New engine now at full speed

The good news is we’ve now transferred all sites over to the new engine, so please do check through your sites and see if there is anything that needs adapting to suit the changes.

We’ve incorporated other small changes to the sites too – we’ve included a new browse feature at the bottom of each catalogue page (thanks to Nicky for that suggestion), no p&p and vat (thanks John and Rob),  bigger, small images on the catalogue pages (Hannah), an extra news and event item on the home page – so each now show three rather than two items

Soon we’ll have a new style that you’ll be able to test drive (I’m keeping the engine analogy going!) But I’ll let you know more about that in the coming weeks.

Kate

Got a spare minute? Help MoonZoo map the moon

Here’s a really good way to spend your coffee break, register with moonzoo.org http://www.moonzoo.org/ and you’ll be given a series of areas of the moon to map.

You’ll be asked to select craters and mounds on each area you’re given.  Then submit the area back to the site. The information will help scientists carry out a detailed study of the moon’s surface!

It’s really easy, and quite addictive after a while.

Let us know how you get on!

Kate

New engine

Our new engine has finally arrived! Not a shiny new fire engine, but the driver for the SitesPlus websites. Our developers have unveiled it and we’re gradually plugging your sites into the new engine over the coming days.

There’s not a lot of difference you will notice, a lot of the work is ‘under the hood’ development, making the sites work faster and harder for you.

There are a few obvious changes to some of the styles… all sites are now centrally aligned and all are 900 pixels wide, so some sites will be wider than before.

On the catalogue pages, the post and packaging and vat rows now hide if don’t use them and there’s new footer text – you can add your own footer text into the footer section. To do this click on the ‘search engine’ button in the back end.

As the engine is new, we’re checking each site for errors in formatting, but please also check your own sites and let us know if there is something that isn’t working, or isn’t showing how it should.

Thanks!

Kate

Google Places – new name, new features

It’s more than just a name change, Google Places has added many more features to the Google Local or Google Business Centre.

‘Service area listing’ is the first one I think you might be interested in, where you can now select a radius distance from your postcode location to include the areas in which you cover or visit. This is ideal for plumbers, builders etc who were before quite restricted on their local listings.

Now you can also post money off coupons, notes and events with your listing too, and you can add up to 100 single location listings.

Whilst you are there, be sure to do a thorough job filling out the description field for your website. This is where you want to add your main keyword phrases where they make sense to do so. Don’t try to add keywords to your company name though.

Remember to check and add the maximum 5 categories to your listing (see our previous SitesPlus blog on this issue) because what you choose there can help your site show up when people are searching using similar words. Note that you don’t have to stick with the categories Google recommends; you can make up new ones. I suggest doing some Google Maps searches using the types of phrases you’d want to show up for, and seeing what some of the sites that are currently showing up are doing.

Try adding photos and videos to your Place Page if you have them. Be sure that one of the pictures is your company logo!

Try to get some reviews too, maybe this is where we can help each other, if you would like a review from me, email us and if we have visited or worked with you I’m happy to review you. Maybe you can do the same for us too!

Happy Google Place-ing!

Kate @SitesPlus HQ

SitesPlus, build your own website quickly and easily, with all the support you need.

Link Building strategy part 2 – integrating linking with the rest of your business

This is a great video explaining ways to get those links. It suggests the strategies on ways to integrate link building with the rest of your business.

They mention some of the strategies we recommend, such as checking the back links of your competitors and then using any ideas to generate links of your own, but also they come up with a good point about reviewing the content of your site and how that can impact on your links.   I think it’s worth a watch.

http://www.youtube.com/user/webmarketingtoday#p/search/0/UMTgweVHlYM

Kate

@ SitesPlus HQ

Easter holiday notices

Just a quick post to let you know the SitesPlus office will be closed for the Easter week.

We’ll be closed from Good Friday, Friday 2nd April and re-opening on 12th April.

Please email during that week and we’ll do our best to answer.

Kind regards

Kate

Why do we need links?

I’ve found this brilliant new article that I’d like to share with you. I get asked a lot, ‘why do we need links from other websites to ours?’ and I think this explains it really well.

It sets out why linking is so important and how best to go about starting your link campaign.

Every one of us SitesPlus users should always be ‘thinking about linking’. There might be a jingle in that phrase!

Anyway take a look and let me know what you think. It’s the first part of a series….

Kate

BT Customers update 6/3

It appears things are getting back to normal. It may take sometime for email to get through,  if you are in doubt, please check your webmail service. If you need additional information about your account, email us and we’ll update you.

Please email us if you are still not seeing your website.

Kate

BT customers update

We’ve added extra name servers to all the web addresses. The new name servers may take up to 72 hours to propagate, but we hearing from some customers that this is resolving the issue.

Please let us know if you are still experiencing problems.

Kate

BT customers’ problems

BT customers are experiencing problems viewing our sites and receiving emails.  All the sites are up and live on the internet and everyone else can view your sites. The server is still receiving and sending emails as usual.

We are investigating the problem and will update you with progress for BT customers soon.

Kate