http://www.articletrader.com/ Articles at ArticleTrader en-us http://www.articletrader.com/business/new-md-for-rhodar-as-davy-moves-to-a-more-strategic-role.html http://www.articletrader.com/business/new-md-for-rhodar-as-davy-moves-to-a-more-strategic-role.html Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500 With effect from 1 September 2008, Andrew Thornber will take on the key management role, in a move from his current position as financial director. Andrew Mill has been promoted from group accountant to the role of financial director for Rhodar.

The move will allow the current MD of Rhodar, Jason Davy, to focus fully on his position as chief executive of Lexia Solutions Group, Rhodar’s parent company. This signals a commitment by the asbestos and environmental solutions specialist to continue strengthening its management team across the group, as the business diversifies and delivers ambitious growth plans over the next three years.

The Lexia Solutions Group also includes Thermac, a specialist equipment manufacturer; Novas, a property reinstatement company; Bagnall UK, a demolition and land remediation specialist; and Life Environmental Services, an environment compliance and risk management solution specialist. The group has seen a 100 per cent growth in the last three years and plans to increase growth further, both organically and through acquisition.

Commenting on his appointment, Andrew Thornber, said: “It is a tremendous privilege to be taking on this role at such an exciting time in Rhodar’s development. We are already one of the largest and most respected companies in the industry, and with a constant commitment to innovation, improved efficiencies and a clearly defined vision, we have every intention of further strengthening our position in the market. Rhodar has more term contracts and service agreements than ever, and the pipeline for the rest of the year looks very positive.”

Jason Davy adds: “Having worked closely with Andrew for the last five years in his role as the financial director of Lexia, I know he is the ideal person to take Rhodar forward and continue to grow our market share and profitability.

“I am very proud to have managed Rhodar over the past 12 years, but it is now time for me to throw my full attention into the strategic plans for development that we have for the Lexia Solutions Group as it continues to grow at a rapid rate.”

Ends

26th September 2008

Editor Information: about Rhodar Ltd

Rhodar Limited was established as a private limited company in 1976 and has been holder of an asbestos removal licence since the Asbestos Licensing Regulations were first introduced in 1983.

The company is full members of A.R.C.A. (Asbestos Removal Contractor Association), of which our Managing Director, Jason Davy, is a leading committee member. Rhodar is also BS EN ISO 9001 accredited and member of RoSPA and The British Safety Council.

In the last five years, Rhodar has grown to become one of the UK's largest and most respected asbestos abatement companies, making it the flagship brand within the Lexia Solutions Group – Rhodar's parent company.

With offices throughout the UK, and over 300 specialist staff, they are ideally situated to provide a fast, efficient, professional response for any asbestos abatement project with a management team that has the expertise and experience to create a tailor made solution for any company.

Rhodar is one of only a select few to hold the prestigious Site Audit Accreditation Scheme Award (SAAS) and A.R.C.A. Training Awards. As we enter our fourth decade of business our longevity is testimony to our commitment to quality of workmanship and health and safety.

For further information, visitthe Rhodar website at www.rhodar.co.uk


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Keyclicks is a Complete Creative Package, Design Print, Web and Promotion agency Based near Leeds, West Yorkshire in the UK: we are a team of highly experienced web development, marketing and graphic design professionals that offer creative fixed price web page design and marketing solutions for both print and web. Leeds Web Design Firm, Leeds Web Development, Leeds marketing Agency.


Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/internet/seo/social-media-marketing.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/seo/social-media-marketing.html Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
What Peer seems to specialize in is “social media” or “online social media marketing and promotional services”. For the uninitiated, this basically means adopting the concepts of the various social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and My Space etc as a means of directly promoting a specific business, product or service or even raising awareness of one’s own personal brand. It’s growing area within the online digital marketing sector to be fair and there’s undoubtedly some value in it for certain types companies that have identified “social media marketing” as a promotional channel.

