What is a pixel?

A pixel is a small single-coloured square display element. A Photo you take on your digital camera is made up of many pixels. You may have heard of Megapixels, your phone may have a 2Mp(Megapixel) camera built-in.

For a camera with an array of 4500  x 3111 is commonly said to have “14 megapixels”

What does pixellation look like?

The image on the left in normal and the image on the right shows severe pixellation.

To integrate this on your website:

1. Download and install the plugin (Download here)

2. Embed Spotify tracks into your webpage with a simple piece of shortcode Paste the following code into your post or page where 6S4usKSWHmu0q0rWZi4WG0 is the unique Spotify track identifier.

[spotify:track:6S4usKSWHmu0q0rWZi4WG0]

To get the track identifier, right-click on a track in Spotify and choose “Copy Spotify URL”

The result will look like this.

[spotify:track:6S4usKSWHmu0q0rWZi4WG0]

Note. This plugin on this site is a modified version of the WP-Spotify plugin written by David Hermansson

File Editor

The file/plugin editor in WordPress can be disabled by adding:

define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true);

to your themes functions.php file – Should someone gain to access your admin area, files are exposed by leaving this on. It is rare that you would need to go in and make changes here. The same changes could be make via ftp when required.

WordPress version is visible

The version of WordPress that you are using by default is visible from all pages on your site, which allows potential hackers to find exploits for that exact version of WordPress. Remove this by adding :

function no_generator() { return ''; }   add_filter( 'the_generator', 'no_generator' );

to your theme’s functions.php file.

WordPress readme.html file

It is also possible to see which version of WordPress you are using by navigating to the readme.html file which by default is installed at the top level of your directory. – This file can be removed without impact on your site.

Install script is present

The file wp-admin/install.php is left on your site after install and should be removed.

Failed login messages

When a user/potential hacker fails to login to your WordPress admin, WordPress presents them with the reason why the login was incorrect. Display less information in the errors to help prevent hackers from brute force attacking you at login.Add:

function explain_less_login_issues(){ return '<strong>ERROR</strong>: Entered credentials are incorrect.';} add_filter( 'login_errors', 'explain_less_login_issues' );

to your theme’s functions.php file

Prevent Malicious URL Requests

Create a file called blockmaliciousqueries.php and add this to your plugins directory. Paste the following code inside the php file:

<?php /* Plugin Name: Block Bad Queries Plugin URI: http://perishablepress.com/press/2009/12/22/protect-wordpress-against-malicious-url-requests/ Description: Protect WordPress Against Malicious URL Requests Author URI: http://perishablepress.com/ Author: Perishable Press Version: 1.0 */ if (strpos($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], "eval(") || strpos($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], "CONCAT") || strpos($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], "UNION+SELECT") || strpos($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], "base64"))    {@header("HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request");     @header("Status: 400 Bad Request");     @header("Connection: Close");     @exit;  }?>

then activate the plugin as normal through the WordPress admin section

Database Prefix

By default your website was installed with the default database prefix of wp_ which is widely known to hackers. Change the tables in mysql to have a new prefix: (Note bGthrEEs224 could be any short string of letters and number you want)

• Rename table wp_commentmeta to bGthrEEs224_commentmeta
• Rename table wp_comments to bGthrEEs224_comments
• Rename table wp_links to bGthrEEs224_links
• Rename table wp_options to bGthrEEs224_options
• Rename table wp_postmeta to bGthrEEs224_postmeta
• Rename table wp_posts to bGthrEEs224_posts
• Rename table wp_terms to bGthrEEs224_terms
• Rename table wp_term_relationships to bGthrEEs224_term_relationships
• Rename table wp_term_taxonomy to bGthrEEs224_term_taxonomy
• Rename table wp_usermeta to bGthrEEs224_usermeta
• Rename table wp_users to bGthrEEs224_users;

Update this in config.php to bGthrEEs224_ and also make the following changes to table. Edit table wp_usermeta (now bGthrEEs224_usermeta)

• Change the record for wp_capabilities to bGthrEEs224_capabilities
• Change the record for wp_autosave_draft_ids to bGthrEEs224_autosave_draft_ids
• Change the record for wp_user_level to bGthrEEs224_user_level
• Change the record for
wp_usersettings to bGthrEEs224_usersettings

Disclaimer

Please note that these are only general suggestions and we cannot be held responsible for any consequences of any suggested changes or consequential loss or damage resulting from such a change.  The report provided above offers advice on a limited selection of security vulnerabilities.

Further security issues may exist in which case please feel free to discuss a full security audit of your site.

You can search the entire database of available plugins here.  You can pick the most popular or the newest or just search on the feature you want.  Sometimes you can find the most amazing things here that solve your problems just by downloading the plugin. Other times they do a lot (but not all) of what you want. In these cases we might be able to custome code the missing functions for you. Try us.

