Blue Planet is delighted to announce our move to new offices in Ringmer on 4th May 2012. The new premises at The Meadow Business Centre in Old Uckfield Road (just off the main A26 between Lewes and Uckfield) are situated in a rural courtyard location and provide us with more space and light for our growing business.

Not just a new office

As we have previously reported on this blog, we have been searching for a new office for several months that will allow us to continue our ambitious growth plans.

As well as offering a great new working environment for our staff, the extra space allows us to have more resources on site and gives us the ability to significantly enhance the services offered to our clients.

Better and more services for you

For our customers this means we can deliver our existing services more effectively and efficiently and also offer new services and products that were previously unavailable.

In the coming weeks and months you will see changes to our website and more information appearing on our blog about the new services we can offer you.

At the moment, we’re still sorting out boxes and tidying desks, but we’ll be sure to let you see some pictures of the new offices when we have them looking just the way we want.

Contact details

Our new address is:

3 Meadow Business Centre
Old Uckfield Road
Ringmer
East Sussex
BN8 5RW

Our telephone number remains the same.

If you have any questions

If you have any questions about the move or have any concerns about how it might affect you, please don’t hesitate to get in touch by calling us on 01825 760909.

Aquafins (www.aquafins.co.uk) has been operating as a company for seven years, providing swimming lessons across Sussex in Crawley, Horsham, Copthorne and Horley. Their fully qualified instructors can call on 15 to 20 years experience in teaching both children and adults to swim.

The Aquafins website

The Aquafins website (www.aquafins.co.uk) was built by another web developer and uses the WordPress platform and is a good example of what can be achieved on this system.  It enables the client to update the website themselves whenever they want by using a Content Management System.

The Aquafins Philosophy

Aquafins prefers to concentrate on teaching children and adults how to swim in the correct way rather than to swim a little further with an incorrect stroke. They adopt a multi-stroke approach, teaching front crawl, breast stroke, back stroke and butterfly as well as lots of different water skills.

When their swimmers have reached a relevant standard they have the option to continue with Aquafins as a Rookie Lifeguard or get involved with our squad training, enabling them to take part in competitions.

I don’t usually write technical posts, but this particular problem has cropped up a number of times and I thought it was worth putting something on our blog to help out anyone else who might be tearing their hair out to try and get it resolved.

503 valid RCPT command must precede DATA

This error message occurs when the server is expecting to receive mail before sending. This usually results from server authentication priorities (for example, you attempt to send mail before your “spam filter” has finished its receiving process.)  Basically, the server needs to do things in a certain order and gets its knickers in a twist.

Solutions to the 503 error

There are several solutions to this problem, listed below in order of likely culprits.  Try each one in turn and then test.  If it doesn’t work, go on to the next one and try that, and so on:

1. Server authentication – setup your outgoing mail to use outgoing server authentication (this means when you send email you  log in with your email address and password). In Outlook, go to Tools > Account Settings, select the email account then go to More settings > Outgoing server and check the “My outgoing server requires authentication” box.  It will default to use the same username/password combo as for your incoming mail, which is correct.
2. Sender matching – make sure you’re sending from the same email address that the recipient sees your email coming in as (ie. don’t make the “from” field differ from the email address used in your outgoing mail settings).
3. Apostrophes – this one is really weird.  Remove any apostrophes (single quotes) or other non-alphabetic characters from your email account name(s).  This is the name that appears in the From field when your email reaches the recipient and can be changed in Tools > Account Settings, then when in the account, More Settings > General.  So don’t use something like “Mark’s email”.
4. SMTP port – use port 26 (instead of the default 25) for outgoing mail.  This can be found under More Settings > Advanced.
5. Full mailbox – make sure the mailbox of the affected account is not full or has met/exceeded its quota. You can uncheck the following option to make sure a copy of all your emails is not being left on the server (note that since the email will be downloaded to your PC after this setting change, you won’t be able to access your emails from another location if you do this). In Outlook, browse to Tools > Account Setting > More settings > Advanced > uncheck “leave a copy of this message on the server.”
6. Outlook PST files – sometimes the 503 error will occur if you have a corrupt outlook PST (mail archive) file. Try repairing the file (you might want to call your IT bod before you attempt this yourself).
7. VPN – if your system is trying to connect via a VPN network while you’re sending email, you may get this error. Try disconnecting the VPN before sending/ receiving mail (again, you might want to talk to the IT department first).

