature first then benefit, that is tell your reader something that will engage them and then tell them how they will benefit from actioning your post.

It’s great fun; what’s more it’s a skill that crosses over into PPC ad variation creation.

How long does SEO take to have an effect?

Simon — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:38:16 +0000

The honest answer to this is: it depends.

Firstly, what you do you mean by SEO, are you talking about building links, optimising the content, changing the absolute positioning of on page content, social media content, article writing, blogging (the list goes on).

It also depends on a number of other factors, such as how long has your domain been there, what has it ranked for in the past, the strength of the sites linking to you etc.

When is it time to PANIC!?

You’ve done everything you can think of, you’ve done everything right and yet your site is still sat there at position 400. At this point there is a tendency to think you are being punished by Google and to throw everything at it, making so many changes you can’t track back.

Don’t worry, don’t overreact, simply sit pretty and wait and see – things will start to happen, you will get movement. Just hold your horses to begin with.

How to deal with a client or your boss when SEO takes some time to take effect

There are scenarios that every SEO expert dreads and invariably runs into:

Rankings don’t change
Rankings go down

I’ve had several occasions when rankings have just completely dropped off, the changes I’ve made have been for the best and for whatever reason Google doesn’t like them and decides to drop the rankings for a while. This is part of SEO, deal with it.

This isn’t something that someone paying for SEO is going to like to hear, especially if they are an entrepreneur. The very nature entrepreneurialism is one of constantly doing something – they keep moving forwards at all cost, the idea that they can’t do something to make a difference is not something that they are going to accept lightly.

Make some estimates about how long it’s going to take, they’ll look at you as though you’re completely insane, however if you’re not far off then they’ll trust your opinion even more next time. The last time I submitted a reconsideration request to Google I told the client it would take around 8 days for their rankings to come back (they actually started coming back in 6 days). After that the client admitted that he’d thought I was making it all up, now we have a much better relationship.

How long should I leave it before I make another change?

When I started doing SEO we used to say it could take up to three months to have an effect, it was probably right, although I can’t really remember anything taking that long.

Nowadays you will see some movement in around a week – although if it’s not a big site then I’d suggest leaving it two weeks, although there are still times when I’d be prepared to wait a month before I make any additional changes to a site – generally things like URL redirects and major site changes will have this kind of an effect – just don’t panic and start doing things that are rash!

Help with SEO

At 2am we’ve experienced it all, we’ve sat it out and had great results other times we’ve sat it out and sat it out and had nothing happen, however we’ve always used this to learn more about the search market and nowadays we’ve got a fairly good idea of how long things will take, if you need some advice just let us know and we’ll be happy to help!

How to Design Ecommerce Websites

Simon — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 11:17:21 +0000

Everyone is getting their commercials online in a mid West style Gold Rush. What’s the reason fort this? Simple: There’s gold in them there [digital] hills.

The number of online purchases is increasing at an exponential rate and many businesses are making the switch from online brochure site to full ecommerce activities allowing their clients to buy their goods and services at the click of a mouse button.

Where to start with an Ecommerce website?

The UK economy has to remain competitive and it’s important that the UK continues to develop on the growth of the ecommerce sector.

Jakob Nielsen (web design usability expert) argues that you need to focus a number of areas to create the best online experience, these include:

Product Search
Managing Relationships
Helping during the Decision Making Process (DMP)
Buying Process

Nielsen bases these on his research of consumer behaviour online and accordingly the website needs to have a set of tools that assist the e-shopper at every area.

How to approach your Ecommerce Website Categories

Building an ecommerce website is a bit like doing fractions, the first thing you have to do is work out the lowest common denominators, that is: what are the basic common themes and basic differences? For example if you are selling clothes you will have T-shirts, Jeans, Shoes however they can generally be drilled down to men’s and women’s clothing from which the categories can then be broken out.