• Next Gen Gallery
  Set up multiple galleries & display with a simple [shortcode]
• AVH First defence against spam
  Anti spam free alt to Akismet
• WebsiteDefender WordPress Security
  General security check & Backup function
• After the deadline
  Spelling & Grammar check with useful suggestions
• Duplicate Post
  Creates a new draft of an existing post for editing. Resave as a new unique record with auto permalink updates.
• Advanced Custom Fields
  Attach custom fileds toPosts & Pages
• Redirection
  Monitors redirections & set up custom URL Redirects
• HeadSpace2
  Meta data manager SEO tool
• Digg Digg
  Social Media buttons to add to posts
• Google XML Sitemaps
  Generates XML site maps. Notifies major search engines/directories.
• Google Analytics for WordPress
  Yoast’s version of the plugin
• Page Menu Editor
  Enhances menu labels & adds title attributes
• SEO Smart links
  Automatic internal links based on site content & similar named posts or pages
• WP-PageNavi
  Adds Pagenation to multi page listings to front end of website
• Wickett Twitter Widget
  Provides a Twitter connection widget
• WP-Beautifier
  Cleans up messy XHTML output. Knocks out white etc & helps prevent faults occuring.

UK websites have been given a year’s time to adopt the EU’s new cookie law which was introduced as part of the EU Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive.

The key change that EVERYONE must be aware of surrounds the issue of consent. The EU guidelines state that a website should seek consent from website visitors every time they visit.

What are cookies anyway?

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers downloaded on to a device when the user accesses certain websites. Cookies allow a website to recognise a user’s machine.

Cookies might be used, for example, to remember your preferences on a website, to record what you have put in your shopping basket before you check out, to count the number of people looking at a website or to look at how users navigate the site.

What you need to do as a business owner

If you own, run or are in any way responsible for a  website in the UK then these rules apply to you.  In addition you are expected to comply NOW or you can be fined up to £500,000.  Yes – that really IS half a million quid!  UK businesses are being given a year to get their house in order but please note that the law is in place NOW and that means if you aren’t seen to be “doing something” towards compliance, then you might get a fine sooner than the year.

What will actually happen in practise remains to be seen and the Information commissioners office website can be taken as a bench mark for us all to use.

The phrase the ICO are currently displaying on their website header is this:

On 26 May 2011, the rules about cookies on websites changed. This site uses cookies. One of the cookies we use is essential for parts of the site to operate and has already been set. You may delete and block all cookies from this site, but parts of the site will not work. To find out more about cookies on this website and how to delete cookies, see our privacy notice.

They also have  a link to their privacy policy page that sets out the cookies their website uses & what they do.  Finally the visitor can checka  box to confirm that you accept cookies from the site and a “continue” button to use afterwards.

Although the ICO is an inedpendent body, it will be consulting with business and the UK government so watch this space. There won’t be any huge overnight changes according to goverment spokespeople but as all this has been introduced with no notice, it;s anyones guess when the first enforcement notices are issued.  So common sense advice regarding the new EU cookie directive is start by bringing your website up to the same standard as the ICO site.

For more information on cookies, you can visit  allaboutcookies.org.

Using your internet browser can prevent cookies being used.

Another option is to advise your site visitors to alter their browser security settings so that they do not accept cookies. The only problem with that solution is that some parts of your website may not work properly if cookies are set to do not accept.

Both Internet explorer 9 and Firefox 5 have this facility with Google Chrome about to follow.

Ultimately whatever you do is up to you but you have to do something. The ICO are not issuing a definitive “to do ” list because they recognise that every business is different and will have to find their own solution. If you are not sure then you can download the ICO help sheet on the new regulations or learn more about how the ICO will enforce the new EU cookie regulations.

Dzined are offering a solution to any website owner

As web programmers we are able to offer you a solution to your cookie problems, this will vary with the type of site. If you look at the ICO site there is a statement followed by either user action or inaction. Either way it is an informed choice. To enable the choice of accepting or declining cookies, there is a fairly simple code update that can be added to your website(s) which takes care of the problem for you permanently.

We charge £35 + VAT to update your website which is better than a £500,000 fine!

For most people this will come as a bolt out of the blue so if you want to discuss the issues of cookies & how we can uprate your website to conform with the law, please email sales@dzined.co.uk ,call us on 01992 350066 or 0844 357 4539 at any time.

Disclaimer

The solution we are currently offering is based upon our current understanding of the european directive. We cannot guarantee that the interpretation will not change or that the directive will not be subject to amendments. Furthermore we cannot be held responsible for any loss of earning , website functionality (whether cookie based or not) or reputation following any changes we are instructed to make on your behalf. Please also note that changes made can be reversed on request for a further small fee.

Which should I use?

Using both can help make your site easier to navigate. But before we go any further you must remember:

Never use a category or a tag only once! Why? Well, when you use either a category or tag just once, WordPress will display that one post that has been tagged twice. Duplicate content is a definite no no and can harm your sites Search engine placement.