Hopefully one of these will sort the problem out for you.  This list of suggestions has been taken from this excellent article entitled “How To Fix “503 Valid RCPT Command Must Precede DATA” Error” on the We Rock Your Web website.  If you want to find out more about the problem and what causes it, have a read of the article.

Nikki recently spotted this interesting article on the BBC website about the size and pace of growth of the UK’s web economy.

According to a recent study carried out by researchers at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), in 2010 the web economy in the UK was worth £121bn, which is more than £2,000 per person.  This means it contributes to 8.3% of total UK economy, a bigger share than for any of the other G20 major countries.

Number of online purchases continues to increase fast

Volume of internet purchases continue to grow

Around 13.5% of all purchases were done over the internet in 2010, according to BCG, and this is projected to rise to 23% by 2016.

The researchers said that the overall UK web economy is particularly fast-growing.  They predict it will continue to expand at a rate of 11% per year for the next four years, reaching a total value of £221bn by 2016.

That compares with projected growth rates of 5.4% in the US and 6.9% in China.

Signs of a recovering economy

These figures, although dating from 2010, are published at a time when, from our viewpoint, there are signs that the economy is picking up.

The first quarter of this year has seen record sales for Blue Planet, with several large projects being commissioned.  The appetite to invest in web projects by small and medium-sized businesses certainly appears to be there, with companies both new and well-established looking to make significant moves into the web side of their marketing.

How Blue Planet can help you

Blue Planet has been helping businesses increase the effectiveness of their online marketing for over 10 years.  If you are interested in getting a better return on your investment from your website or online marketing, call us on 01825 760909 or email enquiries@blueplanetinternet.co.uk to have an initial informal chat.

The Keynes Suite at Chilverbridge House

Chilverbridge House is a luxury bed and breakfast in Arlington, East Sussex.  This wonderful Grade II listed house, which oozes period character and charm is now open to guests all year round.  Owners Nick and Nina Keats have done a superb job in renovating the property to the very highest standard.

Bedrooms have been tranquilly decorated and elegantly furnished in a distinctive, stylish mix of vintage and contemporary pieces with the emphasis on comfort, sophistication and utter luxury. Sumptuous, superior quality beds, goose down duvets and Egyptian cotton linens ensure the best possible night’s sleep.

A plentiful supply of towels is provided in beautiful, well-appointed, en-suite bathrooms. Flat screen television/DVD, generous sized fluffy bathrobes, complimentary slippers and other thoughtful accessories make this a home-from-home. Each of our guest suites enjoys its own balcony or patio garden and its own private entrance to the 7-acre grounds with easy access to ample gated off-road parking.

Visit the website at www.chilverbridgehouse.com.

Hawkes Beaumont sells luxury leather goods and personal accessories, including luxury leather handbags, leather laptop bags and briefcases, leather ipad and kindle covers, purses, wallets, stationery and writing instruments.

When we were first approached by owner Kyrstyan Exton, we were asked to help them find the new look that they wanted for their business, including the selection of a new name.  We really were starting with a blank piece of paper.

Following an extensive consultation period with the client, we created a process to take them from this blank page to a completed brand and ecommerce website.

The client was looking for a "classically British" look

Stage 1 – Brand naming

The first step was to go through a brand naming exercise.  We compiled a brief with the client to capture what image they wanted to project to their customers.  The client was looking for a name that would capture a feeling of heritage and reliability – “classically British” was the phrase they used to describe what they were after.

We began by researching things like significant names from British history and London street names to come up with some possible combinations that fitted the brief.  From our suggestions, the client chose a combination that they liked and the new name was born; Hawkes Beaumont.

Stage 2 – Brand identity

Concepts were presented to the client

Once the name had been selected, we started the process of creating the brand identity.  This starts with creating initial concepts for a logo and typeface.  This is the time when some of the more traditional tools of the trade are put in to use as most ideas will start with a pencil sketch before they make it to the screen to be “worked up” into a fully formed design.

