How to find out if a domain name is already taken

The chances are your preferred domain name may already be gone, you can check by doing any of the following:

• type the domain name into your browser’s address bar, if the domain name is taken and in use, you will see a web page
• use a domain name registration service, such as 123Reg http://www.123-reg.co.uk, if the domain is taken the service may suggest some alternatives
• use a “Whois” search service, such as http://www.whois-search.com/, which will return a record of who owns the domain if it is taken and when it is up for renewal

How to choose a domain name

• Choose your domain name to match you business name or to describe your business.
• You will be using it on your business cards, marketing and for your website email address so it needs to read well, be memorable and easy to spell.
• Avoid using too many “keywords” soley in the hope of getting your website on the first page of a Google search. Your domain name becomes part of your business name and branding so having a generic name such as hypnotherapybrightonhovesussex.co.uk doesn’t help people when they try and remember your business. You may also find that there are other websites with convulutions of the same domain name. As an example, if you do a Google search on “hypnotherapy brighton”, you will see that websites with those keywords in the domain don’t perform any better than those that don’t contain them.
• If your business focus is the uk buy a .co.uk and .com domain name and have the .com “redirected” to the .co.uk domain, buy both. Don’t register a .co.uk version of a domain name if a .com exists and is in use or vice versa, particularly if the business you are setting up is in the same field, this is not only confusing and misleading for people when they search for you but you may also be in conflict with someone elses trademark.
• Domain names can only contain letters, numbers, and hyphens, spaces and symbols are not allowed and domain names are not case sensitive

Domain names and trademark law

Be aware that domain names and business trademarks are connected, so as when setting up your business name you should research your domain name well before purchasing and setting up your website.

Links for more information on domain names and trademark law:

• http://www.weblaw.co.uk/domain-name-disputes/domain-name-disputes-7-key-issues/
• http://articles.bplans.co.uk/running-an-online-business/domain-names-and-trademark-law/343
• The UK registry for .co.uk domain names www.nominet.org.uk

Where to buy your domain name

Choosing the very cheapest company to buy your domain name(s) from is not always the best option as they often don’t allow “full DNS control”, which you will need if for example you want to redirect your.com domain to your .co.uk domain. 123Reg www.123-reg.co.uk/ is cheap and provides full domain control.

Your website is for people not search engines

It’s your web designer’s job to create you a professional looking website that promotes your business and encourages people to contact you or use your services. The focus of your website should be your audience rather than the search engines. If you have a well developed site with great content then the basic SEO will take care of itself. If you’re launching a website into a competitive sector it might need extra help to push it up in the search engine rankings. Not all web designers provide extensive SEO services so you may need to find a reputable SEO company or consultant once your website has been launched.

Good search engine results may take time. If you’re working in a saturated industry, your new website isn’t going to overtake well established websites within a few days or weeks of launching. Be wary of anyone who makes guarantees about getting your website to a certain position in Google.

The website design, development and SEO process

As part of your website development process your website designer will:

• Build the website with clean, standards compliant xhtml/css code, when researching your web designer check what their services cover.
• Add appropriate page title tags; search engines look at the title tag to determine what the page is about so they should contain relevant keywords, for example “Freelance Web Designer Brighton”. Titles are displayed in search engine results and the very top bar of your web browser.
• Add a Meta tag description for each page with relevant information and keywords. Search engines index Meta tag descriptions and often use the descriptions in their search results. Google doesn’t use Meta tag keywords anymore, although many web designers will still add these as part of process.
• Create a sitemap if there are a large number of pages, this helps search engines understand the structure of your website.
• Create a custom 404 error page; this is displayed if a search engine finds an incorrect or broken link on the website. It also tells your website visitors that the page they are looking for cannot be found and how they can get back to your website content to find what they need.
• Set up web analytics; this provides useful reports on visitors to your website. You can ask for access to see these reports or have the reports emailed to you.
• Submit your website to the search engines to be indexed.

Once the website is live it will take anywhere between a few days to a few weeks to appear in a search. Google says “We do not add all submitted URLs to our index, and we cannot make any predictions or guarantees about when or if they will appear.” There is no reason why a well developed website wouldn’t appear, but you might need to be patient. You might also see fluctuations in rankings for a few weeks after the website has been launched.

