Support
For websites to work properly they have to have an adequate level of technical support at the time when it is needed by the developer and the business. Delays will hinder development and inevitably increase other operational costs.
Toucan Internet’s quality standard is that you will be able to contact a human being who can understand and correct the issue you have or be just one step back from that person. You will always get a human being to talk to during normal UK office hours. We do not use automated call handling, just real people who care and invariable know you as a customer. We also have the patience to take the time to explain the details you need in plain English.

This best summed up by one council who transferred all their hosting to Toucan Internet LLP from a budget web host provider because of the lost hours spent waiting in call queues and alike when technical support was required. They now simply call us and the matter is in hand.

Out of hours we have a Support Request system in place http://toucanweb.co.uk/ti_status_request.php and a notification service for bigger issues at http://toucanweb.co.uk/ti_status.php.

Website Performance
For businesses that require the best possible advantage with Google it is worth bearing in mind that one of the many criteria that Google uses to rank a website is speed of delivery of the web pages and their content. There are two parts to the speed of delivery, one is the quality of the website code and the second is the speed of the server and the supporting network. Our servers are right on the UK’s Internet backbone in a datacentre in London’s Docklands, affording our clients excellent connectivity.

A number of our websites are in the top 5% of the world’s fastest websites as independently reported by Google.

Economy hosting gives the provider a lower revenue and as such they have to max the servers to generate adequate return by putting as many customers websites on a server as possible. At Toucan Internet LLP our competitive business class rate means that we can balance the loads on our servers and keep significant resources in reserve. This is turn gives impeccable reliability and up time plus fast delivery of websites.

Email Services
Invariably the web host provider will be the email provider. With the same level of care and customer support, Toucan Internet LLP provides email services for practically all requirements:

·         POP3

·         IMAP

·         Cloud – Hosted Microsoft Exchange

·         SMTP

Plus Toucan Internet LLP supports this with world class email security that screens inbound mail for Spam and viruses including providing an online quarantine box, white & black listing and a daily digest of your quarantine box.
The need to configure your email accounts on your local business servers and devices is accommodated as Toucan Internet LLP has good working relationships with many local IT support companies and liaises with any IT professionals you may already have in support.

Bespoke Services
If your web developer requires additional services, modules or configurations specific to a special requirement, then we accommodate this too, subject to a security audit of the solution.

Comprehensive business class services with personal support

We care about your business.

About the Author

Simon Thomas of Toucan Internet LLP has 18 years direct marketing experience prior to embracing the new Internet marketing channels that emerged in 1995. He heads the multiple disciplinary team of professionals at Toucan Internet LLP supporting clients of all sizes and markets where the client is looking for a professional Internet marketing partner with a long proven track record.

To find out more about Toucan Internet LLP please feel free to contact Simon at the contact points
below.

t: +44 1279 871 694
e: simon@toucanweb.co.uk
w: www.toucanweb.co.uk

From experience the following is a consolidation of some of the points you may need to consider when undertaking the rework of your website.

Your Objectives

Define the objectives of having a website as once you’ve done this all the subsequent decisions you have to make fall in place as they are either in line with these objectives or they are not.

Your Blueprint

On large projects there can be much detail that really must be concluded before the project starts. Once concluded the entire web development team will understand exactly what has to be delivered and when, and as the website owner you will also know that it will meet your defined objectives.

The blueprinting process often opens up the minds to further specification improvements and content as it encourages all involved to review the finer detail of the website facilities.

Websites that are properly blueprinted have always turned out to be good performers and the relationship between the development team and the customer has been excellent.

Cost-wise; as the project runs to a mutually agreed plan there is far less scope for budget irregularities.

Your Current Website

When you put together your initial website, there would likely have been great thought and deliberation as to what was included and how. Despite the old website now looking dismal beside the competition’s new feature rich website, so many companies will totally disregard the good that is present in their old website. Be very careful not to “throw the baby out with the bathwater”. Apart from quality content that may need to transfer to the new website after reworking, the search engines and other referrers will have linked to the pages in your website.

Your Development Team.

