Nottingham Web Design Blog

The advantages of hosting in the cloud

All Webfuel websites and web applications are hosted in the Microsoft Azure cloud. Hosting in the cloud brings a lot of advantages over traditional on-site or dedicated server based hosting. This post looks at a few of these advantages in

Is Google telling your visitors your site is not secure?

In 2016 Google made a pledge, to name and shame all website with unencrypted connections. They have now followed through. A few days ago Google began to show a "Not Secure" warning next to the the URL bar for all

Webfuel GDPR Statement

GDPR is finally here! If you are an existing Webfuel client please take some time to familiarise yourself with our GDPR Compliance Statement. If you are an existing Webfuel customer and your organisation's Data Controller this statement should go some way

Top Five Reasons Why Visitors Leave Your Site

There is no point having a website if people are going to leave it immediately. Here are some common and simple mistakes that many websites make that lead to customer frustration and cause them to "bounce" away. 1. Website is

Webfuel partner with Olark for real time customer chat

Webfuel are pleased to announce our partnership with Olark, for live customer chat. By integrating your website with Olark you can chat in real time with your website visitors. One of the biggest factors in website bounce rates, particularly e-commerce

Link Building for SEO Success

Link building is still one of the key factors in SEO success. When Google or other search engines are analysing your site to determine its SEO rankings one of the key factors that they consider is the number and quality

Angular 2 Developer Nottingham

At Webfuel we are experts in Angular web development. Every web application we have built in the last few years has been in Angular. Both Angular 1 (AngularJS) and now Angular 2 (or just.... Angular). Angular is a JavaScript-based open-source front-end web application

Webfuel launch bespoke product and image management system

We have just launched a bespoke designed and built product and image management system for a local Nottingham based photography company. The company specialises in photographing products for large online retaliers such as Next and Dunelm, and the company was

Ecommerce SEO Checklist for Online Stores in 2018

Online stores are heavily reliant on organic traffic when it comes to driving sales. As SEO becomes increasingly multifaceted, the scope of ‘doing ecommerce SEO’ widens — now including disciplines like content marketing, digital PR, and UX (user-experience). Here are

Bespoke software development can save you time and money

A custom built web application can save your business both time and money. Every business does things slightly differently, and so their software needs are different too. Often trying to use standard off-the-shelf tools to support your business process can

Why you should upgrade your website to use SSL

SSL or Secure Sockets Layer is a technology that allows visitors to connect to a website using an encrypted connection. This means that even if someone is able to intercept the messages that the browser and website send to each

3 Essential SEO Tips for Video Content

While search engines have advanced by leaps and bounds over the years, they still aren’t able to ‘watch’ a video and understand what it is about. As such it falls to you to make sure that any video content you

Optimise images for happy Google PageSpeed Insights

If you run Google PageSpeed Insights on your website one of the common recommendations is to optimise the images on your website. Most images on a website are in either JPEG or PNG format, and both these image formats are

Webfuel launch a bespoke time card collection and reporting system

Webfuel have just launched a bespoke web based time card management system for a local Nottingham based engineering firm. The system allows all employees to log in either from their work computers, or via their own computers or mobile phones,

Webfuel deploy Q&A platform for Leicester University RDS department

Webfuel have recently deployed an open source Q&A platform for a department of Leicester University (RDS - Research Design Services). The tool allows RDS team members in Leicester and other RDS departments across the country to ask questions, provide answers

What are DNS Records?

If you have a website or email on your own domain then you will have DNS records. But what are DNS records exactly, and how do they work? If you'd like to learn a bit more about DNS then read on.

