You don’t have to pay fortunes to achieve great exhibition solutions.

More clients want the impact of a great exhibition stand, want to stand out over and above their competitors, but don’t want the investment costs associated with a bespoke stand structure – that’s were our Hire-a-Stand comes into its own.

From a 3m x 2m shell scheme solution to a 20m x 15m with bar, reception, storage, demo and display units. Built in plasmas, literature racks, back illumination and much more. Design to fit your requirements, your branding and your objectives for a 5th of the cost.

Delivered, installed, broken down and removed – no hassle, no holes in the budget.

For more details just give us a call or drop us an email.

Get listed in Google

Posted: 12th August 2010 by Andrew in How To..., Marketing Matters
Tags: , , , ,

Hints and tips to help get your new website indexed in Google.

Launching a new website can prove difficult. At first, your website is completely unknown, you have no inbound links, and you can’t be found in the search engines. So what do you do? Williams&Crosby have launched countless websites over the years and have experimented with many different methods of quickly getting websites indexed.

Here are some of our top tips to get your new website indexed in Google…

Submit your website URL to Google
This really has to be your first priority. Google can’t index your website if it doesn’t know about it, so submitting your homepage URL is definitely the best place to start. Just make sure you only add one URL per domain (normally your homepage) otherwise it might be considered spam. Google’s crawlers will find all the other pages in your website by following internal links.

Here’s the link to submit your URL to Google:
www.google.com/addurl

Yahoo’s ‘Add URL’ function:
search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html

And Microsoft Live:
search.live.com/docs/submit.aspx

Add an XML sitemap
It can take quite some time for Google’s crawlers to index all the pages in a new website just by following links. The larger the website, the more time it can take. Adding an XML sitemap really solves this problem because it tells Google about all your pages ahead of time. If you have a large website with many pages then an XML sitemap will help indexing enormously. Easily create one automatically with an XML sitemap generator tool. The XML sitemap standard is supported by Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft so the same sitemap can be used for all three search engines.

Register with Google Webmaster Tools
Once you have created your sitemap file you have to submit it to each search engine. To add a sitemap to Google you must first register your website with Google Webmaster Tools. This website is well worth the effort, it’s completely free plus it’s loaded with invaluable information about your website ranking and indexing in Google. You’ll also find many useful reports including keyword rankings and health checks.

Create a Facebook page for your business
Another interesting thing we’ve noticed lately has to do with social websites. If you create a business page on Facebook and add some interesting content, your page tends to get picked up by Google very quickly.

Submit an article to Digg
If you submit an article to Digg or Reddit or one of the many other large social news websites, your URL tends to get picked up by Google very quickly. Typically a Digg article will appear in Google’s index after only a day or two. This is great news if you want new pages on your website to be indexed very quickly.

The down side to social news submission (if you can call it a down side) is the URL only stays in Google’s index for a few days to a week before it drops out again. After this happens it seems to be crawled as per normal, eventually appearing in the index for good after a more natural timeframe. The only exception to this rule is when an article becomes extremely popular and rises to the front page of the news website – these tend to stay in the index and not drop out at all.

Social news websites are a great way to get new websites indexed. If your site has lots of interesting content you could even find yourself on the front page so it’s well worth giving them a try.

Get listed on Google Maps
Google Places (Maps) offers businesses the opportunity to rank highly on Google local results without the cost of AdWords or an advanced search engine optimisation (SEO) campaign. The best thing about adding your site to Google Places is the fact that it is absolutely FREE!

You can sign up here, add your business (if it’s already listed you can claim it). Enter your company details, including your address, telephone, description, opening hours, payment terms and a few other things.

Established since 1986, Williams&Crosby have grown to become one of Cheshire’s leading web design & website development agencies. Our professional team have experience in all aspects of website development and programming.

Because Williams&Crosby understand Creative Design and Marketing, all our web design and website development projects are created with this in mind, built around your specific needs and what you want to achieve from your website.

From the outset, we will consider your website development requirements and work with you to achieve your whole design vision – not just in terms of aesthetics, but in functionality and ease-of-use. We will advise you of latest web technologies, capabilities and standards… all backed by our industry leading web design service.

Interested in our web design and website development services? Call Ed Williams now on 01625 666 900.