Anyway, that aside; what makes Peer’s article interesting is that he talks about the various digital media marketing agencies in and around Leeds and how the city is growing as a media hub in the North of England. (We’re not listed on his site yet – but give it time!)

As he continues to write, Peer sets down a challenge in which he basically invites any Leeds based digital marketing and social media marketing company (or those within a 15 mile radius of Leeds) to be listed on his site.

Now, as any search engine marketing consultant who knows his onions, will tell you ; good quality in bound links to a web site are perceived as “good votes” by the boys at Google. This in turns helps boost back-link popularity which in turn helps boost a particular site within Google’s SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages).

Having read the pages across Peer’s site, I think we’d like to have a link from his site to ours as his site is relevant to the subject matter of ours (which is an important factor to consider).

However, he sets out some conditions. The specific digital marketing or social media marketing company based in or around Leeds, must already be listed highly in Google for the following keyword phrases

“online marketing Leeds”, “online advertising Leeds”, “Leeds ppc”, “Leeds seo” or “social media Leeds”

At this moment in time, we’re no where to be seen in Google’s SERPS for these phrases and whilst we’d agree that a few of these keyword phrases such as “online marketing Leeds” may be a phrase that some “switched on” clients may use as search phrases when trying to find a company that will help market their business online; we’d argue that the other terms are phrases that only people who are in the industry would use. As far as we’re concerned, that’s not the sort of traffic we want to attract.

Many of our clients, both big and small; consider terminology such as “SEO” or “Social Media” to be too technical and not part of their everyday speech. In other words, it’s not a term they would use when searching for a companies such as ours and our competitors, namely the ones Peer talks about in the Leeds digital and social media sector. As such, in our mind; there’s no point in attempting to get listed highly in Google’s SERPS for these phrases.

However, having said that; we’re always up for a challenge and given that we’d like a link from Peer’s page, we’ll make it our mission to get listed in the top 20 listing results of Google for at least 3 of the above phrases and others related to online social media marketing.

If nothing else it is a good test of our SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEP (Search Engine Promotion) skills.

Reserve us some space on your page Peer; chocks away; here we come!

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Keyclicks is a Complete Creative Package, Design Print, Web and Promotion agency Based near Leeds, West Yorkshire in the UK: we are a team of highly experienced web development, marketing and graphic design professionals that offer creative package web site design and marketing solutions for both print and web. Leeds Web Design Firm, Leeds Web Development, Leeds marketing Agency

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/internet/web-design/how-do-search-engines-work.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/web-design/how-do-search-engines-work.html Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500
To continue with this theme, this month the principles of how the search engines work are discussed.

Understanding what a search engine is and how the major ones like Google work, is an important aspect to grasp if you’re going to optimize your website. Once the basic concepts have been understood, then it’s easier to build a website that may be effectively promoted in Google.

Directories and Search Engines - What’s the Difference?

What’s the difference between a search engine like Google and a web directory such as Yell.com? Search engines are huge databases that regularly browse the web in order to catalogue it. Once catalogued or indexed as it is known, references to the website design packages they find are stored within their databases in readiness for when people like you and I visit their search page in order to search for a particular type of website. The entire process is automated without any human intervention. This cataloguing or indexing of the web is done using pieces of software called ‘Search Engine Spiders’ or ‘Search Engine Robots’. Spider software is controlled by complex mathematical processes called algorithms which are unique to each search engine. Exactly how these algorithms work is a closely guarded secret, but through experience and following published rules, a website that designed by Wakefield web designers assist the spidering process and conforms to the needs of an algorithm, has a greater chance of being listed highly within a search engine’s results. Take a look at www.google.co.uk/webmasters for Google’s published rules on optimizing your website.

