It is common knowledge nowadays that, for companies to ensure that whatever message they are trying to communicate via their website (whether that be promoting a specific product or announcing a news report) it is viewed by the largest relevant online audience possible, they need to make sure that their website is not only publicised in the company’s marketing material or via word of mouth, but that it is also optimised for search engines.

After all, the world’s most popular website, Google (Alexa 2011), is the gateway to an infinite number of other websites, including your company’s.  Not only that but other popular search engines such as Bing, Yahoo and YouTube occupy the top 10 list of the most visited websites in the globe (Google 2011); meaning that unless your website is optimised for search engines or you are investing in a PPC campaign, there is little chance that people will find you on the world’s most visited websites.

But getting your website noticed and keeping it relevant to search engines is no easy task. It takes commitment and a lot of hard work.

Everyone wants to be number 1 on Google, but keeping up with the latest trends in SEO can be a daunting task, every day search engines are changing the ways in which they crawl, evaluate a website’s relevance and decide what position it deserves on their search results page.

Despite this, there is a set of tried and tested basic tasks you can do to start optimising the content on your website today.

Here are 8 tips on how to optimise your existing website:

Title tags – H1

These are the tags that appear in the title bar of the browser.
Search engines will first look to the pages title tags to indentify its content, and so, rather than including your company name in the title tag, use keywords that you want to rank for.

These should be limited to 60 characters in length, including spaces, which will ensure the full title tag is displayed within the search engine results pages.

Meta tags

Meta description tags are the details or summary of pages on your website that appear in the search engine results pages, and give the searcher an indication of what your website is about.

As such, meta description tags deserve your attention, it’s your first opportunity to attract visitors and Google also uses them to differentiate web pages, so be careful and give each of your pages a unique description. Offers, contact details can improve click-through rate on your SEO Ranking.

The meta description tags should be limited 160 characters in length, including spaces, as this is the amount of characters Google will display.

Adding meta description tags is easily doable if your website has a Content Management System (CMS) behind it such as Drupal, WordPress and Joomla. If your website does not have a CMS, contact us or your website developer and ask them how you can go about updating your website’s meta description tags.

Make each page unique

Google does not like repetitive content and ranks their relevance according to the content it has, regularly looking for unique content not found anywhere else on the Internet.

This means that the content on every page of your website needs to completely different from other pages of your website and other websites. In other words, if you publish duplicate content your website runs the risk of being ignored by search engines because the algorithm will be looking for content that sets your site apart, which it won’t find.

Blog

Having a blog on your website is not only good to drive engagement with your customers but it is another opportunity for you to write unique, fresh content that is relevant to your business quickly and regularly. And search engines love unique, fresh content as pointed out earlier.

Make sure that your blog is kept up to date and that you publish at least one post a week otherwise it runs the risk of becoming obsolete.

Blogs naturally attract traffic and gives you a distinct SEO  advantage. The interactivity of the blog adds value to the site and can increase the chances of visitors sharing and bookmarking it on social networks, which can only drive more traffic to your website.
Blogs also help increase the size of your website, giving it more authority on search engines’ eyes and a larger number of pages to leverage internal links – more pages to show on search engine results pages.

Images Alt tags
Ensure you name all image files by giving it a term that best describes it (e.g. highergroundcreative-logo.jog) and not a random term. Then make sure you give each image you upload an Alt tag with a short description (no more than 8 words) around the term that best describes the image. This can also easily be done if your website has a CMS, otherwise contact us or your developer for assistance.

Ensuring your images are optimised also gives it a good change of showing up on Google Images results pages and drive even more traffic to your website.

Move JavaScript down the page
Java script allows developers to add interactivity to websites without the use of Flash, and has been around for many years, long before HTML5, which now does similar things.

Google’s spiders are always crawling through websites on the lookout for unique content and having JavaScript and CSS in the HTML code makes it harder for them to find it.
If the JavaScript code is moved down the page then the spiders should easily find the relevant content they need.