The concepts were presented to the client in a face-to-face meeting.  We like to show the process to the client, showing them the stuff that we abandoned and the ideas we developed further, to help them understand the logic and thought process behind the work we have produced.  The ideas that have been developed further are shown in situ; the client can see how it will look on marketing materials such as letterheads, business cards and compliment slips.

Usually a brand identity evolves after showing it to the client, going through a few minor revisions before being finalised.  Once the Hawkes Beaumont brand identity had been established, we started on the design of the website.

The brand in place on the final design for the website

Stage 3 – Brand implementation

The Hawkes Beaumont project was all about taking the products online, so the core marketing of the business is through its website.

We produced two design ideas to present to the client, both of which carried the final brand identity forward.  Again, the designs went through several revisions as detail was tweaked to get it just right.  It was also important for the client to see how the design would continue through the site, so once the home page design was loosely agreed, we also produced designs for some of the other pages within the site including the category page and the product details page.

You can see the finished website by visiting www.hawkesbeaumont.co.uk.

How Blue Planet can help you with your brand

If you would like to talk to Blue Planet about how your business could benefit from reviewing its brand, contact us either by emailing mark@blueplanetinternet.co.uk or by calling us on 01825 760909 for an initial chat.

We’re often asked to take a look at websites and give our views on what could be improved.  Whilst we don’t like to put other web designers down (it’s really not our style), there are some examples of really bad design that really wind us up.  Don’t let yourself get caught out by these (and if you have, fix them quick).

Don’t…

1. Don’t Capitalize The First Letter Of Every Single Word

These are all red card offences

I’ve never understood this one.  Amongst some people (and we have clients who have done it) there’s an obsession with Capitalizing Every Single Word In A Headline Or Menu Item.  See how daft that sentence looked?  We Don’t Write Like This – so why do it on your website?

2. Don’t underline something that’s not a link

Sometimes you want something in your text to stand out.  In some cases you might want to make it bold, or possibly a different colour, but whatever you do, DON’T UNDERLINE IT.  Why?  Because on a website, if something is underlined, it’s a link.  That’s the way it’s always been, and when you see something that’s underlined and you go to click on it, and find it’s not a link…well, it’s frustrating to say the least.

3. Don’t use “clever” names for your pages

We’ve all seen this one.  In an attempt to be clever or “different”, a page that contains news is called “The Beat” or something equally cryptic and up-its-own-bottom.  What’s wrong with “News”, for goodness sake?  Never forget that the reason someone has come to your website is to find something – don’t make it difficult by calling your pages something daft.  Label pages clearly and let visitors know what to expect when they follow the link.

4. Don’t have pages “under construction”

No, no, no, no, NO...

This just looks lazy.  “Oh look, they couldn’t think of anything to say about themselves” is what they will say.  Oh, and “coming soon”, “we’re working on it!” or “due to launch next month” won’t cut it either (see point 3).

If you haven’t bothered to come up with anything to say on one of your pages, leave it out.  You can always add it in again later.

5. Don’t over use exclamation marks!!!

I have a bit of an issue with exclamation marks.  I don’t really like them.  I rarely use them.  To me, it looks as if someone is trying too hard to be funny or a little bit “crazy”.  They also look a bit cheap.

So don’t overuse exclamation marks! And whatever you do, absolutely never, ever, ever use lots and lots of them at the end of a sentence to really emphasise something!!!!

Aaaarghh….

Do…

After all that negativity, it’s only fair to give you some sound advice about what you should do to get more out of your website.

Don't expect to be the next Facebook for £250

1. Set realistic goals

Unfortunately, internet success stories like Twitter, Facebook and earlier Amazon and Google have left some people with the expectation that making squillions of pounds from a website is easy.  As with most things in life, the more you put in the more you get out and the internet is not really any different.

• Expect to have to provide some input into the creation of your website.
• Expect to have to at least take an interest in keeping it up to date and current.
• Expect to have to put in some time, effort and/or money to market your website and get people to come to it.

Be sure to have measurable goals, so that you can gauge whether your website has been “a success”.  What do you want to achieve in the first year?  Perhaps a certain number of sales or enquiries, or maybe a certain number of visitors?  A good website designer should understand your goals from the first meeting and work out how they can help to make it happen.