What you, as the client, can do to help your website’s SEO

Responsibility for your website’s SEO can no longer be placed solely in your web designer’s hands.  In the world of the web, content is king and this expands across different mediums, such as blogs and social media. Here are a few suggestions to get on your way to great content:

• Your website should be continually evolving and updated with content. Write rich helpful content for your customers. Use “keywords” where you can and where is natural in your content. If your budget allows you might consider employing a copywriter.
• Add relevant page headings when writing your content. Heading should also use “keywords” so rather than adding headings such as “Home”, “Contact”, “About” etc, use descriptive text such as “Web Design Services Brighton”.
• You might consider using social media or a blog to complement your website. Create a Facebook business page or Twitter account if they support your message. And if you are interesting in writing about what you know, a blog is a good way to add relevant keyword rich content to your website on a regular basis. Social media and blogs, if correctly used, can generate links and help with SEO.
• Connect your website with other relevant/industry websites and blogs by contributing information and exchanging links. Wherever you add links back to your own website use keywords in the link text if possible, for example “Web design Brighton”, rather than “www.roweena.co.uk”.

How to find a reputable SEO company

Some tips on finding a good SEO company or consultant:

• They will need to analyse and discuss your site with you, this will include looking at the content and website structure.
• They will research your competitors.
• They will carry out “keyword analysis”.
• Ask for examples/case studies and look at their portfolio of clients.
• Ask who will be managing your account and what this will involve.
• Avoid anyone who makes promises about getting your website on page 1 or at number 1 in Google.
• Avoid companies that talk about link building and directory submission as their main methods of SEO.

There is much more that could be said on the subject of SEO.  As a starting point always talk to your web designer to find out what their experience covers so that there are no misunderstandings about what can be achieved.

SilverStripe CMS

Nearly all my clients asked me about updating their website content themselves when I took on their projects. In the world of the web fresh content is key to a website’s success, so of course it makes more sense for my clients to add and edit content when they wish rather than paying and waiting for me to copy and paste it in. I’ve found that providing a Content Management System (CMS) can help clients engage with their website more and gives a greater sense of ownership and satisfaction with the end result.

Perch CMS

It may not always be worth the hassle of setting up a big CMS for a website if it really isn’t going to be updated very often, however there are plenty of small systems that allow a basic level of content management that are quick and easy to set up. Past experience tells me that clients who say they don’t need a CMS at the start of their website design project find that once the website is up and running, actually, they would like to do more with it after all, so I believe it makes sense to build in content management every time.

Choosing a CMS to work with

There are plenty of good free or cheap systems available so it’s worth spending a bit of time trying out demos. Look at the system from the user’s (your client’s) point of view as well as deciding if it it matches your development skill set. Some points to consider when researching a CMS:

• it shouldn’t constrain the design of the website
• it must be simple enough for your client to complete routine tasks easily
• it needs to support what the website needs to do, so choose the right CMS for the website being developed
• it should be flexible enough to be extended in the future if your client requests more features
• it’s helpful if it has a dedicated user group and support forum
• it needs to run well on your web host, check the CMS requirements against what your web host provides, there’s nothing worse than setting up a chunky CMS only to find it runs painfully slowly on your web host.

Helpful article: 10 things to consider when choosing the right CMS

I spent plenty of time researching, testing and working out which CMS I should be using and I’m comfortably using three to suit the way I build websites and the way my clients need to work…

SilverStripe CMS
SilverStripe is a fairly heavyweight CMS and suitable for websites that have a lot of content added/updated regularly and that need features such as latest news/events, integrated blog, RSS feeds, photo gallery, e-commerce, forums. It can support multiple website editors and although is suitable for medium to large websites can also be used for small websites that need more advanced functionality, for example I recently setup a website for a wedding photographer who wanted to  to upload client photos and administer individual log-in areas for each client. The development learning curve may be a little steep for CMS newbies but it’s worth the initial frustrations and difficulties.

