Trends

As usual, the business owners knowledge of SEO and social media is increasing and website owners are now more thoughtful about how they would like their website to integrate with social media sites.

All of our website are capable of sharing blog content in a number of ways. We use Google XML Sitemaps to notify the major search engines when a blog post has been updated and we automatically send the update sitemap.xml file to the search engines.

We also use systems like dlvr to share content from the blog to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. Content is automatically sent to these networks whenever the user updates their blog and there are good backlinks which is helpful for SEO.

From a design point of view, an increasing number of users also have a greater understanding of how they want their site to look and the layout required.

Website Design Gallery

So here it is, the web design hall of fame for 2011. Click any image to zoom.

Adventure World Camps run Summer Camps and School Tours in Nenagh, Tipperary, Limerick and Dublin. This website re-design is colourful and interesting showing slideshows and galleries of images and activities.

Molesworth Clinic - A website design for a Dublin City based Dentist with a clean and fresh design. Logo design and Google AdWords advertising were also included in this project.

Premier Sporting Goods sell sliotars, footballs and other GAA goods. Based in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, this company required a visually stunning website re-design with E-Commerce functionality and credit-card payments.

Platform Boutique is an E-Commerce design for this boutique based in Limerick. The site was designed in a colour scheme complementary to the logo and shop design.

Shack restaurant is another website re-design. We are dragging our clients into the 21st centuary, one by one. Like all of the websites we create, this re-design includes an easy to use content managements system. It also includes a newsletter collection and sending system.

Global Box Shipments ship boxes to the Philippines. We created a box order system and a tracking systems for customers to trace their box delivery status. One of the many website applications that we created in 2011.

This is a website template that we created for a wedding page company. Full CMS and many options for changing content, menus and slideshow.

First Polymer offer training courses for the Plastics industry. We created a new design and integrated the calendar with their desktop training software so that new courses are automatically added to the calendar.

The National Rural Network have their finger on the pulse of all things relevant to rural development in Ireland. This re-design simplified the site with a pleasing visual design. There are almost 1000 posts/pages on this site so we had a lot of SEO work to do to make sure that old posts were re-directed to the correct page on the new site.

Setanta College is the number one Hetac Accredited Sports College in Ireland. This website redesign includes course details, video and E-Comemrce course payments. We also manage and maintain the Setanta College E-Learning platform which is the primary teaching method of the college.

This is a website template that we created for a wedding page company. Full CMS and many options for changing content, menus and slideshow.

Adare Machinery is another website re-design with a full size background image slideshow, Information about all products and machines as well as an e-commerce shopping system with credit card payments.

Iridium Training needed an E-Learning system to create and deliver training courses. We implemented a fresh design in Moodle and Managed the e-learning system for Iridium

This is a website template that we created for a wedding page company. Full CMS and many options for changing content, menus and slideshow.

<?php 
$page_id = 6;  //Page ID
$page_data = get_page( $page_id ); 

//store page title and content in variables
$title = $page_data->post_title; 
$content = apply_filters('the_content', $page_data->post_content);

//display the title and content
echo $title;
echo $content; 
?>

Rinse and repeat to include content from multiple pages.

If you need to get the page ID you can easily do this by logging into your WordPress website admin and opening the page, post or custom post type for editing. The page id is visible in the address bar as shown in the screenshot below.



Discover how our SEO techniques and years of experience can generate more targeted visitors to your site. We focus on generating interest from targeted traffic meaning that visitors to your site will be potential customers.

Our complete Internet Marketing & SEO package is guaranteed to deliver the results you require.

We already run successful SEO campaigns including AdWords campaign for a number of companies attracting Irish and international visitors to their websites. For instant targeted search traffic we can manage your Adwords campaign, or for a longer term strategy we will analyse your existing website and convert it into a money-making machine. Get online marketing for your website now.

How does it work?

• We submit your site to all the main search engines and make them aware of it’s existence (Many companies neglect to do this!)
• We write standards compliant code and make it easy for search engines to read your site content
• we ensure that your site loads quickly for users and search engines
• We write useful and relevant content using important keywords that we identify for your site
• We use use internal links and external inbound links to drive useful traffic to your site and
• We add the proper meta data to communicate your sites purpose to all of the main search engines
• We use  social media to promote your site and build a profitable network
• Many other small but important checks and tune-ups that combined make a major difference

We can do the same for your site. Contact us to find out how.

Web Design in Ireland is changing. The need for websites is a must as more and more people browse, engage and conduct their business online.

We are an Irish Web Design company that offers a unique service ranging from website design, search engine optimization, ecommerce sites and custom programming.