2. Be prepared to put in some effort

There’s no getting away from it – if you want to have a website that works well for you, you’re going to need to make a bit of an effort.  Your website designer isn’t a mind reader, and will never know as much about your business as you will.  They’ll need your input for a design brief, the information you want to include on your site, the copy (or if they’re writing the copy for you, they need to know what you want them to write about), possibly images too.  And after the site is launched, if you want the site to be marketed effectively, they’re going to need to know what keywords you want to target, which social networks might work best for your customers and so on.

3. Listen to advice from your web designer

This happens a lot, and it’s very frustrating.  If you hire a website designer to design and build your website for you, I’m guessing you must consider them to be competent and capable of delivering what you want.  So why would you then completely ignore every bit of advice they give about what makes a good website work?

A good website designer will have built up a lot of experience about good design, usability, search engine optimisation and much more.  Take on board what they have to say; trust them – they might just know what they’re talking about.

Make use of tools like Google Analytics

4.Monitor and review your website’s performance

Monitoring your website’s performance is pretty easy.  By using tools like Google Analytics, you can quickly and easily see how many people have visited your site, where they came from and what they looked at.  It’s free to use and you can even get reports emailed to your inbox whenever you want – so you don’t even have to remember to login and see how it’s going.

Comparison tools within Google Analytics will enable you to see trends – whether your website is busier this month than last month, or this quarter compared with the same quarter last year.

By monitoring and reviewing how your website is performing, you can make informed decisions about what you can do to improve it – and this will improve your bottom line.  Now that’s worth caring about, isn’t it?

How we can help

Blue Planet has been designing, building and developing websites for over 10 years.  If you need some help getting the most out of your website, give us a call on 01825 760909 or email mark@blueplanetinternet.co.uk.

When we’re first commissioned to develop a site, our planning process is thorough because that way the finished website will be one that our client, and we, can be proud of.

But as we work we’re constantly thinking about the flexibility and potential we can build in to enable the website to expand and change in this fast-moving world. We often find, when a website goes live, that talk instantly turns to what might happen next.

Case study: How Raystede are planning for the future

We have seen that with one of our most recent and involved projects – a new website for the animal charity Raystede, which is a showcase for the many elements of its work.

The original planning process was very detailed but even now, just weeks after the launch of the site we are talking to chief executive Nigel Mason and his team about what could be done next.

It’s worth taking a look at the website at www.raystede.org and seeing if you can spot all the elements so far included.

Most importantly there is the re-homing section where people who would like to take in an animal from the sanctuary can find out how to go about it – and even choose a pet there.

There’s an online shop, information for visitors, an education area for teachers, events calendar and booking system and crucially sections on volunteering, donating and sponsorship.

Different features from this list are used in varying combinations by our clients but it’s great for us to see them all come together in one place as they do on the Raystede site.

Our work is bespoke and tailored to the different needs of clients and we learn a huge amount about the way their businesses work.

How we can help your business

It’s a privilege to use our expertise to help them find the best way of presenting their organisation online with the aim of bringing in new business.  And we like our clients to know that we don’t just finish a project, say goodbye and forget about them.

Through our Website Review Programme we keep in touch about how to continue to get an even better return on investment.

If this way of working appeals to you, we’d be more than happy to have a chat with you about your requirements. You can call us on 01825 760909 or email enquiries@blueplanetinternet.co.uk.

If you would like to read more about the building of the Raystede website, you can read our previous blog posts:

Blue Planet wins Raystede website contract: http://www.blueplanetinternet.co.uk/blog/blue-planet-wins-raystede-website-contract

The importance of a professional website – a client’s view: http://www.blueplanetinternet.co.uk/blog/the-importance-of-a-professional-website-a-clients-view

Why patience is crucial during a website project: http://www.blueplanetinternet.co.uk/blog/why-patience-is-crucial-during-a-website-project

Blue Planet unveils new website design for Raystede: http://www.blueplanetinternet.co.uk/blog/blue-planet-unveils-new-website-design-for-raystede

Like the man who spent all he had building his dream house, only to discover it had no foundations, all the time and money you have spent on optimising your website for search engines could be completely wasted if you choose the wrong keywords.

