Last week we launched an update to the site which included a new shop, allowing people all over the world to browse and purchase Caledonian Beers and merchandise. The shop uses our single page checkout to reduce the complications often experienced when shopping online, allowing you to make your purchase in just a few minutes.

It’s another result of our collaboration with York based Graphic Design agency Creative Squeeze who put together the visuals for the project. Once these were agreed we integrated them with our easy to use e-commerce CMS, perfect for projects of any size.

Creative Squeeze are just one of the many talented graphic design studios that we work with and we’re always looking for new partners. Our CMS is designed to take care of the SEO, accessibility and usability issues, allowing you to concentrate on creating fantastic visuals.

If you’d like more information on how we work with design partners get in touch with Ben.

Even more exciting is the second stage, currently in development. This will allow club members to access a private login-only area where they can create a profile detailing their interests, find new people to play with and sign up for upcoming events.

We also gave them a social media presence by designing a blog, connected to Facebook and Twitter pages. This will allow their members to connect on a more personal level and keep up to date with the latest club news.

If you’re interested in our web design and development services or would like to learn more about our easy to use content management system, contact Ben for more information.

WSI Yorkshire are a Huddersfield based Web Design and Online Marketing Agency offering everything from design and development of websites to website training and online marketing consultancy.

Our experienced web design team put together the look and feel for the site with simplicity being the most important factor. With so many variations possible for each cage being possible it was decided that a step by step “wizard” approach would be used to provide the user with guidance and an indication of progress through to checkout.

We also put together a Blog to allow ACA to connect with their customers on a more personal level. The constant flow of new content will help the search engines take note and bring in new customers.

If you’re interested in our e-commerce web design services or would like to learn more about our powerful e-commerce CMS, contact Ben for more information.

WSI Yorkshire are a Huddersfield based Digital Market Agency offering everything from website design and development to training and internet marketing.

Improving Product Descriptions

Although it is tempting to copy the manufacturer’s descriptions word for word to save time, duplicated content doesn’t do your website much good. Search engines prefer unique content, and if you write your own descriptions based on manufacturer details, your product pages will stand out from pages that have just copied everyone else’s text.

Writing your own product and category descriptions also ensures that the text targets the specific keywords  you want to be found on.  If you offer social media marketing courses in West Yorkshire, your Social Media Marketing Training page should target the relevant key phrases.

Use your Head(ings)

The heading tags – <h1>, <h2> and <h3> – are seen by search engines as “weighted” text that is more important than standard paragraph text. Descriptive headings that use the words you’d particularly like to target – and the more specific the better – will stand out to your readers – and the search engine robots.  It helps a great deal if your headings break up chunks of text with easy-to-scan headlines that will allow your customers to find the parts of the text that are important to them – product features, or specifications lists, for example.

Headings can also be styled so that they have a visual appearance that matches the overall look and feel of your website – even to the extent of creating side bars or panels with important product details.

SEO features for E-Commerce Builds

Does your Content Management System have:

• Unique Meta Titles for each product, category and content page?
• Places to create a unique Meta Description for each of the above?
• The ability to assign product or category-specific Keywords?
• Can you set up “friendly” and descriptive URLs for your products, instead of showing a string of numbers and punctuation marks?
• Automatic insertion of your product or category name as a heading – ideally H1?

We are constantly making improvements to our own in-house CMS design to ensure it stays on top of the best SEO practices for E-Commerce websites – keep an eye out for our latest launches!

1. Keep your software and scripts up to date. Websites run on top of a surprisingly large number of layers of software, all of which need to be kept up to date in order to keep the site protected. The server operating system, the web server and database software, programming environments and any content management systems or scripts all need to be kept up to date with patches and security fixes to ensure any exploits are closed as soon as possible.
2. Install Anti-Virus and Anti-malware software on any computer you will be using to update the website. The number one cause of website security breaches is a malicious user gaining access to a website via malware on a users home or work computer. It’s important to have up to date anti-virus and anti-malware software installed on all machines and scans should be completed regularly.
3. Always use secure passwords. You should always use best practices when selecting passwords for your site.Passwords should be at least 8 characters long and should contain a mixture of upper and lower case characters, numbers and punctuation.Use a different password for every location.Only give you password to the people that absolutely must have it.If you ever do give you password to somebody else, be sure to change it to something else as soon as they are finished.
4. Use a reliable, secure hosting provider. You wouldn’t want to run a brick and mortar shop in the dodgy part of town would you? You need to be confident that your hosting provider takes all of the necessary steps to protect their network and the machines hosted on it. They should also have friendly, helpful and knowledgeable staff available to help should you ever run into any problems.
5. Keep server logs and regular backups! No matter what you do to protect your site it can never be 100% safe from the new exploits appearing all of the time. It’s important that you’re prepared for the worst by taking regular backups of all site files and databases so that you can restore the site to the safe version as soon as possible. Keeping server logs can help you close security holes by showing you exactly how a malicious user managed to gain access and which files in particular they used.

At WSI Yorkshire we take website security very seriously and can advise you on the best course of action to protect your site.

Get in touch with Lisa today on 01484 690 430 or email info@wsiyorkshire.co.uk

But this may not be a bad thing as long as the content of the website provides the answers your visitors need. Ask yourself if you really need that page – or if the information that is parked there would be better on more relevant pages.

Frequently Asked Questions are not Questions You Wish They Would Ask

This is a common mistake – adding a page full of information about your products and services, in a question-and-answer format, that isn’t what your customers want to know when they click onto a “Common Questions” or “Frequently Asked Questions” page.  A genuine Frequently Asked Questions page should support your site by reducing the number of common enquiries submitted to you by e-mail or on your customer service telephone number – and should not replace having quality copywriting and search engine optimisation on your content pages.

If your customers really ask “how do I order this from your site? What payment methods do you take? How much does delivery cost?” your page content should be optimised to include these details on relevant pages to ensure your users do not have to go searching for it instead of completing their purchase.

For example, if your site offers personalised car widgets, and your goal is to have customers contact you for a quote, the individual product pages should answer the questions that you think your customers should ask – or that they might actually ask – about the widget. The fewer clicks they have to make to find out that the A2019 widget they’re interested in is made of chrome-plated steel and takes up to 3 weeks to customise, the better.

Are you writing the right questions?

If you’re building a Common Questions page to reduce the volume of simple enquiry messages or calls, make sure you’re asking and answering the questions in an accessible way your readers will understand. Assume that your customers do not have inside knowledge of your industry and simplify the language – instead of saying “What vehicle manifold will my A2019 fit onto?” phrase the question as “Where can I attach my new widget?”

Your answer should be equally simple – remember that your readers will be skimming the content, and may only read the first couple of words of the answer.  Answer the question briefly in the first sentence, and explain it further if necessary:

Q. Where can I attach my new widget?

A. Rear-view mirror or external aerial. The widgets are designed to clip securely, with a rubberised grip to prevent scratching.

What questions should my Common Questions page answer, then?

The best answer to this is “The questions your customers have actually asked.” If you have an enquiries form or a customer service number, note down the questions and topics you are contacted about. When you’ve assembled half a dozen or so questions that have been asked more than once, it may be time to consider adding the questions and their answers to your website.

You can also solicit questions from your readers, to find out whether your content is providing the information a user needs – if multiple people ask the same question, it may be helpful to add that to a FAQ page, or to update the copy on the existing pages in order to answer the questions asked and improve the page’s relevance to your users.

Any questions?

If you visit www.wsiyorkshire.co.uk and look through the site, are there any questions you have that you didn’t see an answer for?

I’d like you to ask them in the comments for this post.