Directories, of which there are many examples on the web, Yell.com being a popular one; are essentially online versions of paper directories like the Yellow Pages or the Thomson Local. They do not index the web using Spider software like search engines in order to establish their entries, but instead rely upon humans to manually add entries to their databases. Directories generally group entries or websites that are similar to each other, together into subject and regional categories e.g. “Accountants in Leeds” or “Hotels in Wakefield”. Many online directories often contain a keyword search form on their home page that helps filter the contents of their categories for the User of their site. Search engine optimization has no impact upon the results you may find in an online directory.

Getting your site listed in a particular directory is usually a matter of submitting your website’s link to it. Look for a “Submit My Site”, “Add My Site” or a “Get Listed” link somewhere on the directory’s website. Many directories charge an inclusion fee in order to list a website link; however this can often be worth the cost if you feel a particular directory is popular amongst your target customers. Some of the more popular web directories such as Applegate (www.applegate.co.uk) can make a positive impact upon your website’s Page Rank value (more on this matter in later columns), so it’s worth considering getting your site listed in the most popular web directories where you can and if your budget can stretch to their inclusion fees.

Next month’s column will talk about what Google is looking for in your website and will introduce the concepts of ‘keywords’.

Jaimie Dobson is a director of Heckmondwike based digital marketing agency Keyclicks UK Ltd



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Keyclicks is a Complete Creative Package, Design Print, Web and Promotion agency Based near Leeds, West Yorkshire in the UK: we are a team of highly experienced web development, marketing and graphic design professionals that offer creative package web site design and marketing solutions for both print and web. Leeds Web Design Firm, Leeds Web Development, Leeds marketing Agency

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/internet/web-design/office-life-attractions.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/web-design/office-life-attractions.html Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500
O2 (the mobile telecoms company) have recently surveyed small businesses about their working arrangements so I read in one of the nationals earlier this week.

The article made interesting reading and reported that O2’s survey, conducted amongst 530 small businesses, found that 50 per cent of the companies contacted; do not work in a formal office environment. Of this 50 per cent, 24 per cent did have an office but spent most of their time working remotely or from home. A further 18 per cent had made the transition to this style of working within the last few months.

The survey also found that almost two thirds of companies that are still working from fixed offices, plan to give them up and move back home within the year.

The main reason apparently is the credit crunch, spiraling fuel and therefore commuting costs and the rising cost of office space.

Who can blame them?

Give the availability of low cost technology include high speed broadband, WiFi, VoIP and mobile internet I’m not surprised this is happening. Couple a home based business with a professional website design packages which is suitable for small businesses and hey presto; who’s to know (or care) where a business is based so long as it delivers a professional job to its clients.

We as a company maintain a number of virtual workers who base themselves at home. Regular readers of our blog will also note that we have one employee who splits her time 50/50 between our Heckmondwike office and her home: although this is for ‘childcare’ reasons and not the ‘credit crunch’.

Professionally designed websites assist online businesses and situates on the right successive path. Huddersfield Web Designers are specialized in proving innovative web design, web development services and web marketing solutions that increases exceptional value and competence of your e commerce businesses.

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Keyclicks is a Complete Creative Package, Design Print, Web and Promotion agency Based near Leeds, West Yorkshire in the UK: we are a team of highly experienced web development, marketing and graphic design professionals that offer creative small business web design and marketing solutions for both print and web. Leeds Web Design Firm, Leeds Web Development, Leeds marketing Agency.


Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/internet/web-design/make-it-relevant.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/web-design/make-it-relevant.html Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500
However when it comes to trading online, many of these real-world concepts fall by the way side as Google places little importance on where a business is located when considering how to rank its website in its search results. What is important however “keywords” and “relevancy” are?

To understand what this means and why it is important for your own small business web design site; it is helpful to try and understand why Google is so popular as a search engine and why in only a few short years, it has come to dominate the web as the search engine of choice for most people over the old stalwarts of Yahoo and MSN.

Back in the mid 1990’s before Google came along, when a search phrase was typed into one of the popular search engines of the day the results that were presented were often poorly related to the search phrase being used. This resulted in the searcher having to trawl through pages and pages of irrelevant results before they actually found a web site that was worth looking at.

