UK online shoppers will spend £.6.25 billion on groceries a year by 2010, an increase of 235% over last year, this was from a study by PayPal. Research by the online payment firm suggested that us Brits will spend £39 billion online with the grocery sector dominating the market. The rise will be fueled by the increasing rise of 24.9 million internet shoppers. Carl Olav Scheible, head of merchant services at PayPal said: “Over the past few years, we’ve seen the internet gradually eating away at the high street”. DIY firms are expected to take in £1.2 billion, clothing and shoes will make £2.27 billion and the online market for electrical goods, is expected to be worth £4.6 billion with the popularity of mp3 players, mobile phones, game consoles, digital cameras and flat screen HD televisions.

Shops will never die out though as there are times when a shop beats buying something online. Most websites now give free postage but that means it will take a good few days to arrive as long as they have it in stock. If you suddenly decide you want a film on a Saturday for the evening then you will have to buy it from a local shop, regarding buying groceries online most people like to pick the best bunch of banana’s for example which you can not do online. There is no way you could buy a car online without looking at it first as you will want to take it for a test drive, if it is second hand then you will need to check out the condition and make sure it is all legit (even though people do buy cars through internet auction sites without viewing them- not to be advised!) You do have to be careful with what you are buying as a website is just a front and you do not know what is behind the scenes, only buy from trusted websites and if something is too good to be true then it probably is, as watchdog have looked into eBay and Amazon recently with sellers selling replica goods or even items that do not exist.

I am glad the way the internet shopping is going as I love searching for films available to buy on DVD and there will always be a website with some sort of special offer as it is more competitive than buying locally. Personally I probably shop 50/50.

You better lose yourself in the design, the moment
You owe it, you better not make it look bad
You only get four hours, do not get designers block
This web designers block comes once every so often

Step 1

The first item on your list will need to be a Macintosh computer, preferably an Imac with a 24-inch screen or a Mac Pro with 24-inch Cinema Display.

Step 2

The second item will be the software they require to design and build their websites; this will be Adobe Creative Suite 4 (CS4), there are 3 packages that you can choose from and these are the Master Collection, Design Premium and Web Premium.

As long as you have followed this guide, you are going to make one web designer very happy this Christmas.  I hope you found this step-by-step guide helpful and it gives you an idea of what to get someone if they’re a web designer this Christmas.

Instead of using dated site maps and search bars, SEO gives you the tools to browse any site, effortlessly and hassle free.

The question is, why don’t more sites use this ingenious idea?

Many, for instance have simply not understood what can be achieved. The benefits are extremely positive. Many websites that have used this process have achieved an increased amount of traffic and a higher page rank.

Tip: Optimising for various keywords greatly increases your site’s chances of being listed first in search engines.

So, what is a keyword?

A keyword is simply text used to describe what you are looking for. For example, ‘Air Conditioning Services’ or, using a national keyword, ‘Air Conditioning, Milton Keynes’. Either way, a keyword allows you to define exactly what you are looking for, the location and more. Adding a keyword into Google will determine how many sites fall under this and which are featured to have the most traffic. The website featured at the top of the search will usually have the most traffic and highest page rank.

The page rank is what Google considers to be the structure of your site. Google will take into consideration how keyword-rich a website is, the functionality and even how grammatically correct the text is. If, for instance, your site includes spam or too many keywords, Google will automatically pick up on this and will lower your page rank.

Proven studies have shown that the user will trust a site based on how well it ranks. If they see that a website is coming up first in a search engine, they are more likely to trust this site and will continue to use it in the future.

SEO and Future Developments

SEO is forever changing. Just as website design has evolved, now search engine optimisation is fast approaching. During the 1990’s SEO had only just been introduced and with the added bonus of search engines, designers were not sure how to implement this into websites. With the launch of Google, Yahoo! and MSN, SEO became more recognized and more accessible. In today’s hectic lifestyle, users do not want the added stress of browsing for services or information; not knowing if the site is to be trusted. Instead, they want an easy and effective system to tell them what sites are popular and the most beneficial.