Moving JavaScript down the page also helps your page load faster, which is beneficial for search engines.

Grammar and spelling

Google evaluates the content quality of websites and you’d be surprised to learn how many websites suffer from poor spelling and grammar. So ensure all the content on your website is relevant, proof-read and grammatically correct.

Footer links

Ensure your website’s footer contains plain text links to all main pages on your website and having target SEO keywords in the anchor text can provide a significant increase to your SEO rankings.

By following the above tips you’ll be giving your website a good chance of attracting more traffic and generation more sales leads for your company.

But these are just some of the things you can do to optimise your website for search engines.

There is a range of constantly changing strategies that should be followed and monitored regularly to ensure your website move up the results pages and that its ranking does not drop.

Contact us for a FREE SEO health check and learn how we can help your company and website attract more visitors and sales leads.

Alternatively you can head over to our Facebook page
or hear the latest ramblings via our Twitter page

Flips,

HGC

Well for this post we thought we’d highlight this further and look a little deeper at other brands that push the boundaries of our minds and creativity.
Regardless of one’s own interpretation, these ads do what they’re meant to do, evoking emotion in order to create buzz.
They get people talking! The ads circulate and the brand name is mentioned repeatedly and awareness is brought to the company, whether you agree with the term or not, these advertising campaigns rest on the saying that “all publicity is good publicity.”

First off, JBS mens underwear new campaign employs the slogan “Men do not want to look at naked men”.
So… they created an advertising campaign depicting partially-nude females in a super naughty, super provocative (maxim-like shoot!) that borders on softcore porn.

The provocative print ads depicted a nun, a secretary, maid and nurse getting down and dirty with a JBS underwear. Apparently there is a video ad to back up the printed campaign! Featuring a female model wearing nothing but JBS mens briefs, walking around her apartment and doing what men ‘usual’ do… what ever your take on it, she’s seen peeing, spitting, burping, scratching her ass, eating cereal with beer, and all the other stuff men can often be guilty of doing.

Secondly an advert which was produced for automotive giants ‘Toyota’.
Who think that sometimes you gotta overlook and forgive a man’s wrongdoing, as long as he is driving a Prius!

This new Toyota Prius campaign uses a backdrop of three pretty immoral acts with the tagline, “Well, at least he drives a Prius.”
‘Killer’ shows a man dragging a dead body into the lake. ‘Lover’ shows a wife making out with the gardener while the husband is at the doorsteps (How very Desperate Housewives). And ‘Prostitute’ shows a man in a Prius chatting up a street hooker.

These ads aren’t actually official, they were created by art director David Krulik (Bed & Breakfast Advertising Agency) as an unsolicited project during his spare time to enhance his portfolio and gain word of mouth.

The ads were photographed by Luke Stettner.

 
One example that push the boundaries too far, was a controversial ad campaign that sparked much debate!
It’s an ad for Running Free support bras. It needs to be noted that they were not actually created by Running Free. DDB had pitched the idea, but the bra company refused to be associated with the imagery.

The campaign features three photos: a woman with a broken nose, a woman with a black eye and a woman with missing teeth. Obviously, from injuries by their bouncing assets while running. The tag line is “Support bras, now available.”

 
Taking a political stance, we like this example of pushing the boundaries of political science and genetics in order to convey a message.
The Photoshopped picture is from an ad put out by Hogeschool-Universiteit (or ‘HUB’ for short!) The higher education institution in Brussel Belgium seeks to increase attendance by offering prospective students a college and university in one and by asking the question, “Why choose if you can combine?” It produces quite a combination!

An on this note of celebrity driven shockvertising, here’s an example of how it really can make you think and make a difference.

 
Jessica Alba shunned her sexy film persona to pose bare-faced and tearful in a Hannibal Lecter-style mask. The advertisement was produced to urge young Americans to register to vote or face being ‘silenced’, hence the ‘Silence of the Lambs’ theme.

