Blog
Basic WCAG 2.0 Principles
WCAG 2.0 is founded on 4 "top level" principles. These require that accessible web content must be: Perceivable: Provide text alternatives for any non-text content so that it can be changed into other forms people need, such as large print, bra...
The Sydney Olympics website set an international precedent when a website user with visual impairment could not access information on an event that was being run. He was awarded $20,000 under the Disability Discrimination Act One in five Australian...
Having other websites link to your website will influence your search engine rankings. These are known as inbound links where your website is listed on another website and when someone clicks on the listing, it takes them to your website. For examp...
It is widely known that the loading time of a website has a major influence on the overall experience of a user on your site. Research has shown that users will leave a site if images/photos fail to load within 4 seconds. A best practice for spe...
Just because you have a website does not mean that it can be easily found among the millions that are out there. Many people think that having a website built for them means they will automatically have heaps of people find them online and it will tot...
When it comes to making your corporate website stand out in the crowd there are 7 golden rules to follow. These golden rules will ensure that your website has a higher impact rate as well as increasing visitors to your site. At to insilicoTM we can loo...
As the way people seek information evolves, interesting trends develop. Research has shown that the internet is having a huge effect on the advertising industry with 22% looking at printed publications, 25% discussing in person and 47% using the inter...
When a user enters a search query on Google.com, Google scans keywords on each webpage in its index to see if that page matches the user's query. Google then displays the webpages that most relate to the word or phrase entered in the query. Google a...
According to the Google AdWords website it is a service that lets you create and run ads for your business. You can set a budget and you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. AdWords ads are displayed along with search results when someone searc...
Here are 25 reasons why another site could provide a link back to your website: You pay them for the listing You are a member of a Trade or Association People are discussing your products You are a member of a local group You make a great case...
Google is placing more value on the length of time that visitors stay on your website. One way to make them stay for longer is to have video on your site. Results from a recent study suggest that a product page with a video on it is 53 times more l...
You have a website - great! But do you know how effective it is? Do you know: How many people visit your website? How long they stay on your site? Which pages are the most viewed? How people are finding your website? If you are not able ...
We often meet clients who know they want a website but are unsure of how it can help their business. A friend, a colleague or their business coach may have told them they need an online presence but that is as much thought that has gone in to workin...
There has been a lot of debate as to whether domain names should contain a hyphen or not. There are a few things to consider when making your decision: Benefits: Hyphenated domain names work with targeted key word campaigns If your domain name ...
Many people register a domain, especially small businesses and sole traders, using whatever email address they have at the time - typically, this is the email address you got from your Internet Provider e.g. johns@hotmail.com. And this is one of the...
Dropbox
When we build websites our client's often have large photos to send us. Most of you have probably discovered by now that emailing that large photo, say 10MB doesn't work. "Why not?" I hear your cry! Well there are a couple of reasons: When n...
Over the last couple of years we have had several clients contact us to check if a domain renewal notice they have received is legitimate. There are 3 different types of "renewal" notices that we are aware they have received: Notice that appea...
Every organisation that wants to grow online must sooner or later develop an effective sales system. An online sales system is a set of principles, processes, strategies and tools that are put into place to make a website bring in the results day-in...
So you have decided you want to send a regular eNewsletter campaign to your clients but are not sure where to start. Firstly, plan a newsletter template and stick to the same format each newsletter. This way you don't have to reinvent the wheel. O...
Remember that all communications from your office are a reflection of your business. Before you hit the send button for your next newsletter campaign, you might want to check the following items: Is there a clear call to action for readers? Is t...
If you go to the effort of preparing an eNewsletter, you want to make sure that the person receiving it at least opens your email and preferably reads it too! Here are some tips to help get the results you are chasing: Be consistent - decide how ...
Remember when you were in school and the teacher asked a question that you knew the answer to - but you were hesitant to raise your hand? Darn... another student gave your correct answer and got the credit. That was a good lesson learned - you've go...
If you haven't discovered Evernote yet you are in for a treat!!!! Evernote is a program that can be downloaded and installed on your computer and, as the name suggests, you can write notes in it. You can also take screenshots from your Mac or PC an...
A newsletter is a great way to keep in touch with your clients and customers, and if you're not contacting them on a regular basis then you might find they're looking for someone who will! At insilicoTM we can build your newsletter template and then...
By now, many of you realise the benefits of sending newsletters to your existing customers: You can keep in touch frequently You can inform them about things that may affect them You can tell them about changes you are making But are you do...
1. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) While a lot of businesses have cut back their spending, not everyone has. There are still lots of businesses that are spending. In fact, some are spending more as they see this as a time to spend less money (as bu...
So, you've finally done it! You've built your first website for your business! Now you can just sit back and all that business will fly in through the door, won't it? What? It won't? What do you mean that there are 7 million other pages about bus...
Helping Google Find Your Website
Here are 10 steps you can follow to make your site easier to use and easier for Google to find, index and rank: Have clear hierarchy Have clear text links Offer your visitors a site map Do not use too many links on any given page Write...
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website from search engines via natural search results for targeted keywords. The higher a page ranks in the Search Engines the earlier it will appear i...
After hours of work you have just launched your shiny new website. You are waiting with anticipation for the results – new visitors, new orders and new business. But nothing is happening… Why is nothing happening? There are a number of factors a...
Don't be afraid to ask your customers what they really, really want. We recently surveyed some of our clients and the results were suprising. We thought they wanted one thing but the results showed that they actually wanted something else.... It h...
What is it that you want your website to achieve? If you really think about it, I bet your answer is - more leads. The more leads you have, the better your chance of achieving a sale of your goods or services - right? Or even better is a targeted ...
Have you ever thought about the colours used on websites that you visit? There is a whole psychology behind colours. For example: Red = energy, passion, excitement, power but it can also imply aggression and danger Blue = coolness, spirituality,...
In The Principles of Beautiful Typography it is suggested that In order to start your quest for the perfect font, you should first define the feelings you're trying to evoke in the members of your target audience. Are you trying to show that the com...
Take the guesswork out of Facebook marketing, and follow these 5 tips for making the most of your fan page: Keep content fresh Engage new visitors Promote a contest via Facebook Give fans something they can’t get anywhere else Encourage i...
If you haven't already integrated Facebook into your online marketing mix by creating a fan page, consider recent staggering Facebook statistics: More than 500 million users are active on Facebook 50% of active users log in on any given day The...
We have found a fantastic free online tool for helping us manage our social media campaigns is Hootsuite. We are able to manage our Facebook Page, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts via this site. Even better, is the fact that we can manage multiple acc...
There are many reasons why you would log onto the internet on any given day. Some of the reasons include the following: To research, compare, and purchase products To find and interact with other people (business colleagues, friends, romantic i...
Have you ever thought about why you have a website or what outcome you desire from the site? We talk to a lot of people who know they should have a website but aren't quite sure what they want it to do or why they should have it. Some purely want...
Your website is your very important piece of digital real estate on the World Wide Web. Your website engages visitors, generates new business and acts as a community hub for your clients. But what happens when your website is viewed on something oth...
So you've decided you want a website but are not quite sure where to begin. We usually recommend to our clients to consider the following: What do you want the website to do? Is the site to be purely a way to provide information about your comp...
We can all do with some help at times so here are a few tips on how to keep your website current and interesting: Post "news" items or stories about your company's successes to your website Use your website to show how effective your company, pro...
If you were a new visitor to your website would you come back to it after your initial visit? If your answer is "no" then what would make you come back again? Your website may be the most frequently viewed image of your business. Regularly updatin...
Meta-tags. A word that will make any search engine optimisation officer stand to attention and your average Joe peer around in confusion. What are meta-tags? Meta-tags are a few lines of code inserted in the beginning a web page, invisible to users ...
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and it has simplified the way that people stay up to date with their favourite websites. RSS readers work in a really easy way. Step 1: Add your favourite websites' addresses to the feed reader Step 2: Rea...
In our last blog, we showed you some technical tricks to help Google find your website. In our final blog in the 'Helping Google find your website' series, you are going to learn about Google's quality guidelines. Nobody likes spam, and Google wi...
So far in this blog series ‘Helping Google find your website' we have talked about simple changes you can make to your website’s text and images to make it easier for Google to find, index and rank your website. In this post, we are going to loo...
In our last blog you learned how to optimise your website’s design and content to make it easier for Google to find, index and rank your site. In this blog, we will look more specifically at images, and how to get your website's images showing up ...
Having a website that adheres to Google's standards won't just make it easier for Google. It will also make your site more user-friendly generally, which is always a good thing. There are several steps you can follow to make your site easier to use ...
There is no point in having a website if the major search engines don’t know it exists. Search engines like Google do not automatically detect your new website – you need to tell Google it’s there. In this blog series you will learn how to...
Welcome to our new blog - we hope this will be a valuable resource for our customers and anyone interested in web design to learn about Search Engine Optimisation, Hosting, Pay Per Click, Social Media, Training, Newsletters and website maintenance. ...
