Web Design - Great Design, Eye-Catching Websites & Current Trends

Web & SEO in 2019 & 2020 – A Summary

Hi everyone, It's been a busy year so I've not had too much time to provide general updates about the world of web & SEO this year. I've been so busy with new and existing clients this year that it's been a bit of a whirlwind. I thought I'd provide a quick update of the bits of 'web' news that have caught my eye this year. There's always lots happening and changing in the web design, web development and SEO world, but this is just a ... Read More >

Go Web = Google Certified!

Google Mobile Sites Certification - Google Partners I'm very pleased to announce that we are now 'Mobile Site Certified' by Google, meaning we have been recognised as a qualified developer of mobile-friendly websites. Of course, we've been building great mobile-friendly, responsive sites for years now, but this new certification from Google only started early in 2017 so we've just made it official! During the course and exam, we answered questions about all of the latest technologies, design techniques and up-to-date recommendations from Google when it comes ... Read More >

AMP, Rich Cards & Improvements to the Google Mobile App

I'm guessing that most of you reading this will make use of the Google Mobile App on your smartphones? If so, you will have noticed some handy (sometimes annoying) new items on your Google home page. These items, known as Rich Cards, display content that is relevant to you, based on information from websites you have previously visited. What do the changes to the Google Mobile App mean to website owners? This new feature in Google could be very important to website owners when it comes ... Read More >

Reflecting on 2015; the year of the ‘mobile-friendly’ Google update

In the first of a series of end-of-year blog entries, I wanted to talk about one of the biggest changes in the history of Google Search - the 'mobile friendly' update. On 21st April 2015, Google made changes to it's search algorithm, which meant web pages that were 'mobile-friendly' were favoured in mobile search results. This meant that Google would look at the code from a web page and identify if it was easy to use on a mobile device, such as a Smartphone. Google uses a number of factors ... Read More >

How Websites Work (Without the technical jargon)

Since the day I started in the web industry, I have come across loads of customers who really don't understand the first thing about how a website works. And why should you? That's my job. Questions like "what is hosting?" "what does a domain name do?" and "how does my website appear on the web?" are all commonplace amongst people who run their own business and want to build a website. So, what I wanted to do was try to explain it all, in a nutshell, without ... Read More >

Inbox (1) – “We can get you to the top of Google…” – BEWARE!

Beware of Dodgy SEO Companies (COWBOYS)! This month I just wanted to mention an increasing amount of emails I'm noticing from (mainly overseas) SEO companies claiming that "your website contains errors. Let us give you a free review of your website and we can help you increase your search engine ranking." Please beware of these offers. On the rare occasion, they might be from genuine, reputable SEO experts, but the likelihood is that 99.9% will come from overseas based cowboys who send out thousands of emails a day ... Read More >

Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools)

It is amazing how many website owners don't use, or haven't even heard of Google Search Console. Google Analytics is definitely more well known and widely used, but Search Console seems to often be forgotten about. Google Search Console is an essential tool for any webmaster, as it provides some brilliant tools that help you ensure your site is healthy and ranking as it should be on the worlds biggest search engine. When you have a site with gowiththetimes, we set you up with Google Search Console as ... Read More >

Domain names – How to get one and how they work…

Buying and Registering a Domain Name When a customer approaches me about a website, they often haven't the first clue about domain names and ask me to sort it out for them. That's fine, it's all part of the service, but I think it is important to make customers aware of how domain name ownership works. Ideally, you shouldn't leave domain name registration in the hands of your web designer, no matter how trustworthy they seem. However, I do understand that it's not the most straightforward thing ... Read More >

Dodgy Backlinks – Google Ain’t Stupid!

You may or may not be aware that links to your website are a Google ranking factor. For years now, Google has used links to your site as a way of establishing how trustworthy your site is. So the more links you have from other sites to your site, the better eh? No, not quite. That might have been the way a while back, but it's now far more important to have VALUABLE backlinks to your site. Gone are the days of paying for links, swapping links and ... Read More >

Google – How to Reach the Top (again!)

Hi everyone, Here is the latest installment about SEO and how Google is working in 2015. Despite the (still) widely believed myths that Google rankings are based on cramming keywords into your content and getting as many back-links as you can from wherever you can, that is NOT THE CASE ANY MORE! I can't shout that loud enough! Google in 2015 is very different to the Google of 10 years, 5 years or even 1 year ago. It is more intelligent, more popular and is bigger and ... Read More >

Web Design – Great Design, Eye-Catching Websites & Current Trends