The tagline reads: “Only you can silence yourself. Make them hear you. Register to vote now.”

This advertisement came just one month after Jessica Alba’s previous ad for the ‘Declare Yourself’ campaign, in which she appeared naked, bound and gagged in black duct tape.

For advertising on a more light hearted level, please head over to the advertising section on our website.
http://www.highergroundcreative.co.uk/our-work/print/print-advertising-design-london/

Or you can read more on this subject via the recommended following links:
http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-controversial-print-ads.php
http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/windblown-shockvertising-pretty-fast-delivery-makes-ugly-pictures

Alternatively you can head over to our Facebook page
or hear the latest ramblings via our Twitter page

Until next time bloggers…
HGC.

For those of us that remember as a child, discovering the joy of reading and being consumed in a world of fiction and adventure in an aesthetically book format, will most probably have a heart attack at the amount of people now digesting their world of words via digital platforms, such as the Kindle or iPhone or iPad. The fact is whether you love it or hate it, this is just one of many progressions that the digital revolution has bought upon us, and poses the question… are books dead?
Borrowing numerous books from the school library saw many of us induced into the library hall of fame due to constant attendance and high reading activity, well library cards and books full of stamps could soon become a thing of the past.
Is this just another example of the digital age presenting us with the ability to over consume and indulge.
Just as the music industry is finding it hard in current times, with illegal downloads and music listeners, the world over downloading there favourite albums off the iTunes store, the lack of having something physical to hold, to have and to share is certainly under question, and can the two format continue to live side-by-side? Or will eBooks come to rule the world, and see our local libraries turned into housing estates? There’s certainly an argument for both platforms.

So, is the Convenience of the eBook Enough?
We love the convenience of the Kindle since its release over two years ago, but we find it strangely disconcerting not knowing exactly where you are or how far it is to the end of the book. Is there such thing as a digital bookmark? From a design point of view, whether young or old, users must miss the the texture of the paper that a Kindle cannot provide. The book industry is in current turmoil, with publishers and book stores closing and the world of publishing is evolving and in the middle of  reinvention. Seth Godin with his ‘Domino Project‘  is pushing the boundaries of what a book is and what the price points should be.
Valuing the worth of a book is becoming more confusing by the month as self publishing and digital publishing has grown by 300% in just 12 months and pricing models are being tested and trialled to define price pressure points and determine distribution boundaries.
On the question of price?
Do I pay £2.99 for a Kindle book or £7.99?
Is a “How To” PDF book worth £80?
Is a hardcover book worth £29 or £49?
So many questions all come into play when authors now have ready access to a web centric global market that is measured in the billions and the law of scarcity is being replaced by the principle of abundance.
This is certainly a topic that we cannot solve or come up with the answers to in one blog alone, but we’re interested to hear your thoughts…
So get involved, let us know your thoughts and feelings and leave a comment or two below.
If you do wish to dig deeper then check out the recommended following links:
http://billhillsblog.blogspot.com/?z
http://ebook-reader-review.toptenreviews.com/

Whilst on the subject of publishing, why not head over to our portfolio section and check out the work we’ve produced for the traditional British publishing brand that is ‘Penguin’ and its sister label ‘Rough Guides…
http://www.highergroundcreative.co.uk/our-work/view/?client=rough-guides-(penguin-books)&id=47#_

Alternatively you can head over to our Facebook page
or hear the latest ramblings via our Twitter page

Until next time bloggers…
HGC.

Firmly placed at number one is ‘info graphics’, this is nothing new that’s for sure, but over the last year the amount of info graphics floating around online has burst into life with all sorts of engaging stats, figures and random graphical information hitting our latest browsers.
Here’s a cool one we found about the latest download iPhone app ‘Instagram’.

