James Houlston

25 Free Links To Promote Your Website

JamesHay — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 13:31:54 +0000

Link building can often be a difficult task. Obtaining quality inbound links to your website is a process that frustrates website owners all over the world. There are lots of ways to get inbound links to your site such as including submitting your site to paid-for and free directories. Directories do not norally drive much direct traffic to a website but they are invaluable for improving your search engine ranking for you targeted keywords. You’ll really start to see the traffic benefits when you start to show in the top 5 results of the first page for your keywords.

Here is a list of quality directories which are free and no reciprocal link is needed.

Dmoz.org ( Page Rank 8 )

Blogarama (PR 6)

PR Web Directory (PR 6)

Blog Rankings (PR 6)

Globe of Blogs (PR 6)

Bloggapedia (PR 6)

Websites 4 Small Business (PR 5)

Submission Web Directory (PR 5)

Site Promotion (PR 5)

IRSG (PR 5)

Aiclu (PR 5)

SearchWiz (PR 5)

ProLink Directory (PR 5)

A1 Web Directory (PR 5)

Splut (PR 5)

HydePark Books (PR 5)

Jkbd F999 (PR 5)

Code Classic (PR 5)

KiwiDir (PR 5)

BlogFlux (PR 4)

Blog Listing (PR 4)

Internet Directory (PR 4)

Nuoret (PR 4)

WsDaj (PR 3)

Piyy (PR 3)

Page Rank correct as of 09/03/2011.

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SEO Tips For Your Facebook Page

James — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 09:55:04 +0000

Facebook Pages provide businesses with a fantastic opportunity to reach their target audience through a highly engaged and effective channel. You can now sell products directly from your businesses Facebook Page and communicate quickly and easily with current and future customers.

Below are our top SEO tips that all Facebook Page owners should implement. Choosing the Best Name and URL When creating your page it is important to use your business’s real name as your page name and do not change it. Don’t be tempted to stuff your page name with keywords, the Facebook community can spot a spammy page title a mile off. Not changing your page name also helps keep any SEO strength you build up over time. You can now choose a custom username for your Facebook Page, ours is www.facebook.com/fasthostsinternet. Whilst this does present an opportunity to add extra keywords it is important to keep in mind that Facebook may block your page if you appear to have a URL that does not accurately represent your page. I would advise just using your company name as the URL username. Please note you need to have 25 fans before you can create a customer username for the URL. Take Advantage of the About Box The About box is the most valuable area that you can add your keywords to. Of all the areas to add custom text, the About box is placed highest within the CSS structure. So choose your 250 characters carefully, remember that first and foremost it needs to be optimised for your human visitors but after that think about how to add your specific keywords for search engine spiders to crawl. Create Custom Tabs The FBML provides the best opportunity to design your own static html pages within your Facebook Page. If you check out the Fasthosts Facebook Page you can see that the Welcome and Win sections are our own custom design. The FBML allow Page owners to add fully optimised pages on Facebook and help towards your search engine ranking. Share Great Content Facebook users want interesting and regular content. Share your photos, videos and news with your Facebook fans. Ensure that all descriptive fields are filled out with keyword optimise text. All this content is indexable by search engines. Keep your wall regularly updated and if you are on Twitter then you may want to include selected tweets. Selective Tweets is a Facebook app that you can install for your page that will include any tweets that have the #fb hashtag. For example on the Fasthosts wall we display any tweets that we want to share on Facebook using the #fb tag:

“SEO Quick Tips – Guest Blogging for Quality Inbound links – New Blog Post! http://bit.ly/ejLb2p #fb”

Fill Out the Info Tab With your Facebook Page you may have noticed that there is an Info tab. Complete this section with your keyword optimised text and add your website links. Complete the address section and company overview/products sections to gain traffic from local searches and product searches. So if you have not yet set-up a Facebook Page then I advise creating one asap and remember to incorporate these valuable SEO tips

Cloud Computing – The Definitive Guide

James — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 13:04:10 +0000

Definition of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is internet-based computing which utilizes servers, that are stored at an alternative location, to store data and manage resources.

What is Cloud Computing?