What Great SEO Content Looks Like

We are always being told that ‘content is king’, but what qualifies as good SEO content? How can you create content that is good for your website, good for users, and good for search engines? Here are some key characteristics

Get a FREE SEO audit from Webfuel

Every website can benefit from some SEO attention. Sometimes the hardest thing is simply knowing where to start. Don't worry, you can now get some simple and easy to action points to improve your SEO, for FREE. Our FREE SEO

Webfuel Social Media Platform PRO Price Reductions

We are today reducing the price of our social media platform PRO subscription by over 20%, from £8.99 per month to £6.99 per month. Better still we have introduced an annual subscription option of £69.99 a year which gives you

Positive AdWords Performance with Negative Keywords

AdWords is an auction. You get your ad in front of your customers by bidding on certain keywords. If you bid is high enough and your ad is relevant then Google will be more likely to show the ad in

The difference between POP and IMAP

When you download your email to your local devices (desktop/mobile phone) you will almost always be using one of two ancient email protocols. Either POP (aka POP3) or IMAP. The way you choose to download your email, which protocol you

Webfuel launch www.reviewist.co.uk

Webfuel are proud to announce the launch of www.reviewist.co.uk, a review collection service that can be integrated with any website. 1 in 4 website visitors will check for a review before making a purchase. With www.reviewist.co.uk you can collect reviews, send

Webfuel explore Microsoft Cognitive Services

We've recently been having a lot of fun exploring the power of Microsoft Cognitive Services for a project we are working on. Microsoft Cognitive Services are part of Microsoft's Cloud offering (also known as Azure). The services are split down

Make Your Website Accessible

Website accessibility refers to making a site which is accessible to everyone, including those with disabilities. Making your website accessible to everyone increases the number of potential visitors and customers of your website. It can significantly increase the success and profitability

4 Reasons Why Embedding Videos is Better Than Self-Hosting

On the surface it may seem like self-hosting videos is better than embedding them from YouTube (or other platforms). To a certain degree that is true, as self-hosting will give you full control over the video, minimize distractions and advertisements,

Where Can I Get Content For My Blog?

Having a blog can seem like a lot of work at times. To make it worthwhile we recommend you post at least twice a month, but ideally weekly. Posting regularly can give your website a big boost in search engine

Google Webmaster Tools & 404 Errors

Many site administrators use Google's excellent Webmaster Tools (also known as Google Search Console) to monitor their website for common issues. This free service from Google will alert you to common issues on your website, and also gives you invaluable

Get the SEO fundamentals right

SEO doesn't have to be hard. There are some fundamental techniques and practices which can set you on the path to better Google rankings. While the rules that Google uses to rank sites are changing all the times, the tips

Google Penguin 4.0 Changes

Google has recently announced an update to its Penguin algorithm, this is the fourth such update and is therefore creatively dubbed Penguin 4.0. What is Penguin? Penguin is part of Googles search engine ranking algorithm. The primary function of penguin

5 ways to get more sales on your ecommerce website

Our last post looked at 5 simple ways to get more visitors to your ecommerce website. But if you are getting the visitors, but still not getting the sales, what can you do? You know you've got a great store,

5 ways to get more customers to your ecommerce website

There is loads of advice online when it comes to making more sales from your ecommerce website. The biggest mistake any budding web entrepreneur can make is to assume that just by putting a site online you will gain visitors

TypeScript is the new Javascript

At Webfuel we do a lot of work in the browser. A lot! Every browser worthy of the name runs a programming language called Javascript. Javascript is by some measures the most popular programming language in the world. There are

Get Free Hosting With Webfuel

If you have a Webfuel hosted website what could be better than free hosting too? For every client you introduce to Webfuel who goes on to subscribe for a Webfuel website we will reduce your hosting cost by 20%. Introduce 5 clients

Create & Edit Images in Webfuel CMS

You can now create new images, and edit existing images from within the Webfuel CMS. We have integrated with the popular PicMonkey image editing service to bring advanced image editing from the comfort of your own file manager. To get

Access over 31 million stock images from Webfuel CMS

You can now access over 31 million royalty free stock images from within the Webfuel CMS file manager. We have partnered with Bigstock to bring you their entire stock image library without having to leave the CMS. The prices for

