Web Design for Retailers
covering Hertfordshire (Herts) and Bedfordshire (Beds)
Retailing on the web is a challenge - on the face of it seems easy, just set out your stall and the world will come to you. Well it really does not work like that - there is some much competition (a whole world of it!) and shoppers are well aware that they have a huge choice and can buy at the cheapest rates online.
I don't build ecommerce web shops but there are various pieces of software available that provide you with all the standard features required by an online retailer to set-up and run a web shop.
Running a web shop is a significant undertaking requiring a lot of work to get it up and running, using every marketing angle possible and then ongoing, keeping the products up to date, watching the competition, finding new customers, enticing them to buy from you rather than someone else ... it goes on and on. The ones who really profit for no effort are the credit card companies who take a small slice of every transaction.
I do build standard web sites for retailers and I do help them make the most of their web shops by helping them set up the shop effectively, present products attractively, writing unique web copy and search engine optimisation. (See my Tips for Ecommerce Websites and Web Shops).
>>>See full portfolio of websites instead
New Website Design For Evergreen and Gorgeous, Hitchin, Hertfordshire
www.flowersatevergreen.co.uk Penni Fuller runs a creative flower design company for parties and functions. They provide inspired design, careful planing and dedicated client service.
Penni wanted a clean simple site with galleries of her work. Being a designer herself she had very particular visual design requirements for her new site and what you see is very much a joint effort.
"I am so happy with the site now. Thank you so much, one more time, for all your help, support and, most of all, your patience. I will recommend you to everyone (not all my friends are like me I promise!)"
Penni Fuller
Evergreen and Gorgeous, Hitchin, Hertfordshire
Website Design For Entec Novare Baldock, Hertfordshire
www.entec.co.uk. Entec Novare supply, install and support computer systems and software to business, education and the voluntary sector. The company is skilled in providing specially discounted software to academic institutions, staff and students and to charities.
I have worked with Ian at Entec for many years now and several iterations of their website. This new design was launched in September 2010. The web site is teamed with an Actinic Online Shop providing full ecommerce facilities which was set up and managed by Ian who is learning the finer points of website maintenance and search engine optimisation. Try looking for "discount software for charities" or "Adobe software for charities" or "discount software for students" in google.
"I was very impressed by the speed that you changed the front page last week. It looks great"
Ian Brown
Entec, Baldock, Hertfordshire
New Website Design For Hiremee, Royston, Hertfordshire
www.hiremee.co.uk supply a wide range of contractors plant machinery (including Mini Diggers, Dumpers, Rollers and Access Platforms) and tools for hire on short or long term in the Royston and Ware areas.
Charlie Perry, the new owner, wanted to scrap the existing site and just have a straight-forward search engine friendly site along the lines he had for his other ventures. The design you see is the result. A Wordpress blog has also been added as a news publishing feature.
Hiremee, Royston, Hertfordshire
Wordpress Website For Adoration Art Hanwell, London
www.adorationart.co.uk. Joanne Davies specialises in channelled Art works for clients and for their homes or businesses. The scale of her Artwork ranges from a greetings card to small canvas and up to a full wall mural. Alongside her artwork Joanne works as a Holistic Energy Practitioner.
Joanne had tried to use a website building tool that came with her hosting but found it difficult to use and impossible to load up images of her Artwork. She was looking for a nicer looking site that was easy for her to use to update her site herself. Wordpress provides one of the easiest to use content management systems around so I built her site using this leading Blog software.
"Michael has done the most fantastic website for me - I am thrilled."
Joanne Davies
Adoration Art, Hanwell, London
Content Managed Website Design For Display-Cor, Little Wymondley, Hertfordshire
www.displaycor.co.uk "Specialists in the Design and Manufacture of Cardboard Point of Sale Displays including cardboard Floorstands, Dumpbins, Counter Tops, Pallet Shippers, Standees and Retail Display Packaging."
