http://datasearch.com.au RSS feeds for Datasearch Internet Services - Web Design Brendale 60 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/6/Our-shiny-new-content-management-systems.aspx#Comments 0 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=72&ModuleID=420&ArticleID=6 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=6&PortalID=0&TabID=72 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/6/Our-shiny-new-content-management-systems.aspx Datasearch has recently launched a new range of content management system websites. The new websites allow you to edit text on static pages whenever you like and add pages as your business grows. All you need is a computer with an internet connection. To help get you started, we also include an hour of training when your website is launched, so you can start making changes with confidence. Our new content management systems are open source, which means you won’t be tied to the company which developed the system. It also means that you have the benefit of the expertise of thousands of developers around the world, who are busy developing components that can be used in your website. When you commission a Datasearch website, you are not just purchasing some data in cyberspace. You will get a web partner - a team to answer questions and work with you as your needs change. We have two content management systems available – the Business Gold and the Business Platinum. We also have special content management system packages for MPs – please contact us for more information about these. datasearch Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:56:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:6 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/288/Small-business-Web-marketing-in-a-downturn.aspx#Comments 0 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=72&ModuleID=420&ArticleID=288 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=288&PortalID=0&TabID=72 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/288/Small-business-Web-marketing-in-a-downturn.aspx We all dream of it. Lazy days by the beach, sipping piña coladas and dozing off to the gentle slosh of the waves. But very quickly we wake up and start to worry. While we’re on the beach, what’s happening to our business? What happens if sales dry up while we’re resting? What if we don’t have a business to come back to? Perhaps a downturn isn’t the best time for a break after all. Maybe we should be working harder just to maintain the current flow of work. But what can we do with reduced budgets and tighter competition? Answer: plenty; but it’s time to roll up our sleeves and get dirty. According to Nielsen NetRatings, the average Australian spends a whopping 16.1 hours per week on the internet, which is more than any other media. So how can you, as a business make the most of this face to face time with your customers? Use the web in place of traditional brochures. Don’t abandon brochures completely, just use them to direct customers to your website. On the website you can give greater detail, bigger photos, allow customers to interact with you (and with each other, if you’re game) and ask questions. It is equivalent to replacing shouting your wares on the street corner with a one-to-one conversation with people who are already interested. You’re bound to have a higher conversion rate, for less dough. E-newsletters – contact existing and prospective customers regularly (but not too often – everyone hates spam). Offer useful information in each e-newsletter, and allow readers to click to find more information, access special offers and talk to you directly. It’s cheap and proven to work. Try new techniques like Google AdWords and Twitter. AdWords are the short, paid ads that appear on the right hand side of the page when you do a Google search. According to Roy Morgan, 11.9 million Australians used Google’s search at least once per month to find answers to their questions – and this number is continually growing. Google is running their own “small business stimulus” at the moment to encourage businesses to try AdWords. It’s worth $75 and for the moment, it’s free. Just go to www.google.com.au/stimulus to find out more. Google AdWords is not hard to do yourself, just remember the golden rule – make your keywords as specific as possible. Many small business people are also “twittering” – posting regular comments of 140 characters or less (known as “tweets”) to Twitter. If you have been living in a cave in Outer Mongolia for the last year, Twitter is the somewhat addictive social networking site where people can talk at each other and follow others’ tweets. Get expert advice. As small business owners and managers we know a lot about the details of running our businesses. We know what to do if this item breaks, or if we are short staffed or if suppliers change. But we usually don’t know everything about the marketing, advertising, legals or accounting of our businesses. So get some help – as much help as you can. Measure and improve. We all make mistakes. Some email or print campaigns might work a treat with our customers, but some might be major flops. Try to measure at least one thing with each mailout. For example, you might like to experiment with personalisation. Try splitting your email list into two groups. Send an email to the first group from a generic email address like info@mybusiness.com and send the second from a personal email address such as tom.smith@mybusiness.com. Measure and record what works for you – every business is different. This way you can