You will no doubt have come across this term more and more frequently over the past couple of years and it’s still a phrase that confuses many people. So what is cloud computing? Instead of running applications yourself (such as email, data backups, websites etc.) they run on a shared data centre. A great example of cloud computing is Gmail. With Gmail you don’t need your own servers and storage, you don’t need a technical team and you don’t need to do upgrades. When using an application on the cloud you just login, customise it to your preferences and begin using it. Cloud computing is scalable, often more secure and more reliable. Previously you would have purchased X amount of hard drive space and once that is used up you’d need to look at getting another hard drive or find an alternative solution. With cloud computing you can simply increase the amount of space allotted to you. So say you are creating a new powerpoint presentation. Normally you would open up your Powerpoint program, create your presentation and save it to your PC hard drive. With cloud computing you could open your presentation as a webpage, make you amendments online and save it to a virtual hard drive. Then share that with your colleagues or even have them login and work on the same project as you, at the same time. Prezi.com is an example of an application that you can do this with. There are 4 categories that cloud computing can be split into: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Communications-as-a-Service (CaaS) Infrastructure-as-a-Service – IaaS is utility computing, you only pay for what you need. Rather than purchasing servers, network equipment and data-centre space, you purchase those resources from an outsourced service provider. Normally you are only billed for what you use and so it helps keep costs down. Fasthosts provide IaaS through it’s subsidiary company Rise. Platform-as-a-Service - PaaS is a set of software and product development tools that are hosted on a third party provider’s infrastructure. GoogleApps and Windows Azure are examples of PaaS. Software-as-a-Service - SaaS is the most popular form of cloud services. Fasthosts Webmail is a simple example of SaaS. We host the hardware infrastructure and software and the end user logs in externally through a front-end portal. As we host everything it means the user is free to login and use the service from anywhere. Communications-as-a-Service - CaaS is a way of outsourcing business communications via the cloud with services such as voice over IP, voice conferencing and contact centre applications.

Advantages of Cloud Computing

There are many benefits of using cloud computing for your business. Due to the scalability of the cloud service you can save your business money by paying incrementally for services used. For the majority of SME’s you will also find you can store more data than on a private computer system. Cloud computing is highly automated as the provider will make software and hardware updates for you, saving you on the costs and resources of IT staff. As previously touched on, you will be able to access information remotely whether on your mobile, tablet or laptop, rather than having to stay in the office. You won’t need to download anything as it can all be accessed online saving you hard drive space and time. As everything is online it also save you having to share large files across internal networks, employees can login and access the document online, read and make changes. Cloud computing is also a lot more secure than storing your data in your office on your own PC. What happens if your data is stolen, lost or gets corrupted? With the cloud a good service provider will have multiple back-ups of your files and be able to restore them very quickly. I recommend looking for providers that have a data-centre that meets all the latest industry security requirements.

Cloud At Home

Cloud computing has opened up a number of opportunities, one of which being home cloud computing. Many people now require a solution whereby they can access the information they need whilst on the move and out of the house. Mobile phones and laptops can only hold so much data and if your device is stolen it can be a major headache, not to mention distress caused by the loss of irreplaceable photos, videos and other data. Home cloud computing provides a solution to having all of your documents, music and images on different devices by having a seamless storage solution. No longer do you need to manually move the photos from your mobile to your laptop or desktop PC, the interconnecting software does it for you. The cloud at home is the link between your external cloud services and your local files. You take a photo on your mobile and it would synch with your home PC which in turn synchs with your web-based cloud service meaning that everything is safe and secure and accessible from one point no matter where you are in the world.

Cloud for Business

This is the area in which cloud computing is having, and will have, the biggest impact. The emergence of cloud computing has led to many advantages over the way in which executives and business owners had previously run their businesses. Here are some of the key benefits of cloud computing to businesses: Remote desktop to access applications whenever and wherever needed and then release the software license back to the cloud so other users within your organisation can share from the pool of licenses. Mobile support is becoming increasingly important and many applications can be accessed through your mobile via the cloud. Sharing documents is always a vital part of any business and the cloud makes this process more efficient and practical. You no longer need to send emails back and forth with large attachments containing the latest update to your project. Instead you can access the application online, make changes and notify your colleague to login and do the same whether they are in the office or not. You can now rent instead of buying which helps keep costs down and provides a scalable solution that grows as your business grows. Removes the headaches of managing your own hardware and software. For more reasons why cloud computing is the right choice for your business check out our top tips on how you can use the cloud.

