Making a bigger impact...

Target your audience

The internet has, over the past few years, become the preferred method for locating a business for obtaining contact details or information.

A 2005 study indicated that 54% of people asked (from a range of lifestyles, ages and locations) preferred using the internet to search for phone numbers when looking for a business.

In 2008, preliminary reports are that 80% of computer users who have the internet use it to search for products, news, prices and business contact details. That's a staggering figure when you consider that a huge percentage of homes in the UK have internet access.

And it doesn't end there... people are buying more online than ever before. The internet is a competitive marketplace with many web-shops having lower overheads than 'bricks and mortar' shops.

In this digital age, the only way to get noticed is to be seen. And if you're in business—whether large or small—you need to consider getting a web presence at some level.

Although you've probably had this advice thrown at you by marketing agencies, web designers and so called 'search engine optimisers', Pixelmakers take a more literal, honest approach to your website and it's visibility to the world.

Ask yourself a simple question:

Would you consider a website for your business to be an EXPENSE or an INVESTMENT?

If you answered 'EXPENSE' then you've obviously been talking with the wrong people so far. A web site presence for your business shouldn't need to cost tens of thousands of pounds. In fact, if it's just a simple design to get yourself seen, you can be up and running for less than the cost of an advert in your local monthly magazine.

Sure, you can get a web site online yourself. Many domain resellers will let you buy your own .co.uk, .com etc. with free web space and building tools. And many businesses feel they can design a website which is 'adequate'.

But design goes much further than just making it look nice...

'Free' or 'included' internet hosting and page-builders are usually low speed, low bandwidth and low quality. And having your business email address as 'mybusiness2131@freenet.oal.uk.com' looks very unprofessional, considering that getting your own snazzy domain name can cost less per-year than a ream of A4 copier paper.

And remember: Your web site may be your frontman, your ambassador, the first impression your customers will see. If they're plagued by bad design, slow-loading pages and worst of all 'sponsored' advertising, they'll probably look elsewhere.

Pixelmakers have our own Tier 1 servers, which are fully backed up and hosted in two locations, meaning downtime is practically zero. And our competitive and flexible owned hosting is under our own wing, giving us full control over your domain. The advantage to our clients is that they only have one butt to kick—ours—if anything goes pear-shaped. Which thankfully is a rarity.

Pixelmakers can obtain and connect domain names for you almost instantly, so getting your own .com or .co.uk name is as simple as giving us a ring.

When Pixelmakers take on a website design project, the first task is getting to know your business. A lot of research about what makes your business tick is taken out, and what the potential expectations of your customers may be.

The next stage is to design your site from the inside out. Much of what will help you get seen by Google, Yahoo et-al is 'behind the scenes', and myths such as 'I need a list of keywords' or 'I need to pay-per-click to get anywhere' are something Pixelmakers don't agree with.

The ONLY way to guarantee that your website gets the exposure it needs is to optimise it for search engines from the ground up, and build the web site with your target phrases and target audience in mind from the start. Nobody can guarantee you 'instant results'. Getting the search engines to see your site the way you want your customers to see it takes time, and can be hit and miss. Pixelmakers excel in getting you into the fast lane—and keeping you there

A Pixelmakers web site is always optimised. Your site will be as compliant as it needs to be with the World Wide Web Consortium standards—which is very important.

Furthermore, because Pixelmakers design your site properly from the ground up without templates or borrowed code, giving us full control of your optimisation from day one.

In other words, Pixelmakers don't offer optimisation as a separate service; it comes as standard.

The optimisation carries on—free of charge—for a period usually lasting six months from the site going live. Meanwhile any changes needed to ensure that your site is performing as well as it can are carried out.

This saves you the headache of having to source optimisation (also known as SEO) from a separate company—who will often promise the earth, for the right price.

With 20+ years experience in programming, and a full knowledge of how the internet works (the first 'Pixelmakers' website ever designed was way back in the days when it all began—yes, we're geeks!), we offer not only what we feel is a unique 'all-in-house' service, but also our own resources to make it happen.

During our 20 years experience in dealing with the internet, major significant changes have allowed websites to evolve rapidly in terms of content.

Back in the early days it would take forever to load just a simple text page—let alone pictures—over a dial-up modem.

Websites had to be designed to be straight to the point, fast loading, and most of all informative. Owning your own domain back then was a luxury.

With modern broadband connections and multimedia, coupled with the speed and capabilities of modern computers, the new 'experience' is expected to be rich, visual, interactive and slick.

And because of this, a lot of what is important has been lost. Websites have become intricate, complicated and more often than not they loose sight of what their goal is.

There's a few things which really annoy people about websites. Things which make it really difficult to browse fluidly. And even if our clients insist, we usually manage to make them see the light as to reasons which these things just don't work:

• Splash pages, i.e an 'intro' animation with a 'skip intro' button
• Excessive use of low contrast text on backgrounds
• White text, black background, for body text
• Important/frequently requested information nested deeply within the navigation hierarchy
• Inconsistency between site pages... people sometimes think they've jumped to another site!
• Poorly written, cross-browser unfriendly elements: Sure, they may look OK on your Firefox browser, but try looking at the same page in Explorer!
• Pages overloaded with animations, flashing banners, plugin-dependent content
• Background music!

A 'sacred cow' is an element of design which MUST at all costs be preserved and respected throughout the design process.

Typical 'sacred cows' include contact details, corporate identity, unique selling points etc.

From the very start of the design process, it's important to list all the sacred cows and not loose sight of them. So often we see websites which lack rudimentary expectations—such as a 'contact us' page... what use is a website promoting your company if nobody can get in touch?

Pixelmakers help you realise what your own sacred cows are—identifying your unique selling points, and capitalising on them, and using the sacred cows to create a ruleset which every page in your site adheres to.