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 »
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 »
What is hosting? It is a good question. I often wonder how and why I ended up in a career so similarly named to one I had been involved with in a previous life. As an event organiser, I essentially hosted parties for businesses. It involved the ultimate in commitment and service, a degree of attention to detail you seldom see and passion to keep you striving when the going gets tough. First up, last to bed….. it is a thankless task behind the scenes of a busy event. The business I had that specialised in this field I sold to Granada at the end of the 90′s. they did me a massive favour. I stayed and learnt so much about bigger business, “how to… Read the Rest »
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 »
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 »
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 »
I’ve been collecting information for quite some time now regarding what you think is the most important thing for your website. Currently the trend shows: • SEO at 46% • Link building at 26% • PPC at 20% • PR at 9% However, if this was reversed would it really be so bad? The highest ranking is currently SEO – if there is such a thing. This made me contemplate things. What exactly is SEO and how do we use it? Search engine optimisation has evolved with the internet and it relies on a series of complex rules to place businesses in order of relevance to your search. However, what’s the point in attempting to optimise your site if content isn’t regularly changed? If your… Read the Rest »
The astute director makes absolutely sure his company databases are fortified. Your databases are your competitors marketing advantage, so protecting them is hugely important to your business. In light of recent travesties such as 25million records disappearing from a government database in a day, it is no wonder data protection is a hot topic. With the storage of more online data than ever before, security worries are multiplying quickly. There are several reasons for protecting your databases, including customer confidentiality, protecting your client base and keeping the secret to your business’s success. Client records must be kept safe under the Data Protection Act, which states customer information must be: “kept secure with appropriate technical and organisational measures taken to protect the information”. Trade secrets are… Read the Rest »
In 1979, video killed the radio star. Today, online film is set to become the next media craze. This week a study by Tiscali showed that more than a third of UK consumers log on to watch TV on demand. The figures show double the amount on last year, of people watching television online. I’m sure you’ll agree that’s an astounding increase. The statistics reflect a growing trend in viewing and producing online video. It is a media format most definitely has its good points – providing dynamic web content on platform that can be seen the world over. And it also has its bad points. I’m recalling the recent happy-slapping craze which swept video download site YouTube. Online video downloading also has the potential… Read the Rest »
How often do you type in your keywords on Google to see where your advert appears? If you are like the rest of us, probably quite often. Firstly it’s important to weigh up where your advert appears in the rankings. Are you going up are you going down? It is imperative that you measure your results. However, are you aware that Google calculates the number of times you view the adverts? If you do not click on them, after a relatively short time (undisclosed by Google) your advert disappears! Don’t worry it is still there for the rest of the world to see, however the search engine recognises that you keep ignoring it, so it serves you something else instead. Very clever, but how do… Read the Rest »