Webfuel Website Support Packages

A website support package is a commitment from us to spend a fixed number of hours per month working on your website. Improving the look, functionality and search engine rankings of the website. At Webfuel we spend many hours a

How Blogger Outreach Can Help Your Business Grow

It's hard to do everything on your own. Including growing your online presence. Google places a great deal of value on the number and quality of sites that link back to your site. Growing your organic SEO rankings without quality

How to Keep Your Blog Active

We recommend to every new website client that they have a blog on their website. This is for one very simple reason. Google loves blogs. A blog is a great way of adding new content to your website on a

Responsive Newsletter Templates

Webfuel's Campaign Manager software is a great tool for managing large email distribution lists and sending marketing email campaigns to hundreds or thousands of recepients. We have recently released a range of free, customisable newsletter templates that are easy to

Get Free Stuff from Webfuel

Everyone likes free stuff... Free Social Media Platform Try out our advanced social media platform, which allows you to create and schedule social media posts in one place and have them automatically post across all the major social media websites.

Depersonalise Google Search Results

If you're interested in where you rank on Google, and where your competitors are ranking, then a natural thing to do is to enter your search terms into Google and have a look. Unfortunately this doesn't always give you the

Xamarin + Microsoft = Amazing Apps

At Webfuel we write most of our mobile apps using Xamarin, which is fantastic cross platform mobile app framework that allows us to write the app once and have it run natively on iOS, Android, Windows & Mac. Because of this

Easter Fun with CSS Animations

As almost all modern browsers now support a wide range of CSS3 features it's become more feasible to use some of the advanced features in everyday websites. One of the really fun things introduced in CSS was pure CSS animations.

AdWords Tips & Tricks

AdWords is complicated, very complicated, and there are lots of things to consider when setting up an AdWords campaign. Here we've listed a few of our favourite tips and tricks. The kind of things we often find when we review a

Webfuel Launch Keyword Finder

Webfuel are proud to announce the launch of our Google Keyword Finder tool. This tool has been part of our online SEO dashboard for our SEO campaign clients for some time, but we are now opening it up for anyone

How to pick a domain name

We are often asked for advice on picking a domain name when someone wants to setup a website. In this post we'll look at some of the things to consider when finding that perfect domain name for your new website.

Startup Template Websites

Not everyone wants a custom designed website, or has the budget for it initially. Sometimes you just want something simple, off-the-shelf, setup quickly and easily. If that's what you're looking for then maybe our startup template websites are for you. Our

Hamburger navigation menus and their use in web design

Web designers call it "the hamburger". The three stacked lines, often in one of the top corners of a website, which users click to see a menu of pages on the site. Its use is ubiquitous across websites when viewed on

Webfuel Managed WordPress Hosting

At Webfuel we host most of our websites on our scalable cloud CMS which is based on the open source Microsoft stack. However we often have requests to take over the hosting, backup and administration for sites hosted on the

Instagram marketing, and why you should care

Instagram has been taking the internet marketing world by storm recently. What started out as a fairly simple photo manipulation and sharing tool has grown into a full blown social media marketing phenomenon. Many ecommerce sites are supported by their

The Internet of Things (IoT)

You may have heard a new buzzword recently. IoT, or Internet of Things, but what exactly is IoT and why are some companies getting very excited about it? IoT describes the idea that the internet is becoming much more than

Creating great content for your B2B website

Although all business want the design of their website to look great and grab a users interest, it is the websites usability and copy which will make or break the user experience. Good website copy should be: customer-focused clear &

Why scrolling is the new click

An ongoing debate in web design has been the scroll vs the click. Do users visiting a website prefer to scroll through a long page or click through to new pages? 2015 has possibly seen the demise of non scrolling websites, and

2 Web Design trends we will see more of in 2016

2 distinct and somewhat opposite web design trends we'll be seeing more of in 2016 are the use of rich illustrations and animation. Rich Illustrations In the past web site designers have relied heavily on stock photography and image libraries to provide the