Web Design and E-Commerce Site - Platform Boutique

Our latest web design project is an e-commerce site for Platform Boutique which will enable our client to reach new markets and expand their business by selling online. E-commerce sites ensure credit card payments are sent quickly and securely for  ease of use for both the merchant and the customer. As Web Design in Ireland continues to grow we are open to the needs of our customers and we liaise with them to create customized and optimized user friendly sites.

Please feel free to contact us to discuss your website or e-commerce site requirements. We can also design e-mail newsletters to keep your clients up to date on your products or services.

These tips will help in all of the main search engines but it is important to be patient as it can take 3-6 months to see the benefits of your work. Persistence is importance so stick with it and focus on future benefits to your website.

1) Choose keywords wisely

Keywords are the search terms that users search for in search engines like Google in order to find your website or your competitors. For example, if you offer web design services in Ireland your potential clients could use terms such as Irish web design or web design Ireland in order to find your website or other similar sites, so your keywords should include web, design, Ireland, Irish, website etc.

Once you have identified these keywords you can begin the process of optimising your site for these terms.

2) Choose a Good Domain Name

Your domain name should be based on your keywords identified in step 1. The most effective domain name for search engine results doesn’t need to include your company name. If required you can register another domain name with your company branding and redirect it.  Using keywords in the main domain name for your website identifies it as as being closely linked to those keywords.

3) Choose a Good Web Page Name

This benefits your site in the same manner as having a keyword focused domain name. You are alerting the search engines to the upcoming content in the page. Use a keyword focused page name such as irish-web-design-blog.htm.  Don’t use non-descriptive page names. For dynamically generated pages you should update your .htaccess file to convert dynamic names such as “www.irishwebhq.com?pid=345″ to a keyword focussed domain like www.irishwebhq.com/web-design-ireland”.

4) Use Keywords Correctly

When designing and writing your web page, use keywords correctly within the page. Use keywords in the title, h1, and h2 tags and also use keywords within links. Your keyword density should constitute anywhere from 3 to 7% of the text on the page. Anything more than this could flag you page as trying to fool the search engines using keyword stuffing, leading to a blacklisting of your site.

5) Blog Often

It takes time and patience to write and edit a blog. While bloggers often start enthusiastically they can often be distracted and neglect to update their site.

How often should you blog? Try to write some new and interesting content at least twice weekly. It doesn’t have to be a novel, a short and interesting article can generate plenty traffic. Remember to use your keywords throughout your blog post.

6) Network on the Social Media Sites

Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and You Tube are excellent resources for you to network with potential clients. Facebook is mainly for social interactions so place more emphasis on communicating with people and less on blatantly selling your business. Twitter allows you to use a mix of the two. Linked In for for creating business connections and discussing interesting topics in the groups. You Tube is a good place to host instructive videos which can then be displayed in your website.

7) Don’t Try to Fool Google

Don’t trade short term gains for long term losses. Google doesn’t appreciate tricks or attempts to fast-track your site to page 1 and will penalise your website if you try and “black hat” techniques. If you need traffic fast try Google AdWords.

8 ) Have we Met? Introduce yourself to Google

Google webmasters tools is the number 1 way of ensuring that your website gets listed on Google. Ignoring this important step means that you are relying on Google to follow links from other websites in order to find and index your site. www.google.com/webmasters

9) Where are you? Geolocate

Google places allows you to specify your location on Google maps. When someone searches for a business in your industry in your town or city your marker will be displayed. Clicking on the marker displays your business details, a link to your website and even directions to your business.

10) Track performance using Google Analytics

Add your site. Track users. Create conversion goals. Google Analytics is the best free tool to help you understand what your visitors are doing on your website. You can see the pages that they are viewing, the keywords that they use to get to your site, the page they don’t like and many other stats that give you excellent insight into your websites performance.

Now it your turn to optimise your site using the 10 useful steps above.

Need Help? Irish Web HQ carry out Search Engine Optimisation for many of our clients. Contact us to discuss your website or SEO requirements.

However, results may be skewed if Google Analytics is counting hits by you the site owner or developer. For example, a web developer is likely to cause multiple page loads when updating or testing a website, but we don’t want these results to give us false positives in our analytics tool. Therefore it is important to ensure that site activity by the website developer or owner is not tracked.

Google Analytics gives us an easy way of doing this. Firstly we must login to Google Analytics and edit the appropriate website profile.

Now we can add a filter to block our hits from our own IP address from being counted. (Not sure what your IP address is? See whatismyipaddress.com).

Click on the Add Filter + link and choose the Add new filter for profile radiobutton.