Tags

Let’s say you created a post called: The Answer is 42 and you created a tag for this post called hitchhiker. That post will be displayed on the following URLs.

http://www.yourdomain.com/the-answer-is-42  and http://www.yourdomain.com/tag/hitchhiker.

What’s wrong with this? Well if the tag hitchhiker is used only once, then your post will be displayed in full on http://www.yourdomain.com/tag/hitchhiker and http://www.yourdomain.com/the-answer-is-42 thus the same post is displayed twice. Google and other search engines will see this as duplicate content.

If you write a second article called: So long and thanks for all the fish and tag this post also with the tag hitchhiker. You will now have a post at the url http://www.yourdomain.com/so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-fish but this time instead of the content being displayed on http://www.yourdomain.com/tag/hitchhiker there will be a short excerpt from the post with a link to the full post at http://www.yourdomain.com/so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-fish.

Why does this happen, it’s just the way the WordPress works. Now whilst it is possible to make a fix for this, you really need to stop and think how useful a tag page would be with just one result? Not useful at all.

To summarise how you should use tags?

• Always make sure a tag is used more than once
• Make sure the tags you use are a useful and will group together similar posts.
• Use around 4-7 tags per post (if you are using 10 or more, you are using too many!)

Categories

The same rule with regard to make sure a tag is used more than once, always use a category in at least two posts.

Categories are a way of grouping your posts together by topic.

If we take the posts above, these are posts relating to the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Before we create a category we need to decide, what other articles will go in this category. If our website is all about different genres of books, we might decide to call the Category Science Fiction Novel. The next post we right might be about a Dictionary, in which we would create a new category called Reference Books. Don’t add the category at this point though, you might want to wait until you add another posts about a Thesaurus which could also go under the category Reference.

To summarise how you should use categories?

• Always make sure a category is used more than once
• Make sure the categories you use are group the posts together well.
• Use only 1 category per post.

Many people will be familiar with that old saying, but it’s as true now as it ever was.

The purpose of this blog post is just to make you think about how you are marketing your business and your products and to offer some ideas as to what you can do differently.

Everything changes all the time. It always has and it always will. Just take a look at the example of aviation. Back in 1903 when the first powered flight took place aircraft were unsophisticated to say the least. But that didn’t stop the ideas being tested and developed.

Now – two world wars and just over 100 years later, we have the U2 spy plane, Typhoon jet fighter and the A380 airbus. A far cry from the Wright brothers flying machine.

The analogy is that the world of Internet marketing has developed too – go read the Panda update blog post for a graphic example.

If the Internet represented the original Jet engine then the Google Panda update was the equivalent of a concorde moment – if not beyond.

OK – enough aircraft references although they do serve a useful purpose because there will still be a lot of “Wright Brothers” business owners out there who are not making the most of the extra revenue that is available using the Internet. This need not just be having a website or a Google Adwords campaign, there are lots of other ways to use the Internet to help grow your business.

Marketing methods which can bring your business into the NASA league

Here is a quick overview of some marketing methods you can use to help grow your business. Some of these are considered “Old Hat” by many people and rather mundane or ordinary, but if they still work why not use them. I mean, nobody has “reinvented” the wheel in quite some time – but I think it’s still OK!

Non Internet-based (or offline) marketing

• Direct Mail
  Sending well written effective sales literature to your existing customers several times a year can be incredibly effective. Direct mail campaigns can be improved many fold with a follow up phone call afterwards.
• The Telephone
  Not only an effective follow up tool, but a great way of simply staying in touch with your customers or either cold calling new ones or appointment setting if you use reps.
• Paper adverts
  Traditional newspaper or journal adverts can still work. Always make sure you are placing ads that require readers to take action & contact you. So have a great headline and a compelling reason for them to call or write. Make it irresistible and tell them EXACTLY what to do at the end.
• Guarantees
  Before a customer buys there will be some resistance at first. By offering either a free trial or a money back guarantee if not completely satisfied will reduce or eliminate thae rsik in the customers mind and convert more prospects to sales.
• Flyers
  These are a very cheap, fast and effective way of getting or trialling a message to the masses. The same principles apply to flyers and newspaper print ads – Great headline, some interesting and informative text, maybe an amusing picture and a great offer with a strong call to action at the end.
• Networking
  If you have time, go join a local business networking club. There are loads out there. You’ll get to meet exactly the type of people your business should be talking to, or if not, then they may well have access to the people you are looking for.
• Affiliate sales
  Here you are offering other people’s goods or services to your own mailing list. If they buy something then you are paid a commission from the other company and that person becomes your AND their customer. You would only set up non competitive links e.g. if you sell diet products, books and video’s you may want to offer an affiliate product for say accurate BMI weighing scales or maybe some beauty products. These are complimentary but NOT competitive products.
• Joint Ventures (JV)
  Networking meetings are useful places to meet other businesses to form a joint venture with. You need to find types of business that have a similar customer profile to yours but that is non-competitive. E.g. If you are a painter & decorator, you might want to JV with an insurance company and some estate agents. One may have fire or flood claims, the other will have new people to the area needing your help.
• Public Speaking
  Related to the above two points. If you can develop speaking skills, you will have a captive audience to talk to. Don’t just stand up & sell, but instead offer useful information on a topic you know about. At the end you can discuss what you or your company does. That’s the best way to get up to 50% of your audience to get in touch!
• Referrals/Word Of Mouth
  The best customers are happy ones.  Satisfied customers should be willing to offer you referrals once they get to know you, but you can even get them to start offering referrals before your first sale!
• Newsletters
  If you have a mailing list – try mailing them! If you have a newsletter that has great information and some really useful offers or other reason to contact you, then you might be amazed at the results. If it works well, try sending 2 or 3 a year instead of just one. Newsletters are different from direct mail being more general, but you can combine other paper items in with them,. like forthcoming events or affiliate offers (Joint ventures where YOU earn money from sales to other peoples businesses)
• Boomerang offers
  When you sell anything that is posted, add in a flyer, voucher or coupon which offers a repeat sale at a discount, or an affiliate sale. You will find that a proportion of your customers will buy again immediately.
• Birthday & Anniversary Cards
  This is a nice way of relationship building and you can combine the card with a voucher to spend with you or some other limited time offer.  Could be a £10.00 discount for a week only or a two for one offer – test a few ideas and then see what works.
• Free to enter competitions
  If you are list building, this can be a great way of attracting new customers. Yes you will get existing customers applying – but so what. These people are hugely important too so welcome every entry. You could try incentivising existing customers to refer their friends and relatives. Have a relevant prize though with a high perceived value.