continuously improve, even in a downturn. If you already do all these things, well done! Sit back, adjust those sunnies and smell that salty air. Oh, and would you like another piña colada? datasearch Tue, 26 May 2009 14:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:288 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/282/Help-Im-getting-emails-from-myself.aspx#Comments 0 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=72&ModuleID=420&ArticleID=282 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=282&PortalID=0&TabID=72 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/282/Help-Im-getting-emails-from-myself.aspx No, you’re not going crazy. You didn’t get up in the middle of the night and send an email to yourself. Spammers are just getting smarter. They have found your email address and have used it in the “from” and “to” fields to get your attention. Worked, didn’t it! The best thing you can do now is to delete it completely (right click and select delete). Don’t let your email program download images in spam emails if you can help it – this will confirm to the spammer that your email address is real. And definitely don’t click on any links. So how did they get your email address in the first place? They may have guessed it through random combinations (known as a “dictionary attack”), or they may have harvested it from the net. Have you ever posted your email address online? Beware! Any email address displayed on the web is like a lone beer at a BBQ. You’ll be a magnet for spam hunting robots. You can install anti-spam software, but while defences are getting smarter all the time, there are still inherent disadvantages. You may lose legitimate email if your filters are too strict, or you may still get spam if they are too lenient. Once you are on a spam list, the only real solution is to change your email address. One good idea is to have an email account that you use for online situations, perhaps one that you can change easily that isn’t printed on your business cards or stationery. You can also disguise your email address when online, by displaying it as web at Datasearch dot com dot au, or you could choose less guessable email addresses (don’t use info or admin!) But aren’t there laws to protect us from spam? In Australia, yes, but most spam doesn’t come from here. Spam can come from compromised computers or servers anywhere in the world. So by not posting your email address online, using less guessable email addresses and not clicking on links in spam emails you should be able to reduce your spam collection (and never doubt your sanity again). datasearch Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:282 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/245/The-top-4-website-mistakes-of-08.aspx#Comments 0 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=72&ModuleID=420&ArticleID=245 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=245&PortalID=0&TabID=72 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/245/The-top-4-website-mistakes-of-08.aspx 1. Designing your site for yourself, not your customers You may have spent hours agonising over the exact shade of salmon pink for your menu bar, but chances are if you’re selling fishing gear, it probably won’t appeal to the majority of your customers. If you're not sure what your customers want - ask them! 2. Not working out why people would want to buy from you The days when you could put a website up and people would flock to it for the sheer novelty value are long gone. You will now need a compelling reason for people to visit YOUR site. We don’t recommend naked photos of Paris Hilton. 3. Hiding the point Have you ever been to a website where you couldn’t work out what the company actually does? It’s surprisingly common. Don’t assume it’s obvious - if you sell shoes, say so, clearly and boldly. 4. Making it tough to buy Would you put an obstacle course between your front door and the checkout? Of course not. Your website should be the same. Customers usually want to get what they want and get out. If you make it difficult, they will leave. Oh, and flashing, bouncing images, popups and scrolling text is annoying and SO YESTERDAY, DAHLING. datasearch Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:245 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/233/SEO-begins-before-you-even-have-a-website.aspx#Comments 0 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=72&ModuleID=420&ArticleID=233 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=233&PortalID=0&TabID=72 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/233/SEO-begins-before-you-even-have-a-website.aspx Making an existing website search engine-friendly is a bit like trying to make an old volvo more aerodynamic. You might have some success, but the best results are achieved if it is considered at the very beginning. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) begins with YOU. When you are considering the text for your website, think about the words people are likely to search for. It sounds obvious, but it is important to ensure that these words appear in the text, in the headings (where possible) and in the page titles. Don't overdo the keyword density though or your could get penalised. To do well in the search engines write your copy for PEOPLE (not computers). Websites in the past used to engage in keyword-stuffing, but search engines soon wised up and changed the way they rank sites to give a higher ranking to pages which supply good, informative content. If you are working with a copywriter, check that they are aware that you are targeting search engines for particular words but make sure they write for your customers. Ensure that your graphic designer also understands which words you are targeting so they don't create designs which require the words to be converted to images. When constructing your menu, try to name your pages according to the words you are targeting as this will give them added weight. If you follow these techniques you will be on your way to a good organic search engine listing. datasearch Sun, 09 Mar 2008 13:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:233 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/232/What-is-an-RSS-feed.aspx#Comments 0 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=72&ModuleID=420&ArticleID=232 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=232&PortalID=0&TabID=72 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/232/What-is-an-RSS-feed.aspx RSS stands for Rich Site Summary (or Really Simple Syndication). An RSS feed gives web users the ability to receive the latest information from a website through the use of a ‘feed reader' (also called a ‘news aggregator' or 'news reader'). With this feature, updates made to a website will be available to you via RSS feed. RSS is fast becoming the most popular way to get the latest content delivered directly to you. Click here to read more about RSS feeds. Feed Readers (News Aggregators) To be able to receive latest information via an RSS feed, web users need to install a Feed Reader on their computer. Micosoft recommends various News Readers available for download, which can be found here: Microsoft Windows Recommendations. Apple recommends NetNewsWire. You may also use a web-based news aggregator like www.live.com which means you won't need to install anything and you can start using RSS feeds immediately. If you are using Internet Explorer 7+ you will find a built-in Feed Reader under the Favourites tab. datasearch Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:232 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/229/Do-I-need-a-website.aspx#Comments 0 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=72&ModuleID=420&ArticleID=229 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=229&PortalID=0&TabID=72 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/229/Do-I-need-a-website.aspx Would you consider NOT listing your business in the yellow pages? If the answer is no, then you may also need a website simply to maintain a corporate presence and make yourself accessible to your clients. Unlike a bricks & mortar shop, a website can have its doors open 24/7. Unlike a brochure or magazine advertisement, a website can be relied on for the most up-to-date information. Would you rely on a single brochure to drive all of your sales? Probably not, but used in conjunction with a great sales team and an integrated marketing campaign it can be a useful tool. The same applies for a website. It can easily become your most powerful customer management and sales tool - after your own staff, of course. A website can: create a corporate presence - if you are a large company clients would expect to be able to find out about you online sell products directly to the public generate and qualify leads gather feedback to help you improve your product or service compete with big business extend your trading hours expand your market save time by answering common questions online How will a website help my specific business? Restaurant/cafe A website may help you attract diners from further than your local area. It may also help bring in repeat business by advertising promotions, specials and menu changes. Customers may use your website to compare you with other restaurants in the local area to see if the atmosphere and menu is what they are looking for find out where you are look for specific items on your menu make a booking read reviews by other customers If you showcase your atmosphere and menu you may attract diners from further than your local area. Professional services Do you often find yourself answering the same questions? Would you like more qualified leads? Do you need to inform your customers about latest procedures or changes? If so, a website might benefit you by Saving time & money - It can answer the most common questions customers might have Getting you more qualified leads - the right information on your website can help your customers decide if you are a good fit for their needs before they call (and vice versa) Helping reassure customers and potential customers, particularly if they are about to take on something new ensuring clients have access to the most recent information Retail Would you like to extend your reach? Are you selling a niche product with a limited market? Would you like an online store to expand your bricks & mortar business without the expense of building commercial premises? A website might help you by: Answering questions about opening hours and holidays Allowing people to order or buy 24/7 Constantly having an up-to-date list of available products Opening yourself to a global market Trade Do you spend a lot of time answering the same questions? Do you wish you could screen some enquiries to make sure they are a good fit for your business? Do you see people make the same mistakes over and over again? If so, a website might benefit you by Ensuring you are quoting on jobs which are a good match for your skills Giving the customers the information they need to help you complete the job Displaying your product or services or awards Helping