What I love about SilverStripe is that it’s really flexible. Its templating system means that it integrates smoothly into any website design and the user admin screens can be customised to support what tasks the website editor needs to carry out.  I find I can keep the editing interface as simple or as involved as is needed depending on the client’s technical confidence. The admin interface is intuitive and clients who were worried about doing anything web related are using it happily!

What I’ve used it for: artist and creative websites where new photos or products for sale need to be added. Clients can easily create a product page, upload an associated image and add in PayPal payment buttons.

WordPress
Although essentially a blogging platform, WordPress can be used for content managing entire websites. It’s suited for sites that will have a few informational pages but will be driven by regular blog type content.
WordPress is quicker and easier to set up than SilverStripe but it’s not possible to fully customise the CMS admin screens. However, what’s great about WordPress is the multitude of plugins available that provide extra funtionality for photo galleries, SEO, twitter/social media integration, commenting, forms etc.

There are plenty of resources on the web for help with developing WordPress so you don’t need to know much about PHP, you’ll find some code somewhere that does what you need. That said, because it’s not quite as flexible as some of the bigger CMSs you need to make sure that you don’t end up squishing your website into it and compromising design and usability for your client.

What I’ve used it for: clients who want a few simple content pages and a blog to help establish them as leaders in their field and also improve their ranking in Google.

Perch CMS
Perch is great for small brochure style websites that need basic or infrequent text/image updates. It only took me 2 hours to install and integrate it into the first client website I built with it. Simple PHP tags are pasted into your HTML/CSS code where content areas need to be edited, so the website design is never compromised. The admin interface is clean and simple for clients to use and you will only need to supply the briefest of training notes (if at all). Perch isn’t free but the small one-off cost is outweighed by the speed and ease with which it can be set up and I definitely prefer it over other comparable small systems I’ve tried.

What I’ve used it for: restaurant and boat hire websites that need menu and availability text to be updated weekly.

Client support for a CMS

Once a CMS is set up, training and support will be needed for clients to get the best from it. Throughout the CMS development keep in mind that you’re wanting to keep things as simple as possible for your client,  so  strip out or suppress functions that aren’t needed and write simple task based training notes with screenshots to help clarify what needs to be done. Your aim with building a content managed website is to have your client happily working away with it!

Fan pages are public and can be seen by unregistered users, so are a good way to reach a wider audience if you want to keep your personal Facebook profile private (you don’t really want the world seeing you dressed as a banana for your friend’s 30th do you!).

Fan pages are generally best for establishing your brand and showcasing what you do. Fans can add comments, feedback and show their support for you. When you add new posts they will receive your updates in their newsfeed.

A fan page is almost identical to your personal profile as it has a wall for comments, allows you to add photos, video, events, discussion board and tabs for further information and applications. You can also add your business logo as the page profile picture so your fans can identify you in their newsfeed.  A couple of different things that come with a fan page are adverts for promoting your page (that you have to pay per click for if you decide to use them) and “Insights” that shows analytics on how your page is used.

Put a link to your fan page from your website so potential clients/customers can find you on Facebook and become a fan, you can also invite your Facebook friends to become fans too.
You can also create a Fan Box to paste into your website that shows your fans and/or your update stream.

How to create a Facebook Fan Page

Facebook’s Pages section has pretty good notes on how to create a page and there are many useful article on the Web, here are a couple I find informative:

• How To Create and Promote Your Facebook Fan Page
• Facebook Group Vs Facebook Fan Page: what’s Better?

A few quick tips:

• Choose the page title to match your business/brand as you won’t be able to change this once the page is up and running
• Add exclusive content that your fans can’t get anywhere else, such as videos, tips, discounts or offers for fans only
• Create video/photos contests and get your fans to upload their own
• If you use Twitter, tweet about your updates (and vice versa)

And a note about finding your page once you’ve created it (because a client recently asked me)…when you’re logged in to your personal profile you can get to it from the icons in the bottom left of the screen, show circled below:

As with all social networking as long as you keep what you’re doing genuine then you will find your audience!