Internet (or online) based marketing

• Websites
  A lot of websites still talk too much about themselves and not about the needs of the customer. If you want information or help or a great deal on something, you want information and want it quick! So look at your site now and ask yourself – “Does it answer all my important questions and meet all my needs?”. Sadly most don’t. Offer great content, get people to contact you and keep it updated. That’s the absolute minimum you should aim for.
• Website competitions
  One way you can get better visitor participation is to offer a free to enter competition. Your site would typically have a very simple form to fill in which takes a name & email address (you don’t really need more than that at first). That way  you can send further emails to all people who enter. If you are paying for site traffic – get them to do something when they are there.
• Blogs
  Blogs can be a great way of letting people know that you have something interesting or useful to say. People can subscribe to your blog and receive regular updates or an RSS feed direct to their computer every time you post an update.
• Adwords
  Google’s Pay Per Click adverts you see every time you search on Google. These cost you money when your ad gets a click so make sure you are getting value in return.  This is a vast and complex subject but some key points are:
  1. Choose the right keywords
  2. Create a landing page for every ad you place if possible
  3. Have the page text match the ad closely
  4. Watch your Click Through Rate (CTR)
  5. Study all the important metrics and monitor your campaigns often
• Other website marketing
  Google is not the only advertising medium. There are plenty of other places to advertise online. every website owner should place as many listings for their business in business directories as possible. Each will usually provide you with a useful backlink. So search for online business directory and get adding!
• Facebook advertising
  Facebook has a comprehensive system of advertising but you do need to be aware that Facebook may produce (generally) a different type of response to Google. There is also Linked In and EBAY – all these places can be utilised effectively to advertise your business.  You DO need to place the right sort of ads however to get the best results.
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
  There are some essential basic principals of SEO that are essential. Regardless of the technical aspects of SEO the valuable element of your website is its content. Specifically, is the content:
  1. Relevant to the reader?
  2. Informative, authoritative and reliable? (i.e. do you know what you are doing!)
  3. Is it kept reasonably up to date
• There are many others too of course, but just start with – do I solve people problems, answer their questions and give them TONS more than my nearest competitor? If not – you have some work to do and SEO is the way of being found, but the content (which is part of the SEO process) will combine with extra traffic to get you even more new business.
• Email Marketing
  When done properly you can get people who are only slightly interested to buy from you many times and tell their friends! You should use a proper email handling program and set up a series of autoresponder emails. This way your messages will be delivered more reliably, you can automate your responses and  anage all the subscribers & unsubscribes automatically. The one we recommend is Mail Chimp as its easy, cheap, hugely powerful and generally great fun. Take a look
• Video Casts
  We all take in information differently. The use of Video can be very effective especially if you have a technical product to discuss. You can also embed videos in HTML emails (like those used by Mail Chimp) so you can have a “talking newsletter” in effect. Use it for spreading your brand, or your personality to followers.
• Webinars
  Webinars are online audio only or audio visual meetings for an invited audience. These can be a great way of demonstrating how your business solves the problems for people. You’ll need to advertise the event to your mailing list and you provide webinars as eitther listen only or if you run a subscription service, as an interactive service. People can ask you questions live. Afterwards you can send everyone who enrolled a transcript of the content for free.
• Podcasts
  A great way of getting information across. You can have a podcast on virtually anything and always be on-topic and bang up to date. You also get a useful archive for people to use. Its great for demonstratingtechnical prowess and you can distribute via iTunes.
• Link building
  Getting back links is still an important way of getting “seen” by serach engines as important. The value of just link building has diminished over time but it IS still worth doing – just not on link farms or spammy sites. Get links from business directories and .org websites as targets, then “the rest”.
• Social Networking sites
  Facebook updates, Twitter are the best known. But Linked In is becoming more and more important for many businesses. The way to use social media sites is as either researching your company, brand or offers or to get a following and promote to these people.