customers choose colours, styles and designs Making user manuals or maintenance guidelines easily accessible datasearch Sun, 11 Nov 2007 13:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:229 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/228/Goals--a-solid-foundation-for-a-great-website.aspx#Comments 0 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=72&ModuleID=420&ArticleID=228 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=228&PortalID=0&TabID=72 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/228/Goals--a-solid-foundation-for-a-great-website.aspx by Sarah Hill Setting goals can help reduce costs, improve the experience of using a website and save time. Every website needs to have the goals confirmed at the beginning of the project. Business Goals What would you like to achieve with the website? Some common business goals are Reduce costs related to staff answering queries Increase in-store sales Increase online sales Provide information on products and services to staff and clients Create or reinforce a brand When these goals have been decided, they will help you choose your Target Audience. While these are important, it is also vital to consider the goals of the users as this will help avoid costly redesigns after the website is released. User-centred design helps create a positive experience for both users and staff and can increase staff morale and reduce development costs. User Goals Users are motivated by their own needs. Some common user goals are: Learn more about a product or service, find prices Buy online Learn more about a company to help decide if they would like to call or email Find contact details Feel supported Find out how to do something Efficiency Goals Efficiency Goals are the parts of the website which will directly or indirectly affect staff and the bottom line. Some common efficiency goals are: Make it quick and easy for staff to access the information they require (thus saving hours) Support common tasks and existing infrastructure, or transferring existing infrastructure to an online environment Make it easier for staff in branch offices to access the consistent information and communicate with each other Sarah Hill is Senior Web Designer at Datasearch Internet Services datasearch Thu, 01 Nov 2007 13:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:228 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/226/6-ways-to-make-your-website-easier-to-read.aspx#Comments 0 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=72&ModuleID=420&ArticleID=226 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=226&PortalID=0&TabID=72 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/226/6-ways-to-make-your-website-easier-to-read.aspx by Sarah Hill If communicating with your customers is important to the success of your website, here are some tips which will help you get your message across loud and clear. Paging is better than scrolling. It is best to avoid particularly long pages as people often remember the location of an item on a page. Use lowercase letters in preference to all uppercase because word shape is helpful in word recognition. (Don't write text in all capitals if you can avoid it!) (All capitals is also bad netiqette - it often signifies shouting.) Monitor your line length - don't let lines expand to cover the entire width of the screen. Even if it looks ok on your screen, imagine what it would look like for users with widescreen monitors. Line length in magazines and newspapers is kept short for physiological reasons - if a person has to turn their head, or use neck or face muscles to read a page, they don't take in as much information. The same applies online - some sources say that the width of an A4 piece of paper (21.5cm) is optimal for on-screen reading. Divide your text into appropriate sections with clear titles as this makes it easier to scan (and it is good for increasing your ranking in the search engines). Except for your homepage, (which often has to perform several functions), try to have no more than one motivator (focus) per page. If people have too many options to click on they often won't click on anything at all and will simply close your website. Use emphasis sparingly. Emphasis on words (eg. a bold typeface or a bright colour) only works when it is different from everything else on the page and it is not competing with other strong features. If everything is emphasized, nothing will stand out. Other considerations: if your target audience is likely to have less-than-perfect vision, you may also wish to consider the acuity of moving objects, contrast between the text and background, colour perception, peripheral vision and iconic memory when constructing your website. Check how your website looks to people with different colour vision here: http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/vischeckURL.php Make sure that the contrast is high enough for people with visual impairments by using this website: http://www.accesskeys.org/tools/color-contrast.html If you have anything you think should be added to this list, please contact us. References http://www.isolani.co.uk/blog/web/FixedAndFluidMythAndMeme http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/finetypography/ht/line_length.htm http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol2/design_no4.htm datasearch Sun, 28 Oct 2007 13:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:226 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/227/Silly-Acronyms.aspx#Comments 0 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=72&ModuleID=420&ArticleID=227 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=227&PortalID=0&TabID=72 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/227/Silly-Acronyms.aspx Don't know your RSS's from your CMS's? CRM's giving you headaches? And what on earth is CSS? Is your head spinning? Don't worry, you're not alone. Allow us to sort out some of the jargon for you... RSS Let's start with the fun stuff. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, although this is disputed, so no-one really knows what it stands for now. Most website now call RSS "Web Feeds". Web feeds are usually designated with a little orange symbol like this. A web feed is a system inside a website which allows users to receive regular updates from that website. The following video from Marketing Profs explains RSS in more detail. So why is RSS fun? Because it saves you time surfing the net. You just sign into a page like www.start.com, and then you copy the Feed link from your favourite websites into this page. You can display the latest items from all of your favourite sites on this page, which means you won't need to check each site every day. It will automatically update whenever your favourite websites update their sites. CMS CMS stands for Content Management System. Sounds complicated, but it just refers to any system where you can edit pages of your website yourself, from your office. There are various types of content management systems, from small systems which control just a few pages, to large systems which allow you total control over everything. You can also request a custom content management sytem if money is no object, although these can be time consuming to construct. We often suggest you use a partial content management system, which gives you control over the parts of your website which change frequently, like news articles and photo galleries, and the rest can be updated by a web designer. This will make your site look better as web designers can usually do things that CMS's can't. CRM Customer Relationship Management systems (CRMs) are usually internal programs which allow companies to keep track of customers and record necessary details. These days CRMs are becoming web-based which means that if your company has offices in different states, but needs to access the same database of clients, they now can. Ah the wonders of the internet... CSS CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. No idea what this means? Don't worry, you don't need to. It is a new way of designing websites which makes them more flexible so they can be viewed by PDA's and other devices. Formerly, websites were designed using complicated systems of tables. CSS dispenses with the tables and relies on the designer to tell every object where to sit on the page. This is also better for vision impaired users as screen readers take a long time to read all those table tags. It is not all roses with CSS however, as IE and Firefox can't agree on how to display certain things so web designers have to spend a lot of time tricking one or the other into displaying things how they want it. CSS will certainly be the way of the future though, especially as some of these issues are slowly being ironed out. So in summary, if you want a website with an RSS feed which incorporates a CMS and is designed in CSS, please give us a call. If you company needs a custom CRM, we can also do this for you. If you are still thoroughly confused, never fear! Just give us a call and we will talk you through the ones that are relevant to you. datasearch Sun, 28 Oct 2007 13:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:227 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/220/Why-a-website-is-not-a-yellow-pages-ad.aspx#Comments 0 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=72&ModuleID=420&ArticleID=220 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=220&PortalID=0&TabID=72 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/220/Why-a-website-is-not-a-yellow-pages-ad.aspx When you advertise in the yellow pages, you need to stand out from the crowd. You have to display your wares, shout your unique attributes and differentiate yourself from the hundreds of other companies doing exactly the same thing. Websites are not like that. Once someone is at your website, they are already in your shop. Would you continue to shout at your customers AFTER they have walked through your shop door? No, because you already have their undivided attention. The catch is that you probably only have about ten seconds before they click to a new website. So how do you make the most of that vital ten seconds? Well, what would you do if a person walked into your bricks and mortar shop? You would probably ask what they are looking for, and help them to find it as quickly as possible. Or perhaps they are looking for the answer to a question? The web is the same. All you need to do is find out what your customers are looking for, and help them get there as easily as possible. No annoying pop-up advertising, no endless intro animations that tell them how great you are, and no mindless waffle to pollute the internet. And definitely, NO SHOUTING. Websites have traditionally been seen as mass media, but they are not – they are more like a one-to-one conversation. If you have given your customers what they are looking for in the first 10 seconds, they might be tempted to dig deeper into your website. This is why it is a good idea to include all the commonly asked questions – this not only helps save your staff time, but it creates a