Important Tips for a fast loading web site

1. Optimise your HTML code
Make sure that your site doesn’t have any unwanted tags or broken links and that the code allows for quick load times. Errors on your web pages can slow down your website and so its essential that your website is error free!

2. Keep the use of graphics, images and Flash to a minimum.
These are the major contributors to the size of your web page so any reduction can only help, for example try using background colors and fills instead of heavy images. In editors like fireworks and flash you can see the various options in the preview panel to reduce the sizes. See how popular web sites like google and yahoo have pages that are very small in size and thus load in seconds.

3. Stick to simple designs
Most fast loading sites have very simple designs. Take the hint! Complicated designs will slow down your pages.

4. Spread out your content neatly
In case you find yourself having very long pages of content, break them down into separate logical sections and thus bring down the sizes of the individual pages.

5. Use Text Links instead of graphic buttons
Basically try to make use of text links as much as possible as they are easier to maintain. Use CSS Styles for text links to make them as attractive as buttons.

6. Use Server Side Include (SSI) files
SSI files once called from the web server reside in its cache so on subsequent requests they load faster. Use them whereever possible.

7. Use Div tags instead of Tables
Using Div tags instead of tables for your design is what you need to do for better load time and total control over your layout. It also ensures that it is scalable to allow for future design changes.

Effective Table Design: In case you must use tables use them wisely and sparingly. Design using nested tables instead of using cell merges and splits. Use separate tables where ever possible.

8. Check your W3C standard validity and Load time regularly
To maintain an excellent website you must give thought to how to improve your website on an almost daily basis! Maintain an error free website and tweek it regularly. Do remember to check your Load time and W3C code and CSS validity regularly.

So what are Meta titles, descriptions, keywords etc?

It really is not as complicated as you might think. Let’s start by asking a very simple question will adding Meta titles, keywords, tags, descriptions make your site shoot up the serach engines to the top?

Easy to answer this, no! However don’t give up on them as they do hold importance to search engine rankings and SEO optimisation. The correct Meta titles and keywords will help the major search engines such as Google and Yahoo index your site and understand what your site is offering.

Let’s look at the different functions

1) Meta Title:
This is what it says on the tin, the title! Have a look at the website in the very top left hand corner of the browser window and you will see the Meta title.
What is best to put here? Our advice is simple, put exactly what the content on the page is about.
It should contain keywords, but don’t over complicate this as the title tag will be the first thing on your page.

If we look at the James Blake Internet site (www.jamesblakeinternet.com) at the top of the page you will see
Web Design UK / Website Development / SEO Company UK / Professional website design company

2) Meta description:
This is the part that tells us about the company.
Firstly and most importantly this is a real chance for you to engage and interest the consumer as it might be the first thing they read about your company. Don’t bore them with a load of keywords, the idea is that they will click and visit your site.

Each page should have a description and the key is to tell the audience exactly what’s on the page, ie a summary. This will increase the likelihood of people clicking through.

The description you provide for your page has to convince the person that you are providing exactly what they are looking for. If a user comes to your site and the Title and Description Tags don’t accurately match the content they actually find, you are less likely to be considered a reputable source of information.

The description for a website should be no more than 250 characters
Again let’s look at www.Jamesblakeinternet.com

James Blake Internet Services is a professional web design & development and SEO Company in London UK, We provide Services including shopping carts website …

3) Meta keywords:
Finally the content itself on your pages ! To increase the ranking and occurrence probability on a search engine, words relating to the website /company or business are added to the website.
For example lets look at James Blake site again on the home page content and highlight some of the keywords that relate to our business.

James Blake Internet Services is a leading provider of internet solutions for business of all sizes, offering professional online services from web design and development to complete interactive e-marketing.

Finally
Please remember that whilst useful, Meta tags are not a magic formula and in need to be used in part of a whole SEO strategy not in isolation.

Please feel free to call us on 0845 475 1302 for more information

As part of our monthly features, we caught up with Peter Sumner owner of SP education Educational services Ltd (www.speducationalservices.com)to discuss his business and web experience.