Noel Gardiner said "I am looking for a local company that can hopefully 'tweak' our current website design in order to get it higher up in the search engines." It transpired that Noel liked the current design, but felt their site was not optimised and wanted to convert to a CMS based website so they could do updates themselves.
Their site was rebuilt using the Drupal open source CMS software and optimised to rank bettter in the search engines. A year on and once more the site has been given a refresh design with graphics from their new brochure. The website also incorporates a nice password protected gallery area including many examples of their finished products for showing potential clients.
"I have just finished reviewing the website & I think it looks great!"
Noel Gardiner, Managing Director
Display-Cor, Little Wymondley, Hertfordshire
Web design for PCC Limited - Personal Computer Care Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire
www.pccare.co.uk. PCC is a specialist in Olivetti, Canon, Sharp and general office equipment. They are the only approved Third Party service centre for Olivetti equipment in the United Kingdom and a Canon training/service centre.
PCC already had a website that was doing very well in the search engines - Paul Lacey of PCC approached me after I had given a talk at a business club on search engines. He thought he had picked up a few new tips and wanted to have his website redesigned and some upgrades with new functionality without damaging its search engine ranking. Try putting "Olivetti Parts" or "Olivetti Spares" in Google - you will see we didn't hurt their ranking.
I have now been working with Paul for many years and the latest design of the PCC site was launched in September 2010.
"Looks great it has really refreshed the site which was looking a
bit tired"
Paul Lacey
PCC Limited - Personal Computer Care, Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire
Web site design for Fredericks Designer Flowers Epping, Essex
www.fredericksdesignerflowers.co.uk provide flowers and plants to the Contract and Corporate sector. The team at Fredericks Designer Flowers has over 10 years experience of supplying exciting floral and plant displays and associated services to the professional contract sector within London, Hertfordshire, Essex and the Home Counties. This includes supplying bespoke floral arrangements for offices, hotels, caterers and the general corporate market. The team also has a background in floral art for weddings and events.
Freddie commission Joseph Tirelli of JTMarketing Services to look at marketing for his company and one outcome was the requirement for a new search engine friendly website for the corporate market. Freddie wanted a clean but beautiful website that reflected their floral design credentials and would sit well in the corporate market and this is the result.
This new design is the second iteration of this site I have done and has just been launched in August 2010.
Fredericks Designer Flowers, Epping, Essex
Web Shop Optimisation For Promain Hitchin, Herts
www.promain.co.uk "Promain distribute Industrial Paints and Surface Coatings. Promain are approved distributors for many of the world's leading paint and coatings manufacturers such as Ameron PPG, Sika, Coo-Var, Rustoleum Mathys, Tor Coatings, Classidur, Hempel, Osmo, Anglo, Glixtone, Bollom Intumescent, Marley, Teamac and Akzo Nobel."
A couple of years back Mark French at Promain had just had his new website delivered after a long wait but was a bit concerned about search engine optimisation. He had been told his new site automatically did all the search engine optimisation but he had doubts so he asked me to have a look. The thing about search engine optimisation is that it is mainly about the words on a website and partly about the html code around the words - so automatic search engine optimisation is largely ineffectual unless you know how to use it effectively. I provided guidance to Mark and Carol on how to make the web shop work for them and we made a number of amendments to the way their web site was coded to be more focussed on search engine optimisation. Over the last couple of years they have made a great success of their shop and grown their brand significantly.
Then recently Mark contacted me again and asked me to look at his new online shop - it's a big improvement on the last one but again there is room for optimisation and clearer presentation of products.
"We are really busy now, the phones haven't stopped ringing"
Carol Barry, Promain
Promain, Hitchin, Hertfordshire
Content Managed Website Design For Hamilton & Co, Letchworth, Hertfordshire
www.retroandvintagefurniture.co.uk "Hamilton & Co are a Letchworth based company specialising in Retro and Vintage Furniture and Objects from the 1950s,1960s and 1970s. The partners have over thirty years experience trading in Antiques, Decorative Objects and in Furniture Restoration."