vital middle point between the initial contact and making a sale. And it goes without saying, if your customers have questions or would like to place an order – it is best to answer promptly. After all, none of us likes being left waiting at the counter! For more help developing your own internet strategy, you can request a Datasearch expert review or customised online marketing plan. datasearch Sun, 28 Oct 2007 13:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:220 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/221/CMS-or-Designer-Website.aspx#Comments 0 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=72&ModuleID=420&ArticleID=221 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=221&PortalID=0&TabID=72 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/221/CMS-or-Designer-Website.aspx Updating your website – what is the best solution for you? To help you decide whether you would prefer to have your website running off a Content Management System (CMS) which allows you to edit pages, add forms, and adjust the content yourself (with limitations!) or whether you would prefer to have your website built and updated by a designer, we have outlined some of the pros and cons of each system below. But first, some definitions: Content Management System (CMS): A CMS allows you to adjust pages, text, photos, forms and other information on your website yourself, by logging into a control panel. A CMS is a program which stores all the data for your website in a database. When you bring up a page, it searches through the database for the correct information for that spot. Designer Website: A custom-built website is built for you by a web designer. When you need changes made to the website, you just email the support desk. CMS (Content Management System) Designer Website PROS Update the website yourself from your office Update costs are usually cheaper Pages load faster as the website is not searching through a database for the information Usually less expensive to build than a website with a full CMS Supports a wide variety of designs Can add any unusual or custom features available Updated by a professional for a more streamlined look CONS Pages can load substantially slower as the website has to request the information from a database Limited in the things you can update (sometimes you can’t update templates) More expensive to construct initially Usually limited in the designs that can be used Difficult to implement unusual or custom features Consistency of design is difficult to maintain if not updated by a design professional Can be more expensive to update if major updates are happening every few days Have to wait for the web designer to update your site (unless you mark your changes as urgent – more expensive) If you would like the best of both worlds, it may be possible to implement a partial content management system which can allow you to update things like news articles, but have the rest of the site custom-built by a designer. datasearch Sun, 28 Oct 2007 13:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:221 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/222/Advertising-on-Google.aspx#Comments 0 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=72&ModuleID=420&ArticleID=222 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=222&PortalID=0&TabID=72 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/222/Advertising-on-Google.aspx Google, and other search engines, offer advertising on their sites. This is known as PPC (Pay-Per-Click Advertising). They all operate in a similar fashion by allowing you to create an ad, choose the keywords to match your ads, setting a maximum amount to pay per click for each time a client clicks and is taken to your website. We recommend Google's product - known as AdWords - as Google is the most flexible and cost effective. Once your Ads are performing well on Google we can copy them to other search engines to maximise your sales. The great thing about PPC advertising is you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. You can also set a daily budget so you have complete control of the cost of your campaigns. One of the great successes of PPC advertising is that the Ads are only displayed to people who are most likely to be interested in your product or service. Another great feature is that the Ads can be monitored daily (through reports and graphs) and adjusted to maximum the effectiveness of the Ad. datasearch Sun, 28 Oct 2007 13:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:222 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/223/Is-your-e-Newsletter-being-read.aspx#Comments 0 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=72&ModuleID=420&ArticleID=223 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=223&PortalID=0&TabID=72 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/223/Is-your-e-Newsletter-being-read.aspx There’s no point sending out an e-Newsletter if you don’t make it past a preview pane. Design your e-Newsletter to be read. Are clients reading your first sentence and then hitting delete? The preview pane is fast becoming the default option for email clients and unless your e-Newsletter is optimised for this feature many of your clients will either delete or ignore your e-Newsletter. Many clients also routinely block images. What does this mean for you? To get noticed you must redesign your e-Newsletters to reflect that the most important area in an email is the top few lines which is the only area visible in both horizontal panes – the most widely used previews. The