We at Link are a professional, family run business. We provide both Domestic and Commercial Scaffolding solutions to companies and homes across the United Kingdom, specialising in the areas of South Wales &South Yorkshire.
With experience in the industrial industry you are sure to find the services you require.
All our work complies with required health and safety regulations and also complies with the SG4:05 booklet.
We ensure our entire workforce is CITB trained and Public Liability Insurance is £5 million, ensuring a safe working environment for everyone involved.
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
The Cost to Build a Website
The internet has become more popular than ever. Everyone seems to be using it. Many people use it to communicate with their family and friends. They also use it to share stories through blogs. They also use it as a means of entertainment - listening to music, watching videos and playing games. With the increasing popularity of the web, many businesses, especially large ones, have created their own website. With it, they can provide more information about their business to many people. Businesses advertise in the internet for many reasons. First of all, the internet is available 24/7, so they can give out information to their potential customers anytime of the day. So if you have your own business, and want to expand or earn more, then having a website is what you need. But before building a website, you must first know the cost to build a website.
There are many factors that affect the cost to build a website. First of all, the initial costs. Websites are written using a language known as HTML. If you can't bother learning it, then hiring a web designer is your first option. But the problem here is that hiring a web designer costs a lot, so you should only choose this option if you can afford it. If not, you should try learning how to make a website through HTML yourself. Another option you can choose is to make use of a program that helps you design a website easily without learning how to make it in HTML. Adobe Dreamweaver is one of the best programs out there, and it costs $399. You may also try using a free application on http://kompozer.net. Some websites offer free web design templates that you can edit. Microsoft also offers free websites for small businesses. Yahoo.com also offers website development, with various packages that have a price range from $39.95 to $299.95.
Another factor is the feature that your website needs. If you need a commercial website that sells products online, then be prepared to pay more. Why? First of all, the products you sell should be photographed and uploaded to the server. It will take much time especially if you have a lot of products to sell. The products should also contain information like retail cost and shipping costs. You would also need the shopping cart technology. This technology helps users choose and place the products you sell in a virtual cart that will sum up the cost of their purchase. This technology will need a database that will keep the customer information and keep track of the products they've purchased. And since you are selling products online, the best payment option is through credit card. You will need to pay for merchant services to process the transactions. Setting up the service could cost you about $50 to $200. You also need to pay a monthly fee of $30. These are all the factors that influence the cost to build a website. Make sure you choose the right methods to make your website that will fit your budget.
There are many factors that affect the cost to build a website. First of all, the initial costs. Websites are written using a language known as HTML. If you can't bother learning it, then hiring a web designer is your first option. But the problem here is that hiring a web designer costs a lot, so you should only choose this option if you can afford it. If not, you should try learning how to make a website through HTML yourself. Another option you can choose is to make use of a program that helps you design a website easily without learning how to make it in HTML. Adobe Dreamweaver is one of the best programs out there, and it costs $399. You may also try using a free application on http://kompozer.net. Some websites offer free web design templates that you can edit. Microsoft also offers free websites for small businesses. Yahoo.com also offers website development, with various packages that have a price range from $39.95 to $299.95.
Another factor is the feature that your website needs. If you need a commercial website that sells products online, then be prepared to pay more. Why? First of all, the products you sell should be photographed and uploaded to the server. It will take much time especially if you have a lot of products to sell. The products should also contain information like retail cost and shipping costs. You would also need the shopping cart technology. This technology helps users choose and place the products you sell in a virtual cart that will sum up the cost of their purchase. This technology will need a database that will keep the customer information and keep track of the products they've purchased. And since you are selling products online, the best payment option is through credit card. You will need to pay for merchant services to process the transactions. Setting up the service could cost you about $50 to $200. You also need to pay a monthly fee of $30. These are all the factors that influence the cost to build a website. Make sure you choose the right methods to make your website that will fit your budget.