Moving to the Cloud

We’ve discussed how the cloud has created new opportunities for saving costs and developing your business. If you are now thinking of moving some or all of you applications and services to the cloud, then let’s take a simple look at how practical and easy it is to do. Creating a web application from scratch for the cloud is a relatively simple and straightforward process but for applications that already exists it is not so simple. Moving your existing data centre and/or applications to the cloud will involve making some key decisions so let’s take a look at these: The difficulty in migrating to the cloud is the main factor stopping more businesses move to this solution. One of the first things to consider is how long will migrating take? In most cases your IT staff will need to manually configure the platform, run tests, check the operating system versions, configure networks, database and application integration and storage capabilities. This can take several weeks or months depending on your existing set-up. Moving data is the second important factor. Moving any important data is a process that needs to managed very carefully, particularly if the data is that of your customers. Check that the cloud provider meets all the safety requirements within your industry and meets data centre requirements. Does the physical data centre have a climate controlled environment, uninterruptible power supply, monitored 24/7 and CCTV coverage with security guards on duty at all times? So you’ve now got an understanding of how long it will take to move with the issues involved and that the data will be secure, it is time to look into how you will manage this move to the cloud. New management tools, settings and policies are all things that your staff will need to learn. The cloud provider will look after upgrading software and hardware for you but you’ll need to be aware of when these changes will happen and what affect it will have on you and your customers. Has a new cloud provider come along with great offers and extra services? Think about how easy it is to move from the current cloud provider. Before moving anything over to the cloud ensure that it can easily be moved back to your data centre or another providers. Hopefully by keeping these four factors in mind when looking to move to the cloud it will help you choose the right provider for you.

Future of Cloud Computing

The future of business technology in 2011 is cloud computing as outlined in this BBC article. More and more businesses will make the move to virtualisation simply because it makes sense financially with a superior ROI. But what developments will we see with cloud computing technology, here are some predictions being discussed online: As more and more people begin to understand the decreasing risks of moving to cloud computing, they will begin to move from on-site IT and towards the cloud service. Generation Y who have been raised on a diet of Facebook, Twitter and 24/7 internet access will be much less fearful of the cloud computing concept and more readily move applications to it. Improved ROI, faster payback and lower set-up costs will make cloud computing the preferred choice for new businesses. Minimalism is becoming mainstream with people wanting a single device to do everything, take pictures, shoot videos, write documents, search the internet, make phone calls, play games etc. With devices getting smaller there is a physical limitation to the storage space of the hardware and so the cloud steps in as a solution to this issue. No longer will you need to store anything on your phone, it will all be stored with your cloud provider meaning that not only can you take photos until your heart’s content but you can also access those photos from other devices. This will lead to devices that are extremely lightweight. No longer will software providers release an update every few years. Instead software updates will come around every full moon and this will lead to higher competition between software providers leading to more “buck for your money” for the end users.

Focus on the Functionality Not the Design

James — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 12:40:14 +0000

It can often be easy to get carried away with the insignificant of details with a website design that you can lose sight of what is really important, the functional use of your design. The function of your website should stem from the purpose of your website. Is your website there to sell products? Provide the latest industry news? Showcase your portfolio? Once you know what the websites’ purpose is we can think about functionality. It is important to think about the following questions when creating your website.

Who’s your target audience?

This is an important question that cannot be ignored. Who is the intended audience for your product? Is your target audience over a certain age, predominantly male or female, tech savi or a computerphobe? Are you selling B2B or B2C? How much patience will they have? Do they want to quickly get the news or spend time researching a product your site offers? Your target audience will determine the layout, colour scheme, font size and navigation of your new website.

What will they do with your site?

You should know your customers better than anyone and know what their intentions will be when they reach your site. For the average site around 50% of traffic is direct and around 15% through Google when searching for your company name. So you know they are looking for something they think you are offering. Perhaps you offer a large catalogue of products, in which case you will want to think about having a search box that is prominent and easy to use. Or perhaps you sell a small range of products but often do an advertising campaign on a specific item. In this case make sure that product is prominent on the home screen with easy access to details about that product.

How will visitors use your site?