With the excitement over the new iPhone 3GS and iPhone OS3 software upgrade earlier this week, the anticipated release of the Palm Pre and the Blackberry Storm already popular, there’s no hiding from the fact that the mobile Internet  is happening and is going to become increasingly important.

Most websites just don’t work well on mobiles, they load slowly, text is too small and it’s difficult to navigate around them. If you already own an iPhone you can’t have missed that many organisations have created mobile versions of their websites, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Virgin, BBC, the Guardian. Mobile friendly websites detect that you are visiting them using an iPhone and serve you the mobile friendly version of the website.

How I did it (notes for web designers)

I made my iPhone website using mobify.me, an online service that takes care of the sizing issues related to designing for mobile devices. You effectively create templates from your existing website and define which pieces of information should be included in your mobile site. You can also add in alternative graphics/text that are more suitable for smaller design. Mobify.me hosts the mobile pages for you and updates your mobile website when your normal website is updated. It’s quick and easy to get started and is a really helpful intro to desigining for the mobile web, however if you’re like me then you’ll miss the control of setting things up from scratch.

What is Twitter?

A “micro-blogging” tool for sending short messages or “tweets” answering the question what are you doing right now? Look out for the little blue bird and “follow me” icons scattered all over the web.

What’s the point?

Admittedly I struggled to find the point of Twitter for a while but having spent more time with it, for me, it is useful for:

• finding out about new blog posts and latest news in the web design world
• receiving latest jobs/events/announcements for my area of work and local to me
• following industry professionals and connecting with web designers anywhere in the world (and yes, marketing myself a little at the same time I hope!)
• asking my twitter community quick questions and advice, eg design tips/software help/feedback

So it’s all about networking, interacting with your community of interest, getting people interested in you and what you do, connecting with potential clients/customers/employers/peers on a more personal level than just by good old email.

If you’re feeling this is just another addition to the chaos then I can really recommend reading Tara Hunt’s The Whuffie Factor to help make sense of it all. And if you don’t have time to read then check out this (if not only for Cameo “Word up” playing in the background!)…

What to “Tweet”

Share what’s going on in your world by tweeting:

• a link to your latest blog post
• your latest business news
• announcements: special offers, changes to class times, meeting places.
• info on industry/business events you have been to or that are coming up
• give a shout out to people that have inspired you or blog posts, websites and YouTube videos that you like

How to manage it all

Update your social networks automatically with your tweets

• Add a Twitter widget to your facebook page to update your Facebook status with your tweets, step by step blog article on how to do this here
• Add a Twitter widget to your Wordpress blog to pull in and display your latest tweets in your blog/page sidebar
• Add a Twitter plugin to Wordpress to automatically send a tweet to your twitter profile whenever you add a new blog post

(My clients can ask me about adding a Twitter widget to their blogs)

On your phone/desktop

• Add a Twitter application to your iPhone, I’ve been using TwitterFon, which is nice and easy to use when I’m on the move and means I don’t have to always be sat at my PC.
• Use a Twitter application on your PC/desktop so you don’t have to keep going back to your Twitter profile and refreshing the page. I’ve recently started using Tweetdeck, which updates automatically, had nice organizational features and makes a quiet chirping sound when a new tweet comes in!

Twitter commands

Use the following commands in your tweets for more control:

• Use the # hash tag symbol before a word to add your tweet to a subject group. For example…Sun is shining in #Brighton gonna be a hot weekend!
  For a list of hash tags being used on Twitter see http://hashtags.org/ and how to use them at http://twitter.pbworks.com/Hashtags
• Use @twittername to respond publicly to a tweet from a “tweeter”
• Use D twittername to send a private message to a tweeter

(Click flyer for details)

The Brighton May Festival is almost upon us (tomorrow infact!!). One of my favourite things about the festival is the Brighton Artists Open Houses and this year 3 of my clients are hosting/showing their own:

• Emma Burnett, vibrant and colourful abstract paintings
• Emma Stanton, gorgeous silver jewellery based on natural forms
• Hannah Brooks, beautiful silver jewellery commissions

Check out their websites for details: www.emmaburnett.co.uk, www.emmastantonjewellery.co.uk and www.hannahbrooksdesigns.co.uk.

Definitely recommended!