In the past your website may well have required the basic skills of a developer and maybe a designer. Consider the content and your aspirations and ask yourself if your current incumbent team is complete and can offer you:

• Web development that brings commercial return
• A team of people with whom you are comfortable working
• The resources you’ll need to grow your website including:
  • Web coding so the fundamental HTML code is right
  • Programming so the website facilities function to your specifications including Mobile standards and general fall back solutions where Flash and other resources are not supported on the visitor’s browser
  • Copywriting that both fits your industry style and finds favour with the search engines
  • Photography so you avoid poor images that so often degrade what could be a quality website; afford professional or quality photography
  • Video as a powerful and effective way to engage the visitor and also finds favour with the search engines
  • Search engine optimisation
  • Search engine marketing
  • Social media

The Internet marketing team you choose for the next part of your journey needs to have a lot more bases covered than was the case a few years ago if you are to rise above the bland mediocrity of basic websites and have a true commercial success.

The Creative Design

This is the most subjective of all the components. Having a professional creative team that understands both design for web and the norms of your market places will undoubtedly make for a professional result that wins business. So many creatives are stuck in the “design for print world” and do not engage with the dynamic medium of a website. With dynamic new technologies such as jQuery and AJAX, webpages are written to dynamically change according to input giving more efficient pages and a much improved customer experience.

The creative team will work with you and your developers to conclude the navigation tree so that your information is presented in the most effective fashion and in such a way that we lead the visitor through the punchy introduction via the convincers to the call to action. If that simple process is not instinctively engrained in the team’s approach then find someone else.

The Platform and Programming

Do not be wooed by a web development team that wants to build your website with some obscure technology. Stay mainstream with all your resources unless there is a very good reason why not to. If you go “off piste” then you’ll find that there are fewer developers prepared to take your website on with a technology that they do not support and fewer pre-developed resources online so you’ll be paying for bespoke development from scratch for new modules. Examples of mainstream solutions include Linux with PHP & MySQL or Microsoft with ASP & SQL.

Your Online Marketing

The possible routes to market online are now extensive and affordable to all. Have a sound plan in mind that will accommodate all channels including social media, newsletters/mailings, website news, blogging, article publication and other avenues that fit comfortably in your marketing mix. Importantly remember that your website and online marketing are not to be done in isolation and absolutely must seamlessly integrate with your internal systems and traditional marketing. Choose a web development team that understands the benefits of combining multiple channels of communication and better still offers them.

The opt-in newsletter/mailings can be extended further by adding an autoresponder series so that your worthy pre-prepared messages are delivered periodically to your schedule.

Once a website is launched the online marketing offered by your web development team should monitor performance in line with the client’s objectives and the Internet norms and in turn make website changes according to the feedback received. Continuous improvement and following marketing opportunities are key to keeping your website commercially successful for years to come. Keep testing, measuring and improving.

Your Website Hosting

Budget hosting should be avoided; slow servers that are maxed out for profit will cost you dearly. Slow delivery of website content not only turns visitors away but also has an effect on your Google ranking. Your web development marketing company should be monitoring this as one part of your search engine marketing they do for you.

These are just some of the key elements from 16 years of experience and worth considering when redeveloping your website.

About the Author

Simon Thomas of Toucan Internet LLP has 18 years direct marketing experience prior to embracing the new Internet marketing channels that emerged in 1995. He heads the multiple disciplinary team of professionals at Toucan Internet LLP supporting clients of all sizes and markets where the client is looking for a professional Internet marketing partner with a long proven track record.

To find out more about Toucan Internet LLP please feel free to contact Simon at the contact points

below.

t: +44 1279 871 694

e: simon@toucanweb.co.uk

w: www.toucanweb.co.uk

“symbols (like logos and brand names) that distinguish goods and services in the marketplace.”

Trade marks can be protected in one of two ways, either by registration with the IPO or under the principle of passing off. Registration is a simple process that can be undertaken online via the IPO website and has better protection rights than passing off. Passing off is the common law action where provided you are able to show that, the mark is yours, a reputation has been built up around the mark and you have suffered loss, you gain protection. Obviously the registration of a trade mark makes enforcement much easier.