Web Design & Software

Did you know..... we don't just create innovative web designs that help your business grow.... we also do software development? Over the years Webfuel have helped many clients with advanced software development projects including: An online clinical database that is

Webfuel Template Website Process

When we undertake a template website build our process is a little different to a bespoke web design process. This blog post covers the steps we go through for a template website design & build process, from conception to launch. Step 1:

Internet Explorer could soon be a thing of the past

As of January 12th 2016 Microsoft will officially stop supporting Internet Explorer versions 7, 8, 9 and 10 on most operating systems. This is the biggest step yet towards phasing out Internet Explorerer entirely and moving users onto Microsoft's modern

Webfuel Bespoke Web Design Process

We are often asked how our bespoke web design process works. This blog post covers the steps we go through for a standard web design project, from conception to launch. Step 1: Design Our design process starts with our designer

Improve your Social Media with Image Posts

Social Media is about engaging people. People are looking for unique and interesting content to read and share. Most users of social media only spend a few minutes on each session. They scan feeds quickly and will move on if

Time for a Logo Redesign?

How do you know when it is time for a logo redesign? The first and most obvious thing to consider is when was your logo designed? Is it a recent design, or have you been using the same logo for

Webfuel Launch Free Websites

Is it really possible to get a modern, mobile friendly website, setup and ready to launch.... for free? With a Webfuel free website it is. Other free website solutions leave you to setup the site on your own. We think running a

How does SEO keyword niche analysis work?

Any effective SEO campaign starts with keyword analysis. Before we can decide where to target our SEO efforts we first need to understand what keywords we are going to be getting to Google page 1. Our keyword research revolves around

Webfuel Cloud Server Hosting

We don't just host websites. We can also provide fully managed virtual server hosting with servers running either Linux or Windows Server. All our server hosting packages come with support and advice to help you make the leap into the

The design of an SEO campaign

If you sign-up for an SEO campagin we will perform a range of monthly tasks all focused on getting your site to Google page 1 for the campaign's target keywords. The exact composition of each campaign will vary depending on

Webfuel Launch SEO Dashboard

Webfuel are proud to announce the launch of our brand new SEO Dashboard. This web based dashboard allows all our SEO clients to login daily to track the ongoing progress on improving their keyword rankings. We check keyword rankings at

FREE Social Media Marketing Platform

We are please to announce the launch of our FREE social media marketing platform. Our platform simplifies and streamlines the job of posting content to Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn. Using the platform you can: Write a post once and automatically

Keep your social media buzzing

Keeping you social media buzzing takes dedication. Logging in to post several times a day, across Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn can feel like a full time job. Building a social media presence takes time, and patience. That's where we come

Webfuel introduce dynamic site scaling

Webfuel are pleased to announce the launch of a new feature available by default to all customers on our cloud hosted content management system. Dynamic site scaling. This feature automatically increases the number of servers running your website if it experiences an

Webfuel moves into the cloud

We have moved into the cloud. Our content management system (CMS) which runs our client sites now runs 100% within Microsoft's Azure cloud hosting environment. All our other hosted web applications are following along soon. This move brings a number

Google Geolocation API

The Google Geolocation API gives your site access to the rich mapping data that Google has built up as part of its Google maps database. If your website needs to show visitors information about the distances between sites, or the

WordPress Template Websites

One of the great things about WordPress is the range of professionally designed templates that are available online for you to use, rebrand with your own logo / colours and of course add your own content. Many small businesses simply do

Hero Banners

A hero banner, or hero image, is a large banner image placed prominently on a web page. With the rise in responsive design these kind of banners have become even more popular, because a responsive design allows the banner to

Responsive E-Commerce

With an estimated 45% of all web browsing now happening on mobile devices it has never been more important to ensure that your e-commerce site is mobile responsive. If your e-commerce framework is not mobile friendly you are quite literally