Williams&Crosby: Creative Design and Marketing, Macclesfield, Cheshire

A Fresh Approach To Wedding Photography and Wedding Videography…

Creative Weddings offer a fresh and artistic approach to wedding videography and photography, capturing stunning and vibrant memories – whether on stills or film! They guarantee to look after and guide clients through the whole process, taking on board exactly what they want and designing a package built around specific requirements, ensuring 100% satisfaction with their work.

High Definition (HD) Technology for Stunning Results!

Creative Weddings Limited were one of the first wedding video companies in the UK to introduce High Definition technology for stunning picture and sound quality.

www.creativeweddingsltd.co.uk/

An independent consultancy based in Macclesfield, Cheshire, Steve Burns Training & Consultancy help businesses of all sizes with professional ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems including implementation, consultancy, auditing, management, improvement and support.

With over 40 years experience in Quality Management, They help you increase profits, save money, enhance your credibility and gain preferred customer status. As professional consultants, Steve Burns will improve businesses performance whilst saving you money!

Steve Burns Training & Consultancy operate in Cheshire, Manchester, London and throughout the UK

http://www.iso-quality-systems.com/

As part of Prisma Colour’s drive for growth, the company continues to look towards Europe and beyond for new business opportunities.

Running alongside their existing website, the Prisma Colour ‘blog’ is helping the company strengthen business relationships across France, Germany and Sweden, whilst at the same time promoting the values and company ethos that Prisma Colour is know for throughout the World.

One of the key elements of the Prisma Colour blog is Global Translator, which translates their blog into 48 different languages – helping the company reach a much wider audience and tell the World what they do!

With their extensive knowledge of the industry and commitment to customer service, the blog allows them to keep clients right up-to-date with the latest product news whilst sharing industry expertise.

www.prismacolour.net/news

thinkleisure.co.uk, the UK’s leading website specifically created to make the selling or buying of holiday homes, caravans and all things leisure related stress-free, simple and affordable.

Working in partnership with Williams and Crosby, thinkleisure.co.uk was created by caravan and lodge owners specifically for caravan and lodge owners. Because they know how time consuming, confusing and expensive it can be to buy or sell your caravan, lodge, chalet or leisure goods, they thought there was a real need for a truly independent online leisure marketplace.

We’ve designed a site that’s incredibly easy to use, quick and affordable. When you use thinkleisure.co.uk, you’re always in control of your sale or purchase. There are no agents or middlemen – just genuine buyers and sellers.

www.thinkleisure.co.uk

The end of one decade and the start of a new one was seen as an ideal opportunity to review the past and plan the future for Cooper Solicitors, based in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.

Cooper Solicitors are delighted to introduce their new look website which celebrates a commitment to all their clients and an extension to their services with the arrival of Kate, who provides an even more complete service for wills and probate; this is a sensitive and important area and Kate brings extensive experience and understanding (many do not plan this sufficiently and very often families are left with an exposure should the unexpected occur). Kate is a member of STEP, the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners.

Cooper Solicitors have been serving clients since 1741. The innovative John Cooper, after whose family the firm is named, was a prime mover in the inauguration of the Henley Royal Regatta in 1838. Cooper Solicitors are still moving with the times providing service excellence and legal support that is “keeping you ahead”.

Cooper Solicitors try to provide helpful, friendly and understandable legal advice at a competitive price. They are one of the top legal firms in Oxfordshire, and provide a national and international service, if required.

Visit the Cooper Solicitors website

Blogging for business

Posted: 8th July 2010 by Andrew in Design Matters
Tags: , , , ,

If you haven’t set up a business blog yet, now is a good time to consider doing so – they are a simple and affordable way to promote your business, as well as your website.

For some businesses, blogs are perfect for offering insider tips and sharing your expertise, whilst for others its a great way to involve customers in the buying experience by either discussing products or topics pertinent to your business or by simply keeping them updated on company news in a more personal way.

A blog is a different from a traditional website in that it is more like an online journal where the blog owner posts short messages on a semi regular basis.

By posting details of new products and any changes you make to your website / online shop to your blog and adding links back to your site, you can feed customers to new content before the site changes have been indexed in Google and other major search engines.

Here are a few ideas about why blogs are good for businesses:

  • They are less formal and are more open ways to communicate with customers and thought leaders in your business community.
  • The speedy, easy format of the blog makes it very easy to publish a lot of content on many different pages. Search engines love lots of new content with lots of internal links.
  • You can create links easily back to your web site if you leave very intelligent and useful comments on other people’s blogs.

Talk to Williams and Crosby and find out more about successful business blogging.