Working with video

Short videos can be a particularly effective way to promote your business online. It can be entertaining, visually appealing and engaging. It is also a very good way of showing your individual personality. 

I have had the good fortune of working with Land Rovers UK for some years and the man who started and runs the business, Andy Hayes, is so passionate about Land Rover Defenders it is impossible not to be swept along by his enthusiasm.

Given that many of their US customers order and pay for their custom Defenders by phone and email, trust and authenticity is key. 

We felt the best way to show their potential US customers the amount of care and attention that is spent on transforming a 25 year old Defender into something very special and very unique was by filming Mr Hayes in full, enthusiastic flow. Here is the result of week one (each week we will be filming Joe's progress):

... and do you want to know one key fact about Defenders that always amazes me? Well, 70% of all Defenders ever built are still on the road.

17% of web traffic is now on mobile phones....

... better get that website mobile friendly then ...

Working with long standing clients

One of the things I pride myself on is developing long term relationships with my clients. Seeing their businesses flourish and working alongside them to help it happen is most satisfying.

For the last couple of months, I have been working on two redesigns. This week, I have had the pleasure of relaunching both.

The first was for Berkeley Castle. I started working with them in 2007.

This has been the first major redesign since then and helps bring the look more up to date. The new website also helps to refocus on the Castle as a tourist attraction now that they have a separate weddings website (which I also built).

The second website to have been relaunched this week is Land Rovers UK.

They are the UK's leading independent Land Rover dealer and I also started working with them in 2007.

I met Andy, their MD, when I sold him a sofa on eBay (the variety of ways that I meet new clients always amazes me)! Initially, I built a basic five page brochure website. Six years later, we are on their 5th website which allows them to sell Defenders all around the world.

I am proud of the work we have done on both websites and look forward to continue working with them for many years to come!

I hope you like them too.

Mobile web or app?

There is no doubt that more and more people are using their smartphones to access the web.

Many of the websites I manage have at least 10% of their hits from an iPhone... Mobile search has grown 500% in the last two years according to Google... 75% of mobile users use their mobile device for shopping

So, is it time to have a mobile friendly website or a mobile app? If you are a retailer, restaurant, a tourist destination or have an online shop, then yes, it probably is. But which one should you choose?

Generally, I would suggest a mobile friendly website as it means you have one web address and so benefits your search engine rankings. It is generally a more cost effective solution and easier to be compatible across most devices and platforms.

An app can have advantages if you have specific functions that a customer would like to be able to do on their mobile. However, they can be expensive and you have to build one for the iPhone, for Android, for Windows and for Blackberry if you are to cover all of your potential customer base.

If you would like some help in creating a mobile friendly version of your website, please do contact me - it would be a pleasure to help!



Formal degree vs. self taught - infographic created by WebdesignerDepot

Copyright on photos

Occassionally, some of my newer clients ask me to include images on their websites that they have found on the internet. They see appropriate photos on, for example, Google Images and think they are free to use.

However, this is rarely the case. Most images on the internet are subject to copyright and it is always worth checking before you decide to use them.

An article by Peta Pixel neatly summarises 10 misconceptions of photo copyright on the web. You can read it here.

The best SEO? Good content.

Search Engine Land writes about a recent change in the Google Webmaster Help documentation on search engine rankings. 

This is what Google said before:

"In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages."

... and this is what they say now: 

"In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by creating high-quality sites that users will want to use and share."

... so link building is not as important as writing good content. 

My advice? Focus on your user and the search engine rankings will follow. Do it the other way around (by stuffing your website with keywords and links) and you are likely to have a website that users find less useful and will ultimately lose you business.

You can read the full article here.

Interesting stories from the past week

Yesterday was a day of interesting news stories which I thought worthy of sharing:

Firstly, an article about how businesses can improve their social media engagement.... and where so many seem to be getting it so wrong. It's simple really and can be summed up by the following quote from the article:

"The snag is that customers do not generally just want to interact with marketers. They also want to interact with product designers, customer service, technical support and others who make a difference to their product experience."

The full article can be read here (and it's not a long one).

Secondly, Instagram now includes the ability to shoot videos. 

I tried my first Instagram video on the mornings dog walk (watch it here). Once I realised that you had to hold down the icon for the video to shoot, it worked a treat. It seems to be far more fun to use than my limited experience of its big rival from Twitter, Vine, offers. It has filters and it seems easier to control what you shoot.

Here is a link to a Mashable article on why Instagram video beats Vine...