2. HTML5

Certainly worth keeping your eyes wide open and ears to the ground for this one, HTML5 has certainly come on in leaps and bounds over the last 12 months.
Now with many more browser updates supporting its new features and functionalities, web design in general is about to become very interesting indeed!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5

Why not check out some HTML5 in action…
http://xctravels.com/

Or watch and learn…

3. WordPress themes

The final release of WordPress 3.0 included a host of long-awaited features such as custom post types and unique article images. Yet the most profound changes I have seen are coming from WordPress development shops which specialise in premium WP themes.

After you purchase such themes, the installation process is similar to any other. Yet it’s now possible to include custom plug-in functionality, child themes, new admin menus, and a whole bunch of other features right from within the theme! ‘WooThemes’, ‘ElegantThemes’ and ‘Rocket Themes’ are few brands which stand out above all the rest, their quality is impeccable and we feel their developers go above-and-beyond to create the best templates and most intuitive admin menus.

Going into 2012 we can only imagine WordPress will become even easier to use, this means more high-quality themes to be released, and more amazing blogs to be launched. Happy days!
4. Online Magazines

Speaking about WordPress themes we should also bring up the quickly-adopted success of online magazines. These websites are not so different from any generic WordPress blog aside from the general structure and page layout. You can spot these larger magazines by the sheer presentation of their home page, and collection of authors writing for the site.

As magazines begin moving online they will become a source of income for many writers. Granted a topic such as ‘web design’ targets a smaller niche than, say, gaming or economics. But the fact that we’re seeing more design magazines online than print goes to show where the world may be heading in the years to come.
5. Dynamic typography

Lastly, this one’s got our creatives at HGC jumping for joy! Fonts are a big part of the sphere encompassing web design tradition. The most notable fonts including Arial, Helvetica, Georgia, and Trebuchet MS have been around for years now. Although they continue to serve a deep purpose in web standards, there are plenty of alternative options for advanced webpage typography.

Typekit for example only requires a couple lines of code to be included in your document head. After this you can specify which font names to include and append them into your CSS. The best part about this technique is that it relies mostly on JavaScript, so the end user isn’t required to have the fonts installed.

Another alternative is Google Web (API) Fonts which behaves in a similar manner to Typekit. I recommend interested designers to check out CSS3′s @font-face media query, as you are given much more creativity. This code can be used to import a .ttf or .otf font file from your web server and include it as a usable stylesheet font! With so many alternate systems used for building dynamic fonts I’m expecting 2012 to hold a surge of innovation and design talent in this area.

We hope you all enjoyed the read, if you do wish to dig deeper then check out the recommended following links:
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/web-design-trend-2012/
http://www.webdesignshock.com/design-trends-2012/
http://webdesignledger.com/tips/web-design-trends-in-2012

Also head over to our portfolio section to check out some of our very own web designs…
http://www.highergroundcreative.co.uk/our-work/digital/web-design-london/

Alternatively you can head over to our Facebook page
or hear the latest ramblings via our Twitter page

Until next time bloggers…
HGC.

Recently at HGC, we came across this blog via Mashable [link - http://mashable.com/2012/01/25/startup-community-building/] - this one caught of eyes as it highlights tips on how to help build a strong online community for startup businesses.

Whether you are using Facebook, Twitter or Google+, building up your online presence does offer a cheap and easy way to create a buzz about your brand, and helps to market the services offered. What is important is how you go about this, as we’ve discussed recently in past blogs, retaining brand integrity is a must, you wouldn’t want someone or another business talking about your brand on bad terms and advertising this over the world wide web, so keeping a close eye on this is recommended.

It best to build up your social presence slowly but surly, which given time will grow and in some cases may even increase the number of sales leads you receive. Even though creating a social account for your business takes seconds, it will take time to see any success from this, and quite often many clients do expect instant results. We can’t emphasise enough how integral it is to put time a side in to making sure what you place online is relevant, interesting and engaging enough for people to want to read it. As the blog on Mashable points out, it’s about providing quality not quantity!

