Two of our most recent projects are now live:

We were approached by Jolly Good Pud, a baker and confectioner based in Rugby. Jolly Good Pud offer high end wedding cakes, celebration cakes and confectionary, and needed a website that reflected their brand. We delivered a design the client loves, an exceptional build following latest best practices and on-site search engine optimisation.

Visit the Jolly Good Pud portfolio page

JB and G Design were contacted by Laura Moore, star of the 2010 series of BBC’s The Apprentice. She required a website to offer an insight into her business activities, and her public speaking services, as well as providing information about her experience on The Apprentice. Laura required a feminine looking design, and we produced a design she was extremely pleased with, and built the site using best web development practices to a short deadline.

Visit the Jolly Good Pud portfolio page

Keep your site fresh and up to date!

The saying “A web site is never truly finished.” Are wise words to live by. You must continually add to your site, reread it, and make it better. Repeat visitors are generated by a changing website. Try adding a page or updating content of existing pages once a week. This not only helps keep your website looking fresh to returning clients, but search engines love a website which is updated with fresh copy.

Website Copy

You will have to weigh up the balance between the benefits (a benefit of your product is associated with the emotion that it will conjure up in your potential customer) and the features (a feature of your product is what your product does).

A lot of marketing experts say that you should stress the benefits of your product. By stressing the benefits you are playing on the emotions of your potential buyer. You are trying to hook them – to get them to buy – because your product satisfies their most basic needs. For instance, they need your product because it’s going to make them look and feel better about themselves.

However, also realise that the internet is not like any other sales medium that you’ve dealt with in the past. On the internet, people have time to peruse your site. They have time to not only be “hooked” by the benefits, but they really want to know about the features.

So – on your home page – play a little with their emotions – but then – get on to the meat of the subject and barrage them with the features of your product! If you don’t do this – they are going to move on to another site which more fully explains their products.

Another factor to consider when it comes to website copy is general writing strategies.

Visitors to your website must have the ability to scan a page on your website and find the information they want quickly. You can aid this by keeping paragraphs short (around 2-4 sentences), through the appropriate use of headings to make our sections is also important also the use of lists to display certain information.

When writing copy it is also important to think about the effects of search engines. Include key phrases about your products and your location (if you want to be found for a specific area) throughout your site, as long as they are relevant and not over used then this will all help towards your search engine rank.

Pictures

We’ve all heard the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” and this is true! The correct use of imagery on a website can really make a difference not to the overall look and feel of a site, but also to its success. If you are selling products then show off what you are selling with stunning photos, people want to see what it is they’ll be buying, especially if you don’t have a physical shop whereby a client can go, pick up and touch your products, then they are relying solely on the use of photography and your description of an item.

Navigation

Navigation is critical to the usability of your website. If you do not have clear and concise navigation techniques in place then the chances of your website failing are high. If you cannot find your way around a website then the chances are you will leave that site and not return to it.

Keep your navigation easy to see and use and keep it consistent. If you have a navigation bar at the top of your website then keep it there for the rest of your pages. If you begin moving your navigation around then a user will struggle to find it and could result in them leaving your website.

Credibility

The credibility of a website is crucial, especially if you are selling products online and expecting people to pay with a credit card on your website.

A few ways of achieving this include:

• SSL Certificate for online purchasing
• Client Testimonials
• Your Own Domain Name
• Complete Contact Information
• A Privacy Statement

Research

Web Technology changes at a very fast rate, and unless you keep up with the latest technology then you will find yourself falling behind very fast. As a result you could be missing out on new and exciting ways to promote your website and draw in more visitors.

The best ways to keep up to date with what’s going on in the technology word, other than to visit our blog includes:

• Subscribing to Newsletters
• Visit Web Technology News websites
• Visit sites which give out advice on web design and promotion, such as ourselves!

In Summary

When it comes to websites it really is a case of “you get out of it what you put in to it” and for the most part it isn’t very time consuming or expensive.

If you want to find out how JB and G Design can offer you extensive advice on any of these points, or any other questions you may have then please don’t hesitate in contacting us today.

What amazes me is their constant drive to revolutionise, and they are always looking to expand their brand and break into other new and different markets.

In the last couple of weeks alone I have already seen three vaguely new concepts they have released – all of which look fantastic:

Google Chromeframe

I like the look if this one quite a lot. A plugin for Microsoft’s IE 6,7 and 8 that at first glance, actually make these normally headache browsers work and behave like other browsers that follow W3C standards compliance.

As Google themselves put it:
“Google Chrome Frame is an open source plug-in that seamlessly brings Google Chrome’s open web technologies and speedy JavaScript engine to Internet Explorer.”

