• Social Media integration
• User login area
• Contact Form with validation and anti spam protection
• Advanced SEO, keword research and site submission
• Testimonials page
• Google Maps

It allows users to register and login to leave wedding vendors an advanced star rating review. The site has a whole host of features, such as: -

• Social Media integration
• User login and registration system
• Advanced star rating review system
• Multiple contact forms and sign up forms
• Contact Form with validation and anti spam protection
• Logo Design
• Advanced SEO, keword research and site submission
• Advanced Galleries
• Email marketing

So if your looking to get married this is the perfect site for you, as you will be able to view wedding businesses and find the right vendor to make your wedding that extra bit special.

It allows users to register and login to leave wedding vendors an advanced star rating review. The site has a whole host of features, such as: -

• Social Media integration
• User login and registration system
• Advanced star rating review system
• Multiple contact forms and sign up forms
• Contact Form with validation and anti spam protection
• Logo Design
• Advanced SEO, keword research and site submission
• Advanced Galleries
• Email marketing

So if your looking to get married this is the perfect site for you, as you will be able to view wedding businesses and find the right vendor to make your wedding that extra bit special.

The website makes use of a Content Management System so it allows the client to update, add and delete any information or pages on their website. It includes these great features: -

• Social Media integration
• Online Training System
• Secure Client Portal
• Advanced Video and Image Portfolio’s
• Contact Form with validation and anti spam protection
• Logo Design
• Testimonials
• Advanced SEO, keword research and site submission
• Advanced Galleries

• Social Media Integration
• Interactive Google Map
• Contact Form with Validation and Anti-Spam protection
• Google Analytics
• Logo Design
• Advanced Galleries
• SEO, Site submission, keyword research

This website is a basic static website, which includes the following: –

• Social Media integration
• Contact Form with validation and anti spam protection
• Advanced Image Gallery and Portfolio area.
• Advanced SEO, keword research and site submission

This website is a basic static website, which includes the following: –

• Social Media integration
• Contact Form with validation and anti spam protection
• Logo Design
• Advanced SEO, keword research and site submission

After years of promoting PB Web Design my site has finally been granted enhanced status by Google. What does that mean? Not a lot really but I now get shiny new sitelinks underneath my organic Google listing.

For more information on sitelinks check out the article below by Jonathan Hochman (original article can be found here).

How To Get Google Site Links

by Jonathan Hochman
http://www.hochmanconsultants.com/articles/sitelinks.shtml

In 2005 Google started experimenting with an enhanced listing in their natural search results that can increase a site’s visibility and reputation, and provide more traffic. For a long time we didn’t know what to call these deluxe listings, but now we do. On September 7, 2006, Google’s sitemap guru, Vanessa Fox, wrote a blog entry titled Information about Sitelinks. She explained that Sitelinks are generated automatically, and that Sitelinks are designed to provide searchers with more valuable search results. Fox also said that Google will be expanding the Sitelinks program. Since then we’ve been getting many questions from webmaster interested to know how they can get a Sitelinks listing.

Here’s an example of a Sitelinks listing. On a Google search for the keyword “IntelliTrack,” beneath the main search result, we see links to various areas of the IntelliTrack web site. This would help a searcher in two ways: they can get a better understanding of what the site is about before they visit, and they can take a shortcut from Google to the topic that interests them.

Only the best sites seem to get Sitelinks. Virtually all of the webmasters I’ve spoken with feel that Sitelinks enhance a web site’s visibility and reputation.

Google Doesn’t Say How To Get Sitelinks

The workings of many Google algorithms, including Sitelinks, are kept secret to discourage people from manipulating the rankings, but we can still look at examples and try to understand where Sitelinks come from. I’ve worked on a number of sites with Sitelinks, and these sites are similar in the following ways:

• Site ranks first for the keyword(s) that generate the Sitelinks listing
• Easily spiderable, structured navigation
• Fairly high natural search traffic
• High click through rates from the search results page
• Useful outbound links
• Inbound links from high quality sitesSite age is several years or older

These factors may, or may not, be exactly what Google uses to trigger Sitelinks. Nevertheless, everything on this list is desirable for a web marketing program, so using the list to guide our strategy will probably help our sites become more effective in any case.

What Signals Does Google Use For The Sitelinks Algorithm?

Again, we do not know for sure, but we can deduce some of the signals by looking at Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and by studying the Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Google’s Webmaster Guidelines say, in the first item under design and content guidelines, “Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links.” That’s good advice for several reasons. A clear navigation hierarchy is good for visitors and helps search engines understand the topic of each page. Google can’t create sitelinks if it can’t fix the meaning of the sub-pages, either by analysis or by observing visitor behaviour.