Common mistakes

A common mistake is to target well-searched phrases, only to find that you’re facing a constant battle that you shouldn’t be fighting, and the visitors who do come to your site were looking for something else in the first place.

Choosing the wrong keywords is, frankly, pants

Example: “lingerie” might well be a highly searched phrase, but getting people to your site for this phrase is no good unless you actually sell pants.

You need to choose keywords that are:

• Relevant
• Specific
• Good value for the effort

In this post, we’ll attempt to provide an easy-to-follow guide to help you make better decisions when choosing your keywords.

Keyword research – a step-by-step guide

1. Choose 10 phrases to start

Start by writing down 10 keywords or phrases of your choice.  Base this list on what you want to sell most of to your customers.  Look for phrases rather than single word searches that could relate to lots of topics.

Example: You sell wooden photo frames.  “Frames” could relate to all sorts of things; zimmer frames, frames for spectacles, window frames etc.  “Photo frames” is better, but this would cover all types of materials and price ranges. “Wooden photo frames” is targeted and specific – people searching for this are looking for your product.

2. Use Google’s keyword tool for research

Get yourself on over to https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal.  This is Google’s free keyword research tool.

Google's Keyword Research tool

If you type in the keywords from your initial list from step 1, you’ll be given data on the number of searches carried out for that phrase during the last month (check the “Local Search Volume” column for the number of UK searches).  Even better though, you’ll also be given some alternative suggestions that are similar to your original phrase.  These will often include variations that you wouldn’t necessarily have thought of yourself.

By going through this step, you are making decisions based on actual data, rather than guesses or a hunch.

3.Filter the suggestions

Export the suggestions into a spreadsheet and then go through the list, filtering out any suggestions that are either irrelevant to your business, or duplicates.  Add a column called “Competing pages”.

4. Check the competition

Check how many other pages are competing for your keyword

So now you know which are the most popular search phrases that you might want to target.  But the most popular keywords can sometimes be the most competitive.  Remember, in order to be number one in Google, you just need to be more relevant to your keyword than everyone else.  If no-one else is making much effort to go for a keyword that you’re interested in, you could pick up quite a few visits without too much effort.  Conversely, you could spend all your time and effort trying to get to top spot against some big companies that are spending millions every year on online marketing.

The simplest way to gauge this is to go through your filtered list and do a search on Google.  Make a note of how many pages are returned for the search, and put them into the “Competing pages” column in your spreadsheet.

Perform a simple formula and divide the “Competing Pages” value by the “Number of searches” and put it into a new column called “Score”.  Sort the keywords into order by this column.  Keywords with a low score are well searched but not too competitive – and these could be the ones to target.

5. Select keywords for each page

From your list, choose a maximum of three keywords per page on your site.  Pages that are specific to one or two keywords are more likely to get good search results than pages that try to cover loads of keywords.

Example: A page just about “apples” is more relevant to “apples” than a page about apples, oranges, bananas and grapes.  The relevance to each of these keywords becomes diluted.

Choose specific keywords as much as possible, even if the search volumes are relatively low.  Better to be number 1 for “wooden photo frames” and get 100 visitors per month that are likely to buy one of your frames, than be page 3 for “photo frames” and get 200 people to your site that might be looking for a wooden frame.  Or maybe a metal frame.  Or a plastic frame.  You get the picture (oooh, bad pun).

How we can help

Blue Planet has been helping businesses with their online marketing for more than 10 years. If you are serious about making your website work harder for your business and would like to have a chat about what we can do for you, call us on 01825 760909 or email enquiries@blueplanetinternet.co.uk.

Just what you wanted

Let’s not call this a New Year’s Resolution.  If your resolutions are like mine, they’ll be lucky to last until the end of January before they’re cast aside along with those horrible socks you got for Christmas.

No – this is a plan.  A different approach.  A new, pro-active version of you that is going to actually make a difference to your bottom line.

This post is mainly aimed at those businesses that have a website but don’t get much out of it.  It’s there because you need to have one, but it’s gathering dust in the corner by the fax machine and the Yellow Pages.