SP Educational Services work in the education sector and James Blake Internet developed them a new on-line ecommerce site to help sell their products to a wide community.

Hi Peter

1) Can you tell us a little about your business?
The business was started in the year 2000 by myself and my sister, Laura Pooles. Laura and I are both practising headteachers of primary schools. All our materials are written by teachers who are still working as teachers (many companies use ex-teachers who very quickly lose touch with current educational practice).

SP of SP Educational Services stands for Sumner/ Pooles.

We started the business because Laura noticed a gap in the education market - the need for assessments to accompany the original Maths Numeracy Framework. The assessments were updated in 2008 because the Numeracy Framework was redesigned into what is called the Renewed Framework for mathematics. We also now have mental maths tests on CD and in book format to accompany the delivery of the renewed framework for maths.

2) Who should buy your products?
Our biggest market is primary school teachers and teaching assistants. We do however sell to an increasing number of parents who use our materials to help their children with maths. The materials are simple to use and really help diagnose children’s maths strengths and weaknesses. Parents our real future target market as this market is obviously much greater than our teacher market.

3) What are your objectives and plans for your new website?
The objectives for the new website are to present a much more attractive and professional ‘front’ to our business. We also want the site to act as an online shop. So far the feedback has been excellent and several customers have commented on the quality of the website.
Several have also given us feedback on some ways to improve the site and we will be working with James Blake on making these improvements.
We plan to incorporate all our new products into the website. Our next products are a set of Word Problem maths books for Years 1 - 6 in the primary school.

4) How do you use the internet to help your business
The internet has become a great source of advertising for us. We send email mailshots to schools in England and we include a link to our web site. Traffic has increased greatly since we have had the new site.

5) Have you got any tips for people who are considering setting up their own business on-line?
My tip would be to invest in a reputable company to design the website. It is very important that the web designer is patient and will work with the customer until the customer is happy with the site. James Blake were excellent in this respect.

6) Finally for our own records, how was working with the James Blake Team
I was extremely impressed with the James Blake team. I had a very clear idea of what I wanted the site to look like but because of my lack of IT knowledge, I found it difficult to verbalise. David Gelb of James Blake was very helpful and patient and we were both delighted with the end result. The site has really helped our business grow. I would recommend James Blake in terms of the professionalism of the team and in terms of value for money.

We are all very excited here at James Blake Internet as we are launching a fantastic new website this weekend that will really hit the spot for anyone who likes Curries!

The website will allow you to go to your favourite curry house and get fantastic discounts.

We are currently finalising the design and development of the website and we hope for a weekend release.

The website will be advertised in the Daily Mirror newspaper (www.themirror.co.uk)so you wont miss out

We will update you !

Interview with gdtalent director Gordon Milne

Recently James Blake Internet completed a new website for gdtalent and we thought it would be interesting to hear his thoughts about his business, building a new website and of course online marketing.

1) Can you tell us a little about your business?
gdtalent is a consultancy specialising in recruitment solutions for international businesses and candidates. More specifically, our expertise is in assisting companies recruit the very best, internationally experienced, Chinese speaking managers and professionals. As well as recruitment/search type services we also run career briefing seminars for candidates who want to know more about the job market in China.

2) How did you get into the Chinese market?
gdtalent is owned and managed by Gordon Milne who recently worked in Shanghai for 4.5 years as an expat for major recruitment businesses. During that time clients frequently commented on the following:
a) how difficult it is/was to hire good people given the finite talent pool;
b) how difficult it is to access Chinese experienced hires whilst they are studying or working overseas and
c) how poor sister companies are at supporting China recruitment. E.g. Company X in US, UK etc rarely properly support Company X’s hiring activities in China.

Some of gdtalent’s services are designed to specifically address the above.

3) What are your objectives and plans for your new website?
The web site was designed to be a reference point where clients and candidates alike can establish what we do and evaluate/verify our service offering. We decided to try to make the web site crisp, clean, professional, un-cluttered, easy to navigate and not too “hip” so it would not date so easily.

4) Will you be doing any on-line campaigns to help your business
Probably. So far we’ve only used Google’s AdWords with very limited success. Still early days though.