We know that Google search results pages (SERPs) contain links with tracking info, and that many users have Google accounts, so Google can watch their behavior over time. Google isn’t expending resources to do all this tracking without reason. We can safely assume that Google will somehow use all that data to improve their search results, and possibly to deliver new features like Sitelinks.

If I were Google, I’d be very interested to know which search results have above-average click through rates for particular keywords. I’d also like to know if searchers were happy with my search results. If too many searchers choose a listing and then return to the SERP, that could indicate a poor quality search result. All this information is collected automatically, providing a scalable way to identify search spam, and the opposite, search “gems.” A search gem with significant search volume would be the ideal candidates for a Sitelinks listing.

Things We Can Do To Improve The Odds Of Getting Sitelinks

While we can only make educated guesses, we may as well do things that are also good for Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and user experience. Even if our guesses are off, we won’t be wasting effort with these recommendations:

Create structured navigation using HTML features like unordered lists (UL) and text links. Use CSS to style menus with the desired appearance. Lists can be displayed horizontally or vertically, and be any size or colour. We can add background images, colors and border to create the appearance of a box or button. All this can be done with text links.

Organize navigation to present a smallish number of logical destinations that visitors will choose frequently. Don’t overwhelm the visitor with too many choices on the main menu. If necessary, add second level menu items using CSS hover menus.

Brand the web site with a unique name. If the name is too generic, no matter what we do, the click through rates on natural search may not be very good, because the user will have too many choices on the SERP for similarly named sites. Google probably won’t give Sitelinks to a site that is just average for a particular search term. We want to be the overwhelming first choice.

Add really useful titles and META descriptions to the site, especially the home page, to improve click through rates from the SERP. Make sure the meta information is accurate to avoid misleading searchers. We don’t want people to bounce off the site because it fails to meet their expectations.

Make the site really useful. Even if the site’s information is not exactly what the visitor wants, if we provide useful outbound links throughout the site, the visitor may browse to another site rather than returning to the SERP. (See my article, Don’t Be a Link Miser.) Remember, Google can tell if a searcher bounces back to the SERP, and that’s probably not a good thing for a site’s reputation.

Sitelinks Vs Spam

Even unsophisticated web users recognize Sitelinks, and most of them feel that they signify an important site. Sitelinks sites are the opposite of search spam, and thus, Sitelinks are highly desirable for the savvy webmaster.

Latest News About Sitelinks

On December 21, 2006, the US Patent and Trademark Office published a patent application by Google that describes the process of selecting internal links to display within the search results. A good overview of this patent is presented in William Slawski’s article, Google’s Listings of Internal Site Links for Top Search Results. What Google applies for in the patent may or may not be what they actually use in practice. The article tends to confirm my suspicions that user behavior plays an important role in selecting Sitelinks.

• Website Design Warrington
• Web Design Warrington
• Web Developer Warrington
• PB Web Design
• PB Web Design Warrington

The exact process will vary slightly from designer to designer, but the basics are generally the same.

1. Information Gathering
2. Planning
3. Design
4. Development
5. Testing and Delivery
6. Maintenance

Phase One: Information Gathering

The first step in designing a successful web site is to gather information. Many things need to be taken into consideration when the look and feel of your site is created.

This first step is actually the most important one, as it involves a solid understanding of the company it is created for. It involves a good understanding of you – what your business goals and dreams are, and how the web can be utilized to help you achieve those goals.

It is important that your web designer start off by asking a lot of questions to help them understand your business and your needs in a web site.

Certain things to consider are:

Purpose
What is the purpose of the site? Do you want to provide information, promote a service, sell a product… ?

Goals
What do you hope to accomplish by building this web site? Two of the more common goals are either to make money or share information.

Target Audience
Is there a specific group of people that will help you reach your goals? It is helpful to picture the “ideal” person you want to visit your web site. Consider their age, sex or interests – this will later help determine the best design style for your site.

Content
What kind of information will the target audience be looking for on your site? Are they looking for specific information, a particular product or service.

Phase Two: Planning

Using the information gathered from phase one, it is time to put together a plan for your web site. This is the point where a site map is developed.

The site map is a list of all main topic areas of the site, as well as sub-topics, if applicable. This serves as a guide as to what content will be on the site, and is essential to developing a consistent, easy to understand navigational system. The end-user of the web site – aka your customer – must be kept in mind when designing your site. These are, after all, the people who will be learning about your service or buying your product. A good user interface creates an easy to navigate web site, and is the basis for this.