Clarity of use is the single most important design factor. Do not make a site that is hard to navigate and harder to get the information you want. There is no point spending hundreds of pounds for the worlds funkiest navigation system when no one can figure out how to use it. Take Amazon.co.uk as an example. One of the largest websites in the world, with thousands to spend on website design, yet they have a very basic and easy to use navigation system. You get to the home page and you can either go through the links on the left or search in the bar at the top. Simple.

What’s the site structure?

As previously stated things need to be easy to find. You may wish to carry out some market research on your customers for this. Find out how customer categorise your products. For example if one of your products you are selling are Green Table Lamps. They would seemingly come under Home Furnishings- Lighting- Lamps- Table Lamps-Green Table Lamps. But maybe your customers don’t think like this. Perhaps they would prefer Lighting-Indoor Lights -Bedside Lighting-Table Lamps.

How will you handle user errors?

Visitors will inevitably get stuck on your website at some point. Make sure that it is always easy to get back to the previous page and the home page. It is frustrating for a user to click a link that brought them to a page they don’t want and then find there is no way back to the previous page. Also make sure you have a 404 error page that directs people to your home page or allows them to navigate to another page on your site.

How will you keep the site maintained?

You need to think about how you will update the website to keep your site maintained with fresh content. Does each new product need 5 different images of varying sizes with a manual entry for a title? Do you need to update 5 different pages each time you change the description of a product? If you want to make a change to the sidebar or footer do you need to update every page with a change? Make life easy for yourself. Have one footer file and every other page “calls” it when it loads. This way you only need to make the change on the one footer file.

Why You Should Be Using Social Media to Increase Sales

James — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 13:33:40 +0000

Is your company using social media yet? If not then you are really missing out on new customers, increasing brand awareness and being able to showcase your great levels of support.

Social media is growing at such a rapid rate it is now a vital part of many companies marketing and support efforts. There are many stats on the increase in social media users, here is a great video on the social media revolution to provide you with all the social media numbers you want to know.

More and more of your potential customers are using social media and it’s no longer an option to ignore the increasing presence that social media is having. Your potential and current customers are talking about your business on Twitter and Facebook and whether you like it or not, there is nothing you can do about that. However, you can join them and help them. If someone having problems with your product and complaining about it in a tweet then talk to them, tweet them back and show that you care.

Here are our top 5 reasons why you should be using social media:

Increase Brand Awareness

Social media is all about communication and sharing information and is a fantastic channel to increase brand awareness. When your customers say something positive about your company on Twitter or Facebook all of their followers and friends will see it. Word of mouth advertising is far more effective than any other type of advertising and having a customer talk positively of your business will give you exposure to hundreds and sometimes thousands of followers.

Increase Sales Leads

Right now there could be a potential customer just waiting for you to find them and sell them your fantastic new product. Every day there are people on Twitter announcing they need a new bike, more web hosting or a business card designed. You can use twitter to search for these tweets and connect with these new sales leads.

Improve Company Reputation

Here at Fasthosts we have been working hard to further improve our reputation and provide customers with the products and services they want. People are always more vocal about bad experiences with a company and will express their comments through social media. We’ve found that if we respond to them on Twitter and Facebook; listen to what they are saying and resolve their issue then the customers will take the time to thank us and tweet positively about us.

Find/Create Brand Advocates

As previously mentioned people will talk positively of your company provided you treat them well. If you do this enough you can create brand advocates through social media. These are people that often talk enthusiastically about your brand and re-tweet your messages. Remember to always thank them and if possible give them added bonuses or special discounts as a gesture of your gratitude. At Fasthosts we always try to help customers, you can write a guest post for our blog and we’ll link back to your website and share it on social media. Sometimes we’ll ask for case studies from customers and we’ll always do our best to give willing customers promotion for their article.

Improved Customer Support

Social media provides you with an alternative route to support customers. We provide support via Twitter from 9am-5:30pm Monday to Friday so that customers can get an update on a support ticket (through a private direct message) or ask us a general question about a product/service. Our customers have found our Twitter support to be very effective and we hope to build on it for the future. If you want to follow us or send us a tweet we are @fasthosts.

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How to Convert Visitors into Sales

James — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 10:46:51 +0000

Part of designing an effective website is focussing on being able to convert visitors into sales or new clients. We’ve compiled this list of tips to help you start turning those new visitors into happy customers.