How to approach Product Search on an Ecommerce Web Design

Let’s face it; the main way a consumer will search for a product is Google, that doesn’t guarantee that if a user finds your site they are going to naturally land on the product page or even be able to find the products when they get there so you’d better to be sure to put a nice big search box on there – personally I prefer them to be in the middle of the masthead similar to the way IKEA does it.

Your search should also give your users advanced search options- so it should have the ability to select certain categories, define price, colours etc.

Your search results should appear in catalogue format – so go down to the local Argos or Next and get one of their catalogues and see how the professional catalogues are laid out, offline is generally a good starting point for online in this case.

What should be included in the Category and Search results pages?

These should give a quick overview of the products in that search result or category. It’s important that it demonstrates that there are ranges of the products where applicable and encourages the web visitor to click through to the product page.

What should be included on an ecommerce products page?

Remember the traditional catalogue, you need a big photo, multiple photos, product specifications, options and prices. Visitors should be able to zoom into photos – if you’re selling clothes then it’s important the visitor can see the weave etc just like they would if they were physically looking at the product in a normal shop.

Certain product pages should have multi media elements – such as videos of the products at work, this is important if you’re selling something like a web-based application.

Check out what your competitors are doing and consider what’s realistic with the time and resources you’ve got.

How to up-sell on an ecommerce website

Sometimes a product can be up-sold, that is you can add something to the product to create a product package in order to charge more money, think of a takeaway they sell you a meal and ask you if you want to go large – this is up-selling; for example you might be able to sell two products for only 50% extra.

How to cross sell on an ecommerce website

Cross selling is another important feature of an ecommerce website, cross selling means selling another product that compliments the product you are buying. For example you may have a product page displaying jeans, which would feature other products such as belts etc.

Cross selling and up selling need to be set up properly in your ecommerce software – if done properly this is a goldmine and will give you a lot of user data about the products that people buy.

How can I increase the sales from my website?

If you’ve done all the onsite work you think you need to do then you need to start integrating your products into other applications? Make sure your ecommerce website feeds out to Google Base – Google Base feeds Google product search, which often displays in regular Google searches.

How to Build Ecommerce Customer Loyalty

When dealing with the online environment it’s very important that you secure your consumer so they return over and over again – remember they are only one search away from finding your competitors, so you better be sure you’re giving them a great experience so that they want to come back time and time again.

In order to build up that relationship with customers make sure you answer all your customer questions especially those relating to online purchasing, listen to their feedback and act on it, it will help you improve your website. Secondly you should also provide as much information as possible, make it easy for your visitor to find the information they are going to be looking for, have FAQs, delivery info, T&Cs, size definitions etc – make it all really transparent, this will only add to your credibility and stimulate people to come back over and over again.

Make sure you are collecting as much data as possible about the way your users are using the website, the beauty of an ecommerce website is the user has to give you their data, so collect information about the way they navigate your site, or buy things from the site, this data can then be used to create newsletter and loyalty promotional schemes that target certain products to specific users.

How to deal with choice paralysis in an ecommerce design

Choice Paralysis is one of the biggest problems for an ecommerce website, basically you give the user so much information they can’t make a decision about which product to buy. The ecommerce web design should subtly funnel the visitor in the right direction; I like designers that use graphics that literally point, as long as it’s not too obvious I think it can work really effectively.

Don’t display too much on the page at the same time – I’d say 15 products in a category section is the max – maybe less, and control the parameters by which they display, they need to display like for like products and prices where ever possible.

Where there are different colours or sizes these should be displayed in the products pages rather than the categories or search results (although technically these are of course a separate product in the database structure).

Do I need a basket on my ecommerce website?

A shopping cart or basket is the one of a most fundamental elements of an ecommerce design it allows the user to quickly check out the products they have selected and how much they are due to spend, it also allows them to add multiples as well as remove products they’ve already selected at any stage in the process.