Twitter offers a good way of connecting you and your business with your targeted audience, creating ways in which you can either follow businesses that are closely linked with yours, or linking with potential clients and local businesses. It is worth spending time to search in to online communities that are associated or affiliated with your brand or industry sector, and checking out other social circles which maybe lurking around the corner, Twitter does offer a solid networking tool, but there are other avenues worth exploring.

Academy case study

Over the years we have either helped brands grow socially, or created brands from scratch and given them guidance along the way.

One brand that has taken off socially is Academy, predominately setup as an events company their services offered can be quite wide, but for each individual brand the company has setup an account to help promote each service and get its message heard in each specific sector.

Below are three Twitter accounts that Academy have setup:

https://twitter.com/#!/Furniture4hire

https://twitter.com/#!/academymarquees

https://twitter.com/#!/AcademyCatering

And here’s a little back story in to how we helped create the Academy brand, and marketing literature to suit.

http://www.highergroundcreative.co.uk/our-work/view/?client=academy&id=45

You can read more on this via the recommended following links:

http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/design/social-media-online-brand/

http://www.interactiveinsightsgroup.com/blog1/how-to-build-and-manage-your-social-media-brand-identity/

Alternatively you can head over to our Facebook page 

or hear the latest ramblings via our Twitter page

Until next time bloggers…

HGC.

While social media can serve as a gigantic megaphone for your brand, the biggest of social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter can also present any company with a golden opportunity to shoot itself in the foot. We at HGC posted a similar blog earlier last year discussing how important is it to retain branding dignity, which is vastly becoming increasingly apparent with the uprise in social media usage. Even more bigger brands, are taking bigger steps to ensure brand integrity and hold a tighter ship in terms of what’s being said via Twitter or posted on users walls. Who’d of thought five years ago, we’d be hearing of interns being hired with one sole purpose, to monitor what’s going on socially on the world wide web! Which is also poses another question, how can you monitor what everyone’s saying about you?

Well, with a survey conducted (as seen below) you’ll find some interesting and relevant facts and findings.

One example of this, is how overly hyped the ‘like’ button on Facebook has become. You’ll see that up to 58% of users have at some point, ‘liked’ a brands Facebook page or group! Now that’s quite a chunk from the 2,000 internet users used to make up these findings, which certainly highlights just how important the ‘like’ button can be when used as a marketing tool. Over the last 12-18 months, this has seen many big brands from all industry sectors, sending out emails, and offer promotions for users to like there brand, and it’s surprising to see just how many people are willing to be associated with a brand that they feel affiliation with, or emotionally connected to.

Now prepare yourself, this one’s a huge branding info graphic…

This helps to shed some light on the uses of branding and social media, and how it all pans out online. To do that ‘AYTM Market Research’ surveyed 2,000 Internet users, who were  asked a variety of questions about how Internet users get updates about brands, where they like to hang out online, the kinds of people brand managers can expect to encounter in the social media universe, and whether prospective customers prefer to interact with brands via social media platforms.

You can read more on this via the recommended following links:

http://mashable.com/2011/12/15/branding-and-social-media/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Mashable/SocialMedia+(Mashable+%C2%BB+Social+Media+Feed)

Alternatively you can head over to our Facebook page

or hear the latest ramblings via our Twitter page

Until next time bloggers…

HGC.

After it’s initial release in May 2010, Google TV has made slow development. Eric Schmidt announced Google TV would be coming to the UK, which many felt that the horse had already bolted, following a disappointing reception in the US due to the lack of content available. But, with a 2.0 version update and news that all content providers, as well as game developers, can now push their wares using the service, it makes the Google TV proposition an entirely different and much more interesting one. We’re actually quite excited now!

