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Your Current Website Checklist

This is a checklist for your website and what it could be missing. I first provide the checklist with a basic description of what each point is, then go into further detail with examples later on.

1. SSL 

SSL certificates are data files that establish an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. If your website isn’t secure you could be losing business as people may click off your site if they know their data won’t be protected.

2. Design and User Experience 

The aesthetic of your landing page is where your user gets their first impression of your website, so you want it to stand out for the right reasons, not the wrong. Your website needs to look good to create the best impression for your business and services.

3. Mobile and tablet optimisation

We all live busy lives, so people usually access websites on the go. If your website isn’t optimised for mobile and tablet then it’ll reduce your chance of success from your website.

4. SEO

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is used to increase a website’s position on search engines results pages such as Google, Yahoo or Bing. Having your SEO set up correctly and strategically helps draw consumer traffic to your website, boosting sales and revenue.

5. Google Loading Time

You can use Google Loading Time to see how long your website is taking to load. In short, you want your website to load as fast as possible. If you get a low ranking on Google Loading Time, you should aim to change that as quickly as possible.

6. Favicon

A favicon is a small icon used in a web browser to represent a website/web page. Although they may appear minuscule in the grand scheme of your website, they have great importance by improving user experience, branding and professionalism.

7. Cookie and Privacy Policy

Your website is required under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to let users control the activation of cookies and trackers which collect personal data.

 

1. SSL 

SSL certificates are data files that establish an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This means that all data being passed between the web server and the browser remains private and protected. Having an SSL certificate is essential for any website that is requesting or submitting any data. 

If your website isn’t secure you could be losing business as people may click off your site if they know their data won’t be protected. Google has announced that SSL also works as a ranking signal, meaning if you don’t have a SSL your website will be harder to find, impacting on your website traffic and revenue.

Screenshot of Beue Media’s website security.

2. Design and User Experience 

This is a critical part of your website which needs to be done correctly as it is how your user views and uses your website. The aesthetic of your landing page is where your user gets their first impression of your website, so you want it to stand out for the right reasons, not the wrong. Your website needs to look good to create the best impression for your business and services.

You want the design of your website to match your branding and to align with what you want to achieve from your website, looking professional and helping achieve your business’ goals. User Experience is key for having a great website, the navigation needs to not only work correctly, but it should aim to make it easy for the user to access and understand.

Screenshot of QLC’s website, designed by Beue Media.

3. Mobile and tablet optimisation

We all live busy lives, so people usually access websites on the go. If your website isn’t optimised for mobile and tablet then it’ll reduce your chance of success from your website. Over 60% of people accessing the internet are using their phones, meaning if your website isn’t optimised for mobile, you are losing out on 60% plus of potential customers and revenue.

Screenshot of Beue Media’s website on tablet and mobile.

4. SEO

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is used to increase a website’s position on search engine results pages (SERPs) such as Google, Yahoo or Bing. Having your SEO set up correctly and strategically helps draw consumer traffic to your website, boosting sales and revenue.

How can you boost your website ranking? You want to ensure that your website is set up using H1 tags. This makes your website more likely to appear on a search engine when the user searches keywords which are part of your titles.

Your meta description should be written strategically, using keywords to help maximise your website position in search engine results. You can also boost your ranking by making sure the pages on your website use permalinks that are concise to ensure they are optimal.

Screenshot of Beue Media’s SEO.

5. Google Loading Time

You can use Google Loading Time to see how long your website is taking to load. In short, you want your website to load as fast as possible. If you get a low ranking on Google Loading Time, you should aim to change that as quickly as possible. Your website’s loading speed also impacts it’s ranking on search engines and Google is now valuing website loading speed more and more.

What causes a low ranking? Having large file size images can slow down your website. In most cases, you can reduce the file size of images without disrupting their quality. You should aim to have your website load in under 3 seconds. Faster is better, as your site’s speed can contribute to the rise and fall of your conversion rate.

Screenshot of the Google Loading Time from PageSpeed Insights for a website that Beue Media designed.

6. Favicon

A favicon is a small icon used in a web browser to represent a website/web page. They are most commonly displayed on the tabs at the top of a web browser but are also found on a bookmark bar, in your history tab and more. As this icon is seen in different places, it’s important that you have one on your website, and that it links to your business’ branding.

Although they may appear minuscule in the grand scheme of your website, they have great importance by improving user experience, branding and professionalism. They act as a visual cue and can make your website easy to locate in bookmarks and in the history tab. Favicons contribute to your branding, so you shouldn’t miss out on the chance to enhance the professional look to your website.

