There’s been a lot of comment online about Google’s update to its search engine algorithm (the formula it uses to rank websites in search). Every few years Google does a major update to the algorithm – no doubt making changes that are aligned with its overall goal of providing its users with the best search results possible , while also ‘not being evil’ (see http://www.google.co.nz/about/company/philosophy/ for Google’s business philosophy). Now with some of the recent coverage in the media, one might think non-mobile sites will be disappearing in all of the search engine results overnight – which would be a)…
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Creating the content for your website can be a challenging task as it’s often difficult to know what’s important and where to start. To help you out, I’ve put together this guideline with some helpful website content writing tips. Some quick website content writing tips: Put the most important information at the top of the website People skim read websites, so make your content easy to read by using short paragraphs, and informative headings to separate content sections Use bullet points to emphasise key areas about your business, but keep the bullet points to around 7 items Start by describing…
Read MoreBeing consistent and persistent is a little maxim I have developed for updating my website. It’s a simple philosophy I apply to my design and content. Like everyone else in business, I’m busy doing the work that makes me money and I can easily let months go by without updating my own website or publishing a new blog post. I’m so preoccupied with creating other people’s websites that mine gets neglected. After a longish period of not paying sufficient attention to my own website, new business enquiries tail off and my rankings in Google being to suffer. So here are…
Read MoreIt’s never a good moment when you realise your website has gone off-line, especially if you are not sure how long it’s been down. Most people don’t visit their own website everyday, and unless they have a site monitoring system set up, weeks can go by with the website being down and no one noticing other than people trying to access it and getting no reply. So just how can websites ‘accidentally’ go off-line? In my experience, websites usually go off-line for very simple and avoidable reasons, these include: The domain name registration expired The domain name records were altered…
Read MoreWhenever you update your WordPress installation or any of the plugins via the WordPress dashboard, the website goes into ‘maintenance mode’ with a message displayed saying “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute.” Maintenance mode is fine if it’s just for a minute, but if you’ve upgraded a plugin or WordPress and the message is still there, you can even find yourself locked out of the WordPress dashboard and instead of a website visitors get the maintenance message. Not good. The recommended solution (and this has worked for me) is to connect via FTP to the root…
Read MoreIf you have ever viewed a traditional website on a smart phone and had to zoom in and out to read the content, then you have been to a website that is not ‘responsive’. If on the other hand, the content displayed perfectly on your smart phone without any need to scroll horizontally or zoom, then the site was responsive. A responsive or adaptive ‘mobile friendly’ website is fast becoming a necessity into today’s online world. “More than 2.23 billion people worldwide, or 48.9% of mobile phone users, will go online via mobile at least monthly in 2014. Read more…
Read MoreIt really is a case of ‘buyer beware’ when purchasing domain names and services online. What can look like a great cost-saving, can in fact end up costing you more money in the long run. This is particularly the case if you use an overseas registration service for your domain name. I was recently asked to forward two new domain names to an existing website. But I was stopped in my tracks fairly quickly when I discovered I could not set up a web forward without activating ‘DNS Management’ at an additional cost. The actual domain name registration cost advertised…
Read MoreAs I write this blog post, it is 11.42am. I’ve just completed my morning’s admin, and finished off the final writing and SEO for a website. It occurred to me, that I should spend the next 15 minutes writing a blog post to see just how far I could get with completing and publishing a blog post. Why would I want to do this you might be wondering? Well, blog writing is hard work. It can take up a lot of time. But it occurred to me, that within 15 minutes of talking to a client or a prospective client…
Read MoreMany search results in Google now include an image of the author of the website or a blog post. If this is something you’ve noticed and wondered about, then this blog post is for you. I’ll explain what it is, why it’s beneficial and how you can add your image to your search results.
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Though the process of registering a domain name is quite straight forward there are a few things you need to be aware of. These are things that I keep coming across in my day to day working life as a web designer in New Zealand
Read MoreWe put a new website live today for Tudor Manor – a Christchurch beauty therapy clinic. They also provide massage therapy and Bowen therapy. You can view the website online at www.christchurchbeautytherapy.co.nz
Read MoreWe are excited to put the new website live for Yogamani – an Auckland marriage celebrant. Yogamani came to Web Matters for a new website after a recommendation from another Web Matters client. Yogamani was looking for a clean and minimal design that would truly reflect her personality and professionalism. You can view the website and learn more about Yogamani at www.aucklandmarriagecelebrant.co.nz
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Hi, welcome to the blog, I hope you find the information helpful. The blog posts are written for website owners who are looking to get the most out of their websites and online marketing. There are also many articles answering common WordPress and website issues.