preview pane is just a teaser area to grab the readers' attention and ensure that they either scroll or click to stories or fully open the email. Move all the interesting info to the top of the email. Because horizontal panes are the most popular you should redesign your email templates with a horizontal layout for both content and advertisements with content organized in sections that are wider than they are deep. Avoid use of white or light text links with a dark background. Some email clients will override your link style colour with the default blue underline link style, thus making it difficult to see the links. Also study your click-tracking reports to see where readers are clicking most often - these are the links that need to be highest in your future e-Newsletters. Many readers automatically glance at the "From/Sender" name so choose a short, trusted and simple name. Is your e-Newsletter being incorrectly marked as spam? Spam is a problem for all and many ISPs are now adopting authentication standards such as Microsoft's Sender ID and Yahoo DomainKeys to filter emails. These provide a way to verify that an email server is authorised to send email for the sender's domain. If you do not comply with these standards then your mail may also not get through or your images and links may not display properly. It is therefore important for you to use these authentication standards. If widely used Internet Service Providers won't let your email through because of authentication systems then your whole email marketing campaign may be wasted. To ensure that your messages be relevant and timely to the consumer it’s possible to use dynamic content to personalise each message to each subscriber, and triggered messaging, which automatically sends messages based on time and user action and/or inactions, allowing marketers to tailor each message specifically to each member so that the messages are wanted and expected. A good Email Service Provider can help you with all this. We, at Datasearch have been addressing these problems for years and have many satisfied clients using our e-Newsletter programs for their email marketing campaigns. datasearch Sun, 28 Oct 2007 13:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:223 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/224/Six-important-steps-to-getting-higher-in-Google.aspx#Comments 0 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=72&ModuleID=420&ArticleID=224 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=224&PortalID=0&TabID=72 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/224/Six-important-steps-to-getting-higher-in-Google.aspx How do I get my website higher in search engine lists (like Google)? Your Website will be like a shop on a dead end road, people will never find it on their own - unless it is listed in a directory. Search engines like Google and Yahoo are the directories of the internet, and your website MUST be listed in the leading search engines to be easily accessible. The HIGHER the position of your website within the search engines list - the MORE people you will get to your website. It’s that simple. So, how do you improve the position of your webpage on search engine lists? In truth, different search engines use different methods to rank websites, and all search engines keep their exact methods a closely guarded secret. However, a good Web Design company will at the very least consider the following areas of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) when building your website: Obtaining Inbound Links When people list your website on their own site, your search engine position will improve. If their site already has a good ranking, then yours will improve even more. The more people you get to link to your website the higher your page will be listed. This is the best way to improve your rankings in leading search engines. The actual text within the link to your website is also important- if this text contains relevant keyword/s, your page will rank higher in search engine results for those keywords. For example it is better to have the link text eg.‘Dragon Chinese Resturant, West End, Brisbane’ than ‘Click Here’. Your Website’s Title, Headings, bold and italicized text Search engines assume that the words inside these elements are suggestive of the page content, generally it is a good idea to ensure these elements contain keywords users will type into search engines to find your website. Try to avoid words like ‘welcome’ and ‘ the’ and other common words which will not improve your search engine ranking. Wherever appropriate, you should use bold or italics to highlight important keywords Keyword Density ‘Keywords’ are words that users type when performing a search in search engines (eg. ‘Chinese Restaurant). Keyword density is the ratio of the keyword/s compared to the total number of words appearing on a web page. The more a keyword occurs in a page of a given size, the higher it’s keyword density is on that page (and the higher the page will rank for those words in a search engine). Eg. If the words ‘Chinese Restaurant’ appears 20 times on a page of 1000 words, it has a higher keyword density for those words than a page with ‘Chinese Restaurant’ appearing only once. ALT tags on Images All images on your website should have meaningful ‘ALT Tags’ (the yellow description box that appears on an image when you hover over it). The Alt Tags should contain keywords that people would use to find your website. Search engines take notice of these tags and they can improve your website’s ranking. META