Mixed methods (offline to online)

• Adding markers to ads for testing
  Being able to test (reliably) is always the key to success with marketing and having a paper ad with a specific tag or marker lets you do this very precisely. If you run an ad and it costs money you absolutely MUST monitor its performance properly. So try adding in a response phone number that’s ONLY in that ad. You can also try adding unique email addresses, or unique landing pages or even testing 2 landing pages from the one ad – a process called A/B split testing. Don’t waste money – test ads and drop the ones that don’t work. Concentrate on those that DO.
• PR
  Public relations offers you the moist unbelievable return on almost no investment. The key thing with PR is to meet the needs of the editor of the magazine or the producer of the radio or TV show. You will need to send targeted press releases, properly formatted for journalists or researchers and follow these up with a phone call. You can get tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of FREE advertising with PR.
• Press releases
  Press releases can be effective at getting your business noticed. Use them for letting the press know you have a new or better offering but there are online versions as well. The benefit to your business is that the content is indexed and you can add links to your site or articles giving another back link.
• Referrals?
  Get into the habit of asking clinets for referrals. If you provide a good service why wouldn’t they want to tell other people to use you? Referrals are free and you can ask people right at the start to refer you once you start providing them with the great service you offer.In Conclusion

This is in no way a full list but its here just to show you how many different ways there are to interact with your customers, potential customers, other businesses, the intrernet and the world in general. It doesn’t matter what line of work you are in – we can guarantee that Dzined can help you grow your business and make it seem easy for you at the same time.

If this list looks daunting or you are thinking “I don’t know where to start” then just pick one from each category and test it. Take some action because just like the Wright Brothers, without their action back in about 1900 when they very first started, we wouldn’t have the comfortable, safe and remarkable ways of travelling around the world in less than 1 day.

You shouldn’t expect to change the world overnight because that’s just not realistic. But if you do commit to taking some action today and making a start, then who knows where you’ll end up.

You may even have your own airline!

If you enjoyed this article please share is on Facebook or Twitter

For a more down to earth approach, please give Dzined a call and we can help you with your marketing strategy, discuss the best way forward and help you with any of these marketing methods. Call us on 01992 350066 or send us a message.

It won’t have escaped your notice that the Internet is full of websites, all there to help you make an informed decision about your research subject or your next purchase.

You will also know that Google has a way of ranking some sites above others and produces pages of results every time you search the web. Like everyone else, you probably don’t go much beyond page 1 or 2 before either clicking on a site link in the search results or re-typing a different search phrase.

So far so good.

The Panda “system” (named after the Google engineer Navneet Panda) who developed the program, changes the way those search results are presented to you with the intention of giving you better results.

The Panda algorithm is a form of machine learning – or artificial intelligence if you like that allows Google to use a much more “Internet user” based focus to be applied to the search results every time you search for something.

Machine learning programs have been around for a while, but the Panda update (originally introduced into worldwide searches about April of 2011) allows the machine learning programs to not only run a lot faster, but also to take into account other factors like user experience metrics when ranking a website.

Google has collected a lot of information over the years on the way web users interact with the Internet and browse for information. On the first of March this year introduced their new “one size fits all”  privacy policy that was done to replace the multiple other privacy policies that existed in their 71 (yes, really, 71) other services that people use to bring together and simplify their complex set of individual privacy policies.

Many of these 71 services (e.g. Google Chrome, the Android smart phone platform and the Google Toolbar application) have collected user account metrics information on (amongst other things) web browsing  behaviour and (it is suspected!) that these metrics are now being used to rank websites. In essence, due to the accelerated machine learning Panda update, it’s easier to analyse the things people “like” and the things they either “don’t like” or “like less”, and apply a new website ranking order accordingly.

Search Engine Optimisation of Old

In the past, it was adequate to have good relevant content, unique to your topic, add in the relevant keywords in the right density, set up your meta data correctly, have page titles which are keyword rich and so on.

Those elements are still important, but its no longer a guarantee of high page rank success exclusively.

Panda and Search Engine Optimisation

So whats new?

During the development process of Google Panda there was a lot of human input. This meant that the machines could use the parameters chosen for “good” websites and apply them as well as the parameters for “Bad” or not so good websites.

The Good/Bad element wasn’t just random, it was a quality score applied to sites based on lots of different questions asked about the content of the website, the percieved trustworthiness of the website (especially for e commerce), how the pages were structured e.g. were the top two thirds irrelevant advertising content, was the site layout good and easy to read and so on.

