The Next Generation Of Web Developers, Coders and Programmers

A few months back we were approached by the Warwick County Council who asked us if we would like to get involved with an initiative they were planning, where computer professionals visit schools and colleges to talk about subjects like web development, software development, programming and learning to write code. It was a great plan, getting high school students interested in subjects such as these and full marks to the Council for coming up with such a credible and worthwhile project, one we were honored to have been selected to participate in. As a small, and very busy, studio we couldn’t commit to schedule that would be required so had to pass on the opportunity and hadn’t really thought about it again … until now.
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Google’s Penguin War on Directories Gathers Pace

About mid-way through last year Google began delisting directories from search results stating that the reasoning behind this was that many had no quality content. This was initially aimed at directory sites that exist purely to provide backlinks whether paid or free. Everyone knows that getting links to your website is how to gain authority and increase PageRank. This is very true, but for some time now, poor quality and low value links from directories have been ignored and the directory site has been removed from the Google index. We keep a list of just under 400 directories for monitoring purposes and in recent months quite a few have disappeared from SERPs, some have reappeared, mainly those that changed the way they attempt to pass on ‘juice’ on by using rel=”nofollow” according to the webmaster guidelines. It seems that if you use the nofollow option, you are an actual directory serving the community, possibly a specific industry or niche. For example, Nuoret was a PageRank 5 directory last year but today it has PageRank of zero and has been delisted by Google altogether. This is one example of about 60 that we have seen delisted.
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Website Packages Now With Interest Free Credit

Some good news for anyone who has been pondering the thought of having a website built but hesitating due to the initial outlay. We are now offering interest free credit on all of our web design packages, making our best mega-value products even better value. For example, the ‘Starter Package’ at £495.00 which boasts everything you will need to get you online, only requires a 30% deposit of £148.50 then the Read more >>

The GravityLive Website Is Live

In the words of Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, "GravityLive are fabulous!" Mikey and Kathryn are professional performers with acts that range from stilt walkers to angle grinders, living statues to feather showgirl dancers. They wanted a new refreshed website to showcase their acts which had to be a CMS (content management system) as they have so many new performances which are dreamt up almost daily. Each of the acts’ pages has an image slideshow and also an embedded video player so you get a real feel for the performance. There’s a ton of social network integration so GravityLive will soon be known globally.The website’s number of pages has shot up to almost 400 so there’s plenty of content to share. The site is available at gravitylive.co.uk so take a look and get sharing!

The All New Sovereign Business Transfer Website

Sovereign Business Transfer is the UK’s fastest growing business sales broker based up north in Manchester and the owner, Matthew Trinder, was after a complete redesign of their old Joomla website and wanted the new one to be fresh looking and dynamic as a reflection of the company. The site has a large MySQL database of businesses for sale with loads of PHP-tech to handle calls to the database for search queries and filtering so a potential customer gets accurate results delivered. The important criteria was that despite the complexity of the backend, the content management system had to be relatively simple to use when editing, adding and updating new businesses… Read more >>

New Website Cookie Law Is Now In Force

As of this month any public website should provide information about its use of cookies and give the option to disable them, not just a document stashed away somewhere, but on the homepage as the first thing a visitor sees! The cookie law was actually passed last year, but we were all given 12 months to sort ourselves out. Now that time is up, we’ll have to comply. In case you don’t know, cookies are small parcels of technical data that track our movements and browsing habits when we use the internet, or store items in a shopping cart for future purchase. Some websites use these cookies to offer us targeted products similar to those we have been looking at. I’m sure we have all wondered how that little window pops up and offers us a deal on the very same products we were looking at only a few days ago! This is done by using cookies for advertising. How does Amazon or eBay remind you what you ‘last viewed’? By using cookies of course. As with everything, the use of cookies has been abused by the unscrupulous advertising and tracking markets and forced the EU to act on it. Read more >>

Destiny Driving School Aylesbury

When it comes to your website, always read the small print! Aylesbury based Destiny Driving School had a website built and hosted by yellsites which, it turns out according to the terms and conditions, didn’t belong to them nor did the domain name even after paying a substantial fee for the whole project. Fiona came to us after a content managed website to replace the old one which she could develop herself. We built Destiny a WordPress CMS website which they can add to and edit as much as they want, creating keyword opportunities in the process and climbing the their way up the SERPs (search engine results pages). For some of the keywords targetted, the site has moved up 80 positions in the first 2 weeks and that is with a new domain name so effectively starting from scratch. Fiona is a grade 6 instructor, the highest qualificaion possible, so if you are after driving lessons in Buckinghamshire, you would do well to give Destiny Driving School a call.