At Creare, we try to implement RSS into the sites we develop as we feel this will benefit the company’s traffic and overall functionality. If customers are kept well informed of sales or upcoming products, then this will surely increase the company’s traffic thus giving a better page rank. With any website, we would encourage this application. RSS is a simple yet effective source of information.

If you would like to get your website designed by a company who keep up with the seasons as well as using our designers to create ultra modern, cutting edge web design that works for you then give us a call to see what we can get you for Christmas!

Only 21 days to go!

If you have a site and you are not getting any enquiries or phone calls, then it is time to thing about what you can do about it; maybe your website needs a new design as having a well-designed site does play an important part, as people will tend to spend longer looking around it then if it was badly designed.  Or you may need to think about search engine optimisation (SEO).

Think about what people will search for in the search engines (Google, Yahoo and MSN) to find what they are after; if you do not come up then you won’t get the business. For your SEO to work it is important to think about what people will search for in the search engines to find your business.

So what are the responsibilities of a designer and the direction that they take, whether its for the web or printed design you must first consider the viewer, your audiences, the people you are going to directly communicate to. Considering this means to consider everyone any possible person that may view your design. You have to design for all, also known as universal design and inclusive design, meaning that when developing these products and environments that they are accessible to the largest number of people possible, regardless of age and ability.

To design a web site in user-friendly tones, presenting all information and removing unnecessary details isn’t easy. In fact, many designers and myself occasionally don’t manage to find the right mix between details and the presentation on the screen, which usually results in an information overkill and/or decreased usability.

What should be said when thinking of design responsibilities in a commercial sense is that most of its design only communicates to a small audience and is more specific to the client rather than the vast majority of viewers. The designer is restricted to the elements of the client striped of most design possibilities, we may lack the understanding of the client’s environment but we know how to communicate to a vast audience. Shouldn’t the design communicate to the likes of people that have never needed to purchase new flooring or have windows and doors fitted. The design must fulfil an element of design aesthetic perfection to a be established in a universal language that communicates to the majority of people regardless of what it sales.

When performing a spoken presentation, it is said that the message is composed of 60% body language, 10% speech and 30% tone of voice.

If this were to be at least partially true for web design, we could say that on the web, a message is composed of 60% design, 10% actual content and 30% writing style.

I believe that the content is the absolute of your designs success. Even though a seemingly brilliantly written text easily disappears if placed in a shockingly designed environment, and excels when appearing in a well-designed context.

The best designs are simple, because they contain no unnecessary elements… and contain the necessary elements in a way that seems logical.

People are desperately making cut backs - not using heating, eating out less, spending less on clothes, not using their car as much. Those severely affected, who have lost their jobs, their businesses, or even lost everything are distraught, and there doesn’t seem to be anything in place to help.

I know a few people who have been affected by the credit crunch, people who have worked hard all their lives and suddenly lost their job / business through no fault of their own. Their whole lives have been tipped upside down and there are not even enough jobs for everyone, some industries have even collapsed completely.

Unfortunately there is nothing we can do apart from wait it out and hope that those with that little bit more money will spend.

What are people doing to help with the credit crunch?

At present the government are reducing tax by 2.5% down to 15% to try and get us to spend. As much as this sounds good, and every little helps, this is 2.5p off every one pound. Petrol and Diesel prices have gone down by over 20p in the last few months and supermarkets will soon be at price wars with each other over food prices.

Survival of the fittest

Companies are now in severe competition with each other, it is now down to survival of the fittest.

Many companies have turned to Creare in hope to get more business through Search Engine Marketing. For those of you who have a business currently struggling, or are worried this will be the case in the future, Creare can help your company by marketing you on the web to get those enquiries in.

Please enquire about our web design and search engine optimisation to find out how we can help.

Flash sites can look really good but they are penalised when it comes to search engines and SEO. Flash sites miss out on important html tags, deep linking, and unique url’s which search engines use to rank and index a site.  They are much slower to load and if you don’t have flash player installed on your computer then you will need to download it before you can view the site.

Flash sites are not very visitor friendly, for example the back button will take you back to the last page you where on before you entered the site or it will have been disabled, also you cannot highlight important information that you require like there contact details.