During the planning phase, your web designer will also help you decide what technologies should be implemented. Elements such as interactive forms, ecommerce, flash, etc. are discussed when planning your web site.

Phase Three: Design

Drawing from the information gathered up to this point, it’s time to determine the look and feel of your site.

Target audience is one of the key factors taken into consideration. A site aimed at teenagers, for example, will look much different than one meant for a financial institution. As part of the design phase, it is also important to incorporate elements such as the company logo or colors to help strengthen the identity of your company on the web site.

Your web designer will create one or more prototype designs for your web site. This is typically a .jpg image of what the final design will look like. Often times you will be sent an email with the mock-ups for your web site, while other designers take it a step further by giving you access to a secure area of their web site meant for customers to view work in progress.

Either way, your designer should allow you to view your project throughout the design and development stages. The most important reason for this is that it gives you the opportunity to express your likes and dislikes on the site design.

In this phase, communication between both you and your designer is crucial to ensure that the final web site will match your needs and taste. It is important that you work closely with your designer, exchanging ideas, until you arrive at the final design for your web site.

Then development can begin…

Phase Four: Development

The developmental stage is the point where the web site itself is created. At this time, your web designer will take all of the individual graphic elements from the prototype and use them to create the actual, functional site.

This is typically done by first developing the home page, followed by a “shell” for the interior pages. The shell serves as a template for the content pages of your site, as it contains the main navigational structure for the web site. Once the shell has been created, your designer will take your content and distribute it throughout the site, in the appropriate areas.

Elements such as interactive contact forms, flash animations or ecommerce shopping carts are implemented and made functional during this phase, as well.

This entire time, your designer should continue to make your in-progress web site available to you for viewing, so that you can suggest any additional changes or corrections you would like to have done.

On the technical front, a successful web site requires an understanding of front-end web development. This involves writing valid XHTML / CSS code that complies to current web standards, maximizing functionality, as well as accessibility for as large an audience as possible.

This is tested in the next phase…

Phase Five: Testing and Delivery

At this point, your web designer will attend to the final details and test your web site. They will test things such as the complete functionality of forms or other scripts, as well last testing for last minute compatibility issues (viewing differences between different web browsers), ensuring that your web site is optimized to be viewed properly in the most recent browser versions.

A good web designer is one who is well versed in current standards for web site design and development. The basic technologies currently used are XHTML and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). As part of testing, your designer should check to be sure that all of the code written for your web site validates. Valid code means that your site meets the current web development standards – this is helpful when checking for issues such as cross-browser compatibility as mentioned above.

Once you give your web designer final approval, it is time to deliver the site. An FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program is used to upload the web site files to your server. Most web designers offer domain name registration and web hosting services as well. Once these accounts have been setup, and your web site uploaded to the server, the site should be put through one last run-through. This is just precautionary, to confirm that all files have been uploaded correctly, and that the site continues to be fully functional.

This marks the official launch of your site, as it is now viewable to the public.

Phase Six: Maintenance

The development of your web site is not necessarily over, though. One way to bring repeat visitors to your site is to offer new content or products on a regular basis. Most web designers will be more than happy to continue working together with you, to update the information on your web site. Many designers offer maintenance packages at reduced rates, based on how often you anticipate making changes or additions to your web site.

If you prefer to be more hands on, and update your own content, there is something called a CMS (Content Management System) that can be implemented to your web site. This is something that would be decided upon during the Planning stage. With a CMS, your designer will utilize online software to develop a database driven site for you.

A web site driven by a CMS gives you the ability to edit the content areas of the web site yourself. You are given access to a back-end administrative area, where you can use an online text editor (similar to a mini version of Microsoft Word). You’ll be able to edit existing content this way, or if you are feeling more adventurous, you can even add new pages and content yourself. The possibilities are endless!

It’s really up to you as far as how comfortable you feel as far as updating your own web site. Some people prefer to have all the control so that they can make updates to their own web site the minute they decide to do so. Others prefer to hand off the web site entirely, as they have enough tasks on-hand that are more important for them to handle directly.

That’s where the help of a your web designer comes in, once again, as they can take over the web site maintenance for you – one less thing for you to do is always a good thing in these busy times!

Other maintenance type items include SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SES (Search Engine Submission). This is the optimization of you web site with elements such as title, description and keyword tags which help your web site achieve higher rankings in the search engines. The previously mentioned code validation is something that plays a vital role in SEO, as well.