This means Google TV owners are finally beginning to receive major updates that will dramatically improve the service with the addition of apps, a cleaner interface and more options. But will the update make a dent in the many criticisms – comments about sluggishness, and a lack of web video content, to name a few are usually things that we don’t associate with a brand such as Google, so fingers crossed all this has now been sorted in time for its UK launch!

In a post on the official Google TV blog, the company says: “We are opening up the TV to the creativity of content creators large and small through Android Market.

“Android developers can now bring existing mobile apps or entirely new ones to TV”.

“Initially, the number of apps won’t be large – apps requiring a touch screen, GPS, or telephony won’t show up – but 50 developers have seeded the Market with cool and useful apps for the TV. We’re excited to see the number of apps grow.” The new Google TV, which runs a variant of the Android Honeycomb OS seen on tablets like the Motorola Xoom, also has an overhauled, simplified interface which makes finding content easier.

Another big improvement looks to be the YouTube app. Google says it has completely overhauled the way the video sharing portal works on Google TV, with the company also integrating YouTube into the system’s content search.

You can following the television revolution at https://twitter.com/#!/googletv

And why not head over to our TV page, and check out some of the videos & animations that we’ve produced here at HGC.

You can read more on this via the recommended following links:

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/43732/lg-google-tv-ces-2012

http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/03/google-tv-v2-review-its-getting-closer/

http://venturebeat.com/2011/11/15/google-tv-v2-review/

http://www.techradar.com/news/television/google-tv-2-0-to-run-honeycomb-android-market-apps-1037471

Alternatively you can head over to our Facebook page

or hear the latest ramblings via our Twitter page

Until next time bloggers…

HGC.

If your business is like most, lead generation is probably the main reason your company has a website.

But have you stopped and asked yourself if your website is communicating correctly with your target customer base and allowing them to communicate back with your company with as little effort as possible?

Your business may have an effective SEO campaign, a great-looking website with fancy graphics and a low bounce rate , but without a well thought-out contact strategy, you won’t convert those visitors into customers.

It is necessary to understand common user behaviour online in order to ensure that your website caters to all different types of visitors. For instance, one thing many businesses fail to understand is that most people don’t generally feel comfortable giving out details such as telephone numbers and email addresses to yet another website; people don’t want to be spammed.

They want to get the answers they seek for quickly and easily, with as little effort as possible, and in most cases, be able to contact your company and speak to a human being if they can’t find the answer they need on your website

With the exception of retailers that have ecommerce websites, most often than not, by personally engaging a contact, turning that contact into a customer is more likely to happen than relying on the information on your website to make a sale.

Check out these great examples of Inspiring Contact Forms and Pages.

Here are 6 tips on how to improve communication with your customers online:

1.  Your Contact Details

Follow tried and tested strategies to ensure users can navigate through the site as easily as possible. Place contact information where it’s expected (page header + contact us page) and in html so users can tap and call and remember: keep it simple and use the words Contact Us.

2.  FAQs

Have an FAQ page and promote the most popular answers your visitors ask you. This is helpful for those who rather not call but also saves your team precious time on the phone.

3.  The Contact Us Form

Add a contact form to the Contact page and keep it simple – don’t request contact information that you don’t really need in order to respond to the contact, and put a clear action button at the end of the form. Have a confirmation message after the visitor hits ‘Submit’ that tells your visitor when to expect a response from you and if you say “We’ll get back to you within 48 hours” then make sure you adhere to that promise.

4.  Be Reassuring

Tell your visitor how the data they submit you will be handled. People feel more comfortable giving out their personal details it they know that their details won’t get dumped into a large marketing database.

5.  Blog

Add a Blog to your website and update it regularly. The internet is now social, people expect to be able to start conversations with their favourite brands. A blog not only helps massively with your SEO efforts but it gives customers an extra avenue to hear what you have to say and engage in conversations. Gather feedback, provide assistance – the benefits are endless.

6.  Twitter Feeds

Have a twitter account and add a feed to your website’s homepage. Twitter is the easiest way to promote a conversation with your audience and gather feedback.

