Customer Street and UFindUs Web Design

Here at Customer Street we are also responsible for the UFindUs Local Business Directory.

UFindUs is one of the 3 directories that are managed here and we continually push for more traffic to these directories. The other 2 directories are MoreUK and Smile Local.

Each month we monitor all our directories very closly for search engine rankings, unique hits, returning visitors, page views and more. This is so that we can analysis and plan successfully as we want top rankings to promote our clients as best as possible.

Just to give you an idea here are some stats comparing December 07 to Janurary 08

UFindUs - Visits up by 48.58%

Smile Local - Visits up by 147.22%

More UK - Visits up by 84.20%

If you would like your business listed on some of the best UK Business Directories then please call 0845 338 0500.

As an employee of Customer Street I need to keep up to date with all the latest design techniques. The best way I have found to do this is to regularly read web design articles and look at some of the best web designs on CSS Galleries.

One common mistake a handful of ‘wanna be’ web designer have is to blatently copy someone elses work. This is where they take a copy of someone elses website, change the logo and content, and then try to pass it off as their own. I’ve seen some really extreme copies where they don’t even change the logo !

Have a look at these screen shots

I can understand using certain ideas from other websites as I do it myself, but I only ever use ideas from other websites if I can rebuild them and call them my own.

Remember: There is INSPIRATION and there is just COPYING. Don’t fall in the trap !

Customer Street Web Design Advice on error messages.

The 404 error is the most common error you will see on the internet. This is ther error that says ‘Page can not be displayed / found’. Check you are connected to the internet etc….

A lot of websites now customize these error pages and depending on your host is can be really easy to do. The problem is that I’ve seen websites that say things like

‘You’ve obviously typed in the wrong address’

I’ve also seen websites say things like ‘learn to type’ and even call people ’stupid’.

The best thing to do is to assume that it is your fault that they have received this error. It’s fine to insult a breif explanation to say something like ‘the page has moved or no longer exsists’.

You can also help by adding a search box on the error page, an email link or even a small contact form. This will reassure your visitors that you are trying to look after them.

Customer Street advice on your website at Christmas and other holidays.

It’s probably the biggest mistake I have ever seen with websites is when the websites are turned off and replaces with a message saying something like.

Our business is now closed for the Christmas break. We will reopen on the 2nd Jan.

Merry Chrsitmas

What use is this ???

Your customers will still be using the internet over the Christmas break. Afterall almost everyone is off work and computers are used heavily. From kids wanting to spend their Christmas money to others getting in touch with family and friends at the festive time.

If your potential customers can not see your website they can not buy from you (if you have an online shop) and they can not see information about your either.

From a search engine point of view, doing this could seriously harm your rankings. If Google comes along and sees a message saying ‘Merry Christmas’ and your website has disappeared then it may remove you from the index. Don’t say it won’t happen because it has already happened to businesses before.

The customer advisors at Customer Street are experts in domain name registrations and can be contact on 0845 338 0500.

When you’re looking for a new domain name you need to be thinking very logically. For higher rankings on search engines you are best buying a domain name that contains the keywords / phrases you want to get found for.

So let’s say you want to get found for ‘web designer‘. You may register something like www.webdesignersregister.com

Another example may be if you want to get found for ‘graphic designer‘. You may register a similar domain name to www.graphicdesignerfinder.com

These ‘generic’ domain names generate a higher responce on the search engines compared to domain names that do not contain your keyword phrases.

You also need to pay particular attention to the suffix of your domain name and choose this carefully. Buy the correct suffix depending on your target market.

If you want an international responce to your website then you would be better off with a .com, if you want a UK responce you should think UK. Ask yourself, Will my company go international at some point. If so then go for a .com.