Emphasize you offers!

Offer your customers discounts and special offers. Emphasize offers heavily on your website, newsletters, support emails and social media sites.

Show how secure you are

Identity theft and internet fraud are a big issue with online shopping and it is important to make sure your site is as secure as it can be and complies with all of the rules and regulations. Once it is then showcase the fact that you are secure. People are much more careful and cautious with their online shopping and tend to stick to big, well-known brands. Make sure you provide visitors with all the information they need to feel safe and secure when buying from your site. It can be the difference between converting that sale and not.

Alternative payment options

Try and be as flexible as possible when offering payment options to potential customers. Why got to the effort of designing your great new site, doing all of your fantastic advertising and when the happy new customer comes to the final step and wants to buy your product you don’t have the payment option they want. Can you offer PayPal or Google Checkout? Payment by credit or debit card? Do you sell to US customers and not offer American Express as a card option?

Get on the phone and email

It is very difficult to create a site that is so comprehensive or has such a fantastic customer forum that can answer every question a potential customer will ask. If possible offer a sales line, even if you can only cover a small time frame. It is much more reassuring to new customers if they know a human being is actually working for this new company site that they’ve come across. Also ensure that you respond to email enquiries as quickly as possible. Make it very prominent on the website that you offer phone and email support. You will be amazed at how many more sales leads you will convert if you can answer customer’s questions.

Descriptive website navigation

If possible make your navigation bar as descriptive and specific as possible. If your navigation text reads “laptops” why not change it to “search our laptop range”.

What are your competitors up to?

Sometimes you can be so focussed on what you are doing that you forgot to check what your competitors are up to. Are they running a new competition? Have they launched a new blog? Do they have any special discounts atm? Have they made a new announcement? These are all things you need to be checking for on a regular basis. You can learn from their actions, a great way of keeping ahead of the market is taking the good parts of an idea that a competitor has had and add your own bit to improve it. Perhaps your competitor has launched a new blog, you like the layout but think that they should have done X, Y and Z differently. You can now do your own blog with those improvements making sure that you have the best blog in your industry.

Important Web Design Tips You Need to Know

James — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:55:15 +0000

The aim of most company websites is to increase sales, brand awareness and enhance their reputation. When designing a website there are many aspects to take into consideration such as the functionality of a site, layout, site architecture, colour scheme, fonts, images and navigation. However there is something more important than each of these; monitoring your visitors. I am not saying that the previously mentioned aspects are not important, they are, but they will count for nothing if you do not monitor your visitors and gain their feedback. When you are designing a site you are designing it for a purpose. The vast majority of company websites are created to improve sales so your website should not be designed to suit your own preferences but rather the preferences of your website visitors, your future customers. So don’t burry your head in the sand and remember to monitor your visitors. Here are three ways to gain the information you need to improve your web design.

Use A Website Analytics Tool

There are many options out there, why not have a look at this: 5 fantastic alternatives to Google Analytics. However, Google Analytics is free and one of the best available. I would recommend starting with Google Analytics if you’ve not currently got a favourite tool. Once you’ve set up your website tracking with your chosen analytics tool here are some stats you will want to keep track of – Visits, Bounce Rate, Pages/Visit, Avg. Time on Site and Traffic Sources. I would suggest running a weekly report to track improvements in the above areas. After 1 month you could then look to set targets for the coming months. Monitoring your site like this can tell you a lot about your visitor’s behaviour. Is your bounce rate high? If so you may need to look to keep visitors interest for longer with the use of videos or interactive presentations. Perhaps make interesting news more prominent in your site design. If your traffic from search engines is for certain terms you should research these to see if you can get more traffic from them. For example if you’re getting some traffic from Google for the phrase “website hosting news” and you currently rank 13^th for that term then why not do some link building and get to #1 in Google.

Heatmaps

Many web designs neglect the use of heatmaps. Using a heatmap is vital for a website that is selling products. If you’ve never heard of a heatmap before then have a quick read of Wikipedia’s explanation. In basic terms a heatmap shows you the areas of a webpage that are selected the most. Why is this useful? Well if the home page or any page of your website is selling a product or promoting an offer you can see how many users have clicked one link more than the other. The most common way this helps with web design is to move your CTA (Call to Action) to the area of the web page that is most commonly clicked. Or perhaps you have a search box and a navigation bar with your website categories. You can begin to see which your visitors prefer to use when they come to your site. Do lots of visitors use the search box rather than the navigation bar? If so then perhaps redesign your navigation bar.