Once the basic quality scoring exercise had been done by the (human) testers, then the user metrics (that’s all the stuff that Google has in it’s data banks already on real human web activity) were examined.

After these metrics were analysed then the entire Internet was re-shuffled (as it were) by the Panda Algorithm.

Websites that ranked highly may have remained so, others that were highly ranked were reassigned to the “Not so good” category. This now had the effect of pushing a large number of highly ranking websites well down the list – overnight!

It’s worth saying here that the exact weight that may or may not have been applied to any metric used is not (and will probably never be) published. But there is enough information out there from Google themselves to back up the need to build your website to be the absolute best you can make it. Then keep it that way – something as web designers we would support.

You can imagine that if your income heavily depended on your website ranking highly, that “reshuffle” will have been quite worrying. This is a good example of why we always suggest to people when planning a marketing strategy that they diversify into additional areas to grow & sustain their business. The Internet IS great, but it’s also forever changing.

Here are a few important metrics for the Google Panda rankings

What is the quality or reliability of information for health sites (like would you trust a child or loved one’s health with the info on the page or site?)
Would you enter your credit card details here or not? Does it look secure or a scam?
Is it easy to read – Is the content easily accessible or are there endless …more links for each text block or are there adverts in the way?
Does the article look like its been well prepared & well written? Does it have a lot of authoritative information on the subject, is it well researched, up to date and factually accurate!
Is the website well designed and look modern? There are some very “tired” looking sites out there that don’t help anyone. If your site has hard to read text, old styling, slow to load fuzzy images & purple on green headlines – Time for a change!
Would I like to see it in the first few pages of a search return or not? So does it buck the trend of the first few above?
Would I be inclined to send a link to this page to a friend or relative? Is it original or quirky or just so jammed packed full of relevant, authoritative information that you simply don’t need to go anywhere else?
What is the user experience of this website? Would you want to stay or run a mile after 1 page?
Does your website have a lot of intrusive adverts or a lot of space dedicated to adverts? Too many ads will diminish the user experience.
Is it interesting and engaging in the way that it’s been written? Or has it been written by someone specifically to get SEO ranking?

Looking at your sites analytics, do you have lots of “dead” pages? Does your website have tons of old content that nobody visits or has out of date or plain incorrect content, broken links and an unpopular layout? If so this will be a bad marker.

Comparison with your competitors metrics for the same or similar keywords

How long to site visitors stay on your website? You can see this and tons of other useful visitor stats in Google Analytics.
What’s your bounce rate? Meaning how many visitors arrive & then leave immediately without viewing any other pages.
For those that don’t bounce, how many other pages  are read by each visitor? In other words, how engaged are site visitors by your site and site content?
When you do come up in search results, how effective in the summary or excerpt of information in the search results at getting people to click? Here’s a good reason not to use domain names like www.d-zined-web-and-marketing-company.co.uk which can look like a spammy domain (drop the hyphens if possible)

Where is your traffic arriving from? The old idea of linking to absolutely everyone is not dead, but you do need to be careful because poor quality links may generate visitors but if they all bounce, you will get ranked negatively. Once your site content has been uprated as far as possible, that should reduce your bounce rate although site design & layout may still need addressing.

A diverse range of traffic from across the country (or even the world) will be better in most cases than from just a few places.

There are many others too. So for helpful suggestions on SEO in the age of Google Panda, see the Google webmasters blog which any can access, just search on Google webmasters blog & panda updates.

As Panda develops and new updates of machine learning algorithms become available, these factors may all change again, but the important points to take away from this article are these.

Summary

Panda changes the way the entire Internet is organised. Although it is a Google update, Google “feeds” many other search results to smaller search engines, so the knock on effects will be wide reaching.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) has now evolved. For anyone who is serious about “being on the first page of Google” as we hear so often, needs to either study this stuff or employ a good SEO consultant and good website designer who also understands the internet and Social Media.

Your website design just as much as your website content are now hugely influential factors. Without attractive and engaging website design, and follow up marketing materials, your content may never be read. This will inevitably lead to a poorer ranking. Your site will not be deleted but it will end up in the pile marked “others”!

Site rankings are now more orientated towards user experience and only the strong will be rewarded. If your business relies on good search engine rankings then you absolutely MUST be aware of these changes.

Good, relevant and trustworthy content, good web design, original ideas are all now important factors in the “use and pass it on” test. Meaning do readers like, read and want to tell others about your site – or do they just “Read & Go”.

All the basic elements of good SEO like proper spelling & grammar, relevant content, keyword etc are all still applicable, its just now MUCH more about what people actually DO when they get to your site.

It’s up to the website owner to develop the look of their site, the content of their site and also the brand personality of their site too.

If you are concerned about your website rankings or you’d like a free website analysis report, simply contact us for a free chat.