Enter an appropriate filter name and click the Predefined Filter radiobutton.

Using the drop-down menus select Exclude – traffic from the IP addresses – that are equal to. Now enter your IP address in the space provided.

This handy tip ensures that your site visits don’t cloud the reality of how your site is performing.

Interested in getting more visitors to your website?

I have undertaken Search Engine Optimisation and paid ad campaigns (pay-per-click) for many Irish businesses achieving excellent Return on Investment. Contact me today to find out more.



Disclaimer

This plugin has been tested on WordPress 3+. You use this plugin at your own risk.The author is not responsible for any loss or damage caused to your website by using this plugin. Please backup site content and databases before using this plugin.

Licence

You may use this as you wish without restriction. You may update the code as you please but the links to my site must remain intact. You may NOT resell this plugin or any variation of this plugin using this code.

Installation

Download the zip file, unpack and upload this plugin to your plugins folder (wp-content/plugins). Alternatively you may use the WordPress admin menu (Plugins > Add New) to upload and install this plugin.

In the wordpress admin section use the plugins menu to activate this plugin.

Usage

To create a gallery you must upload a number of images to the page or post where you want the gallery. You will see the number of images shown in the gallery tab after clicking the “Add an Image” icon.

To create a gallery return to the editor without inserting any of these images. You will see a new icon in the visual editor toolbar. This is the WP3Gallery button for inserting the gallery shortcode. Place your cursor where you want the gallery to appear and click the button.

The [ gallery ] shortcode is added.

That’s it, your plugin is now in use. Your images will now be paginated.

Customisation

To customise the plugin you may want to change the number of images displayed per page or the colouring of the navigation buttons. The CSS file packaged with this plugin gives you control over the styling of these buttons.

To change the number of images per page change line 208 ($nums = 12;) in wp3_gallery.php from 12 to the number you require.

To change the sort order you should change lines 136 and 137.

Support my work

If you found this plugin useful please consider donating, tweeting about the plugin or sharing the download page with your network: http://bit.ly/i2K2JU

For vertical alignment on your website you can use the css property

. However the parent element must be set to

and should also have a set height. The item to be vertically aligned should be set to

The full html & CSS is:

And the result (with a border added) is

I’m sure you can find multiple uses for this in your web design. If you would like to see an example of where I used this see www.irelandchauffeurtravel.com. I vertically align the testimonials in the bottom right of the main image. Some testimonials have 3 lines, some 4 so I vertically align them to ensure that they fit nicely into the shaded area.



Web design takes time, but more than anything it takes a willingness on behalf of the developer to constantly improve and update their skills.

Most developers are too focused on code and neglect the fact that a website represents a business. A website is more than just an online brochure. A website should generate leads and help the business owner to interact with customers. The website should be optimised to appear in Google and other search results. These days a social media integration needs to be considered for most business websites. The website should offer customers a way of asking questions and requesting feedback. The website should offer the site owner a method of notifying customers of special offers and other news using a subscription newsletter.

If you think your website is letting you down ask yourself these questions:

1. Does my website clearly and  immediately inform the user about the products and services I offer?
2. Is my design professional, modern and clear?
3. Is my layout and navigation uncluttered and easy to use?
4. Can potential customers contact me using a web form?
5. Do I have an opt-in mailing list to let customers know about special offers?
6. How does my site stand up against my competitors (both local competitors and online competitors)?
7. Does my site perform well in the search engines with the keywords that my customers are searching for?
8. Does my site integrate with my social media accounts – Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, You Tube?
9. Does my site get a good rating on www.websitegrader.com?
10. Do I have a blog that I can update regularly?

If you answer no to one or more of these questions, your website is letting you down.

Contact us immediately for a FREE WEBSITE REVIEW. We will let you know how your website can be improved to dramatically boost your online business.

Our website comes in on page one of the Google search results for “Irish Web Design” and “Best Irish Web Design“. It also appear on page 1 of Yahoo and Bing for the same terms.

We will continue our endeavours to improve our rating for this and other search keywords  using the same methods that we offer to our customers.

How did we do it?

• By writing xHTML compliant code and making it easy for search engines to read our site content
• By ensuring that our site loads quickly for users and search engines
• By writing useful and relevant content with important keywords
• By correct use of internal links and external inbound links
• By adding the proper meta data to communicate our sites purpose to the main search engines
• By submitting our site to the search engines and making them aware of it’s existence
• By using social media to promote our site and communicate with others
• Many other small but important checks and tune-ups that combined make a major difference

We can do the same for your site. Contact us to find out how.