Have you got an effective contact strategy in place and how has it helped your business? Please share your comments below…

And if you’re not sure and you’re wondering why the phone isn’t ringing, why not get in touch with us and see how we can help you improve communication on your website?

HGC

iMotion HD

Real animators usually opt for stop-motion, until they inevitably go crazy at only being able to craft about three seconds of footage per week. iMotion enables you to create such painstaking animations with your iPhone device, pretty damn (dare I say it) “cool”!

Sure, the sting in the tail is a £1.49 download price, but well worth it in our thoughts, allowing you to play with your creations on your device to your heart’s content.

There’s also the free iMotion remote to use as a remote controller over Wi-Fi for iMotion HD, to avoid you accidentally moving your ‘camera’. Very slick! HGC gives this a huge 10 out of 10.

Virtuoso Piano 3

Now this one’s for the more musical of people amongst us, if you are classically trained or just happy to improve your musical talents, then this is a worth while download. The version released late last year, is now ready for download here.

JUX

Also, well worthy keeping an eye on is the latest photo blogging website that looks set to over take Flickr in the bid to grab peoples attention, Jux.

The word on the street, is that the mobile app is in development, and should be with us in late Feb/early March. Keep an ear to the ground!

For more top apps head over to the following link

http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/apple/top-50-best-free-iphone-apps-2011-663484

http://www.148apps.com/top-apps/top-free-iphone-apps/

http://mashable.com/follow/topics/iphone-apps/ 

And as ever, please feel free to get involved and leave us your comments & responses below…

Alternatively you can head over to our Facebook page

or hear the latest ramblings via our Twitter page

Until next time downloaders…

HGC.

At this stage the developer will test all of the functionality of different elements in the website, such as contact forms, shopping carts or other scripts.

Cross browser compatibility will also be performed, to ensure that different browsers (Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, etc) and different versions of these browsers, viewed in different operational systems (PC, Macs, Mobile OS), display the website correctly and that all functionality perform properly.

The website should then be uploaded to a testing environment, and at this point, your involvement will be crucial. Any fixes or changes should be made before the website is deployed to a ‘live’ server.

The website should also have been populated with all the content at this point. Once you give the developer the final approval, it is time to deliver the website.

The website will be uploaded to your server and placed under the chosen domain/URL (most agencies offer domain name registration and web hosting services as well). Once the website is uploaded a final test is performed to ensure that the website is fully functional on the new server environment.

This concludes the development process and marks the launch of your new website.

Step 5: Maintenance 

After the website is live, you should look at ways of bringing in repeat visitors, by offering updated content such as offers, announcement, latest news, etc, on a regular basis.

It’s up to the client as far as how comfortable they feel updating their website via their CMS. Some client will hand over maintenance to the agency and some will do it themselves. Either way, it’s important to always keep the content fresh and relevant.

It’s also essential to continue testing the website as it grows, to check for any broken links (from pages that have been deleted), outdated and wrong information, and also to ensure it’s compatible with newer browser versions that are launched regularly.

This is where the developer can help once again, as they can take over the web site maintenance for you. In these busy times, one less thing to do can be an appealing prospect to the client.

Also part of maintenance are things like SEM (Search Engine Marketing -  which includes Search Engine Optimisation and Pay Per Click).

Now that you have your website you need to ensure people find it. There is an ever growing set of onsite and offsite activities you can perform to help your website achieve higher rankings in the search engines results pages such as Google.

An SEM campaign is detailed enough to warrant its own post but do contact us if you’d like to learn more. SEM is a crucial step in promoting your website to the masses and should be considered from day 1.

To conclude…

The web site design and development process contains a set of steps that the agency in charge of development and client should work closely together on.

A good, collaborative relationship should help ensure the delivery of a website that not only satisfies the client’s tastes and needs but also that of the target audience; helping to bring the desired returns which will help the client achieve their business aims.