Friday, 5 March 2010
Top Five Ways of Choosing the Best SEO Company
Search engine optimization is basically a web portal that is formed with the special attitude of showing up in the higher search engine results at the same time when an accurate keyword is looked up. Any of the talented SEO Companies allow an internet surfer to uncover the website on the first page of the search engine page, so that the surfer will easily reach on his or her desired website by typing the exact keywords. Many of the SEO firms make very big claims in front of the website owners about their level of proficiency.
They state that they have got higher ranking of websites in the topmost search engines sites such as Google or Yahoo within a few days. It is very important to select a good and the reputed SEO firm for the website in order to generate more and more traffic. Some of the tips are given below that will surely help you to choose the best one for your web portal. Five tips for choosing an SEO company are as follows:
1. Take advice from others: Finding an appropriate SEO that is familiar with the related industry can be an advantage for the website owner. An owner should take the suggestions from the professional of the trade organization.
2. Identifying the comfort area: Many of the business men's prefer to hire such companies where they can meet the company owner face to face and can easily solve the problem.
3. Check the web portal: Once you have made a list of reputed firms, just go through their websites carefully. You will get a whole idea as how they do their business.
4. Get in touch with every firm: It is very boring but make sure that you should be in contact with at least three or more SEO companies. It will be a good idea for you to choose the best one as per the need.
5. Contact the companies: After searching and selecting the company, you can contact them easily.
They state that they have got higher ranking of websites in the topmost search engines sites such as Google or Yahoo within a few days. It is very important to select a good and the reputed SEO firm for the website in order to generate more and more traffic. Some of the tips are given below that will surely help you to choose the best one for your web portal. Five tips for choosing an SEO company are as follows:
1. Take advice from others: Finding an appropriate SEO that is familiar with the related industry can be an advantage for the website owner. An owner should take the suggestions from the professional of the trade organization.
2. Identifying the comfort area: Many of the business men's prefer to hire such companies where they can meet the company owner face to face and can easily solve the problem.
3. Check the web portal: Once you have made a list of reputed firms, just go through their websites carefully. You will get a whole idea as how they do their business.
4. Get in touch with every firm: It is very boring but make sure that you should be in contact with at least three or more SEO companies. It will be a good idea for you to choose the best one as per the need.
5. Contact the companies: After searching and selecting the company, you can contact them easily.
Website Design - Top 7 Reasons to Build a Website For Your Business
The writing is on the wall for business owners still using print advertising to market their products and services. Most people now search the Net from their computers or cell phones to find a local or national business. It's easier, faster and often more accurate plus you also receive listings from businesses that never could afford a yellow page ad.
Website design Doncaster can provide a cost effective solution to companies wishing to move from traditional print to the web.
Top 7 Reasons to Design a Website for Your Business
1. Accessibility
Customers can easily find your business online at any time, from anywhere (as long as they have an internet connection). For example smart phone users can instantly view your products and services while in the car, plane, restaurant or even while walking around town.
2. Provide unlimited information
A website allows you to display your products and services using text, photos, video and audio (podcasts). You can add as many pages as you like plus edit the information at any time.
3. Inexpensive
A website will lower your advertising costs. For example a yellow page ad costs 1000s of dollars and you can't edit the information once the ad is published. The initial cost of your site may be $1000.00 or more depending on it's size and complexity but your maintenance costs will be very small ( only yearly domain name registration and web hosting).
4. Interactivity
These days customers want to interact with your business before making a purchase. Ways to add interactivity to your website may include adding a Forum, Blog, RSS Feed, Contact form, Newsletter, Twitter, Facebook, Videos, Podcasts or a Chat box. For example a Blog enables visitors to leave comments to your posts. You can answer their questions by replying to their comments.
5. Not limited by geographical areas
Your website can be found locally, nationally and even worldwide if it is marketed to those areas. If you want it to appeal to different countries you can even translate it into different languages.
6. Attract a wide audience
A website can attract 1000s or even millions of visitors if marketed nationally or worldwide. This is in sharp contrast to a yellow page ad which only serves your local area. Attracting a wider audience generates more sales thus making your business more profitable.