Then along came Google who use a different method of measuring the importance of a web site to a particular search term and as a consequence, began to deliver meaningful results to people who use its search engine. Word quickly spread about this new search engine that actually presented ‘useful search results’ and subsequently Google rapidly became so popular that today approximately 87% of all searches made on the web are done through Google.

So what does this mean to you as a web site owner? Well quite simply, you need to make sure that your web site is relevant to its subject matter and contains text with relevant “keyword phrases” that are important to your customers. So for example if your business sells or makes “plumbing equipment” then you need to make sure that the text on your pages contains phrases or terminology that are centered on this basic concept, as these are the phrases that your customers are likely to use when searching for your business.

In this instance, such phrases as “pvc pipe fittings” or “radiator valves” might be some of the important “keyword phrases” to use across your website designed by Leeds Web Designer. Time spent identifying what these phrases and then re-writing the normal text on your web site’s pages to include them, is time well spent and will make it easier to get your site ranked in Google.

To help you, use Google’s own Keyword Generator Tool at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal to help you identify phrases that are relevant to your business and its website.

Jaimie Dobson is a director of Heckmondwike based digital marketing agency Key clicks UK Ltd


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Keyclicks is a Complete Creative Package, Design Print, Web and Promotion agency Based near Leeds, West Yorkshire in the UK: we are a team of highly experienced web development, marketing and graphic design professionals that offer creative package web site design and marketing solutions for both print and web. Leeds Web Design Firm, Leeds Web Development, Leeds marketing Agency.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/internet/web-design/what-are-google-site-links.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/web-design/what-are-google-site-links.html Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0500
These sub-links are in effect ‘short-cuts’ to pages deep within a website that Google has placed in its search results which allow users looking for your site, to link directly into the pages of your site without first going through the main entry page Google has listed for your site (more often than not this main entry page is your site’s Home Page).

Take a look at the screen-shot images above and below in this article, which illustrate the concept.

Google calls these sub-link short-cuts into the inner pages of your website, “Site links” and defines them as:

“Site links are additional links Google sometimes generates from site contents in order to help users navigate your site. Google generates these site links periodically from your site’s contents. Because we generate site links dynamically, this list can change from time to time.”

There’s no doubt that ‘Site links’ are a useful enhancement to a website’s listing in Google’s SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) once they’ve been allocated ‘Site links’ by Google. However because Site links are generated automatically by Google’s algorithm (the complex mathematical formulae that Google uses to rank websites in its results), as a website owner there is little control over what can and can’t be displayed the Site links listed for any particular website.

Furthermore, Google, like everything it does with respect to its search results: keeps it’s method of generating Sitelinks a secret in order to stop any one website dominating its search results. So it’s not as if you could drop them an email to ask them.

However Google does offer some background information on the subject of Site links and how website owners can to some degree, control their display.

Take a look at their own blog at:

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2006/09/information-about-sitelinks.html

and within the Webmaster Help Centre on its own site:

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=47334&topic=8523

Researching the subject on the web through various SEO blogs and forums it seems that the consensus of opinion by experienced web marketers is that in order for a site to be allocated Site links by Google, it generally has to satisfy a number of criteria, namely:

• The website is easily spider able with a well structured navigation

• The site gets a good ranking with high levels of natural search traffic

• The site has a high click through rate (CTR) from the search results page

• The site presents useful outbound links

• There are many inbound links from high quality, 3rd party websites

• The website age is several years old

Leeds Web Designers are expert in creating eye-catching websites, If you have a website, whether it’s ours or not and you feel that it’s ranking in Google could be improved, then get in touch for a free site evaluation.

Huddersfield Web Designers are specialized in proving innovative web design, web development services and web marketing solutions increases exceptional value and efficiency of your business website and set you on the right successive path.

