We are now able to offer our Web Design services more easily than ever before to the people of Newark due to our office location based in Fulbeck. Getting here is easy, we’re now just a 10 minute drive away from Newark along the A17 so it is no longer necessary to travel to either Nottingham or Lincoln to get your website built by a professional agency.

Do we only do Web Design?

No we don’t. We can work with you from the ground up in the development of your online business; we can take you from the original design concept, build the site, and then on to promoting your business through Google Adwords advertising (PPC) or through other online marketing strategies.

What about surrounding villages?

Of course, we’re not just targeting ourselves just at Newark; if you’re in the surrounding area then no problem – we can build your website, run your PPC campaigns and still be close enough to keep in regular contact with you.

What type of websites do you build?

Absolutely anything you want and whatever your budget, we’ll have something to match your needs. If you just want a static website with just a couple of pages then that’s fine, we can help. If you’re after a full blown eCommerce site with full content management capability, then we can sit down with you and go through everything you need for us to build a system bespoke to you. See either our portfolio, or our Web Design in Newark page for more information.

How do we get to you?

Easy, either pop NG32 7LD into your sat-nav, or if you’re travelling from Newark town center head towards the A17. You can get to it by either heading up New Beacon Hill through Coddington or crossing over the A1 at the McDonald’s roundabout, and take the A17 signposted to Sleaford. Travel along the A17 for 6 miles, and then take the left turn signposted A607 Fulbeck. At the traffic lights in Leadenham, turn right and the next village along is Fulbeck. About 200 yds after the Hare and Hounds pub (at the bottom of a dip), turn right onto Washdyke Lane. Thats it! You’ve found us!

If you’ve any questions about any other web design services we can offer you in Newark, feel free to get in contact.

Not likely – or at least not yet anyway!

Today Microsoft and Yahoo! announced that they have (finally) completed a 10-year search deal which will help them be more competitive against the giant that is Google. However, they haven’t combined their advertising businesses.

Yahoo! currently has about 20 percent of the global search market, with Microsoft hanging behind with just under 10 percent which leaves Google with the lion’s share of the remaining 70 percent. Many have estimated that Google will begin to lose market share to Microsoft’s Bing as it gains popularity through its visual superiority over Google, however other have argued that if this becomes the case then Google will just match Bing’s template ideas. They have still yet to prove if they do what they do better than Google, all they have shown us so far is that they do it prettier.

The question that now needs answering is what will happen to the search as a result of this partnership? Well, according to Reuters, under the deal announced on Wednesday, Microsoft’s Bing search engine will be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search technology for Yahoo’s sites, while Yahoo will be responsible for selling premium search ads for both companies.”

So how long has this engagement taken to come to its happy ending?

• 01/02/2008 – Microsoft makes an offer out of the blue to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion or $31 a share, after two years of rumours of a merger
• 03/02/2008 – Google lawyers announce the buyout will hurt Web innovation
• 04/02/2008 – Yahoo’s Jerry Yang lets the employees know that selling to Microsoft is a possibility
• 11/02/2008 – Yahoo! tells Microsoft ‘where to go’ saying their offer “substantially undervalues” Yahoo!
• 19/02/2008 – Bill Gates announces that they’re not interested in raising the offer for the buyout. Yahoo! releases severance plan details that would take effect after the deal and make it more expensive for Microsoft
• 05/03/2008 – Yahoo! announce and extend deadline for nominating candidates to its board, effectively buying time to come up with an alternative proposal. Rumours emerge that Yahoo are in talks with Google, MySpace and AOL
• 18/03/2008 – Yahoo! release a very healthy revenue forecast for the following two years – basically telling Microsoft “you see, that’s why you’ve undervalued us!”
• 05/04/2008 – Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer gets aggressive and gives Yahoo! a deadline of three weeks to accept the deal on the table or expect Microsoft to start hostile tactics and lower the offer price
• 09/04/2008 – Yahoo! announces it’ll have a trial run of using Google’s ad platform in place of its own for a bit – Microsoft raise antitrust concerns
• 26/04/2008 – Microsoft’s three week deadline expires
• 01/05/2008 – Ballmer announces to its employees that he “won’t go a dime above” what he thinks Yahoo! is worth and is willing to walk away from the deal
• 03/05/2008 – Microsoft increases its offer to $33 a share, Yang retorts by saying they want $37, Microsoft walks away
• 15/05/2008 – Billionaire investor Carl Icahn says he’ll try to oust Yahoo’s board at its annual shareholder meeting if it doesn’t reopen talks with Microsoft and ditch plans to team up with Google.
• 18/05/2008 – The pair get together to have a chat about a more limited deal, however after a month Yahoo announce the talks have stopped
• 12/06/2008 – Google and Yahoo! officially announce a deal to run Google’s ads alongside Yahoo’s search results and some of its partner sites
• 21/07/2008 – Icahn takes back his threat in exchange for three seats on Yahoo! board
• 09/09/2009 – The U.S. Justice Department hires an antitrust litigator to review the pending Yahoo-Google search-advertising partnership.
• 05/11/2008 – Google gets worried and cancels the partnership to avoid a Justice Department lawsuit. Yang can still see a Microsoft acquisition in the future
• 17/11/2008 – Yang steps down as CEO for Yahoo!
• 19/11/2008 – Ballmer washes his hands of the talks and says Microsoft is “done with all acquisition discussions with Yahoo!”
• 05/12/2008 – Microsoft hires ex Yahoo! search executive Qi Li to lead its own online division
• 13/01/2009 – Yahoo! hires Carol Bartz to replace Yang
• 10/04/2009 – New reports emerge that Bartz and Ballmer have met about possible deals, including one in which Microsoft would sell advertising on Yahoo’s search pages and Yahoo would manage Microsoft’s display ads.
• 03/06/2009 – Microsoft dumps Live Search and replaces it with Bing
• 29/07/2009 – Microsoft, Yahoo! partnership announced

Now we wonder, is this going to be a marriage made in heaven – or can we expect to see the divorce papers come through shortly?

This is one of the key phrases when it comes to user experience and usability testing on the web. Steve Krug even wrote a book on the subject using the same title.

So what is usability?

The ISO 9241-11 definition of usability states…

‘The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use.’

So basically in a nutshell this means you want your visitors to come to your site, find what they’re after (and potentially purchase) quickly and easily and leave your site feeling happy about the whole process. Happy customers means returning customers!

In a study undertaken by Jakob Nielson in 2003, following a thorough usability evaluation and a redesign based on the results, websites average increase in usability was 135%

Metric	Average Improvement
Sales / Conversion rate	100%
Number of visitors	150%
Time taken to complete task	161%
Use of target features	202%

What do I need to do?

You’ve got a couple of options; you can either pay out a few thousand pounds to a company to run a usability test for you, or you can actually talk to your users!

It is critical to do two things: Identify and profile your users, and identify and profile their tasks.

Without identifying these two variables, how can you hope to have a website that’s usable to them and supports their needs? In effect, you would have ‘designed in the dark’ for them.

This all comes down to user-centred design and usability concepts, both of which we’ll be covering the basics of in our usability training courses that we’re currently developing.