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HTML5 and the web - get your business seen by millions of potent

What is Wordpress?

Wordpress is an open-source Content Management System built using php. It is probably the simplest to use, most widely-used and powerful CMS/blogging system there is available today, perfectly suited to developing websites.

There are many many websites on the web that make use of Wordpress; big corporates sites, news sites, music sites and famous people use it to manage their website (or have their 'people' manage their website). TechCrunch, The New York Times and CNN all use Wordpress.

Because of its open source nature, there are literally thousands of 'themes' (pre-built designs/layouts for websites) - some paid for and some free, and 'plug-ins' (which give your website added functionality once installed, or 'plugged-in'), again, some free and some paid for.

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how is it affected by web design?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation is something that affects your website from start to finish. Every element in the construction and design of your site can have an impact on SEO, which is effectively another way of describing best-practice for websites, only the best practice guidelines were written by Search Engines, such as Google and Bing, in order to ensure only relevant websites of sufficient quality are returned when someone does a search. This ensures that only websites that have adhered to accessiblity and useability standards get the search engine performance they so keenly seek, and that those who don't won't be found, encouraging them to adopt best-practice in the process.

SEO incorporates your site's content, how it is written, whether it is written well and whether or not it relates to the search the user has just performed. It also encompasses your design and your coding, looking out for whether or not everything is tagged properly and coded in such a way that browsers can clearly determine how to render everything, and that users with special needs such as visual impairments are also having their needs met.

One downside of the need for SEO is that content written specifically to perform well for SEO isn't necessarily the easiest to read from a human perspective. This is because the more prevalent a keyword or keywords are, the more significance a search engine places on that term, which can result in copy bing little more than a long list of keywords.

A good web designer/developer will do this as they are building your site, but there is always scope for improvement and refinement, especially as technology develops and guidelines and best-practice recommendations shift with that progression.

What are the benefits of advertising my business dynamically online via a website?

One of the great features of promoting your business via the web is that you can add to your site almost instantaneously. You could think of an idea for a promotion one lunchtime and but close of business it can be live, with little or no lead time and no costly printing to contend with.

Unlike printed media and traditional advertising methods, if you publish your website and you decide that your offer is no longer available, your prices need to change or you want to change your messaging, you can do it quickly, easily, and more importantly very cost effectively 'on-the-fly', allowing you to be as reactive and as responsive to market forces as you wish.

Similarly, if you have something time-sensitive you wish to communicate to your customer base, you can add it to your site where it can be made live immediately, and once it's no longer needed it can be taken down just as quickly.

You no longer need to scrap boxes and boxes of flyers, or have expensive TV or radio commercials remade. You simply contact your web manager/designer, let them know what the update is, and they will update hassle free. Should you have opted for a CMS (Content management system) website where you have the ability to update the content yourself, then it's even easier! You simply log in to the admin area, navigate to the page in question, edit your text, hit save and you're done!

What's the market like for eCommerce and good web design?

The eCommerce sector in the UK is huge and steadily growing. UK online sales increased by an estimated 15% last year. 77% of people who went online made a purchase, with an average order value of around £78.

Around a third of e-commerce traffic in the UK is on a handheld device. In terms of mobile traffic distribution, a third is on tablets while the remaining two thirds is on a smartphone, which is a result of the increase in size of the screens on mobile phones.

Investments in digital advertising are also on the rise. Last year they represented almost exactly half of the total advertising spend in the UK, and this is expected to climb another 10% by 2020. Given the growth of e-commerce in the UK, it is normal that more and more advertisers are choosing to dedicate a more significant part of their advertising spend to online channels.

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