7. Market to a targeted audience
If you use Google AdWords you can create online ads that target customers according to a specific geographical area, time and day. For example if you know your product only sells on Saturday nights in a specific town your ad can be targeted only to the people in that town.
Now that you understand the importance of building a website for your business, make a plan for your website needs and how to market it. Discuss your plans with a professional web designer before hiring him/her to design it.
Website design Doncaster can provide a cost effective solution to companies wishing to move from traditional print to the web.
Top 7 Reasons to Design a Website for Your Business
1. Accessibility
Customers can easily find your business online at any time, from anywhere (as long as they have an internet connection). For example smart phone users can instantly view your products and services while in the car, plane, restaurant or even while walking around town.
2. Provide unlimited information
A website allows you to display your products and services using text, photos, video and audio (podcasts). You can add as many pages as you like plus edit the information at any time.
3. Inexpensive
A website will lower your advertising costs. For example a yellow page ad costs 1000s of dollars and you can't edit the information once the ad is published. The initial cost of your site may be $1000.00 or more depending on it's size and complexity but your maintenance costs will be very small ( only yearly domain name registration and web hosting).
4. Interactivity
These days customers want to interact with your business before making a purchase. Ways to add interactivity to your website may include adding a Forum, Blog, RSS Feed, Contact form, Newsletter, Twitter, Facebook, Videos, Podcasts or a Chat box. For example a Blog enables visitors to leave comments to your posts. You can answer their questions by replying to their comments.
5. Not limited by geographical areas
Your website can be found locally, nationally and even worldwide if it is marketed to those areas. If you want it to appeal to different countries you can even translate it into different languages.
6. Attract a wide audience
A website can attract 1000s or even millions of visitors if marketed nationally or worldwide. This is in sharp contrast to a yellow page ad which only serves your local area. Attracting a wider audience generates more sales thus making your business more profitable.
7. Market to a targeted audience
If you use Google AdWords you can create online ads that target customers according to a specific geographical area, time and day. For example if you know your product only sells on Saturday nights in a specific town your ad can be targeted only to the people in that town.
Now that you understand the importance of building a website for your business, make a plan for your website needs and how to market it. Discuss your plans with a professional web designer before hiring him/her to design it.
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Need to Know Info For a Top SEO Page Rank
Having a good page rank has many advantages for your blog or site, not only providing organic traffic from search engines like Google or Yahoo, but also is good for your blogs reputation.
I've read about sites that page rank shows there popularity in the eyes of Google, but when working on page ranking remember search engines are looking for honest, useful content, and how important are you as a blogger. Then when you are appreciated by your community and as a blogger your PR will rank naturally.
Each webmaster or blogger have his own opinion about search engine rank or how to get a higher PR, for each person it's different from others so we can't have the same opinions.
Google will index your site more frequently based on your search engine ranking.
The higher your page rank, the more frequently Google's spider will visit your site to index your content. Google likes sites that are frequently updated and are very well optimized so having a higher page rank means, in the most cases, that your blog is an active. A higher PR helps your fresh content to be shown faster in the search engines and indexed faster. Not only that, if you are a webmaster who has other new websites that linked to your own high PR website, it will help your new websites been crawled by Google bots more often and improved the new websites in search engine results.
People purchase ads based on a site's search engine ranking.
If you sell advertising on your site in the form of text links, banners or content links, the price will be largely influenced by your PR. When you are selling an text link on your blog, visits matter much less than your page rank. When you have a blog with PR 5,you can sell text links even with 20dollars/month,depends on the niche of your blog.
A search engine ranking makes you look like your site is an expert.
You will always see in forums and blogs about people saying things like "How can a SEO expert's blog have a PR0?" or "That site is only PR0". A higher Page Rank is considered evidence of good promotion of your blog through other blogs or sites. Sometimes, people expect a certain standard from expert sources. To them high Page Rank means that you know what you do.This is not always true but it is a perception you will just have to follow. You can be an expert and not have a good page rank.