Pole Dancing, Super Heroes & Adam Jay Photography

There’s never a dull moment working with Adam and developing his websites, superherophotography.co.uk, adamjay.co.uk and pocketpolestudio.com. One day he woke up and decided what the world needed was a professional photographer bringing the amazing world of pro-pole dancing to the masses. He set off on a round-the-world trip to capture the finest pole dancing images and video for his website. We never know where he is, Monday Miami, Tuesday Toronto, Wednesday Melbourne, you get the picture! Read more >>

Making A Good First Impression Online

It always amazes us here at oneweb just how many websites have homepages that are so cluttered you can’t immediately see the content and struggle to gauge what the site is actually about. At first glance you are bombarded with adverts, banners and some text you daren’t hover over for fear of opening another ad box. Website owners are so desperate to get their keywords in, they forget all about the first impression they are giving new visitors. Thankfully, within the latest algorithm update, Google has put in place the incentive for websites to tidy themselves up and produce quality content. The algorithm acts as a quality filter by penalising websites with undesirable clutter and top heavy advertising. Phew.. We thought it was a good time to put together a reminder of the basic ‘First Impression Rules’ that should govern how you layout your homepages and/or landing pages.

Your website is very often the first time a potential customer comes across your business. In less than 60 seconds they will have asked themselves:

• Have I arrived at the right place?
• Is this a credible, professional company?
• Does this website make me feel comfortable?
• Does this website offer what I am searching for and can I trust it?
• Do I feel welcome?

You may think that design is not the most important factor in a website and that functionality plays a far more important role, but it’s design that’s responsible for making that good first impression every time. Read more >>

Happy Christmas from oneweb

Progressive Beats by DJ Phil Byron

ProgressiveBeats is the online presence of DJ Phil Byron. Phil started DJing in the clubs of Birmingham, UK in the mid 90′s, playing big house anthems in some of the city’s most up for it clubs. Since those days Phil’s musical tastes have matured, he plays Progressive House, Trance, Breakbeat and is an accomplished Hip Hop DJ. Regardless of which style he is playing however, one thing remains constant: pumping tunes that will lift you out of your seat, mixed together seamlessly. Over the years Phil has shared the decks with some massive names including: Jon Da Silva, Rob Tissera, Brandon Block, John Kelly, Graeme Park and Carl Cox. His website, progressivebeats.co.uk is a Read more >>

The Art of Flight / Red Bull Media House

Not only are all of the guys in this movie our snowboarding heroes, Travis Rice, Jeremy Jones, John Jackson and the rest but anyone who hasn’t seen the movie or the website should definately take a look. The film ‘The Art of Flight’ is what most of us snowboarders dream of (I have a savings account just for the BIG Alaska trip) and the website artofflightmovie.com is an amazing achievement in coding and design. If only everyone had the budget that Red Bull have, hey? Read more >>

Get Rid of Your Flash Website?

Here’s a statement: It’s time to get rid of your Flash website. They may look beautiful, but when it comes to efficiency, they’re hopeless.

Here’s just a few (out of hundreds) of reasons to replace your Flash website:

• It’s a pain to manage.
• It’s a pain for people that visit your website.
• It’s a pain to browse.
• It’s old fashioned. Read more >>

Slim Gym Personal Training by Jane Carter

Today sees the launch of Jane Carter’s new website, slimgympersonaltraining.co.uk which is a sister site to tonezonefitness.co.uk. Jane owns and runs the Tone Zone Fitness Centre in Yeovil with her husband Jon and they have been concentrating on the personal fitness market recently with additions to their gym including a private personal training suite for those lacking confidence and a ton of new equipment. Jane’s USP is that she is a World Physique Champion so if you want to tone up, get fit and lose weight, give her a call. How many people can say they are trained by a World Champion?! The site is hosted by oneweb and is available at slimgympersonaltraining.co.uk