This short article is not THE definitive guide, but for any business out there, large or small, this might just clear some fog and hopefully offer some direction for you.

So what is Branding?

Branding goes beyond the colour of the packaging or the new logo. It’s more about how your brand makes people “feel” . What is the first thing that you think of when you hear the brand name?…..That’s branding. Everything else stems from there.

Feel = Emotion. Emotion = Decision to buy

Buying decisions are based on emotion more often than pure need, but people justify their emotional decision with facts they know (or are told) about the brand.

How you achieve your branding is all about how the experience users of your brand have when they buy it or use it for the first time. It’s also about how good you (i.e. your brand) are at customer care in your particular marketplace.

If you are adding value to people’s lives with your brand, or providing a genuinely new and innovative experience for people, then it could very well sell itself. Get the emotions right and everything else will follow.

Connecting with your customers by being different

If you just offer a “me – too” product because there are established players in that market place, the chances are that your brand will not really appeal. After all, what do your brand stand for? How is it unique if it’s just another brand?

If you take your brand and place it in the market place in a different way to the others, then you stand a much better chance of success than by just cloning another brands ideas and marketing.

An example is LoveFilm.com. They took the idea of film rental (NOT a new idea!) which is a crowded marketplace with all the high street rental places & chains like Blockbuster and changed the rules. In so doing their concept that gave them brand appeal with consumers. The method of delivery (either DVD via post or online viewing) of the same film viewing experience was what made them stand out from the existing operators in that sector.

So that was their added value or unique angle on film rental. They also have a great name!

Selling on added value

Brand advertising will be something that you have to look at with any brand. You need to let people know you are there. In order to maximise your chances of success with the launch of a new brand you should (ideally) offer outstanding value in the market place compared to your competitors. What “value” actually means will vary with what you are selling. You shouldn’t lose money on a product unless there is a very good reason for it. So value doesn’t necessarily equate to price, you can add extra value with service or bundles of items, also with guarantees – both upfront as risk reversal guarantees, but also with warranty or maintenance guarantees or service level agreements.

Selling on consistency

Take Mc Donalds. They sell their “branded” food worldwide and the thing they do really well is meet your expectations. You do NOT expect a 5 star service, you do NOT expect 5 star prices – what you get is the same food as the last time you went into Mc Donalds – even if it was in a different country. Quantities may vary from country to country, but the actual food doesn’t.

They meet your expectations every time and their food (however you look at it) is perfect to meet those expectations.

Brand Personality

Your brand will bear your corporate personality and it does this even if you don’t think it does. Many people just do nothing to present their brand with its own identity which is why their brand goes unseen. If you don’t care or you don’t stamp your brand with a life of its own, you won’t stand out from the crowd.

Look at comparethemarket.com. They have managed to invent an entire personality for a Russian meerkat who runs an imaginary company and they even set up a place called Meerkovo where they all live. They have managed to make a rather dull task like getting a quote for car insurance into something fun by using their brand and actually giving it substance. It has a life – you can see the business owner and his employees. Their brand is funny and you will probably remember it next time you go on line for insurance.

Having a brand personality means that you start to give people a feeling or some attachment of a feeling to your brand. Meerkats optional.

Branding is everything you do!

If you are interacting with your customers or potential customers at any level – that could be an advert, a website design, a newspaper ad, the way you or your team answer the phone – it’s all part of your branding.

If you are inconsistent in the way you do things, that will become associated with your brand. The reverse is also true. Look at a company like Virgin. Pretty much everything they seem to do has the Branson touch or a certain “feel good factor” associated with it. Not to say that others don’t have great service, or that everything Virgin do is done perfectly but they are masters at doing ordinary things better than many others. You now trust the Virgin name so when they open a bank, you will be quite happy to start an account with them instead an established high street name – especially if they meet and exceed your expectations (as I suspect they might!).

So look critically at your own company and see what you think your brand is saying to your customers. Also is your vision being implemented by your staff like Richard Branson’s?

Brand experience

Going the extra mile for customers (great customer service) can be part of what customers associate with your brand. By offering truly outstanding service to everyone as standard consistently will set your brand apart. Best of all you don’t have to crow about it because satisfied customers are your best brand ambassadors. You literally cannot buy  that sort of brand support.

How customers are treated in the real world is down to the people in charge of the company. Employees will be employees! So in order to get the brand experience right for your customers, the leaders/managers/implementors in the company have to make sure the brand “feeling” is transmitted, understood AND carried out by the management team of the company.

That is  just as applicable for a one person business as it is to a multi national company. Only the way it is implemented will vary.

Have a clear vision of your brand and what it stands for and make sure that the entire workforce buys into that vision.

Branding is your copyright

That means that if a competitor wants to take your products or services, copy them, copy your packaging, your website layout and content and your marketing materials they can. But the ONE thing that nobody else in the world can replicate is YOU.

So it is only you who can make your branding represent your own personal values and send your business philosophy out to the world.  There was a marketing message that fits perfectly here which is often copied, never equalled. make that your philosphy and you won’t go far wrong.

