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Website Launch – Grandstand Group
Its Friday and we just launched the new web design for the Grandstand Group.
Grandstand Group | Web Design
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Simple PC – New Web design
We have just produced a new web design for Simple PC to replace a rather tired and outdated old flash based website. The new site is clean and contemporary and will be fully content managed with Wordpress allowing greater flexibility for Simon (the MD) to amend content and have greater range in the search engines. The new design comes with a new brand design created by us and will encourage site users to invest with greater call to action and a combination of simple conversion techniques.
New Web Design (initial concept…work in progress)
Web Design | Simple PC
Old Web Design
Old Web Design | Simple PC
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Facebook Connect Goes Mobile
Facebook Connect was launched in part to replace the ill-fated Facebook Beacon, which caused great alarm because it tracked and gathered users’ information from third-party sites and then shared it with the users’ Facebook friends without their consent. For instance, if you bought something from Fandango.com or Overstock.com, your Facebook friends would be notified of this purchase whether you wanted to share this information with them or not. A lawsuit ensued, and earlier this month Facebook announced that they are shutting down Beacon.
With Facebook Connect, website users will be able to authenticate, connect their account in a trusted environment, and maintain control of any and all permissions. Facebook users’ personal information and privacy settings will follow them wherever they go on the web. Facebook Connect allows outside applications to access a user’s profile information when they register for or use a service. It makes signing up for new programs easier because users don’t have to re-enter all their data.
Facebook promises that Connect offers many benefits for web designers, including:
• Higher traffic – there are over 250 million Facebook users who can share web design content with their friends
• Engagement – Users find their friends and connect, which leads to more friends, which leads to more activity and more page views. Facebook claims that connected users create 15-60% more content than users who have not connected with Facebook Connect.
• Easy website registration – Facebook claims that their 250 million users and their simple registration process will transfer to the websites of designers who opt in. By increasing traffic, user engagement, and registrations, website designers can grow their revenue and increase monetization.Now Facebook has added a new program for web designers called “Facebook Connect for Mobile Web”, and best of all—it’s free. Facebook Connect is basically a set of APIs for web designers that enables third party websites to offer the new features of Facebook. With only four lines of code, website developers can add a Facebook Connect button to their application to make it easier to reach Facebook’s users and their data. The only requirement is that the user’s device must have a web browser. In other words, any mobile site can now access Facebook’s APIs.
Facebook Connect for Mobile Web makes mobile sites or applications on any platform more communal and provides website designers with broad distribution. Users can publish feed stories from their phones to Facebook, and they will be automatically distributed to their Facebook friends through News Feed. If you are a website designer, using Facebook Connect for Mobile Web, you can enable your users to:
• connect their Facebook account and information with your mobile site or application
• connect and share experiences with friends who also use your mobile site or application
• share user information and actions on your mobile website with their Facebook friendsFacebook vows to continue to improve their Facebook Connect resources for website designers to make it easier to learn and implement.
Web Design | Facebook
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Google Services for Websites
Earlier this year, Google introduced a new package of tools designed to help web design specialists / hosts improve their own sites and to pass on to their customers. Let’s take a look at the new tools and how they can help your business.
Webmaster tools
• Help make sites more Google and SEO friendly
• Optimize search engine crawling
• Show Google’s view of any site
• Help to diagnose problems
• Improve site visibility in Google search results
• Enhance and increase traffic to your site
• Automatically inform Google when you update your pages
• Show how users are reaching your siteCustom Search and Site Search
• Offers search functionality on one or more websites or specific web pages
• Embeds search directly on website
• Customizes look and feel of results to match their sites
• Displays relevant ads alongside search results
• Drives revenue through AdSense for Search
Custom Search for your website or Wordpress blog
• Provides fast and relevant search results
• Helps you make money with AdSense for Search
• Allows you to invite your friends to contribute
• Automatically searches across bookmarks, links, or blog rolls with Custom Search on the Fly
Site Search for your business or enterprise – Use Google Site Search for enterprise-grade support and optional ads and to:
• Retain customers and conversions on your site
• Manage branding and improve results presentation via XML results
• Provide rapid indexing of your website via On-Demand indexing
Web Elements – Easily add Google products to websites using simple cut and paste of HTML
• Calendar
• Conversation
• Maps
• News
• Presentation
• Spreadsheets
• YouTube news
AdSense
• Increases site revenue
• Displays relevant, targeted, unobtrusive Google ads
• Monetizes search traffic through AdSense for Search
• Monetizes page content with AdSense for ContentHoster Program Overview
• Integration – easy to use Google APIs allow fast integration with existing controls and hassle-free provisioning of accounts
• Co-Marketing – Google badge highlights Google Services for Websites for your customers
• Revenue – Referral fees when site owners join AdSense or upgrade to Site Search
• Support – Tips for web hosters page helps you to offer valuable Google Services to your customersIn August, Google added a few more gadgets to their toolbox:
• Page Speed helps website designers/hosters assess speed on their sites and makes recommendations for speeding things up. A website that takes too long to load is bad for business. Visitors are not likely to wait more than a few seconds before flitting off to another site. With Page Speed you can test the performance of your site. If the site is slow, Page Speed will help you reduce resource utilization and optimize network bandwidth usage.
• Tips for Hosters offers tips for website designers/hosters to help their customers enhance their sites and use tools like Google Analytics and Google Translate in order to reach a broader audience. Hosters can offer convenience and improved accessibility of tools, while saving platform costs and earning referral fees at the same time
If you are a website designer or hoster, you should think about taking advantage of some or all of Google’s new gadgets. Sure, Google developed them primarily to increase their own profits, but why not go along for the ride and use them to boost traffic and business on your website as well?
Web Design | Google Logo
