Latest Futuresys, Web Design and Search Engine Optimisation News

Supporting our local community is one activity we take pride in at Futuresys. We feel it's important that we give something back to the community that supports our business.

When we were approached by the Liss Community Association (LCA) to help develop a new website for the Liss Triangle Centre, we were more than happy to oblige.

As with all website developments undertaken by Futuresys, we spent time working on understanding the exact requirements for the web solution we were to create. We needed to know what the demographic of the potential audience for the website was to be. The type of design elements that had to be incorporated and the information the site would contain. In addition to this how the website would be maintained, by whom, and how the development was to be funded.

To help ensure the Liss Triangle Centre received a website that would meet all their needs and be flexible enough to expand in the future, we proposed that they should actively seek sponsorship from other local businesses, and that if necessary to deliver the best solution possible Futuresys would cover any shortfall.

Key to the development of the website was the need to make it easily maintainable by the temporary staff that run the centre and where necessary by committee members. The solution was to utilise our Content Management System (CMS) for small and medium size businesses, cura.cms.

cura{from the latin: Care, Management, Administration}.cms{Content Management System}

With the design agreed and implemented into the cura.cms system we were able to work quickly and efficiently with the Liss Triangle Centre to populate the website and train them on how to use the CMS.

After a manic few weeks launching new websites for customers we were able to put the finishing touches together for the new Content Management System (CMS) and website for the well respected Richardson Travel Ltd, Midhurst, West Sussex.

Richardson Travel run a fleet of high quality private hire coaches out of their depot in Midhurst, West Sussex. The business was started in 1976 and has had a web presence for a few years now. The time had come however, for the website to be enhanced due to the increased online competition from other rival coach hire companies.

After spending some time with Richardson Travel, so we could understand their business and budgetary needs, it was decided to go for a CMS driven website.

Now because of the nature of the business and the requirement to list coach excursions on the website we needed to build a bespoke CMS which met the business strategy.

This turned out to be a very cost effective solution. Although there are many CMS systems available today, there aren't really any that offered the functionality required by Richardson Travel. It wasn't just about the ability to enter information and publish it on the web, it was also about the skill set of the staff. This is something that is regularly overlooked by some web design companies.

It's all very well developing a fully whizz-bang CMS with loads of functionality, if in reality the business is not in a position to make use of it. We've found that there are times when it makes good business sense to develop a solution that fits and gives the right level of functionality and more importantly the correct level of usability.

Ok, Automobiles is true. Planes sort of and Trains, well a bit of a play on words. What we mean is, we've just launched 4 new websites in quick succession which, on the whole, have a Trains, Planes and Automobiles theme.

Firstly was the new DotNetNuke ASP.NET development for Panacea Ltd, one of the UK's leading providers of IT solutions, services and 'training'. After a major re-branding exercise where Panacea utilised the print and design skills on En-Route, we were asked to help manage the design of the new website and worked closely with En-Route to help ensure the new website would be user and search engine friendly. Once the new design was agreed it was down to us to turn the ideas into a fully functional website with CMS.

We then launched, please excuse the pun, a small but effective website for FDT Marine, Honda Marine Approved Dealer based in Ford near Arundel, West Sussex.

The remit for this web development was to create a simple static website that gave the business a web presence. The plan for this new business is to expanded into online e-commerce.

Despite being a small website we did our best to ensure it was optimised as much as possible for the search engines. At the time of publishing this article the site was already number 1 for the search term "honda outboards west sussex", which clearly shows the importance of looking for the niche terms used by people who know what they want.

Hot on the heels of FDT Marine was the new website for Mountain Beds, this is where the "Planes" come in. Mountain Beds is a business specialising in the sourcing of high quality holidays and accommodation for avid skiers. They're expertise has been hone from their love of everything ski and primarily Verbier in the Swiss Alps. This website development is the first part in a detailed development plan for the company's online offerings to its customers.

The next phase of the work will start in the new year and will enhance even further what has already been achieved.

What about the Automobiles? Well that's where Liss Garage Services (LGS) comes in. A small and successful garage in Liss near Petersfield, Hampshire who after reviewing their advertising budget decided it was about time they invested in a quality website that told local people about the garage services they can supply.

As with the FDT Marine website it was decided that the most cost effective approach would be to create a static website as the business was not in a position to spend the time constantly updating the website. Instead they need to spend their time servicing their customers. This of course meant that they were able to have a professionally designed and developed website at a much lower cost which suited their budget too.

Well there we have it; Planes, Trains and Automobiles, and of course boats!

If you business needs a website or perhaps you already have a website but it could do with a face lift and some search engine optimisation, call us now on 08452 260024 or contact us via our contact form.

We are proud to have been asked by a great new start-up, Who are you - Where are you, to help them develop a new website on which anyone can post pictures of anything (within reason) and ask the question, Who are you? or Where are you?

Examples of the uses of this website are:-

Missing Persons

A missing person could be a loved one who walked out the door one day and never returned. By posting their picture on the Who are you - Where are you website you can ask the whole world if they've seen them and people browsing the site can register FREE and respond to the question being posed.

Lost Assets / Possessions

If you've had an asset of possession stolen or you've simply mislaid it. Post it on the Who are you? Where are you? website and get the entire world searching for you!