The shopping cart or basket can be make to look quite interesting – if you’re a builder merchant selling on line why not visualise the cart as a van or truck, if you’re a janitorial suppliers why not visualise the cart as a mop bucket?

Make sure you stand out – little elements such as these will keep people coming back to your site.

Which Payment Gateway should I use?

Associate your business with an established brand, display their logo on your website to add credibility to your site and reassure the visitor in the process. There are a number of payment systems you can use, I’d recommend integrating them with your website style and keeping your visitor on your site at all times.

Remember that mobile phones are a growth sector and you should be sure your payment gateway will accommodate mobile-commerce.

Ecommerce Designs should be different

Do your research, find out what the commonalities are between your competitors and take note of them.

Then be creative, only by being different will your website get anywhere, otherwise you are giving your visitors nothing they haven’t seen already and no good reason to return – internet marketing is just another kind of brand marketing, don’t let anyone tell you differently.

Free Slimming Pills

Simon — Wed, 12 May 2010 12:19:55 +0000

2am Media’s client Little Black Dress are offering free slimming pills for anyone that registers on their website at:

Free Slimming Pills

The free slimming pill samples are of Little Black Dress’ LBD Shape slimming capsules.

Little Black Dress supply a wide range of slimming products including dieting pills, slimming capsules as well as celulite creams.

2am carry out web development and internet marketing including SEO for Little Black Dress.

What do Google changes mean to Google Users?

Simon — Mon, 10 May 2010 11:15:47 +0000

By now you should have noticed that Google looks a bit different whilst still being characteristically Google.

The new Google interface is known as the Jazz Interface.

Has your web presence got Google Jazz?

As search marketers we tend not to think about how your website is performing, moreover there is a shift to understanding how your brand is working online.

The Jazz interface is Google’s push towards making search engine marketing much more in line with traditional brand lead marketing.

It features more prominent News, Blog, Video and Image Search functionality as well as a hope heap of more prominent opportunities for the users to refine their searches, this is Google acknowledging that they can’t do everything in one breath, whilst giving itself the opportunity to collect a load more data about search behaviour.

What’s Google Jazz got to do with Google Caffeine?

Everything. We’ve been waiting for this since January, there has been some changes to the way Google works in terms of implementation of Google

The Jazz interface will give Google all the information they need to start to get a real handle on how people are using their search engine, which is fundamental to elements such as personalised search and will be necessary as Google starts to index really deeply.

The ongoing development of personalization of search means individual search results and online behaviour are starting to have an influence in the SERPs. That coupled with real-time search and the evolution of blog search means that the social media element that was previously just considered an add on to organic search marketing has to be an integral part to everyone’s search marketing strategy.

Get in there first

Make sure that you’re taking advantage of the new blended search media that the Jazz interface allows, as with everything in Google’s scope there is an element of history to be brought into account and if you are able to get your brand and your online presence into the different channels first you are likely to have the chance to rank highly on an ongoing basis.

How to rank in Google’s new search formats

Remember to create new sitemaps for News, Videos, mobile sites and then add in as many micro-formatting elements as you can to give Google as much help as it needs to find and interpret your content.

Ultimately, more and more Google is working towards brand targeting, it appears that this is the direction the searchers are going as well – make sure you’re a search pioneer and you should be fine!

Fleetwood Town FC Are Going Up!

Simon — Mon, 10 May 2010 07:20:28 +0000

Amidst joyous scenes at Highbury Stadium, Fleetwood Town earned their rightful place at the top table of non-league football with a hard-earned 2-1 victory over Alfreton Town in the Blue Square North play-off final.

Victory over a resilient side who had lost just once in their last twenty one outings ensured that Town would join Southport in the Blue Square Premier League and they can now look forward to even more exciting days ahead as a number of ex-Football League teams including Darlington, Grimsby Town and Luton Town come to town.