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Keyclicks is a Complete Creative Package, Design Print, Web and Promotion agency Based near Leeds, West Yorkshire in the UK: we are a team of highly experienced web development, marketing and graphic design professionals that offer creative and innovative design and marketing solutions for both print and web. Leeds Web Design Firm, Leeds Web Development, Leeds marketing Agency.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/internet/web-design/whats-in-a-name.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/web-design/whats-in-a-name.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0500 Leeds Web Design.

Your domain name can say a lot about who you are and what your business is all about and is the ‘location addresses for your website on the net. Compare the concept to a bricks ’n’ mortar business. If its location is poor, then it’s unlikely to get many visitors. The same is true for your website’s domain name.

With this in mind, here are the top tips for choosing a web design and good domain name for your website.

1. Make it Memorable

Your domain name forms your website address (often called a URL) must be easy to remember. Whilst book marking a website is easy to do thus avoiding the need to remember website addresses, in reality many people don’t do it. As such, if people are going to remember your website address if they see it in your advertising or are verbally told it, then it should be easy to grasp.

Avoid overlay complex names and avoid initials unless they are really obvious. For example the initials in the domain ‘bbc.co.uk’ are very obvious in their meaning to most people, but unless your business has the brand recognition that the BBC enjoys, initials are best avoided.

2. Short and Sweet

The maximum characters you should use for a domain name is twenty. The shorter the better to be honest with many people saying 10 is the maximum to go for. Anything over this number can not only be difficult to remember, but can be miss pelt.

3. Choose your Extension Wisely

The most common domain extensions in the UK are ‘.co.uk’ and ‘.com’ e.g. ‘keyclicks.co.uk’ Many other domain extensions are available e.g. .net, .org.uk, .TV, info, gov.uk etc. However, be aware, some domain extensions work better that others and are more memorable at the same time. It’s important to realize that some domain extensions also have
restrictions. For example ‘gov.uk’ is restricted to government organizations whilst ‘.ac.uk’ domains are restricted to academic organizations such as universities.

The ‘must have’ domain extensions to get for your site are the .co.uk and the .com ones. If you can’t get either of these, it’s even worth renaming your website or even your company to fit in with a .com and .co.uk domain name pair that you can obtain.

If you can’t get the .com go for a .net but be prepared, as most people will try the .com domain before the .net when trying to guess your web address. So you could lose traffic to other websites.

The type of domain extension you use might also have an influence on the type of website you plan to operate. For example, some people have come to expect certain types of websites with certain domain extensions. For example ‘.org.uk’ extensions are used by UK based, non-profit organizations and ‘.net’ extensions are often used by technology or Internet related companies.

4. Spelling Rules KO

Having a difficult to spell domain name could land you in more trouble as a miss pelt name could drive your visitor towards your competitor’s website. If you have a difficult to spell name, consider registering the possible misspellings of your main domain name and even the Americanized versions of the word if available. For example if your main domain is “thetyreshop.com” also registers “thetireshop.com” if you can.

A good domain name contains only words that are easy to pronounce and spell with a good combination of words or letters that are used in everyday language and does not contain foreign words that may be difficult for a non-native speaker to use.

5. I Wanna Tell You a Story

Good domain names tell a story and are descriptive. In other words the domain you use should be directly relevant to your business and describe what it does.

One such method is to use your company name as we have done in ‘keyclicks.co.uk’ for our domain. The other angle is to use a phrase, not related to your company name; but one which describes what your business or website is all about. For example the domain ‘diy.com’ for the UK home improvements retail chain is superb as it describes exactly what they do i.e. “do-it-yourself”, is short, easy to remember and is easy to spell and say. Yes, this domain does use initials, however the brand recognition of in the UK is so great, as is usage of the phrase ‘DIY’ in everyday English they can get away with it.

6. Nothing Fancy

It’s never a good idea to use numbers or hyphens within a domain name. For a start many people don’t know what a hyphen is (incredible we know, but you’d be surprised), secondly people don’t pay attention to symbols and numbers cause confusion.