6 tips for checkout success

Every e-commerce store has visitors that drop-out at the checkout stage. It is unavoidable as some visitors aren't really there to buy, they are just there to price up something they may want to buy later. But even so there

Content generation & placement

As we've covered in other blog posts one of the key factors in Google's ranking algorithms is the number and quality of in-bound links. But what exactly makes a quality in-bound link, and more importantly how do you get these

Copy Writing Services

One of the most important things you can do to give you site a boost in search engine results is to regularly add new content to the website. The amount of content on a website, and the frequency with which

SEO in-bound links

One of the key factors that Google looks at when ranking a site is the number and quality of sites that link to it. Google's ranking algorithms work by treating the entire internet as a giant web of connections. If

Microsoft's Open Source Revolution

The world of open source software is experiencing a revolution. Traditionally open source has been the domain of the newcomer to the software market, or restricted to the worlds of Linux / Apache servers. But more recently the big boys

Rich Snippets for E-commerce and SEO

Snippets are the few lines of text that appear after a search result. They give the visitor an idea of the content of the page. They are usually just plain text, taken from the content of the page itself, or

New domain extensions are here to stay

A revolution in domain names has been taking place over the last few months. Every website needs a domain name, the address of the site itself on the internet. For example our domain name is webfuel.com. Every domain name is

Onsite Web Developers From Webfuel

Do you need an experienced front or back end web developer for work onsite? If you're looking for a developer with expertise in any of the following technologies please give us a call. C#/.NET Framework (2.0/3.5/4.0/Core) NET WebForms/MVC/WebApi Azure (including

What is a database application?

Many clients come to us looking for a database application. But what is a database application exactly, and how does it differ from other applications? The main feature of a database application is that it is primarily concerned with creating, updating

Why Page Speed Matters

The speed with which your website loads matters for two reasons. Firstly a fast loading website results in a better user experience and secondly it is one of the factors that Google measures when determining search engine rankings. There are

Webfuel Email Hosting

If you want to have email on your own domain name you need someone to host that email for you. Webfuel offer an email hosting service that scales to any number of mailboxes you need. This articles explains the features of

Supercharge your Google Analytics

We should all be using Google Analytics to track visitors to our websites. It's as simple as registering with Google and pasting a short piece of tracking code into the header of your web page. This simple step then gives

The Importance of Good Website Content

High quality content is crucial to the success of any website in order to retain visitors and have a high ranking on search engines. Of course the design of the website is essential in making a good first impression on

Harness the power of the Google Display Network

Most website owners nowadays know about Google Adwords, and how they can use it to put their adverts at the top of the Google search listings. But not everyone is familiar with the Google Display Network, which can be used

What is cloud hosting?

You've probably heard about the cloud, but do you really know what it is, and how it can help your business. The term cloud can be used to mean a number of different things. In terms of home computing it

Search Engine Optimisation - Natural Rankings (Part 2)

So, you've chosen your keywords, and you are regularly adding new keyword related content to your site. What else can you do to boost your natural rankings? One thing to consider is whether the content you are adding is working

Search Engine Optimisation - Natural Rankings (Part 1)

We are often asked by clients what they can do to improve their position in search engine rankings. This is not a simple question to answer as there are lots of different factors to consider. In this series we look at

Should my website be responsive?

If you keep yourself up-to-date in online marketing or are the person responsible for maintaining your company website, then no doubt you will have come across the latest term in usage regarding a website’s design and build – responsive design.

How to Write A Web Design Brief

If you have found this article it's likely that you've been allocated the job of writing a web design brief, either for a brand new website or a redesign of a current website. Get it right and you have a

15 Years of Web Design in Nottingham, Loughborough and Leicester

Web design has come a long way since 1999 when I started my first job as a web designer based in Nottingham. Since then I have worked as a web designer in Leicester, London, Barcelona and Auckland before setting up

Why do I need a Content Management System?