This means that new web technologies such as HTML5 and CSS3 may actually be usable in a real-world environment. I had previously thought all of the new functionality was fantastic but pretty pointless, as the majority of users are still using one of IE’s catalogue of sub-standard browsers that don’t actually understand it. With the launch of this new open-source project, this may well not be the case. I will be watching the development of the progress of this very closely indeed, and you can be sure to read my findings and opinions on Twitter this week after I have been trying it out!

Check out this video for more information:

"The car that drives itself"

I read with interest again this week about the development of Google’s new project – a car that can drive itself. The system scans the surroundings of a car and mimics the responses of the human driver, who remains on hand to take over if needed. It also automatically adjusts the vehicle’s speed depending on the local limit. Google claims the technology could save millions of lives lost in traffic accidents.

You can read more about this on the Telegraph website

Google TV

It’s pretty self explanatory I suppose, but Google are launching Google TV, a sort of TV / app / search engine hybrid. It certainly looks pretty ace, and if you own an Android based mobile device you can use it as a remote control too!

And as of next year, developers will be able to build apps suitable for use with the Google TV as well. Watch this space, this could be a massive new market!

You can find out more here

To best demonstrate this, check out this awesome viral video released by Google.

I hate to say it but try Brainstorming!

Spend 10 minutes brainstorming potential stories to tell the world about, do not get scared, people will be interested in you….Some of the best blogs are stories about learning, when things that have prehaps not gone to plan but have a comical twist. Everyone loves an underdog!

What content have you already got/ could you create?

Now where to stick that pestie media release - a blog may not be the best place for detailed technical stuff on your products, try just using a blog to provide an overview and link to a formal article instead – Tweet sentences from the article DON’T FORGET TO LINK to promote it.

Keeping it fresh

Just with a relationship try and keeps things fresh, a blog  is a key way of keeping clients / customers and the holy grail of search engines engaged with fresh content. Then the classical lines “but we don’t have anything to say in a blog” or “we don’t have the resource to create a blog” and that’s understandable. But, if you are creating an enewsletter or press-releases these can be used within the blog. Lets be right you don’t need to post 1000 posts a day – 5 posts a month could be sufficient if they are engaging enough. Why not set yourself some achievable targets, a blog a week and 3 Tweets per week!

Another tactic is also offering exclusive Facebook or Twitter offers, this can greatly encourage subscribers and the more subscribers you have the more you can shout ‘show me the money’. Keep that up for 6 months and monitor progress, this will give you a good opportunity to see what is and isn’t working and change accordingly.

What’s the point, what will it give me

• A chance to expand your network of contacts – network, network network
• Research your market – Ask questions – Get feedback.
• Chat with colleagues /suppliers /customers
• Customer service – put to use that GNVQ you got in college and learn what your customers think about your business
• Show credibility, personality and expertise
• Improve your website optimisation, Inbound links = Increased traffic. Simple really
• Promote your business to your target audiences and the big bad world

Easy!!

I felt it would be a good idea to perhaps give a lowdown to some of the technologies used to build this new website. The thing of greatest note would probably have to be our portfolio section.

It might not be obvious on first glance, but the portfolio section is entirely database driven, with full back-end admin control to add and amend sites from our website portfolio. There are many other technolgies in play as well, such as SEO friendly URL re-writing, and database driven client testimonials that can be used across the website, as seen in the footer.

All of this technology could also be used on your website to enhance both the user experience, but also your ability to keep the website fresh and up to date if necessary.

Why not give us a call to find out more? Whatever your requirements for your website, we are hear to listen, advise, design and code. Give us a buzz on 0845 415 0731 today!

Now that all sounds very well but what next…….

Starting your own business, be your own boss!! The dreams capture and inspire new found fortunes and freedom. Then the realities creep in, what next?? At some stage of business planning we are betting a website will come up into topic.

Now then the infamous website, a branding to create millionaires in a few weeks which are all too often thrown onto the graveyard of redundant one click wonders. As a new business one thing is probably going through your head – Keep your overheads down.

Keeping overheads down but ensuring the money you do spend is effective and productive as possible. To ensure you get the best ‘bang for your buck’ there are many ways in which you can help your business.

Now here at JBandG not only do we build probably the best sites in the world we can also help with getting your business off the ground. For todays topic we will look at Social Media and how it can help you!

• Spread good ideas far. Re-blog them. Bookmark them. Vote them up at social sites. Be a good citizen!!
• Add social bookmark links to your most important web pages and/or blog posts to improve sharing
• Think of social media as a conversation rather than a marketing vehicle
• Announce new items on Twitter and Facebook
• Broaden the reach of your blog through the use of RSS
• Use the RSS feature to automatically pull and post content relevant to your industry

Why not have a chat to the team about it on 0845 415 0731.