I've read about sites that page rank shows there popularity in the eyes of Google, but when working on page ranking remember search engines are looking for honest, useful content, and how important are you as a blogger. Then when you are appreciated by your community and as a blogger your PR will rank naturally.
Each webmaster or blogger have his own opinion about search engine rank or how to get a higher PR, for each person it's different from others so we can't have the same opinions.
Google will index your site more frequently based on your search engine ranking.
The higher your page rank, the more frequently Google's spider will visit your site to index your content. Google likes sites that are frequently updated and are very well optimized so having a higher page rank means, in the most cases, that your blog is an active. A higher PR helps your fresh content to be shown faster in the search engines and indexed faster. Not only that, if you are a webmaster who has other new websites that linked to your own high PR website, it will help your new websites been crawled by Google bots more often and improved the new websites in search engine results.
People purchase ads based on a site's search engine ranking.
If you sell advertising on your site in the form of text links, banners or content links, the price will be largely influenced by your PR. When you are selling an text link on your blog, visits matter much less than your page rank. When you have a blog with PR 5,you can sell text links even with 20dollars/month,depends on the niche of your blog.
A search engine ranking makes you look like your site is an expert.
You will always see in forums and blogs about people saying things like "How can a SEO expert's blog have a PR0?" or "That site is only PR0". A higher Page Rank is considered evidence of good promotion of your blog through other blogs or sites. Sometimes, people expect a certain standard from expert sources. To them high Page Rank means that you know what you do.This is not always true but it is a perception you will just have to follow. You can be an expert and not have a good page rank.
10 Valuable Web Design Tips and Tricks
Whether you are designing your own web pages for the first time or whether you utilizing the services of a web design company, it's always useful to learn a few effective web design tips. So, read on:
1. Keep it simple and clutter-free
You may know all those cool effects on Photoshop and Fireworks, but that doesn't mean that you have to use them all on your web page. Users are put-off by designs that seem totally cluttered. Design a simple and appealing web page by:
2. Communicate visuallyDon't just use visuals to grab eyeballs. Use them to effectively communicate to the user.
Use colors to project your website's image. For example: You can use green if you promoting bio-degradeable products; pink if you're selling little girls' shoes; or restrict to using your regular corporate colors if you are an established company trying to take your business online
3. Keep it content-rich Focus on providing interesting content if you want users to come back to you, time and again. Visuals may get the user to say 'wow' the first time, but it's the content that keeps them coming back.
4. Keep text narrowKeep the text layout narrow. You don't want your readers to scroll sideways to read every line. They may eventually get bored and stop reading after all. This is the same reason that newspapers also have short columns. Narrow text columns are easy-to-read and visually more appealing.
5. Be consistent
Be consistent in design across all pages of your website. Users may feel overwhelmed and may face difficulty finding vital information in your website.
6. Gratify user needs instantlyThere are several million websites on the internet today. Users are overloaded with information and chances of them coming back to your website time and again are, realistically speaking, minimal. BUT, you can get them to become regular visitor, IF, you gratify their needs - and gratify them instantly, every time. You can do this by:
7. Adhere to conventionConvention is not really a bad thing when it comes to certain aspects of a web page design. For example, users are used to finding the twitter link, the RSS Feed link etc., in a certain way across most web pages. If you try to do it differently, chances of them missing your link are very high. After all, would you be comfortable if somebody placed your coffee mug in a different place each morning?
8. Make navigation easy
Make navigation crystal-clear if you want users to stay longer in your website. Make it easy for them to find important links. Check and re-check to see if all links are working just fine. There is nothing worse than a frustrated user who decides to go to your competition simply because he was unable to find the appropriate link.
9. Check for browser compatibility
Check to see if your web page is opening up right across all browsers and not just IE. Clear up all resolution issues. Work out technical issues pertaining to the use of several design software. Ensure that your website is up and running in peak form without any technical glitches.