Old Photos of Unknown People

Ever looked through the old photographs your grandparents have and wondered who the people were depicted in them. Post the photos on Who are you? Where are you? Publish as much detailed description and knowledge about the photo as you can and let other members of the online community help you find the history behind the faces.

Unknown Places

It doesn't have to be people. You can publish photos of anything such as places, views, properties, towns, cities, villages and find the answers when you receive response to your photo.

Genealogy

This site is a hugely useful resource for genealogy. Simply by recording your old family images and descriptions on the site will help you and others trace their history.

Take a look at this new and rapidly growing online community and get involved. If nothing else it's fascinating reading the history behind the photos on the site and helping people find missing people and possessions and the answers to their questions, Who are you? Where are you?.

During the web design and brain storming process used in the creation of websites, or even when we're investigating new functionality, web standards and technologies, our web designers come up with many new design concepts. The concepts which aren't used initially are kept and when time allows we take some of the ideas and produce test designs based on them.

We've decided that it would be great to offer our existing and future clients some of the test designs, the ones that work, for FREE. If you like a design, we will build your website utilising the already created look and feel. Thus, saving your business the cost of the development of the new website design.

More good news. Part, or even all, of the saving from the design process can be used to create a website with enhanced functionality. By using one of our FREE web designs you will have the potential to make your budget go further and afford a more functional website. This means your business can offer its customers more for less!

Please check out our FREE Ready Made Website Designs page for more details of this service.

* To use any of the FREE Ready Made Website Designs for your website you agree to have the development of your website carried out by Futuresys Ltd. You also agree to the Ready Made Website Designs, Terms of Use Agreement. Some of the Photographs, Images, Pictures shown as part of the designs maybe subject to third party licences and as such may not be included in the design. Please remember to ask for more details.

Once again, this year we are proud to sponsor an important and rapidly growing local event. We feel it's important that we help support local activities. The event in question is the "Sewards of Petersfield Steam and Vintage Vehicle Gathering and Road Run". A bit of a mouth full but it says exactly what the event is.

This year it's being held on the 14th and 15th of July at the Spread Eagle Pub, Liss, Hampshire and local charities have been invited to have a FREE pitch so they can raise money.

There are apparently around 50 vehicles etc. attending, of which 7 or 8 are full size steam engines, along with miniature steamers, classic and vintage cars, commercial vehicles, motorbikes, tractors and stationary engines.

So here's to a successful weekend and hoping the weather is better than it has been of late.

Over the last couple of years we've discovered what makes our clients happy, sad, mad, frustrated etc. Everyone knows how important the internet has become for businesses. Whether you're selling online through e-commerce or touting your wares by showing your services and products to visitors of your website, it is imperative that your site performs well in the search engines, that's why we have always offered comprehensive SEO services for businesses of all sizes, from the small one man band to major corporates.

So many web design / development companies are happy to build a website for their customers, but don't have the skills and dedication to promote their client's site. Therefore, a large chunk of the money spent on the wonderful new website is wasted. There's no point having an all singing and dancing website if nobody ever sees it. Promoting your website correctly is paramount to its return on your investment.

Part of our Search Engine Optimisation service, which we offer to all our customers throughout Hampshire, Sussex, Surrey and nationally, is to add highly optimised content that conforms with all the criteria set by the search engines themselves. This means we can successfully create a page dedicated to one subject and one keyword or keyphrase. This not only works for natural search engine results but extremely well for PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising such as Google Adwords.

So why is this blog entry entitled "Get Your Maintenance?"

Adding special content as part of the SEO process is excellent for fulfilling the SEO objective. Our customers are thrilled that we dedicate so much effort into creating high quality, relevant content for their sites as they know it not only benefits search engine results, but also means their customers return to their website more often to find more interesting information. However, as time goes on, the existing content on any website can and will become stagnant, some of it will lose its relevance, this is where there is a business requirement to ensure the information on your website is correct and meaningful. That's where our new EZweb Website Maintenance and Support subscription comes into its own.

EZweb Website Maintenance and Support allows your business to purchase and reserve a minimum number hours from our web development team to be used at your discretion over a 12 month period. Now here's the good bit! As a bonus you will get a discount on the hourly rates of our web development team for the duration of the subscription. Basically, the more hours you buy at the beginning of the subscription, the more discount you get for the additional hours.

The hours you purchase can be used to either maintain the live content of your website or developing new functionality. By live content, we mean anything that is currently available on your website on the internet either at the beginning of the subscription or that's added during the subscription. By develop new functionality, we mean building new sections for the site where programming is required, so not purely content.

Another advantage of the EZweb Website Maintenance and Support subscription is that you can concentrate more on the objectives of your business, and have confidence that any updates or developments needed on your site will be handled quickly and efficiently by our web development team.

Please take a look at our EZweb Website Maintenance and Support page for details of the rates and discounts available through this must have subscription.

Another happy customer as we launch the new web site for Alton Sports. www.cautionrunners.com is a site that offers its users extra services and the large customer base of Alton Sports a very effective portal to find the best in running equipment and events.

By registering basic information about your running activities, Alton Sports are then able to give you details of great offers on sports equipment, events and services that relate to you and your particular running style.

Using blogging Alton Sports are able to maintain a large amount of the critical content on the site and use it as a forum to advertise their wares.

Check out our web design portfolio for more information about Caution Runners and other web sites developed by our web development team here in sunny Hampshire.