Just so you are left in no doubt – don’t copy other people’s branding because you’ll probably end up in court!

Branding can never be copied if it truly represents the vision of the owner and is carried out by every company employee. There are countless examples that fit this bill so brand building is always a good idea. It builds a unique identity, reassures people and at the same time builds loyalty in the marketplace, build trust and offers you protection that a mere legal framework cannot.

If you would like a discussion on building your brand, call Dzined now on 01992 350066 or email sales@dzined.co.uk

There are lots of things to think about when starting a new website so we’ve tried to focus on the essentials for success. Obviously there will be loads more you can add – but that’s good & you should do so.

So where do you start?  Well you should think about who will be using it and what they will want from your site and then think about the content & layout next. This is actually the reverse of what usually happens which is the business owner writes the site content which is all about themselves & the company. Then the layout is done & finally the end users get to see it.

So we’ve called this article how to write a website backwards – which is exactly what you should do to be successful.

Why?

Because you put your customer & their needs FIRST. Not yours.

So here are our basic rules on how to construct your website for the best results & profitability.

Number 1

What is your purpose in business?

What is the business you are in exactly? Are you just selling things, are you just making things?, both?, do you offer self help?

You’d be surprised at the number of businesses that mix their messages on their website. To make sure you don’t confuse your site visitors (or disappoint them) make sure you focus on your business objectives. Be clear right from the outset that you need very clear messaging in everything. This leads on to the next point.

Number 2

What is the purpose of your website?

Being clear on your purpose in business leads to clear messaging on the website because you know what you are saying. That’s totally different to being good at your job by the way. If you want to buy some shoes (say) then your site or at least that part of it that sells shoes, should be very clear on its footwear focus. Not anything else.

Something else to think about right now is how many websites do you want. In theory, you can have as many as you want, so think about a single website focusing on just one aspect of your business. For instance shoes only. Then have another one that sells just sunglasses and so on.

This will give you a definite focus and lead to better customer experience too.

Number 3

Why will people visit you?

If you are clear on your purpose AND your messaging then the need your business meets or the problem that it solves for people will be obvious. If I need shoes – I know where to come!

Number 4

Who is your website for?

Who are your target audience or audiences? You should be doing at least SOME basic research to see if people actually want to buy what you are selling!  How big is the market?  What do they need?  What makes them buy?

Do your research first before quitting your day job!  If you have no market then you won’t have a business, so make sure there are customers out there first. Research on the Internet and at the same time you can see what websites you think are good & which are not.  You will find that the ones which are more useful meet your needs (regardless of what that is) and those that are of little relevance are soon forgotten.

You want to be in the first category.

Number 5

What problems do they have?

Research your market and find those hot topics. Look on discussion forums and radio shows & newspaper articles etc. Find out  what problems your customers  have right now and how can you help solve them?

 Number 6

What words do they look for (online) to solve their problems?

Right so now you know why you are doing business, have developed focused websites & messaging, identified target groups & their problems.

What now?

You should look at the volume of keywords that are typed in to search engines each week or month that indicate people are using to find answers to these questions. There are some very useful free tools from Google like their Adwords Keyword tool you can use to start with. Just search using keyword research tool to find it.

Number 7

Your keyword research will give you a good idea of how many people look for your keywords each week or month etc. You should tyr and optimize your website page(s) content to contain at least some of the top keywords or search phrases (groups of search terms e.g. where can I buy shoes for very large feet?).

If you know lots of people are looking for certain words or phrases to solve their problems, or are just interested in the subject, then yu stand a much better chance of success than simply “busking” your new website content, based on what you did for the last 25 years in your last job!

Try and optimize for the most searched keywords and keep the focus on solving peoples problems or meeting their needs – what ever thy may be.

Number 8

Buyers go on the Internet when they have an itch to scratch

People who use the Internet generally fall into two categories (yes that IS a generalisation!) But they either want to be either entertained or informed. So if you need information (maybe for research or maybe to buy) it’s because you need that information now or soon.

If you don’t have any particular need, then you are probably seeking entertainment. That’s the difference between (say) Facebook and the Internet community of other websites.

So make sure that you provide the means to “scratch their itch” so to speak. In other words when they find your website, make sure that you give them what they want first time. That way they’ll stay longer on your site and want to interact with it. You can then get them to leave their contact details or even buy.

Its as simple as “You got it. They want it” when you do it right.

We hope you have found this article useful and even a little entertaining but the message is serious.

• Anyone can make a website.

• Lots of them get site visitors.

• Some may inspire visitors to get in touch. Many don’t.

• The most successful companies are those that meet the needs of their customers.

• Know who your customers are. Talk their language. Engage with them and solve their problems.

• The internet accounts for an increased percentage of retail sales every year and will only increase from here.

• Dzined are here to help new or established businesses grow.

Call us now on 01992 350066 and we can talk. Who knows where that will lead!