An unchanged Town started the game strongly and dominated the first half hour as they took the game to Alfreton with a committed performance based on fluid passing movement with Jamie Mullan particularly busy down the right. The visitors’ normally strong defence came under constant pressure with Town having a chance to take the lead after just three minutes when Gareth Seddon got in between defender Aden Flint and goalkeeper Ross Turner, only to see his attempt go wide of the target.

Pressure was rewarded after eight minutes when Nathan Pond, impressive throughout, scored his third goal of the season from the edge of the penalty area, a shot which took a deflection on the way, leaving goalkeeper Turner stranded. Town should have gone further ahead after 16 minutes with Simon Grand firing over from close range following a Pond header at the back post.

Town’s defence, with an impressive Steve McNulty at its heart, came under pressure in the final ten minutes of the half as Alfreton began to show a capacity crowd why they are one of the league’s top scorers. Paul Clayton headed inches wide from a cross on 38 minutes and ghosted into the area after 43 minutes, forcing McNulty to clear hurriedly for a corner. Other chances in a hectic period fell to Anton Brown and Anthony Howell but Town entered the break with their one goal lead intact.

The second half began at pace with end-to-end action. Sean Clancy hit a firm shot straight at Turner after 49 minutes while, at the other end, Grand’s indiscretion after 51 minutes gave a free kick away in a dangerous position just outside the penalty area.

Alfreton’s captain, Chris Shaw, wasted the opportunity by shooting straight at Shaun Beeley and Town cleared the threat. Alfreton continued to press, however, with McNulty forced to head off the line from Howell after 58 minutes.

A flurry of substitutions followed with Nicky Law, Alfreton’s manager, replacing Jake Moult and Howell with Andy Todd and Jordan Hall and Micky Mellon sending on the combative Steven Connors for Jamie Milligan, Town’s captain receiving generous applause as he left the field. Two minutes later, Seddon hobbled off after a heavy tackle and was replaced by Lee Thorpe for the striker’s first appearance in the play-off matches, following injury.

Town’s faithful were stunned after 73 minutes when Todd was felled by Pond in a crowded area, the Alfreton player getting up to strike the spot kick firmly down the middle of the goal for an equaliser in front of an ecstatic following of some 550 fans who had made the journey from Derbyshire.

Town looked to be under pressure at this stage but summoned up reserves of character and took the lead again five minutes later when Thorpe thumped home his third of the season after Turner had struggled to clear McNulty’s hanging free kick into the box. Alfreton came back in the final few minutes and gave Town’s defence more nervy moments with Man of the Match Beeley booked on 82 minutes for a foul on Todd but the red and whites hung on, after an agonizing period of over five minutes added-on time, to secure a well-deserved promotion after a dramatic season.

Channel 4 and Bing join forces for Ad Campaign

Simon — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:27:35 +0000

Yesterday Channel 4 ran an innovative advertising campaign for Bing.

Channel 4 got some of its regular advertisers to be involved in the advertising break and allowed Bing to search for the advertiser as though it was a live search before their advertisement commercial took place, thus creating a really interesting link between one advertiser and next, as well as demonstrating a synergy between TV and the Internet as advertising mediums.

Visit Channel 4’s review for more information.

What is bounce rate?

Simon — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:18:44 +0000

Bounce Rate is a metric used in web analytics packages, essentially it lets you know how a person has interacted with the page, if they’ve bounced that means they’ve not liked what they’ve seen and left the page.

How is bounce rate measured?

In Google Analytics Bounce Rate is represented by the percentage of visitors that leave a page without clicking through to another page on that domain.

Other web analytics packages are much more flexible, they give you the option to set the bounce rate on a number of factors.

Length of time spent on a page is sometimes used to measure the bounce rate of a page and if someone has stayed on a page for a set amount of time, say 1 minute, that visit may not be included as a bounce.

Bounce rate may also be calculated within a range of the average amount of time spent on a page (excluding outliers).

When is bounce rate not an appropriate metric?