Tags ‘Meta Tags’ are information including ‘keywords’ and a ‘website description’ stored in your website’s code for use by the search engines. Google ignores the ‘Meta Keywords’ tag, but other search engines do use them so they should still be included in your website. Flash Animation Currently, search engines only read text, and when they come across ‘Flash programming’ in your website, they may halt their page ranking process. Correct use of any Flash Programming in your Website construction is important to ensure this is minimised. This has only been a brief look at the broad and complex field of Search Engine Optimisation. A good Web Design company will at the very least consider these areas of Search Engine Optimisation when designing and building your website. This will ensure it has the best possible ranking in the popular search engines, which in turn, will direct the greatest volume of traffic to your website. If you wish to know the page rank of pages you are visiting, you can download a ‘Google toolbar’ from http://toolbar.google.com/ (for Internet Explorer only). datasearch Sun, 28 Oct 2007 13:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:224 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/211/3AW-Interview--why-do-we-get-SPAM.aspx#Comments 0 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=72&ModuleID=420&ArticleID=211 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=211&PortalID=0&TabID=72 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/211/3AW-Interview--why-do-we-get-SPAM.aspx Our Senior Web Developer, Mr. Martin Hill talks to John on the 3AW Breakfast show about SPAM, how we get it and who is responsible for it. Click here to listen datasearch Mon, 08 Oct 2007 13:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:211 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/225/Why-creating-a-website-is-like-buying-gifts.aspx#Comments 0 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=72&ModuleID=420&ArticleID=225 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=225&PortalID=0&TabID=72 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/225/Why-creating-a-website-is-like-buying-gifts.aspx Mention "defining your target audience" and most people's eyes glaze over. So let's talk about Birthdays. If I said to you "Please go and buy a birthday present" you could react in one of two ways - you would either immediately run out the door, buy the first thing you see (a vacuum cleaner) and race back, or you would follow it up with a few more questions: "Who is it for?" "A man". "Ok, I'll get him the latest DVD of Australian Idol." "He's 65." "Hmm. He probably hasn't heard of Australian Idol. I'll get him something practical, like a barbecue set." "He is the CEO of a fortune 500 company." "Ok, there is probably not much that he needs, and he probably doesn't have much time for barbecues, so I should get him something that he likes. I'll get him a beautiful, short-sleeved silk business shirt." "He is very tall." "Right. I don't know his size. I'll get him a good quality copy of the complete works of Shakespeare instead." "He's Chinese and only knows basic English". "Ok, I'll get him a CD of beautiful classical music". "That would be great - thanks!" Both solutions would have come up with the desired result - a gift. However, the second gift, (while causing great frustration for the purchaser) is far more likely to bring a smile to the face of it's elderly recepient. It is the same with websites. You can easily jump in and build a website, but unless you know who it is for and why you are doing it you could annoy, offend, amuse or disappoint your clients. Knowing what they don't like is almost as important as knowing what they do like. Think of your website as being your birthday gift to your clients and potential clients. If they are happy with it, they will want to do business with you. That's their gift to you. The more you know about your clients, the happier you will make them and the better your website will work. How do I do that, you ask? Easy. Survey them. Watch them. Ask them. Write it down. Now the tricky part. You know your clients are not a homogenous group. What you need to do now is to identify common traits and common goals. Take your time. You can't be all things to all people. When you have done this you can start building. Build your website for them, not you. All too often, as web developers, we hear "I don't like that colour" or "I think this would look better here". Maybe that is true, but what we need to hear from you is: "My clients don't like this colour" "They think this would work better if it was here". When we start hearing that, we know your website will be a success. So remember - if you jump in your car and start driving you will definitely end up somewhere. It just might not be where you want to go! datasearch Sun, 30 Sep 2007 14:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:225 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/178/2UE-Interview-about-SPAM.aspx#Comments 0 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=72&ModuleID=420&ArticleID=178 http://datasearch.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=178&PortalID=0&TabID=72 http://datasearch.com.au/Library/Articles/tabid/72/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/178/2UE-Interview-about-SPAM.aspx Our Senior Project Manager and Anti-SPAM expert talks with 2UE's Glen Wheeler about SPAM. Click here to listen to the interview (MP3) datasearch Tue, 23 Jan 2007 13:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:178