Copyright protects original work that is created using independent skill and effort and provides the owner of that work control over how it is used. Copyright extends to websites, pictures, articles etc. When creating a website you need to consider who owns the copyright. If it is created in house then the copyright is owned by the business. If the website is created by an external contractor then unless otherwise agreed contractor will own the copyright. You will need to make sure that any contractor who is creating a website for you checks the content of the website for any copyright infringement issues involving 3rd parties such as, the use of pictures or layout of the website.

Copyright only provides protection from someone copying the original works. Should it come to your attention that part of your copyright has been infringed your protection lies in the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. In order to protect copyrighted works through the Courts the first step is to show that there is access to the material in the first instance. In the case of a website this is easy to do. If the work is copied in its entirety then the proof is easy to evidence. In cases where part of the work has been copied or amended the Court will focus on the core of the material to determine whether there has been an infringement. It is a good idea to get a copy of the site you consider has infringed your copyright as it exists at the time, in most cases by printing off a copy. This is to protect against the potential for a site owner to change their site in the future.

For legal queries regarding IP, please contact the author of this article, Tim Carter, who is the
IP expert at Attwaters Solicitors.

t. 01279 638888
e: Tim.Carter@attwaters.co.uk
To find out more about how Toucan Internet LLP can influence your online success please feel free to contact Simon at the contact points below.

t: 01279 871 694
e: simon@toucanweb.co.uk

w: www.toucanweb.co.uk
Copyright Toucan Internet LLP 2010©. All rights reserved.

Toucan’s full set of policies including the environmental policy is available at http://www.toucanweb.co.uk/ti_legal.php

Thank you to Jessica Ward of Addington Consultants for her professional assistance in preparing this policy. You can find out more about Addington Consultants at http://www.addingtonconsultants.com/

To find out more about Toucan Internet LLP please feel free to contact Simon at the contact points below.

t: 01279 871 694
e: simon@toucanweb.co.uk
w:www.toucanweb.co.uk
Copyright Toucan Internet LLP 2009©. All rights reserved.

CD Business Cards

For over ten years Toucan eMedia has been providing CD Business Cards to progressive business for marketing and generally for the distribution of information in an affordable and high impact way.

Unlike normal repro houses Toucan eMedia is a full service organisation capable of handling every part of a CD Business Card project from concept to final delivery and not just the CD Business Cards replication or duplication. The services can include presentation design, programming, video conversions, bespoke packaging; in fact everything to make your company look the best it can to prospective clients.
Toucan eMedia have structured prices to be competitive for the high quality services and products provided which is why international businesses with household names are content with our handing of their public image.

You can store everything that your customers need to know about your business, from a full company presentation to details of products, services, interactive maps, databases and automatic links to the company’s web site. You can even store music sound tracks and include a voice-over if necessary.

Whether you need just 50 CD Business Cards or 50,000 Toucan eMedia have the resources to meet you requirements.

CD Business Card replication

Denise Thomas of Toucan says “There are a few reasons why we enjoy such success, we have a very stringent quality control ethos, we spend time with clients so they are fully informed about the design and production procedures, even to the point where our key people will liaise with their programmers and designers and we’ll entertain small orders on very quick turnarounds.”

Toucan Internet LLP

t: 01279 871 694
e: denise@ebusiness-cards.co.uk
w: www.ebusiness-cards.co.uk

Copyright Toucan Internet LLP 2010©. All rights reserved.

However if your website is not showing highly in the top search engine results for your prime search phrases your business is missing out. This is shark infested waters for businesses looking for quality honest suppliers to provide effective and affordable optimisation of their websites so it is found by the search engines with their chosen key terms. There are companies that promise results and either fail to deliver, fail to deliver consistently or use techniques that could ultimately damage your reputation or brand online by having your web domain blacklisted.

Below are a few basic questions that are routinely asked to help you fill in the blanks when considering how to make your website work harder for you.

1. What is Search Engine Optimisation or SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. It encompasses a raft of techniques and approaches to increase the readiness of your website to be understood and therefore categorised by the search engines.

2. What is an Organic listing?

An organic listing is the listing of one of your web pages in a search engine and it is included and ranked based on the search engines perceived merits of your web page and website. More and more it is apparent that the good quality websites that deliver great content and play by the rules are finding favour with the search engines.  

3. What is Ethical Search Engine Optimisation?

Ethical Search Engine Optimisation or White Hat SEO is simply the use of good optimisation techniques that brings real benefit to the possible visitors to your site. The programmes that assess your site are getting ever more cleverer about rating what is good and penalising what could be seen as trying to take unfair advantage.

4. What are Black Hat techniques?

These are techniques that can be employed to spoof the search engines into thinking that your site is better than it actually is. Whilst we perceive that good SEO techniques should push the envelope, we strongly recommend stopping short of Black Hat techniques since should you be found to have used techniques, or have engaged someone who has used such techniques on your website, it can result in your page being penalised or even excluded from some or all of the major search engines.

5. Why does my website not show in the search results?

There is a raft of different reasons when this may be the case and here are a few for consideration:

1. You may not have a search engine optimised design. Many designers create brilliant designs, but do not team up with equivalently skilled web partners who know how to write the code that delivers the site to the web browser.
2. The site may not be written to be adequately readable by the search engines that you want to engender.
3. The site or web pages could have missing or incongruous elements such that the search engine is confused about the content and purpose of the site.
4. You or your web engineer may have strayed into inadvertently using Black Hat Techniques. And the site has been downgraded in response. You may not have submitted the site adequately as part of your post launch search engine marketing. (See http://blog.toucan-group.com/?p=17 for an extensive SEM program) .

6. What is Keyword research?

Keyword research is finding the right words that will deliver the highest number of visitors to your website possible. Believe me, a single “S” going from a singular to a plural can mean a tenfold difference in visitors.

To get to the optimum keywords the routine is to start with your instinctive choices, extract key words from top competing sites, then rank all those terms in order of real world usage. Then, by applying some instinctive personal understanding of the market place, together with an eye to how much the term is contended, draw up your final list. How this list is subsequently used is down to the skills of your web coder and copywriter who should work “hand in glove”.

7. How do I get recognised or ranked for specific keywords?

Apart from putting the right keywords in the right places you have to have the right keywords selected in the first place. Once the site is optimised and launched into the big wide world it needs to be promoted and this is where a comprehensive Search Engine Marketing programme needs to be put in place so the site is promoted and monitored properly. It not only needs to be promoted to the obvious search engines but also the niche directories and local gazetteer sites.

8. What is search engine friendly design?

The way a design is converted to a web page can be the make or break of a site’s search engine performance; a friendly design is readable and an unfriendly design is far less so. Certain techniques hamper search engines from understanding your site and some can stop a search engine from even looking at your pages. This is where you need a good web construction partner who you trust to understand what can be done and also to get the best out of the creative design provided by the designer. Here you start to see that web coder, creative designer and copywriter have to work as one for a website that stands any chance of success against the every rising bar of other quality websites.

Absolutely, Google may ignore Meta Tag Keywords, but the properly written Meta Description is paramount to good SEO.

10.How can I achieve a top 10 result?

Follow all the rules, do the research and keep the site current and relevant. Promote under a structured Search Engine Marketing programme and respond to the feedback that the SEM campaign gives you.

11. Is cheap hosting a good idea?

Absolutely not! Taking Google as the market leading search provider; it rates websites on performance. Performance is measured a number of ways, some will be as a result of how the site was built and some by how it is delivered. Cheap servers deliver sites in a measurably slower manner for any number of reasons and your site will be ranked accordingly. There is free software on the Internet to monitor website performance and you want to be sure that you’re not “saving” on hosting but missing out on good rankings – it’s a false economy to do so.

This article was written by Simon Thomas who has been active on the Internet since 1995 and runs a number of commercially successful Internet projects. He supports the building of clients’ websites to the correct standards, not just SEO, and maintains on-going search engine marketing for clients that value high performing websites.

For more information.

t: 01279 871 694

e: simon@toucanweb.co.uk

w: www.toucanweb.co.uk

Copyright Toucan Internet LLP 2009©. All rights reserved.

Jane Malyon
Trainer - Coach - Writer - Speaker - “Agony Aunt”

See Jane’s Websites from Toucan >>>

Having been immersed in the commercial side of the Internet since 1995 we at Toucan can talk Klingon where required but prefer helping you develop your online business in plain English.
Please call us for a chat.

t: 01279 871 694
e: simon@toucanweb.co.uk
w: www.toucanweb.co.uk

Copyright Toucan Internet LLP 2009©. All rights reserved.