The 10 steps in this guide are all pretty easy to implement and don’t require a great deal of website knowledge.  Even if you only do some of them, you’ll see an improvement in your website’s performance and – hey, let’s dare to dream – you might even get some new business through it…

1. Make a plan and a timetable

First up, you need to plan this out.  Don’t be intimidated by the long list; break it down and do a bit at a time.  Book out a couple of hours in your diary each month for each step and spread it out over the year.  Allocate a task or step to each session so you can see what’s coming up.

What sort of impression does this give your potential customers?

2. Review and update

Go through your website and make some notes about what needs updating.  There’s bound to be some stuff that’s got out of date, and there’s nothing worse than having obviously out of date information on your website.  Things to look out for might include:

1. Pricing changes
2. New products to be added, old ones to be removed
3. Changes to descriptions of services
4. Updating case studies, portfolios or galleries
5. Staff changes
6. Opening hours
7. Contact details

3. Install Google Analytics

You want to know whether the time and effort you put in to improving your website is working, don’t you?  Adding Google Analytics to your site is free and it gives you a whole load of stats that will help you get a better picture of how your website is performing for you. For some initial advice on Google Analytics, read our blog post Understanding Google Analytics.

4. SEO Part 1- Research your keywords

Improve your search engine ranking and get more traffic to your website by optimisation.  The first thing to do is research the search terms that people use to find your products and services.  You can do this using free tools like Google Adwords Keyword Research Tool.  Doing this sort of research ensures you find the best keywords and not just the ones you might think are the best.

Choose a couple of keywords for each page on your site, or each product or service you want to promote.

5. SEO Part 2 – Rewrite your page Titles and Headings

Once you’ve chosen keywords for your website, rewrite your page Titles and Headings.  Search engines look for these when they’re deciding what your web page is about, so by including your keywords you’re increasing the chances of being found for the searches you want.  We’ve written a blog post about How to write good page Titles to help you out.  You can follow a similar format for your headings.

6. Plan 6 promotions

Show your promotions and special offers at the front of your website

Have a think about 6 promotions that you could run throughout the year and plan to change your website around them.  It could be as simple as choosing your six most profitable products and featuring these in turn, or you could run some seasonal promotions.  Here’s a few ideas to get you started:

1. New Year Sale
2. Valentines Day
3. Mothers Day
4. Easter
5. Summer Holidays
6. Back to School
7. Halloween
8. Christmas
9. Sports events – the Olympics, Six Nations Rugby, Wimbledon Tennis, Euro 2012 Football…

7. Update your home page

Make the most of your home page by pushing your promotions or your best products and services.  Imagine that your home page is like walking into a shop – push your featured items to the front where everyone can see them.  For more information and guidance on improving your home page, read our blog post Top tips for improving your home page.

Oh, and one last thing – make sure you continue to update your home page with your six promotions…

8. Add a Call to Action to every page

You can increase the number of visitors that become leads or enquiries by having a clear and strong Call to Action on every page of your website.  This usually takes the form of a link or a button that specifically tells them what they can do next to follow up their interest.  Make sure you have a Call to Action on every page.  For more information, read our blog post 3 ways good website design can improve your business.

9. SEO Part 3 – Start a blog

Our blog uses WordPress

The best way to be found on search engines is to have pages that are very specific to your selected keywords.  A blog is an excellent way to achieve this because you can write articles or “posts” about specific topics and each post becomes a new page on your website.  This article that you are reading is number 70 – that’s 70 individual pages about different topics around particular keywords that can all be found under different searches.

We’ve written a number of posts about blogging:

Forward-thinking retailer embraces social media
Blogging – why, when and how you should do it
5 business benefits of blogging – are you missing out?
Top tips for writing a blog

10. Use Twitter

Using Twitter for your business can be a great way of getting your message out to a whole new group of potential customers.  Signing up is quick and easy, and “tweeting” doesn’t need to take up too much time either.  Once you’ve got a group of followers, every tweet you write is viewed by them and if they think it’s interesting, they might in turn share it with the people that follow them.  For more information about using Twitter for your business, read our blog post How to use Twitter, for small local businesses.

How we can help

Blue Planet works with dozens of small local businesses, helping them get more from their website and online marketing.  If you’re serious about making your website work harder for you, call us on 01825 760909 or email mark@blueplanetinternet.co.uk for an initial chat.