When designing and developing websites we often try to give people as much information as they need on the page – I have the general mantra “Put as few obstacles in the visitors way as possible”, that can lead to a high bounce rate that indicates the web page is performing effectively.

Many hotel websites for example use third party booking software that takes the user off page resulting in a highly converting page with a high bounce rate.

Is bounce rate a useful metric?

Sitewide or Average Site Bounce Rate is a good indication, however you shouldn’t put too much weight on them, especially if you are adding content to the site on a daily basis as you won’t be comparing like for like.

As with all web analytics metrics bounce rate is an important tool in the Internet marketers’ arsenal, however it has to be used in conjunction with other web analytics metrics as well as with a liberal amount of consideration for what’s happening on page.

Research Orientated Website Design

Simon — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 13:27:47 +0000

What’s the first thing you should consider when your thinking about a new web design?

Most design agencies would have you believe the most important thing is the colour or the logo or the branding, most clients will come to 2am and be fixated by how the logo should look on the page and how the website should portray the brand.

Of course this is important, however that’s not the first thing you need to do. Before you even think about putting pen to paper (so to speak) you need to do your homework.

At 2am we refer to this as Research Orientated Design.

What is Research Orientated Web Design?

To get the best results you need a plan, the better the plan the better the results and the better the execution of the process.

What web design elements work?

Some things work and some things don’t, there are general themes that you’ll see from one website to another, areas of commonality, sizes of websites etc. A good web designer won’t throw these out of the window in a fit of creativity; a good designer will work these aspects into the design without it being blatant.

Check out other websites and see what they are doing. Look at the website designs in the market sector you’re designing for, find out what they have in common and rationalise why there might be this commonality, it may be because a design feature is especially effective to a certain target market, there again it may be because the design element was well implemented once and copied by the other websites you’ve reviewed.

I’d always suggest having at least 3 but preferably 5 websites of competitors to review what they are doing, remember to have the market leaders as well as the closest competitors.

Once you’ve checked out the competitors have a look at some of the bigger brands out there that you don’t necessarily compete with, a big brand will often have spent a lot of time, money and consideration of the elements on their web design. My two all time favourite websites are the BBC and Apple.

What’s so good about the BBC’s web design?

The BBC is probably one of the biggest websites out there, certainly one of the biggest broadcasting and information resources there is. They also stand at the forefront of web design and they always have. In fact, it’s part of the BBC’s mandate to be at the forefront as a driver of media development.

Check out the way they position their search box, look at how big their mast head is, look at how wide the website is, how they position their images – also have a look at how you can personalise their site – this is something we’ll be seeing loads more of in the future.

What’s so good about the Apple website?

The thing about Apple is, they’re Mac slick – that’s to say they put some emphasis on design in everything they do whether that be building a simple application for the Mac or a full scale Apple website.

They use more images than most, and they can get away with that because they’re a big brand, they’re always really good at buttons, everything always feels buttony which I love. I also like the way they’ve used the Apple logo for their Home link in the sitewide navigation. I’ve started to see this being implemented in other designs as well.

Why do keyword research before the design process?

You wouldn’t believe how many design agencies will carry out web design without conducting keyword research. Keyword research is a fundamental part of the web design process, you need to know what people are looking for this will determine what actually goes on the page as well as in the navigation structure.

Keyword research will also inform you of the language you need to use in buttons and calls to action and if you want your website to perform well in the search engines then you need to build your site from the ground up with SEO in mind – that means from the design stage, don’t just tack it onto the end and expect the site to perform – because it probably won’t.

So make sure this is on your web design checklist.

Why research is important in web design

Ever heard the old saying, “Fail to prepare, prepare to fail”? Web design is a classic case, you’ve got to get your brief water tight, if it’s not the web design will bob back and forth and no one will be happy with the process or the outcome.

That’s why 2am put research, web design knowledge and understanding at the heart of our design process – plus we’re always learning.