Encourage Customer Feedback

“We would like to give you the opportunity to give us your feedback”

When designing your site provide your visitors with a clear and easy way to leave comments/feedback. If you have a blog then enable comments, if you have a company site then why not have a page that asks for customer feedback. You could also carry out surveys to your existing customer base. Listen to what your customers say, they are the ones buying and using your products. If your customers want a link made bigger then make it bigger, if they want more product images then give them more images and if they don’t like your font then change it. Happy customers lead to more sales.

10 Tips to Design a Brilliant Contact Us Page

James — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 10:26:56 +0000

Almost every website has one and if they don’t, they should. Done well, they can be a conduit for boosting online sales or support. Done wrongly, they can confuse potential customers enough to send them to a competitor. The Contact Us page: Something many businesses or webmasters might think is negligible can actually be a lynchpin of a corporate website. With several simple tips, you can ensure your Contact Us page is a valuable resource to web users – especially those interested in your services.

What do you want?

The first way to building an effective Contact Us page is actually to flip the scripts on web users. While they will potentially be contacting you with general queries or questions concerning goods or services, you must first think of what you want them to be asking. Some businesses may prefer only enquiries concerning sales to come through this channel, while others might prefer receiving customer feedback or support queries as well.

Tailoring your Contact Us page to accommodate these specific needs will be necessary, and especially useful if you plan to have different enquiries going to separate email addresses or contacts.

How do you want users to contact you?

While it may be necessary to list all forms of contact for your organisation, you must also consider which will be the most effective and convenient channel, both for yourself and for web users. While some enquiries may require phoning, and some operations may offer services or sales at a physical location, for many web users, the most convenient method will be via email.

What you need on your Contact Us page

Many countries have legislatively mandated requirements on what information must be included on a contact page. For example, in the United Kingdom, websites selling products and/or services must include a physical address and telephone number. In addition, it can be useful to list the postal addresses, phone numbers or emails of specific departments, as well as numbers where documents can be faxed.

Keep in theme with your website

A Contact Us page should never make a user question who the ‘Us’ they’re contacting is. While it may seem obvious, it’s important to maintain a consistent design across web pages and especially on a contact page, so web users who plan to get in touch will be reassured they are knocking on the right door.

Stay friendly

Keeping a consistent tone in the content across your website’s always recommended, but it’s especially important to keep a friendly dialogue with your website users through your Contact Us page. In doing so, you encourage users to communicate with your business, knowing they will be offered care and customer service, in turn fostering a positive perception of your brand and products.

Insert a contact form

Contact forms can be helpful both for a business and the site-surfing web user. For a business, a contact form will consolidate all enquiries from one centralised point – whether or not they end up being delivered to separate email addresses. In addition, the alternative of listing private email addresses on your Contact Us page opens up the addresses to scores of spam – and possibly malicious – messages.

For website visitors, a contact form ensures they will not need to make the web-trek over to their webmail client in order to be in contact with your representatives. Alternatively, when displaying email addresses, links will often make a computer’s desktop email client pop up, which many users could find distracting, especially if they haven’t configured their settings.

Add a map

With the widespread availability of mapping services such as Google and Bing Maps, as well as MapQuest, it’s never been easier to embed a map and directions to physical locations. With many services, users will be able to pinpoint the location of your outlets and type directly into the map on your contact page to find directions to your business.

What information do you need from a user?

For many businesses, handling a query will require a decent amount of information about the user, especially a name and email contact for the individual. However, experts advise against getting too specific with the information you require be added to a user’s request for information. Details such as age, geographic location or gender should only be solicited when it will affect the nature of the request, as such demands could easily put off a casual user from contacting you.

Getting the information you need

Getting the information necessary to process a request can be a tricky thing when you’ve only listed email addresses for relevant contacts, so it’s another area where embedding a contact form is recommended. Web developers and designers can tailor a corporate contact form so that a user can only send a query once the required information has been supplied.