Screenshot of Beue Media’s favicon.

7. Cookie and Privacy Policy

Cookies can be used on websites to retain information such as login credentials and identify customers to provide a more personalised shopping experience. They are also used in website tools such as Google Analytics, which is used to help you analyse in-depth detail about the visitors on your website. Depending on the type of cookies used on your website, you may need to request consent from your users before they use your website. 

Your website is required under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to let users control the activation of cookies and trackers which collect personal data. This is because one of the most common ways for personal data to be collected and shared online is through cookies, hence under GDPR cookie consent is the most frequently used legal basis that allows websites to process personal data and use cookies.

Screenshot of Beue Media’s Cookies pop-up.
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What you need to know about SEO. The 3 pillars.

In this weeks blog post I will be coving the fundamentals of SEO by walking you through the 3 mighty pillars of SEO.

Introduction

Firstly SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, it’s the process of ranking higher on Search Engine Results Pages or SERP.

The 3 pillars of SEO are as follows: 1. Search Intent/Content 2. Technical Onsite SEO 3. Backlinks sometimes called “Offsite SEO”. 

With the combinations of these 3 pillars will you have a strong website that ranks well in all major search engines.

The first pillar – Search intent & content

Everything that happens in a search engine begins with a question/query and ends with a result/answer. This is fundamental to SEO and will stick around with every algorithm update.

There are different kinds of search intents:

1.  Educational – when a user wants to find out what SEO stands for, “what does SEO stand for?”.

2. Transaction – when a user wants to buy a football goal, “football goal for sale”.

3. Navigation – if a user already know where they want to buy their football goal from. They want to buy it from SportsDirect, they type “SportsDirect”.

4. Commercial Investigation – This is where the user doesn’t know which football boot brand to buy, and they want to know the difference between the two, this is where they want to compare products to figure out what they really want, “Nike vs Adidas football boots”.

So, the basis of this pillar is to make sure that you are answering the correct search intents/queries with quality, original content and blog posts, which are inlined with your business goals.

Screenshot of https://www.google.co.uk/ homepage

The second pillar – Technical onsite SEO

Technical onsite SEO is all about how your website is structured. The user experience comes into play here but it really comes downs to the code of the website. Including items such as heading tags, image alt descriptions, page speed, etc.

Technical onsite SEO is all about formatting your website in a way Google understands, because if it doesn’t, it won’t show it in its SERPs.

Photo by https://unsplash.com/@florianolv? Source https://unsplash.com/photos/4hbJ-eymZ1o

The third pillar – Backlinks Offsite SEO

Backlinks and links can be thought of references & citations in a paper published in an academic journal. The more of high quality links, the better. Google rank all links based on a simple 3 principle framework called DND.

D – Domain Authority

This brings into question how credible is the domain, Google check the website by the 3 pillars mentioned in this blog post.

N – Niche Relevance

Is the links destination relevant to its starting point? For example if a Yoga Teacher website links to a website designer, they aren’t relevant to each other. However, if the Yoga Teacher website links to a Yoga Leggings website, they are relevant and will get a higher Niche Relevance Score.

D – Do Follow

There are two ways of linking:

Do follow – if a link is set to “do-follow” you are saying that you recommend the destination, and so your reputation is passed on through the link.

No Follow – if a link is set to “no-follow” you are simply saying I am unsure of the reliability and qualify of the destination of this link, but you can still use it at your own risk, while not passing on any of your own reputation.

The more higher ranked do follow backlinks you have, the better position you are in for this third pillar.

Source https://www.cenaynailor.com/examples-embedded-links-hyperlinks/

Bringing it all together

All 3 pillars need to work together in some shape or form. Here is an analogy imagine a car:

The car itself is the technical onsite SEO, the fuel for the car is the backlinks offsite SEO and the driver is the search intent. You need all three for it work and without one, you won’t go anyway (unless you are in a Tesla).

Source https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimgorzelany/2019/07/23/here-are-the-coolest-new-cars-for-2020/

Thank you for reading!

If you want to learn more about SEO we would strongly recommend using https://hawkacademy.co/, it’s a really great platform!

PS – they offer a free trial.

Key words

Algorithm “Google’s algorithms are a complex system used to retrieve data from its search index and instantly deliver the best possible results for a query. The search engine uses a combination of algorithms and numerous ranking signals to deliver webpages ranked by relevance on its search engine results pages (SERPs).”.