Routine online shopping and banking transactions should not pose any problems for people using the Internet, however the World Wide Web has vast scope for criminality, and fraudsters have been quick to exploit the opportunities it provides.

Here are some of the risks:

• Emails purporting to be from banks, credit card companies or other financial institutions such as PayPal, that direct you to fake websites where they try to extract essential security information from you, (known as Phishing)
  ADVICE: Never follow links in emails. Instead go to the official site and login as usual.
• Emails, that contain attachments that carry a virus or Trojan payload.
  ADVICE: If you don’t know the sender, never open an attachment.
• Websites that download tracking cookies, adware, Malware or viruses directly onto your computer.
  ADVICE: Install antivirus software that will check all sites you visit.
• Transactions with strangers via Ebay that turn out to be fraudulent.
  ADVICE: Never, ever send money via Western Union or other transfer service. Never allow a buyer to pay more for an item than expected, and never send them the ‘change’, as their original payment will always bounce.

Always install good Anti virus, firewalls and anti-phishing software on your computers and activate email-scanning too.

If you think you have been de-frauded online, report it to your local police station. Essex police has a fraud department that will liaise on your behalf with the appropriate authorities and internet companies to try and bring the criminals to justice. This includes foreign forces and Interpol.

Ebay and PayPal also have their own dispute resolution services and offer some protection to their users.

Peter Caulfield, Uttlesford Crime Reduction Advisor & Architectural Liaison Officer
Essex police, East Street, Saffron Walden, CB10 1LX 01376 556233
General Non-Emergency Number - 0300 333 4444 and ask for the person or department you require.

For more information on Toucan and how we could help develop your business

please call us for a chat.

t: 01279 871 694

e: simon@toucanweb.co.uk

w: www.toucanweb.co.uk

Copyright Toucan Internet LLP 2009©. All rights reserved.

Most businesses want to hang onto their cash and investigate what gives them the best bang for their buck; something we should all be doing all of the time, but brought into focus as the recession squeezes our cash.

Nothing could emphasis this more when we see the upturn in investment by bus­inesses that have analys­ed their ROI’s and have woken up to the fact that the Net is in many cases the quick­est, cheapest and most effective route to market and has been either ignored or played with without serious intent in the past. Many clients have re­align­­ed budgets, giving sig­nif­­­ic­ant­ly less or no spend for space advertis­ing and sales people in favour of online marketing.

For example it is possible to build an administrative system that will run all the courses for a national swim school for £5,000. David Cartwright, MD of the Cartwrights Swim School said “It was a big leap of faith for us to move from trad­itional paper based systems. We knew it would be the quickest way to communi­cate with the hundreds of clients we have on courses all around the country and would also be the automated administrat­ive centre.”

It’s a fairly simple job to identify from where best business rewards will come when reviewing a business m.o. and their current marketing. Don’t subscribe to the philosophy that if it’s simple it doesn’t work.

Pat Fox, MD of Aralia Garden Design, noted: “Over a couple of weeks this summer, our site gen­erat­­ed three orders totalling £63,000.”  

Article published in Passport the Newport Business Association monthly business publication

For details of the Newport Business Association - www.newportbusinessassociation.co.uk

The full September issue of Passport is available in PDF format here >>>.

For more information on Toucan and how we could help develop your business
please call us for a chat.

t: 01279 871 694
e: simon@toucanweb.co.uk
w: www.toucanweb.co.uk

Copyright Toucan Internet LLP 2009©. All rights reserved.

Google Adwords Optimisation

A simple but powerful message from Google that is of use to all Toucan Internet’s clients running their own Adwords Campaigns.

“Today, more than ever, it’s hugely important to ensure that your company’s money is well spent.
With this in mind, we at Google have put together a short video outlining 5 tips on very simple things you can do to help ensure that your AdWords advertising is cost effective and successful in attracting users to your website.”

Google May 2009

t: 01279 871 694

e: simon@toucanweb.co.uk

Copyright Toucan Internet LLP 2009©. All rights reserved.