5) If our customers want to enter into the Chinese market can you help recruit the right people?
Certainly hope so! We have a good understanding of the Chinese recruitment/labour market as well as a database and network of candidates. Finally, our ability to conduct a direct or “headhunt” search means that our fulfilment ratios will always be high.

6) Have you got any tips for people who are considering setting up their own business on-line?
Planning and Patience come to mind. Quite a bit of work has to go in before you engage any service providers to design your web site. If you don’t know what you want, they certainly won’t know what you mean. And no matter how fast you want things done, allow for an overrun.

7) Finally for our own records, how was working with the James Blake Team
Good. I always felt confident that I would get what I wanted and I did. I have no hesitation in recommending the James Blake Team.

My marketing manager said SEO doesn’t achieve instant results?

Your marketing manager is correct to a certain degree in that SEO will not have instant results, i.e. if we start a campaign tomorrow your inbox will not be flooded with new leads. SEO is a medium term strategy to make you an on-line leader in certain areas. Generally we at James Blake Internet say we can make a difference within 3-6 months.

If you do need instant results then we would suggest mixing an SEO campaign with a pay per click campaign (PPC). This will help you get the benefits in both the short and medium term.

However we believe that internet marketing needs to be looked at in conjunction with other aspects of your business such as your offline marketing in order to maximise the potential of any campaign.

a) Establish a brand – what does your business really offer? By this we don’t mean fancy design and new logos etc, Is there an area you specialise in within your field and want to tell the World (on-line and off-line). Once this is established then there is a message to spread (online and offline)

b) Once you have established the brand and the message we suggest you look at all your marketing to see if this reflects your message. If you have a current website its vital you look at the design and structure to see if it’s in line with your brand and message. When people hear about your business they often go on-line to see who they will be visiting (even if referred). Does your website convey the message that your marketing (again both on-line and off-line) is saying. Otherwise you will not be maximising the potential of your spend.

c) I would then look at how people will get to hear about your business e.g. How many people will search on-line to find your business or how many people will use the yellow pages etc. If you feel that most of your business comes from referrals then that’s where you should now spend your money. If you think there is a strong percentage that search for your business on-line, i.e. Google, yahoo, Yell etc then this is the market that SEO can capture.

James Blake believe that online advertising should be done in conjunction with offline and not separately. Both need to have the same message as they complement each other.

Success for our SEO team

In terms of examples of success James Blake Internet have a few but I have taken the example below as the website recently was sold on the back of its SEO performance and think it’s a good example of James Blake Internet’s work.

Case Study - Avis Net Curtains - http://www.avisnetcurtains.com/

This is a Net Curtain business that had a small shop in North London. James Blake Internet got the website to teh top page and Number 1 on Google on a variety of the top keyword searches against much stronger and larger competitors (including national brands). The website proved extremely successful and the owner has just been sold to a competitor purely for its SEO value and ability to attract traffic.

James Blake Internet worked with the owner to understand the phrase that we all felt were most important to their business. James Blake didn’t need 1000’s of keywords, they actually just took 15 which initially is more than enough. The key was to get results on 1st page Google for most of them quickly as possible!

All the main SEO terms listed below for their industry they rank on Google 1st Page despite some heavy competition.

Keywords that were used in SEO Campaign
Net Curtains London
Net Curtains
Best Net curtains
Cheap Net curtains
Net Curtains UK
Net Curtains Shop
Net curtains online
buy net curtains
discount net curtains
buy net curtains

James Blake Internet achieved this by the same means as all their sites, having a close working relationship with the previous owner and understanding their business. This enables them to choose correct keywords and measure the effectiveness of our work continuously.

James Blake went out live on Scottish Radio station L107 on Tuesday 13th October!

James Blake was invited to take part in a live discussion on the effect the internet can have for businesses in times of recession.

Some of the key areas of discussion were
a) How important is good web design really to the success of your business
b) How do you market your website to ensure that it is found
c) Do you have to spend huge amounts of money on SEO and internet marketing
d) IS the Internet safe for ecommerce?

The James Blake Director, David Gelb held discussions with the L107 radio presenter in a lively discussion.