Heading Tag “The heading tag is used in HTML to define headings of a page. Headings are defined by <hn> , with “n” being a number between 1 and 6, and determines which position a heading has in the hierarchy of the heading structure. Heading tags have a particularly important function within an HTML structure.”

Page Speed “Page speed is the measurement of how fast the content on your website page loads”.

Alt Text “Also called “alt tags” and “alt descriptions,” alt text is the written copy that appears in place of an image on a webpage if the image fails to load on a user’s screen. This text helps screen-reading tools describe images to visually impaired readers and allows search engines to better crawl and rank your website.”

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Queen’s Lane Consultants

The Challenge

Queen’s Lane Consultants exists to make R&D Tax Credits accessible to businesses across the UK. Their professional client-first approach had made them one of the fastest-growing companies in their industry.

Their old website was a year old, and due to their rate of growth was stale and out of date. It needed to be redesigned from the ground up with their new encrypted client portal in mind. Their website needed to represent their new size and success as a company. 

Beue Media Portfolio | QLC Website | Our Team Beue Media Portfolio | QLC Website | Matt Amery Beue Media Portfolio | QLC Website | Client Case Studies Beue Media Portfolio | QLC Website | Greig & Stephenson Limited

Our Approach

We started the website design process with a conversation, already having a good understanding of what QLC wanted after designing their client portal. Meaning we could redeploy the design language used for their new website. 

Having access to their Google Analytics account, meant we could investigate the user flow of their old website and use this data to improve the User Experience of the new site. We found a high volume of users visiting the “Our Team” page, meaning we needed to explore ways to cater for this higher volume of users. We decided to create a unique page for each employee allowing users to learn more about QLC’s great team.

Beue Media Portfolio | QLC Website | How You Qualify Beue Media Portfolio | QLC Website | Qualifying With Architecture Beue Media Portfolio | QLC Website | Our Offices Beue Media Portfolio | QLC Website | Book A Call

Working with QLC and Frank was an absolute pleasure and I look forward to working with QLC in the future.

“Jacob was fantastic throughout the entire process, he was up to speed and informed, professional and good to deal with.

I would recommend him to anyone in need of a professional website builder.”

Frank Collings

Managing Director – Queen Lane’s Consultants

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5 Reasons You Need a Logo Redesign

In today’s blog post we will be discussing 5 reasons you need to redesign/update your businesses logo & branding.

Contemporary

Having a contemporary logo gives the impression to your consumers that you are aware of current trends which suit their needs. Rebranding to have a more contemporary look is very common, especially with large iconic brands such as Google. Whether it’s a subtle change or a complete rework, having a contemporary logo will benefit your brand, even for traditional brands which can keep their heritage through modern design. This can mean a more innovative or minimalistic design which shows off everything consumers need to know about your brand in a simple way.

Microsoft Logo Development
Available at https://www.pinterest.at/pin/253397916517018971/

Represent Brand Values

As your company grows, your brand values may change. Your logo needs to represent these new values so it makes the correct impression to your consumers. Depending on your brand identity, your logo may look outdated, so a redesign can help, but keep your values in a more effective contemporary design.

Scalable – Link To Marketing

In modern times, logos are used across a wide range of platforms, where some logos weren’t designed with this in mind. Your logo needs to be flexible to work in different environments where dimensions change. If your logo isn’t available in an array of different sizes to be adapted to fit different environments, it’s time for that to change.

Beue Media and Queen's Lane Consultations Logo Variations
Beue Media and Queen’s Lane Consultations Logo Variations

Your Logo Doesn’t Stand Out Enough

In all markets, it is essential for your logo to stand out from your competitors. Your logo is the first touchpoint of your brand, meaning standing out will have an impact on both your brand and your bottom line. It is important to grab the attention of your consumers quickly, communicating your core values and attracting your target audience.

Rebranding with new company colours

As time passes your market may change, meaning you may require a rebrand to adapt the direction of your business to this “market change”. This may mean the structure of your branding will need a new look, including new colours. Colour can have an impact on a company’s branding and marketing, but also need to be used correctly to represent the personality of your brand.

Here at Beue Media, we specialise in logo & branding design – so if you are thinking about updating your branding or logo in the near future please don’t hesitate to contact us at enquiry@beuemedia.com, or via our graphic design page.

 

Thank you for reading, we hope you are having a great day!