10. Test and re-test for usability
You may think that you're website looks fantastic; it's really easy-to-use and so on. But does the user feel this way. Test your website for usability. See what's working and find out what's not working. Make appropriate changes. Re-test your web design from time-to-time. Most successful web design company portfolio is built on testing and refining to enhance usability. That's because people's needs and expectations change. Make sure your web design keeps up with changing demands.
1. Keep it simple and clutter-free
You may know all those cool effects on Photoshop and Fireworks, but that doesn't mean that you have to use them all on your web page. Users are put-off by designs that seem totally cluttered. Design a simple and appealing web page by:
- Creating visual focal points where vital information is provided to the user
- Organize information in the page so the user can easily find what he is looking for
- Text and visual must complement each other and one must never overpower the other
- Make sure the images are optimized for faster downloads
2. Communicate visuallyDon't just use visuals to grab eyeballs. Use them to effectively communicate to the user.
Use colors to project your website's image. For example: You can use green if you promoting bio-degradeable products; pink if you're selling little girls' shoes; or restrict to using your regular corporate colors if you are an established company trying to take your business online
- Use visuals for highlighting. Use buttons to highlight links, so navigation is much easier. You can also use thumbnails in place of a text link to a graphic image.
- Direct the user to updated content or important links using visual cues like arrows or bold text or scrolls
3. Keep it content-rich Focus on providing interesting content if you want users to come back to you, time and again. Visuals may get the user to say 'wow' the first time, but it's the content that keeps them coming back.
- Keep updating as users are always looking for fresh content
- Provide informative content in an interesting fashion
- You may keep the tone conversational and lively
- Keep it short. Users don't have time or patience to read reams of content
- Ask users for feedback and comments. Interact with users and they will come back to you
4. Keep text narrowKeep the text layout narrow. You don't want your readers to scroll sideways to read every line. They may eventually get bored and stop reading after all. This is the same reason that newspapers also have short columns. Narrow text columns are easy-to-read and visually more appealing.
5. Be consistent
Be consistent in design across all pages of your website. Users may feel overwhelmed and may face difficulty finding vital information in your website.
- Try to use the same color schemes across web pages
- Maintain consistency in the location of key links
- Avoid using a wide variety of fonts across pages
- Consistently use easily readable fonts
6. Gratify user needs instantlyThere are several million websites on the internet today. Users are overloaded with information and chances of them coming back to your website time and again are, realistically speaking, minimal. BUT, you can get them to become regular visitor, IF, you gratify their needs - and gratify them instantly, every time. You can do this by:
- Providing immediate access to information. Don't test user patience by making them search for what they need. Provide it instantly
- Updating and providing fresh content on topics that interests them
- Consistently delivering valuable information
- Interacting with users and making them feel valued
7. Adhere to conventionConvention is not really a bad thing when it comes to certain aspects of a web page design. For example, users are used to finding the twitter link, the RSS Feed link etc., in a certain way across most web pages. If you try to do it differently, chances of them missing your link are very high. After all, would you be comfortable if somebody placed your coffee mug in a different place each morning?
8. Make navigation easy
Make navigation crystal-clear if you want users to stay longer in your website. Make it easy for them to find important links. Check and re-check to see if all links are working just fine. There is nothing worse than a frustrated user who decides to go to your competition simply because he was unable to find the appropriate link.
9. Check for browser compatibility
Check to see if your web page is opening up right across all browsers and not just IE. Clear up all resolution issues. Work out technical issues pertaining to the use of several design software. Ensure that your website is up and running in peak form without any technical glitches.
10. Test and re-test for usability
You may think that you're website looks fantastic; it's really easy-to-use and so on. But does the user feel this way. Test your website for usability. See what's working and find out what's not working. Make appropriate changes. Re-test your web design from time-to-time. Most successful web design company portfolio is built on testing and refining to enhance usability. That's because people's needs and expectations change. Make sure your web design keeps up with changing demands.