Without the research orientated web design approach there’s no way we could have achieved the success for our clients that we have done time and time again.

Google to start charging for Maps

Simon — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 22:07:13 +0000

I’ve had a rant about Google Maps before, especially the Google Local Business Centre element.

I’ve said a few times that Google has to improve the service and that they’ll need to make it make some money to put the investment they need to in, in order to improve the software.

Guess what? As from the 2oth April Google Local Business Listing is no more, Google Local Business Centre is now Google Places, and guess what else – there will be a paid element, it hurts me to say finally but finally.

The way maps is displayed at the top of Google SERPs is too important for many businesses to be left in the hands of a dodgy hacked piece of software, if we need to pay for the privilege of being there then so be it.

When will this make a difference to my search marketing budget?

As with everything Google they are rolling it out in the US first, so if you’re not in the US you don’t need to worry about it for the time being, that doesn’t mean be complacent soon enough we too will be paying to tag our listings in Google Maps results in order to get them to stand out.

Which is better Pay Per Click or Search Engine Optimisation?

Simon — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 11:39:41 +0000

You know, this is a question I get asked a lot, “which is better pay per click or SEO?” They are both a form of search marketing, they are both integral to most serious Internet marketing strategies and they both have their own unique merits and pitfalls.

They are, however, quite different mediums in many ways.

All search engine marketing is advertising

Pay Per Click is blatant advertising, you put some money in your ad appears and you get your money back in the form of conversions, which may be enquiries or actual sales, it’s that simple, you can see what’s happening straight away and decide whether it’s working for you.

Search Engine Optimisation is a bit more tricky, you play with the page content and with the links to attempt to manipulate the way a search engine ranks your website, don’t be fooled, the organic listing is not free advertising no matter what Google tells you. I’ve been saying to clients for a long time now they have to treat SEO as though it was a traditional marketing medium such as billboad advertising.

Your websites’ search traffic should be separated out from the pay per click traffic, you need to be able to trace it whether the sales come in via the site or via telephone – that means putting in place unique funnels that will filter the visitor, if you’ve got a PPC campaign running you need to make sure there is no leakage from that campaign to the search channel, a good way of doing this is to dynamically change the telephone number or email addresses based on a query string in the destination URL of your ppc keywords.

Nothing is free – if you stop your search engine optimisation campaign you won’t stay in the top stop forever, especially if you are in a competitive market place (and if you need an SEO campaign then you are in a competitive search market).

What are the benefits of PPC?

• Immediate returns
• Visitors are more transactional
• Scalable

What are the disadvantages with PPC?

• Can be expensive
• Google discriminates against new advertisers
• Most searchers use organic listings

What are the benefits of SEO?

• Most users click on the organic listings
• Most searches in Google are long tail searches
• Over 25% of searches in Google every day have never been made before

What are the disadvantages of SEO?

• Long term marketing strategy
• Algorithm changes can affect rankings overnight
• Competitors often have more marketing budget to affect changes
• Diminishing returns as the internet becomes denser

How to think about Search Marketing going forwards

In 2010 you shouldn’t just be thinking about search engine optimisation or PPC – they really are different sides of the same coin.

Also, you need to be thinking about how you can maximize your presence in the search engines. Some people call this search engine maximization although I think the more inclusive term is search marketing is more appropriate, it encompasses everything from search engine optimisation, Pay-Per-Click, Social Media etc – it’s all part of the same thing – getting people to find your site by any means possible which maximizes your return on investment. It’s marketing folks nothing more.

I often meet business people who are starting to come across Search Engine Optimisation for the first time, it’s a buzz term to them, the future – but actually SEO as a marketing tool in the singular is no longer as effective as it once was.

It’s important that as search marketers we all use the right terminology and make the people we speak to begin to understand that it’s not all about one aspect of our craft – otherwise, ultimately the people we deal with won’t see the overall value of what we do and they’ll find it very hard to trust people that talk about search in the future.