Stop, Start, Rewind and Fast-Forward if you dare March 27th, 2011

This week saw the fashion retailer Henley’s file for administration. It only seems like yesterday when Simon and Ben the 2 owners sat with me at a Sale Sharks match discussing online retail. One of the boys confidently said, “our customers need to touch and try on our garments, we will never do more much than the £10,000 per month we are doing now. The online shop can’t compete with our high street stores” This sounded very much like a challenge. And as someone who hosts hundreds of online retailers, some huge ones too, I knew I couldn’t lose. I bet them £1 I could prove them wrong. Sitting with my web designers and marketing team, we immediately found ways of improving their system. Their… Read the Rest »

Posted in Business advice, Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurial Spirit, Google & Search Marketing, Lawrence Jones, Manchester, Online marketing, SaleSharks, UKFast | 4 Comments »

Why businesses fail in 2010 July 24th, 2010

Is there a recession? Was there ever a true recession like back in the 90′s? For me it seems very different. Back in the 90′s everyone was effected. I don’t remember anyone escaping the pain inflicted by the job losses and hiked interest rates. The recent recession which was announced by Tony Blair officially before we actually were in one has felt very different for me and a great many of my customers. Yes people do seem slightly more cautious. But this is partly to do with the fact we were told we were heading for recession. I remember backing out of a property deal after the Nothern Rock crisis. Thank goodness Gail and I plucked up the courage and pursued the deal, it was… Read the Rest »

Posted in Business advice, Business motivation, Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurial Spirit, Lawrence Jones, Manchester, People development, UKFast | 3 Comments »

Bing it on! September 27th, 2009

Whether or not you like Bing as a search engine you have to be impressed with recent events. Google the internet giant that grew from a garage start up in San Francisco has a competitor. As an underdog myself in the hosting world fighting to grow our business, I have to favour the smaller player. It is not often that you can refer to one of Bill Gate’s enterprises as a smaller entity. But smaller for how long? A little like a boxer who smiles at his opponent in the ring when he feels a punch that cuts him to the quick, he makes too much effort to hide the pain. Recently Google have been sparring in similar style scoring points with Microsoft over petty… Read the Rest »

Posted in Google & Search Marketing, Lawrence Jones, Online marketing, UKFast, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Splitting the Google atom? April 8th, 2009

I had a couple of great discussions yesterday with an SEO expert who challenged UKFast on their “fast servers deliver better results” message. Google actually reduces your cost per click on faster sites and penalises you, charging you more if you have a slow site. FACT. (See the quality score rules in your Google Adwords account.) Why is this? Is Google acknowledging that faster sites give the customer a better experience? Absolutely! Is traditional SEO as we know it dead or is it evolving at such a pace that it has caught a large proportion of the SEO enthusiasts and internet users by surprise? Could it be that speed has always been a major deciding factor in ranking and no one knew about it? Or… Read the Rest »

Posted in Business advice, Google & Search Marketing, Online marketing, UKFast | 6 Comments »

A fast server is instrinsic to your marketing campaign July 4th, 2008

Did you know the speed and reliability of your website is a massive factor in the stickiness of your site, for both human visitors and search engines? For the ever demanding customer, website response rates have to be immediate. How long do you spend on a slow page which doesn’t load properly? My guess is not long at all. And neither do your potential customers. For slow websites the click-away rate is often incredibly high – and what do web users do when they’ve clicked away? They go to the next search engine listing, which just happens to be your fiercest competitor. Speaking of search engines, many of the top ones use website response rate and server speed as part of the ranking process. When… Read the Rest »

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »