Posted: September 27th, 2009 | Author:fusionxs | Filed under:Web Design | Comments Off
I will be making some alterations to the Fusionxs website over the coming months to improve usability and quickly help you find the information you are looking for. The changes will be gradual so keep checking back for regular updates.
If you have any suggestions on how Fusionxs could improve its service or would like to make a request for extra features you would like to see (Shopping Carts, etc), I would love to hear from you.
Contact me via any of the usual channels or complete the enquiry form on the contact us page and I will come back to you as soon as possible.
There are several benefits to letting Fusionxs manage your website for you.
We have listed a few of them below to help you decide.
Websites built to web standards
There are services around to allow you to just create a website on the fly by dragging a few boxes around and installing widgets. The issue with these services is your website will not be coded to any standards. This means that your site can look differently in all the different browsers available (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, Opera, etc) and sometimes completely fall apart. Another issue is that the html code for your site will be longer than it could be which will mean it takes longer to load on the web and search engines which not be able to understand the content as quickly as they want to. This in turn means that your google position will suffer.
Onsite search engine optimisation (SEO)
If you are serious about your google position, you need to ensure your site is built with search engines in mind. Onsite Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the art of ensuring the right words are in the right places, the right way and the right amount of times on your website. We ensure you have the correct page titles, header tags and content to go after your most important keywords with search engines. We have several years experience and know what works. Having your site managed by us ensures you reap the benefits of that knowledge.
Ongoing Support and Advice
Lots of our customers call us for advice on their website. Maybe they have decided to target new keywords or different areas of business and want some advice on how to change the content with search engines in mind. The web is changing very quickly and new services are springing up all the time. Allowing us to manage your site means we can integrate these services as they become available. Google map integration is a good example of this. 2 years ago you couldn’t have embedded a google map into your own website to help people find you.
Online Content Editor
We have recently trialled an online content editor service which allows our customers to change the wording on their sites themselves if they prefer. It works like an online word processor and is very easy to use. If you get stuck with it, just get in touch and we will help you solve the issue you are having. Fusionxs are continually looking for ways to provide a better service at no extra cost and the online content editor is a great example of this.
We hope you find this list useful. If you have any questions about the service we provide, please get in touch with us. We are more than happy to help.
Dropbox is a great free service available online and it allows you to store files in one place which will be automatically synced regardless of what pc you are working on. Just create an account and install the software on any pc you use. Then create a shortcut on your desktop and use it as a normal drive. Every time you make a change or add a file, it is automatically synced online so you are always working off the latest version. You can also roll back to previous versions of files which can prove useful if you make a mistake.
You can get a free 2gb account at www.getdropbox.com. If you need more storage you can get 50gb for $9.99 a month or 100gb for $19.99 a month.
I have been using dropbox for a few months now and found it to be a great reliable service. It saves you having to carry a storage pen around with you and the whole service works very well. I would highly recommend giving it a go if you haven’t already tried it.
Posted: April 12th, 2009 | Author:fusionxs | Filed under:Web Design | Comments Off
One of the unique services we provide compared to our competition is to manage your website for you on an ongoing basis. What this means is you have the option to change content or images whenever you wish for a one off cost per year. Simply email us with the alterations and we will make sure they are made whilst keeping the website intact and the code valid.
We also include many other features with our managed website service, some of which are listed below:
Website Monitoring - Your website is checked every 15 mins automatically to ensure it is live. If it ever disappears for some reason (hosting down, etc), we are notified via email so we can respond quickly and try to resolve the issue.
Website Statistics Report - We add google analytics to every managed website so you will receive a montly website statistics report via email as a pdf on the first of every month.
Advice on Content Writing - Writing content for your website to benefit your search engine position is a difficult skill. You have to ensure the right words are mentioned on the right page and the right amount of times. Mentioning the important words too many times will make search engines think you are trying to fool them. Not mentioning them enough will not help search engines understand the purpose of your site and your services. We provide advice and support with writing content if you are keen for your site to appear for certain keywords.
These are just a small sample of what makes our service special and excellent value for money.
Feel free to contact us to discuss your requirements or if you have any questions. You will find all our details on our contact us page.
Posted: April 3rd, 2009 | Author:fusionxs | Filed under:Internet | Comments Off
According to Tech Crunch, Google are in the latter stages of purchasing twitter. Twitter has become huge over the last twelve months in the UK with the help of Celebrity endorsements by Stephen Fry and Jonathon Ross
The rumours are they will merger resources as Twitter is rumoured to be working on a search tool. Don’t be surprised if Facebook make another play for Twitter in the coming months.
Twitter is a very useful tool to share links and photos on the go with friends and followers of your twitter feed. Businesses have also caught on to the power of twittering and Fusionxs have recently joined the ranks to regularly share links to any industry related news stories along with links to recently created websites. Click on the links to our twitter feed on our homepage and contact us page.
Once you know your chosen keywords, place the important ones at the front of your title tag (No more than 9 words ideally). Make sure the title tag matches the content and you use a different title tage for each page. If you do only one thing with onsite SEO, you should do this.
2 - KEYWORDS IN ANCHOR TEXT
Using the right keywords in links into your site from other sites is very important. Having “CLICK HERE” to visit my site will not help you but if you sold Fitted Kitchens in Nottingham, then having a link to your site with the text “Fitted Kitchens Nottingham” would help you greatly with your search engine position.
3 - AGE OF THE DOMAIN
The age of your domain is an important factor. The older the domain, the more trusted you are with search engines. If a search engine thinks you have been around for a while, it will look favourably upon your site so think twice before changing your website domain name as you will lose all the history you have.
4 - KEYWORDS IN HEADER TAGS
You should always have your most important keywords in your H1 tag. Only use one H1 tag on each page and then use H2 tags, H3 tags, etc but make sure the header tags make sense with the content. The content still needs to be easy to read.
5 - KEYWORDS IN CONTENT
Writing content with search engines in mind can be difficult but try to ensure your important keywords are in the first couple of paragraphs. Bolding and italicising the occasional keyword can also help but don’t go overboard. Using bullet points will also help. Basically anything that highlights the word over the rest of the text but not too much that it dilutes their importance on the page.
There are many other onsite and offsite SEO factors which we may share at a later date. Keep checking back for more advice or subscribe to our RSS feed by clicking on the link at the top right of this page.
Posted: March 6th, 2009 | Author:fusionxs | Filed under:Software | Comments Off
Xobni (which is inbox backwards) is a great free plug in for outlook. It scans all of your emails and addresses and provides valuable information such as email conversation history, files you have received from different people, the time of day they normally email you and the email addresses of friends in their network. It also provides links through to their facebook profile and searches out telephone and mobile numbers from email signatures for easy access. It is a great free service and one that you will use on a regular basis so give it a go.
Posted: March 4th, 2009 | Author:fusionxs | Filed under:Software | Comments Off
Curdbee is a free safe and secure web based invoicing system ideally suited for small businesses and freelance workers. You can customise your invoices with your own headers and also list all your customers and the products or services you sell ready to be chosen from a drop down list when creating an invoice. You can also include links to paypal and google checkout to make it easy for customers to pay you.
Once you create an invoice, an email is sent to the customer with a link to view the invoice online. From there, they can print a copy off for their records or pay via paypal or google checkout. You can tell from your online control panel if an invoice has been viewed and you receive an email as soon as payment is made to you via paypal.
Fusionxs are now using it to invoice customers and so far we have been very impressed.
Something to consider when choosing your domain name is to try to include your important keywords in it. This will help you greatly with your search engine position as it will make it easier for search engines to understand what your site is about. Also try to include your region in your domain name choice.
As an example, if you were a plumber in Nottingham, a good choice would be www.nottingham-plumbing.co.uk as it uses the words potential customers are likely to use to find you.
Choosing a .co.uk over a .com will also be of benefit with your search engine position if potential customers are using local search terms to try to find you. Having UK hosting is also of benefit but we will talk about this in a future post.
Whatever domain name you choose, be prepared to stick with it as the search engines take the age of a domain name into consideration when ranking your site. Domain names that have been used for a while will be viewed as more trustworthy by search engines so don’t be tempted to change at a later date.
This final website optimisation video talks about the importance of sitemap.xml files, robot.txt files and having a website with full w3c compliant code. It also talks about the importance of redirects so you don’t miss out on any lost web traffic. Take a look for some useful tips.