Hugh Hamilton had some experience of managing websites and search optimisation from previous ventures - he was looking for a CMS (Content Management) based website that he could update easily himself but did not want the traditional e-commerce CMS type site. The Drupal open source CMS site I designed incorporates the "light box" photo expansion/animation facility to show off products with small on page photos expanding on demand.
Hamilton & Co - Retro and Vintage Furniture, Letchworth, Hertfordshire
Web shop optimisation for Vicol Letchworth, Hertfordshire
www.vicol.co.uk/shop/ - Vicol supply, service and maintain cleaning machines and provide all the associated consumables. This includes commercial vacuum cleaners, scrubber dryers, carpet cleaners and rotary floor machines from top makes such as Numatic, Prochem and Sebo.
Iain MacCormick and his staff had been struggling with his online shop based on the commercial Jshop package for about a year, having made no significant difference to online sales, before he contacted me. Since then a lot of work has been done to put the basics in place, create a nicer, cleaner more professional look to the web shop, tidy up the products, make use of Google shopping and build trust in the Vicol Brand. As with all online shops there is much still to do but everything is now moving in the right direction.
Vicol, Letchworth, Herts
Search Engine Optimisation For Eagle Controls Letchworth, Herts
www.eaglecontrols.co.uk supply Large Digit Displays including A to D (Analogue to Digital) Inputs, Clocks, Time Zone Clock displays, Counters and Totalisers, Production Target Displays, Quality Control Displays, Safety Displays, Serial Input Displays, Timers, Time Temperature Displays and Message Displays.
Above all Chris Parfitt wanted his website to rank highly in Google. So we discussed at length how content needs to be focussed around search engine phrases and how design needs to support the repeated use of the search engine phrases, then we set about creating suitable content and optimising it. The design has since been modernised.
The web site is getting page one ranking in google for many of its target search engine keyword phrases such as " Large Digit Displays", "Seven Segment LED Bar Displays", "Large Digit Serial Input Display", "Production Target Displays", "Large Digit Clock Displays", "Large Digit Process Displays", "Large Digital Counter Displays".....
Eagle Controls, Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire
Search Engine Optimisation For Flowpoint Letchworth, Hertfordshire
www.flowpoint.co.uk "Flowpoint supply Water and Energy Saving Shower Heads which can save upto 60% on your Water and Energy Bill. Their range of modern stylish replacement shower heads are designed to save on your Water and Energy Bills while not compromising on the invigorating and relaxing feel of a powerful shower."
Chris Parfitt had a web site designed but his web designer was not a search engine specialist so Chris approached me to see if I could improve the search engine performance without starting again. I have retained the general look of the website while substantially rewriting the underlying code and focusing the text content on suitable search engine phrases. I also helped Chris understand his google adwords campaign and Chris now tells me he has stopped paying for Google adwords as the website is now ranking sufficiently well in Google natural listings. Try "water saving shower heads" or "replacement shower heads" in google - flowpoint are on page 1.
Flowpoint, Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire
Website Designed For Quantum Binders Broxbourne, Hertfordshire
www.quantumbinders.co.uk. "Quantum Binders specialise in producing customised document and presentation ring binders, folders, clipboards, point of sale, catalogues, manuals and special products designed to meet your requirements."
Terry Redgrave, Managing Director of Quantum Binders, wanted his tired old website brought up to date and designed to be search engine friendly, the site you see is the result. Charlotte at Quantum Binders supplied all the nice product photos you see throughout the web site. Try "Presentation Ring Binder" or "Custom Ring Binder" in google.
"I wanted to let you know we are performing really well in the search engines now.
Terry organised some back links and this as well as your improvements are doing the trick.
Big Thank You"
Charlotte Smith
Quantum Binders, Broxbourne, Hertfordshire