Why should I use a Content Management System (CMS)? That is a question we get asked almost daily by both our current and potential clients. The truth is, a client almost needs to feel the pain of a static website before

What's happening in Web Design? (Part 2)

Incorporation of video Something else you will start seeing more of within website designs, especially in hero areas, are videos. An example of a website using a video in it's hero area is Coin.Videos are an effective way to communicate

What's happening in Web Design? (Part 1)

Web design, web site layout and content has evolved rapidly over the last 12 to 18 months. So much so that even new websites, launched in the last few months, can look a little dated if following traditional web site

What is a responsive user interface?

The term responsive design is often applied to modern web design. But what is responsive design and how does it apply to web software development? As more and more people access the internet from tablet and mobile devices it became

What is Google +1

Does your website take advantage of Google's latest trend, the +1? If you have a website and you want to maximise your traffic you might want to start thinking about whether you should be implementing the +1. Since Google came

EU Cookie Legislation Update

Following recent changes to EU privacy legislation all websites are now required to obtain informed consent from UK and EU visitors for the use of cookies and other user tracking technologies. The change in legislation was prompted by a wide

Newsletter Campaign Tips

Many clients have found our Campaign Manager software an invaluable tool for keeping in touch with their suppliers, contacts and leads. Here we share some of our tips on producing an effective newsletter campaign. 1. The Subject Line and Sender All

The Do-Not-Track debacle

We're big fans of web privacy at Webfuel. We've posted about Do Not Track (DNT) in the past. DNT is a mechanism by which web users can change a setting in their browsers which tells every website that they visit

What do I need in an e-commerce store (Part 2)

In the first part of this post we covered the e-commerce catalogue, variations and the payment gateway. In this part we look at the different features that can be built into an e-commerce store checkout. A e-commerce checkout is all

What do I need in an e-commerce store (Part 1)

If you're considering entering the world of e-commerce then one of the most important decisions you can make is which e-commerce software to use. But first it helps to think about what the key features of an e-commerce store are.

Keeping it Fresh

Recently Google announced another major change to the way it ranks web pages. The search giant updated its algorithms to give greater priority to "fresh" content. The rationale behind this change is that people are generally seeking news and information on

Powerful Reporting with Microsoft SQL Server

Many web applications require some sort of reporting functionality. One of the most powerful frameworks for developing complex reports is Microsoft's SQL Server Reporting Service (SSRS). Webfuel web applications use SSRS to deliver complex reporting functionality for our clients. Developing

Generate some Pinterest in your website

The web is going Pinterest crazy at the moment. Pinterest is the latest thing in social media, and since its launch in 2010 has been the fastest growing social site ever. Unlike other social media sites Pinterest is based on

8 Website Redesign Considerations

With all the experience and knowledge gained from your previous websites a website redesign should be an opportunity to turn your web presence into a success. However due to a lack of proper thought and planning many redesigns can still

The dawn of HTML 5

The HTML 5 browser standard is going to change the internet forever. Amazing as it may sound, HTML was invented over 30 years ago. In 1980 Tim Berners-Lee, then working at CERN wrote a paper outlining the basics of the HTML

Features to Include in a Website

Prior to focussing on what the design of your new website will look like it is important to decide what features and content the website will incorporate so that these can be properly planned into the new layout and design.

The Mythical Man Month

The Mythical Man Month is a classic book on software engineering by Fred Brooks. The book is often cited as being the only book you ever need to read on software engineering. If you're going to commission a large software project

7 signs that your website may need a redesign

The last couple of years have seen rapid changes in technology, how websites are used and an increased focus on social media and community interaction. All these factors shape how a website is used and should look and function, and changes

Website Landing Pages that Work

Designing an effective website landing page will increase the number of site visitors that take the desired action. Below we discuss the web design and content factors which make a good landing page. It's worth first quickly defining what we mean