Working in the computing industry in some form can be an exciting career which can be well paid and have good prospects for promotion. One of the roles that are in demand at the moment is that of a website designer. There are differences between the role of a web designer and a web developer and although often there is some crossover between the two roles they have distinct differences, but both are necessary for a successful website. A web designer is responsible for the appearance of the website, the design and layout of the pages and its attractiveness to the visitor. On the other hand, a web developer’s role is about the functionality of the site and the coding that makes the web designer’s ideas become reality. It is not always essential to have a formal degree qualification to have a career as a web designer as there are roles available for trainees who can learn on the job. Apprenticeships which are sometimes offered... Read More »
Are you getting carried away with creativity?
If you are a web design then you may think that your creativity is the most essential skill you can have and this may be true but can you have too much and can it actually hamper how do you do your job? It is of course vital to have a creative streak when you are a designer of any sort but being over creative can take away from the main purpose of the website and you could end up over complicating it. Sometimes the old phrase that less is more is still true and over complicating your design may actually put visitors off. It is important to understand you are not just designing websites that you like or even your client likes, but for the users of the website. There is no point in having an all singing all dancing quirky web design that puts your visitors off and does not convert visitors in to sales or enquiries. The general public makes assumptions of... Read More »
Bettering yourself as a web developer
It used to be that to be a web developer you needed to know how to code often in several different languages (computer programming languages that is) but now a days there are so many programs and help guides out there that you don’t need to know it all to be a great developer. As a developer you need to take the time to learn about your clients business to be able to advise them accordingly. If you are self-employed or setting up a business, you will need to know how to sell your web design / programming services and how to appeal to the types of customers you want to attract. You need to know what it is they actually need rather than just what they think they want. Marketing is such a major part of how successful a website is that to be a good programmer you need to be good at marketing too or at least work very closely with someone that... Read More »
How paid for advertising can help drive traffic to your website
There are a few different forms of Pay per Click advertising. It is essentially where you create an ad and pay to advertise it on platforms such as Google, Bing, Facebook or LinkedIn for example. It is is a form of online marketing which can work extremely well for many businesses. Companies such as Google, Yahoo and Facebook all have a Pay per Click service which you can use which promises to help drive traffic to your website or back to your social media pages. The more specific you are with your keywords and ads the better quality of traffic you will receive. Try and ensure that your ad is set to only show to people who may be interested in and are in the correct location. This may result in lower clicks but that is not a bad thing as the visitors to your site will be more likely to find the product or service they want – therefore increasing your conversion rate. The... Read More »
Is your website falling down the search engines?
If you are the owner of a website, it is important that you keep an eye on what is happening with the site. You should try and track your rankings for your most important keywords and you can either do this manually or you can use one of the many different types of software that can do this on an automated basis for you. You may find that your rankings move up and down a bit weekly anyway but if you start to notice that some or all of your rankings are starting to drop week on week then you may need to start doing some investigation work. If you have a web marketing agency that you work with on a regular basis, then they will be able to look into this and advise you on what they believe has happened. If not, then you may wish to approach one who can tell you what you need to do to get it going in the... Read More »