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Redefining Web Design - SEO Web Design, The Only Effective Way to Leverage Your Online Presence
There are a lot of web designers out there, and a lot of firms advertising the "best web design" available. We are of the school of thought that an effective web design is one that brings traffic to your website and revenue to your business. For that reason, you won't see us recommending Flash, you won't see us recommending HTML templates, and you won't see us recommending a design without SEO.
For a web design to be effective, you must have SEO. A thumbnail explanation of SEO is that the site speaks to the search engines in their language. It is optimized for the search engines. Why is that so crucial? Because the number of pages on the Internet is increasing at an exponential rate, and the competition for page 1 in Google, Yahoo or Bing will grow in intensity. It will be more & more difficult to rank on page one. In the more competitive niches, it is already impossible to rank on page one without good SEO; that will become the case for every niche in the very near future.
Good SEO can mean many different things; in terms of SEO web design, "good SEO" means on-page factors. Yes, you will also need to market your site to insure top placement in the search engines; on-age SEO factors are not enough in most cases (unless you are in an extremely tiny, non-competitive niche or hyper-niche) to insure top placement in Google, Yahoo and Bing.
The two go hand in hand. We are redefining good web design to be SEO Web Design.
The old school way of doing things was to create a website and then go hire a separate SEO expert to optimize it, oftentimes completely changing what the designer did because it was actually harmful for your search engine rankings. We value your money more than that; it makes more business sense to get it right from the start and create a website that has good SEO built into it.
SEO used to be a very expensive proposition, and it still is. Many firms will charge thousands of dollars for an SEO website. For a very limited time, one web firm is offering completely optimized, professionally designed websites with SEO and webhosting for a fraction of that. With most business websites costing thousands of dollars, without even approaching good SEO, it's something worth checking out.
Regardless of who builds and maintains your site, insist on an optimized website that is search engine friendly. It does your business no good at all to create a web presence that is going to appear on page 600 of Google. Ninety-eight percent of web search ends on page one, so your intended destination should be clear -- if you hope to reach your intended customers and clients.
For a web design to be effective, you must have SEO. A thumbnail explanation of SEO is that the site speaks to the search engines in their language. It is optimized for the search engines. Why is that so crucial? Because the number of pages on the Internet is increasing at an exponential rate, and the competition for page 1 in Google, Yahoo or Bing will grow in intensity. It will be more & more difficult to rank on page one. In the more competitive niches, it is already impossible to rank on page one without good SEO; that will become the case for every niche in the very near future.
Good SEO can mean many different things; in terms of SEO web design, "good SEO" means on-page factors. Yes, you will also need to market your site to insure top placement in the search engines; on-age SEO factors are not enough in most cases (unless you are in an extremely tiny, non-competitive niche or hyper-niche) to insure top placement in Google, Yahoo and Bing.
The two go hand in hand. We are redefining good web design to be SEO Web Design.
The old school way of doing things was to create a website and then go hire a separate SEO expert to optimize it, oftentimes completely changing what the designer did because it was actually harmful for your search engine rankings. We value your money more than that; it makes more business sense to get it right from the start and create a website that has good SEO built into it.
SEO used to be a very expensive proposition, and it still is. Many firms will charge thousands of dollars for an SEO website. For a very limited time, one web firm is offering completely optimized, professionally designed websites with SEO and webhosting for a fraction of that. With most business websites costing thousands of dollars, without even approaching good SEO, it's something worth checking out.
Regardless of who builds and maintains your site, insist on an optimized website that is search engine friendly. It does your business no good at all to create a web presence that is going to appear on page 600 of Google. Ninety-eight percent of web search ends on page one, so your intended destination should be clear -- if you hope to reach your intended customers and clients.
John Flynn is an online marketing consultant for real business, specializing in creating profitable websites for brick & mortar businesses and finding hidden revenue streams for his clients. Successful online since 1999 in over 300 niche websites, Mr. Flynn combines his years of online expertise with over 12 years operating a chain of specialty retail stores and over 9 years in a successful boutique service business. He is the author of "750 Traffic Streams for Your Business" and creator of several DIY products and Do-It-For-You services designed to help Small Business dominate the search engines and make more money.
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