The FWA website featured the new website for Doritos. Rather than just being an ordianry snack company Doritos are looking to position themselves as an entertainment brand. Check out the new website at:

http://snackstrongproductions.com/

I have just updated our pianos and keyboards website. It has a new theme and new things that can be done including social marketing buttons and more.

Have a look and let me know your thoughts.

New ecommerce cake box website launched. My company has launched a new cake box ecommerce website that we designed and built. The ecommerce platform we chose for this web project was PrestaShop. This is the first time that we used this platform so it will be interesting to see how it goes.

PrestaShop is a modern opensource ecommerce platform that allows quite a few options that come built in.

View the site now.

http://www.cakeboxes2u.co.uk/

I have been working with federation design, offering complete branding solutions to our clients. We have just launched the new website so check it out.

“Marketing your company through innovative design and technologies to deliver your bespoke project, surpassing your expectations and building a long-lasting professional relationship.”

http://www.federation-design.co.uk/

The new website has just launched and we are looking to build on our already strong working relationship.

The fwa site has been redesigned with a load of new features and also a fresh new look. To me it looks great and continues to be a great source of whats hot in website design.

http://www.thefwa.com/

Check it out and share your thoughts on the sites that are submitted.

I have added just added a blog to a clients website Tej’s Beauty Salon. Blogs provide a great way to add content to your website that makes it offer more than just a site about you and your services. Answering question and adding new useful information all make your website more useful to potential clients and can position you as an expert in your field.

We added a wordpress blog to the website which allows it to be easily updated and edited without being an expert in web design. If you would like a blog for your website then just get intouch.

I have just updated a clients website with the latest jobs that they have done. I used the lightbox ajax technique to show the images larger when clicked.

http://www.electricalcontractoruk.com/latest-jobs/the-barn-lights.htm

When it comes to designing coming soon webpages you want to make sure that you have something up on the domian that looks professional but also do not want to spend too much time and money on something that will be replaced.

Smashing magazine have an article looking at various coming soon pages with some good examples. One thing that you may want to consider is having a signup for more information form, also a brief description about what is coming soon.

The points are:

1) Tell us what to expect.

2) Provide updates (email signup)

3) Create some intrguige

4) Rembmer SEO

Read the article:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/11/10/designing-coming-soon-pages/

Our company is updating stock box and packaging products website boxesdirect2u.co.uk we built the ecommerce website last year and after the shop has taken many successful orders we are planning to build the search rankings and improve the conversion rate of the website.

The site uses sagepay as the payment gateway which fits seamlessly into the website so that the customer does not have to go leave the website to pay and is reminded of the security on the website.

The websites aim is to attract both b2b and b2c customers and to build up a steady stream of repeat customers using online marketing at the heart of the strategy.

I have had another client that I have been explaining why to take off the intro page to their website. So this is my reasoning for not having an intro page for your website.

What is it
An intro page is a page before you get to the main content on a website. It sometimes says welcome to the website or has a fancy animation on. Then you have to press enter to go into the main bulk of the website.

Why not
Sometimes people think of a website as a brochure or book and these have covers, so people can think that it is a good idea. It is not. People who come to your website have already wanted to see what it is all about, maybe they clicked on a google listing or advertisement. These are the covers really. The visitor is looking for information, and the more barriers you put in the way, the less people will bother with the website.

Another reason not to have one is that search engines like google give a lot of ‘weight’ to the homepage, and if you do not make the most of it and only put your company name on and a skip or enter button on, then you are not making the most an important part of a website.

So if you have an intro page on your website then break free today and get rid of it, it will boost your results.