For example if your domain is “mywebsite4u.com”, when telling people this domain, you’ll need to make sure they understand that the ‘4’ is a number and not the word ‘four’. In other words you have to start explaining your domain which is always a bad sign. If you do wish to include numbers, register the alphabetical equivalent domain as well and point it to your website. i.e. “mywebsitefouryou.com” and also perhaps “mywebsiteforyou.com” in order to avoid confusion.

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Keyclicks is a Complete Creative Package, Design Print, Web and Promotion agency Based near Leeds, West Yorkshire in the UK: we are a team of highly experienced web development, marketing and graphic design professionals that offer creative and innovative design and marketing solutions for both print and web. Leeds Web Design Firm, Leeds Web Development, Leeds marketing Agency.


Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/internet/web-design/fanatical-web-hosting.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/web-design/fanatical-web-hosting.html Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0500
If the livelihood or the reputation of your business pivots upon the performance of your website, then no doubt your web hosting arrangements will be a critical factor for your business.

If you, like many of our clients run business critical websites such as high revenue e-commerce sites or reputation building corporate sites, then you’ll want to make sure your site’s web hosting is up to the mark.

Think of it like running an express train on a branch line. It’ll run but it won’t run to its full potential.

Rack space Hosting is here

To this end we’ve recently teamed up with Rack space in order offer business critical web hosting with a reputation for excellent support to its customers. Rack space is one of Europe’s fastest growing hosting companies, delivering enterprise-level managed services to businesses around the world. Serving more than 14,000 customers in eight data centers worldwide, Rack space integrates the industry’s best technologies for each customer’s specific need and delivers it as a service via the company’s award-winning Fanatical Support.

Rack space is totally focused and experienced in managing Leeds web design and hosting solutions’ for its customers, from simple web servers to complex online applications and email solutions. They help their customers forget about their online infrastructure through providing Fanatical Support for their hosted applications.

Fanatical Support is their unbeatable level of customer service. Rack space employees are available 24/7/365 to meet and exceed customer’s expectations. Customers get fast responses to critical issues, unlimited technical phone support, access to our huge online knowledgebase, guaranteed 100% network uptime and many other business-critical support features. It might sound too good to be true, but it’s not. It is what happens when you Experience Fanatical Support from Rack space.

By outsourcing our business critical hosting to Rack space, our clients get the peace of mind that their site’s hosting environment is being looked after by the experts, whilst alleviating the pressure on their own IT team. The implementing, updating, troubleshooting, patching, monitoring, administering, backing up and storing, upgrading and every day support - all becomes their responsibility. Couple this with their Fanatical Support and you know that the hosting of your website will be taken care of by experts that have a unique passion to get things right for their customers.

More information about Rack space may be found on their website at www.rackspace.co.uk

Upgrade to Fanatical Web Hosting

If you feel your site will benefit from of one of our Rack space hosting accounts, firstly review the comparison below to judge if Rack space hosting is right for your business and then simply instruct register your interest by dropping us a mail or calling us on 01924 400 530 and we’ll talk you through the benefits.

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Keyclicks is a Complete Creative Package, Design Print, Web and Promotion agency Based near Leeds, West Yorkshire in the UK: we are a team of highly experienced web development, marketing and graphic design professionals that offer creative and innovative design and marketing solutions for both print and web. Leeds Web Design Firm, Leeds Web Development, Leeds marketing Agency.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/internet/web-design/ad-words-phishing-mails.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/web-design/ad-words-phishing-mails.html Mon, 26 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500
We and some of our clients have started to receive a lot of phishing emails that claim to be from Google Ad words.

These emails generally have the sender as “Google ad words-no reply” and the subject header of “Please re-activate your account” or similar.

When the email is opened it looks like a genuine email that claims to be from the people at Google Ad words. The email then encourages you to click through to what looks like a genuine log-in web page for a Google Ad words account and then ‘reactivate your account’ or ‘change your credit card details’ by first logining in with your Ad words User name
and Password.

The web page you click through to is very well produced and could easily fool all but the very wary as it looks exactly like the genuine Google Ad words login-page. But it isn’t (take a close look at the web address).

These emails and the resulting login pages are not from Google, but are illegal phishing emails designed by Leeds Web Designers and Wakefield web Designers to collect account User names and Passwords from unwary Google Ad words customers.

Once the User name and Passwords have been gathered, the User’s real Ad words account is accessed and credit card information is stolen by the people sending the phishing emails out.

If you receive such an email, delete it immediately.

If you feel you’ve been fooled into giving your User name and Password (it’s an easy trap to fall into) – then immediately go to your Google Ad words account and change your password.

Be vigilant.


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Keyclicks is a Complete Creative Package, Design Print, Web and Promotion agency Based near Leeds, West Yorkshire in the UK: we are a team of highly experienced web development, marketing and graphic design professionals that offer creative and innovative design and marketing solutions for both print and web. Leeds Web Design Firm, Leeds Web Development, Leeds marketing Agency.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/internet/web-design/website-leasing-good-or-bad.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/web-design/website-leasing-good-or-bad.html Wed, 21 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500 Huddersfield web designers?

In our daily travels across the web we’ve come across one of our competitors who are prepared to lease websites to their clients.

On the face of it the concept of ‘website leasing’ sounds a good idea.

From the client’s point of view it means they get a large, complex and potentially costly website for their business for a small monthly fee without the outlay of a large amount of capital. This is great if your cash flow is tight or if you’re a new start-up with a limited budget. As such we can understand why the idea might sound attractive to some companies.

However, we believe that whilst the ‘leasing’ concept works fine for commodity capital equipment such as company cars, IT equipment or office furniture; the ‘leasing’ idea has some inherent flaws as a method funding a web development project.

If you’re a business contemplating leasing your next website, here’s some food for thought.

The Pitfalls of Leasing

We don’t think websites should be treated as commodity items like a car or piece of office furniture either of which you can buy like-for-like from alternative suppliers.

A decent website is a tool for your business that can perform a number of functions such as enhancing your brand, improving customer communications, generating leads or creating direct revenue through online sales.

The needs of each business are individual and as such we believe it’s more or less impossible to offer a ‘commodity’ that fits a bespoke and creative business need.

So that’s why websites shouldn’t be treated as a commodity.

As for the flaws with website leasing, consider these factors before entering into a lease agreement:

1. Who owns the website either during or at the end of the lease agreement? If the arrangement is like leasing a company car, then the company never owns the car and it is taken back once the lease agreement ends. Would you want to lose your website once it’s established?

2. What happens if the website developers leasing your site to you go out of business? Does you website simply die? Think of the added expense and inconvenience this would entail.

3. What happens if you default on your payments or if you ‘fall out’ with your developers? Would your website be ‘withdrawn’ costing you further inconvenience and downtime?

4. How flexible is the leasing agreement. If you own your website you are free to use alternative Wakefield web designers and developers who may be able to offer you additional or improved services that your ‘leasing developers’ cannot Under a lease agreement you’re stuck.

5. How easy or difficult is it to get out of the lease agreement and if so can you take your website with you? The consequences of not being able to do so can be costly.

So in short, we would say; think hard before contemplating the leasing of your website.

If cash is tight, why not consider a small business loan through your bank or even ask your web developers, if like us; they offer some sort of professional fees financing plan. Such arrangements will help you with your cash-flow whilst still allowing you to retain ownership and control of your own website.

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Keyclicks is a Complete Creative Package, Design Print, Web and Promotion agency Based near Leeds, West Yorkshire in the UK: we are a team of highly experienced web development, marketing and graphic design professionals that offer creative and innovative design and marketing solutions for both print and web. Leeds Web Design Firm, Leeds Web Development, Leeds marketing Agency.

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