Keep spammers at bay

As mentioned previously, Contact Us pages have traditionally made for great places for cyber thugs to collect corporate email addresses to use for their own nefarious purposes. However, there are several ways to prevent your personal email addresses from falling into the wrong hands, or receiving an increased level of spam messages.

First, the contact form in place of email can help tremendously – but some persistent spammers might just deploy bots to abuse this service. Keep them out by requiring all submissions to have an accurately rendered Captcha response. A Captcha image displays obscured numbers and letters it would take the human eye to discern.

If you must display email addresses on your Contact Us page, however, you can safeguard against easy picking by spammers by listing them as: Firstname.Lastname (at) domainname.co.uk.

Why You Need a Blog

James — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 12:11:32 +0000

Having a blog can be very beneficial to any organisation or project. Here are our top 10 reasons why you need a blog.

Establish Yourself as an Expert

When you’re selling a product or service it is important to be seen as an expert in your industry. Whether you are selling stationary, IT services or garden tools it helps increase your sales and customer loyalty if they feel you know what you are talking about. Without a blog it is can be very difficult to showcase your knowledge particularly if you have an e-commerce site.

Brilliant SEO Benefits

Google loves new and original content. With a blog you can provide that type of content. It helps you create virtual theming, target specific keywords that you wish to rank for and increase the crawl rate of your site due to regular, fresh content.

Increase Traffic to Your Main Site

Most company blogs have links to their main website as well. With our blog we have seen 5-10% of blog traffic go through to the main Fasthosts website which ultimately leads to more sales.

Broaden the Range of Your Target Audience

With a blog you can cover topics and reach a new audience that you perhaps cannot reach with your current product/service offering. We’ve focussed our blog topics on Online Marketing as we know that is one of the main subjects people who have a website are looking for. We hope to show them we’ve quality content on SEO and Link Building etc. which will increase our chances of them using our hosting services in the future. We could not reach this audience from our main Fasthosts website.

It’s Self Sustaining

You don’t have to write every post yourself. Why not invite people to guest write for you. This is very popular in the blogging world as both parties benefit. You get regular, exclusive and unique content and the write gets themselves promoted to a new audience and normally gains a couple links back to their website.

Helps Your Market Research

Enable comments on your blog and carry out Polls and Surveys. You can start to find out what your customers think of your business and gives them a voice. Although you may start off with negative criticism if you convert these into positive comments then it really helps increase customer loyalty and is a big factor for increase in sales. If someone says something negative then deal with it, see how you can help and hopefully the people that are vocal with negative comments will convert into your brand advocates.

Keeps Customers Informed and Interested

With any website, particularly those that are selling a product/service, is can be difficult to engage with your customers. Let them know that humans are running the business that they are buying products from. The more interest in your business the more sales you’ll make. Have you just launched a new product or have some news about your business; perhaps you’ve just done some fundraising for a local charity. The best place to tell people about it is on a company blog.

Helps Link Building

People link to quality content. The more links you get the higher up the search engine rankings you go, leading to more traffic and hopefully more sales. Linking building is one of the most important aspects of creating a successful website. It is difficult to get links to your website without having interesting and unique content. A blog is the ideal place for that content.

Improves Communication with Current Customers

Communicating news with your customers is really important, if a major change in their service or your product offering is happening then not only should you send an email to your customers but also post a blog article about it.

Increases Customers Loyalty and Trust

If you’re regularly updating your blog then people know your company is still alive and kicking. How many website have you been on where you have no idea whether they are still up and running or not. With a blog you can easily keep it updated and once you establish yourself as an expert you’ll increase customer loyalty and trust.

Google Doodle Celebrates Jules Verne’s Birthday

James — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 14:34:08 +0000

You may have noticed that today’s Google homepage has been taken over with an interactive doodle that allows you to navigate through underwater scenes whilst through a submarine-like view. It is in honour of author Jules Verne’s 183^rd birthday whom many people will know from novels such as the brilliant Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and the fantastic Around The World In Eighty Days. “Verne wrote about space, air, and underwater travel before air travel and practical submarines were invented, and before practical means of space travel had been devised. He is the third most translated individual author in the world, according to Index Translationum. Some of his books have also been made into films. Verne, along with Hugo Gernsback and H. G. Wells, is often popularly referred to as the “Father of Science Fiction” Jules Verne – Wikipedia…read the full Jules Gabriel Verne Wikipedia entry